Ep 295: UFC 314 Preview. Fight Night Recap. BKFC in Dubai Recap. Big Fight Announcements and More.

Episode 295: We take a look back at UFC Fight Night and a look ahead to this weekend's UFC 314 in Miami. BKFC was in Dubai for two big shows.  All the latest news and fight announcements. 











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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
What's up everybody. Welcome back to MMA after Hours. It's
Michael Carlisle and Micah Frankle. Micah, how you doing, man,
man sides the back ache.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
I'm just tear happy, excited. Last weekend was a lot
of fights. This weekend's a lot of fights.

Speaker 1 (00:20):
A lot of fights, a lot of fights. You know,
maybe all the fights is the problem with your back. Micah.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
I'm just saying, yeah, man, I shouldn't do so many
back to back, so many hard sparrings. I mean, all
those rounds of typing. It's really getting to me.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
All those rounds of typing. Well, you need an ergonomically
correct chair or something or another.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
We do have to stand to sit desk here. I'm
working with you. Fail right now. I'm standing.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
That's it, and you're going to develop foot problems. Now
you have to get some art supports and whatnot. It's
it's a never ending cycle, Micah, never ending.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
The next segment, I'll sit down. Back and forth. Is
a balance, Okay, is a balance, gonna be hey, a
prolonged one.

Speaker 1 (01:04):
Whatever works for you. I'm good with man. I'm just saying,
the back's bothering you, and you're standing up to compensate.
At some point in time, the feet are gonna go.
The legs it's it's yeah, it's rough.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
It says they're not already going well from.

Speaker 1 (01:18):
All the standing because you can't sit. I'm telling you it's.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
From all the walking you've seen, all the walking we
do to cover these events.

Speaker 1 (01:26):
My back's okay, my feet are alright now. I don't
have injury history in my past, but uh, yeah, you
know I am.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
I'm feeling alright for thirty nine. I mean, I don't
want to start sounding like Josh Emman over here. I'm rebuilt.
Medicine has remade me at forty two years old. And
then you kind of just look.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Jesus Christ, you just aged. Hold on, you just aged
three years in ten seconds. You said I feel alright
for thirty nine, and then medicine makes me feel better
at forty two. What the hell just happened? Did we
hit a time warp?

Speaker 2 (02:00):
No? No, no, no, that was the Josh Emmett. Okay,
he said medicine made him feel better than I'm forty
two years old, that he was rebuilt. Maybe I can
hope to get there also.

Speaker 1 (02:10):
As you get older, maybe your body will get in
better shape.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Supposedly, that's what we were told. This past weekend didn't work
out so well for him. I'm not thinking I like
the three so well for myself either.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Yeah, I was gonna say, I'm gonna let you in
a little secreted it's probably not gonna work out that
well for any of us. But look, nobody cares about
me or you how we're feeling as long as we're
here to do the show. I mean I care, I'm
I am very concerned, but nobody else cares but us.
So eh, nothing this. We got a lot to get to.
We had Fight Night last week. You brought up Josh

(02:44):
Emmett earlier, we got UFC three fourteen this weekend. We
got lots of stuff going on. Where would you like
to jump in, Micah, I.

Speaker 2 (02:54):
Was trying to start with Josh Emmett and the Roe Murphy.
That's how I kind of segued in there. I thought
you were gonna take Emmett comment and just say, why
are we talking about him? He's not even the guy
that won. He's not the guy that we should start with.
The Glory, the prestige, the credit needs to start off
with Lar Murphy. The win Street continues still onbeing a

(03:15):
sending contender, and right now he put together and showed
that he can follow a game planned not get carried away.
I think those are all very valuable attributes to have.
I don't know how fan friendly they're gonna be, but
it was a full and complete performance. I don't know

(03:35):
if a dissection, but it was a convincing decision when
where he avoided the power, he did a lot to
disarm Emmett. You saw a multitude of weapons, you saw
a very neat, very advanced footwork out of Murphy. Two

(03:57):
judges go forty eight forty seven. One judge has it
forty nine forty six. I thought it was a thorough
victory for Larone Murphy against the Josh Emmett who just
wasn't able to put together the faints or fakes to
really surprise Murphy and didn't have the footwork or the

(04:20):
athleticism to close off the angles.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Yeah, it was. It was not a good night for
Josh Emmett for sure. Murphy did everything he needed to
do in this fight. I'm curious what's happened to Josh Emmitt.
Is it just age? Is it back to back losing
to Yaya Rodriguez an Elia Taporia. That took something out
of him. Now, he did come back and beat Bryce

(04:45):
Mitchell after that, but then with the loss to Murphy.
Is it the murderers row that that he kind of
went through there a little bit? Is it age? Is
it a combination of things? What's happened to Josh Emmett
that all of a sudden going up up, up, but
and now you're going down, down, down, down, down down down.

Speaker 2 (05:04):
Well, part of it is he made it to the pinnacle.
He faced elite level competition. We're talking about Yayi Rodriguez,
who continues to evolve, and for as long as he's
been around MMA, he's still in a very good age.
Josh Emmon is a guy that got a late start,

(05:25):
and even though he is cut out of wood, I mean,
the man's physique is something most of us have never
had ever in our lives, and he included. He is
not the explosive from the thought point of being smooth.
He's explosive from the thought point of being a linebacker.

(05:47):
And I think he's very telegraphed in his movements. And
I think you saw that fluidity in footwork and lateral
movement be exposed by Luro Murphy, who knew I keep
my head ant hi and it's gonna explode in He's
gonna look for his big shots. I need to keep
my wits about me, keep moving, and I'll be able

(06:09):
to escape him and continue to budget him. Not to mention,
this is someone that has had a knee problem, and
Murphy did a very good job of attacking the oblique kick.
And we know from how John Jones has implemented it
that weapon can be very damaging in a short amount
of time.

Speaker 1 (06:30):
Yeah, and again Murphy, I don't know if it was
spectacular per se, but he did everything he needed to do.
I don't you know. I from that standpoint, I don't
think you can fault his performance. I know he moved
up two spots in the rankings, basically him and in
the UFC rankings just flip flopped eight and ten. But
did Murphy really show enough that when he calls his

(06:54):
shot is going to be listened to.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
Well, there's a a couple different ways to attack that question.
First off, did you have any problem with the scorecards?
I saw some people, just a few out there, thinking
maybe Emmett had a bigger case than he did. Did
you feel any of that. No, Okay, there was interesting.

(07:19):
You could see that he did get the first, the third,
and the fifth round being given on differents. I don't
know how the fifth round goes to Emmett when he
got hurt. I think that Lari Murphy, how many years
has he been in the UFC. I know that's a
question that probably you don't have the answer right off
the top of your head. But he is not the

(07:41):
most active fighter. When you guys hear that, he's like
nine years in the UFC and nine wins. He's a
mild mannered guy. He's not the biggest social media personality.
I think that compounded with another just thorough decision win,
where yes, it was the smart thing. Maybe we're undervaluing

(08:06):
fight IQ as an attribute. It's just not what allors
fans to the box office.

Speaker 1 (08:13):
Yep. September of twenty nineteen was his first fight in UFC.
I agree with you, And if you want to tell
me it's not fair, it's not right. It should be
all merit based. I hear you. But the reality is
you have to come up with ways to stand apart
from everyone else. Whether your name's Connor McGregor whether your

(08:36):
name's even a Bryce Mitchell who totally different levels, but
you know who Bryce Mitchell is. The drill, his preferred
preference in fishing partners and things like that, and the
wonky shit he says from his compound in Arkansas. You
have to do things to stand out, and if you don't,
you do run the risk of being, you know, kind

(08:59):
of lost in the middle of the pack. And I'm
not saying that Murphy should just go out and go
scorch sturf on everybody and be something he's not, but
you do have to let your personality show and give
people a reason to kind of latch onto you and
want to see you either get your ass caked or
be successful.

