MMA Fighting - UFC Vegas 31 Post-Fight Show

Episode Date: July 18, 2021

With UFC Vegas 31 in the books, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck, Alexander K. Lee and E. Casey Leydon react to the top storylines coming out of Saturday night’s card at the APEX, including Islam Makhachev’s dominant submission win over Thiago Moises in the main event and Miesha Tate’s triumphant return to the octagon.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR 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

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudulian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking,

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. It was just another holiday party until Michelle arrived with a chocolate basque cheesecake. Two rich cocoa's caramelized top, which Michelle claimed. to have just whipped together. But the evidence told another story. An empty PC box,

a receipt in her purse. All right, Susan, I bought the PC chocolate basque cheesecake. It was just $11. Can you stop true-craming me? Can I have another slice? Try the season's biggest hits from the PC Holiday Insiders Report.

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. All right, everybody. Yes. More MMA, everybody. A weekend of MMA festivities has wrapped up at the UFC Apex with Islam Makachev picking up a fourth round, Rear Naked Chokes submission win over Tiago Moises in the main event. And before that, we witnessed the triumphant comeback of the former UFC Women's Van

Wai Champion Meecia Tate. She stops Marion Rennon in the third round first fighter to ever stop Marion Rennon. And it turned out to be Renault's final fight of her mixed martial arts career as we welcome you to the UFC Vegas 31 post-fight show wherever you're watching here on M-AFighting.com, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, we are here for you. And we're going to react to this card right now. I am Mike Eck. We got Alexander Kately, the Prince of Positivity, joining us.

Hello, sir. Seven, what's seven point five? All right. Seven point five. I'm jumping the gun here, Mike. I know we haven't gotten to the discussion for you introducing me, but I'm just going to say 7.5 out of 10 for now. I don't know if you want me to elaborate now or in a moment, but

All right, I'll have you elaborate in a moment. You're giving this a solid C. Casey Leiden joins us as well. Where I come from. And that's Canada B. Yeah, that's Canada for you. My God, everything's more positive. Participation Award.

It's just easier. It's just easier if you're... And Casey Leiden is here, too. He had some great analysis and a good chunk of that analysis came true tonight, Casey. How are you feeling? Feeling confident, feeling good? Yeah, I'm like that, you've seen me hire me instead of that one betting guy they have with a crazy smile. I don't know.

What's that guy that? Giannis the Greek or whatever he was. Yeah, you know, sometimes I'm way off tonight, nailed it. Tonight you nailed it. All right, go ahead, A.K., elaborate on the 7.5. My lip is going crazy. Oh, gross. Look at that.

It's like pulsing. Yeah, I know. Okay. That's great, A.K. That's just, that's just, that's just, that's just, we had just, we had just, I was, I don't know if it was on the Q&A or I think it was a preview show on. Mike, you want to bring back the gymnastics grade system. It actually was perfect for tonight, as I said, everything goes to plan. If everything, every fight, every fighter reaches its potential, I said this card maybe could be an 8.5.

An 8.5 out of 8.5. So that's how the scale. It's not a 7.5 out of 10. This card was a 7.5 out of 8.5. So people can do your own math on that one. But I thought a lot of things, a lot of the storylines that the UFC would have wanted to push hit Tate's return, Makhachev's dominance. Maybe they would have wanted Jeremy Stevens win.

I don't know. But a bunch of finishes, some good back-and-forth fights. Maybe I'm scoring it too low. but I'll go 7.5. I think that's how strong this card was. I enjoyed it. That was a fun, a fun card in the aftermath of 264.

What did you think of the card overall, Casey? Because we were talking about this a little bit before here record, but I feel like this is one of those events where a lot of the big winners and those who had great performances, maybe outside of Misha, because I feel like she has a lot of options right now, I feel like a lot of those winners are either in the same spot they're in right now or maybe even slightly worse,

because once you see this person's name on the other side of a contract, I have a feeling like some of these top fighters are going to be hesitant to say, you know what, I'll fight him or fight her. Yeah, I mean, I said coming into this card, I think, what was my gymnastics score was I was giving this card a potential of a five, mostly because I just didn't feel they were competitive matchups. But there were good storyline matchups, good for the fighter's careers, maybe. But I was, I mean, I felt vindicated.

I gave it a five coming in, and it scored a pretty good five in its execution. Yeah, but Islam is going to be in the same situation. He was in before. We knew how good he was, and he showed it, and it was just a reminder that this guy is as good as Daniel Korme, as good as he is, as good as Habib says he is, and all the people are saying that he's the next Habib, but maybe better, I don't see any issue of that. He just now needs a higher level competition in the fight. Now who's going to sign the contract?

That's going to be the big issue. So, yeah, just have the wait. I liked the call-out. I thought the call-it made perfect sense. Call-out, Phafiel de Sanjos. Perfect call-out. Perfect. I mean, I like the Dan Hooker idea, too.

So either of those two work, and I think those are probably the only two options he's going to have, AK, do you agree with that? I know we're going to talk about this more tomorrow and on to the next one, but I feel like these are the two options. that he has the best shot of getting right now inside the top 10. Which ones did he's thinking? He said RDA and what do you say, Dan Hooker?

Well, Dan Hooker is a name that we continue to throw out in. For some reason, like Machachev, when you think of him and potential names, Dan Hooker seems to be at the top of everybody's list. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, our RDA seems so perfect. I know, I think we said someone said that Dan Hooker said an entry somewhere he would fight Makachep if he won this. I don't know what I call seeing that quote myself, but yeah, I love, I think I prefer the RDA matchup.

I like matching people on winning streaks with people on winning streaks for one thing. And I think RDA is coming off a win, right? Sorry, this is my. The Felder. The Felder is fuzzy. Okay. So I like match out winner. Dancker on kind of a tough tooth losing streak.

