MMA Fighting - UFC Vegas 46 Post-Fight Show | Is Calvin Kattar Title Contender After Battering Giga Chikadze?

Episode Date: January 16, 2022

Calvin Kattar silenced all of the critics with a dominant performance in the UFC’s first main event of 2022. Kattar returned to the octagon after a year layoff to batter Giga Chikadze and hand the Georgian standout his first UFC loss in the headliner of UFC Vegas. Did the victory put the New England Cartel fighter in featherweight championship contention? That question is discussed, along with other notable storylines from Saturday’s fight card at the UFC APEX with MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck, Alexander K. Lee, and E. Casey Leydon.  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

You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Waiting for the tweet. It's coming. It's coming. Waiting for the tweet. No, just go. Getting the fire extinguisher ready. What the?

The fire you tweet. All right. All right. We don't have a tweet yet. Just go. All right. Welcome to the U.S. You Vegas 46.

Tweetless post-fight show. here on mhmaphiting.com. We just wrapped up one hell of the main event between Calvin Cater and Giga Chikaze. And in the end, Calvin Cater went out there and just put a whoopin on Giga Chikaze. And to Chikaze's credit, the man fought to the end. His chin is going right next to Cater's inside the durability Hall of Fame. And it was just a tremendous way to cap off the first event. I mean, talk about momentum heading into the first pay-per-view of the year.

That fight definitely brought it. Calvin Cater landing 73 significant strikes in the fifth round. Almost put Chikaze away. Incredible performance from the Boston Finisher. What a bounce back it was. And he gets the job done. He is back on track. Giga Chikaze will learn a lot about himself moving forward,

heading into that fight. But I am Ikech. Prince of positivity. Mr. Alexander K. Lee is here. How are you, sir? We're back again. It's only 1011s. That's pretty damn good.

Yeah, I feel fresh. I feel alive. I feel vital. Yeah, that card built up to a great, great main event. Was the rest of the card super memorable? Nah, I mean, but this was our first UFC card of the year. It maybe wasn't, again, it was, it was to say it was decimated by a lot of withdrawals. So this is, you know, this is what they got put out there.

I think every fighter that went out there today put in a really good effort, whether you, you know, you enjoy the table. I'm just saying, wait, hold on, why do you lie? No, no. You sound like, you're a little league coach. Great effort, kids. Great effort. We're all winners.

It's a compliment sandwich. We're getting the compliment sandwich. No, listen, I think when the U.S. puts together a card like this, which is rightly criticized, you know, there's a lot of names in here that people aren't familiar with, and some people are debuting, then, you know, whatever happens, you still have to give credit to the fighters. And in this case, not just for showing up, but I do think everyone who fought today fought really well, win or lose, and, and, uh, you know,

I hope everyone gets compensated properly. Glowing, glowing, Glowing review. Glowing review. Casey, how are you? Did you enjoy the fights as much as AK did? Actually, I thought the fights were great tonight. Yeah, there were a few big names, but you know what?

It had a main event and the main event freaking delivered. That was worth what the one-month hiatus we've had from big UFC fights. So it was good to be back. It was good. That was a fun fight. That was an excellent fight. Excellent fight. Good card.

A lot of new up-and-comers. Some vets and everything. Got a Jake Collier knockout. That was no heavy-weight's doing heavy-weight things. So, yeah, good times. Good times, actually. Yes, let's get into the main event. And then we'll talk about some of the other highlights before we go to the peeps.

I have a feeling the peeps are going to have a lot to say about this card and might be carrying this post-fight show. By the way, I'm not watching the Patriots game because... They didn't go to Buffalo. They didn't show up. They're just getting their asses kicked. So there's no pressure here. We could focus on fights all together. Or maybe the Buffalo Bills are just having a great game and they're just the better team.

There we. Is that a possibility? That is the right way to look at it. No, no, no, no, no, no. Clearly you have not watched. Clearly you have not. Listen, Buffalo is whooping that ass. But at the same time, the Patriots are not there.

Like, they're not tackling. It's just awful. They're playing flag football like a bunch of 12-year-old. old pop-warner players against the Buffalo Bills, but that's neither here nor do. Are we done with that? Yeah. Don them out. Calvin Cater probably watched the first quarter of the game before he went out there.

Oh, there we go. I fired him up. Casey, this is an MMA show. This is an MMA show. You know an MMA. You know an MMA. When one person, whoever wins a fight is great and whoever loses is trash. So that is what is happening with the bills and it's not that the bills are so good.

It's that clear. It's that they're okay, and then New England is terrible. So that's how we look at M.A. fights as well. Casey, can you grab, I'll just read it out first. Daniel Edwards says, I'm a Mike Hextan. He needs to revoke his New England citizenship tonight for picking Giga, hashtag Benedict Arnold. Okay, so here's the thing.

We're going right here. Me and A.K. We're talking about this right before we hear record. I literally laid out exactly how the fight was going to go. I did everything right except pick Cater. Like I literally, I laid out the blueprint of the entire fight. I just didn't pick the fighter. It's crazy.

And I mean, what can we say about Calvin Cater? The dude didn't listen to anybody. He just went out there and maybe he did listen to everybody. He uses locker material, used it to build this chip on his shoulder they likes to build. And what kind of kept going through my mind, and I'll start with you, Casey, is something you said during the preview show. A lot of people's picks were based on the guy that fought 364 days ago against Max

Holloway when one of the bigger points that should have been discussed was a year is a long time to grow and evolve whether physically or just being a sponge in the gym and just visualizing different things. It's a long time to get better. And Calvin Cater certainly got better. What did you think of his performance? Because I'm not surprised, but 50, 40, I didn't see that coming. Yeah, I don't think any of us are surprised Kater 1. I think all of us are kind of a bit shocked with how incredibly dominant the win was. Yeah, 50-44.

That's a very, yeah, I'm assuming a 10-8 for a round 5. Yeah, I have no issue of that score. Yeah. Because I think we're not surprised at K-to-1 because, yeah, this was the way Kater had to win. Pressure, pressure, pressure, wrestling, wrestling, wrestling, great boxing, great chin. And just being tough. The kicks he did, the first 90 seconds or so, he ate him, he survived him.

