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
UFC 302 Recap
Give us your thoughts on the episode here!
Ever wondered what it takes to rise through the ranks in the UFC's women's flyweight division? Tune in as we share our exhilarating recap of an exclusive interview with Miranda Maverick, currently holding the 16th spot. Her tales of grit and tenacity offer a fascinating glimpse into the life of a fighter with championship potential, providing invaluable insights for every MMA enthusiast. Trust us, this is one conversation you don't want to miss!
Prepare yourself for an adrenaline-packed discussion on UFC Fight Night, spotlighting Kevin Holland's jaw-dropping arm bar submission against Oljasek, and his unforgettable encounter with former President Trump. We also delve into the future of the middleweight division, analyzing possible matchups like Drikus Du Plessis versus Israel Adesanya, and reflecting on the resilience of stalwarts such as Gaethje, Adesanya, and Volkanovski. Plus, we shed light on Dustin Poirier's remarkable yet tumultuous career. This episode is brimming with action, analysis, and admiration for the sport's greatest warriors!
surprise, the king is back. Oh man, I love the sound and you know what that sound brings in. Don't you jude that?
Speaker 1:rolls in another episode of the outside the octagon podcast. This is episode eight for the people that are going to be listening on spotify and wherever else you get your podcast. Episode nine for our people that watch over on YouTube, because we did drop that YouTube-only special for our UFC June predictions. If you haven't already go check that out, I'll try to attach the link to that in the bio. Before we get any farther, though, before we get too far and start talking about the most recent episode we did. I'm your host of this outside the octagon podcast thing. We got going here. Charleston pain to my left. I've said it before the goat, the greatest of all time at this co-host stuff. The goat co-host of mma media, of all media, of all multimedia. Right here you're looking at him. Mr jude starms. Jude, I'm glad to have you back over here with me again bud.
Speaker 2:Yes, sir, it's always great to be on this podcast, really fun to do. I appreciate all the support from the fans. If you're listening on Spotify, if you're listening on YouTube, doesn't matter to me. Love the support, you hate us, I don. Still love the support. If you are listening on spotify, I do suggest tune into our video episodes on youtube.
Speaker 1:just adds a little more spice to the episodes, right? Yeah, I totally agree. And speaking of spice, that brings me to the next thing I'm very excited to talk to you guys about. In our most recent episode that we were able to do, we were able to have an incredible guest with us, miss miranda maverick. She's number 16th ranked women's flyweight fighter in the world. Incredible fighter, incredible person, incredible guest, incredible stories. We had some great questions lined up for her. I think the episode went very well. If you guys would be so kind to just go back to that last episode, check it out, leave a thumbs up, of course, I think it was an incredible episode. Jude, what did you think about the episode?
Speaker 2:I thought it was an incredible episode. Jude, what did you think about the episode? I thought it was absolutely great. She was really cool to talk to. I suggest you go watch it. Just an awesome person in general Made some connections during that episode that we're going to bring up here shortly. But Miranda Maverick. She may not be your favorite fighter you may not know the name right now, but you will very soon because I believe she's going to hold that belt in the future of women's fighting I can absolutely see it.
Speaker 1:I mean, I see it right now, bro. I mean it's going to be awesome. But before we get any farther, we have our first sponsorship to share with you guys. If you're watching on youtube, I'll show you what we have right here. We have the spicy dill prowler pickles right there. You're looking at it. I mean, tell me that jar doesn't just look incredible. The pickles, you know I'll give you a little little view of them. You know they look great, taste great, very incredible. They're awesome, quite spicy. I'll tell you that the spicy dill is quite spicy and if you're not a very big spice person, there are 11 other flavors to choose from. So, like, how could it get any better? You know you get pretty much unlimited flavors. There's shirts to go choose from, got all the pickles, got pickled juice, you know for like cramps and stuff like that.
