MMA Fighting - UFC Vegas 112 Preview Show | Can Manel Kape Jump Line To Title Shot With Main Event Win?

Episode Date: December 12, 2025

The UFC's flyweight division has become even more interesting over the past week following Joshua Van's championship win over Alexandre Pantoja at UFC 323. One week after the surprising title change, Brandon Royval faces Manel Kape in the main event of UFC Vegas 112. With Van already holding a victory over Royval this year, could Kape leapfrog his way towards a title shot if he gets the win on Saturday? Ahead of the UFC's final card of the year, and of the ESPN era, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Alexander K. Lee preview the event, the headliner between Royval and Kape, and the stakes attached to it. Additionally, they discuss the co-main event between Giga Chikadze and Kevin Vallejos, Gillian Robertson looking to earn a title shot at 115 when she meets Amanda Lemos, the octagon debut of Yaroslav Amosov as he faces Neil Magny, and much more. Follow Mike Heck: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@m_heckjr⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Alexander K. Lee: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@AlexanderKLee⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Subscribe:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/dYpsgH⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Check out our full video catalog: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/u8VvLi⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Visit our playlists:⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ http://goo.gl/eFhsvM⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Like MMAF on Facebook: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow on Twitter: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://goo.gl/nOATUI⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Read More: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for the show comes from Snapdragon. Take charge of your day with a PC that can keep up with you. With PCs powered by Snapdragon X Elite processors, you get up to 22 hours of battery life so you can be productive on your terms, whether that's during coffee shop marathons, airport layovers, or wherever life takes you. It's the performance you deserve for your busy life. Break free from power outlets with a PC powered by Snapdragon X Elite. Learn more at snapdagon.com slash laptops.

Battery life varies significantly based on device, settings, usage, and other factors. The holidays are the perfect time for bad actors to try and pry your information away. Bit Defender is looking to stop them. Bit Defender was voted one of America's best cybersecurity companies by Newsweek and a PC mag pick for its best tech products of 2025 list. trusted by experts and businesses small and large. Bit Defender keeps your data, your devices, and your families safe from online threats. Whether you're concerned about privacy, protecting your identity, scams, or other threats to your digital life,

Bit Defender has got you covered. Visit bitdefender.com slash trusted to see why experts and renowned brands trust Bit Defender to stay protected. All right, ladies and gentlemen, for the final time in 2020, for the final time in 2025, for the final time for the UFC as part of the EFC as part of the EF, ESPN family. We welcome you to a UFC preview show. Last one of 2025. We're back at the world's most famous Apex.

No better way to end the year than being at the world's most famous warehouse to watch fistfighting. Yes, UFC Vegas 112 going down tomorrow. Kind of wish we had that paramount time slot. Can't lie to you at 10 p.m. main card. We haven't had one of those for a fight night in quite some time. so I guess you can't complain too much, but a very good main event, Brandon Roy Val versus Minnell Kopp, who, boy, did he cut it close on the scales today? Last second, literally, buzzer-beater, makes weight at 126.

And we are a go for this pivotal UFC flyweight main event. I am Mike Kekin, joining me to preview this final event of 2025, live from the world's most famous apex, the event, not my best friend here. Live from Canada, that is, Alexander K. Lee, A.K., how we doing? How are we feeling? A little nostalgic, my best friend. A little nostalgic. This is the last card of the year. This is the last card in ESPN. This is the end of the ESPN era. And yes, they are going out swinging, like one more 10 p.m. Non-paper-view main card, which just seems absurd. For many reasons, which we'll get into as the card goes on, once we break this one down. I'd be amazed if people in the chat, without looking, if you could name.

seven out of the 13 fights on this card. I would be shocked. I would honestly be surprised. I don't think I, well, no, I could call it because I've been looking at the card all day and all week, like taking notes and stuff, so that's not really fair. I probably could, but your average person

who might be tuning into this card is essentially going in fairly blind. Even if you can name some of these people, I don't know if you're familiar with them. We've got people who are, like, making their first or second U.S.C. appearance. We've got, you know, some contenders here. I think at least one contender series debut,

but two, I think two contender series debuts. So, yeah, this is it. This is kind of indicative of how the ESPN era has been, at least the last few years. So what better way to put it? I think, Mike, we've been generous with describing this card. We said it was, like, dessert to U.S. 323. I think that's how we want to phrase it. Desert seems a little inaccurate, I guess.

It's not a sticky sweet treat. It's some sort of post, some sort of post-dinner meal for sure. Maybe it's a dessert people don't like. Mike, what's a dessert that you're not a big fan of? No, I don't think it's a dessert that people don't like. I think it's just like you'll eat it, but it wouldn't be your first choice. Like, shout out to my New Englanders. You'll know what I'm talking about, especially the Massachusetts folk.

This UFC Vegas 112 is a hoodsy. It's a hoodsy, which... I'm putting this up right now. Look it up. It is... Do I need my safe search on, Mike? Yeah, no, it's fine. It's fine.

It's a hoodie, which is one of those, like... Like, if you went to a birthday party in Massachusetts as a little kid, you had cake and then you were given a hoodsy with probably a little wooden spoon. It's those little ice creams. It's half vanilla, half chocolate. It's probably not even real ice cream. You just pop the top off. You're like, all right, I know what I'm getting, but I'll still eat it. That's what this is.

This is the hoodie of UFC Apex events, which is fine, which is totally fun because the main event is great. There are some interesting storylines heading into this event. And I really like the co-main event. It's terrific matchmaking. We have some weird card placement, to be honest. Yeah. Like, we have Yaroslav Amasoff fighting Neil Magni on the prelims. We have Jillian Robertson who might be, who quite possibly could be fighting for a title shot buried on the prelims.

It's just kind of a weird setup overall. But that is just kind of a wacky way to say goodbye to the ESPN era, okay? So, AK, so A.K. Fun fact. do you remember maybe a little trivia here do you remember the first main event for the ufc on espn era uh should we tease by the way mike that you and i were involved in the should we don't even say we were involved in the show recently which will air within the next week which i've required this kind of trivia knowledge and uh i was horrible at i am horrible at naming

at tying fighters and fights uh to events you're saying the first one of the espn era What was the first made event of the UFC on ESPN? Boy, I'm definitely going to need hints where, oh, wait, okay. Well, this was, wait, this was supposed to be a big deal, though. So this was a meaningful fight was, uh, not, not Sehudo and Dilleshaw. That was what, ABC. That was the first one. Honey, but was that ABC or that was the first of ESPN there?

That was ESPN plus. UFC on ESPN plus one, which took place January 19th, 2019. Henry Sehudo versus T.J. Dilleshaw. Damn. Where was this one I needed it, Mike? ESPN Plus. Where was this when I needed it? Yes.

