[music] Hello and welcome to Hammer. I'm your host Dave. Join us always by my co-hosts. Grant has you going, guys, and Steve, hey. So welcome to our show. We are listening to us live on a Thursday morning. And if you're watching us on the following us on the Internet, you can find us at thehammermma.com or iTunes. So we've got a good show, as always, we try to do. We're going to talk quickly about Strike Force challenges later in the show. We're also going to run down on our expectations for the lightweight roster. But we're going to start off with the news today because we've got some good news. They finally announced who the coaches of the Ultimate Fighter would be. But there's not a lot of news this week, but it's fairly big. The big one is that they're doing Brock Lesnar and Junior Los Santos as the Ultimate Fighter coaches. That's awesome. That means those two are going to fight. They're going to fight apparently in June in Vancouver. Right on. And that would be for obviously for the number one contender slot against Kane Velasquez. I'm very surprised about this. I would not have put money on this because Brock Lesnar does not like this sort of thing. I think that's a bit of a myth. I mean, he would barely let those cameras fall around for a hype special that was like 90 minutes in length. I agree, but I definitely think he's over-exaggerating how anti-social he is to give himself a stronger part. It's crazy mountain man for someone. Exactly. And I mean, he was definitely in the WWE as a weekly entertainer doing shows. Because he couldn't take it. And he said he didn't like it, but he was still there for years. I mean, he can definitely do it with monies on the line. Oh, for sure. And one thing about Brock is money talks for Brock. Exactly. Yeah, for sure. For this particular, you know, they made so many moves in the heavyweight division. It was clear that they were going to pull someone out of the heavyweight for this. Oh, and Brock is the only guy that made sense. Is this whether they're going to put them with Frank Meer or with Junior DeSanto's basically. Yeah, like a junior had to fight somebody because he can't just sit on the shelf. He doesn't want to sit on the shelf the entire time. Like he's a fighter and he's got to stay fresh in the minds of everybody. I mean, it worries me because Los Santos is my favorite heavyweight, but I still want to. This match I've had to happen and I'd love to see it. And this works so perfectly because it Brock beats Los Santos. Then he's rejuvenated and you can sell him as the number one contender again, which is money. And if Los Santos beats him, I mean, this is the fight that's going to put Los Santos on the map. Yeah, and the thing is even if Los Santos loses, he'll bounce back. Yeah, that's the thing. I mean, he'll just have one more win away from another number one contenders match. It's not like it's going to put Los Santos away. But that could be a fight with Carwin or. He'll be Carwin. Los Santos would be Carwin. Like, I'm not worried about that. He could match if we see it someday. But, you know, like junior Los Santos, we were fans of his. We've been following him for at least his whole UFC career. But, you know, his biggest fight is that win over, is that win over Roy Nelson. And that didn't make him a huge huge star this well. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, it'll certainly help. This is an interesting choice, just because Brock is known to be, or, you know, projects the image that he's anti-social and junior Los Santos doesn't have the best grasp of English. But he's got a great personality. As like, he is charismatic. He just can't really speak English out well. He's a really nice guy too. Yeah. Like, I mean, he's a fans. I didn't can't think of any fans who don't like Segano. Do you remember no Garro when he coached against me? Yeah, exactly. He was just fantastic. And people really thought he was nice. Oh, yeah. I think no Garro's English is better than Los Santos's. But I still think that Los Santos's charisma can carry him through. And if he picks some co-coaches that actually do speak English well and get his point across, I don't think it's going to be a big deal. Not only that, but if the cohort she sees likely to have because he comes from the Nogara camp, he's likely to have Nogara and Anderson Sullivan, guys that people like to see and are interested in. That's right. Machita. And people think it's kind of odd that Brock Lesnar, who's fairly new to MMA, is coaching. In the end, the guys who get picked to coach, they're not doing all the work. They're not doing all the heavy lifting. No. They're the face of the training camp. But they've got a whole support team to train. GSB brought the whole neighborhood into college. Well, the interesting thing that I find about that is Los Santos comes from one of the best training camps in MMA, Black House, which is fantastic. Brock comes from basically his own. He built a training camp just for himself. The best you could say if you're not counting his death clutch is the Minnesota martial arts academy. I don't know who the hell he'd bring in. Pat Berry. He could bring in... Nothing wrong with Pat Berry. Not for Pat Berry for strike. Great boxing coach there. He could bring in Reggie Couture for a few weeks there. Yeah. He could do some wrestling and stuff. Oh, yeah. There's definitely guys. But I mean, his camp certainly, if you're saying, well, a lot of times the coach is relying on their camps. His camp is certainly not great. Somebody had to train Brock. Yeah, Brock, someone definitely