MMA Fighting - UFC Vegas 21 Post-Fight Show: Leon Edwards vs. Belal Muhammad Ends In No Contest

Episode Date: March 14, 2021

With UFC Vegas 21 in the books, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck, Jose Youngs, Alexander K. Lee and E. Casey Leydon recap the top storylines from Saturday’s event at the APEX, including the no contest in the main event between Leon Edwards and Belal Muhammad.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Follow E. Casey Leydon: @ekc 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

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Well, hello there, everybody. UFC Vegas 21 just came to an end and what can I say? I think I have to start off by by apologizing to our great viewers because I went on this journey. I took you on a ride yesterday during the preview show when talking about the MMA gods and how unfair they can be. little did I know that I was right, but they were really angry tonight, like super angry. I cannot believe that fight ended the way that it did. Leon Edwards comes back for the first time since July of 2019, like we talked about.

Nate Diaz had fought twice since we had seen Leon Edwards compete, goes into the octagon. He hurts below Muhammad. He looks fantastic in the first round. and then he lands, one of the nastiest eye pokes you will ever see completely accidental. Blah Mohamed was an incredible pain. And the doctor, Herb Dean, fight is stopped. We have a no contest, and that is how the night ends, as we welcome you to our UFC Vegas 21 post-fight show to react to actually a really fun card up until that point.

I am Mike Heck being joined by Jose Youngs, live from Phoenix, Arizona. We got A.K. Lee, the Prince of Positivity, the man behind fiery tweets all over MMA Fighting.com, and the man on the ones and twos in the truck, bad a stash, NMA media. Casey Liden. Oh, man. Jose, let us begin with you, my friend. Your initial reaction to what we just saw in the main event of the evening. Makes sense.

This is MMA. MMA is a silly sport. we thought Tony Ferguson and Donald Soroni would rule that fight ended in oddness. We thought Donald Sorony versus Robbie Lawley would rule that ended up being terrible. We thought Nate Diaz versus Horri Moswell are fighting for a fake title for the baddest motherfucker on the world. It ends with a cut over an eye. So yes, of course, keeping with tradition, the welterweight slash lightweight division is silly and nothing can go right. So am I surprised?

Yes. Should I be surprised? No. because this is MMA and nothing that we like goes right. We don't get the fights we want. And when they do happen, this happens. We all said Jan Sterling was going to be amazing. How did it end?

We all thought Izzy was going to style on Jan. How did it end? Like, it just happens. No one should be surprised, but we should all be disappointed. But we shouldn't be surprised. Unfortunate all around. AK, you're the Prince of Positivity. Make this positive somehow.

unmute yourself and then. Sorry. I'm positive. I'll do some typing, so I'm a very loud typeer. I'm positive that we have a lot to talk about, which is always a good thing. I think for these post-fight shows. It's, you know, and look, we got a little bit of everything, didn't we?

We got no contest, two no contests, first round finishes, controversial. There's like two fights on this card that I think people felt could have gone either way. One of them, maybe a little more of a robbery than the other. But like on any other card, that would have been one of the, top five talkers of conversation on this card. And I almost just even forgot to mention it. So yeah, we got a lot of talk about it.

And that's great. That's great for us. And that's great for those tuning in. So thanks, everyone, for tuning in. Casey, let's, I mean, we can't really change the subject because I'm sure we're going to be talking about this more. But this was a fun card. We were talking about before you record.

There were a lot of good finishes. There were some scraps, some really good fights. So I'm curious how you think the bonus structure will play out tonight. Well, first off, this card fights 1 through 12. Freaking ruled. Man, they were awesome. And then even the first round of the 13th fight, the main event was pretty dang awesome.

Until those last 18 seconds of round two, uh, bonus structure. First off, Dan Ige needs to change his name to Dan, maybe 100K, Ege. Maybe that's the way the fight bonus. Maybe the whole fight bonus is staying in 50K solely because of his nickname. and, you know, the UFC doesn't want to, you know, mess up his Twitter handle or anything.

So Dan Igay, change your name. But Dan Igay should get, I'm assuming four bonuses tonight. Danigay, probably Ryan Span, maybe. Guys, there's a great card. Sammelsberger, yeah. Sammelsberger, probably. And then one more. Who am I missing?

Yeah, yeah. Davy Grant. Oh, yeah. You know, it sucks, but then, man, like, how do you not give extra money to Charles Jordane and Marcelo Rojo? Oh, like, that fight was freaking awesome. It just, it was a great, it was a great night of fights. Minus one horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible, I poke.

Yeah. I'm just, I don't know, I'm just, highs and lows of the sport, the highs and lows. I want to be super excited, but then, God, I was just like, We're going to talk about Leon Edwards. Is he going to get a title shot tonight? Is it going to be a big upset? No, no, no, no.

Wild. What are the peeps? More bonuses. More bonuses, more money for the fighters. No, I'm saying more bonuses, more money for the fighters. Please, please, enough of this. This shouldn't even be something that we're debating after a card. We should just be saying, we should be happy for everyone,

had to send finishes. And the $200,000 bonuses that they're each getting someday. someday hopefully that will be the norm. So I think Dana White. I think the two things we learned tonight are one, like AK said, more bonuses and two, we need to do something

about this grounded fighter landing knees rule because it's not control. It was unbelievable. I cannot believe we got another one tonight. I was saying Mike just tweeted out a photo of the eye poke. A nice close up picture of the eye poke. I don't know if Casey wants to grab it.

It looks, it's pretty nice. So anyone, I'm saying, anyone watching. Can you throw it on Slack? It's really ugly. I don't even know if we want to put it. I'll send it to you. I don't think we want to put it in the, it's, it's not fun to look at. It's not fun to look at.

It's like, oh, geez. I'll be, I'll be the judge of that. Yeah, yeah, I'll put it up in our slides. I'll put up in Slack. Boy, it's rough. It's rough. But yeah, it's funny that we almost forgot about the accidental knee that happened just, just like an hour ago.

That's so wild. And it was just different. I mean, it was a lot of talk about the rules and like the difference between the Anders knee and the Sterling knee. One was deemed intentional. One was deemed unintentional. We had a DQ. We had a no contest. I mean, just craziness.

I just, it's wild. Just wild. What are the peeps saying right now? How are they responding to the end of this night? Hopefully they're like, I mean, I know we're a little bit. bit down, just, you know, recency bias and all, but like Casey just alluded to,

it's a really good card overall, though. It was a big finishes, great points. I was ready to talk about like, dude, you know, don't judge a card to what happens, you know, it's going to do all the whole Dana White thing, you know. I mean, I was kind of high on this card regardless coming into it. I felt,

I felt people were kind of crapping on it for no real good reason. I actually liked a lot of the matchups on it. But then the MMA gods did what MMA gods did. Do, yeah. Let me show the photo They're just asking for the photo So I'm gonna give them the photo Hold on one moment

All right You gotta give the people they want Yeah You gotta give the fuel what they want Animals, you There we go That's right in there That is under the lid

That is right under That's touching his brain That's not good Boy, when he was screaming He hit the mat And was just screaming We saw two fighters back-to-back fights. Ryan Span crying in the cage and then Muhammad crying for other reasons.

There is crying in M.A. We know that for a fact. I don't know that there's no crying in M.A. I mean, that's been, we know there definitely is. It definitely was tonight and justifiably so because that was such a shame. Leon Edwards, his first fight in 20 months. Balal Muhammad, his first main event. Yes, I think that's the proper reaction.

his first main event, his chance to immediately jump into a top five spot if he beats Edwards. And we got really the worst case snare for both those guys and for the UFC, I think. Because again, I think we all said we agreed beforehand that there's no guarantees the winner was going to get a title fight, but it certainly would have helped them sort things out and would have given Dana White an option if you want to low ball some of the more. And so literally everyone loses. Dana White ain't going to be saving money for title fight. I'm saying some of those other welterate contenders. I mean, obviously, I'm not, I don't think they're celebrating what just happening there, but they're definitely, you know.