Do you want to know what the first fight ever to air on ESPN Plus was? I cannot even begin to guess. Yeah, I mean, no one would get this right. Kyle Stewart versus Chance Reencounter was the first fight of UFC on ESPN Plus 1. The second fight on the early, early prelons, former UFC welterweight champion Bilal Muhammad

versus Jeff Neal Dennis Bermudas versus Taye Edwards was the featured early prelim the please no Dennis Boutes

versus who Tay Edwards T-A apostrophe E just T E just T E oh this is a long time ago

yes and then we go to the middle prelims Alonzo Meneffield versus Venetius Marrera Joanne, don't call me Calderwood Wood versus Ariani Lipski, the featured prelim, one of the most memorable prelim fights of this era, was the humbling of sorts of won Alexander the Great Hernandez, as he was knocked out by Donald Cowboy Serroney. I am disappointed. I did not remember Kyle Stern, Chancement Counter, actually, because I believe when it happened, I'm sure I issued a tweet something like, this will be a trivia question in the future, the very first fight of the ESPN era, was cost it but i mean i'm not i'm not going to remember that um my guys wanted to say uh people

love some comments as far as desserts they don't like i just want to get to this before we get to the media love this love this yeah uh so uh end dot one-on-on-one says not a big fan of flan i like flan so i don't know maybe that's uh brand oh sorry i've lost it brandon who was this brandon uh brand sorry brandon glover excuse you i have the great brandon glover tapioca oh I love tapioca Lazy Bed M.A. says it's a flutter-nutter. Like, what's a flutter-nutter-nutter?

What's a fluffer-nutter? Flutter, a flutter-nutter. I don't know. A sandwich made with peanut butter and marshal. Oh, I've had one of these before. Wow, I actually kind of like these. But I think these are accurate, these are accurate, like, things to call this car.

I do think flan and tapioca are a little too fancy, but. Fluffin butter. Fluffer, yeah. Yes, fluff for another, yeah. Okay. And as somewhat, so, I mean, nicely put it out. The first ABC main event was Cater versus Holloway, which that was a huge deal. I remember that.

And I remember that specifically because I just went back and listened to our onto the next one prediction show heading into 2025. And I prefaced this. I picked Calvin Cater to be the featherweight champion at the end of that year heading into that fight. That was like my shot in the dark. And then boy, oh boy, a couple weeks later, that, that pick did not age well because Max Holloway put up record numbers on that wonderful night, but, uh, are their wonderful day. But let's, that's the ESPN. I'm sure we'll look back fondly. We'll discuss some great memories, uh, like the five million times we tried to watch fights on ESPN and had to reboot it or turn it off and unplug the TV or all sorts of issues we had with the ESPN app, which will be no more after this Saturday. But we are back. in the Apex, AK, and the timing for this main event could not be better. Brandon Royval, who has fought for the belt before, taking on Minnell Cop, who is a former

rise in champion, but has not fought for UFC gold yet. Many people believed that when he first came into the UFC, it was just a matter of time before Min El Cop would fight for a belt, but it's just been speed bumps and hiccups and all sorts of craziness up and down this road for Min El Cop, who now is a nice little two-fight windstreet going on. He looked incredible in the Tampa fight. He looked great in the main event against Asu Obayev, just kind of ran his ass over.

And now finally, the Tony Ferguson versus Habib Raghamauga made off of 125 pounds is finally at least happening. At least we will knock on wood as best we can. Excitement levels. Now that this is the closest we've been to this fight, right, A.K., we haven't, I don't think we've gotten to the day of, or the day before, right?

We haven't gotten to the scales for this fight. So we've made it. We're further along than ever. And so everything's going to go fine. Whenever you listen to this, guys, so you might be listening to this on a Saturday, you're only hours away from finally seeing Brennan Roy Bout and Manel Cop step into the cage. 10 out of 10, Mike, 10 out of 10.

I'm so pumped for this main event. I love the Flywood Division. This is as good a matchup as you can make. I just, we've criticized Menel Cop in the past. There's, you know, times when he's like, you know, been very hesitant to pull the trigger, waiting for that perfect shot.

So you could certainly go back and find some like Manel Cop stinkers. And Brandon Royval, if you want to criticize him, there was, of course, the title fight with Pantosia where we just didn't get crazy raw dog, Brandon Royval that we wanted. So there's a chance something goes wrong. Something goes, hey, where we don't get a good fight? But normally these two are guaranteed to bring action. Royval, constant pressure. Cop always a threat to just unload with some crazy-ass knockout strikes.

So good stuff here. With five rounds to work, yeah, there could be some moments where they're feeling each other out. But overall, I'm really excited. I like what it means for the division. Like Tatsaro Tira, I think, should be the main person in line to get the title fight. I think he's earned it, especially with Pantosia out for an indetermined amount of time. And Josh Havana, I'm assuming one, to bend the title within the first four months of 2026 and not wait for Pantosia. So it should be Tira.

But if Cop gets a big win, of course, it's a little hard to trust him, just because some of the weird stuff is always having with him. There is weight issues. He did come in, we should say 126. uh i do think he's made 125 on the dot before i'm pretty sure he's wanted to make a statement to do it but he did not do it on friday and i will say you like you mentioned mike he kind of came in just before the official way in window ended um and he didn't look like amazing like i don't think he ever looks amazing cutting weight but he definitely looked like he needed every second that they gave him um i'm just looking here he was 126 for the i'm a bioply 25 for bruno silva so he's done it

uh he's he's been able to do before so Yeah, big stakes for Menel Cop, and for Roy Val as well, it's just to stay in the mix. Very unlikely they would, you know, of course, give him the, the Joshua Van rematch right away. But the first fight was a banger. So he certainly would be on the list. If he put on a good performance against Cop, you know, he's option like D or E. But, listen, the UFC, they need title fights. They always want to have title fights.

If Joshua Van is ready to fight, timing doesn't work out with other contenders, they'll just say, yeah, screw it. He had a great battle with Joshua Van, one of the best. I'll start with Brandon Roy Val, excuse me. One of the best fights in 2025. Let's run it back in 2026. So way more in the line for a cop. But I mean, Roy Val has plenty of motivation as well. Yeah.

I mean, if he wants to stay in the mix, he's got to win, right? I mean, he's gotten shots of the belt before. This is kind of a must win. But, I mean, if he does win, yeah, he's not getting the title fight, but he wants, like, his dream fight right now. He told me was he wants to fight Kiyogi in Japan. Like, that's what he wants. He wants to go over there and fight him. He told me this, like, right when the announcement came that he was signed.

So, dude, that's such a sick fight. So, I mean, that is possible because Keoggi is not getting a title shot. Now that Pantosia doesn't have the belt. If Pants went in there and beat Van, sure, makes all the sense in the world to do that fight. There's a story, the teammate element, all of that. But with Van winning, it doesn't really make much sense to beat to Giaulu and back off and just get a title shot when one, Pantosia is there. two tires there and three of cop goes out there and wins that's a a nice fun fresh matchup as well so

i really like this fight i have like i'm i'm stunned because i haven't looked at the betting odds until literally two seconds ago have you seen them uh i haven't taken i i've not planning to bet on this card so i have not taken a good look at odds but uh if you had a guess what do you think they are oh no i should say i i did see i think i glanced i saw uh roart vall's a sizable underdog. He's huge underdog. Yes. Manal cop minus 300.

