MMA Fighting - UFC Vegas 76 Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Sean Strickland's Big Finish, Kevin Lee's Heartbreaking Return

Episode Date: July 2, 2023

Sean Strickland needed less than two rounds to put away Abus Magomedov in the main event of UFC Vegas 76 on Saturday night at the APEX, and then called out for a title fight against current middleweight champion Israel Adesanya for September. As of this moment, is Strickland sitting atop the contender's perch? MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Jed Meshew react to Strickland's second-round TKO win over Magomedov, and his title hopes following the victory depending on what happens in the UFC 290 bout between Robert Whittaker and Dricus Du Plessis. Additionally, they discuss Kevin Lee's 55 second submission loss to Rinat Fakhretdinov, where "The Motown Phenom," and Fakhretdinov go from the bout, Grant Dawson's suffocating win over Damir Ismagulov in the co-main event, how long Dawson's road to a title shot could be despite his talent, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Subscribe: http://goo.gl/dYpsgH Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/u8VvLi Visit our playlists: http://goo.gl/eFhsvM Like MMAF on Facebook: http://goo.gl/uhdg7Z Follow on Twitter: http://goo.gl/nOATUI Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco 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. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, those are the victory horns, and they sing and they play for Sean Strickland, and I know what you're thinking.

I know what you're thinking. Sean Strickland won a five-round, unanimous decision of 49-46. No, that was not the case at all. In fact, Sean Strickland went out and finished a boostmaga made off in the second round, just battered him, box his ears off, just beat the hell out of the man,

until referee Mark Smith just had, he had just seen enough. And Sean Strickland, if he wants to get himself a title fight with Israel Adasani in September, he certainly put himself in a good position after this performance, probably in the driver's seat, at least for the moment. We'll see what happens next week at UFC 290,

but thank you for joining us. We were live here on the UFC Vegas 76 post-fight show. I am Mike Heck. Being joined by Mr. No Gray area himself. Jedmishu just jamming. Just jamming away. Hey, buddy. Love the victory horns, Mike, and you're wrong.

His victory horns are not for Sean Strickland. There for us. The fans, Mike. The fans won because this, this was a fight card. I'm excited to talk about it. It was a fight card. And might as well just, let's peel back the card a little bit, Jed, because we try to be positive as much as possible.

I do not. But I think we speak for a lot of MMA fans when we looked at the card. And we saw what happened in the first round with Abezmaga made off in that eye poke. There is a vast majority of fans that are like referee. Let's go ahead and stop this thing. Because what, like, not, not because, like, not because I just want to see bad things happen. But considering the reaction to the fight and everything, it would just be kind of hilarious if that's the way the fight ended. Like first round, I poke fights over.

That would have been really fitting in. Would have been a very fitting into this fight card, which wasn't awful. Not here to tell you it was bad. Very forgettable. We aren't going to talk about anything. anything that happened here except for maybe, maybe two fights. I'll go two and a half because I guess there's a world, even though I don't believe this is true, there is a world where Sean Strickland

in the year of our Lord, 2023, just earned a title shot by beating Abis Magamadov. This sport is getting dumber by the day, people. Like, who, so two and a half, because I'm giving a half point of credit for that, because this may be the title-winning opportunity for one Sean Strickland. Who, okay. Him going out there getting a finish, I mean, widely regarded Abis Magametteoff. We all know.

We all know. Look, DDP, who should be just getting the damn title shot to begin with, we've already beat this to death at this point, but he's fighting Robert Whitaker. If Bobby Knuckles goes out there and just runs, them over in two minutes or if DDP somehow knocks out Bobby Nucks in two minutes, then this means nothing. But if those two guys get in there for 15 minutes and beat the hell out of each other, Sean Strickland's getting a title shot. Like, it's just the way it is. They can promote the hell

out of it. It's going to be ugly. The bill to it. And the fight's probably going to happen. And Israel-Asoni's probably going to win and look like a superhero in Sydney. There's a world where that happens. I'm not sure it's true. Look, I'm manifesting at this point i have i'm all in on it ddp is going to beat bobby knuckles um it's not going to be a knockout it's it's going to be as casey and i were talking about this uh off air it's going to be like a zebeat level 10 minutes of just throwing the kitchen sink at him and then surviving for five and he's going to get the dub and when that's over the ground swell of support for this man who is who has said the dog whistly thing

and built a true rivalry, a fight that I want to see and that people want to see, there will be no appetite for Sean Strickland, as great as a win over Abis Bagametteov is. The fans are going to forget about it and say, look, I know Izzy wants to fight in Australia at September.

And frankly, it would be incredibly funny to do the fight in Australia in September with DDP because then DDP could just come out and be like, I told you guys. he's not African. Look, we're doing this fight in Australia because it's a home crowd for him. Nothing, I said. All of that would be amazing. The UFC won't do it. They'll just say, hey, we got to push.

This guy's your contender. This guy just beat Rob. We got to do this fight. We'll push it till Madison Square Garden. They'll headline MSG and somebody else will be fighting in Australia. So I'm manifesting. that reality because that's the world I want to live in, Mike. I don't want to live in a world. We're beating Abis Magametteoff. Somebody call up Lewis Taylor because that man deserves a title fight apparently if that's what we're talking about with Sean Strickham right now. Look, I get where you're coming from,

and we've been trying to manifest the DDP fight from Jump Street, and it still isn't there yet. The fact that we have to wait. Speak your truth into the atmosphere and let it come back to you tenfold, Mike Heck. We've tried. Even Dana was like, I have an announcement coming up about that, and we never got one. So everything just kind of remains the same. Normally with an event like this, we're just going to spend most of the time talking about the main event, but literally we just talked about the big storyline that could come out of it.

