UFC's integrity is on the line at UFC London — Why Evloev vs Murphy could change everything - video Dailymotion

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00:00:07Welcome back to Against the Cage, your home for all of your MMA needs, including the interviews

00:00:13with all your favorite fighters. My name is Jake Are, I'm joined here by my co-hosts Scott Fontana

00:00:18and Eric Richter. And guys, we've got UFC London coming up this weekend, a foreign card afternoon

00:00:25MMA, Lerone Murphy versus Movsari Evloyev. But Scott, I got to ask you just to start us off. How nice

00:00:31is

00:00:31it to get afternoon MMA? Isn't it one of your favorite things? I really love it. I wish we

00:00:37had more of it. And not just like we get it, obviously, when they go to Europe or when they

00:00:41go to the Middle East, which is, you know, a couple of times a year. But I really think that

00:00:45the United

00:00:46States could do with some afternoon MMA as well. And I'll take you back to a long time ago. Last

00:00:53time I paid admission for a UFC event, rather than get a press credential, was when I watched

00:01:00surging prospect John Jones dismantle Vladimir Matyushenko in a fight card in San Diego that

00:01:07ended around 7pm Eastern time. On SoCal, I got outside and it was still bright out. It was

00:01:14fantastic. I had dinner afterward. And this was in our country. You can do that. Why don't we do this

00:01:21more? I think it'd be great. All the other major sports, we have that. I think it's, I think it's

00:01:27time for the UFC to start embracing that a little bit more for the live experience to have the midday

00:01:31card. Yeah, absolutely. I'm totally with you on that. I'm totally with you on that. That's crazy

00:01:36that you saw that fight with John Jones in San Diego when no one knew his name. That's unreal.

00:01:41Scott, you've been around. You've been in the game a lot.

00:01:42Olivera was debuting on that card as well. No way. Scott, you've been around the game for a

00:01:48long time. That was a good fight card. Oh my God. That is, that is special right there. That is

00:01:53special. Yeah. I, I love afternoon MMA because, and Eric, I feel like it might be the same thing

00:01:58for you if open mat is also on Saturdays, but I get home for open mat, take a shower, decompress

00:02:04on

00:02:04the couch and having fights on when, when I'm doing that. It just feels like it's the right

00:02:10ritual, you know, comes grappling. It's a good time when there's an, uh, you know, an early card.

00:02:17I'm not against, you know, telling my, my, uh, my coach to throw the fights up on the screen while

00:02:23we're doing open mat. Honestly. Oh yeah. Yeah, we do. We do. We like, he'll do. Yeah. He'll do a

00:02:29move

00:02:29and then he'll show us, uh, on the TV screen, like, uh, replays of it. It's pretty cool. That is

00:02:34pretty awesome. Oh, I think you're going to do like, I think you're going to do like live rolling.

00:02:37And then in the middle, you guys are like, hold up, hold up. I want to see this round. So

00:02:40you just

00:02:40sit there on your back about to choke you. Yeah. Okay. Not even kidding. Not even kidding.

00:02:45Especially experience or just do experience. I should say. Yeah. That's awesome. Alrighty guys. Well,

00:02:51let's get onto this fight, which will be taking place much earlier than normal 1 PM prelims,

00:02:56by the way, 4 PM main card, uh, start all on Paramount plus. Um, and obviously, like I mentioned

00:03:03before, Lerone Murphy and Movsar Yvloyev in the main event. And listen, under any other circumstances,

00:03:10if, if we were, you know, in a different time of the UFC, this is a very clear number one

00:03:16contender

00:03:16fight. If you ask any fan, it should be a number one contender fight. I got to say though, Movsar

00:03:23did

00:03:23recently say that the UFC hasn't given him any promises that this is going to be a title shot

00:03:28with a win over Murphy. I'll throw this one over to you, Eric. Do you think that they have a

00:03:33clear

00:03:33imperative to make this fight a number one contender, uh, bout? What do you think?

00:03:38I can't say that they do look, uh, most are evil at 19 and 0, obviously an excellent fighter. And,

00:03:44uh, I don't, I don't think that there's, you know, any problems with his game. I actually don't

00:03:49have any issues with his fighting style. It's just, when you go down his, uh, his UFC stats

00:03:54page or you go down sure dog or topology or whatever site that you use, it's all unanimous

00:03:59decision wins. I don't hate, don't hate the player, hate the game. He's getting his win

00:04:04bonus every time he goes out there. I respect it. Um, now at the end of the day, the UFC

00:04:10is in an

00:04:11entertainment era right now. I think that's what we're going to end up calling it, you know,

00:04:14in like five years and called the entertainment era and mobile star Eve Loev is frankly not overly

00:04:20entertaining. Um, and you know, I remember I talked about it at the time, but when he fought,

00:04:24you know, Aljamain Sterling in 2024, uh, UFC 310, I said at the time that this might be the most

00:04:30high

00:04:30level early prelim fight that the UFC has ever put on. I believe Eve Loev and Aljamain Sterling were top

00:04:35five ranked at the time. Um, but they were on the early prelims. I like to look into the, to

00:04:40the bout

00:04:40orders a little bit more, uh, in-depthly than I feel like most, I like to really look at them

00:04:46and analyze them and be like, okay, like this fighters on the early prelims. This means that

00:04:50the promotion isn't as high on them as others. Maybe I'm wrong on that. Um, but I, I'm not

00:04:56surprised. I mean the last time when, when Eve Loev fought Aljamain Sterling, there was 20 significant

00:05:01strikes in that fight combined. Um, it's just, it's, it's hard to have a title fight in that when you're,

00:05:08when you're dealing with those kinds of numbers, it's just not as, uh, pleasing for the fans, I'd

00:05:12say. Scott, I'm curious. What are your thoughts on that particular fight? The only, the only thing

00:05:18I would say is that that fight obviously played out in a way that was, you know, entertaining enough,

00:05:23but not like crazy entertaining. Right. Um, but I would say to harken back to an example where you

00:05:28don't need too many strikes for it to be really entertaining. I believe we did for homework, the

00:05:33mighty mouse Johnson versus Miguel Torres fight, which was just a grappling super fest. Um, that

00:05:38is a very rare example of being able to transcend that. But yeah, to your point, you kind of, people

00:05:46want a little bit more punches thrown in this day and age, but to the greater point here, I really

00:05:52am

00:05:52concerned that those who make the decisions, uh, on matchmaking nowadays really just don't believe

00:05:57there's a need for the meritocracy to be maintained anymore. It is a corporatocracy in, uh, in the UFC

00:06:04and TKO and Endeavor and all of the, the corporate chain now that we have much different than those

00:06:12days where it was the, the UFC was approving out. Right. So, you know, we've seen the situation play

00:06:17out with Armin Sarukian, right? That one has been a little galling, but you can at least see some

00:06:24perspective from the UFC here because of how many times Armin Sarukian keeps shooting himself in the

00:06:29foot, right? He does a lot of silly things outside the cage. Uh, and you can at least say, all

00:06:34right,

00:06:35I guess I get it. The UFC just can't trust this guy to just not be a knucklehead. We don't

00:06:40want to

00:06:40put him in a title fight that he could mess up too. Um, cause he still can't keep it together.

00:06:45Right. But now you've got Alexander Volkanovski. He is basically, he's not demanding it, but he

00:06:52has made it as crystal clear as he can. Like, Hey, I went along with the Diego Lopez fight. It's

00:06:58not

00:06:58what I thought was the right thing to do. I'm in, I'll do it. But now I really want to

00:07:03fight that

00:07:03number one guy. I want to show that I'm the number one guy. And that's the thing that the UFC

00:07:08can never

00:07:09tamp down is there's going to be fighters like Volk who really do just want to say that guy's

00:07:15obviously the number one. I want to beat him. Some people will take that easy road. Volk is not

00:07:21that dude. He wants the smoke. And as much as Yves Luov doesn't bring the fire that the fans want,

00:07:29he brings all that smoke that Volk wants to put out. So I think it's really, it is an imperative

00:07:35to show the fighters that you care about that, but it's not necessarily enough that I believe the UFC

00:07:43is definitely going to do that. I'll tell you this though. And I want to end with this, man,

00:07:47if, if they skip over the winner of this fight, especially if it's Yves Luov, right? If it's Yves Luov,

00:07:53I think we, there's a lot more questions about whether they would do it. If they skip over Yves Luov

00:07:58and

00:07:58they give it to say John Silva, man, I think that's the kill shot for, uh, for any sort of

00:08:05actual

00:08:05meritocracy in the UFC anymore. It could be picking shoes from there to there, but on the whole,

00:08:10we're done seeing that old era that is dead. Yeah. I, I feel like the last, uh, to kind of

00:08:18go

00:08:18along with what you were just saying there, like they're, they've already been skipped over once

00:08:22and Diego Lopez got that shot. We've seen this sort of thing before, like with Pereira and

00:08:27Ankulaev, you know, they did the Khalil Roundtree title shot while Ankulaev was pretty clearly the

00:08:33number one guy, but even they eventually were like, okay, you get your title shot. If they skip over

00:08:38him two times in a row or, you know, these, both of these gentlemen, two times in a row,

00:08:43that's, that's a pretty clear signal. And that, that really continues kind of the conversation

00:08:47that we were having last week about, you know, them looking at what's just going to sell best

00:08:52versus what fights, you know, should be put together in terms of the best fighting the best.

00:08:58Right. Yeah. A hundred percent. Like Yves Luov, he definitely deserves the title shot. I think it's

00:09:05undeniable. If he, if he wins here, it's undeniable. He deserves a title shot. He's got a

00:09:09really 19 and O does not happen very often. And, you know, to be fair, both of these fighters are

00:09:13undefeated. You know, they've both of them never lost. Obviously, Yves Luov has been a little bit

00:09:17more dominant in his, all of his victories. But, you know, even if you, Yves Luov goes out there and

00:09:24goes five round decision, like go out there and go get your win. You know what I mean? Go out

00:09:28there

00:09:28and go get your win bonus. I don't know how his contract is structured. Go out there,

00:09:31get your win bonus and call for a title shot. You know, it's tough. It's a tough spot. The UFC

00:09:37definitely should give Yves Luov a title shot. I just don't know if they will.