The comeback on Brandon Royvall is plus 235. I'm very surprised by that. I expected Cop to be the favorite, maybe like a minus 200 and most. But seeing it at minus 300, I was a bit surprised by that one, AK. What say you? Yeah, I don't know. I guess that's how people view Royval. I think he is considered to be more of like a bridesmaid fighter, as it were, to put it in a weird way.

And cop, there's just so much faith in him. It's like you said, Mike, from the beginning, I know there's certainly people on our staff when, you know, the great E. Casey Lyon was with us. He's still alive, by the way. I don't know why it sounds so grim, such a grim way to put it. He's still alive, good, great stuff over it with Uncrown. But, you know, when Casey was on our staff,

he was one of the people just pushing the, oh, cop is going to be a future UFC champion. He'd been doing for years. Never got off the bandwink. At no point did Casey lose faith. So I think, and I would like to see his cop's history of betting. I imagine he's been favored in a lot of his matchups. And you can understand why.

Like when the guy is at his best, he's just, he looks so good. He's one of the most consistent finishers of flyweight. Like I said, there's been a few stinkers in there. But if you were to ask, pick three fly weights who were like the best, you know, could actually qualify as knockout artists in that weight class, you could not leave cop off the list. You maybe could find some other names, but any list without cop just would not be legitimate. Like you can't name three fly weights who have more like punching power, more ability to unleash like a one kill strike thing, right? So, so yeah, I, I am still surprised because I have a lot of respect for Brandon Roy Fowl.

I think he's such a tough out, but, you know, the way gambling works. Do I think this will get people to put money on Brandon, which is maybe what they want? Yeah, that's, that's probably the idea, right? I think they're trying to get action on Brandon. And if it doesn't go Brandon's way, as usual, Vegas will be laughing all the way to the bank. Thoughts on if this fight goes long because people think if cops going to win. I mean, and Roy Val is tough to finish, man. Like, he's very, very tough.

I mean, you can submit him. He's just such a wild card. You just never know. But if this fight goes into rounds four and five, is this, does this favor one fighter over the other at 125 here? Or what do you think? Do you think Royval has maybe a slight edge? Because cop hasn't really been in that spot in quite some time. Roeval's only knockout loss was that he got injured, right?

wasn't it the Brandon Moreno and he kind of like messed up his shoulder yeah right I mean you know a legitimate TKO certainly but um uh right that that's it he's never been like just cold knocked out uh the first time for everything and when you have as much mileage as he does and when you're facing someone as dangerous cop you certainly can't rule it out um but an early finish would surprise me so yeah if it does extend into the later rounds i'm trying to remember cop's history of like winning decisions he's pretty like helter-skelter i just like there is we have to keep mentioning it there is that fear that some rounds he just doesn't do enough he's happy to just lose around if it means like collecting data if it means kind of like landing a few pot shots

here and there or like threatening with a with a with a with a knockout blow um i hope that doesn't happen because roval the way he comes forward should give cop plenty of opportunities to open up so it's not like the mokai of fight where like you know both guys were just talked a big game and just didn't seem interested in pushing the offense it was just so dreadful Royval will push the offense He'll have a lot of respect for Cop As he should But he will push the face

He will come forward That's what the man does So I hope I hope Manel is up for it Will that slow him down The later rounds Trying to keep with Royval's pace I don't know

I think cop He hasn't gone to a faster third round Has he Wow never in his career But I just don't have Oh sorry wait way way early I see one fight But I don't know

I've just weirdly, I think he's very good at conserving energy. I just don't consider him as a guy who's going to just kind of blow his gas tank, going for a finish that's not there. I think that's one of his strengths is his finishing instincts. So, yeah, if you're leaning towards cop and you see it go past the third round, I wouldn't be concerned. I wouldn't be, like, panicking if it ended up going the distance. Really interesting fight.

Yeah, Royval, the only times he were stopped, back-to-back fights, back-to-back. You know, the Moreno one was kind of weird. got submitted by the second greatest flywood of all time in Alexander Pantosia. So not too shabby, but will it be the third time? We shall find out tomorrow. Like I said,

I'm very excited for the debate event. Like we said, according to our friends, the Fandall, the minus 300 favorite, the comeback on Brandon Royval, your favorite nickname in all of them, A.A.K.

Raw dog plus 235. What is the official AK pick? Damn. Normally I'm like halfway through my picks before we do these shows you know it gives me an idea of what i'm going to say so i haven't laid it out i'm going to lean i'm going to lean cop i'm going to go cop my heart says roy vile but i think at this stage with cop after coming off his last two performances yes against competition that i would say you know is not as as good as brendamorevel but those were good fighters like i'm a big bulldog silver

guy i think i actually picked him to beat cop i might have picked i'm a biop i'm going to i'm depicted as cop both times so uh manalith brought there this might be a bad thing because this time i am picking you i am on your side i do think um the best version of you beats the best version of right now whether that is a you know thrilling five round decision or if again yeah becoming just the second person to knock him out and pops to the first one to straight up like cold him that would be freaking amazing so um let's go at the ESPN era ending with just like a huge bang mike and uh cop taking Roy Val out in round three.

Kind of with you. Kind of with you. I just don't like at this point in Royval's career with what he needs to accomplish to get back to a title fight, I don't think he could be like I don't think he could be patient.

I don't think he could be that dude that you know, just goes with a game plan and just like Mosey's on to a decision just to fight smart. I just I just don't see that coming. I think Roy Val is going to be

an absolute maniac like always and he's still very good but Menal Cop hits super duper hard and I kind of think it's his time man I think like he's gone through all the adversity, he's gone through all the bad luck he appears to be as healthy

as he's ever been and if we are to take what he did this past December and kind of parlay that into another December fight if we get that dude who fought Bruno Silva. I know it's Bruno Silva, but he's proved that he's not as bad as some of the losses because of the competition he's had. I think cops could have a really, really good night here.

So I say cop gets a finish. I don't know what around, but I do think cop gets it done within inside of the first 15 minutes in his fight. We put a lot of pressure, put a lot of pressure on cop. But this is this is his moment. I know we've said this on a lot of preview shows. We probably have said at least like two or three times ahead of a big cop fight. This is his moment. This is the one. But this really is his moment this is really like i i feel like um for roy val definitely a loss sets him so far back of the line i don't want to say cop never gets a tell a shot if he loses saturday but um he's getting a nice little spot here again on a card that maybe people aren't talking about a lot but that he's he and roe val are clearly like the spotlights on them so the last fight of the year it's what

frankly it's what some of us will be talking about for the next six weeks mike as we wait for the next ufc show right this is this is the the lasting memory of um of the octagon will be possibly cop having his hand race or cop dropping a stink bomb so we'll see we'll see it's intriguing it's a really good main event really really good um fox creative this is advertiser content brought to you by CVS one way to understand how vaccines work is that they're kind of like practice tests for your immune system i'm dr holly phillips i've spent years helping people understand how vaccines can help protect us. I'd say one thing to really keep in mind about vaccines is that timing is everything.

