The Ariel Helwani Show - UFC 310 post-fight show: Shavkat Rakhmonov prevails, Alexandre Pantoja calls out Demetrious Johnson, full reaction

Episode Date: December 8, 2024

On the UFC 310 Post-Fight Show, Ariel Helwani reacts to Alexandre Pantoja's impressive finish of Kai Asakura, including a discussion on who could be next for the dominant champion. Would Demetrious Johnson come out of retirement for a flyweight face-off (02:40)?Next, Helwani reflects on Shavkat Rakhmonov and Ian Machado Garry's close fight in the co-main event and Rakhmonov's faceoff with champion Belal Muhammad (13:51).Then, a review of the controversial scorecards in Ciryl Gane's win over Alexander Volkov (26:01) and a recap of the rest of the card (27:36).

Back in your life on this Sunday, December 8, 2020 for a good evening, everyone. Welcome to our UFC 310 post show. I'm Ariel Helwani. Great job by the guys all night long. Very entertaining watch party. Very entertaining card party. Very entertaining card. And it ends in spectacular fashion. Final UFC pay-per-view of 2024. There's one event left, of course. That's the one next weekend in Tampa. We'll talk about that all week

long. And some crumbs to get us to there. Some connective tissue, if you will but uh 310 in vegas which is where i just was a few hours ago i was in las vegas i don't know if you guys saw at the mma award show thank you very much for that we can talk about that on monday we're here to talk about the final ufc pay-per-view of the year and we were saying all week long it was a sneaky good card it was a loaded card it had a lot of familiar names and i would say overall it delivered um i would say overall there were some highs some lows some exciting moments some depressing moments but it was capped off by what alexandre pantoja just did in the octagon seconds ago he defeats kai sakura in asakura's ufc debut much was made about the uh you know the fact that kai was coming over to the ufc making his debut fighting for the belt in his

debut he could potentially be the first japanese-born uh ufc champion that was a big deal you saw uh nobuyuki sakakibara uh formerly of Pride, now of Rizin there to cheer on his guy, Asakura, former bantamweight champion for Rizin. And then what about the nice touch of hearing our very own Lenny Hart, of course, known primarily for her work with Pride, but now with Rizin as well, a staple of the Japanese MMA scene scene welcoming kai sakura to the octagon how amazing was that how how incredible was that um she wasn't there live but they played her voice and i thought that that was a beautiful touch especially for the old heads um in the end

though tough to win in your ufc debut when you're fighting in the main event against someone as good as Pantoja. And the size difference was very apparent if you ask me. We saw yesterday that an hour after the wins, Sakura, who has dabbled at 125 very early in his career, but not as of late, gained already 11 pounds. I would love to know. I would love to know, absolutely love to know how much he actually weighed on Saturday night. Came out there, made it spectacular, was going for flying knees, was trying to do a whole bunch of stuff. The first round was captivating.

I loved the first round. It was being fought at an extremely high pace. In the end, I gave it to Alexandre Pantoja. And in the second round, he wins via rear naked choke. That's his third successful title defense. He continues to dominate. He is the face of the flyweight division. There's no doubt. He has also tied both Demetrius Johnson and Joseph Benavidez for most wins at 125 pounds. Think about that. Most wins. Obviously, DJ came in

and made his debut part of that tournament and then ended up fighting for the belt shortly thereafter. He had the two tournament fights and then fought for the belt. Unbelievably, he's just tied Demetrius Johnson. I don't think a lot of people knew that. In addition to that, he has also tied Demetrius Johnson and Davis DeFigureto for most finishes at 125 with seven. So 13 wins at 125, seven stoppages, and now his third successful title defense. That puts him at second as far as title defenses are concerned, I do believe. But number one is Demetrius Johnson with 11. So he's got a ways to go.

And he's no spring chicken, if you will. I believe he's 34 years old, but it's all coming together for him right now. He is, in fact, 34, the pride of Rio. And afterwards, he's so likable. He's so easy to root for. His fights deliver. They're always fun. They're always fast-paced. They're always exciting. Does he talk trash? No. He is kind of coming into his own if i do say so myself he's got the aura he's got the vibe he's got the uh the clothes it just felt like he's he's sometimes it takes people a fight or two to kind of grow into being the man grow into being the champion and i feel like he's doing that i felt it this week. I felt it tonight. And his post-fight interview, great as always, great scenes with his family, with his

friends, with his teammates. But then at the end, so you're sitting there. I'm sitting there and I'm thinking, who the hell is this guy going to fight? Seriously, who is of interest? He just had to fight a debutante and it was great, but that just kind of shows how, you know, how dominant he's been. We thought maybe another Japanese born fighter could be in line for a title shot in 2025 and that was Tetsuro Taira, but he lost to Brandon Royville. You saw Brandon Royville sitting there. Lest we forget, he has two wins and rather decisive ones over Brandon Royville. One exactly a year ago, December of 2023, the final UFC pay-per-view of last year. And he also submitted Brandon Royville via rear naked choke in August of 2021. Wins over Steve Erceg, wins

over Royville, Moreno, Perez,, Alex Perez Brandon Roival, Manel Cape that's the run that he's on right now does have a loss to Oskar Oskarov but I don't think that rematch is happening does have a loss to Davidson Figueiredo and that would be fascinating theater but Figueiredo now of course fighting at 135 pounds

if you look at the UFC rankings at 125 pounds, there's Royville, there's Moreno, who is coming off a nice win. I could see a Moreno rematch before a third fight against Royville. There's Amir Al-Bazi, who Moreno just skunked. There's Kaikai France out there, who I wouldn't mind seeing as well. He could be an option. And then it gets to Tyra and Perez. But at the very end, at the very end of that post-fight interview, he says, DJ, you think you're the GOAT?

