MMA Fighting - UFC Vegas 58 Post-Fight Show | Rafael Fiziev Has Arrived With Devastating Finish Of RDA

Episode Date: July 10, 2022

Rafael Fiziev picked a great time to have the best performance of his career, and did so against a former UFC champion. MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck, José Youngs, and Jed Meshew react to Fiziev’s incredible fifth-round stoppage of Rafael dos Anjos in the main event of UFC Vegas 58 and discuss what could be next for the surging lightweight contender. In addition, they discuss if it’s time for dos Anjos to face Conor McGregor in the former two-division champion’s return fight, the judging in the Fight of the Night between Jamie Mullarkey and Michael Johnson, Cortney Casey suffering another split decision loss, and other storylines coming out of Saturday’s event at the APEX. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jose Youngs: @JoseYoungs 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

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

What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever.

Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, ghosts in the machine,

available now only from Audible. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Yeah, we're jamming out. Raphael Fazeve is jamming out right now after picking up his six straight win and the biggest victory of his career. He closes the show in the opening seconds of round number five stops.

Former champion, Jafield Los Anjos, and Raphael Paziv is officially a player, ladies and gentlemen, and the loaded UFC lightweight division. Welcome to the UFC Vegas 58 post-fight show here on MMAfighting.com. I am Mike Keck. Thank you for joining us.

We get Jed. We get Jose. We get EKC on the ones and twos. There he is. Let's get right into this, Jedmishu, because... Let's get into it. Yes. Raphael Fiziv, what a performance.

Tremendous job. I had it 3-1 heading into the fifth round. A lot of people on Twitter. A lot of people thought Fizier was fading. Heading into that fifth round, and RDA had an opening to maybe finish the fight and maybe steal this one. Fizier was like, uh-uh, I'm not doing that,

and just bolts RDA 18 seconds into round number five and gets it done. And so your thoughts on Viziv's performance, were you surprised that this fight played out the way that it did? I was. I mean, we talked beforehand. I was picking RDA. And RDA largely got to do a bunch of the stuff you wanted to do, but he couldn't secure the takedowns. And I do feel a little bit like maybe he got too wrapped up in doing that grind because he was not winning the striking exchanges by any measure.

But he was having success. and I think had he been more comfortable engaging in more protracted periods there, might have set up better openings for takedowns, which is kind of what I thought would happen. And instead, he was really focused on getting to the body, kind of roughing him up in the clinch. But I, for even, press the hell to me, man. I thought this kid was good.

I thought he, you know, was going to be kind of a guy in the top 10 for the next few years, just hanging around. But I'm excited to see where he can go. because that his ability RDA is not the greatest wrestler in the sport or the division but his ability to early on

he had a little bit of trouble disengaging from clinches like maybe in that first round when RDA was at his most fresh but he was giving no quarter anywhere so it was RDA would get the clinch Fiziv would fight the hands

make sure he didn't get taken down and then he'd clear out and break consistently circle off the cage, found his opportunities. And that's great because some of the other young killers coming up in this division, to Scamrott, Armin Sarukin, he's going to need to be able to do that. And if he can, those fights become really interesting. So incredible performance from him, really impressed. It looked a lot like I thought it would, only with Fiziv being way, way better than I thought he was, frankly. Yeah.

I think we all sort of knew how good Fiziv's takedown defenses. We had an idea that he had good takedown defense, good wrestling defense. We're wondering what would happen if he ended up on his back. His takedown defense is even better than I thought it was, Jose. What did you think of Fiziz's performance overall? And just the way he came out in that fifth round and closed the show when a lot of people watching the fight thought he was starting to sort of fizzle out heading into that fifth round.

Does Fizzeev have good takedown offense? think they talked about that once on the broadcast um yeah i mean i said we probably i think in the in the previous show i didn't think even case you said it on the slot in our slack channel uh i i i know i said within the first round and a half we'd probably have an idea of who was going to win this fight and it pretty much played out like that i in that first round it seems like rdae was trying to implement his game plan and physique just wasn't allowing him to but he wasn't putting a ton of offense and he was clearly winning the stand up it's clearly hitting harder but it's not like was, you know, rattling RDA in there.

He was just winning the fight, which obviously at the end of the day is the most important thing. Yes, they are prize fairs. You want to win, exciting. But win is a win. You get the second half of your paycheck. So he was clearly winning the fight. I just don't think he was, I don't know how to phrase this, but he wasn't, he was just being annoying to RDA until he turned his lights out.

So within the first round and a half, that's pretty much how the fight was playing. And then that's how the rest of the fight played out until he kind of landed that fastball to the jaw of RDA. So super impressed with Raphael Fizzi. sorry, Danny. I know I always sell Raphael and then you text me complaining about it. I know you're going to watch this, so I apologize. And then, you know, Fiziv, he's just, he's so good on his standing up.

He just reminds me, like you can tell the guys that have trained at Tiger, you know, like the Dan Hookers, the Volcanowski, the Pierreons. They all have that similar style of striking where they, they hit really fast, really hard, and it's usually like one kick and then a follow-up punch and then you're rattled and then they swarm. And that's just Fiziv's bread and butter right there. So super, super, super impressive performance, especially at the end because one of the big questions we had was could he go five rounds?

