MMA Fighting - UFC Vegas 62 Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Alexa Grasso's Win, Jonathan Martinez's Breakout Finish

Episode Date: October 16, 2022

Alexa Grasso may find herself in the driver's seat of the UFC women's flyweight division's world title picture after defeating Viviane Araujo in her first main event bout. Following UFC Vegas 62, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, José Youngs, and E. Casey Leydon react to Grasso's fourth straight win, and why she could be in a better position to face Valentina Shevchenko for the title than people think, Jonathan Martinez's tremendous performance in finishing Cub Swanson in the co-main and his subsequent callout of Dominick Cruz, Raphael Assuncao's turn-back-the-clock showing in his unanimous decision win over Victor Henry, the ceilings of Joanderson Brito and Tatsuro Taira, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise 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. The victory horns are sounding right now. Not only does it start the UFC Vegas 62 post-fight show here in MAPFinding.com, but these victory horns

are for Alexa Grosso. picking up a it wasn't as lopsided as the scorecards will indicate because it was 5045, 49, 46, 4946, 4946. A unanimous decision win. But the fight was very competitive. It was definitely closer

than the cards indicate, but a huge win for Alexa Grasso. And she has officially put the pressure on Manon Fioro when she takes on Caitlin Chukagan next Saturday at UFC 280. And all in all, even though we had some fights fall off that were

exciting. We had one drop off yesterday between Brian Royville and Asker Ascaroff. This is a fun lead-in to one of the more highly anticipated events of the year, not just for the UFC, but in the sport in general, UFC 280 going down next Saturday. Everyone seems to have that circle. This was sort of a whistle wetter, if you will, and I think it delivered in a big way, huge win for Alexa Grasso. But thank you for joining us. I am Mike Heck. Being joined by Mr. Jose Youngs, who's getting ready for a long journey out to UFC 280 to Abu Dhabi. So when do you head out and how long is it going to take you to get there, Jose? I head out tomorrow.

I go to Chicago and then I got three, three and a half hour layover and then from Chicago directly to Abu Dhabi. So the flight from Chicago to Abu Dhabi, I want to say is 13, 14 hours straight. And the flight to Chicago is three and a half hour. So it's going to be a long day considering I take off Sunday, midday, and I land Monday night in Abu Dhabi. me. It's going to be weird landing at 10 p.m. But in my brain, it's going to feel like the middle of the day. Then same exact path back. There you go. And we are looking forward to your coverage for sure.

It's going to be a fantastic week. But before you get on a plane, let's recap what we just saw from the UFC apex. Alexa Grasso picks up a huge win. She needed this one badly. She wants to keep her name in the race to maybe fight Valentina Shofchenko next. And she did her part. Gets a win over a very game, very tough Viviani R. Rujo. What stood out to you from Alexa Grasso's performance tonight? Not a whole lot stood out because I felt like Vivian Arrucho was making, I don't want to say mistakes because it was such a close fight, but she seemed more willing to play Alexa Grasso's game.

And if you're going to do that, you're going to have a bad time if you're a flyaway fighter. Because I think Dominic Cruz said I once or twice because I was watching this fight. I'm like, they're throwing a lot. of one, two, three combinations, and that seems to be about it. And that's Alexa Grasso's bread and butter, and Vivian Arrucho hits really hard, but Alexa Grasso is just a better boxer. So the fact that Vivian Arrucho just, I felt was comfortable boxing Alexa Grosso, just played into Alexa Grasso's strengths.

And I think even in like the fifth or fourth round, Dominic Cruz, is like, there's a lot of combinations and not a whole lot of kicks or mixing of the martial arts, as AK likes to say. So I wouldn't say I learned a whole lot of Alexa Grosso, just the fact that she's a really high level boxer or MMA boxer in this division and Vivian Nourouja just, I guess, didn't make the necessary adjustments to win her first main event. How did you score it? This clearly was no robbery. I think across the board, everyone scored it for Grasso.

I was live blogging, so I had scored it three rounds of two for Grasso. I thought it was even going into the fifth, but I saw a lot of people think it was three, one, maybe four, oh for Alexa Grasso, which I'm not going to argue with it because the rounds were very, very close, but Grasso was landing a little bit cleaner for the most part. But Arousa had the big take down in the second, had a lot of control, but didn't do much with it. And I thought Arousa looked pretty good in that fourth round, which made me believe that the fifth round is going to get a little more chaotic than it actually did. But how did you actually score it? I had it 4-1 for Grasso.

I think like that because if like I said, all of the rounds kind of bled together, it just felt like one 25 minute round at times because it was just the same thing happening over and over and over and over. So it was like it was rounds four or five. I gave it to Vivian. but at that point, I think Alexa was winning pretty comfortably. I mean, when I say comfortably, she was up on the scorecards, but the fight was hyper close. Like if someone scored it 3-2 Vivian, I wouldn't quite agree with that, but I could, if you, I would listen to your argument at least. Yeah, absolutely. So now Alexa's in a very interesting spot.

