The Ariel Helwani Show - UFC 316 Post-Fight Show: Merab Dvalishvili submits Sean O’Malley, Kayla Harrison dominates Julianna Peña

Episode Date: June 8, 2025

Ariel Helwani, Chuck Mindenhall, and Petesy Carroll are back to recap UFC 316, starting with Merab Dvalishvili's incredible submission of Sean O'Malley in the night's main event (05:45).Next, they discuss Kayla Harrison's dominant showing against Julianna Peña and her inevitable meeting with former training partner Amanda Nunes (25:06), before weighing in on Patchy Mix's bizarre performance against Mario Bautista (40:33).Then, they touch on Joe Pyfer's win over Kelvin Gastelum (50:30), Kevin Holland taking out Vicente Luque (55:14) and the rest of the prelims (58:33).Finally, they react to comments from the post-fight press conference (1:00:20), harrowing news about Ben Askren's health (1:04:44), and Chuck gives his final thoughts (1:08:03).

Back in your life! On this Sunday, June 8th, 2025. Hello again everyone. I sure hope you're doing well. Welcome to our UFC 316 post show. Shout out to the boys. Tremendous watch party. A tremendous night in Brick City.

Once again, the UFC back in New Jersey. It has become a staple around this time of the year. June, May, another sellout for them. And you know, it occurred to me, while watching the main event walkouts, I didn't think of this all week. I didn't think of this in the buildup, that this was the same building, the same city, same location where Mirab stole Shugah's jacket,

like two years ago. Yeah. May of, of 23, two years later, they meet second time in the cage this time, it's not Murab challenging Suga for his belt, it's Murab defending his title. And he did just that this time, a little different than the performance back in September. This time he successfully submits Suga Shanomali. Just the second submission of his illustrious career, his 13th straight UFC victory. He wins via North-South choke in the third round with just a few seconds remaining. I was just about to tweet I had it 30 to 27 for Murab up until that point,

but then he scores the submission and it was a dominant performance. But really like you hear 30 to 27, you hear the choke, you hear Murab wins. It doesn't really tell the story of the fight because Shugga's takedown defense improved dramatically. He stuffed at least more than six. The final stats are still being tallied, but he was a much more well-rounded fighter than the one that we saw back in September at the Sphere. But in the end, once again, Marab's pace, just unbelievable, his grappling. He fought for all those takedowns and, and if he didn't succeed once, twice,

three times, he got it on the fourth time, some slams, some ground impound. And eventually the choke as well. His first submission, like I said, in his UFC career, just a second in his entire career, his 13 straight win. And you know, what was nice about it afterwards, we got a clear cut contender, no lobbying, no, no, uh, no jockeying for position. They were just, what was nice about it afterwards, we got a clear cut contender, no lobbying, no, no, uh, no jockeying for position. They said Corey is likely next.

Corey Sanhagen sitting in the crowd, looking like he's about to go on a hiking trip in Portland or something, got the nice flannel on, got the nice cap on. Corey Sanhagen versus Merab is a fresh new matchup. And so we look forward to that. Co-main event. We have a new champion in the women's bantamweight division. It is Kayla Harrison. And she now has, I think, a very strong case for being one of the most dominant

and successful and illustrious athletes as far as mixed martial artists are concerned of the past two decades. And I know off the bat that may seem like hyperbolic. I know it may seem a little uh you know a little prisoner of the moment-y but consider the fact she is the only two-time gold medalist to win a UFC championship. She is just the second Olympic gold medalist to win a UFC championship. The first being Henry Cejudo, two-time PFL champion as well at 55. Now at 135 she defeats Juliana Pena via Kimura in the second round after Juliana had a point

deducted in the first she lost that round 10-8 and then Kayla doing what she does best with the takedowns and then the submissions. Kamura win for Juliana then afterwards again we know what's next Amanda comes in oh the aftermath was amazing the face-off the promo Kayla was I mean that was an A-plus performance out of Kayla Harrison. There it is right there. And just when women's MMA, and in particular this division needed it most, there's the go to Amanda Newton is returning with a fight

that has an unbelievable backstory, no love lost between them, former teammates, now foes, Kayla, Amanda, Amanda comes out of retirement, face to face, ah, it's amazing stuff. A great night, a great main and co-main if you asked me, but you're not just here to hear me talk about it all. Let's bring in the other members of Three

Pack. First, we go to the mayor of Nutmeg State, the man in the hat, the pride of CT, Mr. Chuck Menendal is here. Chuck, how are you? I am well, man. That ended up being a pretty good card, right? It did.

That was pretty good in the end. It did. Yeah. I mean, look, uh, the main card, I think, uh, had high expectations and I think it delivered. And you know, it's the best sign that it delivered. Pizzi is still awake at 6 13 AM in Etta. There he is. The patron saint of the Emerald Isle, the host of

the critically acclaimed podcast, The Crack. Hello Pizzi, what's the crack? How are you? Um, very good intro, I must say. Uh, don't really do them like that in my show personally, but I like what you're doing. No, no. Congratulations on that. Thank you. And, uh, I must say. Don't really do them like that on my show personally, but I like what you're doing. No, no. Congratulations on that.

Thank you. Also like the transition from the lads show into this show, Seamless. I mean, what a wonderful team we have here. Unbelievable. Yes, unbelievable stuff, Andy. Yes. Thank you, Frank. These all deserve the flowers. Frank as well. Congratulations, Frank. I mean, so many people thanked Jordan. I mean, we could go on and on, but, um, yes, I mean, I was very pessimistic this week.

I think particularly around the press conference on Thursday, I was going, oh no, I know I text you a few skies fall and text messages, Alwani. Um, I know I spoke to you about it on Friday. Uh, Chuck, I was like, where's your tickets? Where's there so many tickets available? What's going on? But when it all came down to it, that magic place, Newark, New Jersey, one of my favorite places I've ever been, of course, you know, I'm a big fan of Harrison,

where I stayed last time. Wonderful, wonderful people of New Jersey delivered once again and they're fantastic, no, your fights, I thought all in all that's. Okay. So let's, let's give Merab his flowers and perhaps to a degree shot wonderful people of New Jersey delivered once again. And they're fantastic. No, you're fine. So I thought all in all that's okay. So let's, let's give Merab his flowers and perhaps to a degree, Sean O'Malley, his flowers as well as Sean, by the way, kudos to him sticking around after Merab's great post fight interview, just to essentially say thank

you to the crowd for coming out and how grateful he is. He's now a father of two. I thought it was really classy stuff from sugar. Sean O'Malley was a different Sean O'Malley, right? Chuck didn't have the dyed hair changed his walkout music to I'm proud to be an father of two, I thought it was really classy stuff from sugar, Sean O'Malley was a different Sean O'Malley, right Chuck? Uh, didn't have the dyed hair changed his walkout music to I'm proud to be an American. Didn't quite hit the same as loopy

fiasco, if you ask me. Um, and, and the, the takedown defense was there in the end, by the way, according to UFC stats, uh, Murab was five of 12, which speaks to just how, you know, how improved Sean was, but Murab again, dominant, relentless, just never, he is truly the machine, maybe the most apropos nickname in all of combat sports. And then he gets to sub your thoughts on what you just witnessed from the proud Georgian.

And it's kind of how you want to look at it too, because you say five of 12 and you point out like, well, that's fairly successful, um, shut down more than 50% of those attempts, but 12 attempts over the course of just less than three rounds is a lot, man. And I think that that's what, that's what, that's what gets you. I, you almost feel like Sean O'Malley fought the fight, the best fight he was going to be able to present a guy like Murab, right? Like he went in there. I, you could tell that he had been working this whole time on his defense

There was a couple times where he was able to keep it standing where you're like, how did he just pull that off? There's one once or twice where he got up where he was able to kind of get up, but he was still in a bad position But man it just tells you that that guy is so hard to prepare for and it was To me it was just how quick Marab got in there. Like, you know, he would kind of lunge in with like a one, two, and then he would be on him like Velcro. And then from that point on, you know, it becomes Marab's world. What's he going to do?

I just don't know how you prepare for that, especially, and this is, in the end, I think we can look back on this. O'Malley may go on to have like 10 wins from this point, you know, in a row, but you may look back at this one and be like, man, he just didn't, he couldn't compete with Marab. That's a guy who had his number just stylistically. It was a nightmare.

Um, but you could tell that he focused on the exact things he needed to do. And it wasn't nearly enough. And I don't know. I don't, I guess at that point when you're talking about giving Maraba's flowers, it's more about like just continuing to give him our disbelief and our awe, because I think most guys at the end of that third round, most fighters, even extremely well-conditioned athletes would have been exhausted with that

effort that he had put in there tonight and he acted like it was no he climbed over the fence shaking everybody's hands posing for pictures you felt like he could do that all night so I feel like we're looking at it just a completely different kind of athlete and a different kind of champion at this point yeah by the way Pete C I just want to add you know there's all this talk about him being could he be the goat? Will he be the goat? Is he the goat? No one has successfully defended the Bantamweight title three straight times.

