MMA Fighting - UFC Singapore Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Holloway's Vicious KO, Korean Zombie's Retirement

Episode Date: August 26, 2023

Max Holloway and The Korean Zombie gave fans a thrilling battle in the main event of Saturday's UFC Singapore, and it turned out to be the final one for Chan Sung Jung as he announced his retirement from the sport following a chaotic third round that saw the former featherweight champ pick up his first finish in nearly five years. MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Shaheen Al-Shatti, and Alexander K. Lee react to UFC Singapore, Holloway's vicious knockout win while fighting with a heavy heart, Korean Zombie's legacy as an action fighter and what he meant for the sport. Additionally, they discuss Anthony Smith's win over Ryan Spann in the co-main event, Giga Chikadze's successful return to the octagon in his victory over Alex Caceres, Erin Blanchfield's hard fought win against Taila Santos and if that earned her a title shot, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Shaun Al-Shatti: @ShaunAlShatti 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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Available now, only from Audible. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. The victory horns have sounded. And you know who the victory horns are sounding for? Yes, they're somewhat, they're sounding for Max Holloway, but they're sounding for us all. because the real winners were the fans who woke up early that stayed with it and got to watch a main event that delivered

between Max Holloway and the Korean zombie. The final fight of one of the most exciting fighters of all time in the Korean zombie. Max Holloway gets a incredible finish to add to his resume, a fight with so much emotion and just, it was just so much fun. And it exceeded everyone's sort of low, expectations for it, but we try to tell you on the preview show. This is going to be way more

fun than you think it's going to be. And we're here to take a victory lap. But someone on this panel was saying this far before that, and we'll get to that in a moment. But thank you for joining us for the live UFC Singapore post-fight show here in M.A.fiting.com. I am Mike Heck. It's been up since 4.15 a.m. Eastern time for this. And I'm so glad I did because it's a super violent card. I'm here with the wise wordsmith, Shaheen Al-Shadi, my bald brother. And we're rocking the Korean zombie t-shirt. I'm sure there's a lot of emotion here. I'm excited to hear what Shaheen has to say about all this.

And the Prince of Positivity, my best friend, who is also emotional in the aftermath of this, he's got that dog in him, folks, Mr. Alexander K. Lee. Hi, A.K. Sorry to ruin the intro. Hello, we're changing colors here. Oh, there it is. Oh, yeah, my favorite.

My favorite. Thanks, Casey. Oh, man. So, Shaheen, I will begin with you because we watch the final fight, hopefully, at this point, of the Korean zombie's career. Because what better way to go out? You go out, third round begins, you bite down your mouthpiece, you do zombie things. Yeah, you get colded by Max Holloway. It was a nasty knockout.

But if there's any other way for zombie to go out after the emotional walkout, the way the first two rounds went, getting hurt in the first round, hurting Max in the first round. hurting Max in the first round. The way everything went down, this was about as fitting of an ending to an incredible career, especially from an excitement level for the Korean zombie. Was it not like just emotions all around, everything that went into it? How did you react to the retirement, the fight, all of it? I just felt like it was so fitting. It was fitting is the perfect word. Zombie, zombieed up until the very end, right? I mean, I think we, like me in particular, I can only speak for me personally. Going into this fight, I felt a looming sense of dread that I think is very common for us to feel as consumers of the sport, fans of this sport, right? When it comes to our legends in these retirement fights, especially when they're fighting someone as good as Max, we've just been so conditioned to expect the worst, right? I coming in, I was just praying that this wasn't going to be a five-round beat down, a fifth round TKO where zombie takes another 300 shots in this career that he's already taken so many different shots and it's just this depressing scene and we get something like that and instead the man delivered

as he always does he went out on his shield as he always does and really he went out on his own terms and to me i know he got knocked out i mean casey we were talking about this on the pre-show of how it you know he got knocked out ultimately so this was some sort of bad ending for him but it did feel like there was a sense of satisfaction that came from it right like he he truly went out on on his own terms in that second round to nearly get finished in the way he did and then to storm back in the third and say, you know what, man, it really felt like he's, we zombie flipped that switch and said, it's either going to be me or it's going to be you, Max, and we're going to figure out this out real quick. And it played out that way. And it was incredible theater. It's one of the most exciting

sequences we've seen all year from a man who has given us some of the most exciting sequences in the history of this sport, one of the most consistently exciting performers we've ever seen lace up a pair of four on his gloves. And everything was perfect, man. Like, we have, there have been a lot of bad retirements in MMA over the last couple of years. We are hitting a really weird stretch here where we're getting like some actually good ones that make you feel real things and the UFC is handling it well they had a great video package afterwards the walkout i mean my god that walkout i had chills coming from that i someone started cutting onions in my house at 8 a m that i was not expecting for that walkout all of it was just great tremendous theater a great oh to one of the

the all-time exciting action fighter legends in this sport and really man i mean there was a time an MMA where you couldn't go to an event without seeing at least two or three or four of these shirts, right? Like just in the crowd. Like Korean zombie means something different to a lot of people. This is very similar. He's not Robbie Lawler, right? So I don't want to tie him to the Robbie Lawler knockout. But that just happened recently.

So it's fresh in our minds. There's something to be said about these fan favorites, these guys who have given us so much and really sacrifice so much of themselves, their bodies, their livelihoods for these incredible memories that they give us. by the time they leave. And just like Robbie Law, their Korean zombie is someone who, I'm sure all of us on this show, everyone watching at home, everyone who watched that fight, has a rolodex in their head

of just the amazing memories, the unforgettable memories that this man gave us, and for him to be able to give us one more on the way out. Obviously, the fairy tale ending would have been for him to upset Max Holloway, but if he can't do that, this to me feels like a second best type of opportunity for us. This was incredible.

This was awesome, man. Like, this is what you'd want from something like this. Yeah. And AK, we were talking about this in the previous show yesterday. Casey was talking about how, like, on that side of the world in MMA, it's not just about, you know, going out with a win. It's about going out, you know, with everything that your reputation is built. But you almost want to put over the other guy. And I feel like Zombie has so much respect for Max Holloway.

And just the way that it all played out, if Zombie could draw it up, even like beating Max Holloway, it would have been, it would have been, it would have been, super cool and an incredible upset. And what a story. Can you imagine what we'd be talking about right now? But this almost seems like the way zombie wanted it, you know? Like have a good fight, prove people wrong that he could still compete with the best in the world, and just go out on his shield. And that's exactly what he did, A.K., how emotional was this for you watching it from the walkouts?

Even Holloway's Waco was super emotional with everything that was on his mind. And we knew there would be a lot of emotion in this fight. But seeing how the fight went out, went down, that third round, biting out on the mouthpiece, his head kind of hitting the canvas and then getting up, like nothing happened and then walking away, what did you feel? What are you feeling now probably 40 minutes after it went down? I thought I prepared myself, you know, we've had a lot of time to think about this fight and think about this matchup, this fight week.

I was keeping up with a lot of interviews and it still didn't quite hit me. There was a little bit of zombie, you know, giving himself that crack of leaving the door open of like, well, we'll see how Saturday night goes. You know, it could be my last fight. We'll see how it goes. I think all of us won because we assumed Holloway would win. But even if it had been a more competitive fight and zombie lost, I still think he would have walked away.

I don't know if there's anything other than a shock win that might have kept him around. And even if he won, that might have been the match to him, you know, getting a flash KO of Max Holloway. That's probably, he probably still retired. That's why like, well, now I know I really got to go out. So even him saying that didn't throw me off too much. Yeah, this morning, and boy, morning I may, it's fantastic. I started to feel it.

I started to think about it. And as the fights being closer and closer, I started to think about what zombie means to me, what he means to so much of the fighting community. And then once that music came, boy, that trademark walkout and kudos COSOC production team, they just nailed it all the angles, all the crowd shots they got, bringing in the, like, crank the music up. A little bit of commentary didn't kill it, I thought. I know a lot of people would have liked it just sort of walkout.

I think a little bit of commentary was fine, didn't have a problem with it. It was so excellent. They really captured the moment beautifully. This is going to make for a great compilation clip later. I'm sure they'll throw the whole walkout on YouTube if they're smart. And then Washington fight itself, play it was wonderful. We knew Max was going to outpace him was going to out-paste him was going to out-strike him. That was inevitable.

The fact that zombie still had moments were so enjoyable and so fun to watch. And the third round went probably exact as it should have. Because I think, you know, zombie, you could see. knew he lost the first two rounds. And he's like, well, I'm not going out like that. I'm not going, I'm not going to get out pointed. So he says, he rushing out, gets chaos. And the moment was good.

He was already smiling as, as he regained, you know, once he regained consciousness and Hollow went over to check on him and help him up. It's a great moment. I definitely got legitimately teary-eyed. You don't get that all the time. And then I may, especially, like I said, when we're talking about these supposed last fights, often where our eyes are covered with our hands, not with, not with tears, if to put it away.

