0:00

Craven, the hunter, who uses all the all

0:02

the methods of the

0:04

animals 13th, once December on his list,

0:06

on his list there's only

0:08

one way off. you like your

0:10

father? you like your father? into evil

0:12

into the world. rid rid of people

0:14

like him. him. Who's next? Witness

0:17

the making of a new

0:19

of a new You think you

0:21

have some kind of think a

0:23

criminal. Just like our of honor?

0:26

Taylor a criminal just like our father. Aaron Taylor

0:28

a minute without is... The freedom, the

0:30

hunter, rated are under 17

0:32

on a minute without parent

0:35

in Peters December 13th. You're

0:37

listening to the co-main event

0:39

podcast. And now your hosts,

0:42

Ben Folks and Chad Dunnis.

0:47

That's right! You're listening

0:50

to another episode of of

0:52

-main event, Martial Arts Arts I'm

0:54

Chad Dundas. That's been folks.

0:56

We're both We're both MMA MMA journalists,

0:59

and for the last 12 years, we've

1:01

been meeting here every week to break

1:03

down all the action. In the

1:05

wild, weird, and occasionally

1:07

wonderful world. world

1:09

of arts. Ben, we

1:12

arts, Ben, we got UFC 310

1:14

this weekend coming to us

1:16

from us from the T-Mobile arena there

1:18

in Las Vegas, of

1:20

course. Of course, You your

1:22

men's flyweight main event of

1:25

the champion, Alexander Pantosia

1:27

gonna square off with

1:29

UFC off with UFC Kai

1:31

from in from Risen, and

1:33

then your your event, event,

1:36

and Ian and Ian

1:38

Machado. Gary in a in a

1:40

welterweight contender fight. We had to

1:42

shuffle the the for this one

1:44

not too long ago. ago. And so

1:46

so come in we come in. bit

1:49

of an with a little bit of an

1:51

under the radar view. I I wanted to start us

1:53

off this week. off this with this question.

1:55

this from our from our

1:57

chest, pants, shoes. shoes.

2:00

because I feel like it gets

2:02

to the root of the matter. He

2:04

says, if a flyweight headlines the last

2:06

UFC paper view of the year, does

2:08

anyone notice, despite all the intriguing storylines,

2:10

such as the fact that Alexander Pentosia

2:12

is nine and no against the top

2:15

10 in the UFC flyweight division, and

2:17

now is welcoming an unknown challenger, we

2:19

also have the undefeated prospect bowl in

2:21

the comane. in addition to a semi-number

2:23

one contender fight at 145 with Sterling

2:26

versus Evelev, but yet this weekend seems

2:28

to be quiet as kept regarding media

2:30

fan noise, do you feel the same?

2:32

I guess for starters, Ben, I feel

2:34

like it's natural for this pay-per-view to

2:37

fly under the radar a little bit,

2:39

first because as I said, you had

2:41

to scramble the main event. uh... several

2:43

weeks ago was supposed to be shaft

2:45

got rockmanov and belal mohamid belal mohamid

2:48

had to back out so now you

2:50

have a bit of a redo here

2:52

second you know the ufsies put on

2:54

a ton of great events this year

2:56

and not all of them can be

2:59

bangers i suppose they just gave us

3:01

john jones versus stipe meochich last month

3:03

so now you roll into a uf

3:05

c three ten where maybe a lot

3:07

of the bullets that you had in

3:09

the gun have recently been fired. And

3:12

third, I guess, you know, you've got

3:14

a situation where you're promoting an event

3:16

with arguably your least marketable men's division.

3:18

And on top of that, at least

3:20

one of the guys in the fight.

3:23

is almost certainly totally unknown to the

3:25

majority of your fan base. So yeah,

3:27

I could see how if you were

3:29

a casual fan, you might not be

3:31

totally jacked for UFC 310. Yeah, but

3:34

if you start looking at it, you

3:36

start looking at this one on paper,

3:38

this kind of a sneaky good card.

3:40

Yeah, it's a lot of people that

3:42

you have heard of. Isn't that amazing?

3:45

Yeah, it's a fairly deep card, right?

3:47

Because you got Cyril Ghan and Alexander

3:49

Volkov, Bryce Mitchell and Cron Gracie, the

3:51

train, Nate Landware, and... Choi, Dominic Reyes,

3:53

Anthony Smith, Vicente, Luque, and a little

3:56

bit of a makeup fight here against

3:58

Themba Garimbo. And then, you know, on

4:00

through the list, you do basically have

4:02

a lot of known guys from top

4:04

to bottom. So maybe, well, it doesn't

4:07

deliver the star power up top. Maybe

4:09

you arguably have a deeper, more solid

4:11

card than some of the recent U

4:13

of C paper views. Yeah, how many

4:15

times we talked about looking through one

4:17

of these cards at seeing how many

4:20

people have Wikipedia pages, how many people

4:22

we've heard of that are not just

4:24

like they came off the contender series,

4:26

you know, six months ago. This one,

4:28

you look at the the fight card

4:31

and pretty much everybody is a somebody.

4:33

You look at the fight card, one

4:35

way I think you can judge some

4:37

of these, look at the fight card

4:39

and see how many people have either

4:42

held or fought for a UFC title

4:44

who are on this fight card. And

4:46

it's kind of a lot, especially by

4:48

recent standards. And yeah, like. To me,

4:50

one of the things that helps make

4:53

a fight card, like a paper view

4:55

fight card, worth the value in the

4:57

aggregate, is there's a lot of different

4:59

stuff going on. not just that, oh,

5:01

we got a title fight at the

5:04

top and maybe a contender fight underneath

5:06

that. That's kind of been the standard,

5:08

right? Like, especially in recent years where

5:10

if we got those two things, we

5:12

don't worry about the rest. They'll just,

5:14

it's kind of filler the way the

5:17

U.S. sees it. But this one, you

5:19

got a bunch of different, you got

5:21

some of these fights where it's, you

5:23

know, fights like Dominic Reyes and Anthony

5:25

Smith, where you're kind of just seeing

5:28

who has something left in the something

5:30

left in the tank. That Nate the

5:32

train versus do Ho Choi the Korean

5:34

Superboy that's one where somebody was just

5:36

looking at the roster and being like

5:39

what would be insane and fun. Oh,

5:41

I know Nate the train and the

5:43

Korean Superboy Nate the train jet if

5:45

he doesn't lose You know what happens?

5:47

Sometimes he wins probably he'll win. Yeah,

5:50

I'm on his ass and see what

5:52

happens Chad. You know I'm gonna be

5:54

there, but in seat for a Nate

5:56

land we're fight. I don't miss one

5:58

appointment viewing for this guy. yeah you

6:01

got kind of those sort of fights

6:03

where there's something there's some part of

6:05

it that has an appeal all up

6:07

and down the fight card yeah and

6:09

so that's pretty good especially if you

6:11

don't have a main event that is

6:14

so compelling that we're sitting there going

6:16

well I got to see this I

6:18

could not live with myself if I

6:20

miss this and so you're selling us

6:22

the full product and this one honestly

6:25

is one of the fuller products that

6:27

the UFC has had to sell when

6:29

it doesn't have that star quality in

6:31

the main event Yeah, it's

6:33

an unusual scenario here in the

6:36

main event where you have a

6:38

UFC newcomer coming in and getting

6:40

a title shot in his first

6:42

appearance inside the octagon. Of course,

6:45

that's Kai Asakura coming in as

6:47

the former rise in Bantamway champion.

6:49

You know what I saw the

6:51

other day? I saw somebody say

6:54

risen. Yeah, and I was like,

6:56

I saw Shell Sonin saying, is

6:58

that who you saw, Sarah? It

7:00

might have been, yeah. And obviously

7:02

I've heard a ton of people

7:05

say, Rison, over the years. But

7:07

then I heard- Risen kind of

7:09

makes more sense when you say

7:11

something about it. Yeah, that's how

7:14

I started thinking about it. I

7:16

was like, is it a fight

7:18

promotion. Whereas rise-in is like made

7:20

up unless you're like, you know,

7:22

rise and shine, right? Or you're

7:25

out here, you're out here rise

7:27

and dirty. Yeah, right, like I

7:29

thought we saw as a promotion

7:31

kind of saying we are rise-in.

