MMA Fighting - UFC Vegas 66 Post-Fight Show: Jared Cannonier Wins Snoozer, Tsaruykan Shines + What's Next For Strickland, Albazi, Dober, More

Episode Date: December 18, 2022

The UFC's 2022 schedule is officially at an end — and Jared Cannonier and Sean Strickland couldn't have closed it out with a weirder fight. MMA Fighting's Shaun Al-Shatti, Jed Meshew, and Alexander K. Lee react to Cannonier's listless decision win over Strickland in the main event of UFC Vegas 66 as well as the unique judging phenomenon that accompanied the bout. Additionally, they discuss the co-main event between Arman Tsarukyan and Damir Ismagulov, Drew Dober's hellacious come-from-behind win over Bobby Green, Amir Albazi's ceiling in the UFC following his knockout of Alessandro Costa, the chances Michal Oleksiejczuk is a dark horse in the middleweight division, and much more. Follow Shaun Al-Shatti @ShaunAlShatti Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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. What is up, my friends? One last time for 2022, we appreciate you for joining us here on the final host fight show

of the year. here on MMA fighting. UFC Vegas 66 just ended. My name is Sean O'Shti, and you know the crew. We've got the man, the Prince of Positivity, the King in the North, Alexander Cayley. A great card tonight, guys. You're so positive.

He's so positive. That was a fight card. Sure was. They fought them. They got out there and fought them. All the ones and twos. Look at you all dressed up for the occasioning, Casey. I love it.

You're where you get the collar. Oh, my guy. I think this is the first time I've ever seen Casey in a collar. Sorry, I was muted. I was saying something really exciting, but I'm muted, so whatever. It's an occasion. It's the end of the year. Celebration, 2020, fellas, is officially in the books for the UFC calendar.

Go out of the bag. We didn't exactly end that one with Lighten the World on Fire, but in the end, it is Jared Cannonaire who gets it done over Sean Strickland. That is a unanimous decision. Really strange scorecards. It is not a unanimous decision. Oh, I'm sorry, that was the split decision, yes.

What? I'm still waking up. Strange scorecards. I mean, 4946 is two of them for Jared. A 4946 for Sean as well. No judge agreed on, like all three judges didn't agree on any round at all, which I don't know that I have ever seen that.

I'm sure I've seen it at some point, but that is a very rare sight. And also this one, I mean, Judge Sal DiMato and Derek Cleary, two of the most veteran judges in the sport, have completely opposite scorecards. Completely opposite scorecard. They saw every single round differently. But in the end, I think we get the right result, right? Jared Canada came in here with the game plan. He chopped down those legs.

He landed power punches when he could. And now he heads into 2023 poised to return to title contention. Alexander Cayley. You just watched the final fight of 2022 for the UFC. That I'll ever watch all of the year. What are your takeaways from what you did this off? If you think I'm watching that fight again, you got another thing coming, buddy. You got another thing coming.

My head hurts looking at this scorecard. It's like an optical illusion. It's like I'm trying to line up. I'm like, you just said none of the judges, like there's no, sorry, there's no round that all three judges agreed on. And I'm like, that can't be right. And I'm like looking at it. And my eyes are crossing and rolling.

and I'm pretty sure you're right, but it just seems like, it seems unlikely. But also, if there was any fight for this to happen to, I think most of us, as we were watching this fight, I could be wrong. I don't want to speak for everyone, but we're kind of like round one. It was like, that kind of could have gone either way.

I'll edge it towards one guy. The next round, like, okay, I think it's even now, but I could also see it up to what, 2.0 for whoever. Same thing after three rounds. It was like, oh, 29, 28 for someone, and so on and so forth, until the fifth round where you're just kind of like, Like, you're pretty sure one guy won.

I don't think any of us here have a major issue with the candid ear decision. But it didn't feel like super definitive in any way. And once we saw them do the split screen and then Bruce, was it Bruce Barford tonight? Joe Martinez. Joe Martinez. His voice cracked like twice. It was the first time I've ever heard that and get up in anything. I was not paying attention to the in Rican house, but it's an apex card.

I should have known it was the wonderful Joe Martinez. Once he started reading the separate names, you're like, yeah, this feels. okay. This feels okay that's a split. When you heard it was 49, 46s in different directions, that was a little strange. I don't know when we've seen that. But again, I can't have a major issue with it. There's just some of the rounds, so many of the rounds felt like coin tosses. I'd have to watch it again, which I'm not going to, to like really point out like, oh, that was definitely a Strickland round or that was definitely a cannoneer round. So as screwy as it looks, it's kind of the scorecards we deserve for the way that that fight played.

out. Is that it? You ended that in a very weird way. I don't know. Everything I just said there, I don't know if I used a single period. I think I ended every sentence in a question mark. Yeah. It's fitting. It's very fitting.

Jed. It's been a weird year, Jed. I think you could say that, right? Super weird year, man. You've had some really crazy last second comebacks, Leon Edwards, Alex Pereira pulling off two of the bigger comeback upsets we've ever seen. You had the whole weirdness with Nate Diaz and Hems at Shemaiah at the last second, that whole event getting flipped upside down.

Charles Oliverer losing his belt on the scale. Like you could just go on and on and on about just all the weird, lots of main events entered with injuries. Like, it's just been a really weird year. And it feels somewhat fitting that we get a scorecard for the final fight of the year where, again, like AK said, like, I don't know a situation where you could remember two completely diametrically opposite scorecards

and yet you can't really fault either guy because it was all kind of by, I felt like by the fourth round, the entire community sort of just threw our hands in the air and be like, you know what? It's not ours to judge, let the judges deal with this one because we kind of zoned out a tiny bit.

So I mean, what were your takeaways from what you just saw? Oh, we made history, guys. I'm willing to say this is the first time, in a five-round fight that nobody could be mad about scorecards. There is no way to be upset. This could have been 50-45 either way. Totally fine.

I cannot be upset if either man got a 50-45. Just, it was. It was a fight. They fought. They did some stuff to each other. Neither man was better. They're the same. This is like the bad version of Gamrod-Sauru-Rucan.

Right, like neither guy really showed that he was better than the other. However, it went, it went. And we're good. Like, I have no problem with the dueling 49-46s. Couldn't care less think they're both right. Neither of them are wrong. And that never happens. Unless Doug Crosby somehow scored this fight,

he probably could have found a way to find a wrong answer, but we all did okay. Now we're done with the year for the UFC. And onward and upward, I guess. Like, there's nothing to take away from this. It's just like, my honest to God, biggest takeaway from this fight is just like, well, good for Jared Canoneer ever making his way to a title fight. It's like, if you're going, I don't even want to say going hammer and tongs because that's not really the adjective to describe this phrase, like this fight. It's like, if you can't definitively beat Jared Canaaner, you probably should it be fighting for,

belt. And the fact that you did means you came out on the positive side of things. So good work for you. But God, let's keep him away from Alex Pereira for his health and safety. Because holy crap, the new champ would just separate him from consciousness in the most violent fashion possible. Did you guys take a look at the official scorecards? I have them right here. Oh, that's right. Another card. I'm sorry. Striking stat. The stats, excuse me. Oh, I did. I also have them right here. Super insanely close. Total strikes, not that's how you score, fight, but 152 to 14, significant strikes. 152, 141, Sean Strickland.

