Ep 310: UFC 318 Holloway defeats Poirier. Dana Can't Trust Jon Jones. UFC in Abu Dhabi This Weekend.

Episode 310: We look back at UFC 318....Max Holloway defeats Dustin Poirier. Dana White says he can't trust Jon Jones enough to put him on White House card. UFC travels to Abu Dhabi this weekend. All the latest news.  












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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
What's up everybody? Welcome back tom after Hours on Michael Carlisle,
joined as always by Micah Franko Miiicah.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
How you doing, man, you know, besides the naum up back,
I'm pretty good right now.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
I'm excited.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
We had a fun UFC last week, a great UFC
coming up this week, and it's gonna be a lot
of fun all over the place.

Speaker 1 (00:23):
I have to agree with you on both accounts. I
enjoyed the heck out of UFC three eighteen. Of course
we've got UFC this week. They are in Abu Dhabi.
Yeahs Island, specifically ABC for the main card on that one,
so that'll be fun. That'll also be earlier in the afternoon,
so that's always a good thing.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
It's a fight morning, yes, fnight morning. Always love those.
You get it out bright and early. You wake up
to some fights, even have some stuff to do at night.
It's nice.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
I suppose East coast it's a fight day, a fight afternoon.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
If you're on the West coast, though, well it's quite
the early morning. It's like what nine am on the If.

Speaker 1 (01:03):
You're on the West coast, everything is in the morning,
you know. NFL Major League Baseball for the East Coast
games and yeah, so, but yeah, I hear you. It's
it frees up your night. It's not a ten pm
Eastern pay per view start or anything like that.

Speaker 2 (01:19):
You know, I do feel bad for the people because
we're Mountain time zone. Get to the East Coast. That's
ten pm start time. That just does not feel favorable
for the main cards.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Nobody cares about this but US. But I'll do it anyway.
I'm convinced the Mountain time zone here in the US
is the perfect time zone. You get earlier start on everything.
You think of what time things start here, and then
you convert that to East Coast time again, ten pm
Eastern pay per views start at eight pm. The reason

(01:51):
I don't say Pacific time zone they're on the West
coast is because a lot of shit winds up starting
really early, so early a seven o'clock ball game on
the East is like four o'clock on the West, and
people are still at work, and then it takes you
two hours to get home if you live in a
sprawling metropolis. But yeah, I think the Mountain time zone

(02:12):
here in America that is your sweet spot for sports viewing.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
You know, I kind of started thinking about that one time,
mostly during NHL and NBA season where you get the
ESPN or TNT doubleheaders and you're thinking, man, you started
to really early if you're on the West Coast, right,
and like you said, it's a really late night if
you're on the East Coast. I feel like on a bead,
you know, eleven is usually when the second game ends

(02:36):
here on the Mountain timeszon. No bit cares about that,
but it feels like I didn't stay up too too late,
and I didn't have to get off too early from
work to come watch these.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
A Monday night football game on the East Coast, you're
pushing eleven thirty midnight, God forbid. It goes along those
later night NBA games. Yeah, And look, I grew up
on the East Coast, so I can speak to that
as well here in the Mountain time zone now. Yeah,
but I mean, you know, you're also part of it.

(03:05):
Is whatever you're conditioned to. If you've always been on
the East Coast, it's all you've ever known, so you
just kind of accept it and don't realize how good
it is on the other side.

Speaker 2 (03:14):
Either way, we bring that background to MMA, and as
much as it looks alluring. I can't see myself ever
wanting to cover a UFC at Madison Square Garden because
those things end at like one in the morning local time,
and it's like three or four in the morning when
you and a bunch of dudes are standing outside looking
for an uber or a cab. In New York City,

(03:35):
and for as many times as I a family and
I've visited there, that's one of the things they tell
you not to do.

Speaker 1 (03:41):
So I'll be going to the White House by myself.
Is that what you're telling me?

Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yes, yes, I don't even think I can get the
security clearance of my background.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
I'm serious.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Tell you, like, I don't know you're gonna do any
bad things.

Speaker 1 (03:54):
I didn't think about. You know, maybe we shouldn't hang
out anymore. I can't have you sullying my good reputation,
my good name.

Speaker 2 (04:02):
Didn't your last podcast partner do that more than I did?

Speaker 1 (04:07):
Well, that's that's that's another story for another time, Micah.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
You know Micah's right subjects. Let's get back over to
UFC three eighteen vers in another would you call it
bustling metropolis in New Orleans?

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Oh, it's it's quite bustling. Yes, yes, first time was
twenty fifteen, twenty.

Speaker 2 (04:30):
Yeah, didn't know if it was twenty fifteen or maybe
it was. The numbered event was like twenty five years
either way, in a long time, which was quite surprising
to me. Literally, we bring it up last week, the
amount of Super Bowls, the amount of Wrestlmania is that
happened in New Orleans. I'm a little surprised there haven't
been more UFC events there.

Speaker 1 (04:47):
Right, Final Fours have been there. You can't go everywhere.
It's what I would talk it up to, nothing more,
nothing less, but yeah, this card, specifically, his whole event
specifically built around Dustin Ploye's retirement. He in the main
event versus Max Holloway. Can there be BMF belt.

Speaker 2 (05:10):
Something stupid before we even get to the fightees? Can
we stop with the celebrity walkouts with the UFC. I
have never been more disappointed than when you and I
were live in the arena and they told us that
Jack Black and Kyle We're gonna walk out wonder Boy.
We know that wonder Boy already comes out to their
song wonder Boy. How could you not have them miked

(05:33):
up to sing along with the song? I had heard
a rumor that they might have been willing to let
Lil Wayne actually perform at three eighteen, and then they
decided not to. Can we stop the celebrity walkouts? If
they're not gonna do anything, it just feels awkward.

Speaker 1 (05:53):
They're still not doing anything. Even if they're air quotes
here performing. No one actually does that shit line. It's
all lip saying, so it just winds up looking dumb
and stupid. I'm fine with just getting rid of it altogether.
I didn't need to see Little r Wayne wrap out Poier,
being honest, I didn't need to see Jack Black sing

(06:15):
out wonder Boy Thompson either. If you want to have
them walk out, I don't have a problem with it.
If you do, that's fine. I don't. To me, it's
not a big enough deal one way or the other
to argue about. You want to get rid of them,
fuck it, let's get rid of them.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
I thought that when Shanella Connor saying out Connor McGregor,
it was an all time moment after that. If you're
not gonna match that level, whether she was lip syncing, singing, whatever,
if you're not gonna match that level, it just feels weird.
It's the equivalent to me when people have told me,
did you see Triple H walked out? Floyd Medwether, Justin

(06:49):
Biever was alongside of him, and the first guy in
the front was actually singing. I'm like, I've never seen
a more pointless walk out than the ones with the
fighters with more celebrity, because they're already the celebrity and
the main attraction right there. I don't think Lil Wayne,
as great as he is, sold one more ticket for

(07:10):
UFC three eighteen because people in New Orleans heard he
was going to be there.

Speaker 1 (07:14):
It wasn't fucking about that, though. It was about honoring
Dustin Poier and a fella Louisiana and all that. I
hear you. I agree with you. I don't think anybody
bought the pay per view because they had heard Lil
Wayne was going to walk out Poier. I got you,
and probably nobody bought a ticket either. All right, if
you really want to break this down, why the fuck
did we do this goddamn card in the first place

(07:34):
for an above average fighter? Why do we go to
all this damn trouble for all that? To me, if
you really want to get into it, that's a much
bigger question than why the hell was Lil Wayne walking
out Dustin Poier, Well, it's easy.

Speaker 2 (07:46):
Well, we already know that you can't go to Spain
because they don't want to throw the fight at the
weird time that the UFC wants to do it to
a police ESPN plus, So why not just throw a
fight in New Orleans? We already talked about It's a
bustling metropolis, it's a huge city.

Speaker 1 (08:00):
I'm talking about.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
Anywhere to throw a pay per view law Orland seemed
as good as any place to No, that's not what
I'm talking about.

Speaker 1 (08:07):
I'm talking about why do we have all this pomp
and circumstance for an above average fighter.

Speaker 2 (08:12):
The UFC has a much higher regard for Dustin Poyer,
who disagree with me on this one the greatest humanitarian
that's ever fought in the UFC.

Speaker 1 (08:24):
I can't speak to that, but by all accounts, he's
a great guy. Is he the greatest humanitarian ever? I
don't know, by yes, but he is very good for sure.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
The Foundation. Sure, we've seen a lot of Forest Griffin
Award winners, and not to knock any of them, but
this is somebody that's kept it up, has kept up
his foundation in the forefront. And it seemed like a
guy that there is guys that Dana White likes, and
there's company guys, and it seemed like Dustin Ployer has
done things to really ingratiate himself to the powers that be.