The only, the only winner in this is Trevor Whitman, because now the UFC is going to have to look at his fancy gloves that he's always selling. Oh. You ever looked at those things? Those things are sick. Have you looked at those, Casey? No, I haven't. They're like curved. Like, he puts so much time into, like, perfect.

They're, like, curved down like this. And he, like, researches at a ton. And he's shopping it to a bunch of, like, the, like, the technology and stuff to a bunch of, like, the, like, the technology and stuff to a bunch of, bunch of places, but he says he wants the UFC to have it first, just because they're kind of, if the, he understands if the UFC takes it, then the casuals or recognize it as legitimate, and he's just trying to expand, he's just trying to make every promotion use it. And most promote, a lot of promotions won't change unless the UFC changes. I mean, that's just the business part.

Yeah, yeah. Man, this card had, this cart, when I think about it, this card was like, like the pinnacle MMA card. It had freaking everything, including massive disappointment. You know, so it's a bad card. No, no, it isn't. It isn't. It's just like, you know, it's like, you know, watching a great movie, but like, but there's some, there's some twist at the end and it just sucks, you know, but it's like, well, the first, the first, you know, 89 minutes are really great, you know, just that last minute sucked, but I just think about the first. So it's like the last season

of Game of Thrones. Okay, we're not going to talk about Game of Thrones. That's really, that's old news. and that season was not that bad. Okay, let's just, this is, I was going to go for a Spike Lee dig. I was going to say, it's like a, it's like a, it's like a, it's like a, it's like a, it's like a, I'm not complaining that the choices they, or why they made the choice in the game of Thrones. I'm just saying they were dumb. I'm not complaining that they made them. They were just dumb. I thought we were not talking Game of Thrones.

But we, I heard what Casey said. We weren't. I heard what Casey said. I chose, I chose to ignore. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, no, I think it, I think it was an entertaining car.

overall, I think we'll look, I mean, just the last two weeks of cards are, well, we're going to, hopefully in the future kind of, like, by the end of the year, kind of blend together how crazy these last two weeks were. First of all, and I mentioned this on the preview show that, like, that we didn't lose a fight within like that 48-hour window, which had happened to many cards. And we lost a lot of fights on fight day. So that didn't happen with these cards. Instead, all the weirdness was saved for the cards themselves. So I think when we look back on this two-streek stretch at the end of February and, I guess this is what days? sorry, the first two weeks of March, we're going to be like, man, the hell is on. Well, you know what, because we're one year, pretty much one year into the pandemic,

one year into, you know, the country, the world shutting down. So all those, all that weirdness of MMA kind of just, you know, got bottled up and got released, you know, in the one year anniversary, pretty much. So there you go. Wild. Absolutely wild. It's like your first relationship in high school. And that's like you got lucky.

It just starts off great new new beginnings Matthew Semlesberger with a quick knockout And then we got Jinnu Frye getting their first win is another feel good moment And and we got a bump in the road We got a bad decision by the by the judges poor Courtney Casey gets gets hosed But then like the next day you apologize and we get Nazarad hackperas versus raffa Garcia And then we get a honey roniyaya submission and then we get Charles Jordan versus marcella road Oh road

Angela Hill gets a solid win You know And then Then we're back to normal You know With the round of knee rule And it's always the winning fighter It's never like

It's never like a guy is like Oh I'm losing I got to cheat to stop the fight It's always a guy about to finish the fight Yeah That's what I mean Like Anders Same with Leon Edwards

Like we didn't even talk about how good Actually how great Leon Edwards looked in round one That was like Awesome That's what even sucks more about this It's like, oh, you know, Leon Edwards, he's been out for a while. And boom, he comes back. He looks fresher than ever.

Like, like, Bahá is just like, you know, walking, going backwards, like totally reacting to Edwards, you know, the whole time. Edwards is switching stances, throwing kicks from both sides. Like, like, Muhammad just looked, he looked lost for a bit in there, you know, in the second round. All right. We got bonuses, people. We got bonuses. Okay. No fight of the.

Yeah, four performance bonus. Yeah. No fight of the night. No fight of the night. Span, okay, Span, Ege, Grant, and the Mr. How do you say, is that? Matt Semmelsberger. Simblesberger.

Semisberger. Semai the Jedi. Yeah, that's my guess for the top four. That's your, yep. Oh, you got it. I got it. Yep, that's correct. No, Ronnie.

What you say again? You said Span, E. Semelsberg, and who else? Semmelsberger and Davey Grant. And Davey? Oh, yeah. Okay, yeah, sure, sure. Oh, that's a problem.

I know Charles, Charles Ordain, Raniaya, come on now. Ronnie Yaya made it look too easy. Yeah, definitely. Just, it's a lot like last week when Amanda Nunes submitted Megan Anderson. If she wanted to knock Megan Anderson out, I'm sure, I mean, I don't think she needs X50K, but I'm sure she would have gotten the 50K, but because she submitted Megan Anderson, you know, the UFC don't like that. So, yeah. for a bummer for Raniyaya. But yeah, congratulations to all the extra 50K.

Should be more, though. Davy Grant's with the legendary old man English power. He breaks bones in the fight, had a broken jaw on Fight Island, gets a knockout, breaks his foot against Jonathan Martinez, knocks out Jonathan Martinez, gets a huge upset win. The guy is just like a fine wine right now. He's aging very gracefully. Mike, he's a grappler.

He's a grappler. He's a mission. guy, one KO in his first 11 years of MMA. It still wasn't that many fights. It was like 15 fights. But still, one knockout. One knockout. Now back to back. Highlight Real K. What?

MMA? What? What did I say? What did I say? He's the new Gilbert Burns. He's a bad man. And Dan I was a beautiful. How about Dan Egey getting screwed over for fastest knockout ever in UFC history? He had a three second knockout.

three second knockout apparently. Yeah, exactly. They hadn't counted. Like, the clock should only start once the two guys engage, obviously. The clock starts once I start paying attention to the fight. That was like the biggest waste of air. Sorry, I mean on air time. I don't mean big waste of air.

But yeah, Corme and Bisping like, like, what was that? Three seconds, five seconds? It's like, did you guys completely forget everything that happened before the actual exchange? Like you guys know, the clock started like 20 seconds ago. There's like there's clocks all over. over their screen now with all those draft draft king's clocks everywhere who's the who is the play-by-play guy tonight um was it uh fits i could tell fitz was like uh he was like uh what do you guys he kept trying to chime in like uh i don't interrupt this without making these guys look you know off

and and it's too bad because overall i thought bizbing and dc did a great job tonight they did Like breaking down certain fights and certain techniques and different scenarios. I thought they did great, like giving different aspects on a lot of those different things. And they were giving it was bad, but I thought they laughed about it well, though. But I thought they gave really good positive critiques of fighters. Sorry, constructive critiques of fighters. You know, I think, I can't remember who, but there's a few fighters are like, oh, they just need to work on this. But it wasn't like just wasn't crapping on them or anything, but they were like, oh, just clearly they need to work on this.

And they did a great job tonight, actually. I'm kind of, I'm kind of, I criticize them. I criticize their critics, they're criticizing them a lot. But I thought they did a really good job tonight. And they stayed focused. It was good. The one thing I didn't like that was discussed in the broadcast. And there wasn't just them because when Mark Ratner came on to clarify it after,

it's a little confusing, sort of why the sort of what happened with the illegal knee in the Anders Stewart fight. And then ESPN and May also tweeted this out. They were explaining like, you know, why it was called the way. it was and it's like oh it went to a no contest uh because uh it is an unintentional foul and it wasn't past the middle part of the second round but i think some people might have misconstrued that as it saying like why it was a no contest instead of a dq um and i i tweeted out that like you know what they're saying is why this didn't go to the score cards because sometimes things in an

unintentional foul can go to the score cards but i hope people aren't thinking that the round matters when determining a dq a dq can happen in any round okay but it's just like yeah what like what what they were discussing the broadcast was why it was called specifically no contest as opposed to possibly go into the judges, which again can happen if the fight is more than halfway done. But yeah, if the strike had been deemed intentional, round doesn't matter. We would have had its qualification like last week with UFC 2509. And I'm still not 100% sure what the difference between intentional and accidental is, to be honest. I don't really understand it because clearly Jan didn't intentionally throw last week, didn't intentionally throw an illegally.

he threw it with the intent thinking it was legal. Same with Anders. So it's weird. I don't, I don't, I don't get it. I don't, I don't see how Anders knee could be viewed as unintentional if I'm being honest. I have no idea how you could say that was unintentional. Again, like you said with Jan, he didn't mean to do something illegal. Yeah.

