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You're listening to the co -main

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event podcast and now your

1:40

hosts then folks and Chad Dundas

1:46

That's right. You're listening

1:48

to another episode of the co

1:50

-main event, Martial Arts podcast. I'm

1:52

Chad Dundas. That's been folks. We're

1:55

both longtime MMA journalists, and

1:57

for the last 12 years. We've

2:00

been meeting here every week to break

2:02

down all the action. all the in

2:04

the wild, weird, and

2:06

occasionally world of of

2:08

arts. arts, before we get

2:10

started this week, just one. just one

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got Go to it .com slash co -main

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event, to sign up and use the

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code event. Sign up and use the code 2-0-0-E-37. Well,

3:08

Ben, we we had UFC 310 over the over

3:10

the weekend. I'm sorry, did you have

3:12

something to say about the say about the

3:14

did, in fact, Chad, Chad because I was I

3:16

was observing this discourse recently on

3:18

Blue Sky where people are talking about

3:20

migrating to Blue Sky from Twitter.

3:22

Sky from Twitter. And people, I

3:24

I a couple of people were

3:26

like, hey, there's not

3:28

enough MMA people on on

3:30

Blue Sky talking fights and whatnot to make

3:33

to make experience fun. But also,

3:35

there are enough people on Twitter

3:37

people but they are talking it, but they

3:39

are assholes. many of them are

3:41

just assholes ruining the experience, what

3:43

to do. I And I thought

3:45

to myself, you know what

3:47

you could do. you could do. You

3:49

could join the CME Patreon that

3:52

would then give then give you access

3:54

to the CME Discord. where where they're

3:56

talking all kinds of shit

3:58

on on fight night other time. all

4:00

kinds of stuff and you know

4:03

what? Zero assholes. Just something we

4:05

think about. We don't allow assholes

4:07

over in the discord. They are

4:09

talking fights and other stuff pretty

4:11

much 24 7 365 over there.

4:14

If you want to get in

4:16

you can do it for 50%

4:18

off as I've been saying to

4:20

zero E37 before December 15th will

4:22

get you involved at that 50%

4:25

off discount. Now we can talk

4:27

UFC 310. That occurred over the

4:29

weekend down there at T-Mobile Arena

4:31

in Las Vegas. Alexander Pantosia defeats

4:33

the debuting Kai Asakura via second-round

4:36

technical submission to retain the men's

4:38

flyweight title. And in the co-main,

4:40

Shavkot, Rachmanov defeats Ian Gehry via

4:42

unanimous decision in their welterweight contest,

4:44

we will talk. about both of

4:47

those fights, plus lots, lots more

4:49

coming up on this show. We

4:51

got some listener mail. We got

4:53

all kinds of stuff happening. Ben,

4:55

I'm going to let you do

4:58

Choose Your Own Adventure. Okay, I

5:00

love Choose Your Adventure. Some of

5:02

my favorite times in my childhood

5:04

are reading Choose Your Own Adventure

5:07

books. Well, I'm here to provide

5:09

a similar experience for you this

5:11

week. What do you want to

5:13

talk about first? Do you want

5:15

to talk about Pantosia and Asakura?

5:18

Obviously you had the title fight

5:20

at the top of the card,

5:22

but there was a lot of

5:24

sentiment I guess floating around last

5:26

week that maybe That boy good

5:29

Shavkot Rock Manov and Ian Machado

5:31

Gary were the actual people's main

5:33

event So what do you where

5:35

you want to go, but what

5:37

do you want to do? Let's

5:40

start off with Shavkot that boy

5:42

good and in Machado Gary because

5:45

I'm of a couple different minds on

5:47

this fight. For one thing, I'll say

5:50

this right up front, not what I

5:52

expected. I don't think it was what

5:54

anybody expected, right? Not what I expected

5:57

in a few different ways. I thought

5:59

Shavkot would have an easier time. not

6:01

think we were going to go to

6:04

full five rounds. I did not think

6:06

Ian Gary would do as well as

6:08

he did. I also thought that Shavkat

6:11

would just do a little more than

6:13

he did. Now there's been some talk

6:15

afterwards that he went into this fight

6:18

with an injury, which if true, then

6:20

you do have to set back a

6:22

little bit and respect the big brass

6:25

once on your boy Shavkat, who already

6:27

had a title shot. He was already

6:29

supposed to fight the champ, Bala Mohammed,

6:31

and then Bala Mahama gets that bone

6:34

infection. I say again, gross. He

6:37

gets the opportunity to say, hey,

6:39

do you want to stay on this

6:41

fight card? We'd like to have

6:43

you fight Ian Gary. Nothing really new

6:46

to gain for him by beating Ian

6:48

Gary. Especially if he's dealing with an

6:50

injury to go in there hurt against

6:53

Ian Gary. You know if you'd lost

6:55

Ian Gary. If he and Gary had

6:57

managed to finish that choke, which

6:59

seemed dangerously close at one point, nobody

7:02

would have wanted to hear shit

7:04

about Shavkot's injury. You know, there would

7:06

have been no sympathy for him.

7:08

His title shot would have disappeared in

7:10

a puff of smoke. And to go

7:13

out there, put it on the line

7:15

anyway, come away with a win, you

7:17

gotta respect that. I also though think

7:20

that if I'm below Mohammed, I feel

7:22

a little better about fighting Shavkat

7:24

now defending my title against that guy.

7:26

He doesn't seem quite so scary

7:28

after that fight. And also, I gotta

7:31

say, if you're Ian Gary, we

7:33

were saying beforehand that this was a

7:35

good move for Ian Gary, to

7:37

go from supposed to fight walking Buckley

7:39

like a week later, you know, you

7:42

take this fight instead, tougher fight, but

7:44

a way more high profile fight,

7:46

and he did better than any of

7:48

us expected. I don't think he

7:50

really suffers any drop at all, even

7:53

though it's the first professional loss

7:55

on his record. I still think he

7:57

comes out of this with people going,

7:59

all right, ain't Gary's not bad. Ain't

8:02

Gary hung a tough there with Shavkot.

8:04

That ain't nothing. That's more, I think

8:06

you maybe get more from a close

8:09

loss to Shavkat than you would

8:11

from a close win over Waukein Buckley

8:13

on a fight night of that,

8:15

you know? Absolutely. I think this is

8:17

the very rare occurrence where maybe

8:19

the losing fighter improved his stock and

8:22

the winning fighter either had a push

8:24

or maybe his stock declined a little

8:26

bit. because we had talked about this,

8:29

as you said, before this fight, Ian

8:31

Gary and Shavkot Rachmanov had fought almost

8:33

mirror images of each other in

8:35

terms of like the competition that they

8:38

had faced leading up to their

8:40

fight. They had fought almost the same

8:42

guys for the most part. And

8:44

coming into this fight, Rockmanov was a

8:46

big favorite. You talked last week

8:48

on the Patreon page that he was

8:51

riding around with guns besides a little

8:53

bow wow. That's right. And how was

8:55

Ian Machado Gary gonna stop Shavkot

8:57

Rockmanov from doing Shavkot Rockmanov shit? There

9:01

wasn't a ton of Shavkot Rockmanov shit

9:03

in this fight. And in fact, if

9:05

anything, I think we were all impressed

9:07

with Ian Gehry's ability to control the

9:09

distance on the feet, like we said

9:12

he had to to win this, to

9:14

stay off the ground, to show off

9:16

good takedown defense, and you know, in

9:18

the later rounds there to almost finish

9:21

that choke. The interesting thing is the

9:23

first several rounds of this thing, you

9:25

know, not a lot of action. This

9:27

was not a great fight, let's say

9:30

that, right up front, just in terms

9:32

of like how fun it was to

9:34

watch. Those early rounds... were essentially decided

9:36

by one or two punches, one or

9:39

two strikes, because there just wasn't that

9:41

much going on. If he and Gary

9:43

had landed a couple of solid punches

9:45

in those first few rounds, we might

9:48

well be talking about him as the

9:50

winner here this Tuesday afternoon. Of course,

9:52

it does go Shavkot Rockmanov's way, but

9:54

in a way that I think you're

9:56

right. I think he seems less scary

9:59

now, and I think that I was

10:01

belal Muhammad, I would be, I don't

10:03

know if breathe and a sire relief

10:05

is the right way to put it,

10:08

because we all think, you know, belal

10:10

probably really and truly believes that he

10:12

would wipe the mat with Shavkat Rockmanov

10:14

no matter what, he is the champion

10:17

after all. But it seems like a

10:19

less insurmountable, less insurmountable task, I guess,

10:21

to take on Shavkat Rockmanov. And, you

10:23

know, maybe he had, what is a

10:26

torn, Shavkat Rockmani ligament. I

10:29

guess, but you know what I mean, if

10:31

that's true, if you have a torn ligament

10:34

in your knee, you know what I was

10:36

saying? If you're going to go out there

10:38

and fight, like, don't tell me you were

10:40

injured after the fact when you lose. It

10:42

only looks good if you tell me you

10:44

were injured if you win. Then you could

10:46

be like, oh, I came into this fight

10:48

with an MCL. Okay, fair enough. But like,

10:51

did he really win in terms of public

10:53

perception? I mean, yes.

