The Ariel Helwani Show - UFC 315 Post-Fight Show: Jack Della Maddalena dethrones Belal Muhammad, Islam Makhachev reacts, International Fight Week news

Episode Date: May 11, 2025

Ariel Helwani and Chuck Mindenhall recap UFC 315, starting with new UFC welterweight champion Jack Della Maddalena dethroning Belal Muhammad (04:06) and the immediate reaction from Islam Makhachev (11:01), who hopes to challenge for that title.After talking about the main event scorecards (18:00), the duo transitions to the co-main event (24:55), which saw Valentina Shevchenko defend her UFC women's flyweight title from Manon Fiorot.Next, they discuss the wild war between Jose Aldo and Aiemann Zahabi (33:15), including whether the judges got it right.Finally, they react to Zhang Weili's post about the co-main event (41:30), before breaking down the rest of the card (43:29) and acknowledging Vitor Belfort's entry into the UFC Hall of Fame (46:52).

Back in your life on this oh I muted back in your life on this Sunday, May 11th, 2025. Hello again, everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. Welcome to our UFC 315 post show. And by the way, if you are celebrating a very happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there, I hope you have a great Sunday. If perhaps your loved one is listening to this right now,

hopefully they're leaving you alone in a very special Happy Mother's Day to our very own Andy, Director Extraordinaire, who is holding it down for us on this Sunday, May 11th. It's very late or early depending on where you are, but it's 1.34 a.34am Eastern time in Montreal and a card which was somewhat maligned going into it because you know it was the UFC's first time back in Montreal in 10 years.

The card wasn't as deep, the Canadian fans weren't feeling like they were getting the love that they had earned and deserved as loyal fans. They were feeling like the card was missing a little je ne sais quoi. If I'm being 100% honest, I feel like it was a lot better than a lot of people predicted. And if I'm being honest,

the main event was a hell of a lot better than a lot of people predicted. In the end, we have a brand new UFC welterweight champion, my friends. His name is Don Giacomo, Jack Delamattalena, the pride of Perth, Western Australia. He just defeated Bilal Mohammed to win the UFC welterweight title. Yes, 48-47, 48-47, 49-46. They say you're not officially a UFC champion unless you successfully defend the title. I don't subscribe to that but in the end Bilal doesn't successfully defend the title in his first title defense. He met

a buzzsaw in Don Giacomo who had not fought since March of last year who all of a sudden improved as a grappler as a wrestler. The last time he fought Gilbert Burns landed seven takedowns on him this time around in a 25 minute fight. Bilal Mohammed did not have that same success, only landed his first takedown in the fourth round in the end, just three total. And it was a back and forth war. It was a bloody affair. Rightfully so, Jack de la Maddalena wins and he wins the title. And in doing so, may have altered the UFC's big plans for International Fight Week. Also, by the way, co-main event event Valentina Shevchenko. Well she got it done for the UFC and I'll

explain why in a moment she defeated Mano Fioro in not as exciting of an affair but she proves once again that she is the best women's flyweight fighter in the world. We'll go through the entire card top to bottom. This time around it's just myself and one partner because our other partner is in Belfast. He's probably sleeping right now. He was doing tremendous work over at the PFL Europe card. If you go on his social media right now, you could see a ton of interviews, a ton of great content. Of course, I'm talking about the patron saint of the Emerald Isle, the host of the critically acclaimed podcast, The Crack. Mr. P.C. Carroll, he was holding it down in Belfast. So on this post show,

it is just going to be myself and the mayor of the Nutmeg State, the man in the hat, the one and only Chuck Menendal. Chuck, wearing a Detroit hat? What is going on here? You can't wear a Detroit hat, Chuck. What are you doing? Yeah, just kind of threw that on. I was, I had a different on and then I was like, nah, I didn't like the way it looked when I got on the zoom. So I threw this one on. Detroit.

It doesn't mean anything. I thought we disposed of the prep at Detroit. This is baseball. This is baseball. This has nothing to do with the basketball. Yeah. All right. Well, we're both sitting at two, one.

I was expecting some sort of mile highs, some sort of nuggets. That's for a different show. That's for a different pod. That's for a different pod. That is a different show. 315 has come and gone. Chuck, uh, quick thoughts right off the bat. That main event was a hell of a lot more entertaining than I

think a lot of people expected. Yeah, it was. And I think it's, it's also just the way it unfolded because, um, I wasn't sure if JDM would be able to keep up with, with Balal through this fight, but instead those first couple of rounds, it was him who was being the crisp striker, kind of holding his ground in the middle, moving forward,

landing the shots, kind of setting the pace for a fight that was like going against one of the great pace setters in the sport and certainly in that division. So those first couple rounds man are really where you get your attention and where it becomes a very good fight is when Bilal starts to find his rhythm somewhere in that third round starts to get uh you know he would he would get those uh those rushes to the fence get him up against the fence with the takedown attempts and even though he wasn't landing them until the fourth round he was able to kind of create offense off of that.

And once that started, man, it felt like a little bit of a downhill moment for him, like he was like, meaning his momentum was rolling downhill. And then you get an incredible fifth round where he gets hurt. You can choose the way you want to look at it. Which way do you want to look? Muhammad, uh, you know, being able to take those shots, which would have certainly finished lesser guys. I mean, the heart of a champion right there, just taking to take those shots, which would have certainly finished lesser guys. I mean, the heart of a champion right there, just taking some of the shots he took, or, you know,

just JDM kind of laying it on and, and making sure that he was going to be the champion in that fight. Just classic stuff, man. Three different fights kind of crammed into one. It all forms this crazy plot twisting narrative, but a really fun one. Yeah. So much respect for JDM. You know, when you consider the fact that the guy had not fought since March of last year, uh, suffered an injury, a gruesome forearm break in that fight against Gilbert Burns, multiple surgeries, the infections and whatnot. He's supposed to fight Leon Edwards.

What, one of the more unheralded title challengers, right? He didn't come in with a ton of momentum. I think most people almost forgot of his last fight against Gilbert Burns, forgot like kind of who he was, but maybe that's just the theme of his whole career. Remember, he started his career, oh, in two, and going into this card had won 17 fights in a row.

But because of that long layoff and because so much changes in the span of a year and a couple of months, there wasn't a ton of buzz hype momentum surrounding him and he comes in there, doesn't say a lot of words, doesn't hype himself up, doesn't talk a lot of trash. You even saw in the post fight interview, he wasn't giving DC much, but holy crap when he is on. And if that, if that, if that, um, take down defense and if that grappling is a real thing now and will only continue to get better.

