Outside the Octagon
Hosted by Charleston K. Payne and Jude Starns, where every episode is the MAIN EVENT! The guys cover all MMA major events, previewing and recapping while also bringing in many MMA guests from all walks of life!
Outside the Octagon
Fists, Fury, and Fight Night Fever in the World of UFC
Give us your thoughts on the episode here!
Hey fight aficionados, Charleston Payne here with the indomitable Jude Starnes, and we’re throwing punches in our latest podcast episode that you won’t want to miss! We’re unpacking the historic UFC 300, where we saw Cody Garbrandt tussle with Figueiredo and Jim Miller showcase his unyielding spirit in the cage. And let's not forget Kayla Harrison's striking entrance into the UFC, toppling Holly Holm with undeniable prowess. We’re also serving up our analysis on the Charles Oliveira vs. Armand showdown, where Armand’s escape artistry from a guillotine had us biting our nails. The stakes and submissions were high, and we're giving you the ringside recap and speculation on what's coming next for these gladiators.
Strap in as we ignite a fiery debate over Zhang Weili's victory against Yan Xiaonan and shine the spotlight on featherweight newcomer Diego Lopez, discussing whether his star is set to rise or fizzle. We’re also calling out Jalen Turner's premature victory lap, breaking down where his overconfidence led him astray. Looking ahead, we’re stoked for UFC 302 and we're throwing down our early predictions. You'll want to hear our take on the electrifying Sean Strickland vs. Paulo Costa bout and the Dustin Poirier vs. Islam Makachev clash that's fueling our fight night fever!
And for the grand finale, we’re revisiting the latest UFC Fight Night, where Max Holloway's strategic mastery led to a knock-out buzz around the BMF belt. From the cut man's expert work to the electric atmosphere following Holloway's victory claim, we dissect what this means for the legacy of one of the UFC's finest. We’re also teasing what’s in store for our podcast – from upcoming guests to the fresh perspectives we'll bring with our new in-studio camera setup. Tune in and join us on this epic journey through the spellbinding world of UFC – it's a wild ride you won't want to miss!
What's going on, everybody, and welcome to the third episode of the Outside the Octagon podcast. I'm your host, charleston Payne, since apparently our transcript doesn't seem to be able to get that right. I am Charleston Payne, and over here to my left since now that you were able to see that because we have a camera rolling now, mr Jude Starnes. Jude, I'm glad to have you back here with us.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir, always good to be here, baby.
Speaker 1:Oh man, this is going to be a great episode for you guys. We've got a lot of stuff to talk about UFC 300 recap. Looking into some of the future fights that Dana White was able to announce after 300. Talk about some of the hectic, crazy bouts that we got to see over the last week and a half or so. Pfl even had a couple good fights.
Speaker 2:you know, I wasn't really familiar with any of the fighters on the card, but there was quite a few good ones in there, even though there wasn't very many finishes. Yes, sir, pfl, great fighting organization. Love the incentivize finishes. You do see a lot of finishes most of the time and most of those fights. So great organization there right, I like pfl.
Speaker 1:I like I mean, like we've talked about before I like the point system and stuff, the incentives for getting the finish. I'm really excited for playoff time to roll around, when it's kind of a crunch for some of these fighters and you kind of need that first round finish to slip into that four spot.
Speaker 1:I think that's when stuff's going to get really interesting there. But before we get any farther because I typically have a tendency to forget this follow us on instagram at outside the octagon pod. I'll try to do something on youtube, even though I'm not that familiar with it yet. Maybe we'll put it right about there, bang all right.
Speaker 1:So let's get rolling. Let's talk about some of the fights that we got to see on 300, starting off with cody garvin. That's one that I wanted to. You know it wasn't really the greatest fight on his part, but figurative is still that guy, he's still got it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it was a good fight and then I finished, didn't go to a decision, but definitely could have been a better fight by Garbrandt.
Speaker 1:Yeah, how about Jim Miller?
Speaker 2:Jim Miller does what Jim Miller does best and took absolute beating. All respect to that guy. He took a beat down but he didn't tap out, he didn't get finished. He fought to the very end, made it to the decision 100, 200, and UFC 300. And maybe 400. And maybe 400. And a walker.
Speaker 1:I mean Kayla Harrison's debut. She had quite an outing, quite a night, I would have to say so myself finishing holly home right there. Pretty great fighter. You know she's on her way out the door, although holly home is on her way out the door, or whatever. You know it's incredible to see a girl like kayla harrison come into this thing and get a finish. She's definitely gonna be a finished fighter and she's gonna be fighting for that belt very soon yeah, kay, kayla Harrison just proved that she can beat some of these older veterans.
