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00:00:07welcome back to against the cage i'm scott montana here with my co-host eric richter
00:00:13we do not have jake harrier with us this week he is off uh but we are still here to
00:00:18bring you all
00:00:19the fight recaps previews interviews fight analysis you're all looking for right so i
00:00:26don't think we should delay the labor the point here eric let's dive in big news this yes surprising
00:00:34news kind of out of nowhere right ronda rousey versus gina carano uh a fight that i mean was on
00:00:41the radar well over a decade ago and and and now all of a sudden it's it's really in the
00:00:46works it
00:00:46was announced uh for may 16th in england california it's going to stream on netflix it is backed by
00:00:52most valuable promotions that's jake uh jake paul's outfit of course five rounds 145 pounds you got a
00:00:59hexagon shaped cage for this one eric is this fight interesting to you in in the year 2026
00:01:07and so it's older fighters right you know gina carano's in her 40s i believe ronda's 39 um you
00:01:14know they you know ronda fresh having off of pregnancy right um you know i i think we've i
00:01:20think she's been training i don't know how hard but she said that she's been training and that
00:01:24she you know in interviews she said that i needed this fight kind of something to get her um back
00:01:30her confidence back and maybe back into shape um and things like that you know is it interesting
00:01:35why not i mean anything that ronda rousey does is was interesting at least in the combat world wwe was
00:01:42interesting too i mean a lot of people didn't love her run there uh but ronda's just so interesting
00:01:47and honestly anything that jake paul does is kind of interesting at least to me i know that a lot
00:01:51of
00:01:51people don't like him anything he does i'm kind of into it well you're box office and he's box office
00:01:56so that makes sense dude he is box office like there's some things that he's done that i haven't
00:02:00agreed with um he said a lot of things like um yeah i'm not even gonna get into them he's
00:02:04done he's
00:02:05done some stuff that i'm not into um but just from a fighting perspective and like the promotional side
00:02:10he's good at it like he knows what he's doing and you know nikisa badarian has done a really
00:02:15good job too and he's a former ufc guy is the old ufc cfo they've done a really good job
00:02:22of building
00:02:22out a legitimate promotion here that might be able to stand without jake actually fighting i think that
00:02:28that's the end goal for them is to build a promotion that jake's not fighting and jake isn't gonna fight
00:02:33on this card well i mean most likely right he's not gonna be the co-main event on any card
00:02:36so most
00:02:37likely jake's not gonna fight on this card and i think it's interesting i i like it um sign me
00:02:41up i'll
00:02:41watch it i think the thing that is most interesting to me it's not necessarily the fight itself it's
00:02:46just the fact that this this type of fight um which i i don't know if we're supposed to call
00:02:52it a big
00:02:52fight i mean it kind of is but it's also kind of a weird big fight in that it doesn't
00:02:56really have any
00:02:57actual you know we can get to that in a moment but but just the fact that this fight is
00:03:02happening
00:03:03and the ufc is not involved and pfl is not involved they're they're leaving a lot of money on the
00:03:10table just by not being involved whether that was their choice or not um you know i i had the
00:03:14chance
00:03:14to speak this week with uh with the pfl ceo john martin i did ask him kind of about this
00:03:20whole
00:03:20situation like how much had he heard and how much you know maybe had come to him ahead of time
00:03:25or them
00:03:26and that kind of thing it really wasn't something that was brought to them he'd kind of heard just
00:03:29rumblings through the grapevine not necessarily any sort of uh you know any any sort of hey we could
00:03:35come to you for that kind of thing it really seems to me uh just gathering a little bit and
00:03:40reading
00:03:41some tea leaves that you know ronda and and gina and and the people backing them financially and and
00:03:47with stakes in them and their camps uh it just seems like they ended up finding out that the ufc
00:03:52did not
00:03:52work for them for one reason or another jake paul and them they were the the ones that it worked
00:03:58out
00:03:58pretty well for and frankly i do think this is absolutely going to be like a big win for netflix
00:04:04for jake paul um it's interesting it's it's definitely got people talking at least a little
00:04:10bit we'll see how it goes over these next you know three months as we lead up to it right
00:04:14just to follow
00:04:15up on something that you said so you talked so talk to john martin the pfl ceo and he said
00:04:19that um
00:04:20you know they weren't involved in discussions i find that relevant because jake paul had an uh famously
00:04:24right or infamously rather had a an mma contract with the pfl and never fought for them but seemingly
00:04:31got paid some sort of something was uh was exchanged and jake paul did a couple advertisements
00:04:37saying that he would fight in the pfl he asked to fight nate diaz in the pfl it never happened
00:04:42um so it's interesting at least at the minimum that the pfl was not approached at all i know that
00:04:47the jake paul pfl contract expired at the end of the year so i think the timing there is pretty
00:04:52relevant uh i mean there's also the fact that this is basically a new regime i mean it's it's
00:04:57almost an entire term as we've talked about last week right we've talked about this already and
00:05:01it's been pretty apparent there there is a distinction between what pfl used to be and
00:05:05what pfl is now um i don't you know john martin himself was certainly not in the building when any
00:05:11of
00:05:12the jake paul pfl partnership really was happening he's been pretty far removed from pfl for a long
00:05:22you know whether who was involved or whatever i do think the interesting part is just the fact that
00:05:26we actually don't have either of the major players in mixed martial arts involved in this typically
00:05:32it's it's kind of a new player right mvp 100 i think that brings us to the next point was
00:05:37whether
00:05:38this fight matters and i think that the most important thing about this fight is that none of
00:05:44the major players are involved in a new party a new promotion is involved here jake paul has never
00:05:50really been involved in mma not really and now his promotion gets involved and let's see what kind
00:05:56of promotion they're able to put together let's see what kind of card they're able to put together
00:05:59you know i think that you honestly they're they're invading the ufc's territory a little bit you know
00:06:07i'm not a little i'm not gonna sit here and say they're gonna compete with the ufc but you notice
00:06:14dana is doing a lot of stuff in boxing he's going to all the sunday he's at the uf the
00:06:19zoo for boxing
00:06:20events i don't know if he's going to be at the uh the event this saturday i would venture to
00:06:23guess
00:06:24not i would venture to guess that dana doesn't go to any of the events that are non-numbered events
00:06:28or non-pay-per-view events it seems like he's going to spend a good amount of his time with
00:06:32zufa
00:06:33and maybe maybe jake paul and his boxing team see a little bit of a room here to jump into
00:06:40mma
00:06:41potentially um we'll see i don't know i don't know what dana white's on-site presence means for that i
00:06:46mean you know he's he's obviously been removed from a lot of things as we found out through uh
00:06:51testimony in court recently right he's not really involved in fighter contracts or anything like
00:06:56that anymore he does very different stuff a lot more macro kind of things is what it seems like so
00:07:00you know the fact that he's not on site i don't know if that's necessarily going to be what opens
00:07:04the door i'll tell you why though as far as whether this fight matters or what it doesn't matter a
00:07:10lick
00:07:10for uh from a sporting aspect right and that is actually totally okay because it is a spectacle
00:07:16it's a curiosity it's with basically two people who are actual legitimate fighters from the past
00:07:23who are also kind of legitimate celebrities too that's what makes the appeal here but i think they're
00:07:30the way it actually matters is on a on a more human level because you heard ronda she was speaking
00:07:36with uh with espn in the you know after this was announced and kind of talking a little bit about
00:07:41how the genesis of this fight came about right it has a lot of significance to these two individual
00:07:47women you know ronda was and i encourage anybody to get um go check out exactly what ronda was saying
00:07:52from that interview i'm going to skim bare bones on this kind of thing um but essentially you know
00:07:57there there were a lot of things like you know depression and weight gain among these women that they
