MMA Fighting - UFC Vegas 87 Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Rozenstruik's Win; Plus, Did Mokaev Earn Title Fight?

Episode Date: March 3, 2024

Jairzinho Rozenstruik capped off Saturday's UFC Vegas 87 event at the APEX with a referee stoppage TKO victory after the fourth round against previously undefeated Shamil Gaziev. While that fight was the main event, the bout with the highest stakes in most people's minds was the flyweight fight that saw Muhammad Mokaev defeat Alex Perez via unanimous decision. With flyweight champ Alexandre Pantoja potentially needing an opponent for UFC 301, did Mokaev do enough to get him that shot? MMA Fighting's Mike Heck and Eric Jackman react to Rozenstruik's big win and what should be next, if Mokaev's performance warrants that championship opportunity, and if not, who could be the guy. Additionally, they discuss Umar Nurmagomedov's win over a game Bekzat Almakhan and if a rebooking against Cory Sandhagen could be in play, Vinicius Oliveira's knockout of the year contender, and much more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Eric Jackman: @NewYorkRic Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Support for this show comes from the Audible Original, the downloaded two, ghosts in the machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever. Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprise his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the Audible Original Blockbuster. The Downloaded, it's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, What are you willing to lose to save the ones you love?

The Downloaded 2, Ghosts in the Machine. Available now, only from Audible. Support for this show comes from the Audible original, The Downloaded 2. Ghosts in the Machine. The Earth only has a few days left. Rosco Cudullian and the rest of the Phoenix colony have to re-upload their minds into the quantum computer, but a new threat has arisen that could destroy their stored consciousness forever.

Listen to Oscar winner Brendan Fraser reprised his role as Rosco Cudulian in this follow-up to the audible original blockbuster, the downloaded. It's a thought-provoking sci-fi journey where identity, memory, and morality collide. Robert J. Sawyer does it again with this much-anticipated sequel that leaves you asking, what are you willing to lose to save the ones you love? The downloaded two, Ghosts in the Machine, available now only from Audible. We're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, those are the victory horns. You're hearing them at 7.11 p.m. Eastern Standard Time, and they sound for the underdog. Jarazino Biggie Boy, Rosenstrike gets the win, gets the finish, not in the way people expected. Fourth round, referee stoppage, TKO victory. Jarzino Rosenstrike back on track. And Shemil Gaziv, I've been pronouncing his name wrong the entire time. Shout out John Anick for telling us how to pronounce it correctly throughout the broadcast. But Biggie Boy back on track as we welcome you to the UFC Vegas 87 post-fight show here at M.A.fighting.com.

I am Mike Heck being joined by the incomparable New York Rick, made with the greatest theme song in MMA. Good to have you here, Rick. It's always a pleasure. Likewise, thanks for having me, Mike. And I agree with you. I do have the best themed song in MMA. And I'm happy to talk some fights.

Yes. Casey is here on the ones and twos. You'll hear from him later because we're going to hear from you guys. And of course, if you want to get your super chats in, you just want to hop right to the front of that line, you can go ahead and do that. So, New York, Rick. Jarzanio Rosenstrike wins.

Fight was not a quick one like a lot of people expected it to be. Shemil Gadziev, excuse me, was absolutely gassed about seven minutes into this fight. He was fighting with his mouth open through most of round two, all of round three, all of round four, while Jarzina Rosenstrike was just peppering him with jabs and leg kicks and body shots over and over again. And it seemed like in the fourth round, Rosenstrike, probably could have gotten him out of there anyways, but he decided to stay patient, stay poised, if you will.

And then in the end, Mark Goddard being the professional referee that he is, Giziv having an argument with his coaches, basically telling him I'm done. I don't think I can do this anymore. Can't see. Mark Goddard tells the doctor to come into the octagon and says, hey, I want to hear exactly,

I want to know exactly what he's saying to these guys right now. And you found out of because Eve can't see out of an eye. and without even questioning it, stops the fight. So A plus refereeing from Mark Goddard, in my opinion. But your reaction to the fight, Rosenstrike's performance, and Gazeve's performance

in just a second UFC fight in his first UFC main event. Yeah. Great work by Mark Goddard. Asked the corner to repeat kind of the conversation that was happening. I think he could tell that something was going on there.

And they said that he said he cannot see out of that one eye. When reiterated, I believe I actually heard Giziv say that he couldn't see out of the eye. and then Goddard waved it off. So great job by Goddard kind of trying to get to the bottom of that. Wasn't a main event that we needed to see continue at that point. It seemed like Rosenstrike had completely taken over and Gaziv was done.

So yeah, why even send them back out there for any additional damage, especially if he compromised? So great job by referee Mark Goddard, as usual. He tends to be one of the better referees. As far as the performance, like you can't really dock Rosenstrike in any capacity. Like he did exactly what he needed to do. It was a patient performance. It wasn't the, you know, blood and guts, bangor type knockout that potentially sometimes the UFC tries to push

when they do these heavyweight main events. But, and don't get me wrong, I don't think it was just a byproduct of anything the UFC saying. I think a lot of people expected this to be over relatively quickly. We did not get that, but it's hard to fault Rosenstrike for any of the things that happened here. He was clearly the fighter who was winning this fight and was trying to finish.

finish Gazeve. He was just not being successful. I imagine if he did come out one more round, there's probably a possibility he would have gotten it, the cleaner way and been able to finish this fight, but not necessary. A TKO is a TKO. And as far as Giziv goes, like, not impressive. Like, was just not a performance that's going to make me think that his long-term prospects are very good. Very reminiscent of Abbas Magamatov, in my opinion. Like, similar vibes to that, where it was just like, yeah, I've got one round in me. And then you meet somebody who's been around the UFC for a while and you just cooked. So not impressive.

And Jarzino did what he needed to do. I don't think there were like huge stakes here, huge implications. So, you know, there's not a lot to really like unpack from this because Jarzino will just be in another main event against another lowly ranked heavyweight at some point. And that's what the future is. But yeah, not a lot of stakes here. and went about as expected. Yeah, there are like no stakes to this fight at all. It's crazy.

He's about to make against Waldo Cortez-A-Costa. Sure. Freaking apex, is he not? But New York, why are we not doing the Derek Lewis fight? This is just right there. It's been there for years. It's the most obvious choice. And I kind of feel like the winner of this fight

was probably going to get Lewis anyways. And I feel like even if Gizib won, they just sort of threw him right in there with Derek Lewis because he's a big name. And that's the kind of guy. you can get over against to some degree. Like, look at Sergei Spivak. He goes out and thumbs up Derek Lewis

and then gets a main event in freaking Paris with Cyril gone and we all know what happened there. But why are we so hesitant to book the Derek Lewis fight? That poster is going to be money. And like, what a fight? Like, that just makes so much sense. There's no way that fight's boring. With it, you've sold me.