And I'm still processing a little bit. I might, you know, it might hit me again later today. But this was a really nice way, I think, for zombie to go out. As nice as you can go when you get face plant, like, caoed like that. But, yeah, nothing about positive thoughts, I think, about this whole, how this was all set up and about zombie's career and about how it ended. So I'm a happy boy right now. Yeah. And then for Max, you know, 28 fights in the UFC has not been dropped a single time, which is absolutely ridiculous.

just an absolutely legendary chin. His striking numbers just continued to climb and climb and climb and climb. And Shaheen, Max Holloway, a walk off KO, his first finish since December of 2018 when he stopped Brian Ortega. It has been a long time since we've had a Max Holloway fight, not go to the cards. But Max had zombie hurt real bad in the second round. He tried to walk off there. And the ref's like, what the hell are you doing? And he's like, I could just punch this man in the face.

but you know what, I'm going to put him in a submission. I'm going to treat him almost like the Habib, you know, Justin Gagchi type of scenario where I could break this man's arm, but I'm going to transition into a triangle. Compassion from Max Holloway as to be expected from a man like that. What did you think of the second round? Like Max had him badly hurt. He could have gotten him out of there.

And he was just like, nope. And then jumped on a submission and zombie fought out. And the rest of that round is absolute chaos. Nice guy, Max, man. What a Jen. What a mention that guy is, right? Like he, you could definitely tell it. He spoke about it a little in the post show, too, on ESPN Plus of just, like, this is a legend, right?

Like, I'm not, I don't want to hurt this man that I care for so much and that means so much to me, you know, more than I do need to. And so, you know, that was, I thought that was cool to see, frankly. And it set up, ultimately it's set up just that tremendous scene in the third round and zombie just going all for broke, all or nothing in that moment. So all of it was just very cool theater. And ultimately, Max Holloway, man, like, what can you say about this guy at this point? that we haven't already said. If you go back to 2014, this man is 18 and 0 now at featherweight

when he's not fighting Alexander Volcanovsky. He's 18 and going to go against every other man in the featherweight division not named Alexander Volcanowski since 2014. That's obscene, man. Like, that's obscene. Like, I know we have, we have, he is in a weird spot forever

because of the Volk stuff and the trilogy and just the way that all played out. But man, you go back, you look at all the history of just these things, type of setups, right, where there's a Joseph Benavitas or, I mean, a Franklin, right? Rich Franklin coined it with the Franklin zone. That was a nickname given to him when he was stuck behind Anderson Silva. We have had a lot of different iterations of this type of person, right?

This type of fighter, this guy who is so much better than everybody else, but just not able to get over the championship hump when it comes to the guy who is holding the belt. Robert Werdick, a recent example as well. Man, Max Holloway might be the best version of this person in the fight game that we've ever seen, right? Like 18 and 0 over almost a 10-year span against anybody not who who's not possibly the greatest featherweight of all time in Alexander Volcanovsky. Like, it's just crazy, man. It's absolutely crazy that this man's consistently doing this every time out. You think you would slip on a banana peel at some point, but he just comes through. That's what

Max Holloway does. And he's only 31. Like, I know that's a third. We say he's only 31 in the way that we said Jose Aldo was 31 when he was like entering that phase of his career too, right? These guys who build up all these mileage early on. But it's just incredible to me that this is still just like happening in this way, right? And I'm not going to act like this wasn't a fight that Max should have obviously won, right? Like, he was a big favorite for a reason. But again, we say it all the time when it comes to title defense is the hardest thing to do is to defend your title over and over and over and over again against all these various

challenges because at some point you're just going to have a bad night. And even on Max's bad nights, he gets it done. So it's just tremendous, man. And also the emotion that you've seen from him all week, just carrying. you know, the heaviness because of the Maui wildfires and just everything that's going on in Hawaii right now. You could tell there were a lot of elements to this that made this an important fight for Max just personally. And it felt like it meant a lot to him this week. And just a plus performance, man, again, once again, every, it seems like every time we talk about this guy,

and it's not a voc fight, we're saying this, but it's no different this morning. Yeah, and credit to the UFC with everything they did with Max as well, let him wear the red shorts, let them carry out a flag. Like they didn't have to do that. And we would dump on the UFC if they didn't, but they let him do it. And everything was great. Like everything about this main event was great.

From everybody involved, from Max to zombie to the UFC to, Fitzgerald, Felder, and Bisbing, just like laying back and letting these moments happen. Like it was super duper cool. And AK kind of building on Max Holloway, and this is something that I was saying, and most of us have been saying that,

Max might not. have his fastball anymore, but the man is still damn good. But boy, did Max find that Nolan Ryan eschisms in this fight? Did he not? Like, whether it was the emotion or not, Max is throwing 98, 99 out there. He was looking to put zombie away. He was not looking to go 25 minutes of this man. And as soon as zombie came out and started Chuck and Mitz at him, you could see the look in Holloway's face like, okay, I'm about to knock this man out. And that's exactly what he did. Max looks pretty damn good. he looked like a killer in there. This wasn't the,

I'm going to pepper this man for 500 strikes Max Holloway. This is the, I'm going to put this guy unconscious Max Holloway, despite him probably retiring after this. What do you think of Max's performances and him fine in the fastball tonight?

Yeah, well, I don't think zombie gave him a choice. I think at some point, zombie was just in his face. The first time he dropped him, zombie is like in his face, right? They're like, a zombie wants to get in there.

He wants him to exchange. Max is just a brilliant counterstaker. He's so composed. I can't even what he, what he hit him with. I don't know if it was a short uppercut or a short counter. It just happened so quickly. And then the knockout blow is a little bit more of a looping, like he said, kind of a fastball.

And he has lost a bit off his fastball. Like, you know, maybe he used to throw 98-99. But because he's mastered all the off-speed stuff, Mike, now let's say he throws 93-94, but his off-speed stuff is so good that 93-94 still feels like 99. And in this case, when you're dealing with an aggressive opponent like zombie, when they run into your shot like that, it definitely feels like a 99-100-mile-power fastball to the head.

So yes, he doesn't, maybe he doesn't throw quite as quickly as he used to, quite as hard as he used to. But he didn't need to. He was so technically outstanding. I see some people saying, like, did he carry zombie in the fight a little bit, you know, just to keep it entertaining and out of respect because it was the last fight? I think there's some element to that. But also, Max Holloway, when's the last time he put someone away in the first round? It's not like he can just run it.

He could just run in and smoke zombie. That's not what he does. It's not what he's going to do. So it's one reason. why I like this match for so much because I always felt it was going to at least deep into round two. Round three finish

would have been probably been my prediction. So it ended exactly as most people I think would have would have predicted round three or round four. And that's just the nature of the way Max fights. He's technical. He's respectful. He respected zombie's power and he had to. There is a world where

zombie knocks him out. I mean, he was landing. But Max is super tough. We talk about all the wars he's been in and we see keep saying that chin has to drop off sometime and I don't know if I've seen it yet it will it happens to everyone and has not happened yet he's just made of sterner stuff because some of those shots that zombie landed would have I don't know I'm not saying they would have knocked someone out cold they would have rocked other fighters but max can just eat them and just keep coming forward and keep finding his timing and keep slipping punches and reestablish himself it's just incredible to watch

so as much to be cherished zombies retirement and I know we I don't think anyone here took zombies career for granted let's not take it Max Hollowey's career for granted either. Maybe he's not fighting for the title right now. Maybe he doesn't get a title shot again as long as Wokonowski's on top. But every time we get to see this guy fight, it's a privilege. So enjoy him now while he's here. Maybe he fights for another five years. Maybe he fights for another two years. We don't know. But let's not wait until the end, you know, to appreciate what we're seeing from this guy every time the try him out there for five-rounder and put on these exciting fights. Yeah, he's just, he's just the best. He's the best.

I have to say too, one thing that I love about just the way that all of this has played out over the course of all these years, right? Like we remember the Lama's moment with Max Holloway, iconic moment. Like, frankly, one of the most iconic moments in MMA of the last like 10 years, right? It feels like since we saw that initial sequence between Max Holloway and Ricardo Lomas, it's such a beloved moment that and seen that like we've seen like many versions of it play out in all these various other Max Holloway fights and even other people's fights. but Max Holloway fights in particular where the other guy is like, hey man, you want to just do this? You want to like just make this a little bit of a scene right now.

And it's so fun. It's so fun every time. Like this is one of the best running gags, running gimmicks going in MMA at this point. And the fact that zombie of all guys is going to be the one to end his career with that exact type of thing of like, dude, let's just do the Halamas. Let's just do this right now. Me and you both know this needs to end at some point here soon.

So cool, man. It's so cool. MMA's the best. Like this is why you love MMA. MMA is the absolute best, man. To wake up. I woke up at like 7 a.m. This stuff was already ongoing

and then you get to catch something beautiful and meaningful like that before it's even breakfast time. Like that's gorgeous, man. You have to love it. I mean, just put everybody in a great space. Like even Connor was like tweeting positive stuff today. When was the last time Connor tweeted positive about anything?

