Ep 326: UFC 322 Preview With Two Titles On The Line. All The Latest News

Episode 326: We take a look back at UFC Fight Night and a look ahead to UFC 322 with Welterweight Champion Jack Della Maddalena vs. Islam Makhachev & Women’s Flyweight Champ Valentina Shevchenko taking on Zhang Weili.  



















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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 Franko. Micah, how you doing man?

Speaker 2 (00:11):
And I am MMA terrific. We had what turned out
to be an above expectation event and we head into shit.
Could this be one of the best pay per view
cards of the year on paper? I am ready, man,
this is.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
A good little stretch. I agree with you. The fight
night this past week was highly entertaining, and yeah, looking
ahead to this week UFC three twenty two MSG two
title fights at the top of this card, and they
both should be really really good.

Speaker 2 (00:43):
We got history in the making, we got contenders forming
looking to take the next step, possibly a champion trying
to see if you're still hanging in there. Yeah, that's
all coming up this week. And then last week you
had another budding welterweight contender take a step towards the
promised LAMB. I was totally impressed by Gabriel Bonfime and

(01:06):
what I thought was a close fight and I was
favoring Bonfime ended up being just an avalanche for him.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Yeah. Uh, A fantastic performance by Gabriel Bonfime at UFC
Fight Night at the Apex this past week. We got
slots to get to Micah. Let's jump in Hell, let's
start right there with that main event from the Apex
this past week. Bon Theme second round TKO and look

(01:33):
really good on his way to running right through Randy Brown.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Calf kicks aren't new. Randy Brown has had his same
boxing centric He's someone that I've talked extensively with about
how he implements his job, so we already knew he's
heavy on that lead leg. Bon Fiem knew that too,
and Brown somehow looked totally taken off guard by having
to defend the calfkicks with his stance, with his stature,

(02:01):
I was surprised that he didn't have a more first
line defense ready to go for that weapon to the
point where we kind of know the counter is gonna
be the overhand. You kind of counter low kicks with
the overhand you don't really or the straight right you
don't really look for your job. I was surprised at
the way he was handling that weapon, and it just

(02:23):
looked like Bonfieen was faster, more dynamic. Major improvements with
that striking with the thoughtfulness because bon Fiem him and
his brother. You sawt earlier in the night with his
brother very forward pressure fighters. Gabriel, to my surprise, who
I always thought Ishmael was the more thoughtful of the
two brothers. Gabriel is coming out with the more dynamic movement,

(02:43):
pulling Randy Brown. I'm not just gonna be there in
the pocket. I'm moving around. I'm switching up the tactics
that I'm using, so being more dynamic, unpredictable. That all
led to setting everything up a beautiful knee and Randy
Brown is knocked out as he's plumbing towards the earth,
and some would feel because the earth woke him back up,

(03:05):
that the fight should have continued. I wonder, and I
question just just generally, not this fight specific, but generally,
how many times should someone be knocked out in a
fight before the ref stops the fight. It feels like
the audience thinks it should be more than once. And
I thought it was a good stoppage.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
There was nothing wrong with the stoppage. Look, it's the
same with all sports. So I'm not gonna be picking
on MMA fans here, but let's be honest. Oh nasty eyepoke,
you shouldn't continue why did they let him keep fighting?
Oh my god, you got poked in the eye and
you just quit. You got knocked out cold. Oh no, wait,

(03:44):
that was a bad stop. He woke up when he
hit the ground. We all want what we don't get,
and look, I get it, the optics of it. You
see him awake and whatnot. But yeah, the ground woke
him up, no doubt about that.

Speaker 2 (03:59):
And if you look at the replay, I do believe
that the back of the head did slap off the mat.
The meat lands and it's not just that Randy hits
the ground, it's the back of his head bounces off.
And anytime you see an athlete not have that control
of their neck and the head bounces off, that's a
good stoppage. The fact that you didn't just take the
concussive blow that led you to falling. But now the

(04:22):
brain is taking a second impact off the ground. Maybe
it wakes you back up. But I'm sure a neurologis
would say, oh, that's bad for you, That is bad
for you.

Speaker 1 (04:30):
It look, it's certainly not good. No, look, there was nothing,
nothing wrong with that stoppage. And anybody who's complaining about it,
and I haven't seen that much, but anybody's complaining about
it either doesn't understand or just doesn't care.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
It's just one of those things to me that I
did see it a few times, and I look at boxing.
You look back a couple weeks ago, Joseph Porter gets
stopped on the ropes, will taking a barrage of punches,
but it was nowhere near out. We are fine with
these stoppages and boxing where dudes never even touch the ground,
but somehow being woke back up by the ground will
draw the ire of at least a couple people on

(05:07):
social media, and definitely one UFC broadcaster that is adamant
that stoppage is the just last inch before death.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
I see. Look, we're all entitled to our opinions, and
that's cool. I would have to very respectfully, vigorously disagree
with that. I understand the warrior of mentality, but it's
also about living to fight another day. And if you
get knocked out cold, even if it's only for a
couple of seconds, some stuff happened there, right. I don't

(05:45):
care that he woke right back up. I don't care
if he was alert is.

Speaker 2 (05:48):
All get out.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
He got knocked out cold. Was calling into this fight
and he can come back in three six months and
fight again.

Speaker 2 (05:57):
It's a moment where I'm just glad that Dominic Cruz
is a broad caster and didn't go the Chris Leebin
rout and get into the Athletic Commission. I don't know
when he would ever stop a fight, but yeah, great
win for Gabrielle Bond. Fime definitely secures himself in the
bottom of the welterweight division and puts him in a
good position moving forward.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
He moves up four spots in the UFC's official rankings.
He moves up to ten. He leaped frogs Jeff Neil,
Gilbert Burns, Colby Covington. We've talked a lot about this
division and some of those still warts. We just mentioned
the Burns and Neil, even Colby. Now you got the

(06:39):
you know, you look up above them, and you got
your Sean Brady's and you're Ian Gary's and your Carlos
protests and all. But now you've got Gabriel bond theme
also leapfrogging some of those guys and trying to get
himself in the position to get a big time fight
and get some notice for a potential title shot.

Speaker 2 (07:00):
I think it's easy to match make Abriel Bonfim joking Buckley.
Right now, Bonfieme is streaking Buckley. We haven't seen him
since losing to Usman, so Usman still an interesting name.
Don't forget hanging out kind of in the shadows. We
don't really know what he's up to, but someone's gonna
end up with that fight eventually, and we'll see him

(07:21):
back in the mix. It makes an interesting matchup for
I think easily Buckley and Bonfiem because of their striking styles.
I don't think Bonfiem gardened enough clout to get Ousman
off of this one, is what I'm saying.

Speaker 1 (07:33):
Well, not to jump too far out of the way here,
but Kamara Lusman is calling for the winner of this
weekend's fight. He wants another title shot now want it.
Calling for it and the UFC giving it to him
are all completely different things, And respectfully, I don't think

(07:57):
he see that's so I was sad. Don't think he
deserves it. If you go on legacy what he's accomplished,
I hear you. But where he's at right now, where
his fight game is, I don't see it happening. But
that is something to keep an eye on. When we're
talking about some of these other guys and what might
be next for the winner of this weekend's title fight.

(08:17):
Uspan wants one more title shot.

Speaker 2 (08:20):
Ospin can want one more title shot, and we'll probably
get to this next week. He's gonna fight somebody that
fights this weekend. It's just ain't gonna be one of
dudes the main event. There's like three welterweight fights on there.
Getting where you fit in after the slump barely surviving,
you know, with one win. I don't think that woking
Buckley gets you the victory. But then again, that's Micah

(08:42):
Frankel saying I think, and not Dana White matchmaking however
he pleases. Let's not forget that the rankings don't actually matter.
Win streaks their shit, and one person controls all of this.
So maybe he gets a title shot. We don't know.

Speaker 1 (09:00):
It's it's worth keeping an eye on. I think it's
I think it's hard to tell him no.

Speaker 2 (09:08):
Now.

Speaker 1 (09:08):
Look that being said, Dana can make that call and yep, sorry, sorry, usman,
we can't do it. I think that's really tough, and
if he really wants it, they might give him one
more I.