Let's book it. Derek Lewis versus Jarzino Rosenstrike. I'm in. Okay. Well, we could probably move on here. Because again, there's not a lot of stakes. I mean, Vitor Petrino, Tyson Pedro, that fight happened. It was Tyson Pedro's final fight of his career.

We had multiple retirements on this card. Tyson Pedro and Jamie Pickett both announced their retirement. So happy trails to both of those gentlemen. Tyson Pedro always super exciting. Jamie Pickett. And I guess, you know what? Shout out to the UFC. Pickett, they let Pickett fight out the rest of his contract.

He said it was going to be his last one. and his career ends on a decision loss to Eric, your boy, Anders. But there were two fights in particular that, actually three, really, that people continue to talk about. And there are a couple of highlights as well. Let's talk about the stakes and the feature belt, because this is the one everybody talked about. This is the one everyone's like, this should be the main event.

Flywates, Mohamed Makhoyev versus Alex Perez, especially with UFC 301 lingering, coming up in May, and Alexander Pantosia expected to defend. his title in that card. We just don't know who the hell he's going to fight because Brandon Morana lost to Brandon Royval last week at UFC Mexico City.

So Royval says his knee's good, he wants to fight. Muhammad Mikhail if he goes out there and dust up Alex Perez, it seemed like the title shot was his. Even Pantosia, speaking to our own Giramee Cruz, said the same. Chayev wins, sure. I'll fight him. I think that makes a lot of sense for UFC 301. Baha'aif gets the win, and that's the most important thing.

Yes, he seems like he's sick. He's tweeting out photos. of his own vomit in toilets, but he won. But to you, New York, Rick, is this the guy who's about to fight for a world title? Was this the performance that tells you, you know what, the guy needs an opponent. Let's just throw him in there with Pantosia and just see what happens? Or is this just not enough? Are the UFC going to have to just completely pivot here to either Royval or somebody else after

this? I think there are two different questions there. I think the question of, is he going to be next? is different than is this a performance that should make him next? Because the answer to is he going to be next is possibly the answer to should this be their performance that makes him next is absolutely not. The performance by Randen Royval against Brandon Moreno is 10 heads and shoulders above this, 15, 20 heads and shoulders above this performance.

Like it's not even in the same realm. It's not even in the same class. Brandon Morano, Brandon Royval's performance against Brandon Moreno is in a different stratosphere than what we saw from Makayev here. So the performance, no, but is he going to be next? Possibly. I mean, Royval is not in a great spot. Even though he had a better performance, he's not in a great spot because he's lost to Pantosia twice. Like there's just a reality to that. And the second one was a drubbing. Like there was not a good showing from him there. So I would understand if they went a different direction. I would understand why they wouldn't potentially want to

go back to Brandon Roy Val. But if you're asking me if this was the performance that stamped his claim to a UFC title shot, absolutely not, not impressive. I honestly don't know what to think about this whole situation because I'm very curious how the UFC views him in his future right now, because how can you not look at this guy and be like he's going to be a champion at some point? But when you look at some of the other up-comers, probably puts a damper on that talk, honestly.

Okay, that's fair. But if the UFC is fully invested in Muhammad Mikhail, like they are convinced that this guy is going to be a champion for years and years to come once he captures the belt, I actually feel like it would be promotional malpractice to give him a title shot after that performance. Like I think if you're fully invested in this guy for the next six or seven years, I think throwing him into a title fight right now after that performance would just be awful. Like I think it's just a bad business decision. And keep this guy cooking a little bit more. He obviously has holes that he needs to improve upon. Let's let him continuously slowly make these strides. Because I do think he's going to get there.

And I think he's going to learn from this performance. And Alex Perez, to his credit, is not a scrub. Like the guy is a solid, like a solid fighter. He's fought for a belt. He's got on nice winning streaks in this division. He's beat some real good dudes. And I thought he actually fought pretty well. Like, McIyev couldn't take him down early.

He was doing a real good job defending. Yeah, he ended up on his back and ended up in trouble in the final seconds of that round. But it didn't hurt Perez. He kept coming on. He had a good third round. So Perez is just a wily vet, man. He got in there and he got the job done. And to me, it's very important that when you have your worst days, especially when you're

an up-and-comber and there's a lot of hype behind you, getting the win is the most important thing. Hamzaa Chimaia, obviously was like a fight of the year against Gilbert Burns. but a lot of people poo-poohed Hamzat Shamaev after that because, oh, he got tested, he didn't run through Gibba Burns. He might have even lost that fight. So to me, I think you've got to look another direction. And if they're not fully invested in Moham Mahayev, then maybe you do throw him in there and just like see what he can do. But if I'm fully invested in this kid and I think he's going to be the face of our division for the next seven or eight years, once he gets the belt, I think you cannot throw him into a title fight after that. Am I crazy?

Here's where I'd push back slightly. One, I don't think the UFC is capable of that type of long-term planning. I don't think they're able to look at guys and say eight years from now, this guy's going to be a champion because the sport is too wild. The sport is too fluid. And you just can't realistically work with timelines like that. UFC wants to get Sean O'Malley in there to win a belt at the first available opportunity that they feel like they can conceivably do it. And then they do it. And you roll the dice on that and you see where it goes.

I don't think that that's how the UFC operates. I don't think they can look at Makayev and say he's going to be the champion in X, Y, Z years, and we're going to have to do it that way. I think if they can conceivably put him into a title shot right now, they would. And I don't think that's off the table. And in addition to that, flyweight seems to be the division just because of the lack of true contenders or bad luck or whatever the reasons are, that even if you lose this title shot, you're going to be back there in three fights. anyway, you're going to be fighting for a title again in three fights.

So I don't think he would lose much stock if he was to go in there against Pantosia, who I think everybody would have him as a massive favorite, Pantosia that is, as a massive favorite over Makayev right now. If he lost, he'd be back in three fights anyway. So I don't think there's a lot on the line in terms of that. I don't think the long-term potential of Makayev is sacrificed in that regard because of how quick it is to get back to a flyway title shot. I don't think you're really hurting much of anything.

He beats Roy Val or Moreno or somebody on the, back end of a loss to Pantosia and he's right back in there. We just literally saw this with Royval. So I don't think, I don't think he's at risk of anything there, but I will say if you, it's important to paint the picture and it's important to have all the context. If he truly was sick and this was him at his worst, then it's a pretty decent performance. It's, it's, it's, it's something that you look at and can go, I can understand how he got to this position. I agree with you. I don't think Alex Perez is a pushover and I think Alex Perez is somebody who was looking at Muhammad Maghyev and saying, if I can stop his takedowns, I have a chance to win this fight and

tried to effectively do that. That was his game plan in this fight. He just wasn't active enough once he was able to stop those takedowns. So if somebody's coming in with that game plan, you're not going to look your best. So I think there are circumstances here where you could say maybe this is the worst we're going to see Mohammed Makayev look and that you would hope in a potential title fight he'd look better. I just don't think that he's going to be the guy that's going to come in there and beat Pantosia, especially with the way he's been looking lately. But I also don't hate the idea just for the idea of Pantosia getting a fresh face. Honestly, if I'm in the U.S. issues, I would ask Pantosia, hey, who do you want to fight?