And not did he go five rounds? He ended the fight in the fifth round. So the fact that he has finishing power in the championship rounds is super impressive. My other question about RDA was how can he perform against an opponent that has a full training camp because his last two opponents didn't have full training camps to prepare for him. Hafeel Fiziv has essentially had two training camps to get ready for Hafei al-Dosanos and his game plan worked to perfection because he knocked him out in the fifth round so yeah Lightway has a new a new intriguing scary boogeyman in the top 10 that's for sure

yeah Fiziv is a tank too in I didn't really realize how much of a tank he was until I actually saw him in the octagon with RDA when they when they faced off before the fight actually started I'm like, damn, he might be like a little bit shorter than RDA, but that man is built like a tank. He just, that lower center of gravity helped him so much in this fight. And it was almost like, I'm not going to say he took the fourth round off, but he kind of cruised a little bit in that fourth round. And yeah, maybe he was getting a little bit tired,

but you could tell it was full gas in that fifth and just put RDA away. It was an incredible performance. Well done by Rafael Fiziv. Jed, Fiziv is, Fizzi, Viziv's just a fun dude. Like he's not the callout type. He's not the guy that's going to get on the mic and kind of Nate Diaz-esque promo.

Calls out. I always calls on the doll's about to get it. I feel the doll's about to get it. I mean, I found the doll is also, you know, he's injured dog. So calling out an injured tennis player is just fitting for this card, right? What did he call? Like, he called out someone really interesting.

He called out Vince Vaughn. He called out Hasbala. And now he's called out Hafean. on the doll. Like the man calls his shot. Don't call out injured tennis players. They're all shook. They don't want that smoke. And I wouldn't want it either. Should he have thrown a name out there, Jen? Or is that just, it would it just not be believable for him?

It's just way more fun that this is his gimmick. Because this is a substantially more interesting way to do it because, like, who cares? Let's all just be honest. No one watches this card. No one's going to remember this card. He could have called that anyone. it doesn't matter. This card was hard. This was a hard one for anyone who stayed the whole time. And so honestly, the thing I will remember most is him being like, we have definitively established who the best Raphael is in the UFC.

Now I want Nadal because that's just weird. And I at least recognize weird as fun and different. So where do we go from here, Jed? Viziv's obviously got a pretty big fight coming up. How big do we get? I mean, do we do we go gamrod here? Do we go a little higher than that? Do we do we think about a gaecie or a Porre type, perhaps?

Like, what are we thinking for Fiziv moving forward in this division that's just kind of weird, kind of logjam? Because we don't have an actual champion right now. It's very interesting in that respect. But what does this wind do for Viziv in terms of getting closer to the belt? Like what do you see could be next for him? they're probably going to do Gamrot, which is fine. It'd be cool if the old guys at the top of Lightweight would stop fighting each other and just actually fight some of the new people and hold their positions down.

Like, that'd be dope because I would love to watch Shaziv fight Dustin Poirier or Justin Gae instead of Gaichy and Poir and Chandler just all round robbing each other forever. But, yeah, he's probably going to get Gamrodot, which is a good fight in a, very different way. I mean, I'll be psyched to watch that fight, but it will be disappointing that that fight will happen and won't be a title eliminator because it feels like it should be because those dudes are the next dudes. Like the next five years of lightweight, those guys are the guys who were at it. We're just in this transition period where Dustin Poy is still a top five guy.

Tony Ferguson, for the love of God, is a top 10 fighter according to the UFC. and honestly maybe even our rankings. I don't know, you guys are kind of insane on Tony. But it's just, it would be a lot cooler if those two are fighting for a title shot because that feels more true to where this division is and where this division's going, even if maybe at this exact moment that might not be where the division is. Yeah, there are options here for sure. Jose, what are we thinking for Fizade?

You like the Gamrod idea? I mean, we have to, there's, it's just a wild card. throw of the dart right now because we don't know what's going to happen with olivera we don't know if it's going to be makachev we assume that's where they're going but maybe they go a different direction there's connor out there still there's chanler there's all these other names but it's almost like we have to wait and see what the title fight actually is der eush is another guy like where do we go with physique like if you had the magic pencil how are we doing this well we're not going to pretend that nate diaz and connor mcgregor irrelevant to this conversation we're going to

pretend we're going to live in this magical world where fighters are just going to accept the fights that I assign them so Charles can fight Islam uh Dustin can fight Michael Chandler because apparently they hate each other uh Benil Derruch can now fight physique because they're going to be ranked probably right next to each other I don't I don't want because as Jed said all these cats are just not fighting they're just you know they're not fighting the younger generation this new generation so why do we want to make the new generation fight each other and then knock each other off I know the arm and Gamrov fight ruled and that fight happened when it happened and I'm not complaining, but like, so then Gamrodot should fight Gaichi and then

