Ufc 299 happened at the weekend, and we are all about that. As I said at the start, what a night of fights. Just unbelievable. That main card was absolutely phenomenal. We got to start with the main event. Cheeto Vera, as we know, historically has been a slow starter, and that has cost him on occasion. Perillo told me that was a big focus of the camp. I thought, given all the buzz, given the opportunity, fighting for the title, Given the fact that Ecuadorians were all over the place and hyping him up, I thought he was going to come out a bit more aggressive. But it's hard to do that against somebody so skilled as Sean O'Malley because he has got better with every single fight. Every time we see him, he's improved, he is faster, he's more powerful, he's hitting harder, he's planting his feet, the footwork's improved, the shot selection, the way he buries the attacks, everything. So it was really hard for Marlin to get going because he just He wasn't there to counter. He wasn't there to hit with the length, with the speed, and then the in and out movement. John O'Malley was utterly phenomenal.

It was magical to watch. And again, Tito, obviously, we got a lot of love for Tito, so that was tough to watch, but man, I cannot discredit. I don't know that Tito did a whole lot wrong because it looked like he tried to start fast, and O'Malley just did a really good job of just managing the distance. And I think Chael made a good point of this. We talk about managing distance all the time in this game. You got to manage the distance. He manages the range. It's been a long time since I've seen someone do it as well as Sean O'Malley did on Saturday night. He always kept something in that gray area that always kept Chido not able to advance. He attacked his legs early, went to the body early. Cheto's got an iron chin on him. But whether you can take him or not, you don't want to. They don't feel great. So he just constantly gave... He made Chido think way more than he wanted to. Chido does really well when he gets in that flow state, and he just is moving forward. He's marching forward. He's taking ground from people and putting heavy shots on him.

And at times, he was able to do that towards the end of the round. I thought O'Malley, who I believe at times has had some conditioning issues. I don't want to say conditioning issues, but he hasn't managed it as well. I thought he managed his energy really, really well. Towards the end of the round, you could tell he was taking the foot off the gas a little bit to conserve it. Then Chito was able to push forward and put some shots on him towards the end of the rounds. But I really can't take anything away from Chito. I really can only build It's a little bit of a build up, Sean O'Malley.

I guess in terms of what he did wrong, and that seems like a bitchy term to use, but there were some things he could have done better for sure, because he clearly showed he had the ability He wanted to hurt him. And when he did pull the trigger and go for it, the problems he had is he's not as fast, he's not as tall or long. Yeah, he's not as fast and he's not as long, but he's got more power. And when he did go, he would hurt him every single time. So what he needed to do was to have that initial attack, but then go again, continue and maintain the pressure, because anytime he did that, Sean O'Malley wouldn't fall apart because he can fight going backwards. But when you're under pressure, You can't sit there. You're not in control. You're not having a good time. Most of the time, O'Malley was at range. He was safe. He was fine. He was picking him apart. He was using the straight shots, coming up the middle with the knees, the head kicks, whatever. When Vera would attack, that changes. All of a sudden, he's in a defensive posture.

He's not attacking, he's backing up, and Chito was hitting him. What he had to do then was then go again, continue and maintain that pressure. Of course, easier said than done. But that's what he has to do. He to go more.

I understand that. Well, I think he's got to give him more to look at, too. I think for anybody that's going to beat Sean O'Malley, you got to give him more things than just the ones and the twos to worry about. I think that Chito could have done a better job attacking his legs low. And at least, I'm not saying that there's any chance that that same situation is going to happen like it happened in the first fight. It's very unlikely. But at least slow him down a little bit. Attack his footwork, like And Sean did a good job in the first couple of rounds. Every time Chido, if Chido was orthodox, Sean would go southbound. And if Chido would switch to go to the kick, then Sean would switch. So he always stayed in the opposite stance of Chido on purpose. And I believe that's to protect his legs, but he's a bit of a liability at his legs. If you can chop those down just a little bit and just take a little bit of heat off of his footwork, I think that would have been successful. And not that Cheto is a great wrestler or known to be a wrestler.

At least the attempts will give Sean O'Malley something else to look at.

