MMA Fighting - UFC Vegas 122 Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Brendan Allen's Late Finish In Main Event
Episode Date: October 11, 2026Brendan Allen kept his title hopes alive in the main event of Saturday's UFC Fight Night card at the Meta APEX in Las Vegas with a fifth-round submission victory over Christian Leroy Duncan. With his ...fourth straight victory in tact, Allen took aim at Dricus du Plessis with a unique type of callout, but will that be the fight he ends up getting, or will Allen continue to have to play defense with his position in the rankings? Following UFC Vegas 122, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck reacts to the event, the headliner that saw Allen stop Duncan, what were big takeaways from both fighters, and if du Plessis is the way to go for Allen's next bout. Additionally, topics include Andre Fili's nasty knockout of Kai Kamaka III, referees admirably taking points for a change, Malcolm Wellmaker losing his third straight fight being a great example of tampering expectations, and much more. Download the SB Nation app here ⤵️ 📱 iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sb-nation/id6789240983 📱 Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sbnation.app 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 megaphone.fm/adchoices
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All right, everybody.
Those are the victory horns.
And they sound for.
Covington, Louisiana zone
Brendan Allen
He had to work a little harder for this one
than I'm sure he expected
I know I expected
A lot of other people expected
He gets the submission in round five
Against a very game Christian Leroy Duncan
To cap off a
An event that happened
At UFC Vegas
122. There were a lot of finishes. There were way worse ways we could have spent a Saturday night.
And all the stakes on this card really were in the main event. And Brennan Allen in an absolute
must-win spot needed to get this done, needed to get a win to stay not just in the top five,
but probably in any sort of title contention for the foreseeable future. And when the good
Going got tough.
He comes through in round five, gets the rear naked choke, gets the tap, and gets another victory.
Four straight wins for Brennan Allen, Christian Leroy Duncan's five fight.
Windstreet comes to an end, and there's a lot to talk about here.
When it comes to UFC Vegas 122, I am Mike Eck.
Thank you for joining us, whether it is on the all-new SB Nation app on YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, kick, Facebook.
we are everywhere.
So thank you so much for joining us.
I know there's other things going on in the wonderful world of sports.
There's college football, some drama going on and some big games.
So thank you for joining us.
But let's just get right into this.
Get right into the main event.
We're still waiting on bonuses.
But we had 12 fights.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine.
Nine finishes.
Nine finishes out of 12 fights.
So again, this is one of those cards where it's just like it was a very apexy event.
There were a lot of finishes.
There are a lot of weird bits of matchmaking here, a lot of non-competitive bits of matchmaking.
And then once we got to the main card, things got a little more interesting, a little more competitive,
especially with the Malcolm Wellmaker fight.
We'll get into that.
But it was all capped off with the middleweight main event.
We talked about it on the preview show.
We talked about it in other shows coming into it.
this was not do or die for both brendan and allan and christian leroy duncan
in terms of their title hopes at least in my eyes this was do or life support
especially for brend and allen christian lee roy duncan as well
but brend and allen gets it done he maintains his position in the rankings
christian lee roy duncan has to go back to the drawing board and it is going to take him a
super duper long time to get back into this position he's probably going to
have to rattle off another four or five fights before we start talking about him getting top five
competition. And it's not because he's not like a good fighter. He is. He showed me a lot tonight.
He's just in a division that does not move very much. And there's a lot of star power up there.
So the stakes in this fight was not just, it's not really like whoever wins this is getting a title
shot. There was no hope whatsoever for either of these guys to get a title shot.
coming off of this unless something weird happens.
This is not a title eliminator.
This is nothing like that.
It was two guys ranked around the same,
battling to maintain their spot
while completely knocking the other dude
off the fence altogether.
And you could tell that.
You could tell when things got real Grammy out there.
The first round was very close.
Brandon gets a takedown.
CLD comes out like a bad out of hell.
Alan gets some dominant positions,
make some mistakes.
CLD is able to get back to his feet.
It's able to land some shots,
able to get back in position,
wins the first round.
Actually, now that we talk about it,
let's see if we have the scorecards here.
I'm curious to see how this is scored,
and there you have it.
I scored round one,
10-9 for Christian Lee Roy Duncan.
Thought it was pretty clear cut,
10-9, especially with the comeback.
There are some weird stuff going,
on in the first round. Brennan Allen was complaining about extended fingers, may have gotten an eye poke.
I think there was some grabbing on the top of the fence. Like there's a lot of stuff going on.
I'm just like, ooh, this is getting a little chippy. CLD. Better be careful. And then round two,
Brandon Allen gets poked in the eye real bad about 30 seconds into the round. And shout out to the goat,
to the legend Mark Goddard, who, listen, we've been asking for this type of shit for
so long for a referee to grow some balls and make a call. I know a lot of them like, well,
you know, the pain, the win and show money, all this stuff. We don't want to be responsible for
the result of a fight. But in every other sport, like you commit a foul of any kind, you're
penalized for it. And shout out to Mark Goddard takes a point. I thought it was fantastic stuff.
Honestly, like when someone asked me, like, what are you going to remember UFC Vegas 122 for?
some pretty decent refereeing.
We had a point deduction in the first fight, which I loved.
And then we had one in this fight, which I really loved.
Shout out to Mark Godd.
This was the moment of the card for me.
Him just stepping on and be like, you know what?
Get over here.
We're taking a point.
CLD couldn't believe it.
A lot of other people couldn't believe it.
Heck, I couldn't believe it.
But Mark Goddard did the damn thing.
Takes the point.
Brennan wins that round pretty handily, plus the point deduction.
It's a 10-8 round.
So Brennan is in a good spree.
Despite it being 1-1, he's up a round.
I thought Brandon Allen clearly won the third round.
It was closer, but I thought he won the third round.
CLD tried to close the gap a little bit,
but it just was a little too little too late.
That's how all the judges scored that round as well.
