MMA Fighting - UFC Vegas 53 & Taylor vs. Serrano Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Katie Taylor, Marlon Vera's Shining Moments

Episode Date: May 1, 2022

Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano made history on Saturday night in the boxing ring, while Marlon Vera officially inserted himself into the championship conversation in the UFC’s bantamweight division.  Following Taylor’s win over Amanda Serrano at Madison Square Garden, MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck, Shaun Al-Shatti, Jose Youngs, and Alexander K. Lee reacted to the unbelievable atmosphere and fight in New York, along with the big moments from UFC Vegas 53, including Vera’s big win over Rob Font in the main event, where both guys go from the five-round headliner, Alexandr Romanov’s future, and more.  Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Shaun Al-Shatti @ShaunAlShatti Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee 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

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

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I don't feel like it's doing injustice of, like, what's going on in my body right now after watching Katie Taylor versus Amanda Serrano. What a freaking fight we just witnessed. And hopefully, you were smart enough to tune in because these two ladies got after it for 10 rounds, incredible fight, about the fight of the year conversation in boxing and combat sports, that fight will definitely

be in the conversation. In the end, Katie Taylor gets it done. And hopefully we see it again, and then we see it again after that. So we're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about UFC Vegas 53, most notably another wild main event over at the UFC Apex, which is won by Marlon Cheeto Vera, biggest win of his career against Rob Font. And then we're going to take your questions at the end. But I am Mike Keck. I got an entire crew with me here. We got Jose Youngs, our boxing enthusiast. There he is. We got Sean Alshaddy.

I know he enjoyed the fight. It was a good time. And then we have the Prince of Positivity, Mr. Alexander K. Lee, who got a whole bunch of boxing. You watched this thing from start to finish. Did you not? I did. Sorry, I broke the rhythm. I'm sorry. I broke the rhythm. I'm sorry. Yes, I did.

Yes, it is. What an auspicious start to the program. So thank you all for joining us. We'll take your questions to the end. But Jose, like we mentioned the beginning, you are the boxing enthusiast. You sold a lot of people on this fight. I think you described it actually perfectly with what we saw. But in the end, your expectations were very high for this.

Did this fight actually exceed those expectations? Because they were extremely high heading in. It exceeded my expectations in the fact that I thought that I knew the early rounds would be very, very close. I just, as I said in the preview show and between the links, I just thought Katie Taylor was just the better boxer all around. And if Amanda Serrano was going to win, it would have to be with forward pressure and power shots, which Katie Taylor has shown has been maybe her one avenue to defeat

because I think her footwork is second to none in that way, class of women and men's. Like, she had her footwork kept her in this fight, and that's essentially what happened. What I was surprised about is Amanda Serrano not only kept pace with her for those rounds. Like I did score it for Katie Taylor. I'm sure we'll get into that later, but Amanda Serrano was very game. in those later rounds.

I thought that was where Katie Taylor was going to just pull ahead by a large margin. And this was going to be like an, oh, Katie Taylor pulled out the unanimous decision victory. Amman of Serrano at worst is just the second best or just one B best female fighter in the world. And the fact that was a split decision and a lot, I did Twitter reacts for the site. There were a lot of people online that scored that for Amaner Serrano. I know both ladies said they would want the rematch. I am absolutely ecstatic because I said that this fight should have been a trilogy to begin with. I started tweeting this because I was giving my running scorecard as if I was going on,

that rematch now needs to be three minute rounds, 10, three minute rounds, 12, 3rd rounds, whatever you want to do. Because with that, if we implement that, that is a different fight. Both ladies are obviously going to have to approach that fight differently. The fight itself today wouldn't have played out as it did if there were three minute rounds, but it just felt like as all women's boxing matches go, once the round starts, it's almost over already. and you just want more.

So Katie Taylor did win. It was pretty close to my scorecards. I think I gave one less round to Katie. But for most of those rounds, that was playing out exactly as I thought it would. But the only thing that's surprising was Amanda Serrano was still in her face in rounds nine and ten. Well said.

Sean, you are very good at putting these words out there and painting these word pictures, if you will. And what was amazing about tonight is that, like, it's a little different than last week. Because last week, we got Tyson Fury, that fight, 95,000 people at Wembley Stadium, and then we flip it over to ESPN Plus, and we get Mike Jackson versus Dean Barry inside the UFC Apex. Tonight, we get just a battered and beaten Rob Font. Marlon Verre gets the biggest win of his career, tremendous moment with his family,

and a near empty apex. And then we turn it on over to DeZone. And here we are. We're watching Katie Taylor slowly. methodically walk to the squared circle with almost 20,000 people just going bananas. Like it was like going to your local carnival, which is fun and great. And then all of a sudden you push a button and magically you're in Disney World. You're in the magic kingdom and it's nighttime and the castle is all lit up and there's

fireworks behind it. It's like two totally different lands. Just your overall thoughts of what we saw, the atmosphere, the environment and how this fight actually delivered tonight i mean man what a night right just like generally what a night to go from verifant as you said i mean you put it very well to go from verifant and then immediately switch over to taylor serrano that it was a real treat from the blood gods that we got tonight um it the i i i'll have to say man because like i'm not the biggest boxing guy i'll jump in and out for you know parachute in for the big fights like i'll watch tyson fury or something like

that but obviously i was tuned in this week you hear you know how historic this whole fight is and then you know all the build up to it and that was generally genuinely one of the best boxing fights i've seen in my life round five in particular was one of the best rounds of combat that i have ever seen just in general the brawling that was going on in that fight the shifts in momentum the stakes the crowd everything msg felt like it was 10 or it was a 100 000 people in it like everything about this fight up to the moment, to the historic nature of it. And also, I mean, it almost felt like in a weird way, because obviously I'm the MMA guy coming in talking boxing, but it felt like it was the same type of religious experience that some people experienced for Forrest Griffin versus Stefan Bonner, right?

Where this is a pivotal moment in a certain sports history. And, you know, it's shaped up to be, you know, everything's built around this. Like, this is sort of the one that can push it forward or if it flops, it'll be a big deal that it flopped. And it is just such, just such, a tremendous out-of-body experience type of fight that as it goes on and on and it gets deeper into it, you get that telephone game of people telling people like, hey, dude, you got to tune into this. People seeing it on social media. Hey, you got to tune into this. This is unbelievable. And we saw it even just in our back, you know, to break the fourth wall. Like, you look at the traffic stats on the website, it just climbed up and up and up and up and up as the more, as that

fight went on deeper and deeper into it. You could tell that more people were hopping on. unbelievable fight unbelievable spectacle everything about it was spectacular i also i mean i felt like katy taylor i i wouldn't have been unhappy with a draw let me say that i i think mike you said you scored it a draw as well but either way we need to run this back asap do it in ireland they've already said and do it with three minute rounds the two minute rounds is obscene it's stupid it makes no sense i understand you know boxing is a bit behind on this thing but it's 2022. Why are we still having two minute rounds when everybody else has three minute rounds for the men? So either way, just unbelievable, unbelievable fight and unbelievable spectacle to watch.

AK, you watched this car from start to finish and you were treated with this incredible main event at the end. Two things really stood out to me that I will remember for a long time. One, obviously the fifth round and then the sixth round, Katie Taylor, although the fifth round was like a wild, crazy just phone booth fight. it was the clearest round for Amanda Serrano of the entire fight. Like she won, she had Taylor in big trouble, but Taylor was just hanging in there. And then we're thinking, oh boy, all the momentum has gone to Amanda Serrano. Sixth round, Katie Taylor comes out and she just battles through and has a great round and the momentum shifts back in her way.

