MMA Fighting - UFC Vegas 103 Post-Fight Show | Did Manel Kape Earn Title Shot With Lopsided Finish Of Asu Almabayev?

Episode Date: March 2, 2025

Manel Kape is performing up to the hype hardcore MMA fans had for him when he signed to the UFC, and has now finished his second consecutive ranked opponent. After stopping Asu Almabayev in the main event of UFC Vegas 103 on Saturday night at the APEX, Kape called for a title shot. Should he get it? Following the UFC's latest Fight Night event, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to the fight card, Kape's impressive performance against Almabayev, the controversy surrounding a pair of uncalled eye pokes, where Kape goes from here, and if he should get a championship bout next. Additionally, he reacts to the bonus winners, the crazy war between Cody Brundage and Julian Marquez, the ceilings for surging contenders such as Chepe Mariscal and Sam Patterson, the close split decisions on the main card, Andrea Lee losing her record-setting sixth straight fight, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @m_heckjr 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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Shop now at IKEA.ca.ca.com slash Black Friday. IKEA, bring home to life. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Yes. No victory horns tonight. It is the victory drums following UFC Vegas 103. And the beat goes on for one Manel Starboy cop who finishes Asu Almabai F snaps Almibayev's 17 fight winning streak, third round TKO. However, my.

in a little bit of controversy as you welcome you to the UFC Vegas 103 post fight show. I am Mike Keck and joining me to react to all this is me. That's it. This is your show. It's going to be just me this evening. There's a lot going on. We got the Tank Davis-Lamont Roach boxing match going on right now. We're a little stretched in right now.

So here I am rolling solo on this Saturday night following another big fight night event at the world's most famous apex and it was capped off by Minel Kopp just kind of running over Asu Amabayev and it was one of those fights that when you watch it, when you saw the first couple minutes play out, you sort of knew where this was all going. It was all going in the direction of Minel Kopp. Asu Amabaiif just had nothing for Minel, the speed, the movement, the feints, everything Manel was doing, which had just completely thrown Asuamabayev off. Amabayev couldn't get any takedowns. He couldn't get anything going.

And it was one-way traffic for him in Al-Cop. Now, there is, like I said at the beginning of this, there is a little bit of controversy here because in round two, there was a moment where Amabayev says he gets poked in the eye. Mike Beltran, the referee, stops the action and goes to the review official sitting cage side. Review official looks at it and says, nope, it was a legal shot. Continue on fighting.

and the round continued on for the next several seconds, round comes to an end. Then, at the end of the round, we go to a replay, and it was an eye poke. It was more of a, it wasn't like a direct, like, poke, but it was more of a scrape, open-handed scrape to the eye, which in most cases should have been, the fight should have been halted.

Should have, Al-Bive should have gotten his five minutes to recover, much like Henry Sehudo did at UFC Seattle the week prior. But it went on and we head to round three And round three Things are starting to heat up a little bit I'll buy if I thought actually had a bit better of a round two Definitely there was a couple of combinations That cop landed that certainly won him the round

The jumping knee, the big right hand Momentum was starting to head towards cop's direction More so heading into round three Then on the bottom left hand corner of the screen We see another eye scrape from it all cop I'll buy if just kind of squinted I referee Mike Beltran doesn't do anything about it. And that eventually led to Mel Cop, just icing out El-Su Amavayev.

And Cop gets the win. So look, I see it in the comments already. I saw some people on Twitter talking about it. Henry Suhudo even commented on it saying that eyepokes are the biggest threat to the growth of the sport. I think it's a little bit short-sighted. He admits that he's biased in the situation. but all in all, it's kind of crazy that this continues to be an issue in these fights. However, I will say this.

I don't think it made a damn a difference. I don't think much was going to change. Maybe Amma Vib doesn't get stopped in round three, but he wasn't going to win that fight. Alma Vib just had nothing for him. But the eyepokes were a little rough in the fact that they were not called. They were not, there wasn't even a chance for Alba Bive to take the fight. minutes, especially after the first one, when they had two people look at it. Beltran stops it.