And then round four, CLD has his best round of the fight, in my opinion.
Brandon's sitting there trying to sort of figure out the movement and stuff.
He's trying to throw some shots.
Not as many as I would have liked to have seen,
but it seems like you might have taken the round off.
that seems to be the general consensus.
That's what Alan Joband thought.
Might have happened.
And then round five,
Brennan gets the fight back to the ground,
gets the hooks in,
waits for the moment,
slaps on the choke,
CLD, tries to grab the fence,
made no difference.
Brennan circles around a little bit,
gets the tap,
big win for Brennan Allen.
And now he remains in a decent spot.
And then he gets on the microphone,
and he says,
hey,
I fought backwards the last,
two fights fought two young hungry guys i think something cool is going to come my way either it's a
title fight or i think he i think he called him dickus instead of drickus and i didn't like that too much
it wasn't a great post-fight interview from brennan allen but yeah man i think you got to give him drickus
du plusy at this point whenever he's ready to come back but if i'm brandon allen i'll tell you what
something goes down with that bow nickel joe pifer fight you better be ready get yourself on that speed
because if something happens
at one of those two dudes
can't go in December,
you got to get your ass in there
and make a mark
because if you go in there
win another fight,
especially in that type of situation,
the last events of the year,
that puts you in a really good position
in this really bogged down
middleweight division.
So great way for Brett and Allen.
Shut up to CLD, man.
I've always liked him.
Fun fighter.
Didn't think he was a guy
that was going to like challenge
for a belt or anything like that.
Top 10 quality.
guy. I thought we kind of saw his ceiling already. He was better than I thought, man. He showed
me a lot tonight. He showed me a lot. His grappling has improved immensely. He was able to
hang with Brandon Allen in certain situations. There was some real questionable decision making from
CLD. I won't lie. Him kind of going to the grappling at certain points. I don't understand
some of the decision making. Once like kind of got his footing under him and realize like, all right, man,
let's chill out a little bit. We don't need.
need to go a thousand miles an hour. We could just cruise control at 75. Did a great job. He was
picking Brennan apart a little bit, especially in that fourth round. But even in those tough
grappling exchanges, he was sweeping a little bit. He was able to get back to his feet a couple
of times. So, ClD showed me a lot. I was, I was impressed with what he did. But the fight was a
little closer than I thought. I thought Brennan would get a submission in this one. Thought it would
happen around earlier. But yeah, good stuff. Middleweight continues to be super weird and interesting.
Brandon Allen just happens to be that guy that just continues to keep himself in the conversation.
Still awaiting on bonuses.
We'll let you know what the bonuses are as soon as we get them.
Maybe you guys see it before I do.
I don't really know.
But if I had to guess, who would I give bonus to?
Bonuses, too.
Let's take a look at the card real quick.
I would do, I mean, Andre Feely for sure gets, gets,
gets the performance of the night.
I would give, I mean,
hmm, I'd probably give it to Brentson Ribeiro
because he was like the biggest underdog on the card.
And, oh no, was R.J. Harris the biggest favorite?
I don't know. One of those two are huge favorites.
Frye is a big dog cash.
So that's not a bad one.
Ribeiro would be a good one.
You give it to Nico Price.
If we're doing a fight of the night,
I think it's the Otari Malcolm Wellmaker fight.
I was like, oh, thank God.
Because we watched outside of the upset we saw in the Ribeira fight,
we're watching fights where we just kind of knew what was going to happen along the way.
And we're just waiting for like, you know, some good dudes to really just get in there
and have a competitive fight.
And we got it with those guys.
And Wellmaker had a great first round.
Heard Otari a couple of times.
And then Atari tougher than a lot of.
$2 state comes through.
So if there's going to be a fight of the night,
I would absolutely do that.
Maybe we do have bonuses.
What do we have there?
All right.
Okay, we have bonuses.
All performance bonuses, it appears.
Alice Pereira gets a bonus.
Otari gets a bonus.
Andre Feely gets a bonus.
And Brennan gets a bonus.
How about that?
Those are your performances of the night at UFC Vegas 122.
Okay.
how about that rest of the card let's get into it and then i want to i want to take your thoughts your
questions throughout most of this because this is again and and i don't say this to be a grump or
anything like that again this is just going to be one of those events that we're going to talk
about tonight we'll talk about it on to the next one tomorrow and then we are immediately
on to to canada in the mike mollat walking buckley card so uh jai herbert beats matthias camillo
not a memorable fight. What I remember most about this one is, you know,
Herbert just kind of like grizzled, griseled, vetted his way through this one.
But the bigger takeaway was Mattias Camille just gave this fight away.
Just gave it away. It was, it was pretty tough as a guy who's been kind of high on Camille and being like,
yeah, I think, I think he might have something if he could just kind of get through some things mentally
and didn't do that tonight. He was having moments when he was actually.
moving and doing stuff. And by the time that third round came, he just stopped doing stuff
all together. And, you know, I saw a lot of people score for Camillo. In fact, like, there's a
part of me that kind of scored it for Camillo. But this one, I was okay with Herbert winning.
So Goodwin for Jai, again, like, I don't think he's beating a lot of dudes in this division,
like on the upper half of stuff. But yeah, he's in there. He's doing his thing. And,
got a win tonight.
So good for him.
Well done.
And I think Camille, when he goes back and watches that fight with his team, he's going to be like, yeah,
kind of F that one up quite a bit.
But we live and we learn in this sport.
While I was okay with the judge's scorecards in that fight, I was not okay with the judge of
scorecards in the featured bout between Lupi Godinez and Ketland Soza.
I thought Ketland clearly won this fight.
I thought she won the first two rounds without question.
especially if we are to believe
that damage is the top thing
that is being scored
when it comes to putting a 10 or 9 on the scorecards
and all the damage in that fight came from Ketland-Sosa
especially in the first two rounds.
Lupi was landing.
There was volume certainly,
but Ketland was doing the damage.