That was a great moment. The other moment for me was maybe it was two moments. Two different rounds. There were exchanges, then the bell rang. And then there were multiple exchanges after the bell. And I'm sitting there like, what is going on here? Why are they fighting after the bell? And the reason was because the referee couldn't even hear the bell

because it was so freaking loud in Madison Square Garden. That was the energy for this fight. So if you watched it live, it was just such a treat. What were your biggest takeaways from this fight overall, watching it and covering it for the site? And doing a tremendous job, by the way, my best friend. Oh, my thank you. Guys, this is what good promotion can do.

Now, does it help? You have the two greatest boxers in women's history? Yeah, that's a lot to work with there. You know, people should be interested. Is my video screwed up or am I, uh, is just on my end? No, you're good, buddy. You're just like Bigfoot. I'm good.

Blurry. Yeah. Okay. All right. Yeah, I look freakish. All right. No, okay, it's normal. It's better this way.

Uh, this is what good for me. Okay. Listen. Now, now, again, like I said, you have a lot to work with the two greatest boxers and, two greatest boxers in women's boxing history. So already there, that's a draw. then you throw in of course Jake Paul

the man of the hour in combat sports you know you throw him into the mix that's going to get a whole different audience of people interested clicking into it

and then Eddie Hearn one of the great promoters in boxing today there's a lot of factors of course to make a fight this big you get Madison Square Garden you get the history there

you do a great job of telling both women's stories because again look I'm not like that most hardcore boxing fan I of course heard of Amanda Serrano a lot because she was involved

with Bell Tour she fought in MMA so I heard of her there. And then from there, I learned about her boxing, her box accolades. Katie Taylor, a little more familiar with her boxing, of course. She'd been pretty worldwide famous for a long time. So all these things come together. But I'm sure if two years ago, or maybe a little bit further back, you would say, oh, Katie

Taylor and Amanda Serrano are going to headline Madsler Gardens, sell it out, do a pay-per-view, have all this media talking about them. People would have said you were effing nuts. They would say that's not going to happen. So this is this was a victory of course primarily for the women involved but also just for like the power of promotion the power of telling a story

and knowing that these two would deliver. You know what I mean? You knew that you could put this level of work and promotion into this fight. And when fight night came around, everyone who tuned in would not be disappointed. People can can, you know, argue about the result with that Taylor one,

whether that Serrano one, where they thought was to draw. But that, if anything, that's only going to benefit it more. Now you get that post-fight that post-fight bump, that post-fight discussion. I wouldn't even say controversy. There's just a great fight.

I wouldn't even call the controversy. And then hopefully a rematch down the road. So it just really could not have gone better. I'm sure we'll see the peer-view numbers. You know, we'll get an idea of that in the coming week or in the next couple of weeks. And, you know, it's not going to be, you know, Mayweather level. It's not going to be Conrader levels. But I think when people realize how far women's boxing comes and how, like how much these women's struggle,

to get this level of relevancy. I think they're going to be amazed no matter what the number is. And it was just, it was just such a fun, such an enjoyable, fun fight, crazy atmosphere. Again, Madison Square Garden, it's a sellout with less than 20,000 people. It's not like the biggest arena. But the fire that people bought to, it really did feel like it was 100,000, 200,000 people. It was almost as loud as Wembley was for, for Tyson Furious fight, right? I swear, at least that's the way it came off in the broadcast. That sort of big fight is supposed to feel like in Madison Square Garden. Like that's, you know, when you were in the 80s, growing up in the 80s and the 90s,

when people talked about Madison Square Garden and watching big fights in Madison Square Garden and even like big moments in pro wrestling, you hear all these stories. And I've been to Madison Square Garden a couple times. Last I was there was UFC 24. And yeah, there was a buzz in the building for Mazadal Diaz. It was cool for the main event. For the rest of the night, you didn't get anything close to what we got tonight. Nothing even close to it.

It was just amazing. It was one of those like sort of throwback moments in combat sports. where and it was two women delivering, which which was incredible. So hopefully they can run this one back. I thought the promotion was fantastic. Eddie Hearn, Jake Paul. Yes, at times. So I feel like those two getting the shine. Did it kind of take away from things in a way? Yes, from a purest standpoint. But it also, it actually built interest for this fight like Jose talked about him. Jake Paul, very polarizing individual. Eddie Hearn. Again, if you're a board one day, let me just tell you all, If you're bored one day and you're like not feeling well and you're looking for something to do to pass the time, just YouTube search Eddie Hearn and just watch his interviews or anything he does.

And you'll be blown away. You'll be hooked. We're a rabbit hole that you just don't want to climb out of. I've said this a few times. But in the peak of the pandemic before we had like vaccines and everything and I was having to drive to Las Vegas like every other week for like one of those apex shows and we're still having virtual medias and everything in Las Vegas was shut down. our good friend, Oscar Willis and I would just sit in his apartment and we would literally pass the time watching every single Eddie Hearn interview out there. Like we text each other.

Eddie Heard interviews just like the stuff that he says is the best. So do yourself a favor. The next time there's no UFC fight or Bellator fight on a weekend, literally just watch Eddie Hearn videos and you'll know what I'm talking about. It's tremendous stuff. By the way, Jake Paul tweeted out about 10 minutes ago. Just one word. And that word is Rob.

feels like he was robbed was was amanda serrano robbed does anyone want to take does anybody have an argument here that they want to present that amanda serrano was robbed tonight uh i don't think close fight as a k said many a time not all close fights or robberies i scored it for katie taylor i can very easily like if someone wants to argue that amanda serrano won i'm not going to argue back she I think very obviously had the more power shots in several of those rounds. You had late flurries a lot. And I think Katie Taylor was very flustered, didn't know really what to do in there a few times. But I think just her boxing acumen and IQ just kind of pulled it out at the end. But if someone wants to argue that a man is trying to one or at worst, it's a draw. I'm not going to argue.

I think a split. When that fight ended, I'm like, this is going to be a split decision for one lady or a draw because I can't see any judge giving. I can't see all three judges agreeing on that. I wouldn't have been surprised. It was like one. one draw, if that makes sense. Like, it could have been any, it could have been anything. Pride rules. By the way. Yeah, that was.

Pride rules. There's your robbery. If you're going by pride rules, Sarano, one had, Pranato had the biggest round, round five, round five, yeah, round five. Yeah, and almost finished his fight. She's, she's the, of the two, she's the closest who came to finishing the fight. So pride rules, there's your robbery. But, I mean, I, I scored it for Taylor.

That's exactly what I'm going to say. It's like, I don't know that boxing fans ever say by pride rules, somebody won. I'm sure that is not in the law. lexicon of boxing fans but if i would agree by pride rules amanda serrano one but either way i don't feel like there's a real loser coming out of that fight right like i know that's super cliche to say but like that was everything it needed to be it totally held up in the moment i think both women coming away come away from that looking like stars and i think the rematch is just going to be huge because there's going to be a rematch yeah you know who's not calling you know who's not calling

robbery amanda serrano she was like very gracious in defeat like i both women would have been that though because all i they understood the moment this is important for women's sports no one's going to like i'm i'm more surprised that amman sarano's coach who historically has he got like suspended from his last fight for like six months or whatever after amanda's last fight because he was just being absolutely horrendous to amanda serrano's opponent and amman sarano dominated her and he was just throwing a fit and just saying the most horrendous things to her opponent that he got suspended by like one of the boxing commissions or whatever. So like I am more shocked that he didn't throw a fit than anything else in this.

Yeah. Oh yeah. That was the, uh, the first would be Paul fight, right? Where he did that? Yeah, he was not, uh, acting right. Because a man Osserno fought, uh, Mexican woman and he was so annoyed that they game planned for like this hard nose gritty Mexican fighter. And that's not what they get that he just belittled her opponent the entire fight and got suspended for it. Well, luckily. Cooler heads prevailed here.

And now the second fight's going to be gigantic. And if Manasorado wins, the third fight will be ginormous. So kudos to both ladies. Kudos to everybody involved here. Eddie Hearn, even Jake Paul, everybody involved. Well done. You sold out MSG, two women headlined. Amazing stuff.