I'm the man. Come out of retirement and come fight me. And I have to say, is there a part of me that like, since I, DJ ain't doing this. He's done. He's happy. He's content. But what if the UFC just said, come on, DJ. One doing this. He's done. He's happy. He's content. But what if the UFC just said, come on, DJ. One last time. He even has fights on his one chat. It's not going to happen.

But just the idea of those two guys fighting each other would be incredible. I would be shocked if it happens. One, letting him go. I guess maybe if he spoke to Chhatri and just said, look, it worked out. It was great. It was a nice run. Just let me go do this. Sure. But it's sort of like the John Jones, Tom Aspinall thing. There's always going to be someone and he probably thinks at this point, what's the point? I'm just saying selfishly, and I think I'm speaking for all of you as well when I say this, I saw the guys react to it. That would be a dream. That would be the absolute best. I would love to see. Can we do it in Seattle? They just announced Seattle, February 22nd, DJ coming back home to Seattle to fight for the belt. Could you just imagine one more time, especially with his newfound fame, with the podcast and everything that he's doing. He's so likable. He's such an ambassador for the sport.

Who doesn't like DJing? It feels like more people love and respect him now, post-fighting, if you will, than they did when he was killing everyone and getting those 11 successful title defenses on his resume. I would love to see it. If I had to probably pick one person who I think is maybe in the driver's seat right now, it's probably Kaikar France, who's currently ranked fourth. We'll see what they do with him. And maybe it's just one of those situations where he chills for

a little bit and lets things play out. But there's not a ton of options at the moment. For now, though, it doesn't really matter. Let's celebrate this guy. Amazing what he's done. You know, there was a time where he lost two of three to Figueiredo and to Askarov with a Matt Schnell win sandwiched in between. Yes, that was five years ago, but, you know, I don't think a lot of people were saying, like, this guy was championship material. I don't think a lot of people were saying this is the guy who's going to start threatening Demetrius Johnson and even having the chutzpah to call out of Demetrius Johnson and people actually being like, hell yeah, not laughing him off, not saying this is ridiculous, saying, hell yeah, sign me up for that. I don't think a lot of people would have

been saying that when he was losing to Dustin Ortiz. So there's a lot that you could say about Pantoja, but in my opinion, the way he handles himself, the way he continues to get better, the shape that he's in, his killer instinct, he goes for finishes, his speed, his athleticism, his technique, he just seems like, you know, we need to start. I was going to bring up the power. He does have the complete game. There's no doubt about it. He does have the, is he the number one power?

Talk to him. I don't freaking know. Talk to him. Is he number one? Is he actually number one? There's a case, man. There's a case. Who's dominating like him? Who's dominating like him?

Who's dominating like him? Why don't people bring him up? I'm wondering the same thing, my brother. I don't know. Is it because of the... It's because he's small. No, no. I actually wasn't even going to say that, to be honest.

What were you going to say? Eh, you know, he doesn't brag. He's not bragging. Yeah. I like the DJ call out. That was the most we kind of seen. Oh, the DJ call out. That was the most we kind of seen. Oh, the DJ call out was fantastic. DJ call out kind of blew my mind for a second because he's talked about it before, but this

is the first time where I was like, holy fuck, this would be incredible. He has literally no one else to fight. He has cleared out the entire division. It's the flyweight thing. DJ before him. He has a win over Kaikara France from tough. Yeah, but tough. Yeah, he still beat him, dude.

Like, he's beaten everyone. I know, but those. He still beat him, dude. He's beaten everyone. I know, but those Tough ones. Didn't he beat Brandon Moreno in Tough too? Yeah, and then two more times in the UFC. Yeah. I don't know. What do we do? DJ. DJ or nothing. I have to say, unfortunately,

DJ just last night was watching One Fight Night 26 and tweeted, that YouTube money's too good to come back to fight. Just last night was watching one fight night 26 and tweeted that youtube money is too good to come back for to fight just last what do you mean what do you mean what do you mean what do you mean the youtube money he's what do you mean he's got 900 000 subscribers he's making oh bank off the youtube oh i i thought you meant like i thought i thought you meant like youtube influencer like fighting one of those guys oh no no no no he's saying like the youtube money is is too good to come yes please i need his response i mean i just texted him um oh i see what you mean okay tweeted just last really find out whatever youtube money he's making double it and let's

get this done someone call up michael wants over right now and let's see uh let's see YouTube studio let's get the that Google AdSense money uh I would love to see it it's a massive by the way we can't forget he retired from one he had fights left on his one contract Chachri isn't just gonna let him like walk out the door um it is it is very much a long shot now I'm sure the UFC if they cut a nice check and they could figure something out there's always know, who would have thought that he would have been traded for Ben Askren, but I am really struggling with anyone. Now, here's the other thing.

Who would have thought Kai Sikora would be fighting for the belt in his UFC debut? Is there anyone even out there that they can... Can they make a trade for Pachy Mix and see if he can make 125? Probably not. By the way, what do you think Muhammad Makaev is thinking right now?

He probably would be the guy, right? He probably would have been the guy. Forget it. He served his time out. He served his punishment. Bring him back and let's find out. They've got nobody else. They've got nothing. There really is just no one. He probably is the guy, right?