Sean Strickland may be getting a title shot. He called for it. I'm not going to repeat everything he said, but called for it, said, does everything for the country and everything he says and the way he fights, everything is for the country. but this really wasn't a surprising thing, Jed. Like the way everyone who kind of pays attention to the UFC and these two guys in particular, the way everyone broke this down is pretty much the way the fight went down. Abis had five minutes to win this fight. And if he couldn't get Sean Strickland out of there in the first round,

he was going to lose. Now, I didn't think he was going to get washed in the second round like that. But could I have seen a finish in the fourth or fifth round? Certainly. But I felt like Abis had five minutes to win this fight. And once the eye poke failed, the body kicks failed, he landed some good shots. He kicked Sean Strickland in the face as hard as he could. And Sean didn't even like change his facial expression at all.

He just walked right through it. And then from there, once the second round started, that was a wrap. So did anything really surprise you in this fight in any way? Surprise me how quickly it went downhill. This is exactly what I thought would happen in the broader structures, right? Like, Abis can win in the first round if he does something really cool. because he has that in the bag but I said in

either BTL or the preview show or both he's slipped on banana peels he is not a consistent fighter and Sean Strickland for his mini faults is obnoxiously consistent he is going to be there

doing the same thing every time out and this time it's true I just I didn't think the wheels would completely disintegrate from the train like they did for Abis I mean that fight didn't need to start the second round realistically.

Like it was as soon as the round started, it was like, okay, well, this is now all the way different, which was super weird because the first round didn't end with a huge momentum shift. It was just like,

okay, I wrote in the live blog that looked like Abis was slowing a little bit, but he hit the wall hard and it was just done. So it happened a little faster, but no, this was what we expected. Good for Sean Strickland. It's his first finish.

in like a lifetime it seems like uh but there's nothing else to talk about this fight unless mike i'm always happy to give you a hot five on refereeing and why it sucks and taking points for fouls but i feel like we've done that a lot too so maybe we don't need to open up that can of worms again yes there's that there's also a very good refereeing on this card i'm sure we're going to talk about that fight in a moment but We have bonuses. From Herb. Who knew?

Who knew Herb added in him? Hokey Hurt. Just was like, man, we're not, we're going to be all in on this. And that was a great stoppage. We'll talk about that fight. Turned back to the clock.

Yes, he did. We have bonuses. Have you seen these yet, Jed? Have it. Reacting in real time. Let me guess. I would love you for you to guess. There's no way I'm going to get any of this right.

I've got to think fight of the night is Bernou-tat-Dlan. Yeah, because there's really no other option. If that's not fight of the night, somebody needs to be. Okay, Renat for sleeping Kevin Lee feels like he's getting a performance bonus. And Ruzabayev? You are three for four. Well, in terms of fighters who are getting bonuses. Fight of the night is 100% Brenner versus Kutadaladeh.

Ruzaboyv got a bonus. Packer Tienoff did not get a bonus Sean Strickland got the bonus What? That's the fucking shade right there. I God I desperately hope someone

asked that question Hey why Sean Strickland beating a dude No one gives his shit about a matter When we're not Literally slept him in Like scary slept him to a point

where I was like, oh, I don't know how long he's been unconscious. It could have been a while, though. So hope he's okay, Kevin Lee. That's insane. God, way to go. Whoever dictated that. And Dana won't even answer for it. He's in Maine.

He's on vacation. This is his vacation time. So he's not even there to answer questions. But that is a travesty that Vof and did it under a minute. He did it under a minute. And it still wasn't enough. That's friggin wild. But there's your bonus.

Sean Strickland, getting the bonus. Fokker Tienoff, no bonus for him. Hopefully he gets a couple shekels in the locker room area. But golly, that's just tough.

Those are no-brainers. Like, when I saw Sean Strickland, I couldn't believe it. But what a great, what a great real-time reaction that was. Now, now, although he knocked him out and submitted him.

It was great. And no, no money for you. All the buzz from this entire card right now, just if we're looking at traffic and social media numbers, it's all on the Kevin Lee fight. Everything is pointing to that finish of Kevin Lee. But what can you do?

Even though this man is not going to get a bonus, Jedmishu, he got a win bonus and he looked damn good and he sent a message to the entire lightweight division. Grant Dawson seems like 155 is his home, took on Demers Magula, And we were both sort of on the same page of this fight. On paper, incredible fight.

We had concerns on the Isba Ghulov side because after the loss to Arm and Sarukian, the next day, without telling anybody on his team, he goes to social media and announces his retirement. And then like a week later says, you know what? I have one fight left of my deal. I am a company guy. I'm a man of my word. If I say I'm going to fight four times, I'm going to fight four times. And if I have one fight left, I'm going to go out there and do it. So we're concerned possibly about the motivation here.

I'm here to tell you, Jed, after watching what we saw, Demir as Mugulov could have had all the motivation in the world. He could have been promised a title shot. He could have been promised $20 million if he won this fight, and he still would have lost to Grant Dawson. Because Grant just smushed him. This man is a problem. And ATT, Grant Dawson is going to be climbing these ranks very quickly

if he can get the right fights. Your thoughts on KGD's incredible co-main event performances running over Demir's Magulov. KGD is just an awful, awful name. Can we just start there? Everything else about him rules, though. Love this kid. Been super high on him for some time. I want to say that I was the first person to have him ranked in our rankings because I just,

I really like his game. I thought he had a really good chance to come in here, paid me off for it, looked unbelievable against the guy who, you know, there's a reason this fight was basically a pick-um. Isma Gulov does have good takedown defense. We saw for like a hot minute in that second round when he gets the jab going, he can be tough to deal with, but Grant Dawson just made Mincemeat out of him. The transitions are spectacular, the control. I thought if you had told me that he had this much back control time, I would have thought he'd have gotten the finish honestly because I was sort of in my breakdown of this fight.