10:55

But also, he's, I don't know

10:57

if he's out there talking about

10:59

it too much. I heard it

11:01

from Daniel Cormier, basically. So, uh,

11:03

I don't, it's not like he

11:06

got on the mic afterwards and

11:08

was just like, my MCL is

11:10

totally gone, you guys. Also, though,

11:12

speaking of getting on the mic

11:14

afterwards. Were we talking

11:17

about Bala Mohammed? Because first of

11:19

all, bro, you had to know

11:21

that this was a likely situation,

11:23

right? That Shavkat is probably going

11:25

to win, and when he does,

11:27

it was very possible that you

11:29

guys would do the in-cage face-off.

11:31

And it was like the most

11:33

awkward in-cage face-off ever, because first

11:35

of all, Shavkat has to ask

11:37

him to come up. Balalma, then

11:39

we got a wait for Balal

11:41

Muhammad to make his way to

11:43

the cage. Joe Rogan cracks an

11:45

aside about how security doesn't know

11:47

who he is. They got to

11:49

let Balal Muhammad in here. Somebody

11:51

vouch for Balal Muhammad, tell him

11:54

he's the champion and that they

11:56

should let him through. And first

11:58

of all, I saw people noting.

12:00

social media at the time of

12:02

their like, oh, L-O-L, Joe Rogan,

12:04

got jokes. And it was like,

12:06

well, he is supposed to be

12:08

a comedian. Like, that's, that was

12:10

supposed to be his whole shit.

12:12

Like, gotta, to begin with. Anyway,

12:14

Blah Mahama then eventually gets in

12:16

there. We get this, I'm gonna

12:18

go ahead and say, iconic photo

12:20

of attempted three-way handshake, between Blah

12:22

Mahama, Joe Rogan and Shokot Rockmanov,

12:24

where everybody is trying to shake

12:26

hands with somebody else. It's so

12:28

perfect. We watch it. Everybody is.

12:30

Quint and Tarentino movie where everybody's

12:32

pointing a gun at somebody else,

12:35

right? Exactly. And also the whole

12:37

time, I'm looking at it below

12:39

Maham, and I was like, so

12:41

you went to watch a paper

12:43

view where you knew at some

12:45

point the cameras would be on

12:47

you, you knew you'd probably have

12:49

some kind of encage face-off, and

12:51

we decided to go hoodie. for

12:53

that you're the champion get a

12:55

little Rick Flair drip going when

12:57

you're the champion Chad show us

12:59

something man get a little Iliadporia

13:01

action you know the the leech

13:03

went and got himself a tailored

13:05

suit for that press conference and

13:07

then was very disappointed when nobody

13:09

got to see it blah Muhammad

13:11

is the champion gonna roll in

13:13

here for the post fight face

13:15

off with his next challenger and

13:18

looks like he is just making

13:20

a quick run to the grocery

13:22

store early in the morning and

13:24

figures uh... it's i'll probably won't

13:26

run into anybody i know it's

13:28

fine i'll just go like this

13:30

what the hell man I

13:33

mean, especially for a guy who,

13:35

you could argue, needs to up

13:37

his public appearance, his public image

13:40

a little bit. Yeah, get a

13:42

little star power going. Yeah, maybe

13:44

that's just not him, though, man.

13:46

Maybe he's, you know, you don't

13:49

want to be putting on heirs,

13:51

right? If you're going to be

13:53

you. You think he should be

13:55

putting on heirs? You're the fucking

13:58

champion. With George St. Pierre, rolling

14:00

up in the... looking like he

14:02

is picking his kid up from

14:05

soccer practice and fucking hoodie t-shirt

14:07

come on never never in your

14:09

life look if George St. Pierre

14:11

even owns a hoodie it's Louis

14:14

Vuitton Yeah! I guarantee. Some kind

14:16

of designer shit. It was awkward

14:18

during this fight that they kept

14:21

calling it like a title eliminator

14:23

saying the winner was going to

14:25

get a title shot. When one

14:27

of the guys already did have

14:30

a title shot. So as you

14:32

said, it was, it was, uh,

14:34

I guess a ballsy move for

14:37

Shavkot Rockmanoff to show up and

14:39

fight Ian Gary. Almost with nothing

14:41

on the line. Nothing to gain,

14:43

only stuff to lose. Do

14:46

you think that I have to

14:48

stop saying Machado in a funny

14:51

voice about Ian Gary now that

14:53

he's over there having his

14:55

corner in Portuguese? Okay, that was

14:58

one thing that that surprises

15:00

me a little bit because I

15:03

mean, obviously he has no problem. He's

15:05

picking up everything they're putting down. But

15:07

it's also like, I guess I could

15:09

see it if you're fighting another native

15:12

English speaker and you're like, well, here's

15:14

a way that we can talk and

15:16

he won't know what we're saying. I

15:18

think that's less of a concern with

15:20

Shawkaw. I mean, definitely he understands some

15:22

English. But it's also like, we're over

15:25

there, that's not even when they're shouting

15:27

instructions mid-fight, they were doing that in

15:29

the corner when it's just you guys

15:31

and you don't have to worry really

15:33

about Shopcut hearing you. I mean, if

15:36

anything, I guess I'm impressed with Ian

15:38

Gehry's command of the language, if he

15:40

can do that. Yeah, it didn't seem

15:42

like they were doing it for a

15:44

strategic thing. Maybe that's just how they

15:47

conversate. You know what I mean? which

15:50

that's impressive if that's the case

15:52

man. I mean it answers your

15:54

question you can still keep saying

15:56

Machado in a funny voice. thank

15:58

you, it's too good. It's too

16:00

long running a piece of the

16:03

lore at this point. I did

16:05

wanna mix in this question we

16:07

got from our guy Ball's Deep,

16:09

which is ever, is spelled B-A-W-L-Z-D-E-E-P,

16:11

one word. He says, as an

16:13

Ian gator, has an Ian Gary

16:15

Hater, I'm surprised at how well

16:17

he did against Rakbanov. After seeing

16:20

this fight, I also give Bal

16:22

Muhammad a much better chance when

16:24

he fights better chance when he

16:26

fights when he fights when he

16:28

fights. Rockmanoff. Also, did Gary have

16:30

to change his shorts because his

16:32

balls was too hot? I think

16:34

so. This was some history in

16:37

the making. We've never seen as

16:39

far as I know a guy

16:41

have to change his fight shorts

16:43

in the middle of a fight

16:45

because the cage ripped a giant

16:47

hole in his ass. you

16:51

know the not necessarily in his

16:53

ass but yeah no i get

16:55

you i get you yeah the

16:57

seat yeah the seat of his

16:59

pants there you go honestly when

17:01

it happened when they were talking

17:03

about like i never seen that

17:05

before i was like i'm kind

17:07

of surprised we never have maybe

17:09

it's a testament to the the

17:11

high quality goods that we're wearing

17:13

in there in the cage because

17:15

You think so? Because it seemed

17:17

to me like more of a

17:19

maybe a knock on the the

17:21

UFC outfitting policy. The fact that

17:23

it hasn't happened before? The fact

17:25

that it happens at all! That's

17:27

literally the only thing these shorts

17:29

are used for. Yeah, but you

17:31

get in there and doing some

17:33

grappling any kind of, that's just

17:35

kind of how it's going to

17:38

go. And especially... in

17:40

the fury of battle, I

17:42

could see how it would

17:44

happen. But, you know, the,

17:46

now that we know that

17:48

it can happen, now everybody

17:50

got to be out there,

17:52

what's your second pair of

17:55

shorts? What's your backup shorts

17:57

option? What are you bringing

17:59

with you? For

18:01

me? Yeah. Whatever my backup shorts are,

18:03

I got a knife in there. Okay.

