MMA Fighting - UFC Vegas 88 Post-Fight Show | Reaction To Marcin Tybura's Quick Submission Win Over Tai Tuivasa
Episode Date: March 17, 2024Tai Tuivasa's losing streak has been extended to four fights after Marcin Tybura made relatively quick work of the powerful knockout artist in the main event of Saturday's UFC Vegas 88 event. In an ev...ent that had very few stakes, is the story more about Tybura's impressive win, or Tuivasa getting stopped yet again? Following Saturday's fight card at the UFC APEX, MMA Fighting's Mike Heck, Eric Jackman, and Alexander K. Lee react to the event, Tybura's submission victory, and what things could look like for both fighters moving forward. Additionally, they discuss the near skirmish following the Bryan Battle vs. Ange Loosa co-main event ending in a no contest, who the MVP of the event was, who took home the bonuses, Christian Rodriguez getting the split nod over Isaac Dulgarian, Gerald Meerschaert's submission win adding to his impressive middleweight résumé, and more. Follow Mike Heck: @MikeHeck_JR Follow Alexander K. Lee: @AlexanderKLee Follow Eric Jackman: @NewYorkRic Subscribe to MMA Fighting Check out our full video catalog Like MMA Fighting on Facebook Follow on Twitter Read More: http://www.mmafighting.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
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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.
To the Vox Media Podcast Network.
What's up, everybody?
These are different kinds of victory horns, but they are victory horns nonetheless,
as we welcome you to the UFC Vegas 88 post-fight show.
And you know what?
The real winners are the...
those of us who not only watch this card, but watch this card from start to finish.
We are the real winners.
We are the real champions because boy, oh boy, did we have to go through a lot today.
And we're here to talk all about it.
Thank you very much for joining us.
I am Mike Hack, as you can see, going down the line.
We got New York Rick.
We got Alexander K. Lee.
Boys, I mean, storyline central here at this UFC Vegas 88.
So I'm just going to start right here because we know how this card ended New York, Rick.
with Martin Taibora doing the sad thing and handing Tai Tuivasa, his fourth consecutive stop
his loss, submission in the first round. Who's the MVP of this card? Like when you think back,
when Papa New York Rick is asked 30 years from now by his grandchildren, Papa, could you
tell me about UFC Vegas 88? What do you remember? Because people keep asking me about it at school
to go back and rewatch it on ESPN Plus or whatever streaming platform is around. Tell me,
what happened what you remember most about that night when you watched this event live from
the world's most famous apex it feels odd to dub it MVP but probably brian battle because
he gave the only like exciting moment of the entire night when he lost his mind over angeloosa
um you know asking saying that he can't see in the fight being called a no contest uh for an accidental
the iPok. It's the only thing I'll probably remember from this entire card. I mean, maybe I'll
remember Marcyon Taibora, Marchine Taubora's submission over Tai Tuivasa just because of the skit it
puts Tai Tuivasa on. But like Brian Battle freaking out is the only thing that got my, you know,
my heartbeat, maybe like five beats per minute faster. So yeah, I guess Brian Battle going wacko
is, is the MVP? Question mark. I don't know.
My best friend, I thought maybe there would be a different punctuation mark at the end of the MVP question,
but question mark was not what I was expecting, but I understand it.
Who's your MVP?
How will you remember this card?
Which fighters stood out the most?
Were you out with this AK?
That's a bad card, Ben.
It's not good.
I'm the Prince of Positivity, but I also don't believe in BSing people.
Like, this was rough, Mike.
I'll answer your question a moment.
First, I answer your question with a question.
In fact, it's a poll I just threw up.
It's not really a question for you guys to answer.
Of course, we watched all the fights, but I did want to ask the people,
how many UFC Vegas 88 fights did you watch tonight?
And the options I gave were just the last few,
so that could be Maine and co-main, could mean like the last four fights.
The whole main card, did you start from the first prelim?
Maybe you hopped around here and there.
Maybe you jumped in the first prelim, went to go do stuff,
came back for other fights, just tuned out, had multiple screens on, I don't know.
Of course, started from the first prelimin leading the way 42%.
We do have a pretty hardcore audience.
I know that watches this show.
So that doesn't surprise me.
But the other, I mean, the other options have a pretty healthy response, too.
So it does tell me that not everyone was completely keyed into all, what, 13, 13 fights on this card.
Yeah.
Who was the MVP?
Like, I'm kind of, you know, Martin Stubrard did a great job.
I'll go, I mean, GM3, he quietly set a record?
I say, I don't know why I said this question, he quietly set a record, guys, the most finishes in UFC middleweight history.
He is, he has, or did he tie?
Did he tie Anderson Silva?
Let me, let me, let me, uh, wow.
Yes, it's a very, that's legit.
He already had the most submission wins, which shouldn't be too surprising.
I believe now he is tied.
I have notes on this.
I don't know why I'm referring to Wikipedia.
which I don't need.
He is now tied with that, seven.
Let me correct myself.
He's now tied with himself.
11.
11 wins in the middleweight division with the goat.
I think Silva, obviously, if you count,
you know, he had some wins of light,
knockouts of light heavyweight too.
So he'll still have the edge, like comparing their careers,
as people often do when they're talking about Andrew Silva and Gerald Mayershart.
But yeah, that's very impressive.
Competing at 185 pounds,
no one has more finishes than him, Anderson Silva.
and Mirrishard does not look like he's anywhere close to stopping.
So he very likely will break that record sometime in his next three fights.
Because he only finished his fights.
Joe Mnishir does not go to decisions with people.
He either gets rocked and smashed or he submits people.
He's got a lot of those.
So there you go.
GM3, you're the MVP.
That was a good stat and a good joke.
I heard the joke.
You moved on a little too quickly.
You didn't give us a little air to acknowledge it, but good joke too.
Yeah.
I'm with you, man.
GM3, beautifully done.
What's next for you?
A beer and an app.
Speak in my language.
I mean, this man just singing right at the,
pulling right at the heartstrings right there
because beer and an app just sounds,
that's what I kind of want after this,
watching this event from start to finish.
And look, like, I see some people sort of mixed.
Some people think it was a pretty awful card.
I've seen, I see some comments in there that it was a pretty good card.
I'm not going to go that far.
Pretty good is like a seven and a half.
for better, this is not a seven and a half card.
Come on now.
I think you're a little, you're a little out of control if you're going seven and a half
card.
Not too bad is probably what I would put it.
Like, you know, how was your experience?
Not too bad is probably like the best I would give this card.
And it ended with marching Ty Bossa comes out.
Yeah, please.
Can I ask.
If this is not too bad, what would bad look like?
Do they come to your house and kneecap you while you're watching?
What is bad?
If this is not bad, what is bad?
Dude, there are a lot.
There's a lot of bad.
The January apex cards were really awful.
The first like two apex cards, but I'll take your word for it.
We didn't have near fights at the end.
We didn't have GM3 talking about naps and beers.
We didn't have comeback wins.
We didn't have OSP smashing everybody's parlay tickets.
Multiple 28, 27.
cards justifiably so without a single penalty we had uh AK's heart broke emotional
rollercoaster with Josian Nunas losing to Chelsea Chandler Mike Davis looked good in his return
Macy Chase on out here submitting people like whip two of the three women's fights ended in
in first round stoppages I mean how many times does that happen I just got you to hard sell this
card I'm I'm in this was a great card this is a great card and Mike the not
too bad. The one women's fight that I was like guaranteeing people was going to end in the first
or second round early in the second was the Josia Nunes Chandler fight and that once that's the one
that went to a decision. So we know nothing. That's the you know, always a good reminder of people.
We don't know. We don't know anything. Yeah, clearly because I told you got, because I took a parlay
on the people's pre-fight show and I was like, yeah, you got to do this. And then it was over.
The parley ended in what, a minute 38, 38 seconds. Jackland Ammer.
remember 98 seconds.
Jack let him ever
It should end it sooner.
It should end it even sooner.
It wasn't for Mike Beltran.
I don't know.
Be on to lunch,
whatever that was.
Yeah,
yeah,
dude.
We're never going to go back
and rewatch this card.
That's plain simple.
But I think if you really look at each fight one at a time
and the things that happen,
not too bad is probably like the best way to put it.
It's not good.
Wasn't the worst card.
Not too bad.
So let's talk about Mr.
not too bad. The man who headlines the not too bad card of all cards. Marching Tybora,
New Yorker comes through. This was a coin flip fight by the time we got to it. I think Tybor
closes minus 115. Tyborah closed. Tibera closed like minus 105. It's basically a flip of the
coin. Tuvasa is doing two evasa things. Lends some big shots. Lends a nice elbow. Slices open.
Tyborr early. Tybora shoots underneath a two evasa right.
And looks like he's going to get the takedown, eventually just tackles him down.
And then the fight is just a matter of time for Taito Ivasa, gets the WWF80 submission arm treatment, arm up in the air, flat to the canvas, fight is over.
And now Taito Ivasa has lost four fights in a row.
What's the bigger story coming out of this?
The victory for Matri and Tibera or seeing Taito Ivasa, who people were saying after he knocked out Derek Lewis, just give this.
dude a freaking title fight like let's just do it and now he's been stopped in four consecutive
fights is it mean of me to say neither is a big story like i don't think that either is a big
story because i mean tibor is going to get you know somebody maybe one or two spots ahead of him
in the ranking or maybe one or two spots behind him in the ranking and taitoivasa is going to
get a fight against somebody who will stand and swing with them and remain in the ufc i would
imagine if not i mean i could see a world where tai tuivasa is elsewhere but
but maybe at his own choosing,
I don't know what his contract status is,
but there's probably better opportunities for him elsewhere than the UFC
where a lot of the heavy weights have enough of a grappling game
to kind of neutralize him.
And he's not really comparable to Derek Lewis in the sense that like
when people take Derek Lewis down, he just gets up.
You know, that's kind of the MO.
He just gets up and that's what Derek Lewis does.
Tai Taituivasa does not have the just get up.
So yeah, I don't know that there's a ton of,
of impact or stakes for either side of that coin,
maybe slightly more for Marchine Tabora,
I would lean,
because again,
Tuivasa,
there's ways you can match,
make him quite easily.