Amazing fight. Cannot wait to see, uh, to see rounds 11 through 20 or however many rounds and however many minutes we get to see. I am all in. Congratulations to both women. Congratulations to Katie Taylor for picking up the massive win. Now, Black Friday is here at IKEA,

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Conditions apply. See Air Canada.com. Before that amazing flight happened, we had another crazy main event. This time in the world of mixed martial arts, 25 hard minutes in the UFC's Bannamake Division. In the end, Marlon Cheeto Vera picks up the biggest win of his career. I scored at 4946. M.A. Fightings' official stance on the scoring is 4946.

Two of the judges agreed. One judge scored at 48-47. But Marlon Vera, massive. of win. He moves up the rankings. Rob Font drops the second straight. Jose will begin with you. Your thoughts on Cheeto Vera's performance, what he did and just what this man put on the put on the line tonight because he's a freak. The man is an absolute freak. I mean, I can't remember the last time I picked Marlon Verre to win. Because every time I pick him to lose and he just gets better and better and better. I will say I am a little curious of like

Rob Fon has some sort of injury in there, which is like, or heading into this, like, maybe you couldn't do as much cardio as he could, which is why he maybe misway because he did obviously seem to fade near those final rounds, but that could also be because Chito Vera like need him and kicked him and elbowed him a lot in the face. Like, that did not look fit. That person that left the Octagon did not physically look like Rob Fon. I saw Rob Fonko win. I didn't see Rob Fonko out. I saw him wearing a real bloody mask in there leaving. So yeah, Marlon Vera seemed to be having the time of his life in there. And if he gets one of these big fights on like a big card and like a co-man event spot

or something like that, he's going to be a rock star because he is so fun to watch. Like when he was dancing in there and like when Rob Fonth threw that elbow and he was like, oh, that tickles and it was like rubbing his head in the middle of the thing and like laughing and pointing at Rob Font. That fight was a lot of fun to watch. Obviously it was uncomfortable at times because Rob Fon seemed to be taking a lot of damage. He had two buzzer-beaters saves. like he was if those if there were 10 seconds left in those rounds i would not have been surprised

if jason herzog stopped that fight because he was getting a beating uh i can't remember the exact rounds it kind of all blurs together but yeah rob fon got saved twice by the bell not a great look and the ufc has a new top five ban away on their hands and marlin vera he was he was shot he was saved by the bell two rounds in a row and then in the fourth round you you put something in our slack channel that you just thought marl vair was was outright sadistic because you felt like he could have just gone in there and finished it. But the sadistic side of Cheeto Vera, maybe it's the weight miss. Maybe it's just what this man becomes when the horn, when the fight begins.

But you felt like after that knockdown in the fourth round, that he could have just pounced it end of the fight, but he just wanted to drag this out a little bit longer. So your thoughts on Vera's performance. And this is a huge win for him, man. Huge win. First main event, and he delivers. I think huge is probably an understatement, right?

Like this is the biggest win of his career and it's not even close. Like we can go back to the Sean O'Malley thing. Like that's probably in terms of hype and name and whatever that maybe people will call that the biggest win his career. Nah, it's this man. And it's wild that this place that we have sort of reached with Marlon Vera. Because if you remember like going back way, way back, like this is a man who's been in the UFC since 2014. When he got to the UFC, he was really just kind of like this afterthought on the ultimate fighter Latin America. he wasn't talked about as you know this big time prospect or anything like that like he's just this guy

coming from ecuador like no one really had any idea who he was or of his skill set or what he could become loses two of his first three in the ufc even after his first seven in the ufc he's three of he's three and four like he has a below 500 record he's like four years deep in the ufc at that point like he is a guy that we have seen for a long time and at that point i think a lot of people sort of cap where you are your ceiling, right? Like who you could become. It's just like we've seen this guy for four years. He's kind of just a middling average featherweight,

and bantam weight kind of going back in between. Like he's not going to be anything. And now all of a sudden, man, look at this. Like it is almost, it's almost been 10 years of him in the UFC. I think he's on a year like nine. And he is just a murderer in there. Like he is a genuinely unbelievable the degree to which he has evolved on all levels of his game.

Like he is an all-around force in there. He's ferocious. he's mean like he has charisma for days too when he's in there when he's out of there like everything about it like this is the breakout win he has been looking for uh and it was it was sensational to watch and i frankly again i like you said mike like the fact that he didn't finish it almost just met let him drag it on even farther and farther and it just got more and more brutal the way this ends up the stats on this fight like if you if you ever need a great example of why stats don't really work in MMA and like why stats don't begin to tell the story with some fights go ahead and look at this

stat be go ahead and look at this fight I shouldn't say because Rob Font outstruck Cheeto Vera 271 to 159 on significant strikes 271 to 159 that's more than a hundred significant strikes advantage and yet this wasn't even close like if you had a friend who didn't watch this fight and then they just saw the stats they would come to you and be like man rob font really put it on Cheeto, didn't he? Like, it is just crazy. A, where Cheeto has come at this point in his career and who he has become because he absolutely is a top five contender at this point in this Bantamway division, but also just like the way this fight plays out and the way it illustrates just the, you know, some of the weird nuances with MMA in terms of statistics and the way

people try to argue decisions with statistics. Yeah, man, Rob Funt and his last couple of fights, if you ever want to just break down judging in 2022, those are the two fights you watch. Jose Aldo fight and this one because same thing in the Jose Aldo fight. Outlanded Aldo, doubled them up, even tripled them up in most of the rounds, but still 50-45s, 49-46 is for Jose-aldo. Those are the two fights you might want to show your friends who are just getting in M.A. Who don't know how the fights are scored and the judging criteria.

Those are perfect examples. Great win for Marlon Vera. Our own Jedmishu on M.A. Decisions scored that fight 49-40, for Marlon Vera. It is up there for the world. A typo? Was that a hell? Of course it's not.

So what would that be? That'd be like 10-8s and 10-7s? What would that be? How do you even get to that? It would be what? 10-9. Like 3-10-8s? 1-10-9 and 4-10-8s?

Okay. Yeah. Something like that. No. I don't know. Maybe 2-10-8s? I don't know. I think it's 2-10-8.

No, that's what it's 2-10-8s. Yeah. Look, Marlon-V. I hate to use this. I don't know why I hate this phrase and people are like, oh, so-and-so understood the assignment. This man understands the assignment. I mean, look, he's going out to finish fight anyway

regardless of judging. But he also doesn't strike me as a guy that would care to necessarily read the criteria, but it really feels like he knows it. Roxanne Montefari, for anyone who didn't read it, did a editorial for, what was this is a call it, the All-Star, this is it called The All-Star, where she was just talking about judging,

kind of giving her own perspective on it, talking about her own experiences, but also in the context of the official criteria of scoring, which she linked to in the article. So guys look that one out, support Roxy's fighting career because she's trying to educate herself and other people about fighting. And she knows pretty much everything about it. She fought forever.

So Marlon Vera, yeah, it's funny you mention that because I was saying before the show, guys. I was focused primarily on boxing tonight. I didn't really get to pay a close attention to the UFC main event. So if I did look at just the stats and hadn't been keeping up with social media and hadn't been talking to you guys, I would have said, this is a straight blow off for Rob Fon. Shaheen, you mentioned the total striking stats. It sounds even more absurd going round by round.

Round one, 57. These are all every round won by Rob Fons, Nibhontz. 57, 26, round 1. 5127, round 21, 37, round 3, 47, round 3, 4, 2, 36, round 4, and 50 to 33 round 5. So it looks, yeah, it looks crazy. And then you see also round 2, knock, one knock down, Marlon Vera, round 3, one knockdown, Marlon Vera, round 4, one knockdown, Marlon Vera. which makes it a little bit more clear that

Marlon Barra did win this fight. But yeah, it's, I think we pretty much all of us when we were doing our predictions, whether we picked Rob or whether we picked Cheeto, we're saying, man, we really think Rob's the better boxer? He's going to outstrike him. It seems a little bit like the Aldo fight. But man, you know, Vera's going to be able to do some damage.