did train Brock. To be the champion. Keep in mind that, you know, if you think of his camp relative to who else is in there, Chris Tuscher, he's been losing. It's a much a big, luggy wrestler, guys. Yeah, but they're all fighters and they're all decent class fighters enough to get to the UFC. You know what camp is better than Brock's camp? Wolfslayer and AKA. Think of how they'll have one side of those seasons where. Rampage and Josh Costa got killed by real camps. Yeah, but Rampage didn't really have, like, Rampage, it was plain to see that Rampage was more focused on the character rather than coaching. And, I mean, he picked the worst possible guys. His picks lost him that season. It wasn't the coaching. It was his picks. He picked the worst guys. Maybe Lesnar will just pick all the biggest dudes. Well, I think Lesnar, like, it's going to be interesting to see how- His camp is all big, luggy wrestlers. That doesn't mean he's going to pick big, luggy wrestlers. And it doesn't mean he's going to just bring in big, luggy wrestlers. People had to train Brock that he's had great trainers who've trained him to be a world champion. This isn't, like, the minor leagues. You know? The guy's got a decent training camp. Yes, it's not Black House. I mean, Black House is probably the best one out there. So, I mean, that's going to be- It's going to be difficult to- I think Black House is going to take it, but it's not going to- I don't think it's going to be a blowout. Well, Lesnar works hard. I mean, he can train work ethic. He can drink. Yeah. So, you have, like, there are things Lesnar can teach you. And he can scare his fighters into winning because he's a scary dude. Do you really want to disappoint Brock Lesnar? No. I mean, you'll send us to be like, "Oh, it's okay. We'll get him next time." Brock's like, "I'm going to eat you. You've lost." Plus, in the end, like, the training the guys in Ultimate Fighter, that's not the draw. The draw is to build up a fight. Exactly. I mean, if Brock Lesnar trains eight guys poorly, who cares? And who knows? I mean, he could pick the star of the show. He could pick the guy that's head and shoulders above everybody else before even coming into the Ultimate Fighter. No. With that being said, what weight class have they called for this? I have a welterweight or middleweight. It's a lower weight class. So, that'd be interesting to see what we get out of that. So, interesting news there. It'd be interesting to see some big, luggy wrestlers in the welterweight device. It'd be interesting to see Brock try to roll with welterweights. And that'd be worth it. Guys, I'm going to try to teach you some wrestling techniques. Slam. Here's how you throw someone 20 feet. So, after Josh Grisby got defeated and lost his number one contender shot at the Phantom Weight title, sorry, the Featherweight title, Dana White has said that Mark Hamanek beats George Rupp at Fight for the Troops in two weeks, then he will get the title shot in Toronto. Awesome. That's great. Hamanek, it was already scheduled to fight anyway before they went into Toronto. I don't think he had a fight book. Oh, he didn't have a fight book because it was Fight for the Troops. He was very, very close to Toronto. Yeah. So, that's going to be it. That's going to be it. It's a three-month turnaround. If he doesn't get injured. He can definitely pull it off, but typically speaking, after a fight, every guy gets laid off for at least 60 days, so he'll have to get the doctor to show him that. What is it for a title shot? Absolutely. And it's not unheard of for a guy to fight three months later. I mean, three months or 12 months, you still have to fight Jose Aldo. Exactly. So, I cannot wait, and I just love the fact we're going to be there. Yeah, that's going to be great. I can't wait. Jacob Volkmann told Ariel Hywani in his post UFC 125. This one's hilarious. That someone needed to knock some sense into Barack Obama. Hywani asked him who his next fight was, and he says, "I hope it's Barack Obama." He said, "We know that he said Barack Obama." So, it's his second choice. Yeah. But, yeah. So, you're thinking, "Okay, whatever. Just some dumb comment?" No, the Secret Service showed up at his class. And, yeah. So, they took this seriously. I guess the Secret Service takes every threat, even a joking letter. Well, let's consider what happened a couple of days ago. I'm very sorry. I mean, yeah. There's the Democratic Congresswoman got shot a couple of days ago in Arizona. So, they definitely take it seriously. Now, with that being said, I mean, Volkmann has said that the guys who came out were like, "We know it's not a serious threat, but we have to talk to everyone." That's just for the call. He definitely said it on a fairly wide forum. And, in the end, I think this is the best possible thing for Volkmann, because this is the only time anyone's talked about Volkmann. He looks like Jim Caron. It's true. Even though he's been doing well, he's having a couple of wins in a row. But, the other thing is, if Barack Obama can make the way cut to 155... I'd love to see that match. I guess probably got some cardio. Volkmann versus Obama. He can ball. He can ball. We've seen him play basketball. But, this is great for Volkmann. This is certainly... Let's set this match up. What? Obama versus Frankie Edgar. Let's do this. Oh, Obama should just corner somebody to face Volkmann. Come on now. Let's get going. But, this is great for Volkmann. Like, Volkmann can get on a main card because of this. People know his name. And so, yeah, that's great. And, Leonard Garcia and