They have a replay official who reviewed it and was like, nah, it's not an eye poke. And then they show it on the replay and clear his day, it was a friggin scrape to the eye. So this stuff just continues to be a problem. It continues to be an issue in this sport. And in some people's respects, it takes away from what Menel Cop did tonight. Again, I don't think the result of this fight. was in question at all. Asu Amabayev was not going to win this fight.

There was nothing he was going to do to win this fight. I'm not trying to be disrespectful. We all watched the same fight. But perhaps Amabayev could have made it to the final cards. Who the hell knows? But just a weird game plan from Amalabayev. Cop looked fantastic. Take the eye pokes aside.

He looks tremendous in the fight. And he calls for a title shot. And the reason I was going to start this a little bit earlier, but the reason I waited was because they had Pantoja, Alexander Pantosia, the Flyway Champion on the post-fight show, with Cops sitting there, and Pantosia jumps on and drops a 10-minute promo, a love fest, if you will, about how great Menele Copp is, and then Cop kind of answered in the same tone,

and nothing really happened there. So now the big question is, what does the UFC do? Because I know there's reports, there's rumor and innuendo that Pantosia is going to fight Kai Kair of France in June. the UFC has yet to announce that fight. We have yet to fully confirm that fight. So the question is, does the UFC roll forward with that fight? Or do they call an audible if the pen has not gone to paper yet, if the ink has not dried?

What's the more interesting championship fight? Is it Menel Kopp coming off of two finishes fighting Pantosia? Or is it Kikar, France, who lost a few fights, came back, got a finish of Vinnie Stevie Ursaig. Who's the more deserving title challenger, I guess, is the question. It's kind of tough to answer if we're being honest. I would say, I would lean a little more towards cop here. And I know some people may not agree because of the I pokes,

but again, a win is a win. And I don't think in the overall story here that Menelkoop is going to lose that fight. So that's a question that we can ponder. We are still waiting on bonuses. I believe. And I will let you know what those bonuses are. Once they come up, let me see if the UFC has announced that bonuses yet.

They have not. Let me just take a little gander flying on the seat of my pants here. But that's the way we like to do it here. Let's see. Nope, no bonuses yet. But I will let you know what those bonuses are. And yeah, Manilkoff gets the big win. Co-main event or the penultimate fight, as we will call.

it a wild brawl between cody brundage and julian marquez it was mouthpiece gate both guys are landing big shots both guys are hurt both guys lose their mouthpieces referee mark smith picks up the mouthpieces he's trying to figure out the right time to stop the action and give them both back their mouthpieces and i think the way that fight was going there's real there's no real good time to stop the action to give the mouthpieces back and the mouthpieces get put back in action resumes and cody brundage eventually finishes julian marquez in just a crazy four minutes of 45 seconds what a friggin round that was so big win for cody brundage needed that one badly we'll see where julian marquez goes from here julian marquez is one of those guys jett and i talk about this all the time

there is value to fighters like julian marquez who one will never give you a boring fight he may not win a lot of them but he's never in a boring one if he gets you he gets you in highlight real fashion and if he gets got he gets got in highlight real fashion there's value to fighters like that on the roster especially in a division like 185 where it just continues to get better and better but overall like on paper this fight card was poop it was poop and ufc Vegas 104 is way worse. But we understood that, look, if you have better things to do, go do them. But if you sat down and watched this card, you had a pretty good time.

You got some good fights. Nazarend Hackpressed, Esteban Rivich, great fight. Hackperast wins his fifth straight fight. It was a split decision, super close. I thought Reivovich won. But I'm not here to say robbery or argue with anything. It was just a super close fight. And it came down to one judge scoring at the other.

