The Ariel Helwani Show - UFC 323 Post-Fight Show: Petr Yan stuns Merab Dvalishvili, Joshua Van wins after freak injury to Alexandre Pantoja

Episode Date: December 7, 2025

Ariel Helwani is joined by Petesy Carroll and Chuck Mindenhall to react to UFC 323, starting with Petr Yan's stunning upset of Merab Dvalishvili (01:48).Next, they discuss the co-main event, which saw Joshua Van become the second-youngest champion in UFC history due to Alexandre Pantoja suffering an arm injury early in the fight (26:20).After touching on the performances of Tatsuro Taira (43:50), Payton Talbott (47:12) and Jan Blachowicz (56:13), 3PAC recaps the night's prelims (58:48).The show concludes with a review of some newly announced fights for UFC 325 (1:04:22) and Chuck's final thoughts (1:11:28).

Hello and welcome to our UFC 323 post-fight show on Mario Hawani. It is 116 a.m. Eastern Time and the final UFC pay-per-view of 2025, the final UFC on ESPN pay-per-view, the final UFC pay-per-view ever has just wrapped up. My God, we have a lot to talk about, my friends. We have a lot to talk about. smokes, there is a brand new UFC bantamweight champion. His name is Peir Riyan. If you would have told me in March of 2003 after Marab Dwalisvili absolutely steamrolled, dominated. I mean, it was not even close. It was one-way traffic throughout. Remember that fight in Las Vegas, a fight night before Marab became champion? If you would have told me on that night that some two and a half years

later, they'd rematch, and Peirre Riyan would fight Marab Duolishvili, the way in which he fought him tonight, and we'll get into it. But just to let you know what it was, in my opinion, it was 50 to 45 for Puririyan. Now, the judges didn't necessarily agree there were two 49-46s, 1-48-47, which is absurd. I thought at worst it was a 49-46. It was a very fun, entertaining fight, but this was vintage Purion. This was the Puririan who was wrecking fool. in his first run as UFC bantamweight champion. And imagine four and a half years ago he makes the critical mistake. He hits Al Jermaine Sterling with the illegal knee.

Three and a half years ago, he loses to Aljo in the rematch via submission. Two and a half years ago, he loses to Marab. Now here he is, once again, the man in the bantamweight division. This is a guy who has been through a lot. He won three in a row to get back here. and it's a great, great performance, and it's a great win, and he won that title fair and square, blown away by the performance. I mean, a master class, if you will, but it will forever be dissected and debated whether or not this was the Peirot Riancho or a little bit of a mistake on Marab Duolishvili's part.

Again, much dissected in its own right. Four fights in 2025, the decision to come back so soon after the five-round victory over Corey Sanhagen back in October, did he take on too much? Too many weight cuts, too many rounds, too many minutes inside the Octagon. Was this a mistake? And how much of that came into play here tonight in that performance? Because this was not the Marab that we have seen as of late. Failed many takedown attempts. Look tired, was getting beat up, was getting pieced on his feet.

In fact, it looked like he was falling in love with the striking early on. And when I was watching that, I was thinking to myself, could this be part of his undoing. We shall talk about that. And then some, oh, by the way, there's a brand new UFC flyway champion. He is the second oldest, excuse me, youngest champion in UFC history. His name is Joshua Van the Pride of Myanmar, the Pride of Houston, Texas. But it was devastating. It was gutting. It was disgusting to watch. Very quickly in the fight, 26 seconds in, take down Alex Pantosha, the former champion, posts up, and his elbow discus. dislocates and they showed it way too many times, 11, 12, 13. I don't know how many times they

zoomed in, they super zoomed in. I thought it was a broken arm. Our good friend, Dr. Brian Suterer told me it was a dislocated elbow based on what he saw. The question is, does Pantosia need surgery or not? Either way, he's going to be out several months. It was gruesome, it was disgusting. It was a horrible way to end a title fight. It lasted just 26 seconds. We never got it going. We never got to actually see these two great fighters compete. Heartbreaking stuff, but as a result, Joshua Van now becomes the second youngest champion in the history of the UFC. Obviously, the youngest flyway champion ever, the man who still holds the record. Youngest champion, John Jones 23, but unbelievable.

Unbelievable turn of events. Patent Talbot beat Henry Suhudo, Tatsuro Tira, beat Brandon Moreno, somewhat controversially. A lot to discuss in a very entertaining final UFC on ESPN pay-per-view. It was UFC 323. I don't talk about these by myself, of course, when there's a pay-per-view. three-pack unites also for the final time in a sort of like 1 a.m. slot here because again, starting next year with 324, these bad boys are going to begin at 9 p.m. Eastern time. And that is good news for us on the East Coast, but it's especially good news for those overseas.

We'll get to that man in a moment. But first, Mayor of the Nutmeg State, the Man in the Hat, Chuck Mindanaal is here with us. Chuck, how are you? I am well, my friend. And my God, I feel like there's like a billion things to talk about. of this, don't you? I mean, that was like a masterclass performance. I'm really blown away by it. It really was. I mean, the prelims were fantastic. A lot of finishes, a lot of great performances. And yes, many, many layers, especially when it comes to the main card and those top fights that I just

mentioned. But let's not leave the patron saint of the Emerald Ile, the host of the critically acclaimed podcast to crack, the one and only PT Carroll, who I know is happier than all of us that he will now get to do these post shows, at least an hour. earlier starting next year ptt what is the crack uh the crack is very good i mean what a way to finish off pt it's tough mute mute mute mute mute mute mute it's tough i mean it is six it's early if this started an hour before this has never happened yeah i just want to guarantee moving forward with the new time that will never happen again ladies and gentlemen yeah what did you say there though because i saw i was going to say it was probably

I thought the car was great. I thought the car was great. Just apart from obviously the Floydway title fight, I mean, I feel sorry for everyone involved on that. Even Van is going to be constantly ridiculed. Even though he had nothing to do with that, even though it's a freak incident, I kind of come away from that fight feeling sorry for everyone, but what a masterclass from Piotr, yeah, that main event, unbelievable.

Yeah, it was very reminiscent to, you know, Anderson Silva versus Chris Wyman, Chris Weidman versus Jariah Hall, where you kind of feel sick afterwards and you don't know if you really want to keep watching after seeing something like that. And Chris Weidman was scrutinized for the way in which he celebrated. We'll get to that fight in a moment. But first, let's talk about the main event. And Chuck, I think it was going into the fifth round. You tweeted this.

I'm torn if this is a master class by Jan or if it's just sheer dogness of will or if it's both. But this is one hell of a showing. You tweeted that. I would also add to that. Is it just like, is it that? Is it A? is it B or is it C?

Was it a huge mistake on Marab Diwali-Svili this part? I bring that up, not to say that I want to take anything away from Yan. I was blown away by the performance, but it just, it was lingering in my brain the entire time. What happens if this fight was taking place in February as opposed to December the 6th? Yeah, and I think that, you know, hearing Marab, you know, at the end there basically saying, like, I wanted to put on an entertaining fight, you know, and you kind of go back and you think about that first round, you're like, well, he was in there. It wasn't like

he was, uh, he had to get clocked really good before he was like, okay, I better stop messing around. I better try for the takedown. And it, but it felt like a tempo had been set early on in that fight. And Jan, who I think is one of those guys who kind of adjust and gets, gets comfortable in there. You could see that he was already feeling pretty good about himself by the time that those takedown attempts started to come in. So it was, uh, it was just a very, a very strange, you know, I wasn't expecting Marab to have terms dictated to him.

