Ep 330: UFC 323 Recap. Final ESPN Card for UFC. Latest News.

Episode 330: Two new champions crowned at UFC 323. Did Merab bite off more than he could chew? The final UFC/ESPN event is this weekend.  All the latest news and fight announcements. 



















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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:04):
What's up everybody, Welcome back to MMA after Hours. It's
Michael Carlisle and Mike Frankel. Micah, how you doing, man
Man doing well?

Speaker 2 (00:13):
That was a spectacularly wild event that we were lucky
enough to be their live covering. So that was awesome.
As we head towards the home struts of the UFC year,
I mean, it's exciting time right now.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
It is, of course, you're talking about UFC three twenty three,
this past weekend in Las Vegas, where just like everybody assumed,
two new champions coming out of the main event and
co main event, not really, but and yes, and now
we head into the final fight night of the year,
and then we take a little time off before the
Paramount debut in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Yeah, so it's all exciting. And the more I look
back at what you said that it played out as
we all expected, the more fear we should have had
of all of it blowing up in our face. Because
MMA math never goes as we all calculate, and when
everyone undimously agrees, you know, that's the first warning sign

(01:14):
for trouble.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
Here's the problem with doing shows like today. Coming off
of this event, we can make ourselves sound really, really
smart with the benefit of hindsight. The problem is we
didn't have this foresight leading into it, although we probably
should have it, which gets back to what you're talking
about with mma math not adding up. We all bought

(01:37):
in on morob four title defenses. He's gonna do it.
He's made it look easy the first three. Why wouldn'ty
do it again? Of course, Pantosia is gonna run through
Joshua Van and the comine why Whitney. Sometimes things happen
in the case of the Comaine, and then sometimes things
happen in the case of the main where the guy

(01:59):
you thought was gonna win maybe wasn't as sharp as
he could have. Maybe that was because of the fantastic
game plan that the challenger had. But yeah, when to
quote the late Great Rowdy Roddy Piper, just when you
think you've got all the answers, I changed the questions,
and the questions got changed on Saturday night. You want

(02:20):
to jump right in with the main event, Micah.

Speaker 2 (02:22):
Real quick, before we get to the main event, as
I'm gonna break down the main event for you, I
want you to contemplate something that dawned on me a
few hours before we do the show. Okay, the Garbrandt theory,
and I'll give you what my Garbarrant theory is. Garbrandt
was the training partner for so many guys that fought

(02:44):
Dominant Cruise, that fixated on Dominant Cruise for so long,
that when he got the chance to fight Dominant Cruz,
he had all the answers. Now, it's not like Petr
has spent all the time helping everyone prepare for morap,
But as he had all of these time these last
two years fighting down, did he have enough time to

(03:10):
obsess over the game of Morab to kind of work
it out in a level that no one else had
all lah Garbrandt to Dominant Cruz. I pitched that theory
to you as we get into talking about the fight.
Give all credit to Yon coming in and having the

(03:30):
requisite answers to those questions. He was defensively aware. He
made Morab work like no other. For the takedowns, he
looked to be very focused, something that it took a
second watching for me to notice that I saw people
commenting online about there were very cheeky, very smart elbows
to the forearms, and while those might not look like

(03:52):
a lot. As you're just hacking away at the forearms,
that could be wearing away at the grip strength from
Dwallash Philly, so then you're really shutting down his takedown ability.
The emphasis on the body work from Yon and the
de emphasized body work from Arab all played into what
really felt like a huge fight.

Speaker 1 (04:10):
Now.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
I don't think I could go the three rounds as
some people have did, but anywhere from fifty forty five
when you rewatch it all the way to forty eight
forty seven Yon, it feels like Jon wins this fight
no matter what two rounds you find from Arab. And
I do think it's possible to say you do find
two rounds for him, or that you didn't.

Speaker 1 (04:33):
Yes, it's possible you did. It's possible you didn't.

Speaker 2 (04:36):
No.

Speaker 1 (04:37):
Look, I think and I think it's fair to talk
about Morab fourth title defense of the year. Is that
too much? But I don't think we should do it
in a way that short sights the game plan of
Yon coming into this, because he fought a near flawless

(04:59):
fight here. You know the it seems like every Morab
fight he's setting takedown records, whether it's for a fight
for a round for a career. Yeah, two takedowns in
this fight. Yeah, Yon actually had five. But you know
it's not that Morab looked bad per se. The cardio
look good right up until the end, but he really

(05:20):
didn't have any answers for jan and Yon was able
to combat everything. So while, yes, if we really break
it down, there's probably a combination of factors on both sides,
you can't shortsight the fantastic game plan that Petter Yon
had coming into this fight because it was damn near flawless.

(05:41):
And yes, maybe part of that was based off the
first meeting. Part of that was he's been waiting for
this fight for a while, Like you mentioned, while he's
been fighting down, he's been thinking about this. He finally
got his opportunity and he sees the moment and you know,
regardless of what else we say when we talk about
this fight, you gotta give Yan a ton of credit

(06:03):
for that.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Oh no, you give him a ton of credit for it. Definitely.
I just threw out the theory that did he have
the perfect game plan for this fight because he for
two years was game planning for this fight. It's just
a theory to throw out there like Cody Garbren spent
a lifetime designing a game plan specifically for dominant Cruz.

(06:24):
I wonder if the time the fighting down everything equivalentated.
Not just that we discredit putting into action because he
had to put it into action, but I wonder if
all that plays into the fact that he did have
the perfect game plan, that he was able to devise it,
that he had been in there before this was a
second chance, And not to discredit it, it was just

(06:44):
kind of a theory where others had failed because maybe
they hadn't had that foresight. It's the first time around.
For Umar, they don't know what they're facing. Corey didn't
know what he's facing. Peter had two years to prepare
for what he's facing. And I don't want to disc
to him, but it's also a little bit of well,
maybe that does it because marat Is Morab is so

(07:07):
unique that when you feel that you have to make
specific adjustments, like let's create up Peter Yon. I don't
think we had seen his physique in that good as
shape before. He looked to be the bigger man in
that octagon, and to my money, he had more muscle
on his back and in his tour so than we
had seen previously. Yep.

Speaker 1 (07:25):
The other side to that, Micah is I think Morab
went in with the exact same game plan. He goes
into every fight my cardio, I'm gonna outwork everybody, and
maybe it takes a couple of rounds before I really
start to wear him down, but then I'm just gonna
take him down. They're gonna get back up, and I'm
gonna throw him the fuck back down again, and on
and on. Uh. Much like we talked about what Yon

(07:48):
learned from the first fight, it seems like whatever Mirab
learned and what he's learned since then, he just kept
with the same game plan, which look to be fair,
has worked out pretty damn well up to the point.
But he probably should have been a little more proactive
in his camp as well, not being the exact same

(08:08):
guy and expecting the exact same results. So I do
think you had some a combination of factors here. Certainly
on the Yon side, darn near flawless game plan going in,
but Morab just it seemed like, with the benefit of hindsight,
I'm gonna go do what I always do and it's
gonna work out because it always does, and it didn't.

