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Making the Walk Podcast
Just a team of MMA enthusiasts that are aiming to educate and entertain casual viewers and equip them to become mainstays and enthusiasts of the sport.
Making the Walk Podcast
UFC 306 at the Sphere: Spectacle or Letdown? | Cultural Diversity & Featherweight Frenzy
Can the UFC's latest spectacle at the Sphere live up to Dana White's ambitious promises? Join us as we dive into the visual extravaganza of UFC 306 with writer Spencer Kite. We discuss the groundbreaking presentation, the mix of awe and skepticism from fans, and what this means for the future of live sports entertainment. Spencer shares his thoughts on the visual spectacle and dissects the mixed reactions, exploring whether the event's ambitious production has set a new benchmark or left fans wanting more.
We celebrate the melting pot that is the UFC, reflecting on the recent UFC Noche event and the unpredictable journeys of fighters from Canada and Mexico. How do these diverse backgrounds shape the UFC experience? We explore the significance of integrating regional flavors and histories into fight nights, emphasizing how cultural representation enriches the sport and makes each event a unique celebration. From the highs and lows of Mexican athletes to the potential for future culturally themed events, we discuss how the UFC can continue to enhance its global appeal.
The featherweight division is heating up, and we're bringing Ola from the Fight Week show to break it all down. Despite rooting for Brian Ortega, we can't ignore Diego Lopez's rise. We analyze his surprising victory and what it means for the division's future. Who's next for Lopez? Will he face Ilya Teporia or bide his time for a title shot? We also spotlight rising talents like Bryce Mitchell and Teporia, praising their impressive skills and contemplating their impact on the division's landscape. Tune in for a deep dive into the strategies, emotions, and future matchups that keep the featherweight division one of the most exciting in MMA.
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On this YouTube journey of Making the Walk, I feel like we've kind of veered away from what the original intent was for Making the Walk, which is to be a podcast. So what I'm going to do is focus more so on returning to those roots of being the Making the Walk podcast. So, going forward, we'll have weekly episodes of the podcast and that'll be on Spotify, apple Music, youtube all those platforms In addition to having our videos shown here for the podcast. Also, we'll continue doing video essays for the podcast Also. We'll continue doing video essays, continue to do live chats, continue to do collaborations with other YouTubers and, of course, on the podcast we'll always have guests. So we'll always keep that fresh. But I did want to make sure that everybody that consumes podcasts, in whichever way that you do that, they know that Making the Walk will be there as well. So for this episode we're going to talk to E Spencer Kite from UFCcom and Fighters Only. We'll talk to him about a couple of things and we'll also talk to Ola from the Fight Week show and both of those will be talking about what we just saw UFC 306 at the Sphere. Y'all let me know down in the comments Do y'all think that was a success?
Speaker 1:Do you think it was a failure? What do you think went right? What do you think went wrong? But yeah, let's get to the show, all right. So, um, I wanted to bring on um one of my good friends, um a writer extraordinaire. Um, you've seen his work all over the place, but I wanted to really dig into, kind of, what the thoughts were behind the success or you know, for some people it wasn't a success of UFC 306 at the Sphere. So, for those that don't know, this is Spencer Kite. Yeah, so we can kind of start it right there. Like, what did you think of the event? Um, as far as like what you saw and what you were able to take in from it, so I mean watching at home it was.
Speaker 2:The visuals inside sphere were spectacular, and so I can only imagine what it was like to be there, live and experience that kind of display up close and personal. I'm a little jealous that I wasn't there. Um understand, like not everybody can go, but I mean sitting at home watching it. It looked amazing and so, just on the visual, like the presentation of it, right, we get week after week of people bemoaning the sameness of the ufc and how trash things. Look at the apex and how much they hate the eight. So we got here, we're going nth degree, we're going to the absolute other end of the spectrum, amazing from a fight standpoint. I understand people that want to come away and be like, yeah, but the fights didn't. That's not me, though, like I was fascinated by, especially those final two matchups, the two championship fights.