And then when he got that first takedown, you know, I think that first take, or not takedown, Giga, I think, threw that kick and slipped. And, man, Cato was just like, boom, like his reaction time. Just he got that, I think grabbed his bad guy, I'm taken down. And Giga never got off the mat for the rest of the first round. And after that, there was just basically, I don't know how much of, I don't know how much energy Giga lost that first round, but he definitely, he did not have the kicking power for the rest of the fight. And without those kicks from Giga, he was not going to win.

And Cater was just got to do his thing. And we got to, every bad thing that we saw in the Holloway fight was like on the other end now. We just saw like every great aspect of Calvin Cater. And I'm not sure what the record is, but that had to be the most standing elbows I've ever seen in a single fight. It was just incredible performance in Calvin Cater. Welcome back. how nasty are those step-in elbows. I mean, those step-in-ellows.

There's one point where he threw one with the right and then threw one with the left, and then threw one with the right. Like, his three consecutive shots to the face were step-in elbows. Like, it was just ferocious to watch. Giga Chikaze was a, his face was an absolute mess when this fight was over. What did you think of the step-in elbows,

adding that to the arsenal, Tyson-Chardier, the whole team just putting that game plan together, the way that it was such a valuable weapon in the fight, just Cater's overall presence in the fight because it almost seemed like it's, I know he, the wherewithal was there. He had a mind his peas and cues, but by like midway through the second round, AK, it seemed like Cater was not worried about a single strike Giga Chikaze had to throw in terms of the power coming at him.

He made it his fight. You know, he made it his fight. And I know that's a cliche thing. It's a lot of fighters say they're going to do. But when you're against someone as skilled as Giga Chikaze, it's definitely much easier said than done. And, and that's what he did. Like you said, after the second he kind of.

kind of took over. And I'm sure he was still very respectful of gig his skills. I'm sure he was still minding his peas and cues on the feet. But he knew, he's like, look, I am the more, well, yeah, I have a little more UFC experience. I've faced better competition. I'm the one who should be taking over here, and I'm just going to do it. And again, everything I say here falls into the easier said than none category. But, I mean, you saw him, those elbows.

I mean, you don't throw those against a strike. of the level of Giga unless you have a ton of confidence. And I'm sure once they started landing, then, you know, he found the timing and, you know, he was able to do it more frequently and with more success. But it's, you're right, it's such a, it's just not a tactic we see spammed, for lack of a better term. I mean, usually you've got to use those somewhat strategically. And he was just landing them.

Any one of those could have been a knockout blow as well. We see all kinds of crazy elbow knockouts when we're covering, you know, like, misfist, a regional and, like, international am I seen. Usually one of those sends some guy, like, spinning it at 360 and collapsing against a fence. So yeah, credit to Giga, I guess, not necessarily for defending them, but being able to absorb them and somehow make it the full 25 minutes because he took a lot of damage in this fight. And it was kind of crazy to see Cater be the, you know, we always say hammer and nail in MMA. He was definitely the hammer this time. And look, if he got better from the Holloway fight, I think Giga will get better from this fight as well.

Will he have the luxury of being able to not fighting for a year? I don't know. We'll find out. Maybe he won't. Maybe we don't see geek until next January. But, and if that's the case, I think he'll be vastly improved. Either way, I think you get better from a fight like this. You have to take these kind of losses in your career sometimes. And health-wise, not great for you, but from a skill standpoint, from a skill standpoint, excuse me, from a competitive standpoint, this is where you have to be taken before you are ready for someone like an Alexander Volcanowski, which he thought he was. now if you are watching this right now and you're thinking oh i get away for giga chikaze and calvin cater to show up to the post-fight press conference on somebody else's feed you don't have to worry because they ain't going cater's probably like i'm going to watch the rest of this crappy patriots game and he is obviously going to the hospital i'm sure cater's going to the hospital they're both going to the hospital i'm sure after a fight like that so uh they will not be at the press conference

you can stay right here with us and ask us a bunch of questions kisi i also liked one point that we discussed as well is that Cater is going to go for takedowns, but it's not going to be it's not going to be plan A because just the mere thought that Cater could actually land a takedown is going to be enough to

shake Giga's confidence a little bit. And you saw it. Cater took some even like half haphazardly shots, but they were enough. Like just to get Giga's attention and make him think. And Cater is like, cool, I didn't get the takedown. And then he would just elbow him in the face 15 more times before the round came

to an end. So how important was him just giving the notion that I could change some levels here? Because I think that made such a huge difference. I mean, obviously the first take down was such a momentum swing, but even just like the two or three other times, he was just able to just grab a leg. Maybe

let it go. It was such a difference maker. Yeah, absolutely. And that's what we, I mean, I think they even joke, I don't know if it was this fight, but the Bisbee even joked about it and some other fight, like, wow, they are mixing the martial arts. And that's what we literally saw. It was a cruise.

They were making fun of each other, but I think they're stealing my gimmick, too. Geez, what's that? They are. But, you know, and that's what won the fight. Caters that the wrestling didn't win the fight, but just having the threat of wrestling won the fight. And like Dominicruz said throughout the fight, that forward pressure that was, that they were giving Giga him having to walk backward, him not be able to use his kicks the way he wanted to use, and obviously you have to worry about the takedown, expending the energy to stop the takedown.

All those things are second nature to Giga. So, you know, he's using a lot of mental energy. And that's just as important in a fight like this. So it's, I think that year out of the cage for Cater, I think him and his coaches did an amazing job improving him and getting him ready for the fight tonight. And man, he, guy, it was just a, I don't want to say y'all must have forgot about Calvin Cater,

but dang, I think, I think I forgot how good Calvin Cater can be, and we got to see it tonight. Do you guys, and AK, you can start, and then, Casey, you can answer this as well. After this performance, do we look at Cater and say, two more wins, this guy could fight for a title? Like, we're back. We're back at this point. Is he an official title contender right now, AK? Yeah, yes.