Speaker 2 (08:30):
I almost disagree with you on that point, because Morab
didn't go to the body as much. The defensive adjustments
didn't allow the leg kicks to land like they did
in the first fight for Morab, and not to mention
he was such a headhunter in that fight, it felt
a little bit out of swords. It felt to me
almost in the first round where he thought it was

(08:51):
round six, where when he walked away from round five
with Corey and Umar he had a mental advantage. It
was like Deebo taking the chain. I'm just gonna show
up and you're gonna give it to me because I've
already beat you down for years. It seemed like he
thought he had that mental advantage over Yawn and he
was just gonna go in there and bulldoze him. And

(09:13):
I don't think he thought about spamming the takedowns because
he did shoot what eleven or twenty two this time
he shot forty nine. The first time, he did not
allow Peter any room to breathe. And I don't know
if that's a benefit of Yng being able to dictate
distance management this time make that job effective that broke

(09:34):
the nose or if it was almost a Morab wanting
to be more exciting. I didn't notice it until I
was pointed out on social media. There was an account
when Morab lifted up Yon and walked him across the
cage and everyone's going crazy. Kind of did take a
moment from the slam and you're like, what is he
waiting for? Everyone's going exciting, and there's a video points

(09:57):
that out on social media. Someone has to tap Dana
because Dane's little looking at the monitor. He always watches
the fights on the monitor. Mirab wanted Dana to see
it and how to look up and smile, and then
Marab slams him. I almost think that Morab bought into
his type a little bit too much and was determined
to make this an exciting fight, where if he does

(10:17):
have the exact same glen pan from the first fight,
I think it's much more winnable. But I think starting
off the fight with the striking playing Peter's game was
a detriment from the get go.

Speaker 1 (10:30):
Well, it got him the only round everyone can agree
he won. But yes, I do think it was a
detriment and not just game planning leading up to the fight,
but in fight changes after that, whether Morab shot his
load in round one, which I think it was more

(10:50):
of adjustments and then not being able to do that anymore.
But Yon's team in the corner. But between the first
and second round they changed something thing, because that first
round looked completely different from the rest of the fight
from the Morab perspective. But you know, as far as
the takedowns and takedown attempts, I don't think it was

(11:14):
because Morab just said, Nah, I'm not gonna try to
do that this fight. I'm gonna do something else. I
think he wanted to do all that John wouldn't let him,
and and Morab wasn't able to impose his will. So again,
as great as Morab is, and there's no denying he is,
by and large, it seemed like a similar game plan,

(11:37):
even if he was trying to come out knock his
head off in the first round, but when he when
he couldn't do it, and Joan was blocking everything and
keeping him from from the takedowns and by and large
controlling the final four rounds. With some exceptions, Morab didn't
really have the answers and there was no oh, hey,

(12:01):
try this, try this, or if there was, Yon had
answers for that as well. It was really just an
interesting fight that I guess we probably should have at
least seen it as a possibility, but I don't think
any of us really did going into it. We just
assumed it was gonna look like every other RAB fight
and it didn't.

Speaker 2 (12:20):
Well, the problem for all of us, and that goes
back to I don't want to discredit Young because he
beat this version of a RAB, but we got to
wonder how much did the mileage did the hectic year
take away from a RAB that we had seen against
Corey crazy enough to just come in there, how much

(12:40):
was there? Again, this is the same guy that you
said fights every fight with the same game plan. So
back to that Garbrandt theory, Well, that makes it even
easier to get ready for a RAB if he really
is just gonna fight every fight in the same tenure.
Or you could even go with some of the posts
or pre fight comments. If you look back to their
first fight Georgia versus Russia, they're both trying to make

(13:02):
their case for a title fight. It was due or
mother freaking die. Now if you hear Morab, well, he
was trying to get hyped up at the press conference
trying to get the minimal amount of fans that we're
they're alive. I heard that from the commentary team in
their meeting. He was very mundane. This is a competition,

(13:23):
we've settled the bad blood, this is just the sport.
It almost almost from a guy that was on a
twelve fight win streak four title defenses in his raw
aggression and hatred was not at the same level because
he's already not a made legend, but he's accomplished so
much in the game that I just think for Yahn

(13:46):
to become a two time world champion, win a third
world title fight or title fight in the UFC with
the one undisputed, I think there was just more on
the line for him, possibly at the moment too, where
his historical ambitions, well they were great, were not enough
fuel to get morapped to that same level of desire
that Yan was out on the night.

Speaker 1 (14:07):
No, look, I think you're one hundred percent right on that.
I also don't think you can underscore the fourth fight
of the year and the wear and tear on the body,
and not only that four fights in the calendar year,
but five fights in a fourteen month period, Because you
had the O'Malley fight or yeah, the o'maley fight in

(14:30):
September of last year, the first Malley fight. So not
just four title defenses in a calendar year, but five
fights in a fourteen month ish period. That's a lot
of wear and tear on the body. I don't care
how good you are, I don't care how good of
a shape you're in.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
And that comes with all five weightcuts. And this is
a guy notoriously known for old school horse on the
body and organs weight cutting.

Speaker 1 (14:55):
Well, and that's a good place to jump in because
a lot was made on the podcast after the fight
about his weight cutting methods. Talking about Morab doesn't ramp
down the way a lot of fighters do the way
people you know, when you go to the PI to
try to do how they have you, you know, he
does his thing and then Tuesday or Wednesday, a fight week,

(15:17):
he just stops eating and drinking, an incredibly old school
way to do it, a way that's incredibly tough on
your body. But that's what he knows and that's what
he feels most comfortable with, so that's what he does.
So not only are you talking about the four weight
cuts this year, the five and fourteen months, but you're

(15:38):
talking about doing it old school barbarically, which is even
worse on your body.

Speaker 2 (15:45):
The wear and tear that told that his body took
the as you said, spamming the same style of the fight.
There's a lot of elements that played into factors why
you can say, all right, we see And then there
is the credit that Peter Jun and why he didn't
see this coming, which I don't think I got to
ken he fought down for three fights. There's a part

(16:05):
where we have to acknowledge and I understand Peter Jan
has homophobic sentiments towards Morab, doesn't appreciate him, doesn't want
to run back to the trilogy fight. You owe this man.
You do not get this title fight if he does
not have these historical wild four fights in one year ambitions,

(16:26):
Because the reality of it for Peter Jan is that
if he doesn't get this fight and we hear the
announcements for January Newmar, Gametov and O'Malley are still in
title eliminator scenarios where they could have jumped over his
ass easily. So there's a whole lot more I feel like,
just to the story of devolish Philly versus Joan still

(16:47):
to be played out from You almost were a surprise
champion because you never want to fight. That made us think, oh,
he's getting the next title fight. You got the next
title fight because Morab wanted to be the most ridiculous
active champion ever.

Speaker 1 (17:02):
You got this title fight off of beating Marcus McGee.
And yes, I realized there was a song you dong
and a fig Eto win in there as well, since
he had lost to a rab But yeah, and look,
whatever Yan says he wants, I don't believe it's ultimately
up to him. You and I were talking after the fights,

(17:23):
and you know, maybe Mirab wants to take a little
time off. Doesn't sound that way now. That's moments after losing,
but he wants to run it back, whether he does
take a little time off or not, when Morab's ready.
I can't imagine a scenario where that fight's not happening,
and no disrespect to anybody else in the division. But

(17:45):
I don't unless we find out Morab's hurt or something.
I don't see a scenario where Yan has a title
defense before Mirab gets a shot at getting the title back.
I think that's almost certainly going to be next one
way or the other, unless there's an injury situation involved
here that we don't know about yet.