Uh, you know, he, he, he won the belt back in September. This is now his second straight title defense. So he is creeping into the dominant Cruz TJ Dillashaw category and the knock on him, yeah, dominant, yeah, relentless, Gaz tag cardio for days, but maybe doesn't get enough finishes. Isn't exciting. Well, you could throw that out the window. He just submitted sugar shot O'Malley. Absolutely.

And look, here's the thing about it. We're talking about these, the, the, the takedown defensive O'Malley and how he managed to block them. I, I don't think that. Maraba surprised by that at all. I think that's part of his plan. I don't think he cares whether you stuff these takedowns or you, you allow him to get on top of you.

He knows that he's making your work. I don't think he's particularly worried about the score line in terms of how many times he gets back to he gets back to his feet and how many times he can stave you off because he knows he's going to keep coming at him. He's just pure exhaustion is his tactics and his relentless is one of the best weapons we've seen in modern day MMA. And I thought it was interesting that, and I understand this as well. I'm not trying to show on O'Malley at all here because I understand that these are relevant points that he did block more takedowns. And when he went back to his corner after the first round, Tim Welsh, that's great.

My only my query at that point is how is that great? Because this guy only gets better as the fight goes on where everyone else doesn't get better. You are not going to be Morab in the later rounds of a fight. If you aren't winning the first round of a fight, that is a very, very bad sign for you in a fight against Morab. And yeah, I just think we watched O'Malley do the very best he could. And he wilted eventually. And luckily, O'Malley do the very best he could and he wilted eventually. And luckily O'Malley we saw this week very, very different.

You talked about the music. Everything seems stripped back from him. And I think Chuck made a great point on the crack when we're all musing about why this O'Malley, this version of O'Malley has shown up without the hair dye, without the showmanship that we've seen, usually without the braggadocio that we've seen. I think it was because, and Chuck made this point, that he knew what he had to go through. And it's a hellish, hellish pursuit trying to beat Murab, the world actually. And we saw tonight why he's so brilliant and why he's one of the best fighters in the world at the moment.

Yeah. And you know, in an era where maybe the UFC is having trouble getting some fighters to be as active as they would like them to be, here's Murab, sort of cut from the same cloth. The, uh, you know, the, the Anzac boys, right? Who just wants to fight every three, four months. Uh, they should embrace that. Now part of the problem with that is that he is running through all the contenders. There aren't that many fresh opponents left for him. Uh, Corey is one of the last ones and that's the fight

that I think we all want to see. Jan would be next. He has a very dominant one sided win over Piotr Jan, but if Jan wins's the fight that I think we all want to see. Jan would be next. He has a very dominant one sided win over Pjotr Jan, but if Jan wins his next fight, he'll probably be next as well. They can worry about that later, but Murab is such a fun guy.

He's, he's the kind of guy that you want to get behind. He's I think very promotable. He does his own promoting. You know, he comes from a region now that has, has become very successful as far as producing MMA fighters is concerned. Look at Ilya and the other guys that are following

behind them, including Ilya's brother. Like there's a lot to like here with Murab. Plus he's got the ties to the Northeast. He's got the ties to New York and the tri-state area, the UFC should really get behind Murab. And I know there was a time by the way, Chuck, where they were not behind him. I know there was a time where they were saying

like, you lose your next one, you're out. I think it's time to throw that out the windows as well. Yeah, it does seem like he was off on the wrong foot, um, through a process, but you've talked to him many times and I mean, we've been seeing this from him for a while. And I just, I feel like he's just one of those guys that felt inevitable coming up.

And it seems like he has handled one of those guys that felt inevitable coming up and it seems like he has handled like some guys just don't handle the spotlight as well as a as Marab like Marab it's almost like he knew he was going to be there he knew he needed to show his personality and he's done that but I think in the end there is something about watching guys I use think back, I know you love George St. Pierre, and you think about guys like that and what they did. Some of the theater that came out of for me in the GSP era was that you could see him breaking a guy down.

You could see him breaking somebody's will through the course of a fight. I feel like that's the business Marab is in. He's in the business of like, you know, in a live event, breaking a guy's will for everybody to see, you know what I mean? And I don't know if he broke O'Malley this time, but obviously he won that fight. And you can see when it just starts to like,

in that early, when he got that big takedown, took it to the center of the cage, you could just see the life go out of O'Malley at that point. Like, oh my God, how am I going to get out of this? And he wasn't able to in the end. And then that first fight, you know, I think there was a between was at four and five, the rounds where they're just like, we're almost done. We're almost through.

I mean, it's just the demeanor that the corners, the fighters that he's going against, just the way he turns these competitors, man, these guys who have been apex hunters themselves for so long into guys who are just hanging on or trying to figure out how to survive. And, uh, to me, that's impressive, man. I mean, as a guy who's watched this sport, you know, 17 years, 18 years, been covering it that long, that's very impressive to me. By the way, I want to give a shout out. I just want to give a shout out to

scatty storm born on the super chat because I was doing that title defense thing in real time and, and, and I knew my math suck. Shout out to Aljo. Aljo has the record three title defenses. Uh, the second neon fight was a, was a unification bout interim, all that stuff. And then TJ, so who does, so the next one

would tie Aljo for the record. There's more.'s more of a deal with breaking his buddy's record. Oh no. Yeah. He'll probably move up. He's such a nice guy. He'll probably move up to one 45 before he does that. Uh, but didn't want to interrupt you, Pizzi, but I did want to clarify that because it will

annoy me to no end. If I don't do that. No problem. That's toys now, but like it's okay. All right. I mean, it's just like we're jumping in here. We don't do it as often. You know, it's different.

All right. And we're talking about just like we're jumping in here. We don't do it as often. You know, it's different. I'm just going to try and play it through. All right. Um, we're talking about how great this is. You know, I've been meaning to hear from you, Chuck. Is there anything else? Two cans of piss.

That's what I'm dealing with here. Yeah. In terms of how great this lad is, before he fought Umar at 311, it just seared into my memory. I spoke to John Wood and this isn't something you'd hear, you'd hear Murab say, certainly back then when he felt like he'd been forced into this position. There was all the talk that look, they're pushing Umar because they want a new Namaga Madoff.

They want a guy to put in a spot and say this is a B 2.0 and would said What if my Rob is a B 2.0? And I think that's what we're seeing here like you're talking about how he's getting more popular people are getting behind him I think this is one of those things where if people keep on seeing him people will begin to appreciate what he brings to the table and then there can be a more global appreciation of what Marab is doing in this band of my division. Let me go back to you real quick here.

Uh, I said, Pizzi that Corey's the fight that we want to see, but I was really speaking on behalf of all of you. And that's quite rude of me. Is there someone that's getting screwed here or is that, is that the fight? No, it's the fight. And look, I think we'll talk about it later. We would need to talk about the, the, the women's band in my fight for us. But I thought the only spanner that could be thrown in the works was patchy mix.

And I thought it was a very underwhelming debut. Honestly, like, you know, like one of the most underwhelming debuts we've seen, honestly, like we were waxing lyrical all week about this guy. Save it, save it, save it, save it. We, that performance doesn't deserve to be. Yeah. Although I will say, I will say that, like, that tells you something. If we even had that discussion about the gap between where Merab is San

Hagan kind of being there and all the guys who's already beat or just don't have it yet, you know, it tells you about that because you have a guy who's not even ranked that we're trying to put into that spot because there's just not a lot of good options right now, other than San Hagen. One thing that the UFC doesn't do at all these days, which I wish they would do more of is label fights as number one contender fights. And honestly, if they're going to do five round

co-main events on pay-per-views, I know fight night main events are five rounds, but if they're going to do five round co-main events on pay per views, I know fight night main events are five rounds, but if they're going to do five round co-main event fights on pay per views, to me, those should just be for number one contender fights. I don't like this thing where it's like a random fight, getting a five round just for the hell of it. And, and, and they used to label fights as

number one contender fights for whatever reason they don't. If we're not going to get that anymore. And I think the reason is they just don't want to like, you know, back themselves in a corner in case the fight sucks. But if we're not going to get that, what we got today was perfect or tonight. Main event ends, we know who's next right away.

There's no, there's, there's no debate. There's no, like I said, jockeying for position or public campaigning. I love the fact that Murab knows who's next and I love the fact that Kayla knows who's next. Now, sometimes fights need to play out. I get it, but thisab knows who's next. And I love the fact that Kayla knows who's next. Now sometimes fights need to play out. I get it, but this was beautiful.