7:34

Yeah, exactly. That's what I thought

7:36

too. But then risen shit, man,

7:38

you already done rise. Yes, and

7:40

it does make sense if you

7:43

think of it as them trying

7:45

to be sort of the next

7:47

generation of a Japanese MMA product,

7:49

right? Like pride died, we are

7:51

risen. And you know, it would

7:54

even play on the pride never

7:56

die, because the risen has that

7:58

sort of like religious. connotation.

8:01

So it would work so much better

8:03

to the point that when I finally

8:05

heard it, I was just like, how

8:07

did they let us go this long?

8:09

Yeah. Because I don't feel like we

8:12

were the only ones. We were kind

8:14

of famous for mispronounced and shit. I

8:16

was watching the YouTube video earlier today

8:18

where they're calling it rising over and

8:20

over again. I'd never heard anybody say

8:23

risen before this week. They should have

8:25

corrected us. Somebody should have corrected us

8:27

very early on about that because it

8:29

does. Once you start to think about

8:31

it, this is actually way better. But

8:33

then that's where you get into a

8:36

spelling question because it's that second eye.

8:38

That's fucking yup. Yeah, it really is.

8:40

You throw that second eye. And if

8:42

you had spelled it R-I-Z-E-N, there's only

8:44

one way to say that. So that's

8:46

not all on us if that's the

8:49

misunderstanding that's happened here. You know what

8:51

I got to say? I think credit

8:53

where it's due, the U.S.C. often does

8:55

not do a great job of promoting

8:57

individual fighters because at times it seems

9:00

like they don't care that much. They've

9:02

done a pretty good job with Kaia

9:04

Asakura, educating the fan base on who

9:06

he is and the elements of his

9:08

story that will be of most interest

9:10

to them. I was on Arielhawani show

9:13

earlier today. He brought this up and

9:15

made me think that some of this

9:17

maybe is done out of necessity. But

9:19

the U.S.C. is really highlighted, hey, here's

9:21

a guy who his brother was in

9:24

kind of an underground fight scene. His

9:26

brother... hold him out of bed in

9:28

the middle of the night one night

9:30

to be like we're fighting out here

9:32

in the street and there's that home

9:34

video. Have you seen this? Of his

9:37

brother trying to take his damn head

9:39

off with a high kick at one

9:41

point. They're on the pavement. This is

9:43

brother being like get up get out

9:45

of bed. We're gonna go out here.

9:48

I'm gonna try to kick you in

9:50

the damn head on the pavement. And

9:52

then him being good at at least

9:54

avoiding all the shots and being like,

9:56

yeah, you should give MMA a serious

9:58

try. you've got that kind of a

10:01

story, and you don't have a whole

10:03

lot of other fight footage maybe that

10:05

you have permission and rights to use,

10:07

then you lean into that story really

10:09

hard. But that's a good story, honestly.

10:11

That'll work on the MMA fan base.

10:14

You tell him, this guy came from

10:16

a street fighting background, his brother tried

10:18

to beat the shit out of him,

10:20

it didn't work, and so he became

10:22

a professional. Oh yeah, that's not all

10:25

he's done. It's not like

10:27

we're vaulting him right into Alexander Pantasia from

10:29

the from the street fight against the brother.

10:31

These guys go out there. That's a hell

10:34

of an origin story for your MMA career.

10:36

Most other people, their origin story is I

10:38

got kicked off the football team. You know,

10:40

something else. There's a pretty good wrestler. Yeah,

10:43

it was a pretty good wrestler and that

10:45

you reached the point where there's nowhere else

10:47

to go with it. Or in some cases,

10:50

I kept getting arrested and then somebody finally

10:52

told me, hey, here's how you could do

10:54

this same thing, but not get arrested. And

10:56

so I went, okay, I'll try that. So

10:59

this is a pretty good origin story. And...

11:01

You pair that with, here's a guy who's

11:03

come out of the Japanese scene and is

11:06

so established and respected there that when we

11:08

announced, hey, in his first UFC fight, he

11:10

is getting a title shot. Even the other

11:12

guys in the division didn't really have a

11:15

problem with it. Yeah. When is that the

11:17

case? Almost never, but as the listener male

11:19

already pointed out, Pantosha's already beat a lot

11:21

of those guys. So, you know, in some

11:24

ways it's unorthodox to bring a guy in

11:26

and give him a title shot right away,

11:28

but in this case, you got the former

11:31

Bantamway champ of... See, we can't start saying

11:33

risen now, right? It's too late in the

11:35

game. They were too far down the road.

11:37

And everybody else starts. Chail is the kind

11:40

of guy he can say risen. See, he

11:42

did. And say, I I messaged Chail earlier

11:44

this week to ask him a question where

11:47

I was working on a story for Uncrowned

11:49

about how we've. still never had a Japanese

11:51

UFC champion. Which kind of blows my mind,

11:53

honestly. Like, you got a couple of people

11:56

who came close, a couple of had title

11:58

shots. I was thinking particularly about the story

12:00

of Shiniyoki's move over. I mean, he went

12:03

to Strike Force, but it was sort of

12:05

a moment. Where I found this old quote

12:07

from him that I remember once I found

12:09

it where he when he went to fight

12:12

Gilbert Melendez in strike force for the strike

12:14

force lightweight Title and remember he was the

12:16

the dream lightweight champion He was the whama

12:19

champion. I believe at the time it was

12:21

him and Fadora where the two guys where

12:23

it was just like they're outside the the

12:25

UFC But maybe the best in the world

12:28

in their divisions and Before he went over

12:30

there to fight Gilbert Melendez, he was like,

12:32

this is where it'll, like Japanese MMA is

12:35

all on me now. If I lose, Japanese

12:37

MMA will become a colony of American MMA,

12:39

and then he lost. That was kind of

12:41

a moment where people went, okay, maybe it's

12:44

not so great over there anyway. And then

12:46

you had a couple other guys, had Horguchi,

12:48

had Yushinokami, had some of those guys come

12:50

over. And it's crazy that there's never been

12:53

a Japanese UFC champion. So I was asking

12:55

Shell Sonan, because I remember people saying at

12:57

the time, hey, the adjustment to fighting in

13:00

the cage, when so many of those guys

13:02

are used to fighting in a ring, that's

13:04

the difference. And of course, Jill Sonan, you

13:06

send him a text to be like, hey,

13:09

what do you think about this? You know,

13:11

your guy pays attention to the game. He's

13:13

gonna send you back two videos of him

13:16

answering your question that are gonna total around

13:18

six to seven minutes long. One of- Hold

13:20

on. Did he sit down and make the

13:22

videos? No. Oh, he already had the videos.

13:25

No. He's just walking around his house talking

13:27

on his phone. So he did make the

13:29

videos. Yeah, but he's not in front of

13:32

this stuff. He wasn't in the studio, so

13:34

to speak. But yeah, he made the videos

13:36

to answer my question. So anyway, he'll sometimes

13:38

send me like audio messages or something because

13:41

he just doesn't want to type it all

13:43

out. He's a verbose guy, you know, he's

13:45

a lot to say, he doesn't want to

13:48

type it all out. I get it. And

13:50

this time, he's sending me videos as he's

13:52

sending me videos as he's walking around his

13:54

walking around his walking around his walking around

13:57

his walking around his house as he's walking

13:59

around his house as he's walking around his

14:01

the first video is like three minutes long

14:04

and I'm like, that's a pretty thorough explanation.

14:06

Then another one comes true. I click it

14:08

to hit play and it begins with him

14:10

saying, moreover, and I went, this motherfellow. What

14:13

a beauty. What a beauty. This guy

14:16

is going to start the second video

14:18

with more over. But his point was

14:20

like, no, I don't think the cage

14:22

makes that big a difference. People don't

14:24

really train in cages anyway. It's just

14:26

mostly true of MMA gyms when you

14:28

go there. They have a cage, but

14:30

for the most part, the training takes

14:32

place on wrestling mats up against padded

14:34

walls to serve as the cages, that

14:36

kind of stuff. And he was just

14:39

like trying to offer alternative theories as

14:41

to why the Japanese has never had

14:43

one. And you got somebody who come

14:45

down now and it's like, for the

14:47

U.S.C., if they could sell that history,

14:49

you know, if somebody, if he were

14:51

to come in and win, and they

14:53

could say, first Japanese U.S.C. champ, and

14:55

also maybe help us gain a little

14:57

bit of a foothold into a market

14:59

that We know has a thirst for

15:01

combat sports, but also has been really

15:04

tough to seriously crack for the UFC.