She's talking to Paul Felder. Paul Felder's so great at giving these fighters the chance to call their shots. I just wish he would do it in a less awkward way. He says it so awkwardly. I hate to do this. I hate to do this, but I have to ask. Yeah. Just stop being so weird, man, and just ask them.

But yeah, continue. So she gets on the mic and says, hey, see that guy over there? He's my matchmaker. And he always gives me competitive fights. So whatever they have cooked up for me, I'll be ready to say yes. I know you're not a big like, you have to call your shot on the mic kind of guy. but I feel like in certain cases, at least just saying a name or, you know, saying, hey, I'm next in line for the title.

It's not really trash talk. You're just trying to claim your spot. And she just left it up to the UFC and left it up to the matchmakers. But right now, should she have at least called for the belt? Should she, I mean, we still have to wait to see what happens next Saturday, obviously, but should she have called for the belt and what needs to happen next week for her to get that? Because you can make a clear argument that you Kagan with a win should get a title shot, but we've seen that dance already.

And if Manifior wins, I feel like she's a lock. So does she just need Chukagian to win to have a chance at this point? Not necessarily. I think there's a couple factors that are playing Alexa Grossos's favor. A, she won a main event. So all eyes were on her, this card was like she was one of the two fighters. This card was built around in a very stacked card. oftentimes you can

you know you can have a really high level technical fight but the next fight happens to be Sean Brady versus Bala Muhammad you're probably going to forget Kalanchu Kagan, Manafro happened if it plays out the way it could happen because for all we know Manifero could go out there and rolling thunder wheel kick Kalanjikin

into oblivion she gets on the mic and says Valencienneshenko I'm going to drink your blood blah blah blah blah blah then yeah give her the title shot because you're not going to forget that let's see how the fight plays out but if it's a three round 30, 27, someone just wins a similar decision than Alexa Grasso could very well get the decision. She's what, five or six in the UFC's ranking? I don't know where she is in our rank

is the one that matters. But let's see how that fight plays out. But I'm not saying either winner is a lock considering that opens the pay-per-view card, which is obviously a really important position on a card, but winning your first main event comfortably and you're representing a country that the UFC very obviously wants to break into, especially with Brandon Marana waiting titles, Yaya Rodriguez, might be fighting for a belt in February. That card probably needs a co-main event.

Why not throw Alexa Grosso versus Valentina Shoshenko on the co-main event of a Perth card? That'd be all kinds of fun. Have two Mexican fighters going for the belt at the same time down under. So there's a lot of things that could plan Alexa Grosso's favor. That's a great point about the card placement for 280 because, yeah, it does open the pay-per-view.

But, I mean, there's four absolute heaters right behind that fight with Derrush and Gamron. than Jan O'Malley, which is being talked about more than the actual title fight in the division in the co-main of Mptune Stirling and Dilloshat

and then the fight everybody is excited about Oliver versus Mockachev. Yeah, because we've seen this happen a million times. Do you know, do you remember UFC 218? Do you remember what happened

on that main card? I'm trying to remember which card that was. Max Holloway, B, Josie Aldo and Francis Ngano decapitated Alistrovere. You know who won the fight before that? You know the fight that happened before that? That was the Eddie Alvarez Gajee fight, right?

No, there was a fight between those two. Exactly. You know who that fight was? UFC double champ, Henry Sohudo, beat reigning Bannonweight champ, Sergio Pettis, and you don't even remember because of what happened after. That's an excellent point right there. I think you just made a tremendous case that Alexa Grasso might be in the driver seat right now. That's very, very smart.

Very, very smart. Well played. an excellent argument. And then you brought the facts with Sohudo and getting that big win over Sergio Pettis and no one even remembers it because of the chaos of that entire fight card. So good win for Alexa Grasso.

Jonathan Martinez was like the buzz of the card, Jose, because you were the Twitter reacts guys. And I was obviously looking on Twitter as I was live blogging between rounds and see a ton on this fight, but everybody was talking about Jonathan Martinez. What a performance against Cub Swanson. and I actually thought that if this turned into some kind of a brawl

that this is exactly the fight Cub wants. And Jonathan was like, all right, dude, if you want a bra, I'll just brawl with you and I'll beat you up there. And he just looked fantastic. Like Jonathan Martinez just continues to get better and better every single fight. Did this man just steal the show? Is he getting 50K tonight? I think he's got a chance.

I would imagine he gets 50K. He looked unbelievable. I mean, he had some of the Twitter reacts that people were like, there were two fighters, two or three fighters that said Jonathan Martinez is now one of their favorite fighters to watch just based off of this performance. Now, Matt Brown did say Brandon Martinez is his new favorite fighter before correcting himself later on to Jonathan Martinez. So let's maybe get one more major win and then people will actually remember your name. And then if you get another one, people will start to actually spell your name correctly. And remember there's no H in Jonathan in the first half.

