MMA Fighting - UFC Vegas 49 Post-Fight Show | Is Islam Makhachev Best Lightweight In the World?

Episode Date: February 27, 2022

Islam Makachev submitted Bobby Green with a flawless performance in just over three minutes in the main event of UFC Vegas 49. With that performance, is Makhachev the best lightweight in the world? That question is discussed as the UFC puts a bow on their February slate. Other topics include where Green goes from the loss and if it had a significant impact on him, Arman Tsarukyan's impressive performance, the two closely contested bouts on the cards getting mini robbery reviews, and more with MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Alexander K. Lee, and Jed Meshew. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew 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. Everybody. M. A. That's a preview show, A.K., this is the post show. This is jazz, baby. There's no rules for jazz. Welcome, everybody, to the UFC Vegas 49 post-fight show here on MMA fighting's YouTube channel.

If you're listening after the fact, we welcome you as well as, for those watching live, we just witnessed Islam Maka. chef i mean we can't put it any other way he actually steamrolled bobby green three minutes 23 seconds into the fight tkio win it didn't even look like he was touched he made it look super easy it was just i mean it was just a dominant performance he gets it done and the question is does he get a title shot in his next fight i think it's absolutely a no-brainer but who knows stranger things have happened but thank you for joining us i am mike heck we got jenni Mademeshu joining us once again.

He's been very busy tonight. Talking a lot of noise on the people's pre-fight show on Twitter spaces. And now on the post-fight show, we got Alexander Kay Lee, the Prince of Positivity, at least for a time he was the Prince of Positivity. And now people think he should probably have a different nickname these days. But welcome, A.K., how are you? What's saying that? How dare they?

I mean, people are unhappy the way you're criticized. these cards, AK. Some of these cards on paper are pretty whack. I don't know. Do you want me to be AK the liar? Because I can do that too. I can lie. I can lie to America.

It's not a great card on paper. I think it turned out okay. I mean, I think we can all agree the card because it was all right. It was good. I think it was better than, what was last week's? It was better than last week's card. Yeah, I think we can say that comfortably right. It was definitely better than last week's card.

Okay. And it was better. And it was probably better than a show which I like. Maybe not, definitely. the Hermanson Strickland card. A show which I liked, but I mean, as Casey's pointed out before, like the last two fights kind of leave, you know, when they leave a bitter taste in your mouth,

it unfortunately affects the rest of the card. I said that car was okay. But I'm fine saying this was the best of the last of the past three fight night events. Yeah, it turned out really well. Good. So let's talk about how it ended, Jedmishu. Islam Makachov goes in there.

I think we all expected Islam to win the fight. We thought that the betting line, the heavy favorite line in his favor was justified. It was warranted. We thought Bobby Green would be able to go in there and put up a fight for at least a couple of rounds. That did not happen. Islam Makachev took him down once and then the fight was over shortly thereafter. You already have Islam Makachev ranked as the number one 155 pounder on the planet.

You can't rank him any higher now. What did you think of his performance over Bobby Green and just getting the job done in a little over three minutes? I think that I am correct. and that I hope it's been a great weekend for me. First, you guys are about to get on the Rineade Ritter bandwagon, and now everybody's going to finally see what I'm trying to tell you. Isle-Marchchev's the best lightweight in the world, man. It's not close.

I just don't think it is. It's not close. I don't even think it's close, man. I think he's going to wash any dude that he gets in that cage with. Like, we're going to see because he's going to get a title fight off this, and he's going to do the same thing he did to everyone, the same thing Habib did to everyone. It's just they're on a different level.

I think I'm about as big of Habib guys there ever has been. I was standing that dude for years before he got the belt, and I will stand him in his career forever. I think Islam is maybe 85% of the guy that Habib is. He does not have Habib's otherworldly athleticism, but 85% of Habib is still like 30% of. better than any other lightweight in the world. Look, we just checked their seats.

A lot of people were feeling frisky. A lot of froggy people wanted to jump on Bobby Green coming into this one. And that was a squash match. There was nothing. He had nothing for him. And Bobby Green is a good fighter. Sure, the circumstances are tough, but it just doesn't matter. Like, it just doesn't.

He exceeded even my expectations. And as we talked about a lot beforehand, And I thought he was going to dominate Bobby Green. I didn't think he was going to do it to even, to the degree he even did. It's the best fighter in the world. And I might move him up. I can't move him up. He's number one in my rankings.

I might leave number two open and move everybody down and just leave one gap spot there out of respect for the man. Because why not? Jed, pound for pound. He's out better than the rest of him. Jed, pound for pound. You can move him up pound for pound. I guess I can. That's true.

I don't know where you have him on there, but there is room for upper mobility. You actually can give him more accolades. So I actually, I grade my pound for pound rankings different than I do my divisional ones. So it'd be tough. He is not ranked. He is not in our top 20 pound for pound for pound. Yeah, well, for pound rankings, the way I do it is I literally tally up points of their

victories over other ranked people in our things. So I don't have any Bellator fighters in my time. thing because Belator fighters don't have a lot of wins over other ranked guys. So by that metric, it's still tough for Islam to kind of launch up pound for pound. But he's a top lightweight in the world, which means he's like the top fighter in the world because it's the best division. Sorry, Casey. Would you, would you be tempted to put him above? So here's our, here's our lower, our lower part of our pound for pound, our consensus pound for pound.

I don't know what your list looks like. Sure. Would you be tempted to put him above city of gone? if if I was doing pound for pound in a nebulous way similar to how I rank my regular rankings sure yeah he's certainly a top 10 guy DJ and DJ Gayguard yeah for sure for sure he if I were doing it the way I rank regular things he would be behind only in Ganu Volkov Usman and Adasanya so he'd be five for me wow I'm not surprised to hear you say Adasanya because

I'm surprised to hear you say Adasanya because you've been on record many times he thought Habib would would beat Adasania in a fight and I mean even what about 87% of Habib like you put on Twitter that's what you is Lamakhjav which is damn good. I don't know the 87% of

Habib beats oddsas I think you need all of Beeb to beat as you know but you know it's at least I like I I said this before we retired, I would have picked Habib to beat Kamar Usman. I would not pick Islam Machchev to beat Kamar Usman. So, and I think that's kind of the dividing line. Like, so, you know,

I think he'd do admirably against Islam, or Islam would do admirably against Israel. But, you know, I'll just favor the body of work from Israel. At this point in time, I'm willing to grow with Islam because he's going to be the champ for some time, because ain't nobody in that division taking it from him, that man is better than all of you just get used to it. There might be somebody else who might have something to say about that, but we'll

discuss that in a little while because he competed and got an impressive win on this card as well. A.K., what did you think of Islam's performance? And are you with Jed? Are you willing to say right now into a live microphone in front of all these people that Islam Makachev is the best lightweight in the world after this performance?

I mean, boy, I mean, you'd be very tempted to put him number two. at least number two. It's hard to argue. Again, for me, I do like to have guys earn it, but that's, that's harder and harder these days, just with how long it takes, like, certain guys to fight. So it's almost unfair to say, like, oh, well, Machachep has to beat Justin Porier or Machiaf has to beat Justin Gaichy. Like, I think those fights, you know, could happen someday. Does he have to beat those guys to prove that he's the number two or, as Jed says, the number one lightweight? I don't know. I think, again, I hesitate to put him number one,

but I don't think putting him there is, like, wild hyperbole. It's, that's, that's, that's, that's like a very educated guess based on what we've seen, how he's handled certain opponents. Now today, like I do think calling his win over Bobby Green tonight, like the tipping point for anyone who was like maybe, you know, waffling about putting him all the way number one.

Because it is odd circumstances. I mean, it is amazing to put away Bobby Green. I think I saw someone tweeting that he hadn't been finished since Dustin Porre. So it was like five years ago. So say what you want on, Bobby Green being a veteran. Some might say like, oh, you know,

he's not a top. top 15 ranked guy. He does not get finished like he did in tonight's fight, whether it's wrestlers, strikers, whoever, BJJ guys, doesn't matter. He always has a way of usually going the distance and then making it a competitive fight. Yes, two weeks camp for sure,

or less than two weeks, we should say, was a factor. So if you want to use that to sort of ding, you know, Makachev's win, that's fine too. But anyway, you slice it, he did look like as advertised, you know, because when this was first announced, Bobby Green replacing Benile Daryush.