(08:58):
I mean, that seems to be this simple reason. Yeah,
why you would throw a whole card around him, It
is because we like him. We appreciate the favors he did,
We appreciate the Megaconnor McGregor fights. We appreciate him for
all of the times he jumped in on short notice,
he did whatever the company asks. He's never talked bad
about the company, and we've pretty much used him up

(09:19):
at thirty seven years old, unlike a Robbie Lawler who
possibly stuck around a little too long.

Speaker 1 (09:25):
But see that's the problem here. Well all right, First
of all, would you say Dustin Poie is an all
time great? He's an all time good?

Speaker 2 (09:33):
That That's what I was coming to in my head
the other day, Because Mma, in the twenty five years
thirty years that we've been in existence, there has been
a fuck ton of great Is it? Is? That not
a hard one to say, because we have our Mount
Rushmore with you know, the Fador Jones Anderson Mighty Mouse esp.

(09:54):
But even after that, you start thinking about how many
fucking champions there's been. There are so many great and
that's where dust Employe is an all time good. And
the biggest question is if he doesn't take some of
those Connor McGregor fights and goes for the title first,
does he maybe crack that echelon because would have been

(10:15):
an undisputed champion slightly changed that context.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
Let's do it like this, Micah. When John Jones really
decides to retire for good, is UFC throwing a pay
per view in Buffalo for him?

Speaker 2 (10:30):
I don't think that John Jones is beloved in.

Speaker 1 (10:34):
All time great? Do you all time great? I'm going
somewhere here, yes or no? All time great? Okay. When
Connor McGregor can finally pissed clean and decides to have
one more fight, is UFC doing that in Ireland for Connor?

Speaker 2 (10:50):
I don't think Connor is pissed yes or no? Yes
or no?

Speaker 1 (10:54):
Okay. This is the problem when you take the stance
of their independent contractors. They can say what they want,
they can do what they want. I don't care what
they do. And yes, a lot of those people are
your all time greats, you can't really go out and
celebrate them. Look, Poier is by all accounts a great person,

(11:16):
by the way, really good fighter. And the purpose of
this isn't to shit on Poier, but it's your actual
all time greats. You're never going to honor like this.
Why are you honoring someone like this? And I think
the reason is simple. No matter what you think of
Connor McGregor, the headlines, the accusation, you can't honor him

(11:38):
like this. No matter what you think of John Jones,
you can't honor him like this. And if you look
at most of the legit all time greats, they kind
of fall into that same category. So if you want
to honor people, you're kind of not all the most
or some. But if you really want to honor these fighters,
you do have to go down to the very good

(12:00):
and not the greats to have events like this.

Speaker 2 (12:04):
I think you could have honored John Jones like this
if John Jones told you he was going to retire
six months ahead, if John Jones actually meant that he
was going to retire, I think that if there was
a arena appropriate and there was a metropolis appropriate because
I don't know if the UFC has ever been a buffalo.

(12:25):
I'm trying to think about that one. I could see
it happening for John Jones if Connor McGregor had been
accused of sexual assault in Ireland and was in a
halfway murky name in the company who we don't know
if he's going to come back and retire. I also
think that Dustin Ployee falls into a special set of
circumstances where I don't think he's gonna be Riah Hall.

(12:46):
I don't think he's gonna be Darren Tell. I don't
think he's gonna be Anderson Silva. I think Dustin Ployer
might be Kabeb Normagametov. I think he might actually retire,
and that would be different too. There's a lot of
these guys. You don't deserve this ceremony because you're only
tyson furying the word retirement into leverage for the next contract,

(13:09):
so we don't need to honor you. I think that
there's a couple different circumstances for Poyer that fell in
a place like if you told me that they can
never honor Max Holloway like this. I'll agree with you
because the UFC is never going to Hawaii because of
their infrastructure. Are they going to ever honor Israel Atoslani
like this? No, They're obviously never going to South Africa.

(13:29):
We saw that from the PFL that the PFL did
a theater, not an arena.

Speaker 1 (13:32):
Right, but for those guys, you could do a big
event in Vegas for Holloway, you could do a big
event in Washington State somewhere. But yes, but not even that. Look,
we know Dana loves John Jones the fighter. Now John
Jones the person, the negotiator, maybe that's a little debatable,

(13:52):
but the fighter. We know you love John Jones the
fighter because we've seen him argue with his self for
twelve minutes about John Jones being the great his pound
pound for pound fighter of all time. We've seen it.
You don't think joh Dana would have dangled that for
John if that was something they felt like, you can't
do it because every time the same reason, Dana postfight

(14:14):
on Saturday says, I can't book John Jones at the
White House. I can't depend on it. He's right, because
while you're trying to get him on the damn aspen
Off fight. He's facing charges again back in Albuquerque. So
I mean, it's like every time you turn her and again,
I'm not Whatever John does in his personal life, that's
up to him. John Jones a fighter. I don't think
there's any question his place in history. But if you

(14:37):
can't depend on him, you know, for the longest time,
I can't book John in Vegas anymore. I can't depend
on putting John on a White House card. You know
that's my point. No, you're right, So the two.

Speaker 2 (14:52):
Biggest stars in the company are erratic. I don't know
if that means every all time great can get this sendoff.
But what we can also say is that this is
the first time the UFC has cared to do this
send off. Because we were at the Robby Lawler fight,
we knew it was his last fight. We all knew
that Miochich's last fight was Jones. He didn't get that

(15:13):
kind of a loure. There was no talk of, well,
because it's it's the last fight of mio Chich's career,
do we take this from Madison Square Garden and put
it in whatever they call the Cleveland Arena. I understand
what you're saying from that aspect, John Jones and Connor
McGregor have flubbed up their own legacies enough, and George
Rush Saint Pierre probably could have had a send off

(15:34):
one time he couldred it run from Robert Whitaker telling
the UFC, I'm gonna defend this title, because that's the
other thing. If the UFC doesn't know you're leaving, how
can they give you a sendoff? Dustin Ployer, it seemed
like this had been a long time in the making.
This was a guy months ago saying, the UFC has
something special for my final fight. We're working on it,

(15:54):
and it feels like to go on with that pattern.
This was a guy that worked very well hand in
hand with the UFC. Where they might honor moy Kano
when he retires for how well he works with them,
because there's the guys that will tell you we're retiring
months and events not leveraging the retires.

Speaker 1 (16:10):
No, and look that certainly all that stuff you just
said definitely plays into this. I would tell you didn't
do that for Steve A. You're doing a heavyweight fight
Madison Square Garden. But by I think they believe that
if Steve A somehow won. They were booking step A
at Aspinall, the winner of that fight, they were booking
for Aspinall. So now I think you also knew. Yeah

(16:33):
step A loses, he's definitely gone. But I think they
felt like, so if stepe A knocks out John, oh
my god, he just beat the guy. Dana argues with
himself about being the greatest poundful pound fighter of all time.
Damn Wright, were throwing the money at him to entice
him to fight Aspinall, and he's gonna take that fight
because he just knocked out John Jones, or he just

(16:53):
beat John Jones, Damn right, he thinks he can beat Aspenall.
We know that didn't play out that way. And also
to your point not holding that car to Ohio somewhere
to hon or Steepe, I agree with you on that,
but I just and look, I enjoyed the event. If
I'm being honest, I kind of want to Poier to win,
just because I thought that that would be a cool

(17:15):
send off. But I don't know that Poyer was worthy
of a set like I don't think there's that many
fighters that are worthy of it, and I don't think
but I certainly don't think Poier was one of those.
That's my only point. And I got nothing aint Poier,
like you said, and you brought it up, and you
said it very well. By all accounts, he's a great person.

(17:35):
He does a lot in the community, he does a
lot to help others. He's a very good fighter, you know. Really.

Speaker 2 (17:42):
Also what strikes me why he got the sendoff possibly
another guys can't You're never not gonna be able to
sell a John Jones fight. You're never not gonna be
able to sell Econor McGregor fight. And Dana White felt
like there was a lot more left on the table
for how bib Nurma got met off. They didn't want
to let them go. And I don't want this to

(18:03):
sound mean, but they've squeezed all the juice they can
get out of dust employer, and that's why they're letting
him go. And that's why they honored him, because they're
done in the Poyer business. And I feel like some
of these other guys, they would never be done in
their business. You could equivoalate them to Manny Pacquiao shout
out this weekend for you know, earning a draw that

(18:25):
should have been a decision victory a timeless wonder. You're
never gonna want to honor those guys. You never want
to let those guys go as the business because there's
more fruit to bear.