He was going to be the guy am I the only one hearing crackling when you guys come on am I crazy hearing static am I the only one same here yeah clean clean clean alright well I guess I am the only one

I guess I am the only one what's Askar Askarov up to these days that's his last loss I know let's see Ashar Asgharov up to these days that's his last loss I know let's see Asghar Asgharov he's fought once since that split decision loss to the Kaikara friends November 2023 yeah I'm sure they could cut a deal to bring him back

you think that does big business yeah Asghar Asgharov massive numbers no I don't know i don't know biggest numbers obviously is dj like without a shadow of a doubt but there's just feels like there's just too many hoops to jump through no um i honestly was kind of shocked at the 13 wins you just kind of forget about his his longevity and his dominance that that actually ties demetrius johnson and joseph benavidez like that that actually ties Demetrius Johnson and Joseph Benavidez. That's flyweight royalty right there. Those are arguably the two best flyweights.

Well, obviously DJ, but you can make a case, even though Joseph Benavidez didn't win the belt, that he's number two all time. It just so happened that he kept having to fight Demetrius Johnson. So an impressive win, an impressive moment for Alexandre Pantoja. That was the main event. We'll have plenty of time to discuss what he could do next. Let's talk about the people's main event now. Let's talk about what happened in the co-main event. And it was a big one with massive stakes attached. It was Shavkat Rahmanov, the pride of Kazakhstan, the nomad going up against Ian Machado Gary, the pride of Ireland. And in the end, it was Shafqat who we all remember was supposed to fight for the belt on this night against Bilal Muhammad. More on him in a moment. And Bilal gets

hurt and he says, I want to remain. So they call upon Ian Gary, who's supposed to fight next week. You know the whole story by now. And in the end, it was Shafqat who won a pretty, I think, easy fight to score in that I thought it was 48-47 for Shavkat. One, two, Shavkat, three, Ian, four, Shavkat, Ian, five. The fifth round was by far the best round of them all. And you're seeing some of the scenes right here. Shavkat had him. He took his back, had him in the figure four for a moment. It looked like the arm was starting to creep in under the neck there. There was a brief moment where you were like, like maybe a five second stretch where you were like, is this actually happening? Is he going to pull this off?

But in the end, Shufcutt gets out of it. He survives and he wins via decision. I thought, you know, a solid, you have to remember this. Shafkat was playing a dangerous game. He had a title shot. He was basically putting the title shot to the middle of the table and was gambling. He wanted to stay. He wanted to fight. He didn't want to go back home with no fight. He wanted to get paid. He had been inactive for quite some time. And so if maybe you're sitting back and being like, I'm not blown away by that. Remember this, that's the first time in Shufcutt's career. That's the first time in his 19 fight pro career that he's gone the distance. Every other

fight, including all the fights in the UFC have ended via KO, TKO, or submission. Remember that. I'm not implying in any way, shape, or form that he was playing it safe or he was being timid or anything like that, but A, he's fighting a top-level guy. B, he's going five rounds. And C, there was a lot at stake here. So maybe if he doesn't take that extra risk or anything like that, I'm okay with it. In the end, he gets to win and he gets his title shot back and he's a thousand percent the number one contender. I don't care what happens next week, but here's where it gets really interesting. I actually think Ian Gary's stock went up in this fight.

I actually feel like more people respect Ian Gary for A, taking the fight, B, going the distance with Shafkat and being the only guy to do so. Going five rounds and getting him in a very tough spot in the fifth and final round. I think Ian Gary's in a position now where people respect him, where people think that he has arrived and he belongs. Obviously, the best case scenario would have been the win. This being the worst case, he lost, but not really the worst case in that he didn't get supremely dominated. He didn't get knocked out. He didn't get submitted. He hung in there and he was in it

until the very end. And so I think next week, Buckley, Colby, especially if it's Colby, if Colby wins, you book that fight. If Colby loses, wouldn't hate seeing it either because there's such a history there and there's a lot of bad blood. But I don't think Ian Gary is that far away from being right back in this spot, meaning fighting for a title shot. I would even argue that he's one win away from being right back in there. One win away from even getting a title shot,

to be honest, depending on who that person is and there's time to figure it out. But I was really impressed with his poise. I was impressed with his freaking cojones for stepping up and taking this fight. When a lot of people didn't want to do it, they felt like it was too big of a risk. Shofcott wins. He was the favorite. He got the title shot. The universe corrects itself. You'd hate to see him lose that because of his opponent, the champion Bilal Muhammad getting injured. But I really do think Ian has gained a massive amount of respect from a lot of people who weren't willing to give him respect, who weren't willing to buy.

They thought maybe he was trying too hard. They thought maybe he was too cocky. They thought maybe he was just some guy, whatever, playing Conor McGregor, whatever the hell it is. I don't feel like that's the case anymore. And I feel like a lot of people love and respect him and they should after that performance. Now, afterwards, Shafqat Rachmaninoff gets on the microphone and he says, Bilal, come in here, you know, let's go. And this was a bit of a clunky scene. I mean, if we were grading,

if we were grading face-offs via aura, I think this was like a minus 10,000 aura as far as face-offs. Like Rampage and Rashad, it was not. Izzy, DDP, it was not. Let's see, what are some other famous ones? GSP, Matt Hughes, it was not. First of all, I guess it took Bilal a while to get into the cage and

and joe rogan was like hey security doesn't know that you're a champ i don't think he was trying to take a shot at him but i could see a lot of people running with that and doing like the remember the name gimmick but just even like the the face off do you guys know what i'm saying like that that was that was not exactly it probably would have been better not doing the face off. I feel like that didn't exactly sell the fight. It took a while to get them all in there. And then they were just too respectful to each other. And then it was done.

He should have been in there from the jump. If he wasn't, then you, you punt on that. Also like the Joe Rogan being like, Oh, security is not letting him through. Just kind of walked in there.

It's just like, no, no, no, no, man. We don't know who you are, dude. It's crazy.

It just didn't feel big. It didn't feel big. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm interested in the fight. I think it's going to be solid. There's now people saying that. I think there's a lot of people probably who thought going into that fight, Shafkat's going to smoke Bilal.