And I think we felt he needed this. I think a loss to Giga really would have put him in that, that, that, role that the UFC likes of well-known, exciting action fighters, which again, a great way to start a career, but someone they don't feel obligated to push towards a title. Now he's just in there. The first UFC loss for Giki Chikaze, a guy who I think the UFC was definitely eyeing as someone like, yeah, we're going to get behind this guy. Should he win, you know, he's headlining this, should he get past Cater? We put him on that path towards the Volcanovsky and Zombie winner or the Volcanoxie winner, whenever that happens.

Calvin Cater really, really, really needed this. I personally would have sworn him off as a contender if he had lost this fight. Even if it had been as competitive, not as competitive, sorry, exciting is this one where like, let's say it had gone the other, and Giga was putting on him and Cater,

just like last year it was looking like tough as hell. I still would have been like, well, you know, you're an exciting punching bag. You're going to be around for a while, good for you. You're not a championship material. This is, this, he looked like a guy who could go five rounds with the Volcanowski. He went five rounds with Holloway.

It was a lot upsided, but he went five rounds with Holloway. So, yeah, he needed this a lot. Absolutely, two wins away. Two wins away against the right names. Maybe he fights Ortega at some point. I don't know, right? A win like that puts him right in the title picture. So, yeah, big, huge, huge, huge victory for Cater.

And what a way for him to start off his 2022 campaign. I absolutely. I think even more. I think Cater is one win away. I think a Yair fight, Ortega fight. Unfortunately, I think all the other top feather weights, are they all coming off losses? I know that you got like Emmett and guys like that,

but they're kind of not in the top five. Are all the, yeah, I'm thinking, who am I missing? Yeah, really depending on Holloway's injury status, but, dude, I would have no issue with Cater if he fights a Ortega or a Yair if he wins a fight. I have no issue with Cater getting a title shot. This is all dependent on Max's, I know, obviously, his health issues or whatnot. So, yeah.

I mean, McCater's bad. Cater is there. That's all. He's in the mix, like the real upper echelon mix. The Cater's there. Yeah, because Giga is eight. Gators eight. Cater's five.

Zombies four. Hollow is one. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. What are these ranked? What is this?

What are these random numbers you're reading on? Excuse me? I don't. No. Listen. Listen, hold on. no. Wait a minute.

No. Giga is number eight was number eight in the NBA fighting global rankings the only rankings that matter. Cater was actually number 10 and we'll now move up and take this. But the O.C doesn't look at our rankings when they determine who fight two.

My freaking ears. Listen, no one has blown up our rankings better than I have. I like I talk, I mean, maybe you and Alshadhi more than anybody, but yeah, probably. We have everybody saying that they're the only rankings that matter.

Okay, you're right. That's not just a statement. It's life. It's life. It's not just a T-shirt. It's the real thing. It's not just a slogany. Okay, we can't. I don't need to be so defensive.

Okay. My therapist told me this. My therapist told me this. Okay. Last thing on this. And then we'll move on to some of the other stuff because we're still waiting bonuses, I believe. I threw this out on Twitter. For the most part, people seem to like it.

Other people, of course, there's always going to be one or two people who say other silly things. But here's the question, AK, and I'll start with you. the Giga Chikaze overlooked Calvin Cater. Can we even paint that narrative in any way here? Because some people are painting it right now. Oh, he called for the title shot. Through the 500 strike line out there, said Volcanowski made a mistake.

He's a wuss pick of the worst fighter of the bunch. Did he overlook Calvin Cater? Can we even paint that narrative in any way? Yes, he did. But no, it did not have anything to do with how this fight went today. I don't think any version of Giga beats this current version of Calvin Cater. Calvin Cater was, like I said, was sensational today. I think he, if this version of Calvin Cater fought Max Holloway from a year ago, I mean, I still

pick Holloway to win. I just don't think he'd take this kind of lopsided smackdown. I really think he learned from that. And I think, like I said, this right now is peak Cater and probably getting better. And Giga, like I said, Giga will get better. I don't think we've seen the best version of Giga Chacade. So did he overlook Calvin Cater? I think clearly he did.

I think just the talk, I mean, some of it, you know, from his manager, most likely. But I do think there's a part of him that believe, whatever was out there, whether he typed it himself or not, I do think he believes like, yeah, yeah, I could fight Volcanovsky tomorrow.

I should be, I am able to become a world champion. I think he really, really believe that. But I don't think that that affected his performance in such a way that that should be the overarching narrative. Like, oh, if he hadn't overlooked him, he would have won this fight easily. No. Cater wins this fight.

This version of Cater wins this fight. nine times out of ten. So, I mean, it's a little more salt in the wound for Giga and Giga's team, but it takes nothing away from Cater. And I hope people don't just think it was just this mental thing that was took away from Chakazi's performance. One million percent correct. I'm going to actually say something a little different.

I think by him saying that, I think it may cater or even a tougher fighter tonight. Because that's the type of guy Cater is. He's that, you know, he heard it all. He heard it all. you know 100% he did so that's why I don't think

I don't think I don't think I don't think it even you didn't even gave Cater more fire in that in that cage

tonight and you know and those like when those last two rounds and those when their faces are all mangled up

you know you need something you need some it's going to drive you and finish that fight strong and I think I think

I think I just think it was a mistake by Giga to even put that out there I said like oh Korean zombie is the easy fight

no one has ever said that about Korean zombie He's the easy fight. Get out of here, man. So, it's just, we're an approach. Right. But let's, you know, let's paint by numbers here.

Yeah. Is Giga the one actually coming up with this on his own? Probably not. We know who his manager is. I'm sure there's being chirps in the ear. Some text being sent. I mean, I would bet a sizable amount of money that this wasn't coming from Giga. Personally, this was a team thing and didn't start with Giga.

So great one for K. Giga is going to grow tremendously from this fight. Why did Giga vote for Biden? Why did Giga vote for Biden? Oh, my God. Come on, Giga. Come on, Giga. That was so weird.

That was weird. That was weird. I mean, hey, listen, now they can probably make that fight. I like Bill Algeo. That was, hey, Bill Algeo. That was an awesome fight. He did his own booking. He said, he said, I hope that Giga gets his butt kicked by Cater tonight.