So yeah, good win for Jonathan Martinez. actually just dismantled Cub Swanson. And Cubs Swanson looked good until he didn't because his leg just kind of fell off of him. So that was a fun scrap. I didn't pick a fight. I didn't pick a winner in that because I feel like Cubs Swanson is his position has just constantly been since losing to Frankie Edgar in New Jersey has just been the guy that they put all these up-and-comers against like the Moikano's one before Moikano like kind of like you beat

Cubs Swanson, you get kind of catapulted up the rankings. that thing happened with Brian Ortega. It happened with Mike Mouincois. It happened with Giggo Chikaze. They tried to do a Crone Gracie. Shane Burgos obviously became a big name when he beat Cub Swanson. They gave him a Korean

Superboy and that fight is in the Hall of Fame. Artem Lobov, they tried to get a name off of Cub Swanson. So this happens frequently with Cub Swanson. And at first, he was getting the better of all these up-and-comers, even getting into the Hall of Fame. But lately, it's been

rough for Cub Swanson against these people trying to crack into the top 10 in their divisions because he just, you know, gets matched up with Giga Chikaze and Jokanez and Jada and Jagoz and Jainz and Jagoz and Hanna Maitano who just can kick really hard. And even a new division didn't save him from that. Yeah. And now as what made this so impressive is that Cub, a lot of people are just like,

oh, Cubs just going to get run over by this guy. And Cub had his moments. He looked good. He cracked Jonathan a couple times. I thought Jonathan's chin held up very well because that was one of the questions I had in this fight. could he take a big clean shot from Cubby? And he did.

He definitely did. And Pub looked good. I thought he had maybe seven or so minutes to get the job done. And then the longer the fight went, the more is going to favor the silence behind the violence. And he did the damn thing. And then afterwards, yeah, go ahead. It was a, I don't know. I didn't think he was going to get run over by Jonathan Martinez.

I don't even know if I thought he was going to win. I didn't really have, like thinking about it now, I don't think I really thought about it too much. But Jonathan Martinez has some weird losses on his record. that are much lower level than Cub Swanson in 2020. Like I'm pretty sure he's lost to Andre Sukumatoff and Andre Ewell in the UFC, now that of which are in the UFC anymore. And then he's obviously got, he has wins over like Frankie,

Frankie signs, but he came in like five or six pounds overweight, and then he followed that up by going back to featherweight and then smashing Thomas Almeada, and then he kept kind of going to Bannon weight. Is he too big for Batherweight, this and that? So I don't know if he was going to run over, but if he can make, like,

get his weight under control for a prolonged amount of time and not go up to featherway and back down to band weight. Jonathan Martinez could be a bad dude in that division. And I just really want to see him fight Adrianianas badly. That's a great fight. I would love to see that. He called out Dominic Cruz in like the most polite way possible. Did you like that call out?

No, because I think Cubs launches to fight Dominic Cruz. I don't mind that idea. I think I might have somebody else. Yeah, I might actually have somebody else in mind for Dominic Cruz based on this card because it's a guy who also competed on this card. And for some reason, these two dudes have never been matched up. So maybe now is the time to do it. A little on to the next one, spoiler. So great performance for Jonathan Martinez.

I think we're still waiting on who gets the bonuses. I don't know if those have popped up yet. But we will let you know as soon as they do. Nothing yet from the UFC social media account. So, yeah. Desco Todorovich, I mean, that fight went pretty much the way everybody expected. He was just going to go in there and just try to punch each other's faces off. Jordan Wright wrestled wrestle a little bit, but Wright had him in trouble.

Tadouravich came back, got to finish in the second round. Hafiela Sonsa, Jose. 40 years of age, hasn't fought in 10 months, one of the biggest underdogs on the card. This is one of my big talking points heading in. I like Victor Henry. I think he's a great fighter, but he's a good, not a. great fighter. He's a very good fighter. But you can be a very, very

good bannam weight and just be like the 30th best bannam weight in the world. And that's still like a really, really good fighter. I just didn't know if I had questions whether or not Victor Henry was like a top 15 bannamweight. And I would have gotten those answers had he beat Jafel Al Sonsu.

But Jafel Al Sunso came out today and looked fantastic. Sweep the scorecards, 3027s across the board. Minus 4.10 for Victor Henry in this fight was egregious. It was egregious. And to me, I told you guys, I'm not a gambler. I don't bet on M.MA.

But if I had shekels, I would throw it on Haffiola-Sunz-au by decision. And I hope some of you listen to me. I hope some of you listened to me because if you did, you got paid off at plus 550, you're welcome. But Hafi-L-Sunz-O man, this dude look great. Stop disrespecting this man. He only loses to the best of the best, for God's sakes. This is some performance in his whole career. Yes.

Like, his first loss was to Jeff Kern, who has like 60 professional fights and like 40 submissions. And then after that, he's lost to like your eye of favor, obviously one of the greatest fires ever. Dago Nunes, did Dago ever fight for the UFC championship? Or did he have a number of contender fight? I think Kenny Floreen. I think he, was he the guy that Kenny Floreen beat to get the title shot? I might just be making something completely up. Eric Koch obviously was scheduled to fight for the title.