Speaker 2 (18:05):
Obviously, with the amount of title defenses, with the wind
streak that he was on, with everything that he had
put together, where he was getting into conversations of being
the greatest band weight of all time, it feels like
the merits would demand that there isn't an automatic rematch.
That depends on the timeline. Now we know that Morab

(18:28):
is insane and doesn't want to take any time off
Yon in the time that Morabs had five fights, Yan
had three fights, he is not going to be demanding
to be as active. That may actually benefit Mirab in
all of this, because if it was the other way around,
Peter might get left out in the rain waiting to
see an opening because Morab's just going to keep running.
At this point the designated time off that your team

(18:51):
would want you to take, if you're a Morab supporter
that might line up with Peter coming back, there is
still an opportunity for Nurmaga Metav. I really do think
Umar to inject himself in here, and for me it's
still kind of hard. I know he's a superstar. It
feels a little less likely for O'Malley though, even though
he has the win over Yan, just because you're still

(19:13):
backing into do you want to see a third Morab
versus O'Malley fight? So I think that Umar might upset
the apple cart in some way, but it's more likely
we got an automatic rematch.

Speaker 1 (19:27):
We're getting the automatic rematch. I don't see again if
Morab wants to take an extended period of time off,
if there's injury, If Yan doesn't want to fight before September,
and Morab's like, I'm not waiting that long and he
comes back in March or April and loses, all right,
at that point things could change. But assuming we're not,

(19:49):
If Yan's ready to fight by June or July, that
fight's gonna be against If Yon's ready in junior July,
that fight's gonna be against Marab.

Speaker 2 (20:02):
I don't want to get into the entire topic. We
can save that for a couple of weeks when we
need stuff to do. But real quick, uhuh? Do you
think there's a chance this title fight ends up to
be part of the package at the White House card?
I think the recent days Donald Trump has talked about
the possibility of an astronomical amount of title fights. I
don't know if that's possible, but just timeline wise, six

(20:23):
months from now, I think that would fit into win.
Y'all wants to fight, and I would love to seehim
a rab inactive, recover and come back in six months.
Do you think that's a possibility.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
I do. I think International Fight Week might be a
better possibility. But look, until they announced that White House card,
anybody and everybody who's healthy and ready is a possibility.
I mean, let's be honest. So yeah, I think that
would certainly be in play there. What might not be

(20:55):
in play for that and may not be in play
for July either, is Alexandre Pantosia. Of course, the co
main event. Joshua Van defeats Pantosia to capture the flyweight title.
This one, you had the unfortunate injury early in that
first round. Twenty six seconds in, Pantosia goes for a kick,
comes down, puts the arm out to brace himself. It

(21:19):
looked like the elbow or a bone in the ARMSTAF.
It was actually the shoulder, which they were able to
put back in backstage. We don't know the extent of
that injury, but probably a safe bet Pantosia is going
to be out an extended period of time. I feel
bad for Pantosia. I don't feel bad for Van. I

(21:40):
think Dana said it postfight. You never apologize for winning
like this. If you lose like this, you're certainly bummed.
But I feel bummed from the standpoint of I think
we were gonna get a really good fight here that
we didn't get a chance to see, unfortunately because of
the injury. But Joshua Van your new flyweight champion.

Speaker 2 (21:58):
I think I did see somewhere yesterday that it is
an elbow, that there might have been elbow. Also, there's
still things going around. I know on the live broadcast
it was announced shoulder, it was triple confirmed, it was checked.
Dana told us on the back, and then somewhere on Monday,

(22:18):
I did see I want to say it was Pahoopo,
I believe had a comment out on social media that
it was the elbow. So there is something going on
with that left arm. We all thought it was the elbow,
it might be the shoulder. What's important is that we're
all hoping that there's no tendon damage. Because if that happens,
then there's some real possibility of surgery of prolonged recovery.

(22:43):
If not, it increases the opportunity that you would have
an immediate rematch. All credit to josh even he did
nothing wrong. Fights can be wacky and end in odd circumstances.
It was anti climatic, It led off the air out
of the room. If there would have been a knockout punch,
it's a lot more triumphant. But just to see an

(23:05):
awkward injury happen, it just leaves you all, like the
with just a disappointment because it felt like the fight
was just getting going. Even though Van did catch the kick,
he did in turn helped cause the injury. I mean,
he is sure, no congratulations, It just feels like a
little unsatisfying for the viewer. For all of us, it's
a little because it's awkward of an injury like that.

(23:28):
Hopefully Pantosa is able to run it back. If not,
there looks to be quite a few options out there
for the flyweight division. Obviously, Joshua Van is incredibly healthy.
With that twenty six second fight, they got in two
whopping exchanges. I don't know if anything landed clean in
that point, So a lot to be in favor for

(23:48):
for the first champion from Mr.

Speaker 1 (23:50):
Yeah, definitely. They're really not a lot of options. There's
one option, and Dana basically said as much. Tayara, who
had a very impressive victory earlier in the night, almost
certainly is going to be up first for van if
for no other reason because Pantosia ain't gonna be ready.

(24:11):
I would assume when Pantosia is, assuming he gets healthy,
and we have no reason to doubt that at this point,
that that he's going to get a shot at getting
his title back. But I don't know. You do you
see a world where Brandon roy Val does something super
duper impressive in the Apex this weekend and and somehow

(24:33):
leap frogs Tayara for a title shot because I don't okay.

Speaker 2 (24:41):
First off, there's Koiji Haraguci out there, and if we're
talking about going to Japan, and when you start having
those conversations about sites and site these, I don't know
if you're gonna end up talking to any businessman name
one that helps wants to out facilitate bringing the show there.
That's like Tatsuya Tira is the future Corgi. Hia Gucci
is a legend that we want on right now. The
thirty five year old, the former two division world champion

(25:03):
here in Rising that took over Japan. He's a lot
easier for us to throw on a billboard markette and
easily sell out this arena. He is an option because
if you're talking about going to his home country, where
he is a pronounced, a more pronounced superstar in this
day and age of matchmaking, I feel like it's short
sighted to not bring up poor Ragucci. If you want
to bring up this weekend, Brandon roy Vall is an

(25:23):
interesting name. You're like, oh, what is he gonna do?
He just lost to Joshua Van. Yeah, but a fight
before that, he beat Let's Suah Tyra made Tyra look
quite human. I know Tyra's coming off of a monster
performance against Moreno, but it's two wins in a row.
This weekend. If he gets smoked Manel Camp with a
third knockout in a row, might actually even look more

(25:44):
impressive than Even though I don't think he's well respected
by the UFC, he's already coming off of back to
back dramatic knockout wins and the last time we saw
him in the octagon, he was pitching invisible crossovers, boggling
his opponent's mind, putting on a performance that was having
people call for him to be in the title mix
at that time. Now, I know it's most likely to
go with Tyra, but just for conversation's sake, I think

(26:07):
there's three real possibilities with camp, Haragucci and Tyra, depending
on the severity of the Panosia injury. Who Pantosia does
take prevalence of everything works out in the best possible manner.

Speaker 1 (26:20):
Yes, Pantosia. I think healthy changes this conversation, but there's
no need the way I look at it to entertain
anyone else other than Tyra, because Dana White told us
as much post fight, So until he changes, I don't
see any reason to change that thought process. Now, look,

(26:41):
something wonky happens this weekend. Yeah, maybe we're looking at
this a little differently, but at least right now I'm not.

