MMA Fighting - UFC Vegas 26 Post-Fight Show

Episode Date: May 9, 2021

With UFC Vegas 26 in the books, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck, Jose Youngs and E. Casey Leydon break down the top storylines from Saturday night’s event at the APEX, including Marina Rodriguez’s unanimous decision win over Michelle Waterson in the main event. 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

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Yes, it's Saturday nights, and you know what that means? You just watch The Night of Fights. And it wrapped up relatively early. It's 1125 on the East Coast, and Marina Rodriguez just beat Michelle Waterson in a highly entertaining 25-minute matchup. Big win for Maria Rodriguez. There was no post-fight interview for her because that jaw is a little banged up. It is.

So congratulations to her. Congratulations to Alex Marano. Great stoppage win over Donald Seroni. And Neil on Neal has happened. Advantage Magni. We welcome you to UFC Vegas 26 post-fight show. I am Mike Hack back here in beautiful Berkshire County, Massachusetts after covering Bellator, 258 being joined by Jose Young's.

There he is. And on the ones and twos, there he is, EKC. What's up, buddy? That's a pretty good point. I've been working on that. You know, and like, hey, what's up? You nailed that one.

Hey, kids. You like rock and or roll? Yeah, I don't know. You started off so strong that the first point was great. And then we, uh, I just lost control. fell off a little bit. Well, the nine-fight card is over.

Marina Rodriguez got it done. She looked really good tonight. Those hands are so fast. And when she lands, it affects you. But Michelle Waterson, to quote the good old, good old J.R. Jim Ross, Michelle Watterson is tougher than a $2 steak. I mean, she took some big shots. She was smiling after every round.

She had a great fourth round, landed a takedown, did some damage. That kick she landed in the fifth round. jacked up Rodriguez's jaw. It was a fun fight, Jose. What did you think of Rodriguez's performance, Waterson's performance, and just the main event overall?

It was, I think it answered a lot of questions for both women. Marine Rodriguez, I believe this is her first time going full five rounds, if I'm not mistaken, and it kind of showed.

I know, obviously, she, like, shattered her jaw at some point, or broke her jaw. But it felt like at points, like she, maybe her cardio wasn't there. I don't know how much

the broken jaw played into that or the fact that Michelle Waterson was really beating up her midsection. And Michelle Waterson at points, especially in the fourth and fifth round, showed moments in there where if she had shown them in maybe the first couple rounds, the fight might have gone a different way. But Maria Rodriguez went five grueling, tough rounds and pulled out the victory. And Michelle Waterson proved that she can go five, one week. She can go five rounds, no problem against an elite high-level striker

and not be totally blown out of the waters in that. I mean, she would have moments where she did that, like, you know, that like signature Jackson Wink like kick to the knee. Maybe Marina wasn't quite ready for that and then she kind of adjusted. But yeah, both women looked great. It was a high level, high level, high level martial arts competition. And I think it exceeded a lot of the expectations, especially since, of course, we lost the Dillishaw and San Hagen main event, which everyone was very excited for.

But I think this delivered. I don't think it satiated the bloodlust of a lot of fans. Maybe the co-main event did that. but nonetheless, high-level martial arts competition, and I think both women will move forward from this with a lot of new fans after that performance. Yeah, Casey, Haudriguez was interesting because I actually picked Watterson to win this fight,

and one of the big reasons was not just the main event experience that Watterson has, but the fact that Haudriguez wasn't cleared to fight until, like, the beginning of the week. So, like, she basically flew to Vegas and had, like, two days to make weight and fight. And considering that that was the case, her cardio, yeah, she got a little tired. She looked pretty good in there.

Like even fourth and fifth round, like fifth round, she looked really good. She didn't look that tired. I was really impressed with their performance. What say you? Well, for Marina, I thought it was a great performance. I thought it was a decent performance from Michelle. I picked Arriguez to win a, actually,

I mean, if I kind of went in how's the thought it was going to go, I mean, I picked Marina to win a dominant. decision and I felt we got that um I thought the small cage would be a disadvantage for Michelle um and as long as marina could make the 125 weight limit um healthy which i think she did she would have a serious size advantage and reach advantage and it showed in the fight especially in the stand-up exchanges um yeah marina oregon is a a level straw weight and um and coming in this fight Yeah, I thought that kind of thought This is what I thought would happen

And Michelle, I mean, and Marina is just a little bit closer To that title And Michelle doesn't take anything It's not a big loss for Michigan I mean, it sucks to lose, but I mean, I think we know who Michelle Watterson is At this point of her career and yeah, Kind of came, yeah, it was a good fight

It was a good fight, I mean, I liked it Yeah, it was a good scrap I thought Watterson might try to wrestle A lot more in that fight Yeah, I did agree I think with the commentators, they were kind of mentioning it toward the beginning. It felt like kind of a sparring match,

and they were kind of building it up toward the end, which I agreed with. It kind of felt like a, like a Muay fight in Thailand. You know, you kind of spar the first couple rounds, it kind of level and place your bets, and then the last rounds, you start building it up and everything. And that's why I kind of felt it went like. And I felt, especially for Marina,

she was very cautious in her output in the first couple rounds, because I think that's every fighter's nightmare is to gas out in the final round. So that didn't happen. And Marina, you know, controlled her cardio correctly and even took that big shot to the face. So it looks like it messed up her jaw, but it just looks like it made her angry. So great victory. Great victory and great, great victory and a gritty performance for Michelle Waterson. Where does she go from here, Jose, Marina Rodriguez?