Speaker 2 (09:18):
I want to have a merit based system. I want
to look at the wind streak, the unbeaten record, elevate
this man so much more than we're going to. But
I can't help but tell you I found myself Saturday night,
as this was the fifth event I had covered and
wrote about in three days. These are my own personal problems. Again, people,

(09:40):
I know you don't care. It was hard to still
be at that Eeke level of entertainment for what should
have been the best main event of the week and
the highest caliber fight of the weekend, and there wasn't
an I don't know if this is another APEX fault
lock of it energy in the room. But it was

(10:01):
hard as that performance went in to have that over
the top enthusiasm about what we were watching.

Speaker 1 (10:12):
I kind of felt the same way, was it? I mean,
maybe it was the Apex. I don't Yeah, I don't know.
I don't disagree with you though.

Speaker 2 (10:21):
Yeah, what is the position that Lauro Murphy is in.
It's not a great one because, yeah, you think you're
set up in a great position. You're fighting the weekend
before the featherweight title is on the line. There are
five featherweight fights this week and on that car We'll
get to them in a minute, but damn near every
one of them, dudes has a position to have more
acclaim and more desire to see you fight in a

(10:43):
bigger fight than Murphy coming off of this performance. And
not to mention there's still a us off ziel A,
Steve Garcia and a rumor of Motsar Evylop welcoming in
Aaron freaking Eco to the UFC that easily those four
guys could also with what they've been doing for finishes

(11:04):
for entertainment and Evy love on his wind streak to
jump above of mister Murphy. So right now, do you
even feel that there's a good direction that we could
go in for larone or does that question not even
apply right now? Because we need to see what happens
this weekend.

Speaker 1 (11:24):
Well, I think you got this weekend. I think Murphy's
gonna have a hard time fighting up now, maybe in
Ortega or someone like that. But if you're well, if
you're Yaiir and I know Lopez is fighting vote this weekend.
But if you're pretty much anyone currently ahead of Murphy

(11:46):
in the rankings, you see him as being beneath you,
and unless the UFC refuses to give you another fight,
you don't see any reason to fight to take a
fight against Murphy. So you're probably looking, if you're Murphy,
at having to fight someone below you in the rankings,
and I don't know that that gets you where you
want to be either.

Speaker 2 (12:08):
I am not fully sure of the relationship shared between
l Roon Murphy and Arnold Allen. They both come from
the UK, that London area, I believe. Sitting at seven
and eight, the UFC has been doing a lot more

(12:29):
European events. Laron Murphy, as we said, a lack of charisma,
or maybe perceived lack of charisma, maybe just being in
a shy shell. It's hurt him. Maybe a showdown with
Arnold Allen for the best featherweight in the UK in
a co main event somewhere over there in front of

(12:50):
a crowd would be the way to build up his
prestige and a lore. He had called out Brian Ortega.
I need to know what Brian Ortega's doing with his life.
It feels like he's just taking fights on a whim.
He talked about going to fifty five. If that's a rebuild,
I'd love to see it. Right now at forty five,

(13:11):
he just doesn't look like he's into it. And I
don't know if I want to see him taking on
another ascending featherweight just because they called his name.

Speaker 1 (13:22):
Yeah, and look, if I'm Arnold Allen, I don't have
an interest in unless it's just to prove who the
best featherweight in the UK is. I don't have an
interest in this fight. Arnold Allen was on a roll now. Yeah,
he dropped two in a row to Holloway and to Evulov,
but he bounced back with the win against Chikatse almost

(13:44):
a year ago. Now. Now he also hadn't fought in
a while, but maybe that's because there's not an opponent,
and maybe that does entice you to take a fight.
But everything being equal, if I'm Arnold Allen, I'm looking
up and not down. I don't know. It's tough, it's
a tough spot. I don't envy where Lauren Murphy is
right now coming off a win, which is a horrible

(14:06):
thing to say, but if the goal is move up,
move up, move up, title shot, easier said than done.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
I hear what you're saying. I targeted Arnold Allen for
the simple reason of the same thing as larn Murphy.
You're in a position you're you're gonna do what the
fuck the UFC says, because you're not that big of
a name, you're not that big of a personality, and
you're lucky if we put you in a big fight,
you're probably I also continue talking about the featherweights with
the co main event, Impat Sabatini absolutely exploited the all

(14:41):
or nothing jiu jitsu of you Anderson Brito went for
the guillotines. They failed. He tries to be explosive. He
didn't follow his corner's advice with going for kicks right
away a little bit. I feel like we saw an
evolvement in the striking of Sabatini. But this is a
guy that when you heard the backstory, the fact that

(15:03):
he has now enlisted a mental coach, a sports psychologist
into his arsenal, I think that has helped him put
together the game between his ears. This is someone who
trains with the Joe Pipers, the Sean Brady's. He has
that Sean Brady game. I think the mental change was
the biggest thing, because I thought mentally Grito was just

(15:24):
going to come out and walk through him because he
has that bravada and it was not able to be generated.
This is a now dangerous intriguing pat Sabatini.

Speaker 1 (15:33):
It really is. This fight did not go at all
the way I envisioned it going. I don't know how
much of that was you had mentioned seeking out a
sports psychologist. I'm actually surprised more fighters don't do this
by help more athletes in general, and I know that
many do, but if nothing else, just to keep you
focused and things like that. I think it's a wonderful thing.

(15:57):
It's a safe bet that that played some role in
Sabatini's performance. How much or how little certainly debatable, But
I don't think it's a bad thing at all.

Speaker 2 (16:08):
I agree with you. I think that you have to
take advantage of every tool that is to your reach,
and especially in MMA, in the fight business, where the
highs and the lows are so rapid. You think about
traditional team sports, you get so many opportunities, you get

(16:28):
so many plays to get back on the field. In
combat sports you get only a few big opportunities, and
the opportunities performer so spread out. Those highs and lows
are so vicious. Having mechanisms and a system to cope
with those.

Speaker 1 (16:46):
Is vital for sure. If you look at Sabatini, three
of his last four wins, the loss to Diego Lopez. Now,
if you want to tell me why you didn't, actually
you know, beat world beaters, all right, But he seems
to be on a good trajectory right now.

Speaker 2 (17:03):
And this is the kind of name that will get
him another hot name to start building that resume back
towards top competition. We also saw another wrestling nice victory
come out of Kang Ho Lee. A lot of hype
coming out of him, talked about as the Korean Kabbib.
I don't know if we want to get that far

(17:24):
on his game yet, but he was determined to wrestle,
got the ground and pound overwhelmed. Quite possibly the best
name in all of Mma, Cortevis Ramus. It feels like
he needs to be in some kind of Greek mythology movie.
But he wasn't able to defend the castle this time.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
I was gonna say it sounds like either the name
of the hero or the villain in the next Latiator
movie for real.

