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00:00:00welcome back to against the cage your mma home for all the fight previews recaps and
00:00:12exclusive interviews that i know you're looking for my name is jake aria i'm here with my esteemed
00:00:18co-hosts scott fontana and eric richter what's up guys and the last time yes we are we are back we
00:00:25are off of a two-week hiatus longer than we normally have um but the last time we spoke guys
00:00:31we talked about all that was in 2025 so why don't we go ahead and talk about all that maybe in 2026
00:00:39uh let's go division by division i hope that sounds good to you guys uh and i'm gonna throw it over to
00:00:46you eric let's make some bold predictions about who will be champions at the end by the end of
00:00:532026 we'll start off with heavyweight eric who do you see as the heavyweight champion of the ufc
00:00:58by the end of 2026 first and foremost welcome back happy 2026 um when it comes to champions of the
00:01:06of each division um you know draft kings fan duel they all priced who to be the champion at the end
00:01:12of the year for instance like last year i had alexander volkanovsky um to be the featherweight
00:01:17champion to end uh 2025 which he did so winner there um and basically you just get paid on
00:01:23january 1st so um you know for heavyweight tom aspinall is minus 180 to be the champion of
00:01:29heavyweight at the end of the year now this has not historically been a very um active weight class
00:01:35right tom aspinall is not fighting three times a year we we have no idea when we're going to see him
00:01:39um in 2026 or if we'll even see him we have no idea we know that he had a fight with surreal gone
00:01:44and his fight with surreal gone ended prematurely due to a to an eye poke and um an ensuing eye
00:01:50injury now eye surgery so or potential surgery there was some uh conjecture there regardless um
00:01:57you know tom aspinall minus 180 he might fight one time so basically you're kind of looking at least
00:02:01from my perspective you're looking at one of those two guys so um you know surreal gone plus 400
00:02:07you can get me on that no doubt um now if i'm going to be a hot take artist which i kind of am
00:02:12sometimes a guy who's not even in the ufc yet gable stevenson is 250 to 1 to be the heavyweight
00:02:19champion for my money i there's i've seen nothing to leave me to believe that he's not a ufc caliber
00:02:26heavyweight maybe there's also just like the uh the alert someone new right somebody that i haven't
00:02:31seen before and and all that so you know for me i if i want to go hot take i could say you know
00:02:38i'll buy in way too early on gable stevenson who might be the champion in 2027 um probably not 2026
00:02:43but uh if i want to go extreme hot take i'm gonna start us off with a ripper gable stevenson
00:02:48will fight early in 2026 maybe fights three times and uh who knows maybe a late replacement
00:02:54or something like that we'll go hot take gable stevenson heavyweight champion 2026
00:02:59what say you scott i was gonna say eric my goodness scott can you bring us back down to earth
00:03:04i am gonna throw all of the new jersey snow on top of that take good lord eric it's not happening
00:03:14but i will say this my take my heavyweight pick is probably a hotter one because it's the actual pick
00:03:23i am making alex pareda i am saying this is my boldest prediction i think i'm going to make this
00:03:29episode i'm gonna do right off the bat here obviously all the aforementioned uncertainty
00:03:33with tom aspinall right now it does create a situation i think where we could eventually see
00:03:40maybe as a a separation of the champion from the belt if he can't fight anymore or he comes back he
00:03:48has that fight with surreal gone it goes one way or the other and that opens the door later in the
00:03:53for a super fight with the champion of the light heavyweight division right now who honestly it's
00:04:01a very interesting situation we've been hearing hints about it for the years i think he is uniquely
00:04:06suited that this could actually happen and especially if it is surreal gone that he moves up and faces in
00:04:13this hypothetical scenario that i'm kind of playing out here i think he's actually got a real solid shot
00:04:19there because i like the way these two guys match up i think the power is going to be there i think
00:04:23he doesn't face necessarily the heaviest of hitters at heavyweight back so it's not going to change
00:04:29anything there i think he probably has the power edge i really think there is a decent chance that we
00:04:35get this thing playing out now i'm not i wouldn't put money on this don't don't throw your money on
00:04:40that one but that's where i'm gonna go i want to be a little bold off the bat here so welcome 2026
00:04:45i'm coming at you so i actually am going to follow suit with you scott on alex pareda that's also who
00:04:53i've got for my heavyweight champion for much of the reasons that you laid out uh just then but i mean
00:04:58he he i feel like could be the one person to finally get three different belts and three different
00:05:05divisions in the ufc they obviously love him and you know have have continued to back him and it's paid
00:05:12off because he's one of the biggest stars uh in the sport right now and i feel like this is an
00:05:18opportunity that they're not going to pass up um an appreciation to eric for making this seem like
00:05:25not that crazy of a pick that's true yeah thank you you you honestly made this like not really the
00:05:31craziest hot take this is almost like a mildly warm take yeah generally speaking i like to buy early
00:05:38rather than buy late so sometimes i will buy early like i'm the guy who's like looking at victor
00:05:45when byama to win the mvp as a rookie you know what i'm saying like um i like to buy early and i'm
00:05:51gonna buy early i'm all over gable stevenson give me every bit of gable stevenson that i can get he's
00:05:56gonna dominate he's gonna come into the ufc and be a immediate superstar all right fair enough well
00:06:02scott obviously you and i have the same pick for uh heavyweight and alex pareda the light heavyweight
00:06:08champion so who do you have finishing off the year 2026 in light heavyweight so obviously to play out
00:06:16my scenario here i kind of have to live with okay if that's my pick with one i'm not gonna hedge it
00:06:21with the other because i don't see a scenario where the ufc allows anyone to keep two belts anymore
00:06:26really just doesn't seem like they want that so i'll throw any cold water on the idea of pareda
00:06:31being the champion at light heavyweight anymore if he's the champion at light excuse me at heavyweight
00:06:37so what does that mean i see a scenario where yuri prohaska comes back and he gets his belt back
00:06:45after years away from it finally has kind of that obviously the guy who has his goat in poeton
00:06:52he has moved on in my little hypothetical here that's not going to be an obstacle anymore i think
00:06:57he's gonna come i think he's can beat anybody on any given day he's just got stupid power
00:07:03stupid survivability um he's so fun they definitely want him in these big fights and he's the type of
00:07:11guy that you can put him on paramount plus or even on cbs and say like look at this guy he's an
00:07:16interesting guy you want to watch him um i i think that's the type of thing that's going to play in his
00:07:21favor depending on who he matches up with he can also lose any of these you just never know because
00:07:26they're kind of wacky a yuri prohaska fight he's kind of gotten by on the skin of his teeth a few
00:07:31times uh escaped snatch victory from the jaws of defeat i guess i could say uh just part of the
00:07:37cliche out there i'll i'll throw a dark horse there i do think if it's not him i actually could
00:07:43see carlos oldberg having this belt what about you jake i have the same as you scott we're two for
00:07:49two yuri prohaska yeah but i think that is by nature of uh what we went with for heavyweight it's really
00:07:55it's really a pick between probably about three people yuri if you have alex going up to heavyweight
00:08:02it's really yuri oldberg or magomed but i just don't see them magomed's gonna have a tough time
00:08:09getting another title shot because it doesn't seem like they really loved him as champion and yuri like
00:08:15you said he's he's won every fight in recent memory that i you know in the ufc that was not alex
00:08:21pareda even when it seemed like he was going to lose that fight it seems like he really wants that
00:08:26belt back and i think the ufc wants him to have that belt back and you know what so do i he's fun
00:08:31to watch um so yeah i like i like what you said about uh uncle i have there too i do think i actually
00:08:38think he will get another shot i don't think he's just gonna get frozen out he's too good and they're
00:08:42gonna put him against somebody and obviously he'll necessitate a title shot at some point it even could
00:08:47be this year and i i i was very nearly going to pick him here because i do think you put him
00:08:53against yuri for hoshka i actually think akaliyev wins that fight but i have my doubts that it actually
00:08:58gets put together what about you eric uh i'm gonna go with the name that you guys haven't mentioned
00:09:04someone that's gonna maybe even come up and wait i'm gonna go hamzat chumayev gamble steveson
