MMA Fighting - UFC Vegas 86 Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Jack Hermansson's Gritty Upset Win Over Joe Pyfer

Episode Date: February 11, 2024

Jack Hermansson reminded fans why he's been a fixture in the UFC's middleweight rankings and he battled through early adversity to steal momentum before outworking the dangerous Joe Pyfer over 25 minutes in the main event of UFC Vegas 86. Following Saturday's Fight Night event at the UFC APEX, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Eric Jackman, and Alexander K. Lee react to Hermansson's veteran showing in victory, discuss what we learned about Pyfer in defeat and why people shouldn't be too quick to write him off. Additionally, the panel talks Dan Ige's brutal first-round knockout win over Andre Fili in the co-main event, other standout performances from the likes of Gregory Rodriguez, Rodolfo Vieira, Carlos Prates, Bogdan Guskov, along with additional takeaways from the UFC's final stop on the road to UFC 298. 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

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and hands Joe Piper his first octagon loss. Jack Hermanson is just doing the thing tonight as we welcome you to the UFC Vegas 86 post-fight show here on M8Fiting.com. I am Mike Heck. What a crew we have assembled. In fact, it's the same crew as last Saturday post-fight. Let's say hello to the new Prince of Positivity, New York, Rick, Eric, Eric Jackman. How we doing, sir? Welcome back. It's great to be here with my predecessor, the original Prince of Positivity, and you, Mike, and you, Casey, another great night of fights in the Apex, and yeah, let's talk about them. Yes, great night of fights indeed. A.K., would you agree with that?

great night of fights at the apex? Turned out okay. Turned out okay. It was a rough going for a bit there. We had 14. Did we have 14 fights? Oh, we did. That's a lot of fights.

That's a lot of fights. I was not a lot. I was struggling a little bit in the beginning, also a little bit in the middle, and a little bit before the main event too. So it wasn't, but overall, not the worst experience I've ever had. Yes, certainly not the worst experience we've ever had.

But let's go ahead and start with the main event, New York, Rick, because a lot of the talk on the preview show was, we need to learn something about one Joe Pfeiffer. And we felt like this could be a fight where we do learn something. If Joe Pfeiffer goes out there and just annihilates, Jackermanson like he's done to Abdul Razak Al-Asan and Gerald Mershard and others, we wouldn't really learn a whole heck of a lot. Yes, it would propel him into a big spot in the rankings,

but we wouldn't learn a whole lot. We got to see Joe Piper enter round three, then we got to see him go round four, and we got to see him go round five. And I guess the question is, what do we learn about Joe Pfeiffer tonight? And what do we learn about Jack Hermanson that we didn't already know,

which I think we probably knew what was going to come once we got to round three, especially once we got to round four, where the momentum was going in this fight anyhow. Yeah, this felt to me like one of the more obvious one guy early, one guy late type of fights. In fact, I think I said exactly that on the, preview show once it gets into three, four, five.

Like, this is where I think Hermanson's going to take over. I thought maybe he'd even get a finish. And the fact that he didn't is something I learned about Joe Pfeiffer. Like, my takeaway from this fight was one, Jack Hermanson's a gangster. Like Jack Hermanson is the man. And, you know, you can try and put them up against these prospects and hope that they're going to, you know, pass the test. And he's not going to be the gatekeeper that prevents them from going forward.

But he seems to kind of have a little bit of that magic. and yeah, he's just a gangster. As far as what I learned about Joe Piper, I learned he's as devastating and powerful as we've seen, right? Like in round one and two, it looked like more of the same from Joe Piper. It looked like, okay, yeah,

it might have been for real, and he's going to get Jack Hermanson out of here, and then we're going to be thinking about Joe Piper as Fight Night headliner a few times. But once it got beyond that, we learned that he's a little bit more limited and has some obvious holes in his game. But what I will say is they're kind of predictable holes, right? They're kind of the

things that you would think are Joe Pfeiffer's limitations. And that's kind of an encouraging sign. If I'm if I'm being honest, like it feels like he has things that can be short up that can be fixed and will lead to some future success. Like I think the foundation, I think the tools are still there. I think if he uses his jab more instead of over relying on the power shots and really just draining that gas tank, maybe he's there in round three, four, five and able to turn it on. saw flashes of that, to be honest. There's spots where I've noticed guys in Joe Pfeiffer's spot where they just go away, where you know what? Hermanson's still here and I wasn't prepared for this and I'm just going to disappear and I'm just going to lose this fight and maybe I'll sit there

for a sub and get tapped out. But he was there fighting and clearly affected. His eye was clearly affected by the work Hermanson had done and he hung in there. And there were even moments where he was trying to implement his game plan and fight back in an effective way. So I'm kind of encouraged by the signs. Like there's holes in Joe Pfefer's game, but I think they're very fixable. And I think there's something that if he's taking a real, like, a genuine look in the mirror.

So in being honest with himself, he can shore those up and probably put together a pretty impressive package. Because if you get more of what you see in round one and round two, it's going to be hard for a lot of people to deal with as it carries into round three, four, five. So yeah, I did learn and all I wanted from this fight was to learn about Joe Pfefer and I learned. And I thought it was an admirable, admirable performance. I did not, as I said, there are spots where sometimes you can see the guy quit. And you can see Jack Hermanson didn't crumble from what I had and now I've got nothing. And I didn't see that

from Joe Piper. I saw some encouraging sign. So yeah, great fight, perfect matchmaking by the UFC. and I learned quite a bit about Joe Piper. What about you, A.K. It was because I think if Joe was going to lose the fight, we kind of figured this is how it was going to go, right? He would have success early. And then the rounds would go on. Momentum would swing in Hermanson's favor.

And he would just kind of experience this way to win. And that's kind of how it really played out. Like we knew Piper is a little green, a little rough around the edges. We knew this is a huge step up on competition. Like the leap from Abdul Razaka Hassan to Jack Kermanson is like, it's a gigantic leap. But to New York, Rick's credit, like this is, if he was going to lose, this is how he was going to lose. And to me, there's just no way a guy like Joe and everything he's gone through in his life, there's just no way he's not going to learn and grow from this experience. Right?

Like he's got to take a lot away from this one that he's going to be able to use in the future. And he's nowhere near done after this. I don't think. Yeah, I think experience was the factor that a lot of us were taking to account here. And just to go, let's look at the numbers here. So this was Jack Hermanson's 30-second pro-fight, Joe Piper's 15th. This was Jack Hermanson's 17th U. UFC fight, I think, and Joe Piper's fourth.

So, I mean, that's, if you want to talk about real experience, got four times many UFC fights for the Joker. That's not even getting into the caliber of opponents, Jack Hermanson's been in there with. how many times it's gone five rounds in the UFC. When they started their career, Jack Hermant's started in 2010. Joe Piper has only been a professional MMA fighter since 2018. So the gap is enormous.

I picked Joe Piper because I think I do tend to favor up-and-coming fighters, younger fighters more often than not. That's not always the case. I think the situation reminded me a little bit of Mike Malott and Neil Magne, which we just saw a few weeks ago, where Mike Malat was pretty heavily favored. You can see how Mike Malta was going to win the fight. But if you were going to pick Neil Magny,

He also saw he was going to win the fight, which he did by outlasting him in the third round. So it's, and next week we got Volcanovsky and Tuporia. So it's, I kind of like this theme we have going in the first, first little bit of 2024 here, at least as far as UFC fights go, where as New Yorkerick said, this is perfect matchmaking. I don't think a loss here should hurt Joe Piper at all. There are clearly fixable strategic elements that him and his team can work on. I like that his team was motivating to the very end. They're very real with him, maybe a little too real.

Some of the stuff that they were coming out with, I was like, whoa, it was like very strong. But, again, they're his guys, man. They know what to say to push his buttons. So kudos to them for going wherever they had to go to try and get that fifth round performance out of him. But, hey, again, when you got a guy like Jack who can, he mixes the martial arts so well. Again, he's done five rounds many times. Joe Piper's never done it.

It's going to play out in practice in a certain way. and again, this is how a lot of us envisioned it. So Jack, great for him. He's alternated wins and losses, I think, in the last nine fights or something like that. He's just a really dangerous guy and can, is such a stiff challenge for anyone in the division. And it's a big learning experience for Joe. And I hope people aren't just going like, oh, while he's done, he's just a hype machine. He's in his late 20s.

He's in his prime. He's 27. It's 27. It doesn't turn 28 until the end of the year. I think you'll see him bounce back really well. And I think by the end of the year, we're still going to be. really high on Joe Piper, assuming he gets a couple of fights in there before the end of the year and wins both of them. We'll be having this conversation again. This was just the right test for him.

Okay, he didn't pass it, but he looked good against Jack Remainston early on. He showed a lot. He wasn't completely outclassed. He was just outlasted. And that happens to a lot of fighters coming up. So really, really enjoyable main event and a huge congrats to Jack Hermanson. He's got that dog in him. You guys know I hate that phrase, but if you're going to use it, sometimes we'll just throw around like oh someone someone like had a cool dunk or something in the NBA and it's got a dog in him no it means showing this kind of toughness it's kind of grit and that's what jack heranson's all about so what a pleasure to watch him perform yeah there's like 90 seconds left in the second round when jack had Piper pretty much figured out he there was a moment where like he just got in Piper's

face Piper's back goes against the cage they traded some shots Hermanson landed a nice jab and landed a leg kick and Piper just stood there and smiled at him and that's what I'm I knew I was like, oh, if I was actually going to gamble here, that's when I smashed the Hermanson live odds. But hopefully some of you tailed that from the pre-fight Q&A. But New York, Rick, when you have a guy like Jack Hermanson, the dude just smiles all the time unless the cage door locks. The dude looked very intense.

But, I mean, this is like the bull Durham of MMA right here. You just know what he's going to do. He's going to have something thoughtful to say after the win. And he says, look, a couple things I want to say. I want MMA legalized in Norway. I believe the second thing was, before that happens, I hope the UFC can go back to Sweden, and I would like to fight Nasrede and I'mov that weekend.