It doesn't, you know, that doesn't speak to how good we know he's a top 10 guy. But if there, if two guys are trending in the same direction. That's usually the direction I'm going to want to go. And also, I think Makachev would pick Hooker, and there's just the fan part of me that's like, well, I don't want to see Hooker how to take a third straight loss, especially if it's just in service of, you know, of building up another guy,

which I think is what that matchup would be. I don't like using Dan Hooker in that capacity. So definitely lean towards the RDA one. Wouldn't complain. Wouldn't complain about other fight being booked. We just got to get Makachev someone in the top 10. Casey, I know rankings are based on resume. and quality wins and stuff like that.

And sometimes fighters, you know, have bigger resumes and they fought bigger names and others kind of struggle in that department because of how good they are and the potential they have. So just based on his performance tonight and based on what you've seen over his last eight fights, because he's on eight-fight winning street, guys, 21 right now, in your own personal rankings, where do you rank Islam Makachev at 155 pounds? Is he top, like, is he a top three guy in your eyes right now?

not based just on okay he can be just based on like skill level oh skill level absolutely

absolutely he's top three I see nothing in him doubt like who's my who's been top three right now olivera

oh actually Dustin oliver and geichi and all those guys would they would defeat moises the same way in the same

dominance a different type of dominance but in the same no they would take no damage it'll be one sided ass kicking all three of those guys

against Derry, against, who do he fight tonight? Moises. So, yeah, he's a top three caliber fighter, but he just needs

the resume now. I'm not as big, I mean, I get the RDA fight. It's there. I personally like Islam-Machachev versus Michael Chandler.

That's the fight I want to see, but I understand it probably won't happen, but I was hoping maybe Islam will run into the studio and, you know, challenge Chandler,

he's right there. He's right there. He had his fancy tie tie and everything on. So, but, I just want to see, I was, Islam's ready. Give him a big fight.

Put him on a co-main event, a featured fight on a, on a pay-per-view. Let's get this, let's get this rolling. No, we are, this is the posse-be bearer. Let's see if, let's see if Mockachev is the dude. Yeah, I like the RDA fight. I think it makes sense. Schedule-wise, it's probably going to happen, but yeah. Yeah, I mean, they were just booked a fight before Mockachev was forced to withdraw

and then Felder jumped in on like a week and a half notice or less than that, and we got the fight that we got. So the card ended with finishes of fighters who had never been finished before. So I wonder if we can go back into the statistical world of M.M.A. and find out the last time that happened because Misha Tate stops Mary Monroe, first fighter to ever do that. And then Tiago Moises had never been stopped prior to this loss as well. and how about Jeremy Stevens

had been submitted in 12 years so we saw three finishes in the last like the top deep fights that are just like whoa again two that never happened one was extremely rare and the Dustin

Stolfes the guy that bought Vieira never been finished either so he got he got his first time tonight in his career too and I want to say Monsterat Conejo had never been finished either.

I believe you're right. Yes. I think you're right about that. I am correct. A lot of butts got kicked tonight. Yes. But we said, we said on the preview, I think Jose made the point, like this is one of those cards where I don't know if there's any like any match up to be Arantillo and I

any matchups that we were like, you know, we thought could really be big, really competitive fight of the night type fights. But we did see a lot of fights that we thought could be showcases for one side of it. And I think in that sense, we got what we just said. We saw people getting finished. They hadn't been finished before. We had quite a few finishes tonight. So it'll be interesting to see how the bonuses play out.

Oh, can we play that game? Yeah. Yeah, let's play the game. Casey. You go first. Oh, my goodness. Perform. Okay, I think it's going to be four performance bonuses tonight.

Gamrot, absolutely. If there's a fight of the night, I'll probably go to Billy Q. Hugh and Benitez, but I don't think he's going to be fine. I think it's going to be four performance bonuses. So I'm going to go Gamrot Tate, Machev, and Lemosch. Okay. I hope there's a fight of the night because I do think Quarantillo and Benitez,

even though it was one side of the times. I don't like giving one side of the time. But Benitez had this moment, but Benitez got the knockdown in the third. I mean, it was certainly a spirited fight. I'd like to see them get a fight in the night bonus. I did think it was a good fight. though again very much a showcase for Quintillo and then I think if you're the UFC

you're going to give Misha the bonus to come back it's a great story. You won't give Gamrod the bonus because Jeremy Stevens is the UFC's boy the LAMOCH finish was a little weird now it probably lame most yeah 35 seconds 25 seconds DKO they'll still do it that was a weird

finish though eh I hated I hated the finish but I hated the stoppage but But, hashtag, yeah, hashtag girl stoppage. Hashtag girl stoppage. That was 100% of girl stoppage. But Limosch was going to win that fight within the next. Yeah, yeah.

It wouldn't finish in under a minute. But I felt, I felt Canejo deserved the opportunity. When she got knocked down, I know we can talk about this later, but fuck it, I'm talking about now. Yeah, yeah. She got knocked down. She never, her head never had never hit the ground. Her eyes always were looking at Limos, and she got up immediately. She didn't take any ground and pound shots.

She got dropped. That's all she did. When people get dropped going forward, I don't know, refs get weirded out, but she was moving forward, so she got dropped, punched, and she fell forward rather than falling back. But, um, bad stoppage, but Limos clearly is the better fighter and a absolute beast, and she will be a top five straw weight very soon, and she will be, I was a fighting for a title within the next year and a half.

you know on the on the replay that the left like the second as she was falling forward the left hand that connected that just like rocked uh kanejo's head i it looked a lot worse on the replay so i'm gonna slightly defend chris ione here a man who had some trouble call on the past and say because it was right there he kind of felt and saw how for the left hand was and maybe he'd seen enough but it was weird how kaneho sprang up immediately after and not like sprang up immediately after and not like sprang up up in that wobbly way. Like, she sprang up and was like, oh, let's go. Yeah. And like circling intelligently, it was very strange. Clearly, again, I do think she'd been flashed. I don't think she was aware that she got knocked down. She's just so damn tough.