But he did, he did intentionally throw the knee. Yeah. Everything is intentional. Everything is intentional. Yeah. Nobody tends to get disqualified. The only, the only different. is in the Bannamway title fight, the referee can be heard saying, don't do it.

He's down. He's a down fighter. We didn't get that in this one because it just seemed, I guess, more obvious. I don't know. I don't know. So how do we fix that? I've no cool how to fix that. And I think people are saying also Mark Smith kind of put himself into a corner.

I think right away they said, he shouted like intentional foul. And there was like no, so there was no going back from that. After that, it was just a matter of deciding whether Aljo could continue or not. and whether to take away points or just to qualify. I don't understand anything. I just, I honestly don't. You know what's wild, though? If we, we were this close to getting two of those in a row

because Angela Hill was this close to throwing one of those on Ashley Yoder. And right when she was about to lift that knee up, she pulled it back. And that would have been, that would have been a bad one too. That probably would have been worse than any of the other two. And once again, it's all wide open for it. And it's always the dominant fighter who's running away of the fight that always gets the illegal. Because like, go back years, go back to John Jones and Anthony Smith. He was dominating the fight.

You know, then he throws the ligandineate. John Jones over Matt Hamill. He was dominating the fight. And then he threw the illegal elbow. It's just, yeah. Like the whole idea is like, oh, they don't know the rules. Like, they know the rules. It's just like they're also beating up somebody right now and trying to finish this fight.

It's just, it's fighting. I don't know. This isn't. Oh, but asking how do you fix the dang rule, you get rid of the dang rule. Or, and I've been saying this, I've been saying this a lot. And just get in that position. Like put your friend against a wall. Put your in that position.

When you're moving around sweaty and everything, it's hard to see both knees on the ground. You just can't tell. That's why I don't understand why instead of knees, it's butt on the ground or butt or hip on the ground. If your butt or hip is on the ground, it's really hard to fake that or play, you know, as, you know, what is they play the game, you know, kind of go up and down. So that's what if you still want to do, make kneeing a down-the-pony illegal, change it to butt or no hip on the ground. That's really all I can see, you know. And Casey, I think when you mentioned there speaks again, the difference between this week and last week was last week, I think Mark Smith thought he made it pretty clear that Aljo was grounded. and this week, you can imagine being, like said,

to Andrew's shoes and the position he was in, not knowing exactly where is the knee off, has the knee partially lifted, are both knees down. It's happening very fast. So that, I think, is one distinction that they were able to make tonight as far as, like, saying, like, well, that's what made this one clearly unintentional.

But again, like you said, it's a slippery slope, but I think you raised a good point as far as, like, the fighter perspective and what they, with the information that they were working with. And you got to remember, too, like, when, when, Mark Smith,

said to Peter Jan down. Also, Peter Jan isn't I mean, Peter Jan is not listening for that. That's just something you don't hear very often from fight. You just hear from the refs stop, you know, or something. That's just not, like, I don't know. I don't really, I don't really recall refs just yelling down a lot. And like you said, Aljo was down there for a while.

Once you're down, you can get back up. It's just down for that second. So I'm not trying to excuse Jan or whatever, but I'm just saying the rules are, it creates lots of confusion in there. right and we know that listen rule changes in m a it's going to take freaking forever for that to be changed so unfortunately i think it's going to be kind of on the referee to just say like you just got to communicate more just say like he's down he's down he's down even if it becomes like you know nonsense and redundant you just i think that's just one thing you have to do to avoid some of these

things happening because again like how are you supposed to know it's so hard hard to tell. It is. Who knows? It sucks. It just sucks. It just sucks. Yeah. It sucks and it stinks and it sucks. What are the peeps saying? Let's let's get them involved. All right. We'll just we'll just follow their lead.

There's a lot of people. I see a lot of peeps. I see a lot of peeps trying to get be heard. We got it we got kind of an early earlyish finish the car tonight and a lot of controversy. This is the worst case in error for Leon's aspirations of getting title shot outside of him getting knocked out in eight seconds by Belal Mohammed, this is probably the worst. This is probably the worst thing. Oh, you mute it. You're muted. I think losing would be pretty bad.

So that's probably worse than this, but sure. Maybe if him, I guess, yeah. Well, not. Yeah, outside of it, I think he meant outside of a loss. Sure. I guess. We'll see how the welter away picture plays out. Well, Leon, I don't know if you go ahead, sir, sorry, go ahead.

No, it's all you. I was going to say apparently Leon is talking on the Post-Fight show right now, and he does not seem to think that this is the worst thing that could have happened. This is a quote. Shout us to our pal Mark Romani for transcribing this in tweeting. He says, Edward's from the Post Show, I have worked my way back up from getting defeated by Kamar Usman. I fought everybody. I've opted to fight everybody.

I believe I deserve a title shot next. It's not happening. That's not happening. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. Sorry. I'm just, I hate to be that guy, but it's just not happening. It's just not happening. You know, it's weird. He's going to have to fight again. If I'm, if I'm him, I am like calling Eric Nixick right now and saying, dude, let me, let me come train with you. I'm staying in Las Vegas. And if something pops up, I'm jumping all over it. You can't wait six months to fight again. You have to get right back in there. Because I don't think he's like, I don't think he's like out the door of the conversation. But he's. He's definitely like sitting at the kids table right now compared to Colby and Mazadol and Wonderboy and, you know, those guys right now. He's, he's in the room.

He's just sitting at the small table right now. It sucks, you know, being unbeaten in, what's it, 10 fights now, 9, 10 fights. I mean, this is terrible. As good as he looks in that first round, this is a terrible outcome outside of losing. Losing was the worst thing it could have happened, but this is bad. I would even say this is worse because fighters get title shots off losses. Fighters don't get title shots, title shots after I poke's. I'm just saying.

That was real. That was real. Too soon. I don't know. Rumble Johnson got a title shot over a headbutt. Was it? Do you not remember the Rumble Johnson? Do you not remember the Gus was in Rumble fight?

I thought Rumble Jop. Yeah, he headbut him in the skull and then knocked him out one. Guston was dazed. But I thought I thought Gususon got the title shot after that. Well, no, Rumble beat Gus Simpson to get the title shot. That was a no more contender fight in Sweden. When Gusenstam fought D.C., what was he coming on? Anthony Johnson knocked out Alexander Guston to fight John Jones.

John Jones had a pregnant woman with his car and ran away. They stripped John Jones, Daniel Cornwallie Field and fought Rebel Johns for the vacant title. And when did it? So the original fight, the original fight was Rumbled. The original fight was that, fight was the UFC 187 and then I believe UFC 191 was DC versus Gustafin. So both Rumble Johnson and Gustafin had Tom Fulery

and both had title shots after and Ryan Bader was the Leon Edwards in this scenario. All I'm saying is you don't get title shots off I pox. You can't miss weight. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet. You can miss weight.

I get what Jose is saying. It's like we before all these things happened, I would have said the same thing that yeah, you can't get it off this. you can't get it off this, you can't get out of this. And he's just saying these presidents are getting set constantly. So there really is no such thing as well. You can't get a title shot off this because clearly you can get it off almost anything.

All right. I think this is a big question, though. What would you do with Leon next? Colby Covington. But the UFC can't make that now. How are they going to make it now? Maybe they can make that last week or whatever. Is anything change?

Are we still in the weird situation where Leon's probably going to fight someone behind them in the rankings? Oh, my question is actually this while we're on air, man. Are we doing, for onto the next one, are we doing Leon and Belal? Do we even, we have to, right? We have to.

Yeah, that's a good question. You run that? I think we have to. Why do you run that back, though? No, no, no, I don't mean, I meant on our short, are we, no, no contest. Normally there's a no contest, we just don't match me for those fighters.

