Special guest Devin Tejada of the Check the Kick Podcast joins Ben this week as they break down UFC Fight Night 239, with background, analysis, detailed predictions and picks for all 13 fights.
0:00 Intro: The calm after the storm
5:48 Charalampos Grigoriou (8-3) vs. Chad Anheliger (12-7)
16:43 Jaqueline Amorim (7-1) vs. Cory McKenna (8-2)
28:39 Joshua Culibao (11-2-1) vs. Danny Silva (8-1)
39:26 Jafel Filho (15-3) vs. Ode Osbourne (12-6, 1 NC)
49:26 Josiane Nunes (10-1) vs. Chelsea Chandler (5-2)
1:02:14 Natan Levy (8-1) vs. Mike Davis (10-2)
1:15:30 Thiago Moises (17-7) vs. Mitch Ramirez (8-1)
1:27:26 Christian Rodriguez (10-1) vs. Isaac Dulgarian (6-0)
1:40:44 Gerald Meerschaert (35-17) vs. Bryan Barberena (18-11)
1:50:18 Pannie Kianzad (16-7) vs. Macy Chiasson (8-3)
2:02:47 Ovince St. Preux (26-17) vs. Kennedy Nzechukwu (12-4)
2:18:15 Bryan Battle (10-2) vs. Ange Loosa (10-3)
2:28:27 Tai Tuivasa (14-6) vs. Marcin Tybura (24-8)
2:43:52 A quick rundown of all the picks
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#UFCVegas88
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Welcome to the Sherdog radio network preview for UFC Fight Night 239 tuivasa versus tyur also known as UFC Vegas 88 I’m your host Ben Duffy of sherdog.com with me this week stepping in for Keith shillin is Mr Devon tahada host of the check the kick podcast on sherdog.com
He’s pointing at the wrong side there there you go Dev thanks for joining me and how are you doing today I am doing pretty well um no episode of check the kick this week filling in for Keith but I’m very happy to do so I feel like it’s
Been a little bit of time it’s been a while since you and I have done anything together I it it has been a while uh Keith has just been a little too reliable uh but yeah for all the check the kick fans out there who will be
Jonesing for their 45 to 60 Minutes of Dev I got something special for you because we’re probably going to be here for a little over two hours uh obviously you and I are both still cooling off from the sizzle of UFC 299 I know that that you rattled windows in your house
Scre screaming when Dustin porier pulled off the come from behind wind that maybe shouldn’t have had to be a come from behind win but nonetheless we love the man uh we step down from that Sensational card I mean one that certainly will be in a discussion for
Card of the Year based on what it delivered on paper uh what it delivered in the cage to well UFC Vegas 888 uh it’s a card it’s 13 fights give me your general thoughts on this one give it a letter grade based on what it presents on paper you know
C i don’t hate that I might even go a little lower and I’m not disagreeing I mean obviously this is just a matter of opinion but things I look at when I’m judging a fight night card because obviously we’re looking for different things from a free cable card versus
Something they’re asking you you know to Shell out 70 or 80 bucks for but I want some amount of divisional relevance so I’m going to ask myself who on this entire card is closest to a title shot off of a win and looking here even with heavyweights in the headliner there’s no
One within three fights of a title shot here like tuivasa is on a three-fight losing streak tyor has been alternating wins and losses basically the entire time he’s been in the UFC so neither of those guys is close uh and then you just go down the list
Brian battles a Prospect but at 170 he might literally be eight wins in a row away from the title picture it’s it’s it’s wild assuming that there is no women’s featherweight division going forward because otherwise you know the Kean zaj shom winners arguably you know right there there’s nobody on this card within
Three fights of a title shot and that’s fine but the other thing it needs to deliver is okay give me some exciting prospects some people that maybe will be populating my my pay-per-view main cards two years from now give me some well-known action Fighters give me some
Bangers uh this has got a little of that the undercard has some interesting prospects Jael filio has overd delivered on expectations uh pomos Gregorio in the curtain jerker is going to be a man to watch it’s going to be a whole hell of a
Lot of fun for as long as it lasts uh I mean it’s got a little of that I don’t see a whole lot in the way of just guaranteed Barn burners like I’m thinking C minus maybe it’s it’s not one of the hottest cards of the Year even by
Fight Night standards on paper and yeah man I mean fights is better than no fights but yeah this one could be rough there is a there’s a couple dudes on here that I that I like and care about like Mike Davis if he can actually just become a regular MMA fighter he is
Always fun to watch and then his twin brother Isaac dgeren um is also a very very highly touted Prospect all at the very least dgeren is like his mini me he’s like the shrink gray no they look exactly the same but if you put them next to each other dogar is like the
Shrink ray version yeah it’s his little brother you know it just looks it could could totally be um ask your dad where he was traveling but this is one of those cards where um they have Call of people’s Heritage in the question wow this is right um he’s he’s he’s in the military
Um this is one of those cards especially reeling off of UFC 299 where like if you are you know if you’re are a recreational person that does stuff and there’s some good weather coming this weekend like maybe you choose to go out on the boat maybe you choose to go do some
Fishing maybe you go you know take the family to the park on Saturday instead of making sure you’re glued to the seat like you would have done for UFC 299 I think that’s a fair assessment having said that The Good the Bad and the Ugly we’re here to preview them all
Uh any other General thoughts on this card before we dive into the prelims you know we’re talking all this stuff and it’s probably going to be Absolut like we might get like one of those 14 finishes in a row or something like that and absolutely it’s why you watch the
Fights yep you know I i’ I’d be watching this even if if it wasn’t my job but uh ultimately what gives it that little extra spice especially in advance is knowing that okay fight a might be you know a title Eliminator fight B you know this 11 and0 kid is killing everybody
Let’s see if he can take the next step there’s not as much of that but having said that we’re going to be here for it yeah totally first up at UFC Vegas 88 is a men’s bantamweight clash between the debuting Char lampos Gregorio and Chad and heler Gregorio the 31-year-old cpri
By way of Long Island is 8 and3 overall he fought most recently on Dana White’s Contender series last August where he took just a minute to put out Cameron Smotherman that punched his ticket to the big octagon where he makes his debut now against an heler he had been
Scheduled to fight toshiomi Kazama Kazama fell off the card a while back so insteps and heler 37-year-old Canadian is 12- s overall he’s 1-2 since joining the UFC out of season five of Dana White’s cont Ender series he’s on a two-fight losing streak uh going back uh
About a year and a half dropped a unanimous decision to alang Hal Lee back in September of 2022 got choked out in the third round by Jose Johnson last November at UFC Fight Night Allen versus Craig so he’ll be looking to turn that around he is not favored to do so as
Gregorio is a moderate favorite in its debut he’s minus 170 and heler plus 140 I’ll start with the bad news about pomos Gregorio the bad news is that he is 31 and he turns 32 in a couple of weeks at bantamweight I mean this is a division where you could take the best
Bantamweight in the world and if he’s 33 years old and he gets knocked out we’re going to start asking is he shot is he on his way down like this is a division that is not kind to the elderly uh so Gregorio making his debut just shy of
His 32nd birthday is not ideal the good news is thus far he’s looking Prime he’s always been an interesting Prospect he’s crossed over into being kind of a scary one um he is a striker like he’s uh he’s from Cypress but he’s lived in New York
And he’s train I mean I think he’s been at Longo and Weidman MMA long enough that he was there when it was Sarah Longo and he went with Longo and Weidman when the split happened but uh he’s a striker uh Orthodox big Power hard kicks uh he likes spinning stuff specifically
He likes to start with something spinning right off the bat like half of his fights he’ll he’ll just start with a spin kick and he’s caught a few people with it not specifically necessarily caught him with the spin kick but he has a couple of like sub3 second Knockouts
Where clearly just coming at a guy with something spinning put him on their heels and he caught him with punches a few seconds later I’m not saying that’s going to work against UFC level bantamweights but but nonetheless you know he’s a powerful Dynamic Striker he has a tendency to kind
Of go for offense at the expense of defense like he will go for the kill kind of coming in with his hands down in a way that it’ll cost him if he makes his way anywhere up the rankings but thus far it hasn’t really cost him he
Comes into this fight on on a decent uh win streak and on the contender series he destroyed Cameron Smotherman who he’s a guy from down here in Houston I followed him for a while I think Smotherman is a good Prospect and I still think he’ll be in the UFC
Uh within the next couple years but he did the Smotherman what Smotherman normally does to people caught him with something early and then just hit him with like 15 uh follow-up shots before he could do anything to recover uh yeah he’s going to be a whole hell of a lot
Of fun for as long as uh he sticks around in the UFC even if time is not on the side but on the topic of time is not on his side chadan heler is 37 years old and he’s still pretty competitive you look at aner uh his record is deceptive
You see 12 and seven but he lost like five of his first six fights all by submission and then went on a pretty decent tear and that really only came to an end uh in his last couple fights he is a guy who has aged relatively gracefully because his game
Never really ran on explosive athleticism anyway at least to the extent that that is possible at Men’s bantamweight he’s always been well he’s always been a tough grimy grindy guy who has done his best when he can Outlast his opponents and make his opponents work too hard like left to his
Own devices he’d slug things out on the feet sprawl and brawl and he’s at his best when Fighters try to take him down and they either can’t take him down or they have to spend too much gas doing so they wear out and he starts rolling downhill on him he’s very much a
Bantamweight version of what people like uh Darren Elkins bring I mean Darren Elkins is the offensive wrestler but just talking about the not terribly athletic but extremely tough guy who grinds out his opponents uh he has yet to be stopped by strikes his his vulnerabilities are definitely on the
Ground so that’ll be interesting considering that Gregorio is a Flores lava type guy the concerning thing about anher is against Jose Johnson he did start to look a little old to me for the first time um for the first time that I could remember he wasn’t really the fresher
Guy in the third round I you got the rare example I mean the thing I remember most about his fight with Jose Johnson was him being on top and getting his ass kicked with strikes from the bottom like anytime I see a fighter on the bottom in guard trying to
You know throw elbows and punches from the bottom instead of just trying to get out of there I just I roll my eyes but it was working for Jose Johnson he was busting aner up ended up hurting him sweeping him and then tapping him out uh
Again I I I mentioned that not as an obvious Avenue to victory that Gregorio could follow but just as an example that maybe anher is losing a step uh because that is a position where he would have been very comfortable just a couple years ago oh I’m On Top early in the
Third round and yeah I’m I’m gonna Park on top of this guy chip away and win this round and probably steal the fight that wasn’t the case here gorio is going to come right at him he’s probably going to throw a spin kick first uh he’s going to bounce in and out
Of range he’s going to be way faster than andher I have the feeling he’s going to catch him and he’s going to hurt him early anher is still hard to hurt on the feet even if he’s easy to hit so I’m not I’m not saying he’s just
Going to get flatlined in 60 seconds like a lot of gregorio’s opponents have but I’m thinking Gregorio hurts him in the first round probably takes that round and then from there we kind of see where this goes I’m leaning towards Gregorio to win a decision here maybe by
Winning the first two rounds having to hold on in the third uh Gregorio has shown that he can uh function in a three or even five round fight as long as he’s taking on an overmatched opponent where you know he’s definitely dictating the pace that may not be the case with then
Heler but I’m slightly high on him as a prospect so I’m GNA say he has enough to get past him uh and heler at this point is kind of the gatekeeper to okay if you can beat me you definitely at least belong here I say Gregorio passes that
Test and uh gets himself a nice little win bonus for his 32nd birthday Gregorio by decision I am very torn on this one because an heer’s game is just kind of like never die like you said never die and always be around but the Jose Johnson fight
Like hate to come on the show and so early say this but like Jose Johnson kind of stinks um like he’s just not no way like he’s just not that especially like when it comes to any sort of grappl at all like we’ve seen him get absolutely
Mushed there so for him to you know have that success late in a fight that fight was also a brawl like that was a real good fight and Jose Johnson was definitely significantly larger than an heler like an heler is just not a big dude and maybe that’s why he’s been able
To just be 37 and stay at bantamweight for so long because he’s not you know killing himself to make 135 like he could probably kill himself to make a buck 25 um but he’s 37 gregorio’s I mean his his primary sparring partner is hakeim daadu can you
Imagine the difference in size and speed between those two guys significant yeah um it just imagine your sparring partner is always 40 pounds heavier than you at a minimum that would you know yeah and when Dadu wants to be mean um you know probably kick aner ass
A couple times in the gym there um Gregorio his game like smother Bin’s a good win um you know he’s a guy from your neck of the woods like main training partners with Adrian and jannis I know you know those dudes super well um and he’s he’s a pretty highly tted
Prospect I I watched him I mean he got immediately iced and that was it was almost so instant where it’s on the level of like you don’t want to call things an MMA a fluke especially at this level but like that was a like I don’t know if that gets repeated you
Know again I don’t think if they get matched up 10 times that happens again um and that’s just one of those things but that’s gregorio’s game is like do crazy [ __ ] you know full velocity big Power he’s a big dude at this division um it’s one of those like
Who we know who’s going to win the first round and a half of this fight and then we don’t know who’s going to win the last round and a half of this fight what is the what are the odds on this again like how big of Goro’s Min
Gregorio’s minus 170 and heler plus 140 so not a 2 to1 favorite just kind of a you know moderate kind of 3 to2 type thing you know what crazy we talk about dudes being old at bantamweight and everybody up until about 48 hours ago is calling Petron old and potentially
Washed up and he’s 31 and he was the champion um so this is a this is this division is probably the best division in MMA in general over all organizations um at 135 pounds but an heler it’s just hard to pick him in a fight like this
Because he kind of looked really bad and he’s 37 and he doesn’t fight very often like he’s fighting once every eight months or so once a once a year type dude give me Gregorio to hurt him in the first round and just do enough damage through the first two like you know and
Her G could pull this off he could win the last two rounds of this fight but like the dude’s 37 it’s bantamweight I wouldn’t be surprised if he makes it just it’s an ugly ass fight for the last 10 minutes and he wins a decision that people are throwing
Throwing their arms up about that’s ander’s game but yeah I’m Gregorio I’m kind of thinking it’s gonna go the same way you are next up on the UFC Fight Night 239 undercard is a straw we match up between Jackie amarim and Cory McKenna amarim the 28-year-old Brazilian is seven- one
Overall she is one- one since joining the UFC as the outgoing LFA strawweight champ she lost her debut to Sam Hughes last April came back in August and put in arguably the Beatdown of the year on monat kjo on the way to a third round ground and pound stoppage she’ll look to
Build on that momentum against the returning McKenna 24 year-old Welsh Woman by way of Sacramento is 8-2 overall she’s three in one since joining the UFC out of season four of Dana White’s Contender series bought most recently all the way back in December of 2022 so has been on the shelf for about
15 months but last time we saw her she was taking a three round decision off of Cheyenne bmus uh she steps into the cage here as just the slightest of favorites McKenna is minus 125 emim available at even money plus 100 these are two young straw weights amarim is 28 McKenna is
24 so there’s plenty of potential for them to developed they’re both at very good teams uh but what I see so far in these two is women who function best when they can be the bully but they’re not going to have very many chances to do so in the UFC
Strawweight division they just neither of them is very big and at least at this stage in their physical and professional development neither of them is like they’re both short and they’re not like Jessica androd short where they got muscle on top of muscle they’re just kind of smallish straw weights and
Amarim it’s a perfect example because she really was a bully on the LFA level but then she ran into Sam Hughes and she looked great for the first round it looked like the LFA version of amarim she was all over took her down was doing work on the ground