That is rare. Putting people over. Putting Max over. When was the last time we put Max over on Twitter? Usually it leads to like, yeah, my booze is better than the booze you like. And FU Max Holloway. But it was, no, Max F and Holloway, you're the guy.

So even put Connor in a great headspace. So. I'm just so glad you got to share the cage. I'm like, I'm so glad to share the cage. Yeah, man. That was another reason. That was another reason I loved the matchup was because Zombies record is, I'm just going looking at this, Volcanowski, Ortega, Frankie Edgar, Yairier, Jose Aldo, Porier,

even Leonard Garcia. Like, you know, Ledergericksey is a, I don't want to say a legend, but certainly someone that's, I'm sure he enjoyed having on his record. But the first few names I mentioned there, legends, the best of the best of the best of Featherweight. And now he's fought them all. Now he's fought them all. There's no name at Featherway where he's like, well, I wish I'd gotten a step into that cage with that. We just mentioned McGregor, maybe, but I mean, that probably was never on zombies's radar.

That's so short-lived, it's hard to say right. All the people he wanted to fight, he got to fight. That's why I was so happy he got this matchup. Hollowate, more than happy to accommodate. He has so much respect for the zombie. So that's when this was made and when this was even talked about, I was like, yeah, do it. Let's just do it. If this is going to be the end,

what a fun way to go out to say, I got to go up against, you know, the best or one of the best, feather weights ever. He's fought all three. Whatever discussion you want, Holloway, Bolknovsky, Aldo. He's fought him all.

He's fought all. No regrets for this man. And that's not, you can't say that about a lot of fighters when it comes to their resumes. To add to that real quickly, too, the main reason I am so glad

that we were able to get this fight in this matchup, because when this, we saw it after Max beat Arnold and this sort of just came up organically. And then everyone's sort of unanimous. He was like, oh, like, that might actually be a really good idea. We haven't seen, we don't even know what's going on with Korean zombie. I am so happy that Chan Song Jung was able to get a day like today in a week like this week

to have people celebrating them, to have this type of walkout, to have this sort of iconic setup. And then this moment, right, this final finishing sequence, even if it didn't go his way. Because if this is the final time, that we see Koreans Zombie, which it probably is, it is so much more fitting in proper in what this all should be rather than seeing him just getting beaten to a pulp by Alexander Volcanovsky in what would have been the final scene of his career had this not happened. And just sort of this sad, depressing scene that, again, is sort of just what we get for all of our legends for the most

part until recently, right? Like this may be not, this is not Robbie Lawler and it's, I wouldn't say it's close to Robbie Lather, but it's not Shogunhuah either. Like, this is such a different thing. And if we had ended with the Volk fight and we had just never seen Korean zombie again and it's just like, hey, that's how you go out. You go out on your back getting smashed to pieces, that would have been such a bigger bummer and such a disrespect to the legacy that this dude left behind. And like what he means for not only me, not only Max, but like all of us in MMA, right? Like if you've been in MMA long enough to have the sort of shared experiences that we all have with Korean zombie to see to be with it from the beginning right from WEC with

Leonard R Garcia and the Twister and the wars and all of this and then the unexpected title right run all the way to the Jose Aldo fight and then sort of the second career afterwards he had after the military service and this unexpected revival that he almost had late where another title run all of it is just so magical so many incredible moments and I'm just again so so thankful that he was able to get a night or a day like today rather than it end however long ago that was against Volcanovsky a year or two ago. And he ended his career with a post-fight bonus, fight of the night, him and Max Holloway.

First bonus since the Frankie Edgar knockout. And that was in December of 2019, lost to Brian Ortega, beat Dan Igay, lost to Volk, and ends his career with a fun fight, crazy-ass fight, zombie-esque fight, and he gets a fight of the night on top of it. Mr. Featherweight bonus himself.

We salute you the Korean zombie, you're the man. And there will be an immediate, damn they were good. I would assume that we're going to work forward probably coming up this week, which will make Jose Young's extremely happy. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you. From festive and cozy fashion to Lux Beauty and Fragrant sets, our special selection has something for every style and price point. Visit our Holtz holiday shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com.

Black Friday is here at IKEA and the clock is taking on savings you won't want to miss. Join IKEA family for free today and unlock deals on everything from holiday must-haves to cozy at-home essentials, all the little and big things you need to make this season shine. But don't wait. Like leftovers at midnight, our Black Friday offers won't last. Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca.com slash Black Friday. IKEA, bring home to life. Other bonuses goes to Junior Tafa for his knock on Apaka Porta, as AK said.

Probably the biggest. I don't know what you're talking about. That never happened ever. I don't. That seems made up. Yeah. Maybe the biggest upset in the history of the sport right there. But Junior gets it done.

The Taffas are now two and O against Paco Porter. I think there's a couple of other Taffa brothers out there. Maybe some cousins that Parker could try to exact some revenge against. But so far, O and 2 against the Tafo against. office and Michaela Olegzecheck gets the other bonus for his comeback knockout of Cheating and Jokawani. That fight was absolutely insane. If you guys were sleeping through that one, you didn't want to watch the prelims because you needed to get some extra hours of sleep. Go back and watch that one. That's about as wild as you expected it to be. But let's move on to some of the

other storylines that happened. Shaheen, Anthony Smith, back in the wind column, defeats Ryan Span. Speaking of 2 and O, Anthony Smith out 2 at 0 against Ryan Span, Ryan Span, Ryan Span, Ryan Span had Anthony Smith had big, big, big, big, big, big trouble in the second round. Let's Anthony get his wits to him. Anthony's eyes all messed up. Anthony came back a little bit in round two,

so it wasn't really a 10-8, and then we go to the cards, and we take a trip to Splitty City, and Anthony Smith defeats Ryan Span in the co-main event, Shaheen. Your thoughts on the fight, the decision, and Anthony Smith getting back into the wind column, despite not coming out

to his signature song, Mark Morrison's return of the Mac. I mean, when you come out to EZ, right, I can't really criticize that. If you're going to switch to something, switching to something, is like a pretty great choice you're going to switch to something if you got to break routine.

It was a good win. I mean, I know this was the rematch. We were all heavily anticipating and waiting for the one that we couldn't wait to happen. But man, I mean, all credit to Anthony Smith, that man showed the heart. This is going to be so cliche to say, but he showed the heart of a lion.

once again, right? Like, he was so badly hurt in that second round. It really felt like this was inches away from getting finished in that second round. And for him to be able to persevere through that and then eke out that third round and really steal that victory on the scorecards. Hell of a, hell of a performance, hell of a win for a guy who I think is obviously in sort of the closing chapters of whatever his run is as a contender, sort of keeps him alive in this mix now.

I do have to say, though, I mean, this came, we were talking about in our Slack room after this fight, but just the way MMA scoring system continues to operate and function is just so dumb and stupid to me. And it will ever be dumb and stupid to me. Because if that second round for Ryan's band is the

exact same level of meaningful as the very, very close first round and very close third round is for Anthony Smith, like we just have a broken scoring system, right? Because like there's no way on earth that you should be able to watch that second round and it not be worth something more substantial

than these incredibly close back and forth rounds that sort of sandwiched in between it. But, you know, that's a broader discussion about MMA scoring that we've all had a thousand times. It remains dumb to me, but Anthony Smith, that's the system we play under, and he got a hell of a win for it. And again, he's back in contention now.

Yes, he is. You know who else is back, AK? Giga Chikaze is back. First fight since getting thumped up by Calvin Cater last January, beats Alex Casares. area Hawaii reported, and I actually confirmed this as well with Abe Kala, Alex Kassaris broke his forearm in the first round.

The first kick Giga through that Kassariz blocked broke the man's forearm, and he went the entire 15 minutes with Giga Chikaze. Chikaze gets a 30-27 on all three scorecards. He is back after the long layoff. What did you think of Giga Chikaze's performance? And man, the heart and grit on Alex Kassar is fighting of one of the best strikers of the division, essentially with one arm. First, I'm glad you didn't ask you about the Span-Smith fight

because that performance just made me so angry. And sheen's read about the scoring. What a screwy way to say that Anthony Smith won that fight, which again, I think by the way the scoring system works, he did. But by the way, like, human logic works. Neither guy won that fight. But yeah, no, Jacadzikas. I'm not as down on Giga's performance as I think some people are.

Yeah, it was a favorable style matchup. This is a fight. He probably could have finished. But this is his first fight in a while. This is 600 days. He's not a super young guy. It was just his birthday yesterday, I think, on Friday. I think he just turned 35 years old.

So he's not a super young guy. He has combat sports experience outside of MMA. So bouncing back from like a 600 day layoff, I think when you're older, I don't think it's that easy, right? And I don't want to take away from Casares either because Casares fought really well. Like, Caseras is, look, I got my stats here. This was his 29th, 29th UFC appearance. He's a gamer, man.