And then like, what? After that T.J. Marlon. Sanhagan, Cody Garbrand Ricky, those are top 10, top 5, top 3, top 2, Bandom whites, everything. Probably should have gotten in title fight

way long time ago when you have what, like 7, 8 wins in a row, and then he just happened to run into a very angry T.J. Dillardt U.S.C. 200. Yeah, that was a rough time. And then I think I remember, who did you beat? I want to say Rob Font.

Yeah, Font was Sterling beat Sterling Morrill. It was 226. He beat Rob Fond. That was a dominant win too. So he dominated Rob Fawn at UFC 226. And I remember in his interview with Joe Rogan. He's like, this is the first time I've ever interviewed Joe Rogan. I'm like, you've been in the UFC for 40 years.

And you've never got a post-fight interview with Joe Rogan. Like that's how much disrespect to the Hafele Suntz has had throughout his career. So, I mean, do you feel like some of that disrespect will fade away now? I think that he's going to be one of those if they match, make him right, and don't just use him as a step stool, like Hafele-Lenza is going to be one of those, what do you call it?

Good feel fights, because he was super emotional after it because he had, well, lost four or five in a row, and then he got this win, and he just couldn't hold it anymore. I think people are going to really tune in to watch Hafele Sunssel in his next fight.

Not that he's going to, like, be the draw or anything, but it's going to be one of the fights they talk about. Yeah, great performance. Yeah, you're coming in with four losses in a row. It was like, eh, I'm thinking about retiring, but maybe not. So just if you're going to do one more, if you're going to have one more dance around the sun, do it with Dominic Cruz. These two dudes have never been like paired up. Like never even like booked to, not even booked to fight each other from everything that I've looked into.

And I'm just like, that's stunning to me with how long these guys have been around. Not even in WEC anywhere have these two guys been put together. and I feel like now is the time to put them together. Let's just do it. There's nothing wrong with that. Cruz Franke would have been great. Yeah, it would be a really fun fight. So I'm down for that.

Great win for Jafiela Suncel. The man could still do it. I think the move to Extreme Coutor was very smart on his part, and it showed in a big way. And then Alonzo Mena Field, boy, that was a violent knockout of Misha Siercanov. Great stuff right there. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes. Oh, what?

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means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. And so from the prelimbs, who impressed you the most? Because there were some good up-and-combers. Who stood out the most to you before we got to the main card? I mean, to two retirees, obviously the big one,

because he's what, like 20, 21? It looks like he's 12. So he's going to be interesting to watch no matter where he goes. I think he's just his attempts, because obviously he's from, he's Japanese, correct, if I remember, if I might, I don't want to mistake, make a mistake. He's Japanese, if I remember correctly. It doesn't speak great English, but when he does, it's very endearing, I want to say. It has that, like, everyone just kind of like the face you're making now where you smile,

but like, that's the face people, that's the face people make whenever Tituro Tira, like, gets really excited. and tried like when he was trying to tell me about eating in and out back back in the day everyone was talking about that um and obviously joe anderson brittow i think deserves a big jump up in competition he looked really impressive and i would say pete rodriguez but he did just crush mike jackson so uh we have bonuses we do have bonuses how many yeah guess them how many uh we have we have a fight i will say we have a fight of the night it's it's the normal bonus structure So two performances in one fight?

In one fight. Probably Alonzo Manifield and Jonathan Martinez for performance, correct? You got one of the two. Is it Jonathan Martinez? Is that the fight of the night? No. The fight of the night, the main event? No.

I have no idea then. Tell me. Fight of night is to Dorovich versus Wright. Jonathan Martinez got a bonus. And what a segue. way, just as you were talking about the man, Tetsuro Tyra gets the other bonus. Yeah. For his sixth career submission win, his first UFC finish, now 12 and 0, 22 years of age.

Just a delight. Just a delightful human being. Had the chance to speak with him before. Just such a nice kid. He's going to be a problem, man. He's going to be a problem in 25. Let's go to Dvorovich and Jordan Wright were the fight of the night. That was a fight of the night.

Oh, I hope Jordan gets another fight then. it'd be weird to cut a man off a fight of the night but I guess weird things have happened yeah I mean I don't know I mean he's never in a boring fight ever you know what they're gonna do they're gonna like Bo Nichol's gonna beat Jamie Pickett

and then they're gonna be like oh Jordan Wright beat Jamie Pickett let's feed Jordan Wright to Bo Nickle that's Oh you couldn't happen that's a bummer I mean that would be wild man that would be wild I agree with with your Tetsu or Tyra pick, that guy's real good.

Pete Rodriguez, that was just vicious as hell. Brito's real good. I mean, he treated Lucas Alexander accordingly. I think Manna Martinez has a ton of potential, and you could see it in the man, but just didn't come out. I mean, Brandon Davis is a dog, but James Kraus just yelling at him and just going all Krausey on them. And then they go to commercial right in the middle of the good stuff.

