[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to the Shirtog Radio Network preview for UFC Fight Night 281, DuPlessy vs. Usman, also known as UFC Oklahoma City.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm your host, BenDuffyOfShirtog.com, and with me as usual is Keith Shillin, the executive producer of the Shirtog Radio Network.
[SPEAKER_01]: Keith, are you doing today?
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm doing really well.
[SPEAKER_01]: We just got finished recapping UFC 329, which started with a bang and ended with a fizzle.
[SPEAKER_01]: Obviously, there was a ton to talk about after that one that's less than 24 hours ago as of when we're recording right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the conveyor belt keeps moving and the next fight night is up.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this one's UFC Oklahoma City.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because the UFC has not found a replacement for bread to bars, we're currently looking at an 11-fight card.
[SPEAKER_01]: Give me your overall thoughts on this one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, first of all, Ben, obviously you live in Texas, so Texas touches Oklahoma.
[SPEAKER_00]: How close is Oklahoma City to Thackerville?
[SPEAKER_01]: Not too bad, actually.
[SPEAKER_01]: Uh, okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: So make sure that you see, like, and clear it and make sure that not in Bellato territory, you know.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'd love it if the UFC just posted up at the Winstar hotel in Casino in Fakerville.
[SPEAKER_00]: To all the fighters just come away smelling like smoke.
[SPEAKER_00]: Scott Coker and Vinnie sent.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: That could be the only casino, it's the biggest one in America long.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just long.
[SPEAKER_00]: I actually bet that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's not the only place that was like 11 o'clock at night or something like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I couldn't find a place to eat.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was like hungry.
[SPEAKER_01]: I was like, wait, where's the food?
[SPEAKER_01]: And everything was closed.
[SPEAKER_01]: I couldn't believe it.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's a tribal casino for if not being able to find a buffet at two in the morning?
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, the amount of times I've eaten crispy,
[SPEAKER_00]: me and only can't just pouring just liquid sugar into our mouths I can't what kind of Yankee are you eating crispy cream that that's dunking donuts territory up there I mean I have I have versus waffle house, you know, yeah, but I don't know no no there's no competition Okay, no don't otherwise crispy keep this weight better
[SPEAKER_00]: I agree that they're better.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, there's probably about five crispy creams in our area.
[SPEAKER_00]: Total.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nice, hey, area.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, like, southern New England.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, wow.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
[SPEAKER_00]: uh... so uh... factorville reminiscences aside uh... what do you think of this card let's see it's i get it when you when you you have massive cards around you it's going to be hard to put on a big fight night card
[SPEAKER_00]: you know, and you just had the White House card, you just had the regret your card, you know, there's a lot of stomp on in those two cards.
[SPEAKER_00]: There wasn't much left over, but, you know, a couple of good matchups.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, not a lot of squash matches, like, like, not all of them, like, oh, my god, this guy's got a murder of this guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I think you're like a sea.
[SPEAKER_01]: I agree.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there's not a ton of,
[SPEAKER_01]: massive casual name value, but the prospect value on this one is sneaky good.
[SPEAKER_01]: This could be the kind of card where we just sort of overlook it in the flow of things right now, but maybe three or four years from now we look back and we're like, you remember that Oklahoma City card that had like Fatima Klein and Austin Bashy and Tommy McMillan on it and they're all like top five fighters and one of them is a champ at that point.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like that's the kind of card this is.
[SPEAKER_00]: That one has
[SPEAKER_01]: No, no, remember when Fatima Klein lost and then like she won her next 11 fights and she's the champ now.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and bad stuffy call that bad stuffy call.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, no, I'm I'm I'm with you outside of the main event which fight are you most excited for?
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I, you kind of just kind of name some of the first one that the first one that jumps off to me is, uh, a bashy and dalgato.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, that's a really, really fun fight to really good prospects to, you know, one of those guys is to go very far.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's, you know, who is it?
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, reaching and, and client is a really fun action-wise McMillan and, uh, Montez is, is, is really fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think, um,
[SPEAKER_00]: co-verses, the boasts of Noy-Yani, I know I, my French ate that good.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a fun fight, you know, you have a flyway fight and all the career versus Stuart Nichol.
[SPEAKER_00]: Shit, I might be, you can have to start giving this card a high, high degree, because there's a bunch of everybody like, but I've only had to pick one, I would go with a bashy and no gotta.
[SPEAKER_01]: I love that one.
[SPEAKER_01]: I would say, uh, give me reachy versus climb.
[SPEAKER_01]: I, you know, like, and I was behind me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't want to pre-preview the fight, but I'm starting to come around on fatigue of climb, like to get in a little closer to where you are.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think you've been thinking a little more.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Dricin, the stuffatch.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, Dricin.
[SPEAKER_01]: unless you've got any other general thoughts on the card, we can just jump right in these prelimbs, quick note for our regular listeners.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mentioned on last night's recap that there's a little bit of an announcement, just stick around for the end kind of closing in credit roll.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'll talk a little bit about it then.
[SPEAKER_01]: First up on the UFC Oklahoma City undercard, at least as the card is set up as of the beginning of fight week, is a strong weight matchup between Anna Milassano and
[SPEAKER_01]: Melasano, the 29 year old fighting out of Alabama is six and one overall.
[SPEAKER_01]: This will be her UFC debut, but she comes to this out of fury fighting championship and out of season 34 of the ultimate fighter.
[SPEAKER_01]: She was Michael Bispings first overall pick.
[SPEAKER_01]: She actually got eliminated in the first round, but she gets to call up here anyway to make her official lock to gun debut against Barbosa.
[SPEAKER_01]: Barbosa 34-year-old Brazilian 9 and 4 overall 3 and 2 since joining the UFC out of season 7 of Dana White's contender series.
[SPEAKER_01]: She is coming in off a win.
[SPEAKER_01]: She fought most recently back in April at UFC Fight Night Moiconno versus Duncan, where she won a majority decision over Melissa Gato.
[SPEAKER_01]: So she'll be looking for her first back-to-back victories in the UFC.
[SPEAKER_01]: She is favorite to get it done.
[SPEAKER_01]: Keith Barbosa is your favorite.
[SPEAKER_01]: Take a guess at what the line is.
[SPEAKER_01]: uh... minus but she's two forty it is bigger than that the only barbosa is minus four hundred bow and i'm elicino plus three twenty five uh... so milicino in for Veronica hearty that's a shame because hearty versus barbosa would have been hell of a fight yeah yeah
[SPEAKER_01]: Watching Melisano, the first thing that stands out about her is her physique.
[SPEAKER_01]: You can throw her on the poster.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you throw her on a poster and said to someone who doesn't follow MMA, yeah, this is one of the best women in the world, it would make sense.
[SPEAKER_01]: She's tall, lanky, but like a seriously muscular frame.
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought of her as kind of a straw-weight case, he only just in terms of just the jacked, but at the same time, very rangery physique.
[SPEAKER_01]: having said that as powerful and as much of a elite athlete as she looks like I think she's just an okay athlete.
[SPEAKER_01]: She's switch a stance as constantly as a striker.
[SPEAKER_01]: She's technically sound on offense, but again, there's just I don't see a ton of hand or foot speed.
[SPEAKER_01]: She has good power when she lands.
[SPEAKER_01]: She is a capable grappler when the fight goes to the ground on her terms, like when either she and she has to take down or she lands on top and is scrambled, she's solid, but she got tapped out on tough and honestly look pretty easy for her opponent.
[SPEAKER_01]: That spells trouble for me against Barbosa.
[SPEAKER_01]: Barbosa is a tank of a woman.
[SPEAKER_01]: She is a, I forget how many times four, five, six, seven time, Brazilian national judo
[SPEAKER_01]: She is actually a developing striker, despite the fact that she's 34 years old, she's still improving from fight to fight.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think she's becoming a better striker across her five UFC bouts thus far, but still, she does her best work in the clinch.
[SPEAKER_01]: She's a nightmare in the clinch, whether she's actually looking for judo style takedowns or just holding on to her opponent, wearing him out, hitting him with little short shots and just making their life miserable.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's kind of the crux of the fight to me because watching Melosano in her fights here in Fury, before tough, despite the fact that she's taller and looks bigger and stronger than most of her opponents, I've seen her get stymied in the clinch by smaller women.
[SPEAKER_01]: And she has trouble avoiding the clinch, despite the fact that she's, again, a tall range
[SPEAKER_01]: She's going to step into Barbosa's world at some point fairly early in this fight.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think at that point, she's going to go for a ride.
[SPEAKER_01]: Barbosa's going to dump her on her head, pelter with a few punches and probably arm bar.
[SPEAKER_01]: So while there are some people in the division that Melosano can beat, I could see her sticking around.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a terrible first matchup for, give me a Barbosa by first round submission.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, making your UC debut against Danny Barbosa, that's a really tough ask.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, Barbosa, you know, she's not a tender, but she's taken outside, outside of looking in, like she's not far out, you know, she's big for the way class.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's a tremendous athlete.
[SPEAKER_00]: She uses a lot of movement, cuts angles well.
[SPEAKER_00]: She really well rounded.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's got quick hands, she's explosive.
[SPEAKER_00]: She will throw out some spinning attacks in her last fight.
[SPEAKER_00]: She was kept throwing them all away too much But nice kicking game got a great high kick.
[SPEAKER_00]: You talked about our clinch game and she gets in the clinch.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's great.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean she's I think she was I think she's a limpian wasn't she
[SPEAKER_01]: really good.