18:06

They won't expect that. That's how I'm

18:08

getting my knife. That's how I'm getting

18:10

my knife in the cage. They pat

18:12

me down, run me with the metal

18:15

detector before I get in the cage,

18:17

thinking I'm clean, then I go in

18:19

there. Big piece of my shorts, rips

18:22

off. I gotta put on my extra

18:24

shorts. Next thing you know, I'm pulling

18:26

out a knife. Even in the odds.

18:29

like just kind of disturbingly and impossible

18:31

to ignore shorter like mine I go

18:33

in their first normal length of board

18:36

shorts I'm like oh shit they ripped

18:38

I got to go to the backup

18:40

pair and I'm like Dennis Holman speedo

18:43

shit and I'm just acting like nothing

18:45

happened and I'm just gonna be like

18:47

the only other pair I brought is

18:50

these cut off jeans sorry that's what

18:52

I got to go with now Yeah,

18:56

you know, hey, not my fault, you

18:58

know, I'm cutting them off so high

19:00

that you can see the pockets, you

19:02

know, you can see the pockets hanging

19:04

down on my thighs. That's, that's the

19:06

kind of shit I'm talking, like the

19:09

kind of shit that, you know, your

19:11

mom wore to a warrant concert when,

19:13

you know, she left you with your

19:15

uncle that time and went to the

19:17

county fair. You know the kind I'm

19:19

talking about. My mom has no idea

19:22

who warrant is. Jerry Pie. That's

19:24

a big hit. You could win the

19:27

fight, you could put your mouthpiece in

19:29

that pocket. Man, that's functionality right there.

19:31

What do you do with Ian Gehry

19:33

now? Obviously with Shavkot Rockmanov, you know

19:36

he's going to fight Balaw Muhammad for

19:38

the title. Ian Gehry, they probably have

19:40

not updated these UFC rankings. He was

19:43

number seven before this fight. He went

19:45

toe to toe with number three. Now

19:47

what do you do with the guy?

19:51

I don't know man I think that

19:53

you got some options really because it's

19:56

like I I honestly came away from

19:58

this being like a lot of people

20:00

are going to take Ian Gary more

20:02

seriously now than I did before. For

20:05

sure. Just because we never seen anybody

20:07

else give Shavkat that good a fight.

20:09

So... Well, and especially like there was

20:11

a lot of people who just weren't

20:14

trying to hear it from Ian Gary,

20:16

right? There was a lot of naysayers.

20:18

maybe because he just didn't seem that

20:20

likable on a personal level to them,

20:23

but this I feel like is a

20:25

performance that is gonna have a lot

20:27

of people kind of eat and crow

20:30

in a way. Yeah,

20:32

I don't know. I think that

20:34

you've got some options out there.

20:36

You know, it's weird how the

20:38

completely flying under the radar here

20:40

is, because he and Gary pulls

20:42

out of this fight, you know,

20:44

where you've got Colby Covington coming

20:46

up here this weekend, which made

20:49

me go, oh yeah, shit, Colby

20:51

Covington? You believe that? That guy's

20:53

still around, Jen. Yeah, you know,

20:55

like I haven't thought about Colby

20:57

Covington in a while and frankly,

20:59

you know what? It was refreshing.

21:01

Haven't thought about him at all.

21:03

He steps in here and is

21:06

going to fight walking Buckley this

21:08

weekend. And I don't know, it,

21:10

that was sort of a weird

21:12

reminder to me of like, yeah,

21:14

we are sort of, it feels

21:16

like closing the book on one

21:18

era of one era of welterweight

21:20

weight. and maybe Dunn closed that

21:23

book on one era of welterweight

21:25

and has moved on to something

21:27

new. Because whenever for a while

21:29

there, where it was just sort

21:31

of like, Marusman, Colby Covington at

21:33

the top, guys like Leon Edwards

21:35

kind of trying to break in

21:37

and then it feels like you

21:40

blinked your eyes and you got

21:42

Balol Mohammed, Shavkot, Rockmanov, and maybe

21:44

Ian Gary knocking on the door.

21:47

Yeah, and like we said, Ian Gary

21:49

was scheduled to fight Waukeen Buckley originally,

21:51

and so if Waukeen Buckley beats Colby

21:54

Covington, does that might match up still

21:56

make sense? Because honestly, I kind of

21:58

feel like Ian Gary might have moved

22:01

beyond that with this performance against Shavka

22:03

Rockmanov, although, you know, that said, I

22:05

don't exactly know who you would match

22:08

him up with. Maybe Kamara Usman, they

22:10

were going back and forth, he and

22:12

Gary accused him of ducking their fight,

22:15

etc., etc., etc. I don't know, man.

22:17

It seems like a little bit of

22:19

a matchmaking quandary to me. You know

22:22

just out of curiosity went real quick

22:24

and looked up the betting odds on

22:26

Saturdays Colby Covington, Waukein, Buckley fight. Colby

22:29

Covington, Chad, is a plus 2.30 underdog

22:31

in this one. Well, I look forward

22:33

to him watching him get his ass

22:36

beat. All

22:39

right, let's do, before we go on here

22:41

to talk about the flyweight title fight, let's

22:43

go ahead and like we always do about

22:45

this time, we'll do a little bit of

22:48

listener mail. listener mail. This

22:52

episode is brought to you by Shopify.

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today. Okay, I have to tell you.

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I was just looking on eBay, where

23:16

I go for all kinds of things

23:18

I love, and there it was. That

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hologram trading card. One of the rarest,

23:23

the last one I needed for my

23:25

set. Shiny, like the... Designer, handback of

23:27

my dreams. One of a kind. eBay

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Whatever you love, find it on

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eBay. eBay. Things people love. First

23:43

piece of listener mail this week

23:45

comes to us from Matthew Erickson

23:48

over on Patreon. Maybe this will

23:50

get us into a little bit

23:52

of this Pantoja discussion. He says,

23:54

my question is about Pantoja's callout

23:56

of Demetrius Johnson. I usually hate

23:58

things like this, but DJ. recently,

24:00

went out on top I think

24:02

at least a couple of rankings

24:04

outside of the UFC had him

24:07

ranked above Pantosia right up until

24:09

his retirement, and I legitimately would

24:11

want to watch this fight. Plus

24:13

the UFC never got to see

24:15

Mighty Mouse with his black belt.

24:17

We only got to ever see

24:19

the brown belt version. I know

24:21

DJ has already said no to

24:24

this idea and I respect that

24:26

too, but am I crazy for

24:28

wanting to see this now that

24:30

it's out there in the world?

24:32

Certainly, the black belt version. of

24:34

Demetrius Johnson would be far more

24:36

dangerous. than the brown belt version

24:38

that we saw all those years.

24:40

Yeah, he was inventing new submissions

24:43

as a brown belt. Can you

24:45

even imagine what black belt Demetius

24:47

Johnson would be capable of? Just

24:49

taps you out with a sturdy

24:51

glare. Now, I also, I was

24:53

a little bit surprised to hear

24:55

his response where he was just

24:57

like, there is no number, you

24:59

know, that You

25:02

know, he understands like what the

25:04

the call out all that kind

25:06

of stuff, but he felt like

25:08

Like here here his quote Ariel

25:10

Halwani. I'm black and white. It's

25:12

either I'm in or I'm out

25:15

and when I say my black

25:17

ass is retired I don't sell

25:19

false dreams. I don't sell none

25:21

of that bullshit. My black ass

25:23

is not coming back which

25:26

honestly I respect the hell out

25:28

of that position because it is

25:30

so rare. Yeah, it's something we

25:32

almost hear from a professional fighter,

25:34

almost never hear from a professional

25:37

fighter. Demetrius Johnson has always been

25:39

a guy who kind of walked

25:41

to his own beat, let's say.