Speaker 1:Very great thing, very great thing you can go order a jar of pickled juice of whichever flavor you like, and when you go order I'll tell you what we did for you guys. We got a discount code it's all caps, oto10. Again, all capital letters OTO10 for 10% off of your first order from Prowler Pickle Company. Thank you so much, miranda, for allowing us to have this opportunity. You know, I mean I'm super excited to see what it could do for both brands. I'm excited to see it build, excited to see it grow and excited to get some more of these pickles. You know, probably by two weeks from now, I'd say, jude and I will have the complete sample pack in and we're going to be trying every flavor and just do a special YouTube video of us just trying every flavor from our new sponsor. I mean, what do you have to say about it? Isn't this just incredible?
Speaker 2:that we have this opportunity. It's definitely awesome. I'm grateful for the opportunity. I'm grateful for the sponsorship. We're not lying to you guys, it's not just for the sponsorship. I'm not a big pickle person myself the spicy ones got some kick to it but they are very good pickles. I think that they may be the best on the market. Matter of fact, I don't think I know that they're the best on the market. Like he said, use code ot o10 to get right and the website to go to.
Speaker 1:We'll put it right over max holloway and we'll leave it up for a little while with our discount code. The website is wwwprowlerpicklescom again wwwprowlerpicklescom. Great pickles, great selection of different things to choose from. Go check them out. All caps oto10 will be our discount code. Use that at checkout, get your 10 off, get your pickles and let us know what you think about them in the comments in a future video. But with that being said, I think we got some good things to talk about today for today's episode. You know, we kind of recapped a little bit about what we talked about in the last few to open this one up.
Speaker 2:I think this one has some potential to be an incredible episode I think every single episode we do has potential to be an incredible episode. Speaking of the miranda episode, if you don't know fighting, if you don't know fighting, if you don't know the technicalities, you don't necessarily know everything. When we interview these fighters, it's not just to talk fighting. We like to talk about how they get into fighting and what they did growing up and what brought them to the sport, and here's some amazing stories from them. So I suggest you tune in.
Speaker 1:Right, absolutely. I mean, it was a great episode. A lot of different topics covered other than just fighting. You know, obviously we talked about the pickle company. We talked about fear of the maverickcom where she sells her merch with autographs and stuff like that. We covered all that in the episodes. Just go check that back out, you guys. But before we get any farther, today we're going to be recapping UFC 302. And, quite frankly, you know I had to take a couple days off this week for emotional recovery days because I need the emotional recovery. It's going to be hard for me not to cry whenever we get down to the end of this list of what we got to go over today. That was a heartbreaker man, there's no doubt I'm not actually going to go over today.
Speaker 2:That was a heartbreaker van there's no doubt I'm not actually gonna cry, but it was a heartbreaker and I'm not gonna lie, 302, not just because of what we're gonna talk about, but it was kind of disappointing. A lot of decisions in it, a lot of splits and a lot of unanimous and, uh, nobody loves the decision except bahal muhammad and then so you know, it was a little disappointing, it was a little let down, but when you have so many cards stacked that's gonna happen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I don't even think it's the fact that the card for 302 wasn't stacked, because in my opinion the fighters within that card were great. But when you look at the entirety of the card and I'm scrolling through right now just to double check and make sure I'm right about this, which I already know I am there wasn't a single knockout. No tko, no ko. I mean, there's going to be some missions that we're going to talk about that were pretty neat, pretty cool to see as we get farther on in the episode here. But no knockouts is crazy. For the entirety of a UFC card, nobody gets chinned yeah, man, damn, like I said, it just could have.
Speaker 2:Everybody loves a knockout. If we could have just got one, it would have made the card that much better yeah, I mean it would have put the card on a whole another level.
Speaker 1:But we're going to start with some of the prelims. We're going to cover a couple of those move on into the main card. We're going to start with some of the prelims. We're going to cover a couple of those move on into the main card. We're going to cover that, recap some of those fights and if there's a little time, at the end we might just, you know, talk a little bit more about some future fights, kind of like we did in the last episode of our June predictions. I would say so. The first fight I wanted to talk about and we'll just kind of move in order from this point I got Jelton Almeida versus Alexander Romanov. I had Almeida to win. I believe you as well did.