I mean, just picture perfect stuff. Had perfect bike time, I think he nailed it. Sometimes you want moose tracks ice cream, sometimes you want cookies and cream, but oftentimes you can't go wrong with vanilla, Jackramansen, base hit up the middle. Well done. What did you think of the post fight?

and just everything he did rounds four or five and then once he had a microphone in his face. I think he nailed it. Yeah, he did great. Jack Hermanson is somebody who knows where he is, right? He knows exactly what his place is in the UFC. He knows that making a call out of somebody who's above him or beat him or run it back is just not going to be the thing

and used his mic time effectively. Now, you know, there could be an argument said to be said to say, like, we'll forget about that interview tomorrow. And if he said something crazy and shocking, we'd be still talking about it. But the reality is that's not who Jack Hermanson is. As you said, he's more of a basic flavor. He's more of a vanilla, chocolate, a strawberry type guy. And that's okay.

And we can appreciate that. And when he gets in the cage, we get performances like we got tonight. So I'm all for some basic flavors of ice cream if they're Jack Armanson. A-Yo. And then, yeah, I'm all for it. let's keep him busy because he's just a fun fighter to watch like regardless of of whether it's you know against an up-and-coming prospect or it's against another veteran he's just really fun he's really cool he's super well-rounded he has some he has some awkward style an awkward style but he's also

kind of technically sound he's really like a fun like mystery mix um to me and uh i always enjoy a jack her mansef fight. So yeah, I think it's smart. He knows exactly where he is in the UFC pecking order and he's acting accordingly. He added like some some like peanut butter sauce to his vanilla ice cream at times.

I'm loving this analogy. I'm loving this. Some like jumping knees to the body, these like not full Superman punches but like half Superman jabs like just these little nuances to his striking was just so fun to watch. He does weird stuff sometimes. Like he just

mixes in some interesting kind of things that you really don't see from a lot of different guys. He has an awkward kind of frame. He's lanky and uses it in interesting ways. The takedown that he landed perfectly timed. He's that he's just that type of guy. He's just a really fun fighter. And one of the things that I thought about when I was watching this fight in terms of Jackermanson and also Joe Pfeiffer is like, this isn't boxing. Like you don't have to be undefeated. Joe Pfeiffer is not, you know, like, you don't have to win every single fight. It's not boxing and that's not the only path to success. Not everybody's going to be Habib.

There's just a reality. Not everybody's going to be Floyd Mayweather to tie it back to the idea of not having to be boxing. Like, think about a guy like Charles Oliva. The most fun version of Charles Alvara just happened after many, many losses previously. And this goes for, I'm just using him as the most obvious example, but this goes for so many different fighters. MMA is just more fun because it doesn't have to be that. and because guys can have late success and because it's a very complicated game to figure out

and eventually some guys do and it happens later. And I feel like to your point, like I think you mentioned this earlier, like this is not the end of Joe Pfeiffer, a loss. Like I know we love touting like undefeated prospect. Like who's going to beat Hamzaa Shamaev

and this type of stuff. But there's just as much fun to a guy who suffers a loss and then comes back. So I think that's what we'll see from Joe Piper. But also a guy like Jack Hermanson who's still in the UFC and still giving us awesome fights every time out. Like, this is what makes MMA great.

It's not just the like undefeated prospect on the rise. Can he do it? Is he going to continue to do it forever? In reality, like other than Habib, everybody's answer is no. So we don't need to like overly put stock into that. Like, let's enjoy them as we have them. And so I enjoy Jack Hermanson. And tonight was a great fight from Joe Pfeiffer as well.

I enjoy Joe Pfeiffer. Yeah. We're eventually going to get a Joe Piper versus Gregory-Hodriguez fight. And I can't wait for that to happen. Doesn't mean it's going to happen next, but that's a fight that's going to happen probably in the next 18 months, and I'm so here for it. A.K. is a guy who is responsible for writing robbery reviews for the website. Speaking of fights that were kind of like vanilla in a certain way, this is maybe the easiest fight to score. Yes.

Especially a main event that I can remember in a long time. This was not Sean Strickland versus Drickus Duplice, where there's controversy and there's, oh, maybe there's an argument here and there. Like this was probably the easiest fight to score that I can remember that we led off with on a post fight show. There was no Ron McCarthy with the 4747 that we had to try to explain. This was this easy as, this is easy peasy, a.k. Isn't that nice once in a while? Like no controversy. We know where this is going. Just a nice, easy flat 4847.

No ifs, or butts about it. Yeah, the main card was easy peasy. I know we'll get to some of the other fights in a bit. but it really did build up well. Again, after maybe some dire moments early on, I was joking and began saying like, oh, I was struggling through later portions of the card. Not really.

It's not like all the main event, the main card fights for bangers. There's definitely a couple that I'm sure we can point out as being forgettable, I think, to put it nicely. But as far as the ability up to the main event goes, it did so really well. And yeah, we got a main event with a clear narrative going in, a clear narrative throughout.

And I think a pretty clear narrative coming out of it, as we've just discussed, where Jack Hermanson goes from here, where Joe Piper goes from here, what Jack Hermanson's career is going to be like, you know, going forward, what Joe Piper has to do to improve and where we think we'll see him in 12 months. It's all laid out pretty clearly. And it's not to say they can't surprise us. Maybe Joe Piper, maybe this is the beginning of the end for Joe Piper.

I don't know. Maybe he flames out. We've certainly seen that in M.A. as well. I wouldn't bet on it, but we've seen that as well. Maybe Jack Hermanson, maybe this is his last big win. Who knows? Maybe now he goes. I don't know.

I don't know. But based on what we saw, it seems really plainly laid out what roles these guys are going to have going to the rest of 24. And again, for Joe Pfeiffer, possibly for the rest of his career. We'll see. So it was a nice card. Mike, I left a sort of poll. Very simple question, not to rate this card. But I want to people, I just want to ask people, was UFC Vegas 86 bigger than UFC Vegas better than UFC Vegas 85?

You know, I think both cards are still pretty fresh in our minds. There's still going to be recency bias, of course. But so far, 63% yes, for YerC-Vegas 86. It was a better card. And I think I agree. I think if you just especially take the highlights from the main card, I think I agree. This was better than last week.

I don't know how you guys feel about it. Yeah, slightly. Sacks Fifth Avenue makes it easy to holiday your way, whether it's finding the right gift or the right outfit. Sacks is where you can find everything. From the perfect Chloe bag for your hard-to-shop-for-sister to a prodig jacket for a fancy holiday dinner.

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Stock up because they will sell out. Get up to 52% off when you go to g-run-s.co and use the code Vox. I mean, I think one of the big reasons for it was the man we're about to talk about because there's things we're not really surprised about. New York Creek, Danny Gaye punches really, really hard. Like, this dude punches really, really hard as Andre Feely found out tonight. And I think he was a big reason. I think we needed like a big moment to happen to lead into this main event.

And man, 50K delivered. Did you not? What needs to be said? You know, they joked about it. maybe he needs to get his wife pregnant more because if those are the performances we get when she's about to pop like sign me up dan ike is just unstoppable you know mythical uh fighter alert uh dan yge's pregnant wife about to give birth um but yeah exactly what we needed and you know something that i think dan ike kind of needed a little bit like i think ike's been a guy who

you know is easy to kind of fade into the background like he honestly like a little bit like a hermantin like He's just a guy who's in that division who I think people see as the bar and want to test themselves against. And it seemed like Andre Feeley was saying, like, I want Dan Ege because I want to see where I'm at. And then he found out where he's at. And he found out where Dan Yee is at. So I think this is the type of performance that kind of raises his stock a little bit and puts him back in conversations where he's not just the gatekeeper or not just the guy who's in the background kind of doing the work that is getting underappreciated. that was a really, really great performance, like obviously. What more needs to be said about it, that type of knockout.

And yeah, I mean, the technique, the timing, the precision on that, just beautiful, just beautiful stuff from Danigay. Yep. And like I tweeted out, because unfortunately, like the, just the ambiance of the apex just drives you crazy. Like that knockout like in front of a crowd, place it go electric. like it would woken everybody up and somehow this the only i think this is the only tweet i had that made

the broadcast was like man dk danni get just iced andre feely and i was like and you could hear a pin drop and a pile of cotton and somehow that's the tweet that made the broadcast but yeah i gay delivers and kacey dropped a slack like from ins from the ufc's instagram where it was just like a cell phone shot of the knockout where there's no you could barely hear the crowd obviously because there's like 17 people there. No commentary. And it was just ferocious, man. Like that dude just hits like a truck.

But yeah, Dan Igay delivers once again. Obviously he gets $50,000. A.K., I think you'll remember that moment when we look at this card. You feel that 86 was better. You know, six months from now when they say someone walks up to you and they say, AK, you're the Prince of positivity, what do you remember most about UFC Vegas 86? What's the low key moment that I have to go back and watch? What are you going to tell?

A low-key moment? So something outside of the top two? I mean, for me. Oh, I mean. Your favorite moment. I mean, the Danny Gay thing was great. I was just thinking about it. It did bum me out a little bit, though,

because I had bought into the Philly Renaissance, the Filly Renaissance, the Andrinasance. Did we ever, did anyone else hop on? No. I thought, Andre Fili, I thought like a guy, you know, that last knockout, and then a guy who, like, is pretty well known, but just never has strung to hear the wins.

I thought he was going to go on a run, or at least put on a, you know, go the distance with Danny Gay. Like maybe, I think a lot of people peg this to be the fight of the night. But either way, great performance to Danny Gay, not to anything away from him. You look at the guys he's fought,

Fili, Bryce Mitchell, Evloiev, Josh Emmett, zombie, Calvin Cater, Bob Rosa. It's a pretty insane, a really insane resume for Dan Yegay. So I guess maybe, maybe him, K-Oing, Andre Feely,

was probably more obvious to some than myself. But I also really enjoyed, Hadolfo Valletta, thank goodness, saving the opener because I can't lie. I had been the prince of negativity when it came to this matchup, Vieta and Armine Petrosian. It had been rescheduled, and I was like, why? Like when this fight got postponed the first time, you should have just canceled it. I hate the style matchup. I didn't think Veda could get him to the ground.

Petrosian, for me, great technical striker, but just not someone who I, too, is like I consider me must-see TV. Fortunately, Veyeda proved me so wrong. Great wrestling got the fight to the ground. And once he gets a fight to the ground, his jiu-jitsu is just, it's so effective. It's not super flashy, but it is definitely fun to watch a masterful ground game. And he ended it. I thought it was going to be a 15-minute slog lasted under five minutes. So I'll go with Adolfo Veda, making me look like a fool, as usual.

