Volkanovski vs Lopes 2: Will History Repeat Itself or Upset Incoming?

Name: Volkanovski vs Lopes 2: Will History Repeat Itself or Upset Incoming? | Against the Cage
Uploaded: 2026-01-30T06:18:23+00:00
Duration: 1 h 2 min 14 s
Channel: New York Post
Description: Watch Volkanovski vs Lopes 2: Will History Repeat Itself or Upset Incoming? | Against the Cage - New York Post on Dailymotion

00:00:05Welcome back to Against the Cage.

00:00:10Your MMA home for all the previews, recaps, and exclusive interviews that I know you're

00:00:14looking for.

00:00:15My name is Jake Arie.

00:00:16I'm here with my esteemed co-host Scott Fontana and Eric.

00:00:19And guys, we're finally coming off of the first UFC event of 2020.

00:00:24UFC 324 in the main event for the interim lightweight champion.

00:00:29Justin Gaethje once again on a win streak, defeating Patty Pimblett.

00:00:34And Scott, you wrote an article after the main event about the...

00:00:39Fight between Justin Gaethje and Patty Pimblett.

00:00:41Could you tell us more about that?

00:00:43Well...

00:00:44Yeah, I mean, I was kind of feeling up to a column, so I decided to get a little opinion.

00:00:49And I made the case that Justin Gaethje getting...

00:00:54the win over Patty Pimblett on Saturday night.

00:00:57That opened the door for...

00:00:59what ought to be in the UFC's view.

00:01:03Um, the idea...

00:01:04the real headliner for their White House card.

00:01:07You know, realistically, I know it's kind of...

00:01:09kind of like a...

00:01:10a little bit of a hot take, I guess.

00:01:12Um, but hear me out.

00:01:14The TLDR...

00:01:14is that Gaethje, you know, he's the flag-waving, well-loved American...

00:01:19Uh, he's got one part of this title here.

00:01:21Could be going against, or would be going against, the big...

00:01:24biggest...

00:01:25one of the biggest stars...

00:01:26in the world...

00:01:27in the sport...

00:01:28Uh, and...

00:01:29frankly, this is the type of thing that I think at least puts the...

00:01:32that American patriotism...

00:01:34up...

00:01:35right front and center.

00:01:36And I think that's the kind of thing that the UFC ought to be...

00:01:39targeting for this particular card.

00:01:41Or at least what they...

00:01:42what I imagine they'd want to be doing.

00:01:44So, Scott, listen.

00:01:46I...

00:01:47well, I...

00:01:48I agree that Justin Gaethje will fight the...

00:01:49White House.

00:01:50You got one part of that wrong.

00:01:51And that is that he will be facing Ilya Teporia.

00:01:54Ilya Teporia is not gonna fight at the White House.

00:01:57Ilya Teporia is...

00:01:59not exactly trusted by the UFC right now.

00:02:01He...

00:02:02they're...

00:02:03they have an interim belt of...

00:02:04uh...

00:02:05on his...

00:02:06uh...

00:02:07he fought this summer.

00:02:08And they already have an interim belt...

00:02:09uh...

00:02:09for a lightweight.

00:02:10And that is because he's got a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes.

00:02:13Um...

00:02:14you know,

00:02:15I think Justin Gaethje is the perfect fighter for the White House that you...

00:02:19laid...

00:02:20you laid out a very fair case.

00:02:21Uh...

00:02:22you know,

00:02:23they nicknamed him Homer Simpson.

00:02:24Uh...

00:02:25you know,

00:02:26American.

00:02:24And, uh...

00:02:25you know,

00:02:26he's got the flag.

00:02:27Uh...

00:02:28you'll come out with the flag and...

00:02:29you know...

00:02:29he's...

00:02:30he's definitely...

00:02:31um...

00:02:32he's got that...

00:02:33um...

00:02:34I guess he's...

00:02:35he's gotten enough popularity...

00:02:34where he can kind of...

00:02:35maybe not carry the card,

00:02:36but he could definitely...

00:02:37um...

00:02:38headline it.

00:02:39Now what I...

00:02:39what I think that you're missing here is...

00:02:40the Iliad Toporia side...

00:02:42is a...

00:02:43is a little too...

00:02:44Data White...

00:02:44the guy has said this repeatedly...

00:02:45he wants somebody that he can trust...

00:02:47him specifically...

00:02:48in this...

00:02:49in this...

00:02:49fight...

00:02:50Iliad Toporia does not profile as that right now.

00:02:52Jon Jones doesn't profile as that right now.

00:02:53And...

00:02:54whoever...

00:02:55has thoughts about this...

00:02:56and...

00:02:57I'm sure you have many...

00:02:58Dana White...

00:02:59loves Conor McGregor.

00:03:00They love each other.

00:03:01They like each other.

00:03:02They...

00:03:03they trust each other.

00:03:04And...

00:03:04and...

00:03:05if...

00:03:06if you heard...

00:03:07and he is notoriously reliable,

00:03:08I must say.

00:03:09I'm not...

00:03:09saying that he's reliable.

00:03:10And I'm...

00:03:11I agree that there is tons of...

00:03:12um...

00:03:13you know...

00:03:14different opinions on...

00:03:14on this.

00:03:15I'm just saying...

00:03:16from Dana White's perspective...

00:03:17he trusts Conor McGregor...

00:03:18way more...

00:03:19more than he trusts Jon Jones...

00:03:20and likely more than he trusts...

00:03:22Iliad Toporia right now.

00:03:23So...

00:03:24uh...

00:03:24Iliad Toporia has never...

00:03:25failed to show up for a date.

00:03:27Yeah, he only fights once a year...

00:03:29and...

00:03:29and they have an interim belt...

00:03:30after he hasn't fought after six months.

00:03:32An interim belt after six months...

00:03:33tells you so much...

00:03:34that...

00:03:35there's no way...

00:03:36I think what it tells you...

00:03:37is that he wasn't ready to fight...

00:03:38in January...

00:03:39when they...

00:03:39they wanted him to fight...

00:03:40so they said...

00:03:41well...

00:03:42let's just make another belt...

00:03:43so that we can have...

00:03:44up for grabs in January...

00:03:44sometimes...

00:03:45they just create these belts...

00:03:46because they need somebody...

00:03:47on this particular date...

00:03:48like years ago...

00:03:49when they made...

00:03:49the interim belt...

00:03:50uh...

00:03:51so that...

00:03:52could get the win...

00:03:53over Derrick Lewis...

00:03:54they needed...

00:03:54somebody to fight in August...

00:03:55we didn't...

00:03:56we had a situation...

00:03:57where if I recall...

00:03:58correctly...

00:03:59uh...

00:04:00Francis had gone...

00:04:01was willing to fight...

00:04:02like a month later...

00:04:03or something like that...

00:04:04and they're like...

00:04:04not good enough...

00:04:05so we're gonna make...

00:04:06an interim belt...

00:04:07sometimes...

00:04:08you just need to be...

00:04:09it doesn't matter...

00:04:10but...

00:04:11for the purpose of this...

00:04:12it doesn't really matter...

00:04:13what we're talking about here...

00:04:14is that...

00:04:14sometimes...

00:04:15they just need you...

00:04:16on a particular date...

00:04:17or they need a belt...

00:04:18on a particular date...

00:04:19if you're not...

00:04:19we'll just make another one...

00:04:20so I don't know...

00:04:21if that necessarily...

00:04:22reflects on how...

00:04:23how unreliable...

00:04:24Celia Toporia...

00:04:25is here...

00:04:26we've got Toporia...

00:04:27saying...

00:04:28listen...

00:04:29I'm targeting...

00:04:30April, May...

00:04:29June to come back...

00:04:30that's what...

00:04:31the latest thing...

00:04:32he's saying now...

00:04:33could that change?

00:04:34absolutely...

00:04:35but if he's saying...

00:04:34that right now...

00:04:35and the UFC...

00:04:36is willing to...

00:04:37trust that...

00:04:38and that's the kind of thing...

00:04:39then sure...

00:04:40why not?

00:04:41but either way...

00:04:42regardless of whether...

00:04:43it actually can happen...

00:04:44or not...

00:04:45or whether it's going...

00:04:44to happen or not...

00:04:45Justin Gaethje held up...

00:04:46his end of the bargain...

00:04:47which was...

00:04:48basically the whole point...

00:04:49of my column...

00:04:49it set up a fight...

00:04:51that ultimately...

00:04:52is going to happen...

00:04:53it certainly...

00:04:54lines up...

00:04:55that it can happen...

00:04:56that date...

00:04:57whether it will...

00:04:58I don't know...

00:04:59there's an entire possibility...

00:04:59that he's just not...

00:05:00going to be ready...

00:05:01for that date...

00:05:02but I don't know...

00:05:03if it's because...

00:05:04the UFC...

00:05:05can't trust it...

00:05:06it's probably...

00:05:04just...

00:05:05hey...

00:05:06I'm not ready...

00:05:07so they won't do it...

00:05:08so...

00:05:09I...

00:05:10I totally...

00:05:11I don't agree...

00:05:12that the interim belt...

00:05:13mean...

00:05:14that putting...

00:05:14an interim belt...

00:05:15on lightweight...

00:05:16means nothing...

00:05:17I like to read into...