Babies and kids, they get that series of vaccines, but protection from those childhood vaccines can start to fade over time. So some vaccines actually need boosters in adulthood. Our seasonal vaccines, we need every year. It does not matter what stage of life you're in. We should all get our flu vaccine. And earlier in the fall is better. And also, don't forget about the updated COVID-19 vaccine.

And yes, it's totally fine to get most vaccines at the same time. CVS offers 14 no-cost vaccines that are covered by most insurance plans. So head to CVS.com slash vaccines to book your vaccines. Or you can stop by your local CVS pharmacy today. Fox Creative. content brought to you by CVS. I'm Dr. Ruth Jabarta Williams, and I'm here to talk about the most underrated product

in your skincare routine, sunscreen. Let's start with the basics. SPF stands for sun protection factor. It measures how well a sunscreen protects you from UVB rays. These are the rays that primarily cause sunburn and can lead to skin cancer. Contrary to popular belief, SPF measures the amount of UV radiation

that is blocked and not exposure time. UVA rays. have a longer wavelength and penetrate deeper into the skin. That's why you need a broad-spectrum sunscreen, which means it protects against both UVA and UVB rays. My pick is Vacation Classic lotion SPF-30. Darker skin has more melanin, which offers some natural protection, but it's not enough to fully prevent sun damage,

hyperpigmentation, and skin cancer. For those of us with deeper skin tones, I love Black Girl sunscreen SPF-30. So, as you can see, no matter your skin tone or the season, SPF is a non-negotiable. And CVS makes it easy to stock up on all your sun protection products. Head to your local CVS or CVS.com to grab the sunscreen that works for you. The rest of the main card, Giga Chikaze versus Kevin Vallejos, pushing the young man pretty quickly here. Giga, I mean, look, Giga is ranked somehow.

I don't know how that's possible. I didn't know how that was possible heading into the last fight but somehow he's still ranked and now Kevin Valleos gets the opportunity to hand Giga his third straight loss and I don't think this is going to go well

for Giga Chikaze aka I just I just feel like this is this is classic UFC matchmaking where let's throw the the ranked vet so to speak in there with the young buck that we're trying to get over a little bit and is this one of those

I'm not even going to say passing of the torch, but is this the quintessential, let's get this young man over, kind of a fight here? Yeah, and I'm not going to straight out say that just like Giga gets smoked. I mean, certainly Vallejos, if he's on, can just like take Giga out in the first round and that would be a big statement.

You'd never see Galejos, like you said, with a number next to his name going into 2026, I assume he would just take Giga's number as opposed to them like bumping gig out and inserting someone else. And they want to. They do seem to be giving me a good push. So I actually think Giga will put on, like, a decent showing.

Actually, given his age, given his experience. But Vallejo is legit. I think we're all pretty high on him. And, man, that'd be a nice, that'd be a nice 20-25 for Vallejos if he pulls this off. He's not going to make, like, the top five or fight to the year list or anything. But the fact that he's, it's been a strong year for a lot of people. There's actually been a lot of good storyline.

So the fact that he's even in the mix there, I think says a lot about him. So I'm leaning towards like a Vallejo's decision. But one, a decision that makes us, you know, go like, yeah, he, he beat a veteran guy, someone who is currently ranked, who was like, I think in the top 10 or at least close to the top 10 at one point. And that's going to say a lot about where Vallejos goes in 20206. And we'll be looking at him as a title contender probably by the end of the year, by the end of next year and heading into 2027.

Yeah, I kind of feel the same way here. It's just going to be, you know, like a 3027 sound win for Vallejo. and it's one of those things that we're kind of kind of see pretty quickly in this fight. So looking forward to see what Valleos could do in a big spot. He's obviously very confident. Cesar Almeida versus Cesari Olegzechuk. I mean, the hashtag's right itself, AK. Uh-huh.

That's a good fight. Morgan Chariere versus Melki Costa. I really like that fight as well. That's a doozy. Costa's on a nice wind streak right now. He's good. And what could be the funniest fight of 2025, Kennedy and Zuchuku versus Marcus Buccecha

cannot wait for that fight. I wish there was the opening fight so we could all watch it together in the People's Pre-Fight show. It would have been funnier if it was Waldo Cortez-A-Costa though and Buccecha. Hey, you never know. Waldo, we don't know if I get a call tonight

to go fill in. He is ready. He is ready. He is absolutely ready. So that's the main card. It looks like five-fight main card? No, I think, I believe the truly bizarre King Green, excuse me, King Green, Lance Gibson Jr.

fight, which was added this week. Oh, that's right. Is opening the main. What is it weird fight? You know, it's funny because there's no betting lines on it. Well, how could there be? Not on the duel. Not on the duel.

I wouldn't put a line. I don't know where topology guys are awesome. They throw a line out there. Were they able to grab a line from somewhere? Mike, I think I've asked you a bunch of times the last couple of days. Do you have any inside scoop on why this was put together? What happened here? King Green, like, if you watch any of the broadcast and they were, for some reason, playing graphics of this card,

they kept saying King Green versus TBD. And we were just waiting who the TBD was. And yeah, man, here comes Landskipson Jr. who gets his shot. I mean, why wait? I mean, you couldn't use them on a Canadian card, right? It wouldn't make any sense to throw them on a Canadian card or throw them in Seattle or something. But no, we're going to throw him in the apex again. it's king green on four days notice or something like that so well golly there's a lot of can con

in this card you know we got we got uh jillian robertsin milsacroden and jimmie lind horth so i guess he's kind of fitting right in but yeah this was really out of nowhere but yes good good for king green wanted to get in there get a nice little paycheck before before christmas you know good for lans and good for lance i would if you if you had given me a list of like a 100 fighters who had fought, you know, fought for a major, he's a pot in Belator, fought for a major motion, like, three months ago and said, like, you know, and just through order of elimination, just like keep checking names out. Who do you think will debut in the U.S.C. this year?

It would have taken me probably 80 to 83 guesses before I got down to Lanskipson, and that's not saying Lanskipson isn't good. It's just weird. I just never, just wasn't aware that that was a possibility. So good for him. It's been exciting. And he really has a chance to pull off an upset. I mean, that the experience gap is obviously huge, but again, it's just a younger guy,

hits hard i'm i'm leaning king green but this fight is so strange i don't think i'd be surprised if um if uh gipson got to win yeah to me if this is uh if green is just just shot shot then lance can get it then lance has a chance if green is still has something left i think this is probably this is one of the toughest matchups Gibson this probably might be the toughest matchup he's had i'm trying to think Who else did he fight? Toccoff? Is that the loss?

Yes, it was to Toccov, yeah. Yeah, I mean, maybe Tocoff, but, you know, look at the record of the guys he's beat since that fight. Some, like, 13 and 42s in there or something strange like that. Like, some lopsided records. So curious to see what happens. I mean, what a story would be if he goes in there in the last event on four days notice and beats a guy with 50 pro fights.