NAM fan, they're getting a rematch in March. Oh, cool. Which is cool. I don't think good fights. I don't think this is a fight that needed to happen again, even though it was such a controversial finish. But, if they've got nothing else for other of these guys, this fight will have way more interest going in this time. That'll be fun to watch. Plus, Garcia is a guy and kind of guy. You have to bulk him with the right kind of fighter to fight with him. And, NAM will go out there. NAM will go out there and swing with him. Chang's and Jon's going to go out there and swing with him. Well, not anymore, since he's changed his strategy. To the injured strategy. And, yeah, that's it for the really important news this week. So, we're going to go a quick little rundown of Strike Force Challengers number 13 that took place on Saturday. Last Friday night. And this is my first Strike Force Challengers show that all three of us have all watched together. Yeah, they do. They're only going to try and skip it if possible. This will be the second Strike Force Challengers I've ever watched. I get stuck watching by myself. Well, I usually watch it by myself as well. In any case. So, we had a good show. The reason why we all watch it was because these are literally all the up and commerce for Strike Force. And if this is the future of the Strike Force roster. Yeah, this is the equivalent of going and watching, let's say, Junior De Santos, Jon Bones, Jones, and, you know. No, you mean it would be the potential of watching them back in the day? Back in the day. No, that assumes that the guys we watched are going to become the greatest fighters. Well, but that's certainly why. That's how they're building it though. That's how Strike Force is pushing it. Absolutely. And I understand that they're pushing it like that. But also, just by the law of averages, the chances of watching these guys were watching the next guys who get cut after their first fight in the UFC. Yeah. You never know. Well, that being said, Tyron Woodley was in the main of event against him. He's usually a, one of the Dutch kickboxing faction. But to prep for this fight, he went and trained with Dan Henderson, who's cornering him to work on his wrestling. Yep. So this became very much a wrestling bout. Woodley did give Safit in every, any space to throw his kicks. But Safit in had actually enough counter wrestling that he kept up with Woodley, not too badly. So, of course, it went to decision unanimous. 3027 for Tyron Woodley from one judge, 2928 from the other two. How did you feel about this fight, Greg? I was bored. It was not a particularly exciting fight. This was a wrestling match. Woodley's a great wrestler. It's a great talent. There was some good wrestling on display, but it just did not do it for me. This was not particularly exciting. This is not a particularly wonderful fight. This is a really contender for worst fight in the year. No, no, no. That's the next one we're going to talk about. I don't know if that goes as far as to say worst fight of the year, but it was definitely not a good fight. Well, it was only January. That's what I mean. For them saying, Woodley was cautious because he really needed to win this fight. You're on challenges, man. Come on. Come on. It's your job to look good on challenges. There's like seven people in the division. I'm pretty sure he's going to get a title shot after, you know, Daz Beatz. There's a strike force. You can lose four fights and roll and get a champion. It's true. You don't even have to win to get a title shot. He can totally shake quicker if you lost. However, he's not in the heavyweight division. So... So, we go forward to the next fight. Oven St. Prove vs. Abongo Humphrey. They desperately want Oven St. Prove to be John Bones Jones. One of the most annoying things ever is Marcello Yelling. Are you down with OSP? It's just... You're trying to get that annoying and awful and ridiculous. No one is excited about that. Even OSP is not excited about that. You know, I think he'd rather just be called Ovens. He's a dude named Ovens. He's like, "Oh, please." 'Cause now he sounded like a weird mix of naughty by nature and GSP. And also, being compared to GSP is never going to work out favorably for you. It's like, "Oh, it's like GSP, but he's not as good." Yeah. Yeah. Well, the thing with Ovens, he comes from a football background. He looks and he has a build similar to John Bones Jones. He does. This guy... He won three fights in the last seven weeks. Yeah, he's fun. Always respect that. Oh, yeah. He definitely keeps busy. With that being said, this guy can't buy a finish to save his life. I mean, for a guy with this build, he cannot... He may just take down everyone. He's got a pretty good takedown game. But he can't finish from the top. He doesn't have anywhere close to the bones crushing on enough bones. Yeah. So he's landing shots. He's not killing a Bongo Humphrey, who's not known for his rock job. Mm-hmm. You know? And then, the other thing is, his counter-striking is a little bit sloppy. The last two fights have seen another guy. He's been cornered and had kind of crazy firefights with a Bongo Humphrey. And, you know, I can't remember what we fought before this. They've been he radic. You know, these guys, they've got... If you're not able to back up and create space from these guys, they put you on the KH and they punch you. And you end up getting dragged takedowns to try to slow this pace. You're going to beat these guys. But, my God. And even in the Strike Force, light heavyweight division, because the light