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In episode 65 of The Fight, I break down all the chaos from UFC 323 in Las Vegas, from Petr Yan’s career-defining performance to reclaim the bantamweight title against Merab Dvalishvili over five brutal rounds to Joshua Van’s shocking coronation after Alexandre Pantoja’s early injury, plus Tatsuro Taira’s statement finish of Brandon Moreno, Payton Talbott’s shutout of Henry Cejudo, and the wild majority draw between Jan Blachowicz and Bogdan Guskov. Tune in to relive the atmosphere, the scorecards, and what these results really mean for every division going forward.
Episode Transcript
It's Lena Le.
The fights tapping in.
Listen, UFC 323.
Let's get into it.
Main car only.
Top dogs only.
Big fights.
Only.
It's only me.
Listen, tap in in the fight.
UFC 23.
(00:21):
Let's get right into it.
Mario Torres gets the win donein one dog.
Talk about starting the card offwith a banger.
Manual Torres gets the TKO offof damage, off of punches, and
bunches.
There was a lot of olderfighters being turned away by
(00:46):
the new school fighters.
Manuel Torres is one of thoseguys who showed the older guy
what was going down.
He dropped them, finished them,TKO.
Shout to him.
I'm glad he got the 50k bonus.
Then we go into Jan versusBogan.
Listen, Jan once again hasgotten a draw.
(01:07):
In his last four fights, hecould have easy it's easily
arguable that he won all four.
But Alex Barrera needed to dowhat he needed to do.
So the UFC probably let himslide on the cards.
And that's what happened.
I'm sorry.
Jan is being robbed by the UFC.
He's being trying to, they'retrying to sweep him under the
(01:28):
rug, but he's too good.
He's too good to be swept underthe rug.
It's crazy.
His last string of fights, andjust how good this guy is, just
how tough, just how his will towin, even after being dropped.
How his his resurgence in thethird round and even dropping
his opponent, which they shouldhave called for him.
Listen, man, Jon deserves a lotbetter than what he is getting
(01:53):
from the UFC.
It was sad to see.
I mean, they were trying to getthis guy to be a showcase piece
for the new fighter, and heturned that away.
You know, he pushed that away.
He isn't a gatekeeper.
He should be fighting for thatbelt.
He should be getting some nodsin these next decisions.
(02:17):
You know, it's just it's wild tosee.
But moving on, we have PeytonToblet versus Henry Sehuda,
another older fighter versus ayoung star, a showcase fight.
Peyton did everything he wassupposed to do and even took
down an Olympic level goldmedalist.
(02:38):
Listen, man.
MMA is a vicious, cruel game.
These kids, these guys, thesemen, these fighters can mix it
up with the best of them.
Not kinda sorta the best ofthem.
With the ability to mix theirtechniques, MMA artists at the
peak level can overcome any oneskilled specialty.
(03:02):
And listen, man, these guys aregetting used to it as well.
You know, Toblitz uh takedowndefense jumped so many levels
after that loss.
So it's good to see him on atwo-fight win streak, getting
the UD over the champion.
Couldn't knock him out, though.
So shout out to Henry for beingthat tough champ, pushing the
(03:22):
young kid, and really, you know,seeing what Toblett is made of.
It was a showcase event forPeyton Toblett.
It was a goodbye to HenrySahudo.
Shout out Henry Sahudo, two-timechampion, Olympic gold medalist,
a triple C champ, a true creditto the sport of wrestling and
MMA, a giant legacy.
(03:44):
I'm so happy for this guy.
And listen, I think he waswinning so much he had to lose
some point in his life.
Like, imagine the amount ofwinning Henry Sehudo had to do
to lose at this point, right?
Like he's losing on the biggeststage.
Like, people don't get there.
(04:06):
And he's dominated at thebiggest stage as well.
So, you know, he spent most ofhis life a winner, and now he's
tasting some defeat as he getsolder.
I think it's a perfect story,especially for a brass person
like Henry Sehudo.
I give him all the credit in theworld.
Terrific champion, incrediblelegacy.
Now, talking about terrificchampions and incredible
(04:27):
legacies, listen, AlexanderPantoja fought Joshua Van for 26
seconds.
Now, unfortunately, he wasinjured in the very first round
from contact for Joshua Van.
So he gets the TKO on thetechnicality because his
collision with Joshua Van causedthe injury.
(04:48):
And that's what people have todeal with that.
It's not the best, it's not acop-out, but the injury was
caused by Van.
He is 24 years old.
He beat the number onecompetitor in his division to
get this opportunity, and he hassucceeded his dreams.
He's going to be excited.
(05:08):
I do not care about anybodyelse.
He took the kick and did thepush that caused the damage.
He deserves that victory.
Now, talking about deservingvictories, listen, Peter Jon
broke down the machine.
He disassembled him over fiverounds.
It was systematic, traumatic,and very damaging.
(05:30):
Peter Jan is very mean in there,and once he understands how
you're coming and how it's goingto go down, he's going to pick
you apart.
He spent the first round gettingthe range and the timing of
Marab's takedowns and hisoffense.
Marab's offense, especiallystriking, is mundane if he's not
(05:52):
threatening a takedown.
The only time it gets good isbecause of his takedown threat.
(06:13):
Like, there's few strikers andgrappl that fight striking and
grapple at the same level.
Islam does that very well.
High-level striking, high-levelgrappling.
Listen, Marab's striking was notup to par, and he got picked
apart for five rounds.
Shout out to Peter Yan, thevicious new champion, champ
(06:37):
again.
This is his second time touchingthe belt since his loss against
Aljo.
True champion.
I am excited for what he doesfor what he does next.
I do believe Marab should get animmediate rematch.
And I also believe Marab needssome time off.
Four weight cuts in one year.
That is a lot of fighting.
(06:59):
That is a lot of fighting.
And maybe hubris and ego playeda part of his loss as well.
We will never know.
I know this.
He has to tighten up thestriking.
And if his wrestling is a bigpart of his offense, he has to
start making submissions a partof his game.
He has to have a deeper layerand a month more things to
(07:20):
threaten.
If the wrestling isn't working,you have to be able to threat
something else.
A solid jab, too.
Like, you know, a lot offighters like Usman and I would
say Michael Chandler, they foundwhat striking works for them as
a grappler-based person, andthey mastered those.
(07:42):
And they they, you know, theylike mastered those, and then
every other punch becomes alittle bit easier to land.
I'm just saying, get your jabrobb, you know, get your jab
right, Marab.
Get certain boxing mechanicsbecause a lot of this was like
basic boxing mechanics mixedwith MMA ranges and danger as
far as kicks and takedowndefense.
(08:04):
But the boxing range that PeterJan kept him in and started to
punish him with was impeccableto watch.
He broke down the machine pieceby piece.
This is the fight Episodesixty-five.
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