Speaker 2 (26:50):
Seeing it well. I think Lebron Murphy might disagree with
us or disagree with you in that point, because after
he elbowed the living shit out of Aaron Pico, it
felt like a goddamn foregone conclusion, and I'm pretty sure
Dana said he was in a really good position at
that point in time too. I don't know what would change,
but it's just MMA and things can change very quickly

(27:13):
in the matchmaking game. That's why I love Tyra on
Saturday Night, and then that was just Saturday.

Speaker 1 (27:19):
Night, right, And look as far as Van goes, now,
maybe this changes now that he's the champ. This is
a guy who fought four times in twenty twenty five
as well. I'm assuming Micah he's not taking a ton
of time off well, so now, no, maybe he does.
Maybe if we find out Pantosia in six months will

(27:41):
be healthy and can fight, maybe you put that fight
off until then. But if you're looking at an extended
period of time for Pantosia being gone, I don't think
Joshua Van's gonna sit back in with his toes in
the sand or anything like that. I expect he's going
to be very active and we're going to get someone,
whether it's Tyra or someone else. March April mayish.

Speaker 2 (28:07):
For Joshua Van, unless they're doing a double pay per
view in March, which we'll get to the news here
in a moment, but just conversationally January, February, March kind
of been laid out, so at least for Jeshua Van,
you know you're coming back April, and according again to
the President, you got to figure your timeline is International
Fight Week, that event after the President's event is as

(28:30):
far out as you can expect to be sidelined. And
I don't know if six months is probably too far,
but it depends how much you're trying to load up
that card to see how incredible a April and may
pay per view are. But he did say he wanted
to take a month off, and with four fights in
the year, not being in the gym again till January,

(28:51):
I wouldn't be surprised if when he returns to the gym.
You know. The other question that lays out is it
was speculated in that post fight press conference, if you
have Tyra and you have Van, is there a possibility
for that matchup to dictate a site fee or Van
Horra Gucci either won a site fee in Japan. That
dictates do you do you just wait kind of to

(29:13):
see if that fits in the calendar and make that
matchup in that market, or do you just throw it
on a date that you're already booking.

Speaker 1 (29:21):
You're probably throwing in on a date you're already booking,
because based on what we have announced and what's kind
of sort of penciled in, you're looking July August, end
of July, August, September realistically, but before you can go
back there for a pay per view probably. So I

(29:42):
don't think, and maybe I'm wrong on this, but I
don't think Van's waiting that long to fight, Like I
don't expect him to fight four times in twenty twenty
six like he did this year. But I definitely could
see him fighting three times if all goes well. And
if you're waiting till August for fight number one, that
probably ain't happening. So I would look, we get this

(30:06):
hype every time a foreign fighter went, well, when are
we going to Africa? Oh, we'd love to go to Africa.
When you're going back to Mexico, we'd love to go
to Mecca. Yeah, and all that sounds great, oh when
you're going back to China. But making it happen, and
making it happen on a timeline that makes sense makes
it all the more difficult. In a perfect world, yes,

(30:28):
You're absolutely doing that, but it's not a perfect world
and I don't think things are going to line up
for that.

Speaker 2 (30:36):
I just don't know how business goes in Japan. I
could tell you that Rizon won't be like a big
thorn in the side of the UFC to get in
because it's not like they have an incredibly active schedule.
There's this kind of four to six times a year
and their dates are kind of set out, so it
would give opportunity, is all I'm saying for the UFC
to find a site and get in there. There's not
like every venues booked every weekend. Yep.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
Speaking of Tira, he gets the TKO in the second
round over Brandon Moreno. I hated this stoppage, Mike. That
being said, Tarro was probably going to win that fight anyway,
but if based on what we had seen earlier with
fights going on while guys are just getting pummeled, Moreno

(31:20):
at least appeared to be trying to defend himself. I
thought that stoppage was a little early. That's probably a
little nitpicky on my part. But Tyra gets to win
over Moreno.

Speaker 2 (31:31):
Nitpicky, not Oh, I'm gonna get more nitpicky than you.
I didn't think that was a stoppage. I thought the
ref was finally inserting himself to stop the position or
take a point from Tyra for the this.

Speaker 1 (31:43):
Plus were too big of a word.

Speaker 2 (31:46):
Strikes landed, so the back of Moreno's had there was
a couple that I felt were very significant blows. And
that's another reason why if you tell me the UFC
sits back on Tuesday, he assesses a little bit and says,
maybe Tyra's not ready for this. And that was early
and there was a little bit of question about where

(32:08):
those strikes landed. I'm not going against you on it.
That's why I kind of feel like his performance will
dominate in that second round. Is a little bit subjective
due to the possible earliness, the possible inaccuracy to where
the strike should land any legal area of the head.
But we can't deny that Brandon Moreno looked a lot

(32:31):
more defensive and a lot more taken it back by
what was being offered to him than any of us
expected going in.

Speaker 1 (32:38):
If you're gonna ding Tyra for those you're dinging about
five fighters on this card, fights that were stopped while
they were pummeling people in the back of the head,
so you probably just hold your nose and ignore that. Unfortunately,
you treat it.

Speaker 2 (32:54):
Like I folks will have a meeting and then do
absolutely shiite about.

Speaker 1 (32:58):
It exactly exactly that being said if the fight continues. Look,
one judge did give Moreno the first round, the other
two did not. It sure seemed like at the point
of the stoppage Tyra was well on his way to
winning round two. You never know what could happen in
a third round. So yeah, so from that standpoint, maybe

(33:22):
we got jipped a little and seeing what could have happened,
But all in all, I thought it was an impressive
performance spot by Tyra. He gets to win and over
a very impressive Brandon Moreno. I'm not sure where Moreno
goes from here, but certainly Tyra, based on our previous conversation,
title fight or next in line after for title fight,

(33:43):
depending on how things shake out with with Pantosia, Tyra's
certainly sitting pretty.

Speaker 2 (33:50):
Thirty third professional fight of the career for Brandon Moreno.
Not forget the ultimate fighter the mileages getting up there.
His body's a lot older than what his age actually is.
I could see us coming down the home stretch quite possibly.
It's almost a shame that that Mexico City card is

(34:10):
so soon on the calendar for the UFC, because you'd
love to see Moreno take the cage one more time
in his home country. I could see us being in
the last year or two of his career and this
kind of being the demarcation line of the last time
we see him in the title conversation. But there's a
weird way where because he's Brandon Moreno, he's only one

(34:33):
or two fights away from the title at all times.
But the wear and tear really has me questioning could
this be the end of the line in a division
where we didn't bring it up. But even Pantosia, he's
about to be thirty six, I wonder if we see
the same Pantosia when he comes back. We just know
that flyweights are best when they're young.

Speaker 1 (34:52):
They're best when they're young. You're one hundred percent right
about the wear tear on Moreno's body. Also, whether it's Horagucci,
who's certainly gonna be in that mix, Tyra now in there,
Pantosia when he's healthy and comes back. Yes, Moreno's always
going to be near the top of those rankings. He's

(35:14):
gonna be a win or two away from being in
that conversation. But it's a little more crowded now. And
as the wear and tear continues, as the age continues
to creep up, moreno's not prime as a fighter, but
prime title contention.

Speaker 2 (35:34):
That's slipping away in a hurry, slipping away and how
much do you stick around? And weirdly enough, because of
the flyweight division, that age transition, it's not like a
lot of guys stick around for legend versus legend fights.