heavyweight division is a whole, so stacked. The guy's the top. Dan Henderson. Gagard Masasi. King Mo Lowell. Dangerous guys. Fage out. Dangerous guys. Fage out. These are not guys you want to sit your back on the cage, lean, and try to strike with, and let them throw on you until they drop their guard and you can get a takedown. I'm not going to take too much away from same proof for this fight, just because I think he probably was pretty tired. Absolutely. So, I'd like to see, give him some rest, and I'd like to see what he can do on full rest now that he's had the experience. Yeah. And put him up against a half-decent name. Put him up against a half-decent name, but as I said, there definitely are some holes in his game. You know, he's a takedown guy who can't finish from the top, which I always get frustrated with. And then, he's a counter-striking game. His strategy is he takes shots to get takedowns. You don't want to take shots to get takedowns against Dan Henderson, man, that's dangerous. Yeah. Because he's not going to get a takedown against Dan Henderson. Masasi will literally punch your head into orbit. He's very prolific right now and he's winning, but he's going to move up the car. He's got some dangerous strategies. Plus, if you look at, if this guy ever, if he does become big and he makes a jump to UFC, literally everyone in the UFC division is a monster striker with incredibly good counter-wrestling. Bader, Phil Davis, Jones, Liodo Machida, Rampage Jackson, Rashad. All these guys are phenomenal counter-puncher with phenomenal takedown defense. The only guy with not great takedown defense in the lightweight division is Shogun Ruah. You're not getting him in your first fight, and if you did and you try to take him down, he's another guy who will punch you into orbit. Well, he dislodged from your body. I think even mentioning OSP with the names of the top UFC light, have you wait in the same sentence as a little premature? But this is the division. You know what I mean? Like, this is not division. Well, he's still new. I mean, he can still build a good, you know, ten-month-long career. This guy needs a good... Before they fold. Yeah, this guy needs a better camp, so he needs some game planning. So you go forward. Daniel Cormier, the wrestling prospect, came out to take on Devin Cole. This is another wrestling match. Cormier managed out wrestling pretty solidly. However, Cormier looked to be putting together his hands fairly solidly, landed a couple of good combos, including one really, really interesting haymaker, which probably should have killed Cole and somehow didn't phase him. Yeah, I was really shocked. I thought that was going to put him out. Yeah, I still had a pretty solid job. Resilient, very resilient. No, with that being said, Cormier is on the alternate list for the Strike Force Grand Prix of Heavyweights. Realistically, he's probably in the tournament because he's certainly a lot better than Kargorov. At least has more potential. And, you know, he's a pretty good fighter, so he's definitely going to become something in the Heavyweights. Well, you know that the guys on the alternate list are going to get a chance to fight in that tournament. Oh, someone's getting injured. Someone's getting injured or someone's not going to fight her. Oh, if they don't pull out, he'll end up taking on silver. Yeah, probably. Let me go forward. Amanda Nunez took on Julia Budd. This was expected to be a pretty solid match because they're both striking experts, and Julia Budd is pretty tough. Fortunately, she did not look at this fight and is knocked her out in, like, one punch. She was expected to stay cyber next, but Dunez will now. Yeah, for sure. Same, Julia Budd's Canadian too, so that's kind of a shame. She's also a very good-looking girl, but not anymore. Nunez is pretty solid thrashed her. So, Nunez has won the right to lose the cyborg. Yeah, it's pretty much how it's going to go. And then John Richard took on Roddy Ferguson. This was actually probably the best match of the night. Ferguson looked pretty tough in the first round. Yeah, Ferguson is tempo his uncle. Cousin. Dustin Cousin, I think. I don't think he's his first cousin. Well, whatever. He's never continued. So, anyways, it's pretty solid fight. Ferguson managed to wrap it up with a knee bar in round two. Bit of a knee bar heel hook combination. So, he managed to pick it up. Oh, no, certainly didn't know what to call it. Now, for Ferguson, he's a pretty solid judo guy. Pretty good build. Pretty good height for the division. He definitely has a prospect in the light heavyweight division. Look for him in the same period to make some waves. One of my favorite comments of the night was Marwanal, who's saying, "Roddy Ferguson, he looks a lot like Kevin Kimball Slice Ferguson. They might be related." I asked him if they were. He said, "I'm not sure." That's some pretty solid journalism. There were just horrible comments. You keep that journalism coming. Yeah. We've made our thoughts clear about what we think of Marwanal. In other words, it turns out that Brennan Shob and Chris Tuxer pretty much brothers. Whatever. I don't know. Let's move on. All right, so we're thinking we're going to run down. This light heavyweight division in the UFC is insane after the ADW division, the sort of lightweight division. They absorb the WBC. There's like 60-plus guys when your own weight division should be like 30 or 40 guys. So, this division has become very, very dangerous. This is kind of a division where even guys that are near the top, if you lose a couple of fights in