MMA Fighting - UFC Vegas 85 Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Nassourdine Imavov, Renato Moicano's Big Wins
Episode Date: February 4, 2024Nassourdine Imavov ended UFC Vegas 85 with a wacky main event victory over Roman Dolidze, and Renato Moicano returned from a long layoff to get his hand raised — and a microphone in his face — in ...the co-main event against the game Drew Dober. What were the biggest takeaways from those two performances? Following the UFC's most recent Fight Night event on Saturday at the APEX, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Eric Jackman, and Alexander K. Lee react to Imavov's headlining win, his verbal run-ins with Chris Curtis during and after the fight, the scoring, the illegal knee, and discuss where he goes from his victory in 17 months. Additionally, they'll discuss Moicano's decision victory and post-fight interview, Natalia Silva and Molly McCann's victories, other standout moments from the card, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Eric Jackman: @NewYorkRic Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee 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
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two.
Ghosts in the Machine.
The Earth only has a few days left.
Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer,
but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever.
Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster.
The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide.
Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking,
What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?
The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine.
Available now, only from Audible.
Support for this show comes from the Audible original The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine.
The Earth only has a few days left.
Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony
have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer,
but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever.
Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian
in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster,
The Downloaded.
It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide.
Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking,
what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?
The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine.
Available now, only from Audible.
We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.
Buddy, for the first time in the month of February, the victory horns, they sound.
And today, they sound for Naserdin Imava.
who picks up a majority decision victory over Roman DeLidez
in the main event of UFC Vegas 85.
In one of the weirdest main events, I can remember seeing,
it wasn't a middleweighty, middleweight main event.
It had a little bit of everything, even cornermen
and a fighter actually competing the Octagon getting after it.
That continued on at the tail end of the fight,
but in the end, it was just enough wackiness to make it a fight.
fine main event as we welcome you to the UFC Vegas 85 post fight show.
I am Mike Heck here for MAFutting.com.
And we got a whole crew here.
Let's say hello to my best friend, the Prince of Positivity, Mr. Alexander Kaylee,
AK, there he is.
And it's always an honor and a pleasure to be joined on these post-fight reaction shows
by the one, the only New York, Rick, Eric Jackman.
Hi, Mike to see you.
Hi.
Hi, everybody.
It's good to be with you.
Yes.
So, I mean, we're having so much fun before we went live just talking about the weirdness
of this main event.
So, A.K., paint us a word picture.
If someone who doesn't watch fighting came up to you tomorrow and said, hey, I heard like some weird
things happened in the final UFC fight, the main event, like, how would you paint a word
picture to describe this middleweight headliner that was won by Nasredini Emavov, at least in
two of the judge's scorecards?
I mean, first of all, it's middleweighty.
I think that's, I think we expected that this could be a middle weighty matchup head in.
A good one though, a good one though.
Middle weighty in a positive way.
There's degrees to middle weightiness.
And I think when people saw the names involved and they saw the style matchup, they thought
there's potential for fun here.
And there certainly was.
There certainly was.
There were competitive moments.
I thought Emova's performance overall was really strong.
I think he bounced back really well from an unfortunate no contest, which he was doing well.
and then a loss before that.
So it was a fight.
That's how I would describe probably a lot of the contests that happened today, to be honest
to you.
We had some highlights, but I mean, overall, I think we were left,
the impression that we were left with after a lot of these contests were, well, that was a fight.
That was a fight that happened, UFC Vegas 85.
We've got a lot of shows ahead of us.
This was the first card of 10, sorry, 11th weekends, I believe, of UFC action.
So buckle up.
Maybe along with the word middleweighty, we can call this appetizer.
We can call this, you know, no one was expecting this to be the card of the year or anything.
But it's buttering us up a little bit for, you know, UFC 298, which sounds really good.
We do have another card in you up next week, also at the apex, but we can sort of dig into that later.
So middleweighty appetizer.
How about that?
Yes.
Dear Crick, let's talk about this fight.
49, 44, 48, 46, 47, 47.
And according to Chris Curtis, four eye pokes, two head butts,
a kicking of a downed opponent, and a partridge, and a pear tree.
Yes.
Your thoughts on this main event?
Completely forgettable.
Not anything really worth remembering or talking about.
Didn't learn anything new about either of the fighters.
And glad it's over and we can move on.
nothing nothing i have no takeaways that i'm going to carry forward from this fight
uh ended up being a bad style clash um delete really wasn't interested in doing much damage
and kind of had spurts of activity but a lot of clinching against the fence um imov
in the moments he wasn't letting delete uh clinch him against the fence looked decently effective
uh but those were few and far between uh and yeah i'm not going to remember this in a week
okay
like were you surprised by how the fight played out
or was this kind of what you expected
outside of weirdness
this is probably one of the worst main events in a long time
so I can't say I expected it to be this way certainly
I mean like there's potential for this
but I definitely expected a little more activity from both
now granted there's a possibility that deletes
I just never could get on track after
getting the beating that he took in the first round
and that kind of affected how he performed.
But yeah, he just didn't have anything.
And his corner was imploring him and begging him to do things
that he just was not able to do in that fight
and spent most of the time clinching.
So I definitely wouldn't say that I expected this.
But I also can't say like I expected, you know,
amazing, unforgettable fireworks either.
This just felt like here's a middleweight fight,
a very middleweighty, middleweight fight.
So not surprised per se
I would have hoped it would have been a little bit better
But it was okay
It was what it was
And Mavov gets the win and can move up the rankings
Which main event would you go back and watch first
This one or Leon Edwards versus Colby Covington
Leon versus Colby 10 times out of 10
Really?
Oh yeah
Easel
First of at least Leon was doing work in that fight
right like Leon's at least trying to do something and and trying to be effective. Colby less so,
but honestly, even Colby.
Like Colby's at least trying to implement some kind of game plan that was failing and not very good.
But like, DeLite's a down on the cards and clinching against the fence wasn't just was not going to get it done.
Like I don't know what what the strategy was.
But again, there's a real chance.
There's a high possibility that after round one that kind of went out the window and there just wasn't much left in there.
but yeah just terrible one of the worst main events in a long time
AK do you agree with that
is this ranked up there
first I apologize to everyone for the quality of my stream here
I don't know what's going on I'm blurry as hell up here
Canadian Wi-Fi I guess I don't know I'll blame the country
probably just just my situation
I would rather watch this fight if only because this fight was at least
was funny in some ways the foul is just I mean frustrating
but also ridiculous and
like, hopefully the last time we see anything like that.
You could see it coming from a mile away in round four that Imabov was getting impatient.
It's like, I was going to kick this guy in the head, just going to mess around,
put his pan on the floor doing anything.
So that was least memorable kind of funny.
The stuff with Imov and Delite's Corner, of course, the Chris Curtis Ravreau was funny to watch.
And I think the action overall was better.
I mean, more happened in this fight.
It was certainly enjoyable to see, you know, Colby get his comeuppance, I suppose.
But, I mean, that fight is just such a.
was also somewhat disappointing,
because I mean, whether you let Colby coming to or not,
we thought he was a good matchup for Leon Edwards.
And for whatever reason,
whether it's because he was injured in the first round
or just couldn't figure Leon out.
We just was a total dud action-wise.
This fight had moments.
This fight had moments.
It didn't have stakes.
It didn't have stakes.
That I will acknowledge with Leon and Colby,
at least there was that tension of,
oh, maybe something will happen and something happens.
It will have an effect on the greater picture of MMA.
You never really felt that way with this fight.
you're seeing imabab essentially control most of the action of a few weird spots here and there.
And as New York Rick said, that's not the most memorable thing.
Would an imabov finish have made it more memorable?
Maybe, maybe, but even then, this is low stakes going in.
There's really nothing either guy could have done to change that other than some crazy,
spectacular first round submission or knockout.
And I think we were all pretty confident that that wasn't going to happen.
But, you know, again, that's okay.
That's okay.
We don't need to lie to ourselves and say every April.
card is important.
I mean, if you asked Dana White, probably wasn't that important.
He wasn't even there.
He was watching the Connor Bend fight.
So there you go.
That gives you some idea of the stakes that we had heading into this UFC Vegas 85 headliner.
I don't think anything spells it better than that.
New York, Rick, AK and I are going to talk about the son on to the next one tomorrow.
But I'll throw this to you.
If you're the matchmakers here, what do you do with Nasredini Nemovov?
Do maybe you throw them in there with Joe Pfeer?
If Joe Pfeiffer is a nice win next week, you just kind of just go back to back.
weeks the winners or do you just go right to imovov-kirtis too because there's a little bit of heat
there i don't hate yeah i don't think that's a fight that imovov is going to take um i just think
he's he's moving onward and upward um i i could see i could see that being the the fight i think
a pie for fight or winner of that matchup could make some sense i don't know i mean it's it's a tough
thing you have to expect that you know he'll move up a little bit um based on beating
Delite, but then you start to get into the cream of the crop guys.
You know, I wouldn't hate, I wouldn't hate like a Vitori type fight.
I don't, look, this is not the performance that like you're all of a sudden in a
spot where you get to pick and choose.
I think this is ultimately going to be a spot where the UFC is going to either look at
it as, okay, we're going to give him one of those, you know, older guard, middleweight
top rank guys and see where he's at or just have him fight somebody else until he can crack
into that.
and I don't think, I think Pfefer could be a good matchup
and somebody that I would be interested in seeing that potential fight.
But I don't know.
I think this is one of those fights where he could fight up or down
because it wasn't the performance you need to kind of say,
I need a top 10 opponent.
Yeah.
And shout out to Chris Curtis for flashing me back to 1999
with the fishing rod flipping of the bird,
I mean, which is just tremendous.
It's been almost like 15 years since I've seen that.
So good on Chris Curtis.
for at least making things a little more entertaining and interesting.
He's been tweeting up a storm about it,
and I don't expect these to be the last tweets about Nasor Deneemov and the night itself,
but that is the main event.
Hadato Moikano, aka, I mean, this guy,
was it the most exciting fight of all time?
Not like, I think maybe we oversaw it, but still a lot of fun.
It got pretty bloody.
Hanato got busted open, it looked like a headbut on the replay,
but him and Drew Dober just got after it.
Moikano dug deep.
Looks like he was starting to fade a little bit, had a big third round.
And then the promo of the century, we find out, you know what, forget keeping up with the
Kardashians.
We should be keeping up with the freaking Moikano's.
That is a reality show I would watch every week, for sure.
62-year-old dad giving birth to his baby brother yesterday?
I mean, we learned so much about Hanata Moikano in like a three-minute post-fight interview that
I never expected to hear.
what do you grade Hanata Moikano on the performance and the mic worked after the fact?
And he was still YouTube being live in the ambulance right to the freaking hospital.