And then we make that fight happen. Well, you know, hey, half that is done now. All right. getting this fight. All right. Let's see what else. We're still waiting on bonuses, by the way, and we'll let you know. Oh, do you want to play this one of this game?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It should be pretty easy. It should be pretty obvious. Oh, I. Oh, yeah. By the night main event. Yeah. Jake Collier.

Yeah. And, oh, and Mr. Bodyshot. Santa Slav. Borshov, yeah. There you know. Flav. Santa Flav. What is his name?

It's Vachislav. Just go on. Just do the second. Just do the last name. Borsch. Borsh. Borsh. Borsh.

too last. And Bill Algeo, Brito would probably be the fight of the night if it's not the main event. Right. Yeah. And it might be one, like, listen, it might be two one sided.

It might be two one sided to get the fight of the night. Maybe Cater gets a bonus. They love guys getting beans. Listen, if Cater could get a bonus for getting his ass kicked by Max last time, he should get a bonus for doing the ass kicking this time. All right. It's only fair.

I'm very upset if I was him. Because Jose Aldo and Rob Font did not get the fight of the night when it clearly was the fight of the night. when that clearly was the fight of the night. Yeah. On that December card. Yeah, that was a weird one. Okay.

Yeah. So Jay Collier Goodwin. Nice finish. Yeah, we all, remember, we all predicted Jake Collier win by first round submission, right? Everybody on Earth. We all predicted that. That's why the lie was plus 1100. Brandon Royval versus Hagerio Bontorin split decision.

Thoughts on the scoring and the hashtag tapgate that, occurred during that fight. I don't believe it was a tap. I don't believe it was a tap. It certainly merited questions. Married questions. I thought the same thing. You know what?

We need to see the camera angle we're looking at. You can't actually, you can't see the space between hand and the leg. There's a lot of things we can't see. And the ref was right there and the ref didn't do anything. So I think, and Revaugh didn't indicate that I fell a tap. So I think, regardless, I think this is one of those weird fights where I actually thought, I actually scored it for Bon to Rahn, but

Roy Valle clearly won the fight. Yeah. And I'm happy the right person won the fight, even though if I was a judge, I would actually give it to Bonoen-Rain, unfortunately. That makes sense. Yeah, the judge has got this one right. The judge's got this one right. I thought

Roy Val was more offensive. I thought, even off his back, I thought he was more offensive. I thought he was, again, the one sort of pushing the fight, as it were. So yeah, and not just, I don't mean that in a way as in like marching forward or putting himself in bad positions to just like get to a wild stuff. Like, I know. I thought he, whatever position they were in, I just thought he was the one who was who was pressing the action and effectively, effectively. So yeah, I had no problem with the decision.

I probably, again, a Bonterrain decision probably wouldn't have driven me crazy either. I didn't think he tapped at all. I know I see a lot of comments saying like he definitely tapped. I don't know how you can say that. Like it was, are you like, is your hand not allowed to sort of flail like? across. A tap, I think most of us would agree. It's not a rule that has to be multiple taps. You can tap once, and if a referee recognizes it, then it's, you know, you tapped out. It looked like a single, if it was anything, it was like a single tap at most. And I don't think he tapped.

I think he was reaching to grab the leg or just flailing. It happened so fast. I think I didn't love the commentary team being so insistent that it was, that they thought it was a tap. I don't know, because then this creates this conversation. I know what people say. It wasn't just the commentary team. I saw a lot of. people on Twitter saying it as well. But nah, Casey, you said all the reasons.

Ravel himself didn't seem to, to bother about it. So probably because he got the win. But I didn't even see a reaction from him during the fight that he was all like, hey, what happened? I didn't,

there was no indication that he even loosened the grip. The whole theory of a fake tap is, I didn't tap. You know, like your opponent's supposed to loosen the grip and then you get out. And that never happened. I mean, I felt like from Reval.

So that's all. And unfortunately, we should be talking about how freaking awesome their freaking men's fly weights are. I was going to say fly weights in general. Hey, I will say fly weights in general. I will say, yeah, you're right, you're right, you're right. But that fight, dude, I love the grapple. First of all, I love that fight. And I just love the completely different grappling styles they had.

And I think Dominic Cruz had the best description ever when he called, oh, he revolves, he revolves jiu-jitsu. It was like a wet fish, which I was like, oh, yeah, you're right. And Bon Terrain, he was just so strong. He was almost like a Sean Shirk of fly weights. He was just so strong. Didn't waste any movements. He was just very fundamentally, just kept position, kept the hips tight, kept the knees in,

and just kept advancing position. And it worked great until it did into Reval really opened up. And the great commentary thing did a great job tonight, noticing that, oh, wait a minute, Reval had a stand-up advantage, but also, it looked like Bonterrain, when he was on his back, clearly wasn't as dominant a grappler

when he was on his back. And Royval actually dominated the fight once he was on top. And I think that was, if Royval wanted to kind of take done that from the beginning of the fight, completely different fight. I think I found a fan base

that's worse than MMA fans. Like really fickle M.A. fans? It's Buffalo Bill fans. Oh, stop. We're back here. They're rubbing it in. It's unbelievable. I had to check our friend Cole Shelton

because he's like, this all runs through Buffalo. I'm like, you got like 20 more years of winning before you can even say anything like that. You beat the D-Team Patriots tonight with a rookie quarterback. Congratulations, dude. What happened when the go was there? You got blasted week in, week out. Good teams, bad teams.

You got spanked. So, congratulations. Enjoy your win. Ask Ariel Hawani how good of a Patriots fan I am. I'm a very clear Patriots fan. And even your boy Ariel said the same things about that. first game. Then I was saying that Belichick just ruined your head coach. You guys did well. You came back. So good for you. We have bonuses, people. Thank God. It's what we thought.

Borshach, Collier, performance of the nights. Main event was the fight of the night. So there you go. Very simple. Very simple. 50K or have the up the prize money. You know, they had such a great year last year. They dropped it at 49,900. 99. Oh, wow. What a deal. What a deal. It's hard out there.