I mean, she's number six. She's behind Dern, Esparza, Jaunan, Janji. Chek, Zhang Wei, and the champion right now. Nina Nunes is a spot behind her, and then there's Gedalia and so forth and so on. She's kind of stuck, unfortunately, unless you want to throw her in there

with Dern? Are you ready to do that right now? Selfishly, I would like the Yawanna fight. I just think that would be a really high-level matchup between two very skilled Maitai practitioners. The Dern fight would be a lot of fun,

and I think it would make sense matchmaking was just you know five six i mean that's what the rankings are for right it's like that a it's like obviously they determine they can determine how much money someone gets or whatever like that and sponsorships outside um but if you want to put five and six that's an easy sell needa nunez i don't think uh makes sense cloud it doesn't make sense they're coming off losses you just beat michel um shardy beat te shah torres i think it really depends on what uh jenguea lee uh does if they want to book the rematch with rose or especially if the winner of yon shananananan carlos spars against the next title shot because if uh jang weili wants to come back after that very long layoff and just

you know get right back in there and try to raise the taste of getting knocked out by rose that would be an awesome fight the durn so durn yawanna jang or wali and or the loser of yon uh jaunanan and carla again the top five at strawway absolutely rules it's very obvious that this is the most stacked division in women's mma so i just think a few fights have to play out first before we can really decide what's next for marina rodriguez plus she just like broke her jaw so it's not like she can get a quick turn that's true wants to get back in there so uh let let her recover and let the division shake out no she's got a fight next week we see oFC let's go i've got back in there my fault be like saboo and just wrap tape around your your jaw like you did in ecdb yeah she's a

savage what do casey you like that she's savage she's a savage right a savage uh yeah i mean all those options are great kacey like if you were the mashmaker right now How would you book, let's just say, you know, she's got to heal up and take some time, get the jaw all healed up. But, you know, all things considered, what makes sense for you? Is it Dern? Is it Yuanah? Is it Zhang Wei? Maybe the loser of Esparza, Jean-Anon.

I know she fought Carla already, but it was a close kind of controversial decision that went to Carla. And a lot of people thought Marina won that fight. So there's a story in the rematch if that happened, too. You know, I think Marina is the type of action fighter that honestly, she's not going to fight for the title next or she still needs one big win to get that title shot. So honestly, Zhang, Dern, Django Dern, JJ, they're all good fights. I don't think there's any one particular fight that Rodriguez needs to fight. And maybe that's the problem right now for her that we don't, we're not like, we're not, we're not, we're not, urgently no no craving for Rodriguez versus someone in particular we just know we

we just know she's extremely a level straw weight and she needs to fight a top five straw weight and come back and come back down the straw weight you know this was a 125 fight and and also the fact that this was a catch weight that does that's that's a little helpful for Waterston too because I think no we know that she was going to be severely undersized that flyweight especially when she's already a relatively small straw weight. So, but for O'Origuez, yeah, anyone really. I like Dern.

I love styles clash. I love a style match, styles clash, and I love grappler versus striker matches. So Dern's my personal pick, but in terms of just pure action, I love JJ. Actually, when she was fighting, I was like thinking a lot, I was like, man, they have, like, they feel like they fight very similar and they have the same physique. That's what the, I actually listened to the announcers this time. and I think it was Dominic Cruz said Marina looks like a

Yawanna near the beginning of her UFC tenor, you know, and then she went to AK and kind of, she didn't change her style of fighting but her stance changed a little bit because obviously incorporated a lot more wrestling or she worked a lot on her wrestling more so she wasn't just a solely moitai stance.

Which definitely played against Marina for a minute because she was obviously, it's famous, Connor famously said it, but Moit Thai fighters are very heavy on their front foot often. And Michelle just unloaded a few. And then Marina obviously had to change it up. Yeah, Marina's like that right movement definitely needed some work on. One of 100%.

She was walking. And that's kind of the big issue of Muay Thai. You just kind of head forward. So someone like Michelle, those straight kicks, those kind of side kicks right into the body. Marino was eating those. But luckily, Marina's in shape athlete. So she can take those shots, but she can only take so many. I don't know if they showed the replay, but wasn't there one point?

It looked like Marina took a good body shot. And she kind of crumpled over for a moment. but then it was the last round it was like a push eye camera was like a body kick

or something like that if I remember she'd take something to the body and it looked like she hurt but either Michelle didn't recognize it or Michelle was so

she might have I felt Michelle kind of gassed herself out in the fourth round because I think after the dominant fourth round dominant in the sense

of ground control not really dominant in terms of damage but I think we all thought okay Michelle in the first 30 seconds is gonna have to go in for a takdown

and take Marina down and try to wear out and submit her or finish her on the ground. But Michelle, as far as I remember, never seriously went for a takedown in that fifth round, which I'm kind of interested to know why she didn't. But, yeah, maybe I'm kind of curious. I mean, I don't want to bring it the whole open scoring thing, but I'm kind of curious where Michelle thought she was on the scorecards.

Maybe she thought I just have to win this fifth round because the judges, all the judges, or at least the commentator, said that they felt Michelle was down three rounds. coming into the fourth round. Yeah, so I don't know. Yeah, I don't know if Michelle, so, I mean, for the fifth round, she would need a 10-8 for a draw or a finish to win. Yeah, I think that's what I, I think I tweeted, like Michelle needs a stoppage or a 10-8 in round five.

So I'm kind of curious what Michelle thought. I don't know if in her mind or what her corners were telling her, it's like, you've got to get the finish in this round. So I thought I was kind of surprised, but with Michelle in the fifth round, maybe it was just a cardio issue. Maybe, you know, she's, you know, I don't have Marina Rodriguez thrown angry pissed at me, so I'm not just shooting in but takedowns.

But yeah, I was just, it was good performance. I'm just kind of reliving the fight in my head right now. Yeah, we have bonuses, by the way. Okay, bonuses, bonus. Let's guess. Okay. I would say Marono and Gillespie. By the night, or?

No, it's performance. Oh, sorry, sorry. Yeah. Oh, Marono, Gillespie, performance. Well, okay, Marona got a performance. Absolutely. Gillespie. I would not think a Gillespie for Heda could be fight of the night.

It is. And since Fadda, you got the full 100K? You get the full 100K. Yeah. Wow. Good on Gillespie. That one ruled. The other performance bonus?

Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. What am I saying? I don't, Harris? Correct. Carlson Harris. That was a sick joke. That was a sick joke. Yeah, that was a very good joke.

He's the real deal, man. Carlson Harris is fun. Good scrapper, finisher. That was like a perfect matchup for him against Christian Aguilera. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know very much about Harris, though. Dude, I miss that one. My internet went down, and I missed the first fight of the night.