15:06

I'm sure they would like that. Man,

15:08

that's like you paid Chail for a

15:10

cameo. Yeah, it is like that. It's

15:12

like you got a free Chail Son

15:14

and Cammio video out of that. Yeah,

15:16

it's amazing. It's amazing. Uh, Kiyasakura, as

15:18

we said, two-time rise in Bantamweight champion,

15:20

has spent like the entirety of his

15:22

recent career at Bantamweight and of course

15:24

is dropping to flyweight to fight Pantosia.

15:26

So that is going to be an

15:29

interesting factor here. He's going to make

15:31

flyweight for the first time. I think

15:33

in a long, long time, I've been

15:35

watching some Kayasakura fights to get ready

15:37

for this. I got to say, this

15:39

a fun guy. He is a fun

15:41

guy to watch. He's an aggressive, dynamic

15:43

guy. He's got knockout power in his

15:45

punches. He's durable. He's a free swinger.

15:47

I'll say that. He's going to go

15:49

out there and throw them thanks with

15:52

whoever happens to be in front of

15:54

him. And frankly, he's the kind of

15:56

guy. seems to me like that the

15:58

UFC likes right he's gonna go out

16:00

there put his heart on his sleeve

16:02

and kind of slug it out to

16:04

you know until one guy falls down

16:06

essentially now that's not to say that

16:08

he doesn't seem like he's a well-rounded

16:10

guy because he does he's got he's

16:12

got good takedown defense he's got submissions

16:14

when he wants to use them but

16:17

this is a stand and bang guy

16:19

and that is probably somewhat of a

16:21

factor. I would think also in waltzing

16:23

in and getting a title shot in

16:25

your first fight in the UFC is

16:27

that they look at you and they

16:29

think, well, win, lose, or draw, this

16:31

can be a fun one. Yeah, but

16:33

we've also seen the UFC go the

16:35

other way with that sometimes where when

16:37

they get somebody like that, they go,

16:40

well, first, let us put him into

16:42

a fight against somebody he can stand

16:44

and bang with and probably knock out

16:46

so that we can generate some more

16:48

excitement, introduce him to our fan base

16:50

and then put him on paper view.

16:52

I gotta think at least part of

16:54

the reason we're not doing that here

16:56

is maybe you're not terribly confident that

16:58

you can put him in there against

17:00

a top 10 flyweight and have him

17:02

come out on top maybe you think

17:05

that there's at least a chance somebody

17:07

goes out there and beats him and

17:09

then ruins your whole plan and maybe

17:11

you also think well hey this is

17:13

the flyweight division we're talking about. Even

17:15

if we were to generate some excitement

17:17

about a new contender in the Flyway

17:19

division, maybe they kind of think there's

17:21

a ceiling on how much interest you

17:23

can generate for a Flyway title fight

17:25

at this point. So if you got

17:27

a fresh guy, you just signed them,

17:30

might as well throw him in there,

17:32

see what comes of it. You need

17:34

fresh challenges for this champion anyway. So

17:36

let's go ahead and let's do it.

17:38

The thing that, because I also when

17:40

watching videos, I was like, here's the

17:42

guy who will let it all hang

17:44

out. And that is fun to have.

17:46

Pantosha seems like the kind of guy

17:48

though that we've seen him in some

17:50

of these fights before where he is

17:53

good at even if you get a

17:55

little momentum shutting it down. Like he

17:57

gets the takedown when he needs to.

17:59

manages to stifle your offense when once

18:01

you start getting it going. He just

18:03

seems to have a talent for that.

18:05

What kind of chance are you giving

18:07

Kias Akura to come in here and

18:09

win the title in his first UFC

18:11

fight? I mean it's a big ask

18:13

right? Yeah. It's a big ask for

18:15

almost anybody to come in and win

18:18

the UFC title in their first fight

18:20

inside the octagon. I see Pantosha is

18:22

going off at minus 265 so not

18:24

quite a three to one favorite. You

18:28

know, Asakura has been

18:30

a little bit Back

18:34

and forth, he hasn't been dominant

18:36

against the best guys that he's

18:38

fought and he split fights with

18:41

Manel Cape. He had fights with

18:43

Kioji here, Horaguchi. Did he split

18:45

those also? Yeah, we beat Horaguchi

18:47

back in 2019 in a minute

18:49

and eight seconds at risen, 18,

18:52

and then circled back at rise

18:54

in 26 and lost to him.

18:56

in a title fight. So, you

18:58

know, he's been a little inconsistent,

19:00

I guess, against the top guys

19:03

that he's fought. Manel Cape already

19:05

on the Pantosia hit list. So

19:07

if we're going to do MMA

19:09

math, if we're going to do

19:11

strength of schedule, that doesn't go

19:14

in the direction of Kai Asakura.

19:16

So I think it's going to

19:18

be a tough ask. You put

19:20

on top of that, the guy

19:22

hasn't fought since New Year's Eve,

19:25

2023, so he's coming in almost

19:27

a year. off

19:29

and so yeah I think it's

19:31

a I think it's a tough

19:33

ask yeah maybe though and $20

19:35

whenever want to see again later

19:37

this week some people will take

19:39

a flyer on those odds wait

19:41

and see I mean as you

19:43

know this is a guy who

19:45

seems like he can turn it

19:47

into a toss-up just with the

19:49

way he fights so remains to

19:51

be seen All

19:54

right, that's what we're going

19:56

to do this week on

19:59

the main event of 310,

20:01

we're going to get into

20:03

some discussion about the co-main

20:06

event in which I ask

20:08

the question, is the co-main

20:10

actually the main main? But

20:12

that's going to come up

20:15

here after we do some

20:17

listener mail, which is right

20:19

after the break. All right, Ben,

20:21

like we always do about this

20:24

time. Let's do a little bit

20:26

of listener mail. Listener mail. First

20:28

piece of listener mail this week

20:31

comes to us from the Balenciaga

20:33

Bandit. Okay. No idea what that

20:35

means. Clothing, clothing brand? Okay. All

20:38

right. Says, is gone versus... But

20:40

wait, does he steal the clothing

20:42

or does he wear the clothing

20:45

while he steals? Maybe

20:48

we'll get a follow-up, don't we?

20:50

Is Ghan versus Volkov going under

20:52

the radar as one of the

20:54

most important fights of U of

20:56

C 310? Considering this is essentially

20:58

a number one contender fight for

21:00

Aspenol, provided the Jones fight does

21:03

not materialize, no one is talking

21:05

about this. I, for one, have

21:07

gone versus Aspenol, as one of

21:09

the more compelling fights, particularly if

21:11

Ghan can keep the fight standing,

21:13

and same for Volkov who's improved

21:15

tremendously since his loss. do you

21:17

share the same ideas? You know

21:20

what, Ben, we've been spending so

21:22

much time talking about whether or

21:24

not John Jones is gonna end

21:26

up fighting Tom Aspenall, whether or

21:28

not we were gonna get the

21:30

opportunity to unify the U.S.C. heavyweight

21:32

title. It's kind of

21:35

like we forgot about the rest

21:37

of the division. It's like, oh

21:39

yeah, these other guys are still

21:41

fighting. And if John Jones either

21:43

doesn't fight Tom Aspenol, retires or

21:45

decides to go fight Alice Pereira

21:48

first and the UFC lets him

21:50

get away with it, we are

21:52

going to have to find a

21:54

different opponent for Tom Aspenol. Maybe

21:56

it's one of these two dudes.