00:09:08no i'm gonna go hamzat chumayev and uh you guys might be you guys might be surprised to hear this
00:09:15but hamzat chumayev is the favorite uh to end the year as the light heavyweight champion um i'm not so
00:09:21sure how long he's gonna be able to make middleweight and light heavyweight just seems like a kind of like
00:09:25an easier choice like remember he came in as a welterweight and then you know i quickly wasn't
00:09:30able to make that weight and he's probably the biggest middleweight i would say that he's not long
00:09:34for that weight division anyway so for me i'm gonna go hamzat chumayev is actually the betting
00:09:38favorite to end the year as a light heavyweight champion so you know i go from a plus 250 to one
00:09:44uh hot take long shot to other chumayev who is the favorite and something that you guys haven't
00:09:49mentioned he should um kind of get up to light heavyweight and be welcomed by a bunch of guys
00:09:54who don't really know how to grapple i mean magaban on kalayev does but um that's pretty much
00:09:59that's about it yuri prasca is not you know exactly the best grappler and then um you know olberg
00:10:04alex perera you know nobody nobody there's at that level in terms of grappling so for me i'm
00:10:10gonna go hamzat chumayev will end the year as light heavyweight champion of the ufc and that is is he
00:10:14really the most massive middleweight on the board i don't know that that's the case i i mean he's he's
00:10:19a big guy but i don't know that he's gonna have those issues i don't doubt that he could go up there
00:10:24and i did actually see those odds because i i was kind of peeking at it myself just knowing what we
00:10:29were going to be talking about here but i don't know i don't know that he's necessarily just gonna
00:10:33size out of it but i wouldn't doubt what you said that he could go up there and win it it's also just
00:10:39like not that not the hardest weight class um middleweight is probably murderous row really um
00:10:44i for me like if you're looking for betting value on this i think that middleweight all of them should
00:10:49be looking at going up nasserdine imovov's humongous for middleweight if he can't beat hamzat go up to
00:10:55light heavyweight i i don't even know if they had odds on him but he should definitely be looking at it
00:10:59well it's it's for both of these guys for nasserdine and for for hamzat like they have to
00:11:06fight each other first right and if it is hamzat that comes out on top it's the activity that that
00:11:12no activity he never fights that's the tough part you know i mean and now it seems obviously he fought
00:11:17in chicago he can fight in the states when you know there's a lot of talk on whether or not he would
00:11:21be able to do that so that is better than it was you know historically but historically he hasn't been
00:11:27very active i don't know what you guys think about that well what do you think about middleweight jake
00:11:32i mean let's move on to middleweight because we're talking about the middleweight champion here let's
00:11:36go over to this division what do you think who's going to be the champion at 185 mr jake i still have
00:11:42hamzat shemaev i i don't see him moving up just yet if he does get past nasserdine imovov which
00:11:48obviously i i do see as the case um looking forward to when that fight gets announced uh in
00:11:55terms of when that one will happen because it does seem like that is the next one to be the case but
00:12:00yeah what he did to uh trick us duplessis in there it just looked like yeah i don't see a situation in
00:12:07which anyone else at 185 pounds um can do that maybe maybe say anthony hernandez uh but it's the
00:12:15activity it's like it's his next fight that is lined up for him is nasserdine imovov and for my
00:12:21money i feel like he's gonna fight once next year um and and that's he's gonna win that fight and
00:12:26he's gonna be the middleweight champion at the end of 2026 um he is definitely going to fight once i
00:12:31think that's it i i would be stunned especially because he's not he's already not on those first
00:12:36three events that means the soonest he would be on would be you know april 327 in miami if he's not
00:12:44on that one i mean i cannot really imagine him fighting again within eight months even just he's
00:12:51just not been very active he said he was going to be but i i don't know if i really believe that
00:12:55um and not only that talking about those odds eric i saw that he's actually a bigger favorite to hold
00:13:02the middleweight belt still than he is to move up and win that belt even if he's the favorite in both
00:13:07weight classes i think we probably can all agree here it's mutually exclusive that he's only going to
00:13:12be a champion at one weight class the way the ufc has been doing things particularly for a non-active
00:13:17fighter such as himself or let's say a less active fighter right um i think one fight is all we're
00:13:24getting i don't think we get any more than that and i think it's going to be middleweight and i just
00:13:28don't see a scenario where he's actually going to get a second fight in and move up to get that 205
00:13:32pound belt so that's that's kind of where i sit and that's why i see it that way so because of that
00:13:39i have to say i am incredibly curious eric who are you putting as the middleweight champion
00:13:45i'm gonna go nastrodeen imabov he's the second favorite right not breaking news here um now this
00:13:52again and you guys said it right um you got ramadan coming up in february i don't i don't believe it
00:13:58ends until beginning of april so i think at the minimum um you know you know you're not going to
00:14:02see hamza until april at the earliest as scott as scott said um miami card not so sure what um
00:14:09you know his status would be if he if he's on ramadan for five weeks i'd be really surprised
00:14:14if he jumps in in april he's not going to fight at the white house so then it's like july august
00:14:19you know and then that would be pretty much it that would be his year um maybe july maybe august
00:14:23usually they do an abu dhabi card like uh july august late july usually i believe is when they were
00:14:29usually targeting that so you know you're going to get him july or august and then we'll see like
00:14:34is he going to fight at the end of the year at you know light heavyweight or like at a certain point
00:14:39like his inactivity i you could even get a like a situation where he moves up to light heavyweight
00:14:44and he gets stripped um and moves up to light heavyweight so um and then you also have the
00:14:48opportunity for him to lose um to imabov so i feel like that's probably your your value spot uh
00:14:53natural name of off plus 300 i'll take it october i believe would would be abu dhabi historically but
00:15:00that that gives him more time if that's if that's the case rather than you know summer showing i i
00:15:06could that would be the only opening which is a good shout because he has fought on in abu dhabi um
00:15:13i i want to say a couple of times at this point um yeah and obviously i certainly wouldn't rule out
00:15:19him only fighting in abu dhabi in october this year yeah that is true um yeah no that's a good
00:15:27point i'd rather be over a year since his last one but i wouldn't put it past him honestly not
00:15:34yeah i know um and just to go back to the abu dhabi thing i i know that they did like uh um um was it
00:15:40the uh the any hot arena in july uh when whitaker uh fought runner to ritter um but i don't think
00:15:47that was a pay-per-view so there might but it was not they're all over the place in terms of like
00:15:53what's pay-per-view what's fight night the fight nights are super elite so i don't know exactly
00:15:55also nothing is pay-per-view anymore nothing's pay-per-view anymore so everything's different
00:16:00so i don't know exactly how this year will shape out it's impossible to project um but yeah that was
00:16:06the thought process um that definitely gives credence though i mean you just bringing that idea in
00:16:11there eric like i could actually see them saying you know what we don't have to put all title
00:16:17fights on pay-per-view or they were pay-per-views we don't have to put them on number of events
00:16:21anymore they can go whenever we really feel like if we want to sell this particular fight card that
00:16:27happens to be taking place in abu dhabi on a fight night or or you know in riyadh or something like
00:16:33that they can put a title fight there now it almost gives them more flexibility to do stuff like that
00:16:37than they used to have based on kind of their preferred model of stack these pay-per-view events
00:16:42with that that's gone so i i will say i could absolutely see maybe a june title fight for
00:16:49for um for hanza and it not necessarily being a premium numbered event yeah definitely and i i want
00:16:57to say that there are still a few countries where like pay-per-view still exists but it's not the 80
00:17:04dollars that we were paying and obviously the u.s audience is a pretty big one so i i definitely we
00:17:10also happen to be in the united states of america so we're gonna just think with that lens you know
00:17:14apologies to our world viewers but that's that's kind of where it's coming from and i think you know
00:17:18that yes yeah the the difference between them you know doing a pay-per-view numbered event we'll call