And I think after this performance, I think a lot of people are like, you know what, Bilal has a strong chance I feel like the tide is turning a little bit do you guys understand what I'm saying though about the Shafkat thing because I'm sensing that people weren't wowed by the performance yeah of course it's the first time he's gone to a decision he's finished every one and it was a very close

48-47 fight that like if he doesn't get that takedown in round 4 he probably doesn't win the fight period almost got choked out in round 5 it's like we're seeing him as a mortal now other than this superhuman dude. I think it would be a gross underestimation of what Ian Gary is capable of to have that as your takeaway.

I think Ian Gary is an extremely good fighter and fought an extremely good fight. And for Shavkat to not be able to just blow the doors off him says more to me about how good Ian Gary is than how quote-unquote mortal Shavkat is. And that's why I feel like his stock doesn't go down. I feel like he's one or two away from being right back in the spot or even one or two away from fighting for the belt.

Ian Gary Leon in London? Oh my gosh. I'd love to see that so badly but that's a pretty quick turnaround what is it three three months three and a half months you're a little indigestion it's a little hiccup oh it's just yes late comes into it yeah i get it um in any event uh we're probably going to see that that uh title fight sometime i would say i don't know april may june feels like feels like a june title fight if we ever saw one um but let's see let's see how it all pans out congratulations to shavkat rachmanov uh surreal gun versus alexander volkov was highly controversial. In the end, Cyril Gann wins via split decision. A lot of people, including myself, thought that Alexander Volkov won the

fight 29-28. It was 29-28 for Volkov and then two 29-28s for Cyril Gann. A, not the most exciting fight of all time, but B, I thought Volkov had done enough. Volkov kind of surprised all of us rocking the cornrows. He looked very Patti Pimblitt-esque with those. And it just wasn't a tremendous fight. Cyril Gantz saying afterwards that he broke his toe, a bit of a mid-fight, and there was a bit of a weird scene afterwards. I mean, just look at that photo right there. That guy lost. And then when they announced that Cyril Ghosn had won, he walked out of the cage, and the assumption was kind of like, oh, he's upset. I don't know if he misunderstood. I don't know if he just didn't feel like speaking.

You're looking at the scorecards right now. Adelaide Bird with the two 10-9s for Cyril Gann in the first two rounds and then gave the third to Volkov. Eric Colon gives the first to Cyril Gann. The second round was the big issue, the dissenter, if you will, because he gave Volkov the second round. And then back to Junichiro Kamijo,

he gave the second round to Cyril Gann. Cyril walked out of the cage and then his coach, Fernan Lopez, brought him back in. And I couldn't quite tell if that was an indication that they thought they lost and he was upset or that he just didn't feel like speaking, or maybe he was just in a lot of pain. He seemed to imply that as well. But we were talking last week about, all right, if in fact

they go with Alex Pereira versus Jon Jones, is it possible that we're going to see another title defense for Tom Aspinall. And if it is, then it's probably surreal gun. He gets the win so you could still make the fight, but I feel like people may be less interested in the fight after this performance. I don't know if it was a, I saw, you know, some people saying it was the worst, the worst robbery in the history of robberies, the worst decision in the history of the UFC. I don't know if I'd go that far, but it was just a... It comes out to one round when all the judges agree on one and three, and there's one round where there's some sort of dissension.

I don't know if that's a robbery per se, but I did think that Volkov won. In fact, I wrote it out. I wrote out the tweet that he had won. I was like, oh shit, did not expect that. I thought it was 29-28 for Alexander Volkov. And these things happen in MMA. You guys agree with that one? No, we had gone. I mean, sorry, we had Volkov 29-28 2-3 to Volkov First to gone

Yeah I had 30-27 gone actually Volkov What's going on over there? I'm choked up because you're Something funny back here, man You're making fun of my indigestion. Yeah, and then I'm the one that gets indigestion.

Just choked on my spit. Real old man moved there. I had a 30-27 Volkov, man. I was shocked by the decision. I thought it was a horrible decision. I thought Volkov won the fight. I thought they robbed him of that one. You're right, though.

Rounds one and three are the same, right? It comes down to one round, and it was a close round. It was, in my opinion, not as close as the first. I actually thought the first was closer and harder to score. First was incredibly close. I'm surprised that they gave it to Cyril on all three scorecards. Also, like,

I know it's a cumulative over the fight and everything, but, like, man, the statistics don't look good either for Cyril Gunn's case. And then just the way the fight ended and then him immediately walking out. Yeah, I don't know. I thought Volkov won. The hard part is it is so clear

that Jon Jones and Tom Aspinall are like 10 miles removed from everybody else in this division. It doesn't help. It makes it look like a very shallow division because nobody else is in their universe at this point. According to UFC stats, and they don't always tell the story, but total strikes,

Seregan 48 of 66, Volkov 105 of 140 as far as landed and thrown. In the first round, 17 of 20 for Sereghan, 12 of 18 for Volkov. Second round, a lot more activity, 27 of 39 for Sereghan, 25 of 47 for Volkov. Third round, not much from Sereghan, 4 of 7 compared to 68 of 75 for Alexander Volkov. So not exactly one to write home about. And I would say the middle two fights there on the pay-per-view sort of fell into that bucket because I think a lot of us were surprised that Bryce Mitchell and Krohn Gracie were put on the main card,