But he was just being a little bigger a little better than the women she was us used to fighting she clearly wore herself out doing that work she came out not tired for the second round and dropped the last two rounds in pretty straightforward fashion just as Hugh
Started to roll downhill on her and while Hughes is a decent middle of the road strawweight like she’s not yeah like she’s not yeah she’s not Tatiana Suarez either uh once you got amarine back in against monat kjo which is maybe even a smaller version of the same thing she
Absolutely wrecked her she you know two 10 eight rounds just she’s the she’s the worst 11 15er on the roster though well if she even still is on the roster yeah no question uh they both have wins over like the worst strawweight on the roster because McKenna has a win over Miranda Granger
Yep uh so amarim like she she’s a good Grappler who she can I I feel like I say this about a lot of women Fighters and it’s just because there’s not the same structure for amateur wrestling for women in most of the world as there is for men although
That’s gradually getting better but I will say that they’re a good Grappler that sometimes struggles to get the fight to the ground on their terms and I say that about people all the way up to the level of like MacKenzie dur Amar was one of those like if she physically
Outmatches The Other Woman to the point that she could just run up body lock and kind of throw her to the ground she she thrives because she really is a good top position Grappler nice ground and pound uh like solid backt she’s just like a good ground fighter uh against Sam
Hughes again she wore herself out getting the fight to those kind of positions against monar Ruiz she had no problem at all doing it and thrashed her uh assuming that’s the kind of uh fight she tries to bring to McKenna it’s going to be interesting because while McKenna
Comes out like a boxer and like definitely like you can tell that there’s boxing in her background if Emar tries to throw her on the ground I think McKenna is going to go well don’t threaten me with a good time because I I think actually McKenna’s best skills are on the ground
Um I can’t believe she’s just 24 I mean she’s been gone for over a year she is so young she was the youngest on the roster I think at one point off the I she was at least the youngest woman on the roster for a minute and the wild
Thing is she looks even younger than she is I mean she has to be the most babyfaced fighter in UFC history she’s married she looks 14 she can’t be married like she’s um yeah she’s like and she I’m pretty sure she got married during this time off I know she was
Nursing some in nursing some injuries and stuff like that um is is that the reason of this extended layoff just like life [ __ ] I know she does um a lot of like commentary on you know lower level stuff she does stuff with your Rah Faber
Um is does she need money is that that’s always a question you know and at 24 it may just be hey I got married I don’t believe she had a kid uh I know she’s been doing uh work with like yri faers promotion out there you know she’s a
Long time well I can’t say long time about someone who’s 24 but you know she’s been Team Alpha Male for a while uh but there’s every possibility that she’s still taking her career very seriously and she’s back here she so young too do you know in effect in the cage uh you
Know she’s a like she’s a boxer with she throws decent volume not a whole lot of pop but again you know she was 22 last time we saw her she’s she’s only going to grow in power for the you know foreseeable future uh she can kick though doesn’t choose to very often and
She’s one of those ones that even though she clearly fancies herself a striker when ship pops off you can tell she almost wants it to go to the ground and the first fighter I really said this about was Norma Dumont where you know it’s she was like I’m a sand
Practitioner I won these medals in sand and she stands like a karate fighter but I watched her fights I was like okay but as soon as somebody hits her she grabs a clinch and tries to throw him on the ground like that’s clearly her safe place when things get hectic I feel a
Little bit of the same way about McKenna and that’s what’s interesting about this matchup to me is uh amarim is probably gonna wait in with punches she likes to punch her way into clinch range I think she probably hits harder than McKenna on a shot for shot basis but McKenna’s a
More polished boxer but again if Emme you know walks in either you know grabs a single leg or or just forces her to the cage and tries to get a taked down Against the Cage I’m interested to see what happens when it goes to the ground because uh you know McKenna’s proven
Surprisingly Nimble on the ground like she’s good in transition uh not terribly heavy on top but you know like pretty opportunistic she’s been good at avoiding danger and putting her opponents in danger uh when when they’re on the ground even though Amar is the slight Underdog here I am leaning towards her
As maybe a little more of a finished product uh a little more physically mature I think she’s physically stronger than McKenna right now so in a a battle of Two fighters that do best when they’re the bully I think amarim is the one that’s more likely to be able to do
That uh McKenna is a little bit of a unknown quantity right now she has been gone for over a year in the case of somebody that’s only been a pro for you know like five years or so that’s a huge chunk of time to be out and if Keith
Were here he’d point out that with a fighter this young sometimes they make massive improvements over that time or other times it’s just been a time that they’ve been focusing on other stuff and they they’ve made no improvement at all I don’t know so I’m having to base this
On on a guess but even if McKenna has been diligent I’m just leaning Amar slightly G give me Jackie amarim to to win this one by decision uh just getting slightly the better of whatever EX changes there are on the ground and when they’re swinging free on the feet she may not
Land the same volume but she’ll land the shots that are a little bit more telling and McKenna also is blessed with the that Welsh complexion where like one glancing jab and she looks like she’s been hit by a truck uh that that never helps with the judges either so give me
Amarine by decision here you know um it’s funny that I’m just like the exact opposite on this fight disagreement disagreement is what fuels the entertainment value good and like watching amarim she is the ultimate front runner like all of her wins are like first round first minute she’s got
One that’s like in that’s within you know like four minutes and 30 something seconds um but the monserat ruise fight like I watched that back today and like I mean she should have finish that fight like 30 times there’s absolutely no reason why that fight lasted as long as it
Did and mon I mean I think she’s like 411 I know they measure her in at five feet but she’s like that I mean am was like 5’4 I think or something like that 5’5 and like they were like a foot yep watching the T it
Was like it’s like if I you know fought a middle schooler like that was the size difference it was incred it was incredible um and Sam Hughes I think her one of her sorry Sam Hughes my gosh looking at the Sam Hughes fight um with Amar it was just if McKenna
Can I don’t know why McKenna just can’t have the same exact fight as Sam Hughes I think she’s possesses a lot of the same physical attributes when it comes to like durability cardio um toughness I think Cory McKenna is actually super tough we’ve seen her you know have some
Kind of you know I’m going to call it a blood and guts fight it is women’s you know straw weight but it’s she’s been in some fights we’ve seen her nose busted up we’ve seen her face adversity and another thing too is she fought somebody that has like the exact same game as
Amarim but I think even more you know deadly with their submissions and Vanessa demopoulos and I think Vanessa demopoulos um is a lot more physical but demopoulos was also an LFA champ and she won the belt you know kind of doing this same things that amarim did and I
Just I think McKenna even though she’s been out for so long she’s fought better people she mean she sent K Hansen to only fans um well I think K Hansen lost like two more times after that but um yeah she did Jasmine jisus I remember kind of
Beat her up um anyway yeah I just think Corey McKenna can avoid a first round hail storm from amarim and then just kind of sticker with a jab you look at I’m also accounting for you know look what Alpha M’s done with song another super young Prospect alpha male does
Really good with young prospects I know she has a good relationship with your Faber I think that um I’m hoping that she’s not just fighting for money to pay off her wedding I hope it’s not like one of those types of things where I have a
Very good you know I have a cush job I’m making enough money to survive and I’m I’m fighting to pay some stuff off because I haven’t fought in a while I really hope that’s not the reason I really hope she’s taking her career seriously and I think if she is you know
At her age she can make improvements she’s at the right Camp um I think Cory McKenna wins a decision and and jacn AMS never she’s either finished or lost via decision yep we head now to the featherweight division for a clash between Josh kabau and the debuting Danny Silva kabau the
29-year-old Australian is 112 and one overall he’s 32 and one in the UFC uh he’s 311 at featherweight he made his debut back in 2020 against Jaylen Turner at lightweight which I mean that’s lightweight and then lightweight plus uh but since dropping down to uh his
Natural weight class of 145 he is 3-1 and one he lost his last timeout it was a unanimous decision uh at the hands of luron Murphy at UFC London last July prior to that he’d been on a three-fight win streak he’ll look to start a new one
Here at the expense of the debuting Silva uh Silva 27-year-old from from Orange County is 8-1 overall he fought on the contender series last September beating anhel Pacho by unanimous decision uh he’s on a two-fight win streak overall and he steps in here as The Slight Underdog uh kulaba is minus
160 Silva plus 130 on the comeback uh Dev I mean give me your general thoughts on this fight uh if I I feel like kolab is a little more of a known quantity but if you see any decent upside in Silva and how you see this fight
Going before I break this down I’m kind of looking at this whole card as you were speaking there how many fighters on this card have either da came off of The Ultimate Fighter or off the contender series do you know that’s thatat because I’m looking at all with all these like a
Lot of these people have come in from the UFC’s uh let’s say feeder organizations um give it’s a [ __ ] [Laughter] ton I guess this is what we get with the contender series now Brian battle ultimate fighter onusa Contender series uh well well over half of them uh out of there’s 26 fighters on
This card about 15 about 15 are from Dana White’s Contender series alone we have two tough winners on this card we have Brian Badland Macy cheson uh so yeah it’s crazy I’m just you naton Levy Mike Davis Christian R all these it’s not crazy it’s day in the white Saturday
Night Contender series these are the cards they stick you on until you win three or four fights in a row and you get promoted to either Deluxe fight nights on the road or uh pay-per-view undercards but yeah this this is a perfect example of Dana White Saturday night Contender series we are watching
This happen before our eyes it’s no it’s been happening for about three years like first two seasons of Dana White’s Contender series you like even if you won by first round knockout you weren’t necessarily signed you know Chris Curtis knocked somebody out on the first season of Dana White’s Contender Series in the
First round but he happened to be on the same episode as like uh I think Alonzo menafield and what’s his name uh Hardy and look where they are now yeah so uh and now I mean even some of the losers get signed so they got to put him someplace because
A lot of those Fighters by definition are not long for the UFC so they they stick them on these cards and that’s okay yeah and I mean there’s good fighters on this card so that they’re doing their job you know it’s it’s a lot it’s it’s high volume you know if you
Eat a 100 cheeseburgers yeah cheeseburgers are good the first three or four but yeah Denny Silva he he’s a guy that’s kind of he’s come off the LFA he’s fought on the LFA um got a win via decision on the contender Series last year and it in a
Fight where like if it was on the first season or the second season he might not even be in the UFC right now um koui ba is just the in action dude he’s a dude that’s even still we talked about him fighting Jaylen Turner at 55 like he is
A dude that he’s one of those guys you know you could tell he probably used to be fat before he got into MMA yeah where he he’s still a dude that like could put on probably 15 pounds of muscle and still stay in this division
Um he’s not the biggest guy but he’s got big Power um he is a dude that you know he likes to crack he he will brawl draw against like you know and his first two fights the dude had to fight Jaylen Turner and Charles jordane they’re like oh you just got
Knocked out by Jaylen Turner here and then he you know he fought Charles Jan to a split decision yep that’s a great great win you know um the submission over melic bazarian was a good win to me I think bazarian can be a very dangerous kickboxer that comes from a terrible
Camp um sunu Choy you know how we feel about him here still beat that guy Norton Beck that’s a pretty good win in my opinion um he even though he lost to luron Murphy last time out I’m luron Murphy’s good Murphy’s undefeated yeah nobody’s beaten Murphy people have fought him to a draw
But no one’s beat him um and Laura Murphy would probably be in the top seven of the division if he could just actually fight fights um so I’m not taken that away from him and he was much bigger than him in that fight um kibow is going to probably try to make
This a brawl against Danny Silva and I don’t think Silva has the ability to just kind of hang in the pocket and fight this fight at boxing range but if he tries to wrestle and grapple with kibow kibow is a dude that has a sneaky submission game you know like the melc
Bazarian fight he is a dude that will you know sink something in and a weird chaotic moment and I just see him probably hurting Danny Silva at some point in this fight I think this is even though koui is not ranked and he’s he’s probably in the top 25 of this division
You know but he’s just like a dangerous dude he’s one of those guys that’s unassumingly dangerous and I just think this is a bad fight for anyone that’s debuting in the UFC unless you’re someone that’s like a Lon Murphy or you know someone that is a very very highly
Touted dude and Danny Silva is just kind of a guy that want to fight in the contender Series yeah so what’s the call uh Kau club and sub I think he probably finishes him in the first round probably hurts him and has Silva shooting for the
Legs and hits him with a Dar or an anakonda yeah there there’s I underestimated Josh Kabal pretty badly on the you know debut against well yeah it’s easy to underestimate him because he doesn’t cut an imposing figure uh and he got slaughtered by Jaylen Turner in his
Debut and I found myself thinking um and I believe he’s one of the Rasha Fighters that got signed for a couple of Australian cards that year so which I mean that brought in some great Fighters sure and then it also brought in some that were not good and I remember
Thinking man kulaba is one of the worst Fighters the UFC has ever signed he you know if the UFC hadn’t been going to Australia that month he never would have gotten within a million miles of the UFC but at this I I remember thinking the same thing about Justin TAA that same
Year and he’s turned into a halfway decent fighter as well so shows what I know but even after I started to kind of change my thoughts on kulaba I continued to underestimate him I agree that the meltic bazarian win was a good one and I picked that wrong I believe I picked
Bazarin to blow kulaba out of his sneakers in the first round and he did his best to do so but kolab about crafty tough uh survived took advantage of bazarian uh you know subpar ground game you know he he trains with with a bunch of uh with a bunch of renowned Judo
Experts why would he be any good on the ground anyway uh kulab about has is gonna have a hard ceiling on where he can go in this division just based on being undersized not very athletic but yeah he’s tough he’s decent everywhere and he keeps on snatching wins over pretty good
Fighters like I agree with you shyan is a decent fighter he’s something like six and three in the UFC right now in one of the toughest divisions that’s not bad and one of the losses is to Josh kulal I like shung much Choy uh and then even like not counting Turner which was
Unfair Charles Jordan and luron Murphy are both very good Fighters and he made fights with them very competitive or more competitive than you would have thought they’d be so I continue to underestimate kulab and I know I must be doing it right now because I keep wanting to talk myself
Into the upset value here on Silva he has some things at a first glance that are that are tantalizing in a prospect he’s just 27 you like that uh he’s going to be big tall rangy for the division like to me like physically his his silhouette just kind of like you know if
You if you just backlit him he looks about like what it looked like on those occasions when Edson Barbosa dropped to 145 you know like long arms long legs just not an ounce of fat on him and he does his best kind of you know poor man dson Barbosa he’s a kickboxer
Who I mean he would prefer to strike at at distance where he can either nail people with kicks or you know just be close to the end of puning range but surprisingly effective inside as well uh he has some good shorttight punches he’s good at hitting people with elbows when
They come inside or you know off of breaks in the clinch like I wasn’t Blown Away by his performance on the contender series but I thought here’s a guy that if he gets a shot could maybe stick around for a while but I’m done underestimating kulaba I could see Silva hurting kulab
Bad in the first round like he did PCO but the thing is Silva I think dropped p in the first half of the first round and PCO never really got back in the fight Silva was just on him from there on out I could see him hurting kulaba and