[SPEAKER_01]: I believe she was on the Olympic team.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have off the top of my head whether she competed or how she did, but she made the Olympic team.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, whatever.
[SPEAKER_00]: Still, like pretty high level, Judo, good foot sweeps.
[SPEAKER_00]: She goes shoot from the outside.
[SPEAKER_00]: She has fast entries, good at winning scramble.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's a fight hit the ground.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's a BJJ Black belt.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nice top control great back takes She's missed there.
[SPEAKER_00]: She got four subs on her record.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you put on a back she'll sweep you She'll look for subs off her back too, but sometimes she'll do that and set a scrambling back to her feet Her submission defense is solid but the only knock on her really is that she has gas to out in the past Melsono
[SPEAKER_00]: She's a striker.
[SPEAKER_00]: I like her boxing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good nice good straight right.
[SPEAKER_00]: She got good power.
[SPEAKER_00]: She likes teapicks.
[SPEAKER_00]: She doesn't really move her head defensively enough which is which is a problem.
[SPEAKER_00]: One mistake that she does is she actually likes to battle in the clinch and that would be a huge mistake against
[SPEAKER_00]: by Rosa.
[SPEAKER_00]: She can wrestle a little bit, but I definitely wouldn't call her a wrestler.
[SPEAKER_00]: She loses position a lot and it's in perfect top game.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's a weak defensive wrestler, though she ends up on top, she has a busy ground of pound.
[SPEAKER_00]: I like Melosano.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think she's at least you see the level.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, lower level or talent, but with some things I do like about her, probably just her athletic
[SPEAKER_00]: But, and she could do well on the feet, but Barbosa should have such a massive advantage on the ground.
[SPEAKER_00]: I see the way you do.
[SPEAKER_00]: I expect Barbosa to take her down.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think she's able to sell but really quickly give me Barbosa my first round submission.
[SPEAKER_01]: Next up on the UFC Oklahoma City Undercard, and the only heavyweight bout on the card, at least Tabitha Richi is really retaining water badly this week, features the debut of Richard Harris against Alvin Hines.
[SPEAKER_01]: Harris, the 27-year-old Ohio native, is a perfect 5-0 as a professional.
[SPEAKER_01]: He comes to the UFC out of LFA, where he competed most recently back in April, tapping out Philip Latu in the second round.
[SPEAKER_01]: He will make his debut against another gentleman in Hines, who is also looking for his first UFC win.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hines 34 year old from Minnesota 7 and 1 overall, Owen 1 in the UFC, also a former LFA contender.
[SPEAKER_01]: He made his debut back in June at UFC 317 coming up short in a unanimous decision against Jonathan Janese.
[SPEAKER_01]: Line on this one is fairly close, Keith, your favorite is minus 140, underdog plus 120, who are they?
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to say the newcomers, the favorite.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to say, Harris is.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's actually Heinz.
[SPEAKER_01]: Heinz is minus 140, Harris plus 120.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are a couple of uncouchable positives about Harris.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's just 27 years old, which as a heavyweight means he's probably six years away from his prime and he could literally do this for another 12 years and nobody will blank an eye.
[SPEAKER_01]: that's a good news.
[SPEAKER_01]: The other good news is that he is absolutely gigantic.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's six foot six.
[SPEAKER_01]: He weighs in consistently over 260 pounds, meaning he's probably a guy that cuts a few pounds to get under the limits.
[SPEAKER_01]: So those are uncoachable things.
[SPEAKER_01]: But anytime a undefeated fighter comes down the pike, who is under 30 and big enough that there's no question that they could
[SPEAKER_01]: he's getting the call up to the UFC but he wasn't even the surefire next every weight title challenger in LFA.
[SPEAKER_01]: Honestly, this fight probably should be an LFA title eliminator.
[SPEAKER_01]: It should probably be taking place like in fact, reveal or something on Friday instead of in Oklahoma City on Saturday.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's huge.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is kind of plotting.
[SPEAKER_01]: He sets up Orthodox
[SPEAKER_01]: And honestly, he looks like a giant kind of slow-footed heavyweight.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's Orthodox, constantly pawing out with his lead hand to, I think, just kind of keep shorter quicker fighters at bay.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've seen him even if I see one.
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, he's five and oh.
[SPEAKER_01]: get drawn into unnecessary brawls in the phone booth with fighters that are giving up six or seven inches of reach to them.
[SPEAKER_01]: It hasn't cost them yet, but it's really just a matter of time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, to give an example, we just barely saw Alisha Ellis in last night.
[SPEAKER_01]: Short, compact, heavyweight with fast hands.
[SPEAKER_01]: without any specific tape study for that.
[SPEAKER_01]: He probably busts up Richard Harris, you know, just gets inside, throws quicker punches and knocks him out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Interesting thing about Harris is he has more subs than knockouts and his cousin looks for him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's constantly looking for standing eattins and looking or standing back takes just ways to get his arm around a guy's neck,
[SPEAKER_01]: probably a good idea.
[SPEAKER_01]: Honestly, I wouldn't normally think it's a good idea for a fighter to constantly go for standing EAT in his case.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just one way of keeping the distance tight and diffusing the speed advantage of his opponent.
[SPEAKER_01]: And again, it's a habit that hasn't
[SPEAKER_01]: Coming into the UFC, I thought he had super low upside.
[SPEAKER_01]: He lost a genautogenese, but it was actually encouraging in some ways.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because he's also a 260-pound guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's much more of the short thick barrel-chested variety.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's going to give up a ton of height and reach to Harris.
[SPEAKER_01]: And
[SPEAKER_01]: Even though he's already 34, he's a guy that still seems to be refining his game from one fight to the next.
[SPEAKER_01]: He only has eight professional fights himself, but in his regional fights, even though he came to the UFC undefeated, he's a guy that would slow down badly after about the three or four minute mark, but it gets to not to Denise, who is nobody's idea of a contender, but does seem to be a solid UFC level heavyweight?
[SPEAKER_01]: Heinz was actually the fresher guy in the third round.
[SPEAKER_01]: He won the third round after losing the first two to Janese, which is an encouraging thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think either of these guys has huge upside, but they just slot in as just another guy in the UFC heavyweight division.
[SPEAKER_01]: In both cases, there's a little more interest in Harris again, just because he's quite a bit younger and bigger.
[SPEAKER_01]: But
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm gonna go with the new guy here.
[SPEAKER_01]: I guess it's a mild upset, but
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think Heinz is going to be the guy to really punish Harris for all of his tall man defensive lapses on the feet.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I could see Harris wearing Heinz out just by draping himself on him, clenching, looking for that standing, guillotine, assuming Harris survives the wild brawls that they're probably going to get into.
[SPEAKER_01]: I favor Harris to win this one.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if I favor him to win, I probably favor him to get the finish, give me Harris to
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, if you asked me what the worst fight of the car was, I'd say this, how it won, this is that classic terrible heavyweight's fighting.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just didn't fast pass it because Harris making his debut.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know a lot of people won, no misinformation about them.
[SPEAKER_00]: If Fry was still a matchup, I was skip at this one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, Heinz, on the field, he does set the shots a lot with faints, but he throws mostly single strikes.
[SPEAKER_00]: His hands beat his slow.
[SPEAKER_00]: He does attack the body like that.
[SPEAKER_00]: He likes to kick.
[SPEAKER_00]: He kicks the legs a lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: He looks for like inside like kicks.
[SPEAKER_00]: He'll throw a high kick.
[SPEAKER_00]: He didn't win a regional fight with a high kick.
[SPEAKER_00]: If he high kicks, RJ Harris out there would be in
[SPEAKER_00]: friggin NBA tall is like, I don't know, which is a 666, 766, but yeah, they listen to 666.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, defensively he doesn't move his head much.
[SPEAKER_00]: He does look to wrestle.
[SPEAKER_00]: He likes like snatch singles.
[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't have that explosive explosive body.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you see that a lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's very few heavyweight who actually can shoot because you don't want to 160 pound guys, Pearl on on top of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: One fight I saw, he kept looking for single legs with his head on the outside, which is the
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you want to do high crutches there, and he doesn't really know he was kind of doing like sweeps and gills.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has three subs on his record.
[SPEAKER_00]: His cardio.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was some fights I saw him actually getting stoppage late.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's good, but then his little fights I saw him gas.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I know you're saying like, you're completely out on his cardio.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm, I'm not sure.
[SPEAKER_00]: Paris, as you mentioned, six foot six, huge, obviously as long arms, he's a boxer through his long straight shots, his straight right being his best punch.
[SPEAKER_00]: He does hit hard, due to those long legs though, he's open to calf kicks, I think that's actually a smart strategy of hindsight trying to kick the legs out, slowing down that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: like he will close a distance and grind the clinch.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will look for take those been not granted.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love that you point out that it's standing gear teens is like his go-to thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: He loves that and he's pretty good at it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So yeah, he has to miss thread in that, you know, that area.
[SPEAKER_00]: As far as prediction go, we have our first consensus upset pick.
[SPEAKER_00]: I like the UFC newcomer here.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he's bigger.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think he pieced it up from distance.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think he stops it up, take downs.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think he hurts behind a few times.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't see him finish him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think we could have a really ugly fight.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm going to say the UFC newcomer Harris by decision.
[SPEAKER_01]: Men's flyway to Rup next, that UFC fight night 281, as Alden Corrius squares off against Stewart Nichol.
[SPEAKER_01]: Korea, the 28-year-old Houstonian, is 12 and 3 with one no contest overall.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is 2 and 0, since joining the UFC as the sort of former Fury Flyweight champ.