And if he does enough damage, then it's going to go the other way. It played out exactly how much. I'm not sure who you guys picked. I picked fonts because I thought he'd be able to avoid the getting rocked that many times. I was wrong. So, I mean, good, good on Martin Chito Vera. That's, again, clear decision for him.

100%. Chito was in every round, but he lost like, at least, at least the first three rounds. He lost like four minutes and 40 seconds of the first three rounds. All of them, all of them, clear his day, Rob Fonk, cruising, and then a kick to the body or kick to the head or something. Fonk goes down, Cheeto pounces, and he steals the round. And that's just been kind of the story.

of Rob Font's last two fights, because again, you go back to the Jose Aldo fight, font looks so good in that first round against Josealdo, and then he gets dropped with 10 seconds left of the round, loses it, momentum shifts to Marlon Verra, shifts to Josealdo, and then everything just goes downhill. And to make matters worse, gentlemen, go ahead. Real quick, let me just add to what you were saying, because you had a great point there, which is the diversity from Cheeto was really something else, because every time he knocked him down in that fight, unless I'm mistaken, was with something different. It was with a different strike than the previous time he got knocked down. So it was just the diversity all around from

Cheeto was tremendous. He had Rob Font guessing the entire time and every time he was landing something different. Was the mixing of the martial arts? Are you saying it was the mixing in the martial arts? He mixed the hell out of the martial arts. Damn it. Hashtack, keep the martial arts apart. Apparently not. And here's the scariest thing about Marble. And a lot of you gentlemen alluded to it. There's this great quote that I thought of watching this fight as of doing the live blog. Bob Marley, one thing about good music is when it hits you, you feel no pain. Rob Font must have been singing Bobby Brown songs all night long because those are great

songs. And as much as those songs and those lyrics are coming out, Marlon Verra was just loving life. He got hit 300 times. And it looked like he was just like painting with his children. Like it looked like he walked around his neighborhood. Didn't even look like he was in a fight. He got punched in the face almost 300 times. Rob Vaughn looked like a totally different person.

Marlon Vera looks like he didn't even get into a fight. It's crazy. How scary is this guy, Sean, knowing that you can hit this guy 300 times and it has zero effect on him. I mean, zero. If only it seems to fuel him, if nothing else. Like he seems to get off on it and kind of gets better from it. So yeah, absolutely.

made but i will say i mean just following up on what we were talking about with rob fun the last two fights for this man have been really brutal and like i this is a man who i think a lot of us felt like was if not a future champion like was definitely going to be in that conversation for a long time and now all of a sudden we're waking up on sunday and he is 34 years old and the amount of damage he is taken in these last two fights is almost like alarming to to the degree right like though how he looked at the end of the fight tonight like just send that guy right to the hospital and so that's Phantom weight's not a division you can be old in, and especially like fight years, too. Like that stuff will catch up to you real fast.

And I don't know, man. I'm starting to worry a little bit about Rob Fonton, who he in his ceiling now in this division. Because, again, he's a guy who's 34 years old. It took him a bit to get to this point. And now all of a sudden, these last two have really opened up and revealed a lot of different deficiencies in his defense and just his game overall. And you can only do that for so long in these divisions. 100%. And to make matters worse, gentlemen, the fight of the night.

was Marlon Vera versus Rob Font. And normally we would be like, oh, you know what? Rob Font, I mean, at least, at least he gets an extra 50 G's, right? Wrong because he missed weight. So he doesn't get the 50 G's. So Marlon Vera is what? He's getting the 100 Gs, right? So it just gets even better for Marlon Vera and a little bit worse for Rob Font, right?

Because he doesn't get this bonus because he missed weight, right? He doesn't get the bonus because he missed weight. He doesn't get his full show purse or, yeah, his full show purse because he missed weight. He doesn't get his win bonus. So all of this money that he potentially could have earned is really just whittled down to like this because of how this went. And that is a man who again suffered a lot of damage today. These dudes don't get paid enough. Sheesh.

Unbelievable. So great win for Marlon Vera. Excited to see where he goes next. He's living up to the potential. A lot of people have had for him. Also shout out to Joanneerson Brito and Francisco Figurato getting performance of the night bonuses. Joe Anderson Brito. Holy smokes.

What a performance. puts Andre Feely away real quick. And then Figgie Biggs, I guess I'm going to call him, with a slick kneebar. It's Nebar City in Las Vegas. Everyone's just getting knee-barred left and right. So great performances from those guys. There were a lot of great performances tonight. A lot of potential bonus money that could have happened.

And now we're going to turn it over to the peeps. And we'll see what you guys have to say about the festivities. Because I know we didn't break down everything fight by fight, but it's all good. We had the amazing, two amazing main events. And then if you guys want to fill in the blanks, we shall fill in the blanks with your questions. Casey is here. Hey, everyone. Let's get after this thing.

I got to say, I co-signed the Figgie Biggs nickname. I like that a lot. Figgie Biggs. Yeah, Figgie Biggs. Let's go. We did get this question, but I want to hear from you guys, because it's my question. We talked earlier about who has more to lose in this fight, and we said Rob Funt. If Rob Funt loses this fight,

though this is worse than vera is raffa is he ever going to be a title contender is this is this the last we've seen of rafont in that kind of upper echelon wights after tonight i would say i don't think he fights for a ufc title yeah unless just you never think yeah unless i agree yeah unless just insane luck falls on his lap like takes a couple of short notice fights makes weight gets big finishes and somehow gets his way back in there at this point yeah me it's unfortunate it's coming into the fight we know we always kind of who's no who's got more pressure and um no now what it happened i was like oh yeah i think we were correct and like rapant had to win tonight and yeah we saw it yeah unfortunate uh i mean good for vera obviously but yeah just how it goes

yeah and vera's such an interesting guy too like he's a really interesting guy with a really interesting story. Not saying font's not an interesting guy, because he is an interesting guy, but he's just, they have that Patriots mindset. We're just like, eh, we're not going to look ahead. We're not going to talk trash. We got business to attend to. And then once the business is over, we're going to stop talking for a couple weeks. And then it's on to the next thing. Like, it's, it's just cutting dry. Uh, what is next for Cheeto Vera, AK, we will decide that tomorrow. Bullitt, Sean Alshaddy and Jose Youngs, be the resident matchmakers here. Sean, where to Chito Varago

after the biggest win of his career? Jose and I are going to disagree on this because I already know what he's going to say. It's Corey Sanhagen. It's got to be Corey Sanhagen. That feels like the most obvious next step. I think he's going to say someone a little higher. And to me, it doesn't feel like that'd be a bit too much of a jump right now

with what we just saw. I love the Corey Sanhagan matchup. Of course, Sanhagen's in that spot where he needs a win or he's going to start falling back to the pack if he loses again. And Marlon Vera, that's like a perfect vault up to see. Like I think we all still, a lot of us on this website believe Corey Sanhagan is a future champion in this division. I love that matchup, but go for it, Jose. I mean, I'm not going to say no to Rob Font versus Corey.

Like, court, I mean, not Corp Fondon. Machiavara versus Corey Sannhagen. I'm not going to say no to Marlon Verra fighting anyone above him at this point. Like, obviously I tweeted selfishly. It's not going to happen. I just want to see Marlon Verre and Peter Ian get into a fist fight over five rounds because that would just be fun. but it's not going to happen based off of these arbitrary rankings that everyone has, including this site.

I still, I'm on that. How dare you? I'm on the, I'm on the, I'm on the, I don't have a vote. I don't have a vote. So I'm, I'm still in the group that I think I want Peter Yan to fight by Henderson Hudo first when Henry Shuto comes back. But I also selfishly, as I said, I want to, after this fight, A, this fight just proved that Jose Algo should probably get the, be the number,

one contender right now because he beat Marlon Verre pretty convincingly. And we all thought that. Let's go. Let's go. Not break a sweat against Marlon Verre. Look what he did. I don't know. I think because Marlon Verre's not going to fight for a title next.