I was like, I think he can just kind of replicate what Armand did, only he's a better control grappler than Armand Surukian is and a better finisher, I think, from the backmount and stuff like that. Bess McGulov was the reason dude hadn't been stopped, tougher than $2 steak, stayed in it the whole time. But, I mean, this was one-way traffic. 30 27s officially on two of the three judges

at the minimum he deserved one 10-8 round if not two I think he got one he got he got one 10-8 round from one from one judge but he should have got it all three and he probably deserved two but it no wrong way to eat the Reese's at that point it was just formulaic man's man's a star he's not even 30 lightweight continues to just kick all the ass man I'm excited, Mike, to listen to on to the next one tomorrow and see what you guys have projected for them

and or what you'd like to see because personally, I know that's not going to happen. Give me the Armand's Rukin fight. She's make it happen. I know Armand's like, yeah, I want a title fight. You're not getting it. And let's be real. You're probably not fighting any of the other dudes.

Maybe Binny Darius will say yes. I could see Benny Darius accepting it because he's built like that. But if Daryush says no for whatever reason, I know it'll be a big jump up in the rankings, but give me, give me Dawson, Surukian, just grapples for days, baby, just grappling all over the cage.

Super sick, love that fight. That's what I hope happens next. I would love to see that fight. I think we are going to get Surukin, Darius. I grant called for it, but I don't think he's going to get it. He might have a tough time finding to fight, my man. I think he's going to have a tough time getting one.

He's probably going to be. to fight the winner of the Turner Hooker fight. Like that's probably what's going to happen. I'd love to see him fight Matush Gamrod, but they're teammates, so they're not going to fight each other. Like those two getting after it would just be ridiculously fun. That's functionally the exact same fight as Surukin, but they just won't do it because they're teammates.

But yeah, it's, dude, that's why lightweight sucks. Lightweight is the best division. We don't have to get into that argument. But like, you get a big win over a ranked dude like that. And the benefit you get is you get to fight the winner of the number 10 and number 11 guys who will be one spot in front of you. It's just like, okay. And then when you win that, maybe you get to fight Suruki and at 8. And then maybe if you win that, then maybe you get to fight Michael Chandler at 5 or whatever.

It is impossible to get a lightweight title shot. It is just not something you can ever do. I still don't like the Tony Ferguson call out. Like just where I think we're past that fine. Why? Like if we're going to do it now, if we're going to do it, if we're going to do it,

it was what he called him out the last time. And I felt really icky about it the last time. I feel super icky about it. It's awful. Look, it's terrible for what will happen in the cage. But like I thought he actually just very succinctly. Grant Dawson's one of my guys because he,

like, he just, he's on it. Like he knows. He's, not here to say like I'm what it's like I'm going to be really good and I'm very reasonable young man uh I would like a big number but if I can't get one give me a big name and that's it like we just talked about I don't actually know who the hell he can even fight that will accept to fight with him in the rankings above him so next best case who's got a big name Tony Ferguson let's

let's put the nail in that particular coffin and at least maybe I'll it's it's sort of the same frankly as I guess it's it's different certainly but like why the hell is shavkat fighting kelvin gasolum that's clearly a step back for him but gasolm's got a big name and nobody else will fight him so sure let's do that I'm okay with it if it happens I mean I'm not okay with it morally for the health and safety of Tony Ferguson but he will just be cradled to unconsciousness so it'll be fine he won't like suffer vicious uh... to the face or whatever. Even if Bobby Green beats him

July 29th, we're still okay with it? Oh, I forgot he was fighting Bobby Green. We're not okay with Bobby Green's going to beat him. So we're not okay with that anymore. But like, I don't want Grant Dawson to fight Bobby Green. That's just boring. And I love Bobby Green, but that's not doing anything. That's not a name.

And it's fighting super back. Like, he functionally just has to fight the winner of Turner Hooker unless he gets to fight Siru Kyi. Those were really the only things that can happen for him. Yeah, great win for Dawson. I still don't know how that man ever made $1.45. It's wild to me, but it looks very at home, $1.55. He's huge at 55.

He's way, he was bigger than his Wagulov in there. He's crazy. He's missed weight at 55. For the Mark Ratsin fight. So if we can get the weight under control, it seems like the cardio issues are behind him, like we saw in the Ricky Glenn fight. So that guy is going to be tough to be. Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes.

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Slower start, but once he started getting cooking, man, holy smokes did he get after it. Just put the boots to Max Griffin, real tough. Michael Morales going to be a problem once he starts feeling himself. He's tough to stop. I mean, I think you actually sort of nailed my biggest takeaway from this other than kids 24 because I'm excited to watch him continue to develop because like big Paul's in a puppy. He's got all the signs of something a little bit special here, a little bit cooking. But the big takeaway for me was this fight, it came into this fight.

is like this is the exact fight you do for Michael Morales. Like Max Griffin is a veteran, like a real hard-nosed veteran. He's a dude that if you're not on your P's and Q's, you can slip up against in a real bad way. And not at all what happened. We got to see growth. We saw him overcome a little bit of adversity. That first round wasn't super clean. He got, you know, his face got busted up a little bit and then just turned it up.

And like you said, when he started feeling himself, if he can find a way to just start off a fight with with the utter confidence he carried into the second third rounds of of the max griffin fight man that is just a problem because when he i mean it was like he moved differently he is he was just at that level was like all right i've got this i am i'm firing on all cylinders i'm here and jimmy right now let's get going and max griffin didn't have much to offer back other than survival at point. So if he can do that for 15 instead of kind of easing his way into it, then then I'm really going to start looking at this kid and be like, all right, uh, the ceiling is, is title contention here. Like we're, we're talking about a guy who can and will

fight for the belt. Not there yet, but still super young, a lot of a way to go. I'm excited to see him go there. Yeah, this is, this is really good matchmaking. This is a good test and Max's game as hell and good one for Michael Burroughs. All right, Annie Lipski gets a splitie. I don't think that's That fight happened? It happened all right. I say this with absolute sincerity. I sat right there on my couch with my laptop in front of me,

and I watched every minute of that fight, and I cannot tell you a single thing that happened in it. Watch all 15 of them. No idea what happened. Yeah, I don't want to, I mean, I'll just say it. I was on Twitter React's duty, so I had to go through, we have this whole page of like, the UFC fighters like a list on Twitter.