Like we won't be doing Anders and Stewart tomorrow. And they're like, okay, easy, easy choice. Main event, no contest? We kind of have to matchmake for both guys, I feel. A rematch is an option, but it's funny. From the reaction I was seeing on social media, I did not see a lot of interest at all and people wanted to run this one back.

Also, that was a bad eye poke. I don't know if the law is going to be able to get back in there. Like, remember what happened to Kazangana? Like, she got stabbed in the eye and she took a whole bunch of time off. actually um when anthony johnson he he when he fought uh was it

kevin burns he was out for a while with a eye poke loss um that was another really bad one too i remember that was really bad and kevin burns got a tkio win off that i think oh he did that's out jeez he boy he paid for it when the rematch then they rematch they rematch it right yeah and it johnson won and he died

you saw a murder um Do we answer this question? I would do Leon versus Kiesa. That's the fight I'm making. It depends. Like, if Leon smart, he'll fight as soon as possible. Kiasis, but I don't think that's going to happen.

Kiyasa said he's ready and he'll be ready to fight in July. That's what? That's four months from now. Edwards versus Kiasik and headline a fight night card. I'm fine with that. Neither of those guys are in the title picture right now. Is Mazved al versus Edwards never going to happen? Do I have to give up on that dream?

Not for the, unless it's, unless the, unless it's for a belt, I don't see it happen on. That's so silly. That does, that fight doesn't need a belt. It's such an easily sellable fight. Oh, this is frustrating. That's the fight that should happen. That's the fight that should happen. Yeah, but you know the rules.

You know the rules. Oh, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have, I shouldn't have said, I said it out loud. I said it out loud. I used the word should. What are we thinking about? You said, you said should. you said win up you said marketable you should make it like it doesn't work out what are we thinking

about Leon Edwards versus Gilbert Burns I don't I mean they make it fine but that it makes sense I was saying I would think that makes sense right it's why can't then why why can't we do the original fight and do just Leon versus Hamzaa part three well I'm not that I'm not that they need to fight again comes that's retired we're not going to see him we're not going to see him back by June like Dana said so I'm going to go ahead people say people say things Well, I'm talking about it. I think the answer. The answer is fight soon against anybody.

I think Gilbert Burns is that guy. I think Gilbert Burns is that guy. I think Gilbert Burns wants to get back in there. I'm sure, you know, give it, you know, another, you know, month and a half to clear whatever, you know, the commission, you know, medical. There's a word for it, medical stuff. I mean, he tweeted out the other day, June with the, you know, the, the, the eyes. Yeah. So maybe there's something, maybe he's already got something.

So that's the thing. We don't know. Maybe him and Colby or I think that fight makes more sense than Leon Colby. But who the hell knows. Who the hell knows? All right. There's really no wrong answer. The answer is he just takes whatever they offer him and hopefully it's quick.

But does he take, does Leon Edwards take someone like Muhammad again, someone who's, was homina even ranked in top 15 or is that kind of okay well does he take someone like that far behind him in line edwards or does he i think he was i think he was right there at 15 okay well that's only because hamzok got taken out okay well sean brady's in there now uh yeah it's it mean it leon looks so dang good yeah i don't think anything else makes sense leon looks so dang good in that first round i think hopefully the u sier we will awards him just, you know, at least we saw that. We was like, oh, that's an exciting fighter that first round of Leon Edwards.

This isn't, I don't know, people thought him as a boring point fighter or whatever, but I thought he looked great. And, yeah, I would, I really hope that Leon Edwards fight someone ranked near him, like either one up or one or two below or one or two above him. Lucke is fighting. No. Now, now. The leash?

Did he already beat Luke? Did he already beat Lucke? Well, Woodley and Luke are fighting. March 27. So, yeah, let's just say, like,

that fight ends quickly in the first round, regardless of who wins. If they're ready to turn around quick and fight Leon? Yeah. I don't think, I don't think,

I don't think Leon would take it. He already beat Vicente Lucke, and Woodley's not what he was. But he still ragged number seven. Yeah, he needs to fight anybody. It doesn't matter. Yeah,

he just fought. Literally anybody. He took a fight. He took a fight. Leach is fine, too, but he took a fight versus, yeah,

I just hope I believe I was takes a fight a ranked fighter near him not you know top 30 well top 30's ranked all right yeah I knew I knew this question was coming I know I know thoughts on the Manel K Mattes Nicola decision person score see here's and I feel bad for our my good friend Drake Riggs who's an excellent reporter in the game uh MMA decisions I think I was the first person to throw him under the best too. I was waiting for I made decisions to put out the list of scores and it was Cape across the board and it wasn't surprising to see Drake as the one man out because Drake is that guy and he did it earlier in the night. Everybody else gave the Courtney Casey J.J. Alders fight to Courtney Casey except for Drake Rags who gave him for J.J. Alder.

So seeing him give it to Nicola, I was like, okay, never changed, Drake. That's who you are. And it turns out Drake, said it was for Cape 2. So 20 out of 20 media members to start. And I think Casey being thrown in there makes it 21 out of 21 media members. I'll score it from a L. Cape. This is a bad decision.

This is bad, AK. You are the robbery, man. This is bad. I cannot comment. I am doing a formal robbery review for my firefighting.com. Yes, my initial, I do think Cape One. I don't think it is an egregious robbery. Maybe when I review it, I think differently.

How many times do you see Cape's name there? That is called a robbery. That is called a robbery, sir. The so-called MMA media. Yeah, I trust them. Listen, my pal Dana White did a little video a few months ago. I don't know if you saw that where he called out certain members of the media. And I'm just saying, I'm trying to watch that video.

Oh, pull down. Why was that video pulled down? Maybe because it was full of lies. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Lies. Apparently you don't work for a site either, Casey. Oh, yeah. I'm just, yeah, I'm just my own dude.

You're just from, you're the, you're just an aggravated person. He's an entity. I just shook my fist at him. He's his own entity. It's funny you mentioned, we were, we just mentioned something about point fighting, but like Leah Nettiburg showing that, you know who needs to be a little bit more of a point fighter? Mnall Cape.

I'm just saying, I would like to see him a little, just a little more, a little more, uh, pitter-patter stuff because, look, we love Minnell Cape because he's looking for that knockout all the time. And he looked really good in this fight. And he rocked, he walked Nicola on the second round. You know, that knockout was coming. But there's those moments in between where I just wish he'd throw stuff out there just to score. And, you know, point fight like a man.

Point fight like a real fighter. You know what I'm saying? But I get it. People love him because he's looking for that knockout. And when he gets going, there's like, there's not a lot of people in his weight, his weight range, whether it's 125 or 135 years fighting in Japan, who are more exciting. He's just so much fun to watch. But he's got to learn to play the game a little bit, I think, because, yeah, I, look,

I think he won the fight too, but he was getting tagged a lot. And unfortunately, it looks like two of the judges scored a lot of sort of that Peter Pattern stuff that Nicolao was throwing more heavily than that kind of that late flurry and some of the heavier stuff. Cape was landing in round three. So I know. It sucks. It sucks. It was a bad decision. I can't.

I can't get past point fight like a man. Point fight like a man. Ben Henderson. What did you think, what did you think, Jose? What did you think of the fight, the scorecard, Cape not getting the, uh, the winning, he's not over to in the UFC. I don't know,

like I watched it on mute, so I don't know if the commentary was saying it was an egregious decision or whatnot. When it ended, I'm like, I thought Cape won, but like I wasn't going to be surprised if Mattias won because he had two takedowns. And if you think Octagon

control or control time is a real stat, yeah, we can get to you in a second, Casey. He wrote, he clearly, dominated that. And then I know they put up the stat after the fight and it was like 60 to 55 total significant strikes or something like that. So if you just

go off a stat so you know watch the fight, fight's pretty close. Manel Cape landed more. Nicolao had more takedowns and more way more control time. So it just depends. Again, we had this in the fight Q&A. Would you rather be a judge or a ref? And I said, Judge. I love

stat. So I didn't think it was a huge egregious robbery like everyone else, but I did score it for Cape. I just thought it was a close fight. I didn't. But I, so I agree with our, how many? Was it 25 media members? Including me? I agree with, I, well, you're not a media member, remember? You're just an angry man. So, uh, point felt like a man. I agree with, I agree that Manel Cape won. I just didn't think it was a robbery, but I also, I don't know if they were complaining about it on the show either. Okay. I know we're going to get sidetracked just a bit. If that's not a robbery, what the hell is

a robbery. I don't know what the hell a robbery is then. So, oh, Sanchez versus Pearson, okay, so one fight in the history of MMA has been a robbery. Matt Hamill and Michael Bisbin was still close fight.