Look, my best friend, Mike Heck, people know I'm that guy.
All right.
I'm positive, but I'm also that guy.
I'm also to tell people to caution people about certain things.
I'm going to give him a solid B overall.
I won't go higher.
The performance, I thought really strong.
perfect game plan for a guy like Drew Dober
his only chance of losing really
was to just get cracked by something
and he ate a few good shots
my Conno's got a pretty decent chin thankfully
but he always had that ground game to go to
he went to it he's a superior ground fighter
it was not easy he was not easy to control
Drew Dober on the ground you could tell
but he pulled it off did enough to get the win
29 28 very solid call
so before I thought was strong
the mic work started off a bit funny
great story and then really
really rambled. Got, I don't, did it get political or social? I can't even really tell. I was a little
confused at the point he was trying to make. So it went off the plot. I, I'm fine if people were
entertained. A lot of F words, which is, you know, mileage may vary. I usually find it funny,
but it's when it's every other word, I'm just kind of like, okay, I don't know what you're
saying anymore. So he needs to tie it up. This was not, if the money moikano promo, if we're calling
that, you know, the original an A plus. I mean, you can't put it near that. It's memorable, but
I don't know if we'll talk, we'll talk about the dad thing, the other comments.
I don't know if we're really going to be talking about it for what the next time,
Moycott.
So there was moments, but we're very close to, he, it almost feels like he's one off
remark away from us going like, whoa, whoa, like, whoa, pull it back, pull it back.
So I like Moikato.
We all like Moikato.
He didn't say anything, you know, out of bounds this time.
But he's winding up to it.
He's ready to say something true off base.
And I dread when that day con.
So I can't give him an A for this promo.
I'll go a solid B.
Also, because, again, I'm not entirely sure what he was talking about.
It's like, AK's like a precod from minority party.
He's pre-predicting some heinous thing that what kind of is going to do.
And he has to stop him.
He has to stop him before the crime was committed.
What did you think, dear Craig?
I'm just saying.
The guy's night.
You know, the fight itself, Drew Dober is a tough out for anybody.
He's just like a freak athlete.
He's tough as nails.
And he's going to be somebody who, if you can't get him off his game, he's going to be a load to handle.
And there were some moments in there where, especially in the second round, it looked like Dober was starting to shift the momentum.
Now, I certainly think that it was a headbut more so than any strikes Dober was landing toward the end of the second round from what we saw that opened Moikano up.
again, I'd have to kind of see it again,
but it didn't look like it was on the,
on the slam.
It looked like it was a headbut in the exchange before.
And then the slam was on the other side of the head,
but I'd have to rewatch.
But yeah, Dover is a tough out and one of the most prolific
knockout artists at lightweight,
which wouldn't surprise anybody.
And so he had a great game plan in the first and third
when he was able to get his position and keep Dober on his back.
That's where he was most effective.
And Moikano was very good there.
So really strong performance against the guy who I rate
highly who I think is very tough.
On the mic, I just think like
MMA, UFC,
we're lacking personalities.
We're lacking people that are just giving us a little bit of something
different and he's different.
Now,
I'm not going to disagree with AK here.
I think there's probably like a line that like he's near
crossing at some points and maybe he will,
maybe he won't.
But ultimately,
I think we need personalities.
We need people who are going to give us something interesting
to think about beyond just the X's and O's inside the octagon.
And he does that and he's a character and I'm here for the Moikano experience.
He's going live on his YouTube channel on his way to the hospital in the ambulance.
So like this dude's different and the personality came out of nowhere and I'm happy to kind of see it.
So I'm along for the ride.
Let's see let's see if it ever goes off the rails or if AK can prevent the crime before it happens.
Yeah.
I think maybe going off the rails or saying something off base, maybe that's not exactly what I meant.
But I'll just, I think what the real point I'm trying to say is, and I say this about a lot of fighters in M.A.
So money, Moikano was not the first.
We cannot confuse someone who's willing to talk a lot with someone who has something interesting to say.
Because there are a lot of fighters and athletes, this isn't just MMA.
A lot of fires and athletes who are willing to talk a lot, get in the mic and say anything to do a lot of interviews.
It doesn't make them like charismatic or compelling or funny.
Right now, Moikano, I think pretty funny.
I think we can all agree.
But it really, really went on for a long time now.
So I think we've got to rein it in a little.
He needs some sort of editor maybe because he can't go on for, I don't know how long that promo was.
But hey, if people liked it, people liked it, I see people in the comments.
Pretty pro Moikano.
So, hey, what do I know?
I laughed a lot.
But I will say D.C. might have been the MVP of that because I think he left the cage at like the perfect time.
And Moikano tried to stop him.
And he was just like, I don't hear anything and just beat feet out of that Octagon as quickly as possible.
New York Creek again, AK and I will talk about what's next for Hinata to Moikano.
but Moikano didn't have a callout in the octagon.
He saved all of like the other stuff for the ambulance ride.
And then once he got to the hospital, he made his call out.
He said, Danielle Darius, Brazil, looks like it's going to happen in May.
You like that one?
You think that makes sense?
Or would you go a different way for him?
I mean, I'm looking at everybody else at lightweight and they're kind of either booked
or somebody that the fight doesn't really line up.
So yeah, I'm in love with that.
That's the fight to make.
Why wouldn't you do that?
like that makes a ton of sense.
That's a perfect opportunity for Benil to kind of get one
and an opportunity for Moycano to crack the top of the lightweight division.
So I'm all in.
It makes perfect sense from a matchmaking perspective.
Yeah.
If they go to that direction, I will not be mad.
A little spoiler, I'm not going in that direction for our money,
Moycano.
You'll find out tomorrow and on to the next one.
Defenders in cybersecurity are always there when we need them.
They should get a parade every time they block a novel threat and have streets
sandwiches and babies named in their honor.
But most of all, they deserve AI cybersecurity that can stop novel threats
before they become breaches across email, clouds, networks, and more.
DarkTrace is the cybersecurity defenders deserve and the one they need to defend beyond.
Visit darktrace.com forward slash defenders for more information.
Saving and investing well is an art and a science.
It requires high-level math, an intimate knowledge of economic history
in theory and a healthy dose of psychology. People have spent their whole careers and won Nobel
prizes trying to figure out the best ways to do it. Betterment believes that you should be able to be a
successful and sophisticated investor without having to get a PhD. They've spent over a decade
creating and refining a platform that can help people who have, you know, lives invest like experts.
And it's all because they have a simple mission to make powerful investing tools available to
everyone. Their approach, which includes things like goals-based investing, globally diversified portfolios,
and tax-smart technology is rooted in deep research but packaged in a single, easy-to-understand
user-friendly platform. With automation, friendly reminders, and best-in-class customer service,
Betterment makes it easy to make good investment decisions. You don't need a Nobel Prize to be a great
investor. All you need is Betterment. Go to Betterment.com to learn more.
That's B-E-T-E-R-M-E-N-T.com.
Investing involves risk, performance not guaranteed.
Rest of the main card, Randy Brown, quick knockout of Muslim Salikoff.
I don't think that surprised a lot of people, Aliaskov-Kizriev.
All this time, you look at his tapology in Wikipedia, just opponent falls out,
opponent falling out.
He's only had one fight in the UFC since getting on the contender series,
and then 11 seconds into this one after like an 18-month layoff,
one of the nastiest eye pokes you will ever see,
ends in a no contest
Charles Ratke
nice knockout win over Gilbert Urbina
interesting promo on his end
if you told me gentlemen
that of all the people
that were going to get called out tonight
that Leon Edwards would be called out twice on this card
I would have been like
there's no friggin chance
but that has happened here
so good win for Charles Rakke
but I think a lot of people
want to talk about Natty Ice right now
what a performance
toughest test to date against Viviani Arujo, New York, Rick.
She is just super fun to watch, the movement, the striking.
She is just a tornado of destruction.
And she gets it done.
Viviana A. Rujo is no pushover.
And she went in there and did the thing.
I thought she won all three rounds.
All three judges scored at 29, 28.
No issue with that at all.
What did you think of her performance?
And did the ceiling get a little bit higher for her after watching this performance today?
I'm a big fan.
She's just exciting.
She's just bringing something different.
And also, I mean, you know, the fighting is tremendous.
The energy where I'm talking about having characters, you don't necessarily have to be what AK is talking about, like, just speaking for the sake of speaking.
She has a personality that shines through and it's a positive energy.
And I think people also like that and can see themselves in that.
So she's a total package in that regard.
The fights are great.
The personality is great.
As far as the fight itself, like impressive performance, I think.
I think, you know, it was a jump up for her and something that was a bit of a measuring stick.
Although I will say when I started thinking about the fighters that are potentially ahead of her in that division, it did give me some pause because I think there was some opportunity.
Like if you're a fighter who can put some pressure on her and have some actual offense, right?
Arrujo was able to hold her and control her, but she didn't have really much of a weapon to be able to utilize against her to make her pay for it.
If you can corner her, if you can corral her, if you can keep her in place, somebody who's a high pressure fighter, I'm thinking about the just guy and drosges and,
and the fighters like that,
I think there's going to be some problems.
I think there's going to be some opportunities
where she's not going to be able to circle away
and she's not going to be able to get off that game.
The power is a little bit lacking, right?
Like the volume of strikes is there.
The activity is there.
She's a very dynamic and exciting fighter.
But I'm starting to think about even like a Macy barber
or somebody in that upper echelon
who's going to be able to put some pressure on her
and actually make her pay when they catch her flat-footed.
I think it's going to be a potential problem.
So I'm going to have to see some improvements, I think.
We're going to have to see her face some of these tough opponents.
And maybe she suffers some stumbles and then kind of comes back.
Impressive for now, excited about the future.
But I do think there's some tough tests ahead for her.
AK, what do you think about the ceiling?
I mean, obviously the performance was great.
Today, as we're live and as this fight happened, she turned 27 years old.
So she is about three or four years away from like really,
really tapping into that athletic prime.
So she's only going to get better.
She's only going to get more athletic.
She's only going to get stronger.
Your thoughts on Addy Ice's biggest win of her career.
Yeah, I think New York Rick's on the right track,
sort of her evaluation.
I see people in the comments asking kind of,
did this raise her ceiling at all?
And watching her again,
the kind of style on fighters isn't really going to teach us a lot.
I mean, if she somehow managed to style her way all the way to the title,
then, you know, could get on her.
But it's when she faces some sort of adversity,
when we see her kind of have to battle back.
We saw a little bit of that tonight.
Again, we mentioned Viviana Arroyo, very tough opponent,
very extremely difficult to put away.
She's been finished, I think, once in her entire career, not in the UFC.
And someone, again, who has some grappling,
some stuff could test her grappling out.
So we saw her tested, but it still felt like by the middle of like the second round
and then all the way through the third.