25:43

And in a lot of ways,

25:46

I think a very honest and

25:48

real beat. Very, you know, he

25:50

always felt like what you saw

25:52

was what you got from Demetrius

25:54

Johnson. And this, you can't help

25:57

but respect this so much. saying

25:59

he turned down two million dollars

26:01

I believe he said at one

26:03

point where he was like they

26:06

offered me two million and I

26:08

was just like no I'm out

26:10

which is good for Demetris Johnson

26:12

standing on his principles man although

26:15

would I watch DJ fight Alexander

26:17

Pantoja you're god damn right I

26:19

would hell yeah you would and

26:21

the thing is to I couldn't

26:23

help but think immediately of that

26:26

comment he made about laying in

26:28

bed doing the math on what

26:30

he was paid for his title

26:32

fights, especially after some of this

26:35

antitrust lawsuit stuff was going on,

26:37

and staring up at the ceiling

26:39

and thinking about how badly he

26:41

got screwed financially. And now here's

26:43

a situation where they might be

26:46

willing to pony up some serious

26:48

dough to get you back in

26:50

there for one more fight. One

26:52

last go round. Alsandra Pantosha and

26:55

you're just going nope not even

26:57

gonna consider it now It's

26:59

possible, I'm going to at least dangle

27:02

the possibility, Chad, that this is master

27:04

strategist Demetris Johnson understanding Dana White after

27:06

all these years, that him being like,

27:08

the way to make Dana White adamant

27:10

about making a fight, you know, what

27:13

would make him adamant about making two

27:15

teammates fight each other is if they

27:17

said they would never do it. That's

27:19

when he decides that is the fight

27:21

that absolutely must happen. How do you

27:24

get him to have a show at

27:26

the sphere? You tell him you don't

27:28

think you can do it. Maybe

27:31

Demetrius Johnson is just like, I'll say this,

27:34

I'll just go out there and I'll be

27:36

like there's no amount of money possible that

27:38

could get me to come out there and

27:40

prove me wrong. Dana, prove me wrong. Come

27:42

up to my house with that brinks truck,

27:44

swing the door open and see if I

27:46

changed my mind. I still don't really believe

27:48

that that's actually what's going on. I believe

27:50

Demetrius Johnson when he says this and here's

27:53

his quote, there is no number. That's the

27:55

beautiful thing about at my position, a lot

27:57

of people in mixed martial arts, they let

27:59

the sport retire them. You look at the

28:01

long list of athletes who've been in mixed

28:03

martial arts, not just in the UFC, you

28:05

look at pride, you look at Belatoor, you

28:07

look at all the landscape of everything, look

28:09

at Fadorimilianenko. He didn't have to do those

28:11

last fights in his career, but maybe he

28:14

still loved it. I think for me, in

28:16

my position, when I retired, I was like,

28:18

I don't miss it, I'm not having fun

28:20

anymore. I'm not having fun anymore. So

28:22

I am inclined to believe that

28:25

about Demetius Johnson and honestly respect

28:27

it because I think there's a

28:29

lot of people who might still

28:32

find themselves in that position a

28:34

feeling like I'm not having fun

28:36

anymore I don't like it but

28:38

somebody says you want one last

28:41

big payday to help slide you

28:43

into a more comfy retirement and

28:45

they would go well well I

28:48

guess I could do one more.

28:50

But we've also seen people just

28:52

basically just one more themselves into

28:55

some sad sad places in this

28:57

sport. This is Demetris Johnson's tweet.

28:59

It says, guys, I got offered

29:01

$2 million to fight, exclamation point,

29:04

exclamation point. I turned it down.

29:06

I don't care to fight anymore.

29:08

YouTube video dropping soon, blushing cheeks

29:11

smiling emoji. Oh, blushing

29:13

cheek smiling emoji. Thanks for describing

29:15

that part. 29,000.3 likes. So a

29:17

lot of people back in Demetrius

29:19

Johnson up on his decision to

29:21

not take that two mill. Next

29:23

question is we comes to us

29:26

from Matt Webb who writes, Do

29:28

Ho Choi just absolutely dominated Nate

29:30

the trade and land where by

29:32

wrestling? This version of Duho Choi

29:34

looks so much more adept and

29:36

much more well-rounded. His wrestling and

29:38

grappling and boxing looks so crisp

29:40

and technical. Super impressive. Could this

29:42

version of the Korean Superboy, parenthetically,

29:45

man, be a player at featherweight?

29:47

First thing's first, do you think

29:49

we need to promote Duho Choi

29:51

from Korean Superboy to Korean Superman?

29:53

that is what we were arguing

29:55

in favor of was Stephen Wonder

29:57

Man Thompson, right? Yeah, it was

29:59

the Wonder Man. It's like 40.

30:02

Yeah, with the Wonder Man, it

30:04

was more age-based, right? Just a

30:06

gentleman of a certain age cannot

30:08

be out here in good faith

30:10

passing himself off as the Wonder

30:12

Boy. Do Ho Choi is 33?

30:14

Which obviously, legally speaking, is too

30:16

old to be a boy. But

30:18

he's still got that youthful appearance,

30:21

though. He does, but he's also,

30:23

this is a guy who has

30:25

fought in the UFC and served

30:27

in the Korean military. They don't

30:29

make boys like that, Chad. No,

30:31

that's pretty manly. That's pretty manly.

30:33

Also, I would say in response

30:35

to Matt Webb's question, yeah, he

30:38

did go out there and dominate

30:40

the train and finish him basically

30:42

with wrestling, but he was piecing

30:44

him up. with striking and honestly

30:46

that's the part that like yeah

30:48

I was impressed with how well

30:50

rounded he was when he needed

30:52

to be and also how he

30:54

was able to adapt as the

30:57

fight sort of changed as it

30:59

moved on where he was just

31:01

like oh okay so there's an

31:03

opportunity The guy's trying to make

31:05

it into a little bit of

31:07

a brawl, which honestly was the

31:09

only moments of success. Nate Landware

31:11

even came close to having it

31:14

in that fight was when he

31:16

was trying to make it a

31:18

little messier, trying to make it

31:20

the kind of fight that we

31:22

expected it to be, honestly, with

31:24

guys planting their feet, swanging and

31:26

banging. And Duo Choi was like,

31:28

nah, we're not playing that shit.

31:30

Because why give this guy a

31:33

chance? And took him down. You

31:36

know what's bad is when you

31:38

go back to your corner after

31:40

round one and your cornermen are

31:42

like, uh, pretty sure he's slowing

31:44

down. That's a bad sign. He

31:46

was beating your ass so much

31:49

there's no way he can keep

31:51

that up all night. That's the

31:53

most positive thing your corner can

31:55

think to say to you. He's

31:57

got to be getting tired. What

31:59

with the ass whipping he's putting

32:01

on you? he striking wise in

32:03

that first round he looked sharp

32:05

as hell man he looks so

32:07

good he looks so fast he

32:09

was just like no wasted movement

32:11

in this he wasn't just reaching

32:13

into his back pocket and throwing

32:15

haymakers the way we had seen

32:17

him do in the past. Everything

32:19

he was doing was crisp and

32:21

he was hurting Nate Land. Like

32:23

the first, I don't know, 60-90

32:25

seconds, it seemed like Nate Landwhere

32:27

was just a punching bag for

32:29

him. He was just coming up

32:31

with his hands up high and

32:33

Duo Choi was just finding openings

32:35

in there, doing nothing but landing

32:37

strikes, not absorbing any, and it

32:39

seemed like, man. Nathan where is

32:41

he's not even in so much

32:43

a fight so much as he's

32:45

just getting his ass whipped and

32:47

so like I was impressed with

32:50

him all the way around and

32:52

then yeah I didn't know that

32:54

he had as good a groundwork

32:56

as he didn't as good a

32:58

like ground control when's the last

33:00

time we saw somebody finished for

33:02

via strikes from the crucifix position

33:04

feels like it's been a while

33:06

you know this is a tough

33:08

one for me to talk about

33:10

I'm a big fan of the

33:12

train. I don't like to see

33:14

Natland where have this happened to

33:16

him and you are right as

33:18

I was watching this myself. I

33:20

had to admit to myself this

33:22

is a little embarrassing to see

33:24

a guy get stopped from the

33:26

crucifix position in the year of

33:28

our Lord 2025. Right, but honestly,

33:30

it's not like he gave up.

33:32

You know, like shit, man, the

33:34

train ain't never given up. Whip

33:37

his ass and see what happens.

33:39

Sometimes you just whip his ass

33:41

from start to finish. The other

33:43

time, if he doesn't lose, he

33:45

probably wins. He, you could hear

33:47

him like grunting with effort and

33:49

frustration as he is trying to

33:52

get out of there. He never

33:54

gave up. He never just sort

33:56

of like accepted that, but he

33:58

couldn't really do much about it.