00:08:02were they were kind of seeking each other out almost to kind of bring out the best in each other
00:08:07and help each other along through times that were maybe just a little tougher for them um and i think
00:08:12that's really cool that it came about look let's not get it let's not get it twisted money is is
00:08:18definitely a gigantic part of this and they're going to make bank but i do think there's uh this is
00:08:23all
00:08:23rooted in a human a very human side a lot of humanity and i think that's kind of neat so
00:08:28that's why this
00:08:29fight matters it matters on a human level and i think that's cool yeah i think that's totally fair
00:08:33you know ronda when she ended her ufc career kind of ended with a kind of ended flat right like
00:08:40the
00:08:41last two losses both both of these women i mean they they were they were on top and they both
00:08:45just
00:08:46lost their their last fight or in ronda's case last two fights you know from gina's perspective i think
00:08:51gina just got called to hollywood i mean she was in fast and furious um and then she was in
00:08:56the
00:08:56mandalorian series famously and got you know let go off of that due to some tweets that she had
00:09:01she ended up suing disney and then settling out of court so i'm sure that i mean hopefully at least
00:09:06that's a whole large thing right yeah from her perspective i hope that money's not too much of an
00:09:11issue um but maybe it really is just about getting out there getting into the physical shape doing the
00:09:16training camp and and getting in there and fighting i i just i don't see a downside in jake paul's
00:09:22promotional company getting involved here i'm excited for it i think that he does a really
00:09:27good job um from a you know a production standpoint and you notice what ronda said her comments are
00:09:33legitimately interesting and we'll get to this but you know she was like we're going to a fighter's
00:09:39first promotion i know that that is the most valuable promotions tagline they've been saying
00:09:43we pay our fighters well uh etc etc i wonder if it was a financial aspect of why the ufc
00:09:52and mvp
00:09:54why mvp got it over the ufc i wonder i wonder if it just came down to dollars and cents
00:09:59i'm sure the
00:10:00money played like a let's say not a small role right it had to have because if if the dollars
00:10:07are
00:10:07there then it can make sense right i don't know that the ufc wants to fork over buku bucks just
00:10:12to be
00:10:12able to get fighters in anymore because they feel so confident that the brand is going to carry the
00:10:18day for them right they whatever they're trying to go those three letters ufc are all they really
00:10:23need the fighters around it will work themselves out and i think they do believe that a lot but
00:10:27i will say this though for the ufc if if i would to kind of again read the tea leaves
00:10:33a little bit
00:10:34here dana white's been pretty clear for quite a while here that they're not really interested in
00:10:38let's say circus fights this isn't a freak show fight this is this is a little further from that
00:10:44but there's a little bit of a circus element to it it's celebrity fight they're real fighters but
00:10:49it is celebrity fight they're playing on they're playing on that to try and get you to watch um
00:10:54and and a little nostalgia as well but i mean frankly we have not seen the ufc go the the
00:11:01route
00:11:01like this since that you know the cm punk experiment that's what i would really go very well
00:11:07yeah it's i i think ever since then they kind of saw like look we don't really need this we
00:11:12paid a
00:11:13lot of money maybe it got a little bit of interest but it just really wasn't worth it in the
00:11:18end of
00:11:18the day for them so i i think because they probably look at this as like this is a pure
00:11:22one-off right
00:11:23there's there's nothing that comes of this after ronda's not going to keep fighting she's 39 you
00:11:28mentioned before gina carano is 43 years old they hadn't competed in 10 and 17 years respectively
00:11:36this is a very long time to have gone between fights and they're not going to do it again so
00:11:42for them i can understand it doesn't fit their current mo and i can see why even outside of the
00:11:48money it just isn't what they're trying to do yeah i think that's fair you know 17 years is just
00:11:54crazy
00:11:54the ufc has shown a willingness to do stupid stupid stuff before cm punk being one i mean
00:11:59honestly kimbo slice was a little bit of a freak show kind of thing that's a long time ago long
00:12:04time different time they're not into it i mean even the james tony thing that was that was that
00:12:09itself was 16 years ago this year so yeah time's flying man it's a different era and i think i
00:12:15think
00:12:15they've left that time behind yeah yeah 100 i think cm punk they were so badly embarrassed
00:12:19especially the second cm punk fight and if anyone wants to go back and anyone that hasn't watched
00:12:24that one we should do a homework assignment the cm punk experience no no i don't want to do that
00:12:29to jake that's not fair i like jake well regardless we can do more fun stuff for jake so all
00:12:35this is
00:12:35to say scott let's the sports entertainment rating right now is what sporting's a zero entertainment's
00:12:41uh four i think it would be fun yeah i'll i'll say this it's yeah sporting is a it's like
00:12:48a minus one
00:12:49um but but absolutely i think there is a real chance that for like two minutes this fight is
00:12:57pretty electric and then it's over yeah i i i do believe that i mean the interesting part here
00:13:03is i think if weight class was let's say weight class irrelevant that you put the two skill sets
00:13:10together uh ronda rousey should absolutely destroy gina carano she was a much more advanced fighter
00:13:16um even from the moment she said she was going to take up mma just the judo alone was going
00:13:21to serve
00:13:21her well um there is size certainly on carano's side i don't want to i don't want to go deep
00:13:26into
00:13:27analysis here because we're going to say this is really not going to take that long um but yeah
00:13:31this this like i probably you were going to ask me at some point probably how would you line this
00:13:36fight i will line this fight at like minus 900 for ronda well ronda opened up at minus 400 i
00:13:42don't
00:13:43know what he's moved to i was asked on twitter yep i was asked on twitter what my betting my
00:13:48betting
00:13:48pick would be and i said ronda by first round submission or fight goes to decision because
00:13:54they'll get tired no no no first round submission absolutely i said ronda first round submission and
00:14:00if it's not that then it's going to go to a decision because they're tired if the line is minus
00:14:03450
00:14:04the the line for ronda first round submission should be minus 400
00:14:09it's like it's the way this fight is going to i would be stunned if it doesn't go anywhere else
00:14:14but
00:14:14look we can have a little bit of fun with it there is a little curiosity there um if you
00:14:19have a netflix
00:14:20account you have the painting for it so that's you know why not do something i had some friends over
00:14:24the last time there was the uh the what was the fight jake jake paul and joshua exactly the last
00:14:30time
00:14:30they did that we had friends over just for a holiday party and that was fine and uh yeah we
00:14:35could you know
00:14:35you can do the same just get people together put it on in the background take a break for two
00:14:39minutes
00:14:39to watch the craziness and then move on with your day overall i just think that it's good that jake
00:14:43paul's getting involved in mma honestly i like it you know actually because i got obviously i just said
00:14:48oh we'll just take two minutes out of your night for that but what if we built a let's build
00:14:53for
00:14:53ourselves what the undercard ought to look like for this one let's have a little fun here i'm gonna
00:14:57throw this one off the board i don't know where you had this uh eric but i'm gonna say just
00:15:01because
00:15:01everybody has already said it i'm gonna say we should be more creative than this everyone's
00:15:06saying anderson silva versus chris weidman three and that does make a lot of sense uh but but you
00:15:11know what that's not from my own mind i don't think you thought of that one either now it looks
00:15:15like but
00:15:15yeah let's go in a different round i want to know what you would put on first i was going
00:15:19a little
00:15:20crazy i was like what if you just threw nate diaz and nick diaz at each other oh god no
00:15:26as the co-mate nick nick nick the last thing a recovering nick diaz needs right now is to fight
00:15:32his brother sir he said he wants to fight though so he said he wants to fight he wants it
00:15:37he wants
00:15:38an mma fight he said he wants to fight in mma i don't know what his contract situation is with
00:15:41the
00:15:41ufc um but you can't you can't come back to the ufc after the robbie lawler fight so that can't
00:15:46happen
00:15:47he's been in rehab for the last two years if he needs money this is about as good of an
