MMA Fighting - UFC Vegas 82 Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Brendan Allen's Lopsided Submission Win, Referee Controversy

Episode Date: November 19, 2023

Brendan Allen kept his impressive winning streak going in his first scheduled UFC main event on Saturday as he dominated and finished Paul Craig to cap off UFC Vegas 82. With another finish under his belt, is Allen a true championship threat moving forward at 185, and what should be next for "All-In"? MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, José Youngs, and Jed Meshew react to Allen's impressive showing, discuss who he could fight next, and Craig's future at 185 pounds. Additionally, they discuss Michael Morales' victory over Jake Matthews, Amanda Ribas' incredible third-round finish of Luana Pinheiro and where she could go at 115, Mike Beltran's controversial stoppage of the Trey Ogden vs. Nikolas Motta fight and it being ruled a no contest, the APEX continuing to be a thing, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow José Youngs: @JoseYoungs Follow Jed Meshew: @JedKMeshew Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter 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 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. 14 fights in the books at the hallowed apex in Las Vegas, Nevada. And the victory horn sound for one, Brendan All in Allen.

He just ran over Paul Craig in the main event of UFC Vegas 82. Third round submission victory to cap off an interesting afternoon slash evening of fights. And we're here to recap it with all of you here on the UFC Vegas 82 post fight show. Thank you for joining us. I am Mike Hac Jose Young's back. Second show in a row. How are we doing, Jose? Happy Pedro Martinez day, Mike, 26 years ago.

The Red Sox traded. Tony Armis and Carl Pavano for some skinny picture from the Montreal Expos, and the rest is history. Much more important than what happened tonight. That's not true, but I just needed to add it. I mean, you're not lying, if we're being honest. If we look back at the, if we look back at history on this day, I think the Pedro trade will age a lot better than UFC Vegas 82.

That's not a good there. Yes. And also joining us, Mr. Hot Take himself, the man who texted me right before the show and said, Mike, you were right. John Jones is the number one heavyweight in the world. Jed Bishu, how you doing, my friend? This is definitely not a thing I said. Because the number one heavyweight can't be a scared little girl. And that's where John Jones is.

He's a very scared little man. I don't care at all about baseball and certainly not about the Red Sox. And I'll agree that that's a bigger, more important thing. I know who Pedro Martinez is. I don't know who the other two gentlemen Jose was talking about are. but that seems like that matters a lot more than the stuff we witnessed. Yes. It was a fight card.

It was certainly a fight card. We had some good performances. It fulfilled the contractual obligation. It sure did. There were a lot of submissions. Yes. Yes. There were a lot of submissions on this card.

But the most important submission of all came from Brennan out. Six and a half. Yeah, we'll get to that. We'll get to the half at a matter of moments. But Jose, Brennan Allen goes in there. He's a pretty big favorite, certainly performed as such. We know how tough and crazy Paul Craig can be, but Brandon Allen's just been on a roll right now.

Are you surprised that he made this look as easy as he did tonight? I'm surprised that how willing he was to grapple with Paul Craig, not that Brandon Allen is not a good grappler. He's one of the best grapplers in the entire, maybe the best in the entire middleweight division, you know, beating Andreemini's beating Paul Craig, obviously Hamza and whoever else are in there. But in terms of just high-level jujitsu inside MMA or MMA jujitsu, Brennan is right up there with the best of them. Paul Craig was also right up there with the best of them.

And I said on the show that I picked Brennan to win by decision because normally when you have two very high-level grapplers fighting, it turns into a sloppy kickboxing fight, which I was excited for. Brennan's striking just is better than Paul Craig. So that's what I expected. So I was pretty blown away that not only was Brendan Allen willing to stand and strike with Paul Craig, if that's what, you know, happens, he was more than willing to dive into the guard and, you know, roll around pretzel style with their legs locked as long as the fight lasted with Paul Craig. So Brennan was a fearless fighter, very impressive win.

He was dominated that fight, Pillard's Post. I do we're going to get into Paul Craig's side of the fight later I'm sure so I won't kind of dive into that but yeah Brent Allen impressed me with just his another his willingness to dive in with the sharks and basically you know kill all the sharks down there he was he was great it was an impressive one I'm not talking about his post-fight interview I'm not talking about his personality just skill wise athletic wise what he did meritocracy wise you can't not be impressive what Brennan Allen did in there Yeah, he looks really, really good. And what did you think, Jed? I mean, look, outside of like one really fun scramble at the end where it looks like maybe Paul Craig tricked Brennan Allen and locked in a nasty calf slicer, which Brennan valiantly fought out of,

I mean, this is one-way traffic, pretty much for the entirety of the fight. Were you surprised that Brendan made it look as easy as he did tonight? No, this is almost exactly the fight I kind of thought we'd end up getting here. The finish now, I thought I was on TKO. I thought Brin and I would sort of do the elbowing thing we saw, and that's how the win would come. But I thought he'd be willing to engage on the ground. He was even more than I thought he would because I think certainly in the second round, it looked like he sort of immediately hurt Paul Craig with a shot, like a right hand that had Paul Craig in kind of trouble.

And then just like went to grappling with him where I was like, you should probably stand up. She might just knock this dude out. But I thought that he would be willing to engage. you saw him do with Andre Monez. I think he's very confident in his grappling and honestly should be. He did obviously very, very well. I thought at some point Paul Craig would get something cool going because he is crafty. And, you know, he's always going to have a moment.

But if he couldn't convert on that moment, the fight was going to be over. And then that's really how it happened. So the finish, I didn't expect a submission. I didn't expect it to be that quick for him to pull that off, really. everything Jose said. Like the dude's 27 years old and he is obviously extremely good. You know, growth isn't linear, but he has improved a tremendous amount the past two years. And I'm not saying I would pick him to beat Sean Strickland, but it would not at all surprise me if he could beat Sean Strickland or, you know, there are harder matchups for him than Sean Strickland, I would say.

But I think this dude has a chance against just about anybody in the world in this one. weight class and it's he's right at the end of it he said he you know maybe he doesn't get a title eliminator fight but maybe middleweight's kind of weird i just want to see him against the top five dude and and see exactly where he is because he deserves it at this point i wasa what did you want to say about the the paul craig side of the equation you got kind of busted up pretty early chris curtis was tweeting basically throughout the fight questioning the strategy called it the homer Simpson grappling style essentially. What did you make of the Paul Craig side of the equation?

It just kind of showed that like Paul Craig is very, very good at one thing. But when he fights guys that are bigger than him at light heavyweight or guys that can, you know, negate what he's very good at, I don't think he's ever going to be like a top 10, top seven fight. He's always going to be exciting. He's one of those guys that are going to get you or get got. But I do think Chris Curtis tweeted when the fight was over something that I, You know, I was trying to put my finger on it, like, throughout the fight, I was watching Paul Craig, and I was like, I don't understand, like, I just don't understand this middleweight Paul Craig. It just doesn't, something just seems off, and I can't explain it. And I think Chris Curtis just nailed it on the head that he just doesn't think that middleweight was the move for Paul Craig because he doesn't punch hard. So that power doesn't translate down from light heavyweight. He's not super fast and he's not super durable on the feet. Like I said in the preview show, like when he gets hurt, he gets hurt big.