34:00

And duo choice. put him on

34:02

it, put it on him from

34:04

start to finish. And honestly, I

34:06

came away from that being like,

34:08

we were thinking about Duo Choi

34:10

as just sort of a good

34:12

time guy as a fun fighter

34:14

to have in the division. Now

34:16

do you have to start thinking

34:18

about this guy as a legit

34:20

threat in the division? Yeah, and

34:22

unexpected from a guy who, not

34:24

too long ago, was coming in

34:26

off three straight losses, right? That

34:28

was back in the teens. His

34:30

last fight against Charles Jordan, he

34:32

lost in December of 2019 for

34:34

the three fight losing streak, comes

34:36

back as the draw with Kyle

34:39

Nelson in February of last year.

34:41

Now he's won two in a

34:43

row, one over Bill Algio and

34:45

now over Nate Landware, just a

34:47

huge career turnaround. for the Korean

34:49

super boy and you might say

34:51

that that time he spent away

34:53

from the cage maybe he improved

34:55

maybe he improved during that time

34:58

Next question this week, week comes

35:00

to us from Dan Alexander, who

35:03

writes in to say, why was

35:05

Anthony Smith allowed to fight Dominic

35:07

Reyes? This not only felt sad,

35:10

but looked fad, smelt sad, if

35:12

you want to know where Dan

35:14

Alexander is emailing us from, that

35:16

smelt with a T, and felt

35:19

negligent on the U.F.C.'s part, what

35:21

are we doing here? This

35:23

was bad. You can't. I mean,

35:26

you can't call the fight off

35:28

by the time a guy is

35:30

in the Harley Davidson prep point

35:32

or whatever you want to call

35:34

it. But Smith was over there

35:36

kind of like openly weeping from

35:39

the emotions of having lost his

35:41

friend and longtime coach leading up

35:43

to this fight. So that was.

35:46

That was a tough one and

35:48

then you got Dominic Reyes coming

35:50

out afterwards saying that Anthony Smith

35:52

told him just punched me because

35:54

I want to feel something. Wow

35:56

they were in the cage together

35:58

and and that all around. this

36:00

seem like a pretty bad scene.

36:03

Yeah, I mean, as for the

36:05

question of why was he allowed

36:07

to fight him, you know, if

36:09

you say you want to get

36:11

in there and do it, the

36:13

UOC will put you in there

36:15

and give you a chance to

36:17

do it. That part, you know,

36:19

I. It's so

36:21

hard to imagine the U.S.E. stepping

36:23

in and being like, we think

36:25

you're too sad right now. We

36:27

think that there's too heavy a

36:29

weight on your heart, so we're

36:32

not going to allow this fight

36:34

to go forward. You can never

36:36

imagine them doing that. And if

36:38

Anthony thinks he wants to do

36:40

it, and we've seen people. Especially,

36:43

you know, you take fighters where that

36:45

is the thing they know that's been

36:47

a constant in their life for so

36:49

many years and they run into something

36:52

difficult in their personal lives, it's very

36:54

easy for them to decide that the

36:56

solution to this problem yet again is

36:58

fighting. That is going to be the

37:00

answer for everything I face, like, and

37:02

especially if I can focus on this

37:04

fight that maybe I don't have to

37:06

focus on this other stuff that is

37:08

going on in my life. But this

37:10

one clearly you could tell it was

37:12

affecting him. It was affecting him like,

37:14

Toward the end of that first round,

37:17

just like hands down, please do go

37:19

ahead and punch me. And it does

37:21

make me wonder, first of all, we

37:23

got the comment from Dana White afterwards

37:25

where he was there asking him, like,

37:27

what do you think about Chris Wyden?

37:29

What do you think about Anthony Smith?

37:31

What do you think about Clay Guida?

37:33

And he was like, retire. They should

37:35

all retire tonight. But then the question

37:37

was, like, does that mean you're going

37:40

to release them from their contracts? Like,

37:42

because if you're, or like, are you

37:44

going to offer them another fight? Because

37:46

it's easy for Dana White to sit

37:48

up there and be like, they should

37:50

retire. They should stop this thing. But

37:52

you are not going to give them

37:54

the option to if they, like, you're

37:56

basically saying, UFC doesn't see any future

37:58

use for you. I'm not going to

38:00

make it easy for you to go

38:02

see if somebody else has a future

38:05

use for you. And it's always a

38:07

tricky thing because it's like, if you

38:09

think the dude can't fight anymore, let

38:11

him out of his contract. If he

38:13

wants to go find out if that's

38:15

true elsewhere, that's his business. But Dana

38:17

White too often wants to have that

38:19

sort of power to tell people that

38:21

they should retire when, you know, a

38:23

lot of these guys, this is what

38:25

they have. This is the thing that

38:27

they have. Here

38:30

is Dominic Reyes's quote. He says, Anthony

38:32

is a true warrior and he's going

38:34

to fight to the end. He wanted

38:36

to fight to the end. He needed

38:38

to feel something tonight. So when I

38:40

went in the cage, I haven't been

38:42

around Anthony much in my life. But

38:44

when I was in the cage with

38:46

him, he was emotional, right? That's a

38:48

dangerous man. He's fighting for a friend.

38:50

He doesn't care about the outcome. He

38:52

just wants to feel something. There was

38:54

a point in the first round when

38:56

he put his hands down and was

38:59

just like punch me in the face

39:01

and I obliged. That's my job. So

39:03

perhaps Anthony Smith didn't say he needed

39:05

to feel something, but as you said,

39:07

he invited Dominic Reyes to punch him

39:09

in the face in a defenseless manner.

39:11

Yeah, it does make me wonder like

39:13

when he was asked afterwards, is this

39:15

your last fight? And he said probably,

39:17

which as we've talked about before, sometimes

39:19

that feels like that's the that's as

39:21

good as you can get. They say

39:23

like absolutely I'm done like right after

39:26

a loss. You never know how seriously

39:28

to take that in that exact moment,

39:30

but when they say yeah, probably that's

39:32

it like okay I can believe that

39:34

I can accept it if any fighter

39:36

says they're always just 90% done. That's

39:38

good enough. That's believable But it also

39:40

made me wonder if he will go

39:42

back and then be like well I

39:44

was too emotional in that fight I

39:46

was in no space mentally to fight

39:48

and so I did not offer a

39:50

good accounting of myself and I don't

39:52

want that to be the last one

39:55

Like I could see that factoring into

39:57

the decision as well. But then like

39:59

he said, he does. to face the

40:01

question of if you do want to

40:03

try to do this again, you got

40:05

to do it again without your friend.

40:07

And that's got to be heavy too.

40:09

Yeah. We did

40:11

get a question from Sir Nigel's

40:13

estranged cousin Sir Baronston Longstock and

40:16

all he said was Ian Gary

40:18

is a lot which yeah that's

40:20

that is also true. We got

40:22

this one from at pissed off

40:24

lawyer who said here's the big

40:26

question coming out of U of

40:28

C 310 in arguing against the

40:30

mandatory use of seat belts is

40:33

Bryce Mitchell expressing a sincerely held

40:35

belief or angling for a position

40:37

in the Trump administration as the

40:39

chair of the National Transportation Safety

40:41

Board. You know, obviously Bryce Mitchell

40:43

says a lot of dumb shit.

40:45

And I wish he didn't for

40:48

a lot of reasons. But

40:50

one of those reasons is that

40:53

the only listener mail that we

40:55

got about Bryce Mitchell this week

40:57

was about him saying the thing

40:59

about seat belts, when in fact

41:02

he went out there and dominated

41:04

the shit out of Chrome Gracie,

41:06

aside from almost getting armbard at

41:08

one point, and then finished him

41:11

with the nasty ass slam and

41:13

some of the hardest elbows that

41:15

you will ever see, just automatically

41:17

shut his lights off. And here

41:19

we are in the days following

41:22

the event. just talking about how

41:24

Bryce Mitchell said some more dumb

41:26

ass shit. I will point out

41:28

we had a conversation before this

41:31

fight trying to guess what dumb

41:33

ass shit Bryce Mitchell would say

41:35

and we weren't even close. That

41:37

gives you a sense of the

41:40

breadth of this man's dumb ass

41:42

shitness. He he can just range

41:44

all over the place. Yeah, in

41:46

terms of his dumb-ass shit topics

41:48

You can't ever predict what's coming

41:51

from this guy Also, though, let

41:53

me ask you this question What

41:55

does it mean to beat Crone

41:57

Gracie in the year 2020? didn't

42:00

look like a UFC fighter out

42:02

there. No, he did not. No,

42:04

that's that was my conclusion while

42:06

watching this thing is that he

42:09

He just didn't look like he

42:11

belongs in the cage out there

42:13

with Bryce Mitchell or you know

42:15

with any top level well rounded

42:17

MMA fighter in 2025 and that

42:20

That's kind of a shame in

42:22

a lot of ways. And especially

42:24

for Bryce Mitchell, well, he's a

42:26

guy who needed a win, right?