Speaker 2:I think we got for me really interesting fights that answered a bunch of big questions that I had going in, and so for me, this was a home run. This was a home run, this was a, this was a terrific. Now it's always going to suffer because Dana comes out beforehand and says this is going to be the greatest thing anyone has ever seen. No one is ever going to have witnessed a sports and entertainment fusion like this in the history of mankind. And then, like I understand everybody on the prelims that are like and they're not showing us the walkouts and this is just kind of like basic for what is capable. Right, we saw on the main card what is capable. Now I get not rolling out all the bells and whistles for all 10 fights, but it suffers a little bit because dana set the expectation at the greatest thing you've ever seen and then, when it's not the absolute greatest event ever, because you cannot control the way the fights play out, people come away and they're like it's fine, it was way better than fine.
Speaker 2:Like we're gonna, we're gonna have ufc 307 in salt lake city in three weeks and it's gonna be a good show. It's gonna be a good event. Alex poetown perero, returning bantamweight title on the line, bantamweight title eliminator in there as well. Like really good card. And people are going to be like huh, maybe this fear was, maybe that was really special. That's what I think's going to happen. I think we're going to get a like three week from now, reassessment when we see what an event at delta center, which is a nice arena, good venue. We're on the road, raucous crowd. Yeah, it's gonna look so different and people are gonna retroactively be like. You know I might have graded that too hard.
Speaker 2:It's like when we grade drafts right, we do the draft grades right away and it's like these guys get a d. It's like they haven't played a game yet. Let's just wait and see a little bit. Let's give it a little bit of time. Let's just see. See what happens. I thought it was amazing. What did you think, man?
Speaker 1:I watching it. You know, leading up to it, you know I made a video and you know I'll link that here so y'all can see it. But I made a video that was talking about what would make this a successful event, and one of the primary things that I said was how it translate to television, because obviously the majority of the people who were taken in the event were looking at it on a screen, whether it be, you know, on their phone, tablet, computer, tv, um. So how did it translate? For the rest of us? And for me, like, that was a, a, a event that should be considered when they talk about, you know, the Emmy for best live event type of thing. It was that good, like they, the money that they spent, they spent it wisely, the.
Speaker 1:But you always have that faction of people who aren't really looking at it for, um, they don't want to be taught a history lesson while they're looking at fights. That's what really. What it comes down to is like that's cool. You know I can look at that documentary later, but I want to watch these fights right now. So I can understand that, but for what they did and the way that they put it together and the, the level of difficulty that is. That is a major part of it. The way that they didn't have that rig overhead and they still had to manage being able to get the same angles that we're used to as fight fans like that, that level of difficulty, um, was very high. And for them to actually achieve it and have better lighting the lighting on in the octagon was way better than it normally is, like the whole thing was spectacular to me.
Speaker 1:Um, as far as the fights themselves, the majority of the fights to me delivered I mean the Zell Hoover and Rebovich went over delivered Like I was not. I mean, you can't. Every fight's not going to be a barn burner. You know some fights are going to be dominant, whether it be wrestling or striking, so you really can't do anything about that. And Dana White has said that's something that's out of his control, but he can present it to us the way that, the best way that he can, and I think they accomplished that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's. It's interesting, right, because it feels like there is a segment of the quote unquote fight loving population that just keep shifting the goal posts every time. And so this week it was well. I don't care about the presentation, the fights didn't delivered. And next week it's going to be well. The fights were fine, but the presentation was trash. And it's just this sport. We are constantly looking for those Goldilocks moments. Right, everything has got to be just right, and when it's not, we're angry on either side. Yes, and for me, this was one of those ones where it's like visually, I agree with you 100% Like it's ironic that we had Noche UFC on Saturday and the Emmys on Sunday, because a year from now, that crew is going up there and accepting an Emmy for best sports presentation a hundred percent.
Speaker 2:They will be to roll out those worlds and have each of those main card fights take place in a different location, in a different setting, where it felt like it was taking place. There is stunning, and so, for all the group of people that are constantly bemoaning, everything just feels the same and you never know where it is. And you've got to get on the road and you've got to be in front of they just gave you everything you have been asking for, and this is the week you want to decide that you're. What you really care about Most are the fights themselves, and then you're going to be hypercritical of the fights themselves, even though, as you said, rebovich, zellhuber, bonkers, opening fight, even itself right, the lazy boy, rodriguez, odey, osborne fight Lazy boy, looked like he was out comes back, wins the fight.