21:58

Yeah, it is such a weird

22:01

situation because it has seemed like

22:03

could possibly insert themselves into that

22:05

conversation with John Jones and Tom

22:07

Aspenol when we still don't know

22:09

whether those guys are even gonna

22:12

fight? And if you're Tom Aspenol,

22:14

aren't you sitting around being like,

22:16

listen, before you can get me

22:18

to consider fighting somebody else, you're

22:20

gonna have to tell me that

22:22

John Jones is either retired dead?

22:25

or somehow has disqualified himself from

22:27

competition as Daniel Cormier would say,

22:29

you're gonna have to tell me

22:31

that that fight is entirely off

22:33

the table. Because there's even a

22:35

chance. If there's any chance at

22:38

all that I just wait around

22:40

for the U.S. and John Jones

22:42

to negotiate, or I wait around

22:44

for John Jones to get bored

22:46

enough. to just take whatever the

22:48

UFC is offering, I'm waiting. I'm

22:51

waiting at least six months before

22:53

I even consider somebody else. And

22:55

then you'll have to tell me,

22:57

hey, this interim belt is now

22:59

the belt and we want you

23:02

to turn around and defend it.

23:04

Now, if that situation does come

23:06

to pass and it is depressingly

23:08

possible that we don't, the UFC

23:10

doesn't offer John Jones what he

23:12

wants, he tells himself at least,

23:15

he's done, and we have to

23:17

say, Tom Aspenal, you're the champ

23:19

now, fight somebody. Then this does

23:21

seem like one of those fights

23:23

that's likely to produce the somebody.

23:25

especially if it's serial God. If

23:28

he comes out of this, especially

23:30

if he looks good again, comes

23:32

out of this as the winner,

23:34

then I would think the U

23:36

of C would go, hey, Tom

23:38

Aspenol and John Jones would have

23:41

been a blockbuster pay-per-view, but not

23:43

necessarily one that we wanted to

23:45

pay more for. But we'll take

23:47

Tom Aspenole versus Cyril Ghan if

23:49

John Joe is going to act

23:52

like he's retired. Like, that's a

23:54

fight we could do some business

23:56

with and it kind of is.

24:00

If they made Tom Aspenol defend

24:02

the interim title again. No. Come

24:04

on. No. And fuck you! It's

24:06

not the interim title if you

24:08

defend it even once, let alone

24:11

twice. This is, if you look

24:13

at it, according to the UFC

24:15

official rankings, number two versus number

24:17

three. In Cyril Ghan versus Alexander

24:20

Volkov, of course, the UFC rankings

24:22

do that weird thing, where the

24:24

champion is not actually part of

24:26

the ranking. And the interim champ

24:29

in Tom Aspenol is number one.

24:31

So go figure how that works.

24:33

But you would assume that the

24:35

winner of this fight would be

24:37

a number one contender. Kind of

24:40

funny, you realize you're talking about

24:42

the heavyweight division when you consider

24:44

that the number two ranked guy

24:46

in the division in Sirogon is

24:49

actually just two and two in

24:51

his last four. However, his losses

24:53

are Francis and Ghanu and John

24:55

Jones. He's going off. You can

24:58

say that, that, file that one,

25:00

Chad, under that's so heavyweight, baby.

25:02

He's, uh, he's in minus 375

25:04

here, so almost a four to

25:06

one favorite over Alexander Volkov. But

25:09

then, if what you end up

25:11

doing for your UFC heavyweight title

25:13

is Tom Aspenol versus Cyrilgon, on

25:15

the offhand chance that Cyrilgon wins,

25:18

Does that make your UFC heavyweight

25:20

title look even shittier than the

25:22

UFC heavyweight title normally looks just

25:24

owing to this division's absolute insanity

25:27

and instability? But then you'd have

25:29

a champ that's already lost to

25:31

the last two champs that you

25:33

just had. Yeah, but he's also

25:35

an exciting champ to watch when

25:38

he gets to do his stuff,

25:40

you know? Is he... Is he?

25:43

Is it though? You know my

25:45

feelings about zero gone. Refresh my

25:48

memory. You're anti-zero gone? Yeah, it's

25:50

dinking and Duncan out there. This

25:52

is about Thai Tuivasa, isn't it?

25:54

That's what this is about. He

25:57

went out there and... the brakes

25:59

off Ty Tuivasa and you'll never

26:01

forgive him for it. He ruined

26:04

the prophecy. The prophecy was on

26:06

track and then Cyrilgon ruined it

26:08

and you're holding a grudge. Look,

26:10

I have no more comments about

26:13

Cyrilgon at this time. He put

26:15

Ty Tuivasa away with strikes on

26:17

the feet in a way that

26:19

did not seem possible based on

26:22

what we had seen previously. It

26:24

looked great. I mean, when he

26:26

gets to do his stuff... He's

26:29

a really fun guy to watch. He

26:31

will also, though, he's not dumb. Cyril

26:33

gone knows he's fighting that heavy weight.

26:36

He knows these big guys can land

26:38

one punch and put your lights out.

26:40

And so when he has gotten in

26:42

these kind of fights where he can

26:44

hang back from a distance and out

26:46

point people, he doesn't feel the need

26:49

to wait in there and risk anything,

26:51

which I don't necessarily blame him for

26:53

that. But, uh, Cyril Ghan just seems

26:55

like a likable dude. I don't see

26:57

how you hate on Cyril Ghan. He

26:59

does seem like a nice guy, of

27:02

course. Remember when they went to the

27:04

mall and he found the Martin leather

27:06

jacket and his, his coach who was

27:08

also French, I believe, had never seen

27:10

Martin, the old TV show, and Cyril

27:12

Ghan in French explains to him, the

27:14

concept of, of Martin Lawrence's whole thing,

27:17

his whole comedic, and it's just like.

27:19

Yeah, see, I would watch a YouTube

27:21

show that's just serial gone explaining the

27:23

premise of 90s and early 2000s TV

27:25

shows to people who have not seen

27:27

them. Well, they don't call them the

27:30

bonk and me for nothing. Yeah, right.

27:32

He's, uh, he is a tough guy

27:34

to dislike, even if he did go

27:36

out there and ruin the prophecy and

27:38

just beating the shit out of tie

27:40

to Yvasa. But, you know, he loses

27:43

to a version of Francis and Ghana

27:45

that only has one leg. They got

27:47

to do something to rehabilitate you. So,

27:49

here we go. Yeah. After he said

27:51

he was done talking about, Zero Gone.

27:53

Next question this week comes to us

27:56

from Charles Schwab. Okay. Banker

27:58

maybe it's a different guy know.

28:00

Please tell me you guys saw

28:03

the new trailer for the upcoming

28:05

Fury versus Eusick rematch and please

28:07

tell me in this greatest thing

28:10

you ever saw. Oh my gosh.