Pierre Yon's not going to fight for a title next. If people are going to say like, oh, I don't want Peter Rion knocking off a contender because he's 0 in 2, in quotes, against the current champion Alzman and Sterling, fine. Then have him fight Marlon Verre because that fight is just fun. And I think that would be everything that of Corey's saying. Sennhagen, Peter Yan fight would be. But if we're going to get Corey Sanhagen versus Marlon Barrett, so be it. What a second place fight that would be?

But like, who is, honestly, who's going to fight Marab, honestly? Who's going to fight Maraub? Henry Sehudo. That's the fight. Henry Sehudo is not going to fight Marab, nor do I want to see him fight marraub. So that's like a, that's two strikes right there. And he's going to say no. So that's the third strike.

It's three strikes right there. That's not going to happen. See, nobody cares is coming back. Nobody cares coming back. Proved to me you want to come back and be the champion of this division. Go out and beat Aljo's best friend in the whole world, Marab de Walsh, Willie, the guy who has his back. You go out there and you beat Maraam, Aljo's coming for you.

He's picking up the phone. He's calling you up saying, meet me out in Las Vegas. Meet me in that octagon. We're going. We're fighting. He ain't getting the title shot, dude. It's not happening. It's not happening.

I wouldn't mind seeing you. I wouldn't mind seeing Yon and fight Marab too, because they talked a lot of trash and Russian when we were in Jacksonville. Sure. I agree with that, too. Is there any love for? Henry, Henry's just taking drive-byes out here for no reason at all.

He's not even related to this conversation. No, I know. He's not. Who cares about Henry Tudu? Also, like, not for nothing. Henry Suhudo is a very talented fighter. I just want to see him fight anybody. Yes.

But he was a very talented. Oh, was. Look at that. Look at this guy. Yes. When he, before he retired. And until he gets back in there and fights, he is still retired in my eyes. He was very good.

And he had the biggest misstep in the history of sports by retiring when he retired. It was a terrible. The history of sports. Wow. One of them. I'm going to go on record saying, I don't know, Len By is doing drugs at the night. He got drafted is probably a bigger misstep because he's died. So that might be a little bigger.

In recent MMA history, Henderson was probably there. recent MMA history. Come on now. That's up there. I'm not comparing Len bias to Henry Sudo, but one of the all-time funders in the history. Hey, they were your words, not mine. Yeah, you said all.

I didn't say the number one. You said all time. You said all time. I don't know. One of them. One of them. I have to say, terrible decision. This is unrelated, but it's somewhat related.

I just got a text from a buddy who's a casual fight fan who just hadn't watched the fights and he texted me. Man, I just saw the stats. Rob must have really messed up Cheeto. Are you serious? There you go. I swear to God. That's hilarious.

I just got it up. I cleaned it up a bit. I had to censor myself. But yes, that is essentially what he's got. Hack the holidays with the PC holiday insiders report. Try this PC porquetta. Crackling, craveworthy. You gonna eat that?

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All for just $18. Okay, okay. Try the season's hottest flavors from the PC Holiday Insiders report. Please feast responsibly. But real quick, before we go off this, it can be yes or no question, yes or no answer. What, any love for running back Cheeto and Song Yadong? No.

Cheetos on an upward. Song Gingdon just knocked out, retired Marlon Marius. To me, Cheetos is a damn right now. But why? He's a tier above him right now. Yeah, I don't. I just think, I think having the main event really helps.

I think that really helps. You know, so on the focus. If this was like the third fight in the card, you know, but I get it. Also, I would love you, is one of those things, too, where Song Yadong is 24, he's got a long road ahead of him. Like, Cheeto's been at this for like 10 years. He doesn't need to take a step back right now. Like, this is his moment to be, that would be a huge step back.

Maraweller's going to be a top five UFC fighter on Tuesday. Based on Rob's ranking, based on Rob's ranking. based on Rob's drinking. 100%. Yeah, 100%. So he would have to make six spots to fight Songya Dong. No way.

Well, that's the thing. Once you fight in front of you, I always say you fight the guy behind you next fight, but you know, that's not how this works. Mike, that was my on to the next one pick. Mike, that was my on to the next one pick after the last time Song Yodong fought was I said he should fight the Rob Font

Marlon Bear winner. So there you go. Now you can go with that. You're not crazy. There you go. There you go. One pick. You just,

you just had someone say, Song Yung O'Malley. That was a mistake. That was a mistake. I like that. But Song Yon Lian Lally's good, too. All right. That's actually a really good fight to make.

Yeah. But too young. Cheeto Yadong, listen. Well, they'll see it someday. I have a feeling we'll see those two fight again someday. When their stakes are much higher than whether they were at. But he wants that one back, right? You know, you know, Cheeto Vera wouldn't.

That's another thing. Oh, yeah, you'll say yes to anything. But that's another thing about, that's crazy to me about this. whole Cheeto evolution is like that dude's not even 30 yet that guy's 29 years old somehow and he's been in our lives for like eight nine years it's nuts this guy we really watch this guy grow up in the UFC hey man 19 if I end the best weight class in the world that's not true one if no one here to say otherwise I can't hear your mic's broken I can't hear exactly what you just said I just want to know

a lot of shared enthusiasm from the people online so I just want to put that out there Craig was hype all week exceeded his expectations. Not winning our poll, not winning our poll by the way.

Through a poll, which show had the better main event. UC Vegas 53 winning in a landslide. Now we probably do have an MMA. Our audience, probably a little MMA biased in fairness, but 62%. No, he didn't watch it. Probably didn't watch the boxing. That's fine. 30%

in Taylor versus Serrano. So I don't know. Maybe that's even a strong. Again, given our, the makeup of our audience, maybe 30% for Taylorist Toronto is actually like pretty high. There was a sold out Mass and Square Garden and there were 15 people watching live for the Apex card. That's just, yeah, okay. Also, I am. It was a rowdy, it was a rowdy 15 people in that Apex.

I was hearing heckling all night. I am also just kind of asking what was the better, what was the better main event? I also, I want to say, watch both. Yes, sir? because I've been to like a million of these apex cards have like I'm not trying to be a dick right now like I generally don't know have any of you guys been to an apex card like a fight inside the apex uh during the pandemic not a lot of fans no a fan dude it's great it is fun because it feels like you're in a high school gym and the the gym like the the the seatral like split in half so like one side is all one fan base and one side is the other and they can still bring in flags so it's a lot of fun so like when you i are Max Holloway fought, it genuinely felt like two rival high schools getting into a fist fight. So like I know everyone, I know there's people on the MMA hour that always poo-poo the apex and

this and that. I don't hate it, especially for like these types of fights when you have like fan bases like this because it gets lit in there. It just, it's a little expensive if you want to buy a ticket because of the lack of seats. Well, that's the UFC's decision. They could sell those seats $50 so they wanted to. It seemed, it seemed like this particular group that was in the building for this particular night we're a little extra saucy like a little extra saucy we had some bisman sucks chance thrown in there what was that luke rock was what was the post fight interview is bisman got a you suck but he was interviewing somebody else yeah who was that i'm trying to remember i'm trying to remember there's something fans are not happy with this person who got announced the winner i don't

know you know if you're if you're that type of fan and you want to make sure you're heard pay your money for you UFC Apex card I don't know I know the fight you're talking about I know the fight you're talking about Mike because there was also a bunch of boring

yeah in the background of the post fight interview too so I don't know what that was was that the was that the Jock Mersharko? It might have been Jock yeah I like that that's the

thing that like lets you remember what it was is oh boring okay yeah you know we talked about you know fights that delivered head note has advertised jaco meershart was exactly as we thought it was going to go it was actually better it was a little bit it was better okay yeah middleweight yeah the middleweight bites uh jaco two two straight now five of six guys just finds a way i mean how about andrea last oh oh my god this what this question is for

mr a k lee oh please i was calling at thirty 27 this split So I have to do a robbery review. As soon as the fight was over, I got a couple of messages saying, like, you know what to do. You got to do it. So there will be a robbery review by Monday. Again, this was in the thick of one of the fights on, I think there was a thing of one of the fights on the Taylor Estrada card. So I actually could not watch. I was very sad.