Just so Chris Kurtz basically just said he's a slow target for faster fighters now at middleweight. And I'm like, that's exactly what I was trying to figure out, like something I just couldn't put my finger on. Brennan Allen just was faster. And like when he grabbed Paul Craig, his strength just matched Paul Craig. So I just, I don't know if Paul Craig stays a middleweight. If his body is comfortable there, then so be it. But he is almost closer to 40 than 30. So if he wants to go back up to light heavyweight, so be it.

because like he said, the Johnny Walker fights is the one that kind of made him want to drop down in middleweight. Johnny Walker is an absolutely monstrous light heavyweight. He's pretty much bigger than anyone at 205 pounds. So I get it if you do want to get to the upper echelon, you're going to have to go through those guys. But I think Paul Craig would actually do pretty well light heavyweight again. So he's just in this weird tweener realm where I just don't know where he belongs because he's not fast and powerful for middleweight,

but he's not powerful and durable for light heavyweight. I just don't know where he goes in here. But losing to Breland Allen's not anything to hang your head at, especially it's a main event. It's not like he's getting submitted by, you know, Alex Pereira, who's a kickboxer. He's got submitted by Brennan, who has a lot of submission. So I just, I don't know where Paul Craig goes from here in terms of his title aspirations. Yeah, I just didn't really see them anyways. Like if he had won this fight, they probably would have kind of rocket shipped him towards it just to see what they could get.

but wouldn't have been anything they would have like strategically planned out over time. They've just been like, all right, let's just go with this dude and see what happens. But, yeah, I mean, look. He can't give him one. He's just never going to get a title fight. He's not good. He's not a great one. Yeah, and that's why I felt like Brett and Allen needed this win more because people are still going to want to watch Paul Craig.

Like Paul Craig versus Boe Nickel, people still will watch that. I don't think he would do very well against Boe Nickel, but people would still be like, oh, this is kind of interesting. Why not? I don't think you can book that because by Boone. just kill him. Maybe. There's still a nice name to have on the resume, right?

Right now. Again, it's not a you can't book it from a bow nickel. You can book Bo Neckle against anyone. That's fine. But like, what's the selling point? Like, no one is going, Bo Neckle will be a minus 1,500 favorite. Like, no one is going to believe after what we just witnessed that Paul Craig has anything

to offer but blood like for Bo Neckle. That's just it. I think you could have done that now. I don't, maybe they'll still do it, but I don't know. I also wanted to comment on what Jose said, because Jose, you and Chris Curtis have stumbled on the great axiom of MMA, which is this. The further away you can get from 155, the better your prospects are.

Because 155 is the best weight class, and then further out, they're just easier weight classes. It is easy. if you can physically compete at light heavyweight, do that instead of at middleweight because middleweight's better than light heavyweight. The same at heavyweight. Look at what Jailton Alme is doing in heavy weight

because it's just a much worse weight class. The further you can get from 155 and the concentration of all the really, really good fighters, the better off you're going to be. And Paul Craig is learning that lesson hard. The one thing I was really concerned about from the Brennan side was like, what was he going to say on the microphone?

Was he just going to be like, I'm fighting Sean Strickland? or I'm not fighting anybody, but he didn't do that. I actually thought he left himself open. I think he's getting better. You know, number one contender fight is not out of this realm at all. Like, you could book him in a number one contender fight right now, and it wouldn't be out of the realm possibility.

I'll just give my out no pick already because I already gave it, Jed. Brennan versus Marmotori, like that fight. Want to see it? That's the one I want. Let's do it. What do you think? I'm okay with that one. Who were we trying to book?

Who's trying to get Marvin Vittory last week? Somebody was like, I feel like we had Marvin Vittoria. I was like, no, you can't do that. That's a stupid fight. Brendan Allen, Marvin Vittory, makes total sense. That seems like an absolutely fine fight to do. And if he wins, he's probably not a number one contender fight, but it is one where if he wins, he's in the conversation

for a short notice title fight guy or something like that. So, yeah, I think that's a great call. do you like that idea Jose do you have another idea and also what do you think the chances are he gets Hamzat Shamiyev next zero because I think Hamzat's going to fight Paulo Kostin Saudi Arabia I agree

the Marvin Vittori fight is good because then the winner of that can fight the return in Jared Kannonair who got hurt for an actual number one contender fight so yeah that makes sense especially like just thought yeah Brandon Allen's what I don't know what he's ranked in ours or UFC but I'm just looking at just my list of middleweight.

So yeah, it makes sense. The lead say it's tied up. Powell Costa is going to fight. Hamzaa probably. Kaine, there's her. Whitaker should fight Camaro. Yeah, sure. Martin Vittori.

Stick it in the main event. Maybe wherever. Maybe in Europe if they go back there. Yeah. Burn and Allen right now number... Who earns it yet? I haven't been 11. But he'll be much higher than that for me.

He's number 10 in the UFC's rankings. I have I didn't see ours overall because I don't have ours pulled up time wise He's 11 he's 11 in ours Time wise this is looking like March They could fight possibly maybe

Because like it's November Like in four months They could fight headline a card They're not headlining Saudi Arabia With Brett and Allen Marvittory The other fight is a pay-per-view And I can't imagine They're going to do Brett and Allen Mar-Vortar

In the main event of London If they go back to London So it's going to have to be another Apex card That's about right who yay where else can you put that fight

like it's not a ticket seller unless you do it in Louisiana yeah somehow well I have a feeling if they go Louisiana I bet they toss des and pour in them I was going to say if they go to Louisiana they're going to be people who want it over him

so I don't know go to Italy from arm Vittory that's not a bad idea I mean the UFC's going to Spain next year it's not a bad co-man event if Ilya wins and they stick that as a co-made event. Yeah, I'll work. I don't mind that at all.

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There were six emissions. Is that what you said? Six and a half submissions. That would be good for third most ever on a single USC. Three knockouts. Third most ever. I mean, that's pretty good. Third most submissions.

If it had, it's tied with like eight different events. So if it got that half, if that weird ending happened, it would have had sole place for third. But to be fair, also it has 14 fights. Yeah.