But yeah, the optics of it for us from the outside or even like watching from home, of course, is like it did look like a really, really, really, really fast stoppage. But I'll say on the replay, maybe referee Chris Tione had a little bit of a better view. But that was a lot of one. The very next fight, which wasn't by Cristione, it was done. by the guy to be here, Beltran. Like Beltran, yeah.

Yeah, he, um, refed Rodriguez and Parsons. Yes. And Parsons took such a worst beating. And I thought the stop was just proper. But like, think of the beating that guy took for the same type of just knockout loss.

But that's the sport. We go over this every week. You know, I was like, I don't get it. But, um, but either way, it wasn't, it was an early stoppage, but not a stoppage that Kenejo was going to,

I feel, come back and win that fight. That's just, Limos. I thought she was a better fighter coming in and she proved. by leaps and bounds. Yeah, I don't know if we're going to get a fight of the night. I'll give it to Lamos. I'll give it to Gamrots.

Oh, yeah. It's not going to be both Mockachev and Tate. It's going to be one of the other. I don't understand why those aren't performance bonuses for both of them because it was just domination on both parts. So I don't know. I'll go Misha. I say Islam does not get a bonus,

even though he probably should. And I'm going to say Billy Q gets the fourth bonus. Oh, no money for Benitez, though. Poor Mowgli. No money for Benitez. He took a vicious beating. Vicious beating. And he took this fight on short notice.

Oh, man. So we'll wait. We will update you. We will update you when the bonuses come in and we'll see who is correct and who is not correct. Yes, Misha Tate, great performance. I thought she just looked so common there. Like she looked at home. That's the, as soon as she was getting introduced by Bruce Buffer, I'm like,

there's no, I mean, there's like those natural nerves you have before, like, getting into a fight. But at the same time, like, Misha just looked like she belonged there. She looked at home. Did you agree with that AK? Did you get that sense, like, immediately that this was not a bridge too far. This is the right decision. Like, she is back for the correct reasons.

Yeah. And I didn't want to go off Michael Cole on it, but I was almost going to tweet out. like this is vintage Misha Tate. Because it was. It was. It really like we saw so. And I can't recall who said I want to credit our boy.

Now, who was the tweeted? Anyway, I'm stealing someone's thoughts here. Some so-called major in list. They said, man, it didn't look like she'd been out for five, like five weeks, much less five years. You know what I mean? Like she looked, she looks sharp. And again, everyone's going to say, oh, she fought a 44-year-old.

She fought a fighter who was, you know, was planning to retire anyway. Sure, and look, and that's not wrong. They pick the opponent wisely. They picked the opponent carefully. A skilled fighter, a tough fighter in Mary Minow, again, had never been finished before. But someone who, yes, who Misha Tate could have a strong performance against, if she was at the top of her game, if she was even 75% of like, you know, of her prime, she could have this kind of performance. And she did. And she looked great.

The jab striking looks really tight. The jab looked great. She's an incredible shape. And then, of course, the wrestling has been there her whole career. and she went to it and that's how she finished the fight. So it could not have, I don't think this could have gone better for her. I would agree. Your thoughts on Misha's return, KZ?

Perfect. Perfect. Perfect matchmaking. She fought, I mean, I don't mean, I don't want, I don't want, I don't want, Reno's a tough out, but she also was a, now she's on five-fight losing streak. She's 44. She's clearly not in her prime. And it's just smart matchmaking for Tate.

May Tate look great. And now is Tate, you know, going to be Amanda Nunes? Or is Tate going to be, you know, that? Is she like up there? Can she beat Asman Ladd or Arena, Adana? You know, Aspen Lad is coming back next week or whatever. So we'll see on how that goes. But I'm not sold.

I'm not sold if Tate is going to be like a champion. But she's back. She looks good. She's ready to fight. and I'm just, I'm just, just good matchmaking in the UFC, that's all. And Tate looked awesome, and this was the fight that, yeah, no big crowd, no, no, no cloud of Ronda Rousey, no cloud of, you know, anything of a bad relationship, you know, if you know anything about her outside issues in her previous relationship, it definitely came into her fighting life.

So, I'm happy, it's good to see Misha Tate back in the game, that's all. It's good, and can't wait to see what's next. Holly home Holly home Yeah I mean That's that one's certainly there And I feel like I feel like timing is

It's probably like the best time to do it now Because like who knows Holly's up there in age too I mean she's obviously in tremendous physical condition She looked awesome in her last fight against Arrini Aldana But she's been kind of bit with the injury bug And you know different things along the way So I feel like if you're going to try to put that fight together

you should probably try to put it together sooner rather than later. And that was a rare callout. I don't know if you're talking about Holly Home actually put out on Instagram that basically she wants to fight Misha Tate. And so a very rare call out, I think, for Holly Home.

And it was a very polite one too. It was like, we had a great fight. I'd love to get it back. Let's do it. And Holly was so confident that she put this call out before Misha actually fought. So. Yeah.

Yeah. My only, My only reason I wouldn't want to see the Holly Home rematch, not yet anyway, is I think there's a good chance that Holly Home could win a three-round fight with Misha Tate. Oh, it needs to be five-round. Sorry. Okay, true. Yeah, I mean, yeah, if we're talking fight-night main event. Yeah, okay, you're right.

This is almost like a perfect fight-night-made event for sure. Holly Home has been in so many of those. It would not be surprising at all. But, yeah, you're right. Okay, five-round fight. Obviously, I give Misha more of a chance. I mean, we're probably obviously all thinking about how they're first. first fight went in a three-round fight.

