MMA Fighting - UFC Vancouver Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Brendan Allen Stopping Reinier de Ridder, Referee Blunders

Episode Date: October 19, 2025

Brendan Allen picked up the biggest win of his career in the main event of UFC Vancouver. But as impressive as Allen's performance was against Reinier de Ridder, the biggest story of the night was referee Dan Miragliotta in not one, but two fights — most notably, the co-main event between Mike Malott and Kevin Holland. Following a strange and weird UFC Fight Night event, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew react to how it all went down, Allen's TKO win over de Ridder and the big takeaways, and where both fighters could go next. Additionally, they discuss the rough night for Miragliotta and if anything will ever change with officiating in MMA, Malott's win over Holland, Aiemann Zahabi getting his seventh straight win, Manon Fiorot's destruction of Jasmine Jasudavicius, and much more. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Jed Meshew: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@JedKMeshew⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. At just $39.99, how could I resist? This luxurious will throw for my sister. This gold watch for my partner? A wooden puzzle for my niece? Leather gloves for my boss?

Ooh, European chocolate for the crossing guard? At these prices, could I find something for everyone at Winners? Stop wondering. Start gifting. Winners, find fabulous for less. Black Friday is here at IKEA, and the clock is ticking 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. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. All right, everybody. That is the victory drums. And they sound for Brendan Allen. How about that? He goes in there, has a tough first round.

And then he just dominates Rineer to Ritter over the next three. And RDR's corner said, no mass. We are done, which is obviously the right call. because RDR obviously had nothing left in that fight and Brennan Allen gets a massive win and all of a sudden things change in a big way in the UFC's middleweight division. We'll talk about that and all the other crazy shit

that happened on this card because it was a weird one. I am Mike Heck and joining me to react to all of the weirdness, all of the wackiness, the one and only Jed Michoud. He's got takes galore today. Jed, what's the one word you would use to describe? this card. I think I use wild and weird, but what's the first word that comes to your mind to describe this one? Football, because we should just talk about football. Texas and Kentucky are in overtime right now. And you know what that is? Interesting, compelling, dramatic. Everything

the UFC Vancouver was not just a terrifically bad card that we labored through. And, you know, there's SEC football We should just let's just change The whole website We can just be scec football Dot com We don't have to be a Maefighting.com Nothing good happened tonight

Nothing I want to talk about happen tonight Only bad things occurred tonight And so I don't even know what Texas is doing right now They just stopped Kentucky on fourth and one They can kick the field goal win the game Instead they just got a holding penalty And now their field goals much further

Oh, fights. I guess we're talking fights. Oh, warship in the comments, PSU meltdown. I didn't see it. One of my best friends is an Iowa guy. Terrific.

College football was electric today. And we should talk about that instead of this horrible fight card. Yeah, we could talk about one of my favorite moments is UMass celebrating a win, their first win of the season with a minute to play, getting the ball back. Can't do that. They threw on 3rd and 24 when Buffalo had no timeouts,

did obviously did not complete it, and then Buffalo scored a touchdown friggin beat him. Twitter was so fun watching all the UMass people celebrate a win that never happened. So right. So I want to start here because this seems to be sort of the consensus. It's not worst. Yeah. For sure.

Worst card of the year or just the strangest card of the year or neither. So I'm bad at strangest because I am not Jose Young's. I do not have the instant recall of everything that he does. And honestly, everything blurs. There are just so many events. They all run together for me. I'd struggle to think that there's anything more strange than this one. Like two really, really bad.

Like, the first time. Tan Dan was the worst Ruff alive. I tweeted Dan Murgliato honestly should never work again and then he arguably did worse later. I think the first defense is worse than the second one. I'm not 100% certain that his second

F up isn't the bigger F up of the two. If you've got that, they had a Cheeto Verifite and that's always going to be weird. You know, he's just never going to have a normal fight because that's not in his blood. And then the main event was a strange one. And so, like, it is very tough that the, I mean, this was a four-fight card, right?

Like, there were other fights as the prelims. And the prelims weren't awful. There was actually some fun stuff that happened in the prelims. But then this card was, hey, there are four really good fights atop of it. And one was over really quickly, which is impressive and cool, but just very weird to think that, right? And then I was personally very sad about it. One had Cheetah vera fighting in it.

So it was obviously weird. One had a true ref catastrophe that effed up the whole fight and made it all. There was never going to be a good outcome once Tandan did his thing. And probably we got like the worst of all the outcomes that could have happened. And certainly the one that feels the least just. And then the main event was just an odd ball. RDR was gassed after five minutes. And so, yeah, there's a really strange night all around.

I wouldn't say it's the worst. Again, the prelims were pretty good. And like, even though those four fights were curious in some respects, outside of the Holland-Malafi, which I am sure we're going to talk about so very much on this post-fight show, the rest of them at least like were meaningful, right? Like, and we got real clarity. They may have been odd in their outcome or in their process. but the result is significant and viable and valuable.

So not the worst card, one of the weirdest ones in quite some time. So my biggest takeaway from the main event and you know this. I said this to you many times. When they booked Fluffy versus RDR, I was like, Fluffy's going to kill him. Like this fight, he is going to run RDR over. And I got some pushback from not just you, but multiple people on the site. at least this main event justified to me that not only was I right, I actually was probably wrong because I think the outcome would have been way worse

than even I drew it up in my head after seeing this all play out. But I'm curious what being the RDR guy and just seeing that fight play out the way that it did. And I guess a lot of the things, if there's one negative about RDR making a big run in the UFC, we saw it tonight because, People have seen him struggle with the cardio. People have seen him. Not like some fighters are saying that he quit.

But I'm not going to come out here and say that because I'm not a fighter. And that would be he didn't quit. That's a nonsense lie. Yeah. That's corner through in the towel, which is correct. Yeah. They should have done it. That's more like it.

But we have seen RDR in these positions before where like a round ends and he just can't stand up. And it's all of that. So what is your biggest takeaway from this main event? Is it, wow, Brennan Allen's way better than we thought. Is it, I don't know what was going on with RDR? Like, how do you describe this maybe 20 minutes after the conclusion of the event? I thought about this a lot in the past 20 minutes. And I think I have an answer.

And it's probably an answer that a lot of people won't like and think I'm just, you know, standing RDR. And maybe that's true. Look, I love RDR. You all know that I love RDR. I believe everyone can tell that a lot of the like, he's the best middleweight in the world stuff is, tongue in cheek, right? It's not shocking that he lost. Arguably, he lost to Robert Whitaker.

I do think I scored that fight for RR, but if you scored it for Whitaker, absolutely nothing wrong with that scorecard, right? He can lose a fight and unequivocally, Fluffy would have eaten him today. Like if they fought, Fluffy would have eaten him. And even when that fight was booked, in my heart of hearts, I knew that Fluffy probably should be the favorite in that fight, right? But he's my guy. I'm going to stand for him.

And I do think he has tools. Cardio's never been a strong suit. It's never been that bad. And I just straight up refused to believe that, uh, Brendan Allen, like landing generic ground and pound. It was fine, but there was not like some fade or versus big gnaug.

Like it was pretty generic ground and pound. And frankly, already are kind of looked tired to start the second round, you know, like my belief that I have come to, RDR has never been a cardio monster, right? But he's never looked that bad. And straight up, I think the answer is very simple.

RDR cuts a lot of weight. This was his fifth time doing it in a year. Kid, like, that's hard. It is, we've been talking about it for Alex, and we've been talking about it from Rob. The frequency of fighting is very, very difficult. It's even more difficult if you are cutting an enormous amount of weight. RDR obviously is.

He made his UFC debut last November. this was his fifth fight inside of 365 days. If you look at all the people who have fought five times in 365 days, you know, they don't win them all. Brendan Allen, maybe an opponent that he was less prepared for, certainly was a better matchup than Fluffy would have been, frankly. But I think given the circumstances,

I feel most confident that the answer, and maybe this still would happen. I don't want to discredit Brendan Allen's win and say that, you know, 100% RDR beats him, right? Like that that could have still happened in better circumstances. And Brennan Allen did have worse circumstances. You know, he's coming in on short notice off the couch, cutting a lot of weight.