Speaker 2 (09:22):
Don't think it's that hard to tell Usman. No, we've
got Leon Edwards, he beats Carlos prattest you got just
as impressive win, and you've already got two wins over Usman. True,
Why where's Leon Edwards's title shot? We look around the
card and what if Jack wants to go up to
one eighty five. What if you actually bring up Ilia
to one seventy to fight Islam. That's a bigger payday

(09:44):
globally than bringing krm Roux Usman back. And if the
division was the void of contenders, I'd say that Camerou
Usman has a lot stronger case. But this is going
to feel like Michael Bisman getting a title shot of
being one in three in his last four all of
a sudden, Usman and we're being told that he's the guy. Oh,
and not to forget as we're talking about this weekend,

(10:05):
we're talking about MSG coming up in a minute. We're
one week away from eating Gary Balow Muhamet in Katar.
So it's not like every guy that's not above Usman
isn't fighting right now and can easily have a much
more Dana appealing performance to get the title fight.

Speaker 1 (10:22):
Oh look, I'm not advocating for it at all. I'm
just saying I don't think it's out of the realm
of possibility. But look, we're in agreement here. I think
they're a lot more worthy challengers, respectfully to Cook Kamara Usman,
but we'll see how that plays out. Bonfiend gets a
Performance of the Night for his impressive win. He's certainly

(10:45):
on his way up. In the welchroweight Division co main event,
you get the quick first round submission from Joseph Morales
on Matt Schnell.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
They collideed enter in the pocket, Snell goes for the
double underhooks. In the postfight you hear Morales, I'm surprised
he went for the takedown. If you watch the sequence,
they kind of collided into each other. If you ever
see this sequence in boxing and care boxing and bare knuckle,
the two dudes are gonna clinch up, and in MMA,

(11:15):
when you clitch up, you're trying to just balance each other.
You go to the takedowns. Either way. Morales was fully
ready for that shit, fully just immersed himself and slapping
on that. Kamara ducks under. He went with the leg
going under reverse. The position gets to side control the camora.

(11:35):
When Snell thought he was having the ability to get free,
it looked like he turned right into what Morales expected.
Heard that Morales gets his position in practice. He's then
able to have the arm under the neck as soon
as Snell is turning on the inside, and the guillotine
was a rap. Joseph Morales wins the Ultimate Fighter. You

(11:57):
come out here with the huge first round submission in
under three minutes, and I wouldn't be surprised if this
corners him a number next to his name, because we
are kind of playing in the shallow water of the
flyweight division here. He is fifteen fifteen, So right there,
you're ready to make the charge towards the title. We
have an ascending contender blazing his way to the top

(12:19):
with two impressive victories so far in the UFC flyweight division.
Probably like the other divisions, we need more contenders. We
got Van coming up, but how long were we gonna
go through just Moraino roie Val. We're just gonna keep
rematching the same name. So this was like, I know

(12:40):
the UFC matchmakers don't want to play favorites, but shit,
you should get up and run around the octagon. Fuck,
we got another contender in a division where we desperately
need contenders. Because I'm not trying to shit on a
Mayor al Bosi and Malcamp, but some of these dudes
are having injury problems that have stunted the growth of
the division commercially, leading to the repetitional rematches.

Speaker 1 (13:03):
No disrespect to any of those guys. You just mentioned
your Morenos, your EUROI valves and all that, but yeah,
you need some fresh meat. And Morales not there yet,
but certainly, very quickly, has gotten himself into the top fifteen.
I don't think they rush it too much, but certainly

(13:24):
someone between ten and fifteen is very possible for his
next fight. Maybe slightly higher up than that, but yeah,
if he continues on couple three fights and maybe we're
looking at a title shot here.

Speaker 2 (13:40):
Yeah, you never know, because easy way to make your
name or six eleven Elliott's ten Fedez is eight. You
could add a title challenge a former title challenger to
your resume quite quickly getting one of those matchups.

Speaker 1 (13:54):
Yep, yep, yep. I'm with you. I thought that was
a really impressive performances by Morales getting to win. I
look you can't give everybody a performance of the night.
I get that, but I really thought you could have
made that argument for him. I thought it was look
that impressive, good quick work. Maybe he needed to show

(14:15):
a little more, Maybe he needed to drag it out
a little longer. Micah, you could.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
You started off that saying you can't give for performance
of the night bonuses to everybody. We've seen the revenue
reports come out from TKO. They really really could. Actually
they just choose not to. It's it's an optional thing.
It's like how Dana White gives title fights. It's an
optional thing, and they make that decision. You could, and
there were they handed.

Speaker 1 (14:43):
Out four of them, you know, so, I mean it's
hard to argue with that, right. I guess you got
to cut it off at some point, but they did
hand out four on Saturday. I don't know.

Speaker 2 (14:53):
I've heard it thrown out there and it's only media members,
so it'll never happen because it's not Dana White throwing
it out there. But why not just finish bonuses for
every single person that comes out and get a finished
You don't want the judges involved, you want the violence,
you want the excitement. Bonuses for finishes that would make
a lot of sense, and then you're just throwing money out.
You're out there like Oprah Winfrey. You get a bonus,

(15:14):
and you get a bonus, and look, we all get
these exciting fights. Then again, that sounds like a shitty idea.
I know that I'm wrong, and we'll move on from it.

Speaker 1 (15:21):
No, no, no, no, hold on real quick, because I don't think
it's a shitty idea. I think here's the problem with it.

Speaker 2 (15:29):
It would cost money.

Speaker 1 (15:30):
Well, it would cost money, but remember different sports. But
follow me here. Remember a little thing in the NFL
a few years ago, Bountygate. Let's say I'm a average
at best below average UFC fighter and I get the
ever loving shit kicked out of me by someone, and

(15:54):
they get a bonus for finishing me, and I have
some sort of lingering effects from that. I'd be awful
tempted to turn around and sue the company for basically
putting a bounty on me. You you encourage this guy to
go out and in her Look, I'm not saying he'd win,
but I'm saying I'm saying there would be some courts

(16:15):
that would love to entertain that case. Real quick.

Speaker 2 (16:21):
That's not the same as a knockout bonus or a
submission bonus, because we used to have those performance bonus.
So it was going out there to maim your opponent,
to submit your opponent, which I don't know if the
court would take this in, but that's the name of
the sport. Actually, Oh no, I love to finish them.
Incentivizing them to finish is the whole reason why you
get paid to win, not just to show up and
do your job.

Speaker 1 (16:42):
No, Look, I agree with you, and look, I think
it's a bit far fetched, to be honest, but I
do think you're opening yourself up to the possibility to
something like that happening. Look, they never said anything, but
there might be a reason they quietly went away from
Submission of the Night and things like that. I don't no,
I'm just speculating on that. I don't hate the idea.

(17:03):
It would probably raise the excitement level a little bit
if we're being completely honest, But in this day and age,
you might be opening yourself up to some publicity and
some issues that you really just don't want to have
to be bothered with.

Speaker 2 (17:21):
Now, it's only what UFC bonuses are fifty thousand, So
I'm literally going to like two percent of that, but
and not commending them not but I've seen and been
at BKFC events where it's fifteen hundred dollars, So for them,
it's probably a lot compared to what they get paid.
But we've seen if you fight your ass off, I've

(17:43):
seen them give out way too many bonuses looking like
they're stressed at the end of the night. There's just
something about appreciating the fighter that comes out. And this
week it was a little more harsh when you get
a guy crying and begging to get his mom at
a trailer park and we're all just waiting to see
who is decided to have a bonus. And on a
card where there's just so many finishes, it's hard to say,

(18:08):
but it'd be cool if there was just a finished
bonus for giving that extra entertainment like Euros medic did.
Sticking to the body, just absolutely destroying Muslim Solokov. You
go knee, you go body kick, and I believe there
was a teeth kick even in there, the right high
kicks coming up to the head. At this point, what

(18:28):
do you do when you're hitting me on the right
side of the body. You're trying to hit me on
the left side of the head. The straight left comes through.
The speed advantage huge for euros Medic who puts down
Muslim Solikov. This was all I could hope for in
this fight, because we thought it was gonna be two strikers,
and they gave us everything that they had in their bodies.
At that moment. Metis the doctor fucking surgical gets that finished.