Kulaba is still there in his face and Silva might not be able to take that so I I’ve got kolaba by decision here I think he maybe weathers an early storm and then does what is quickly becoming the Josh kolaba thing and hangs on pulls ahead late wins the last two rounds so
Give me Kola about by decision flyweights take the cage next as Jael filio and OD Osborne Square Off filio the 30-year-old Brazilian is 15-3 overall he’s one- one since joining the UFC out of season six of Dana White’s Contender series he won his last timeout choked out Daniel Barz in the first
Round at UFC London last July he will look to uh stretch that into a winning streak against Osborne 30-year-old uh Jamaican American fighting out of Milwaukee is 12- six with one no contest overall he’s 4-4 in the UFC worth noting that he’s one and2 at flyweight he’s
Fought at 135 as well as 125 pounds uh he is 1-2 at flyweight uh lost most recently last August at UFC on ESPN San Haagen versus font where he fought Rising Prospect Asu alayev at flyweight and got choked out in the second round so uh he’s looking to turn things around
He is not favored to do so filio is a minus 180 favorite Osborne plus 150 as uh as the underdog I’m I’m just about off the ode Osborne Express I mean I I was never like you know upfront tooting the horn anyway but he’s a guy that he was a win
One lose one at bantamweight and I thought well he’s a big bantamweight if he can really drop to 125 and look you know any kind of decent physically maybe he could make some noise there that hasn’t really panned out either and while losing to ASU alv there there’s no shame there like alv
Looks like he might have top 10 upside sure he he also got lamped by Tyson Nam uh which again yeah Nam hits hard especially for a flyweight but that was the 39-year-old Tyson n like just OD Osborne is what he is he’s seems like he’s a consistently entertaining fighter
Across two weight classes who I guess you could almost think of him as a flyweight bantamweight Julian Arosa where he has all the tools offensively like he’s a good Striker he’s a good Grappler but just porous defense and a reckless approach mean that he’s just out to make somebody’s highlight re
Whether it’s his or his opponents he’s an equal opportunity distributor of highlights I think that spells danger against fio who looks he looks like a a man of interest like obviously he won his last timeout choked out Daniel bears made it look easy uh got that Nova Uno just
Topside squeeze but his loss in his debut is almost more noteworthy because maybe it should have been a win that was the controversial one where he took on Muhammad makv The Undefeated super Prospect like the guy that was going to be the like the Superstar cross between khabib
And Conor and did might be the next title might be the next title Challenger at flyweight might be the next title Challenger and like even if you don’t think Makai have really tapped in the second round that fio had him in that much trouble is I you know moral
Victories don’t I they only count so far but that means something like he had the the proclaimed future of the division in a whole lot of peril he ended up losing that fight I mean it had to be deflating when he he didn’t get the win RI the
Dude’s knee off and nothing like yeah yeah I mean just for those who didn’t watch it or don’t remember he had MV in a knee bar in the second round that you could see stuff popping it the knee was hyperextended like like this like backward like the same way Anderson
Silva’s leg not to that extent but I mean fullon knee bar deep as you could get one ripping rip mv’s knees to shreds or knee to shreds and dude didn’t tap no uh so I mean filio he’s almost like an old school Nova Uno guy because it wasn’t really
Until Jose Aldo came along that we thought oh noao has these like you know killer knockout artists it was no it was you know Jose Aldo and about a year worth of marlin Sandro deciding to become the Incredible Hulk but before that Novia was a camp full of little
Guys it was like the Brazilian team alha male you know outstanding Jiu-Jitsu practitioners you know a lot of topside Specialists and kind of lousy Strikers filio is a little bit of a hark back to that he’s not a lousy Striker uh he has good natural power he has uh you know
Decent fundamental boxing but he’s a very very good Grappler you know as witnessed when he took MV he’s still just 30 years old he has a little time to work 125 pounds is all of a sudden kind of wide open because you’ve got a champ that’s been around so long that
He’s fought everybody you know like it’s hard to think of a champ starting his first Title reign having already faced the rest of the contenders in his division to the extent that uh Alesandra panta has so fio all he’d have to do is win like if say he wins three fights
This year WI four fights this year he might be on the on the doorstep of a title shot uh Osborne is going to be a great guy for him to probably kind of make a statement against that that’s what I see here like Osborne is dangerous but Osborne’s best route to
Victory is nailing filio with a kill shot from outside like just a huge head kick or catches him coming in with like a flying knee or something because otherwise I actually like fio in the Striking uh Osborne is quick he’s crisp but he doesn’t have great
Head movement he’s easy to back into the cage uh people have done that and punished him there shorter Fighters with shorter arms have gotten inside on them pretty effortlessly I mean Tyson n had no trouble you know getting into the phone booth with them
So I think fio will be fine if it’s on the feet and if it goes on the ground Osborne is tricky and opportunistic and his just physical shape presents matchup problems but filio is very very good on the ground and just much more fundamentally positionally sound I I
Don’t think Osborne is going to take filo’s back in a scramble uh or you know C catch anything just kind of exotic uh I think filio finishes this Osborne generally does not like Osborne kind of fights like he’s double parked he doesn’t like to hear the final
Horn if he doesn’t have to give me fio to tap out Osborne in the second round after a real fun eight or nine minutes of action man OD Osborne is such a weird dude where I like someone convinced me he’s really good I don’t want say really good but
Someone convinced me he’s good but then you watch the tape and you’re like well he’s big for the division he can hit pretty hard you can make a highlight reel that makes him look incredible and then you could also make one that makes him look terrible yes that’s the it’s the Julian Arosa
Thing isn’t it it’s like you know when you climb a fence as a kid and you’re like just stuck on the top what like that’s just yeah like okay do I go like that’s and that’s kind of how I feel about this dude this picking
Him in a fight is the definition of just always being on the fence because the dudes he loses against I mean outside of Tyson n but getting knocked the [ __ ] out by Tyson n is how you lose to Tyson n you either have a weird you know your
Fight either goes to a weird decision or he absolutely ises you but outside of that like Brian kellerer in round one in 2020 when he got guillotined like that’s how Brian kellerer was beating everyone in 20 or in 2020 sorry like that’s Brian Keller’s thing snatching up a guillotine um
Getting flying need by Manel cop like that’s Manel cop’s thing that’s what manop does to people what did Tyson n do knock him out that’s what Tyson n does um ASU alabay what do he do he’s a very good Grappler and he submits like it’s just if you have a thing you’re really
Good at like that’s how you beat OD Osborne um but if you’re just like an MMA dude that just does like MMA stuff like him like Charles Johnson he can have a close fight with you Charles Johnson is very good everywhere but not dangerous anywhere you know he’s good enough
Everywhere and I think felo is I mean based off of him being able to hang with makv on the ground and grab that knee bar that would have submitted anyone else in the world Um it just feels like if you have a thing and you can do your thing to Ode Osborne I don’t really know another way to describe it um and before you started talking I kind of was like and maybe OD osor could pull this off but then you look at the way he
Loses and if you have a specialty that’s how you beat him like all the Specialists beat ode Osborne whether it be a strike specialist knockout artist you know submission guy Grappler and I think that’s what we’ll get here I think felo will probably have they’ll probably have
Some close exchanges on the feet OD Osborne’s really long he has a good jab he’s got good kicks but if this thing goes to the ground I could just see OD Osborne you know maybe trying to get to his feet and felo taking the back and squeezing his head off at some
Point so what’s the call give me filo by submission second round next up on the UFC Vegas 88 undercard is a women’s bantamweight match up between Jos xani nunz and Chelsea Chandler Nunes the 30-year-old Brazilian is 10- one overall she’s 3-0 in the UFC and on a nine-fight win streak overall uh having
Said that all three of her fights in the UFC have been at 145 pounds uh those are wins over bam Mali Ramona Pasqual and Zara farer do Santos the most recent of those the a Zara faren fight was last January at UFC 283 where Nunes took a unanimous decision she’ll be dropping
The bantamweight here uh I and we’ll be facing Chandler who will be doing the same will they more more on that in a minute uh Chandler 30-year-old Stockton California Native the one they call chick Diaz uh five- two overall one and one in the UFC she fought most recently
At UFC on ESPN home versus Bueno Silva last July where she dropped a unanimous decision to Norma Dumont prior to that she had a first round uh knockout of Julius star Reno all the way back in October of 2022 uh Chandler here as well dropping to 135 pounds or will be attempting to
Do so odds are fairly close but Nunes is your favorite she’s minus 135 Chandler plus 110 uh you kind of said it this card is evidenced that the UF really does plan to shutter The Women’s featherweight division because there are two women’s bantamweight uh bouts on this card and
This one features two women dropping to 135 and then the one further up the card Macy shison and panny kianzad both joined the UFC as 145 Pounders uh kianzad has been down at 135 ever since but shison has fought back and forth and has missed weight at both uh Chason I
Believe is the heaviest woman ever to have fought in the UFC when she weighed in at like 150 or 151 pounds so I I don’t I’m going to give you my picks for these fights but if you if you can lay money on one of these fights not
Actually taking place at 135 pounds hammer it anyway uh Josie Nunes she’s the only one that can make 135 well we we’ll see we’ll see but maybe not but even if they keep the 145 pound division she might have to come down anyway because there should be
Little sign outs side saying You must be this tall to ride uh she is I mean she’s the women’s she’s 52 or 53 she’s and she’s not a small 145 uh it’s it’s hard to describe her physique without sounding like I’m being insulting so I’m just going to say she’s
Very short for the weight class um I mean she’s Broad and has big muscles fairly long arms like I she’s she’s a short squat woman she’s got Long Reach Long Reach for someone her size yes yes like I think she has to wear high heels so that her
Knuckles don’t drag on the ground like she got she got long arms uh she I mean she is a striker but she’s kind of an old school shootter box that like you could compare her striking style to like Vander well well like worst worst vanderlay Silva or like super super
Early C like Chris cyborg where yeah they’ll call it Muay Thai but it’s mostly just putting your head down to throw in huge through huge Haymakers with both hands uh if she can get inside like she will grab the clinch and like punish with uh knees and elbows but
Mostly she’s just a slugger a basic Slugger and fighting you know mediocre 135 Pounders outside the UFC and then mediocre 145 Pounders in the UFC it’s been enough to I I mean I think there’s one decision in there but I think she’s knocked out her last eight or no she knocked out like
Six opponents in a row and then she had a couple of decisions uh the size deficit against Chandler is not going to phase her I mean she in the UFC she’s fought bam Miki Ramona Pasqual and Zara Faron all three of them are big and Bam Miki might be the biggest woman that’s
Ever fought in the UFC I mean she’s even bigger than Macy chasson Zar faren is huge too yeah Zarah faren like she’s not as tall but she huge and so like huge yeah Pasqual not the tallest again but just huge big and uh on the ground I mean she’s not a
Complete dope on the ground she just clearly doesn’t want to be there I I like she’s kind of a sprawl and brawler when she’s been put on the ground most of her effort seems to be towards his getting back up like we’re not even talking about sweeps or escapes with
Names we’re talking like the Derrick Lewis she Congo I’m gonna bench press you off me and stand up type thing uh it’s a very basic skill set it’s been fine for her so far soon she’s going to run into the person who makes her look just basic and untrained I don’t know if
It’s GNA be Chandler but from here on out she’s not going to get any fights easier than Chandler uh Chandler she’s I mean she’s a she she’s a Caesar Gracie I don’t know what belt she is but uh Caesar Gracie has always famously under belted his people
I mean you know yeah had Nick Diaz still a purple belt one of you know one of the best Grapplers in the UFC for a couple years uh but kind of like a Diaz brother she’s comfortable on the ground but would rather Slug It Out on the
Feet she has decent power she’s not terribly athletic she is big um doesn’t have good footwork doesn’t have good head movement n what do you mean oh dear God that’s why I’m sitting here smiling because I just remember like was that not the most viral moment of
2023 which one her hitting the Usain Bolt against Norma deont turning around and hitting a four flat if the cage was any I mean like if that if they were in a park like she would have just kept running she was running home you ever
Seen the you ever seen a kid you know You’ seen those videos where there’s two kids getting into a fight one kid gets hit and he goes hell no I’m out of here and they run away like if there was more if that cage was open she would ran out
Of it she was ready to go um just fight or flight got rocked and was like I’m out he was like I’m out not aaz brother thing it it was Theo no no not a Diaz’s brother thing unless unless it was Diaz’s brother in the sense that she just was training for her
Next Triathlon sure yeah could have but yeah it was certainly the moment in the UFC last year that looked most like it came from like break.com or world star uh that was awesome basically all I know about Chandler is that she’s better than Julia sto youro
Like you’re not just going to be able to run up grab her arm try to pull guard like she’s just GNA no sell the arm bar and punch the [ __ ] out of you and I know that she had nothing for Norman deont nunz of the two I mean she’s not
As Nunes isn’t as good as dant but she’s going to offer something closer to what uh he’s gonna offer something closer to what deont did than sto your ranko because nunz at least is Gonna Come forward and swing like we know that that that is she is the most
Predictable like has the most predictable approach she’s gonna come forward and she’s gonna swing uh Chandler is going to be way taller obviously she’s going to have reach if she has any kind of footwork she should be able to keep Nuna at Bay and
Jab her up or or meet her with like a knee or an uppercut coming in but Chandler at least when she doesn’t just turn her back and run away from you is really easy to back into the cage and that plays right into nunes’s game there is I mean there is upset
Value here if it goes to the ground Chandler’s a good Grappler Nunes is not and Chandler is I mean she’s as big as the women that Nunes has been fighting is probably better on the ground than Zara or uh or Ramona Pasqual she’s better at everything than Ramona Pasqual but uh I
Just don’t see it like I don’t think Chelsea Chandler is long for the UFC no I I don’t think Nunes is a future top 10 fighter at even at 135 which is a barebones division right now but I think she’s going to have enough to get past
Chandler the real question to me is whether she can put enough leather on her to actually finish the thing I’m not going to pick that uh like Dumont hits at least as hard as nunz and throws good volume and she couldn’t but give me Nunes to punish Chandler make her look
Miserable I I could see Chandler trying to bring this thing to the ground and maybe not being able to uh yeah giving nunz been a pretty one-sided decision here where Chandler looks beat up and maybe by the third round doesn’t especially look as though she wants to be there Chelsea see
And she did finish Julia stano but number one that’s Julia stano and number two Chelsea Chandler is also two weight classes bigger than her like Chelsea Chandler’s huge compared to her and that’s really like if she wasn’t from the Diaz camp like we she wouldn’t probably even
Be in the UFC I I you know um Scouts go to camps you know the whole thing and I just if this was any other division outside of women’s if she didn’t come in as a woman’s featherweight she probably wouldn’t have even come in as a woman’s bantamweight but I’m pretty sure they’ve
Just told the whole featherweight division hey um cut to 35 or rip up your UFC contract because you’re not a UFC fighter anymore um or prepare to meet uh Kayla Harrison in in pfl or Bellator sometime next year yeah or Lissa Pacho or S yeah you like fighting at 145 okay
Um or you can get a fight with Clarissa Shields at 165 or whatever whatever the Clarissa Shields MMA weight but um with this fight here I like josien Nunes just because I think watching her fight is funny because someone with her stature at Women’s 145 like shouldn’t win fights
At like at all but she does the little I mean she has no physical attributes for this division but the one that she does have big arms and she does hit hard and so she knows how to use her physical attributes to the best of her ability at least and
Chelsea Chandler just doesn’t do that I feel like Chelsea Chandler showed us last time that when things don’t go her way she’s willing to literally run away from them and that is kind of you know I feel like as a fighter at this level that’s something that’s just inherit