00:15:52opportunity
00:15:53to get and you know nate isn't going to kill you so no and it brings eyeballs it hard hard
00:16:00disagree
00:16:00sir well it's not even about agreeing or disagreeing because jake because this is a freak show already
00:16:05yes you know um and honestly i feel like jake and the promotion care most about like the press
00:16:12conference and social media clips and then less about the actual product and in the ring i guess
00:16:17in this case in the hexagon um which is weird to say um so i got that as a fight
00:16:22strike force was a hexagon it was the same thing okay so there you go um which is which is
00:16:27where
00:16:27ronda started her her mma journey her pro mma journey and where gina carano's ended yep um and
00:16:33just some other fighters that i could see on here um and i tyron woodley right obviously clear
00:16:39connection there um eddie alvarez was over at bkfc i don't know if he could get cleared or if his
00:16:46contract is free but he's another one that you could see on i would basically just go for all the
00:16:50older guys um holly home is another one you get in there a female fighter they're big into the
00:16:55female fights do you could do holly home versus um uh amanda serrano if you really wanted to maybe
00:17:01not boxing maybe try to do mma i don't know how how amanda serrano would feel about that only reason
00:17:05i say that is because i know amanda serrano has wanted to fight amanda nunez in mma uh it's the
00:17:09only reason i say that um cyborg take take a break here because i want to jump in i've got
00:17:15some ideas
00:17:16myself my friend and uh so i tried to come up with something look i didn't have a great idea
00:17:22for nate diaz i think nate is someone you'd really think of nate nate realistically would probably be
00:17:26somebody who'd anchor a card but i think maybe here he might be willing to depending who knows
00:17:31if the dollars are there like i said maybe it makes sense i threw out there and i don't love
00:17:35this
00:17:36either but it was the one that made a little more sense to me nate versus jorge masvidal retread of
00:17:41their boxing but now put it in mma i think they're you know obviously and they've had that fight as
00:17:46well from the the bmf standpoint this is sort of a trilogy fight but kind of not like why not
00:17:52i i
00:17:53just i couldn't come up with anybody else who made sense at 170 pounds or frankly i wonder if nate
00:17:59even
00:17:59wants to go to 170 he might be looking for more like 185 now i don't know what you do
00:18:04maybe nate diaz
00:18:05against anderson silva someone who fought his brother right i i don't know i don't love either of these
00:18:10fights but i'm trying to think of here i'll give you someone a fight that i think you'll actually
00:18:14have a little bit of interest in that makes some sense to put on here muhammad mukayev oh against
00:18:20reese mclaren who was with one for a couple for a little while um he was one of those guys
00:18:26that they
00:18:26kind of let walk um or i guess they released but it was kind of almost like a freedom kind
00:18:31of thing
00:18:31um because he had won two in a row he'd won four out of five this is not somebody who
00:18:35was struggling
00:18:35he was kind of given the chance to move on he actually won his last fight after he left one
00:18:40as well so i think that would be one of the best flyweight fights you can really make outside of
00:18:45the ufc pfl doesn't even have a uh a flyweight division here so and then another one for you
00:18:52i think you're gonna like this one gable steveson against whoever they get i don't i don't know who
00:18:57it is it doesn't really matter this is a guy who's he's really just trying to get fights he's in
00:19:02action uh this weekend right um there is yeah what which what's the one he's fighting for uh so
00:19:08gable steveson um and obviously everybody knows that gable steveson is my guy he is fighting this
00:19:14week and he is fighting um he's fighting hugo lazama mfl 3 i've not heard of the promotion to
00:19:21be clear oh mexico fight league that was what it was yeah yeah i know it's in mexico i have
00:19:25never really
00:19:26heard of the promotion you can watch it on netflix i know that it's like tomorrow it's it's it's it's
00:19:30night on on you or not enough excuse me youtube my mistake oh well i mean even misspoke misspoke
00:19:35my friend no yeah you can watch on youtube i think the main card starts at eight o'clock so
00:19:40there's there's one uh there's a one more fight for you i guess a little early right yeah early one
00:19:44more depending on when when are i'm not sure when you're watching this show it might be cutting a
00:19:49little too close so at least at least we can mention it here but i've got another one more fight
00:19:52for
00:19:52you later but yeah i figured gable steveson he just he's looking to get fights in um he's trying to
00:19:57go
00:19:58three and oh in in this week uh as well but yeah i put him out there again maybe he
00:20:02can go for his
00:20:03fourth uh mma fight at that point and i think that makes a lot of sense you get his name
00:20:06yeah out there
00:20:07to even more people on netflix he may be known to some people but netflix is going to create a
00:20:14much
00:20:14greater reach if he goes out there and just blast somebody like man that's going to be a good
00:20:18advertisement for him so i like that one that makes a lot of sense right yeah well that would that
00:20:23those
00:20:24are all real fighters that could actually like get it like and not to say that nate and you gotta
00:20:28put real fighters on you if you can't have it just be a bunch of old because then that's bellator
00:20:33you know 2014 right that's not i don't think that is what jake paul wants to go for that's not
00:20:38box
00:20:39office you don't think so okay i was thinking honestly that honestly that's where i think it's
00:20:43gonna end up i think it's gonna might be some of it but hey i'm giving you alternatives right
00:20:47those are these are some exciting options i think those are wait i had tony ferguson versus uh like
00:20:53anybody really book tony against uh diego sanchez or bj penn or something like i was like just make
00:20:59it a total please don't put bj penn in a fight again don't even do that that's not cool i
00:21:05know
00:21:05i know i know that would be so bad but i'm like i just i don't know where he's gonna
00:21:10go because
00:21:11you picked the two two of the really good fighters that are not under ufc contract which is really good
00:21:16a lot of these fighters are all the good fighters are under contract so the way that i looked at
00:21:20it was
00:21:20who's there like they're gonna have to build a whole card i like you you're i think these are
00:21:25guys they can do they might not have a big card maybe they don't need you know 10 fights they
00:21:30don't right maybe it'll just be five maybe they just put you can even do eight i mean they could
00:21:34just scrounge up a couple of you know regional level talent out of out of uh california if they wanted
00:21:40to right and uh and and and fill out the card i mean belter used to do that all the
00:21:45time in the
00:21:45earlier days especially strike force used to do that they could easily do something like that if
00:21:51they wanted yeah maybe andre ovloski i don't know if you saw him in bkfc maybe get me get him
00:21:56over
00:21:56andre ovloski looked awesome andre ovloski will never ever retire this is this is kind of a goofy
00:22:02story it was i was playing the uh the ea ufc game a few years ago the newest one was
00:22:07a five
00:22:07yeah and uh and i did a career and i was still fighting andre ovloski like 20 years in so
00:22:14he was
00:22:14like 67 years old because they don't retire these fighters in the career mode even when they get to
00:22:20be that old i was like i took a picture i put it on facebook or uh not facebook god
00:22:24goodness i haven't
00:22:25done any of my space on social media no there you go this guy um yeah no it was it
00:22:33was it was funny
00:22:34but no i mean to his credit look he goes out there and he beats ben rothwell he wants that
00:22:38barrel title he's still got it we i wrote it i think a lot of us were starting to write
00:22:43him off
00:22:44when he got knocked out by fedor i want to say 17 18 years ago you know it's been a
00:22:50long time and he's
00:22:50still at it the chin is still like we thought he was too chinny and he's kind of bounced back
00:22:54from
00:22:54that pretty well so kudos to andre ovloski the pit bull is still at it but yeah i mean maybe
00:22:59he's on
00:23:00there the only thing i'll say and i think we should probably move on after this one eric but
00:23:03i will close out by saying again from that conversation i had with john martin i asked
00:23:07like hey is this you know an opportunity for you guys you might want to co-promote get some of
00:23:13your
00:23:13own fighters featured on you know this prominent card with netflix and you know to sum it up and you
00:23:18should watch the interview uh as well on our channel here but to sum it up that just was kind
00:23:23of a never say never situation but it's just not something they have in the works there i think