But I think the reason it looked the way it did, Brennan Allen is a tough matchup. He's a very good defensive grappler, right? And RDR, I just feel like RDR was spent before this fight happened and he didn't realize it until about six months. minutes in. It looked, it looked pretty bad. And it was the moment that RDR immediately took control in round two, Brennan Allen did the right, because I thought Brennan Allen had a terrible first round. Like I was stunned by him sort of initiating the grappling. I'm like, what are you doing? This is not

how you're going to win this fight. And RDR just threw him across the friggin Octagon and nearly got him out of there. And then RDR controlled him again in round two. And he, he, He got a little too, you got a little too heavy trying to get that second hook in. And then from there, Brennan Allen just got on top of him. And RDio was never the same again. Like it was just a big mistake he made, tried to, you know, overshot that second hook. And then it was over. Like the fight was just over after that.

He tried to do the really cool thing where you've got the, you've got the bottom hook. And that's the hook that matters the most. And he tried to do the kick off the cage to force his body into space and throw it in. But he wasn't quick enough to get it in. and then Alan just got his hips around and then it was it was curtains because like and also some of this outside of my contention that the weight cut was bad and he shouldn't be doing this many of them his tactics were bad i think DC is correct in saying like you can't play bottom it just doesn't work in modern mama like even Charles Olavera doesn't really play bottom who plays bottom for a second and then he looks to sweeper get up already didn't Alan is very good at that position anyway so maybe he couldn't have but like he wasn't trying to to get up to his feet with the urgency should have shown. So like it's a confluence of events. And so again, maybe Brin and Allen wins every time they fight.

I don't think it looks that bad if RDR has not cut weight five times in 365 days. I think it's a fair assessment of the situation. It sure makes things weird as shit at middleweight now. It sure does. I got to tell you, biggest, he didn't even have to fight tonight. And I think Anthony Hernandez is like the biggest winner. That's ridiculous.

That's the worst take you've ever had. Well, Nesdaed Yemov is the biggest win. He was getting the title fight anyways. It did not matter what RDR did tonight. It did not matter unless he did something we have. If he had finished that choke in the first round, buddy, I think there's a real decent chance he was getting it.

But he didn't. And that's what I'm saying. That's why Yemovov is the biggest winner. Well, yeah. But even even that like, Brendan Allen was, I didn't think Brennan was in like any true He was in trouble

But I wasn't looking at that like Oh this one's over I never got to that point Also arguably Fluffy's a loser Because Fluffy Because Fluffy would have had a title fight Had he just showed up Fluffy is now the on deck hitter right now

No Fluffy's fighting DDP next And that's terrible That's terrible for him It's a horrible place Dude nobody wants to fight DDP fighting Sean Strickland, he would have ran the F over Sean Strickland. Yeah, now he's going to lose. He's going to lose to my other big beautiful boy.

Obviously, he moved off wins because he was getting the title fight anyways. There's very little chance. Now there ain't, now there's nothing about it. There ain't no if sands or bucks. Now Fluffy's next fight is going to be a big one. Like, it's kind of probably fight DDP next. That's a huge fight. That guarantees him a title fight if he wins.

If he beats Strickland doesn't really guarantee him anything. So it puts him in a much better spot. There's no way. And he already has two wins over Brendan Allen. So Brennan can't jump over him. There's nothing Brennan Allen can do to jump over him. I was in fact looking at this. So currently in the USC middleweight rankings,

Brendan Allen is number eight, Fluffy is number six, RDR is number four. Usually it is just a straight, how the USC rankings end up working out is almost always just a straight. Brennan Allen moves up to four. Everybody slots down. I'm pretty sure they're going.

going to move fluffy up to four, Brennan Allen to five, and then everybody slots down. So RDR will be number six, would be my guess for them. So he does get to move up, you know, two bumps in the rankings without having ever fought.

So that's a big jump. Yeah. So that works out pretty good for him. So yes, obviously Nastynauddinio Move Off is going to get a title fight. So, but I went into this fight thinking he was going to get one anyways. So nothing really gained here.

It's just what should have happened anyways, even before Hamzok got a title fight, I'mov should have been fighting for the ball. It should have happened. I was very much not certain. I thought if already are, as long as RDR won and it wasn't like a snoozer, I thought they were going to give it to him anyway.

And I feel like that even have some level of confidence in that with Shemaya's out here tweeting shit right now, which makes me think that like he knew that was a possibility. And so Imov, Congrats. You deserve it. You've deserved it for a hot minute. And now you, now you get to fight Homs and Jemayev. Congratulations.

I don't know how. That's going to suck. That's going to suck for you, buddy. But you got it. Yeah. So fluffy, fluffy DDP is the fight to make now. No doubt about it. That is the one.

Brett and Allen. Couldn't agree more. Yeah. Brennan Allen. Except for. Brett and Allen started. Brendan, Brennan is very tough on the mic. Like he said some good things.

I loved how he started. Love to start. Strong start. Poor finish. Strong start. Terrible finish. You don't, you have no chance of getting the title fight like zero.

You don't start with hot. Wasn't the worst call out of the night though. It sure wasn't. So there's that. And we'll get to that. It was not the worst call out of the night. There are, yeah, that was tough. Avens the hobby.

But we'll get there in a moment. And shot O'Malley's reaction was the same as everybody else's who watched it. but Brandon Allen goes Hamzat if you want to fight a real grappler I'm in if not hey I'll fight you but if not and then finally he got to the right answer he should have just straight up called out John Strickland

that was the perfect fight all the way he eventually got there I think that's what you do with Brendan Allen next what do you think I know it's a rematch I think that's the most likely to happen and I'm okay with it I think that's probably what will happen I do think

Brin and Allen's in a tricky position because I don't think that's the only possible outcome. I think that's the most likely. Sean Strickland wants to fight again and doesn't he doesn't really fit in anywhere else since he and Izzy apparently aren't fighting. But I think Brennan Allen, the trouble is Brin Allen beat RDR, but I don't view Brennan Allen as remotely close to a title fight right now just because he's lost to Imov and Fluffy very, very recently, right? And so, I mean, I guess if he beat Strickland, then that would be fine.

But I could also see, hey, we just need to fill X, Y, or Z spot. And is there a out of Sonia? Like, that's a fight that Brennan shouldn't turn down if it got offered. Yeah, but Izzy will never take that fight. I don't know. Is he was talking recently? Yeah, but he's like, he just kind of wants to fight again. And so maybe you would.

I don't know. Was Whitaker booked? Whitaker's not booked. I could see Whitaker. I could even see Kyle Bahayo, frankly. Yeah, Kyle's not about it. Like, I kind of think, I think Strickland would be the best one for him and is very, is the one he should have been pursuing because it's the most reasonable one for him to get. Some people were out here saying the DDP callouts viable, I disagree, but whatever.

No, no, no. I firm disagree. Saw it out there. I think Strickland is the one he should be pursuing. That's the one that is the most achievable for him. I wouldn't put all my eggs that that's going to happen because I do kind of think the U.S. could look at him and be like,

dude, just spin the wheel against any other top eight middleweight because that's fine here. So I'd say that's the leader in the clubhouse, but he is far from a walkaway winner. What do you do with RDR? Is this next fight at middleweight? What do you know my answer? you know my answer

my answer is always Drick's two plus Civers but it's what we're doing fluffy DDP he needs a break give the man a break and then okay then DDP after DDP fights fluffy okay

that would be fine I wouldn't frankly hate to see RDR just take a light heavyweight fight because like he probably is out of the middleweight title mix now I won't say it's 100% but like it's probably out of it

and light heavy weight the title mix is just so nonsense sense like it's so easy to get in there so if he wants to just like go up i mean obviously my heart would sing if he fought yri prehashka but i think he's going to fight carlos olberg for the title so that's probably not happening but like tell me that if in like i get in december we're hanging we're like on a call we're doing a show you look down at your phone and you get a notification that says, Jed, looks like they're doing

Dominic Gray as versus Rineade the Ritter at UFC Paramount 2 in wherever it is. Your ears wouldn't perk up a little bit. You wouldn't be like, let's let these two weirdos go fist fight each other.