I did not get to watch what I expected to be a very Arndor-Lofsky-ish fight. But I did see, I was looking at my feet. I saw it's on a robbery talk. It is always crazy when one fighter gets a 30-27 and still loses. It's one of the most inexplicable things. but I will have to watch the card to see, well, it sounds like this was a justifiable card. I'll have to watch to see how the other judges came to 29-28s for Andre.

But hey, congrats to Andre. He makes, again, I don't know if this is the case with this fight. I didn't get a chance to watch closely. He finds a way. He finds a way to get to that decision. And once it goes to the cards with him, you really never know what's going to happen. So, I mean, 23 UFC wins now tied the most wins in UFC history,

Don Seroni, Jim Miller. I mean, there's just maybe he's been on the wrong end to some questionable splits too. So this is like, you know, this is getting one back. What was the fight? When he fought like what,

Brennan Scha, or he won that one. I remember it was terrible. Every close decision, he went somehow. Yeah. I'm pretty sure. Well, especially in this like back half of his back chapter of his career,

which like, who cares if I'm being real, right? Like, I understand if I'm Jay Collier, I care. If you're Jake Collier and you're rough for dick. That's rough for God. Hold on. Oh, let me say it. Because if you're Jay Collar, and Jay Collar's friends,

coaches, family, whatever, I'm sure you very much care. But other than that, like, Andre's a legend, dude. Like, let's let him get a couple of these every, every once in a while. This dude is 43 years old. Every once in a while?

No, this dude is 43 years old, and I tweeted this tonight. But, like, he is now on his longest winning streak as a UFC fighter since 2002 to 2006. I was in high school. I was like, I'm like mid-30s right now. I'm a grown man in my mid-30s, who has a child on the way and a wife,

like that dude, I was in high school the last time he won this many of UFC fights in a row or like more UFC fights than this in a row. That's unbelievable, man. That is unbelievable. He is 43 years old and still just doing it, making these weird, ugly, gross, close fights with all these younger dudes. It's amazing.

It's absolutely amazing. Maybe Jed was on something is all I'm going to say when he called him the heavy weight. Jed's definitely on something. That's, yeah, that's unrelated to this. This was his, what, 66th pro fight is that wrong is that am i crazy this is like fight number i think number 60 excuse me 56 i'm sorry i've added but either way oh only 56

five six fights i apologize his 56th pro fight he's 43 years old uh so at this point listen if you can't finish on gerolovsky uh you lose this is this is the new rule if you go to a decision you don't no no judges needed no judges needed it's it's if you got to look at that clock all the time like oh my god i'm like i'm like a minute away from losing you have to finish him for it to be considered to win because if you cannot he is so old now uh with the i say disrespectly so old now and so so shopworn if you cannot beat him then you lost you lose you lose you lose it's that's the rule that's the rule that's the rule that's the rule we we have all voted on it everybody in the community voted on it it already happened it's set in stone it's done also okay like i know people

joking around about getting been giving him a title shot tonight like let's just do it and someone somehow he'll end up winning this very gross, very ugly decision that he probably shouldn't have won. And then people will be mad and like it'll just, let's just keep this going. Let's get this, keep this going as long as we can keep it. I mean, do like, AK, for on to the next one, like every time Arlofsky fights and wins, I match him up with the same guy every single time. And that same guy every time he fights and wins, I match him up with Arlofsky. Is it time to do Arlowski versus Al-in-Roman off now?

Is it like, is it time? Oh, is that a ghost? Every single time? Yes, it is time. It is time. And again, Aalzana Ramanov, if you don't get a finish, you lost. No, I hate that fight. Don't do that to Andre.

First of all, why do you want to do that to Andre? What did Andre do you? Cardlowski versus Parker Porter. How about that? Yeah. That's how we have. Parker's going to fight coming up. Let's just keep giving Andre.

Don't worry about him and we'll fill Andre in. Give Andre the lower tier guys and the seven-weight to and let's see how long this he can keep winning. Like, let's just do this as an experiment. Yeah, Andre versus that heavyweight. You go, oh, he's still in the UFC? One of those guys. Jarvis Danyo versus Anjar-Loski coming up.

Let's do a rematch of Jake. Let's just run it back. What about a big fat boy, Chris Barnett? That'd be a fun fight. How dare you. Under-Loski has never been an exciting. First of all, the disrespect, the way you address, Chris Barnett.

I'm stunned. But you know what? Let's talk about the other gentleman you mentioned, Mr. Hegg. We have to talk about Romano. Is Alexander Romanov ready for a top 15 opponent, even though he's expected to do that cheshire at Myst 2,200? By the way, let me just say this before we address this. The craziest conversation we had in our Slack channels today was about Alexander.

in Romanov and where his rankings are because I'm I'm just going to come out and say it. What I did with Armand Saruki on at 155 in our rankings, I'm not going to do exactly that with Ramanov, but it's going to be pretty damn close. Ramanov is going to go from unranked to probably a top 10 guy in my heavyweight rankings come June 1st. It's very possible. Who's out? Who's out?

I totally might be there with you. Yeah. There's a couple. there's a couple of guys who were on the weeks. And here's why. Looking at the UFC ranked top 15 right now, he is a minus 1,000 favorite against most of those guys. Like most of those from like 7 to 15,

at least a minus 500 favorite. And then against like Walt Harris against, you know, Shemiel Abdurrahimov, those guys. He's a minus 1,000 favorite against all those guys. I would comfortably pick him easily without hesitation. against two of the top five guys in the UFC heavyweight division right now. Like I think he's that good. Let me cut in real fast because I'm curious where you see him at.

So I'm looking at the UFC rankings right now. Tom Aspinall is number six. I don't know that I would favor him. I don't know that I would favor him beating Tom, but Volkov is number seven in that point. It's Volkov Rosenstruck Taibura. And that's when it starts getting a little weird. Is that where you would the cutoff of like I would absolutely favor him to beat him?

because I think I would definitely favor him to beat Volkov. 100%. Yeah, he's a minus 500 favorite against Volkov. He's like a minus 1,000 favorite against Jarazino. A little closer to Taibora. Doc is massive favorite. Against all these guys, he's a gigantic favorite. Tommy Aspinall gets a little hairy.

Derek Lewis, I certainly favor him to win that fight. Curtis Blades. Interesting. Tai Tuva. I favor him to beat Tyo Fossa. So Tai Tive Vazza. Yeah, probably. Wow.

So you have, you would have him, so theoretically you can have him like, where do you have Stepe ranked at? Um, I think he's two. I think he's probably two or three. So you would pick Romanov over Stepe right now? No. Oh, I don't know. I don't have to think about it.

I had to think about it, but probably not. Probably not. Yeah, it's tricky. He's hard to rank. He is. Romanov. It's a really, it's a really bizarre case with him because like the way that he is, sort of been viewed just generally.

It only seems like until very recently that people have even opened their eyes to him. Because like he's five fights deep in the UFC. Like he's been in the UFC for two or three years at this point. But he was the way he looked tonight was obviously very, very different from the way he looked when he came in, right? He had a lot of baby fat. He was kind of just like a generic looking heavyweight. Like tonight he looked like a monster, man.