So you can go down and see every fight in order, how it all works. Not one tweet about that fight. Not one for the entire roster that I could find. But good win for Ernie Lipski. Look, she's getting better. She's evolving. And it is a good win for her. She was the underdog in this fight.

So a very good win for her. Yeah. So well done. She was happy with performance and good for her. Benoit Santini, time to stop sleeping on that man. Guys, real good. Again, this is such a weird fight because

we have the residency bias of the Isabel Bonfim knockout. And then we don't really have a recasy bias with Ben-Wassantini because all people can remember is him just getting tuned up at Welterweight and the referee not stopping the fight when he got knocked down like 137 times. Dude's unbeaten 155 in the UFC

and he just goes out there and just puts this dude away in the first round. This guy is tough, man. He's real impressive. He's calling for big names in Paris. He ain't going to get any of them, but he's trying. And if he keeps putting on performances like this, let's go. Benwacentini versus Grant Dawson's going to be a super fun fight in 14 to 16 months when they win a couple more each.

Yeah, I talk about his call it in a second because that was bad. But I said it on No Bet's Bard this week. I was like, a lot of people on Ishmael Bonfim, and I get it. He's coming off like one of the best knockouts of the year, right? but I just couldn't feel good about betting on him and really just betting against BSD because I like BSD, like what we've seen from.

Outside of the one Walterway fight, I mean, these kids looked amazing, and that fight wasn't particularly competitive. He had the run-a-bomb theme very early in that. Looked like he should have been a super heavy favorite, looked like, hey, I'm also very young and very talented, and I don't know why the hell y'all fight. forgot, but now I'm here to remind you.

So great performance from him. Hated the call-outs of Mike. His zero chance of getting the call-out, so it's a waste of mic time. It's just never going to happen because it's lightweight. He needs like five more wins before he can start being like, I want to fight top 10 guys. Like, you are at least three wins away from that. Grant Dawson can only just make those callouts. And you're no Grant Dawson, my friend, not quite yet.

So would have liked better mic work for him. But like I get it, he wants to fight in Paris, do the whole thing. I hope they get a cool name for him. And we'll keep seeing where he goes. Tiago Moises, Panata Moikano. It's not bad. Like both of those names. I think both of those are.

Moiscese. Moikano feels like maybe too big of a step. I like Moisesisos. Yeah. I think I like Moises. Yeah. Isn't it, he's in a good spot. He needs to be on this Paris card.

No doubt about that. We talked to what Roots Ballard. He's just coming off a loss, isn't he? Yeah, but I don't care about losses versus wins. Nah, we're trying to move them up, though. We're trying to move them up. We need, we need like a 1920. Dober, not bad.

I think it might be maybe one more win than you get the Dober fight. One more win before Dober becomes in play. If there's a rank guy to be had, I think Maffervola could be a possibility I think that I just don't think it's getting one

yeah we'll see What are we doing with Patty When's Patty coming back Who the hell knows Maybe the end of the year Dude I'm sure you would And I'm sure he would as well

But I don't think Patty's taking that fight I don't think you would have any interest in that fight I was probably trying to still fight Tony Ferguson It's going to be okay yeah god i think even a k is giving up on that idea rusebuff nasty knockout joannison brittow dude where the hell did that come from by the way

which one that the ruzabov chaos just that was a bullet dude nowhere like i just like you know I won't say I've seen like all of his fights because I super haven't but when you watch him on tape it's just like hey here's this six five dude who's comically large

but he also just wants to like get you in Kamara traps and stuff like he wants to use his arms to tie up your appendages and break them and then he's fighting this short stocky dude who ethered Robocop and then instead he's like oh by the way

I got hands bro eat them that was nasty a thump from that shot that dropped him was just it was echoed it was nasty kind of like we're not Fokritinoff's right hand they land on Kevin Lee that was a freaking

Piston. Lee was pretty much Dunzo there and then the gilly and goes to sleep. We already talked about Herb Dean doing such a great job there. I'll go back to that in a moment. Joannison Brito, I mean, that fight should have never happened. Weston Wilson should not have been in there with Joe Anderson Brito.

Carol Rosa gets a sputty over Yana Santos in a fight that we got at 145. I'm sorry. Carol Hosa, the uncrowned women's featherweight champion of the UFC. Put some respect on her name. If she called it a man of new niz, that would have been the best. She should have been if anyone around that fight had any sense at all, I would have been like the winner. I would

just stand there immediately call yourself the uncrown champion. There is no champion. You can say it. You are the only one who can say this right now. Stake your claim. And nobody did because they suck a promotion. Elvis Brenner grew up Kutalad's a great fight. What a comeback from Elvis Bretter. If you want to see something disgusting, go to M.AFighting.com. Don't do it. Well, go to M.A.Fighting.com. Don't click that story. It's gross. It hurts my eyeballs.

It's pretty bad. Luana Carolina gets a win. I didn't see that one coming. Not the Carolina winning wasn't a huge shocker, but her just controlling patrol bench on the ground. Did she repeatedly getting takedowns and sitting on her? Nope. Definitely didn't see that. And Alexander Ramon. off 2.0, Jedmishu. The dude is

he's back, baby. Dude, the heavyweight overbet on that fight was the steal of the card at minus 2-12. That should be like minus 500. It was the best. As soon as the fight started, I was like Blago Ivanov, if I ever see you out at a bar, I owe you

seven drinks. The amount of money I have made wagering overs on Blago-Evenov fights, It is, it's obscene. Really, I loved every second of that fight. The Romanov hype, it's still here, baby. The Romanov truthers, we weren't wrong, Mike. We were just early.

He is still 32. He's but a young pup in the heavyweight division. Alexander Romanov, UFC heavyweight champion, 2028. Just watch. King Kong was out there pacing himself just being controlled and patient wasn't going bananas he still was gassing at the end of that third round got rid of the slim physique don't need it

don't need the slim physique of heavyweight unnecessary I loved every every part of that fight the head movement Mike that's the head moving of a future champion such a like three minutes into the fight a like this is going to be awesome. This is what this entire fight's going to be.