00:05:18this stuff a lot...

00:05:19after six months...

00:05:19they threw an interim belt...

00:05:20on lightweight...

00:05:21the things that you hear...

00:05:22prior...

00:05:23by the way...

00:05:24about...

00:05:24the UFC...

00:05:25in Italy...

00:05:26wasn't great...

00:05:27because he only fights...

00:05:28like once a year...

00:05:29he's not active...

00:05:29so...

00:05:30you know...

00:05:31to throw an interim belt...

00:05:32after him not fighting...

00:05:33for six months...

00:05:34is...

00:05:34the basis of my argument...

00:05:35for...

00:05:36why that...

00:05:37I...

00:05:38I don't think...

00:05:39that they will trust him...

00:05:39enough...

00:05:40to...

00:05:41headline...

00:05:42the White House card...

00:05:43that's the way...

00:05:44that I look...

00:05:44at it...

00:05:45and like...

00:05:46you brought up...

00:05:47the Francis Ngannou thing...

00:05:48the UFC...

00:05:49doesn't...

00:05:49like you...

00:05:50they throw an interim...

00:05:51belt out...

00:05:52we've seen this...

00:05:53many times...

00:05:54you know...

00:05:55that's like...

00:05:54maybe like...

00:05:55one of their pressure cookers...

00:05:56to get you into the octagon...

00:05:57sooner...

00:05:58so...

00:05:59I...

00:05:59I heard...

00:06:00I saw that he was talking about...

00:06:01April, May, June...

00:06:02I know he's selling his house...

00:06:03in Madrid...

00:06:04but there's...

00:06:04there's a lot going on...

00:06:05at lightweight...

00:06:06I...

00:06:07really think that...

00:06:08Conor McGregor is going to fight...

00:06:09at the White House...

00:06:09really do. And in terms of matchup, you saw that Dana White didn't said Mike.

00:06:14Michael Chandler's not happening. So if it's not going to be Michael Chandler, I think

00:06:17that there's only two options and it's Justin Gaethje or Horowitz.

00:06:19I'm still having trouble wrapping my head around

00:06:24the Ilya Tepori is not reliable, even though he's met every single date that he's been

00:06:28scheduled for.

00:06:29Conor McGregor, much more reliable, who last time they booked him could not make the date.

00:06:34I'm not arguing reliability versus reliability. I'm arguing relationship with Dana White versus

00:06:39relationship with Dana White. Conor McGregor and Dana White are like this.

00:06:43Well, guys, we're going to hear.

00:06:44He has a contract in place. One of them does not, apparently. There's a big dispute over

00:06:49contract.

00:06:49That's a bigger.

00:06:49Conor McGregor. That's a gigantic hurdle. So I don't know about that. But Jake, you're

00:06:54trying to get us.

00:06:54I'm going to interject here because we should be hearing a little bit more and more about

00:06:59that White House.

00:06:59Maybe we could we could talk about this a little bit more because I could see there's quite

00:07:03a lot of passion from.

00:07:04Both of you guys. But I do want to get to the fight and what you guys took away from it.

00:07:09Because we've got a lot to cover in this episode. So I'm going to throw it over to you,

00:07:13Eric, because I know you had some questions.

00:07:14About Justin Gaethje going into this fight. So I want to ask you, what questions did he answer for?

00:07:19You in this performance?

00:07:21Well, he's definitely, you know, was getting up there in age. I

00:07:24thought this past weekend we saw a Justin Gaethje that is desperate, a Justin Gaethje that was

00:07:29throwing all.

00:07:29Caution to the wind. And they were saying on the broadcast, this is the old Justin Gaethje where

00:07:33he is just coming forward and he doesn't.

00:07:34He doesn't care what you're throwing at him, but he's coming forward. He's going to hit you harder

00:07:37than you hit him. What we saw from Justin Gaethje.

00:07:39He's the most violent striker in lightweight history. He's the most dangerous guy.

00:07:44Like, if you just look at Paddy Pimlet's face, look at all of his opponent's faces after they fight him.

00:07:49Striking with him is a stupid idea. And like Justin Gaethje, you can't.

00:07:54I mean, look, yes, he has been knocked out. Max Holloway did it. We've seen it and he's

00:07:59getting a little bit older. We've seen it. We've seen all that, but his striking is still so far.

00:08:04Elite that anybody that's going to go in there and fight with him, they have to be

00:08:09looking at this matchup specific. And to answer the question.

00:08:14Justin Gaethje is just the scariest striker still, even though he's, you know, getting up there in age.

00:08:19He's far.

00:08:19Falled a lot, taking a ton of damage. It doesn't matter. It's unbelievable.

00:08:23Scott, how about you? Any questions?

00:08:24Any questions you had answered by him?

00:08:28Just to piggyback off of him.

00:08:29Eric here. I mean, I would say, yes, absolutely. He showed that he can go back to that old strategy,

00:08:34right? That dig deep.

00:08:34Brawl type of thing that he can put in your face that we hadn't seen as much of lately.

00:08:39That is, that's certainly something in his back pocket. It's not something he's moved away from

00:08:43completely. It seems like now.

00:08:44It's like, okay, what's the right matchup for me to kind of go one way or the other? Or, you know,

00:08:49I'm sure.

00:08:49There's varying degrees of that too. It's not just A or B. There's probably, you know, C, D, E, F that are just.

00:08:54Similar to those, right? The only thing I would just disagree with Eric there is.

00:08:59Look, he's definitely one of the most devastating strikers at lightweight, but I.

00:09:04I don't know that someone like Elliot Soporio, for example, I'm sure he's pretty tech.

00:09:09Technically sound enough that he could probably navigate a lot of the, let's say, less technical.

00:09:14Elements of Justin Gaethje's striking arsenal, right? That's the.

00:09:19Kind of thing that Max Holloway brought to the table and made it much harder for Gaethje in their fight, but.

00:09:24To go back to Gaethje himself, right? I think putting the pressure on Paddy.

00:09:29Punishing him in the process, these type of things that that definitely answered a lot of the questions of like.

00:09:34What's he going to be doing? Is he going to be only going that old route?

00:09:38It was nice to see. It was certainly the.

00:09:39Right call. Jake, you and I both agreed last week that that was kind of like the strategy we thought.

00:09:44Might be better here. And fortunately, he went with that and it worked out for him.

00:09:49The other thing I would say is, man, he looked damn good for 37.

00:09:52So that that answer.

00:09:54A little bit of that age question, right?

00:09:56One hundred percent. And one for me, the biggest take.

00:09:59Away was that Justin Gaethje still has this uncanny ability to just always.

00:10:04A Justin Gaethje fight will be a Justin Gaethje fight.

00:10:08He hasn't given us any reason.

00:10:09He hasn't given us any reason to doubt that.

00:10:11Ilya Teporia, like you said, he might be the one person to be able.

00:10:14To navigate that situation, but it's going into a fight where it's like strike.

00:10:19Striker, grappler sort of matchup.

00:10:22The only person we've ever seen who has been.

00:10:24Able to, even in the first round of the Khabib fight, that fight was mostly stand.

00:10:29Up until the second round when it did get taken down and he got choked out by Khabib.

00:10:34But even.

00:10:34Even for someone who has like the grappling prowess of Khabib, that first round was mostly

00:10:39on the feet.

00:10:39So, Justin Gaethje just has that ability to, I don't know, pull his opponent in.

00:10:44Into a striking battle, even when everyone else is saying like, go for the takedown, go

00:10:48for the takedown.

00:10:49And credit to Justin Gaethje, I mean, keeping him away with the jab and defending the takedown.

00:10:54But yeah, that was my biggest takeaway is Justin Gaethje is still able to.

00:10:59Make it his fight, you know?

00:11:02Well, I.

00:11:04Yeah, I saw.

00:11:04I want to talk about Patty Pimblitt as well, because obviously this was a all time.

00:11:10Entertaining fight.

00:11:11I think this is already a fight of the year contender.

00:11:14So.

00:11:14I want to throw this to you, Scott.

00:11:16For Patty, do you think that this was a net loss?

00:11:19Losser and net gain, obviously he was the favorite into this fight.

00:11:23So, you know, he didn't live up to.

00:11:24The expectations in terms of getting the win.

00:11:27But what do you think?

00:11:28A net loss or a net gain for Patty?

00:11:29Maybe this is a little hot takey, but I'm going to say it's a small net gain, actually.

00:11:34Even in a loss, I think he showed that he absolutely belongs fighting these elite.

00:11:39Lightweights here.

00:11:41This is the level he's supposed to be competing against, whether he beats.

00:11:44Them or not, this is about where he is.

00:11:47He probably could have on the right day shown up.

00:11:49And defeated Justin Gaethje, but, you know, maybe we'll figure out some of that a little later.

00:11:54In the show, I think we're going to talk about it.

00:11:56But look, I think he learns a lot from this fight.

00:11:58Number one.

00:11:59I don't think it sets him miles back in his career.

00:12:02He entertained.

00:12:03I don't think his star took any.

00:12:04You know, real shine off it.

00:12:06People still are all about Patty Pimblett.

00:12:08If you were before, he didn't.

00:12:09He didn't come in as like an unbeaten recuma scene.

00:12:12So what's one loss here?

00:12:14It's not that big a deal.