Speaker 1 (35:48):
Peyton Talbot gets the unanimous decision went over Henry Sahudo.
It's Hudo's last fight. Impressive win by Peyton.

Speaker 2 (35:56):
Peyton gets two takedowns. Looks like he was overly elated
with the first one. He had Henry hurt to the
body in the first round in a way that he
said Henry fought through the choice to quit. I think
Peyton littlehim off the hook a little bit. I think
he made some bad choices when he had Shuto hurt

(36:18):
and had different strike selections, but made he could have
got Sahuto out of there in the first All be that,
though we saw all the herr and warriorship that could
possibly come out of Sahuto in gutting it out for
three rounds.

Speaker 1 (36:33):
He gutted it out. That is, you just touched on
something that really concerns me about Talbot. He should have
finished Sahudo, and I don't think it was so much
he didn't as he couldn't, and that's that's something that
might be an issue again. Look, he gets the win,
he did everything he needed to do. You brought up

(36:53):
the first takedown that he took a lot of joy
he had, but as impressive as a win as it was,
it should have never went the three rounds. Talbot should
have been able to finish it sooner, and he wasn't
able to.

Speaker 2 (37:07):
He wasn't able to. I know a lot of people
love Talbot. I'm gonna be real. I still like David Martinez.
I still like Amon's hobby song. It gong a bit
better in this division. If we're talking about how prospects
are coming together, I don't know if this god backhanded
comments of being does this say more about him or

(37:27):
more more about where Henry is at. How that fight
played out, His striking looked better, his wrestling looked better.
He shows all the athleticism of potential that made him
a top prospect, but Henry also showed everything that made
him a thirty eight year old man weight who really
should be a flyweight.

Speaker 1 (37:44):
Michaelh. We opened up the main card of the pay
per view with the light heavyweight Jan Blohovich and Brogden Gustav.
Probably the less said about this one, the better, but
I can't help me feel like we're gonna spend a
little bit of time on it.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
One thing range true that I heard before the fight,
and it really does just need to be cemented on
a plaque somewhere. No one looks good fightingy On Blahovich.
Just all of his fights, well, he's not necessarily a gritty, grimy,
dirty fighter. You can't say that any of them are

(38:21):
artistic beauties. I mean, the most disgusting Ana Sonya fight,
the most rugged Perira fight, they've all been with Blahovich,
and somehow it range to again that well there's beauty
and chaos and dramaticness. It was kind of an ugly

(38:41):
fight for Guskov that leaves you seeing him hit his
head on a ceiling really quickly into his UFC career.

Speaker 1 (38:50):
I think there should probably be some credit given to
Blahovich for being able to force his opponents to fight
the way he wants them to fight. There's an art
to that, I will give him credit. It does not
translate itself to exciting fights, and as one gets older

(39:10):
and one continues to have less and less exciting fights,
it becomes a real detriment. And unfortunately for Blahovich, I
think that's where we're at now, and even more unfortunately
for both these guys, you wind up with the majority draw.
So not only was it not a pretty fight, but

(39:30):
no one comes out any better for it. So by
process of elimination, if nobody's coming out better for it,
they're both coming off worse for it.

Speaker 2 (39:39):
The basic fundamentals. The jab low kick paralyzes guskovin the first.
To his credit, he comes back, wallops Yawn in the second,
even cracks Jean open with an elbow on his back.
For my money, even though I'm a tenaight liberal, I
was surprised to see two judges win in that direction,
just because I didn't think there was enough activity from Guskov.

(40:03):
Because we know that Yan's kind of a turtle on
his back. I thought we'd see a little bit more
that would put Jan in peril, that would make us
convinced of the ten eight. One time we watched on
the second time, I'm like, okay, I can get it.
Two big moments Jan did kind of just turtle and
lay there, and then you get back to the third round,
which is then a huge credit to Jan because with

(40:24):
such a huge momentum swing, with such everything on his
favor and so much more on the line for gus CoV,
how did you not have the adrenaline, the energy, the drive,
the wherewithal to go for it in the third And
I thought, and I think we were having the conversation
with what was happening that it felt like he was
winning the round, but Yan's just kind of consistently pushing forward.

(40:47):
There wasn't a big moment, and then the knockdown sways
the cards to salvage that draw. It was disappointing from
Guskov because you're the younger guy who had the bigger moment.
And then on the other side, it's what makes Yamblahovich
so timeless, is that he's able to but that come
back together where you're like, he's old, he's beaten up,

(41:10):
he can't really have this energy right now.

Speaker 1 (41:15):
But he comes back after that second round where two
of the judges scored ten eight, and like you said,
all three judges scorecards. He wins the third round. Yes,
you have to give him credit for that. Again, I'll
say this, he didn't drop it. In the UFC's rankings,
he stays at five. Guskov actually did move up to ten.

(41:37):
So I mean, I guess you got that going. It
was not an entertaining fight when you break it down
when you get passed though. Oh it wasn't entertaining. It
was to draw. It sucked. There were some things that
were interested the whole. Bohovic coming back in the third
round after that second round, and I think you said
it perfectly. Salvaging that draw huge for him. That being said,

(42:01):
in the grand scheme of things, does any of that matter.
Probably not is going to remembered for a very uninteresting fight,
unfortunately for Blahovic, the latest in a line of less
than exciting fights.

Speaker 2 (42:15):
Also crazy to know from the broadcast from the Fighter meeting,
it was revealed that he doesn't lift weights anymore because
his shoulder is so jacked up. At forty three years old,
I think he wants to continue. I think the body's
giving him the signal to go the opposite direction though.

Speaker 1 (42:32):
Yeah, but as long as they're going to continue to
book you, and yet as long as you're in the
top five in the ranking. Look not that I'm by
any stretch suggesting he could earn another title shot. I
think that ship is held. But he's based on ranking position.
He's still something of a player in that division. I

(42:52):
don't see him walking away from it, but age the
toll that this fight career is taking on his body.
There's no doubting which side of the career Blahovich is on,
and it ain't the good side.

Speaker 2 (43:06):
I'd say so. Now, if you'll indulge me real quick, Yeah,
I'm gonna blast through the middle prelimbs in a cordial
ten seconds that you're gonna like and get any of
your reactions. Grant dash and this Chenney Miguel Torre is
this powerful God blessed Terrence mckenniye for being so damn exciting.
Chris Duncan might deserve a rank fighter, a big spot.
Macy Barber deserves a real opponent now after a solid

(43:28):
comeback victory for us to see if she's really ready
for a title shot and for Rozzy and probably in
the same spot as Duncan deserves a little bit more recognition,
but lightweight is oh so damn deep.

Speaker 1 (43:39):
I don't agree with you on the Macy Barber thing.
I hear you on the others. I think Terrence McKinny
is an exciting fighter. I don't think exciting fighters make
big money and get title shots.

Speaker 2 (43:55):
They might make big money with postfight bonuses, depending on
that discussionary pay, and they may have a longevity, but
you're right, it's not going to do a lot for
your overall title chances and your longevity in the sport.
I wish he could hone it in, but God love
the man, it just doesn't look like he could do it.
And on Macy Barber's side, I'm just saying, you fought
down here. It was a good comeback win. I could

(44:16):
see her needing one win against the title challenger, someone
that we know, maybe manor Fjord or something, and then
we see her in the title picture. I think this
was re establishing where she was and then we get
one before we get the big one. That's just kind
of where I feel like she's at now that we
saw that the body is at least able to function again,
which is hugely important. It was never her skill level

(44:39):
or her mindset. It was injuries that she couldn't control
that were hampering her development.