00:17:26it this year versus last year definitely very different um but you know what let's move on to
00:17:32welterweight eric i'm gonna throw this one over to you who do you see being the king of 170 pounds at
00:17:38the end of the year it's a fun one right um we have obviously the champion currently is islam
00:17:44mahachev the betting odds for this one are weird you don't you guys would be surprised if kamaru
00:17:49usman is the second favorite to be the champion in 2020 so like they think kamaru usman is definitely
00:17:57getting a title shot this year i have no idea if that's possible but honestly betting odds are a lot
00:18:04of the time they have more information than we do so from my perspective i i'm gonna go islam
00:18:09mahachev minus 200 and i i just i don't really see anybody beating him unless it's shavka but i don't
00:18:15know if shavka's like where he's gonna be like he might have to fight one or two times in order to
00:18:18ramp up i think he'll have the size advantage over islam if they were to fight and i think he would
00:18:21even maybe even be favored but um you know for me i think i'm i think i'm gonna go islam and i know
00:18:27that there's risk there because he said he's gonna be more active and he's moved up in weight so
00:18:32the weight cut is in theory less so he's gonna be a little bit more active um it's tough man this
00:18:38is a tough this was a tough one to call i went with the favor islam mahachev but i'm happy to
00:18:42hear other options the kamaru usman betting odds make me really think kamaru usman is going to get
00:18:46a title shot though i i definitely do think that kamaru is going to get a title shot from what we've
00:18:51been hearing from his camp and i mean essentially the same you know team that islam has in terms of a
00:18:58you know managerial standpoint and what the ufc has kind of been going towards i am also going
00:19:04to go islam i cannot i cannot pick against him um i can't think of any other way of saying it i'm
00:19:10curious to hear you scott are we going three for three on this one we are going three for three but
00:19:16i'm going to say this i think there's some real stiff competition here i think no matter which path
00:19:21the ufc takes with that first title shot whether it is kamaru usman which you know as far as the
00:19:26betting odds go i feel like that's just speaking to all the chatter that's out there i mean i don't
00:19:31maybe they do know more right i i think there is something to what eric said but also i think
00:19:36they're reacting to the market and everybody else kind of seeing okay maybe that's where it's heading
00:19:40but i don't know if that's what's going to happen and frankly i think mahachev has enough in his corner
00:19:47that he really should get through that one as much as it would be an interesting test um the age of
00:19:54of usman i think plays out of there the only one that i'm going to say this is my actual dark horse
00:19:59here is shav kai rakhmanov i think the health and the lack of activity make him too hard to predict
00:20:04but he's the guy that i think if you actually get him in the cage there with islam that's the one i'm
00:20:10really curious about which way it goes so i'll throw him out there as my sort of dark horse on that
00:20:16one but that's definitely going to be like an end of the year kind of situation that might be
00:20:20you know maybe he'll fight again in new york he certainly had a wonderful time islam mahachev
00:20:25fighting in the garden fighting in front of the new york fans that really did embrace him
00:20:30i can see him saying i want to be back here again and i can see the ufc obliging too so maybe
00:20:35maybe that fight him against rakmanov at the garden that could be an interesting scenario and at that
00:20:40point i'm starting to say okay maybe we go another way but yeah i'm sticking chalk here with
00:20:44uh islam just like you guys fair enough yeah i shav kai that's that's the one that that you really
00:20:51gotta make some consideration on it's really between those two guys i mean michael morales what
00:20:58do you guys think about that one do you think there's any chance that that could be the title
00:21:01shot if it's not shav kai do you mean still unbeaten michael morales yes the guy with one loss on his
00:21:08record no way it was a can of worms i'm just curious because obviously eric i know you do like
00:21:13uh you know michael morales and and the aura and all that but in terms of his fighting skill do you
00:21:19think you'd be able to take uh you know take the belt off of uh mahachev i like his size and i like
00:21:26his power now like where this all like you know when you're when you're looking at like something
00:21:31like when you're projecting out a whole year it's like who's gonna get the title shot okay
00:21:35kamaru usman i'm now like kind of like is kamaru gonna fight in april in miami for the type like
00:21:41is that is that really gonna happen um so there is that that's a little bit up uh up in the air
00:21:47in terms of what i would think would happen like who has the best chance in terms of the odds
00:21:51i think it's chav kai rakmanov and i think it's michael morales and i think that those two guys are
00:21:56the best options if you're not going to go islam those are your two options like ian gary is the
00:22:01same odds as morales and rakmanov which i think is nuts um ian gary shouldn't really even be that
00:22:05close should be like really similar to what uh carlos process is um so yeah i'm gonna i would
00:22:11say islam and then either shav katar or morales i think they're gonna have the best the two best
00:22:15cracks at it um i'm not really too sure about the usman the usman love i would have i would like to
00:22:21see it but the odds are crazy crazy to have them that far ahead but i'd be a little surprised if
00:22:27islam actually fights in april i think that's you were talking about ramadan before i think even though
00:22:33he doesn't he doesn't have the same weight cut i imagine he's still gonna want a little bit more
00:22:37time than just the end of ramadan and then immediately fight again i'm thinking may is
00:22:42probably the soonest and i could see it being june especially if it's in new jersey where he also
00:22:46has fought a bunch of times and i think he he's enjoyed well not a bunch of times but he fought
00:22:51there recently he had a good experience there too so yeah and that's a really good yeah he's that's a
00:22:56really good point you want to know who's fighting at the end of the year who likes to fight in
00:23:00december who likes to fight in november who likes msg is all really good points and things that you
00:23:04have to uh keep into account and you know who's gonna fight in there who's gonna push for that
00:23:08extra fight like marab did in december right marab really pushed for that last fight in december
00:23:13he would have ended the year as champ and you would have been right the entire year but he really
00:23:17likes to be active so there's a little bit a little bit more inherent risk there that is true and
00:23:23that's a good shout scott and even even though it is only twice you know it seems like they've they've
00:23:26had a pretty good experience with their training camp in brick new jersey so maybe yeah they've
00:23:32got a real rhythm there you know they go down into katones and they train down there and it's real
00:23:36it's a real nice setup i think they're pretty comfortable as and and obviously you know habib
00:23:41has a lot of familiarity with he used to train in new jersey at the same gym that i used to do jiu-jitsu
00:23:46at sometimes they would cross over um from k dojo and uh yeah um but uh i i think really just
00:23:55all of that factors into it really makes a lot of sense for them to continue to have these fights
00:23:59there i'm sure they are happy to fight in vegas or really anywhere but if they can pick it i i could
00:24:04see that being another new york and then another new york maybe or or maybe it's some form of uh
00:24:10you know abu dhabi and all that i don't know there's a lot of permutations but i think we're
00:24:15still talking later in the year fair enough well scott i'm gonna throw it back to you to talk about
00:24:20khabib and islam's former weight class at lightweight at 155 pounds who do you see
00:24:25sitting atop the throne maybe another bold one here i'm going with arman sarukyan i i think that
00:24:34there's obviously a weirdness here uh because of when the heck is this actually gonna fight for the
00:24:39title is he ever going to fight for the title he's not even in the interim title fight that we're about
00:24:43to have so there is that kind of problem there that he might run out of time in this one but i'll say
00:24:50this if he is in a title fight this year i don't care who he's standing across on i think i would
00:24:57pick him to win if it's ilio toporia i think i'd pick him right now you're asking me today i think i'd
00:25:02pick him right now if it's one of these two guys out of this interim title fight i think i'd still
00:25:06pick arman sarukyan in that one as well he's gonna be game whenever they say you're getting a title
00:25:11shot he is not gonna say no and good lord is this guy not pulling out for an injury again so he'll
00:25:16show up and he'll figure it out um i and almost just with the whole the uncertainty of ilio toporia