It's not going to be against top-ranked fighters anymore,
but there's ways you can match,
make him quite easily and get exciting fights.
I mean,
for the first two minutes of it,
he was trying to kill Marchine Taborah,
he was trying to take his head off
and being pretty successful at that.
If there are people who don't have the grappling end of the game,
as sorted as Tibera does,
yeah, that's going to be a fun fight for somebody against Tai Tui Vasa.
So, yeah, I don't think, like, if you're somebody who expected Taitoivasa to be like a real heavyweight contender, then yeah, maybe it's time for your heart to be broken.
But I don't think there's many people out there.
I think there's a lot of people who knew that in the right circumstances he could knock anybody out, but you have to give him the right circumstances.
And these were not the right circumstances.
So not a lot in either direction for either of these fighters, but if I'm leaning one way or the other
slightly toward Tibera because maybe he can climb a little bit.
I mean, I'm just going to put this up there because we talked about this earlier this week.
Oh, yeah.
1,000% the fight to make if we're going to do this.
So let's just throw that out there.
We're going to keep Taitai around.
But A.K., what's your, what's your biggest takeaway, biggest storyline coming out of this main event?
Uh, there isn't one.
This, this main event has no storyline.
That sounds cruel to say because, yeah, obviously to the fighters involved, it's, this, this meant a lot for Taitou of Boston.
He was very aware that he had lost three straight.
You know, he's not, he is a, he's a pretty happy-go-lucky, carefree guy.
But he takes his, he takes his profession seriously.
I do feel like he takes a profession seriously.
And he doesn't want to go lose four straight fights, possibly put himself in the chopping block.
Again, I think like a lot of people, I think we're pretty sure he's going to get another chance
because there are fun fights that we made.
The Despain fight, if the UFC is interested in building up rebellus and feel like he could get a knockout of Tuivasa,
they'll definitely make that happen.
I was really since to Spain is a bit up there in age.
Like he's, I know he is fresh to MMA, so, you know, he doesn't have that kind of encage mileage on him, but he's still 35 years old, you know, in real life years.
And you're going to have to start giving him interesting fights sooner rather than later.
Ty feels a little too soon for me at the same time.
If it happened, I don't think any of us would be surprised.
I think we'd all be like, yeah, you got to pull the trigger on Robillis at some point.
And, again, 35 years old, give him Ty, fan-friendly fight.
Maybe Ty knocks him out.
I don't know.
But yeah, there really is no major storyline.
And I'm happy for Marston Tabur, a guy who just keeps gritting and grinding away in the UFC man.
He's fought pretty much everybody.
I think there may have been one brief moment where I thought like he could be one fight away from a title shot, but he's never been close.
And maybe that doesn't matter after tonight.
He's 12 and 7 in the UFC.
So he's just one short of 20 UFC appearances.
It's very impressive.
He's been in there with a lot of people.
He hasn't picked up the big win that he's needed to make himself like a top five guy.
He's been solidly in, like, the top eight to top 12 for a while.
And as long as he keeps getting paychecks and he's not taking too much damage,
they're turning into some hits in this fight.
I'm sure he's a happy camper.
So there are no real big storylines.
Maybe if we moved down the card, we'll find some threads to pull that.
But no, I don't know.
We really can't say that anything of major importance happened tonight.
But congrats to Tabor and condolences for Tui Bossa, who, again,
I still think we'll get another chance if he,
if he has he has a if he plans to stick around i don't know maybe he does want to pursue other things
yeah and that was basically one of the things you you just said is is what i bait we were trying
to tell everybody like there are no stakes on this card we are not going to talk about this card
past maybe aerial talking about it briefly at the top of the mhm a hour and possibly interviewing
one of the fighters on the card once that is over we ain't talking about this card again
because because there were no stakes there were no storylines attached to it
But there were just going to be some fun fights and some fun,
fun performances.
And if you just sat down and watched it,
like it would not be the worst thing you've done with your life in the last six months.
So that's what this ended up being.
But again,
there's just no,
there's no big storylines coming out of it.
And the biggest storyline,
perhaps,
at least this is what New York Rick brought up,
but we might as well talk about it right now.
What happened in the penultimate fight on this card at 170 pounds?
Brian Battle taking on Angeloza,
his fights getting real interesting.
Brian Battle's looking real good, about a minute into round two.
Brian Battle, I mean, knuckle deep inside the eyeball of Angeloza.
I mean, this was a nasty, cringe-worthy eye poke.
It was bad.
It looked real bad.
All the replays just made it worse.
It made you feel worse about it.
Anglosa can no longer go.
He says he can't see.
And once you say you can't see, there's no coming back.
from that. It's all over. It's all done.
Fight is stopped.
Both guys are kind of upset.
And then we get to the moment at the very end
where they're about to announce the winner.
They look at each other. I don't know if they're
going to shake hands. Maybe you can give each other a little
that didn't happen. The complete opposite happens.
We have to get separated here.
Brian Battle saying I was beating the shit out of you.
Then it's called the no contest.
Angelosa gets ousted out of the cage.
So he doesn't get to say a word.
Michael Bisbing interviews,
Brian Battle and Brian Battle just absolutely lets loose on Angeloza called them all the words I'm not going to say here on a live telecast and Michael Business is like Brian Battle everybody and Dominic Cruz basically on the mic is like yeah man everything he said I agree with which is like crazy to hear the commentator say so New York Rick your reaction to all of this because this is a very weird and crazy thing and I'll tell you what despite a national
the eye poke and which leads fans and people in the sport to really kind of come down hard on you,
Brian Battle took a negative thing and somehow has turned it into a positive because people
dug everything he said on the microphone. What a wild sport we are a part of.
I've been seeing online a lot of agreement with Brian Battle in this scenario.
My initial thoughts were, wow, didn't expect that.
It escalated very quickly.
like as you said they were kind of awkwardly after the after the uh no contest was announced
looking toward each other and then as they're floating toward the middle to perhaps shake hands
brian battle calls them a a nasty word that sets off uh world war three and they're going back and forth
um i just yeah i was kind of shocked to see it but i do understand from brian battle's perspective
like feeling like hey i was dominating that fight and you took an easy way out
And I'm now down a winner's paycheck and all the things that are associated with that.
And again, one of the problems of, you know, the show win bonus thing.
Maybe there's some way to make, you know, both guys whole.
But either way, I can understand why with so much on the line, somebody like Brian Battle,
who feels like they were clearly winning that fight would be frustrated and upset and feel like,
you know, somebody was taking an easy way out.
But if we can step back from the emotion, if we can step back from the heat of the battle,
it was a very bad eye poke.
Those moments are always a little bit dicey when it comes to the doctors coming in and can you see and can you not see.
He had five minutes, but he's being asked at the one and a half minute mark if he can see.
It's always an odd dance.
It's always a difficult situation.
The one thing you do have to know as a fighter, obviously, though, is if you say you cannot see, they are going to stop this fight.
So there is an element to the idea that Anjolosa knew what was going to happen.
and tried to stop the fight or did not, right?
Like was just being honest in that moment and was frazzled and didn't know what to do.
But either way, I understand from both perspectives, I understand why Losa would be like,
dude, you are the one who shoved your finger to the back of my skull.
Why are you upset with me that I can't see?
And I understand battle who felt like he was winning and an unfortunate circumstance,
obviously accidental.
I think we can all acknowledge that the I puck was extremely accidental leads to the end
to the fight. So just weird, but like a memorable moment. And hopefully they do run that back.
I hope that, you know, they get another opportunity and to see, you know, what the real verdict of
this fight is. And now there's a built-in storyline. We saw this with like, what was it,
Kutilaba and who?
Ankolaev.
Ankalev. That's right. Exactly. So now we've got a built-in storyline, run it back and
let's see what happens.
A.K. What did you think of it?
This could be, Mike, this could be Edgar Chires and Daniel Lacerda. You know, we could, again,
We're building anticipation because I didn't really care too much for this prime battle
and sluice fight.
Though I do think battle is like a sneaky, you know, future contender at 170 pounds.
If he has a really good 2024, I could see us talking about him as like a top 10 guy in 2025,
2025.
And that's, I mean, that's saying a lot has to happen.
And it was supposed to start tonight.
He doesn't get that opportunity now.
He was looking good.
If you were to go to the cards, if you were able to go to the cards,
After six minutes, he would have pretty clearly won a decision.
Things don't work that way.
So, yeah, we have to go to a no contest.
People, I don't feel like they need to take sides in this.
I know some people on social media,
some of the fighters were certainly being pretty hard on Lusa,
but I just, I don't think he was that deep in trouble that he would,
and maybe I'm giving him too much of Ben for the Doubt,
but that he would take a pretty rough eye poke and say,
oh, well, that's it.
That's it for me.
Like, I'm quitting.
I'm out.
Like, there's a lot of ways for fighters to sort of get out of a fight, as it were,
that they're losing.
And a pipe, I hope, I get it.
It's like, well, this is a way for him to not get an L on his record.
But also, I think he's aware of what people would think of that.
I think he would think of himself if he took that way out.
So I choose to be sympathetic here, and I'm thinking that Luce genuinely could not continue.
and probably wasn't thinking when he said I couldn't see,
probably wasn't thinking it was going to end right there.
He should have known.
He should have known.
If you tell the referee and you tell the ringside physician you can't see,
they're doing the right thing by saying, okay, well, you can't see.
That's it.
So if you're Lusa, you kind of just got to be smarter if you are a plan to continue
and wait, you know, as long as they let you wait to see if your vision clears.
Because, yeah, he probably couldn't see in that moment.
But again, you say it.
The fight's over.
this is very much like a non-controversy in my opinion it kind of shows how little we have to talk
about on this card that we that we have to kind of make this into into something or that even
the battle on lusa had to make into something because if it wasn't for the post-fight shenanigans
post-fight antics and comments we're just moving on we're not even we're not even talking
about this but battle lusa too look for it at an apex near you this summer I mean they did
us a favor iK that's one less fight we have to matchmake for tomorrow and on to the next one
And so you know the rules, everybody.
If there is no winner, we move on.
It's like the fight never happened, and that's it.
We're not even going to read fan submissions about what's next for either of these guys,
because that's what happens.