Pretty much everyone said, well, Bobby Green is toast. And in the days in between, we've kind of talked up Bobby Green and said, well, here's how he could win. Here's what could be difficult for Islam. But I think there's a big, if the odds are any indication, there was still a large contingent of people who just said, yeah, you can explain all that. But Islam's going to truck them. And that's a scenario that played out. So I almost feel like a little bad. I think in the media, we might have big Bayer Green up too much.

And I think Islam might have seen that and been like, oh, well, I'm definitely. I'm giving him everything I've got now. I mean, not that he have any reason to give any less than 100%, but if there's any chance he didn't, I think we gave him some serious bulletin board material. And again, he proved he's probably one of the three, maybe the best 150 fire in the world. First time Bobby Green has been stopped in a fight since June of 2016

when he was stopped by Dustin Porre. So it's been almost six years since he was stopped in a fight. a fight and Islam goes out there and just does it with with with with very little efforts. I mean, this was this was something else. And this is the thing about Bobby green that we've been saying from the beginning. And not a lot of people, I mean, people might were hitting me up on Instagram DM thinking Bobby green was going to win this fight. But I will say this, Bobby green loses nothing here.

Loses absolutely nothing. He gets finished at three minutes and 23 seconds. The fight was not all that competitive. First take down the fight's over. Bobby green loses nothing here, nothing. You could throw him in a main event in his next fight, and no, we'll bat an eye. Islam Makachev, we thought maybe coming out of this fight that Bobby Green might get a little bit of a boost from this one, maybe even more than Islam Makachev, because he thought Makachev might be able to, or Green could survive and go to the full 25 minutes. But Machachev gets a big boost.

A lot of people now feel he's the best lightweight in the world. No one's saying, no title fight anymore. There's no debate. His next fight should be for the belt, Jedmishu, right? Right? Like Charles Olivaire versus Justin Gachey, whoever wins that fight, you're fighting is on Makachef, Connor McGregor or not, right? Yeah, so this is a wrap at this point. Look, I mean, you want to knock Bobby Green in whatever ways you can.

Cool, he's not a top 15 UFC ranked fighter. By basically any metric and any rational person who follows the sport, Bobby Green is a top 20 lightweight in the world. And he was made to look like a rank amateur. Like, that's just it. And it's not like this is one-of-one performances from Islam. He has leveled up and is just trucking fools now. And there's no, you can't deny him.

Like if he had come in and if he had had a Habib versus Ally Equintix-style fight where it was clearly dominant, but he took five rounds and couldn't quite put on the big performance. That is not what happened. A dude made a statement. I wish he'd have made a better statement on the mic. But, you know, it is what it is in that regard. I don't, I think the UFC is now, their hands are now tied.

I still think if Charles Oliver wins, he is going to try and fight Connor and not fight Islam. I just don't think that's an option for him because the UFC is just going to look at this dude and say, yeah, man, Habib should have gotten a title fight like two years before he did. And we ended up missing out on some prime years of promoting this once in a generation athlete. we're getting a second crack at it. Let's just get this guy the belt. And then we'll build from there. He's getting it.

I just don't think there's any way not at this point. Yeah, I mean, it's hard to deny. And Islam Makachev was just speaking with Megan Olivie after the win. And he said he wants to fight for the title in Abu Dhabi. And then the guy, I think the managing editor, or the man who is basically the spearhead for ESPN MMA, Charlie Moynihan just tweeted out that Makachev MMA tells Megga to leave you like to fight for the belt in Abu Dhabi

and he said pencil in October 22nd and UFC 281. Apparently they're going back to Abu Dhabi in October. I'm going to take this guy's word for it because he worked for freaking ESPN so I think he would know but that seems to be the plan. I mean That's what we're doing right?

We're doing the winner of we're doing Oliver Gachey winner versus Mokachev in Abu Dhabi on Fight Island that's the plan, right? A.K., that's what we're going to see. Yes, I agree. It'll be Charles Olivera versus Islam Islam-Machachev on Fight Island. Yes, he will beat Justin G.

And then he will beat Islam Makachev. And I'm still, listen, I'm still all in on the Olavera train. But I will say, I have, I mean, I wouldn't put money on it. I'm not, I am past the point where I'm feeling super confident that Olavera should be, like, favored. I think he might be at least a minus 200, plus 200 underdog. should that

whenever that Machetov fight becomes official and then it'll probably move even further in Makachov's direction but again I still think I you know me I'm gonna pick Charles Olivera when the time comes

assuming he beats Justin's not a guarantee I know and I think he's got the style for it I mean again that that ground game is just insane I still would have liked to see him like to fight Habib I would have picked Habib to beat him

but I still would have liked to see you wouldn't have wanted to see that fight happen I'm interested in watching the best guy in the world go to work on anyone but it was endlessly hilarious to me that the Tony Ferguson is going to be a tough fight for Habib because look at how scrambling and grapple he is cool so he's going to grapple with Habib he's done we don't need to figure I already know how that goes like I don't need I don't need to see it

like I mean I'll watch it but like if you're just going to engage in grappling with these dudes, you're just gonna freaking lose. So I'll watch the hell out of it, but I'm not going to, because poor old Justin Gaci, man, he's about to twice have a Dagestani beat his ass for a belt on Fight Island.

That sucks. That is a tough scene for my guy. Listen, he'll just be happy if he gets past Olivera. That's all I'm saying. You know me, I'm going to Oliver all the way. He could. I don't think you will.

I saw that I threw a poll earlier that I had to replace quickly because we had a better question How would you rate tonight's card from 1 to 10? 7 to 9, 40% to 7 to 9. I think that's about the right range, 7 or 8. I think most people enjoy it. If you sat down and watched tonight's card, you probably had a good time.

So 7 to 9 was done. But I threw up in the new poll, how high do you rank Islam in the lightweight division? Right now, number one, pretty comfortably ahead, 47%. So there's a lot of people already just saying, hey, uncrown champ. Rankings are how rankings go. I'm telling you this for a certifiable fact

against any lightweight in the world he is the betting favorite there's not a person on the planet he is not a betting favorite over right now and that's I think that will speak a lot to those poll responses because I think yeah that makes it everybody's just there on him

we have bonuses and Islamakshad is not one of them it's not one of them I didn't know this doesn't totally surprise me can I guess first I didn't see them Oh, yeah, let's play the guessing game. I didn't see them.

I do. I think there was a fight of the night, so I'm saying they gave it to catch Rer and Kim. And then I think, and then I think I would, excuse me, I would hope. I think they're going to give it to Islam. No. No, okay, good. And then my other thing, McKinney, Terrence McKinney. I haven't seen it.

No. I'm going to say, ooh, great. I'm going to say Bahamondays. and give me termin give me the armbor man

okay so not the homon days are they giving it to armon surukian yeah damn right they are oh okay

I don't you're gonna say Brahima I'm they're they're gonna say if he gets if he gets 50 grand for submitting Michael Gilmore that's it

respect to Michael Gilmore that's the easiest 50 grand when he's probably I will ever see I don't hate Sarukin getting it that's fair

the whole performance really if not just the finish like again performance should take into account more than just the finish right and his performance I think was I think it's fair to say the second most memorable of the night

like overall his performance right was the second most dominant I don't know about memorable that sort of depends on a lot but certainly the second most dominant it's a lot of blood I don't think anyone who saw that when he's forgetting that anytime soon

that's a lot of blood yeah that was I mean that was a beating that was a vicious beating And Joel Alvarez is really good. Like Joel Albrez is super talented. And Suki just like mashed him. That was wild. I expected 30, 20.

I expected a 3027, but just seeing Armand just open him up with that elbow and in that first round was nuts. I'm surprised they let that one, you know, live to fight another day, bro. But they put him on a short leash and that's it. We had talked about him beforehand. And I will say that that performance specifically, one very specific aspect. of it has raised my ceiling for him. I still think he is not a champion because he fights in the same division as Islam Makachev and that sucks for him.