And I hope we see a lot more from this guy. He's had, again, he's had one or two clunkers in there against guys he just couldn't take down but let's just keep finding matchups for him where he can jitza people and everyone's going to be happy yes great performance from hid off of yorea that earned him 50k new york rick who's your who's the ufgas 86 six player award winner for you who who who's shown brightest that you didn't really see coming yeah before i do that i want to say aka i was there in solidarity with you i was on andre feely for the vibes i was i was definitely there with you on the on the preview show i was all about it. I thought this was the time. I thought maybe, look, it seems too obvious. Dan I

Gay is going to get this win. So maybe we're going to upset the Apple card here. And obviously, we didn't. Shout out to Danny Gay for proving everybody who believed in that right. For me, it was Bogdan Guskov. That guy's the man. Like, you know, AKA Noho Hank, shout out Jed Mishu, aka Bizarro Anthony Smith. Like, that dude is the freaking man. The fight, first of all, was incredible. But then to get the mic time and drop like three different things that I'm going to remember, it was very out of nowhere Moikano-esque for me. Now, certainly not of the profile of Moikano and won't have near the legs that that type of mic time will. But yeah, I just not somebody who was on my radar and then not somebody I will ever forget now. And I will be

paying attention to. So yeah, maximized his fight time and maximized his mic time. for sure. Yeah, that was one of those fights where I was like, man, if we get five minutes into this fight, it's going to get real bad. And Bogdan just shut the lights out on Zach Puyahoga and then cut the promo after. He's probably the correct answer. I do want to give a shout to Carlos Prattace because that dude, I think, saved the card. Because when we talk about the sloggy moments of this card,

Max Griffith and Jeremiah Wells was not what we thought it would be. It was fine. It was okay. It was okay. That's okay. That's okay. That's okay was okay for me. Yeah.

Marching practical, Devin Clark was pretty much what we expected. Loma Lekbunmi, Bruno, Brazil. I expected a little bit more excitement there. Belushi O'Kai versus Timothy Kwamba. I thought it was going to be like absolute fireworks. Didn't get that. We're starting to lose it a little bit. The energy levels are starting to drain up.

I had crack open to Celsius at that point. and then Carlos Pratchez, you know, it was like I drank a second Celsius. You just ether's Trevigiles leading into the main card and the momentum of the card shifted. So yeah, great performance, great debut. Had some interesting calls. It's already called out Santiago Ponzi and Nibio.

I mean, damn, one UFC fight and you were already going for Ponzi. I like it. The calls these past two weeks have been unhinged. Let me say for Bogdan, even calling on, no, he could get the Anthony Smith fight. I can see that. But I need to say it. I mean, as a gimmick, they'd almost have to do it. They'd be forced into it at this point.

I, at some point, I might be giving away my wild card pick for onto the next one. I don't know. But he needs to fight you on Kutelaba at some point for maximum chaos. I just feel like if you want something insanely random and probably very violent to happen, I need him and you. I think he wants booked, if I'm not mistaken, but he'll be free soon. And I think him in Bogdan, somewhere in the future need to meet up. Yes, Kutelabber's book, I believe he's hiding.

Felipe Linz at UFC 299. So, I mean, it's not that far away. That's like a month away. We're less than a month away from that. So you could still book that. You could just do fantasy matchmaking. Win or lose, boom. You got it, AK.

Just make sure you mention that. Might have to. You'll be due, do free. So, yeah. The card started off real weird. The pacing was incredible. They're like, hey, I'm Brendan Fitzgerald. And we already have our second fighter coming up in the cage.

And then it ended with multiple kicks to the ding ding ding. Ritchie Lang couldn't continue. Daniel Marcos looked really good. So that was kind of like unfortunate the way that ended. We mentioned Bogdan Guscop, just doing Bogdan Guscop things. Hyder Amil really impressed me. That dude is a frigging tank, man. Fighting that guy, he sucks.

He's vicious. He's vicious. He throws things with really, really ill intent. And it has a style that is going to be fun to watch as he's kind of coming up. I was impressed as well. Can I say also I think the UFC did a great job of setting up and this is going to sound very disrespectful

but we've said this on the show many times you need fighters who are good nails you need fighters who are going to lose in spectacular ways that is where I would chart like Fernie Garcia like he was 013 in the UC heading into this one going up against an undefeated guy I'm pretty sure the matchmakers

not that they play favorites necessarily you know, they think they see something in Hider and they're like, well, this is the, this is the, but Ferney was a replacement, I think, right, for, um, not near to Baghdaddy and then, under and Becca and Dernabka and Dernabka was a replacement for, anyway, there was like two replacement phones before they got to Fergie, uh, Fernie, excuse me, uh, but I'm glad guys like Fernie exists. I, I know he's going to get his own four, but I, I, I need him like Zach Paga,

you need guys like him. Um, really, Ihor, I thought Ehor, that was the whole point of, of getting Ehor to step in on short notice to save, um, the Robert Riechek flight. and then instead Petrieus did the damn thing and beat Brecacup. But I think that I like the intention of some of the matchmaking here

to get newer names over. It didn't work for everyone. Even the main event. The main event, if Joe Pfeiffert beaten Jackramantin, boom, you're rocketing him into the top 15, right? So it didn't work out.

It doesn't always work out. But I think they're hard to run the right place with how they made some of these matchups. Yes. So there you go. All right. We can go to the peeps now. congratulations to all the winners

all the bonus winners and there's Casey hi Casey hi hi hi everyone good team bring your questions up of course super chats get to the top by the way near Rick Achilles Jr.

Yes on the back of forth to you he apologized for his behavior yesterday by the way wow he did you know what bygones be bygones you're welcome back anytime shout out to you Achilles

incredible I love this. Love this. Super chats, bringing people together, settling beefs. This is what it's all about. This is what it's all about. Like, look, you know, the calves absolutely dismantled the Raptors earlier today. And me and AK are sitting here like we're best buds, you know? What is that? Wow. What is happening right now? There's no better, you know, community building type of thing than this show right here. I'm having a bad time. We're trading first round picks to bring in Kelly Alinick. I'm having a bad time, New York. I don't need this right now. Congrats on the, the, The ninth straight win, nine straight wins for Cleveland, I will say, very impressive.

And if I had to choose between any team, at the East, it's obviously not the Raptors. I'll take frigging the Cleveland Cavaliers over the Knicks, the Sixers, or the Celtics any day of the week. Shot to your. Holy Kay. Kind of rooting for Cleveland here because I know out of the contenders in the East. I'm just saying, I'm just saying. My man. My man.

Yeah. This is where I'm at. All right. Let's talk about some real fights now, not some silly, silly. Are we talking about the dog fights? Roman rains and Roman rains Cody, Prasmania. All right. We have a super chat here.

And a bit of a, I'm going to put this on the screen, but no, yeah, do it. It's a super chat. Just another hype job is exposed as a bum by an already proven bum. You see is such an effing joke. Damn. I don't see it that way. I do not see it that way. I don't either.

They have the right to their opinion. They have the right to their opinion, especially if you're a super chatter. If you're a super chatter legally, your opinion means more than others. I think that is how the super chats work. Right. Yes. You have to. That's toward the end of the Constitution that says that somewhere.

Yeah, it's there. Obviously, I don't think that's the best way to view fights like this. Like we said, Joe Piper doesn't lose that much other than giving us a better gay. I saw people saying, you know, again, the word exposed and he's overhyped. Like, how was he overhyped? What was the expectation? Even if he beat Jack Hermanson, we're not all going to be like, oh, Joe Pfeiffer's should fight for the title by the end of the year.

No one's going to be making that case. No one's going to be saying, oh, he's definitely going to be a world champion. The upside here was, again, was to beat a guy with a number in his name in the UFC rankings. And again, to give us, regardless of the result, give us a better gauge of where Joe Piper is. And we got that. We got that. He is not as good as Jack Hermanson yet. That's it.

That's what we know. It doesn't mean he's a bum. It doesn't mean he can't beat someone else in the top of the dean or he can't be a top of It does not mean Jack Hermanton is a bum because he is not a bum. At all. Yeah. Not at all. Very, very, very good fighter.

Just again, Jack Hermantz has lost fights. That's fine. Everyone lives. You hang around long enough. You're going to lose fights. He's also got some pretty impressive wins too. So, you know, I don't think this is the popular opinion out there. But, hey, like like I said, everyone can say what they want when they watch.

And for the second part of this with the UFC is a eff and Joe. that is not true because jokes are funny and the UFC doesn't do anything fun. So, no. Oh. I think, you know, on the preview show and AK, you know, obviously you weigh in on this, I think we all said basically like this was the fight for Joe Piper. And if not, like he was maybe one different fight away from being in there with Jack Hermanson.

Like it would have been like an intermediary step. But if he's a hype job, like you would. think theoretically he'd be getting pushed towards something he doesn't deserve right that's what I would consider a hype job where it's like you're getting something that you don't deserve or you can't hang and they're just setting this up for success but ultimately like this was a fine fight and the result of it kind of proved that right this is the result of this show very competitive we got it came down the last round yeah so I I get the idea that like there's a pushback and I talked about this earlier there's a pushback against this like everybody's an undefeated

prospect and they're going to rise up the ranks and they're never going to lose again and just and that's kind of what the UFC does sell. I will admit, I will, I will grant you that that is part of the promotion, right? But ultimately what they're trying to achieve is they'll do that and hopefully they can win as long as they possibly can. They'll pick up enough fans along the way that maybe they lose or maybe they don't. Maybe they get a title. Ultimately, their job is to get you excited for these fights and and push you in the direction of thinking that these guys are superhuman and superstars. But he didn't really get anything you didn't deserve here. Like this was the right fight. And if not, you know, it's two fights away. So like ultimately, yeah, I wouldn't call Joe Pfe for a hype job. I just call somebody that

they're like watching and investing in. And rightfully so. He's a young talent and what a division would typically need. So I get the, I get the, I get the intention of, of what you're saying here. There is, there is a kernel of truth to it here. But ultimately, I don't think Joe Pfeer like got anything that is given to a hype job. I think ultimately, this was right. This was exactly what this was supposed to be. And what was hyped? He punches hard. Yeah, he punches super hard.

