The Ariel Helwani Show - UFC 308 Post-Show: Ilia Topuria KOs Max Holloway, Khamzat Chimaev steamrolls Robert Whittaker

Episode Date: October 26, 2024

On the the UFC 308 Post-Show, Ariel Helwani gives his immediate reaction to Ilia Topuria star-making performance against Max Holloway, including the knockout itself, Topuria's next fight and Conor McGregor's social media responses (53:22).Then, he covers Khamzat Chimaev's return to his dominant ways, finishing Robert Whittaker and setting up a potential title opportunity (21:21). Finally, Helwani recaps the rest of the night's action (29:48).

Back in your life! On this Saturday, October 26, 2000. And 24, hello again everyone. Welcome to the UFC 308 post show. I'm Ariel Helwani, UFC 308 just wrapped up. Can you guys hear me okay? Just a quick note, back in the studio I can hear you guys in the control room. So if you can unlatch me, that would be tremendous. Yeah, now I hear the music just a quick note back in the studio i can hear you guys in the control room so if you can uh unlatch me that would be tremendous yeah now i hear the music just well you can get rid

of the broadcast in my ears as well working through the kinks working through the kinks we are doing it frankie get the get rid of the broadcast in my ears i don't need to hear it anymore yeah here we go ufc 308 just wrapped up from ab Abu Dhabi tremendous job from the boys in the back tremendous job by everyone in our uncrowned HQ I'm Ariel Helwani I'll be with you for the next few minutes as we recap what we just witnessed at the Emirates Arena in Abu Dhabi 308 has come and gone and uh what a show what a what a what a main what a co-main event. And like I said, as I was watching it with GC and Rick, we have seen the birth of a superstar. We have seen a superstar emerge

in the form of Ilya El Matador Toporia. And this feels like a turning point in his life and his career. I remember about three or four years ago, I was on a plane and I remember Malki Kawa, the longtime MMA manager from First Round Management. I remember him calling me saying, I got the guy. I got the next superstar of the UFC. He's from Spain. And I was like, there ain't no way that a guy from Spain is the next superstar of the UFC. There's never been a

superstar from Spain. They don't have a historic, rich MMA fan base. It just ain't happening. And fast forward a few years, he was talking about Ilya Teporia. And every single time it was either Malky or Ape, every single time they would tell me, this is the guy, this is the guy, this is the guy, every time he fought. And then we all started to really believe it after what he did to Josh Emmett around a year and a half or so ago. And then, of course, the win over Alex Volkanovski. The Volkanovski win was the emergence. The Volkanovski win was his first title fight. Okay, you got to truly figure out, all right, is this guy for real? Is he championship caliber? Can he fight and beat the elite? He did. But there was a little bit of doubt out there, right? Volkanovski coming off the the short

notice lost to isa machachev uh he got rocked he got knocked out it felt like okay maybe the the the chin was going away maybe it was a massive mistake maybe it was the kind of mistake that you can't rebound from maybe he came back too soon and then what happens all right he fights to poria heavy-handed supremely skilled younger etc etc and he he absolutely starts him now credit to volkanovski he did look good uh relatively early in the fight but we all know what happened a short while after now we get to max holloway who's enjoyed a renaissance who ever since the third loss to volkanovski which i have to say i thought all right that was the beginning of the end.

Not that he was looking old slow, but okay, he's not going to be championship material. And that fight against Volkanovski did not feel like it was elite level fighting at a max hallway. I thought he'd just be sticking around for some fun fights. He gets a win over a Calvin Cater. He gets a win over an Arnold Allen. He gets the win over Justin Gaethje,

like those types of victories. And of course, knockout of the year, as of right now, perhaps, against Justin Gaethje. He moves up to 55. He drops all the doubt, gets rid of all the doubt that he can't compete at 55. After what happened in 2019 against Dustin Poirier, he is on fire.

He's never been more popular. He's never been more on point. He's smart about taking care of his brain. He's smart about sparring. He's never been more on point. He's smart about taking care of his brain. He's smart about sparring. He's smart about everything. Okay, this is it. This is a generational fight. This is the fight of the year. Everyone said when it was booked, this is the fight that we want. Super duper star. Bill Simmons asked me on Thursday, who's Max Holloway? Rick nailed it. He's Steph Curry. No one dislikes Max Holloway. He's a championship athlete. Everyone respects him. He's cool as hell. He's talented as hell. He rises to the occasion. And how about

this? Going into this fight, Max Holloway had seven losses on his career, on his record. Six of them via decision. One via submission. That was 20-year-old Max back in 2012 in his UFC debut against the bigger Dustin Poirier. Tonight, he gets stopped for the first time since that fight against Poirier. Tonight, he gets KO'd for the first time in his career. That's how good Ilya Teporia is. That's how talented he is. I thought it was i thought it was 1919 heading into the third round you can make a strong case for max in the first you can make a strong case for ilia in the second you could even make a case for ilia in the first and max in the second that's how fun this was both guys met in the center of the octagon and they both wanted to go they they were occupying

the monster energy can if you can visualize that, it was, instead of a phone booth, a Monster Energy can fight. And yes, Ilya Teporia did point to the center of the cage in the first second. And yes, Max Holloway did not take the bait, but he did return the favor and brought out the matador, this little thing right here. Of course, Teporia, you know, El Matador. And back and forth they went. Tremendous striking, tremendous everything. It was tremendous MMA. It was high-level MMA at its best. Max Holloway employed a series of oblique kicks that by the third round seemed to have really been affecting Ilya Teporia. His striking looked on point. His volume was on point. It felt like a toss-up of a fight. It felt

like a 50-50 fight heading into the third. Now, heading into the third, I did in fact score the first round for Max. I scored the second round for Ilya. So perhaps you could say the momentum was in Ilya's favor, but really it still felt like a toss-up. And there's a sequence there in the third round where Max Holloway hits Ilya Teporia with an oblique kick. And honestly, I felt like there was like a welt or some sort of like indentation above the kneecap of Ilya Teporia. And I was like, what the heck is going on here? I couldn't tell if it was a bruise. I couldn't tell if it was a cut. I couldn't

tell if it was a welt. I couldn't tell if it was an indentation, but something had emerged. And I thought perhaps that would be the beginning of the end for Ilya Teporia. In fact, what happened was it was just the beginning of the end for Max Holloway because from that moment, Teporia poured it on him and just brought out all the goods, brought out the dynamite in the left, in the right, went to the body, incredible series of strikes, and it all ends with a vicious left hook, a left hook that was reminiscent of prime Semtex Daly, who I still believe has the meanest left hook in the history of MMA. It was that clean.