You could see it immediately.
Every time she hit Lupi in the face,
Lupi's face looked different.
There's a different look to her face.
There was swelling.
There was blood.
There were shininess going on.
I thought so was it kind of got screwed tonight, if we're being honest.
Not like a flat out, all-out robbery.
You've seen worst cards this year, but I was pretty darn confident that
Kettlun Sousa was about to get a huge win when Joe Martinez was reading up the cards,
especially when they said unanimous.
I was like, all right, maybe there'll be a split.
Maybe a card will go to loopie, but, yeah, man, I just didn't see a world where
loopie won that fight.
If you're Lubby Godinez, you take that win and you run.
Don't even go.
I hope she didn't even go to the post-fight scrum after.
Just get the F out of Las Vegas until they say, in case they say like, oops, we read it wrong.
Just run.
Run to the airport.
Get on a plane and get out of Vegas.
Take that win.
Take the second half of your paycheck and go.
Go, go, go.
Did not love the cards there.
But Lupi Godinez gets the win.
Andre Feeley, just now.
nasty knockout of Kai Kamaka the third.
And shout out to Fili for not inflicting any more damage than he needed to.
Things could have got real hairy in there with Kamaka being unconscious.
But shout out to Phili, just holding back and being a pro.
Really good stuff on his part.
We mentioned Otari, Tanzilovie, Hans Malcolm Wellmaker, his third straight loss.
Tough scenes from Malcolm Wellmaker.
And this is something that, you know, I talked about even after the Chris Boutinho fight,
because Wellmaker is the guy that I watched a lot on the regional scene when he was fighting for Mazadol's promotion when it was Icon.
And it was like a straight MMA promotion, four ounce gloves, the whole nine, the cage, all that stuff.
Wellmaker was a guy that kind of like opened their cards.
Just a fun dude, super vicious.
but they threw him in there with just low-level guys,
and he just dusted him.
And gets on Contender Series,
fights probably his toughest competition to date at that point,
runs him over,
and then he gets to the UFC,
and we're giving him the Chris Boutinos of the world,
and listen, being in New Englander,
big fan of the Chris Boutinos of the world.
But, I mean, the amount,
the amount of
the amount of talk
coming out of the
I mean the Cameron Simon
when was like super impressive
and then he goes out
and beats Chris Boutinho
and it's like okay
but then we're talking after
the Buccino
for like oh this dude's
going to fight for a belt
and I'm like
can we can we chill a little bit
can we just relax
can we just relax
they put him in
with Cody Haddon
and I was like
oh don't do that
don't do that
that's a bad idea
and then Haddon gets hurt
And we get the UFC debut of Ethan Ewing, which I don't think really anybody saw coming what Ethan Ewing was going to bring to the table.
And Ethan just kind of beat the brakes off Malcolm Wellmaker.
Wellmaker toughed it out, but Ewing just looks so good in that fight.
And then Juan Diaz tapped him.
And then he moved to ATT and we're wondering, like, this was the thing I had.
And even after the Mutineo fight and especially after the Ewing fight, my read on Malcolm Wellmaker was he's going to be the Bannamweight Terrence McKinian.
he's just going to be a super fun guy
he's probably going to get a lot of first round finishes
if guys get out of the first round
he's going to lose some fights
he's got to get finished in some fights
but he is going to be fun as hell
all his fights will be fun
not going to be a ranked guy
none of that
but he will be like must see his name
on a post you be like oh shit malcolm walmaker's fighting
it's going to be a banger
and we got that tonight like this
i loved this fight
I thought it was fantastic.
Two dudes just getting after it.
It was real competitive.
I loved the matchmaking.
I thought at first I was like,
yeah, they're trying to give Wellmaker a win.
And then I'm watching like the way Otaru is moving around and throwing some different stuff.
He's a lot quicker than I thought he was going to be.
I was like, damn, it's okay to book competitive matchups too,
because those can be fun.
I know that's not really what the UFC's been trying to do lately.
They're trying to do the, hey, we got nine more.
finishes tonight, the bunch of squash match, matchmaking. But then we finally got, we got to that
fight. And I'm like, damn, here we go. This is what I was talking about. This is great stuff.
And unfortunately, well, maker is on the wrong end of that. So three losses in a row.
A lot of people are like, yeah, I think he's going to get cut. No, they're not going to cut him.
No way. He's just so fun. He's so fun. There's value to a guy like this on the roster.
Unfortunately, time is not on his side. He's 32. He's going to be 33.
in June.
But, yeah, man, there's, why, why get rid of him?
No way.
I would keep him on for as long as he wants to be there.
He's incredibly fun.
Featured Prelim, Julius Walker, ends the career of Gerald Mearschart,
who retires after his 60th professional fight.
Love GM3.
What a career that guy had.
Overachiever.
Had some big wins, had some massive upsets.
but yeah man his his time has definitely come and this is this is a tough one to watch there are some
other ones like you know getting tapped by rdr is one thing you lose the decision to brad tavares
oligzec's kind of a chaos merchant you know Kyle Daucus is pretty good and then you know you lose a
decision to jacobalcun and then but just getting diced up by Julius Walker and
You know, not only that, like being dominated on the ground by Julius Walker is just like,
okay, I think, I think we know that we have to turn the page.
He just did not look very good in this fight.
And yeah, the time, the time had come.
What a run he had, man.
27 UFC fights.
He started, he made his UFC debut in 2016, spent a decade with the company,
long, pretty darn good career.
So good on Gerald Mirashart, happy trail.
nice win for Julius Walker.
Francisco Prado gets the win,
knocks out Ishmael Bonfim and missed weight by like seven and a half pounds.
Prado gets the win at a catchweight of 163 pounds, thanks to Mr. Bonfam.
I would say Bonfim is certainly out of the UFC after this.
I just don't see a whirl how you can keep him around.
Prado's super fun.