the row, there's so many guys and so few slots. Even UFC doesn't have the budget to keep all these guys under contract. That's right. For these guys, if you lose, you even need to cut to the much less occupied Bantam featherweight divisions. Or you need to start thinking, "I'll go to Strike Force." Now, there's a couple of guys at the top. I think we can all agree are pretty safe. The big three. Edgar Maynard. Yeah. Pretty safe. Pettis, probably safe. Guida's been winning. He's pretty safe. Now, here's the thing. Oh, so here's the thing. Okay, so Edgar Maynard is going to be facing in a rematch. Pettis was supposed to get the winner of their last fight, but now he's got to wait. So, the strong rumor now is Pettis and Guida. Dana says he's going to try and work that out. So, Pettis and Guida, and Guida's the guy who right now is on a three-fight win streak. He's evolved his game by leaps and bounds. And who knows how to fight with him in pedals to go, but Guida wins that fight. Guida's new number one contender. Even if Guida loses that fight, it's not like he's going to get cut. So, this is win-win for Guida. It's going to be a great match of the year already. It does. I'm willing to put it up there already, and I haven't even seen it yet. Between Frank Edgar, Gray Maynard, and Anthony Pettis, and Clay Guida, there's two solid fights that are going to be real strong competitors. Oh, yeah. And that's amazing. And so, those guys, that's your top of the division. That's your title scene right there. You go down one level. What do you guys think? I'm sorry. How about Kenny Florin right now? Kenny Florin's a pretty good stud. He's not really in the conversation for contention right now, but he manages to put together an enough wins that he's certainly known no threat, particularly because they love the guy. He's a really good spokesman for the company. No, he doesn't have a dance partner. He doesn't have a dance partner. He doesn't have a fight with Dunham because of an injury. Yeah. Kenny Florin's very, very close to job for life. I think he's at that level. He's like at the Rich Franklin, Forrest Griffin level where-- Staven Bonner. Do you think he'll ever be a champion? I don't think so. No, I won't. I think the division is too deep. Yeah. Parental contender. The division is too deep, too dangerous. He's not a-- he's not consistent enough. I think he can go up to 170. I think he's too big to go down to 145. He's just a gatekeeper level, I think. I think that's his job right now, unfortunately. Dunham's a pretty solid contender. They're looking to move him around. He has a fight coming up with a main event in fight for the troops with Melvin Guillard. Dunham is-- He's going to win that. He's-- for all intents and purposes, he's undefeated. Yeah. He's going to be a future title contender, probably a future champion, if everything goes well for him. Yeah. Sutteropolis is at that level, too, where he's a strong contender. He's probably safe for the next year, I'd imagine. And Jim Miller's the other guy. Those are the three guys for him. Jim Miller's won six in a row. Dunham, Dunham Miller and Sutteropolis are those guys who are just at that one rung below and just did the right win or a couple of wins to be in title contender. I got to say, my man's going to beat Jim Miller. Kamal Shaller is-- He's a little further down the depth, but that's going to be a really good fight. How do you guys-- like, what do you think about that? Like, getting out, like Miller and Shaller is like a good idea for a fight. It's a good idea for a fight. It's definitely the right thing for Shaller. It was similar as a good guy to take on. It's honestly not a bad fight for Miller as much as, like, Shaller's. This is a clash of really strong wrestlers. And I hope that Shaller's is going to use his wrestling game. I mean, the guy is probably-- like, he's up there with being maybe one of the best wrestlers in the division, if not the best. I mean, he's got so much experience. The only problem with Shaller's is going to be his age and whether he gets it. His age and his work rate. Yeah, he goes out and he likes to throw bombs. He likes to strike. He works too hard. Yeah. So, I mean-- Now, how do you guys feel about his sonaropolis beat Seever and Miller beat Shaller is assuming that they would fight for number one contender slot? Like, is that the local guys are on? Oh, yeah, definitely. Absolutely. Then you go down a little further. Sean Shirk. Shirk's lost. Shirk's had kind of an inconsistent record. He's getting a little bit older. I don't think he's completely safe. I think that as a former champion and a guy that's been around for a long time, he's safe for now. I just think it's time for him to start thinking about-- And technically on his record, this isn't a guy that loses to non-best fighters in the world. Exactly. I mean, his losses come against really, really top guys. I do believe he lost that last fight to Dunham, but he's still in his record. But it was not hurt. It was close enough for him to contend and for them to be on the same level. And the thing is, yes, Dunham's young and Shirk is a little bit older, but I still think Shirk has the tools to make a run. The division is very-- I don't think he's too much. I don't think he's ever going to put him back into contention. I think he's close to a job for a life guy, but I also think he's close to how much career do you really have left in the UFC as well? Because I don't think they're ever going to move you up in the division. And again, the muscle sharks, really, really big for a lightweight. I