She kind of figured Viviani out.
So our lasting impression is that she dominated the fight,
which is fair.
She won it pretty clearly.
So we do need to see her,
put, again, pressured.
We needed to see here, put in a few more trouble spots.
And again, even if she loses, that's not the end of the world for her.
You just mentioned she just turned 27 years old tonight.
So she can take a loss or, again, split decision, take a decision win that has people
questioning like, oh, did she, I hate this word, was she exposed, you know, was Natalia
Silva exposed?
And that could happen.
That's part of coming up under the UFC spotlight and being so young especially.
So her ceiling is as high as ever.
I don't know if the win tonight changed that at all,
but this is her first win, I believe, over a, I think, pretty consensus top 10 ranked flyweight.
She's top 10 and our Viviana Ridgeo has been top 10 in our rankings for a while.
I'm pretty sure UFC had them in the top 10, had, excuse me, Viviani in the top 10.
So that's a big step.
Again, this is not the fight that vaults her to shorefire titles challenger in most people's minds,
but it's a necessary step.
So they're developing in the right way.
There's no need to rush her.
good division and as as New York Rick pointed out there's some names ahead of her that
we're going to need to see her against and I think those will happen pretty soon yeah she's
were our Rujo's number seven in the UFC rankings heading into this fight so Nadi
I saw probably be number seven yes but the fun thing about Natty right now is you can do a lot
with her they have options and all of them are good you could throw her in there with like a really
big name and or like a former title challenger to try to like boost her stock or you could
test her like Aaron Blanchfield and Manifior are about to fight in Atlantic City. So maybe
give her the loser that fight because I think both of those matchups would answer a lot of those
questions. So you could go in that direction. But she's just fun. She's bubbly. An infectious
personality. Like I hate singing the happy birthday song. And even here in South Carolina,
I was singing happy birthday to the TV just because I wanted to. She asked me to. And I felt
like I needed to do that. So good performance for her. Great performance for Molly McCann.
against the submission against Deanna Belvedo.
Would you think of Molly at 115?
Like, I hated the matchmaking here.
It's just so silly.
They were like, oh, it's a rematch, baby.
They were billing it as a rematch for a fight that was not competitive at all
that Molly just destroyed the other than the first time they fought.
But at least she went out there and finished.
And I love the attitude, New York Rick.
I love this new Molly McCann.
She's just angry.
She's like, for old school, like, WWB fans,
And I know there's people like, oh, Mike, you're such a mark.
You always bring up pro wrestling.
But this is like when Chris Jericho stopped being like Y2J and was like, I'm the real serious Chris Jericho.
I'm just going to take care of business.
Like this is what Molly McCann was.
Like she's just going to let her fist to do the talking.
She's not going to talk a bunch of crap.
She's got that angry look in her eyes.
And there's a focus to her that I don't know if we've really seen since she's been in the UFC.
So pretty damn good night for meatball.
Molly.
Was it not New York, Rick?
A plus.
A plus for Molly.
I think, you know, I think it's a little bit.
bit by design. Like she needs some time out of the spotlight, right? It's been a little bit of a bumpy road.
And I think being able to reset a little bit and not be this attraction and not be, you know,
the Molly and Patty, although they are, I was about to say the Molly and Patty show and they're
literally doing a television show. So maybe that's not the best example. But as far as the fights go,
as far as it comes to UFC action goes, you know, not be the Molly and Patty show. And just be able to
focus in. She looked, I mean, the shape she was in was absolutely tremendous. Like she's never looked
better as far as her as her physique goes. She looked extremely focused. She looked extremely
aggressive. I think I get your point about the fact that this was not some rematch that everybody
was clamoring for, but I think you kind of needed one to get her a little bit back on track. I think
this was probably the match you kind of need to give her the confidence again, to have her come in there
with the right mindset, to do the work and look as good as she did. And now maybe we kind of see where she
shakes out at straw weight. But my prospects for her, my feeling about where she is is much higher now,
she's in the straw weight division and had that type of performance than it was previously.
So I'm excited to kind of see some of these matchups that she'll have.
And I think there's a lot of opportunities here.
Look, she doesn't have to jump into the deep end right away.
I think there's a lot of opportunities for her to fight somebody in the top 25, top 20,
maybe stretching it, where she can have another fight where we see if it's, you know,
if this is the right weight class for her, how she looks, and then maybe we start advancing from there.
So I love it.
I think this gives her career a new coat of paint, and she took advantage of the opportunity.
AK, was Meatball Molly the low-key MVP of this card for you?
Or is you going a different direction?
Yeah, I don't know if I'd go that far.
I don't know if I'd go as far as say Molly was the MVP.
Again, we saw some pretty impressive performances.
I think Randy Brown made a real statement as well.
We haven't talked about him yet.
I think we'll see if there's any questions of Randy Brown.
But yeah, Molly looked great.
This drop down to straw weight, I think it's just beneficial to her.
in so many ways, of course, a fresh set of opponents.
She just looked better.
Most of the comments of the soft,
I was doing sort of farty reactions for the website,
and we're like, well, she can't go buy a meatball anymore, you know?
So, yeah, she just looks healthier, a little more explosive.
She showed that today for sure.
I mean, Deana Babita was really never in this fight.
It was kind of pointless rematch, but that's okay.
Then Molly took care of business.
You know, if this is a rematch, she was dominant, she dominated.
It's out of the way.
It's a proper, well, I shouldn't say it's a proper introduction.
It's an introduction of sorts to a new weight class.
Maybe her next matchup will be proper introduction, the one that gives an idea of like, oh, okay, Molly is like really a new fighter at 115.
So far, you can't complain about the early returns.
I think I had to be more real with my expectations for Molly.
People can look at previous preview shows, post-fight shows where I said, you know, with the right match, I thought she could be like a top 10 flyweight.
Flywood's a very good division.
That was probably never really a realistic projection.
But again, I thought stranger things have happened.
And now, straw weight, again, now I'm pulling back to the next day.
She's back.
I don't know if she becomes a top 10 fighter.
I don't know if it really matters.
She's entertaining.
She has a highlight reel.
She has a dedicated fan base.
She has haters.
She has people who hate her.
Just like Patty, there's people like, wow, I can't stand Molly McCann.
Why does the UFC keep booking Molly McCann and give the time spots on cards?
So that's good.
She gets a reaction out of people.
So that can lead to a very long and lucrative career, whether it includes a double shot or not.
I don't think that really matters for her.
I don't think that's anything her and her team need to think about right now.
So again, not the low-key MVP, but definitely one of the night's big winners.
And I think 24 is going to be a good year for Molly.
Even if she doesn't go like 4 and O or something, that she'll have some wins and be in some high-profile fights.
And again, right now it's a stage of her career.
That's what she's being for.
Yeah, she had a good night.
Charles Johnson, good night for him.
Good win over Azad Maxim Hansen his first loss.
Charles Johnson is just gritting down.
Timber Garimbo, good night for him.
32 second knock got a Pete Rodriguez
and then he's just like, I'm going to jump
everybody and get a title shot.
So Leon Shafcott didn't even mention
Bilal Muhammad.
Golly, poor Bilal Bahamad.
Just can't even catch a break right now.
Great.
Very impressed with Jung Jung Lee
against Blake Ballad.
That was a great performance.
Luana Carolina finishes Julia Stoliarenko.
Unfortunately, she missed weight.
Mark Helmadairos and Lennonan Kenyana.
It's actually a Kenyone's won about that fight,
but it's very, very close.
And then, boy, the heavyweighty heavyweights,
Jamal Pogs and Thomas Peterson just doing heavyweighty, heavyweight things.
And that fight went to the cards.
And nobody was surprised.
Heavyweight overs are back, baby.
They are back.
We have bonuses.
No surprise on either of the performance bonuses by McCann, Randy Brown,
Fight of the Night goes to Charles Johnson and Mr. Maxim.
So there you go.
There's your bonuses.
there you have it.
A little surprised, Timba didn't make the cut.
I am actually.
I think Rock needs to make some phone calls.
Newton, T.O., board member,
Dwayne Johnson needs to make some phone calls
because they're doing his boy,
they're doing his boy at Garimbo Dirty.
No, I like the ones they picked.
I think they picked the right ones.
They don't want to lay the breadcrumbs too soon.
Then people will start putting together the favoritism.
They need to save the bullet
so that when he gets the title shot,
it comes out of nowhere that it wasn't, you know, oh, all of a sudden he's getting these bonuses.
All of a sudden he's getting preferential treatment.
Now he gets the title shot.
You know, you don't want that.
You got to slow roll it.
Yeah.
And rock bottom of house.
I think he's good.
Okay.
Rock bottom of a house.
Yeah.
Some Walterway needs to come out of nowhere and try to finish the story, like lose a title fight,
and then one like five in a row and he finally makes his way back against like the unbeaten champion.
And then no time of Graham go in there instead.
Is it not Balal?
Bilal has to finish the story, right?
But finish the story with Leon.
But you know what?
All of a sudden, Temba's going to jump the line and stop that.
So here we go.
We've written it.
We've written this.
We've taken the pen.
We're the bookers.
And we've written this storyline for the Temba Garimbo title shot.
TKO, do the thing, I guess.
Before we go to the peeps, I'll ask both of you guys,
AK, one of the questions we got on the People's Pre-Fight show is like,
who is going to do the thing tonight?
who is going to do the thing the most?
Is there anybody who did the thing the most tonight
in terms of like how we feel doing the thing really means?
I was going to, I just feel like I have to talk about Charles Radkeye a little bit.
So this is a weird one.
First of all, could not have been worse than his first UFC post-fice speech.
If anyone remembers, he won a pretty dreary decision over Blood Diamond in, I want to say in Australia.
in Australia.
Yes.
Anyway, somewhere where,
yes,
where Blood Diamond was favorite.
And then he used some very,
very poor homophobic language
in his post-interview,
aimed at the fans.
The fans were booing him
and he used some pretty disgusting language
and then later he apologized for it.
So this better tonight,
he still has this very weird chip in his shoulder.
He seems very angry.
I think before he even got interviewed by Cormier,
he was like a middle finger to the camera.
He shouted the camera.
He's an angry young man.
He's an angry young man,
as many fighters are.
And then if you go,
clip, Amy Kaplan posted this
clip. It's not the clip. His
post-fite scrum was only
two and a half minutes long because apparently, I
watched it myself, he said something to the
effect of like, I need money,
I just want to get paid, which is fine. I
encourage fighters to say that. And then something like
I, you know, if you guys have
any more questions, like I'm paid to
do this stuff, and then it kind of just ended
the questions there. So he kind
of his own mic time
in a weird way.
