MMA Fighting - UFC Vegas 37 & Bellator 266 Post-Fight Show | Anthony Smith, Phil Davis Reign Supreme

Episode Date: September 19, 2021

With UFC Vegas 37 and Bellator 266 in the books, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck, Shaun Al-Shatti, Alexander K. Lee and E. Casey Leydon break down the top storylines coming out of Saturday’s doubleheader, including Anthony Smith’s first-round submission win over Ryan Spann at the APEX, along with Phil Davis’ decision win over Yoel Romero in San Jose.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Follow Shaun Al-Shatti: @shaunalshatti 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 Cudullian 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-by 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?

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Wow. Again, the overhearsal. How do we do that? Wow. What an auspicious way to begin this post-fight show, this post-fights show, because we just wrapped up our second event of the night. Bellator 266, officially in the books. Phil Davis gets the victory over you all Romero.

A terrific performance, in my opinion. And then a couple hours before that, Anthony, Smith just destroyed Ryan Span and the man is timeless. He's such a gangster that Anthony Smith. So I think this is a night of the theme of the main events was put some respect on these guys' names because they are undervalued. They're underrated and they don't get enough love in my opinion. But we're going to talk all about these two cards for a little while with all of you guys. So I am Mike Heck. Same crew as the pre-fight show. We got Alexander. Senator Kay Lee joining us.

I believe he just fired off a scintillating tweet. Is that accurate, AK? AK, your mic. Turn your mic on. Oh, the scintillating tweet is coming. My mic is also on now. Yeah, we got fights. Listen, yeah, underappreciated fights, I think, and fighters.

I guess that's as good a theme as we're going to have for tonight. It was not the most eventful. evening. But I mean, we got some decent fights, so can't complain, I guess. Yeah. I mean, if we can't complain, I guess that's a good thing. We also have E. Casey Liden on the once and twos just dropping that fiery intro track. How are you, my man? You know, I'm kind of disappointed Mr. Prince of Positivity. I had a great night watching fights. I thought it was two good cards. I mean, especially the main car for Bellatory. I didn't watch the prelims because I was too busy watching the ultimate fighting.

But, and even if I was, you know, it wasn't, you know, whatever. But, yeah, good night of fights. Excellent. And I think I'm just happy because I know it on my picks. Yeah, I mean, that was really. That's all we're really here for. I did not. That's where I'm coming from. Yeah, it was a rough night picking, picking the UFC.

That's for sure. So let's just begin with Bellator. Let's begin with how it just ended, because it's fresh on our minds. We just saw it. Phil Davis. wins a split decision over Yo-O Romero. Jaron Vallel, my God, this guy should not be allowed to judge fights ever again. I mean, how dare you score that fight for Yo-O-Merror?

He's a ref, right? He's a ref, right? He's a ref. Yeah, I remember the name, yeah. He is also apparently one of the instructors at John McCarthy's, of John McCarthy's command program. That's got a good And I see some people referring to him as almost like sort of his protege So someone who's worked very closely with Big John on, you know, scoring and how to teach scoring.

So awkward. Terrible. Oh, a horrendous scorecard. It seems like his name is always attached to the horrendous scorecards. I mean, I just don't know what fight he was watching. I just don't know what fight he was watching, but be that as in May, Phil Davis wins again.

I thought it was a fun fight, and I thought Phil Davis had a perfect third round, did what he needed to do, and I've never seen anybody due to U.S. Romero, what Phil Davis did to you all Romero in that third round. So Casey, you've been saying

many times Phil Davis is the most, is may not, I don't know if you said he is the most underrated fighter in M.A., but he's definitely at the top of your list. Did he answer a lot of questions? is a time to stop labeling him as just the boring fighter because his last two fights have been pretty fun. I think so.

I don't know. Like I said before, I think fans have just such a bitter taste of maybe a couple of the bad fights versus Ryan Bader. And I probably name a couple other ones too. Yeah, he has had lackluster entertaining fights for sure. But in terms of just sport and just being a really good mixed martial artist, Oh man, absolutely one of the most underrated fighters in the world.

I mean, outside of, I mean, I have no issue. He absolutely is a top 10 on anyone's rankings. And if you want to call him borderline top five, light heavyweight, sure. He's that good. And like they said, I don't know how many fights he's had in his career. I've never seen him honestly hurt or even come close to getting dropped or even nearly finished in a fight. So just, I'm just, I'm blown away. Phil Davis how good he is.

And yeah, I get it. He's not the flashiest, most exciting. The freaking crowd was booing Phil Davis. Like, why do you booed Phil Davis? He's a nice guy. He's called Mr. Wonderful, and you're booing him. But, um, he may have any fans. You know, they pay their ticket, whatever.

Do what he want. But, um, yeah, Romero did. I'm sorry, Phil Davis did exactly what I thought he was going to do. Um, I know you thought he was going to be kind of a, I think he kind of did both for what we thought. Um, I thought it would be a dominant decision win. Um, kind of like what we saw in the first two rounds. and I think, Mike, you thought it would be kind of more of a grindy decision win,

which is maybe what you want to call the third round. But either way, just smart, smart, intelligent fighting for Mr. Phil Davis. And it was exciting enough for me. Agreed. A.K., your thoughts on Phil Davis's victory and, you know, where he goes from here. Yeah, I didn't think it was a bad performance at all. I saw a lot. Again, I think a lot of people were kind of preemptively dumping on this fight.

And I know when it was made, we were all kind of scratching our hands. heads and we said this isn't going to be the big showcase. For either guy, certainly for Yoel, there was a lot of fears. He's a smaller fire. He's dealing with a very high level lightweight in Phil Davis who's like, you know, he wins his fight in a methodical manner usually. Let's put it that way. But again, technical can be enjoyable.

And I think we all thought that the second fight with Nemcov was great. The second Phil Davis, a Nemcov fight was great. And I didn't think this fight was bad at all. I thought it was, I thought maybe it lived up to people's negative expectations, but it certainly picked up midway through. It was competitive in parts of the second round. And then I actually think it's, like, impressive how Phil Davis controlled the last round.

I know top control and, like, cons take downs can be kind of boring for some people. But when you consider who he was doing it to, to one of the guy, to a guy was one of the best amateur wrestling backgrounds in MMA, yeah, even given the size difference, it's impressive, it's impressive. And a guy who's known for being dangerous in the third round, keep in mind, I'm, you know, I'm a GSP fan, so watching someone like neutralized someone I've always found interesting in its own way. It's not, it's not rock and sock and robots. It's not like, oh, it's not this like back and forth, like momentum swings I would like to see in fights. But I think Phil Davis is becoming really fascinating to watch. So I understand it's not everyone's cup of tea.

But I think a strong technical performance like that has to be appreciated. And, and I'm not going to lie, there were moments like where he kind of reminded me of, I'm going to say it's crazy now, but look, it's pretty late over here. it's a GSP-esque in the way he controlled the first bit of the fight and then went to his wrestling and stuff to kind of seal it. I thought that was really impressive. So I enjoyed the fight. I did not think it was bad at all. And I'm a little surprised to see some people on social media. A lot of people saying like, well, that was like that was as boring as we expected. I'm like, I thought it was a good fight.