Speaker 1 (18:34):
You have seen by the way, it's been to Buffalo
twice now, the last time twenty seventeen. Now, Look, having
said that, you're probably saying, if you were doing something
like this for John, John, I know you're from Buffalo,
Let's do msg Hell, let's do the Barclay Center. It's bigger,
it's more accessible. We'll give you a great deal on
tickets for all your family and friends. But yes, but

(18:58):
my overall point is, and you don't have to do
something like this for a fighter in their hometown. But
they're only a handful of fighters that are actually worthy
of it, and the majority of them you already probably
kind of hold your nose a little bit when you're
booking them for fights. You don't want to go overboard

(19:18):
with the pomp and circumstance. That's my That was my
only point on all this. Okay, So I hear all that.

Speaker 2 (19:23):
To continue this conversation and draw your ire a little
bit more before we even get there is Dustin Poyer,
a hall of Famer. Does his resume quantify Hall of Famer.
We're talking about two wins over Connor, two wins over
Max Holloway, those two guys I think would creep into
that category that we were talking about of all time

(19:46):
great if not ranked above Boyer and he's got four
victories than above his head.

Speaker 1 (19:53):
Yeah, he's probably a Hall of Famer. Damn it, I
hate you if he's not. If you look at some
of the other people that are in the Hall of Fame,
du'st employee is one hundred percent of Hall of Famer.

Speaker 2 (20:03):
And if he's not a Hall of Famer, he will
get the call to at least go up there for
that fight with him and Dan Hooker, because that is
an all time great war. Go back and watch that
shit on a board Saturday night.

Speaker 1 (20:14):
All right, fun. As we continue to get further and
further away from this card, well, I was just no, no, no, no, no, no,
no no no. I'm good with all this. Let's keep
it going. If your fight gets into the UFC Hall
of Fame, does that automatically make you a UFC Hall
of Famer.

Speaker 2 (20:29):
No, no, it does not make you the Hall of Famer.
It makes you honored just as much on one night
as a Hall of Famer, because you walk the same
red carpet, you get the same microphone time. It looks
like they had everybody similar trophies. You get the applause,
you get the allure. So I don't think it is
the same, but for that night, for that moment, you

(20:51):
get to feel just the same, just as important. And
I do think on the Ploier factor, we will see
him probably there at the Hall of Fame, if not
to maybe three times thinking his induction and quite possibly
two fights.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
Yes, and look, I won't be surprised if they don't
put him in next year. But and again, and I
don't have a problem with all that. Again, I do
not have a problem with Dustin Poyer. I just don't.
I didn't feel like he was worthy of about again,
you create a whole fucking event for a fighter like
I could have gone ten twelve deep on the UFC

(21:30):
roster before I got the Poier. Again, not knocking him,
just saying and look, if you want to keep beating
this dead horse, we can, but I am willing to
move on if you are.

Speaker 2 (21:39):
Is there a notion to the legendary status of Poier
and that was a large talking point throughout last week.
Was that overblown because undisputed Champion never got that he
was the interim champion for a point. Legendary status that
word has come up a lot too. We've said we

(22:01):
think he's gonna be a Hall of Famer. I think legendary.
He had some legendary fights, legendary moments, but I don't
know if I'd overall put legend on his name.

Speaker 1 (22:12):
I would not either. That was grotesquely overblown different sports.
But it's like this, Craig Bigo's in the Baseball Hall
of Fame. Is Craig Bgo baseball legend?

Speaker 2 (22:27):
Now here's a very good second baseman exactly.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
And all Hall of Fames were like that. Again, it
wasn't my intent to start off the podcast just crap
it all over Dustin Poier, and I'm I was gonna say,
that's really not what I'm trying to do, But damn
it sure sounds like I am. It's more of I
question why the UFC went to all this for someone

(22:53):
who's not a legend, who's not in all time great?
Is he a Hall of Famer? Was he one of
the better fighters of his era, of his Generation one hundred.
Is he a legend?

Speaker 2 (23:05):
No?

Speaker 1 (23:06):
And I would save stuff like this for legends, that's all.
And that's all. And look, it's USC's company. It's their money.
They spend it, they can operate it however they want.
It didn't keep me from watching it. It didn't keep
me from enjoying it. So that's all I've got to
say about that. To quote a great wise man, I don't.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
Want to get you going on this, but would you
just believe the calendar worked out to the point where
they needed a pay per view? At some point they
thought this New Orleans card could have been a fight night. No, No,
you thought this was always gonna be a pay per view.

Speaker 1 (23:40):
They weren't going to New Orleans? Were it not to
do this for Poie? I?

Speaker 2 (23:44):
Well, I just wondered if the intent was always to
do it on pay per view, or if they kind
of looked at their calendar and said, oh, well, here's
our pay per view schedule. Shit, we don't really have
one in July. Let's just turn the New Orleans fight
night we were gonna do into a pay per view.

Speaker 1 (24:00):
No. I think that I may be wrong. I think
they moved other stuff around to make this a pay
per view and.

Speaker 2 (24:06):
Because he's the first one to defend the damn belt?
Is Max Holloway the greatest BMF champion in UFC history
or greatest IMF?

Speaker 1 (24:14):
I mean, no, hold on greatest BMF champion, no, greatest
person to carry the BMF title around. I think he
has to be right.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
I mean, I mean, so, are you taking a hold? No? No, no,
no for me, no, no, no.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
He walked in with the BMF title belt. He walked
out with the BMF title belt. I don't know that
he defended a championship. I'm splitting hairs here. I refuse
to recognize it as the championship. But yes, he walked
in with the belt. He walked out with the belt.
If you really want to break down the all time
greats in the BMF division, Micah, Yes, Max Hollowey has

(24:56):
to be the top of the list.

Speaker 2 (24:58):
BMF great That's what we're here to give you, guys,
BMF greatness. You said, breaking it down. Yeah, let's finally
get to that breaking it down. I will tell you.
I went back, I watched the fight. I am a
little surprised that we didn't have another forty eight forty seven.
I thought that Tooier with the knockdown won the second round.

(25:21):
Obviously the first round Holloway wins with the knockdown hid
Some of already speculated because it looked like a finish
could have been emming it. Did Holloway take his foot
off the gas in the first round, pulled back? You
guys can be the judge of that. We know that
the one score card that was forty eight forty seven,
you get the third and fourth round in the Poier favor.

(25:42):
I don't know if I so much agree with that
third round scorecard. For me, I did give a forty
eight forty seven Holloway victory after rewatching the fight. That's
me giving the second round and the fourth round to Poier.
The knockdown, the guillotina chump in the second round and
in the fourth round. I just thought that that was
the one round where you saw the power shots start

(26:03):
to wear on Max and he was just backing off
a little bit more than what Poier was reacting. And
we were talking about the visual damage and it seemed
like that's when Poyer was able to land. A lot
of it was in the fourth round. Other than that, though, yeah,
pretty clear three rounds to two four Max best argument
I could make.

Speaker 1 (26:23):
Yeah, I thought Poier won the fourth round. I was
a little surprised that two judges gave the fourth round
to Holloway. Wouldn't have mattered ultimately, But yeah, but again,
well it was back of a fight. I guess. I
came out of this, if it's possible, more impressed with
Max Holloway than I've ever been before. Not that I

(26:45):
didn't always appreciate it. Why does some POI had to
have had twenty five pounds on him. There's no way
that Poier what at least when they walked into the
octagon twenty five pounds heavier, and none of that affected
Holloway at all. So the fact that he can fight
at lightweight against much bigger guys, his punches still do

(27:11):
the same damage. He can still control the pace of
a fight and not manhandle or anything but control things,
dictate the way the fight goes. That's impressive as hell.

Speaker 2 (27:23):
It was everything I expected it to be. It was
everything I thought we saw out of Max Holloway the
first time he was at fifty five, really there against Gaechee,
filled out, muscular, looking bigger, not looking as big as
a lightweight, but looking bigger than he did at forty five.
And let's not forget it. We don't bring it up
because he's a really nice guy and a wonderful guy.