It was that vicious. It hit that flush and it dropped Max Holloway, who doesn't get dropped, who rarely if ever gets rocked, dropped him, series of punches on the ground. And it's a TKO win for Ilya Teporya at 134 of the third round. He bows, reminiscent of Mayhem Miller and Kazushi Sakuraba back in the dream days. He pays respect and then he breaks out the tea drinking. And even when they

make the official announcement, he's holding the rose, his team, his family behind him, holding the roses. The guy's living the gimmick, but you can't say anymore that he's being rushed. You can't say anymore that he's being pushed too soon. You can't say anymore that he's being protected. You can't say anymore that he is a fabrication. This man is the real deal. He is a superstar. He is a talent that we haven't seen in quite some time emerging from that part of the world. He is a generational talent, in my opinion. He's got the whole entire freaking package. The looks, the bravado, the confidence, the cockiness, the skill from two parts of the world that obviously hasn't seen a ton of

champions hail from there he was the first from georgia marab do alishvili the second and perhaps not the last and then of course calling spain home these days he's got the backing of the likes of sergio ramos he's got the backing of the likes of real madrid he's got the backing of of the la liga president who had to apologize for, you know, of course, it wasn't done this way, but unknowingly booking Real Madrid versus Barcelona El Clasico at the exact same time as UFC 308's main event and main card. Last I checked, Madrid was losing. So if you're a Madrid slash Deporia fan, you're probably a little happier right now. And he's got it all. And even in this moment where he could have gotten on the microphone and said, I'm the king, I'm the new face, I'm this, I'm that, he showed great humility and respect to a legend like Max Holloway, but also to the next ones in line. And in particular, Alex Volkanovsky. We

also saw Diego Lopez cage side. He was the backup fighter for this fight. Not quite there. Probably needs one more because we presume that Volk is next. And by virtue of the fact that they brought Volk into the cage, they did a sort of face-off, but it was more of an embrace. And he said, all the respect in the world, I'm paraphrasing here, much love. He deserves it. I'll be happy to give him another shot at now my belt. And I thought he handled that perfectly. I thought everyone handled it perfectly. And so Ilya Teporia is a freaking gangster. He's the freaking man. This is the birth of a new era at 145.

And I feel even more so than after what he did in February against Volkanovsky. But forget about 45. This is the birth of a new superstar. Every time I do one of these shows, every time I do one of these podcasts, they're always asking me, all right, who's the next guy? Who's the next guy? He could very well be the next guy. Now, I don't care about pound for pound rankings, this, that, and the other. This guy is a superstar. This guy is an absolute superstar. As I'm saying this right now, the last guy that we felt this way about, Conor McGregor tweeting 43 seconds ago, call me. Say what you will, it would 1000% be one of the biggest fights in UFC history.

Arnold Allen tweeting, no questions, amazing performance from Ilya Teporya. Henry Cejudo tweeting, Ilya Teporya is the fighter of the year, not Alex Pereira. We could get to that. That is certainly a hot take. Issa Makhachev, congrats champ. It was amazing. Keep your head up, Max. You are a legend. Alan Joban backing up what I just said. Obviously this performance, but this humble side of Ilya as well will build his fan base. Couldn't agree more. Kamaru Usman saying, damn, that left hook was crazy. Congratulations, Ilya Teporya. Juliana Pena saying, congrats, champ.

Josh Emmett saying, hell of a fight. Congrats, champ. And on and on and on it goes. And those are the best of the best. Those are the best of the best paying respects to this guy, showing him love. That is, I mean, I'm blown away by how he did it, against who he did it. Everything about the whole package just screams superstar. They have to figure it out. They have to get him to Spain. Dana White saying on Thursday that they're talking to Barcelona, that they're talking to Madrid. They have to figure this out. They have to get him to Spain. They have to get him in Madrid in particular because he is a Madrid supporter. He is a Real Madrid guy. Get him at the Bernabeu. Come on. They've got a retractable roof.

This is the time to do it. I know they don't like doing these sorts of things, but they have to figure this out. They just have to. This is the time to do it. Ilya Teporia, the reigning defending UFC featherweight champion, he improves to 16-0. Max Holloway, 26-8. And we were talking about this earlier with the guys. We were talking about, you know, in a rare moment, if the UFC is being a thousand percent honest with you, if you would ask the brass, if you would go to them and say, hey guys, you know, who do you want? Who do you want to win? Who would it be better for the business and for do you want to win? Who would it be better

for the business and for the company if they won? Who would it be better for the business and the company if they won? Who would it be? I think they would have said before the fight, Elliot Deporia, for this reason, because of the marketability, because of where he's from, because of the age, et cetera, et cetera, all the things I just went through. But this doesn't hurt Max Holloway. He's been a champion before. This isn't a Dustin Poirier situation where, you know, oh, he never climbed the mountain. He never got there. He never got the moment.