And then you go round by round. I don't think any round had a greater differential of six strikes. It's ridiculously close. That was round four, 33, 23, 27 for Strickland. Round one, 16, 13, Canaanier, round 28, 25, Strickland, round 3, 35, 33, Strickland, and round 5, 43, 40 Strickland. So just ridiculously close. Strickland, big advantage in head strikes, but he didn't do anything with leg strikes and canadaer huge advantage in leg and body strikes.

So I don't know. I got a poll going, guys. I got a poll up pretty quick after that main event. As I imagine, I was going to go down a bad route there. But who do you think won the UFC Vegas 66 main event right now? The fans. The fans, 100%. But between the two fighters, Sean Strickland, 53% so far.

I wonder how much is that fine. That is just Sean Strickland being a little more popular probably than Jared Cannonere because I feel like this is anger. Just anger about the main event being directed at the winner. I think a lot. Actually, you know what fellas. I actually some breaking news here just coming in. Breaking news.

Just hearing. Do we have the sound drop? There we go. Oh, there we go. Just heard from our good friend Doug Crosby. Text message here. We have his official score for this fight. 5045 Patty Pimblit, man did it again.

Okay. Let's keep it rolling. All right. That was a terrible joke. Honestly, not a bad scorecard either. I'm okay with that one as well. That was an awful joke. Jen, we just watched two, you know, a one-time contender versus a guy who has been in contention

in this division for a while now. They fought ultimately Jared Canada. It does get the decision. Moves into 2023 now with this division in a very, you know, interesting place, frankly. Like, more interesting than middleway's been. for a bit simply because of the change at the top. Where do you feel like this one puts him? Like, what's the state of the middleweight division now

as we headed to 2023? He is going to fight the winner of Marvin Vittori versus Roman DeLizze. And he is probably not going to win that fight. Whoever comes out of that fight ahead. And Jared Canaaner is just going to be a dude. It's going to be a dude around. And that's fine.

That's the fate of most, not even most fighters. being a dude is great for most fighters he is going to be one of the many many men who have challenged for a belt found been found wanting and then just hung around for a while and i don't know how long he can he's relatively long in the tooth but you know he didn't look that did not look like he lost a step or whatever just kind of look like a jared can in your fight so he's not i don't think he's challenging for the title again i'm a little surprised he challenged in the first place. And if we're being honest, probably mostly challenged for it because Israel wanted to

fight him and made that happen, spoke it into existence. And I don't, Alex Pereira should try and make it happen. Buddy, you want to stack up a highlight reel that will make you look like a way, a way more true and dominant champion? Fight Jared Canaan here. It's going to go miles in the win column for you. But he's just going to be a guy. He's going to fight other dudes by Paulo Costa and Bronwyn.

Robert Whitaker again and do all that. That'll be okay. Let's end on this one here for this fight. I mean, AK, we saw Jared afterwards post-fight. He called for, sort of called for the Whitaker Costa winner. And this is a weird fight, right? Because who knows if we'll even get that fight by the time it all plays out, considering everything going on with Paula Costa and his UFC contract and this ongoing

drama with him. Do you like that call out? Does that make sense to you? I mean, who do you want to see next for Jared Kennedy here? Paul Ocosta, great. Not in a huge rush to see him fight Robert Whitaker again. I don't recall there being much controversy around their first fight. I remember in my mind, pretty solid, convincing win for Robert Whitaker.

But I think what's Jed has mentioned, and I think as you're proposing, I do think Kennear has to wait for the winner of one of these upcoming matchups. There's also Gaslom fighting Imov. And if Imov wins, maybe win or lose Imov. He ends up fighting Kenonier. Probably win. Probably if Imov wins. I don't think Gasolam, if he wins or loses, it matters.

I don't think, again, they'll run that one back with him and Caneer. There's really no need for it. So the good news for Caneer is there are still people that he hasn't fought in the rankings. He moved up pretty quickly. Like he, not quickly, I mean, he had to fight through three different divisions. But once he got to middleweight, he went on a nice run. He got that Derek Brunson fight. That was a great win, made him worthy of a title shot.

I don't think anyone would argue about that. And like I said, there's still some first. He hasn't fought Marvin Vittori. He hasn't fought Roman Delizza. He hasn't fought Nassargenia M.ov. So like Jed said, he's kind of just going to be a guy. Fans may have to look forward to more Jared Canineer main events at the UFC Apex. Like he just, that's kind of the level of notoriety and success he's at. Like he's very easy to sell like his record. He looks impressive. Jerry Canner, an amazing shape. Looks like a guy who, you know, you could show a casual fan who maybe hasn't been following UFC. You kind of look at Jared.

Canner and like imagine him in Vitori like look at both these guys like this could be a sick fight and then they get in the occasion it becomes what it is so um it sounds like it's kind of we're both being we're kind of being optimistic and pessimistic for Jared here like pessimistic is in like I don't know how many more like exciting relevant fights he has but optimistic as in he still has a lot of ranked opponents to go and like I said amazingly I don't think you've seen your last Jared Canninger main event no I agree with you this feels like we're going to see this man and at least Two or three, UFC, Apex or maybe not Apex, but at least fight night main event.

Moving forward. What's this face you're making, Jed? I'm saying bare minimum, at least two. We're talking five, probably. Squeeze whatever juice is left out of that. Well, fellas, let's move on. We got 40-some-odd cards a year. You've got to find people to headline them.

There are only so many heavyweights you can put in five-round fights, and they will put all of them. Trust me, the UFC will put all the heavies they can. but then you need middleweights. It's just how it goes. That's just how it goes. Let's move on, though, because ultimately, I thought that today was a very fun card. Like, I enjoyed the card for the most part up until that main event.

And I want to talk about the people's main event, which was this co-main between our Montserruki and Demira's Magulov. We were talking about this on the preview show. I think all of us were gushing in anticipation of this fight. We all really enjoyed this fight. Ultimately, it may not have been fireworks. that may not have been some crazy fight of the year type of performance, but I thought it was very competitive, very intriguing to watch, hard fought, controlling victory here for Armant Surukin,

who, by the way, ends an eight-year 19-fight win streak by the man Demir Izma Gulov. Like, to me, this win by Armantzsterican, I know maybe some people are down on it, I feel like this one's going to age really, really well, because I think there are not a lot of people in this 155-pound division that are going to get past Demir over the next couple years. A.K., we'll start with you. Were you impressed by what you saw from Arlon Saruth? I certainly was by what I saw with my educated MMA fan eyes. I was very impressed.