But that guy is probably going to fight for a world title and I say that because in that second round, when he had Alvarez busted to hell, he immediately came down and was like, I'm going to put this dude in a crucifix so I can elbow those cuts open again. And that is viciously mean and that's exactly the the type of stuff that like the best fighters in the world like the best fighters in the world are they are mean people when they are in the cage and when you like that's that's the biggest sign that i ever get when i look at someone is hey oh they they are smart and nasty and that was some nasty is so i'm i'm with you i thought shrewkeem was good i think he is probably going to fight for a belt

now did did you see iardos's corner like telling him like as they were bringing him to the corner, like, in cleaning up the cut. Like, you got to calm down. Like, you got to stay calm. Like, I think, I know he's a fighter. I know these guys see this crap all the time, but like, I think if you take, like, that much blood and that much damage early in the bite, I think that really, he's a, he's still a human being.

Yeah, it looks like you're attacked by a freaking shock. Of course. I think he was slightly, slightly in shock of, like, what had happened to him. So I was like, Mike, you were saying, like, it's, like, I'm not saying they should have thrown in the towel there, but wow, they, they definitely should have seen, like, our guy is kind of out of it now. Like he really, really took a hit there and the superficial damage and just being literally covered

in his own blood. Look, some fighters might react to that differently. Clearly, Joel Alvarez was really, really shocked and hurt by that, as again, 99% of humanity would be. So, yeah, I do wish there was an opening in there to stop it earlier because that was tough to watch after. I don't think he even wanted to fight anymore after that, getting sliced open like that.

That was scary. I mean, it would have been hard to want to fight when you were drowning in your own blood. Not a fan. It's going everywhere. That was, yeah, that was brutal.

A horror show. Brutal stuff. So in the UFC rankings, he's ranked 13. I mean, he beats everybody in the bottom half. He beats everyone from Michael Chandler down, I think.

Chandler, RDA, Ferguson, Dan Hooker, Conimer Greger, Gregor Glelelezby. He is a great shot of beating all of those guys, I think.

And then we go to Islam. Darry, you should be interesting. I don't know, maybe. No, I'm saying that's make that a fight. I look, I think he and he and Matush Gamarot is a really good fight. I'm really high on Gamorot. So I'm not saying Armand can't win.

I'm not saying Matush can't win. That's a problem with lightweight, man. Everybody, all right, if you take out the Conn McGregor and Dan Hooker, Tony Ferguson grouping, which is guy who sucks, guy who is a featherweight, and guy who's washed, then the rest of lightweight is insane. Yeah. I don't know, man.

Strukegon and Gillespie seems like the fight to make right now. Gillespie ain't getting that, Gillespie's not getting that Tony Ferguson fight as much as he wants it. And I, yeah, I think Gregor's just going to have to fight Arm on at this point. I think that's pretty much what he's going to have to do. And we'll see. So, G, we do a fight of the night. Might as well ask you, A.K., you are the robbery review guy for M.A.flying.com.

I know that is a word that is thrown out very loosely in the MMA space, the word robbery, but Priscilla Cachuaera gets the win. That word robbery has been thrown out a lot tonight. Do you agree? Do you think there's a little something fishy going on here, a little robbery action? It's tough. For anyone who didn't see M.Aid Decisions.com, that was about, I don't know how many people did it, but it was only one person.

Thank you. Oh, look at that. Gosh, how does our producer do it? This is, how does he do it? Only, uh, only here are you are, Ben. The esteemed Ben Duffy of Sherdog.com going 29, 28, Catcherara. All the other media members are scoring it for Kim. It's, it's, I would have scored it for Kim.

I, I, this has, this seems like a classic case where almost the Diego Sanchez style, we're catcherware. Oh, what was the exact? We should look at the scores too. Sorry, which rounds were. It was all the same. All three were the same. First and third round to Catua.

First and third round. Yeah. See, again, this is kind of the Diego Sanchez thing or the Leonard Garcia thing. I guess maybe now, and maybe now the Priscilla Kacharoa thing, because this is kind of her style. A lot of wild swinging, a lot of activity. She lands big shots. She does land big shots.

So, you know, if they're weighing the immediate damage versus cumulative, I could kind of see how a judge would say it looks like she's landing the heavier shots, but she's also so inaccurate. And I think Kim put on a really strong. strong, like, performance night. The first two rounds, obviously, not as exciting, not as action-packed as the third one. So I, like, knee-jerk reaction, I would call the robbery. And this is coming from someone who you guys know me.

I always lean towards not robbery. If anyone reads, like, robbery review, it's usually, of all the ones I've done, it's probably three out of four, I usually go not robbery. And the ones that I do call robberies are, like, some of the most notable and obvious, like, F-ups, judging F-Ups in M-M-A history. So it takes a lot for me to call a fight of robbery. So if I watch it again, maybe I changed my mind. In the moment tonight, I feel really bad for Gian Kim.

The good news is I think both women, we were saying sort of on the pre-fight that like, I thought it was a loser loser. Kim now is on a three-fight losing street. Ketcherra, of course, has been on three-fight losing street before. And it was coming off that really bizarre loss to Gillian Robertson. So I thought whoever lost is out, they won fight at the night. They planted a great show. They rewarded the faith of the matchmakers, who I think thought

that putting these particular two fly weights together could result in the brawl we got. It wasn't completely surprising. I guess the first two rounds were a little bit more what people expected. Round is what they're hoping for when you put a fight like that on the main cards. So I will say robbery.

But hey, congrats to both women. It was a hell of a fight. And I do think they'll both be getting at least one more. So that's good. Yeah. Kim, it just seemed like Kim clearly won the first two rounds. If you want to give Catcher the third, again, no problem with that because she landed some big shots and chick got wild and the elbows are nasty and, you know, you want to give her the third round fine.

If you want to give Kim the third round, that's fine too. That fight is closer to 30-47 Kim than it is 29, 28 Casuerre. Just take a guess. Please take a guess what the strike totals were in the third round for both women. Just who do you think landed more and by how many? Oh, in the third? Kim by 20. Kim landed 86 to Cashware is 52 in round third.

And I know Cashware was landing some big heavy stuff with those elbows. And honestly, great plan to just, I can't hurt her with my hands. Let's put a bigger piece of bone behind it and see what goes. But she was also getting rattled with shots coming back. She just had a better poker face about it. She just looked meaner, and so she won the round and the fight. Credit to her for finding a way to game the system, but she didn't win that fight by a reasonable metric.

I will say we should tell people significant strikes are not always a great way to, like just looking at significant strikes are not always a great way to judge a fight. But in this case, I think it reinforces the eye test. 30 more than one person in a round, it's usually pretty. pretty indicative. Again, again, no, but it doesn't because not all significant strikes are created equal, right? You could have someone land three significant strikes and the other person lands 30, but if one of those three significant strikes was a knockdown, that one is worth way more than the third,

the other 30. Those 30 could have been leg kicks. They could have been glancing body shots. Oh, the leg tricks don't matter. Oh, they matter. Officially against leg kicks, got it. Compared to a knockdown? Yeah, I'm going to give the guy who got the knockdown the thing every time.

You can judge it wrong if you want, Jed. I mean, again, you've been doing it for, you've been doing it for a long time. You've done it many times in the past. But for me, I actually, like, pay attention to the judging criteria, and I look beyond just the numbers. But in this case, I will say, I do feel like the significant striking stats. Like, we had the eye test, which we think Kim won. Then you look at the numbers, and it says Kim won.

So, you know, in this case, they go together. But I don't want to tell people just to look at significant striking stats and say, oh, this determines who won around. Because that's really not the case, and I don't think that should be a habit for fans. Okay. Let's segue into another fight that has been highly debated. for the decision. The super fun fight at 185 pounds

between Armand Petrosian and Gregory Rodriguez. Close fight, went to split decision. I will say there have been some egregious scorecards. And you can maybe say all three of the Cachuaia Gion Kim scorecards were egregious because it went to Cachewara. Petrosian, I thought, won the first two rounds. You want to give them a 29, 28, go right ahead.

