00:00I want to bring something up as far as Malad is concerned.
00:05Din Thomas, who I do like a lot.
00:07I think he brings a great perspective,
00:09and I think he's the best one actually there as far as real fight analysts is concerned.
00:14I like Dominic Cruz as well.
00:16But he said something after he said, you know, Malad dropped the ball.
00:20He said he's too respectful.
00:22You got to call people out, and he had an opportunity to call people out,
00:26call people out by name.
00:28And, you know, well, part of me, I get it.
00:31I understand what Thomas' take was there.
00:35But at the same point in time, it shouldn't be about that, right?
00:40It shouldn't, but it is.
00:40It shouldn't be about that, right?
00:42It should be about winning your fights, and I hate to say this,
00:46but it shouldn't matter whether you're entertaining or not even, right?
00:51If you take someone down, you hold them down, you win, you win.
00:54If you can't be beat, you can't be beat.
00:55Like, a win is a win, but we live in this world where they don't really fully care about the
01:00win.
01:00It's more of an entertainment thing now.
01:02And then also, if you win and you win boring and you win and they don't like you,
01:08you sort of get buried.
01:09And it sort of leads me into the main eventer here this week,
01:14and all Jermaine Sterling, who nobody's going to claim the guy's the most exciting fighter in the world, right?
01:21It's not like, oh, I can't wait to see this guy's next fight.
01:24But he is a damn good fighter.
01:26I mean, the guy is a former world champion, right?
01:30He is a former world champion, and he's great at his craft, yet they don't like him.
01:36Let's just call it off what it is.
01:38He criticizes them publicly.
01:39He's one of the guys that will criticize the pay, and he criticizes the bookings,
01:44and he's very vocal and outspoken, Sterling is.
01:50They think he's boring, but it's kind of wild to me to have a former champion
01:56that's not washed or anything, Tom, and they put him on an apex card
02:00against the guy he's friends with, right?
02:03So it's just sort of like, yeah, they don't like you, bro, and you know it.
02:06But you don't like them, they don't like you, yet it's kind of sad.
02:11If you win, you know what I mean, you should get fights, and it is what it is.
02:15But that's not the world we live in.
02:17But what's your take on this fight?
02:20Because Sterling comes in as the underdog.
02:24Yeah, it's very interesting.
02:26I mean, Zalal has looked really good since returning to the UFC,
02:29and honestly, he looked good in his first run in the UFC.
02:33So, I mean, the kid's got all the skills.
02:35He's extremely dynamic on the ground, which makes it interesting
02:38because obviously we know Sterling wants to grapple.
02:41So that submission game could come into play really for both guys.
02:46Sterling's very strong, not good size for the division.
02:49I know he's coming up.
02:50He came up from 35, but he was always a big 35er, a big strong guy.
02:55And it's going to be interesting.
02:57If Zalal can scramble and Zalal can keep it on the feet,
02:59I think Zalal runs away with it.
03:01I just think he's a striker, and I think he might have the better as well.
03:06But I can see Aljo just banking rounds.
03:08I mean, we saw that in the second fight with Jan after the knee
03:14where Sterling won the belt.
03:16He took Jan, took his back for two whole rounds.
03:19There was really not a lot of action, but he banked two rounds that way.
03:22And then there was another round, the first round in that fight,
03:25where neither one of them really did anything,
03:27and two of the judges gave it to Sterling.
03:30So, you know, there's a world where Sterling controls a lot of this fight.
03:34And, you know, as an underdog,
03:36have been really coming through a lot this year.
03:39So I can see Aljo.
03:43It's tough to really pick that.
03:45But I think, yeah, I think Aljo's live,
03:47and this is a good live betting fight.
03:51Sterling 2-1 since moving up in weight.
03:54Zalal is interesting, another one of these guys in which he's had a second wind, right?
04:02I mean, he made his debut in 2017, guys, but he's only 29 years old.
04:07So he started young, came into the UFC in 2020, won three straight,
04:12then lost it to Poria, no shame in that,
04:15but then lost a couple of more, had a no contest,
04:20ends up going to Sparta combat, wins three straight there,
04:24gets a second shot in the UFC,
04:27and now is rattled off five in a row, right?
04:30So sometimes it takes a while for guys to find themselves,
04:33but in fight years, he's kind of entering his prime right now at 29 years old.
04:40Yeah, and you go back to the fight he had with Teporia.
04:43Yeah, that was a close, that was a good fight.
04:46I mean, Teporia, the fight, Zalal, you know, had a good showing for himself.
04:50He never got hurt really bad in that fight.
04:53He was in it the whole time.
04:55So he's a guy that's, he's really skilled.
04:57I mean, you can't, you can't deny the kid's skill.
05:00And he is kind of in his prime right now.
05:02He had to leave, he had to sharpen some skills, come back.
05:05And, you know, to see this kid win this fight and go on
05:09and be a title contender would not be shocking at all.
05:12I mean, he's got all the skills.
05:14It's a rough matchup, though.
05:16Like I said, with Aljo having the ability to control guys,
05:20Aljo could bank those rounds and that could be enough to win it.
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