And I'm going to love every second of it. And I just enjoyed it for what it was. It was wonderful. I do want to go back to the featured prelim. Renat Fokk Ratinoff sleeps Kevin Lee, 55 seconds. He might be good, huh? He's real good.

He might be good. He's now 120 in a row. He's 22 and 2. We haven't seen, at least not in the UFC, that fun. I'm going to punch you in the face. ace real hard style. Usually just kind of does what Grant Dawson did,

just takes you down and controls you for 80% of the fight and just wears on you. He just put it on Kevin Lee. Every shot he landed was a big shot. Then he landed the one to, that right hand, just clock Kevin Lee, put him in the choke, and Kevin Lee goes unconscious.

Yes, there's a lot of us that say, man, we're not really good fighter. This dude's a problem. But I think the other side of it was, man, Kevin Lee. This is his chance. This is the most intriguing thing on the card in a lot of people's eyes. Like, what's he going to look like?

First fight in two years back in the UFC. First fight post Diego Sanchez. First fight at the new camp, new management team. Like the whole new, like, Ally Quint to tweeted it out. Kevin, the new version of Kevin Lee making the walk to the octagon again. So we're like, this is the guy. This is, this is it. You know, a moment of truth time.

and then 55 seconds it's over. It's just wild to think about how talented, how athletic, the personality this guy has. He's got everything you would want. Like if Kevin Lee walked into your gym right now with the personality he has, the athleticism, the skills, you're like, damn, like sign this dude up. He's going to be our guy.

This guy's going to be a champion. And just can't get, for some reason, he just can't get over that hump. It's just the 30 for 30 on Kevin Lee, Jen Mishu is going to be a real, interesting watch is it not dude what happened like what

I'm looking at his resume I still like I'm trying to think of what to what an ounce like how to compare it he was five years ago was so good and so talented and

wailed on Tony Ferguson for 10 minutes in a interim title fight and And like that was just the end of it. It was that Tony came out, tapped him, and we're, it's so, like, I don't, he feels, looking at Kevin Lee, it feels like looking at, you know, the guy from your high school, the best football player, the guy who was supposed to go pro. And like, yeah, he's going to make it out. Boobie Miles, he is going to make it out.

And then he doesn't. And you're just like, why? you had it all and you just you have all of the pieces and it just didn't happen and for Kevin Lee the part that didn't happen is you know at the pinnacle of the sport he made it to he fought for a title but what the hell like I again we're not really good apparently and maybe he's like even better than we as like giving credit for but that felt a lot less like we're not's really good and more like the continuation of the where has Kevin Lee gone where is the fighter i once knew he's not in the cage ever anymore and talking about a guy used to 30 years old still he's 30 years old

and his career feels like that of you know BJ Penn or whatever like man we knew you once you were great once upon a time and now now we're just here hoping hoping that this next time the thing will happen so i don't know it's a very unique career to this sport and one that i will endlessly ponder on to figure out how it went the way it went he is he's that like if there's ever a 165 pound division kevin lee is like the face of it because he's just too small for 170 and he can't make 155 like 155 like 155 is where he should be and he can't make it. And 170 is way too small.

It's like, I just don't know. I don't think there's, and I never laugh. Yeah, I think there's something to it, but I, if he can't make 155,

he's just like, he can, it seems like he can, he can, yeah, he's made it, but even when he's made it, it's just,

it's just, it's just strange, man, like it's just so close in so many ways. Like, it's all there. It's just, what is the speed bump?

But it's not there. It's so weird. Yeah, man. It's a mystery. It's a mystery. But we're not and we'll see what's next for him. Maybe him and, well, yeah. I really think Ally Quinta may have just broken him.

Like, Ally Quinta just broke his brain forever and he has never overcome it. He should have beaten Al-A-Quinta in his sleep and he ends up losing that awful decision. What a, what a weird. man, what a weird career. Yeah, for sure. Does he get to fight again? Does the UFC keep doing the experiment with him? I think you kind of have to.

I mean, people like him. I think you have to. Dude, do you just chuck? I hate to even say this. I'm saying he is. I think I have to say it, though. Do you just chuck him in there with Michael Morales now? Just to like try to get him over?

Like, I think it kind of have to, right? Like, I think that's kind of where we're going here. I don't know if you can do that. Why not? Because that seems mean. Dude, he has... He's lost five of his previous six UFC bouts. Welterweight, welterweight.

Who's got a welterweight? Let me ponder on this and I'll come up with another one. I can't think. Michael Morales, like, I just think they probably won't do it because these two dudes fought on the same card and they looked so different in the quality of their fighting that if that feels weird to them be like, yeah, let's match those two guys up from this fight card.

You could do... I don't know. Like if Ian Gary is like two fights, like if two... Like if he had two less fights, you could do Ponzi. you do Ponzi scheme Ponzi's coming off a loss you could do that

I mean you could do Max Christian Andre Fialio they're both coming on Andre Fialio that's not a bad one that that's actually fine I'd be very fine with that

I don't know that you're getting him over in any substantive way there but I'd be okay with that Brian something like Brian Battle would be okay would be fine as well yeah it's got to be somebody you could

it's got to be somebody who could Benet Mike Malott would actually be a good one too Mike Milott is actually a better one than Michael Morales. I like Mike Mulat a lot better. We've landed on it. I think that's the answer. I think that's the answer.

Yep. Either him or Tembo-Garimbo. Because you can build on that rock storyline. Yep. All right. Let's go to the peeps. Maybe the peeps have some ideas. You could also send in your picks for Bronson.

Next one. There's the wonderful E.K.C. Liden on the ones and twos. I go ahead. This is real dumb. I'd watch Kevin Lee, Jim Miller. Someone suggested that at 1.70. Is it?

That's fine. Yeah. I would, I was just thinking about it because I thought of Matt Brown. Then I was like, no, Matt Brown and Jim Miller are going to fight. I was like, I mean, I could also watch Jim Miller fight Kevin Lee. Shit, I probably pick Jim Miller to win that fight. I guess the question is, do you put Kevin Lee on the build up a prospect tour or do you put him on the legends tour where? you know, I guess the Jim Miller type fight.