Like if if you’ve got that in you look at Max Roso you know if if that’s in you that’s something that’s real real hard to break I think she is going to walk Chelsea Chandler into the cage she’s got joose Andy Nuna also has good dirty boxing
She’s gonna get an overhook and probably just Spam overhand rights over and over again and I don’t think Chelsea challeng is going to hit her with anything powerful enough to deter her from doing that um I wouldn’t be surprised if Jose an Nunes got a stoppage only
Because Norma Dumont wants to fight a very you know the teu version of Michael Venom pagee where she’ll leap in with a big shot crack you and then clinch and then break off and do the same thing when Jose an Nunes is going to hit you
Like I mean Norma deont is not going to hit you with 20 shots in a row but Jose an Nunes will like she will sit there and spam overhands like a windmill if you let her and I think Chelsea Chandler’s going to let her um give me josean Nunes by
Decision but like a third round finish wouldn’t surprise me either if Chandler just like this sucks lightweights are up next as naton Levy faces off against Mike Davis Levy the 32-year-old Israeli is 8-1 overall he is two- one since joining the UFC out of season four of Dana White’s Contender
Series after dropping his UFC debut to Rafa Garcia he chalked up back-to-back decision wins over Mike Breeden and jaro Valdez that’s the good news the bad news is the most recent of those the Valdez win was back in December of 2022 so uh Levy is stepping back into the cage for
The first time in over a year same as several other fighters on this card uh he will be stepping in against Davis uh Davis 31 year-old New York native is 10-2 overall he is three- one since joining the UFC out of season two of Dana White’s Contender series he
Actually lost on the contender series uh went back and won a couple more fights uh on the regional scene than was signed in 2019 had to step right in against Gilbert Burns which is a hell hell of an assignment that was and that was on short notice I forget who burns was
Supposed to fight but he came in on short notice to face Gilbert Burns uh I mean lasted almost two full rounds he racked up three straight wins since then all of them pretty entertaining fights against Thomas gford Mason Jones and Slava borov that’s the good news the bad
News for him even worse than for Levy is that the most recent appearance for Davis was in October of 2022 he’s been off for like uh almost 18 months so uh two gentlemen stepping back into the cage for the first time uh you know since 2022 Davis is a strong almost prohib
HIIT of favorite uh slightly surprising to me I mean I’ll get to that when I get to it but Davis is minus 300 ly plus 225 on the comeback uh I’m gonna flip this one to you first uh Dev tell me what you think of this fight uh and who you think
Wins and how naton Levy breeds as a dude that is an incredible Striker but then when you like really dive into the film um but I mean minus 300 Mike DAV is I feel like Mike Davis should be like a minus 180 favorite and I mean just due
To inactivity like if he fought four If he if he had beaten even though Mason Jones you know did not have a great career in the UFC I think he’s a lot better and his cage Warriors you know his cage Warriors fights will tell you that because I
Think he either is or was a CA a current cage Warriors Champion like as soon as he left the UFC and went back um and I’m pretty sure he was a double champ over there if I’m correct um before coming to the UFC I think the Mason Jones win is a
Lot better of a win than it reads as and even the Bor at like borchev is a good Striker too and and clearly I mean we all know borchev at this point Slava Claus he’s just a you know look at his last fight Bev’s and brawls and he can bang and and Mike
Davis Kind of cleanly beat him there Gilbert burns on short notice is there’s a couple fighters on this card that got the real freaking short end of the stick debuting in the UFC kib B and and Davis and both and they’re both good and I think Davis is actually
Real good um naton Levy number one I’m just curious on what these dudes do for money because like they just haven’t fought in so long like how do you you know especially based off their fighter pay coming off the contender series like what do the you know C how do these dudes freaking
How do these dudes live they haven’t fought since 2020 end of 2022 uh naton lby he is a striker that’s what he likes to do but you know if you follow him on social media and you watch him train you’ll have a very different idea of what he brings to the table compared
To if you actually like start digging in on tape with him um because like hitting pads he looks like a Dynamo um sparring dudes that make fun of him on the internet he looks like a Dynamo don’t know if you saw that semi- recently um some dudes kind of talk [ __ ] to him
Online and he invited him over to his gym and he kicked the [ __ ] out of him of course um I I just quick side note I you know like I normally am I’m very sensitive to Fighters like getting in fights like professional fighters getting in fights outside of
Professional settings like I I feel uncomfortable like paying someone for violence that can’t manage violence in his private life having said that I 100% support Fighters giving a dose of reality to talk [ __ ] to him online like 100% like Kevin Holland like putting that dude on the bus like giving the
Dude bus fair then kicking his ass and putting him on the bus to go back home one of my favorite moments of 2022 naton Levy like yeah Arman suuki and now that we’re talking about it because this just comes those guys that were talking [ __ ] to sirian down in Miami on their on
Their press tour for years C300 are you insane number one Arman suian is like not a bad dude like he’s not a bad guy like he hasn’t done anything to to to make you say like yeah I hate the term keep that same energy but like if you guys are
Gonna like if you’re gonna talk that [ __ ] you know just because you don’t you naton people people have this crazy false sense of reality like if you’re not a title Challenger that like they think that they can can like beat you in a fight so like unless you’re yeah
Yeah hate to break that anyone on the roster is going to kick your [ __ ] tee anyone on the roster like people people that like I nervously make fun of as like the worst fighters to pass through the UFC would clean my [ __ ] clock
Like you know I I make it a point not to say anything that I wouldn’t say you know to anyone in person certainly somebody that that could like kick my ass in 60 seconds like yeah um it just that’s something I think that needs to be said too and if you’re listening to
This I’m sure you know that but like if you’re one of those people from Miami that was like talking that [ __ ] to Arman serian like you wouldn’t say that to my face let alone him so watch it yeah like watch it um naton Levy good for him for
Doing that you know and and let’s let’s teach these bullies a lesson don’t be a bully he is he is he’s he’s a very good fighter in the first round of a fight um and he can hang tough when facing adversity T Levy but he’s
Like you ever had you ever have a friend in high school that like souped up their real piece of [ __ ] Honda Civic like that that sucker was real fast but like the windows didn’t really roll down right the AC didn’t work he’s [ __ ] just flying off once they start
That’s kind of how naton Levy goes in a long fight um the hafa Garcia fight hafa Garcia is a tough dude that does hit pretty hard but going into the UFC you kind of almost expected him to probably win that one Mike Breeden no longer in the UFC and didn’t have any
Wins besides the Jubilee win which was really awesome um and then jaro Valdez is he still on the roster I am not sure whether he is or or not because but he lost three fights in a row and the naton levy fight was kind of sandwiched in there
I I mean he has one more on his uh first four-fight deal so he might get another fight but he’s certainly on his way out yeah yeah and I just think Mike I’m just curious on why Mike Davis hasn’t fought because he’s too good and like when he beat the Thomas gford fight
By the way was one of the worst beatings in UFC history if you’ve never seen that fight like it like poor Thomas gford I think wasn’t his dad like in his dad was in his corner too watching that happen that was just a really that is I mean Mike Davis can be very
Brutal and very punishing I think they’re gonna have a really close first round I think standing offensively they both offer very similar tools they both you know both have sharp boxing both have a sharp kicking game I think Mike Davis is the better boxer especially prolonged exchanges I think
That’s I think naton naton levies has much more of a karate style game where he he wants to land one shot exit land a two punch he’s throwing two shots and getting out of Dodge and I think a as this fight goes on Mike Davis’s ability
To stay composed in the pocket and just be punishing there throwing three four F five punch combinations ending those combinations with kicks um minus 300 is crazy but at the same time I could see him getting like a third round finish because naton Levy takes a lot of
Damage and he doesn’t have great defense at all um you know what I’m gonna pick Mike Davis to win by a knockout in the third round yeah I like a lot of what you put down there like I uh if you didn’t make the point I was going to make the point
That Natan Levy presents as a striker he’s got the sideon karate stance and he’ll he’ll throw very karate style like long kicks like you know like round kicks or or side kicks but and he looks like a bad guy from a martial arts movie like to he looks like
A bad guy but just this angular rip physique that kind of like pseudo Mohawk like sh yeah he and Carlos alberg just look like bad guys from a kickboxing movie yesberg like the super good-looking cocky guy yeah like but it hasn’t really translated into being much
Of a plus Striker at the UFC level and part of it is what you mention uh he just too often throws one shot at a time one or two shots at a time that’s not something you can build on unless you’re truly special like Leota Macha Wonderboy Thompson uh
Michael page type fighter Anderson Silva and he’s and Anderson Sil and even Anderson Silva would start like chain gunning techniques when you know people came at him uh but yeah in someone like Levy who I mean he is a good Striker it just turns into a guy that doesn’t throw
Enough volume to consistently win rounds if somebody doesn’t get hurt badly that’s part of the reason I think that Davis is the kind of favorite he is I think Davis I mean they’re about the same age but Davis just like he feels younger I know that sounds weird to say
But uh he’s gonna be way bigger it’s insane that Mike Davis used to fight at at featherweight like he fought at featherweight uh recently and even tried to in the UFC like he tried to they tried to match him against Giga Chad a couple times at featherweight would have
Been a [ __ ] banger but uh I think once like they tried it twice and once Davis fell out for some reason the other time Giga did so I guess it wasn’t meant to be but Davis is huge um and I think he’s effective from a wider uh variety
Of ranges than Levy is like if if they get in the if they get the fight that Levy wants an outside pot shotting battle I think Davis can hold his own there and and on the inside I think Davis is more dangerous uh I think he’s
Better in the clinch I think his up close boxing is better I find it unlikely this fight would go to the ground but if it does that might represent some of Levy’s like best chances to win he’s uh I believe he has some Judo in his background he’s
Exactly as strong as he looks on the ground and he’s proven himself capable at least of like guillotining or arm triangl tired you know or or stunned opponents uh on the ground that that’s always an option and hell if Levy sticks around he may become one of those types
Like I don’t know Mike Perry that presents as a striker but actually their their wrestling and and grappling proved to be their their secret weapon but for this there are a lot of unknowns when it’s two guys that have been gone for over a year but assuming neither one of
Them is severely compromised they’re both roughly the same fighter they were I like Davis in this one and as a minus 300 favorite I don’t think he’s three times as good as Levy but the fact that Levy isn’t great at winning close rounds and the fact that Levy he has a gas tank
Problem and it’s not a gas tank problem where he just wilts and he’s dead and anyone can push him over with a feather but his offense just freaking yeah exactly his already low output gets even lower uh and his defense he just gets hit a lot like exactly so if this is
Even if this is is one round a piece the end of two I’m feeling pretty good about Davis so I’m with you uh Davis by decision here seems like the The Logical call the top prelim UFC Fight Night 239 is a lightweight clash between Thiago Moyes and the debuting Mitch Ramirez Mo
The 28-year-old Brazilian is 17- s overall he is seven and5 since joining the UFC out of the first season of Dana White’s Contender series Brazil he lost his last timeout dropping uh a fight to Beno sanon by second round knockout at UFC Paris in September prior to that he
Had been on a two-fight win streak over Christos yagos and mikis Costa he will look to get back in the wind column this Saturday in Las Vegas he had been scheduled to take on Brad Rell but Rell fell out with an injury insteps the debuting Ramirez 31-year-old Utah native
Fighting out of Las Vegas is 8- one overall he fought on the contender series last August got knocked out in the second round by Carlos prates went back and won one fight in LFA and here he gets the short notice call he is the underdog uh Moes is minus 210 Rell plus
170 it’s a shame uh Moyes versus Rell was one of the fights I was low-key most looking forward to on this card as just two guys who had hit the edges of the top 10 but had lost a couple fights and both young enough that it was wide open
For either guy to prove that he was you know still a future Contender uh we don’t get that now we get Moy you know taking on well a short notice opponent who got lamped on the contender series The the UFC did what it could with the
Time it had it’s hard for me to believe that Thiago Moes is only 28 years old now he’ll be 29 in like a week or two but still he’s been in the UFC long enough and he’s fought an like enough high card positions and big names
That it just feels like he should be like 32 or 34 he still has plenty of time to fix the issues uh one of the problems is that he won enough fights early on that he got a little over ranked like I I’m not going to use the word overrated
Because that’s just I mean it sounds dismissive and and you know and insulting but pretty early on like in his in his early UFC run he lost to benil darus and demirez Mula no shame there then he rattles off three straight wins against Michael Johnson Bobby green
And Alexander Hernandez and all three of those wins especially at the time looked pretty good uh green has gone on to like really Elevate himself since then Hernandez looked like a good win at the time that got him to a fighting against Islam makev I just Moises was in no was in no
Way ready for that because What mo was at that time and still is to some extent now is a little bit of a old school grappling specialist who just doesn’t look like one like he looks like a guy that should be a better Striker than he
Is but he is kind of an old school grappling specialist and a one-dimensional Grappler is the absolute last guy you want to throw is Islam makev I it but he said at too which is just like astounding yeah he has like no kicking game yeah I I mean this is a guy he’s
Grown up at at yes like his whole life yeah he’s been at ATT like I think literally since he was a teenager he’s come up training with longtime ATT standbys people like Dustin porier uh and still like his striking is a liability and that’s basically it like
He’s at least at this point he’s kind of plateaued into a fighter who can really shine and take advantage of Fighters who can’t threaten them on the feet like if he like good example Michael Johnson styled on him in the first round of their fight like it
Wasn’t a 108 but it was a really dominant first round it was as good as Michael Johnson had looked in a while and moay tapped him like 20 seconds into the next round like just Johnson blundered that’s that’s it like even if even if you can put it on moas
Like he’s one mistake away from being able to make you pay but if you have good power like a sprawling brawler like Ben was Anan destroyed Tiago Moes he was the worst possible kind of style match up for him uh just because yeah Ben Mo anony was bigger stronger a hard hitter
Just yeah Mo was stuck in hell he couldn’t get him down and unlike Johnson who was just kind of piecing him up stiny was hurting him and punishing him for coming inside uh kind of same with Joel Alvarez I mean Alvarez is not a perfect Prospect either
But he’s a huge lightweight cred yeah exactly he did to Jo Alvarez did to Thiago moess what Armen suian did to him yeah like just crushed him like just went out there which is like it’s it’s interesting uh here it I mean Ramirez comes in little heralded to say the
Least he got knocked I mean he got flatlined on the contender series by Carlos prates who’s just kind of a middling Prospect himself but that’s Pro but having said that yeah but H having said that Ramirez by Nature tries to do what what is the route to Victory against Moes I mean
He’s going to want to try to sprawl and brawl uh you know he’s uh he’s a kickboxer with uh good power good kicks uh throws straight punches doesn’t always throw in combination uh sometimes will kind of like leave his hands hanging he’s he’s susceptible to counters but I don’t
Think that’s something that Moes is really going to make him pay for I’m leaning Mo I mean he’s a two to one favorite for a reason he is much much much more seasoned at this level I I at this point the best fighter Ramirez has ever fought is Carlos prates and Mo
Has fought literally 15 people that are much better than that uh Ramirez also like he’s a good Striker he has got good like he has good power but he doesn’t really have kill you with one shot power so it could even be like a thing like the Johnson fight where