I know how good Demir Usmogolab is. I know how difficult it was for Sarukyan to get the better of him in the grappling to neutralize him, to impose as well as he did, and to get away with, again, a convincing decision, not like a thrilling unanimous decision win, but a convincing decision. However, I'll get ahead. I know Jedd has something to say about this fight, specifically young Mr. Surukyan. So I'll get ahead of it a little bit,

and I'll say if this was your first time, if you again, I'm just always bringing in the casual perspective here. If this was your first time seeing Surukian fight, you probably didn't understand what the big deal was. There's a little pity when Armand's Surukhan fights. You can just go to social media and you can see everyone, like everyone in the MA media, all of us, you know, educated viewers.

We're all kind of like, ah, man, look at that Cirque. He's so good. God, she don't know how good this guy. He's a future champion dog. It's like, and again, from a Marquezos standpoint, it's a little bit of a tough sell, depending on which of his fights you saw. So I'm only kind of scraping some of the criticism I have with this performance.

Again, I thought it was great. I wish, I hope he gets a top eight guy next. We all know that's not happening the way that that top eight is under lock and key at 155 pounds. But I will say, it was a good performance by Surukyon, didn't really live up to the people's main event status that I think some of us had bestowed upon it. We can get to a fight that did later.

But I don't know. Maybe, you know, if you're talking stock watch for Surukyon, maybe kind of neutral, kind of neutral after this fight. It's, I feel like this fight is a victim of the situation that's going on in the lightweight division that we've been talking about all year, and in particular the last like six months or so where the top of the division, the old guys,

the ingrained guys who have been in here for a long time. And I'll include Michael Chandler in that as well because he's sort of in that age range. They just fight each other, right? And so there is this round robin that is going on around the top five. Everyone else below that is just sort of stuck fighting each other,

not really being able to make much forward advancement. Even Benil Darius is kind of stuck in that spot. And I would say he's among that elite as well. And that to me is a simple. that was showed tonight where when I'm watching this fight between isma gulov and armand this felt to me like a fight between i don't know the number three and number four guy in this division or or wherever you want to throw them like this felt like a a top five level fight that we were watching and yet you look at the numbers next to their name i don't know where they are on

the ufc rankings i think maybe nine and twelve or something like that somewhere similar on our rankings on m a fighting which by the way are the only rankings that matter uh but just in general like it did not feel to be a fight between lower level people. It felt, if I can, a high-level fight than it really was marketed as. I mean, Jed, did you get that sense? And also, I guess, what are your takeaways away from this? Because it felt like you came away from this maybe a little colder on Armand than I would expect.

I am, I think. And it's not just this fight. It's this fight paired with the Gamrod fight. And I know your initial reaction was, well, those are two of the top at worst, like realistically the top eight, lightweights in the world. That's fair. There's a fair point. My issues are less that are more, though, about the performance and less the outcome and the competition. But the way he is going about fighting gives me real concerns. I was talking to Casey before we got on this. Like,

I think my outcome is that I am just feeling a little, my coolness on Surukin is I was really high on and maybe I'm coming back to a more appropriate level. I still think he will beat all the people that I previously thought he beat, except for one. I'm actually going to move him down one spot in my upcoming rankings because I'm going to have one guy move up as a result of this. And I think I feel a little bit better about Esmogulov in this fight because of the things he showed me.

And I was a little cooler on him for a lot of the, also the reasons this fight worked out. At the end of the day, my thoughts really boiled down to, man, uh, Saurucia needs to find a plan B. Like he, he needs one because what he has got right now is not the answer. Like he wants to get his grappling game going. He's very good at it, very good wrestler, incredible gas tank, and that's awesome.

And against, uh, you know, mid-level guys, he's going to get to plan A and he's going to work plan A. It's going to be great. And he has shown the grit and tenacity to even sort of make plan B or plan A work on fighters who aren't allowing it to. Isma Gulaev mostly did not allow him to get to his spots early. Cardio took over. Somebody is not going to let him get shit at all.

And then he is going to have to either shoot recklessly at hips from a mile away and pray that he can get it in the worst kind of like the worst shots of Demi and Maya's career, which isn't a, that's not a sustainable path to being champion. Or he is going to have to learn to commit to striking in a substantive and serious way. And I haven't seen it in two fights. He has shown that he has some ability at it. He is so single-minded on the thing he wants to do that it takes, like, it detracts from his game. Isma Gulaev ate some shots on the feet, but at some point he recognized, I just got to go.

And I'm not really under threat here because as soon as I throw. the left hook, it's going to shoot on me. And, Suriki was able to pull it off. Like, he kept doing that, and that's cool. Plan A will fail. I mean, it failed against Islam. And, like, that's, that's it. And he has to have something else to go to.

And I have real concerns about being so single-minded. And not being as dominant at it. If you're going to be one way, if you're going to be Habib, buddy, you better be the best guy that has ever been in the world at it. And people talked about. Islam, like he was some lay and pray artist. And I am not saying that Armand as a lay and pray artist, he got to the back was making moves.

But Islam's career has largely in the UFC been, I get you down, I'm in the position, you ain't scrambling out of shit. And it's a time. Like, it is a clock. You are done, son. And that has not been what's Rukin has proven. Like, against guys who are not up to snuff, he can become a finisher and do that. A lot of positional control.

and I, that's, that's not the thing you want. I have the same issues with Makayev. I've been super high, Maham Makaev. He's been doing similar things and it makes me go, if he doesn't get, if he does not get meaner, and maybe it is simply that, you got to be meaner.

You got to act like you want to hurt that dude in real, real ways out there because every champion that has ever been is a nasty bastard when it gets down to it. And maybe I'm just not seeing that from him, but I scored the first round for Isma, I have no issues you've given it to Sarukin, but in a three-round fight, if you are doing nothing but agro-grappling with no damage behind it, you're opening up opportunities, man.

Like the reason the Gamrot fight happens is because this is your style that you are super committed to. And I have some concerns now, which I previously didn't. That is, so I think that's a very fair criticism hearing you out that way. I mean, I, you ultimately come away from this maybe. down on Armin or at least lower than... I was very high is the other part of it, too. I was going to say that.

I think that's a symptom of how, I mean, me and you have just talked about this amongst each other, how ridiculously high you were on Armin coming into this fight. I have this number five dude in the world only because, and that's really four, because him and Gamrot were, are functionally tied in my rankings. They are interchangeable to me.

That being said, I do want to throw a little bit of context in here. And I think this would be the reason why I may not come away from this fight, you know, glowing about Armin, but ultimately, I come away from this fight with my stock higher on him than it was going in, which is two reasons. White, right? One, I think a lot of people are just going to look like that against Amiris Magulov. Like, that's just a really difficult person to look good against, and Armand looked pretty

damn good for most of that fight. And that to me is incredibly impressive, given his age and experience level. And that's really the second point, which is like, this is still a kid who's only 26 years old. And this is someone who's still finding himself in this division, but has faced obscene level of opposition over the course of his very young UFC career. Like a lot of guys at 155 coming in this division and maybe we consider them top prospects and they are not facing Islam, Gamrod, Isma Gulov in like their first few fights.

