MMA Fighting - UFC Vegas 84 Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Magomed Ankalaev, Jim Miller's Nasty Finishes

Episode Date: January 14, 2024

Magomed Ankalaev wanted to make a case to get a title shot against Alex Periera heading into his UFC Vegas 84 main event bout with Johnny Walker, and with a brutal second-round knockout victory, Ankalaev certainly accomplished that. But will it be enough to get Ankalaev to a second opportunity at UFC gold, or will he have more work to do? Following the UFC's first event of 2024, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Alexander K. Lee, and Eric Jackman react to Ankalaev's stoppage win, and talk his chances in getting the next shot at Pereira and the light heavyweight title. Additionally, the panel discusses Jim Miller's incredible performance in the co-main event, his callout of Paul Felder or Matt Brown for UFC 300, Mario Bautista's statement win against Ricky Simon, Jean Silva's memorable UFC debut, and other standout moments. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Follow Eric Jackman: @NewYorkRic 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. Yes, the victory horns, ladies and gentlemen, they sound for the first time in 2024, and they are sounding for Magamed Ankymed Ankyla. now unbeaten in 12 fights.

The rivalry with Johnny Walker is over. Nasty knockout in round two. Magamanaikolaev says, I'm the guy. I want the title. Not tomorrow. Not next week. Not six months from now.

I want it right now. And that's the statement he tried to make and did a pretty damn good job of doing it. As we welcome you to the UFC Vegas 84 live post-fight show here at M.A. playing.com. I am Mike Keck. We've got a whole crew here. First, my best friend, the Prince of positivity himself, Mr. Alexander Cayley, AKA, first event in the books. How are you doing? I don't know, but I tell you, first event, I think we got to do the first poll of 2024. So Mike, give me a second here. I'll have a poll for the people. And they'll let us know

how we should feel after the first UFC event of the year. Okay. Can we go back to A.K. for a second. Is that a, is that a, is that a mustache? Are we growing with the mustache? I think I've always had this. I think I got a new camera. I think that's the, that's the thing. No, actually, I'm not even using the new camera.

I totally forgot to use the new camera. So this is just a lie. I don't know. Maybe it's finally coming in. Maybe it's a light, maybe after all the years is finally coming in, guys. It's finally coming in. I'm so proud of you. 2024 is such a big year for all of us.

Every year I hoped. Unreal. You're looking like an 80s major league baseball player before you know it. And also joining us. Join us on the preview show as well. Mr. New York Rick, Eric, Eric Jackman. I wonder what kind of breaking news we'll get this time around that we can shockingly react to in live real-time New York, Rick. First of all, it's a pleasure to be here.

Second of all, we already got it that A.K. Lee's evil twin has replaced him. And we need to get to the bottom of that immediately. quick like what's your what's what's what's Alexander's birthday quick go Alexander's birthday is every day ah it's right nice try nice it might be him I'm not I'm not I'm still not sure yet but it might be him

yeah I think I think it is I think he's just growing up before our eyes what is the poll read A K how would you grade UFC Vegas 84 simple letter grade ABCD nothing fancy for the first poll of the year let's get it let's just get the temperature of the room, my best friend.

Okay. I think that's a good way to start here. We'll get to Magamank Alive and Jim Effing Miller in just a few moments. But New York, Rick, we've had about a month away, took a little breather, back at it. This is a little appetizer for UFC 297 next week. What do you grade UFC Vegas 84? B plus, A minus maybe. As we talked about on the preview show, this feels like the fight nights that we deserve.

this feels like what an APEC show should look like on paper. The fighters delivered. The last two fights were incredible. And kind of the ones that we were focused in on, obviously it would have been nice to have Mano Kopp and Mateus Nicolao on this card. But the last two fights gave us what I think we wanted to see. And so did the rest of the prelims. I think everything kind of delivered here.

So yeah, B plus A minus, like good booking here by the UFC and the fighters brought it. So I was thoroughly entertained. A.K., what was yours? We didn't get a gymnastics scale or anything, but did it meet the expectations? It did. I think that's the nicest way to put it. I just look, it's hard to say because I didn't really make a gymnastics score beforehand. So doing it in retrospect feels a bit dishonest.

But I have to imagine whatever score I would have come up with, which wouldn't have been super high. It would have lived up to. We got some nice finishes early on. We got compelling results in the main card. No real chicanery, no like scoring chicanery, no weirdness. which we all kind of were joking, was likely to strike the main event considering Angolaev and Walker's history

and Angola's individual history and Walker's individual history. It almost felt like maybe we shouldn't have rebooked this one. But the matchmakers did the smart thing. They said, these are two of the top contenders. We need to find resolution. And I think putting them in a main event worked out pretty well. I think they did get a good gauge of where Walker is

as far as him ever being a contender. There's still a chance, I guess, but I think the ceiling has lowered a little bit here. And Frank Goliath, the ceiling is as high as ever. I mean, this is a guy who, I think, like, for the last two years, most of us in the media, certainly in an NBA fighting, have been saying he's probably the number one light heavyweight in the world. Like, he's probably the best, most well-rounded light heavyweight in the world.

He should have been the champion by now. But it's not like he hasn't got his chances. He had that vacant light-heavyweight title fight, which, you know, he fought well, and it just didn't go his way, went to a draw. And I want to believe this is a fresh start. And for anyone who's thinking that this is his year, your bet and slip is looking pretty good right now because that was a great win.

I think he proved he is a notch above Johnny Walker. I think if you run this fight back 10 times, it's nine out of 10 wins for Ankelyev. And I think whoever, I don't know, whoever faces Ankelyev next, I mean, they might just be holding the belt for him because he looks like the real deal, as he has for really for a while.