(27:44):
But Max all theway is one of the biggest weight
bullies in all of MMA. The guy notably walks around
at two hundred and two to ten and wanted to
fight at one forty five. It's absolutely preposterous and ridiculous
that it took this long from to convince himself that
I can fight guys that are one eighty that are
one fifty five. I'm not sure how how much either
one rehydrated, but to my money, like I said, we

(28:04):
got everything we could out of Dustin Poyer. Also from
the fact that I thought he looked a little slow,
a little sluggish, and was at this point very much
relying on his power shots. It's not just that Max
Holloway throws in combination, so he's landing four or five
for everyone that Poyer was throwing, it seemed like, but

(28:25):
it's the fast fact that he's just that much faster,
and I think that Poier he really showed a lot
of stiffness in this fight where he was moving forward
on the league leg and to my account, him throw
many kicks in this fight. It looked like a man
that was down to his last two weapons, but realistically
all eight were still there for him, and Poyer just

(28:47):
chooses to use his hands. I thought that this was
very much what I expected to see and what I
thought we would get out of a Max. Holloway fully
committed to one p fifty five, and this is a
an opice of what we saw from Volkanowski. Volkanowski made
the harshness to go up to fifty five, got knocked out,
then had to dehydrate his brain, and we wondered how

(29:07):
he was going to do. Holloway got knocked out and
decided to hydrate his brain. It looks like he has
no ill effects, his speed is still there. He has
four years to crash in and it's really weird to hey,
you at least now got one win over at Dustin Ployer.
Congratulations on still losing this series, but you retain the

(29:28):
BMF title. I was distill. The fight was beautiful, the
matchup between them, They make a beautiful synergy fighting because
they both just want to box in MMA gloves. But
there's still this whole thing of what was at stake.
That just threw me off on the whole night that
there was nothing, but it feels like something, and people
are trying to ask, did Max Holloway earn a title

(29:52):
shot from this? I'm like he beat a guy ranked
below him that was retiring. I understand it's his first
win over Poier, but it doesn't feel like he beat
Dustin Ployer. To me, it felt like he beat the
version of Poier that's out the door.

Speaker 1 (30:09):
Holloway's in the title the title conversation. Now, I'm not
saying he's gonna get it, and he's probably not not
quite yet. Well, I hear what you're saying. I would
tell you not all trilogies are created.

Speaker 2 (30:21):
The same because some don't need to happen.

Speaker 1 (30:24):
Well, yes, I don't other until you brought it up
last week, And yes I knew they had fault before.
It never even dawned on me. Oh wow, it's the
third fight in his trilogy. Why are we doing this
when Poyer has already won the first two? Again, you
created an entire event for Dustin Poier and you needed

(30:44):
an opponent, and you weren't gonna give him a title match.
But we're doing a pay per view. We can hype
him up as much as we want, but we still
got to have something that resembles the title fight for
the main event. I know, let's get Max bmf Idol
blah blah blah, and there we are.

Speaker 2 (31:04):
But yeah, I would think that next from Max Holloway.
And this is the weird thing too. I haven't even
heard anybody mention this name. I heard someone throw out, Actually,
how about we just send Olavera to Brazil and Holloway
can go down there and retire him because Iliots Aporia
just crushed Max Holloway, and the UFC I don't think

(31:27):
is in any rush to stop the upward trajectory of
Ilios Aporia. Iliot to Poria will either be defending against
Islam Mohashevan his next fighter quite crazy enough, chasing Islam
up to one seventy. So my first reaction was, there's
no way that Max Holloway is right in title contention.

(31:50):
He just got snuffed by Ilia, and Ilia is on
a rocket ship. Why are we going to start making
rematches and old fights when there are so many fresh
names for Eliot's Aporia. But then I got to the
thought of what if it's not Illiot's Aporia. What if
Ilia does run to welterweight. Max Holloway's next fight very

(32:10):
easily could be an interim lightweight title fight against armins
Ur Yukian.

Speaker 1 (32:19):
They will My personal belief Toapoia is gonna have Toboria
is gonna have to have at least one title defense
at lightweight. And assuming that's the case, other than Islam,
Max Holloway's as good as anybody else. Uh, he just
beat olivera. It ain't that hard to justify the leap

(32:40):
frog and Gaegee and Serukia might deserve it. But talk
about guys, Dana feels like he can't trust for completely
different reasons and what we were talking about earlier. But
I don't think Dana feels like he can trust Arman.
So at that point in time, you ain't gonna have

(33:01):
Dan Hooker or gam Rot or Darry Yush leap frog him. Now. Look, unfortunately, well,
I guess depending on your perspective, Patty Pimblet's probably next.

Speaker 2 (33:13):
You could easily make that Pimblet fight. And I didn't
know if you were going to get there.

Speaker 1 (33:17):
Yeah, And well that that's the one fight of anybody
below Holloway that that is likely to happen.

Speaker 2 (33:26):
They've already started marketing it. We know that there's electricity
in the trash talk back and forth. Could easily see
Pimblet jumping over. That's why it sounds like Gamrot, Hooker
Soar Yukian that I think are possible for Holloway.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
Yeah, I was gonna I would like to there you go.
I was gonna say, I'd like to see Holloway and
Serukian winner gets winner of Tuporia Patty, and we could.

Speaker 2 (33:51):
Say that in theory. But if he gets past Patty,
I think we're back on that Islam train. If Islam
eludes Ilia, I think that he beats because it's the
most marketable fight, and then we go back to the
one that eluded you. I don't know if we get
an Ilia Max rematch before the end of the year.
I think that they might each have two fights in

(34:12):
their future before we could get there. Before maybe it
comes to a head.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
I think they both have at least one. I truly do.
And yeah, like I said, I like the idea of
Holloway and Serukian. I don't know if Armon would like
that or not. We'll see if you wanted to tell me,
all right, you're right justin we're f and you around here,
you and Holloway, winner gets winner of Taporia and Pimblet
And yes, if Taporia moves up then they ad then

(34:39):
all right, you you guys do it out for the
vacant title. I'm good with all that. Yeah, I'm not
saying Max should should have a title shot next, but
I do think he's in that conversation.

Speaker 2 (34:50):
That's all is in the conversation.

Speaker 1 (34:53):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
Maybe maybe you have the appropriate amount of excitement about
this victory because I didn't have any because I had
already thought Max was gonna beat Dustin. I thought that
the size difference had been equalled I thought that Dustin
was on his way out. Maybe I'm not giving enough
credit to Max for this victory because I was like,

(35:15):
this is the worst case scenario for Dustin. You're gonna
get all of this parade and then you're gonna go
out and lose to a guy that you've already beat twice.
And I saw it, and it happened.

Speaker 1 (35:25):
The size difference had not been equalled out. I agree
with you on everything else, though, but yeah, no, look,
this was a good win for Holloway certainly much better
than losing, And again with where he's at in those
rankings right now, not that the rankings are then all
be all as far as the people above him, he's

(35:48):
got as good an argument as anybody. I do hear you.
Are we really in that much of a hurry to
run back to poory in Holloway? Probably not, but that's
a much easier cell, and I'm sorry then Tuporia Serukian
Gaechie might be a similar cell. But again we also

(36:11):
know that barring something wonky, it's most likely going to
be Patty who's getting next anyway. But I could definitely
see Holloway in a title eliminator or a number one
contenders fight for next after that.

Speaker 2 (36:24):
I think that's possible, and we've learned now. Also Armands
are yuki and doing himself no favors. He was offered
to fights. He was offered the gate Che fight, told
the UFC, I can't make weight. I guess that's better
than showing up and missing weight, because we know that's
the absolute worst thing from them, And he was also
offered gam Rot and he said, we've trained together at
American Top Team alongside Dustin so not even he can

(36:46):
speak on this, but American Top Team y'all might actually
be too damn big at this point.

Speaker 1 (36:51):
I think you offered him fights she knew he wasn't
gonna take because you have to offer him fights. I
also think Armand's like, no, I want a damn title shot.
So I think there is some headbutting there with him
in the UFC. And while I get where he's coming
from and I don't really disagree with him, I don't
think he's doing himself any favors with UFC but by

(37:13):
taking this tactic. But I also you don't want to
I don't blame him, but put it that way, but
I'm not sure it's the right move. But it might
be his only move.

Speaker 2 (37:25):
As far as I've heard in his personal life, armins
are Yukian's family or very heavily invested in businesses, and
this dude's already driving Maserati's. Armins are Yukian is uniquely
positioned to tell the UFC, I don't need the money.
I got other investments, I got other things going on.
He's the one guy that if we never see him

(37:46):
find an opagon again, it's just because they never offered
him the fight he wanted and he didn't feel it
was worth his time. Now someone that does feel like
it was worth his time once again, finally to be
inside an octagon. Paulo Costa returns. Holy shit, I thought
this was a lifeless sack of flesh, just still inhabiting

(38:06):
the earth, but really dead inside. And there was some
fire back from Paulo Costa against Roman Copylov.

Speaker 1 (38:13):
I didn't realize you hated Paulo Costa so much.

Speaker 2 (38:15):
Well after he missweight like shit and kept not having
any effort in his performances. I just thought he was
there to collect a check. I didn't know he wanted
a fight. All of a sudden, He's cutting promos on
hamzat Chi Mayev. He's willing to actually throw his right hand.
It didn't hurt that Roman Copylov did break his left hand,

(38:35):
so the Southball seemed to be without his best weapon
for the last seven minutes of the fight. But we
finally saw emphasis aggression and attack again from Paulo Costa
that we hadn't seen this fire from him since his
last win against Luke Rockold, and even in that fight,
Luke Rockold had an incredible third round comeback, so we
can't forget that this is the best three rounds that

(38:58):
Paulocasta has in like three years.