So the only, the fight I said that we shouldn't miss was the fight. was the fight that I missed. And I just heard, I saw our colleague Stephen Rock on our Slack channel like freaking out about the, like it was in a good way. Like, oh,

that's a mission was awesome. I was like, damn it. My favorite choke. Yeah, I was bummed out. I was really bummed out because I like sold that fight hard

in the preview show and I was the one that missed it. It was a great, and it was a great breakdown by DC explaining that position because from I remember, Harris could have, what he said, take the butt or something like when he was in the front and he couldn't have gone around and taken back control but he decided to go for the choke instead and it looks like aguilera wasn't

ready for that and he just kind of went right into it and yeah congratulations carlston harris so the hell of the debut yeah three the three bonus okay yeah fight of the night and two performances but galaski gets both fight of the night bonuses that fight was awesome like didn't gregor gillespie just like make you want to go for a run, like a 20-mile run after that performance. I mean, Jesus Christ. I'll never be able to have his cardio, so why even try? That's what my mindset was. I wanted to run 20 miles and then go fishing once I got to where I was going to land

after the 20-mile run. Like, I wanted to have a fishing rod 20 miles away, run to it, and then just cast that line out and hope for the best. That's what Gillespie did for me tonight. What did you think, Casey? How invigorated were you after watching Gregor Gillespie come back and and have a finish like that, man. That was sick.

After that first round, I was like, dude, Gregor Gillespie is about to get F'd up at the beginning of the second round. I was like, he is done. And like, I don't know. Some fighters just fight so well, so well tired. They're better fighters when they're tired almost. And he seems to be one of those guys.

Like once they're at 50% or, you know, their gas thing is like 30%. They are just a better fighter than any other fighter who's also kind of around that 30% mark. And Diego was obviously, no, he had a bad weight cut and everything. Even though he was heavier, to me, that's not that much of advantage because it came at a cost. It came out a pretty crap weight cut. So, yeah, so all of Diego, Diego just, you know, he had no energy.

And the fact that when a fighter can make someone just, I mean, I know, I know he technically got TKO, but like, like, D.C. was saying, you broke Diego Fere. He, Diego Fereer, just like, I'm done. I'm done. I'm done. Just punch me. You know, I'm done. and that's um that's uh honestly that's kind of a humiliating loss for for error it sucks

you mean it's just at this level to just to make someone quit that's super impressive from gregor gillespie um and um yeah uh i don't know where gregor gillespie is and the you know the whole you know is he going to win the title or is he going to fight for a title anytime soon but um he's back that's all he's back you know the old gregor gillisbee that we kind of saw before kevin lee fight. Now with that Gregor Gillespie, would he have beaten, was it Brad Redell? Who was he fighting? Who was he supposed to be fighting? Braddwell, yeah. Braddell? I don't know. I was very, I was very confident in Gregor Gillespie win in that fight. I was very confident. I was not very confident in him beating CDF tonight. But that was super impressive. Like, to answer, like,

to answer the bounce back question, like, is this guy the real deal? Is this guy who we thought he was? this was the fight to prove it more than Brad Riddell was, in my opinion, just because, you know, CDF, like, is a high-level black belt, great fighter. Like, he only loses to, like, the best of the best guys, like, super legit. And Gillespie getting in there and scrambling and having success on the ground with CDF showed a lot, man. Like, I know Gillespie's wrestling credentials are through the roof, but to be able to go there on the ground and play around down there and not only survive. vibe, but stop him on the ground with strikes, that was unbelievable. That's a huge win for him. Yeah.

And Con McGregor talked about him on Twitter, Twitter. That was weird. That's even better. Very weird. I mean, good for Gregor. I mean, that's a good. It was very weird. It was weird.

Come in. hashtag Gregor McGregor. Gregor on McGregor. That's hilarious. Gregor on McGregor. There you go. Okay. Okay.

Okay, get it going. AK, just sitting around and typing, he's like, he just, he's just looking around. Someone's calling him on his landline right now and telling him what we're saying right now. So, yeah, there you go. There's your bonuses. Alex Morano, great win over Donald Tarone. That's a good name on the resume.

I mean, talk about a guy that's falling into some big fights, huh? Yeah. Pettus and then Soroni, two short notice fights back to back. It's pretty damn good. That was a good finish. Good stuff right there. Donald Seroni talked to ESPN not long ago and said that he's not done yet. He's not done, at least in his mind.

He has to go back and look at the fight and talk to his team and stuff. But he feels like if he's to that point when he's done, it's going to be like, hey, this is my final fight. Like, this is it. So I don't know. I felt like this is kind of, I thought Soroni's going to win this fight. I was pretty confident he would win. This is no disrespect to Alex Moro because Alex Moro is a tough dude

who will throw hands at you. But it was just a matter of if Soroni can get out of the first round, he'll win. But he didn't because Morano just attacked him. And that was a perfect game planned by Morano and Safe Sayud, of course,

and the 4th Semiagas. What did you think of Marano's performance tonight, Casey? I was kind of opposite view. I was actually very confident Alex I keep on I want to say Brandon Alex Marono was going to win the fight

I just I don't like saying the term you know washed you know but to me Cowboy just whatever memory of Cowboy we have just like our memories of Diego Sanchez

you know in these crazy fights I just don't those fighters aren't there anymore and yeah and not that I think Alex Morono is you know a world beater

or even a top 10 welterweight I just think Cowboy is not very good right now as far as like A level Walter weights and yeah

it just to me it was one of those fights where Cowboys just looked really bad don't really have too much to say yeah it's kind of like I mean Brandon Marano did exactly what he was supposed to do and he kind of he fought like has advertised

as basically nothing looked at nothing looked out of we've seen that Brandon Marino before you know but Alex Marano Alex Marano why don't you're a You're fixated with that interview from Wednesday.

Yeah, yeah, I know. I love Brandon Marino. Alex. Who doesn't? I know. I love Alex. Sorry, I love both of them. Marono.

Yeah, I mean, this is, nothing is surprised me if his performance. I knew exactly that's the guy he is. He can take a big shot. He's going to come out fast, you know, and that's a bad recipe for a cowboy. And cowboy just, like, I mean, I know he got hit. It's just, but it's like, everybody. Remind me of the Conner fight. He just took one hit.