Called out Drew Dober, do-do pick all the way,
because Dover's already booked.
But definitely,
fight we can look at into the future and a nice win for him.
Nico Price, I know he tried to play the, well, you know, if UFC's going to call me,
I'll fight again, card.
I can assure you they are not going to call him ever again.
They did this, they gave him this fight as a solid.
Be like, yo, you've done a lot for us.
You've stepped up when we needed you to.
Your fight with Michael Kiesso is supposed to be a retirement fight.
didn't go your way.
We'll give you one more and we're going to give you.
And I mean this and I've said it on other shows and it wasn't even tongue and cheek.
I really meant it.
And maybe they just caught me on a grumpy day where I said this new live microphone,
but I truly mean it.
He was matched up with a guy I believe is the worst fighter the UFC has ever signed.
And I even tweeted this up.
This is actually like really good matchmaking.
If you're going to give Nico a retirement fight, like that's who you book him against.
Like, that's the only dude on the roster he could probably beat right now.
And he beat his ass.
Like, he clobbered him as an underdog.
And he just crushed him.
And he's like, yeah, maybe I could do another one.
And then Sean Scho was like, no, you're not.
I'm not going to do it here, which means the sad thing's going to happen.
He's going to go to like BKFC or something.
And I don't want to see it.
But I don't think we'll see Nico in the UFC again.
So they played the video package for her no matter what.
He's not fighting the UFC again.
But what a way to end it.
Congratulations to Nico Bryce.
Brenta Rivera, big upset,
Alan Frye.
Upset win over RJ Harris gets a knockout Alice Pereira.
Gets the wind shining,
putting a little spark into women's bad and weight.
Hot, like I got a big kick out of, you know,
this is a message to the MMA media.
Bannumweight is here to stay.
We're back.
We're better than ever because I'm here.
And like, I respect that.
But like, I think telling lies as you're going out the media is just not the best way to go about things.
But yeah, she's, she's definitely fun.
She's green as grass.
No doubt about that.
But she is somebody who goes out there and actually tries to hurt people.
And in this division and quite frankly, in any of the women's divisions in the UFC right now,
it is refreshing to see somebody who's kind of vicious out there.
And that's what Alice Pereira did.
She goes out there and just kind of smashes up Daria, makes her say no moss, cuts her open with some elbows to the head.
Didn't expect her to tackle her and turn this into a grappling sort of jiu-positional fight with some violent intentions once she got to full mount.
But good win for Alice Pereira.
Well done.
And then we had the Ernesta Karakati versus Melissa Gatto fight that ended in a majority draw.
totally fine with that.
I know business being was really pissed off.
That was a draw.
I didn't have any issue with it being a draw.
So there you go.
That is UFC Vegas 122.
Let's fire.
Let's take some questions from you guys.
Let's take some questions from you guys.
Super Chats get to the front of the line.
We'll take some questions on the app as well.
No matter where you're watching live right now,
you can submit your questions and I should be able to see it here.
So how about that?
Jail, we missed heck of a morning.
Yeah, it was a great show.
Something tells me we might get a,
might get a little heck of a morning style thing in a different way
in a couple of weeks.
Stay tuned for that.
How about that?
What can I say other than exactly as expected for UFC Vegas 122?
Yeah, man.
I mean, this is the car we told you it was going to be.
There's going to be a bunch of finishes because of,
because of the matchmaking.
And
yeah, it's just not going to be like
a, it's just not going to be a memorable card.
Things will happen,
but it's just not going to be,
it's just not going to be one of those cards
or it's like card of the year or anything like that.
Joseph, do we think Sean Strickland is so scared of Nazaredei Nemov
you would call up Brendan?
If not Brendan wants DDP.
No, that's crazy this.
Why would Sean Strickland be scared of Nasrity Nemovoff when he already, like, put the boots to him?
And did so, like, kind of, and pretty much did it off the couch.
And I would pick him confidently.
I mean, not like super dufer confidently, but like, without even seeing the betting lines,
I would pick Sean Strickland.
If they book that fight, I'm picking Sean Strickland to beat him.
I just don't see how, I don't see, really see a world.
I mean, you never know.
It's been a wild, crazy stretch of time.
But like, unless he just knocks out Sean Strickland,
I don't see how he wins that fight.
He's not going to be able to, like, super outgrapple him.
He's not going to really hurt him too badly on the feed.
He's not, like, he is powerful to some extent,
but he's been in there with some big hitters
and being able to eat it.
And if Hamza couldn't really get him on the ground,
I certainly don't think National Nguvobb's going to do it.
So, yeah, I think Sean feels pretty good about that matchup.
and I'm sure he feel good about the Brendan Allen matchup too.
Dude wants to make money.
He knows he can't fight forever.
And he knows Emovoff isn't a huge name.
Certainly he knows Brennan Allen isn't a big name.
He wants to fight Hamsat Shamaif.
Like, I wish you just come out and say,
I want to fight Hamsat Shemayef again because he knows that's a big fight.
But there you go.
If you watch commentary, Fitsy Claim News 3838,
well, it definitely wasn't that.
because of the point deduction.
So Brennan was up around because of the point deduction.
But boy, the commentary was tough tonight.
It was very tough.
Michael Bisbing was really tough to listen to tonight.
And the problem with that is,
is that he makes Dominic Cruz really tough to listen to as well.
And there was a certain point in the main event.
I was just like, all right, I'm out.
I have to mute this.
I have to be done with it.
Dominic Cruz made a point
and then Michael Bisbing argued the point with him
and then Dom's like, all right, what do you think?
And then Michael Bisbing went out and said the exact same
friggin thing.
And it's just like, come on, man.
Like, just relax.
Like, we know you love the UK fighters,
but like just chill out.
Man, he was tough.
He was really tough.
There needs to be a rule
that if Michael Bisbing
or Dominic Cruz is on commentary,
Paul Felder has to be the other guy.
Like, Felder makes Cruz much better.