Speaker 2:I know Holly Holmes, not the old Holly Holmes that we're used to. Still, a great fight by Kayla Harrison, she handled it great.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, I think that was an incredible one. There's just one that I'm just itching to talk about, but we've got to work our way there, and you know exactly which one it is.
Speaker 2:I know about four of them that I'm going to talk about.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about one. You got Go ahead.
Speaker 2:Oh, you want to go. Charles, oliveira, armand is the fight that I really thought was insane. Multiple times Charles gets the guillotine locked in, gets both hooks in, takes them to the ground. He's got them locked in Tightest guillotine I've seen in a long time. Armand stays composed, slips out of it and uses his jiu-jitsu Really impressive. We said in the preview when Oliveira gets you in a choke, you might as well just go to sleep. Well, armand did not want to hear that and made us look like fools.
Speaker 1:Armand did prove both of us wrong, because in our picks we both got proved wrong by taking Oliveira, because I'm an Oliveira stan. At the end of the day, you know I've always loved the guy. He's one of the guys that got me into the sport, just like Jude said a few times before, one of the trailblazers for us to get us into the game of MMA and cause us to be able to, in turn, have what we have now A podcast set up with a camera at us now, which is I don't know. I'm going to mention that a lot throughout this episode because that's just so cool to me. You know I've been waiting for this moment for a long time and it is here. It is a bonus. We have a camera. You can see what we're talking about. You can see our expressions from everything that we're mentioning just incredible.
Speaker 1:But there's one more fight that I want to talk about, and this one would probably be probably my third favorite fight on the card perea hill, even though it's the main event. I want to go ahead and talk about it now. We're going to kind of bounce around with this. We're not really going to follow, like the, the exact order that they went in, although that's the way we started. We're just going to kind of name out some fights and talk about how it went, and I have pariah in that. One jude, you want to talk about why you picked jamal hill?
Speaker 2:I picked jamal hill because I still believe he's a great fighter and I think he'll get back in the win columns. I think he could have been better, but he is coming off the achilles heel injury, I believe, right first fight and he recovered in 10 months. So that was something I didn't really consider and it was a bigger factor than I thought, I believe. But jamal hill because he looked he looked kind of heavy coming to that fight, a little heavier than normal. I'm not saying he's like paul acosto shape normally, but he was a little heavier than normal and I think that definitely had a factor in that fight. But it didn't matter. I mean, perea put on a great fight and jamal hill, I mean he landed a couple shots early but perea, just he's, he's such a hard puncher, so hard to stand in there and eat his shots and jamal hill couldn't do that perea really only put like one big combo on him and that's the one that finished the fight.
Speaker 1:Knocked him down while he was falling. Eyes were rolling in the back of the head. It was just incredible. Knocked him out, then gets on top of him, puts the hammer fist down. How many hammer fists would you have said that was? I was watching and I'm counting and I'll lose count at 15.
Speaker 2:It was a lot.
Speaker 1:So he really got defended. He was chasing something big because all the stuff Sweet Dreams was talking and all the smack going on. And speaking of smack talk, I got one thing to say here I had a way better outing on the picks in this particular outing with UFC 300 than what you did. Do you have an explanation for the people watching right now? G? As to why you have no idea what the hell you're talking about.
Speaker 2:So one of the Instagram pics. First off, we can put the gloves on, do it ourselves, and I'll be. I'm going to win. I'm going to win easy. I'm going to jump, gilly, and I'm going to choke you out, but I mean if I want to, but I mean if I want to. So no one of the picks on Instagram. In all defense, I had a little brain fart and I wasn't paying attention and it was the Andrade fight.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that is true, Okay.
Speaker 2:I do remember that you picked it on the podcast. On the podcast I picked right and I wasn't paying attention and I just lapsed the judgment, accidentally, put it on the wrong person. But sometimes fights don't go how you think they will and stuff happens. You know, this wasn't my greatest outing, probably one of my worst outings in a while. So hopefully I can bounce back with the UFC 301 and UFC 302. And I think I'm going to be very right on UFC 302, by the way. Right, yeah, I'm looking forward to 302.
Speaker 1:Think I'm going to be very right on UFC 302, by the way, right, yeah, I'm looking forward to 302, because that's going to be crazy. Hopefully, jude and I will be in attendance. We're trying to work it out right now to make it out there to Newark, new Jersey, and make a little trip, make a little weekend binge out there in the Jersey, on the Jersey Shore, I suppose. Whatever people be talking about whenever they say stuff about that, I don't really know what it means.