Yeah, I think this is a, a solid B plus, like 87 out of 100? Pretty good. Pretty good. Pretty, pretty, pretty good. The thing that puts it over the top for me was this will be a B or better if I forget that Menel Cop and Mateus Nicolaus was supposed to fight on this card. And enough happened that made me kind of forget that that fight was supposed to be on this

card. Between the prelims, some big upsets. We had some bad heavyweight action, which is just perfect for the apex. we had what happened in the co-main event. We had a really good fight at 135 pounds, Umara, Batista, and Ricky Simone, which we'll get into. I thought all in all, this is a great start to the year and makes me a little more excited for UFC 297. So New York, Rick, the big question we had besides where does Minel Kopp go with the win before the weight miss was,

is there anything Magamette Anke-Ain-Live can do to get himself a title shot? Is there anything he can do to get Alex Burr's attention? is there anything he can do to leapfrog Jamal Hill and all the craziness at 205 right now. And a lot of us pretty much said, like you go out there and you get an emphatic, brutal finish that might just get you there.

But now that it's happened to York, Rick, is Magamad Ankelaif, is he next? Is Alex Pereira, is his next challenger going to be Magamette Ankelaif? Yeah, I mean, the moment it happened. I thought so. We've also seen Glover Tashara come out on Twitter, or X, rather, and say,

a great knockout you're next or we'll see you next or something to that effect. So yeah, I mean, it seems like it seems like he would be next. Again, the mystery around the timeline of Jamal Hill's return is kind of looming over this, but you can't do much better than that. In fact, you can't do better than that. He absolutely lanced Johnny Walker and it was the best you could possibly do. So yes, I do believe he's next. Now, is it going to be a quick turnaround?

Are they going to try and throw this on UFC 300 maybe? that I don't know but I do imagine in this first half of the year that Magabed on Kalayaev will get a title shot yeah I feel like

if they're going to do this it's not going to be a 300 because why there's just no need if you're going to go to Rio at least that's the rumor and innuenda right now if you're going to go to Rio a month later

you should probably save Alex Perre for that card maybe do Perr versus Ankelaive there I think that makes perfect sense but it all depends on what Pereira is doing and what his timeline is. And if he wants to wait for Jamal Hill, because if Jamal Hill is ready to fight in like July or August,

maybe Pereira wants to wait for that. But he seems like a guy that wants to stay busy, A.K. And look, we do, we're going to do on to the next one tomorrow. So this question is going to relate to that. But look, we give spoils all the time. I honestly feel like this is going to be the easiest onto the next one I have ever done. I already immediately knew where I was going with a lot of these fights. are you going to say

Maga Ben-Goliath's next opponent will be Alex Pereira for the light heavyweight title? Am I going to say that on the show my best right? I'm trying to think because I was I was like, I can't remember what I said when Kaleel Rangliu Kalliqh

got his last win. I remember there was a part of me campaigning, right? I was just like, just give him the Alex Panetta fight. Like it's do it now. Like what's the better time for Kaleel Roundtri?

But then Magamette on Goliath puts this performance on. He's clearly ahead of Roundtree in the rankings. It would be, like, again, I wouldn't have a problem with it as a fight fan. I think there's a lot of great matchups for Alex Padetta and him and Roundtree would be awesome. But it would seem pretty unfair for Roundtree to leapfrog Anka-Live. And also, if we're going by, you know, who we think is the better fighter,

I think most of us, most of us, I don't know, people in the comments tell me if I'm crazy. I think most of us feel, again, that Anka-Live is the number one, at worst, the third best light heavy way in the world. He's just so good. And this performance tonight proved that. So by the most basic definitions, there's really nothing that Anka Live should have to do to earn a title shot. Again, we know the UFC views him as a title contender. They gave him the vacant title fight with Jan Blakowitz.

They fully expected it to be possible that he would have entered 20, 23 as the light heavyweight champion. It just didn't work out that way. And I don't see why they would change their minds. Again, he has done nothing wrong. That little gaff in the first Walker fight, I'm sure, was an annoyance. But nothing that just said his career about. too far. So, Mike, I think when the show comes around, whatever I've said about who should be next for Pareda on past onto the next one episode, I'll probably have to toss it out the window

because it should be, it should be Ancolae. I want to see that fight now, but there's a lot of options for Palletta. And we still, I still think Izzy's out there too. I still think there's that Izzy wild card if you decide to just come back and take this fight that Padeta has laid out for him. It's got to be very interesting to see how this all plays out. But if Pereira is ready to fight by June, then I think you have to throw Ankleife in there. And I have to tell you, after watching Johnny Walker in that first round, just kind of kick that leg, that lead leg over and over again. And Ankelyph is getting a little bit uncomfortable in there before you turned it on and got the knockout.

Fight's a little more interesting to me. If Ankleif starts to tackle him, that's a different story. But if this is a mostly striking affair like we just saw here, it's an interesting fight. So good win for Ankeloif. I think he did everything he needed to do here. to get himself into that position. And that's really all you can ask for. And Johnny Walker is still going to be a fun guy to watch.

And it'll be interesting to see where he goes from there. There's a lot of up-and-comers. A lot of guys in this division that are moving up. And there's a lot of big fights booked for this division. So I'm sure Johnny Walker, once he gets that nose healed up, because that thing was battered after that finishing combination from Magam and Ankelaif. Good performance. Good performance from the one-time title challenger.

And let's see if he gets opportunity number two. Now, could I just say one thing, Mike, before we move on, let me just say one thing about the leg kicks thing, which I noted as well, right? But it seems to be something that we also saw in the Jan Blahovic fight. Like, this is just something that like needs to be addressed, right? But what we also saw in that fight was in the later half of that fight taking over and utilizing his wrestling when it, when finally the leg became too compromised. I think he just needs to go to that earlier. And against Alex Pereira, I don't think he'll have a very difficult time. So if the game plan's right, I get that, you know, people are going to, and rightfully so,

people are going to be thinking that he's going to get his legs chewed up. But if he starts hitting those takedowns, there's going to be very few answers, I believe. So I'm interested to see how that style matchup takes place. But I do think like the idea that he's just going to stand for five rounds and kind of trade with Alex Pereira might not happen. I think I think he probably goes to that strategy sooner. And we've kind of seen him be able to shift away from that. So, yeah, intriguing matchup, though.

I really enjoy that matchup. Oh, you're probably right. I mean, heading into this fight, I was just like, eh, I kind of feel like I know how Ancolae versus Pereira is going to go. It's kind of the way you said it. But again, like, Pereira is so good. Like, those leg kicks are so sneaky. And you can prepare for them all you want.