It's like, oh, this sucks. I don't like getting a hit. And unfortunately, like when we saw Michelle Waterson start getting beat up, you know, the commentators were going, dude, Michelle's a fighter. You can tell how tough she is. You can tell how tough she is. We don't say that about Cowboy. We just go, man, it's Cowboy, you know.

But it's just not the same guy. I mean, he'll get one more fight. And I think we talked about this in our Q&A before. is this if cowboy takes a bad loss which he did um would this be his final fight and none of us thought that was going to be his final fight because we felt you know he needed he's going to he he needs a he needs a leave with fans and he needs he needs to leave against the proper opponent uh who's that who that proper opponent is i'm not sure um we can throw his names out later but um Alex Morano and a empty UFC apex isn't the way for cowboy to retire win or lose that's

Your thoughts, Jose. Yeah, I actually picked Cowboy to win. I thought if Marona was going to pull it off, I did not picture that, and I was talking to Casey before he went live. Alex Marono has never landed a more picture perfect punch in his life. Like, that was a baseball bat to the jaw. That was like a lunchbox filled with rocks that just got slacked,

like clanged across his head, and Cowboy just had got caught cold. Like it's the punches that you don't see are the ones that affect you the most. We've heard that a thousand times. That's exactly what we saw. Does that happen every time? Probably not. Does Alex Rona win the majority of the time?

Maybe. But I doubt he lands that punch every single time against Donald Saroni, but he landed at this time. He won fair and square. I'm not quite ready to call Donald Sironi watched just yet because, like I said, he got hit with the absolute perfect punch. It would be a lot different if he just got decimated for 15 minutes. And then I would say, yeah, it's probably time to hang it up.

But if Cowboy, if someone is going to tell that to Cowboy, it's the fact that he got stopped again. It's not that his skills aren't there. He just physically, I don't know how much his brain can handle it anymore. Because as much as we talk about Diego Sanchez, Donald Soroni has a ton of mileage. Some of the more mileage than almost anyone in UFC history. I can't think of many people that have more right now on the roster. So that was real rough to see. And doing Twitter reacts for that fight was not.

fun because pretty much every single fighter was just tweeting sad face emojis or Donald, you're still a hero to me and this and that. So yeah, a bummer for Cowboy fans, but man, Alex Marono, I am very excited to see what he lines up with next because this was all like

great win, short notice fight too. So that makes it even more impressive. He probably got a real nice paycheck for that one. Yeah, and Alex is one of the really nice guys in the sport too. So you've got to be happy for him on that And unfortunate on the other side for 4 to SMA teammate Jeff Neal could not get it done against Dale Magny.

So now one of the brave prospects of 170 is lost two in a row. And I mean, listen, you lose to Wonderboy and Neil Magne. There's no shame in that. Those are two of the very best. Can we just go ahead? Like, I know I know A.K. and I are going to talk into the matchmaking thing. But can we just go ahead and book Neil Magne and Hamza at Shamaif? Can we just make that happen now?

Because that is the only fight that makes sense. I don't want to hear Shamiya against anybody else. That is the fight to make. The only other fight that I think would be fun would be Kevin Holland just because there's beef there. But if Kevin Holland's not going to welterweight, then I'm all for Neil Magni versus Hamzai. I am about it.

Like, that's just like the like the like the like Hamzot called them out most importantly. So if one fight like Neil Magny doesn't say no to anyone as far as I'm aware of. So yeah, if Hamzaat wants it and the UFC wants it, fight fans just want to see Hamzaa fight, bring it on down. I agree. He's been calling him out for like nine months now. Like ever since like Shemai, I've got his like second or third win.

He was like, I want this guy, fight me. And Dana White's like, you know, no one wants to fight this guy. Meanwhile, Neil Magsman on Twitter being like,

dude, come on. I would have fight him. Is that the fight, Casey? Yeah, absolutely. It's a perfect fight.

I don't think the UFC wants that fight because of, well, he might lose. Homsat might lose. And I think Neil Magny is, and I mean this in the, highest regard. He is a high level gatekeeper. You have to beat

Neil Magni if you want to be considered an elite Walterweight, not just a really good Walterweight. You got to beat Nil Magni. And yeah, so if you can't be no Magni, you're just a really good Walterweight. And if we believe Shemaya viz the shit, he needs to beat no Magni. And I think style-wise is a great fight too. And I think it kind of like

gives you a glimpse into how good Michael Kiesa is too. Because he didn't just beat Nail Maggi, he dominated Nail Magni. That just looks even better now. Yeah, exactly. And I think Kiesa is a elite. He's the guy. I think Kamaar Usman just say, or his manager just say that. The manager.

Yeah, well, you know, so the fact that Kiesa is in that conversation for the title, you know, already. And we're not, no, we don't really talk about Magni in the sense of title shots, but we consider Magny a very good fighter. and so yeah, Shemayev beating Magni will, no, the hype is real then, if you can beat him. Marcos Ruggiero delima gets a win and to quote AK,

that was a fight. That was a fight. Mori's Green loses another one. I like Mori's Green. And again, another good guy, got himself in really good shape, but I'd be shocked if we see him in the Octagon again unless he runs off some wins.

on the regional scene. We mentioned Greg Gillespie. Phil Haas, another decision win, two decision wins in a row. Remember that? Remember everyone kept saying, oh, just get Phil Haas

out of the first round and you can beat him. Nope. Two decision wins in a row. He looked good against Kyle Dawes because this guy who can get better as the rounds go and isn't gassing out.

This guy's a problem, Casey Elyden. He's a problem right now. I told you, man. This was, even though Phil Hawes didn't get that, there's no highlights from this, no big knockouts, no 10-second knockouts, no whatever.

This was a great experience for Phil Haas. This is a fight. Actually, the fight I needed to watch, I needed to see, go, okay, I've been really hyping up Phil Haas for a while, but that fight, even though there were no highlights from me, he didn't win any performance bonuses, but he needed a fight. A fight that he actually got stronger in. He fought better as the fight went on, which is never. That's just something he's not known for.