Armin should fight, you know, like a Tony Ferguson Gregor-Lessby type guy. Brad Riddell is still there. Jalen Turner just kind of catapulted himself into the top 15, top 10. So all of those guys can fight one another and we're not going to entertain the Nate Diaz Conner with Gregors of the world until they actually have a fight. I know Nate Diaz wants to fight on July 30th. That'll probably at welterweight. He'll probably also actually, it definitely won't even happen on July 30th. It'll probably happen further down, further down

if ever, and it'll be a welterweight. So I don't want him fighting a lightweight and welterweight. I want lightweights to find it lightweight because as we all know at MMAFighting.com, lightweight is the best division. Mixed martial arts, band and weight is number two. Welterweight probably number three. So all those cats and fight

one another, Sean Shelby, you're welcome. I like, listen, there's nothing wrong with any of those suggestions right there. Nate is not in this conversation at all because he's not a lightweight anymore. He's fighting at 170 and yes, he might fight July 30th, but it'll be July 30th, 2023 more than likely or whenever Connor is ready to come back and they, that doesn't matter here. Let's play the bonus game, gentlemen. Like Jed said, this was a long, can't be hard. The two performances that get bonuses, man. This can't be hard.

Yeah, I mean, Johnson, Michael Johnson, Jamie Mulark, has to be the fight of the night, right? There's no... I would imagine. Probably. I don't know. They were really excited about the heavyweight fight

for whatever damage. They really were. I would probably... I'm going to say... We got bonuses. We got bonuses. Let me guess. How many are there?

Two performances. Two in the fight. So fight of the night, obviously, Malarkey Johnson, correct? I'm going to agree with that. I'm going to say Fiziv gets one.

I agree with that. They, uh, Cody Brundage gave them together. I also agree. He probably should have, but he didn't. Are you kidding? They gave it to Chase Sherman. Those absolute monsters

they gave it to Chase Sherman? I made money on Chase Sherman and that is an insane choice. I said that if this fight, I told New York Rick, because I was like, do you think that these two heavyweights will have a combined more total strikes landed than Ricky Turney. which I think was a valid question because Ricky Tiers have like 20 I know but heavy

weights you never know they could just you know not connect and then land one and then they die first one goes and then I and then I slacked him I go if this fight goes 50 15 minutes I'll drink battery acid and then like after two and a half rounds I was like my god this might happen and then chase Sherman remembered he's he's a former bare knuckle boxing champion and punched Jared van derr's a lot in the face and stopped it I was so close to crushing by decision bets. I was watching the whole phone. I was like, this is exactly what I thought it would be.

And it's every bit as bad as I envisioned it could be. This was a reward for Chase Sherman. This was a, hey, you got to keep your job. Plus, you said yes to fighting Alexander Romanov on short notice, not once, but twice. So here you go. Here's 50 Gs. Congratulations to Chase Sherman. Black Friday,

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Save on insurance by switching to Bel Air Direct and use the money to fix your car. Bell Air Direct, insurance, simplified. Conditions apply. Great night for Raphael. Raphael Fiziv, man. I'm excited this fight's over because we don't have to mess up those names any longer, and we don't get the Danny Rube texts about, no, no, no, no, no,

it's not Raphael, it's Raphael. Kyle Barallio. Now we have a Ralph. Yeah, Kyle Barrelio. Yep. Fine. I mean, he won. So there you go. He calls out Drake's Duplice. Just not going to happen. Sorry. I would have been a okay callout if you weren't, if that fight wasn't what it was. Like, that wouldn't have been a bad call out if it wasn't a snoozer.

Yeah. Syedermagamatov. That was a fun fight with Douglas Silva Day Androj gets the win. Chase Sherman, Jarrah Vandera. Did Chase Sherman Jarrah Vandera things? Amosahabes got himself a windstreet going on against Ricky Tersios who threw very little and landed way less just not the type of performance a lot of people expected out of the ultimate fighting champion ultimate fighter champion

Jay Malaki and Michael Johnson had themselves a scrap and a half. It was everything we hoped for and more. There was some controversy with the judging though, Jed. Listen, this is not a robbery by any stretch of the imagination. This is a close fight. Could have gone either way. I scored the first round from Michael Johnson. two judges disagreed with me,

but it was just a great fight. It's just one of those things where it's just like, damn. Like, I wish Michael Johnson just got a flat fee to fight, and we didn't have to worry about win bonuses and show money because he deserves everything

after a fight like that. It would be way cool. We wouldn't even be having these conversations right now, but I'm not going to say robbery, but was Johnson hosed? Do you think he was hosed a little bit tonight? So we were talking about this off,

off air when the fight was happening. I missed most of the, most of the first round, because my dog was trying to poo in the house, and I didn't want that to happen for obvious reasons. So I had to go take care of that. Because nature calls for animals

when it does. It's how that works. So I can't speak confidently to whether he was host, because I don't know enough about what happened in the first round. I will say it seemed like most people felt that Michael Johnson won that fight,

but I'll have to watch to be confident in my assessment. But to your other point, I'll keep this very brief, if there's ever been an argument, and there have been plenty of them. But this is like the poster child of an event for why win bonuses are stupid. Because a lot of these fights just sucked.