00:12:14How about you, Eric?

00:12:17We're going to disagree on everything today.

00:12:19I'm going to go.

00:12:19No net loss for sure on Patty Pimblett.

00:12:24The net.

00:12:24The net loss here is, you know, again, came in here as a favorite and he jumps in.

00:12:29And he gets into the striking battle with Justin Gaethje and he takes so much damage.

00:12:34You know, I have, I just, from my perspective, there.

00:12:39There was no grappling.

00:12:41I don't think he had any business losing this fight, quite frankly.

00:12:44Like, the way that I, I used to work for the Action Network and one of my favorite.

00:12:49MMA podcast is Billy Ward and Sean Zarello do their betting podcast.

00:12:53And Billy Ward took this.

00:12:54And I'd love to be able to claim this.

00:12:57But he said, Patty Pimblett is a poor man to Charles Oli.

00:12:59And he's right.

00:13:02The fact that there was no grappling in the.

00:13:04First three rounds is none and not even a guard pull attempt is just mouth.

00:13:09Not practice from Patty Pimblett.

00:13:12He said after the fight, and I think even.

00:13:14I'm sure many, multiple times over concussed, able to say, I didn't need to.

00:13:19Prove to everybody how tough I was in there tonight.

00:13:22And I did.

00:13:23And I didn't need to do that.

00:13:24I was like, yes.

00:13:26Like, you definitely, like, you know it.

00:13:28You didn't need to show it.

00:13:29You didn't need to tell everybody how tough you were.

00:13:31You just need to go out there and get a win.

00:13:32So I'll go net loss.

00:13:34Because I don't think he should have lost this fight.

00:13:37I really don't.

00:13:37I think that this was his night that he could have come.

00:13:39Come in there, gotten the win, taken a massive rub on the biggest stage that he's ever fought in.

00:13:44And he.

00:13:44Came up short with a bad game plan.

00:13:47I'm really curious, actually, how they end up matching.

00:13:49Up Patty going off of this one.

00:13:53You know, it's obviously, like I said.

00:13:54I think he actually belongs at this level.

00:13:56Seems like you do, too, if you're saying he really shouldn't have lost the fight.

00:13:59So, you know, what do they do with him next here is kind of the curious thing.

00:14:04The only thing I've.

00:14:04Come up with here was maybe the winner of this coming weekend's fight, Rafael.

00:14:09Fizia versus Mauricio Hufi.

00:14:12I think that would be fun either way.

00:14:14And I think all.

00:14:14Hardys would deserve that matchup.

00:14:16How do you guys like that one?

00:14:18I'm good with that.

00:14:19I had Dan Hook.

00:14:19I had Dan Hooker out there as well.

00:14:21Oh, that would be.

00:14:22I mean, they've got a lot of.

00:14:24But is that win or lose for this weekend?

00:14:28Right.

00:14:28Yeah, I would say.

00:14:29That that's it's a loss in terms of obviously where he is in the.

00:14:34Title discussion and all that.

00:14:36But I will say in terms of the net gain, it's like we.

00:14:39He didn't think that his path to victory in this fight would have been striking with Justin Gaethje.

00:14:44And obviously it ultimately wasn't.

00:14:47But he was a.

00:14:49He showed that he.

00:14:49He was much more than just a grappler.

00:14:51Right.

00:14:52So in that sense, I think that we he's.

00:14:54Got a little bit more of a well-rounded game than maybe I had would have given him credit for.

00:14:59Obviously, he's a mixed.

00:14:59Martial artist, as he said to you, Scott, and in the interview that you guys had done together.

00:15:04But I.

00:15:04I think he was able to show that he's able to brawl more like with the best brawler pretty.

00:15:09much out there.

00:15:11But I want to throw it back to you, Eric, because we are talking about the future.

00:15:14of Patty, what do you think he needs to change for him to become the face?

00:15:19of this division and possibly for the UFC, like maybe they think that he has the potential.

00:15:24So during the fight, Patty Pimble was.

00:15:29Just throwing these really weird punches.

00:15:31They're basically like almost like hammer fists, but like out of like a.

00:15:34like conventional stance.

00:15:36Yeah.

00:15:37Um, Patty Pimble is just not the most technical.

00:15:39striker and him getting into a striking match with, in my opinion, the most violent striker.

00:15:44striker at lightweight is a terrible formula for him to get a victory.

00:15:49Um.

00:15:49So, and I was tweeting this out during the fight and he was just.

00:15:54ignoring corner advice for the whole first three rounds, they were screaming, begging for a takedown.

00:15:59And we'll talk more about paramount, but you could really hear the cornering advice this past weekend.

00:16:04Uh, which I really enjoyed and him ignoring his corners advice to go for.

00:16:09takedowns early in the fight was baffling to me and any time that I.

00:16:14I have, I see a fighter ignoring his corners advice, I immediately get concerned.

00:16:19concerned about the outlook of that fighter going forward.

00:16:22Is it time for them to get a new.

00:16:24coach?

00:16:25I don't know who his coaching even is.

00:16:27Um, I'm sure.

00:16:28I know it's England based, but.

00:16:29I, I, I don't, I don't, I'm not too familiar with them.

00:16:33I just, if any time I see a fighter ignoring.

00:16:34corner advice, I immediately, I get concerned about the outlook of their future.

00:16:38He.

00:16:39He needed to be grappling in this fight, the whole fight from the very, from the first minute.

00:16:43You should be looking to get this up.

00:16:44against the cage and go for a back take similar to what Charles Loivere did to Dustin Poirier.

00:16:48Um.

00:16:49I just don't understand the no grappling thing and I'm, I'm confused about.

00:16:54what Pimble, where Pimble goes from here, from his game planning and coaching and training

00:16:58perspective.

00:16:59I'm, I'm kind of on the same page there.

00:17:01Um, like, like, like you said beforehand in terms of.

00:17:04in terms of Patty's comments, like I didn't need to show how tough I was.

00:17:07It was just like, you're just thinking yourself.

00:17:09Like, why aren't you taking him down?

00:17:11You know?

00:17:12But Scott, what are your thoughts?

00:17:13Well, at least trying.

00:17:14Yeah.

00:17:14I don't know.

00:17:15I don't know that necessarily just because he's not listening to his corner that me.

00:17:19it's just time to move on or something like that because there are some, there are fighters

00:17:23out there who doesn't.

00:17:24And that doesn't matter who their coach is.

00:17:25Sometimes they're just not going to listen.

00:17:27They're going to do what they want to do.

00:17:29Yeah.

00:17:30Yeah.

00:17:31Yeah.

00:17:32Yeah.

00:17:33Yeah.

00:17:34Yeah.

00:17:35Yeah.

00:17:36Yeah.

00:17:37Yeah.

00:17:38Yeah.

00:17:39Yeah.

00:17:40I mean, yeah.

00:17:41I mean, yeah.

00:17:42Yeah.

00:17:43Yeah.

00:17:44Yeah, yeah.

00:17:45Yeah.

00:17:46Yeah.

00:17:47Yeah.

00:17:48Yeah.

00:17:48I mean, yeah.

00:17:49Yeah.

00:17:50Yeah.

00:17:52Yeah.

00:17:53fight IQ. He needs to recognize in the fight what is and isn't working as well.

00:17:58If he wants to do it a certain way and it isn't working, he at least needs to understand.

00:18:03All right, look, if I'm going to get a win here, maybe I need to try something else.

00:18:07And it took him until the fifth round to do.

00:18:08He finally started saying, okay, maybe I'll try to get the fight down to where I'm muddling.

00:18:13He's way better suited. He was just too stubborn. It just didn't work out, you know?

00:18:18Yeah.

00:18:18Yeah, I was going to say, all they could do is...

00:18:23Sorry.

00:18:24No, what do you got, Jake?

00:18:25I was going to say, in terms of the coaches, all they can do is give you...

00:18:28You know, the proper advice, which is go for the takedown.

00:18:31Your water, they can't make you drink it.

00:18:32Yeah, if he's not going to listen, he's...

00:18:33He's not going to listen. Sorry to cut you off, Scott.

00:18:36No, no, no. It's all good. It's all good.

00:18:37We're having a nice conversation here.

00:18:38To get back to the original question, right?

00:18:40Like, how does he become the face of the UFC or the face of this?

00:18:43Division or whatever you want to say.

00:18:46Obviously, that will include getting the title.

00:18:48Like, I don't think he could do that without actually winning the title and not just the interim.

00:18:53He would need to win, like, the undisputed title, right?

00:18:56I think it's going to be really hard for him to actually...

00:18:58be the face of it, short of that.

00:19:01Having said that, there is...

00:19:03another career trajectory for him if it doesn't go that way.

00:19:08Maybe he becomes some sort of Nate Diaz type who cultivates a huge following.

00:19:13It doesn't really matter how he does in the cage as long as he fights in a way that we...

00:19:18enjoy, that certain people enjoy, that people resonate with his...

00:19:23personality with what he brings to the table outside of the cage as well.

00:19:27Sometimes you just don't...

00:19:28I don't need the results in the UFC to get to that level, but I don't...

00:19:33I don't know that that can make him the face of the UFC.

00:19:36And honestly, without that fight IQ...

00:19:38really improving and probably he just needs to make some leaps...