You know, if it was the other way around, sorry, if it was Romero doing that, I swear people would say the same thing. It's just there's, I feel that there's such a kind of a bias toward Phil Davis. I actually had a friend over here watching it And she was like Why are they booing Phil Davis I was like because they don't want them to win They're there for Yo Aramero I mean that's simply I mean

If that was Connor McGregor holding down Nate Diaz You know or something You know or something like you know A fan favor holding down someone They'll be yeah But you got there For some reason everyone loves Joe Aramaro That's cool

But yeah that's why I just take that Has was media Are media members kind of poo pooing it Or is it mostly just kind of fans I saw a few people in the media I saw people in the media saying it wasn't it wasn't a fight worth watching or something like that or it was it was what they expected but like in a negative way and I'm like I don't know that's the second round the second round was really fun but who has done that to Romero who has done that to Romero what fight are they talking about we expected that we haven't seen this before Romero far very Romero Esk fight and Phil Davis won. It's not a fight of the year we're not saying it's a fight of the year can or anything. There wasn't one tonight.

It wasn't one. It was a yeah. But it was a really good. a strong performance, again, from a guy that Casey's been saying has been overlooked almost probably for too long. Yeah, I'd be happy to see him fight Nemcov again, not next, but sometime in the future. I'd love to see that a third fight between them. He's a really high-level light heavyweight and really competitive.

So, I mean, that should be celebrated, you know, not just, he's, he's not boring. I don't think Phil Davis is boring at all. So here's pretty much like the example of all of this. So I tweeted out essentially like put some respect on Phil David's. Davis's name. That was a great performance. And someone replied to me, he just fought a 44-year-old fat middleweight who hasn't fought since he was 42, like totally discrediting Phil Davis. First of all, when is anyone ever called Yol Romero fat? That is a man. Granite, you kidding me? Fat, Yol-Ramaro has never been used in the same sentence unless you drop

pH in there describing what he wears, the wardrobe that he brings to the table. Wing-com. I thought it's very forward. How about two seats? That's about it, yeah. Yeah, great performance of Bill Davis. That's classic like the main activity. There's a problem with like instead of celebrating one person's performance, the instinct, like the first inclination is to find a way to crap on both guys. And I'll never understand that. I mean, unless it's a truly terrible fight where, you know,

both guys really just didn't put in their best effort, which I think we rarely see at the Bellator and UFC level. I'll never understand why we can't just give someone credit. Why does it have to be instead of like, instead of, oh, this guy, how, like, you know, what was so great about this guy's win? It's always the emphasis on, well, what was so bad about that guy's loss? You know, why did that guy lose? And I don't understand the mentality. And it's like, if that's how you approach fights like this, I would say take a break from MMA if you can.

And then come back. Maybe you're just burnt out. Maybe you've just seen too many fights. Yeah, I think Phil Davis's efforts to be celebrated. I didn't think U.L. Romero looked terrible. Again, I thought he ran into a really good opponent, a big, bigger opponent, a bigger opponent, younger opponent, really skilled opponent. He had his moments in the second round.

He lost the fight. I don't think Marrow's rushed. I think we've said before. I think 185, if he can still make it look great. I say celebrate Phil Davis tonight. Yep. And Davis, again, like we talked about on the preview show, no matter what happened tonight,

he's still going to be headlining cards every time he fights. There's options for him. We get the, like if Corey Anderson loses to Ryan Bader. Phil Davis versus Corey Anderson is interesting. Even if Bader loses, you can run that one back. Hopefully, it's a more exciting fight. So Davis is going to have some options. Romero, title hope is probably not really there, but he's got options as well. So there you go. Romero's debut in the books. Phil Davis wins again. He's back in the wind calm. Let's talk about knockout artist. Oh, go ahead.

Before we go. Actually, we have Shaheen's about to jump on, so give me a moment real quick. Oh, yeah, he's about to jump on him, but I've got to do some camera stuff. But before we get off this main event, two questions. Coming into this, I was wondering, when is Romero going to be old?

Was tonight's performance at Old Romero? And did Bellator make a mistake booking this fight from the get-go? I thought this fight from the get-go was a high-risk, maneuver from the promotional standpoint. You mean you saw the fans, the fans won Romero to win. So for a promotional standpoint, you would think, you set up Romero.

And to me, this fight when it was booked, I mean, there was such a low, in my opinion, there was a very low probability that Romero was going to beat Phil Davis tonight. So what do you guys think by those two questions? I mean, I thought the matchmaking was a little questionable, especially if you're bringing in your Romero and, you know, you. you know, throwing him in the Grand Prix, putting him in there with Rumble. Like, that's the fight everybody wanted to see. I think Belleter just kind of caved in to what everybody wanted and made that fight.

But, yeah, I wasn't a big fan of the matchup. Like, if you're a Romero fan, I think you were, like, excited to see him fight again because you haven't seen him fight since the Adasania fight. But I think you're probably scratching your head, like, this is not a great fight. And in terms of the old thing, I don't know. Like, I just, it's hard. he got such a late started. I feel like we've seen the same guy for so many fights.

Like I mentioned in the preview show. Like this had Romero Widman feelings to me where Davis would win the first two rounds and then Romero would have to get a finish in the third. But I thought Davis would have a higher fight IQ, if you will. And that's exactly what he did. So the fight kind of played out the way that I thought it would. I thought it would be a little more grindy. I didn't think Davis would stand as much as he did with Yo-All,

but good on him. So I don't know if I'm ready to call Romero like completely old. I just feel like he's the same guy. You know what I mean? What are your thoughts on that, A.K. Oh, wait, wait. Why don't we hear from this gentleman? Oh, let's hear from fellow bald brethren.

Sean Lashaddy joining us. This is a delight. This is a welcome surprise. Sean, how are you, my friend? And your thoughts on Casey's two-part question there, if you heard it all. I'm doing great, guys. Glad to join. Sorry for the delay.

But yeah, Casey, I mean, I think that's a great question, both of them. And it's hard to say, right? Because in terms of old Yoel Romero, to me, this just felt like Yowel Romero, right? Like, I didn't feel like there was any difference tonight with how he fought Izzy, with how he's fought a lot of his UFC fights. This is what he does. He's a slow starter. It's very difficult for him to sort of get out of second gear until he gets into that

third round, fourth round, fifth round. That's why the legend of third round, Yoel Romero is so fierce, right? It's because it kind of takes him to this far to get into it. And you could feel it in that third round. He was starting to feel the urgency a little more. And I believe him when he says he didn't know that it was going to be five rounds. I mean, that he was fighting like someone who felt like he had three more rounds to go, two more rounds to go.

In regards to the other question, though, you're 100% right, Casey. And I've sort of thought that from the start. I would agree with Mike here. The matchmaking on this, just, I don't know what Bellator was thinking other than, like, I understand the idea of like, let's obviously people want to see Yowel. Let's rush him into some sort of fight, any fight. and Phil's a former UFC guy he's been in Bellator for a lot longer than I think

we even realize at this point they were saying like six years on the broadcast which feels crazy to me but okay wow okay right like how is that how we're all getting way too old this is not this is not cool over the UFC we have people competing who are born in the 2000s like I'm just not ready

for whatever this feeling old every Saturday is going to be let's move on but I but I I dig race because you're right Phil Davis is one of those guys who, like, he is perennially underrated to a extreme degree simply because he's boring, right? Like, people don't really want to tune in to watch Phil Davis because you kind of know what you're going to get. But the dude wins for the most part, the majority of his fights, and he wins him in kind of the same way. You really kind of knew what you were going to get into when you book someone like Yoel, who's a slow starter, who can have these very unexciting fights until they are exciting.

all of a sudden you book him against somebody like Phil, like run that back 10 times. I think maybe one of them would be exciting, but the other nine are probably going to be pretty boring, pretty grinding like what we saw tonight. I don't know. If you're trying to introduce Yuel to your brand new audience, like that's not the way, right?