It was a close fight. It was a close fight. It was a close fight. It was a close fight. Matt Hamill had a control. He had a lot of control time, man. Look at the stats. Control time. I don't think you remember that fight. Oh, I remember that fight. Control time, man.

Sure. Sure, sure. So two fights have been robberies in the history of MMA. Turns out, it looks like, and people complain about judging, yet there's only two robberies in the history of MMA. Sounds like judging is like pretty 99.99% awesome. So you can just shut down your little review robbery thing, AK. Yeah, you needed.

Machita, Machita Shogun won. Mm-hmm. For sure. Control time. What else do I got? Mucita had more control time. I mean, I, honestly, I don't even know if he did. That tough.

there. I'm just looking at my own, my own robbery review series that I've done here. Casey, I'm just looking at my own little list I have here. I'm with you. Look, I'm very skimpy on calling things robberies. Yeah, and it's funny. Like, really, you know, you just use Sanchez as versus Pearson as sort of like the benchmark, the bottom rung. But it's funny. It's so far at the bottom that it's like there has to be, there has to be some that are at least not that bad that could still be considered robberies, but it's hard because for me, robberies is a very strong word. And I, and, and, and, and, And I think it's one that fans surround a little too much.

But I'll do a review. We may have seen one tonight. We may have seen two tonight. We may have seen two tonight. I think both were close. But there's arguments we made. I thought I thought Aldridge had a better case than Nicolao for winning the fight. But both were robberies.

I mean, there's a different degree of robberies. I mean, you know, you can pickpocket someone. That's still a robbery. Or, you know, you can, you know, go guns. a blazing mask on into a bank. That's also a robbery too, you know, so. You can hit, you can hit trash cans with baseball bats and win the World Series. I mean, comes in all shapes and sizes.

Are we talking sprats now? Do we put Hendricks, GSP? Is that a robbery? I did, you know, I reviewed that recently and it broke my heart. For years, I said that was not a robbery. But I'd watch it again like two or three times. And I was like, and probably watched it too many times. It probably became mushy in my brain.

but I think that fight was a robbery. But I guess if I have to think about it so much, then is it really a robbery? Now I'm hurting my head again. Now I'm just, no, I don't know what to think. I pulled up like just a list on Medium and Frank Edgar is like in three of them. Do you think Ryan Hall saved himself from E. Gay by injuring himself.

Serious question. Why do we still put this guy's questions on the screen? Why do you put this guy's question? It's not a serious question. Get out of here. Yeah, it's not a serious question. It's not a serious question. Ryan Hall, Ryan Hall,

Dan Ige needs to send a commission check to Ryan Hall because at least 10% because he would not have a knockout bonus or a fight-a-night bonus or whatever he got if Ryan Hall was in there. All right. I was texting back and forth with Tyson Charterier through the night, who is the manager of Rob Font and Calvin Cater. And he basically said, like, top 10. is just different, man.

It's just different. Like Gavin Tucker's a good fighter, but his point was just top 10 is just different. And Danny is a top 10 guy. And I got Daddy Dan with that different kind of motivation. And I thought one of the interesting things he said in our conversation was, this is like the longest layoff he's had in a long time. Like since the Cater fight, that was in July.

Oh, wow, you're right. So we had like all this time. It's like nine months to just focus on getting better. Wait, nine months? Clearly. So I'm just doing the math. So as soon as he lost the cater, he got his wife pregnant. Pretty much.

Then pretty much, boom, get a fight. All right, I like that guy. There you go. Be there for the wife. Get better with your skills. Knock a guy out in 22 seconds and go home and have a baby. Yeah, good for him. Two checks and 50 Gs.

Good for him. Good for him. But you notice also, he said top 10 is different because top 15 is not a thing. Tom is not a thing Featherweight's a good really good division really good division Oh

No I don't want to Don't want to stop asking good questions John Let me go to someone else Listen everyone else You guys this is a free frog You have got to ask I see if I feel some people complaining

Why is one guy asking so many questions Ask your own questions Do you and then you will be picked There's a reason one guy keeps getting all his questions Answered Ah okay Yeah It's not a question, but I'm just, I'm just, you know, killing some timer or quick.

Two robberies and one stupid rule. It's a popery, MMA popery, folks. Yeah, I mean, look, the, I guess we should talk about the JJ Aldrich Courtney Casey fight a little bit. First of course, props to Jose, who did tweet out the clip from our preview. Was it, was this today or was this from yesterday's show, Jose? It was yesterday. Yesterday. I mean, I guess it's not a Super Bowl prediction, but you were right, as always, to call out that, you know, that these Courtney Casey fights tend to be a little bit close.

They tend to end in split decisions. And I know you didn't really wager a guess, but as we saw it today, they also tend to end in Courtney Casey losing these splits decisions. I think this, I heard this was her third split decision loss in the UFC. That's something like that. Yeah, that's really tough to do. That's like to make it that far. And look, I don't, I'm sure her and her team don't want to make excuses. I'm sure that you can do to avoid this happening.

It must suck to think you've done enough. You know, Casey, it's almost as if it's almost as if there's something, a change we could make to scoring, you know, that would like somehow help these fighters figure out how they should operate in the third. I can't imagine what that change would be, but I'm just, you know, throwing that out of it. It's almost something that's something they could do. My theory is you never tell them to score the fight and they just kind of guess. Yeah. Yeah, I think we'll try that. That's how it should be done.

Like I enjoy watching basketball, and I put like a little piece of paper where the score is. So in the end, I kind of just go, hmm, I wonder who won. It feels like the Lakers won. Casey, do you feel like that this is a fight that would have benefited from open scoring? Go ahead. Oh, well, let Mike go first. Absolutely not. Because it was 19.

It was 1-1 heading into the third. It had no difference on the fight whatsoever. Maybe not that fight, but they need to know the dang score. My bad. You need to know the school. Was it 1919? I don't really know. Yeah, I guess so.

My man. I thought I didn't know that. I was paying attention. Jose had a couple of good picks. The split decision one, you said that there would be blood in the main event. And even though it was only like around in 22 seconds or so, Jose was right. And from a freaking head kick, too. A head kick to the side of the head.

Wild. Blah was bleeding. Tristan Gordet, thoughts on Charles Jordane's performance, which his fight against Rojo should have been fight of the night. It was a good fight. Jordane, Jordan got clipped a couple of times of that second round. It was getting a little dicey in there,

but came through in a big way, whatever his coach has told him, Frasahab, he said, you're down, basically told him you're down, two, it could be down two rounds here. You've got to go in there and finish, and he did exactly that. So for those who went to the betting window

and said, wow, that Mike Heck knows what he's talking about. I'm putting dog money on Marcelo Rojo. I almost helped you there. And if you did that, sorry about that. And I hope you didn't lose too much. But a great fight is exactly the fight I expected. It was good stuff. What did you think, Jose, Jordane, his performance,

and then just the fight overall? It was a good, it was a question to answer in performance because, like I said at the beginning, I think Charles O'Jane is a fantastic fighter. He's really fun. Obviously, I'm a big fan of his personality and his nickname and all that. I just thought, like, an AK agree with me,

that I just think there was people had that Do Ho Choix knockout fresh in their mind and a lot was going on with Doho Choi leading up to that fight. He was on this streak of not just, just knockout losses, but violent knockout losses and like fight of the year contenders. So I think Charles Ordain just kind of got, was that a short notice fight or something like that crazy like that too? I'm not sure. But Jordeni wins that fight.