No, he's been there before. And don't forget, Max Holloway is technically a champion. He's the BMF champion. So he can now do whatever he wants with that belt. Max Holloway doesn't need a belt to get over. Max Holloway doesn't need a belt to be relevant. He doesn't need a belt to be a headliner for a fight night, for an ESPN show, for an ABC show, or even for a pay-per-view. He doesn't need it. That's how big of a deal he is. That's the kind of legend that he is. He doesn't need that type of blessing. Pardon the pun. Ilya needed the belt to be at this level. He had the Josh Emmett fight. He gets

the Volk fight. Now he's a big dog. But this is the performance now that takes him to a different stratosphere. And if he would have lost this fight, he would go back down. He would have to build himself back up. And you can't talk about Madrid. You can't talk about Barcelona. You can't talk about Spain. You can't talk about all these fun things. Now you can. So in a way, this is a win-win. Fantastic fight. The 27-year-old superstar is born. Max Holloway, still the man, still beloved, went toe-to-toe, took his best shots, and now here he is. Now, if you're asking me, it's got to be Alex Volkanovsky next. That has to be the call. Alex Volkanovsky did everything that the UFC asked for and then some, did everything that they wanted him to do. He went up to 55. He took fights on short notice. He fought everyone. He did everything that they had to do

to cement him as a guy and even fought guys multiple times. He deserves another crack. One million percent. He beats Max. He gave him another shot. He gave him another shot. He deserves another crack. So it's not going to happen in February. I doubt I would be shocked. They're going to Australia and, and, and you gotta, you gotta, you gotta go to Spain in my opinion, but anytime those guys fight, it's going to be fascinating. And, and by the time they fight again, it will probably be a year plus since folks last fight, right? Because the last fight was in February.

I doubt they fight. At least I don't think so. It's way too soon to predict, but I would be surprised. And here we are, if we're talking March, April, May, that would be more than a year. And that's what we were all saying, right? We were all saying after the loss in February of this year in Anaheim that he should take a year off. And so he will have taken a year off hopefully healthy hopefully in good in good form in a good spot mentally physically spiritually emotionally and may the best man win and and and of course if ilia wins that fight you know now we're talking massive business because he's just now cementing

himself as the guy uh there are some options at 45 along the way. There is going to be a Diego Lopez out there. Lerone Murphy looked solid against Dan Ige. He is a rising star at 45, but to me, it's Volk and it's Teporia too at some point in 2025. discuss here as we uh as we recap a very fun afternoon card here in the united states and appreciate everyone who watched our very first uncrowned watch party the boys and everyone uh did a tremendous job and uh i enjoyed partaking but i also enjoyed uh watching everyone uh everyone's still there right frank you could talk to me right yeah i could tell yeah you're still there we're all still here oh everyone's still there yes i'm i'm i'm still going through everything and then i will throw it back uh to everyone oh look at this you guys are there yes this is fantastic now the boys in the back again you are now the boys in the back um okay well guys what do you think what do you think about what we you've had now 10 or so minutes to react to all of this. GC, I know you were looking forward to this perhaps more so than anything out there.

What are the immediate thoughts now that you've had a few moments to catch your breath? Fight delivered. I mean, Max was looking fantastic until he wasn't. Ilya Teporia just seems to be inevitable. I mean, he carries this power at 145 in ways that you rarely see. And to accomplish the feat of knocking Max Holloway out, like to rock him so bad, and then that shot that actually put him out onto the ground and then followed it up was just like,

it's just something that's going to live in UFC history forever. Like you said, we are seeing the birth of a superstar. If he wasn't already a star, he has now ascended into that. I mean, he has to be a hero back in his country of Spain and his country of Georgia. Uh, I, I just don't really have much words for him, man. It's, it's unbelievable what this guy has done this year. He knocked out Alexander Volkanovski and Max Holloway in the same year. I mean, it's, it's simply unbelievable. Got the belt. Now he has a title defense. Yeah, I mean, words can't describe what I think of this dude. I mean, it really is unbelievable.

Rick? Featherweight seems to be a division where we kind of see the new king kill the old king. That's just kind of how it goes, right? We get the Jose Aldo era. Then we get the Conor McGregor era. Then we get the Blessed era, then we get the Volk era. It is very clearly Ilya Teporia's era right now, and he

has killed the two kings, but I can't help but only think about Ilya Teporia versus Conor McGregor. I can't escape the thought of that fight happening. I can't escape the thought of two of the biggest byproducts of,

of a, of a streak of a, of a, of a rise of an ascendance facing off against each other. And just one more name on the featherweight kind of a list that he would be able to neck off. I mean, hell,

let him fight Jose Aldo too, and just clean out the entire list. But I cannot escape the feeling that all roads point to ilia taporia versus conor mcgregor the machismo would be off the charts right like the bravado the cockiness the confidence the trash talk it would be just like the it would just be you could do it in ireland you could do it in spain i really would like to see that fight happen in europe if it does take place and like you talk about the birth of a superstar i I don't know how big of a favorite Ilya Teporya would be, but he would be a pretty sizable favorite in that fight where Conor

McGregor is at in his career. And if he knocks out Conor McGregor, the spaceship just continues to skyrocket. I will say this. I would just say this. I think they're both such big deals and so popular that that fight together is too big for europe meaning you can charge insane prices in las vegas for that fight right like you could do that at allegiance stadium i don't know if you can charge the same premium plus the ufc historically

believes that you know a fight in europe whether it's in the middle of the night or the afternoon doesn't do as well on pay-per-view here in america so i think if this makes sense to pour evoke is is is gigantic but it's great for spain i think to pour you mcgregor is like otherworldly and it's too big for spain does that make sense it does the only thing you could you could justify as a stadium in spain with the ticket prices being astronomical but that tends to be the u.s market to your point bernabeu astronomical ticket prices i don't know i don't know if that's even possible listen i would love nothing more we've we've seen enough vegas megafights i would love nothing more that stadium that new stadium