Speaker 2 (17:54):
We also saw some last action heroes in the veterans
Brad Tavarist works Gerald Mershark landed some nine strikes, couldn't
get the fight to the ground, and really finally got
aggressive in that third round. For the most part, it
was Tavars, I will smash you in the legs, I
will keep this in the middle, and I am the
more technical striker. A good one for the Hawaiian I

(18:17):
talk about a good one, Oday Osborne, Oday Osbourne. That's
somebody that you hate to read too much into a corner.
But when you started hearing Oh wait, he's got this
guy and this guy and that guy. I think he
had Alex Peedez he had I want to say Morab
was in his corner. He had like three real high

(18:39):
class corner guys, and I think there was a full
mental change. Also in Ode Osborne, we finally saw him
let his strikes go, the big left hook lands. Luis
Godol will be back. He is a monster. That was
a rough welcoming to the UFC, but not as rough
as Taus Finney. He's eleven and oh and may have

(19:02):
put a couple people to sleep with the lowest striking
output I've ever seen. I thought this was a middle
wave fight that looked like sloppy heavyweight action.

Speaker 1 (19:12):
It was not a fight that people are gonna be
talking about afterwards, not in a good way anyway.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
Wrestling can be a dominant art form, but it's a
connective art form. It connects you to being able to
beat up your opponent, to submit your opponent. Without doing that,
it was lackluster, But there's no way that Finny lost
all three rounds. That was a mockery of a scorecard.

Speaker 1 (19:39):
Yeah. Probably Again, the decision ultimately I think was right,
But yeah, when you start to look at the judges'
cards and you're like, the fuck is this dude watching
or what the hell does he know that? I don't know,
and I'm not even one hundred percent sure of which
is which, But yeah.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
Whatever, what if this was a sit in? What if
this was That's it. I'm picketing, that's it. I'm revolting
against the system. If you're making me watch this crap,
I'm just scoring this crap however it goes.

Speaker 1 (20:17):
I think this is a bad one to die, a
bad hill to die on. Way for it to happen
in a bigger fight, But yeah.

Speaker 2 (20:27):
YEAHA Barbosa at the feature prelim gets the arm triangle
choke back in the wing column, promising prospect took care
of Deanna Beelitza. I believe this could be the last
time we'll see in the octagon now two and six
Riise McKee five times in the octagon, first time, five
times in the octagon, first time, getting his hand raised,

(20:50):
the long journey, finally accomplishing that first step up the ladder,
a very good boxing performance. I thought the stoppage was
due to the and then we find out the lip
is ripped. That was disgusting injury, a worthy stopch Diano
Daniel for Unza gonna have some gnarly stitches on his face.

Speaker 1 (21:14):
That was ugly, dude, He's just like and look. I
think that's one of the things that draw people to this.
It's not always the big Hematoba that the big not
a split lip, a bad cut somewhere. We've seen tons
of nasty injuries. Some fighters are able to keep going,

(21:35):
Some that you know, call for an end to the fight.
That was a nasty cut.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
That was a nasty cut. I don't even think that
for Unza really realize how bad it was. I do
credit him for wanting to keep going. I don't think
we were stopping him, or I don't think he was
stopping himself. He had to be stopped by the commission.
That was the heart and will of a fighter. But again,

(22:02):
all credit to McKee for getting that first victory and
looking ultra sharp on the feet.

Speaker 1 (22:07):
My man had a popsicle holder in his bottom lip,
so like he could have eaten a popsicle hands free
and could have held it there between the split and
that's yeah, that's rough.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
That's that's that's so rough. We also got the unanimous
decision win. Luma locked Boom under radar four in a row,
four wins in a row. Not the best competition, maybe,
we say her against a ranked body victor Henry. I
love the volume, the combinations, the relentlessness to get the

(22:40):
decision win over Pedro Falcau and then Martin Boonde able
to withstand. You're in steady Blob. He saw Study Blov
go to War for the LFA title, defend that belt,
and now he's in the UFC. He'll drop back down
to light heavyweight Mark. These have not been pretty victories

(23:03):
the last couple, but he somehow keeps pulling out the victories.
We also had Talita island Car. The grappling just absolutely
dominates Vanessa Demopolis.

Speaker 1 (23:15):
Yeah yeah, it was a fun night. UFC Fight Night
at the Apex this past weekend. Of course, UFC in
Miami for three fourteen this weekend. We'll talk about that
in a little bit. You mentioned the eight hundred and
twelve events you covered and wrote stories about over the week,
so obviously UFC not the only game in town this
past week. What else did you see?

Speaker 2 (23:38):
UFL had their first event of the World Tournament that
they're doing. We had the welterweights and the featherweights, and
the co main event, Jesus Pinedo can't be mad at
a great left hook as he puts down Adam Borisch
in the first We also had the same kind of
finish with that Gene taking out former ACB champion Mark

(23:59):
moon Burr modof And in the main event, Jason Jackson
leg kicked and then there was a foul stopping the action.
It looked like Andrey Khorskov might be done at that
point after getting elbowed in the back of the head,
bleeding from the top of his head a little bit
of the backside. They restart the fight takedown Jackson gets

(24:24):
the back submission win. Full results at cageminds dot com.
And we have more PFL action we'll talk about here
in a little bit as it comes up this week,
but we also this past weekend had the BKFC debut
in Dubai. Austin Trout retains OOH in a close one

(24:45):
split decision, retaining over Carlos Trinidad Snake. The fight had
to go into a extra round. That means through five
it was a draw. Sixth round, it's a split decision
because that sixth round one just scored it for Trinidadad Snake,
two for Austin Trout. Trout got knocked down in the

(25:06):
first round, caught rushing in with a counter left hook.
It looked like and went down And I say it
looks like because please dezone BKFC, someone work on the replays.
Can we get some good replays in our life? Just
a little bit of knowledge for those of us at home.
But Austin Trout after that put together a heck of

(25:27):
a fight, his body punching, his elusivity won the next
three rounds. A hard fifth round from Trinidad Snake earned
that last round, and then Trout came out and took
the belt in the last round.

Speaker 1 (25:40):
I think for fans the idea of going to an
extra round is great, right and because look, nobody wants
to see a fight in and a draw, so we
love that. Is that fair to the fighters?

Speaker 2 (25:51):
Now?

Speaker 1 (25:51):
I guess you sign on knowing that it's possible it
could happen. Chances of it are slim. But you just
go through a five round war and now they're like, nah,
you gotta do another one. Like Jesus man.

Speaker 2 (26:06):
You know you sign up for it. It is hard
It is hard, but I guess at leaves a better
taste in the mouth than just hearing the word to
draw and we're going to a rematch. We settle this
shit now, because you know that's how they want to
do it. Austin Troutt was out of it after the victory.
I won. I've done this here at one sixty five,
basically told BKFC they could take the bell. He wants

(26:27):
to go down to one fifty five. Feels that the
guy's at sixty five or two big. Just remind people
crouts boxing career. He was a world champion at one
fifty four. I think that would be a good decision
for him. Trinidad's Nake looked to be a very big
body in front of him. The co main event, once
Sided and stell bretton Heart, you're women's strawweight champion. I

(26:51):
love the women's divisions and BKFC, but Christine Farria bretton Heart.
I don't know who's next for either one of them.
BKFC is gonna have to get creative. Unfortunately, as we
just look at the landscape of combat sports, there's few
and far between. There's some really great women, there's not
enough challengers BKFC dealing with that same problem. One other

(27:12):
highlight from that card Geronimo de Santo's just absolutely slept
Alexiolenic That that was hard to see Alexi Alnik. Best
wishes to him going through some hard financial times and
having to still fight after divorce.