way. We had another split decision in the fight before that. Just a crazy fight between Hyder Emile and William Go Me, which if you looked at that fight on paper, you thought to yourself, boy, this is going to go one of two ways. Either Hyder Amil is going to catch him and knock him out or William Go Me is going to William Go Me all over the UFC Apex and just hold Hyder Amel up against the fence, get takedowns, lay on top of him, do what he typically does to win fights. and through the first maybe two and a half minutes of that fight, that's what we were looking at. I actually had my little brother on the phone

where we were talking because he had a bet on Hyder Emile and we're talking through it and I'm like, boy, William GoMe is doing William Go Me things right now. But then something magical happened and Hyder Emile lands a big exchange. He gets in Go Me's face and Go Me is throwing spinning stuff over and over and over again. And that fight ended up being a hundred times more fun

than anybody thought it would be, and it was a terrific battle. But in the end, Hyder Amiel wins a split decision. And I think they got that one correct. I thought Amil won rounds two and three. First round, I thought go me won. Great fight. Super great fight. Upset there.

We had an upset in the main card opener. Sam Patterson knocks out Danny Barlow in the first round. Not a lot of people saw that coming. He gets it done. Huge win for Sam Patterson. Three in a row for him. Three straight first round finishes for him. Hell of a performance.

Mario Pinto, what a UFC debut for him. He just holds Austin Lane in round two. Kind of a scary start if you're a Mario Pinto better. Looked a little trepidacious early on, but then once round two hit, he was back to being what Mario Pinto always has been and just obliterates Austin Lane. I'm sure that's going to get a bonus once you figure that out.

Cheppe Mariscall, Ricardo Hamos, really fun fight. Mariscall is real good, undefeated in the UFC, just continues to put wins together. Hell of a fight there. Danny Silva, Lucas Almeida was a hell of a fight. Silva wins a splitie in that one. J.J. Aldrich, Andrew Lee, it was a fight. It was a fight that happened. And J.J. Aldris gets her 10th win.

She gets her BJJ black belt, and Andrea Lee loses her record sixth consecutive fight. and I would say that would probably be it. From what I understand, win-loser draw, that was the final fight on Andrea Lee's UFC contract. So I think probably the UFC just kind of let her, what's the harm of throwing her in the apex to do one more? And you threw her up against somebody who's a wily vet,

much like her, who's fought a bunch of times, someone she hasn't fought yet in the UFC. Let's just do that. And J.G. Alders gets the victory. and the night kicked off with Ramadan Temeroff and Charles Johnson having a super fun fight, and Temeroff wins 29-28s across the board. Charles Johnson was a little bit pissed off. I saw some fighters kind of pissed off about that decision, but I actually thought Temerov won.

I thought he won the first two rounds, and Johnson won round three. But again, super competitive fight. All in all, this is a pretty damn good card. It was a pretty damn good card. So it was there were worse things we could have done on a Saturday night. So. 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. Hi, I'm Sophia Loper Carroll, host of the Before the Chorus podcast. We dive into the life experiences behind the music we love. Artists of all genres are welcome.

and I've been joined by some pretty amazing folks, like glass animals. I guess that was the idea was to try something personal and see what happened. And Japanese breakfast. I thought that the most surprising thing I could offer was an album about joy. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, and remember, so much happens before the chorus. Let's see if we got bonuses yet. And I'll let you know what they are.

I don't see them. Come on, UFC. see you get your shit together no bonuses yet all right no bonuses yet uh once we get them i'll let let's you know all right but now we can have some fun for the next 20 or so minutes uh let's talk to you guys let's see what you guys have to have to say uh johnny why two cheat bucks for mike's coffee fund uh appreciate you johnny why tom listen i have been drinking smoking i'll say cigars and having a hell of a time with this card. It was okay. Seven out of ten, hit a plus 2,600.

Love your vibes, Jed. Love the fellas. Jed's out here, but I will make sure to tell him your kind words and what you had to say. A lot of people saying there's cheating going on in the main event and let's see, two fights in a row. The cop

has followed the other guy and gotten the finish because they didn't stop the action. That's fair. All time bad bumbling, buffoon stoppage by referee Mike Beltran, horrendous officiating in the lead up to it as well. Shame. Not a lot of people happy with the decision.

Cap acted like it was a legit stoppage and everyone can see as a lame cheater, but Eric Nixon is happy the ref didn't take a point this time. I mean, I don't know about that. I'm sure he's happy for his guy. Spencer, Mike, I'm damn excited for Alex Ancolaia. My most anticipated booked fight right now really legitimizes the light heavy run for Alex.