Speaker 2:I might have just cut somebody out or something, I don't know.
Speaker 1:But no, the next fight that I wanted to. Actually, it's your turn, Go ahead. What's the next fight you wanted to talk about?
Speaker 2:Let's see we can go Holloway-Gaethje. Let's save that, let's save that. So we'll just go. Bo Nickel, cody Brundage and I think that Cody Brundage, honestly, he still impressed me. Like I said, I thought that he would put on a fight. He really did look good early in the fight and then Bo Nickel kind of used his wrestling to get the fight finished. Bo Nickel still looks great and Cody Brundage's defense. I think Cody's going to be a great fighter, but it wasn't fair for him to be matched up with Bo Nickel and it's not fair for any of these guys to be matched up with Bo Nickel. Give him a real fighter. Give him Hamzat right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, him and Hamzat definitely have to fight at some point. Hamzat Whitaker is going to be a great fight because homzat's what? Is he? 13 and 0 or 17? I think he's 17 yeah, he's ridiculous guy's an absolute beast. I don't know. I don't know how that fight's going to pan out. We'll talk about it more when, towards june 22nd, on that fight night date in saudi arabia. Right, it's where that one yes, I believe so, yeah, that's gonna, that's gonna be an electric fine card.
Speaker 1:It's gonna be really electric, because we're probably going to have to wake up at 10 am to watch it For real. It's going to start my day off A-okay. I can't complain about that myself personally, but the next fight that I would like to talk about would be Jiri for Hoska versus Alexander.
Speaker 2:Rock Another great fight, another great fight.
Speaker 1:I had Jiri, jude also had jiri, jude also had jiri. So we didn't disagree with that one. I am kind of glad that within our picks there was some little in-house disagreement, you know, for us because that made it a little easier to talk about whenever it got time for the recap episode. So you know, maybe we'll be able to get into some more of those after a while, like, like, such as holloway gate you here in a little bit. We'll get to talking about that one, but we'll save that for the end because our predictions were absolutely well, my predictions were absolutely right for it. But we'll get to that later.
Speaker 2:Jiri prahoshka man, yeah, animal and uh rockage looked really good in that fight, though he was landing way more shots than jiri, and there's a moment there where I was like man, jiri, jiri. He better be careful, because this could end soon if he just keeps landing them and jiri's starting to turn red. There's some shots landed, then out of nowhere, it's like jiri just catches gear and he starts landing some shots. He pressures them, gets them up against the fence and next thing you know, jiri's walking away with the knockout right like he does so, does so so many times.
Speaker 2:I mean, that's just the fighter he is.
Speaker 1:So the question that I've been thinking about for a while I was like what's next for jury? And I'll get, I'll get back and talk about the jury fight and stuff, but what do you think is next for jury? Who's? Who's the next opponent going to be? I know he's not the most active fighter like we spoke about in the preview, but I don't know. I would like to maybe see a rematch with Perea, Maybe, but maybe not now. I think Jiri maybe needs one more fight in there against somebody that's a top contender. I don't really know which fighter we'd be looking at.
Speaker 1:Who do you have in mind for that?
Speaker 2:I would like to see Jiri Jamal Hill go and winner get the rematch with perea. Both those guys had some decent moments in those fights and I think that they're. They could potentially beat perea at a point. But perez right now he's on a whole nother level and every fight he comes back and just like izzy when izzy had his run, it's like every time he comes back it's like I didn't know he could get better and then he gets better. So I'd like to see jamal hiljiri and then winter get the rematch. But there's so many other guys in the light heavyweight division that could deserve a title shot, so I wouldn't be mad to see anybody face perea right, light heavyweight is absolutely stacked right now.
Speaker 1:But what fight do you have next on your radar?
Speaker 2:Let's see which ones have we talked about so far. We've talked about Harrison Holmes. Obviously, I could go Gaethje Holloway, but I don't want to go straight in. I wanted to save that for the final.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we're going to find that it's going to be a whole 10-minute conversation we can go.
Speaker 2:Zhang Weili versus Jan. I thought Jan won that fight personally.
Speaker 1:As did I.
Speaker 2:I feel like they just gave it to Zhang because it was close enough to where you could justify giving it to the champion. But Jan held her on the ground so much that fight and was able to just ground and pound her and I felt like she landed more strikes. I felt like in my opinion, I slightly give the edge and a split decision to yan and they gave a unanimous decision to zhang weili yeah, I don't know how that one was unanimous.