And it's way cooler to have everyone pay a flat fee and pay a finish bonus, because that will incentivize better outcomes for you as a promotion. Because, like, I don't know. Kyle Barallo backpacking a dude for 10 minutes is dominant, but it would have been cool if he tried to do anything other than the same two setups to get that R&C that clearly wasn't ever going to work. That would have been more interesting.

He was like, ah, this isn't going to work, and I'd like to make an extra 50 grand. So I should try a different way to defeat my opponent. Instead of being like, win bonus, baby, I just sit here at a human backpack and I will get two paychecks. let's get away from that because Michael Johnson does deserve to get a flat fee

like that is just how things should work in this day and age well said well said Jose did you watch the entirety of that fight and if so do you feel like I don't think robbery is the right word

but I think the step below is like hosed yeah look at that I mean most people scored it for Johnson and I am going to go back the 2927 is crazy that's that's just a I respect Sean and the way he he's dove into scoring in the criteria

but I think he gave a 10-8 to Malarkey in the second which I just don't see it was a clear round for Malarkey but three was a clear round for Johnson and I thought one was a clear round for Johnson but I have to go back and watch it a lot of people are saying there was a knockdown

in that first round from Malarkey although it was not scored a knockdown he was what Johnson was certainly watch in the moment, but Johnson had a legit straight knockdown. So I don't know, man. How did you feel about it? Yeah, I scored two rounds to one for Michael Johnson.

And when I was doing Twitter reacts for the site, it seems like I would say like a lot of obviously Jamie Malarky is from that part of the world. It's like the Volcanoskis and like the Brad Redell's of the world. They were all like, oh, like Jamie Malarkey pulled it off this and that everyone else thought Michael Johnson dropped to the point where Courtney Casey tweeted, I'm mad at my score. I'm mad at my decision. Michael Johnson should be livid. Those were her words.

And they both fought on the same card, and they were both controversial. So his fellow fighters were very upset over the fact that he lost, and I actually did. I think I tweeted something like, I scored it for Michael Johnson, but I'm not going to be mad at you.

He scored it for Jamie Malarkey. It was a very close fight. I just had it two rounds to one for Michael Johnson. Yeah, it was a great fight. It was a great fight. Yeah, I was going to bring up the Courtney Casey thing. That was a great. It was a great tweet by Gordon Gacy.

Excellent tweet. Another split decision loss for Gordon Gacy. She can't be mad. Look, you ever heard the phrase, if you wake up in the morning and you meet an asshole, you met an asshole. But if you wake up in the morning and you keep running assholes all day, you're the asshole. If you lose five split decisions, something that you're doing is wrong.

Like you're either the unluckiest person alive or you need to reevaluate what you're doing. And that is exactly how I feel about this. Because, like, when she tried hard, she won the fight. Like, she was winning the fight when she tried really hard. And the rest of the time when she consented to a weird kickbox, like, not even kickboxing, just standing in kicking range when she wasn't kicking back, she lost the fight. But then when she was like, I don't care about this anymore. I'm just going to punch you in the friggin' face. She was blown Anthony's doors off.

This is on you, Courtney Casey. You can't be mad about that split D because it's death taxes and split decisions for. the losses for Courtney Casey. Like, that's it. Yep. So, yeah, that and the Caitlin Chukay game by decision. Death Texas. Two safest.

Too safe as bets in MMA right there. Never let you know. Yep. I felt like Courtney had a lot of success in the feet in that third round. And then she went for the takedown. I was like, you had her. You had her. I still thought she won the fight, but it is what it is.

Good win for Cody Brundage. I was questioning the strategy. from Cody Brundage. He got the take down and then Trashon's like kicking him the legs. I'm like, I know Cody's a tough dude,

but I don't know if I love this strategy and then he just goes up and bolts Trayshon Gore. That was impressive. David Onama gets the arm triangle choke. Garrett Armfield showed up to scrap up a weight class. It was a good competitive first round, but it's just the size,

the strength advantage for Anamo is just way too much for him. Kennedy and Sachuco just bulldoze, poor Carl Roberson. And that was, I felt really bad for that guy today. Carl Roberson would be a really good 195 pound fighter. Yep. Absolutely.

And then a guy was sold. He was just so, so some friends are over at the lakehouse or whatever, and they were watching it with me. And they were like, that one man is so much bigger than that other man. I know he's probably going to win this fight, not because of any, like, technical brilliance, but largely because he is an enormous human being, and Carl Robertson is not. And his takedowns weren't like the most unbelievable entries. It was just like, I'm bigger than you fall over. And he spent two, he did the same.

There was so much of this in this fight card where fighters just did a bad, like, maybe not a bad thing, but they did a thing that wasn't working, and they just never stopped doing it. And Kennedy, for the first two rounds, like, I'm going to continue trying the same R&C setup that is very clearly not working. And then the minute, he was like, you know what, screw it. I'm just going to elbow you in the head. Fight was over. Like he, the whole time was like, dude, just punch him. Just hit him.