00:23:28they're kind of new mvp is doing their own thing pfl is focused on what they're trying to do
00:23:33right now i don't think they're trying to be distracted by something else i just want to know
00:23:36what that is that they're trying to do well you know watch my interview sir at least we'll hear a
00:23:41little bit more about it you know um but yeah i think you know look if you you must have
00:23:45thoughts
00:23:46dear listener you should leave some in the comments what do you think of this ronda rousey
00:23:51gina carano fight is this are you tuning in are you all about the box office or is this just
00:23:57kind
00:23:57of like whatever i don't really care let us know in the chat in the comments and and uh yeah
00:24:02have
00:24:03fun with it right i think we've got to start turning our attention to a fight that's much
00:24:08closer now eric we've got ufc houston this weekend the fight night may card is uh headlined by sean
00:24:14strickland against anthony fluffy hernandez a very key middleweight fight starts 8 p.m main card
00:24:21uh 5 p.m prelims all of course paramount plus um and you should by the way check out my
00:24:26interview
00:24:26with anthony fluffy hernandez uh he had some pretty strong words to say about sean strickland
00:24:31uh his opponent and some of the tactics that he uses online and this is coming from somebody who's
00:24:36not a big online guy uh eric so i i think it was very interesting that he had some some
00:24:42very pointed
00:24:43thoughts on on the let's say controversial way in which sean strickland has decided to promote this
00:24:48fight at times um the question though the question i have for you eric is this fight is this the
00:24:56right
00:24:57middleweight fight to have for either of these men in terms of the middleweight title picture
00:25:02yeah so we can refer back to our rankings uh we have anthony so ufc has strickland ahead of anthony
00:25:09hernandez which is ridiculous anthony hernandez is number four on the new york post mma rankings uh
00:25:15sean strickland is number five and then it's pretty close i'm not going to argue it too much
00:25:20i think we were unanimous on on at least fluffy at four but you know it makes sense there's a
00:25:24former
00:25:25champion and there's someone this is his biggest fight so and the rankings that he goes off of in
00:25:29his head it's it's somebody that's ahead of him so you know i think that that checks a box for
00:25:33him
00:25:34you know it does profile as a step up now it's just a little hard for me to get behind
00:25:39because you
00:25:39know reiner de ritter it at one point seemed like anthony fluffy hernandez versus reiner de ritter
00:25:44loser gets the title shot then you know injury pull out fight doesn't happen and now he's fighting
00:25:51sean strickland who i'm not sure is very close to the title now sean strickland's uh resume is very
00:25:57solid he has a win over nostridin imabov he has a split decision loss and then a very close
00:26:03unanimous decision loss judrikus duplessi who just lost his title to hamzat so if you look at it
00:26:09mma math not perfect it's not the worst thing in the world i'm not going to crush him and say
00:26:14it's a
00:26:14terrible decision now what i will say would i've liked to see him fight drickus or imabov
00:26:19absolutely or even kyle brohalio i think or kyle brohalo um for all ho
00:26:27sure um i need to work on that one regardless would i'd like to see that fight instead absolutely
00:26:32i think that that one's a better fight for him um i think it's just super um competitive i think
00:26:38this
00:26:38is competitive too by the way um but i would have rather seen that fight but i i think there's
00:26:42a
00:26:42problem probably just with the the calculus of making the timeline work here i look drickus
00:26:47duplessi does still not have a fight coming up we have anthony falfier hernandez who had to pull out
00:26:52of that fight and you know when he spoke to me i mean he it made it clear that like
00:26:56look i don't
00:26:56like pulling out of fights i want to make money if i can fight i can fight if i can
00:27:00train i can fight
00:27:01if i can't train i'm not going to fight he's pretty calculated like that but he's healthy i mean the
00:27:06injury as i understood it did not keep him out very long he was only out of the training room
00:27:10a little
00:27:10longer i think he was hoping to delay it ufc was not really inclined to do that so that's why
00:27:15he
00:27:15just missed that date he doesn't want to sit out extra long for a potential drickus duplessi fight
00:27:20that's not coming together the ufc had obviously thought of this fight and came to both of them they
00:27:25were talking about doing it in australia which sean strickland put his foot down and said absolutely
00:27:29not um and also you know fluffy was pretty happy with that right um i i don't know that we
00:27:39have
00:27:40an opportunity here to to create a better fight for him i think this was what came along nasa
00:27:46ninemobob doesn't always keep the most active schedule and i do think it's a good fight for
00:27:51him i think a win here especially an opportunity to he's a favorite here he's certainly somebody who's
00:27:57going to look very very good i think this weekend or at least he can and from strickland's standpoint
00:28:03i mean this is this is a potential springboard right look honestly i i don't think this is a
00:28:08bad matchup i do think there's a problem here with the fact that drickus duplessi we just don't know
00:28:13when he's coming back right this is a guy who seems to keep a different schedule now i mean he
00:28:19lost a
00:28:19very disheartening loss of his championship last summer we've not heard rumblings about a new fight
00:28:25i don't think fluffy wants to keep waiting when frankly he had to pull out of his last fight
00:28:29in something he doesn't like to do but he's willing to do and i think he is about about getting
00:28:35that
00:28:35work in and getting those paychecks so i think this probably opportunity was presented to him
00:28:41strickland had talked about the fact that this was offered to fight in australia and he's like i'm not
00:28:45fighting in australia again i'm not taking the tax hit fluffy hernandez has been pretty on board with
00:28:49that as well i think he was pretty happy that strickland at least kind of spoke up for that and
00:28:52presented that so now they're fighting in texas that's a it's a much better opportunity for both
00:28:57of them and i would think especially fluffy um trying not to get the tax man taking away his
00:29:01money in texas um i don't think it's a bad opportunity at all it's a it's a chance for
00:29:06hernandez to fight a former champion in strickland who he's only lost to like very high level guys he
00:29:12does have a win over him evolve so the fact that he's not getting a fight against him evolve hernandez
00:29:17in this case i don't think it's that big a deal you could beat the guy who beat him and
00:29:21continue
00:29:22rolling i think an impressive win gets him right to the top and then on strickland's side frankly
00:29:27this would be a very good win for him the best one he's probably had in a while you know
00:29:32it's a tough
00:29:32opponent and i do think he could take some of that chi and actually get himself into a fight against
00:29:39jemiah it's a big risk reward for him this is not the greatest of matchups i don't think
00:29:43he's definitely an underdog here but if he does win then you start to say okay
00:29:50what can he against jemiah especially if he's able to neutralize the wrestling i i think it's
00:29:54actually win-win um either way but especially from strickland it's a big risk and a big reward and i
00:30:01can see upside for both of them 100 and like strickland you look at this one and he defends
00:30:06takedowns at a 76 percent rate um you know i want to see how his takedown defense holds up here
00:30:11especially over the course of 25 minutes neither fighters getting tired here you know this is first
00:30:15team all cardio in this fight both of these guys have unlimited gas tanks seemingly and you know
00:30:21fluffy hernandez is not a bad wrestler like it's not like he's one of these submission grapplers
00:30:26who uh is looking for positions to kind of get like outside trips and stuff like he's not doing
00:30:31that he's got a very strong double leg he can chain his wrestling together take the back you know i
00:30:37i think
00:30:37that strickland is usually the guy who's controlling the octagon coming forward jab jab cross jab push
00:30:44kick cross you know like it's very uh technical in the way that he's coming forward non-stop and he's
00:30:49talking um but fluffy's gonna do that too you know fluffy's gonna be like good you want to come
00:30:53forward i'll come i'll come forward at you faster and i'll come forward at you with takedowns which
00:30:58strickland's not going to want so i actually expect that strickland's gonna be on his back foot more
00:31:01than more than his front foot which is irregular for him frankly uh hernandez had nine takedowns
00:31:06against elize and you know 10 against michelle paita who kind of never recovered from that one
