The Ariel Helwani Show - UFC 321 Post-Fight Show: Controversial eye poke ends Tom Aspinall vs. Ciryl Gane, Mackenzie Dern is UFC champion

Episode Date: October 25, 2025

3PAC — Ariel Helwani, Petesy Carroll and Chuck Mindenhall — are back to dissect UFC 321.Reaction begins with the night's controversial ending, as Ciryl Gane accidentally pokes Tom Aspinall in the eye, leading to a stoppage and No Contest in the main event (01:07).After giving kudos to the evening's referees (30:03), the crew discuss Alex Pereira's reaction to the main event on social media (35:09) and what they expect to see from Jon Jones (36:53).Next, they break down Mackenzie Dern's win over Virna Jandiroba to capture the UFC strawweight title (39:08) and Umar Nurmagomedov surviving second-round danger to defeat Mario Bautista (44:34).They recap the rest of the card (52:13), before Chuck provides his final thoughts (1:09:12).

Hello and welcome to our UFC 321 post-fight show. I'm Ariel Hawani. It is Saturday, October 25th, at approximately 5 p.m. Eastern time. And my friends, UFC 321 has just wrapped up in the most disappointing, heartbreaking, painful unceremonious way possible. Four minutes and 35 seconds into the first round in what was turning out to be a tremendous main event, a back and forth showcase for both men, both Tom Aspinon as official first UFC heavyweight title defense, surreal gun in what could have been his last crack at a UFC title. Much talked about that he was 0 and 2 going into this fight as far as title fights were concerned,

an interim title fight looking good hitting Tom with some shots that he didn't see coming busting Tom open a little bit bloody nose and all

but then with four minutes and 35 seconds remaining in the first round he very clearly surreal God did very clearly poked Tom Aspinall in the eye

in both eyes somehow outstretched hand fingers went into both eyes and it was the right eye that really proved to be the worst of the two and Tom Aspinall, after almost taking the full five minutes saying repeatedly, he could not see, he could not see referee Jason Herzog consulting

with the referee and declaring that the fight would end in a no contest due to an unintentional foul. Had he deemed it intentional, it would have been a DQ loss for Sorrel Gunn because it's an unintentional foul, and we suspect he wasn't trying to poke Tom Aspinall in both eyes as he was looking so good in that first round. They deem it a no contest as a result. Tom Aspinall is still the reigning defending UFC heavyweight champion. He was interviewed after the fight, very, very upset, was swearing, telling the crowd who was booing him, why are you booing me? I can't see. This is bullshit. He did not want to be there. He did not want to stay even for the for the Bruce Buffer decision to be read. He wanted to leave. He had a wet compress of sorts

on his right eye. He was extremely upset. He kept saying it was bullshit. They interviewed Cyril Gan as well. Gan was upset saying he was sorry and that was it. It was just a bad scene. Both guys were actually getting booed. There were a lot of Tom Aspinall fans there. We heard them chanting throughout the night. There were a lot of Surreal Gan fans. We heard them chounding, especially throughout the main event. They were very loud, very boisterous. It was a good scene. But as I'm talking to you all right now, they are replaying the eye pokes. And I mean, they went in there. There is one shot where you cannot see either fingernail. The two fingernails are all the way into both of Tom Aspinall's eyes. And of course, I saw it on the chat. I saw

it online. The moment, the moment he faces adversity the people are saying, he quote, unquote quit. That's what the people are saying. Complete hogwash, complete nonsense. If you just watch it, you will see that those were too nasty, deep eye pokes. I do not think that they were intentional, but I do not, like, how could we sit here and fall Tom Asmel

for Nocating? Too much at stake, too much, you know, hanging in the balance, and that's nasty stuff. You can't go out there fighting a guy like Surreal Gun on, you know, a half an eye, one eye, too much

at stake. We're going to talk about all of that, of course. Plus, we will celebrate the fact that McKenzie Dern is now the UFC Straway champion, a hard-fought battle against Verna Gianjurova. She beats her for the second time. This time, as she said in the post-fight interview, this time she was a little surprised at how tough Vierna was. Of course, the belt was vacant because of the fact that Zhang Wei Li is moving up. You kind of wonder why they have to keep doing this. Why Zhang can't still be the champion, but alas, McKenzie is the champion now, and it was a great scene with her father, Megaton, Wellington Diaz, crying afterwards. Great scene with her daughter in the cage as well, a beautiful

scene. If we're being 100% honest, congrats to McKenzie, who I think a lot of people didn't believe that she would even make it this far, 15 or so fights in the UFC, let alone become a UFC champion, a whole host of other results to talk about as well. But let me say hello to the other members of Three Park. First, we've got the man in the hat, a.k.a. the mayor of the nutmeg state, Mr. Chuck Minnanal here with us. Hello, Chuck. How are you? It's good to see you guys again. It's been a minute.

What unfortunate circumstances to re-gather under, huh? Yes, and I'm really looking forward to your thoughts. Let me also say hello to the patron saint of the Emerald Isle, the host of the critically acclaimed podcast, The Crack, the one and only Pizzi Carol is here. Hello, Pizzi. How are you? How are you, lots, devastating here? in a million years

could you imagine it going that way devastated for Tom and for Cyril it was a really interesting fight for as long as it went and then Tom's head was used like a bowling ball and here we are absolutely devastated for him and I'm sure we're going to talk about this more now

of course yes and you know Chuck I'll start with you this was a really good fight it almost went five minutes you know much talked about the fact that Tom Aspinall's average fight time in the UFC two minutes and two seconds. It's on his champion gear. And so I was looking at that clock once we got past two minutes and two seconds. I was like, okay, let's see. You know, there was a lot of talk about Tom only sitting on a stool once in his UFC career. And that was against Andre Arlowski. And there was Cyril Gan off the jump,

aggressive, taking the fight to Tom, cracking him with some shots, beautiful jab, power shots as Well, if you're curious about the stats, guys, very quickly, Tom Aspinall, landing 27 of 39, Surreal, 30 of 40 significant strikes. By the way, they were all, according to UFC stats and some of these are still kind of coming in, they were all significant strikes. Exact same amount of significant strikes and total strikes. Tom went for one take down. It got stuff. Surreal looked really good. Expand a little bit on your thoughts after what we just saw, heartbreaking, devastating, unceremonious stuff here tonight.

man the first thing is it just sucks right like this is one of those situations i was trying to think you know in the process when this is happening when's the last time something uh which was kind of built up to be something big like this in a main event and ended with this kind of thud and it and it might might be aspinall maybe you guys can correct me if there's one that i'm forgetting but it might be the aspinall blades the first fight it was one of those situations where you're like man this is like and that one was in london and you're like he's he this is how he's going to to lose right like he gets injured this is how he's going to lose and i think we put that behind us in the way that like now he's rolling and we get to fully see what he's going to do 15

months and all this guy has been through to the point where he's just sick and tired of talking about it and now you enter this period of and i mean i hope he's okay man because that was a deep eye poke i don't know if you guys have ever been poked in the eye but when that happens and you lose sight for even a minute it freaks you out i mean it's like something that's been in your faculties for your whole life suddenly shut down. It's not an easy adjustment. And he said even after the five-minute period, even as he's being interviewed, he still couldn't see. That's very scary stuff. You have to worry now about the career of Tom Aspinall. Now you have to worry about these types of things. And if everything goes well, you get to the next best case scenario, which is just that he's back into the same

situation that he was in trying to get to this position to defend the title and everything that comes with that it's just this is just one of those i mean i i felt you could feel the air leave that room couldn't you like it just felt like it was such a devastating um effect that that place just got like a cathedral hush came over that place and uh it just it just sucks i mean when you put this much into a fight and the fans rally around it after all the iterations we were looking at all the hopes dreams whatever we were looking for in the heavyweight division for it to end like this it's not easy man This was just a really, it was heartbreaking for him, to be honest, man.