Do you share my excitement for this? yeah, this is the fight that should have been made a long-ass time ago. I think it's the most... It's not the biggest fight Alex Pereira can have right now, but I certainly think it's the most interesting fight Alex Pereira can have right now because of any guy he can fight in this division currently, this is the one guy who can beat him. And I'm here to tell you, I am picking Alex Pereira.

We have the watch party next week. I already have a bet on Alex Pereer to win this fight. I think he's a damn good chance of winning. I thought he's had a damn good chance of winning for a long-ass time. For well over a year now, I was like, if they booked this fight, I'm picking Alex Pereira, and we'll see how it plays out. And let's see if Ankalaps a man of his word. Is he going to go in there and strike with Alex Barrera like he's promised?

Not so sure if he does, it's going to be a tough-ass night for him. Let's see if he gets takedowns and he, even if he does let's see how much improved Alex Prayer has gotten on the ground excuse me Joseph should Nazareth hackperass get a ranked opponent next time we see him no he shouldn't good win reevich is like rivitch is fun he's got a bright future

I actually thought he won um Rievich is like at best the 25th ranked lightweight race now so i don't know beating the 25th ranked lightweight gets you a ranked guy i know he's on a nice run but maybe i mean i think maybe the best he could hope for is that he gets the jalen turner bahamandes winner but he may end up getting a loser of that fight i don't know the problem of nazrat is he's like he's a good fighter and but there's like nothing there that the ufc's just like yeah we got to

guy to the moon. He's like he's not Patty. He's not a guy that has like superstar potential. He's just a solid hand who is winning fights. And this is a division full of stars. And it's tough division to move up. So it'll be interesting to see where they go from here.

Let's see. I mean, we're going to match week for him. On onto the next one. I mean, maybe you throw him in there with maybe he gets the Joel Alvarez fight. Maybe you do that. but I kind of think he's in the Drew Dober Matush Rebekicke, Joel Alvarez

Drew Dober Carlos Diego Faheda position right now Like he's Maybe he gets like a Grant Dawson I don't know But I'll say he won't

I'll say if I had a guess He will not be fighting a rank guy next Tanvir I thought Reavich won But hats off to Nazra for fighting like while fasting for Ramadan. Dude, he fought his ass off. It was a good fight.

I mean, this is a terrific fight. Terrific fight. Terrific performance. Even if he lost, like, it's not the end of the world. And, yeah, still trying to get you some guys some bonuses here. Oh, we got them. Shit, they've been out for that long.

How have I not seen this? Fight of the night. Hackperass versus Rebovich. Performance of the night. Pinto, obviously. and Manel Cop gets a performance of the night bonus. Interesting. Interesting.

Hmm. All right, let's get some more of these questions. I want to see Jed's face after his own life will do Makaya thing, but slightly better. The Slack channel was lit up by Jen. It was some bad. It was some bad stuff. Bye, Eric. We will not miss you.

Annick is doing Anick is better at doing the refs job than Beltran. I mean, Anick knows the rules. Anick knows the rules. So does cop jump into title contention to do your rebook Brandon Royval? Nah, he's ahead of Brandon now. Mike called the co-main.

I called a lot of things on this card. I mean, the co-main, we knew what it was. It was, let's get to the main event as fast as possible. Because these are two, the two guys like in the top they're like between 50 and 60 ranking wise but they're both guys who get or get got on a pretty consistent basis so yeah let's go with that and I thought the hider meal fight I mean it was way different but I was like that fight is going to be a split

decision there's no doubt in my mind we're going to splity city there and that is what happened. So it was a good one. Should Andrew Lee get her walking papers now that she's lost six in a row. Like I said earlier, it's the last fight under her deal. So I would say she will not be, she will not be fighting the UFC again. I enjoy Mike Jed, et cetera, but they do favor cop. He doesn't deserve a title shot. I mean, let's just throw this out there. We both picked Alma Bive to win the fight. So, but man, like, cops finished two guys in a row. And like, you could say the eye pokes and all that shit, what have you. It's, it is what it is.