28:12

Yes and yes. See, this ought

28:14

to make other, especially MMA promoters,

28:16

ashamed of themselves, Chad, because, you

28:19

know, how we do, we put

28:21

together a trailer for the next

28:23

UFC paper view, and sometimes it's

28:26

like, these guys kind of vaguely

28:28

don't like each other, or this

28:30

guy thinks he's the best, but

28:33

the other guy says, nuh, I

28:35

am. That's what we do kind

28:37

of every time, just rinse and

28:39

repeat. It's the same shit over

28:42

and over again. And these beautiful

28:44

madmen over there promoting this fight

28:46

are like, okay, what if it's

28:49

a sort of being John Malkovich-esque

28:51

world where Tyson Fury and Alexander

28:53

Rusik are so driven by this

28:56

rivalry with one another that they

28:58

lose their damn minds? They lose

29:00

their already tenuous grasp on reality

29:03

itself, Chad, and begin seeing each

29:05

other's faces everywhere until they find

29:07

themselves on the ragged edge of

29:09

madness, and can only claw their

29:12

way back to sanity by fighting

29:14

each other again. and it's amazing

29:16

the entire thing yeah yeah it's

29:19

done in the style of one

29:21

of these new horror movies that

29:23

you're always that they're churning out

29:26

like crazy the smile you know

29:28

stuff like that you won't ever

29:30

see you won't ever see a

29:32

horror movie as close as I'm

29:35

getting it to watching a horror

29:37

movie is watching a two-minute trailer

29:39

for an upcoming boxing match but

29:42

it really is amazing and yes

29:44

you know I wish that it

29:46

wasn't financed with the Saudi money,

29:49

but you gotta say that the

29:51

last several of these big attractions

29:53

that they've had over in Saudi

29:56

Arabia, they've really done a great

29:58

job promoting them, just like... circles

30:00

around anything we see in MMA,

30:02

both in terms of production value,

30:05

you know, which is maybe to

30:07

be expected when you got an

30:09

unlimited swimming pool full of money

30:12

to utilize in terms of paying

30:14

for this stuff, but also just

30:16

creatively. Like when was the last

30:19

time you saw anything like this

30:21

in the world of MMA, even

30:23

just in terms of like. making

30:27

even a half-assed attempt at being creative,

30:29

right? Yeah, this is the one, both

30:31

concept and execution seemed like some people

30:33

were daring to dream big and willing

30:35

to try something. And that is the

30:38

thing, right, when we talk about the

30:40

UFC, for better and worse, the UFC

30:42

is such a well-oiled machine at this

30:44

point that When they put on a

30:46

paper view, unlike some of the Saudi

30:48

boxing events that we've seen, things click

30:50

right along. There's no part in the

30:53

evening where somebody has to get on

30:55

the mic and ask people to take

30:57

their seats. There's no part in the

30:59

evening where there's like a long song

31:01

and dance number that nobody asked for.

31:03

Like that kind of shit, where it

31:06

just seems like every time they do

31:08

it is the first time they've ever

31:10

done it. that doesn't happen at a

31:12

UFC event. They have it sort of

31:14

like a prepackaged thing where they just

31:16

plug in different fighters, different city, and

31:18

they go. The downside to that is

31:21

that they also take that approach to

31:23

fight promotion sometimes, where, you know, even

31:25

like putting together the posters or anything,

31:27

like it just kind of seems like

31:29

they've decided everything there is to know

31:31

about fight promotion, we already know, we

31:34

already have the formula, let's just do

31:36

that again. And there are some aspects

31:38

of that that work from as of

31:40

viewing experience. And then there are some

31:42

aspects of that where you lack the

31:44

creativity because you're not willing to try

31:46

too much new stuff. Yeah. Yeah. And

31:49

if you're the U.S.C., you don't have

31:51

to promote, right? Because you already got

31:53

the audience showing up week in and

31:55

week out to watch it. They got

31:57

there set it and forget it. ESBN

31:59

plus. already paid for

32:02

and so you're already doing the

32:04

business that you're supposed to do.

32:06

Shout out, by the way, to

32:08

fury and Eusik for doing this.

32:10

Yeah. Because you gotta think like

32:12

some fighters, if you tried to

32:14

explain this, you and I have

32:16

tried to explain concepts to fighters

32:18

before, right? It doesn't always go

32:20

great. So you can imagine like

32:22

trying to explain what this is

32:24

gonna be to these guys and

32:26

having one or both of them

32:28

be like, yeah, I'm not doing

32:30

that. Yeah, yeah, imagine you go

32:32

to Usik and you're like, okay,

32:34

so here's the thing, right? Like,

32:36

you're walking down the street and

32:38

like a guy collapse you on

32:40

the shoulder, you think he's attacking

32:42

you, you turn around, push him

32:44

up against the wall, he's like,

32:46

hey, you dropped your wallet and

32:48

you're like, oh, okay, thanks. And

32:50

then you see his face turned

32:52

into Tyson Fury's face and you're

32:54

horrified. And, explaining that concept to

32:56

him and then having him not

32:58

just like give you a very

33:00

confused face and then go I

33:02

am scared no like you've got

33:04

a talk just turn it down

33:06

flat you got to talk Tyson

33:08

fury into that the first scene

33:10

of this thing is him in

33:12

therapy Talking about how

33:15

worried he is that he sees Alexandra

33:17

Usick everywhere he goes, right? You could

33:19

see either of these guys saying no

33:22

to that shit, but no, they both

33:24

said they both had yes mentality Yes,

33:26

and yeah, that's what you that's what

33:29

you can hope for and The product

33:31

is incredibly memorable. I watched it several

33:33

times. I was just like no, they

33:36

did not do this shit And you

33:38

know what, once they're on board, not

33:40

bad acting performances from either of the

33:43

big fellas, which need I remind you,

33:45

Alexander Usak is going to play Igorov

33:47

Chanchen in The Smashing Machine. Oh shit,

33:50

I completely forgot about that. The movie

33:52

starring The Rock as Mark Kerr. And

33:54

so I don't know, maybe this raises

33:57

the bar a little bit. We get

33:59

to see. and

34:01

as portrayed by U-Sik, maybe U-Sik

34:03

stretches his his acting legs a

34:05

little bit, although they didn't call

34:07

V-Chantian ice cold for nothing. Yeah,

34:10

I was just going to say,

34:12

he doesn't give you a whole

34:14

lot, it's not like you're sitting

34:16

out here being like, oh man,

34:18

I got to portray David Bowie

34:20

in this upcoming film, how am

34:22

I going to channel the energy?

34:25

It's just like a 30-year-old baby

34:27

somehow. Next question this week comes

34:29

to us from Chuckles McSweeny, who

34:31

says, I'm worried for Nick Diaz.

34:33

How worried should we be for

34:35

Nick Diaz? Nick Diaz was supposed

34:37

to be on this card, right?

34:39

Vicente? Okay, against, they had to

34:42

call in Fembo Garimbo, still don't

34:44

know if that's a real guy,

34:46

to take Nick Diaz's, there's a

34:48

video of a shirtless Nick Diaz

34:50

on the side of the road

34:52

trying to set grass on fire.

34:54

is what it appeared like he

34:56

was doing. And since then I

34:59

believe either a girlfriend or an

35:01

ex-girlfriend of Nick Diaz has come

35:03

out and said something to the

35:05

effect of he's taking this fight

35:07

because he needs to support his

35:09

addiction. And so, some rumor and

35:11

evidence to suggest that maybe Nick

35:13

Diaz is not doing great right

35:16

now. Yeah, and that's why I

35:18

mean in answer to the the

35:20

question How worried should I be

35:22

about Nick Diaz? I'd say probably

35:24

pretty worried like you should be

35:26

worried about Nick Diaz the same

35:28

way you're worried about like climate

35:30

change and that Yeah, it doesn't

35:33

seem like it's going in a

35:35

great direction. However, any one of

35:37

us, our ability to step in

35:39

and do something about it, seems

35:41

pretty limited. And I don't know.

35:43

It always seemed like right, like

35:45

even when everything in Nick Diaz's

35:48

life and career was going great,

35:50

you probably should have still been

35:52

worried about him. because of the

35:54

kind of guy he was. And

35:56

when you see this, and he

35:58

was sort of like, like when

36:00

Robbie Loller beat him, and the

36:02

first thing he said to him

36:05

in the cage afterwards was, are

36:07

you okay, like in life? Like,

36:09

Robbie Loller was worried about him.

36:11

Yeah. And it doesn't seem like

36:13

things have gotten more cheerful in

36:15

Nick Diaz's world since then. It

36:17

honestly, having this fight get called

36:19

off and a replacement opponent come

36:22

in to face fissette luke feels

36:24

like good news, kind of, for

36:26

the MMA world, just because that

36:28

fight was never going to be

36:30

anything athletically meaningful or good to

36:32

watch or that would make us

36:34

feel good after we'd watched it.

36:36

Remember you're telling people who said

36:39

they felt dirty after watching Mike

36:41

Tyson and Jake Paul and you

36:43

were like, welcome to the fight

36:45

game? Like this was going to

36:47

be one of those. Yeah. For

36:49

sure. Yeah. And so not doing

36:51

that, I think it's probably better.

36:53

Do you see Vicente Lukas quote

36:56

about that? I did not see

36:58

that. I just saw that Thambo

37:00

Garimbo is at least the former

37:02

EFC welterway champion and is riding

37:04

a four fight win streak in

37:06

the UFC which definitely makes this

37:08

seem like a little bit more

37:11

of a legitimate fight and actually

37:13

pretty close odds wise. In fact,

37:15

Thambo Garimbo is a slight favorite

37:17

over Vicente Lucaine. He says, I

37:19

don't know why exactly, the fight

37:21

was canceled. I saw that video

37:23

of him in the streets, and

37:25

he didn't look okay. And more

37:28

than anything, I hope his family

37:30

and hope he's taking care of

37:32

himself, hope he recovers and goes

37:34

back to his best date possible.