You can prepare for them by trying to take him down and all that. And it doesn't really work because he just starts chewing you up quick. So I am intrigued. I'm more interested now after watching this fight tonight than I was heading in, but I still will probably lean ankle-life if that's how the UFC goes with this. But we shall see how this all plays out. But Jim Miller, New York, Rick, that Jim Miller, I'm telling you, this guy is a hero. He is a freaking legend.

Unbelievable. Goes out there, dominates Gabriel Benitez, gets the face-crank submission in round three. and then he gets on the mic and he does the thing New York, Rick. He does the thing. He says Paul felt very respectfully calls out Mr. Paul Felder sitting right there. Paul is in a suit, big smile on his face. Apparently he even went up and did a scrum with the media after the event talking about the callout and him being interested in the fight and talking about what he needs to do.

Then he called Matt Brown, love that call out as well. And then he just plays the gimmick to the nines and calls out Barack Lowe. just joking around, but everything about the fight, the performance, the mic work from Jim Miller, a plus performance. What else can you say about this, man, New York, Rick? Yeah, I don't have much more to say. Like, we heaped a ton of praise on him talking about the, you know, the Ironman streak that he's on right now in the preview show. And he only improved on that another UFC appearance, another UFC win, another UFC submission.

He's now second all-time in submissions with 12, UFC submissions with 12 behind only Charles Olivera. There's nothing the guy can't do. He's an absolute legend. And as you said, I think he aced the callout, right? You get the Paul Felder sitting right there call out. You get Matt Brown will be a fun fight if maybe Felder's not up for it. And you get the Brock Lesnar joke call out. Who knows, maybe it becomes a real callout.

And I loved it. And by the way, I mentioned on that preview show, like, I would assume that Paul Felder wouldn't try to like steal the shine away from him. I wonder why it was Bisbing doing the post-fight interview. views, maybe they were anticipating that. And I was glad to see that he kind of just sat there, took it in, and then waited until the post-fight presser to kind of give his thoughts on that, to let Jim Miller have his moment. But I thought all the callouts were great.

Everything landed. Jim Miller is the freaking man. I'd watch him fight, you know, until UFC 400, 500, whatever he wants to do. I love Jim Miller. I loved everything about the callout. I loved sort of the 80s look at Paul Felder with the suit and the smile. Like there can be no actual like UFC fight poster if they announce this fight. It has to be like an 80 sitcom poster where they're back to back kind of like looking at each other like in a goofy smile.

That's what the fight poster needs to look like with those two guys because it's just going to be electric and it's everything we could hope who it could be. I mean, what a what a knife for Jim Miller, AK. This guy is just unbelievable. I'm glad it ended up as the co-main event. So one good thing we got out of losing the Nicolao Koppery match. it just feels right. It feels right for him to be in a co-main event slot because we know he's not going to get a co-main event slot at 300.

I mean, look, based on how the card is going, it doesn't even look like he'll end up in the main card of that. And that's fine. It doesn't matter. He doesn't need to be. Just being on 300 is going to be a big deal. 26 wins now in the OC, 26 wins in 43 appearances insane. 40 light, sorry, 40 lightweight appearances.

23 wins at lightweight, the deepest division in all of sports. I think I would have that number wrong. Five is last six. I mean, the guy just keeps doing it. New York, Rick mentioned now a second only behind Charles Oliverer, the submission record. It is ridiculous.

40 years young. We don't know what the fight night bonuses are. I think he'll tie. Yes, we do. We got him. I just got him. Is he one of them? Yes.

Of course he is. Hit the music, Casey. Hit the musical. Natsam real quick. Go ahead. Go ahead. Go ahead. Grant.

One James A.10 Miller. Magamette Anka-Life. Love the Natchel. Yeah. Bruno Ferreira with that nasty knockout of Phil Haas. And Marcus McGee, the all-violence team member in the Bantamweight Division. Those are your performance of the night. No fight of the night.

Ricky Simone and, Simone and Batista probably deserved something there. Man, that was a great fight. Definitely could have been. Yep. Definitely could have been. I mean, it's tough. there were a lot of really nice finishes here too. So, I mean, Gian Silva, if we're doing performance, I mean,

counting from the entrance to the end, is that not the definition of the performance worthy, you know, performance, bonus worthy performance? But yes, now officially then, Jim Miller with 14 fight night bonuses, which is tied with Cal Woodsteroni behind. Only a Joe Lausanne, who's been holding onto that record despite not fighting for like, what, three years now. So pretty impressive.

But Jim Miller's coming for it, man. And Joe Luzon, if you're out there, you may want a campaign for that 300 spot. I don't know. Stop this guy from getting your fight night bonus record. But just so much fun to watch. I know we're going to talk about Anjaro Lovsky later, but it was, it means a lot, I think, to see these guys competing on the same card. Number one and number two, I believe, on the all-time UFC appearances list, it feels right. You know, it feels right.

And no, they didn't both get a win, and only one of them was in a fight that will want to be talking about like six months for now. but it's still great to see. It's still great to see. But yeah, very happy for Jim Miller to feel a good story. And I don't, again, that alone keep, I don't think you can make this card go lower than a B. I think that moment, it's a shame it's happening now because, well, you know what? Maybe there's better moments from Jim Miller had.

I was going to say, I was going to say that this could have made an end of the year a good times list, but hey, the good times could just be starting for 8-10. Yeah, absolutely. Do you have a preference here or does it even matter? Do you prefer Matt Brown or Paul, Feldor or is it just flip a coin? I don't care. Let's just get one of these guys in there. That's Feldar. It's Feldor. It's Feltter for me, man. It's got to be Feldor. I think Feldor has become only a more revered figure, I think, as a commentator. I think he stepped away, like, you know,

quote, unquote, retired at the right time where he still left people wanting more. He didn't, you know, Paul Felder didn't go and people were like, oh, thank God. Like Paul Feltner isn't fight anymore. There was still an element of like, okay, happy for him, happy to see him go. but if, you know, let's leave that door open. And I think we all kind of felt like that door was open because he's still young enough. He's still, he's a guy who keeps himself in amazing shape between fights.