So when you have something like that, an astonishing development through the course of a fight, it always takes on this extra like, oh my God, what are we watching? I used to love that about, you know,

in the old days when Twitter was still fun and people would be like, what are we watching right now? This one had that feel to it because I don't think many of us gave yon much of a chance if the fight was going to go into the championship round,

even third round, It was, I think that the consensus was that would be Marab's fight, right? Like that he would be then pulling away because he has the cardio, we've seen it. But to see the way those final rounds played out and just yawn getting better, stuff in the takedowns, landing the bigger shots, you know, getting a takedown at the very end, just like, hey, I'm still here after all this. I mean, that was pretty crazy, man. It was one of those special ones that I think we like to be a little shocked sometimes,

and this one certainly did that for me. B to it was as though Jan wasn't throwing out feelers at all at any point in the first fight I think you learned that this guy's gonna suffocate me if he can get close to me

he's gonna grab something on me and just force me into a grappling exchange I think the thing that's really noticeable about this fight from Jan's point of view is he hurts Maraba

nearly every round I think the only round where Marab is not visibly shook by a shot is the second he was hitting his body so often it was like a button

at some stage like he was hitting him and the liver so many times you'd see him drop down immediately in the first round there was a big right hand i just think he used every gap that he was given today he he wasn't trying to implement the game plan he was just trying to hurt marab and look at the guy's face after one round he had really damaged him and then obviously to work to the

body later on as well to make marab be chasing a fight like that and the final round is something we've never seen before and like you i gave marab the second round but i think it was being generous even then i think it was like it's a close round i think i'm going i'm going with him with him this one but he's chasing the fight and you're in the fifth thinking he needs to finish here and that's something that we have not said about Marab in a very long time and if there's one criticism to him it's that he does go the distance is that he doesn't finish when possibly he can he was forced to look for a finish in that fifth and Jan was just too good yeah I mean it really is amazing and you're right Chuck it did feel like sort of an afterthought it felt like the story going

into this fight was while we did talk a little bit about the decision to come back so soon you know, four fights in the calendar year, five fights dating back to September of last year. If he wins, he's the fighter of the year. There was so much to discuss and celebrate as it pertains to Murab. And also, oh, by the way, he beat this guy two and a half years ago. And it wasn't close at all. Like, there was no great demand to see these two fight again. It really was because there was no one left for him to fight.

He had beaten everyone. And some guys he had beaten twice. And so, you know, Jan was the next man up. They needed a main event for this card. He was happy to do it. He was so happy when, you know, he learned on the show. it was amazing to see that a guy would want to return so soon. It kind of felt like Yan was a bit of a bit player in all this. And then from the get go, you know, you look at the stats, it's kind

of wild. And I don't know how much stock to put in these stats, and I'll tell you why in a moment. But, you know, if you look at the stats, Marab lands more total strikes, more significant strikes, more head shots, more body shots. But it was the way in which Jan landed those strikes, the damage that he inflicted, in particular when it came to the body. I mean, those light kicks, excuse me, those those kicks to the body and those body punches, those liver kicks is what I should have said, were just absolutely brutal. And to see Marab wince like that, to feel the pain that he was in was really a sight to see. Like we had never quite seen, this is a guy who has lost before in the UFC Marab. So he hasn't been invincible, but he has not lost going into this

fight. 14 straight fights, an incredible run to see him get bloodied up, beat up, cut up like this by a guy that he beat so convincingly two and a half years ago. And I know that Jan was injured and all that stuff and more. It was really just a virtuoso masterclass performance. It's, it's, I mean, I don't know how many times we've been faced with this scenario, but it's one of the best performances by a challenger in a title fight, but also challenger in a title fight in which he lost the first fight so convincingly. Like, you don't usually figure out the puzzle that easily, and he did that and then some chuck yeah i mean usually when you you lose a fight like that we've seen it's a million times like it kind of goes the same pattern you know um if they do end up fighting again just really i

mean it's just one of those types of things you're like he felt you know sometimes NBA franchise or uh NFL franchise like kind of they there's a team in their division or whatever and so they restructure like it's all about beating that team that's all it matters all the rest of the team it doesn't matter it's just about beating that one team it felt like that he had that he had Marab in his crosshairs all of this time all as he's been wanting to get is get back into this moment and he was going to do

everything to fix whatever he did wrong the first time. That's what it felt like. It felt like whatever he thought like okay Maraub does this, he does this, I need to shut this down, I need to hit him here, I need to do this, I need to get to the body like it felt like he was just completely dialed in. If there was any surprise, it was probably that Marab

did stand with him as long as he did in some of the circumstances but the craziest thing is you know he's a machine right we call him the machine we've been we think he's as good as he is because he has been this good but he's a human being he was taking some of those shots and there's a little bit of it's like my god we kind of just look right past

it because we think oh this dude's he's invincible or whatever the next thing closest to that but some of those shots he absorbed and kept coming back from after screaming out in pain and just they would have just crippled anybody else you know I feel like anybody else is done they get finished in that fight Right. Marab standing in there to the end, too. That deserves some kudos, man. He took a beating in that fight. And I don't think that Yon at any point was really in any kind of heavy trouble there. Oh, yeah. Those body shots would cripple and like crumple most people. The stat that I just wanted to bring up Pizzi real quick is that they have Marab listed as attempting 29 takedowns. When did we get so loosey-goosey with the takedown attempts? I don't think that was 29 takedowns. Am I off here? He definitely got stuffed a bunch. But 29. seems a little excessive. I think like he's in on a single

and they're kind of counting that is a takedown attempt as well. But I don't even think, and we talked about this, we've been talking about this throughout his reign. I don't think he's necessarily, he is using these takedowns as a faint essentially. He is just trying to exhaust people.

And really like a takedown attempt, I don't know. I'm kind of with you. I saw you tweeting about this. I think it was in the second round. You're like, 18, take down attempts already? Like, what are we watching here? I agree with you on that.

but it's you know there is like look you talked about the top of the show and the the four title defences in the year there is an element that like we have to pay homage to marab here because he is kind of like icarus flying too close to the sun here you know trying to fit this break this record and and something that was going through my head as i was watching arroyal was what omali said to you sean o'mali went in your show and said i've been noticing this guy getting a lot more striking exchanges than he used to like when we used to watch marab fight you couldn't strike with him because he was just suffocating your work all the time

he has improved so much in striking but I agree with O'Malley that that could be his downfall you know like Chuck mentioned there he is in striking exchanges in this fight a lot more than he usually would be Jan has a lot more opportunity as I've said at the top

you can see from his face you can see from the reactions to his body and audible screams when he's being kicked in the body that this is affecting him like you cannot discount he is giving Yan a lot more opportunities here than he did in the first fight and against sandhagen and in other fights he's been striking a lot more than what got him to the dance essentially it just seemed like they kind of give him like you know the takedown attempts because he's a sequence fire like he kind of goes

in there he's like a dog just keeps trying again and again so it's almost like a buck shot versus a single shot right like like there's all the they kind of oh that was six takes down attempts even though it was really just one sequence you know what i mean um that's what it seems like they're doing But it's really that nobody has been that maniacal with that kind of game plan where you're just like they mentioned on the telecasts like nobody goes from a defensive posture into offense as quickly as he does. Like just kind of jumping in the space and kind of grabbing a leg and he'll do that two or three times within a few seconds. And I guess they're now breaking those into individual takedown attempts, right? Chuck, you know, the thing is he said something at the very end there in his post-fight interview Murab did about, you know, I'm just happy that Dana White is happy.

I'm happy to be a company man. I'm happy to perform for the fans and entertain. And then you couple that with what Petey just said about what, you know, Sugar had noted and about the way in which he fought this fight and the decision to come back so soon, maybe thinking like, hey, because let's be honest, there was a time not that long ago. The UFC wanted nothing to do with Marab fighting for a belt. And there was a time not that long ago that the moment he would have lost that belt, they were going to part ways with him.

They just did not like being in business with him. They thought he was silly, that he would do stupid things, that he would post stupid things, that he didn't have a fan-friendly style. And I can't help but feel that this desire to be loved and appreciated kind of was part of the undoing here. You know, look, hindsight is 2020, but he should have not fought this fight. Like, it was too soon. Since the last time Pierrean fought over the summer, this man was in a war with Corey Sanhagen,

in between that time. You know, it was two months ago. And again, hindsight 20-20, I'm not trying to take any. anything away from Peter Yan, but he is going to have to live with this. Now, he did bring up in the post-fight interview, like, I want another crack. And I believe very strongly, I saw the boys who did a great job during the watch party debate this at the very end. I believe very strongly there should be a third go-round here. I mean, he beat him so convincingly the first time. The second time was a tremendous fight. Why wouldn't there be a third go-around? The question is,

would that be Jan's next fight and would that be Marab's next fight? Or does Marab need an extended time off have Jan go do something else and one suspects if Umar and Magamatov wins they do that one or do you just try to book these guys in six or so months and do it right away. You know, the thing I thought, when I agree everything you said about when he was doing that interview and he's like, I just wanted to be entertaining. You know, and I was like, man, I felt the exact same thing you're talking about where you're like, this guy was trying to, you know, put an exclamation mark on the year that he owned, but he wanted to do it in the way the UFC would see him.

him and the fans would see him in this certain way and it might have cost him and we already this was the big red flag was just the weight cuts and like with the age 34 years old is not very young especially for a guy who's fought as frequently as him there were some red flags there um for him going into this fight man i don't know i i don't know if they'll do like here's my thing like i was if he lost this fight i was a little bit like will they run it back even before it happened because of the things you mentioned about the ufc not like him as a much. I felt like there's been a thawing over this year where they like them a lot better, obviously. But do they really want to put them back in there that quickly? I don't know.