But it wasn't called. And it's, it's not his fault. Minal Cop is not supposed to stop fighting because he thinks he might have eye poked somebody. It is his job to continue to fight. Referey Mike Beltran allowed the fight to continue. And Minel Cop killed him. Like, that's what happened. So again, the question is, who would you rather see fight for the belt?

Would you rather see Kai Kar-Franz fight for the bell? Let me just pull him up real quick and just see what he has done lately. So Kai-Car-France is one in three, or one-and-two in his last three fights. He got finished by Brandon Moreno. He lost to Amir Al-Bazi, and he knocked out Vinnie Sigs. So one and two in his last three. he's just kind of the available guy who's coming who is coming off of a win or do you go with men all cup who has finished his last two opponents and he's what five he's won five of his last six

or six of his last seven i don't know i don't think he can go wrong either way and i'll and i'll be honest with you uh pantosia's gonna win both of those fights and he's just pentosius is on another level right now so that's just kind of how i have have the read on this what else we got mike to be honest i'd like see cop face brand of morano maryno i'm picking marina to beat ursake in mexico city by the way i really think marano's just better than cop maybe heard mike was alone so i had to come check up on him i'm all right my kid is chiving in i don't even know how you know this stuff gray what do you think about the fling cop for so it was a fight that happened in middle of cop one so there you go shout out to my kid

left laid did you agree with the go me versus emil and espon versus nazrat decisions i agreed with amel i did not agree with nazrat but it was super close and i'm not arguing it either way both guys got bonuses for fight of the night which is awesome and it deserved it was just high level shit man but the cool thing about this card is there were a few fights on here that you could make a compelling case it got fight of the night and that one got it down so that's what's up Peter, thank you. Appreciate that. I hope we do too.

I hope we do too. I think Kopp would be a fresh opponent for pants. Is that true? Didn't they fight before? Yeah, they did fight before. I know I'm not crazy. Pants beat him in his UFC debut. That was a while ago, so.

It's so fun. that you say this uh can't wait for the vittori delides a two watch party we've been pondering like doing doing watch parties for like the worst of the worst cards just to do something cool and fun so i don't know maybe we'll do that i i friggin know any update on fazeve's weight i'm not too concerned about that dude is a pro uh shout out to you damien many things I'm seeing nomination chamber spoilers I turned it off what else we got what else we got uh peter L tbc Mike heck and Jit on the same show together let's do it man I'm down I love we love the MK guys they're my faith they're like we're big fans of the morning combat guys we

try to get them on BTL as much as possible we vibe and we we we think about the sport in the same people think we're haters even though we're not. They think we hate the UFC when we don't. They think we only shit on the UFC, but we don't shit on anybody else, which is absolutely not true. We're just misunderstood people. We just want the sport to be great.

We want the best for it. That's all. Gajy said that Gamrod's name was never discussed as a replacement, but Gamrod said his manager told him he was definitely considered. Thoughts. Look, maybe Gamrod got a call. Maybe his team got a call, who knows?

And maybe Justin Gajee was never told that Gamrod was an option. I mean, it's very possible that both things can be true. This is the UFC, after all. So it's very possible that both things can be true. Having said that, there is zero chance

Matush Gamrod was getting this fight. Zero. I mean, I'll say 1%. The only chance Matush Gamrott was getting that fight is if literally nobody else would have taken it. And I'm not saying this to be a mean person. I'm putting myself in the UFC shoes right here. Out of all the options that could have happened,

Matush Gamrot was the very last one. They want a fun striking fight. And while Matush Gamrock versus Dan Hooker was a fun striking fight, something tells me, Gaichi versus Viziv 2, although not a fresh batchup, is going to be a more thrilling affair than Gaichi versus Matush Gamron.

And I think the UFC probably looked at that the same way as well. Kind of surprised like maybe Jalen Turner didn't get the opportunity because he's on the card. So maybe he was a name that could have been mentioned. I don't know. Tashire was ranked after his first UFC fight. I could see Pinto getting ranked Tuesday. Heavyweight division is terrible. It's real bad.