It was clean and we could look ahead to the future. I love that. I hope we get to see more of that. Now, I just want to ask you, Chuck, about Suga, where does Suga go from here? Because for all the changes and for all the takedown defense, he ended up losing mid fight as opposed to going the distance

with this guy. You know what I mean? Like that has to be a hard pill to swallow. He went five rounds and in fact, in their first fight had, had flashes of brilliance in the fifth round, this time he gets submitted in the third round after everything he's been through, after all the changes, being healthy, you know, not

dying his hair, the music, some of the, you know, drug stuff and the, the personal stuff, like he eliminated it all. And, uh, you know, what is it? Jane, the pain, Jane, the pain, the shows right there at Pizzi. This guy takes the high road. Whereas you would just highlight it. Honestly, up until this week, I just thought Gooners were, you know, soccer players who played for Arsenal. I had no idea. You can tell me what it was. I had no idea. The point is, the point is how does he process this and where does he go from here?

As you know, one of the things that was talked about was if he loses this, he's in purgatory and there's no sign of Murat losing anytime soon, should he consider 145? He didn't hit at that. What do you think happens? Shades of the Volkanovsky, um, Holloway thing, where you're just like, you know, I mean, it's, it gets a little more emphatic, you know, the second time through and you know, that sort of

thing. So I think if he doesn't, if he doesn't care and this is, I get the sense he's, he's in this to be a champion, you know, um, he seemed very comfortable as a champion. Like he was a guy who really handled himself well. sense he's in this to be a champion. You know, he seemed very comfortable as a champion. Like he was a guy who really handled himself well and if that's really the pursuit, his best route is going to go to featherweight. We were talking to Ben Foulkes on the crack

and he did bring up some good points. The type of frame he has at 135 pounds is unique, it's novel, it's very hard to deal with the length Uh, just his awkwardness and lankiness and everything that he's able to he's able to snipe Um, he's just not able to get through the guy who's at the top right now So it really comes down to what are the what are the immediate wants here if he wants to try to go for a belt? I think featherwitz is probably his best chance because I don't think that you can wait out marab I don't see like if you're just to like survey that field. I don't think that you can wait out Merab. I don't see, like, if you're just to like survey that field, I don't really see anybody beating him anytime soon.

We know that in this sport things happen, but that's one champion who looks like he is going to be there a while. So I think it kind of comes down to that thing. What, you know, what's the ultimate, what's the end goal and how soon do you want to do it? And my guess is it would probably be featherweight. Yeah.

I wonder if he sticks around a little bit, you know, you brought up the hallway and Volkanovsky thing, Holloway stuck around and he eventually got back to the, uh, the title fight. We've seen this situation before with Joseph Benavidez and, uh, Demetrius Johnson. We've seen it with, uh, Uriah Faber and Dominic Cruz at 135. And so I don't know if while he is tall and lanky, his frame would suggest a move to 145 would be beneficial.

I don't know if that's going to be the move. However, when I, when I, and when I say the move, the immediate move, when we did have Tim Welch on the show, I think it was two weeks ago, he did say that at some point he'd like to see him try 145. So maybe now. Just to be clear, I was trying to say like if he goes to 145, some of the, some of the uniqueness of his frame won't be as translatable. That's all I meant.

Yeah, yeah. 100%. 100%. Yeah, no, it's, it's, it's a really great point. I mean, he still would be one of the taller featherweights, which is a crazy thing. But, um, I don't know if, if he can get to be that big to where he is successful. Yeah. At, uh, at one 45, I'm excited about Corey Sandhagen versus Murab. I'm just excited to see Murab get his flowers. I'm excited to see him evolve into this, this,

this fun character, this guy who has an incredible backstory who represents his country so well. By the way, shout out to Venom. I like the shorts. I like the trim. We don't usually get the red trim there. It felt very, it felt very, uh, you know, nationalistic.

Yeah. I liked that they're doing this. Regal almost. Yes. Regal. Um, all those words come to mind. Shout out to William Regal. Do you guys like, I mean, you see this kind of

performance, do you like the, do you like San Higgins chances if you're just thinking about it right now? Do you think he presents some kind of danger that, you know, the guys that Marab's been beating hasn't seen yet? No. I think- I think- Go ahead.

It's an important, like, the style, I don't know what you have to do. And I've been saying this for a very long time about Merab. I can remember when the Yan fight and I was a massive man, Yan Mark, I still am. And when they announced that he was fighting him, I was like, oh, well, that's, that's a disaster. You know, like he is just a nightmare. Like, how do you plan for a guy that will, will just keep sprinting at you? And it doesn't matter if you stuff his taked take downs because he's going to immediately try another take down and he it doesn't matter if you try to kick him because he's actually on top of you even though you're standing up is he's right here all the time. You know, like for for Santhagan, I think when I think about him having success, it's him enjoying his long range and him using beautiful like he's's very technical and he, and he, he strikes in such a beautiful way, but Merab just doesn't present himself as

a canvas for that kind of artistry. Like he's there. He's just like this, the whole guy now get used to this. That's what you're going to be saying for, for as long as before it lasts. Verona's head in your chest. God. It's kind of fun though, right? I mean, we haven't seen like a dominant, like, I mean, truly dominant. before it lasts. Verona's head in your chest, god. It's kind of fun though, right?

I mean, we haven't seen like a dominant, I mean truly dominant, it's almost like a throwback to back when Anderson Silver, they're just throwing up anybody like, who's the, throw Talos Slade is that? I mean, it's like whoever they could find at some point and just see who could compete with him. It's just been a while, man.

Like, so now I'm interested to see how far he can take it. You know what, you know, what's wild about Murab. That was his 13th win in a row. But like I said, just his second telepathy, he had to do so much just to get to the title fight. Um, that like, he's just, it's almost like he's just getting started. I mean, we were talking about this recently. If, if like Anderson's record and DJ's record are

those the unbeatable records in the UFC and, and this, this might be the guy, right? I mean, it might be the guy. Look, anything can happen. Corey could go in there and all this is for not, it's hard to keep the belt. It's hard to remain champion, but he has really shown no signs of slowing down. And I'd have to go through the record, but I wonder how many rounds he's lost in those 13 fights. You know what I mean? And a lot of those have gone the distance. So he's fighting a lot of rounds.

And he used to actually lose the first round of fights quite often. And then just, it was the same thing, right? Like they start, remember they're talking about that. Yeah. Yeah. And then he could just overwhelm them. Like it was like two minutes into the second round, you just see that look on their face, like, Oh, what the fuck is happening? I need to just absolutely stop them for the last. The biggest threat to him right now is frozen ponds and like rocky hills that he's running down. Psychopath.

Uh, by the way, his, uh, his 13th, uh, straight win, uh, that streak is now tied for fourth longest in UFC history. Okay. Let's talk about Kayla Harrison. Kayla Harrison realizes her dream of being UFC champion. And when I'm watching her get that belt draped around her waist, I am reminded of the post fight press conference or the post event press conference back in 2016, when she won her second gold medal and someone asked her about making the She said she would have to cut her leg off in order to make 135. Here she is nine years old, she's a professional

athlete, she's a professional athlete, she's a professional athlete, she's a professional athlete, she's a professional athlete, she's a professional athlete, she's a professional athlete, she's a professional athlete, she's a professional athlete, she's a professional athlete. And she's a professional athlete, she's a professional athlete, she's a professional athlete, she's a

professional athlete, she's a professional athlete. And she's a professional athlete, she's a professional athlete, she's a professional athlete, she's a professional athlete, she's a professional athlete. And I asked her about fighting a 135. She said she would have to cut her leg off in order to make 135. Here she is nine years later, winning the 135 pound title in the UFC after being a two-time PFL champion and, and, and, and really enticing Amanda Nunes to come out of retirement, to make this super fight, this incredible matchup down the line, hopefully sometime later this year, it's an unbelievable story and, and, and we haven't even touched on everything she's been through. to make this super fight, this incredible matchup down the line, hopefully sometime later this year. It's an unbelievable story.

And we haven't even touched on everything she's been through in her personal life. And especially as of late, you know, adopting her sister's children and homeschooling them and being this incredible role model for women and people all around the world. What a freaking beast. What an unbelievable performance. It is uncomfortable watching her cut weight, Chuck. But then once that is out of the way, seeing how she rehydrates and then seeing how she performs in there and seeing what she did to the champion, Juliana

Pena, who was the champ fair and square, uh, the dominance, the submission in the second round, the camora, which is seconds remaining in the second round, it is, uh, it is a joy to watch her compete. And, and it's amazing to see someone just be so freaking. Like strong minded. She's so powerful. She's so powerful. She's so powerful. It is a joy to watch her compete and, and it's amazing to see someone just be so freaking like strong minded.

