welcome to spinning back click where each week here at MMA junkie we take a spin through the biggest stories in MMA
on this week’s docket we have a new champion in the middleweight division in the UFC Oceana goes 443 at UFC 293 and
what do UFC one and UFC 293 have in common well we’ll tell you all this and
much much more hello everyone I’m your host Gorgeous George and with me as always some of the sharpest MMA Minds In
The Biz joining me this week goes from MMA junkie radio the creator of SBC
Danny Segura he’s out in the 305 he’s the host of uplemos MMA on YouTube and
Nolan King nominated for journalists of the Year this year at the world MMA Awards Kamikaze is on the ones and twos
let’s get to it all right guys so this past Saturday night Sean Strickland put
on a masterful performance on his way to winning the UFC Midway title 49-46 were
the scores across the board and a nasty uh knock down in round one you’ve all had about 36 hours to let it
sink in put it into words this performance by the American out in Sydney Australia what impressed you the
most about Strickland’s tactics all right we go to the first take this week from Nolan
what stuck out to me the most well first of all just an absolutely incredible performance I think really just one of
those moments that makes our sport so if you want to call it a sport our activities so much different than
everything else right I mean the last thing that you expect to happen happens and sure it’s not every time
that we get some sort of Rarity like that but for me the fact that he was able to put that on that sort of
performance on for 25 minutes is incredible right we’ve seen some pretty amazing title fight upsets
um you know throughout history but it’s always kind of a finish or uh you know maybe a slip up from the favorite or
something goes wrong for the favorite but for him to go in there and really drive home who the better fighter was on
that night to walk down Israel adesanya for 25 minutes to not show any fear but
to also fight smart and also do exactly what he said he wasn’t going to do which
was to not use his wrestling which he didn’t use at all so for me it was an absolutely incredible incredible
performance regardless of if you like Strickland if you don’t like them if you don’t have an opinion about him as a
person I think you really have to give him a lot of credit you got to give Eric mixick a lot of credit the guys at extreme Couture for just really putting
together a one of the most well-rounded surprising performances upsets of all time in a
title fight so I was absolutely Blown Away um I mean the people in Australia were even blown away from their reaction at
the end there giving him a massive Ovation on the final Bell a massive Ovation when they announced and new it
was felt like Sean Strickland was fighting at home in Australia there so just a really special night for him a
really intriguing night for us on the outside and this division is certainly in a very strange place now going
forward all right Mr Segura transport yourself back 36 hours man what were you thinking
is this thing was unfolding the way it did all 25 minutes or maybe 24 minutes
and 50 seconds was basically on the feet and most of it out in open space
yeah insane I’m still in disbelief I’m still in shock I’m kind of waiting to see when this kind of becomes a prank or
maybe when I wake up it kind of seems unreal I kind of had the same reaction that Sean Strickland had after his fight
where he’s like this even is this real can somebody punch me right now like is this really happening
um I don’t think anybody saw this coming uh there’s maybe some people on Twitter
that will swear that they did but and and how dare you discount Strickland but honestly if you’re uh somebody that
knows about mixed martial arts and on your full senses you had all the right reasons to pick arasanya to win this
fight win it quite comfortably and even go uh A Step Beyond and say that he was gonna finish strickling with ease I mean
um I was pretty dismissive of his chances on the MMA junkie previous show with pharah and not that anything
against Strickland is just it just seemed like such a tough matchup for him
out of all the fighters that you could put in there Strickland just seemed to have the the the worst path to Victory
out of all of them and the funny thing is that leading up to the event we’re all asking is he gonna wrestle is he
just gonna empty out his entire gas tank and try to knock him out in the first round like basically is he gonna be what
is he gonna do that’s not strickling like because strickling like things are not gonna work another Sonya what what
are some of the things that he’s gonna do to beat him and he was exactly Sean Strickland in that cage he did not
change it at all he didn’t shoot for a single takedown he didn’t attempt that submission he didn’t do anything he was Sean Strickland he stayed at that weird
range marched him down stayed a square that you know iCarly stands that people make fun of him for and he beat one of
the greatest middleweight Champions that the UFC has ever had it was a new an incredible performance that till this
day I’m still in in in awe in shock so congrats to Sean Strickland and the guys at extreme Couture because they pulled
it off they did it and I’m dying to chime in here man I know it goes this term but I just want
to add a few things he let’s not forget ARA Sonia is a
former World kickboxing champion he didn’t attempt to take down he didn’t
you know the fight never found itself on the ground where other than the knockdown so of the two Strickland
knocked him down we kept saying the one hitter quitter belonged to ottesanya Strickland’s the one that landed it the
only thing I will say Danny is yeah he kind of was Strickland like but in a way he wasn’t because he’s more of the
volume guy and he kind of held back it’s almost like he let Izzy kind of run out of gasoline because towards the end he
was not only he was damaged and exhausted all right but this is about you guys you guys are the stars goes
your thoughts man man I think it was a pretty tremendous performance for many reasons but
honestly I thought Nolan hit it it’s like it felt more like it was a team effort on Sean Strickland’s side because
how long for how long have we been sitting here saying this guy’s uncoachable right we’ve heard that from
many people and I think we’re going to finally yeah what we finally saw on Saturday was Sean Strickland and his
coaching staff finding some sort of middle ground right Sean won that fight by being patient by not giving Israel
artists on your anything to work with right he hit the gas when he needed to when he saw the opportunity strep but
when he didn’t have it he was patient he was very defensive if you look at his face he didn’t really have much damage
now after round two it got a little scary because you weren’t really seeing
that volume that you normally get from Sean you weren’t getting too many things and I think that’s where you give Eric nics his props I think he kind of woke
him up he got in his face and I think it was the reminder we’ve all heard Sean Strickland talked so many times about
that Jared Kennedy are fighting the decision and how he felt he won um and later on he kind of admitted that
he understood it a little bit more I think that I think Eric Nixa getting in his head and screaming at him kind of
woke him up and told him you can’t do that coming out in round three and Sean started to put his foot on the gas a
little bit more and I think you have to kind of give the whole team props in trying to find that middle ground which
is what maybe pulls out the best version of Sean Strickland in this fight but uh
man I mean nobody was really expecting this type of fight like you said George them going toe-to-toe for five rounds