Speaker 1:Personally, the only the only thing that really came out and kind of like came to mind for me on that fight for sure, at the end of that first round Yan was literally sleeping. She was asleep on the canvas Like choked her out cold. Zhang Weili did. Zhang Weili absolutely had her out, but somehow the ref didn't stop it, so ended up getting dragged out a little bit longer than what I thought it should have. Still, zhang weili ended up winning, which jude and I have predicted, although yan did have an incredible fight there yeah, definitely, for sure I could.
Speaker 2:I could have. I wouldn't have been mad if they gave it to weili. I still don't see the unanimous decision. I just don't understand how they came to that conclusion. But I can see zhang weili or yan winning that fight. I just don't see it.
Speaker 1:Unanimous should have been split for sure right, so we'll save holloway gaethje for towards the end of the episode and recap that just because that's the craziest ufc moment that I've as a fan of this sport for the last probably three, four, five years or so. That's the craziest moment I've ever seen watching it. It was ridiculous.
Speaker 2:Great fight.
Speaker 1:But I mean, I'm excited to get into that, but meanwhile there was something that you brought up earlier and I think we have to speak on, and that's UFC 302. Some of our predictions like way too early, Like we'll get into it, of course, whenever the time comes and we're closer to that event, but I kind of would like to go ahead and get some like early prediction out for it all right.
Speaker 2:well, I'm down for that. But one more thing before we leave you ufc 300. I just want to put this out there diego lopez insane performance by diego lopez. I'm sorry I disrespected that guy, absolute beast. I went back and watched some more of his fights. That was my fault, my fault, lack of judgment by me. I shouldn't have judged him so hard, diego Lopez, you go back and watch his fights and it's like why is this guy not more talked about? I mean, he could definitely run the featherweight division and he looks like he's starting to hit a point in his career where he could be reaching that high.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean he's also still really young as well. He's got a really high ceiling. He's not even into his prime yet and he's fighting like a fighter. That's been in his prime for the last few years.
Speaker 2:He's been running this thing and you've got to love his hairdo the. And you got to love his hairdo, the mullet, yeah, the mullet's absolutely ridiculous.
Speaker 1:But speaking of 300, there's one fight that I absolutely skipped over. Somehow, jalen Turner knocked down Moikano and walks off with his hands up like this, like he just did something. It's crazy.
Speaker 1:And didn't even finish the fight, the ref didn't say it was over, he didn't call the fight, no stoppage, no, anything like that, and you just turn around and walk it off Like you're not that guy pal. And then in turn, the next round rolls around and you get ground and pounded out of the octagon on UFC 300 when you had the KO Easy money.
Speaker 2:I think Jalen Turner, should he have threw some hammer fists in with the fight, probably he would have won for sure. He definitely had it where he wanted it. He just needed to throw some hammer fists and Makano would have been out. But I can't blame him, because when he landed I thought that was over. I thought the ref was going to stop it right there. But you know, you got to be sure you can't just walk away.
Speaker 1:It was a flush shot, but still he wasn't out on the way down. The Jamal Hill fight almost could have got called when Jamal was on the way down because his eyes were in the back of his head. Moikano just got knocked down. He was ready to get back up already as soon as he hit the canvas. There wasn't that option for Jamal Hill, but that fight went on to some hammer fists and Jalen Turner just throws his hands up Like he.
Speaker 1:I mean sure you just knocked the guy down towards the end of the first round, but what happened midway through the second round? He gets on top of you, he gets ground control and he hammer fist you until you can't see anymore. You can't just showboat when you get a knockdown. This isn't boxing. This is not the Ryan Garcia fight that you did not watch last night.
Speaker 1:When you knock somebody down in the UFC and the ref does not say it's over, get on him and get the finish, even if he's a better wrestler than you. If you stun him, good enough, like the way Jalen Turner did, you have got to get down there and you've got to get some hammer fist in. And I'm no mma coach or not, I am an expert. I like to think actually let me not even say that I'm not, I'm deaf certainly an expert, but you have to get the you don't even have. It doesn't have to be a hammer fist, you just got to get on top of them and ground and pound. When you got them on the ground, like you, the hard work was already done yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I don't know what to say on it. Uh, definitely could have. Could have been handled better by jaylen turner. There's no doubt about that right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know it was. I don't, I don't know it really upset me. It really did upset me, mostly just because I had jaylen turner as a pick and that was like my third one to go wrong on the entire card. I think I got every card on every fight on the main card right, except olivera, though.