00:25:22and this very public um battle in his personal life that we see playing out i i almost wonder if
00:25:28it's more likely we see sarukyan fight for a title this year then ilio toporia defend his title this
00:25:35year i don't know that's a weird kind of situation too i don't i don't know how you guys read it let's
00:25:39let's start with you mr eric i want to know what your thoughts are man this is like the this was
00:25:44the strangest division to pick because like ilio toporia is all over the place he's like i'm taking
00:25:48time away i'm not doing anything he it sounds like he's not gonna fight for a while and it's
00:25:53like he's not gonna fight for a while he's gonna get stripped there's no way i'm picking it's a
00:25:56for you to hold this title for the whole year i don't know when he's fighting i don't know if he's
00:26:00fighting everything that i had heard in the last year or two was that like it's kind of like
00:26:04difficult to work with a little bit so um you know that was before all this now with this going on
00:26:09i'm sure that it's even more of a mess than it was previously so um armand's a good shout patty
00:26:14versus gaichi they shouldn't even be fighting for the title if they were to fight toporia they're both
00:26:20massive underdogs but i'm not taking toporia so i went with armand sarukyan um again bringing bad
00:26:28pronunciation to 2026 there we go you're getting ever so close to being almost there eric i'm so close
00:26:36that one just is like it just flows off the tongue i see the t and i'm like tuh
00:26:40sarukyan
00:26:42here yeah how about i'm gonna give you this we're gonna do quick elocution all right
00:26:46sar sar
00:26:48no there's actually there's no z i was messing with you there it's sarukyan
00:26:54sarukyan yeah sarukyan hey there we go all right well i i'm gonna pour some some water on this uh
00:27:04this fire here i'm going ilia tuporia and the i guess this metaphor works i'm going glass half full
00:27:10uh for ilia tuporia's 2026 i i'm just thinking i'm hoping for the best for him and and his career
00:27:18and i i couldn't pick against him not fighting this year just because i'm like i want to be
00:27:24optimistic for him and his career and sadly as a contrast to that that's not good for armand sarukyan
00:27:30um so i i i picked ilia actually this was going to be my uh haymaker but i feel a secondary haymaker
00:27:39i would say i think that armand sarukyan is going to fight this year but not for the title i think that
00:27:45he's going to have to get one more fight in just because of how stubborn dana white is and and uh
00:27:50the ufc is you know about how how things shook out for him in 2025 um but i think he's going to have
00:27:57to get another one in just really to you know keep the gears greased so to speak what do you guys think
00:28:02i mean the one thing i would say off of that with ilia is you know i think the sport is better off
00:28:08with him being active i have not had any negative interactions with the guy i've only interviewed
00:28:13him a couple times um but he's been a total professional he's answered my questions he's
00:28:17been engaging um i do not know anything about his personal situation other than everything that
00:28:23gets spat out there so i have nothing really to say about that um but hopefully for all involved
00:28:29everything is honky dory including in his own family um and that we do get to see this guy go back
00:28:36to doing what he does which is entertain us he had such a massive win which i think puts so much
00:28:42good light on the the product of the ufc itself and the fights that we get to watch so i would really
00:28:49hate if that um kind of went to waste but that is concerning definitely but i i guess uh one thing
00:28:57i'm curious is do you see what i kind of mean when it's like if you if you are predicting armand
00:29:03surukian is going like one career cannot excel without the other one taking a hit like if ilia
00:29:08is the champion at the end of 2026 it's like this weird scale going up and down if that makes any
00:29:14sense i don't know we're about to have two lightweight titles so maybe they just get defended
00:29:19separately and we just end up with like a senior and a junior to weight class who knows that's the
00:29:24other thing with all these with all of these titles that we're going to talk about this is like
00:29:27the unsaid thing there could be several interim champions by the end of this year i don't know i'm
00:29:32gonna so and just to uh put a bow on lightweight my prediction is ilia taporia does end up getting
00:29:38stripped wow all right fair enough well we will see if that is the case but let's move on to
00:29:45featherweight and i'm i'm gonna go forward on this one this is a bit of a bold one uh actually maybe
00:29:51it's not so bold i'm going diego lopez i i think that the ufc is gonna finally get their wish it seems
00:29:58like it is at least that they want diego lopez to be champ um i whether or not it's him beating
00:30:05volk in uh in either their upcoming fight uh i believe in february second pay-per-view 325
00:30:11nope end of this month end of this month oh january 30th technically technically in australia it will
00:30:17be february okay i'll give you that all right you're right down on saved me you saved me scott
00:30:22um i'm gonna go diego lopez i just i i i don't think that volk is going to still be around at
00:30:29the end of the year i think this is going to be his retirement fight um and i even though i'm like
00:30:34not super like uh heavy on this fight itself like i i don't think that it makes sense because you know
00:30:41they just fought i do think that there's a real chance that diego uh comes away with the strap
00:30:45at this one or if not if it's volk he retires vacant title and the ufc is gonna throw him into
00:30:49another title shot and uh i'm picking diego um but scott what do you think about that one
00:30:55i think it's more likely that colonel william f guile is going to defeat him in the street fighter
00:31:02movie which he is in than he is to lose this title this year i do think he's going to keep it
00:31:07i don't see him walking away just yet i think he's probably still feeling like he can keep fighting
00:31:13and still make money and that kind of thing i imagine he's still hungry enough unless he's
00:31:17getting much more uh you know movie roles off of this which frankly i mean we i talked to him a
00:31:22while ago about it when he was doing the old man volk thing that everybody was enjoying i think he'd
00:31:27have some charisma in film i think he could actually do pretty okay in that realm but i think he's
00:31:32probably going to take advantage of his athletic talents a little longer way it has them i do think
00:31:36he's going to beat diego lopez in the rematch i i i feel like we actually got best version of
00:31:41diego lopez that time and it's not going to be the same even level of competitiveness coming up but
00:31:46that's kind of just my my gut feeling on that one so now we're talking about okay he gets in a second
00:31:51fight later this year which i think he does after not doing it last year and it's probably going to
00:31:56be let's say the winner of most are evil i have against larone murphy i think whoever steps across
00:32:01from i do think that volk's going to get through them as well it's going to be tricky i wouldn't write
00:32:06them off but uh i i just i really have a good feeling about him continuing to be the champion
00:32:11here i think he's got a style that's going to age pretty okay all righty eric who are you siding
00:32:16with here oh man this is a tough one um because you know alexander volkanovsky we've seen him
00:32:22kind of get through everybody but there's a little bit you know chinks in the armor right like
00:32:26ilia tapori knocked him out bad diga lopez did knock him down and then you also have superstar
00:32:30prospect lero murphy coming up um as well but i'm just not so sure he's a hot prospect guys he's
00:32:36coming superstar prospect nobody's heard of him but i'll tell you about him lero murphy um but no
00:32:43um so yeah man you guys have me wavering on this now because i'll be honest i originally had
00:32:48alexander volkanovsky but diego lopez's power is really really difficult to deal with um i'm gonna
00:32:54stick with i'm gonna stick with my original alexander volkanovsky does have a good style that um can
00:32:58kind of lend itself uh across all of these opponents right like an evil if i thought
00:33:03you blow up would get a title shot um with like a really solid performance that i would go with
00:33:07you blow up um you know based on like the grappling and stuff like that and lero murphy like he has to
00:33:12get through evil at first and you know i'm not so sure about his takedown defense so um you know
00:33:16not knowing what the contenders will end up doing here i'm going to go with volkanovsky now if you guys
00:33:21want a super super duper long shot i know we don't know if he's ever going to fight again in the ufc and
00:33:26i'm honestly i'm dubious that it might be one and done for this guy aaron pico 80 to one uh to end
00:33:31this end the year as a featherweight champion just got knocked out really bad by superstar prospect
00:33:35lero murphy um but you really don't think aaron pico's gonna fight again in the ufc
00:33:40i'm not so sure i'm really not he has been knocked out so many times he's been knocked out and that's