That'd be pretty wild. So Amanda Lumbos, Julian Roberts, we talked about. Big one there. Joe Anderson Brito remains on the card. He's taking on Isaac Thompson, Australia's own. So good on Isaac. I know his team has been trying to get him in the UFC,

trying to find a short-notice opportunity. And Isaac's beats a pretty good dudes along the way. So he has not had an easy run to get to the UFC. He's not fought a lot of cans to get in this position. So interesting fight at the stay standing. This could be a lot of fun. but I think Brito is kind of in a position where he really needs to get a win, so he should probably maybe shoot and tackle a little bit.

Probably his best form of action here. Mix the martial arts, you say. Yes, mix the martial arts. Neil Magni welcomes Yarosloff Amosov into the UFC. I have one bet on this entire card, AK, and it is on Neil Magby. Oh, I thought you were just going to say, take you over. I'm just going over. I'm betting on Neil Magny.

Amosov is good. He is a good fighter. Has ranked potential, certainly. He should not be a minus 420 favorite in this fight. Minus 420. Yeah. I got Neil Magi. With disrespect.

I got me. I saw Neil Magdi the other day plus 325 and I took it. Like Amosov was not long ago knocked out by Jason Jackson. He got wrecked. A fine. Wrecks by Jason Jackson. And in fairness, Jason Jackson would also be a heavy favorite over Neil Magny, I think. probably so i guess there's some element of respect for these sort of bellatorous downed

guys which is interesting i also think um you know they're going to go for betters who don't know who these guys are they see this nice 28 and one record people who are like oh belator i remember belatory this guy was a champion of belator that sounds pretty good sounds like an easy bet so um yeah maybe maybe it's lying the right way but that is incredibly disrespect for for neil magnate who who, by the way, is now tied, when he steps in the cage, Saturday, tied for fourth most UFC appearances, 27th. UFC appearance 27, well behind Donald Seroni, And Gerolowski, and Jim Miller.

But still incredibly impressive. Gosh, this guy keeps chugging away. And should be on the main card. The disrespect, him put up on the main card. To both of these guys. To both of them. And, like, I probably would have bumped down Cesar or Cesari. Like, I get it.

They think that fight's going to end in a knockout. That's what you want in the main card. Fine, I understand. Melchie Morgan Cheneer is a really great fight. But I mean, just from a name perspective, I do feel like you could have gone Magni and Amosov. It's, it's, it's, it'll maybe check the heavyweight card on the prelims, perhaps. They know, they would never, well, they have four heavyweight fights.

No, three heavyweight fights this card. They were going to put one on there on the main card, Mike. There's no way they would have had three heavyweight fights and not put one on the main card. So I guess that was unavoidable. I think they're still invest in Buccecha, too, who should, should score a fast submission. But I don't know anymore. Yeah, it's funky.

It's a little bit funky how they line things up. It's like not a terrible card, just some placement that has this raising our eyebrows here. And if you love heavyweight MMA, as AK said, we get some more for you. Sean Chirab versus Stephen Aspland. We have Luana Santos versus Melissa Croden. That's an interesting fight. A bantamweight finisher. A bantamweight finisher, Mike.

Have you heard a women's bantamweight finisher? Have you heard of these? It's common, AK. There is one, apparently. Alan Fry versus Guillamee Pat on this card. And then it all opens up with women's flyweight action. Teresa Bleda versus Canada's own, Jamie Lynn Horth. That is UFC Vegas 112.

13 delightful fights. Teresa Bleda's been, I didn't remember this, 900 plus days since her last fight. If you've been missing Teresa Bleda in your life, yes, there's a reason for that. She has not fought in a very, very, very long time. Oh my God. Yeah, you're right. Weird, right? Because she did have fights booked.

Because she did have fights booked in between there. And for whatever reasons, I don't know if it's injury, some health thing. Maybe just wasn't able to make fights. I don't know. So she has been booked. So that's why I think it was so strange to me. That was like, oh, yeah, she actually hasn't fought in so long. Mike, how many, just at a glance, 13 fights over under, over under eight and a half

fights going over one and a half rounds or two and a half rounds, including the main event, whatever, going halfway through a fight, over under how many? a halfway mark um a lot of heavyweights and a lot of women's pick on here one two okay three four oh i'll say five i'll say five six seven eight eight eight and a half's a number eight and a half i think i lined it perfectly nine oh yeah we're over 10 of 13 10 you think 10 out of the 13 fights are going the distance are going over one and a half oh one half excuse me over one and a half yeah oh wow yeah oh wow 10 are gonna says a lot of this has a lot of like second third round finish potential okay okay so

do you do think we'll get some finn't we'll get some finishes though just not not not feel not no one smoking a lot of people in the first round wow over okay people gamblers out there if that's your thing you feel like betting overs which is a very fun thing to do uh feel i would say bet them individually guys i would say don't parlay the overs i would say just bet I might just do that because that's so fun I don't know there's a lot again I'll be honest I don't know a lot about um Stephen Aspland I don't know a lot about um Stephen Aspland I don't know a lot of shot sharp we've at least seen fight once in the oc but I still don't know a lot about him So maybe those are heavyweight fights that will, like, end in the first round.

I just have no, we don't need to go, like, deliberate this whole thing, but we've said this a lot about heavyweight recently. Like there's just been a lot of guys who aren't particularly great finishers, like the whole myth of, well, it's heavyweight. Anything can happen. Anyone can knock anyone out. That's actually not true these days. Like, these guys just, they're inexperienced, inexperienced.

I'm not hating on them. They are inexperienced. These are guys with four and no, five, and no, six and no records. So why do we put such high expectations on them? But yeah, I don't know. I could be way out of base on this. Like, I think at least two of those heavyweight fights go over. But I could be way off.

Maybe they all end in the first round. That'd be nice. That'd be fun as a fantasy. I'll tell you that. That'd be great. 2025 was a wild year for the tech industry. AI seemed like it took over everyone's brains. It was the only thing anyone wanted to talk about.

Invidia became the most valuable company in the world. We had some huge new video games. The Switch 2 launched a lot of people got it. There was just a lot going on. And on the Vergecast, we are talking about the best, the worst, the most important, the biggest heel turns, all the stuff that happened in 2025. And making maybe a few predictions about what's going to happen next year. All that and more on the Vergecast, wherever you get podcasts. This series is presented by Jira by Atlassian.

Right now is the AI Gold Rush. And that means everybody who builds an app, a platform, a piece of software, a gizmo, that's somebody anything. Everybody is trying to put AI everywhere. And for two weeks in a series on the Vergecast, we are talking through what that looks like. We're talking to developers about what they're building and how they're building it. And whether AI actually does make sense everywhere. or is just going to ruin everything in the process. That's the AI miniseries on the Vergecast wherever you get podcasts.

This series is presented by MongoDB. All right, let's go to the peeps. Got a couple of super chats. Lazybed asks why were face-offs directly after weigh-ins? They usually are. Unless someone misses weight and they're trying to figure out some stuff like contractually or if a fighter missed and has the extra hour. Yeah. But typically, like, especially the apex cards, it's, it's bang, bang.