especially with the likes of Aljamain Sterling and Moffsar Avloev on the prelims and with so many big names on the main card, especially with the likes of Aljamain Sterling and Moffsar Avloev on the prelims and with so many big names on the prelims. And I think a lot of us were expecting this fight to be weird. And I would say that it was delightfully weird in a way. Krohn Gracie had not fought since May of 2023. He was on a two-fight losing streak. And then all of a sudden, this fight gets added to UFC 310 against Bryce Mitchell, who is his own brand of weird, if you will, but a supremely talented fighter coming off a knockout, a pretty harsh knockout loss almost exactly a year ago, last pay-per-view of the year, last year. And I mean, in the end, he knocks out Bryce Mitchell, Krohn Gracie in a very strange sequence where Krohn Gracie tries to essentially pull guard by

wrapping his legs around Bryce Mitchell. Bryce Mitchell slams him to the ground, reminiscent of Matt Hughes and Carlos Newton back in the day. And that seemed to have rocked Krohn Gracie and then some elbows from the top in his guard knocked him out. But it was just, Krohn just felt kind of like listless out there and just like a strange vibe about him um a weird one even even even his uh former sensei um even his former i just got a funny text i'll tell you about it in a moment uh even his former sensei uh caesar gracie weighed in and said what did he say have the the tweet here unless it's up that's right here it's up all right sorry there's so many things on my screen right now um never a good idea to pull guard in mma like that never yeah no kidding um this this

this this sort of like you know this sort of way to compete in mma as a jiu-jitsu artist to just try to pull guard and and get like it doesn't work in 2024 and we saw that come into play i don't know how much of a of arohn-Gracy has in the UFC. And then when you couple it with yesterday's incident at the weigh-ins with bottles being thrown from his team to Makhachev's team, I know we saw a video of Nate Diaz doing it, who was in his corner. I don't know if others were doing it. I don't know who started it. I don't know who incited it. But I know the UFC, you know, aren't exactly thrilled with Nate these days after the departure and the Jake Paul fight. I could see a part of them being

like, we're good. I could see that. Still very talented, still a great story, still a great backstory, still a famous last name and a famous father and all this stuff. But there has to be some evolution there so i'm curious to see uh what they do with him and good on bryce mitchell uh he hit us with the uh he hit us he hit us with the truth that there is in fact only one person who can make america great again and it's not donald trump but it's jesus and that is an interesting twist considering the scenes last year do you think he would have said that if Trump was sitting cage side probably

1000% I got a text from Demetrius Johnson tell us I wrote to him I got one too no I was telling you guys i was texting him so i told you i would tell you tell us what you texted or what yes i'm setting it up for fuck's sake uh you guys testy back there i i wrote to him you see that he wrote lol i ain't coming back

so which is good so uh yes i'll just tweet yes i'll just tweet. I got offered two million dollars to fight. I turned it down I don't care to fight anymore YouTube video dropping soon This also we had a super check come in from thugger saying do we really think Dana who erased DJ and Francis will sack up and Bring DJ back. What if DJ wants an apology this? Albeit was before you got the text. Well, it's funny Dana white was asked that in the Post Fight press conference, and he said, I don't know. That's interesting.

He did not shut it down immediately. Yeah, but the thing is he has a contract with one. It ain't happening. Dana White is, in fact, at the Post Fight press conference as we are speaking on the call-out of one Demetrius Johnson, and these notes are from the great Aaron Bronstetter of Sportsnet in Canada. That's interesting. I was the one beating the drum about Demetrius Johnson a long time ago.

White mentions it was Oscar Rua's first time fighting in a cage, and he came out flying. That's a good point that I hadn't heard brought up. Did you guys mention that? First time in a cage? Interesting. He came out flying out of the gates, which he he did and patosha then put the heat on him and dominated um he wishes that we would have gone three more rounds of what we saw i couldn't agree more it was a lot of fun um white also said that shafkat versus gary didn't play out the way that he

thought it would uh but we saw a lot out of both guys and he's glad that it was five rounds and it was the right decision. They know each other. There was a lot at stake. I don't think it was such a crazy thought that it would play out like that. He also adds that 2024 was the best year in UFC history and he feels like every subsequent year ends up being the best in company's history. He likes to break records, wants to continue to set those milestones, and has a few in sight for 2025. Dana White says that he doesn't have a comment on the verdict of Conor McGregor's civil trial and says that McGregor hasn't fought in the UFC a long time.

He also said that he wasn't supposed to be at UFC 311 but now he's changed his plans and that's the one next that's the one next month so back to the card Bryce Mitchell with the win over Krohn Gracie to kick things off as far as the main card is concerned we did get a great one between Duho Choi and Nate the Train Landwehr. A lot of people, including our own Ben Foulkes, was banging the drum all week long about this fight. It delivered, but it was quite one-sided. It was clinical stuff from Korean Superboy. It was, I would say, one-way traffic from the jump. He did win via third round TKO, elbows from crucifix, just absolutely beating up Nate Landwehr, who is tough as nails. He's tougher than a $2 steak, as the great Jim Ross loved to

say back in the day. But great to see Korean Superboy back on track now, his second win in a row, two great wins. Maybe doesn't win the award for comeback fighter of the year, but that's two wins in 2024. Came back last year after the four-year hiatus and fought to a draw, if you recall, against Kyle Nelson. In 2024, back in July, he beats Bill Algeo via a left hook knockout, and then tonight, Nate Landwehr. And again, blowing me away that he's won, excuse me, that he's fought in the UFC for 10 years. That's insane. Great to see Korean Zombie in his corner. That was really nice as well. The great Chan Sung Jung. And he's a force. That was beautiful stuff.