Speaker 2:Diego Lopez continues to ascend. Sure, it wasn't the 92nd finishes that he was having to start his, his run of success, but he beat Brian Ortega and prior to prior to Saturday night, only two dudes had really truly beaten Brian Ortega, and they're two of the three best featherweights of all time. So, like, let's just hold off on. Ah, well, fine, diego lopez, valentina shevchenko goes out and reminds everybody that she's one of the probably five best female fighters of all time and she may not be four or five, she's probably like three, I think so. But now new intrigue in Sean O'Malley of how does this dude bounce back from this? Because he, you know the Cheeto loss. He always just played up, his eye got hit and it was this weird thing. There are no excuses for this one. You can tell me any of the different things you may want to tell me afterwards about injuries or whatever. There's no like. I was hurt and it wasn't really a lot. You got your ass whipped for 25 minutes and I don't care what the scorecard said.
Speaker 2:This is one of those fights where, yeah, it says 49, 46 and 48, 47 twice. It wasn't that close. We have some times where it's closer than the 49, 46 or the 50, 45. And we're like, yeah, but it was competitive. This, this wasn't that close. And so for me, I came away from it really excited and really looking forward to where these divisions go, what these new champions can do, and just feeling like this thing delivered it nothing. It was never going. It was like UFC 303. It was never going to live up to or 300,. Sorry it's never going to live up to the hype that people had for it and that Dana put on it to a certain extent, but it absolutely delivered.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would totally agree. It delivered to me the intrigue that it brought to the band and division Now that we have a new king of the division. The entry that it brings, with Diego passing a massive test in Brian Ortega um, the entry when you look at, uh, another interesting fighter in the featherweight division um, and uh, ronaldo Rodriguez. Um, I mean, just imagine what a Ronaldo Rodriguez Manel Copp lead up would be like. I mean, there's a lot of things that spin off of this that are going to be monumental for those divisions, for those fighters. So I was very excited about how this turned out. I really enjoyed the presentation and I'm super interested to see what happens next.
Speaker 1:And, like you said, the letdown and it may not be a letdown, because I know that Dana White said that he's going to bring some things that he learned from that into his next shows and things like that. And that's cool. Hopefully it's drones and overhead shots and things like that. And that's cool. Hopefully it's drones and overhead shots and things like that. But, um, but you can't do everything you did at the sphere when we go to utah, so I'm curious how that's gonna look. But, but, to your point, like the people who complain about the apex. How can you in your right mind go and complain about the sphere?
Speaker 1:right like he's like oh, you don't like to just hear them punching each other, hitting each other in the face and the corners Like okay, how about this? You want more fans.
Speaker 2:We gave you more fans, you want more visuals. We gave you all the visuals, but what do you like that either.
Speaker 2:That wasn't good enough. Still, okay, cool. This is just and I know, like anybody that has followed me for years knows that this is my corner of the like y'all, they're just never happy. There's just always something that there's always three things that you're going to complain about, even when we clear off the other boxes. But like, this was one of those ones to me and like, if your argument is, your argument is well, it didn't work out for the mexican athletes at noche ufc fine, uncontrollable. We had a card in canada to start the year. Two canadians got wins. Sometimes it's great, like it was in vancouver, sometimes it's ufc 297 where every dude from canada gets his ass handed to him. Can't, you can't control that. All you can do is make interesting fights and roll them out there and see what happens. They were all interesting fights and we saw what happened.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, there was a lot of ass handed to him Like, oh, is this your ass here you go.
Speaker 2:I mean just some bad ones too. Right, like just some bad ones. Yasmin Haragwi just taking a club and sub from Kathleen Souza. You know what's?
Speaker 1:funny is like leading up to it for her, I was like, okay, this is a showcase fight. You know, she's in front of all these people who could really jump on the hype train for her and she's fighting somebody she's super favored against. She's going to beat this lady up and make a stamp in that division for herself and the total opposite is seeing.
Speaker 2:I went in feeling the opposite of like, oh, they're trying to showcase this woman and I don't think she's as good as ketlyn soza's, who has won a title in invicta fighting very good competition. And yeah, she lost her debut, but it was up a division against an absolute killer, unintended Karina Silva. Now we're back where she belongs and it's looked pretty damn good so far.