Like whatever the new look is, like he looks like he has leveled up physically and he was already there like in a lot of different ways before that so like whatever this is i'm all aboard this train because that dude looks like he's going to be a problem for a while and he's only 31 my count i think it was i think he was 244 for the way in last week against chase sherman and he was like 237 for the way in this so he actually lost like eight more pounds for this way in he has six-pack yeah like this is not the same dude we saw even last year like this is crazy the have the metamorphosis this guy said. The way this question is phrased, I mean, it's an easy, yes.

Is he ready for a top 15 opponent? I mean, that's easy, yes. That's yes right off the bat. So for me, it's going to be tricky. So I'm looking at my own rankings right now. So this is a little inside rankings baseball for you guys. So my bottom half, my number 15, Phil de Frees, KSW's champion. Ryan Bader, Belator's champion.

And then Sergei Pavlovich, who's doing some damage in the UFC's heavyweight division. I think I would put Romanov above Ryan Bader But it does feel a bit weird to put to put him above like Phil de Freese may be a little bit easier I do think that the competition that Romanov has been beating is somewhat comparable to what Phil de Free's been facing KSW so I don't hate that Ryan Bader I guess we had to see what happens with Czech Congo Or maybe it shouldn't matter because you put him above Bader Sergei Pavlovich is interesting because Sergei Pavlovich just smoked Abdurakimov and that's a best

better win than any win that Romanov has yet. Now, now then again, if you matched up Romanov and Pavlovich, I would favor Romanov. But Pavlovich is a hell of a prospect as well. So I don't know, I'm not, but I've also, I think, comparatively moderate when it comes to like throwing people up my rankings. I'm very slow. I'm probably the slowest, most like I need to really, really, really see something before I give someone a spot.

So he's definitely entering my top of team. Yeah, you still have Connor ranked in the top 10. Yes. Who'd beat him? Who's beneath him that I'd beat him? Show me, huh? Dude, he has one, Connor has one win over like somebody. I'd pick him over Tony Ferguson.

I'd pick him over Tony Ferguson in the last five years. Well, has Tony Ferguson ranked higher than him. This BS. Classic anti-Connor Media. Focus, focus, okay. Oh, sorry. Too long, didn't listen. Ramonov will enter my top of dean,

but probably not fly up as high as it will on some of your guys. Because I don't always agree with Casey's methodology, but I do agree it's like, this win it's weird that this win over chase sherman literally the worst ufc heavyweight if not the worst ufc heavyweight it's just i genuinely think it's how i genuinely think it's a how easy it was but i understand how he looks like looking at a dude who's rich is a little bit different for most people than looking at the guy with all the baby fat i get it yeah it's it sounds a lot like the conversations we're having about hams up after the leech fight like just throw him into

the top five and now we're having the same argument about uh shack rat who's had until the Gilbert Burns win had better wins than Hamza. Yeah. Actually, I want to see people in the chat throw out that like he struggled against Wana Spino, but like Juan Espino is legitimately like pretty good and also like just the fact that he hasn't fought a lot in over the like he's had a very slow schedule. I think let's like ruins people perception because he could actually have been a very good heavy way. Wana Spino is let the match up too and that's very hard to punch a handsome man. And that's a tough matchup. Yeah. That's a tough. Just stylistically. That's definitely to make

vice thing. Yeah. I think. I compare Romanov very much like to Islam Mahachev before he fought Hooker. We all knew, is it Hooker? We all knew how good Mahachev was, but we couldn't really justify it ranking-wise. And I think that's how we feel about Romanov. We know he's that good, but it's kind of hard to say, well, you know, I would probably pick him over Stepe maybe, but we can't rank him at number three. So you just, that's the issue of him. But yeah, definitely top, I hope he gets top 15.

I hope, I hope the UFC is going to have a tough time finding someone to fight him, too, I think. So, cool. Yeah, it's just so funny. It's so funny. It's so funny to me and just unusual because, like, of all the divisions in the UFC, heavyweights are the one division that more than any other else gets expedited. Like, if you're coming in and you're 2 and O and those are first round finishes, you're probably fighting the top five, top 10 guy pretty quickly.

And somehow it just, we all, everybody missed it with this one. Like, this dude's five fights deep. He's been in the UFC three years. Like, and just now everybody's starting to get on the train. It's all just weird. You could. MMA fightings. You could watch MMA fighting, UFC, London.

Pre-fight media scrum where I brought up Alexander Romanoff, Tom Aspinall, Curtis Blades, and Dawkins to U.C. President, Dana White. Anyway, Casey, what were you saying? Oh, no. What was Dana K. What did he say about Romanoff? He obviously knows Solent and talks about Tom Aspinall. No idea what it is.

We talk about some other fights on the card real quickly. And on to the next one, listeners know how much AK and I have. loved Romanoff since day long. I feel like we all have been. Do you think, yeah. Oh yeah, me suplexed as coaches. How can you not like this guy?

Also, people need to start spelling his goddamn name right. There's no E. Yeah, no E in Alexander. There's no E. In fairness, that's a, it of like a weird one, right? And his first name? Yeah. There's no E.

There's D.R. Also, it really makes a difference. Alex and Doctor. Oh, it's like that's also be fair. The UFC, the UFC had the E in there until like two fights ago. Oh. Okay. And it's not it doesn't matter.

It's all anglicizing. It's all anglicizing of a Russian name. It doesn't matter. It's just whether his choice whether he wants to be in there. But it's not like it doesn't matter. Jose, let's begin with you. Do we see Darren Elkins in the UFC for the last time? Or are they given him a new contract of this performance tonight?

I'm sure they're going to give Darren Elkins some sort of contract. He seems like he's down to fight anyone. And as Dana White has said many of times, I love fighters like that. They're down to scrap with whoever. I feel like you could just give just like a contract and hide the name. And Darren Elkins would be like, let's do it. So yeah, the UFC likes fighters like that.

So I'm sure they, plus he trains it alpha male and he's like a like Faber and Dan are obviously boys. Like Dana has a seems to have a soft spot for a lot of those alpha alpha male fighters. So I'm sure we'll see him back. Sean. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it would be a crime if they didn't bring it back. He's been in the, I think he's on like year 12 in the year.

UFC. Like he's just one of these guys who's always around. He's always willing to fight anybody. And you know exactly what you're going to get from him. Like at this point, like, I feel like at some point in his career, he was a little boring. But this point is just like every fight he's in is just unbelievable to watch. It's great theater. Like you're watching this like blood and gut scraps every single time this guy gets in the cage. And every time the other person gets is like surprised that the Homer Simpson strategy of just like, I'm going to let this guy punch himself out on my face until all of a sudden he's tired like works on them. Like every time the opponent's surprise. So it's tremendous. You have to re-sign him. Also, low-key, Darren Elkins won three of his last

four. So, like, come on, bring him back. Truth. And also, I don't think he's a company guy. I don't think he's the kind of guy who's going to break the bank for them. They'll give him his raise. They'll give him a raise that I'm sure he's happy with. And it's a raise that I bet if we got a chance to look at it, we'd be like, this guy deserves to get paid 10 times, 20 times more than he's actually getting paid. So, yeah, it's a good thing he's going to resign. This will be with the UFC. It's good for the fans, but man, I hope Darren Elkins and his management team can just get a few more simoleans in there, you know, because they deserve it. This guy, this guy is taking some real long-term damage, man. And I know he wouldn't have it any other way. Well, that's not true. I think they asked

him, like, well, they asked him, do you like, gladly have it another way? He was like, hell no. I think his family would appreciate the other way. Yeah, but I think I mean as far as, like, being a fighter. Like, the other question is, like, a part of this question is, do you think he should retire on a high note? Yeah, I think I'd love Darren Elkins to retire and just, if he had enough money too and just be happy the rest of his life. I have feeling he loves fighting and likes getting paid to do it and won't be seeing him retire anytime soon. Darren Elkins is low-key, one of my favorite fighters. I'm not even being ironic about it. I just actually love his greedy style. And it's one of those things like, I mean, it sounds weird,

but after training M.A, I really appreciate Darren Elkins style. It is, it is gruesome and ugly, but there's a lot of freaking technique in it and stuff. And that is a style that fits him. And I, that's kind of, it's really, it's really effing hard. It's really effing hard. It's really effing hard the way he fights. And it's really effing hard to fight him. You have to be just such a better, a higher level. No, once he hit like Chad Mendes guys and, you know, he hit just the higher level, 45ers, you know, then he ran to proms. But Tristan Connolly's, good lord, you don't fight that guy and come out the same. He ruined Mersaw Bechik. Becht. Yeah. I was like the biggest prospects in the sport and they ruined him.