[SPEAKER_01]: He won the Fury Flyweight title, the win was overturned for cannabis, so he technically forfeited the belt, but whatever.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's 2 and 0 since joining the UFC with wins over Alessandro Costa and Luis Gorilla.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he'll look to make it 3 and a row here against Nickel, who is desperately hoping not to make it 4 and a row the other way.
[SPEAKER_01]: 31-year-old Australian is eight and three overall.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the good news.
[SPEAKER_01]: The bad news is that the three losses are these last three fights comprising his entire UFC run.
[SPEAKER_01]: He fought most recently back in April.
[SPEAKER_01]: At UFC fight night, Moecano versus Duncan, where he got put down with a nasty liver shot by, well, the same Alessandro coast of the Korea beat last year.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Nickle's still looking for his first UFC win.
[SPEAKER_01]: He of course is not favored to get it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Keith Corey is the biggest favorite
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, he said Bobocia was minus four substance, how same like minus 500?
[SPEAKER_01]: Alden Corria, minus a thousand, Stuart Nickel plus 650.
[SPEAKER_00]: I, I don't know if I would fit Josh V in a minus a thousand in this matchup.
[SPEAKER_00]: I like Cori, they'll give you all, he's good, he's good.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it wasn't that long ago, he was an underdog to Al Sondro Costa.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, he's been sensational in the UFC.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a very big flyweight, well-rounded.
[SPEAKER_00]: He likes to switch stances.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kickboxer, very tactical, striking, tight boxing inside.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mixed combinations really well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good at slipping punches and countering.
[SPEAKER_00]: I guess I'll put cuts inside.
[SPEAKER_00]: He does hit hard for flyway.
[SPEAKER_00]: Really steps into his shots, works the body well.
[SPEAKER_00]: Looks for take downs.
[SPEAKER_00]: More of like a scrambler than a traditional wrestler, but he's got four subs on his record.
[SPEAKER_00]: And his team is right hot.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he's coming out of the,
[SPEAKER_00]: the Joshua Vans team and you know this kind of like a rising team out there in your neck of the woods.
[SPEAKER_00]: Stuart Nichol.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's fairly well rounded fighter.
[SPEAKER_00]: He uses a lot of movement.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's got good boxing, keep everything tight, has some power.
[SPEAKER_00]: He kicks the legs a lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: He likes to close the distance and dirty box inside the clinch, a little like old school ready to go to our style.
[SPEAKER_00]: He'll look, you know, it's solid wrestler quick entries.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will shoot sometimes without a set up, but to his credit, he's relentless to try to get the fact that the ground will look for by the locks.
[SPEAKER_00]: What he gets it down, he's got a good top game.
[SPEAKER_00]: He grabs the legs up, pins the arms down, like, very, dex, tan style, busy grinded pound.
[SPEAKER_00]: I like his overall gravity.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's got three subs on his record.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll say this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think Stewart is a much better than his record shows.
[SPEAKER_00]: That said, I mean, Corey's bigger than him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's, I think he's the better grappler.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think he's, well, I don't think he's better grappler.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's better, he's better, yeah, he probably is.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he's definitely a better boxer, he's bigger.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think Corey wins everywhere.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think Stuart's tough enough that I think he makes a decision.
[SPEAKER_00]: That said, like, I'm taking Corey, and I'm pretty confident, but no, where it may have minus a thousand.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I thought he'd be like, minus,
[SPEAKER_00]: to A, but I definitely should be a big favor of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Minus down, that's not.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'm with you on all points there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I like Korea as a prospect, because
[SPEAKER_01]: obviously the similarities are there between van who is his primary training partner, but he has a different body type, he's, you know, taller, rangeier than van, and he fights differently accordingly.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've always enjoyed watching him fight.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's doing better at the UFC level than I thought he would.
[SPEAKER_01]: I didn't think he'd be too low and look as good as he has.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that's great.
[SPEAKER_01]: the role of best Owen 3 fighter in the UFC now that Luis Guerrilla finally has a win.
[SPEAKER_01]: Watching back at his fight.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's tough to put a finger on exactly what's gone wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's he's not as bad, but it reminds me of Daniel LaSerta where if you just watch the guy in the gym or at an open workout, you'd be like, okay, he's good size for the division.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a decent athlete.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has well-rounded skills.
[SPEAKER_01]: He can do everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: that you would ask of a flyway.
[SPEAKER_01]: But for some reason, when he gets into the case, it just doesn't translate, like what he does doesn't work and everything is upon it tries to work and he's just destroyed.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, it's not quite a severe for nickel, but it feels similar to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just, and in all of his fights, even,
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, even though he saw Santos Aguilar fight where he got put to sleep in half a round, he has moments where he looks like he belongs.
[SPEAKER_01]: It would be a shame if he loses to Korea and just gets cut on for, I wouldn't blame the UFC for it, but it would be a shame because I do think there are guys on roster he could beat.
[SPEAKER_01]: They just haven't messed him up against any of them yet and giving him Korea here is just a brutal ask for a guy that really does have his back against the wall.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nichol's best chance of winning this fight is to get Korea on the ground with him on top.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has a good top game where he is good at keeping position while doing damage, staying busy enough to keep the ref from standing him up and just very methodically looking for ways to advance position.
[SPEAKER_01]: If he can do that to Korea in two rounds out of three, he has a real chance of winning this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I agree with you the corporation not be a 10 to one favorite.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, creation be a 10 to one favorite over anybody in the division and I say that as a guy who likes him as a prospect.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nichols problem so far is that he's just been there and susceptible for whatever is upon it does best what Korea does best is box at middle distance and I think that's probably what's going to define this fight I'm going to say it goes to decision as well, but Korea busts up Nichol pretty bad and by the last round Nichols beat up discouraged tired looking desperately for takedowns or swinging wildly trying for a Hail Mary, but
[SPEAKER_01]: Next up on the UFC OKC Prelimbs is a light heavyweight matchup between Levyhodriguez and Felipe Franco.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hodriguez, the 29-year-old Brazilian, is 5-0 with one no contest overall.
[SPEAKER_01]: This will be his UFC debut.
[SPEAKER_01]: He fought on the contender series last October, knocked out Freddie Vidal in the first round, then had that overturned due to steroids.
[SPEAKER_01]: As is the UFC's habit, when fighters pop on the contender series, they lose the win, but keep the job offer.
[SPEAKER_01]: So here he is, making his UFC debut against a fellow contender series veteran in Franco.
[SPEAKER_01]: 25-year-old Brazilian is 10 and 2 overall.
[SPEAKER_01]: Last September, he lost, went back to Brazil, one, two fights in short order, and got the call up back in March to step up on short notice at Heavyweight and take on undefeated Prospect Mario Pinto.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was one of the widest bedding lines of the year so far, and he actually made it to the final horn.
[SPEAKER_01]: So with that moral victory in tow, he looks for his first UFC win as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Keith, your favorite is minus 190, underdog plus 160, who are they?
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, Roger is the favorite.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are correct.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me hold your ears.
[SPEAKER_01]: Minus 190, Philippe Franco plus 160.
[SPEAKER_01]: Keith this fight is not great.
[SPEAKER_01]: To me, the funny thing about this fight is, if you lied these two guys up and asked somebody to guess which is the one that took steroids, I don't think anybody would guess, hold your ears.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let me hold Regas is a light heavyweight that looks and fights like that's that's my takeaway.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's my take away from His fights in LFA which for better or for worse are available to watch on YouTube and then as a appearance on the contender series I happen to be on the stick for the UF or for sure dog doing the play by play for that episode of the contender series.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I remember it well
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was really like to light heavyweight having a heavyweight fight.
[SPEAKER_01]: This slow-paced, plotting thing where he crushed, he like kind of crushed Vidal once he realized that he was just going to keep barreling forward and looking for take downs.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the whole fight looked like it was in slow motion.
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course he got the contract because he's a big guy that got a TKO.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't see anything in him that makes me think he's going to stick even in the light heavyweight division that desperately needs new blood.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has good power and he actually throws a decent variety of strikes, but they're not very technical.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're not very fast.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has good power because he is a big dude, but that's about it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You look at Franco and it's unsurprising that he comes from the same team as Giles and Elmeda.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's another just absolutely jacked Brazilian and everything sort of runs off of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was interesting to see him against Pinto, because again, Pinto is a for real heavyweight, a huge guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Franco, actually, despite losing the decision,
[SPEAKER_01]: Had his moments in that fight did a pretty good job of dictating the distance against a much taller rangeier striker.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even though Franco lost it left me more optimistic about his light heavyweight upside than I was before the fight.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I pretty sure I said on the preview for that fight that
[SPEAKER_01]: Franco doesn't belong in the UFC, even as a light heavyweight, let alone taking on, you know, a somewhat promising heavyweight contender.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't feel that way about him anymore.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I think he is probably going to be the quicker of the two fighters.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think he's probably at least a comparably hard hitter.
[SPEAKER_01]: And with both of these guys, having just bad defensive flaws and probably probably just going to want to park in the kind of same range
[SPEAKER_01]: to give you the upset give me Philippe Franco to knock out Levy Rodrigues and pick up his first UFC win.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't have a ton of confidence in it.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think either of these guys have a whole lot of upside, but for me, the jury is still out on whether Levy Rodrigues is good at all, especially considering that he's coming back here after popping for a performance and cancer.
[SPEAKER_00]: What what performance did it enhance?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not good.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's so bad that as you were talking, if we had to pull up my notes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Last time I'm like, oh, shit, I actually dug both this fight.