I mean, he's not an easy out for anybody. There might be some style matchups where that are just like definitely not in his favor. Like, it's actually like, I remember Crone Gracie kind of ran through him. But that's rare. That's rare for Casares. More often than not, Casaris in the fight, he's giving people problems. He's a tricky matchup. You know, he's a tricky matchup.

I don't know how heavily Giga was favored. I imagine at least two to one. like maybe minus 300. I'm not sure. I didn't look at the odds there. I get it because great UFC resume, great record, a lot of hype before, you know, that Calvin Cater, one-sided drubbing.

So I get it. People still want expected more. And when they see the name like Alex Casares, they see a guy who's a veteran in the UFC who's not a title threat. And we viewed Giga like that, you know, before he went this long layoff. I'm like, well, this guy's getting fast track to the title, where he's going to make it.

Now we have to adjust their expectations. Is he necessarily a lock to be a top five guy to challenge for the title someday. Maybe not. Maybe not. But I don't want to, I don't want to poop on this performance too much because I still think, I still kind of impressed that he performed well and, you know, battle through him some adversity in this fight.

So not a performance that we're all going to remember as on the Giga-Chikaze highlight reel someday, but a solid win. And I enjoyed the post-fight antics. Maybe the timing wasn't right. Maybe you'd like to see him do that kind of a funny bit after he has a more convincing, entertaining win because I don't think the crowd quite was into it when he did it. But he got me. I got tricked a little bit.

I thought there was a chance he might retire. But yeah, he won't be doing that again. We all know Dana White, the UFC are not amused by the fake retirements. So maybe a minus overall if we're evaluating that promo. But I thought it was funny. No way. And I enjoyed being fooled. I enjoyed being fooled.

No way. That was great. Come on. I liked it. That was great. But I know I know some people were like, eh, was this really the timing for it coming off kind of a, you know, forgettable to sit. He's not going to be coming off a crazy long layoff like that, hopefully ever again. Like, he's not me not get another chance to drag that out.

I thought that was great. I like a win. A win, man hasn't been in the page for like two years. Separate from the performance, like in a void. I like the promo. I thought it made sense. Yeah, he had a B minus night. And I think the promo took it from like a C plus to a B minus if we're being honest.

Like it was a fine performance. You know, hearing that Bruce Lee Roy only had one arm kind of docks him, dings him a little bit. I understand the long way off. And I posted this on Twitter. And this is not meant to be like a. prick at all, but Giga knocked the rust off. He got a win and that's great. But Volcanovsky, Ilya, Mavzar of Loya, Max Holloway, the top five guys, they're going to sleep super comfortable tonight after watching that performance. Like good performance. Giga is going to be a top 10,

top 12 guy for probably the rest of his career. And that's damn good. But I, I don't think he's going to be fighting for a title. I don't think we're going to get to that point. But still, you can have a very long and fruitful career, uh, being one of the 10 best fighters in the world in your weight class, which is a very loaded weight class, which one that continues to get better and better and better, much like Bannamway, Rania Nakamore, another guy we're going to be keeping our eye on and proved to eight no dominant win over Fernie Garcia. You name's decision. A lot of people thought that fight would get finished pretty quickly, but Fernie Garcia,

his new nickname is the unfinishedable. You cannot finish this man. It's absolutely impossible. But I do want to talk about one other fight on this main card before we go to the peeps. Aaron Blanchfield just continues to pass these tests, gets this Tyler Santos matchup. Everyone thought this is going to be sort of the, you know, at this point,

because she's only 24. So even if Aaron Blanchfield lost this fight to Tyler Santos, it stings, it stunts the like the really quick title run early on in her UFC run, but wouldn't have been the worst thing in the world. First round, Taos Santos looked incredible as her first fight since the Valentina fight in June of last year,

which happened to be in Singapore as well. And then Aaron Blanchfield just turn into a freaking bulldozer, man. She just turns in, she just wants to tackle people. She'll throw shoulders. She'll grapple. She'll make it real grimy. A lot of top control in round two. And then she just kind of damage barred Tyler Santos through round three.

Just shipped away and shipped away and shipped away. Aaron Blanchfell has 6 and 0 in the UFC. And she just passed the toughest test of her career. And she wants a title shot. Sheen, all shoddy. She wants the winner of the no. UFC main event, the rematch, he had Alexa Grasso and Valencien to Schovchenko,

which is going down on September 16th. We also have a big fight in this division coming up next Saturday in Paris, more early day MMA. Rosamiannus bumping up to 125 to fight Manny Fioro, who's been quietly on a really good run herself. So what did you take away from Aaron Blanchfield's performance?

She wants a title shot. Are you ready to give it to her, or do we have to wait until next week and see how this all goes? I mean, if I'm Aaron Blanchfield right now, I am the biggest Alexa Grasso fan in the entire damn world because of course she deserves it. It's obvious that she deserved it before.

She deserved it before this rematch was booked. But of course you have to give Valentina Shepchenko the rematch. I don't know, man. I know a lot of people are probably going to dump on this performance. Going to say it moves her farther away from a title shot because it wasn't some fun, super exciting fight against a really tough person in Tyler Santos. but I think incredibly, incredibly freaking highly, Tyler Santos,

especially after last time out when, you know, I think there's an argument to me that she should have won that decision against Valentina, and she probably does win that decision if sort of the events of the later rounds, her getting injured in the way that she did don't happen. I don't know, man.

I was still really impressed. If you're able to slap eight minutes of control time on a person like Tyler Santos, like that's good to me, man. Like Aaron Blancher, I feel like we all, we all sort of understand, right, that she is this,

this champion in waiting. It feels as if she is just waiting for that coronation moment, that opportunity to be able to go out and take it. If Alexa Grasso gets it done against Valentina Shevchenko, that is the fight you have to book. Like I understand Rosemn Mianis may have a bigger name and you maybe want to wait for that fight and see if Rose gets, it slips into that opportunity. Rose Namibunis has also submitted a lot of terrible stinkers and bad fights into the, the archives of the UFC resumes, right? Like she's had some really great fights and fun fights, but she's also had the worst title fight, and that was her last fight.

The last time we saw her was Carla Asparza rematch. So, like, I don't know if there needs to be some giant rush to Rush Rosen if she manages to get the win in her debut coming up here at 25. To me, this is Aaron Blanchfield's division in waiting. We're just waiting for it. If Grasso wins, you have to do that. There's no other fight out there right now. That would make sense.

I was so, again, not the most, exciting performance. I'm not going to try to tell you that it wasn't, but it's really hard to beat a person like Tyler Santos in an exciting way. And I came away very impressed by Aaron Blanchfield and remain impressed and think that she's a future champion's division. If Valentino wins, obviously I feel like they're going to end up just doing a trilogy. So that then pauses everything. And then maybe we talk about Aaron facing this Rose Man in winter. Seems like she's very open to continue fighting, at least in the pre-fight, she was saying that. So we'll see. We have to wait for the result but if if things play out and the title stays in the same hands you have to give

Aaron Blanchfield that shot this is her division we're just waiting for it I feel like if Rose wins Aaron's kind of hosed here because of I mean look it's great for it's and it tells me something about a 24 year old who you know she went to to plan A didn't really work plan B wasn't really working plan C was I'm just going to get punched in the face over and over and over again and not block a single one of them in round one and then And plan D just worked. I'm just going to like just chuck my shoulder at her and just wear away at her, get this fight to the ground and then just kind of wear her down.

And that's exactly what she did, AK, even at a 24 years old, she didn't have like a tremendous performance, but she still beat. Tyler Santos is really, really good. Took Valencia of Chico to the limit. So to me,

I feel like if Rose wins, she's probably not getting a title shot. And that's okay because she's only going to get better. Like this was, she's still won. and wasn't her best night at the office, she'll probably be the first one to tell you that. I haven't watched your post-fight stuff,

but I assume that that's the case. If Rose wins, she gets a title fight, even if Valentina wins, I still think they'll just go right to Rose versus Valentina because why the hell not? Let's just try to get the biggest fight in this division's history, which that would be by a mile.

But what did you take away from Aaron Blanchfield tonight? Or this morning. I keep saying tonight, because I'm looking at the clock, it's 12.4. It's not in Singapore. It's tonight in Singapore. Yeah, the South are people.

Yeah, the South are people in Singapore. It's not over there. I'm with you, my best friend. I'm Mr. Slowburn. People know that. But at the same time, I do think that she is now number one backup as far as contender goes. I wouldn't be surprised to see her way in for whatever the next title fight is.

Just she won't be the number one choice. I will talk about the performance in a second, but I will say one of the reasons is I hate to say this because it just shouldn't matter, but she just doesn't have the personality type that jumps out for the UFC. She's called cold-blooded for a reason, right? Part of it is her personality. Part of it is her approach to promos and approach to the fight game. It doesn't mean she doesn't know how to talk.

I think she's actually like a decent interview. I think she's an decent like media day person. But she's not that grandiose, loudmouth person that the UFC loves. And that sucks. And if she was, she had that large and like personality. She would have fought for the title yesterday. You know, we wouldn't even be having this discussion. But she isn't.