Like you book him up against somebody, he's just going to smash. And then all of a sudden you can point to this crazy monster-looking human being and just be like, look at what we got rather than something like we got tonight. I think they'd absolutely drop the ball when it comes to booking. And also I will just add, it's time we probably start respecting Phil Davis more just in general

like I think this is a broader conversation but even among our own team for the rankings that we have the MMA fighting global rankings like there are a lot of people on that eight man panel who just don't even have Phil Davis in their top 15 at light heavyweight which is crazy to me I have him up there

but like you look at his run as he's been in Belator his only real losses are to Nemcoff and Ryan Bader right like other than that dude is just out here winning and again it's just He wins. He wins. They weren't like just, I got blown out.

Yeah. Two competitive losses. Two of those three were split decisions. Like, he is just generally in all of these fights. He's one of the best light heavyweights in the world. But again, we just discount him because he's boring.

And that's sort of the way it goes. But yeah, I did not get what Bellator was doing with matching this up. I'll tell you what, man. Ramirez threw a couple of those front kicks that were real close to change in the entire complexion of that entire fight. that guy is just such a ninja he was very close to land in some of those push kicks but AK your thoughts on this well I will say the one thing uh I don't know I can't remember where I have Phil Davis ranked in my my own rankings I'm

I'm pretty sure I have him in there I could be wrong I might not have him in the top 15 um yes he like when we kind of talked about this before and previewing this card he he hasn't he's only lost to really great fighters it just feels like he hasn't had a win over great fighter uh in a while I think and again this is subjective, right? Like, how do you view the wins over like a Leah McGeery, a Linton vassal, compared to, like, guys that, you know, are fighting in the UF, you know, kind of mixing up the UFC, like the Johnny Walker's and the Anthony Smith and things like that? So, I mean, look, if you, if just based on how you see him perform, you want to say Phil Davis is like a top six, top seven, like, I don't blame you. But I also don't blame fans who might question, like, the strength of schedule. Like, Romero, I think, is maybe like the, maybe the biggest name. He had the win over Machita as well. But Romero, maybe right now the biggest name he's beaten in a while. Even though it's a guy who's not a light heavyweight, he is a middleweight that's just returning to this division for the first time and friggin forever. So there is something you said about a question, like his level of competition. But again, people who want to rank them higher, I don't blame them at all.

These do tend to be of Centric. I am guilty of that as well. But yeah, I do, you know, I think we just need to see him either win big one as it were, you know, conquer that NEM cover Bader Mountain. or just keep racking up wins in Bellator against name guys. I do wonder how the perceptual shifts now that he's beaten Romero, because I know there's a lot of respect for Romero still, but he is kind of, he is a middleweight. People are suddenly saying like, oh, maybe he's old now.

And again, and as, as, that is relevant that people said, oh, was it a boring performance, which I don't think it was. But, you know, these are all things people can, ammunition people can use against Phil Davis, unfortunately. All I'm saying is, all I'm saying is in two weeks when we redo our, the next round of the rankings. Y'all better have Phil Davis in the top 15 at light heavyweight because this is ridiculous at this point

that this man wasn't in there for many of you guys. I got to check my number nine. He's the number nine. Am I in this? Wait, am I getting yelled at? Hold on. I'm going to check my rankings. Am I getting yelled at like,

is he not in my rankings? I can't say. I don't know. In that case, sir, simmer down. Let me check. I'm saying the royal we, right? Like the royal y'all, like in general. The eight-man panel,

better all have him in the top 15. That's all. All I know is that the best 205er who fought tonight, his name is Phil Davis. That's all I'm saying. Well, actually, the second best of the best one was called Big Tuna. I was going to say, there's some big tuna disrespect going on right now. I'm not here for it. If Big Tuna is not in your top 15, oh.

Just start tuning in there with you, Wile, Max. Give Tuna that fight. Yes. Thank you. That's all. That's all. Big tuna. Goel. I had felt it was a tent. I had felt it was a tent. I felt it was a tent. I don't want nobody yelling at me.

I feel there was number 10. All right in my rankings. One last point on this, because I don't know if we're going to get to it. But a, so I had people look this up from me on Twitter. If you had parlayed Neiman Grace D round one K.O. With Big Tuna round one K.O. And bet $100 on it. Wait, wait. Just $100.

How much do you think that would have paid? Like, if you haven't seen it. $100, it's got to pay at least $10,000, I don't know. Any other guesses? I already saw it, so I can't guess. What is it? It's way higher than $10,000. $77,000 and $800,000.

So almost $78K for a $100 bet on those two men. $78K. I hope someone did that. Absolutely zero people did that. If somebody did that, we will invite them on the next preview show because that is impressive. I want to see the ticket. I want to see it all. But that is some impressive gambling if you parlayed both of those for first run chaos.

Let's talk real quick before we go to the UFC. I mean, Big Tuna is awesome. I think we can wax probably. Just go to our Twitter page at M.A. fighting and just look at the three and a half minute clip of Big Tuna. And you'll know everything you need to know. What a win, huge upset win. but let's talk about the knockout artist Neiman Gracie Sean Alshadie. What did you think of that?

Because if you could have, if we could have guessed any, you know, five, ten ways that fight could have ended. First round knockout, I don't think any of us could have seen that coming against, especially against a guy who's got a pretty good striking background in Mark Leminger. That was impressive, was it not? Oh, absolutely. I mean, a guy who was coming in here, I think he was undefeated, right? Like he was making his, he was kind of new to Bellator, but he was coming in with a pretty good pedigree. And of all the outcomes that you could have asked for, I don't think anybody would have called that one.

Even Gracie, man, he's been quietly doing it now for a while in Bellator. He's starting to become something really interesting, right? Like, you saw it tonight. What they have him doing over there, his coach's name escapes me at the moment. Somebody gives me. Neiman Gracie? His coaches? Hafero Cordera.

Cordero, that's right. That's right. What they have him doing out there with Cordero, man. He looked good tonight. Like that uppercut. that finishing combo looked like someone who actually knew how to strike, right? Like that wasn't some lucky, you know, shot that he was landing. He was mixing it up pretty well in there.

And you combine that with what we already know about him with the ground game, just a savant on the mat like that. He's kind of turned into something really surprising that. I think none of us quite expected. It was really interesting to see. And it's always cool, I've said this before, but it's always cool when you can sort of see these guys, these younger guys coming up and then sort of that switch flip in real time on them

where they kind of like figure out other. aspects of the game that you know they've been working on. I think we just did that tonight and saw that from Neiman Gracie. A.K., he called out two guys after this victory, called out MVP, who's getting ready to fight Douglas Lima very soon. And then he also called out Jason Jackson. He wants that rematch. He felt like he got hosed, and I think other people would agree with him on that.

But in my opinion, he's probably going to get the title shot against Yaroslav Amossov, because that just seems to be the direction they're going right now. So if you're the Bellator matchmakers, how do you do you? do you book Neiman Gracie moving forward? Does he wait for one of those two guys at this point? Or do you just try to keep this guy at the center and just keep throwing them out there

and trying to knock dudes out? We've got to find a far off matchup now for K1 Neiman, right? Yeah, you know, it's funny, Neiman is like he's such the Gracies, you know, ever since, of course, like, you know, the Glory Days of Hoyce and some the other guys, they've had

checkered results in MMA and actually MMA if we're being generous. So it's funny, he's always like, he's been cut from a different cloth kind of ever since he burst under the Belator scene. But even personality-wise, there's, he stands out from the family and I think that's great.