This doesn't change. And he does. He's a really hard puncher. Again, like he said, he's a young guy in the middleweight division. Yeah, does that get changed? No, everything that was hyped about him was up to this point was true. There was nothing that was like diffused. Other than if you thought, oh, well, they're pushing him as like a top five guy.

And I never got the impression that anyone was saying, oh, Joe Piper is a top five guy right now. If he beats Jack Kermans, he's definitely a top five guy. No, no one was saying this. I don't know who was saying this, but it wasn't me. The one thing, though, that I am kind of very interested about Joe, Joe Pfeiffer's kind of future career is can he still improve as a fighter and thrive with this kind of just negativity that he uses? Because everything's like, like, was it the fifth round when his coach said? Yeah. I mean, that was, your dad doesn't want you to win.

That's why you need to win. I was like, I've never heard that before. And for the context, he's talked about a very bad relationship with his father. Like, this was not, this was something to really motivate him utilizing it as fire, as fuel, as opposed to, like, support, right? This was something to make him say, like, be indignant and fight back here. Yeah. And we've heard coaches say things like that before. I think coaches are like, this guy's attacking your wife, you know, or something.

You know, they'll try to give you this big negative kind of energy. And I just wonder, has that hit a limit? Has he hit a ceiling as far as like growth that's a fighter with this kind of negative energy? Which is great. You need kind of, I guess, negative and positive energy. You need a chip on your shoulder. You need something at times, right? It works, but I know everyone's different.

So, but I just wonder about that. Even in this post-fight interview actually kind of concerned me too. I don't think they should have done a post-fight interview in the cage. I think it should have waited, give them some time to decompress. know it was a main event. It sucks for him. You know, it's a big loss. But him kind of, you know, not coming.

I did a lot of interviews, you know. Of course I was going to lose, you know, or whatever. I mean, I'm going to kind of ignore that and just say he was emotional and just hope that wasn't how he is going to, I hope that's not as true takeaway from his performance tonight. I agree with, I agree with a lot of what you're saying. If I'm going to say, which I agree with, I don't think he should have gotten that post-fight interview. I'm also okay to toss it out too, right? Anything he says in that, I'm also okay to like say,

if we're kind of submitting this as evidence and it shouldn't have been, then I'll toss it out. You know, I'll kind of be like, look, that probably wasn't the right time. He was emotional. Okay, I'll skip it. Even though ultimately, if I look at it in a vacuum or look at it objectively, like I didn't love what he said either.

Like, it felt a little bit like an excuse. But I'm okay tossing that away because I don't think he should have had a mic in his face at that time. Like that probably wasn't right. As far as the coach thing, I think AK nailed it. earlier, right? Like, they know him best. I think, AK, I think that was you who said, look, they know him best and they know how, you know, how to motivate him or not. And if that's what he

needs, like, I'm going to trust that they know. But I do think there's some, some reality to what you're saying of like the motivation can't always be to fight against everything, right? That sometimes it has to be in the positive direction. Sometimes it has to be the support and not the you against the world type of mentality. But, man, he's 27. I feel like there's so much time ahead of him. Exactly. Yeah. That he can really fix a lot of this.

Like he has, what he has, you can't teach, right? Like he is a big, physical, powerful person. And that is the harder part. Not everybody is gifted. Not everybody is blessed with those gifts. If you can learn the other stuff, if you can learn how to have some grid, if you can learn how to pace yourself, it seemed like actually he was kind of pacing himself. I almost feel like in hindsight, he might have been better trying to blow it out in the first

round and just really try to get him out of there. Like, I'm going to kill you and you're done. Because as it kind of went on, he ran out of the gas and ultimately he was sunk. So maybe that would have even been better. But I think he will learn these lessons. And I'm pretty confident, like, these are very fixable errors, right? There's some guys where you look at and you go, he doesn't have it. Whatever it is, he does not have it.

And you can't fix the problems that he has. His problems are pretty fixable. Now, will he fix them? That's not for us to say right now here. That's to see in the future as he continues to fight. But I'm not, I'm not, my stock is not lower on Joe Piper after that performance. Like to hang in there with Jack or Manson and win two out of the three rounds pretty clearly, to me is, is something you can build on.

So I'm, I'm right where I was with Joe Piper. No stock down in my book. Yeah, he's been fighting since 2018. 20, like, he's a baby. He's a baby in MMA. And I think anytime it's going to come down to combat sports, especially in the current social media landscape, every win means, oh, someone's the best, every loss means someone's the worst.

Right? That's how it is, right? Retire. People don't realize, like, you're seeing these guys now develop live in front of you in the octagon. Like, that's just how it is because of Contender Series, because of they got to feed the UFC Beast. Someone who normally would fight for maybe, you know,

like five or six years on the regional scene and build up that way and take some losses of the regional scene and then make it to the UFC, you're seeing that part now. You're seeing that part live now. Joe Pfeiffer probably shouldn't be fighting Jack Kermanison at this stage of your career. Like we're complimenting the matchmaking because based on what the UFC has to work with,

then this is the right matchup. But in a perfect world, he's still like, you know, fighting the regional scene, hopefully making better money, but I mean, you know, whatever I know, that's how it works and doesn't get to the UFC until he's like, you know, his 13th, 14th, 15th fight, but it doesn't work that way.

We know it doesn't work that way. So now you're getting to see these laws, in real time. You're getting to see the shortcomings in real time, the development, even the personality. As New York Rick said, how do you handle a live mic after a loss? A lot of people get that opportunity before they come to the UFC. But now his first made event, he's getting a mic stuck in his face after this hugely disappointing results. Of course, he's just going to kind of ramble and say some stuff that sounds like excuses. These aren't trained media guys. You know, they're just talented athletes and fighters that we suddenly stick a microphone in front of. So it really

is harsh to judge him too much on some things he said today and whatever how he performed in rounds three, four, and five of this fight. I'm just trying to provide perspective, right? I'm not saying you have to love Joe Piper and stay on the Joe Piper bandwag and just have some perspective on what these losses mean and how their reactions to it mean at this stage of their careers. Yeah. All right.

Two takeaways from this. One, very intrigued to see how people react when Joe Piper has his next fight book. Is it going to be similar to his teammates? Sean Brady after Sean Brady got dust kind of dusted up by Bilal Muhammad everybody jumped off the Sean Brady train and then he went out all so one of the best a really good call career against Calvin Gaslam yeah and then to say Jack her Manson is a bum like come on man the guy hasn't lost two consecutive fights in over a decade and that was in Bellator that was both of his Bellator

fights he lost and since 2017 he lost got knocked up by Tiago Santos in 2017 which at that time, like, yeah, that's nothing to sneeze at. Diego Santos was Joe Piper back then. Yeah. I always imagine what if social media had been more of a thing when GSP got submitted by Matthews in the first fight? Can you imagine people? Oh, I would have destroyed him.

I would have ripped him up. He's never going to be a champion. He's never going to be a champion. I would have destroyed that fraud so quick. Of course. Well, let me bring one other personal example then. What about, imagine if after the BJ, the first BJ and Jen's Pulver fight, imagine that.

Oh, okay, okay, okay. Right? And then imagine people going after him and be like, ah, he's never, BJ's exposed, he's never going to be a champion. He couldn't even beat, uh,

Jens Polver, the state of, like, imagine that. And I'm not saying Joe Piper can reach the heights of a GSP or VJBB. I'm not saying that. But this is how crazy it is when someone takes a competitive loss

and then people are so quick to bury them. It's just, guys, combat sports just doesn't work that way. It doesn't run that way. You nailed it. Every, everybody's a hero when they win

and everybody's a, an absolute scrub loser when they lose and it's just not real. And also, like I talked about boxing before. You talked about how everybody's kind of fast tracked at this point, right? There is no like intermediary steps. Like in boxing, if you started in 2018, you're not fighting on headlining shows. Like you're getting more reps and that's just the model is different now. And we are seeing the warts and the flaws.

But what I love about MMA is what I said earlier is like, it's kind of cool. I'd rather see that. I would rather see some of the perseverance and struggle. and road bumps than these like carefully manicured careers where it's all everybody's great and they're undefeated undefeated undefeated and then they finally fight and guess what after they lose the first time now they're done we don't want to see them anymore i hate that it's boring it's it's so boring like i want to see adversity yeah jo five jo five has already lost three times he's not undefeated yeah he lost three times before this fight you know it's like we just happen to see this that's all

yeah that's all yeah Dom Elliott asks, is Piper going to turn into the Christoccus of middleweight? Probably not, is my sense? Probably not. I think you can win a hell of a lot of fights with the tools that Joe Piper has without having to improve anything.

I don't think he has to do much and you can still win a hell of a lot of fights with what he's got. So I think if he can improve, then yeah, I think he'll be around for a bit. So probably not. Probably not. But look, the UFC's a meat grinder, man.

Like, if you start getting on a skid like that, sometimes that's it. Sometimes that's it. Yeah, you can go from hyped prospects to never was very quickly in today's UFC. And that's what we're like, and we're just saying it's too early to judge with Joe. Again, nothing would surprise me if you went two and one in 2024. It wouldn't surprise me if you went 0 and 3 in 2024. That's just kind of the level he's fought himself to at this point, unfortunately, where he's just, he's going to be facing tough guys. We mentioned like Robocop.

It's like a fight with Robocop. That's a hell of a tough fight. Him and Gregory Rodriguez, like it's a step back from Jack Hermanson, but that's a hell of a tough fight. And if he lost that and he loses two straight, I mean, you know, it's going to bury him. But I don't think there's a lot of shame of losing to those two guys. But again, it would change our expectations. And then, and that's very fair. That's a very fair thing to do.

Yeah. Yeah, maybe he's just a good middleweight. Maybe he's not the best middle weight. That's fine. Brad Tavares has made an incredibly, had an incredibly long UFC career being a good middleweight. I wonder if that's maybe if you give him Brad Tavares next. I was thinking that. You go from one gatekeeper to the other gatekeeper.

Brad Tavares, you go like Mark Andre Barriole. That's not a bad one. Like lots of good options. A lot of good option. A lot of good option. A lot of. Yeah. Thank you, Don Elliott.