had Israel adesanya written all over it but that didn’t work out that way right so you have to give props to Sean
Strickland and you have to give props to his team because I think they came together and that’s what got him that
victory yeah you know I thought round three was close because Izzy I thought was
replicating what he did in round two but Strickland did have some damaging shots in there he didn’t have the significant
strike Advantage but he he was a little more damaging although not much but it really could have been 2-1 arasania
going into round four even though arasanya had suffered the knockdown and was probably the more damage to the two
but it this judge’s scorecards told us otherwise we have no doubt who won
rounds four and five but I mean this was just simply amazing I would have never
in a thousand years thought it would go down this way you know and I don’t think there’s anyone Danny I don’t think
there’s anyone on Twitter that predicted it would go down like this anybody that said Strickland including goes and I
chatted with Johnny Evelyn who is the Bellator middleweight champion he’s trained with Strickland but he kept it
real man it has to involve wrestling and he did give credit to strickling says when Strickland gets on top of you he’s
his grappling is underrated he’s heavy you know but none of that none of that happened I don’t I I haven’t found one
person I don’t mind if he took Strickland I would have called you crazy free fight but
um I haven’t found anyone that says he can out kick box them for 25 minutes and of the two he’ll get the knockdown which
obviously that’s you know you’re not gonna break the whole thing right minute by minute but still yeah just simply
amazing and the communication between the code you heard Eugene Barrowman say
that Izzy was flat or he was he just had in some Universe I guess a poor
performance and the coaches and the and the athlete
didn’t seem to be on the same page and the opposite was happening on the other corner all right guys let me follow up
here with a couple things did this about have a bad night or was just Strickland on a little bit of both
known yeah it’s it’s one of those debates you’ll always have and I think part of
it is tied into the fact that we’re used to seeing Israel look so good and even even when he doesn’t look necessarily
the most exciting he looks pretty dominant so I I think it’s tough to kind of weed or just kind of filter that out
of your brain right knowing what he’s capable capable of but at the same time I think the fact that we saw it for so
long we have to credit Sean Strickland um you know we haven’t heard much from Israel out of Sonya after the fight he
kind of was a bit cryptic so quick with his media in the back didn’t really want to answer questions posted a quick thing
on social media had Eugene answer some questions to the media and that was it so we don’t really know exactly what
what his take on the whole thing was that he just have an off night was he hurt uh you know what was it but for me
I think a lot of the energy just with what we saw and the way it was done and the longevity that it was done
um you have to give Sean Strickland that amount of credit I feel like I see it from a lot of people but there’s a lot
of people that are kind of saying like oh you know I knew we heard Dana White say it right Israel looked slow he looks stiff
um maybe that’s been the case in other fights where the champion loses that that you’re like man they really put up a stinker there Amanda Nunes gassed
against Juliana Payne she just didn’t look right but I think that this has to be more of a 50 50 split um I think Sean
Strickland in his coaching staff deserves a tremendous amount of credit I can’t just tack it up to Israel not having a good night
and I alluded to what Berryman had said about Izzy and the alternate universe in
that same post-fight interview he said fight week went well training count went well we had the right Partners in there
he really didn’t offer any excuses the only thing he said was if we fight him tomorrow or in a week we feel like we
can make the adjustments to win but on that particular night he was four he didn’t he didn’t say anything about an injury or anything like that Danny let
me ask you this aside from the knockdown in round one what do you think was a turning point in this tactical stance uh
striking Affair we’ll call it what did you think might have made a difference for Strickland uh along the way
an adjustment or a tactic or technique I think what gave lasagna the the
biggest problem was the range because Strickland operates at a very weird range he doesn’t really stay at a
distance but he also doesn’t do clinch work and dirty boxing it’s like this weird in-between that a lot of people
are not used to fight at and you know he keeps that same Pace the entire time
he’s constantly on your face um and he just kind of keeps that that range constant and I think that’s what
gave Israel to Sanya issues because at distance he did have some success with leg kicks
um but once you know Strickland close the distance those lead kicks weren’t really there and the looping punches
Strickland has this weird shell where like he kind of keeps his hands up in like a weird space and is able to see
everything coming um and I just think that arasania wasn’t able to figure it out he got instruction from his Corner in order to get past
that but the instructions just ended right there right when the bell rang and he would just default to his normal self
so that’s that’s what I think is the biggest thing the range I think the person who managed the range best in
that fight was Sean Strickland and that gave him the victory um but yeah a fantastic performance by
by Sean Strickland great stuff by the guys at extreme Couture and Eric nixik
like really um if you saw this coming few saw this coming I mean it was just a a crazy
crazy fight in fact when when the knockdown happened in the first round and the bell rang in Israel to Sonia got
to see the second I I went okay this this was it like Strickland kind of blew it this was his chance to put them away
and then adesanya does win the second round at least in my eye so I kind of go okay you know things are returning to
normal per se but uh but no clearly it was Sean Strickland’s uh night and he looked great
goes one for you did Izzy break in that fight in your opinion
that’s a I mean that’s a really strong word it is very possible because if you look at what happened at the towards the
end of round one it might have taken them to a place that you know caused a lot of embarrassment for him and that
was when he got knocked out by Pereira maybe it brought him back there and maybe he just never recovered from that
um it was a very very puzzling performance from him because he’s not a guy that you ever really look at as an
unmotivated fighter but in those last few rounds he really just looked like he he just didn’t want to be there and I
think Sean Strickland was just as puzzled and he took advantage of it it makes things interesting man like I
think that’s something that we really need to figure out on his East Side one foot out the door in the chat and I
recommend if you want a question or comment put it in the chat leave it a couple times if I don’t see it don’t spam us obviously but the the
better the question more likely it is to be included in the show which one he wants to take this one he says Izzy was
outclassed by the basics that’s actually an interesting take in a way because Sean wasn’t too fancy he didn’t unleash
an Arsenal right we’ve already talked about no wrestling no jiu jitsu no Greco
against the cage or anything uh is that is that true in your guys designs