I don't know, I mean, I would love to see him fight MVP. I just think that Beltor is not going to go in that direction. I mean, people can bring up all they want. The whole, you know, MVP's kind of had some favorable matchmaking. Some of it, you know, is out of

their hands. He's had some opponents fallout. But I do think this is one matchup they would want to avoid. At least, at least as far as what's next for Neiman Gracie, maybe sometime next year they get crossed past, depending how the results of their next fights go. But I don't know if that's the next one they make. I think you're right, Mike. I think they maybe just push them into that title shot with Amasab. I think it's a good stylistic matchup, at least as far as being theoretically two guys, you know, who will give you some entertaining stuff on the ground. But I also think they're both, Again, Amosah is really well-rounded. I think Neiman showed that he's a little more well-than the people expected.

So, yeah, I think it's a sellable fight. Does M-A-Sov not have a tell defense already scheduled? No, I think they'll throw them in there with Jason Jackson. That kind of seems like the direction they're going after that card. That's not a right, right? That's not official yet. That's not officially yet, no. Okay, okay.

I see, I see, yeah, yeah, right, yes. Okay, so I would say, I would say Neiman should wait. Yeah, I'm on the Neiman Gracie. Wait to see what happens there. train. Casey, your thoughts on the co-made event? I was just, I was just kind of shocked. That's all.

I was like, that was like everything Shane said. That wasn't, that wasn't, that wasn't striking from a grappler. That was striking from a very good striker. You know what I mean? Like, it wasn't like, it wasn't like, Liminger was like waiting for a takedown and he came in over, over top or anything like that. It was just straight up good striking, good elbow, good uppercut, perfect timing. You know, that's all.

I was just like, whoa, Neiman Gracie is much better. He is improving. And it's pretty cool watching fighters improve with such a big spotlight on him. So good job, Mr. Gracie. That's all. Yeah, he is, he is a force to be reckoned with. I'm not sure how good he is in the worldwide kind of Welch-toid rankings. But without a doubt right now in Bellator, yeah, he's a tough out for,

tough out for everyone at the top. I want to see him fight. I want to see him fight more. I want to see him fight Jackson again. I want to see him fight Amasov. Did he fight Lima? I forget, my, my, he, Lima. No, he hasn't fought Lima yet.

He hasn't fought Lima yet, okay. Oh, yeah, he fought for the title against Rory. That was what it was. I know he fought for the title. Which was a surprisingly competitive fight. I thought it was very competitive, yeah. So, yeah. And then he'll hold John Fitch right afterwards.

Yeah, so, Neiman Gracie is awesome. And, yeah, can't wait to see him back. Yeah, I like getting the loser. of the Lima MVP fight seems like the right way to go. Two big names. That's the way to go because you feel like if MVP beats Lima, his next fight's going to be for the belt against whoever it is. So

good win for Gracie. Nice win for Deanna Bennett. Kind of sucks. She mithwaite, but she looked really good in the fight. Saul Rogers workman-like decision over a really tough guy in Georgie Karkhanian and Big Tuna, kicking off the main card in a big way.

The big upset over Christian Edwards that was not supposed to happened. But it did. There were a lot of upsets on this card. Yeah, I was going to say, I thought like Mertizalev losing to Anthony Adams would be like the biggest upset of the night before the Christian Edwards a loss happened. I was like, because that Mertizale, I think it was like almost a five to one favorite. And Adams won a decision.

I was like, oh, crap. Like, well, I was like, there's your big Belltor upset on the night. And then a big tuna came out and just smashed everything. I don't, I don't go for it, Casey. Oh, I was just a bellator 266. the main car at least had no business being to me being this entertaining i was i was just like all right i just watched the main event everything whatever let me see laura's walk out that's cool but i was like i had i had actually a really enjoyable time watching the main and i was kind of shocked after watching

all the ufc fights and bell truck i think it was because it was different the crowd felt i thought i thought even though obviously it wasn't like a sold-out arena or anything but the crowd that was there i felt really added a lot and um it was just it was just hearing like from the six fans at the ufc apex to like, you know, or whatever crowd of the in San Jose. It was just a nice night for Bellator. I was surprised. They overachieve tonight a bit. One more thing on the upsets.

You guys were mentioned in the upsets. I don't know what it is with Bellator, but it feels like if you looked back on the last five years of like upsets that were like plus 1,000 type of underdogs or more, I feel like two out of every three of them had to be in Bellator. Like it's something about the Bellator cage and the promotion and maybe the, because they do do a lot of showcase fights. So that kind of sets up maybe those stakes.

But like most of the big like high level maximum like odds type of upsets in the recent history seem to happen in Bellator. It's pretty crazy, man. It's the way they build their fighters and the way they matchmaking. It's expected for these to be showcase fights. But if you look at the top, I think if you look at the top 20 biggest upsets in like MMA history, I don't know how updated those are these days. But if you look at it, I think like more than half the list are Belator fights.

Because you have stuff like Kimbo Slicz Jr. Excuse me, Kimbo Slice Jr. being like a minus 800 favorite and like his fourth pro fight. And it's like what? It's like why? Yeah. It's these fighters where we just don't have a lot of information on them. Like it's kind of like everyone, both people involved are very new. Like I remember being in the arena when Bubba Jenkins lost to, I can't even remember the guy that he lost to.

Lou Rue Burley. That's right. That was in Arizona. We're talking to Lou Vu Burley tonight. Who knew? great memory on that Mike but yeah it's just in Bellator it seems to be a very consistent thing

but again I think that just goes to the matchmaking philosophy exactly they have these long run in Belator history too yeah these big prospects and a lot of times they'll bring in these regional guys you just never heard of basically not saying they're not good you just haven't heard of them so when they do win

the betting lines obviously competitive wise it was probably always closer but betting line wise yeah I get it yeah and obviously like 99% of the showcase fights go the way that everyone expects it's just the ones the one percent that we i don't but you know what but then you get these magical moments like big freaking tuna that's all you just get magical moments like big tuna and now we're going to see romero versus big tuna i i booked it already big tuna out here

just dropping space coast coast coast coast to coast references in this post fight i love it that guy is just a treat uh so great win for him and one more thing about big tuna just i applaud in new man that's willing to he's basically okay where's this about to go he's a man that probably should swim with a shirt on

type of guy is the fact that he would get half-necked in front of a giant arena and just throw down with like these chiseled beasts across the cage from them I just like mad respect for these gentlemen mad respect I saw the promo photos at Bellatorre sent out

I was like oh boy you know but the first first thing that guy did after after his win was he rushed to Twitter and called everyone Busters. Like that's fantastic. Like that is a way, we had said this in our MMA fighting slack, but that is a way underutilized insult. And I'm here for calling people Busters after you do something like that. Like that's fantastic. Yeah. You get stock rise of the nay. No doubt about it. It was big tuna. No doubt. So that was Bellator. Fun card. UFC went down a little bit earlier.