No, I don't know. I don't know. Hey, by the way, Ptzee, I'm seeing our, our boy Ovin tweeting this, if, and he's right, if, if sugar wins on January 24th, come on. Sugar versus Yon at the White House seems like, this is what I'm saying. Yes, that's what I'm getting at. Like, yeah, I forgot about that one. That seems like a perfect White House fight, right? That gets the juices flowing boys. Yeah. That's the foot. That's why. That's what. that's what's going to happen want to see five rounds of that shit i'm sorry marab okay do whatever you need to do but if that that fight is there after january 24th they have to do it ever since that fight happened the first time i thought yan won the first fight oh my look this was

a big debate at the time it was like the diaz and conduct of of that era and five rounds is what we need to see in that what a carousel would be if o'malley went and beat him right it would be like here we go. By the way, I feel like, I feel like Umar and Magamatov is super happy right now. Sean O'Malley is super happy right now. Heck, Corey Sanhagan is happy right now. All these dudes are happy. The only guy, I think, who's probably not too happy is Amon's a hobby because it felt

like he might be next as a result of the fact that Marab has beaten all those guys. Now he goes like- You've got Marab now, Eamon? Yeah, not for the belt. But do you guys agree? Oh, that'd be the worst. Do you agree that he deserves a third crack? I'm not going to debate here whether or not he's going to get it because he probably isn't

anytime soon. But if we're talking about fairness and I know we're often not, he really, I mean, he gave him a rematch after thoroughly beating him up two and a half years ago. It was never even close that fight. Like that was a boring fight. You remember that fight at the POMS? It was incredibly boring. Yeah. I mean, look, we can't, look, we can say who we think deserves the fight, but that's not what the UFC are going to go with. Like, we've, we've, established that we know that at this point if sean o'mali wins this fight um you you call them the biggest north american star in the sport right now of course they're going to go with that of course they are let's not be silly here i think marab deserves a turret crack and i still think those both of those things

can't happen i think marab needs some time off now like what he did this year is crazy it was going to be um history for the title defenses in a year but it really does tax your buddy making this way so many times and the older you get at those lower weight classes you don't you know you've got a you've got a shorter lifespan in those lower weight classes you see the heavy weights getting into their elder years and having successful in the lighter weights i do think you need that time so i think you can do both things here you can do the omali you can do the omali fight next and then send marab back in for the title afterwards can i just ask you guys just straight up though did you feel like he came out flat remember when we were talking about this don't seroni when he fought the fifth time in a year against i think

Nate Diaz, right? You could tell, obviously, that he was not himself. Like, did you have a moment in this fight where you were, like, watching it and saying, like, dude, he doesn't look like Marab, you know, like something's flat here? I will be honest, when I saw him striking so much early on and not attempting a takedown. And then shortly thereafter, the broadcast said, Marab hasn't attempted a takedown yet. I was thinking, oh, no, oh, no, like just something feels a little bit different about this. He's usually a lot more focused on the takedown, a lot more relentless. Saw that video pop up on social media that he sparred today. A member of his team posted that. He was sparring without headgear. And I know that's kind of commonplace for him,

but like all this stuff adds up. You know, all this stuff adds up. It gets you. And here's Jan Fresh as a Daisy coming out and has the benefit of seeing maybe the best of Marab. That's the other thing. Like, Jan saw the best of Marab two and a half years ago. And I know he's evolved and he's become a much better striker. No doubt about it working with John Wooden company in Las Vegas. But Marab never saw the best of Jan. That was a very injured, pure Jan, who was nowhere near his best. And so he probably had an advantage there. So, yes, it just seemed like a different version of him.

But we have been used to seeing him guys, you know, go down two rounds and then pick it back up. And so I was kind of waiting. Post third round, though, I scored it 50 to 45. I mean, we could talk about the judge's score cards here real quick. I don't know how interesting it is. But I scored a 50 to 45, and I thought after the third round that it was just not looking good for him. Mike Bell gave the first round to Marab. Derek clearly gave the, okay, all three gave the first round to Marab, which I thought the second round was the one that they might have given it to him, and Derek Cleary gave him the second.

So Derek clearly had Marab up two rounds to none going into the third, which is very surprising. And then as you could see, the rest all gave three, four, five to Pierrean. So no huge controversy. Although that's 48, 47. has Marab winning the fight for God's sake you know what I mean so let's not talk about these judges here Rick losing his mind on this broad really do yeah I mean that's what I saw call me crazy am I wrong Frank

am I saying the wrong thing about me right and towards the end of it he was like okay look my scorecard doesn't actually match reality it's like him and Daniel Kormier there well it's a long day in fairness to the boys I tuned in just after the van situation I know we're going to talk to her later but it was like you know tough moment but um look let's get back to the scorecard. Sorry, I was all over. No, no, no. Listen, I was

curious, I was going to ask him. Shout out to Danny Rubinstein, manager, who had two fighters here fighting. Very rare. He represents both guys, and I meant to text him and ask him. Yeah, he represents Jan, one of his first clients and Marab as well, and I meant to text him how he was scoring this, and I can't imagine

the emotions. Shout out Sajat, too guys. Yeah. Sayat, though, is just with Jan. So there's some guys that Siyat just, we're getting to the weeds of the Ruby fight team here, but Sait is just with those guys. Danny is the head honcho, I think, who oversees all of them. But they've got a great thing going over there. Maybe Shafkat fighting for the belt in 2026. Nevertheless, that's got to be tough for a manager, and I was curious how

he was scoring it. But in the end, there's no real controversy there. And I would love to see them fight again. I think Marab deserves that. Here's my point, guys. The next time Marab fights, I think it should be for the belt. The next time Jan fights, I don't think it will be against Marab. He needs an extent. If someone around him loves him and he's willing to listen to them, tell him to take some time off. I'm just not quite sure ultimately, like you guys said, whether or not he'll get that. Although it does feel, it does feel like even that moment there with Dana and Hunter, it does feel like they are warming up to Marab and appreciate him. I don't know why they wouldn't like him at this point. He does everything for them and then some,

and I think is an entertaining fighter, but it would be a shame if he never gets another. Oh my God. That's the first thing I thought of, by the way. I thought about this, man, because he goes out there and he's shaking hands, and I saw Hunter, like, he was, like, he was looking at his hand right after, like. First thing I thought. And I saw, I actually saw someone give Dana the wipes right after, and he laughed. Like, it seemed to me, like, the thought fair play, the thought didn't even cross Dana's mind. I mean, I would just, I would go for the old-fashioned, like, air fist bump. Like, yeah, man. Oh, I just fell short. I thought of a yellow. You know, like, uh, right there. It was wheezing blood all over everybody. Yeah. Man, what a time.

I mean, by the way, we were just talking like one of the storylines heading into this fight. It's like, Pantosia Marab, would they fight each other? Would Pantosia move up? Now here we are, guys. What the fuck? Like, honestly, these two boys, let's get into it. Let's get into it. Guys, how about this?

How about this cruel irony? Going into this fight, the fastest title fight in UFC flyweight history. Do you know what it was? No. 32 seconds, Henry Suhudo versus T.J. Dillusha. Main event of the first UFC on ESPN card. Here we are. Final UFC on ESPN pay-per-view. The new fast is 26 seconds, but it's, I mean, much different, of course. Disgusting, gut-wrenching. I mean, basically what happens is there's a scramble. Pantosha is posting and his arm just snaps and the elbows dislocated. what Zach Kentito if you're listening a little too many replays buddy

all right you're a tremendous producer but whoever in the child like how did you guys even what are the angles yeah and then it was like shh right in there super zoom in PT what do you say about this

what do you say about it you said you blew some chunks what do you say about this it's sick man the replay was horrific and every angle I've seen that from every possible angle I think the whole world did horrific and it's just a big non-event, right? I know

technically Van has won here. He's done nothing wrong here, but it's just there is no sense of anything happening here. And for the, as long as it lasted, the 20 seconds or whatever, Pantosia was bulling them down. And I was like, oh, this is going to be fucking tremendous.