anybody want to chime in on that one yeah I think I think it’s very true that
there’s just when he says the basics I mean there was no bait right like he would throw bait out there but Sean
wouldn’t take it and he didn’t know how to adjust to that and I think it really really frustrated him and that is
something that you know that’s why like I think somebody even mentioned it in the chat earlier Sean Strickland was
supposed to wrestle but they have plan A’s and plan B’s and I felt like Strickland had a plan A and A Plan B but
Israel arasania just didn’t have that plan B and so when Sean Strickland wasn’t taking that bait he just looked
really puzzled out there and that’s something that uh I don’t I don’t think should happen at this high level
Ryan Park says go ahead George if you don’t mind me uh um inserting a couple things here uh
there’s two takeaways that I regarding adesanya that I kind of leave with from UFC 293 one uh how seriously did he take
this fight we know that he had that like movie premiere of the week of I mean that’s that’s a big thing to deal with
he was talking about Rick is yes he gave uh Strickland uh his respects in talk in
interview but another thing is in training and in action and I did write on the slack channel right before the
fight started with an assanya step in the cage that I thought he looked a little soft I thought he looked
um not as ripped as he normally looks I don’t know if maybe uh you know I’m
looking too much into it but um and then we we know we get Eugene bearman’s comments but we know that
they’re always going to be classy and give you know Sean his respects I wonder how seriously adasanya took this fight
keep in mind that on paper it probably looked like one of the easiest matchups he had gotten in his entire UFC career
so I I don’t know if you guys kind of share that sentiment we did mention that because if you watch
embedded there was a ceremony at the park I’m not disrespecting that at all but it seemed like every day there was
those duties of media the um when they have open workouts they had
a the Press fight conference with the the Deus and then you know you’re
signing gloves and posters and then I’ll throw in the movie premiere and and I will give Izzy this I saw him at the um
the Expo he is all in when he meets people he’s one of the best if you ever
get a chance to meet him shakes your hand asks your name looks in the eye however you want to do it man you want
to pose let’s do it he’ll even follow up with a question where are you from and put his arm around you you want to do a
selfie this way or that I mean I’m telling you he’s all in and he was doing that at the premiere but again you know
look some people will tell you they don’t leave the hotel at all it’s just intense intense intense I don’t like
interviews nothing and then others actually relax that way but I was thinking the same thing Danny Ryan Park
in the chat says everyone’s performance is a team member G’s give Strickland is due you guys are coping harder than Dana
I don’t think we’ve been disrespectful about Strickland I think a lot of what we’ve been talking about and our doubts
probably were pre-fight but I think a lot of people shared it it really had to be a perfect performance from Strickland
who again has and his own words he’s deterred from game plans he hasn’t
listened to coaches you know what I mean he’s made mistakes in there he got viciously knocked out by the guy that
Israel just beat you know luckily I think that training session the week he was out there with him
you know paid off for them as well but I I don’t think we’re being I disagree with Ryan Park in the chat but
keep them coming we have uh more stuff to get to and again I’ll scroll you guys are bringing some great great comments
and questions and listen while you’re doing that we ask you this leave a like or hit the like button and subscribe to
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I want to wait two seconds hit the like and we’re going to continue all right so the next topic obviously you know we’re
talking about what went wrong for Israel out of Sanji I already talked about what his coach said he lost four rounds the one most of this was on the feet open
space right however in spite of all that Dana White is leaning towards an immediate rematch versus Strickland are
you on board yay or nay Danny no
part of immediate rematches um I’m not for this is coming off just an immediate rematch
against poetan I think an immediate rematch is warranted if you have a long long
um track record of title defenses and then you lose the belt okay you get a little get out of jail free card to skip
the line and get back into a a championship fight and he already used that card against pothan and he
recovered his belt props to him but he he just can’t get him limited just because you’re the champion that means
you’re gonna have to you lose twice in order for you to like legitimate lose your position as a championship fighter
so um I think it’s time to move on um I don’t think that asanya has to go all the way to the back of the line and
then amount a crazy win streak in order to get back into a title fight but at least give us one at least give us one
we saw Whitaker lose his belt towardsanya he didn’t get that privilege and he had to fight some tough dudes on his way back to the title so
um give it to sanyas somebody else um maybe do that drink his duplicity fight I don’t know and then give uh
hamsa shimaiv if he beats Palo Costa uh Strickland or vice versa
um but yeah no I think it’s time that we we get this division rolling and we get some uh other names out there outside of
arasanya fighting for a championship belt all right we got an A how about you guys how do you feel about this like I say
that’s what Dana White is leaning on of course he’ll always fall back on don’t
ask me on Fight Night Tuesday we’ll discuss it in the Matchmaker meeting but I ask you yay or
nay I mean if they did it I wouldn’t flip tables over but I agree with Danny
I I think right now it’s a good opportunity that can kind of benefit both sides like let’s let’s freshen up
the division right we’ve been seeing Israel arasani on these fights and then a rematch I don’t know that we want to
do that again we can freshen up the division put somebody else in there and I think it might actually be a good
thing for Israel to Sanyo right like he seemed very puzzled at the end of the fight his Corner seemed puzzled we kind
of didn’t really have an idea what was going on so maybe what he needs is just a little bit of time off and maybe
seeing other people fight for this belt will kind of uh reinvigorate that hunger and get him back to where he needs to be
because the Israel adesanya that showed up on Saturday night he’s not going to be able to get it done he needs to dig deep and figure this all out I like the
dreikas diplucy angle I think it makes sense because you know you look at the UFC and obviously dreikas is kind of in
their doghouse right now um we know how they handle things and this is probably their way of maybe
punishing him right guess what we’re still going to give you the fight but now it’s not for a title
make that happen because it’s a fight that I don’t think the fans want to lose out on if you give Drake us another opponent it’s possible that we never see
this fight again right let’s give the fans what they want give Israel and drink us what they want I think that
could kind of make sense but um I think this is a perfect time to just freshen things up in that division
all right we got two days is it unanimous Nolan king or do you see some positivity and saying let’s run it back
no it’s it’s unanimous for me I mean looking at title fights I kind of think