Also, to be fair, the top two spots on my, because I have like a list of UFC right here. It's like UFC four. Yeah. It's like those early tournaments where it's like, you know, your tap just strikes when you just got a boom. Every fight ended by submission because there were no TKOs because Big John couldn't stop

fights until UFC two. Correct. Nice performance from Michael Morales against Jake Matthews. I thought for a minute, Jed. Thought for a minute. Maybe Jake Matthews is going to be back in your top 10 welterweights. But Michael Morales just continued to pour it on as the fight. went on but this is a good it just showed that this is really good matchmaking this is like the perfect

step up for michael morales he got tested but still came through it's going to be interesting to see what's next for him chase hooper jordan levitt just uh i mean man they they must have watched danny sabs and raffauntz last night and they were like let's just do that but more technical and not punch each other at all and chase hooper gets the rear naked choke submission in the first round Peyton Talbot 58 seconds round three comes through gets the win boy

I understand why the UFC sees something in him he's got a long long long way to go hopefully they they don't rush him very much they just match

baby steps with him and he boss what I finished from her and then Mick Tebeck Oralby just almost breaking the jaw of Euros Medich with a neck crank.

Almost breaking the neck of Europros Medich. Yeah, dude. Dude's a bad man pajama that guy. He's going to be a problem. He's going to go to 155. Just adding to the best division on the sport. Don't do it. Don't go.

No, stay at welterweight. Again, the axiom. The further way you can get from 155, the better your career is going to be. Ask Gilbert Burns. How'd working at 155 work for Gilbert Burns? It's been a top five Walterweight for a decade now. It's a great point

Mazadol Don't go to the horror weight class I mean I said all got two title fights To be fair I would rather see him fight Michael Piaza Like if he just wants to like get put through

fire incarnate Lightway it's the way to go Yeah that's just don't do that to yourself man Joe Anderson Brito Johnson He's gonna be a lightweight for like 10 years Just don't go to that weight class It's gonna suck shit join us to brito jonathan peers i mean crazy fight one of the funniest endings to a fight i maybe

have seen all year which is we want you to get up and do something georgia superiors like bet and then slaps on a ninja joke and submits jonathan pierce like that was freaking wild uh great performance from jose jonson christian lyriduncan just kind of outlast denis toulin and then that double elbow is pretty nasty mick park and kio machado what did you think of that fight jenni jenni what did you think of that fight jenni That fight just seemed right up your alley. We had two gassed, not experienced heavyweights, just roughing it up in the third round. What did you make of that fight?

Is that on your fight of the year list for 2023? That fight really, well, one, heavyweight overs died, so I didn't have money down on it. And two, a fight, it really made me question things. The apex has got to go. I know it's not going to go, but I was thinking about this for the co-main event. We were talking about it on Slack. Like the fight between Michael Miles and Jake Matthews was like a legitimately good fight. And I, it just, I couldn't care about it because it's in an empty arena.

It's like a tough fight. Like it just doesn't matter. And that's where the good fight, you are bringing good fight down to this level. And then if you take a fight like Mick Parkin and Machado, it's just like this fight is already on the floor. And now we are just drilling to the core of the earth. it was a real tough hang to the credit of most everyone else in the card at least like the rest of the fights were doing their best they were fun and entertaining and delivering finishes but this one was a clear low point of the evening yeah it's the tough thing about the apex because like the fighters made money right before the holiday so that's great uh you know jack o're sorry guy has a nice finish uh eileen prez gets a win Rafael Estevam gets a win like that's great

but just fuck man it seemed like this card took four days it seemed like it took four days to watch and even Helator with 16 fights didn't feel that way last night the problem with this card

and I'm using the word problem because I'm going to be speaking to the you know the MMA fighting audience because I personally don't think it's a problem the reason this fight card seems like it took forever even though on paper there is like almost every fight was a finish

because they all finished past like almost the second half of the fight. So there weren't a lot of like a lot of like a lot of rounds. It's a good point. Yeah. So like there was a ton of some stoppages all in the late second to final round. Even the main event was the third round. So seems like it took forever.

But I mean, it also started real poor, which was tough. Like the Estabam Johnson fight was like fine, but whatever. Then you have the weirdness that we'll get into with Ogdenara. Then you have Pudilova Perez. Like that's a really. rough and Mick Parkin was after the one first chunko or whatever that was a really tough start yeah but then like after that you had Jed's odd heavyweight fight but from there on up like every fight was had a good finish they just all finished late and like the main card was there like it

did its best but it already started behind the eight ball so it was parts of tonight were a tough hang yeah and it's just the low energy of the apex it's just like It just takes away from it. It really does. But it is what it is. It happens. I don't want to be the Debbie down here. But I kind of have to be.

Let's get into the flub of the night. Boy. There you go. Mike Beltran, Jose. This is tough. Like, look, I'm not here to say refereeing is easy. But Trey Ogden is just running Nicholas Bota. He's just dominating him, wins both rounds.

about to win round three probably got to put nicholas mota to sleep at some point in this in this nasty arm triangle it's a blood choke that this man has on it's going to probably get nicholas motton put him to sleep mike beltrane is yelling in nicholas mota give me something give me a thumbs up or some sort of reaction that you're okay and of course by doing that you're putting yourself in more danger in more jeopardy of getting submitted and nicholas bultz's like nah dude i'm not going to do that and Mike Beltran goes over and tries to grab the arm of Nicholas Bodden. And clearly, Nicholas is fighting the choke. So it's not like it's flopping to the ground.

And Mike Beltran stops the fight. And Nicholas Bota immediately protests. And we're like, oh, man, I can't believe this happened. And then it gets ruled a no contest, Jose, which is just turn the world upside down. How weird was this? This was just a rough way to kick this card off, really. I mean, good for Nicholas Motta, right? I don't know why he was complaining because he was going to lose that fight, even if he did survive that submission.

I like what Danny Rubenstein tweeted, where he said that, you know, fights past the two and a half rounds and the referee messes up. Just throw it to the judge's scorecards. Like, it's not the fighter's false that the referee jumped in. Why make it a no contest? I would agree. Referee error shouldn't take away what Ogden was doing in there. Yeah. I'm glad this wasn't, you know, the main event or comely.

main event. I'm not saying I'm glad it was further down the card because it shouldn't happen, period. But I know from experience we will not be talking about this fight in seven days, but right now it's very annoying. It is very, very annoying. Referees, especially Mike Beltron. I'm not, I'm sure there are other people on this show or even behind the scenes that have more history of Mike Beltron. I've never been the biggest fan of him, the way he, He conducts himself in the octagon. I think I phrased that right. Like remember when, who was it?

Who fought AJ Agasson? Was it Chris Lencioni in Bellator? And then AJ Agon stormed out. And Mike Beltrane like followed him out of the octagon, took him by the wrist. And like angry principal style, like forced him to shake Chris Lentzioni's hand. And I'm like, what are you doing? Like, these are grown men. Just they don't want to shake hands.