And then it's one of those ones where he kind of just gets thrown into these fights that maybe he wasn't ready for like the Andre Feeley fight. And so I had a lot of questions for him. We knew he could finish fighters and we knew he was exciting. I just didn't know how good he was. And Charles Erdain proved that he was a fantastic fighter. he's clearly a finisher because that's all he goes for. So, yeah, if I had to define it, it was a question answering performance.

I don't know if he's going to be top 10 or top 5, whatever you want to say, but he's going to be one of those guys that you're going to circle his fights no matter what. And I think he's going to be one of those fights that I always say, like, when two guys fight, it's just going to be high-level violent martial arts because he's a martial arts. He's in MMA. I like to define martial artists as just a gentleman who could just beat your ass in the most exciting way possible. And that's Charles, Charles Dordane. That is the definition of Charles Dordane.

So, yeah, he's on Team Jose for sure. I'm not missing any of his fights anymore. Anybody else want to comment on this by day, K? Do you feel vindicated? The Showtime Hammer Fist was something else. I mean, that was a lot of fun, wasn't it? I mean, all the credit to Rojo, man. This was on less than three weeks notice stepping in.

He's a bantam weight, by the way. I think people can see there was a size difference. He is a bantam weight. He is not a featherweight. And so he did what a undersized guy does. Just tried to get in the bigger guy's face and turn it into a brawl. Look, he got hit a lot. But he landed Chasman.

So great effort by Rojo, a huge. I was really, really impressed by him. But yeah, I thought Jardin, I see someone mentioning a possible nickname for him. They said he should be called Jordain, I guess because he's from Montreal. He has the best nickname. Air Jordane. It's amazing. And he did the Showtime Hammerfist today.

It was perfect. It was such a great bit of marketing. So that was awesome. And yeah, it's a great win for him. And I want to shout out, by the way, that was not the first time I'd seen that move. I did just have to look this up. Christian Aguilera, I think, was the first time I'd see someone do the Showtime Hammerfist. This was at an LFA show last year, I think.

So shout out of Christian Aguilera, the innovator of the Showtime Hammerfist. But he didn't catch it as clean as Jordane did. That was a loud hammerfish. That was right on point. Awesome. One of the best strikes of the year. I mean, I was sick if it was a chaos. He's awesome.

He was jumped on his head with that one, too. The way, like, Rojo is moving around. He, like, cleared his whole way. I mean, I don't want, I don't want more DQs or rural infractions. But, man, if we had, like, another no-conjecture from, like, showtime headstomp. Oh, my God. That would have been, like, so cool. I'm like, oh, don't do that again.

But, oh, that was awesome. Next time. Next time. That was a good fight, though. Great fight. Great fight. Can't wait to see Rojo back at 135 on a full camp. And, like, Jose said.

Another badass Bantamweight in the UFC. Good Lord, man. And we can't. I can't wait. All right. All right. I like this question. I like this question coming up.

I don't, I don't like it, but it exists. No one asked. And Mike and Alex, you don't have to answer because you have your podcast, but Charles Dordane,

Alex Caseras, make it happen. Spicy. I love it. There's two. Again, they're just gentlemen. that are hyper-exciting fighters.

Like, they're, and they're just wacky in there. Like, Alice dearest does a double punch. Like, he does like the double punch over the head all the time. Love it. Make it happen. What's Anthony? Anthony, um, touchy, uh, touchy Philly. What's he doing?

They already fought. Oh, yeah, that was the fight. I forgot. That was the fight. I was like, oh, my God. That guy's awesome. Yeah, okay. Run it back.

That was, uh, that was a fight between a very big comic book nerd and a big video game nerd. so I'm about it. Nerd. Nerd fights. All right. Shit, I forgot you were born in the 80s. Nerd is an insult. Is Cape?

Wait, wait, wait. You thought I was born in the 80s? 70s. No, you were alive in the 80s. I said you were alive in the 80s. Okay, this is true. I was alive. All right, moving on.

Shoot. Casey, is Minel Cape or Minnell cop, whatever they're calling him? He's a male cape. He's in a... We're saying Cape. We're saying Cape. until John annex says otherwise. Yeah.

That's true. Isabel L. Cape in danger of Will Brooksing himself out of the UFC? Well, Will Brooks got a win. So no, but I understand what the question is. I hope not. Obviously, did Dana speak at the presser? Did we know? No, he probably skipped it.

But, yeah, it's one of those things. No, if Dana, you know, gets on a microphone and someone ask him, you know what you think about that decision he says but okay won that fight and you know you know then no no he isn't in danger but uh it's not good for his pocketbook you know i mean i know so that sucks for cape um no i don't think i don't think so i think obviously we saw him we saw him in there you know he looks awesome and yeah i don't know but that that is a that is yeah the will brooksing himself man that's that's that's a crappy um adjective to put him someone. That's harsh. That's harsh for Will Brooks.

Yeah, I know. Ouch. All right. He did, I mean, definitely not any time soon. He did the UFC of favor by, he did take this financial notice in El Cape. Oh, yeah, that too. And like I was, yeah, and like I was it, and he looked good tonight. He looked much better. I know, case you don't agree, I do, I do feel that there was some reason to be disappointed in his UC debut. Again, whether had people had heard of him or not, there was that buzz around. And I think people were like, thinking like, oh, man, as good as Pandogia is, this guy supposed to be a big deal. champion overseas. He'll still take him out.

And there's just way too much hesitance. He just didn't show what he does best. But tonight, he showed a lot of what he does best. And again, it was a really good fight. We shouldn't take anything away from Nicola. Nicolao, again, is probably a top 10 flyweight, right? So it's not like he's too, it's not like Cape was getting thrown in there with some guy he's supposed to style on. If people thought that was going to happen, then you haven't heard, then you don't know enough about Nicola. This guy is probably a top 10 flyweight in the world. And he looked at tonight. So I think both guys look great.

I think, I think, honestly, I actually think he could get another loss. and still get one more chance. I think he's right there. I just think he just hasn't quite had that. I just think he hasn't quite had that moment yet. Al Mack, yes, yeah. I'm not sure what that means, but yeah, I'll go. I'll agree with you, Al Mac.

Fair call. Fair call. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I don't know why you do with Monelle Cave now. Like, I don't know what kind of match you'd be throw him in there with. What about, uh, go ahead. There's nothing easy for him. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Man, there are no easy flyweight fights. Don't do that. Don't do that, Joe B. Don't do that, the Joby. Why, Manel Cape hasn't shown me anything to see that Joseph Benevias would be in danger in there. Have you never seen Man, yeah, man, yeah, okay, yeah. I'm teasing you, Casey.

I'm not teasing Manel Cape. I'm all like, fine, but I'm teasing you. If this wasn't my own computer, I'll flip this table over right now. It's definitely that Casey's the one that gets insults when someone says that they're mad about Madel Cape. Good Lord. Show the cards. Just turn your cards around next time you're playing poker.

There's only one fight to make for Mnell Cape. It's Tyson NAM. That's the fight. Throw those two guys in there. I want that so badly. I want that so badly. I approve. Someone's getting knocked down.

I wouldn't hate Ryan Benoit because he gets hit a lot. And I feel like that's a fight that Mnell Cape could just style on. Because he's also coming off. off two losses. I like that fight too. Bonoite's a name and he's very durable. So it's like Manel could win that fight and he could 30-25

because we all know how good Manel Cape is. Yeah, you know, and Manil Cape. There's no easy fights in Flyway. There's no easy fights. Tim Elliott wants to fight Manel Cape, but I don't like that fight for Manel right now. Tim Leigh, Tim Lell called out Kai.

I thought Tim called out Kai. He called out Kai too. He said Manel and Kai were the two guys who was looking at. What about Figurato's brother? Is he a 25 or two? Francisco. Yeah.

Fighting Jimmy Flick. Yes. Oh, shoot. That's a tough scrap. Yeah, I'm interested how quick, how quick Minnell Cape will come back, actually. Because it looks, I mean, and he may be just one of those guys that doesn't bruise at all, but he's fought 30 minutes now in the UFC Octagon. And as far as he looks, he looks brand new when he comes out of the cage.