[SPEAKER_00]: The one thing I do like about Frank guys, he's only he's very young.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's 25.
[SPEAKER_00]: So you got to love that.
[SPEAKER_00]: He works behind a jab.
[SPEAKER_00]: He did you talk about he has some power Nice step in these doesn't move his head enough He will look for takedowns.
[SPEAKER_00]: He shoots takedowns from the from distance if Taking down he if he gets to take on and she'll say he has the same top game Yeah, it's a mission.
[SPEAKER_00]: He got four subs on his record
[SPEAKER_00]: Rodriguez, he's a striker.
[SPEAKER_00]: Very poised.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll give him that.
[SPEAKER_00]: He does hit hard.
[SPEAKER_00]: He won the contented series match up with a hard knee in the clinch.
[SPEAKER_00]: Solid take down defense, but if he's taken down, he struggles to get back up from the ground.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't have a good read on this one.
[SPEAKER_00]: You watch film on these guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a really job's out to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's one of my notes is so short I'm not high any that I have footflops on this one.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna go the opposite of you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm gonna go Rodriguez because I think he has the better striking He does I think this one's gonna be ugly.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I think it's gonna be the second heavyweight.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know sir.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm thinking you know what I think I'm thinking these guys I have the ways because yeah, I mean, I know Franko did fight heavyweight, but
[SPEAKER_01]: Walter waits to take the cage next at UFC Oklahoma City as John Paul LeBos Noyani squares off against Siocchon Co. LeBos Noyani, the 27-year-old American, is 10 and 2 overall.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's 1 and 0 since joining the UFC out of season 9 of Dana White's contender series.
[SPEAKER_01]: He fought on the contender series last September, then debuted in the UFC in February, winning a split decision over Phil Rowe.
[SPEAKER_01]: He will look to make it two-in-a-row in the UFC extend his overall winning streak to six at the expense of Co. 32-year-old Korean is 13-in-2 overall.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is two-in-o since joining the UFC out of season 8 of the contender series.
[SPEAKER_01]: He fought most recently last November.
[SPEAKER_01]: Incidentally, it was also against Phil Rowe.
[SPEAKER_01]: He won a unanimous decision, so he's looking for his third straight win in the UFC.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is favored to get it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Keith, take a guess at what the line is in favor of Co.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I'm gonna say co's, like minus 250.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's close enough.
[SPEAKER_01]: I haven't, minus 225, LeBos, Nalyani plus 180, but he was definitely as high as minus 250 on some books.
[SPEAKER_01]: Give me your take on this fight.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, do you, do you, do you think either of these guys is, uh, has contender upside would be my question.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I was contender, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, like top 15.
[SPEAKER_00]: What 15?
[SPEAKER_00]: 15.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh 15.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think so.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll based on how I'm going to pick for my production.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll say this, I kind of showed my hand because it's not often where I actually set the line bigger than what they just says.
[SPEAKER_00]: So it kind of shows, um,
[SPEAKER_00]: you know who I'm kind of leaning towards uh... co i mean he's a big while to a he's like really good recently south for south for he presses the action to his opponent uh... he does keep his hands low which i don't like but he throws a nice straight left he it's hard
[SPEAKER_00]: He wants to slip a rip counter in counter strike.
[SPEAKER_00]: He voids strikes, but pulling his head straight back is one of the he's a little more excited side.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will close the distance and use his side as well in the clinch.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he really surprised me how good of a wrestler is.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wrestles, he's like, judo throws.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will shoot take down from distance.
[SPEAKER_00]: Guess what fight to the ground?
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a very good grappler.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good at winning scrambles.
[SPEAKER_00]: Nice top control.
[SPEAKER_00]: Bance's position on the ground.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fizzy ground on pound.
[SPEAKER_00]: The one knock on the ground is he's not a big submission artist.
[SPEAKER_00]: John Paul, I have to start with his last name.
[SPEAKER_00]: John Paul.
[SPEAKER_00]: On the feet, he fights with a high guard defense.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good output, but he's a brawler.
[SPEAKER_00]: He likes to get in the pocket.
[SPEAKER_00]: He throws big looping punches.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a lot of big overhand rights.
[SPEAKER_00]: He likes leap like leaping strikes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, he's going to go airborne like flying knees or Superman punches Hethos from spinning wheel kicks in there.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has a quick high kick He likes to get in the fight the ground.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wrestles a lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to good reaction every double Though he is a bad defensive wrestler himself, but it gets farther ground.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's the better submission artist.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's got five subs on his record He'll he'll lose position trying to chase us up But he
[SPEAKER_00]: If you put him, if you put him as back, he's tossed and sucked off his back and he gets him a lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I kind of like both guys, I just think Coach better really, Edgar, especially, not many besides submissions, but especially like the technical striking, the overall wrestling.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think he hurts John Paul several times.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't think he gets to finish, but I think he gets
[SPEAKER_00]: I had the line bigger than it was, so I'm gonna put this in my lock on and I can be coped by decision.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I like co in this one as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it was kind of a leading question when I asked you, if you saw contender upside and either of these guys, because while I don't think either of them is a future like top top contender like top five in line for a title shot type guy, I could actually see both of them spending a little time in the lower reaches of the top 15.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like with LeBos Niani, it would take kind of the right matchups, but
[SPEAKER_01]: He's the kind of fighter that given the right match ups you and you know a little bit of luck here in there He's like you could see him win four or five in a row until he they match him up with an actual top 10 type guy And then the holes in his game are really exposed whereas I'm with you on co
[SPEAKER_01]: I thought I knew what we were getting when he came to the UFC, but he's showing a much more well-rounded game.
[SPEAKER_01]: And frankly, just a little more physical diesel than I was expecting out of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in a division as full of well-rounded fighters at the top as well-terweight is, that's good news, because fighters with glaring holes in their game just don't tend to be able to put together long wind streaks.
[SPEAKER_01]: I agree with you that Co is probably better than Le Bosniani just about everywhere, but Le Bosniani's tendency to throw kind of flying high amplitude off-balance stuff, his tendency to kind of swing wild in the pocket.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just it matches up really badly against Co's Strader punches more composed approach on the feet and his ability to shoot reactive take-downs because of that because Lobo's name on his approach because his instincts just kind of plays into a lot of things that Co does well.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think this is going to be a lot cited one.
[SPEAKER_01]: I see no reason to differ from you.
[SPEAKER_01]: It feels like a lock of the night type fight to me as well and
[SPEAKER_01]: I think those probably going to get the knockout, give me a quote by K.O.
[SPEAKER_01]: Pund, I guess fully intended in the second round.
[SPEAKER_01]: Next up at UFC Oklahoma City is a featherweight matchup between Austin Bashy and Jose Delgado.
[SPEAKER_01]: Bashy, the 24-year-old from Michigan, is 14 and 1 overall.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is 1 and 1 since joining the UFC out of season 8 of Dana White's Contender series.
[SPEAKER_01]: He fought most recently, almost exactly a year ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was August of 2025, where he tapped out John Janus in the first round.
[SPEAKER_01]: That allowed him to bounce back from his first and thus far only career loss at the hands of noted prospect killer Christian Rodriguez.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, Bashi looks to put that loss even further in the rear view and start up a new win streak here against Delgado, who can say pretty much the same thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: 28 year old MMA lab product is 11 and two overall.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is 3 in 1 since joining the UFC, also out of season 8 of the contender series.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is also coming in off of a win.
[SPEAKER_01]: He won a split decision over Andre Fili at UFC Fight Night, Emmett versus VIA hosts back in March.
[SPEAKER_01]: That allowed him to bounce back from his first UFC loss, which was against Nathaniel Wood last October.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is one of the closest fights on the card on the books.
[SPEAKER_01]: your favorite is minus 115, underdog, even money plus 100, who are they?
[SPEAKER_00]: I like both guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: Bashi the favorite.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's actually Delgado, at least as of right now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Delgado minus 115, Bashi plus 100.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tell us what you think of this fight.
[SPEAKER_01]: These are two, I mean, pretty impressive prospects in my mind, tell me if you disagree.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: The other day, it's really holding back to the division.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, if they were heavyweights, we'd be feeling great about them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, if they were if they were of women's bannam whites, yeah, I mean, I'd still be on the prelimbs, but you know, it'd be in a title, a little limited.
[SPEAKER_00]: The, you know, the first thing I think of what I think of Bash is that the guy is so young.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he's 24 years old, so you get a little of that.
[SPEAKER_00]: His last fight, he, he bounced back tremendous after his first loss.
[SPEAKER_00]: He ran right through Johnny, and his last fight.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a tremendous athlete, good footwork.
[SPEAKER_00]: quick hands, tax combinations.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's got good power already, which is, which is nuts.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's so young.
[SPEAKER_00]: Really steps into his shot.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's got nice high kick.
[SPEAKER_00]: He makes his strikes into his takedowns.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, he's a good wrestler, relentless with his attacks, fast entry, chain wrestles, attacks together.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, great hip control.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a very good rapper.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's competing some really high
[SPEAKER_00]: mean ground and pound.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's got five subs on his record and he's got a great cardio.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, considering he wrestles so much, he doesn't get tired.
[SPEAKER_00]: Delgado, Delgado is a really big guy for the way class.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's the big advantage he has over Mashie.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a good striker.
[SPEAKER_00]: He fight out of both stances.
[SPEAKER_00]: His striking was awesome against the fan of wood, which is a real quality win.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's a volume striker, pretty technically sound, likes to work from distance.