00:33:47that's just what we've seen and they're all they're all nasty like if you go to the bellator ones they
00:33:52are all nasty so and those are just the ones that we've seen you know that there's been way
00:33:57more in trainings i'm just not so sure he's been in this game for a while already you know he's not
00:34:01he is not a superstar prospect well we'll see okay yeah we'll see what happens over there 145 and in
00:34:09the career of mr aaron pico but let's move on to bantamweight where i will throw it over to you eric
00:34:15once again who do you have 135 at the end of the year so who i think will be the champion i think umar
00:34:21nirmaga madoff will be the champion uh at bantamweight i think that he's a really tough
00:34:25matchup for um for everybody basically i mean he gave murab daval's really a very good fight
00:34:29um obviously pyotr yan and then you know so i honestly don't have too much to say about it i
00:34:34think that umar nirmaga went off at plus 250 is awesome value an awesome bet and uh i think you
00:34:39know that you're going to see him fight for a title this year um regardless of what happens with uh
00:34:42yan versus daval's really if they get a rematch or whatever bantamweight's typically a very active
00:34:47division there's a lot of turnover that could happen here which also lends itself to a lot of good
00:34:50long shot uh opportunities um so i will throw you guys a dark horse and i'm probably going to
00:34:55steal one of yours peaton talbot 30 to 1 uh i think that there is a chance that he fights for a title
00:35:00this year if he's able to stay active i'm not sure how much longer he'll be able to make 135 because
00:35:04he's so big for the division so i think that they would try to fast track him if they could um so that
00:35:09is why i'm taking peaton talbot as a long shot umar is my official prediction i'm gonna side with you
00:35:14eric uh as well i've got umar nirmaga made of i i think that pie odian really threw a monkey wrench
00:35:21into 135 when he beat uh marab the wallash really and like you mentioned their first fight umar and
00:35:27marab that one was fireworks relatively close fight um i mean he got a couple rounds off of uh marab in
00:35:34there and obviously there's the whole narrative about the broken hand i for me it's it's really more
00:35:40of a fact that just like they'll have stuff that they can work on they being habib and the rest of
00:35:46that team which i mean there's not enough good things that you could say about them and how hard
00:35:51they work and all that stuff and they don't lose very often um but i so i imagine that they'll be
00:35:56wanting to correct that one so i'm picking umar but scott what do you what do you think i i want to i
00:36:01want to before i get to mine i just want to ask eric because i am curious when you're making your
00:36:06picks are you picking based on value are you picking like solely the one you think is going
00:36:11to be i'm just curious so my official prediction just to clarify my official prediction for uh for
00:36:17bantam was umar and margamed off so i'll make like an official prediction but if you wanted to
00:36:22if i'm projecting out what the division will look like for the entire year in my head i'm thinking
00:36:27how many times are they going to fight and maybe what's their next fight and if they win that one
00:36:31are they in the number one contender spot so for me i think if peyton talbot were to win
00:36:37and sean o'malley were to win i think that there's a non-zero chance that they would fight each other
00:36:41and if peyton talbot were to win that he set up for an end of the year fight uh for the title
00:36:46easily so that would that's like the thought process is like maybe somebody that would fight
00:36:51umar and margamed off for the title in like say november or december and then you could just i mean
00:36:58you're already pre-hedged if that were to happen but like um that's more of just like a hedging
00:37:01opportunity i don't know if they'll actually win the title but i think it's like a good long shot
00:37:04maybe they'll fight for the title this year type of thing okay all right to get back to the question
00:37:10of course i'm actually going with and this is i believe the chalk pick here peter yawn uh i did
00:37:15struggle with this one i think there's obviously some recency bias that's going to be at play and i'm
00:37:21trying to negotiate that with with my pick here but i i guess that is is i'm figuring he's not going to be
00:37:27super active i don't think that's the expectation of a peter yawn uh championship reign is i don't
00:37:33know that we're going to see him fight more than certainly not more than twice he's not going to be
00:37:37like marab um so really if he beats marab in that rematch which i mean come on it's got to be next
00:37:43um then i just don't know when that's going to happen i i imagine yawn is going to play this a little
00:37:50longer he might only get one fight in and if that's the case if he wins against marab
00:37:56he's got the belts i and i just don't know that you're going to let in another uh another name in
00:38:02there that's where i kind of have some problems here i i could absolutely see usman or magomedo
00:38:08being the champion i really could see exactly that scenario you had play out with peyton talbot i think
00:38:14there is something there he might fight many times this year and if that means they get him a title
00:38:19fight in december that might actually play out and i could really see it but i guess the most easy
00:38:24scenario i see happening is yan fights once and again it's really just which version that uh is
00:38:30the one that we're going to see next time against marab duolish really is it the one who got blasted
00:38:36by marab or the one that blasted marab i don't know so i'm going to go with uh what have you done for
00:38:40me lately and i'm going to say pretty on fair it's so funny that it's so funny that you say that uh
00:38:45piotr yan might not be active because like if bantamweight mid men's bantamweight isn't an
00:38:50active title division what division will be active you know what i mean like you just go
00:38:55through all of them and it's like you know like light heavyweight maybe active maybe not middleweight
00:39:01not active at all hamza chamayev's the champ um ilia taporia is probably not fighting the whole
00:39:05year it's like you go through the list he's like where are the title fights going to come from if all
00:39:09these guys are only i don't think yan's going to be quite the chamayev level of inactivity but i just
00:39:14i don't know something tells me he's not trying to get in there three times this year
00:39:17wow that would be terrible i pray you're wrong i pray you're wrong oh my god that'd be a disaster
00:39:24for the ufc i don't want to be right either i want these guys fighting three times a year if they're
00:39:28if they're up for the men and women but i don't think that's what we're getting and i think a lot
00:39:32of them would too i think a lot of them actually would a lot of them wouldn't i'll just add some of
00:39:37the odds that are on draft kings for to end the year for bantamweight some of them are really good
00:39:42some of them are hilarious dominic cruz is a thousand to one
00:39:47nice quang leh who's actively suing the ufc you can bet on him to you could donate your money to
00:39:56draft kings quang leh who's actively suing the ufc never happening like some of these odds are just
00:40:02they're hysterical cody garbrandt brian kelleher is not even on the roster anymore
00:40:07my goodness all righty boom boom kelleher shout out well scott i'll throw it to you for 125 which
00:40:15this is an interesting one who do you have uh at the end of the year i'm gonna go with pantoja i
00:40:23think as alexandre pantoja he gets that belt back my thinking is he only gets one fight in this year
00:40:28i mean we we you know that seems like that's where it's tracking based on some reports i'll get to that
00:40:33a little bit later as well um i think he walks into a title fight whenever that is and i think
00:40:38he beats whoever that is i do still put him as the number one flyweight in the world i think it's a
00:40:44very risky pick given his age the weight class being what it is and the age being what it is for that
00:40:50and also again he spends a lot of time between now and that next fight he's gonna be spending a lot of
00:40:56that rehabbing instead of sharpening those tools so i will give you one more wishful thinking
00:41:01alternative and i think you guys know what i'm gonna say the gooch kyoji horaguchi yeah that's a
00:41:08good i honestly that was that's a bit of a dark horse but it should have been more present in my
00:41:12mind but eric i'm i'm curious who you've got yeah i actually am going with a minel cop um plus 500 i
00:41:20think that he's going to um i think he's gonna beat joshua van in that way if they fight um i'm assuming
00:41:26that that's gonna be the title shot i could be wrong but i'm assuming that that'll be a title fight
00:41:30joshua van versus minel cop again i expect this division to be very active with a lot of fights
00:41:35i expect whoever i expect there to be at least three flyweight championship fights this year
00:41:39joshua van has no reason not to be fighting he took zero damage in his fight the ufc is gonna push him
00:41:44he's gotta get he's gotta get in there so um i think minel cop wins that fight and then from there