(18:52):
I was so hyped for that one, just like Chris
Taco Padilla. I mean, it would be Taco Tuesday, but
he didn't get a damn fucking performance bonus for his
knockout victory, even though he took on a fat ass
that missed weight by five pounds. In this speculation, maybe
o Gabriel bomb Fime's performance was good enough to save
his brother's job. Maybe you don't want the next Camerou

(19:13):
Usman fight. Maybe you just want your brother to knock
get fired after he was unprofessional and missweight by an
egregious freaking amount like gosh dang five pounds. All in all,
though we saw some really chris early boxing from Bonfime yea.
He had energy, and then that shit went away really
quisp quickly. The pressure he wilted under it. You get

(19:37):
the work in the clinch, and that's where this nasty,
sweet little elbow comes in from the side, right to
the temple, the drop down the ground and pound finish.
Six or excuse me, four wins now in the octagon.
I believe for Chris Fadilla and all four wins, the

(19:58):
man was an underdog. This is a guy that came
to Hautagon thirteen and six. We thought we knew a
lot of his potential and the kind of fighter he
already was.

Speaker 1 (20:08):
Huh.

Speaker 2 (20:08):
I guess you can't judge a book by a cover.
Because Chris Padilla making something out of nothing here so
far in the UFC.

Speaker 1 (20:15):
He is It'll be interesting to see what they do
with him next. And I'm not necessarily saying it's time
for a top fifteen opponent, but it has been interesting
what he's been able to do.

Speaker 2 (20:30):
I'm excited by him, and they'll match make him again.
I don't know what to say about top fifteen opponents
anymore because some of these dudes don't ever fight. Some
of these dudes hang out. We've said for a year
a year and a half in the ranking, and that's
where the rankings don't matter, is we just leave these guys.
I mean, the biggest most disappointing pot of the year,
well I'm excited for this weekend is that we've never

(20:51):
seen Islam Mahasha fight like It feels like we've been
a year without a guy that we were pound for
pound arguing is he the top fighter in the sport? So, Chris,
you could probably throw a litany of names at him
and he's gonna make an exciting fight. I just worry
for him if he has enough charisma to matter to
the people that start matchmaking and pushing guys, because the

(21:17):
biggest example we've got of that is look at Jean
Silva and look at Steve Garcia. Jean Silva has this
ferocity of energy that has drawn in the crowd and
half the wind streak that Steve Garcia has to get
to the place where he got. Even though they're both
knocking fools out, the crowd appeal matters, and I wonder
if that holds Taco Padilla.

Speaker 1 (21:36):
Backed it could, Yeah, for sure, for sure.

Speaker 2 (21:41):
Also, we got a little bit more talk about the
referees you get your early finishes and maybe when that
was a little late, Chris le Roy Duncan, unpredictable, spinning
in and out of danger. His strength really coming through
because he's able to to nullify some of these clinch positions.

(22:02):
But I worried he was just gonna get stuck on
the fence. And then you see him clip Marco Tulio
with the spinning back fist Tulio a little bit of
stinky leg. Where is he? How clear headed is he?
He's still on his feet. He was on his feet,
but he was not there. Leg kick straight right, face plant. Disgusting,

(22:24):
freaking knockout. Did Leroy Duncan get a performance bonu? It's
not harping on this, but he did nasty he did.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
He did. He was one of the four that got
a performance of the night.

Speaker 2 (22:36):
Knockouts getting rewarded sometimes. That one was disgusting. I was
surprised to see that fight on the betting lines as
close as was I thought we kind of, I at
least thought that after the Eric Anders win, seeing that
strength be nullify from a true huge middle way and
then the dynamic ness, I was surprised to see this
one be a little bit of an upset from the

(22:57):
odd makers. I think that we've now at least got
some seasoning on Chris Leroy Duncan. He was someone that
came in a lot of hype, a lot of potential,
and I think maybe even though he's been locked agon
a couple of times, it was the bright lights kind
of affected him in a way that he had to
mature into this position to be able to feel comfortable

(23:17):
just in that octagon, in that pressure field situation with
the cameras on being able to throw these weird, dynamic,
unpredictable spinning attacks that he just lets go of.

Speaker 1 (23:28):
It was a very impressive performance. Hints the performance of
the night bonus for him.

Speaker 2 (23:33):
Yes, sir Am, I overblown saying I kinda compare him,
not fully, but he feels like a middleweight Yahya Rodriguez
a little bit, A little bit, I mean is exiding, Yeah,
with the spinning, with the willingness to just kind of
whip out the leg, to whip out the hands that
I kind of get the feeling from him, like I
do your hear the guy's not really planning what he's doing.

(23:55):
He's just kind of doing the shit.

Speaker 1 (23:57):
Yeah, for sure, all the flowers in the world to
the winners on the pre limbs, but what stuck out
to me, most on the prelims Micah I would not
have had the balls to take a parlay that Tsha Pennington,
my Ra Bruno Silva, and Riquie Simone would all lose,
even though I'm pretty sure at least two of them
were underdogs going into the fight. They all three might

(24:19):
have been when it was all said and done, But
the prelimbs to me, were more about established veterans. Upset
maybe not the right word, but losing two younger, less
heralded fighters.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
Putting Josh Hoka and Zachary Reese in a five fight
parlay was easily acceptable if those dudes were both such
huge favorites. It did shit to help financially. I only
met a couple dollars this week with Cup five fights, right,
sometimes it works out for that that way. In the
UFC hyone Barslos, I was surprised by that one. I

(24:58):
would stayed away from it because I it was a
close fight, but to think that he could lose the
first round and then he would out Cardio, dig down
deeper win that second round. The third round feels like
a swing round where you want to go for either guy.
But there was a couple of uppercuts in there that
knocked back the head of Simon that I thought just

(25:18):
the more damaging strikes were on the Barcelo side. But
a thirty eight year old who we had long written off,
who's had some up and down performances, It's like this
dude pulled another cat out of the bag, and to me,
even with all the finishes, might have been the most
impressive fighter on those prelims.

Speaker 1 (25:39):
Yeah, I was gonna say I thought Denise Gomes getting
the unanimous decision over Tisha Pennington was impressive as well. Yeah,
you're probably right on that.

Speaker 2 (25:51):
That was a part of my parlay. That's why I didn't.
I kind of thought that baby on Dorodge was gonna
be more physical. And it's not to disrespect Tisha Pennington,
it's that her style has diminishing returns as it ages.
If you're a fighter that's predominantly built on your speed,

(26:12):
your in and out, your volume striking, even just a
little notch off that fastball and your opponents are going
to start seeing it coming and slapping it around the field.
And I kind of felt like that's what it was.
Denise Comes was like, we have so much footage on
you You've been on the big stage for so long,
I've seen all this. Some fighters get in the octagon
and they feel foreign compared to the film, and I

(26:35):
think that Gomes was very comfortable with what she felt,
and then she was just able to land these bigger strikes.
I don't know if she's quite as possible, quite as
powerful as in Rage, but she does a very good
job of at least cosplaying as Androge.

Speaker 1 (26:50):
I'm with you on that. What else on the prelimp
stood out to you, Micah Well, Josh Hokit.

Speaker 2 (26:55):
We need more heavyweights and for a guy that was
heralded on his wrestling, had mauled guys through the regional
scene with his wrestling, the fast hands were impressive to me,
getting off quickly, getting the knockout, the right hook was
on point. We need more heavyweights and the second most

(27:16):
impressive fighter Actually, to me, I would have went with
Jacqueline Calocante. Now maybe you weren't as impressed because Maita
Benososa is like a lack of daisical corpse. Just looks
like she's a ghost, still trapped on this planet, trying
to finish whatever her last task was before we could
let her assent. She is not into it in the cage.

(27:39):
She is not the girl we saw that was competitive
with Holly Holme in main events making a charge for.

Speaker 1 (27:46):
What do you think let me sorry? Why do you
think that might be my goal? What has changed for
her since coming off that Holly home win up until now?

Speaker 2 (27:55):
What body squeezed all the juice out of her?

Speaker 1 (27:58):
Huh? I'll be damn. You could be under something there.