00:09:41Well, going off of that, Scott, I want to pose this to you. Yves Luov, if you're looking at the

00:09:47two of these guys, right, he's, you've sort of alluded to this. He kind of seems like the one that

00:09:53if it's going to be a boring fight, it might be coming from his side. Do you think that he

00:09:58should

00:09:58feel pressure to make this an entertaining fight to get a guaranteed shot or at least help his case

00:10:03for it? I mean, should he feel pressure? Yes, he should feel that pressure because, you know,

00:10:10you're talking about getting the win bonus and I respect that, right? Like for me, I really do just

00:10:15want them to go out there and prove they're better and then move on and prove they're better again,

00:10:19right? But if, if there is a monetary investment in there, you do have to think about, hey, you're

00:10:25gonna make a lot more money as the champion than you are, you know, knocking off the guys who are

00:10:29supposed to fight the champion. Go out there, get a, get a win that the UFC can promote and then

00:10:37you

00:10:37can go out and if you're got good, you're going to win the title and then they can't deny you

00:10:41anyway

00:10:41because you've got the title. As long as you show up to fight, which has also been an evil issue

00:10:46in

00:10:46the last year plus, right? That's also been a part of that narrative for here as well. But as long

00:10:52as

00:10:52he goes out there and he's, he's got gold and he's not losing, then he's going to make more money

00:10:56that way too. And he can just rack up win bonuses that way. The UFC will hate it, but at

00:10:59least he's

00:10:59got to have a title here. But obviously I don't know that he's going to just say, all right, I'm

00:11:06going to change the way I fight because I really do need, because how do you do that? You know,

00:11:10it's been a, it's been more than a year since he fought, but even still that's, that's a hard thing

00:11:14to just say, all right, now I'm going to fight with a different style. I'm going to throw out some

00:11:17of

00:11:17what got me here out the window. If he's that good, he can, but that's a hard thing to do.

00:11:22And it's a decision he'd have to make. And I don't know that he's going to have made that decision

00:11:26anyway. I feel like these fighters, they're good at what they do and they, they stick to it. And

00:11:31that's not the worst thing to do. But at the end of the day, he goes out there and he

00:11:35wins a decision.

00:11:36Even if it's like an entertaining decision, he's still 10 and O with 10 decisions in the UFC.

00:11:42I, I didn't get the chance to look back and see if there were anyone other, any other fighters

00:11:46who started 10 and O without a finish, um, in the UFC. And, and I didn't get the chance to,

00:11:51but I'm, I'm going to tell you off the top of my head, it's definitely exceedingly rare,

00:11:55if not unprecedented. So it's, it's the type of thing that, man, if they are going to deny you,

00:12:03you at least sort of see why they did it. Yeah. And this is a conversation that we actually had,

00:12:09I want to say a month or two ago about the UFC really looking, you kind of mentioned it,

00:12:14Eric, like they're, they're really looking for finishes here and Moe's heart is sort of the

00:12:18antithesis to that. Um, but Eric, what do you think? Do you think he, he should feel the need

00:12:23or the pressure to make this an entertaining fight? I mean, if, if Hunter Campbell's not putting

00:12:28the pressure on him, I would be really surprised. Right. Um, you know, the, when those conversations

00:12:33happen with his manager, I would be mind blown if they're not like, you better get a finish here.

00:12:37Like we're not guaranteeing you anything. You better have a really good performance or something like

00:12:40that. Um, when you look at you as like topology page, there's also a lot of pullouts too. Now I

00:12:45don't know exactly the circumstances revolving around all of them. There was a lot of pullouts

00:12:49in there. Like he was supposed to fight Ilya Taporia back in 2022. There was a pullout there.

00:12:53I don't know who pulled out. I don't remember, but man, imagine that fight happened. Like we

00:12:57would've learned so much about both fighters, uh, especially Ilya Taporia and what, knowing what

00:13:01you know now about his grappling, that would've been, ah, man, like that was like, that's such a,

00:13:05like a sad, uh, state of affairs for, for the UFC fans is that that fight didn't happen. Um,

00:13:11like he doesn't have a, a, a win by finish, uh, back to his M one days. Um, and honestly,

00:13:17I don't know any of the fighters that he fought at M one. And like, when you look at his

00:13:20UFC page,

00:13:21like he's got like decision wins over Mike Grundy and, um, Hakeem Dow would do like Nick

00:13:27Lentz guys who are like, and Hakeem Dow would do was good at the time, but you know, Danny gay

00:13:32decision wins. Like there's a lot of, and the Nick Lentz one was by split decision and Nick

00:13:36Lentz was 30 and 11 at the time. So, um, you, you go into like his like topology page. It's

00:13:41like,

00:13:41okay, like he, he needs a finish here. This is a big fight for him. He's a favorite. He needs

00:13:47a win.

00:13:47He needs, he's a finish win. Um, and he, or, or do if he's going to win by decision, the

00:13:53problem

00:13:54is, is like, I, depending on like, if he's, if I don't know if he's working on his English, but

00:13:59whenever you're a fighter, that's winning by decision, it helps if you're able to follow

00:14:03it up with trash talk, uh, like a Ben Askren, right? Ben Askren is like, I'm a grappler. So

00:14:08I have to use my mouth in order to entertain people. And, uh, you know, for better or worse,

00:14:12it was entertaining. Um, you know, obviously with Jorge Masvidal, but it would be nice if

00:14:17he was able to like, kind of like just talk some trash or something, something to entertain

00:14:21somebody, something to get boo. Like if you get them booing at you, if you're going to win by

00:14:25decision, by five round decision and lay on top of them, taunt the crowd. You don't

00:14:29even need to learn English for that. Like taunt the crowd. If they're going to be booing

00:14:32at you, like stir them on and be like, boo me more or something like that. Something

00:14:36to entertain. It has to be entertaining. Like no matter what, it has to be entertaining.

00:14:39It can't just be 20 significant strikes, 11 takedowns, no, no striking, no submission

00:14:44attempts. Like there has to be something you have to do something. Yeah. I don't know.

00:14:47I just looked real quick, Eric. Oh, I was just going to say, I threw in there real quick

00:14:51uh, that, uh, evil have pulled out of that fight against oporia. It just said withdrew

00:14:56on top, on topology. Uh, and he has pulled out himself rather than had it on the other

00:15:01side. He's pulled out himself five times in the UFC. Well, that will probably be their

00:15:06reasoning. If they don't give them a title shot and this is a boring fight, they'll

00:15:10probably say you pulled out five times and we don't trust you. Yeah. I mean, honestly

00:15:14that, that could have almost as much to do with it. Like the UFC does. I think there's

00:15:19certainly a role. Absolutely. Um, but going off of what you were saying, Eric, I don't

00:15:23even know if he necessarily needs to be a finish, but like, I'm sure he, he knows he can't just

00:15:28do the wet blanket, wet blanket thing. Cause obviously Lerone Murphy, he's, he's undefeated.

00:15:33He's a, it's hard to finish guys at that level, especially when it's not his style. If he can

00:15:39just make it a fight, like honestly, the Diego Lopez fight back in Newark, um, in, I believe

00:15:44it was 2023, that wasn't a boring fight. Obviously Diego Lopez, like, you know, we had no idea.

00:15:51Yeah. We had no idea, but that, that was a, that was a solid, solid fight. If he can make

00:15:55this one

00:15:56where fans aren't, you know, upset that that was the main event coming out of it, feeling like they

00:16:01got gypped. Um, I feel like that could definitely help his case here. And just to follow up with

00:16:08what you said, like, I have no issue. If you do whatever it takes to win, right? Like I, if

00:16:13you

00:16:13need to, if you need to wet blanket him, win, just win the, your goal in there is to win,

00:16:17um, how by

00:16:19any means necessary, as long as within the given rule set now, but like, there's also like a

00:16:24responsibility of you as the fighter to somehow make it entertaining. If your fight style is not

00:16:29super entertaining, make it entertaining on your own, make it, there are ways you can make it

00:16:33entertaining. Like I said, if the fans are going to boo you, call them out, call them out for it.

00:16:37Yell at them, do something. Like it can't just be like, um, you know, great win, happy to get the

00:16:43win. Like don't call for title shot, ask for your next opponent. They do those, those post fight

00:16:48interviews for a reason. So do something, do something with that time. Before some of these

00:16:53guys, it's just not in them though. Not everybody's as gregarious as a, as co-host of a podcast,

00:16:58right? You know, it's just not in everybody's wheelhouse. So I can understand that. And, you know,

00:17:04I understand what you're saying too. Like your imperative is to win. Uh, and, and if,

00:17:08if he's content to just rack up wins, that's cool. That's fine. If he has greater aspirations

00:17:15to win a title, I'm not saying it's right. And I'm not saying I like it. I really don't,

00:17:21but we are entering, I don't even know if it's an era of entertainment, Eric. I'm pretty sure

00:17:27we're just heading toward that. That's going to be the way it is. It's not an era. It's a new

00:17:31world

00:17:32order. And, um, if, if that is the thing, if you want to win a title in the UFC, you

00:17:39probably do need

00:17:40to entertain in some way. Um, but maybe he's cool with just winning and, and doesn't need the belt

00:17:49for validation. I don't know if that's the case, then he can keep going. That's fine. But if he does

00:17:54have that greater goal, sometimes to do the greater goal, you do have to make adjustments.

00:17:59And that may be something that he must be thrust into doing. I don't know.

00:18:04I, you know, before we move on from Eve, it just, it sounds like this is the more we keep

00:18:08talking

00:18:09about this, the more I'm like this, this kind of seems like a very pivotal moment, like a telling

00:18:13moment as to where the UFC actually on this, you know? So there's a little bit, yeah, a little doom

00:18:20and gloom, but who knows? Um, before we get to Murphy, I'm just curious, what do you guys think

00:18:25that the odds of this fight are actually entertaining? I'll, I'll hit Scott first and

00:18:29then we'll go to Eric before I move on to Lerone. Oh, I'm going to choose to be optimistic here.