there are three things that should warrant a rematch one of them would be some sort of controversy or some sort of
question mark or some sort of did he get caught or she get caught then there’s oh
this Champion’s been dominant for so long that this loss was an outlier within itself
we saw as you lose recently so that’s out the window then the third thing would be that there’s nobody in the in
the wings there’s you know the divisions in a weird place maybe uh you know a lot of the top contenders are coming off
losses but we have a guy we have drink as duplicity waiting in the wings uh we have fresh matchups there are people
that haven’t fought Sean Strickland I mean Hamza chamayev if he goes out there and beats Palo Acosta a month from now
we could be mentioning him as potentially the guy that should get the next shot so for me I I don’t think that
that meets the criteria but I will say I don’t think that the UFC necessarily always goes by that sort of criteria so
they don’t always go by the Merit base they don’t always necessarily do uh what I would do
um so for me I think Dana the fact that he is um you know the guy that doesn’t make
fights on Fight Night making a Fight On The Fight Night makes me think that that fight is going to happen so uh yeah I
think it shouldn’t happen but I think it probably will I think Al Jermaine Sterling is kind of
privately hoping he does that way he can follow a suit but this is the most inconsistent company when it comes to
these types of decisions which kind of keeps us on our heels I guess um but we may have gotten a little bit
ahead of ourselves going into topic three so let me settle things down again a bit here let me ask you guys this
regardless of his next opponent does Izzy need time off in your guys’s eyes we’ll go around the horn one more time
back to Danny it’s impossible to know I mean he he didn’t look great but it’s impossible to
know was it a factor of Sean Strickland just being vastly Superior um or was it a factor of him being maybe
injured and we don’t know any and it’s undisclosed or was it a factor of him not taking him seriously or was it even
a factor of age keep in mind israelosanya is 34 years of age and he’s been fighting in the sport for quite
some time so maybe maybe we’re starting to see the beginning of a decline we we don’t know so it’s hard for me to say
that time is the answer here what I do think is we we do got to see him back and it’s not like he’s been fighting
he’s been extremely active and he’s been fighting back to back back to back and you go like aljamin Sterling okay take
some time off because clearly your body needs it he fought on April in Miami that’s a decent amount of time in
between fights uh we saw poetan who’s the guy that got knocked out that night fight much sooner than out of Sonya so I
I don’t want to just slap time is in it’s like uh a remedy for everything I
quite frankly don’t know what went wrong for arasanya so um maybe it’s time maybe it’s not uh but
I guess just fight again fight again a top Contender see where we’re at see if
he’s still one of the best in the world if not the best and then we take it from there but um I’m hesitant to recommend
time off uh given that I don’t know what went wrong with them all right how about you girls what do
you think man time off or no I think a little bit yeah I don’t see how it can hurt
um really just kind of get your mind right it’s tough you know holding on holding that that belt is everybody’s
after you everybody’s criticizing you everybody’s comparing you to other people right to Anderson Silva It’s a
lot of pressure and I think uh maybe take a little bit time off mentally figure things out and then go back with
your coaches and figure out what the hell happened in the fight tactically physically
um figure out what went wrong in that fight for you I think that’s going to take a little bit of time and of course
you got to let the body heal so I think that could benefit him and there’s so many other people behind him right now
or not well in that division let that kind of play out a little bit too so I don’t see how it can hurt them Ryan
thibaut in the chat says no rematch adasanya needs time off from his very active schedule he did look soft and
sluggish during the fight profound dreamer says audasana versus DDP and kepsa says was the card a pay-per-view
worthy I’ll answer that one on paper no but coming out of it was a damn great
night of fights Nolan you have any uh thoughts on Izzy and what do you think man could this guy benefit from some
time off or is what got under the dance that activity maybe just the recipe for aresanya yeah I think it wouldn’t hurt
like ghost said for me it’s just the the activity level of Izzy I mean he’s fought um you know looking at his record here
since February 2020 which was um just doing the math in my head I think 19 months ago he’s fought five
times so for me that’s pretty active that’s very active for a champion one of the more active Champions I think we’ve seen so I don’t think time off would
necessarily hurt unless you know he’s just so motivated that this has really lit the fire under him that he needs to
get really capitalized on and get back in there now but only he knows man I think a lot of these things we’re
talking about right now are a bit speculatory in that we haven’t heard from him we don’t have any idea what’s going on so
um a lot of this is guesswork for me but I certainly think is a guy that’s you know fought essentially every four
months for about uh you know a year and a half or or a little longer I think uh I think
you know that that’s a little bit of time would benefit him all right guys question three topic
three is very similar to what we’ve been discussing Rick so we’re gonna unpack it a little bit better here this middleweight division is crazy so let me
lay out some facts for you and then you guys can chime in weigh in tell me what you think is the best for
the uh the division you know as a fan which we all are as medium members maybe
from the UFC side whatever so you got who is kind of a contender at light
heavyweight right now right he could be fighting for a title although it’s not locked in just yet but he’s the guy that
started the whole downfall for Sean Strickland last year when he knocked them out then they became buddies
Strickland train with them for a week looks like he gave him some pointers who knows and uh and like Nolan was talking
to us well pre-show it could even be that fajita doesn’t want to go down there because of maybe that possible
relationship okay we got hanzad versus Costa at UFC 294 next month in October
both guys are highly regarded a one-time title Challenger in Costa ooh we’re
popular is hanza shimai although he hasn’t fought in middleweight in a while in a minute it can’t count the catch weight it was supposed to be at
welterweight you can’t count the hall and fight but it’s been a year since we’ve seen them then you got Cannon here who weighed in and oftentimes Dana will
tell us of course he’s next he weighed in he was the alternate which was what he said about Colby Covington although I
remember pavlovich weighing in a few times and nothing’s been automatic with him so there’s some inconsistent
inconsistency there we already talked about Street Easy rematch and let’s not forget dracus was the number one
Contender but like girl said he could be in a possible dog house right now because he didn’t take the fight
although according to him and his Camp there was an injury involved I threw a lot at you guys and I didn’t even
mention Bobby Knuckles who was I think 12-0 against anyone but adesanya prior
to taking the loss to drika stupid C but recency bias would probably maybe ask
him out of the way all right so a lot to unpack goes your first