She said on Thursday, she was this close to quitting. She wanted to quit, but she wouldn't allow herself. I don't know how many times she could do this. And so I'm going to enjoy it while it lasts. Yeah. And I mean, she made a point of, um, almost making a storyline or maybe, maybe it is a full on

storyline about that last pound. Um, you know, kind of losing that by miracle or by God's, you know, God's hand. I mean, that sort of thing tells you just how much she was going through. We were talking about this pizza on the crack, but like, I don't know how long you can watch her, you know, watching her do this, watching her on that scale. And we know the dangers of cutting weight. This just can't be good for you. And I get the sense that there's probably a little bit of like, you know, that she circled it when she came

to the OC, I have this many hells to get through, you know? And that's what she's doing. And now she's got to the, you know, now she's realized the title. And I think she's always looked at the Amanda Nunes fight as like the big crescendo of this. And so she's gonna have to do it one more time. And I tell you what, man, when Amanda,

that was really brilliant. I don't know if the UFC meant to bring in Amanda Nunes or if this was straight up just Harrison saying, come in here and that they opened the gates, she came in. But that kind of thing is awesome, man. Like, and I was writing about this a little bit, just being the face of women's MMA, is that still a thing?

And the comparisons we make to like the Ronda Rouseys and the impossible things going on, but that's how you get something going, right? Like you bring in Amanda Nunes man who's actually pretty big. I know that she's not cutting weight or anything. She's not, you know, she's been retired, but like standing next to her and you're like, we've got a fight.

I don't know how you guys felt, but looking at that, I was like, dude, this is going to be an insane fight. It got me very excited to see that fight. It made me think so many times we go through these hoops, we talk about all these scenarios, we don't get the fight in the end that we're trying to get. Um, but it sure seems like all signs are pointing towards getting maybe one of the biggest women's fights we've ever had.

And to me, that's awesome, man. Yeah, absolutely. It's definitely one of the biggest and a fair play to Julianna Pena, because if you would have just looked at the bookmakers odds in this fight, um, it wouldn't have seemed like a contest at all. But the way she spoke all throughout the buildup to this fight, she made people really think that, you know, she was going to give Kayla a really good go and she made us feel like this fight was a lot more important

and that she had a real chance. I think that kind of works out in Kayla's favor as well, because we were talking about this on Friday. Like if you're looking at that odds line, it's actually a different kind of works out in Kayla's favor as well, because we were talking about this on Friday. Like if you're looking at that odds line, it's actually a different kind of pressure completely when people are like, you're going to have to go in here and storm through, uh, Judy Annapenna, who's beaten the greatest female fighter of all time, Amanda Nunes, you're going to have to go in there and just blow through her essentially.

And she managed to get the job done with a really brutal Kamara in the second round. But I think that sets it up way more. I think that elevated Kayla as well, having that war awards with Penne. So fair play to her. And look, Nunes and Harrison, like that's a huge fight. And of course, the only thing that you have to say coming away from the post fight interview here and you guys have already mentioned is the way.

Like, do we think that Kayla that is gonna hang around beyond that like we know that she's made an awful lot of money a lot of money that a lot of photos will never make in the careers to the pfl and of course now with the ufc. After beating the go will the hunger still be there to make this aggressive wake up and it's kind of annoying that she'll be cutting weight alongside Amanda Nunes, another person who we know isn't a natural 135er, but it's a silly game I guess, Ariel. Well, okay. So, so can I offer a suggestion? Tell me if this is a silly suggestion. Would it be crazy to have them fight at 45? Why can't they just fight?

Like it. I can't be a title for it, Right. Can't be. Oh, fuck. Does it matter? Let's just see. Let's just see who's the queen. Let's see who's the toughest. Yeah, I suppose it doesn't matter. Yeah.

I suppose. Yeah. Like do a B.M.F. Would it be more intriguing? No, please. He's got no B.M.F. Now you're suggesting the B.M.F. Ariel.

Okay. Go ahead. By the way, this, this could be the retirement fight for the 45 division. Amanda is the, is the final 45 pound champion. So you can dust that old thing off. So no big deal there. By the way, this, this could be the retirement fight for the 45 division. Amanda is the, is the final 45 pound champion. So you can dust that old thing off. So no big deal there.

The point is like, this can't be healthy for Kayla. And it just speaks to like the, the most impressive thing that she has ever done in her career is making 35 because she is not a 35 or you see what she hydrates into and, and what's the shame in all of this is she's enjoying all the success now. She's getting paid top dollar and she got paid top dollar in PFL too, but I just don't know how much longer she can do this for like, it could very well be one more for her, right? She's not going to stick around for five, six, seven fights.

And so can we just do a 45 title or what do you think Ariel, how many left, you know, our burden, all of us, I don't think many left. I think two, including this one. I mean, she kind of laid it out and shout out to our friend, Andrew Feldman for re, for reposting it today. She kind of laid it out. She said, I'm going to, I'm going to beat Holly home. Then I'm going to get one more fight.

I'm going to be the number one contender after that. I'm going to win the belt and I'm going to, uh, I'm going to bait Amanda Nunes to come out of retirement. She's been talking about that fight for quite some time. And, and then sort of implied like maybe one or maybe I'll sail into the sunset then there's nothing left to do. I agree with her as well. Well, she does.

I just don't know. It better be a 145 after that. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, she's talking about that pound. I mean, that's just crazy, right? Like she's talking about a pound breaking or like that's how close she's to breaking like her own will, which we know is as, as strong as anybody in the sport.

Um, it's tough, man. She looked on that scale that, that was, that was a bad look. And I'm surprised through three of these now that we haven't seen some compromised version, some diminished version of herself. It's unbelievable. Yeah. I mean, I think it's, it's, it's, it's that was a bad look and I'm surprised through three of these now that we haven't seen some compromised version, some diminished version of herself. Yeah, I just, you think you would, because we've seen others, you know, who go through rough weight cuts consistently and

eventually they show up in a diminished form. We haven't seen that yet. I'm sure it would happen eventually and, but man, I think it just speaks to her iron will. I think that this is one of those things that people just don't give her enough credit for what's going on. Because it is just, she was competing at like 165, 170 pounds, right? Like then 155 down to 145, now 135. Honestly, this is maybe crazier than, um, than rumble Johnson's days at one 70, you know, it's as crazy, you know, it's crazy as that. It really is. And, and, and he had some issues.

She has yet to have any issues, just three fights at one 35, but it's amazing. She was fighting consistently at 55, had a cup of coffee at 45 and then jumped all the way to 35 here and, and is beating the champion. I also wonder if this is it for Juliana. She hasn't said this beforehand, but when you think that she came into the UFC in 2013, here she is in 2012, 20, 25, 12 years later at the top.

I don't know how much longer she can do this for as well, but man, PT, is this not like the gift from gods for the UFC as far as the, uh, you know, the women's division is concerned. Like we could be staring after this stretch here where it has felt very, very shallow. We could be looking at a backend of 2025 or maybe a early 26 at the latest where you're getting Kayla versus Amanda and John Waley versus Valentina Shevchenko. Yeah. That's as good as it gets. Wow. I didn't really know that.

And I feel like we were kind of, we've been talking about the lack of big fights, et cetera, big fights being missed, but there are two absolutely huge fights. And, um, I can't stop thinking about this 145 stipulation you've put down, like Amanda Nunez certainly wouldn't disagree with that, right? Like she has complained in the past about 135. I don't think she was too happy about the kind of stalling of the 145 division. Like I think she would go for that, right? It would just be purely the UFC saying we want to 135.

Yeah. I wonder if they'd want to dust off that belt and I wonder if they want to open that can of 135. Yeah. I wonder if they'd want to dust off that belt. And I wonder if they want to open that can of worms. My guess is probably not, but I just- How would they feel as well about like maybe the two of these walking away regardless of the result as well. You know, like that's a, that's a serious situation where it's like, Oh yeah, we're putting on the fight, but both Amanda and Kayla are return

regardless of the outcome of this, you know, like that feels like something that could potentially happen, Chuck, right? Yeah. You know, you're talking a little bit about Pena. You can't help but feel for her a little bit in this type of situation. I mean, on just a deep level of, I really believe the bane of her existence is Amanda Nunes. And I think that that has driven her through a lot of these, you know, a lot of these last few years and just kind of kept her at the top. I think that trilogy fight, yes, she had it scheduled. She fell out of it. Amanda abruptly, you know, retires after beating Aldona and now comes back.