00:31:10that one uh michelle paita that like kind of i don't know i don't want to say i took his
00:31:15soul but
00:31:15anthony fernandez will drag you into deep water and make you really learn something about yourself
00:31:20as uh habib nirmaga medoff would say so you know this is uh i agree that you know fluffy hernandez
00:31:27is
00:31:27on a on a tear right now just it all comes down to who's got the better cardio by the
00:31:32end you know
00:31:32for sure for sure and look i gotta ask you here too what is the best case scenario for how
00:31:37the fight
00:31:38goes for each of these guys let's start with with fluffy well if we're doing fluffy i mean you're you're
00:31:43coming i'm coming forward i'm gonna take the center of the octagon i'm gonna i'm gonna outstrike you for
00:31:48a little while and then i'm gonna take you down and choke you out you know that that's that's really
00:31:53what like best case scenario and you know fluffy hernandez got some real thick feathers in his cap
00:31:57uh he submitted hudolfo vieta with a peruvian necktie you know back a long time ago a couple
00:32:04four years ago three years ago uh it was about i think it was about five years it was he
00:32:08was coming
00:32:09off a rough stretch kind of out of the pandemic and then he finally he finally got on board with
00:32:13that burst onto the scene there since yeah uh so i mean it you're looking for something like that
00:32:18something impressive like that where you're coming forward and sean strickland's not bullying you
00:32:22off of the you know sean strickland's been here before this is by far the biggest fight that i
00:32:28would say probably biggest fight that hernandez has ever fought uh strickland's definitely absolutely
00:32:33and that's why it is a good matchup i do think i'll tell you what i think is a best
00:32:37case scenario for
00:32:37fluffy you remember the uh the kabib Nurmagomedov fight against uh michael johnson at the garden about
00:32:43a decade ago i think if it looks like that if he can get it down and just be relentless
00:32:50keep the pace
00:32:51going rack up the damage until the referee just has no choice but to wave it off i think that
00:32:57would
00:32:57be like a best case scenario for him is that going to be easy no but i think that's that's
00:33:02kind of like
00:33:03ideal like perfect fight for him and if he does that he is absolutely going to be the next guy
00:33:08for the title shot right he doesn't have to sit there and say dana give me my title shot just
00:33:12like
00:33:12he'll just get it i think and then he's he's not the type that would if i'm sean though this
00:33:18is the
00:33:18trickier one like what does a what does a best case scenario look like for sean i think from him
00:33:22we're talking about a situation where he's able to just continue to keep hernandez at bay give him
00:33:28fits um you know with the jab those teeps he loves to throw best case especially as he ends up
00:33:33kind of
00:33:34stinging hernandez i don't know if it's going to be the body or whatever but that's when he finally
00:33:38goes into that killer instinct mode that he seems to kind of think he has and is always talking up
00:33:43like i want to murder somebody out there we saw that against a boost excuse me magomadov yeah a
00:33:50few years back that's when when he gets somebody hurt he really does attack and if he can do that
00:33:55that's where he's going to okay now he can actually end this fight if not you're talking about a point
00:34:01fighting victory which i don't know that that secures him the title shot he's looking for no it
00:34:05definitely wouldn't secure him the title shot honestly even like best case scenario like say like
00:34:09say like he just dominates fluffy not tko second round hundred significant strikes i still don't
00:34:15think he gets a title shot um personally oh i don't know i don't know man i i would be
00:34:21surprised
00:34:22if you just ruled it out entirely i think probably imov has he deserves it i think over sean even
00:34:27in
00:34:27that scenario but that doesn't mean he'd get it right right i mean strickland's got a win over
00:34:31imov people forget that um it's true if you want to draw back to a like a fight where like
00:34:37it'd be
00:34:37ideal for sean strickland you're looking at the abu's not magomadov fight and you're looking at
00:34:41the israel adesanya fight like if sean could replicate either of those two performances and
00:34:46i know that uh fluffy hernandez is going to have a very proactive wrestling attack you know that that
00:34:51is definitely uh something to deal with but those are your two best case scenarios for strickland now
00:34:56if you want to talk about worst case scenarios long time ago uh at 170 pounds sean strickland fought
00:35:03kamaru usman and this is when kamaru usman was on his was on his run nobody knew his name yet
00:35:08it's a long time ago no one knew sean's name either for that matter no no it's a fight that
00:35:12just happened happened to happen right um you want to talk about worst case scenario kamaru usman
00:35:18absolutely ragdolled sean strickland for most of that fight had a knockdown as well lost unanimous
00:35:23decision the same possibility exists here where you know fluffy could ragdoll him when the wrestling
00:35:29and could and that could make his striking better we see that all the time um you know even habib
00:35:35striking before he got really good in the beginning of his career he was his striking was pretty bad in
00:35:41the beginning of his ufc career but his wrestling was so good that didn't matter um you could see
00:35:45that here with fluffy i don't i don't know how much better i don't know i don't know how likely
00:35:49that
00:35:49is i think sean has evolved a lot from those days and i don't know that we look at fluffy
00:35:53hernandez
00:35:53as like a kabib level type of grappler or a kamaru usman level type of wrestler right i you know
00:35:59he's he's certainly relentless and and the pace is kind of what keeps people down um i not saying
00:36:04he couldn't take him down but i i think that would probably be a tough one that he just throws
00:36:09him
00:36:09all over the place right um but obviously you know like that there that's the big fight of this
00:36:14weekend there is the co-main event it's kind of an interesting choice here right jeff neil uros
00:36:21medich welterweight fight it's not truly a rankings impact fight maybe on the outside of the let's say
00:36:27the ufc's rankings it's certainly not in our you know new york post top 10 rankings that we just
00:36:31came out with but there's some interest here and i'm curious where you say is this a good or a
00:36:36bad
00:36:37choice for a co-main event in houston i definitely don't think it's a bad choice um you know we
00:36:43there's
00:36:43a lot of things about jeff neil out there and there's a lot of stuff out there he did a
00:36:47really
00:36:47good interview with james lynch and uh in that interview he you know he revealed that there were
00:36:52some struggles during covid everybody had struggles during covid no doubt um you know but you dui
00:36:59battling you know um alcoholism and stuff like that it's tough it's really hard the life of a fighter
00:37:06is not easy and especially during covid when everybody was stuck inside certainly uh not the
00:37:12easiest in terms of this matchup it's hard for me to get behind um jeff neil at a big favorite
00:37:19spot
00:37:20here now where i like it is that you it's going to be stand up trade you know banks rock
00:37:26'em stock'em
00:37:27robots really jeff neil's got powerful hands and uros medic is not one of those guys who's going to
00:37:32be sitting around um you know trying to wear you out in the grappling or anything like that this is
00:37:37going to be action-packed and jeff neil's you know from the area he's a hometown guy austin guy yeah
00:37:43yeah i think i think people will show up for him there i do think that's kind of the thing
00:37:47there
00:37:48right and the ufc does like to do that when they when they do travel when they're outside the apex
00:37:53a co-main event especially if they're not already having the headliner there that's a really good
00:37:57spot for them to showcase a local guy someone who's maybe on the you know again those outskirts of the
00:38:03rankings maybe isn't high up but somebody that at least people recognize has been doing stuff and
00:38:08they can put some maybe a little more interested butts in seats i do think that's what we have here
00:38:14right it's not the worst of co-main i call it acceptable i think you said it was fine and
00:38:18i think that's pretty much as much as it needs to be but look i don't want to i don't
00:38:23want to pump up
00:38:23jeff neil too much he's one in three over the last three years but also all those losses to the
00:38:28guys
00:38:28that are in the title hunt right now we're talking about carlos proches uh shavkat rakmanov
00:38:33and you know ian machado gary like who's beating these guys nobody else is beating them
00:38:40so i don't think it's that big a deal to have those losses on your record i do think
00:38:44this is kind of a test for him right he's got to say okay are you still good enough to