That's well documented. And then as we got closer to 300 and thinking about who was right for Jim Miller, I think a lot of us, like, man, that Paul felt there. He's still out there. So for me, that's the easy fight to make, easy fight to sell. And it would deliver on fight night for sure.

Great performance from Mara Batista. He answered a ton of questions. Great fight with Ricky Simone. Batista is going to be a top 15, Bannonweight come Tuesday. Bruno Ferreira just really knocking out Phil Haas. I'm curious to see where Phil Haas is going to go after this. He was obviously very broken up after that one.

He was out for quite some time. But once he woke up, he was very emotional. Waldo Cortez Acosta beats Andre Arlofsky, but not in the court of public opinion. The showboating did not rub people the right way. But he does get a win, remains undefeated in the UFC. Preston Parsons, defeats Matthew Semelsberger, Marcus Begui, as we talked about bonus winning. Standing TKO,

Fried Basharach just continues to do the damn thing, defeats Taylor Lapilus, fun fight, but pretty dominant performance. John Silva, holy smokes. I mean, talk about making an entrance into the UFC from the four-minute walkout to the octagon

to just staring down poor Weston Wilson, to him just beating the brakes off Weston Wilson, and then barking like a dog with the fighting nerd glasses on. doing like just doing training sessions with this coach in the middle of this post-fight interview. I mean, geez, what a freaking debut that was. Nicholas Moda, who probably should have got a bonus, upsets Tom Nolan in fight number two. And then Josh Van starts off 2024 with a pretty nasty ground and pound TKO finish of Felipe Bunes.

First win, first finish of 2024. Now a bar trivia question answer for one Joshua van. So New York, I'll start with you. outside of Makkahedankaila and outside of Jim Freakin Miller, which performance, which moments stood out to you the most? Yeah, I mean, probably Gene Silva, right? If we're talking about like what kind of thing I'll remember the most, but the one that felt the most significant to me is Batista. I think that dude established himself as a contender tonight. It's typically Ricky Simone, who's kind of the guy coming on late and overwhelming people just with his

relentless action and Batista was just there handing it to him in the third round, going for the finish, looking to get him out of there. And Simone just looked like he didn't have anything left to give back. I was really, really impressed. Like, he's somebody who I thought could come into this fight and look that impressive. It was not like a shocking revelation. But to see it actually happen and now establish himself as I think one of the top guys in that division, which is a very stacked division, means something.

felt very significant. And I'm super excited to kind of see what he does next. So that's the thing that I think probably had the biggest, like, significance and impact. But there was also some fun moments on the rest of the card. AK, what's the low-key moment you'll remember? Man, I'm all in on this Marcus McKee experience. And I think I had to do it because I feel like I owe him an apology. I don't know if I've said in the past, like I've lumped him in with all these fights.

You know, we've gone on a lot of, oh, my gosh, these cards are getting watered down. where'd they find this guy, where'd they find this guy. And I'm almost sure if someone wants to dredge up a past episode where Marcus debuted, I'm sure I probably ignorantly said the same thing on him. Like, oh, he's like, he's only what, six and one? And he's getting the UFC. Who is this guy? And it's not completely unjustified.

I mean, I think myself and people are right to criticize, you know, the more inexperienced fighters of bringing in. But he's been a great pickup. He just keeps getting in there and finishing people. And he's a really class dude. he looks like he's been through it like he's he's a he looks like a well-worn 33 but he's very fresh to us in the UFC

so I don't know I I'm not saying this guy's gonna be top 15 top 20 fighter I mean the the opponents he's beaten so far I think he'd be expected he'd be expected to beat I don't know what the odds were with Gaston I think Belangios was maybe slightly favored but this guy's a fighter man and all I could think of because if anyone has seen you know guest on Belangios right before is like he's such a he's such a skilled striker what a great skill

field striker, he should pick a guy like Marcus McGee apart, but Marcus is a very good striker himself. And also, you could see he's, again, what we say, we describe some who's the difference between a fighter and a martial artist. And McGee is a fighter man. He's going in there to crack. He doesn't care if he gets hit. He's looking for a finish every time. More often than not, he's getting it.

Three and O in the UFC, three finishes. I think he's really one to watch this division. If not a contender, just someone who I hope has a 20-fight run with the UFC and picks up all kinds fight night bonuses he's awesome three bonuses too three fights three finishes that's nice uh yeah he was actually he was actually a pretty sizable favorite in this one minus oh he was okay okay okay was the close but yeah man talk about kind of coming out of nowhere him and freed bash are at our two guys definitely to watch a 135 so boarding for flight 246 to toronto is delayed 50 minutes oh what sounds like ojo time play ojo great idea feel the fun with all the

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With Amex Platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply. Let's bring in the baddestash in MMA. I know A.K., you're vying for that title,

but the man who owns the title right now is one E. Casey Leiden. Casey, the peeps, I'm sure, have some thoughts. They haven't been able to react to a UFC card in a few weeks. So let's see what the peeps have to say. Okay. First question. A.K., you're doing the show on your birthday. Is it? Is it? A.K.?

Is it? I'm still not convinced, by the way. I gave you a layup to start. I'm not sure yet. This isn't even as bad. I think it's the nude lighting and stuff because I've had worse facial hair. Yeah, get in there. I've had worse.

Just the mouth. Just the mouth. I've had worse facial hair in the show before, but it does look particularly grody today. So, guys, I have UFC 270 next week. I will be, like, people will be seeing this live. So get ready for that. Aha, I knew it wasn't him. I knew it wasn't him.

I will be, I will be shaved by Media Day, I assure you. You know how I know? As you said, UFC 270. It's UFC 297. The real AK would have known that. The real AK would have known that. You gave it away. The evil twin.

We've discovered them. Finally coming out just so we can cover a UFC event. Emerging from the darkness from 2019 to recover a U.S. Wait, this isn't an AK that canceled that UFC event? No, that's the other guy. That's the other guy.