00:19:43in his striking acumen regardless, I think he's going to have a really hard time getting to the top.

00:19:48of 155 pounds, it's just such a killer versus killer thing here.

00:19:52Just to... just to go back...

00:19:53back to it.

00:19:54I...

00:19:55after thinking about it, I feel like if Patty Pimblett had won...

00:19:58I think that there's a chance that it was Connor Pimblett at the...

00:20:03at the White House.

00:20:04Maybe.

00:20:05Maybe.

00:20:06I don't know for sure, but maybe.

00:20:07We don't...

00:20:08Don't live in that world!

00:20:09You still could, kinda.

00:20:11Um...

00:20:12Honestly, it makes more...

00:20:13more sense now!

00:20:14It actually kinda does make sense, I'm not gonna lie.

00:20:16Honestly, off of a loss.

00:20:18That...

00:20:18That'd be huge.

00:20:19I...

00:20:20Big for Europe!

00:20:21That would be...

00:20:22You know, that'd be big.

00:20:23Everyone in Europe's watching that.

00:20:24Not just big for Europe, that's a big fight for anywhere.

00:20:26Absolutely.

00:20:27For sure.

00:20:28Yeah.

00:20:28And that's an easy fight to throw together.

00:20:30I mean, getting Connor to fight isn't easy, but I'm saying...

00:20:33Like, you're not giving up any belts, or like...

00:20:35It doesn't really do damage to, like, the trajectory of the division.

00:20:38Just make up a belt.

00:20:39Yeah, honestly, they probably would.

00:20:41You don't need a belt!

00:20:42You don't need to make up a belt!

00:20:43It...

00:20:44It...

00:20:45It doesn't matter.

00:20:46Just for funsies.

00:20:47Just for...

00:20:48Just for the culture.

00:20:49Well, you know...

00:20:48Don't give them more ideas!

00:20:49We don't need more belts, Aaron!

00:20:50Come on!

00:20:51Come on!

00:20:52Well, if we are...

00:20:53Talking about the trajectory of divisions and stakes and all that...

00:20:56Let's talk about the bantamweight division, because they're...

00:20:58There were two very important fights for the bantamweight division.

00:21:01Sean O'Malley and Umar...

00:21:03And I'll throw this one over to you, Eric, because, you know, I know you're big on sh...

00:21:08Sean O'Malley.

00:21:09With both of their performances, did either have one that they needed to...

00:21:13To get a title shot.

00:21:14What...

00:21:15What are your thoughts on how those matched up?

00:21:17Well, so...

00:21:18The bantamweight title picture gets a little confusing here.

00:21:21Um...

00:21:22Now, with Piotr Jan apparently undergoing...

00:21:23Going to surgery for some lumbar back issue.

00:21:25Um...

00:21:26But, you know, in terms of the performance...

00:21:28Between these two, I don't know when a title shot would happen.

00:21:31But, from my perspective, I feel like...

00:21:33Neither of them did a whole lot.

00:21:34Like, Sean O'Malley, I thought, looked really good in round three.

00:21:37And, um...

00:21:38You know, there are some cases where there's, like, five-round former champions or fighters...

00:21:43That fight five rounds start...

00:21:45In my opinion, start slow once they move back to...

00:21:48About three rounds.

00:21:49Um...

00:21:50Because they're used to kind of pacing themselves out for five.

00:21:52It's something that I've noticed...

00:21:53Just a little bit.

00:21:54And sometimes bet on...

00:21:55Uh...

00:21:56Like a...

00:21:57Like a thought process that I bet on.

00:21:58Um...

00:21:58So, Sean started off super slow.

00:22:00And then, by the third round, I mean, was touching up songs...

00:22:03If that was a five-round fight, Yedong was going out.

00:22:05Um...

00:22:06So, you know, I think Sean did exactly...

00:22:08What I expected Sean to do.

00:22:09Umar really needed a finish here.

00:22:11Um...

00:22:12And...

00:22:13That's like...

00:22:13My...

00:22:14The other bantamweight fight is...

00:22:15Umar, I thought, really needed a finish.

00:22:16Kind of a boring fight against...

00:22:18Davis and Figueredo.

00:22:19Only 34 significant strikes over a three-round decision.

00:22:22Not...

00:22:23What you're looking for to get a title shot.

00:22:24It...

00:22:25It just feels like you're...

00:22:26We're on a collision course for Piotr Jan versus...

00:22:28Rob Duval is really...

00:22:29For the title, maybe in the summer.

00:22:31Scott, what do you think?

00:22:32I think...

00:22:33I think...

00:22:33Yeah, I mean, it definitely makes this trilogy fight, uh...

00:22:36To book between Jan and Dwalsh Weiley, like...

00:22:38Did you...

00:22:39It's...

00:22:40It's the only thing that seems to line up pretty easily.

00:22:42And I think we would have said that beforehand.

00:22:43And now it's even easier.

00:22:44Because neither one of these guys put a stamp on it the way they should have.

00:22:47O'Malley...

00:22:48You know, for a lot of...

00:22:49Look, you highlighted a lot of these reasons, frankly, Eric.

00:22:52So, kudos to you.

00:22:53But...

00:22:54I think with O'Malley here, you know, we're talking about somebody who...

00:22:57Frankly, I...

00:22:58I did think that he rightfully won.

00:23:00I...

00:23:01I gave rounds one and three to O'Malley.

00:23:02I know some people...

00:23:03Kind of disagreed.

00:23:04I...

00:23:05Fall into the camp of thinking that he did deserve the win.

00:23:08He...

00:23:08Had a nice third round.

00:23:09But...

00:23:10It took him way too long to look like the Sean O'Malley of old.

00:23:13And I don't know that he even put the right type of memorable...

00:23:17You know...

00:23:18Finish on to it that he could have anyway.

00:23:20So, I just...

00:23:21I don't...

00:23:22I don't think it was good for him.

00:23:23I don't think...

00:23:23It was the right type of thing for him to say, yeah, I can sit out and just wait my turn.

00:23:27I don't...

00:23:28I don't know that it's gonna feel that way for people.

00:23:30It's been a while since he won a big fight.

00:23:32We're talking...

00:23:33What about...

00:23:34Like this...

00:23:35You wanna call this a big fight?

00:23:36Okay, fine.

00:23:37But I don't.

00:23:38I don't think this is a big fight.

00:23:38Um...

00:23:39I...

00:23:40I haven't seen Sean O'Malley look like the killer that he...

00:23:43used to be in quite a while.

00:23:45And...

00:23:46And for Umar, I mean, shoot.

00:23:47An aging...

00:23:48Davison Figueiredo who couldn't be bothered to make 135 pounds when he used to be the 125...

00:23:53champion.

00:23:54He gave him some opportunities.

00:23:56Davison Figueiredo had...

00:23:58chances in this fight.

00:23:59For someone who was just a prohibitably big favorite...

00:24:03the way Umar was.

00:24:04He just didn't look it.

00:24:05Um...

00:24:06Obviously, he gets the win.

00:24:07But man, neither...

00:24:08one of them looked particularly dominant in any way that I think we would have been hoping

00:24:13for...

00:24:14for someone who was gonna get the next shot.

00:24:16I agree.

00:24:17If we're gonna...

00:24:18I guess give the edge to one though.

00:24:20I...

00:24:21I think you've gotta go with O'Malley.

00:24:22And I...

00:24:23While I...

00:24:23I do agree.

00:24:24Like, yeah, it's been a while since we've seen O'Malley do what he has...

00:24:28become...

00:24:29what he like...

00:24:30people fell in love with initially in terms of the striking, the knockout...

00:24:33power and all that.

00:24:34While we didn't see that entirely, I don't think it really mattered what...

00:24:38performance he had.

00:24:39Uh...

00:24:40If he just came away with the win, the UFC is gonna say...

00:24:43Alright.

00:24:44His next fight is probably gonna be for the title.

00:24:46Obviously, the rematch between...

00:24:48Yann and Merabh I think is what you do.

00:24:50But...

00:24:51After that fight happens...

00:24:52I...

00:24:53I...

00:24:54I...

00:24:55I...

00:24:56I...

00:24:57I...

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00:25:07I...

00:25:08I...

00:25:09I...

00:25:10I...

00:25:11I...

00:25:12I...

00:25:13I...

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00:25:25I...