Ooh, we have a, Hedas Jr.'s back. yes you're like wow he really like go back to the people's brief by Joe he was like sorry for my behavior yesterday and now immediately

he apologizes for absolutely nothing I changed my mind Rick you can go back to suck at it Casey 10 out of 10 AK 8 out of 10 that's good that's a B minus that's a big time pass that's me

and Rick you went from a six and a half to a seven to a four. How do you feel about this? I think what we need now is another super chat from Achilles, Jr. I needed an explanation of the four out of ten. What have I done to deserve this score? What can I do better? There's nothing else we can do other than you super chat again

and let me know how we can improve the performance. You know what? I'm going to be a humble man right now. I accept your four out of ten and I want to learn. I want to learn from you. teach me how I can improve my four out of ten. Thank you. Please, super chat again.

Unbelievable. You know, only at M.A.fling.com do you get such graciousness after getting a four out of 10. I love this guy. Yeah, Casey. Shout out Casey and Mike. Tens across the board, baby. Awesome, awesome.

Oh, yeah, let's do talk about this. Another super chat from J.N. Thank you, J.N. Does this mean Hermanson could take. take in Ghanu's punch. Heck more, BTL, the best I'ma show's around. Happy birthday, AK, Rick, you always have solid takes.

So, oh, maybe we have a little J.N. Achilles, Jr., little super chat. A little rivalry again. But yeah, happy birthday, AK. Yeah. Oh, thank you. I'm, you know, you know, happy Chinese New Year to everyone, by the way. Yeah.

Year of the Dragon. Year of the Dragon. Happy Chinese. Or, AKA, as we like to call it, just New Year. Yes, you're correct. As we would say, yes, Jess, I'm a rookie move. I know. I'm trying to appeal to the common non-Chinese man, okay?

Gung-he-Fa-Choi, my friends. He-Fat-Choi, yes. It doesn't be a man that could take in Gandhi's punch. I'm a little confused about the, so why is Hermannsen's punch record? There's just no video, right? There's no video, right? It's a story. Piper.

Piper has the hardest, like, punch on that machine. There's no video. He just told Rogan. Yeah, I don't think we have video of that one. And then obviously, Inganu had the punch score, but also the Ford S scored and all this nonsense. So I think it's just whoever, like whoever's the carnival game king at the moment kind of, you know, that's the bar. But I mean, would it surprise anybody to know that Piper Punch is as hard in that setting as Ingana? It wouldn't surprise me.

Like it's kind of like, you know, those things are not. He's more a... It's not real fight. Piper really went hard and people not believing him. Like, how dare you not believe me? You know, is that it? I wasn't aware of that.

That's why this is brought up because people are like, people are like, yeah, right. Like, everyone has an HD camera in their pocket and yet no one saw this. This is the World Chamberlain hundred point game, right? Like, oh, nobody has video of this? Okay. I see, I wasn't aware of that little aspect now. Yeah, yeah. So that's what I think that's where people are kind of making fun of him now.

It's a little fugazi. It's a little fugazi. Yeah, he called the people criticizing him nerds. He called the people at the PI. He called the people at the PI nerds, I think, saying like for some reason they wouldn't give him the record, like they weren't counting. I don't know. So I didn't fully understand what the reasoning behind that was. And most importantly, how was there no video of him attempting this?

Okay. But we need to answer this question. Could Jack Armantz take a solid connection from Francis and Ghana? Only one way to find out. Only one way to find out. Set it up. Let's set it up. Poor Jack.

Poor Jack. You know, I was looking at Jack's record, and I was like, oh, yeah, you know what? This guy was grappling with Hamza Achaimayev. What a gangster Jack Hermanson is. Like, he's just doing like an all-out grappling with. And now we're just going to throw him in there to get decked in the face by Francis Inganu. He would probably sign up for it just because he's such a thug. But yeah, I don't know.

I don't think anybody on earth can really take a clean shot from Francis Ghani. No, no. Not only did he wrestle Hamza Achaimai Fov. He lost, but he didn't even. didn't get finished by Hamzachi. Yeah, it was a fun. It was competitive. It was a really fun match.

It was a really fun match. It was really fun. It was one of those things that, like, you know, I'm not a big competitive jiu-jitsu watcher or grappling or those types of things, but I took some time out to watch that. And it was pretty fun, man. Like, they were really trying to give a good show for the crowd. And, yeah, Jackermanston is just awesome. Jackermanson is just really cool.

Yeah. It took a while for us to kind of get Jacker Manson, but I think, I think we're there. I think I'm, I think he was miscast as like a contender a little bit. Like, you know, he went that win streak for a bit. He beat Jacques-Are.

That was a huge win. And then he wasn't, he was a good. I think he was in the top 10, pretty firmly in the top 10 at the time. And then when he fell short of that, then people, again,

kind of did what they're doing in Joe Pipe for now. It's like, oh, he's not a contender. I guess he sucks. He's not a contender. He's just a really good, like top of Dean, top 20 guy.

And that's fine. So that's probably what happened a little bit there. And again, now we know what Jack Hermanson is and it's great. Was it the stretch where... Was it the stretch where... Yeah. Yeah.

Was it, it was like, was it the stretch where Darren Till pulls out and then Kevin Holland pulls out? I'm looking at the record and I'm trying to recall the circumstances. But he was doing like his own video series and like chronicling it and he was just like, yeah, I'll sign up to fight anybody. I'll take it. He kind of, I feel like his stock went up pretty decently at that time as just a gamer. Like I think everybody was kind of looking at.

at Jack Cermanson and just like, yeah, dude's a gamer. Like, I want to see that dude compete because he'll compete against anybody. I feel like there's a, there's a space. There's a home for those types of fighters, always, where it's just like, yeah, put a name in front of me and I will fight them. And by the way, when I say that, I mean people who actually mean it. Because there's people who say put a name in front of me and then they don't actually mean it.

But then there's people like Jack Cromanson who say put a name in front of me and then they actually do mean it. He's, he's one of those guys. Yeah, dude. He did that when he lost to Roman Deleuzee too. He was supposed to fight Derek Brunson. Yeah. And then like, I think it was like less than two weeks notice.

Roman Deleidez steps in who's like a totally different dude. And we have like the weird knockout from back control from Roman Deleadze. It's just like one of the weirdest finishes we've seen. Yeah. I mean, Hermann's a gamer. The dude's such a gamer. And he's also one half of like the worst booking in the history of the middleweight division. Edmund Chabazian's on this nice run.

And they're like, you know, going to do we're going to throw you in there with Derek brunson in a main event and he just gets run over and we're like all right now you take a big step back try to build your set back up you know what edmund boy do we have the guy for you we're going to throw you in there with jack her manson and well you kind of know what happened and then you know what they did hey we're going to give you another big step back we're going to throw you nasturdyed imabov I mean jeez louise that one that one that one I felt bad because I knew imovov is going to hurt jabazian I was like, oh, yeah.

That was bad. And then they gave Alchalung Gambula, which is perfect. I mean, that's exactly what you do. And then they give him Fluffy Hernandez right after that. I'm like, God, God, man. Before we go to other super chats, I just want to throw this comment up real quick. Great point, Rick.

This is why I made so beautiful. Losses can be teaching moments to elevate someone even further and one loss doesn't end a career, 100%. Yeah. We need to remember more of this, you know, like it's, Saving and investing well is an art and a science. It requires high-level math, an intimate knowledge of economic history and 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.

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Go to betterment.com to learn more. That's B-E-T-T-E-R-M-E-N-T dot com. Investing involves risk, performance not guaranteed. Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Roscoe Cadulian 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 can each of you give us what you think will be the main i assume the main event for ufc 300 yeah listen you're going to get you're going to get leon edwards and bala mohammed and you're going to like it all right people stop

stop dreaming stop i used to think that i used to think that but now dana's heels are way too firmly dug in he's There was a, this, this was the scenario. There was a point after Gaichi and Holloway was announced, where if Dana White, instead of continuing to say, this is going to be the greatest card and the greatest main event ever, and you guys are going to be blown away, which he has now doubled, tripled, and quadrupled down on, if at that exact moment he stopped that rhetoric,

I think they could have booked a Leon Edwards and Belal Muhammad, and everybody would have been riding so high on how great Gaichi and Holloway is that they would have taken it and been like, you know what, we're looking at this thing. It's pretty great. We love this. But now it's just continued the, oh, it's going to be the greatest thing ever.

It's going to be the greatest thing ever. It's going to be the greatest thing ever. And now expectations are once again out of control. They have been mismanaged and they are out of control. And I think Dana's heels are too dug in on this. And I think he's going to have to put something better than that together. Or more, not better. That's the wrong word because I don't want to be disrespectful to that fight.

Something more enticing, something more appetizing for the, for the fan. together than that. Is it going to be a Super Bowl announcement? Are we going to find out tomorrow? They should do that. They should be one thousand percent. That would be brilliant. What if it's Belal and Leon?

Then would you still do it? They're not doing that. They're not doing it. No, no, Super Bowl. Come on. They're not doing Super Bowl of Bilal and Leon. Definitely not. That's the Super Bowl.

You'll hear less noise worldwide. You'll hear less noise worldwide than we heard inside the apex and Danny. he got out Andre Feely. I mean, the answer is sitting right there for them. They're not going to do it because from a business perspective, it doesn't make sense. But there's one guy who's begging to fight. That would be the perfect fighter for UFC 300 and it's Connor McGregor. Like, duh, like what?

Like, duh, the biggest duh in human history. But for some reason, they're trying to ice them. They're trying to extend however long his contract can go and keep those two fights with them or save them for something else. It seems like, you know, later in the year now, you know, at first it seems like June. And now all of a sudden, Dana White saying, like, I hope he fights this year. So who knows what they're trying to kind of do and save him for at this point? But you're out of options. It's time. The glasses here. Break, emergency, pull Connor McGregor, parachutes in. Connor McGregor versus

Michael Chandler. The problem is, one, they're trying to save him for whatever they're trying to save him for. And two, now you're giving Zhang Wei and Jan Shaunanan and probably Gaichie and Holloway. I would imagine that they probably negotiated pay-per-view points. That's probably why that fight. was made. And you're giving them Connor McGregor paper viewpoints. That's rough, right? That's a lot of money to be handing out. So, yeah, I don't know.

I don't know what it's going to be, but I do, I don't think Valal and Leon is ultimately going to be it unless Dana's tapping out. He throws in the white towel on that one. What do you think, okay? What's it going to be? I told, I've said my piece. I've said my piece, my best friend. I tell you, people will take this, the Super Bowl of Welch and Weight fights.