That's the penalty you have to pay for that.
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Open St. Prue just wrecking parles across the world, having a fun third round with Kennedy
and Chuku.
I mean, the old dog still has some tricks.
OSP, just getting done.
And if you bet on Kennedy and Chichuku at like minus 650 wherever he was, yikes.
Shame on you.
Shame on you.
Thank you.
I didn't want to say that.
Macy Chias on quick submission.
Gerald Mirrishar we talked about.
But the one, the other main card fight that people seem to be kind of back and forth on,
Christian Rodriguez versus Isaac Dolgarian.
And your Gregorah, I'll start with you.
Isaac Dolgarian comes out looking like a future champion in the first.
sure.
He 10-8s Christian Rodriguez.
He's tossing him around.
He's beating him up.
Round two.
Isaac's still getting a lot of control, a lot happening.
But he's not landing a lot of damage, but he had like four and a half minutes.
A control time.
Christian landed like a couple of punches in the round.
So people kind of torn on how to score it.
And then round three is a 10-8 for Christian Rodriguez.
Because Isaac Dolgarian, who has yet to see the judge's scorecards in his career up until
tonight just completely gassed out christian rodriguez is a little bit tired trying to defend
everything as well and we end up getting a christian rodriguez split decision win all three cards
2827 which shout out to the judges for scoring the 10 8s on both sides so i'm not going to say
was this a robbery but your thoughts on how this fight was scored did the right guy win in your opinion
the right guy won because i had the second round for rodriguez so in that case and
And I had the first, all three judges, I think we should break down how the judges had it.
All three judges had 10-8 for Dolgarian in the first round.
Two judges had 10-9 for Rodriguez, and one had 10-9 for Dalgarian in the second round.
And then all three had 10-8 for Rodriguez in the third round.
So not a lot of disagreement across the cards.
The swing became the second round and two judges had it for Rodriguez.
I had the same card, so I certainly agree with the decision.
I thought Rodriguez just was busier and had more damage.
Bulgarian wasn't doing much with the, with the takedown or not even the takedowns because he wasn't
even really like taking down, but he was obviously controlling in that second round.
And yeah, it's hard to kind of argue either way, like 28, 27 either way sounds right to me.
Like that, that would have been the variety of scorecards I would have seen.
Delgarian obviously has a gas tank to work on, right?
Like he had two rounds and that was it.
And Christian Rodriguez, like for lack of better terminology and to lean in.
into a cliche like he's got that dog in him he's not going to quit on himself and showed it in the
second round and then in the third round completely took over it sounded like based on the broadcast
that he had mentioned this in the fighter interviews and felt like he was going to take over in
in the later rounds um and yeah he's he's a really well-rounded good fighter like christian rodriguez
is an impressive guy because even in the fights where he's not coming in and like blowing the doors off
or or blowing your mind with what he's doing in there he really finds ways to hang around and win
fights and I was just impressed with with his ability there to overcome some real
adversity in the first round and yeah,
Delgarian I think has like a very obvious route to improvement here.
Like if you can put together a third round that's equivalent to your first,
second rounds, like you're going to be a load for a lot of people to handle.
So I think they both know what they need to do following this fight.
It was probably one of the better fights of the night, if not the best one.
And yeah, I agree.
I agreed with the judges.
I don't see much controversy here.
A.K., you are the OG in robbery reviews.
What did you think of this one?
Does the judges get it right?
Did you score for Searod?
You score for Delgarian?
What do you think?
I certainly wouldn't call this a robbery.
I definitely can't if everyone saw my tweet of the score.
I said 2827 Delgarian, but followed by multiple question marks.
It was such a clear first round, such a clear third round.
and then there was just sort of that middle round, which apparently a lot of people told a clear story.
And it did to me at a glance, but I will say I was not generally on fight nights.
Certain fights, especially, I'm just not watching closely enough maybe where I'm scoring accurately.
So I went with Dolgarian, tons of control time.
But I wasn't paying enough attention, I think, to how much damage Delgarian was or wasn't doing with this grappling time.
I saw, I believe, according to the stats, and again, stats don't tell the whole story.
Delgarion was credited with zero significant strikes in round two.
Let me double-check that real quick, guys.
I don't want to fake news all of you.
That would track.
That would track.
I was right.
Zero ground strikes.
I'm sorry.
Zero significant ground strikes in round two.
So nothing he did on the ground counted offensively.
And that matters.
If you're saying at the control time has won him that round,
technically it wouldn't because he didn't do anything with it.
Again, now, again, at a glance for me, I thought Delgarion won it.
But we had to, I saw people online breaking it down.
My good man, Aaron Bronseter has a tweet kind of breaking down what he thought he saw from Rodriguez.
And he pointed out some strikes at the end of the round.
But I get it.
Visually, it's tough, man.
It's a tough sell for fans to see a guy like Delgarian so aggressive in control for much of that round, top control.
And then having to pick, again, a few Rodriguez strikes at the beginning.
a few Rodriguez strikes the end and saying that's why Rodriguez won the round.
And again, I don't think the judges necessarily got it wrong.
That's a fair, because that's the decision they're having to make live.
And it's really, really, really difficult.
So the Bulgarian card for me, but after reading some other opinions on it,
and again, acknowledging I would need to watch that second round again.
I don't think this is a robbery or a miscarriage of justice at all.
It was a really compelling back and forth fight from beginning to end
as far as like how it started one way and in another way.
And then the third was just, I don't know, it's kind of, it's kind of the whole discussion we were frequently having on scoring, right?
Control time versus damage.
And it's supposed to favor damage.
But how much damage did Rodriguez do is also open to interpretation.
Yeah.
Interesting fight.
And I'm interested in seeing what both these guys do after this, that's for sure.
Also, interesting to see what Mike Davis does after this, comes back, smushing Natanzi.
This fight was, these guys were playing two different sports in there.
Mike Davis gets a submission.
in round two.
I thought he could be the guy that does the thing.
And then he gets asked, who do you want to fight next?
He's like, oh, man, I don't care.
I'll fight anybody.
And then all of a sudden he's just like, that he just names off four names.
And all of them are realistic.
They're all fights he could get.
Probably not the Patty one, but that's like relatively around the same range.
But Patty probably won't take that fight.
But then he was like Vince Pichel, Jim Miller, and like another name or two that I was like,
Oh, yeah, these are all, like, very realistic.
So Mike Davis, hopefully he could stay healthy, and we could see a lot more of him.
Chelsea Chandler gets a win.
Jafel Filio gets a win.
Danny Silva, split decision win.
That fight with Josh Kulabal was as advertised.
Good fight.
Good scrap from both guys.
Jacqueline Amaram, nasty submission, getting it done.
Tiago Voices, leg kick TKO, and the Canadian.
Chad and Ellinger, getting it done in the opening fight.
bonuses guys no fight of the night we predicted that we had we predict that we did we did not
predict any of the people who actually got one that's true you're right you're absolutely right
whipped at all how did mike davis not get a bonus after all this time away he doesn't get a
freaking bonus can i guess all right yes so do we have four i'm assuming we have four do we have one two
three four yes two three four yes
Yes. Okay. I'm just going to scroll down the card and OSP?
No.
Tybora. Yes.
Mirashart. No. I know, right?
I got nothing. I give up already. I don't know. I give up already.
No.
What? Who is getting these bonuses?
Brian Battle. No, I'm just kidding. Amiram, Filio, Chias.
Taibora.
Yeah, man, GM3 kind of got hosed here, no?
Kind of, yeah.
Okay.
I mean, look, best post-fight speech, the whole thing.
There was a decent number of finishes, so it's hard to, like, really, like, go,
oh, this person and not this person, but, I mean, I don't know.
The GM3 one felt like a winner, and so did Tiago Moises.
But, I mean, congrats to all the winners.
I'm not trying to take any one yet in these pockets.
Yeah, Mike Davis, too.
Okay.
So OSP, the parley buster, nothing.
Nothing from OSP.
He's like top, he's like top three light heavyweight wins ever, I think.
I mean, come on.
Yep.
I know.
Pretty wild.
Pretty wild.
All right.
We'll go to the peeps now.
I mean, I just don't know what else to really talk about here.
So I'll let you guys sort of dictate it.
Yeah.
We do have a couple of super chats like your Nike hat slaps.
I want one.
Probably the most comfortable hat I've ever owned.
What material is my first choice?
Like what is it?
It's like a nice mesh.
Yeah.
Is it breathe?
Okay.
Oh, dude, it breathes.
It's tremendous.
Nice and soft.
It's like I'm not even wearing a hat.
All right.
So we're like, uh, Fahim wants to know.
Can someone please tell me where is Hamzaa Chamaev?
I wish I knew.
I wish same.
Your guess is as good as mine.
Hopefully we see him in Saudi Arabia.
Well, I imagine.
Yeah.
Like it's, uh, it's Ramadan.
and yeah you know we'll see him post that i assume but yeah it's his career is is puzzling to me
like i get don't don't get me wrong i'm not i'm not gonna play dumb and pretend like there's not
obvious like things regarding the visa that have been in play here but i don't know find a
country he can fight in and bring an event there like it just feels like hamzat shamiyev is a big
enough name that we should have had more hamzat shamaia fights no matter what it took um and we just
haven't and it's really been a hindrance to him getting opportunities that I that I think
he would have excelled in.
So yeah, a weird career for a guy who started his career as the, yeah, I'll fight twice
in two weeks guy to now be never fighting.
So it's a very odd scenario.
Mike, there's like a follow up comes that question that came in.
I'm not sure if you saw that in the super chat.
Yeah, super chat.
Oh, it's coming up.
There we go.
Steven, boys, off topic question.
What gets you frothing more?
Hamza versus Costa or Hamza versus Bo Nickel.
Thanks for the shampoo tips last week, New York, Rick.
Yeah, my man.
I mean, look at these curls right now, by the way.
Jeez, Louise, look at that.
Can we just talk?
That's not a filter?
No, this is real.
This is it.
Realzies.
It's for realzies.
What gets you frothing more, Hamza Costa or Hamzaun Nickel, New York, Rick?
No, go, go.
You go, go, okay.
I'm ready.
I'm primed.
I'm ready.
Give me that.
Give me that cost to fight.