It's hard out there. Taxes do. Once you hit the 50 mark, you get crush with taxes. They're like the OCS. The UFC's trying to save the fighter some tax money. I want to say, so for anyone who listened to the pre-fight show, or was it on the previous show I said it? I think it was on the preview show.

And I was asked about the gym. It was the pre-fight show. Anyway, one of the shows we put on before the cards. It's about the potential gymnastic score for this car guy. I said this car could be as high as a seven at most. I don't think it has a potential to be like an eight, nine. you know, on this, on the, if everything goes right, it's a seven, it's a solid card we remember. And I think my estimation, like my degree of difficulty setting there was just right.

Probably fell a little bit short, but the main event, I'm already bumped it up into the, you know, six point something range. It was a great, it was a great fight. That's a fight we will be talking about, I think, by the end of the year, as we were with Holloway and Cater, which also happened in January. So I know we have the memory of goldfish sometimes, but this was a very good fight. And again, it storyline wide. It's going to say a lot for both guys because depending if Kater somehow ends up with a title shot, we'll remember this fight. If Giga bounces back or doesn't bounce back, we'll remember this fight as sort of a turning point in his career, either negatively or positively. So that was great.

So the main event, well-booked, great matchup, awesome fight. I don't think the UFC could have asked for more. The rest of the card is what it was. We had, what, three newcomers. Borshev looked great. Brito looked good, too. Brito looked good in Aljo. That was a fun fight.

Joseph Holmes, I thought it was okay against Jamie Pickett, not the most exciting fight, but very. very competitive. But otherwise, yeah, unfortunately, it did have a bit of a listless feeling for a while, through the prelims, you know? Yeah, for me. I think there was just no stakes. That's all. I mean, there were good fights like Court McGee, seeing Court McGee.

Yeah, that wasn't bad. Brian Keller, that was a good win, but I was a good win. That was a good win. And then, I don't remember too much on the T.J. Brown. No, there wasn't much of remember. I don't know. I'm trying to. Well, T.J.

T.J. Brown, I should say, fought a really smart fight for a guy, again, for a guy, he, he knew he's facing probably a more talented fighter than him, probably a more, a more experienced fighter than him in the UFC. But the guy is on short notice. So it's like, you know what? I'm going to be smart. I'm going to use my wrestling. I'm going to control him. This is probably one of the toughest things. If you don't have a full camp to deal with. Now, I'm remembering that fight now. Yeah. I actually, I actually was impressed by T.J. Brown and how he looked like he was like just one step ahead of Brose on the ground. It was actually pretty fun. It was a pretty fun fight. Yeah. Yeah, which he was. Yeah, Maya Chikagan, I think, was better than most people expected. I thought it was a fine fight. It was a good fight. It was a good fight. Man, not saying it's like a fight of the year. It's a good fight.

Chikagia, her jab was awesome. Her jab was freaking awesome. She doesn't make mistakes. And Jimper Maya just didn't have enough weapons. I just like, throw a freaking left hook. Throw more than two punches. Do something. Comptuere.

It was killing her. Yeah, I found that. Because we know Jennifer Maya has more potential, but for some reason she just, she gets kind of in this. bit of a combo loop in her head. And that's what we see tonight. And she just has more potential. We've seen it before.

It's just sometimes that's what we get. But also give credit to Caitlin for kind of creating that mindset for Maya, too. No. She knows how to win. Apparently, that was the last fight on her contract, too. That's she said, yeah. She's getting out. I wonder.

Three-fight win streak now. Well, it's a trick. Be a free agent. Now's the time. Go to Belator. Like, if you have the chance to go to Belator, guess what's going to happen if you go to Belator? You're going to fight for the title in like your first fight.

Yep. Because you're not getting the title shot in the UFC anytime soon unless you jump up a weight class or go down. And you're not fighting Valentina for an awful long time. So if your goal in the sport is to be a world champion, you should probably explore free agency right now, right? And look, they probably view her a bit like they viewed Ryan Bader when they just let him.

go because he was also coming off a win or a win streak, if I recall, Ryan Bader. Corey Anderson as well, obviously Corey Anderson, another guy who was winning, went out winning. But, you know, the UFC does this math. Is this person, quote, unquote, a needle mover, you know, their favorite phrase to use? Yeah, will they be fighting for a title anytime soon? How much do they want? Of course, we don't know. We probably won't really get those exact numbers, but cost effectiveness.

Do people tune in to see Caitlin Chukagian? So these are all things they're going to consider. And obviously, if merit matters, yeah, they should resign her and they should give her what she deserves. But we know that doesn't. This is sports. This is sports entertainment. Yeah, let's be honest here. This is sports entertainment.

And if they don't deem her valuable in that sense, then they're just going to let her walk. So it could work out well for both parties. It could be UFC saying, well, we don't want to have to deal with her knocking off contenders anymore. So you're free to go. Yeah, go somewhere else. Yeah, a lot of matchmakers, they kind of hate fighters like Chikagan for that sole reason. All they do, they're good fighters. So you have to put them against other good fighters.

And they just continually knock out contenders. And then they knock out even non-contenders like mine. of people who already lost the belt. So she's winning the fights that she's kind of set up to lose. And that matchmakers hate that. And then she set a record tonight for like 10 wins and 10 decisions or something. Yeah, first UFC fighter. First UFC fighter with 10 wins, all decisions.

Wow. But that's a Hall of Fame type of plaque or something. Congratulations. Congratulations. Cortmigee got two finishes when he started his career. The Fool. This could have been his record. Full!

He almost got, he almost. got his first finish today since 2010. If he had let, he hurt, he hurt, he hurt, uh, he hurt Brahimae really bad at the end of the first round, but just, just ran out of time. And I'm like, holy crap, McGee almost finished someone. This is wild. Court McGee is one of those guys that just ends, not ends careers, but he definitely like, sends him in a downward spiral.