That's the good one. All right. That's a good one. All right, all right. Well, thanks for showing up on your birthday. No problem. Let me read the poll. Let me read the poll a quick while I'm here.

Let's just end that. It's got quite a few votes in already. I agree. 50% B. Pretty strong. 50% B. And second place, 26% C. I think B is right.

B is solid. Nothing wrong with a B. I got plenty of them in my life. And I think that people are... All right. What an explanation. A.K., you're on fire, man. Yeah, you're on fire today.

This new AK. This new guy. He's pretty good. 2024. We can't keep it. Question from Swab, Rico Swab. Can see the UFC making Ankylaiav versus Roundtree? Dana doesn't seem to like Ankelyev and Kahliaf and Kahlia is on the rise.

Feel like they're still going to make Ankeliah fight one more thoughts on this. What are the chances, AK, that the UFC says, you know what, let's give Khalil Roundtree his opportunity to get a title shot. And let's just do him and Ankeliath, what Dana will say. is the number one contender fight. Do you think there's any chances happens? Yeah, I think the chances are high. Again, you know, you and I will be waving our magic wand on onto the next one

and trying to make, just, you know, get Anka-A-Ly of that title shot. But we brought up all these scenarios where Anka-Live might have to wait. And if he's okay with waiting, that's good. Is the UFC going to be okay with him waiting? I don't know. Because, again, there's a lot of moving parts near the top of this division right now, which we don't always say when we're talking about 205, but that certainly is the case right now.

Well, moving parts and parts that were waiting to move. So it's tricky to navigate. I think if they come to him with another fight, if Khalil is down for it, and he says, like, hey, I want that Ankolao spot, it's risky. It's risky. But if Ankhalaya and you know nothing's guaranteed, it's probably a fight you're going to have to take. So there's a better, I would say, better than 50% chance, if not against roundtry against someone else, that we do see Enkola.

I have to fight again for getting intel shot. I don't think he has to. I don't think he should have to, but I'm saying, what do we think will happen in the next six months? would not surprise me to say Ankalai of not get that title fight and have to fight again. Better than 50%. Better than 50%. Better than you. I can't see that happening.

They need Alex Pereira to fight sooner than that. So the only way this scenario plays out that way would be they have a dearth of stars right now and Alex Pereira is kind of a box office guy that you can put on top of a card and say he's going to slug with somebody and it's going to be fun. The only scenario where I could see that happening is if Israel Adasania decides I'm going to challenge Alex Pereira at 205 or Sean Strickland defends the belt and says, I'm going up to 205 to get revenge. They seem a little too friendly probably for that. But a scenario where it takes Alex out of the mix of the rightful kind of light heavyweight contenders, otherwise, yeah, they're going to have to

put Magamette in there. The only scenario would be Jamal Hill maybe depending on his timeline. Again, I really don't know what that is. It's kind of still murky at the moment. But otherwise, they need Alex to fight. They just need champions right now. And he's going to be one who's going to be ready to fight. I'm kind of with a K a bit in a sense that I don't. Ankylai deserves the title shot, but we know deserves is not a word we use in this sport.

And I just, unfortunately, and I think Dana sees this too, he just doesn't have that it factor. And I don't think Ankylaev's good for business for the UFC as a champion. Because I will, Encliffe is pretty much the best 205er in the world right now. But I don't think the UFC wants him as champion. He wasn't the first option for the original title fight, you know? So it was kind of just because they needed a title fight.

And now that I just, I mean, let's what, you know, Eric is saying, like they just have to get someone in there, then maybe if it's half to, kind of like how they heat, they have. had to get him for the they need him for that first title shot but i just don't i mean even like i for as violent as he can be there's there's is a weird like i'm not just i'm not so i don't know i don't i don't understand personally why i'm not super excited to see ankylai fight even though everything tells me i should be because of how good he is and i want to see high level martial arts but for some reason i just can't get excited about ankylaif and i think that's what the ufc especially dana looks at when they're booking these title fights is that i'm i don't

I don't think that makes a lot of sense. I don't think you're alone in that. Like he can have first round, like he has some early rounds where he just does not look engaged and he's kind of just like letting the fight play out and not aggressive and not putting his own pressure on. He doesn't have the kind of limited English that like a Habib and an Islam have where they can kind of talk a little bit of shit. Like he just doesn't have any of that. He's kind of just this guy who shows up in fights and sometimes it's kind of unimpressive until it's impressive, which I would say this fight was like Johnny Walker was kind of just standing there in front of him waiting to

be hit and then all of a sudden something happened. The problem is what do you do with Alex Pereira then? If it's not Ancolaev, like what, what is Alex doing? You can't, you can't kind of fridge him and shelf him while you're waiting for Ancolaev and Roundtree to kind of settle that contendorship. So I think he almost gets it just because he's the guy. He's, he's the guy. The timing is perfect for him.

The timing works out and Alex will get a fight and he's in there. But I don't, I don't think you're wrong. I definitely don't think they're, they're, they're dying for Uncle I have to be the champion. Although I will say, I do think in the vein of Islam and Habib, once you start getting like championships, title defenses, and you start to show the dominance and that becomes the calling card, I think people kind of get on the bandwagon.

And I could see a world where all of a sudden he's the 205 champion for quite a bit. And he becomes one of those guys. Now, I don't think he'll ever be Islam or Habib. I think that's kind of a special thing. But I could see a world where he gets that kind of aura of invincible. all of a sudden. But man, you're right. Like, he's not like thrilling at times.