Speaker 1 (39:01):
It was see my takeaway for the fight was it
it was like the exact opposite of yours. I was like, Damn,
Copylov looks like he does not want to be here.
Why did he take this fight? And again not to
knock Costa, who I hold in a little bit higher
regard than you did coming into the fight anyway, but

(39:23):
my big takeaway was Roman Copilov does not look like
he wants to be here.

Speaker 2 (39:28):
Roman Copylov did not have a pamb once he broke
his hand. That's what it looked like to me.

Speaker 1 (39:33):
And that's, you know what, that's a very fair point.
Once that happened, he probably didn't want to be there,
but knew he couldn't quit, knew he didn't have a chance,
but he had to try something.

Speaker 2 (39:45):
And they might be the same weight class, but I'll
tell you, I think Costa had more weight on Copylv
than Holloway. You probably don't want to be in there.
He's like, I want to fight middle weights. What the
fuck is this heavyweight.

Speaker 1 (39:57):
Doing in front of me? Oh my god? How much
do you weigh right now?

Speaker 2 (40:00):
So I could imagine, Yeah, he was trying to get
out of there, none of that when according to plan.
But I'll tell you his hair still look good. No
other play in that one. I just like the girls.

Speaker 1 (40:10):
I guess.

Speaker 2 (40:11):
I guess now what didn't look good? And what I
What do we do? I don't know if I need
to have like an intervention or something, because I should
know better. We should all know better. Before you've kicked
him out of the house, you've told him, no, we're
not gonna let you play these little games before we
know you're just messing around. N Now I'm gonna come back.

(40:33):
I'll be serious about this relationship. I want to make
it work. I want to make a future together. That's
what Kevin Holland tells us. Fucks around, goes out there,
gets dropped by the ear od cut open, and has
to have a tremendous comeback himself just to get a
twenty nine to twenty eight loss.

Speaker 1 (40:51):
We gotta all just talk.

Speaker 2 (40:52):
Ourselves into Kevin Holland's a fun fighter. But even this
last gas and I feel like he really was taking
weal through weight. Seriously, it's just a mirage.

Speaker 1 (41:02):
Yes, the so back to back losses Dalite and the Ritter,
he comes back and beats Gutter, Nelson and Vicente Luce. Okay,
that Luke win is pretty good.

Speaker 2 (41:18):
We know that Luke has ruined a lot of people.
He still has power in his hands. It is the
top twenty five win. It's not a top fifteen win. No,
it's the top twenty five.

Speaker 1 (41:30):
It is not a top twenty win. So it ain't
that impressive, is what I'm saying. It ain't that impressive.
Might have been more impressive four years ago. But yeah,
but to your point, Yeah, Kevin Holland is who we

(41:53):
thought he was, now who we convinced ourselves he might be,
But he is who deep down we thought he was.

Speaker 2 (42:00):
When he got on the ground, he was so dominant
in positions against Rodriguez and then just let it go.
He was there trading and just I Kevin Hall shout
out to Daniel Rodriguez. We didn't know that he was
gonna be able to dig down and get this caliber
of victory. We thought this was a stay busy showcase
for Kevin Holland, and de Rod turns it all around.

(42:21):
Thirty seven years old and he's doing well to make
a retirement fund for himself as he's putting together this
late late in his career UFC run. Much like Patricio Pitbull,
who saved himself with this.

Speaker 1 (42:38):
Victory, Danny Gay is the ultimate company man. What you'll
you'll drive down to the arena and take this fight
with no notice? Great? Hey, Dan, uh, we really need
to milk this whole pit Bull thing for all we can.

(42:58):
Can you take this fight and make him look good?
Sure thing, boss, sure thing? That was my takeaway from
that fight. Now, did it actually happen that way, Yeah,
probably not, but that's what it felt like to me.

Speaker 2 (43:13):
I don't know if I was a little bit surprised
with how decisive the scorecards were to go in Patricio's favor.
I thought that Egay out, including that headkick, that there
really just wasn't a lot going on in the first round.
I thought he was the more effective striker. Obviously, Pitbull

(43:35):
landed his own big shot in the second round and
was able to get a takedown. I thought the fight
was a little bit closer. I was kind of surprised
it wasn't a split decision, to not see the judges
going different directions, that they all saw it in the
same fashion. Did surprise me a bit good for pit
Bull this week? I guess mentioned it real fast. Most

(43:57):
of our Heavylov has pulled out of there and Piko
fight Petresio people. Aaron Pico had been booked in the past,
there was talk of it. I don't know if Aaron
Pico was really ready for top five in the UFC.
Any interest in Peako versus Pitbull if we can't get
Peako versus hevy Lov?

Speaker 1 (44:18):
Uh No, I don't as a fan. Yes, if I'm UFC,
I'm not booking that fight because you're cutting Pico's legs
out from under him with a loss, and I don't
know how much you're building Pitbull with the win. So

(44:39):
I don't book that if I can help it. But
that's but that's me as a fan. Would I be
interested in it?

Speaker 2 (44:45):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (44:45):
Sure for former military guys that this fight was booked
a couple of times at PFL and didn't happen, right, Yeah,
we like storylines, I'm sure.

Speaker 2 (44:54):
I mean, just to stick it to them. Oh, we're
gonna make the fight happen that some other company couldn't,
because you know, we make fights.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
In the happen but I don't think Dana White gives
two fucking shits about what what was booked and didn't
happen in PFL. Maybe I'm wrong on that, Matt. I
don't think that plays into his mindset at all.

Speaker 2 (45:11):
I just don't see where you're going with Aaron Pico though,
when I look at the featherweight rankings as we've got off,
most of our evylov was a gift. Are you are you?
Diego's already booked right Where's YA Year? I don't know
if you're gonna put Aaron Paco again and Ya Year
against each other because of all the Jackson wink Asi Martinez.

(45:32):
There's a lot of connection between each other. If you
can find where Brendan Allen or Lron Murphy is, I
guess they're up there in the rankings, But does that
have any anything good for Pico? That's why I'm like,
it feels like if you're not giving him, it feels
like the name value is very parallel in the featherweight division.

(45:56):
To me, we don't have Vulk, you don't have Halloway.
I kind of feel like it's all linear. To tell me,
if you gave anyone from the top fifteen or Pitbull
that the name recognition is at least the same value
for Pico. Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're just at a parallel

(46:21):
point where parody is a dull word for this division,
where you don't have that extra booming star power. There's
not a Patty Pimblet. There's not a even a Kevin Holland.

Speaker 1 (46:36):
All right, you're right, no Holloway. You also said no
Vogue last I checked he does have the fucking belt.

Speaker 2 (46:41):
Well that's not an option for Pico though, right now, No, no, no, no, no,
of course feasible options for Pico. It doesn't matter if
you're fading Diego Lopez or Lron Murphy. To David Onama,
I don't see any name value. I mean, it only
gets worse slightly. It doesn't get better Pico. I mean
Pitbull a former featherweight champion. The recognition to me would

(47:03):
be kind of the similar. I think.

Speaker 1 (47:15):
All right, hold on, I'll make this really easy for you.
Book Pico against Josh Emmitt, book pit Bull against Steve Garcia.
There you go done.

Speaker 2 (47:26):
Who'd you say Steve Garcia?

Speaker 1 (47:28):
Pie I would actually do Pico Garcia. I'm guessing neither
one of them have any interest in doing that fight.

Speaker 2 (47:35):
Well, you know, I don't think Brek Jackson has right,
That's what I'm saying. Yeah, it is hard and putting
on a platter to do that fight if it's not
for a title.

Speaker 1 (47:41):
That's what I'm saying.

Speaker 2 (47:43):
And the rankings I'm looking at right now, they must
not be updated yet.

Speaker 1 (47:48):
So the rankings are not updated, Michael No, yeah.

Speaker 2 (47:50):
Yeah, yeah, because he gay is still there at eleven.
So I'm like, it's like we will have a pit
bull in the top fifteen probably anyway.

Speaker 1 (47:56):
I bet we don't who who are we dropping out?

Speaker 2 (48:01):
You could drop out Cater because he's lost like five
out of six. You could drop Muchell very quickly easily
because he's not in the division anymore.

Speaker 1 (48:11):
You're not dropping out Bryce Mitchell because you put him
in there just last week for his up just so
he'd have a number by his name for his upcoming fight.
And yes, I realized that they're not fighting that weight class.
You've also let's keep in mind too, you've got sixteen
fighters in the top fifteen, so dropping one out doesn't
necessarily mean you're adding one.