Speaker 2 (28:01):
Yes, Jacqueline Cavalcante another one of the people. It was
a five leg parlay on the prelimbs people we did
some work on this weekend. That was an impressive performance.
Being able to outpace Land the bigger shots. That was
huge and kind of the falling off of Miles John's.
This was somebody that was pushing top fifteen and I'm

(28:23):
just not sure what has pulled out from his game.
If there is anybody that I feel the worse four
about the crumbling of Glory Mma, James Krause, Jeff Molina,
all of the guys that we've talked about alleged to
be involved in Gallan, which I think will come up

(28:43):
again in the show. Possibly all those guys I don't
feel bad for, but Mile Johnson was the guy that
was descending from Fordest went to Glory look great and
I'm not sure what has fallen out of his game,
but he just does not look the same. To get
out wrestled Marcos, I don't think anybody had that on
their bingo card. And I'm not saying the dude took

(29:07):
a took a dive, got down that very nick choke,
got in there quick. He was out of sorts. Miles
john just does not look like what he did three
four fights ago. And for being a big favorite. Zacharyies
how to get beat the frick up in the clinch
for a while, to wake the hell up, and then

(29:28):
be able to come back in the second round. You
figure it out in the end of the first round.
I can get the takedown, got the takedown, got the back,
got the submission. Zacharyes also cashes in coming in on
short notice. Jackson McVeigh. This may be a test case later.
It's unfortunate for him. Somebody has to be this, but

(29:50):
he will be an example in Jim's for younger fighters
of why it may be better to get some seasoning
before getting to the UFC. McVeigh was six and zher
the regional and now that he's got to the big show,
it's oho and two and it's looking like there are
some big gaps in his game that need to be
worked on. So it's almost this was a detriment to

(30:11):
him looking so great early and getting the call. It.

Speaker 1 (30:15):
Look, I never advocate for anyone getting released or anything
like that, but it might not be the worst thing
in the world for him to go back on the
regional scene, like you said, get a little more seasoning,
and try his hand at the UFC again in a
couple of years.

Speaker 2 (30:32):
It's hard to not take that call. You don't know
if it's gonna come again. And I was just watching
a journal Errands get a knockout win and win an
lf L title somewhere over in Europe in an Orange
Doctor Gone. I believe it was in Denmark. But you

(30:52):
think about a guy like him, who had tore up
the regional scene in Europe comes to the UFC bounce back.
I think he's already two to zero. Will you get back?
It's an interesting test case for like this weekend. I
don't know if you saw it, but Brave Fighting Federation
over and Baharein had their one hundredth event, Muhammed Mukiev
has found a home with them. We know that he

(31:13):
was a disgruntled problem, not kind of the UFC staff,
wasn't easy to work with. They let him go. Mukiev
has put together three wins in Brave along with a
win in Karate Combat four wins now seventeen and zero
as a professional fighter. You wonder if he gets the
call to come back to the UFC. Even though he
was disgruntled, even though he was hard to work with,

(31:36):
He's a talent that you wonder about. Can they let go?
And if you see the highlight this weekend, the guy
went teap kick and then right away brought that kickup
before it even touched the ground to put the shit
across his opponent's freakinhead, a left hook, a quick knockout.
I didn't love the guy's game when he was here,
but to see guys that need to go back to
the regional scene, he's proven a lot. I wonder if

(31:56):
we get Mukiev back.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
It look it's it's certainly all in all. I thought
UFC Fight Night and sometimes with the APEX cards, expectations
aren't as high, so so maybe it is a little
easier to overdeliver. But I thought it certainly over delivered
on Saturday. I certainly hope UFC three twenty two this
weekend over deliver overdelivers as well. We'll talk about that

(32:20):
one in a couple of minutes. What else did we
have this past week? Micah?

Speaker 2 (32:24):
Oh, just for you, Just be just for you, because
I know you love to talk about it. We got
to get in the ring. We did have Virgil or
Tease putting down ericson Lubin in the second round, winning
your interim WBC.

Speaker 1 (32:39):
Welter Way title.

Speaker 2 (32:40):
Real quick follow up? Did I do it?

Speaker 1 (32:42):
No? No, no, no, no, you didn't do what I
thought you were going to do that, thankfully?

Speaker 2 (32:47):
What was it? Oh?

Speaker 1 (32:48):
I thought you were going to go h. Well, you
like to bring up boxing on me when I'm not
expecting you at Carlisle. So let's talk about some misfit boxing.

Speaker 2 (32:56):
Oh you did want to talk about in the year?
Real quick?

Speaker 1 (33:01):
How old is he?

Speaker 2 (33:02):
How old is Andre?

Speaker 1 (33:03):
He's seventy five? No, I don't know. I could look
it up for you.

Speaker 2 (33:08):
Three and oh this year he's won a boxing match,
a bare knuckle match. He's in a dirty boxing match.
I don't know what that means. I don't know where
he's going. That might have earned him a misfit heavyweight
title fight. I know that bkfcn DBX, we're both trying
to give him heavyweight title fights. Shout out to Andre
Orlovsky turning back the clock working his butt off. Virgil

(33:31):
Ortiz is actually where I went. Second round knockout. We're
hearing it could be him and Boots and is coming out.
I know you're the boxing guy. Did you see the highlight?
Do you have any thoughts on what could be for
a huge one in the welterweight division. This is the
division that Crawford left behind. They got to have a
new star in place.

Speaker 1 (33:49):
They gotta have a new star in place. Can it
be him? I mean it could be.

Speaker 2 (33:55):
He's a good puncher. He's a good puncher. He makes
fights exciting. This was an easy walk over that Boots
and this fight Boots also had an easy kind of walkover.
We're trying to build to this one. I'm intrigued to
see if they're able to make it happen. It's more
intriguing to talk about those guys than Floyd Mayweather and
Manny Pakiao two twenty twenty six if Netflix.

Speaker 1 (34:15):
Is into it people, Yeah, and I guess we're still
on the hunt while we're here, still on the hunt
for an opponent for Jake Paul before the end of
the year. I guess.

Speaker 2 (34:27):
So. I saw an image that I thought that Nate
Diaz had taken the fight. I thought they were going
down that pathway and that turned out to not be true.
They Dia seems to be the one guy out there
talking about Jake Paul who wants to do this.

Speaker 1 (34:45):
And Jake Paul wants no part of it for whatever reason.
Maybe it's just because been there, done that. Maybe it's
because I Nadiaz might beat my ass. I don't know,
but yeah, he doesn't seem to want any part of Nate.

Speaker 2 (35:00):
Part is that Frances and Khana and Anthony Joshua's names
have come up, and you wonder what it's like dealing
with MVP or Jake and his partner, because that would
seem like an easy payday for either one of them.
I mean, you're the much larger fighter. If they're offering
you a handsome sum reputation, be damned, you're already talking

(35:23):
to the dude. What's the next step besides getting in
the ring. I'm surprised that neither one of them have
just put pen to paper. Well.

Speaker 1 (35:30):
I think in the case of Joshua, he sees himself
as the A side and he wants more money and
they're not willing to come off of that. In the
case of Anganu, I think he takes himself seriously as
a whether it's boxing, whether it's MMA, and he sees
this as beneath him, even though look easy payday and

(35:52):
let's be honest, do you really want to get in
there and hold back against Jake Paul when you know
you could hold out and either way for PFL to
release you so you can go back to the UFC
or take another boxing match against an actual credible opponent.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
I'm sorry, Francis, You're not entertained to me at this
point because you try to get away so hard from
the UFC and talking about John Jones is like the
second hottest topic on his top five. I just don't get.

Speaker 1 (36:24):
It, Micah. Just a couple of UFC events left on
ESPN before they make the move to Paramount Plus next year,
and Paramount this week announced that prices for Paramount Plus
will go up sometime in the first quarter of next year.
That was part of a letter sent out to investors

(36:46):
on Monday. No word yet on how much of a
price hike we're gonna see, but currently at Paramount plus
seven ninety nine a month or fifty nine to ninety
nine a year for the plan with ads, twelve ninety
nine a month, or one nineteen ninety nine a month
for the premium plan that has no ads outside of

(37:07):
live television. So my guess is it can't go out
more than a couple of bucks, but you are going
to pay more for Paramount Plus when you convert over
to that for UFC next year.

Speaker 2 (37:23):
Jumping from the fight night into talking about Jackson McVeigh
getting to Muhammed and Muki have talking about fighters and
re establishing themselves, I totally forgot to bring it up
to you. The next time the UFC is in the
Apex for a fight night is the last one of
the ESPN era. As many fight nights as we've had

(37:44):
in the Apex, it's weird to think, Hey, pay per view, Qatar,
Oh wow, pay per view, end of the era, end
of the year. The clock is ticking down, people. We
got like four events left.

Speaker 1 (37:58):
Of the year.

Speaker 2 (37:59):
This is greats. See how we're coming down the line
with the Turkey.