Speaker 1:Yeah for sure. So last question, when it comes to UFC Noche, we've done it back to back years. Um, it's been successful. Um, it's. I feel like it's the only event that the UFC has done where they've paid so much attention to the culture. Um, you know, they didn't. They haven't done that as much for Brazil, even though they've done that a little bit for Brazil. But for for Mexico, they really really paid attention to the culture and I know that. Um, that Dana has talked about doing it in Mexico. Um, that's his primary focus for next year. Um, if not Mexico, probably Texas, arizona or California. But do you think that they should continue to do the UFC Noche? You know independence day um thing, or should they? You know the followingche you know Independence Day thing, or should they you know the following year, you know, maybe not next year but the following year gravitate to another culture or something like that?
Speaker 2:I think they can keep doing Noche. I think what we'll probably get to is, for the most part, it'll be a fight night event, like it was last year for the inaugural one. Now they brought it to T-Mobile because it was a big enough show and they put enough people around it and they hyped it up, and they can certainly do that going forward, whether it's in Las Vegas or different locations. I'd also like to see when they do go to Brazil. Ramp that up a little bit more. Bring some of those elements and I hope this is some of the stuff that that dane is talking about of being able to take from the show. It's fear and and implement, because there is something about that celebration of the culture that raises the interest, raises the anticipation, it raises the energy of the event, like it's something different when you have that venue packed with people there to celebrate mexican heritage, latin american culture. Do that in brazil. Those fans are already there to celebrate every brazilian fighter. That makes the walk. So tie in some of that nationality. Bring in some of that flavor of even just the presentation of it, whether it's specialized fight kits, whether it's a little bit more in the graphics presentation in terms of celebrating the region, some more of the video packages that talk about the history and spotlight some of the things that it can be Brazil, it can be Canada, it can be when you go overseas and you go back to england next year, once you get to japan again, and when you go back to, you know, new zealand, australia, all of these areas that are involved in this sport have such rich cultures. The thing is always that fighting is in our dna. It's in every culture's dna, yeah, and so you can go and pull the pieces and celebrate that and showcase that. It doesn't have to be independence day, some big, particular, nailed down holiday, but when you go to brazil twice a year, you can make a big deal about being in brazil and really pumping it. Pumping up that this is. Let's celebrate this culture that contributed so much to where we are. I know going back to japan and going back to asia is a massive thing for the ufc. When you get there, celebrate the hell out of these cultures that have contributed so much.
Speaker 2:Canada we haven't necessarily, you know, we're not necessarily alike. This is where the sports started but we've had some big stars. We've had some big moments. We're coming here in Edmonton. I don't think they're necessarily going to do it in Edmonton in eight weeks' time, 50 days' time, whatever it is. However, you can still, when you get around to these big shows in places that have those histories, showcase them. Continue to do it with mexico, continue to do it with different nationalities, continue to do it with different regions, because it is so amazing to see. It's a cool way to put a little bit of a a theme to an event. Again, going back to that thing we started with right, people are talking about the sameness.
Speaker 2:Create some different yeah, nope, 100, 100, like you remember, uh fight for the troops um like yeah, way back in the day we did the canada versus usa, we did the you know, early ufc. The first ufc in in england was the, the brawl at the hall, and it was, yeah, all kinds of british fighters and we used to pit, you know, countries against each other, which is, maybe you know a little bit, something we shouldn't be doing right now, just like, hey, we're taking on everything.
Speaker 2:But like now brazilian shows are brazil versus everybody, so let's celebrate brazil yeah, 100 for sure.
Speaker 1:Definitely agree with that. I hope that that's the the direction that they go, because a lot of these younger fans they they need to be taught that this is important. You know, these fighters walk out with their country's flags for a reason, and I think championing that is is definitely something that would benefit not only the UFC but just the people who are viewing as a whole. Just educating them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, the coolest moment of Saturday for me and I wrote about it in my big picture series that'll come out on UFCcom this week shameless plug was Valentina showing that she is just like the quintessential ambassador for this sport.
Speaker 2:Not only does she turn in a dominant effort full of incredible technique, insane fundamentals, great timing, all of those things. Then she jumps on the mic and speaks four languages flawlessly and just is like hey, joe Rogan, I know you asked me a couple of questions, but I got some things I need to say. No-transcript on the fight kits in the fight kits. Continue to showcase this stuff, because it is so important in helping people understand not only who these athletes are, but how much this means to those regions, to those people in those regions. You and I are probably in a different camp in terms of everyone else, because Americans don't necessarily celebrate all the American fighters, canadians don't celebrate all the Canadian fighters. But you see it, every time an international champion goes home or an international fighter goes home off a big event, it's a huge deal. Continue to make it a huge deal going forward.