Speaker 1:One thing that impressed me about that fight is watching multiple Jelton Almeida fights previous to that one. I've noticed something about him Before this fight. He was kind of like Leon Edwards as the champ. He was allergic Like. I swear to you, bro, he would get a reaction If he was about to finish you. He had to stop. He could not stop a fight ever. He would just decision. You're a heavyweight and you decision people until there's nothing left to do. And then he comes in and he gets the first round sub against Alexander Romanov. I mean, I think it was a great performance by jailton, you know. I think he moved around the octagon really well, grappled really well, wrestled really well, set himself up really well and got that submission, which was pretty awesome to see because not a lot of people were really expecting that yeah, and the fight didn't last very long at all, so that was a really fun fight to watch.
Speaker 2:I'm cool with watching people on the ground and and get submissions and stuff. There was only, like I think, seven punches and kicks thrown in the whole fight. It only went two minutes 27 seconds, but it was a beautiful rear naked choke. I love to see the rear naked choke. It's always fun to watch a guy finish somebody from whoa no diddy, but from the rear naked choke position, whoa pause I wish I had the soundboard set up right.
Speaker 1:I've been able to put the record scratch on there. Let me go ahead and set it up, because I'm sure we'll have another moment at some point. You know it's quite typical of us. That's still not it all right whatever dude. If that's not it, it'll be all right, whatever dude uh, I'm leaving that in there, just because raw and cut that I mean like diddy that the deal, the deal shout out, was crazy.
Speaker 2:That was uncut and unblend, that was nice whenever you said we got something spicy and I was like you damn right, we do.
Speaker 1:I didn't even realize that was tough, like I knew you weren't going for the setup, but it worked out. Perfect, it worked out, man. I mean, jailton almeida got that set up and got the sub. But that'll lead us right into the next fight, cesar Almeida versus Roman Kopilov. Cesar Almeida got absolutely fraud-checked in my opinion. I mean, he was 5-0 going into this fight. Nobody thought Roman Kopilov was going to win, other than me, and I think did you have Kopilov?
Speaker 2:I think I picked Roman. Yeah, yeah, I think so.
Speaker 1:So I mean, Jude and I were damn near the only people in MMA media that I had seen that actually had Roman Kapilov winning that fight. I had him through and through. I knew from watching Rebellious a couple weeks ago. You know fraud checks are kind of real, you know, especially when you fight a guy like Roman Kapilov, who's got one of the most like I think he's top five for most knockouts in middleweight history, if I'm not mistaken.
Speaker 2:And that's what I was going to say. It's hard to pick against a guy In 2023,. He had three straight knockouts in the second round. He's not like a one-punch guy, but he just wears it to the chin and usually by the second round you just can't take his punches anymore. Right.
Speaker 1:I mean he knocked him down. I mean they only credited him with one knockdown of Cesar Almeida I thought that there was two or three that could have been scored a knockdown, because I mean he dropped them a couple of times. It looked like to me, but you never know what they count as knockdowns these days. I mean hell we'll talk about it later but the judges suck in MMA.
Speaker 2:The judges suck.
Speaker 1:Like they need to drug test all them SOBs, bro, Like because they're not good, or find a new job, find a new line of work. The next fight was a unanimous decision, kind of almost a Borg fight, a little bit Randy Brown versus Elias Zaleski Dos Santos. Not really the way I wanted it to go. I had Randy Brown. It went that way, you know. So I got the prediction right as far as my prediction card, that Jude and I did, and I believe Jude did as well, but it just wasn't all that interesting. You know, I don't even think it's even worth spending time on that fight. Do you have anything? You?
Speaker 2:want to say about it. I mean, the only thing I have to say is overall, significant, significant, strikes-wise Randy Brown 67 to Dos Santos 26. I mean, it was a pretty one-sided decision. The only thing you can really say is Dos Santos wouldn't go down. I mean, that's the only thing you can say. He was tough in that fight. Yeah, he was very tough.
Speaker 1:I mean Nico Price, alex Morona, the next fight. Don't even really have a whole lot to say about that one. I mean, I don't know if you got anything that you'd like to talk about.