Speaker 1 (27:29):
Best wishes to him another good man brought down by
a woman. I'm kidding. I mean, everybody's settled out. I'm kidding,
I'm kidding. I would love for Alexiolynic to fight another
way to contribute to the combat sports world other than
having to actually get in and compete. That that was
hard to watch for me.

Speaker 2 (27:49):
I hear the GFL Dubai team needs a general manager
at least for one season. Even the New York team.

Speaker 1 (27:58):
One of those teams need heavyweight to replace Rishi over Doom.
Go get that payday and right off into the sunset.

Speaker 2 (28:07):
I don't know if you can fight that soon after
this knockout, but that's a good idea.

Speaker 1 (28:10):
Yeah, you're probably right on that.

Speaker 2 (28:13):
BKFC seventy two was the next morning for us here
in the United States. The back to back in Dubai
and Kai Stewart one way traffic fifty forty three, getting
the knockdown in two different rounds, and heck, big Dad
Mrgliata misses the third knockdown. The little frantic there in BKFC.
Total domination and still for your featherweight champion. The body punching,

(28:38):
the ability to get inside, come over the top with
the right hand. Great job by Kay Stewart. I'm gonna
take longer to talk about this next fight than it
actually took. Jessica Borga Hot Dawn was this impressive, absolutely
slept Former two bell boxing world champion Hannah Reichen doubled
up on the right hand, the right cross, what's down?

(29:01):
Ranking in an unconscious fashion to the land. Well, I
can see my great great great grandparents. Why do I
see them? That's how bad this knockout was. Jessica Borga
has now conquered one forty five and BKFC had been
in talks to bring in Cyborg before to fight Christine Faria.

(29:22):
I never thought that was possible because of the weight disparity.
We have a one forty five champion. There's not many
one forty five women in the world. I don't know
if Cyborg has a deal with anybody. Jessica Borga Chris
Cyborg needs to happen in BKFC.

Speaker 1 (29:40):
Well, it would get cyborga pay day if she's yeah,
I'm with you. I'm not sure what, if any obligations
she has to PFL at this point, but it would
get her pay day. It would be a big time
fight for borga. So if it's doable, let's do it.

Speaker 2 (29:57):
Men's number one ranked featherweight contender, Break Allen, who I
thought should have had this title shot with Kai Stewart,
is upset in the feature fight by Spaniard Nico Gaffy. Gaffy,
with a tremendous performance, has now shook up the division.
Kai Stewart made the same call as Austin Trout. Trout

(30:18):
wants to go down Waight, Stuart wants to go up
and wait. Too many people want the fifty five belt.
There are still challengers at forty five. Edgar Palazzola is unbean,
Nathan Rivera's unbeaten, and we just had Nico Gaffy with
an upset. It'll be interesting to see what bk FC
does with Kay Stewart, but I still feel there is

(30:39):
work to be done at one forty five. Even though
King Kai wants to say he's cleaned out the division.
He's not there yet. Not to mention, hey, more bare
knuckle action. In between those two BKFC events on Friday night,
we did have BKB thirty nine, still your Cruiserweight Champion
there of the Police Gazette Diamond Belt is Cub Hankins

(31:02):
lateral movement, elusivity able to outpoint Jack Marshman. Huge victory there,
the Welshman unable to close the distance. It was kind
of like watching Murphy versus Emmett without the kicks. And
not to mention Jerome Hatch one more big one punch
knockout on the card.

Speaker 1 (31:22):
What was the name of that belt again? That title?

Speaker 2 (31:26):
So it's the BKB Police Gazette Diamond Belt because they
have the Police Gazette Old School Hall of Fame belt. Yeah,
so Police Gazette Diamond Championship Belt. All right, all right,
we didn't like the alphabet soup with boxing, so true

(31:46):
True KB is gonna make it simple for us, and
let's give us all the words instead of the.

Speaker 1 (31:51):
Letters exactly, and I thank them for that.

Speaker 2 (31:54):
So a wild weekend of action. Jessica Borga, Brittan Harror,
Austin Trout, Kai Stewart, three Enstells, one new champion Crown
BKFC in Dubai. It finally happened.

Speaker 1 (32:13):
Some news Micah. Before we get into this weekend's action,
I mentioned, let's start with GFL real quick, because we
can knock that right out. I mentioned for BHI over
Doom not going to compete with the company, so that
they're a man down there. Obviously with the Kane Velozquez
news over the last couple of weeks that they're a
GM down as well, But at least we know when

(32:35):
the first fights are going to be, even if we
don't know how to watch him yet or who all
is going to be involved.

Speaker 2 (32:40):
Frank Mere's back injury. It appeared that after Merr was
gone that mirror versus for Doom fizzled, unable to get
a suitable replacement.

Speaker 1 (32:51):
Yeah, it's just rough, but look, such as life, I
think you kind of knew that going in when when
you're signing some of the the these older fighters, that
things may crop up, things may happen, and unfortunately that
has a bit GFL just a little bit, but still
full steam ahead for them. Other GFL news, Mike, still

(33:14):
no word on how to be able to watch these
events a TV network or streaming platform or anything like that.

Speaker 2 (33:20):
Right though, that bit of news is on a life
raft lost at sea.

Speaker 1 (33:26):
That's unfortunate. I shudder to bring this up because I'm
not surprised, and honestly, at this point, I just don't care.
But Rashad Evans was supposed to fight Rampage Jackson this weekend.
That apparently is not happening. I guess the event's still
going on at least as we record, although that could

(33:50):
be subject to change as well. Do you even want
to get into this, Micahan, because we can just not.

Speaker 2 (33:59):
All right, So, Signature punch Boxing Hell. The press conference
here in Albuquerque, New Mexico, announced they were throwing an
event called ICs Mania Influencer Crossover Series. We were going
to get a main event of a boxing match between
Rampage Jackson Rashad Evans. Rampage Jackson on Saturday cited contractual

(34:25):
failures by the promotion and withdrew from the card. That
news was subsequently confirmed by Rashad Evans in an Instagram
video that unless you're like a judge, unless you're like
literally sitting on the jury and getting to ask, I

(34:46):
think you would have interpreted as I think Rashad just
said the fights off and that he's pulling out too.
That information has circled back to me and many sources
are citing that Rashad will still be on this card.
The promotion through their Instagram story as of recording has

(35:09):
in recent days speculated and continue to speculate without announcing
that there will be an announcement of a new Rashad
Evan's opponent. I've had sources tell me the fight was
offered to Keith Jardine because of the friendship between Keith
and Rashad. Keith wanted more money than they were originally
offering rampage to hit his friend only justifiable. There's a number,

(35:32):
but that number is a shit ton of money, so
that one was not going to happen. Cody East was
offered the fight. He will take a lot less money
to punch anybody, but Rashad wasn't going to fight a
fellow Jackson Wink fighter. As Rashad had been there when
he was here visiting Albuquerque, acclabating to the elevation in
the gym, that didn't make sense to him from a

(35:54):
name from a recognition standpoint, and that leads us to
rumors that Shannon Briggs will be fighting Rashad Evans, fifty
three year old, leading to a whole bunch of questions
about licensing medicals, and still a lack of announcement of
any of this being official.