Like, you saw Nikolaus. He was all bruised. it looks like you just fell on a blender you know and he's so yeah maybe who knows metal cake might we might see him back in you know a month who knows also he's a kiddraea so Mateus Nicola walked out to the Gwent

song from Witcher 3 which is absurdly absurdly niche and absurdly random it's one of those fights it's one of those songs where if you've played this very specific part of a very specific game like and you hear it in the background

your head just kind of turns and you're like oh my god that song and that is exactly I was like typing I was like making graphics and my neck just like snapped up I was like oh man he's walking out to the Gwent song I'd text all of my friends I'm like turn on ESPN plus you thought you had the game on in the background

you're like you're like did I have this open another window you're like what's it I don't know I even have a physical box of Gwant card sitting right there like I'll play let's do an interview where I play Gwen with Mateus Nicola I'm about it oh yeah there we go look it I'll give one collation

quick thing on this fight. Props to Nicolao for the durability. He's improved. His chin's gotten better because some of those shots at Cape Landon in the second round, I thought he was done. As soon as he got clipped the first time, I was like, he's done. This is it.

Cape's going to get his first stoppage. And Nicolao came through and got a win, a victory. I'm just kidding. Nicklau fought great. He's a very good fight. He's a very good fight. He's a great fighter. I just didn't think he won the fight.

I don't think anything bad of Nicola. I think he's still obviously a top flyweight in the UFC. And it's good to have him back. So, yeah. Yep, completely agree. It was a good fight. All right, what do we got there? Brian Spann.

I'll let Jose answer this question since A.K. We'll be talking about this tomorrow. We got this on the preview show. Spann versus the winner of Crude versus Anthony Smith. That makes sense? Sure. Like anytime like Ryan Span looked awesome, who did he lose?

Was it the Johnny Walker? Was his last fight right? but that fight was wild. Like that fight was back and forth until it wasn't. So yeah, sure. I just think I think as much as we talked about light heavy wave being super shallow and kind of the old man's division for a minute, like it's a lot.

The future looks pretty bright at 205 in terms of like at least competitiveness. Yeah. I was, I was like, I think we had been in the fan Q&A before. I was pretty high in Circumoff. Circumov or Circumnoff? Circumov. Circunov. I was pretty high in him.

So, oh, sorry, Circinoff. Um, yeah, so I was, I was a bit shocked by Ryan, Ryan's band tonight, but he looked awesome. He looked quick. He fought smart. And, um, he's definitely improving. And make, my God, he's, he is a big man, too. I just, I didn't, I just, I honestly, I've never, like, I've never seen him in person, you know. Uh, so, uh, he just was like, woo.

And, and he seems, yeah, that new, he seems to be hitting his stride now. And, um, it's exciting. Um, I was, I wasn't super high on him, but that was, he fought a great fight. And, yeah, him versus if crude wins. is cruet's fine anthony smith right yeah when is that yeah when is that next week end of march soon soon soon yeah yeah it's exciting crout span um uh what's that what's the other guy that's knocked out osp what's what's his name jemal jemal jemma hill yeah these new two oivirs he was he was all right so these new new two o fivers kind of from kind of going from prospects to contenders that's good so um

A lot of fresh blood for the champ. And on Sarkinov, I've always heard from, and AK maybe you've heard it too, especially because you're up in Canada, I've heard from like Canadian media that Sarkinov is one of those guys that's like OSB, where he is so talented,

but he just reached his peak at his gym. Like he needs to go to an actual gym where he's not the man. Yeah, I'll say this, he was really hyped pre-UFC. He was drawing, he was drawing fade or comparisons. I remember he was one of many Canadian fires who was trying.

I remember him. And who was the little Fador? Who's the guy who Enjukuwani kicked in the head as he was running away for Chris. Orideski. Chris Orideski. He said he was like a little Fador. I don't know what the Fador's talk was going on up here. But I remember, yeah, Misha.

And it took sort of a while to get there. He got to the UFC way later than people expected. So yeah, he's always been touted as like a blue chip guy, a huge talent. You know, this was the one fight that I actually predicted pretty accurately. Don't read my predictions at MMAFighton.com people. Well, please do it and click, but don't just go right to the Sercanov Spann fighter. Everything else was so completely wrong. But I was worried about the speed difference.

That's the one thing with Serkenov. Great fighter. But he's a little slow. He's a little slow and his strength is a little mechanical. And I'm like, I think Span's going to beat him to the punch early. And if he does, it's going to be trouble because he's not going to get into the ground after that. So sure enough, that's what we saw. So, yeah, very nice win for Span.

I like the call out after. And Stephen K. You know, it's the Smith-Crewt fight. You know, Anthony Smith could win the fight too. It's so disrespectful to a former world title challenger who did not take the easy way out of his title fight. I'm just saying. So, yeah, shout-outs to Anthony Smith as well.

It could be Anthony Smith. Smith, I'd like that. That fight is happening at UFC 261 on April 24th. Oh, end of April. Sorry, okay. Okay. No, by the way. Someone, I wish I could see their name, said,

Oh, here we go. Oh, my favorite guy. My favorite German of your MMA Vodgers says, Haniyaya versus Ronnie Lawrence, which I think he knows he did that, just so I would say, hashtag honey on Ronnie. And you got what you wanted.

You got what you wanted. It's Ronnie. I'm easy. Ronnie on Ronnie. Is it Ronnie? Okay. I thought it was hot. Oh, okay.

Oh, when it's at the beginning of the name. Oh, yeah, it's at the beginning of a name, you do pronounce the R. That's right. So hashtag Ronnie on Ronnie. I'm easy. That's a wild ass fight. There's such an experience difference there

I mean it could happen I'm sure I'm sure Ronnie I'll take it but Ronnie on Ronnie I'm always into that stuff That sounds weird People forget that people forget like we We were talking in the media room when Cruz was fighting We were trying to come up with all of the WBC vets That are actually still fighting in the UFC when we were like Joe B Dominic Cruz Carl's Condit everyone always forgot Ronnie Iya

Had a lot of fights in WEC I thought Mike around in his youth UFC debut and it's still starting. I believe he set the record tonight for combined UFC WCC submissions. I think he holds the record. I think he passed like Faber and some other, you know, some other names like you said that we more closely associate with WEC.

That's pretty cool. Yeah. Ronnie Iya versus Casey Kenney would be a lot of fun. I like that. 135 rules. God, 1.35 was good. I like that. I like that. That's good. I don't get any more? We would go for an hour here. A couple more.

Well, Jin U.S. Frye, benefit from a woman's Adamweight division in the UFC. She saved her UFC job, in my opinion. I will say, I don't know. I will say no, only because, Gene U.Fry, maybe if Junior Friday was younger and she was, say, in her late 20s, but now she's, you know, hitting her upper 30s. I think her frame, she just can't make 105, 106 healthy anymore. But in general, I think the UFC would benefit from a woman's Adamweight division. And she did save her UFC job tonight, in my opinion.

150% and one thing we were talking about before we hit record I had no idea she went to 4 to 7 May I mean I know she's in the area she lives in Arlington

which is like probably a 30 35 minute ride from Dallas I mean Dallas is now is friggined ginormous so Dallas Fort Worth area smart yes yeah 10 I mean 10 weeks

with Safe Sayud and all of them you could tell like safe already was in her ear and she could hear his voice clearly and they have a connection already and you know you can tell in that fight soon to save was like we need a take down right now third round goes in gets a takedown almost gets the submission she looked awesome tonight she looked really good in a fight i thought she was going to struggle in can we praise that game plan they had let me tell something she did not uh the the the commenters would be a little critical in the second round because she wasn't going all up for takedowns that to me was 100% intentional i think she knew

that she might gas out if she forced her takedown in the second round. I don't think any fighter ever wants to give up a round, but she definitely won the first one. Her and her team knew they won the first round. So I think they were okay to kind of try standing in the second and maybe give that round away or at least, you know, not put their best before in the second round. And then I literally tweeted this right after second.

I said, one takedown is going to win this fight because they know after the first round, she can hold De Paola down. She knows she can do it. She knows she can do it. And sure enough, within the first 30 seconds of the third round, they got the tick down and they got the win. So I think all of that was intentional.