The fact that he can change who he is as a fighter, you know, this point in his career that's um he's very dangerous for the middle weights right now do i think he's gonna is he is he a threat to is he no or i don't i don't think phil's a top five guy or can come close to being a top five guy yet yet but he is improving dramatically and a super impressive win for him super impressive win in terms of improvement for phil hawes that was only his 13th professional fight, but there are very few guys, like, at this level in MMA that have paid their dues early on more than Phil Haas has. I mean, just go back and, like, look at his early fights. I mean, throwing him in there with guys like, you know, Julian Marquez early, Lewis Taylor early,

you know, just some of these names, just throwing them to the wolves at, like, 2 and 0, 3 and 1. Got Anthony Sanchez. Andrew Sanchez, Andrew Sanchez, the other one. I mean, it's just crazy. And then he took a couple of years off and, you know, look at him now. He's, he's in a great place. Got on the contender series, got the win. Now he's 3 in O in the UFC.

Guys going places right now. Good stuff. Oh, did they talk about his hair? His hair is very confusing. Maybe we'll bring that up later. Yeah. That was very, I didn't, I don't. Derek Lewis had the, yeah.

Derek Lewis, yeah. He wins a performance bonus for his Twitter. Mike Trisano first fight in a while Good win for him Did we actually pick Trisano in that one? I did not, but it was close, but I didn't, I did not. I did not agree that. That was very suspect.

Yes, that was definitely suspect. Speaking of scores, the Juniung Park fight, what is going on here? It's a 30 to 25, a 2828 and a 2927? Is that what it was? What? How was that possible? The right guy won.

That's what matters. Park was the better fighter, but it was, yeah. Those are crazy scores. What a bass-acquards way to get there, man. 28, 28, 27, 30-25. Like six different numbers, six different numbers. But I will say this, though. I'm not going to have made decisions right now.

and all the scores are kind of all over the place too. Four journalists had 30-25s, which is what one ref had. Two journalists had... Yeah. Yeah, the scores are kind of all over the place, too. They're 29-27s. There were no 28-28s, though. That was for sure.

Okay, okay, I take the back. Yeah, the scoring wasn't as crazy. The media scoring wasn't as crazy has the judges' scores. But the right guy won. That's why there's three judges. So we'll kind of... Ha-ha. judges, but

yeah. Yeah. Eric Nixick was not happy about that. And then Carlson Harris kicked off the festivities with an anaconda choke. So this event, I'm sure the UFC is breathing

a sigh of relief that it is come and gone. This thing was, I'm not going to say cursed, but it was close to being cursed with all the hiccups along the way, but they made it happen. They got it done. And, you know,

this is the second best NBA event of the weekend because Belator, Bellator's car is better than this one. I hate to say it. It just was. No, no. I hate to say.

What do you mean? I mean, what is that? I said that, I said that not the way I intended to it, but. I know you mean. Yeah, unless you know, we're watching, or UFC fans, but the Bellator car is better than this one. Well, Betoori just had a great, great card on paper and it delivered. And the UFC card. This is what we always say Bellator needs to do, and they don't do it enough.

Like, the fact that Bellator, puts on a big event and it delivers should not be a story they could do it all of the time they just for a while we're giving these really high level top two fights and then unfortunately fans didn't tune in because they didn't care about the rest of the card and it's unfortunate because you miss out on some absolutely fantastic scraps and a lot of these fighters now you could have seen on the rise rather than until they get to like jason jackson i don't know enough a lot of people I watched his fight against Spence and Henderson. And that fight was like his,

that put him on the map. And then who did he just be Neiman Gracie? Yeah. Right after that. So like, oh, Canella just rocks Billy Joe like right there. Oh my God.

I'm watching it right here. But, uh, yeah, it's like Bellator can do that. And it frustrates me when we, like, I don't,

I think it's fantastic whenever any card is fantastic and any promotion. But it frustrates me when we see that. I'm like, don't you do this more often? Like, Patchy Mix, Henry Corallis, like Lorenz Larker on the prelims.

And like any other time, that's like a Coal main event. I'm like, they can do this all the time and they don't. And it's just frustrating because we all know how good Bellator can be. Yes. We definitely saw that last night. That was a really fun card.

Seeing Henry Corallis lose was just wild, man. Getting sub by Johnny Campbell. I was like, wow. That's the thing. I would like, Now, if people tune into that and then they see the guy that beat Henry Krauss, like, oh, I remember this guy, but like, I don't, I hopefully people did that. Johnny Campbell, right?

I don't know if fans are queued in to tune in for early Bellator prelims, like they are for USC, unfortunately, if that makes sense. Yeah. Like, they're not used to having to tune in the Belmont. I agree because Bellator was kind of notorious for years to have, basically, the early prelims especially were just local fighters. I agree. I kind of fill seats up and stuff, which is more, which is just their business model. which is just a different business model than the UFC. So a lot of these are just one-fight contract guys.

I wouldn't even consider him bellator fighters. They were just literally in a bellator cage. Yeah. So maybe that changes with the showtime or what someone was saying on Twitter is that like because not every fight's going to be on showtime, right? Some of them are going to be on CBS? CBS? CBS? What did I say?

No, no, you said CBS Sport. Not CBS. I mean CBS Network? I don't know. I don't know what their broadcast is moving forward. but like some people are going to be like, oh, if they're on Showtime, that'll be, remember those old dynamite shows they would do where it was like you have to tune in from the beginning? Those are like the tent poll events. Maybe that's what Bellator does moving forward. So I don't know. I have no idea. First, I think Showtime is the exclusive. Cool.

Awesome. Unless they have a CBS show because CBS owns, which will be even bigger because obviously network. Absolutely. Dude, being in there last night, that that looks so cool in person. Like the little setup with the curtains, it looks, I mean, it looks phenomenal. It looks bad in the apex. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Did Canelo just win? Oh, Connell just won.