00:18:36I'll

00:18:36go glass half full. I'll say 51, 49% that it actually does. And, and so when I say entertain,

00:18:43I'm not saying fight of the night. I'm saying it's going to be at least something you're like,

00:18:48that wasn't too bad. That was, that was at least a fight to watch as opposed to,

00:18:52as opposed to the people are, you know, filling out of the arena by, you know, midway through the

00:18:57third round, um, because of the, the ninth takedown from Moussar Evloyev that didn't lead to anything.

00:19:03So I don't know if that's what it is. I'm going to choose to be optimistic here. I do think

00:19:08there at least will be some form of imperative on Evloyev's part to say, all right, I gotta at least

00:19:15be aggressive here. Like I, I can up my aggression in searching for things and I can make this fight

00:19:21at least more watchable than, all right, I've gotten on top of them and I'm, you know, going to

00:19:26work my, my oppressive top form grappling without actually doing major, major damage. Um, and I think

00:19:34there's, I think you can make enough adjustment to make that happen or conversely, then you've got

00:19:39the other side of it where it's like Murphy's at least got some explosiveness in his striking.

00:19:43Like he can give you things if he's actually able to keep this fight upright and get, and not just

00:19:50be

00:19:50defensive and keep him off him so that he can actually land stuff. If he gets comfortable in

00:19:54there and he starts landing something, we might get some form of real actual engaging striking

00:20:00there because Evloyev can strike too. That's another thing. He actually can strike. He just doesn't

00:20:04engage with that part of it as long as he will engage with the strike, excuse me, the grappling.

00:20:09Yeah. Um, the fight, the fight not to go the distance is plus 200. So I'd say your floor

00:20:15of entertainment is probably those odds, which is about 30 to 35%. That's like probably the minimum

00:20:20that you should, you should go on, on this, uh, answer. I'm going to go a little higher. I'm going

00:20:25to go like 40%. So I'm going to like 40% entertaining, 60% not entertaining. Um, it's a tough

00:20:31one,

00:20:31man. Like this is, again, I just, just win. Honestly, like I would, if I would, if I had

00:20:37Evloyev's abilities, I'd, I'd be like, you know what? Like I'm such a good grappler. I'm here to

00:20:41win. You know, I don't need to take damage. I could just, I could just win, get my win bonus.

00:20:45I don't

00:20:46know where he's living right now, but I'd venture to guess that UFC paychecks go pretty far where he's

00:20:50at. Like Sean Strickland's talked about this. Like there's less American stars because the cost of

00:20:54living in America so much and pay is so bad, uh, for UFC fighters that like, there's no reason for,

00:20:59uh, an American to go pursue being a fighter. I don't know where Evloyev is living right now.

00:21:03Um, but I would venture to guess that his paychecks go pretty far in America, uh, outside of America.

00:21:08So, you know, I would just say if he's getting his win bonus and he's happy, who needs the belt?

00:21:14I

00:21:14mean, he's happy. He's not taking damage and he's not, and he's nonstop winning. Uh, but I will say

00:21:18this is Evloyev's spot to be like Habib when Habib was being denied the title shot multiple times over

00:21:23while Conor McGregor got title shot against Eddie Alvarez. He was, you know, on top of Michael Johnson's

00:21:28like, you know, I deserve this. You know, I deserve this. I need the title shot. I need title shot.

00:21:32Evloyev could do that. It's not that hard. Like you, you could totally play that shtick and get it.

00:21:38And the only thing to, and you know, this too, I'm not saying something you don't know, but like

00:21:42the difference between Khabib's rise versus Evloyev's rise is Khabib's way of going about the grappling

00:21:49was much more aggressive. It was much more in your face. It was much more sellable for the UFC to

00:21:54begin

00:21:55with. And then yes, he did have that fight at the garden against Michael Johnson. And that,

00:21:59that added a lot more personality to it, which look, we have what 15 years now of Khabib in the

00:22:06UFC

00:22:06spotlight. We know he's got personality too. It's, it's a very unique personality and it doesn't

00:22:12always translate maybe exactly in the way like he means it to, or maybe he's embraced that and he

00:22:20is aware of it, but he's, he's got some personality to him. If most are Evloyev has personality,

00:22:24he hasn't figured out any way to translate that to American audiences.

00:22:29Yeah. I think that's fair to say. I, you know, I, I don't think I would be surprised either way.

00:22:34Honestly, on one hand, if the fight actually ends up being, you know, pleasantly surprising,

00:22:39uh, in terms of the entertainment, I'll be like that figures, you know, it seems like

00:22:43Movesar kind of, you know, got some sort of talking to him. He understands the situation.

00:22:48And if it doesn't go that great, I'm like, well, this is just more of the same. So I'm,

00:22:54I'm sort of on board with, I'll go 51%. Like Scott said, I'll, I'll be on the glass half full,

00:22:58half full side of things. Uh, but let's talk about, we're bullish on this though, Jake,

00:23:02you and I are bullish on this. I think Eric is probably the one who's closer to right,

00:23:06but I think we're just choosing to be a little more positive, right?

00:23:10Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's hard for like a zebra to change their stripes. So to, so to say it's so

00:23:16I was, I'm pulling for him in that, in that regard, but, uh, Eric, I'm going to, I'm going to

00:23:21ask you

00:23:21about Mr. Lerone Murphy, uh, because you are a box office guy and I feel, I feel like you like

00:23:27talking about the star aspect of things. Um, obviously he, he has been skipped over before,

00:23:33but he's fighting in a main event in his home country. The UFC has been putting out a decent

00:23:37amount of promotion for this fight, which he is headlining. Do you think that the UFC is setting

00:23:41up Lerone Murphy to be a marketable star? The word star is a little tough for me. Like,

00:23:47I'm not sure if he'll ever be a star. I would just say have a fan base, right? Like they're,

00:23:52they're setting them up to maybe have some fans. Um, you know, like Lerone Murphy,

00:23:57and I would love to see what his social media following is. Um, cause like Diego Lopez has over

00:24:02a million real followers on social media. Don't tell me that doesn't matter. He got the title shot

00:24:07when he wasn't deserving in the same weight division. I'd love to see what Lerone Murphy's

00:24:10is. Maybe I'll look it up really quick, but, um, Lerone Murphy, he just needs a fan base. Like he

00:24:15just needs like some people to follow him. And, you know, at the end of the day, you know, you

00:24:19look

00:24:19at his record, it's impressive. Like he's undefeated, right? But he had the draw against

00:24:23Zubir to who go off where one of them actually, one of the judges actually scored it against him.

00:24:27And he was knocked down in that fight was taken down six times. So, you know, in this matchup,

00:24:32like if he can avoid the takedown and score a knockout, hell yeah, he will have a bunch

00:24:38of fans and the, the British will be going wild. I'm interested to see what kind of the

00:24:41reception is for him. Honestly. Um, we've seen England can go wild for their, for their

00:24:46fighters. Like, you know, Leon Edwards, Patty Pimblett, Michael Bisping. There is a rich

00:24:51history of UFC and the British, uh, fan base, um, coming together and really showing out

00:24:58and supporting their guys. I'm interested to see if Leroy Murphy is able to headline a card

00:25:02that is sold out. I want to see if this is a sold out card, like legitimately, you know,

00:25:07we saw that the last Mexico card with Brandon Moreno was only 80% sold, like 20% tickets went

00:25:12unsold. That's, that's pretty telling and wild. Honestly. Um, I want to see, is this going to be

00:25:17a sellout crowd in, in great, in great Britain? That's a big one. Scott, what do you think about

00:25:22Leroy becoming maybe star was a little bit marketable fighter?

00:25:27Uh, yeah, I'm, I'm going to, I'm going to agree with Eric in that respect. I think

00:25:31star is pushing it, but I will say this. I'm in, I'm impressed with the marketing strategy

00:25:37the UFC has taken for this event. They've not treated it like just some fights, even

00:25:41though if you look at the card as a whole outside of this one fight, it really is just

00:25:47some fights exactly that. Um, but we've seen promos for weeks, you know, highlighting the

00:25:51miracle man and all this stuff, right? Like I think they've made a concerted

00:25:56effort with real production value to try and connect fans who may not be as familiar with

00:26:03Leroy Murphy as a person. Maybe they'll actually tune in because it's like, Hey, we know a little

00:26:08bit about this guy as a, as a human. And he's not just a name that we're not as familiar

00:26:13with who happens to be at the top of a UFC card. This is, I think even better than the

00:26:18pre ESPN days in terms of a fight night card, trying to draw some, jump some eyeballs to

00:26:25it. You know, not one that's on network TV or anything like that. This is just more or

00:26:30less a fight night. That's like a general part of the schedule. I'm impressed that they've

00:26:35done that. Murphy happens to be the beneficiary this time, but I'm curious if that's a trend

00:26:39that they continue, because if they do, I do think that the UFC can actually start to claw

00:26:44back a couple of people that, that they've been starting to lose a couple of fans that

00:26:47are just, they're not as connected to these fighters anymore. I talked to a lot of people

00:26:51who've been watching it like as long as I have, or even longer came in maybe around the time

00:26:55of Eric. Right. And there's a disconnect. Now you're not as connected to these fighters

00:26:58because they did, they worked so hard, so hard to make sure you kind of didn't care who

00:27:04was fighting. You just watched the fights. And I think they're starting to see the value

00:27:08of bringing it back to something different than that. That has been, I think, a very big

00:27:14pro of coming to Paramount+. There's value there. And I think that's going to be one thing

00:27:20that if the UFC is making a lot of these other changes, if they could do that, they could still

00:27:24connect their product to fans. And that's what it is a product, right?

00:27:29And it all circles back to the Dana White Instagram live fight announcements. Give me promos.

00:27:39It's better for marketing. I just looked. Leroy Murphy has less than 10% of the following that

00:27:44Diego Lopez does on Instagram. That's crazy. He has 140,000 followers on Instagram. Diego Lopez

00:27:50got like 1.3 million. So, I mean, take that for what it's worth. I'm interested to see if Leroy

00:27:56Murphy is able to really headline this card and get fans in the building and get people excited.