Like this level of competition, this dude has been faced so far. He has been thrown to the wolves quickly and maybe deservedly so because we all feel he's so good. He's done very well with what he's been given so far. And that to me is the most important piece of this because this is a small. someone who's just, again, he could have crashed and burned three times or four times over at this point in his early UFC career. And I don't think anybody would really fault him.

But he continues to be able to pull these out. I'm absolutely with you. If Patty Pimblit, and I'm someone who thinks Patty Pimblit is better than people give him credit for, had fought the same run of opponents that Armand Surykhan has, I think he ruins one of these fights. I think he beats maybe Christos Yagos. but I don't I think like I would feel like Joel Alvarez Matt Favola Davy Hamos

Olivier Oben Merci I'd pick all these guys probably to beat probably to beat Patty in a fight so just for comparison to say like wow that is like that run that Surukianas had to face is just ridiculous and he's 20 he just recently turned 26 I'm a so here's the thing I'm a thousand percent on board with you in that regard the other aspect of what I'll say this I think that if if they made that fight tomorrow. I think Sarukian

wins a dominant 30-26 fight, but I struggle to see him finishing Patty because Patty can grapple his ass off. He's going to what? He's, Syrucian's not going to do anything. Like he's going to go a far old ball.

He's just so much better. Like the levels and levels of both. He's absolutely better than him. Patty can grapple and Sarukian is not an unstoppable force on the ground. He is a tremendous this chain wrestler.

That is not position, position, like position submission control grappler. We saw, and look, full credit to Demir, he looked awesome. But his escape plan was functionally, here's my back. I'm going to stand up and I'm still going to get out of this. And that's, and Srucun still struggled to get hooks in. And again, this, I am knocking him by definition. I still think he's one of the seven best lightweights in the world.

He is going to fight for a title. He's super young. I would pick him. I saw somebody post. I'd pick him to beat Dustin Poirier tomorrow. But coming into this weekend, here's where I want to pose this question to y'all. Because coming into this weekend, I would have comfortably picked Suruki and to beat Rafael Fazeve. Absolutely not anymore.

I think Fiziv beats him now. That is the one big change for me. Because Fiziv is unbelievably good at not allowing you to initiate your wrestling exchanges and creating separation early. Where Demir failed is he was not physically strong enough to keep Armand from holding on after he broke the first level. Fiziv is going to, and at range, I think he's going to chew Saurukian up, unless Serookian makes like real strides there.

And that's what I need to see from him now to be like, this guy is going to hold the belt and has a realistic shot at beating Islam. Because right now I truly don't think he has a chance to meet Islam in rematch. I mean, to me, that's a tough question because Fiziv's in the exact same place as Serookian at this point. I mean, they're all in jail. They're all just spinning their wheels in jail, as you said, basically just. just kind of stuck. Real quick, before we move on,

I want to do a thought exercise. Just play this out real quick because this is the conversation we're having, right? Here's the top five of the UFC lightweight rankings. Michael Chandler, Benile Darjeesh, Justin Gagee, Justin Porier, Charles Oliver. That was five to one. Of those five, if they booked it tomorrow,

how many are you favoring Armand against? So not including Machachev, or are you including? Not including Machiaf, just the top five contenders right now, as we see. I am favoring him against three. It would not shock me if he lost all of them. I feel pretty good about both Benny Darius and Chuck Yalev's beating him at this at this juncture. Those are the only two that I would feel.

It wouldn't shock me if he beat them, but I feel very good about it. I think Poyer is the easiest match for him of that. And I'd feel he's the one I'm the most confident in. But yeah, I wouldn't favor him by a lot against any of them. it'd be very narrow for all of them and I do believe both Derrush and Oliver give him real real problems Darush and Chuckie Olives for me

were the two where I would have the most hesitation but the other three honestly I would favor Armand and I would favor him pretty cleanly what about you, A.K. The striking does worry me. Some of the things that Jed has said about you got to have a certain level of striking to complement that wrestling as great as that wrestling is

as great as that grappling is you need to have a certain amount of striking and also a certain amount of ability to deal damage, which again, we've seen Surukyuan do it, you know, that we've got a little recency bias here. The last two fights, again, pretty competitive. He didn't really, you know, was never really close to finishing either is Magulov or Gamrod.

But, you know, against that lower tier, like a notch below him or guys who are a couple of knotss below him, he took care of business. So we know he can finish, he can do damage. But I understand once you get, you know, now they were talking top five, it might be a bit tougher. So I'd actually only be leaning towards

I like his chances against Chandler I actually do worry against Pori and Gaetchi Yes, he could out-rustle him for sure But the fact that they have a plus They're two guys who I consider to have a plus striking I don't know if Just his wrestling is enough to get by those guys Because at some point he's going to get hit in one of those fights

Or get on the wrong end of an exchange Those are also both probably five-round fights Maybe in a three-round fight might favor surukia a little more. But if those were five-round fights, I'd definitely lean towards Porre, lean towards Geichi. So maybe I'm just going Chandler. And by the way, I would have said this before tonight.

So tonight did not affect my opinion. It's not like, oh, I'm pumping the brakes. It's among, I think, our MMA fighting group, I'm one of the slowest to kind of push someone forward to kind of say, oh, this person's going to beat whatever so-and-so, seven or eight guys in the top 10. So I was like that was Syruki and before tonight. And I'm the same way now.

I think he's competitive against a lot of these guys. I personally would only favoring him against Chandler. But again, I am a little bit slower to sort of anoint fighters as like legitimate contenders. Chandler's a really interesting fight, man. See, I favor Armand pretty hard of that. I think I favor Armand, but he, I am so concerned about his striking. Because the thing is, it's not that it's bad. It is not that he looks like, I'm trying to think of who's like, my God.

go to for a guy who's like clearly super uncomfortable like Rainier de Ritter. Like on the feet, he looks very unhappy to be doing things on the feet. I think Aljo. I think, I think, yeah, well, sure, except for I actually do think Srukin looks better on the feet than Aljo. Sure, I just, you know where I'm telling him. Yeah, in the, in the, he does not look like that. He is not afraid to fight on the feet, but he, it is clear that he does not want to, that

that his attacks on the feet are not with intent to hurt you, harm you, or do anything. They are perfunctory. This is a part of the game that I am expected and must compete in. I will throw some kicks. I will do this. But it is all engaged to set up the thing I want to do,

which is get at your hips. And again, that's good and it works. And he has a game that fits together in pieces. And a lot of the things I like about it, I still think he's the top eight dude in the world. you have to try to hurt people on the feet like or you have to be so good so good and even Habib frankly tried to hurt you on the feet and then he took you down and mauled you and if

surukin is not going to be I'm on your hips it's done when I'm on your hips we're going and now we're in my world and you ain't getting out of it then he is he has to offer more on the feet and maybe will he is only 26 that's yeah but Until I see more intent on the feet, like, I think he beats Chandler because I think he can chain wrestle Chandler. One of one of the very few compliments I will give Michael Chandler ever in life is that he does not fail at stopping people from wrestling. He is a thick brick of a human being. He is very tough to take down. And he chucks him hard, man.