That was incredible. Well-rounded, fun. I mean, just absolutely amazing. Really impressive stuff from Duho Choi picking up the win over Nate Landwehr. Dominic Reyes beat Anthony Smith via ground and pound in the second round. A nice win for Dominic Reyes, a dominant win for Dominic Reyes. He continues his climb back to the heavyweight title picture, had the win over Dustin Jacoby. This is another guy who could very well win Comeback Fighter of the Year considering everything he had been through in the four-fight losing streak that he was on, including the loss, the controversial loss to Jon Jones. Had the win over Dustin Jacoby, which was really impressive back in June. And then of course, tonight beating Anthony Smith. And there was, you know, I'm happy for Dominic Reyes,

great guy still to this day, believe that he beat Jon Jones, but couldn't help but feel, I mean, just absolutely heartbroken for Anthony Smith. We get word recently that his longtime coach and best friend, Scott Morton, had passed away last month unexpectedly via a heart attack. He was just 47 years young and, you know, Anthony had done interviews and talked about how, you know, how much it affected him, but that he was going to go out there and fight for him and train and how, you know, they were doing this for him in his honor and dedicating everything that they're doing for him. And then you saw him afterwards, he just absolutely broke down, took off his gloves, took off his wraps, didn't quite officially say he was done, but said probably, you know, I don't care what anyone says about Anthony Smith. In my opinion,

one of the great guys in the sport, a respectful, thoughtful man who has had an unbelievable run. I mean, 37 and 21, that is 58 fights. And this is a guy who's had so many different chapters. I mean, there was a period where Anthony Smith could have just been a sort of like Midwest fighter, a Midwest regional fighter. And even in Strikeforce, wasn't really like wowing anyone, was on kind of a run fighting on the prelims and some nice wins here some losses there and even when he gets into the UFC he's not really like wowing anyone but slowly but surely he works his way up remember he he leaves the UFC he comes back he's he's jumping around all these other promotions. He changes weight classes, has the great run, gets the title shot. And you kind of know the rest of the story, the ups and downs, the fights on short notice

that he maybe shouldn't have taken, all that stuff. And just a guy who has persevered, who's turned into a great analyst, who's a part of the ESPN MMA plans, has the show with Bisping, all that stuff and more. And just to see him at this point in that, you know, in that state, it was heartbreaking. 36, but so many fights, 58 pro fights, and who knows how many others, how many others in God knows where. Big power slap guy as well. I really felt for Anthony and, you know, have no issues saying, have a ton of respect for him. I've been covering him for a long time and it was depressing to watch that. And I'll just jump to another moment that was kind of hard to watch. And that was

Chris Weidman. Chris Weidman losing in the second round. He was supposed to fight last month at MSG and the fight against Eric Anders was postponed because of Anders having food poisoning. And here they fight at 195. And to see Chris Weidman, the former middleweight champion, lose like that, lose in the second round via KO with his family or TKO with his family in attendance was hard to watch. Father time undefeated. And that takes nothing away from Eric Anders. That takes nothing away from Dominic Reyes. You know, but these are guys that, you know, I personally covered. I know they're good people. I know they've done things the right way. And golly, both of them have been through so much.

Chris's road back to the UFC, painaking I mean 30 surgeries just unbelievable heart will and determination and perseverance and very very very tough to see him in that state but credit to Eric Anders picking up the biggest win of his career that was lower on the on the card but I kind of felt the same after both fights. So wanted to couple those together. Vicente Luque with an unbelievable Anaconda choke win over Temba Garimbo, the fastest win via Anaconda choke in UFC history. Afterwards, calling out Jorge Masvidal. Thank God he wasn't fighting Nick Diaz. I don't want to see that fight. You know, Temba takes the fight on short notice. He steps up and he gets caught. He gets dropped and then a beautiful submission win for Vicente Luque, who is still kicking and now improves to 23-10-1.

Mofsar Evloev beat Aljamain Sterling. He's now 19-0. He's fighting on the prelims. Doesn't feel like he's knocking on the title shot door. He should be considering who he's beating. Aljamain Sterling, I know, relatively new to the featherweight division, but still, it's Aljamain Sterling prior to that, the win over Arnold Allen, prior to that, the win over Diego Lopez, and very good chance that Diego Lopez gets a title shot before him. Would love to see that again, by the way. I don't know if the UFC is rushing to do that. You know, he may not be the most exciting fighter of all time, but I would say that was a very entertaining fight. The grappling exchanges were fun. The action was

frenetic at times. It was fast paced. It was, you know, it was fun from the jump. It wasn't rock and sock and robots per se, but that was a very fun fight. I have no issues with Movstar Evloa fighting for a belt next, fighting the winner of Ilya Teporyev versus Alexander Volkov or fighting a Diego Lopez. Don't know if it will shake out that way, but 19-0, I believe, 6, 7, 8, 9. Nine wins in the UFC. My apologies. Yeah, and here you have the great Khabib Nurmagomedov backing that stance.

19-0 in MMA, 9-0 in the UFC. I think Mozart deserves his title shot. And yeah, it's hard to deny. There are certain times where, yes, you do have to give the title shot to the not so exciting fighter, if you will. We're seeing this with Magomed. We saw it with Bilal. We saw it with Leon. We've seen it with a ton of people. That was an exciting win. That was an exciting fight. I have no problem with it. And when you're 19-0 and then 9-0 in the UFC, in my opinion, you deserve it. I thought Al Jermaine handled things very classy afterwards on social media he wrote something very nice he continues to kind of

you know UFC has not done him any favors the short turnaround against Sugar Sean putting him on the prelims here even even him coming to featherweight winning once and then jumping right in there against someone like mozar not easy stuff he falls to 24 and 5 but uh still very much a player in the ufc if you ask me brian battle missed weight by four pounds yesterday he came in at 175 which was such a shame considering all the momentum all the positive press all the good vibes following his win over Kevin Doucette back in September. And he ends up having to give up a percentage of the purse. The fight continues. Randy Brown upset. He's never missed weight in his career. He reminded us of