3027 Petrojan was kind of egregious, but Jedd, you kind of made, like, you, you don't feel like it's that egregious. I think that it's probably wrong, but not necessarily wrong. Look, very, very obviously the biggest moment in that third round was the head kick that busted Petrosan's nose up, and then it led to a takedown in the effort on the back. But one, according to AK, you know, the actual rules say that submission attempts don't really count because they're not damage. Um, so him not getting the thing just doesn't matter.

Uh, but the whole second half of that round, Rodriguez did actual nothing. Like once, once Petrojan got up from that admittedly really bad position, he went right back to work and started digging Rodriguez up again. And at that point, Rodriguez didn't do anything. I think he got hurt a couple of times in the back half of that round because the way his body language changed so dramatically he started really moving backwards. And the last 10 seconds, I thought he got like really hurt, but Petrojan didn't have enough time and didn't recognize it because it looked like one of those kicks came through and

like actually put him on rubber legs, but then he was leaning up against the back of the fence and then the time was done. So again, it's probably not right to give Petrosian the third round, but, and I'll do this thing so AK can lecture us again because everybody loves a lecture on a Saturday night. The stats in round five are certainly far in favor of Petrosian who landed 51 significant strikes to Rodriguez's 19. But again, probably not right, but I think it's not inconceivable to me to score that 3027 for Petrosian, but it is, it's questionable, I guess.

Yeah, the numbers, the numbers. Seeing it now, I get it. 50, according to the numbers, that was Petrosian's best round of the fight. By far, after he got up. 51 of bleeding for. After he got up, Rodriguez really did nothing but sit there and take it. For like two and a half minutes, he just kind of backed up and got pinged. And nobody noticed it because Petroche was bleeding from the face and it had been such a big part of the front of the round.

but like he really battled him back. To me that probably should have more been, Petrosion was on his way to losing a 10-8 and battled it back to a 10-9. But again, I'm not entirely against saying, hey man, he won as much of the time of the fight and also did a lot of damage too. And so sure, we're going to give him this round.

It's not insane to do it. It's not good. You can see what Tony Weeks saw. I mean, look, Tony Weeks, I know is a name that has probably come up judging controversies far too often. And justifiably so. Justifiably so, it's fine.

I understand if people want to bristle at his name. Adelaide Byrd was also in the cards tonight. Who am I forgetting? There was some perpetrators. To put it nicely, there were some perpetrators. But I'm actually with Jed on this one. I do think it's easy to dwell on that one moment. But, I mean, Petrosian really put together like a pretty solid three-round performance.

And it was a great fight. It was a really competitive fight. And so I again, like I just said, I would have scored it 10, 9 Rodriguez, but I don't think you can go to 20 weeks ago like, oh, 20 weeks you're crazy for thinking Petrojan won that round. Petrojan did a lot of good work in that round. And it was close. It was close.

But, I mean, sometimes rounds are close. I don't think we need to call everyone that goes the way we disagree with like a robbery. It was a really competitive and fun round. More importantly, Rodriguez has no one to blame but himself. He's a BJJ world champion. Oh my God. He shot one takedown. He shot one takedown, got it.

And then in the second round, he did it, and then he was gas. Like, he chose to fight in a really tough way, and he did a great job, frankly. Way better than I would have thought if you told me he was going to spend most of the fight kickboxing. But he didn't try to make it easy on himself for sure. Imagine if he just taken him down the first round in armbard or something. I mean, like, Petrocheon did a great job, but that one time we almost, caught him with the, what he kind of, like a knee bar. Like, he got a knock down.

It was a roll through Suluweb stretch, which was insane and awesome. That was sick. And it was like, you should be doing that the whole time, Roger. I know. That was, I know that. Credit to Trojan he got out of it. If that happens in round one, yeah, maybe he doesn't. They're not as slick.

They're not as, you know, the situation's different. He maybe doesn't get out of that. Yeah, very frustrating for me. I think, I've been saying, I think, Robocop is like a sleeper at 185. Maybe he still is, but if he keeps fighting like, this and not using all of his strengths, then, hey, he could have a fun 10, 12 fight UFC career, a lot of performance bonuses, fight of the night talk, you know,

and that's great. And there's nothing wrong with that if he wants to go that way. A lot of great fighters have made careers like that. I just wish I could have seen him, this jujitsu, I keep hearing about that. I don't think he's used in, like, his past four fights, like even before the UFC, he's kind of, he's kind of fall in love with his knockout power, which he has, but come on, let's just get grapple a little bit. Jiu Jiu, too, come on.

He's the spiritual successor to Jacare Soza. It's the best. George Gurgel. George Gurgel, my God. Oh, no, because George Gareggeel couldn't hit hard, whereas he thought he could. He should have grappled people, but he kept punching people in the face and they fell over. So, like, that's Rodriguez.

It's awesome. I love him. I'm a big Rodriguez fan now. That was a very interesting fight. And Petrojan's leg kicks throughout that fight were nasty. Those were nasty. because I saw one of the comments that, you know, Pedrosian landed more, but Rodriguez did more damage.

I don't necessarily agree with that. Like, Rodriguez made it, like, busted his face up with a shot, but, like, those leg kicks were nasty. And you got to score those. Yeah, you got to score those. I mean, you just have to. I know the face and the blood and all that stuff, it looks gnarly, but the leg kicks,

like, you've got to give some credit to those, especially the hard ones who's landed. I mean, Rodriguez's right leg was, looked like hamburger meat when the fight was over. So those definitely did some damage. What a debut. Good win, especially in your eighth professional MMA fight. That is not too shabby.

Good performance from Ignacio Bahamandes against Jou Rang. Gets some extra money. No bonus money, but he got a percentage of the purse. Josiana Nunes, I mean, just put it on Ramona Pasquale for 15 minutes, but Pasquale with that chin of, I mean, I don't know what that shit is, made of, but good grief. That was some impressive stuff. Terrence McKinney.

Only one, 3026. Only one, Mike. I scored at 30, 25, for being honest. I thought the first two rounds were 10-8s. Who knows?

Give the third round. I went 10-7. I went 10-7 and round two. Fine. That's why we're not judges. We should talk about Terrence McKinney because what do you think? Whoever was on Twitter spaces, you guys get to watch.

We got Jett and I's reaction to Terrence McKinney's submission win, two minutes and 11 seconds, rear naked choke. Good win. For us Ziam, everyone was already overlooking him. And I think in hindsight, when you look at it, they were like, oh, I told you. This was an easy matchup. But not the case. If you go back and watch the replay, Ziam kind of took McKinney off of his feet with a leg kick. McKinney did a great job with his grappling, turning the defense into offense.

and then his grappling is really good, man. He was an Olympic hopeful wrestler from that Washington wrestling scene. The guy is very legit, and you got to see it. So, A.K., your thoughts on T. Rex's performance, the follow-up to the seven-second knockout. And, again, not seeing a second round. Yeah, I only wish it had been on the main card. I mean, like I said, the main card turned out okay. I don't think there's really any major complaints.

Really, well, first of all, we should point out, there's one fight we kind of just skipped over on the main card. the quote unquote the co-main event we didn't even talk about it and I'm not surprised and we still can I mean maybe you're building up to it I don't know maybe I'm sorry I apologize if you were building up

to the Titanic Circonov termine matchup which turned out fine but I mean it just goes to show you all my talk about it not feeling like a co-main event I mean it just we barely even noticed it happened but like again McKinney Ziam I still think should have been on there instead of really any of those fights

just just because you should be pushing McKinney she's pushing his story. It's a competitive fight. I don't remember what it was supposed to be on the main card of the card it was originally book for. I think not, right? Probably not, eh? They go as a prelim as well.

This would have been, yeah, November, last November. I think it was a prelim. But it's probably at least a featured prelim. Either way, this is a guy that UFC needs to get behind. I think they know that now. Aside from the main, aside from maybe two of the main card fights, there was no other, like fighters react. I was handling that tonight.