[SPEAKER_00]: He changes stance in mid
[SPEAKER_00]: tax with combinations.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's hard.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's at 60 kilos.
[SPEAKER_00]: They'll throw some spinning attacks, which I think would be kind of dumb.
[SPEAKER_00]: It gets bashed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Get bashed heads to take it down.
[SPEAKER_00]: Really good kicking game kicks a lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hard kicks to the legs throw some to the body.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know if you don't want to throw a kick to the body with bashed, but
[SPEAKER_00]: But what he does really well, I think he should do against Bashy is good step in these.
[SPEAKER_00]: And we saw him knock out a hider and mill with a step in knee, it wasn't a fluke.
[SPEAKER_00]: He also got one on the contender series that way, he'll end combination with these, which you know, I love, he's not a bad restaurant himself though.
[SPEAKER_00]: He likes takedowns from the by-law.
[SPEAKER_00]: He also can shoot from the outside.
[SPEAKER_00]: He does shoot his head down a little bit, which is a, which is a,
[SPEAKER_00]: something that's not a traditional recipe would do.
[SPEAKER_00]: But if you get to fight the ground, good top control, good backtakes, he has four sons of the record.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I think it's the best fight in the card.
[SPEAKER_00]: Both guys are really good.
[SPEAKER_00]: I like both my flipflops.
[SPEAKER_00]: I delgado has faced the better competition.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I'm leaning towards a favorite in that way.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think both guys are good.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I'm going to say if Delgado wins, I think it's biggest advantage on the feet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Give me Delgado almost is really close.
[SPEAKER_00]: Give me Delgado by split decision.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, this, I agree.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is a fantastic fight, both these guys.
[SPEAKER_01]: I feel like have contender level upside.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's, it was interesting to go back and watch Austin Bass.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's lost a Christian Rodriguez.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, for one, it's just always nice to go back and remind myself, the Christian Rodriguez is one of the most underrated fighters in the entire UFC.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's in there.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was interesting how he beat Bashi, because I mean, Bashi looked bigger, he's younger, he's at least more obviously athletic, he's well-rounded.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he looked like a lights out prospect as much.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's any of the undefeated prospects the Rodriguez has taken down.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the way Rodriguez beat him was interesting, because
[SPEAKER_01]: Bashy got his takedowns in, but Rodriguez, what, one, he took it to Bashy.
[SPEAKER_01]: He took Bashy down at least once, and times that he was taking down, he didn't concede the position like he kept moving.
[SPEAKER_01]: He created scrambles.
[SPEAKER_01]: He flat out swept Bashy in the third round.
[SPEAKER_01]: It basically made for three very close rounds.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, if they fight again in two years, maybe that fight goes differently.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's, it was an interesting blueprint to at least slowing down a guy like, like, bashy.
[SPEAKER_01]: But we're watching that fight and then watching Delgado's last couple fights.
[SPEAKER_01]: Those are all things that I feel like Delgado can do.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this fight is a near-pickem for a reason.
[SPEAKER_01]: both of us think these are both very, very solid prospects, but I am leaning slightly towards the favorite as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Give me Delgado by decision, but not a ton of confidence in anything other than this is a great fight.
[SPEAKER_01]: Alright, next up at UFC Fight Night 281, and this might be the top prelimm, we aren't sure.
[SPEAKER_01]: Brandt's of ours fell off this card fairly recently, the UFC may still be looking for an opponent from our Conjury Barrio, as of right now there are only four fights listed on the main card, so for all we know this one might get bumped up to the main card opener, we don't know.
[SPEAKER_01]: But either way, it's a good fight.
[SPEAKER_01]: Strawweight class between Tabitha, Regi, and Fatima Klein.
[SPEAKER_01]: Richie, the 31-year-old Brazilian, is 12 and 4 overall.
[SPEAKER_01]: She is 7 and 4, since joining the UFC out of LFA, she's 7 and 3 at straw weight.
[SPEAKER_01]: She made her UFC debut at Flyweight, against Bottle Fjorp, that was a hell of an ask.
[SPEAKER_01]: But since then, again, 7 and 3, to use coming in off a loss, she fought most recently back in April.
[SPEAKER_01]: At UFC Fight Night, Moykanova versus Duncan, where she dropped a unanimous decision to
[SPEAKER_01]: She will look to bounce back from that, continue to make her own case for a title shot against Klein.
[SPEAKER_01]: uh... client twenty six year old new yorker is nine and one overall she is three and one uh... in the ufc and kind of like reachy she's three and oh it's throw it she made her debut in the ufc at flyweight against a contender in jasmine as the busiest uh... but three and oh since then in her natural weight class she's coming in off of a unanimous decision when over Angela hill at ufc three twenty two last November
[SPEAKER_01]: Keith, client is your favorite in this one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Take a guess at what the line is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Minus 250.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is bigger than that.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is client minus 350.
[SPEAKER_01]: Reachy plus 275.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, reachy is good.
[SPEAKER_01]: Client, at least according to the better, it's very good.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tell us how you see this fight playing out, who wins, and what it looks like.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean,
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, Clion is actually spectacular, but that said this is still the top of a competition for her.
[SPEAKER_00]: I like Richie better than Angela Hill at this point in her career, but she's good.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, she's a tiny little thing, so I think sometimes she gets misjudged because of that, because she's small for the weight class, but she's short.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's very jacked, but she's physically strong, she's a great athlete, she's a good footwork.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's elusive, she likes to fight at both dances, she's a good striker.
[SPEAKER_00]: that's really coming along over the years, a solid box in quick hands, user pressure to get your pressure bonus back.
[SPEAKER_00]: She looks still like, she'll pressure, but she'll also sometimes will just hit and dart in, have a little like Corey Sanhaic and then go and she's her footwork to cut angles well in her tax.
[SPEAKER_00]: One thing I hate about her though is sometimes she'll be a little gun shy, but when she does let her hands go, she's best when she's in the pocket, though she sometimes will overthrow her right hand.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's getting more powerful than she looks.
[SPEAKER_00]: She got some stinging power.
[SPEAKER_00]: She does need to kick more.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's one week isn't a striking not enough kicks.
[SPEAKER_00]: She likes to avoid strikes by rolling with punches, but you know, not a fan of Despite being shorter, she likes to get to the clench.
[SPEAKER_00]: She gets in there.
[SPEAKER_00]: She used good head Position in she's a judo black belt She likes upper body takedowns too.
[SPEAKER_00]: She can shoot takedowns from the outside and she's pretty good at it too Sometimes she will shoot high on the waist instead of the like
[SPEAKER_00]: hips and hamstring area.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's one thing, probably from not having a wrestling background.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think takes away from a game, but she gets to fight the ground.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's good.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's got a good top game, good BJJ.
[SPEAKER_00]: She has three subs on a record, and she's shown abilities to avoid some missions yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now, Client's only 25, so I mean, she's a big favor over, you know, ranked upon it right now.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that's, you know, Vegas is saying the sky's the limit of this girl.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's very good.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, she showed against Angel Hill, that she's, she's a good 10, I mean, she's super athletic.
[SPEAKER_00]: She could fight her both dances on the feet.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's technically sound.
[SPEAKER_00]: She likes to press the action.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good boxing, nice output, nice crisp jab, she attacks with combinations, I see she has plus power, not big power, but I have some plus power.
[SPEAKER_00]: uh... nice kicking in kick you know uh... she makes his kicks in with a combination shows as t kicks uh... she hit most of martinis with incredible high kick uh... she will close the distance and work on the clenched she's a decent wrestler it's just a nice entries uh... she also has some bi-lock takers is not like it will still rest there but she's a very good bg day uh... black belt she's competed tons of top tournaments nice top control and she's smoked angel hill on the ground
[SPEAKER_00]: She vanced a position on the ground, me and Grant upon the one not going to grab when she might need to prove her overall take down defense, but she's so comfortable on the ground.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's probably why she hasn't.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think Richie's really good, but I've been inclined for a while.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think she could be a future champion.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not putting in that category.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're a character where I pick someone with the championship, but if she wins the championship one day, it's not a possibility.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, you asked me, it was this person going to be a contendant.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm like, well, I think we're going to tie our contendant client is.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's a good striker, her grapple is off the charts.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this is a tougher matchup because Richie is also a very good grappler.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I still think client shines.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think client dominates.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think she, I think she has a dominant decision, especially a lot of time on top, and then heavy grind of pound, climb out of decision.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I feel largely the same about this one as you do.
[SPEAKER_01]: Reachy, the odds, I think, don't do justice to how good reachy is, but they may do justice to her realistic routes to victory.
[SPEAKER_01]: Reggie for one thing, she's really only come up short against the best of the best.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, at Starweight, her losses were a very close one, the loopy godeen as it just happened to be a tough style match up for.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then to Yanshawnan and Virgil Janzitoaba, for Nijan Jitoaba, both of whom are, you know, title contenders.
[SPEAKER_01]: she does her like regi does her best when even though she's tiny when she's the bully when she's the one force in the action when she's the one who can muscle around taller fighters and clinch exchanges definitely when she's the better like the more effective wrestler which was kind of a problem against uh loopy godina's
[SPEAKER_01]: That's going to be rough sledding against client.
[SPEAKER_01]: If she's trying to force clinch sequences against client, she's trying to take client down or is trying to strike with client and have that in her back pocket as a safety valve, those all spell trouble.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think if Ritchie takes client down, even if the sequence starts with Ritchie on top and client on bottom, that's not where Ritchie wants to be.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what makes this a fairly easy fight for me to predict.