All right. Val Muhammad and Leon Edwards. Oh, you were serious. Okay. This is what we deserve. Oh, UFC. This is what we as a society deserve, all right, for sitting through UFC Vegas 85, seeing through UFC Vegas 86, showing that we will watch literally anything the UFC puts on.

This is what we deserve. For what it's worth, John Jones said he was called two days ago to fight at UFC 300. I think they will do anything in their power to not do Leon versus Bilal as the main event. I heard Habib said something too. He said, I don't know. Maybe some casual conversation. Could be. Russian interviews.

Like he said he turned down some money. Everyone's saying now that they were, this is going to turn into like 50 fighters are going to say like, yeah, oh, like after it happens. Yeah, oh, I could have been the main event. I could have been the main event at 300. Remember earlier when I said anytime, anywhere, any place, and there's certain fighters who say it and there's certain fighters who mean it. There's a lot of fighters right now who say it.

But then, hey, we're calling your number. USC 300, headline. Oh, no, they should not take that fight. They should not take that fight to two more zeros or added to that check. Sure. I feel like that's because it is not about, I don't want to fight UFC Tanya.

It's like it's about you guys are making a lot of money. I need to be making a lot of money also. And so whoever these fighters are that are negotiating right now, like the same thing Dustin Poirier did with the, I couldn't get a hold of my, my manager for a couple weeks. I hope all these other fighters who are maybe in, I don't know.

And they're running for this main event are just going, they're just holding it. They're just waiting because the UFC's put them in a, the UFC has put themselves in a very bad spot. And let me tell you something. Let me tell you something. Whoever ends up taking that fight, you better thank John Jones because John Jones is up the price for you by saying,

I turned down UFC 300. So he put that out there that he got a phone call and he's one of the biggest stars in the company. And he said he couldn't make it. So now it just shows like the desperation is even higher to get somebody in there. And now you can you can wait them out a little bit if you want to. You can play the game. Thank you, John Jones.

Never thought maybe you'd have to say that. But I think John sets you up for a couple extra shekels. It feels like we've cooled on DDP and Izzy, right? But like that still feels like a really good, solid option. Like, you know, maybe. That's the favorite, I think. I think that's like minus like. I still think it's that one.

But I think I think DDP and Izzy, they are prize fighters above all. And they know it's. They know what's up to. They know what's up. I think DDP has played this perfectly. He has played. I was about to say that. I was about to say that.

Beautifully. Yeah. You see his comments and it's, it's reads to me, reading between the lines, it reads to me like somebody who's doing what Casey's saying, who's saying, yeah, you know, maybe we've moved on from it. Maybe not. Maybe the money, maybe the money is there. And then all of a sudden I'm in.

So, yeah, I think we'll, we'll find out. We'll find out soon enough. They're running out of time. So I think we'll find out. I definitely don't think we're going to see a Super Bowl commercial. with Leon Edwards and Val-Mohamed, I'll tell you that much. It would be with Connor. Like, that would be incredible.

Can you imagine that? You watch the Super Bowl and Dana's on a Bud Light commercial and he's just like, wait a minute, who's knocking at the door? He opens the door and it's freaking Connor McGregor handing him the signed contract. Like, that'd be incredible. Like that would be like today? Yes. I can't wait.

I can't wait until it's 1410 at halftime. We've just seen Usher featuring Alicia Keys do an scintillating set. Maybe a little cameo by Taylor Swift. We're all having a great time. And then the first commercial coming out of that halftime show, remember the name. UFC, UFC 300 and Muhammad. I can't wait to see everyone's a reaction when this happens.

They panjured the crowd. The crowd's going crazy. We were here for the Super Bowl. We didn't know we were going to get this news. Oh, my God. Yeah. Who's number 96 for the Chiefs? Oh, my God.

Balaah Muhammad in a Chiefs jersey on the sideline. Oh, this is crazy. It's in a name. Oh, my God. There you go. You got to sell it. He's got to sell it right. Look, you can wait. You can wait for Bola now.

There's two options, right? If they do a pay-per-view in the UK, it's going to be in the summer. Okay? I know Dana said it's going to be a fight night, but you can do that. Also, there's talks and rumors in some innuendo out there, and there's some articles that were written like this past year. There's a chance the UFC heads to Newark in June from what they're trying to do. They put in a bid to get the UFC in June.

And you know who hates Bilal Mohammed? Newark hates Bilal Mohammed. And Balah leaned into that real good before the Gilbert Burns fight, which also took place in Newark. Leon will look like a freaking superstar in Newark of all places, along with the UK. So you can wait for June. Like, you can wait for June for that fight. You could wait two months. All right.

Got a few more super chats Is fly through the A fight of that magnitude AK deserves its own island Right It deserves its own place It can't share the mystique With Justin Gagie and Max Holloway

A fight island you might say Your work island No I think we retired that I think that one's done Yeah thank God With how great 185 is Why put Piper over I don't know what this means

I don't know what this means Moving on next question No I guess I guess they mean why Why push him of all people? I assume this is the... Because he's a guy. He's a day-in-back. That's the sole reason.

He's dating his guy. And as we said multiple times, they didn't really overly push him. He went 3-0. 3-0 means a step-up in competition. They gave him a step-up. So, yeah, it didn't really overly push him. I don't... Yeah.

Also, the result was he lost. Like, this idea that, like, they handed him a golden ticket. He literally just lost. Like, it wasn't a golden ticket. It was a tough fight against a really good guy. Mm-hmm. Yeah. All right. You got another super chat.

Fahim, thank you. What will surprise you more? Ilya by first round TKO or Diaz versus Connor headlining 300. It's Diaz versus Connor by a mile. It would be Diaz versus Connor headlining 300 would be the answer over most things you could possibly put out there that are actually realistic. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Because if Ialia first round TKO isn't like super crazy, I wouldn't pick it. I mean, again, I don't think either of these are.

His opponent just got knocked out in the first round. Right. Yeah. I thought that could. Yeah, of course, I'm with Mike. It's definitely the idea of the D.S. Conner thing. I still think these guys meet up somewhere down the road. But I think as we've said a lot in the past, like it'll be when some magical day

when they're both free of the UFC shackles and can just take all the money for themselves. So yeah, probably the headlining. The thing about Dias and Connor and why it would be unlikely in addition to just the idea of like, you know, this 300 mania is like, They could have done Diaz and Connor if they wanted it. Like this wasn't like something that they were precluded from doing. They let Diaz walk. Connor McGregor was on the roster.

They could have done Diaz and Connor. Like there was no obstacle to Diaz and Connor. So and when I say let Diaz walk, I don't necessarily mean like it was their choice. And Diaz, you know, wasn't negotiating or anything like that. But ultimately the two sides couldn't agree. And Diaz went and did his own thing. Diaz and Connor is a fight that if they pony it up, they could have made at any point. So I think, you know, it's more likely we would see it later than now.

Like when they're backs up against the wall, they'll probably go to some more easy options. And also, you know, to the thing that Casey talked about, I'll tell you what, Nate Diaz ain't signing that check for less than three more zeros. You said two more. Nate Diaz is a three, four zero type of guy. So now that became a very expensive card. So yeah, unlikely, unlikely. Dude, he's about to make a whole bunch of money. it's not done yet, but he's about to make a whole bunch of money to go box Jorge Mazul.

I think he's going to do that first. Just do that. And then we could talk. I don't think Nate coming back to the UFC is like completely out of the question. I think the door is open for a return, mostly for this fight in particular. But at this point, after trying so hard to get out of there and being kind of pushed around by the promotion to get a fight and then you finally get one, they try to throw you to the wolves with Hamzat, breaks in your favor, the MMA, smiled upon the with the like like never before with the Tony Ferguson situation like you go box Jake Paul you lose but you made a whole bunch of money but yet you were the popular guy coming

out your stock still rose because you slapped on a half-ass guillotine in the funniest moment in boxing history and you still came out looking like a million bucks and I're going to go make a whole bunch of money to go box Jorge Mazadol a guy that you've already fought in a fight you probably you might be able to win and even if you don't like Nate's so good at turning losses into wins, that the Connor fight is still there. If you're Nate, you're sitting back and enjoying this UFC 300 stuff. 100%. If there was ever a clearer sign that the UFC needed guys like Nate Diaz,

needed true stars that people wanted to watch fight regardless of their records and just see in there, this is it. You're just sitting back going, oh, price just went up, price just went up, price just went up, and now come end of year, maybe Connor McGregor fights and maybe Michael Chandler's you know, on the ice and Nate Diaz is the one in there and making a boatload of money. So, yeah, he's, he's in, he's in a really nice position is Mr. Nate Diaz. Yeah, every day Nate Diaz like, you see, no, no, that was yesterday's price. Yesterday's price.

That's not today's price. That's not today's price. Oh, I heard, I heard Ariel talk about this. And I actually, like, didn't think of this, but I thought it was actually friggin brilliant. he said he still feels confident that like Connor and Chandler's going to happen June 29th that a lot of this is just like Dana wanting to control the narrative which makes a lot of sense and because Connor has two fights on his deal like and Connor has even said like when he did the in studio spot with Ariel like I want to resign like I want to keep fighting for the UFC and

I believe him when he says that but Connor's also a very savvy business man yes what about Connor Chandler June 29th let's just say Connor comes out there relatively unscathed they do this event at the sphere and then you do Connor Diaz of the sphere as the main event like that's fucking ginormous because Dana's gonna try to make this the biggest thing ever

and I know it's like a love letter to you know Mexican boxing or Mexican convex sports but still like if you want to put on the biggest possible METES is Mexican yeah you want to put the biggest possible event you can

that's it there's one problem there's one problem with that is that that would be the last fight of Connor McGregor's contract theoretically and that fight would cost them the most amount of money that's ever been paid to a fighter in history

so I don't know how you it would be okay with for this card only though maybe I I would guess my guess is yeah he probably will fight Michael Chandler but I think it will be Michael Chandler or Nate Diaz I don't think that the two fight

sequence goes Michael Chandler Michael Chandler and 8D.S. It did the murkiness of that one year. Yeah, they wouldn't give Connor the sphere unless he resigned. Hey, you want to have in our biggest event of all time. You'd have to sign an extension. You have to give us six more fights or eight more fights. My early prediction is Carter McGregor does not resign.