He's just that guy. Like you, you, you, it's, it's really hard to fight that guy. If you beat him, good things happen. But if he beat you, it's usually. Like even the aftermath of it all is not good. He just teaches you some lessons you never forget. I could be wrong. Someone tweeted at me that, because I was talking about just Cort McGee, how much I love,

he's like this, I just love watching him fight because he's such, he doesn't seem to have a lot of talent. He's just, just grinding and just has a lot of heart. And you know he has a good story. He just seems like a good dude, so you kind of still root for him, even though they're not like exciting fights. He's just like, I just can't root against Cort McGee. But I think everyone he's beaten outside of, did he beat Robert Whitaker? Gormigee? No, Robert.

No, you lost. Oh, okay, yeah. Yeah, if you lose to him, yeah, you just don't ever come back. You just, you just kind of disappear in the MMA tapology pages. Yeah. Into the abyss. All right, let's go to the peeps.

Let's go to the peeps. They waited a long time for events to come back and here we are. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. Uh-oh, a question. No, keep it up there. Keep it up there. Keep it up.

Put in the corner. Put in one of these corners. all right here we go I thought about I did think about this heading into the fifth round which is kind of fitting because that was the whole conversation

heading into the fifth round of the Max Holloway fight but to be fair Holloway landed triple the amount of strikes that threw four rounds and then Cater had landed but it was getting pretty dicey at that point I mean

there's the argument to be made that you let a fire go down on a shield Casey you say something that I always remember you earn that ass whoopin you earn the right to finish out the fight and get that ass whoopin. But at the same token, there's the other side where people look at fighters and coaches and say, like, dude, you're not going to win.

So let's just live to fight another day. So, and I get both arguments. So did that thought cross your mind, AK? Was it getting egregious to the point where they're like, maybe his corner should stop it? Because I didn't see a lot of that on social media, but it did cross my mind at some point. Yeah. No, I definitely thought about it.

But no, not even just specifically this fight. I think about that on a lot of UFC cards. I know this is as good a time as any to discuss it because it is our first UFC card of 2022, but I wish more coaches in general would throw in the towel. I know there are some amazing moments in MMA, but fifth round, fifth round come from behind finishes are pretty damn rare.

Same with whatever, third round. Come from behind finish is super rare. And I understand they'd become even more rare if teams and coaches started throwing in the towel. But I don't think that's a bad thing. I don't, if you're, you're sacrificing a few crazy moments a year for, to preserve health, as you said, help your fighter to compete, you know, on another day. And I think that's a good thing. So it certainly crossed my mind, but not, not in egregious way like, oh, this is like the worst, you know, beating I've seen since, da, da, da, da, da, just just in a general sense. I wish this would happen more in MMA.

Hope, you know, Giga's very tough. His pictures of his face are circulating on social media right now. People are taking screenshots and circulating, you know, the UFC photos. And it looks brutal. And, you know, that's how he looked after four rounds. It was only made worse by the fifth. But I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon. This culture shifts. But yeah, of course, of course I thought about it. And it's also more than a culture shift.

It's a financial shift, too. People compare this to boxing. And most time in those box matches you're saying those boxers are receiving just one flat purse. You have to remember, if those coaches throw that tall one, Giga walks home with half his paycheck. That's a big thing that people kind of always forget. And also, imagine if,

I'm kind of playing devil's advocate a bit for not throwing the tall one. Imagine if Cordero throws a tall one toward the end of the fourth round. Does that get fight of the night then? Right. Gigga doesn't get 50K. That's 50 grand right there.

I think if that fight gets, that's how we get thrown in. That's second round alone won them fight of the night. I would hope so. That second round is ridiculous. I'm just saying it's, it's not a guarantee. There's no guarantees, of course,

of fight bonuses. But that's all I'm trying to say. Like, if, you know, I think it's much less likely to get fight in the night. Maybe this card's a little different because there was like no exceptional, exceptional fight.

Kind of, you know, we're going to remember it into the year outside of the main event. But, yeah, I'm just kind of, the financial incentives, disincentives of throwing in a towel. People have to remember that too. Yeah, there's ties into fighter pay.

This ties in the fighter pay. It goes back to fighter pay. For sure. For sure. Yeah, for sure. So good question, John, Guy. Yeah. But overall, overall, you guys go to a tall too.

Yeah. Take away all that. I don't think they shouldn't throw on the tall one. I think Giga was still throwing hard enough. And he was always so dangerous enough that I don't think they shouldn't. I think it was, I think it was fine. Not the, the tall one. Yeah.

If you were going to throw it, it would have been like the last two minutes of the fight. Because then it was, I mean, it was a lot. I mean, 70, he landed, Cater landed 73 shots. and every one of them landed and every one of them counted. Man, you know what, but like, I kind of say there's like, oh, it's just 30 more seconds. Man, but 30 more seconds of taking shots in the face from Calvin Cater, that's 30 seconds. That can change your life in a very bad way. So it's a tough decision, but, yeah, I think Casey's, me, Casey, seeing my name here.

We've seen worse. We've seen worse. Yeah, I've seen worse. know that about it. All right. Thank you for the question. What else we got? Joseph Bozai.

I knew Calvin was a tough fighter. It felt like Tyson needed the year off for Calvin because Tyson got so much crap for not throwing in the towel versus the Max Holloway. He did. Casey, I think you were there. You were on that video interview with Tyson Charterier probably like a couple weeks after that fight. And listen, it's one of those weird things.

And Tyson and Calvin and Rob. and that whole team. They have a, the coach fighter relationship is very, like it's very close and tight knit throughout the sport, but the relationship that those guys have is just, I mean, it's a brotherhood.

They, I mean, when Calvin goes, Calvin and Rob Fond go, Calvin Cade and Rob Fogg go to Tyson Charterier's house, their uncle Rob and Uncle Calvin. Like, that's how like close all of them are. It's pretty, it's pretty wild. So, yeah, I think this is good for Calvin. I don't think, I think Tyson, the whole Tyson thing, after like that interview came out,

it made like a couple weeks after that, it all sort of went away. That whole narrative of thrown in the towel. I think his explanation was fine. But yeah, I think this year off was just so good for Calvin just to get his confidence back and just learn. And that's a lot of time to be pissed off and take it out on somebody. And he took it on on Gigate tonight. He's chock full of chips on the shoulder. And he used all of them tonight.