She says she's going to come back and you get the chance as long as you get through this last hurdle which we knew is going to be a very difficult hurdle for her to get through. She was an immense underdog but I think she believed in herself but she's not able to do it and now it just seems like that trilogy fight is as far away as it can be right. I don't feel like it's... I was talking to Blaze as we're last fights there I was I was like I don't know if she ever gets it now if she does hang around and if Amanda Nunes really is coming back for a couple of fights for a couple of years whatever she's going to do I suppose

it's still possible and maybe that will be dangling carrot enough to keep Pena around but we've seen this happen a lot in the past where a fight that somebody wants this badly, never, never materializes and that you do feel bad for Juliana Pena for never getting that trilogy fight. Yeah, absolutely. Like how do you, how do you think that fight would go though? Like I can't, like I taught, I taught today Kayla, which we knew about her, right? Like this is the only argument you could have against Kayla in the lead up to today's fight was like, she hasn't fought the same competition as Pena has. She hasn't fought in New Inez and of course Pena had that victory over New Inez.

But today in the clinch I think she showed like this is going to be how everyone gets handled by Harrison. But then you then you look at the size of New Inez when she's in there. It's a completely different kind of fighter. Who would you favor, lads? I know Ariel doesn't like to do that, but Chuck, do you have someone you favor in that matchup, Harrison v. Nunes, right now? Oh man. Right this second, I would probably go with Harrison. She just seems too determined.

I feel like it's just her whole goal was to come in the UFC and do what she's doing, but there's one thing left. And it's crazy to say that against Nunes but Nunes has been out what is it like two years now or getting close to that you're never sure what form they'll come back in I wouldn't put it past Nunes to come in there and win that fight but I think I would favor and pick if I'm doing that right now I'd probably pick Harrison. Yeah. She's been more active.

How crazy by the way, those upkicks in that first round, how nuts was that? It was almost like Peña had no idea that she was, I know, it was almost like she was like, okay, I'm getting some offense, boom, boom, boom. I was like, dude, whoa, whoa, what are you doing? That was a wild sequence. I'm glad that didn't come back to like,

haunt the fight, no disqualifications, nothing like that, you know? Yeah, but like imagine, and we're a corner fell, you go back to the corner like, okay, you have to win every single round now. It's a 10-8 round. You have to win every single round.

Best look. Horrific. Shout out to the legend. I love when they go to New Jersey, Shaolin Ribeiro, he was the referee for that one, took the point right away. No, no warnings New Jersey, Shaolin Ribeiro. He was the referee for that one. Took the point right away. No, no warnings. Oh, you can't do this.

You look like you're a cruel boss. You'd be a cruel official. Yo, look at Chase Hooper. Shout out to Shaolin for taking a point for those upkicks. Not enough refs are willing to take points anymore. Yes, Chase.

I agree with you, my friend. Also shout out to Ben Fokes who says, well, how about that Shaolin Ribeiro ain't messing around as a ref. I agree with you, my friend. Also shout out to Ben folks who says, well, how about that challenge? He better ain't messing around as a ref. I love it. Yes. First warning in the cage, in the locker room, second point deduction in the cage. Come on, man.

Ruin the fight for me. Ruin the fight for me. Yo, if that was some of these other refs, I'd be like, you can't do it. You can't do that one more time. And I might take away a point. Yeah. The fuck out of here. for me. Yo, if that was some of these other reps, I'd be like, you can't do it. You can't do that one more time. And I might take away a point. Yeah, get the fuck out of here.

By the way, the fascinating storyline going into this fight, whenever it happens. Obviously they used to train together, but Kayla was much younger in her, uh, in her MMA career as, as, as the great Walt Fraser would say, she was a Nia fight. Here's the other thing. Here's the other thing. All those coaches at ATT think they know a thing or two about Amanda Nunes, about her Frazier would say she was a neophyte. Here's the other thing. Here's the other thing.

All those coaches at ATT think they know a thing or two about Amanda Nunes, about her strengths, about her weaknesses. Like they have the blueprint, right? True. Of course. She's fighting. Oh, it's fascinating. I love it.

That's a crazy woman, Mike Brown leading the charge, so, uh, can't wait to see it. And shout out to Ali for being right there front and center. You saw that moment with Kayla and Dana, Ali's getting in there being like, Hey guys, look at us. We did it. You don't get a lot of heartwarming moments,

but I'm like, when you do, you say it. Yeah, no, a hundred percent. Um, you know, you could say that that was a good moment for, uh, Don Davis and the boys because it was one of their homegrown talents, making it to the, uh, the top of the UFC apex, if you will, uh, and winning of the UFC apex, if you will. Uh, and winning a title on the flip side, it was a tale of two nights because perhaps it

wasn't a homegrown PFL talent, but it was a, a, a homegrown Bellator talent. And so let's skip a couple of fights and go to patchy mix and, uh, Mario Bautista because that's called a segue. PT and I were texting about this. You know, we have a group chat Chuck for the show. No, and PT was incessantly texting the group chat for the show. And I had to tell him on the side, like, Hey, you know, the guys are doing a watch party right now.

Like you can stop. Just give them some material. Then I was getting, then I was getting solo texts. Then he started the new thread with you and I, and it was just like. PTC, the octopus, as he called himself, just texting everyone, texting. And among those texts, among those texts was a discussion between us about whether or not this was the worst. Oh, as my screen goes off, golly. Someone ran away with their bookshelf again, man.

As I'm shitting, as I'm shitting all over PTC. Among the, was this the worst debut in the history of the UFC? And when I say debut, I'm not talking about the CM punks of the world. I'm talking about highly anticipated debuts. Like massive expectations, right? Yes.

DC said that this was the most anticipated debut that we've seen in quite some time. I would beg to differ. Patricia Pitbull just two months ago was way more anticipated than this one. And there have been others. Point is what did we used to talk about around a year ago? If you go weight class by weight class, it's

Patchy Mix and Uspinder Maga-Madoff. Those are the two guys who could probably walk into the UFC right now and, and, and become a champion. Right. And, and we also said Patchy might be the best. And we also said Patchy might be the best belt or champion. We said he could be band to weight champion, all this stuff and more PT. I'll go to you.

Cause you brought him up first. I was blown away by how bad he was. I was, I was blown away by how he looked. He was stiff. He was uncomfortable. He was getting pieced up by Mario Bautista. We never seen Mario Bautista look this good. And perhaps it's time to put some respect on his name.

That's in a row. Who was that guy? Who was that bad? She makes it. If you didn't know anything about him, you would have said, how the hell does this guy make it to the UFC? He looked that bad. And I don't understand because he is not that guy.

Who was that guy? What the hell happened? It was crazy to watch that. And just for the record, but I thought I was going to say there, because I did mention this joke when I was texting him, me and Chuck were both in agreement on a round table piece we did this week from crown saying we think patchy mix is the best fighter to ever sign for the UFC from Bellator. And I was very excited because this guy I've seen this guy fight live.

His submissions are unbelievable. His He, his submissions are unbelievable. His setups, his entries are unbelievable. We saw none of that tonight. Absolutely. None of it. And it was crazy to watch because he, I've never seen him look like this and you're watching them and there's just grimace on his face as Bautista just pummeled him. Like he is pummeling him. He, he looks like Jose Aldo, you know, when he was fighting him and everyone got upset with Batista because he wouldn't let him fight. He was, he was like raging bull in there, changing angles. He was piecing them up.

Meanwhile, Patchy just completely static. Didn't seem to want to show us any of that stellar submission skills that we all fell in love with. The reason why you're here is because of the amazing backtakes, all this wonderful stuff you do on the ground. We didn't see a bit of it. And I thought very early on, I thought, I'm going to be a great, great, great, great, skills that we all fell in love with. The reason why you're here is because of the amazing backtakes, all this wonderful stuff you do on the ground.

We didn't see a bit of it. And I thought very early on, I think it was very obvious it was going to go that way. He was very stationary and there was just grimace on his face. And like it was, it wasn't just like frustration. It was like, this is, this is painful, man. Like this guy is hurting me regularly and I just can't get going. And I just, in a million years, I wouldn't have seen it going that way, Chuck. It's almost like you are standing by for an explanation. Like you almost,

you almost expect him to have something that he's going to say that's like, Hey, you know, I was dealing with this or something because that was one of the more shocking no shows. I was, I was, I was kind of shocked because that was one of the more shocking no shows. I was I was I was kind of shocked I was like watching the first round you're like wait a minute where's the guy that we've been watching at Bellator and you know this isn't one of those brights or two lights the lights are too bright situations this is just a guy who looks like he's I don't know not there he didn't look like he was there. When Batista landed the first big right, straight right hand that clocked him,

it was almost like he was like, Oh my God, that was easy. And then he did it again and just landed again. He's like, he's not going to move his head. It was almost like it was dawning on him. Like he's not moving his head. You know, he's not coming forward. It was just, that was so crazy that I was almost like, okay, if that was your strategy for the first round, you better come to life in the second round

and show us what the real with the real you know hoopla was with this guy coming over here and it never showed up I guess in the third round he kind of it seemed like he was starting to get into it a little bit more of a rhythm but never he was so stiff at one point it looked like he changed levels and kind of went in on him like he was going to take him down and just bounced off him. Like his arms wouldn't even extend to go around him. It was just so bizarre.