So, uh, love Darren Elkins. Yeah. And listen, we talk about our law. We talk about our Lofsky setting records. Elkins extending his record he already had. Now his 24th UFC featherweight appearance and 16th win only behind Max Holloway. So is Max Holloway. The two most successful feather weights in UCS history so far, Max Holloway and straight

behind him, Darren Elkins. What a freaking stat. That is unreal. Oh, yeah. He's definitely. 90 of the UFC and I wish there could be a UFC Hall of Fame wing of just like you weren't yeah you were never that great but man fuck it you're in that's that Jim Miller wing yeah yeah Jim Miller wing I never ever fought for title so never even thought about you're

going to fight for a title but god dang we love you um also someone in there someone in there mentioned Tristan Connolly his opponent like what a weird couple years for Tristan Connolly that dude has only had three UFC fights he's been in the UFC since 2019. The first one, he debuts as a welterweight on a short notice and beats the giant Michelle Pereira. And then he's 0.2 cents as a featherweight. All right. Real quick. Crazy. He did. He did give Pat Sabatini a very, let me not a very difficult book, but his toughest fight because we've seen that Sabatini has done since then. And then this is a gritty, tough fight with Darren Elkins. And Connolly's good, man. I hope to keep him around. I hope they

keep him around because I like after the fight I love I loved that fight I loved it so much I thought it was I love the night up until the main event and someone was like well Natan levy and Mike Breeden should be fighting the night over that I'm like no you're insane levy breeding it was fun but there was just it was just two guys getting in there and just swinging street fight style these guys are in there at least it was technical and there's no disrespect to levy and breeding because they're young fighters they're on the rise but I mean Jesus I mean I was exhausted after watching those two's fight. Tristan Gordaugh-c closes up.

Thoughts on Grant Dawson's performance. Think he's going to get a top-15 fighter in his next fight. AK, we'll discuss this tomorrow and on the next one. Sean, Grant Dawson's stealing. I'll say quickly. I won't name who he's going to get, but not top of team. Probably not top of the team. It's a very deep division, but it's a very deep division.

John, what are we putting gray? Yeah. I'll be surprised if he gets top 15 because you look at the UFC's top 15 right now. you're looking at the outside of it Diego Behara, Brad Redell, Dan Hooker. Doesn't feel like he's in that range yet to be able to get somebody like that and Fendengel that type of matchup. He's a good talent. He's obviously a good talent, though, man.

Like he's still young, 28 years old. He's undefeated in the UFC. It does feel like we've seen sort of like that he does have a ceiling in this 155 division. Like the Jared Gordon one was definitely a come from behind. Like, you know, Hail Mary in it out. He drew with Ricky Glenn. So I don't know that he's going to be. someone that we're talking in title contention ever, but he's definitely a good talent here at 155,

which is the best division in the entire sport and the deepest division in the sport. You thought he Hale married that out? I thought he was up comfortably up two rounds. Okay, you might be totally right. I was covering boxing today, so I was only seeing. Fair enough. He didn't. It was competitive. He didn't dominate, but he did, towards the later moments of he was definitely the winner of the fight. Actually, I like what he said, Grant Dawson and Diego, he didn't mention, but Diego Fereer. I think Diego Ferrer is coming off two losses. Those are a fight that makes sense, you know,

kind of guys switching spots, you know, see if Diego Ferre is still, you know, a top dude anymore. And, yeah. And last question, last question. This is important. You guys probably won't understand this, but. Right. By the way, I don't think, I don't think,

I don't think Grant Dawson has surpassed Claudio Pueyes in the Jalen Turner's of the world just yet. Gotcha. So I think those guys are like. the one's knocking on the door at the top of the funeral right now. Ah, for Christ's sake, really. John and Jose's take on the tomato country. Was there actually controversy here?

What is it? What is it tomato? What is it a tomato? Oh, what is it? It's a fruit. Is that the fruit? The truth is the controversy? If someone goes, it's a vegetable, would you correct them?

Yes. No. No. Maybe in 1998 when I was trying to be an idiot, like, douchey senator. That was a very, like, great school high school. thing to like point out like now if someone just goes now if someone calls a tomato of vegetable i say okay yeah i wouldn't have a single reaction to it you know what life keeps going on i do want to spend this off i'm not i'm not changing time it's just like it's like it's just

oh by the way like if someone mispronounced something oh i's actually pronounced this way they go oh okay i actually when i'm you know what's funny when i when i'm when i'm actually on a date i actually go out of my way to point this up i just i bring it up i bring it up i bring It's like one of the, it's like, you know, you're going to date, you're prepared. I have multiple topics prepared. One of them is like, it's like the conversation's kind of dying down. I'm like, a tomato, by the way, is it fruit, not a vegetable? And I'll find something.

I'm very single right now. And I don't know why. I don't think there was any connection to that. That has to have 100% success rate. Do you just order tomato sandwiches on the reg and that's how this comes up? I mean, if I, if I can to segue it more elegantly, I will. But again, like I said, sometimes I'll just bring it up. Just saying it sounds smart.

usually it's not received very well but someday yeah so I'm assuming on your Tinder profile is all like you know I enjoy mixing of the martial arts no hookups tomatoes of fruit

no no it's ask me what a tomato is I'm trying to get a conversation hashtag keep the fruits and vegetables apart yeah thank you oh there we go that's right I'll take it I have real question quick question about this

because I was arguing with somebody earlier this and this baffled me when I saw it So my initial reaction to seeing the tomato thing, obviously the Joe, Joe Rick's thing. It was like, holy shit. Like, that dude's just eating a tomato like an apple. Like, that's really gross. Yeah.

That is really, really gross. And I was told by a lot of people on social media that, no, it's not gross at all. And they just do it. It's very normal. No, that's completely gross, right? I'm not crazy. No, no. I hate tomatoes, but I know many people who just will just much it to a tomato.

Who? Who does that? Everyone in my family. I can't stand them. My brother loves tomatoes. Oh, well, that explains. She just grabbed the tomato like, oh, this is good? And just bites it?

Eat it? They just like it. I like tomatoes mixed with things, but like I could not eat. I could not bite into tomato. That sounds. I am with you on that. Like, I think that's disgusting. But I know a lot of people who do it.

So it's not strange to me at all. No other opinions? Okay. I feel like I'm crazy. I have crazy. I have zero opinions on eating tomatoes like an animal. Would you, have you done it? I have no more opinions.

We talked about tomatoes for 30 minutes in the way. I have done it. And I was like, it just happened. I don't know. Some gave me tomato and I ate it. Yeah, it's not weird. Listen, if you're hungry and all there's, today I was, today I was hungry.

The only thing I had was a bag of spinach and I ate that. That's way less weird. I do that. I don't know. I eat raw vegetables all the time just for. It's a fruit. It's munching on a tomato like that. It's so gross.

Whatever. I don't know. I'll drop it. Him stuffing that tomato then in the other guy's mouth was not gross, just the idea of it, just already. It was already gross, and then it just, the next part didn't matter. Next time on the vegan power hour, how to become a raw vegan and make it work out for you. And until then, everybody, for Jose, for Sean, AK, can't wait to see how your dating life goes the rest of this year. I am Mike Hack, vacant EKC on the production.

Good night, everybody. Great night of fights. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first? There, the last one. Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.