Whatever my issues with Michael Chandler, that dude throws to hurt you. And so at any point in time, if Sarukians here trying to play point fighting kick so you can over extend and I can get on your hips, he might just eat an uppercut and go to the moon. Like I need him to be show me more. And I really thought we'd get more in this fight, frankly. Like that was part of why I was excited coming in here. So like, I'm going to see him navigate around Isamagulov's jab, which is really good. I'm going to see him. But he's, he's not going to get takedowns because that's what Isma Glewold is really good at.

So he's going to have to fight here. I'm going to see more. And instead, he was just like, I'm just going to stay on the hips. And I am, I am a haw strong. And he can't get me off. It worked. It's a good win. It will age well in that regard.

But it gave me questions. This is tough love. There's some strong. There's some strong. I'm not mad. I'm disappointed energy coming from. That's the vibe. I will say, yeah, that's the vibe.

He's not mad. He's not upset with Armin. He's a little disappointed. Yeah. I am a little disappointed in what we saw. And it's, it's mostly like, I thought this dude was the guy who would take the belt from Islam in like three years. I am less confident in that, especially because it's freaking lightweight, man.

Like some kid tomorrow is going to show up and just be like, hey, I am the new hot shit out of random country and I'm the best guy in the world. And it was like, oh, cool, it's 155. That can happen any day of the week. Like, it just is what it is. I mean, we need to move on just because there is a lot left to get to on this car. I will say just to at the risk of being repetitive, I do want to maybe close this conversation about this fight by reiterating what I said to start it,

which is ultimately this is a kid who's 26 years old. And he has been thrown into the shark tank far sooner and far deeper into that tank than most prospects do at his age range and experience range. And he is swimming with those damn sharks and he is winning most of those fights. And I scored the Gamrod fight for him as well. And I still have supreme confidence

that this is someone who's going to, hold a piece of gold at some point in his career, in his career, and I'm really looking forward to the inevitable rematch between him and Islam Makachif, because I feel like that is the, that is the destiny of this man is to get to that point in this division. And if I can ask for one thing in 2023, one Christmas gift, one holiday gift to get me going to the new year, it is just please, you see, please, please, please, unlock this lightweight division so that we can start to see some of these young up-and-comers actually fight the top five guys rather than top five guys recycling against each other

and these bottom guys recycling against each other and we're all just spinning our wheels because we don't actually, that's the frustrating things we don't actually have any answers at all, right? Like all of this projection is just that. It is projection. I would like to see some actual fights between these people.

In the meantime, let's keep it moving because there was a lot that happened on this card. Again, it was a very entertaining card up to the main event. And so let's jump around a little bit now because I want to go to, I think, what was probably the fight of the night, We haven't seen bonuses yet, but I'm going to go ahead and guess that this was fighting. We've seen them.

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Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. So there we go. Drew Dober, Bobby Green. Good Lord, gentlemen. This was a lot of fun. Drew Dober gets it done.

Second round, kind of out of nowhere. He was losing that fight until he wasn't. And really kind of a late entry into Fighter of the Year. Putting in a late case for Fighter of the Year, Drew Dover's sneaky 3 and O this year. He's going to end up on a couple people's ballots, I'm sure, by the time we're doing these year-end awards. again though this is one way traffic until drew willed himself back in with that highlight real knockout

he calls out jalen turner afterwards which i thought was a perfect call out right like you again you call out justin gate you're not going to get it you call out jalen turner you might get it and jalen already answered and said he might be down on twitter so ultimately a k what were your takeaways from the craziness we just saw in ultimate again drew dover three and oh in 2022 who would have thought i love that fight so much man that is like that to me is uh i i often talk about the difference between oh a mixed martial arts contest and a fight and like that's how you win a fight all right if if these guys were just doing like hard sparring uh in the gym and they were going like whatever 10 rounds hard sparring probably green probably wins like eight or nine of those rounds and he he was tooling

drew dover through the first like half of this fight like the first round clear 10 nine it's one of those things where if i wish you know 10 nines weren't like all weight equally like you know So the 10-9 Bobby Green won in that first round, you know, is different than any of the 10-9s that cannoneer or Strickland won in the main event. Do you know what I mean? Like, it feels weird to call those a 10-9. That's how good Green's first round was. And we were saying in the Slack like, man, this is like great matchup for Bobby Green.

They were saying on the commentary on the broadcast, like, yeah, this is speed versus power. And it looked like speed was just dominating power. But as the fight kept going on, as it was dragging up. on and you were pretty certain that Bobby Green was not going to put Drew Dober away. Not that it wasn't landing power shots. It wasn't like pitter power stuff. He was landing hard, hard shots that against anyone that didn't have the god chin of Drew Dober, it would have put their lights out.

I mean, Bobby Green against like the bottom, take like any, picking any name out of the bottom, like 35 guys in the lightweight division. He's putting those dudes to sleep. He was landing hard punches. Just not Drew Dover because Drew Dover is insane and can, not be knocked out, I guess. And you really were seeing him just wade through because that was his only way. He wasn't going to out technique Bobby Green.

He wasn't going to like time a beautiful counter. He wasn't going to like mix, find a sweet combination about like mixing it up and getting Bobby Green out balance. That just wasn't going to happen the way this fight was playing out. He knew I just had to get hit. I have to get hit. I have to come forward. I have to walk him down.

And I know if I land like a couple of good shots, I can turn things around. And people, I tell you, go back and watch that fight. You'll see Drew Dober. I don't want to say he didn't have a game plan because that was the plan. But that's not a functional plan for most human beings. But for him it works, goes in, gets hit, really busted up. I joked about it on Twitter. I showed the significant strike numbers.

Bobby Green doubled them up in both rounds. It didn't matter. Drew Dover landed the strikes that mattered in the end. And one of the most a truly worthy fight of the night winner. I don't know if it's going to make anyone's fight of the year. lists, you know, coming in late because we had a lot of strong candidates this year. But that would have been a nice way to end 2022 if that was the main event. So, you know, people just think of it as the main event in your mind and then look and look

towards 2023 and, of course, the bell to horizon before the end of the year as well. Jed, get in here. How much fun was that thing? It was awesome. Man, that fight looked so much like I thought it would until the end. Bobby Green rules. and he was tuning him up, took the man to school. And then he did the thing that fighters continue to do,

despite the fact that this game is 30-plus years old and there should have been conclusively established by now. He got backed up, got back to the fence. Defense is really hard in general, super hard against the fence. Drew Dober said, I don't really care. You're going to hit me. I'm going to hit you a lot harder. And that was the end of it.