Speaker 2:They threw a lot of shots, but none of them really looked like power punches, like it didn't really look like anybody was really getting hurt in that one mean, like you said, that there was not really too much on on the. There's five takedowns from nico price. He clearly won the fight. He just landed more strikes plus the takedowns and control time really won in the fight. A lot of shots thrown but nothing crazy. Kind of a boring fight, like you said right, yeah, so that'll bring us.
Speaker 1:Now we're getting into some firefights. We got three fights left and if it weren't for these three, we wouldn't have an episode. There would be, first of all, there would be no episode. Second of all, there would probably be no me, because I paid for that pay-per-view. I would be pissed, dude. I would be like a few towns over by this point yeah, I mean like I'd have. I'd have to go hide away or something bro.
Speaker 2:But the next fight we're going to talk about maybe could have won fight of the night had it not been for the final fight. It definitely made it all worth it, for sure, yeah.
Speaker 1:Kevin Holland versus Oljasek Great fight. Kevin Holland just gets knocked down first of all and then finds a way to get that arm by itself and just gets the arm bar. And I could tell you this much about Kevin Holland. I've watched a lot of Kevin Holland fights and Jude knows this. Jude say what I'm about to say.
Speaker 2:He's the type of guy he can go beat anybody any given night, but he can also walk out in this and and on the stool. He can just leave the ring, never come back. I mean, that's the type of fighter he is. You never know what you're gonna get out of there it is.
Speaker 1:That's exactly what I was looking for. You never know what you're gonna get out of. Kevin holland was exactly what I was gonna say thank you for clearing the air. I'm glad we were telepathically speaking there, you know, because obviously we got the camera on us and they could tell that we're not bsing or anything now you know so, which is another perk I have in the camera, yeah, but great fight.
Speaker 1:Kevin holland showed up, showed out, got the arm bar, like pretty freaking cool. You know, that's not really something you usually see out of kevin holland going for a submission and he gets submission, gets it done that way. I thought it was awesome, you know, goes over to the jumps, the octagon goes, shakes Trump's hand. Thought, that was pretty cool. You know, not really getting into how we stand politically or anything, but the current president don't go to UFC fights and personally I don't give a damn if I like the president or not. If I got the chance to shake his hand, I'm going to do it. Yeah, no, I think it's. I think it is a huge honor to shake a president's hand, definitely, no matter how you feel about him.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it doesn't matter what president it is, any president ever, I'm going to shake their hand.
Speaker 1:Right, a hundred percent. And people are going to watch our podcast and give a bunch of thumbs down because I said the word trump, you know, and everybody's scared of the big orange man but it is what it is you'll. Either. You'll either get over it or cry yourself to sleep, one of the two.
Speaker 2:It'll be all right, though, but going back to kevin holland fight, getting back on page, what I think of the kevin holland fight is and I'm not saying ke Holland's a champion, but that's the type of fight that you expect to see out of champions. I mean, he was getting pummeled at first. He gets hurt, he falls down and he's fixing to get ground and pounded out. You think the fight's going to stop. And then he just finds a way to get the arm. Well, he gets into a triangle choke position and he starts to protect the triangle choke and he just set him up, got the arm and it was just absolutely disgusting when he got that arm he snapped that arm he's on it and joe rogan the whole time he's like he's gonna break it.
Speaker 2:He's gonna break it. No, it did break, it broke, it was gone. And ke and Kevin Holland's asking Herb Dean, he's like you got to stop it. You got to stop it.
Speaker 1:And he's just getting more and more under it. And you just watch it. Yeah, you're watching his elbow literally just go from here all the way around the front of his arm into this.
Speaker 2:I mean he definitely slightly broke it, but he was going to snap it into pieces if he kept going.
Speaker 1:If you watched that fight and thought it was an early stoppage, I don't know what to tell you, bro. You're not smart. First of all, herb dean is one of the best referees of all time.
Speaker 1:You know and like, if you think that that was an early stoppage, his arm was like absolutely dislocated at the bare minimum, if it's not broken, but it's absolutely dislocated. I mean the dude tried to like use it to stand back up and he literally like it's, it's absolutely dislocated. I mean the dude tried to like use it to stand back up and he literally like it's a noodle he gets up and he looks at Herbie and he's like he throws his hands in there, like he can't even throw that one hand.