This is going to be amazing. And then this weird thing happens. He catches his leg. He sends him backwards. And you just as soon as Pantosia's face is revealed to the world, you see this look on his face. And you're like, oh, the fights. over. It is absolutely

so destroying, man. And then you're racing because you know they're going to, you know something's going to be gruesome about this because the way he was holding his arm and like, oh no, what is this? You know? And then it turned out as bad as it would it look like. It was horrific. It was horrific.

Like, I feel sorry for Van here because he's a brilliant fighter and he's, you know, we're all cheering him all the way up to this. But you just know he's going to get some very bad reactions from the fan base who probably had a few quit down on this fight going either way or and the two lads of course two of the best pound for pound fighters in the top two fights it just feels like it's technically a win but the fight didn't happen we did not see these guys fight so it's a shitty kind of feeling for everyone you're

absolutely right though man about like the first 20 seconds for what you can glean from something like that just a very small sample size because coming into this like van just this kind of demeanor, you know, his attitude, his confidence. It was like, this is going to be wild because we were talking about this. We were saying that Pantosia goes in like a wild man, like he has nothing to protect, even though he's the champion. He goes in there and he tries the buzzsaw guys. And that's exactly what this looked like through those 20 seconds, wasn't it? It looked like they were just going to go to war for as long as it lasted. It was just, it was setting up to be such a beautiful fight, man. What a bummer. When Pantosha comes out to many men,

like, I was so pumped. I was like, all right, this is, I mean, this is incredible. Tyra sitting there. there's, there's, you know, there's a guy looming over, although I think it should be Tyre versus Heraguchi, we could talk about that in a moment, but still it felt like there were massive stakes, Pantoja's coming out, and then it happened so quickly. I mean, we've had some, like I said, we've had some freak accidents in the Akkan, the shot of his son crying, did you see that, Patoja's son consoling his dad? And I was about to tweet it, but I knew it could have been misconstrued. What I did tweet and then ultimately deleted, so well done on my part. I just wanted to say was Van needs to be very careful. This was before the post-fight

interview. You need to be super careful in this moment. Now, it's very easy for me sitting at home, judging everything, watching, saying like, just take the high road here, be gracious, be humble, say this is not how you want to win. You'll defend the title against them. It was not how anyone wanted the fight to go. And you know that there's going to be people scrutinizing every single word, every smile, every celebration, but you also have to remember this guy is coming from a war-torn country, his family, immigrants, he wants to buy his mom a house, he wants to make her life better, he can't help but be happy. This, this, yeah, he's 24, but you do, but inevitably you saw people criticizing the reaction. What, Chuck, what do you do in that moment? Because

remember Chris Wydenman back at UFC 168, right? People killed Wyatman, killed him. But these guys, like, they just think, okay, I won. What do you want me to do? it is part of the game. Now, we can, of course, it's a bad, it's, it's an emotional game, but it is part of the game. A guy can get hurt. I can guarantee you in any kind of reflection, even for a 24-year-old kid, you know, and then you try to imagine yourself at 24 years old in a situation like that, and you're like, man, I don't know. Like, I wouldn't even have, you know, any grace in that sort of situation, I'm sure. But how did you think he did? I mean, honestly, I didn't, I didn't think he was fine. I think he was fine. I saw a bunch of people criticizing him.

I'm not going to lie. I was looking on Twitter. I was saying, but I was always going to come. Yeah, his mom is there. He gives her the belt. Like,

this is his dream. Would I have loved to have seen like a, hey, you know, hey man, you know, when you're ready, I would love to do it. And I think he was,

but it's tough. Again, he's 24. English isn't necessarily his first language. Like, this is all very new to him. And I thought he did fine.

Yeah, I'm not going to sit here and criticize him. I just win the belt. Like, it's like if you hit a jackpotter. something. You're like, oh, my God, do I just win? I mean, that's going to be a lot of emotions you're processing in that 30 seconds, you know? Here's the question, though. We don't, by the way, the post-fight show, apparently, I'm

seeing online, they're saying it was his shoulder, that it was Pantosia's shoulder. I mean, I think it's pretty clear. It was his elbow, right? It looked like his toy and not at his elbow. Like, yes. Like that from the back. And even, even the great Brian Souter are telling me that it was that it was his elbow, dislocated elbow. I thought it was a broken arm. That's how much I know about all of this. This is a post here from Alex Pantosia saying,

I've been through worse. I'll come back even stronger. You can be sure of that. Thank you for the messages. And so we don't know when he's going to come back. They had Taira there. You saw Tair's face like, oh my God, here I am so close. Pizzi, what do you think? Do you think they do Tire versus Van?

And whenever, I think, unlike the Murab situation, we can be sure that whenever Pantosia, is ready to come back. He's getting a title fight. The question is, will Van's next fight be for the belt? Because for those that don't know, we didn't get through all the results already, Tyra's fight was a quick one as well. It lasted, well, okay, 224 into the second round, but still, it didn't seem like he took a ton of damage. He looked very good, dominant. We'll get to more about that fight in a moment. Do you think they do Tyra versus Van? Do you think they do Horaguchi versus Van, or do you think they keep Van on the sidelines and wait for Pentosia to come back?

this is the thing right like we have to be very aware of recency bias here because we're all guilty of it after these events think about how high we were in horro Gucci after his comeback win he was an underdog he came out had a brilliant performance and of course a part of the bill was these two guys you know teammates and we were thinking oh the ufc you're going to love this haraguchi is rubbing his hands together to fight his his good mate pantosia but this makes it a lot neither like I don't know why you wouldn't put Haraguchi in there against Van if you're going to do this. And then Tyra afterwards, we have a, it's a, it's a very good problem the UFC suddenly have because suddenly everything's interesting again. Once, like, you know, when you were in the Pantosia era,

it was just a lot of guys that you've lapped essentially. And Haraguchi and Van were new guys and then Tyra was a new guy. But this feels completely new. I agree with you. Whenever Pantosia's back, let him in. But I don't think it's, I don't think it's cutting dry with Tyra. I think, I think Karaguchi is definitely in there. He's an older guy as well. I think Tira has a lot more threatened the Towers than him. I think he is definitely a play for the first shot against fan. And the revenge angle as well, ATT revenge angle.

Come on. You can work that. That's a good point. Was it a dislocated elbow that Jaden Daniels had, like the commanders? Actually, the exact same thing. Exactly. I was just thinking because he's actually coming back this week. That's not that long.

Sometimes you're just not sure on injuries like this. if it ends up being the same thing. 100%. Yeah, he told me, by the way, the doctor said that you could avoid surgery and if you avoid surgery, then you know, you're not out for eight, nine months. It's a lot better than obviously

the leg kicks that I'm talking about, you know, the breaks that Wyman and Silva dealt with a few years back. Well, I feel like he's got a chance. No, I just feel like I feel like he's got it. Maybe he won't be out as long as we're thinking. I mean, it just looks super nasty. Like it's something you don't like to see.

But sometimes those things can be a little bit deceiving, especially in the Jane dancing. So maybe he comes back sooner. Yeah, the thing worth noting is Pantosha is 35. So, you know, the way your body recovers and, I mean, the guy had looked so good. It's really devastating because really as of late, like his performances against Kai Kair, France, and Asakura in particular. Even Erick, like, he just, he had such a killer instinct. He was so fun to watch, so aggressive out there. I equated him to a bow constrictor on the mat.

yeah like he was really like he was really growing into being a champion and um i mean what an awful awful way one of the worst ways that we've seen someone lose a belt just an awful awful awful way i mean one of the worst like just a complete freak accident the fight hardly gets going um i personally think the pound for pound rankings you know what i mean like it's like so you get a guy who like you didn't do anything wrong you just got her classic of course this is the first thing that you think about chuck because this is your baby right yeah it's like yeah it's like yeah it's That is a doozy. I'm freaking about sending this list on tomorrow now.

I don't know what to do. Can I just say I would love to see, let's see Horaguchi, Van. And I mentioned, when Tyra won, I said, could you imagine Tyra versus Horaguchi in Japan? And I think a lot of people who don't know who Horoguchi is, who don't remember his UFC run that he left on a three-fight winning streak, that he was belted to a rise in champion, all this stuff. We're like, what? Tyra, of course, has to be next.

Horoguchi is a much more accomplished fighter. and oh, by the way, supremely famous over in Japan and popular. Like, this guy posts anything and the thing explodes. If you do Horaguchi v. Van, and let's just say Horoguchi wins, you're looking at a potential Horoguchi versus Tyra title fight in Japan. How huge is that? That's never been. We're going to that happens.