And it's really that simple. like Bobby Green is the better fighter, like by most general definitions of fighting. But Bobby Green can't take a super big punch from Drew Dober and Drew Dober can take 50 of them. And that's fighting is stupid and it's really unfair in that regard. We're like, you can be skilled and talented and awesome. And the limitations of your physical body aren't as good as somebody else's and that's where it was. like full credit to Drew Dover, by the way. He made some great adjustments mid-round.

He took the coaching from his corner. He started doubling up the jab. He corralled a lot more effectively. He brought a ton more pressure. And Bobby Green did, made a mistake. He made one mistake in the fight. And it cost him. And that's a lot of, some of that is that Bobby Green maybe got a little too comfortable.

But a lot of it is simply that Drew Dober knew the advantages he had, played to him, did a smart thing, made it work for him. So it was awesome. Great. Super happy for twin fight of the night. I think a little bit that Drew Dober deserved performance bonus of the night. So he probably should have got doubled up in that regard. But great, great fight, great performance.

And frankly, great callout. Honestly, call out probably better than that. I absolutely loved it. Thank you for addressing. It's, look, Drew Dober is like a top 20-ish guy. He's probably on the fringes of the UFC rankings. He might even move in with this. Bobby Green win now, three KOs, three big wins in a row.

Ain't nobody trying to fight Jail and Turner. And Drew Dober shouldn't either because Drew Dober's big old melon head and his entire inability to stop punches in any regard means he is going to, they are just going to clang off that dome. It's just rapid fire. But that's a fight you can get. Armand Sarukian 10, 20 minutes ago was up here being like, I would like to fight Penile Dariusian Charles Olivera.

Sweet. I would like a billion dollars delivered to my door. I think I have better chance than you do of getting those fights, Harmon. Read the freaking room, my guy. Whereas instead, Drew Dober's like, yeah, no one's fighting that guy. And he is ranked. He's number 10 or something he's ranking. No one fights him.

Hell yeah, I'll fight that dude. It'll be awesome. He's probably going to get that fight. He's probably going to get a concussion from that fight. But he's going to have his day. He's going to have an opportunity. And if he does this, does the same thing here. top 10 fighter

Drew Dober top 10 guy Like that's how you do it It's being self-aware Knowing who you are Knowing what your goals are What you want to do A plus performance from Drew Dober man Again big big dad vibes

Coming from Jed over here with Armand I'm not mad at you I'm just disappointed vibes It's just are you Come on you guys can't sit here And pretend that him calling for Charles Oliver And Benil Darry Was reasonable

A guy in that position No not a guy in that position Me sliding into the DM No, no, no, no, no, no. No, no, no. It's a freaking Scarlet Johansen isn't shooting a shot. You never know. You never know.

It's all in context. And if you're armin, you have to shoot that shot. Because if you're arm in and you say, hey, I want to fight half ailsiv. Like, yeah, sure, you probably get that fight. And maybe he's in that fight. And then he's top seven. That does nothing for him. He wants fights.

It moves him up in the rankings. He's stuck in the spin cycle. He's got to go. This is what MMA has done. He's going to have to fight. Grant Dawson now. We, which moves him. You have to have to anyway.

This is what MMA has done to us. MMA has taught us to tell children not to dream. This is where we are now. We're telling children not to dream. That's what modern M.M.A. has done to us. And what a tragedy that is. So, Armin. I'm not telling you not to dream.

26-year-old. You dream your dream. You dream your dream. Dream your dream. But look, we all love Armin, great fighter, top-10 guy. No one cares about him broadly. he's not a compelling figure outside of what he does in the cage

which is getting less compelling he's not you're trying to tell me pull off the metrics is he moving traffic for us right now he's not you can't call for a fight against the former champion

and the number one contender if you ain't moving traffic or on a big win streak and I know that you don't think you lost the gamma and I don't even necessarily think you do either but the numbers say you do

you can't just wish this away You have to do, you can fight Raphael Fazeve freaking three months from now. And that is a relevant, winnable, good fight, moving you up in the rankings and making a bulletproof case. But if you're not going to be more interesting, that's the only way you can move up. So pick one. Pick one. You either Leon Edwards this or you get compelling. Make a choice, man.

That's every fighter has to do that. And he needs to figure it out. I'm going to have to call this previous show the Jedmachian. Aramon-Seruk in Haiti Haider Hour at this point. Like there is... I'm trying to help him out. Y'all are here just wish casting.

Ooh, maybe he'll fight Binaldare you. All I want to say, getting back to the actual topic that we were talking about, all I want to say is that one of the... Dober Green was one of those fights where, like, yeah, that was cool that that happened and I'm glad we got it. But damn, I wish that was in an arena.

Because can you imagine how much time that would have been in London or in Australia or wherever where people are able to enjoy it and it's just craziness all around like that would have just been even better um last thing and then we'll move on any chance at all that drew dober sneaks onto your top five for fighter of the year three and oh three very good performances three very fun performances any chance at all that he sneaks onto that top five for fight of the year either of you guys i don't jett do you want i'm pulling that up i did a bad thing so jett i don't know if you want to oh actually actually zero percent

chance he's doing it on mine. Zero chance for you. What about you? He's a great, great year. Just one, he was losing two of those fights quite, quite badly before he won. And three wins. The top, the top four are locked.

And the fifth spot is another guy with three wins who was not losing his fights even a little bit. In fact, they collectively lasted like two minutes. So I can't swap him out. A.K. Full disclosure. Right after that fight, I did message Shane and I said, I would like to add Drew Dober to my list. I won't say who I bumped off.

My apologies to this fighter who I did, I did bump them off for Drew Dober. Recy bias completely taking over my thinking. I was really just caught up in the moment. But I'm going to stand by it because the number one rule is that MMA is supposed to be fun. And I don't know if anyone had three more, three wins. that were more fun than Drew Dover because, yeah, the Terrans-R-Kinney fight, complete insanity.

The Half-A-Lavis fight, super fun all the way through for both men. Half-A-Haw-A-L-Fas is a complete wild man. Also, the KO in that fight was stupid. Dumb, and then also him winning tonight, dumb. So when you have three of the dumbest finishes of the year, then you got to make the list. That's just, that's a new rule I'm putting forward.

If you have three or more of the dumbest knockouts, or even, any, it could be submissions. Three or more of the dumbest finishes of the year, you have to make the top five list of my fighter of the year. So, again, he sneaks in there. It's just too fun. Even though I know he's not going to make the write-up portion, I don't think he's going to make our consensus top five.

We always show the results. And I need Drew Dober to be in our little chart there. I need people to know that True Dober was on the short list, at least. He's an honorable, a very, very strong and a very, very fun, honorable mention. What about you? What about you, Shaheen? Are you doing it? Is he going to sneak into you?

So for me, he can't. I really want to, but there are so many good. So many good ones. Compelling good argue, like people that you could have a good argument for putting on that list. Like it is sneaky deep on a lot of these categories because we've been doing the year and stuff this year. I did not realize it until I filled out my ballot how stupidly deep some of these are. To the point where I felt legitimately bad about some of the names and performances that I was leaving off of some of these categories. I felt good about rookie this year, which was wild.