I still want that.
I still want that cost to fight.
It's been teased.
It's been canceled.
It's been,
we want this to happen for the chaos,
for the fact that, you know,
cost is considerably higher rank than the other option in this question.
Bo Nicol,
you know,
we want to see Hamzaa face,
legitimate is the wrong word,
face experience and proven middleweight contenders right now.
It feels like a fight with Bo Nicol will be doing more for Bo at this point.
And again,
and we all think Bo has a make as a future champion.
been wrong we're not saying if he was matched up with hamza the odds would be like shockingly close
given their difference i may experience it would probably i think i think i think depending what happened
with nickel 300 i think hamsdut would still be favored but it would be like minus i don't
you don't think that at all depends on if he beats cody brandage or not i think the odds will
be exactly the same if he beats cody brundage or whatever it happens at you have i think but i do think
if he had to grind out a decision against Cody Brundage.
I think we're all expecting to finish him.
I think that would change.
The expectations for Bo are so out there are so high.
Like if he went to a decision, people are going like, oh my gosh, you couldn't finish
Cody Brennan.
I didn't even consider that that was a real thing that could actually happen until you just said
at this moment.
Everyone's expecting a first round, second time I'll finish.
A 30, 25 decision at worst.
But yeah, even that could change the excision.
But yeah, Homs out would only slightly be favored.
So that'll be down the road somewhere.
I think we want to see that.
Right now, I want the cost.
of business to be resolved. And again, we're killing two birds and one stone here. We're talking
about another guy who's hard to get in the cage. So I'm kind of cheating. I'm kind of doing it just so we can
get another Costa fight and other Hamzat fight in the books. Costa and Hamzot have a good rivalry
going. Costa and Hamzat are going to be way more dynamic and exciting on the microphone. Bo
Nicol to his credit, you know, not to his credit, but being realistic about Boe Nichol, he's a great
fighter. But his mic skills are just not there yet. Like he's a little bit rough when it comes to that.
like he's better on talking talking smack on Twitter than he is once the mic's in his face
um and so that's going to be there down the line as AK said like there's what's the rush
with Bo Nickel we can get nickel versus Hamza at any point um let's let's try and do Hamza
versus Costa right now for sure yeah if that should be on the Saudi Arabia card 100%
that should be a five round fight on that card yep for sure for sure sometime this summer
just yeah anytime this summer do that fight
Yeah, I love it.
Let's just settle that one.
I feel like we've been trying to pair these two guys up for like three years now.
Let's just get it done and wherever it comes out of it and things will happen.
And one more.
If it, one more shot at it.
If it doesn't happen this time, I think we can move on from it forever.
No more.
No more attempts to do it.
Yes.
Let's see.
Is Macy Chias on a title threat at 135?
She's won three in a row at 135.
Is she a title threat?
Everybody in that division is a title threat.
Thank you.
Also, hold on.
Also, listen, she didn't win three straight at 135.
This is a very, this is a very cherry picking set.
Yes, the last three, the last three times she fought under 135 pounds.
She has won.
But this is reaching back to Mary and Renault, which happened in 2021 and Shannon Young, which
happened in 2020.
The Arena-Al-Donna fight, that's a phantomweight fight that happened at a catch weight.
Come on.
What are we doing?
We're just ignoring that.
The Raquel Pennington fight was essentially should have been a bantamweight fight.
So I'll give you Norma Dumont.
That's essentially a proper featherweight fight.
So hold on.
Wasn't the Pennington fight a featherweight fight and chase on missed weight for that?
That was a weird one because that actually, so I think both fighters, not missed weight.
It was supposed to, that was originally a bantamweight fight and then was changed to a featherweight fight when Raquel Pennington, I think, stepped in on short notice.
And somehow Macy, who I think was the originally scheduled fighter missed.
Very strange.
It was mostly, sorry, Raquel and Julia Avila.
Avila was replaced by Chesson,
and they changed it to 145 for that,
and still she didn't make it.
But either way,
Adana essentially a phantomweight fight.
Raquel painting essentially a bantamweight fight.
Let's not say she won three straight.
Three in a row at bantamway, baby.
Come on, here.
Three in a row at bantamway.
You're right, though.
She has a contend, yes, it's bantamweight.
Guys, the women's bantamptuid division
does not have a long row contenders.
You need one win to get back in the,
winning track and one more win and she's probably getting a title shot. That's really it.
To give a genuine answer to the question, like she's got some skills. Like she's definitely
like somebody who especially once it hits the ground. Like it seems like she's she's adept at
kind of finding some openings there. So like yeah, I wouldn't I wouldn't say that it's out of
the question. But again, like anybody else could have a performance that's slightly better and
they're in the they're ahead of the line for a title shot. It's it's a rough division.
at the moment.
I mean, we got a little mini tourney going on here.
I mean, not to give away too much more on to the next one because I know you're all
thinking, I got to wake up early.
Make sure I subscribe to the NBA fighting podcasting networks.
I got to hear what Mike has to say about Macy Chesson's next fight.
We talked about it on the people's free fight show.
It's a little mini tournament going on as we're climbing the ranks.
And we're going to do a little Macy versus Chelsea Chandler action next.
Oh, wow.
Just battle it on and move on.
I mean, where's the, is Chelsea Chandler a type of?
thread at 135 question because she knocked out AK's like number two women's fighter pound for
pound.
That fight.
That fight gets booked.
Does one miss weight or do both miss weight?
Here's what I.
Why not just let these women fight at 145?
No, because then you're not going for a 35 pound title off that.
Why are we making for a 35 pound title?
Why are we making Macy Chia's son and Chelsea Chandler cut weight?
Why?
Why?
They're clearly 140.
They can fight for the 45 pound belt.
They can fight for the 45 pound belt after that, but they cannot fight for the 35.
This is so silly.
Making these women cut weight for nothing.
Well, not for nothing.
You're right.
For probably a title shot.
The best.
Next question.
All right.
Well, we'll throw this up there because this has been a big talking point today.
Jose Aldo coming out of retirement to fight Jonathan Martinez.
So yes, there are some reports.
Just that.
It's not even a question.
Just a statement.
Agey fight.
reporting this fight is happening at UFC 301. So as you guys know, and we try to tell you all the
time on heck of a morning, uh, the golden rule. If it's not on MAAfighting.com, it's not 100% done.
It's not a thing. Like, it's not officially a thing unless you see it on the website.
Is this probably going to happen? It seems like it from conversations I've had.
Have we fully all out confirmed this? No. But I have no problem.
at least bringing this up and playing a hypothetical
that this is probably going to end up happening at UFC 301.
So let's just say this is a done deal, New York, Rick.
Let's just say this is a thing.
UFC puts up a graphic right now.
This fight is happening in Brazil.
Jose Aldo,
Hall of Famer,
cup of coffee in retirement from the UFC
and is already back.
And he's fighting Jonathan Martinez,
the silence behind the violence,
fellow leg-kicking extraordinaire in Brazil.
Your thoughts on these reports that have come out today.
Not just Brazil, but Rio.
Rio, the king of Rio.
The dumbest possible fight that makes the most amount of sense that I've ever heard.
Like just an absolutely stupid fight that nobody needs to see.
That is the only crumb of something interesting at UFC 301,
which desperately needs something to.
care about in Rio de Janeiro Brazil.
And you're putting the King of Rio on it.
So you could do worse than that.
But yes, I mean, would I rather have seen him fight anybody else at any other time?
If that could have been booked, sure.
But the UFC has backed themselves into a corner that cannot be, that they cannot
escape, that they cannot get out of with how they've booked UFC 299 and 300 and even
potentially 298 to now that they have zero left for UFC 301.
They've got nothing left.
They've got no Brazilian stars, and now they've got Steve Urseg versus Alessandre Pantosia in the main event, which is not going to do anything for anybody.
So you got to pull, you got to break the glass and pull the lever and call Jose Aldo to fight literally anybody.
And Jonathan Martinez is literally anybody.
So now, let me, let me not, I'm trying to, it means nothing in terms of the significance of the fight.
The fight itself, the actual style.
matchup of Jose Aldo and Jonathan Martinez actually has me intrigued, right? Like, that's a,
yeah, Jonathan Martinez is a bad MFer. And that's a really kind of fun fight. It's just not the fight that
I need Jose Aldo to come out of retirement for, right? Like, if Jose Aldo was still competitive in that
division and still fighting, great, I'm fine with that fight. But this is not the fight that you
pull Jose Aldo out of retirement for unless you have an absolute emergency, which is that UFC 301
absolutely stinks to high heaven. And you need the King of Rio to be involved in it. So there you go.
It makes sense in that regard.
But yeah, I don't need to see Joseo
come out of retirement to fight Jonathan Martinez
because that could have been a fight
that was made when he was still an active fighter.
Like, I would have hoped it be some bigger name
or somebody he has some kind of like rivalry in the past with
or some kind of other aging legend.
That's the thing that I would want to see Joseoaldo come back for.
But at the same time, hopefully he gets the bag.
Hopefully Jonathan Martinez gets the bag and they put on a great fight.
Because I do think there's a real chance.
Like this could be a super,
fun fight. It's just not what I'm looking for at this point in Jose Aldo's career.
Boy, does this just fit with the UFC 301 narrative, AK? We were trying to figure out what the main
event's going to be. Who is Ali Pan's going to fight? And we're getting Steve Urseg, which by the way,
he's there. I don't hate it. I think it's going to be fun as hell. And I like the fact that Steve
Erseg, who says nothing mean about anything or anybody and won't say a single mean thing about
Alexander Pantosia has gotten his way into a title fight just by punching people in the face.
You got to love when that happens. This just fits the narrative here. Pants versus Urseg,
Aldo versus the silence behind the violence, okay? This is just, I mean, this is main,
co-made event, Sympatico. This is Sympatico. Theme, theme.
why couldn't jelton almeda just not get curtis blades did and just have him and tom as well
the top of what an unfortunate uh congratulations to curtis blaze by the way what an unfortunate turn of
events for this car i did that because that would have helped everything just kind of
splot together so neatly it would have been such a nice way to cap everything off and then everything
else that happens like before we would have just kind of taken almost a bonus we'd be like oh cool
josie aldo's coming back why is he finding john martin i'm
as I don't know, fun fight, but he's coming back.