Just hit him. What do is hit him? He guys like, I'm just going to elbow him. Oh, we're done here. We're done now. So much of that fight card. Yeah. Kennedy looked, Kennedy was, was on, was on one tonight for sure. And very impressed with

Syed Yacob Hakramanov tonight. That dude is a player at 135. That was an incredible performance against Ronnie Lawrence, who's a really good prospect. And he just sort of ran him over. Like basically did, he basically Ronnie Lawrence, Ronnie Lawrence and did it way better. That was really impressive stuff. So if for Saeedyad Yaob Hakhrmanov, another interesting name at 135. pound. So, all right. Shall we go to the peeps? Am I frozen? There we go. Internet stinks.

All right. Let's go to the peeps, Casey. All right. Let's go to the peeps. I think you can hear me and that's good. Ask us fun questions, peeps. Yeah. We talk about all the hour.

If anyone says Javier dos angios, it is now for the rest of eternity, Ralph. Ralph does not jump. I'm going to write that in our stories. Let's see how long I can get away with that. Chino headlines, everything. It's Ralph Dosanjos. All right.

Ooh, we got there. Oops. Too small. Can we call it quits on Barallio main card fights, let alone coal-made event? Yeah, I have a hard time believing Barallio's going to be fighting at a co-made event for his next fight.

I don't. There was no reason from doing the co-made event either of these other two times. They just did it. They're going to do it again. dare them they'll do it see they care okay uh

you have a lot of questions about Michael Johnson we kind of talked about that I thought Michael Johnson won also um how about this oh well we kind of talked about this already too but I don't know

uh yeah did Antoninio Chico actually beat Courtney Casey in my point Antonina got lucky because of her last name I don't think that had much to do with it for being honest

If her name was Antonina Jones, I still think she wins. I think there's a chance Antonina Jones might have been released a while back, but that's not why she won tonight. Yeah, that's true. Yeah, why she went tonight is because I think everything Jed said earlier. Cordications just stood there and got kicked for so long. There was so much of people doing a thing that wasn't working, and she'd be like, yep, this is what I want to do.

This is where I'd like to be right now. You know, actually, there might be a little truth to this question, because maybe Courtney Casey actually just because of the name, if it was Antonio Jones she was fighting, maybe she wouldn't have been so hesitant. I don't know, but because she has that name, that,

Courtney Casey is a better fighter than that tonight. But that's what she showed up, though. She was awful for a lot of that fight. Yeah. But also sometimes Courtney Casey just looks awful. That kind of is just who she is a fighter. She's maddening because she clearly has more talent than she ever executes in the cage for the most part.

I think that's why she's still in the UFC, honestly, even though she's only, she's 10 and 10 right now. Do you think, ooh, God, she's 10 and 10. Jeez. That's not, that doesn't happen a lot. Yeah. And you still be employed. That's pretty impressive. Yeah.

You know what? We didn't talk about this from our good friend, Sheila. Oh, hey, Sheila. Oh, no. I thought R.D. If Zeev was a very early stop, and she think Mark Smith ended up doing it because of how lady stopped Vendera Sherman or did you think it was a perfect stoppage? I thought it was a fine stoppage.

I didn't think there was an issue with Vandera Sherman either. So just for the record, jumped in as soon as Vandera functionally quit and just sat down and was like, all right, we're done here, which I think was fine, but no. When it first happened, I thought it was a little. I was like, oh, that seems weird. And then when you see that replay and the deadbolt physique fires into him,

like, oh, yeah, we're good here. That was Dunbole. Yeah, it was definitely one of those. Once you saw the replay, we were all like, oh, okay, I get it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, but thank you for the question, Sheila. Yes.

What else we got? Who's next for RDA? I'd be okay with that fight. No. Connor McGregor, baby. Connor McGregor. It finally makes sense. You think it?

Is that what we want, or is that going to happen? That's what I want. I think it could be both. There's a world where they get on the title fight. Yeah, there is a world. If Charles Oliverer fights Islam Makachev and Abu Dhabi and beats him for the vacant title because let's not have Charles fight Connor

for the vacant title because Charles doesn't get pay-review points because he's not a reigning champion. If Charles beats Islam, if he goes to Abu Dhabi and does he do a favor and fights Islam in the Middle East and wins, And he goes, you know what, I want to fight Connor on that rumored January card in Brazil. Just do it.

Connor wants to fight in Brazil. Charles has pretty much been everyone in the top five. And he would have been in Islam in Abu Dhabi in a place no one wants to go fight. What are they going to say no? Just do it. But if that's not the case, then Connor RDA is a perfectly fine fight. They were supposed to fight once before at lightweight. Why not make it again?

At welterweight, they have history there. beefs there. Like I said in the preview show, Conner has all these fingers and these weird feuds that just are irrelevant, but the sizzle is there for a fight. So I think that's the fights to make. Plus, they're using a lot of champions in a very short amount of time. And every time they do that, they

have to cancel a pay-per-view because they don't have anyone to headline. Connor RDA can headline a paper view. Yeah, that makes sense. Fully with Jose on this. My only question is, I mean, I know Connor would take the fight, but I still think Connor

loses that fight. Sure. That's, yeah. If they book it, I would favor RDA for sure. I would favor RDA for sure, but I still want to watch that fight. I was interested in the fight the first time they booked it.