It's real bad. And Mario Pinto is a breath of fresh air. He's 26. A 26 year old heavyweight. who can just nuke you. That's a, it's exciting. It's exciting. I want to see this dude fight as much as possible.

As much as possible. Just get him, just trot his ass out there and just let him compile a bunch of highlight real knockouts. Let him do that for the next year and a half. Get him like five or six fights. I don't care if it's in the apex or not. Just get him in there to light dudes up. Build him up.

Heavyweight needs a stock. I don't know if he's a star, but they need something to, they need something to get this division moving. We need something to be excited about. Didn't cop misweight a few times. Yes, seems to have gotten that under control, though. Mike, what do you think is Chepe's ceiling? I think we could, uh, he could be worth a top 10 ranking.

Yeah, I don't know. He's good, man. Like, he is good. Let's look at what he's done in the UFC. Trevor Peake, I was at that fight, took it on like a few days notice. Jack Jenkins fight was crazy. Morgan Chariere fight was super close. A lot of people thought Morgan won that fight.

Damon Jackson, thumped him up. Did miss weight, though. And then he beat Ricardo Hamos, which is a good win. The problem with Chepa is the problem with him, and it's the problem that like some other fighters have as well, and it's kind of an issue that Nazareth Hacquist has right now. Good fighter, just not all that interesting when the mic is on. And I know, like, Jose gives me shit and others giving me shit about this,

but I always talk about the importance of making your time counts when you have a microphone. The post-fight interview matters. Not all the time, but when you're a guy like Chepa and you're trying to move yourself up the rankings and John Anick is saying, hey, you've won all your UFC fights, you've won four in a row in this division. I assume you want to fight a ranked guy. What do you want? And your answer is, whoever the UFC wants me to fight. That's not going to get you a big fight.

I'm sorry. It's just not. So, like, if he's out there getting finishes every time out, that's a different story. Like, Steve Garcia, got a fight with that some Barbosa. That fight was going to happen. signed sealed and delivered barboza got hurt but steve's just out there wrecking dudes and at that point like you don't have to be all that interesting because you're out there just melting everybody chepe is just a fun ass fighter i would have liked to have seen a name come out of his mouth

so for me he's probably who's he in a fight him and nate land where it'd be a lot of fun like that's kind of what he's looking at right now maybe it's a bruce leroy kind of a fight Billy Q? Like, who's going to complain about that? But, I don't know. Could he get to top 10? Not ruling it out, but it's going to take... It's going to take time.

Cop versus KKF, both don't deserve it. Pants deserves to fight Marab while they fight for number one contender. I think Pants versus Marab is something we could see sooner rather than later. I have no insight to this, but... Seems like Marab side... Like, I've heard Ray Longo talk about it, that he would love to see Pantosha fight Marab. And Pants has fought everybody already.

So, I mean, if he's willing to drop that belt and go up to 135 and fight Barab, I ain't, I ain't hating. I would watch that fight. That's interesting. A lot of ceiling questions. Where do you think Sam Patterson goes from here? Where do you think his ceiling is? Don't too soon to tell.

That was a good win, man. That was a really good win. Any news on Montel Jackson getting a fight yet? Our one to watch this year is still silent. I believe he is booked. I believe he just got booked. Daniel Marcos. He's fighting Daniel Marcos.

UFC Des Moines, May 3rd. What's Giga doing? I don't know. Good question. Duhot-Choi versus Chepe. Don't hate that. I want to see Duhu-Choi fight Bryce Mitchell. But Bryce is fighting Gian Silva.

Ilya's moving to lightweight because I think there's nothing left for him at Featherway. mind, do you think if he beats Islam, he would want to go straight to welterweight? I mean, Jesus Christ, man. That'd be pretty wild. I hope not. Thank you, Peter. Appreciate that. Seen and just turned heel.

Breaking news. Kidding. Thanks for the content. I got to, like, the beginning of, like, the walkouts for Elimination Chamber. So I wonder if Sam Patterson would be a favor coming in his next night after that performance. I don't know. Maybe. Depends that they threw them up.