Speaker 1:Absolutely A hundred percent. Agree, cool. Well, yeah, I appreciate you jumping on. Um, we can, we can put a pin in there, but I will say this um, I'm going to do these more often, so I definitely need you back on as many times as we can get it going.
Speaker 2:I'm always around you saw how easy this one came together. Hey man, what you doing? All right, let's talk in two hours. Done. Anytime you call, I will answer. Cool, cool, I appreciate you.
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Speaker 1:All right. So I had to bring my boy, ola, from the Fight Week show on because we got to talk about a very sensitive situation for him. I mean, you know I'm not going to front. I was. I was going for Ortega. I was hoping that he would be able to to pull it off. Oh see, he's got the hat. He's got the hat. I was going for a take. I was hoping that he was going to be able to pull it off, but it didn't go that way. So how do you feel today, in the aftermath of that destruction that happened?
Speaker 4:Bro, to answer your question, to start with, I feel broken. That's number one, and I tell you why. But then, as much as I say I feel broken, that I lost, I want to say I feel broken because of the, the initial onslaught in the first round, yeah, and after this, no way my guy is going out like this, like no way Ortega is going out like this man. But the fight that he subsequently put on for the rest of the fight, for the rest of the rounds, that he subsequently put on for the rest of the fight, for the rest of the rounds, it kind of it went a long way into mending what was broken, if that makes sense, even though he's still lost.
Speaker 4:And that's not to say we're out here disrespecting Lopez at all, because we know what Lopez is about, we know, we know how dangerous it is, we know the power that he possesses and a lot of people that that fight, that you know, that's been in the fight with him, they were all. They're all saying how hard he hits. You know, and, and I think sadiq yusuf, during the fight, came, I said, bro, when I think he lost it was when I tell you that, bro, he's hard.
Speaker 4:We know Yusuf ain't no punk. You know what?
Speaker 1:I mean no, he's not.
Speaker 4:So if he's saying it, then I believe it and in my opinion, I thought Brian put up the best fight that he could. I was expecting a bit more grappling base, but then I think, towards the third round, bryan started to look good with the striking and I'm thinking, oh, hold on. You know this, could this if this had been a five round fight, who know what might happen? Right? But look, I'm not sitting here hating on, hating on Diego Lopez. I think Lopez has done the hard work to get to where he is in terms of being in the top five.
Speaker 4:I think he's ranked number three or something like that, or will be by tomorrow.
Speaker 4:So not to take all the discussion away. Not to take all the discussion away. I'm hurt that Brian didn't win, but then again I'm thinking, if he did win, then what's next for Brian? You know what I mean, like what's really next for him? I don't know if they were going to really give him Ilya Tupira like that. I don't know if that seemed like a big fight for him for Ilya Tupira himself to even entertain. Don't know if that seemed like a big fight for him for Ilya Tupira himself to even entertain him in the first place. But I think this Diego Lopez fight, though, does set up nicely for an Ilya Tupira fight, just mainly because of their styles Both of them good on the ground. They both got submissions and they both got hands. They can knock each other out. It'll be nice to see what eventually happens when that time comes around.
Speaker 4:We've seen Diego Lopez call out his shot on the post-fight interview and look, fair play to him Anybody that was picking Brian Ortega. At least from my standpoint and my perspective, it wasn't any kind of disrespect towards Lopez. It's just okay for Lopez to really prove to us that he really deserved to now be talking title talks, being rubbing shoulders with, you know title contenders and stuff. Get Paso Tega. You do that, then you know what you have my blessing and I think he absolutely deserved the win. The way he performed. He won every round and, yeah, I can't wait to see what's next for lopez. Uh, but from from from brian's standpoint, I don't know what's. What's next for brad. I'm sure we we'll touch on it, but we can try and match make for him um in the division. I don't know what's next for brian man. I think brian probably gonna take another year or something. But I love Brian Ortega man, even though he's scanty, far and few. In between we've had a decent career off of him. You know what I mean For sure.
Speaker 1:That's how I feel you know it's interesting, like what we've seen recently, relatively recently, are these fighters who um are given kind of the golden ticket to jump up. So you see, um, you know, diego lopez is in the the teens and he's jumping up to fight somebody who's in top five. We saw it with, uh, benoit sandini against dustin poirier. Yeah, we saw it with Sean O'Malley against Peter Yan.