Just give us the name and we'll make it happen. I think he's good enough to have earned that. And I also think there is a lack of really great options here. I think Royval would be the best fight of the potential options, although I've been seeing a lot of people talking about Kioji Horaguchi. Let's go. I don't hate that. I don't hate that one bit. I think that'd be absolutely incredible. I don't know if that's even in the realm of possibility at this moment in time, but if we're choosing between Makayev and Royval,

I would rather see the Royval fight. I think he would do better. But I don't hate it. I don't hate it either. This is a division that just doesn't have a lot of names at the top. After Manel caught blue weight and didn't get that fight, all bets were off. And now we're in a position where there's not like a clear guy who stamped their ticket,

but the best performance was Royval by far. Yeah, I'd be real curious to see what Pantosia has to say about that Because I already beat Royval twice Does he look at it like, all right, I'll just beat this dude again Or is he like I want to fight somebody different? I just, it's going to be so interesting Because I honestly think a lot of this depends on what happens next week too Because I think if Jailton Al-Meda goes out there

It just runs Curtis Blades in like two minutes I can see a big time world where the UFC says hey Tommy Aspinall, you want a headline of pay-per-view? Oh, wow. In Brazil against Jelton Al-Meda, let's do that. There's your main event. And then it doesn't really matter who Pantosha fights. He's the co-main event,

and he can make the Brazilian fans happy with whoever he fights. So I think a lot of will hamper on that. So that's rough for Tom Aspinall. That's a rough spot to put Tom Aspinall in. And I'm not saying that from the perspective that I think Jolten Al-Meda beats Tom Aspinall because right now you ask me, I don't think he does. I think Tom probably beats him. But man,

to go into enemy territory after winning the interim title and being told no by Stipe and John and having other plans, that's a rough spot for Tom. But I do like it. I think it's a good main event if they're in Brazil. But if it is ultimately Alessandre Pantosia's card, if they ultimately are hinging this on the Brazilian pay-per-view on Alashandre Pantosia, I'd say just ask him. Let him choose. He should be able to pick it.

Let him choose what he wants. pick Picio Gogi or Gucci If that's an option Run that immediately Oh God that'd be incredible So yeah Khy gets a job done

And hopefully we see better days for him I would like to see him get one more fight Even if it's like a brand of Royval Throw him in there with Steve Erseg I'd watch the hell out of that fight Because he Maybe you throw him in there He goes out and just ice his match now

With a walkoff KO Why isn't he in the mix I know he's not like the most He's not a trash shocker or anything, but the man delivered. If this is like a, John and Anna called this moving day for the flyweight. If that's how the UFC viewed this, then Steve Urseg is the mover and shaker of all these flyweight, is he not?

Yeah, man, I was very impressed by Steve Urseg and have been ever since he came into the UFC, especially the circumstances with which he came into the UFC. The dude's got something. And yeah, you're right. Like, he's not going to be the one who's talking trash and doing that part of the job. But when it comes to the performances, man. and he has been absolutely incredible. One of the highlights of the night for sure.

I'm a fan of what that dude's bringing into the flyweight division. Yeah, that was nasty. I actually picked Matt Schnell to have like this come from behind fight. And I thought a fight was very similar to we had. As he does, as he has done before, I don't think you're, I don't think you're alone there. I think there's some people who thought Schnell could do something like that. But two action guys. I love that matchmaking and I love that fight.

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Let's talk about what happened in the second fight of the main card. Umar Nirmaga made off 16 and O'nodh heading into this fight, taking on a promotional newcomer, Bexat Al-Malmakan, who, if you're a hardcore fan, you know this guy. is pretty damn good, probably should have been in the UFC anyways, takes this fight on relatively short notice. They said on the broadcast they were kind of gearing him up to be on the contender series, but he takes this fight with Umar. And seconds in, he drops Umar and hurts him bad.

And we're just like, oh my God, I cannot believe this is going down. But then Umar just somehow turned a knockdown into a seamless takedown. Like, it was insane how he pulled that off. And then from that point on, Umar, his takedowns just could not be stopped. He started battering Bexot around. And I think it was 2.3026s and a 30 to 25 in there, which I have no issue with any of those scorecards. Umar moves to 17 and 0. This guy is very, very good.

Calls out Corey Sanhagen to go ahead and rebook that fight. Just to give away my on to the next one selection, it's pretty obvious. That is one million percent the fight I want to see. Your takeaways from Umar, Nurmaga, Adolf, and his performance. I'd actually like to start with Amalekon, who I was just impressed with. Like to step in there against Umar in this, in this environment and this notice, he did well. He did well enough. He was able to escape some rocky positions.

He obviously rocked them in the beginning of the fight. And it's just one of those where you go, I really like to see his next fight because he stepped into deep waters right off the bat. As you said, it sounded like they were grooming him for contender series. and instead to then fight Umar Nirmagamadov. Like, that's a huge step up. That's a massive moment. And you kind of think, okay, this was what he needed to do to get into the UFC. Now I'd like to see what he does next and to go from here.

But I'm interested in that. Like I'm interested in what he does next. As far as Umar, like, yeah, he got rocked. And then he just completely dominated the rest of the fight. Turned it on, completely controlled it. As you said, two 3026s, two 3026s and one 30, 25. like not really in danger from that point on in the fight and just completely did what he needed to do.

Called out Corey Sandhagen, that's the fight to make. And I do think there's an element here where you look at Omar and you don't see the sheer dominance that you saw with Habib or even in Islam, although Islam did get knocked out earlier in his career. But when it comes to bell to bell, you don't see that. And the positional control that Habib had where it led to some finishes, because he was just so far ahead of people that you could see a world

where you could talk yourself into a Corey Stan Hagan giving him trouble. Then you can even get higher than that in the rankings and start talking about names like Marab de Valishvili and others. And there's a world where he doesn't just immediately jump to the top and become the future champion. So I'm also interested in what Umar does from here

and how he looks in future performances. There's the elements there. There's the ability to find those takedowns and have that position that we've seen from Habib and the other Dagavis Astani fighters. But I do think there's a little more vulnerability that has been shown and something that would make his next step more interesting.

And if that next step is Corey Sandhagen, extremely interesting. Yeah, I just want to keep seeing this dude fight. Like I really do. All right. We're trying to figure out bonuses. We will let you know the second we hear about them. I think we know what the performance of the Knights are. Steve Ersig is one of them.

We will get to the other one in a moment. Shout out the rest of the winners. Eric Anders. Hans Jamie Pickett, his final loss of his career. Amon Sahabhi with the upset win over Jabe Basharad. That was crazy. What a victory. He was like something like a six to one dog or something.