She is young. So that's why I'm fine with it. At that same token, if the UFC is taking that no account. her only being 24 years old, then that's fine. That's good. She has a lot long career ahead of her. She has a lot of wins ahead of her.

The Santos fight, I mean, really, though this should be it because there's not a lot more where she can go. On our rankings, Blanfield was number three. Santos's number four, so she was already ahead of her, and it was just kind of like, well, that's the last test to pass. And I like that she had to kind of gut out a win because part of being a star, part of being a champion, as much as we love those meteoric rises,

we just saw Sean O'Malley just soar to the top and had a big test against Jan, but before that, pretty smooth sailing and the Cheeto Verra fight, right? But for a young fighter like Blanchfield, potentially a future champion, you need to be able to win ugly.

It just happens sometimes. You're going to need to win ugly. So I know people are going to point to the holes that may have been exposed defensively. She said she just walked through punches. She's young. She's just relying on her chin. But there's a lot of good tape for her to work with here.

This fight will make her so much better. It's going to make her so much better in the long run. And in that regard, we will remember it should she become champion or even should she get a tell of shot within the next six months. So it was a big one for her. I hope people aren't discouraged. I hope this isn't a fight who appear like, well, I want to jump off the bandwagon now. Tyler Santos is really tough to put away. As we saw a really well-rounded, skilled fighter, we saw that in the Schenko fight.

We saw that in this fight. She did not get dominated in the grappling. Like, I get it that she was somewhat neutralized, but she didn't get dominated. She is a good grappler. And for Blancheville to be able to do that was super, super, super impressive. So I'm still all in on the Blanchfield train. I didn't expect her to just truck Santos. But yeah, I'm definitely never.

I'm still at the point. I'm still confident enough with Blanchfield where I'm not betting against her until she loses. I think she's that good. Even if she doesn't get the, I don't think she's necessarily going to get that title shot next. Yeah. I mean, look, and if Manon wins, she's getting the title shot. Like, Mann's not going to get over Aaron. There's no chance.

If Rose wins, she'll probably get it because. You just got to try to get as much out of the much tread out of those tires as you can. And but if Rose loses, Aaron's getting a title shot regardless. And that's fine. And she'll probably win. I would pick Aaron Blanchfield against both of those women right now, against Valentina and Alexa Grasso, despite that performance and despite the taste that left in people's mouths.

But I'd love to be able to continue this show, gentlemen. Let's do a little three shot here. I'd love to be able to be all joyous and excited here. but Bob Barker died. What the hell, man. Yeah, man. This has been like the worst week ever. You can't break this on the show.

You can't do this to people. What am I supposed to do? I'm not going to sit here and lie to the world. Like, I'm not thinking about this. But come on, 99. I mean, he was 99. So we lived a long and healthy, great life. As I've told the story before many times,

growing up as a child, I wanted to be a game show host. I wanted to hold the skinny microphone like Bob Barker. Like for years and years since I was like a six-year-old kid. Loved Plinko, the greatest game show game of all time. Bob Barker, rest in peace, 99 years of age. Always get your pet spayed and neutered, as the great Bob Barker says. Man, that sucks. Terrible news.

Maybe all lasts to 99. What a life. What an incredible life that do, little best. My number one game show host of all time, the best. Love his withering humor. I loved how, you know, he would contrast the enthusiasm of the insane contestants on the price rate without, without like insulting them.

You know what I mean? He's not like, everyone's having a good conversation. There was some condensation. There was a little condensation. But some people deserve it. And that's what you love about Bobbacher. I love that show.

And he's a legend. So that's a super sad news. I, I, it has to just be a cool, like it's such a cool legacy if you have generations upon generations upon generations of people who would basically, stay home from school sick watching you.

Right? Like every time I was out from school in elementary school, middle school, I'm watching prices right. I'm laying on the couch. Whether I'm faking, sick or not, like, I'm laying on the couch. I'm enjoying some prices right. Rest in peace, Bob Barker. Also, happy Gilmore, man. Iconic. Come on, man. Oh, yeah. One of the greatest movie fight. The most memorable movie fight of all time outside of Roddy Piper and they live.

That was the second, this is the second most iconic movie fight of all time. Him just put in the wood to Happy Gilmore on the golf course. the Pepsi Pro Am. Rest in peace, Bob Barker. What can we do to get Mike Huck one of the skinny mics for the next time he's on site? Dude, you want to get me a birthday present?

That's the one. Like, I'll be indebted to you forever if I can get something like that. That'd be incredible. Let me talk to the hyrots. Let me see what I can make. It makes them happen. We're going to get Mike Huck on the big sticky.

There is going to, if I get a skinny mic, there's going to be like, I'm going to go buy a bunch of gift cards and I will just give away prizes on the street. Like, we will just turn the whole city I'm covering events into one giant game show. Because, and I'll wear suits. I will just wear suits every single day.

I'll be like Barney Stinson and how I met your mother. Suits all day, every day. I'll sleep in suits and I'll just be giving away stuff if I can get a skinny mic. So make that happen. We're openly brainstorming at this point. Do like trivia with people on the street about whatever pay-per-view card is going on?

I think people would watch. Y'all in the comments section, If you need to see Mike all suited up with a skinny Mike doing streetside trivia in New York City or whatever, let us know because I'm all in on this idea. This sounds tremendous. I love it. All right. Let's make this happen. You're getting me too excited right now.

Yeah, man, Bob Barker. Junior Taffa, Knox Alpacopo, what a biggest upset in the history of MMA. Before that, Waldo Cortez Acosta, I didn't think we'd be talking about him ever getting a finish in the UFC. He was the king of heavyweight overs. Oh. Just put the wood on Lucas Breske. like made him do the stanky leg and then like it wasn't even a face plant knockout it was like a head plant knockoff that was nasty good for waldo cortez acosta he wants derrick lewis at msg in november that's a pretty damn good call it right there garret armfield i thought got the big fat hose job when it comes to bonuses like wca's knocko was nasty garret armfield went out and looked like pedro in 1999 on the red sox this dude just pitched a near perfect game

against Toshiyami Kazama. I mean, it just annihilated him. He looks spectacular. His first fight in over a year since stepping on less than a week's notice, up a weight class against David Freakin Onama, and he fought admirably on that card. Gets his first full camp at 135 in the UFC.

Looks spectacular. Mikhail O'Ezek, Cheetah, and Jokawani. What a crazy-ass fight that was. Kanan Song back in the wind column. Good fight with Rolanda Bedoya. Billy Goff on zombie appreciation day, Looks like the New England zombie himself, just walking through punches,

body shot KO, look nasty JJ Aldrich gets a KO and Xiang Wu Choi kicks off the card, fun fight with Jarna Arons, gets back in the wind and calm. This is a fun one. This is a fun card. This lived up to the expectations.

I enjoyed it very much. When I got a great deal on a great gift at winners, I started wondering, could I get fabulous gifts for everyone on my list? Like this designer fragrance for my daughter. It's just $39.99. How could I resist? This luxurious wool throw for my sister.

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price, on link on C4.C. or in C4 or Magazen. So, with that said,

let's bring in E. Casey Lided Mr. 3024. Hopefully he's wearing, oh,

he's not wearing sleeves. Now he's got to hurt all our feelings with the pipes. By the way, people in the poll, the little poll, how do you grade UFC Singapore? A, 42%, B, 43%, so overall. I thought they'd be nice. That's pretty strong. 85% A or B, good time, good time all around. I feel like every morning card just instantly starts at like a higher level, right? Like if every card starts in a D and then you work your way up throughout the cart, like morning cards start at C. And then you just got to give me a little bit to.

get to BNA. Like, I'm just here for breakfast and fights. Yeah. You give me a 10 a.m. Eastern start time, and it's, you're automatically starting at like an A minus. And you can only just kind of, you can barely go down from there. What did you got? What did you guys?

What did you got? I haven't eaten yet. I haven't eaten. Not yet. Is that a bowl of frosted flakes? I sat a little breakfast day, okay. Nothing special. Frosted flakes?

That's right. I mean, I like, I like, I like some cereal as a snack at night, which is, it's very unhealthy, but I feel like cereal in the morning is even more unhealthy. I don't know why. I never skip, I need the sugar. It's a big little big sugar boost. I sat and I sat at,

I woke up super early and I was the first car in the Dunkin Drive-Thru line and sat there for 10 minutes until they opened. And then I got my coffee, got my wife a coffee, got myself a bacon, egg and cheese, hold the cheese on a plain bagel. Carbed up real nice to kick off this bad boy.

Casey, what are the peeps talking about here? What are they talking about on the, the tail end of this pretty funny morning card. Can you call on me like a teacher? Yes. You just talk, Shaheen. I'm curious for all of us because we've all been in this game for a long time.