[SPEAKER_01]: Next up at UFC Oklahoma City are a pair of featherweights looking to build on their successful debuts in Tommy McMillan and Alberto Montez.
[SPEAKER_01]: McMillan, the 28-year-old Arizona native, is a perfect 10-to-know as a professional.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is one-to-know since joining the UFC out of season 9 of Dana White's Contender series.
[SPEAKER_01]: He made his debut at UFC Fight Night, Moecano versus Duncan, back in April against Manolo Zakini,
[SPEAKER_01]: crushing them with a body shot in the first round, so he's looking to build on that momentum against Montes.
[SPEAKER_01]: 32-year-old Venezuela is 12 and 1 as a professional.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is also one of no since joining the UFC out of season 8 of the contender series.
[SPEAKER_01]: He had a full year off after winning on the contender series, but he finally made his debut at UFC 326 in March where he choked Ricky Turcio's all the way to sleep after a wild first round.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's looking to build on that positive energy as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the only true dead pickum on the entire card, both gentlemen are out there around minus 110, minus 115, neither available at plus money.
[SPEAKER_01]: So it's a pickum.
[SPEAKER_01]: Keith, I'm going to ask you to pickum.
[SPEAKER_01]: Who wins this one?
[SPEAKER_00]: I think a fight fan's going to win this one.
[SPEAKER_00]: This fight is good.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is like definition of action fight.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know what his upside is and I don't know how long he's got last in the U.C.
[SPEAKER_00]: based on his style, but he's wicked fun, I mean, he's nonstop pressure in sane output, just throw big power shots, big overhand rights, tries to end the fight with every single punch, really steps into his shots, overthrow his strikes, so he's, you know, and he always throws strikes, but also throws from his hips, so he's open to be countered.
[SPEAKER_00]: Those quick high kick, look for flying knees.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will grab the clinch and do some damage in there.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will wrestle, he's got some nice backtakes, he's got five submission wins, he loves Darz Chokes and he's just a freaking energized bunny.
[SPEAKER_00]: Montez, Montez is a good striker.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he's led on his feet, kind of this karate style, pretty elusive, likes to dart in and out of range before being countered.
[SPEAKER_00]: Accurate.
[SPEAKER_00]: Does mistake, does make them a mistake.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's one of a lot of the single strikes.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's one thing, very like Steve Atomson or you know, more like Michael Page where you know, it's at that Christ instant, Atlanta one punch.
[SPEAKER_00]: He does load up a little bit too much.
[SPEAKER_00]: He kicks hard.
[SPEAKER_00]: He can wrestle, who look for take down.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's got seven subs on his record.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's got incredible Anna Connachoke.
[SPEAKER_00]: So he's got a bunch of Anna Connachokes.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he's got a good cardio himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: This fight is fun as hell.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think makes millions comes out like a madman.
[SPEAKER_00]: The problem is, I'm worried about that defense.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think you all expected to a big shot from Montes.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think Montes put some out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to say, I'm going to, it's this is a pick-up, but I'm going to make it pretty bold pick.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to say Montes went to the first round of knockout.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, this fight is an absolute banger.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tommy McMillan is, at least this far in his career, is the answer to the question, what would it look like?
[SPEAKER_01]: If Terence McKinney didn't lose, because kind of like Terence McKinney, he's huge for his weight class, he's a good athlete, he has the entire arsenal of offensive skills and he tries to throw them all out there in the first two minutes of a fight.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is wild.
[SPEAKER_01]: Kind of like McKinney, he's been past the first round.
[SPEAKER_01]: I think once in his entire career, yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's 10 and no, but he is clearly just a guy that does not run into the right opponent yet.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, this can't possibly continue, but I could see him losing a couple and settling in as a guy that does some good work in the division.
[SPEAKER_01]: He could be a
[SPEAKER_01]: Michelle Pereira type that settles down just enough to show that he actually has depth to his game and to actually put his size and athleticism to use Something other than just coming out like a berserker.
[SPEAKER_01]: I could see that happening.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's probably not going to happen until he loses a fight, but like he said that might happen here McMillan
[SPEAKER_01]: the size disparity between middle and Montez.
[SPEAKER_01]: At least in terms of just height and wingspan is going to be stark, but the way McMillan fights basically renders his height and reach advantages irrelevant because he closes the distance in a flash and just stands toe to toe and goes wild.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can see it playing out like Keith says were Montez kind of either survives the initial loss
[SPEAKER_01]: isn't phased by it and shakes it off and just catches McMillan with something short, accurate and hard in the pocket and just floors him in the first round.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there have been times looking at this fight that that was my pick.
[SPEAKER_01]: I can still absolutely see it happening.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm also favoring Montes.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's not a ton of confidence in it, but
[SPEAKER_01]: deeper broader games than I think they've showed in some of their wins so far, but I think he will probably show some of the drawbacks to McMillan's approach in that maybe Montes loses the first round, maybe gets hurt bad, but I'm sorry Montes loses the first round, maybe loses a bad, but McMillan guesses out and Montes pulls ahead wins the last two rounds.
[SPEAKER_01]: So give me Montes by decision here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Third from the top, at UFC Oklahoma City, is a lightweight matchup between Chase Hooper and Mitch Ramirez.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hooper, the 26 year old from Eastern Washington, is 16-5-1 overall.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is 8-5 since joining the UFC as a veteran of season 2 of Dana White's contender series, where he won but was not immediately signed.
[SPEAKER_01]: He alternated wins and losses early in his UFC run before putting together a 5 fight win streak between 2023 and 2025 that saw him progressed from frankly kind of a curiosity and comic relief character in the UFC to an actual fringe contender.
[SPEAKER_01]: That has come crashing down in a pair of first round knockout losses in his last two outings against Alexander Hernandez and Lance Gibson Jr. That represents the first losing streak of any kind of Hooper's career, and at least at this point in this career, the end of any contender aspirations.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we look into turn that around at the expense of Ramirez.
[SPEAKER_01]: 33 year old from Utah is 8 and 3 overall.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the good news.
[SPEAKER_01]: he fought on season seven of the contender series where he got knocked out.
[SPEAKER_01]: got signed to the UFC anyway after one more fight in LFA, and he has gotten knocked out twice more.
[SPEAKER_01]: Most recently, he faced Mike Beast Boy Davis.
[SPEAKER_01]: Almost exactly a year ago at UFC on ESPN Lewis versus Tashira, where he ran into a flying knee, and that was all she wrote.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, Vermeeras, quite possibly fighting for his job here, not favored to get it done.
[SPEAKER_01]: Keith Hooper is your favorite.
[SPEAKER_01]: Take a guess of what the line is.
[SPEAKER_00]: to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's bigger than that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hooper is minus 350.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ramirez plus 275 coming back.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I'm going up two losses.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, give me your thoughts on this one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I will see some real quick, but I'm actually fast-passing this one.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't know that Cooper has not lost two fights at a row.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's actually pretty impressive for a guy like you think it's early you have to see run.
[SPEAKER_00]: I never really, you know, I almost he almost came off as like a bust.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just want to like a nice little streak and then you tell me that he hasn't lost two in a row that's until now.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's actually pretty impressive.
[SPEAKER_00]: As far as this fight goes, I'm kind of, I mean, Ramirez is really low level.
[SPEAKER_00]: He does have a power advantage.
[SPEAKER_00]: like I don't have a good read on this guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: What I do know is he's still better than Ramirez.
[SPEAKER_00]: I say, Hooper wins.
[SPEAKER_00]: He might get to be able to get a cell, but I mean, I saw Tiago Moistus struggle to get a cell, but Mike Davis struggle to some Ramirez, but I'll say Hooper just wants a decision.
[SPEAKER_01]: I see it exactly the same as you.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Ramirez is tough to tap out, but he's also one of the few guys in the division that I'm comfortable to Hooper can outstrike,
[SPEAKER_01]: That brings us to the co-man event of UFC Fight Night 281, a middleweight contenders match between perennial contender Jared Cannonier and rising contender Christian Lee Roy Duncan.
[SPEAKER_01]: Cannonier, the 42-year-old Texan by way of Alaska by way of Arizona, is 18 and 9 overall.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is 11 and 9 in the UFC.
[SPEAKER_01]: He of course has fought across three different divisions.
[SPEAKER_01]: He joined the UFC as a severely undersized heavyweight and he's made it all the way down to being just a slightly undersized middleweight.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is coming in off of the loss.
[SPEAKER_01]: He fought most recently last August at UFC 319 where he dropped a unanimous decision to Michael Venempage.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he's at age 42, looking to get back in the win column and send back a rising contender in the Englishman Duncan.
[SPEAKER_01]: 30-year-old is 14 and two overall.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's seven and two since joining the UFC as the former Kage Warriors middleweight champ.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is on a four-fight win streak.
[SPEAKER_01]: Since losing a decision to Gregory Hadrieg as two years ago, he has wins over Andre Poliyev, Eric Anders, Marco Tullio, and in his most recent outing, back in March, Roman Delizé.
[SPEAKER_01]: Over whom he won a unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night of Lawyer versus Murphy.
[SPEAKER_01]: Keith, unsurprisingly, Duncan is your favorite.
[SPEAKER_01]: Take a guess at what the line is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, pretty big minus 350.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's pretty much dead on.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've got them at minus 330.
[SPEAKER_01]: Can't in the air plus 270, but again, 350 definitely within the range of the major books.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the kind of matchup that you tend to like.