They don't have to shake hands. You don't have to force these people to shake. hands like you're just an agitated principle so i've never been the biggest mike beltroth fan but this is this is this is this is bad this is about as bad as it gets jad what did you think of this this um by the way uh because it's just popped up on my twitter don't go watch the fs ufsu football player get injured yeah yeah that was bad it's not very good um so i only was paying half attention to what Jose was saying because I was trying to find a bucket to vomit in good heavens that was tough uh Mike Beltron didn't do great I don't I don't I honestly don't

know what he was doing like it's you you the answer to show me you're okay like that's not a thing that that is it's just not like real like you I get it you can make a judgment call and it can be incorrect and I am glad that we got the correct outcome for this error because for a while it seemed like they were just going to give Ogden the win or whatever and he like he even though it really seemed like he was about to win uh you can't just do that because pretty clearly mota was not out and had gotten job so uh this is just one of those situations it sucks I don't think my Botron's a particularly good ref but I outside of of like, remember Justin Gachie hates him, but outside of that, I can't really think of another, like, big, nothing big is jumping to my mind. Jose is better with that sort of stuff anyway. I'm like, oh, he's really screwed the pooch here. He screwed up. I truly don't understand what he was doing. It's not like Motto's life was in danger from that choke anyway. So like you can let it go on a little bit or get a new angle to check what's going on. But look, look,

You have a thousand fights a year. Some of this is going to happen, and that's really unfortunate, but it is the case. The thing that is the most important and the thing that Ogden said post-fight is, man, I'm, you know, I got screwed out of my paycheck. And I have always thought that it is incorrect to view. We allow that to be the narrative, and I don't like it because their paycheck isn't halved. Like, they have a paycheck, and then they have a win-bone. Um, fighters don't view it that way, but that's, you know, if you lose, you get half your paycheck isn't right either.

You have a paycheck and it's not the same thing, but at the same time, money that was very likely going to come to him is no longer there. And it's why the pay to win bonus structure just should be done away with like just, it just should not be part of the sport because they're not fully capable of like they're not fully in control of everything in there. There are weird things that happen. And it would be way better. People would be less upset with this.

Trey Ogden would be less upset with this if he knew he was going to get all of the money that he had planned on making. And they could just run this back in a month or whatever. So reason 8,000 that we should really just stop doing the, you know, X to fight, X to win. It's just real, real dumb. Oh, yeah. We've been beyond that point for years when it comes to that. But it is what it is. this is just another example and this is bad they should have i completely agree with danny rube i

agree with a lot of what danny rube says if we're being honest but he's 100% right about this and uh good job danny rube you're always you just nail it you just nail it still no bonuses we will let you know what they are when they come but in the meantime we'll bring in casey we'll take some questions what we'll go to what are what would you pick for bonuses like what are we what are we thinking for bonuses here. There's a lot to choose from them. And because there's so many of them, unless Dana and or whoever is actually there doing this. There's no way Dana's at this card.

Yeah, it's not going to be Dana. But if someone there is feeling like, ooh, Thanksgiving miracle, we'll give everyone who scored a finish one, that doesn't seem likely. So what do we think you're going to get bonuses? I think we're not going to get fight of the night. I think we're going to get four performance bonuses. Brennan Allen. He bus has to get one. I very much agree and think that that is true.

I think they'll give it to, I think they'll give it to Oral by because he took the fight on such short notice. Also, he literally almost ripped a man's head off his body. And this will probably annoy the shit out of me because there are others who deserve it more. But they're going to give it to Peyton Talbot. No, they're going to give it to Peyton Talbot. He's the contender series. He's the contender series bright, bright light this season. So they're going to feed it.

You got to do Brito. I completely agree. You got to do Brito and you got to do He-Boss. I think those two, you have to do them. And I would say you have to do oral buy. Yeah, but I think Talb is going to get one. Also, Jekka getting screwed there. That's tough.

Yeah, huge upset, too. Yeah, major upset. Huge upset. I don't think CLD is going to get one. He missed weight, though, so he can't get the box. Oh, so he wouldn't have getting one anyway. Good point, good point. Hooper maybe just because he's the name in first round.

I was about to say Hooper. I was about to say, I think they're going to give one. I think, and you guys can debate this however you want, Jordan Levin does not seem like he's physically built for lightweight. No. It just seems like a featherweight in there. I felt the same way when he fought Patty Pettie. Pimble it. He just seems like it's, which is like if he doesn't want to cut to featherweight, then

don't cut the featherweight. But it just seems like a featherweight fighting lightweights. I don't hate that. Yeah, it's, he's always been like that. And he always had like a really tough time cutting to to 55 too, even when he was like just getting pro scene. I say, I've seen. I've said, I've been around him when he's not in camp and I tell you that doesn't surprise me. I think he's got to, you know, adjust some things in his diet outside of fight camp. Yeah. But he's always been like that. He just likes to get after the treadmill, man. Yeah. Or just do what I do and read books on the treadmill. Let's say you, you can read books on a treadmill. That's what I do. Just stop reading books in general. You're an MMA fighter. Come on. Yeah. Chase just seemed just way

bigger than him and Chase is a featherweight at one point as well. So, dude, Chase looks like, he looks like a legit 55er now. It's like when they showed his back, that's a grown man. Well, yeah, he's a child. He's still a child. He still has plenty of growing to do. Man's about to have a baby. He just turned 24.

He is still a child. Yeah, he could be a welterway, Jed. He might go to Welterway before this is all seven. He should because, look, I think Chase Hooper is. is Chase Hooper is getting better, but he don't want to hang around lightweight. That's just not the place to be, man. Before we get off the Bellatran stoppage, what if it was, one if it was Mota, that was, had the submission synced in, and then the ref melted up.

Oh, wait a minute. We have breaking news. It'd be the same, I think. But, well, you're saying that we should give the fight to Ogden anyway. No, I was not saying that. I was a thousand percent saying I'm very glad that they didn't give the fight to Ogden. Oh, okay, okay. I think we were saying what Ruben's saying.

Unfortunately, it has to be a no contest. It sucks since no contest, but it has to be because of the rule set. I just wish they had reset it or something. Or maybe, but yeah. One of the worst. I would also, yeah, I'd be really down to just reset things like that. It'd be really down to just be What is the breaking news, Mike?

Heck. Oh, yeah. We have the bonuses. It's official. Brennan Allen. Get out of you. Okay. Joe Anderson Brito.

Deserves. Jekka Soutaggi. How we, I thought he established. He couldn't get one. I thought Lucas Alexander missed wait. Wait, am I crazy? I've, dude, I don't know. I thought Jekko did, but I could, you might be right.

I don't think he did. Alexander came in at 148. You are correct. Okay. In that situation, I'm comfortable with Jacka getting one. What was the last one? Hewis. Manda Hebus.

Yeah. Well, Mandy Hebas. Sorry, well, why you came in on seven days and ripped a man's head off, which is not good enough. We also have a poll going on in the chat, which I just found out about. What would you rate UFC Vegas 82? A, B, C, and the final option was DRF. right now, C, in the lead, 37%, B at 35%. I'm always curious about these.

17%. Like this chat specifically, like the four of us, have been very like lukewarm on this. Like I feel like the preview show and then the post show, the panel was lukewarm. If we came in like red hot and we're like, this was the best card ever, would the chat agree? Or are they just agreeing with whatever we say? That's what I want to know. I don't think so. Do they just match our energy is what I'm trying to say.