Oh, my God. We're going if that happens. In Saitama, never been a Japanese-born champion, and then you have two Japanese fighters fighting. Like, oh, my God. It would also be fun because that would have to be, They would have to be like the oldest versus the youngest guy in the division too, right? Like, I just feel like that they're both on the street here. And by the way, I'm not trying to like discount Van and all this.

He can smoke, you know, all of them. But I just feel like Horaguchi has done enough to earn it. And you do have that ATT angle. If he wins, then of course, Pantosia's ready to come back. That's the one that makes a little bit more sense to me. In case you're wondering, as far as the flyweight rankings are concerned, they had Van listed as one, Moreno, who lost the Tyra as two. And then you've got Royville.

who's three who's fighting next weekend and the final UFC on ESPN fight, that's the main event of next weekend's card against Manel Kapp, who is six, Al-Bazi, Taira 5, Tyra's going to move up. I don't think Royville versus Cap winner gets the title shot, right? It seems to me

like it would be down to Tira versus Tyre or Horoguchi, but I don't know. I mean, Van Winnie the Belt now opens it up for a lot of people. I mean, Royval just lost to him in June, but I mean, Diego Lopez just lost to Alex Fokinovsky

and he's getting a title shot. So who the hell knows? Don't give me started. Horiguchi, though, like, I mean, in terms of people not thinking he's earned it, he's won every belt apart from the UFC belt

and he did contest a fight for the UFC belt. Like that's another angle here. Like he's coming back last shot at UFC gold. He was a rising champion. He was Bellator champion. This guy is a savage. Like one of the great fighters that fly away ever. Like,

it's an opportunity they shouldn't pass up because it doesn't come around that often. like he he also verifies van in a way that tyrant can't like a win over horaguchi i always say it's like highland that you take part of their legacy when you defeat him from van's point of view the bigger scalp is horiguchi i really feel bad for pentosha that was awful that was really awful shit it was it was it was it was thysmanesque yeah it was you know that reference yeah oh i do laurence taylor Monday night football.

PT has no idea. PT has before your time watching. Lawrence Taylor is. He was in some movies or something. Lawrence Taylor. Was he in some movies? No, that was O.J. Simpson.

Oh, man. He was in some movies. He was in any given Sunday with Al Pacino. Lawrence Taylor. He's a cinephile. That's what you mean. He does like watching movies. All right.

By the way. Honor Jordan just told me. How did you not know this? Water boy. Order Jordan is feeding you the intel. That's true. true, isn't that? That's crazy.

Rob Dolishvili versus Peter Yan fight of the night. Joshua Van just showed up looking very dapper to the post-fight press conference and he showed up with a toy UFC belt like one of the ones that like a kid would have because he said that the real belt was too heavy for him.

So that is pretty incredible stuff. That's great. Legit, it's like sitting in front of him and it looks tiny. It's unbelievable. regarding the injury aside this is from ufc news aside from eye injuries pokes cuts etc and by the way what a stretch for weird finishes and title fights thankfully oh and i'll get to this in a moment no one really claiming that pantosia quit um Alex pantosia's injury was just the third injury in UFC history to halt a UFC title fight it joins Patrick cote's knee injury versus

is Anderson Silva and Anderson Silva's leg injury versus Chris Weidman. Wow. That's pretty crazy. Yeah, seemed very unique. A frontrunner for perhaps one of the worst tweets of the night goes to the great Dominic Cruz who tweeted, I wish that Vand versus Pantosia fight was allowed, A-L-O-U-D. That should disqualify the tweet from that point for. Go on.

That is definitely not the worst price of this tweet. It should be up to us as the fighter if we want to continue after that. We put the time and the training camp in that situation. People dislocate their arms and put it back in place and keep fighting all the time. Oh, man, this ain't the hill to die on. This ain't the one to tweet about. The ref should have been, in this case, Pantosia's down, clutching his arm going, no. He's like, no, I'm done.

Just smash him. Do you want to keep going? Do you want to keep going? Is it Monty Python when it's like, it's got, it's just a flesh wound, you know, and he's like, he's bleeding, and missile. lake. That's what that reminds me of. I don't know. What's he saying here? What is he saying here? Like, you would give them a chance to go into their corner and someone pops the iron back in and then you go off you go again. Is that

what he saying? No, man. Credit the van for not punching him in that state because some other people would have and clearly Dom would have wanted that. Joe Rogan was very happy with that move. He must have mentioned it. Yes, yes, yes. For the record, Van, 24 years, one month and 27 days old. John Jones was 23 years, eight months, and one day old. So if my... If my math is correct, he was only like five months off, amazingly.

Right? Yeah, that's correct. Something like that. Who's to check? Yeah, who is to check? Who is to check? Thanks, Frank. Still out at this hour.

This is my name. Yes. We love that. A tweet here from Al Jermaine Sterling. Congrats to Jan and his team. They fought well tonight and made great adjustments. I can't wait to watch it back with Marab and plan for the comeback. some things looked a little off, but maybe that was what Jan was doing, question mark.

We'll take a look, heal up and go again. This is the journey of a fighter. I hope you all enjoyed the battle until next time. 14 in a row for Marab now snapped. He is no longer the UFC bantamweight champion. By the way, you know, we seemingly do it all around these parts. I was able to put up a poll while you guys were talking on the YouTube chat. Thumbs up to the chat.

We love you all. Thank you for the support. Hit the like, hit the subscribe, hit all those things. I asked and I went like lowercase I didn't have time to like fancy it up with you know

capitals and all that who should who should I see I even fucked it up I wrote who should fight van next okay that's not bad or maybe it should be who should van fight next

who should fight van next I was doing it fast I mean I was literally like I was like that's wrong just not to give me cruise abuse too I mean this is bad this is bad this is bad go ahead

Horaguchi 19% Tyra 45% Pentosia 36% hmm So they all need to take a breath, the recency boys. As I say, you were drunk on recency boys right now. We are pissed. You know what I mean?

You got to really step away from the computer for a day or so and then think about it again. Well, let's talk about Tyra. Let's talk about Tyra, guys. He beats Brandon Moreno, great win for him, best win of his career, right? I mean, a very impressive win. He's back on track. He stumbled last year. Beats the former champion, very popular fighter.

wins via TKO, ground and pound, he has backmount, he's raining down blows, Mark Smith, the referee who had a bit of a mare earlier in the night, Chuck. Some said it was premature, some didn't like the stoppage. The broadcast actually was very vocal about thinking that Brandon Moreno needed a little bit more time. What did you think of the performance? What did you think of the stoppage? I thought the performance was really, it was a good one for him because that first round really couldn't have gone, I mean, it could have gone worse. But like, he was in a bad position there for the bulk of the round and he was very poised in waiting to get out of it and once he finally did it from that point on and going to the second round he took

over the fight i just i felt like that was as poised as we've seen him we know his quicks we know that he's got some power so it's like it was it was fun to watch him kind of look more mature i guess in there in a fight like this because you know moreno is going to bring it but as far as the you know that that stoppage i could see him leaning in but it's weird because as Moreno's on the floor, he's still, you know, he's still covering up, but you can see he's trying to figure out a way to kind of get to his knees or get out of that. And I'm always like, it's always that moment where I'm like, man, I don't, I don't envy the job, but because I'm like, I probably would stop it very similar to that, but you might

give it another second or two, but honestly, I don't really think it was controversial because he looked like he wasn't going to, it didn't look like he was getting out of that position anytime soon, right? And once you kind of turtle up a couple of times, it's very difficult to make that call. And, you know, we go, we just, you posted something there that, I mean, it's nothing like the Sam Alvey thing, but it's like you see some of

the other ones that are so egregious the other way and you're always I always take this above that. You know what I mean? Where they let a guy get killed in there like that. What do you think, PT? It's just a really hard position to get out of as well. Like to Moreno's point of view, you're getting flattened out.

He's on your back and he's caving your head. in there's not a lot of there's not a lot you can do from that position i do feel i saw some people complaining about it but i do feel if it had been allowed to go would just have been prolonged the the punches that he took on a course morano wanted to go but really impressed by uh tyra really really impressed his grappling looks amazing and i think he's getting a lot more comfortable on the feet too and he's in a horrible situation as chuck pointed out in that triangle for four and a half minutes and i know it's not it's not really ever on but it's threatening to be on for four and a half minutes.