Speaker 1 (44:43):
Right after the layoff. Look, it was an impressive win
for her and in all the women's divisions. But we're
talking flyway here. I mean, you're not wrong, and why not.
She's five in the rankings, you get a win. Some
he's gotta fight Valentina, assuming she doesn't vacate the belt
and move up or do this or do that or whatever.

(45:06):
So I mean it's certainly not out of the realm
of possibility.

Speaker 2 (45:10):
And we now saw Alexa Grosso is out, Natalie Silva
fighting Rosenamunis. You gotta figure one of them is either
moving up after that to fight Valentina or fighting for
the vacant title spot title fight. And I don't think
you're just automatically advancing Macy's. That's why I'm like, one win,
maybe the Blanchefield fight. There's one more win, and then

(45:31):
there's somewhere around the belt. If we look at the
early prelims, ebo Ebo that was a great slober knocker
as Jim Ross would say it epic ninety seconds. I
don't know what to make of it, but if you
haven't seen it, guys, it was a lot of fun.

Speaker 1 (45:47):
I don't know what to make of it either, but
that was a heck of a minute in twenty nine seconds.

Speaker 2 (45:53):
Jalen Turner, he looks like he has his head right,
his eyes are focused again, and as long as he's
doing that, he's still also a really exciting fighter that
age wise, is not outside of his prime. Yet welcome
him back at lightweight.

Speaker 1 (46:06):
You think Edsen Barbosa, after eating all that damage and
the ref not stopping that fight against Turner, he's in
the back watching Moreno and he's like, where the fuck
was his referee in my fight?

Speaker 2 (46:18):
Right?

Speaker 1 (46:19):
Why did I have to eat all this damage? And
they're almost protecting Moreno with the stoppage Edson Barbosa took
a beating from Jalen Turner.

Speaker 2 (46:28):
Don't laugh. He probably didn't see it because they didn't
have a monitor as far back in the er as
he was. Ou He took a beating that was three
knockdowns and getting cut open. Yeah, that that was a
pummeling that he took. It felt like the fight should
have been stepped after the second one where he just
kind of crumbled the then got back up, like if
you're not stopping it, I guess I got a run.

(46:48):
And the third one was he was beaten down and
that was extra damage for sure.

Speaker 1 (46:54):
All at all, I thought three twenty three certainly delivered
unfortunate the situation to the co main event with the
Pantosia injury, but congratulations to Joshua Van your new flyweight champ.
The main event certainly delivered with Yan beating Morab and
say what you want about Lahovich and Guskov, maybe set

(47:18):
that one aside. Other than that, there weren't any bad
fights on the car and that one again, you had
a ten eight round on two of the judges' scorecards.
So even if you didn't like that fight, and I
ain't gonna lie I didn't, it had its moments as well.

Speaker 2 (47:34):
We had the most some of the most dramatic rounds
we have, these crazy xty stories, circumstances, comebacks, developments, and
multiple divisions. This had all the necessary marks for me
to be called a great event afterwards, going in you
can always judge on paper, but it's hard to be
dissatisfied with a lot of what we saw, and then

(47:57):
just the storiness that comes away from the event.

Speaker 1 (48:00):
YEP. In addition to the three twenty three pay per view,
you also had UFC seasonal Press Conference, where a lot
of these we already knew about, but there were a
couple of surprises as well. You're basically laying out your
big events for the first quarter of twenty twenty six.

Speaker 2 (48:19):
Nothing announced, but February seventh, the UFC is back in Vegas.
February twenty first, the UFC is back in Houston, home
of the Rockets, and you're getting Sean Strickland, Anthony Hernandez.
And then I heard some weird talk that because of
other ties that they have to their home countries, Imavov

(48:41):
versus Tmief may not be as done deal as we
all think, and the winner here could play into that
role of getting the next title shot. So there are
big implications with that fight, and you never know what's
next for comes out Gimiyev just because he's already talking
about light heavyweight, all kinds of other things. But Houston
gets a big one. Mexico. I said, Brandon Marino'd be

(49:04):
great to see him there, well, that card is February
twenty eighth. It's gonna be a quick turnaround. I'm guessing
you're hoping, yeah, here Rodriguez is ready and back for
that card. Then again, who knows what Diego Lopez will
be doing by that time anyway, after he fights in Australia,
which the Australia card on January thirty first, A shite
ton of fights were lined out for that when you

(49:24):
go over to cageminds dot com to see everything, But
the biggest ones from that that we can say would
be getting to see Dan Hooker versus Ben Wilt Saint
Deny a rush turnaround. Many of us feel for Dan Hooker.
I think that Raphael disease Maurici ohoofye, that's another one

(49:45):
that you're like, oh, that is gonna be a stupid
fun fight. Bam bam tied to Vasa takes on Talison
to share us. So you got a whole bunch of
fights added to that Australia card featuring the locals. We
also get March seventh, the BMF title fight Max Holloway

(50:07):
Charles Olavera headlining UFC three twenty six in Las Vegas, London.
In March and Seattle also on tap. So we go
back Strickland, Hernandez, Holloway Olivera the two biggest announcements. What
do you think about those two fights?

Speaker 1 (50:28):
I don't like BMF title fights. I've said this before.
I'll say it's certainly not headlining. If you want to
have it somewhere else on the car, that's fine. That
being said, how could you not be excited about Max
Holloway Charles Olivera too, Olivera another guy who's never far
from the title picture. Oh, we know how great Max

(50:49):
Holloway is. I think that's going to be a really
fun fight. I truly do. As far as Strickland Hernandez,
I absolutely can see a world where winner gets next.

Speaker 2 (51:02):
I absolutely see that being a possibility. Something's going on
with you, mavov chif one other name, Quillan Solikid who
had the killer knockout last time the UFC was on Australia.
That budding lightweight division is so deep. He's also going
to get back on that card, So he's someone on
the prelimbs that you're gonna want to keep an eye on.

(51:24):
I think it's good to see the UFC having announced
such big fights for the Australia card because I think
that Last Fight Night kind of flew under the radar.
You have some short fire bangers on this one now,
so I like that Australia card. Of course, the Sean
Strickli fight is going to be entertaining because he's going
to talk shit to Hernandez and Will. I don't automatically

(51:45):
love Olavera Holloway because I want to see them go
in different directions. There is unfinished business due to the
weird injury the first time. They are huge names to
sell a pay per view, and when you're putting together
the kind of schedule in a year that they're talking about,
you understand why BMF fights are a couple star made
pay per views might be in the works. Like I

(52:08):
wouldna be surprised if, like an Israel Ata Sonia fight
ends up on pay per view some point this year
as a co main event, just with them trying to
stack up title fights in other directions, So you understand
ola Vera hall Away with star power.

Speaker 1 (52:20):
Definitely, June fourteenth is the White House card. Micah, I
guess I gotta ask who's booking this fight this card?

Speaker 2 (52:31):
Is it?