that on social media afterwards, and he lost via split decision. And this was a bit of a controversial one as well. I mean, for several reasons, close fight, Brian missing weight that badly is a tough pill to swallow. If you're Randy Brown, he went ahead with the fight, tough pill to swallow for him because he doesn't get paid or at least doesn't get his full purse in addition to the 20% if he refused the fight. Just ask Wonderboy Thompson and others as well. But it felt like Bryan took a bit of a step back here from the positive momentum. You see him flipping up the crowd. He had a moment with the crowd as well. Wasn't quite the same magic as Paris. Here's Rude Boy, Randy Brown saying 19 walks to the octagon alone,

six on the regional scene. I've never missed weight, not one time, like a true pro. Brian knew he wasn't going to make the weight from the day before, but still let me suffer through a weight cut. These guys bite the bullet on percentage, then come in overweight on purpose so they can get a weight advantage on fight night. I'll be no more than 185 tomorrow. This is what he wrote yesterday.

After the weigh-ins, I would bet he would be well over 200. How is that fair to me? Yeah. And this brings up the discussion. What do you do? Do you take a point away? Well, if they would have taken a point away in a fight like this, maybe it ends up completely different. Maybe it ends up being a draw. Maybe Randy wins compared to what ended up happening. Who the hell knows? But I don't feel like there's any momentum, any push to change the system. It seems like, you know, give up a percentage. At least we're not doing as much the giving a percentage to the commission nonsense. That always seemed very strange to me. Why should the commission get paid for your transgression? If anyone should get paid, it's the opponent. And quite often we end up seeing, in fact,

I was telling this to someone yesterday that I was speaking to about this particular scenario. Quite often we see the guy who misses Wade badly win, and that's what we saw here with Brian Battle. Joshua Vann beat Cody Durden. Great win for him. Another high action, fast paced flyweight fight. Michael Chiesa with a very impressive rear naked choke win over Max Griffin at 37. He celebrates his birthday. He improves to 18 and seven. First had him with one hand and then just like, it was a rear naked choke, but it wasn't like your traditional rear naked choke. I'm not going to pretend to be some BJJ expert here,

but just the way he had it locked in off to the side like that was amazing. He loves that or any type of variation of that. Again, another one of the good guys coming back from the Tony Ferguson win in August and looking really good against a very tough opponent in Max Griffin. So shout out to Michael Chiesa,

who continues to get it done and gets it done on this particular night. On his birthday, Chase Hooper was supremely impressive, gets the submission win over Clay Guida, five years in the UFC this month, and there was such an age gap between the two of them. And he is really coming into his own. He's a dad now. He's getting that man strength, and you saw it against Clay Guida. Not sure how much is left for Clay Guida, who falls to 38 and 25. But obviously Chase Hooper, the story here,

they had grappled once before. Chase got the nod there and he gets the nod once again. By the way, before I fully continue, not only was it Michael Case's birthday, it was also the day after he got awarded his black belt. So that came in handy. And perhaps they could have given it to him after the fight. Not like some of those situations where someone gets a knockout and they get a black belt. A big weekend for Michael Kaysen. Very, very happy for him. And finally, the curtain jerker was Kennedy Nzechukwu getting another nice win at heavyweight.

Solid stuff out of him, a first round knockout. He beats Lucas Bresky. And all of a sudden, we're starting to see something with Kennedy Nzechukwu. Had the win over Chris Barnett back in October. Relatively quick turnaround here. And he is now on a little winning streak, two in a row for the big man at heavyweight. So that's the full card. That's everything that happened.

Let me see if there's anything else that has happened. Yes, I'm just looking at the rest of the Dana White press conference stuff. Dana White's saying that he believes Chris Weidman, Anthony Smith, and Clay Guida should all retire after their fights tonight. Also saying that he thought Alexander Volkov beat Cyril Ghosn and apologized to Alexander Volkov after the fight. He said that the head of the commission spoke to Dana White and that they felt that the second round was very close. As we were discussing, both guys got rocked and provided an explanation on why Gann got the nod. White talked about an altercation that Merab Dwalishvili got into

there's some footage that's on the internet right now after the Aljo lost to Evloev seemed like Murab and another member of the team got into it with a fan not great probably better not to

get involved especially as a UFC champion but can't imagine what someone said to him after an emotional loss like that to to spark something like that um let me just see something here something here uh White says he would love to bring over more fighters from Ryzen and that Saki Kibara told them that many of their champions want to become the first to win titles in both promotions. That would be interesting.

And speaking of some news, we did get a whole bunch of news. We did get that UFC 312, which is happening on February 8th in Sydney, Australia, has two title fights on it. We're getting Drikus Duplessis versus Sean Strickland, number two. They fought the beginning of the year, first pay-per-view of the year in January in Toronto. And now they're going to run it back. So it seems like they're going to wait for the Hamza title fight and those two will run it back. And it's happening in Australia which is where of course DDP just beat Israel Adesanya back in August and where Sean Strickland beat Izzy

in 2023 September of 2023 this will be Sean Strickland's third title fight two of them in Australia one in Canada Mr. America for some reason can't get a title fight in the United States more exciting if you ask me is the fact that the co-main event is Zhang Weili defending Canada. Mr. America, for some reason, can't get a title fight in the United States. More exciting, if you ask me, is the fact that the co-main event is Zhang Weili defending her strawweight title against Tatiana Suarez. Now, what's interesting about this, Tatiana Suarez was supposed to fight on this card against Virna Janjurova. She was our comeback fighter of the year last year. She's not fought in 2024. She's getting the title shot, and it's the title shot that we've wanted for five, six years. I have no problem with this. I can't wait to see it. It's getting the title shot and it's the title shot that we've wanted for five, six years.