Speaker 1 (36:11):
Okay, a couple things here, and if you want to
distance yourself from anything, I'm about to say that's cool.
This is a dumbass event. The ticket sales reflect that
you've got a shit ton of money with no chance
of seeing a return on that investment, which, again straight

(36:33):
from Mishad's mouth, was the reason that Rampage pulled out money,
contractual obligations not being met as far as money being
paid upfront before the fight. You're having this in Albuquerque,
New Mexico, which no disrespect to Albuquerque, New Mexico, but
for an event like this a lesser sight in Vegas,

(36:57):
Atlantic City. There were better places you could've had this
for a turnout. It's almost like you went out of
your way to fuck this up with every move you made.
As far as these promoters go, how the fuck are
you gonna get a goddamn fifty three year old man
who had in fault since twenty sixteen licensed in three days, Micah.

Speaker 2 (37:18):
I have no clue. I have inevitably from a financial
firm a business perspective. As soon as Rampage said he
was pulling out of the event, up that they would
pull the ripcord and somehow postpone the event and then
announce a rebooking for another location, that I would make
the most site. When you look at the rest of
the card aside from the main event, and there was

(37:40):
one other fight really with Diego Sanchez John mcdesi, A
vast majority of the fight is a very solid prospect
boxing card if you're still into seeing that next generation
of boxers, with Fernando Varguez Junior, with Shane Mosley Junior,
with Matthew Diamond Boy, Grego, Brian Labala, Mendoza. There was

(38:04):
tons of boxing talent also scheduled to be on this card,
not so much Influencer Crossover series. I believe that NFL
that DJ Swearringer is also to fight on the card.
From a financial perspective, it didn't make a lot of
sense from the get go bringing something of that nature

(38:25):
to our city. It slightly did with Rashad Evans Diego
Sanchez on the card, but I could not see from
when the tickets went on sale, the prices they were
looking at and the economy here for one thousand dollars
ring side tickets being feasible here and thinking without any
sort of promotion besides a press conference to announce it,

(38:48):
that they were really gonna do well. I'm just here
as a journalist covering the fire someone else.

Speaker 1 (38:53):
Dude, you rented out a fifteen thousand seed arena for this,
if you were so inclined, and I was, you can
pull up the seating chart, the tickets available, what's been sold,
count by many they sold. It's going to come up
far far short of fifteen thousand without the greatest walk

(39:16):
up in the history of a combat sports event, far
far short from being anywhere close to capacity. If my
only here's all I'll say, and then whatever you want
to say, and we'll move on. Any fighter who's staying
on this card, get your fucking money before you walk
out there, because if you don't, there's a pretty good
chance you ain't gonna get it. And that's all I

(39:38):
gotta say about that.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
I don't want to talking about boxing that much anyway.
We got UFC fight announcement those though.

Speaker 1 (39:46):
Some big ones too. Yes, go for it.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
Well real quick to tell everybody. So we got an
adjustment for the April fight night in Kansas City. That's
a pretty big adjustment because Jamala Hill's injured how to
withdraw from fighting around three junior. So Carlos practice is
pushed back a week. Originally scheduled to fight here at
UFC three fourteen against Jeff Neil, Neil injured and out.

(40:10):
Ian Gary jumping in Ian Gary Carlos practice April twenty
sixth UFC Fight Night Kansas City headliner.

Speaker 1 (40:20):
Why would Gary do this other than I'm gonna do
the company a solid When I win, They're gonna do
me a solid.

Speaker 2 (40:29):
This is the bravado and the mosy moxie and the
insanity of a man that truly believes he's the best
in the world. I really do think that. And this
is a pro wrestling after hours talk. We said a
promo means more when you believe.

Speaker 1 (40:48):
It, right.

Speaker 2 (40:49):
Ian Gary truly believes that losing to shaf Catt rock
Mono on short notice made him the number one contender
and that Jack Della Magdalena just took his title shot.
He ain't scared of nobody he's gonna go out there
and he's gonna show Carlos Protest who he is and
why he's the best in the world, and then demand

(41:10):
that mother f the title shot. I think that's what
Ian Gary's got planned. And Carlos Protos thinks his left
hand's about sleep being Gary. I think that's a hell
of a fight.

Speaker 1 (41:19):
No, look, it's a great fight. I'm looking forward to it.
And by the way, I don't fault Ian Gary for
taking the fight. I get it. If he had said,
you know what, I don't think so I would have
understood that as well. But yeah, I think you're right.
Ian Gary thinks he could beat anybody, and he'll take

(41:39):
this fight, and if all goes according to plan and
he gets to win, then he calls his shot again.

Speaker 2 (41:46):
And then we got a big shot announced UFC three sixteen.
We were waiting for that shoe to drop. June seventh.
We've been talking about both of these titles being in
the mix for a little bit. It's a double dose
of one thirty five Chairampionship Action Morav Dulash Philly versus Suga,
Sean O'Malley and then Juliana Pena's defending against Hayla Harrison.

Speaker 1 (42:13):
I gotta ask Mikah Saturday, June seventh at the Prudential Center,
any chance a former women's bandamweight champion who's retired but
has made little bits of noise here and there that
maybe she's a little bored might be interested to come
out in any chance she's sitting octagon side.

Speaker 2 (42:36):
We can hope. So BKFC had her there in Miami,
Florida two thursdays ago, so I don't think it would
be hard to offer Amanda some tickets and get that
ball rolling. But we never know. What we do know
is that Pinia is healthy enough to defend Harrison. That
ripped up body we've been seeing on social media. Told

(42:56):
you I thought it was for a reason. Yep, she's
getting ready to fight again, and let's all savor this
because I don't know how many times Harrison can make
one thirty five No.

Speaker 1 (43:05):
Look, I agree with you and don't want to jinx
it and don't want to be an ac era. Assuming
everything goes well and we get this fight, this should
be a hell of a fight, as should set O'Malley
and Morob O'Malley looking to get the title back, he
and Morob going at it and looking forward to both
these fights. That's gonna be a heck of a car.

Speaker 2 (43:28):
I gotta do the same thing that a lot of
people did. Is Sean O'Malley that confident that injury is
all that throttled him? Because it looked like his takedown defense,
his ability to deal with the pressure, his ability to
keep up the pace that Marob puts out was not

(43:50):
at the same level. And now to go from injury
pretty big rehab to right back into problem solving that
same monster. Is this the best strategy for Sean O'Malley
or is this I have nothing else I can do
because I'm such a big star. Because I feel like
he's a big enough star that a step back for

(44:10):
a tune up fight wouldn't have hurt him.

Speaker 1 (44:13):
It would not have. But I think his mentality is
I'm beneath a step back fight. Is that the right mentality?
I guess we'll find out coming up at UFC three
sixteen on June seventh. I agree with you, but I
also see the other side of it. I'm healthy, I
want my damn title back, I want my rematch. Let's

(44:35):
do it.

Speaker 2 (44:37):
That card also gains Kelvin Gastelim Joe Pifer rebooked. Hopefully
no food poisoning for Pifer just up the road for
Philadelphia in New Jersey, alost enough that he could still
probably get some home cooking after the.

Speaker 1 (44:52):
Wags for sure. For sure.

Speaker 2 (44:55):
Those are all the fight announcements that I had on
top for this week. And it's a big weekend ahead
of us again, PFL back on Thursday, and we got
the UFC real quick about that PFL event. Badam weights
and women's flyweights. Leandro Higo Jos Reddinghouse, who is on
Tough twenty nine, is your main event. Hego had been

(45:17):
set to challenge Patsy Mix for the Bellatoor badamweight title
fight didn't come to fruition. Interesting there, it's one thirty five.
It's one twenty five. Liz carmoge versus UFC vent Ilier
Joanna is the feature of the women's section. So we'll
see what the PFL can do this week after quite

(45:40):
literally what was an exciting fun car full of finishes.
Go read about the results of cagemins dot com.