I mean, an insane upset. He was like a plus 535 or something like that. He was nuts. Yeah. Great fight. Great fight. Great performance. Ariel Hawani just crushing it inside of the box.

Christian Lee, Wry Duncan. finishes Claudia Ribeiro. Clodger-Rabre had nothing for CLD at all. CLD just looking a little violent in there. Good performance. Ludwig Klein just bodies up, AJ Cunningham, who was tougher than a $2 steak.

I was so glad that he got him out of there because I just did not want to see AJ Cunningham come out for another round. Looking forward to see Cunningham at 1.45, though, on a full camp. Dude is a dog, and I am excited to see what is next for him. Loik Rajbov pulls off at upset early.

gets a finish in the opening fight. But how about Venetius Olivera, New York, Rick? Crazy fight with Sopie. And it is wild. It is crazy. Venetius Oliver hurts him real bad. And then, boom, flying knee from hell lands absolutely perfect. That was one of the scariest knockouts you will ever see.

Like, I just, I looked at that knockout and I think to myself, I don't know how this guy's ever going to be the same again after getting knocked out like that. It was just a game changer. it is definitely going to be on our list for knockouts of the year at the end of the year. I'd be stunned if it isn't. What a freaking knee that was. Incredible. When he had him lined up against the cage, I was like, oh, boy, whatever he's about to do is going to be brutal.

And when he landed that flying knee, yeah, I mean, clearly going to be one of the knockouts of the year. Loak Dog era is beginning. Like, I'm a fan. I'm all in on this. Like, that was some vicious, vicious stuff. And his contender series knockout was also one of those that makes you go, oh, okay, this is a guy. This is somebody I need to pay attention to. Flying knee for the ages, incredible knockout.

My most memorable moment from this card, hands down. I will remember this Loke Dog K.O. forever. Yeah, absolutely. Still waiting on a fight of the night. But yes, Steve Versaig, Beniche Zolvera, well earned 50K for those performances. And man, this card was something. prelim started off on fire. Everyone was like, oh boy, wait until we get to the main card.

Steve Ursaid kicks it off with a big knockout. And then, you know, things kind of, well, I mean, Doom our performance is impressive. And then, you know, not tremendously action-packed fights the rest of the way. But that is UFC Vegas 87 is in the books. We will let you know what the fight of the night is. If there is one, or maybe they just add a couple of performance ones. Or maybe they just said to themselves, you know what, there is no fight of the night.

just these two guys get bonuses, which I think would be a little bit unfair. But in the meantime, let's bring in E. Casey Liden. Let's hear from the peeps. There he is. Oh, we're here. Sorry. Hi.

Oh, a Clio Roundtree question. I know. Hi. I love Khalil Rowndry. Let's talk. How can you not? How can you not? All right.

Man, no love of Makai. I was actually, I didn't feel that way about the fight, but if that's what you saw. Tell us. What did you take away? That McIyev is really good. And I think Alex Perez is a top 10 flyway. And he, I just think McIvv is getting better.

And he just is an incredible scrambler and incredible wrestler. And I actually was entertained by the fight. Yeah, I would like to see maybe more damage. But I think we say that about every Micaheuf fight. but but my kaiva is just he's just tough and like i just think he's really good and i think if i'm pantosia i take that mokai fight right now because i don't think mokai if is getting worse he's going to get better so beat him up now beat him up he wanted he called for the he caught for the title fight right at the end yeah he called for it you got you got your promo you got you got your

quote you got your put in the put in the promo put joe rogan saying he's an animal you know all that stuff you got it So I think McIves younger, I think McIves young enough too, to, if he does lose to Pantosia and gets his butt kicked, he can grow from it and then become better. And then we'll see him when he's 25 instead of 23 or whatever. I mean, it sounds like we're mostly on the same page. Do you think that that performance was better than Royvals? Do you think that kind of cruising in the final three rounds against Moreno is,

less impressive than barely speaking it out against Perez. Actually, my big issue, actually, I want to bring this up. Sorry, my big issue of the Mikhailov, though, is he fought the apex on the third fight from the top. It wasn't even like the co-main. It wasn't even like a featured fight. And that's actually the bigger issue from a promotional standpoint. Who saw this fight?

What weirdos were at home watching this? Watching this. Good point. You know, and Roy Vaugh fought main event, fight night, sold out. arena. That's why I would still give it the Roy Vaughal just because of promotional standpoint, but I have no issue of McIyev getting it. And if they want a fresh matchup, I would do Pantosha McIve, because Mikeyav, I think, can't handle a loss and come back from it. And the UFC can have this really kind of, I know he's not the youngest champion, but the second youngest champion ever,

you know, all that stuff. So I think there's a lot of ways to go. But I didn't, I'm not, I'm not, I wasn't I'm not poo-pooing Makayev's performance as much as maybe you are. No, no one's, I think we agree. I think we're on the same page. He won. That's all that matters.

For us, Royval had won. I had Royval having a better performance, right? Like significantly, especially against the level of competition that, Brandon Moreno is. But yeah, I wouldn't poo-poo a Makayev title shot.

I just don't think this was the performance that goes, I need to have the title shot, whereas he had that. opportunity, right? He goes out there and smokes them. It's his. It's his title. I just don't think it was possible, honestly, the card placement and on an apex card compared to what we've all had in a sold out arena. I just think everything was set up for a Royval, but I understand what you're saying. I understand what you're saying. That's all. I honestly think, because I don't, I would be stunned if Dana White does a press conference. I'd be stunned if he was even in the building for this card. But,

Venetius and So Pie Fight of the Night So Venetius gets two bonuses Congratulations He deserves it Whoa we got the full 100K Good for him 100K Good for him

Is Tristan Connelly The last guy to do that Yeah Was that the Pereira fight? Yeah because Perrera missed weight So he got the whole 100K For Fight of the Night Oh okay we got the other side

But I can't remember Yeah someone got Fight of the Night and performance So, yeah. It's been a minute. Congrats. It's been a minute. No, but what I was saying is Dana,

because if Dana goes up and does a press conference today, you know he would be asked about Mikhail. Is he going to fight Bantosha? Yeah. And Dana White is not going to come out and say, yeah, he's next. He's not going to do what he did with Marab after he beats Ahudu and be like, yeah, dude, Maraub's fighting the winner of Sean O'Malley versus Marl Mavara.

He's next. When he's asked about that, he'll say, I don't, he, This would be a, I don't make fights the night of the fight, we'll have a matchmaking meeting on Tuesday type of answer. You know what I mean? And I think that would probably hurt McCly have chances, but maybe it helps that that post-fight press conference isn't happening.

And we don't have a quote that's all over the internet of Dana saying, eh, not ready to say that. I don't know, match meeting, matchmaking meeting on Tuesday. So we'll see what happens. But I do agree to New York, Rick. Ask Fantasia, you pick. You decide. Because that's kind of the position he's in right now.