So what's y'all's favorite TKZ memory? I mean, for me, it starts with Linda Garcia. I mean, that was, I'll talk about this more. Well, which one? Which one? You bet your, oh, the first, the first, the first one, you bet your ass I'm going to be on damned this week because I know, I know, I know, I know, pay-per-view.

that one. I know Jose Young's is Mr. Zombie, but this dude means a lot to me too, as far as it's just my general fandom. Because I was, I'm a late bloomer, man, late bloomer to MMA fandom.

I was like mid-2000s maybe. It's like when I really just started getting into it. So right when the UFC was, you know, booming, I was caught up in that whole, I got on with all the other band, my I can jumpers, jumped on with everybody else.

And WC was like one of the first, not the first, but one of the, like when I started like, oh, let me watch something that's not UFC. Let me see what other M.A shows are. They had already been bought by Zufa, so it was kind of like a UFC-like product anyway.

But that was, you know, easier for me. It was like, okay, oh, I know who your favorite is. I know who Jose Aldo is. I want to check this show out. And then I watched all the prelims, too. And, of course, it was closed out by Zombie Garcia 1, which was insane. Garcia, I knew from UFC. He was the other guy on the Sports Illustrated cover with Roger Perta.

So I had some familiarity there. And again, when you're a new fan, these things are important. I don't know if everyone even remembers. I'm talking about you guys. and also in the comments, like how you sort of became a fan, these sort of touchstones here and there, these moments that just gradually pulls you in, pulls you in, pulls you further in until you couldn't get out.

And look where you are now. And that fight was so exciting. I felt like I knew enough about both guys. Like, this was the first time he'd seen zombie. But his name was the frigging Korean zombie. How could you not be immediately invested in the fight? They did a good job kind of giving you a little bit of his background. And then the fight was a friggin all-time bangers.

It's one of five, probably five, 10, for sure, top 10, but maybe five favorite fights I've ever. seen it was it was it was so good so um it has to be that fight i maybe it was my first time seeing understanding what what a robbery was because i remember i was like oh well i'm new to this like i'm new to this i don't understand the scoring i'm pretty sure the korean guy won but what do i know i'm i'm so that was that was educational on that way too and uh and then it just led to i think for i know for a lot of people that was their first zombie fight i'm sure there's some hard course out there who saw him before WC but for me

that was the first time I ever saw him and it has lingered my mind ever since and it's hard to beat that memory tonight was special though that's good one there's so many man the Porreye fight is so good the poorie is amazing poor guy's mind I'm not going to that though right no one like no one thought he would win that fight at all

like that was that was DP's fight to win DP was sort of the next title challenger he was on a run then turns it the fight of the year Like if you've never seen, I think a lot of people watching this have probably never seen Dustin Poirier versus Korean zombie. This website, this very website that we all work for, awarded it, fight in the year for 2012. Go back and watch that fight, y'all. Especially on Korean Zombie Day like today, fucking bananas.

Absolutely. We're just four rounds. It's incredible. And that was on free TV. That's like a fuel TV. Yeah. Fuel TV. And it was so cool.

And that was when it was still so kind of cool and novel to have UFC on free TV. and you're like, oh, sweet. Like, what a great, like, free fight to give away. And you just watched it, and you're like, wow. And in the moment you're thinking, how many other people just saw this? And again, this was their first time watching MA or this is the first time seeing zombie fight. And you're like, this is a real, like, special moment. Like, that was so, that was so awesome.

Dustin, poor years. I'm going with interview afterwards. Sorry, Mike, I didn't mean to catch you up. But Dustin. Oh, no, go ahead. Now continue. Afterwards was just, like, I will always remember that interview of him in tears just how much it meant to him. Like, very, very young, featherweight, Dustin Porte.

It's so bizarre to look back on all of that now. But guys, seriously, go watch that fight if you haven't. Was Garcia, Zombie, was that? Were we doing fight of the year then? It had to be top two or three that year, right? What year was that? That was 2010. Let me look that up.

The problem of that fight is like, it was just a mid-card fight. It kind of came out of no way. That's why that one is my favorite fight because it was so unexpected. I don't even think it was on the pay-per-view portion. Okay. I showed so many people that fight after, like, because I had people who, because again, now I felt that was cool. You know, I was like, oh, I have friends I know who watch UFC way before I did, but they still mostly only watch UFC. And I'm like, I found this fight that they don't know about.

And then I took that fight to so many people. And everyone was like, wow, that was like, that was insane. I was in Sacramento for that fight. I was in the arena. And that fight had just a magic feeling because people knew Linna Garcia at the time, but no one really knew who zombie was. And that, the way the arena just, I think it was, whatever, Sacramento, where the Kings play, it was just electric. Like I said, it was just a mid-card fight. No one was really expecting something, anything crazy.

And it just blew everyone away. And I think that fight, I feel like that card is, has more members from that fight than the actual, I think, the main event, which I think was favor getting his butt kicked. Oh. It's exhibit number one on any, like, case of how many, like, case of how much. to just make a fan base, an audience, whatever, an arena, fall in love with you on first sight, even in a losing effort, right? Like you said, I think a lot of people went into that, not really knowing much about about Jansanjong and then left being like, holy shit, this guy was awesome.

I love it. Those shirts were everywhere. Dude, these shirts were everywhere. Very shortly after. Credit to Dana White were actually promoting a fighter and not wearing a generic, you know, draft king shirt or whatever. wearing a fighter shirt. You know, I think not for it,

not for when zombie was fighting, but just kind of wearing it in general. And I remember it was Dana White wearing that shirt in particular that, yeah, it's like kind of blew him up. The timing was perfect. It's like one of the very first, like iconic MMA merch.

And that was the time when the whole affliction thing was going crazy. And the zombie just style and the look of the shirt was just totally different. And it really just stuck out. And it's a great design. And, yeah, It's just the mark, yeah, zombies is awesome.

Also, Casey, to answer a question from earlier, fight of the year 2010, it was on our list. It was on our list. 2010 was also a really tough year to win fight of the year. Also happening in 2010, Anthony Pettis, Benson-Henerson, final WEC show. Yeah. That ended up winning.

And also- Something happened in that fight that people talk about? I don't remember. Was there a moment in that fight that people? I don't know. I think Benson-Henerson got knocked out. I've never seen a clip from that. I've never seen it.

He didn't get knocked out. I know. He didn't get knocked out. What are the best thing? I love that. I love that. I love that. Oh, now I've seen that clip.

What do you mean? He's knocked out cold, Casey. Yeah, you're not going to think about it. Also, maybe one other notable event that happened or a fight that happened that year. A little guy named Anderson Silva scored one of the greatest comebacks of all time against Chil's song. So it's tough year. Yeah. Still pretty good.

That's still pretty good. By the way, the correct answer for Best Zombie Moment is the Dennis Bermuda's fight. because zombie was coming. The last time we had seen him was the Jose Aldo fight. And then we lost the, like, we lost the real prime of his career due to the mandatory military service. So it was 50 months. It was over four years between zombie fights. Comes back.

Yeah, it was Jose Alda was UFC 13th, August 2013. February 2017 is when he fought again. And he headlined an event in Houston, Texas. against Dennis Bermudez. Two minutes and 49 seconds, chaos, Dennis Bermudez. One punch. Just deads him with one punch.

And we're like, all right, dude's back. And it took us the time between like a summer Olympic games before we could get zombie back in the octagon. It was just such a cool moment. Because we were all wondering like, when's he coming back? Once he coming back? Oh, now he's back?

Can he beat this really tough out in Dennis Bermudas over five rounds? This guy's the cardio king. He'll just take this guy down over and over. again. Zombie's like, nah, I'm not gonna let you do him. It's gonna punch you right in the face

and you're going to sleep. So, yeah, so many great moments. And also on that card, and also on that card, who lost in the co-main event? Oh,

I forgot about that. Lexerrosso. Alexer Grasso lost a decision to Valise Herig. And that was kind of like, oh, I guess we're off the Grasso hype train. I guess she was all hyping.

And then. Look at this card. James, James Vic got a sub, Vulcan Oza. Mayor beat OSP, Just got Androge, Be'Angelo Hill.

That was a great fight. Androge Hill is still one of the best strawweight fights in UFC history. Yes. That's a great fight. That was a great fight. Mike, I'm so glad you mentioned

the military service and what we missed with zombie because you're right. Like when that Aldo fight happened, zombie was 26. And then the next time we didn't saw him. He was basically 30 years old. Like we missed 26 to 30 to like 29,

basically for this guy who you knew he had like four more bangers just in the chamber waiting to fire over that time like man to be able to given us what he gave us over the time that he did give us is incredible considering the amount of time that he missed right like important time in his career yeah absolutely um i don't know if we want to get into this but like i'm i'm all about zombie being a ufc hall of famer on his own merit not a fight just on his own merit oh it kind of like on the seroni kind of thing i i i'm all aboard of that.