As you say, your words is weak in the legs. There's a give and a take in everything. If you're tall and you're long, you're going to have skinny legs. So therefore, they can't take as much damage and maybe not quite as powerful. That said, when you wrap those skinny legs around somebody, they hurt more. If you're extremely explosive, then you're not going to have as good cardio. Do you know what I mean? If you're really strong, there's always a give and a take. But the positive there for Cheetah, and there's many positives, by the way, yet all along, it does have somewhat toothpick-esque legs.

I think there's some give and a take in Sean's style as well. I don't necessarily know that it's 100% the size of his legs. A lot of it's his style. If you're tall and rangey and you do a really good job with these straight punches and you're a sniper on the outside, you do have to set your feet when you go. If If that's the type of style that you fight, then you're going to be a little bit susceptible to leg kicks because you're planted. If you're really good at checking leg kicks, you're not necessarily going to have the same power and speed with your hands because you're not anchored to the ground. It's the same problem that I'm running into now, trying to figure out how to weave in and out of those two stances, because what I really want to do is anchor myself and shoot those straight shots from the outside while people are figuring out, or have figured out, that if you attack my leg, then I have to change that. I have to start moving around more. If I'm anchored, I'll knock anybody out, but I can't do that anymore.

So now I'm starting to check the leg kicks and stuff, but I don't have the same power in my hands like I used to because I'm not centered to the ground anymore. And I think Sean is doing a really good job of figuring that out. He uses the stance, which is a lot to throw off the leg kicks. I thought that that was really interesting how him and his team, instead of worrying about checking the lay kicks, they just go in and out of South Pond, Orthodox. So we'll go to Orthodox, bang people up a little bit, and then as soon as they think that kick is going to start coming, they'll switch back. I thought that they had a really great game plan. And so I don't want to... I guess I'm saying this because I don't want to take too much away from Chito because I thought he fought really well with what he has, and he obviously could have done some things different and better. We can Monday morning quarterback it all day. But I thought that Sean O'Malley's game plan, execution, and his growth since even his last fight was just a lot more It was a lot more than I think anybody expected.

Without question, it's more a case of what O'Malley did well, because you're only going to take one look at that, not even as a trained fighter and see, wow, that guy there is extremely skilled and polished.

That guy is fucking good.

Yeah, he's fucking good. I would have liked to have seen more head movement. I would have liked to see more parries and slips and stuff from Cheeto. We could go on all day. But as I said, it was more about what O'Malley did. Tell you what, though, Chito, what a chin. Unbelievable, man. I mean, That knee in round two, the sound of that was sickening. It really was. And now we stayed on the feet, continued to fight, nearly got him out of there with the final punch of the fight to deliver in round five. That's what I'm saying. I was talking about it on my YouTube channel. I think when Chido watches that back, he's going to hate it. He's going to be annoyed and disappointed with himself. He could have done a bit more, but as we say, it's easy for us to say because we weren't the ones in there, and I thought he showed the heart of a lion. He should still be very proud of himself. Yeah, okay, it wasn't a perfect fight. Rarely are they. The problem was he was fighting somebody in our Malle that did have a perfect night.

He was about perfect. The perfect night That was about perfect. It really was. Listen, yeah, okay, Chito got through, but it was still a pretty perfect night. I guess a really tough opponent in Chito. I mean, his stop just went through the roof. It did. I mean, he talked about living up to the moment, became the champion, knocked out Aljimane Sterling, beats Chito Vera in an utterly convincing fashion, getting more and more powerful. I mean, those right hands, they were vicious. The jabs, the head kicks, everything about him, the evolution from when he first started. And it makes you have a bit more respect for guys like Chris Matinho and Thomas Almeida, and the guys that have stopped in the past because you think, shit, the man has got some serious power. Ilea Teporia, Dana, send a jet. I'm going to Spain. I'm looking for Iliya Teporia.