I was really bummed out that that fight fell out. I mean, the Nate fight was awesome too, but I wanted to see Connor RDA. I have a question for you, gentlemen. Is RDA, how far past his, how far past the championship version of RDA are we seeing

did we see tonight? Or has the lightweight division just gotten better? I think it's a little combination of both. I think is because it's hard to say because he was 2 and 0 at lightweight but well I guess one of those fights

was a catchweight against Moikano I think his because even his welterweight run was weird because he beat the brakes off of Robbie Lawler and they got pieced up by Colby Cumberton and then he got smashed by Camaro but then he also like tapped Neil Magin when Neil Magnet was on that long run.

Just RDA's had a strange career of ups and downs, but he only loses to the best. It only beats the best. Yeah. And it sounds like, go ahead. Oh, I was just going to say, I think you can kind of pretty clearly see that he is not what he was physically at points in time. I mean, he's still, his conditioning was a dude was not breathing hard at all after really tough 20 minutes of fighting. But you could see his, he is a little slower. He is relying more on.

timing of his strikes than on just being an athlete and there doesn't have as much pop these are the guys that RDA has these are the guys that RDA has lost to dating back to 2014 Fazeve everyone thinks is the top five lightweight Mike Tiesa is like a giant

compared to RDA Leon Edwards about to fight for the title Kamar Uzman pound for pound best Colby Cumberton you the second best well to wait in the world Tony Ferguson when Tony Ferguson hadn't lost yet in Mexico in altitude. Eddie

Alvers, one of the five greatest lightweights ever, and then Habib Nerman Kamadov. If you make a list of the top 25 MMA fighters from the last 10 years, RDA has lost a chunk of those and beaten a huge chunk of those too. Because like, look, Pettus, Cowboy, Nate Diaz,

Benson, Lollet, Prime Petits. Like, Felder, Kevin Lee, Terik Saffergy. Prime Terik Safferine. Prime Territzaphne. The final strike... I forgot Teric Safferick Safferine existed. The final strike for champion and one half of the first ever main event on UFC fight pass, Terrick Safferty,

and RDA beat him. Yeah. And here's the thing, too, like, I agree with everything you're saying, but RDA, it's not like, like, those first three rounds. Like, I felt like RDA lost all three of those rounds. Yeah. But he was very competitive in the first. I thought he's very competitive in the third.

Second, I thought was a clear, I thought Fiziv won the first three rounds. Second was the clearest one, but he's very competitive. in one and three. It's not like he got run over in those rounds. Like these were like, you know what I mean? Like he was competitive in this fight until it was over. Because he's an all-time great fighter. Round four felt like the entire his fight versus Anthony Pettus.

Round four tonight felt like. And that's what when the fight was going on, especially the first two rounds, I was like, oh, Fiziv feels like a better Anthony Pettis, or at least a stronger Anthony Pettus, you know, in a sense. Yeah. And I think R&A.

I mean, and he's better. It just wasn't working until the fourth round. And then, unfortunately, in the fifth round, unfortunately for him, Ralph got knocked out.

But, yeah. As anyone had a better UFC career that started 0 and 2 in the UFC than RDA? Oh. I mean, that's hard to think,

but tough to imagine. That's, he was, oh, he started, Jeremy Stevens broke his face in his UFC debut. That's,

that metal, Play is still there. That remains one of the funniest punches I've ever seen because it was a legitimate Mortal Kombat thrown from like his ankle. Yeah. It was not like a clean, it was like, I'm going to chuck this from here and just duke you into the Ozone. It's unbelievable.

So I don't even know like who else has started O&2 that's had that good of a career. That's still in you. You just have you just have to find who has better careers than RDA. and they're like maybe 15 people who have had better UFC careers than RDA. So, and I would strongly doubt any of them started O and two. Eddie won his second fight, right? I know he lost his first fight in UFC. He won his second.

Eddie? Eddie technically won his first three fights. He lost all of them and then got a title shot and then won. Oh. Well, he lost the first one a cowboy, but then he beat, who was it, Gilbert and Pettis. They were like grinding split decisions against the fence. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Both splits, if I remember correct.

Yep. It's going to be hard to think of somebody who would have a better career than him and have started O&2. Like, I just looked it up. Like, Dustin Porey has never lost two fights in a row. And RDA started O and two in the UFC. And they're both still just like breaking faces in the top 10 of lightweight. Who have we seen coming to the UFC and get just,

not two losses in a row, but take it just a whole. horrible loss in the first fight and then come back to be an all-time great. Maybe Max Holloway when he fought Dustin. Well, Max won his first fight. Oh, he did? I believe. Yeah, I think. Oh, no, you're right.