Speaker 1 (38:03):
Ahead of us.

Speaker 2 (38:05):
It's no surprise. It's just interesting how things work. You
had the sky Dance CBS merger. They want to or
Paramount merger, and they want to emphasize the Paramount app more.
They see it as underutilized, so they want to add
more content to it. And now when you read the
press release for them, well, because we've added more content

(38:26):
to it, now we need to increase the price of
what the app is. I thought you were adding at
first more content to the app because your content was underwhelming.
And now to hear before even the addition, there's already
the price hike. Businesses are just funny, man. We all
knew this was coming. This is no surprise to anybody.
They're going to price us to death, and before we

(38:47):
know it, all these streaming services are going to cost
you ten times what your cable bill was calling well,
what it was costing you cutting the cord. How it
saves no surprise.

Speaker 1 (38:57):
Cutting the cord these days saves you nothing. Look, it
is what it is. Paramount's not the only streaming platform
that's raising prices or is recently raised prices. It kind
of is what it is, so I'm not crapping on it,
but yeah, the whole cut, the cord stream and all that.
If you do Netflix, Prime, HBO, Max, Paramount Plus, Disney ESPN,

(39:26):
you're already paying more than what you would for cable.
It's the world we live in.

Speaker 2 (39:31):
It's the world we live in, and nothing's gonna stop,
and nothing's gonna happen. But it's just the ad. We'll
just let it go mentality. I'm like, no, let's call
out bad actors for being bad actors. This is gonna
help you.

Speaker 1 (39:42):
We're adding to you.

Speaker 2 (39:43):
We're here for our consumers. Oh so many bad lies
put out through advertising. I'm just calling those people out
on what it is. It's not going to change. I
just want to be the one person saying no, no, no, no,
this is what you had said. It's like the zone
in Turkey Ola cash with saying our events, our ring
events will no longer be extra behind paywall events. They

(40:05):
will all be that lasted, not even one event where
ring and ring events, you know, events that are basically
lost leaders are still pay per views. The system will
never change, no matter what any of them say, and
they're just going after more money. We know it. It's
a business.

Speaker 1 (40:26):
Oh no, look one hundred percent, it's a business. They're
trying to make money. But yeah, yes, but specifically Paramount. Yes,
they are adding to their streaming platform, but that does
come with the cost to the consumers, and they'll get
it for those UFC fans who don't currently have Paramount Plus.

(40:50):
If it goes up two bucks a month to nine
ninety nine, three bucks a month, so whatever whatever to
ten ninety nine, you're gonna pay it. And but by
the way, if you're a UFC fan, it's still a
fucking bargain because you're getting all the pay per views included.
You don't have to drop eighty eighty five ninety ninety

(41:10):
five bucks whatever the hell pay per views are going
for these days. But yes, if you're getting it so
you can stream Landman and Tulsa King and all that.
You don't like it, but again, you can either pay
it and watch the shows you want to watch, or

(41:31):
don't pay it.

Speaker 2 (41:33):
There's a press confidence that's got to happen. We've already
had press releases. We've had a press release when they
merge that for some reason. In that press release, this
body told us how much this app was, which is
a funny construct now that you keep telling us how
much this app is, but you're that's irrelevant to this
audience because you're never going to charge that audience that

(41:55):
price for that product. As is a little bit fun
how they handled it, Oh, this is how much our
app is, and us the media we have champion. Everything
is free. Everything is free. The pay per view era
is dead. And every time we hear that data gulps
and we don't know if that gulp is because hey,

(42:17):
we're still trying to sell a couple of pay per
views in twenty twenty five, or is that gulp because
there's still more to be known about it, and maybe
we do get paywall events on paramount and then it
does best. Maybe does it cost us more and out
of the subscription and that service. I haven't heard the
UFC say it's the death of pay per view yet,

(42:40):
So that still leads me to question if there could
be some extra charge on the back end, because at
the beginning of this deal, we thought the price for
the app was the price of the app.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
Well, they told us what the price of the app
was at the time. They still haven't said, mainly because
I think they're not one hundred percent sure, but what
the new price is going to be, So there is that.
As far as the death of pay per view or
not the death of pay per view, I think it's
a couple of things. If there's a really big event,

(43:12):
they may want the option of being able to put
it on pay per view, so you don't totally want
to put out their death of pay per view, no
more pay per views. The other reason, how long is
this deal? Do you know? Off the top of your head?
Is it three years?

Speaker 2 (43:28):
Five years, five to six years? I believe? And there
isn't it. They already extended the deal too, because Paramount
has taken over Australia Asia. There's like three markets that
Paramount has already taken over. So this isn't necessarily like
the ESPN deal because there are already constructs in the

(43:50):
deal that seem to be them trying to expand on
the relationship immediately.

Speaker 1 (43:56):
Right, but also five years from now, six years from now,
let's say they go back to ESPN, they go somewhere
else and it's not all inclusive, which is gonna be
a hard sell anyway, because you've gone five years or
so getting most if not all the pay per views
for free. But you don't want to drill in people's head,
no more pay per views, no more pay per views,

(44:17):
pay per view models dead because you might go back
to it one day.

Speaker 2 (44:21):
So we could hope it's dead just from the consumer perspective,
the all inclusiveness of an app, and that's what we're
being told. This is hopefully they don't change their mind,
because telling us what something is and then changing their
mind is business. It's just how every business operates.

Speaker 1 (44:39):
Have you noticed, Micah, On the UFC website, when you
pull up the fight cards, they don't list the odds anymore.
They still have a place for the odds, they just
don't put the odds in there, like so and So's
minus two twenty five, so and So's plus three ten,
anything like that. Maybe it's a coincidence, but maybe it

(45:05):
has something to do with a couple of weeks ago
and the the allegations of fight fixing.

Speaker 2 (45:12):
That's a possibility. I'm gonna be honest with you. When
I go to the UFC website and I look up
the card, I don't look at their odds because I've
never even understood who their odds are. I'm assuming they're
Draftking odds, but I'll have been in a secret if
I'm gonna look at odds, I kind of go to
the three different apps on my phone and see what

(45:33):
each betting site is doing beforehand. So I just hadn't
noticed that. But maybe they're trying to separate themselves a
little bit more from prominently pushing betting.

Speaker 1 (45:45):
Mm I don't think it's from pushing betting, but it
is interesting and lookit. Maybe it's just a coincidence. Yeah,
I don't know. Maybe whoever they're working with. You know,
ESPN just announced a new official betting partner and I

(46:07):
don't even remember who it was, but they just announced
it during the past week. Maybe UFC's in the midst
of something like that as well. And whoever they were with,
whether it was Draft Kings or someone else, I'm honestly
not sure either. Maybe that deal has lapsed and they're
looking at a at a new deal.

Speaker 2 (46:24):
That could be possible. Most of what I hear from
Draft Kings is their podcast network, and I see the commercials.
I'm pretty sure there was a Draft Kings logo on
the UFC octagon in the last event. It feels like
there's always one, but that.

Speaker 1 (46:40):
Doesn't necessarily mean that that that's who they're using for
their odds. But yeah, I don't know, but yeah, I
just found it. With everything that's gone on the last
couple of weeks, I just I found that kind of interesting.

Speaker 2 (46:55):
Oh that is not even the most interesting thing to me. Well,
actually not, Actually, you spork my interests more telling me
that ESPN announced the new betting partner they're actually now
is also aligned with draft raft Kings. Does that mean
that ESPN went away? Because didn't they launched their own happen.

Speaker 1 (47:19):
It was powered by somebody like Caesar's or some I
don't remember.