That's cool.
Oh, Pantosha is defending his title against Steve Bursa.
Steve Bursa is a nice story.
And Pantosia doesn't have any fresh challengers besides, like,
Makai, who said he wants to fight Brandon Rogel, blah, blah, blah.
Everything would have slotted in.
Now, the weirdness of UFC 301 is highlighted so much.
And then even more so the weirdness of this Aldo comeback.
I think I saw someone writing earlier in the comments.
How much is, like, Josie Aldo getting paid to take this fight?
And honestly, I would hope they're giving them some kind of bonus, but they don't have to, guys.
You have to remember, this would technically just be, if I'm not, it might correct me if I'm wrong,
just fulfilling the last fight on his UFC contract because, yes, he went to go do boxing,
but that was with permission of the UFC because, again, I'm to understand he left,
left, quote, retired with one fight left on his UFC deal.
And guys, there's no, there's no clause in the UFC contract that if you say, I declare retired,
declare bankruptcy you know i declare retirement that you are now free from your ufc contract that's not a
thing that's not a thing so uh yes he's probably getting coming back and getting paid nicely i i don't
remember what he got paid for his last fight or if it was his closed but we're sure he's somewhere in
the in the decent six-figure range you know it should be making more but whatever uh i don't i would
surprise me if he'd manage to get paper viewpoints out of this uh if that would even matter because
i don't expect this show to do a blockbuster pay-per view number even with him on it um but yeah we should
I should be more excited about this, Mike and Newark,
correct?
This is one of my, probably one of my five favorite fighters all time.
I love Joseo Alto so much.
I hated, I did hate kind of how his career, his UFC career ended,
like the last fight of his career.
It just did not, it was not what I wanted.
So I should be excited.
It feels like this is a second chance for us to say, you know,
give a proper goodbye.
And I like Jonathan Martinez, too.
But it just feels so weird.
Maybe it's because the, you know, the unfounded, by the way,
guy's rumor of a Dominic Cruz fight is somewhat more interesting.
my mind. I can't let that fight go. I've wanted that for so long.
But yeah, maybe I'll warm up to when we get closer to flight night guys.
But right now, I don't know. I just didn't have that warm, fleshy feeling when I saw that
all that was coming back to fight to the sounds behind the balance.
Just kind of came out of nowhere. I don't know.
I mean, when I hear that runs down tonight, I'm going to lose my shit. I can't lie to you.
It has the feeling that the UFC 301 card has.
It's just another fight like that where it's like,
we know this did not need to happen for any reason other than it's in Rio.
That's literally the only reason this fight is happening.
So it is what it is.
This is still not as bad as Blah Muhammad versus Gilbert Burns being slotted in to be a co-made event on like 10 days notice for.
Which led to nothing for literally nothing.
And I told you it was going to be a little bit of.
lead to nothing and it didn't sell one ticket or one pay-per-view not a single this one on the other hand
will probably sell some tickets potentially oh for sure jose aaldo and rio is josea aldo and rio but
yeah by the way i i just saw a comment although definitely on that championship level pay and legend
incentives oh oh sweet sweet children i hope you're right i hope i'm so wrong and i hope you're so
right but you got understand the ufc doesn't have to do that again their their incentive could simply be
oh, you want to box again in the future,
you owe us one fight.
You fight in Rio, then your contract's done.
That honestly could be the incentive.
I want to believe you guys are right,
and they're giving him a little bit,
a little sugar on top,
but they actually don't have to.
They can simply tell him,
if you want a fight outside of the UFC again,
you owe us one more fight,
and then you're free to go.
That could be that.
It could be it.
And if that's what it is,
and Josie Aldo's fighting for that reason,
means to an end?
Okay, good.
Now he's a complete free agent.
Great.
Works for him.
Got some super chats.
That's Matt. Mike, when's the golf video with Platt coming out? I believe you. Yeah, Platt, as in Platinum, Mike Perry.
Soon. Stay tuned. Stay tuned. It's coming together. It's coming together. It's, uh,
New Yorkerick got to look at a Steak Peak. I did. One of the rough drafts. It's, uh,
without the bells and whistles. It's going to be a fun one. I had a good time rewatching the,
the rough cut. You will enjoy it. You will enjoy it.
Boarding for flight 246 to Toronto is delayed 50 minutes.
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Ah, Fahim, what did you think of Ian's response to Colby's 10-8 video in 301 sucks so bad so far?
I don't know if you guys saw this.
I did not.
So Ian basically cut Colby saying,
and like you have 24 hours to respond.
Like,
this is the ice bucket challenge
instead of a fight call out.
Yes.
And Ian basically,
it flashed to Ian.
He was like looking at his watch sitting in a pool and he was like,
I'll respond on my own time.
Don't rush me.
That's literally the response.
Very Ian Gary response is my reaction to that.
Like everything's just a one degree off from the,
the slickness that,
that he believes.
it has and doesn't do it for me. The description of it sounds exactly like what I would expect.
And I did think it was interesting that Colby is finally acknowledging Ian Gary and seems like
maybe he's angling for a fight there. I rather liked the direction Colby went. And yeah,
that sounds like an Ian Gary response to me. When was this last week? Was this when I was on vacation?
Please tell me this was when I was on vacation. I missed this Ian Gary. The Colby thing.
No, this Colby, Colby did, I think it was like Wednesday or Thursday.
Colby put out a video and it was like, you have to do these three things.
And then I'll fight you where it's like turn on your comments on Instagram.
Some other, there are a few other things.
There were some, there was some crass requirements as well.
Correct.
And then he gave in the 20, you have 24 hours to respond.
And Ian took far more than 24 hours.
And it was like, oh, respond to my own time, Colby.
I see someone saying it's a Timex sponsors.
You know what?
I miss whatever this is and I'm glad I did.
Yeah, dude, it's happy to be uninforms.
It's everything you think it would be.
And there you go.
Joseph, thank you.
In the preview show earlier, I suggested Paul Felder versus Jose Al though 155.
Would that have been better?
Rather have it be stateside, but it would save the card.
So can you imagine if that was the freaking fight?
Love that.
So now we have Jose Aldo cut back to 135 again to fight Jonathan Martinez.
They can just do this at freaking 45.
What's the, what are we doing here?
Well,
oh my gosh.
I mean,
maybe they can still do Martinez versus Aldo at like 45, right?
Yeah,
maybe they could say,
I mean,
this is not a ranked opponent for Martinez like,
hey,
you know,
just do this fight.
We'll do it at 45.
Neither of you guys has to suck yourselves down and,
and you can do it,
you know,
at a more reasonable weight.
I'd like to see that anyway.
I'd like to see them probably give them a little extra weight on that anyway.
But Felder makes a lot more sense as a name as an opponent for this.
I think people would have been more excited about it.
Again,
I hate to take this route because it feels like we're shitting on Jonathan Martinez.
I think it's safe to say like everybody here and everybody who has actually watched this guy fight.
He's freaking awesome.
Like Jonathan Martinez is freaking awesome.
I love that dude.
I absolutely love watching Jonathan Martinez fight.
But it's just not the fight I want for Joseo, though.
You know, Felder would have been a much more intriguing kind of interesting, you know,
legend, veteran versus legend, veteran look, even though I think Jonathan Martinez is clearly
a better fighter.
Yeah, congrats to Jonathan Martinez if he gets this fight.
If this all, if this plays out and everything goes to schedule, that's awesome.
That's awesome for him.
He deserves to have big names on his resume.
Yeah.
I prefer if it was, again, names that were not being dragged out of retirement.
But if you're Jonathan Martinez, you don't really care.
John Martinez does not see this as like, oh, I'm fighting retired Jose Aaldo.
He just says, I am fighting Jose Aaldo, one of the greatest fighters of all time.
And if I have that in my resume, that's there forever.
This is why Patty wanted to fight Tony Ferguson, right?
And Tony's certainly not in the same form as Jose Aaldo was near the end of his career.
But Patty will always point to like, oh, I have a went over Tony Ferguson.
I've went over Tony Ferguson.
And we know the circumstances around it, but guess what?
It's still there.
Jonathan Martinez beating Jose Aaldo would be much more meaningful.
But yeah, same idea as far as like, if you're him, you're happy to take
this fight. Although again, we don't know the full motivation. Maybe there's a big paycheck in there.
But yeah, we don't, again, we don't mean to crap on it too much. It's, it's, we'll be excited.
We love. We love Jonathan Martinez, but and then dot, dot, dot, dot, but, but, yes. Yeah. I see a lot,
like, I see a lot of comments and I saw on social media to, um, Dominic Cruz rumors or whatever.
Um, even some people were actively throwing it out like, you know, Dominic Cruz said no to Brazil.
Hmm. Again, I don't know all of this. I'm just going based on the conversations I've had.
Conversations I've had are that the Dominic Cruz idea was a Twitter idea that may have had some validity.
But from the conversations I've had, it's a Twitter thing that just got so popular that everyone started by, like, believing in it so much that it like took on a life of its own.
From what I understand, Jonathan Martinez has sort of been the guy for this.
idea for several days now, even as like the beginning of last week was in play.
As of like Wednesday or Thursday, the fight was like officially offered to him, like middle
of last week.
And then, you know, where we're at right now.
I don't know if like Penn has hit paper, but it's probably going to happen.
So that's kind of where we're at right now.
There you go.
But yeah, that, that, uh, Joe Zaldo is fighting in the U.S.
the octagon in two months time right now that x can create expectations that become unrealistic
once they get out of control it can it can happen it can absolutely happen that way so
man who knows look if alto goes in there and does the damn thing against j mart we could still do
dominic crews if we really want to it's always going to be there it's always going to be there
but yeah that was a little surprising piece of business that we got today
What else do we got?
Do we have anything else?
Crazy that Martinez dropped three spots last week in the rankings.
Did he?
I didn't even notice that.
Not the only rankings that really matter.
So I guess some guys must have jumped over him is what happened.
Kyle,
Kyle Phillips probably,
I bumped him down.
The silence behind the violence is in our rankings, right?
I believe so.
I believe he is, yeah.
Yeah, TSB TV, better be.
Let's take it.
Let's take a quick look here.