Petey, Ptzee, how about this? And to Chuck's point, this according to the UFC, Tom Aspinall v. Surreal Gunn is the second championship fight, championship fight, not heavyweight championship fight, second championship fight in UFC history to end in a no contest. It's the first such no contest to be called on the night. The other championship no contest, John Jones versus Daniel Cormier,

which became a no contest at a later. date due to a failed drug test by John Jones. This is historic stuff and that's why it's hard to kind of find a comparison. It's because we've never seen it with these stakes involved PTC. Absolutely. And look you could see

you could see what was happening hitting Aspinall as he's going through the motions in that corner. Everything that Chuck said like this has been a very very hard time on that team. And I know a lot of people, Thomas

presented himself very well every time he was interviewed, but this is one of the most mentally draining situations. I think his father himself and the team have been in for a long time, just waiting for this moment, waiting for a chance to be the champion, waiting to fight. I think they showed up this week and you could see that they were very airy. We're finally here. This is what we're meant to be doing. We're here to fight. We're finally going to be able to do this. The poke happens. He's in the corner. You can see him realize like, I can't see how this eye. The ref is coming over asking him questions. And you can see the panic on his face. And I know because I've never seen this man panic before. I see it in this

situation. And you can suddenly realize like, I want to fight here, but I also cannot see. And then the crowd, you know, the crowd are booing. And you understand that you're after paying money to see this fight. I know you want to see this fight. I'm sitting at home as well. I want to see the fight. A lot of people around the UK have paid money to see this. They obviously are dying to see this heavyweight king do what he does. I think that's why we got the reaction on the Mike, honestly. Like, I think that is out of character for Tom, but I completely understand it. Like, this guy is thinking, he's not just thinking, oh, no, what about this fight?

As Chuck said, he's thinking about what about my vision here. Now, this guy has kids, he's worried about moving forward his career. It could be a detached retina. We could have a scratch cornea there. I don't know what the situation is. But never seen Tom like that, but completely understand, given the buildup, given to everything this was meant to be for him. And look, I'm very, I can imagine how serial guys.

That first round went incredible. He had a great first round. As you said, he outlanded him. He hit him with a jab in the first 30 seconds, a really short job that busted his nose, it seemed. He was having a lot of success. Like, it's, no one is happy that this has happened. Like there is no one, look at this, you know, this was an outcome we wanted. This is devastating for absolutely everyone.

No one got off here because this went to a no contest. Tom Aswan was happy fighting in there. It's just a really shit situation, unfortunately. And let's address it because I'm seeing it all over our chat. I'm seeing it all online. Tom quit. Tom quit. It got dicey out there for him and he quit.

And you know, if it hasn't happened already, you know John Jones is going to weigh in. This is the guy. This is the guy. For the record, John Jones was offered for the million time, $30 million to fight this band. And he didn't. You can't claim after the fact, this is the guy, this is the guy, but you know he's going to spike the football. And there's a cruel irony involved in the fact that Tom doesn't fight John, Jones, but still gets eye-poked.

But this is tough for him. This is the first time in his career where he's not going to be beloved by people because people are going to accuse him of being a quitter, because they're going to say that the going got tough, and he asked for a way out. I think that's absolute hogwash. He got poked in both eyes. It was straight out of the three stooges.

But whatever I say, whatever I say, doesn't matter. Whatever I say, doesn't matter because, Chuck, you know this is going, I could just see it. I saw a couple of mentions already. when the going got tough he bolted right that's what people are going to say that's going to be the takeaway here right

it's just so frustrating man I mean and this is just such a default I'd never know in these days how much the gambling aspect plays a hand in this kind of like reactionary this kind of thing but dude they showed it in super slow mo

did you watch that I could almost not watch it because it was so like oh god you know you get squeamish watching something like that I don't think he's faking it. It's just so, oh, it's just so gross to look at, man. I mean, I don't think he's faking. He wasn't looking for a way out. Look at that. Go back to that picture, please. Look at that hand. Look at that finger there. What is that? The index? That's local deep. He's a local deep in there. And then look at the other. It's a man's poking face, you know? Like,

come on. Here's the thing. Here's the thing. And now we can get into semantics. Again, I don't think Surreal gun did this on purpose. And I'm totally fine with the no contest. But at what point are we going to tell guys to stop? There's no reason to be fighting like this. There's no reason to be fighting like this. There's also a glove situation area. It's not as simple. We know that the gloves, they have said that there is other gloves with a natural curve. We've been down this road before. There is better things that the UFC could do here for this glove situation as well.

This happens all the time. This happens multiple times per event. Ipokes are just part of the sport now and they shouldn't be. Let's just ask the question. If you're fighting like this and you double poke a guy, should that be a DQ? I mean, ultimately does it really matter? No, Tom is still the champion. but I'm just saying

why are we doing this? You know it's funny like if John Jones does weigh in like you're saying and spikes the football which I believe he will just like you said he's notorious for this

you know you talk to Dominic Gray is a guy like that and he's like man he poked me so many times that it affected his vision and like it affected him in that fight it's just

you see something like this where it actually becomes a factor and it makes it does raise the question they've been trying to address this for years. And they had the gloves that they were tinkering with the curvature on the gloves and all that stuff. I don't know what the answer is, but when you're leading, like you were just demonstrating, when you're leading like that, when you're throwing your hands with your fingers pointed out like that, it's just like everything else. Like you don't grab the fence and you don't do

that, right? Like you don't just thrust your hands forward towards somebody's face with the fingers out. I think it's got to look at it at some point. I mean, it's affected other big fights. I can't remember. Maybe you guys can't off the top of your heads, but I know I've seen this before where this type of situation has stopped a fight and you kind of think about when it's this glaring when it's a pay-per-view

and everybody sees it and the world's interest is on it this is when it becomes a big deal. Here's the thing also. The other thing that kind of irks me here is once again that intentional unintentional conversation comes up and to me it's just like

is it a foul or is it not? And if a foul leads to the conclusion of a fight then the guy should be declared the winner. Ultimately, it doesn't really matter because he wins the fight. Sorry, he doesn't win the fight. He retains the belt.

So what really... Can I ask you something real quick on that point, though? Like, say that he'd already had a slightly more minor eye poke, right? Like the same thing, but it was a minor eye poke. They go back and then this happens, like a minute later. Does that alter then that it's accidental versus... You know what I mean?

Because he would have done it twice? Yes, because now it's twice. I mean, look what happened last week with the multiple shots below the belt with Mike Malad and Neil Magni. I mean, every referee is different, but what am you're glad to say? I know you're not doing it on purpose. I know it's unintentional, but, you know, these are shots below the belt. Ultimately, it didn't really matter.

He never took away the points, but I tend to think that foul should be reprimanded. Who knows what would have happened here? Here's the thing. Here's the thing. okay so it was four minutes and 35 seconds in there were 25 seconds left in the fight do we think gone was winning that round would gone have won that round I think so I thought he was winning the round yeah so I think gone was going to get that round which would have been a huge huge thing for him you could almost sense that his

confidence was building right it felt like once he got past those first two minutes I felt like he's like yeah like those those old demons that I don't show up in big fights or the john jones fight whatever was plaguing him the volkov fight it felt like all of that was going away. Credit to him, he fought a brilliant round. He really did. And so I don't think he was looking

for any kind of way out. I don't think he was trying to hurt him. But again, a foul is a foul. Now the question is, how is Tom going to... There's so many layers to this because how's,

okay, Tom's going to have to respond to all of this. He's going to have to deal with all of this. Also, you hear the doctor say, hey, the eyeball is fine. I'm sure people are going to... What was that? They're going to reference that. Who is he to say?

I mean, yes, the eyeball didn't have a chunk taken out of it, but it's not out of his head. That is going to be used against Tom. There is no doubt about it that's going to be used against Tom. Is there a silver lining in all of this?

Does this entice John Jones to be like, oh, you know what? I can actually beat this more. We talked about this Pizzi. We talked about this very thing in the crack. I think there is multiple. I don't think it's just the fact that, of course, John Jones is going to tweet.

And if I'm John Jones manager, I'm saying, listen, John, I don't have you watch the fight tonight, but get on X there, mate, and have yourself a good time with this. Is that $30 million still on the table? It's not even just that Ariel. You have to do this fight again, and this fight is way more interesting

than it was this week. 100%. You do Cyril Gan v. Tom Askell is suddenly way more interesting than it was for the last year, as we knew slowly but surely we were getting this fight. What Gan did in that first round

has given us a different perspective that we wouldn't have had on this fight. And I think it makes it a lot more interesting. Like, as well as this, like, I think everybody was watching. watching the clock. That two minutes and two seconds and we're going, well, what's it going to look like outside this? What would the third round of look like? What would the

fourth round of look like? Right. That's the answer. We're heading towards those answers, right? It was a great fight. All action, power shots. It was riveting. They were both standing there. Like, there was no they were talking on the broadcast. Oh, they thought Cyril would circle. He would get on his bike, all this stuff. There was none of that.