I'm pretty into that. So I know you, Mike, you do a wonderful show called on to the next one. My official submission, RDR versus Dominic Reyes I actually There's a lot of reasons why I like that fight Because it's weird as shit

It is weird as shit I love it because it's weird as shit And like There's a real chance RDR would Finish Dominic Reyes But it wouldn't be Or get plunked Yeah that could happen too

But like the nerves I would have After watching Reyes get stopped again Like I know he's on a nice run but he's, dude's been getting knocked out a ton. I would feel like slightly better watching that. Because like RDR could, you know, knee him to the sternum and do some damage. But him getting knocked into the middle of next week, I don't think that option is really on the table.

So I love that fight. I think that is a terrific idea. I think that's a great idea. Well done. Thank you. Okay. Only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line.

But first? There, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes. With Instacart, you get groceries that over-deliver, so you can over-share your preferences. Want russet potatoes with no brown spots? You got it. Want turnips that look light but feel heavy?

Easy. Want honey-crisp apples that are firm, green, and definitely not Macintosh like last year when you lost the fall bake-off to perfect Penelope Johnson? Okay, a bit TMI, but we're here for it. So download the app today and get zero delivery fees on your first three orders. Instacart, groceries that over deliver. Service fees exclusions and terms apply.

Should we talk about Mike Belot versus Kevin Holland? We probably should. Yeah. What you want to talk about strange and weird? Dan Mergliata, Jesus Christ. Like you got to find another line of work. Dude, Dan Mergliata might be the biggest one. because I don't believe Dana White is there.

And Dana White might fire him post-fight. Like he did, like, remember once a, they're used for many of you who don't know. There used to be a referee called Mario. Yom, Yamsaki. And he doesn't exist anymore because he pissed Dana off by being really, really bad at his job. And Dana was basically like, no, he can never work us again.

And the commission's just stopped employing him. So, like, Dan, dang could have, Easily fall and prey to that if Dana was at this event. You know, it was, it was an interesting ride for referees today because we're watching the Drew Dober fight unfold. And Drew Dober, uh, just kicked dude right in the nuts like a square shot, poor Kyle preble. A real punt. He really brought the college football into the octagon that night. A real punt.

It was the first infraction, which technically is like the second warning, right? Right? Because you are warning. It is. You are in the, so when people like, there are newer fans like, oh, it was the first warning or is the first infraction or anything. No, you are given rules in the back. And that is essentially the first warning. You can't do this. You can't do this.

I'm warning you right now. You cannot do any of these things. So they are well aware of what they can and cannot do. What happened? I think I spiked my fight of the night prediction. Or wait, did I? Maybe I didn't. Did I pick for Vola?

I don't remember if I pick. for vol or if i picked dober i picked one of those two fights because i debated it over and over but i do not remember which one i did dober preppelac got fight of the night i think you want for vol but i don't know i'll have to go back and look at it uh other bonus says charles jorda and e ritchie lang will both reasonable yeah jordaim a great finish uh and we're talking about the dover fight right now where i'm trying to remember where the referee was uh that's one i don't know that well he's probably a local guy uh knows that the it was not an accidental shot.

It was not a purposeful kick to the balls. But still, the tide of the fight completely changed. Every, all the momentum that Kyle Prepuluk had. John Cooper was the referee. That's right. John Cooper takes a point from Drew Dover.

And I love this so much because this is what sports are. When you commit something that is wrong, you should be penalized for it. So I was like, all right, great. Something happened. We lost a point. This is great.

and then we get to Tandan just doing ridiculous shit but so here what you said is something important because fundamentally I agree with you if you commit a foul

you should be penalized for it that's just like an ethical moral logical thought that's not technically true per the rules the referee it is at the discretion of the referee to take a point

and as it is written in the rules, you are not to, as Tandan kept repeatedly saying as if it mattered and it fucking did not, it is not that you take a point away because a foul has been intentionally landed. If an intentional foul happens, you can just DQ the fighter right there because they are intentionally cheating in the same way that if they intentionally pulled out a gun and shot them, you would be like, well, that's cheating, you lose. The point that is written in the rules, the way it is described is you are supposed to take a point if the referee deems that the non-offending fighter, the offended fighter, has been substantively impacted by the offense.

And so, well, I think you should take points for fence grabs all the time, like every fence grab immediately. I at least can give some twisted logic to like, okay, don't do it. And then you do it after five times because that's added up to enough. to matter a point or whatever. It's stupid, but I can hear that argument. Right.

There's nobody alive who thinks that Kevin Holland was fighting clean after that nutshot. And like Tandan is looking at him clearly like one, procedurally the fight actually just should have been straight up stopped. He fucked that up. There's no ifs, or buts about it. He fucked it up because they exceeded the five minute time limit.

And he kept several seconds. Yeah, he kept himming in a. hauling and like it was pretty clear they were just like trying to play the game they fucked it up again later which we'll talk about but like procedurally fucked it up but just on its face you can look at that man and be like he has been severely impacted and then we saw play out he the rest of that round was a joke he very clearly was just kept grabbing his junk because he was still in pain and so like you have to at the barest of minimums take a point because he has been negatively to a significant degree or however the language is.

And the fact that he didn't is just like, it's incompetent. It is aggressively and in, unacceptably incompetent. And in any rational world, he would never have a job again. Yeah. And like,

clip and send it to him. I'll talk with Tandand all I want about this. Like, there, because there is no accountability at all for referees, which is insane. It's incredibly stupid. But like,

that's, there's no, defense of his actions in any capacity for it. And he should not be employed. And it was the second time he fucked up tonight in a bad, bad way. Yep. Matt for the bad for Vola Kyle Nelson fight. Should have been a TKO win. I don't give a shit. If you don't, if you think the horn went off, you stopped it. You stopped the fight. Yeah. The fight's no contest at that point. That's just what it is. Thank God Kyle Nelson still won

the fight because like the Jake Matthews situation, whatever, three months back is just like shit. You know, and again, at the time I was still like, eh, the letter of the law, this is wrong. Spirit of law, it's okay. Still, like Jake Matthews has a reason to feel violated in that. Kyle Pruppleck or Kyle Nelson would have an enormous, like, justification to be livid if he didn't end up getting the W. Still ended up getting the W. So good for him, but just horrible night for Dan Berg. Who should never work again?

And we'll almost certainly rough next week's card. Yeah. the Kansas City card, he was terrible. Yeah. And not only the not taking the point thing and letting the time elapse, what really angered me from all this. Oh my fucking God. What are you doing?

First of all, my, my, my, the first thing that angered me was, why are the doctors coming in now? Why did we wait all this time to even have a doctor come in when heaven was so clearly compromised? Like, we're wasting time here. And now Kevin's standing up. We know he's not ready to go. Now he calls it one doctor.

And the doctor's trying to ask some questions. And Kevin's not say anything. And the doctor's looking at the referee like, do something. This is your job to make a call. And Dan's like, well, I can't make the call. I'm not making it. And he keeps asking Kevin. And then they bring in a second guy.

And we're doing the same thing. And Dan keeps asking him. Like, Kevin, do you want to go? You have to tell me something. And I think at one point, Dan actually uttered the words, if you don't say anything, I will disqualify you, which obviously you cannot do. No, he didn't say it like that.

Okay, but it was he didn't. No, he, he, and this is, he actually is correct in this phase. He was, he clarified to Kevin Holland's like, if you don't say that you can fight, this will be a disqualification loss, which is correct. I believe, uh, I'm not, this one I'm not 100% on, but I do believe that that is correct per the rules because it's like a forfeit. Yeah, he is refusing to answer the bell. He is forfeiting the round because the offending foul has happened. Kevin Holland chose to continue competing. And so the function is over after that.