The most reactions for Terrence McKinney's win. lot of people who trained with him, of course, excited for him, but just in general, people who were interested in his story, who were so hype up after that seven-second knockout, who just wanted to see more of them. And he looked great. And Mike Yu had said, I think there was a chance it could have turned into sort of like, you know, a somewhat listless technical fight if it stayed on the feet for too long, because Ziam's a very good technical fighter, counterstriker. But that if we saw McKinney's wrestling or grappling, it could change things. Sure enough, we saw that other aspect of him, and he looked outstanding and got the finish.

hilarious moment with this being doing the reverse Rogan. Oh, he's not in trouble. He's not in trouble. And then the tap out immediately happening. So that was great. And my last note for that fight, if that had happened in November and gone down the same way, I honestly think McKinney would have been my, my 2021 breakout fart of the year. It's great analysis, AK.

Yeah, good pick. Jonathan Martinez, good win. Ramiz Brahima would probably the lock of the night a first round submission over Michael Gilmore, who probably at this point, should not be in the UFC, but they'll probably give another fight. Carl Serendez gets a split decision over Victor Alta Marano, good fight. And yes, Wellington Termin with the submission victory over Misha Sarkinoff. No one was picking Wellington Termin to win this fight.

Oh, wait, except for one man. There's only one man who picked Wellington Termin to win this fight. He's got two thumbs and a Cape Cod t-shirt on this guy right here, Jedmishu. so you're going to be pushing some damn flow whenever I see fit. Happy to do it. No one was picking him. He was like plus 100.

A lot of people were picking him. Well, that line must have closed shut. Yeah. Because people listen to the people's pre-fight show and the money came flying in on Wellington Termin. The money had been there the whole time. Well, look, I was wrong. I was almost wrong.

And then I was almost extremely wrong. right and then I was wrong. For as much as A.K. wants to say it was a bad fight that we don't care about. It was honestly maybe the most- I said turn out of fun fight. That's why we didn't care about. We already forgot about it.

It's honestly, was maybe the most fun fight of the whole night because you had swings. It was a roller coaster. Up, down, up again. So congratulations, Mike. You were right.

I'm wrong. You're smart. I'm not smart. You're handsome. I'm not very good-looking. All of those things are true, but I really felt so good. I almost text you after the first round and be like, I'm going to need five of them pushups real soon, Haas.

And then I don't know what happened. I still don't know how that Armour happened. It just kind of did. And he tapped like before it happened. He's like, oh, my arm's gone. No, we're done. It's so weird and out of nowhere. I think he was tired too.

I think both guys are pretty tired of that first round. So I think like I don't want to call it a fatigue tap, but I do think like once it was almost on. I think Sirkenau's like, I don't want this. If this is already on too far, I'm not getting out of this. Yeah, he's not getting it. It was a, he made a business decision. He knew that that was on enough that he wasn't getting out. So, you know, let's just let's just wrap it up, which I'm, I don't begrudge him that, but does he get cut?

I felt so good after round one. I was like, dude, Terman's gasped. And he was probably a good chance. He was getting hammered at the end of that round. Mike, I think Circonops, he's out. Pretty good chance. I can say definitively, but 95%. He gone.

He gone. And well, he determined will not be gone. He's also like seven of his last like six fights. I don't even know how that math works. It's been a rest of course. But that's what he's done. It's been a rest of which. Well, he determined gets an extra 50 G's.

The Glover-Teshirea aura continues to grow. Goes and works with Glover. gets a submission victory and Glover Cheshirea making his name putting his name in the hat for Coach of the Year because his guys keep winning as well and there you go. And if you guys missed it, apparently UFC 274 will only have the one title fight. They get 274, right? That's the main one. Gloverett Cheshire versus Jerry Perashka is going to be on the June pay-per-view date still to be determined. But that one is getting moved.

So there you go. More updates as we get them. I'm glad they're moving it just because Oliver Gagachie should be the main event. That should be the main event. It should be a main event somewhere. Yep. Yep. Show us to Evie Rodriguez.

She talked to Glover de Chirores. She did a live shot with Combache. And Glover revealed that. And I believe we have since confirmed that information as well that that will be in June. So, okay, let's go to the peeps. Let's see what they have to say about this event. And by the way, we're, I mean, pretty good card to lead into UFC 272. And I got to give shouts to the UFC production team, their video team.

That 272 promo was legit. That was an excellent promo. Really well done. Goose bump kind of a promo. Really, really, really well done. I just want to say, as a. Casey is. Okay, you know, bring it a throw up question. I just want to say the poll now, 53% say Islam. There's a lot of votes. This is a huge, huge sample size. Fifty three percent saying Islam is number one. Twenty-one percent number two, number two, number two, number two, lightweight in the world. So it's pretty good. Tom, overused walkouts.

Boats overuse walkouts, techno-mortal combat and the Rocky theme, name another. God. There's plenty. I mean, Radioactive. Imagine Dragons, radioactive. Oh, God. There was a time.

MMA fighters and pro wrestlers were upset, like indie pro wrestling. Can you sing that song? Radioactive! Radioactive! Any red hot chili pepper song, that's mostly a Dana White problem, not a fighter choice problem.

But I want to be really clear here, Mortal Kombat's a hitter, and you can F right off, Thomas. That's like, I want three fighters a card to come out to that song, because that song will never not be a banger. So sorry you didn't grow up in the arcades in the 90s, but I played laser tag as a child, and that song will always be great.

How great was with saucy swaggerjacking Darren Till and doing Sweet Caroline in Dublin? I thought that was hilarious. Great move from the second best Dutch middleweight in one over. I like he's straight upset. Oh, I was just kissing ass. he just yeah he probably like the song I don't think he likes the song like he just knows they'll like

they'll react to it that's great no one doesn't like sweet Caroline come on except uh Luke Thomas but I mean like we care about his musical opinion come on anyone who doesn't like sweet Caroline is no friend of mine that's all I'm saying and by the way I love you Dublin I love you so much

but don't you dare claim that song because that's not yours that is not yours Red Sox fans Fenway Park we're allowing you to basket it that is not your song. That is Fenway Park. 100%. Don't ruin it.

No debate. That's great time. Tom Brady. Yeah. Tom Brady. I'm not going to give Irish people fighting that. We made that famous.

Sorry. You know who made that famous? Neil Diamond made that song famous. All right. Yeah. No diamond. You take credit for his genius. Yeah.

And then years later, no one knew what the song was. And then all of a sudden, Fenway Park, they played it between innings. Oh, yeah. Everything. Everything revolves. No one listen to that song until the Red Sox. I saw a No Diamond about 15 years ago, and he opened the performance of Sweet Caroline.

He closed the performance of Sweet Caroline. He came back for an encore and did Sweet Caroline. No, come on. Three times. That's too much. Excellent move. That's too much. Excellent move right there.

Oh, that's a good question. Where does Bobby Green go from here? Um, fun fights against fun fighters. Like, that's what you do. You get into Derek Lewis, you just throw them in there with hitters who will just be fun to fight with. Throw them. Those are the kinds of fights.

Okay. Name off top of my head. I mean, it won't happen, but Nate Diaz would be the ideal version. Oh my God, right? How does that not happen? Because Nate Diaz is trying to get out of his contract by fighting Dustin Poet and

do that. I have the answer. I have the answer because, again, nothing changes for Bobby Green. It doesn't take a big stepback at all. We just go ahead and give him the fight we all wanted to begin with. Five-round main event, Bobby Green versus Hanata Moikano, just get it done. Let those two just throw bombs at each other. We have seen way worse main events on paper than Bobby Green versus Hanatimoyano.

But I think Bobby Green's popularity merits excitement towards a five-round fight on a random fight. on a random fight night card as an at the UFC Apex. So yes, Bobby Green and Houtts in Moikano. You want to do Bobby Green, Brad Redell. I'm fine with that too, but those are the types of fights. Just fun, striking matchups.

Real quick, but the whole Bobby Green... I kind of disagree on the whole Bobby Green didn't lose anything tonight. So do I, Casey. So do I. Yeah, I understand what you're saying, but the fact that you're saying Bobby Green, just throw them in fun fights.

When only a couple hours ago, we were talking about, is Bobby Green the next Jorge Masvedol. And Jorge Mazvado fought for the title twice. And we're already doing Bobby Green fun fight guy. Not an actual title contender. But that has we given up on Bobby Green

actually being a serious title contender. No one thought, no one. Yeah. No one looked at Bobby Green as a serious title contender anyways. Even Bobby Green didn't look at Bobby Green as a serious title contend. You can't lose something you didn't really have, right?