I think he's probably closer to the buildup of prospects tour. Start at the prospect store, then go to the Legends tour. I think that's it, probably. Yeah, but fights he could potentially win, where it's like the risk reward for both sides is like, is decent. Like, Malat is a good one because if Malat wins, like, you continue to just push him as like one of the new faces of Canadian

MMA. And if he loses, if Malat, loses to Lee it's like oh Kevin Lee's back holy shit like are you picking Kevin Lee in that fight right now I was I was about to say that's a that's an interesting way to phrase it because I don't know who I would pick I was just about to ask who is the best fighter you would pick Kevin Lee to beat because I have no idea it's pretty down the list because Kevin Lee did not look like he was a perfect he did not look at UFC caliber tonight I don't know

I'm genuinely going to spend some time to think on who is the best fighter that I would pick. Did you know, did you mention Tony Ferguson yet? Were you matching Tony at 170? We didn't mention that. That actually would be a fight that I'd be at least more comfortable with. That's back at the Legends tour. The problem is Tony's going to fight Bobby Green. And when he loses to Bobby Green, the conversation should really be like, hey, Tony, about that you still fighting thing.

maybe let's pump the brakes on it. All right, I'm going to throw, I'm going to throw two names out you, Jed. Ready? Okay. Who would you pick? Kevin Lee or Tim Means? I'm, that actually might be the line. You might have found the line.

I think I am picking Tim Means on general principle of just how bad Kevin Lee has looked. But I would. wouldn't be at all surprised if Kevin Lee won that one. So I think that's a good line. Casey, Kevin Lee versus Brian Barberana, who wins? I thought of Bam Bam. I would definitely pick Bam Bam. I think we're back at, I don't know if Kevin Lee is a, I don't,

he's clearly not a league anymore. Yeah. I just, I have no idea where Kevin Lee is right now in his career. I just don't know. It's so fascinating. He could show up at his next fight and just obliterate somebody and it'd be like, okay, this is like the guy we've all seen. And then his next fight, he could do what happened tonight.

And it just like, oh, he randomly shorts Gregor Gillespie. Who's good? Gregor Gillespie's a damn good fighter. And he randomly just pantsed him for the whole world. And like he could do it. It just doesn't happen. Super weird. Who did Alex Moreno?

Is Alex Marino? Marano. The Great White? Yeah. Who did he just beat? Tim Means. Oh, okay, just beat Tim. Okay.

I was like someone that lost him. I would definitely pick Alex Marano to beat Kevin Lee. Yeah. I would pick Alex Marano. I was suggesting who Marona beat. Yeah. Not Keem. Tim Means, which is, I think, is like the exact right line of 50-50.

Yeah. Yeah. Marona's sneaky good, too. Yep. I think Marona's, he's past that, yeah. Yeah. All right.

Let's take a... Give me, here's the fight I actually am for. I think Mike Malat is smart and good and reasonable. The one I will lobby for, and we can end on it. Give me Nico Price after he loses to Robbie Lawler. I love it.

Anything. Something can happen in that. Nico Price versus Kevin Lee. Kevin Lee could be winning and then something real stupid happens for him to get knocked out. As just the fight I want to see. Who would you pick? Kevin Lee versus Adam Fujit. Fuget.

There are Walter White's Kevin Lee can be, I think, in the UFC. I think there are plenty of Walter White's. I just forget. If he gets his head on his shoulders. Yeah. The Kevin Lee that came tonight, does he lose? Kevin Lee would be favored in that fight. Okay.

Like, it's... Overfuge it? Yeah, I think that's true. Yeah, he'd be favored. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So, no, you can't get a nice rank on Uber Eats.

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For alcohol, you must be legal drinking. age. Please enjoy responsibly. Product availability varies by region. See app for details. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here. Introducing the new Peloton Cross Training Tread Plus powered by Peloton IQ. Built for breakthroughs with personalized workout plans, real-time insights, and endless ways to move. Lift with confidence while Peloton IQ counts reps, corrects form, and tracks your progress. Let yourself run, lift, flow, and go. Explore the new Peloton Cross-training tread plus at One Peloton.C.A. All right, the peeps, what do you got?

We've talked a lot about Kevin Lee fantasy matchmaking. Is Grant Doss in a threat at lightweight? He's 9-01, the UFC in the most dangerous division. Of course he is. He is a threat. That depends on your definition. Yes. Yeah, he's a threat.

I do not believe he will ever hold the title because I believe Armand Sarukian is just much better positioned to be the next guy after Islam is done. But I think that it is more likely than not that Dawson fights for a title. But actually, no, I'm going to retract that. I think Grant Dawson is this generation's Jim Miller. I think that's who he is.

He's going to be a dude who's really good. Everybody respects the hell out of. Gets almost there, but he's probably never going to have the juice to quite get to an actual title fight unless something really breaks his way in a division that's impossible for things to break your way but perennial top 15 guy really really good could fight for a belt i will say more likely that he doesn't because he's just going to be the jim miller kind of dude is grant dawson basically the guy he'll just never be able to move the needle enough to get that pay-per-view it's going to be a huge problem for him that's the problem yeah i

Because a lightweight, if you don't move the needle, you have to win 12 in a row. It's just so hard. He's going to be, he's going to be Ferguson, Dariusi, where he's going to have to win like six or seven fights before he gets a big name. There's a long history of lightweights who have put together eight, nine wins and just couldn't get over the hump. Who's the old Australian dude who's had the weirdest body? Sodoropolis. Yeah, George Soderopolis. There you go.

Had like nine wins. Lightweight is littered with dudes who strung together nine, ten wins and just didn't get to fight for it. Because if you don't have the juice, it's just impossible. You have to win so many fights that it just simply cannot be done. It's tough. The last guy who almost got a title shot without having the juice was, I always forget his name, the Canadian guy. The Canadian. No, Canadian.