Speaker 2:Yeah that fight was still and armand got. He got choked out by the guillotine and got out of it and then at the end of the fight he's about to go to sleep and somehow stays awake. I have no problem with admitting that was a great fight. I thought that that was going to be the fight of the night after I saw that one, but obviously it wasn't. But um, armand really put on a show with his submission defense. I I didn't. I've never seen somebody with such good submission defense in that fight or in a fight ever. So it's insane.
Speaker 1:Especially not from Charles Oliveira's submission.
Speaker 1:Because you and I both said I mean, and you apologized for it already in this episode. You and I both said if Charles Oliveira gets your back or if he gets you in any type of choke or any type of submission attempt, you might as well tap before he even gets all the way locked in, because you're going to sleep. Charles literally had him so locked at the end of the third round he was sticking his tongue out. He thought he had put him to sleep, and then Armand just gets up after being in a ghillie for the past. What was it like? 15 seconds?
Speaker 2:The last 15 seconds of the fight or so.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was like 30, 40 seconds. How are you not?
Speaker 2:sleeping. The ref's picking his hand up and he's putting his thumb up. Right, he's like I'm fine. It's like he had an oxygen tank on. I don't know.
Speaker 1:I have no idea. That was ridiculous, though Ridiculous, but I just mentioned something that I do want to talk about. Ridiculous, but I just mentioned something that I do want to talk about, although we don't typically talk about this aspect of combat sports. Garcia Haney was just a. That was a great boxing fight Lesson.
Speaker 1:And the point deduction was stupid. I don't like how much they just kept holding each other in the clinch, because in boxing you can't do anything from there. It's not like the UFC, where you can go into the clinch, sweep that right leg underneath somebody and take them down to the ground and put them in an arm bar ground and pound their ass out of the octagon and come sit on the outside of the octagon.
Speaker 2:There's a reason why I like UFC and I don't like boxing. We're already talking about fight of the year and boxing. That looked like I went to a high school home coming dance. That's what that match looked like. I'm just watching them hold and dance around in the ring. They're holding each other. They might even gave each other a kiss at a point I don't know. That's all it was. To me it just looked like he was going to be a chaperone at the high school dance, Like you would have to pay me to go to Ryan Garcia or Devin Haney or a boxing match in general. Boxing is a boring sport and that's why the UFC and MMA is so much better. I don't want to watch a high school dance. I want to watch a beatdown.
Speaker 1:I'm going to leave a moment of silence right there. We're going to keep that silence in there for the sport of boxing, because it's super unfortunate how prominent of a sport it once was during the Tyson days, the Ali days, even. It once was during the tyson days, the holly days, even some, even some would say during the mayweather era and pacquiao era. But even from there, just just what eight to ten years ago, that's the sport has has went from here to here it and mma has just been straight up like and it's on a steady rise. Like I was just watching a 300 clip 3.2 million social media followers gained for the ufc from one event.
Speaker 1:One event how many hours that is of that of your life? What? Like six and a half, seven hours yeah, that's how long 300 went for, which is probably going to be one of the longest events that you're going to see. Just because it was such a crazy event. There was three, five round fights still, though, all in all, like boxing has just been on a steady down climb and ufc and mma as a whole has just been straight up like it's just on a whole nother level of combat sports, but I did enjoy getting to see devin haney get knocked down three times yeah, and me and charleston talked about that.
Speaker 2:I wish I kind of wish we did preview that fight, because we both said garcia was playing a part all the way through and haney said after a fight you saw it in the first round haney came out like it was a joke and, um, garcia was playing that, he played gar. He played him like a video game. Garcia did so. Haney wasn't expecting garcia to come out in shape or whatever after all the annex and he did and he caught him by surprise. And next thing, you know, haney's in a fight and he's and it's too late to come back and he tries to get some stuff going, but he just didn't prepare good enough. And as simple as that probably will be another fight at some point, hopefully slept on.
Speaker 1:Yeah, everybody slept on ryan garcia I didn't no, you both didn't. Actually, as a matter of fact, I can't say it was all me, I mean, but for the last few weeks I've been thinking like okay, like what if garcia does beat this dude down? And that happened, that is exactly what happened.
Speaker 2:And then he toyed with him at the end, the little dances and everything. Yeah, he was hitting a snaky leg in the ring bro.
Speaker 1:That was crazy, that was wild Like I don't know. It was an interesting fight, Very interesting buildup to the fight Betting $500,000 per pound on yourself to not be over and then finishing out three pounds or 3.2 pounds over, while chugginga beer on the scale is I mean to be fair.