Speaker 1 (45:46):
You mentioned UFC MICAH, UFC back in action this weekend.
UFC three fourteen in Miami. Your main event, featherweight title,
Alexander Volkanowski, Diego Lopez, number one, number three, three in
the rankings. That is your main event. This is a really,
really good card, and obviously we'll go through all of it,

(46:08):
but let's start right there, your main event, volk and Lopez.
What do you think?

Speaker 2 (46:14):
This is an outstanding fight. This is two great stories culminating.
You have Diego Lopez falling short on the Contenden series,
the short notice entrance into the UFC against Evy Love
and since then taking the UFC by storm. The Cajones

(46:35):
moment against Dan Ege has almost put him to cult
like figure status. To also culminate with this is a
Brazilian who for the last decade has been representing Mexico.
So you get this multinational star with these real grassroots
in Guadalajara that brings together so much. A thirty year

(46:56):
old who's basically at the prime of his athletic abilities
for MMA taking on one of the three greatest featherweights
all time, Alexander Volkanovski, and so many questions to be
answered about the thirty six year old Vulc. We know
that Vulcan is a big time finisher. He does have
thirteen wins by knockout Lopez, an even bigger finish or

(47:20):
twenty two finishes, twelve of them come by submission. But
the interesting part about it is when we've seen Diego
Lopez falter, it was against mosts our evy law because
he was able to be controlled off of his back.
The last time we saw a great vulc at one
forty five was a vult that put Diego, that put

(47:40):
Yayir Rodriguez excuse me, on his back and out both
the living crap out of him. How does that turn out?
Where Diego Lopez is the jiu jitsu coach, but he's
been able to kind of been taking advantage of on
his back. That's interesting to play out. We know on
the feet, Lopez is willing to strike, throw everything into it.

(48:01):
He knocked down and knocked around Brian Ortega. He was
able to hurt Sadik use of Pat Sabatini big power.
I don't know if there's anything you saw though in
a guy like Danny Igay being able to out technique
and maybe out trick Lopez, who I feel like is
more of a forward moving presence. I bring that up

(48:23):
because Volkanowski at his best, even in night Rodriguez fight,
he would not get hit and he would make you
pay for over committing. What kind of Volkanovsky do we get?
And can Diego Lopez have a diverse defensive game here
and not get hit? I think are keys?

Speaker 1 (48:43):
I think you just answered the question I'm about to
ask in a roundabout way before I even got to
ask you. But you the least bit surprised that Volkanovski
is the favorite going in here. Look, regardless of his
status as far as all time great featherweights and all that,
the last few fights haven't necessarily been great ones for him,

(49:05):
you surprised that he's the favorite coming into this.

Speaker 2 (49:08):
Yes, the fight against Mahasha the first time you lost
no credibility for getting out, grappled out, wrestled, getting knocked
out on short notice, rushing back in to take on Ilia.
The moment the fight was denounced, I called that Ilia
was winning. I thought it was too soon. The body

(49:28):
did not have a chance to recouper rate, the brain
was not healthy. There's a possibility that Vulk has taken
too many big shots and gets knocked out. I'm surprised
in the same fashion and that we were there for
the press conference. Faziba is like, why am by the
Phagian favorite. She's like, because I got knocked out of
my last fight. It would be pretty hard to not

(49:50):
just take that logical sense and say, Diego Lopez has
built up the momentum, he's on the wind streak, he's
the oncoming force. This is his time. Volkanovsky's been knocked
out in his last two fights. This is an easy
no brainer. But the time off to recover the advanced

(50:10):
level of crockery, of being able to put together patterns,
break them, disrupt them, and recreate them that Volkanovski possesses
leads a lot of people who's still believing he can
reinclaim the mountaintop.

Speaker 1 (50:27):
Yeah, for Volkanovsky, it will be almost a full fourteen
months this his last fight. So the concerns you had
about taking the last fight short notice, not giving the
body time to heal, he's had over a year to
heal up now, so he's got that going for him.
Diego Lopezo, it just seems like he's got so much momentum.
Volkanovski trying to regain that momentum. I'm a little surprised

(50:50):
that the odds makers have this the way it is.
That's not to say I'd necessarily be shocked if Volkanovski won,
but it sure seems like everything's going in Diego Lopez's
favorite right now now and not going into Volkanowski's.

Speaker 2 (51:02):
Favor, because you got to wonder how much has time
eroded the scales, how much has the mileage beat down
the bottle body of Volkanovski, Because you can't look at
his resume and not say he hasn't be better boxers, kickboxers, grapplers, wrestlers,
better guys than any skill set at the what Gigo
Lopez possesses. But right now we're talking about somebody's uphill

(51:27):
climb versus possibly somebody's downhill climb, and are they meeting
at the right moment and that's the right inflection, And
I'm surprised from that aspect that we don't have a
Volkanovsky underdog.

Speaker 1 (51:38):
Yeah, your co main event, Michael Chandler, Patty Pimblet. I'm
going to make a connection here in a second to
the main event, But this fight I might be looking
forward to more than the main event. Actually, there's a
ton on the line for both these guys, what do
you think about Chandler and Patty?

Speaker 2 (51:56):
We are not even yet to the fight that I
am most looking forward to, Patty pimblet Michael Chandler. Michael
Chandler is the most seductive fighter on the Internet. He's
one of those awful pages that pops up when you
click on the wrong thing on one of these ones,

(52:16):
and then the sites when you're searching around for records
and you're like, oh, do I want to talk to
Sophia from Sheboygan, Who's all of a sudden messaging me.
That's Michael Chandler's a lore because he looks like a
million bucks. He's an explosive athlete. He's got this great wrestling.
He has this incredible rear naked choke when he went
to possess his grappling. But I can't love the record

(52:41):
because he's lost to every elite UFC lightweight. He lost
to all the Last Action heroes, and his only win
is Tony Ferguson, and well it was an incredible win.
It's Tony freaking Ferguson. And yes he did beat Dan Hooker,
but he didn't beat the new Evolve Dan Hooker on
a roll. Michael Chandler has not had a great run recently.

Speaker 1 (53:04):
No, he's two and four in the UFC. That being said,
you mentioned it two losses. Olivera lost to Gates, he
lost to Poier. No shame in any of those losses,
but at some point in time you have to beat
one of those guys. What intrigues me about this fight?
While I'm really interested in it, this is the fight

(53:25):
now from a popularity standpoint, Patti Pimlet's already extremely popular,
but he's now twelfth in the rankings. This is the
fight that could propel him up the rankings and legitimately
get him into conversation for all right, what needs to
happen for a title shot. I think UFC recognize this

(53:45):
when they booked the fight, not saying this is a
gimme by any stretch of the imagination, because if you
go into a Michael Chandler fight thinking he's gonna be
a gimme, you're gonna get your ass beat. But I
do think this is a fight that Patty can win
in UFC is well aware of that when they booked it,
so we're gonna find out. So in a lot of ways,

(54:05):
I see Volkanowski and Chandler in a bit of the
same boat. I see Lopez in Pimblet in a bit
of the same boat. So really from a other than
a belt. In the main event, what's on the line,
what's at stake, what you're looking at with each of
the fighters, there's a lot of similarities in that main
event and the comin EVOCE.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
There's a lot of similarities in Michael Chandler and his
weaknesses versus where Paddy Pimblet thrives. We do have a
Michael Chandler who's giving up this back before lost by
rear naked choke, a Patty Pimblet who's really good at it.