what they did to it is phenomenal i would love love nothing more, but I just don't know if it happens. We could talk more about this. And of course, a reminder that we will be talking a hell of a lot more about all this on Monday's program as well when we have, you know, it's always tough in the immediate aftermath of all these fights to react right away. But I do have to give Hamzat Shemaev his flowers because what he did in the co-main event, just as impressive in my opinion. I will say it, mea culpa, I got this one wrong. I thought that Robert Whitaker was going to come out and put on a show and put out a statement that he is the number one contender at 185, that he still got it. Y'all must have forgot the reaper bobby knuckles etc etc etc that did not happen it was pretty much khamsat from the jump uh he shot right away he was as relentless as hungry as ever and it didn't even last very long i thought you know this would be a five round

maybe four to one three to two win for robert whitaker it lasted a little over three minutes. That was it. 3.34 to be exact, round one. Face crank submission for Khamzat Shemaev. In my opinion, perhaps his most impressive win since the early days when we were introduced to this guy. Remember back in the midst of the pandemic, July of 2020, the John Phillips win starches him. The Reese McKee win starches him, comes back, and that was within the span of 10 days, comes back a little over a month later and starches Gerald Mearshard at 185. The first two fights were at 170, 185. Then it was three cancellations against Leon Edwards. Then it was a solid, very solid dominant first round

win over Li Jingliang. All right, he's still there. Then it was an okay, solid, solid, strong, good performance against Gilbert Burns, but it didn't knock our socks off. Then it was the Holland win that we all thought, all right, you were expected to do that to Diaz. And we all kind of expected this, especially on short notice. Then it was the not so impressive Kamara Usman win. And we thought if it went two rounds more, Usman wins, then it's the year off. And in the midst of that, a cancellation against Robert Whitaker back in June. And then he does this to Whitaker who looked so good back in June in Riyadh against Ikram Ali Skirov. This is the type of performance that we were all expecting from Khamsat back in 20 and 21. This is the kind of guy that we all believed would be a champion probably by the end

of 21. I said that with DC. You can see the clip. It's online on the YouTube channel for ESPN MMA, and he's back, and I couldn't have gotten this wrong. He didn't seem all there to me all week. The weigh-in looked a little bit troublesome. Couldn't have gotten this more wrong and I have no problem saying that. Supremely impressive. And he's the number one contender at 185. The problem is, it seems like they've already promised it

to Sean Strickland. DDP is the champion. Drake is du Plessis. He's the king of the 185 pounders right now. And it seems like they're talking about a perhaps January, February fight. Now, I wouldn't like to see that in February. It makes no sense in February. February is Australia. January makes a lot of sense. Are they going to do Issa Makhachev and Armin Tsurukian plus DDP Strickland on the same card? Seems like a lot, but perhaps, or perhaps

they save it for March. I don't know. I'm not in favor of promising people title shots and taking it away, but I would say right now, Hamzat Chumai versus DDP is infinitely, infinitely more interesting than Sean Strickland versus DDP2. We saw Sean Strickland versus DDP1, solid fight, nothing to write home about. It didn't knock our socks off. Hamza fighting for the belt. Finally against DDP as, as unorthodox and awkward and just kind of like relentless as DDP is. I would love to see him in those moments,

in those scrambles against the likes of Hamza. But if this Hamza shows up, I don't know right now who's beating him at 185. If this guy shows up who appeared to have popped Robert Whitaker's jaw, who appeared to have like neck cracked into the point where his jaw got displaced, that's insane. This reminds me of those videos of like Ben Askren squeezing a watermelon and the thing just exploding. That's what I felt like I was watching when I saw Hamza Chamayev do that to Robert Whitaker. Just insane power, insane strength, insane skill, insane talent, blown away by that. For different reasons,

of course, as blown away by Hamza in the co-main as I was Ilya in the main. And so the question is, do they call the audible and give it to Hamzat? Or do they say, Hamzat, you wait. I mean, he's only fighting since September of 2022. Since his win over Kevin Holland, he has fought once a year. September of 2022, October of 2023, October of 2024. Now, the massive elephant in the room is his travel situation. It's hinted at, it's alluded to, there's no clear-cut answer. I do believe if 45 becomes 47 in two weeks, that could be rectified. We've seen it happen back in the day. This isn't me just talking smack or just throwing out theories. We saw it happen, just as Darren Till and many others so that could help but if he can't in fact fight here in America that is a massive problem you can't have someone fight for your belt and potentially become champion if they can't defend the title outside of like one region that's a massive problem that makes no sense uh that's never happened before and and and would hamstring

and handcuff the UFC uh so perhaps they figure that out hopefully they figure that out and the question is do you do you pull the trigger on this fight right now meaning khamsat versus ddp or do you you know do you do you play out strickland and ddp and then hope that the whole situation gets resolved and then you go back and uh and and and hopefully by i don't know if those guys fight in february march like i mean honestly it could work out to october they might get you know it could it could literally be the next abu dhabi card or maybe a saudi card in uh the summertime during riad season season. But right now, 14-0, Hamza Chemaev is still a beast. This was a true Y'all Must Have Forgot moment. If there ever was one, this is one right

here. Because I think after the Usman fight, which was almost exactly a year ago, a lot of people, including myself, were thinking maybe he's just not going to be the same guy. Don't forget, this is a guy who retired after COVID complications, coughing up blood, saying he didn't have it anymore, saying he didn't want to do it, wasn't feeling well. fight in June on the day that we found out that McGregor was out, it was problematic. It was troublesome. But all that is out the window now. Hamzat Shemaev, in my opinion, the number one contender. The only question is, does he get it next or does he wait? I think if they've in fact given Sean Strickland their word, then you go ahead, you give it to Strickland and Hamzat fights the winner. There was another question that was similar to this one on this card. And that was, what do you do with Magomed Ankhalaev? Currently the number one ranked light heavyweight on this unbeaten streak that rivals anyone in the division. Of course, he fought for the belt.