That narrative didn't exist until he agreed to take this fight. So you can't lose, I mean, He didn't have it 10 days ago, but he didn't lose it. He can lose a thing that he almost had. So sure, he's not coming into this fight, we spent a lot of time talking about how a win here. Get a shot. Bobby Green into this thing. And not only did he not get a win, he, I genuinely think that, like, the ass kicking he took diminished him somewhat.

Like, whatever, whatever we were building with him amongst the broader, population. Sure, hardcore fans, they know Bobby Green still this dude, but he got trucked, trucked in a way that there's nothing to take with it. And so it's just like, all right, I don't have to care about this dude again. He lost something. He lost some momentum. He found a way to do it. And that's not his fault. It just is what it is. Like, because I, I'm with you all the way, Casey. He had an opportunity to be, you're throwing out fun fights. when, I mean, hell, a week ago, we were saying, Bobby Green needs to get his chance at a main event

to work his way into the top 15 of the division to maybe make a late career a run. And now it's, let's just put him against some guys that are fun. And those things can overlap to some degree. But I don't know, man, I think going from where he could have been with the win or even where he just was to fight Hinato Moikano or Brad Riddell, I'll be honest, I don't do a crap about either of those fights. I mean, they're fine, but like...

You would have a week and a half ago before they booked this Islam fight. Yeah. Why? I wouldn't care of then either. Oh, absolutely you would have. I would have. I would have watched them, and I still will watch them, but I don't think those are, like, exciting fun fights. Like, you don't think they all. They are fun fights, but it's not...

Those are both exciting fun fights. Yeah, but call up anyone in your phone and be like, do you know who the hell Hanato-Moycano is, but no. I don't know if you're going to come. I don't have any friends. I don't have any friends. I can call it. I can't have to hold another conversation.

I don't understand the premise of the question. I could call those same people up and say the same thing about Bobby Green and they would give me the same answer. So what? More people, no, you guys are coming at this way too deep fans. Like, I wanted to fight with him and Michael Chandler. I don't think he gets that anymore. No. I think a good loss could have gotten in that fight.

Like when Al-I Quinta lost to Habib, Al-A-Quinta didn't lose anything. I think Bobby Green did lose a lot tonight. I'm just, I just, I, I, I, I, I understand what you're saying, Mike, too. A lot, a lot. He lost a lot tonight. I think he lost a lot tonight. I think he lost a lot. I think you're insane. I think you're absolutely nuts. Nobody cares. Nobody cares. I'm telling you, nobody cares. He's a G for taking the fight. And that's what everyone's leaving with tonight. He's a G for stepping in on 10 days notice,

two weeks after fighting a hard 15 minute fight that fans were very behind him on. no one wanted the fight only one man said yes and it was bobby green so there you go i don't think he i think he loses something yeah the momentum stops a little bit but there are certain guys that don't need it right now derrick lewis doesn't need title fights but people derrick lewis got title fights bobby green never had that chance to get happened this was but he doesn't bobby green doesn't care about titles neither does derrick lewis that's why i'm comparing them none of them care they care about money they they and they bobby green fighting five more times this year, gives him just as much money

and fights in main events. Yeah, he'll fight he's in lightweight. What do you think? Like, yeah, if he beat Islamachia, he was the biggest underdog on a main event in like years tonight. No one expected him to win. It would have been massive if he did,

but no one expected him to win this fight. He was called Amanda Nunes like three months ago, so years might be stretching it. I'm throwing up a poll. That was in a main event. That wasn't a main event. Oh, you're right. Tushay, Mike.

Tushay. Naomi 50 push-ups. Let's ask the people. Let's ask the people. I'm done up a poll. Mike, I agree with you guys, you know, but you are my best friend, so I'm biased. Let me throw up this poll here. The answer is Bobby Green fights on a mate event on a fight night made event against somebody.

That's fun. And Bobby Green is not a superstar, but people like him. You saw the reaction got in Houston. This loss stinks. Yes. If he wants to become a world champion someday, if he truly wants to get a world champion, this will certainly send him back.

But I don't think he wants to be a world champion. I just think he wants to fight all the time. Exactly. I think anyway, I thought this Bobby Green's chance to become a contender. And I think that ship, this performance tonight is completely gone. And that's why we're going to fun fight now.

That's why we're not. You and I are, yeah, I think, I think, total agreement. We were in fun fight. We were in fun fight mode anyways.

is if B'Neil Darius didn't get hurt, we wouldn't even be having this conversation right now. He stepped up and said yes. Maybe that's just, I was not in fun fight mode with Bobby Green after the win. I was in like, cool, let's put Bobby Green to actually make a run up this division

and see where he's at. And like, that might overlap because lightweight's full of hitters and so it's fun, but it was not like, let's just have Bobby Green have fun. I was like, let's let Bobby Green get a top 15 guy, see what goes. So maybe it's just we were,

in a very different place that each of us two weeks ago. But I am now fully in the fun fight camp with you, which I think is not where I was like, it's not where I was before. I was like, I want to see if Bobby Green can do stuff.

Yeah, Jed, I believe you. I just don't think the consensus, as John Anna is, you know, the consensus that John Anick is always talking to. I don't think the consensus was that Bobby Green is like a guy who's moving towards a title shot. I think most people were like, Mike and I,

the common man, of course, who were just like, Boy, Green's a veteran fighter. We enjoy watching a fight. You know, I mean, onto the next one was a lot of, we know, again, we speak to the common people. A lot of people wanted the Redell fight. I think that was the most common suggestion we saw after he beat Nazarat. But this whole opportunity came out of nowhere, and I just don't know.

I get what Casey's saying. There was, for this moment, it really elevated our expectations of what Bobby Green could be. And if you were a fan of Bobby Green for a long time, it's very exciting. But I also don't think that you can really lose something that wasn't realistically in the discussion until, Hill 10 days ago. I just don't know if you can lose that. Maybe there's another word for it, but that's why I'm with Mike on this.

You see the promised land and then it gets taken away from you? That's loss. I've had a lot of rejection in that time. I'm just kind of comparing this to Habib Al-a-Quinta and how compared to what Bobby Green should, the Bobby Green showed up tonight. Everybody was like, Al did great. He lost 50-43. What a legend.

It would a legend. Yeah. Al had a four-month training camp to prepare, not for Habib, but to prepare for a fight, while Bobby Green was just like, eh, I'm going to eat so much food and just party my ass off after mangling the face of Nazrat Haqparas for 15 minutes. I think we're 190 pounds. All right. 24 hours to fight Habib from Paul Felder is about as big a change as exists in this world. Early returns on the poll, 72% no effect.

Loss had no effect on Bobby Green. Correct. Again, we speak the language of the people, you know? That's what I'm saying. We know the language of the hoarder. But I want to know what they thought, but those same people, then what was the coming into the fight? How many people picked Bobby Green to win the fight on our poll?

I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I, I did the poll. Remember what the poll was? Once, just one second, I just, hold on. Let me just one. I don't, I. It was it, you did. Math is definitely like a percent. The answer to your question, is Islam Makachev?

And that answer will remain the same if you change the year to 2024 as well. You're wrong. Go ahead. He'll probably retire at some point. Chad, you've been in this game long enough to know how crazy this business is. Or someone else will come along that's like, I don't know, I don't know. Terrence McKinney is like the next. We don't know.

Like, I would hesitate to pick anybody to be a champion, like, extending past next year. Bobby Green? Bobby Green. I heard it. I don't know. He wanted to get a title plate. UFC lightweight champion, end of 2024, still is on Machchev. No one will remember this except for you when it.