Speaker 1:No, he throws one hand, he throws his left hand, the other one's dangling. He's like what are you talking about?
Speaker 2:Why did you stop him? Toughness out of him. But your arms broke, dude, like the fight's over. You was not gonna win that fight. There's no way he was fixing to just snap your arm in half. So, like I said, I appreciate the toughness, but that was absolute disgusting and and that was a great fight by kevin holland I think off rip.
Speaker 1:I think that kevin holland should automatically, after that fight, be a ufc hall of famer. And the reason I say that I know you just looked at me funny, I know you just looked at me.
Speaker 1:I'm not disagreeing that he can't be one Tell me that Kevin Holland is not the greatest. Sorry about that. Tell me Kevin Holland is not the greatest trailblazer or not trailblazer gatekeeper In UFC history. I mean, he could be, like the guys that beat Kevin Holland, go on to be champions. The guys that lose to Kevin Holland don't do anything after that.
Speaker 2:I mean he's still somewhat young, like he can still and he's relevant still. I mean there's no doubt Neil Magny is a pretty good gatekeeper as well. But he could go into the lights of Neil Magni. But he could also be a champion in the future. So we'll see what we get.
Speaker 1:Yeah, never really know. Never really know Brings us to the next fight, though. Sean Strickland, paolo Costa. I ended up being right with this prediction. You know, jude has his, his side, and and Jude was absolutely correct. I mean, everything Jude said happened, except for Paolo getting the knockout. You know, and that's what we, that's what Jude and I both knew is, if he was going to win, it had to be probably a third round finish. Now the judges I don't you want to go to new jersey after this?
Speaker 2:because whatever in the hell, they were smoking.
Speaker 1:I need to get my hands on it, bro. 49, 46 paulo for the split. This to cause it to be a split decision. And one judge has it 49 46, strickland and the other has it 50 45 and you get four rounds to paulo. I would understand making a split decision and going and going 47, 48 paulo, you know, three rounds to two. That makes a little bit of sense. But if somebody's given the fight 50 45 to strickland, there's no way that there should even be an argument anywhere, anywhere, that Paulo was 49-46 on Paulo's side. The guy that scored it 49-46.
Speaker 2:I think it's ignorant. I think every round was pretty close, but I honestly and I'm a Paulo Castro fan I love Sean Strickland too, but I love both these guys. He hasn't been the same. Paulo Castro hasn't been the same since the Izzy fight, honestly and I'm a Paul Acosto fan I love Sean Strickland too, but I love both these guys. He hasn't been the same. Paul Acosto hasn't been the same since the Izzy fight. He just lost so much confidence and you see it in the way he fights. But he did target the body a lot, like I said, and I think that he fought every round close but he didn't win any round. And I was leaning towards Paul Acosta, sadly, in that fight, but I wouldn't have gave a round to him. Every round was close. It wasn't like he just got beat down, but he's retreating, he's running backwards. Sean Strickland landed more total strikes. It's hard to give a round to Paul Acosta.
Speaker 1:And that was my thing. I was a fan of both of these guys going into this fight. I've been a fan of both of these guys for a very long time now. It was almost hard to watch in an aspect for me, you know, because, like I said, I mean I love both the fighters. They're both great.
Speaker 1:One thing that I did like, though, is, after that fight after paulo lost, he did say f everything that he'd been doing exact words f everything that he'd been doing, exact words F everything that he'd been doing that he was going to go back to the old Holocaust and he's going to go out there. He said F the cardio, f conserving energy, f all the other stuff, f going back to the corner. I'm going out there and I'm going to have a bloodbath and I'm going to war next time. I step in the octagon period Because, clearly, since the Izzy fight, he's like a little nervous almost.
Speaker 1:It seems like like he'll get the opening, like he'll throw a combo and have the guy wobble, and then he takes four steps back and defend himself like like curls up, like and I understand fighting a guy like izzy I mean that could do that to a guy, but like izzy was a beast. Like people talk about israel, adesanya and hate on him and hate the person and and people even hate the fighter sometimes. But I don't see how you could hate Izzy like. The run that Izzy was on was, first of all, magical, second of all, active. Like look at all the champions in the UFC right now, the champion with the most title defenses is two Other than Jon Jones.