I think you got to figure out what it is you want to do with with Drake’s diplucy right like where does he stand with the
company figure that out you got to figure out Jared Cannon here he weighed in right um you would think that he’s the guy
that probably makes the most sense he’s got to win over the current champion but if I’m the UFC I’m probably thinking
that that may not be the most sexiest matchup for you so then you look at Costa and Hamza the
numbers don’t really back them up however Hamza shamayab you know the UFC
they just want to promote the hell out of them and his road is probably a lot shorter than everyone else’s you imagine
the fireworks between Sean Strickland and hamzat shamaya like I don’t even know if that makes it to the actual
fight it’ll probably be a Trilogy before they even step foot in the Octagon so there’s so much to do I remember one
time Dana White did almost like an unofficial tournament right at light heavyweight where he told like Shogun
Bader um Machida it was something along the lines he said something like show me
something you know whoever stands out that’s who’s going to be next and I think he might be in one of those situations where he can do that where he
could just tell these guys look show me something and whoever comes out of this gets that shot but there’s a lot of
decisions that need to be made first though Drake how does he stand with the company Israel asania does he even want
to fight right now and then Jared Cannon here right I mean just the other day wasn’t he kind of scolding people saying hey he filled in
as a backup that usually means you’re the automatic guy it’s not always like that but we’ll have to see how it plays
out but I think this might be one of them show me opportunities it was actually UFC on FOX goes that
you’re referring to Shogun versus Vera in the comment event Leota machito is going to fight Ryan Bader and he did and
he knocked them out and Marie says Shogun who was going to fight Brandon Vera and he finished him as well and
yeah that was basically the little unofficial Foreman tournament to get a
title shot so good reference there all right Nolan unpack this man make some sense out of this pretend you’re in that
war room and it’s Tuesday right now yeah it’s it’s it’s great that for matchmaking purposes I think that
Sean Strickland’s Champion there’s some interesting matchups that you can make with him there’s uh you know there’s the rematch there’s all the stuff we just
talked about there’s times out there’s drinkas um but kind of those Contender abouts those title eliminators are a little bit
more messy when you look at it I mean you have Robert Whittaker there you have Marvin vittori there you have Jared
Cannon here there but it’s kind of like a round robin of people that have already kind of fought like you know so
really the only guy that that kind of makes this interesting is drinkas I mean
he has a lot of besides his fight against Rob I mean there’s some fresh matchups for him there so you know is he gonna have to fight avatory is he going
to have to fight a Jared cannonier uh next kind of as that I don’t want to call it punishment but that sort of hey
you should have you had your shot and now you gotta earn it again sort of opportunity so um I think Hamza again big circle on on
his fight coming up I think he’s a real X Factor here in terms of if he goes out there and just runs through Paulo Costa
would the UFC you know look at it as hey look it Hamza versus Strickland I mean
certainly there’s a route to Victory there for Hamza like maybe this would be the time maybe he’s just so uh such a
hot commodity that they would they would Backtrack on the Izzy fighter or you know Izzy Waits out a little bit and
Hamza fights Strickland so it’s kind of a really weird time at middleweight um it’s broken my brain multiple times in
recent months as as my least favorite division usually in terms of from top to bottom
um it’s been very exciting and interesting I think uh particularly with those top Contender fights I’m intrigued
there’s a lot a lot of a lot of it’s a big puzzle that needs to be figured out right now Nolan I’m with you
man it’s a division where starting with Anderson for so long and then Izzy maybe not as long of a rain as Anderson but
pretty dominant it was just clearly like someone getting fed to a lion you know and now it does seem fresh and that’s
why maybe I’m a little anti-rematch no disrespect to Izzy but he kind of had one before I don’t want to go down that
road again Danny your thoughts man you’re in the war room now yeah so I always not always but ninety
percent of the time I like going with the sporting side of things so in this
case I would give the title shot to Drake’s duplicity because he is the most deserving Contender at the moment no I
don’t want to see an immediate rematch duplicity beat Robert Whittaker and look if you beat Robert Whittaker I don’t
care how how you get it done in this case very convincingly you’re fighting for
the belt next but we know that he is likely in the dark house as you guys mentioned because he did not take this
fight with arasanya so um being realistic I think hamsa Shimara
is gonna end up fighting for the belt um he is an international star that is a guy that can uh fight multiple times a
year he’s very active rarely gets injured outside of the covet thing at 185 you don’t really have to worry about
the weight misses uh fans absolutely adore him uh he’s aggressive he can talk
trash he also has that Muslim background so he uh captures that audience as well
um I mean if you just look at hamzat the UFC I’m sure they’re just savoring at the opportunity to put a belt on him
just so they can promote him even further plus he’s young so he just looks like he’s gonna be uh fighting for the
UFC in big fights for for quite some time so um I think that’s what they’re waiting for I think they’re gonna wait to see if
he beats by and if he does which is a tough fight um I think he’s getting the title shot but in my opinion if I were in the War
Room I’d vouch for jerka’s duplicity I think he deserves the shot yeah he beat Whitaker and he should be next
hmm so you think they might wait for October and if they do do you match up
busy with DDP you think that’s too hot of a fight with well you know it’s got heat is what I mean that they shouldn’t
that they should make it happen even though it’s not for a title anybody want to take that they should yeah I mean ghosts kind of talked about it a little bit uh that
fight may never come if you you know uh match them up with with other Fighters
whether it’s a decline from Izzy or drugs duplicity loses and then the timelines just don’t line up I think
that fight if available you have to make it it’s a big fight I would go DDP versus adesanya DDP is a
little injured so you are getting better autosonya needs a little bit of time off early January let’s get that one going
I think I’d reward Cannon here because he’s looked good since his title shot he
did his job he is getting a little older but he showed up and he was the alternate which look I know he got paid
and he probably got treated well but it seems to kind of follow some sort of a suit I think I would do that one now
granted we just saw canineer versus Strickland maybe the promotion doesn’t want that or the fans don’t want it and
I’m also not going to pretend like I don’t think he’s the biggest draw out of a lot of the names we just mentioned I
get that but sometimes it’s not all about that you know and look I’m wearing a jersey a Niners jersey last year in
the NFC Championship we lost to the Philadelphia Eagles you do not think that if I was the president of the NFL
or the commissioner of the NFL I would have said nah let’s just go with the Niners against KC you know I mean I can’t the NFL doesn’t