Speaker 2 (48:31):
That's why I give you two names right away. I
gave you cater and and I gave you, Mitchell, we
could drop two guys out. I get you, Why are
we not doing it? Congratulations? I finally took Max Holloway
out of the feather eight rankings after I begged them
to do so. But I hear what you're saying. There's
two number elevens and there's two number fifteen, so.

Speaker 1 (48:49):
Actually seventeen in the top fifteen. I didn't even care,
that's right. I didn't even catch the two elevens again
based off of last week's rankings. But yeah, do.

Speaker 2 (48:58):
Not stand in the pocket and trade with Michael Johnson.
Did Daniels of Hooper not get the message that if
he used his length try to keep this fight at bay,
he can make it easy for himself. Good for Michael Johnson,
who would have thought of twenty twenty five he'd be
on a three fight win streak. I don't know what
we're doing next with Michael Johnson, but probably trying to

(49:20):
ruin some kind of top prospect I'm gathering with this
kind of streak.

Speaker 1 (49:24):
I would not take a fight against Michael Johnson. There's
no benefit in it. You win, okay, But based on
recent history, there's a nis a chance he's gonna knock
you out or at least beat you, and then what now, Look,

(49:47):
if we're being fair again, let's not pretend like these
this three fight three fight win streaks against top ten
opponents or anything like that. But he's going out beating
the people in front of him, and to your point,
in twenty five, hell, I'm surprised he's still in the UFC,
to be honest, but not just being in the UFC,
but at thirty nine years of age, thriving.

Speaker 2 (50:11):
Thriving the number fifteen rank Venisius Olavera, he'll be moving up.
As he took down number twelve rank Kyler Phillips and
the bandaweight division walked him down. Throws from his hips,
awkward angle, granite chin, a lot of funnel watch. I
don't know if Olivera can take the damage that it's
going to be necessitated with his kind of style to
get up to a title shot, but he's a lot

(50:33):
of fun to watch, and it'll be interesting to see
where the UFC matchmakers go from here, because you start
to get into that territory where everyone above you wants
to be fighting up. Who's gonna take that wild card
of fighting down.

Speaker 1 (50:48):
Yeah, that'll be a little tough. You don't get it done. Though.

Speaker 2 (50:51):
I think Olivera might fight Marlon Vera in his next fight.
That one just like stuck out to me all of
a sudden, as I'm talking about everybody that wants to
be fighting up, I think Olavera's coming, I mean Vera,
Marlon Vera is coming off a couple losses. I think
he might be the right name that ends up happing
to fight down. Maybe so also Brendan Allen. Hey, he

(51:13):
returned to form. We didn't have to see his grappling.
His boxing was great. He bust up Marvin Ventori. Didn't
have to do it in a casino this time. Unfortunate
for Vittori, who uprooted his life from California and Florida.
He's made a lot of adjustments. It doesn't seem to
be paying off. But the move from Chicago, I mean
from Florida up to Chicago has looked to re engage

(51:33):
Brendan Allen. Good victory for him as we look at
the card. Also, I beta Gutier might have been the
most impressive middleweight. Even though we just talked about Costa
and Brandon Allen on the card Gutier somehow in a
minute and ten seconds of work. I still want to say,
demonstrated great ability to have composure and pick his punches well,

(51:54):
just throttling Robert Valentine. I'm very intrigued by him, just
the same you gotta be intrigued by Islam Doulatov. Incredible
knockout arm bar for Jimmy Crue, Ryan Span first win
at heavyweight. He'll be a problem there if he can
get his grappling going. And Bruno Ferrara that was almost

(52:15):
like a disrespectful arm bar from Jackson McVay. You don't
see guys in the mount crawl up somebody's face to
get to their arm. That was just like a that
was just so disrespectful. That was dunking on someone's head.
And can't not mention Carly Judice five wins, All five
are knockouts. When she wins, she puts the bunches together

(52:37):
and does it in spectacular fashion.

Speaker 1 (52:40):
She looks like the villain in a movie about an
evil nanny or au pair or something like that.

Speaker 2 (52:49):
You get the little fatal attraction music, and she's just
kind of giving the kids some pills extra mess.

Speaker 1 (52:54):
They decide to remake, single white female. She's the one
that's got a problem, you know, totalent agency UFC.

Speaker 2 (53:04):
So overall we had like what six of the five
of the first six fights ended in like the first round.
So shout out to the pre limbs and overall New
Orleans delivered. It was a fun card.

Speaker 1 (53:15):
No, it was Micah And of course UFC back at
it this weekend, Yas Island on ABC. We'll talk about
that a little bit. Uh what else do we have
this weekend, so.

Speaker 2 (53:27):
Real quick to touch on it. Friday night in Miami,
three victories and one night, Robeless de Spain came with
a cost. He gets all three wins. He is your
one night tournament winner for Karate Combat. Will eventually fight
Sam Alvi. I say eventually because Ropeless broke his foot,

(53:48):
his right foot, and both his hands throughout the night.
A decision went over Saw Cavalari and then two devastating knockouts,
Tim Johnson and Zach Baunga, who each pulled offa recular
knockouts in their own right. But de Spain, the man
is up in a hospital bed. You gotta check it
out on social media. Both hands are just totally rapped

(54:09):
and fractured. His foot is up eventually. We'll see that
one in Karate Combats a shout out three wins one night.
Also Aileen Pereira, Alex's little sister. She gets it done
with winning the Karate Combat Women's flyweight title. Its Karate
Combat two days of Action Friday and Saturday. You can
go back and check that out on YouTube, should you

(54:30):
be so inclined. We also had the PFL this week
and I got an answer to a question that I
actually just needed to dig a little harder for because
we were like, when did Johnny Evlin become the PFL champion?
We just weren't paying attention. It was actually one fight
previous when he beat Fabian Edwards. That was a fight
under the PFL banner after Bellatour. All that answered, there's

(54:53):
a new middleweight champion for the PFL. Castello von Stein's
with from my Money, one of the great his comebacks
I've ever seen in MMA history. Out wrestled for three rounds,
puts it on Eblin in the fourth with his striking,
Eblin able to get back to the wrestling in the
fifth round, and then in trying to take the back

(55:15):
Van Eyes is able to cause a transition, reverse the position,
take Eblin's back, and twenty seconds later he is sinking
in a rear naked choke. There was no tap Eblin.
All Warrior goes to sleep, Van Eyes Van Steins. With
the title now in his possession, Eblin right away says,

(55:35):
I want a rematch. I don't know how you feel
about that. He did, including Bellatore, post five successful defenses
after winning the belt, so it's not like, hey, I
just want it. I want to rematch. Eblin did at
least have some history of I dominated this division for
a couple of years. We also on the card Dakota Ditcheva.

(55:58):
If the PFL is able to build around somebody, at
least internationally, Ditcheva looks to be that face fifteen and zero.
She is everything that you would want coming into the octagon.
She delivers on everything she says she's gonna do. Incredibly
sharp striker shout out to Sumiko and Aba for being
able to just weather a freaking beating. It was a

(56:23):
kind of irritating fight to the fans because it fell
into a pattern where Ditchivo was able to create some space.
She'd land a couple teeth kicks her one two down
the middle and Naba would crash in. Ditchiva would work
well in the clinch and you just wouldn't see and
Naba drop like we saw a lot of fighters. She
got battered to the body, probably fifty knees or something

(56:45):
in the end though it's the wind for Ditchiva. But
she breaks her hand also, so if we want to
crown her and possibly a new face in the PFL
after eight months on the sideline, because they wouldn't fight her.
Now she has a broken hand to recover for so
just stifles the young fighter's growth. And a shout out
to Cory Anderson for running through Dennis Koltzlov on the
ground in the second round. He called out for a

(57:08):
trilogy fight with the deem Nevkov. There's a trilogy, and
I know it's PFL, but it's one to one. That's
one I could get behind. Okay, it's Cory Anderson, it's
Videam Nevcov. It's probably two of what the tan fighters
worth watching in the PFL. You got the Kanda Ditscheva.
You look at aj McKee who had a great victory.

(57:29):
You're looking at Paul Hughes and Nurma Gametov. There's few
and far between, but this is a trilogy, probably the
only PFL trilogy. I think there's some merit behind.

Speaker 1 (57:41):
A couple things before we get to fight. Announcements, and
this week's actually all that I want to ask you about.
We kind of already touched on this, but we'll touch
on it's just a little bit more again. Dana White
postfight on Saturday Night, was asked about John Jones possibly
fighting at the White House, and Dana didn't hold back, quote,
you know how I feel about him. I just can't

(58:01):
risk putting him in big positions, in a big spot
and have something go wrong, especially the White House card.
Never mind, this guy just relinquished his title because he
didn't want to fight the number one contender and retired
and then two weeks later like, oh wait, white House.

Speaker 2 (58:17):
Hmm.

Speaker 1 (58:18):
What were your thoughts on Dana White's comments?