00:28:00And I think it's really, it's all on him now. It's all on him. These next 48 hours, it's all

00:28:04in

00:28:04front of you. Get in there, get a win. Big underdog. And honestly, he gets a finish when

00:28:11he's getting the title shot. I think that's, that's pretty clear. Yeah. And as far as that

00:28:15would be easy, I think either one of them gets a finish. That's the end of the story. You don't

00:28:19need to worry about even evil. If it's his first finished in the UFC, he goes out there and it's

00:28:23not like something goofy. Like, I mean, in theory, there's a finish that could be actually like pretty

00:28:28ugly, but odds are good that if he gets a finish, the fight doesn't go 25 full minutes. It's probably

00:28:36something that helps make it very easy for them to just be like, yes, he's going to fight for the

00:28:40title. He just coming off a big win. He got his first finish over a guy who's never been beaten

00:28:44before. Easy decision. He's going to fight for the title. So yeah, that's the thing. It is in,

00:28:49it's in everybody's hands right now. If they can get that done, they can at least control that part

00:28:54of it. Yeah. In pre-production, we were talking, Scott, and you said, you said it was like, it's

00:28:59pretty hard to make a reel for like a title fight. You know, like let's say UFC 333 or whatever

00:29:06is

00:29:06whenever he would get the title shot and there's no finishes to throw in. It's, it's, it's pretty hard to

00:29:12sell a fight where it's just a guy, you know, finishes, no major like crazy knockdowns. I didn't

00:29:18get the chance to look at his stats. I don't remember if there was any actual like good

00:29:21knockdowns on his record. So it's, it's yeah. Like what, what can you point to? What sizzle reel

00:29:27can you make off of this guy? Yeah. And, and as just closing up on, on Murphy, as far as,

00:29:33you know,

00:29:33him being a marketer, the guy's got a crazy story. He literally got shot in the face. I was watching

00:29:38an interview with Megan Olivia. He still has a piece of a bullet in his tongue. Absolutely

00:29:43wild. Like that, that right there is, is absolutely insane. That's marketable. Yeah. You can run

00:29:48with that. Scott, just to follow up on what you said. I still have more metal in my face

00:29:53than he does. That is true. Ibluev does not have a knockdown in his UFC career. Oh my goodness.

00:30:00There you go. That's crazy. All right, guys. Well, let us know in the comments, what you think

00:30:05about that main event, what do you expect to happen after this fight with a finish without

00:30:10a finish? Do you expect it to be entertaining? Let us know all your thoughts down below, but

00:30:14guys, let's talk about some of the other fights on this card. Scott, what is your fight to watch?

00:30:20I'm going with Mason Jones against Axel Sola. I, I, I've always been interested in Mason Jones

00:30:25as a prospect. It didn't work out that first time in the UFC. I think he, he seems to be

00:30:30much

00:30:30closer to where we're sort of hoping he might go now in this second run. He's built a little

00:30:35momentum. I want to see if he keeps it going. If he wins here, he gets to move up that

00:30:39ladder a

00:30:39little further. We're still not talking about somebody who's even remotely close to the title

00:30:43picture. It's a deep division, right? But I think I'm very interested to see if this is,

00:30:48this is the run that starts to get Mason Jones where we thought. So I'm curious about this fight.

00:30:52Yeah. It's a great shout. Yeah, it's a great shout. Mason Jones obviously fought David Onama,

00:30:57was a minus 1,000 favorite against Onama who was a relative unknown. And then that fight was a war.

00:31:03Good, good shout out there. That was also, I believe, an afternoon call.

00:31:05And we learned Onama was better than, than that, right? Like we've understood that in retrospect.

00:31:09So. A hundred percent. Yeah. Nobody expected that out of Onama going into that, but yeah,

00:31:14great shout out. My fight to watch is Michael Venom Page against Sam Patterson. Sam Patterson was

00:31:18somebody that I watched the Dan White Contender Series, you know, a long time ago. I believe I had a

00:31:22bet

00:31:22on that fight against Vinicius Sensei. Sam Patterson's solid is, you know, if he grappled,

00:31:27if he grapples with Michael Venom Page, I'd say he has a good chance of coming out victorious,

00:31:31but we've seen Michael Venom Page frustrate many a fighter in that octagon. And Michael Venom Page

00:31:36also not terrible on the ground. I'd say that Sam Patterson's probably got the submission upside,

00:31:40but obviously if he strikes with Michael Venom Page, he could get a highlight reel. So

00:31:44definitely an interesting fight. Michael Venom Page fighting in, in England, which is a good one.

00:31:49And MVP's, you know, been pretty entertaining on his interviews as well. You know, talking a lot about

00:31:54UFC not liking him and matchmaking, which we have talked about at length here. I think that this is

00:31:59an interesting fight, both during the fight and also afterwards to see what happens with Michael

00:32:05Venom Page and kind of how, you know, his career lines up. Absolutely. So I've got great shots by

00:32:11both of you guys. I've got Mr. Nathaniel Wood versus Losin Keita. Nathaniel Wood been on a pretty

00:32:18solid win streak. He's got five straight wins in a row going up against Losin Keita, who you might

00:32:23remember missing weight against Patricio Pitbull in that viral moment where Patricio, he's like

00:32:30begging him to take the fight. And Patricio is like, can, can you please explain how any of this

00:32:36is my problem? This is not. And let's also, let's also add Jake, this fight is still at 45. He's

00:32:42trying

00:32:43again. Yeah. And correct me if I'm wrong. Nathaniel Wood, he started out at bantamweight or am, uh,

00:32:49he'd been a bantamweight. He moved up a couple of years ago now. And so this, this little run he's

00:32:53been

00:32:53on, I forget if it's all of it has been at band, uh, excuse me, at a featherweight, but it,

00:32:57it, the last few

00:32:58at the very least, uh, he's, he's putting together a little bit of a run here at this weight class.

00:33:04I think

00:33:04honestly, either one of them wins, Jake, I like your pick here. I think either one of them wins.

00:33:09This is one of the most impactful fights on this card. We're talking about somebody who starts to

00:33:13jump into that next tier. Um, and, and we're talking about maybe they're in the rankings very

00:33:19soon. Also, I need to make a correction. I, I'm stuck on his typology page page. A couple of those

00:33:25are grappling matches. Um, he is three wins. Yeah. Yeah. He's three wins in a row. There's one loss

00:33:31and then three more wins before that. So pardon my, uh, mistake there, but still on a, in his last

00:33:38few, he's got a good amount in the green. I'm interested to see where Nathaniel Woods chin

00:33:43is at, especially at the higher weight class was knocked down by Jose Delgado is mostly

00:33:46known as a grappler. I'm interested to see where his durability is at in the striking.

00:33:50Uh, that's a good one. Yeah. Well, Scott, you were saying that, uh, beforehand you were

00:33:54kind of saying these might be just some fights. What is the event rating, uh, to go off

00:33:58of that? It's a 12. It's one of the lower ones this year. And if, if I tell you, when

00:34:06I tell you this, we have a headliner here for a fight night that is truly one of the most

00:34:13impactful from a sporting perspective, fight night headliners that probably will get all

00:34:18year. And it's really ranks up there in terms of the last few years. Even this is, this is

00:34:23a truly meaningful fight for all the reasons we've already talked about ad nauseum, right?

00:34:30This is a highly ranked fight. Everything outside of that is what's dragging it down. Um, it's

00:34:36not that there's nobody, you know, again, Nathaniel Wood, Gerskaita, that's, I believe both top

00:34:4025 guys are there about, um, we have nine fighters on this card out of 28 or in the top

00:34:4735. So there

00:34:48are some, but there's also almost half of these guys are outside the top hundred and none of those

00:34:53are even in the top 140. So we're talking about a whole mess of fighters that are typically

00:34:59much further down on the prospect list. A lot of them are European. There is of course that

00:35:04element of regional MMA that tends to happen when they go to a different region, but we're even used

00:35:10to in England, having a higher caliber of that, uh, you know, you get a lot of UK talent. Um,

00:35:16they

00:35:16farm a lot of people out of, you know, cage warriors and, and, uh, and promotions like that.

00:35:21Right. So, but that's, that's not really what we have here. We still have a bunch of younger,

00:35:26still up and coming guys. Co-main event is Luke Riley against Michael Aswalt. This is not

00:35:30the type of thing you would usually have as a, uh, uh, uh, co-headliner, even on a fight night.

00:35:35We're talking about like, like a curtain jerker on the main card type of situation that got elevated

00:35:40up here, at least men and page MVP. That one is it's, you know, it's not the co-main it's

00:35:45the one

00:35:45right before it. That would have made more sense, but maybe I'm sweating hairs on that. So I think

00:35:49that might've made more sense. Honestly, Eric, the bout order thing. We'll have a, we'll have a

00:35:53report. I'm always, I'm always interested in bout order. And I don't know if you guys saw last week's

00:35:59bout order, but it made no sense. So I'm always interested in bout order stuff. This it's been,

00:36:04it's been a weird go. You might have a Richter rant incoming at some point. Uh, but speaking of a,

00:36:10uh, Richter rant, Eric, three bets in three minutes or sorry. Yeah. We already did a bad rating.