do that it’s whoever wins keeps going you know there’s got to be something to that so I agree with you Danny there in
you know the sporting aspect um but the UFC thinks numbers you know it’s a business it’s a it’s a business
that does very well who knows all right shout out to the Niners who crushed Pittsburgh by the way that was an easy
game topic four Tyson Fury versus Francis and gone who had a press conference this
past week they spoke first then they squared off what did you think of their interactions and Fury’s
statement where I believe he took it too far he said he could also be in ganu in an MMA match Nolan your thoughts
yeah it’s cool man you know I don’t think anybody expected this whole thing to be the spectacle of like a Mayweather
McGregor or anything but it’s it’s cool on little thing um or big thing I guess two big guys that had two heavyweights
and champions of the world in their respective Sports um I’m intrigued I’m always somebody if you guys have heard me speak before I
like things that are a little outside the box obviously Francis has uh carved his own unique path throughout his
career and this is a very uh is it opening the door for for more fighters to test the market when the right
opportunities arise potentially um I thought the press conference was good obviously Tyson’s personality
carried it um which is I think what we expect I was a little surprised at just how
um how much weight he’s carrying I’m not sure what his plan is in terms of what kind of weight he wants to come into
this fight weighing in at but he certainly looked a lot heavier than I was expecting I think he even kind of
made fun of himself for being uh kind of a little maybe overweight there um as you can see in the the video but
um yeah it’s kind of crazy this thing’s only you know a month and a half away I’ll be very intrigued see how much of
the audience in the mainstream that this will capture I mean McGregor and Mayweather were such big stars that they
not only transcended their own sport uh but their own combat sport was just kind of all a combat sport so I’m not
necessarily sure um maybe Tyson Fury does to a certain degree I’m not necessarily sure Francis has that sort of appeal but I still
think obviously it’s going to draw a lot of eyeballs we’ve seen this recipe before with the influencers versus MMA fighters there’s uh specifically on the
MMA side there seems to be a lot of interest that can be generated from our fan base so
um fun you know good for them I hope they both get obviously they’re both going to get paid a good amount of money and
um I don’t I don’t think it’s necessarily a uh it’s as close as of a fight as Tyson
Fury was even making it sound like but it’s heavyweights and anything can happen and I think that that’s kind of that Intrigue for me is
um it has that one punch factor that maybe uh some of the other crossover fights wouldn’t have just because of the
division Nolan what’s more likely Francis to beat Fury unboxing or Fury to beat Francis in
MMA oh I mean Francis probably beating Fury in boxing would be more likely I think
uh there’s a reason we don’t see the jump you know we talk about this all the time I just think uh at least Francis
you know has to box an MMA you know Fury doesn’t have to do anything else in in boxing so I think that’s an easy easy
answer for me yeah and I think both of them are highly doubtful by the way but I think I agree with you exactly uh I
can’t believe he actually said it uh Danny how about you man what’d you think of the press conference their
interaction the Face-Off holy cow Fury is a big dude man Francis is all of
six four yeah uh that that whole thing was kind of weird
um I’m I’m with Nolan in the sense that I don’t know how well this is gonna do
because the McGregor Mayweather thing was interesting because both were so uh such
big stars I mean they still are obviously that they captivated a level of or or a reach that I don’t think
Tyson Fury and enganu do now in ganu and fury obviously very widely popular but I
don’t think they’re nearly as big as Mayweather and McGregor at least for the time
um and also another thing was that McGregor would just was an amazing trash talker and that kind of caused a lot of
interest because obviously it lend itself for a lot of Clips a lot of highlights reels whatever quote cards uh
headlines but in ganu in this scenario he’s very quiet um he’s not really a natural trash
talker he kind of tried to engage a little bit but um he’s not really steering the pot as
far as the whole thing looking very intense I feel like most of the promotional side of things is kind of uh
falling on the shoulders of Tyson Fury and his whole angle has been to cast
some some doubt on the result of the fight actually saying that he may lose that friend zengan who actually has a
better shot than usig or even Joshua and even Bob arum’s out there saying like
look at the power I mean you just gotta analyze these UFC tapes uh you know I’m
not sure he’s aware of this thing called UFC Fight Pass and streaming but you know he keeps talking about these UFC
tapes and all this and that and and I don’t really know if that’s going through I think a lot of people kind of see it as what it is right
um which is it’s a big payday for Francis and Gano and people are happy that he’s getting it which is another whole weird aspect I think MMA is the
only sport where fans actually actively root for certain fights to be made because their favorite Fighters are
getting paid I don’t see that in the NFL I don’t see people going oh thank God Cristiano Ronaldo went to Saudi Arabia he’s making so much money good for him
and if you go over any other sport I don’t really see like the same level of of happiness for these athletes making
money I think this is what it is it’s a Payday um it’s pretty clear that in God who’s gonna enter compromise given that
boxing’s not his thing um it’s gonna be weird and interesting to watch
two huge dudes going at it but um outside of that um I do wonder how how much success this
paper is going to have all right goes finish up and don’t shy away from what you told me yesterday
about the part where Fury thinks he he can beat in ganu in an MMA match yeah no
I’ll definitely get to that part look I’m not too bitter about giving these guys my money it has a different feel uh
to it than than what Mayweather and McGregor had with with that they had so much smack talk that you’re kind of just
tuning in to see somebody get served up versus does he have a chance like I mean you’d be a fool if he thought he had a
chance against Floyd Mayweather Floyd mailer just doesn’t get touched by some of the most elite athletes in the world
how is Conor McGregor going to do it right so in this particular case though they get my money because they’re
presenting something that we just haven’t seen and that’s the best guy in boxing against the best guy in MMA right
the the monster that Francis and Ghana is that’s what kind of makes it interesting now
Tyson Fury is scaring me a little bit he doesn’t really come in ripped if it’s a
boxing match but he doesn’t look the way he looked at the press conference is he not taking it serious I think he needs
to you know Francis and ganu does pack a punch let’s be honest here he’s not gonna go out there Francis and gun is
not going to outbox Tyson Fury that’s just not gonna happen but Power punches we’ve seen Tyson Fury get hit with some
good ones that’s what scares me on the young ganu side is we saw Deontay Wilder hit him with a shot that just completely
annihilated him he wasn’t even moving and then he just sat up like The Undertaker and continued to fight so
even if Francis and ganu does hit him with his best shot Tyson Fury has been hit with some pretty hard shots right so