Speaker 2:He sold the fight well no, he had a great lead up to it.
Speaker 1:You know, although it's boxing and it's not as prominent of a sport as mma, he sold the fight very well and he convinced me and jude, at least, to be able to watch it you know, yeah, because I wouldn't watch a.
Speaker 2:That's probably my first boxing match. I've watched three, four years, so right.
Speaker 1:I think the last time I really sat down and watched boxing was uh, I don't. I don't remember who he was fighting, but it was the last terrence crawford fight, because I am a terrence crawford fan. He goes for knockouts. He don't play that clench and grab shit like he's not about that. Like he he wants, he wants to ko. He's a headhunter and that's what I like to see. Like jude said, you know I like to see b downs, and boxing doesn't have very many guys that do that anymore. So that's mostly why we have a ufc podcast and not a boxing podcast, because boxing is not on the same level.
Speaker 2:You wanted to preview UFC 302, huh 302. Let's talk about it.
Speaker 1:So we're going to start with the co-main, it's going to be the first thing we're going to talk about Strickland Costa. That's going to be a five-round fight. I know you and I kind of had different opinions on this, so I'll go ahead and give mine. I think Strickland wins by championship round, ko. Whether it be in the fourth or the fifth, I think that's where strickland wins, the reason being strickland is a low output first two round fighter and then some. Well, first one and a half rounds he's very low output rather and then after that he starts to increase the output, whereas paula costa gasses himself out in the first round and a half, two rounds so going to those championship rounds is somewhere paula costa hasn't been, so that's why I think sean strickland late round ko, whether it be the fourth or the fifth, I can't tell you.
Speaker 1:Like I said, this is the way too early predictions. We'll check them out at the press conference and stuff. See how these guys are talking, because they're two great, great athletes on the mic. I love watching the way they build fights, so I'm excited for those ones, yeah, and I could see this fight going either way.
Speaker 2:For sure, sean strickland does a good job fighting behind the jab on. Paul costo uses body kicks and and leg kicks oftentimes and he's definitely got the power in the hooks. I don't believe paul acosta gases out like most people say. I think that he's got incredible stamina. Look at the guy. I mean incredible shape. He's so hard to hurt too. He's so hard to hurt.
Speaker 2:You watched him and the whittaker fight and he's just eating leg kicks. His legs just brown. It is rotten at that point and he's just sticking his tongue out to him with robert whittaker. So it's so hard to fight a guy like paulo costa because it's like he does not show. He's got such a good poker face. He doesn't show the damage. It's easy to get frustrated. So I could really see this going either way, but sean strickland always going to do a really good job fighting behind the jab. He does fight with the Philly shell defense and I believe that could leave him open to some body kicks. So I think Paul Acosta will do a good job targeting the body and he will do more damage to Sean Strickland's body than anybody has done before.
Speaker 1:Wow, what a take. Very good explanation as to why as well. I'll give you that, and I gave my side of the story. You've made your case and you said it could go either way, so you got to give us something here. You can't just leave us on the edge. Which one do you have? Which guy do you have, man?
Speaker 2:I love Sean Strickland, but I also love Paula Costo. Both these guys are not afraid to say what they think.
Speaker 1:You're hilarious guys. These both are legitimately my two favorite middleweight fighters. It's kind of sad to see them fight honestly.
Speaker 2:Man. It's such a tough fight to pick, but I have to go with Sean Strickland. I can't go against America. I can't go against the USA. I got to go Sean Strickland here. So Sean all the way, even though maybe in the back of my head I may be thinking Paul Acosta. But we'll see. They fight for a reason.
Speaker 1:It's going to be a good one. That's going to be a fun fight. I don't think it's going to be the fight. We're going to talk about two fights from now, as great as that one was, but next up, dustin the Diamond Poirier versus Islam Makachev that one's going to be crazy. And Poirier by jumping Gilly. I don't think any explanation is needed. I'll give after Jude has what he has to say, but I'll let you know. I think Poirier is going to jump the Gilly and get it on Islam.