Yeah, apex. There's no sermon. There's no ceremonial wanes later, right, guys. So it's just as soon as they can clear the scale. And yeah, as long as everyone made it in. Like, again, cop made it in right at the end of the hour. So like, okay, cool, pull the scale away, clear the stage. Face them up. I think maybe it happened a little bit quicker than usual today. Maybe they were just more organized. I don't know. Or people just were in a hurry and wanted to get the hell out of there. But yeah, that's normal for Vegas cards. It's within, within like 30 minutes after the official lands. They'll face them off. Yeah.

RS 40. Can Magni do it again? The old vet always getting the hard yards. Also, I saw the top 30 under 30 and Oroby was not there. Hmm. What do you think? I talked about this on BTL yesterday. Okay. What were, I didn't see that segment, Mike. Where's this list? I need to see who's on it. Before I say, oh, well, Oroby, definitely should have been on it. All right. I will read them off. Okay. I saw some kerfuffle, but okay. Number one, Ilya Tuporia. Yeah, yeah. Number two, Dakota Dichiva. Sure, a little high, but yeah. sure of course you have to mention i don't mind her number two i don't mind her there uh there there are some things i do have a problem with uh josh van at number three is this in order did they this is an order okay so maybe we should maybe we should go to the bottom because i do want to because i

want to say because i want to say who whose spot could oral buy take i think is what we want to say here okay by the way uh natty ice ranked higher than armand serukian love daddy ice oh that's that's just ridiculous armin was not in the top 10 right armin was number 10 number 10 number 10 pretty wild only one spot ahead of Aaron Blanchfield so I'm okay with not having there's some wild cards in here

so I'm looking at this okay like would you have oral buy over I'm just starting our names got like Quillin Salk killed you know Jimmy Suss is on there maybe Jasmine Lucindo but I think there's an argument to put all those guys above him I think if he had fought

I just need to see him more at welterweight like i just think welterweight is where he belongs and i hope he is i don't remember what he said after his last fight i assume the plan is to stay at 170 i assume i assume the plan is state 170 uh because if they're still talking about i don't know trying to go back to 155 that's just insane but at 170 he's a real threat so he's only 27 so the next time they do an addition of this list if he's still putting in work at 170 and doing well let's see he gets a couple of wins in 2025 uh 2026 excuse me i i would be very surprised not to see him but no i couldn't but Raural Rosas Jr. is number 30.

I wouldn't bump him past Royal Roses. I think this is okay. I think it's okay. At the same time, if you had them on your list, totally understandable. I think Oral By is great. Yeah. Yeah, it's, it's, it's, like, once you get to the bottom 10, maybe bottom nine, you can kind of just like mix a match. Like, if you subbed one of them out for Oral By, like, I don't think anybody would be super upset about it.

And having Oral By not on the list doesn't, like, make me. upset having surruki in number 10 is donk it's ridiculous who's that let me see who's just ahead of him it's oh you said natty ice okay well listen natty ice is going to win the title before he does so that's not that's not crazy ummar he should be higher than usman i'm sorry he probably i would probably put him higher than usman i would put him higher than gary too i would put him higher than gary yeah so i think like six or seven is the lowest i would go damn i put him higher like i put him higher than morales i wouldn't right now i would i wouldn't I don't know. He is good. He's got better wins. He's got better wins. I like him. Trust me. I think I'm driving. You and I are both drivers of the Michael Borrell should fight for the belt next train. But apparently, uh, at least what he's telling people is he's fighting at the White House against Jackdella and Madalena. I don't know how true that is. But, uh, that's apparently what he's telling people. So we shall see how that all works out. But yeah, the bottom end of it. I didn't have a real like super big issue.

with that stuff so uh beva what worries me is amos off being out for so long after being whipped by jackson maybe the ufc matchmakers have lost faith in the bellator guys i think this is perfect matchmaking this is exactly what you do with a guy like amsoph you throw him in there with a with a wily veteran who has the most wins in the history of the division and has fought everybody and is he's been the litmus test for the top 15 top 20 for this division for ever and ever. So you can't throw him in there with, you know, a super top ranked guy right now because, you know, you're kind of introducing this guy to people. If he goes in there and, like, has a really good win over Neil Magni, like, that means something. If you go out there and you style

and dominate Neil Magni, like, that's very good. Usually that means good things for your career. So I think the matchmaking is great. On both sides, honestly. Like, this is really good stuff. So I don't know if it's the matchmaker's losing faith in the Bellator guys, but more so, let's tamper our expectations a little bit. Like, let's not throw Patricia Pitbull in there with the Iyer Rodriguez. Let's not throw patchy mix in there with Mario Batista. Let's not throw Aaron Pico in there with Lorone Murphy. You know, let's, maybe you should have given Aaron Pico, William Gomi, right? Or Patricia Pitbull, someone ranked a little, Danny Gay, right off the bat. You know what I mean? They figured it out afterwards, but I think it's just kind of like, all right, let's just,

let's throw them in there with the tested commodity, but let's not throw them in there with somebody ranked too, too highly. So I like it. Outside of the card placement, this was spot on. Because frankly, this could have headlined like a weaker apex card. I mean, if this was, you know, they were trying to load up cards in 2026, this is probably could have headlined a card. It's a strange one.

But yeah, I wouldn't shovel the, I wouldn't shovel the darn. on magna yet this is perfect matchmaking i don't think it should be viewed it's just him like oh they're just going to roll him over but if that's the case great then amosov will look much better than some his bell to our compatriots have um i kind of buried the lead at the beginning talking about this fight mike talking about how many appearances magni has if he wins on saturday he'll become just the second fighter to win 25 ufc fights of course behind jimel um that sounds kind of crazy doesn't it Miller is the leader with 27, an absurd number. Magny will have 25 wins.

And pretty strong, if we're, like, comparing him and Jim Miller, I would say, like, he kind of has been fighting the stronger competition over the last couple of years. I mean, we just mentioned Amosov. Like, Miller has not faced anyone close to, like, an Amosov-level opponent at lightweight in some time. So we are really weird stuff. We don't view Magny with the same, or at least maybe not yet,

with the same reverence to be to Jim Miller, who people are saying essentially, like, has to make the Hall of Fame someday just because of the, the records he holds, which I totally support. But if you're basing on that, and just pure numbers, and we've had this discussion before on another show. But, man, maybe Magny is really making a very strong case for himself.

Absolutely. After this weekend, will there be any more lives before Christmas, or will you guys be having a break when this event is over? Live shows? I don't think we know if we're doing anything live. Watch out for us do. Oh, wait, we will.

We will. We're definitely doing a watch party for, Jake Pollythe and Joshua like 100%. I assume we'll be doing a preview show for that as well. I mean, that's just such a circus. We have to like get involved. And it's just syllabus fighting Tyrone Willie. Like that's kind of fun, right?

Like we'll get into it in that sense. So, but after that, uh, we'll do some like live shows. I mean, if there's like big news that needs a reaction, we'll certainly jump on for those. Um, we'll have a BTL next week. We might do, unless there's like massive news, typically what we do is like the BTL right in between the last event and Christmas is like you, me and Jed, I'll hop on and we run down our top fives for our awards, just kind of as like an appetizer before we release all that stuff and drop the show, the rankings or not the ranking show, the award show. So we'll have that. And then obviously, you know, things will get super fun on the podcast network. We'll have the predictions, extravaganza, the two-parter for on to the next one.