So a good way for him. about Kohn too. I just looked up because I wanted to see, because I couldn't remember if Jordan Wright was on a three or four-fight losing streak now. He's on a three-fight losing streak. Has lost four or five. And then I was like, well, who did Dusko Todorovich fight? Like, these

two have literally never had like just like Jordan Wright's four losses in the U.S. year to Joaquin Buckley, Bruno Silver, Mark Andre Barrio, and Dusko Dadovich. And technically, he lost to Fluffy Hernandez on the contender series. It was all returned to no contest when Anthony

his test positive for marijuana. That's a silly thing all in itself. And Dusko Dorovich, his laws is where Chudino Jacquani, Greg Cop and Punisoriano. Like those two have literally fought the people that will kill you in the range of 15 to 20 rankings. That's tough out for both men. And then maybe Bo Nicol could be waiting in the wings for either of these two guys. So there you go.

That's a card. A nice, tight, 11 fights, in and out. Got a lot of hype for UFC 280. And all in all, I thought this is a pretty good card. I think it delivered. It wet our whistles. It was a nice little go-home show for UFC 280. And yeah, it was good.

It was fun. Let's see what the peeps have to say about the festivities. This is bringing E. Casey Lydden. There he is. Wiping away my tears. My coach Victor Henry took a tough loss tonight. awesome fight though dude

oh hold on a second old school of Sincal showed up tonight by the way that was like man talk about fighting talking about fighting a guy in the wrong night that story he told about just what basically jumping in a car and just showing up

at Extreme Gature was unbelievable that's crazy and that just goes to tell you what great coach or what great people Eric Nixick and the people at Extreme Gature are because because they completely gave Javier Sincal that, you know, y'all must have forgot type of moment, you know, for us as fans. And, yeah, and Victor being such an aggressive fighter and an exciting fighter, it just played so well into since I was game planned. And, yeah, it was just not coming back from that.

And yeah, congratulations, Mr. Sincal. So, yeah. It was very odd because it's been a while since I've been, as a media member, talking to you guys had someone so kind of close to me in a fight this big. So, no, I wanted to make it very clear who I was going for and who I had. But it was, it's why I, it's why I don't pick Ryan Bader fights. Yeah. He literally was the referee and the coach in my two amateur fights. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I, yeah, just, like, yeah, but watching you just a journal list, you know, from very, uh, it's tough, but, um, yeah, watching your friend lose like that. Um,

It's tough. But, man, since I look great tonight. And, you know, but I think, like, a lot of the, almost a lot of the losers, there are some cards where, you know, the guy that loses just looks bad. Like, Mike Jackson didn't look like a UFC level fighter tonight. Let's just call it what it is. But Victor Henry, Cub Swanson, even Jordan Wright, I thought they all look good in their losses. And I think that's a, that's a sign of a good card.

Like, even Viviana, Vian, like, she looked great in a loss. And that's why I just really liked this card tonight. I liked this card going in. I like this card going into it. I did. I mean, I knew it wasn't a great name by you card, but I liked the matchups,

and I thought the main event had lots of high stakes, and it delivered. Sorry. Yeah, I want to get that off on dress. Yeah, I agreed. I know Jed was not very high on it.

I thought this is definitely better than 61. I thought it was better than 61. He was just very, he was very sad about the brand Royval-Assgraf. Yeah, yeah. I mean, that one. I mean, look, he wasn't alone in that sentiment because that fight was fantastic, but it is what it is.

It happened. 11 fights is great. Let's go. I love the combination. I know some people don't like Dom as a commentator, but I really like Felder, Fitzgerald, and Dom. I think Dom brought a very analytical kind of point, a very technical point of view of watching the fights, while Felder was really getting to the mind of these guys and telling a big story. lines and I don't know tonight just had a really good flow I think a lot of I have to do with the

the tight number of fights not like 14 fights so I think that kind of the guys didn't kind of get loopy from talking about fights so much they were very focused on the fights tonight and I really enjoyed it just a great show by the UFC tonight yeah and I I I want brand of fitch Gerald to do the interviews in the octagon I like how feldar I like like getting a fighter talking to a fighter will obviously have fighters open up more but Paul Felder is just so weird what he talks to fighters. Like, because it just doesn't sound natural. Yeah, because I think when fighters, when the camera's off, they're going to talk to each other

different. But when the camera's on, Felder has to kind of give the, who do you got next? Or when, you know, like, things that I don't think fighters, when they talk to each other, they don't really talk about, you know, like, how many, you know what I mean? Like, how many fights do you think it's going to take pretty good to get the championship? You know, like, they don't say that when the camera's not there. So he feels weird putting that hat on, but I know what you're saying. Yeah, he did have a.

weird moments in there. He's like, Paul Feldor is just like, wow, great fight. Just stellar job. That jab was just on point. Did you see that before the fight? Because I sure didn't. Nope. Like, his, his, his question is what you should be asking. The delivery is weird. Yeah. He did pop the crowd with Alonzo Menefield, though. I thought that's pretty funny. Yeah, he's, I, he's, and it's, he'll get better. Like, I'm not, like, the questions he asks, the questions he is asking are good. The delivery is weird. Yeah, deliveries.

