Well, this just got interesting...

UFC 334 is just a few days away and it's the big November show, Madison Square Garden, the mecca of combat sports, so much history. Every 11th month, every year, the New York card is meant to be the biggest. Outside of International Fight Week, or the occasional time Conor McGregor pops his head back in to say hello, UFC 217, the greatest UFC of all time, took place at the Garden. And here we are again, so even when it doesn't feel special, it always feels special here. And I thought it would be really fun to do like a preview of the event right now to get you all caught up on all the narratives going into this one, and wow do I have a lot to say about our main event, as well as the rest of the show. So, let's do this ----, as I'm known to say, I'm Tommy. from MMA on point. Make sure to check out the official UFC gear through our link in the description below using code point 10 for 10% off all products in the EU store and rep your favorite fighters with the UFC store. Now let's talk about 334. I want you to think back all the way to June of 2026. I know that's a really long time ago now, but try to put your mind there. Remember what it was like going into that UFC Freedom 250 brought to you by Toyo Tires card, this insane spectacle With the most ridiculous Street Fighter-level select, Background possible, the literal White House. But the biggest fight on the card was absolutely not the main event, mainly because most of us assumed Justin Gaethje was gonna get dog-walked. What a bunch of dummies we were. No, the real fight of consequence, the history-making one, was Alex Pereira, Poetan himself, going for a third title in a third division. Sure, it was an interim title fight going against Ciryl Gane, a man that cannot stop fighting for interim championships, so it would have been history with a little asterisk on it, but... Oh my god, would it have set up the New York card of all New York cards this weekend. A main event worthy of 205 and 217. The Man of Stone versus One-Eyed Jack for undisputed gold. The prospect of it was something you could tempt a UFC fan's soul with, like that goat at the end of The Witch. Dost thou want a banger heavyweight title fight, finally? That was the vibe heading into that fight. The hope that this division that has been an absolute mess since Ngannou walked out the door in 2023, And then, Ciryl Gane, the forever contender who just will never, ever leave the top of the division, did the opposite of what he normally does in heavyweight title fights. He won, albeit controversially. He was hit repeatedly in the back of the head. There was 10. There was about 10 elbows. Yeah, on rewatch it was clear. It's intensified by the narrative surrounding... Already on every fan's cheater cheater pumpkin eater radar after blinding Tom Aspinall, Gon did some eye pokes I think, at one point I believe he brought a bat into the cage, and then there were like 50 or so shots to the back of the head that Pereira took to end the fight that felt a bit too on the nose even for Gon. But you know what? Okay, no Poetan, but 334 at MSG is still gonna be amazing. We get to see Tom finally return, the return of the king to reclaim that bout with Gon, that one-rounder where he was definitely I'm definitely taking quite a bit of damage, and prove once and for all what everybody feels in their bones. That Cyril Gane is not a champion. I'm just... Look, I'm gonna give Cyril a lot of ---- in this video, but a lot of it's just jokes. And of course, we're not gonna see that either, because Aspinall vacated the title. God damn it, Damien. Hey, but no worries, because now Cyril Gane is the undisputed champion in the worst way possible, being upgraded to it. Like he just paid off his old interim championship, and AT&T is ready to bump him up to a new plan. And his opponent at MSG this weekend? Not Poetan, the most popular guy in the sport over the last few years, seeking revenge. Not the return of Jon Jones or Francis Ngannou. Two other undisputed heavyweight champions that didn't lose their titles in a fight either, and that technically could still be here right now competing. No, instead, the best we can do is an awkward-ass, Temu-chael, sun-in, shy, anime protagonist, Sith Lord, macho man, Mexican stereotype, keyboard lurker hybrid, local theater actor, and Josh motherfuckin' Hogan. Now, to be fair to Josh, he has done literally everything asked of him at this point. What more could the guy do other than show up and win fights? It's not his fault. He had an absolutely absurd fight of the year with gate guard Curtis Blades, and then a pretty boring fight but definitive finish over 41-year-old Derek Lewis, who was less beast at the White House and more like a little bunny rabbit. Look, the guy clearly has the tank, and he's entertaining, and he's got the skills to be considered among the top heavyweights in the division, but that's really the biggest problem here. The top heavyweights in the division are still guys like Curtis Blades, who despite his ever The ever-presence towards the top has never even fought for undisputed gold And Derek Lewis, who peaked in 2018. I mean, Waldo Cortez-Acosta TKO'd Lewis the fight before Hogan at the White House. And that is the victory that gets you a shot at the currently highly disputed undisputed gold at Madison Square Garden? Ali and Frazier at MSG, the ******* fight of the century. And Josh Hokut is going to headline in the exact same arena after four fights in the UFC and beating Derek Lewis. The Fight Historian in me. is screaming internally right now. 334's main event could have been the moment that finally got heavyweight back on track. Even if Gon defeated Aspinall, and hopefully did so