If they make it like a three-round fight on like a pay-per-view, like a co-main or a main card fight or it's just a bad idea because I think Holly can easily win a fight like that. And I think you should be angling for Misha to, you know, get that another crack at Nunez or whoever happens to hold the title within, you know, six months. I think that's a marketable thing. It's obviously, I think, what the UFC wants. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

They should make it worth her while for her to come back. She came back and she's been saying all the right things about wanting to make another run of the title. So why not? A couple things to kind of go back to things we've already discussed. One, apparently on the post-fight show, Islam Makachev did call it Michael Chandler. And apparently, from what I'm seeing on Twitter,

Karen Bryant and Michael Kieser are like sort of prodding Islam in Chandler to continue this thing. Pure pressure. The other thing, we have one bonus that I see we do have a fight of the night it is what we thought it would be Billy Q and Mowgli Benitez the fight of the night for UFC Vegas 31 still waiting on the performance bonuses to come out

so it'll be Misha one of the will be Misha how would it how would it so if it doesn't go to Lemosch that means that the UFC punished her for potential early stoppage That's on filling. Yes. Correct. Because UFC has done it before because remember when GDR knocked out Aspen Lad in like 15 seconds. And I think we all agree that was kind of an early stoppage too.

The UFC did not give GDR a, even though it was the main event, didn't give her a knockout bonus for that. Now, Casey, you could argue also. I mean, you are a strong advocate for the bonuses, you know, being awarded also on level of competition. I think Lamos was probably what the second, maybe the second. second biggest favorite on the card, second or third biggest favorite on the card? Only because she's so dang good. I mean, I think Montserrat is a really, I don't think, I think Montserrat is a UFC caliber fighter.

I think she's going to be, at her best, I think she can be a top 10 fighter. So I still think these are potentially two top 10 fighters who just aren't top 10 ranked yet. So that's why, like, I wouldn't give a performance bonus to say, Daniel Rarigas over Preston Park. Sure, sure. Oh, that's a bigger gap. That's a bigger gap for sure.

For sure, for sure. Yes. That I agree with. And by the way, Dana White has no idea who either of those fighters are. I know. Lamosh, Monster Act, Kanejo, no clue who either of those fighters are. I really hope Gamrod gets it now. Or there's a little one.

Gamrod has to get one. They might just do Macon, Tate. He's the easy one. They might just do Maccauette. I could see that. That would be a travesty if Gamrod didn't get it. The Moises. That was a giant gap in competition.

between Moises and Mahathev, but whatever, I know, whatever. Yeah, I don't, I don't, I don't think, I don't think Marketschaf's going to get a bonus. I think, I think he's out of the, I think he's out of the conversation. I could be wrong. I mean, it's a great win, just dominant win. Dominant, yeah. Did he get hit a hard once? I mean, was there, how many significant strikes did, I look it up, Moises land?

I saw a good leg kick in there. I saw, like, I think, I think in the fateful fourth round, I think it opened up, like, a really nice Moises leg kick, but I hope. also feel like if I can remember so distinctly the one or two good strikes he landed, that might not be a good sign. Like, it was so rare that it's like, oh, yeah, I remember the one like it. All right. So significant strikes, Machachev outlanded Moises, 61 to 13.

Total strikes, Makachchev outlanded him 148 to 18. Wow. Okay. So, wow. Pretty dominant. So here, round by round. And finish the pie. Machochev 32 to 3 in the first round, significant strikes.

Round 2, 12 to 4, round 3, 10 to 3, round 4, 7 to 3 for significant strikes. You know, statistically, that was more of a blowout than I even thought of when I saw it. You know, like, statistically, he's like, dang. That dude's a terminator. That dude, McAchev is a terminator. Like, I told, of course, there's the Habib comparison, but, like, man, he was just so calm. You could see the gears moving in his brain, you know what I mean, as he went from phase to phase, from standup to clinching to fighting, fighting for underhooks, to getting a takedown to, like, everything looked so, I saw on Twitter methodical. You know, it was, it was pretty, it was a really outstanding performance.

Again, yes, he was heavily favored, but I think we all like Moises here as kind of a lively, a lively opponent, and he just trucked him. I mean, it was, it was just awesome. And all those fighters that turn Mahathev down and we go, you go, oh, you're not a real fighter. Hey, I get it. I get why you're not buying that man, man, man. I get it, you know. I mean, that's got to be a weird position to be a top. You're one of the 10 best 155-pound killers in the world.

And they go, I'm not going to fight that guy. That guy's way too tough. Hold on. I just, I mean, but that's the reality, man. That's just, you know, it's a business. and he's a very dangerous fight. And not only when Mahjav seems to beat you, he beats you bad. Like he doesn't make you, like you don't even look competitive.

You know, like, say, you know, Dan Hooker lost to Paul Feltter or Dan Hooker lost, say, Dustin Poirier. They're exciting fights, you know, and Dan Hooker lost, but you know, oh, but you know, you know, you still look great in victory. You don't look great in your loss when you fight Mahjav. All right. You're very similar to Habib. Yeah, here we go.

All right. I haven't even seen these yet. I just open it up. Let's see. Ooh. Ooh. A shocking revelation, gentlemen. A shocking revelation.

Not only was there a fight of the night. There are four performance bonuses. What? That's not allowed. Wait, they have a budget. The U.S. has a budget. They're going to mess up the budget.

Oh, my. Oh, poor, you know. What's going to have? Oh, no, poor. Jane and won the UFC all their money. The budget. And you're going to be Take it back.

Oh, no. Okay. And you're going to, you might be surprised by what I'm about to say next before I reveal the names. Amanda Lamehosh, not one of them. Islam Machashev. Islam Makachev also not one of them. Misha Tate. Matush Gamrott.

Rodrigo Nassimento. Hidalfa Vietta are your four performance bonuses. No, there was, there was no Lamosch in there, right? You said no Lamochev. No, no Mokachev. But Gamrod did. There we go. That's good.

Gamrock got one. He was the last one listed. I don't know if it's like an order of impressiveness. But, uh, yep, Tate, Vietta and Asimento and Gamrott. I disagree in the Vieira one big time. I mean, he lost the first round. He lost the first round, you know? Asimento lost the first round, too.