Oh, man. And I know, I know Fodor was trying to shy away from it, but didn't it really seem that Alonzo Mennifield, he really felt really bad what he did there. Okay, because it really kind of, okay, I was, I don't know if it was just me, but like, you could tell he wanted, like, he was just all ready to go. But then he kind of, in that 30 seconds, he's like, oh. my God, I just, I might have killed a man, you know, and yeah, because, like, they went to commercial and came back, and that's, that's real time, and they had just, they had just gotten Misha off the ground. That's freaking scary to get knocked down.

Yeah, he was down for a while. That's like in a movie, like, that doesn't happen really, it hits on in the head in the movie if it block you, oh, they pass out. That's not real, but that's, that's what it looked like. Like, that was scary, and Likai-Lonzo was just, he really brought down his, his post-fight kind of speech because of it, but, um, Good Um, Felder to kind of, of, I think Felder felt that and kind of redirected to a more positive kind of place. But, yeah, because he definitely, he definitely didn't want to throw, like, those last four punches that he

land because Serkenov was, like, already done so. And Mark Smith was doing the hokey pokey and didn't get in there fast enough. And that last hammer fist was so brutal. That's like, he was like, I don't want to throw this, but nobody's stopping me from throwing it. Boom. It's all I know how to do. I've been training my whole life to do this. Someone stop me, please, Mark Smith.

Not everyone can be Leota Machita. That's true. But to Mark Smith's credit, I understand. When the knockout happened, they kind of came out of nowhere. Mark Smith just happened to be on the other side of Circumov, so he couldn't really see his faces. He had to go around and get a clear view on it. So it's just unfortunate.

But Alonzo Mendovo, Jesus, man, that guy. That's just, it's just, it's just. to remind her how dangerous this sport is. That's all. It's like, God, these guys are going to hit so freaking hard. It's really scary. Yeah.

All right, let's go to the peeps, see what they have to say. I don't know if how much we talked about this, but, oh, that's too small. Sorry. How is Maximoff versus Mel Kuhn didn't watch the pre-them? So, for you, Rashad,

it was a fight that was competitive for a couple of minutes, and then Nick Maximoff clearly hurt his leg. Like you could see it. He was grimacing every time he moved. Malcun took some momentum. And then in between rounds, Nick tells his team, my knee popped out. My knees effed. It popped out. And they're like, all right, dude, go back out there. And then the referee's like, all right, go back out there. Just, I need to make sure you can move on it. And to Nick's credit, he battled through it. But Malcun just kind of beat him up the whole time. And he was on the,

the opposite side of like the men of field thing like malcun was very very sportsman like because he didn't he threw like two let he didn't throw like any leg kicks and to paul felders credit he was like he was like he was like i'm smashing that leg right now but he didn't throw like any leg kicks just landed great shots got a couple takedowns and he won the fight so yeah it wasn't a hundred percent the fight it could have been because max him up basically fought on one leg for the almost the entire fight but But Malkoon won. I think he swept the scorecard. Oh, definitely.

It was just an unfortunate. It was a fight. On the pre-fight show, I was really excited about. And I thought we were getting there, too, because I felt their wrestling was kind of stalemating before the knee injury. And it was going to be a slug fest. And Nick cracked him. Nick cracked him. Well, that's why we like Feltter, because Feltre asked about the leg kicks.

And then Malku said, well, it was actually his rear leg that was injured. And he's not a good kicker. And kicking the rear leg is much more dangerous for the offensive fighter because you're open. And he said he just got hit him with a hard left hook. And going after that rear leg would open up to the left hook. So he was just like, I don't want to get, the guy can still punch me. This is still a dangerous dude, even with one leg. So I really like the, I like how Fetter brought that up in Malku explained it, you know.

And it all kind of made sense. And, yeah, it just an unfortunate fight. But I guess I want to talk about, I agree that the refs shouldn't have. stop the fight because I don't think I think you can as long as you can stand up you can still fight should Maximoff's coaches or someone throwing the towel I mean we're kind of getting that Macy Barber situation again I know it's a different fight but

they know their fighter's done it's tough because I'm not training with Nick Maximoff all the time so I don't really know what he's capable of but we've seen like Conradger beat Max Holloway with one leg and like GSP blew his knee out and he still would win fights

and we've seen it's we've seen fighters win a long almost beat John Jones on one leg with with no knees no with no with no knees yeah it's just two stubs

two stubs walking across almost be John Jones it's the greatest fighter editor ever I think this one just feels different because Matt Nick like he

you could see it on his face and I guess other fighters have a better poker face you know does that make sense so like you'll see like my knees like my knees like my knees Remember, like, the famously, George St. Pierre's like, I tore my groin. And then Greg Jackson's like, I don't care.

Like, hit him with your groin. Yeah. Yeah. So it's like that's fighters just made, but maybe this is the first time Nick has faced something like that. So moving forward, it's just different. But then we've seen, we've seen like Duke Rufus thrown the towel for a broken hand. But then we've seen fighters win fights with the broken hands. But he knows Anthony needs his hand.