So. And this is all the assumption that we think that Pantosia is going to be on 301, right? He's got to be. They don't have many other options. And it seems like he's been kind of forecasting that. So. Yeah. They could run an interim BMF belt.

Who knows? This is the UFC. Come on. Yeah, that's true. But I see where everyone's talking about. I see the comments. Oh, Mikhail, you know, he was on his knees the whole time. Yeah.

It's like, whatever. Yeah. Dude, no one's, no one's arguing his ceiling. Like, it's a high ceiling. He's good. Dude's real young and real good. There's the argument, though, to send him that title fight too soon and maybe take a hellacious butt kicking. But the boy wants it, man.

He's been, he's been doing, he's been fighting at a high level for a bit now. And I'm down for it. But I wouldn't be mad at Nickroom in there with, yeah, I wouldn't be mad if they threw McIff in there with, like, Nikolaoou or Kau or Kikar, France, like any of these. guys like I wouldn't I wouldn't be mad if they did that and then if he comes out and has like a undeniable performance then you give him the shot but either way if they give him the shot now they give him the shot and we'll see what he can do cool cool all right got some questions got some super chatty's first got Casey Carpenter here all right there's one there's one super chat I'm waiting for because I know it's coming who could that be we talked brother I think we know

Casey Harbourn is, is Jarzanian Roadstrike the Apexie champion? Is there one? I guess. Is it a new title? I saw some comments saying, is Apexie the new middleweighty? I kind of feel like Brennan Allen could be the Apexie champion too. What is the distinction between Apex? What is this distinction between middleweighty and Apexie, though?

That's a great. Casey, the shades back in describe what an Apexie? Describe. exe means put it in put it in terms i'll understand i don't know just someone who shines at the apex rosal strike kind of does well in the apex got a lot of main events there okay um got a super chat from our buddy terence at leverett terence umar doesn't deserve corey to wrestler uh i'm okay umar deserves corey just from the simple fact that corey's the only one who seems willing to fight him that's ranked above him.

Like the opportunities are few and far between. The fact that Corey, I mean, honestly, I believe it says more about Corey than anything. The fact that Corey is willing to potentially sacrifice his ranking in a fight with Umar says the world of Corey Sanhagen, because he's not one of those people who believe, he in his heart believes he deserves to be fighting up and fighting for belts and fighting in number one contender fights. But he seems to be the only one who can put that to the side at certain times and do what needs to be done in fight umar so the fact that he's even already pre saying yes to it and

considering it and has already been booked in it um that's the fight to make because quite frankly like who else are you going to get to say yes like it doesn't really happen the predictions coming into this fight calling umar versus uh almakan almakan how do you say his name yeah amakan amic yeah that that could be like the potential like um we're was that Armand versus Islamahad. And you know what? Those comparisons, we have to go back on this fight in a couple of years, but that could have been there because that gentleman did look very good.

He did look like we will see him as a minimum top 15 bantam weight for a good while. Was that the most impressive 30-25ing you've ever seen? I can't think of him that who's ever looked better getting 30-25. Is this true? He looked good. He looked like he belonged in there in the worst of circumstances, right? Hey, you're coming into the UFC short notice, fight Omar, let's go. Like, that's not an easy thing.

But he looked as good as you could look for getting 3025. And look at this. Terrence, we love you. But Umar 3025 is a man. And we're still saying, does Umar really deserve to move up the rankings? Like all those criticisms of taking this fight kind of came back. Now, we're hearing it now. Well, he didn't destroy him in 10 seconds.

So clearly this is like a loss for Umar, which it wasn't. It was a very good fight. And he still destroyed him. But he didn't finish him and he got hit once. You know, so it's just fans. But this is what makes what Corey is potentially doing here so much more impressive. Because when you do that, when you fight down, when you fight somebody who's that many spots away, if you don't look like a world beater, people go, oh, you stink. and Corey's like, I just want to test my,

Corey Sanhagen, God bless him. I don't want to make this like a Corey Sanhagen love fest, but I do really love Corey Sanhman and his mentality toward fighting has consistently said he is interested in winning championships. He wants to prove he's the best. But the path to that is fighting and testing himself against the best fighters in MMA.

That is how you prove you're the best. It is not rank versus rank. It is not this versus that. It is, give me the best possible MMA opponent that I can get at the moment, and I will fight then, and if I beat them, give me the next best. And he continues to stay on that path. And if Umar is the guy that can get him to the next level above that, then that's what he'll do.

And shout out to Corey Sanhagen and all respect to Corey Sanhagen because he is living a true martial arts lifestyle. And there are fewer and further between these days. And that's why it's hard because most people don't have that mentality. Most people want to sit on their ranking as long as they can and only fight people above them. And credit to Umar for taking this fight. Like he deserves credit. Hell yeah.

Like this is what this is. Big risk. That's the most dangerous fight. It's the most dangerous fight there is. A good fighter that nobody knows. Like it's a very dangerous thing. Two last things I want to say about that real quick. One, I want the Corey fight because I want to see how good this guy is.

There are people on our website that are already saying that Umer and Magh made up is the best band of way in the world. Right now, he's the best band of way in the world. They're saying this. And I don't agree with that. But it doesn't mean that they're wrong. I just, I'm not convinced of that yet. He is very, very good. He might be that guy.

But if he goes out there in 30, 25's Corey Sanhagen, then I'm like, okay, damn, this dude's going to win a belt. Well, hopefully that would be, I would have seen that. Hopefully that be a main event. And maybe it's, you know, 50, 50, 43 or something if he's able to pull that off. But, yeah, that's, I mean, that's interesting. I'm interested in those people that believe he's the best. But to your point, like, that's not what I've seen yet, but I'd be interested to find

out. I definitely want to find out. And then, by the way, remember Corey Sanagan's last fight? Yeah. Who did he call out? Who did he call out after he won his last fight? He can call for a title fight. He can call for a, he called for freaking Marab to Walsh Willie. Nobody calls for Maraub. Nobody. He wants to fight the best guys. Cori's the freaking man. Give me the worst matchup. Give me the worst matchup. By the way, I think, I think Maraub is the best guy. I think Corey, Corey had that right. And the people on at M. may fighting who rank Marab as number one are probably correct.

Yeah. Just a great, just the best division, the best division. Just this best division behind lightweight. Yes, thank you, Mike. Moving on, moving on, moving on. Sorry, internet went out there, sorry. 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. It's hockey season, and you can get anything you need delivered with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get a nice rink on Uber Eats. But iced tea, ice cream, or just plain old ice? Yes, we deliver those.