Yeah. And you can argue that, you can argue that Nassimento kicking Bodo and the Ding-Ding was the turning point of the fight. Yeah. Because he was losing like every second of it. And that's why he could do. Oh. Why?

Because he kicked him to the ding-dang. How does, always cheat? Like, how does, how does, how does, how does Mach have not get one, but Vieira gets one? I don't understand that. And Nassimento gets one. I'm a big Hidalphal via remark and I have no idea why he would be it. But we praise the four performance bonuses and yeah that's nice. We still have a problem with it.

Congratulations to everyone who won bonuses. But yeah, some of the choices a little strange. I'm trusting the comments what people are how they feel about it. Um, well, Lamish got hosed. Lamos definitely got hosed. I really feel she got punished for the, the early stoppage.

That's the only, it's the only thing I can think of that she got punished for that. Or, it's out of her hands. Or something, I don't know, or it's political and someone in the UFC brass

doesn't like for a lead is mill or something. I don't know. That sucks. Jessica Crystal, our pal Jessica Crystal crew is suggesting, that because this was not a card filled with big ticket fighters, maybe that left room for more bonuses, which is probably true.

That actually is part of the reason why, yeah. That leaves more room for Dana to pocket. That's awesome. But I mean, thank you in the end. Yeah, good for UFC for throwing out some more bonus money. I wish they would throw it in the right direction, but money's money, I guess. Oh, well.

Yeah, or as we always say, just raise salaries across the board. That'd be nice for the fighters. but that's another, that's a whole other discussion. I'm just, I'm just looking at it to make sure that, you know,

the UFC didn't do like 12,500 each or something. But now that it is. I see, oh, that would be said, 25,000. Yeah, Lamos had,

what, the second fastest finish in UFC strawweight history, I think? Yeah. Some look good. Damn. Well, it wasn't fast enough,

I guess. A little tiny straw. Yeah. Not on a show for it. Yeah, that's a bummer. All right. Except to win and

Make their holiday unforgettable with a gift that says it all from Pandora Jewelry, a gift that tells a story and shows you know theirs that doesn't just sparkle but speaks.

From new festive charms to forever rings and personal engravings, this season give a gift that's perfectly theirs. Whether you're shopping for a shiny surprise for your significant other,

matching bracelets to celebrate your friendship or a heartfelt gift for a family member. Say more this holiday season with Pandora. Shop now at ca. ca.pandora.net

or visit your closest Pandora store. That's annoying. What? You're a muffler. You don't hear it? Oh, I don't even notice it. I usually drown it out with the radio. How's this?

Oh, yeah, way better. Save on insurance by switching to Bel Air Direct and use the money to fix your car. Bell Air Direct, insurance, simplified. Conditions apply. All right, let's go to the peeps, see what they have to say about the night's festivities. All right, where am I?

As you search, let me shout out the rest of the winners. Daniel Rodriguez, first round finish over Preston Parsons. We talked about Lamo, Sergey, Morozov gets a victory of a Khalid Taha. Malcolm Gordon gets his first UFC win. He actually got into a second round for the first time in his UFC career and beats Francisco Figuerito. And then... Representative of the T. Dot.

Representative of the T.D. Malcolm Gordon. And then Rodrigo Nassimento gets another victory, standing TKO. Calls out Chase Sherman yet again. Is there a story on that? I didn't understand that. Is there a history? Apparently he's just done it many times.

And Chase Sherman tweeted afterwards, like, just give the guy this fight. please it's getting weird it's just getting weird it's great great response of course chase is fighting uh parker porter on august 21st uh misha looked great i was impressed with someone not playing for five years yeah i agree yeah that was perfect uh i thought eric nixick broke it down perfectly and she looked very relaxed and she looked very confident there like the game hadn't moved on past her in any way she evolved with it and she looked really good yeah um i like someone just put the tell out there. Yeah.

There's no way that fight happens. It ain't happened. Same management, right? Yeah, that's why. Yeah. I would like to see it. Obviously, two elite lightweights, of course we want to see them, but business is going to get in the way of that one.

Right. Plus, Darius deserves a top five. Yeah. Yeah, he's earned someone in front of him, not, not, unfortunately, not behind him, ranking-wise. Skill-wise, Islam, obviously, that's a very good, fight, but not going to happen. Second and third best winning streaks in the divisions were Olivera, number one,

obviously with nine, and then Makachev with eight tonight, and then Darius was seven. I mean, it would not go well for him, but, I mean, storyline-wise, Islam versus Tony Ferguson makes plenty of sense. I would hate to see it for Ferguson, just because he just has not been competitive at all in his last couple of fights, but that actually, you know what? That would actually really, really good storyline fight. Yeah, because that would be kind of, well, we didn't get Habib, so we'll get Islam. Tony's crazy enough that you might take that fight?

Oh, definitely would. Definitely. When I've been questioning if he's crazy enough. Has Tony, change your subject before it. Has Tony talked about, has he done any interviews post the Darius fight or anything? Like, was his knee torn up or we just assumed his knee is gone? Has he, I just, it seemed like he lost that fight and just kind of, you know, when. just radio silent, right?

Am I forgetting an interview or anything? He's training and stuff. Oh, yes? I mean, I have to go back and look at the medical suspensions or whatever, but I'm just kind of curious. I didn't see any, yeah, I didn't see like any tears or anything like that, so. Okay. I want Islam versus Chandler so bad, even though the RDA fight would be amazing. I mean, I'd like to see it too, but I don't think the UFC would, do UFC, like, has invested a lot in Chandler,

and I just don't see them throwing him in there with Islam right now. I think they will do everything in their power to get Chandler and they're just engaging each. I feel like that fight just makes perfect sense at this point. Yeah. Corey is going to fight Olivera. Chandler's back in the conversation. Maybe.

Maybe. That's going to happen. Are you kidding me? What do you mean maybe? You're talking about Connor? I'm talking about a seven foot tall, 300 pound Nate Diaz. Oh, Jesus Christ. It's not going to happen.