00:25:26that name um that his cousin built um and umar carries quite

00:25:31well um and i think there is something to that also i think one of those things that actually

00:25:36goes in umar's favor is that he's probably much more willing to take another fight between

00:25:41now and whenever that next championship fight on the other side of the trip

00:25:46trilogy fight would take place that activity is the type of thing the ufc loves to have

00:25:51loves to see and you can't really do much more with umar at that point but shawn i mean

00:26:08you

00:25:56this seems like he's in this situation where he's pretty okay walking away from the sport at some

00:26:01point

00:26:01and if he doesn't have you know if he doesn't get the ball he's just gonna sit

00:26:06on the bench until someone says hey you can have the ball now um and they can move on and they

00:26:11can give it to shawn whenever he's ready or whenever they're ready for him so i think the

00:26:15ufc probably has some options there

00:26:16uh they can sideline o'malley and it'll be fine these are two very good points

00:26:21the one for for eric as well in terms of the uh if morob does win uh that

00:26:26trilogy if that's what they end up doing not a very appetizing fight shawn o'malley versus marabith

00:26:31a third time and then like you said scott if if umar has like this amazing

00:26:36performance and sean o'malley's not ready or whatever is is the case

00:26:41they like to reward that kind of thing so i could definitely see that being the case too

00:26:46so plenty of options even though we didn't create great ones this weekend right it's like they we

00:26:51would have

00:26:51preferred better ones but i think there's still so many directions it could go in absolutely

00:26:56for umar is that they've he's nearly clear cleared out bantamweight and you know o'malley's not fighting

00:27:01him unless there's a

00:27:01a belt attached to it so if you just go down the list of of bantamweight you have to find a fresh matchup

00:27:20you

00:27:06umar and it's not that easy down for sure up is the problem right because

00:27:11he hasn't beaten he didn't beat marab and he hasn't even faced uh peter yawn and he hasn't faced sean o'malley

00:27:16either which is a little below honestly that would be the fight but sean doesn't look like he's gonna be in the fight

00:27:21that one in the other room so yeah

00:27:23that would be that would be that would be if if all were if all

00:27:26parties were involved this would be perfect yeah yeah dana white text

00:27:31seems like do you want to fight umar o'malley will respond uh i ain't reading all that sorry that that

00:27:36happened to you bro what was it when uh uh al joe like held up his phone in the middle of uh

00:27:41the ufc card and he was like re-match o'malley and like a minute later they showed him out

00:27:46and he's like no that's like exactly what it would be o'malley's the ace

00:27:51on all these matchups he can choose whatever he wants

00:27:54yeah well let's let's move

00:27:56move down from uh 135 to 125 on the women's side natal

00:28:01silva came away with the win over rose namayunas that was another fight that was uh

00:28:06i saw a lot of chatter on social media about the scoring of that one so if you do have any thoughts

00:28:11on that scott

00:28:11i'll be very interested in that but obviously aaron blanchfield is

00:28:15kind of the other person that she

00:28:16in this horse race with at 125 do you think that with natalia silver

00:28:21performance where does that leave her in this title conversation

00:28:25with her counterpart of aaron blanchfield

00:28:26going for that belt real quick before i get to that part i'll answer the first thing you were

00:28:31talking about here i'm going to give natalia silva rounds one and three definitely three no one disagrees

00:28:36with that

00:28:48you

00:28:36no one disagrees with rose namayunas getting round two it's that first round that's the close one here

00:28:41um it's not a hill i'm going to protect very heavily but i would say natalia silva

00:28:54you

00:28:47in that round because i think she came on a lot better in the second part of that round really the

00:28:51last

00:28:51two minutes or so um she was really starting to land her offense and neither one of them had done a whole

00:28:56lot before

00:29:08you

00:28:56that so i think there was if there's a pendulum it was first for a little while on rose's

00:29:11you

00:29:01side and then you know it was it was pretty easy to go the other way in terms of what happened in the last

00:29:06minute half two minutes or so but yeah you guys you can't get

00:29:11too hung up on these rounds when the fighters themselves are not willing to go out there and put

00:29:29you

00:29:16their stamps on it here so and that i think is the problem with natalia silva's performance here right

00:29:21it's

00:29:21just not the type of thing that she needed to do to be able to put a stand

00:29:26stamp on something when there is a perfectly acceptable possibly

00:29:39you

00:29:31much more than acceptable kind of relatively interesting for the weight class right now

00:29:44you

00:29:36much more than an option in aaron blanchfield you know natalia silva is just not she doesn't have the

00:29:41reputation

00:29:41reputation of a finisher it's been a while since he's got any any finishes um aaron blanchfield

00:29:46coming off of a nice finish over somebody the ufc likes to promote a little bit tracy cortez

00:29:59you

00:29:51uh that was a rematch in the making for a while as well i think that you got a much easier

00:30:04you

00:29:56uh that was a really easy highlight package to put together for aaron blanchfield she's american she

00:30:13you

00:30:01she speaks english very well because she's american she's from jersey and uh

00:30:06uh i i think that's the type of thing it makes it a lot easier for them to say like look we're

00:30:10we're gonna go with aaron blanchfield

00:30:11here she's earned it she's put in the work she's got the wins she's got the finishes work

00:30:16i'm gonna go with her against valentia shevchenko maybe even at the white house i was just about to say

00:30:21i think this is the type of fight because again look going back to what i was saying before with

00:30:25gaethje i think they want to put america

00:30:26americans in position where they can win championships or keep championships i think that's the type of thing

00:30:31that the ufc ought to be targeting with this card or frankly you probably should be and think

00:30:36that way with their card i don't know if it's going to be one of those five six seven title things you

00:30:41know i don't know

00:30:41if it's good the cards are going to line up i think they'll get as much as they can but if they can focus on american fighters

00:30:46in particular that's going to be where they go eric where's your head at with this horse race

00:30:51the flight was bleh uh bleh performance from natalia silva didn't didn't really

00:30:56do anything for me i was kind of i was sleepwalking through the second round um third round was i guess

00:31:01slightly more interesting um eric i want to see aaron blanchfield fight for the title i i think that there is

00:31:06hole not holes there's no holes in valentina shashanku's game but if there is any

00:31:11opportunity i think that it is in the grappling against valentina shashanku because valentina

00:31:16will lean on the grappling and has that advantage over a lot of the women at this division

00:31:21we've seen it many times obviously because jang weili being one specific um i think

00:31:26that aaron blanchfield has an opportunity to out grapple valentina shashanku and

00:31:31um we saw it with elux sagasso and that that's what i want to see i i don't want to see an italian

00:31:36dos was another one too that was that was one that kind of went that way as well i think there's there is

00:31:41two

00:31:41so to your point there's certainly a blueprint out there if you're looking to have some

00:31:46measure of equalization some measure of success if you have some acumen in the grappling department

00:31:51and you can take advantage i think it helps to have the striking to be able to you know balance it out

00:31:56more danger

00:31:56that would be the question we don't have to break down the potential fight that may or may not be

00:32:00happening next anyway but

00:32:01i think that is the key there um but yeah i have to put put a button on it unless you've got

00:32:06something jake yeah i think eric and i obviously both agree that that fight was just not the

00:32:11performance

00:32:11asia silva needed not even close yeah i'll i'll tie a bow on this one i'm i'm

00:32:16agreeing with you guys i would prefer aaron blanchfield to get the title shot with valentina just because

00:32:21it's a more enticing fight in terms of something that i would actually like to watch and in terms

00:32:25of merit and all that

00:32:26i think the two are pretty neck and neck if you look at their resumes and who they've beaten it's all pretty

00:32:31similar you could maybe give a slight edge to natalia silva just because that win over

00:32:36alexa grasso right after coming off being champion i think that counts for something but it's

00:32:50you

00:32:41quite close and i think that we're going to get a more entertaining fight with i would argue it

00:32:45counts for less now i think i think

00:32:46having this fight in between almost made it took away a little bit of the shine i think it

00:32:51would have been smarter for them for especially for her to have had that performance next but that

00:32:55wasn't really in the car

00:32:56she probably didn't have that chance she's like you've got to fight this one and if you win maybe

00:33:00you'll get that championship

00:33:01you know yeah well guys this was also the first card of the paramount

00:33:06plus era and you know we're gonna give more of our in-depth thoughts

00:33:11next week's episode because you know this was the first one and like they mentioned during the

00:33:16broadcast some things

00:33:16are probably

00:33:17going to change so we'll watch this weekend see what we feel about the rest of how

00:33:30you

00:33:21everything's being done but just to get your brief thoughts uh i'll go first we're going to give a

00:33:26little quick

00:33:35you

00:33:26letter grade about how we think this one went i'm going to give this one a b a great

00:33:31progress that you could say i'm going to give this one a b i think it was solid there were some

00:33:35technical

00:33:36issues especially in the pre-show that i kind of noticed weird audio stuff obviously that you know counts

00:33:41for less for less than the the main uh card the prelims and all that um

00:33:46pacing was a little off but again first card so scott what do you think about how uh this first

00:33:51paramount card went yeah great in progress i'll go with b2 i think that's fair

00:33:56it's not like this was even remotely a disaster some hiccups uh i also thought it was strange that we

00:34:01had basically no changes to the graphics or anything like that it was

00:34:15you

00:34:06there you'd think that they would go for a little bit more of a of a little facelift

00:34:11going into a new uh deal as they've done before didn't really do that here but

00:34:16yeah like you said it sounds like 325 is going to be a little bit more natural um for what we can expect

00:34:21from the ufc on paramount experience going forward for these next what almost seven years

00:34:35you

00:34:26that we have left so i'll withhold a lot of judgment until next week eric would

00:34:31totally agree about the graphics thing i was super confused by that i was hoping to see a little bit more

00:34:36blue with the the more consistent with the cbs paramount branding um in their graphics

00:34:41um in their graphics

00:34:41there wasn't really the only graphic thing that i saw that was different was the microphone said ufc

00:34:46paramount plus

00:34:46and not espn anymore um that was really it um a grade wise i give it an a minus

00:34:51i think the ufc is about to explode i'll get more into that uh probably with an article on your post website but uh