(54:50):
I can very much envision this fight as explosive, chaotic
for the first five minutes, and that's where all the
danger in life for Patty Pimblet. There is so much pressure,
so much explosive, this so much energy used by Chandler
in the early goings that I don't know if he's
gonna be there in round two, in round three, and

(55:12):
I see a late round finish for Pimblet. It's if
he can get there. It's the question because both of
these guys mirror image each other in shitty hands down defense,
the chips will be exposed and there is an opportunity
for Michael Chandler to win by knockout to chest the
chin of Patty Pimblet because Pimblet does put his hands

(55:34):
down in the pocket for some reason. But more than likely,
I think that Patty Pimblet his cardio will last out
longer and he will overcome Chandler. I think you're right.
This is the path to bigger fights. This is the
path to these big opportunities of massive arenas in the UK.
For Patty Pimblet's fame, everything the UFC has built to

(55:57):
be cashed in on. This is the opportunity to get
to that next step.

Speaker 1 (56:01):
I agree with you. I'm gonna go out on a
limb Mikah and say our next fight is the one
that you're most looking forward to. Yah, hear Rodriguez and
Patrichio Pitbull? Am I right on that? Or is it
the next.

Speaker 2 (56:14):
Fight Digity the Dog? Yes, Yair Rodriguez Patricio Pitbull pray
this is most likely a number one contenders fight. You
could see us in anario where if Rodriguez wins in
this news or maybe he doesn't get to fight Volkanovski
right away because we've already seen that one run. But

(56:35):
there's still some allure to Pitbull Kakashion if Lopez Cash
is in. We've been waiting for that Lopez Yeah, year fight,
that's the fight. Come on, UFC wants that one for
Guadalajara for September. You can't tell me they don't want
that fight there.

Speaker 1 (56:50):
I would agree with you one hundred percent. Now is
things gonna play out in either of those fights? To
get us there? What we'll have to see?

Speaker 2 (57:00):
What are the betting odds looking like?

Speaker 1 (57:02):
Oh, let's see here, well real quick, with Carliles.

Speaker 2 (57:06):
Looking that up, let me remind you guys. Rodriguez thirty
two thirteen finishes, eight of them come by knockout, even
though we don't think of him as a grappler and
being on his back has been a detriment. Patrichio Pitbull Freddy,
the multiple time featherweight, the former lightweight Bellatore champion, most
decorated fighter in Bellatore history, is thirty seven years old

(57:26):
here at his UFC debut with twenty four finishes, splitting
them evenly at twelve and twelve.

Speaker 1 (57:33):
It's gonna be a hell of a fight. Give me
one second, I'll get you those odds. I'm going to
assume that, yeah, Yer might be a slight favorite.

Speaker 2 (57:45):
But I'm what I saw yesterday and that's why I
was asking you to bring it up, was Yes, Yeah,
Rodriguez was a slight favorite. I didn't know. Were you
surprised by that the fanfare, the allure, or is it
the thought of stepping up in competition for Pitbull? Were
you surprised to see Rodriguez the favorite nom.

Speaker 1 (58:06):
No disrespect to Pitbull at all, but this is UFC
and this is a different animal than what he's accustomed to.
Does it mean he won't go out and win? Because
I could absolutely see that happening. Yeah, hear. By the way,
a minus one eighty favorite, Patrichio a plus one fifty underdog,
So not huge odds either way. But no, I'm not

(58:27):
at all surprised that that Yai is actually the favorite here.

Speaker 2 (58:31):
Freight weapons are gonna be the key for both fighters.
Rodriguez needs to flick his teeth. Kick. I think you
got to heap Rodriguez. You have to keep Friday back.
If you're Rodriguez, you have to be able to attack
the legs, attack the body attack with that heat kick.
You do not want to allow the Brazilian to get
on the inside and have to straight box with him

(58:54):
and allow Pitbull to use his best attribute, his power punching. Also,
Rodriguez has been working diligently on his wrestling. I always
feel like he just needs to anti wrestle. You cannot
allow yourself to get tricked into a situation where your
head gets put down. Because pit Bull has a deadly guillotine.
That's how he's got most of these twelve submissions. I

(59:15):
got a favor Rodriguez. He's younger, thirty two to thirty seven.
He's had more higher level competition he has had. He
has a more athletic base. He's the longer fighter where
pit Bull. As we love this debut, let's not forget
he did get knocked out on short notice by Suzuki

(59:36):
in Japan and then had the rough fight against Sergio Pettis.
Even though he came back against Jeremy Kennedy. I think
this is an uphill climb for bit Bull.

Speaker 1 (59:46):
Bryce Mitchell takes on Jean Silva. Poor Bryce Mitchell probably
still hasn't had a good night's sleep. He doesn't have
a fishing buddy. He might be whack adoodle. He's a
huge underdog here. Personally, I think Geen Silva makes this
look easy. I'm curious your thoughts on this one.

Speaker 2 (01:00:06):
Don't worry. Mitchell's about to get an app because Jean
Silva's going to put him out cold.

Speaker 1 (01:00:11):
Ouch ouch ouch.

Speaker 2 (01:00:14):
The Brazilian is about to attack the division. His confidence
is ridiculous, his eyes are impeccable. I actually thought that
Melek Bassar Desani, who was a kickboxing champion, was going
to possess some kind of opposition and struggles for Silva.

(01:00:34):
When Silva ate up by man that is that credentialed
on the feet, I was like, oh shit, because well,
thug nasty can make it a dirty fight, can grapple,
can wrestle, can get the grit and grind going. He
is not an athlete like John Silva.

Speaker 1 (01:00:48):
No, and uh, there's a lot of temptation, there's a
lot of evil. There's a lot of sin in Miami.
So Ryce Mitchell going into hostile territory. We kick off
the main card of the pay per view Micah Nikita
Krylov Dominic Reyes, a battle of top fifteen light heavyweights.

Speaker 2 (01:01:08):
I heard recently it's Nikita Krilov, Krillov that that that
cry is a krill I don't give it's Nikita Krylov.

Speaker 1 (01:01:18):
I don't care.

Speaker 2 (01:01:19):
Twenty eight finishes and it's a return of a man
who's been away for two years, who did beat gustuson
vulcan Uzdmir, but he's now running into a rebuilt, reconfident
Dominic Reyes Tko wins over Justin Za Kobe and Anthony Smith.

(01:01:41):
This is the next level of seeing has Reyes put
it back together between the ears and physically? Can you
put it together on a pay per view main card.
I like this kind of pressure. And for Nikita, a
guy that's been around forever, this finally puts him into
that roundabout mix of who the house fighting for the

(01:02:03):
title after we do the rematch.

Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
The state of the light heavyweight division right now, one
of these guys is going to be in title contention
after Saturday Night. That means they're going to be next
or even next to next, but they're going to be
in that conversation. What stands out on the prelimbs for you, Micah, of.

Speaker 2 (01:02:23):
Course the featherweights, because this is the featherweight moving night,
Dan Egay Sean Woodson. Would you believe me if I
told you there's only a year difference in age between
these two.

Speaker 1 (01:02:34):
Yeah, it's crazy surprising, but yeah, thirty.

Speaker 2 (01:02:38):
Three year old Danny Gay thirty two year old Sean Woodson.
When we look at it as the elder statesman who's
on his way out versus the ascending prospect and Woodson,
some of that is mileage, Some of that is twenty
seven fights to fifteen fights. Woodson has had this steady
increase of competition. He's learning to use his frame, his defense.