That's my very, very early prediction. I love it. Yeah. All righty. One more moment. A few more super chats. let's go. I figure we had a whole bunch of 300 questions.

It's been a way deserving of UFC 146 treatment. Do you... So I cheated. I cheated. I looked ahead. I looked ahead some of the super chat questions. Sorry, Casey, I don't mean to steal your,

to jack your swagger as it works. Yes, 146 was... There you go. Look at this. Look at this production. He's for it. All heavy weights on the main card. All heavy weights on the main car.

Oh, that one. That one. Yes. Now what Michael is asking you, should middle weights do it? I'll say no, hard no. But let's take this moment to do a quick moratorium on where we are with the middleweight division. Because we, Michael, we had a very heated discussion on our last ranking show about the middleweight division.

And I was at least convinced that it was a top six division in MMA. I'm like, okay, fine. I was like strongly against it first. I was top six. And I think you and, who was it, you and Shaheen were arguing top three? as a top three division and I think you guys are effing insane

but you made strong cases if people go back to listen to the show I think they both made great cases and so to the first few cards I think it I mean I don't think we're at any I don't think either of us are going to change our opinions

because we had some really good moments tonight for sure I thought the main event was good Gregor Rodriguez Brad Navaros was a lot of fun Adolfo Vera again like I said took care of business so middle weights this week were pretty good

the Lite and Imovov fight wasn't terrible It was just kind of like, blank. It was like, you know, just forgettable. It was not as a competitive as to tonight's fight. So, again, none of the really big guns of 185 have competed, obviously, right now, ever since except for circling and duplicacy. So, you know, again, we're still sort of incomplete here.

We don't have to make any judgments. But, you know, I don't know if middleweight has, like, it has blown me away. Hold on. It's got to be the money division. It's got to be the 2024 money division. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on.

Hold on. Lightweight, bantam weight, middleweight? Like, what about, like, featherweight? How is middleweight? Featherweight can be three. I'm okay. I'm okay with that. Yeah, Shaheen has corrected me.

Sheen has corrected me. He said he also said top four. So he said exactly the three divisions you just said, Rick, he would put before middleweight. So top four. They're saying top four. I actually had middle. I actually in that conversation with the momentum coming out of the Strickland DDP fight,

I put middleweight at three. Because it's the money. It's not just depth, which there is more depth to middleweight than it gets credit for. But it is the money division right now. It is the most interesting division moving forward. It's the fight.

Everyone's saying like what's the front runner to headline UFC 300? It's a middleweight fight. It's a middleweight title fight. Yeah. I mean. It's just so interesting right now. Up the top.

If John Jones was healthy, we wouldn't be talking about or if Islam Makachev was willing to fight like I don't think that that's like the right kind of linchpin like just because we're talking about a middleweight fight. I know that but dude Islam Makachchev versus

Justin Gitch is a great fight? Is it bigger than DDP is he right now? I don't think so. Yeah probably I don't know I'm not sure but I think Islam I think Islam's one of those guys that headlines the big cards Yeah, I'm not, I actually, I don't even know how big Islam is actually because I just don't, that side of the world.

I just don't, I don't, I'm not even really, I can't really post something on Instagram and check the comments. And then you'll see. Yeah. You'll see a lot of people in there. Yeah. Yeah. I know he's obvious. I know he's big.

I just don't know how big. And I wouldn't be shocked if he told me he was like bigger than I could even imagine in a sense, you know. I just don't, that's just a part of the world. I just don't know their fandom, really. I guess I could hear, I could hear middleweight fourth, but man, I feel like I'd put flyweight above it to be honest. I feel like I'd put flyweight even above middleweight right now. Nah, it's not enough fighters in the division right now.

Middleweight's pretty top heavy. For me, middleweight has been for a while now, the worst division in the men, the mid side. No, come on. Light heavyweight exists. You can't. You can't. Oh, you're right.

Yeah, I apologize. Yeah. Light heavyweight exists. Yeah. Kind of. Yeah, middleweight, middleweight, light heavy. They're kind of battling for a bottom. But, you know, but I'm not, I'm not making money off these in a sense.

But I'm talking about just what I want to see. Middleweight and 205 are like the bottom for me. Everything else. Again, so I will say we got three out of the four middleweight fight tonight did deliver pretty, you know, pretty memorable moments. I'll remember the Gregor Rodriguez TKO of Brad DeVar. Brad DeVarra's never gets knocked out. So I'll remember that. I'll remember the Jacker message.

A great reffing by Jason Herzog, by the way. Fantastic. Fantastic. Just like a perfect stoppage. Like he was like, boom, that was it. Yeah. Yeah. So Middleweight did overperform a bit tonight.

I don't know if I'd go as far as to say we need to give it its own pay-per-view. Also, nothing has quite the gimmickery of heavyweight, right? They're really only going to do that for heavy weights. It's not. There's no other division. Okay. Could Middleweight get a UFC Apex 146 treatment? Oh, yeah, maybe.

Because it kind of have. It's tonight. It kind of. Tonight not. Yeah, tonight is, is that treatment. Yeah. Can you say the novelty of heavyweight, which is there's some truth to that, but like, I don't know. I feel like an all lightweight card would probably be pretty gnarly. We'll be pretty gnarly.

I just want to say the heavy weight. By the way. Yeah, go ahead. Bigger Rodriguez is my 30th ranked middle way right now, just to throw that out there. I don't think he's number 30. Yeah. And he's, he's super fun. I'm just putting that out there. Yeah, he's not super high right.

But then there's like a, but then there's guys who are ahead of him who are like not super high. Yeah. There's like a chunky middle in there that's like, yeh. Once the top of middleweight is real fun, then it gets real dicey.

Then there's some fun at the, at the, you know, the fringe of iron turtle. Iron turtles 32. Icarat, 33. Uh-huh. Roman Coppulath 36.

Your boy, your boy. I knew you had slipping Coppola of your boy. I, I, Oliver is 42. He's right. He's like 42nd ranked middle way right now at Alpha Vira. Just a refresh. Come on now. 146.

That's because he's got weird loss. The thing is we have weird wonky losses. That's the thing. They have weird wonky losses of which is what for me keeps the division from having any sort of like long lasting appeals. Is any minute now, a lot of these great fighters we just mentioned, can just slip and drop this bizarre banana. appeal of performance.

And it happens in any division. It just feels like it happens in middleweight more often than not. Again, I don't have the hard data for this. But just go back to 140 a second. 146 delivered in a weird way. So just quickly, Stefan Strouve submitted Lavar Johnson, the man with no ground game in 65 seconds. Sipe, meotich beat Shane Del Rosario with axe kicks.

I don't remember this. Wow. Okay. It says axe kicks. I'm on Wikipedia right now. now it's it could be it says elbows on i i'm on wikipedia not trustworthy trust me not the trustworthy source roy nelson 51 second knockout of dave herman man there's some names on here davie hewerman respect was he saskatched up for that one was that was that one of the saskatch ones i don't think i

don't think he was saskatch that okay cane velasquez uh bigfoot one uh two first on knock can valazquez beat the brakes up bigfoot that like that was brutal i remember uh mean worse that was the nice So that I thought the first one was in the strike force Was the first one in strike force? No, they're both in the UFC. No, no.

Oh, no, I'm thinking of DC. I'm sorry, I'm thinking of DC. I'm sorry. They were really close together too. He destroyed them and then they were like, yeah, let's watch him destroy him again. That was great. Well, Bigfoot beat Overreem.

So they were like, oh, that crazy fight. Yeah. We have no one of Overing to fight Kane. Like, they're like, oh, Overeign is going to run through a big foot. And then Antonio Bigfoot, so we had that upset. Yeah. And this fight car was the, this fight car is a day

before my wedding. It was the night before. Oh, wow. So I had like all the groomsmen over, we played poker and like drank some bruskeys and watched. That sounds pretty solid. Watch heavy weighty heavy weights, just heavy weighting it all over the octagon. And there are people who had never watched sport before and they were enjoying themselves until Kane Velascus beat the shit out of Antonio Silva. And they were like horrified. Because it was just a brutal beating. Oh, God. And then JDS, Frank Meere in the, uh, JDS defending the heavy telelegance Frank Mirre in the main event. So a middleweight, you know what?

Middleweight, I think, could put together a card like that. Hell, yes. And it's been almost 12 years. That was almost 12 years ago. And the UFC has not done anything fun since. Never. Not even all. As far as matchmaking.

As far as. It's never even done an all women's main card. And it's right now. It's like, it's right there. They've never even done it. All these freaking apex cars, no. You can do a whole apex card of just guys who have funny names. I don't know.

All alliterative names. All all alliterate. All Parker Porter type guys. No, but the real answer why this could never happen, 146 style is like, think about the names that you just listed off. Like mostly relevant fighters, top fighters, these guys are headlining apex cards. Like if you're going to do middleweight, you would have had Joe Pfeiffer on that 146 version of this middleweight card. But instead he's had Jack Hermanson, but instead he's headlining a fight night. You just couldn't even put together the talent.

all be spread across so many different apex shows and fight nights that you'd never be able to put together a card like that again this is true yeah yeah michael michael do it though he will book like a really solid like middleweight you guys you guys are you guys are underestimating middleweight sharer bullets there brunoz coves there michel perere is there just all of the Nersaulton Rootsabab, who's going to be a freaking just a horrifying guy to fight. They have more get or get got all stars in the middleweight division than any other division in the sport.

The Gerald Mirr Shards of the world don't exist in any other division where it's just get or get got, man. And there's a whole slew of them that we haven't even got to yet. So many. Ehorpe Tera. Oh, man. He's not technically a middleweight yet. He's not technically a middleweight.

Yes. He's a catch waiter. He's a catcherator. But Julian Marquez, I mean, everyone loves watching Julian Marcus fight. Are you convincing you or not convincing you? Yeah, I'm not sure. Where we're going here? What's true?

We're going here, Mike. When has Julian Marquez been in a boring fight? Tell me, because it's been, it's been a long-ass time. Let's keep going. Spring back, though, Hawes. Again. Two more, two more, two more super chat. Yeah, yeah, yes.

It's true. Oh, I like this. Uh, lopsided. Chat, this is a poll. Which fighter is most likely to pull out of their fight by next week? Holocaust, Ian Gary, Henry Sehudo. That's funny. No one. No one is the real answer, but if I have to answer, I'll say Henry Sudo. I'm going to say, Henry. He doesn't want the smoke. He don't want that Marab smoke. Morab smoke? He loses. He's out. He loses he's out. I mean, Sehudo, he should.