You know, he fought for the belt. When was it? December of 2022. So almost two years ago now, which is crazy how time is flying. He gets the draw against Jan Bochovic. And this is a guy whose last loss came against Paul Craig back in 2018. Since then, a win over Marcin Prakhneo, Clydson Abreu, Delcha, Lungiam, Bula, Iwan Kuchilaba, Uyemon Kuchilaba, Nikita Krylov, Volkan Ozdemir, Thiago Santos, Anthony Smith, Smith draw against Pachovic, no contest against Johnny Walker, beats Johnny Walker, and then it's the Alexander Rakic fight. I thought the TKO decisive win over Johnny Walker beats Johnny Walker. And then it's the Alexander Rakic fight. I thought the TKO decisive win over Johnny Walker would do it. The UFC wasn't impressed. Maybe they didn't like the matchup against Alex Pereira. Obviously, Pereira since then has fought Jamal Hill 300. He fought Prochaska in June. And then of course, Khalil. I thought it was going to be Magomed versus

Alex Pereira. UFC didn't give it to him. And so the big question was, could the Russian, Magomed Ankhalaev, 21-1, could he do something spectacular in this fight to prove to the UFC that he should be next? Well, he wins against Alexander Rakic. He wins via unanimous decision. Is that enough? Was that enough? enough i think yes was it the most exciting fight of all time no was it a boring fight no at some point we have to make a decision like is this just complete you know anarchy where we're just picking random people the most fun fights possible is this pro wrestling in in in that regard or do winning streaks matter? Does a meritocracy system matter? And I think it does. Dana White could have all the issues in the world with the ranking system. You don't need

a ranking system to distinguish who's the number one contender at 205 right now. It's Magomed Ankolaev. He should be the guy. He deserves it. He earned it. He's beaten everyone in front of him. He needs to be the guy. The question is, okay, you know, is the UFC going to make the fight happen, A, and given his skill set and Pereira's skill set, you know, is it a mistake to make this happen because Pereira is such a favorite and so beloved and Magomed just doesn't have that fan base for various reasons. Let me tell you something. If I'm Alex Pereira and I watch that fight, I'm not shaking in my boots. He's incredible. But this idea that Magomed Al-Khalaib is just going to walk towards Alex Pereira and take him down and just rough him up is absurd. Pereira could win this

fight just like Magomed could win this fight. I don't know what the odds will be. I don't think Pereira is going to be like a plus 700. This idea that like they're just completely protecting Alex Pereira so that Magomed Ankhalaev doesn't beat him up, rough him up for five rounds, something like that. Like it could happen. Of course it could happen. And Pereira, I don't think they've protected Pereira. Look at everyone that he's fought. There hasn't been a, oh, he should be fighting him until now. Until now. If I don't think they protected Pereira look at everyone that he's fought there hasn't been a oh he should be fighting him until now until now if they don't give it to Malgamed you can make that case I don't think they protected him one bit he's fought he fought Jan Bochovic in freaking Salt Lake City in in his light heavyweight debut coming off a knockout loss like they're not

protecting this guy in my my opinion. And sure, there's short notice fights and there's, you know, fights against the likes of Yuri, great matchup, rematch against Yuri, great matchup. Roundtree is obviously favorable in that he's a striker, but if they don't give it now, you can make that case. I don't think they've done it just yet. And so let's see it. And then everyone can just either move on and say, look, Pereira was better, or, you know, this is the sport. You're going to, you're going to fight these guys.

Sean O'Malley had to fight Murab. Leon had to fight Bilal and on and on it goes. Now's the time to make it happen. Is it going to be the highest selling pay-per-view? Probably not. Is it going to be tough to sell them in that both don't really speak English? Yeah, a little bit, but this is the fight. Pereira has reached a point, in my opinion, where like the Pereira show is worth the price of admission in its own right um you know maybe

you do it in Brazil and that helps sell it a little bit it's the Pereira homecoming show maybe it's in uh it's in May or something like that but in my opinion Magomed Ankolaev has done enough he has he has cemented his spot as the number one guy. A knockout, a stoppage would have been great, but he got that in the last fight and it didn't do much for him. So what's the difference? Tough sledding for Rakic, who's now on a losing streak. He came back after a two-year layoff, was sick,

was on antibiotics against Prochaska back in April. Looked, you know, looked solid in the early going, but as he told us earlier this week, he just kind of fizzled out. He'll get back on track. Light heavyweight is still such a crapshoot. Not worried about him necessarily. Magomed is the guy, in my opinion, he's the number one contender. Shout out to the Miracle, Lerone Murphy, for his win, unanimous decision win over Dan Ige. First round was tough. Ige was game. He came ready to go. He's an incredible fighter. He's become a fan favorite, but Murphy now improves to 15-0-1. He deserves a big time

opponent. He deserves a step up, in my opinion. He mentioned Josh Emmett. Love that. Look, he suffers a little bit from what Leonon suffered from where he doesn't speak uh you know he doesn't he doesn't speak with a lot of bravado he doesn't talk smack he doesn't put himself out there but come on uh the guy is supremely talented and he deserves a step up in competition and then the main card opened up with one of the most incredible stoppages uh that we've seen in recent UFC history, Shara Magomedov, Shara Bullitt defeating Armin Petrosian in a sequence that really, you could only truly appreciate it if you see it. Nothing I will say will blow you away here,

other than to just tell you, he hits him with a, i believe it was the right if i'm not mistaken let me know guys the right spinning back fist that gets partially blocked and then he responds with a left and it might have been the opposite it might have been a left and then a right now you got it all right so first he hits him with the right it gets partially blocked backfist, and then comes all the way back with a left spinning backfist and knocks Petrosian out in the second round, 4-52 of the second round. It was absurd. I've never seen two being thrown and one partially landed and then the other one knocks the guy out.