00:41:48like it's gonna be over all over the place joseph morales at 30 to 1 i'm super intrigued by him
00:41:53and uh i don't see anyone else on that division that i think is really gonna fight for a title
00:41:57maybe a mirror maybe a tetsuo tyra but i don't know too many uncertainties with pantoja for me
00:42:03to bet him as a favorite i also have alishandre pantoja just because we didn't see anything in
00:42:10that fight and he he was looking unstoppable beforehand it's just one of those scenarios
00:42:15where it's like i haven't seen enough to doubt him um i will say though minel cop's a good pick
00:42:20the gooch is also a good shot as far as as far as a dark horse but yeah i just haven't seen i'm
00:42:26trying to will that into existence a little more than i actually believe it but but frankly
00:42:31i could see it happening if he gets through amir albazi next month i mean we're starting to look
00:42:37at somebody who's very much in the mix and willing to be active yeah you're active you're already in
00:42:43position so we'll see that's like the that's what one of the main qualifiers you have to be active
00:42:47unless you're the current champion in which case it's a little bit of an edge um being inactive is
00:42:52the edge exactly yes being inactive is an edge if you're the champ but if you're very active that's
00:42:57like the qualifier especially if you're looking at a longer uh long shot absolutely well let's move
00:43:04on to the women's side of things and guys i'm going to give you a whole breakdown of women's
00:43:10bantamweight uh for 2026 this is exactly how it's going to go already the whole breakdown yeah for the
00:43:17title not for everyone in the top 15 no oh okay i was gonna say how are you gonna talk about all
00:43:22three or four of them no no no um there's a lot of options here's what's gonna happen obviously we
00:43:29know uh on january 24th uh this month kayla harrison and uh amanda nudes excuse me those two are going to
00:43:39fight i think that they're gonna fight again no matter who wins whether i think it's gonna be
00:43:43kayla harrison that's my prediction in that fight i think they're gonna fight again at the white house
00:43:48uh in june if it is june over the summer right i think kayla harrison's gonna win again
00:43:55amanda nunez is going to retire and kayla harrison is going to retire because she cannot
00:44:00make 135 anymore there's nothing left for her to do she just beat the goat twice she's now the goat
00:44:05either way even if amanda nunez wins one fight or the other it's going to be a rematch at the
00:44:11white house and then both of them will retire for the same reasons i just mentioned there's nothing
00:44:16left for either one of them to prove um and the title will be vacant and to finish the year uh let's
00:44:23just say in the fall or honestly maybe in december the vacant light have or the sorry the vacant
00:44:31bantamweight title will be fought and raquel pennington will beat juliana pena for the women's
00:44:38phantom weight strap in 2026 what do you guys think can i just tell can i just tell you jake
00:44:43that i was like with you for a little while and then it's like you drove off a cliff from based on
00:44:48what i would have thought okay because i have i absolutely have it as kayla harrison number one
00:44:54just to cut to the chase yeah i have kayla harrison winning i do think no matter how that fight plays
00:45:00out and especially let's say especially if kayla harrison loses i do think there's a rematch down the road
00:45:07i could see it being at the white house really depends on how quickly you can turn around
00:45:11um you know especially an older fighter in uh amanda nunez who is really not that much older
00:45:17than kayla harrison but also kayla harrison cuts a ton of weight so she can she turn it around that
00:45:22quick that i don't know about i do see them meeting again a second time again if it is nunez winning
00:45:28that seems much more likely um and then frankly i cannot imagine uh kayla harrison going oh and two
00:45:36against the 26 2026 version of amanda nunez and it's no disrespect to who is the goat no matter
00:45:43what happens off of this year she is the goat or it's you know chris cyborg i don't think kayla
00:45:50harrison has it in her to actually even achieve that i don't think she's going to stick around long
00:45:53enough to try for that frankly um she can call it that if she wants to and that's fine um but then
00:45:59again if nunez loses and kayla harrison wins and they don't rematch there is nobody who is beating
00:46:06kayla harrison 135 pounds i would put it as more likely that if it's not harrison or nunez who has
00:46:11the belt at the end of the year that the belt either is vacant or doesn't exist anymore yes that's
00:46:17exactly what i was gonna say um kayla harrison is definitely my pick here uh this is probably my
00:46:22favorite one my favorite pick of the entire slate that we just did um in terms of just like where this
00:46:28division will lay will land kayla harrison i've not gotten any indication that she's ready to retire
00:46:34in fact like i even wrote about like her contract negotiations with the ufc are like ongoing and she
00:46:38wants a bit a longer deal and a bigger deal like she's actively involved in contract negotiations and
00:46:45she ain't going back to the pfl so she's going to be here for for some time i would expect her to just
00:46:50run through all these girls for the next two years like if amanda nunez if she beats amanda nunez
00:46:56she'll run through and maybe be undefeated for the next two years i just don't see for for me it's
00:47:03it's it's the weight like how much how many more times can can she make 135 right fair question but
00:47:10there is no 145 so it's either do it or you're not getting paid anymore i i just yeah they're not
00:47:15gonna they're not bringing 45 back i don't see it happening yeah i mean like like you guys said if if
00:47:20if 135 went vacant there is a there is a chance that they would just be like all right not not doing
00:47:26this no disrespect to raquel pennington but yeah i i imagine the belt would disappear before they
00:47:31would put it around somebody else like that again i not it's not disrespectful i really just don't
00:47:36think that it's a very deep talent pool i think it's harder for them to stack it and i imagine they
00:47:41just don't need it that much anymore if they don't have those big stars my prediction still stands i will
00:47:46say amanda nunez and kayla harrison both retire before the end of the year that's that's what i'll say for
00:47:52for for one there's a bold prediction yeah hey it's yeah yeah i i started off hot so i can't i
00:47:59can't uh i can't slight you for any out you know i still don't i still don't think we've said anything
00:48:05on here that tops the the gable steveson one i know it's a dark horse but good lord no no no no save
00:48:11your money don't put money well eric let's see if uh you can top that what do we have at women's
00:48:16flyweight what's in store for us in 2026 more of the same that's uh the headline of the women's
00:48:22divisions for me i'm gonna go with valentina shevchenko will remain the flyweight champion
00:48:26um you know there's some contenders here right this isn't as you know as honestly there's a
00:48:31killer harrison the better bet at minus 120 um but uh valentina's minus 150 to remain the flyweight
00:48:36champion and you know there's some other contenders here i like aaron blanchfield's opportunity
00:48:40especially as a grappler we've seen valentina uh lose via the grappling but i think her striking
00:48:45would uh would get her over the hump and a potential title fight obviously natalia silva is
00:48:48a very good striker um as well so you know you get through you get through the division i'm gonna
00:48:54stick with valentina i think that she's just a weight bully um and i think that she holds the belt
00:48:59for at least another year yeah i'm gonna agree with you on that one i i was really really really
00:49:05close to picking aaron blanchfield uh just because i feel like she's grown a lot as a fighter and i feel
00:49:12like she's really you know coming into her own um but gosh it's valentina shevchenko like it's it's
00:49:19really tough to pick against her scott what do you think uh just one thought on aaron blanchfield i
00:49:26think she plays a dangerous game sometimes giving up those early rounds that she's willing to do
00:49:31to to sacrifice stuff i think that's going to be a harder play against someone like a valentina
00:49:35shevchenko she gets to that point so my hope is that if that does happen maybe that's not the play
00:49:40they take having said all that i'm also going with valentina shevchenko i think the honestly
00:49:45the biggest threat to her not holding this belt is if she goes up to 135 i don't think she's a
00:49:50weight bully i think she is a 125 er i think this has always been her weight class and finally the
00:49:55women were able to settle into the proper weight classes by the time she was able to get down there
00:50:00um i could definitely see natalia silva or amber blanchfield actually winning it because valentina
00:50:05shevchenko has shown chinks in her armor as well we could absolutely see someone who's large enough
00:50:12to handle her obviously john waitley was not um really giving her some trouble and especially on