37:36

It's very sad to see him

37:38

at that stage, because I don't

37:40

want that for anyone, much less

37:42

a mad that has inspired so

37:45

many. That's vicinity luke for you,

37:47

Chad. all class is what that

37:49

is. I saw that they asked

37:51

Jason mayhem Miller to comment on

37:53

the situation and... Who's the day?

37:55

Uh, he was in some interview.

37:57

I can find it for you

37:59

here. But that's, you know what?

38:02

That's... as big of a red

38:04

flag as you're gonna get if

38:06

a recently sober and cleaned up

38:08

Jason mayhem Miller is is handing

38:10

out life advice. But honestly doesn't

38:12

mayhem Miller seem like maybe somebody

38:14

that you could get Nick Diaz

38:17

potentially to listen to like they're

38:19

not completely dissimilar. And Maham Miller

38:21

is somebody who seemed like he

38:23

was in a Nick Diaz type

38:25

situation and is maybe now doing

38:27

better? Yeah. Maybe now on a

38:29

better side of it? Yeah. It

38:31

was Helen Ye. Okay. In case

38:34

you're wondering. Yeah. Well now I

38:36

want to see what was Maham

38:38

Miller's advice. Let's see here. They

38:40

should do a reality show where

38:42

Maham Miller goes to Stockton to

38:44

help Nick Diaz get his shit

38:46

together. And Mayam Miller gets jumped

38:48

at least five times by the

38:51

whole crew during the filming. He

38:53

says, we had our beef, whatever, since

38:55

we were kids, but that doesn't stop

38:57

me from extending a helping hand to

38:59

this guy if he needs it. And

39:01

if he's not ready to take a

39:03

helping hand, you all need to keep

39:05

on him. The people who are close

39:07

to him, his brother, his family, his

39:10

friends, all you guys that made money

39:12

off him, he needs money off him,

39:14

he needs you now. He needs a

39:16

circle back. That's not talking bad on

39:18

him. It's a tough sport we're in,

39:20

and it's easy to get tripped to

39:22

get tripped up for him. It's for

39:24

the people around him to help him

39:26

get to a better place in his

39:28

life. But that's honestly tremendous advice. And

39:30

that especially, you'd hope the people around

39:32

him who need to hear it, hear

39:34

it. Because yeah, I could see, Mea

39:36

Miller probably felt that way, where it

39:38

was just like a whole lot of

39:40

people around when things are going well,

39:42

and then when they're not, all those

39:44

people kind of disappear, because you can't

39:46

do anything for him anymore, and that's

39:48

when they actually need some friends. It

39:51

wasn't when we were lifting weights

39:53

in the liver room doing nunchex

39:55

and smoking bong resin, you know?

39:57

Last question this week comes to

39:59

us from our guy Nobby Buckles

40:01

over on paper. says listener mail

40:03

question or not really a question,

40:05

but more of a reminder it's

40:07

December Which means it's almost time

40:10

for the most prestigious award season

40:12

of the mall? The main event

40:14

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40:17

The Seemes! The sheer anticipation of

40:19

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40:21

people, so prepare your proposals or

40:23

nominations as we enter into the

40:25

most specialist time of year. As

40:28

always, there's no need for mourning,

40:30

which he capitalizes. You can combat,

40:32

which he spells are a K,

40:34

corporate fat cats trying to fetter

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the discourse by participating yourself in

40:39

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40:41

You can submit nominations for existing

40:43

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40:47

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40:50

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Award. or the unfettered discourse award.

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I hope you'll join us in

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helping the guys make this the

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most successful and most pageantry rich

41:03

award show in all of MMA

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41:07

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41:09

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41:11

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41:14

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41:18

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on the Patreon page. Here's the

41:27

thing about the CEMES men, every

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year, the last several years we've

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been doing it, it's the most

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on the Patreon, and it's just

41:38

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41:40

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41:42

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41:49

know, two weeks, one week, three

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You could say to us, you

41:55

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41:57

say, I have a new award.

42:00

here it is, here's what it should

42:03

be called, and if we like it,

42:05

that award category could very well show

42:07

up on the CEMES. Very exciting time

42:09

of the year. Looking forward to it,

42:11

this is as good a time as

42:14

any to mention. We still got the

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You gotta get in on this thing

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This is a great time to either

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pick up this deal and sign on

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I mean, one thing I think that

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in touch with us and Ben folks

44:27

somebody's oh has got to go in

44:29

the co-main event featuring Shavkot, That Boy

44:31

Good, Rockmanov versus Ian Machado. Gary, and

44:34

we will talk about that right after

44:36

this. All

44:40

right, Ben. This may sound insane,

44:42

but are you more or less

44:44

excited to see Shavkat, that boy

44:47

good, Rockmanov, fight Ian Machado? Gary?

44:49

Then you would have been to

44:51

see Shavkat, that boy good, fight

44:53

Balal, remember the name, Muhammad. You

44:56

know, not really, just because I feel

44:59

like Shavkat had earned a title shot,

45:01

right? So I was excited to see

45:03

him finally get that opportunity. I was

45:06

also excited to see him in something

45:08

that I expected to be more of

45:10

a competitive fight, which is one thing

45:12

that we have not seen him in

45:15

yet. He hasn't gone to the score

45:17

cards. Every single fight that he's in,

45:19

he seems to just easily exert his

45:22

will and from the get-go, everybody is

45:24

dancing to his tune and trying and

45:26

unsuccessfully trying to fail to fend him

45:29

off. So I was excited to see

45:31

him fight below because I felt like,

45:33

all right. Title fight here against a

45:35

Balal Muhammad who has really come into

45:38

his own and is a smart fighter,

45:40

especially game plan wise, let's see what

45:42

he comes up with against Shavkah. Now,

45:45

Ian Gary presents a different kind of

45:47

challenge than Balal Muhammad would. I would

45:49

say this, the thing Ian Gary has

45:52

been the best at in his UFC

45:54

career so far. than getting people who

45:56

feel some way about him positively or

45:58

negatively, but the thing that he has

46:01

done well has been deciding what kind

46:03

of fight it's going to be and

46:05

where and at what range and at

46:08

what pace it's going to take place.

46:10

He's but surprisingly good at that and

46:12

has surprised me at how much success

46:15

he's found doing that. That's though the

46:17

exact thing that no one has been

46:19

able to do against Shavkat. Every time

46:21

you fight Shavkot, everybody has ended up

46:24

in a Shavkot fight, whether they wanted

46:26

to or not. It's like Marab, like

46:28

Habib, really. He's just gonna go out

46:31

there and do the same shit to

46:33

you that he has done to everybody

46:35

else, and nobody has been able to

46:38

even slow it down, much less stop

46:40

it. Is Ian Gary, who excels at

46:42

getting you into his kind of a

46:44

zone, the guy who can figure that

46:47

out? I have some doubts, I don't

46:49

know about you. Oh yeah, some serious

46:51

doubts, not only us, but odds makers

46:54

do not think that this one will,

46:56

and this one will be all that

46:58

competitive. Shavkot Rockmanov going off at minus

47:01

375, Ian Gary plus 295 at the

47:03

moment. So if you got $20, you

47:05

never want to see again, you could

47:07

put it on almost a three to

47:10

one underdog in Ian Gary, but I

47:12

do not recommend it. I don't think

47:14

he's winning that one. I think we

47:17

come out of this one saying to

47:19

ourselves, that boy good. And I agree

47:21

with you, I thought it would have

47:24

been fun to see him fight Balal

47:26

Muhammad for the title, but I'm also

47:28

not arguing with this one because there

47:30

is just something enticing about the idea

47:33

of seeing two undefeated prospects go out

47:35

there and fight each other in a

47:37

situation where somebody's going to suffer their

47:40

first loss and the other person is

47:42

going to emerge as a bona fide.