So he did something, like, I don't
know if he did the thing, but for the second time in a night where Charlie Radkew fought,
I find myself talk about Charlie Radke. And again, not in as poorly away as last time. So he did
something like they do? I don't know. He did something. Who is your do the thing award winner
tonight, New York, Rick? Nobody did the thing. Nobody did the thing tonight. That's okay.
There's some nights where nobody does the thing. Nobody did the thing tonight, unfortunately.
You know what?
I'm giving it to Charles Johnson.
I'm giving it to Charles Johnson.
Goes out and gets a win.
And then he has a great callout, a realistic fun callout.
That has already been answered and accepted.
Josh Van, that's a great callout.
I love that call out all the way.
And I think he did the thing.
I think he did the thing perfectly.
That dude always comes in as an underdog,
always fights his butt off,
has had a rough run because he's fighting,
like really good opponents and Josh Fan is another really good opponent and that's going to be
another one where he's going to be an underdog and have to scrape his way to a win.
He deserves respect.
Shout out to Charles Johnson.
Energy for, for getting it done.
I still say nobody did the thing, but he's great.
I mean, you're probably the most correct, but if I have to do somebody, I'm going to go with him.
So let's bring in Casey, the baddest dashed MMA who in the NBA fighting staff picks went nine for 13 on this card, which
Oh, how did you do this?
The heck of a winning streak comes to an end at two.
It was two and oh in 2024.
And that streak is badly over.
I was done after like the fourth fight because I was just bad.
I was just so bad.
But Casey, just nailing it.
So we'll now take your questions.
Yes, we have the super chats feature,
which I still don't even know how to really explain.
You guys probably know about it more than I do.
You guys get to the top of the line.
If you institute that option.
and thank you Robert Thomas.
We appreciate that.
And we have a super, actually I have a question, a super chat question from.
Casey, can I interrupt?
Sorry, yes, I hate to kill your vibe.
I just want to say Casey got a perfect main card, by the way, not including the no contest.
So five for five in the main card, Casey, well done.
And I just want to read the poll results for I get to the questions.
Did you enjoy Vegas 85?
I just did thumb up, thumb down, thumb in the middle, 26% thumb up,
31% thumb down, 43% thumb in the middle.
So that sounds right.
It's like, yes, we're just kind of okay.
We're all just kind of okay with what happened here tonight.
Yeah.
Thumb in the middle is probably the right grade.
Yeah.
Is this a thing?
Thumb?
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right, yeah.
I mean, I'll give it like a this, not quite there, but that's what I get.
Any more options?
I would give it like a, oh, wait, wait, no, I wouldn't do that.
not that
not that
I'm trying to thumb up like halfway
yeah
I actually I enjoyed the card
it was fine
what it was
yeah what it was
yeah it was fine
it was what we expected
for the most part
and the two winners
and the main and co-main
I thought it was mainly
the loot
the their opponents
that were kind of
making it maybe not exciting.
I thought Dober was kind of, he was,
he had issues on the ground.
He just, yeah, was it, was that Herb Dean?
No, not Herb Dean.
Was it Mark Smith that was really trying to rush him?
Was that the fight?
I'm thinking where Marks were like five seconds
in the ground, he was like, let's go, let's go.
And it actually became very beneficial for Dober,
because it made kind of Moikano kind of rush his submission
or at least his positioning.
But I thought Herb Dean did a good job in the main event with not letting Deleuze stall as much as I think he wanted to against the cage.
So good job, Herb Dean.
Oh, God, if that wasn't as much as he wanted to, I hate to see the one where he wants to because that was a lot.
Yeah.
That was a hell of a lot.
Yeah.
Thank you, Terrence.
Correct.
Speaking New York, Rick's language, this made event sucked.
Let's talk WWE.
Unpopular opinion rock needed to finish this.
story more also Molly killed it.
Rock needs to finish the story more.
Three for three right there.
Three for three.
Main event sucked.
Rock needs to be in the WrestleMania main event and Molly killed it.
I mean, me and you, Terrence, right here.
Me and you.
Oh my God.
People just ripping on WWE right now.
I would be fine with this if Cody didn't win the rumble.
Like if Cody didn't win the rumble.
What was the point?
What's the point there?
Yeah.
I'm totally fine with it.
Like rock going in.
People expected this to happen.
But like once Cody won the Rumble, like, all right, now we know what's about to happen.
And then Cody's like, you know, I had counsel.
I spoke to people.
And I spoke to somebody who you know very, very well.
And you can see like Rock and him have a moment.
You see Cody's like soul crush.
It was like that episode of The Simpsons when Ralph Wickham found out that Lisa didn't like him and his heart just shattered.
Like watching in slow motion.
This is a moment you can see Cody Rhodes heartbreak.
Right there.
He smiled and he was just like.
And then walked away.
Crazy.
Two things.
Two things.
Number one.
Anytime the Rock says he wants to wrestle for your company, that's it.
There's no further discussion required.
That's the end of the story.
Future president of the United States of America, Mr. Dwayne Johnson decides he wants to wrestle.
He will wrestle.
Number two, I don't want to give credit where it may be undue, but there is a part of
me that thinks that possibly this is intentional, that they want you to long for it even more,
that it feels like, oh, no, another time that Cody didn't get it, another time. And it starts
to be that like Daniel Bryan storyline where it's just like, he'll never get it. You'll never get it.
This was the time. And maybe they're just delaying it. Maybe they're just delaying it again.
And hoping that that sentiment, the hate that the rock is getting every time he post something on
social media and everybody tries to ratio them with a with a cody tweet or or comment is going
to build until they have something that's even bigger so i don't know maybe they're not thinking that
way maybe it's as simple as my point number one which is when dwayne johnson says i want to wrestle
they let them wrestle but maybe there's number two a little bit i don't know i don't know for a fact
but i feel like it could be we'll see i don't i don't i don't feel right oh brian it's dail brian
it's right now brine a quick what that's the hope i'm i'm not keeping up with w
WWE super like detailed.
But what's the,
what's the UFC equivalent to what just happened?
Would it be like Connor getting a title shot at welterweight?
Yes.
Yeah.
It'd be like,
it'd be like Shafcott was like ready to fight for the belt.
And then Connor's music hit.
And he was like, nah, dude.
And Dana was like,
yeah,
Connor gets it.
I'd say maybe more Belal,
right?
Because Belal is kind of like the one who's like built,
built to it,
built to it.
And then all of a sudden it's like,
nah,
sorry.
But I don't think Belal
Loll has the, or even Chavcott, quite frankly, has the kind of support behind it.
You know, like he's not, he's not in the Cody position where everybody's kind of like,
hey, we need this, we need this, we need this.
Because I think there's a lot of people that probably be like, oh, sure, Connor,
Walterweight title shot, whatever, let's do it.
Like, I think there's more people that be on board with it.
It would probably, it would be Connor jumping into a weird title shot where somebody else was undeniable.
Oh, dude, we got, it's a perfect one.
I think it's a perfect one.
It's a perfect one.
and steepa.
Yeah, Brock.
Like, that's what it is right now.
That's what it is.
Oh, I was going to say, I was going to say, if you want to be to get the weekend.
Brock comes over.
Yeah, I was thinking like John Jones versus Brock.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And Aspiral gets stripped.
Yeah.
John Jones versus Brock.
Let's say, John Jones gets a steepy fight.
Aspinall gets his whatever first hell defense.
John Jones wins.
Aspinall wins.
And John Jones says, you know, I'm sticking around for one more fight.
It doesn't say who.
He says, I'm sticking around for one more fight.
And we just all assume, oh, great.
They both won.
Clearly he's going to fight Aspinol.
And then something that's like, nope, here comes from.
That would be the moment of like, oh, my.
That's right.
Daniel, that's right.
I get it.
I get it now.
I get it.
I get it.
Thank you.
It's so unfair.
Explain this to me in the MMA terms, as the kids said.
Very good.
A.K., that's, Mike, you're right.
It's the heavyweight division and A.K., well done.
Very well done.
Yes.
Oh, man.
It's like Jamal Pogs says earn a title shot.
We took it away.
Hey, he still could.
Two and one in the UFC.
That bite was so good.
Okay, sorry.
Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes.
Ugh, what?
Sounds like Ojo time.
Play Ojo? Great idea.
Feel the fun with all the latest slots in live casino games and with no wagering requirements.
What you win is yours to keep groovy.
Hey, I won!
Feel the fun!
Boarding will begin when passenger fisher is done celebrating.
19 plus Ontario only. Please play responsibly.
Concerned by your gambling or that if someone close,
you call 18665-3-1-2-600 or visit Comments on
Ontario.ca. With Amex platinum, $400 in annual credits for travel and dining means you not only satisfy your travel bug, but your taste buds too. That's the powerful backing of Amex. Conditions apply.
Oh, we got a $5 super chat right here. Hey, thank you, Donovan. Charles Johnson called for a UFC 300 fight. That'll be Dana's Rabbit in the hat with the way this year's been going so far. I think everybody could. I didn't, I
believe Randy Brown also called for UFC 300 fight.
And I feel like after next week, we're going to see a lot more of that as well.
I think that's what everyone's going to be shooting for.
But I don't think he's going to get banned at 300, but he will probably get banned, then the less.
Everyone's saying they want to find UFC 300 and all that stuff.
This just tells you when fighters tell you, oh, I'll find the apex.
I don't care where I'm on the card.
They're all lying.
That's all a lie.
Like when they won't, everyone wants to be.
If you're a prize fighter at this level, you want to be on the big.
card on the big stage.
And that's why I always like get so annoying,
fighters like,
I don't care, just give me a fight, wherever, you know?
No, they all want to be on 300.
I want to be that big card,
which I think is kind of silly a lot of times
because you're not going to get a bonus.
You know,
unless, I don't know, do you think UFC will give one of those,
like everyone that wins gets extra 100K for three?
Yeah, that'd be nice.
I think there's a chance of that.
I will say, I think there's some fighters who don't care,
but I think some fighters who say they don't care
are lying to your point.
But I do think there's some fighters who don't care.
I don't think Sean Strickland cares.
I think Sean Strickland would fight in the backyard at the apex, whatever.
In fact, I think he prefers it.
I don't think he cares.
I actually disagree.
I think Sean, yeah.
Sean's fine.
Boycano, at least is honest about it.
He goes, I hate funny at the apex because no one gives a shit.
Like, he just comes out.
Yeah.
And I'm glad he kind of didn't give to his best post.
He didn't beat the Redell one because he was in the freaking apex.
It's like, why waste that?
Why waste it in the apex?
You got to save it.
You got to.
Um, yeah.
I'm just glad to see, I'm glad to see Ariel's rabbit in the hat thing kind of, uh, you know,
taking hold of the MMA space.
So shout out to Donovan for sticking with that.
New people's main event.
Thank you, Donovan.
Uh, we got another super chat coming from Chase.
My man, Chase.