Speaker 2:Well, technically Islam.
Speaker 1:Yeah, islam has three, but still though, bro, that's pretty pathetic. We haven't seen Leon Edwards fight since December. We haven't seen. Let's see who's another one. Who's another one?
Speaker 2:Plus, Islam did defend twice against a non-lightweight, he defended twice against Volt. So you know, do you even?
Speaker 1:really count those. Yeah, I mean, that's my thing about Islam, that's why I didn't even say his name. But I don't know man. I mean UFC, like these champions. They get the belt and think that they just hold the belt for the longest and they're the best champion of all time. Is what I'm feeling like yeah. They just get it and run away with it and just go hide.
Speaker 2:Well, I think a lot of times they also want the big shot. They want to try to get a double title. They either want to just run and hide and not fight, or they want to get a double title and you should have to get. It should be a minimum of three defenses, probably more, before you even think of a double title. So but while we're on the topic of middleweights and strong Sean Strickland, paul Acosta with that win, do you think he deserves a rematch against Drishas Duplissis? If he does win?
Speaker 1:first what I want to see. I thought I thought I thought Sean Strickland deserved an immediate rematch against Dracus. I agree, that's what I thought originally. Now he goes out and he demolishes, puts on a show against Paul Acosta bro, An incredible UFC middleweight. He goes out, puts on an absolute clinic against him, bro, Like thought, a perfect fight. From the very beginning to the very end. Sean Strickland had a perfect fight, Executed every part of his game plan perfectly and everything went the way it was supposed to for Sean Strickland. After seeing that, you would have to be not you, not you listening, unless you're Dana White. Dana White, you would have to be ignorant to not have seen Sean Strickland put on that insane performance, that clinic that he just put on on Saturday night and then still not give him the title shot next. Now I do think that Drikus needs to fight Izzy, because that's a fight that has not happened yet and I think Izzy's had this time off and he's had time to get back to it, which is what I wish more fighters would do, like Volk.
Speaker 1:You go lose, take your step back. Well, Gaethje's doing it. That's what I'm saying.
Speaker 2:I respect what Gaethje's doing. That's what I'm saying, like Izzy, and Gaethje did.
Speaker 1:Izzy and Gaethje are doing right. Volkanovski unfortunately didn't didn't handle his time the way I thought he should have. You know, I think you get, you get knocked out that brutally, like he did against islam. I think you take, you know, six, seven, eight months off. That's the only time it's excusable as a champion to not fight.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, but you're but you're not gonna still be the champion if you're getting chinned. No, I completely agree. Like I think if volk took seven months off after fighting islam the last time, I think if he took seven months off and then fought elia, yeah, elia would be 14 and one.
Speaker 2:I mean my opinion on elia. I think that he gets a lot of hate, but he, he talks the talk, but I mean he backs it up. So what can you say about him? I think he's the future of the sport for sure.
Speaker 1:But we'll see.
Speaker 2:Only time will tell. Max Holloway fight will definitely tell Right. So we'll see what happens, but I do believe, sean Strickland, the answer to my own question deserves the rematch for whoever wins the title, regardless Dreschus, duplissis or Izzy.
Speaker 1:I want to see the rematch for the for the drink is izzy fight. That's another one. I'll be buying the pay-per-view too. You know, we're probably at that point. We'll probably be like live stream reacting to it or something at that point. Hopefully, if all goes well, by the time we get to there, that's going to be a great fight, I think. Obviously, izzy is not currently the champion, so I think izzy has a lot more riding on his shoulder here. You know he don't want to lose this fight. He wants his belt back. I think we're going to see that fun Izzy style again. You know, like I miss, like contender Izzy, or like Izzy versus Perea Izzy when he's locked in and like in his zone. That's a whole nother Israel Adesanya. But I mean I'm excited for that fight. I think Izzy will probably be the one to beat Drikus and I think Sean Strickland goes in there, beats Izzy's ass again and America has the belt once more in the middleweight division.