47:44

This guy is the new hotness number

47:46

one contender for the title. Yeah, it

47:49

was going to be cool to see

47:51

Shavkad fight for the title now, but

47:53

if things play out according to chalk,

47:56

I feel like he becomes an even

47:58

more interesting contender for Balalma. or

48:01

whoever happens to be the champion

48:03

if he wins this fight. Yeah,

48:05

and I also think that this

48:07

is not necessarily a bad idea

48:09

for Ian Gary to take this

48:11

fight, to step in as the

48:13

replacement against Shavkop, because he was

48:16

already in fight camp, so it's

48:18

not like he took it without

48:20

coming off the couch or anything,

48:22

but he was gonna fight Waukein

48:24

Buckley, right? If he had gone

48:26

out there and beat Waukein Buckley,

48:28

good. You know, you keep moving

48:31

on up the ranks, that's a

48:33

quality win, and it'll move you

48:35

a little bit forward. It forces

48:37

a few more people to have

48:39

to take you seriously, all that

48:41

kind of stuff. If you go

48:44

out there and you lose to

48:46

walking Buckley and that's your first

48:48

loss as a professional, then that

48:50

looks kind of bad. And people

48:52

go, all right. The hype is

48:54

over for Ian Gary, you know,

48:56

back to the middle of the

48:59

pack with you. But if you

49:01

go out there, you take a

49:03

fight on, you take a late

49:05

replacement, as a late replacement, that

49:07

boy, that boy, good rockmanov. That

49:09

boy, good rockmanov. And you don't

49:11

win? Fine. You know what? We

49:14

didn't expect you to. That boy,

49:16

good. We expected him to go

49:18

out there and beat you. If

49:20

you somehow come out there and

49:22

beat him, you're an immediate title

49:24

contender overnight. So the rewards outweigh

49:27

the risks easily, I think, for

49:29

Ian Gary here. I think he

49:31

does probably lose this one, but

49:33

it ain't no shame to lose

49:35

in the show I've got. You

49:37

know what's interesting is they both

49:39

have incredibly comparable recent histories in

49:42

Machado. Gary's most recent four wins

49:44

are Daniel Rodriguez, Neil Magny, Jeff

49:46

Neal, and Michael Page. Shavkot Rockmanov's

49:48

most recent wins are Carleston Harris,

49:50

Neil, Jeff Neal, and Stephen Thompson.

49:52

So, like, that's kind of a

49:54

weird mirror image, right? We both

49:57

fight Neil Magny, we both fight

49:59

Jeff Neal, and then we both

50:01

fight beloved, but aging strike. Karate

50:03

guy, Stephen Thompson and MVP. One

50:05

difference though between those is in

50:07

Gary's winning these fights by decision,

50:09

you know, Neil Magnie, Michael Page,

50:12

unanimous decisions, the Jeff Neal one,

50:14

a split decision, Shavkot is running

50:16

through people. Yeah, he's got a

50:18

good performance of the night bonuses

50:20

and four of those fights. And

50:22

none of them have seemed close

50:25

at all. Both

50:27

these guys need to get someone

50:29

to edit their Wikipedia page because

50:31

Ian Gary doesn't even have a

50:34

picture and Shavkot Rachmanov... It's looking

50:36

like someone maybe cropped like a

50:38

selfie that he took and it's...

50:41

you know the the the you

50:44

could you could increase the brightness

50:46

I think if you wanted to

50:48

use a filter yeah some kind

50:50

of backlit it's not that's a

50:52

mistake it's not it's not capturing

50:54

the full panosh of that boy

50:56

good which I feel like is

50:58

is too bad Also, somebody needs

51:00

to work on the personal life

51:02

sections of both of these guys

51:04

because this is always a minefield

51:06

for MMA fighter Wikipedia pages, but

51:08

Ian Garias just says, Gary married

51:10

Layla Annalee in Las Vegas on

51:12

26th February 2022. In April 2022

51:14

it was announced she was pregnant

51:16

with the couple's first child. He

51:18

announced he had a son in

51:20

October 2022. Okay, great. Shavkots? You

51:22

think that that one's bad and

51:24

just pretty dry and boring? Shavkots,

51:27

personal life section, says, Rachmanov's younger

51:29

sister, Sora Rachmanova, is also a

51:31

mixed martial artist. Rachmanov is a

51:33

Muslim. You can't even tell me

51:35

like what football team they support?

51:37

What kind of like what style

51:39

of music they like? These are

51:41

the categories generally that we explore

51:43

in the personal life section of

51:45

an MMA fighter who does not

51:47

have a long history of arrests.

51:49

You know, isn't that it'll usually

51:51

be like he enjoys hip-hop and

51:53

R&B and is a supporter of

51:55

liver or something something

51:57

like that's what

51:59

you get here.

52:01

You don't even

52:03

get that. don't even get

52:05

that. Yeah. Ian Gary paying a

52:08

full -time assistant to be refreshing

52:10

that. to be life page.

52:12

that personal life page. might

52:14

get saying this Wikipedia page he needs to

52:16

keep an eye on that his you

52:18

could see needs to keep an

52:20

eye on editing. you could see

52:23

some rogue editing happening on

52:25

that one. What else on USC 310 sparks your

52:27

your interest? Like we said at

52:29

the top of the show. of the

52:31

got a ton of fighters that

52:34

you know on here. You know

52:36

on here. got Chris Wideman and champions, both

52:38

of them on the preliminary card.

52:40

both of them is preliminary card, You

52:42

which is on here, Clay

52:44

Guida versus Chase Hooper. on here,

52:47

Clay Guida versus Chase us

52:49

like Boom folks, how they get to

52:51

play we just declare it a tie? we just

52:53

declare it a tie? Oh,

52:55

that's fun, man. That's just a fun

52:57

pairing. Of course, Of course, Nate the train. If

52:59

he doesn't train. Nate the train. If

53:02

he doesn't lose, he's probably going

53:04

to win. and Crone Gracie

53:06

and going to get gonna get into

53:08

a jiu off. What we doing there? there?

53:12

What's What's going

53:14

on with the matchmaking matchmaking

53:17

in Bryce Mitchell versus Chrome Gracie? Well, uh,

53:19

Bryce Mitchell is a crazy

53:21

person. Okay, yes. That was that was

53:23

part of the, uh... of the

53:25

part of that that was considered. I

53:27

I don't know if you remember

53:29

when he got his head knocked his

53:31

head knocked clean off. by Josh in his his

53:33

last fight. exactly exactly a

53:36

year ago. last year, This time 16th,

53:38

December that 2023. one of the you

53:40

remember that one? That was one of the worst

53:42

knockouts that I've seen in recent memory. Yeah,

53:44

that was bad. Emmett just I'm at just

53:46

that man. man. I And so I think UFC went

53:48

they they they were like, and this guy

53:50

had kind of an amazing run an the

53:52

ranks, so at 15 and the ranks with 15 and 0,

53:54

through a bunch of people who, who, know,

53:56

worked. know, were real UFC people people we thought

53:59

maybe would beat him. then he's gone

54:01

one and two in his last three,

54:03

but the losses. First, the Iliad Toporia

54:05

won, that one aged pretty well. Iliad

54:08

Toporia is good as hail. Then he

54:10

wanted a decision over Dan E.G. and

54:12

then just got absolutely murdered by Josh

54:15

Emmett. And now I think we're going

54:17

like, all right, what can we find

54:19

for noted crazy person Bryce Mitchell to

54:21

do? that is still noteworthy against the

54:24

name that kind of means something, but

54:26

also is not just completely throwing the

54:28

guy into the meat grinder. And so

54:31

somebody looked at the UFC roster, went,

54:33

oh shit, Cron Gracie is still here.

54:35

Cron Gracie is still under contract, how

54:38

about that? All right, just call him

54:40

up, see what he thinks. Got a

54:42

Jiu-Jitsu guy for him, you know? And

54:44

they went ahead and put it together

54:47

and then put it on the main

54:49

card of this paper view. I

54:52

feel like you got to

54:54

turn over some rocks before

54:56

you find Crow and Gracie

54:58

on the U.F.C. roster. Here

55:00

he is. Was he five

55:03

and no? You find it

55:05

in Bozeman, Montana, in fact,

55:07

Chad. He's got six fights.