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Super Samoan legal team. Erseg equals Dark Horse. He might be. He might be. I am very interested in his next fight. In his next fight. Now, okay, now I'm like, all right, I want to see. I'm sold on him now as far as being a contender.

the top 10 guy that's I'm ready I'm ready for the Erseg era I want to see it For a division to be a dark person

This is the best one Right Because you can move up The rankings quick here You can skip half the steps In flyweight Because they are desperate For people to challenge

For these titles There have been rematch After rematch after rematch After rematch If you can string together Three four in a row You're getting close I mean Makayev

Right Is somebody who is now six and O in the UFC, four finishes, like he's putting the work and he's there. Like, Erseg, you get a few more and you're there. You're knocking on the door already. This is a great division. Yeah, you get one, two more and it's like, I'm there.

I'm right there. So, yeah, I don't hate it. I think Ersec is a fan favorite and everybody's kind of excited to see what he does. I agree. God, when he fights Tetsuro, Tyra down the line. Oh, my God, I kind of forgot about Tyra. Yeah, Tyra is right there too. That sucks.

give Tetsu a rank guy. Let's go. But, yeah, Erseg could fight. Him and Amir al-Azzi would be fun. Like, I actually think that's a realistic fight. Oh, that's interesting. That's very high up to jump. That's interesting.

I like that. I like that. That makes sense. That makes sense. I dig it. I dig it. I don't see Amir al-Bazi taking that fight, though. He's not, he's not going to fight that far down the rankings.

He's just fighting too far down. All right. Another super chat. Michael, good name, my friend. Biggie Boy versus the winner of Tuivasa, Taibora, is my pick. All right, we're getting on to the next one picks. I don't hate it. Biggie Boy versus two ofossa is a good time.

As long as it's an apex. Marching Taiboira, I don't know. He's got to defend his apexe title against somebody. I hope it's tied to Ivasa and not marching Taibora because. I like this fight. I have no problem with it. I'm okay. Wow.

Hey, you know, tied to a boy. Tiber. Tabor. You know what's that? I know. Taibor is fine. Can't get excited for Tyborra? I'm joking.

No one can't. I think they did both that fight twice. They did try to make that fight a couple of times. So maybe it's due. Maybe third time's the charm. Stylistically, Tuivasa and Rosenstrike could be fun. You know, the technical striking versus the more wild but powerful striking of Thai Tuibasa could be fun because I think he could get Rosenstrike into a firefight where Rosenstrike

either wins or gets slapped and that would be fun. So yeah, I dig that fight. Let's go. All right, gentlemen. We have a super chat. A $9.99 a super chat. Wow. Shout out.

Is that who it is? Is who I'm expecting? Who is it? Ah, there are the kill is. Let's go. Some extra chatter since I bawled out today. Rick, 7 out 10 agree with you today for once. Casey and Mike 10 out 10,

Jan Insong fight of the night next week. By the way, let's just shout out Achilles real quick. Okay. And then New York Creek you can go. Achilles jumped on our people's pre-fight show and said, rate this parlay. And let me pull it up real quick. Casey sent it to me. I just was thinking about it, the exact.

Oh, you got it right now? All right. Oh, no, I have it. I lied. I'll read it. He had Zahabi Anders Bahaif. Um, Normaga made up Petrino and Rosenstrike. That's what he said.

Those are just picks. So I assume that's why he said he's balling out. So I'm assuming that he made some extra cheddar off that. That's great. Congratulations, Achilles Jr. Well done. This is the actual tweet, made the tweet, the comment earlier. There you.

But I'm also confused, Achilles. I'm a little confused. You got ahead, Mike. no i'm confused because i believe you tweeted me and you said you're in texas it's your tweet i believe this is you texas is dumb and i can't make a real parley but man that would have paid out handsomely and it looks like a draft king's lineup which it appears you won money so you did ball out a little bit um so did we actually cash a parley here or do we just we made this in the draft king's lineup but still made some money i'm also just interested in what the odds on that parley are like i have

haven't heard exactly what the number is. So I'd like to, I'd like to know if you could send that in. I also appreciate a seven out of 10 because so far I've been getting ones and twos and twos and zeros and you haven't agreed with anything I've said. So maybe we're turning over a new leaf. Let me know. Maybe we can, you know, meet up and squash the beef, shake hands, be friends, pick a spot. Maybe super chat in where we can meet up and perform this action.

And yeah, let's move on. But shout out to Killers Jr. Hopefully he's balling out on that. You pay for that lunch because of this part of that you won. And yeah, we can be friends. It's all work. Congrats, man. I mean, just throwing that out there for the world to see is impressive.

Zahabi, and I even said on the People's Street Fight Show, I'm like, if Zahabi wins, like, you have a real good chance of cashing this, but I didn't think he was going to win. But he also asked an actual question that I forgot. Song Yadong and Peter Jan for Fight of the Night. next week. Is it possible? Yeah, I suppose so.

I mean, there's other ones that probably pick above it, but I think it has as good a chance as anything. Yeah. Yeah, on a card where Dustin Porey and Benoit Santanir about to fight each other, that's going to be tough. There's some real all-action guys on this card.

Like, there's a lot that could potentially be fighting than I wouldn't be surprised if we end up with no fights of the night and getting lots of performance of bonuses from finishers and things like that. So, yeah, but I don't think it's, It's not in the running. I think that that style matchup could be pretty damn fun. Boy, the stakes for this fight for Piotr Yan are off the freaking chart, man.

I mean, he's all in on this one. This is do or die for a guy who was just the champion. Everyone thought it was the best Banimoy in the world, not that long ago. I think there's some people who still. Yeah. I think there's some people who still think he's there that think, you know, look, it's been a tough run, but like he's still in that. kind of class and still in that category.

And this would be an opportunity to prove that. He obviously lost him to Rob. So he's not the best bantan wait in the world. But I thought he beat O'Malley. I thought he beat Sterling in the rematch. So, you know, if I just go by what I think, you know, he's kind of like the number two bantamweight, you know, if the judges want to have gone my way. But we are.

We're here. Yeah. So we'll see. Four fight. Four fight losing streak for P. John. It's a big one next week. He needs it. He needs it. He needs it. It's good fight.

He needs it in the sense that if he wants to be a contender but maybe he should say maybe he's just a top 10 bantam weight. We don't know, top 15 bantam weight. I guess I guess that's, I mean, I don't, do you get cut? No, no, he's not going to be cut. Yeah, so

yeah. We'll have so much we'll talk about it next week. Until then. I eat does. Okay. I was trying to not bisming myself into saying something that I shouldn't say. Why are we wasting Anik on the call tonight? He needs to rest his sweet, sultry vocals for the incredible UFC 299 card next week. Shout out to John Anick for a number of things he said, including, by the way, a Francis and Gano name drop.

So, kudos to John Anick for that. Oh, Dewey Cooper's not here because he's in Saudi with Francis and Ganu. I was like, yeah, way to go. And then he was like, we're in the apex here. And boy, you can hear a pin drop, not used to these Apex guys. I love that too. Was he in Mexico City? Did he do the Mexico City call?

I don't know. I don't remember. I don't know. I don't remember. I don't remember. I think it was Fidtze. I think it was Fidtze, actually, yeah. Yeah.