I'm going to remember that. If it comes true, if it doesn't come true, you'll never speak of it again. So that's a very easy prediction to me. I'm not a psychic. I can't see the future. I don't know what the future is going to hold, but let me tell you, if 2024 comes around and Islam's got the belt, I'm digging up some receipts. he'll want to fight for another title he'll

might want to retire we don't know what are the chances he's sticking around for two more years that's a long time to hold on to a title by the way the answer is by the way the answer to that other question and it's the same answer to this question in my opinion is charles olivera charles olivera will end the year as the champion i think i mean i'm just going i'm just because i have i've already said this before we've already had our prediction show a k we decided who would be champions at the end of the year I said Charles Oliver, so I'm sticking with it. And I also truly believe, although Justin Gagey is as chaotic as it gets,

I feel like Charles Oliver has the best chance to beat Islam Machachev because he is so damn dominant with his grappling that he doesn't even really need to use it all that often. And I also think striking games interesting, and he mixes the martial arts very well. Although Islam, I would certainly favor in that fight. And if you want to throw a minus three something on that, it wouldn't shock me in the slightest. But Jed, I don't think you agree with me on that one. Not at all. I mean,

no, minus 275. Think about it, Chucker. His mom's minus 275, and he's going to have the belt. I think it's Gagie, and I totally understand the arguments for Olivera,

and I am slowly becoming a Charles Oliver believer, just because of the manner in which he beat Dustin Poirier, where he overcame, like, some serious adversity, and similar against Michael Chandler, who sucks. Like that's, that's impressing me

because that has not been part of who he has been as a fighter his entire career. But I mentioned it earlier. If your plan to deal with the grappling of Habib slash Islam is, I'm really good at Jiu-Jitsu.

Cool. You've lost. Like, that's just, it's just not a world. You can't win that fight there. I just do not believe. that anyone can grapple with Islam or Habib and come out okay.

I think you're just the way they are doing it is so different and so advanced and you're not going to be able to pull traps or subs or sweeps off your back. You're just going to get controlled and then punched in the face a bunch and slowly, but surely the life sucked out of you until you give up, whether that's in the first round or the fifth round. So I think it's Gaichi. I think it's Gaichi for the same reasons. Everybody thought Gaichi was Khabib's toughest fight heading into that bout.

He can, to some extent, keep the fight on his feet. He can't forever. And, you know, we saw that with Habib. But I think, honestly, I just think the way you beat, the way I think that you can maybe beat Islam or Habib, one, you either have to proactively wrestle them, which nobody really is tried. to do, but maybe see how good they are off their backs.

I know Habib is actually very good off his back. We haven't seen Islam there a lot. But that's at least an interesting avenue, which Charles Oliver is not a bad wrestler, but he's not going to do that. But really the most obvious way is you punch him in the face really hard. And Gatesy landed freaking bombs on Habib, but Habib has an unbelievable chin, and so it didn't matter. We have seen Islam get got. A. John R. Martinez clobbered him.

And if Justin Gachie hits him like that, it's over. So to me, I think that's still the most likely outcome, especially given that Gachie has fought Habib, so maybe he can take some lessons from what happened there, tweak his game plan a little bit. I just think that he is the best opportunity of any of the lightweights, because I think he's the second best lightweight in the world. Unfortunately, I agree with it.

Oliver by submission. Damn. Listen, I'm on record saying, I think he beats, I'm with you, Mike, I picked Olavera to be the champ by the end of the year. I think he beats Kethji, I think he beats Islam. And I think we start hearing buzz about a Habib comeback in 2023 to avenge his boy and to erase any chatter that may, because if Oliver pulls off those two wins, I mean, you'll have a lot of people saying he's one of the greatest lightweights of all time,

not the greatest. How sick would that be, though? Like, Habib coming back for 30 and O coming out of retirement, sunning turkey olives and I'm being, I'm better than you, jokers, bye. Or, or, or, or, or, uh, triangling his ass. We don't know. But either way, I, I, I'm sad. I'm sad we didn't get to that fight. I'll be sad if we don't get to see him and, and Islam at some point. I, I, obviously, that's, that's much more, much more likely to happen. So I hope that happens somehow, uh, whether it's, again, he beats, uh, uh, uh, Gathe, and then gets that title

fight we were just talking about, or he loses to gate chief, fights the way back to a title fight after Islam beats Ghi and then I do feel like that's a fight we have to see happen someday especially if we don't get Habib coming back but I've always said I think Habib would come back for the right opportunity and that would be olivera having to win these two extraordinarily difficult fights and do so in impressive fashion and then we'll see if we'll see if that peaks hubib's interest look if olivera does it I will say this right now oliver beats gaichi beats islam and then beats habib ain't no question about it he's the best lightweight ever and he's an all-time great fighter like top five all time if he makes that run because that run is frankly probably

unparalleled in the history of the impossible i was a impossible yeah i don't know that anybody will have ever put together that the pourier to gaichi to islam to habib lights out that's the best four-fight streak in the history of the sport in my opinion if he does it i don't think that that's coming that if and you can add chanler and ferguson you can Janet Ferguson. Other people will add them. I have thought both of those men aren't very good for most of my professional writing career.

So I will not add it. And just wait. And just wait. In 2024, the champion, by the way, will be Armand Sarukyam. So keep that in mind.

Maybe by the end of 2023. Let's talk about Armour. This is a bit of a what-if question, but I was kind of thinking about it during the fight, this question right here. Armand Sarukyam versus Islam-Machach two should have happened tonight. So I would go. Okay, so...

Just say, for example, if the UFC had booked that instead. They just rearranged things, had Bobby Green face, Joel Averis. Who would have won tonight? Okay. Well, I will say, I will say this. Same way? From what I understand... Hold on, hold on.

From what I understand, Sarukian was off for that fight. He was offered that fight. He said it himself to a rationale at that that. He said, no, I'm not. fight in Islam unless I get a full camp, which is very smart on his part. Very smart. I would have loved to have seen the fight. I don't think, I think on kind of short notice going from Joel Alvarez to Islam Makachchev. I mean, that's a, that's a tall ask for a guy who could be a future champion. That, that kind of stops momentum a little bit. Like, it's,

It would have been a G move too, but I don't know. But I agree. I have no issue with him turning that down, none whatsoever. It would have been a horrendous choice from him. They fought, what, two years ago? And like, I'm not, I, Armand Surgian gave him a very competent test. I thought Islam won all three rounds. I was two years ago on short notice, Islam was all, I think even you, Mike, would admit

that on short notice, Islam is all. probably winning that fight tonight. And then he's down 02 to Islam, the guy who is probably going to be the champion. And that really cuts your roads to a title shot. It makes it a lot harder. I think it would have been catastrophically stupid to accept that fight. Yeah, just why?

Why so soon? Like we said, it's a fight everyone expects to happen again someday. I think the phrasing of the questions were weird that we got robbed of seeing the fight again. Like, again, if you're a believer in, And Armand, you will see them fight again. And probably for a title of the time. I understand the question because just a pure fan perspective and a selfish reasoning, the two, you have the two best lightweights on the card.

You want them to face each other. Yeah, but he's nowhere near that level of prestige yet. I know. I know that. But as a fan, who were the two best lightweights on the card, those two guys, and they weren't facing each other. So I get as a fan why you want to see that. But as these guys' own careers, of course, there's many reasons why Armand chose to pass on

that. Yeah, and I like that he did. I like that he did. I think that says so much about how mature this. He's 25 years old. Like this guy is not even, he's not close to his athletic prime yet. I don't think he's close to where he's going to be skill-wise, which is scary when you see how good he is now. Again, this guy is legitimately, if everything breaks the right way, will be a top five lightweight

by the end of the year or this time or early next year. He's not in a hurry. And he knows, I think he just knows he's just not on Machachas level yet. And that's fine. That's okay. I know fighters have to have this of rational confidence and we praise them for their bravado. But I think knowing your limitations is also super smart.

And yes, it would have been a competitive fight again, probably. Would you have beaten them? I really don't think so. I think Makachev is, again, we've said this many times during the show,

it's just peaking right now. And could theoretically beat anybody and would be heavily favored against anybody. If you're Srukian, yeah, maybe you have a chance, but you have a much better chance, like a year from now, just when you,

when you become better as a fighter. He just isn't at his peak yet. I want to see them again when he's at his best. He's 25 years old. It's 25. Yeah. Full camp, Surukian, would be interesting.

Like, I would favor Mokachev, but full camp, Surukian and a rematch, I mean, we'll get it. I think we're going to see that fight at some point. That's the one. Maybe not this year. That fight will be more interesting in three years when we get it, because Sirukian will be starting to peak.