[SPEAKER_01]: whatever juices left the squeeze out of the the perennial contender and it's and it's not like he's looked like a completely spent for us now like this is exactly the kind of matchup you want him in.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tell me who you think gets it done and whether we learn anything about Chris Duncan here.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, to be honest, this is a pressure fight for Dr.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, everything's on him and he's bolster when the fight is obviously the big favorite.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kenna, yeah, Kenna, I mean, for for the title, obviously at one point it was like a top five guy, but I mean, he obviously the shell of that person.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and he footage of you as old.
[SPEAKER_00]: He does fight out of both dances.
[SPEAKER_00]: He likes to stalk as opponent.
[SPEAKER_00]: The big issue is the decline we see.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's his handspeas.
[SPEAKER_00]: really, really dropped.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, he has an explosive.
[SPEAKER_00]: He used to be, he still throw a hard stiff jab.
[SPEAKER_00]: Keeps his bark and tight.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, you look at the guy.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's absolutely jacks.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, he hits hard.
[SPEAKER_00]: He sits on his punches.
[SPEAKER_00]: He throws a hard caff kicks.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will close the distance using strength in the clinch.
[SPEAKER_00]: He'll look for take downs, but he's not the most technical wrestler.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's one of the guys who just kind of used it strengthly grabs the leg and he just
[SPEAKER_00]: He's insanely strong to lift you up in slam yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure about his take on the fence.
[SPEAKER_00]: Some fights, it looks great.
[SPEAKER_00]: All those fights, it don't.
[SPEAKER_00]: If he ends up on top though, he has good grab on.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jared can add on top is a scary situation when he's dropping down punches and elbows.
[SPEAKER_00]: Another knock on him is his durability is failed.
[SPEAKER_00]: We've seen him getting hurt.
[SPEAKER_00]: He wasn't yet hurt before.
[SPEAKER_00]: But to his credit, he still has very good cardio.
[SPEAKER_00]: Duncan, he's a massive, heavyweight tremendous athlete, likes to switch stance a lot, nice footwork, elusive.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, elusive enough to keep his distance.
[SPEAKER_00]: He also likes to use hand fighting if you get into his distance, which I'm a big fan of hand fighting.
[SPEAKER_00]: He hates being pressured though.
[SPEAKER_00]: When he's attacking, he cuts angles well to kind of confused his opponents.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's got quick hands, accurate sets up his stretch with a lot of fainting, he attacks with combinations.
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, he likes to get inside and he's been adding a lot of uppercuts lately.
[SPEAKER_00]: He hits very hard.
[SPEAKER_00]: He does well the land elbows when he's inside his opponents.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, opponents range.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's in close.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's looking for elbows.
[SPEAKER_00]: Uh, he does keep his chin up a little too much for my liking.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, and he eats a lot of shots for guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, a very good striker.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's got a tremendous kicking game.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kickster all ears bought a really good team kicks He loves inside kicks, which he falls with combinations He'll toss in some spinning attacks wheel kicks back fist up like that Almost kind of spends too much He likes to go airborne with flying knees He's a much better wrestling people that he wrestes a lot to get suffice the ground busy ground a pound or we could
[SPEAKER_00]: defensive wrestler and he doesn't need to prove his is take down the fence, but he showed good submission defense against Greg Rodriguez.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I actually think Canana has a chance to win if he can wrestle and get dunking down and kind of pin him or use his strength.
[SPEAKER_00]: But I think Duncan on the feet will be way too fast for him.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think he's going to pick him apart.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think he's going to hurt Canana or Bunch.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think it's an easy win for Duncan.
[SPEAKER_00]: Canana,
[SPEAKER_00]: I want to, I could seem getting knocked out bad.
[SPEAKER_00]: His durability is time to feed, but I'm going to sit down and tell him to make a decision, but not can just kind of styles on him for 15 minutes.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, I'm with you on this one.
[SPEAKER_01]: Cameron here, he's not a completely spent force.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's still good at the things he used to be very good at, but
[SPEAKER_01]: Duncan just seems to be growing from strength to strength here.
[SPEAKER_01]: One thing, there would have been much more upset potential a couple of years ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, I think the last fight where Kennedy or actually looked good was his headliner against Marvin Vittori, which was three years ago at this point, and it was, that was an interesting one because it's a, it was a matchup where the conventional wisdom said,
[SPEAKER_01]: The Tori is going to do his best if he can wrestle cannon here and get him down.
[SPEAKER_01]: If they stay stuck on the feet, just get in your faster, hits harder, more diverse striker.
[SPEAKER_01]: And cannon here kind of addressed that by going first, like he took the Tori down three or four times in that fight, and he didn't do a ton of work on the ground, but it clearly just threw Tori completely off his game.
[SPEAKER_01]: I just don't think Canon years capable of that anymore.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even against the guy like Duncan that kicks a lot, spins a lot, stands tall.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just I don't think that's in Canon years arsenal anymore.
[SPEAKER_01]: That means that these guys are stuck on the feet until or unless Duncan decides to take it to the ground.
[SPEAKER_01]: And like you, I just think Duncan's his youth, his size,
[SPEAKER_01]: is probably greater durability at this point.
[SPEAKER_01]: It just spells a bad matchup for Canon here.
[SPEAKER_01]: I could see a late KO, but I'm with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to say this one makes it to decision, but there's just no question.
[SPEAKER_01]: Duncan sweeps all three rounds and looks very much the superior fighter in the cage.
[SPEAKER_01]: With that, we come to the main event of UFC Oklahoma City, a middleweight
[SPEAKER_01]: Dupeless E, the 32-year-old South African, is 23 and 3 overall.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is 9 and 1 in the UFC.
[SPEAKER_01]: He won his first 9 fights, making it all the way to the title before relinquishing that title in his first defense against Hamza Chamayev a year ago at UFC 319.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a decision loss, but...
[SPEAKER_01]: frankly a washing in which the former champ looked pretty overwhelmed by Bishamayev.
[SPEAKER_01]: So with a year on the shelf to regroup and recuperate, he's going to try and reinsert himself into the title picture here against Usman.
[SPEAKER_01]: 39-year-old Nigerian American is 21 and 4 overall.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is 16 and 3 since joining the UFC out of season 21 of the ultimate fighter.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is, of course, the former Walterweight champ, but after losing back-to-back fights to Leon Edwards back in 2022 and 2023, he moved up to 185 pounds where he is 1 and 1 with a loss to Shamayev and then a win over Joaquin Buckley,
[SPEAKER_01]: last June in the headliner of UFC on ESPN69.
[SPEAKER_01]: So, Usman.
[SPEAKER_01]: clearly in the final stages of his career he's had a couple of lengthy injury layoffs and has been kind of injury plagued over the last five to seven years.
[SPEAKER_01]: Nonetheless, here in another headliner with the chance to, well, if he beats the recent former champ against all odds, reinsert himself into the title picture in this division.
[SPEAKER_00]: He might face the title of the ones.
[SPEAKER_01]: He is, of course, not favor to get that done.
[SPEAKER_01]: Keith, take a guess
[SPEAKER_00]: I was thinking that he's going to be like minus 170, but be in that usually, you know, I'd go to the lines if it's over 200, but that it is over, yeah, it's over over minus 200 to 240.
[SPEAKER_01]: Do you plus E is minus 275, it's been plus 225.
[SPEAKER_01]: Wow.
[SPEAKER_01]: That, I mean, those odds say to me that the betting public who drive the lines and, you know, the bookmakers only respond to them, they believe that DuPlessy is not the guy that Shemai have made him look like, because the most disturbing thing about DuPlessy versus Shemai isn't that Shemai have just outrestled DuPlessy badly, because DuPlessy has always been a flawed fighter.
[SPEAKER_01]: Almost everybody he's fought has had something that they do better than him.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, from his first two or three UFC fights against people like Trevin Giles and Bratz of Aris.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like Trevin Giles had things he does better than Drickest DuPlessy.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a better boxer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Faster hands.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's harder.
[SPEAKER_01]: It didn't matter.
[SPEAKER_01]: Drickest DuPlessy became this just either best terrible fighter in the world or worst great fighter in the world in that he just had this incredible ability to
[SPEAKER_01]: find ways to win.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what was most shocking to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't that Shemai have ground to do plus E. It's that duplicy looked so inert after he was taken down.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was like a smaller version of Gileson, I'll make a versus Derek Lewis, where it looked like duplicy was almost just shook by being taken down so easily and was fighting not to get finished.
[SPEAKER_01]: assuming that's an aberration, and he wants to get back and fight Strickland, or Shamayaver, whoever is champ when he gets back out there.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has a lot of advantages in this fight.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's a naturally bigger guy than Usman, even if Usman was always a gigantic, well-to-weight.
[SPEAKER_01]: I felt comfortable saying that Usman was kind of shot and a spent force going into his fight with Buckley back in June.
[SPEAKER_01]: And while he beat Buckley, and he had to go five rounds to do it, I don't feel that much better about him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Like, he was fighting a guy that he had a serious size advantage over
[SPEAKER_01]: While Buckley is a surprisingly good offensive wrestler, his defensive wrestling is still not great.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was impressive that Usman took him down as many times as he did, and that the fight kind of pivoted on that.
[SPEAKER_01]: But I don't think Usman's going to be out there trying to take down Duplussy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'm not sure he can stop Duplussy from taking him down.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even though...
[SPEAKER_01]: he obviously is the more credentialed amateur wrestler and the guy who has leaned on wrestling more probably as a fighter.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what does that mean we have?