Speaker 4:Saw it with Ezequiel Patuja.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly Exactly so. Like we've seen this, and not in most cases, in most cases, the young person, you know, beats the old lion and you know we start to see the decline. You know, beats the old lion and you know we start to see the decline. And it really does suck to see Ortega start to decline and I don't know and when I say decline I'm only saying decline from the top five I don't know that his skills have declined.
Speaker 4:I think Diego might be that good, because people use washed up decline. They use it very, very loosely.
Speaker 1:You know.
Speaker 4:I'm glad you clarified that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that Diego Lopez is just that good, and which brings up another thing is how good is Mazvar Evloev? The fact that he escaped that onslaught and was able to squeak out a win, so that's the person not to, and Diego probably is going to be ranked above him, which is interesting, that's crazy right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is crazy. It is crazy, but I mean, I think Diego does present a lot of intrigue, a lot of new, a new face in the top five, and that's something that you don't see. And you know some of these other glamour divisions, like lightweight, we're dealing with the same guys for the most part Dustin, justin, you know same guys over and over again Charles Lavera but featherweight we're getting, you know, starting to see a cycle of people, and bantamweight we're starting to see a cycle of people and I don't know if it for you, if you felt this way. And this kind of leads me to my next question. Um, before this, before you know what's happened recently, I had bantamweight as the best division in the UFC as far as, like, how deep, how deep it is and rich with talent. But how do you feel about featherweight in comparison to the other weight classes?
Speaker 4:Featherweight is probably ranked number four in my favorite divisions on the promotion, and lightweight is one of my favorites. That's because they're not too big, they're not too small, they are the right size, they're still fast and they pack so much power. I love the lightweight for that reason. And then when you look at Bantamweight, which is my next favorite division, again for the reasons you listed so deep everybody there at least you look at the top 15 and you're thinking, oh, all of these guys are savages. Any given night, one of these could finish any one of these other fighters in that division. So I think Bantamweight is so rich for that night. One of these could finish any one of these other fighters, uh, in that division. So I think I think bantamweight is is so rich for that. And flyweight I mean the fight was so between rodriguez ronaldo and odiosbon is a good advert for why you should love flyweight. If you don't love flyweight for that reason, as a mma, as a mixed martial arts fans, especially fans like us that really follow a deep like, like, like we do, we look at every single facet of what's going on in the octagon uh, if you don't love flyweight, then I, you know, I don't, I don't, I don't know, I don't know what you're watching, and then it comes in. So I don't know what you're watching and then Febberway comes in. So, and the only reason that Febberway was really in that position and it's no true fault of their own A lot of the fighters in there aren't that active, especially through the Max Holloway sort of era.
Speaker 4:You know what I mean. There weren't that much activity going on in that division division. But look, it's still. It's still a tough, tough division. Um, there's some killers in there and I'm sure, I'm sure we're gonna, we're gonna see some more, some more killers come through. But you know, when you look at people like, uh, anna darlin, you look at people like Topura, who became a champion, volk, the Brian Ortega's, the Bryce Mitchell's of this world, like you know, they got some Calvin K, they got some really, really tough fighters in there. We had what's the brother from 155?.
Speaker 1:Ah, his name, just the drop down. You're talking about Itzar Barbosa.
Speaker 4:Barbosa. Yeah, we got him added to the division. So there's still some killers there. I would just like a little bit more activity going through that division. Some killers there, I would just like a little bit more activity going through that division. Just, you know, just keep the keep. That Kogo will you know rolling more than he's been rolling. But to be fair to Volkanovski, he was a very, very active champion as well. So, yeah, I do like the featherweight. That's not to diminish the featherweight. I just prefer some other divisions to that division relatively because of their activity over anything else.
Speaker 1:No, that's a great point. So, as far as the top of the division, we know that Ilya is going to be fighting Max soon, and we know that Mavzar Evloev is going to be fighting Aljamain Sterling. We know that Diego just beat Brian Ortega, who's number three, and we also know that Alexander Volkanovsky is sitting on the sideline healing up coming off two losses.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Two knockout losses, but he's sitting on the sideline healing up as a long reigning champ. How do you match this up? How do you think this should go?