(01:02:59):
Worries a lot of people. Well, Dan Ega is a
big power puncher. I think the odds say that what
should be able to keep this one on the outside.
If either guy is able to look for a takedown,
I think it's gonna be Egay, but watch out it
but getting wrapped in but a choke from those long arms.
Gotta love Egay as an underdog. But I wouldn't be

(01:03:19):
surprised if Woodson is just at a point where he's
putting his game together and he's not gonna be touched.

Speaker 1 (01:03:26):
You're probably right on that. You surprised that Jean Jeanaon
is on the prelms. Her last two fights pay per
view main event, Fight Night co main event, and now
here she is not even the featured fight on the prelims.
Is that more about women's strawway or is that more
about where the company sees Yon right now?

Speaker 2 (01:03:49):
If I'm making this card up, I probably actually would
have moved Woodson Egay to the pay per view and
had Krill Love Reyes as the co Maine on the prelim,
and I would have Shannon janjer Oba as the future prelum.
This is just some of the hardships of being on
a stacked ass card. Here we go at one fifteen

(01:04:11):
two brain contenders. Shannon has had some issues with grappulars
and janjer Roba is an outstanding fourteen over twenty one
victories come by some mission kind of grappler. One of
them has been to the pinnacle and tried to be champion,
the other one feels like they're just one win away
from it. Can Sean Nahan put together the power punches

(01:04:32):
or does jeninger Oba incorporate her wrestling. It's a pretty
straightforward matchup. Even though neither one is helpless in the
other's strength, they're both very adequate, just the other one
knows where they want to have the fight. Heck, this
one is gonna be a heartbreaker for Michael Carlisle because
are you team Miller? Are your team Hooper? Jim Miller

(01:04:54):
coming in as a massive underdog to Chase the dream.

Speaker 1 (01:04:58):
Oh, I'm team ask Renald. I'm team Hooper all the way, Micah.
But this is gonna be a fun fight. Yeah, Chase
Hooper Jim Miller low Key. This might be my favorite
fight on the car.

Speaker 2 (01:05:13):
Jim Miller low Key is very tricky on the feet,
and I wonder if Chase Hooper is ready for that
kind of guy. We've seen Jim Miller pull out calf slicers.
I don't think as improssive as it was that Chase
just ran through Guida. I don't think Miller is declined
to the point of Guida at this point, and I

(01:05:34):
think that he brings a true challenge. He beat Damon Jackson.
This is an interesting, interesting fight. Even though I would
have Hooper the favorite, the odds are so stupid. I
might be tempted to put some money on Miller because
that plus five hundred it's looking like a great one. Also,
on the prelimbs at one forty five Alkins versus A Rosa.

(01:05:54):
Rosa's got some great guillotines. Alkins can grind. Alkins will
bleed as soon as he smiled in the cage. It's
an interesting fight with two guys that really like to grind.
I could see Elkins getting caught in a choke because
of Erosa's length, but it's hard to imagine anyone can
grind more than Alkins. On the early early prelims, Haley

(01:06:19):
Cohen comes back after two years away to kick off
the cards against Nora Cornell. She hasn't made any waves
yet in the UC, but she's two and one and
the one loss is only a split decision, with nine
regional or six regional wins by knocking out some good
power and at one twenty five Sumo Darci, it's a
three fight skid. You got to put it back together.

(01:06:40):
Mitch rias Sopo coming in Riapo. He had a split
decision loss to Lima in his debut. We know that
Lima is an incredible striker, so something's got to give
here with someone saving their job at this point, those
two stick out for me. On the Earth lead prelims,

(01:07:01):
So this Saturday, I believe the action gets started as normal.
What six pm Eastern.

Speaker 1 (01:07:07):
Six Eastern for the for the early prelams, eight pm
Eastern on ESPN, ESPN Plus for the prelims, and then
your your main car at ESPN Plus at ten pm Eastern.

Speaker 2 (01:07:19):
It's gonna be a fun night again. Hugely pivotal in
the featherweight division. Alexander Volkanovski the possibility of regaining the
featherweight title. What do you think that means? As we
have a couple of minutes here before we close out.

Speaker 1 (01:07:36):
I think it means he's losing to Diego Lopez.

Speaker 2 (01:07:40):
Alexander Volkanovski accomplishes this and I think undoubtedly have him
as number two featherweight all time. He starts encroaching even
more on all though, although lost to McGregor, regained it
from Edgar in that vacant title fight. I think that
did so much for his legacy to be able to

(01:08:01):
match that. Volkanovsky to hit the pitfall the two fight
Skin regreen this. It's hard not to in some lord
say did he accomplish more? Maybe at featherweight with the
Echelona competition and the skill over we're at today, than
Jose Aldo. I think there's a lot on the line
for the legacy of Volkanovski.

Speaker 1 (01:08:21):
If Volkanovski wins, it'll be an interesting conversation for sure.
For sure.

Speaker 2 (01:08:27):
One last thing I wanted to bring up with you
UFC three seventeen. Do you think are you more likely
right now John Jones, Tom aspinall Iliot's Aporia, Islam Mahasha
or another mystery main event for International Fight.

Speaker 1 (01:08:43):
Week mystery main event, but one of those four people
you just mentioned might be involved in it for a
vacant title.

Speaker 2 (01:08:53):
I think that the rumors of Islam wanting to wait
until after UFC two point fifteen are very true. I
think that eliminated him from International Fight Week. My bet
is we're getting drinkas Dude plus a Kamsa Chimayav main event,
Alesandre Pantosia Gucci co main event.

Speaker 1 (01:09:14):
Could be I was going aspinall versus someone else for
the vacant heavyweight title. The problem is, I think you
probably just continue to wait for this fight because with
Alex Baeda seemingly set on trying to regain the light
heavyweight title, is it worth it to have John Jones

(01:09:38):
give up the title? That Aspinall beat someone else and
then have John come back. I mean, we joke a
lot about Cereal Gon being the guy you go to
when you need an interim title fight at heavyweight. Does
anybody want to see Aspinall Cereal Gone? I don't think so.
Volkoff Aspinall. No disrespect to anybody, but we're talking to
International Fight Week. No, I don't think we're getting Joone

(01:10:00):
Aspinall yet, because Jones wants more time, and I don't
think you have an opponent out there really for Aspinall
to make it worthwhile to have Jones give up the
title and then come back and fit and face the winner.
So I threw that one out there, but realistically that
one probably ain't happening.

Speaker 2 (01:10:19):
Medp Gami have International Fight Week main event. I'm telling
you guys, I see it coming. It's the premonition. I
haven't wrote about it, but I have wrote about an
interviewed a bunch of people, and that's all. Over at
Cageminds dot com. It's Cage Minds Combat Sports News on
Facebook and YouTube. Over on Instagram X and TikTok It's

(01:10:41):
Cage Minds Underscore CSN, and I also do have my
own X that's at Frankel Micah get.

Speaker 1 (01:10:47):
The show on AX at MMA After Hours. You can
get me at Real Mike Carlisle. We will talk to
you next week for another episode of MMA After Hours
here on the After Hours podcast network.

Speaker 2 (01:11:00):
H love combat sports. I have a website for you,
cageminds dot com. That's c A g E. D m
I n d s dot com. Fight news from around
the world, in depth interviews, live event coverage covering combat
sports for over a decade. Established in April twenty eleven,

(01:11:24):
that's cageminds dot com.