We won't be taking that much time off from the lives. That is for sure. So stay tuned for really fun stuff. Yeah, you'll still be seeing our faces a lot, guys. Seeing our faces and hearing our voices. Joseph, could the winner jump over Kiyogi Horaguchi for a title shot? Yes. We kind of covered this, yeah.

Yeah, Kioji's not fighting for the belt next. I'm assuming Pants will be out for a while. We don't know that yet. We don't know that yet. Germay Cruz, the Brazilian Beast, got a little bit of an update from Pantosia's team. We don't know. We just don't know yet how long he's going to be out. I would say the winner of this fight and Tetsu Retire are both ahead of Kiyoji in this conversation, if we're being honest.

So, and not to mention Kiyoji himself. So, yeah. Kiyoji fighting for the belt makes no sense without pants. winning having the belt right now with how everything is shaped up without pantosia having the title it doesn't make sense for him to to fight for the title right now so uh we'll give we'll throw this one out there because speaking of the flyway division josephs could we get their thoughts on branda morano turning around quickly for february 28th in mexico made event versus asu al-mabayev uh we talked about this on btel yesterday

uh from what i was told it was like, yeah, we're going to do this, but we need some, like, eyes dotted and some T's crossed. Like, appears, apparently that's happened, but again, the UFC doesn't always announce stuff with pen to paper. All I'll say is this, A.K. And I saw some other people echo the same sentiment on Twitter. One, I don't think Moreno was, like, brutally chaotic or anything.

So, you know, him getting back on the horses to surprise me. He loves to fight in Mexico. but for some reason he's like the only one who wants to fight in Mexico and like main event these cards so hopefully he got himself a couple extra shekels hopefully got like a new deal uh or something i mean he's just got to be a freaking superstar over there and he's fighting assu alma bi f aka who i mean it's not going to gain a whole lot from this fight so yeah interesting matchmaking but brandon moreno kind of had to be in the main event without diego lopez or any of these guys really available that could take that spot so i'm a buy if it's the more

surprising name than moreno i think yeah i always worry a little bit about like you know a fighter who's as much mileage as um brandy merr has like just jumping back in there clearly of course to wash out you know the disappointing taste of that the tire fight but uh yeah this is about as ideal situations you can get mike he's fighting in mexico um he didn't take like a he got hurt in the tire fight but he didn't take like a crazy amount of damage you know relatively speaking to this insane profession they do um he's a big favorite i don't know if there's in line yet it's got to be at least minus 350 something like that he's going to be very heavily favorite going to that fight i'm sure i'm sure uh easy easy ray what do you guys think is the special matchup or

special thing for ingano organized by pfl's john martin yes john martin spoke to our own david martin and said uh they have something very special plan for frances it'll be the last fight on his deal. Hopefully it will entice him to stick around because it doesn't feel like he's going back to the UFC anytime soon based on what Dana White said. But let's have some fun, A.K., any guesses as to special matchup or as PFL likes to do, like other promotions in the past, big news about Francis and Gano. And then we find out he's just like the seventh in charge on the board of directors or something. But I assume this is a fight, some sort of matchup. Who could it be, A.K., who could it be?

It almost definitely will not be the winner of the Saturdays PFL, Europe, Europe, and Pelfil, Lyon, unfortunately. Just because if it's Henan Faheda, obviously you don't run them back. Nemcov would be interesting. I just, I don't know. I just, um. That fight could get real bad. For Francis?

Just for all of us. Oh, I just think. It could just be like tackle sit, tackle, sit kind of stuff. Yeah, so they won't run back for Hade. Namcove, there's some juice there, I guess. I'll just steal the idea. I know a lot of people are saying, you know, Francis and Rico, I think would be really fun.

Be very strange. I think it'd be more fun with like a custom rules type thing because, sure, Francis would like, you know, would be happily stand and bang with him, but also it's Rico Verhoeven. Maybe you don't want to do that. And we've seen Francis not afraid to go to the ground sometimes when he has to.

So I don't know if that's the match, what they want to do either. Me, if it was up to me, I would just love to see the Phil DeFries might happen. I know it won't. I've heard nothing of, like you know i'm co-promotion with k s w so i don't think it's going to happen but like that's the kind of big fight that bill de frees deserves he's just been grinding away in ksdb you know

beating good fighters but i i don't think it's a stretch to say fighters that don't have a lot of global cachet and i don't think his opponents are super well known um but still i always say long time long title reigns are very difficult and he's just been racking them up for a long time and it'd be so nice to put an exclamation point on it um if he fought francis and he beat francis it would just re, like, contextualize his entire Phil DeFrease's run, like this whole, oh, he's just picking on guys in a small pond, which I don't think he is, but people definitely wouldn't be able to say that if he'd be Francis.

I don't think it would be, Phil. Rico, I didn't even actually think of. I, someone said, I didn't make that out. I've seen that, but mentioned somewhere. I did not make that up. Honestly, for me, there's only two games that makes sense. One is the goat himself, Parker Porter. I mean, there is no bigger fight the PFL could make right now for Francis.

no but in all reality it's eddie hall and there's nothing else i want to see oh there's truly nothing else i want to see for francis like ever right now besides him fighting eddie hall we left one name out and that's roug roug but i think roug roug he's rescheduling the aren't they aren't they aren't they rescheduling the ant of the malican rematch or something i'm not crazy that's supposed uh that's going to happen at some point i assume um yeah oh not officially rescheduled yet hey so hey rougru's dance card is open i'm just saying i mean Yeah, is Festivus live next week? No, Festivus is, uh, will be after next week.

Festivus is always like the, the fill-in spot. That's the promotional hearing of grievances where Jed and I waxed poetically about, uh, how, and we grade the promotions for how they behaved and acted and delivered the goods, so to speak. So we're running out of promotions to talk about, okay. I mean, I was hoping we'd have some GFL stuff to talk about. we don't have bellator to talk about anymore um it's going to be ufl and maybe one to some extent which i know some people in the feed will love a lot of one love on the on the feed i've seen it keep it coming guys if you guys want to have one in the

please keep bring it on man because yeah i i in all honesty i think there's a lot of people who we watch highlights every now and then i i'll be on i don't watch events live regularly that's just my apologies to one and all the one fans out there i just don't there i just don't at the moment um probably because again it's primarily you know kickboxing moitai which is great i mean if you're a kickboxing moitai we've been saying this forever mike we've never criticized uh the the kickboxing divisions of one championship like we've poked fun with the m m ms and like uh you know how they've handled some of their fighters but we have always said yo if you want to see like high level kickboxing moitai dream matches

one absolutely has delivered on that front so no criticisms there but um they just have like the most fun events like honestly Honestly, they would do like these Muay Thai superfights and then like Eddie Alvarez would fight some dude. And then Demetrius Johnson would fight in the main event. Like we'd have just this crazy stuff going on. And they would have these like mixed events that you see on regional shows all the time. But they did it so well. And then like, I don't know what happened.