I don't think Derr Ush also is a type of life. Well, it would be bored, Derrush, because he didn't lose. I'm trying to think of who's a Canadian lightweight. With the beard, he got concussions in training. Oh, DJ Grant. T.J. Grant. T.J. Grant. Yeah.

He did at least get a title shot, but he then got concussed. Yeah. But I was going to say, he was the last guy. I can remember honestly getting a UFC title shot at lightweight that didn't have that kind of, I don't know what you want to call it. Yeah, that juice. Yeah, he had the right time. He was just good. He had the right timing and he had dropped from welterweight and was like,

this dude is a problem and there's nobody else. Let's do it. So yeah, it's, but look at who has fought for the belt. Other than that, it is everyone's a star. Who is,

who is the least big star who has fought for the lightweight title? Maybe. Like Sean jerk. Yeah. No, because he was like a lightweight champion. and so yeah yeah Kenny Florian

Kenny Floreen was a tough star they loved Kenny Was he a big star star though He was over but was he a star? Well at that I'm talking you've got to be over I guess less than a star but yeah I think he definitely was because he was on season one of tough

their entire narrative built around that looking at this I mean honestly RDA is probably like RDA was not did not have the juice when he fought for the belt. He was just good. But other than that, I mean,

Donald, Donald Saroni, Eddie Alvarez, Conn McGregor, Habib, Pori, Gajee, Ferguson, Olivera. Like, it is just a freaking list of people that you know and that random MMA fans have heard of. It is not a list of Grant Dawson's, George Soaropoulos is, you got to have something extra.

And I don't think Dawson has it. And that's going to really hold him back. This is true. All right. Does Strick will do enough in his post-fight speech to get the Izzy fight? We talked about this on the fan Q&A. He would have to say something big. But I think we assumed it was going to be a boring victory, too.

So maybe that kind of negates saying something outlandish in the post-fight. I mean, he didn't really have to say anything. But just going out there and getting the second round finish like that was And that was good. There's Unstricklandy, non-Strickland-like. Man, what if he had carried that energy of Unstrickland-like? And it'd just been like, hey, guys, I want to talk to you about the dangers of capitalism and the trajectory our current nation is on. Like, that would have just, dude, just hit him with the curve when no one's, no one sees it coming.

Never let him know your next move, guys. I didn't realize that he called out, I knew that he said, like, I want the champ, but then he said the line about Chinese or whatever. What was that? I thought I misheard it. So that I legitimately just thought that he was making a really awful statement about wanting to fight Wiley Zhang.

And I was like, God, Sean Strickin, what the hell? And then somebody pointed out that, like, apparently Izzy has been training or trained in China at some point in time and so I think that that's the tie in there but that's super weird I just say this I feel like I have to say this a lot now

just use people's names because MMA fans we're not the brightest bunch in general and most of the people watching you are not like super clued into the minutia so if you pull a Bala Muhammad and you're like I want to fight the wolf dude or whatever no one knows what the hell you mean

just say I would like to fight Israel disinia. You're coming to Australia. I don't care if you're African or not. You can still catch these hands, homie, and then drop the mic. And that's good. You don't doing weird shit is just not the way.

But he may get it anyway because there's nobody else. He's in play, that's for sure. He is absolutely in play. Oh, okay, so I guess it's because he fought in China Yeah, as a kickboxer. All right. That's, yeah, all right. Cool.

Yeah, that's the most, like, deep cut. I work in, we all work in MMA. Did we know that? It's weird as shit. That's a weird one. Say a different thing, man. What else we got? Can I also say that I'm actually here for Izzy versus Sean Strickland?

I think it would be charmingly funny. is he would get to look real good he would just get to look real good and so that'd be cool yeah it's not ddp i think strickland is an is an excellent alternative like i think the point of this card more than anything is to make izzie look like a megastar

and in a big way to do that is you let him look good against a stylistic matchup that is going to give him the opportunity to deliver a high highlight real knockout. And Sean Strickland is just going to be in his face the entire time, giving him many of opportunity to land many shots. And Drickus Duplice, I mean, we are, I think we all are aware of- There's no wrong way to eat this Reese's. No wrong way to eat this Reese is unless it's called Robert Whitaker. That's the only wrong way to eat this is he title defense races.

And even that's fine. Yeah, I, I, in a weird way, I want to see those two guys fighting. It doesn't have to be right now, but I do want to see those two guys fight one more time. I want to see if Whitaker can get it can do it. I want to see if you beat him. I'd watch it, but I don't care about it. Also, if Sean Strickland gets it, he's going to say something zany on the mic that Izzy can riff off of and maybe say something equally as awful back about. It'll be fun. Look, there are worse things that can happen. Strickland can get next because we're still manifesting DDP guys put it out into the universe the universe will gift it back tenfold DDP winning a hard fought splitty over Bobby Knuckles

Let's go What else we got? Do you have anything? It's not a ton of storylines coming out of this bad boy Just a lot of oh I can't wait to see this guy fight again Can we see this guy? Honestly there were more storylines coming out of it than I anticipated We got three four three and a half it's good three and a half i'll give michael morales a half i'm not going to give him a full storyline well i know maybe heck is going to save this pick but um maybe me and jed can't can answer this

well the top ten of layway try to duck grant he's a monster he 30 26 demure is it kacey what are your thoughts before i give mine so i think yeah it goes back to what we said earlier he doesn't have the juice um he's the new dare Ere Eush. So he probably fight someone that's desperate for a fight. Someone maybe like banal, you know. So, yeah, I think anyone on a win is going to duck Mr. Grant and people coming up losses

will reluctantly take that fight. That's pretty much it, I think. I will say that no one is going to duck him because I don't think that it's reasonable to assert that. And like, it's not ducking if the top five don't want to fight a dude who's top 15. Yeah. Because you're fighting so far behind.