Maybe. I'm just saying, I'm just saying. Hey, man, we all said, we all said, Francis de Gano versus John Jones, Derek Lewis, that has to happen. And we're not getting that, so I'm, right? Listen, you already know we're going to get from Nate. You already know we're getting from Nate next, right?

It's a fight that, like, nobody wants to see, but we're going to see it now. We're going to see the rematch between Diaz and Mazadol. There's no doubt of my mind. That's, we're going to see because it makes, it actually makes sense now. It actually does make sense, yeah. It doesn't make sense. You're right.

You're right. It's in the works. Thanks, guys. You know, it's, it's amazing how you can get your ass kicked in a fight and somehow you get more options. You know, it's like, who knows? Hey, Habibu's right. They were going to try to make it depending who you want. Yeah, Habib was right.

When you become champ sometimes, you become a prisoner. And that's the only reason I suggest that Dustin might not bite Charles Oliverer because he might have more options outside. When you have that belt, you're kind of, you're stuck a little bit. So just saying. I think he wants that belt, though. He said it a lot That's like the cherry on top of his Sunday He's got the money fights

The Connor fight's still going to be there for him And if he happens to win the belt And defends it another time He could fight Connor for the belt And that's going to be even bigger Which is I can't believe him saying that into a live microphone But this is the world we live in And that fight's happening

Whether he has the belt or not So I wish we had Jose on But to talk about this man Gamrod was amazing tonight is he one or two fights away from the top 15 Gamera versus someone like Dober would be interesting Yeah

I mean You know what it would be interesting If they gave Gamrod a top 10 guy next And poor Islam Makachaf like can't get a top 10 guy And it's funny because there's guys in the top There's guys in the top 10 who would be like You're right would view him as probably a less dangerous fight than Makachov's like oh yeah I'll fight him

I'll fight him instead Plus as we said there's kind of the madman management issues with Machachev being managed by, you know, the same person as some other guys in the top 10. So, yeah, and there wouldn't be that issue with Gamrod. He should definitely get a top 15 guy. The only question is who? I like, yeah, Drew Dover makes sense. Brad Redell, Diego Faheda.

Maybe Dan Hooker fights him instead of fighting on his not Makachev, Gregor Gillespie. Yeah, there's some matchups in there. There's definitely some matchups in there. he should get he should get a top of d next does jeremy stevens get another fight in the ufc after this yeah you both like you both like peered off it's great no no no no he does he does it's not time for him to go into bare-knuckle boxing

yet though he'd be a friggin star there so i don't know why he uh why well he wouldn't do if as long as ufc wants to employ him but um no i think he'd give him one more five straight losses five straight that that's not and that's not counting the no contest right you're skipping skipping the no so six six winless appearances five actual losses yeah five actual losses neuro

I say you give him one more fight against someone who's you know a little bit more of a stand-up close close close that's it I don't think I don't think they want to do that who doesn't want to do it why who doesn't want to do it

I think they genuinely hate each other who's they who's they don't want to do it I think they genuinely hate each other to the point where they don't want to work together anymore it's that kind of hatred where it's like, no, Draccar will work with him, trust me. I don't think Stevens does.

Stevens has been saying all this mess about like, oh, I don't respect him. And again, I know he's just talking, but I don't know. But I feel like this is the only fight that keeps him in at this point. Because like I feel like the, I don't know if like litmus test is the right word to describe him, but I feel like him being like the over the hump guy, it's over. Like that's it. It's done. No, but I think the UFC just matches him up with someone else who they know is going to stand and strike.

Because I think they thought that was going to be like that with Gamrod. But Gamrod's like super well-rounded and like an amazing grappler. So maybe they just had it wrong because he shot for that single leg like right away and took the fight down. I guess because Gamrot won his last fight against Holspin. But by knockout, they thought, oh, he'll be a stand-up battle with him and Stevens. Like, well, it didn't turn out that way. So I think there are guys who are, you know, stand-up guys that they could match up with Stevens. And it can actually be entertaining.

Do you remember Jakarko's his last fight? Not very well. It's like a fight of the year contender against Binaldairoush He was insane I don't I don't think

very good I agree I like Dracal Close I don't think the UFC cares about him look at the way they have they've had Oh no I agree I agree they don't care about it

I definitely agree about that Yeah Look like Dana White had handled the situation He has not come to Drekart Close's defense at all He has very like side taking a lot of swipes At how Dracar Close

has handled the situation I don't think he's going to give him the Jeremy Stevens fight Jeremy Stevens is one of his boys, and I don't think he cares about making that matchup again, unfortunately, because it would be great. Yeah. The storyline is great. It's like a true grudge match. Yeah, right.

This is like, they call bad blood all the time, but this one is legit. Yeah, I want to see that one. Yeah. I'm still waiting. I want to see. I want to see Dr. I've never said I want to see a Dr. Car Close fight.

I mean, I like, I like, I've never said, I got to see this, but that's the fight I want, I really want to see. I want to see it's new. This promotion has messed up Edwards, Mazvedal, and Jones, and Onghanu. So don't tell me that Stevens-Chiccar Close has to happen because I don't trust them to necessarily do the right promotional thing here. Okay. It's going to get booked for like UFC 266. You just watch.

Oh my gosh. Fighter of the night, Lamey's coach. The notorious Valid Ismail. Great promo, Carter. The Paul Hayme. of MMA managers, Paul Heyman of MMA manager, just so good. Sure, sure. You know what we need to do?

We need to have a video segment featuring our own Giermei Cruz, where we just take what the fighter actually says, compare it to what Walid says, and then have Gierme actually translate it to what the fighter actually says and see how close and probably more how far apart the two statements are, because that would be an amazing segment. I'd love it. I would love to be funny that.