00:34:56i think that this is ufc is an amazing spot i the advertisements were a little bit much

00:35:01uh there was a little bit too much and we you know we talk about you know the they took away some of the walk-ins they took uh

00:35:06the fighter walk entries um took away some of the corner uh work they need to work

00:35:11on that um but overall i i'll go a minus i'm super bullish on the ufc paramount year

00:35:16i think that the sport's about to pop and um it's just so

00:35:21good not having to pay 90 for a pair it is so much better it was such a

00:35:26ripoff under espn i can't say it enough espn was robbing us they were the worst

00:35:31worst well truly the worst i'm gonna let you finish that thought next week

00:35:36uh eric when when we see if this one's any better than than uh the

00:35:41one that we had last weekend i think we'll have a lot to talk about in that realm uh but let's talk

00:35:45about ufc 321

00:35:46also guys let us know in the comments what you thought about 324 uh about the first car

00:35:51on paramount how do you think it went and uh give us your thoughts on the title fight and

00:35:55all the rest of those fights that we mentioned

00:35:56as well but let's get into ufc 325 this weekend featherweight title

00:36:01up for grabs alex alexander volkanovski and diego lopez once again

00:36:06fighting for what the 145 strap but let's talk about volkanovski first and scott i'm gonna throw

00:36:11this over to you that first fight less than a year ago back in eight

00:36:16april i want to say in miami how did that first fight shape your perception of volkanovski

00:36:21volkanovski over 35 two-time champion what do you think about that one

00:36:26yeah how about volkanovski finally getting to defend a championship in his home

00:36:31country that never happened before which i was surprised to hear i believe it was when i was

00:36:35talking with john annick had pointed

00:36:36out he fought uh for islam's title in australia

00:36:41australia but he didn't defend his own title there ever this is a great opportunity for him

00:36:46um but yes to your question here i i think that the first fight

00:36:51really

00:36:51realistically nobody thought volk lost right like nobody

00:36:56no judge no media score if you look at mma decisions anybody who

00:37:01had like a real brain and really understands the sport nobody was watching this saying man

00:37:06you could make a case for diego lopez you cannot make a case for diego lopez winning that fight right

00:37:11just doesn't happen three maybe four rounds there's there's a world where he wins all

00:37:16five i don't know that i would have gone there i had it 49 46 for volk um but

00:37:21look considering all the uh the ways that he has to win

00:37:26he's a legendary fighter lopez look he he really only has

00:37:31this fight because two other more deserving contenders were passed over for reasons

00:37:36that didn't necessarily have to do with their in cage results there there's some other things that

00:37:41play here i think if you take away in that first fight those very brief high spots that

00:37:46lopez hadn't kudos he had some he had the high spots it's really all volk for mo

00:37:51most of the 25 minutes so frankly i expect volk to be better prepared this time and to win

00:37:56even more convincingly yeah eric what is this first fight between the pair of them what did that do

00:38:01for your perception of volkanovsky upon a rewatch of the fight i really saw

00:38:06nothing uh in the octagon that warranted diego lopez getting an immediate rematch

00:38:11In that fight, even the knockdown I thought was more of

00:38:16Volkanovski backing up more than he was rocked

00:38:20I thought Volkanovski was kind of just moving

00:38:21His head back, got hit, and fell

00:38:23I don't think that that was like a

00:38:25I was almost out

00:38:26Maybe I'm just grasping at Strauss

00:38:28I didn't see anything really that showed

00:38:31That Diego Lopez should be fighting for the belt right now

00:38:34Now, that doesn't mean that he can't win

00:38:35I just thought that Al

00:38:36Win the second fight

00:38:38I think Alexander Volkanovski did a really good job counter-striking

00:38:40He had the grappling

00:38:41Edge, which was kind of

00:38:42Which is semi-surprising

00:38:43You know, when I talked to him last night

00:38:45He said

00:38:46He said that he was going to come out with

00:38:48You know, some new stuff

00:38:49And he wasn't going to divulge exactly into what that was

00:38:51I

00:38:51I'm going to

00:38:52Using context clues

00:38:53I'm going to say

00:38:53He's going to try to grapple and kick more

00:38:55I

00:38:56I

00:38:57Don't think that it

00:38:58I don't love the matchup for him

00:39:00I think that Alexander Volkanovski is way

00:39:01more volume filled unless he just lands the shot of all shots and puts Volk out which

00:39:06anyone has a puncher's chance I think it's possible I just I don't love this fight for for Diego

00:39:11and I don't really see the the case for him getting an immediate title shot but

00:39:16this is the world that we live in yeah absolutely I think that first

00:39:21fight really just showed like how much experience put like

00:39:26can can what that can do for a fighter like Volkanovski he's been in those positions before

00:39:31and I mean he was able to handle a young hungry contender like Diego

00:39:36and he's he's still got an old man Volk you know he's breaking these 35 curves

00:39:41and and all that and like you said Scott I mean there wasn't really any

00:39:46way you could have given that fight to Diego Lopez so unless something crazy drastically

00:39:51changes like in in the interview with uh Diego Lopez by the way if you haven't

00:39:56watched that uh at home go ahead and do yourself a favor and and watch but in the interview with uh

00:40:01you Eric Diego was saying like he wants Volk to come out uh you know a lot more violent

00:40:06and you know not as measured I guess he's like that's better for me I want that I

00:40:11think that Volk's got the experience to not do that and make it his kind of fight you know which full

00:40:16thinking

00:40:16wishful thinking

00:40:17but Eric I'll throw it back to you let's talk about Diego what do you see as a

00:40:21a path to victory for him this time around I heard you do a little bit of prefacing but what do you think

00:40:26yeah yeah well he was like I want a car crash he was like I want car crashes I want as many car

00:40:30crashes as we can get

00:40:31he was like I want to charge at me he was like he's like I'm ready he kept going like this he was

00:40:36like this is what I want

00:40:36he's like I I hear you I hear you but there's no way Volk's gonna do that

00:40:41I mean crazier things have happened I guess but there's no way Volk's been in this game

00:40:46way too long he knows that he could he if Volk could live on the leg kicking

00:40:51jab he will and I think that he can and will in this fight as well in terms of path to victory

00:40:56if Lopez really wants to change it up I think he would need to go heavy on the offensive wrestling

00:41:01and try to get Volkanovski down he looks bigger especially in the first fight he looked bigger in the eye

00:41:06octagon which you know in theory would be uh helpful for him but honestly Volkanovski looked like he was

00:41:11better at grappling just more technical and just more skilled um obviously Lopez might be a better submission

00:41:16grappler but that doesn't mean you're a better offensive wrestler so you know Volk is Volk is

00:41:21not going to get if Volk is going to be on the offensive wrestling side then that really makes

00:41:25things difficult for Lopez but

00:41:26maybe he's been working on it in camp he's obviously training at Lobo's gym uh in Mexico with you know uh Alex

00:41:31Alexa Grasso and their whole team over there so maybe there's more uh to the story

00:41:36there but um that that would be his path to victory is is really really hunt for kicks and

00:41:41offensive wrestling all right well because this one is another title fight

00:41:46uh and you know a numbered event we're going to give our sports entertainment rating uh

00:41:51go ahead don't I get to respond I got some thoughts my friend sorry sorry I I gave a little

00:41:56pause there go ahead you're thinking oh that's all right I got I got some thoughts on that look and

00:42:01look a lot of it piggybacks on Eric as well but I think one of the keys to this here is

00:42:06is is he's got to use that larger size to wear him against the cage

00:42:11I know he's talking about car crashes I don't think that's gonna work I think if he brings that twisted metal

00:42:16that burnout style stuff I think that Volk's gonna make him pay but if he's lean

00:42:21on him wear on him against the cage maybe that's when he starts to I don't know

00:42:26if he's gonna tire out Volk but at the very least he's gonna prevent that volume from piling

00:42:31up against him maybe he's able to get some sort of body lock takedowns here if he

00:42:36could get it into that world that's gonna equalize it and that's really what he needs to

00:42:41do because outside of that you said this before Eric it's basically just a puncher's chance he can hit

00:42:46hard but you know he he basically just had very limited success in that first fight

00:42:51and I don't know that he's that much better as a striker especially not what eight months

00:42:56later nine months later there's not a lot of time to have gotten drastically better I don't see it

00:43:01it yeah and I remember you've said before Scott like you think that that on

00:43:06that night it was probably one of the better versions of Diego Lopez that we're gonna get

00:43:10so we'll see what

00:43:11happen against Volk yeah I think that was about as good as it was gonna go for and and funny thing is

00:43:16I really could see Diego Lopez having a really impressive time at 145 and I think

00:43:21there's there's gonna be a time pretty soon where Volk is not at the top anymore it could be as soon

00:43:26as this weekend I don't necessarily see it that way but he's he's getting older he's not gonna

00:43:31play forever maybe there's a time where Lopez is on top and he'll have better matchups and I don't think

00:43:36this is one of them a hundred percent in terms of like the whole Volk retirement thing uh he

00:43:41has kind of pulled poured some cold water on that he's like unless I get viciously knocked out again then

00:43:46well he heard your prediction for the year Jake and he's like nah he wanted to spite me that's what it was

00:43:51um well let's go into the sports entertainment rating sorry for cutting you off earlier