55:09

He's got seven fights. He's

55:11

five and two. He's lost

55:13

back-to-back fights to Cubs, Wantson,

55:15

and Charles Jordan. And the

55:17

last time he fought in

55:19

Bozeman this entire time. it

55:22

could well be. You know, lots of

55:25

interesting stuff, honestly, on UFC 310, if

55:27

you're not going to partake just because

55:29

of the main event, which I contend

55:32

will be exciting and interesting, but we

55:34

understand if it doesn't exactly, you know,

55:36

light you on fire with the desire

55:38

to watch Pantosia versus Asakura, there is

55:41

still a lot of other interesting stuff

55:43

on here that we encourage you to

55:45

check out, especially since much of it

55:48

is on the free portion of the

55:50

card over there on ESPN plus. Well,

55:52

when speaking of the free portion of

55:55

the card, Algermane Sterling seemed not thrilled

55:57

with being on the free portion of

55:59

the card. What do you make of

56:02

that whenever fighters bring this up? Because

56:04

Alderman Sterling has been like, I'm gonna

56:06

show them they fucked up by putting

56:09

me on the ESPN prelimbs of this

56:11

card. I'm a I'm a main card

56:13

fighter kind of how dare they. And

56:15

then somebody has Movsar Evloev about it.

56:18

And he was like, I do not

56:20

care. I get paid the same. It

56:22

does not matter to me. Basically, I'll

56:25

just my night of work will get

56:27

done sooner. And You know, make a

56:29

late movie, maybe, after this one's over.

56:32

Both reasonable takes that I can understand

56:34

from the fighter's perspective. I can see

56:36

how Aljumine Sterling looks at it, given

56:39

his history with the U.S.C. and how

56:41

he thinks the U.S.C. feels about him,

56:43

not entirely without basis, and he's going,

56:46

they're fucking with me. Yeah. Like they

56:48

are giving the old champion a fuck

56:50

you but putting me on the prelimbs

56:52

and being like how you like that

56:55

maybe hoping this guy will get over

56:57

on me and I'll show them I'll

56:59

go in there and I'll show them

57:02

I can also see being like, hey,

57:04

I don't get paid anymore to fight

57:06

on the main card. And frankly, if

57:09

I fight on the ESBN portion, probably

57:11

more people see it than buy the

57:13

pay-per-view and see me in the like,

57:16

you know, second fight of the pay-per-view

57:18

portion. So, that don't make no difference

57:20

to me. Yeah, I feel like you

57:23

can see where he's coming from, right?

57:25

You look around at some of these

57:27

other guys that are either former champions

57:30

or known guys that are down here

57:32

on the prelimbs. They're all getting a

57:34

little long in the tooth, you know,

57:36

they're all arguably a little bit past

57:39

their prime and Chris Wiedman, Michael Kiesa,

57:41

Clay Guida, guys like that. And then

57:43

you got Aljaman Sterling down there who,

57:46

you know, you know, Not too long

57:48

ago, he was in fact the men's

57:50

Bantamway champion. It was only last August

57:53

that he lost that to Sean O'Malley.

57:55

Aldermane Sterling lost to Sean O'Malley more

57:57

recently than Crone Gracie had a fight.

58:00

in the U.S.C. and then the only

58:02

Sean O'Malley is the only guy that

58:05

all Jamane Sterling has lost to Marlon

58:07

Morace. He has since won all of

58:09

them, including defending the men's phantom weight

58:11

championship three times. before losing to Sean

58:13

O'Malley. And oh, by the way, after

58:15

that, followed it up with a unanimous

58:17

decision win over Calvin Cater at U.S.C.

58:19

300. So if I was all Jamaane

58:21

Sterling, I might look a scamps at

58:23

the booking. I might look at Bryce

58:25

Mitchell and Crone Gracie being on the

58:27

main card and just to say like,

58:29

hey, you know, hard for me not

58:32

to see that as a slap in

58:34

the face, but. Right, but also one

58:36

thing you gotta, because that is the

58:38

one fight that I was thinking if

58:40

you were gonna trade it out, you're

58:42

not gonna swap it out with Nate

58:44

the Train and the Green Superboy. You

58:46

gotta start the pay-per-view with a banger.

58:48

You gotta, if the train is on

58:50

the card, if the train is pulling

58:52

into the station, he's pulling in as

58:54

the curtain jerker on the paper-view. Yeah,

58:57

so that makes sense for that one

58:59

to be on there. The Crone Gracie

59:02

Bryce Mitchell one is the one you

59:04

would swap out. I guess maybe you're

59:06

thinking, well, part of what you're thinking

59:09

maybe is if Bryce Mitchell is going

59:11

to win a fight and then get

59:13

on a microphone and declare that gravity

59:16

is not real and you should go

59:18

to the roof of whatever building you're

59:20

watching this in and jump off, which

59:22

he may do. You probably want him

59:25

to do it on pay-per-view and not

59:27

on ESPN too. You know? I don't

59:29

know if that's the one you want

59:32

him doing on the TV at Buffalo

59:34

Wild Wings. You want that to the

59:36

paying crowd that ideally knows a little

59:39

bit more about what to make of

59:41

this shit. So... Also,

59:43

maybe you look at Aljurmane Sterling

59:45

and his style against Movesar, Ivloev's

59:47

style, a guy who has only

59:49

one decisions since he's been in

59:51

the UFC, has not finished a

59:53

single fight since he has come

59:55

to the UFC. maybe look at

59:57

that one and you go, this

1:00:00

probably is not gonna be the

1:00:02

fight of the night. Let's put

1:00:04

it on the prelims, maybe something

1:00:06

good happens, we get a highlight

1:00:08

out of it, probably it doesn't,

1:00:10

probably what you get is a

1:00:12

three round decision, but it's early

1:00:14

in the night and we're still

1:00:16

building up excitement headed into the

1:00:18

pay-per-view. It's going off as more

1:00:20

than a two to one underdog,

1:00:22

is Algabain Sterling, so that's interesting

1:00:24

booking all the way around for

1:00:26

your guy, the former champion. All

1:00:28

right, that's gonna do it this

1:00:30

week for the co-main event podcast.

1:00:32

Again, we will be over on

1:00:34

the patron page all week, patreon.com/co-main

1:00:36

event. Hit us up over there.

1:00:38

Take advantage of the 50% off

1:00:41

sale right now. Use that code

1:00:43

to zero e as an echo.

1:00:45

37 to get in for half

1:00:47

price for either your next month

1:00:49

or your next year. As for

1:00:51

right now, thanks for listening everybody.

1:00:53

We appreciate the support. We are

1:00:55

done. We are through. We are

1:00:57

out. Maybe

1:01:00

one thing we should try to

1:01:02

include in this week's $20 and

1:01:04

I want to see again is

1:01:06

bets on what crazy conspiracy Bryce

1:01:08

Mitchell will espouse if he's to

1:01:10

win. I am interested in any

1:01:12

and all Bryce Mitchell prop bets,

1:01:15

including but not limited to what

1:01:17

injury will Bryce Mitchell sustain around

1:01:19

the farm before he shows up

1:01:21

on fighting. I'm saying Bryce Mitchell

1:01:23

goes old school and comes up

1:01:25

with something about the Bermuda triangle.

1:01:27

Kind of classic conspiracy theory classic.

1:01:30

You know what he could do

1:01:32

is pander to the Ben Folks

1:01:34

audience and do some JFK shit.

1:01:36

All right, listen, you know what?

1:01:38

That shit, everybody understands both the

1:01:40

obviousness and the importance of that

1:01:43

event, except for you. What if

1:01:45

Bryce Mitchell got on the mic

1:01:47

and he was like, Oswald was

1:01:49

the lone gunman? See, that's just

1:01:51

the exception, that proves the fucking

1:01:53

rule. Any half hunter

1:01:55

could make that

1:01:58

shot, Bryce Mitchell

1:02:00

would say. Bryce Mitchell would

1:02:02

say. God damn I

1:02:04

hate how plausible

1:02:06

that is. is.