I'm fairly certain he does.
We have Jonathan Martinez tied for 15.
He's actually tied with Collar Phillips at number 15 right now.
So,
Hey,
listen,
and just being in the top 15 in our rankings,
considering it's not just the UFC,
it's like all the bantam weights,
it's pretty dead.
That's not bad.
That is not bad.
There's a lot of freaking good band.
Where's Jose Aldo?
Well,
removed due to
unranked.
Retirement.
Yes.
The second he steps into that octagon, I'm immediately ranking him.
I'm immediately ranking him.
If he beat John the Martinez, I'm going to make him, he's jumping above Umar.
If he beats John of the Martinez, I mean, you kind of do have to rank him at that point.
I mean, that's a, he's a sick one.
He's going to be ranked.
He's going to be ranked anyways.
That's for sure.
Uh, Jeannavani, thank you.
Want to clarify that when I voted since first prelim, then I'm a barber and we have them on at work.
So I paid, I paid attention 33% until the OSP.
Oh, okay. That counts as a hopped around. I don't feel like that counts as a hopped around. I feel like that's a hopped around vote, not a hop around. I think he's acknowledging. He's acknowledged. Yeah. That's basically saying. He's saying, look, there's one extra vote for that. Put me back in the hop around. Yeah. Let me, let me close the poll now. Right now it's at 30, from the first prelim still won. But it went down to 32%. And then that means, if you guys want to do some quick math here, 78% declarers saying they did not watch the fight from Carlin.
the card from top to bottom.
But I also have to imagine that's somewhat normal
for any non-paper view.
I would imagine most pay-reviews.
You have maybe, like, of our viewership,
maybe 60, 65% would say they watched in the first prelim,
but maybe I'm wrong.
Maybe this is a particularly bad result for a flight night card.
It wouldn't surprise if it was,
but 32% said they stuck through.
But again, this is also a hardcore viewership.
I wonder if you took the more casual viewer,
it has to be majority tuned in for like the main card
or maybe a little bit earlier.
What are you counting as a casual viewer?
Not someone who listen.
I'll tell you,
not a lot of people who listen to our post-fight show in New York, Rick.
I feel like we attract the most intelligent,
sophisticated,
and well-studied combat sports viewers.
That part I agree with.
If the word casual is involved,
I would say zero percent of this card they watch.
Like, there's not a casual person
of a live who watched this card.
you have to be hardcore even if you've watched just the main card you are a hardcore
i'm a fan for watching i i will i will tell you right now if i didn't have to work it i would not
have watched a second of this card not one second i would have watched the players and i would have
went out on a beautiful day with the family that is for a hundred percent fact what i've watched
like tomorrow perhaps i would have found like the good things to watch but yeah that's it's just
nature of the beast you know it's just the nature of the beast this isn't a great
card next week who great pretty solid made event there are at least some stakes there because
anytime rose nam unis is involved if she wins she could shake everything up but boy is that a tough
hang in terms of like stakes and meaning and what makes it worse is that it's a six-fight main card
that starts at 10 p.m. Eastern next week come on oh yeah oh yeah oh yeah what are we doing sleep get a good
night sleep on your Friday.
Michael, hopefully Pereer could turn around for 301.
I don't know if you're talking about Alex or Michelle.
If you're talking about Michelle, you get your wish.
And we're going to break a little bit.
I guess we're breaking some news for it.
He is fighting at 301.
If you're talking about Michelle Pereira, he's fighting
Mahmoud Muradoff.
I think he means Alex.
Yeah, I know.
I know.
I don't think it's going to happen, though.
I also don't think like this is, we're at the point now where you can officially
write this card off and they're not going to.
to invest a single extra moment thinking about this card.
Again, they're going to say, we're taking a bath on this one.
Well, okay, we should make this maybe clear.
They're going to get paid by ESPN for putting on this card.
And that's all they had to do.
Tens of millions of dollars, by the way.
Yes, they are putting on this card and it will do a very low pay-per-view by.
They have a floor established with their broadcast partner where they get paid,
no matter, they get paid as if the pay-per-view did X number of paper-view sales.
anything above that, then they share profits and that is what they're aiming for, right?
They are aiming to exceed that.
But when they have a pay-per-view like this where it is not going to do well, they're still getting paid.
And so they're not going to invest money when an Alex Pereira fight, depending on who it's against,
probably isn't going to graze that ceiling too much unless it's like, hey, we're doing Izzy again,
or there's some like crazy fight that really does like elevate the pay-per-view.
They have no incentive to do that.
They're going to count this one as a bad booking.
We blew our load on 299 and 300.
We're going to move on and focus on 302 and beyond.
So I don't think,
I don't think they,
they are going to put Alex on this card no matter what.
Yeah, there's no need to.
They don't need to.
There's going to be some scenes too.
This will be some nice positive scenes.
You know, if three or four Brazilians win in the prelims,
you get the crowd fired up,
I would think they expect Pantosia.
What I would think, and they don't often book title fights this way, one of the reasons they picked Erseg is because they think Pentosia will take care of business.
And I agree.
And that's no disrespect to Steve Versa because he could very likely play the spoiler as he has in a couple of UFC fights already and really send people home unhappy.
But I would think Pentosia will be at least like a minus 250, maybe minus 300 favorite.
So is considering the public reaction to the main event announcement, I think a lot of voters still don't know who Steve Erseg is, even though anyone who's
watched his three UFC fights or watched him before the UFC, no, like, oh, this guy's legit.
Like, this guy probably is good enough to fight anyone in the top five.
We just didn't expect him to get the number one guy so quickly.
So I just kind of defend to defend the experience where, like, we'll like to see, yeah, we've
talked about it, probably not could do a great peer review, might not even sell out.
But the product and like the clips they're going to get from it will probably be very useful
to the UFC because I think you are going to get some big moments for Brazilian fighters.
And that's all you've got to do, string those together and talk about, wow, what a triumphant
return to Rio for the promotion.
It has the vibe of some of those recent Canadian cards where it's just like if enough
of the hometown fighters win, you kind of get, you catch fire.
Taking a shot of me, New York, Rick.
Talking about UFC 297, you take a shot?
All the men, all the men going 0 and 5?
What's that?
What do you do?
What are you doing?
I'm right here to my face.
Best laid plans.
Best laid plans.
Yeah, that one didn't go so hot.
But the one before that felt big, felt special.
And I feel like the booking is similar.
are good on you to point out.
Like, I do feel like the vibe in the arena is going to be a lot different
than what this does on paper view, which is going to be absolutely nothing.
Yeah, dude.
Belio won tonight.
He's from Brazil.
Amarim one tonight.
Brazilian.
Tiago Moises one tonight.
Brazilian.
They should make it a 30 fight card with all Brazil versus people.
And then just see if you can string enough together that it just is impossible for Brazil to
lose.
There's so many Brazilians.
They just kill it.
And then everybody gets excited.
Dude, they couldn't even hold Hanato Moikano off for three weeks to have him fight in Brazil.
Him fighting Jalen Turner is cool as cool as hell.
I love that fight.
It's tremendous.
But we couldn't wait three weeks.
It had to be at 300.
I don't understand that.
Just back at like overthinking themselves into a corner, which is crazy.
Well, they had it.
They had it when they had Alex and Jamal and they just, oh, for sure.
They blew it up on purpose.
Like they had, this would have been fine.
They needed Alex and Jamal and they blew it up on purpose to headline 300 for some reason.
For no reason, which they didn't even have to do.
Nope.
Fahim, I didn't watch single fight tonight, but I'm watching your show.
What does that tell you?
Tell you you're a very smart man.
You got everything you needed and more.
And we got to talk about Jose Aldo potentially coming back and fist fighting somebody.
And that we love you, Fahim.
Yes, we do very much.
Michael, how do you feel about Alan v. Curtis, too.
Yes, that went down.
Martin Vittory suffered what he called a freak accident,
so he is not fighting Brennan at the world's most famous apex on April 6th,
the go-home show for the aforementioned UFC 300
and stepping in on short notice,
Chris Curtis, who holds a stoppage win over Brennan.
I believe he is the last man to defeat Brennan Allen,
was he not before Brennan Allen went on this incredible streak winning the middleweighty middleweight title and probably vacating it because he's too good at what he does at this point.
Vacating winning and then vacating it.
Yes.
So what do we think, New York, Rick?
Chris Curtis stepping in to try to go two and oh against Brennan Allen and stop this long winning streak and just kind of knock Brennan out of title contention altogether.
It's things for Brendan Allen because I think he was trying to advance.
right i think he was trying to move up and this is another one where i don't think it's going to do much
in the stock but i think it will be good for brendan allen to have an opportunity to get that one back
and for chris curtis it's another opportunity to kind of jump back into the fray and one he called
for at several points and i think uh stylistically it's it's a fun fight too so i don't hate it
i do feel a little bit for brendan allen like it just it's it's not doing what it needs to do for
his purposes. But good on him for being game and taking it and saving the opportunity.
AK, you're a big Chris Curtis guy. I like it. Yeah, I'm a big Chris Curtis guy. I like it. I feel a little
bit bad from Brennan Allen because he's wanted the Sean Strickland rematch for a long time.
Obviously, that kind of went out of play when Strickland became a UC champion and kind of moved
into another tier of, you know, the division. But that's the rematch he's wanted. I'm sure he's
He's loving the Chris Curtis rematch too, but he really wanted to get Strickland back.
Instead, he gets Strickland's close friend and teammate Chris Curtis.
So there's a lot to lose here.
And I do think Chris Curtis is still a very dangerous matchup for him.
And it is always good to be able to get that one back in your record.
If he beats Chris Curtis, then he's avenged his only lost in the past nine fights.
So it's not like he's on a nine-fight win streak, but in his mind, it would kind of look that way in the match because you kind of sell it that way, sell it that way to the fans.
and that'd be really impressive at 185,
a division that Mike you have said has improved greatly
over the last couple of years as far as how deep it is.
So love the matchup.
It's a fine fight night main event,
no problem with it because it does have a little bit of a storyline to it,
but I kind of still wish we could see Brennan Allen
and Strickland two down the road,
even if it ended up going the same way as his first fight was Strickland,
which is good.