Speaker 2 (47:23):
Okay, I don't know. You guys are MMA fans. None
of that matters really, but yeah, Draftking Science with Disney
replacing Penn. I guess they had pen Entertainment before monitoring. Yes,
I'm more in the general scope of everything intrigued by
Vince Morales, land of and not a Vanessa Demopolis. We

(47:46):
had at least those three fighters publicly come out and
say they have been approached by someone before about taking
a dive. I there's been speculation where they being serious.
Were some of them joking? I'm not surprised that this
has happened. I was a little bit more surprised about

(48:08):
Dana White's reaction. Hey guys, if somebody's coming to you
talking about this, why aren't you reaching out to us?
That would be like, hey, you know, if we see
somebody that we know in the gym doing steroids that's
on the UFC roster are we reaching out? I feel
like there's a gym mentality and there's a lot of secretiveness.
I feel like when you just look at the UFC negotiating,

(48:30):
there's a lot of secrets, there's a lot of synchron needity,
there's a lot of keep your mouth fucking shut. So
to find out that fighters had been approached before about
possibly taking a dive and no one bringing this up
until it was a topic did not surprise me. From
the overall hush hush mentality, whether it goes from injuries,

(48:54):
insider information, the amount of quietness that is required to
be an insider in the MMA world, it doesn't surprise
me that a topic like this doesn't become a topic
spoken of until it's actually a topic out there. Whether
these people realize how detrimental and bad that looks that

(49:18):
you didn't speak up. It doesn't surprise me. I'll do
you one better than that, Michael. One of them. I
won't mention them. You'll know exactly who it is. The
listeners probably will as well.

Speaker 1 (49:31):
One of them, when they brought it up on social media,
talked about how they would never do that and their
record speaks for itself. Motherfucker, you've got three wins in
your last eleven fights. I don't know that i'd be
trumpeting my record as a reason showing that I would
never throw a fight because you ain't winning many fights. Man,

(49:51):
Maybe just keep that one to yourself. And I'm not
alleging that this person threw any fights. I'm just saying
I wouldn't say my record speaks for itself because I
think that opens yourself up the more questions.

Speaker 2 (50:04):
I think the record speaks for itself. Argument only goes
valid for Islam. Mahashav. Dude's like unbeaten in ten years.
That guy has not thrown a fight. If you've lost
any of these fights and they even look semi closer,
look like you pulled a punch, at this point, the
Twitter investigation is going to go look at you and
say there is a possibility that you through the fight.

(50:27):
I don't think saying look at my record and look
at the losses. No, that's exactly what they're looking at,
is looking at the losses that you shouldn't have to
that possibly are incriminating yourself. So I felt like that
is the opposite thought that would lead you to believe
they're not throwing a fight. It would actually lead you
down the line of did they throw any of these?
Some of these felt like they should have won and

(50:49):
they lost. And we don't want to start going back
and re examining fight pass footage through the FBI lens,
do we.

Speaker 1 (50:58):
No? Because that's so not productive because if you really
wanted to, and you're looking at any fight through that lens,
you might see stuff in most every fight that makes
you wonder, and it doesn't mean for a second that
there's anything to any of it. Now, look all that
being said, there's an issue here, and it's an issue

(51:19):
with sports, and whether we want to deal with it
or not, I think the sports leagues are going to
be forced to. When we were talking about this last week, Micaeh,
we talked about the big thing in the NBA. I
even brought up the Cleveland Guardians pitchers who had been
put on leave this past season, and in this last

(51:41):
couple of days they've both been indicted.

Speaker 2 (51:45):
You're ahead of me on that one. I hadn't even
seen that till you brought it up.

Speaker 1 (51:48):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, And so I mean, this is
going to have to be dealt with. I don't know
that you're putting the genie back in the bottle. As
far as all these states that have legalized it's betting,
I think it's way easier said than actually done to
to pull back on that. I don't know what the

(52:09):
answer is, but this is a huge issue. Certainly, name
of the show is MMA After Hours, so we're predominantly
looking at this from the MMA standpoint. But the reality
is this is something the NFL suspended players in the
last couple of years for betting. Maybe not allegations of fixing,
but whenever you're betting, and if your team's involved, obviously,

(52:33):
if the Pete Rose saga taught us anything, it's you,
you have to at least look at that. But whether
it's the NFL, the NBA, Major League Baseball, UFC, this
is something all these sports leagues are dealing with, and
it's gonna have to be addressed.

Speaker 2 (52:50):
You and I have had some degenerate gambler moments in
Las Vegas. I never dreamed that it was possible that
I could sit there on my phone and watch baseball
and go ball strike, strike, ball, ball strike. Some of
these prop bets when we talk about the major leagues
have gotten outrageous, just the ability of what you're able

(53:12):
to imagine if we got to MMA by the second
you're sitting there. Is he gonna throw a punch? Is
he gonna throw a kick? I told him to throw?
Can't get two minutes of thirty seconds. And that's the
kind of stuff that we're dealing with where they open
the bottle and little instead of just let's take a
nice little sip. It was that guy who was wandering

(53:33):
through the desert and started thousing himself in the water.
Oh my god, we might have let it overflow and
runneth over. And this is just the thought coming at
me that I had like two minutes ago. Do you
think knock knock out the door comes for TJ. Dillashaw
by the FBI. This is a guy that promenade, took
a fight with one arm, and we're not saying that

(53:55):
there was a major swing in the betting lines. But
it'd be kind of interesting to know how how many
people knew you only had one arm? And can we
go back and see if any of them put some
money the opposite way, because well, fuck, we're taking a
long shot here, and that would be that same thing
you're using the insider information, and that that one jumps
out to me because the dude was obviously injured.

Speaker 1 (54:18):
I'm going to do you, not saying that's not worthy,
but I'm going to do you one more recent and
with a much more today. Prominent fighter Alex Pereiraz has
recently regained the light heavyweight championship. He went into his
last fight by his own what did he say? He

(54:39):
was only like twenty thirty percent or something, is what
he said leading up to the rematch.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
And I got a follow up for you on that, right,
how many.

Speaker 1 (54:48):
Other people knew that? And did they take advantage of it?
And I look again, I'm not alleging anything. I'm just
saying is juicy as the example you threw out was,
we can do one with a main event f right now.
And look, I'm certain if you really wanted to break
it down, and this is what I was talking about,
how it can get counterproductive going back and reviewing fights

(55:10):
and things like that, and even stuff like this, how
many fighters go into fights well under one hundred percent
And while it's not broadcast, it's not exactly a top
secret either, and how many people know that and try
to take advantage of it.

Speaker 2 (55:27):
And to follow up that, Ali I'll do, Ali, I'll
does ease putting out the photos. Maga mad An KILAIV
in the rematch had severe REB injuries. Can't do anything,
was taking injections. You guys know that you're telling us
now At hindsight, it makes you wonder did anybody put
any money from that camp on the opposite side because

(55:49):
of the injury? And heck, just look at the live
watch that I did with Jalen Fuller for UFC three
twenty one. We will be live again with James Romuald
for UFC three. He was talking about heading into a
fight a couple fights ago where his coach John Dotson
was barely touching his shit and Jalen's like, dude, I'm crumbling,

(56:11):
and they had a really it was what the hell
happens to me? If this guy catches where I'm injured
right away in the fight because they said his leg
was totally screwed. Jalen did not get touched on that
leg won the fight by knockout. But it's one of
those risk rewards that fighters are dealing with all the time.
The biggest lie a fighter will tell you is I

(56:32):
am one hundred percent healthy and this was the best
camp of my life, because these dudes are physically diminished
by the time they get in the cage. And this
is coming from Jalen. If you had an adequate camp.

Speaker 1 (56:44):
Yeah, it's it's I don't again, I don't know what
the answer is how you stop all this outside of
just eliminating betting, but there's there's so many checks and
balances that have to be put into place, and part
of that has to go on the honor system. And

(57:06):
just because you can't we talked about all this last week,
just because you can't bet, yeh man, you sing my leg?
Oh my god, it's I don't know how I'm gonna
go out there, wink wink, nudge, nudge to your buddy
and he goes out and bet. You know, it's I
don't know, man, But this is something all these sports
leagues are going to have to get a handle on otherwise,

(57:27):
regardless of the sport, regardless of the event, we're going
to be sitting there questioning if what we're seeing is
actually legit and on the up and up.

Speaker 2 (57:37):
It's a gamble, man, Yeah, that's literally what all is now.
It is all a gamble. You will go back to
why did this ref not make this holding call versus
making it? How did you miss that call? Who was involved?
Why did Jason Herzog stuff this fight or that fight?
You'll never know. I did want a bashack real quick
to you to something we talked about earlier. We were

(57:58):
talking about broad casters and streaming services. I know this
isn't big for you. PFL did send out a press
release this time villionne Card coming up with Chris Cyborg
where we will have a heavyweight title fight. That one
has been announced to be on the new ESPN app.
So we never got a full press release from ESPN

(58:19):
or PFL. But now apparently PFL has been transitioned from
ESPN Plus to the new ESPN app. So that is
your thirty dollars service. Some of you get it with Hulu,
some of it haven't included in your ESPN Bundle, but
PFL is now a premium product from the ESPN. That

(58:43):
kind of surprised me.