in a clean manner, that could have reset things because, as much of a mess as things have been, at least a lot of people argued that Tom was the best heavyweight in the world. That's not really the case anymore for anybody that's active in the division, which is an insane thing to say because we are talking about the UFC. But, then again, I'm not sure Francis Ngannou is not the best- heavyweight in the world right now still, and he's fighting for Jake Paul. But it's not all doom and gloom as much as it is. At the very least, if Josh Hokut does win, at least he will be the first champion since 2021 to actually win the heavyweight title from the current champion in a fight. At least we can say that. But of course, given how Gon got here, given everything that happened in the last six years with Francis and Jon and Tom, Hokut would have to go on a as champion for this title to feel in any way legitimate or that would put him on the same level as the three guys I just mentioned. And look, maybe that does happen. I'm not saying I'm not excited about this main event because I absolutely am. All jokes aside about his persona, Josh is clearly talented and exciting to watch. I'm genuinely curious if he's going to be able to do what he does with a guy at Gon's level, if he's really ready for the top. And for as As much as Cyril has become the villain in everything lately, He is, of course, still incredibly talented. I want to see how he can handle Hokut's grappling. He is very legit there, and while he's definitely not the better striker, he is willing to stand there and just trade straight-up MDK, so who knows what would happen. If you're not sold on Josh, go watch the profile that Balian just did on him last week. You will get fully caught up on everything beyond his goofballdom. And more so than either of those points about the style matchup, which I do find intriguing, At least the division is going to move forward in some way. After 334, first undisputed heavyweight title fight that will hopefully go to an actual definitive traditional finish, fingers ******* crossed, since Jon Jones beat Stipe Miocic. How crazy is that? But if this division is ever gonna get back on track, it's gotta have actual fights for the title. I know, that's a wacky idea. So, is 334's MSG main event what it could've been? Not even remotely, sadly, but I am still going to be very interested in this fight, and it's I don't know how you couldn't be just for the shitshow of it all alone, no matter how this thing shakes out. Now, you could absolutely argue that given the sorry state of the heavyweight division, that our co-main event should really be the headliner here, but of course that's not how this works, how the UFC structures things, or how you get butts in the seats. But that said, the prestige difference between this heavyweight clusterfuck and Amanda Nunes vs Kayla Harrison is wider than the gulf between the UFC and Tachi Palace fights. Wow, that's an old reference In case you forgot, since her retirement, Nunes is unquestionably the greatest women's fighter in history. Two world championships simultaneously at two different weight classes, taking out Ronda Rousey and taking out Chris Cyborg. Absolute history that will never be broken. It can only be tied. It's actually insane when you look at what she did over the last decade. Rousey, Shevchenko twice, even if one of those was very close, but them's the breaks. Cyborg, Holm, GDR. Those fights in her run alone make her the greatest women's fighter ever, but you add, what, five more title victories across two divisions? It's insane. But what makes me so excited about this fight is that for the first time since she walked into the cage with Cyborg, I am not sure she's going to win. In fact, if you made me put my mortgage on it, there's no way I'm not going with Harrison. Amanda is three years removed from the sport. That is a very long time to not be actively engaged in fighting, in regular training, in competing, in having to maintain your crown. And she is fighting a real monster in champion Kayla Harrison. She is everything that made Ronda Rousey dangerous with none of the same hang-ups. She is at one of the greatest MMA gyms on the planet. Amanda's former team. The one that helped build her into the greatest ever. Something Kayla was a part of as her teammate. Also, Harrison is absolutely gigantic. You know those two gold medals she won in the Olympics? Those were at 78 kgs. Which is 172 pounds. And that's the weight class. She was cutting down to get to 172. You think that kind of physiology just goes away because you're cutting down to 135 now? Some of it does. But I have no doubt she's going to be way bigger and way stronger than Nunes, which is what makes this fight so ******* awesome to me. Nunes has nothing left to prove, and if she came back against literally anybody else right now but maybe Cyborg, I would assume that she was going to win. But now she has the chance to add something legitimately to her legacy That would truly be substantial. in a way that nothing else really at this point could. That is exciting. I love seeing greatness. I want to see someone be the best ever at something. I want to get to witness that. And to have to overcome Kayla Harrison in order to add to her legacy in that way? Dude, sign me up. This is the best possible fight you could make in any women's division right now. And for Harrison, who I assume is going to retire after this fight, she leaves one of those legacies where you're going to be able to argue Maybe she was the greatest ever, we just never know. Never got to see enough of her. That's why beating Nunes, even after three years, is so crucial for her. Right now, she's racked up a few