Let me put this way, guys. I'm an idiot when it comes to predicting fights and figuring out game plans. I'm a moron. No, one's arguing that, by the way. So go on. No, I was it. Guys, don't all jump out at once. Okay, don't jump out at once.

But so if I can see something like that coming, then you know it has to be a good plan. It has to be a good kind of obvious, clear plan that even someone like myself can understand. And I thought that was brilliant. So, yeah, absolutely. I picked DePaul-Ola before, but that was a really great game plan by Fry. And that's how they won the fight. It was really great veterans throughout execution. Yeah.

Also, I think Mike, I could hit it well. But I'm, this, Fry has had, she's, her main head coach has been her husband, who is also a former fighter. And so for her to kind of get out of her comfort zone and go to a new camp, new training partners, new everything. And like, I know, I know Jen a little bit. And she's very, like, you know, she's very mental. So, like, if she's just not in the right headspace, you just. won't get the proper fighter out there. So, and I really think, uh, safe, put her in that proper headspace.

And we saw, we saw, we saw Jen fight at her potential tonight, which is not, it just felt nice. So the, the, the fans finally got to see the gin that was so successful in Invicta and Adam weight. So it's just, I don't know how far she'll go at Strawweight at this point in her career, but she got that win and it's just, uh, it's a feel good win. And the, um, the lady she beat, um, what was your name? The lady she beat.

De Paloira, DePaula. she's fine. It was a loss for her, but I expect her, I don't know how far she'd go, but she looked like a quality straw weight too. So I expect, I expect good things from her too. Good match making good, good, good, good, just good fight. Yeah, I mean, you could see, you know, not only safe, but just being able to be around, you know, Cheyenne Bayes, clearly helpful because Cheyenne's a monster. She's making her debut next week. J.P. Bayes is at Ford of S.M.A. He's like one of the best wrestlers of the lower weight classes that you're going to see. I remember talking to Uriah Hall, and Uriah Hall's like, wait until you see this kid wrestle.

It's unbelievable. Like he throws me around and he's a 125 or he's sick. So you can tell like there's some influence there between those two as well. And I'm excited to see both Cheyenne and JP, husband and wife debuting on the same card next Saturday. Should be a lot of fun. Oh, wow. A lot of 4-Sem-A on the card next week. Oh, so romantic.

Oh. Shut us. Shut us to the Del Marosa's and the Kings over in Belator as well. Because this will be the first time husband and wife could win on the same card, right? Because I know we've seen them fight on the same card, but they weren't when the Deloosa fought, Montana won and Mark lost, right?

Yes. And Bellator had husband-wife fight too, and only one. Emily and Jason, Emily and Jason King, yes. That's right. That's right. All right. Hey, guys, on the comments, we're not going to talk about UFC 260 yet.

That's a couple weeks away. we still have Brunson. Come on, nice. We still have Brunton Holland. Bad blood next week. So, um, slow down. Bad blood with two Ds and the front of bad. Bad blood.

Yeah, so we got Brunson Holland. That's fun. We get Gillespie Riddell. That's a lot of fun. Gregorlesby's first fights is the Kevin Lee fight. Uh, Taito Ivasa versus Dantel Mays. That's someone's going to sleep. Max Griffin versus Kinan Song.

Cheyenne Bayes versus a monster at Ruiz making her UFC debut in for Kay Hansen, Marion Renaud versus Macy Chiazzan, Grant Dawson, back jumping up to 55 to fight Leonhardt or Santos. Is that a permanent move for Dawson, 55 for now, as far as you know? You will find out on Tuesday.

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, juicy. Juicy. Oh, can I have? Trevind Giles, Trevon Giles versus Roman DeLideze. And this is not a 205. This is Roman DeLidezay on a little. on 11 days notice

is dropping down to 185 to fight Trevin Giles. Wild. Craziness. Who is Trevin supposed to fight? Drekis duplecy. Depeze. Yeah.

It's funny. You mentioned a middleweight thing. But I'm sorry. I have to remember this guy's name. On one of this, from Adjara Sport, who's always covering all the Georgian fighters. I'm going to kick myself for not remembering.

his name. Georgie, do you guys know and talk about this guy? Georgie? Yeah. Oh, I hate myself right now. I specifically made a note to, but Georgie, I will shout you out on,

onto the next one tomorrow. He mentioned that he spoke to Deleitze, and Delizzi has been planning a move to 185 for a long time. Apparently, or I guess long since this last fight. And apparently, a lot of 185 were to not want to take this fight. So this is, yeah, he's a big guy and he's very, very comfortable. Yeah, apparently making this move. Julian, Julia?

Julia? Wait, Julian on Julia. next week. We got... Say it. Say it. I don't feel comfortable saying. I'm sorry, it just feels...

It feels less good. If it's normally when it's two women fighters, I'd like to say, Julia X, Julia. Okay, Julia X, Julia, it's just a little more tawdry. I don't know. I got it, I'm sorry. I know. It sounds terrible. I know.

Double standard. Double standard. Double standard. Some good 35 scraps. Adrian Yannas is back against Gustavo Lopez. That should be fun. Montel Jackson is back. He's taking on newcomer Jesse Strader,

JP Bayes against Bruno Silva, and Johnny Eduardo versus Anthony Burchack. Johnny Eduardo and Anthony Burchack? They're still in the UFC? That's cool. Johnny Eduardo just came back after a super long layoff, and Anthony Burchack took a really short-notice fight, his last fight to get back into the UFC.

I can't remember who he fought, but his original opponent felt, out and they needed someone in the area like in two days and he was just there. So it's like, you know how. Oh, yeah, you're right. Yeah. You know how you. It was Gustavo Lopez?

Yeah. You know how you keep calling for Sarah to get resigned every time a female fighter falls out? Yeah. That's pretty much what that's pretty much what Birchak has been doing for himself. And so eventually the, uh, Sean Shelby just called his name. I was like, whoa. I saw that. I was like that looks like a fight booking from like six, six years ago or something.

Yeah, cool for that. Johnny, Johnny, Johnny I, Eduardo, a spry, 42 years young guys entering his 20, this will be his, in November, his 25th year of, as a pro-MMA fighter. He debuted in 1996, guys. So young, Sprite. And I got a shout out, Jesse Strader, Michael, you just mentioned. So this guy, I spoke to him and his girlfriend, who was a contestant on the voice, a couple, I believe, last year. It's hard to tell.

I can't remember in COVID years. Maybe two years ago now. So he's a Combace America standout. Look up, guys, if anyone look at on our site, in his fist, Jesse Strater, you'll find a sick knockout he had in Combatsh, America. And it's a very cool story because him and his girlfriend, Joey Folko, they both train.

I'm waiting for the day that Cal McClaren signs Joey to a fight for Combache. It seems like something he would love to do. Have a former voice contestant inside the Cambache cage. But yeah, I'm excited for Jesse. I actually was not aware. I feel bad. I was actually not aware that that debut is even happening next week. but definitely a guy to look out for us.

So cool story with him, and hopefully his girlfriend will be there too. We just got a tweet from Allah Muhammad. Oh, he said, quote, my heart is shattered. My first main event ended like that, but God's the best of planners. I'm sorry to the fans and the UFC.

You deserve a full fight. He also said that his vision is coming back and there's no permanent damage to the eye. I'll be back and he wants to run it back with Leon Edwards. So good news, good to hear that, you know, as gnarly as that looked, it's no permanent damage. So good, good to hear for Bala Muhammad. So unfortunate ending to a to a very fun card tonight. UFC Vegas 21 in the books.

Sure we'll talk about it more throughout the week. But there you go. That's going to do it for our post-fight show. For all of you watching and asking questions and commenting, we appreciate it very much. AK and I are back. Manana. On to the next one, matchmaking, as we get you ready for UFC Vegas 22 next week, headlined by Derek Brunson versus Kevin Holland's huge, huge fight at 185 pounds. But until then, for Jose, AK, E. Casey Liden on the ones and twos, I am Mike Heck.

Good night, everybody. Happy birthday, AK. Stop it. You love it. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.