Either way. I don't want to remember. Is the assumption that he did this card because they booked it as if it was going to be in Saudi? Like, why did he do this card? Could be. Yeah, it could be. That makes sense. Okay.

I can't think of another reason. But again, I'm just at an absence of reasons, and that's the only thing I can think of. But yeah, I would assume that they just have. I'm sure Anik was thrilled when it didn't happen in Saudi. It was happening in Vegas because if he had to do that, fly all the way to Saudi, call the car, and then fly all the way back.

That'd be tough. But luckily, $2.99 is not far from where he lives. So that's going to be good for him. Hey, come on. UFC, he gets business class, right? He gets a layback, you know, I'm sure. Yeah. It's still a long flight.

Yeah, it is one. Right. Yeah. And yeah, it is a sweet, solitary vocal. Yeah, his voice. Sure is. He'll be good to go. All right.

Ooh, we got a 999 super chat from Terrence Leverett. Let's go, Terrence. Okay. The reason I say that, we're going back to the other comment where he said he doesn't deserve it. Umar, that is, pronouns spell. The reason I say that is because Corey is a stylistic favorite matchup. I want to see Grappler versus Grappler. we don't see enough of it, what happens when he has to stand?

Corey Sanhagen's a pretty damn good grappler, guys. He's a tricky trickman on that mat, and he's a very good scrambler, and he's pretty damn good down there as well. I know he's more known for his striking in his movement, but I want to see this because Corey is about as well-rounded of a 35er in this division, where he excels in just about every aspect, and that's what I want to see. and he can frigging crack too.

So that's why I say it. But what do you think of this, New York, Rick? I understand where Terrence is coming from, but I also am looking at the reality of the division, right? If you look at the ranked bantam weights, like really the only names that you're potentially talking about are Sohudo and Davalishvili. Sterling still has a ranking,

but Sterling is going to be a featherweight. So you're really talking about either Sehudo and Devalichvili. Suhudo I wouldn't hate, but I don't imagine they do that. It seems like the Dagestan and Sehudo camps are a little too friendly. Maybe they would. Maybe that be an opportunity that Henry would take now that he's not retired and say, hey, I'll fight Umar.

I'm okay with that. I don't have a problem with that. I can't see Marab doing it. And I think it'll be real rough for Marab who has consistently kind of been the guy getting stiff to then fight down. As we just gave everybody credit for fighting down, he's one where I'd say he's done enough that we don't need him to fight down. And he should be next for the title. So if you're interested in a fight with Sehudo, I don't hate it.

I'd be interested in that. I'm not I'm not hating Umar versus Sehudo. But I do think potentially we're underestimating Corey Sanhagen's grappling in this. Like I think that dude is really good on the ground. If you haven't seen the Yuri Alcantara fight, go do yourself have a treat. If you're an MMA fan, go watch Corey Sandhagen versus Yuri Alcantra. and I think you're feeling on how good a grappler, Corey Sandhagen is, is going to change

because that man has been put in some very, very bad positions and come out on top. And, yeah, I think his grappling is really good, man, both offensive and defensive. I mean, it was an incredibly not entertaining fight, but he just out grappled and wrestled and Ruffin for five rounds of one arm. Yeah, yeah.

I mean, yeah, Ruffin isn't, you know, an ADCC champion, but he is a high-level Bantamweight, who knows how to defend takedowns, who knows how to get up. So don't sleep on Corey Sanahagan. Yeah, I do. I will say, though, I think there is a level between Corey and maybe a Suhudo or a Sterling or a Davaoishvili in terms of like focus on grappling, right? In terms of wanting that to be a bigger part of the game plan.

I think Corey Sanhiggins most of the time more willing to strike, although he mixes it up as well as nearly anybody in MMA, but it seems to stay on the feet longer than let's say a Sterling or Sohudo type fight or definitely a Marab type fight. So I'm okay if we get somebody who can test Umar's grappling, but I don't see many names. It really is just like Sehudo at this point. So I'm game for that fight, but I'd also think Corey would test them everywhere as well. So good, good choices to have if you're Umar and if those guys are willing to fight. I like Suhudo, but I think he's going to,

Suido wants that Moreno fight, and I actually think that makes a lot of sense. Makes a lot of sense. A couple more super chats. Yes. Awesome. Thank you. Another Michael.

Guys, slow down on Earth egg before it becomes JDM. Both those guys are great. So I'm not slowing down nothing. Hell no. I love those guys. What do you want him to do? Like, the dude was ranked after his first UFC fight. He took it on short notice and got ranked right away.

And then he's delivered since. So let's give him a little stepy step and see what he can do. Slow down before he becomes 11th ranked JDM. Like that's a good spot to be in. I wouldn't be mad about being JDM. Yeah. Who's about to fight next week against Gilbert Burns? Fun ass friend.

Yeah. Who could at the end of next week be looking at top five ranked JDM? Like if that's, if that's the bad outcome, damn, then Erseg's in for a good. Yeah. For a guy that we need me hear of a few. months ago, now potentially, you know, a top 10 flyweight in the UFC. Yeah. I think what Michael's getting at though is maybe the Hafez fight, like, you know, showed, showed some things in JDM's game that maybe we were putting the car a little bit ahead of the horse. But I do tend to throw out some of those

in the weird circumstances, like switching opponents 14 times on a week's notice. I tend to like kind of dismiss those and wait for the next one and see where we're at. But I don't know. Erseg looks good. Against the competition he's faced, he's looked really good. But yeah, he may not be, he may not be, you know, the next big thing. He may not be shooting up the rankings. But the only way we're going to find out is when somebody says, okay, Steve Urseg, I'll, I'll fight you and let you potentially take my ranking. All right.

Got a super chat from Bleasy. Leasy. Ariel versus Adrian Yannes. Mikhail should take one more. What do you think? Adrian Yannes versus Damon. Bobby. I'm just going to take a quick peek at the rankings.

Oh, yeah, by the way, Janyes, right? Yeah. And he's no longer ranked unless my eyes are deceiving me. I'm, you know, I could be lied. But he's no longer ranked. So I don't hate it. I don't hate that at all. Yeah.

What is Jania's book? No. Is he in the wind right now? He's in the wind right now. He's in the finish in his last few fights. He got leg kicked. He got leg kicked into a lift. him by Jonathan Martinez.

It was bad. Yep. Let's do it. I don't. I'm cool with that. So, Yanya, yeah, sorry, is two Ariel versus,

who's Jonathan Martinez fighting next? He's ranked 10. Yeah. That's high. I don't see him potentially getting that one. He could get Rob Fon. I don't know.

Marri Batista Rob Fon is fun too. I mean, we'll see. I wouldn't give him in a rank guy just yet. Sure, whatever. He's close. He's close. Who's 15 in the UFC band of my rankings right now?