Speaker 1 (52:31):
Dana in the UFC or is it Donald Trump? Because
Donald Trump said over the weekend, UFC's gonna have eight
or nine title fights on June fourteenth. It's going to
be huge. There is no way in frick you're having
eight or nine title fight. Now, you might have eight
or nine legit Hall of famers on this card. It's

(52:52):
entirely possible. Every single fight from the early prelims till
the main event are all absolute bangers. But I do
not think the world exists where there are more than
three title fights on this card. And we're probably talking
more about it. If you even if you could pull
it off and do eight or nine title fights, you've

(53:13):
wrecked the next six months. That just ain't happening.

Speaker 2 (53:17):
We got the last fight night of the year, and
we'll have a year round recap everybody, and then we're
probably gonna devote an entire episode to just this topic.
So the short and simple answer, because we'll need content
for in a couple of weeks here to keep a
whole hour going. I don't think that it can match

(53:38):
that full expectation. I do not think that we will
have a main card fully devoted of only title fights.
I think that we will have a as you said,
a balance of title fights, superstars, familiar names, quite possibly
some American standouts or maybe just some of the President's favorites.

(53:59):
But I think he's overextending by saying it's all title fights, baby.

Speaker 1 (54:05):
Unless we're gonna have a men's MAGA title fight, a
women's MAGA title fight. You know you did it.

Speaker 2 (54:14):
That one's actually good. They don't have to be UFC
title fights. We can just throw belts on everybody like
this is USA boxing and everyone's getting a participation trophy
that could lead to title fights. You are right, my man, uh.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
Trump's favorite fighter title fight.

Speaker 2 (54:30):
Yeah, I mean, we could do the guts title fight.

Speaker 1 (54:34):
I guess. Look, I have no doubts the card is
gonna be spectacular, no doubts at all. But anybody who
knows eight or nine title fights, that just no, that's
just not happening. And people who hear that and buy
into it, they're gonna wind up being disappointed, and they

(54:55):
shouldn't be. I think most people realize, all right, the
president likes to talk big, one of the things that
many people like about him. But a your nine title fights, yeah,
that just ain't happening.

Speaker 2 (55:08):
It just doesn't work in the schedule like that. I'm sorry,
that's a little more further out there that that is
not truth at all. That's probably a pretty far off
reality you wasn't talk about.

Speaker 1 (55:21):
Truth.

Speaker 2 (55:21):
Truth is when Dana White finally dropped to us, we
don't care about the number. Armin star Yukian is far
befar gone, long away from a title fight. And you
had asked me before, did the UFC had an arm
in sar Yukian problem? At least Dana gave us an
official answer on Saturday, No, we do not.

Speaker 1 (55:39):
There is no need to speculate any longer as to
whether or not Armin Serukian is in Dana White's doghouse.
That has been confirmed. Look, I don't agree with Dana,
but I understand it. And if he truly feels like
we can't trust Arman in a big fight to actually
show up and fight, and I get it, you can't

(56:01):
book him again. I'm not saying I agree with it,
but if he truly feels that way, I get it.
And they're doing what they feel like they have to do.
So even if I don't like it, even if I
disagree with it, I understand.

Speaker 2 (56:13):
It all I'm saying is now we do have the evidence,
we've got a definitive answer at this point, and it
is a little surprising, I will take it that Dana
White stance on armincar Yugen to me was a bit
surprising just considering guys that have missed press conferences, guys
that have caused Melee's, guys that have weight in overweight

(56:38):
causing fights to be changed in weight classes, who take
off many months out of the year, who don't seem
to be put in these kind of doghouses. So I
am intrigued to see if anybody was a videographer that
can do the fifty cent thing on this Diddy project
and let us know what really happened between Armin in

(57:00):
the UFC.

Speaker 1 (57:01):
Yeah, because look, nobody holds it against Olavera for being
the champ and missing weight exactly.

Speaker 2 (57:08):
No one holds it against Timaya for what he's done.
No one holds it against There's a lot of guys
in there that have had some moments, whether it's inside
we got to gone, or even outside, and it doesn't
seem like it's hurt them like this has. And we're
even talking about one that had to force a whole
event to be moved. I know he's not going to
fight at the White House, but but but but this
feels like a different doghouse than what he was putting.

Speaker 1 (57:30):
I think the difference in those fighters in Serukian they're
all ye star power in draws and and they don't
look at Serukian as a draw anything else. Before we
get into a fight night this week, I think.

Speaker 2 (57:46):
That's everything from the UFC. Yeah, I think that's everything
that's floating around out there in the neither right now
for the UFC. As far as we go to Las Vegas,
there's one last fight night of the year in the Apex.
And is it perfect or is it imperfect that the

(58:07):
ESPN era comes to an end in a Apex fight
night fashion, and just to let everybody in, I don't
know if they aired it. On the press conference, Dana
White has had such a long year. He basically wished
all of us a happy holiday before remembering, oh yeah,
I'll see all of you regulars again next Saturday here
for the fight night. We got one more. It seemed
like he was even done with twenty twenty five.

Speaker 1 (58:29):
We got one more. It's at the Apex. I don't
know if it's perfect or imperfect. It's time for everybody
to let go this Apex thing because they ain't going anywhere.
You'll wrap up the year this Saturday on the ESPN
app ten pm Eastern for your main card Flyweights number two,

(58:51):
Brandon Royval, number six, men Welkape. I like this fight.
I don't think either one of them can do enough
to be next. But I've been wrong before and maybe
I wind up being wrong again. Micah.

Speaker 2 (59:07):
I have faith in the creativity and the artistry of
Manel Camp to be able to put together a performance
that is title worthy. But I will be completely honest
with you. I've listened to a couple other podcasts out
there in the world and a couple other analysts in
the fight and mail Camp is a huge favorite to

(59:28):
everyone that has eyes. We all feel like he comes
in with more momentum, that Brandon Royval will not be
able to take him down, that Royval will not be
able to keep up with striking, that the ability to
close distance, the explosiveness of Menel Camp is going to
eventually his creativity, the way he cuts angles, that he
is on a different level right now than what Royvall is,

(59:51):
who royvall if he comes in with the wrong game
plan or mentality, he doesn't implement his grappling. We've seen
that a striking fight can go against him with his
just kind of reckless aggressiveness. That being said, I kind
of expect roy Vallapullau to win here because so many
of us see the potential of Menel Camp, who has
had two dynamic knockout victories in his last two wins

(01:00:13):
and has looked spectacular and both of them. That's why
I think he could put together a performance that steals
the spotlight from the Tatsuya Tyra and demands his own
title shot. I think what goes against him, though, is
he's a Portugal fighter fighting in America who kind of
annoys the UFC anyway with some of his antics. I
don't know if I don't think he's first in fanfare

(01:00:34):
over Tyra, but I think he does have that knockout
potential to wow us to where we could be having
that conversation next week. Well, did he just actually upset
the Apple card and take the title shot away from Tyra?
I say it's a possibility.

Speaker 1 (01:00:49):
I say there's no chance. Now that being said, he's
a huge favorite cap is a minus three hundred roy
vala plus.

Speaker 2 (01:00:56):
Two forty underdog. And that being said, is there that
much in a difference right now in the value in
the market value really of what a Moreno win versus
a Royvall win does for you for talking Tyra versus Camp.
Because Royvall has beaten Moreno. We've seen this happen before.
So if Camp is able to do that, I do

(01:01:17):
see that there's value in the victory. I'm not arguing
that he has to upset Tyra. I just think that
a law can play out before a fight is really booked.
And all that being said, I probably think Moreno has
a much better chance than they're all looking at the odds,
looking at the experience that he's been the underdog that right,
yeah said, what did I my God? Too many Brandon's

(01:01:39):
I get sucking that one. I make it all the time, Royval.
Though the experience, the big fights, a creative game plan,
a honed in Camp, he always has that potential to
turn things around. But just the explosive knockout power of
manl Camp has you leaning in that direction. On the
other side, we're talking about betting favorites. I even looked

(01:02:00):
but I'm guessing that Kevin Vijahost has to be a
major favorite over Giga Chikats in the.