And like so. Ducking isn't the right term, but people yeah, I know you mean. Like Oliver, Paia, Gaichi, Derrush, aren't fighting him. That's just not going to happen. But that's not them ducking. That would be bad business for them to do so. They can defend position against somebody else. Uh, and then you're looking at that next tier

of like, I think Fiziv would probably fight him, actually. And that might be his best hope. Is Fiziv booked? Him and Gamrod want to fight each other. Oh, yeah. So then Fiziv isn't going to fight. I'm going to fight Gammar who's a teammate.

And then he probably will be trying to move up after that. And then Gamrots arguably like a better Grant Austin. So if he beats him, whatever. Surukian is the best hope. I think Surukian's eyes are forward, not backwards. But if they brought him the fight, he may have to say yes. We already talked about Benny. I'm looking at the UFC's rankings.

I have no idea where RDA is still in them. That's insane. Jalen, RDA will, by definition, duck him because he's never fighting it lightweight unless it's Connor for a billion dollars. And then the next options up are Jalen Turner, Dan Hooker. They're about to fight, and I think the winner of that isn't going to duck him.

I think they're just going to be forced to fight him because there's nobody else. It's for granted, it's going to be one at a time, one spot. If he's 10, he's fight number 9. If he's 9, he's 5, he's 5th. He's not. That is everybody at lightweight, unless you are Islam Makachev, and you are the chosen

prodigy of the greatest of all time, and you get to skip the line. But everybody else, it is one rung up the ladder at a time, man. It's just how it goes. Yeah, it's going to be a ranking spot. It'll be one ranking spot for, then I'll have to fight somebody two spots back, and then he'll go back to where he was, go up one, then go back. too. Like that's what his road's going to look like. It's just it's what lightweight is.

I mean, honestly, he got a huge gift here in that he gets to go from 15 what he is in the UFC's rankings up to 12 now where Damir is. So that's like as big a jump as you can functionally get in UFC rankings. So now it's just the process, the climb.

Embrace the climb, buddy. We're surreeking seven? Serican seven. He's eight. He's eight. He's eight. He's eight. So he's had a fight. Well, they don't they don't count the chance. champion is one. That's correct. Yeah. Yeah. So he's eight and he's had a fight. He had a fight like four or five spots back before. And then he fought out of the rankings his last fight. So he had two fights in a row with guys ranked behind him. And Gamra was also ranked behind him. Who is he supposed to fight before he had to take out of the rankings dude? Is he supposed to fight like Moikano or something? I thought he was supposed to fight somebody.

the headline, which would also have been a step back, but at least would have been in the rankings, yeah. Yeah, he's supposed to headline that April 29th card with Panato-Wikano. That's just how it goes, man. We got what? I think we got Ricky Simone Song-Yadong in that

spot to replace it. This is the grind of lightweight. If you aren't, if you don't have the juice, if you don't bring something else to the table like a Michael Chandler did, your path up. is long and arduous.

Get better on the mic, man. That's all I can tell you. He tried. He tried. I loved what he did. I'm not here. Just don't, you know, he's a very reasonable person,

but I'm just shooting you straight. Yeah, very reasonable people don't go very far in this sport. They sure don't. They really don't. Good God, they do not. I think we're good in the straight. Yeah. I think we, yeah, I think we have,

We have milked this card as much as we can. So get your matching selections in France. The next one, you know how to do it. And then it's International Fight Week, baby. International Fight Week. Jose will be on site in Las Vegas. Media Day Wednesday. Presser Thursday.

Wayans Friday. Hall of Fame. I'm sure there'll be other press conferences as well. Apparently there's going to be a big UFC Fight Pass announcement coming up. Jorge Bazadol will. be having a press conference in Las Vegas as well, I am told on Friday. I would assume JDS and Fabricio Verduen will be there to promote their bare-knuckle MMA card coming up in September in Jacksonville, Florida.

All that was announced. And yeah, it's going to be a busy house week. I'm down to go. It's a day before, it's a day before 293 before Izzy DDP. that we're putting on into the universe. We'll see. We'll keep working on that. Also, viewers, I'm disappointed.

We didn't get a single fight circus question, and I feel like you've all failed me. Just wanted to let you know that before we get out of here. Because they know BTL you're going to walk us right through all the best, all the highlights, all the best moments. What do we need to go back and watch? Tire fight was a good or bad.

It was great. Tyson Fury, uh, I said, I forget who I was talking with this about. Tyson Fury, they were like, I can't believe Tyson Fury went to Fight Circus. Like really, when you see him there,

you think in most other timelines, that's just where Tyson Fury is. In this one, he happens to be the best heavyweight boxer of this generation. But in most of them, he's just a dude at Fight Circus. It fit like a glove. It was fantastic. John Fury, Tyson's dad, should be like the general manager of Fight Circus. The whole Fury family was having a blast.

John Fury should be out like making all the he should be the dude on the mic making all the sit like John not obviously needs to be a part of it but that did but John Fury is like the face of fight circus like the just the face that runs the place

the guy makes all the decision the Eric Bischoff if you will of fight circus would just be the best he would get he'd fit right in and do a tremendous job God bless you. He's great if you haven't watched it fight circus dot TV I think it's free 90 minutes the tight 90

what was the name of the event seven lock stock and two smoking sausages because these are children running this organization just absolute children and they are heard they say they are and that's what we respect about them so much

the tire fighting is sick so is it one foot in the tire fighting yeah you got one foot in the tire it's like would you ever do that as kids we used to do that with slapboxing and the tires or whatever. It's just that. It was sick.

Yeah, we did helmet boxing with hockey gloves and hockey masks. Oh, that's fun too. Oh, yeah. Tire fighting on the main event. Just watch the main event. You won't be disappointed. All right.

Well, some homework for you. Thank you all very much again. Happy Canada Day at all the Canadians out there. Independence Day coming up in the U.S. on Tuesday. So there'll be no happy morning on Tuesday. Yes, as Sean's circling pointed out in a supposed to fight press conference,

but thank you all very much. Enjoy the rest of your weekend, everybody. International Fight Week is upon us. We'll see you then. Every time we pod, it's for this country. Love y'all. USA.

USA. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.