Anthony Smith closed the show with a first round submission. went over Rinespan. This was one way traffic from start to finish. Anthony Smith looked tremendous and we didn't get to really hear the first half of his post-fight interview with Michael Bidding, but he was fired up. He called out Alexander Rackich. Seems like Rackich

is in for that. And I think we got a fight for ruin for maybe December, probably in a main event of a fight night card. So, Sean, we'll begin with you. Anthony Smith, this guy, as we talked about on our preview show, he's experienced the highest of highs, the lowest of lows, not just the UFC, but

all around the country, around the world. This guy's been doing the damn thing for a long time to see this guy, you know, in some tough spots, a couple bad losses, come back and win three in a row the weight he has. What are your thoughts on Lionheart? What he's been doing and what he did tonight to Ryan Span? Man, I mean, first of all, just what a unique cat he is, right? Like, what a unique character he is for MMA? I think Bacchasey, maybe you said something about this tonight, of just how unique his road has been.

and sort of everything that he's gone through and the honesty that he sort of brings to all of it, right? Like he always feels like very genuine when he's speaking. I absolutely adore what he has been able to do over the last year. Like they keep throwing him these tough, tough up-and-comers and he's not complaining and he just keeps beating them back with a ferocity and with an ease that is just consistently impressive. Like tonight was absolutely fantastic.

And at this point, he has now five first round finishes since 2018. as tied with Vicente Lucay for the most in the UFC during that stretch. And he just quietly goes about his business and does this sort of thing, man. They were talking about today on the broadcast about him growing into the light heavyweight division and like the actual size that he's been gaining and things like that. And you can really tell. Like it was shown tonight, like what he has done over the past year and change since he lost that really terrible fight against Rackich. Coming back against all these young up and comers, building his body up to this division,

just taking on these challenges and doing it in a workman-like fashion, but also just on the side really still improving. We call him such a veteran, right? 52 fights or something like that, but he still gets better. Every time we see him out there, he's tough as all nails. And I just love the chip that he's carrying on his shoulder right now, like the saltiness. And we saw it come out right after he won because he's absolutely right.

He still doesn't get that respect for whatever reason it is. And I wonder if a large part of it is just the record of you see. see a guy with 16 losses, you kind of assume he's probably not one of the best in the world, but it's just that record is so deceiving because so many of those losses were so much earlier in his career. He was a different person back then. He deserves so much more of respect than he gets in this light, heavyweight division. He genuinely, at this point, is probably like one win away from really fighting for that title

against whoever comes out of that mix. I absolutely love it. And I love that he booked his next fight in the cage, basically, with that rematch against Rackich. I thought it was a 10 out of 10 night for Anthony Smith. I would agree. And A.K. What's funny about Anthony Smith is people look at the rackage fight, and I feel like that was the big downfall.

Like that was the one where you have to look in the mirror and readjust. And a lot of people look at the Glover to share a fight. But a lot of people forget that in the first like eight minutes of that fight against Glover, people are saying like this is the best Anthony Smith we've ever seen. Like the way he was throwing volume and moving around, shown a lot of quickness, he just kind of burnt himself out. And then Glover took over. and then we remember what happened after the fact.

The fight should have been stopped, should have not been stopped, who was to blame the referee of the coaches, yada, yada, yada. But this man just looked himself in the mirror, got back after it, and now look at him. Three wins in a row. He's got a big fight with rackets if he wins that. Like Sean said, he's in a very good position, especially now that John Jones is no longer in the light heavyweight division.

Could this guy be fighting for a title in the next year? Is this possible? Could we be seeing Anthony Smith fight for a light heavyweight title by this time in 2022? Yep. What's not to like? He's a company man. He does broadcasting for the UFC. He finishes fights. They trust him as a main eventer. He's main evented how many fights. I think like unless he's on pay-per-view, he's main-evented like seven fight nights in a row or something. Five or like six, six, six. I can't count. Seven. He's made eventing seven flight nights. Oh, plus and and UFC two 35. He did. He made evented against John Jones. So he's also made event to peer view. He's a very well-liked, trusted name in the promotional. motion. He's very professional. He's great on the mic when he's not swearing. I mean, I don't know if you guys had it bleeped out on ESPN Plus, but up here in Canada, his words were a little too sensitive for our sensors, and we heard almost nothing. But he was worked out. He was obviously very emotional after that fight. And that's another thing people like. So he wears

his heart in his sleeve. You guys said he's honest. We feel like we know who Anthony Smith is. And that's a big, I think that's a big thing for the UFC and for ESPN when they're trying to market somebody. So, yeah, especially with John Jones out of the picture, as mentioned, there's no reason he can't be one impressive performance away from a title fight. It's kind of goes with the grander's discussion we were having before of like when guys lose fights, like his losses to Rockich, his loss to Chara, we focus on the negatives. We focused on, oh, man, he's like I said, the last three rounds of the fight with the Shera, not the first two rounds. And it's like losing to Glover to Shera, being out clasped like Grover to Shera is not a shame. Glover to Shera is an elite light heavy. I'd say maybe one of the 10 best light heavyweights of all time.

There's no shame in that. Rock gets an up-and-comer. He's on his way to a title shot as well. And John Jones is John Jones. So losing to these guys does not make you a bad fighter. There's certainly holes that you see exposed and reasons to think this guy, you know, has to fix him some things up. But he's clearly still good enough to beat a certain tier of competition and not just beat them, but outclass them. This is three first round finishes now, including the Jimmy Crute injury.

So, yeah, it's not unreasonable at all that he'd be fighting for a title. is it the UFC's number one choice? Is the number one choice for a lot of fans out there? Maybe not. But again, the way this guy fights, the way he finishes people, he's kind of taking that choice out of other people's hands and he's put it back in his own hands. And that's what's so great about him, right?

Real quick, one of the thing, too, I want to add, just to follow up on that is, I think what I find most impressive about his whole story at this point, in particular is just like you look back maybe like four or five years ago, right, when he first started, Anthony Smith really first started coming up in the ether and we started being aware of who he was and hearing his name and anticipating his fights.

And he was winning those fights, but he was winning those fights in such a different fashion than he's winning now, right? Like you go back to the Andrew Sanchez, the Hector Lombard, like all of these fights where he's getting his ass kicked for basically the entirety of it, and then just his heart really pulls him through

in the final minutes, and he pulls off some late comeback or something like that. That's not how he's winning it anymore. Like you look at these last three, all three of them, first round finishes, and all three of them just thorough in their domination. and even like you said, aka the first couple rounds of that Glover

to share a fight, which is also very thorough in Anthony's favor. Like he has really become a complete fighter under our noses and it's so much fun to watch compared to where he was just even three, four years ago. Casey, your thoughts on the main event.

And one thing that kind of drives you a little crazy and I'm glad Anthony Smith gets the main events and the money and stuff, but return of the Mac just hits so much harder when there's 15,000 people in the arena. Does it not, Casey? I mean, good. Lord. Like when you came out for the Jimmy

crew fight, I mean, it woke me up. It put, I was ready to go. I was like, yes, fans, this is awesome. This is tremendous. To hear it come out in the apex, it's just not the same when 18 people are clapping for you. Like, it's just not the same. Yeah, I honestly I kind of miss

either do no fans or actually I'm kind of in agreement of Dana on this. Either no fans or kind of, or at least half capacity or something. When there's like 15 people there are just weird. That's all. But what was a question? Just about Anthony Smith?

Yeah. Quick story about Anthony Smith. When he came back to the UFC after originally getting cut from the UFC, people forget that he was in the UFC and got cut. He kind of came over from the strike force transfer. He was in the UFC for one fight. One fight.

And he lost by knee bar in the first round. And I remember watching that. I remember him losing the Roger Gracie on the very final strike force card. And then, you know, I was surprised. he came over and he lost his first fight in UFC, UFC released him. And then he loses his first fight in the regional circuit

too. So for 99% of professional fighters, you're done. Yeah, you might fight regionally for a while, but as far as getting to the big show, you know, the UFC or any big promotion, you're pretty much done, I would say. But he's something like he worked his way

back, and when he came back, I remember he beat did he actually lose his first fight back in his first return? No, he won. Okay, he won. Then he lost his second bite to, yeah, Sizar Ferrer. But I remember we beat Andrew Sanchez. It was a great comeback fight. It was still when he was at 185. And I talked to him off camera.