Like, he met him in the middle. And Charles is still at home saying, I did this lad in two minutes. I did this. I did the guy who beat Tom Aspel. I did him in two minutes. Pereira is at home going these let's just want to strike. These didn't even know takedowns here. This is perfect. If the UFC was looking for an excuse for Pereira and Joe, I'm sure

we'll talk about it, but... Oh, there we go. They just got it, right? If this is the fight now and it has more interest on it, like everything pans out on that level, right? Oh, here's a tweet from Alex Pereira. Let's make the heavyweight division great again. Oh, here we're going. Watching the scene. This is great

for Tom. This is the best... Listen, there are... This is all good in terms of he's still the champion. He doesn't lose. the belt. It's some adversity. Look, he faced adversity worse than this when he blew out his knee against Curtis Blade. Blades fought all the way back to come back and look even better. I mean, as long as those flights are bigger and sexier, you got to run this one back, right? Gotta do it. You have to do it. Where do you do it is the question, but you got to do it. You got to do it. Can I just like one thing that we just should agree on, like we should have a, not that

we should agree on. I just want to ask you guys like, this is completely the right thing to do if he as it can't see out of that eye, right? Like, have we, if you're, if you're there and you have a go, you've waited this long for this moment, as we've explained, and suddenly this happens and you cannot see, like, I think that's an argument people are going to make, like, oh, you still had one eye, it would have came back eventually, like, this is not, like, when you're playing with this game and you're at the very top of this game and you're suddenly earning money and suddenly things are starting to happen to you, because you need to be at the very top of this game to earn, like, lifelong money. Most of the people that get into this sport, they, they, they

walk away with nothing. Tom's in that situation now where you're going to, you can make a lot of money if you win some of these fights. He's in a situation. I don't even think you're thinking about that though. You know what I mean? Like I think he, you said it. Like he was panicking. Like he looked like he was panicking and he was like, dude, I cannot see. I cannot see. The look on his face and his reaction

to the crowd, I would be panicking too. I would be panicking too. There's so much out of character. Gone was game. And then the doctor B. So he's saying, no, it's out. His eyeball's fine. Like, yeah. That's ridiculous. He must be going like, what is happening? Like, what? Like, you know, is this real life? And then he's getting booed. I mean, he's got a bloody nose. That's new for him as well.

By the way, I miss this in that Pereira tweet. But if you go back and look at it, there's the Shama statue there. And there's also a bones. Equal house. Oh, White House? White House. Yeah, it's a White House. That's a called Jones, too.

I mean, you know. That's beige. Man, how frustrating. How frustrating. We've been waiting since July of 2000. and 24. Tom disposes of Curtis Blades very quickly.

Then this whole saga and it culminates with this. It's really a massive bummer. I was happy for surreal gun. Just the fact that I felt like he was able to shed some of those demons. Like he really showed up. He proved that he belonged. He looked to be in great shape.

Did you see those pictures from him like a year ago to now? Somehow his waist got even like got even smaller. He looks incredible. She looked phenomenal. You have to run it back. You have to run it back. Maybe you do that springtime event in London.

Now, again, Dana White alluded to this. Now that, I think it was in that interview with Adam Catterall of TNT Sports, now that Paramount Plus isn't going the pay-per-view route, you have to start doing these afternoon shows. You have to start picking strategic times. Look, their friends at WWE are doing it all the time. They're doing international events all the time now for their PLEs. so maybe it's a title fight in London

or somewhere in Europe or maybe it's just a big Vegas fight but to me as much as I would love to see John tweet all right I'll take that fight now or Pereira say you know what let me go for three it's got to be Surreal Gunn versus Tom Aspinall again the next time these two guys fights I fight I mean it's just any other

route would be a disservice yeah and to your point his stock went up right his stock goes up because he showed up as a defiant front He was a huge underdog. And like the way he was looking, I mean, you know, like he was such a heavy favor here. I think it's going to be much closer for the bookies next time around. I guarantee that. Oh, yeah.

That's what I, that's what I'm saying. So I feel like when you hit upon it being more interesting, that part is solved. Like as long as Tom is able to go and they can turn this around fairly quickly. And you could see how much gone was invested in this by just him breaking down and, you know, crying essentially on his knees there. he wanted it as bad right like it's just you can't like we go into this game and the whole idea is to find resolution and to like set up the next thing there was so much at play so much sideline interplay with everything going on we got no resolution there's only one thing to do to find that resolution now yeah this this reminds me a lot of two degrees it's very different but it reminds me a little bit of daniel dubois in that people are now going to call tom aspinall a quitter and And, you know, it's people who don't possess, like, any sort of DNA that Tom Aspin possess in terms of doing this for a living. And that's just, you know, the price of being a pro athlete. But the idea that this guy would quit, would look for a way out is so absurd.

It is truly absurd. And look, let's not hide the fact that we all like Tom very much. There's no doubt about it. He's a great guy. He's a great representative. He has done nothing for anyone not to like him to suggest that he quit. You could say that he lost that first round. I think he lost that first round. I think we all agree that he lost that first round. Yeah. You could, I mean, that is fair game. But to suggest that he quit, that he wanted a way out, that he looked for a way out because

the going got tough is just something that I'm not going to subscribe to. He got poked in both eyes. It's, come on, it's the age of social media. Like, this is the reaction we're always going to get. And as Chuck said, gambling plays a big part in these things as well. You know, people are pissed off. People have put money into this. People have paid for the pay-per-view.

people have bought tickets. They're billing because they didn't get the show. Like, you know, it probably is directed at Tom, like, because of the situation. But, like, it's just a freak, freak situation. Oh, my dad downstairs, he doesn't watch a lot of mixed martial arts. He'd never seen someone getting poked in the eye before in a fight. He was like, this guy needs to be banned forever about Cyril Gannon. I was like, no, this happens all the time.

He's like, what? People get poked in the eye all the time in the sport. And I was like, yeah, multiple times per event. So a multitude of reactions across the board. Also, it's supposed to, yeah, it's a main event. And in the situation, just for the crowd there, like, it's supposed to be your, yes, but we still got this big heavyweight fight at the back.

You already had a couple of fights where they were booing fairly mercilessly. Of course, the Almeida fight where it was just, you know, it just wasn't much to watch. I think there were times in the Umar fight where people were booing. So it's like you kind of keep it in the back of mind, well, at least we have this big fight at the back of it.

And when it doesn't pay off, they're going to boo. So according to Tapology, Tom was a minus 400, favorite going into this fight, gone a plus 310. Now I'm starting to see some early lines circulating and they've got Tom as a minus 185 got a plus 160. So that suggests just how you know how close this fight was. Petey, you've watched Tom a lot over the years. What surprised you about all of this? What was it? Was it just this gone just was aggressive and was beating him to the punch, so to speak? Or was there something else going on? The one takedown didn't go his way? What did you think? I just thought.