Ramirez has a great first round like Moes can’t get him down Ramirez’s jab is stuck to his face he’s kicking Moes like leg he’s looking great if he gets a little tired this is a short notice appearance if he makes a mistake like if Moes just manages to get inside on him
And trip him to the ground I I think it it could be over we haven’t seen too much of Ramirez’s ground game even on the like on the regional scene he tapped out a couple people early but it was people who were either horrifically overmatched or that he’d already hurt on
The feet and we didn’t get to see much of it like like they were on the ground for 20 seconds he wrapped up a choke and and it was over he’s not doing that to tho Mo if they go to the ground it’s going to be him trying to survive Thiago Mo
So gim me Moes here and I’m going to say he gets it done by second round submission the real question to me the real variable will be whether he does it in a way that makes him look good or does it in a way that makes this just
Relieved on the recap that he didn’t have to face Brad Rell on Saturday this fight has all the potential to look like a bunch of the fights from UFC 2 99 where it’s like going one way going one way and then all of a sudden it’s just a complete U-turn
Um Mitch Ramirez also I’m pretty sure he fought protests on short notice on the contender series up a weight class um because he’s a 55 and I know that fight was up at 70 and I think he was short notice um and like a long he just kind
Of wants to brawl a lot and like a long lanky sniper like proess is just going to I mean bless his heart look what he just did to Trevon Giles you know like that’s just prest’s thing you know even if it was a I mean he was losing the Trevon
Gil fight before he came back and sparked him but that’s just kind of prest’s thing um he’s just big long and that’s also Trevon giles’s thing yeah to be winning the fight until he gets yeah caught interest that’s she’s such an interesting dude um so like proess
Knocking out ramir like him not taking that fight would have probably been better for his career just because he’s like still so young in his career but at least they got his name on the map but he’s 31 he’s in my opinion like too old to be
Making his debut but he also has like way too little he does have an amateur career I think he has like three or four fights in his amateur career but like as an M you know 31 debuting in the UFC with like a pro record of six fights is just at 155 like
He’s not a heavyweight and he’s not a woman’s bantamweight um so it just you know it’s a short notice for a reason Thiago Moises is a dude like you look at his record if you just look at names on Thiago moyes’s record you’re like wow you know he’s he’s fought the
Who’s who’s like he’s fought banil derish even you know he’s got a win over Kurt hola like that’s not a you know that’s a good like Kurt hba’s decent he’s fought banil derush deir ismagulov the Michael Johnson fight was a typical Michael johnon son fight where
Like yeah you you know you you submitted him but you kind of got your it’s a win but it’s the closest win to a loss that you could have you know but you could also say the same thing about his Bobby green fight like he probably should have lost
That fight um but then when he’s but then when he fights a short notice oppon opponent like he did last year against mky C like he just went out there and iced him he’s such it’s just such an like the way he looked against Meli Costa going into
The benois St Den fight you’re like moissis could probably do something here no nope and like it’s just and Christos gagos like he went out there and kind of [ __ ] kicked him pretty easy too and gagos is like not a terrible Fighter um I think Mitch M’s skill
Level is much closer to like a mky Costa and Christos gagos than like truly dangerous dudes beat the [ __ ] out of Thiago Moises and I just don’t think Mitch Ramirez is like one of those like truly dangerous dudes that can you know lock down I mean it’s Islam mahv but outside
Of that like taco Moes can be a pretty good Grappler he he’s got a very good top game um and that’s his that’s his thing and I just think Mitch Ramirez is short notice he already likes to brawl like his his MMA game is to just
Like make a lot of stuff happen and on short notice against Thiago moisa like Melky tried that and Mel’s a better fighter than Ramirez I’m gonna go with Thiago Moises to probably get a first round submission but don’t be surprised if he gets like cracked and dazed and
Gets like shook up and scared at some point next up is a match up between two intriguing featherweight prospects in Christian Rodriguez and Isaac dgeren Rodriguez the 26-year-old uh roffa sport product is 10- one overall he’s three in one since joining the UFC as a veteran of season five of Dana White’s Contender
Series he fought he won he was not immediately signed so he went back uh to I forget which reasonal show it was but anyway he went won one more fight got signed to the UFC from there he lost to Jonathan Pierce in his debut but since then he has rattled off three straight
Wins over Joshua Williams Raul Rosas Jr and Cameron Simon the most recent of those the Simon win was in October of last year at UFC Fight Night YF vs Barbosa of course the one that really put uh Rodriguez’s name in everybody’s mouth was him handing RIS J his first
Professional loss but he will look to make it four wins in a row for himself and maybe hand another touted Prospect his first uh loss in the form of doarian uh dgeren 27y old Missouri native fighting out of uh Colorado is 6-0 as a pro he’s 1 and0 in the UFC he
Made his debut last August at UFC on ESPN Luke versus Dos anjos where he uh pounded out Francis Mar Marsh in the first round Marshall himself not a bad Prospect either so dgan will look to keep his uh Pro record undefeated he is moderately favored to do so dgeren is
Minus 160 Rodriguez plus 130 uh Dev I’ll I’ll flip this one to you uh I know you’re high at least on one of these guys as a prospect let me know what you think of this fight uh the upside of these two guys and and how you think it
Goes so this is at 145 as well where Christian Rodriguez had missed weight his last timeout and has you know they told him walk the plank basically um and he’s had lot of issues didn’t he miss weight against R roses Jr as well let me let me make sure because I I
Knew this was his move up to 145 but he’s had weight issues like quite a bit of them in the past yeah Rodriguez missed weight for his last two fights it’s kind of wild that he missed weight against roses when Rosas is the guy that looks absolutely
Gigantic for the division but yeah he missed weight twice in a row so they told him uh get you up to 145 the craziest thing too is you know like look what the UFC is doing with I mean look what they’ve been doing with Africa as a whole Cameron Simon was a
Pretty highly touted prospect that seems to be very well known in that part of the world um I’m just really surprised that the UFC had him fight R rosos the dude that they put a [ __ ] ton of you know media behind and like they put a
Lot of money into this kid and then they kind of turn around he missed weight and then they just turn around and do it all over like sometimes the UFC makes matchups that make total sense and sometimes we scratch our heads when they get M and then there’s the outcome and we’re like
Okay well I guess we do know why they did that but having him I mean Joshua Williams and then R Rosas Jr and Cameron Simon like two dudes that people like me and you were you know at least one like I was pretty high on Cameron Simon yeah
Like Simon is Simon has looked good especially you know being a drus dup’s like one of his main training part like there’s just a lot there with that kid so I’m just surprised that they kind of and Christian Rodriguez isn’t a nobody but he’s a like you could walk
Past him in a mall and you wouldn’t know that he’s a UFC you know um and you can’t say the same for you know his past two opponents um go ahead I’m sorry well all I’d say is that it made sense with r roses because R roses despite the weight Miss and
Everything came in is like a massive favorite he was bigger than two to one favorite so it was G to be a great building moment if you believed in roses oh he beat a good guy in Christian Rodriguez and Rodriguez even missed weight like that’s fantastic but when he
Came in against Cameron Simon he missed weight by five whole pounds and he was the favorite like at least the betters in the bookie knew sure that he was not a great matchup for Simon so it it was an interesting uh bit of matchmaking there and maybe at this point they’re just like
Okay Rodriguez is a good fighter on his own terms maybe we just need to start promoting him kind of like it took the UFC minute to realize what they had in Kelvin Gastelum you know like something like that sure and um this at 145
Um I think at 135 is where he needs to but he just got that same like Ray Borg issue where like you’re a good fighter but like you just can’t get the wh just like Kelvin gastam another why I said Gast like a dude that just can’t
Like Christian Rodriguez does a lot of things well he’s good boxer he’s got pretty decent power um his ability to you know just stay composed like in a gritty weird ugly fight like he can meet you where you’re best at and even if you’re better than him there it’s not
Enough to to to finish the fight and if he can get through that he can get to where he’s good you know and kind of just and kind of you know squeeze things out like he did against Cameron Simon that was a close fight like you know it
Could have been a 3027 one way but all rounds were close where he just seemed to be bigger more physical than Simon and hit harder than Simon but a lot of great scrambles in that fight he can scramble his ass off um but going up to face a dude like do
Arian um Isaac Dogan is a like this dude’s a hammer um I think the UFC is doing the same thing they did with r r rosos but maybe just not dumping the promotional coin into Isaac doarian but I’m pretty sure that they’re expecting the same outcome um clearly we know R Rosas isn’t
That great as we thought he was but I actually think Isaac dgeren is probably even better than the UFC thought Ral Rosas Jr is um Isaac dgeren is an absolute problem and he has like the perfect MMA game to be successful in the UFC where he’s got great takedown he’s a
Great chain wrestler he’s got great control and when he gets people on the ground he wants to absolutely [ __ ] ice them like he wants to take you down get a dagani handcuff and then elbow your head off um or ground and pound your head off like that’s just his game
If he punishes you enough and you give up a submission like he will try to do that but all of his like all of his wins are via finish and they’re they’re a mixture of they’re a mixture of submissions and elbows or punches um and
They all come off of his just ex he’s very athletic like his shot is quick as [ __ ] he has and all of like getting arm triangles at featherweight like you got to be real freaking strong to do that you’ve got to have a Christian Rodriguez is not the biggest
Dude and I I mean he’s given up takedowns to Cameron Simon and having close you know they’re going kind of tit fortat in scrambles I just see Isaac dgeren taking him down with his first takedown attempt um and maybe I’m wrong about Christian Rodriguez like maybe I should be more
Hype on him but I think dgeren is like the best prospect on this whole card like I think he has the best upside on the whole card um give me Isaac dgan to take Christian Rodriguez down elbow him a bunch force him to give his back
And choke him out round one rear naked choke yeah I like a lot of uh the analysis there the I I am am now a reluctant believer in Rodriguez like I I say that like I personally don’t like the guy just it took a minute to come around on him because
He well the weight misses are not a good look I mean if you’re if you’re missing weight in your mid 20s in a division that you’re not visibly oversized for well there’s a reason I said Kelvin gastan like dude it’s never going to get easier than this to make 170 pounds
What’s the problem uh like normally I I don’t care if Fighters pop for weed I’m glad that it’s sort of been quote decriminalized in MMA in a lot of jurisdictions but in the case of uh Kelvin gastl I’m like dude weed is the gateway drug to burritos and you don’t
Need more of those so uh so like yeah that’s not a great look for Rodriguez the other thing is that as a guy who’s good at everything but not great at any one thing and isn’t a jump out of the cage athletes like it just took me a
Minute to to come around on on on how good he is like he’s a very good fighter I agree with everything you said about bulgarien and I think he was actually kind of helped because in 2022 beginning of 2022 like this time two years ago he was Five-0
With five first round finishes and like only one of them had gone past the Midway point of the first round and that is when Glory MMA and fitness like that was the year Glory MMA and Fitness imploded and he was like their best homegrown Prospect I think he
Would have been maybe in the UFC sooner or on the contender series and against stiffer competition otherwise like I think he got a little reprieve because he had to take a little time off I think it’s great that he ended up at factory X yeah there are a
Lot there are a lot of great teams in this sport uh and there are a lot of different coaches with different coaching Styles some work for one fighter that don’t work for another but the one constant is what’s at a premium is training Partners quality training partners and factoryx is not only a
Great team but it has a ton of people in that General weight range like you walk in there and they have a couple dozen very good guys at 135 through 155 sure so and they’re at altitude you know they’re they’re outside of Denver y uh that gives me a little hope because my
Main concern is that dgan has still never been past the first round the one time he even came close against Marshall in his last fight it was a fight he was completely dominating and it’s always easier to have good cardio when no one is pushing you to do anything you don’t
Want to like you know the example I always use is BJ Penn like you know everybody always [ __ ] on his cardio but he only gassed out when he was losing like he has plenty of cardio to go three or five rounds if he’s dictating the pace it’s when other people are pushing
Him you know like anyway uh because what do we know about chrisan Rodriguez well he beat R Rose Jor by out toughing outlasting and out carding him and yeah he had the unfair advantage of missing weight by two pounds but here he’s not even gonna have like he he probably
Won’t even have to cut that much weight so if dgeren doesn’t club and sub him in the first round what does this thing look like after nine minutes what does it look like after 13 minutes uh I I’m a Believer in dgeren in in everything we’ve seen and
Really we’ve seen every out of him other than his late fight cardio and maybe how he looks when he isn’t the better wrestler like there’s always the question what will it look like when he’s not the better wrestler well Christian Rodriguez isn’t going to teach
Us that but he may teach us what dgeren looks like when someone’s pushing him late in the fight uh this could be a serious coming out moment for dgeren if he just wastes Rodriguez or better yet if he you know has kind of a competitive
Fight and turns it on in the middle of the fight that would be even better that would answer some questions about him it could also be a huge speed bump if he Wallops Rodriguez for about four minutes and then the wheel start falling off I’m leaning dgan here but I think
Rodriguez is Tough Enough that uh dgeren has to actually fight for 15 minutes I’m saying this is dogan’s first fight to go to decision I am picking him to win it but I’m picking him to win it because I expect him to sck away uh either sck
Away the first round in like emphatic 108 fashion compromise Rodriguez badly enough that you know he has that Advantage going forward or maybe even by just winning the first two rounds but give me give me dolgan by decision here in a fight where he actually gets pushed
Some and maybe we learn a few things about him uh maybe this is one of those fights where neither guy loses too much stock and it’s one that we could see these guys meeting again sometime down the road for higher Stakes next up on the UFC Vegas 88 main
Card is a middleweight match up between Gerald m and Brian barbarena mirart the 36-year-old Wisconsin native is 35 and 17 overall he is 10- n in the UFC he is on a two-fight losing streak uh got knocked out last April by Joe pyer in the first round
Came back in August at UFC 292 and dropped a split decision to Andre Petroski he will look to snap that losing streak at the expense of barbarena who was on a three-fight losing streak of his own uh 34y old I mean I I know he’s like fighting
Out of Minnesota anyway 18- 11 overall he is 9- 10 in the UFC as I mentioned uh he is on a three-fight losing streak most recently he moved up from welterweight where he spent the bulk of his career to middleweight and was given uh rough welcome in the form of mmud mov he
Dropped a unanimous decision there uh so he now on a three-fight losing streak spanning two weight classes uh job very possibly on the line here and he is not favored to get it done as mirart is a comfortable minus 240 favorite barbaren plus 200 on the comeback all right this
Is a weird fight I mean for one thing it’s weird to have a fight on a main card even on a fight night between two guys that have never been in the top 10 and are and are on a three-fight losing streak and a two-fight losing streak
Respectively I mean if you’re going to have a guy on a losing streak on a main card it’s usually someone like someone like Thiago Moyes or ENT St PR that like made it to the top 10 or even made it to a title shot these guys have never
Really been ranked and both are probably on the down slope of their careers it’s it’s a weird matchup it’s a weird card placement but I don’t hate it uh mirart I mean he is what he is I said this about somebody else earlier down the card I can’t oh I said it about
Chadan heler mirart is fighting probably as well as he ever has at age 36 and the reason for that is even when he was 26 plus athleticism was never what made his game go what makes Mir sart’s game go is incredible toughness heart cardio and a very opportunistic