Yeah, easy, easy, easy. Hold on. Give me your thoughts on that. Well, I think just generally as a fan, I'd like to see both of these guys fight in their own divisions for a little bit first. I would hate to hold up two divisions that are thriving right now. 135 is a hotbed right now. So let's not build this thing up and then put the brakes on it so we can have this double champ thing. I understand why he wants that, and I support all the success in the world and all the money-making opportunities for Sean O'Malley, but there's Umar Namaak and Metoff, there's Cory Sandhagen, there's Marab. It's a mess right now in a good way. I think 145 is heating up as well. There's a couple of pretty good contend I've got some reminders there that there's a Max Holloway fight that's about to happen. I would be shocked if Max Holloway beats Justin Gechi and it doesn't get a title shot. I think there's a couple of other really interesting opportunities for Ilia. I don't think Teporea would do that to Marab because they are so close.

Oh, yeah, the Georgian connection, the both Georgians. I agree. I agree with everything that you're saying. In no way am I advocating for For Sean O'Malley to step up. I think this should be a hard and fast rule unless there's no clear-cut contenders you're going to defend about three times before you move up. But just if we're playing in the spirit of devil's avocado, think about it like this. Sean O'Malley gets the jet from Dana, flies off to Spain, we have the fight. Relatively quick turnaround because he just fought as well. That gives Volkanovski a bit more time to rest and recover. And just for the sheer specter Practical of it, if they could do it quick, I wouldn't necessarily... Listen.

Who wins?

You got to fight the contenders. Of course you do. We know that. But if they're willing to do it quickly, quickly, so the rest of the division doesn't have to wait. Marab just fought. You know what I mean?

He can hang out for a minute.

He just fought. If they're willing to do it quick, get the jet, book it. Who wins? What's it called? Burnabout Arena. Iliya, to Portia, Sugar Sean, O'Malley. Sugar Sean, O'Malley is probably going to get big. Let's beat. Okay. But I don't know. I mean, after seeing that Saturday night, I don't know. It's easy to say that because Vokunovsky is a shorter guy.

Yeah.

To Portia is a shorter guy. Getting past those hands, man. They are lightning. They are quick.

I think if he can avoid the big shot, by God damn, the grappling of Teporea, that's what I was talking about with Cheto, is giving him some more things to worry about. Teporea mixes it up so well. He's grappling, he's shooting, he's attacking the legs, he's a great boxer, crazy power in his hands. He's the full package. I think at times, Cheto... And I think it was just the way that he fought. He fought a little bit limited game, which is tailor-made for Sean O'Malley style of fight because look what he did to Aljo. Aljo didn't have the ability to just strike with him. And if you only got one thing to really worry about, it makes it for an easier fight if it's predictable. But I'm not saying I wouldn't watch it. I would watch the absolute shit out of that.

Who was just He came out and was talking shit. Ben Ascren said something about-I love Ben, but what was he talking about? What did he say? Is it relevant to this fight? I think he was talking about Sugar Sean O'Malley. I said, remember Sean O'Malley lost to someone. O'malley came out and said, Yeah, remember, you got knocked out of Jake Paul. I can't remember what it was.

Ben Ascren can't say shit to anybody because that's what everyone's going to come back with, even if he's right.

Yeah, but I forget what it was, why he was talking shit to O'Malley, but still. Congratulations, O'Malley, man. I mean, he called it, didn't he? I hate to say it, he manifested this. Everyone's manifesting everything, okay? If you're working towards something, you're trying to make it a reality. So stop saying that. Just say, I'm working on it. It's like the buzzword, isn't it? Everyone's saying, I manifested this. What you mean you made a conscious effort to work at something?

No one manifestsests a loss.

Yeah, I'm manifesting this.

Yeah, that's what happened. I manifested this loss. That's the only reason it happened.

Here's what Ben Askin said, Just a reminder, Pyodian beat Sean. Judges robbed him. Then that's when Amalia came back and said, Just a reminder, Jay Paul knocked you out. Nice work, Harrington. I wonder what motivated Ben Askin to come out and say that. That's a bitchy statement.

It's a bitchy statement.

No, it definitely is.

That's Ben. I think he likes to poke at people and enjoys it.

Well, he likes to insert himself and keep himself relevant, I guess. You got to do something. If it comes from nothing but good old fashioned shit talk, then so be it.