I've just never seen a debut like that where you're just, I felt like his corner was befuddled. Like they're like, what is happening? Yeah, we don't even know what to tell you. By far, one of the worst, most disappointing debuts for somebody of that caliber that I can recall in UFC. And when you consider all the noise leading up to this point and the confidence and the things that he was saying.

He played it well, yeah. I mean, it's incredibly disappointing. In fact, my sons don't really watch fighting, but they're downstairs. I put it on the TV. I say, hey, watch this fight. You guys will be into this fight. This guy is incredible.

And they're like, this guy? It was the worst. I like, it's like the one fight I've shown them in, I don't know, a year and a half. They're like this way, this guy you said was good. Like even they were like, why is he not moving? Why does he keep getting punched? Your taste in fighters sucks, Dad.

Maybe Dad doesn't know that much about fighting after all. Yo, Batista man, time to put some respect, right? Eight in a row now. He needed that dude. He needed that. Yo, he came in there, he came in there with like a killer instinct. He came in, he, he, he heard all the, the talk of the clinching and the takedowns with Aldo.

I don't, I don't know if he shot. I'm going to check this out right now. I don't know if he shot once. Did he even shoot this out right now. I don't know if he shot once. Did he even shoot once? He was just pinging him on. He didn't need that. He was. He was pinging the lad.

It was unbelievable. It was a brilliant. I think he was waiting for anything to come at him and it just never did. So he's like, well, I'm just going to keep teeing off on this guy. Yeah. One takedown for Apache makes zero for Batista.

It was unbelievable. In fact, um, I think I had Batista winning via sub on the Yahoo Sports Daily Draw draw that never came to fruition. But the point is, uh, that, uh, that was an incredible performance. I think we have a contender at one 35 or at least a player as we're talking about potential new faces for Marab down the line.

Um, I'd like to chalk this one up to octagon jitters for Patchy short notice fight. He's been through a lot. He's been through a lot. He's been inactive, but man, what an indictment on the Bellator band and weight division, right? At least for now, what an indictment. I don't think he's done himself any other, any favors either from being honest,

you know, like this is the UFC. People remember what you say and lead up to points. We know more than anyone. People saw the piece. I wrote this stuff. Like it was the most confident, the most confident. I'm looking past this guy. I am looking past this guy, right? That's what he told you.

Pretty much. I mean, he was, I pointed this out area. I don't know if you caught this. Like I had mentioned, Hey, you've been rolling with Merab. And he said, uh, Merab's been rolling with me, you know, like that's how confident he was, he was, he was, uh was just talking about his world-class grappling skills, submission skills, and all the guy, even Hamsad, he's like, I grapple Hamsad.

He's talking all this stuff, and then to show up and show none of that to the audience, your new audience, the thing that you're donning on people who are UFC-centric and to show up with that. It's crazy. Yeah, It's wild, man. Do you think, do you think we're going to get like an injury story? Like, are you expecting one? Like, cause I'm not, I'm not joking. Like, I think, I think that had to be something wrong. Honestly.

I don't know. I don't know. And, and, and, you know, I was a little surprised that the crowd was booing so much because I actually didn't think it was a bad fight. Like they stood there and they traded and, and I just love the fact that Batista went in there, listened to the criticism and just said, all right, I'll show you guys. Like this guy is really, really good. And that wasn't the best version of Patchy. Certainly.

I mean, I don't even care if Patchy is fighting lesser talent in Bellator. He looked like a guy. If you didn't know any better, you would think this is a guy who was like 1-0 going in. It was very strange. Towards the very end of the third, or maybe like midway through the third,

he had some moments, and God bless the broadcast team, they were trying to sell us on this notion that he may have won the second, and they were 1-1 going into the third, and he could have still won it. I didn't even think he won the third. I didn't even think he won the third. I had a 30 to 27.

I had a 30 to 27. I had a 37. It was, it was, uh, it was awful. I mean, honestly, it was, it was, like I said, I don't know if a high profile, if you want to call them high profile person has had a worst debut. I'm sure, you know, there's been some ones where expectations be product thing though. It was weird. It's like the move. Stiff, not completely static. Static. It was like, you know, I just like the movement. Flat footed, stiff, not moving. Static, completely static. Yeah.

Static, it was like, you know, I remember Mark Coleman, whichever, like UFC 109 or something like that, was really old and he couldn't move, you know, as he was in there and you're watching him and you're thinking, Mark, no more, man. I mean, you hate to, but he's not old, he's 31 years old, but I'm like, why did he suddenly look like he was 45? That was very strange.

Bazaar. Yeah, weird, weird. he's not old, he's 31 years old, but I'm like, why did he suddenly look like he was 45? That was very strange. Bazaar. Yeah. Weird, weird, but look, we're all going to focus on Patchy Mix. Um, in my opinion, as big of a story is just how good Bautista seems to be. And, and, and also that it feels like he has finally gotten some respect to where now he can

take that next step because people didn't want to give him that respect after the Jose Aldo fight. A guy who is never shortened respect is uh is Pizzi for Joe Pfeiffer. I mean the love that you have for this guy I was just thinking of you in your gaff probably two in the morning just yelling be Joe Pfeiffer be Joe Pfeiffer. I did I was saying it. It looked for a moment like he was being Joe Pfeiffer, and then it seemed like he kind of just took his foot off the gas. I'm not quite sure. He dominated Kelvin Gasolum. He won the fight. It wasn't an easy fight.

Excuse me. It wasn't a hard fight to score. But you did get the sense that he was about to finish him and he didn't. So how would you grade that performance from your boy? It's tough, right? Gasolum is built like a fire hydrant. His head, if you just look at his head, it's like trying to knock a cow out, man. He is just he is a big lad, you know, but he's a thick lad. And I thought he nearly had him done twice. And Piper looked like a different species

beside him that that tends to happen with Gastelum, of course, like Gastelum, not the not the tallest of the weight classes. Uh, he has a different body shape. We know he has had his struggles with the scales. And he's got a very common body shape. Actually. It's like, if I were bombed the head off him a few times,

we just kept springing back up. And, uh, I often see this in, in, uh, fights like where lads just exhaust themselves to the point they don't have the capacity to finish a fight. They've gone after it two or three times just like, you know what, I'm fucking winning. And that's just the way it's going to have to be. Piper, I think he wants to shut everyone up, right? Like he's won the honor of many, it would seem, since the first fallout, the first fallout

fight between those guys. But I think it's a good fight. Gaston was a tough guy. He can never bank on getting a finish against Gaston. So I think it was good. It didn't set the world on fire, but on a night that had so many good fights, you're not looking at and kind of shaking your fist like you usually would. Had you been relying on this to deliver above all the other fights?

Is Joe Pfeiffer still your guy? Cause I mean, like after all the kind of opening his mouth and. You didn't like the Mexico discourse PT, you were offended by it. Uh, no, I didn't, I didn't really, you know, I knew, I just saw the offense, you know, and I went, Oh yeah, there we go.

That's, that's happening again. There's a lot of, uh, a lot of people upset again, which happens a lot in Asport to be fair. And did you see the one reporter, uh, mentioned to him that he was, uh, that his hairline had the comeback of the year and it looked like you wanted to kill the guy. Did you see that? He didn't know what to do with it. He kind of was like, uh, should I be annoyed at this?

Is that an insult? What is that? I mean, but I mean it's fucking obvious when you get your, what does, uh, what does GC call it getting plugged out, plugged up for that. It's dotted up. Sorry. Not plugged. Jesus Christ. Pity.

I'm having a mare with the pornographic references over the last few weeks. No, no. Remember Nick sick in the back. We was talking about us going to Turkey, selling me and Sean Elshadi. You guys got to get out there, man. You gotta get. Dotted up. Yeah.

Yeah, dotted up. It was, it was, it was a nice one for him after the, the, the nightmare a couple of months ago in Mexico, he gets back on track, uh, tried to get the crowd going in the aftermath, um, you know, just talking about Trump and all this stuff. By the way, this thing, look, we don't need to

get into the whole, the walkout and how they once pretended like it was just coincidental that they all walked out together. But every fighter, actually we have a, uh, we have a super chat about this. Shout out to the super chatters. We love you all very much. Where is one?