You are right. If I lost, yeah, but he was like three and oh. Was his first fight Dustin though? Yeah, he was like 18 years old or something. Yeah, it was 20. He's, I think that was a late minute. That was a last minute fight. He was late too.

He was like noticed too. Already I always had one of those like super interesting weird careers because of that. It was just like for most of his career. And even for being honest, like even when he was a lightweight champion, he wasn't the best lightweight in the world. Habib absolutely wrecked him, but then Habib was dead for two years. And so RDA just got the belt. But like, during that whole time, everyone was like, cool, you're great. This is a feel good story.

But like, that dude over there obviously is better than you because he took you down 40 times. So it's, he's had just a super fascinating career. He's, I mean, he's certainly in the top 35 fighters in UFC history, if not top 25. And people forget what a giant upset it was when he beat Pettus too. That wasn't, he wasn't supposed to be Pettus. Yeah. He'd be a kill for Melendez and then there's the the circle K, you guys know what circle Ks are, Jed. I do.

So the circle K down the circle K down the street for me still has the Monster Energy drink promo with Anthony Pedis, Rhonda, and Kane in their belts. I thought those three were never going to lose at one point. They were looked all unstoppable. I mean, yeah, they all did too. It was just things move quickly, which is why I don't care. Not that I don't care about why. I don't want to see Alexander Volcanox to go up the lightweight because we thought a lot of people were unstoppable.

And this is a sport where things move real fast. And I want to see guys like Arnold Allen get a shot at him. Oh, did we answer what's next for RDA? Oh, yeah, we did Connor. I was going to say, did we even answer that question, Connor? Ralph, that's his name. That's his name. That's not disrespect.

It's in the contract. Within the contract. he didn't, he didn't do what he needed to do. It's still close. It was close to the old man. Well, the answer is already, I can't think of anyone that's had a better career that started all into in the UFC. Who's next, who's next party?

Connor. Connor. Connor. Connor is fine. Connor. Connor's fine. I would also like, if, if Dustin Porre would just fight a young dude who will beat him, that would be sick because like, Moutuch Gamera will just tackle him and run, run the hell

lot of them on the floor. That would be dope. And then we can finally stop having Porier as like a top lightweight. We could do fun fights. And like I would love to watch Poir-RDA fight. That would be a great fight. Let's do that. Yep. But first DP needs to give up his ranking. Yeah. Yeah.

If it does a, if it's not Connor, unfortunately, he might have to fight like Sarukian, which would just be awful for him. That's, I mean, you run back Tony Ferguson. I like that. I wouldn't hate that. That makes sense.

That's fine. It's ever that they're both highly ranked in the UFC, which is different thing, whatever. All right. What we got next? Take a couple more.

I need to get more from Jed about the heavyweight fight. Oh, yeah. I meant to say, yeah, I meant to tee this up for you, Jed, because someone tweeted

and they wanted to hear your take. I believe it's from Robert. Jed's heavyweight hot take corner. Go. It was way more fun than that fight should have been. It was really not good. There were a lot of things that were not awesome to watch technically,

but they were scrapping. It was fun. I just want to throw a shout out to my co-host. I forgot what you called him on the preview show, Jose, but it was funny. Um-Bohat. Yeah, whatever that one is. Connor Birx, who on No Best Bar this past week,

almost put Jared Van dera on a parlor, which is hilarious to me just to start. And then, Mike, as we talked about in the pre-fight show, convinced, apparently convinced you and some other people that Van dera by decision or by submission was a great bet. Well, here's the problem when you get advice from a guy who's been watching MMA for a year. Don't do that. Look, my only issue, because all of his logic was mostly sound, but it hinged on the piece, and he admitted himself that I'm anticipating that, you know, BJJ Black Belt, Jared Vandross, going to have a good fight IQ and take Chase Sherman down and submit him. And as I pointed out on No Bet's Bar and we'll do so again, you are banking on the fight IQ of a man who willingly grappled with Alexio Lennox after hurting him on the feet.

so and as we saw zero takedown attempts just ended up getting I mean competitive on the feet until he got deaded so yeah let's never watch that fight again that's that's my take let's be done at that fight keeps him around because I really enjoy his um his ring announcement he does a little wave I appreciate that I don't like Vendera dislike the dude what it's just like I get it I know like what are we What are we doing? It's just 0 and 0 and 4. It's like, what are we doing? At near top of the card, too.

You know what's fun about Jared Vandera, though? He looks completely different every time he fights. He's either got long hair and a long beard, where he's got a shaved head and no beard. He just looks like a different person every time he fights. Keeps your toes. It's pretty funny. It's pretty funny.

But Chase Sherman should fight Chris Barnett. That is absolutely the fight to make. There's no other fight to make. If Chase is, if Chris Barnett's ready to come back, did have a tragedy in the family. No, I know that. Listen, Chase, Chase took a little bit of a beating tonight, so he ain't coming back for a few months, I'm sure. It was impressive to watch Chase Sermon do an infinite amount of slipping and head movement for everything that wasn't a very basic jab, because all he did was get a jab tethered to his face

and then when he was like very far away, do a bunch of roles. I'm like, what is happening right now? What is going on in this fight? It was fun. We needed that one. We actually needed that fight at that moment

because that was after the hobby tours. It was way more fun than it had any right to be. Yeah. Yeah. What happens? Shouts. Can we talk about Ricketerious for just a moment? Yeah.