00:38:48beat the
00:38:49uros medicis of the world who solid 170 or maybe not somebody who's you know on the verge of being
00:38:54ranked but he's kind of in there he's a tough out he's been pretty okay doing a little bit here
00:38:58and
00:38:59there you know he had a mixed results last year but he's on a hotter streak and uh yeah like
00:39:04i'm okay
00:39:05with it i think it's fine and uh we'll talk a little later about the depth of this card uh
00:39:10so
00:39:10i don't think it's going to be that big a deal yeah no i totally agree with that and uh
00:39:15you know
00:39:15not for nothing jeff neil did split decision ian gary that was close like you know i mean that's also
00:39:21you know one of the reasons that ian gary might not get a title shot is because carlos proches
00:39:24knocked him out unconscious ian gary had a hard time with jeff neil jeff feels not an easy out
00:39:29typically now we'll see if like that spinning back elbow to proches kind of um takes some time
00:39:39off of his career yeah proches proches put a good one on him that is what it is right um
00:39:44but look what
00:39:44what other fights are you looking give me give me a fight to watch on this card yeah i mean
00:39:49jacoby
00:39:49smith versus uh josiah harrell anybody that knows me knows that i've been into jacoby smith josiah harrell
00:39:55also not a bad fighter at all um and he stepped in late notice for this one yes and it's
00:40:01a welterweight
00:40:01fight um yeah i both of these guys are 11 and 0 so like someone's always got to go uh
00:40:06josiah harrell
00:40:07is a newcomer newcomer yeah 100 percent newcomer to the ufc um smith obviously you know last time out
00:40:14against nico price who's you know i mean nico price not great but he's three and oh in the ufc
00:40:20nico
00:40:20price is not nobody uh jacoby smith strong wrestling game um and honestly good
00:40:26powerful striking too i think he's one of the guys to watch in the ufc um not not close to
00:40:32a
00:40:32title shot by any means but with enough um activity he could definitely be looking at a ranking at the
00:40:38end of the year well listen i've got a fight that i want to watch too but before i do
00:40:41i'm going to
00:40:41shout out the one that jake gave us uh who's again not with us this week uh he is pointing
00:40:47to
00:40:47melchise el costa who he likes to uh i think he just likes to say his name at least in
00:40:52part but also
00:40:53fun fighter he's definitely on on a bit of a heater right now right uh he's going against dan
00:40:58100k eg uh who i assume is changing the nickname right the bonus is a little different now it's
00:41:03double so he's probably not going 50k anymore he's got to be 100 uh i would think and uh as
00:41:09far as mine
00:41:10my fight i'm also going to deep enter into the prelims here i'm going with ramiz brahimai
00:41:15another texas guy he's got actually ties to um to our neck of the woods to to brooklyn uh as
00:41:22well
00:41:22but he's going against puna soriano who also actually did beat ros medic last year so another
00:41:28interesting opponent i like this fight here i think it's gonna be a lot of fun anytime soriano
00:41:32fights it's always fun right and i'm sure i don't know what the event rating is yet i'm excited to
00:41:36hear
00:41:36it but i will say that like all the fights that we mentioned are just as good or could easily
00:41:42be
00:41:42co-main event yeah i know and we're deep on the prelims here too there's actually a lot of high
00:41:48rank
00:41:48talent here dude so the event rating i don't know if this is going to surprise you or not
00:41:52but we got a 58 dude this is a really really strong fight night card um it's technically not as
00:41:58well
00:41:58rated as the fight night last week at the apex but i obviously i i think they are putting their
00:42:04best foot forward not just because it's very new for paramount but i think i imagine this year is
00:42:09going to be a they're going to put their best foot forward all year that's kind of what i think
00:42:13we've
00:42:13seen that historically in these uh these first years with the the tv deal the honeymoon stage
00:42:19they're really trying to do that right go all out but on this card in particular dude we have so
00:42:25much
00:42:25depth there's sneaky high ranked fighters throughout five matchups are top 30 versus top 30 some of you're
00:42:32even more like top 15 or 17 right um 18 of the 28 fighters on the card they're ranked in
00:42:38the top 60
00:42:39this is of course fight matrix 23 are in the top 100 and there's no one outside the top 200
00:42:45there's
00:42:45none of these like oh they don't really ought to belong here prospect kind of things like okay these
00:42:49guys are at least on the radar a little bit and you can you can totally understand putting guys on
00:42:54the roster on the card like that they've done it historically throughout i think it's a really
00:42:58great card there's actually a few fights that are going to potentially impact our new york post rankings
00:43:03right the middleweight headliner makes sense but also heavyweight sergey spivak against dante delia i
00:43:10could see that having a having some impact there depending on how that goes um the women's bantamweight
00:43:15division you guys each had uh jocelyn edwards ranked she's going against nora cornole and i think that
00:43:21or cornoli i might have that wrong but uh i mean honestly either one of them wins potentially they
00:43:26might win me over to put them uh in the rankings next time we do it so we'll see even
00:43:30costa dude even costa
00:43:32he he lost to steve garcia who's in our rankings but ever since then last three years he's five and
00:43:38oh with three finishes he goes out and has another performance against dan ega i mean this is somebody
00:43:42who we're starting to talk about is maybe right behind uh garcia 100 and just uh to put a button
00:43:48on it 14 fights this weekend a lot long night of fights long night yeah get your popcorn unless we
00:43:54lose a few which sometimes we do right we might lose a few that is a good point and then
00:43:58we end up
00:43:58as well you know and that's okay with me i'm cool with that nine of the 14 projected to end
00:44:03inside
00:44:03the distance speaking of which why don't you uh why don't you set up your three bets in three minutes
00:44:08for us sir oh i'm ready we're back three bets three minutes we'll put three minutes on the clock
00:44:13and here we go we start off on the prelims here for ufc houston john paul abasiani you guys
00:44:20probably not know him i saw him on the data whites contender series his father is a big time mixed
00:44:25martial arts guy his name escapes me uh but big time mixed martial arts um you know coach a lifetime
00:44:31in the game for john paul abasiani pretty big time prospect comes up here against phil fresh prince
00:44:36row uh wrote you know one in three in his last four bad takedown defense defense takedowns at a 50
00:44:43clip john paul abasiani very solid wrestling and decent striking as well um i actually think that
00:44:50john paul abasiani goes to decision here with phil row um i'll take john paul abasiani by
00:44:54decision at plus 320 over on the prelims we're going deep here uh but i i was a big fan
00:45:00i talked
00:45:00about on the podcast i'm a big fan of of jpl uh on the show and i i will stand
00:45:05by it here that's
00:45:06the benefit of betting on dana white's contender series um but yeah so we'll move on here to the
00:45:12um to i believe that's still the prelims uh but it's michelle pajeda a well-known name against zach
00:45:17reese now michelle pajeda is you know look he's lost his last three he lost to kyle dawkus uh pretty
00:45:25famously uh in august and uh you know look he's facing top of the level competition you have to
00:45:32understand um but anthony uh alex he fought anthony hernandez he fought abus magomedov and
00:45:38then lost to kyle dawkus who's you know kind of on a on a run here prior to that michelle
00:45:43pajeda
00:45:43looks like maybe not a title contender but definitely uh one of the better fighters um
00:45:48at 185 pounds you know look i mean he's one he won seven in a row from 2020 to 2024
00:45:55so it's not
00:45:56like michelle pajeda is taking crazy amounts of damage here anthony hernandez might be fighting
00:46:00for a title in in a short amount of time abus magomedov also really talented close fight there
00:46:05um he's fighting up against zach reese who i'm not a big fan of zach reese lost to cody brundage
00:46:12um he you know he's beaten up on guys like you know dusko todorovic which was also like again a
00:46:17close fight um you know i think michelle pajeda this is just recency bias at its finest michelle
00:46:23pajeda i'm going minus 160 i just think he wins i think this should be like a minus 220 favorite
00:46:28spot
00:46:28uh give me michelle pajeda here on the money line minus 160 unless he has taken crazy amounts of
00:46:33damage and training that i don't know about he should be able to win against zach reese for sure
00:46:37and then we're going to go finally to the main card i'm skipping the um the main event here as
00:46:42as a
00:46:43best bet um but i am going to go to the co-main event where jeff neil is fighting um