Submission game like he’s done it many times in the UFC I believe he’s the UFC’s now all-time leader in Guillotine choke submissions or something like that but what he does over and over again is he gets his ass whooped for about the first nine minutes of a fight turns it
On and ends up guillotining his opponent or taking him down and slapping a rear naked choke on him it’s what he did on the regional scene it’s what he’s done in the UFC for almost 10 years now it’s the Gerald mirart thing he’s gonna do it
Until the wheels fall off and even now he’s like he guillotined Bruno Silva just like a year and a half ago the Gap in athleticism between Bruno Silva and Gerald mhart is about as high as we ever saw in the cage in the UFC that year he
Hasn’t looked great in his last two fight well the Petroski fight was close but he got blown out of the water by Joe pyer but pyer is huge young and an outstanding athlete who hits like a truck that’s I mean maybe Piper is the kind of guy
That one or two times out of 10 Mir shark is survive the first round and make things interesting late but a lot of times he’s just going to get lamped by that kind of fighter Petroski another one who like not as explosive as pyer but a big strong athletic middleweight and
Petroski being a good wrestler that’s rough because mirart has underrated wrestling and you know that’s something that he uses to to finish compromised foes you know get him down into his world that wasn’t going to work as well on patoski everything lines up for him to shine against barbarena because not only is
Barbarena moving up like he’s moved up to 185 after not being a very big 170 he’s gonna be pudgy like well yeah I mean he was he was against marov and barbarena is I mean Keith believes and I I might not agree but I don’t laugh at it
Barbarina might have the worst defensive wrestling of any fighter like outside of heavyweight in the UFC like his his takedown defense is absolutely terrible and even at 170 he had a a reputation as an action fighter but it’s that was kind of code for a guy that threw pretty good
Volume but didn’t have great power so all the usual routes to Victory against Gerald meart like hit him hard and don’t let him take you down are are gone uh normally mirart is a guy that I like to pick when he’s the underdog this is about as comfortable as I’ve ever felt
Taking meard as a favorite like for for barbarina to win this fight something would have to go really really strange and unexpectedly uh this may be one of those rare fights where meard is the bully he’s big he’s gonna be a lot bigger he is he’s he’s big and there are
Only a few fights like against uh Dustin susus like mirar was just he was the bigger like he was the better Striker like it’s not often that is the better striker in the first round of fight mmed mov I don’t know what happened in that fight weird ass
Fight but like he’s out there like outboxing marov outboxing uh mov tapped him out uh obviously against donon win this is going to be another one of those fights where mirart might not have to hang around and like survive Court reconstructive surgery he might just be
Able to put it on Barbara from the beginning uh mirart he’s not super fast but he has a decent jab that he’s willing to throw out there uh for people that kind of come in and crash the pocket and barbaran is going to need to come inside of his reach because mirart
Is taller and has longer arms uh mirart is good in the clinch you know he he uses the clinch to kind of slow down faster Fighters than himself uh he can put some punishment on there and he’s pretty good at avoiding punishment himself and as always like from the
Clinch he’s good at slapping on a guillotine especially against the shorter fighter gim me mirart here and I’m going to say he gets it done hell I’m going to say he gets the first- round submission I’m going to say like he does put it on him a little on
The feet early on uh an early Collision ends with mirart maybe tripping barbarena to the canvas or even doing the ill-advised slap on a guillotine and fall to guard but mirart could then sweep the top and finish with a mounted Guillotine but yeah give me meart to
Just really kind of uh dominate Brian barbarena for as long as this goes and I’m saying that’s not very long uh mirar by first round sub yeah this is such a funny I I think you know the scene in um Lord of the Rings where you know all the Riders
There’re the in is screaming death death Death I think that’s probably why that this is on the main card um because the UFC is like well Brian Barb Brana gets submitted very easily and jro Mard is the most likely fighter to just die by getting
Hit at one time as well um so that’s even though a Brian Barbra hurt Vincente luk but like it’s been a very long time since he’s I mean he punched Robbie Lawler like a million times yeah like couldn’t beat up the UFC the UFC Booth is gonna
Talk about him like he’s Matt Brown yeah and what’s like how many fights in the UFC is that win over Robbie Lawler in what like 20 19 what is it 2020 let me look um like how many how many fights is that going to get him uh it was 20 it
Was 2022 but he’s lost three in a row since then yeah like how many like you beat up Robbie Lawler in 2022 like and you couldn’t finish him um I don’t know why Gerald mirart just can’t do the same thing RDA did like you know obviously RDA is a much greater
Fighter in general than Gerald miar however he’s three weight classes smaller yeah and like that makes a difference Gerald M’s big don’t see why he doesn’t just get on the front foot Brian barbarena is not some like slick backf foot counter puncher he could just jab him four times
Walk him into the cage chain wrestle him against the cage force him to give his back you know or roll like Brian barbaren is what he’s bad at just kind of matches up with what Gerald mhart can be good at and I I don’t think it’s going to be one of those fights
Where jro mhart has to hang tough just because I don’t think you know in 2024 I don’t think Brian barbra’s venomous enough to make him have to survive anything especially up at 185 um he’s already fought short chubby dudes in donon win give me jro mirart to win by second round submission when
Penny kianzad and Macy shison face off on the main card of UFC Vegas 88 it will almost three years to the day from the last time Shon successfully made 135 pounds we will see how this goes since then she has three fights including one where she actually missed weight so
Featherweight Plus at any rate uh Penny kianzad versus Macy chasson in a rematch that nobody really saw coming but we here it is and we have it kianzad the 32-year-old let’s see Swede of Iranian descent fighting out of Denmark is 16 and seven overall she is six and four since
Joining the UFC as the former cage Warriors bantamweight champ and the tough 28 uh featherweight runner runner up she is coming in off a loss she fought just once last year it was at uh UFC London where she dropped the unanimous decision to klin Via prior to that she had a win
Over Lena lansburg all the way back almost two full years ago so she steps back into the cage here uh looking to get back in the win column against chasson 32-year-old Louisiana native fighting out of Dallas Fort Worth is 8-3 overall she is six and3 since joining
The UFC as the featherweight winner of the 28th season of The Ultimate Fighter where she of course beat Kad in their first meeting she is coming in off a loss as well uh fought all the way back in September of 2022 at UFC 27 79 falling I mean falling victim to one
Of the more impressive SL freakish finishes uh we’ve seen in a couple years where arani aldana hit her with an upkick to the liver as Shon stood over her and that was all she wrote uh so TKO loss at the by freakish finish at the freakish UFC 279 she’s been off for well
Over a year she steps back in here and despite the long layoff she is a comfortable favorite chasson is minus 210 kianzad plus 170 all right uh you said in between segments here and I’m just going to quote and repeat you we’re GNA talk about this fight and then it’s not going
To happen I what are the betting odds that so are the odds I’m trying to find the best way to say this Macy chosan is like a two to one favorite would you make the odds greater that this fight doesn’t happen I it’s pick out Le I think I
Think it’s closer to even money but but no well no I I I I’d put it this way it’s around even money that Shone misses weight I would say I I’d say it’s slightly in the plus that she misses weight badly enough that the fight is called off like I but 139 pound
Catchweight not un not out of the realm of possibility at all here’s the thing I personally think chassan wasted and has wasted too much time and too much of her career trying to make 135 pounds there are some women that can make 135 pounds comfortably and just haven’t buckled
Down and done it Shon is not one of them she is huge I I’ve been I’ve been face to face with Macy Shon a couple of times she is taller than me and while she looks drained on the scale when she’s cutting to a as close
To 135 lbs as she can get like she looks like thin as a rail but in fact she’s kind of got broad shoulders she’s got muscles like she’s she’s one of the bigger women ever to fight in the UFC like she doesn’t cut exactly the same figure as you know Megan Anderson or
Anything also much better fighter than Megan Anderson ever was uh she is one of the few women in the UFC that was built for fighting at 145 pounds and less than two years ago she beat Norma Dumont who is the other woman that really can’t comfortably make
135 and dant’s the one that missed weight that could have should have been a title Eliminator to fight Chris cyborg for the 145 pound title and it just didn’t like it didn’t turn into that like nunz right I’m sorry I said Chris cyborg I meant Amanda Nunes
Uh yeah I mean either way you know like uh chasson is also like a good example of a fighter who knows she presents a physical matchup problem and actually uses that she knows I’m taller than all of my opponents I have more reach than most of them I’m stronger than most of
Them and she’s the ultimate bully she’s uh tends to be an all the way out or all the way in fighter like she’ll either try to keep Fighters at range with uh you know a long jab and with some punishing kicks or if they crash the
Pocket she’ll get all the way in where she’s a bully in the clinch like nasty knees uh just really good at making women wear her weight and just wearing them down uh ruffling them up with short little shots uh I mean we saw how this went last time she and kianzad fought and
While we could clearly tell it was friends fighting she also kind of dominated uh kianzad at her best is a good low power boxer and a kind of scramble heavy Grappler I mean her really uncomfortable nickname used to be sexy scramble which just sounds like something I wouldn’t order at IHOP but
When it went to the ground just undominated she almost tapped her out in the first round she did tap her out in the second just you know she took like kenad wanted to scramble and she son just took her back effortlessly both times she just I believe she ran out of
Time in the first round then in the second round she she throttled her uh I have the feeling that this is going to be a similar thing the only real Advantage kianzad has is that she has proven that she can make 135 with no problem so if Shon is severely
Compromised by the weight cut maybe all KZ out has to do is survive the first round that I’m not a betting man we aren’t generally a betting show but that’s the thing that would make me nervous about laying money on ches or moving her into
A parlay as a greater than two to one favorite is that you know what their first fight was at 145 pounds which definitely favored chasson and kianzad still made it to the second round here at w35 I could see sh really putting it on her but it’s still a 10 n round and
Shona sucking wind at the end of it and I’m I’m this close to talking myself into the upset I hate the odds yeah like that’s that’s the problem I hate the odds Shon hasn’t fought in almost a year and a half it was at 145 pounds and she got finished with a body
Shot and I think the reason why she got finished by that body shot is because she’s cutting weight to 145 and she’s freaking huge because she’s beating ARA Alana’s ass until she got up kicked yep like and Ian I don’t know this I don’t live with her or train with her but I
Expect Macy Shone walks around like at around 160 165 pounds like maybe more uh you know what [ __ ] it man give me Penny kenad here’s the thing shashan is undeniably tough even when she gets tired it’s not like she just quits I mean you you do have to put her away
Alana like if you get kicked in the liver it doesn’t matter if this the spirit is indeed is willing the flesh is too feeble like you die brel Pennington had to actually choke her like kianzad isn’t going to be able stopper but I could see Kenza just
Stepping on the gas as Shone slows down winning the last two rounds of kind of a miserable fight to watch with you know cardio kickboxing but yeah I I just don’t have faith in Macy chasson at 135 pounds after this much time away give me kianzad by decision in the upset I mean
All you need to know about shon’s like toughness is maybe part of her weight problem is that she has the uncuttable weight of like bullets in her body I think she might be the only fighter on on UFC roster known to like have bullets in her body so I mean that that’s uncuttable
Weight right there she she should get an exemption for that couple ounces anyway kean’s out by decision you know what’s crazy too is like why wouldn’t I mean if they didn’t have to make 135 pounds like why wouldn’t Macy Chon probably have like a close fight with rockel Pennington tomorrow you know like
The women’s Phantom weight is just in a very interesting state right now um seems like we’re gonna have a savior next month of the division maybe maybe maybe um if if this person can make 135 you know what I I actually hate I hated women’s 145 because I hate a
Division that doesn’t exist like you’re putting like they literally made us watch Felicia Spencer versus Amanda Nunes for a title like as a like like that just shouldn’t have happened in the UFC but like at this point just have women’s 115 women’s 125 women’s 145 that way you can at least have fights
Happen just bump all of 135 to 145 wh women’s 125 basically becomes the light heavyweight of women yep and like and it literally is when you watch them fight too which is funny um because this is the like this is like this is the equivalent of heavyweight ma um just
Less violent but Macy chesson is to me I think she’s a much better fighter all around than panic konad but konad has shown the ability to make the weight has shown the ability to fight a hard fight like her fight with Caitlyn Vieira and a loss like people
Scored that fight for her it was a close fight um Iran Alana got a title fight off of beating Macy chesson though like with the weird up kick really cool finish but one of those nonreplicable but I hate these Fighters that haven’t fought in over a year coming in as favorites like the
These if you haven’t fought in a year and you’re supposed to be favored like more than two to one it should automatically just get real close to pick aods you know just because of chosan is so good but just her inability to make weight she’s so so unreliable um and then cutting weight
That’s probably why she got finished with that body shot man like you don’t that’s a weird shot like getting hit in the liver can shut down anyone you know yeah but at the same time like I I don’t I’m gonna pick Macy chosan I hate that I’m gonna pick her because I don’t
Think she’s gonna make the weight and I think the weight cut to 135 like unless she spent the last year getting her body right to make 135 which I highly doubt um I’d be much more hyp much more high on her here but I just P
Canad can just if she makes this fight real ugly and if there’s a third round start to this fight you know Keon OD is probably like minus 300 on the live odds but I I’m gonna pick Macy chasan I just think she she can mug her in the
Clinch like kianzad likes to be in the clinch she likes to get those like body lock takedowns her her game she wants to try to Grapple and be a topside Grappler at times or she’s just kind of a low low volume lower power I could just see chasan just
Effing her up in the Clin she’s real dirty there this fight’s not gonna happen Man chasen by [Laughter] decision third from the top on the UFC Fight Night 239 main card is a light heavyweight matchup between ENT St PR and Kennedy zqu St PR The 40-Year-Old Tennessean is
26- 17 overall he’s 14- 12 in the UFC uh he’s 14- 10 at light heavyweight he did have a quick two-fight jaunt at heavyweight back in 2020 2021 uh losing both of those he lost the last time he fought it was almost exactly a year ago at UFC fight night onra versus
Blanchfield last February he got knocked out in under a minute by Felipe Linds thought he had made noises about retiring at that point uh but he’s back 13 months later to face uh ziwu the 31-year-old Nigerian by way of Dallas Fort Worth is 12-4 overall he is
Six and4 since joining the UFC as a two-time veteran of Dana White’s Contender series uh he won by decision on on the very first season back in 2017 didn’t get signed right away he won went back and won a couple more fights in Texas appeared on season two knocking
Out Dennis Bryant with a first round head kick that was good enough to get him signed since then as I stated he’s six and four he did lose his last timeout got knocked out in the first round by Dustin jacobe last August at UFC on ESPN sandhagen versus font prior
To that he had been on a three-fight win streak uh and really seemed on the verge of realizing some of his obvious potential now needs to bounce back from that set back against jacobe he is a prohibitive favorite to do so biggest favorite on the card by far zuku is minus 550 St
PR plus 380 I get it man weirdness aside rough last couple years aside Omen St PR whenever he does retire will probably make it to the MMA Hall of [ __ ] awesome like there he should the thing it’s not that he’s barely above 500 in in the UFC it’s
That he he should never have won a single fight in the UFC like what’s his Camp it’s well it’s it’s always been Knoxville MMA where he’s the only fighter of note ever to come out of there and it it shows because he has the weirdest most idiosyncratic game of any
Top 10 fighter of the modern era and by the modern era let’s just be generous and say going all the way back to tough like back to 2005 in the last almost 20 years yeah he’s the he has the the weirdest skill set of any guy that spent