Speaker 2:You know I could see Poirier by Gilly, just because I want to see him. By that I could definitely see. I'm not going to say Islam because I'm very biased in this, so you do not want to listen to me at all in this. This is the most biased pick I'm probably ever going to make in the history of this podcast. Ever throughout this podcast. It doesn't matter two years, three years from now, it's going to be the most biased pickup I will ever make. Big Dustin Poirier guy. Of course he's from Louisiana. I want to see Louisiana take on that belt again, baby. So I'm going to say Dustin Poirier is going to be on the bottom. So you already know that I feel like Islam will be on the top at some point. I'm going to say he's going to. I'm going to say he's going to isolate arm during a transition. He's going to isolate arm Dustin Poirier by arm bar.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:I don't think Islam can take him on the feet. I think he's honestly going to beat Islam on the feet. Islam's going to go for takedowns. He's not going to be able to defend him. He'll wind up on the bottom and I can see him isolating an arm, winning by submission. If you're going to go Poirier, I feel like you have to go Poirier by some type of means, like that I don dominate this fight, or nothing.
Speaker 1:Poirier's not. If it goes to decision, poirier's not going to win. But I'll build off of what Jude said a moment ago this is going to be the most biased pick in the history of outside the octagon. You're never going to see one like this. I'm all the way, dustin Poirier, because of course I mean. You see it here, you know you get the cup there. Louisiana guys, man, that's what we root for. That's where we're from. It's kind of like the hometown team. You know, like as bad as I hate to say it, as bad as we suck, I'm a New Orleans Saints fan. When it comes down to the NFL, we're not good. I hate it, but that's my hometown team. You've seen the last video episode that we did with Liz Karmouche I, but that's my hometown team. You've seen the last video episode that we did with Liz Karmouche? I have my Astros jersey on. We sucked this year, but they're still my hometown team there's plenty of time for them to come back.
Speaker 2:And speaking of hometown team, Dana White, you better put Kurt Hollibaugh on this card. We need two Louisiana guys on this card. Kurt Hollibaugh at UFC 302, or I'm going to lull you up myself.
Speaker 1:At 302, or I'm gonna wall you up myself at 302 or 303. Either would be great. Get Kurt Holliball back on the cards. Yes, sir, absolutely ultimate fighter winner. Hopefully one day we'll be able to get the opportunity to speak with him on the outside the octagon podcast. Only time will tell, though. But like I said, if it goes the to the decision, islam wins. I think that's undoubtable in anybody's mind. I really just I think Poirier could even knock him out if it stays on the feet. I think that's not impossible. I think it's possible for sure.
Speaker 2:I mean, poirier has got that one punch power. He's fighting South Paul too. A lot of people don't talk about that. He fights South Paul, but he is a righty, so he's constantly pawing at you with that right hand with some power shots Insanely big back. That's where your power is going to come from. No-transcript. Yeah, I said that wrong. He's pawing at you with the jab, so he's got a more powerful jab than most guys.
Speaker 1:I said that wrong, my fault you get it all as well, but this is the one we've been waiting for. This is the one if you watch 300, you've been waiting to hear us talk about holloway versus gate g. Jude had it wrong. I didn't necessarily have it completely right, just because that finish is the most ridiculous finish I've ever seen in my life. I had Holloway to win, jude had Gaethje to win. A lot of people doubted Max Holloway, a lot of people weren't big on him, a lot of people weren't on the hype, a lot of people forgot who Max Holloway was in this situation. And then, with 10 seconds left, well, honestly, in the first round he breaks Gaethje's nose. So you knew something was up there and you realize, okay, holloway might be that guy. Then you proceed to go on through the fight and then realize, okay, justin Gaethje's got a broken nose, but he's still in it in the fourth round. And then Gaethje tags him up with that good left one time and it looked to me like he knocked down Holloway for Holloway's first knockdown?
Speaker 1:Definitely knocked down. According to the scorecards it was not a knockdown, which is I don't know. It's kind of borderline with me, I don't really know how I feel about it. I think it could have been. But it's also kind of like the O'Malley-Vera fight. I think Sean might have knocked him down that one time, but they called that a slip. They called the Holloway when a slip. I think they were both pretty set feet yeah, I think that was knocked down.
Speaker 2:Holloway was definitely a knockdown, in my opinion, it is just it is just an insane record to hold up yeah but before we get into what happened in the fight, why did you have Justin Gaethje?
Speaker 2:like just remind us why you had Justin so I had just engaged you because max holloway's tried to come up to lightweight before and he hasn't looked as healthy trying to trying to make it up to lightweight. He still looks like a featherweight guy. So he he struggled coming up to lightweight to put on that muscle and to fill in this frame. So we've never seen and that's one thing if you go look at his fights at lightweight against Poirier and who's the other guy he fought at lightweight?
Speaker 1:At lightweight.
Speaker 2:He's fought three times at lightweight right.
Speaker 1:No, I'm not too sure who he fought before.