00:43:56Scott but I'll go ahead and get us started on that um from a sporting app

00:44:01aspect I'm gonna give this one a I'm gonna give it a three I don't think it's a two which I

00:44:06definitely see more of the argument for last weekend's uh Scott now I'm gonna

00:44:11give this one a three a little bit more of an adjusted score for me there uh obviously skipping

00:44:16over two guys

00:44:16guys but Volk is the rightful champion at 145 so I'm gonna give it a three entertainment

00:44:21for a title fight I think I might give this one a 10

00:44:26two I'm like we just saw this fight there's two more guys and that that like means something for me

00:44:31uh and I think Scott is also one to agree with that but Eric I'm gonna get your thoughts first

00:44:36before we hear Scott's what do you think yeah I'm gonna go uh for uh for sporting I'm gonna

00:44:41go to uh you said it there's two guys here that should be fighting it's

00:44:46you know I'm not even gonna get into it two for sporting I'll go three for entertainment

00:44:51entertainment and honestly I feel like it could be two as well so I'm gonna go five total but on

00:44:56honestly I could have gone four I just don't I don't understand the matchup I don't understand the

00:45:01thought process

00:45:01I understand that Diego Lopez they love you know Mexican-born fighters and all that but

00:45:06I don't understand that

00:45:06thought process all right Scott what do you got you know I kind of I'm

00:45:11actually going a three on sports here and I kind of wish that I had gone one last week so that this was

00:45:16more like a two but I think I threw off my own calculus here so well this is a three from sports

00:45:21entertainment wise I'll actually give it a three because I don't think it's going to be a snoozer of a fight and if you hear

00:45:26about Diego Lopez talking about car crashes I think he's going to be more willing to make these things happen he might

00:45:31pay for it but that would be entertaining in and of itself so that I'm going with a three and a three

00:45:36that gives me a six Eric's got a five did you have a five two Jake I did

00:45:41so this is a five point three we're not talking about one of our most anticipated

00:45:46title fights here anticipated certainly not I would say I think we could all

00:45:51agree there whether it's deserves a five point three well that's all in the past now what's done is done

00:45:56but let's talk about let's talk about some of the other fights to watch Scott what is your fight

00:46:01watch I'm going with Dan Hooker versus Benoit Sandini in the

00:46:06whole main event we didn't really get the chance to talk about this I'm sure you guys have a little

00:46:10bit of thoughts here too but I

00:46:11I mean look this is this is the action fight on in the co-main spot if you're talking about entertainment

00:46:16this is our five absolutely so I'm very excited for this one

00:46:21100% like I said in our MMA Awards Benoit Sandini

00:46:26is is was my comeback fighter of the year and it looks like he's kind of gotten a second wind

00:46:31in this lightweight division so I mean Dan Hooker just came off of a fight with our arm

00:46:36on Sarukian so if Benoit can get a win over him as well I think he's

00:46:41he's really getting himself back on track towards that title shot but Eric what do you think

00:46:46I'm going to go Mauricio Hufi versus Raphael Fazeev I think that this has implications for the future of the division

00:46:51and uh I want to see if Hufi I want to see if Fazeev grapples and I want to see

00:46:56who wins the striking exchanges I mean Fazeev kind of surprised us all with you know grappling last time out against

00:47:01Ignacio Baja Mondes who's way bigger than him uh was able to take him down four times a win by decision so

00:47:06interesting

00:47:06I'm interested to see what kind of game plan Fazeev comes out with and and Hufi you know super entertaining fighter and

00:47:11strikes and the kicks should be off the the kicks should be uh at a mosaic level

00:47:16like they should be super entertaining kicks a lot of spinning stuff a lot of a lot of uh a lot of

00:47:21side kicks and all that jazz all right all right and for me I'm going with killin's

00:47:26Sal killed the Aussie native uh going up against Jamie Malarkey killin's

00:47:31you might I'm hoping I'm saying that right because his spelling is an absolute nightmare

00:47:36uh but you might remember him from this amazing knockout that he had

00:47:41in in 2025 he's he's coming up against you know a bigger name uh than I've you know some

00:47:46opponents that he's had before but yeah I'm kind of just looking to see if he's got another crazy

00:47:51performance or finish in this fight just because of how unbelievable that that knockout was so

00:47:56I think this is one that I'll be having my eye on but in terms of the other fights on the card scout

00:48:01what is our event rating for this one in Australia by the way I like that you picked

00:48:06it's an Aussie versus Aussie fight that's actually pretty interesting there I actually didn't realize

00:48:11that Malarkey was

00:48:11also an Aussie native Malarkey sounds like a British name but

00:48:16imagine that I know I know my history

00:48:21historical ramifications

00:48:23yeah there you go

00:48:24do your research everybody

00:48:26penal colony uh that's not I'm not accusing everybody of that anyway um

00:48:31look the event rating for this the event rating for this one is

00:48:36a 42 um look typically top heavy you Aussie number to

00:48:41the event right we've got very strong main very strong comey and I understand Lopez is not

00:48:46necessary

00:48:46our number one contender here he's actually ranked seventh at fight matrix in featherweight so we're not

00:48:51really talking about even a top five guy based on fight matrix's um metrics that

00:48:56decide this right um nonetheless I think these two fights people are looking forward to them in at least some measure

00:49:01right we it's not our most anticipated time to fight good fights nonetheless it's after that where

00:49:06starts to fall off we're very light on top 100 talent for a numbered event there's actually fewer

00:49:11deep prospects though on this one than you might normally see there's only one one fighter out of the time

00:49:16top 200 given that there's I believe 14 fights on this card that's that's pretty solid

00:49:21um and it is higher rated than last year's card in Sydney UFC 312

00:49:26that was the one headline by uh drickus duplessis against sean strickland their rematch so

00:49:31look it's it's a better card for Aussie I think yeah their best decent

00:49:36but uh you don't have to pay anything for it any more than you already paid for your paramount plus subscription so

00:49:41it's not that bad yeah in terms of the stuff below the uh main event I think

00:49:46we're getting a much better australia card than the one we got last year with duplessis and uh strickland

00:49:51that one was not good so this one's a bit of an upgrade in terms of besides the gold

00:49:56um well Eric I'm gonna throw it over to you for your three bets

00:50:01three minutes to finish up UFC 325 you ready thank you Jake

00:50:06uh welcome back three bets in three minutes um bad showing last week and it's tough

00:50:11tough because when it comes to the betting world the goal is just to beat the line and if that was the

00:50:16only uh only criteria I'd feel pretty good about it because you know we had Arnold Allen

00:50:21plus 230 last week and he closed plus 175 but it still lost so end of the

00:50:26day you know when you beat the line by 25 got to be happy about it uh we move on UFC 320

00:50:3125 three bets in three minutes put three minutes on the clock give me one second here three minutes

00:50:36o'clock three two one and we are going to start on the main card and we're going to

00:50:41start with Rafael Faisi versus Mauricio Hufi uh interesting fight all right then we got two strikers

00:50:46here now where things get really challenging is Mauricio Hufi's um his grappling was

00:50:51obviously tested in a big way against uh Benoit Saint Denis and you know that wasn't a great

00:50:56look for him and you know now he fights Rafael Faisi which which in theory would profile as a better

00:51:01matchup for him because he was a very solid striker in his own right he's actually been looking to grapple a lot

00:51:06recently um a lot of takedowns uh in his last couple fights he had he had multiple takedowns

00:51:11last time out against Ignacio Baja Mondes as I had already mentioned um you know this is a tough

00:51:16a tough one for for Hufi I I like the fight to go to the decision uh for for what that's worth

00:51:21I think they're just both really solid at um at striking I don't expect anyone to really make a mistake

00:51:26here and you know from a betting perspective I do see value here on on Rafael Faisi

00:51:31receive uh to win by decision at plus 210 I think those odds are fantastic

00:51:36um you know I don't think he's gonna be really hunting for submissions here so I think that a

00:51:41decision

00:51:41decision is is a a fine option you get the the better mixed martial artist who who does

00:51:46more um on the feet or in the grappling and just one more well-rounded at this

00:51:51point in his career so give me Rafael Faisi plus 210 by decision as the official pick and then

00:51:56we move on Dan Hooker versus Benoit Sandini I don't know how many times I need to say this about Dan Hooker

00:52:01the fact that he's rated number six overall is just like mind-blowing to me uh in the division

00:52:06Dan Hooker is not the sixth best fighter in this division he's not even top 10 I maybe he's top 15

00:52:11maybe uh Dan Hooker's taken a ton of damage in his career and that's like kind of like been like his

00:52:16shtick he's like

00:52:16you know I I absorb I have the best uh durability right he's always uh talking about having the best

00:52:21ability basically what that means in MMA is you know I'm the best at taking damage and then sticking

00:52:26around that's not

00:52:26that's not a bad that's not a good place to be in in the mixed martial arts game um you know

00:52:31Hooker's

00:52:31not the best grappler he's not uh he's a pretty solid striker at his best he was a solid striker

00:52:36obviously

00:52:36that that fight against uh Dustin Poirier is one of the best of all time but

00:52:40I'm gonna take Benoit Sandini here

00:52:41inside the distance he's a minus 300 favorite so you're not going to get a ton of value there

00:52:45uh minus 145 to win

00:52:46at the distance

00:52:47plus 430 by knockout I kind of like that one so that's my official pick

00:52:51Benoit Sandini by knockout plus 430 on FanDuel we move to the main event

00:52:56Alexander Volkanovski versus Diego Lopez I talked to Diego Lopez Diego Lopez I want more

00:53:01car crashes right um he's not gonna get that against Alexander Volkanovski

00:53:06Volkanovski

00:53:06might be the smartest fighter in UFC history he's got the best feints his jab and leg kick combination

00:53:11positions are excellent and Diego Lopez I expect him to be a little more offensive with the

00:53:14wrestling but I think Alexander Volkanovski is just a better

00:53:16technical wrestler so from all those perspectives I'm gonna go Volkanovski here by

00:53:21decision at Pulse 190 dude if the fight is even close um the the Aussie judges are going to give

00:53:26too much that is home country so Alexander Volkanovski plus 190 by decision get on bet rivers right

00:53:31now um those are my three bets and you know let's let's get uh let's get moving here let's let's just

00:53:36start the year off on the right foot um and we move on good luck all right thank you so much for that

00:53:41Eric and I'm gonna throw it over to Scott for our quick hits in MMA news

00:53:46look I have to get to this right off the bat because we just didn't have time to to throw us in or have any

00:53:51discussion about it but uh we had a big announcement at UFC 324.