Me too, but my bar. I think he was higher level than Seroni, but I get Seroni, you know, Soroni, but no. I think, I think for UFSI Hall of Fame, second battle, make it wait a couple years. For UFC Hall of Fame, I can see it because I think the bar has been, I don't want to say lower because that feels disrespectful, but like it's not, the, the bar isn't as high as I think for like a baseball Hall of Fame, right, or something like that, where like you

have to be like a really elite tier to be able to get into it like there are there are there guys like Matt sarah in there and and you know Donald serony whoever you want to throw out there who like never really were that guy at their point in at any point in their career um who are able to get in so i can see in that respect mma hall of fame it feels it wouldn't feel exactly right like he's definitely the hall of fun the hall of very good the hall of i love you so fucking much but like i don't know if a hall of fame would be fitting but for fights like Like he would get in for like three or four different fights, right? So if we put him for three or four different fights,

just put them in as an individual too. That's all right. I'd put them in. I put them in. My bar is lower than most for Hall of Fames in general. I'm a pretty like avid, I don't say, what's a word of what he calls? Someone who pays attention to other sports Hall of Fames. I don't know why I find them fascinating.

Baseball, NBA, NFL. I don't know. I'm always paying attention when they announce for Hall of Fame things. So my bar is pretty low, I guess maybe based on how those sports are treated it. And I don't understand the only champions talk. Because if you only want it to be champions, then just like go to Wikipedia. There you go. There's your Hall of Fame.

Just go list of U.S.C. champions of Wikipedia. There's a lot of UFC champions that should not be in the Hall of Fame. Right. So like, so like, I'm fine with it. I'm fine putting zombie in, Jim Miller, Don Soroni. Champions for me is not the be all end all of like, were you a great fighter, or you're a memorable fighter. Did you achieve things?

Especially, as you said many times, title fights are determined by the promotion, not necessarily by merit. So like how, like, so why are we making that such a high boss? such a important parameter for whether someone gets in, right? He's a shoe in for me. But again, so is Jim Miller, so Soroni. Because zombie had something different.

It's not really his topology, win losses. It's more how, I think, why we're talking about him so much, he had, he inspired. He inspired us. It's hard to describe, but there's certain fighters that just inspire us as fans. And zombie had that. Even getting knocked out tonight, getting knocked out, cold.

We're like, that was inspiring. And that's, how many, how many fighters can you really say that about? And that's why I think zombie is such a special fighter. It's hard to describe. I have to have to think about it more. But just hearing you guys talk about him made me go like, dang, I'm going to miss that dude. And every time he fought, it was must watch TV. Even if he knew, like he was going to get his buck kick, even when he fought bulk,

he's like, oh, he's going to get slaughtered. But he wanted to watch and you were still just inspired by his heart that he put out there. So that's my case for it. I don't hate it. I was 100% would not hate it. Yeah. Yeah. I mean,

I treat the UFC Hall of Fame like the WWE Hall of Fame. It's not the pro wrestling hall of fame. It's WWO. And Bob Euker is in the WWE Hall of Fame. So I think the Korean zombie can... I love Bob Euker. I love Bob Euker. But yeah, if you want to throw zombie in the Hall of Fame, who's going to complain about that?

Come on. You imagine people booing boo. Boo. Yeah, right. Yeah. I love that. Oh, man. We'll take a couple of questions if he got any.

I'm sure there's a bunch. I have a couple. Actually, just talk about the card real quick. Question of the panel. Who gained the most and who lost the most at UFC Singapore, in your opinions? A.K., who do you think? Who gained the most? Who lost the most?

I'll top of my head, Ryan Span, lost the most because I don't know what. I may be being too harsh on this fight. This is what I wrote. This is what I wrote ahead, very quickly. I was predicting to find. I'm pretty thinking of a fan win because, one, it's just super hard to beat someone twice in MMA at this level. And I just thought Span had a good chance of winning the first fight.

He just kind of had a bad game plan. If you wonder, he kind of slugged it out in a weird way and that first fight and got caught and then got submitted. So I'm like, he's, and he's also, he trains now. So I'm like, this should be a totally different fight. And I concluded my prediction by saying, frankly, if he goes 0 and 2 against Anthony Smith, maybe it's Span who may want to consider where his career is heading

because I think there was a lot of talk about Anthony Smith before this like oh you know is he ready to move on if he loses he's been a lot of wars he's up there in age he has options he's got a lot of broadcasting options retirement you know no one would blame Anthony Smith that they have retirement in his mind

and I'm not saying Ryan Span should retire but boy I don't know what the see like I think we had hopes for this guy in a relatively weak division that he could do something but when you fail to pounce on an opportunity like he had in round to and put a stamp on this flight and then you win a I can only call it disappointing

I'm sorry lose excuse me lose a disappointing decision I think his stock has plummeted whatever this wherever that stock was I have to think it's plummeted again again that's just my first reaction I'm not looking at the whole card again so if someone has another option that's my I'll be the downer here and say boy I don't know what Ryan Span does now Jane now I would agree with that in terms of who lost the most right like Ryan Span is now three and four over his last seven. This felt like a pretty important one to prove that he can be a guy who can maybe be,

if not the top of this division, like sort of just floating around that top, being able to get into these type of matchups and very puzzling performance today, like AK. I would agree with that. Who gained the most? I mean, is it cliche to say Anthony Smith? He kind of saved his career, right? Like he had to win this fight. If he doesn't win this fight, where is he? He might be getting called for his, there might be like retirement calls, Anthony Smith doesn't win this one. I feel like their retirement costs every fight for him. That's like three or four fights.

I feel like it's been like that's been like the storyline. And I think Anthony Smith is that chip on the shoulder type of guy. He hears that. And I think maybe earlier in his career he folds in that second round. But I'm not going to poop on Ryan Span as much as give credit to Anthony Smith for gutting it out. and winning that third round. And you're right, Shaheen, about the messed up scoring system because Ryan Span honestly won that fight.

Pride rule he wins. Yeah, he won the fight, but he lost the scorecard. And that's what matters. It's the Gia's scoring system, baby. Who would you rather be at the end of the fight? I'd rather be Ryan Span. Well, Anthony Smith's got two checks, so I don't know. Sure.

That's not the very end of the fight before they hand out the money. Okay. Before they look at their bank account, yeah. Yeah. Right. I mean, whoever lost the most, Ryan Span, like unequivocally. Yeah. Remember November?

Remember November he knocked out Dominic Reyes and like it was like a sad thing. But then Ryan Span got on the mic and said, look, I've done all this without actually trying. Like I didn't train. I didn't try. Like I just was like, oh, I got a fight. I'll just show up to the fight. And he's like, but before this fight, like, I'm really, I'm in the gym five, six days a week. Like, I'm taking this real seriously.

And for curmudgins, like, Jedmishu and even myself, like, I'm super stubborn. When I'm in on a fighter, like, I'm in on them. When I'm not in on them, like, it's really hard to flip me. And that night in that speech, Ryan Span flipped me. I was like, all right. Like, this dude's like taking this seriously. Like, I'm a full-time fighter. Let's go.

And then he gets jumps gilly, gets tapped in the first round. and then this happens, and I'm just like, man, like, where have things gone? Over these last nine months, like, you flip me and now you flip me right back. So it's definitely that. And it might, you might be right. If it's not Anthony Smith, it's Aaron Blanchfield as far as who gained the most. Because I think she needed to open some eyes. And maybe that's not the performance we're going to remember from her through the six-fight runs so far.

But even on, like, a not great day, she still was good enough to beat Tylos Santos, who just nearly ended the streak of Valentina Shepchenko in her most recent fight. I think if you're the next opponent of Blanchefield, I think even though his fans, that maybe that wasn't the 15-minute buck kicking we were expecting, but I think that made Aaron Blanchfield even more dangerous because she took a weapon in that first round and she didn't fold. And I mean, I don't want to sound too cliche, but like, you know, like Bizmi's like, oh, you can tell she's a fighter.

And that's important. That's important. She's not just a frontrunner. She took a weapon and came back. She came back and won that fight. That's really, it's hard to do in MMA. You lose that first round, especially how she was losing. I'm guessing 95% of fighters wind up losing the fight or losing the decision.

She came back against a very, very tough, tough opponent. And technically it wasn't her best performance, but I think grit, heart fighter. it was awesome for also it's scary man yeah like no one will ever blame you for getting God by the

I wasn't trying now I'm trying I mean big brothers big brothers been hitting little brothers with that since the beginning of time

no you beat me a Mario cart because I wasn't trying like wait until I tried yeah yeah I'll see ball oh man oh but

don't ever fall for that when fighters say that oh now I'm trying Ryan, and I'm going to try harder next fight. Like, no, no, that's, that's actually to me, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's a, that's fighters. Anybody who's like, like, like, Brianne Royva like was true, right? Like, he was still, he was just like the exciting dude. And then he was like, all right, I got a bonus in this fight.

So now I can train full time. And now it's the, you're the raw dog. That's, yeah, that's different. I can quit my job and actually train. That's something different. Yeah. That's kind of what Ryan was talking. about.