42:29

Coming off getting knocked out so

42:31

bad by Josh Emmett last December.

42:33

So it was good to get

42:35

him back in the in the

42:38

wind call, I guess. But yeah,

42:40

it's, I'm not going to say

42:42

it's hard to watch Chrome Gracie,

42:44

but he doesn't look like he

42:46

belongs out there with these guys.

42:49

What was his plan? How

42:51

did he think? Yeah, what? And then

42:54

sit there. You know what he was

42:56

doing? He was fighting like it was

42:58

an actual Gracie challenge fight, right? Yes.

43:01

On the green mats in the basement

43:03

of the Gracie Baja Jujitsu studio, pull

43:05

guard on Jason Delusha, and then you

43:08

sit there until he makes a mistake,

43:10

and you tap him out, because there's

43:12

no time limits. Right. And that shit

43:15

works a whole lot better when the

43:17

other person doesn't know Jujitsuitsu. does

43:20

not work that well when they

43:22

also know Jiu-Jitsu. This is... It's

43:24

not 1996, man. People know Jiu-Jitsu.

43:27

People who are getting in there

43:29

in the UFC cage. They've seen

43:31

this shit before. Especially Bryce Mitchell.

43:33

He has definitely seen this shit

43:35

before. I don't know how you

43:38

thought you're going to win that

43:40

way. And it just made me

43:42

wonder again. Why did he take

43:44

this fight? Why did it? Why?

43:46

Is it just because he has

43:49

fights on his contract? Might as

43:51

well go ahead and do him

43:53

do him do him. I don't

43:55

understand. Is it your, hey, if

43:57

you're gonna be a Gracie walking

43:59

around with a Gracie Jiu-Jitsu gym

44:02

in the state of Montana, by

44:04

the way? did a guy who,

44:06

you know, a famous dude from

44:08

a famous family who owns a

44:10

Jiu-Jitsu gym in Montana fights in

44:13

the U.S.C. I'm gonna get some

44:15

texts from some friends in the

44:17

Montana Jiu-Jitsu scene as this thing

44:19

is happening before, during, and after

44:21

this fight. Now, I have not

44:24

personally been to Chrome Gracie's gym

44:26

out there. It's, is it in

44:28

Bozeman or is it... I want

44:30

to say it's in Belgrade, but

44:32

that might as well be Bozeman.

44:35

Yeah, I haven't been to his

44:37

gym, but I heard from people

44:39

who had, and the sentiment seemed

44:41

to be that the guy they

44:43

encountered there seemed arrogant and not

44:46

especially interested in expanding what he

44:48

already has in terms of a

44:50

skill set. And

44:52

that's not a good recipe for

44:54

hanging with these dudes and today. If

44:56

that's where you are, stay home

44:58

and teach Jiu-Jitsu. Don't get in there

45:01

because bad shit's gonna happen to

45:03

you by a guy who doesn't believe

45:05

in fucking seat belts. His reasoning

45:07

here is reasoning about why he doesn't

45:10

believe in seat belts? Because

45:13

you might need to roll out of

45:15

the car, Chad. I mean, that says

45:17

something, right? That's a commentary on maybe

45:20

how Bryce Mitchell drives or... I'll tell

45:22

you what it says is that Bryce

45:24

Mitchell thinks that he is a character

45:27

in like a 90s action film. Duke's

45:29

a hazard. Yeah, he thinks, well, hey,

45:31

a likely scenario is that the car's

45:34

about to fall off a cliff, and

45:36

I gotta throw myself off the other

45:38

way, save my life, and I'll be

45:40

really glad I don't have that seat

45:43

belt then, when really, the likely scenario

45:45

is that you get into some kind

45:47

of collision and you just go flying

45:50

through the damn windshield. That's a whole

45:52

lot likelier. Like, he's out here thinking

45:54

that the big issue he's going to

45:57

confront in his life is having to

45:59

jump in and hang on to the

46:01

bottom landing part of a helicopter as

46:04

it takes off, when really, it's heart

46:06

disease or something. You know, like that's

46:08

kind of where he's at. That's where

46:11

he thinks he's at anyway. I

46:14

would like to see some statistics

46:16

maybe from the transportation department about

46:18

which is more likely whether or

46:20

not you get it an accident

46:22

where a seat belt saves your

46:24

life or you drive off a

46:27

cliff. But I'll bet you this,

46:29

whatever the statistics are, I bet

46:31

the likelihood you drive off a

46:33

cliff increases like 15% if you

46:35

are Bryce Mitchell. I bet whatever

46:37

the statistics are, the likelihood that

46:39

you convince Bryce Mitchell of anything

46:42

he doesn't already believe is basically

46:44

zero. That's the thing. It's incredible

46:46

to see a guy that dumb

46:48

and that confident that he knows

46:50

it all. So dumb, he can't

46:52

believe that there's even, like he

46:54

can't even conceive of the idea

46:56

of experts in certain fields. Just

46:59

too, he just can't get through

47:01

his head. That's

47:04

going to do it for listener mail this

47:06

week if you have a question, comment, or

47:08

concern that you want to air to the

47:10

podcast in future weeks. You know how to

47:13

do it. Go to the website comatevent.com and

47:15

click the link in the top right-hand corner

47:17

of the screen that says email the podcast

47:19

that will get you in touch with us.

47:22

Right now, though, we're going to get started

47:24

talking a little bit about Pantosia versus Asakura.

47:28

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47:55

Craven, the hunter, who uses all the

47:57

methods of the animal. Thursday, witness the

48:00

making of a new Marvel villain. Once

48:02

you're on his list, there's only one

48:04

way off. Aaron Taylor Johnson is. Great

48:06

than the hunter. Read it are. Under

48:08

1700, I mean it without parent. Well

48:13

Ben you were talking about Balal

48:15

Muhammad showing up in his hoodie.

48:18

A guy who showed up wanting

48:20

people to remember him last week

48:22

during the pre-fight events was Kai

48:24

Asakura. Here is a guy who

48:27

did show up wearing the tailored

48:29

suit, showed up with the bleach

48:31

blonde hair, showed up wearing sunglasses.

48:34

You might say he was styling

48:36

and profiling. Nation. a little bit

48:38

was Kai Asakura and he kind

48:41

of fought like it too man

48:43

this was a fast and furious

48:45

men's flyweight title fight Asakura right

48:48

out the gate through a huge

48:50

flying knee that it looked like

48:52

he actually partially landed on Pantosia.

48:54

Unfortunately that kind of turned out

48:57

to be the the pinnacle of

48:59

what Asakura was able to do

49:01

here against Pantosia, who himself was

49:04

letting it all hang out in

49:06

all facets. But I'm not sure

49:08

that is that negative a commentary

49:11

on Kai Asakura as it is

49:13

like a huge positive commentary on

49:15

Pantosia, who just seems like yes,

49:17

at this point in his career,

49:20

he is in fact that dominant.

49:23

You know, it is, it's kind of

49:25

nice that Kai Asakura was as advertised,

49:27

a guy willing to go out there

49:30

and let it all hang out. Because

49:32

you can easily see a situation where

49:34

a guy comes in first fight in

49:36

the UFC, fighting for a title, and

49:38

maybe fights a little bit conservative because

49:41

he knows that Pantosha is a guy

49:43

who can seize on some mistakes. And

49:45

he didn't do that. He went out

49:47

there guns blazing right away. And he

49:49

did land a couple shots. Yeah. We

49:52

were wondering, you know, how will. Pantosha

49:54

stand up to the power of a

49:56

guy who's fought so much a phantom

49:58

weight and fine it turns out like

50:00

he ate a couple and never seemed

50:03

bothered by it. And also as advertised

50:05

is Pantosia, who has an ability, like

50:07

even when you are starting to gain

50:09

some momentum, to just shut you down.