Because Felder's like,
Felder can be in a personality,
but like when those mics turn on, he's not.
He's very chill.
He just wants to flow with however the conversation is going.
Bisbing has to get his shit in.
D.C. has to get his shit in.
And it's just, it was just so,
It was just too much tonight.
I lasted most of it.
But once he got like three rounds into the main event, I was like, I'm out.
I can't do it anymore.
I can't.
Just some of the stuff he was saying was just like, holy shit, man.
Crazy.
Now we're catching up here.
DDP and Allen, anything less than a five-round war.
I would like to see that fight.
I'd like to see it.
I, like after that fight tonight, I would picture because Duplica to win.
I'd pick him.
Brennan just, there are just certain mistakes
Brennan continues to make in these fights
that he gets away with,
that he's just not,
not going to get away with against DDP.
So I would pick DDP to win that fight.
But I'd like to see it.
I just don't know where, like, I don't,
I don't know where else to go with this.
There's just nobody else for him to fight that makes sense.
He's gone back twice.
You don't need to do it again.
Mike Heck, fighters need to have better callouts to do better to sell fights too.
Then Viter does a call and even tries to be creative with it.
I didn't like that.
No, that wasn't creative.
That was childish.
It wasn't creative.
You know it was creative?
If you watched a preview show yesterday, Jed actually nailed it.
Did exactly what Brennan Allen should have done.
RDR, CLD, DDP.
Should have had like a T-shirt ready to go with RDR crossout, CLD, crossout,
DDP circle.
That's how you do it.
Dickus?
Come on, man.
I hated that.
The three-letter thing was so much better.
It was right there for me.
He didn't do it.
So,
tough scenes.
But then again,
he was like,
I want the title shot,
or I want this,
or I want this,
or I want this.
Like,
should have been DDP
and only DDP
and you could still be creative
with the three letters.
So if DDP says no to Brennan Allen,
do you give him Damien Pinos?
DDP?
Damien Pinos?
No.
Absolutely not.
What?
Come on.
Can we stop this?
Even if you're talking about Brennan Allen.
Are we,
he beat Andre Pulaev.
And we're going to start throwing him into the top five.
Come on, man.
This is crazy talk.
We can't even be asking questions like this.
Ooh, yeah, Nikon Power Slap be the worst case of error.
You're absolutely correct.
Dara is another fight that just quit.
Like I said, some very regional, like things on this prelims.
There was a lot of quitting.
in this card.
There are a lot of fighters that were just like, yeah, done.
It was weird.
It was a weird card.
A lot of fires were just like, nope.
Silo, do you worry that the one-sided matchmaking of late in the UFC is going to
ruin the impact of knockout subs in high-level boats?
Feels like they are matchmaking to produce highlights, not good fights.
I mean, we've been telling you this is the case for a while now, but no, I,
booking a numbered event like a fight night card is a problem.
It's a problem
Because you like you just can't do it
It's annoying
Tonight we got the same it was the same thing
It was just
Outside of the Ribeiro fight
Every result was obvious
We knew how every fight was going to end
Nothing surprised us
It was just okay
We're trying to
We're trying to get to a position
where we could just go into a main car, be like, see, man,
six consecutive finishes in the first round.
Like, we didn't need to see Gerald Mearshardt fight.
We certainly didn't need to see a Ishima Bondfim fight.
Dude, didn't even try to make it to the fight.
And then he made it to the fight, and he was like, no, I don't want to do it.
It's annoying.
This might have been already asked, but do you think they'll cut Wellmaker after this loss?
No, three fight losing streak, finished two times in a row,
32 years old in the very competitive division.
No, because he's super fun.
he is fun and even in the fights he's losing is competitive at least for a little while
that's why i said like he's he's the bannamweight terence mcginnie he's gonna whip everybody in
in the first round of every fight for the most part but then after that he might be in some
trouble just like terence so yeah it's tough like malcolm's a good dude he's a nice kid
he's trying but again he got such a late start to this like he's 32
do.
And people, like, treated him like he was 22, 24 years old.
But, like, he got into this game, like, way too, a little bit too late.
But yeah, I don't think they're going to cut him.
I don't think they should.
Because he's fun.
They have signed way worse dudes off Contender Series this year than Malcolm Wellmaker.
I have no issue if they keep him around.
Bisbing forgot multiple names tonight.
He forgot Brendan Allen's name tonight.
I heard that.
My favorite piece of the commentary tonight was when Dominic Cruz had let people know that Leon Edwards was in Christian Leroy Duncan's corner.
And he was like, and look who's in his corner.
Leon Edwards, the former forgot the division champion.
And then like pause was like ship caliber fighter.
I was dying.
I had tears in my eyes.
It was very, very funny.
Mike, what is your opinion about Malcolm Wellmaker?
Is this one of the worst falloffs in recent years?
No, I think he's a, I think, I think Malcolm Wellmaker is a,
is a perfect example of how we need to tamper expectations in MMA and like really look deep.
I mean, like, and I've mentioned this before.
I mean, people were saying after he knocked out Chris Pitino,
like, he's going to fight for the belt.
Like, this dude's got to win the belt.
I'm like, what are you talking about?
Can we at least like give him somebody with like some sort of credentials first
before we start doing this?
It's just crazy.
And I liked, and I actually liked the Cody had in matchmaking.
I thought it was a massive step up for Wellmaker.
and I was actually like very excited to place a pretty healthy wager on Haddon.
Felt really good about it.
And then Haddon got hurt because I knew Hadda was going to come in as a as a decent size dog.
I was like, Haddon's probably going to beat him.
And then they brought Nathan Ewing and I had no idea what we're going to get from him.
But again, it's just like someone asked earlier is like about the squash matchmaking.
and will it take away from the high-level finishes?
It's like watching pro wrestling.
I know people hate when I talk about pro wrestling,
but like when you watch AEW,
like every match is 30 minutes and they pull out all the stops.