So good on him, good for the team. good for Giga too, man. I think this should be mentioned so many times. The way he fought, the toughness he displayed, that chin, all of it, the durability that he had, he's in the Hall of Fame forever. You know, it's one of those fights, even though we saw Giga get his butt kick, we actually still learned a lot about Giga now for kind of future fights. But also now a lot of the playbook is out there to, the blueprint is out there.

now how to be giga but also you also you also gotta be calvin cater you have to have that incredible forward pressure but um the blueprint's there now we've we've seen it now yeah yeah yeah question pressure pressure pressure pressure yeah if we can find them if we can find yeah just shot joseph josephs josephs jacizs i bmaga magemaid we don't know where it is we don't know where he is we just don't yeah hey send out the search party um and in this division you could throw Giga, you could do Giga Josh Emmett, you could do Giga Iron Lallon, he doesn't have to fight

like a top 6,7 guy. You could fight a top 15 guy. He could fight. Giga Bill. Bryce Mitchell. Bryce Mitchell beats Bryce Mitchell beats Sepsumbaroboza. You can do Bryce Mitchell versus Giga. That's a fine.

That fight is just fine. You can do Bell Alggio. That's fine too. Why not? Actually, if I'm Giga's coaches, a guy like Bill Agio seems right. I would, we try to rush Giga, not rush him, but, you know, they try to really, let's get him to that title shot. Ain't going to happen.

Let's take a few steps back. Build up that highlight rail. And I think Bill, Mr. Senior, Perfecto, might be the guy. Yeah, there's heat there. He might have talked to himself to do that fight. He did them a favor. Throughout the weekend after getting the win, it's a good fight. Go for it.

September October. Yeah, September October. That's probably when Giga comes back. I think you got to take a bunch of time off after tonight. If there's no breaks, if it's just, you know, just lacerations, you know, yeah, I think you should, you might not be too long. Remember, Gig is a lot of kickboxing experience, too. So I know every fight's different, but you'll be fine. You go be fine.

Let's talk about this man. Anonymous 2, 1, 2, 3. Borchev is his new favorite fighter, and why wouldn't he be after that ferocious body shot? although Dakota Bush I got to I got to say this was I hate saying things like this but I'm going to say it do it this this was a night of just some pretty bad fight IQ and Dakota Bush might be might be the captain of bad he had Borsh have hurt could have taken him down but he said you know what I'm going to stand and bang with this guy who has one punch knockoff power instead of taking him back to the ground where I had him in big trouble I just didn't understand the strategy I'm sure james

James Krauss had enough to say to him after that fight, but he ate that body shot. It was nasty, and I thought Borchoff was going to knock him out pretty quickly because Bush took him down. They got back up near the fence, and it seems like Bush started to slow down and, like, resting his laurels, he was trying to get back to his feet, and I thought Borchette was going to floor him right there and there, but Bush was able to get out of it. But yeah, that body shot was nasty, man. Nasty, and the dancing's even better, Casey.

Oh, incredible. Yeah. He should start giving bonuses. Yeah, Tom S. Can we get a bonus for best post-fights celebration? God, yes. I mean, Chris Burnett would be an even richer man right now, if that for the case. Yeah, look, this – so my prediction for the fight, I actually picked Bush for the upset

because what I thought Bush was going to do is just wrestle. Like, like, I mean, the fact that he heard him was great, but I think it should have been nonstop wrestling, just make it ugly, just drag this man down. Now, that's not to say that Borchav can't deal with that. His past two fights, actually, he showed – and remember, he trains out of Team Alpha Male. So I don't know how he ended up there, but it's a very good fit for him because he has wrestlers up the wazoo in training. He knows how to – he knows how to deal is getting put in his back. He knows how to get up off his back.

But his previous two fights, when he's taken down, he does take damage. He does – you know, he does have some – it does take some of his gas tank away. So I still think it's a very viable strategy to just wrestle him down, especially at this stage of his career. This is only his sixth pro fight, his fifth or sixth pro fight. So I thought Bush would focus more on that. but as you said, he got this wild hair up his ass where he just said, oh, man, I heard him. You know, maybe I can knock out this K-1 kickboxer did not go his way.

So I should have gone. I still think it was a smart upset pick. I stand by it. But Borsheb is not a turtle, let me put this way when he's spun his back. He actually is getting better with his takedown defense and recovery with every fight. So this was the time, I think, to catch him with the wrestling. Now, I don't know, as we see him more and more, a lot of guys are going to try it. a lot guys are going to get to get messed up.

Maybe I'm just, I mean, I am old, but I felt so old when he started doing those, when he started doing that dance, I was like, I was just like, my knees can never. Oh, no. I was just like my knees, how does he do that? Like my knees, I feel like my knees are just like shoot out. Like if I tried doing that. It was amazing. Breakthrough, breakthrough fighters tonight.

Breakthrough performance of the year right there. Breakthrough of the air. Yeah. Could be rookie in the year. Yeah. Could be rookie of the year. All right. Yeah.

How old is he? Yeah, what's his age? He's probably his 20s. 30. He's 30 years old. 30. 30 years young. 36 and 1.

6 and 1 is a pro. Better get on him now because he's only going to get better working with those crazies over team mathamil. That wrestling's only going to get better. Yeah. Thank you, Sheila. Thank you, Sheila. I mean, that makes sense.

Sheila, AK, so he chose team alpha male because he knew they were wrestlers and that he needed to work on his wrestling. More fighters should do this. If you are able, if you have the means to travel and relocate, this is more fighters should do this. He's a very smart man. And again, if you watch his two fights before this from Contender Series and I think like Titan FC or something, the guys, check him out.

They're on Fight Pass if you, whoever still has it. You'll see he gets, he gets taken down really badly two fights ago and gets hurt quite a bit. And then on Contender Series, he gets taken down and takes way less damage. And then today, taken down, back up. So there's this very visible like progression in his, his takedown and wrestling defense. And that's very scary, I think, for the rest of the lightweight division. All right. Has anyone thrown out any, has anyone got an answer on this?

Was that the most elbows thrown or landed? Like standing, like standing, like standing. Definitely standing. Maybe, I want to count ground a lot of time. They'll pop out. No, we see. But standing elbows, I want to see someone, if someone finds that, that was insane. Don't know.