So it's just like maybe it's just a different. I'm not, I don't know. I don't, I'm not, I'm not accusing the maximum. Maximo Maximov As coach is doing the wrong thing I just think No question should be asked

And it was just Unfortunately I hope Man He's a tough dude Biggs I don't know Yeah man That was just

It was a tough fight As unfortunate for both fighters Honestly Because then my Malku Malku's win Kind of a bit of asteric But he got the win

So a bit You know I mean I picked I picked him to win anyways I still think he's gonna I still thought he's gonna win the fight Just I just thought he did And eventually

And even with the one leg thing, can we graduate Jacob Malcoun from Robert Whitaker's training partner to just him being his own man now? Enough is enough. I thought the Brennan-Alan fight was enough to graduate him. And I think he should just be

Jacob Malcun, his own man at this point. Well, you could, Nick Maximoff should probably be more than Nate Diaz's friend. Yes. On the other side. Both both sides. This is very true.

I think he shed that a little bit more. Like, I mean, Nate just goes to every fight, so it's hard. It's, Nate just so supportive of this kid that he's always

going to be around. Like, he was in the building for the fight. So it's like, Rob Woodaker flew in for Malcun's fight. So, but yeah, it was unfortunate. Jacob's a good fighter.

Nick will be back. And I think maybe just what we're talking about with Felder interviewing him, maybe they just from the research and all the film side they did on Malcoon, they're like, all right, well,

this dude's not going to throw a bunch of leg kicks at you. so you're good. Like he was fighting like a middleweight Chris Gutierrez or Jonathan Martinez maybe they look at it a little bit differently

but for this case they just felt like that that threat wasn't really there. I think the winner of Petrovsky Termin should fight Malcun on the Perth card. I like that I do.

Two middleweights that are like 35th in the rankings. Yeah, I like that. It's good match for right there. Suck it, A.K. Patrick, when Martinez called though Dom, I feel like young fighters disrespect legends of the sport calling them easy wins.

All the Korean zombie callouts feel the same. Agree or disagree. Did Martinez say Dom's an easy one? I thought that was, did I not hear it right? I thought it was just. I just don't think Jonathan Martinez has a disrespectful bone in his body. Like the only people I've ever heard Jonathan Martinez disrespect were the judges in Texas. other than that

because everyone feels like he got hosed at that fight in Texas that night where like that was the Dominic Ray was that the Dominic Ray's John Jones card? I think so. It was that card, right? Where there's so many wonky judges scorecards

and John that was pissed about that. That was the most I've, I interviewed him like a couple days after that is the most I've ever heard him talk and the most I've ever heard him talk sins. But yeah, I don't, I didn't, I don't remember it being a disrespectful callout. No.

And he didn't, like, Dom was in the building. He didn't look at Dom and, like, point at him. He was just, he just said it to Paul. Yeah, it was just. And then Brennan's like, what do you think, Dom? I'm like, oh, yeah, Dom's like right there. Dom's like, all right, cool. But, yeah, I don't think that's like that flight's going to happen.

No, I don't think so either. But I thought it was a fine call out. To me, I, shoot his shot, bro. Yeah, she's your shot. He's right there. Yeah, that's a shot I'm okay with. Like Joe Anderson, like even Joe Anderson Brito calling out Danny Gay. Don't hate it.

It's not going to happen, but I don't hate it. called for a title shot. It's not like Jonathan Martinez called for Cheeto Vera. Yeah. He called for Dominic Cruz. And if they made it, no one's going to complain about it. But I just don't think that's a fight. Dom's going to be all that interested in right now.

No. No, not at this point. Not coming off that bad knockout. No, no. Sorry, Mr. Martinez. Good try. But I like your attitude, though. Yeah.

But I did like, to my impression was, when Don was talking about the fight, he was talking about how big Martinez was and how he might have been looked like he might have been bigger than Cub to be honest um even was yeah definitely I think Don I felt when Don was saying that he was really saying holy crap I'm a flyweight I think I'm a flyweight compared to

I don't think Don's gonna go to flyweight Oh no I don't think he's gonna go to flyweight But I just think like he's realizing like Cubs went A featherweight his entire career but that was also 10 years ago All these guys are just bigger now And these new guys, these new 35ers are now bigger than these, the veteran feather weights. Josie Otto is a great example. He, I used to think of him as a big featherweight.

That's what we thought. Turns out he's just a regular bantam weight. You know, it's just. Even like, even like, like, Adrianianez is much bigger in person than you would think he is. Like when you watch him fight, he just seems like a normal bantamweight looking dude. And then you actually stand next to the guy. You're like, wow, you're bigger than I thought you were. Yeah.

So there you go. I don't think there's any disrespect there. I get the Korean zombie ones. But even then, I just feel like people are just like, let's go fight this dude. Come on, Korean zombie, let's go. I don't think anyone's saying, like, you suck, let's fight. Yeah, and I get it because like the UFC does not match up veterans on their retirement fights almost ever. Like look at what Frank Yeager fighting Chris Gutierrez and MSG.

I don't even know who. Shogun is fighting in Rio. Like, this is what happens. Like, if Jonathan Martinez, maybe he is paying attention on all this and he's like, hey, they're matching up a bunch of people on the way out with a bunch

of up-and-comers, I'll shoot my shot. What's the worst they can say? No. Yeah. I wonder what Casey Kettie's up to, because I think that'd be a really good fight for Jonathan Martinez. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. All right.