Bang and then bang. They have a star on their hands with him as well. We don't know about the fighting in the US and all that. For now, who cares about that? He's not fighting for the belt. But he did mention Israel had to sign his name. And I tell you what, I don't know when Izzy is coming back, but golly, I would love to see that at some point. I would love to see that from a striking, like that would just be so damn fun. And the buildup would be so fun. He was talking about pirates afterwards and gold and all this stuff. I would love to see that. Probably they don't do it off the jump i mean they did do bsd versus poirier they've done

some of these matchups now where it's like 11 versus 2 13 versus 3 etc maybe but golly i would freaking love to see that i would absolutely love to to see that one day between these two guys. Char Bullitt is an absolute star. He too has the look, he's got the vibe, and he just delivers. He just absolutely delivers. So all in all, gentlemen, I thought this was a very fun main card.

I thought it was worth the price of admission. If you paid for it, if you were live, if you were watching on pay-per-view, this was uh this was tremendous theater if you ask me agreed you can't ask for a better ending right like you know certainly the action leading into it was um exciting significant you touched on shara bullets knockout which was one that i've not seen quite in that fashion before and definitely going to be on the knockout of the year list um but when you end in the way that we did with the the performances by hamza tramayev and ilia taporia it's it's aces it's a

plus uh performance of the night bonus hamza tramayev ilia taporia shah magomedov so three gentlemen yeah i mean uh they gave three they don't usually give three am i wrong uh they usually do two in one fight of the night is matthias rebecki and or about or oral by oral by mick tibbeck oral by who had an incredible fight there was no doubt on that one fight of the night you know how you know a fight is incredible when you don't know like whose blood is whose yeah the whole canvas was soaked it they were both they were both soaked and and and the canvas was soaked as well yeah insane uh currently by the way on DAZN right now Regis Progre and Jack Catterall involved in an incredible fight Regis Progre has been dropped twice um by Jack Catterall so this could be a

huge moment for the UK boy uh fighting at the co-op live arena I hear by the way Frank I hear a little bit of an echo I don't know if it's because the the audio is up in the um the control room yeah yes um I don't know if you read these out sorry I've been uh I've been please please driving away back here uh odds were released for Hamza Shumayev, DDP. I have not read them. Tell us. Hamza, minus 200 to DDP's plus 170 and Hamza Shumayev,

minus 250 to Sean Strickland's plus 210. Wow. Fairly big favorite in both those. Not a massive favorite, but favorite. Any of those surprise you? No. Not after today's performance. No, that's the future of Shania. He didn't give Robert Whitaker a moment and then broke his jaw or whatever he did.

The picture that's come out. We showed the picture. I don't know if you were able to see it while you were talking about it. Did you see this picture, Ariel? I haven't been, which picture? Okay. Robert Whitaker's jaw. Jordan, can we put the picture back up?

Oh, yes. I just sent it to Jordan, so I didn't know. Yeah,aker's jaw. Jordan, can we put the picture back up? I just sent it to Jordan, so I didn't know. Yeah, that's absurd. The way I'm, I can't get the way that he tapped out of my head. The like, just like urgency to tap. Like that's how wrong something went. And like the sheer dominance that he just asserted over one of the best middleweights in the entire world. One of the best middleweights ever, period.

Just walked through him. Walked through him. Yeah, I just, I visually can't imagine someone being able to stop him with where he's at right now, you know? He said before the fight, this is the best he's ever been. He's got the new nutritionist. He's got the pharmacologist. His son has to do one more surgery,

then he'll be in good health. And it feels like everything's kind of coming together for him. And that's a scary thought for the middleweight division. There's a part of me that wants to get into it all with you guys,

but I also want to save a little bit for Monday. And you guys have been talking a lot as well. I do want to remind everyone watching that at 7 o'clock, if you're a knows-it-all member, meaning if you're one of the new members here,

and by the way, thumbs up to the chat, the people that have been riding with us since when. When did the first fight start? 11.30, was it? We came on... You guys came on at 1.45, but the card started at 11.30. Am I wrong?

Was it 10 a.m. this morning, brother? No, not 10 a at 1.45 But the card started at 11.30 Am I wrong? The card started at 10am this morning, brother No, not 10am What? The card? Yeah, yeah, yeah I was watching Are you sure? I was watching

Renat Fakurdinov It had to have been like 10.30 Or something like that I was still at soccer at 10am I guess the first fight came on At like 10.15 Okay, in any event It's been a long day

Long day Here's the thing you you know that uh usually there's fights on saturday there there's a big boxing event going on right this moment um and so there's not much going on but we have got something for you so we don't leave you hanging here over at the ah show slash uncrowned hq. At seven o'clock, if you are a Knows It All member, you will get the full Helwani Vision broadcast that aired last weekend on DAZN pay-per-view. That's for the Battle of the Giants card.

Every single fight live, the exact broadcast, myself watching with Shale, with Tim Welch, with Tyron Woodley, with Megan Anderson, with Jake in the main event. You will get a replay of that

for all of you for free on the broadcast i don't think you could get this anywhere else in fact i'm quite certain you can't get this anywhere else so at seven o'clock if you're a nose at all member you could get that entire broadcast right here on the youtube channel so there's your saturday night sorted someone's saying arrow kept yeah i don't know why i tap my teeth um that's just the thing i go like this why do i do that i also didn't know that i also didn't know that i was on i was on uh i was on camera when that was going people want to see your beautiful face do they yeah i gotta i have to i look we're working through the kinks where i still feel

like my webcam i got this new webcam i still feel like I haven't quite figured it out. The colors are off, I think. What do you guys think? I think it looks great. You do? Are you just saying that? Why would I just say that? Because this looks normal.

I'm very self-conscious about the colors. I feel like you've become a color expert over the last few weeks. No. Can you answer the following question? Are you colorblind, yes or no? I feel like I'm one step away from like, you know, being in a corner and just like rocking back and forth and talking about shoes. Do we need to get a straight jacket for you?

And I was stopping short at that because I feel like I've been obsessing. I don't know if you guys know this about me, but I have a little thing called OCD and I tend to obsess. For example, between now and the moment that I walk into the set on Monday, I'm going to be obsessing over the fact that all my toys were moved and I'm going to be obsessing over whether or not they will be put back. Did anything break?