50:12

And that's what he did here. And

50:14

honestly, I came away from this just

50:16

sort of being like. You're

50:19

going to have to get the

50:21

pen out and keep signing guys

50:23

for Pantosha, whether it's Muhammad Mukayev,

50:26

bring him back, somebody else, because

50:28

Pantosha's just run through so many

50:30

people already in this division and

50:33

seems like he's kind of only

50:35

getting better. The finishing sequence in

50:37

this thing was crazy, right? hops

50:40

on the back and then has

50:42

the body triangle locked in just

50:44

slick as shit while they're rolling

50:47

over and then the the actual

50:49

techniques that he used to sink

50:51

the choke were off the charts

50:54

also so that was just the

50:56

entire fight was impressive for Pantoja

50:58

but that finishing sequence was amazing

51:00

I thought you know what And

51:03

you know, Kaisakura had to get

51:05

choked unconscious also, which I think

51:07

kind of fits in with the

51:10

rest of the Kaisakura gimmick that

51:12

we were treated to during this

51:14

fight. And frankly, he seems like

51:17

a guy that UFC fans will

51:19

want to see again, despite the

51:21

fact that he lost to the

51:24

champion in his debut. Still seems

51:26

like he has a viable future

51:28

in this company. You could do

51:31

worse if you were Alexander Pantosha

51:33

than to have, you know, as

51:35

your gimmick, they gotta keep signing

51:38

new guys for me to beat.

51:40

The Alexander Pantosha versus the world

51:42

kind of a situation. Do

51:45

you remember when we were trying to

51:47

find a way to get people more

51:49

invested in what Demetrius Johnson was doing

51:52

in his reign of dominance over the

51:54

flyway division? And we suggested that he

51:56

go door to door with a bathroom

51:58

scale. And anybody who

52:01

was 125 pounds, he would offer

52:03

to fight them on the front

52:05

lawn. That seems like maybe we're

52:07

getting to that kind of territory.

52:09

I was under Pentosia. Because honestly,

52:11

if you were to ask me,

52:13

how do you put together a

52:15

game plan to beat this guy,

52:17

I'd be like, well, step one

52:19

is that you can't really have

52:21

any weaknesses. because he'll find him

52:23

like you've got to be so

52:26

good everywhere and even that only

52:28

gets you to even basically that

52:30

does not get you to where

52:32

you are beating him in one

52:34

area it just makes it so

52:36

that you make it hard for

52:38

him to seize on one area

52:40

in which you could beat you

52:42

so i don't know man it's

52:44

it has been such a problem

52:46

for the u f c over

52:49

the years just trying to get

52:51

people invested and yet it feels

52:53

like Sportwide, we've been inching closer,

52:55

right? Because before, there was a

52:57

time when they thought like there's

52:59

no future at 155, because it's

53:01

just too small. And then, 155

53:03

became one of the best divisions

53:05

in the sport. And then, 145

53:07

with help from Connor MacGregor and

53:09

Jose Aldo, that whole rivalry became

53:11

a big-time division in the sport.

53:14

And we thought, you know, but

53:16

then 135, Sean O'Malley comes along,

53:18

lights of fire under some people,

53:20

stuff like that we're tiptoeing up

53:22

to it. Are we just waiting

53:24

for the right personality? Because it

53:26

doesn't seem like the lesson of

53:28

the Demetrius Johnson era was basically

53:30

that you can't just win enough

53:32

fights to win people over. That

53:34

takes something else. Yeah,

53:37

but at the same time, it's

53:40

not like Demetrius Johnson was completely

53:42

personality free, right? Like Demetrius Johnson

53:44

is actually an engaging smart, dynamic,

53:46

charismatic guy if you actually take

53:49

the time to listen to him

53:51

talk or to talk to him

53:53

or watch his videos or whatever.

53:55

We also have had Henry Sohoto

53:58

in that division, you know, athlete

54:01

also when he said he was

54:03

walking away they said okay bye

54:05

yeah like that gift from tombstone

54:07

yes and he's not a guy

54:09

who's short on personality for better

54:11

or for worse you know what

54:14

I mean he give Henry Sahuto

54:16

credit he was out here trying

54:18

right he was out here trying

54:20

to give us something. We had

54:22

Brandon Moreno, beloved fighter who also

54:24

has sort of a lovable personality.

54:26

Shoot, you could go so far

54:28

as to say you could do

54:30

something with Davison Figuero had you

54:32

wanted to. So I don't know

54:34

if Alexander Pantosia is the guy

54:36

who's going to come along and

54:38

suddenly put the division on the

54:40

map, so to speak, in terms

54:42

of marketability. But like I said,

54:44

you could do worse than to

54:47

give the guy a gimmick. have

54:49

them be like the Terminator who

54:51

destroys all these guys that he's

54:53

beat so many guys that you

54:55

got to get on the horn

54:57

and bring new people in to

54:59

have Pantosia fight them in their

55:01

UFC debut. Maybe that would be

55:03

something you could do just because

55:05

he has beat so many of

55:07

the other top contenders. Brandon Royval,

55:09

bless his heart. Things have gotten

55:11

so bad. in terms

55:13

of the talent pool that Pantosia

55:16

has not yet defeated, that they

55:18

had to cut to Brandon Royval

55:20

in the crowd standing there looking

55:22

like he was talking shit, kind

55:24

of being like that. I'm not

55:26

impressed by this. I'm not impressed

55:28

by this performance. It's like, dude,

55:31

you already lost twice to this

55:33

man. Like you think you can

55:35

stand out there and act like

55:37

you're not impressed by Pantosia? I

55:39

don't know, man. It brings a

55:41

little hollow to me at this

55:43

point. Maybe could you do the

55:46

the weird Jamal Hill yawn thing

55:48

with his hand wide open? Cover

55:50

his shoving popcorn in his mouth?

55:52

Yeah, cover his own face like

55:54

the the thing from alien. Trying

55:56

to put an alien baby inside

55:58

Jamal Hill. You know what we

56:01

didn't talk about was was Cyrill

56:03

Ghan and Alexander Volkoff. Coming out

56:05

here looking like huge Patti Pimblet,

56:07

looking like Patti Pimblet's big brother,

56:09

trying to fight, uh, zero gone.

56:11

Would you think of, uh, zero

56:13

gone coming out here? And if

56:16

I can paraphrase Nate Diaz, oh,

56:18

you were wrestler now, shooting doubles

56:20

and whatnot. Well, I mean. If

56:23

we were going to give Cyril

56:25

Ghan some advice after that, Francis

56:27

and Gano fight, wouldn't it have

56:29

been to go get a singlet?

56:31

And that may have literally been

56:33

the advice that we gave him.

56:35

So maybe he took a step

56:37

too far or whatever. I don't

56:39

know. Like, it seemed like something

56:41

that he could potentially make work.

56:43

I also think Alexander Volcom has

56:46

gotten better. since the first time

56:48

they fought. He's got a lot

56:50

better. Who had Alexander Volkov top-level

56:52

heavyweight contender on their bingo card?

56:54

Not me. I tell you, what

56:56

I did have on my $20

56:58

we never want to see again

57:00

picks, I had myself a two-fight

57:02

parley with Cyril Ghan and Jop

57:04

got Rockman off. Now that, that

57:06

cashed. I don't feel great about

57:08

it. I'm going to take the

57:10

money because I need it. I

57:13

need some wins in this competition,

57:15

but I even as a guy

57:17

who had gone picked saw that

57:20

one and I went, I don't

57:22

know man, I don't know if

57:24

you really won that one, like

57:26

when the decision is announced and

57:28

you were announced as the winner

57:30

and you turn and walk out

57:32

of the cage immediately, that tells

57:34

us something. You didn't feel triumphant

57:36

in that moment. I kind

57:39

of admire though the way they

57:41

make you come back and talk

57:43

to Joe Rogan. They're like, no,

57:45

you're not getting out of here

57:48

without talking to Joe Rogan. We

57:50

flew Rogan in, he's standing in

57:52

the cage, ready to talk to

57:54

you, get your butt back in

57:57

there and spend three minutes talking

57:59

to Joe Rogan. a decision and

58:01

my Kiesavia sub, you boy, was

58:03

in the black this week. We'll

58:06

talk about that later on Friday.