Should Money Moikano get the Darius fight?
Yes, I think we talked about this.
New York Creek is down for that.
I don't hate that idea.
That's not what I'm going to be going with on onto the next one.
Maybe, AK, you're showing your hand a little soon here.
Spoiler?
I haven't thought about it.
I haven't thought about it yet.
I would certainly default to that because it's a great callout, logical, I think,
for guys where they are in the rankings right now.
So don't be surprised you listen to the show, and that's my pick,
but I haven't made an official decision yet, Mike.
Close to the chest.
I like it.
Yeah, it's good one.
Ranking-wise, we're at both those gentlemen right now.
I'm kind of, can you remind me?
I got to be both top 10-ish, right?
I know Darius is near the top five, isn't he?
Darius in the UFC rankings is number seven.
Moikano is 13.
And so that would be a little bit of a jump.
So he's probably not going to move at all from this one.
I do actually like the fact.
I want to see Moikano against a high-level grappler.
Yeah, me too.
I think that would be a very exciting fight for the fans who enjoy high-level groum.
I also think it's a good fight for Dary-Euse.
too. It makes sense.
Like, that is a fight that makes sense for Darryush at this point.
I don't know any of the names that are between there.
There's, because there's quite a few, but there's probably some other good options
from Weikano.
Sure.
He's got plenty of options here.
RDA's 11.
There's, yeah, RDA, there's no 12th.
That one, I don't, I don't have as much interested.
I know it was a short notice thing, but, man, RDA put the, put the wood to him.
Yeah.
Ben-Wassantzantini's fighting Dustin-Deportier.
Dan Hooker.
That's not a bad name.
So there got Patty out there.
Patty Moikano could be fun.
Patty Moikano could be a lot of fun.
Oh, you're trying to get a number next to Patty's name,
Nerick Rick.
No, that's, I'm four of them.
I mean, spoiler, that's my pick is Patty.
It's good.
It's very good.
It does feel right.
The Patty one does feel right.
And it's a grappler.
It's probably primarily a grappler, I feel.
So it will kind of satisfy my needs to see Moikano grapple.
It's a win-win for the UFC, too.
It fits Moikano's like, I want to make money.
This is the money fight.
It's a perfect, yeah, you know what, Mike, you had it.
Casey exposed it, but you had it.
That's it.
Good job.
Did you see my face?
It was the Cody Rhodes after the robbery.
Yeah, I saw it.
I was like, oh, when I said it, I was like, oh, I just, I just said something.
I also love, I wish he wasn't dinged up because I don't know when he's coming back,
but Moikana versus Fizzeev in the future again, I know they just fought and Fizib
kind of iced him, but like down the line,
a couple of like a year and a half two years from now i'd love to see them run that back like this
new moikano against i'd be i'd be cool with that but if they do dariush i'm totally i with it
yeah deriuch pat yeah either way do you want to see moikano versus a primarily a grappler or
does it really matter you just want to see him kind of versus a name or just back in there
i think he's well-rounded enough at least at this point where i'm okay with any kind of match-up for him
he seems versatile enough he's game and in most of these fights
certainly I do think he's better in the grappling than he is on the feet,
but I think he's,
he's one of those guys that I'm okay with most of the matchups that lightweight
with for him.
But Darry,
like stylistically,
I think that could be a lot of fun.
But Patty, too.
I mean,
yeah,
the Fizziv one,
yeah,
I don't know if I need to see it.
But at the same time,
I'm also not like,
never,
you know,
I'm okay with it.
He's in a good spot.
He's in a really,
really good spot.
I think his career has taken a nice little reinvigoration.
here.
And the performances are fine, but then I think once he gets in the mic, it's really grabbing
people.
Yeah, the headbelt was unfortunate.
And it did kind of change.
Did it look like to you when it was in the exchange before the slam?
Or was it in the actual slam?
I think it was in the slam.
And then he got punched in the same spot.
And I think it opened it up bigger.
But it doesn't take much cuts open.
I thought it looked like he landed on this side on the.
on the slam
and I thought the cut was on here
unless I'm mistaken
so I don't know
I'd have to rewatch it
I didn't I didn't get enough looks at it
but yeah it was unfortunate
I could be wrong too
the right fighter one I felt
no matter yeah
oh got a super chat
this one's gonna be fun to discuss
oh boy
Jason thank you
hey what's on Jason
USC Vegas 85
is a fine card overall
but are we all suckers
for watching this on our Saturday night
when Dana White
couldn't you be bothered.
Yes.
Well, this is why.
Can I make you guys feel better?
He watched Connor Ben's boxing fight and that wasn't very good either.
So you know what?
Dana White was suffering with us too.
How about that?
How about Dana White didn't enjoy himself probably very much either?
But yeah, sorry, Mike.
Sorry to cut you off there.
No, no.
Yeah.
When you come to M.A.
fighting, we tell you the truth.
Like, if you have other things to do today, you should do those things.
But if, you know, you want to sit on the couch and watch some fights and eat some food.
Like, you're not going to have the worst night of your life, but, you know, there's a birthday party you can go to or if you're invited to a wedding.
RSVP that you're going to the wedding.
You can skip this one.
You can watch it tomorrow.
It's okay.
Yeah.
And that's okay.
It doesn't make you less of a fan if you didn't watch this car.
You can watch the highlights.
You can watch the excellent coverage on MAFighting.com.
If you got FightPass or ESPN Plus, I don't you guys use in the U.S.
I'm sure you can go back and watch the card.
You know, on your own time.
You don't, you're not tied down to the UFC schedule.
There's many hours in the day with which you watch the cards, skip all the brace, skip all the breaks.
This was a long card because there's several.
It was a long card.
It was a long card.
The first two fights took like over an hour.
It was, it was something else.
Oh, yeah.
It was very PFL-Ly at the beginning.
It was a little bit of a very FFLy.
So yeah, so yeah, we're suckers.
But we are we suckers.
This is the life we chose, guys.
This is the life we chose.
It is.
It is.
We all, guys, we, we all had a choice when the UFC,
changed to the 40, 44 to 48 events a year, schedule, whatever it was, some years back,
we all had a choice to tap out.
We all had a choice to say, you know what, I'm going to find a new career.
I'm going to find a new career that's not requiring me to watch 40, you know, and then do
the math, what, over 300 hours of fights.
And that's just UFC of UFC fights a year.
We all had a choice.
We all had a choice.
And you know what?
I don't regret it.
Like I said, I found tonight's card mostly enjoyable.
I'll probably say that about most cards, just because, again, we're fans.
We're fans just like you guys are.
So we're suckers, but I don't apologize for it.
Happy to be a sucker.
And Dana White missed it.
Well, that's just too bad for him.
I've been inspired and I'm quitting.
And today's my last day.
Thank you, AKA.
Oh, no.
You took the wrong.
Rick, you took the wrong message.
You took the wrong.
We have options to leave.
What?
We can just go.
All right.
Peace.
I've been on my soapbox about this before.
So I'm not going to go too long on this.
But I will say, if you are an M.
fan if you are a fan of the UFC if you watch all of these cards the message that you are sending to
the UFC by watching these cards the same way as you would watch a better card is that you will be
there no matter what and that is the message that they are receiving that is the message that ESPN is
receiving and if that is the case you are supporting what ultimately will be this quality of card
and future cards that are going to be of equivalent quality because they know they have you if you want
to as AK Lee is talking about like making choices and vote in another direction that would probably
have some kind of impact if enough people did it but for the moment it seems like the numbers are
strong and everybody's watching these cards and there's no end in sight and so the message received
by the UFC and the message received by ESPN is you'll be here so as long as you're there
this is what we will get well said yeah it's just a I don't regret watching this card but
It's not a card I would call my friends or an acquaintance to come over.
Hey, check these fights out.
And I think it's mostly because of the apex, honestly.
Without the big crowd, it's just no matter how good the fights are,
it will always be kind of capped out because it's just the environment.
Yeah.
Oh, yeah.
Think about even, look, look, I was critical to Moycano promo.
That promo is different if there's a crowd reaction, right?
Because he'd say something.
He'd get a reaction and probably have a moment to pause.
But because there's no reaction,
is just a mic in his face, he can talk as much as he wants.
And again, he doesn't know whether what he's saying is going over or not.
There's no one there.
There's no reaction.
Again, I think most of you would have gotten cheered.
But it would give him, he could have paused.
He could have taken a breath.
He could have gotten to his next point.
Instead, it was all just dumped out.
It just dumped out.
Again, it wouldn't have saved every fight in this car.
There's fights that whether it was in the apex or whether there's an audience.
Some of them might have been worse with an audience.
Frankly, some of the fights that, again, that dragged on and on and on,
might have actually come off worse.
if there's people there.
But overall, there's sort of these ebbs and flows that happen in fights that, I mean,
we notice because we're watching intently, but you can even see here, like, the commentary
is kind of not feeling every moment just because that energy is not there, you know.
Imagine Natty Ice maybe giving that post-fight speech in a full of, you know, 20,000 people.
And they sing happy birthday.
Yeah, it could have been a completely like a legendary, a legendary, but, you know,
just a really memorable post-fight, rather than DC going, I got to go.
And DC just walked away.
Yeah, Dizzy just very rude.
I thought, okay, I thought it was kind of rude by DZ.
Let's just like, it's a 30 second song.
We've got time.
We've been there for eight hours.
Moikano got 15 minutes.
Come on.
Give us a comment.
It was odd.
Hey, we got another super chat from, oh, Jason again.
Oh, good one, all right?
Serious question.
Thoughts of the scorecards in the main event because Rah McCarthy had a rough list.
So we should, we should, yeah, break it down.
We were talking about this before we got started.
I will pull it up.
I thought 4747 was kind of a dinky card.
I wasn't a big fan of it.
But I guess if you really look at it, like you can make somewhat of a case.
Derek Cleary scored at 49-44.
That is MMA fighting's official score for that fight.
Because that's what I scored using the live blog.
Sal De Amato scored at 4846, gave the leads a round two.
Fair.
Ron McCarthy.
Yeah.
But only Derek clear, the only one to go 10-8 in round one, which I think is kind of strange.
Oh, yeah.
I forgot.
Yeah, I did have 10-8 round one.
Yeah, I forgot about that.
Ron McCarthy gave Deleads Day round two, which is not egregious.
No.
But he gave Roman Deleadze a 10-8 in round four because Nasredini Mavov obviously lost the point.
Yeah, yeah.
It's a 10-9 minus 1.
Just for the clarity of.
of how this works out.
He gave him a 10-9, that became a 10-8.
He's scoring it in that direction,
and then it becomes a 10-8 because there was a point deduction
for an illegal kick.
Correct.
So 47-47, I was not a fan of that card at all.
But if you think about it, the 47-47 is you disagreed on one round,
and there was a point deduction in that round.