He is prone to inactivity in fights and it can look weird at times. Whereas Habib and Islam are woodchippers. They're coming out to dominate you from moment one. So just put you through the ringer. So yeah, there's there's some, there's some oddness to it. It's a weird. I don't have our time explaining it. Like for you guys personally as fans when you were watching this knockout,

I feel like most main event knockouts. house we all kind of jump up and go whoa holy crap and for this one i was kind of like all right cool wow i don't know maybe that was just me maybe it was just kind of the long night i i just i don't what does angelaide need to do to get that kind of start i don't know learning i'm the tiniest bit am i am i the tiniest bit of english is that all it's just those kind of like like when triple g was had his big run he was just like four words big drama show big drama he just needs that phrase okay But even like, even what Jed said during the preview show yesterday, and I was like half joking,

but I think he was pretty kind of serious too. Like, no hat, no gimmick. Like, if he had that, like, that would be something. And I don't think he's wrong about that. I don't think he's wrong about that. Honestly, like, we can even look. Sorry, Mike, I don't know if I cut you off there, but I was just going to say,

look at kind of what Marab de Vallevvvvili is doing on social media right now. Like, he's kind of this guy who really didn't have much of a personality sitting around just racking up wins. But now he's kind of showcasing, oh, I can be a little bit funny, put in these positions. Maybe it's not even his brainchild. Maybe somebody has kind of put this in front of him. But you just need that. You just need the tiniest bit for people to kind of figure out how to interact with your personality

and support you. Then sometimes you get a guy like a Rafael Faziev who's like kind of low-key funny and you didn't know it. And then all of a sudden he's like hilarious or even Apollo Costa who was a silent mannequin for the beginning of his career. and now is like a Twitter darling. So I just think he needs to develop a little bit of his personality, let people see who he kind of really is. And then the wind's getting racked up kind of just solves all things.

But we need something by way of personality. It can't just be this like blank canvas. Yeah. Yeah. He has no power here, like zero power in this whole entire situation. He needs Alex Pereira to say, okay, I'm fighting in May. and then Ankleyev gets a title shot. If Alex Pereira is not interested in fighting Magam and Anka Laif,

the UFC ain't going to shove Ankylaif down Pereira's throat by any stretch of the imagine. They'll say, Mr. Pereira, what do you want? Well, if Jamal's going to fight in July and August, I'll just wait for that because that's going to be a way bigger fight. Okay, fine. There you go. And that's what they'll do.

So if Ankelaeve better send a birthday card or some sort of holiday. card over, a Valentine's Day card, if you will, over to Alex Pereira and say, thinking of you, buddy, let's fight. Please, give him a $25 gift card to Target or something, and maybe that'll help sweeten the pot a little bit, but Angleim needs Alex Pereira,

needs him to say I want to fight sooner rather than later, and then he gets his opportunity. But other than that, he may not get it. We'll see. Here we go. Core 86. If every Apex card

was this good. I wouldn't complain at all about the lowest tiered UFC events. I get like, I'll let you guys talk about this in a second, but man, just the energy levels there are tough. Like there are a lot of moments on that broadcast, even with three people in the booth where they said nothing.

They didn't say a word. And then finally, Brennan Fitzgerald had to like come in and just say something. Oh, or Michael Bisping would just randomly talk about it. power slapper that he saw. They reminded him of a guy in the car. And there's just no energy there.

Like the only time there's like true energy was when Jim Miller was out there. And then when Johnny Walker walked to the octagon, other than that, it was just like dead silent in there. So it does kind of suck the life out of you. The longer these fight cards go because there's not a lot of energy in there. But if we're talking about just like in octagon action, yeah, this is a good one. But eventually it's just sometimes like when you get to like the third week in a row at the apex and it's like all the same, it just it feels like these cards. Even though they're they're not that bad, they seem like nine hours long.

You know what I mean? Yeah. I think this kind of goes. I think this kind of leads back to the last question by Inc. of life and why I didn't jump out of my chair when I saw that knockout. I should have. It was a spectacular knockout. But for some reason, I was just like, hmm.

And I and I felt weird as a fan. doing that. And I think I just realized maybe the apex environment and six hours of watching good fights with the exception of the fight that we expected to suck that did suck. But yeah, I just, I bet. That's the UFC's business model. The energy of a crowd adds so much. You know, that's what's helped UFC rise so much. You get that feeling. Even not being there, you get that feeling. That's why they show those crap. That's why they show their announcer reactions to guys getting knocked out, over the they're very rehearsed but people like that people see that and they get they get jacked up

so but i think uh what core 86 is saying here i don't think he i think he's just commenting on card quality not environment because mike you're right there's there's nothing if you don't like the ufc apex there's nothing that's going to make them more the the experience more palatable it's just there's just nothing it the apex is what it is as much i hate i'm low to use that phrase it is um but yes this card speaking to just the action the booking was it it it's If only they could like neatly follow this prototype for every event. I understand it's not possible. Sometimes they're just got to throw a card together with what they got.

But if you look at the way this was laid out, it's perfect. It's the first three fights all featured debuting fighters of various levels of expectation. Felipe Bunes, Tom Nolan was very hyped and Gian Silva, the biggest favor on the card. And that worked out. And again, it didn't work out that all the prospects won, but either way, there was an exciting result. then you have like up and coming sort of contenders with Baccharat or and Marks Rugi or Boulanos had won and then you've you know you've got some more guys that are there to their experience and then contenders at the top and then veterans recognizable names it was formatted really well again they're not going to be able to do this for every for every apex card it helps that you know there was a three week break between these cars because I guarantee if there was no break and and they had like a card at the end of another card at the end of December and a car and a car at the end of December and a car earlier in January, all these fighters that were looking at here would have been scattered to some of those other cards and God knows it would have got. So breaks are good. If there were more breaks,

we'd also take cars like this. But hopefully in 2024, they can find a better balance between contender series signing slash prospects and notable names and contender fights, which we were supposed to get two, two on Saturday, but we only got one, but still on paper it was really good. So yes, I agree. If more cards were like this, we wouldn't complain at all about saturation. but we'll see how the rest of the year unfolds. The pessimistic side of me agrees with you, obviously, and says, because of the break, that's why they were able to construct this, right? There was no additional fight night where they're going to somewhere where they have to sell tickets

so they can put this month and they can put this card together and do it because they've had the time off. But there is an optimistic side of me that thinks the UFC is really hot right now and they're starting to do more fight nights outside of the apex and those will do really well and those will sell really well. And maybe we'll start to see just more fight nights outside the apex. Now, certainly there's going to be Apex shows. But I think we'll start to move away from the apex more and more, each as the years go on. And the UFC continues to be an insanely hot ticket, whether it be a fight night or a pay-per-view.