They're not agreeing to see as too much. Guys, demand better for yourselves. This is a D card. Come on. I think you are not going to remember a thing that happened here in like a month. No one is going to think about anything here until the next time Oral by fights and we're like, oh, remember what he almost killed, eros medich? All right.

That was kind of fun. That's it. I will remember this because I did pick Hebas to get a performance bonus in the pre-show, so. Nice. It was a good call. And Mike, I was like, trust me.

So that's the only thing I remember about this card. I also picked that Chase Hooper and Jordan Leavitt would be a fight of the year contender. I was hoping. I was hoping. It was fun.

Look, it was starting off to be super duper fun. I thought it was going to be the fight of the night. I just thought I was going to turn to like a super sloppy but super bloody and fun kickboxing match

that made no sense. it was just so much fun and that's not it had we just got a whole bunch scrambles until Hooper submitted him so that was a very fun fight but there you go there's your bonuses yeah but this card might be memorable mostly because we all might have seen the first and a

maybe a long career in the UFC of Orbi so yeah he could be it's kind of you know you know just we might this might been the first time and like we might never see him this know with the card again also tell we'll remember it We'll remember him.

Like what, what card did Hamzaat debut on? What's on those? That's a, yeah. Which card? Which card? I can't do that. That's it. That's your specialty.

I don't have the ability. I can't even. Numbers. I think it was on the. It was on fight island for sure. That's the one fight island card I missed. Fight Island five. I might have.

I think it was on. I think it was the third one. I think it was. I think it was the first one. Not the paper. first one? I think it was the first one. No, the paper view was fight.

I'm grouping the paper view in a fight island. Yeah. Because that's Uzman Mazurl was in that little bubble. Right. And I'm talking like, was first. So then it was second because the third one, because it was Friday, Wednesday,

it was Saturday, Wednesday, Saturday. And this third Saturday was Joe B. Figurato. So then the third one would have been Cater and Ige. So he would have been on that Wednesday. Cater and Ige, Fight Island won. Yeah. So you fight on Egan,

one, but second fight on Fight Island. Yeah. Right. Yeah, that's what I meant by the first one. Not the paper view, but fight-I-own. The first non-paper-view one, yeah. Yeah. That's what it was.

There you go. Yep, that's where it all began. All right. Did you do? I think C's a pretty good grade for this. Like a B, I think C's good. I think C's fine. It passes.

This is a passing fight card. Yeah. I think it exceeded somewhat. Oh, it definitely did. Because of the early start time. I hate the early start time. Yeah, I know you hate the early start time. I love it.

I know that I'm alone in this, but I hate it. It just is just as 11 fights, it would have been much better. This would have been a B plus 11 fights. It's 11 fights. I would definitely say it to see if it wasn't 11th. We live a very difficult life, don't we? Right? Hard.

It's tough times. It's so tough. Because you couldn't get everything, you couldn't get all your groceries and errands down before 2 p.m.? Is that what the issue was, Jed? I mean, yes. It is like the rest of my The rest of my life is just built around 5 p.m. start times on Saturday for every event.

And so when you throw a wrench in that, it's like, this is inconvenient. Just get on that Mark Wahlberg, Ryan. Just wake up at 3 a.m. and go to the gym and then get your groceries done. Yeah. I like this. I don't want to wake up at 3. That sounds so miserable. I wake up at 6 and that's already early.

Let's see. DJ, hard to care about any of the fights when they've got, when they've not got anything to fight for apart from win money. Yeah. I mean, look, I get that. I get that when we're talking, well, at least they get paychecks. It's like, well, that's not really why the fan. Like, I'm not watching an NBA game because, hey, at least they can pay their mortgage.

You know, it's like, it's just, I get that. That's, see, it's difficult. I don't even think you could compare MMA to basketball because if you're a Lakers fan, you watch LeBron James play three times a week. Like, if you're a Breton Allen fan, and you're watching them like twice, maybe three times a year. I don't know. I don't agree with this at all.

I just like high-level martial arts, regardless of whether it's in front of eight people or 80,000 people. But it feels better in front of high-level. It feels better in front of 80,000. I mean, high-level is better no matter where it is. Bad fights in front of 80,000 fans are just as bad as bad fights in front of 18 fans. No. So I agree with this.

Here's the big gulf between basketball and this and really anything in this regard. It's when you watch game of basketball, it's going to take you three hours. If I'm going to watch a fight card, it's going to take we are coming up. We're almost to hour seven, right? So it was six and a half hours. That's just an enormous time commitment for not a lot of action. Like this would be a fine, like at full disclosure, there's no chance I would watch this live if I wasn't covering this event.

I would have gone about my day. And this would have been an ideal fight card to what I do when I do that is Sunday morning. I wake up and I just go watch the videos because then instead of this fight card taking seven hours, this fight card takes an hour and a half and it's all of the fights. And I get to like Jose, enjoy the martial arts, but I don't have to spend all of my day inside. But are watching the prelims, like everything before the main card, does that really count, or is that just really for the hard cores? I mean, to me, it's like watching.

I don't know. You know what I mean? Like, I feel like you're not, it's not really intended for every fan to watch every fight like we do. I don't know. I mean, it just depends. It's different card to card because UFC 296 prelims, they slap. And that's just those are still prelim fights. It's just card to card, I guess.

I mean, paper-view cards. Because I was kind of, remember Bellator? Because we always complain about Belator's got 30 fights in the car. But really, they don't because we don't report even new write-ups on no. Anything past the main. But so, Casey, this is, I think that that's a real point. I honestly don't have the answer. There is a fundamental difference in like yesterday watching Bellator,

fucking cruise through because like they were this dude wins is leaving the cage and coming in the other door as the next fighter they are moving them

there's 15 minutes of downtime between every fight and the prelims and that is just that's a slurry even if the fights are good it's just it's a lot

and that's why it takes seven hours I used to love also looking at the prelims for 296 and Jose you are correct I thought I think it's like quality

296 is different though Brian Keller on the first might yeah Brian Keller her Cody Garbrand like is not even gonna be on ESPN at this at this at this very moment it's gonna be on like fight pass or ESPN plus it'll be on ESPN 2 oh yeah isn't the prelims ESPN 2 and ESPN plus yeah they're doing the whole thing early prelimbs are ESPN plus right prelims are ESPN 2 yeah so 1 2 3 4 so as of I mean they haven't put the entire bout order out yet but as of now like to Alonza and Neffield Dustin for Kirby that's great fun

Part two. Isn't that a rematch? Give me that nonsense. No, Alonzo just wanted rematch in his last fight. Never mind. Ignore me. Andre Fili, Lucas Almeida, is like the first fight of the card. That's a great fight. They finally found someone who won't knock out Cody Garbrantz could be great.

How dare you? Wow. A friend of the program, Brian Keller. Boom. What else you got? The original Captain Crystal. I stand up. You know what?