Speaker 2 (58:21):
Accurate, correct, pointed, and nothing to push back against. Everything
he said is there's nothing you can say is untrue.
John Jones does what John Jones wants when John Jones wants,
and that makes him a liability for the UFC, especially
hisporatic behavior. Will not to mention here locally again, he
does still have more charges, and I believe there was
an addition to those charges from the accident that they

(58:46):
have now actually added some charges for the audio intimidation
over the phone with the officer. So John Jones is
finding himself in a pattern.

Speaker 1 (58:54):
The audio from the art. That's the only thing I'm
aware of. They were invest like. I don't know that
they've been able to pin point he was actually driving.
But I haven't kept up with it either because I.

Speaker 2 (59:03):
Really don't care that much. I just saw that there
was another MMA website that did say there were additional charges,
and I think there was an arrest, you know, summons
or something put out for him originally, so I guess
this was in addition. Either way, Dana White is not wrong.
John Jones retired, and you can't trust John Jones as
a business partner right now. I think the UFC was

(59:26):
relieved to make it through the Myochich fight. They hope
to get the Aspenall fight. John has been incredibly reluctant
to want to do that fight, so I think they
were okay without caring about whatever tickled his pickle. As
he put on social media, is what the White House
did for him.

Speaker 1 (59:43):
I'm a little surprised that he just assumed, he being John,
that the UFC would be gung ho about putting him
on this fight. Oh you want to come back, John,
of course, we'll book you on this card. Let's set
aside for a moment. All the outside yatag on stuff.
You beat step Ay, agreed to me, o chich. You

(01:00:06):
didn't agree to me, I mean to aspinall. Then you
didn't agree, then you agree with you drag this out,
and then you're like, I don't want to fight this guy.
I'm retiring. I've done everything I want to do. Now
you want to come back two weeks later and say, hey,
I want to fight the last even no matter how
much Dana White loves him some John Jones to fighter.
Why the fuck would Dana just okay, John, you got it, buddy.

(01:00:29):
I mean, I find that absolutely ludicrous.

Speaker 2 (01:00:33):
You are surprised at the level of delusion that courses
through the veins of John Jones. Yes, yes, Oh I'm not.
I'm really not. I'm really not. John Jones and Connor
McGregor are the two biggest faces in the UFC. They
spout out, I want to fight at the White House last,
I want to fight on Mars Elon Musk has a

(01:00:54):
planet sick notes around the planet. These two guys are
very tactful at bringing up and attacking moments that are
popular and bringing that spotlight back on themselves. The difference
is is that John Jones is annoying the UFC with

(01:01:15):
how they do it. Connor McGregor does it in a
playful way that draws some attention and then it goes away.
John Jones does it in a way that's annoying, and
then Dana White has to answer.

Speaker 1 (01:01:24):
It fair enough as it relates to Tom Aspinall. And
I'm not saying this for the White House because I
think Aspinall has a title defense sooner rather than later.
And we've speculated who might it be? Who could it be?
Have you seen my man Alex Pahera lately.

Speaker 2 (01:01:43):
Two hundred and forty seven pounds he weighed in the
other day just to show everybody.

Speaker 1 (01:01:47):
Yeah, I think it was two forty three. But what
regardless it was in kilograms, my conversion from kilograms to
pounds could be off.

Speaker 2 (01:01:56):
I heard somebody say two forty seven, that's sling. It's
a while I went with it, But if you're right.

Speaker 1 (01:01:59):
You're right, it doesn't matter. He's a big boy.

Speaker 2 (01:02:01):
Now.

Speaker 1 (01:02:02):
Look he's always walked around pretty big. But it sure
doesn't sound like he's close to a fight being announced
for a light heavyweight title rematch. Not if he's walking
around it. Let's split the difference at two forty five.
Should we just go ahead and start looking at our

(01:02:25):
chops and get ready for aspinall the.

Speaker 2 (01:02:27):
Hara, don't do that to yourself. Let me save you
from yourself. Okay, don't Kevin Holland, this moment over estimated.
Just enjoy it, Kevin Holland, the experience, cowboys, seroning the
experience and believe him. Just embrace it so that when
the announce Tom aspinall versus Surreal Gone, you're not too

(01:02:48):
upset because there's only two options right now, because we'll
get to one of the options here in the fight announcements.
So he's off the board, and heck, his opponent, who
was impossible outside of the option, is now off the board.
There's gone, and there's Alex. We can hope it's Alex.

Speaker 1 (01:03:04):
Nope that there is. There is a third option, and
I brought him up last week.

Speaker 2 (01:03:08):
Derek Lewis, I don't think that they're turning around Derek Lewis,
I would agree. Well, I am telling you that more
than likely. My bones tell me you're gonna hear Aspinall.
I mean you're gonna hear Gone, or you're gonna hear Alex.
I don't think we're hearing Derek Lewis's name.

Speaker 1 (01:03:26):
I agree with you that those two are far more likely.
But I do think depending on where you're looking to
have them. If you're looking at December, I think Derek
Lewis would absolutely be interested in that. If you're looking
at September, I'm not sure Derek has much interest regardless
of what's on the line of turning around and finding
it again that quickly. So yeah, if you're looking at

(01:03:46):
more of the September October, I would agree with you.
My money's on Alex. I don't know, man, I there
ain't a lot the UFC does that. The fans just
crap on because even if this stuff you don't like,
you still buy the pay per views, you still buy
the tickets, you still tune in. If we've been building

(01:04:09):
or in our minds, been building to Aspinall John Jones,
John retires, we need a plan B. If that plan
be is surreal gone. There may be a legit revolt
by the UFC fan base.

Speaker 2 (01:04:23):
So what are you thinking? What are you feeling here?
Alec date? What event?

Speaker 1 (01:04:28):
Alex? I think November ish there in October or maybe
it's late October. They're in New York again, maybe Vegas
in December.

Speaker 2 (01:04:42):
Right now, just to remind everybody, we know what is
happening at UFC three nineteen. That's du plus a team
I have. We jump up to three twenty, and there
was a long speculation because remember that was supposed to
be Mexico, that was gonna be a year versus Volk.
October fourth, we don't know what's happening. And October twenty

(01:05:03):
first or October twenty fifth, we don't know what's happening.
We've got three twenty and three twenty one, we've got
T Mobile at the beginning of October, and we've got
Abu Dhabi at the end of October. And then I
believe you get into that November date at MSG back
in December to Vegas, are we announcing aspinall Perreira for

(01:05:28):
put it like October fourth, you think, or more like
November for MSG. I feel like one of those two
sticks out.

Speaker 1 (01:05:37):
There's something intriguing about MSG, so I'd go there. I
would do the fight in October in case in the
back of your mind you are thinking about Aspinall Jones
at the White House. Make sure Aspinall's to give him ready. Yeah, yeah,
but again maybe the month wouldn't make that much difference anyway.
Put it like this, if you're doing Aspinall and gone,

(01:05:59):
I'm finding if you do it at the fucking Apex
so yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:06:04):
And just me, I'm saying it. I feel like that
UFC three twenty one card that's gonna be the Chiamaya
are the mahashev Versus JDM card. That's that's my guess.

Speaker 1 (01:06:17):
Okay, we'll see you guys. Some fight announcements.

Speaker 2 (01:06:21):
We got fight announcements, of course, we got fin announcements
called fight announcements. We've got to fight adjustments. Because Torres
Finley is out in OZMA book I f will now
be fighting Yusei Belgari. Finally, the tashare a product coming
over and getting the call to the UFC. Alex Predes
is out. Steve Ursak now fighting really far down the
card is he's jumping in the take on hun Sunk

(01:06:43):
Park August ninth, Sam Patterson, Trey Waters September sixth, Jose,
Daniel Medina, Goose Dusk, Dousco Tadorovich. UFC notch at least
now we have a Mexican fighter on the card with
Daniel Medina.

Speaker 1 (01:06:59):
Hey, you know, no, no, no, no, I know, I
know you're not wrong.

Speaker 2 (01:07:04):
Loma loch Boomy, Alexa Tarana Kolby Thickness versus Jannis Musayah
and Navarro Sterling versus Rodeoufo Balato, UFC paris Our, UFC
perth On September twenty seventh. Definitely stacking up like a
fight night card. We also get Macy Chasson Yana Santos

(01:07:24):
added to UFC three twenty on October fourth. Hey, just
bringing up to that October fourth card. Danny Barlow de
Jorn Santos fighting at UFC Vancouver October eighteenth, Just for you, Yanasantos,
just to resign a new multi fight deal with the
UFC starting with that Macy Chason fight. Alexander Volkov versus

(01:07:45):
Jaieltin al Meida announced for UFC three twenty one October
twenty fifth in Abu Dhabi. Card also gets Ozma Marana
Khanoff versus Alessander Racket, we get Ozma Moxham versus Mitch Raposo.
Also for the UFC three twenty one card, so a

(01:08:08):
lot going on there, adding to the Abu Dhabi and
October pay per views as mentioned.