Speaker 1 (01:02:06):
Comin event minus two eighty five favorite.

Speaker 2 (01:02:09):
Yes, a little more modest than I expected. I believe
that you're gonna see it coming out party for the Argentine.
I know it does play into Giga's skill set that
this one is going to play out on the feet.
But he's look old, he's looked hired, He's got run
over on the feet in his last two fights. But
just more physical fighters and Kevin feels like a next
big prospect at one hundred and forty five pounds, A

(01:02:31):
very technical striker, very accurate guy, good boxing. I think
that this is going to be a breakout performance on
this card.

Speaker 1 (01:02:39):
I like him a lot here as well.

Speaker 2 (01:02:42):
Uh we get sasari Ome Atlantuk versus Caesar Almeda. It's
striker versus striker. This one should be good for a
sloppy middleweight matchup where we're trying to figure out what
the guys really have featherweight bout. This one could be
the fight of the night where Morgan Sharier. He's a
wealth of experience.

Speaker 1 (01:03:01):
Six on Awesole.

Speaker 2 (01:03:02):
They have an experience, but on a win streak Makazaua Coasta.
Coasta won four in a row. Thromally, i'd be all
over a guy like this to win a fifth straight.
But something screams to me if you're putting him against
a guy that's two and two in his last four.
I don't think the UFC believes that Costa has really
put together the scales. I wonder to thinking this is
more matchup base, or maybe this is someone that's just

(01:03:23):
looking to stay active. Sharier though a really good striker,
He's only had a couple losses by split decision in
the UFC, So this one find of the ninth potential
because they both like to bang it out and I
think that Cherrier might be able to stuff the takedowns
enforced cost and just didn't fully striking, So that one
screams to me something special.

Speaker 1 (01:03:43):
YEP, I'm with you on that. I think it's more
about staying active, especially for Coast. To me, I like
the matchup.

Speaker 2 (01:03:51):
I like the matchup. It's really dangerous for Costa. Marcos
Pachecca huge Brazilian jiu jitsu background. Can he take down
Ken's Kenny and Juque if he can't and Juque has
massive power and he's dangerous in the clint So this
goes one or two ways, and it goes that way quickly.

Speaker 1 (01:04:10):
On the prelimbs.

Speaker 2 (01:04:12):
Jillian Robertson, this is an opportunity former title challenger across
the cage from you and Amanda Lamos. Robertson has looked huge,
been amplement implement her physicality and her grappling here at
one hundred and fifteen pounds. I think that continues and
this is quite possibly a dark course to see Robertson
fighting for a title by the end of next year.

(01:04:33):
I think that her game is just really suited for
this division. Okay, on that same banger possibility, j Anderson
Brito versus Musselekt Bahart Dosani, that should just be some
wild ass shit. Bajart de Soni less MMA experience, does
have k one experience. These are two guys that are
just gonna throw until one goes down. It's my hope

(01:04:55):
in my prediction. We also have the debut of Yars Amaslav,
the last Bellatour welter weight champion from when Bellatore was
Scott Koker's Bellatour. The Ukrainian fighter has one loss on
his record, and let's be honest, the man was training well,
fighting a war, worrying about his homeland when he lost

(01:05:15):
that fight to Jason Jackson. He's rebounded, regrouped. He had
picked up a win in UA Warriors. Here comes a
UFC debut and it's the Magni Test right out the gate.
You know what that means. He's top twenty. If he
wins this, he's screwed. If he loses, he's a huge
favorite too.

Speaker 1 (01:05:30):
He's a minus four fifty.

Speaker 2 (01:05:32):
Favorite, and like most of the Eastern Europeans over there
credible wrestling game. We've seen that his power can be there.
There's a lot to get excited about Amasava guy in
Bellatore who full under the radar, but the win streak
was impressive. I don't think he's that far over his
prime and he's greatly on tested. So there's a lot
of intrigue for me.

Speaker 1 (01:05:52):
Well intrigue for me because typically the ex belator guy's
a farewell on their debuts.

Speaker 2 (01:06:00):
We got two heavyweight fights on the card. We need
more heavyweights. We hope for knockouts. Not sure about most
of these men. I've seen a lot of Steven Asplunt.
He's big, he's lengthy, he has good boxing combinations. The
other three guys, we'll see what we got there. A
couple of women's fights also early on. We're hoping to
find a prospect. Luana Santos's look good moving up to

(01:06:22):
one thirty five. It's an interesting little fight. Now you
can find some gems to be excited about on this
card as we close out twenty twenty five and the
ESPN Plus error.

Speaker 1 (01:06:34):
Yep, your prelims get underway seven pm Eastern Time on
ESPN Plus again. Main card ten pm on Plus, and
then you don't need the ESPN app anymore. Not for
those of UFC anyway, those.

Speaker 2 (01:06:51):
Of us that are going to be keeping up with
the PFL. There's still gonna be PFL over there. So
a little bit of MMA on ESPN, but that's not
even ESPN Plus anymore. That's the brand new, all ESPN
encompassing app. So be done with Plus MMA fans right
after this. Sorry about that. That's all bouncing around. Great

(01:07:14):
year of MMA, great year of UFC. We're gonna have
a big finite still to talk about. I think the
President's gonna keep us talking about the White House for
a while, and the whole Fighter of the Year conversation,
we didn't even touch on that yet. It just became
a lot more interesting after Peter Peetrion upsets what was

(01:07:34):
a historic year in the making for du valash Philly.
So I feel like.

Speaker 1 (01:07:39):
We still got a lot to cover.

Speaker 2 (01:07:41):
So there's a lot of goodness to happen.

Speaker 1 (01:07:43):
A lot of goodness during that time off after this weekend,
before we start the Paramount Plus era with UFC. Micah,
tell everybody how they can keep up with you over
at Cageminds dot com.

Speaker 2 (01:07:55):
One last prediction, guys, as we're talking about Mexico and
all these great destinations that the US is gonna be
going to get ready, as Carlisle said, there's going to
be a stretch of APEX fight nights too, because when
you go on the road, what eight times in the
first two months, you gotta figure those APEX ones are
gonna come back around. Cage Minds Combat Sports News on
Facebook YouTube. That's where we'll be live tonight my fight show,

(01:08:18):
a whole bunch of guests from the world of combat
sports over on that one. It's at Cage Minds Underscore
CSN across the rest of your social media.

Speaker 1 (01:08:27):
Get the show on x at MMA after Hours. You
can find me at real Mike Carlisle. We will talk
to you next week for another episode of MMA After Hours.
You're on the After Hours podcast network.

Speaker 2 (01:08:45):
Love Combat Sports. I have a website for you, cageminds
dot com. That's c A G E, D M I,
n DS dot com.

Speaker 1 (01:08:56):
Fight news from around the.

Speaker 2 (01:08:57):
World, in depth interviews. I have event coverage covering combat
sports for over a decade, established in April twenty eleven.
That's cageminds dot com.