We're not a retroactive. He's not competing because of X, Y, or Z. Like, it is just a, hey, he's not answering the bell. You lose. Which I guess actually isn't a DQ. I guess that should be a TKO because you're refusing to answer the bell. But same thing. It's a loss.

So I think that that is correct. That what he conveyed there is correct, even if it sucks. but the whole thing, everything about it was stupid. The charitable explanation, and I can believe that this is true, is that DeMergliato was trying to give Kevin Holland more time to recover outside of the purview of the rules. Of the like, okay, we'll call in a doctor. You can talk to the doctor for a bit. If the doctor wink, wink understands what's going on, he'll take a minute to really talk to you. you and give you some more time.

The doctor did not. He came in and was like, if he, if he's grabbing his balls, he can't defend himself. He can't fight like this. Immediate, like the doctor almost immediate was like, if he said, if he doesn't say he can go, you call the fight, which wasn't really helping the game. They hemmed and hard. And I can believe that. But I think, Mike, and tell me if I'm off pace here, I believe what happened is the fundamental flaw in all refs,

in every single one of them. And this was it at its er moment. This is the fundamental issue with every ref that works the UFC. He didn't want to influence the fight. Yeah. Dan Murgliata did not want to be seen as playing a role, which to him is just,

if I just do nothing at all points in time, then that's, then I can shrink into the hedges like the Homer Simpson Giff. And nobody will see me. me and it's fine because what I don't want to do is ever stand on a corner and do my fucking job. And that's why they don't take foul, but they don't take points.

Wrest will outright tell you this. Yes, they've said it in interviews. They don't want to influence or impact the fight, despite the fact that they're not impacting the fight. They are literally just applying the rules and the fighters are impacting the fight. They cannot grasp it. They cannot be okay with it.

they feel that they are going outside their parameters, which is insane. And this was just the er moment of that. If he's like, well, I don't want to, I don't want to call the fight because then I'm impacting the fight, even though Kevin Holland's not answering the bell. Like, straight up, I think Kevin Holland got jobbed in many respects here. I think at the, at the worst, that fight should have been a draw. Realistically, that fight should have been a no contest immediately handled because Dan Morglade should not have restarted the fight.

when Kevin Holland clearly does not want to compete, but is feeling pressure to compete, but is compromised, you could just be like, hey, he's compromised. The fight's over due to an illegal strike, should be a DQ,

but the way the world works, there'll be a no contest, we'll come back. People can be a little unhappy, but nobody gets fucked in that scenario. It's just a no contest we move on. Dan wasn't willing to do that. If I carried on,

he should have at least taken a point, so the end result is a draw. Anyway, you slice it, Kevin got job. but if Kevin Holland had come out and he had just edged out the third round, right? He had won somehow.

However, he did it. Mike Mollap could easily feel hard done by because he got two. Because they gave Kevin Holland well beyond the five minutes that you get because they played the nonsense game with him after the second round when that fight should have been immediately called off when he didn't answer the bell. Like nobody can be happy.

about that outcome and it's entirely because Dan Mergliata fucked it up, pillet or post tip to tail the whole way through he was bad, which is why I said at the top of this show, arguably that's worse than the freaking Kyle Nelson thing. Because like that was worse in a very contained moment. This was like eight really bad things rolled into one fight. It was horrendous. It was absolutely horrendous. It's insane.

Yeah, we don't want to impact the fight. but yet you not doing anything, still fucking impacts it. It impacts the other fighter that, you know, isn't cheating. Yes. The one that that is the one who got need in the balls, the one who was trying to get a take down and his opponent grabbed the fence. Like, when you don't enforce the rules, you impact the fight. You don't impact the fight when you enforce the rules. For five years, you and I have been on so many post shows.

And we tell, we've even gotten to the point where like every, every time. team, every major MMA team should have a class once a week on cheating and getting away with it. Like, here's how you grab the fence to avoid a takedown. If you're tired, knee him in the balls. Because nothing's going to happen. Just do it.

It's not, I wouldn't teach my child that. But if he came, but if he was like, dad, I want to be an MMA fighter and fight for the UFC, you bet you're bet you're sweet ass. I'm sending him a text before the fight. Yeah. If you're almost going to get taken down, grab the fucking fence because nothing's going to happen to you.

I would legitimately coach fighter. Like, this is not even a bit. I was legitimately coached fighters that in any, any fight where you are, you don't aren't confident that you are ahead, like where you're, you're not cruising,

uh, the moment you get into a clinch knee and the balls. It's crazy. It's crazy. It's name of balls. There's no, there's no downside. Yeah.

Maybe they don't even see it and you just get a free nutshot. And if they do see it, they'll separate. You'll get a breather. He'll get a breather too, but he will then be fighting. Everyone watching this show, I'm assuming our,

our viewership is 99. 9% male. You, me. We've all taken one low. It sucks. It sucks for a while, you know? And so I would straight up, if coaches aren't doing it,

you guys are screwing up. You should need somebody in the balls every fight. Fet scraps, a little poke of the eye, something. It's nothing is going to get called. You can do it twice. Like,

you can literally do it twice. At the minimum, you should be poking your opponent in the eye once and kicking them low once. At the bare minimum. Mike Malott hit Kevin Holland in the nuts twice in 90 seconds

maybe a little less and not a point was taken and Kevin Holland was wrecked for the rest of the fight and probably the rest of the night and not I know that this is the stupidest like that this would be nonsense I would love to talk to Dan

and be like because the Dan like going to Jason Herzog on the replay and be like Jason tell me what it is he's like I just wanted to get Jason to confirm it wasn't intentional. Oh my God Tell me what he thinks is going to happen. What do you think you need to see to determine that it's an intentional knee low?

Like how do you even think you could see that and be like, ah, he clearly meant to hit him low. There's never going to be intentional. Intentionality is the stupidest thing in this sport. It's so dumb. He intended to throw a knee and it landed where it landed. That's on him because he threw it. He didn't have to throw the knee. He could have not thrown the knee.

It's not hard, guys. Joseph, I'll just throw your question out. I'm going to throw it up on the screen, but no, Kevin Holland did not try to force a DQ. He just didn't. He might have been fishing for some help there, which I frankly, I think is reasonable. I don't think he was fishing for a DQ. I think he was foolishly looking to the referee, you know, the official. Give me some sound advice.

Yeah. The person. with power in this situation. I think he was looking to the official to be like, hey, I'm clearly still hurt. Help me out. Because if I say I can't compete,

then the UFC and the crowd and everybody's just going to shit all over me because that's the stigma if I say I can't fight. But you can clearly see I'm compromised. You know, do me a solid. Be like, hey, fight can't go on because of the, the illegal shot I'm calling it.

Or, hey, I'm going to take a point because you're clearly compromised and that's how the rules are written. If you are seriously negatively impacted by a foul, the other guy gets a point taken from him because he committed the foul. And Dan were glad just looked at him and was like, you got 65 seconds, buddy. It's okay. You let me know when you're ready to go. Yeah, it was, it was crazy.

And him getting the extra time is not fishing. it's just Dan not fucking standing in the not putting his feet firm on the mat and making a call like that's all on him he still will make call he's all on day it's all on day it's all on day merglyata can you imagine dan merglaata being a friggin baseball umpire he'd just sit back there and be like i don't know if that's a ball or strike guys he'd be like i don't want to make the call swing or don't swing or delay if you don't swing i can't make the call he just just make a fucking choice, dude, you're an adult who has left thousands of these goddamn things.

Make a decision. Even Leslie Nielsen in the original Naked Gun movie, when he dressed up as an umpire, eventually called a strike, even though he didn't know what the hell he was doing. And then he had fun with it and started dancing around. But like, that's what it felt like was like, the first pitch comes in.

Leslie Nielsen's standing behind home plate and they're looking at him like, what is it? He just goes, strike. And the crowd cheers. And he's like, Woohoo. It's just so bad. Like Dan should just stick to BKFC at this point. And,

and that's that. I mean, it was just so bad. It's, and it sucks. It sucks that this is the, this, Brennan Allen's win is completely outshined by Dan Merglaata tonight.