I I think it’s gonna it’s gonna be enough to keep us all interesting on the night of now what Tyson Fury said about
coming to MMA I think you have to take him a little bit like I don’t think that fight will ever happen by the way I don’t think he’ll ever come that with me
but him saying he thinks he can win of course he’s gonna say that he wants us talking about that’s what we’re doing right now right but look when you look
at Francis and gun who is a mixed martial artist it’s not like he’s got this crazy wrestling game or the
submission game we know him for knocking people silly right in mixed martial arts
I don’t know that it’s that crazy to think that Tyson Fury if Francis and ganu chose to stand with him in mixed
martial arts that Tyson Fury can’t find that chin with MMA gloves it’s possible it’s not the it’s not the craziest thing
right we saw Ray Mercer do it he came in he did it really quick what you need to do is you have to have
a game plan if you’re a mixed martial artist the way Randy Couture had and that’s I’m not messing around this is my
world and it’s mixed martial arts and I’m diving for a leg and I’m going to take this guy down and make him look silly Francis and ganu would need to do
something like that but if he even stands with him for a little bit of course every second that you’re standing there with a guy that packs a punch like
Tyson Fury it is possible I don’t know the way the shape that Fury
looked in I don’t even think he could get through an MMA Camp although I don’t even know if he would do an MMA Camp to tell you the truth
because it does all this does just seem so comical I just want to get it done
with but I will be cheering for the MMA guy I always stand for the MMA guy he packs a punch heavyweight’s different
from what was the Mayweather fight contested at I think Junior middleweight at one 54 with uh McGregor so the
one-hitter quitters you know that might offset things a little bit and and to be fair France is trained boxing before he
trained MMA so there’s probably some rusty skills in there somewhere who knows
um but I don’t give Fury I give him a .001 chance whatever the opposite of
99.99 is I give him that chance to win uh in MMA
anyhow uh good stuff guys let’s move on here so this Saturday is Noche UFC Alexa
Grosso will defend her flyweight title versus Valentina shashenko this is an immediate rematch for shashenko who lost
her title earlier this year via submission can bullet regain her strap or does the Mexican hold serve and add
to the celebrations of September 16th Danny Segura
I I’m I was looking at the odds Alexa is a slight Underdog I wonder if that’s
going to shift as we get closer to the fight but basically it’s it’s pretty even and I think that’s remarkable
because let’s not forget back in March Alex was a huge Underdog and people gave
her very little chance and dismissed her ability of of becoming champion and here she is defending her belt on September
16th Mexican Independence Day and all of a sudden she is pretty much a pickum with one of the greatest of all time
certainly the greatest female flyweight of all time in Valentino shevchenko so
um I I’m kind of agreeing with the odds I think this fight’s super super close if you watch the first one on the feet
Alexa Grasso was beating Valentina had a resort to the wrestling which made the fight competitive and even pushed the
decision at least on the scoring towards her until the Finish obviously um so I think this is a very interesting
fight um I’m actually going with Alexa grazo here I I think it’s her time it’s her moment she’s in her prime Chef shenko
has been around for quite some time um in you know Father Time catches everyone I still think she’s very elite
I think it’s going to be a very competitive fight but I feel like the adjustments that shoshenko needs to do
are much bigger and harder than the ones that Alexa needs to do because on the feet again she was piecing up shevchenko
and once she was able to lower her stance in in the later rounds then we saw a different fight
um so I’m going with Alex agraso here plus she’s gonna have you know the Mexican fan base behind her I think just
everything about this moment just kind of lends itself for uh kind of like a
fairy tale so um I’m picking Alex so I think she’ll get it done and I think it’s gonna be a big night for for Mexican MMA
is going with Valentina he says all day and I’m going with Valentina and as you
were talking Danny I thought man should I bet him I’ll shave my head versus your mustache but I don’t know if
I’m ready because I’m losing hair every day I’m guy there’s less and less at the top of this Dome am I ready to just take
it all off versus that I mean you got to do it now right yeah it’s got to be done now
all right [ __ ] it let’s do it nice I like it I hate it uh all right yeah I
hate it too man I might have to call Jimmy scissors and say take it all off let’s see what it looks like I’m gonna shave off like well if I lose yeah my
birthday’s coming up too I’d be almost bald for my birthday holy cow I gotta rethink this did we
already shake [ __ ] come on man come through I feel terrible too because I’m part Mexican and I’m all about the
16th in the celebrations but I’m also part Peruvian and Valentina does Peru as
well and I’m also part I love my hairyan whatever that is oh man what did I just walk into what
did we just do Danny I don’t know um who’s next here I’ve lost my train of thought goes your thoughts here man who
who does she regain the strap or does the Mexican hang on to her belt okay this is too yeah I think my analysis has
changed now that I know that George could potently lose his hair and Danny as a mustache wait look
with Alexa Grosso you go back to that last fight it was so amazing you know it’s an upset but she didn’t just get
the win she got the finish and I don’t know I I feel like she has improved as a fighter and I don’t know
that she gets that credit from people I think she’ll do fairly well in this fight but you know I feel like Valentina
she’s one of the scariest gals to be just staring right in front of her you look at a resume everything she’s done
uh her strengths she’s scary just normal Valentina but
she’s pissed off Valentina right now and that is not a fun Valentina to be around
I I just feel like she is dead set on not just getting this Victory back but
really making Alexa Grosso look bad in the process it’s going to be a close fight because I don’t feel like people
respect Alexa Grosso as much as they should and I don’t think it’ll be that easy for Valentina but I think she will
get it done and I think she she might actually even get the finish in this one it’s gonna be a great fight though with this on the line I am all in
I’m scared hi Danny can I shave it after my birthday
when’s your birthday 26th of September mine’s the 17th
okay as long as we go post birthday yeah the BET’s on how about moves
Grosso win was a fluke very questionable and I’m high-fiving him right and then he says but valentina’s looking old now
oh the high five back all right Nolan King what says you man or the enchiladas
both yeah seriously man like I’m never gonna say no to either one of those but yeah I mean you guys kind of hit a lot
of the the nose on the head here it’s it’s an intriguing fight it’s close I think when we talked about the
Strickland win earlier I kind of was saying that there was no doubt um you know went with his win and that’s
why they didn’t want to that they didn’t need a rematch and I get the opposite Vibe for this one like there was a
little bit of Doubt for me that that was the most likely outcome now it could be I mean I felt the same way going into