He threw in the towel. Billy Joe threw in the towel. Woo! What round? Canella was cooking him that round, and then I just look over and it's like they waved it off. My God. I just want to say UFC puts on a great show

but there are 73,126 fans at this fight. That is the third biggest attended boxing match ever and the most in U.S. history. The only other two were like Joshua fights and like whales and those massive arenas,

massive stadiums, but Canello just stopped Billy Joe, Billy Joe threw in the towel in front of 73,000 people in Dallas. That is on Unreal. My God. Canello just, Canello is the pound for pound, best boxer on planet. I don't know. I'm looking in the comments

and someone says boxing is dead. So, I mean, you can say that, but the counter argument, though, boxing is dead. So, I don't know. Unreal. He is, oh my God, he was so good. That sounds great. He just ate him alive with, like,

if you are a fan of just like, like, take a, like, a wet pillow and just hitting someone, one's midsection. That's pretty much what Canelo did the entire fight. And Billy Joe's eye is like swollen shut. Jesus. Good luck stopping that guy.

I got to watch. Let us know in the comment section if you're a fan of, of wetting down things and hitting people on the midsection. I'm a huge, I am a huge mark for Canelo, which is why I will never be able to cover boxing because I'm just like, you'll be boxing media. What are you talking about?

You're box. That is a good point. That is a very good point. That is a very, very good point. Like, it is very hard for me to ever root against Canela Alvers, but good Lord. Like, terrible counter program for the UFC because my Twitter, like, erupted, like, during the main event because the walkouts are having. 73,000 people watching a boxing match. Unreal.

Wow. Have you ever got a chance to see Canelo, like, been an open workout or anything? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I was at the, I shot the open workout. in San Diego when he fought I forgot his name actually

I was on Showtime and dude watch the like the 45 piece combos he was hitting I was like that is amazing I was just like it's just so cool Nello now I obviously if this

Canello fought that Floyd that they fought back in like 2014 whatever it was I think this Canello wins but it's obviously that's just like weird fantasy matchmaking What weight was this at? The Canada was bigger now, right? It's not... It's super middle middle weight, I think.

Something like that. It's one of those weird ones. 150 something? No, I think it's even higher than that. Oh, okay. Yeah, it is. I mean, I think people forget a small Floyd is. Floyd's like, he's like a 140. Connor's bigger than him. Conner's way bigger than him. Conner's way bigger than him.

When he fights, when he fights Logan Paul, Logan Paul is going to have like 30, 40 pounds on him. Logan Paul can't weigh more than 190. That's in the rules. This fall at 161. Canela weighed 167. Billy Joe weighed 167. Okay.

So now he is the unified super middleweight champion of the world. He just won Billy Joe's WBC super middleweight champion. And now that it's like, I don't know why they stopped that. Honestly, maybe his corner was, didn't think he could handle it. But he looked in the fight. His eye was just swung shut. So maybe they just wanted to protect him. Live to fight another day.

That's just a bummer because you live to fight another day. but this was for literally all of the marbles. This is what the another day is. This is the other day that you fight for. There are no more days, heck. The calendar's over. There's no more days. No more days.

This is December 31st, 1999, bro. We're done. Like you should. Yeah, throw that towel in the crowd, man. Hope everyone had a good life. See you in the afterlife. See you in the afterlife. well congratulations to canella alvarez let's see what is what is next for him

and i don't think it's going to be floyd because floyd's trying to chase down the hat that jake paul pull up and can i just say i was so glad i was covering the bellator event this week while that was going on because i had no idea was happening until like the next morning like i had heard about it but i hadn't seen any of the clips until like the next morning and then i regretted immediately looking at the clips did you okay we got that Did you see the Jake Paul TikTok video he made? No, what? It was so funny.

Dude, as much as I want to hate Jake Paul, I was like, okay, dude, that's funny. So the video starts up him, like, doing a little selfie shot going like, hey, I'm going to go over there. I'm going to steal Floyd's hat. And then it shows him going talking a little bit. He goes, got your hat. And then it shows, then it plays DMX, why everyone's, like, punching him everything. And then, like, it shows him, like, a hard cut of him, like, in. some room backstage all ripped up and sweaty

he was like oh that went perfect or something he just all like beat up oh okay sorry that's enough Jake Paul talk I can't believe man can't help it I was so happy that I didn't have to

like see that until the next day it was great it was great do you anything from the peeps oh yeah we got last from the peeps what's up what did you say we did any any May weather fights we worked did you cover them um I was at the May Mac

fight and I was at the Mayweather Pacquiao fight. Okay. So I was at his two big ones. Yeah. So you've seen how crazy like you think you have seen you you think the big UFC paper views are big there's good Lord. Big boxing is like home yeah it's like

nothing compared yeah it's hard It's hard to explain to fans how much bigger it is The only thing I can think of is like WrestleMania or like WrestleMania or like wrestling kingdom where it's just like the world of that like a high level boxing match like everything in boxing stops

like everyone is queued in like same thing as like those like or like the Super Bowl like whenever Floyd fought like when Floyd fought Paccio I just felt like nothing in my life mattered besides that fight all right um all right well

oh my god who really can yeah I got it I wish I can't want to we can take a couple questions yeah we can take a couple questions so yeah send me your questions peeps Let me see what we got here Bring up some questions now

Questions thoughts on the card Anything that happened this weekend This is from before the fight No he won't Michael Easter All right Let's go talk about Cowboy again Cowboy is as awesome as they come But boy needs to hang up the gloves

As game as he is Sometimes fighters don't know when to be smart and quit I don't know if like I don't know if Cobway like kind of fits into that mold because I mean he's got nothing to really prove he's not trying to be a world champion

he just like likes to fight you know what I mean like he just likes it in a weird way so I don't know if it's like I don't put him in the same category as like BJ Penn and some of these other guys that are just getting mauled every single time they get in there like Cowboy's losing

but it's not like Like, the way he views fighting is different than other guys in his position, if that makes sense. He's just like, yeah, I like to fight. So I'm just going to go in there and fight. Like, if I win, great. If I lose, okay, it doesn't matter. I just like to fight. You know, I just feel like his viewpoint on things are very than guys, other people in his position.

You know what I mean? I kind of disagree. Because I think BJ Penn, the same way. BJ Penn's like, he likes to fight. He's like, I'm born to fight. Unfortunately, he just. can't fight at a high level or even a mid-level anymore. Now,

is cowboy, is cowboy, I know you say cowboy isn't there yet, but how many more times does he have to look horrible before we kind of go? I don't know. I don't know the answer. The difference between BJ and cowboy is that BJ, like,

has to fight. Like, he has to. That's him. Cowboy just, like, likes it. He doesn't have to. He's got other things going. He's got the ranch. He could just, like, shoot guns and jump out of airplanes and ride horses.