When you couple that with his striking, this guy is an absolute force. He's an absolute beast. And I know that people want to give, you know, Bilal stick. And I see people coming out of the woodwork now. I see Dricus, you know, tweeting at him and, you know, tweeting at him and saying like, you know, see you later. And he was one of the more, there it is, well done, JK. He was one of the more, you know, I don't know, polarizing champions. He should leave that cage with his head held high. That was a phenomenal performance. He dug down deep. He was, you know, he was beaten up,

he was bloodied and his obvious game plan wasn't working and he had to adjust, uh, he said a lot about his striking and, and, and he lost it essentially on the feet, but, uh, overall he has nothing to be ashamed of. I thought both men put on an absolute show out there. It is a crazy thing. And if you were to guess, like who would have a plan B, who would have a plan C, who would have the deeper tools in this fight you would have guessed that it would be Balal right? Like he's just been in too many he's he's seen too many styles he's been in there with too many guys like that's

what was kind of crazy about it was that it felt like once he was thwarted it took him a minute to figure out how to get any momentum on his side. I know we were joking about the Canelo hands and all those things. I, you know, I didn't expect him to try to stand for very long in this fight, but I think he was kind of, you know, obviously he was forced to, he couldn't really do much with it. I thought maybe it'd shoot a little more often or try to kind of get it to the fence more often. Um, but.

You know, he was meeting a ton of resistance and I think he was a little surprised at just how I, they mentioned that, you know, the JDM was a little nervous and all that stuff, uh, at the beginning of the fight. I didn't see it. I saw him as completely poised, ready for this moment. And his striking from, from the, from the jump seemed to me like it was, uh, just on point and his timing, everything about what he was doing in there. I think he caught Balal off a little bit, to be honest, man.

And it took, it took him a minute to get into that fight. And you're right. I, I, if I, if I were like looking at this fight, I kept thinking, what's going to happen is maybe this happens on the feet, but then Bilal will just take it into his world. He'll put it, he'll get control of the fight. Either it's on the fence or he'll dump them along the fence and he'll just kind of control the action.

He just couldn't do it. Um, I was shocked and the Gilbert, you mentioned the Gilbert burns thing, seven, seven takes down. There was also the Basil, uh, Hoffa's, um, he had like three, three take downs. You remember that one is kind of, it was like weird circumstances, but he got him down for like seven or eight minutes. And I was thinking about all that, man. And I was like, it just doesn't add up to success

against a guy like Balal. So it was a shocking for me to watch that as I think it was for Balal and a weird way to be experiencing that. It was a very strange fight. That Basil Hafez fight two years ago was the one where everyone like almost jumped off the JDM bandwagon, remember?

Exactly, yes. Because it was a short notice fight. They were like, what? You couldn't dispose of this guy who took the fight on four or five days notice goes to show fights change, matchups change. Like you can't put all your stock into one singular performance. Um, I didn't, by the way, to your point, I didn't get the, the sense that he was nervous. In fact, all week long, he was like, super cool, super calm.

Like he didn't seem fazed by any of this. Like even at the press conference, at the weigh-ins, the guy is just very chill. He's a chill guy. It's the best way to describe him. Like he does not seem to get too high up, too down low. And I was, I was really impressed with that performance. In your first title fight, going 25 minutes against a grinder, like that's the thing with, with Bilal.

He will grind you out. He will keep on coming. He has tremendous cardio. Like that's the thing with, with Balala. He will grind you out. He will keep on coming. He has tremendous cardio. He's obviously very strong. He puts on a really, really impressive pace and he just kept on coming. Even in, even in the corners, he was just very calm.

I was, I was really impressed. And, and, and look, we have to, we have to address this because it's a thing that's happening right now. And this is what everyone's talking about. The fight may not have been the biggest in UFC history on paper. It wasn't the most anticipated title fight in UFC history, but the stakes, and you guys talked about it brilliantly on the crack yesterday, the stakes were just so massive. And so as we sit here right now, Chuck, the stakes are sort of fluctuating, they're evolving in front of us because Islam Haqqev literally seconds after the fight,

which is an interesting one because he wants this so badly and yet his quote unquote friend just lost his title, which to me is strange. Anyway, he just tweeted, time to become double champion hashtag inshallah let's go. And so I suppose as we had all been predicting, if Bilal lost, Islam would move up and he would challenge JDM, who was asked by the way, good question from DC, DC asked him about the fight against Islam. I loved his response. I'll get him back for Vogue, which was great seeing the Australian unity. But the question that now remains is, and it was made a little complicated yesterday when Islam

said, yeah, I'll move up, but I ain't vacating the title. Ilya is saying, I ain't fighting for no interim belt or number one contender belt. What the hell does that mean? Personally, and I'd love to ask you, okay, let's just assume, uh, Islam is going to move up now to 170. He has to vacate the title. If the dude who is sitting there waiting for a title fight at 155 just vacated his title, the 155 title has to be vacated if Islam moves up, no? I agree 100%. I mean, and I don't understand how the UFC would give in this situation with three divisions basically being affected over the course of this, why they would give Islam, you know, all power over the situation. I really don't know why they would do that.

It doesn't make business sense. And Ilya Taporyev, arguably, I mean, I know Islam is Islam does numbers is crazy. Like it seems like he's a little quieter, but he does numbers. But Ilya Toporya might be one of the biggest stars in the sport. So I don't know how you're going to say that his fight with Charles, if this is what ends up happening, is not for a belt. No, it's got to be. It's got to be, right? It just doesn't make sense.

And you're not going to create a sort of interim belt while he's off on a lark. It's just, it doesn't make sense to me. So gonna create a sort of interim belt while he's off on a lark You know, it's just it doesn't make sense to me. So I feel like that he would have to vacate that belt by the way, it I currently rank The the the most exciting or the sexiest fights at the UFC can make right now number one Jones Aspinal number two Islam Ilya Ilya has an incredible fan base or what he did at 145 was unmatched. But I gotta be honest, after tonight, I'm very excited to see JDM versus, versus Islam.

It's not quite, Ilya, you're not? You think he gets steamrolled? No, no. So this is what, this is what I was curious about because I was like, okay, we talked about this ad nauseam kind of going into this like, you know, if JDM wins, it's going to usher in this, it'd be like this kind of buzzkill that, you know, his era will start because, Hey, guess what? I just rained on your parade. You don't get the fight you wanted. But what I was curious about was would we change our mind or would we just be like, okay, wait a minute. This is actually a crazy fight. I'm kind of with you. Like as I was watching this unfold, especially as Muhammad was, um,

kind of when he was coming on from the third and fourth rounds and it looked like now he's turned the tables and he's doing what he does, right? Like he's putting, pushing the pace. He's landing the shots. It looks like now it's his fight to watch Jack then like, you know, dig deep and pull the fight out and going away at the end. That's when it occurred to me. I was like, Oh man, this is actually, this becomes more,

I guess I was discounting, you know, Dylan Madeline a little bit in this fight, but now that he's showed me this, there's something about that that revs up the idea. So it feels less like I thought it would in a buzzkill sense. It doesn't feel like a buzzkill. It feels like there's a new intrigue. Look, this is what I think should happen.

This is what I think should happen and what I would like to happen. UFC 317, International Fight Week is, if my math is correct, there's, this is the 11th, the 19 plus 28. What's 19 plus 28? Uh, 47. 47.