Speaker 2:That's what I think For sure. And another guy in the middleweight division I'm going to talk about any time we bring up the middleweight, brendan Allen's coming for that belt. Southeastern alumni right here at home from Covington, louisiana, he's going to hold that belt, maybe him versus Hamzat, like a rematch Louisiana versus the Middle East again, and Louisiana's going to come up big at some point. We can't keep losing these title fights. We can't be the state that's allergic to UFC gold.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean I don't understand man. I mean we got diamonds, but we can't touch gold.
Speaker 2:Listen that was a good statement.
Speaker 1:With that being said, I'm going to have to start training.
Speaker 2:I'm going to have to start training UFC If somebody doesn't get a belt from here soon. I don't think I'm the one to do it. I'm just not that type of guy. I'm not a fighter.
Speaker 1:you know Somebody's got to do it. Somebody has to do it and, unfortunately for us, the last fight we're going to talk about today, our diamond man. He wasn't able to get the job done. It's real unfortunate. It ended the same way that all of his two other title shots have all ended by submission. This one ended by sub. The only problem with Poirier is when you look at his resume, bro, he's beat seven former champs, and the three champions he fought can all three be debated. Any way you want to put them, they're all three of the three best lightweights ever in history. He fought Charles Oliveira, he fought Habib Nurmagomedov and he fought Islam Makachev All in their prime, all in their prime, and you are out of your mind if you think that that is not the hardest three shots to get at a title.
Speaker 2:There's no doubt.
Speaker 1:First of all, nobody beat Habib. Not very many people have beat Charles DeBronx and one person has beat Islam, and that was when Islam was way before his prime.
Speaker 2:And a lot of Charles Oliveira losses have been tough losses and losses that's been way before his prime yeah before or kind of on the outside of it.
Speaker 2:Regardless, I'm proud of Dustin Poirier. It was a great fight put on by him. If it went to the judges' scorecards, I think he arguably was winning the fifth round and could have won the fifth round. He could have won that fight for sure. It would have been tough to score and I think if it doesn't go his way on the scorecard, maybe he gets that immediate rematch. But there's just other things for islam. He got submitted. I think it's in the road for poirier, sadly. It really is sad. You're gonna have to check out the reaction.
Speaker 1:I'm sure we'll be posting yeah, I'll post it on shorts or something. Bro, my reaction was wild.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I just don't I don't even have many words. I'm pretty sad. I don't know if you can tell, but I really am sad because I loved us and I was hoping, but I'm proud.
Speaker 1:Anybody, anybody, watching this episode. That can't tell how we feel about it. I don't know if you feel it or not, but I felt like the energy in the room shift as soon as we started talking about belpor yeah, I mean I felt like it, just like got, so like mellow in here yeah, I mean, he represented louisiana well in that title shot.
Speaker 2:Like dude, he did everything he could.
Speaker 1:First of all, he gave islam the hardest fight, other than maybe volk in the first fight.
Speaker 2:And his loss, that's it and his loss.
Speaker 1:He gave him his hardest fight, at least since he's been a champion. Dustin Poirier probably gave him a harder fight than almost Volk did.
Speaker 2:Probably. I think it was a harder fight since he became a champion.
Speaker 1:I mean Poirier went out there and he was putting on a show man. He got his nose shattered in the first round, continued to just be an animal yeah, not, and I mean, it's just it's.
Speaker 1:It's sad that that it didn't go his way, but how could you not appreciate the career of dustin poirier? How could you not appreciate what he's done for mma, for the ufc, for for fans? I? He's changed people's lives, bro. I don't know if he realizes that, but I will scroll through comment sections and stuff after the loss and people are like Dustin, keep your head up, man. If it wasn't for you, my head wouldn't even be here right now. I was so far down the wrong path and stuff. And then I started watching you and stuff.