00:53:56Dominic Cruz announced as the first member of this year's UFC Hall of Fame claim

00:54:01class well deserved of course uh correctly predicted by John Attic when he was on our show earlier

00:54:06this month and look I don't know maybe he knew maybe he didn't but uh it was

00:54:11a no-brainer right this was gonna happen once Dominic Cruz said I am done fighting and he said that

00:54:16he is here uh applauded to Dominic the Dominator Cruz uh

00:54:21read Dana White's lips no new taxpayer funds

00:54:26the UFC CEO speaking with Sports Business Journal has assured the White House card

00:54:31will be funded by the company not by our federal government so your tax dollars will not be

00:54:36going toward this don't worry about that uh that apparently is going to cost significant

00:54:41more than uh the money pit of the sphere card in 2014 that

00:54:46Dana White routinely complained about the uh the costs of it the ballooning costs so obviously

00:54:51this paramount money is is uh going to help pay for that in in a lot of ways

00:54:56as well um some unfortunate news for a former UFC champion Rafael Dosa

00:55:01Sanjo said on Instagram that he just had a third knee surgery in fort

00:55:0615 months given he's already 41 years old hasn't fought since October 2024

00:55:11and he had last one more than three years ago uh this is a very rough development

00:55:16for the former champion dos anjos um some other unfortunate

00:55:21unfortunate news for a fighter uh this was kind of building we heard about this last year closure

00:55:26in the Yasmin Lucindo situation where she had tested positive for uh this

00:55:31steroid mestar alone she had accepted uh that i think everybody accepted

00:55:36CSAD the UFC's testing provider uh had accepted this was from a tainted

00:55:41supplement but nonetheless she receives and accepts a nine-month ban

00:55:46retroactive to September 24th she is eligible to return on June 24th

00:55:51some UFC fight news a little bit of fight news here

00:55:55Cub Swanson

00:55:56putting off retirement he's going to fight Nate Landwehr uh UFC 327

00:56:01in April so and that was Swanson himself reporting that one

00:56:06and then here this is a bit of a stunner guys this happened uh late last night we started here we

00:56:11actually had an announcement from Ryzen about this patchy mix who was on hand for this announcement

00:56:16um released from the UFC late last year he is now fighting

00:56:21in March on March 6th against Kiyoma Akimoto at a rising car this

00:56:26will be 145 pounds so he's moving up in weight he's fighting over in Japan

00:56:31and

00:56:31and he's fighting this teen prospect here so uh very interesting development for

00:56:36the former Bellator bands of weight champion who just did not work out in the

00:56:41UFC and that's all we got guys already thank you for that Scott and guys

00:56:46it is time for the final round to go over our homework Anderson Silva versus Dan

00:56:51Henderson at UFC 82 in 2008 and

00:56:56I actually had like a little bit of a light bulb moment in the middle of the fight that I had seen

00:57:01the end of this one like a while ago I think it was a UFC uh

00:57:06youtube videos like the best submissions of all time and I just remember Dan

00:57:11that's a famous highlight yeah it's a famous highlight yeah I've seen the highlight I remember Dan

00:57:16Dan Henderson

00:57:16Dan Henderson's face just because it's like that that like frame of him with like his mouth open like gasping for air

00:57:21that does make it that makes the highlight 100% so I was very surprised to see that

00:57:26Dan Henderson had some good success against Anderson in this fight like

00:57:31was winning the fight yeah amazing success period I've never really

00:57:36seen that before like obviously there's a few instances where Anderson Silva has had some fights

00:57:41like Dana White that like Dana White wasn't very happy with you know not very entertaining ones right but this

00:57:46one was one came later yeah this one was one where he was getting pretty outclassed and like Dan Henderson

00:57:51I know I I obviously he's a UFC legend um but I I didn't have the

00:57:56context to kind of put along with that you know this was one where I mean all I had

00:58:01was like the Bisping knockout right but a knockout's a knockout it's not like dominating someone obviously

00:58:06Dan Henderson got ended up getting finished but like he showed he could fight and beat someone

00:58:11at the level of Anderson uh with a certain path there so I thought it was really interesting

00:58:16what about you Eric yeah I was you know the grappling exchange there was interesting because the body track

00:58:21triangle is obviously um hampering Henderson's ability to breathe but you know the way

00:58:26that the choke was in I was confused because his like his neck was in the crook of his elbow and it like

00:58:31it didn't look that um that in and he wasn't like fighting the arms at all but I I must

00:58:36assuming that the the breathing was constricted so bad from the body triangle that he was kind of

00:58:41also getting submitted by that if anyone who's ever been in a really bad body triangle they know like

00:58:46how difficult that that can be to deal with um but yeah Dan Henderson really solid uh with the grappling obviously

00:58:51we'll see you know we'll see later on with Anderson Silva's career uh Chil Sonnen uh get have some success

00:58:56in the wrestling department but uh yeah super fun fight Anderson Silva's awesome

00:59:01it's that team quest wrestling I think you know Henderson laid a bit of a blueprint

00:59:06for Chil Sonnen to then subsequently put that into place in a style that was very specific

00:59:11specifically I am going to take you down that is the only thing I'm looking to do and when I do I'm going to

00:59:16punish you down there until I get triangle but uh that is that is the Dan Henderson

00:59:21playbook and look Dan Henderson by this point was already considered

00:59:26like a budding great right he he had already proven himself to weight class champion

00:59:31pride nobody thought of him as anything less than a true champion of this sport

00:59:36so when it was these two guys meeting it's on the level and I think the fight

00:59:41reflected that it did go Anderson's way Dan Anderson really wanted that rematch

00:59:46it never quite happened for him he moved on to strike force at one point as well that kind of really

00:59:51threw the wrench into making that a real thing um but I think he always regretted the

00:59:56the fact that he never could get that rematch to show that he could beat Anderson Silva because you know

01:00:01maybe he maybe he could have but he didn't get to would have loved to see it well Scott I'm gonna put you

01:00:06on a little bit of a rapid fire for these uh next few items because we're up against the wall here what is

01:00:11our next assignment giving you Tiago Alves against Martin Ketman

01:00:16that's uh from 2012 it was the UFC on FX2 headliner

01:00:21their second event for FX way way back then um wasn't a massively impactful welterweight

01:00:26fight at the time but these guys had been staples of the upper levels of the weight class for years Alves had challenged

01:00:31for the title at one point Ketman had gotten very close a few times action fighter

01:00:36uh it's a fun fight enjoy I I will I will if it's anything like the last

01:00:41interview we've had uh so to tie up our MMA history what do we have this week in MMA

01:00:46eight years ago on January 27th 2018 Corey Sanhagen

01:00:51makes his UFC debut he had just won by TKO and an LFA card eight days before

01:00:56in 67 seconds was feeling fresh they got him into the UFC he goes at

01:01:01their TTKOs Austin Arnett picks up two wins in in the month of January very rare considering

01:01:06there's not a lot of MMA in January um and yeah that was the start of his five fight win

01:01:11streak to start his UFC career he's obviously had some some wonderful success in the UFC Corey Sanhagen

01:01:16years the Sandman all right and for those who are looking for one more fight outside

01:01:21of the major major promotions what can fans go out there looking for

01:01:26check out Saturday afternoon uh starting at noon on octagon.tv that is a

01:01:31pay-per-view octagon 83 the european uh promotion they are

01:01:36filling their featherweight title that is vacant with uh nico samsonite

01:01:41against mohammed machayev that is uh fight matrix number 61

01:01:46versus number 76 machayev out of austria he is younger he's favor

01:01:51it over the german who gets to fight in his home country so that'll be an interesting fight all right

01:01:56right right in the nick of time guys scott eric thank you very much for joining on

01:02:01this show as always a pleasure for you at home hope you enjoyed enjoy the fights and we will

01:02:06see you next week

01:02:11you

Volkanovski vs Lopes 2: Will History Repeat Itself or Upset Incoming? | Against the Cage

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