58:08

Oh, that's funny. I lost them

58:10

all. No, I think actually, I

58:12

think I actually won one bet,

58:15

but it was not enough to

58:17

get me back to zero. So

58:19

there's that. What

58:21

was I going to say? Oh, toe

58:23

x-ray. Another toe x-ray on the map

58:26

in Mixed Martial Arts. Cyrill Gahn comes

58:28

out here after his win, saying, uh,

58:30

broke my toe, look at my toes.

58:32

I will say this. The Cyrill Gahn

58:35

broken toe x-ray still beats the shit

58:37

out of the Connor McGregor broken toe

58:39

x-ray. Cyrill Gahn didn't have to draw

58:41

an arrow on his x-ray to show

58:44

you what the broken toe was. That

58:46

toe was smashed into a million pieces

58:48

into a million pieces into a million

58:50

pieces. Yeah. Before we get out of

58:53

here, I did want to mention... Remember

58:55

when we were talking about Aljumain Sterling

58:57

being mad about being on the pre-limbs

58:59

and he's going to show us that

59:01

he's a main card fighter and all

59:04

that kind of stuff? I gotta say,

59:06

they did it! They

59:08

proved that that was one of

59:10

the best fights of the night.

59:13

Interesting to me, when we look,

59:15

because one of the conversations we

59:17

were having, with Algermane Sterling talking

59:20

beforehand, we were like, Salgermane Sterling

59:22

feel like the UFC is just

59:24

constantly fucking with him, that Dana

59:27

White just doesn't like him, and

59:29

that that's why he's so willing

59:31

to read into his card placement

59:34

here, and that maybe he has

59:36

a basis for doing that. Then

59:38

you come out of this event,

59:41

you get four performance of the

59:43

night bonuses. Pentosia, Vicente, Chase Hooper,

59:46

Kenese, Zechekw, No fight of the

59:48

Night bonus awarded. Boths are Eve,

59:50

Louvre, and Aljaman Sterling, to my

59:53

mind, had themselves the fight of

59:55

the night. This is a good-ass

59:57

fight, man. It was a really

1:00:00

fun. exciting exchange high

1:00:02

high level shit, between these two guys

1:00:04

could gone either way And the USU

1:00:06

just chose to look and set at the to look

1:00:08

and and be like, be like, nope, there's

1:00:10

no of the night here. here. So,

1:00:13

if I'm If I'm Alderman Sterling, I'm I'm

1:00:15

him and being like, I told you

1:00:17

guys. like, I I told you both that I

1:00:19

was gonna prove I was going to prove to

1:00:21

be on the main card. on the He,

1:00:23

you know, doesn't go his way, but it's

1:00:25

still a great ass fight. it's still a told

1:00:27

you guys fight. And told you guys with me. just

1:00:30

is Dana White doesn't like me. White

1:00:32

doesn't it is. me. There it is. I mean,

1:00:34

yeah, there's some evidence to suggest some evidence

1:00:36

to suggest that might be right.

1:00:38

a We got a question from

1:00:40

Mike Garcia kind of about about

1:00:42

Dana White showing up to the press

1:00:45

conference just being grumpy. being grumpy,

1:00:47

about how it was how it was dumb

1:00:49

whatever it is that he said, whatever

1:00:51

it is that he said, like, uh, that's, uh, you

1:00:54

know, the man, as the man ages?

1:00:56

it seems like seems like he's getting

1:00:58

grumpier and grumpier out here. out here. Let

1:01:00

spare a moment. to

1:01:02

discuss how how Kevin Yole

1:01:04

was the guy at the press

1:01:06

press asked him, who you have

1:01:08

any do you have any comment on

1:01:11

Connor civil trial

1:01:13

verdict. And Dana White. Dana

1:01:15

White first acts like he is

1:01:17

surprised he is surprised would even

1:01:19

expect him to have a

1:01:22

comment. Like what do you mean

1:01:24

a comment? do you mean a comment? Like

1:01:26

he he didn't think didn't think walking into

1:01:28

this room in a million years anybody

1:01:30

would ever think he might have

1:01:32

some thoughts on the biggest thoughts on the biggest

1:01:35

the history of their company. of their guy

1:01:37

who who any time shows up to

1:01:39

fight them the biggest single

1:01:42

night pay -per -view paper that year

1:01:44

pretty much every time year pretty much

1:01:46

found liable for rape in

1:01:48

his home country. just

1:01:51

months after the the had him scheduled

1:01:53

to fight and months before the UFC

1:01:56

probably wants to schedule him to

1:01:58

fight in to schedule him to fight he and he is

1:02:00

that anybody would think he might

1:02:03

should have a comment on that

1:02:05

man The video game people had

1:02:07

a comment on it The the

1:02:09

liquor he had his name on

1:02:11

had a comment on it. The

1:02:14

wax museum Didn't want to do

1:02:16

business with Connor McGregor anymore. And

1:02:18

the UFC president, the guy who

1:02:20

is responsible for employing him at

1:02:23

the main thing he does, is

1:02:25

like, why would you think I

1:02:27

would have anything at all to

1:02:29

say about it positively or negatively?

1:02:31

Chad, we haven't done one of

1:02:34

these in a while, but are

1:02:36

you fucking kidding me? I'm kidding

1:02:38

me. Not only did he act

1:02:40

surprised, he acted like the person

1:02:43

asking him was being a dick.

1:02:45

Of course, you should have some

1:02:47

kind of comment, man. You should,

1:02:49

you probably should have had a

1:02:52

statement to put out at the

1:02:54

time when everybody from the video

1:02:56

game to the wax museum were

1:02:58

running away from this guy. And

1:03:00

you guys are just like, we

1:03:02

don't see anything that bears mentioning

1:03:04

here at all. Like we all

1:03:06

see you, we see what this

1:03:08

is. And yet to act just

1:03:10

like, why would you think I'd

1:03:12

have a comment? Man, as somebody

1:03:14

pointed out on Twitter right afterwards,

1:03:16

if Francis and Ghanu got a

1:03:18

parking ticket, you would have something

1:03:20

to say about it. You were

1:03:22

just up there telling us how

1:03:25

he's not a good guy. That's

1:03:27

apparently important to you. And then,

1:03:29

the biggest star you've ever had

1:03:31

gets found liable for rape. And

1:03:33

you got nothing to say and

1:03:35

can't believe anybody would think that

1:03:37

you might have something to say

1:03:39

about everything. Not this, though? That's

1:03:43

going to do it. That's going to do it

1:03:46

this week for the co-made event podcast. Thanks everybody

1:03:48

for listening. We're over on the Patreon page all

1:03:50

week. Jump in, get that 50% off deal. 20E

1:03:52

as an echo, 37 is the code to use

1:03:54

at checkout. get that deal. deal.

1:03:56

If you do, we'll If you

1:03:58

do, we'll see you for the

1:04:00

live chat. chat. If not,

1:04:03

we'll see you right back

1:04:05

here next week. week. for

1:04:07

right now, thanks for now,

1:04:09

everybody. We appreciate the

1:04:11

support. We are done. We

1:04:13

are appreciate We are out.

1:04:15

We are done. We are through. We the

1:04:17

out. people liquor people in the Wax

1:04:20

out in front of in front

1:04:22

of you. PR-wise. That's

1:04:24

that's a kind of a sad commentary

1:04:26

and it's not like the USC

1:04:28

That's have good smart, capable

1:04:30

PR people because

1:04:32

we know that they

1:04:35

do. do 10 out of

1:04:37

10 chance of 10 over in the over in

1:04:39

the of like of like, should we

1:04:41

have a statement? Should we have we

1:04:43

to say? Should we put something out?

1:04:45

something out Silence. then you get asked about

1:04:47

it, you're going to act like

1:04:49

it's like of line of line that that you might have

1:04:51

to you might have to answer questions

1:04:53

about Conor McGregor. well I mean you I

1:04:55

mean, you can't hope to compete with

1:04:57

the high ethical standards of the wax museum Their

1:04:59

flax are good. Yeah. You do PR you

1:05:01

do PR for the wax museum. You're

1:05:03

a pro. You're a pro. Yeah. Be it We're

1:05:05

on your peas and motherfucking cues. cues.