Significant time in the top 10 because this guy was a top 10 light heavyweight for several years and what describe oven s PR’s offensive skill set well uh he throws head kicks like some people throw Jabs and doesn’t actually throw Jabs and he can sometimes effortlessly scoop
Anybody in the world up for a double leg but then he’ll get guillotine and and somehow he tricks people into letting him shoulder choke them like it’s it’s like you tried you know your your kid brought you like you know a box of Legos that just had like the little odds and
Ends left you had to try to build them something out of it and you like built them the Taj [ __ ] Mahal it’s incredible the amount of success he’s had and there are certain reasons one he well when he wasn’t 40 years old a great athlete athlete yeah he and another
Sport athlete not an MMA but here’s the thing like you know Keith and I have talked about this yeah you can never get an Eric Anders fight without the UFC Booth saying that he played linebacker for Alabama he played for National Championship team yes but in the case of Anders his
Athleticism didn’t really translate into things that make you a successful middleweight in MMA OSP is different and OSP like I don’t think he was as good a football player he certainly wasn’t on as good of teams like being in like being on like early ODS Tennessee teams
That probably went like you know five and seven but he’s a weight class up and he did get athletic gifts that that function well he is incredibly strong uh he’s huge it doesn’t show in the tale of the tape like 63 205 well sure like lots
Of uh light heavyweights are 63 and 205 no like you get near this dude like his thighs are as big as my waist his arms are as big as my legs he’s deceptively huge uh when he wants to be he is fast and fluid like his striking looks Herky jerky
Because that’s how he likes to fight uh it’s almost like early early career Jon Jones Never developed beyond that because you know when Jon Jones debuted in the UFC like he like literally didn’t throw a jab he’d like lead with spinning elbows and he was a great wrestler but
He wouldn’t just shoot doubles on people he used you know like just more unconventional takedowns he just he had a freaky and kind of ill-matched set of skills that worked just because he was so good like and then he gradually developed into like a very good complete
Striker one of the greatest wrestlers in MMA history like all all all the things like OSP never got past that stage maybe it’s just he didn’t have the same potential maybe it is sticking at the same small camp forever I don’t care why I in an era where the sport is becoming
Increasingly homogeneous you get fewer Specialists you get fewer oddballs uh I love that do at St PR’s been around yeah he’s not been great recently and yeah he’s not going to win here and yeah it’s gonna it’s going to be ugly but it doesn’t take away from
How great he has been what does he have left at age 40 not a whole lot like his for him to win he always did best when his opponents gave him an opportunity like a guy that has like four shoulder chokes obviously opponents had to make
Mistakes at some point there it was only in the last one or two that he actually developed setups for it but sort of Kennedy’s etu making a terrible mistake which he does in a minute exactly we’ll get to that in a minute but short of that OSP just doesn’t have any hope like
He at this point he’s not in great shape so when he does make 205 it’s just through sheer force of will like you can tell he’s just drawn dehydrated has no cardio and he makes up for having no cardio by throwing even less volume than usual he was always a low volume striker
That just wanted to catch people with one huge head kick or one huge uppercut now it’s just agonizing it’s like every punch costs them money uh he was always a good wrestler who underused his wrestling now that’s gone I don’t know whether he can wrestle anymore I I wouldn’t assume he can just
Now that he’s almost 41 like really it’s it’s zukuu running straight into a huge P maker zetu blundering into a guillotine or like that’s about it because otherwise as flawed as he is this is Kennedy zaku’s fight to lose uh Kennedy zeku I can’t believe he’s over
30 now if I it felt like he was going to be 25 or 26 years old forever he’s 31 that’s not old at 205 pounds what he has going for him he’s on the Mount Rushmore of the biggest light heavyweights ever to do it like like Johnny Walker is is
Is number one tied for number two like you’ve kind of got the the bats zuku and his training partner Ryan span well train zun is training partner Ryan span are like two and and 2B uh Rockit could be up there there’s a few of them but I mean he’s six5 he’s so big
Kennedy he is big and he’s got almost an exaggerated John Jones physique like his his legs are long and a little bit thin and it allows him to put a deceptive amount of muscle onto his upper body like if you like if you look at his shd doog fight fighter photo which is
Probably right beneath us right now if I didn’t tell you he was 65 and 205 pounds you might make different assumptions like he’s got the upper body of like he’s huge yeah he’s huge big and he’s big he is uh and he at least knows to
Try and use that length like he doesn’t always succeed like he’s still mistake prone but he does try to keep people at Bay with a nasty jab uh his head kicks are terrifying he is another guy that can do well all the way in he is punishing in
The clinch uh the olberg fight there you go theber like uh Carlos olberg was tuning up Kennedy’s ET equil like oldberg not quite as big but at least as athletic and just a much more experienced much I mean just a much better kickboxer in terms of technique he was beating
Zuku bad and all it took was uh Kennedy zku to catch him with one big shot ball started rolling downhill I uh he’s still error prone but in what Dev of course has called and I always quote it the lowest fight IQ division in MMA I mean he’s not the one finding ways
To lose to iwan Kaba and Devin Clark you know who were two guys that are in that same bucket uh he still loses when he faces a demonstrably better fighter like Dustin jacobe is another guy who’s very big well it’s kind of like the oldberg fight he’s he’s almost as big and is
Just a better kickboxer crafty just so much more crafty Dustin jacobe a guy that like fought Alex Pera in glory is not going to be scared of anything coming his way from Kennedy ziguo uh but open S prw doesn’t offer any of that if they fight all the way out it’ll be Kennedy
Zetu head kicking open St PR if they fight all the way in unless like zuku loses the head position and underhook overhook battle so badly that like s PR man managed to like Guillotine them or something it’ll be like zuku punishing St PR like this is it’s a bad mismatch
And it’s mostly a bad mismatch because St Pruis is so shot like he he he hasn’t even looked very inspiring in defeat in I’m gonna say like five years he looked okay against Rothwell but he was like scared because Rothwell is huge yes yeah that’s when that’s when
He decided he didn’t he didn’t like the whole experiment yeah but he did well like against but he looked like [ __ ] since then I mean Once Upon a Time like dude he head kicked Cory Anderson Cory Anderson might be the third best light heavyweight in the world right now he
Knocked him the [ __ ] out yeah uh his last fight that was fun to watch was his fight against Tyson Pedro like almost like six years ago anyway I I’ve talked who just retired time yeah I’ve talked a long time about a fight that’s actually pretty easy to call uh the only real
Question is whether OSP has kind of enough fighting Spirit enough physically left in the tank to make it to the yeah enough Modello uh and I’m not sure he does this may be one of the things where even like as a proud warrior and and all those cliché
Just the spirit indeed is willing but the the flesh is weak especially if Kennedy starts punishing him to the body in the clinch or hits him with a head kick and dude if you’re unconscious it doesn’t matter how Brave you are give me Kennedy’s e by first
Round uh finish and the only question will be whether it’s a like TKO where the ref is just pulling him off as he like piles on the punishment or it’s an actual knockout where he just ices him or hits him with a knee to the liver and
And is done but I think these things over in the first round you know what I was thinking I’m like why is OSP in this fight and I thought started thinking and he’s probably the highest paid fighter on this whole card and it may be buy a very considerable amount dude
OSP this is going to be his he this is his 27th fight in the UFC his Venom money is going to be more than almost anybody on the prelims makes and he was off of those like old school Joe Silva contracts where like he might be making like aund something, no he he
Came out of the strike force acquisition like so he came over with people that that had contracts that the UFC was grouchy about picking up and I’m I’m sure it’s been renegotiated sure you know you never get paid less you know I mean they they may
Actually have like forced him to to to take less but he also stepped in in uh to that interim title fight against Jon Jones on short notice and kind of Saved their bacon so at any rate like I I would bet he’s no I bet he’s making six
Figures yeah like he’s making a 100 Grand so like that’s probably why OSP at 40 is taking this fight because he’s getting I mean unless your name is Andre olowski like you’re not gonna find an easier fight for you know that little money how however like he should be fighting Andre
Rovski at heavyweight like that’s the kind of fights OSP should be in today or like why isn’t he fighting iwan kilaba like the iwan just fought Philipe a ly like why isn’t Filipe Linds fighting Kennedy and Juku if I said his name properly and then why aren’t we
Getting OSP ver versus iwan kilaba or like Devin CL like he shouldn’t be fighting someone like this is just a setup fight in my opinion I think the UFC you know likes Kennedy here I think they know he can be violent Kennedy is a dude that is known for
Having defensive lapses however you know he’s a well schooled fighter Forest MMA is a good camp it’s definitely a much better Camp than wherever OSP is training Knoxville Knoxville MMA it’s probably Johnny Knoxville MMA um like what who knows the you know um Kennedy should Kennedy should go out there and
Just throw a ton of high power volume at OSP and just wash him with a lot of violence like I think that’s what this fight will look like but I also wouldn’t be surprised if OSP just like throws one head kick and it hurts him and drops him just because
It’s it’s it’s 205 man like that’s another reason we’re talk like talking about OSP and why he’s stuck around with his weird skill light heavyweight it’s just it’s the division for weirdness um but Kennedy should probably win this fight by a first round knockout and it probably be violent especially coming
Off of that loss against Jobe probably want one that one back he’s he’s a young dude and he’s got all the tools to you know just get better and osp’s not getting better that brings us to the co- event of UFC Vegas 88 a welterweight match up between Brian battle and anel Losa
Battle the 29-year-old North Carolina native is 10-2 overall he’s 5- one in the UFC since joining as the middleweight winner of the 29th season of The Ultimate Fighter despite having joined the UFC as a middleweight he dropped to welterweight where he is three in one actually and on a two-fight
Win streak he has uh he fought twice last year knocking out Gabe Green in just 14 seconds in May then coming back at UFC fight night physie versus gamrot in September and choking out AJ Fletcher in the second round he will look to make it uh three in a row and continue to
Cement himself as one of the greater success stories to come out of tough since the series was brought back a couple years ago he’ll have to go through Losa to do it Losa the 30-year-old congales is 10 and3 overall he’s two- one since joining the UFC as a
V of season five of Dana White’s Contender series he fought on the contender Series in 2021 dropped a decision to Jack dad atanta went and won one more fight on uh in Florida I believe got signed to the UFC where he is two- one with a lost to munir lazz
And then wins over AJ Fletcher and REE mcke the most recent of those the mcke fight was at UFC Paris in September he’ll look to make it three in a row uh he is not favored to do so battle is minus 170 Losa plus 140 Dev I’ll toss this to you uh these
Are two I mean guys that came more or less out of nowhere to win a couple fights in a row in one of the toughest divisions in the UFC do you believe in either of them as a future Contender and who do you think wins here on
Saturday I can pick the winner but as a contender welterweight is just so you know it’s so bottlenecked and not only is it bottleneck like we’re just like not dudes like balal Muhammad can’t get a can’t get the right fights and you you’ve got MVP that just came in and just inserted you
Know with guys like MVP just showing up out of nowhere at 36 years old you got dudes like Wonder Boy at 40 grasp you know grasping and clasping onto it’s just I’ll be very surprised if either one of these dudes get ranked in their UFC career but I think um Brian battle
Is the most likely to be ranked out of the two however the number 15 dude in the division Rena Faker dinov kind of kicked his ass um so it’s yeah um Brian battle actually has good wins in his very short MMA career like even though it was an exhibition bout
Like the Andre trosi win on The Ultimate Fighter that ninja choke I was up a division patoski like outweighed him by like 40 pound like like 40 pounds um ran batt is a dude that’s not gonna be deterred from a a a crazy fight um very good opportunistic BJJ game and that’s
Kind of what he you know made his money on but all of a sudden like he just started knocking fools out and like not tko’s attrative like the the head kick of Tashi Sato was like real [ __ ] violent yeah he lost to rock [ __ ] Dino
But then you put him against a dude that wants to stand like Gabe green no one really knocks out Gabe green and like just brawl like I don’t want to say brawling in the pocket but like a technical brawl in the pocket like ice is Gabe green
And and then he kind of goes out there and just dog walks AJ Fletcher who is I mean AJ Fletcher might be the tiniest Walter weight that’s ever fought in the UFC outside of like BJ benen um like AJ Fletcher I can’t think of a smaller welterweight shorter shorter shorter
Yeah I mean he does have muscle on him but yeah huge but like reach reach wise like the dude’s got like a 60 like his reach is incredibly small no it it just looks like uh Michael Chandler decided to move up to 170 but didn’t get any
Taller just got wider y yes um and then an anel Losa like he’s he comes from a great Camp he’s got great training Partners he’s always he’s been around like he’s around tons of highle dudes but I still don’t really know like what he’s good at like he wants to strike with people
But he’s he hasn’t finished a fight since 2016 he’s all of his fights go to decision whether he wins or loses but like a win against Reese mcke in 2023 means means absolutely nothing to me and you’re supposed to finish a dude like AJ Fletcher um I think Brian battle has shown deficiency
Genes against dudes that are big heavy topside Grapplers like in Rat Faker dinov but even Andre Petroski like couldn’t bully Brian battle Um what are the odds again battle’s minus 170 Los is plus 140 I like those odds for Brian battle in this fight honestly I I think he’s going to go out there throw a lot of volume anelos is he’s durable but he doesn’t have a crazy
High he doesn’t throw a ton of volume it’s not extremely punishing and battle is just a dude that’s looks something like the Petroski fight where an loose is getting kind of tagged up on the feet with a lot of volume and decent power where he you know gets
Ninja choked get shoots you know shoots out of desperation to try to switch things up and well now you just falling into Brian battle’s best game um and he has one of the coolest corniest tattoos Brian battle in the game where he’s got a bunch of tally marks and he just
Recently posted on his social media he’s got the he’s got a plenty of talles but right now he’s at four so now he just needs the five to cross it over and I think an is gonna be the five y i I’m with you I I agree that at
170 if you ask me if you know Fighter X is a future top 10 fighter I’m picking no almost by default just because it’s so hard to get there obviously balam muhamad is the gold standard right now well well he alongside Mor Rob Wes villy is the gold standard for winning a
Million fights in a row and never making impressively yeah but even as far back as like you know 2017 2018 people like uh Santiago ponzano and bente Luke were winning like five six fights in a row and just not even getting into the top 10 just because it was such a stack
Division and because of that either of these guys would have to do a whole hell of a lot to to do it but it’s either guy I do think it’s battle uh dropping the 170 really made things click for him I mean that’s where the powers come from
He’s not that different it’s just his power didn’t tell on 185 Pounders the way it does on on 170 Pounders uh and his willingness to just like be in a spot to throw with dudes that are he’s bigger than or are his size like that’s something I really noticed about him at
170 where he’s just like these dudes aren’t bigger than me they’re not going to hurt me [ __ ] it let’s throw down yeah and that can make for interesting going against Loa because Loa looks like he should be he’s huge he looks like he should be a knockout machine he like if somebody
Showed you an Losa and said this guy is the next W Buckley you’d be like that tracks but he really isn’t like he has decent power but it’s not off the charts you mentioned that the finishes have really dried up once he kind of got to
The next level you know he’s just kind of a med to low output Striker you know who who can hurt people but is not putting kill shots on on folks here I think battle actually has better one shot power I think he also throws more volume I think he also has better cardio
And I think he’s definitely if not the better the more proven ground fighter most fights for me they they’ve if it’ss the you know whoever is the more Dynamic finisher against Whoever has the the better durability in cardio and in this fight it’s battle for