Knowing Brian Kelloher like I do, he would agree. Yeah. He'd be like, yeah. He'd say, no, I'm a geeky, Tina. I mean, Brian should learn to just throw a wicked left hook. That's all he should have been doing for the past two months. This episode is brought to you by Peloton. A new era of fitness is here.

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Okay To be in next little addiction And he'll win six in a row and then he'll get his 15 ranking. Say, yeah, he's going to win six in a row and then fight four ranking. Yeah, it's on. He'll win six in a row. Lightweight is, is unfair. Grant Dawson won like seven in a row and was,

and then it all came crashing down. Now look at him. Lightweight is a nameless top 30 dude. It's the consistency, too. And he's this, he's the guy that that no one will want to face. So it's just going to be guys. No one's ever. No one's ever going to fight him now. He's facing lightweight's coming off two losses type of, you know, type of guy.

Yeah. He lost his ranking. They're never going to fight him now. It'll win six in a row, get ranked 15th. And then he'll win three more in a row and then finally fight, fight another guy that has a ranking. Like that's just how his career is going to go. Yeah. It's a bummer.

Then that guy will have a ranking that's one in front of him. Because once you get into the rankings, you don't get to fight five up. You're like 13 and you fight 12 and then you fight 10 and then you fight eight. It's an impossible weight class. Unless he goes out there and just puts people through a woodchipper like Peter Yon did. And it's just like you're just captivated by his fighting style, which we might be able to. But he's like he's essentially like the Icrum of lightweight. Like good luck matchmaking that guy.

Yeah. It's going to be timing and just if you can just find that right groove, maybe it might be quicker, but I doubt it. It's just not going to happen for him. Should Traactive file an appeal, he would have won on the cards. He's of 2018 times two in 1919. No. I mean, he can. He should not.

He should not. That will take time, energy and resources that will not get him anything. Don't waste your time. Yeah. Yeah. Just ask the UFC for the second of your paycheck. Like maybe you'll get it. Ah, Jose, this is for us.

Should the Red Sox try to get showy Otani? Can I make an answer here as someone who knows very little about baseball? You can wait for your turn. That's what you can do. I think you should. Yeah. That's the correct answer. Is it a bold?

Is it bold to say yes? No, here's the bold thing. All 30 teams should try, but one of them. going to get it. We're down to the three. We are one of the three teams competing. We're the other two. The Dodgers and...

Rangers. I believe it's the Rangers and the Mets are like a fourth right now. The Mariners pulled themselves out of the race right now. The Braves have, quote, unquote, shown interest, but I don't know. I mean, they have the... There's also... No one should ever come together. I could talk.

I mean, you guys won a World Series, what, like two years ago? guys are fine. Teams good. We're an awful sports town. Don't come to Atlanta. Take the sports out and then you're locked in. I think, because even the Dodgers want, like, they're thinking of trading their entire farm system for Mike Trout too, which would be, I would quit watching baseball.

If you have Mike Trout, Mukubes, and Shohai Otani on your team, like, I'm not watching baseball anymore. That's not fair. What's the issue? Is it just who can write the biggest check? What is the... It's a couple. Well, it's not an issue.

It's what Shohai want. Like, I could talk about this way more than I could talk about MMA right now, honestly. The show high Otani, the fact that he blew his elbow out for the second time, he's going to have a second time of John surgery. It's people have come back from it. Nathan Evaldi just did. If he gets a third one, if he has a third time of John's surgery, that essentially ruins his entire baseball career, including hitting. Do you want? So right now he is not, he's not going to pitch.

Because you would, what ligament would you take out to put in your elbow? You already, you know, you can't. He needs that elbow to swing a back. Do they pull them from other? I just assume they took them from like cadavers. They, you can't have three elbow surgeries and play professional baseball at a high level at the, at the, at the, and get paid the amount he wants. Shai Otani essentially, he's going to have to DH next year. He's either going to, well, a long-term contract like 10, he originally was like 10 years 600 was like the target number.

You're not going to give a guy that $600 million that can only. hit, that would be very stupid because he can't play the field with an injured elbow. He can't play first base and he can't pitch. Do you give him a short-term contract? So say he gets like a three-year $90 million contract with an opt-out after two. So if he heals up after two and can pitch at a sion caliber level, he can opt out and then go for the long-term contract again now that he's a two-way player. But by then he'll be 30, he'll be pushing 34.

And do you want to give a 34-year-old a 10-year contract? that's tough. So now his thing is he wants to win now and make a lot of money. So it's essentially between the Rangers, the Red Sox, and the Dodgers to win now, make a lot of money, and have the ability to pitch again down the line. And the fact that it's all a mystery right now, like you're supposed to do a press commerce and he no-showed it. It's a big old mystery right now. I'm learning so much.

All right. I have his bobblehead. That's a tiny bobblehead. He has a very high place in my heart. That's where he has. Are you using your off elbow that much when you're swinging? I don't know. I haven't swung a bat in a long time.

It's just baseball, a swing of baseball bat is much more violent on the human body than people think because you essentially use every part of your body. A hundred miles an hour. Yeah. It's like you're trying to hit a ball this big with a stick of wood that's coming at a hundred. If Chadman's pitching 103, if Hunter Green's pitching 104, pushing 105, the torque that that that man. Especially if you watch that man swing the torque on your elbow, it's going to be tough. It's going to be tough. Especially if you're sliding head first into things and just your arms flailing around.

It's just, it's tough. What's the fastest pitch you get hit, Jose, like? The fastest pitch I've ever hit. The fastest pitch I've ever hit in is 98. Really? I couldn't get around fast enough. I would have no. But that was, that was a fast, that was a forcing fastball.

I would much rather hit a 90 mile an hour forcing fastball than even attempt. to hit like a 72-mile-an-hour curveball from a major league pitcher. Yeah. Because that is impossible. Yeah. Sliders, no way. You can time fastball. No way.

Yeah. Fastballs, yeah, you time it. Yeah. If you know if basketball's coming, that's different. As Barry Bonds once said, hitting a fastball is just catching a fastball. It's a replace the bat with a glove with a bat. It just, it's a straight line. Put any sort of movement on there, I could probably foul it off, and that's about it.

Yeah. I like talking. I like talking baseball every once in a while. I can talk about it for hours. The Pedro Martinez changed up is the nastiest pitch of everything. Oh, the circle. Circle chains?

Oh, my God. Hanging in the Louvre. Nassiest pitch of a. Who's the current middle-weight? This is your, uh, this is your, uh, this is your an A-K. Sting. I mean, I almost don't want to take it from Brennan because ever since he's

No, Brendan does not have it. Brendan doesn't have it. He's best he's ever been since he won it. Sure, but he's won like five in a row by finish. He's not even so. a middleweighty right now. He hasn't been middle waiting in a while. I feel if I take it from.