Like, he went the opposite way of you in round four.
Like, you know, if you're acknowledging the round two could have gone to deletese,
then he went opposite direction in just that.
one round four and there was also a point deduction in that round it looks it's one of those that
I think you perceive as worse than it really is don't get me wrong I didn't score it that way I didn't
have it 47 47 but the point deduction really just wrecks the whole thing in a fight that was kind
of wonky yeah I know people love to slam judges I've been I've defended them quite frequently
and it's on some level I'll defend because this really is the score is a four it's actually
it's 48 47 imabob that is
McCarthy's car. It's actually 48, 47.
Imovov, it's just there is that
penalty. And again, I would say a questionable
10. Oh, sorry, not because it's not a 10.8. It's a 10.9.
So it does look, as
New York has Rick has said many times, it does look
worse it is, but guys, just go to UFC News or whatever
or go to our, sorry, go to enemy fighting.com.
We've got the scorecard up.
And yeah, you could see it, it just looks
to the stats around for. Can you pull up the
stats around for? Yeah, I'll grab it right now.
I guess I don't, I don't recall,
me, take away the illegal kick.
I mean, I recall that.
I thought he won that round pretty handily.
Yeah, unless I'm mistaken, let me look at back at it.
Yeah, he's the only judge who had that round for deletes.
Yeah, so that's where it gets really security.
14, 14, 16 significant strikes for deletes.
Yeah.
I mean, not for email box.
Yeah.
Yeah.
High pace action pack.
Hey.
Hey.
Well, they threw a lot.
They threw a lot.
Just nothing landed apparently.
they just throw a lot.
It's the second least amount of strikes he landed in the fight per round.
Round two,
he landed nine.
Yeah.
That was all the leads against the cage type rounds.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's a perception thing because when you hear 4944, you're like, oh, well, yeah, clearly it's that.
But those cards aren't that different, honestly.
It really comes down to a flipping of a round just because of point deductions or 108 here, you know, no 108 here.
It's just a weird one to score.
It's one of those that the reading of the scorecards is way weirder than when if you actually look at it, you go, okay, I kind of can see where somebody got to there.
Ultimately, I think I side more with Mike and Derek Cleary where I would have had it 49-44.
I didn't see anything from the leads.
And at the very least, I feel like 10-8, I feel very strong about 10-8 round one.
I feel like every judge should have had that.
But to me, that's a bigger story to me.
I don't.
I like the 10-8.
I wasn't 100% there.
I don't know.
I feel like I was kind of like it was borderline for me.
I could have seen, I could have seen 10-8, but I wasn't like 100% sure.
I guess it was 10-9, because I had, I had Emovoff winning like that whole round.
And then he gets the knockdown and almost finishes the fight.
Like to me, like you got to get credit for it.
Yeah.
He didn't get all 3Ds.
I guess you can make the argument for, but he at least got two of them.
Yeah.
So we go back to the whole problem, the 10-point scoring system because how do you have 10-9 round one?
and also have an identical 10-9 for round two.
Yeah.
And that's always,
that's just a bigger,
stupid issue about MMA scoring,
you know,
because obviously you can,
if you score a round one and 10-9, sure.
But we saw the dang five minutes.
We saw each five minutes.
They were clearly not the same round
as far as damage and impact of the fight.
But,
yeah,
I mean,
I don't know,
you know.
Yeah.
That is not scoring,
like,
that that is not the 10-8,
Valentina shift.
take Alexe Grasso scorecard.
But to give
to give breath to the rest of Jason's question,
was there another scorecard that was controversial?
Because I'm not,
he did a top of my dome.
I'm not really remembering.
He judged one other fight.
He judged one other fight.
The Markell Medeiros,
Lenin Kenione's fight.
He scored it for Maderos,
but the other two judges also scored it for Maderos.
Adelaide Byrd and Junotiro Camijo all scored it the same.
They gave it 29-28 Medeiros.
I thought Kenyonese won the first two rounds, but just close fight.
Yeah.
The 47 47 47 just looks weird, in my opinion.
It's just that.
It's a weird looking score.
It is a weird looking score.
I don't mind people getting like sort of roundup about it.
But I think if everyone kind of dug into it and look at it.
I'm going to assume that Jason had Imavov winning every round.
So that's where it looks really weird, you know?
I'm reading the comment from
Dillon
I feel the trolls
I feel the boss
I should know
I apologize
everyone on YouTube
I should ignore the trolls
I lost this battle
by the way
I got trolled
so I shouldn't even reply
so I apologize
that's everyone
I'm moving on
I'm moving on
but thank you for the question
Jason
two super chat questions
yeah Jason
man
yes
we got a couple more
super chat questions.
Oh, we haven't talked about this.
And before we go to these other two super chat questions,
I want to ask you about the illegal,
the illegal knee, I don't know the rules.
How do I watch this much of MMA?
I don't know the rules.
So was that not?
I don't.
Nobody knows the rules because the rules are different
in every jurisdiction and haven't been unified.
And the rules don't make sense.
The answer is there isn't a set of rules that you can know.
It was, oh, God.
You have to know the rules in California.
You have to know the rules in Nevada.
You have to know the rules in New Jersey.
You have to know the rules in this jurisdiction, that jurisdiction.
That's the problem.
There is not one set of rules on this.
And so the hand was down and it was illegal.
Like what I will say is there was no debate, in my opinion.
Like that was an illegal strike under the rules that were implemented on this night.
So they don't have the weight bearing thing?
No, no.
This is.
Well, also his palm was.
Yeah.
but his palm is on the mat.
He's like, look, he's playing the game, right?
This is what Andy Foster is trying to eliminate in California.
He was not in a position where he was making any kind of defensive maneuver or trying to escape position.
He was just putting his hand down so that he could not be struck.
But he did it to the point where he should not have been struck and Imavov messed that up.
So I had no issue necessarily with how this played out, right?
Like the correct action was taken in my opinion.
it was an illegal strike.
I don't think he should have been Dekued.
Obviously, DeLite was willing to continue
and got credit from the commentary team
for kind of doing that.
There's a world where he doesn't, maybe, right?
Like we've talked about this before.
There's been fights like John Jones and Anthony Smith
where we've said, maybe you don't,
maybe you don't go back.
Maybe you take this one and walk away with it.
What was it?
Was Diego Sanchez versus Michelle Pereira?
When you go back to remember where?
Diego basically,
basically kind of admitted, oh, I'm losing this fight.
I got it, Ligonee.
Oh, yeah, I can't, I can't continue.
Yeah.
He got an extra check.
Diego got an extra check that night.
By the rules, by the rules in place, it happened how it was supposed to happen.
But do we all, I think we all collectively agree that that's not MMA.
Like, that's not how this is supposed to.
That's not the spirit of the rule.
That's not the spirit of the rule.
And Deleuze knew that too.
And that's why I feel Deliz.
did not take the DQ because he knew he was playing the game.
He knew it.
He knew he was playing the game.
And that's why he didn't take the DQ.
I feel like because if DeLisei went said, I'm done, I think we would have been like, okay, that sucks.
But that was just how it goes.
We have stupid roles.
But I think I feel personally Delisei knew he was playing the game.
And he took a shot in the face and though he recovered and then he continued to go.
This is.
I want you to speak, but I just want to ask something real quick.
Yes.
Does anybody know
In that scenario
Would that have been
Let's say it was it was deemed to be like
A
Only if it's accidental I thought
Yeah I guess you couldn't really
If it's a deliberate shot
It doesn't matter if you've won 20 rounds in a row
Yeah
Would they have scored that though
Would they have scored that if it wasn't an intentional shot
That doesn't matter
I'm making it too confusing anyway
It would have either been DQ or not
Think John Jones Matt Hamill
That was in Vegas
He was dominating the fight
I mean, Aljo versus, yeah, that was late in the fourth and it was a DQ.
So it doesn't really matter.
John Jones, Anthony Smith.
If Anthony Smith, everyone says Anthony Smith should just take it the DQ, he won the title.
He would have got the win.
It doesn't matter to go to the scorecards, if it's intentional.
If it was like a headbut or something like accidental or say accidental growing shot,
then I think it goes to the scorecards.
It depends on how late it is in the round, but I don't know what that threshold is.
Yeah.
Offhand.
Anyway, sorry, AK.
Sorry, I'm responding to another troll here.
Sorry, one second here.
Yeah, this is great, this is great for people listening to the...
Is this A.K. Lee or Jamal Hill right now?
He's inspired me. Jamal has inspired me to not put up a potential.
Just responding to everybody now?
So the worst part of...
Are you going on a block party?
I am.
So what really annoyed me about the foul is that, like, for Deleza, it's not a net gain.
It's not like, oh, he gained because, you know,
he got the point deduction
to his opponent.
He got kicked in the head super hard.
Like that's a really professional fighter.
And forget even just talking about
oh, whether winning a fighter or not.
Like that's a kick that I feel like
he's going to live with the rest of his life.
And I get it.
He's a professional fighter.
He knows the wrist.
That's right.
But these screwed up rules are just hurting everybody,
including deletese.
That point deduction for me is not equal
to the amount of damage
that that head kicked it to him.
It was clean.
He was hurt real bad.
Casey, you're right, he probably knows he was maybe messing around too much.
Also, I'll be honest, in that moment,
I don't even know if he's able to make the decision to think like,
oh, should I take the DQ?
Should I continue?
He's got kicked in the effing head really hard.
I don't know.
He probably just thinking, I guess I have to continue.
He probably didn't even know what round it was.
He was like, yeah, I'm going to continue fighting because I'm in a fight so I should fight.
Like, I can't imagine.
I'd be surprised if he remembers that moment later.
If people ask out of this fight tomorrow, if he remembers that sequence,
I would be shocked because I think there's almost no way that he remembers everything that went down.
That's where the corner needs to be like, Roman, take the exit.
Roman, you're hurt.
You're really hurt.
Bad.
Really bad.
Yes, let's get out of here.
Let's get out of here.
So, yeah, but the whole rules thing is so confusing.
I said everyone on social media didn't know what was going on.
I think we all realized it was illegal, but just sort of the whole process and just like we're just so annoyed.
We're so frustrated.
We're tired of it.
So whatever reform is coming, let's at least make it clear for the fighters, please.
But even that reform, right?
For now, it will start in California.
Now, will Vegas adopt it?
Will other commissions adopt it?
Hopefully, I think I read somewhere that the intent is to do that.
But man, like, there's no guarantees on that.
Like, we still have fractured rule sets.
It does not make sense.
And I think that's where the frustration comes from.
Like, the people are like, I don't know the rule.
You probably actually do know the rule and you probably guessed it right just for whatever it was in.
But maybe you're thinking of a different territory where you saw something another time.