Like, he can do all that stuff and be fine and be happy. He just likes it. He doesn't need to fight. Like, B.J. Penn, like, that's who he is. He has to fight. Cowboy likes to thrill. Cowboy just needs thrills. He doesn't necessarily fights.

BJ needs fighting. But Cowboy just needs that thrill. And that he can get that thrill other ways. Is that what you're kind of saying? That's what I'm saying. I understand that. That makes sense. Yeah.

Yeah, I think UFC gives him one more fight and yeah 38, yeah. I mean, now is Cowboy One. Dan Hardy. Dan Hardy?

Cowboy Dan Hardy. That's it. That's the one. That's the fight. That's also a very much a clash of personalities. Like Dan Hardy really wanted to fight Matt Hughes for years just based off of Matt he's being a jerk. well like not only that but like matt hughes stood for a lot of what dan hardy opposed because

dan hardy is very like i don't dan hardy doesn't really like good old boys if that makes sense you know guys i like to hunt and ride horses and live on farms and stuff and i think that was a big a big one yeah so yeah i guess a big thing yeah who's cowboy's last fight going to be against um how do you think the uc um presents his last fight is it going to be like a main event for a fight night or just like maybe a co-main for a pay-per-view just kind of like so maybe not all the pressures on him or I'm just kind of they would do I bet they would do like a co-main like somewhere near new mexico and with fans kind of like what they did with favor or like in Colorado somewhere like a Denver show or something like that yeah yeah yeah

favorite co-main event at a card in Sacramento it was a fight again who who did he fight How do I know That was his comeback fight Who's this? The one that hit The retirement like the action Like the retirement fight before he came back for the small Brad Pitt

Picket Pick it pick it yeah Co main event On that Sacramento card It was a Pickett's a tough guy But it was a fight that most people thought Faber would win That's what I would kind of like to see for Cowboy

But I don't know It's tough People kind of view this more in the pro wrestling realm Where it's like You got to put somebody else over a kid on the way out, but hopefully they'd just give them someone fun and let the chips fall where they may. Yeah. This commenter also, he added an L.O.L for no reason on his comment, but he said that Matt Hardy,

Dan Hardy probably won't happen because of Hardy's relationship now with the UFC, unfortunately. No. I think there's some names out there for sure. Yeah. Something like that is fine with me. Nobody in the top 25. No. Yeah. No, absolutely not.

Cool, cool. It's interesting. Cowboy told Megan Oliva yesterday that all of my energy and power is on Diego Sanchez. Did you really give a you-know-what about Alex Morano? Did he underestimate Mr. Morono? I don't know how much you underestimated or the fact that he just got hit with the perfect punch. Like you might have trained, you can't train to eat that punch. Punch you don't see just right across the temple.

Maybe Cowboy eats that five, six years ago, but I think we'd be doing a disservice to Alex if we didn't just say he'd just maybe just a better fighter in 2021. I think when this fight was originally booked of Cowboy and Diego, I think we all were thinking that Cowboy is going to roll through Diego. Is that where we were thinking? I think so. Yeah, man, but the Cowboy showed up tonight. I don't know who actually wins that fight against Diego, to be honest.

But we'll never know, though. We'll never know. I just think, yeah, Cowboy, I think Cowboy was ready for Morono, but he just doesn't have the durability that it takes to fight at this level anymore, unfortunately. Yeah, it's just amazing how he knows that he sucks in the first round. Like he'll say in every interview, I know I suck in the first round. around and just like it's so fascinated that he can't like get over that mental hurdle you know what I mean it's just it's just such a fascinating thing to watch like I know what I suck at but I can't for some

reason I just can't fix it like just a incredible conversation with the psyche and how that all works out especially when you're a fighter people are crazy expect no comment about the main event good main event people always hate for no reason I'm sure Michelle Waterson is never in a boring fight. Yeah. So she's, you could always throw her in there against pretty much anybody. It's fun.

I'm pretty sure Marina hasn't been either unless, well, you know, Carla Sparza can make you fight a boring. That's what I was back to say. Both of Carla was in both of their work. Carla was the opponent for both of their worst fights in the UFC. Yeah.

So. And that's not a knock on them. Carla and Carla's just, that's what happened. I thought Carla lost both those fights too, but there were both competitive fights regardless. I thought she beat Michelle. But I thought Marina won.

Yeah. But they were both close. Yeah. Oh, man. Imagine if Carlos somehow becomes a strawweight champ again. That'll be amazing. I love it. That'd be amazing.

Oh, yeah. We didn't really talk about this too much at all, actually. Thoughts on Mori's Green versus Marcos Ruggiero de Lima. That Herb Dean interaction when we came back was like WTF. I will say, doing the Twitter reacts, a lot of fighters said go Herb Dean a lot of fighters are like good on Herb Dean for like getting this quote unquote under control because also that was like

a commercial break played so we don't know what was going on between rounds but I can say a lot of fighters said her give Herb Dean the performance bonus for that one and God bless that whoever works in the ESPN truck who's supposed to press the little bleep button to take out the curse words because he was taking a nap that part because I heard, hey, motherfucker, real loud on my TV. I was like, whoa, on the replay too.

I was like, all right, here we go. I got cage fighting and bad words. Ooh. Oh, that was a horrible fight, though. That was the worst fight in the night. I actually picked Boris Green to win. I picked him to get a third round submission. He too.

Me too. He was my, I thought Maurice was going to win too. I was like, Marcus Ruggiero Lime was going to try to take Mory's head off in the first round and then he's going to get so tired that Mory's Green's going to like fall into some kind of submission

like late in the fight. Like the Jean Valentee fight, remember? John Valencia just kind of passed out on him and Morris is just like I'm just smother you in my chest and you'll just quit. Yeah. I talked

I talked to Greg Jackson about that submission and Greg was like people were crapping on Mori's for that. I was like, was that a real submission? He's like, it's a submission. I was like, all right.