Speaker 1 (01:08:16):
This Saturday, UFC YS Island ABC main Card, three pm
Eastern Time. Your main event, Robert Whittaker, Rainier de Ritter,
a pair of top twelve middleweights.

Speaker 2 (01:08:31):
Sure is building up and towards this is Renter deer
Rear's opportunity to upset the apple cart, to redirect everything
in the middleweight division and serpent himself as a possible
quick contender after we get the team if du plus
a fight. Whittaker, he is the way more credentialed striker

(01:08:54):
we've known his game. I don't know if you saw
The Ultimate Fighter recently where he came in with a
guest coach for the team Son and Team, but he
explained his stance, a lot of the pivot and a
lot of the thought process that Whittaker goes through. So
to show you that there's a lot more going on
than just his jab right hand that is so traditionally effective.

(01:09:16):
We've seen Whittaker still have the power on his shots,
been able to dismantle guys, but we've also seen him
have trouble with larger grapplers. Du plus a GF de
Ritter fits that category. It may not always be pretty,
just like we say about du plus A, but he's violent,
he's effective. He has a high level of operation when

(01:09:39):
you're on the ground. Rena dur Rader, I believe probably
should be the favorite in this fight. The momentum is
on his side and everything coming in. Now that being said,
Whittaker will probably be the favorite because of the experience,
because of his ability to manage a five round fight,
having been there, done that, and operated at the high levels.

(01:10:01):
But even Robert Whittaker started talking about I can see
three four more years, and I can see the end
of the tunnel. I feel like there's a lot of
circumstances that leads this towards the rise of Rindia de
Ridder to become a chat title challenger in the UFC.
But maybe that's overblown because he is the older party.
I think by like thirty days or something, so it's

(01:10:23):
not like we have a young upstart who's new to
the game. It's what do we have in Rindi de
Rider now? Because he's already in his thirties, so there's
a lot of questions to be answered, and what I
find is going to be an intriguing fight. But I
kind of feel like we're gonna know really quickly whose
game plan is gonna work, and then they'll be able
to be effective at demolishing the other opponent.

Speaker 1 (01:10:45):
Yep, dear Ritter a plus one thirty six underdog that's
not too big though, that's just outside of pick them,
would you feel or is that still Pickham range. No,
that's outside of Pickle as well, outside of pick them.

Speaker 2 (01:10:57):
Uh.

Speaker 1 (01:10:58):
Whitaker of minus one sixty two favorite. That being said,
I like the Raiders' chances, but I'm not picking against
Robert Whitaker.

Speaker 2 (01:11:07):
Are you picking against Peter Yon? Marcus McGee comes in.
He's been on a roll but inexperience at ten and one,
but McGee does pack some huge power. He's also a
guy in his thirties that I think he knows that
you have to seize the moment. You wonder with the
wars that Peter Jon has been through, when will the
chin crack? That is the biggest question here. If McGee

(01:11:30):
can land and there are any issues with Yon being
able to absorb damage anymore, that's the opening for McGee
to be successful. If we still have a peak prime
on it. Peter Yon, he has too many tools. He'll
be too effective and he'll be able to just overrun
Marcus McGee. But also I think it is imperative for

(01:11:52):
Yon to get a fast start. It's only a three
round fight. This is someone that operated in five round
territory for so long. He had the ten and see
to take that first round off to analyze what his
opponent was throwing. We need an aggressive Peter Yan to
be effective because he has the wider skill set in
this matchup.

Speaker 1 (01:12:11):
Uh. Yon coming off wins against Song You Dong and
Davidson Figarreto. Uh it's been a while. That Figorato fight
was November of last year. I like Yon here.

Speaker 2 (01:12:21):
I like him. Like I said, power is the one
thing that McGee has going in his favor. It's the
one thing that could give you pause for why there
could be a stumble in the road for the former champion.
On the other side, this feels like a lot of
a bounce back in Showcase fight for saraw Bullet Magmetov.
He's gonna be the lighter on his feet, the more diverse.

(01:12:42):
Mortai striker Mark Andre Barrio has been a brawler. He
has had some cardio that will last into the deep water.
The question is has he been touched too many times himself?
Nine losses there, He's had some losses in some mike
spots and he's not the fastest middleway either, so that's
going to be an advantage on the Shara Bullets side.

Speaker 1 (01:13:03):
Agreed.

Speaker 2 (01:13:03):
I've heard a lot of people with a lot of
great things to say about Jose Achoa coming out of
the Diego Lima. Did they switch up the lineup on me?
Because I had that as the fourth fight with your
eyes rolling around that it was awesome Alabia. Yesterday when
I looked at the UFC website, versus Jose Achoa was
the second fight on the main card, because also this

(01:13:26):
card that you're looking at, did they take off Evylove
versus Pico yet?

Speaker 1 (01:13:30):
Yeah?

Speaker 2 (01:13:31):
They did? Okay, last night it still had Evylove versus Pico.
Jose Achoa big prospect one hundred and twenty five pounds
coming out of shoot though box from Brazil awesome Alabia
a really strong fundamental wrestling game, but he does have
two of his three losses by knockout. A lot of
interest on that one. Nikita Krylov, He's been around forever,

(01:13:53):
He's got forty fights on his resume so far, and
good and good Don Guskov with reckless, abandoned and huge power.
So you wonder does the power went out or will
the technician be able to overcome it. I'm sure somewhere
in those fights I miss they have to prove up.
Bryce Mitchell versus Norma Gametav Bryce going back down to

(01:14:14):
one thirty five Nerma Gametav. Not that Nerma gum Metav.
He's more like Umar Nourma gum Meta in the thought
of wanting to kick, wanting to use his strikes, I
think that we're finally going to see a Bryce Mitchell
that's bigger than his opponent and be able to effectively
use his grappling. Low key Muslimsakea versus Carlos Laal opportunity

(01:14:39):
for a performance bonus or fight of the night. You
get two guys that are striking centric. In that one.
Demm Blacksheer has had some wins to prove he's a
player now. He needs to dominate when it comes against
Davy Grant. You have a ranked one at women's strawweight
between Amada Hibas and Tabitha Ricci. They both like to grapple.
Probably an out coming at light heavyweight with Ibo Acelon

(01:15:03):
and Billy Alcana. One of them is going to sleep.
Opening up the card thirteen times Brazilian jiu Jitsu IBJJF
world champion Marcus Almeda, who cheches what they nickname him,
takes our Martin Bundai. This fight came together just like
last week. If Bundai keeps it standing, he's able to
get the victory. If he falls on his backside, he's

(01:15:25):
probably gonna lose.

Speaker 1 (01:15:26):
Limb Free Limbs noon Eastern Time on ESPN and ESPN Plus,
the main card three pm Eastern ABC and ESPN Plus
for that. What else this weekend Mike.

Speaker 2 (01:15:39):
Twenty three hundred Arena on Friday Night in Philadelphia, BKFC
Fight Night, Philly Bean. Ryan Patterson looks to jump into
the welterweight rankings when he takes on UFC vet Dustin
the decifled peg Peg. Coming off of a couple back,
a couple back to back really nice victories in the
square circle. You have a ranking spot on the line

(01:16:02):
in the women's flyweight action. In the co main event,
Johnny Garbarino top prospect a middleweight's gonna be on this card.
And you also get the BKFC debut of Alexia Alessio Sacara,
the Italian MMA Vent yes you know him from Bellatoor
and the UFC Hey Saturday Night. After you're done with

(01:16:24):
the UFC, if you still want some more fights in
your life, there's LFA on UFC Fight Pass. LFA two
thirteen Tachi Palace, Eric Visconde fifteen and three eleven finishes
taking on Chris metcalf eleven and two five fight win
streak lightweight main event. That's on UFC Fight Pass and
then Sunday on UFC Fight Pass. You also have APFC

(01:16:47):
right here from the Duke City. Go over to cageminds
dot com for the announcement of the event. Whole fight
card is up and we have interviews with a whole
bunch of the competitors. You can find those at Cage
Mind Combat Sports News on YouTube, Facebook, Cage Minds Underscore
CSN on TikTok x and Instagram.

Speaker 1 (01:17:09):
Get the show on x at MMA After Hours. You
can find me at real Mike Caurlisle. We will talk
to you next week for another episode of m M
A After Hours. Here will be After Hours Podcast Network.

Speaker 2 (01:17:25):
Love Combat Sports. I have a website for you, cageminds
dot com.

Speaker 1 (01:17:31):
That's c A g E, D M I, n DS
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Speaker 2 (01:17:36):
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