Nothing broke. We took tremendous care of all of them. We're going to put them back. We have pictures in the exact same spots. We could actually have a perfect recreation of what you had and you'll come in, sit down, and you'll be like, something's off. No, I'm saying,

we're going to make it perfect and you're going to be reaching over the laptop like this, moving them a little bit. You're like, there's a method to the madness. There's a method to the madness back here, you guys. Something's off. That's just me tinkering. That's just me tinkering. I the tinkering you know we're working out the kinks We're working out the kinks

Thumbs up to the chat We're building Thumbs up to the chat What are you guys going to do on a rare Saturday night off I was going to watch the PFL broadcast again Enjoy it Frankie Company man I love it Frank You know who can watch it

For the first time Our very own Our very own On Air Jordan Who couldn't be bothered Oh wow Hit the wife Sit down with a nice

Bottle of wine He's already left For the day Tune in to He's already left Yeah he was like I gotta train to He didn't sign up

For no post shows right Can we move to Australia Or something Maybe Hawaii You know Why's that So we can always Be in this time zone Because this is for no post shows right can we uh can we move to australia or something maybe hawaii you know speaking why is that so we can always be in this time zone because this is looking at the clock right now and it's saying 540 is just it's music to my ears uh we do have a poll up shout out to antoine for this uh should hamza get the next title shot now 82 say yes yeah he's clearly number one if yeah if Magomed Ankalayev

earned a title shot off of his victory today then Hamza Chamayev certainly did as well Hamza Chamayev by the way at the press conference as we speak at the dais and he predicts that DDP is going to beat Sean Strickland and so I guess he'll be next South Africa Hamza Chamayev? Can he go?

This is the whole question. Can he go? Can we just figure this out? How annoying is this? Yeah. You know what? Just send the champion to him. I don't care.

I was going to say, how many fights are they going to do in Abu Dhabi? Send it to the Middle East. Let's just do it. Quote here from Hamza Chamayev. What you guys think how i done with rob how he done rob took drickus down this is about ddp as champion if rob took drickus down then very salam alaikum yeah he's doing he's doing a bit of the mma math yeah like if he couldn't handle rob's wrestling like not good for him um and you know If he couldn't handle Rob's wrestling Not good for him And you know what

I don't think that's good for anybody I am seeing some preliminary Lines on Teporia's Next fight Teporia vs Volk What do you guys think it is He's at least 2-1 Minus 225

Teporia minus 300, Volkanovski plus 250. That's hefty. Interestingly enough, Teporia and Lopez, same lines. Same odds. I don't think that's accurate. I'm not saying I don't think that line, that you're reporting this accurately. What I'm saying is I think Volkanovski is being underrepresented here

by that line. Teporia against Is Islam Makhachev. Makhachev, what do you guys think? Favorite or don't? Makhachev. Oh, yeah. Favorite. I think Islam would be minus 135 against Teporia.

If he is, I'm betting it immediately. Minus 400. Islam minus 400? Okay. Yeah. Minus 135 would have had me emptying my bank. I would have been second mortgage. I guess I'm on the high of Teporia just winning.

I guess, you know, he is going up a weight class. Islam is currently pound for pound number one fighter in the world. Does this now move Jon Jones back to four on the pound for pound rankings? Further. No, he's still one. Further irking Dana White. I do believe that Uncrowned is going to debut its pound-for-pound rankings. I hope I'm not speaking out of turn.

Who votes on those? The media? KNBR in Hawaii? AI. It's AI. For Uncrowned? The college radio station in Canada? No.

We're doing AI. Oh, AI. Cool. Yeah. Cool. Anyway, I don't think... You can't put him above Pereira. You think you can put him above Pereira?

No, I'm saying you move him to three, so it would be Islam, Pereira, Teporia, Jones. Oh, you got Islam number one? I mean, he's a rightful. Probably, man. No, I'm just asking. I'm not saying you're crazy. I just want to know.

Yeah, I'd probably go with those as my top three. Wow. Put them in any order you want. Damn, it's kind of crazy. I'm very happy with Pereira, Islam, Teporia. Oh, you're going Pereira one, Islam, Teporia. I've had Pereira one for a while now. You're going to have to have the conversation now.

Fascinating. Any of those guys has a claim. Nobody's a bad choice there. I was, I was called a crazy man all last week. My, my Instagram comments were flooded from that one on ground post where I was like, no,

if Ilya goes out and knocks him out, I think he could be fighter of the year. Well, in case you're wondering who would be next for Ilya Teporia, Dana White at the presser right now is saying, we're not going to say no to Alex Volkanovsky. He's that guy. Anytime we've needed him. I don't think Teporia, Dana White at the presser right now is saying we're not going to say no to Alex Volkanovsky. He's that guy. I don't think Teporia will either.

That's right. That's the right call. Teporia is incredibly respectful to his opponents post-fight. Are you saying right now if you had to vote on fighter of the year that you're leaning towards Teporia? i need a day to

to digest good i like this that's good that's good producing right there yeah a little tease for monday's show and by the way you need to digest it i'm coming off like a high of like wow i i cannot believe what i just watched uh so i need to i need to digest also by the way it's uh probably best for our award show if you know the the the most sought after you know like maybe you say you need uh you need three months or whatever two and a half months to digest this one this is a big meal here but but this is this is not fait accompli as it once was absolutely not this was the one outcome this was the one outcome for me that made it that made it, that made it.

When winning emphatically. We know where Frank's vote. The discussion is open. Is that just needed to represent. I'm going back through. Yeah. Like all the moments Alex Brer had this year. It's a,

it's a, it's a great race to have. It's a great discussion to have two incredible fighters that performed at the highest level this year. Uh, Ibo Aslan with a, uh, oh my god this dude i don't know what was more terrifying the the 52nd standing tko win or the post-fight interview they were both like the dude was like i am coming for all of you like holy shit dude this guy was fired up 14 14 and one, Turkish power. Forget about Polish power.