And that's always funny to hear Joe Rogan like try to assess, is it tight? Is it there? It's dangerous. It's, oh, yeah. It's sliding down his shin now. We can all see, man. His legs are completely limp. But look, young fighters, that's a terrifying situation to be in, like a world

champion has you in a submission or at least he is very close to having you in a submission. He had to stay extremely calm. And then he came out in the second and got that position. And once he got that position, he started caving in those shots. I was like, yeah, he's not getting out of here. And it's a huge scalp. Moreno, a former champion and a savage, like a guy who's looked really, really good recently, too. I think Tyra's great.

Peyton Talbot reminded us earlier in the night that Henry Suhudo saved the flyweight division. And I really do think he did. If you would have lost that fight to TJ, I think they would have gotten rid of it. And so to see a card like this where you have a performance from a guy like Tyra, performance from a guy like Josh Fan, I know that it ended very unceremoniously, but he's obviously a star. and even having Moreno on there and having Pantosia, a guy who has come into Arizona, has become very popular. Great to see the flyweight division thriving.

Great to see these performances. Great to see Tyra bounce back. He loses to Royville in October of last year, split decision. And, you know, it was a lesson for him, no doubt, takes an extended period of time off. He returns in August, wins that fight, comes back with this performance. Very, very impressive stuff. For me, the fight that I was most locked into and, like, cat. captivated by was Peyton Talbot versus Henry Sohudo. There was something about that fight,

the element of Talbot getting this opportunity when I think no one thought these two would be matched against each other. Sehudo's retirement fight, knowing that Talbot had, you know, lost to Barcelos back in January and got, you know, worked on the ground, seeing the way in which he came back, seeing how Sohudo looked against Song, there was just, I had no idea. We knew of all the different kind of paths to victory, but I just had no idea how this would play out. out. It was extremely captivating. It was a lot of fun. It was very entertaining. I really, really enjoyed it. And I was blown away by Peyton Talbot in this fight, guys. I mean, seeing him take down Henry Suhudo multiple times. This is an Olympic gold medalist. You know his accolades.

He scored three takedowns on him. He shot for five. Seeing him take down Henry Sehudo twice in the first round, guys. He had landed, Peyton Talbot had landed, according to the broadcast, takedown in his last five fights, and he landed two in the first round against Henry Sehudo, and then just seeing the way in which Henry refused to quit, seeing him fight till the very end, you know, obviously he's someone who's a little bit polarizing. I hated seeing him ask for a bonus in his retirement fight. Golly, you would think by that point in one's career, especially with the Belts won, that stuff would be somewhat, you know, somewhat not important to him, but just the whole fight, the whole scene was great.

And this is kind of the way bookings should go. And you see the aftermath here, courtesy of Dana White's social media. This is kind of the way it should work. This is kind of, in some respects, it's not exactly a perfect analogy, Chuck. But this is John Cena Gunther next weekend. The old guy going out, old yeller, as Talbot called Suhudo, should kind of lose to the younger guy. and they took a risk with this one because Sohudo could have easily won this fight,

but now I think you have a superstar in your hands as far as Paynt Talbot is concerned. Somebody compelling elements, man, you mentioned it, but like, Peyton Tal, like, his sense of, like, reading the room, his sense of his own magnitude shows up, right? Because he gets this take down, he puts his tongue out.

This is the one thing, like, this is what a star does, right? Like, a star does something like this, and you're like, because this is the one criticism we had against him. Oh, he couldn't wrestle Barcellal. Look what Parcellus did him. he goes and he does something like that not just once he does it a couple of times in this

fight he really couldn't have showed you know just kind of first of all why he's hyped why he's a star and also just how good he really is like he i think he's a sponge i think that's one of the reasons he gets like we saw him in that follow-up fight um whenever that was in the summer and he had already looked vastly improved from the last time we've seen him i think he's that kind of guy very cerebral but i tell you what man when you watch a guy guy like Suhudo, you know, going out and I think, you know, I've been as vocal as anybody about how cringe he is and all this stuff, but to see kind of a display of heart, there's always something that gets me about this, man. Like there was a point, I think it was about a minute left in that

where he kind of grabs a single leg and it's that last single leg, you know, he's trying one more time to like dump him on his back and he can't get it. He just absorbed it. He's bleeding all over the place. His face is busted up. And you see that kind of thing and I'm like, I don't know what it is, man. I think for me that's the romance of the fight game when you see a guy who has heart to the end like that is going out on his shield and is doing everything and his power to get it done.

You take all that together and it just made for like a really great fight man. Yeah, he's an absolute legend, Henry Sehudo. I think he's very underappreciate in terms of what he did in the in the octagon. A fantastic fighter and a brilliant fight tonight it's a massive moment

of a painting Talbot, but it's a massive moment because he was fighting Henry Sehudo. I love how Talba fights. He reminds me a little bit of McGregor, honestly, like with that rangy style coming in with a big backhand. And who were you saying was looking for a fight earlier? Who's the odd man out? Amon Zahabhi?

That sounds like a good fight to me. Peyton Talbot would be Amin Zahabby. Light that up. That is a tremendous idea. By the way, Sehudo is right 10. Yeah. We don't make it. We're going to start.

We're going to all of a sudden put him into these comments. I'm like, if you beat Sehudo, this is going to all of a sudden be like, like, okay, Peyton's Albutt's now in the top space here. We got, you know, I knew this. 100%. I mean, Sehudo is ranked 10th. And believe it or not, Peyton is not ranked. And Zahubi is ranked seventh.

I mean, I could see, honestly, I could see Zahabi fight. I could see a Cheeto Vera fight. I know he's, you know, he's falling on a bit of hard times. Batista would be a tough one. Obviously, Figaro and Umar and Umar are about to fight, Songy Dong and O'Mali. But I think he's in that mix. And I think there's a strong desire.

at some point soon to see him fight Sean O'Malley. Obviously, if Sean O'Malley wins, he might get put into that title picture, but would love to see that at some point as well. He's a special fighter, and, like, what a difference 11 months make, right? Because I think back in January, Chuck, everyone was like, oh, maybe this guy has a lot of holes and isn't as great as we all thought he was. And honestly, there were a couple of people saying, like, is this the curse of the Chuck profile? You know, that was thrown around fighting nerd. It might have been. It might have been.

No, no, no, no, no. But he made a joke that he was going to go to Dagestan and fix his wrestling. I mean, he didn't quite do that, but I will say that you don't see guys make strides like he has too often. I mean, that's like, I just, I'm, he, it's when you see it, the transcendent qualities of a fighter sometimes is in that. It's like this magic of like, how did they get so good so fast or how did they improve this so fast? There's something inexplicable about that. And I feel like he's got that, man. Like, he's got this strange, you know, just command of situations that you're like, how far can he take this?

And, I mean, I hate making all the time when you see a guy come up, the Connor McGregor comparison, but Pete C was talking about that. I kind of see that in that sense. Like, he just kind of has something more to him, you know, that he brings to the table. And so you mentioned all those matchups, and I'm like, they all become a lot of fun when you have a guy like that involved. They become, like, the magnitude of that fight is going to be big regardless of who it is. guys they've announced some some news and notes here the gate 4.7 million the attendance 18,000 they called it a sellout at T-Mobile arena which would be great considering you know it was the bantamway title and the flyway title on the line Dana white at the post-fight press conference he's speaking or was speaking

moments ago he he is still maintaining that it was an injured shoulder for one Alex Pantoja. I don't know how that's possible, but I guess maybe if the shoulder moves a certain way, then... Maybe he said this regarding Marab Duolishvili. One of the toughest fighters that have ever come across Marab and I didn't get off on the right foot early on. I have nothing but respect for him. So it sounds like they are on the same page now. Josh Van, by the way, saying I want to fight at least three times a year every year. We might even go up to four or five times. Did you not learn anything from Marab tonight.

I mean, golly. He's a lot younger. I mean, he could do it. He can make that way. By the way, Dana White also saying that the medical team popped Pantosha's shoulder back while he was backstage and that, again, it was not his elbow. So I don't know what that means. I mean, they popped. That means that Dom Cruz was right.

I mean, again, this is the same guy, by the way, who was telling us that Aspinall was going to be back right away and that all was good, so I don't know. He did say he does not expect a Pantosia to be back anytime soon and he expects Van will likely defend the title before any rematch with Pantosia. So he didn't say Pantosia didn't want a fight, no?