47 is 47 days away, right? It's 47 days away. JDM was just in an absolute war. Why can't Islam fight Ilya in 47 days and then win or lose his next fight is at 170. Why can't there's one guy left and it's such a gigantic fight. It's, it's the second biggest fight that the UFC could put on. Some might say the biggest given how popular they both are. Why can't he fight in 47 days? If, if, if he's in 47 days, he's going to win, he's going to win. and it's such a gigantic fight. It's the second biggest fight that the UFC could put on. Some might say the biggest given how popular they both are. Why can't he fight in 47 days?

If Bilal was going to win tonight, if what we're being told is accurate, he was going to fight in 47 days. So why can't we get that fight in 47 days? You have now cleaned out the division, including two featherweight champions, and then move up and go after 170, either after losing the belt or you move up and get the second title.

Why can't that happen? I don't understand. If you were already willing to fight in 47 days, if Bilal would have won, you're telling me if a couple of judges scored it differently, you were fighting in 47 days, you know what I mean? No, it's a great point. That's the part that I don't understand. If I'm the UFC, I'm kind of annoyed. And like if this happens, I mean I guess the only risk is

that maybe you potentially lose like the sheen of his invincible, whatever, the invincibility or whatever he's, you know, if he moves up like maybe that goes away. I don't know, but honestly, if that's's the gamble I'm like I'd be willing to take it besides I I'm positive that Islam is a betting favorite there, right? Like I think that that's going to be the he's you know, Ilya is coming up to challenge him and he's the bigger fighter well, I know that he should be the bigger fighter on finite but like It's his belt and I think that he has shown a level of dominance that Ilya is still trying to ascend towards, he would still be the betting favorite.

So I would much rather they do this because I mean, you're getting kind of everything at that point, right? You're kind of, everybody's getting their wish, but I don't know. I feel like we're only being ladled information, you know, in terms of, maybe you're kind of a little more tuned in than I am, but like in terms of the public and what Dana and everybody're kind of a little more tuned in than I am, but like in terms of the public and what Dana and everybody is kind of saying and the fighters themselves,

you're just not hearing everything. It's not satisfactory to understand their thought process on this. Yeah, I checked in with Ilya's team this evening asking, do you guys think you're gonna like get the official announcement tonight? And they said, nah, probably not. Maybe early, early next week. I'm like, golly, this is like the longest

freaking story saga of all time. In case you're wondering, Dana White has not appeared at the post-fight press conference yet, so perhaps we are going to get that scene of him walking up with the piece of paper, just announcing the, uh, the International Fight Week main event. Torn out piece of paper.

Yeah. Yes. Which is what he did last year. Um, not quite at around this time, like a couple months prior, but that's how he announced, officially announced the Conor McGregor versus Michael Chandler fight, which wasn't meant to be. So let's see if he actually does it,

but either way, we do have a new champion at 170 pounds. By the way, I didn't ask you this. Do you agree with the scorecards? Like, did you have this for JDM? Cause I do see some people had it for below. I did have it this way and I thought it was three to two. What did I have? I had the first, yeah, first and second was JDM.

I thought he set the pace and then it turned. The third round was pretty close though, right? Like I felt like it could have possibly gone either way. So this was either four, one or three to two. And then I thought, you know, obviously JDM turned it on in the fifth round. So I had, I mean, three to two, but it could have been four to one.

Yeah, I had the first three for JDM. I had the fifth for Bilal and then the 10th for JDM. That's the same as Eric Colon. Mike Bell had it 48, 47, giving the first round to Belal and David Tarian had it 48 47 also giving the first round to Belal, but all three judges had it for JDM. So not a ton of controversy there. I don't think it was a very controversial fight to score.

Um, you know, obviously some surprises with the grappling and whatnot, but, uh, absolutely not. I mean, it's, I can't even, I'm looking at the picture of JDM, you know, obviously some surprises with the grappling and whatnot, but absolutely not. I mean, I can't even, I'm looking at the picture of JDM, you know, with the belt wrapped around his brace. Like, what real crazy, man. I mean, this guy was scheduled to fight Leon Edwards. Like if Shufka doesn't get hurt,

the trickle down effect, the butterfly effect of this guy's life is pretty remarkable. So it's a crazy thing. It shows you how much circumstance matters, right? Like it just all the, these guys who can get these shots and you never know exactly how it's going to work but if they're ready for it, when they get it. And you know, I kind of discussed this with Pizzi and Ben.

You have a guy who's 28, I think he's 28, right? He's very, he's just coming in, just coming into this, right? Like, and that's why I also, I was, I thought this might work against him if I was really thinking about it, like maybe he doesn't have the experience, but 28 years old, generally speaking, this is when you put your foot on the gas

and you show for a few years here, that'd be very interesting to see how he's, you know, how he handles these challenges, because no matter who he faces, if it's Islam or, you know, one one of the other guys one of the other monsters you know it's going to be a monster challenge for him man so he's probably in here like that belt is the most dangerous one probably going right now it's just that everybody who's coming for that belt is scary 28 years old ain't known the UFC 18 and 2

overall like I said lost his first two pro fights and hasn't lost since. By the way, if you're Ilya Tupour, I'm not sure if he's awake right now. It's I think six or seven in the morning in Spain. Are you pissed that you're not getting to Islam? Or are you happy that perhaps with no disrespect to Charles, you may be getting a more favorable matchup?

Man, I think he'd be pissed. Isn't he that kind of guy? you happy that perhaps with no disrespect to Charles, you may be getting a more favorable matchup. Man, I think he'd be pissed. Isn't he that kind of guy like that just wants to go for that? He tweeted at him this morning. Yeah. Happy Saturday. I think he'd be pissed. I mean, you know, you do the math on this whole thing, this whole equation and you're like, the big winner is probably Charles Olivero, right?

Through this whole process because he wasn't sure if he was going to factor into this and now he clearly seems to. Um, so I mean, in that way, like he kind of, now he's going to be in a weird circumstance where he can do something and take a guy's juice who, uh, you know, has that if that's what they go with, but Charles Olivera, congratulations, man. That's a, that's a big day for you. Yeah.

Uh, it's, I'm also tweeting to Bala Muhammad, um, head up champion. So, uh, showing some support to his buddy as well. By the way, fight of the night. Okay. That's what I was going to ask. I was like, you showed me the other, the other tweet first. And I was like, okay, wait, did he say anything to his buddy before he did this?

Because it's like a bush broom if he didn't, you know what I mean? Like, Hey man, get out of my way. Now it's my turn. Well, according to the timestamps, the time to become double champion tweet was at 1.36 a.m. Eastern and the head up was at 1.38. So it was a couple minutes later. See?

Strain relationship. Blom Mohammed versus- Eventually they'll fight, you know. Yeah, of course. Longstanding, good friends. Jack Delamattalena, they won fight of the night. Performance of the night went to Jasmine, Jazz DeVisius and Marc-Andre Barriot.