It's like they do all the craziest shit you've ever seen
to the point where like if you do all the craziest shit
you've ever seen in every single match that you do,
then nothing's the craziest shit you've ever seen.
And it hurts when like,
like when you're seeing fun,
guys win squash matches in devastating fashion like Malcolm Wellmaker was doing. And it's just like,
like they put him in, they put him on that Atlanta card so he could fight in his home state.
And they gave, like they pulled Mutino off the streets to fight him essentially. So he could do
exactly that. And then it was, oh, this dude's going to win the belt. This dude's going to fight for
the belt. Stunted him a little bit. But now we're,
now we're getting to see we got the example is he's an example on how to keep expectations
in a in a realistic place that's a lot it takes super hyped prospect i saw a lot on twitter
when talking about him i'm like guys like he's a good solid fighter he was 30 on contender
series 30 yeah i don't think it's a drop-off i think this is like who he is good fun
who's going to win some and lose some.
But he'll never be in a shitty fight.
More likely to be youngest champ.
Raul Roses or Alice Pereira.
God.
I mean, I'll go Alice Pereira because there's like 19 fighters in that whole division.
She's already ranked.
She's already ranked.
She's two and one in the UFC.
She beat Darya and she beat Haley,
And she is a ranked fighter in the UFC.
So it's probably going to be her because once Kayla and Amanda happens, they need somebody.
And Bia Mosquita is going to be one of them.
But B is not a spring chicken either.
And eventually someone else is going to have to carry the torch.
So I'll say Alice Pereira.
I think her road's going to be much easier.
I don't think Rall Roses Jr.
you're getting them getting thumped up by hioni barcelos and no there's no disrespect in that
but i would i would not pick a lot of i would not pick raoul to beat a lot of the dudes
ranked above him right now but perera just being young and athletic is going to beat she beats
a lot of 135ers right now so i'll go with her think juice box gets us two minutes of data no
I don't.
Who do you give CLD?
Ooh, okay.
That's a good question.
Let me pull up my rankings.
Where did I have him?
Bear with me.
Let me pull him up.
I had CLD at 14.
Um,
I would go.
Like,
I'm Alaskaroff's gonna beat Jared Kahn in the year.
I like,
I like,
I like that.
I mean,
look,
I like,
I liked what
I saw from CLD.
He's better than I thought.
He's not fighting for a belt or anything.
Like, he's, the, the, the train is off the tracks when it comes to that.
But he'll still be like a perennial top 10, 15 guy.
Yeah.
Icrum's,
Icrum's a great, a great choice.
When, like, Nardiev's fine.
Shabazian's fine.
Roman, I don't mind.
Roman copulov, unless they fought already.
Did they fight?
No, Roman's a good one.
Yeah, somebody like that.
Somebody like that.
Come up for air, Mike, don't moot.
What?
I thought you talked about.
Spent $2 on that?
I mean, thanks, but
it's a waste of two bucks.
Who should they match Alice Pereur up with?
Shit, man.
I honestly have no freaking clue.
Like, luckily we don't have to match week for her and on to the next one.
God, let me see.
see and you gotta be smart with her because like if you're the ufc you want her to do well you don't want
her losing again so like and it's tough cornolly maybe like i don't think i'd do nina milosevic
i wouldn't do michel monaqoo wouldn't do ba muskita wouldn't do jama maybe jackan cavalcanti
but even then that's a tough fight oh man like it's it's very tough
an old. I wouldn't go any higher than that.
Feeling knockout of the year contender
was filthy. It's probably not going to make
tough five, but it's damn good knockout.
Thoughts on MVP signing with misfits.
Bit of a weird one.
Yeah.
Was that ready for that?
From what I understand,
I know Ariel Hawati reported this
as well.
As far as like the striking
arts,
this is what you're going to get from MVP.
It's a pretty much exclusive deal when it comes to, like, striking combat sports.
I mean, could he get permission to do something big, perhaps?
But this is, like, an exclusive deal with misfits.
He could still, he could do, like, Polaris.
He could do RIF, do things of that nature.
But I don't think, I think this deal, like, kind of prohibits him from signing with MVP
or key MMA or anything, anything like that.
So yeah, I mean, good move for misfits.
Why not?
Try to get some of that buzz.
But it seems like they want to do something with them.
What are they going to do?
I don't know.
What do they consider big?
I don't really know.
How far can Jai Herbert go?
I've always enjoyed his fights,
find myself rooting for him, but it feels like he will struggle to crack the rankings.
Oh, yeah, he's not, dude.
Yeah.
I mean, to crack the rankings, God.
He's just in the wrong division.
Like he's never he's not even going to come close to crack in the rankings
Like this is not me being a jerk this is just this is just reality
Where do I have him in my personal rankings
I have him at 49 in my personal rankings
49 he is so far away
From that
And like look at the dudes who were ahead of him
Elvis Brenner
Howie Fernandez Kyle Nelson
and Terrence McKinney, Mason Jones, RDA,
Drak Close, Bobby Green, Manuel Soza,
Markell Maderos, Ludwig Klein,
Axel Sola, I mean, all these dudes are way ahead of him.
Chris Duncan, Jim Miller, like, they're all ranked ahead of him.
And then we go up to like,
the fringe dudes in like the division like the tom nolans and the rafa garcia's and you know the grant
dawson's the estabon riebovich's the tofik wasayevs like he's so far away from those guys
but again this it's not it's not a damnation on him it's just he's in the best division in the
sport and the reason this is the reason why it's the best division in the sport like guys like
Michael Johnson and guys like
Nazim Sattikoff
guys like Tiago Moises
are like in the top 60
like that's
lightweight. That is lightweight.
So no, his ceiling is
pretty much where he's at right now.
There's something we said about the UFC
aligning their product towards the casuals that attend
these events and think it's the best thing since
sliced bread. They've been doing this
since COVID.
The only thing they've done for the hardcore fan is UFC 300.