Look, we don't know what's going on behind the scenes.
I don't know anything, but let's just say,
you are Brendan Allen's manager and they
these are the options they could say hey
you can still fight
on this card in the made event
against Chris Curtis where the only thing you really
gain is like something for yourself
where you could extract revenge for a loss you didn't feel
was right you could try to write a wrong but you really
gain nothing from it or you wait
80 days and we
rebook the Marvin Vittori fight same venue
still a main event.
Do you do that or do you take, do you roll the dice here?
I think you roll the dice.
For one, you're maintaining a UFC main event, which I think is significant and
think it matters, right?
When the UFC is looking around and going like, how do we elevate people?
I think having a number of UFC main events matters.
And so I think even just the idea of maintaining a main event is worth it, is worth the risk
potentially for Brendan Allen.
As we mentioned, there's a little bit of a storyline as well.
Also looking at the UFC rankings, like Alan is sick.
Votori is five.
So it's not like this catapults him, right?
If he had maintained this matchup with Votori, I don't think it catapults him.
I do, again, I think we all wanted him to fight Votori because we also think of Votori as like a perennial kind of contender, top guy.
Chris Curtis is not that, right?
Chris Curtis is somewhere lower down that tier and lower down that ranking.
And a win over Votori puts Allen in a different kind of category.
Now he can start calling for Sean Strickland.
Now he can start calling for the guys above him.
But I don't think it does enough.
rankings wise that I'm trying to sit on it and hold it and make that the plan.
Like I wouldn't I wouldn't pin my hopes to Marvin Vittory specifically.
I think it's enough to say I'm going to keep a main event.
The UFC is going to look at me and go, I'm game.
I'm willing to save their cards.
I was in the main event.
I'm still in the main event.
And then just go from there.
So I think that's enough if I was if I was managing Brendan Allen.
Fair.
I agree.
I can understand where you're coming from.
Do you agree, AK?
Yeah.
I think this is a way for him.
to possibly avoid the Vittori fight altogether.
Not that I think he's trying to do that.
No chance.
Yeah.
No.
Oh, you think he starts to do it?
Yep.
Oh, okay.
I miss heard.
I thought you said that he's not only maintaining a main event, but made by winning a main
event and, you know, kind of keeping the street going with the current form he's on,
that the U.S.
be like, ah, well, we don't need to do the Vittori fight now.
Well, you just have to look at the names.
It's Strickland, Adesania, Whitaker, Canada.
They're not fighting Brendan Allen.
So you really got no options there.
Cannonaires,
maybe his best chance,
but even still.
It's not automatic,
but I do think him getting,
if he gets an impressive winover occurs,
I do think him,
like, that they found some for him
to save this main event.
It could,
I do think he's going to pass the Vitori fight.
Because we've said a lot of times,
I think,
especially in this division right now,
in middle weight,
because we said like,
like, what,
Shem I have been Kosser,
talking wanting to read books,
stuff like that.
We've said,
like, how,
I don't know
like winning these fights can change
your trajectory a lot like I remember I thought
that Hamza after he beat
Usman I thought like I thought I still want to see him
fight Costa but there's no guarantee that
that gets rebooked like it seems logical
but we also hear oh he beat Usman
and now like they're talking about Hamza
for maybe a welterweight title shot like they want that
it's so weird it's so strange how these things work
so I am not ruling out the possibility
that if he beats Curtis
impressive fashion that the Vittori
fight might get pushed
aside, at least for the near future.
The guys you named, you're right, are not going to fight
Brennan Allen next.
That's what I'm saying.
But a lot can change the next six months.
Who is it?
Because it's not any of those guys.
A lot can change in the next six months.
So yeah, let's see how, because I think something you guys, the names you mentioned are
books too, right?
So we have to see how they do.
And then they might make more sense for Brennan Allen than they do now.
So I get it.
I get it.
But I do think he can, he can bypass the Votory fight if he plays his cards right on April 6th.
Boy, and if Chris Curtis somehow wins that fight.
Oh, man.
That's a whole other thing.
That is tough.
That is tough.
Brandon Allen's road to getting to a title fight is so long.
If that happens, it's so, so long.
So I guess there is some risk, but even if he wins, it's high risk and super low reward.
That I agree with.
The main event is the only real, like, thing that I'm pegging on for this one is like,
the UFC looks at you and goes, okay, you're a main eventer and you're reliable.
that's what you kind of hope for yeah behem is 300 missing fighters ending their names with
b this is the best like look i understand yeah i i it's a lot of 300 questions and shami if
you know what would happen if this wasn't ramadan what would 300 look like i do think
it would not be alasker ever small hill we're probably looking at islam trying to fight for a
second belt that would probably do leon versus islam that would be my
guess but there's Ramadan or all that there's a lot of different guys yeah a lot of people you could
possibly do here but still even with what they have this is in my opinion top to bottom the best
card the UFC's ever put together ever it's up there it's it is up there if it's from the first
fight to the last fight this is probably the best card I've never done I've never dug in on this
here's what I would say there's a chance you're right on the
basis that at the time that some of these other cards were made,
the ones that have aged better, right,
weren't as good.
Like you think about these cards and then you're like,
yeah,
well,
it had John Jones on the prelims,
but yeah,
like John Jones wasn't John Jones.
So they kind of aged better.
Like the benefit of hindsight has made them age better.
There is a chance like this moment right now.
It's better because everybody here is like relevant,
significant,
ranked, exciting, great.
but man that's a that's a big statement i've i've not thought about it i'll be honest because i'm just
like this is like water in a desert like these cards have just been so absolutely dreadful that like
a card as good as 299 and 300 just feels like mana from the heavens for me like i'm just like oh
thank god oh my god it's coming to me and um i don't even think beyond that like i'm just so
thankful that this is even happening that i've been blessed to have good m m m in my life and so
I haven't thought historically.
Maybe it is.
I mean, there's a chance.
I would say probably not.
I just can't imagine that there hasn't been anything better,
but it might be up there.
You might be right.
Dude,
we're opening with figgy and...
Yeah, but that's kind of a gimmick, right?
Bonneckel versus Cody Brundage is not some, like, legendary fight.
Like, you could swap that with, with Cody.
And then the quote unquote, opening thing doesn't mean anything at that point.
Yeah.
They kind of screwed the pooch for me.
because I actually defended the bow nickel on the 300 main card.
I give credit to Damon Martin for getting me there,
but only in the position that it was before tonight,
because they changed the order and they put Oliver Seruky in second on the main card,
and they put Bo Nickel Brundage first on the main card.
And I get it's sort of the same direction,
but I liked Bo Nickle, Cody Brunge in that spot,
because the next fight after that is Justin Gachy versus Max Holloway,
and which fight is going to guarantee us that we're going to get to just a Gaetje, Max Holloway,
as quick as physically possible.
It is Bo Nickel versus Cody Brundage.
That is why.
Then there's no more waiting.
Fight ends.
Bo cuts his promo, and then we're running the promo for Gaichi and Holloway.
And there's nothing else left.
Maybe there's a Hall of Fame recap, or maybe we're announcing somebody else, or we're promoing 301,
and we're seeing what other weird fights they put on that card.
But then we know that the next two men who are about to watch.
walk into that octagon or just engage you and max holloway but now you got bow nickel cody bruns going
first which means we're going to start with the finish more than likely and who knows what's going to
happen with all of erin sirukin they might go a full 15 it's not going to be a bad fight but you know
what i mean it's kind of like the let up spot and then we get right into the three title fights
it's well reasoned super sharp appreciate you putting that fourth card placement does not matter
at all in m m yeah i forgot who i was talking about mr card placement himself but since
So that was the only reason why I liked it.
I'm like, because I just want to get to Gichi Holloway.
Let's go.
Let's throw these two dudes in there.
They could fight for 45 seconds.
They could be over and then we get right to the bread and butter.
Yeah.
But that's like, 300 is six.
That's the least significant fight on the entire card.
Yeah, but it's there for a reason.
By far.
It's there for a reason.
It would have been nice to have like a Islam, although, you know, it just, I don't think that was ever like really in play necessarily just because of the Ramadan aspect or a Hamzaa or.
somebody with a with a V on the end but it's hard to be mad at anything that's happening with
300 300 is sick all these fights are bangers they're all great a couple more super chats
we're going to get out of here Terrence Jelton made a back at 205 with another loss why not now
I was going to say why does he need another loss go man go now it might be a little too late
it's never too late it's what you mean too late tell me have you seen what this man looks like
Did you see what you look like?
Oh, I see what you're saying.
Okay.
Dude, he bulked up.
Like he's not, he can drop it.
That's beach, that's, that's, that's beach muscle.
No.
Popcorn muscles.
No, no, no, no.
He'll be, he can go back.
No.
He does, you know what?
I didn't think about that.
He looks fucking big.
Yeah.
Dude, he was like 2.41 and he was like getting bigger on the scale.
Like you can see his muscles getting bigger on the friggin scale.
This dude is not a light heavyweight who just is fighting a heavyweight.
He looks like a freaking heavyweight.
I saw, I saw Alster Overeone.
once hopped up on horse meat looking like the friggin' incredible Hulk and now he looks like
a welterweight in retirement. So I'm sure it's possible for Jelton with a, to put it nicely,
change in diet to shrink back down to 205. So please. So I'm not ruined that out at all.
Lose 40 pounds of muscle, Jelton. You can do it. I believe.
People have done, people have done stranger things in combat sports. All right.
He's about to go. He's about to headline. He's about to headline at the world's most famous
apex at some rando card in august against marcy and tibora next yes he's got to have to put on
more muscle now to try to chuck that dude around oh lord okay i'll say this though realistically i like
his chances against the top light heavyweights way more than i like his chances against the top
heavyweights um and i'm talking specifically like the real top right like i'm talking is he going to win a
championship i don't like his chances against the really really top top guys um whereas that light
heavyweight, I think it could be more competitive. And especially with how hard they hit.