00:50:18the ground a grappler of aaron blanchfield's uh caliber that's a total upset threat but you know i
00:50:25also think valentina shevchenko she's not really the most active she had two fights last year it was
00:50:29kind of first time in a couple years she'd been less active uh in that whole you know alexa grasso
00:50:34you know debacle that we kind of had i guess you debacle's probably harsh but um i can see her
00:50:40being one and done and holding on to the belt i just that's that's what i see happening fair enough
00:50:46yeah yeah all righty well i think i'm thinking that women's straw weight will be a relatively
00:50:52simple one but we'll see if either of you have anything to say about that scott who do you have
00:50:56at 115 at the end of the year i'm going with the woman who is still in my mind the number one
00:51:03straw weight in the world and that is zhongwei li her coach john wood was just recently noting to
00:51:07mma fighting that there is you know obviously a clear-cut path for her uh to fight the champion
00:51:13mackenzie dern who has the belt after zhongwei li vacated it to go up and fight valentine at the
00:51:17garden right um we saw how that went i referenced how that went um he did indicate though it's going
00:51:23to be up to weili to figure out what she wants to do so that's kind of the question is if weili
00:51:27wants to go down there and fight for the belt which she would uh i'm pretty sure she would get
00:51:32it back if she doesn't then she's not going to be the champion right that's that's kind of simple
00:51:36there um so it's going to be on her motivation right and and i think she's only going to fight
00:51:41one time this year no matter what too she is probably the least active of all these women
00:51:45and men that we've been talking about so uh if that doesn't happen if she doesn't go down to 15
00:51:50my alternative pick is i'll actually say tatiana suarez should she get out of this uh upcoming
00:51:56fight that she now has against lupico dina is coming up i'll hit that again in the quick hits
00:52:00real quick um but i think she would beat mackenzie dern later this year as well yeah i don't have much
00:52:07to add to that honestly that's pretty much the the lay of the land at least in in in my mind um but
00:52:13eric what do you think are you in agreement yeah i'm i was surprised that jangweili wasn't the
00:52:18favorite uh to open up here um against um really obviously mckenzie yeah she's not jangweili
00:52:24is plus 150 and mckenzie dern's plus 125. that's um yeah so maybe some value there on jangweili
00:52:30uh at least according to us um you want to go like extreme long shot i've been singing jillian
00:52:38robertson's praises for quite some time uh she had two fights canceled last year in december
00:52:43um but she she only fought once last year so that kind of haltered her momentum a little bit after
00:52:47fighting you know three three or four times in 2024. so um jillian robertson needs to be a little bit more
00:52:53active in order to get up there but in theory this division should be decently active um obviously
00:52:59jangweili is the champion won't be as active but mckenzie dern should be active so jillian robertson
00:53:03would definitely have a good opportunity if uh if jangweili doesn't have doesn't end up going up
00:53:07fair enough all righty so that is all the weight classes of the ufc let us know in the comments uh
00:53:12what we got right what we got wrong let us know who you had for your champions of 2026 uh but scott with
00:53:19that let's go ahead and move into quick hits what do we have so we got a bunch that i kind of want
00:53:26to hit on here uh starting with an upcoming title fight this is not really a change to it or anything
00:53:32like that but there's been kind of some idea out there that maybe just gaethje is uh dealing with
00:53:37a staph infection right uh he did pour cold water on that uh over social media getting you know putting
00:53:43that to bed as far as what he says that this fight against patty pimlet for the interim lightweight
00:53:48title there shouldn't be any issues he's not dealing with that it was i believe an ingrown
00:53:52hair or something like that we'll you know we can make your own judgments here but really as long
00:53:57as he's clear to fight then he's clear to fight so that's that is what it is um another former
00:54:02champion alishandri pantoja we mentioned before he is not going to undergo surgery after that injury
00:54:08cost him his flyweight title against joshua van last month uh according to ariel hawani this all being from
00:54:14uh and also uh ariel reports that pantoja is hopeful to return maybe mid to third quarter
00:54:21of 2026 so that's kind of what i was speaking about before we're probably only looking for him
00:54:25later in the year and that's why i kind of see one fight for him right um some notable fight
00:54:29announcements uh one of which i touched upon already but raul rosas jr is uh according to mma
00:54:36fighting he's going to be fighting rob font at ufc 326 in march in uh las vegas tatiana suarez
00:54:42mentioned her before she's fighting lubi godinez this one is on track for ufc 327 on april 11 in
00:54:49miami uh multiple reports on that one alexa grasa we mentioned her before as well at the backle
00:54:55maybe not the backle uh against macy barber they're gonna have a rematch at the fight night card in
00:55:01seattle on march 28th multiple reports have that one and then the ufc themselves they announced a
00:55:06bunch of fights were official for their uh february 21st fight night in houston and also one week
00:55:14later in mexico city going over to the pfl side uh pfl announced it is parting ways with former ceo
00:55:21peter murray uh this next part coming uh from ariel hawani though is that the organization has laid off
00:55:28uh some long time employees as well very recently so a lot of upheaval in that company and that's
00:55:35unfortunate to hear if that's the case um and then lastly i'll leave you on this one this is a little
00:55:39more interesting john jones daniel cormier they have been announced to be coaching against each other
00:55:47on russian reality show elf reality uh it's like a similar show to the ultimate fighter so
00:55:53like they're not gonna fight at the end that's certainly not gonna happen uh but uh it's it's
00:55:59an interesting thing if you like that drama if you're interested in that drama i mean that should
00:56:04be probably appointment viewing if you can get a russian television i guess why isn't that on in
00:56:09america man why couldn't the ufc put that together because someone gave them more money than the ufc was
00:56:15willing to what else ufc's got more money than whatever company this is i didn't say they didn't i said
00:56:21what they're willing to give i know but eric just wants this on on american television that i'm sure
00:56:29that we will see some stuff on social media though uh if if you you know on that but there is no way
00:56:36to find anything that's out of the country that's for sure there are no tools at your disposal to be
00:56:40able to watch television from another country or anything through the internet or any sort of thing
00:56:45doesn't exist uh impossible nope um well let's go ahead and talk about stuff that we can watch
00:56:52uh on ufc fight pass let's talk about our homework in the final round guys we all watched ufc 84 because
00:56:59there's absolutely nothing else to watch uh in mma in this drought that we've been enduring for the
00:57:05past few weeks and will continue to endure not nothing nothing but there's very little yeah it
00:57:10is a dry new year's eve event there was that you know obviously a big spectacle as well but like
00:57:16not as much to watch as we are currently used to so we have some more free time hence watching ufc 84
00:57:22you guys got extra brownie points you watch the entire thing through i was a bit of a procrastinator
00:57:27and was only able to uh do the the main card so you guys get extra credit um which is the most authentic
00:57:33experience to the time right no nobody was watching these live you either watched they didn't actually
00:57:39make the the prelims like available online for like a little while and also they would put them
00:57:44on the dvds so you can watch them that way but that is yeah the real live experience is the one that
00:57:49you got anyway i wanted to immerse myself in the time you know extra curricular activity nonsense
00:57:57harken back to your childhood yes exactly um no it was great i mean every single fight was uh was was
00:58:04a was interesting at least like there were there were none on there that you know didn't make me
00:58:09appreciate being a fight fan so big names on there as well that even i could recognize and also got to
00:58:15see some some guys i wasn't super familiar with like tiago santos uh for instance and uh
00:58:21yeah i mean the the opening of uh the guys in gladiator gear that was pretty interesting i will say
00:58:29that's new for you yeah yeah that was pretty new for me eric what did you think about that one
00:58:34yeah that was bizarre i had no idea i was like what is this yeah but i will say i just you know
00:58:38respect to the ufc's production quality has always been really good like this was in 2008 their
00:58:43production quality hasn't changed that much honestly yes absolutely it's very similar products
00:58:48it's kind of bizarre that they were able to nail this so early on so much so that they don't really