don't see him being able to cut. I think with him though, he's that kind of guy who's always a couple of wins away, and they've always put him in the main event again. He's a lot younger than Couture, but he's at that. The Couture level, where Couture wins one fight, here comes the title. And obviously, this is a deeper division, but I think two wins and Shirk is right there. And he's going to go up against, because he's just beaten Dunham, he will go up against top-level guys, and I think he can hang. Now, there's another little tier of guys here, people I've really high hopes for. Joel Lowe's on Tekkenori Gomi and Charles Olivier. All three of these guys had rough losses in the very recent future. Not cuttable losses. No, no, no, no. And the thing is, Lowe's on is extremely inconsistent. He wins one and loses one, but he's got a good skill set, and he's young. So I'd imagine they're going to hang on to him. Gomi is also extremely consistent, but he's older. Now, with that being said, because they paid a lot of money to get the guy over there, they're not going to cut him yet. If Gomi's not there in a year, I wouldn't be surprised. Oh, Lavera, I think he's the weakest position of the obvious guys. I would say that Gomi's in a worse position, because I think Gomi's a very young. He can make a comeback from this. Gomi just can't string it together, and he wins, and he's getting older. I think they've invested way too much money in Gomi. And that's why I think he's in the best position of the three, just because there's so much money behind him. The other two, they might go down and come back. But I don't think they're going to be too quick to cut Gomi, considering what they've invested in him. And also Gomi, he used a guy that was doing main events with Florian not too long ago. Yeah, he's definitely on the main car. Oh, one and two lost. Lavera just made his way onto the main car. Joe Loza just made his way into the main car, and both of them lost in their fights in the main car. True. And all of you are still pretty one-dimensional in his game. That is very true. And then... Also, keep in mind, Gomi is losing to guys like Kenny Florian and Clay Guida. After exciting fights and submissions, whereas Oliver is getting crushed. He lost to Jim Miller. He was on the same level. Jim Miller is on the same level as Clay Guida, though. Oh, yeah, George Sutter-Roppel has to be losing to know what it is. Level-wise, these guys are on the same level. I just think with the money that you're putting and with the name on Gomi, I think he's just in a better position right now. And Ben Henderson and Mark Bocek are going to be fighting each other in Toronto. That's going to be awesome. Both of these guys are safe for the... I would imagine a loss or two. Ben Henderson is just coming in. They definitely love Bendo, and he's a really, really good spokesman for the company, and a really good guy that they've got a lot of faith in. So, and he's young as well. So, Bendo's probably pretty safe. Bocek is also... he's been on a hot streak. You know, I don't think that if he loses this when he's in danger. No. No, and actually a win from either of these guys will really, really put them up. You know, not to the top-top level, but... They definitely put them up there. You know, a win over Bocek will put Henderson up at the, say, the Sean Schur level. Yep. Yeah, usually. Not to see Henderson Schur. We go forward. Donald Saroni, he's an interesting guy. With that being said, he's a division full of interesting guys. He's got kind of an inconsistent record himself. But he's exciting. The fans love him, and he's got a box full of tools. And he has a fight with Paul Kelly coming up, which he will win. Which he will definitely win. I can't see him losing that fight, but he called out Cole Miller, which is a likely fight to happen in the near future. Yeah, they're both about the same level. And that's the sort of fight where I really think, like, the winner of that fight, when and when or if it happens, will choose a guy who's got a real conversation, really in the conversation, and a guy who's... Yeah, the winner of Saroni Miller could be, you know, facing a shirk or going pretty quickly. How about Dennis Seaver? He's been winning fights, and he's a fairly exciting fighter who's diversifying. So I do think that he's okay for now. With that being said, I don't think his position in the division is not strong. Because the division is such a tight vision. Because he's fighting George Soderopoulos. He's only, I mean, if he's somehow made just a KO George Soderopoulos, then, you know, people are going to be talking about Seaver, but otherwise he's just a guy. The advantage that he does have, though, is that he is the most notable German in the UFC, and they're trying to get into the German market. And they go like once a year. So that's like him, him, him, Soderopoulos. These are guys that have the nationality behind them, and they're places that they want to bow check, too. These are places that they want to, you know, go into, so, and they are into. So those guys have that advantage on their side. Guillard's been on a hot streak lately, so I think he's probably pretty safe. Joe Day Stevenson's has been on a cold streak lately. That's tough. He's in a tough position right now. I think he's in the position with Joe Daddy. You've got to win and you've got to go. That dancing fight really screwed up. If he loses another one, I will be surprised that they cut Joe Daddy. Joe Day is definitely in trouble. Kurt Pellegrino is another one. Yep. This guy, he's