Speaker 4:I was saying on the live stream, I've had a little bit more time to think about it, the live stream, I've had a little bit more time to think about it. And if Lopez sat out and waited for the results of Max and Ilya, I wouldn't be mad at it because of who he just beat, and beat convincingly as well. So I wouldn't be mad at that at all. But at the same time I'd like to see him get one more that at all. But at the same time I'd like to see him get one more fight before seeing the champion. I'd like to see him get one more fight.
Speaker 4:But you can't say Brian Ortega being Yair Rodriguez who just fought for the interim championship, that's a gateway to seeing the champion. So if he's just beat that guy doing a little MMA mafia, if he's just beat that guy, this is how he's probably going to be looking at it. I've just beat Ortega, who beat the number one contender for the title, then surely I should be the number one contender for the title. So he probably don't want to fight nobody else, knowing how dangerous they all are at the top of the division at 145.
Speaker 4:So, you know, till he sees the champion and he take his chance there and then go from there. So for me, if I was to really do it, I'd probably say one more fight for Lopez. But from Lopez's perspective and standpoint he'd probably be saying no, no, I'm sitting everything out now. I'm gonna wait for max and ilia to dance and whoever wins, you know what matter of fact, make me the backup for that fight. How about that? I'll turn up, make weights, put me as a backup for that, for that fight. You know there's a few options there for the matchmakers of the UFC to really chill on and see what they want to do with Diego Lopez. It took a little bit of damage, so I don't think he's going to be one of those where he's going to get thrown right back in it, probably the end of the year if he really wanted to get in there, maybe early part of next year, because we're in.
Speaker 4:September now. So, yeah, maybe early part of next year could be the time we see Lopez again to you know, to compete for, Because, obviously, depending on what happens between Ilya and Max, depending how banged up they are when that fight's done, you know. So who knows? So, yeah, I'll probably be looking at the early part of next year for that fight to happen. But if I was to do it, think about it. Make Lopez the backup for that fight or make him sit out, wait for the winner of those two and then go from there and if he doesn't want to wait, take one more fight, take another top five and show everybody we know it's not a fluke, because we know what it's about, but show everybody that you're really about it, because when you become champion, you're going to be taking on all comers anyways. So show us you're really about it and everybody will probably get behind him. So you know, ilya had to do that and, yeah, let's see if Lopez can do it.
Speaker 1:True, true, ilya did have to. He walked a pretty difficult path to get to champion. I think if I'm Lopez, I'm doing everything I can so that my next fight is for a belt, but at the same time I know the UFC has reverence for Alexander Volkanovsky and they're going to give him another shot. So it's like do I want to wait for whomever wins this fight to fight Alex again? Or because, alright, so here's the MMA math part of it. So Ilya and Max fight.
Speaker 1:If Ilya wins, then I think the UFC is more likely to go Diego Right. But if Max wins, then that opens the door wide open for Volkanovski to walk in there. He's got three wins over him. Not three wins I agree with, but he's got three on paper. Yeah, he does. So I feel like it depends on who wins, on what Diego is going to do, because if it's Max, and then and then the other part of Max's situation is, max has options too, because if Max wins, does he have to fight a featherweight or can he go up and fight a lightweight and challenge for the belt? He just knocked out the number two contender at 155. And the UFC has reverence for Max.
Speaker 4:They do.
Speaker 1:It's so convoluted, but not in the sense of we don't have options, like heavyweight does. They don't have options, so that's why they got to go and get Khalil Roundtree, but Featherweight has too many options.
Speaker 4:Yeah, what's to say Mox don't want to you know, compete for BMF again. If the settings was right, if the occasion was right, he might say you know what? I defended this on this, peter, too many times. I'm going to put that to one side. Who wants some of this BMF? You know what I mean, even though I think the reason why he's held back, or not giving it to Ilya because Maxim strikes me as the type of person that would probably put the belt down if he weren't really begging for it, if he weren't asking for it the way Ilya was asking for it. Maxim is probably the type of guy that would just throw that in the mix and say you know what, let's do this for the BMF and the Undisputed. But because Ilya was so bent on the fact that, bro, I'm only fighting you if you put your, and Max said, oh, what is that? That's the energy you're on? Okay, no, but I know the UFC will still do what I will, which is take your belt, fight for your belt, but no.