I know we talked about Martinez's callout. Talked about that one. But I love the Adriana's idea, maybe a little more. Yeah. Oh, um, we mentioned them briefly, but I felt he deserves to be talked about a little bit more. Uh, my man Tristan, how dangerous think Brito is is a prospect in the featherweight division. That dude looks scary. Here's my one concern about this man, Jose.

My one concern is this dude just gets shot out of a cannon in every. single fight just gets after it. And I feel like if he takes on a super durable fighter that is highly skilled, that he's going to fall into some bad habits. It's going to fall into some could have some long nights. So if he can control that burst of energy, maybe just because he was fighting a guy on short notice making his UFC debut, that he felt he could just do that and overwhelm this guy. And it turns out he was right. But as he moves up this featherweight division, and he starts, because this division is jacked. It's loaded up.

It's not quite banim weight in terms of depth, but it's very, very close in that sense. But I feel like that could be a problem down the road. But is this something that worries you about him and his ascension in this division? Yeah, but I think it's, it worries, maybe not worry, but I'm going to be curious about his next fight because now it's out there.

Now you're like because before when he fought Feeley It was like a second UFC fight And before that he lost to Bill Algeo And I just think he ran it Andre Feeley And everyone was like what the hell has happened right now And then he just not like if they fought again I think Feeley beats him I just think Joe Anderson Brito just caught everyone off card

Now the blueprint's out there If if he does what he does To two three more people and they haven't got the memo That's their problem but I want to see what he does in his next fight next. Then I'll have a better answer. Do let's just chuck him in there with like Nate Landware and just let all chaos rain. Jesus Christ. See that would be I mean that would be a great test for him because Nate ain't going away. You could hit that guy a thousand times and he's not going to stop. So that'll be the true

test to see if that gas take it hold on. That is true now. Time catches up to everybody. Yeah. I mean, who knows how much damage. He took. a lot of damage and I don't know I'm a fight but he got so much buzz of that fight that's gonna be on some top five lists for fight of the year it should be I don't know how many that that

that fight's a that it's a feather weights right like god Nate Landware should have he should because he should I was telling like the people backstage in this like if I was Nate Landware and you just because he always talks about like you know a prize fighter makes a lot of money this and that he should have just taken the mic and just be like

hey fat Patty Pimble I'll fight you a one 55 let's go now. I'm going to cut your head off in Madison score garden. Then I'd be like, oh, I'm here for it. But he didn't. He blew it. I don't know. He called somebody.

I forget who it was. I don't remember. He called someone out that is that. He said, called out Shade Burgos, who then went to people. That's right. That's right. That's the best. And then he went on.

He goes on the aerial show. Burgos makes the announcement. Then Ariel tells him that, oh, you didn't know who's on my show earlier? He goes, yeah, he goes to go on the PFL. He goes, oh, damn, I didn't know that. That was hilarious. All right. Yeah, I mean, look, Joe Anderson's fun to watch.

He's must-see TV. We're just going to be a shit. Like, if he fights like a Damon Jackson, what's that going to look like? That's an, like, fights like that. Or like Julian Arosa or even Akeem DeWan who just, Julian just beat. Like, they are just technically sound strikers. it's going to be rough. Brito versus DeWado is interesting.

Yeah, I mean, if DeWatu stays at Featherway because he... That's a great point. Like 149 something like that in his last fight. That's true. Oh, Khome DeWato Patty Pimmel will be fun.

I think you're a good gentleman. That's it? Yeah. Yeah, now we're getting lots of questions about next week, but we're going to keep it focused on tonight, guys, because we're going to have lots of time talking about next week.

So much. time so much time to talk about it tomorrow we'll put a bow on this event a k and i'll be back for some matchmaking onto the next one i have to say i cannot wait for that show to be done not because i don't like doing it but because i just i want to wrap the bow officially and then move on to make it officially ufc 280 fight week and we don't have anything really else to worry to worry about so there we go fun card in the books nice tight 11 fights a lot of them were fun we got some good finishes a main event with some stakes, Alexa Grasso might be sitting in the driver's seat

right now, but for how long? Casey, Casey, breaking news, breaking news, Casey. Breaking news? Uh-oh. The huge naturalists have won once and nothing. Poor Mariners are out. The Mariners are out. Take that Mariners. In the 18th inning.

Oh, my God. I apologize to all Mariners fans because that sucks. Honestly, you guys are good fans. You deserve better. Oh man, but go Stras. I heard Seattle fans get let down. The Blue Jays fans get let down.

The Alabama fans are let down and I don't give a shit. I love it. And everyone obviously had the Philadelphia Phillies. Yeah, of course. In the NLCS. Bryce Harper could just bunt a baseball and it's going to go over the fence at this point. Oh, yeah. I love Spradsball.

Sprott's ball. Yes. Sprott's ball. Let's go. All right. Well, we're almost at UFC 28. 85 week, everybody. For Casey, for Jose, I, Mike Heck.

Thank you for watching. Thank you for listening. Good night, everybody. We'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.