Let me tell you about the entire card and then we'll talk about the co-main event. Valentina Shevchenko defeated Manon Fioro via unanimous decision and you know, it got a little dicey there maybe for a second but overall I think a fight that also wasn't tough to score we'll talk about it in a moment one that was certainly controversial was the Iman Zahabi versus Jose Aldo fight Iman Zahabi winning that fight for unanimous

decision I did not agree with the judges scorecards I will ask you about that in a moment Jose Aldo afterwards taking off the gloves and not a thousand percent saying he's done but implying that he just doesn't have it anymore, that it was a tough week. Remember he missed weight. They had to change the fight to a featherweight fight and seemed to imply that he was done. We'll see. He was, you know, dabbling in the world of boxing before returning to the UFC. And obviously the last three fights in the UFC have been somewhat bizarre. So maybe he just wants out of this particular circuit. Natalia Silva is very close to getting a title shot, I would say.

She defeated Alexa Grasso in somewhat of a surprising affair. I say surprising, if only because I don't think that was the best, even remotely close, that we've seen from Grasso. And I was expecting a big bounce back performance from her. If only because I don't think that was the best even remotely close that we've seen from Grasso. And I was expecting a big bounce back performance from her. Benoit Saint-Denis had a bounce back performance, speaking of which, a tremendous one. One that he specifically needed. He beat the late replacement, Kyle Prepilek, who, you know, valiant stuff, took the fight on just day's notice.

But BSD was a man on a mission. He had to get this. He had to get back on track. And he did just that. Mike Malott looked fantastic. Alliant stuff took the fight on just day's notice, but BSD was a man on a mission. He had to get this. He had to get back on track and he did just that. Mike Malott looked fantastic winning in the prelim headliner, defeating Charles Radke. There was some bad blood, some back and forth, a lot of words exchanged. He gets a tremendous knockout in the second round. Shout out to Mike Malott.

The aforementioned Jasmine Jasdivis just got her best win by far. Submitting via rear naked choke, the former champion Jessica Andrade did not expect a win like that. She is knocking on a number one contender fight door, if not a title shot as well. Modestas Bocascus defeated Ivan Kuchylauba via split decision. Navajo Sterling defeated Ivan Ursland via unanimous decision. Marc-Andre Barrio had a vicious, brutal, scary knockout of Bruno Silva. And then some clips online afterwards showed that perhaps

Bruno's skull got cracked. I'm not sure. They carted him out. It was scary, scary stuff, but vicious stuff from M.A.B. And then to round it out, Daniel Santos defeated Jung Young Lee, the unanimous decision, and Bekset Almahan knocked out Brad Katona in the very first round.

Let's go back to Valentina Shevchenko. What'd you think of that co-main event, Chuck? It was very interesting in the sense like, I don't know how you felt about going into this, but it was similar to the main event. Like you're sort of, you think about the strengths and you're like, how does this, how is this going to play out? And I was a little surprised because I thought Firo and I'm not saying her, they, I felt like they were saying her name like different than I've been saying.

In French, it's Firo. They were saying Firo. Um, Firo. So three syllables. Yeah. Okay. How'd you say it the first time? Something similar to that, but not quite.

Let's hear it. I say Fi-oh-oh. Yeah, it's good, it's good. It's better, it's good. So I like that, oh yeah. She came in and I thought that she would actually be the one who would set the pace a little bit. Just given the way she handled Blanchfield

and some other fighters that I've seen her against. And that wasn't the way it went down. It was actually that she gets bloodied up right away and it took until the second round for her to start to get into that fight. I was just a little surprised, but there's a little bit of me too that's like maybe I was discounting Valentina. I do this occasionally where you just think for whatever reason that a champion is it's probably their time that we'll see them slip. I don't I think I believe this within the Grasso like through the Grasso trilogy and the Tila Santos fight before him because that was a very close fight. It just felt like she was not at her very best, but here she shows up and it's not just that she was persevering, you know, she was out, you know, there was the striking,

there was the spinning stuff she was doing, there was, you know, the thwarting of the takedowns, there was her own attempts kind of mixing it up. It was just kind of like everything. And in a weird way, they were, they were mirroring each other. Um, it became almost like a stalemate in chess, like where they're, they're kind of nullifying each other all the way through 25 minutes and one person is kind of landing some shots and I think she dropped, uh, she dropped men in at one

point, um, and the other one is kind of clinch control time and all this and you're like, okay, how are we going to score this in the end, right? Like it just came down to, uh, what will they value? And in the end, I think they got the other one is kind of clinch control time and all this and you're like, okay, how are we going to score this in the end? Right? Like it just came down to what will they value? And in the end, I think they got the right one. I don't know how you felt about it, but I was like, if it's a, if it's a straight fight, and I know that's not how they judge it, but if you're just like, they were in a fight, 25 minutes who won, you'd be like Shevchenko. And I think if you break it down into the rounds, that's kind of how it went for me too. Three to two for her.

I agree with that. Three to two. My overarching takeaway was the UFC brass breathed a sigh of relief in this one, because think about the permutations on this one. Think about what's at stake. Valentina wins. You're getting Valentina Shevchenko versus Zhang Weili, which is the absolute best women's fight that they could put on right now. That of course doesn't account for whether or not Amanda Nunes is coming back,

but even if she is coming back, Amanda Nunes versus Juliana three, or Amanda versus Kayla, I don't know if it has the kind of juice or at least like the high level MMA that Zhang Wei Li moving up to try to become a double champion against Valentina. If there was ever a time to do that

and to kind of hold back a division, if you will, or maybe even two, it's now, to try to become a double champion against Valentina. If there was ever a time to do that and to kind of hold back a division, if you will, or maybe even two, it's now. Because number one contender at 115 is probably Verna Zanjiroba. Number one contender at 125 is maybe Natalia Silva or Jasmine Jazdivici. It's like, there's no one really that the crowd

is dying to see, at least right now, right now in those two weight classes. Zhang versus Valentina is tremendous, right? I mean, like who is not signing up for that? If, if Valentina loses, now what are you faced with? Like you're faced with. No, you're right. You're right.

You know, it would have been, honestly, it would have been kind of a disaster for them. So you speak French, like is, does she have charisma that I don't understand? Or is she just kind of a, you know, speaking bromides and, you know, because I interviewed her and I felt like. Yeah, she doesn't open up. She doesn't open up. She doesn't like to do media. She has, I hate to use this word, but she does have a lot of swag.

She, she has like French hip hop swag. She's, she's, um, she's very into that scene. She's a skater. Like I could see her connecting with French people, but she doesn't really want to do the other stuff. We had her in studio. She doesn't have that sort of- I revisited that.