Craig might have taken it. Mark might have taken it from Burning Island tonight, maybe. I think part of it's too weird. There's a very obvious answer. And it, look, the title always comes home to the man who owns it. And it's Jackramanson. Jackramanson remains. That's a good shot.

That's just him. He's just it. Number nine in the UFC rankings has been there for a decade, I think. is going to be there for another decade going to win by decision and lose by finish that's what he's going to do I kind of feel like Marvin Vittori's in play right now he wasn't for a long time but I kind of feel like he's in play

Marvin Vittory is in play if he loses again he and Hermanson may have to fight out for it because Marvin Vittory was too high now he's coming down towards it it's that's very true there is a way I mean there is a world war and Votory already has beaten Hermanson so you know I I mean, we could have just inspired this division in a whole new way where, like, we have to move the title to a different division in order to fix it. I don't know.

Is middleweight? Walter weighty is Walter weight. I tried to do this once. I was trying to figure out what the qualities that make someone Walter weighty are. Jake Matthews? No. No. No.

I think, I feel like being Walter weighty, welterweight, given historically that weight class, you have to be a. a boxer wrestler. You have to be a boxer wrestler because that's just been like most of welterweight's hit through history. But you can't be a fun one. You need to be like Sean Chirk the Walter Waite. Mike Pierce, Mike Pierce,

that big guy? Yeah, like Mike Pierce had mitts. Mike Pierce had mitts though. Sean Shirk the Welterweight is who I think is the platonic ideal of Walter weighty, welterweight. There's a lot of exciting welterweights that are like

even like ranked number 56 or like Billy Goff wait why is Neil Maggi not the most welterweightiest welterweight that's a great choice that's a very good choice Neil Madgey welterweight Yeah Is it is it is it Kies is in this conversation as well Kiesa probably actually is it Nicholas Dalby

No He's fun No Dolby has a gimmick, though, as now just being the Brazilian killer. So that Michael Keesa probably is a good answer. I think I'll go with Keesa for the time being. Alex Morono. Is he still a little while to wait?

Yes. Alex Marono is a pretty strong contender there as well. That's a good one. That's a very good choice. Oh, Marono. Marono is a real good one. I love it. This is going to be a game.

We're going to do maybe one of the year-end shows. We'll just do a fairie division. I wrote this at this start of the year. And I was like, I think Parker Porter is the heavyweightiest heavyweight and stuff like that. Oh, McParkin might be after what we just saw that. McParkin may make it a strong push for that belt. McParker versus Parker Porter. Oh, no.

You don't want to ruin this man's career. You don't want to do it. You don't want to just throw him to the wolves right away after beating Kyle Matrato. Come on, man. What do you thoughts on Jake Matthews? moving forward, Jed? This is your question if there ever was one.

I'm out. I've been out. I was out with Symbols Burger and I'm not going to be roped back in. He's fine. He's a dude. He competed. It wasn't bad.

That's just who he's going to be. He was young and at one point he was young and promising and then development isn't linear. And so he he didn't like, this isn't like Madden where you just, oh, I'll keep going to the

gym and I'm just going to keep getting better every day or whatever. It's not quite the same. He's got some limitations. Morales was way bigger than him and that posed to be an issue. And honestly, that seems to be, he does not have a lot of tools to deal with guys who are simply larger than him. And he's never going to be like the biggest welterweight. So he's fine.

He's just a guy who's going to hang around this weight class and this, the UFC for, I don't know, how long has he been in the UFC already? It feels like a lifetime. he's 19th fight in the UFC next year will be his 10th year in the UFC um and yeah that he's probably going to hang around for another five or six just just competing maybe one day he goes to PFL and tries to win a million

dollars there but he's a top 30ish welterweight that's just kind of where he's going to be forever is he basically the UFC keeps him around to just build up the Michael Moralesis. Yeah. Just a guy who's, you know, a good fighter can be a good, like a litmus test at that range. And maybe he's, he's OAM. Like, he's just OAM or whatever.

Same kind of dude. One more. And also, who knows, he is 28 or something. Hoffield dos angios, like, got way better randomly in the sort of later part of his 20s. Maybe Jake Matthews can do it, but it doesn't seem likely. He's living in Vegas now, right? Is that what they said on the broadcast? My broadcast was a new.

I missed it. I missed if he did or not. Let's talk about another winner tonight, though. What is Amanda Hebas's ceiling? So no long, we saw what happened to Flyweight. She had some success, but she got roughed up by Macy Barber. I sat cage side for that one.

That was a beating. But Hebas goes back to 115. Tough start. Piniaro's just chucking them at her. And Piava's just kind of outgamed her and out tuffed her and lands that big kick, gets big finish. Just a super fun fight, super fun performance. But where are you at, Jose? Like, where do you put her ceiling?

Or is it too soon to tell now that she's back at 115? Maybe she need to see another one from her at 115. I just don't know. She's already fought like everybody in this weight class. I don't even know where she really goes here. I think she's at that point where she just can't say no to fights until she racks up a few more, then she could be a little more selective.

But she is one of those rare fighters, rare female fighters where no matter who she's fighting, she's at least in an exciting fight. She can make any fight exciting no matter what weight class like. I know this is, like I consider this almost equivalent of winning a UFC championship. She got a fight of the night with Call and Chagher again. That just goes to show you how. excited she is.

Look, a lot of people have UFC championships. Not a lot of people have fight of the nights with Kaylon Chukagin. You know what I'm saying? More people have walked on the mood. Put that fight in the Hall of Fame. I'm just saying, more people have walked on the moon than have one fight in the night with Kalin Chukagin as a dance partner. So I'm always getting, she's going to be one of those fighters that I'm always going to want to watch.

Like there's like the most violent or BMF fight for women. Like she's on that short list. I just want to see her in fun fights at this point in her career. I could absolutely see her competing for UFC titles still because the fans like her. She's in exciting fights. When she wins, she wins big. The problem is she also loses big.

But at 115, I think, like she said, that's the home for her. Given her popularity, and now that the UFC is going back to Brazil a lot more, I absolutely could see her fighting for USC or just kind of forcing her way in there based on popularity-wise. Yeah, I'm always going to want to watch her fight. She's a fun fighter. It's why her only loss at 15 is to Marina Arriguez, who's top three or four, I don't know, top of the river.

Which, uh, and that was, that was a tough loss. Yeah, but, you know, that's fighting. You get knocked out, you know, it's like, um. Do you remember that fight? She didn't even get, that was, she, that was a standing knockout. Like, she never went down. Like, the referee had to stop. She was like, and then she was still blocking,

and then the referee ended the fight, and she still kept moving. She was like, what happened? It was awesome? Was that like a double stop? Was that one of those double stoppage fights where like it was stop? And then he was like, no. And then they kept it going.

Marina dropped her and Marina was like, oh, she's done. And then the ref was like, no, she's like, no, she's not done. And he was like, no, I can still go. And then Marines are like, okay. Problem is she wears damage bad too. Yeah. But at straw weight, it's still just Marina Rodriguez. So.