I just don't know. We'll never know. I just don't know, Mike. So it's not for us to know. Oh, but PFL is also on this weekend. NEMCOF versus Ferreira predictions. Nemcov all the way, man. Faheda's good, man.

He hits hard, but Nemcov is really good. I'm not, like, completely sold on him as a heavyweight. I think, you know, if you look at our rankings, I believe he is in there. I know I don't have him ranked, but I think other people have given him enough points that I think Nemcov has snuck into our top of dean, which is fine, which is fine.

Obviously, a great run at light heavy weight. All of that is translated to heavy. I just don't think, you know, the heavyweight division is that strong. But Faheda, I think is legitimate top 25. guy so if he has dominant performance against vera i will give i'll give them credit and probably have him ranked the next cycle i'm not sure i have to bump out probably in there so yeah i'm definitely picking nemcov um very dangerous guy puts those mitts on you you're gonna go down real fast but um i like nemcov i like that he's of course

tutored by fadour who made a career out of just you know beating up taller guys i think i think they'll be right the questions are unbelievable here uh mike and a k give us your christmas must watch tv specials and movies Charlie Brown, Christmas, Home Alone. He Men, Christmas Special, of course, for example. Well, thank you, first of all, for not putting Die Hard on the list. Because, Mike, where do you stand on that? And I don't think it's a debate that matters.

If you think Die Hard is a Christmas movie or it's not, but I do, I do like, I'm, I'm, it's a non-Christmas movie guy. I don't want to start a whole thing here in the chat. I'm sorry, guys, but I accept both answers. Yeah, exactly. I think either is fine, but I'm with Masters. I'm glad you didn't put it on there. And it is just a great movie. Like, I think whether you think it's a Christmas movie or not should not, should not

diminish your enjoyment. I don't know if I'm big on traditional like Christmas movies. I'll be honest. I'm trying to think the last time I really said home alone for sure. I had a huge home alone phase. I think it's all kids did where I must have watched. There was one holiday season where I think I was at a staying in an uncle's place, aunt's an uncle's place and they just had a VHS.

I must have watched that movie like 20 times in a week or something. It's so good. Love me some home alone. So I guess that would be my answer. I mean, maybe I'm forgetting something more recent. I don't know. Christmas vacation household the hex my kid loves it just truly truly it loves national lampoon's Christmas vacation it's spectacular Clark W. Griswold the

whole fam the lights everything Elaine from Seinfeld is the next door neighbor who gets into mischief all the time with her husband it's it's just such a classic it's so good I mean obviously the home alone the first two home alones the other ones don't count because they're awful a Christmas story is Probably the most watched one I've ever seen because they always do the marathons going in like it's like starts like late Christmas Eve all the way through Christmas Day. It's just on all day long on like two Turner networks. So the matter where you go, TBS, TNT, it's always playing. So you always catch it in different parts.

It's it's terrific. There's somebody good at Jingle All the Way. Someone mentioned Christmas with the Cranks is a good one. Santa Claus with Tim Allen is a, is a good time uh i mean there's just so many uh bad santa bad santa oh billy bob dorton oh my god it's hilarious that is just a spectacular film the worst christmas movie of all time is uh fred claus with v von oh yes a piece of shrb what a piece of garbo that one is elf too elf is elf is excellent elph is excellent polar express is excellent uh yeah but dude

Fred Claus. What a friggin wreck. Damn you, Vince Vaugh. Damn you. It's so terrible. Oh, so bad. I love seeing all the holiday films. Yeah, a lot of good shouts in here, guys.

Yeah, love it. Shout out Cleveland. Bupisersies. Sons of bitches. I love that movie. Oh, you know what? No one shouted out? Scroogeed.

Oh, Scrooge. That's a great one. I love Scrooge. That is a beautiful. Yeah. That is an under the radar one. I watched that one again last year and I was like, damn, this is a good movie. It's so dark at times too.

You're like, oh, wait, we don't really make weird sound of super dark comedies like this anymore. Like not not like as a dark humor, but like the tone is so dark and kind of scary at times. But yeah, I really like, I really like Scrooge. That's a great one. I totally forgot about that. That's a great one. Then you get like, yeah, the original Frosty, the old Grinch, Charlie Browns, the old Rudolph's, the clay ones, spectacular stuff. Christmas movie

No, actually Adam said there wasn't a Christmas movie It was a Hanukkah movie Eight Crazy Nights Eight Crazy Nights Yeah, it's a tactical foul The animated one, yeah I really like that one That's a great shout

Eight Crazy Nights is a good one Yeah Well done, well done You guys are gonna have time to catch up guys No UFC we do it like you said Paul and of course Jake versus Joshua Next Saturday But UFC no

And there's other promotions guys And of course It's gonna have a year end show Oh, yeah. I forget that. What I'm forgetting. I think Octagon still have a show coming up. I know we have Misfits boxing the same weekend as Jake versus Joshua.

So there's fights. There's fights happening, guys. But otherwise, you know, as far as UFC goes, yeah, we got ourselves a little break here. Yes. All right. Well, we'll take a break on UFC Vegas 112 coverage, at least until tomorrow. We'll be back. People's Free Fight Show 6.30 p.m. Eastern time because we are, we're starting a little bit

start a little bit late here uh it is what it is ladies a gentleman and then uh post fight show afterwards a k our final uh on to the next one matchmaking episode going down uh we'll record that on sunday see we get some some last minute otno points aka underneath the old tree and yeah and then we'll take a break a week off from the on to the next one fun and then we'll be back with the predictions extravaganza two-parter one part one will be podcast only it'll be us recapping our predictions going through all the questions that you guys gave us last year and seeing how we did and then uh and it was fun i went back and listened to it today and got all the answers uh it's a great time so that'll be a podcast show but that'll set you guys up

to submit questions to us uh for the big one the big shebang which will be i believe January 4th, live on the YouTube channel. I think we usually do it at noon Eastern time on the Sunday. So January 4th, we'll be live answering the buy-sell questions, answering the super chat buy-sell questions, making our champion predictions by the end of the year. And it's all ridiculous questions. And that's why we love it so much. The way you submit your on to the next one, matchmaking suggestions, you can start sending

in your buy-sell questions right now. So get excited for AKI and Mike Heck. We'll see you tomorrow. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Support for this show comes from Odu. Running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder with a dozen different apps that don't talk to each other?

Introducing Odu. It's the only business software you'll ever need. It's an all-in-one fully integrated platform that makes your work easier. CRM, account. accounting, inventory, e-commerce, and more. And the best part, O-DU replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. That's why over thousands of businesses have made the switch.

So why not you? Try O-D-O-F-Frey at O-D-O-D-Com. That's O-D-O-O-O-O-O-com. Does it ever feel like you're a marketing professional just speaking into the void? But with LinkedIn ads, you can know you're reaching the right decision. makers, a network of 130 million of them, in fact. You can even target buyers by job title, industry, company, seniority, skills, and did I say job title? See how you can avoid the void and reach the right buyers with LinkedIn ads. Spend $250 on your first campaign and get a free $250 credit

for the next one. Get started at LinkedIn.com slash campaign. Terms and conditions apply.