I do Islam. Islam is peaking right now. Like I think he wins more convincingly than he did two years ago right now. In three years, when he's dropping off a little bit and Surukian's really, really coming into his own, then that's much more interesting. And that's probably when it's going to happen. All right. Actually, I've seen a few questions about this.

I think they're kind of tongue-in-cheek, but actually I want to kind of talk about it a little bit. Was it an early stoppage in the main event? Most of us thought Islam would win, but not. 323 in round one early stoppage did anyone come out of that fight saying damn well yeah a lot of fighters a lot of fighters a lot of fighters said yeah a lot of fighters I've seen a lot of but

it wasn't like a stoppage one in the sense like oh Bobby wasn't gonna Bobby was it was early was gonna win I'm sorry yeah yeah Jed took it right out of the words right in mouth it was early it wasn't bad it seemed like a mercy stoppage you put it on and it would have been fine

but it you didn't need to he probably stopped it at the first point when it was credible to stop it. If he had stopped it any earlier, I might have said that's a wee bit questionable, but like, it's mostly just in the actions of the guy on the bottom.

Bobby was flattened out and had stopped doing anything other than covering realistically. He was not really making... He was intelligently defending himself, so technically early, but he was not doing moves to escape the problem. So he was just going to keep eating

that was for another minute and a half. So yeah, early but not bad. Yeah, I had no issue with it whatsoever. Yeah, I thought it was a mercy stoppage. Like, you know, stopping a Little League game when you're up by 12 runs in the second inning, you know, like, all right, we're done here. Yeah.

Also, credit to Islam, because, I mean, sucks because I had a bet on him by sub. But he didn't do the thing that fighters do sometimes, which is stop punching to fish for a sub. he just kept punching until you got the stoppage. Like, that's smart. That's how you should handle those situations. Or the look at the raft.

Or the look at the raft. That's the worst. The look at the raft. I'm punching him. I'm punching him. It's like, just, just finish the fight. Like, I know, I know you don't want to hurt the guy anymore, but you got to do what you got do.

And this, I mean, he's a killer. So he went for, yeah, as, as Jed said, not, not all early stoppages are bad. And yes, I'm a soft-ass soy boy. I always favor early stoppages. But there was nothing more we needed to see here. It was clear. It wasn't getting any better. You do not need to wait for a fighter to get seriously hurt for it to be considered a good stoppage.

Let's put it that. I think that's the problem as people immediately think, oh, well, he wasn't hurt that badly, so it's early. It's like, we don't want it to get to the point where they're hurt badly. That's kind of, that's the point of having the referee in there to make that stoppage. Now, sometimes some go overboard, Herb Dean, and stop it way before, I mean, someone's even lightly grazed. But I think this time it was on point. So, yeah, it was early. but a jet set it perfect me early not bad they're not the same thing it is it feels weird saying

it but it almost looked like a a amateur fight in a sense where when the ref goes oh this guy is clearly just much better than his other guy and like i'm just going to go ahead and stop it now when you think about say uh get uh you guys say gamrod um the guy who guys slice his head open we just we're just talking alvarez how long that fight went for and he was just getting his ass handed to him it's just that's just a weird thing you're just a weird the weirdness of the sport. Take like one more. Maybe two.

We get anything fun? One more from Joseph Boza. One more. Yeah, well, it's an opinion, so we'll see what we'll have to think about it. Joseph Boza, how tough it will be for the UFC to sell Islam getting a title shot after being a top 20 guy and Bobby Green? I know Islam is 11 and one of the UFC. Islam should rebook. I just, this is just.

Just silly thinking, Joseph, I love you, buddy. I really do. But I mean, how can you deny him at this point? I mean, he's getting these fights. He could have said no tonight. He could have just said, no, no. Why don't you do something UFC with Misha Sarkinoff versus Wellington Termin as the main event? But no, Islam stayed on the card, fought Bobby Green, treated him accordingly, and, you know, fought like a minus 900 favorite.

It's not his fault, but Neil gets hurt. So you want him to wait a year? to fight Benile Darius, because that's a bad injury this man had. He's going to be out for a long time. So you want him to sit and wait while this division moves on without? Maybe not even there you. Does he need to wait for, to fight another, even anyone? No.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Also, he doesn't need to wait for anybody else. Let's be clear. The UC didn't need him to beat Bobby Green to or do anything. They could have sold him as a title challenger a year ago. They, I at the time made a half. joking, but honestly, wasn't really like totally. Yeah, you should just book Islam in the vacant lightweight title fight because it's Habib's boy.

And let's just do it. Like, let's just go ahead and do it. Or really the answer they should have done was do a four-man tournament to crown the new champion with Oliver, Porier, Gaecchi, and Islam. And just be like, yeah, let's just do these four guys. They don't, they can sell him tomorrow because they just have Kabib. Here, he's Habib. You all know, Habib, this is him just with just more with a darker beard. Like, that's it.

It's the same guy. Yeah, and look, I'm Mr. Maritocracy. Like, I keep telling people, I love seeing guys fight their way up the rankings, knock off whatever, top 10, and top five. But I don't see, but I don't see how anyone can watch, have seen any of Makachev's like past four, five, six fights and not just said, this guy's ready to fight for the world title now. Beating ranked guys is great.

In a perfect world, again, everybody would, would, would fight the way up the rankings. But injuries happen as we just saw with Darayu. That was the perfect matchup. UFC matchmakers did what they could to set up, set the table for him to get that much needed win to get the title fight. And it fell through. And again,

he could have just waited and gotten a title shot anyway. So, no, I, in cases like this, this isn't like a case for everyone, but in cases like this where the guy is so clearly a level above a lot of guys already in the top 10,

what more needs to be seen? I just, you know, it's the dominance. It's just the, I'm not against it. It's not the street. It's just so freaking good. Yeah, I'm not against it, but I think we're most fan. We're educated enough to look at the evidence we have and say, yeah, he's a world title. He's clearly a world title number one contender.

And again, according to a lot of people, including 50% of our, of our polls, our poll today, already the number one guy. All right. Casey said it too, the dominance is, I'm going to extrapolate this out. Yeah. Hamzot is probably fighting Gilbert Burns, and if he wins that, he's getting a Welterweight title shot. Yeah. Something happens to Gilbert Burns,

and Hamzot ends up fighting Neil Magny. Right. And he trucks Neil Magny. Give the dude a title shot. I don't care. He's blowing the doors off really good fighters. He made Dan Hooker look like a child. When Hammer and Tongues with Dustin Poirier can sense his top three lightweight in the world.

Like, the way you're doing stuff matters, and he's doing it so much better right now than anybody else is. Like, I just don't care. Let the man fight and that's what they're going to do. There's no way they don't now. Yeah, and they've tried to book Islam with multiple guys. Four times at RDA, three or four times. I mean, come on.

And it's not his fault. And then booked against the guy that was ranked a spot above him and Derrush got hurt. It's not his fault. And then he goes out there and treats these guys accordingly. that's the way it is. So he's the number one guy. He's fighting to the belt against the winner of this next fight. He fought every bit like a minus 900 favorite.

And he took 900 is low. He fought like a minus 2200 favorite. Yeah. He fought like Lucas Noonan against the one in seven Bellator prospect today. Like that's how good you look tonight. Seriously. I know how much better at fighting Bobby Green is than I am. but he did not last that much longer than I would have

or you would have or AK would have in that cage. Like he did not do that much better than we would have. That's insane. Because Islam is just that insane. By the way, speaking of Bobby Green, 77% in our, I'll end our poll now, 77% say the loss had no effect, which I don't know, may speak,

which, which, as we kind of touched on before, may speak to how whatever the expectations were of Bobby Green heading into, again, him taking this fight. So 77% they don't care. We're playing the song. All right. Peace out, everybody. We're done. AK, I'll see you tomorrow morning, my friend. We will record on to the next one. So get your picks in.

Get them in before 10 a.m. Eastern or they ain't getting red. All right? Get them in. You know how to do it. So for AK, for Jed, big shots, case, and two's into all of you watching, I am Mike Heck. Good night, everybody. Love you guys. Love you guys. I love you, A.K.

Love you.