Didn't just say... It sounds like he did not say that. No, Pantosia didn't want a fight, man. What can I tell you? The guys, Banz the new champion. I got to tell you what, Pizzi, my son Walter, who has started to watch these fights with me, which is a lot of fun at 11 years young,

was locked in on Jan Bajovitch versus Bogdan Guskov. And it was really pull. Chuck, you'll appreciate this. He was pulling for Jan because he said, quote, he reminds me of Nicola Yokic. He says he just doesn't seem to care about how he looks and about anything. He's just going out there for the love of the game.

Yeah, there was something there. Yeah, it was magic. Janfoy was magic, magic. Yeah. He had a horrible second round, then he came back in the twirred. I mean, brilliant for you. And also, it felt like they were trying to, like, you know,

build Bogdan off his back. And he was like, not tonight, guys. Yeah. He is ages, 42, man. Unbelievable. And do you notice before that fight, they were like, oh, he's not lifting weights anymore. I was like, yeah, he's 42, man.

He's not doing shit. Yeah, chill out. He's showing up to beat the shit out of his youngflin. That's all he is doing. That is what his focus is. We joke that it would be a draw on the crack. Yeah. it ended up being a draw.

I just wanted to point that out. In the end, it was score to draw. One judge, by the way, scored it 29, 28, as you see here, for Jan. And then the two others, it was interesting. The scorecards I thought were interesting because, oh, I lost it there. I was trying to read it. Can I see that one more time? Sorry, guys.

Yeah, there it is. So the 10-8 in the second, as you see two judges, I thought, you never know, like, again, the 10-8s are so tough. Did you guys have any issues with those? As you see, Chris Lee didn't score a 10-8. And then I was wondering if they were going to score the third of 10-8. They were talking about that as well. I don't know.

What did you think? Did Yon deserve this, or was the draw the fair thing, Chuck? No, I could see it either way. I had no problem with it being a draw. So I feel like in the end it wasn't too controversial. In some ways, a fight like that, like it feels like just. to end like that i don't know why um but it was that close as far as the prelims were concerned yes yes ptze tell me ben folks this fight was how i learned yan is somehow still number five

and ain't won a fight since 2002 wow that says something like heavyweight division i mean there's a couple there's some draws in there and stuff but uh right because he had the draw in the uh in the title fight as well um but yes these things do happen. Okay, what about the prelims, guys? What about the prelims? Grant Dawson, Manuel Torres, Manuel Torres, with a very impressive knockout in the first round, two minutes and 25 seconds. Chris Duncan and Terrence McKinney fought in one of the most frenetic two minutes and 30 seconds that you will ever see. First, it looks like McKinney's about to knock him out. Then it looks like Duncan's about to knock him out. Then it looks like they're both about to knock out each other. And in the end, Duncan scores,

the submission, but it looked for a dars choke, by the way, or anaconda choke, excuse me, it looked like McKinney was just kind of, I don't know, it looked like he was gassed after that craziness. I mean, that was wild stuff. Total strikes 57 for McKinney, 75 for Duncan in two minutes. Fucking one round of fight. Half around. I mean, half a round.

Oh, my God. This kid, this Duncan guy, unbelievable, right? So everyone's talking, like, that's talking about this fight this week is like, yeah, like, The fear is McKenney's going to knock him out, but we don't know if you can knock Chris Duncan out as the thing. So it was like this guy could exhaust himself trying to punch Duncan out. And then as we've seen, Duncan's on a tear at the moment.

He's been brushing up his submission skills with Dustin Porreier at ATT, who's used as a sparring partner in a lot of his later camps. I mean, he is just on one hell of a run right now. Incredible story. As he's pointed out, we did a piece with him for our own crown last year. And, you know, this guy starts. He weighs him for his first fight and gets a phone call to say his mother's diet.

And then he goes and competes the next day. He also was going to be a shepherd, like a dude standing on a mountain, herding sheep in Scotland before he found fighting. Like that takes a certain kind of tough to do that shit. So I'm here for Chris Duncan. My Celtic brother are very happy to see him get that win. Oh, yeah. No, unbelievable.

And like you said, incredible story. And I was blown away by his story when he was on the show a few months back. really, really impressive guy, very easy to root for. Macy Barber, Corrine Silva, was that other fight that I mentioned Mark Smith, the referee had a mare in because there was a clear illegal shot to a downed opponent that was just sort of ignored once again and the classic stern warning, but nothing actually done. And he said something like, it glanced you or something like he was like, yeah, and I caught it right in the fucking chin.

It was crazy. Yeah. She gets the win. She's very emotional. She's been through a lot as of late, a lot of health issues. And, you know, she's on this run. I have a stat here that I wanted to read if I can find it. Do I have it? I just clicked on the wrong thing. Should have had that prepared. Total mare here. Oh, here it is. Mark Smith levels. Look, nine wins. Nine wins tied for second most ever in the women's flyweight division. behind the champion Valentina Shvchenko. But it just seems like the inactivity kind of puts her out of the mix. But maybe they'll give her a title shot. Who knows?

I mean, we thought Natalia Silva was going to fight for the belt, and now she's fighting Rose Namajunis, as the boss likes to call her after Alexe Grasso pulled out. I can't get over that one. I don't know why. I keep doing it. I keep doing it. I know.

I keep doing it. But shout it to her for coming back. Ferreziam gets the buzzer beater. At the end of the second round, he TKOs Nassim Sarikov, who had looked good in his last fight, very good for his Ziam of France, getting the big win in the second round. What else happened? Bruno Fahara beat Marvin Vittori.

He did miss weight by three pounds, I do believe it was, and he gets to win. So I guess maybe if this was KSW would have ended in a draw, they would have taken a point away, right? Just saying, just saying. like that. What about Jalen Turner, guys? He retires out of the blue, 30 years young, back in March, comes back, has a tremendous win over Edson Barbosa. It looked phenomenal. His post-fight interview was great as well. Really great stuff. Barbosa, obviously, getting up there in age 24 and 14 now is his record. But Jalen Turner was someone that I think a lot of us were very high on as a lightweight,

and I think now he's finally, you know, hopefully on the right track and is going to realize that potential. to see him back, great to see him win, great to see the emotion as well. I'm going to, I'm going to butcher this one. Ivo, no, I, Yvu,

Yvu Baranovsky. Yeah. Yvou Bananowski, yes. Against Ibo, Iceland. What was that? What was that? That was insane.

That was madness. Yvu via Ibu, yeah. Did you guys see this fight? It was absolutely insane. There was so many good fights on the prelims, honestly, just absolutely wars. And this was mental. D.C. was still in the throws of this fight when the main card was beginning.

He was still like, do you remember that fight aired around today? Yeah. It was insane. Just a minute, 29 seconds. The Pride of Poland, Varnovsky gets the wind there, you see him. He looks, yeah, he does have that certain, shouldn't say, quah. Mansur, Abdul Malik, gets the submission win, a minute, nine seconds. And so the fights were ending rather quickly.

And then in the curtain jerker, Myron Santos gets the third round TKO for Mohammed Naimov. So a lot of finishes there. I think like seven of the first nine fights were some kind of stoppage. A very fun fight card. Any performance you want to call out, Chuck? What did you guys think about the fights they announced? Oh, you want to go there? Wow.

Yeah. Okay. This is a final thought? Is this a final thought? No, no, no, no. I was just curious because they threw those out there. Well, let me tell the people about the fights that they announced. 324 prelims.

We already knew about the 324 main card, right? But we didn't know about the prelims. Some new fights added to the prelims. They officially announced Italia Silva versus Rosemeynum and Eunice. They added Nikita Krillov versus Modestis Bukas, Alex Perez versus Charles Johnson, Michael Johnson versus Alex Hernandez, Josh Hokit versus Denzel Freeman,

and Ricky Tersios versus Cameron Smotherman. That was the 324 prelim, and then the other fights that they announced were for 325. They really filled up that card. That's the following week, January 31st, in the United States, February 1st in Sydney, Volcanowski-Lopez.

But then we found out a bunch of other fights. Co-mate event, Dan Hooker coming back relatively quickly against BSD. What a fight that is. Rafael Fiziv against Maricio Huffy. I love that one. Tai Tui Vasi. versus Talosin Tashara

and then Jimmy Crude versus Dustin Ducoby the prelims feature Quillensal Kield versus Rongzou Sergei Spivak versus Antidellia Jonathan McHaff

versus Oban Elliott Kahn O'Flee versus Yiza Jr. Tafa versus Billy Alicana Kam Raustin versus Cody Brundage

and Jacob Malcun versus Torres Finney What caught your eye here? Jesus Christ you I mean, they're good fights. I just, it was, it was just kind of the delivery of like, hey, a hunter's leaned in my ear here and he's telling me, you know, and it felt like very pro wrestling or something.