All right. I got a super chat from Trill House here. What's up, Trill House? Mahayev wouldn't win of ground and knees are legal. I get the implication here, and I understand why, but I do, I think we have to acknowledge, and I've seen some of this before, we have to acknowledge that, like,

if the rules were different, the fight would be different, right? He wouldn't be putting himself in the same positions and doing the same things if he was in danger in those positions. So he's adapting to what the rule set is and as any fighter would do. So I don't think it's as easy as being like, well, now somebody can punt or knee him in the head

and all of a sudden he's just going to be a sitting duck. I think he would just adapt to a different style. Would that potentially put him in more danger because of his style? Yeah, maybe. Maybe there's worlds where he's putting himself in spots that were previously not dangerous and now are a little more dangerous. But I have to think he's, one thing he is not is he is not a stupid fighter.

He is not somebody who will make himself vulnerable in ways that could potentially be this harmful. So I think he'd be able to adapt the style, as with many of the fighters who are grappling-based. Yeah, McIv won't win if knives were legal. Yeah. I mean, sure. I mean, yeah. his his lot of his wrestling when he when he gets stuffed he he relies on the fact that he can't get need in the head that yeah completely normal of any grappler who fights in the may yeah that's and that's

why ground in knees should be legal because it makes a fight more exciting and maybe there's a world where early on as let's say they do legalize this right and it seems like california is interested in doing some of this let's say they do fight in california and this maybe the first couple of fights, there would be some potential danger here, right? Maybe getting used to that new rule in adapting your style might put them in potential danger. But I think long term, like, it's not a situation where if all of a sudden this rule came into play, Makayev would just be ineffective, right? There's ways that you can adapt your game to this. And he'd be smart enough to do that. Yeah, certainly. By the way, Amon Zahevi versus Ricky Simone. He's the number 15th rank guy. I like that

fight. Oh, let's do it. Let's do it. Oh, we have a super chat, a 499 super chat, from an Achilles Jr. Yay, my best friend. Plus 30, 45 is what it would have been if I didn't live in Texas. Can't make a real parley, but 30 bucks is cool too. Yes, it is. Turn 5 into 30. 35.

So, well done. Oh, my God. That's so funny. I thought Texas is all about freedom. What's going on? Geez. I got to say this is true. It's being reported right now by MMA mania

that the Tafa swap is complete because Junior stepped in for Justin and now Justin is stepping in for Junior to fight. No way! That's incredible. That's incredible. They swapped fights.

They swapped fights. This is tremendous stuff. That's so smart. I'm going to see if this is true. I'm going to see if this is true. If this was core, If they discussed to this and made it happen, that's even more, like, that even blows my mind more. That's just incredible.

It would be like, I don't like this match up too much. Oh, you like this one better. We're seeing things. Like, let's swap off. If they, if they calculated this, like next level. Next level. If junior went out one, then is a much more interesting story. But yeah, it's still, it's still very silly.

But yeah, here we are. Wow. And, wow, wow, wow. I got messages out on this. by the way. All right. In our last super chat, maybe, from Casey Carpenter once again.

Apexie has no weight. Middleweighty has to be a middleweight. Although you can make a compelling case that the co-main event was a middle-weighty light heavyweight fight. Yeah, that's my understanding of middle-weighty, right? Can it apply outside of the middle-weight division if it just is reminiscent of being a middle-weighty fight?

And we try to use that example. It's not like there's, you can't, there's no middle-weighty lightweight fights. You know what I mean? it's got to be like 185 and up. There's middleweight heavyweight fights. There's middleweighty light heavyweight fights. There's obviously middleweighty, middleweight fights.

And by the way, I think Eric Anders might actually be the middleweighty, middleweight champion now. It feels that way. He's the first ballot, Hall of Famer as far as middleweight. Oh, he's the number one contender. He's the number one contender. Like, if there's a money in the bank for the middleweighty middleweight title, Eric Anders is in it. Like, he's won the beat the clock challenge.

He's in. I just I mean we need to have a definition of apexe I see is this a construction of of Casey or is this a not our Casey but Casey Carpenter or is this a construction of MMA fighting that I wasn't aware of did Apexie originate with us or with Casey? I've described I've described like Apexie to just describe a card as a whole like there have been some ApexEAX cards like this one I

it was an apexy sort of main event, but it wasn't like an apexy apex card because there were fights with stakes, but we have had cards with like no stakes at all, including the main event, that to me is an apexy apex card. But an apexy apex fighter.

The first time we get a fight that's outside the apex, that's apexy, that's going to be monumental. That's going to be sick. When we get like a fight night in some random American city, that's apexy, Now we're talking with gas. That's going to be safe. UFC to Pika.

Yeah. Apexie. Exactly. That's Apexie. The site fee was too much, but the card was just not able to come together in that way. Apexie. Apexie. I'm ready for it.

Love it. Love it. Are we good? Do you want to take some more? We got more questions. We're out of super chats, but we've got some more questions. We'll find the best one because game bread, game bread's on. Oh, yeah.

Oh, okay. best one best one um is uh is a yes and no just a yes and no answer oops oops where to go will Tommy Ashton defend a 301 versus jar zia roses strike no if they move 301 to the apex perhaps Tom we got a fight for you it's finally time Hmm. More trivia. This for Gazib, what continent is Bahrain located? What's the size of Bahrain?

How many islands make up the kingdom of Bahrain? What famous tree is in Bahrain? Couldn't tell you. I have no idea. I have no idea with Barzino. We did the Jarzino deep dive into Suriname in all of the specifics to it. And it was a tremendous time. But that would have been a great beginning of the show question.

But we will answer it. perhaps on BTL or maybe on heck of a morning. That could be like the opening topic on Tuesday. I just know Bahrain's in the Middle East. After that, I'm done. Yeah. That's about all. I'm curious what the famous tree is, but we'll find out.

But thank you, Profite's info for, you know, expanding our mixed martial arts geography knowledge. I feel more cultured after I have just Googled where Bahrain is. So thank you. Do you know what it is? I didn't get that far. I was just looking surface level at Wikipedia.

West Asia turns out is the continent. So being in the Middle East, yeah. All right. Okay. Guys, a couple things. One, go watch Game Bread because it's going to be fun as hell. That's going out right now. And if you got things to do, follow on nmafighting.com.

We'll be watching. I'll be watching. It's a tremendous website. And it should be a lot of fun. But we are officially on the road. road, ladies gentlemen, to UFC 299.

We are officially on the road to a very busy week in combat sports. The aforementioned Francis Inganu getting ready to

box Anthony Joshua on Friday. We're going to have $2.99 Saturday. Two watch parties next week. It's going to be wild times,

my friends. It's going to be wild times. So maybe get some rest, saddle up, get some food, watch game bread,

get a good night sleep, and then get ready for a very busy the week everybody so thank you all very much for casey for new york rick i am mike keck good night everybody only on m a fighting baby only on m a fighting the thumbs up you dropped yesterday was tremendous you're listening to the vox media podcast network