The reality is there needs to be uniformity.
more so even than like if the rules were the rules if everybody across the board knew okay we're going with this weight bearing thing right we're just going to go with this then that's the rule it unfortunate everybody doesn't like it but that's the rule but that's not even the case it's not that we just have a janky kind of weight bearing thing it's also that some places it's not some places it's if you touch it with your fingers like there's just this this this uniformity lack of uniformity that created he didn't have his knees on the ground either it was just literally it's no it's
Because the rule is set up for people on the ground.
He's not even on the ground.
It's just like, ah, the guys, the rules are written so poorly.
He's not grounded.
He's not grounded.
He's not a grounded opponent.
Well, the new rule suggested by Andy Foster, you have to have an knee or an elbow or something to actually make you grounded.
And if you're not, then fair game.
Which, honestly, I feel like it's an improvement.
At the same time, I'm kind of just like, I think we're still opening the same interpretation
Like, let's just let them smoke each other.
It's my...
It's a fight. It's a fight.
It's a fight.
Come on.
We're fighting, people.
All right.
A couple more super chats.
Okay.
Perplexed by that.
Thank you.
Would you prefer for Apex cards to keep it to Saturdays
or have two five to six fight cards during the week,
either like Tuesday or Thursday?
So like contender series, like a contender series thing.
And then Thursday night fights and then I guess...
Like five cards.
Saturdays.
or something like that.
I don't know.
This is instead, instead of Saturday.
So I remember October of 2019,
the UFC did an event in Boston on a Friday.
And it was the best.
And that was the one headline by Dominic Reyes versus Chris Wydenman was the main
about a car.
But it was a Friday night.
It was on a Friday night.
It was tremendous.
And I was just like, man, we got to do this like more often.
It doesn't need to be like all the time.
But like once in a while, like let's chuck one on a Friday or check one on a Thursday.
Like, let's just mix it up a little bit.
So like let's have a little fun with this thing.
So I am cool with this idea for some of these apex cards.
And I like the, I like the, you know, kind of trim the fat a little bit instead of doing 14 fights.
You do like eight.
Like I'd be fine with that eight, nine or 10.
And just do it on like a different night of the week.
Like I'm totally fine with that.
Yeah.
What are you got live gate?
You know?
So yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But the problem isn't necessarily the gate, which is potentially part of it.
And I'm sure I don't remember when that event was.
I actually was at that event, that Boston card.
I imagine it was because of some kind of conflict with a larger sporting event.
Maybe it was a football, this or other on Saturday.
And that's probably why it ended up there.
I don't know.
I don't remember what the timing of the year was.
But there's usually a reason why they move off Saturday.
The problem isn't necessarily the gate or not being able to draw.
The UFC could draw.
That's not the problem.
The problem is the familiarity, the habit.
They've built Saturday night into this thing, into this Goliath, into this ubiquitous.
We are always programmed to be there on Saturday night no matter what.
Fight fans have canceled Saturdays forever.
But now you make it so they cancel their Thursday nights and Tuesday nights or something.
I don't know.
It's not as easy.
WWE has done a great job of that.
You know, everyone cancels two nights a week, you know.
But now you're competing against two of those other players who have already carved out those days of the week.
right. Saturday has kind of become
Saturday has become hard to
crack into because of fights.
Oh yeah.
WrestleMania week for WWE is five nights
because you got raw, you get NXT,
you get Smackdown,
you get two nights of WrestleMania.
So you got Monday, Tuesday,
Friday, Saturday, Sunday
that you need to lock down for WWE.
I mean, we're doing a version of this
with Contender Series, right?
There's a, there's a version of this
that happens on Tuesday.
That would be the Tuesday.
of a card still.
Yeah, that would just essentially be the Tuesday card.
Would I personally prefer it?
Hell yes.
I would love this.
I would love if we did not have a marathon every single Saturday.
I think this would be preferable, but I do think that it's just too ingrained.
It's just to establish that Saturday nights are UFC nights.
And I don't think they want to move off that anytime soon.
A couple years ago, this wasn't the case, though, how we have it now.
So things change fast.
So that's all.
Well, it was Saturday night.
It was just less.
It was less frequent.
Yeah. We had some, there were Sunday night cards.
There were Sunday night cards. I remember there when, Wednesday night fight nights too.
Like. Yeah. I remember like mid. Yeah. The greatest thing about Friday night main cards,
I mean, Friday night fight cards is that it feels like you have two Sundays.
Nearly like not not all, but many of those are because of what I'm talking about.
Like a conflict with the arena or this, this, that, the other. There was usually typically a reason
why they move from a Saturday to a Friday.
It happens to WWW as well.
Parker's Power Slap had taken the arena Saturday.
I'm more intrigued by this five to six fight card thing.
Obviously, we don't need to go that low, but can we get like 11 fights max or something?
I feel like really 10 is that you.
In a dream world, 10, five main card fights, five preliminary fights.
Bob's your uncle, you're having a great time.
Too many fighters on the roster for it.
Man, I get it.
And I don't want to, I'm not going to be that guy.
This is, oh, we should start cutting fighters left and right because it's terrible.
go America, I want to create jobs, but I'm also selfish.
Go America.
Go America.
Why are you going to think I bring politics in this, bro?
I know.
I'm that guy.
A.k.a. Moikano ticket for America.
Stick the sprats.
Stick the sprats.
I like a strong stance on crime, if I'm being honest.
That was weird.
But as a fan, like, I just can't.
I am dreading the Bellator Champions card.
Isn't the Belator Champions card like,
13, no, is it only like 12 fights?
Am I crazy?
Am I overselling it?
We lost one.
We lost one.
But it's like, it's down to 12.
And I know, and I know the championship fights are not five, five rounders, thank God.
But it still feels like so, it still feels like so, it still feels it on paper and I get excited.
But the thought of actually sitting down to watch it kind of fills me with dread.
And listen, maybe I'm old.
Maybe I'm old.
Maybe I've seen too much MMA.
I get it.
Fans want more.
At least they want the option of more.
because guys we touch upon this four we complain because we watch all the cars from top to bottom
that's not something every fan has to do so they don't necessarily care whether it's 12 fights 13 fights
14 fights you know your average joe can jump in at fight number nine fight nine from the top seven from
the top if they want so it's kind of a weird thing to complain about i get it the more the merrier
you can jump on whatever you want so i don't know i don't know if everyone's down with there's
there's diminishing returns though you're not you're not wrong like you're not wrong there's
diminishing returns. When there were less fights and less fighters, more stood out. When there were,
when it wasn't every single Saturday, you had time to miss people. There were more opportunities to
see the people that you wanted to see. And there was, there is too much. There is certainly too much.
Now, as I've said earlier when I was talking about Jason's question about, you know, are we suckers?
It seems like people want the too much. People are happy to consume the too much. So at the end of the
day as long as that is going to continue and the UFC isn't forced to reduce the number of
cards or forced to reduce the length of the card because everybody's seeming to tune in for enough
of it it kind of is what it is unfortunately um i love this idea i just don't i don't think there's any
world where it ever happened but i freaking love this idea i would i would take it in a heartbeat i'd sign
off start the start the gold change dot org or whatever partition it is and i will sign it yeah the problem
of over over saturation is like i just wish we had oversatuation over saturation of promotions
not just oversaturation of just ufc because then it's a different look a different feel
different small we're gonna get it you worry we're i know but that even yeah fl's gonna be down
our throats all year which and then they got the bellator cards February 24th like we're gonna
that'll be the true test of whether or not things are too much because you know that pfl
car is got to take eight friggin hours from start
to finish what how long was this card tonight wasn't wasn't this car about seven and a half hours
oh yeah and then but listen yeah pfl's gonna end and the sun's gonna still be out and you have enough
time to make like chef boyardy beef raviolis just in time for ufcxico city to start which is
gonna be another six and a half seven hours but at least it'll be like way more electric and
fun because the fans are gonna be bananas and at least the atmosphere is gonna be way crazier
but that's gonna be like 12 to 14 hours of fights on that saturday and and
At least at the UFC, like if you have ESPN Plus, you're in.
PFL, you're going to be showing out at least 50 bucks for that card, at least.
Probably more would be my guess.
We got 10 more weekends, 10 straight weekends of 10 more straight weekends of UFC coming up plus the Bell Tour card.
Buckle up, buckle up.
Shout out, Sheffler-D.
Shout out, Sheffler-D.
Let me get to these super chats.
Yes, please.
Here we go.
Question to you for, thank you, Fahim.
Of you, great group.
What's going on with the UFC 300?
Nobody knows.
If I know at this point, nobody knows.
You're going to get Bilal Muhammad and Leon Edwards,
and you're going to like it.
And you are going to like it.
Charles Johnson versus Van.
Oh, yeah, Leon and Thumbah.
Yep, Leon and Sher Edwards versus Garimbo.
But I tell you, I just have a feeling that's just the only,
fight that's going to and again the we know the card's going to sell we know the cards
going to sell it's not going to sell you know blockbuster numbers that it would have been at a
Connor or a Brock or Ron whoever whoever but I just I don't know I this last rabbit that they're
going to pull out of this hat I don't know what it could be and maybe they'll surprise me but I thought
Dana White was going to announce the main event this week I'm not sure what it means that he
he's watching he's watching boxing he's busy this is true yeah geez I mean I think we
we all kind of know the realistic options out there right maybe they'll come out of left field
maybe they'll do something crazy,
but we assume that in play is obviously Leon and Bilal,
which has been talked about in potential.
And then there's the,
and then there's the DDP fight,
whether it's Izzy,
whether it's Hamza,
whether it's somebody,
hey, you can run Strickland back.
Like there's options to do with the middleweight division in that main event,
and those are kind of the ones.
And then it's like if something other than that,
it's crazy and everybody's excited and it's out of left field.
And it's great.
But those are kind of the realistic ones.
And I assume we'll get some version of that.
I think it's either GDP is the or they're going to just do Connor and Chandler.
It's going to be.
Oh,
well,
I mean,
that would get people excited.
Yeah.
I mean,
that's it.
You can't do that.
Oh,
I'm sorry.
You just can't.
Why not?
Why not?
Why not?
Why not?
Because a fight of that magnitude,
a fight that is that compelling and wild.
They love,
we love the waterweight division,
I thought.
That needs its own.
that needs its own stage.
It should not share.
Oh, there you go.
What a waste.
What a waste to it means with anything else, okay?
It needs its own thing.
How about you go to the UK and do that?
I think that's the best time to do it.
Maybe do it June, July.
That's where you put that fight.
You know what?
That's a good spin.
That fight is too big to waste on UFC 300.
I get it.
I get it.
I get it.
You need the B team.
Connor McGregor come in there.
You know, you got to call up the,
You got to call it the reserves, the bench warmers.
Hey, Connor, what are you up to, bud?
Leon, we're saving.