Speaker 1 (58:45):
Well, wasn't their last event on the new ESPN streaming
package exactly, and that one they'd even tell us about.

Speaker 2 (58:55):
I was triplely surprised, quadruply surprised. It's an ESPN Plus product.
It's been an ESPN Plus product. I don't like the
consumer confusion that both entities have put out. I don't
feel like this is even the UFC level. UFC still
available ESPN Plus but not PFL. A little bit, a

(59:18):
little bit weird of a dynamic how they kind of
just jump the horse and force this in PFL. Also
when we like to talk about their weird announcements in June,
I loved it. They announced download the PFL MMA app.
Why do you want to download this? Because our deal
is ended with the Zone and we want to bring you, guys,
all of our international series events in America so that

(59:41):
you can get a custom and use to that talent
and it's free on this app. We realized we weren't
selling in America on to Zone. It didn't say that,
but you can read between the lines. People, we all
know what was happening. So you get this access to
the international series events the new email this week, Hey
we have signed a deal international series coming to Vice TV. Well,

(01:00:03):
first thing was is it's not all the international series.
It's gonna be PFL Africa and PFL Mina Mena are
both available now to you through Vice TV, And if
you're a Vice TV subscriber, you do have access to
a PFL library. Prey, sure you still have access to
that if you download the PFL app. But PFL Pacific

(01:00:24):
that's coming next year, and PFL Europe not a part
of this. A lot of broadcast news from PFL, and
I don't know if any of it helps. I thought
the free app was going to be more leverage than
going to Vice. But Vice does have United Fiat League,
they do have BKB, they do have Arena Football League,

(01:00:45):
and they do have like an NFL Highlights or a
real show also on the channel. So Vice Sports making
moves PFL with a bunch of announcements. I'm not sure
if you had any thoughts between ESPN and Vice on
any of that.

Speaker 1 (01:00:58):
Nope, whatsoever, because I don't think they're gonna be there
very much longer.

Speaker 2 (01:01:04):
On ESPN, they do have one year left, so it
is through twenty twenty six, right, and maybe just everything
goes to Vice Sports after that.

Speaker 1 (01:01:13):
That would be my guessing. Yeah, we'll see, but that
that would be my guess. That's some fight announcements for US.

Speaker 2 (01:01:21):
Micah, Yeah, real quick, we got just a little bit
on the fight announcements. This is really short, guys. December thirteenth,
we got three fights added. Giga Chikatse, Kevin Vallejos fucking banger,
Morgan Sharier, Malkyzawa Costa fucking banger, and Jeremy Kennedy Marcos butcecha,

(01:01:45):
one guy that likes to bang, one guy that likes
to grapple. Three editions for the last APEX Fight Night
card of the year, not from the UFC, but from
the Las Vegas Athletic Commission, the Nevada Athletic Commission. The
UFC has requests a permit for the T Mobile Arena
January twenty fourth. That would leave most of us to

(01:02:05):
believe that is the date for UFC three twenty four,
the first, I guess, big show of the new Paramount era.

Speaker 1 (01:02:12):
Well, there you go, and we'll see if that comes
to fruition. We know what we'll come to fruition Micah.
This weekend UFC three twenty two Saturday Night, Madison Square Garden.
Two title fights atop the card. Let's start with that
main event, welterweight title on the line. Jack Della Magdalena
takes on Islamahasha.

Speaker 2 (01:02:34):
You're a narrative guy. I want to know from you
from that narrative standpoint real quick. Is most appealing storyline
heading into this event?

Speaker 1 (01:02:44):
Is Islam as good as we think he is?

Speaker 2 (01:02:48):
Is Islam as good as we think he is? And
this is a moment where we get to test that.
Because as I'm breaking down the fight, you want to say,
better wrestler, this a mission game. All that is in
favor of Islam. Mahashev had this heralded all time rain
at lightweight. But my gosh, if I gave you my
top five pounds four pound right now, I probably have

(01:03:08):
Islam down at four or five because you can poke
holes in. Vulk was a smaller lightweight. Vulk was on
short notice and then oh my gosh, Hanatamoi Kano was
incredibly short notice. To say that a lot of the
title rain, we didn't feel that Islam was tested against

(01:03:29):
a top level lightweight. Some on his size, some of
his physicality. You are not wrong. How much was the
weight cut a factor? How does he handle having this
muscle mass? Those are all great questions that we're gonna
get answered. If you don't know Jack Dela Magnuleta, well
damn you should. The guy is the best pure boxer

(01:03:51):
in MMA. A very nice stiff jab. He works to
the body well. I've seen many people highlight it in
their breakdowns of him. He does a very well, very
good job of punching down the well, he punches down
at his opponents. A lot of guys bring their jabs
up and vertical. He likes to go down. When you're
going down, he's also hitting that chest, hitting that body,

(01:04:11):
and he's getting a weapon in the way of a
direct shot for a grappler to get in on the hips.
What is very important is that he has had the
style tested. He has had his takedown defense test and
against this kind of grappling, because Bahel Mohammad implements the
same style and strategy as Islam Mahasha. Blelell did his

(01:04:34):
last camp, the title defense against Jack Della in Chicago.
He did not do it with the Derman Good menf team.
I feel like this is important because if he had,
it'll almost be like a back to back training camp
for Islam of going against Jack, because he would have
been there for Ballew. Now it's a refresher that slightly
I think favors Jack Dela because at least this is

(01:04:55):
a fresh matchup. He's used to the size. He's going
to be the naturally bigger man one seventy. He's such
a hard hitter. If he keeps the standing, it feels
like it's Jack Della's fight to win. Because Islam Mahasha
will he is good on the feet, he is better
on the ground. Can he put the physicality? How does
he wear the weight? How does the weight feel? How

(01:05:17):
does the weight of trying to take down a bigger
man feel in the moment of the cage, facing an
opponent that's been training for him. But let's think about this,
it's been two fights since Islam had someone training for him.
I think a lot of that boat's in favor of
Jack Della. Have you seen betting odds anywhere or we
didn't dive that deep.

Speaker 1 (01:05:37):
Yeah, No, Islam's a pretty significant, significant favorite. Well, I'll
just average it out somewhere around like minus two eighty
and jdm's plus two thirty five hunderdog.

Speaker 2 (01:05:50):
I think it's tempted to go. Look at Jack Della
on the books. He's a heavy hitter, and if he
gets it done, he's gonna do it by knockout. I
think he'll be able to have a demonstrative win, where
Islam will know pretty early if he's gonna win, if
he's able to drag Jack down and keep him there.
Normally with a guy coming up, speed would be a factor.
I don't think it matters so much here.

Speaker 1 (01:06:12):
You're probably right your co main event women's flyweight title
Chevshenko way Lee as look as much as I'm looking
forward to the main event, I might be looking forward
to this one even more.

Speaker 2 (01:06:27):
Chevchenko she's battled so much, she's been at the top
for so long, She's completed the octagon of rubies. Way
Lee coming up in Wait. Now this is the interesting
one where I thought the speed would actually be a difference.
I've seen some photos and way Lee's looking kind of
jack kid of yoke. She put on the muscle on
the size to go to one twenty five. I don't

(01:06:48):
think we ever see her back in one fifteen now
from the way she's approached this fight, and I wonder
if that's a detriment. I wonder if she's not going
to be as fast as fluid as we'd expect. If
she's fast and she's fluid, and she's faster than Valentina,
because Valentina has lost a little bit off that eight ball.
We've seen her rely more on the grappling, and heck,
you want to try to wrestle way Lee. Way Lee
just shut down Tatianas Warrez. That's a big strawweight who

(01:07:10):
had Olympic level predigree wrestling. I want to failvor Valentina
Chefchenko because basically I thought she was over the hill
against Grosso, and Grosso was never able to capitalize on that.
So I was so negative in those lead ups. As
long as Valentina stays away from the spinning stuff, she's
so disciplined. I like her in this fight, but I

(01:07:32):
will not be surprised if Waylee pulls it out, because
if she's able to be faster and still have added
that muscle, we're dealing with a whole different beast of
an athlete.

Speaker 1 (01:07:42):
I really like way Lee here but I have a
hard time betting against shift Schenko or or picking against
shift Shenko because, much like you alluded to, when I'm
ready to count her out is when she proves me wrong.
For those interested in such things, Shiftshenko a minus one
thirty favorite, Waylee plus one ten underdog, so pretty close odds.