been so lost in this division. I think if he loses one or even two, two, he's got to win. He's in a pretty scary level of guys that before this merger, you know, they had a really, really safe job. And now it's a, they're a lot more in danger. Yeah, Nick Glantz are looking to cut. So I mean, this guy could go on win 10 straight and lose one. They're going to cut him. Yeah. How about Ross Pearson? Pearson, I think this guy, he's on the bubble. That's unfortunate, but he's, he did well in the Ultimate Fighter, but with that being said, he's, you know, had a good streak, came up with his first loss. Cole Miller, yeah. I think if he loses another one, he goes two and oh, the division is so stacked right now that even, I think they'll give him two losses. I think they'll let him, I think they'll let him lose one more time, but if he loses three in a row, he's gone. Yeah. Like, I think, I think it's been a year since he's won, hasn't it? So, I mean, that, like, that contract's not really there. I don't know what they've resigned him or not, but he's, yeah, he's in trouble. He's on the bubble. And that sucks because his last name is Pearson. Can Tyson Griffin just keep fighting the netting his way to sticking around or is losing all the time? I think Griffin is managing to hold in there because I think that Griffin is the kind of, he's a good company guy. He's in the middle. He's a solid gatekeeper, but he's not the kind of gatekeeper that's killing everyone and holding the division down. You know, he loses the guys that you could expect to move to. Isn't he, is he small enough you guys think he could cut? Griffin's pretty close to me and I cut to the Fed a little. I think he could, I think he could. Because you got to remember, there are guys in here who could potentially cut. Yeah, so. Pearson and Griffin are definitely on the smaller half. Oh, look at Jonathan Brookins. They could definitely make the cut. Barbosa, I'm not sure how much he cuts, but he's the guy that, that leg kicked, that guy to death, not that long ago. Some of these guys, like, like, Brookins and Barbosa, these guys can cut. Yeah, career rejuvenation right there. Yeah. Volkman is obviously, he's lost on the division. He's, he's leading off prelin fights. So, I mean, he's been on high streak lately, so I don't think he's Lex lost and gone. But two losses in a row is enough for Volkman. How about this level of guy? Like, like, a Jeremy Stevens, a Sam Stout, a Spencer Fisher. Like, these guys used to be, like, your gatekeeper. They're exciting. Yeah, they're, they're exciting enough. Stevens and Stout are okay. Fisher's on a cold streak. He's old. I think he's in trouble. Didn't, didn't Fisher just win over in the UK? Yeah, he did. He's, he's, he won his last fight. Yeah. So. He was, what, three losses. He's very inconsistent. He's inconsistent, but all three of these guys are inconsistent. But they're all exciting fighters, which counts for something. However, however, they're, they're all, I think, one loss away from getting handed to their walking papers. Unfortunately, just because the division is so deep. Yeah, and because also, you know, a lot of these guys are a little bit older now, too. Yeah. How about Mack Danzig? He just beat Stevenson. Danzig just beat Stevenson. I mean, he would have been cut off. That was the loser, Lee's town match, but he won it. Yeah. I think he, because he's, he's another old Muslim fighter, fighter, fighter guy. I think it's going to take a few losses to get him out. Kamal Shaller, who says we said is pretty good. How about Cody Mackenzie? Cody Mackenzie, Jonathan Brookins, you know, Michael Johnson, and Aaron Wilkinson. Well, Brookins is around for at least a year. So. All these guys just came off the ultimate fighter and they're all bubble guys with the exception of Johnson, Mackenzie, Manfan, and Brookins. Those guys will get a chance to succeed. Brookins guaranteed a year. Manfan just had a fight at the night. So he's. Manfan is cut. He's already made the cut to, by the way. He knows where the writing on the wall is. Yeah. Very smart. Michael Johnson was a runner up, so he's probably safe for a year as well. No, I don't know that far. Not a year. Provided he, you know, they give him two losses. He's got a win. I mean, Aaron Wilkinson and Kyle Watson, you lose once you're gone. Yeah. Like we are now talking the level of guys where, if you lose, expect to be cut. Yeah. Yeah. How about some of the W.C. imports? Anthony Angicwani and Shane Roller. Angicwani's won away from gone. Roller's okay. They like roller and he's winning. Yeah. Pretty, pretty well. So, I mean, they're like roller enough. I think they'll give him a shot. I really see because you're exciting. So do I. Angicwani, they're not investors at all. I don't see big things. Angicwani. If he loses one, he's gone. Wyman, you know, if he loses one, he's gone, in my opinion. Then there's guys like Terry Adam, Gleason Tibao, like these guys there. They're just there. Yeah. They had better go in a serious, serious hot streak or they built it. Gleason Tibao's actually, he's exciting enough and he wins fairly consistently. So, I mean, he's got some, some life in him. If he managed to put out some of these, these other guys, he managed to do okay. You know, Terry Adam, I can't remember the last time. I saw this guy fight, to be honest, and I watch every one of the fights. So, well, I think we can agree that all of these guys that we just mentioned are a win and you're in, lose and goodbye. Despite it, like however exciting that they are, I mean, if they get beaten, they're