the rematch between kamaru and Leon Edwards so I’m kind of also getting that sort of vibe which is telling me like
maybe you’re being too biased to the past to what we’ve seen from Valentino you’re not giving enough credit to Alexa
Grasso but I think by any sort of angle that we look at this fight it is very difficult to predict on paper
um so for me I’m leaning towards shipchenko just because I think the bodies will work I I still would lean
towards her but that’s not always the best way to pick a fight there’s just so many intangibles when it comes to this one
um but yeah it will be interesting to see Valentina coming off a loss and that crowd uh like Danny said with with the
Mexican fans behind Alexa what kind of push that gives her um it’s good man I’m I’m happy with this uh this main event and
um very intrigued by it in the division let’s talk about the plywood division too right now I mean this is a very a division it’s in a really good spot I
think I think in the next year or so we’re going to start to see a get even kind of more packed up there at the top we got blanchfield we got Manuel Farrow
we got Macy Barber who’s coming off of an injury he had surgery so there’s a lot of fights there that are not only
just like now I mean there’s the one step away fights and then there’s kind of these two step away fights that are
even happening so flyweight’s in a good spot and I think a lot kind of just everybody’s sitting around waiting to
see this next chip how it falls before uh before everything else gets figured
out the question yeah Miranda Maverick there’s a lot of good good fly weights
man out there oh go ahead girls George how much do you respect the audience the
chat room the people that come and support us on this program I respect them a lot but I really would appreciate
if you guys would give us a like as ghost talks come on hit that like button folks go ahead guys and while you do that since you respect them so much
shouldn’t they be the ones that decide what happens in a draw I feel like they kind of both have to shave right oh my
God no we both get out of it I don’t know I’m in a drawing a dragon rid of this and a loss I’ll take the
yellow oh no no that’s a step too far
goes in Nolan show up with mohawks how’s that he it’s not likely join the party rock
goes this is your fault with mohawks should have come to your mouth shut we were playing with house draw us on draws
are unlikely so you guys should really go [ __ ] it I’m into yeah a mohawk is Extreme though Danny can grow back a
mustache in probably like four days right let’s be honest here the George you could wear a hat we gotta run around
with a mohawk that seems extreme I will do this and and George you know how much I am you’re a beanie oh I I’ll grow a
mustache for one spinning back click but that’s it and I’ll shave it off but I’m not gonna come on Mohawk
all right Nolan what about you yeah we’ll do that that seems like a fair bet
with with November coming these guys are really taking one for the team all right let’s continue here uh it’s been a lot
of fun you had an impressive career so far guys he’s won the title three times one was the interim and defended it five
times I’m not gonna count the interim title defense his record stands at 24-3 many regard them as the greatest lightweight sorry middleweight in the
history of MMA others have maintained that it’s Anderson Silva what say you I’m kind of rushing through it goes because I need quick answers goes that’s
a tough one man um there are times where you look at Anderson Silva’s fights and you think uh
what are we doing here right like this doesn’t really feel like a competitive matchup as well with Izzy you feel like
it’s killer after killer after killer that being said izzy and his prime kind
of got his lights put out right and I feel like it’s Anderson Silva by a hair still
Nolan yeah it’s it’s for me at this point in time if the if the world ended
tomorrow I would still be and I was asked right before it ended who’s the best middleweight of all time I would lean with Anderson
wow that’d be some timing wouldn’t it all right yeah it’s still Anderson Silva I mean
he’s got the longest uh winning streak in UFC history um he’s got I believe the most title
defenses uh at middle uh middleweight um I mean the numbers still back them up
plus again Anderson Silva once he stopped being dominant he stopped being dominant but during his Reign I mean nobody could touch him Israel lasagna
has had some close calls like remember that Joel Romero fight was hard to judge um you know some of the fights uh the
second fight with Whitaker as well he lost the fight against operator they now lost to Strickland so
um yeah I think out of Sonya I mean sorry uh Silva still has that spot for sure okay and we’re not [ __ ] on easy I
know it’s been a bad weekend for him and we know Evita Anderson Silva as well but I think still resumes
you know Anderson Silva was pretty impressive but I think Izzy’s got time to catch him all right next one Nolan
I’m sorry Conor McGregor once again very active on Fight Night on social media he always is especially after paper
views he was heaping Praise on UFC 293 Laura sanco shout out to her and the UFC
as a promotion but at some point he engaged by Alexander volkanovski and somehow a possible fight at UFC 300 came
up but I got it got me thinking guys if McGregor were to beat mokonovsky and I know this is some far out stuff because
cutting the 145 scene is almost impossible for the guy I think he’s 245 right now but if he did and he beat him
would that make him the featherweight goat may I remind you he’s also beating Aldo and Halloween the other guys that
get discussed in this topic Nolan I think my brain just kind of melted but not in that universe but uh now uh no I
think longevity is a big part of it you know we’ve seen so many fighters come in and kind of beat the goats in the division like Chris Weidman beat
Anderson Silva it doesn’t necessarily make him the goat you know so for me it would have to be uh him sticking around
at a weight class racking up some wins and some consistency and some longevity before any sort of uh goat conversation
comes up so you would also say Matt Sarah’s not the Goku’s he’d be GSP you know it’s this is where we we really
spit some fire takes here and I know that’s maybe controversial but yeah yeah I agree by you Danny
I agree with Nolan yep it wouldn’t make him the goat no
he did beat the other two though in their Prime well maybe not Holloway but for sure all
though goes he’d be the goat at the press conference because they kind of wouldn’t be able to say much but yeah if
we look at statistics and just the way things lay out overall I agree with Danny and Nolan McGregor over here
folks thank you so much for tuning in we do this every Monday and for the next few weeks it’ll be 11 A.M Eastern 8 A.M
Pacific uh uh do you know my Contender series The Wayans are right after us once that
series is done in about a month and a half we’ll go back to our normal start time of noon Eastern 9am Pacific I’m not begging you
but I’m kindly asking you to really hit the like And subscribe the channel is full of incredible content like this
weekly show uh like the interviews that we all do as part of the staff pre and post fight coverage of every event
junkie’s always present it would really mean a lot to us Nolan King’s up for journalists of the year at the world MMA
Awards go to world MMA awards.com give them a vote and MMA junkies up for best media Source on a separate stream right
now check out the Dana White Contender series we’re out of here go out and be a champion
thank you ain’t that right people
Abby you awake topic number six
we shall continue I suppose so
it’s strictly enough for the leading candidate for fighter of the Year guys quick