00:36:15Eric, you ready for your three bets in three minutes? Thank you, Jake. Yeah. UFC, uh, fight

00:36:20night London over three last week. Terrible. Uh, we will rebound here. Um, I actually like a bunch

00:36:25of these bets on the card. We move on UFC London, three bets, three minutes, put three minutes on

00:36:29the clock and we get started. And here we go. We're going to start on the prelims. Uh, we got

00:36:33Roman Delizze versus Christian Leroy Duncan. Actually, this might be the, the curtain jerker on

00:36:37the main card, but regardless, uh, Christian Leroy Duncan was Roman Delizze, Christian Leroy

00:36:40Duncan, big favorite in this fight. Um, he comes in here, Delizze, honestly, a big

00:36:45dog, kind of surprising, not, um, you know, I wouldn't say that I'm just too enthralled

00:36:49with, uh, the betting line on Christian Leroy Duncan. Uh, but my betting angle here is, is

00:36:53this fight to go to a decision? Um, I think the, uh, Delizze is super competitive, uh,

00:36:57in almost every fight that he's had. I mean, we go down his, uh, you know, we go down his,

00:37:01uh, fight page, you know, Anthony Hernandez was, was competitive until it wasn't, you know,

00:37:04in the fourth round. Obviously he has win, uh, three wins out prior to that. Kevin Holland,

00:37:08Marvin Vittori, um, you know, again, the, the losses that he has, you know,

00:37:13these are competitive fights. I actually profile this as a step up for in competition for Christian

00:37:17Leroy Duncan. Um, you know, uh, CLD is what they call him. And, uh, he, he's got three straight

00:37:24wins. Again, we've got Eric Andrews who just retired, Marco, uh, Tulio, nothing to write

00:37:29home about. I think that this fight is actually, you're in for a longer fight here. We had, he

00:37:33to decision against Gregory, uh, hobo cop, you know, Gregory Rodriguez. Um, I think that this

00:37:38one goes the distance plus one 21 over on the score. Um, good, good line there. You know,

00:37:43there's some minus one tens out there. So definitely, uh, see if you hit that. If you

00:37:45see this, uh, we move on to the, what I think should be the co-main event, Michael Venom page

00:37:49against Sam Patterson. This, like I said, it's fight of the night for me. Um, Michael Venom page,

00:37:53obviously moving down from one 85 into one 70 Sam Patterson, moving up to one 70. Um, there is an

00:37:58age discrepancy here. I'm going to take Michael Venom page to win here in the fight to start

00:38:02round two and get Michael Venom page's money line down from, you know, minus one 90 to a plus

00:38:07100. Michael Venom page. My only issue with him is that he styles on his opponents too much. Like

00:38:12he could have knocked out Jared Kennedy or if he wanted to, he chose not to. Um, but there's now

00:38:16fight there's finished bonuses. So there's a little bit more incentive there, um, to go. So Sam

00:38:20Patterson, solid grappler. If he strikes with, uh, Michael Venom page is going to get killed. And then,

00:38:25you know, Patterson's going to be shooting for takedowns and we'll see. Um, I was a fan of

00:38:29Patterson on the data white contender series, but I think that this is again, a step up

00:38:32in competition for somebody who he has never seen a striker like this. Michael Venom page,

00:38:35very frustrating to deal with. I think page gets it done here at home, um, in this spot,

00:38:40uh, in London, we move on to the main event and we're actually, you know, all the lines aren't

00:38:45out for this fight yet. I'm expecting another snore fest, um, for, uh, Eve Loev and Leroux

00:38:50Murphy. I don't like this matchup between the two. I think that Murphy's pretty easy to take

00:38:53down. He got taken down six times by Zubir to Hugov. Um, and again, that fight was a while

00:38:58ago, but he hasn't fought like a grappler like Eve Loev. I think Eve Loev just gets a bunch of

00:39:02takedowns and kind of lays on them. Um, I know that's not what the UFC wants to hear,

00:39:05but you're going to take under significant strikes, uh, for both fighters. Eve Loev is

00:39:09under 68 and a half and, uh, Murphy's under 58 and a half. You know, the, uh, not only is

00:39:15it, it's intriguing because you evil have four of his last five, um, four of his last five

00:39:20have, um, you know, gone under 68 and a half. I understand it's a five round fight, but I

00:39:24don't, I don't care. I think that Murphy just kind of gets, is laying down and Eve Loev kind

00:39:28of just, you know, wet blanket, as Jake said. So, um, those are my three minutes in three

00:39:32minutes. Let's get back on the winning track and, uh, let's get it.

00:39:35All right. Thank you for that, Eric. And guys, let's keep it in line with the UFC trend. Let's

00:39:39talk about what happened last weekend in Vegas at the warehouse, the meta apex, as some people

00:39:46call it. Uh, but I, I just got to ask a broad question. People call it that. Yeah. Yes. Yeah.

00:39:51Mr. Mark Shapiro, perhaps, uh, Scott, I'll start with you. Um, broad question. Uh, what,

00:39:56what were your takeaway from, what were your takeaways, excuse me, from Saturday night?

00:40:01I'll give you a main takeaway. And that comes from the main event here is, is the fact that

00:40:05we're going to be seeing Kevin, uh, Vajejos for a long time in the featherweight mix. I think a

00:40:10nice mix of striking with power, good defensive wrestling. I think that's going to serve him very

00:40:15well in particular in this one 45 pound weight classes, not quite top 10 yet. We were saying that

00:40:21last week. I still agree. I think Josh Emmett is really a shell of himself. And I think he looked

00:40:26exactly like that. This, we thought he'd look that way. And then he did. Uh, so again, I don't know

00:40:31how much this serves other than to say that Emmett's not there anymore, but also look what this

00:40:38guy can do. Look at our new toy at one 45 can do out of Argentina. Um, I think I'm

00:40:43very interested

00:40:44to see where he goes. I would love if they actually made the rematch with, uh, John Silva from Dana

00:40:51Wagon tennis. I think that'd be fantastic. I don't know if that's what they're going to do. It seems like

00:40:54they want to push Silva up rather than have him fight down to somebody like, uh, the Shea

00:40:59hosts here, but man, that would be fireworks. And that's a, that's a fight night, uh, headliner

00:41:04that I think people would really get jazzed about 100%. I'd be very interested in that,

00:41:08but I, I agree with you. I'm not sure if it makes the most sense on paper, but would love

00:41:12it. Eric, what about you? What was your biggest takeaway? Yeah, I've always been a Jillian

00:41:16Robertson guy, especially of late. I just think that she's improved so dramatically. I mean,

00:41:20nine minutes of control time, uh, against Amanda Lemos, uh, you know, never really in danger

00:41:25of the entire fight gets the decision. When, um, wasn't the most entertaining fight by any

00:41:29means. I also have fight to go the distance. So I guess maybe I'm a little bit more juiced

00:41:32up about it than, uh, than everybody else. Um, not a ton of striking. I just did, you know,

00:41:37I would just say Jillian Robertson might be the most effective women's MMA grappler in the

00:41:43division, like better than Tatiana Suarez. Even like, honestly, I really think that I think

00:41:48that Jillian Robertson has gotten that much, so much more improved. Like if you looked at

00:41:52her early career, she was more of a 50, 50 fighter. She's won five in a row. I believe

00:41:56eight, uh, eight out of nine only has a loss to Tabitha Ritchie, who she's ranked higher

00:41:59than now. Um, you know, what's next for her? Werner Jandaroba, Zian, John, now, Zian,

00:42:05uh, Jan, Ziaon, um, and, uh, or Tatiana Suarez even just a really fun grappling, uh, matchup,

00:42:12but obviously Zhang Weili is going to fight Mackenzie Dern for the title. Um, Jillian Robertson's

00:42:17not too far off. I'd like to see her fight for, for a belt at some point here. I think

00:42:20that is January. We don't know that, but I mean, that's my guess, right? Um, that's my

00:42:26expectation. So I was just taking a quick peek at the rankings. I'm like one more fight and

00:42:30then a title shot for Jillian Robertson. And that's been one of my, one of my gals for quite

00:42:35some time at this weight, weight class. So sign me up. Yeah. Can I just push back real quick? I

00:42:40think

00:42:41you're, I think you're discounting Mackenzie Dern's grappling there to say, as far as the grappling

00:42:45hierarchy. There's a lot of grapplers in this weight class and that's not to, I'm saying

00:42:48wrestling, Jillian Robertson. Oh, wrestling. MMA wrestling in particular. My bad. My bad.

00:42:52Did I say grappling? I meant MMA wrestling because you are 100% correct. Mackenzie Dern's

00:42:56the best grappler in the division. She's the best MMA wrestler. Uh, I think in that division

00:43:01better than Tatiana Suarez in my opinion. Interesting. Yeah. That's, I mean, Tatiana is kind of known

00:43:07as like the, the female Khabib, at least, uh, from what, from what I've, uh, heard from

00:43:12the fan base, but obviously Jillian, uh, racking up wins here. Who knows? Um, for me, it is kind

00:43:18of hard to have a takeaway as far as that main event. Cause like you said, last week, Scott,

00:43:22Josh Emmett, like at this point in his career, it was like, just stop the bleeding, you know?

00:43:26And I mean, the bleed, the bleeding didn't stop. Obviously it's like, it's hard to take

00:43:34anything away from Kevin Vajejos's performance. Cause he, he got it done quickly, you know?

00:43:40So it's hard. It's obviously he's dangerous. I think that's my takeaway is like, he's, he's

00:43:44dangerous, but I feel like we kind of already knew that. So I'd be very interested to see

00:43:48where he goes next from here. Um, but as far as three years old, 23, 24 years old, South

00:43:54American, like he's got, he should have plenty of market marketability in a division that needs

00:44:00it. And for the record, Josh Emmett is not eligible for our rankings anymore. Not that

00:44:06you were ranking him, but he's lost three in a row. He is now, he has now been pushed

00:44:10out. You can't pick him if you wanted to. Yeah. Alrighty. Well, let's talk about a couple

00:44:15guys that are in our rankings. UFC 328, the headliner has been announced for Newark, Hamzat

00:44:22Shamayev and Sean Strickland will be throwing down at the Prudential Center, uh, in May. And

00:44:29Eric, I got to ask you because, you know, for, for a few years now, Islam Ahachev has been kind

00:44:35of the mainstay in the New York, New Jersey area. Um, you know, going to brick, New Jersey,

00:44:40Madison square garden. Uh, now we've got Hamzat coming in and then Sean Strickland, who's obviously

00:44:46the American. How do you expect the New York, New Jersey market to embrace this fight? And,

00:44:51you know, these two guys. Yeah. This is going to be fascinating to see like kind of what,

00:44:56who's side, what side takes, what, um, you know, Sean Strickland says a lot of stuff. That's a

00:45:01pretty out there, I would say. And he, he likes, he wants to make it ugly. He wants to make

00:45:05it chaotic

00:45:06and Hamzat Shamayev on the other hand, you know, he's the Russian, uh, he's from, you know,

00:45:11Chechnya obviously fights out of Sweden. You know, there's, there's a lot of things on. I just

00:45:15think, I think Sean's going to make this one ugly. I think he's going to make the build ugly.