Michael Carroll, you're right. If Michael Carroll's out there? Yeah. At MDC, flip the script. All right, all right, where we got here. Hit us up the last question before we decide to go on of our night, fans. Yeah, what do you go? Oh, did you see this one from Jay Gold?

About one Mr. Dakota Bush. Oh, no. We're going to talk about the lack of nickname being said on the ESPN. Look, and this could. No, he didn't. No, no. No, Jay Gold is asking, Why won't the UFC let Dakota Bush use his epic nickname, lame?

So it's funny. Bruce Buffer did not say Dakota Bush's nickname. This, by the way, also might be a mandate from ESPN, not the UFC. Remember, this is card was on ESPN. I don't think, was Dakota Bush? He wasn't a contender series, right? No, right? No.

No. He's a strange thing. LFA. I think came from LFA, right? I know his last LFA fight, I believe it was said. I think both times the UFC, his naked name is not besaid. And I think both times because he's been on ESPN Plus or ESPN. So it's probably not going to happen.

However, apparently it's okay to say raw dog. Raw dog's all right. We're okay with the guy. And then saying 2022 or 2020, whatever, is the year of the raw dog. It guys, it's not the year with the raw dog. Just for the record going by the Chinese lunar calendar. It is the year of the tiger. Please do not live your life like it is the year of the raw dog.

whatever the hell that means, it doesn't sound good. I love Brandon Roy Val. That nickname's got to go. And please don't tell people it's the year of the raw dog. It's just, it's just nasty.

Yeah. Plus he dropped about, I don't know, 7,000. Oh, there's the photo. Holy cow. He scored a lot. Yeah, he dropped about 7,000 F bombs

in this post-fighter interview. No bleeping. No bleeping. It's 2022, man. We get to hear all the bad words. Because they're at ESPN, I'm sure, I'm sure Roy Val's got a talking to in the back.

Yes. Yeah. From the, from the team. He apologized for a lot of things except to swear. He said two things he said the most word. I'm sorry and the F word. But he did not say I'm sorry about using the F word.

So that's a key. You have to remember. Will Rod Dogg ever be a champion? I don't know. Time will tell. In the UFC? Yes, in the U.S. No, in life.

In life. In life. Okay. And life already. Already. Clearly. No, but I mean, it could mean like Belator. It could mean Belator, PFL.

I don't know. I don't know if his ceiling is UFC champion. But strange of things have happened. For sure, he needed this win to stay in that conversation. But I mean, if I had to guess, I'd say no. No would be my guess. But if he changes his nickname, maybe. He's got his style.

His style is, could be a pain for a lot of people. So, I mean, I don't know. We'll see. He's got to get there first. AKC. Look. It is a real thing. Justin Boyarski shouting blood incantation in all caps, four exclamation points, and then the sign.

Okay, that's not appropriate. The sign of the devil. That is not appropriate. See, it's very legible. Don't worry. All right. You know what? Could someone in the comments explain it?

I won't ban you. Just trees try to be. This is the one moment. People, creeps and weirdos. This is your time. If you would like to explain to Sheila why Raw Dog is a very... No, don't explain to Sheila why you're in the comment. Someone should.

Someone should. I think people don't know. I think maybe the people at ESPN don't know, and that's why they're allowed to say it all the time. Go see Darren Till's social media over the last three years. That's good advice. There we go. Look how Darren Till uses it, and that's why, yes, uses that phrase.

There we go. All right. What is it? Did I decide you use it too? Yeah. Probably. Yeah, we're getting a lot of these now. Ellen King is this the other one.

Brian Keller. You see Brian Keller Keller, Keller tweet? He's like, I didn't know it's the other raw dog, but let's do it or something. I'm like, no. No, Brian Keller, no. Brian Keller had a very interesting night on social media. And he didn't get to rap. Mike, he didn't get to rap.

Or call out. He wants to do it on the MMA hour. he called out Bryce Mitchell for a rap battle on the MMAR. He didn't get to stay on TV. He didn't get to stay on the ESPN. Yeah, there are a few of those tonight. I think Jamie Peko is another one who wanted to say something else. He's like, ooh.

I forgot. So close. Hey, you know what? This being consistent. He's stingy with the mic, but he's consistent with it. He's not given anyone. It's either no one gets extra time or everyone gets extra time. He's given no one extra time.

So be it. No hesitation. You cannot hesitate. in this world. Hold it away. When you got that mic, don't let Bissing take it away. Bill Algeo certainly

does his time. Oh, you might not get it back. Bill is all over the place. He said a lot of stuff. He said a lot of stuff. It was going so well for him and then just, oh, he just went off the rails. I was like, oh.

He's talking about the judges. You got a standing ovation about adding two more judges, making five judges, and then it's just, is he even a U.S. citizen? That's what everyone was asking. I was like, what?

Why? Why? You know he doesn't live in Atlanta, Georgia, right? I think he's what he thought. I honestly think that's what he thought, that he's from Atlanta, Georgia. He's not from Macon or Savannah. He's not hanging around with Jed Mishu. I mean, he might be, but not, but yeah.

I'm hit the music. Okay. Hit it. Hit it. Listen, get some rest. Okay. I know we're all excited. First one's in the books.

Because next week, we got a pay-per-view. The post-fight show just wrapped at 11-02. We're going to be on like this third main card fight at 11-0-2 next week. Okay? So the post-fight show probably isn't going to happen for like five hours on next week's show. So UFC 270, Francis and Gano, Cyril Gone with a heavyweight title, Brandon Moreno, Davis in Figure 803 with a flyway title. Interview with Brandon Moreno coming out in the next weekend.

couple of days. It is glorious because Brandon Moreno is just terrific and fun to listen to. And I think we all need a little Brandon Moreno in our lives. So thank you very much for watching for Casey for AK. I am Mike Eck. Good at everybody. Ak, I'll see you tomorrow for on to the next one, my friend. Oh, I will see you soon. Oh, AK, AK, AK. What is the run? My cousin Kevin Lee. I'll tell you when you're older.