Both so I I’m with you not a betting show but I I like battle as a minus 170 favorite I I think he has a lot of routes to Victory here that’s the best line on this card yeah um Losa could surprise us but it would be a legitimate surprise because he’d
Have to do something to battle that one nobody’s done to battle and two he hasn’t done to anybody since fighting on lowlevel Regional promotions give me battle by decision here and I bet he probably wins all three rounds but kind of wins going away where it gets more
And more pronounced as he pours it on and Los to slows with that we come to the main event of UFC Fight Night 239 a heavyweight clash between Tai tuivasa and Marchin tybera tuivasa the 30-year-old Australian is 12 and or sorry 14- six overall he’s 8- six in the UFC he’s on a
Three-fight losing streak uh having fallen to suril Gan Sergey pavlovich and Alexander vulkov in his last three fights stretching back to September of 2022 uh obviously would like very much to get back into the wind column here uh to do so he’ll have to get past tybera the 38-year-old pole is 24-8 overall
He’s 11- s in the UFC he lost his last timeout he was the comeback opponent for Tom Aspen last July Aspen of course coming back from that catastrophic knee injury they kept him on the shelf for a year uh faced him in the headliner of UFC Fight Night 224 in London and was
Basically the canvas on which aspal painted or wrote his comeback story as Aspen just ran right through him in 73 seconds prior to that tyur had been on a two-fight win streak against Alexander Romanov and blacko ianov odds pretty close but they do favor the Australian he is minus 125
Tyur is plus 100 on the comeback ah I’ll say this much these two fighters are both known quantities at this point that that is not to say that they have not both improved because they have and and I’ll get to that uh taiu iasa at a glance you see okay well he’s streaky
His UFC run a three-fight win streak a three-fight losing streak a five-fight win streak that actually got him to the edges of the title picture and then the three-fight losing streak that he’s currently on when you look past the streaks it’s actually pretty like it’s it’s the the pattern becomes obvious his
Win over Derrick Lewis is really the only kind of surprising thing other than that he’s lost to the good Fighters and he’s beaten the bad ones that that’s kind of how it plays out he is still what he was a huge surpr surprisingly Nimble Slugger with crushing power in everything he
Doesn’t throw a whole ton of kicks and he basically never throws kicks higher than about the the lower thigh but his kicks are hard they are thuing he has nasty power in both hands and as he demonstrated against Lewis uh he can he can put you away with an elbow as well
His problem is literally everything else uh for people who can Wade through the fire he does not have good takedown defense uh he does not have I mean defensive grappling wise he basically has the Derrick Lewis Mark hunt like I’m big and strong and I’m G to bench press
You and then get up if that doesn’t work he doesn’t have anything uh his gas tank is acceptable like at least over the past couple years none of his fights have gone past the second round and his cardio has certainly not been the reason for any of the losses like he lost
Because he got no sorry the gone fight went past the went to the third round but even there his cardio yep he he Hur gone but uh his cardio wasn’t the reason he lost any of those fights he he lost to better Fighters yeah uh so that’s what tuas is
Like he’s just a better version of what he was when he dropped into the UFC back in 2017 but during his first losing streak where he lost to Junior dos Santos blacko Ivanov and Sergey SPAC were I mean just kind of jovial and and laughing and likable
And you know would just kind of like laugh and dance his way out to the cage and then just look overmatched and not have any Plan B and not make any adjustments I remember being on a preview show with uh blae Henry from the fight library and and a couple others
And one of us asked do you think taiu iasa trains and it wasn’t even do you think he trains Jiu-Jitsu do you think he trains cardio it was just do you think taiu iasa Trains full stop and a couple of us laugh be asked what like
Today well I but that’s the thing I don’t think the same thing can be asked today I think he’s evolved some where I mean I still I I still don’t know if he’s like putting on the old ghee but he’s clearly getting enough uh like time and training that
He’s developing new wrinkles the the stuff he knocked Derrick Lewis out with is stuff he could not have done a few years before that because totally he he went into Lewis’s world and put him away because Derrick Lewis is the heavyweight vers of what Dustin por has always been
Incredible at where he will go toe-to-toe with you fearlessly because he trusts his instincts and reflexes and durability were I’ll slip or roll with your best punch and I’m going to hit you with something that you’re not going to be able to come back from that’s yeah like like Lewis had always
Been money in those situations and tuivasa took a couple of lewis’ best shots and then caught Lewis with an elbow that I mean that’s about as as knocked out as Lewis’s has been uh so we know what tuivasa does we know how almost exactly how good he is at it
We know what his vulnerabilities are none of it’s changed there’s just been gradual refinement he is in better physical condition than he I mean he’s a 265 pound Polynesian he’s never gonna have a six-pack he’s always gonna have a keg but kind of like again kind of like
Mark hunt and kind of like junior tafa or sorry Justin TAA who’s a literal Mark hunt disciple that doesn’t mean that he’s not actually Nimble on his feet and doesn’t have decent card like yeah like three KS because each of his freaking thighs look like kegs too he’s he is uh
He can hurt anyone he can knock out anymore he can uh tyur similar story like he’s been in the UFC forever and he’s the same guy he’s always been just he’s tightened up some of the deficiency and you know gotten a little better at the strengths he’s he’s always been a
Huge guy like always been you know six 63 he will sometimes weigh in a little lighter sometimes a little heavier but on average weighs in around 255 pounds like I used to joke that he doesn’t have good power and for a guy as huge as he is like not to have
Better power than he does like he was Chase Sherman long before Chase Sherman was Chase Sher I used to joke that like they must not even like let him back into Poland after his fights because Poland’s MMA scene is otherwise so [ __ ] violent like ksw is like a
Slaughterhouse like I bet like tyur is in the UFC because like KW exiled him but he sits down on his punches a little better he’s still I mean he’s still not Anthony Rumble Johnson or like Francis enanu but he sits down on his punches and and they definitely hurt
He’s for a guy that’s not terribly fast or athletic he’s a good wrestler he’s a very heavy topside Grappler like if he’s on if he’s on top of you most heavyweights are in trouble like you’re at least getting rode out for that round getting tired quick if you’re T getting
Tired quick and if you don’t offer anything back at him I mean he he is g to just punch you take your back and and and try to choke you uh he has always been susceptible to really hard hitters and people who are much more athletic than him but there
Aren’t many of those at heavyweight which is why he has a pretty good record I mean he’s won something like eight of his last 10 yeah Tom as manol blew through him that’s what he’s gonna do he’s the freaking best heavyweight on the planet Alexander vov like kept him
On the outside and frustrated him for 15 minutes that’s what volkov’s gonna do yeah uh but aside from that he’s beaten the the bad the mediocre and the pretty good this this is a two true outcomes fight uh either tuivasa finds Ty bur’s chin probably sometime in the first two
Rounds and hits him hard enough that Tyber can’t recover like normally tyur has got a good chin recovers well uh or tyur finds out oh I I can take tuivasa down and if he does I think tuivasa is in trouble and that Dynamic kind of swings as we go further into the fight
Uh the further we go into the fight the easier it’s going to be for tyur to take toiv Vasa down the harder it’s going to be for tuivasa to to catch Tyber with a huge punch I’m not either of these guys coach but I would love to see tuivasa leaning
On his leg kicks when he uses them he has some of the best uh low kicks in yeah like they just they sound horrifying and more importantly you can tell that the other guy feels him for a guy in tyur that’s at some point going to try to take tuivasa down starting to
Chew up his lead leg is going to give him something to think about uh I don’t know if tuivasa has it in him to engage in that kind of planning but considering that he has to know his back against the wall here like he’s the UFC might not cut him on four
Straight losses it it’s rare for it’s rare for the UFC to find a fighter with his kind of natural Charisma and star power but if he Los Australia yeah if he loses four in a row he’s at least done headlining [ __ ] yeah you know like he’s
He’s closing out the the prelims of of a pay-per-view card uh so he’s got to know that I say he fights a smart fight here tybera is 38 that’s not old at heavyweight but he’s got a lot of miles on him he has taken a lot of punishment
Over the years he was never the fastest guy and he’s even slower now I’m going to say tuivasa kind of looks spry and bouncy is able to get in range on the taller Ranger guy finds his chin early and often and it’s not quite as overwhelming or one-sided as the Aspen
Fight looks but Tyro just doesn’t have time to recover or offer much back on the way to losing via first round knockout to to tuivasa so uh expect I don’t know if it’s going to be you and me or Keith and me but I’m probably
Going to be drinking some beer out of a shoe uh sometime early Sunday morning tuivasa first round chaos you know with this fight man I number one I feel like this should just be like tuivasa versus like Austin Lane because who car because who cares like just give tuivasa someone that he’s
Just gonna go [ __ ] ice because that’s what tuivasa is for tuivasa is not for a title he knows it we know it the UFC knows it I don’t know what they were doing trying to the siron fight made sense because siron had come off some really shitty
Boring fights like the the jarino Rosen strike fight but like even jarino Rosen like why isn’t this we and I was just talking about this within a previous fight but like why isn’t this jarino Rosen strike versus Tai ibasa and why didn’t and why AR like why didn’t we have gazia versus
Tyor I don’t I mean like why isn’t that happening ta Vasa made it all the way to a heavyweight title Eliminator man I know he won five in a row he fought surreal Gan he lost to gone and in his next fight gone fought John freaking Jones for the interim heavyweight title
Can you imagine if Tui Vasa had managed to finish gone like when he called him he managed to finish him can you imagine Tai tuivasa would they have made tuivasa versus Jones I don’t know that close we might have gotten enanu versus tuivasa which would have been hilarious seriously awesome um
You this could look just like the Sergey spak fight for Tui Vasa and I mean unless Ty BR is an absolute fool that’s the fight he wants to have with tuivasa here um because I don’t care if you are Tom aspinal or Sergey pavlovich or cro
Gan yeah those dudes two of those dudes beat tuivasa and finished him but fighting tuivasa in that style is a literal role of the dice every single time um ask Siro Gan what it’s like to get hit by him uh tasa can knock out any heavy weight on the
Planet he’s huge he absolutely cracks and he is fearless I mean his fight with siroon he got hit with a and this is something that doesn’t get talked about a lot number one twoos taken some damage especially like the like gon’s notorious back of the heads shots damage where he’s a technical
Fighter until he has you hurt and then he looks like he’s fighting a horde of bees um you know exactly like he is technical up until the point and then he’s just Hammer fisting you in the back of the head that’s zero gone um but tasa he
Should he’s got the type of kick heavyweight number one he may be like the best leg kicker at heavyweight and all of Poland’s power was fueled into yovich like you know so Ty B is I could totally see Ty borra trying to snatch a low single and just tipping tuivasa over because that’s
How that’s how you take down tuivasa but at the same time I I could totally see you cannot check a tuivasa leg kick like his he’s so big and he kicks so hard talking about yam bovich he might be the only dude that’s willing to check a tuivasa leg kick I
Don’t tuas is smart lands you know six to eight leg kicks and then lets his hands go all it takes is one exchange with him he could [ __ ] murk anybody he hits so hard but he is just so porous he’s so good in one place but he
Is just so porous everywhere else but I still think he’s going to win this by knockout um tybura just got hurt really bad by Aspen and um aspinal is much more of a tactician than tuivasa but tuivasa can be just as [ __ ] violent as Tom asol tuivasa can
Be just as violent as any human on the planet um give me tuivasa by knockout first round kicks his legs a bunch causes tyor to overextend after getting his legs beat up and then just crushes him with something all right so we are in agreement and that is it the Sherdog
Radio network preview for UFC Fight Night 239 tuivasa versus tybera I’ve been Ben he has been our special guest Dev if this is your first time watching or listening to one of our previews first of all thank you uh we hope you enjoyed it we do our best to bring a mix
Of actual in-depth analysis and occasional humorous asides uh please do like subscribe uh drop us a comment uh my normal co-host Keith and I both man the comment section we’d love to hear your take on these fights but uh join us for the recap uh probably Keith and I
Will be live on the sherog YouTube page right after the main event we will talk about all 13 of these fights going from the headliner all the way down to that uh interesting bantamweight opener talking about what was good what was bad what was surprising what was controversial there’s always something
Talking about what’s next for some of the notable winners as well as losers and talking with you because the live chat is open that whole time so we are taking your questions your comments and your hot takes in real time we have a growing community of friends that uh
Hang out with us after the fights we’d love for you to be part of it between now and then thank you once again for listening enjoy the rest of your week and by all means enjoy these [Applause] fights Make your better fairy tales while you’re hunting for your whale so cold and blind don’t count me
16 Comments
UFC Fight Night 239: Contractually Obligated Content for ESPN with Contractually Obligated Fights for Fighters Like OSP
If Tuivasa loses I would imagine they do give him an Austen Lane to send to the shadow realm rather than cut him. He's very popular and the last thing they'd want is for him to go and bring eyes to PFL. I am baffled we didn't get him against Rozenstruik here though, because that seems way more fun and it's crazy that match up has never been made.
been listening for about a year now and wanted to let you guys know I appreciate your consistency and knowledgeable takes. best UFC podcast i’ve heard so far. listening to you & keith is like asmr at this point. also dev was a good fill in
Excellent as always
Tuivasa will be given another chance, I think, if he loses. Not only for the reasons you two mentioned, but because it's heavyweight… HW sucks so much that a fighter who the crowd actually cares about in the division is precious. They are rarely Dredrick Tatums, that's for sure.
I think the word you were looking for at about 2:30:22 is 'explicable', Mr. Duffy… or maybe not, I am often wrong…! : )
I hope the Cypriot and the 14 year old both win!
Also, the show should be renamed 'Duffy & Shillan but maybe Tejada'! You are lucky to have such a ready and willing understudy, guys!
Hi new to this whole fight game but I love how knowledgable you guys are and i wanna to become a stan like you guys where do I start
Jose Johnson’s bottom game is one of his most noteworthy skills. If you’ve seen his contender series fight with Jack Cartwright he basically won the whole fight off his back with triangle attempts while landing elbows on the scalp of Jack’s head Tony Ferguson style. Jose creatively leverages his length extremely well in his bottom game it’s not an indictment on Chad being old, he just wasn’t good enough and never was.
My pick is Bryan Barberena – the odds are additionally encouraging for betting.
The UFC feeder organizations… How big is their reach? What % of world talent can they gather up to walk through their doors? Are we seeing a representation of the best prospects, or some deficient portion of them? Does the UFC go find talent? Or do more fighters have to find THEM? Not sure how it works exactly.
Either way, even Fight Night's deserve a decent group of "proven" guys. Lately it seems like one main event fighter between #10 and #15 at the top and then plenty of filler. What do you think?
poor dev he has to preview the marcin tybura card
'MidWest Choppa' Fight week! Lets go Isaac Dulgarian! Get this big win!!
2:22:33… AJ Fletcher is similar in stature to Sean Sherk, if you were to flatten AJ down to about 5'6" While I don't think of Sherk as a Welterweight, he did fight GSP and Nick Diaz before he went down to 155 for the title fight with Ken-Flo. Great show boys, Ben was on point as usual and Dev I like your takes on most of the fights.
Weed is the gateway drug to burritos 🤣🤣 thats gold
Cory McKenna is my girl, but RIP to her British accent. I have no interest in Chiasson vs Pannie again when they could have done Chiason vs Josiane Nunes and the height differencewould have been funny and they might both have missed weight. I hope we get Battle vs Buckley at some point cos that fight would be fire. Tuivasa to win and get Rozenstruik, ffs, I want that 20 seconds of madness.
Never thought I’d miss the guy with the Wisconsin accent
Cory McKenna had a couple infections like COVID or something. I listened in MMA all star interview. Not sure if I remember right, but some sort of illnesses have kept her out for a while along with injuries.