Yeah, I revisited that. She had the snow cap, and she's talking about snowboarding and the rapping and all that. I mean, she seems interesting, and that's why I wanted to talk to her. But anyway, it could have been, I mean, it would have been tough. I I wanted to talk to her. But anyway, It could have been I mean it would have been tough I know she would have been the first undisputed French champion and there would be some novelty to this but at the same time

At a moment in time and I saw I've seen fighters like it recently I don't know Matt Brown and some others have been talking about this just the waning of the women's ranks you know just that you're not getting that kind of just the waning of the women's ranks, you know, just that you're not getting that kind of juice that they had back in the day when Ronda was around and Amanda was around and all that sort of thing. And Cyborg was still doing the thing. This to me was that moment because it would have careened,

like you just said, into some direction that you're like, I don't know, man, I don't know how much interest there's going to be in Manon, you know, like being the title holder But I do think especially because Valentina did you were you impressed with it? Cuz I thought that she was impressive enough to it wasn't like she just kind of won a It was a long 25 minutes, but it wasn't like she won a boring Boring decision. I felt like we saw some vintage flashes of her and also just her her grit, you know her

of her and also just her grit, you know, her willingness to put herself through that still to get to this point, to the point where I'd be intrigued to see that, you know, that kind of, that title versus title fight. Like it just, to me that feels fun. Yeah. Especially because I think Zhang is the best fighter in the world pound for pound and has earned that.

And so her moving up to 125, especially after her last performance, I don't know who the favorite would be. At 125, I feel like Zhang would still be the favorite. Am I crazy? After the performance she just had against Tatiana Suarez? Which is a crazy thought. I think so, because that was just, and she's almost, to me,

I've talked about this probably to you before, but she almost has a GSP thing going on where she lost her title. She already had to understand how bad that hurt, right? And then she comes back and now she's guarded against any kind of complacency and goes the extra mile to make sure that she's going to be better than her opponent.

And I mean, the Tatiana fight to me was the one that sold me on that. I was like, okay, she's as good as she's ever going to be right now. So I do believe that she would have to be the betting favorite in that fight. I appreciate that Valentina seems to be evolving and aging in a very like smart calculated way.

Um, you, you, you almost were just describing her. Like she lost her title and maybe she's not putting herself out there, but she's like, yeah, I ain't losing this again, at least not anytime soon. And so like two very sort of workman-like, veteran, smart, high IQ performances, one against Alexa Grasso in September to regain the title. And then this one against Mano Fioro.

All week long, Chuck, we had been talking about whether we're gonna get that scene of Dana showing up at the post-fight press conference with a piece of paper to announce the international Fight Week main event. Well, the answer, the answer to that question is, do you know? No, I don't. I'm not watching it.

Yes? He's not coming to the press conference. Oh, what the? They sent Dave Shaw out there. What? Come on. What is happening? What is going on?

How do you not show up to the press? Come on, man. Like what? Not even, not even, by the way, it's, it forget about the international flight week thing, forget about that. Like to, at least to show up to crown JDM. What a performance. What a flight.

We got a new King, like shout out to below. What a heart. Oh my God. Like, Oh, come on. Not to mention everybody understood the sort of subtext or subplot of this whole thing. Come on, you got to address the media after something like this. Five minutes, 10 minutes. You know what I mean? Shadi.

All good, all good. You know, like Dave Shaw is a great guy, but like he's just, he's not going to say anything. He works for the he works for the guy. Um, he will never say anything. And so that, uh, that is a huge, huge bummer. And I would imagine that the media in attendance are, uh, feeling a little bummed about that as well. Can we talk about Amon Zahabi versus Jose Aldo? I thought Jose Aldo won that fight. I thought he won 28, 27.

I think off the top, well, I, I, he definitely didn't win the third round, but I. Right. You had him win the first two then, okay. Yeah, I had him winning the first two, yes, yes, sorry. It's like, I was very surprised. What about you? I was too. When they said, because it was unanimous, right?

So when they were reading off this at 28, 27, I felt certain that it was Aldo. You know, I was like, Yes, me too. So I was like, you know,, I was like, because, so I was like, you know, because I was like at the first two, the second round, I mean, there was a little bit of a Zahabi was starting, it was similar to the main event, like Zahabi was starting to come on, but he definitely, I didn't feel like was distinguishing himself yet, you know what I mean? So it's like, it really, nothing

had happened, so I felt like he had won the first two rounds and the third one obviously started off, um, a disaster for him. And then he turned it around and then it became like crazy, a crazy fight at the end there. But yeah, I was a little surprised by that. And it's unfortunate, man, because this, we're talking about all the weird stakes on this. I didn't, I did a piece on Jose Aldo before this whole thing. And I never, it never occurred to me that this might be his last fight. It really didn't. I just, because he's going through these processes of, uh, still fighting at

bantamweight, he's been doing it for six years, inexplicably in a lot of ways. Like he's still fighting middling, um, you know, guys within that division. And there was just no real sign that he would do this. And, um, if he retires, this would be like a very, that's a very strange development out of this whole thing, isn't it? Like, and, and if he retires, I'd be like, it's, it becomes even more glaring to me, like, Hey, you probably won. I would have to actually watch again, but I'm like, you would

probably, I'd be like, you probably won that fight though. You know, I feel like you did win that fight. So, so he takes off the gloves. He starts speaking in Portuguese. Um, you've got, you've got, you know, um, Fabiano translating. And so you're kind of waiting for. You get nervous watching Fabiano when it's that long. I was sometimes I hear you see him shaking his head.

I'm like, you're not going to remember all that shit. I'm stressed for him. I'm stressed for him. And then he's going, he's going from Portuguese to Spanish, even at Derek this week, who also does the Portuguese doing French. I mean, I get all that shit, man. I'm stressed for him. I'm stressed for him. And then he's going from Portuguese to Spanish. Even at Derek this week, who also does the Portuguese doing French. I mean, I get stressed for all these guys. I don't know how they remember, especially in the moment.

And you wanna capture the essence of what they're saying, the emotion. It's an incredible skill. And there's always somebody fact checking you, you know? Like there's somebody out there like, oh, you got that really wrong there. And they're like watching it, pausing it, rewinding it instead of doing it,

like you're doing it in the moment in front of 18,000 people. But the quote that I wrote down was, I just don't have it in my heart anymore. I think this is the last time you'll see me. Again, that's via translation, but he did take off the gloves and he did seem bummed. And he did miss weight by, well, it was supposed to be a 35, 36 fight

and he ends up coming in at 143 after. So, Hobby's team got the call at 8 a.m., so an hour before the weigh-ins, and they were just told that he wasn't gonna make the weight and here's the deal. Now, they couldn't take a percentage of his purse because there had to have been a five pound difference due to the Quebec commission. So, they had to cut a deal and give him more money.

And in the end he took the fight. And so, you know, I have, I kind of feel like he just wants to go back to doing the fun boxing fights and, and there needs to be some sort of discussion as to like how the last chapter in his UFC career was handled. These three fights were just bizarre. The scoring in the UFC career was handled. These three fights were just bizarre. The scoring in the last fight was weird. The scoring in this fight was weird. There were no stakes attached to any of these fights.

He wasn't, it's one thing to fight like up and comers, you know, guys who you can clearly tell that they've got a lot of stock in, that he wasn't even fighting those guys. He wasn't fighting guys that they were pushing. He was just fighting tough, somewhat unheralded guys. Very, very weird. So I feel like he's done with MMA, but not done with fighting.