Like, Dan Berglaada is, he's a big story of the event. He's the story of this fucking card. And it's crazy. Because Mike, there's a whole other Dan thing we've just touched on. That's arguably worse.

I don't think it's worse, but it could be worse. Luckily, the right fighter won, so that's what makes it not worse. It makes it easier to swallow, but his one screw up is much worse than any individual screw up in the Kevin Holland fight. He just had like eight of those. I'm sure we're going to get, I'm sure we're going to get questions about that. So we'll touch on that in a minute. We're definitely going to. The thing I keep coming back to, though, legitimately.

If Mike Malott had lost, he could and should win. he could petition for a no contest and should get it because Dan handled it so poorly. Because Dan gave Kevin Holland well over five minutes to recover, which is not in the rules at all. So like you might not like the rules, but your job is to enforce them. He gets five minutes. He didn't answer the bell. You let him have an extra 30 seconds. And then he gave him three minutes before the second round started.

A total cluster fuck and a horrible, horrible effort. Yes. Um, okay. Welcome aboard Air Canada. Rocky's vacation here we come. Whoa, is this economy? Free beer, wine, and snacks. Sweet.

Fast free Wi-Fi means I can make dinner reservations before we land. And with live TV, I'm not missing the game. It's kind of like I'm already on vacation. Nice. Air Canada. Nice travels. Wi-Fi available to AeroPen members on equip flights, sponsored by Bell. Conditions apply.

See Air Canada.com. You know what's better than the one big thing? Two big things. Exactly. The new iPhone 17 Pro on TELUS's five-year rate plan price lock. Yep, it's the most powerful iPhone ever, plus more peace of mind with your bill over five years. This is big. Get the new iPhone 17 Pro at tellus.com slash iPhone 17 Pro on select plans.

Conditions and exclusions apply. Before we get to more Burglietta talk, and I'm sure we're going to to get there. We're going to get to the featured bout, which was in the Bantamweight division, Amon Zahabi versus Cheeto Vera. Now, the Cheeto Vera, why do we have to talk about this fight? Well, we're not really going to talk about the fight. We're going to talk about a take that you had, that you talked about in Slack and you put

out a tweet, and then we're going to, we're going to get into that. But in case you missed it, this was like the reverse Cheeto Cheeto Verra fight because Cheetah, Chito came out in like round one and it was like, kind of doing stuff and then down the stretch didn't do anything. He front loaded his doing stuff instead of wait until the third round.

He did it in the first four minutes and then he never did anything again. It was just unbelievable. It was truly unbelievable. It was the most classic Cheeto performance even though it was inverted. It was just like, yeah, okay.

You're the better fighter, but you just refuse to fight. Got it. Amin Sahabi wins the decision. I'm fine with it. I was doing multiple things. Yeah, I was doing multiple things, but part of me was like, I kind of thought Cheeto won, but again, I didn't watch like the entirety of the fight,

like every second and broke it all down. It's not a bad decision. You can score for Cheeto and that wouldn't be. It's the first round is a swing round. And I thought it's a hobby edged it at the very end because Cheeto stopped doing anything for the last minute of the round. But if you scored it for Cheeto, it would have been fine. Not a robbery at all, though.

Yeah. Aiman won and then he had the worst call out maybe of 2025. It's pretty bad. Calling out Sean O'Malley, if I use zero chance. Sean reacted. Like I said, go to Sean O'Malley's Twitter. He reacted. I can't even believe Sean reacted.

He was just like, credit to Aeman. He even got a reaction. Just like, why are we doing this? That was even Sean thought it was the worst call out of all time. But here's a tweet that you sent out two hours ago, Jed. Stand by it. Quote, him weight. Bannam weights are all bums. They let Aiman Zahavi get a top 10 ranking. Now, Jed,

remember like a couple of years ago when, first of all, I feel so vindicated. I think she and al-Shadi does probably as well because we went on a ranking show and we fought for middleweight being right up there with Bannam weight. And I think it's better than Bannam weight now. I think it's fair to say. But you, the top of it certainly is. Yeah. I think at this point, what this tweet reads to me, and I know you talked about this in Slack, so I'll let you speak on it. You believe Bannamweight may be overrated. And there is a,

there is a time, there is a time where we were fighting with people who thought Bannamweight was better than lightweight. And it's absolutely insane. Like it is truly one of the most insane takes in the history of the sport is that Bannamway was ever better than lightweight. Anybody who had that take was completely wrong. Defend this tweet.

Bannam weights are all bums. They let Aiman Zahavi get a top 10 ranking. your thoughts because there's going to be a lot of people in the comments who are like, ah, Bannamweight slaps. It's the best. It's a great division. The Bainway is really fun. I'm not here to say it's not fun.

It's not a bad division. No. I have always thought that it was overrated, that it had an argument to be the second best division at times. But I never thought it was in the ballpark of lightweight. And I was never certain that Bannum weight was like significantly better than featherweight or welterweight, the other like premier weight classes.

and there's no way for this not to be disrespectful to Amon Zahubi. It just is. Amon's a hobby is not good. He's just not good, man. He's fine. He's not bad. But like, he's not one of the 10 best fighters in the world.

And he is like officially, certainly I think he already was before this. But like, look at him fight and tell me what he does. It's good. Like he just kind of want. The Aldo performance was a terrific performance. I don't want to take that away from him.

Arguably still should have drawn that fight, lost the first two rounds than 10-8 Adaldo and the third. But I don't want to take that away from him. But like he, I don't, like a fighter like that just shouldn't. Who is his corollary at lightweight? Who is the lightweight who's just not good?

You know? Like Michael Chandler is bad. I make that joke all the time. He's clearly better than. name it's a hobby like he can do things that are like it's scary you know he can hurt people or whatever and uh the tweet is mostly a shout out to only it's it's an in joke to seven people on the internet uh Lucas Bordan had one of my favorite tweets of all time where he was hammered drunk one night and uh I don't remember what fight it was a wonder boy fight and he was a hammered drunk

and he tweeted all drunk misspelled and in English which is not his first language is French uh, Walter weights are all bums. They almost let Wonderboy win the title. If you don't know who Lucas Bordaughn is, is a kickboxing officiato. And the gimmick is always that Wonderboy is not a very good kickboxer because he's not. He's a really good kickboxing him and a mate fighter.

Um, and so it was really a shout out to that because it's just like, Amund's a hobby's credit to him. He keeps winning fights and that's impressive. He's on seven fight win streak, I think now with solid names, right? Like he, he deserves to have the number he has.

That is a condemnation of Bannamweight because he's not good. You know, I don't, I'll believe, I believe it. I believe Bannamweight's overrated. And he is the, is the litmus test for why. Wow. What do you do with him? If you were to book him for his next fight after this win, because he called out Sean, as we know, he is zero chance of getting that fight.

I believe Sean O'Malley has his next opponent. They haven't announced it yet, but I mean, you've seen reports about it. So it seems like Song Yidong is probably next for Sean based on what I'm hearing. But again, nothing's like 100% locked and loaded. It's just a matter of is it going to happen here? Is it going to happen here? Their injuries along the way. But yeah, Shadow Valley is not a good call up because Sean has no interest in that fight.

So what do you do with, with Aiman Sahabi? How does what's the fight for you you need to see for you to be like, all right, you know what? maybe maybe he is good that's the thing i don't even really know what it is because also look at bannamway like there's just a lot of dudes who are like i'm not really good anymore like they're old or whatever like god love figgy smalls good win recently but figgy's old old you know um i think amin should hope for figgy because it's another old guy maybe he can kind of find a way to win against like if you get somebody like cori sannie he used to get thumped he's just going to cooked by Corey Sandhagan who's actually good.

That actually was the that was the callout to make. That would have been like, all right, cool. You might actually get that one. But I don't think the UFC is. I think Figy would have been a better call out because he could get it and win it. He might like if Mara Batista lose to Omar, they might go there for the fight that no one will ever think about ever. That's my that no pick. Whoever loses that fight is fighting him.