That was very impressive. Let's see where he goes from here. But a potential new threat at 205. Jeff Neal looked fantastic against RDA. The story in the immediate aftermath was that RDA seemingly blew out his knee, unfortunately, just a minute and 40 seconds in. It's unbelievable how long this guy has been in the game. He falls to 32 and 17, 40 years young. It's remarkable what he's done. The

former lightweight champion, the last time he was stopped was when he lost the belt to Eddie Alvarez back in 2016. And so Neil wins via KO, TKO. The injury should take nothing away by how uh how good Neil looked uh his best performance in several years but sad to see a legend like RDA go down with a knee injury like that because you know uh you just know that he's going to be out for quite some time and Dana White confirming that it was in fact a knee injury uh not quite certain just yet how severe as we said Mateus Repke and Miktebek Oral by fought to a split decision and it was the fight of the night by far Abus Magomedov with a submission win against Bruna Fajera an arm triangle choke win in the third round what about Kennedy and Zetchuku with the first round win over Chris Barnett?

And it appeared as though Barnett may have hurt his foot, Achilles leg during the intro. He was hyped up. He was coming off an injury. He hadn't fought in two years. He's been through a lot. And it's unclear where exactly it happened. Then afterwards, they said maybe it happened later on with a kick uh but just not a great moment and uh an unfortunate scene for a very popular and lovable guy uh and zechukwu moving up to heavyweight and looking very solid with the first

round win farid basharat with a unanimous decision win over victor hugo ishmael Narduev with a decision win over Bruno Silva, a unanimous decision win. And the night started, guys, with a very controversial decision win for Rinat Fakhretidinov. I totally screwed that up. You may have. Yeah, over Carlos Leal uh but i think most people believe that carlos deserved to win that fight so it was a bit of a tough start as far as the judging was concerned and there were a couple other head scratchers but as far as the main and co-main were concerned uh we didn't need him we absolutely didn't need him tremendous stuff decisive wins decisive finishes wow so much to talk about on monday i wish i could go into the studio right now and do the show but alas time to say good night let me just uh quickly take a look here

before we go if i can update with anything or anything one last thing a tweet from conor mcgregor was tweeting up a storm i just can't get enough of this uh go ahead go ahead good little fighter too small for anything substantial in opinion. He was getting chewed up there. This man wants that fight, and I want that fight. Can he make 145? Yeah. Yeah, that would happen at 170 for sure. I want it.

170. Give it to me. You got a 45 champ going all the way to 170. He's crazy. For the biggest fight that the UFC has ever put on? No, no, I know, I know. It's just, I know. It's just... If Ilya Teporia

beats Volkanovski again, and then the next fight is Conor McGregor, that perhaps would be the biggest fight in UFC history. No, it's huge. I mean, given their popularity, given everything, it's absolutely huge. No doubt about it. Go ahead conor mcgregor

got the belt from jose aldo next fight welterweight against nate diaz now we're getting crazy would you see him just follow the exact map of conor mcgregor he goes no he's got to fight volk he goes 45 either way it'd be 45 to 170 uh in case you're wondering 117 to 108 116 109 116 10 116, 109 for Jack Cattarelli. He beats Regis Progre. Huge unanimous decision win for him. A couple other notes from Dana White before we say goodbye. And shout out to Aaron Bronstetter.

He does a great job of recapping Dana White's post-fight press conference. He's at the dais as we speak. Look at that Sam Samsung logo back there. What am I doing? Oh, my TV. Hey, I've been sitting here for a while. That bookshelf, look, it had such great depth. Yeah, thanks, guys.

The depth looks amazing. I've been exposed. No, it happened one time when I was on SportsCenter, so it doesn't matter. But, you know, you forget about it. These are the things that happen when you are home um uh dana white saying i would have to say yes in response to whether ankalayev is next for perera so there you go dana white also saying marab versus umar is absolutely the

next bantamweight championship bout that he wants to make so so much for uh umar versus sonia dong um and here's a fun one to end the night dana white says that the ufc does not owe francis and ganu any money i don't know why anyone would suggest that dana white does say though that francis owes him and the fans money for how he fought against derrick lewis derrick lewis like six years ago, we're still talking about this? Forget about all the main events, the ESPN main events, the title defenses, the wins, the knockouts. No, no. For that one bad fight, that one 15-minute bad fight, and now he's being asked about PFL. And that means it's time to go home. Gentlemen, tremendous job. Thank you very much to everyone over there at Uncrowned HQ.

Thank you very much, most importantly, to everyone watching right now. If you are watching and you haven't subbed to the channel yet, if you could do us a favor, we appreciate it very much if you just hit that little sub button, hit the thumbs up, hit the notification, leave a nice comment. That goes a long way. And if you're listening to the post show on our pod feed, go check it out. Hit us a follow, hit us a sub, hit us with a comment, a review, all those things.

It helps. All these things help. Again, if you're a Knows It All member, in about an hour's time, we are going to air Helwani Vision in its entirety. So stay tuned for that. We've got the memberships up now. We've got the merch store up at arielhelwani.com.

We've got fancy photos. Shout out to our friend at One Lens in China for those as well. And we've now officially completed our second full week of the Uncrowned Era. And you know what that means? That means we get to do it all over again on Monday. Monday show, Tuesday show, Wednesday AH show. Back at it with the boys in the back on Thursday. And of course, we are always going to end the week with the crack.

Pizza Carol doing a tremendous job as always. So we hope that you've enjoyed everything. And by the way, go to uncrowned.com right now. Full UFC 308 coverage over there led by Shaheen and the boys. Also full coverage of Jack Catterall versus Regis Progray. Halloween Havoc coverage to come as well. Incredible stuff going on over at uncrowned.com. Incredible stuff on the YouTube channel, on the pod feeds, all over the place.

But most incredibly, the stuff that we saw from Elliot DePoria and Hamza Chamaev. Congrats to them. Back on Monday. Safe time, guys. I'm out of here. you you you