00:46:49at home
00:46:50against um uh euros medic uh you know i'm not a big euros medic guy i'm not a big jeff
00:46:56neil guy but
00:46:57the level of competition for jeff neil is just way higher than it is for euros medic um jeff neil
00:47:01had
00:47:01a split decision loss to ian gary not too bad uh euros medic is definitely you know a solid enough
00:47:07striker i don't know how his defense isn't great but jeff neil is definitely getting older i think
00:47:12that this goes over one and a half rounds i think that the line is just too high uh for
00:47:16that i i only
00:47:17even just like goes to decision in the plus 400 range but i'm gonna go over one and a half
00:47:21rounds
00:47:22as a best bet plus 114 over on draft kings that's your three bets in three minutes let's get back
00:47:27on the
00:47:27winning track let's do it all right right on that was great uh eric so i think we can put
00:47:33a button
00:47:34on ufc houston now i want to bring up something you know it's just you and me i want to
00:47:38have a
00:47:38little fun here this was something that we saw come out of the nba all-star weekend chatter actually
00:47:43jalen brown former nba finals mvp is a star of the boston celtics uh an all-star of course this
00:47:50weekend
00:47:50uh this past weekend he said that he has talked to dana white about potentially fighting for the ufc
00:47:56when he's done with his nba days so i don't know whether that's true or not i don't know if
00:48:02somebody who has been extremely involved in nba players union stuff is going to be all that
00:48:08interested in working with the pay scale of the ufc or or kind of the business practices but that's
00:48:13that's a company for another day's offer we don't have to worry about Nintendo series right get out
00:48:18of here um i mean especially now that we saw what they're going to do with with gina carano ron
00:48:23rousey i feel like that's not anything other than just hey i talked with him right but let's just
00:48:27have a little fun let's have a little fun let's look at the three major u.s sports nfl nba
00:48:33major
00:48:34league baseball i want you to pick one active athlete who would make a good mixed martial artist
00:48:39yes so i have two um one of and the only reason i have two is because one of them
00:48:45is retired but
00:48:45retired early is still super young i think he's like 31 32 so he's probably a future hall of famer
00:48:52aaron donnell defensive tackle for the los angeles rams is scary he's one of those guys that
00:49:00just nobody wants the smoke um he i'd have to i would have a notorious hard like a workout guy
00:49:07too
00:49:07yeah he puts these crazy workouts and stuff yeah so he's six foot one and he weighs 284 so there's
00:49:13plenty of plenty of room to cut to heavyweight um now look heavyweight sucks maybe he'd be ranked
00:49:21number 11 right behind gable steveson who knows um killing me in any in any event um a second one
00:49:31actually no i'll give you the second one after you go all right let me i'll give you mine and
00:49:35uh i i
00:49:36went a little bit different direction here the reason i was looking what i was looking for criteria
00:49:41wise i picked somebody who had some martial arts background and in this case wrestling i went with
00:49:47mason graham top five pick last year's draft right he's a cleveland browns defensive tackle
00:49:52more importantly for his exercise he was a standout high school wrestler in california
00:49:56not even that long ago because he's only 22 years old listed at 6 3 3 15 i know that's
00:50:02a lot bigger
00:50:02than heavyweight i imagine if you're training for a fight instead of for this you can get under 265
00:50:08i'm not concerned about somebody who actually wrestled being able to do that right
00:50:13um in frankly in heavyweight years he's a baby if he's 22 so i i would think if you let's
00:50:19let's say
00:50:20this just this guy just said you know what just for a lark i'm gonna start training you know kickboxing
00:50:25along the way and maybe just learn how to like keep it standing when i'm kickboxing if he's 32 years
00:50:31old maybe he's already to become a killer in mma i don't i wouldn't write him off and look we
00:50:36we saw
00:50:36greg hardy make the move over right a standout defensive player but he didn't have that base
00:50:42right he's not he doesn't have the wrestling mentality i don't think he was truly a fighter
00:50:46fighter he was he was just kind of a crazy guy right um and look he had even success at
00:50:51the ufc level
00:50:52you know semi-manufactured it was a lot of his own right um but at the same time i think
00:50:58somebody
00:50:59like this guy uh grant now mason graham i think what he can do is he's going to bring that
00:51:04wrestler's
00:51:04mentality he's going to be able to be in it for a fight and he can weather storms so i'd
00:51:09be curious
00:51:10to see how he would do yeah well um one give me your other one i want to know your
00:51:14other one though
00:51:14mason graham's a good shout i like that one because he's young too it makes sense um the other one
00:51:18was
00:51:19james johnson and this is not like i'm glad you brought him up i was going to yeah well i'm
00:51:24glad that
00:51:25i didn't say uh ahead of you because um i mean it's just known that this guy has got the
00:51:30juice
00:51:30in mma nobody wants to mess with him on the basketball court um you know he spars he trained martial
00:51:36arts
00:51:36yeah he's been doing this like for his whole life so he's like actual martial artist yes he has a
00:51:41lifetime of kickboxing under his belt and everyone like there was like uh like nba players only polls
00:51:47like who would you want to uh fight versus not fight and for years it was david west and james
00:51:52johnson
00:51:53are the two guys in nba that you don't want to fight so james johnson i feel like a lot
00:51:57of that
00:51:57was because people just didn't think of james johnson i you know i think a lot of people who
00:52:01would have thought of him be like oh yeah actually over him over david west sorry no don't disrespect
00:52:05the david west but yeah i think this is an actual boogeyman in in combat sports he's not technically
00:52:10on a team right now he just turned or actually turns 39 on friday happy birthday uh coming up to
00:52:16james johnson but he's not on a roster he was on the the pacers during the finals he's listed at
00:52:21six
00:52:21seven and 240 so the guy's already there he doesn't have to cut you don't have to do anything
00:52:26you just show who you want me to kill if he can if he can still have a takedown and
00:52:31look maybe even
00:52:32if he can't i bet you he could be an impact guy at heavyweight i would love to see him
00:52:35try
00:52:36honestly honestly he should at ufc if they are willing to just pay a little bit more
00:52:42hey maybe maybe fights uh for most valuable promotions we'll see
00:52:49look if there's someone eric and i haven't thought of you got an idea or you think our
00:52:53ideas are stupid whatever just throw them in the in the comments i'd love to see what you guys think
00:52:58of of this idea it's always a fun idea right thinking of what other athletes could do if they
00:53:02cross over into fighting and a lot of the fighters though a lot of athletes think oh maybe i'll just
00:53:06go into boxing and they don't always look very good right like livian livian bell's not had the
00:53:10greatest results and you know frank gore senior has also kind of done a little bit of it too so
00:53:16adrian peterson my goodness a bunch of people right it's not always working out but i think we can find
00:53:21guys and i'm curious who you can think of that maybe eric and i didn't right yeah so that was
00:53:25obviously that was sort of like a quick hit that we decided we wanted to have a little fun with
00:53:29we're here for a good time yeah yeah for sure but want me to get to the quick hits now
00:53:33we gotta start
00:53:33give me the quick hits give me the latest news and notes from around mixed martial arts
00:53:39we got a lot and honestly the the the first one at least in some ways is is very much
00:53:45a feel good
00:53:46version of of a quick hit here came velasquez obviously a very ugly situation that he found
00:53:52himself in that did find him in prison uh he was sentenced to a five-year term stemming from his
00:53:582022
00:53:59arrest on several charges including attempted murder of the man accused of molesting his young son
00:54:05uh well he was just released on parole over the weekend only served 10 months he continued to serve
00:54:12uh to shave off time for good behavior and all sorts of good stuff that i know the judge was
00:54:17uh notably
00:54:18sympathetic to kane and his motivations in trying to you know look out for his family and now he is
00:54:23reunited with that family on the outside so good for the velasquez family obviously the the chapter is
00:54:29still not closed for them they have a lot uh of things to deal with with that but at least
00:54:34he's
00:54:35home and that's good for them right um on a little more sobering you know or maybe like a little
00:54:41more
00:54:41outside of that right like back to back to fantasy let's get out of reality let's go back to fantasy