Speaker 4:So I think that's what's going on there, and Max, if he does win, will have plethora of options for the type of fight that he wants to fight. He could look back at 155. He could give somebody a shot at 145. You know hell, if Conor comes out and start running his mouth, he might say you know what, let me get some of that red pant tonight as well. Who knows, who knows, you know.
Speaker 4:So for me, I think there's a lot to expect out of this division now, with this new landscape that we now have, with Diego Lopez in there. Ilya, being a new champion, hasn't defended yet. Vogue sitting out after losing for the first time I won for the five champion hasn't defended yet. Volk sitting out after losing for the first time I won for the five seasons becoming a champion.
Speaker 4:You know there's even a shout for Aljo that's just beat Keita, who was, you know, a top five fighter for quite a long time in that division and he's a former champion that's come up from 135. He could, you know, he's also got a case up in there to at least see one of the 145ers that's coming from 135, he's also got a case up in there to at least see one of the 145ers that's in the top five. So I like the landscape right now. It's just what are they going to do with it? You know what I mean. What are they going to do with it? And that's what we're all going to sit down and wait for as mixed martial arts fans.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm super excited about it. I feel like 145, before Ilya took that belt was really just the two kings up there beating up everybody, you know, with Alex and Volk. And now it's way more interesting because I was actually starting to sour on the 145 division, because I was actually starting to sour on the 145 division, not in saying that they weren't good or anything like that, but it just wasn't as interesting as some of the other divisions. Because I mean to me that's what happens when you have a dominant champion it makes the rest of the division seem stale.
Speaker 1:Yeah makes the rest of the division seem stale. Yeah, and now we have some interest, because max very well may be ilia, and vice versa. Ilia could be the one that take max's chin, and diego might be either one of them. Like we don't know, you just don't know it's.
Speaker 4:It's so weird when you look at that division now and to think how Max dominated it for so long, alex being pound for pound champion, being pound for pound number one for the entire promotion, just off the back of working, just dominating that division for as long as it did. It dared to go up, it dared for glory against Islam. It didn't quite work out. But look, this is where I feel for Alex a lot, because I think it should not have taken the fight against Ilya as soon as it did. I think he shouldn't have taken the fight against Ilya as soon as he did. I think maybe if he sat out and recovered just get back some of your chin, get some of that knockout serum out of his system I think he might have been able to get through it. But again, knowing how hard Ilya hits, I mean to do what he did to Black Country Banger like bro to do that to him over here in the UK.
Speaker 4:I was there in the arena, I was there, I'm sorry, I was like whoa. And then he called up Paddy Pimbley. I was like, oh man, this is going on mad. Do not let Paddy anywhere near this guy with the weight of this chin so high up Like no, and you actually got the message. They're sorry, they're like there's no way we let Paddy anywhere. You're going to kill the money. Yeah, you're going to kill the money.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you're going to kill the money, mate.
Speaker 1:Can't mess up their money train Mm-mm. Yeah, ilya's got some smoke behind him, for sure.
Speaker 4:And then to finish, bryce Mitchell, how he did, because I'd never really seen that before and I was like holy shit, this guy can do this to somebody like Bryce Mitchellce mitchell, that just this is bread and butter. And he does it to them. I thought, okay, you know what you got me.
Speaker 4:You, you got me man yeah I'm a big fan of thug nasty man, you know I mean. And and to dispatch him the way he did that. That really cemented my, my legitimacy for, for alien like you know what you can go do what you need to do now, bro, you know what I mean, you know who got me to really pay attention to Ilya Teporya was actually the Ryan Hall fight.
Speaker 1:Because of how weird Ryan Hall is, I was like how is he going to Not to say that Ryan Hall is unbeatable? Obviously, but he's so weird and tricky and the way that he got around that and was able to to knock him out like that, let me know, like his, his mind is right there with his physical skill, yeah. And I was like, yeah, man, that dude's gonna be good now. I didn't know he going to knock out an all-time great like that, but I thought he was going to be pretty good. He's next level, he really is.
Speaker 4:He's different man. He's a very, very special fighter. I just want to see more activity from him now. It's been a minute since he's become champion not rushing him, him back, but it'd be nice to really, you know, just get on the workhorse now. This is where you said you want to be. Now you're here, give us activity, you know so let's see if he stays true to that hopefully, so hopefully.