Speaker 2:And his other fights, though, at lightweight regardless, you can go back and look. He's never looked that filled in, and this fight he looked like a lightweight fighter. He filled in his frame, he looked good, he looked hydrated. He's never looked that good at lightweight, so I understand why he looks so much better in this fight than his other lightweight fights. He looks like a lightweight guy now. He looks like he could go contend with the best lightweights in the world. So, but it was a great fight all the way around. We wasn't completely wrong. We predict the fight of the night on that one yeah, we had fight of the night.
Speaker 1:That's why we saved it for last, and obviously everybody knew bmf belts on the line.
Speaker 2:Two bad guys. No way that it don't end the knockout, which I thought it was gonna end the decision, because they would be kind of, you know, filling each other out a lot of the fight. Great job by max holloway, the spinning body kicks and he was laying on the gaichi's head. Gaichi kept going low throughout the whole fight and I don't see how his corner didn't see that and tell him look, you gotta stop going low, because every time he was ducking low, holloway's throwing a spinning kick to the body and it caught him multiple times. That's what broke his nose in the first round. At the end of it, final seconds, he tries to throw the spinning body kick and gaethje ducked straight into it and then the cut man did an absolutely great job. And round three, round two he's blowing blood out his nose and was struggling to breathe.
Speaker 2:Round three, gaethje's cut had. Cut man did a great job and so he was able to breathe again. No blood's coming out and he gets back in the fight and he's got holloway on the ropes. He's winning the third round, probably, in my opinion, fourth round, he, he's. He looks good and and he's in the fight again round five. You can just see Holloway just did too much damage to the nose and he couldn't take it anymore. Great job by.
Speaker 2:Gaethje though.
Speaker 1:How about those last ten seconds, dude? You see Holloway right here. It's all right here. Leave it. In the center of his octagon. Mark Goddard literally screamed like oh, whatever the knockout happened, everybody was just shook Israel, adesanya, jaw drop. The only person that wasn't shook by it was Ilya, because I think it scared the shit out of him.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Because Ilya has to fight Max Holloway next. There's no doubt about it, and I think cmx holloway, go to the center of the octagon, do this with 10 seconds left with the guy who at the time was the bmf and still is a bmf in my opinion might not be the, but he is a to just go in the center of the octagon, point down at it and go with the last 10 seconds and throw him nonstop, just let him have it. That was just ridiculous to see, I thought Gaethje died.
Speaker 2:I thought he was dead after that. That's the most brutal knockout, probably since the Josh Emmett knockout on Bryce Mitchell.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, that was brutal, that was scary. I remember my dad called me me and he's like what just happened in that fight? I missed it. I was walking back to my room or whatever and I was like man, I was like you missed it for sure. I was like, and then jude calls me and jude's like because I had walked out right after the knockout to tell my dad what had happened. Jude calls me yo man, I think gaethje's dead, so I go back in. I go back in there and he's still laying down. This is like probably four or five minutes after the knockout. It was just, it was brutal, incredible fight.
Speaker 1:Max holloway max holloway is the bmf, he's a blessed man forever and like he was screaming at the end of that during the during during the post fight interview with Joe Rogan. I'm him, you guys, I am him and he was right. He is him, get down. And I guess that's pretty much a wrap. I mean we covered all we had to cover in this one. We recapped all 300, all the fights that really stood out to me and everything you know. I thought there was a lot of great fights on the card. I think we covered all the great fights, said what we had to say about them. Jude, how'd you feel about the fights and the card as a whole?
Speaker 2:no, usc 300 did not disappoint these cards. They just keep getting better. Usc mma as a whole keeps on getting better. We'll have plenty more for you coming in future episodes and hopefully, like the UFC, we're going to continue to grow and get better Right.
Speaker 1:Steady rise here. Steady rise here, boys. Thank you for watching, brother. Yes, sir, no, I can't steal that from that guy. I'm going to leave that in there, but what a legend Sketch is.
Speaker 2:Hopefully we can have Sketch talk about the ufc one day with us. Yeah, how cool would that shit be? Just in a whole, we got plenty of cool guests and in this podcast. Just stay with us, because I promise you it's going to get so much better and it's going to blow right a lot of room to grow.
Speaker 1:First camera episode. This is great. It's been great, very grateful to have you by my side again here, jude. Thank you for being here, buddy as always. And that does it for the third out outside the octagon episode and thank you, guys, for listening. Thank you for being here. Follow us on instagram at outside the octagon pod underscore and subscribe to the youtube channel if you're watching this with video for the first time.