Because this is not a hot take. This is I truly believe this. if you attempt in any capacity 200 strikes and land 20 of them, you should be cut corollary to my previously established rule, where if you attempt 15 takedowns or whatever the number I set and succeed in zero of them, you just immediately lose the fight. That is, I feel the same with Ricky Terseus's weird. Kia, we're just going to call it a Kia, even though it's not it,

and just never hitting anything close to hitting. Yeah, you should just, you should leave the organization until you learn how to fight. Because that's, that was awful. It was awful, awful, awful. Yeah, not a great. If RDA didn't get that one takedown, he was going to be like one for something, one for like at least. I wonder what his numbers were because a lot of it, I mean, he definitely got stuffed on some takedowns. But after the first round, it felt like he mostly just went to clinches because he was trying to do the clinches.

thing. He wasn't like in on a single leg or whatever. I understand. Yeah. Yeah. He ended up with he was happening. He was two of 16 on takedown. And that one take down. I can't believe they gave him that first. That was not a take down. That was that one they counted was not a takedown. That was even DC was like, no, wherever he was watching. That's what that's what the fight I was thinking of for the takedowns.

That far himself. Chris Curtis. Yep. I think we're good to. To answer my own question over some other fighters who have started O and 2 to the UFC career that went on. to have a good question. Misha Tate started O'N2. Ronda Rousing a cat.

Oh, that track. So comparable. Both ended up being champions in the UFC. Very different O&2. Yeah. Started out of a title fight, yeah. Yeah. Misha Tate's first fight wasn't a title fight.

Misha Tate's first fight wasn't a title fight. It was against Kat in the co-main event of a toughenow. Oh, it was against Kat. Cat lost. That was a tender fight, but Kat blew her knee out. And then Misha couldn't do it. On tough. But Misha, they are a little different.

Misha was just an established fighter who had already been champion before, whereas RDA was, dude, I didn't think RDA was ever going to. I'd written him off as a champion. It was like, dis dudes, whatever. And then suddenly he was fighting for the belt very, like, randomly and won it. And then moved up to Walterweight and beat the hell out of some really good Walter weights. Great crew.

So Fiziv at the post-fight Presser had a call-out and not Nadal. It was Justin Gajee. He actually called for Justin, so there you go. A lot of people. I don't know if Gagey will take it. I love that fight. A lot of people are calling out Justin Gachy. That fight would rule.

Yeah. I love that fight. Gachie's about to get surgery on his nose, I believe, so he's going to be out he's hoping to get back by the end of the year. I think the timing would actually line up pretty nicely for those two guys to fight. So, yeah, I love that idea.

I don't know if it happens, but I love that idea. Gage's got to find somebody. Can't have a better person. Outside of Connor. I would say, Conner is the actual correct, Gagee. I know we've been won that fight forever. We've been winning that fight forever. It's the most exciting fight in MMA history on paper.

I don't think there's even a close second. If you put that on paper, that is, if I can make one phone. Conner versus Justin? Yeah. On paper, it's the most exciting fighting in it. Yeah.

I've been, yeah, I've been wishing about that fight for a long time. But, hmm. Both dudes get performance bonuses and literally every fight out

and just the way they match up and the way they'll talk shit. It's just, if I could make a wish, one fight, that's it's been that way. That's been the one fight I've wanted for 10 years. And it's a fight.

I wish. In the contract, it's best two out of three, too. I don't know. I don't wish any person to fight Justin Gitche multiple times because that changes your life. That seems like a fight where the loser gets a six-month medical suspension. So like that, I'm not waiting. I'm not waiting two years to watch a winner fight twice. We have it on an international barge in like open waters.

Pride. That fight's great. Then it can be pride rules. 10 minute first round. God bless him. Dude, I honestly don't think that fight gets out of the first round anyway. There's two. They're just going to mash until the room falls over.

Yeah, the two ultimate get-or-get-out guys. And, yeah, that fight would just be absolutely spectacular. So I will be in attendance should that fight ever happen. I don't care where they put it on the moon. I'm going to that. If they book that fight somewhere on the same. day is a KSW card and MMA fighting would send you to KSW?

Oh, okay. All right. I'll buy my own ticket to KSW later. I'm going to Conradict you if that ever happens. I was curious. All right, there you go. Well, we're done. You hear the music, so we're out of here. So A.K. and I will be back doing some more matchmaking

tomorrow on onto the next one. And then it's on to UFC Long Island, everybody. So for Jed, for Casey, for Jose. Is it into UFC Long Island, Mike? God. God bless. God bless Alex Redugo. We're out.

Yes. Do you guys. Dugo. Doogie. Love you all. Way to be, baby. Clutch, dude. I miss you, Moogie.

Good night, everybody. Why is this poster so spooky? You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.