That's my sense. But in the end, I thought he won that fight, to be honest. Yeah. And same here. And I feel for him. Loves a hobby, love that he represents Montreal. He was the best story on this card as far as Montreal's concerned, he was the people's main event by far, his brother being there.

He was always in the shadows of Faraz. He was always in the shadows of team tri star of GSP. He was just like the guy kind of around helping Kenny Florian, helping everyone out and now to see him get this moment in Montreal is an incredible thing. Cause I never thought he would actually come out of those shadows. And yes, he looks like me. And yes, I get a ton of tweets and texts every time he fights and it's a lot of fun.

Although I kind of feel weird about it. Cause I feel like I'm like taking, like people want, like even when we post things, it's like, this is his moment. I have nothing to do with it. Stop trying to make it seem like I'm fighting. But anyway, he's cool about it as well. So that's why I lean into it.

But I just, I thought, I thought upon watching it live, I thought Aldo won that fight two to one, third round though, by the way. Holy shit. It was, it was very poetic. If it ends up being it, you know, it was like, so he, it was almost like he was holding on to this ounce of Aldo magic and he emptied the full reserves in that moment

because he sprints forward, he's doing all this stuff. It looks for a minute like you might actually get the finish. It was like, oh my God, this is like, this is gonna be crazy like out of nowhere. And then it's just gone, you know, it was just gone. Those last three minutes are almost terrifying because if you think about those situations, I've heard fighters talk about this before

with like, I had nothing left and you have to survive, especially when you're on your back and they're saying drop elbows and they're just dropping elbows on you and busting you open, you're just huffing air and it's like existential, right? Like it's just one of those things you're like, man, it's gotta be one of the worst situations that three minutes had to seem like three weeks, you know?

So that, but that, but that round was, there was something really crazy about it. Cause it was like, he, he found it in himself to just have this, this last burst to kind of show this vintage Aldo moment, you know, where he came forward and left it all in there at that moment. It was just, it was a crazy thing, man. Um, and it's again, I thought that's why I was like, you'd like to see him get us if he was going to call it quits after this, like I wish he could have just gotten his hand raised there. Yeah. And honestly, I thought he did enough. It wasn't just like a charitable thing.

Actually reminded me a little bit of Jose Aldo versus Mark Hominick, who was in attendance, um, from UFC one9, the way that fight went. Side note, loved seeing some of the old Canadian legends in attendance, Mark Hominick, Sam Stout. Can I tell you the warmth that I felt in my heart seeing Rory McDonald reemerge? Like he just sort of disappeared. That was cool.

I didn't think we'd see him again. I never thought we'd see him. And certainly not at like a UFC sanctioned function to be fedded like that, to be celebrated, seeing him. Like he's one of those guys who just fought and left and you kind of felt wanted nothing to do with any of this, was done with all of it, had found religion and all that stuff, seemed to be very happy,

seemed to be at peace, family man, all that stuff. And so just, and there were some hard feelings when he left the UFC and all that, just to see him come back. That was cool. And be so, it made me so happy, really made me see. He was one of those guys who, you know, it was almost like, you know, he,

cause he started so early, right? I had British Columbia and like, he came up, one of the first guys actually train all the disciplines and was very well rounded. But it was almost like by the time he was very well-rounded. But it was almost like by the time he was, you know, those last couple of fights, it felt like he'd got it out of his system. So when he said that he was leaving and he didn't really want anything to do with it anymore, I fully believed him. I

honestly didn't know if we'd ever hear from him again. I thought he'd be my next Jason Thacker. Yeah. Like, you know, like where I'm like trying to search him. That's what I mean, like I'm like trying to search him. I know, that's what I mean. Like where you're trying to like, where, whatever happened to him? Where did he go? Like 10 years from now.

But yeah, that was, it was just cool. Cause he seemed also like, he did like a Q and A or something, right? I saw some people posting. Oh, it was great. He looked like he was a great hit. David Loazo, GSP, Valerie Latourneau. Like it was really cool to see those,

you know, Canadian legends, pioneers, whatever you want to call them, get this moment, and then attend the event as well. So shout out to him. By the way, going back to the Shevchenko, Zhang Weili thing, she just posted this Zhang Weili, which seems to suggest that she is into this. There she is standing in front of a very large television,

giving the old thumbs up to Valentina. God, I would love to see that fight. It's the absolute best women's fight that they could put on right now. There's no doubt about it. By the way. Well, Shevchenko's not, she's not gonna last. Like she's just, somebody's gonna beat her soon.

So it's like, you're gonna do it now or you're not doing it. I mean, she almost lost tonight. Yeah, exactly. A couple of breaks here and there. At 30, this is from Erin Bronstetter. At 37 years of age, Valentina Shevchenko is now the oldest fighter at any men or women's weight class of welterweight and below to successfully defend their title,

which is a crazy stat. Also, that was her 10th victory in a title fight. That's one behind Amanda Nunes, Anne Anderson Silva, two behind DJ, three behind George St. Pierre, and six behind John Jones. But that would make her the, you know, almost one of the most decorated champions in UFC history and one away from tying the most decorated female champion

in UFC history and she now has 14 UFC victories in her career, which I believe is good for third. Jessica Andrade has 17, Nunez 16, she has now 14. Yes, 14, that is accurate for my good friend Jedi Goodman. So a pretty amazing feat there and a pretty amazing night for Valentina Shevchenko. If in fact they don't go that route for whatever reason, Valentina versus Zhang Weili, I guess it's Natalia Silva. Do you think it's Natalia Silva or Jasmine Jazdavish? She's probably beating Alexa Gross.

I don't know actually. Beating Alexa Gross or beating Jessica Andrade. I feel like they're neck and neck. Maybe the move is Chuck, Zhang fights Valentina and then Natalia Silva fights Jasmine for a number one contender fight at 125. Now, does Blanchfield and Barber factor into this? Geez, yeah, yeah, that's coming up.

Well, that's like the, that's the only, Yeah. That's the only factor. And I mean, they're all kind of like, they all kind of have cases, but then I guess it depends on. Blanchfield lost. True.

Silva's undefeated, Silva's had a crazy run here. Well Blanchfield rebounded and beat Rose. Yeah, no, but I know, but she has a loss in there. Silva's undefeated. Oh yeah, yeah. Does have the win over Andrade before this win. So probably she's a little bit ahead of Jasper. I mean, if Macy went through Blanchfield though, they may, because it always feels like she's getting a little bit

of favor, Currie, but I don't think you go wrong with Silva. She's exciting and like, look at that, look at her volume, man. She goes in there to fight. I feel like the UFC should be thrilled to have her ascend to that level. A lot of times that type of fighter can't get there because they'll just get pieced up, but she's very good. Like she's very elusive too to be as

voluminous and to stand in the pocket as much as she does and kind of get in and out of there. She's exciting and then she's put together this win streak, right? So I feel like she should probably get, if I'm doing it, I'd probably, I'd go with her next. If we're going to have, yeah, Shevchenko next. Jasmine's right up there. That's a huge win over Andrade, especially to win via rear naked choke.