00:58:53have to change it at all it's really the same product that was going to be exactly pretty much
00:58:57exactly what i was going to say same but different you know like it's obviously more polished you have
00:59:01like the uh packages with like it's less so like metal music but you know like whatever bring the
00:59:07pain no escape can you step to this yeah um one thing i also want to say too is that uh you know all
00:59:14the fans were there for like the prelims and like there was like the there was stacked that like it was
00:59:20filled the arena was filled not so much now like even like the first fight of a main card
00:59:24and fans aren't really there until the main event it's kind of a bummer honestly like all the fans
00:59:29being there i was like that was cool like that should be a thing still i don't know why it's not
00:59:36mm-hmm how about you what about the faces i mean you met you referenced the fights a little bit here
00:59:40but like obviously there were some pretty interesting results there i mean you had this fight i don't know
00:59:46if you knew the underlying drama with uh the tito ortiz situation but tito and dana white have had a
00:59:52very love-hate relationship over decades yeah i mean they they go back to when dana was his manager
00:59:58in the 90s so we're talking about a very long relationship between these guys and at this
01:00:04point in the relationship this was his fight it was his farewell fight which certainly was not his
01:00:08farewell fight for the ufc uh he would be his next fight would be in the ufc um everything getting
01:00:14ended but they were talking about having a boxing match at this point it was like it was some sort of
01:00:19craziness going on it was a wild time um that was like kind of the underlying story going on i think
01:00:24i mentioned this week this was my introduction to watching a live event it's the very first one
01:00:29i watched start to finish um and that was my introduction to leon mochito which is why i was
01:00:34kind of became a big fan i liked him in this fight here he had such an interesting style kicking in that
01:00:39he was not just the kicking i mean his whole idea wasn't you heard joe rogan harp on it was the fact
01:00:46that it's like he's trying to hit and not get hit as some sort of novel idea that had only been in
01:00:51around you know for centuries and millennia of combat and but but i love tino ortiz and that one
01:00:57being like he's just running and then the next round he goes out he eats like this brilliant knee to the
01:01:02to the chest he's getting hit all over the place it's not he's just running he's just not standing
01:01:06still for you guy yes um really fascinating then d you know bj penn ending it with that nasty knee that
01:01:14basically just finished sean shirk anything after that was academic yeah i love these fights the
01:01:19knockout for vanderlei exactly that was a fun one and this was that was the very peak that we had
01:01:25of keith jardine because he was coming off all these big wins over people that he didn't know what
01:01:29expected vanderlei silva had not found that success post pride coming into the ufc this was him finally
01:01:35getting back over the hump to kind of change the narrative for him a little bit um and kept him alive
01:01:40in the ufc for many years to come so it was a very interesting event i think it was the best
01:01:43event of that year if i recall um certainly the one i remember the most but hope you guys enjoyed
01:01:49it absolutely yeah we also had paul harris's uh ufc debut and man on the prelims who's the more paul
01:01:55harris yes yes and no one's knee got reaped that was great no one's knee got reaped and he let go of
01:02:01the arm bar in plenty of time um but jake i i think you'd appreciate this as well since all three of us
01:02:06have trained jiu-jitsu and so at some more at some level um back take crossing his legs joe rogan really
01:02:12interestingly um explaining why he's crossing his legs like he's he's like you're not supposed to
01:02:16do that in jiu-jitsu but paul harris is so confident that he's not going to get foot locked that he wants
01:02:21the extra pressure on his hips in order to keep that position and then he used that to explode up
01:02:28pushing off of his hips and getting an arm bar to get his leg up really really impressive paul harris
01:02:33yeah paul harris is uh was an interesting uh fight to watch it was a quick quick submission
01:02:38first round two and a half minutes in really good i'll go ahead and watch those anyway jake
01:02:42just go watch them i mean they're fun it's not your homework just go do it anyway i will they're
01:02:46quick don't watch the the one that i wish i didn't watch was rich clementi uh but although uh that one
01:02:53was a decision it was kind of not uh not too entertaining um but his his nickname was no love
01:02:58so cody guard right rich is a rich is a nickname from rich clementi all right all right i yeah i will
01:03:06go ahead and watch this well maybe not that one like you said but uh scott let's go ahead and talk
01:03:10about our next homework assignment during this somewhat drought of mma that we've got going on
01:03:16i'm giving you one of the greatest pride events ever it was uh pride final conflict 2005 this was going
01:03:23to be the culmination of the that year's middleweight grand prix middleweight being 205 pounds in pride so
01:03:29don't get that mixed up with our middleweight of today it was actually light heavyweight um that
01:03:34grand prix had the final two rounds of it like i said also had the highly anticipated heavyweight
01:03:38title fight between fedor amelianenko and mirko krokop we had the worst of krokop experience
01:03:44recently as well so this will feed into that i think for you guys who've been keeping up with your
01:03:48homework uh and also there was a bunch of other stars throughout this card seven fights
01:03:52that's all it is um and there's a lot of pageantry of course that comes with pride
01:03:56watch it start to finish have a fun time on another non-ufc weekend all right all right and uh
01:04:02scott let's keep up with our mma history what happened this week in mma so that was in 2005 we're
01:04:08going back further than that january 8th 1999 party like it was that year right 27 years ago ufc 18
01:04:18not 118 not 218 not 318 18 in the new orleans suburbs that's when that went down we have very
01:04:27few fights that like in the ufc history that's ever really happened in january particularly early
01:04:31january if they're not like november or january first or second so this is really a unique situation
01:04:38here but the reason why this one is notable not because of all the the hall of famers that are on
01:04:42this card it's particularly notable for one reason and that is that the this was the first event where
01:04:49you saw a ufc logo that featured prominently the letters u f c rather than the uh drawing of the guy
01:05:00on top like ultimate fighting championship is what i would say yes they got rid of the globe and that
01:05:05the guy is still there but uh but again now it's not the ultimate fighting championship so much as the ufc
01:05:11i see it went with the full-blown acronym there we go and never gone back yes rightfully so um
01:05:20although we can appreciate the old logo but scott as i'm as you mentioned before there's still some
01:05:25mma out there to watch what is one more fight uh event if people are looking for it
01:05:32so the one i'm going to give you it's another aca card i mean it's easy to highlight them they have
01:05:36the best fighters out there basically outside of north america um your your problems with watching
01:05:43a fight in chechnya with the uh the chechen dictator over there may prevent you from watching it i can't
01:05:48blame you that is your choice to make but if you have no scruples on that you are willing to watch
01:05:54some pretty interesting fights going down starting uh it's it's aca 198 it's friday uh prelims start at
01:06:019 a.m eastern main card is 1 p.m you can stream it on the website aca-mma.com i believe it is actually
01:06:08free in this case uh so there's plenty of top 100 talent in action but the highest one that i can give
01:06:13you it's two top 40 lightweights hardest uh hardison batista and dowd uh shakyaev i'm probably butchering
01:06:22one of those names but uh that is for the promotions interim lightweight title there is also a featherweight
01:06:29championship fight uh between 16 and 0 champion islam omarov and alihan sulemanov so you've got some
01:06:38very intriguing fights with some especially russian talent in this case all righty thank you for that
01:06:43scott and plenty of uh stuff to keep you guys busy at home uh till our next episode until we get some
01:06:51more major mma events um hopefully do your homework i know i will and scott and eric thank you very much
01:06:57for joining me on yet another episode of against the cage happy new year it's good to be back and
01:07:03we will see you guys next week no happy new year did liar david wouldn't like that that is true
01:07:11what's the cut off the fourth reading i believe you i thought you got the fourth no was it was the
01:07:16fourth was okay i remember it as three days but i could be wrong well we're late basically maybe i
01:07:21messed up no longer take care buddy
01:07:27you
01:07:28you
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