I did not feel good about rookie last year. Yeah. Casey, get in here. We'll just sort of bounce around at this point. I mean, there are other standout performances from the night. Gorgeous knockout by Alex Casares. I mean, that was ridiculous. That man is on UFC fight number 27, and he's still putting up highlights.

Like, that was, misses with the punch, follow up with the head kick. We were talking about it on our Slack that that was reminiscent to me of Condit GSP, just that head kick sequence, beautiful stuff from him. The balance and delay on the kick. bad oh no who's he do you knockout who do you knock out Orozia Juicy Jay

who's not a great run didn't see it coming at awe oh oh another one Amir Albaazi I think someone who a lot of us have pegged as a flyweight

who is going to be in this title conversation sooner rather than later if he can get the fights to get there really really impressive knockout from him also farther down on the card

you had Matthew smell Semmillsberger I never can smell it's burger yeah he always be semi the Jedi Semai, the Jedi, I think pulling an upset over, for a lot of us at least, over Jake Matthews. I and maybe you two, Jed, were a little bit too excited about Jake Matthews. Got a little ahead of ourselves on that one, but three knockdowns, one in each round, three takedown, each round.

That was an impressive performance. Also, have to mention Mihail, Olin, Jacek. New Dorok curse out here at 185. He's 2-0 in the division. First round finishes in both good performances all around. Casey, would you like? In Tapology, Matthews, excuse me, 93% of people, he was the biggest favorite coming into the card on Tapology. It was Jake Matthews.

He was one of the bigger betting favorites on the card. And Casares was one of the, only 22% of people thought Casares was going to win that fight, too. So big upsets tonight. Who did you like, Casey? Corey McKenna was an upset as well. Oh, yeah. What was the question? Sorry.

Who's your standout for you? Oh, one. Manel cop. Oh, there we go. My man. I know we didn't finish to fight strong. Nonsense. I know he didn't finish to fight strong, but I had two 10-8 rounds.

The fact that- Those are correct scores. Thank you. No one had the first two rounds for 10-8. I think even someone had it. I think you won the judges to even had it at 30-27. But, yeah. Actually, so we're clear, two judges had at 30-27.

One had it 29-28. So yeah you're you're thinking of the the Brian battle fight where yeah no judges are 25 because judges just refused to give 10 and um I know I know people were kind of you know hating on cop a little bit and third rough and not being able to finish up fight and showboating but give go yeah it was most of you but give credit to divorce never been finished and he got a beating and um and I'm a cape is awesome Mnale cop is awesome and I can't wait to see what I can't wait to see him move up the ladder I I really, really thought he was going to rip that man's arm off his body.

Like if Frank Meere Bignog style with that late submission and I think it was the first round, that was brutal, brutal stuff. David DeVorek surviving that was incredible, frankly. What are the peeps saying? Let's go to the peeps. All right. The final go to the peeps of the year. What a year it's been?

Did you, let me say. I mean, we could always spin up a show for tomorrow's fight circuit. It's the biggest event in the month. I'm trying to what? What, how don't we talk about? A lot of these questions are pulled, we kind of already went over, sorry. We talked about most of the important stuff because while Shaheen has said,

while Shaheen has said that this was a good event, it was actually not. The main card was good. The undercard was a tough hang for a lot of it. Wait, this comment right here is in reference to the main event. Hold on a second. There was one finish in the three limbs.

It was cool. It was a cool finish. Yeah, but then we got four straight The main card I can't Yeah, no, the main card was The main card was solid Andy

Andy B coming in with a fight happened That's about it That's how you can describe that main event I feel like that's right By the technical definition of a fight I sure did Uh Yeah, a lot of hate on the

Well, I don't know Some people are saying We're hating on the main event A little too much But It was fine I don't see how that's possible Yeah

No, so here's the thing that fight is not bad it's like a reasonable fight i probably won't ever watch the game it's reasonable it was entertaining enough the issue is less of us hating on the fight in totality it is that neither man established that they were better than the other so it's tough to care it's tough to take it also the low stakes of the entire affair just sort of interesting there are low stakes and neither man was like i am much better clearly i should win whatever the stakes of this are so it's just like it leaves you with an empty feeling. In a weird way, the main event was extremely unique

because you could put like a seven-year-old child who's never watched MMA, and they could have scored that fight also, and you've been like, yeah, that's fine. Like, there was no, outside of 10-8s, a 10-9 either way for every round, like every possible scorecard for 10-9s was good to go for that fight. And that's pretty unique.

Like Doug Crosby couldn't have messed that up. Well. He would have found a way. Oh, no. He would have found a 10-8 in there for no reason. He would have thrown a 10-8 in there. Honestly, I would respect the hell out of throwing a 10-8 in that fight. 10-10.

Let's rattle off one or two more and then we will get out of here. People, get your questions in now. Ask us anything. You know what? We didn't mention this gentleman. This other 8-5er. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. So this is coming from Brandon. and he says thoughts on how far McCaill can climb at 185. I think he's solid top 15 right now. As I said, he might be a dark horse in this division, fellows. Like, this is a guy who fought at 205 for a long time,

finally made the move down. It always kind of looked like he would be able to make the move down. And we've just seen two first round finishes from this man. What do you think? What's his ceiling here? What's his prospects at this division? He's a top 10 guy, man. He's a top 10 guy at 185.

Not right now, but he could be. Sam Alvey, Cody Brundager, get it, not like the stiffest competition. But this, guy was like an entertaining fighter and a knockout threat at 205 and slimmed down one he looks like a different guy he looks even he looks like way faster than he was a 205 and he seems to have retained that that punch that finishing power the punching power so i'm very very high on olig he's only 27 he doesn't turn 28 until february he's only 27 yeah he's he looks he looks he looks older and

and it's not like that much mileage he's he's under 20 this was his 24th pro fight so he has experienced, but it's not like he's super shopworn. He's right at that point where I think he's going to start peaking. And I think he definitely cracks the top 10 in 2023. How much higher? I don't know. I probably need to seem a little more at 185, but a lot of the ingredients are there for him to be a top 10 guy. And at some point in 22, 3, probably fight a top five opponent if not become a top five guy himself. I've always wondered who's going to be that next Jan Blahewicz in the sense that He was just like a mid-tier. He's good, but you never expected him, like, win the title.

I don't know if O-LIC-I can see it. I got to say, how do you say it? Oleg-C-July. I can't say it. No, I'm thinking about it too much. They're just short it to Ollick. O-Lick. There's going to be one guy that's just going to shock us and he goes,

well, I didn't see that coming. Maybe it's him. I don't know, but man, at 85, he is just, I was talking to Jed before we started rolling. bowling, but, like, there's something in his bones. That man is just dense. He knocked out, he knocked out that fighter from guard, which is extremely hard to do. He knocked him out.