I know Andrade maybe isn't who she once was, but she has really come into her own as well. So by the way, overall, not the worst night for the Canadian crew going four and two. Obviously the Zahabi won somewhat disputed, but Jasmine with the win, her teammate at Niagara top team, Mike Malott with the win as well. Marc-André Barrio. That was a scary knockout. Did you see those clips afterwards of the head indenting the top of the skull of Bruno Silva? I did not see that. Um, but I mean, the way he face plants, even from the first part of it, right?

Right. He just face plants in a way that you're like, I hope he's okay. This before he'd been down there for minutes. Um, you're just like, I hope he's okay. Anytime, buddy, somebody does that. You're just like, Ooh, cause it's you. And you worry about their neck and all the, all that sort of thing and the extra punches. But who was the guy that MVP, was it Evangelista Santos?

Yeah. So was it something similar to that? Because that was one of the most, you think you build up your immunities to like this sort of thing, but that's something that you, that's like, oh, that's just horrific man yeah scary stuff and then he was he was carted out on a on a stretcher just awful

stuff but vicious vicious and impressive stuff they did come back on and say that I mean they kind of did an update right about his status I don't know if that was all accurate but I know right they came on there and said he was, yeah, the x-rays checked out or something. And so, I mean, maybe it's just like some people have like those heads that kind of, when you, you know, like, what was that guy? Carlos Boozer. He had like those lines in his head. Oh yeah. Carlos Boozer. Yes. I know exactly what you're talking about. They had rolls, like rolls that somebody was like. It was like the cartoon that they're pushing the skin down. Yes, exactly. So maybe just one of those things.

I don't know, Chuck, who the hell knows? By the way, another thing of note that happened on this evening was Vitor Belfort announced as one of the 2025 Hall of Fame inductees, I asked his agent, Lloyd Pearson, if he had any idea, he had no idea this was coming, he was just there as a guest fighter and you saw the emotion. It did bring up somewhat of a debate, you know, in baseball, they're, they're so you're in this, in this, which one, the long overdue tweet.

Well, you just said, uh, Hey, he's being inducted. They're just basically stating the fact. And I saw the, the trail of comments. Yes, what do you think? What do you think should, well obviously, like it's apples and oranges, right? In baseball, it's being voted on by the writers and there's a whole committee here.

It's just a couple dudes in an office who say, yeah, let's bring him in. To be honest, a little bit surprised that he hasn't been inducted yet, considering he's been fighting for almost you know, almost 30 years. But do you think someone who has any type of infraction on his resume should be excluded from the UFC Hall of Fame? If we're the ones doing it, right?

If we're the ones voting him in, yes, this should be a red flag. Because it's not just that he did it, but he was sort of the poster boy, you know, he was the guy that, uh, all debates swirled around because I don't, was it whatever year that was 2016 that they were just kind of dropping guys into Brazil and he was savaging them, including Michael Bisping, who I think that's where his eye got affected and all that stuff. I mean, I think you really have to look at that because even in the,

you can point out in the fight game, although a lot of people have been doing, look at pride, all this stuff, but at the same time, nobody really was a kind of public figure, like an advocate, I guess, of TRT and like the exemptions and all that stuff. Cause we used to have MMA beat and we talk about this all the time

about all these different things, but I feel like he's the poster boy for it. So to put him in, it's like he's carrying a red flag with him to the Hall of Fame, right? It would be, that's the asterisk he's always gonna have. Yeah, but there's other guys with Anderson Silva. Oh, for sure, for sure. There's other dudes.

Yeah, but I mean just in terms of physical transformations and his ability and everything, it was like just the way his career played out. Like the moment when he was at his very best, when he was able to do TRT, to like when he starts losing and he's a different, like he just looks different, you know? 100%, no, no, no, no, 100%.

It was very visible, it was very visible. I'm just saying like, why draw the line at Vitor? You know, if other guys have gotten in clearly, you know, that's the policy. They don't, they don't care. And to be honest, like I've always viewed the UFC hall of fame as sort of like the, the, the wall of fame, the, the ring of fame, whatever you call it for a sports team.

And he was a huge part of their history. So why the hell not? No, on those terms for sure. Like if you're good, I mean, nothing's controversial. sports team and he was a huge part of their history, so why the hell not? No, on those terms for sure. Like, if you're good, I mean, nothing's controversial that way, the only thing that's ever controversial that way is the guys that they don't bring in, right? Like Shamrock or something, like you're like,

why not, you know, but. By the way, I wanna give a shout out to Tim Simpson. What a day for him of the Chosen Advisory Group. Over in Belfast, his guy Paul Hughes, picking up the massive win in 42 seconds. Homecoming and emotional scene. PT did a tremendous job of chronicling it all. Even spoke to PT, excuse me, to Paul in the aftermath.

You can see that interview on his Instagram. So that was his guy. Did you watch it? Jack Della was his guy as well and he won. Did I watch it? I did watch it. Okay. It's insanity that in the year 2025, any live sports is not available.

Like it just blows my mind, especially an American based company. I understand. What was told to me was in America, ESPN has the exclusive rights to the PFL. So it doesn't matter if it's PFL Europe, PFL Africa, PFL Middle East, whatever, any of these other events, if ESPN doesn't want them,

they can't air them anywhere else, including for free on YouTube. That's just a tough deal. It's a tough deal because you're having some of your best events, if not your best events overseas in places like Ireland, Northern Ireland, England, Paris, France, et cetera, and people here can't see them. Now, I'm not crazy.

I know a million people are probably not gonna watch it, but that was a great scene. That was one of their best scenes ever. And he's one of their biggest stars. You have to figure out a way to televise that in some way, shape, or form, stream it here in North America. And so afterwards, Don Davis did tweet that he has, he has listened to us and he is going to deliver

three years later and starting June 1st, there's gonna be an announcement, who the hell knows? So he saves the day. But, um, Well, I look forward to watching it whenever I can. I look forward to watching the entire, the fight in its entirety. Oh yeah.

Whenever I can. Well, it's just 42 seconds. You can find it on Twitter. I know. Um, but, uh, no, actually someone, I was able to get a link and watch it and, uh, it's all very stupid. It's, it's crazy. Cause it was a great scene and it was a great win.

And hopefully he does get that fight against Uspender, Maga, Madov. So PT will have more on that throughout the week. We'll talk to him about that. He'll be back on the crack and loved seeing him do the interviews behind the scenes. It was great crack. It was great crack.

It was. Yeah. Um, so in the end, Chuck, we do not get the answer that we have been looking for. We still do not know. Twist in the wind here. Uh, main event UFC 317. But what we do know is that Jack Della Maddalena amazingly is the brand new UFC welterweight champion.

I say that because I don't think anyone could have predicted this three months ago that he would even be fighting for a UFC title, let alone becoming the UFC champion. So it's a wild twist and turn. I do believe Balal's, there's some sort of irony attached to the fact that perhaps his most exciting fight is the fight in which he loses the title. But I do think his street cred and his,

I don't know, his stock goes up, you know, in some weird way, shape or form. And I want to give a shout out to Andrew Feldman on Twitter. He just posted this photo of how Bilal looked in the aftermath. Take a look at his upper lip, reminiscent of Robbie Lawler and Alistair Overeem from back in the day.