It's a hobby. That's the fight I will watch and forget about it immediately afterwards. Yeah. Like I, yeah, he has to fight one of those two dudes. It's either Corey or Figgy or maybe Batista if he lose to Umar. I doubt they book if Umar lose to Batista. I don't even, umar's just done. Maybe I don't know what they do at that point.

So, uh, I'll say figgy because that feels more akin to a correct, the trajectory he's been on. Yep, even wins again, seven in a row, splity gets it done. Uh, man and fioro. just destroys Jasmine Jasifizis and the And my dreams climb And gave me zero fantasy points So that was great all around But yeah

She hurt she hurt Jasmine Had Jasmine doing doing the doing a dance With that first shot she led in And I thought it was hilarious that Damon That not Damon Daniel Cormier was like Yeah man's not like really doing much She's very hesitant in there And then boom like literally punched her and hurt her bad

Credit to him, he did immediately recognize where he effed up. Yeah. And then said it. Because I also at the time thought it was strange anyway, because he said it so quickly and also Manal was winning the early exchanges, like just jabbing. But then he pretty quickly was like, oh, I just missed what was happening. I could not see the forest for the trees. So credit to him for that. That fight sucked.

I'm sad about it. yeah but i felt so good about the over two and a half as my climb bet i was like this is great it's terrific jasmine has gone over in like eight of ten ufc fights uh manon hasn't finished anybody since 2021 jasmine's never been finished easy cash dead in in seconds yep in seconds it was dead it happened so quick like as soon as she did the like stanky leg i was like oh it's over how did i don't even know what happened. How did it? And then I watched it. Like, well, she caught her. Man, that sucks. Great for him. That was nasty. Terrific from Annall. Yeah, she was pissed. Um, great performance.

She's in a weird spot, though, unfortunately. But again, you know, we talked about it depends who you are. If you're Daniel Cormier, he clearly did not realize she just lost the chef chank. Because he was like, I think it's pretty hard for whoever wins this fight to deny them and shot at the winner of Chivchang. Janko versus Zhang. I was like, we literally just saw this one woman fight Shepchenko. It would be very easy to deny her shot. Yeah, it was competitive for sure. So that helps.

But yeah, she ain't getting the next one. Like, Natty, this is a great night for Natty Ice, I think. I think it was a great night for Natty Ice. She's probably lying in wait for the winner of Jean versus Valentina, unless something weird happens and they want to run it right back. But then, like, we just did this. with Valentina and Grasso, where the division was basically on hold for almost two years. So it was, we'll see what happens.

But I think Natty Ice is in a really good spot right now to get a title shot. But great win for Menon. Charles Jordan. I straight up, I think Natalia Silva and Menon are going to fight. You think they're going to do that? I think it would be kind of crazy. Chonko has been taken along, like, Shevchenko or Zhang have both been fighting like once a year.

They're not super active. I think that Silva should get the next title fight. I think it is more likely than not that Sylvan Fioro fight in a true, honest to God title eliminator. And I mean, especially if, if Zhang wins, they're just going to run it right back. If Shivchenko wins a close one, maybe, but still, I think they're going to make them fight. That will not be my choice. we'll see. I mean, there's a lot of big fights coming up at 125.

There's a lot of good ones coming up. So I would like, I'll reveal it on on onto the next one. You can't give away all the. I'm not going to give away all of them. Charles Jordane, Banimate by Charles Jordane. Very, very, very fun. It's terrific. Yeah, we'll see.

It's next. I wasn't confident in Jordane. I picked him, but I was like, uh, and as soon, I just forgot the Davey grain is old. And like when there's a 10 year age gap, the younger guy wins like 93%. Like the stats are something incredible. And, uh, yeah,

it looked like Davey Grant's probably a little long in the tooth. And Charles Jordane at Bannonway is pretty decent. Uh, Kyle Nelson, Maffervall, we talked about, I'm sure we're going to get more questions about that. That was the beginning of the Dan Mergoa.

Oh, my God. Bevon. We've always the best point. Uh, we mentioned the Drew Dover fight. He ends up getting the finish in round three. Uh, Ritchie Lang. Hey, we got it briefly on Judeober.

Please. Shout out. Yeah. Shout out to Drew Dober. Did he cheat aggressively? Yes. Did he benefit directly from cheating? Sure did. That's terrific work. But most importantly, who are we talking about this recently? Was it who what freaking fight? Corey Sandhagan, but there was somebody else who was just like, hey, you're losing this fight. You need to try to win this fight by being a crazy person. Yerah Pahashka, aka Drew Dover went full year for Hashka. He clearly was going to lose that. a fight he had just gotten a point taken away from him and he was like well i guess i'm just gonna go ham and he did and it worked shout out drew dover yes back in the win column first winning quite some time uh so shout out to drew dover tough tough knife of kyle preppelick uh we mentioned a richie lang nasty right hand to cody gipson not a lot of people saw that one coming uh cody was kind of a popular pick this week uh especially with a long layoff for ritchie lang but man that was uh and the post fight

there was just spectacularly shout out to the ufc for not having a translator and just having a korean dude go up to translate for that was eddie cha right uh i think have eddie do it yeah i think i got to tell you i don't know much about bongolian i don't know if there's a lot of overlap with korean or of any i don't know but that was really a plus stuff yeah i i enjoy that i think it was uh eddie shah shout out to eddie good dude uh bruno sylph What a win for him. Third round submission, Cheung Sung Park, who was,

yeah, Jungstang Park was the guy in a lot of people's eyes that thought he was poised to upset Tatsuro Taira, and now he's been stopped in two straight fights. Bruno Silva only loses to really good dudes. So there you go. Jordan Santos, Danny Barlow was, that was a scrap, man.

That was a crazy-ass fight. But Santos gets the win via unanimous. I regret not betting Santos. Danny Barlow is just a dude who shouldn't be a minus 300 betting favorite against people because he doesn't believe in defense and yeah, that was fun. It was fun little scrap.

That was in the height of the Georgia game. I was not super focused on it. Stephanie Luciano gets a finish. My girl. Well done. Usheri Belgaroi. That fight with Osbat Bakayev was so ridiculous. What a ridiculous fight that was.

Do you believe that they didn't, sign Usory off contender series. Even at the time, I thought it was kind of ridiculous. Yeah. They didn't sign him. I was just like, okay. Again, he lost the one before. Then he comes.

He gets a freaking stoppage win. It was weird. He got like multiple points deducted because he just kept stabbing a dude in the eyes, which frankly, great work on his part. But then he gets the finish win. He's training partners with Alex Prairie as a glory kickboxer. He beat Alex in glory. I just felt like a guy they were obviously going to sign.

And Dana was just, Dana did one of those things. He was like, took a stand. He was like, we're not signing him. And then they sign his ass later. And he comes in and he does up Osamot,

who's like a pretty solid prospect. Yeah. That was a great performance. And then the night kicked off with Melissa Scarecrowdon, finishing Tynoa Lusboa. She's a physical specimen, man. She's, uh,

and we might have a new women's bandamite to rank. We're for sure, ranking are you kidding um her and be a mosquito will probably be in our ranking so look she is uh the next gen macy chase on as long as she can make weight it's dope i literally the first time i've ever seen her compete i liked it yeah very physical very aggressive uh she goes in there trying to hurt people and and put the hammer down in the end love that yeah it was good good performance yeah those those first few pre-lim fights were were really good we started up pretty strong strong, man.

Like, the prelims were all good. They were all solid. Yeah. Once we got to the bank card, and even like the Nelson for Volta fight was great, but just Dan Murgilada, like, ruined it. Yeah, just because it was, the whole thing was weird. Yeah. And then, you know, the last three fights just, yeah, it got super weird.