going to be beaten by someone who's on the same level. So, that person is taking their spot. So yes, you lose an exciting fashion. Okay, but the guy who beat you is still got your spot because there are only so many spots. You know, there's a guy like Paul Sass who got that awesome submission of the night, I believe it was. They have a chance to raise up the card, but there's not a lot of room up there. Yeah. Yeah. Well, because of such a stacked division, I mean, pretty much every guy in this division below what I would say is, you know, Dennis Seaver, all of you should be thinking about cutting to 145 if you can. If they can. And if not, you've got to look at your on the bubble. Look at the cuts in the last month or so just in the lightweight division. Marcus Davis, Chris Wordeski, Jamie Varner, Dustin Hazlett, and Tonya McKee. If you're cutting Jamie Varner, then these guys are a lot of these guys. He thought Hazlett was a serious prospect at one point. Well, Hazlett was a welterweight, wasn't he? Did he cut? He dropped out. He was on a few, like, losing streak. Oh, yeah, he lost a bow check. He lost a bow check. But Jamie Varner is good for him. He's going to pre-med schools. Oh, well, there you go. Probably a safer career choice. Yeah. And then do you guys ever see BJ Penn, Nate Diaz or Jago Sanchez coming back down? Just Diaz, maybe. But the other two in a way. No. Do you think they're staying on their way? Yeah. BJ Penn, for sure. I don't think it's in his interest to come back down because the division is so stacked right now. And it's no place at the top. So, I mean, I think that right now he's better off. Because, you know, him fighting Fitch, it's not unrealistic that he beats Fitch. If he beats Fitch, he gets his, he gets his dream engine against GSP. Jago Sanchez, he looks exciting in Walter Wade. He's managed to put on good fights and he's in the kind of safe spot in the division where they're not giving him the most dangerous guys. As far as Nate Diaz, the thing is, I honestly don't think if he came down, back down, Gray Maynard's already beat the guy. Barely. Barely. But Maynard's looked a lot better since than he has. There aren't very many guys in the lightweight division that Nate Diaz can't at least hang with. He has that kind of style and build where, as Steve said, he can hang with just about anyone in that division. He's always dangerous. And, I mean, a loss to Kim, that's not really that great for the Walter Wade. You know, I mean, he wants a title shot. He's one of the few guys that I think, even though the lightweight division is so deep right now and so dangerous that he should probably go back down there, I think, would be better for him. My thing is, if he wants a title shot, the wrong division to be in is a lightweight. Because the next four or five title shots are already decided. You know what I mean? Like, Gray Maynard's definitely getting the next title shot. The winner of Pettis and Guida's getting the shot after that. Sauteropolis is in the conversation after that. And Dunham's in the conversation after that. I think Diaz can think of the differences between having the title shot and being in the conversation. Like, we've already got one. The Walter Wade championship fight is already Jake Shields. And the next one is going to Pender Fitch. So that's two guys right there. So you're just as far away as you need. Diaz, if you're wearing more welterweighted fights than getting a title shot at the moment. Yeah. And the thing is, he can win fights, I think, more efficiently and lightweight. Completely agreed. So, yeah, so it's a pretty bad time to be a guy like Rafael de Sanjos. Diego Taveras, Paul Kelly, these guys. Baron Wilkinson. But yeah, it's going to be really interesting over the next year. I should keep this list here and see how many of these guys are still here. You're from them. Cross them off every now and then, yeah. Yeah. The division is still stacked, that a lot of these guys are in serious trouble. As we said, you guys are so pretty. This is the deepest division in MMA history, I think. Oh, yeah. By far. And it's going to be great to watch these fights. I can't wait. Awesome. So who do you guys think will be, if you could pick one name to be the next lightweight champion? Not Kenny Frank Yeager, because he already is. I think Pettus is going to do it. Well, Pettus is definitely a guy who's, you know, most likely to do it. I think, you know, the guys to keep an eye on in this division, the guys are going to be fast movers. Keep an eye in Bendo. He's very, very underrated. I don't think a lot of guys realize how good he is. Keep an eye on Sutteropolis, because he's on a really, really epic rise. And keep an eye on Donna. Yep. I agree. So one name. The guy who's going to eventually beat Edgar. The guy who's eventually going to beat Edgar. Guida. I'm with you on that one. Guida or Pettus? Yep. I'm torn between Dunham and Guida and Guida's a little closer. Guida's closer. He's reinvented himself and the new style he's fighting in with him using his wrestling a lot better and being able to finish when he gets guys down with his submission games. I think Guida's definitely, you know, he's won me over and I was never Guida fan. I've always thought the guy was overrated. Now I'm starting to think he's, he's rated, you know, so... What a great division. I want to see Guida Pettus. I want to see the top ten guys in this division. I want to see them all fight each other. Oh, yeah, for sure. All right. Well, that's pretty much what we got. All right. Thank you for tuning in guys in.