00:45:19I think he's going to continue saying a lot of stuff. Maybe they're going to Mike pull

00:45:22him again on paramount. And, uh, I think that it could get, it could be an ugly buildup,

00:45:27but I think that that's what Sean wants. I think Sean wants us to be ugly. I think he

00:45:31really wants us to be one of those. Maybe he'll talk about Hamzat Shamayev's, you know,

00:45:35checkered past in, in Eastern Europe and, uh, try to turn the fans against him. Obviously,

00:45:40you know, you mentioned Islam Mahachev, uh, his relationship with the New York, uh, fan base

00:45:45is very strong seemingly. Um, so, you know, there's the willingness and, uh, the, the acceptance

00:45:51that this area is willing and able to, um, have towards fighters from that area. Um, whereas

00:45:58Sean Strickland will kind of just say whatever to ignite a reaction. So I think it's gonna be

00:46:03fascinating. I think the build is gonna be really interesting. I'm excited to watch it. I know that

00:46:06a lot of people didn't want this matchup. I did. I think that this is the, this is, this was

00:46:11the

00:46:11fight to make. And I mean, this, this should sell tickets at the minimum. This should sell a lot of

00:46:17tickets and get a lot of fan reaction, which at the end, at the end of the day is the

00:46:20goal.

00:46:21Sean Strickland even said it with love me or hate me. You're watching, you want me to get knocked out

00:46:24or I'm going to knock somebody out. So he's, he's getting what he wants out of it. And I think

00:46:28that Hamzat Shamayev will get a nice little rub from it too. Right. From a fan base.

00:46:32I was seeing some numbers this morning, uh, on ticket prices and it looks, don't quote me on

00:46:38this, but it looks like, uh, some people are saying it's about 400 bucks to get,

00:46:42get into the building. Um, so it looks like the tickets are selling. Did they go on sale yet?

00:46:46I can't remember what it, if they actually went on sale or not. That's crazy. I almost don't even.

00:46:51Isn't that pre-sale prices or no? Maybe this pre-sale. That, that, that, that. That's still crazy.

00:46:55I can't remember. That's like Conor McGregor, Eddie Alvarez prices.

00:46:59But Scott, you are from New Jersey. So, uh, you're, you're, you're on the ground over there.

00:47:04Oh, excuse me. Um, well, I guess Scott is located in New Jersey. Yes, I'm not.

00:47:09What do you think about how, uh, the crowd will receive Sean Strickland and Mr. Hamzat Shamayev?

00:47:15Eric, I never ditched the garden state like you. No, uh, no, I, I, I agree with you, Eric. There

00:47:23is no way that this event like doesn't sell out like the UFC, wherever they go, when they bring a

00:47:29title, especially they're going to sell out. I think we haven't hit the wall yet in terms of the

00:47:35number of tickets that get sold. So that's not the issue. Whether, whether the market here embraces

00:47:41these two personalities, Sean being incredibly abrasive in your face. And I don't even know how

00:47:46much research he's going to do into Hamzat Shamayev's past and his links. I'm pretty sure he's just limiting

00:47:51himself to calling him a terrorist and he's just going to throw that out there, you know, 30,000

00:47:54times between now and May, uh, May 9th. I don't, I don't know, but yeah, look, it's going to be

00:47:59ugly

00:48:00for me. It's going to be kind of painful nails on a chalkboard type of stuff like that, that, um,

00:48:06if you call it the press conference, which is kind of a press conference, but at this point,

00:48:11it's really just like a fan fest where there's some media that ask questions. Um, that will be

00:48:17just awful. I think for me to watch, like, that's not how I like to engage with the sport that

00:48:22there

00:48:22are people who do, and that's fine, but this is about as close as the opposite buildup that we're

00:48:27going to have to Max Holloway and Charles Dobronx-Olivar. This is the other end and they're

00:48:32going to almost like cancel out like the, the, the very, uh, basic base and the very acidic acid.

00:48:38They'll turn neutral on the pH scale here at the end of it. It's not my cup of tea. That

00:48:44doesn't mean

00:48:44it won't be other people who are into it and it doesn't mean it won't sell tickets, but I do

00:48:48wonder if maybe this market isn't where that sells as well as maybe other parts of the country

00:48:56would, but it is what it is. I, you know, again, it's still, it's still box office, Eric. It's

00:49:00still going to sell. Oh, it's super box office. This was the box office option. Yeah. It's also the

00:49:07right fight. I actually, I do believe that too, Eric. I think you're right. Like we talked about this

00:49:10already on the show. I'm pretty sure. I think we've kind of breaking that down, you know,

00:49:14in depth pretty well already to this point, but yeah, this is the fight. I saw people push it back

00:49:18too. And look, if you want a Nassar Dean Imovolve, it's not necessarily the worst call, but I can give

00:49:24you a lot of reasons why this is the right call. It's okay to go this way, even from a

00:49:28sporting

00:49:28perspective, pure sport, you can go this way. It's justifiable. I'm cool with it. Yeah. And I also

00:49:34think as far as the fights that they had available, this one kind of was the biggest one that they

00:49:37could

00:49:38have done. I'm struggling to think of anything else. Well, it's actually a big fight. Yeah. This is

00:49:43a big fight. Like in terms of the actual like division relevance and interest in that kind

00:49:48of thing. This, this is a, this is a good title fight. It's one of the better ones we've had

00:49:53this

00:49:53year. It's actually to this point, it's the best one we've had on the books because we've had interim

00:49:59title fights and we had title fights with challengers that we don't think were worthy and all that kind

00:50:04of thing. And BMF belts, this is, this is actually probably the one that makes the most sense of all

00:50:10of them so far, at least to this point. Yeah. I mean, you mentioned Nassar Dini, but there's a very

00:50:17good case saying that this is one versus two, you know? So, but, uh, Scott, well, here's the thing.

00:50:23No, I would push back on that. Okay. Trigas Duplessis is number two. Trigas Duplessis is definitively

00:50:28number two, but he also is not getting the next title shot because he hasn't earned. He hadn't

00:50:33done anything for that. He looked so out of his depth the last time out. He's got to do something

00:50:37else, but this is the definitive three, I think. And that's who you skip to. I think I'm cool with

00:50:42that. Yes. Yeah. Thank you for reminding me of literally my own rankings and our rankings,

00:50:47but Scott, I got to ask you before we move on, what are your broad thoughts on just the rest

00:50:51of

00:50:51this card that they, that they announced as it stands right now? Um, I think the fights that

00:50:58they've officially announced there, you know, all right. Uh, Alexander Volkov, Waldo Cortez Acosta,

00:51:05you know, heavyweight title implications, but when are they actually going to fight for a title,

00:51:08even if they win? Cause that's a, that's a whole giant mess at heavyweight right now. So

00:51:12how immediate that means, I don't know. And it's also heavyweight. So, you know, is that,

00:51:16is that what everybody really wants to watch in 2026? I do like Sean Brady versus Joaquin Buckley. I

00:51:21don't know why it got moved off of that, that headliner spot that was in the fight night main

00:51:25event. And then it got moved over to here. I don't even know if it's now three rounds or not.

00:51:29We

00:51:29don't really know how many, I'd assume it's three rounds, but, um, yeah, that seemed the only thing

00:51:34that makes sense to me and probably I think you'd agree, Eric, is that they were trying to bring in

00:51:38some of that Philly market, get Sean Brady's rub there to get some people to drive up the, up the

00:51:43turnpike out to Newark and watch the fights from there. That makes a lot of sense to me. I do

00:51:47also

00:51:48like Bogdan Guskov against Jan Blachowicz, get that rematch in, figure out a more decisive winner.

00:51:54They just had the draw, right? I'm cool with that. It's just the fact that we don't have a second

00:51:58title fight here. And I don't look at any of these fights that we've talked about as anything close

00:52:02to like a real bonafide numbered event co-headliner here. So I'm still hoping maybe there's a chance

00:52:10they'll add another title fight. We just had things listed as featured bouts in the, in the official

00:52:15announcement. Maybe there's room for a second title fight to be added. And if that is,

00:52:19you gotta go with, uh, Valentina Shevchenko defending that flyaway title against the local

00:52:25Aaron Blanchfield in the challenger's backyard. I know that's probably not what the champ wants to do,

00:52:29but I think she'd be up for the challenge for it. I think she's look, she's a bit of a

00:52:33nomad in

00:52:34this country. She goes from gym to gym all the time. She's got, she's gone around. She's not from

00:52:38here and she's pretty okay with that, that type of mindset. I'm sure she'd be willing to go into the,

00:52:43you know, lion's den a little bit, get Aaron Blanchfield's local flair to, to drum up more

00:52:47interest in this card and appreciation for it. I would love to see it. I don't know if that's

00:52:51what they're going to do, but man, it makes too much sense for them not to do it. So I

00:52:55hope so.

00:52:55Yeah. I mean, it seems like she probably would have been pretty happy with whatever fight camp she did,

00:52:59uh, in preparation for New York. So it seems like she's got that dialed in because it's just going

00:53:05off of her performance at Madison square garden. But Eric, what about you?

00:53:09Sean Brady, Joaquin Buckley is an awesome fight. I agree that it should be a main event on a fight

00:53:12night. Um, and also Sean Brady said that he didn't want to fight in New York again. So I don't

00:53:16know

00:53:16why he's, I guess New Jersey is technically different, but it's really close. New Jersey is

00:53:20not New York, sir. It is different. I hear you. I hear you, but it's so close. People from both

00:53:25states will tell you that. Yeah. It's just so close. I'm like, if you had such an issue with New

00:53:30York,

00:53:30I don't understand what the difference is going to be between Newark. Um, but whatever.

00:53:34It could be a lot of things. I'm sure he's fought New Jersey before on the regional circuit,

00:53:38right? Oh yeah. No doubt. No doubt. Um, but yeah, love that fight, dude. I can't wait. If

00:53:42Aaron Blanchfield fights Valentina Shashanko on this card as well, Oh, that will be so much fun.