So, all right, let's go to the peeps. Take some questions before we get the hell out of here. Jackson is sending Jed coffee money because I feel bad criticizing his over two and a half rounds bet on the jazz fight on Twitter. P.S. Danmerogliata should never ref again. Shout out. I didn't take it bad, but it was just a ridiculous criticism,

so I was going to let you know. It's like, you shouldn't have been betting the over. I was like, Manaw hasn't finished anyone in four years. Jasmine's never been finished. And eight of her 10, you, I think it's eight of 11 UFC bouts have hit the over two and a half and one that missed, missed by three seconds.

So I don't, I don't feel incorrect about my process, despite it looking glaringly wrong. On the preview show, and you were like, this is going to be my climb. I thought you were climbing with Minan. And I was like,

wow, that's actually like a really good climb bet because you're getting like, it's almost like climb bets. I should have because I was so like, easily the most confident I wasn't any human in Manaw. But then I was like, it was what I told you on the pregame show.

Or I was like, yeah, every time I've ever been like, I don't understand this line. I've lost my ass. This was the one. time and I didn't believe in it. Like I looked at that far.

I was like, Manaw, how does Jasmine win? I did not understand it. And as it turned out, should have just believed in Manor. Spencer, my little guys below her,

just watching that Cheetos is a hobby super close. Watching, oh, Cheetos a hobby super close. I see Cheeto less gun shy. I mean, you must slowly watch like the first six bits of that fight. How did you score it? Who stood out to you all on the prelims?

You're probably better for scoring that one. You scored it for Raymond. But like I said, it could easily be, you could put that 29, 28, Gito. I was live blogging it. And literally, I was just like, the fights really close. Whoever takes this last minute probably takes the first round and Zahibi did stuff and Cheeto didn't. So I scored it for him. The first team prelim All-Star.

First team prelim All-Star. I mean, it's probably Richie Lang, right? I mean, that was sick. Yeah. The thump of that knocko was. let me also criticize Amos to Hobby one more time because I haven't done it enough

I know this is very silly it bothered the piss out of me in his post-fite interview when Daniel Corman was like how hurt are you and he was like not that bad I was fine really which is a lie it's an obvious lie

you know I know it's a lie because he didn't do anything for three full minutes after he got dropped and he tried to be like yeah you know and I'm sure he wasn't hurt as bad as out though because Aldo actually like TKed him. It just didn't get stoppage.

But he was like, yeah, it was fine. I just kind of lost my balance. Okay, if you lost your balance, why did you literally not throw a punch for three minutes? All you did was back up and Cheeto didn't hit you because he's Cheeto. But like, you were hurt and it's okay to just be like, yeah, man, he got me, but I battled through and I won because that is what happened. You don't have to be like, I was fine.

You won the decision. We don't need to posture at that point in time. Is Brendan Allen still the middleweighty middleweight champ? 144 in the UFC with nine finishes still 29 years of age. Also, I don't get the Malat hype. I would give him or not. I can explain the Malat hype to you pretty easily. I do not agree that Brendan Allen's a middleweighty, middleweight champ.

Although it did help his career out immensely. I will say that. I mean, look, that's the intercontinental title. It's the belt you put on somebody when you want to give them the bump. So we have to, that belt, AK and I have decided that it just, it can shift divisions as needed.

Right now, heavyweight is like the perfect division for this title. The heavyweighty heavyweight title. There are many viable. The heavyweight title feels like its own thing where you can either kill someone in five minutes or just lean on people. That feels like that's,

And I got to tell you, Auntie Delia feels a lot like the heavyweighty heavyweight champ to me. I don't know, man. There's, there's a lot of great options. I mean, there's so many great options. Yeah, there's, there's a lot of great. Shamil, uh, Shamil's heavyweight in a half. Man. Yeah.

A lot of good choices up at 265, baby. Uh, yes. As far as the Mike Malott hype, uh, RS4 doesn't get it. Oh, it's really easy. I use Canadian. Does it? That's like. He's fine.

He's a fine fighter. He's not a great fighter. He will have the number 15 next to his name. Maybe he'll get a little bit higher. He's probably not ever going to crack the top 10. He's not a bad fighter. He is a, you know, handsome dude. Says, you know, very Canadian, very gentlemanly on the mic.

He is the great. The thing is, Canada, ostensibly, is a good fight nation. It's actually historically not like a great fight nation, but the problem is they had a guy. And a guy's name was George St. Pierre. And he's probably the best fight who's ever lived. And so, as a result of having the best guy who's ever done something, there is this urge to have the next one of him to take over in his footsteps.

It was supposed to be Roy McDonald, and Roy could never quite get there. He was in the neighborhood, but he never could get to that spot to be the face of Canadian MMA. And so the fact of straight up, there just aren't a lot of Canadian dudes fighting right now. And Mike Malat was the hope for it. And he's fun. He's certainly exciting. He's usually not in boring fights.

Tonight was a bit of an exception. It was super weird. But he's not really good. This is, he is a prop to have somebody who is good that's Canadian that they can take to Canada once or twice a year. I am torn between two names right now. front to the next one i think both them are going to shock people uh because i think the ufc is is going to is going to give him a i think they're giving him a bump like a big one like a fight that will i i think they're going to give obviously i think he's getting buckley that's one of the names

so buckley's as high as you could go for him i wouldn't go any higher than buckley you can't there's just no way to go higher than buckley i would go right now and i might end up with buckley the other name i'm thinking of it. I don't know if this guy would take the fight, but I actually think would be really smart of him to take this fight. Colby. Durham Colby. I don't view Colby as a person who fights. So I never would have thought of it. I give him Danny Rodriguez. I think they're going to go higher. I, I don't disagree. I'd say if I were booking,

I'd book him Danny Rodriguez. Yeah. If he was like 29, do D-Rod, but he's like 33 and Buckley's probably the right call because Buckley can probably put him to the sword in general but it wouldn't be impossible from a lot to win that fight. Yeah, give him, give him a shot. We'll see what he, you know, if he goes out there and like beats Colby or beats Buckley, like he's, the UFC position him to be a win away from fighting for the belt,

which is great for their relationship in Canada. You don't give him Jeff Neal. That's who you don't give him. Nope. You don't do it. that. I mean, anybody other than Jeff Neil, I actually would have really no

issue with. Like, I don't want to see him fight Gilbert Burns, although I wouldn't hate that idea either. Because, I mean, he does still have a name, but it's going to be like, it's going to be a name. Or it's going to be like Buckley who's ranked high and maybe he beats him. So

Buckley is a pretty decent matchup. Because either way, either outcome's good. Buckley gets back in the wing column, probably impressively with how Mike Malat fights or Mike Malat gets over and then you finally hitched your wagon to a semi-viable Canadian star. Michael asked, could we officially rename him to Wario Malat?

I don't blame him on this fight. So no. It was not his best fight. I straight up, honest, I was blogging this fight. And I, honest to God, I think at the end of the first round, he like wasn't attacking Kevin Holland because he felt bad. because the whole thing was super weird. And so the end of that round was just like awkward where Kevin Holland was hurt.

And Mike Malat like kind of didn't want to punch him because it was weird. And I think that the whole fight just the whole fight just got thrown awkwardly. And the third round Mike Malat realized that he like it and just tackled him, which probably should have been doing much earlier. So I don't, I don't blame it. This fight is a Dan Mergley out of special. Tandan gets to carry all the blame on this one. Yeah.

Mike has his name. That would bum me out a little bit because on our staff, we have our little staff picks. By the way, all of us did fucking terrible. Like, it's one of the worst.

I can't imagine. I did very well. Yeah, one of the worst like, cute of scored. Oh, I got five right. Yeah.

But like I was doing so bad that like I, the only thing that would have kept me alive was Kevin Holland winning because I was the only one on the staff who picked Kevin to win. And after that first route, I was feeling real good about that pick. He had big trouble before, you know, the nutshots. But it is, what's his.

What do you do with Benon? Jasmine looks like a can. Man, this is really good. Yeah, Jasmine did look pretty. Like, that's a really tough loss. Yeah. Yeah, there will be no, no championship fights for, for Jasmine. I do believe that was the end.