he didn't get he didn't find his distance early he didn't get going the way he would have wanted to get going again things just weren't going right and a lot of things I've been going so well for him in the in the octagon obviously um gone as well very front forward um early on that right hand straight away is like straight away and like holy shit my nose is busted immediately and then we saw the takedowns he was kind of i don't know if he was faint in takedowns um to some degree to try and let a shot off afterwards but he just couldn't find gan where he'd usually find guys i felt like he was finding it very difficult to find his range plant his feet and just land a big big uh overhand really is what he was trying to do and i feel like

he was just his feet weren't where he wanted to be obviously he could have settled into the fight like we've all said that gan um won the first round but in no way was i like this fight is this is going to be a really great fight like this is this is a fight that's um going to be contested on the feet it looks like and both lads have had success i just thought gan had more. I didn't think Tom was out of a fight by any means, but I didn't think he was settled as he usually gets settled. Like even against Pavlovich

remember he eats that shot and suddenly it's like, oh, I'm in a fight and he gets going straight away. I don't think he got himself where he wanted to be after eating that right hand. I still think he was chasing it to a degree. It felt like a prime of a countdown, right? Like a countdown too for the takedown. He was going to start to go for that

a little bit more. He really hadn't even begun that part of the game. So there was definitely a lot of stuff left in pending there. Prime example as to why you kind of have to wait for the entire card to finish because I put out there after the Volkov win, the

very ho-hummish fight between him and Joltenhammeda, which we all kind of thought was going to be the number one contender fight. If Pereira and Jones are doing their own thing over here, these two guys were probably fighting for a number one contender slot, and let's be honest, a lot of us thought Tom Aspinall would beat Seeril Gan. And I said, is he going

to get a title shot off a performance like this? For the record, Alexander Volkov won a fight, which was, to me, reminiscent, if you guys recall, Michael Vennon Page versus Logan Storley, in a fight back in 2002, I think it actually happened in Ireland, if I'm not mistaken. In any event, Storley took him down repeatedly, won the fight, but didn't do anything with the takedowns, and Page was a lot busier off his back, just doing, it was France, yeah, just doing whatever he could off his back, and I thought that was enough to win the fight. And it was very reminiscent of that fight because Almeida was taking Volkov down with relative ease, but was doing nothing with the takedowns.

I mean, absolutely nothing. If you look at the stats, it's kind of wild. I got the stats right over here. So, Jalton Almeida against Alexander Volkov, Almeida was 7 of 9 as far as takedowns are concerned, but as far as significant strikes, just 9 of 10, 27 of 33 total strikes. Meanwhile, Volkov, who was taken down 7.

times a hundred and twenty three of thirty of a one thirty in terms of total strikes in twenty four of twenty seven in terms of significant strikes so he got the nod but it wasn't exactly you know a fight to write home about and by the way i agree with the judges and it was great to see them score the fight that way and so i said like wow lorone murphy can't get a title shot after a spinning back elbow when a spectacular one against arra pico but volkov's going to get a title shot just based off the fact that he's the de facto number one contender now, kind of a sad state of affairs at heavyweight

and now it seems like they're not going to have to worry about that because they're going to have to run this back. Unless one of you thinks Volkov should leapfrog gone and get their match instead of gun, no? You're not going to have me arguing that. I will say because we have been given officials a lot of shit over the last couple of weeks, I thought they

had a really great night. Rich Mitchell and Rat Goddard took points very early for Fells early on. I'd love to see it. They set a precedent tonight with like, this is what's going to happen and I thought they were really good. You mentioned the judge's decision with Volkov. I thought there was a few fights that were very difficult to score, and I think they came away, and they did a great job with the cards.

Wood Delgado very early on was kind of like that Mitroposo and Moksham, from very difficult fights to score, but I think they did a great job today. I just feel like we need to say that because I think we've been a bit. We've been a bit. 100%. But I thought we were fair. I thought we were fair. By the way, if you listen to Jason Herzog, talk to Gans,

I think he was talking to him specifically, but maybe someone close to you could you could you could hear it but you couldn't see it he said I know it wasn't intentional but it's still foul did you hear that yeah that that suggests to me that he was going to take a point away right if in fact the fight resumed correct and and I feel like they heard the criticism from last week and you saw here and Andy Foster even alluded this to me like they need to stop with the warnings and just penalize right and so I'll ask you guys this. I'll ask you this, Chuck, if he was on the verge of taking a point away, shouldn't that be a DQ? If he was going to reprimand him for the foul.

That's a great point. You fall right into these gray areas, right? Like, that they just, there's no definitive protocol on this sort of thing, really. Like, it's still based on judgment. And that's why I've heard you, I've heard you talking about this before. I, there is a point in time when you're like, it has to just be a foul or not a foul. It's just like, if you're watching any other sport and yes there's some subjectivity to what a foul is but if it's a foul like if they blow the whistle right it's a foul it's just that's what it is or if a guy goes to the ground there's contact that's a foul um you're not allowed to like slap a guy's arm right like you just

know you're supposed to do that so if you poke a guy in the eye and you're you're you're leading your attack with your fingers out it should just be a foul i mean at some point it has to be right like this feels like i remember you saying like sometimes we're in the leather helmet days you know, on certain aspects of the sport. And this seems to me to be one of those aspects. Like we just, we keep going around and round without resolution as to what to do about it. It's a foul or it's not a foul. I'm seeing a tweet here from our good friend New York, Rick.

Oh, I can't wait to talk to New York, Rick, about this on Monday. I mean, he might be able to chime in right now. I don't even know if he's there. Frankie, is Rick there right now? Come on, Rick. He's not in the room with us. No. He's not, I just saw that where's he tweeted it from?

Where's he treated us from? The cafeteria over there? What are the takes about the first round of Tom Aspinall versus Surreal Gun are getting wild. Okay, okay, okay. All right, fair. That's a good start. I haven't seen.

Reminds me of Leon Edwards versus Bilal Muhammad and the tales being spun about it being a foregone conclusion of who was going to win before the eye pokes up that. I'm sorry, Leon was winning that fight very, very clearly. What are we talking about here? No, no, no, no. Don't suggest for a second. this is not the same.

This is not the same. I'm here. I'm here. Go on, Rick. Hold on. First half. No coward. No coward.

Awful. Don't even compare the two. It's such a perfect take. I'm so happy that you said, I came in just to hear this nonsense about like, oh, Leon Edwards was on the way to smoking this guy. He was smoking. He was one round of action and then an I poke. It was nothing. Smoking.

It was a nothing first round. Smoking. By the way, it was a round and a half. It was a round and a half. It happened 18. seconds into round two. A round plus. This was sub one round in a 16th.

The difference of the 40 seconds is what makes it. It was a huge 18 seconds, Rick. It's the exact same scenario. These fantasies that are being spun right now about how Cyril Gahn was about to dominate this fight because he had a successful first. Oh, you're 100%. See, we agree on that. We agree on that.

I just don't agree on the Leon Bilal fight. We agree on this. All right, guys, let's talk about the fight that happened today. Okay, come on. Rick, you're cooking. Go, Rick. Rick, go, go. Have a good joke. That's it. That's it. That's it. That's all you had to say.

But no, but he is right about the first part. The only narrative, the only narrative, unless you're sane-minded people like us who will be called blazers, who will be called bias, the only narrative that you will hear from people is that God was winning that fight and he was looking for a way. I guess what? Guess what? Well, I was going to say that's going to sell a lot of paper views,

but it ain't. because this fight ain't happening in 2025. I know that, that's a great point. It's going to sell a lot of subs. People are going to sign up. Actually, you might be a pay-per-view. TNT. Was this a pay-per-view in Europe on TNT?

So there you go. For the first time ever, it's going to be a pay-per-view for you guys and not for us. Right? Yeah, me-ta-me-ta-swatching. He's like, ah, we fucking pay it $20 quib for this, did you? Nah yourself, old man. You know yourself.

What do you think? Chuck, Perrier's now. fight is it a heavyweight as a result does this change your opinion on what's going on oh chuck knows something right here what does chuck know about his neighbor oh okay you talk to him more than i do think so though i think that he wants that fight and that's that i feel like john jones the red carpets out for that fight now right like they just rolled it out for that to happen well you don't think is there any part of you that think john says okay you know what i'll take this fight now I'll take this Tom fight.

Because, you know, if, I would, maybe I'm wrong. But if John calls up Dana right now, it says, I'll take it. Give it to me. Do you think they say, hey, surreal? They just pushed through him right out. But we've given you three title fights. I don't think they can. I don't know.

They're giving Diego Lopez another title fight after he just lost the belt. He won one fight. But if Tom were smoking him, if Tom were lighting him up and then this happened, I'd be like, yes, of course that's going to. But I just think that he put on enough of a performance, that bloody aspect, too, just. the bloody nose and everything. It was enough of a performance where you're like,

I don't know if you can just push him aside here. Which is crazy because we thought he was the interloper and like all these wild scenarios and now all of a sudden we're saying, no, it's got to be gone. Well, can you let it play out to a degree, ladsley? Can you let this Pereira Jones thing play out because they have to do Aspiram and Gan again?