And I told him, it was like, I got to tell you something, man. Like, I thought you were done. I just thought you were done. Like, I'm just so impressed. Because I remember the interview, I was just really impressed by what he was saying. No, we've all heard him. I don't know you talk about how, how, just how his honesty just comes out. But I talked to him, and then he looked at me, he said, and I told him, like, dude, it's so

and present man, just keep it up. And he looked at me, he goes, dude, and he said this, and I know it sounds bad, but he says, I'm just too dumb to give up. That's all. I'm just too dumb, you know? And like, but he says it in a very straight guy. He's very, yeah, in like a very meaningful and thoughtful way. And I understood what he meant. And like, I'm just, I just, I love the Anthony Smith story. I'm so happy for that guy. I don't know him. I just watch his interviews. We've interviewed him a couple times, you know, whatever. So, yeah, I'm just, I love Anthony Smith story. And if he gets a couple more wins, the problem is, like, I want to believe him to more. I just don't think he's, like, a top five, like heavyweight, but man, he's so good. And I just love his story. I'm happy. I'm happy.

He's happy. I'm happy. He's happy. Making the money, he's happy. I'm happy. Doing his TV stuff. And it's just, he's a feel good story. And I hope, I get you saw the tweet. I just hope fans appreciate him. that's all. He's a unique character. And yeah, I love it. And he's that genuine in real life. Yeah. Every time I've ever talked to him, I come away from it just being so impressed with him just as a human. It's pretty wildness. And he gets it too. I remember when he fought Rashad before the fight, he's like, you know, he's talking, no, I'm going to beat Rashad. But as soon as I beat him, everyone's going to say, you beat up an old guy. You beat up an old guy. And sure enough, people said that. And he said, but I'm ready for that, you know, and I'll beat Rashad. And I'll move on to the next one. He sees it off.

Incredibly self-aware. He's super self-aware. This is a good dude. The only time I've ever heard him like cut a heel promo, this wasn't a heel promo, but just a really angry promo, was the first time I interviewed him. It was right after he beat Leonardo Cameras

in his first fight back with the UFC. And we talked about his whole story and it was just blown away. And he told me this story. I was like, well, who do you want to fight? Like, if there's anybody in this division, you want to fight? Like, who is it?

He wanted to fight Derek Brunson so bad. like a run in with Derek Brunson and like Brunson shunned him. Like Anthony Smith said hey what's up Derek and Derek just like kind of giggled at him and Anthony Smith just like unloaded on him and from that point forward I was like I have to see Anthony Smith fight Derek Brunson

and then he moved up to 205 we never got to see it but that was classic it was probably like five or six years ago when I had that conversation When Anthony Smith was on the post show with Karen Bryant and Tyron Woodley and Jobon He said something You know everyone was against me you know

they didn't believe in me. And Tyrone Woodley was like, we all thought you were going to kind of win tonight. But then Tyrone Woodley goes, you know what, but I get it. You need that chip on your shoulder. That's what motivates you. And usually I'm kind of like, ah, fighters are down on this. I think sometimes it's overblown. But like, I really enjoy Tyrone Willie just looking at it goes, oh, I understand what

you're saying. Because all of us, I mean, he was a favorite. I picked Anthony Smith to win. But he still needs that, you know, that chip. They're like, they don't believe in me. They think I suck, you know? And I love it. I just love it.

I'll just say Anthony Smith was like the first big interview I did when I joined the M.A. Fighting team. It's been four years ago now. After the Sanchez win before the head of the Hector Lombard fight. And I remember again, this is, I mean, I'm still nobody, but I was really nobody back then.

Oh. Okay. Wow. You're somebody in our heart. I was just starting off the M.A. fighting. And Anthony Smith, at the same time, was just starting to, This is before light heavy with the light heavy weight move. So it was kind of just starting to still get his footing in his second run with the UFC.

But I remember interviewing him and thinking like, man, if this guy like gets some wins and stringing some wins together, he really could be a star. And I mean, going around, we have some bias when we, you know, interview anybody. We kind of like, you know, there's a bit of rooting for them. But there was definitely something special about him. And I was really surprised that like, this is a guy who was such a veteran. I'm like, I'm like, he should be, this is a guy. He should be a journeyman.

But there was a spark there. And I'm like, man, if he actually gets some wins together and gets a run, going. This is a guy who's going to be a name. I never thought he'd compete for a title. That was completely surprising. But there's, I think anyone who has interviewed him feels the same way. That it's like, wow, there's, he's different. Like this guy is different.

And, you know, one of those special, one of those special athletes in MMA. I'll go ahead and say it. And just remember, Anthony, there's only one person here who picked Ryan Span and that is Alexander Kaley. All right, listen, I did, who remembers these things? Who remembers these things? Why would you bring that up? I was, dude, I was over on all the big fights.

I picked Romero. I picked Ryan's fan. And, and, and I picked Evan Clark. Do you watch M.A? This is the man who does our predictions to the website. I don't. I know. I'm the only one who is, like, on record publicly with the picks. Who has to take this from the people all the time.

And they only remember when you're wrong, guys. Yeah, they do. It's just true. They only remember when you're wrong. They don't give you credit when you're right. And then you just got to show up every time. I'm just easy can you just

like a camera what's happening right now AK's like melding down we're losing Meldard okay Deanna Bennett Deanna Bennett got me

Ugly ugly cry ugly cry yeah yeah all right so real quick we'll take a couple questions but good win for Smith

Iwan Kutalaba good win Ariane Lipski needed that one really badly Armand Sarukian good Lord what a performance Oh my goodness No case fight. I love it.

Lived up, yeah, lived up to that, to be the biggest favorite on the card. He needed a finish. He needed a performance like that. He got it. Nate Mainis with an incredible comeback win. And then Joaquin Buckley with another incredible comeback win because I thought he was losing that entire fight until he got the knockout. So, Sean, let's begin with you because this is one of those cards where it was very top-heavy.

There were a lot of competitive fights. There were a couple of names that were very interested in. If you had to choose, like, a sixth player award, You're an NBA fan, a six-player award for this card, like the under-the-radar star of UFC Vegas 37. Who would you pick and why? Under the radar, that's a good question. I mean, ultimately, it might be one guy you just mentioned, which is Armin's Serookian. I think I'll probably butchering the last name right.

But my God, man, like that dude is going to be a problem in this UFC Lightweight Division four years to come. Like, I am absolutely full-on believer at this point. We even saw it with his debut against Islam Makachev, where he comes. kind of like gave Islam a surprisingly like competitive fight. And it's like that should have been the first sign to a lot of people like what this guy could actually be. But he has just looked like a monster sense. And really the whole problem so far with his UFC career is he just hasn't been finishing people. Right.

And then come in today in what was kind of a showcase fight, like you mentioned the odds. I love it when the UFC does this. They don't do it nearly enough in my mind. They don't let these kind of prospects get these kind of showcase fights because that's what we get when you do that. when you make that booking, you get him looking outrageously good, knocking this guy out in less than two and a half minutes. And now who isn't excited to see Armand Siruqi and really work his way up the ranks, right? Like, he is absolutely my star of this card in terms of underrated fighters coming in.