36. I believe that was the end of her title aspirations. She could still fight in Canada. There's still interesting fights for her. Yeah. But yeah, it's okay. There's just again. Say it all the time, Mike.

Yeah. Nothing wrong with being one of the six best people in the world of your job. Exactly. Nothing wrong at all with that. 100%. 100%. All right. Thanks for all the super chats.

Let's see what else we got here. Jesus Christ. Let's see. I'm trying to find something here. How lucky was Georgia to cover the spread, Jed? I don't know what the spread is. Both lucky and not lucky. We didn't play defense for three quarters,

and we started playing defense in the fourth quarter, and then we won. And our offense is pretty good, and Old Miss does not have a defense that can play ball. So it was stressful, and we won the game, and I'm happy about it. We march on. lazy bed a year from now when this

great question when this event is a question on prop quiz what if any will be your lasting memory of UFC Vancouver I think it's a pretty easy question this is the event that got Dan Margliata to get my phone number and call me because I shed all over him

for a solid 30 minutes like Dan Merglaude is the is the takeaway maybe I'll forget about that and it'll just be the sadness of my big beautiful boy suffering his first UFC loss. But I knew, but he was always going to lose at some point. I knew it was going to happen. And that's fine.

What's not fine is Dan Margherada is really bad at his job and there's no accountability. And like he could maybe be better if he had to. He didn't even seem like he cared that it was all like this whole thing was a carnival side show. Like, They don't have to. Because they don't have to. And, you know, I don't believe that Dan Margulad is a bad person. I want to be really clear about that.

He is a nice guy. He seems like a perfectly nice guy. And I largely believe that he's doing the best that he can. He can't do well enough. And he shouldn't be doing this because people's careers and lives are being put to risk, being put in jeopardy. He is fucking him up. There is no defense of his work today in the Kevin Holland fight. There were about, I'm trying to think off.

top of my head one, two, there are at least like four egregious mistakes by him in one fight. That in any other walk of life business, imagine at your job, you fucked up on national television super visibly and in a majorly significant way. And nobody said anything. The only jobs where that happened is a UFC referee or if you're Mike Bobo, the offensive coordinator of the University of Georgia. Apparently, no a event's a hobby at the post-fight press conference,

Jed, so there you go. According to the great Alexander Kay Lee. I don't know why not. Maybe he was hot, maybe I had to go to the hospital. You know, he's pretty beat. Cheeto. Cheeto hit him six times. But those were six good shots.

He's the Cheeto experience in a nutshell. Cheeto dropped his ass with a jab and did not, fire a follow-up punch for like 60 seconds. He's like, okay, this guy is, is fully back against the wall terrified. And she just looked at him. Just said, looked at him. Like, all right, why don't you get better so we can do this again?

What the hell is going on, man? Forrest, Mike and Jed, what finish impressed you the most? I mean, Brendan Allen's finish was in general impressive. The answer, if I'm being honest, is Manal. Because Jasmine's a good fighter. Jasmine's never been finished. And Manal got her out of there 90 seconds. That's the most impressive win on the card by a mile, I think.

I'm with you on that one. And Joseph's from the other side. What do they think of Jasmine arguing the finish? I think Jasmine will not argue that finish when she watches the replay back. She's probably already seen it. I don't think her corner is arguing it. I give a lot of fight. I give fighters a lot of leeway for things they say in the cage,

because they're just in the middle of it and you get confused, you just got concussed. It's hard to know. So there's nothing about that finish that's worth arguing. And I think when she's out of the heat of battle and gets to watch it again, she'll realize that that's correct. Apparently the reason it saw Javi was at the Post-Fite Press conference because they just got his out of the way. Yeah, which is fine. Say, I thought I saw clips of, because there's a clip of him being like, I'm the most relatable fighter, which isn't entirely wrong. Like, yeah, you're just a great quote right there.

Yeah, it's like, you're kind of just a dude, but you try real hard and do you know, God loves a trier. We say this all the time. We love triers. Dude, if you could put Amon's a hobby's effort into Cheeto Vera, that motherfucker would win a belt. Like that dude Because Chino Vera is super supremely incredibly talented

And simply has a mental block about Like If I didn't If Chito didn't talk a lot And we didn't know his feelings on things Like I would As an outside observer I would look at Chito and be like

You know what That's just a guy who doesn't like to hurt people Like he fist fights because he's good at it And he can make money But he like actively He's super religious and he doesn't want to hurt people. That is not the case at all.

But Cheeto fights like he does not want to hurt people, but sometimes he does, and he's real good at when he does it. Blend those two dudes together, and that guy, like that guy would beat Marab. You put Amon's freaking work ethic in Cheeto, Maraub's cooked.

Because Cheeto doesn't get tired. Chesh. And he can't hurt him. You just can't hurt him. He never gets tired. He hits. really hard and he's sneaky sick at Jiu-Jitsu. It's a really

good fighter. He just doesn't fight. A couple more. How bad does the UFC want McKenzie Dern to win next week? So bad. So unbelievably bad. You can't imagine how bad they want. We have an interview. I spoke with McKenzie during the other day.

That's dropping Monday. It was actually I've interviewed McKenzie a million times over the years and she's a different person, man. But she just is a different person than the woman I debuted or that I interviewed way back in the day, like when she was like three fights into the UFC. Yeah, her perspective on her career and how she's gotten to where she's at. Like, it's, it's pretty

wild. So I actually enjoyed this interview. It's not like one of those interviews. It's going to, like, steal a bunch of headlines, but just a very thoughtful conversation with with her. It was great. So we'll have a lot of 321 content coming up. The John Anick chats are back. So I got to speak with Anick for the first time in a few months. It's been weird not talking to him before a pay-per-view for quite some time. So that's happening. Another fun combo interview.

You know, I'll drop the names because it's happening. You know, I'm not going to promise something and then have it not happen. Dustin Porrier and Bruce Buffer at the same time. probably not on anybody's bingo card but that's happening that's dropping on Tuesday very very fun and there's a couple of things that are going to come from that so stay tuned for that

let's find one last question before we get out of here uh do that the let's throw a comment up there hoping you watch whatever happened at fight circus soon crazy we couldn't see it live in 2025 there's clips all over the place so yeah

I'm sure we'll get the video in three months? Follow. Go follow Ben the Bain. Go follow Oscar. And go follow Randy Costa. Apparently Randy Costa was all over the place.

Apparently he was part of the ultimate dick kicking championship. Sure was. The area as well. So they have lots of clips and weird shit that happened. And yeah, pretty. It happened. I just. Fight circus is.

my most proud moment because it was me and like four people and everyone's come around on it and it i i just maintain that everyone comes to like the things i like everybody got on board with r d r everybody everybody is slowly getting on board with hitting michael chandler everybody likes fight circus everybody came around on drink is du plus see i'm a trendsetter i i make tastes in this space and i'm proud just proud of the boys at fight circus what they're doing I'm going to try to do Mike's underwater, guys. He's underwater.

Why does I fucking do that? It's the same song. You're out of it now, though, so that's good. Every time, it's that same time. You surfaced. Yeah, I'm back. I'm back. Jed and I, we're playing some, like, fun stuff to sprinkle throughout the week as well.

Some new stuff we're going to do for fight weeks and just some cool stuff for social media along the way. Things be changing, and they're going to be changing pretty soon, and I'm very excited. Things do be changing. But it is officially UFC 321 fight week. Jose's en route to Abu Dhabi,

like first thing in the morning, and he'll be there all damn week, and we'll be with them all week just from afar, and we'll be the one-stop shop, watch party, preview shows, all sorts of fun shit, an early day MMA for UFC 321. We only get it once a year for pay-per-view season,

and we're getting it. We're going to see Tommy Aspedal, I'll fight Cyril Gana like 4.30 in the afternoon, and it's spectacular. So for Jed, I am Ikech. Have a great night. We'll see you next time. Love you all.

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Unwrap holiday magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you. From festive and cozy fashion to Lux, beauty and fragrance sets. Our special selection has something for every style and price point. Visit our Holt's holiday shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.

com.