We literally saw this play out with the Curtis Blades fight. It's not like Curtis went in there
and starched them. He was completely controlled. But when it's heavy weights, if you're just sitting
there shooting for takedowns and grabbing on legs and don't have much of an offensive top game,
there's a chance you really just get pounded out by a guy who's 265 pounds. That's just what heavyweight
is. I like his shot a lot better at light heavyweight, but I don't think you're wrong, Mike. He may have
just become a heavyweight and there's just not like a turning back point where you kind of got
a stick yeah he ain't beat tommy aspinall but no Tommy Tom Aspinall would dust him in 40 seconds
like it wouldn't even be a competitive fight yeah uh Stephen question for AK uh that we have one more
after this uh who is the next Canadian stand out and why is it jazz and jazz debesis I I still have
hopes for Mike Malott that that was a big jump up in competition for Neil Magny I think a lot of us
picked Magnet to beat Mike Malant because we just said, look at who they fought.
Look at the level of competition.
That matters a lot.
And Malat actually looked good at moments of that fight.
It's just, you know, you're facing a guy who's a lot more experience, who's been in the
deep waters, who's not going to panic if you, like, get a little offense on him early on.
So Mike Mollat's still up there.
Not that he's like a super young prospect.
I think that is sort of a misconception about him and some other.
If you look at a lot of the fighters in the Canadian scene who have good records,
they're kind of up there.
They're like in their 30s.
And if they're not heavy weights, they're not heavy weights.
It's not heavyweight, it's not heavyweighs.
Like they're in their 30s and divisions like welterweight, lightweight, featherweight.
And again, I don't want to judge anyone on life age.
I do think in cage mileage is probably more important.
But it's just hard to be considered like a blue chip up-and-coming prospect when you're up there in age in the lighter divisions.
That's just a fact.
That's just a reality of the situation.
Again, I hope Mike Molop put me wrong and bouncing back from this Neil Magny win.
We see him win four straight and talk about him, you know, contending for a title someday.
It's certainly possible.
But the NBA seen up in Canada's rough, man.
It just didn't, it just didn't develop.
Why is that?
What, what happened?
It just didn't develop as a lot of us had hoped when it was legalized in Ontario.
That was supposed to start this golden age of MMA events.
And we actually had a good amateur scene before that.
But then that happened.
And then the amateur scene kind of died out because I think some people started chasing pro money.
But then the pro scene got screwed up by, there was a lot of red tape required to put on a pro event in Ontario for various political reasons, either greed or,
to certain parties not wanting MMA to have a large presence of Ontario pro-MMA.
And it never really, it never really caught up.
A lot of the great fighters come from, not from Ontario.
Ontario is not like the center of the University of Canada,
but I mean, that's where we thought a lot of the talent would come from.
But even in Montreal, which is, you know, where GSP came from,
where we found a lot of great fighters started trained out of there,
but always from the other coast, actually.
And that's where you still see a lot of fighters come from.
I was like maybe Alberta in that direction, closer in that direction.
But man, we thought Ontario was going to be a home base for it.
It just didn't happen.
And we're still waiting.
We're still waiting for that boom to come.
And I'm confident.
I think it'll happen.
I think it'll happen.
We now have a new Ministry of Sport Initiative,
trying to get the amateur scene kind of pump back up again.
So 297 was a part of that, like bringing the U.C. back to Canada,
get people sort of piquing their interest again.
But it's a big climb, guys, a big climb.
And I do not.
I feel comfortable throwing a name out there.
saying this person is going to be like a UFC top five contender anytime soon.
All right.
Thank you for that.
Last two super chats and then we're getting out here.
Sage is in the same spot of UFC 200 is Bo.
I mean, it was on the prelims, but yes, and he fought a Rique Marin went to the cards.
I don't know if this is going to go to the cards.
I would assume not.
Who's your favorite current champion?
Oh, golly.
I don't know.
That's a good question.
I don't really think about that.
Now, are we talking,
are we talking, like, who's your favorite, like,
fan kind of answer, or are we talking, like,
who's your favorite to watch?
I mean, like, how are you interpreting this?
You can't be fan, because I can't answer it as a fan.
Oh, I can.
I definitely.
I mean, it's probably Alex Pereer,
because it's just so freaky and so strange,
and the fact that he's even in this position is so bizarre.
Yes.
So quickly.
So, yeah.
I'll say him just because his story is incredible.
But what do you got?
Eric, Greg.
I mean, John Jones is always my guy, like forever and ever and ever.
I'll always want John Jones.
But the favorite to watch right now?
Ilya.
It's Alessandre Pantosia, man.
Yeah.
That dude's the freaking best.
That dude is the freaking best.
Every single fight is just a banger.
He's so well-rounded.
He goes into zombie mode.
He guts it out with Slug Fest.
Or he's just an ace grappler.
Like he,
for my money,
if I'm in a vacuum,
if in a vacuum,
the UFC says like,
you can pay right now to watch any of these champions fight right now.
Opponent,
relevant of opponent.
You're just going to see a fight from this person.
It might still be John Jones just because,
you know,
it's toward the end and he's a legend and all that stuff and he's the goat.
But Alessandrey Panto is getting my money, man.
That dude's,
that dude's incredible.
I love him.
Pants is fun as hell, AKA is Irichael Pennington for you.
She's just, she's phenomenal.
Ask me in a year, it could be Elito-Pura.
It could be Elitaburia.
I think the guy is just so intriguing.
And he just did that thing we always ask that the U.S.
He begs for where when you are given an opportunity,
can you capitalize it, capitalize on it in the most dramatic,
meaningful way?
And holy crap, he did a huge knockout.
And then getting to do, you know, the Brennebeio appearance was freaking insane.
and it's kind of still surreal to think about it.
It'll be probably uncovered enough, frankly.
And yeah, and even before that, his fights were so fun.
So it's a little bit too early.
We've only seen him in a one championship fight.
I get it.
But, boy, a year from now, that could be the answer for a lot of people.
TDP is fun as hell to watch.
Yeah, he is.
Last one, Giovanni.
Will the UFC Barry Grant Dawson after his loss to Bobby Green Rotes?
He's tough for grapplers, not named Bo Nicol.
He's booked.
So I guess you're going to get some news broken to you right now, Giovanni, as well.
UFC 302
which is currently slated for June 1st
Year of Our Lord, 2024
looks like Newark, New Jersey.
Grant us will be fighting one
Joseph Solekke
Joe Solexi.
Good match a fun fight.
Grappler versus grappler
Joe Selecki and Grant, I believe
both of these gentlemen have been
competitors on BTL as a matter of fact.
Oh wow. I think this will be the first
fight in UFC history
with two guys who were both on BTL at different points to battle Jed Mishu,
and now they're going to fight each other.
And they're both very, very good.
Is Jed the special guest referee?
No, actually, I guess you would be the referee.
And Jed would be like cornering both?
I don't know how that would work.
Oh, that'd be incredible.
Forget the BMF belt.
We want the BTL belt.
That's the one that's the history fighting for.
I mean, forget the middle-weighty, middle-weight title.
This is, this means way more.
BTL's way more.
Impressive.
God.
Now Randy Caught,
like Randy Koss is going to have to fight like Adrian Yannes or something.
Again.
They did fight each other.
Yeah.
So then did they appear after they fought?
Actually, Adrian Yannis has never been on BTL.
Randy has.
Adrian's been on the watch party,
been on BTL.
But these are actually BTL competitors.
There is one more,
less one.
There should be more draws than MMA like OSP versus Ninch, Chukwu.
Should that have been a draw?
Nah.
OSP one.
I felt pretty good about USB winning that thing.
Yeah.
There should be more draws in MMA.
That is correct.
Yeah, there should be more draws in an MMA.
There should be more 10-10s handed out.
There should be more 10-8 handed out.
Although I do say, I mean, I've been impressed with how much they've been using it more lately.
Like it seems like the new scoring is working to a certain degree in that regard.
But yeah, there should be more draws.
I agree with that.
There should be more points taken for fouls.
Like there's lots of paths to more draws and there should be all of this.
Don't even get me started with that bullshit.
Just cheat your ass off, guys.
If you're a fighter, if you're an upcoming fight, you want to be the next big Canadian star, cheat your ass off.
Because no one's going to call anything.
It's against our nature.
It's against our nature.
They're too nice.
They're too nice.
poke them the eye, kick them in the ding ding.
They ain't calling anything.
And it'll take 18 warnings before they do.
And by the time that happens, the fight.
will already be over and you're getting your hand raised 29, 28, after all of those infractions.
Okay.
Just cheat your ass off.
But hear me out, how sick would the storyline be for like this competitor who like literally
is fouling but winning these fights and just as like the ultimate villain heel who's like 10 and
O in the UFC but he's kicked people in the nuts every single fight en route to it?
Like that would be pretty awesome actually.
That's what I thought Cameron Simon.
Yes.
He had a rough run.
Yeah, I was like, good.
Good, it was a good run.
I don't mean a rough run.
It was a good run.
He won those fights.
He did.
He sure did.
And when they actually, he just kept getting away with it and kept getting away with it,
kept doing it into the third round.
He was like the one guy who did it like just won too many in every fight.
But then after it happened, he's like, ah, shit.
And then he just went out and finished his opponent anyways.
So it did really matter.
So he took it to the limit, went a little bit over the line.
And then he just finished the fight anyway.
So when you have to work a little bit hard,
you just go and work a little bit harder fights next week
twice next week Cameron Simon
Payton Talbot there you go
that's be fun that's to be a fun one
but that's next week
we're done here we have more to talk about this card
at least from a matchmaking perspective
a.K. I will see you tomorrow for a fun
edition of onto the next one
we'll talk about what is next for
Marching Tibora for
others on this card as well
Macy Chesson
Gerald Mearsart
I think you guys are going to like my Gerald Mir Sharpec.
I think it makes too much sense.
I think it makes too much sense.
But we'll talk about that tomorrow on the program.
And then next week, it's just more fun, MMA hour.
Perhaps a golf video gets dropped.
I don't know.
Mark your calendars, everybody.
Stay tuned.
Get a good night's sleep.
Lots of content coming on your way.
We'll have some announcements next week as well,
as it pertains to the Road to UFC 300 as well.
and I think you guys are going to like some of the stuff we're going to be doing.
So thank you all very much for New York, Rick, for AK, I am Mike Keck.
Have a great rest of your night.
Have a tremendous weekend, everybody.
So good.
So good.
You're listening to the Vox Media Podcast Network.