And then maybe we see the card quality increase a little bit. But from a roster construction perspective, they've cut out the middle class. And so we're really looking at the top end guys and girls and the bottom end guys and girls. And so it is hard to do an apex card like this every so often. It's more likely to be a lower quality. We did get kind of lucky in that sense. Yeah. We did get kind of lucky in that sense.

I don't watch a contender series that much, but the contender series is the apex. It's similar. I think the difference. in the contender series for for my mind from viewing perspirit is it's five fights and it moves really quick there's no packages there's no commercial time it is fight after fight after fight so you don't really get a a time to settle into the man it's really quiet in here uh man you know there's it's been a long time between these fights and now this one's not so exciting and i'm kind of losing interest it really just moves pretty quick um which is nice and good um but it feels it feels just

as flat i'll be honest like it's it's it's not a hugely different experience But it's just shorter. These are long nights and we're just sitting here in the apex with the silence and the five people in the crowd. So it can drone. Yeah. Okay. And you want to know what else is? You want to know what else feels different about the contender series?

Dana White actually goes to those fights. It probably won't be there February 3 either. It's right in the title. It's right in the title. It is insane. Wait, so Dana White doesn't skip contender series cards, right? No. But he'll skip.

skip that's the whole gimmick there's a picture of him on social media of him at the peloton building flipping it off that's that's what he did tonight priorities man priorities jeez that is great I mean I know cop was off the card but

I mean potential title number one contender fight on this and like he didn't show up for but he will show up every week for Dana White Contender series that's bonkers But, um, big, Magamette fan. Big, big, uh, Anklea. Well, guys, let me tell you.

So I threw up another poll. Uh, just would Magamund Ancalae be your choice to fight Alex Pereira next? Yes or no? It's 53% yes, which is a pretty bad return when you consider again, everything we've said about him. When you consider that the NBA fighting audience is pretty educated, these aren't your Joe Schmo, nobody's, you know, voting in the poll. These people who keep up with the sport. These are geniuses, one might say. And, and, recency bias should be in Ankylai.

People literally just saw him score a highlight real knockout of Johnny Walker. So I would have, like, I would have spent this to be at least 65% Ancalaia, just because we, you know, we just saw him. How can you not make, you know, make him your choice? But only 53% with quite a few votes in. So, man, maybe there's something to him just not having a pull, you know? Yeah, I was like someone. It's not a good number.

It's not a good number. McLeive is the most boring option for Alex at 300. Bummerer. But he is next up to Schaul. Again, that's if we don't know what's going on with Alex Pereira. We have no idea. We don't know if he's going to be ready for 300. We don't, we have no clue.

No clue. If the UFC books Alex Pereira versus Ankelaif at 300, would the fans be pissed? The fans are going to be pissed regardless because UFC 300 is not going to shape up to be the card that they artificially inflated in their heads already. So no matter what they book at

UFC 300, this game is lost already. Okay, the main event at 302, 301. I'm just trying to... If it's in Rio, I think people will be okay with that. I think they'll be fine. Okay, okay. Just...

I think Alex Pereira has enough juice coming off the Izzy rivalry that like he's good. I think people are willing to say, okay, it's Alex Pereira fight time, another finish in the year he fight. Like I think people are on the Alex Pereira train. All right.

Let's talk about the star the card though. Scott McCrae, Felder sold me during his post-fight interview. He put Jim Miller over and now I want to see it. Miller, Feldder, UFC, 3-Hund. That's the fight. Perfect. Jim Miller did the thing and he did it well.

What was this Felder post-show interview? Was this, maybe I turned it off. Did I miss it? Feltor post show? He went to the press conference and spoke and spoke, as did Miller and Uncle Ave. I agree with you guys that, like, I love the Felder fight, but I really don't care that much. Like, sure, like, I'll take it. But Matt Brown sounds fantastic.

Like, the thing about Jim Miller that I'm loving is like this late career resurgence. He's not just, like, hanging on, you know, because that can kind of be sad. Like, there's certain fighters who it's just like they're trotting out there. they're kind of just hanging on. And yeah, we're happy to see him fight. Like Tony Ferguson's a great example, right? Tony Ferguson is somebody who like people are happy to see him and people love him. But it's kind of sad.

It's kind of depressing. Jim Miller's going out there and competing against everybody and winning these fights and continuing to look good in this late career in this in this post, you know, contender era. And I'm so impressed by it and I'm happy to see it. And I'm good with it rolling on for as long as it goes. and he's really the eighth side of these booking. So I don't care who it is. As long as Jim Miller's in there, that that's good enough for me

because I know that I'm getting a competitive fight. There's a sadness that comes with some of these other ones, like the end of their careers. And Tony Ferguson's go back to it. Like, it just doesn't feel good. Like great. He was competitive with Patty Pimba, but like, man, he hasn't looked good in a long time.

Jim Miller, I know, like, we're going to get a fight. I don't care who's in there with him. We're going to get a fight. And I'm happy to see that anytime. Yeah, for me, Miller, Felder makes so much sense. Actually, I don't like Miller Brown, because I think Matt Brown has just a lot more options at 170 to fight. I think Felder or Miller just kind of, it just makes sense. And Brown can fight a lot.

I feel like lots of 170, you guys. And Miller is just going to be small at 170. I know he fought Cowboy Soroni at 70, but Cowboy was, you know, a lifetime lightweight for the most part. So, but yeah, that's why I want. want to see. I love it. I would like that. Yeah, a lot. It's the rare, like, feel-good fight. We're barring, knock-on-wood, someone getting, like, you know, injured or something. You wouldn't care who won. You wouldn't care who won. You wouldn't care if it was a first-round finish. You wouldn't care if it went the distance.