[SPEAKER_01]: It means we have Usman the 39 year old very surprisingly good technical kind of outside boxer.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, Usman has still has pretty fast hands, still has a very good jab, still hits with power.
[SPEAKER_01]: He doesn't kick as much anymore probably because both of his knees are toast, it's impossible for me to picture Usman either crushing duplesy with one huge punch or just outboxing
[SPEAKER_01]: I came into this thinking that the line was too wide, but the more I kind of thought about these guys and looked at their last couple of fights, I think it's about right.
[SPEAKER_01]: Give me duplesy by a decision here.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, I think it's probably going to be a frustrating fight for Usman for his cornermen and for anybody who's betting on him as the underdog, because I could see it being a fight where Usman has occasional moments where he'll like snap
[SPEAKER_01]: ddp's head back with a jab or one two or just completely no cells take down from from duplesy and smacks him with something on the way out, but it's just a few seconds here and there and it's not enough even to win a single round.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've got duplesy by dominant decision here and we might see Usman Retire.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, you said that you thought the line was
[SPEAKER_00]: because people didn't view Duplesse as the guy who got destroyed by Shemayev.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wonder if it's that or is that they don't give enough credit to Usman for beat and buckler, because I mean, buckler has not looked great of self and losing, you know, they're viewing Usman as he's back and then I will see that he's right back to middle way too.
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I'll start with Duplesse, the one they love Duplesse is he turned me into a fan, like he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he, he,
[SPEAKER_00]: He was winning UFC titles when I was like, I don't know if this guy's good at it.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's winning UFC title and the he's the ultimate achiever.
[SPEAKER_00]: He should be our favorite guy because we love the over achieving guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's like the face of the overchiever.
[SPEAKER_00]: He made it to the pinnacle.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're now kids can only go so far.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, Duplassey actually did it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he always has it's got it.
[SPEAKER_01]: If I may, it's weird to say that about a big athletic middleweight, but yeah, like it's it's hard to say what it's good at other than winning fights.
[SPEAKER_01]: Yeah, it's great.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's that's it.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what I said about, uh, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah
[SPEAKER_00]: by having a great game plan.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's super on off the docks.
[SPEAKER_00]: He constantly switches stance again as opponents guessing.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has those deceivingly long arms, which he tend to like catch as opponents.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, they think you, you know, they're always striking range.
[SPEAKER_00]: Great volume.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to go hard all 25 minutes, constantly attacking a combination.
[SPEAKER_00]: He hits harder than people think.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's got 90 kilos.
[SPEAKER_00]: More of like a guy who's going to hurt you and swarm you and eventually get to TKO.
[SPEAKER_00]: He does load up a lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will occasionally toss out a spinning attack, but it's mostly the kind of forces point us back away from them Back onto the back foot good kicking game.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean hit Sean strike with tons of high kicks in their second foot
[SPEAKER_00]: kicks the caps a lot.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will eat a lot of shots, but that's because he pulls his head straight back, and he can healers also, and he hates being a person, but also because he's constantly moving forward.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, he's one of these guys.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's willing to eat some because he trusts he can recover, which he seems to always recover, and then he just brings the heat out as opponents.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've said before, his biggest strength by being that he's so mentally tough, he just handles bad moments.
[SPEAKER_00]: He never panics where things get bad.
[SPEAKER_00]: Never allows his opponent to get momentum.
[SPEAKER_00]: It kind of keeps moving forward.
[SPEAKER_00]: He can wrestle.
[SPEAKER_00]: I said for he has some dog at him.
[SPEAKER_00]: Has a wrestling mentality.
[SPEAKER_00]: I said, I just mentioned Belama on me.
[SPEAKER_00]: He kind of reminds me of Obama.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he doesn't look like it's going to work.
[SPEAKER_00]: But he gets takedowns.
[SPEAKER_00]: And when this is like the slightest opportunity, I mean, he takes you on strike on about six times.
[SPEAKER_00]: uh... he did and it wasn't just a fluke like you took that robber with a character done going way back to like Derek once in uh... he's on top he's got good right around his he's got good overall grappling good backtaste he is a commissioner he's got eleven subs now his take down the fence was horrendous against
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, I guess, my half and his ability to get off the bottom, same way, but he's showing his ability to get off the bottom.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think this should just, just, my half was freaking tremendous in that fight.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, well, listen, say tremendous because he's going to just tickle that hell, but, uh, he, uh, my half was very good at doing it, but what it gets strategy, uh, despite that, like, weird, breathing technique they would talk about, diplomacy, he's going to go hard to all 25 minutes.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's not going to slow down.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was been, um,
[SPEAKER_00]: First, he can't pick away class, like he's up in middle way.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were down in the Walthway, and back up middle way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Middle way is probably a better chance to make him run in middle way, even though Islam Moxif has been talking about fight and usemen.
[SPEAKER_00]: So maybe he's not that far off from a title shot at Walthway.
[SPEAKER_00]: But in the middle way, he's not undersized.
[SPEAKER_00]: I've met him in person, he's huge.
[SPEAKER_00]: He, his problem was he used to be able to kill guys with pressure, and he just can't do that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, his body has failed him.
[SPEAKER_00]: He has those long arms that he glaced to keep his opponents at the end of his strikes.
[SPEAKER_00]: He was trying to good jab.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's got a great straight right.
[SPEAKER_00]: He also winged power shots.
[SPEAKER_00]: He had power in middleweight.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure, absolutely.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not sure he has power in middleweight.
[SPEAKER_00]: He loves T-kicks, but I'm worried about his durability.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's been in so many wars, his tons of injuries, and I hear those stories about him like, can't walk upstairs, that's a walk backwards and all these things.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's very physically strong guy that he uses to help with his grappling partner.
[SPEAKER_00]: He uses those long arms to get a lot of snatch singles.
[SPEAKER_00]: He almost wrestles like a heavyweight.
[SPEAKER_00]: No, he can shoot, but he never really drives through the hips that good.
[SPEAKER_00]: He will catch a kick to get the fight to the ground.
[SPEAKER_00]: If he doesn't get you downhill, he'll push you against the cage and follow you there.
[SPEAKER_00]: His best position, I've always said, is being chest-to-chess.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's drawn so many fighters in the clinch.
[SPEAKER_00]: He showed against Buckley that he could still wrestle one reason why we spent a six social successful to get is get take down since it's mindset he isn't necessarily about getting them down but to be in a position where
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he's making you work.
[SPEAKER_00]: He never lets you rest.
[SPEAKER_00]: He just tries to frustrate you.
[SPEAKER_00]: If his opponent works at the feet, Luzeman is going to stay on you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to knee you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to elbow straight you.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to stop on your feet.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's hitting you every position.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's always making you work regardless of the position.
[SPEAKER_00]: If he gets the fight to the ground, he has a good top game.
[SPEAKER_00]: He did struggle to get off it.
[SPEAKER_00]: The bottom and he gets to my up, but she might have to say everything.
[SPEAKER_00]: And he showed him his last fight.
[SPEAKER_00]: He saw his good gas tank.
[SPEAKER_00]: So
[SPEAKER_00]: If Ushman was in his prime, even though I liked Uclassi so much, I would want to take Ushman pretty easily.
[SPEAKER_00]: I do think he could have some success early, but the volume and pace of Uclassi is going to be too much.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's just going to like, even if you take him down, you win early rounds, Uclassi is going to continue to fight hard.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think he might actually hurt Ushman late, as there's just dust to gas.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think he might even get it finished late.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to say Uclassi wins by fifth round TKO.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is it.
[SPEAKER_01]: The short-awak radio network preview for UFC Fight Night 281, DuPlessy versus Usman, also known as UFC Oklahoma City.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been Ben.
[SPEAKER_01]: He has been Keith.
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[SPEAKER_01]: We hope you enjoyed it.
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[SPEAKER_01]: in depth analysis and occasional humorous sides that we think is pretty unique in this space.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you are a regular viewer of the show, and you are tuning in for the promise announcement, this is just a me letting you know that the end of July will mark the end of the Shillon and Duffy show on Shirdog.
[SPEAKER_01]: I am not sure what my relationship with the site will be after July.
[SPEAKER_01]: I may still be here in some capacity.
[SPEAKER_01]: I may be gone entirely, but it looks like the show is going away.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are a number of reasons for that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to go in super in depth here, because again, a lot of things are still in the air.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's the possibility that we take the show on the road and move over to Patriators or something and try to keep it going.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's the possibility that we just walk away from it, at least for a while.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not sure, so I'm not going to speculate too hard.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you've been with us,
[SPEAKER_01]: for any amount of time.
[SPEAKER_01]: Certainly, if you've been with us since the beginning at this point well over five years ago, well over 200 events covered, thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: This has been, I mean, it's a small part of what my job has been at Shirtog, but it's always been one of my favorites, just interacting with Keith, interacting with a lot of you and there are a lot of you listeners that have been here since the beginning or very near the beginning.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is appreciated more than we could possibly say.
[SPEAKER_01]: At any rate, join us on the recap, we'll be live right after the main event.
[SPEAKER_01]: Keith will take the captain's chair, we'll talk about all 11 of these fights, 12 if they find a replacement opponent for Mark Andrebario, but yeah, we'll talk about what was good, what was bad, what was surprising, what was controversial, there's always something we'll talk about what's next for some of the notable winners as well as losers, and we'll talk with you as always the,
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[SPEAKER_01]: Between now and then, thank you once again for listening, enjoy the rest of your week, and by all means enjoy these fights.
[UNKNOWN]: Come out, come out, come out, come out