00:54:46here conor mcgregor that's a good way to bring us back right um he claimed on social media that he
00:54:51has
00:54:51been offered an opponent at a date and he accepts for uh his next fight he's just waiting for the
00:54:57contract
00:54:57we'll see what that leads to if anything you know you never know with conor uh there's a lot of
00:55:03talk
00:55:03but at this point on this particular week when we're all hearing about the white house stuff
00:55:07you got to at least mention it right he's up down sideways in circles everything that he says
00:55:12we are getting closer to that reveal i think we're not going to get it yet it doesn't seem like
00:55:16it's
00:55:16imminent but uh but the very least dana white he did say post-fight after azufa boxing three the other
00:55:21day the plans for the ufc white house are built the word is built not done he was very clear
00:55:29on
00:55:29that uh with two different options to present to president trump for essentially a stamp of
00:55:34approval it would seem right um so keep your keep your ears to the ground or not ears to the
00:55:39ground
00:55:39you're gonna hear about it it's gonna be pretty obvious right fight announcements we got three
00:55:44fight announcements i want to get to here norma dumont is going to fight uh yana santos it's been
00:55:49reported and actually both of these women uh have confirmed on social media they will fight on
00:55:53april 25th at a yet unreported location we have not heard about this event until now so that's a
00:56:00little new there uh michael ramifications yeah absolutely this is a big fight winner that one
00:56:05realistically might be next in line when eventually that whole thing gets clarified with uh kayla harrison
00:56:11or maybe it doesn't who knows um let's try to think positive here right uh on another note though
00:56:17michael kiesa he has announced uh on the anakin florian podcast he was on recently he will retire
00:56:23after his ufc seattle fight on march 28th where he faces carlston harris so this is uh the swan song
00:56:30for the mikey maverick right um and then also this is a weird one an unretirement
00:56:37anthony lionheart smith is going to be fighting in game bread fc that's a bare knuckle mma from of
00:56:44course jorge masvidal they are having a 16-man heavyweight tournament he will be facing chase
00:56:49sherman uh their other another fight announced for that one is a couple ufc vets guto and asench
00:56:55and uh mohammed usman who was let go after uh some uh anti-doping shenanigans so he's available
00:57:02to them now after all that have fun with that bad fight for anthony smith by the way yeah it's
00:57:08look
00:57:08chase sherman's gonna win it's not great you don't like to see fighters that look like they
00:57:14ought to be retired to actually come back but it is what it is and we're gonna hear more about
00:57:18uh
00:57:18these fighters in this tournament as well it sounds like uh game bread was was definitely uh teasing
00:57:24that so we'll keep our eye out last one for you and i don't know what where you stand on
00:57:29this one
00:57:29eric but uh there's a beat magomed sharipov you remember it was a beat oh my god yeah blast from
00:57:36the
00:57:36past he was he was kind of like he's one of these big mma what ifs right i think we're
00:57:41all waiting
00:57:41for him to take over at featherweight and all of a sudden he just retires at 28 years old
00:57:46seven years ago well he really retired four years ago but he hasn't fought in seven years
00:57:51um but he had it was just announced this week by acb bjj he will compete in grappling for the
00:57:57first time
00:57:58okay since he walked away from mma i don't know if it's gonna lead to anything but
00:58:01here it is maybe maybe uh maybe there is hope that at 34 zabit can realize some of these uh
00:58:09the
00:58:09what ifs that we all had for him right was he going to school to be a doctor or did
00:58:12i make that up
00:58:13something like that i don't remember exactly but i believe there was some sort of doctoral element to
00:58:18it yeah it was it was a very interesting scenario so oh who knows maybe it's just grapple if he
00:58:23does
00:58:23hey you know what more power to him i hope he's living his best life tell you what i'll watch
00:58:27it
00:58:27because he was one of the most creative grapplers in mma that we had ever seen honestly he was
00:58:32phenomenal he was fun and pretty much everything he did right that wraps quick hits we'll move on
00:58:38to the final round we have made it we are are we going to review the homework or are we
00:58:42not going
00:58:42to review the homework i think we'll punt on the homework this week we got to have jake here i
00:58:46think
00:58:46sometimes we've done it without jake and then we just do it again so why don't we just we'll hold
00:58:50it
00:58:50we'll give you extra time we'll give our listeners extra time we'll give jake all that time uh to catch
00:58:55up on
00:58:55just to remind you those three fights are kane velasquez versus junior dos santos that trilogy
00:59:00actually kind of worked out that kane velasquez is also big in the news this weekend and also part
00:59:05of our homework that was not really planned um but i kind of i guess i knew he was up
00:59:12for the inside
00:59:13exactly when now i wish i mean good for him you know um but those fights they're there in 2021
00:59:18or
00:59:192011 i should say 2012 and 2013 so make sure you check out all three of those you gotta reprieve
00:59:25guys
00:59:25homework soon next week um as far as uh this weekend of may though that we'll get to right now
00:59:3224 years ago today february 19 2002 ufc tap out was released on the original xbox that was the second
00:59:42ever ufc video game i did not play this i'm not an xbox guy i know you're more an xbox
00:59:48guy because
00:59:49you're wrong um but playstation all day a little bit of nintendo as well did you ever play it oh
00:59:55yeah
00:59:55oh with the new video ufc tap out no no playstation yes oh yeah i know you played playstation i
01:00:01get
01:00:01that i've also played xbox in my life too but i really you know not breaking news i picked up
01:00:06a
01:00:06controller exactly um but anyway that was that was uh that's our that's our mma uh this week right
01:00:12or this weekend mma i should say yeah um we can we can move on one more fight we already
01:00:19gave you
01:00:19gable steveson fighting in the mexico fight league uh on thursday eight o'clock depending on when you
01:00:26get a chance to watch this but we got one more fight on top of that scott what is the
01:00:29one more
01:00:30fight yeah i wanted to give you something especially because you might not be able to catch it in time
01:00:34because it is thursday that we we put out our podcast typically so this one's for friday night
01:00:39it's also in houston actually uh so it's piggybacking off of the ufc a little bit or
01:00:44leading into it right 9 p.m eastern time main card on fight pass you can watch fury fc 116
01:00:50the fight
01:00:51i'm targeting here it's not the headliner it's part of the main card delano taylor against dante
01:00:57skiro uh this is a couple of guys who had been um with pfl and with bellator respectively they're
01:01:04ranked uh 59th in taylor's case and 67th in skiro's case respectively it's it's an interesting
01:01:11match because both these guys they're four no since leaving those known promotions taylor in
01:01:15particular he did lose to carlos leal who is fighting on the ufc card saturday funny enough
01:01:20but he did actually send rory mcdonald into retirement so he's done something notable he's
01:01:24only 29 um he changed out of kill cliff as well so he's the type of guy that if he
01:01:29wins this fight
01:01:30i think the ufc especially might be coming to knock him i think he ought to be on the roster
01:01:34if that's the case um and if it goes the other way frankly skiro that's a good one for him
01:01:38too
01:01:38um again four fights in a row since he last fought for bellator and he actually one of those fights
01:01:45was a victory over two-time bell for uh excuse me pfl season winner ray cooper the third so i
01:01:52i
01:01:52think frankly this is an interesting matchup this is something that really ought to be on the ufc's
01:01:57level but it and it's i don't even know why it's not headlining in theory i think it's an
01:02:01interesting fight but yeah check it out theory's theory's good to watch you can watch no fight
01:02:05best oh well there you go scott we wrap we did it without jake barely yeah who needs jake yeah
01:02:12probably us after we did no we we're just kidding jake please come back we need you
01:02:19thank you all for tuning in please like subscribe comment if you hate my gable steveson jokes let me
01:02:26know um if you like my aaron donnell pick let me know if you think his ranking of gable steveson
01:02:33is
01:02:33a joke let him know you can do that he's gonna make me look real good this week or maybe
01:02:37i'll drop
01:02:37him after this who knows maybe thank you everybody have a great have a great week enjoy the fights
01:02:43you
01:02:48you
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