00:53:47And I can't wait. I want to bet Aaron Blanchfield again to beat Valentina Shashanko right now.

00:53:52I think one I I'm, I'm already sizing that one up. I think Blanchfield beats, uh, Valentina via

00:53:58grappling. I think she's a better grappler than Alexa Grasso. So I, how can't I, even if she just

00:54:03got lucky, how can't I? We will see. I would love to do a preview on that, uh, on that

00:54:08fight. Should

00:54:09it get announced? Um, but guys, let's move on to what is going on this weekend in the PFL. We've

00:54:15got Costello van Stinas, the new PFL middleweight champion taking on Fabian Edwards. Uh, that's going

00:54:22to be on Friday, 4 PM main card, 1 PM prelims also over in, uh, in Europe. That's in Spain.

00:54:29If I'm not

00:54:29mistaken, Costello van Stinas, Madrid, being a Spaniard in Madrid, uh, all on ESPN plus notably

00:54:36missing from that headliner is Johnny Eblen, uh, who Costello van Stinas got the belt off of,

00:54:43uh, last year. And Scott, you spoke with Johnny Eblen, uh, this, uh, this week in an interview and,

00:54:50you know, he was pretty surprised that he wasn't getting the immediate rematch. And I got to ask you,

00:54:56why isn't he on there? What are, what are your thoughts on, on why it's, you know, this matchup

00:55:00rather than it being a rematch between those two guys? Yeah, you guys should go check that out before

00:55:06you do listen to me. Uh, I, I do think it's, it's a puzzling decision, right? Like it doesn't make

00:55:12a

00:55:13lot of sense here. And the only thing that makes sense to me of how this came about is that

00:55:17those

00:55:18who make the decisions in the new PFL regime are kind of newer at booking MMA cards. Like it speaks

00:55:25to almost inexperience. You go with the, you strike when the iron's hot, right? You have the

00:55:30fight to make. It was CVS versus Eblen too, not CVS versus Fabian Edwards too. This isn't the rematch

00:55:38that we wanted. It's not the one we needed. We already had Eblen who was looking pretty good

00:55:43against CVS. He did fall off, right? He, he lost the fight. Um, but then also we have Eblen

00:55:49beating Edwards two times in the last two and a half years. Now we run the risk of getting it

00:55:54a

00:55:54third time. Do we want that? Do we want this fight? Like there's a real chance. There is a very

00:56:00real chance that Fabian Edwards goes out there and beats Costello Van Stinas. And we don't make that

00:56:06fight next. Now, obviously Johnny Eblen's going to have to hold up his end of the bargain.

00:56:10We were speaking last week or this week, I guess about, uh, about his fight coming up next week

00:56:15with Brian battle and everyone could lose that fight. We don't know, but, but that's the thing

00:56:21you're, you're, you're running all these percentage chances of losing the fight that you should have

00:56:25put together to begin with. It doesn't make any, Eric, right? Like you're with me here. This

00:56:29doesn't make any terrible. No, it's awful. Brian battles a tough fight. Like that's a really hard

00:56:34fight for Eblen and you know, not for nothing. Like you said, you know, Johnny Eblen beat Fabian

00:56:40Edwards twice. Fabian Edwards fought Costello Van Stinas to a split decision like several

00:56:44years ago. But regardless, I don't understand this one at all. Like, even if you listen to

00:56:49Dustin Poirier on the Rogan podcast this week, you know, Johnny Eblen's training with, with

00:56:53Dustin Poirier. He's like, he's a top five guy in the division. Like if he was in the UFC,

00:56:57he'd be top five ranked right now. Like it is mind blowing and honestly concerning. Really?

00:57:03Let's just talk about reality. It's honestly concerning that the PFL doesn't recognize this.

00:57:06I understand they're new. I understand that's, you know, new management, whatever. It's almost

00:57:10like one of your favorite, one, one, a restaurant that you like going to, maybe not your favorite

00:57:13restaurant, but one restaurant that you like going to gets under new management and they

00:57:16kind of change the menu and ruin it for you. It's kind of, you know, I'm a little concerned

00:57:20here. You know, I was like, I want, I like my pasta. I like it. I like my, I like

00:57:24my chicken

00:57:24parm with fresh mozzarella. Don't get me different. Don't go, don't get me a different

00:57:27type of cheese. Um, you know, something like that. Like, I don't know. It's frustrating.

00:57:31Brian Powell is a really hard fight for Johnny Ebelin. I think Brian Powell is super talented

00:57:35and, uh, this is concerning. I don't like it at all. I would even go as far to say as

00:57:41I hate it. It's, it's also, it's an important year for the PFL. You know, if, if it does

00:57:46end up, if it does end up being Johnny Ebelin versus Fabian Edwards too, or they don't get

00:57:52to even do that rematch at all. Like Edwards versus Ebelin three. Yeah. Sorry. Excuse

00:57:59me. That's the thing that's, that's drives home the point. Like we, we didn't need this

00:58:05a second time. We already had it a second time. So it's like, now we got to get thirds

00:58:09of a fight that we didn't need seconds of. That's, that's, that's the problem that I have

00:58:12with this situation. And, and it almost speaks to like an, a misunderstanding of your roster

00:58:17because I have all three of these men outside of Brian battle. He doesn't count, right?

00:58:23We're not talking about him. These three guys, they're all in my top 10 at middleweight

00:58:27in the world. I would have them in the top 10 of the UFC, all three of them, but you

00:58:33don't do this matchup. This isn't the one you let at least let's figure out what you

00:58:39have with Ebelin versus Van Stienis. It's got some sizzle, put the steak through, got to

00:58:44cook it all the way, man. This is raw. It's out there and it might go bad. I don't like

00:58:49it.

00:58:49There's no odds out yet for Ebelin versus battle, but 61% of topology users have had battle

00:58:56winning. Not sure. And that's whatever that's worth, right? I mean, I actually look, I actually

00:59:03do look at the topology prediction meters. Um, when I see like, what is the public on?

00:59:07I actually do look at that pretty, pretty regularly when I'm betting.

00:59:11Well, we will, uh, figure out what happens there next week. We'll, we'll have a preview

00:59:15on it. I'm sure. So stay tuned for that. But Scott, what is our event rating for this

00:59:19PFL event? It's a zero. It's a straight up zero. And here's why, because outside of

00:59:27this is actually a good, actually, it's a, it's a, no, no, no. We've had zeros, but this

00:59:33is, but what's crazy is there is one UFC event ever that's rated ahead of this one. It's, it's

00:59:40literally the only one. Um, so it's a zero. It's not a negative. It is. It's a zero. Um,

00:59:45there are two fights on here that are like truly excellent bookings in terms of just

00:59:51ranked talent. I disagree with the way they put together the main event, but at least these

00:59:55are, again, two tough guys. Like I say, then we've also got AJ McKee against Adam Boric.

01:00:01And that is a very good featherweight fight. It's, it's probably, it's probably the, the third

01:00:07best fight out of the UFC and PFL this weekend in terms of ranked talent. After that, it's,

01:00:13it's like lower tier European regional MMA. That's like, there's a couple of fights on

01:00:20there, but that's it. We're talking about guys that are like some, some of them are just

01:00:24MMA debuts and unranked guys and things like that is at deep weight classes. Like, like you

01:00:30were saying, Eric, yeah. Like there's guys here that just, this is not the caliber that

01:00:35you would think of from major MMA in the modern day. And look, if that's what they want to

01:00:40do, that's fine. But now you're starting to be like strike force back in the day, which

01:00:43is like, we had like a decent main card and then the, the basically just had regional

01:00:47talent throughout the prelims.

01:00:49And that's terrible. That's, that's, that's a, yeah, that's crazy. And you had a couple

01:00:53of KSW cards with like grades of four or five, six. So the fact that it's zero with a decent,

01:00:59with a headlining, you know, championship fight, AJ McKee's solid as well. So that, that's

01:01:04crazy. That is legit.

01:01:06Can I give you a recommendation? Cause obviously the main card starts at four, the prelims are

01:01:10at one. Don't even bother with the prelims. Like, unless you're bored and you're like

01:01:13you, if you'll consume every level of MMA, like that's cool. There's nothing wrong with

01:01:16that. Regional MMA is still entertaining. It's just, if you're tuning in because you

01:01:20think it's going to be a cut above, think again, I would have you tune in at five 30

01:01:25or so on Friday evening, get out of work. Maybe you get home quick, make yourself a sandwich

01:01:31or whatever you're going to do for a quick light dinner or do something before you go out

01:01:35to dinner, turn the fights on, watch those last two bouts. That would be fine. You'll

01:01:39have a good time. You get in a little MMA taste to, to wet your appetite for the evening.

01:01:44And those are, those are at least elite fights. I think you'll have a good time with them.

01:01:48Other than that, I mean, you, you better love everything, you know, cause that's what it

01:01:52is.

01:01:52Yeah. I will say that live betting at a low level MMA where seemingly no one is watching

01:01:57is, uh, there's value there.

01:02:01All right. Well, that closes us out for this weekend. Scott, let's get up to date with the

01:02:07quick hits in MMA news.

01:02:10Yeah, actually we're pretty light on major quick hits this week. I kind of limited it. Um, number

01:02:14one, I think everybody already heard about both of these to begin with, but we'll start with Alex

01:02:19Pereira announcing on, uh, the area Hawaii show that he has signed a new eight fight contract

01:02:23with the UFC. But that sounds like to an aging fighter like him, maybe that's the, the end

01:02:29of his, uh, that's his, he's not, that's the rest of your life contract.

01:02:34Pretty much. That's the rest of your life. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. Um, and then

01:02:39again, I think a lot of people have probably heard about this as well. Nate Diaz back in

01:02:44the cage five round welterweight fight against Mike Perry as part of that MVP MMA event that

01:02:49will stream on Netflix, May 16. That was a big one. And I'll give you one more.