I have no problem with this. I can't wait to see it. It's the best fight to make at 115 pounds. It's an incredible fight on paper. It's a fun fight. It's a great test for Zhang Weili, who I feel like hasn't really been tested in her last two title fights, Amanda Lemos and Yan Chaonan. But I just hope that she makes it to the fight. And I also hope if she wins, that she could be an active champion. Historically, it's been a lot of cancellations, a lot of withdrawals, and that sucks. No one wants that. But I'm just glad that we're finally getting the title shot. It's not perfect to get it after,

on the night that you were supposed to fight Virna Janjiroba in a year that you did not fight after a couple of withdrawals, one earlier in the year as well. But hey, she's getting it. It's the fight we want. It's big time stuff. And I can't wait to see it. Zhang Weili versus Tatiana Suarez. That's February 8th. We also found out that on February 22nd, the UFC is going back to Seattle. No fights announced for that, but that was a great market for them back in the Fox days and great to see them go back to the Pacific Northwest, Washington, Seattle, the Rain City. We did get a bunch of fights announced over the last couple of days for UFC 311. That's the next

pay-per-view, Intuit Dome dome in Goodwood, California. We know about Issam Hacha versus Armin Tsuruki, and that's the main event for the lightweight title that did the press conference yesterday. Murab and Umar stole the show. They were tremendous at the press conference. A lot of hype surrounding that fight and those two title fights. In addition, Jalton Almeida versus Sergey Spivak, Prochaska versus Jamal Hill, Holland versus RDR. I don't remember which are the ones that got announced and which ones didn't get officially announced, but I do know that we got Hinata Moikano versus Benil Dariush.

And that has been added to the 311 card and that is going down on January the 18th. We also found out that Amanda Hibas versus Mackenzie Dern is going to be the first main event of the year, January 11th. So there's one more UFC pay-per-view, excuse me, one more UFC fight night left this year, and that's next week in exactly a week. Well, actually six days from now because it is Sunday. Yes, yes it is and that is going to be colby covington versus one joaquin buckley is there anything else you want to say frank or will you forever hold your peace i um i don't have anything to say uh we have a busy slate of

shows coming up um no i mean is it weird no one said like hey ariel congrats you know i mean it first time we speak is i mean i for one i'm proud of your 15 oh thanks congrats on the text uh twitter no i mean like in public you know publics you know oh public you mean like instagram and twitter as well no i mean like show you know man for sure. For sure, for sure. People. No, congrats on that incredible stuff. Nah, thanks. Great speech, man. I appreciate you shouting all of this out. Yeah, it was really nice.

Yeah, yeah. Jordan brought a cake in today that was amazing. Sorry. I did shout out the flunk. Congrats, Ariel. And we had 15 candles on it. We did everything. Wow.

You guys thought I was coming in? Kazoos. You guys thought I was coming in? Yeah, we thought you were actually going to be here. We were ready to celebrate. Monday, Monday. Oh, Monday. Wow. You guys thought I was coming in? Kazoos. You guys thought I was coming in? Yeah, we thought you were actually going to be here. We were ready to celebrate. Monday, Monday. Oh, Monday. Okay.

Is that okay? Yeah, we'll see. I'll check the calendar. There's a lot going on. You said Monday. It's tomorrow, bro. We'll see you tomorrow. Yeah, we'll see you tomorrow.

All right. We'll celebrate tomorrow. We'll see you tomorrow. That is the story as far as UFC 310 is concerned. Full reaction along with Peteizzi, who is fast asleep, as he should be, because it's 5 in the morning over there in Ireland. Full reaction. He might be up. He might be

drinking some coffee right now. My math is bad. Yes, he's probably having some... Was he having an Irish breakfast? What's an Irish breakfast? It's similar to an English breakfast, but Irish. Is it the same? It's just a gallon of Guinness. Oh, perfect.

Well, good morning to you, PC, and good morning to everyone who is joining us from Europe, or good afternoon if you're in Australia. Hope you enjoy your Sunday. Great job, guys, with the watch party. Fantastic stuff. Particularly enjoyed the bike riding. Shout out to our good friends at avaron uh congratulations by the way i'll throw out some congratulations to the scc champion uh georgia bulldogs all right baby let's go that's right beat beat beat uh frank's longhorns twice man horns down there you go um

that's right commiserations to uh one darren till on on losing out on the tommy fury fight more reaction on that to come um jamal and alex will talk about that on uh monday how about that uh we've got a ton of things to talk about for now though it is late so let us uh say good night uh please continue to uh give us a thumbs up also hit the notification uh follow us on spotify wrap it up as they say with the spotify rap apple is a good place to get podcasts too and what else uh dj has continued to uh text me and the final text I'll just sum up just to end everyone's night

on the perfect note I'm truly not coming back you're saying there's a chance I think that's definitive but let's see Dana White's interested so let's see everyone's got a prize

like the great Ted DiBiase once said every man has a prize Pantoja, male fighter of the year nope no but you guys might say not even in the competition

why why why Teporia two wins? No two wins. For you to not beat Steve Ersig and Kyle Sipora. That's right. Thanks all the way. And out. Thumbs up to the chat.

W's. W's to the chat. How about that? W's to the chat. Yeah. That's what the kids say. They say it. They say it. I gotta tell you guys about the meal that I had on Friday.

Maybe we'll do that on Monday. Should I take the music out? No, no. I'm just wasting time as the music's playing. Yeah, I'll tell you on... Well, now I'm excited. On Monday. Oh, it's one of the great meals. Just like this was one of the great cards. Enjoy your Sunday, my friends. Congrats to all. Back on Monday, same time, same place.

Peace. I'm out of here.