Like that is not fun. Like if you eat spicy food, that's going to hurt for the next few days like that, that is not fun. Like if you eat spicy food, that's going to hurt for the next few days. Oh, so. I can feel it. Much respect. Don't like think about that.

Not to mention the cut under the, uh, the left eye over there. So, uh. Is the UFC happy about this? Like if they're, if they had a druthers in this, I mean, obviously this, it wasn't as simple as who would you rather have as a champion, Bilal or JDM, right?

It's like, it's the full package of what that means for the guys who are fighting, you know, um, against them. So do you think that UFC is okay with this or do you think they wanted Bilal to actually win this thing? So if there wasn't the Ilya Islam stakes attached to it, I would say unequivocally happy. Um, uh, remember UFC 300, they, they, they offered the, the welterweight

title fight to three different people, including a non welterweight in hopes of not giving it to him. Like they could say whatever they want. He could say whatever they want. They did not want to give him a title fight and they weren't over the moon that, that he beat Leon Edwards. Because this maybe changes some potential plans, maybe not thrilled, but I'm not putting it, listen, I'm not putting it past the UFC that, you know, they don't some way somehow figure out doing Ilya versus Islam. I know the general consensus seems to be that it is now going to be Ilya versus Charles,

but we did see the photo of Hunter Campbell in Dagestan. I'm not putting it past them just yet. I'm not putting it past them that even Islam himself is throwing us a curve ball. Maybe the deal is, hey, fight this last fight and then win, lose, or draw, you get to move up to 170. I'm not gonna put it past them just yet. So I'm not gonna write that.

But overall, to answer the question, I would say yes, because I don't think they were enamored with the idea of him being champion. Okay, that's my feeling too. And I will latch myself onto your optimism on this because I'm with you, man. You laid it out.

It's Tom and Jones. It's Aspen and Jones is number one, but Ilya and Islam is definitely right there as number two, the two fights. And I just feel like we don't, so many times we get these, these moments where you can get a big fight like this and we don't. And I'm like, you know,

you'd like to see one of them come through. Yeah. And the fight is in a month and a half. It's literally in a month and a half. And then he can go on and fight Jack. Jack's not coming back anytime soon. So it's not like the timing is off. The timing actually helps. Let's see if they actually go in that direction.

So the possibility of Zhang Weili versus Valentina is very much a thing. And I'm holding out hope that this one is a thing. If not, we'll get JDM versus Islam and Ilya versus Charles, which isn't a bad plan B. But I think we all know what they want as their, you know, their main event for International Fight Week. So, all right, it was a great night.

Shout out to Montreal. In the end, they ended up filling up that building, six million or so dollar gates, so not quite Miami or Las Vegas, but definitely a lot better than the last time they were in Montreal. Who knows when they'll come back, but I enjoyed seeing my hometown in focus and get the spotlight. And then up next for the UFC is Newark, New Jersey, the Prudential Center, the Rock with two

title fights on the line. Chuck, nice doing this solo. Yeah man, did you have any FOMO? Did you have any FOMO? It's not quite three-part. Did you have some FOMO not being there? Would they have treated you like the WWE? Wasn't it WWE when you were in the building and they made a big deal? Would they have shown me on camera?

Yeah, they showed you on camera and all that stuff. What are you, Chuck, instigating at 2.30 in the morning? To answer the question, I did have some FOMO because I've never missed a Montreal UFC. I wasn't in the building for UFC 83, which was the first one, but I was in Montreal. It was actually like my first sort of fight week. It was the first night of Passover,

so I decided not to go, but I was there. I felt it, it was exciting, all that stuff and more. And then I went to every single other one afterwards. So it was a little bit weird, but you know, like, you know, my kid had a soccer game today, I got to watch the Knicks get their ass whooped by the Celtics, it wasn't a bad day.

Yeah, and I mean- It's Mother's Day tomorrow. Yeah, I know. No, I'm with you 100%, those things matter more. But I mean, it's mother's day tomorrow. Yeah, I know. No, it's, I'm with you a hundred percent. Those things are, those things matter more. But I was going to say, it's a long show, Chuck. It's a long show. Huh? This, this, this card started while my son was playing at six 30 in the morning.

And here we are at two, excuse me, six 30 PM and, and, and, and some eight hours later, we're still talking about it. Well, you talk, you mentioned the Katona fight. I'm like, didn't that happen like three weeks ago? What do you mean it happened earlier today? It's so freaking long. It's unbelievable. Oh my gosh.

We're getting old Chuck, but it's always fun to do these with you in the, uh, the wee hours of the morning. And I will look forward to the next one coming up in a little less than a month for UFC three 16. Um, any other hard-hitting questions you want to ask me before we go? No, no, no. But I would- What about the final thought?

The final thought was going to be that. I was going to say that in Montreal, I was thinking about last time we were there, in Montreal, it was like 10 years ago, it was a very cold April, and we were on some kind of stairwell doing the pre-show. And I got a little nostalgic, man, because they were showing and I was like,

man, those were kind of the good old days. You had like bisming in Dalloway and, uh, Horiguchi and all that stuff. I mean, it was, it wasn't quite the show. And I've always felt bad that the show was not as, you know, it wasn't the Montreal shows we were used to, because I always thought that those shows are so magical. And then you get that one

and they hadn't been back in 10 years. It made me think about that whole thing. And I was like, oh man, I kind of missed those old days. You know? Oh yeah. The GSP cost check, GSP condom, GSP Diaz, like that was a fun stretch. All of those, man.

That was incredible stuff. 154, 158. Hey, by the way. Yeah, hey, look at you. You're not bad with the numbers. One more tweet from Islam. Okay. 11th hour, here it is. You are not valk, I will show you different level.

Keep my belt clean. Hmm. All right. All right. We're selling it. Maybe you think maybe my optimism and seeing that fight in 47 days is not. I guess Islam controls all destinies. All right.

We'll just go with that for now. Now, does he actually keep the belt? I guess that's the big mystery. So many freaking questions. Chuck, we just get some answers. Golly. Some bullshit that Dana just skips out. Yeah. Can't do that, man. No, you cannot. Poor Dave Shaw. All right. We're done. Thank you very much. Hey, thank you to everyone who stayed up with us. Thumbs up to you. Thank you to the boys in

the back. Great job on the watch party. Thank you to the crew staying up wee hours of the morning I don't even know if they're awake Frank. Are you awake? Is anyone up? No, yeah Perfect and of course we shall be back on Monday to talk about this and to talk to some interesting people give us a thumbs up Give us the old subscribe if you're listening to this give us the old subscribe. If you're listening to this, give us the old follow. And we appreciate your support so very much. For the man in the hat, for Pizzi, for myself, for the boys in the back, for the entire crew.

Thank you so much for watching and or listening. We appreciate you all very much. Good night. Happy Mother's Day. We'll talk to you on Monday.