01:02:53This came in like, as we were in recording, I've been peeking at my phone because I'm trying to

01:02:57process what exactly it is. It's not a major thing, but it's a clarification of something

01:03:01that came out over the weekend. The UFC has announced that the association of boxing

01:03:05commissions, the ABC will serve as regulatory advisors for the white house card. It's on

01:03:10federal land. It's not in a state. It's, it was kind of a weird amorphous situation. The, the,

01:03:16the Washington DC commission was basically saying, we're not overseeing it. These fights not,

01:03:20might not actually go on their official records. Well, I think that was always never really going

01:03:25to come to pass. And it felt almost a little petty, uh, because the UFC has stepped in and

01:03:31been commission where other commissions didn't exist when they go abroad and no one ever bats

01:03:36an eyelash here. It was a little different just because of a hole in terms of how we do things.

01:03:41We do things at the state level. We don't do them federally. Um, but the ABC is now stepping

01:03:45in all the bouts on the white house card are going to be official according to this press release. So,

01:03:50you know, no drama there. It's, it's, it's all, all the bow is tied up.

01:03:55All right. All right. Thank you for staying on top of that during the show, Scott.

01:04:00Um, like guys, let's move on to the final round where, uh, we, we did the Gina Carano experience,

01:04:06literally went through all of the Gina Carano fights from her career. Um, and I, I understand all,

01:04:12all eight of them, all, all eight of them and, uh, different times. I, that's, that's the best

01:04:19way that I could describe it. Very scrappy. Not all of it was pretty. Um, not all of it looked,

01:04:26you know, very decisive as far as like Gina's victories apart from a couple, maybe two or three

01:04:34of them, but like very scrappy, like, and quite a few where she was really just a weight bully to

01:04:38be,

01:04:39to be perfectly honest. That's a term that didn't really exist 16 years ago when she,

01:04:42had her last fight, but, uh, or 17 years ago, excuse me. Um, but yeah, she was a bit of

01:04:48a

01:04:48weight bully because some of the women she fought ended up being like pretty decent fighters, like,

01:04:52like Rosie Sexton had a decent career. Julie Kedsey is, is known as a, as a impressive pioneer of her

01:04:58time. Uh, Caitlin Young was still fighting for PFL, I believe as of recently. So she fought quite a

01:05:03while. Um, but yeah, I mean, you know, Chris Cyborg, that fight in particular, I'm curious what you

01:05:09thought of that. Cause we've had a lot of Chris Cyborg since then. That was like early Chris

01:05:12Cyborg. Oh my God. I, I was expecting it to be worse actually for Gina in that fight. Not that

01:05:21it wasn't bad. She got finished, you know, at the very, very, very end of the, it got rough at

01:05:25the

01:05:25end, but like for, for a while it was like semi-competitive in a way that most of Cyborg's

01:05:31fights just hadn't been for a while, which I think at least to some degree that does speak to what

01:05:35Gina Carano could do in the cage. But yeah, I mean, you're, you're talking about an MMA pioneer

01:05:40in Gina Carano. You're not talking about an all time. Great. You're talking about someone who was

01:05:43there early, had some success, had some other parts of her, uh, personality and, and aesthetic

01:05:50that brought a lot more attention to her than might have been otherwise. Right. Um, but she was

01:05:55a skilled fighter for her time. Yeah. Why did I think that, why did I think that Gina Carano was

01:06:02like

01:06:02a good grappler? Like, I don't know. I was watching and I was like, Oh no. Like why would

01:06:08the thing? Yeah. He would have gotten, um, annihilated by Ronda in her prime. I can't imagine

01:06:13how this is going to go now. Like, I don't know. After just looking like she probably hasn't been

01:06:17training MMA for 10 years. She may be just training now for like the last year and maybe getting paid

01:06:21well, but I don't know. I'm just looking at it. I'm like her take down defense is okay. Like it

01:06:27wasn't

01:06:27like, it was like a lot of sprawls, but like, I feel like the game is, has evolved so

01:06:32much that like, I don't know, like her sprawls on takedowns. I was like, those are going to end

01:06:37up being single legs now. You know what I mean? Like, it evolved even in those seven years between

01:06:45her last fight and Ronda's last fight, like the game grew by leaps and bounds on the women's side.

01:06:51And it's grown a lot since then. So like, yeah, obviously Ronda, her progression probably stalled

01:06:56a little bit too, because she wasn't sharpening her skills to keep up with all the other women

01:06:59anymore. She was doing, you know, WWE and being a mom and enjoying the fruits of her labors,

01:07:06right? A lot of, a lot of stuff that she hasn't needed to do. So she hasn't kept up, but

01:07:10also

01:07:11Ronda's game is so much more evolved or should be so much more evolved just because of how much

01:07:15longer she went into it. And also she brings Olympic caliber martial arts to the table. Gina Carano for,

01:07:24for everything that she was able to achieve and make of herself. She really was just like

01:07:29a, like maybe a club level Muay Thai fighter who took up MMA early in the days. That's not the

01:07:36same

01:07:36thing. And honestly, I look at the odds sometimes here in these fights and I'm like, how do you not

01:07:43take out like a million dollar loan and just throw it all on, on Ronda Rousey and just pay back

01:07:50the loan

01:07:51real quick and keep what you can over that and buy a house or something. This is not financial

01:07:55advice. Don't do that. Yeah. You're talking, you're speaking my language. You're speaking my

01:08:00language. Sign me up. Sign me up here. No, no, do it. Um, no, Eric, don't know. I mean, as

01:08:09far as

01:08:10like Olympic caliber judo, like I didn't see much judo happening in those eight fights that Gina was

01:08:18doing. And as far as any Muay Thai clinches, like that's going to serve someone who knows judo at a

01:08:23very high level. I feel like, you know, you imagine, can you imagine if this fight gets out

01:08:28of the first round, how exhausted Ronda and Gina are going to be, it's going to look awful. If it

01:08:32gets to the mid second round. And that's another thing too. There were no fights of Gina Carano that

01:08:38went longer than nine minutes because all but two of her fights had three minute rounds or two minute

01:08:45rounds. That was crazy. There was one fight that went, it went the distance. They fought for six

01:08:51minutes. Yeah. Dude. I was like, what am I watching right now? I was like, is this real life? Yeah.

01:08:57It was a different time. And honestly, I think it's great that, that I believe it was actually that

01:09:02last fight, right? That was a five minute round fight, um, against cyborg. That was really a turning

01:09:08point in women's MMA where they really did start to go for the five minute round fights and, and

01:09:15got that equal time in there. And I think that's great because it's, it's not like they can't

01:09:19handle it. It's just, you know, maybe the caliber of the fighting is still behind developmentally

01:09:25on the men's side because of a lack of talent coming in because it started a little later in

01:09:31terms of the MMA side. So it's always going to be a little behind, right? Yeah. Well guys, let us

01:09:36know

01:09:36in the comments, what you thought about this fight and maybe what it told you about the upcoming fight

01:09:41about Gina and, and Rhonda, but Scott, what is our next homework assignment?

01:09:47I'm giving you just one this time and I'm going with Dan Hardy against Carlos Condit from 2010.

01:09:53This was a very memorable, uh, fight that occurred in England in the wake of Dan Hardy's, uh,

01:10:00championship, uh, you know, uh, unsuccessful championship bid against George St. Pierre.

01:10:05Uh, keep your eye on, uh, Robert Downey Jr. in the background of this fight, by the way, it's,

01:10:11it's a, it's, it's entertaining. It doesn't go very long. I think a lot of fun time with this fight.

01:10:15Okay. This is red Mohawk, Dan Hardy.

01:10:18Red Mohawk, Dan Hardy. Yep.

01:10:20There we go. All right. All right.

01:10:22This is where, uh, right at, I'm sure his shoulder was still a little bit, uh, maybe partially separated

01:10:26from the GSP fight where he, uh, refused to let, uh, refused to let go on a crazy Kimura.

01:10:31Uh, Jake, have you ever seen that one? I don't know if, I don't know if it impacted anything.

01:10:34Perhaps some extra credit. We'll see.

01:10:36Um, I don't know what happens in this fight, so I'm excited.

01:10:39Uh, Scott, what happened this week in MMA to round out our history of MMA?

01:10:44We're, we're going to go back 15 years ago, uh, today to March 19th, 2011.

01:10:51That was in Newark at UFC 128, not 328, 128, 200 numbered events ago on the number scale.

01:11:00We missed some in there, but that's okay.

01:11:02Um, yeah, this was, this was Jon Jones.

01:11:05Once again, I was there for a Jon Jones moment.

01:11:08Beat Shogun, uh, Marito Shogun Hua.

01:11:10You can actually see it right, where is my hand?

01:11:13Right here. That's my credential for it.

01:11:17We'll throw it up.

01:11:18Um, all right, all right.

01:11:22That's crazy that you saw Jon Jones win the title.

01:11:24Yeah, that's crazy.

01:11:26For the very first time.

01:11:27He got to do it a bunch of times because sometimes he'd lose that title, right?

01:11:30Yeah, but not really because he lost a fight.

01:11:33Um, but Scott, before we go, what, what is one more fight for those who are itching for, for another

01:11:40one?

01:11:41If you want one more fight to watch, watch PFL.

01:11:44That's the pick.

01:11:45Uh, I'm not giving you another one.

01:11:46I was almost going to go with Cage Warriors, which is, it is on Friday.

01:11:49I'll say that.

01:11:49They lost their, uh, flyweight title main event because the champion, uh, was injured, had to pull out this week.

01:11:55So that disappointed me and I don't think we're left with a whole lot of pickings around.

01:11:59I'm just going to say PFL.

01:12:01All right.

01:12:01Fair enough.

01:12:01Sometimes it's a slow week.

01:12:03So, I mean, it's nice that we have.

01:12:05But it's not a slow week because we have UFC and PFL, right?

01:12:08At least you got those.

01:12:09Like, you're good.

01:12:09You're good.

01:12:10We have something to be thankful for, for sure.

01:12:12Scott, Eric, it's always been a pleasure, as is this time.

01:12:17You back home.

01:12:18Hope you enjoy the fights this weekend.

01:12:19Do your homework.

01:12:20And we will see you again next week.

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