So, yeah, I'm excited for his next fight. I don't know. I don't think the fans are behind him. I don't think the UFC is necessarily behind him, but they weren't behind Jan Blahvich either, and he just kept winning. And all of a sudden, you just do a good interview. He turns out, oh, you're the nicest guy ever. We love you.

And then you just all of a sudden become a star. So who knows? Jan Bilhovic is a fun comp. It's not the right one. The right comp is very obvious because he fought in the main event. This is Jared. He's Jared Cannonier. He's the same guy.

He may not be like entirely stylistically, but like he's going to have the almost identical career where it's like he's going to be a top 10 guy. Maybe if some cards break right, he'll challenge for a title. He has some deficiencies, which will probably manifest when he fights like the very, very elite. but fun guy he's going to be around. I mean, honestly, they're very, like, Canineer was young at the time. He finally dropped to late heavyweight and then middleweight.

It's, he's going to have a very similar career to Jared Canaaner, I'm pretty sure. Okay. Yeah, I like that. That's actually good. I get it. I get it. You lost me for a second there and I'm like,

all right, I see Richard. Because I am essentially, I was saying the same thing. He could fight a tough guy. Saying exactly the same thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And you just be like, yeah, he's going to be the,

he's the next Jared Cananier. Jared Canaaner, getting a little older. It's going to cycle out. Bale's going to be the guy with some good breaks he'll fight for a title Not he'll just be a guy who flirts Top 5 stays firmly in the top 10 or 12 For the next five years probably

Super fun The guy's awesome to watch Casey we get the chance Can you grab this Pro Fight's info question that just popped I know you have something queued up But maybe after this next question All right we'll do these last two And then we'll get out

Oh This one's coming from Medi who says Where does Sean Strickland go from here and that's a fair question. I think this is someone who, there's still for, for, you know, all of the man's faults and his fights tend to not deliver,

it feels like. There still is quite a lot of interest around him, and he is a name in this division, and it feels like the fans generally enjoy him. And he could have won this fight. He could have won this fight, too. He could have very easily won this fight. Okay, yeah.

He could have very easily won this fight fight and also just the UFC sees this stuff. Like all of his media day interviews always will grab a lot of views. So ultimately, he'll still be around and I'm sure he'll get a fight you know in this what number 10 range number seven range number 12 range something like that I could see him still

being able to do this for a couple more times they're gonna fucking give him Darren Till I was just about to ask should he fight Darren Till in London and Darren Till's gonna win that stupid ass fight I think so you think I if I'm if I'm the UFC I'm giving Darren Till no one that good right now like no one nearly that good right now. No one right.

You need to get him like. Have you not been paying attention to the last 12? Darren Till fails upwards. He is going, if he doesn't get freaking Israel disinia next, they're going to give him this one. And he's going to win because I'm not allowed to have peace in this sport. And Darren Till will plague me forever despite not being good. It's going to happen.

I'm calling it now and I hate it. By the way, 53. I just closed the poll because there was, was a really big sample size already. 53% Sean Strickland won the main event. So, yeah, I don't know. I don't know how that's going to affect how the UFC views his matchmaking. If anyone backstage feels the same way that they thought he won the fight.

The poll results to the UFC, I'm sure that will help them in their discussion. Yes, yes. Man, if he ever learned how to, like, fight hard, he might be hard. He might be. Oh, that's one? Oh, I was going to go out on Strickland. I thought, I thought AK had one that you wanted. Yeah, someone was just asking what's next.

ProFights Info is asking who's next for Amir al-Bazi. I thought that's for tomorrow. I thought that's for onto the next. It normally would be, but I'll repeat the rant tomorrow. Okay, all right. Thank you. There you go. There it is.

Because we got a special thing going here with, Casey, I'm not as high in Manel Kopp as you. I haven't been since he came over from Rise. I didn't buy into the Rise of height. I know what's got to happen. But I am loving, I am loving him being the illiterative assassin. All right. Taking out O'Day Osborne, Zalgasum, Gulov and now David Dvorak, it feels like he has to find Amir al-Bazi next.

It almost just makes too much sense. This is just great. I saw someone say they trained together. I think they may have worked together at Extreme Couture a little bit. I don't know if they're like dedicated training partners. If I'm wrong on that, then it's a moot point. I'm pretty sure they're not like super dedicated training partners. But again, I may be wrong.

I'll revisit this on. I'd be surprised if they weren't. Just because they, I think, didn't they both work there for this card? It'd be really sure. For this card, maybe. Yeah. But I know they don't like, I'm pretty sure. Maybe not like their home bases are, yeah, are somewhere else, right?

So I don't think it's out of the question that they would fight each other. But listen, UFC, make the money right because you've got a gimmick here. You got the alliterative assassin Manel Kopp. He takes out people whose names and whose first and last names start with the same letter. That is ratings. That is a that is pay-per-view dollars. Oh my goodness. Do you know what can happen afterwards, AK?

What? Muhammad Mikhailov makes the Oh my God. Oh, yes. It's perfect. It's perfect. It's right there. It is perfect.

Do the thing. See, this is why. Do the thing. This is why Jed Mishu will be the guest host on onto the next one this weekend. So if you will stay tuned for that. He will be joining me. My best friend, Mike Heck, is taking a well-deserved break. So look forward to the next one coming on sometime Sunday on the M.

fighting podcast network. Jedmishu will be joining me. And we will repeat this. For anyone who's missing it, we'll gladly repeat this whole bit. I have to say, of all the gimmicks that we've come across and sort of created of our own volition

over the years, this AK might be A, the nerdiest. Definitely that. Hold on. One of my favorites. No, I did not. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, I did not. Hat tip, E. Spencer Kite,

who first brought this pattern to my attention, UFC the E. Spencer Kite. and a lot of people in the replies coming up with different nicknames. And a couple of people landed on a literative assassin. So thank you, everyone for who... I did not come up with any of this, but we are the ones who are pushing this forward. We are definitely going to help broadcast this message because this is amazing stuff. I'm very here for it.

I'm very excited about all of this. This is some great developments here. We've really done some great work here, gentlemen, today. What a year. What a year. I see Michael Harris in the comments saying the quote for 20, 22 is just do the thing. And he's pretty right.

It is. A lot of fight orgs could take that advice. Be a lot better if they did. Oh, boy. What a year it's been, fellas. We appreciate, as always, you guys,

for joining us along for the drive and really making it all worth it. We do this for you guys, and we very much appreciate you. We couldn't do this without you. And so from the bottom of our hearts, we love you. Thank you for a wonderful

2022, keep it locked to MMA fighting. We have lots of year-end goodness coming over the next couple of weeks. We're going to have the year-end awards show as well. MMA Hour is going to have the award show as well. It's starting to start off. 2023. It's going to be good time. Join your boys. Join your friends

over here at M.A. Fighting. And let's party a little bit. In the meantime, enjoy the rest of your weekend. We love you guys again. And we'll see you soon. Love you guys. Happy birthday, A, Ken. Thank God.

I was waiting for someone to say it. Thank you. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.