And then you just got to hope to God that Jones doesn't just win and decide, you know what? Actually, I'm okay for another couple of years again. But does, do you guys think that, I'm in all serious. Pete, we talked about this.

I was like, maybe Espinel tries to look a little vulnerable in there to entice. I know he did not do that. But like, does it, does it have that effect, though? As Jones now say like,

you know what? I see something that I think I can do. He's going to weigh in. He's 100% going to weigh in. And I think this is going to make him a little bit more interested. Be like, oh, this guy was beat. Listen, John Jones,

wherever he may be right now is thinking, I should have taken that $30 million. There's no doubt about that. I should have taken that. fight and I would have won that fight. That's what he's telling himself right now. There's no doubt about it. You know this because the moment he retired, he announced his comeback.

So he already had buyer's remorse, so to speak. And now it's worse. The question is, though, do they run it back with Surreal? Do they try to do, like, I don't think it's, I think it's what they should do. I think it's the right thing to do, but I don't think it's fed accompli. I think there's too many, there's too many options right now. anyway, Jones and Pereira is the biggest fight. So, like, is that not the priority over this?

So it makes perfect sense to let that play out. And you know what, I hope Jones is thinking that. I really do. I think that is the best outcome for us fight people who love fights. But John Jones comes back. Like, I would love to see him come back. I'd love to see him fight Pereira. I'd love to see him fight.

But I need to see Aspiral and fight. I need to see that now. That's important. You just cannot. I know it's going to say no contest on paper. It was such a good fight. It was such a good fight. It was left on a cliffhanger, essentially, you know?

Like, you don't know what was going to happen there. Dana White is addressing the media in Abu Dhabi right now. Here are some highlights, courtesy of our friend Aaron Bronstetter, who I don't think is there, but is watching the stream. He said, well, he writes, White thought it was a great showing for Gunn, but obviously a terrible ending. Thought the fight was heading for being a good fight based on what we saw.

Okay, they plan on rebooking the fight. that is what Dana White is saying White also says that Tom Aspinall is on his way to the hospital to get his eye checked out and he says that no matter what the UFC tries to do with the gloves

eye pokes are going to happen so they introduced those new gloves they got rid of them for whatever reason and KOs going down wasn't it? Yeah what a weird time that was right you know what we're going back to the old ones Yeah. What a weird time.

Okay, let's quickly talk about some other results because we've been talking about this for a minute here. McKenzie Dern is the new UFC Strawway champion. Chuck, your thoughts on the fight and her being the champ now at 115. It was a pretty... We were talking about this fight going in and I think Ben Folks had mentioned

that she's a little unpredictable. Like sometimes you think that she's gotten better in a certain area she shows up the next time looking raw again. This particular time, she was really dialed in. I mean, I felt like her striking looked really good. She had some really good combos in there from the early portions. I think she knew, like, she was going to get taken down.

She mentioned that she thought that she would end up on her back in these situations, but you could tell that she was pretty comfortable there. She was landing shot. She was still being offensive from her back. I thought she just looked really good. And that goes double for Jondarova because, you know, at 37 years old to fight her way back or to fight her way into the situation is unlike. And I wrote about it this week, and we talked to her and all that stuff, and to see her go out there and kind of execute it, just shy, obviously, of getting it done. But I thought that she put on a pretty good performance, too, just in, you know, much better than her first time through. So in my mind, that fight delivered.

Yeah. And, you know, there was an interesting little thing about this fight. We were talking about the Volkov Almeida fight, Pizzi. Jean-Joruba was quite active with her takedowns. She shot for some. She shot for some. 17 landed nine of them but wasn't doing as much again with the takedowns. Dern outstruck her, outlanded her total strikes and significant strikes. And she alluded to that in her post-fight interview that she was happy that they weren't just awarding takedowns. You know, Dern is a very popular fighter in the UFC. This is probably the best case scenario for them. And, you know, very impressed with how far she's come. Remember, this is a fighter who was having a lot of trouble making weight in her early days. Ever since she became a mom, for whatever reason, she was able to change everything, and she's been through a lot, and she's been quite open about the personal stuff that she's

been through. So a very nice moment, especially with her dad after the fight, and she did mention, and I don't know if this is 100% accurate, but she mentioned that she believes that it's just her and Fabrice of her Doom, who have won ADCC, IBJJF, and now a UFC title. Yeah, it's incredible. And you know what the most impressive thing about it is, like, she didn't look like a jih Tzu player in there. She looked like an M. A fighter. Even when she was taken down, I think earlier in her

career, she would have just relied on her guard. She has such a brilliant guard. But I think she recognized going into this fight before it even started. Like, I can't do that with Verna. She's too good in top position. She will take me down. So I think that's why you saw her kind of,

she didn't spend as much time trying to set up submissions. She just went straight away to strikes. And she was landing some really, really nasty elbows from bottom position. On the feet, I think Jason Brillo will be so happy what he saw. She was landing one, two, so well. She really marked up Vairn his face really early on,

like showing that. Like, she's having a real impact here. But I thought it was a great performance. And look, she's been through a lot of shit, McKenzie Dern, as you said, as she told you on your show. I think it's a great story too. Her dad is a legend.

She is a legend of grappling in our own right going and watch that Gabby Garcia grappling match. If you haven't seen it before, she's absolutely amazing. I think it's probably the best move for the company as well. It's a great story. She is well used to the spotlight. She was always in the spotlight, even back in her jih Tzu days.

So I think it's good for the company. I think she had a great account of herself. As far as who might be next for her, I think it's hard to say right now because if Zhang loses to Valentina, I suspect she goes back down to 115, and that would be the fight to make, right? If she wins and stays at 125, then it's kind of, I don't know, then there's no real layup as far as

a number one contender there like Vierna is won Tatiana Suarez is one I don't think Tatiana's getting another crack at the belt what

what we're not doing and we're more confused about the divisions than we've never been both of them which is pretty incredible looking for this closure right

we just want to at least she fights next like what is it like three or weeks it's like she's coming up quickly the timing is okay to wait it out

and see you know if she wins that fight I would love to see that fight, by the way. Yeah. With that version, with that version we just saw of Dern,

you know, knowing what we know of, of Waley. Yeah, do you think that would have been competitive? Like, because I was pretty impressed

with her, but like, that's a, that's a, that's a big step, man. That's a big step. That's a big step.

Yeah, I'm saying no. Yeah, I'm saying. Yeah. I mean, the, the Zhang that we saw against Suarez, yeah,

I don't think anyone touches her. I think, I don't know, yeah, I don't even know what the odds are, but I consider her the favorite going into the Schifchenko fight

despite the fact that she's moving up. I think she's going to win you. Yeah. Yep, I agree with that. What are the odds? UFC 322 odds Zhang Chevy

so I don't know. I'm going to exchange that's crazy enough with Janjerova and Darren. Like they were like constantly sweeping each other. Like once they just rolling across. There's a couple times where they both just collided. Like their offensive momentum

did just collide in the middle. and kind of almost butt heads. It was crazy. Zhang, a slight favorite guys, minus 120, Schenko, minus 105. Umar and Marga Madov with the unanimous decision

win against Mario Batista. All three judges guys had it 30 to 27 for Umar. I thought that Batista won the second round with the knee that dropped him. Doesn't really matter. Here's the scorecard, but it really doesn't matter

because Umar won that fight. Fair and Square. He beats a guy who was on a, a very impressive winning streak who had some hard fought wins over some, you know, top competition. Obviously, the Aldo fight

much talked about, the patchy mix fight, much talked about, all that stuff and more. And can I just say, here's the thing that kind of irks me. Can I just say this? Here are the things that kind of irked me.

So, Umarna Manga Madov beat Corey Sanagan and he got a title shot, right? Corey Sanhagan was the only rank guy that he had ever beaten. Amazing winning streak. He was 18 and 0 after that fight. He gets a title shot.

He loses that title shot, right? He loses that title fight, fair and square. He loses to Marab in January. So what is it? Nine months ago. He's won one fight since then. And it's like this entitlement that like, yeah, I'm next. You were the contender.