Um, I thought I saw it at some point, but maybe I didn't. The glazing, the glazing is the kids. Like does every fighter. It's always been mental though. It's not just mental now. It's been fucking mental since it started. Like out of control.

They're more excited about the handshake than the win. And here's the secretary of state, he's thrown of gang signs. Win a fight. You've been preparing for months and this thing where you're the first thing that you do is jump over and you shake everyone's hand. You shake his hand.

You shake Hunter Campbell's hand. You shake Dana White's hand. You shake the broadcast team said, what is going on? How did this become a thing? How did this become a thing? I would have jumped over and like said hello to Joey Diaz.

I'd be like, Hey, how you doing buddy? Good to see you, man. Legend. Legend. Anyway, Hey, how you doing buddy? Good to see you, man. Legend, legend. Anyway, uh, there it is. Uh, were the fighters competing for a 50 K Glaze of the Night bonus for relentless Trump

glazing tonight? Yes, it was, it was, it was something. Um, the walkout was great. It's weird as fuck. It's always weird as fuck, but the walkout's hilarious. Now shout out to Joshua Vann. Joshua Vann getting the quick finish gave them that two minute stretch that they

needed before the pay-per-view to do the impromptu walkout. What about Kevin Hollen? What an enigma this guy is, right? I mean, like he has really put it all together. He has found his home at 170 pounds. He submits Vicente Luque. Granted, maybe not the Vicente Luque of a couple of years ago, but it really seems like he has found something here,

Chuck. What's the ceiling now for Kevin Hollen? Can he go on a run here? It just, it does seem like, you know, and I'm the guy who was talking to Pizzi and saying, there's no stakes in this type of thing. And he doesn't care about a title. And you know, this is a guy who's entered that

Chris Liebman territory of just wanting to put on a show. But every time I kind of go in that mindset with him, he does something, you know, and this one specifically, he just looks so in control in this fight. Um, and it was just the thing of beauty, man, to watch him operate in this type of fight. I think he should stay at 170, you know, and

just kind of, I, you'd want to see him, I guess at some point you have to see him in disadvantage, you know, a disadvantage or a bad stylistic matchup again to know how far he's come. But like, if I'm the UFC, I'd probably give him guys like this for the next fight or two. And if he's able to get through those, maybe you do start to take him more seriously again. But, uh, when he's on like that, it's, it's a

thing of beauty. It were back to back between him and Van. I was like, dude, we're catching like a really good card tonight. You know what I mean? With the, with the, just the kind of aesthetic that these guys were, um, fighting with and the finishes that were going on.

I, it was a very good table setter for this card, but man, it, when he's operating like that, man, I, I can't get enough Kevin Holland. It's just hard to know what to do with him. Isn't it? Like it's, it's hard to know where to put him next, as far as I'm concerned. There's no natural fight that jumps out for you.

Obviously the UK is, he's ranked there. So it kind of pushed him into that situation again. But there's no fight there where I'm like, that's a, that's a great fight. That's a fight we'd all love to see. I think the beauty of Holland is like every time he gets in there, he is entertaining. Even those fights when people were saying, oh, he's lost it. He's just focusing too much on this trash talk.

And it was still captivating. What captivating watch perhaps for the wrong reasons. We always feel like you got to watch when he's in there and a great performance tonight against Luke. I thought. That's not two in a row for him. A part of that. He had losses to RDR and Dolizet, but those were at 85. He has found a home, I think at 170 and he should stay there. I mean, we, we all said, I remember back in March, he looked fantastic against Gunnar Nelson and look, he's fighting, you know, maybe guys who are

on the, uh, the back three of their career, if you will. I don't know if that's a saying, but you get the point there. They're towards the very end. Um, he's getting those wins. He's on a roll. I think he'll always be one of those sort of Donald Cerrone type of fighters who will win two, lose one, win two, but he's entertaining. He talks the talk. He walks the walk.

He kind of swerved us this morning with a tweet. Um, I think tricking us that his fight was maybe in jeopardy. to, but he's entertaining. He talks the talk. He walks the walk. He kind of swerved us this morning with a tweet. Um, I think tricking us that his fight was maybe in jeopardy and then, uh, doing the whole life. Yeah, I don't know. It's not very fun, but, um. Especially right after the Blanchfield thing

that just happened last week. I mean, it actually did happen. We, we, our currency is credibility here as reporters, as capital J journalists and it's, uh, different strokes for different folks. So a nice win for Kevin Holland, submitting Vicente Luque via Anaconda in the second round. We have mentioned Joshua Vann. He had a phenomenal performance on the prelims. 125 significant strikes landed tonight, which ties Brandon Moreno for most in UFC flyweight history with a hundred plus significant strikes in a fight. That's five times in his UFC career that he has over a hundred plus significant strikes.

He also has won his fourth in a row. That's number two behind Alex Pantoja as far as active winning streaks are concerned. He is a very, very fun fighter and up and coming fighter that I think a lot of people are excited about. Also shout out to Azamat Morzikanov who earned a knockdown in his victory tonight, extending his UFC streak of consecutive fights with a knockdown to five that ties Ilya Taboriev for the longest such active streak in the UFC. This according to the UFC.

Also, he has the second longest active UFC winning streak in the light heavyweight division with five. Currently Carlos Ulberg, ladies man himself, has eight. So he had a big win over Brenton Hibero, a nice knockout win. Shout out to him. Shout out to Waldo Cortez Acosta. He caught some strays earlier this week from Derrick Lewis, but he did in fact extend his winning streak to five, the longest active winning streak in the heavyweight division. He picked up a win over Sergey Spivak

and also wanted to give a shout out to Ju Sung Yoo, who picked up the fourth fastest debut finish in UFC featherweight history. He wins in just 28 seconds. He picked up a bonus Kayla Harrison picked up a bonus Mirza Kanov picked up a bonus and Mara picked up a bonus tonight. So Congratulations to all of them guys some news Came from the event. October 18th, the UFC is going back to Vancouver

for a fight night. October 4th will be UFC 320. And that means no pay-per-view in September. And according to our friend, Jedi Goodman, it's the first time since, did I say November or September? You said September. Okay, good, good. It's getting late here. And I I say November or September? He said September. Okay, good, good, it's getting late here.

And I can't, I'm sorry, it's getting early over there, Pizzi, first time since 2005 that there isn't a pay-per-view in September for the UFC. Remember, they were supposed to do one September 13th. It's now become a Noche card at the Post-Fight Press Conference, Dana White confirming that he is, in fact, promoting Canelo versus Crawford. a Noche card at the Post-Fight press conference, Dana White confirming that he is in fact promoting Canelo versus Crawford.

So all the speculation last week turning Noche UFC to a fight night, which would lead to that there's some sort of reconciliation here, that it will be a pay-per-view, maybe not a Netflix, but a pay-per-view. Anyway, he confirmed that he is promoting it. Also congratulations to the great Mark Kerr. It was announced that he will be going to the UFC Hall of Fame later this month. And yeah, obviously it's a big stretch for him, right?

He's got his movie coming out and finally getting into the UFC Hall of Fame. And they also announced that Dwayne the Rock Johnson in a bit of synergy, if you will, Hollywood synergy, will be inducting Mark Kerr, his long time good friend. Oh, look at that. Yeah, it's beautiful stuff. You only bring them out for the big ones,

the BMF title, and now inducting Mark Kerr, brilliant. Yeah, Dana White at the press conference as we speak, giving Murab his flowers, giving Kayla and Amanda Dunez their flowers. And by the way, what a promo afterwards. Kayla Harrison channeling her inner Stone Cold Steve Austin, referencing John 316 and reciting the whole freaking verse. It was beautiful stuff.

He was asked about John Jones. He said Tom Aspinall is the guy, and if Jones wants to retire and doesn't want to keep fighting, there's nothing he can do about it. He says he'll do everything he can to make the fight, but according to our friend, Aaron Bronstetter, uh, he did have a telling line, which said, uh, when he said, uh, things don't always go the way that they have it planned.

Is that a sign that, uh, his big, you know, his big, uh, guarantees, big prediction that this fight would be made is now, you know, not going to come to fruition. We'll have to see. It's one of many signs. It's one of fucking many signs. I've had a fucking, a lot of signs of this day. Right. Yes. Fuck's sake. On patchy mix. He said when fighters come from smaller shows and go to the UFC, some shine or go and some have a rough time and it's not easy. shine and some have a rough time and it's not easy.