Yeah, I think she could absolutely like for a title at some point. She has fought in the UFC's ranking 6, 7, 8, and 9 at Straw Wade. She's beaten three of those four. Yeah. I don't expect her title, but I think she'll be top, yeah, top eight, top 10. Between that 10 and three range for a while. And yeah, she's always fighting. I can see.

The issue is she's probably about to have to fight Jessica and George. She's going to fucking kill her. So that's going to be tough. God, that's such a fun fight, though. I'm bumping on. It's really fun, and Jessica and George is going to kill her. And that'll be tough. That fight is a blast.

But she's young enough that she can maybe just hang around. You don't think on Drudge is going to go back up to 125 and fight a killer up there sooner? I think so. I suggest she has lawyer bills. She might. I said she's going to find Macy Barber next at 125. I know. I think Jessica and George should just.

focus on the weight class where she was champion. Yeah. She cannot win at 125. She can have a lot of success, but. I agree with you, especially because Wayley was tweeting about Jessica's win, so anytime the champion is tweeting about you, it's a good thing. Yeah. When you're a former champion of the weight class, you're never far off.

Yeah. I mean, she's two or three fighters behind, but that's not that far. 115. It's Jan and Tatiana and then could be her again. Absolutely. Who the hell knows? She's always willing to step in. Yeah. Yeah. And she's willing to say, I'll do it. I'm down to clown. So like something happens to Jan or whatever.

That's a good point too. I could see Hebus fighting Angela Hill. I know they try to make that a couple of times. Maybe a, I know people will frown at this after watching. I think Loopy's a little bit ahead of her. I mean, they could do that. Lupi is definitively behind her in the next year. Louby ahead of,

ahead of Hebus? Right now, yeah. Yeah. I mean, Hebus, I mean, Hebus just beat, was Peanera even ranked? No. Pinheiro was ranked nine and one ahead of Hebas in the U.S. Yeah, she was ahead of Hebas in the rankings and the UFC. So Hebas.

Hebas will probably move to eight since she already has a win over McKinsey, Dern who is currently eight and that's how I booked for Lubeu's darned could move up even further because she also's one other vina Jano Jambana Manda Hibos and Lupi Goudini's in Mexico City though that'd be so fun do that that would be the fight I would choose I just think she's gonna get on drash looping yeah looping yeah loopie and hevis would be sick that fight would be incredibly fun that's the fight I'd pick if I got to magic wand it I agree yeah I would do that one I'd like to see loopie get like a McKenzie Dern type as well

Mexico City Mexico City March Book it UFC I'll do the whole card Brian Ortega Yaia Rodriguez part two Main event Make it happen

Oh that's That's good matchmaking I like that a lot What else? Oh what else? Sorry Oh what else I mean what else from the card Jose?

Oh Brandon Brandon's not going to fight there. Henry, I mean, in a realistic world, it should be in a, in a realistic world,

the main event should be Brandon Moreno, Henderson, Huddo, because that would be massive Mexico, but neither man will fight in Mexico. Yaya Brian is, Yaya Brian is like,

would, it should have been one of those two five-round fights at the top. Lupi, Amanda, uh, who, Joe Anderson, Brito, Diego Lopes 2

because let's not forget they already fought but that was a contended series fight and both men have gotten better Diego's definitely on that card for sure. You have to put Raul Roses Jr. in that. Rale Roses is the second most popular fighter in Mexico right now, put him in against

anybody. I'll say third because Alexa beating Valentin is pretty massive but Brandon is still like on Mount Everest in terms of popularity in Mexico. And then after that it'd be a lot of local MMA talent

but that's like the main card right there I like it I'd watch there'll be a lot of energy you have to you have to you've got to put at least two heavy weights on it just because it's Mexico City and let's let's resign Rocky Martinez

re-signed Rocky Martinez Rocky Martinez versus Chris Barnett finally put in Mexico and let's make those heavy weights do like do like a hundred burpees before the fight starts I want I want him exhausted by around one right on the A different, I think Tracy Cortez and Macy Barber would be a good fight for that card too because Tracy's been trying to fight in Mexico for a minute.

Then they should just sign Junior Cortez to fight on the first fight of the night rather than have him make you go through the contender series again. I can't do that. No, I can't do that. Got a contender series. Yeah, it's tough. Hey, guys, before we get out of here, Jason Jackson, that was really cool, huh? Oh, dude, he's so good.

He is so good at mixed martial arts. I watched him win the LFA championship in Atlanta and in like one of the worst fights I've ever seen live and now look at him beating Yaroslav Amosov. What a what a turnaround for this young man. Also Daniel Zelle Hubert needs to be on that card as well. Oh my God I forgot about that cat.

Zell He was a big star. Big star in September. If they really like the biggest fight they could do if they did a pay-per-view would be Ilya and Yair. That would do print money, but like that's obviously never going to happen. Or it's not going to happen anytime soon.

Anything else? That's all I got. Is Patchy makes the best ban away in the world? Oh, don't you friggin' dare. No, he's not. But he's in the discussion, all right? You and freaking Stephen. Wait a minute.

No, no, no. I looked at those rankings. I was like, oh, all right. No, me and Shaheen, me and Chehine are on the same page. Stephen went way off the board and I respect it. Boy, do I. Steven went quite rogue. Stephen went quite rogue.

He went like the opposite of what he was doing this. He bumped him down almost. He just had a spite. When do these rankings come out? We have an update hitting tomorrow or Monday maybe. Monday maybe. That's just moving up. Matches moving up, but he won't be number one.

I'll tell you that right now. Was he in the top five, top three, top two? You'll see. He's not number one though. Give me a teaser. He's not number one despite getting four number one votes. He is not. So you're saying, Chad.

He got the most number one votes, but he's not number one. All right, Mike, Mike, hold on. Mike, we're going to end it like this. Casey cue up the music ready. Full circle moment, full circle moment, because time is a flat circle. as Shaheen Ashadi once said. Mike Heck,

who do you know got the most first place votes in 2000 that didn't win MVP? That's right. One page of Martinez. Damn right. Damn right.

What that? Petit. Evon Roderriguez. Pudge, give that MVP to the rifle person. I'm looking at this now. If Stephen didn't go completely off the reservation,

Apache would be number two. Yeah, which isn't bad, which I'm okay. I think it's fine. It's just funny. It's fine. It's fine. Unfortunately, like, the only way we're ever going to find out the answer to that question is Apache somehow that's up in the UFC. We're never going to find out the answer to that question.

It makes you so sad. It makes you so sad. It's like we'll never know if Aspinall is the best heavyweight in the world. We'll never know. No, we will because the best heavyweight in the world. world isn't scared and need I remind you, John Jones, don't be scared, homie. Fight Tom Aspinall. Your legacy depends on it.

AK and I back tomorrow for on to the next one, some match baking. Until then, everybody, have a great rest of your evening. Eat it, nerds. Love y'all. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.