Yeah. Maurice, I remember Maurice being on what the heck after that. And he was like, yeah, because I submitted him because I put my armpit in his, my smelly armpit in his nose. Yeah, I just, he just had to submit. He had to submit. I mean, you know, you don't see, you know, Gordon Ryan doing that submission or, you know, Craig Jones.

But, you know, it's, it's a submission technically. that's right oh this one's for you mike uh does scott cocker say why they parted ways with mandy bombed the ufc signer so she did sign with the ufc i don't know if she's got to fight booked but she's posted that she signed with the ufc so

i think it was just yeah i did i was going to ask him i was going to ask him about it but then she signed with the ufc like literally the next day so i didn't want to make like a big deal out of it um so there you go.

But no, he didn't say why. And I don't, honestly, I don't know if he would even know the answer to that question. Because he's got like a team around him that kind of makes those decisions. They have like a little committee. So something tells me he probably has no idea why she was released. But I mean, at that point, why not? Just let her go. She got a chance of the UFC.

They probably just let her go. And UFC swiped her right up, which is a smart move on their part. Oh, cool. the UFC Belator to Belator I dig it Oh that's actually kind of interesting Oh wait

Michelle Waterson a fighter You never get mad when she wants to grapple Oh sorry I kind of misread this I think this is kind of a I thought this was more of like Oh Michelle should grapple more But now that I'm looking at these emojis Oh it's just a creep

You're just being a creep Yes Michelle is a very good grappler She's actually a much dangerous grappler than she is a striker, and I thought that was her path to victory tonight, but she can only get down. She can only get where he gets down for one round,

and weird emojis. Yeah, whatever you said. All right. Actually, not too many more questions. Just, um. J.J. Marina would be fired. It's a great fight. That would be six.

Men's band. The men's bandamweight division and the women's straw weight division. Can't go wrong. Can't go wrong. I could also see if Angela Hill, depending on how quickly Angela Hill and Amanda Hebus gets rebooked, if Angela Hill wins. Marina and Angela Hill, just because that'll be a fun match. Marina would probably be kind of a backwards a bit in the rankings.

That'd be a big step back. But Angela Hill, we know that she could easily be ranked up there too if two judges would have gave her the, you know, the Claudia decision. I mean, that's the only fights she lost those really close decisions. And they'll both have common opponents if, if, if, um, Angela Hill beats up he bus. So I'm just saying. Yeah, that's a good. I mean, I was looking for it. Really looking forward to that fight.

Yeah. If she doesn't get the JJ fight or the Dern fight, something like that, I could see Angela Hill. But do, do, Marina is just one of those fighters. She's just exciting. I just want to see her fight. It is straw weight. You can't mess it up. It's like booking bantam weights.

You can't really mess up. Uh, too, do, too, too. What else you got? I thought the main event would fight of the night. Thoughts, there's no way you can't give Gillespie in Fijeda that fight of the night. That fight was ridiculous. I'm glad the UFC recognized high-level boxing. Yeah.

In the Gillespie fight. Like that first round was just scramble after scramble after scrambles. Yeah, yeah, that's what I was really happy that the UFC gave him that. Yeah, yeah, because they almost never give fight of nights for grapple head. heavy fights and that was almost all grappling and it was amazing scrambles awesome scrambles. Oh, one thing that, I got a compliment the UFC on one thing they do great in the live production is every once in a while when the scrambles, they go to the overhead shot. Like it's directly overhead.

It's not like a kid camera. It's just like directly overhead and it's just, and seeing those scrambles from that angle, it's just like, I like that, I like that. Like, live event coverage, like when they're actually punching each other, UFC production crew does an amazing job. I love it. Let me see. We've got anything else. Listen, we got, we get quite the week ahead of us too. Yeah.

Oh, you're welcome, Scott. You're welcome. Hey, I just want to say thank you to everyone watching and stuff. I know we've had a lot of MMA, a lot of fan Q&As, a lot of pre shows, post shows, all that stuff. And thank you for just watching. I don't say that enough to our listeners. I forget. Yes.

Apology accepted. I appreciate it. Okay, yeah, okay, okay, now, okay, yeah, my, my voice is knowing, I know, I'm sorry. All right. Yeah, I'm gonna play the, I'm gonna play the, I'm gonna play the go home. Yeah, play me out. I, I'm admittedly tired. It is been a long week.

It is in a super long day. I drove close to 600 miles today. Whoa. Wow. Wow. Thank you for showing up then. Yeah, drove from Mohegan to Haveral, Massachusetts. Got to visit Rob Fon and Calvin, Calvin,

Cater and all those crazies. So look for some cool stuff over the next couple of weeks. Yeah, did an interview with Cater, shot some good footage of Rob Font, training, getting ready for the Cody Garbrand fight on May 22nd. So we're going to do some cool stuff with that. And then I drove back home to see the fam. So, but here we are.

Here we are. Another post-fight show in the books, Jose Youngs. Enjoy some R&R, my friends, before you hop on that airplane and then it's your turn to get right back. How excited are you to head to the Lone Star State? I am very excited for another fight week with fans again. I know the fans kind of creep people out, especially during the pandemic just being surrounded by fans.

But I enjoyed it. I enjoyed the interactions with fans as long as they were wearing masks and not rushing up on me. But yeah, I'm looking forward to it. Media Day is very, very, very big. I think everyone outside of the top two fights is going to be a media day. So A-side, TBD, depending on when that ends. So we might not have A-side next Wednesday. And then, of course, we have another press conference who knows what Tony Ferguson is going to say on Thursday,

no Nate Diaz, unfortunately, but it is fortunate because he's going to be in Arizona. And my, the amount of DMs I've gone asking about tickets for that have not stopped. So yes, very much looking forward to it. There you go. And we will, uh, We will have you covered. Thanks. If you see the only card next week, I know, is there, there's no Bellator next week? There's no Bellator. I don't believe that's Belator.

All you see next. The Taurus, Belator is back in the 21st with Chris Seiborg versus Leslie Smith. Cool. So there you go. Yes. Well, until then, we are out of here for Jose, Casey. I am Mike Eck. Good night, everybody.

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