I mean, he does have a good point with this one. No, it's a fucking point there. What about Don picking a fight with the UFC there? That, that kind of says something. Doesn't it too, Ariel? You mean with the thing, guy new stuff? Yeah, let's let's fucking start it out. Let's. In fact, um, he was asked if, uh, he's interested Dana White is interested in

bringing back Francis and he said he's not interested in bringing back Francis. By the way, under contract for a very long time with PFL. So it's not like he could just waltz back in there. Um, but in case we were wondering Dana White saying he was interested, uh, by the way, uh, there was a scary scene as Marab was coming out. Did you guys see the, the people fall over the barricade and the poor cameraman looked like he got where someone, the assistant got his leg

caught underneath them. Second time this happens. Remember Mike Malott. Yes, Mike Malott in Vancouver. I was trying, I was thinking about that. God. Yes. Same thing.

It happened at a Washington commanders game too. Um, they got to be careful with these fans leaning over the guard rails, but I don't know. Dana is saying that no one got seriously hurt. I believe here. So, um, that is, that is great news. I like how Marab's like walkouts always have this element of danger to them.

Like he's either trying to punch somebody or something's caving in around him. It seems like there's always stuff going on. It's amazing how he just like dodged it and he kept on going. I know. Do you ever see a man happier to walk to a cage in your life than Murat?

No. Like he's practically salivating on the straight down. He's like, I'm gonna fucking kill this lad. It's crazy. He's a special character. He really is. And he's a joy to watch. I enjoy everything about him

and everything that he does online too. So happy for his success. Guys, before we round third here would be remiss if I don't mention Ben Askren. A lot of reports throughout the evening about a scary health situation that he's dealing with and his wife has put out some stuff regarding him having a serious battle with pneumonia right now. There's talk of staph infection and some other serious illnesses. All we know is that he's in the hospital, that he's battling, that it's a scary situation.

And Chuck, I know you know him very well as well. We just want to wish our best to Ben and his entire family as he's going through this and hope that he pulls through and hope that he's able to make a very speedy recovery because the stuff that's being put out is a little concerning at the moment regarding Ben. Yeah, I mean, and you hear false reports online. I've seen all kinds of stuff before. I think you're the one who finally kind of gave real information, but I'm glad that it seems like maybe he's turning that corner and he's hopefully going to be okay,

man. But yeah, one of the good guys in the game spent a lot of time with him putting together his book for him. And I, you know, it's crazy because I didn't even have his wife's cell phone in my phone. I talked to her a lot, but it was always through Zoom when I was doing the story with him. So I was glad that, you know, you and others and herself were posting to kind of keep us updated because that is a very worrisome situation over there. Yeah. So wishing Ben the best, just want to, and hopefully we'll have more and better information

this week when we're doing our shows. I just want to quickly run through some, some super chats here. Shout out to Calvin who says if Merab wins against San Hagan don't you think he should move up to 145. Fight simultaneously without holding the divisions up now man right PT he's too dominant yeah now we want to see dominant champs here this is a as you said he's knocking on the door of all these records. It's fun to watch. He's incredibly dominant to keep them there. It's not a big. He's the rare guy who wants to be in his own division. Let him stay.

Yes. Uh, Will M writes, uh, LFG Marab. Love this guy. Congrats all the Georgians in the chat. LFG. Thank you very much, Will. Uh, Simon 98 writes, how many subscribers to get Chuck to wear the stormtrooper helmet? You name it.

Four, four more from right now. Got to be more than four though. No, no, yeah. Does that fit? Does that fit? It does, but it's a tight fit. Yeah, it does. It's a tight fit.

It's a, it's a legit helmet. Like, uh, my daughter got it for me, but it's a tight fit. Does it? Yeah, it does. It's a tight fit. It's a, it's a legit helmet. Like, uh, my daughter got it for me, but it's a, and I don't even know where she got it. 350k. Three, I think we're at 287. All right, I'll put it on. Yeah, there you go. Perfect.

Um, also, uh, shout out to Cosmo Kramer, who writes, congrats P.T. Carroll on the Kayla win. You know, that's it. I forgot all about that. He's a little disappointed. I'll tell you, I forgot all Kayla win. That's it. I forgot. He's a little disappointed. I'll tell you, I forgot all about it.

Yeah. No, no. By the way, shout out to you for being so professional. Not a single sort of like sly comment. That's, that's, that's, that's, uh, I'm above that kind of thing. You know, yeah. I'm above that kind of thing.

Much respect. Chuck, any final thoughts? Man, that was a prop. I, you know, I with that kind of thing, yeah. Much respect. Chuck, any final thoughts? Man, that was a prop. You know, I was going to mention Ben Askren, but you know, I don't get a chance to talk to you. Are you even watching the NBA Finals? You know what? I am.

I know you watched the game because you were talking about Indiana's medal at the end of these things. But are you watching it? Or is this just like one of those things you kind of tune in? I said that I wouldn't. But I'm a sucker for the history.

I'm a sucker for the pageantry. And also my kids are super into it. And so I don't want to be, I don't want to teach them to be bitter. And so they like SGA, Canadian. They don't have the same vitriol for Indiana. They don't like Indiana, but it's not the same as what I possess.

Lou Dort, Montreal. The fact that there are four Canadians and four very valuable Canadians playing in this final, two from my hometown of Montreal, is super, super rare. And I don't subscribe to this small market bullshit. Like these are two really entertaining, my bias aside, two really entertaining teams going toe to toe.

I agree. And game one was phenomenal. Um, I, I get, I'm the one millionth person to bring this up, but I wish they would go back to putting the logo NBA finals. I know man. Sprucing it up a little bit, cause it does feel like a regular season game, especially when the

in-season tournament has the cows all over the gaff, if you will. And they changed the color, but, uh but all in all, I am watching. Listen, I'm just a hoops head, Chuck. I just love the game. Same here. I do kind of hate watch it as well because. Yeah, of course.

And there's this part of me that's just like, man, you want OKC, like I kind of wanted them just to steamroll everybody else so that you could be like, yeah, well, the nuggets, they took them seven games, you know, that's how good they are. You know, it's like, you start thinking in these ways, it's just so stupid. But, um, I will say that it is a very, I did tune in for it and the love of basketball does eventually take over. And you start to appreciate, I'm sure you couldn't stand Halliburton as you're

playing, um, but then you just watch them with, without that kind of interest. And you just see the magic of things. Just like when I'm watching SGA or you're watching DORT hit those shots. I'm like, you just, you see them different when you're not competing with them, you know? Um, so it's been a lot of fun. It's hard not to respect what they're doing.

Yeah. You know, um, by the way, as, as we're speaking right now, Dana White still holding court and here's a quote regarding Jones and Aspinall. John Jones agreed to do the fight. John Jones was offered the deal and accepted the deal. So that's the fucking quote. That's the quote.

That's the quote. Now, where's the rest of the quote? By the way. Thank you, Frank. Thank you, Frank. Uh, by the way, by the way, by the way, by the way, by the way, this is exactly what I reported. He said yes. And then he had a change of heart.

So is he, is he, is he, is he stopping short or does he have a new, all of a sudden we're missing the rest of the quote. He just fucking said we offered him the thing. He took it. When did you offer it? What the fuck is happening now? He's sniffing a lad's hair on the back of a did you offer it? What the fuck is happening now? He's sniffing a lad's hair on the back of a motorbike in Thailand.

What the fuck is going on? It's way too late to get into this now, but John Jones is making a mockery. He's making a mockery of the UFC and the title with the tweets. And they need to act fast. Hopefully they do by the next time we see them put on a pay-per-view International Fair Week has been discussed as a sort of like deadline. And when they may announce Aspen all's fight, who the hell knows. But, uh, yeah, we've, we've we're long past the, uh, the expiration

point here, in my opinion. I feel like everyone knows apart from the UFC at this stage, like Tom seems to know what the crack is, like everyone's. Guys, don't let this, don't let this hijack what we witnessed tonight. All right. Plenty of time to do all of this John Jones stuff. Let us celebrate the brilliance of one Murab Dwellish, Philly and Kayla Harrison. Congratulations to them.

Congratulations to all the big winners. We have a new champion in the women's band weight division and all of a sudden business has picked up at 135 pounds. Uh, it was a, uh, a great night. And by the way, if you're a fan of grappling, you saw a camora and a north south choke in the main and co main. So look at that. Look at that.

And you saw two ready contenders, two ready contenders right there. Cage side. Everything's perfectly made. How lucky are we? How lucky are we? Shout out to all the north south heads out there. Love doing the show with you. things perfectly made. How lucky are we? How lucky are we? Shout out to all the North South heads out there. Woo. Guys, love doing the show with you.

It's nice. Shout out to TST, wherever you may be. We love you too, bud. And shout out to all our fans and everyone watching. All our fans, who are we, the fucking Rolling Stones? What are you talking about? Peace and love! Thank you everyone, thank you everyone back in the control room at the HQ. We'll talk to you on Monday.

Appreciate you watching and listening. Good night to our pets. We love you. Oh man. Thanks for watching guys!