You beat one guy in the top 15. One guy. You got a title shot. You've now just beaten one guy. Why are you next? I don't understand. Why are you next? And I look at a guy like Amon Zahabi,

who's won seven in a row who hasn't got a lot. who hasn't gotten in a crack, why does he deserve it more than him? I don't get that. Could someone explain this to me? Well, I mean, I agree with you. And, you know, like, going back to the, you mentioned the Sandhanger,

remember they kind of expedited this whole thing and put him on ABC. It was like an ABC fight, and you were like, we're only doing this. They're literally doing this because I think the name, Nurmanga Madov,

they're like, we want to put this back into a, you know, the center of attention. So you could kind of understand it in that respect. But if you compare that what just happened, right, like in this year,

going back to January, where Marab has been, what he's done, and like you mentioned, other people within the division, what they're doing versus Umar. It doesn't automatically warrant anything. The only reason is because I think there's a certain amount of people, fans, and media who think that Umar is the only guy who presents a real threat to him, right? I feel like that's probably where it comes from.

But if you talk to Umar and I did this week, that entitlement is like ingrained him. Like he fully believes that he's, you know, one good showing and he's in there. But you're absolutely right because he'd only had, what, a handful of fights the first time as he went into that ABC card against Sanhagen. He only had a handful of UFC fights. So for him to be kind of in that royalty position where you're like, okay, this guy, we're just, if he wins one, he's back, it seems a little strange to me. I'm with you on that. I think it's just the name and it's the expectation that he brings like a, you know, a graver sort of doubt.

to the situation. I don't like, PC, I just want to say, I don't like when someone loses a title fight as a challenger, wins one fight, and gets another crack. That makes it seem like you wanted that guy to win and you're trying to even things out. You know what I mean? Yeah, but I will say,

it seemed like the old team Normaga Madoff was seeing a completely different tune when it came to a man called Paul Hughes. Wow. Wow. That's a good call, man. I just said, a bit of hypocrisy there, guys. you know what I'm saying?

I thought you couldn't do this. You need to be four or five guys. No brother. But we'll say he's a hell of a fodder, isn't he? And I also I'd like to say, Batista goes up in my estimation too. He had some great moments. They showed the rolling toehold he hit

in the first scrap exchange. What a dog. A guy who's very difficult to like do anything against. He had some moments. You know what I mean? Like that, that knee too for just a minute. You're like, oh shit, this could steer the whole thing. He's a nightmare, dude.

guy for anyone else in the division is a nightmare. I thought, look, I think Eumar's class, and I subscribe to the talk that Chuck had there, like, if Marab continues to be the champion here, he, he, he at least took two rounds off him. Now, I know the three, four and five were exceptionally dominant by

Morab after that point, but at least we saw, like, this guy gave him for two rounds. Pete, see, what was he going to do? His hand was compromised. I know, exactly, right? Like, we got to see what happens in round six, seven and eight now. I do like, I think he's brilliant. And I even, I found it quite endearing at the end when they said, like, D.C. was asking about Habib.

And he's like, I keep trying to be like Habib, but, uh, no, I just can't. And I was like, yeah, fair enough. Dude, his take down his entries, it's like he shot out of a cannon some of those. Like that picture that they just showed, it looked like he was like flying in from off the top, the top rope or something, man. I mean, his, he gets in there so quick, it's just very difficult to deal with. He's so fluid, right? Like, even the grappling situations, like, it is different to be, because when Habib hit top position on you, you just didn't move. You're just, I'm here. Whereas

Bautista was offering up so movement of the, so much movement on the bottom, Umar was constantly flowing off. Like that shot. Look at that. It's ridiculous. Oh, incredible. And I think that was a scramble as well. I don't think they settled there. I think they kept rolling through like two little mini tornadoes. It was an incredible, it was an incredible watch

that point. Brilliant. But by the way, I need to upgrade my situation here because I use my phone as my camera because I've had problems with other cameras and DC is calling me. And I don't know if he wants to come on the show, but I'm getting a notification that he's calling me

from Abu Dhabi. I wonder what he thinks. Rick, text him there. Rick, let's see if we can get him in. He's a guy who knows a thing or two about getting poked in the eye, and he was right there front and center. By the way, in case you're wondering, and God help us if this goes haywire as well, the big

who's Joseph Parker is making the walk right now at the O2 against Fabio Wardley. It's about to kick off on DeZone pay-per-view. What happened to them getting rid of the pay-per-view? over there. What happened to that? In any event... That's another 20 stunts for me today. I mean, how many snuts do you want off me today? Fighting?

You know what I mean? But the Parker Wardley fight is about to kick off. So let's hope that there's a clear, decisive winner in that one. It would be horrible if not. So what do you guys say? Is it Umar versus the winner of Marab versus Peirotryan? And by the way, worth noting

Marab this year, if he beats Jan and fights Jan, of course. Right. That will be two fights against Yan. There were two fights against O'Malley, and then it's two fights against Umar. That's why I'm saying, like, could we see him against some fresh matchups? Could we see him get some fresh blood in there? That's all I'm saying.

And it just comes across to me as like you're trying to write the wrong. You're trying to even things out by having him fight these guys over and over again, especially so quickly. I think Maraub would agree with you that you should have new blood. I'm pretty sure he doesn't want to have to, you know, not that he's worried about, I don't think he would be too worried about losing the fight. might see him as a tough matchup, but I'm sure there's a point when you're like, I'm beating these guys, you know, like, let's move

on, you know? I'm trying to see if Dana White said anything about that. I'm reading here. No, no, no. He just said, once again, that they're going to try to look to rebook Aspen v. Gunn as soon as possible. Okay, let's talk about...

How do you think they feel? Honestly, I don't really think they get that pissed. they're about to get $1.1 billion. Like, well, what is it to be pissed about? The show rolls on, you know? You were out there for UFC 112, which was the first stop, first off,

Udbadi? Yeah. Like, do you remember how pissed he was? I just kind of, sometimes I kind of miss those days when, you know, it was just like, I'll cut him. You know, I don't care if he's the best fighter in the world. I'll cut him.

I know. Oh, yeah, it is. Different time, different time. Yeah. But yeah, that is crazy. That was the first stop back in 2010. Azamat Mirzikanov, defeating Alexander Rackage,

a little nasty short right there and that was in the first round 311 I mean it was just like a boom a quick shot rackets looked phenomenal everyone was talking about this all week he looked to be in tremendous shape

Merzikhanov afterwards like rackage was going up to him and probably a little bit out of it is still talking some trash that was a little strange and said afterwards that he yeah what do he say what do he say he wanted

and by the way his nickname is the professional just for the record which I thought was funny. I love this. Come on. Okay, but what is next for this guy? Because he was talking, what? Number one contender? Yeah.

That's the only rank guy that he's defeated. Very well. Yeah. He was, you know, he was shooting his shot. Yeah. Now a player. Tough one for Rockich. Yeah.

That's the only rank guy he's beaten to the best by all that. He's great. He's a bit of a bullocks, obviously, you know, talking about his shit like that afterwards. He's starching lads. He's shorter than everyone. He's got a bit of a best.

belly, that's not the like. You know what I mean? He's in every minute. You know, I love what he brought to the table tonight. I just knocked the guy out. This should be a big moment. No, I'm going to talk some more shit. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'm going to put this hat on. Don't really, looks a bit awkward. It didn't work for him. Fair play. Fair play. I like it. I like what he's bringing to the table. He's a bit of bullocks.

I like that. You're going against a guy, I think Rackich, who, it felt, I don't know how you guys felt about him. I always felt like he kind of got cut off at the past. like we never really saw how good he was yeah should have been to where he got like so he has this three fight losing streak i really felt like he was going to put out his best performance tonight not just because um you know not just to get the wind but like you know you don't want to be on that you don't want to be cut you know at some point where you're like

you're losing somebody if i said you're they're just like he's not worth it and i thought he looked that good so i feel for him man you get caught with something like that and i mean honestly the range from that shot was so acute like that angle he took the short punch. It's just what are you going to do, man? If that thing's containing power, enough power to put you down, I mean,

there's not much you can do about that. So I feel bad for him, man. I'd like now, because I think at one point in his career, if you go back maybe five, six years, I thought he'd certainly be a big player in this division. It just never really panned out for him. Circling back, because I can't stop thinking and I'm seeing all the stuff that's rolling in here.