That's it.
Literally, that's the only thing the hardcore fans got.
And they had to pivot in such a big way that they had to do it that way.
Because everything they planned for the main event kept falling apart.
They kept promising stuff that would blow our socks off.
And then they realized, let's just give something to the people who have been there for a long time.
And let's give them just a stacked ass.
card with tons of ranked fighters and former champions and crazy shit.
That was the card for the hardcore fans.
Everything else has been for the casual.
Everything.
But this is the sport, man.
Like the shelf life of your average MMA fan is like three years.
And it's not even that anymore.
This is like during the heyday.
You might get two years out of the casuals.
And maybe like 1% of those people are going to stick around past that.
It's just too much.
They can't keep up with it.
They cannot keep up with it.
CLD Coppulov,
CLD Izzy.
No, I don't think he'll get the Izzy fight.
Just got here.
No way UFC higher-ups have watched a full UFC event
with Bisbing and Cruz,
this can't keep happening.
They're going to keep,
like,
there is outside of Michael Bisbin
create,
like actually committing a horrific crime.
And even then,
I don't know if that would do it.
He's not going to.
anywhere. He's not going anywhere. So we're going to have to deal with it for quite some time.
But it was, it was tough to listen to tonight. It was, it was really tough. And there are, there are
certain times, like, like, I actually think Bisbing on, when he's on Contender Series is pretty good.
Spet, like, even the, like the Bell Amir event, I thought he was fantastic at that, on that card.
I thought he was great. Tonight he was really, tonight he was not good. And he made, he made, he made
crew's not good. And Fitz, Fitz worked his ass off tonight. I give that man a lot of credit.
But like, can we just tag Alan Joe Bannon for a card? Like, why is Felder not like the go-to guy?
I don't understand it. Like, I understand you want to go with the familiar voices on the,
the big cards, you know, Anak DC and Rogan. I get that. But like, like, Felder should be on every
fight night. Like the main three for fight night should be fits feldor sanko.
Like that's your fight night 18. And if one of them can't do it, you sub in somebody else.
And then obviously like you want to give John Gooden some reps. Then we can mix in some
other bodies, but like, like, Felder should be as on as much as possible.
And Sanko should be on as much as possible.
And Fitz is very good.
Gooden's great.
Dan Hellies get really good too.
But yeah, it's, plus, like, it is tough to call fights for seven hours.
But, like, come on.
Like, we got to know the rules.
We got to know how to score our fights.
Like, it's just, it's like the ranting and raving after the first.
fight being scored a draw by business man i was like what you talking about that was like it was a clear
draw like most people thought it was a draw he's like there's no way that should be a draw of course
it should have been a draw how about apadaka for alice perera no i don't think he can do that
i don't know i think they have something with alex like she is like she's a she's a grimy-ass
fighter, but she's got a real fun personality, too.
And she might, she could go out, she might go out there and beat Pereira.
I don't know.
So I actually think you kind of keep those two away from each other for a bit.
Because I think if you're going to keep this division alive for the next, like, pass the next two years,
I think you're probably going to need both of them.
And Bell is coming.
Like, she's coming.
She will be in the UFC.
So UFC go back to Seattle in 27.
If they pay, I think 333 feels like a hardcore fan card.
I am friggin' pump for 33.
Now that's a fucking fight card.
That's an excellent fight card.
It's really good.
That's like one of the better main cards you're going to see.
Really good.
I've heard fits over Anik.
Okay.
Listen, I like both those, dude.
I like both those guys a lot.
They're just two pros.
Did Kai Kamaka win?
No, no, no.
He didn't.
Damn.
He sure didn't.
To be fair,
Bisbing is the only one scoring that first fight.
was Donald Cruz, Fitzgerald.
They're all confused in that fight.
Bisping through, like, a fit after that fight was scored a draw.
When, like, most people scored that fight a draw.
How do you see the Volk-Movzar fight?
That one is, that one is really tough to call.
It's a really hard fight to call.
I'm still, like, I still haven't picked.
I can't pick yet.
If someone, if someone, like, basically was like,
you have to make a pick right now or, like, no,
or you lose your job, I'm picking Movesar.
with no, like with very little confidence.
That is just, it's such a close fight.
And I honestly think more people would pick Movesar.
But again, this is, you want to talk about casuals and stuff of that nature?
And like the power that fan base can have,
the power that that fan base has is they are,
they love Dana White.
And anything Dana White says is gospel.
and this is not going to be trust me what I tell you this is not going to be we're not going down the oh you hate Dana White bullshit when Dana says something it sticks to that fan base and Dana White said something after UFC 297 and he called Mobsar of Loy of boring and that has stuck with him ever since and I've said this a billion times and I'll say it for the billion and first time Dana White painted
that man unfairly with the boring brush because he confused him with somebody else.
He had no idea who Mozart of Loyov was on that night. He had no idea that
Mozart of Loyaf, Arlisle that night. He confused him with either Chris Curtis or Mark
Andre Barrio. I'm fully convinced of that. And because he made a mistake, it ruined that
dude's career for the next two years. And it's a bummer. It's a super bummer.
But I am, I cannot wait for Volkovsky-Mozar.
Can't wait for Jan and Mara and Marab.
I can't wait for that whole card.
That week's going to be bananas.
I can't wait for that whole week.
It's going to be awesome.
All right, take a couple more to get out of here.
Would you guys think of the Ketland Lupi fight,
all three judges, unanimously 29-20 for loopie?
I give Keltin the first round based on damage.
I did too, and I gave her the second round as well.
I think there was a hose job there.
Oh, show.
all right take a couple from the app then we're out of here uh danis traction with cash
fix to become a casual fan yeah to some extent sure uh great night of fights with a k
for night uh what do the odds alan gets ddp next wouldn't that fight make sense it make
great sense what would i give it odds was 50 50 sorry 50 i think that's that's pretty good
it's the best odds he's had i think first emperor hear me out does allan finish shami if he's
survives the first round. I think Hamzaa would blow a gasket fighting Allen's base.