And I cannot wait to see where he is, where he sort of lands next in this lightweight division. Because this division is stacked. It's always one of the most talent-rich divisions in the entire sport. But right now, when you got hungry young killers like him coming up, I love it. I absolutely love it. Yeah, him and Tupori are two guys who could fight for titles. Tupori is obviously at Featherweight, but those are two guys who you've got to keep an eye on. So, A.K., who is yours?

Who is your six-player award for U.S.C. biggest 37? I don't know. I mean, I will definitely say she was flying under the radar because it feels like her fight now was. Actually, I just to say, feels like her fight probably was like, what, six or seven hours ago now? Aaron Blanchfield. I mean, Aaron Blanchfield, one of the biggest betting favorites, though, so it's not like people don't know about her. but she's what 22 years old she's amazingly accomplished already

she won some fights in Invicta she won a very close she lost a very close fight to Tracy Cortez which a lot of people thought she should have won so she should be undefeated she almost could have won an Invicta title she had a fight for a vacant title against Pearl Gonzalez

unfortunately Pearl got COVID-19 so that fight was just canceled and then Aaron Blanchfield got the call up anyway so she never got that chance to fight for an Invicta title it did feel like she would have been favored in the Ronald Gonzalez fight and haven't had a good chance to win. But an amazing grappler. She's a black belt at age 22.

She had a star making performance at one of those EBIs, one of those Eddie Bravo invitationals. I got everybody talking about her. And then a huge head kick of Victoria Leonardo. She's hit like all these, you know, we always talk about when someone's coming up as a star. So you've got to hit all these check marks. So it's like, okay, she had this big grappling tournament. She won it.

Can't she get a highlight finish? She got a highlight finish in Invicta, you know, for a major promotion. And then, okay, what about her UFC debut? You know, she got all this hype behind her. complete domination. She didn't get the finish. But again, I think Sarah Alpar is tougher than people are going to realize than her own two record says. She just got herself some really tough fights for her first two UFC fights. And also, again, Blanchfield is the real deal. I mean, this is someone who will be a world title contender. I'll be shocked if she doesn't compete for a UFC title

sometime in the next two years. Hopefully they can do a slow burn. And we're not even talking about that until like 2023. But Aaron Blanchfield lived up to the hype big time. So anyone who may not have caught the first few fights of the early prelims, I would definitely recommend please go check out the Blanchard Alpar fight if you want to see someone who's really young and really lived up to the hype. Great performance. Dude, she threw like 300 strikes, landed like 200 of them. And then after the fight was over, she got up and leisurely walked to the physician.

I'm cool. Didn't even take a deep breath. Her nickname is cold-blooded and she's like so level all the time. Like in interviews, like again, post-fight interviews, she rarely it's almost scary it's a little scary it's almost like the guy in that that uh what was that a free free solo i think she might have that same yeah honestly she might have that same condition he has because she just never she just rarely like shows that kind of extreme emotion it's it's really scary i feel like a k took yours kc but do you got to was that i can i can even add more to aram dancefield

uh yeah she's just um first of i'm excited that she's a she's a flyweight um are are we kind of, the problem, Sheffchenko is just so ahead of everyone else right now at Flyweight. I think people kind of fans, maybe media too. I think the UFC in general kind of crap on the Flyweight division. Like, Sheffchenko never gets a main event for pay-per-view because

there's no, no, there's no compelling challenge. Yeah. But, um, they're coming. They're coming. That's on Aaron Blanchdrell's one of them. Aaron Bansfell's is one of those, those, I don't know, I don't know who her big inspiration was, but I feel like she was kind of

that those new ronda rousey movement so they saw ronda fight when she was like nine or 12 or something i know and she went to the gym and she is just one of those women like i think k hanson's one of those too i think she's better than k hansson but um just one of those they were just this is what they've wanted to do ever since they were like a young teenager 22 she looked amazing tonight um yeah i was just blown away i knew how good ziruki and was and that was the showcase fight so mean, that was awesome. But I'm excited for Aaron Blanchfield. And, yeah, I can't wait.

She's actually what she's, what the UFC was trying to say who Macy Barber was, I think is Aaron Blanchfield. Macy Barber was kind of this one built up as like this, you know, she's going to be the John Jones. I don't know. I'm not calling Aaron Blanchold John Jones of the Flyweight Division, but I think she's more in that route than the UFC is hyping her. No, the UFC isn't giving her that same kind of. a hype and I think she deserves it rather.

Maybe that's today. I don't know. We'll see. There's a few 25ers right now that are making. And Fioro, she's a little bit older, but Casey O'Neill is 23, about to turn 24, and I get Aaron Blanchfield, so the future is bright at 125. I'm going with Raquel Pennington for mine, not just because of the performance, that whole fight flew under the way out, but then just hearing the stories of her getting COVID and being on a freaking respirator, like things I had no idea about that she was battling. and then to come back and, you know, have that grimy performance against Panny Kanzad,

who has been on a nice run. That was an impressive performance. And then hearing sort of the backstory about how she got to that fight. And I felt like that fight was flying under the radar anyways, but to see Raquel go in there and perform the way that she did, super impressed with her. So she would be my six-player award winner. So there you go. We got some compelling questions.

We'll take a few before we... Yes, we'll try to... Because it's so late. I'll just point out one comment that I saw from a Mr. Ed MSK who said, A.K. You make pigs that bad again and you're being relegated to one letter. One letter. Don't acknowledge this person.

Don't acknowledge this person. I'm kidding. I love all the commenters. I love all the commenters. You can choose whether it's an A or an A.K. But that's what's at stake now. How likely is Sirukion's next fight against the winner of Dan Hooker versus Nasrat, hackp?

or will he face another unranked opponent now a okay you and i are going to have this discussion on on to the next one tomorrow and i have a pick for this and i'm going to save that for then but sean what do you think do you think surukian will get the winner of that fight and by the way we don't even know if dan hooker's going to make it to that fight at this point i think his visa issues are very public right now hopefully monday fingers crossed he can get to vegas by thursday it's be a rough fight week for that man but would you throw siruki on the winner of hooker and hackperast or would you go a different direction after that performance tonight? If it's up to me, I like that.

I like that fight. I think actually Armand, that was one thing I even forgot to mention when I was talking about Armand, is he sort of did the legwork early, right? Like he sort of planted those seeds coming into this fight. So he already had it set up to where Dan's like legitimately kind of upset at him and like actually wants to fight him, which like that's the biggest hurdle of all when you get to these really deep divisions

is convincing a ranked guy to give you the shot when you're not there, when you're sort of on that periphery of the division. So I would love that. I think Dan Hooker has had a really crazy slate of top contender fights and just like really tough, tough fights against the best guys in the division. And he is sort of due for a very similar like Anthony Smith-esque. Hey, come back to the back of the line, work your way back up, fight a couple of these up and comers. And then we'll give you another top five guy.

Like to me, if he beats Nazrat, even if he loses, like I would absolutely love to see that fight. And that feels like a proper escalation for Armin to me while not really messing with sort of Dan's trajectory as well. I actually really like that. Casey? I hope it's a hooker fight. I hope this is all the assumption hooker gets in the country fine and makes weight fine or yeah, whatever. That's all another thing. But yeah, I hope Zerikan bites the guy ahead of him. That's all. Yeah, I think we're done with the building him up. I think this was the, this is a big highlight they needed, you know, they kind of. Yeah, it's the last little push before he's going.

He's running at this point. Yeah, he needed to finish. He got it. Diagos was a head three-fight winning streak heading into the fight too. This, okay, this next question might seem kind of crazy, but I don't know. Is Jake Paul versus Yo Romero a possible match should now be considering? Both showtime. A.K. you're nodding.