Our old boss, Bill Simmons, weighing in. guys. Shout out to Big Bill. shout out to Ben Simmons as well. Gan poked aspirin all in both eyes and doubled down and went back for seconds on the same eye poke and dug even deeper.

If that's not a DQ, then what do you have to do on an eye poke for a DQ? Do you need to also use a shrimp fork? Maybe I don't understand the rules. That's not a good visual. I mean, but listen, listen, I know it's

the unpopular opinion but really, like, why isn't that a DQ? And again, it doesn't really ultimately matter, but really. It's because they know this could happen. No, it's because it's unintentional. I know. The Ipoch thing, if they made a protocol like that, it could cost you a lot of fights on any given, like, you know?

Great, great quote here. Great quote here, guys. Dana White asked about how to improve intentional slash unintentional ipokes or how to prove. If they're intentional or unintentional. Quote, who the fuck knows, who gives a shit? What are you going to do? That's how I feel about it too, actually.

No more fucks to give. Another quote here from Dana White, what makes sense is to do the rematch? I'm not saying that's going to happen. Anything can happen. Question was asked about Volkov being number one contender and getting a chance. They don't matchmake right after, so it's like.

Anything can happen apart from Volkov being next in line for that time. I can assure you that's not happening. I'll tell you what. That was the most depressing. fight of the night. The most terrifying moment of the night. No doubt happened during the prelims when Quillin Salkyild

knocked out Nassarad Hakpras with a head kick and Huckpras was out cold, guys. Face first on the mat, did not move. It was kind of convulsing. Yeah, very, very scary stuff. Quillan is a great story. Took the fight on 10 days' notice.

These boys from Perth, they can freaking pack a punch and I guess a kick as well. But, I mean, the power and just the technique was beautiful. It was just kind of shocking to see Huckpras out cold on the mat. But he had a great showing, great post-fight interview. Again, took the fight on short notice, cut a whole bunch of weight to make this fight, to accept it on short notice. And we were happy to see Huckpras eventually stand up, sit up, and then stand up and seem to be okay.

But that was scary stuff, Chuck. man it's you remember the was the Terry Edom the fight where he got like erased with that wheel kick what was it again it was it's in Barbosa

Barbosa Barboza how could I forget that like he the way he fell it was like his whole body went limp like a corpse right and that was what this reminded me of because his body just shut down you didn't see any movement even you know as he as he fell down

it was just timber to the ground face down and to see anybody face planted like you're looking at him here is always scary right especially when because they move the cameras pretty fast i don't think they want you concentrating on the on the on the con whoever just got conquered there but like you could see him twitching and it's just such a uh it's always such a scary moment because ufc specifically has dodged any real problems this way and like i don't know how you guys feel but i'm always like you you see something like is this the time is this the one you you don't want that right

like you just your your thoughts go to the your thoughts go to that guy in his corner and everybody and you just want to make sure they're okay so it's always like a relief they don't really focus on the guy but it's always a relief when you catch a glimpse of him sitting up 100% no I mean

I tweeted about the Alex Perra knockout of Thomas Powell in 2020 that's probably the most terrifying knockout that I've ever seen but when these guys are out like that it's so scary and it also reminds reminds you, like, how lucky we've been just as a MMA fan-based community is the sport to not

see anything worse because this is just, you know, it's crazy stuff that we're witnessing. By the way, Merzikhanov did not win a performance bonus, somewhat surprisingly, but he did tie Alex Pere and Carlos Alberg for most light heavyweight knockouts since 2022 with five. So we were talking about him kind of climbing that ladder. He also has the second longest active wind streak in the light heavyweight division with six consecutive wins, number one. won is Carlos Ulberg. Sal Kiel did win a bonus for his big victory.

Iqram Ali Skaroff defeated fan favorite Ju Young Park for unanimous decision. Ludovid Klein and Mateus Rebecca, they fought to a great one. A majority decision, and by the way, they won the fight of the night. So shout out to them. Who just said that? I'm looking at too much stuff here. Was that PT who said it was a great fight? Brilliant.

Yeah. Brilliant, brilliant. Tell us. Tell us about it. you see, they call Rehnbecki, I believe, is how you call the name. They call him Rombetsk. They have a wild way I pronounce in that name.

They call him Rungbeckski on the broadcast. And I just text up a lad who speaks Polish today. And I said, please tell me how to say his name. And he said it was Ren Becky. James Tune. That's how he said it. But incredible fight. I felt like Clown was battering him for the first two rounds.

and then Renebeki comes out of nowhere in the third round and just starts caving him in and I thought he was nearly going to stop the fight I think one of the judges had it a draw crazy fight the score but absolutely brilliant in the final exchange

Rambique is landing horrific blows on Klein who's on the ground the fight stops Rembeki gets up shaking his head as if I don't think I've done enough Klein stays on the ground he can't get up so when they're reading out the decision

they have Rembeki beside Goddard here and over on the other side is Klein on a chair who just lifts his hands when they announced him the winner. It was absolutely spectacular. Brilliant fight. Did you see?

Brilliant fight. And by the way, Klein won being a majority decision. Yes, Chuck. I was just going to say, like, I mean, that was a funny visual, but like for DC to go over there and like talk to him like,

let's take a look with this big smile on his face at the ankle right here. Like being broken. I was like, what kind of sadistic shit is this, man? He throws to the truck. Let's talk to the truck about this, you know? that was good theater

and speaking of sadistic what about Walter Walker four straight heel hooks now four straight he ties for the most heel hook submissions in UFC history but Paharis didn't have them four in a row

four in a row at heavyweight he's also tied now for the longest active finish streak in the UFC with four straight I mean he has the longest active winning streak in the heavyweight division with force trade. I saw them say that and I'm like, oh, Tom

may, you know, tie that later tonight. Well, no, actually not. New jinks. Walter Walker. No, I didn't say it. I just thought it. I just thought it. Walter Walker sits alone with a nut. I mean, the guy is like a pro wrestler. He's like an old school pro wrestler where he has a finishing move and you know he's going to try to hit it and it's

undeniable and inevitable. It's amazing. A heavyweight. Like heavyweight heel hooks. Not to say like, you know, it was a bit of a leglock on myself back in the day, you know? But when you're going underneath there. You're going to get your head caved in. And these lads are like the biggest guys in the world. And you're basically exposing yourself to be like, go ahead, smash my fucking face in. And this lad's just like, no problem. I'll do it anyway. It's, it's amazing.

Honestly. I felt like he carried a chip on a shoulder, man, because he was supposed to fight right, a couple weeks ago in Brazil. And that was just, he was going to have this home game. And now he's going across the globe, you know, to fight this. I felt like he was carrying a chip on a shoulder in this fight. It was fun to see. It's very fun. He's a very fun character. I mean, his brother is as well. But that was incredible. He did that to Louis Sutherland, by the way. It's mesmerizing to watch a heavyway do that.

Now, four straight times. Unbelievable. He, by the way, won the final performance bonus. Nathaniel Wood with a hard-fought unanimous decision victory over Jose or Jose Delgado. Hamdi Abdel Wahab could be next for Walter Walker. They seem to have some kind of beef. And Dana White said that they,

They actually want to fight each other in Qatar in exactly a month's time. Abdul Wahhabi went the distance with Chris Barnett. Walter Walker just fought for like 90 seconds, 84 to be exact. But Abdel Wahhabi gets the win, improving to 5 and 1. Mitch Raposo with a win over Azat Maxim, unanimous decision win, and the returning Mizuki in a way gets the unanimous decision win over Jacqueline. Amorye. Big on the dog. Big on a lot. Great win. Yeah. So there you have it, gents. As of right this moment, we are headed to the second round at the O2. Joseph Parker and Fabio Wardley. Parker seemed to have rocked Wardley in the first round in exchange. A big fight for Parker as he tries to get that Alexander Usik undisputed title fight. I do believe the second round is about to start. Yes, it is about to start. Is this the second round? Yes, two of 12 right here. and that of course

that of course sets the table very nicely doesn't that set the table very nicely it sets it very nicely Chuck has no idea what I'm talking about I don't know what you're talking about I was going to bring it yet start spreading the news

this says start spreading the news bitches start spreading the news bitches boy this is a big word of John Schneider and my friends at breaking tea Yeah, up one nothing, Jack. The B word, really? You're a love of the Blue Jays? Really? We're doing this now?