Throw them up there against. But, yeah. All right. I think we've done, we've done the thing here for as much as we could do with this, with this card. All in all, I think it exceeded expectations. I thought John Annik and Dominic Cruz did a pretty damn good job. And, yeah. And shout out to Casey, man, whose fantasy team just continues to thrive.

Holy shit. I'll take a few more. Where the hell? JDM beats Balaal, who most likely to get Jadem first defense, Islam, or Shalman? Shafcott, Islam. If Jadem beats Blal is Islam Makachaf without question, he's vacating the lightweight belt and he will go up and fight the

wealth away champion. Which could be very interesting. And Shafkot's going to get kind of the hose, but it's how this sport works. Who does Dustin fight this summer? Don't know. If I had to guess, and this is a guess, I don't want any bullshit on social media.

Mike Heck says this. This is me guessing. Max Holloway. What happened to Derek Lewis? Great question. Do not know. Actually, like the two-man Apex crew. I completely agree.

Oh, I'm glad somebody mentioned this. Great tribute to Dom. Was a great tribute to Dom. I thought for sure that he was getting a Hall of Fame nom, which would have been terrific. But I don't know. That whole thing just for a package video? I mean, it's cool, but I thought we were getting.

the Hall of Fame. Anakin Cruz is a really good combo. It was perfect. It was perfect. I said on the People's Pre-Fight show that this will be the best Dominic Cruz you've heard on a broadcast today. And I think he was. I think this was his best work. He doesn't have to fight for microphone time.

John Anick knows him perfectly. They're like really good friends. And Cruz doesn't have to battle and bicker with Daniel Cormier and Michael Cormier and Michael Bissbing. Cruz is at his best when it's not with D.C. or Bisbing. If he's with Felder, he's really good. And he's with someone who knows his strengths. I think the Anna Cruz combo is a terrific one.

And I would like to see more of that combo. Hall of Fame for Dom should be with the crowd. I agree. All right. A couple more. Mike, what's the chance to see Hook v. Gachy before they hang up the gloves? I guess he needs to be physique first, but I do wonder if we'll ever see that fight. I think we'll see it.

Does Cruz belong in the Hall of Fame? Haps a friggin Luli he does. True, Dave, true. Will they strip John before 2025 is over? No. No. They will not strip John Jones. They might, what they'll do is they will handle it like the Uri Perashka vacation of the title.

They will strip John, but they will allow it to be presented in a way where John vacates. But that's just kind of how I see it. So, all right. We're getting out of here. AK and I doing some matchmaking tomorrow. Sometime in the morning. We'll record it. It'll be up on the podcast network.

So get excited for that. And then, ladies and gentlemen, once that is done, it's officially UFC 313 fight week. It's officially Poiton v. Ancolaia fight week. It's officially the return of Justin Gaci fight week. And honestly, it is, It's a pretty decent main card. I think it's going to be fun.

I think it's going to be fun. Prelims are kind of poopy, but all in all, I think we're going to have a good time. And then the countdown to UFC 314 is on, which just continues to get better and better and deeper and deeper and more stacked and more stacked. And, yeah, we got a lot of March is going to be a pretty fun month for the most part. We got this card out of the way. We got to kind of forget about what's happening two weeks from now with Vegas 104, because that is an awful fight card on paper. that main event is going to be a tough hang. But we get London.

We get Mexico City. And then we're road showing it for the most part the rest of the way. We do have the Loro Murphy, Josh Emmett card as well. But yeah, some fun times ahead, everybody. So thank you very much. Hope you enjoyed it. Hopefully back to normal next week. For me, I'm me.

Good night. And we'll see you on to the next one tomorrow. To the Vox Media Podcast Network. magic at Holt Renfrew with gifts that say I know you. From festive and cozy fashion to Lux Beauty and Fragrantz. Our special selection has something for every style and price point. Visit our Holt's holiday shop and store or online at Holtrenfrew.com. With Instacard, you get groceries that over-deliver so you can over-share your preferences.

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