Speaker 1:Poirier has changed people's lives, man. He's a beast bro. He's a great person, from what I hear. Unfortunately I haven't gotten the chance to meet him yet. Sure that'll come at some point, you know. But one thing that I did see about poirier and alex volkanovsky. Actually it was kind of random, but volt called out Poirier, I did see that. So like that was it. I mean, honestly, bro, if you're Poirier, bro, and if you're Volkanovski, like, why not Like both of you guys, go in there, leave it all on the line one more time. Honestly, bro, just like low-key, just do enough to where y'all get a draw and then retire. So that way, neither record gets a blemish from it. Just go in there 10-9, 10-9, and then get 10-8ed and then bang, it's a draw and both guys go home happy and both guys can retire and ride off into the sunset. I think that's the happiest possible ending. Here is Volk-Poirier fight and let it end in a draw, please, lord Jesus.
Speaker 2:I don't really want to see that fight. That fight doesn't interest me and I don't think it interests dustin poirier. He said the gold's the only thing that interests him. He's been in 50 title fights. Maybe what I would like to see out of dustin poirier which is not going to happen, just wishful thinking. But max holloway won the belt from illya and then Dustin Poirier, max Holloway at 145, part three. I would like to see that so, but we'll see what happens. But going back to the Islam fight, there was the headbutt that shattered his nose, I believe in round two, which really sucks, and you know, you just wonder if a few things went different, could he have got the belt? And I think it definitely could have. Not to make excuses or anything. Incredible fight from islam, by the way. Uh, all props to that guy and and khabib.
Speaker 1:They were super, super respectful yeah, I mean, khabib was the first person to pick poirier up off the canvas after he got choked down, and that was that actually kind of stood out to me a little bit like that. That was almost like heartwarming in a sense. No, definitely it made me feel a little bit like. And then the respect that they both showed each other Islam and Dustin showed each other in the ring post-fight the amount of respect that they both have for each other Islam posting Dustin on the Instagram after that and saying that he was super tough and congratulating him for getting to that point.
Speaker 1:But before we wrap up, there's there's like three more things I want to touch on and we're gonna we're gonna hit it really quick here islam makachev what's next for him? Islam's gonna fight the new champ at welterweight. That's gonna be one of the options, apparently, for whatever reason, people are saying brian ortega is on the list. That's kind of well, which brian ortega? He's gonna get his ass beat. Uh, max holloway was possibly on the list. I mean, I I love max holloway, but he's not winning. Max holloway is not beating islam makachev. I think if islam moves up to welterweight, I think he's going to claim gold there too and probably just hold the belt of both divisions until he retires, because I don't think there's a welterweight fighter that could really beat him. I think Islam beats the shit out of Leon Edwards. I think Bilal Muhammad this sounds crazy dude that we would say in this. I think Bilal Muhammad, like this, sounds crazy dude that we would say in this. I think Bilal Muhammad has the best shot at beating Islam.
Speaker 2:You're not going to go five rounds with Islam as Bilal Muhammad. Your best shot at beating Islam is somehow catching a submission or finishing him. But I believe that Leon Edwards maybe could be the guy to finish him, if he goes back to his old ways for sure. Even after that fight, I still don't think that Islam's the pound-for-pound number one fighter, and I don't want to go too into depth, but my pound-for-pound number one fighter still hasn't changed. It's obvious to me that Alex Perea is that guy. I mean, he's done everything that they're talking about Islam doing and he's done it in a shorter amount of time. There's no doubt everybody's scared of Alex Perea, not everybody's scared of Islam. He is a tough guy to fight and he's a scary guy to fight. But to me Alex Perea is just on a whole other level than everybody else. I'm not a Perea fan, but he's on a whole other level than everybody else.
Speaker 1:Right, yeah, on a whole nother level than everybody else. Right, yeah, I mean I definitely put ray on a whole nother level. So I mean, I think, after that fight, I think I would probably put ray as number one, pound for pound. But with that being said, that's going to be a wrap for this eighth episode. Ninth episode wherever you listen to for the outside the octagon podcast, follow us on instagram at outside the octagon pod underscore. Thank you so much for listening. Subscribe, hit that like. Thank you for tuning in. Jude, you got anything else to say what I have to?
Speaker 2:say is order some Prowler pickles, baby, I mean best pickles on the market. I'm probably going to eat one right after this episode. Spicy dill, great flavor. Use code OTO10 for a 10% discount on any order Facts.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening. Thank you so much for tuning in.