That's kind of why. If he was like, I don't know. Do you think so? It kind of, to me it felt like I wasn't putting effort into this. And now I am. It's like a bit of both,

but more so the, imagine what I could do if I actually like went to the gym five times a week. And bro, yeah. I was throwing away all these red shells as blue shells that I was getting. I'm going to start using them. You brought this upon you. I dumped the star.

I dumped the star. I ran into the green shell on purpose that nobody gets hit. by just so I could let you win. Yeah, that's super funny. All right. The backward green shells. The backward green shell sneaky. It'll get you.

Oh, every time. The worst ever is when you get green shells and you shoot them in front of you and they bounce back. And then it gets right. It goes right. Only thing worse than that is when you get the banana and you put it at this exact spot that you think everybody's going to get. In the next lap you get your own banana.

And it gets you over the next time around because you're like, oh, I'm the only one who takes this exact route on this. You hit your own banana. is the worst. Oh, man. We should, we need a, we'll talk more off camera about this, Shane, we'll have more. Mario card.

Yeah. A.K. It's not a new, man. AK's not here for the Mario Kart, so. Dude, there's so many new courses. It's insane. Okay. Sorry.

You got questions. Someone was asking, Shaheen, where, is the shirt still available? Oh, a zombie shirt. Dude, I got this like 10 years ago. I have no idea. Yeah, my shirt's, I got, I have one of those, too. I didn't even, yeah. I've been in this game.

Come on. Yeah. Who does Max fight next? A.K., do not answer this question. Because we got to get your son of the podcast network. Shaheen, who does Max Holly fight next? Oh, man, that's a great question. Give me two seconds.

Go to Casey. I'm looking at rankings right now. Casey, who does Max fight next? Two options. Dude, I don't know. If Aljo goes up, that's the 45 option. if what I really want is him to go to 55 and fight anybody at 55 I don't care I just see max at 55 it can be it can be anyone honestly anyone the top 10 that's all I care

Casey nailed it case you nailed it those are the two I mean Mike we talked about this on the on the AK2 we talked about this on the on the ranking show this week of you sold me Mike on the on the on the Aljo mashup right like that like I don't think Aljo is going to beat Matt But at some point, somebody's going to beat Max, who's not Alexander Volcanovsky, right? Like, it's just inevitable that somebody will do it. Maybe Aljo can be that guy. And then that's the only way he's going to be able to shortcut himself to a title there at 145 if he's trying to get out of the way from Marab. Otherwise, though, give me the lightweights.

Come on, man. Just give me the lightweights. I want to see it. Let me see it. Yeah. If Dustin had beat Justin at 291, my immediate pick would have been it's Max versus Gagie. Like, that's the fight. And that fight could still happen.

but Gachi's not going to fight Max Hollow right now. He's just not. He's going to wait for the winner of Mockachev Oliver, and he's going to fight for the title because it might be his last chance to fight for an undisputed UFC title. So I think the Gachi Holloway fight can always be there. And if you want to do Holloway, like I'm certainly going to watch that.

But yeah, Aljo, focus all of your attention on Max. You don't even have to win. Just get in there and be somewhat competitive. Just don't get 49-46 by Max. And I think you make a good statement and you make yourself a case of getting to a, to a title shot because you're not getting the Shano Mallory rematch anytime soon. Yeah.

That's where I'm at. How about Benile Darush? Max Holloway, Benile Derrush. Anything. I don't hate it. I just want to give him someone highly ranking. No, no, no, no, no, no. No.

Okay. Lay it on me, Max Naker. No, because Armand Sarukian deserves that fight. Enough is enough. That dude deserves. He does not need to wait any longer to fight a banal deryush. That dude deserves this opportunity. I will say this, though, because I think Jed brought this up on the preview show.

If and probably when, if we're being honest, is Almacchev defeats Charles Olivera? You want to give me Max Holley versus Charles Olivera, too. Sign me the F up for that fight. I'm cool with that. But Benny, we get, Benny's got to fight some, but Benny's got to fight Surukia next, in my opinion. I don't hate it. I don't hate it. Also, Michael Chandler.

Sorry you didn't get Connor. Here's Max. That's not a bad idea either. That's pretty good. That's pretty good. There's options. We're workshopping it. One last question.

One last question before we carry on with our afternoons or our mornings. Yes. Question. Do you take the first showcase or pass for the second like a man of culture? Whoa. I think it depends. I don't think there's a hard. You can't be a hard and fast rule on this, right?

Well, I mean, there's there's an unwritten rule that you always pass for the second. Why? You go for big, baby. Oh, the second is always bigger. Yeah, dude. Like, I don't like, watch the price is right. I never made that connection. You see a wave runner.

You see a bike and you see a trip to Roanoke, Virginia, and a hot tub. And you're like, wow, that's kind of cool. Nancy Ponce said, you personal craps table. They get you the craps table. Oh, you got a craps table. Yeah. And then you pass this And then you pass this second

And Rod Roddy would be like Well, let's take this little trip Oh, it's a disaster A tornado struck But what did the tornado drop down? A brand new car! It was the way cooler one That was worth like $80,000 more than the first showcase

And then the first showcase person was like $21,230 and you just sit there screaming a TV Like so far over How much do you think this world pool cost, dude? Well here's the real answer though It doesn't matter because if you're me, you're getting it within, you're guessing close enough that you get Winbold anyway.

So it doesn't matter. Got to get it within a Hyundai. I think I've only seen it once. No problem. No problem. Ooh. Every time. No, that's not true. I don't think I've been comfortable. And that's even with the conversion.

That's even with the conversion, AK? I have to do the math in my head. Yeah. I think the conversion actually helps. I think it centers me. So, yeah. Ooh, I love it. Someone in the comments she said, The dreaded elliptical machine.

That's what all these people want. So, Christ is right. A lot. A comment. Good comment. A comment from L.O. You know what?

As a kid growing up watching that, I'll be like, ooh, whatever. But now it's in a dome. Like, ooh, new washer and dryer. Hmm. Right? I get it now. That ain't talking about language.

He's a new microwave. Everything changes if you get older. I wonder. The price is. Yeah, go ahead. No, no, please, go ahead. I was going to say, the Price is right taught me what Rice-Ironey was. I had no idea what Rice-Roney was until I watched Price-I-Rite,

featured every episode on whatever game you had a bid. Is it this Rice-A-Roney, it's $1.79 over or under? The San Francisco treat. Go ahead, Shadine. I thought you were going to hit us with the price is wrong. I was very excited for it. It got a little flutter in my heart. We're always trying to iterate on, like, hey, what's some new show ideas?

what's some new stuff we could pull out that people would dig. What's like an MMA version of Price is Right? Price is Right. So universally beloved. How can we turn that into an MMA show with Mike Heck with the pencil mic? Statistics. Some sort of thing. Like you just run through the career of Max Holloway and like certain significant strikes he landed in fights.

You just can't cheat though. That's the thing. You have to, technology is so much different now that you could just like if you do a virtual show, you can just cheat. And you can just look up, go to UFC stats. It's got to be. It's got to be in person. But I also like once you calling people down from the crowd and they got to be like real hype, like the whole vibe, you know?

You got to look at the crowd like what? Sheehan, you see these? These are goosebumps. Like these are goosebumps. They're happening right now with just the mere thought of this. You want to put me on a stage and host an MMA game show in front of people? I'm in. That's, you want to make a man's dream come true.

You give me that opportunity plus a skinny mic and like I don't know what else I can do. I don't know what else I could do. as a debutator on this site, I am now, this is my mission. I'm going to figure out a way to make this happen. Speaking of Skinny Mike. Skinny Mike Hack, new mythical media member. I love the, the double working of that nickname with Mike and Mike.

We got something here. I'm telling you. My mind is blown. This has been the greatest, this has been my personal favorite post-fight show in the history of post with all the emotions that have come over. Casey, you can hit the music. I don't know how much better we could do this.

Once again, Korean zombie. Clause. Standing ovation for your incredible career. There you go. Well done, Zambi. Thank you for the great memories. Max Holloway gets the job done. Sorry, Shiloh, stepped on your tail by accident.

It was a good day. It's for a good cause. It was for a good cause. More early day MMA next weekend. The UFC back in Paris. Cyril Gahn versus Sergei Spivak. Wow, the Yerbaugh-R-Lourt, 203 are getting two

Sergei-Spivak main events. Who would have thunk it? That's what we're getting. And then it's on to Noche UFC. And, oh, no, it's off to Sydney, then Noce UFC. Yeah. By the way, would you guys think of that

UFC 293 main card that was deemed unbelievable by the broadcasters? Took the words out of my mouth. It is unbelievable. I can't believe. The box is unbelievable for that. To quote Alexander K. Lee on our slack,

Unbelievable could mean a lot of things. The watch party is going to be electric, ladies and gentlemen, so we'll see you then. So for Shaheen, Casey, for AK, I am Mike Kack. Thank you for watching. Good day, everybody. Love you, Casey. Have your buddies made in neutered.

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