Speaker 2 (01:08:07):
Oh shit, back to the main event real quick. Yeah,
think about this. How will it be for Islam to
be hit by Jack because he's never been hit by
a dude for our eyes, that that is that big
volcal smaller like condo a short notice. That's gonna make
a difference. Where Chevchenko We've seen her take shots from
Amanda Nunia's, We've seen her take shots from Hally Holm

(01:08:28):
at one thirty five. That's where it feels like it
has to be a speed based battle for Wayley to
be successful, because I don't know if you can crack
the chin and hurt Schevchenko. She's fought some of the
biggest and taken those shots.

Speaker 1 (01:08:42):
Yeah, I think. But both of your main and your comaine,
the two title fights really gonna be quite interesting. The
rest of the main card, Mike pretty damn good as well. Yeah,
the feature fight Michael Morales Sean Brady a pair of
top ten welterweights.

Speaker 2 (01:08:59):
Brady is a tank, He is a grappler. He is
great at getting on that back, jumping on the neck
Michael Morales and maybe tricky trying to take him down.
His family. I believe his mother and his father both
Judoka black belts. There is a lot of raw potential
physicality size out of Michael Morales. We just don't know.
Has he really jumped out hurdle, has he seen enough?

(01:09:23):
Or is this just an unstoppable force, kind of like
reminiscent of John Jones, where no moment was too big.
I tend to like Brady here, but he's a little simple,
and if something dynamic ends this fight, I wouldn't be
surprised if it comes out from Morales. It's the ability
to grind though and wrestle here that I'm not sure
if Morales is ready.

Speaker 1 (01:09:43):
For Yeah, and you know, you look at the odds.
These are pretty close as well. Brady minus one thirty
five favorite, Morales a plus one fifteen underdog. I might
lean just a little bit towards Morales. I'm not sure, though.

Speaker 2 (01:10:02):
Leon Edwards Carlos Practice is also on this main car
Edwards Renoulm is a solid striker. He's very economical, though
the headkick that he's known for, it's not that he
uses it all the time. Instead, he used it in
a really great time right. Carlos Protos, though, is able
to get his range very quickly. He starts chopping away

(01:10:23):
at the legs, he starts hitting the body, and then
he's able to bring the big left hook together. It's
the in your face speed chess game that he makes
someone play. It's the prefa of Muay Thai experience. Not
to mention the MMA experience. I feel dangerous in saying
I like Carlos practice here, and this is a really
big moment for Leon Edwards to prove that he's got

(01:10:46):
a little bit more in that barrel than we expected.
Even freaking Ian Gary had to bust out some wrestling
against Carlos practice, and Edwards is looking forward to a
striking battle. I like protest.

Speaker 1 (01:10:58):
I do too, so do the odds makers. By the way,
he's a minus two hundred favorite.

Speaker 2 (01:11:03):
Flip a coin and I'll go with you whichever way
you want to go with Baniel d'arush and Ben was Saintani.
The Ben was Saintani that we saw in his last fight,
where his head movement was more dynamic, where he had
more defensive fundamentals, where he's still getting in there and
being violent and aggressive with his punches. That gives you
some kind of excitement about him. We're Benil d'arus He's
hit able, but he's also landing nasty on guys before

(01:11:27):
he has on paper the higher level grappling credentials, but
the more nasty wrestler I believe is Ben was Saintani.
I can see this going either way. This one is
an incredible fight between two guys that are nasty, aggressive finishers.

Speaker 1 (01:11:42):
I don't have it in me, Micah, I'm flawed. I
don't have it in me to pick against Baniel d'arusch.

Speaker 2 (01:11:48):
Daniel darus I just got black belt, his ADCC experience
underrated grappling. Maybe that guillotine that Poier kept pulling on
Ben was Saintani. Maybe that's a move that he out
to try to tire down the Frenchman. That might be
the method of attack that I'm going with. If Ben
will of Antony's trying to get in on my on

(01:12:08):
my legs, let's see if we can push him in
that same direction.

Speaker 1 (01:12:11):
Yep, that's a loaded main card. Michael. What sticks out
to you on the pre limbs because we got some
good fights there as well.

Speaker 2 (01:12:19):
Well. One thing that sticks out for me is I
think now also in this new era, we saw you
just get prelims. We're not having early prelims, middle prelims
right now. ESPN is down to I believe it's prelimbs.

Speaker 1 (01:12:29):
Nope, early pre limbs six pm Eastern on Fight Pass,
Middle pre limbs a pm Eastern ESPN News, and your
pay per view ten pm Eastern on Plus ESPN News.

Speaker 2 (01:12:41):
They must have just added that. When I saw the
other day the lineup, it just had prelims just like
it kind of looked for the Fight Night last week,
or it was just a block B block they adjusted it. Okay.
What stands out Bassar and Guy or Bassard Girl, cirrsus Kayev.
The ten and zero is the ten n Hamzat Tami protege.

(01:13:03):
He is back one more time. Pretty favorable matchup against
Eric mcconago. I think they're giving Sosakaia an opportunity to
score a big knockout win and keep propelling him in
the direction that they feel they have another young superstar
from the UAE area, a big one at one twenty
five with Aaron Blanchefield Tracy Cortes. A rematch, a close, heated,

(01:13:27):
controversial decision the first time that Cortes got the victory,
but since then, there's just been a lot more to like,
a lot more higher level victories coming out of Aaron Blanchefield.
You think she's beaten Rose onroge Talia, while on the
other side, Cortes best wins like Jazzdavicius. We've just seen

(01:13:47):
Aaron Blanchefield put more together and excel to a higher level.
But that one, both fighters have reminiscently same skills. I
think I fancy Blanchefield more of a threat to finish
on the ground, but they kind of have very similar
styles they do.

Speaker 1 (01:14:04):
Blenchfield the betting favorite. This will come back to bite me.
I like Tracy Cortez in that one.

Speaker 2 (01:14:12):
Roman copy Loove a bitter do or Die. You had
touched the rankings, got knocked out of it from Paulo Acosta.
He's a big time guy that can box. Now you
got another big Brazilion that can box in Grigory Rodriguez.
If he's not able to manage the distance and he's
forcing an exchanging in the pocket. RoboCop is a hard hitter,
he's a great wrestler, and he never uses as jiu

(01:14:33):
jitsu even though it's stellar. So look for that one
because the winner probably getting an opportunity somewhere close to
the middleweight rankings after this one is done.

Speaker 1 (01:14:42):
Yep, I think you're right on that.

Speaker 2 (01:14:46):
Bo Nichol's on the card. This is another one do
or die for him. You got a jiu jitsu practitioner
in hodelfo Vieira the era is a top game practitioner.
He wants to get on top of you. Bo Nickel
needs to show that he is not scared to use
the wrestling. He should have a speed advantage on the feet.
Maybe that's the key to getting the victory. Viera is

(01:15:09):
willing to throw hands, He's willing to get into the fire,
but he is not accurate. He is not active. Cageminds
dot Com.

Speaker 1 (01:15:20):
Oh, I was just saying, yeah, I'm surprised how much
of a favorite bon Nichol is. Not that I'm surprised
he's a favorite, but he's a plus pretty consistently cross
most places. He's a plus two fit our minus two
fifty favorite that surprises me a little bit.

Speaker 2 (01:15:35):
He loses this fight if he's sloppy on his takedowns
or gets into a brawl. If he's able to be
athletic and active, I think he can cut the angles
and give Viera a trouble on the feet.

Speaker 1 (01:15:47):
Yep, I'm with you, Micah. Tell everybody how they can
keep up with you.

Speaker 2 (01:15:50):
Cageminds dot com. We're gonna be live later today my
fight show. Whole bunch of guests on that one.

Speaker 1 (01:15:58):
Awesome look forward to it.

Speaker 2 (01:15:59):
Mike.

Speaker 1 (01:15:59):
You can get the show on X at MMA After Hours.
You can find me at Real Mike Carlisle. Enjoy UFC
three twenty two. We'll talk about it and everything else
going on next week. Got another episode of m m
A After Hours You're only After Hours podcast.

Speaker 2 (01:16:15):
Now 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

(01:16:35):
sports for over a decade. Established in April twenty eleven.
That's cageminds dot com.