Because if it goes to distance, the chance of that being a boring fight are slim to none. We don't have a lot of feel-good, well, I don't care who wins fights in this game. It's just a matter of fact, whether it's because we have some we want to win or the matchmaking just is not good or there's so much on the line that like you you know you can't you can't enjoy like it's going to hurt someone so much to lose but this is like if paul feldor loses you go back to retirement he says great i got to come back fight on yos 300 go back to retirement enjoy my life get another payday jim miller loses he doesn't care he's going to keep fighting for as long as he wants to like we said he might fight until uc 400 he might fight till he reaches um 50 ufc fights

we don't know right we don't know but he probably what if he decides to retire i wouldn't care. I wouldn't be like, oh, no, I can't believe he's suddenly decided to retire at 300. I'd be like, good. Good for Jim Miller. Like, I'd be sad because I want to see him fight. So there's almost no bad outcome to it. That's what makes it such a cool fight on paper. So UFC, get those gears moving. And make sure both these guys are paid. Pay these men for their work, please. Are any of you guys as surprised as me that, like, more people are calling to fight Jim Miller at 300? I just expected more people to kind of see the opportunity that's there and kind of like throw their name into the hat. and it kind of seems like he's the one pushing it more so than anybody else.

Like to me, you know, how many people do we see calling out the hot prospect of the month? Oh, Patty Pimblitz, the guy for everybody right now. Let me get that. And there's a shine on this moment right here. Like Jim Miller's fight at UFC 300 is going to be something that people are interested in and watching. If I was some guy, I would have been pushing way harder for this opportunity. Shoot your shot. Maybe Miller turns it down.

Maybe Felder's the fight to make. But like, I haven't heard anything yet really from anybody. notable. I haven't heard. We're not seeing a lot on twit on X right now. Maybe there's still time before UFC 300. But if I was somebody who wanted to make a stamp right now, I'd be calling them out every day on social media. Like, look for this opportunity. This is going to be a spotlight fight. Take the, take the chance. And well, you mentioned that. You mentioned Patty. Yeah, you just if he had not already ruled out, he said he won't fight a 300 because he has a child. He has a child coming. Okay, cool. All right. We want to talk about it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I think his first shot, I remember at times. Twins. Congratulations. There you go. Congratulations. But he definitely would have, if he was able to fight at 300, he would be one of the guys of front of the line saying, hey, Jim Miller gave me that fight. What a coincidence.

A guy who knows how to get attention and is semi-intelligent about how to navigate the fight game is thinking about that. Where's the rest of them? Smart enough. Now, as far as I know, the UFC hasn't officially released Tony Ferguson, correct? No. No, geez. Why would they?

Is Jim Miller, Tony Ferguson just insane? No, no. That's not good vibes. Who, if the UFC doesn't release him, that doesn't straight up release him, who's Tony? What else can you do with them? Yeah. Yeah. There's a lot of options for Tony Ferguson versus Joe Loz on.

That's the fight you make. Sure. I mean, these are all sad. There's no good answers here. There's no right answer, no good answer rather. Okay Anything else? You didn't go good

We're going to save our strength for I'm trying to think of who should do the thing I'm looking at the list of lightweights Who maybe would make sense And I don't know But you know, New York Rick, it might come up It might come up now that this fight is out of the way You know, maybe they're just being respectful

Like, well, let's see what happened Yeah, that's the fight game A lot of people being respectful and not angling for for big paychecks. Yeah. Like a guy like Chase Hooper. Like Chase Hooper like. And it'd be like, oh,

how adorable. That's a perfect one. Why not? Like, oh, that's so nice. Like no one even be mad at Chase for doing that. They'd be like, all right, that's, that's kind of fun. And also, by the way, everybody's coming from this like, it'll be such honor, Jim Miller.

I love you, Jim Miller. You're the man, Jim Miller. I would love to fight you. Somebody should come in there and put their finger in his chest and say, Jim Miller, I want to beat your ass at your C-300. You absolutely suck. You stink. I want to embarrass you in front of everybody.

Somebody needs to do something. Bring something to the freaking table. I'm bored. I'm bored. A-10 is the worst nickname I've ever heard. It is. Frash. That's why he's on a hall of thing.

I would start rolling up my sleep. I'm starting to think maybe I need to fight Jim Miller. I'm starting to think that maybe I need to, because nobody else is taking this opportunity. You know who would be a, you know who would be a good one? You know, it would be a good one. Trevor Peek. Sure. That'd be a fun-ass fight.

I love that fight. That'd be electric and Trevor would be very respectful about it. This is what I don't like. But who's like, I don't know that. Maybe John Silva just wants to move up to 155 just for that sole purpose. I think he would go up and probably like slap Jim Miller across the face. It would take him four minutes to get to Jim. He would walk real slowly to get there.

But he'd do it. We all love Jim Miller. Nobody's, you know, not cognizant of that fact. Everybody loves Jim Miller. It's impossible. But like, be different. Like, even if you don't get this opportunity, you'll get some attention for that idea. Like, do something.

Just put the thinking caps on and figure this out. Who is going to put the finger in the chest? I love it. I love it. Who's going to put the finger in the chest of one Jim Miller? Maybe we'll find out this week. Who knows? So, yes, we are official.

on the road to UFC 297. We have one more stop. That's with AK and I tomorrow. We'll do a little bit of matchmaking on to the next one. You can hear that on the MA Fighting Podcast Network. We have Jose and my best friend, Alexander Kay Lee, boots on the ground next week in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, for UFC 297, Sean Strickland,

Drink his Duplice. I'm sure this is going to be a really interesting fight week, my friends. Between Meaday, those two guys at a press conference. I'm sure they're going to face off multiple times. But I know what AK's main event is, and it ain't John Strickland versus Drick's Stouplecy. It is Myra Buen O'Silva. Yeah.

Versus Raquel Pennington for the vacant UFC Women's Bantamway Championship of the universe, aka 1 to 10, excitement levels to crown a new women's Bantamway champion. 10 out of 10. 10 out of this fight alone is elevating this card. We will finally, guys,

The days of Razi, Misha Tate, Holly Holiehom, Mendenaz, all that. Listen, that's in the past. We've got to accept that. It's time. It's time to move forward. It's time to move forward. And crown a new bantamweight queen.

Let me recreate the pose. You've all seen it. You've all seen it. I'm very excited, Mike. Good night, everybody. Can't top that. Happy birthday, AK. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.