I don't mean to be so down on him, but I mean, I guess I'm still, I'm still having some bad from our first ranking show after he lost to Aljo. Well, in a very, very competitive fight, a very good fight, by the way. Yeah. I didn't believe it. I didn't rank him. I didn't rank him. And so I'd be like, oh, you're crazy to not rank out.

And I'm like, I like people who win fights in the last like five years. That's like my, that's just a small criteria I have. It's for better. Yeah. It's my, yeah, I get off on it. And listen, he hasn't won since beating Dominic Cruz and retiring in 2020. And that's just a fact. And if you want to argue he beat Aljo, okay.

fine. I had no problems scoring the fight for Al Jha. It was very close. There's definitely a couple of toss up rounds, so no problem there. But for me, you just have to win fights to come back. You have to win fights to earn your spot. Like, actually get a win. Split decision win, whatever. It doesn't matter. You just have to win your fight to get back. If he loses to Marab, he's, I wrote this somewhere that he doesn't have anything to prove. He doesn't have nothing to prove. He's one of the greatest combat sports athletes of all time. It's not about proving. I know. I know He's a paycheck. Man, he has a bills to pay. That's great. A man's got to eat. I hope he got paid real well for the Aljo fight. I hope he's getting paid real well from the Marov fight, but if

if he never fought again, if he had never fought after the Sterling fight again, I would not have been surprised. And if fingers crossed, I hope nothing happens, because I do want to see this fight. If he pulled out of the Marab fight, I wouldn't be surprised. I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't see Sehudo fight again. I don't think he's like, you know, in poverty, but I get it, of course. It's nice to get some fat checks every now and then. He probably does miss that. Also from just like a practicality logic perspective, like Henry Suhudo is now getting one shot at a title and one shot to put himself back in title contention, like immediately after that. Like these are just chances you take, right?

Like even if, even if ultimately Marab is who we think, we all think Marab is, I think he's a champion awaiting. I think Maraub is the guy in that division. But like you're getting a shot against the guy who if you beat him, now you're back in every single conversation and you're on the verge of another title shot. Like you can build Sohudo versus O'Malley. So like even if you do, like this is worth the dice roll in my opinion every single time. If they're willing to put you in this spot, you roll these dice every single time you got him.

So like, I get this. Even if, yeah, even if, even if, even if, I think, I think So ho, I think so who, I think so who do his analyst work. I think he knows how good Aljo is. I think he knows very, he's very aware of how good Marab is. And he's just like, look, let me give this one more shot. If this is the one I don't get it done on, I think I'm okay, right? Like, I would, this I would say he definitely walks away. But if they didn't give him somebody like a Marab, I could have seen him not fighting again, to your point.

But I think this is a, if you're going to give me one more shot to get back in there and put my name there, I'll take it. No, no problem. And let me just say, I'm saying this within the parameters of this question, if I have to choose among these three. I know Paul Acosta is a weirdo. I know we just saw you in Jerry Bluff, right? Do not disrespect my barber. Do not disrespect my barber. Weirdo is a compliment.

Okay. But I think if I think I'm rolling the dice here and. saying like that it's Costa's turn and Ian Gary's turn to get to have a whatever cost or it's a normal fight for them to actually get in and I would think like if something weird it's going to happen it's going to happen to poor Henry but again this is just a guess and this is just saying I think Costa and Gary are due to actually get back in the cage and fight I think I think all three of these guys are going to fight this is an awesome card they're going to be in a showcase fight they've got the right opponents that's kind of the key to all this is like these are fights

that really mean a lot for for both sides of every single one of these. Like, this is, this is a really good, um, show that I think we're going to get from all three of these guys. Let's all be positive. Nobody's pulling out, baby. Yeah. So who does that? This is a, this is a super chat. You have to give an answer. How, how dare you, New York, Rick? Mike, Mike, do you have one? Man, I have to rank them. You don't have to. You don't have to. I'm just respecting the super chat. You don't have. I'll just keep, I'll just keep them in the order you have them. You already rank them for me. I'll just speak with it.

Yeah. But we'll be the issues of Paula. Paula. I mean, not because, yeah, he's going to be there. It'll be something new.

It'll be something new, but he's going to heck with rabies or something. Like, it's really something with this guy. Like, I don't know. Would that surprise you with Paula Costa at this point? I was petting,

I petted a dog too hard and it bit me. And it's like, oh, yeah, the new UFC-led testing agency does not allow the threshold. of secret juice that he has and he's going to have to be forced out of the fight. There you go.

I'm so excited for 298. I cannot wait. And I think these sloggy past two apex cards like set the tone perfectly. Like they put it on a T beautifully. I can't like I cannot wait for Volcanowski to Poria. This whole main card next Saturday is frigging incredible. Every fight is good. And it starts off.

I mean, how do you kick off a main card? Right. How do you kick off a pay-per-view main card of this magnitude leading into the most highly anticipated main event? What weight class do you call upon to kick off this main card? Oh, that's right. That's right. You call up the middleweights, baby. You call it Fluffy Hernandez and Roman Coppuluff.

There will be no middle-weighty, middle-weight action in that fight. That's how you set the table. Thank you very. I know when I'm thinking about these things. I look at who's setting the table and not who's at the head of the table, not who's like, you know, the main course of the meal. I'm always looking like what what is setting the table and not the top of the bill. You need momentum. That's the wrong way.

Yeah. You need momentum. You need to kick it up beautifully. All right. And now for our final super chat, a final question of this wonderful post show. Why did Ehor the dualist potia not danced? Can I ask something truly? Why does everybody hate him so much?

I like him. What's wrong? Ask Shaheen. Ask Shaheen and the rest of the Shogun hive. Because he paid Shogun. You don't retire Shogun and then dance. You don't do that. You don't do it.

He's kind of fun. He's kind of goofy and fun. Like, I like the guy. Everybody seems to hate the guy. Online. I get it. Look, you know, Shongan means a lot to everybody. And I'm, you know, I'm one of those old heads.

I get it. Shogun is the man. But, like, I don't know. He's kind of goofy. He's funny. I'm fine with this guy. I mean, people were... Was it Chris Gutierrez?

Yeah, do we hate him? Did he do a dance over Frankie Eggers? He did it. Hey, you're retired now. Hey, I did it. It's a dancing. And people were really upset with the matchmaking in the place. I wish the audio people could see Casey's dance moves.

They need to... If you're listening, go to the YouTube for that. Fast forward to near the end of the show and catch this. I guess you're already here. I guess I can't give that advice. And the other thing, people were very upset with the matchmaking in the first. place, everyone was just constantly asking, why are they making Shogun fight this guy for his last fight? Who is Ior Porturia? And then the fact that he lost and the guy danced on him,

they took out their anger on the matchmaking on Eeyore. Eeyore just did his job. You know, Eeyer just did his job. Yeah. It was probably feeling himself after. Holy crap, I just beat one of the greatest fighters of all time. I'm feeling myself. I'm going to do it. I got to hit my move. Why didn't he dance? Why didn't he dance on Saturday? He was pretty gassed. He was pretty gasped. I mean, it was a clear win for him. But I still think, by the way. I know it was a kind of a stink bomb performance, but like, he's a dangerous guy. Ewer had to work for that win. He had to work for that win. That was not an easy victory. And he looked pretty tired. So yeah, I think dancing was the last thing in his mind.

Unless I'm mistaken, but it seemed like at the end, he was on the wrong side of it, right? Like in the late part of the fight, unless I'm misremembering how that fight went. I thought he was clearly like losing the final part of that fight. But maybe I'm misremembering. But yeah, it seemed like he was out of gas. It seemed like that was not his objective. He was funny on the mic, though. I thought that was good. I thought that was, you know, interesting.

I don't get the hate. I'm team, Ehor. I'm in. Tell Shane to call off the dogs. It's him on social media every time. It should get people to go after, just go after the do list. I'm like, settle down. I hate to see what he's going to do to the person who retires Tony Ferguson.

I mean, that's going to be. Why would you bring that out? It would be brutal. I mean, you know, maybe I'm hitting a beehive. Maybe I'm poking the bear a little bit. Let's see. Let's see if you respond. All right.

And sorry, one more before we get out of here. You're going to end up like McCulley Culkin and my girl, Eric. That's the reference. Super, super, super sad reference. Spoiler. Spoiler. Spoiler. Oh, sorry, spoiler.

Jeez. I'm allergic to be stings. Yeah. It hurts my soul. Oh. Full circle, baby. Rick, you don't deserve an explanation from a Killers Jr. Also, you need to hit up Polo.

He's right. He's right. I need Paulo, ASAP. So after he fights, you can fly to the MMA hour studio and we'll run it back. And that's the real prize, you know, getting to cut my hair one more time. No ponytail this time, but enough, enough that, you know, we could do a nice little cut. So yeah, you're right. You're right about that. Thank you, friend.

And thank you all for all the compliments of my dancing. You guys are great. I can't get out of my brain right now. Elite stuff. You're explaining it. Like the tone of your voice was like with the dance. It was incredible. I'll have to hit up Chris Gutierrez.

Be like, can you show me your best dance move? Because I have to make sure these all match up. So, man. I mean, what a member of two memorable post-fight shows following not so memorable apex cards. But boy, oh boy, we are on the road to UFC 298. But we have one last stop. Thanks to this UFC Vegas City card, AK and I doing some matchmaking tomorrow. We discussed what's next for Jack Branson, Danny Gay, the main card winners and a wild card pick.

And then we're officially on the road to Anaheim, Alexander Bolkinovsky versus Elite for you. Cannot wait. It's going to be fun. I will be on site. I'll be at the Honda Center. I will be there. I am Jose Young's this week. Yes.

I wish you just said I am Jose Young. I am Jose Young. I am Jose Young's. Well, for Jose Young's, New York Rick, and AK, I am Mike Heck. Thank you. Have a good night, everybody. I like comic books. What a talented mimic, J.C.

The dance moves, the comic book, he's got it all. Happy birthday, AK. Shout out to Middle Aid. You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network. Okay, only 10 more presents to wrap. You're almost at the finish line. But first? There, the last one.

Enjoy a Coca-Cola for a pause that refreshes.