I messaged Gree immediately because I'm like, I was like, okay, I, I, I, I, I, I wouldn't tweet, you know, I handle sort of tweeting stuff out from our MA fighting account during the show. And I'm like, I don't feel comfortable tweeting out what, what, uh, Walit is translating. Not because it's offensive or anything. I just don't trust him that that's what he said. I can't put like, I can't put like Amanda Lameh said this. I'm like, did she? Uh, but Gwee said for the most part, he did kind of translate what she said. He just added a lot on top of it.

That's what it does. Because the UFC normally has translators. He's not a translator. He's an interpreter. You know, he's like, she said it, but this is what she really means. You know, so it's great. I remember, so I remember Voli de Smell before Figurato was the champ when he was just winning fights. And he would, you know, Figuerre said like a couple of things.

But then Valid kind of talks for, you know, 10 minutes over like a 30 second, you know, thing and like it was so interesting and like he sold me on figurado it was like oh i want to see this guy fight so um yeah i get those aren't real quotes but he's doing his job perfectly remember after was it was it 255 when figurato beat alex peris it was the same car merino beat brand and roi val and figurato goes up to the presser and all of his answers were like four seconds long and then like willie would talk for like eight minutes at the time it was awesome it was so good to the point where we just asked Wadiq questions.

Like, how did your, how does your fighter feel tonight? You know, it was just, oh, wait, wait, I got, so this is my Wali, Wali, there's no story. So a few years ago, we're in the fighter hotel, and the morning before the fight, I go down to the gym, the hotel gym, I'm in the fighter hotel, hotel, gym, you know, lift their weights, you know, I got my 20-pound dumbbells, like, you know, whatever. But he comes in there He looks at me We don't know each other He looks at me He grabs like the 55ers

You know And sure starts Doing that And he just looks at me I'm like Oh yeah He just like He just like stares at me

Just doing curls With 55s I'm like Oh this guy's crazy I love this guy I love that That's amazing God I would have loved

To have seen that Yeah I think Casey goes And grabs the 22 and a halfs Oh yeah Oh yeah Oh yeah There we go

I'm getting lean, I'm getting lean, buddy. I'm getting lean, no, it's lean muscle. Cutting, bro. I'm cutting, bro. All right, what else we got? Lehm-Lamon-Limush. Does Amanda Lamosch deserve a top five? She claims that Tisha Torres turned her down.

Well, Torres is fighting Angel Hill anyways, so that's off the table. Who did I say I wanted to see her fight? Angel Hill would be an interesting fight. Torres would also be an interesting fight, because I feel like, especially in this division, Torres is the lip-miss test. Like, to see if you're next level, you throw in there with Tisha. Like, they did that with pretty much everybody.

Even like Brianna-Vin-Beran, everyone was so impressed with her debut. They threw her in there with Tisha. Tisha did what Tisha does. And we haven't seen Brianna Van Burence since. So she had a baby, she had a baby, if you're wondering. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. But yeah, that's why.

Yeah. So, I mean, does she deserve a top five? I don't know Could she fight a top fighter? She could fight one? Jan Jan Janon is my pick That's the fight Yeah

Y'all makes the most sense Is Claudia? Yeah, because who's Lemosch's biggest win? Lavinia, I guess Maybe Mizzuki Inoui I depend either one They're kind of same I'll put in the same level

But neither of them are I wouldn't call either of them I don't think either of them Are really in the top 15 Maybe Lavinia was when she beat her I don't know. I wouldn't even go that far. So I don't know.

I don't think she's ready for top five. Because if we're talking top five, we're talking outside of the champion, Zhang Wei Li, Yuaniajik, Carla Sparza. I would say McKenzie Dern's in there now, maybe. Who's got a fight? Well, Mike, and you just said Jan Shaanan.

So, I mean, she is kind of, I still kind of put her on the top five. So I guess. But again, I'm not picking that fight necessarily. So, yeah, I don't know if I want to do that with Lemos yet. I'd say, the next somewhere in the next five somewhere from six to ten i think is where we'll find an opponent for her i think she's going to be very hard the uh the mhm a fighting global rankings uh lamish

is actually 14 on our global rankings as well i'm sure she's going to be getting a a little bumpsky from there um so we got we got marina at six she's fighting durn we got jan jern on at seven claudey goddalia at eight waterson at nine that's not a bad idea um and then tishes at 10 Hill 11, Nina Nunes, not a bad idea either. And then there's Hebas and John Deroba and they're getting ready to fight each other. So yeah, there's a few options there for us. She has a lot of options. I hope they don't do anything.

And they're all good options. Honestly, based on what we've seen from her during this win streak, again, if she got a top five, like a Jan Shonan or something like that, I wouldn't be surprised. But I think we can one more, one away for me from a, excuse me, from a top. on it. Well, we know, I mean, what the USC will probably do because it just would be unbelievable, but not a, not surprising. They'll give Zhang Wei lead the title shot and then they'll throw Lamos in there with Carla Spars.

Oh, yeah, Carla, just beat her. Just beat this Amanda Lamosh monster and then you get a title show. Oh, don't do that. Don't do that. It's so brutal. It's so unfair. Oh, that's so something they would do. Yeah.

I mean, Lamosh against somebody in the top 10 is fine with me, anybody. Yeah. I like the Waterson idea because Waterston will bring the fight to her. I think it's a bad fight for a lot of... I think it's a tough fight for every woman in that top. Yeah, she's really good. Actually, I mean, I know they have different fighting styles, but I get the same vibe when I see her fight,

when I see Mahachap fight. Even though they're not ranked in the top five, they feel like they're a top five fighter, you know? So the way they dominate their opponents and just take no damage, yeah. Um, take like maybe two more. Yeah, we got a couple more. Ooh, Rodriguez versus Michelle Pajara. That is just all sorts of fun.

You know, that's a good thing about Rodriguez and Michelle Pared. They're hard to, they're hard to book wrong. Just, we want to see them as much as, as often as possible. They're, they're exciting fighters. And, yeah. I have, uh, as much I love Michelle Palletta, I actually have Daniel Rodriguez quite higher head of him in the rank. Kings.