Yeah. Hells, yeah. you put that on the poster and it sells itself oh my god you put that donis that 44 year old the donis glisting him up that's that's it it's sold imagine them facing off and you know and yowel just going oh god the promos go give me like a table read where it's aerial in the middle of this joel and jake paul is just grunting and like saying one word answers the entire time and staring him dead in the eyes like i'm so in on that that'll get five million you views tomorrow.

Yeah. I'm down. Respect to Jake Paul takes that. Jake Paul's not going to take that fight. My only issue with the question is it shouldn't be considering. Is it the matchup that we should now be hoping for? Because then a resounding yes, this is what it should be next.

No, I mean, look, there's a lot of good matchups for Jake Paul. His team, him and his team have done a really good job of picking their opponent so far. I do think Romero might be a little bit of a bridge too far. but I also don't I honestly I can I don't I wouldn't like assume that Romero would like kill him this is where we are with no yeah experience now Jake jake could very well win that fight right like he could versus that Cuban boxing who knows I don't know I just I just I just saw the question I was like that's oh wait hold me let me think about this let's put it out there yeah let's put it out there in the universe let's be let's be responsible for this when this happens if there's any if there's any like possible opponent that could put the fear of God into Jake just in the pre-flight stuff. It's that man. All of us have been, I would imagine, at media days with Yoel Romero. That dude is the most intimidating human being to speak to ever. Like, it's just

crazy. We talk to professional cage fighters for a living, and I think I've never been as scared as I have. Just to talk to you all, Romero. Like, he's such an intimidating dude in person. I'm like, thank God this is a scrum, because I don't know if I can handle a one-on-one. Yeah, like, I'll talk to France's a hundred times without feeling scared. It's like, you. The purest in me want to see the Anderson fight. I want to see the Anderson Jake Paul fight. That's the purest of me.

But, Sean, you sold me. Ariel in the middle. Those two having like the table talk, right, right? And you all just stare in a hole through him. Just give him the crazy eyes the whole time. Look, he knocks out Yuel and then maybe, you know, you know, Horamazvedal has to join in, you know, like, oh, you know, for my, well, my fellow Cuban, yeah, my fellow Cuban, you know.

Oh, my God. I didn't even think of the Mazvedol. He can't do the fight because of the UFC, but he can be the ballet. You know, he can be right there, you know. He'll be involved. I mean, we could just go full circus and do a Mazvedol-Ramara tag team. They switch every round.

First rounds, Mazvedol, second rounds, Romero. We're getting them both in the leader. And I can take one, Logan, yeah. And I guess the ball brother. There's both calls. It books itself. Yes, we should absolutely be considering that fight. All right, a few more comments.

Hybrid Impact 83. If you think Phil Davis is boring, you don't know MMA. MMA is mixed for a reason. As a case I say, it is the mixing of the martial arts. And Phil Davis mixes those martial arts and does it very effectively. So yes, hybrid impact 83. I'm with you. I don't like to go as far as say, oh, if you don't appreciate a certain fighter,

you don't know MMA, I always feel that's a little strong. But I would say you're maybe have somewhat myopic view of MMA, at least as far as what you find, entertaining. And again, we all love rockem-sockham stuff. We all love bizarre kind of freak show stuff. And we love it also when people are like, are really able to dominate with their technical skills. Maybe that's what

Phil Davis is missing sometimes. He's not like super dominant, but I thought he was pretty dominant tonight. Again, it was not a split decision. I thought the fight with Nemcov was really good, was really competitive. So I'm not sure what more you can ask some guy like Phil Davis. He's not going to be doing Michelle Paheda, like, jumping off the fence,

Superman punches and stuff like that. He's not going to be doing like Capoeira kick. That's not what he does. He's not especially. He's a great wrestler who's become a great MMA fighter. And I don't know how that's not entertaining to people. Again, he's not in fight of the year candidates or anything, but he is an enjoyable fighter to watch.

Come on. A.K., you don't know how that's not entertaining? Like, it is very clear how it's not entertaining to some people. I'm fine. Like, I can watch Phil Davis fight and it's whatever. But, like, I understand people who say that they're not fans of the way he approaches it. Like, it's very boring. It's too much.

I think not a fan is one thing. I think saying he's boring is what gets me. I think I'm addressing this specific question. I do think if you say he's boring, I do think it's a bit. And we do hear that a lot about it. I don't watch Sticking Ball Sports that much, but would you call Phil Davis like a Tim Duncan kind of like? In a way. I think that's a fair comparison.

Yeah. I mean, yeah, I know, I think that's a fair compare. I think obviously I'm a huge team. I mean, I think Tim Duncan's really entertaining. But there was a huge, if people remember the hey day of Tim Duncan. Oh my Lord. And a huge section of the fan base. that's just like, Tim Duncan is boring.

And I'm like, what? Like, so, so again, maybe I'm, I'm a hundred percent wrong, but in that kind of area. I'm a boring person. And GSP, GSP and his prime got, I always thought GSP was a really strong comparison to Tim Duncan because he also got the same crap during his championship run. I don't know if people are forgetting this because of, you know, his legacy now, he's one of the greatest fall time. But during his run, he got so much criticism for being boring.

So I think that's more than a fair comparison. I mean, Tim Duncan is the greatest power forward of all time. It seems a little crazy to say that. Yeah, but I understand the K. GSP to me feels like the Tim Duncan of MFA, but I understand where you're coming from. Yeah. I'm sure there was other ones,

but I stopped watching sports at a certain point and Tim Duncan is still my reference point. Yeah. I would compare Phil Davis more to like a Kevin McHale or a Bill Walton, like, kind of in that. We're really showing our age up there. In that world. I put them more in that category.

I thought like a modern comparison. Bill Walton was flashy as hell. Bill Walton was doing all sorts of flash. At times, just like Phil Davis, at times, when he needed to be. Yeah, we're not, I see some of the comments. We're not saying it's the level of accomplishments, of course not, but we're saying as far as how they're regarded by the public, like, in a broad sense, I think that's, that's, makes sense.

No one bought a ticket to go see Tim Duncan play basketball. You watch him. Oh, I don't. A lot of people in San Antonio. Well, outside of San Antonio. I forget it. I shouldn't have bought it. It's a big stadium, too.

Yeah, no, no. He was definitely out of mode. But the on-court product always got like from non-San Antonio fans always got like this weird like black for not being like the most thrilling thing, which is ridiculous because winning is always exciting, I think. But. Okay. Sorry.

I meant to say who would win in a kickboxing match, Tim Duncan or Phil Davis. Idriselva. It was Elba. Remember Tim Duncan when he was doing that, that was kickboxing? Yeah. How's he doing?

All right. We've gone over hour. You guys need to go to sleep. A lot of Philadelphia is too much. Yeah. Hold on, hold on. Hey, hold on. And here we go.

Yes. Oh, the closing music. You know what that means? Sean's shaking his head. And that means we're going, And we're going to do more work, everybody. Hopefully you guys can get a good night rest after 26 or 27 fights. And we'll have more to discuss throughout the week on all of our various programs here on MAAFighting.com.

Of course, Ariel Hawani back with the MAA hour on Monday, 1 p.m. And I'm sure we'll be talking about that card, the UFC card, and much more. But until then, everybody, AK and I will see you tomorrow for on to the next one. For AK, for Casey, for Sean. I am Mike Heck. Good night, everybody. Phil Davis would enjoy this music, I feel like. I think this is what Phil is.

This was a walkout song. Yeah, I think it was. Yeah. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.