Like, hey, it sounds like we got something happening here, you know. But, Chuck, I mean, and by the way, yesterday we had a press conference in which they just announced Charles Olvera versus Max Hallway for the BMF. That's the March pay-per-view, March 7th, they do believe it is. I'll take anything, absolutely anything over an IG live where Dana is mispronouncing the name in between bites of a sandwich. Like, I'll take anything.

So if that's what we're getting, if that's what it is, then I'll take it. You know? Yeah. Good fights, though. That was your take. That was your take on the fights. No, I just was, I loved that. I love that.

What are you, Ariahawani? Yeah. I was reading down all the, you read out 15. When you were reading them, I was going, what fucking fight is he talking about here? Yeah. Oban? By the way, some exciting news. Dana White said that they are looking.

into going to Asia for Tyra versus potentially Van Japan in particular was mentioned. So that would be nice, right? That would be nice. Listen, this is the thing. I was thinking about this. Like, when we could get into it next week as well, but like they announced a London card and it's a fight night. But now that everything's on Paramount Plus, why can't they do?

Let's just say Tom gets magically better. It's not going to happen. But like, why can't Tom Aspinall headline that? Right. Why can't you do a fight night in Japan headline by Tyra versus? fan or something like that. We don't have to sit at the same. If it's going to be 5 o'clock the morning, I don't want to fucking do it. Okay, don't do it in the room. Or is that the Manchester one? Fuck on that shit. No, no, no, no. I'm saying because it's Paramount Plus

you don't have to sell paper. Right. It could be at any time of the day now. You don't, you can't use that as an excuse anymore. You can't say they will. They will. They will use it as an excuse. You think so? No. It's going to happen. I feel like we're going to be in a new era that way. We'll see though. I want to get your hopes up. That's true. That's true. Was there was there a performance that you wanted to call out there from the prelims pizza or did you just want to talk about it already did okay yeah yeah all right all right sorry puts respect on beforehand too 100 percent nobody's going to out berserk that guy that dude is that was that was crazy he was standing in there just standing like biting down on it that was great uh i'm just seeing some more

stuff dana white reacting to tom aspinall's comments on a certain program that he was disappointed in his reaction. Is that who that person said to him? I'm not seeing. Yeah. Let's see. Let's see if you guys cite the program. The quote is, what did I say?

We have people all over him right now checking up on him. I'm no doctor. I'm just saying what I've heard. I wasn't saying anything negative towards him. My question is, did those people check up on him before the interview or after the interview? I mean, they were apparently there in the hospital. hospital. That's what I was, you know, right on the video, the many videos they had around the notebooks.

Again, you know. Oh, there's all kinds of comments here about the Ali Act. I don't want, wow, there's a lot of stuff here. Golly. I just see that here. That was interesting. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. What's your recap for us here? Ptsey, give us a. Yeah, Pt, give us a recap of that kind of this year. This is fucking great. I don't know what the big deal is.

And then someone was like, hang on a second. and this, you know, he's a bit of trouble there. And they were like, oh, I don't know. Yeah, don't worry about that. So that was pretty much what happened. It is worth noting that this is the final UFC on ESPN pay-per-view, the final UFC pay-per-view. And I guess Dana Waite was asked about the paper-view points.

And he said there is a model in place, and they have it figured it out. They have figured it out. And everyone just, you know, just relax. Thank God for that. Say all the champions are like, thank God for that. There was me worrying, like, oh. It was a model in. my ways they're going and they're like they have it sorted now don't worry darling it's going to be

fine dana white's just said it's sorted and she's like oh thank god you know we're all good we're all good we're all good uh so there you have it guys and now at this point in the program 226 a m eastern time 7 26 a i wanted to go around the room and all talk about our top 10 favorite ufc paper views of all time but the key is and and i ask you guys to prepare this. So thank you. I want you guys to give us the numbered event, date as well, and run down the main card. So please, PT, why don't you go first? You're the only two people who can do this. You're the only fucking two people in the world. They're like, oh, what was that? I was going to say, Harold could probably actually do this. Go ahead, PT. Why don't you tell us.

No, fuck off. No, we're going to go to bed. Come on. Okay. Chuck is 100% going to bring up the fact that Dana White promised that he was going to repel off the Mandalay Bay. Did on Freud? Bungie jump. Yeah, that's his favorite. Oh, Bungie. Was it Bunchy or? I still pissed about it.

I wanted to see that. That and U.S.C. 149 in Calgary saying he owed them a better card. Remember that one? That's going to be on his deathbed. I was like, he didn't do it. He still. He did it.

He didn't. He didn't. Bunggie jump. Chuck, any final thoughts before we go, anything you want to say. Fellows, I was just going to say that we've seen a lot of eras come and go and this one feels like a particularly big one.

You know, you go back to like Spike Days and remember Ion or whatever that was, like all the different places that the fights have appeared. This felt like the first significant era. You know, the Fox one was still a feel out. I felt like this was the arrival to when the UFC kind of entered into that mainstream consciousness of the sports fan. And it really has played out, especially across the pandemic and just with everything that's gone on. But we're another one of these.

these moments where you're closing the chapter and it's always kind of crazy when we arrive at these because we've been talking, we've been following the sport for a long time. And Ariel, I know you were there at the beginning, like when ESPN first was getting the rights for the UFC, I was there before then.

I can remember talking to ESPN executives back in the days being like, hey, can we get more, can we do more coverage or like this, just the people above me? And it was such a struggle. It's a crazy thing that we've reached the end of another one. one of these big deals and we're going into a new era, which we don't know what it means.

I feel like we're the only sport that kind of goes through these more drastic changes, you know what I mean than other sports? Because when they go to other broadcasts or whatever, there might be little bells and whistles, but you always feel like when we go into a new chapter, it is truly a new chapter. It's going to be a completely different, you know, setup in terms of the pay-per-views and all that. But we made it again, and we're here to talk about it. So I just wanted to kind of acknowledge that, man, because we were all there for the ESPN things, like a big one to me. And by the way, when you mentioned the word ion, was that in reference to

the network that aired the prelims for UFC I-25 resolution on Ion TV? Was that what that was? Was that a subtle nod? He just sent them down. He's going to start doing the day. Oh, and who made a vend of that card? It was... Maynard Edgar. Maynard Edgar, remember? I don't care. I don't fucking care. The rebatch, which of course ended in a draw, just like the draw that we had in the on-bom- Jovich fight. And oh, by the way, the Lamont Roach fight against Pippel Cruz tonight in San Antonio. See how it all comes together, guys. This is how you do a PT. This is like a bow put on it there. Thanks very much, everyone, for tuning there. Yes, there it is. But yes, thank you for that. That is true. I found

myself a little emotional tonight, not going to lie. And of course, who's to check, who's to check. It was Ariel Hawaiian, New York, Rick, who ushered in the UFC on ESPN era back in December of 2018. But, you know, we'll talk about that story in the book. Don't worry about it, guys. We appreciate everyone who tuned in on this lovely December evening or morning, wherever you may be. Thank you very much for your support. Please give us a thumbs up, like, subscribe, all that stuff and more. Thumbs up to the chat.

Thumbs up to the whole crew back in New York City. You know, we never do this, by the way. Can we get a shot of the crew? Where's the crew? I want to see who's in the control room. Can we do that? Or is that? Oh, there they are.

Wow. They're still there. Look at these guys burning the midnight oil. I love, much love, much love. You know what? Conspicuous by his absence, Frank in that shot. Don't see Frank in there. Yeah, don't see him.

That's weird. Good looking. Sounds like the home studio microphone there, Frank. There you go. Thank you very much, everyone back at the HQ. Great job by the boys in the back. another watch party in the book. Final UFC on ESPN pay-per-view watch party,

but for those asking, we'll still be doing the watch parties for the numbered events. So have no fear, have no fear. The next one, though, will come in January of 26. Wow. We'll be back on Monday to talk about everything that happened tonight, all the news that's coming out of the press conferences

and, of course, talk to the big winners, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. You know the Joe by now. Okay, I think the song is about to wrap up. The boys are tired. I'm tired. Congrats all the winners. Much love. Thank you for watching. We'll talk to you on Monday. Peace.