There's nothing sacred anymore. His love with the Blue Jays matches my hatred of the Dodgers. So this is perfect, man. This is perfect. Let's just keep it rolling. Lord knows I hate baseball. Yeah, you hate baseball. Come on, Ptie, I would support for you.

I'm trying to get it. Oh, watch the Knicks yesterday. You guys see it? So who can see it. How do you have like the craziest wardrobe. People always sinning him shit, man. He just wants me to wear shit. Look the Buffalo Bills.

just set me another box of stuff. You know, what do I do? I like to tell my kids sometimes, I'm like every single thing that I'm wearing right now, I did not pay for. Guys, guys, I just want to let you know

every single thing had to tell. It did not pay it on it. The point is Roots of Boy T-shirt just put away. Of course. Yeah, yeah. As you should say,

same here, dad. What's that, Frank? What's that? And then they point at their clothes and say, same here, dad. Oh, that's a good point. That's a good point. No, listen, guys,

only up one, nothing. nine runs in the six first pinch hit grand slam in World Series history humble and hungry humble and hungry humble and hungry and your Knicks beat the Celtics last night and you're in Cloud 9

it's floating around My wife is away My wife is out of town And it was me and my kids It was a Friday night We had the Knicks on the iPad World Series on the TV We had just had a nice

Shabbist meal And I said to them guys I don't think the vibes Have ever been more immaculate In my entire life than right here right now If there was a Bill's game happening to the right, then it would have been like peak.

It would have been like my sports equinox. But it was pretty damn close. I'm not going to lie. I mean, the Dycherra. Oh, does something happen? Shit. Oh, no. Is Worley beating him up?

Worley is putting hands on this one here. Oh, no. Should we do a little watch party here? Wait, wait. Is that a knockdown? Andy Lee up on the mat. What's going on? This is gone.

Oh, because his mouth. Gumshield. Gumshield. Oh, my God. Here I am going on and on about the Blue Jays. and Parker's on the ropes? Mate, this fight is crazy. First round is all Parker,

and now Wardley's like a beast towards the end of the second. Give us some play-by-play here right now. PT, go for it. Wardley's still on him, man. We got 22 seconds left in this round. Parker's still pointing back. He's not out of his fight whatsoever,

but Wardley is very composed. He's standing in the pocket. Parker's coming on them, though. Big Haymakers thrown. No, they're just on the ropes. It's going to end. This round is going to the tour round, ladies and gentlemen.

Wow, Parker smiling. Yes. Are you saying that Parker was on the ropes, the figurative, And literal ropes? That's what I'm saying, but it doesn't seem to me now. Peppering him with jobs there. This is crazy.

Oh, my gosh. Sounds like one heavyweight fight is living up to billing. Yeah, I mean, listen, by the way, by the way, Chuck, not for nothing. That fight was great, right? That fight was great. The UFC heavyweight type of thing. But you can understand people, like, not feeling like they got their monies worth out. Come on.

Surely we can be like, come on. Okay. What would you rather? What would you rather? A fight that lasted 60 seconds, but it was a knockout or a four-minute sort of cliffhanger. And now you're like, you know what? I got four good minutes. rather than 60.

I mean, if you look at it that way... I have no closure whatsoever. I don't think anybody... We actually got more... We got doubled the amount of Tom Aspinol time that we usually get, you know? You know what, guys?

You should be thanking Tom Aspinall. If we thought that way, we'd be like rooting for 25-minute fights. We'd be like, come on, man. Let's go the full distance. I want to just maximize my time with this. On the Komenade event. Full distance, LMA, baby.

It's our promotion. It was tremendous. And the best part about all of this is that it leads right into a fantastic stretch for the UFC two massive, massive shows at the Apex next weekend and the weekend before. So the vibes couldn't be higher.

Post show next week again? Oh, hell yeah. Hell yeah. What is it? Onama. Steve Garcia. Oh, yeah. That'd be big, man.

Huge. I'm looking real quickly if there's anything else to report to you all. No, I don't think so. Well, I'm just looking at all the tweets. Oh, oh, here's a. Criticism of Jedi, Trump watched the fights tonight on the runway in Qatar. So they were locked in on Air Force One. And anything else?

So close, he should have just made a stop over, you know? Yeah, imagine he pulled up. Get back in there, Tommy. Here's a question, reporter. What I'm trying to figure out is, are there different levels of eye pokes? You see what I'm saying? Dana White says nobody sees what you're saying, sir. Okay.

We can poke in the eyes. Nobody can see anything. Oh, my dear. High drama all over the place. From Abu Dhabi to London to everywhere in between. But my friends, it is time for Chuck's final thoughts. It has been so long that we've done this, Chuck,

that I almost forgot. I almost forgot. But history would not allow me to forget. Any final thoughts. You should teach young Pizzi over here, man, about his final things when he's got to do it. But I just wanted to say, I haven't had a chance to talk to you,

but I was very impressed and I really loved the short film that Uncrowned put out, the BKFC. I didn't get a chance to congratulate you yet, and so I'm saying congratulations, and I really hope that we're going to do a lot more of those because I feel like that's been missing in our space for a long time.

I appreciate that. Wow, I wasn't expecting a complimentary final thought. Wow, you've kind of taking my breath away. Well, I got to, I had to say it, you know. Oh, wow, even a picture here. Wow. Thank you. Yes, the response has been great. Thank you so much. Yes, the response has been great and a lot, a lot of nice. I mean, the rare, almost unanimous, positive review on YouTube. Really incredible. So, yes, thank you very much. Please do check it out. It's called What is BKFC an uncrown film? It's up on our YouTube channel right now. And yeah, we are going to do more. In fact, we have two more in the oven already. So stay tuned for all of that. you guys, thank you for that, Chuck. I appreciate it. Commiserations on the

nuggets losing a couple of days ago to the Warriors, but these things happen. Put it behind us already, we're on to the end. Guys, guys, guys, I leave you with this final thought. Speaking of heavy weights, speaking of heavy weights being thrown into the fire, speaking of when the going

gets tough, do you guys think? And I kind of know, this is more of a rhetorical question, but I'll ask it anyway. Do you guys think that if we would have replaced Tom Aspinall and the same circumstances, same circumstances, same type of fight, bloody nose, eye pokes and all.

Do you think if we would have replaced Tom Aspinall with Derek Moneyberg, if Moneyberg would have been able to overcome the obstacles? What do you guys think? First round submission win, obviously. That's what I thought. He can last a minute with Gordon Roy and make. They come in, come in. Come on.

When I heard Mackenzie Duren talk about IBGF, ADCC, and I was like, but have you gotten your black belt in three and a half years or 3.7. Took away longer. It's pretty good.

There's an absolute slugfest happening guys at the O2 and so that means we have to say goodbye. A bit of a crappy thing for the post show but we're not going to sit here for another nine rounds and do the play by play. We leave that type of commentary for G.C. and Rick. We're not equipped.

We're not that talented to sit with you and do commentary as a live fight is going on. It would be very boring because I think Pete C. Chuck and I would just be going to Ooh, oh, but high drama right now at the O2. Unfortunately, disappointing drama at Eddie Hatterina in Abu Dhabi. Tom Aspinall, if you're a Tom Aspinall fan, the good news is he is still the reigning defending UFC heavyweight champion. The bad news is his heart has been questioned and the bad news is he was poked in both eyes and the fight ended in a no contest.

Congratulations to McKenzie Dern and all the big winners. We will be with you live on Monday at 1 p.m. Eastern, as always, please give us a thumbs up. Give us a sub. Subs are climbing. Give us a sub and a follow. Wherever you get your podcast as well, this will be up on our podcast. Platforms in short order. Frank, can you hurry up and get it up ASAP, please?

Yeah, yeah, we're going to wrap this. Okay, okay. Get it up, Frank. For Petez, for Chuck, I'm Ariel, for the whole crew back in New York City, uncrowned HQ. Thank you so much for checking out our coverage. All day long. We love you all. Have a great weekend.

We'll talk to you all.