What are you up to, Connor?
Yeah, I mean, you got to sell multiple gates.
You got to get multi.
You get three bites of the apple if you go DDP as you get Connor main event.
And then you get Leon on below get their own card.
Maybe Tom Asman all gets in there.
I mean, oh my God.
That's Tembo Garimbo's music.
Oh my God.
Temba.
Rock, rock beats Roman at WrestleMania.
And then the next week,
Giroirmo Girofights for the UFC for a good title.
It would be incredible.
There it is.
Holy stuff.
All right.
I got a super chat right here from Terrence Leverett.
Terrence.
Another double up.
Betting has changed UFC forever.
People wait a bet.
Yeah.
It's created a lot more negativity.
That's for sure.
Tons.
And then a hard time for the fighters.
Jeez.
You had to be a real hardcore.
fan to be like breaking down judges and knowing judges and this that the other betting has changed
all of that like because now now a card from a judge that you don't agree with has now
drastically altered your monetary investment and changed your life and now you're upset right so
terence is i mean terence you just been killing it tonight but he's spot on like the betting has
drastically changed i would say for the better in terms of like raising the intelligence of
the of the average fan i think they are way more invested in kind of the minutia and
and the kind of goings-on in MMA that I think kind of flew under the radar for a long time
and were more for the most hardcore of hardcore.
Now everybody's much more knowledgeable and kind of tapped into what's going on in fights.
I say for the better in terms of like raising the average intelligence.
I don't know if ultimately it's for the better, but that's what I mean.
I guess so.
But I feel the same way about it also way I feel about fantasy sports.
I'm going to bring on the hate people.
I always feel like when people like, I've never seen you this.
This is incredible.
Absolutely incredible.
297 changed me.
Yeah.
Clearly.
Wow.
I haven't seen you in a bit.
I mean, wow.
I feel like people, you know,
this difference between having more knowledge and actually being smarter about what you're watching.
So this is because it was fantasy sports, right?
I feel like sometimes people, just because they can rattle off like statistics or they can
rattle off like a better history of recent history of things that have happened, they're not
necessarily processing it the right way.
And I think that's what's happening with judging, right?
You're right.
People are so much more intent with judges, have so much more, sorry, intelligence when it
comes to judges.
They know their names.
They've become, certain judges become infamous.
But they have, but a lot of people just don't know why the judges score the fights
the way they do and things like that.
Because that doesn't affect their gambling, I guess, directly, right?
They're just, they don't look at it that way.
And it's such an important thing to think about.
So I don't know, again.
I'm not sticking the mud saying, and I'm not saying you shouldn't gamble.
Have fun, gamble.
Do fantasy sports.
Fantasy sports kick ass.
Like, they're fun.
But I would have.
hope people can balance what they learned, like that data-driven sort of analysis that tends to be behind
fancy sports and gambling with, you know, actually looking at what, you know, watch, look at what you're
seeing on screen, you know, match it with the eye test as well. So I don't know, that might be asking
a lot. Again, there's only so many hours in the day, people. So, you know, I don't know what I think
you're right. It's a smart point that there's more than just the first tier, right? There's the second
layer of it, which is like, do you understand why this is is done this way as opposed to
Are you enjoying it? Are you enjoying it? Are you only enjoying it because you're gambling on
it or because you're doing fantasy sports, that's okay.
But what happened to just watching the product, watching the product and enjoying it that
way?
So I don't know.
Find a balance.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Overall, I think it's a bad thing for the sport.
But I get we have, we're sponsored.
Our site is sponsored by gambling.
Why are you getting that?
Because it takes, oh, geez, so we're going to get into this.
Long story short, long explanation short, I think it just takes away the humanity of it.
they're not people anymore that's all that's basically they're not you're not watching people
fight anymore now it's just like that's ten dollars fighting that's twenty dollars fighting you know
and that's not why i got into it and that's just me and that's yeah that's kind of that's kind
of basically what's this casey i did a little bit today i did i parlayed three overs and so suddenly
i'm watching fights to be like god i hope no one gets finished in the first like in the first round
and i'm like what a terrible way to watch a fight what it what a terrible reason like oh
I hope nothing exciting happens.
There's not a highlight real finish
so that I can make $5 or whatever that I put up.
Like it is, it is silly.
And I think, and it's overall, the, I guess I used to, back in the day, you know,
I used to enjoy social media.
I used to enjoy going on Twitter.
I used to love the conversations and the discourse.
And I feel gambling really made those conversations really negative and just not honest,
You know, because people are just now, well, it was a close fight, but I also lost 30 bucks.
So, if everyone involved in F you, if you think that guy won, it's like, but if you really look into, like, the really, really just hateful comments, a lot of it comes from, they're good gamblers out there.
There's a healthy way to gamble, but a lot of people aren't that way.
And I just, overall, it creates to me, I don't like it.
But I live in this world and that's just how it is.
Casey, I miss your hashtag Otter Pop's tweets.
And also I will say draft by the people,
draft Kings, a promo code the MAA hour.
Yeah.
Oh, we love draft Kings.
We love draft Kings.
Oh, yeah.
All the other ones are bad.
Yeah, I just want to say it sounds like, you know,
you guys have issues taking accountability for your own actions.
And that's where.
True.
And our last super chat question.
Yes.
Yes.
And the last question of that.
Wow.
What a magic for this.
Dana White will announce
for UFC 3
undermate event.
It may not be agreed to,
but he will still announce it.
Yeah.
Oh, too soon.
Too soon.
Be careful.
Anyone who questions it,
anyone who questions the validity of the aspect.
You're going to get it.
The dastardly evil gear makers.
Look,
well, no matter how you feel about that statement.
And I feel like most people,
agree with what like most of us were saying after the Porre
situation, that brilliant, brilliant, brilliant man that doesn't pourier.
But here's something we all need to remember.
Like we talk about gambling and making sure gambling's fun and like you do it the
right way.
He doesn't let it ruin your life.
Same thing with these fight announcements.
You need two people to fight.
So that's what you got to remember.
So like even if someone puts up a screenshot of like a conversation with one fighter,
Benoit Santini can't clone himself to fight himself.
that would be fun as hell to watch Benoit Santini fight himself because that would be an interesting
puzzle to solve on either side. But you got to have two people who both agree, two people who both
sign contracts. Otherwise, the fight is not officially official. If one guy signs a contract,
that's frigging great. But if fighter B does not sign a contract and the fight isn't a thing.
So just keep that in mind through all of this. Okay. Two people fight. Two people sign the contract.
You learn that lesson and you remember it
You won't be as stressed out about this
None of this will surprise you
The UFC's been doing this forever
For years,
fights have announced before both sides
Have agreed and or signed contracts
Just remember that
We learned a let
Like some of you who are newer fans
Learned this lesson for the first time this week
That's it
It's a media literacy thing
Right?
Like there's a big difference
Between Dana White announces
There's a big difference between contracts are signed
There's a big difference between verbal agreements are in place.
Shout out to Casey for the very well-timed promo code.
Shout out, Graph Kings, the MMA hour.
Use it.
But there's a difference between all these things, and they're important and they matter.
And so when you're consuming media and when you're understanding what these things are,
when the UFC or Dana White do their video where Dana White's like, hey, guys, like, check it out.
This is the new fight I'm announcing.
That's Dana White announces, right?
that's not independently confirmed, that's not two sources, that's Dana White saying that this fight is done.
Now, the expectation and hope is that Dana White would have things in place that would allow him to do that.
But as we've seen in recent history, that's not always the case.
So I don't even think it's like a Dana White versus this, that the other.
It's really just raising our own media literacy.
Understand what these are, right?
Dana White says this.
Maybe that's the intention and maybe it's not going to come through.
or maybe in 99% of the cases, it does end up being the case and it happens and everything's fine and it's smooth.
But both of those things are the same.
They're both played out exactly the same way except a step in the back end changed and now we're seeing a different outcome.
So literacy, you know, just know what the different things mean and consume them that way and you'll be fine.
Ultimately, you'll never be disappointed that way because you'll kind of have a sense of what's going on.
So verbal agreements in place, contract signed, Dana W.
United announces, UFC announces, fighter announces, right?
I could call, if I'm BSD, I could come out tomorrow and say, I'm fighting Dustin
Porre.
I don't know if Dustin Porre signed his contract.
And you have to kind of take these things exactly as they are and understand what they are.
So this is just another case of that.
And Dana White said something and now you have to find out what does that mean?
The same thing is targeted in the works.
It means that old sides of agreed, but it's not signed yet.
If it says it's set or done, contractuals,
signed. See, these are just things. This is the verbiage. UF.C. Dana White announces.
You have C announces. That's just how it works sometimes. You think it's, listen, you would
think that like in our position, AK knows this because we were like writing the articles and stuff.
Like when Dana announced fights were like, oh, hell yeah. Like we don't need to go and like
check sources or anything like that and confirm this as opposed to like another outlet
reporting these things. But like, you know, frustrating it is? Like what an announcement happens
and I reach out to a fighter. Hey, you want to talk about it? And then I find out.
well, here's the thing about that.
And then you find out like it's not happening.
It probably won't be happening.
Like it's fucking frustrating.
But we're all learning lessons here.
That's all.
It's going to be okay.
Everything's going to be okay.
It's all going to work out.
UFC's still going to make money.
We're still going to do our thing.
We're still going to talk to you guys.
And that's it.
And we'll move on and on.
And the circle of life here in the wonderful world
that mixed martial arts.
I think we're done here.
right? How long is this been? We had 90 minutes on this freaking card. How is that impossible?
It's double the preview show. Let's see if we have the same energy, Mike, a coffee.
10 weekends from now. 10 weekends from now, let's see we're still bringing the same energy.
I mean, I hope you're bringing the same energy. You were on fire today, okay? I mean,
in the comments, just battling people, bringing it to air. They got to me.
I'm sorry, I can't answer. I have to respond to this troll.
Did someone challenge me to a fight? I swear someone challenged me to a fight in the
Someone said you had never been in a fight.
There's video evidence.
What are they talking about?
Don't worry about.
California mixed martial arts.
Gardena, California.
You come down there, sign the waiver.
Sign the waiver.
Sign the waiver.
Sign the waiver.
I love this idea.
3024, maybe.
3024.
That's the nickname of one E. Casey line.
Okay.
Anybody you want to fight?
Anybody who someone's a sign?
I'm a believer in nonviolence.
I would never, I would never lay these.
hands on anybody.
I love it.
Well, there'll be more hands thrown next Saturday,
more middleweights in the main event.
We'll talk about that throughout the week.
But until then, everybody, for AK, for Casey,
for New York, Rick, I and Mike Heck.
Thank you for watching.
Good night, everybody.
Happy birthday, AK.
And Natalia Silva.
Yes.
You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.