Yeah, I don't know. I don't think that fight goes great for Brennan. But those two, like,
they train together, they're friends. So, but I mean, obviously, if there's a belt on the line,
they would fight each other. I would pick Hamza to be Brennan Allen.
Jay Muler. If Strickland gets stripped slash vacates, we can take vacates out of there.
Does Alan have a good chance against Hamza? The scrabbles would be intriguing.
No. I mean, look, does he have a good chance? No. I mean, he has a chance.
But, like, he just made mistakes tonight against Christian Lee Roy Duncan that Hamza is just going to clobber him if he makes those same mistakes.
As that shot my sister, that was a good finish. According to Dominic Cruz, like two years ago, it was, but not anymore.
Tom has gotten better with that.
No, that's not his sister.
About your comments in the commentary,
the lack of proper training because they think ex-fighters
can just jump in there and commentate.
Do any of them do amateur shows?
No.
Of course not.
I mean, well, I mean, look,
Joban has been doing
in Kiesa as well.
I think Feld did some CFFC stuff.
Joe Ban still does LFA commentary.
Kiesa's done a whole lot of LFA commentary.
So, yeah, man, they're just going to go with, they're going to go with their company peeps, you know.
And they don't, like, I'm not saying they're like, none of those guys, like, provide no value.
Like, I think, I think Bisbing and Cruz are, like, excellent desk analysts.
Like, that's where I think they, they are best suited.
Because then both those dudes can fire off a couple takes.
You know, I want, that's what I want to see on the desk.
I want to see dudes who've got some, who want to, who want to say some shit.
And Bisbing's not going to say a whole lot.
He's not going to sit there and like, and have a hot take.
Really?
You know what?
You know where Bisbing is fantastic?
And, you know, it's not something I listen to on a weekly basis, but like, for our job,
we have to watch some of this stuff.
When Bisbing is on, um, the Jackson podcast.
He's fucking great on that.
Like he's fucking awesome on Jackson.
He's so good on there.
Because he's him.
He'll fire out a hot take.
He'll say some shit that like he would never say on a UFC broadcast.
He's fine.
He's really good on that show.
And like I listen to him on that show.
I'm like, man.
I'm like, give us some of that.
Give us some of that.
He's like, he is, he is the.
real Michael Bisbing on that show.
And I know what you're saying, Dave.
It's, trust me when I tell you,
it's not a great time.
Mostly listen to that.
But like,
Bisbing is great on those shows.
Like, he's really good.
I'm like, man,
he's way different on believing me.
Way different.
He's,
he's UFC Bisbing on that show.
But Jackson,
he's in like a different setting.
He doesn't feel like he's on like a UFC show.
Because I could just,
I mean,
I don't know.
a fact, but believe you me, I'm sure the UFC is giving him fighters. They're giving them
interviews. They're going through UFC PR to do it. And they're probably on the calls with them.
Maybe not all of them, but I bet a good chunk of them are on the calls. Because like, if you do
interviews with the UFC, like, that's what happens. But like, he ain't getting that from Jackson.
He knows, probably no one from the UFC's listening to that show. So you get, you get a little bit of a,
you get a little bit of the real Michael Bisping. And you're just like, okay, where is this in the
broadcast?
And like you don't get spicy tastes from Joe band.
Sometimes you get him from Cruz.
Widman used to do that, but now he's kind of just full team UFC now.
So it was always interesting when Chale and Anthony Smith were on the desk following an event.
Because like they would say, I mean, they would take like so far on the other side.
They're just like, what are you talking about?
but at least it was like it was different and like edgier and more real and and just different
you know something to talk about like what i can't even remember the last time that like we
wrote an article based on like anything the ufc production has done outside of dean thomas
firing julian robertson and saying he's never coaching her again after
UFC 330 it was, I think.
It was 330, right?
It was 3.30.
That's it.
We used to write shit from that show all the time when it was like Chale and Anthony.
But yeah, it's just not that anymore.
It's like, it's pro UFC and all that.
And it's just like, yeah.
But anyways, long story short,
Bisbing and Cruz should be on the desk.
That's where they belong.
That's where they shine best.
And I'd love to see Joe Ben get a shot of commentary again.
I think we've seen them on Contender Series.
Kiesa we've seen a couple times.
He should do more of it.
I think Kies is better at commentary than he is at the desk.
And I think Bisbing and Cruz are better on the desk than they are a commentary.
But again, I wouldn't say like get rid of them altogether from the broadcast.
Just his being's better on the desk.
Cruz is better on the desk.
Cruz is better at commentary when he has Paul Felder there or it's just him and Anik.
I bet him and Fitsy, just the two of them would be really good too.
But nothing's going to change.
Thank you so much.
Thank you, as always.
On to the next one tomorrow.
No AK.
It's just going to be me riding solo.
So if you have not submitted your picks,
send it to me and only to me.
And that would be great.
M underscore HeckJR on Instagram.
That's the best way to do it.
If you already sent to AK,
you can leave it at that.
AK will forward them to me.
If you want to do me a solid and just send them to me after you send him to him,
that would make my life much easier as well.
So we'll record that tomorrow morning.
We'll be out probably before 11 a.m. tomorrow.
And then, yeah, a lot of people have a long weekend this weekend.
So if that is you, enjoy it.
Then we'll be on the road to UFC Edmonton.
And then we'll be knocking on the door of UFC 333 fight week.
and a fun week in Las Vegas for RIA 14.
And I'm really looking forward to that.
So thank you all very much.
Thank you for watching.
Hope you guys had a good night tonight.
And see you tomorrow and on the next one.
Peace.
My reg league goalie says he plays for the love of the game.
You gave up six goals last week, Steve?
Maybe play to win, huh?
Like with Bet365, I get paid the second my team goes up big with early payout
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Come on.
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