So I'd like to see him. I almost precisely run back that Nicholas Dahlby fight. That was so much fun. And a little, very close, very close fight as well. I have the right answer. Guys, if you want our, yeah, I was not saying, guys, if you want our full answer, I mean, like, we have a, no, we have a podcast every, that comes out on, yeah,

it comes out Sunday and Monday on to the next one. No, no, if I'm looking at it now, I mean, there's, I know, I had to do a little more look into it more. But I think he's, for me, he's on the cusp of the top 20. So I would like to see him face the top 20 guy. I think he's, I think he's of that level. I really think he's such a talented and fun buyer to watch. So give him a top 20 guy, please.

I have your answer. And I've said it, I've said it the last like three Daniel Rodriguez fights. It's James Krause. That's the fight. I like it. Is he booked? I feel like I haven't heard his name as a fighter. He's just kind of waiting for the,

fights once or twice a year. He doesn't care of he fights. As long as it's like, as long as he wants to fight and he hasn't had 14 fighters also fighting on the card, he'll take any fight. As long as it's like, not, I don't know if he'll go to Abu Duh, well, he might go to Abu Dhabi again. He took that last fight on like a week and a half notice.

So, yeah, put him in front of fans. He'll do it. That's good fight. Hey him. Don't take too many of his, too much of his taxes away. No, he'll fight anybody. He doesn't get it. He doesn't care.

What do we think has the ceiling for Daniel Rodriguez? Title contender. He's good, man. I think he could contend for a title. Could he win it? Yes, I don't know. I'd have to see a little bit more. But I think with the right opponents, the right win streak, I think he could challenge for a title.

All right. I would, like, for me, it's Krause or I kind of want to see him Baezza fight. Oh. I would love that. I would love that. But, you know, I'm very high in Bayezza as well. I like that. I like that. There's a lot of good fights.

Yeah, there's a lot of good fights for him. He's right in the thick. Yeah, you can't. He's in that good ranking where you can pretty much give him anybody, to be honest, you know, outside of like a random newcomer like he got tonight, which was a short notice. So, yeah, I like it all. Remember he was supposed to fight? He was supposed to fight Kevin Holland last year at 170 pounds.

Remember that? Yeah, we had to rate Kevin Holland. Uh, jude, too, too, uh, yeah, something. Maybe it's just the Chaos Williams. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Sure. There's a lot, you can't really screw it up. He's, that's why he's a great fighter having, having a roster because he's always

going to be exciting. He's a great mid-card guy. And if he keeps winning, hey, good for him. We've had chaos mess up with like every non-top 10 walk-the-way in the last like month. Like every time I went to wait wins a fight and they're not in the top 10, it's like, Chaos Williams. Chaos Williams. So Chaos, I don't know where you're at, buddy, but book a fight, please.

People are dying to see you. Yeah. You do Max Griffin. You could do Carl's Condit. All, like, all those are. fun. Casey, you listen to hardcore, that cool modern life is war are super solid. It's not for us, Mike. The question is, this comment's not for us. I didn't, I don't even understand this sentence. I don't even understand the sentence. They're a rock and roll

band, AK. They're a rock and roll, Google them. All right. Where's Doja Cat? Where's Doja Cat? Where's Doja Cat? You know what? I think we're... I think we're good? Yeah, like, what happened to the Krauth and Buckley fight? Yeah, someone said that. Did that fight just die? That fight's been dead for a while.

Although that is still there. I mean, I remember I talked to Julian Marquez, and he said, he said no one at the gym is allowed to take that fight before Krause takes it. And they're all like, okay, that's fine with us. We'll do that. We'll wait. I've seen someone's asked a couple of things about this. What is this about?

I have no idea. You saw that? No, I feel like. Maybe you did the Russian or one of the international broadcasts. Okay, just wondering. It's very possible. Sorry. Brandon Moreno does the Spanish broadcasts.

On Wee Variety Hour, you got to explain yourself. You got to, if you ask a question like that, you've got to have contacts. We hopped onto this post-fite show like right after. So there was some hilarious Sergei Spivak meme that we missed, then, you know, otherwise we were just being trolled, Casey. But, you know, you know what it's time for? It's time for. The music? Yes.

It's time to do some more work and then get some shut-eye before me and AK do some matchmaking tomorrow. We do this all over again. We'll talk about this all over again. I got to tell you just kind of thinking about it. The suggestions are coming in. My God, they're four. I mean, good Lord. Yeah, my DMs are exploding.

I will say that I already have the top of my mind. It's been a pretty easy episode to book so far. Yeah. I think so. Yeah, I agree. Pretty easy. So more on that. Tomorrow, probably around noon Eastern time.

That'll drop on the podcast network and then launching the website on Monday morning. And then we get another very busy week ahead of us. A lot going on in the NBA fighting world. The real main event next week. Real main event. Oh, Paige Van Zand versus Rachel Ostovich. Hell yeah. You're damn right, Casey.

I will be there. I will be there live and in person in Tampa. Going out Wednesday. So look for the coverage. That'll be going down. And of course, we have T. Dilloshav versus Corey Sandhagen next Saturday. So the return of poor T.J.

Have you guys seen all the promos about his documentary that's on flight pass? Poor T.J. Poor T. What a victim. Poor guy. Thank God he's back. A lot of Bannam weights on that card. Don't forget the people's main event.

Adrian Yannas versus Randy Costa going down on that card next week as well. Dr. Pepper versus Reese's had the chance to speak to one Adrianian. Yon as you'll hear that conversation Tuesday on what the heck, which should be a fun episode with a whole cast of different characters. Some more on that coming up on Monday night. But until then, we are out of here. I am Mike Eck for AK for E. Casey Liden. Good night, everybody.

Suns in eight? Sons in nine. Sons in seven. Fingers crossed. Fingers'clock. All right, here we go. Happy birthday. South X and six.

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.