PFL tournament wins and victories over Hall, Vieira and Peña in the UFC. That's not going to be enough for people to argue she would have been the GOAT. But if Nunes looks as good as she did when she was the primed-up double champ, and Harrison just takes it to her, then she's got an argument to make. Now she's in the running. So the stakes are massively high on one end of this with Kayla. And for Nunes, it's an opportunity. Ready to, again, do something really incredible in the sport, her legacy is already in stone of course, but you can always add another tablet, you know? So we got a disaster at heavyweight, but a beautiful one worth checking out, we got one of the most significant women's championship fights ever, and then there's some other stuff happening on 334 that I definitely think is gonna be worth our time. Let's look at the rest of the card here, shall we? On the feature bout, you got Kaio Borralho taking on Yusri Belgharoui to decide who has a harder name to spell if you just sound it out. Beyond that, of course, will Borralho Borralho is the established name, he's a fighting nerd, he was burning through 185 since he got into the UFC in 2022, 7 straight wins in a row, 3 performance bonuses, and 2 fight night main events, but then he hit a snag when he got 50-45'd by Nassourdine Imavov in Paris. Sacrebleu! I'm a cross-hung! Now Zuckerberg's clanker rankings have Cao just outside the top 5, which is what makes this matchup really dangerous for him, because Meta AI doesn't even know who the **** Yusri Belgar? Arwee is. He's unranked, of course, but he is massive hype, and I do mean massive. 6'5", 185, three-time glory kickboxing contender. He's coming into this fight with three straight KO victories since debuting in the UFC in 2024. He's got Poetan and his team backing him up. They train together. They look scary together. They're building him into the next Pereira, and he might be taking a similar path to the gold. Beating Bojalio will most definitely put him in the top five in the division, or rather, most likely. And given everything else about him, especially if he gets a big knockout win here, something that nobody has ever done to Bojalio, you can bet your ass the UFC is gonna push this guy straight to the top of the heap. And conversely, if Caio beats this big bad prospect on this big MSG card, a massive gamble of a matchup for him, and does so in impressive fashion, he might find himself knocking on a championship door soon. So high stakes, high reward. Obviously Yusri is the better striker, but you can't sleep on Bojalio, and of course, He has the grappling pedigree and the experience in MMA at a higher level, this one should be fan-*******-tastic no matter how it plays out, I am locked in for it, I am on board, sign me up. After that, or rather before it, we're down at welterweight for a throwdown between Uros Medich and Kevin Holland. The stakes are slightly lower here, they're hovering around the bottom of the top 15 at 170, and it's a really bad fight for Medich. He's pretty much expected to win, but if he loses to gatekeeper Holland, his stock is gonna plummet. When Medich is not doubling as Punished Snake, he's an absolute ******* wrecking ball. 8 out of his 11 UFC fights haven't seen the second round, and 6 of those haven't even seen the two-minute mark. He's got back-to-back first-round finished performance bonuses against Jeff Neal and Danny Rodriguez. And while the matchup sucks for Uroš, the reason I'm excited about this fight is because of just how weird Kevin Holland is. On paper, yeah, he's probably going to lose. But these are the fights that Holland causes problems. He's got a crazy 10-inch reach advantage, he's unorthodox as hell, and most importantly, he is almost impossible to finish on the feet. His two TKO losses were both because his team decided he'd had enough punishment between rounds, so there is a strong chance here that Kevin turns this thing into an absolute clusterfuck for Medic, and I am here for it. I wanna see it. Maybe he gets KO'd in the first minute, but hey, again, we'd never seen that, so I'm I'm totally down for this fight, even though on the matchmaking end, Urosh got done kind of dirty here Not our problem on Saturday though, so yeah, I'm actually pretty intrigued to see how this one shakes out. Kicking off the main card, we're getting a showcase for white-hot undefeated flyweight prospect and former CFFC champion Bilal Hassan. Dude's 10-0 in his career with 9 finishes, he got signed on the Contender Series after just 45 seconds, got a second round knockout in his UFC debut earlier this year against undefeated Nilson Rojas, and now after just a single fight, he is on a numbered card main card. And he's taking on five-fight UFC veteran and sacrificial lamb Luis Garule. Luis has had a rough run in the UFC, losing four of his five matchups, getting stopped twice, and he is a staggering underdog in this one. Hassan is a minus 1,000 favorite on some sportsbooks, and most assume he's just going to bulldoze Luis in the first round. But the thing is, we've heard this song before. I'm not saying that this doesn't play out exactly like it looks like it's going to play out. It probably will. It probably is. It's extremely rare for these waters, but Gurule has gone to the cards with some pretty tough dudes win or lose, and when you got a massive high-profile showcase spot in your early career, you're just 25 years old, you're putting dudes away over and over and over, what happens when you empty the tank on some guy and he doesn't go away and suddenly there's 10 more minutes to go? I'm not saying that that is what will end up happening here, but I am saying we've seen it before. Either way, I'm excited to see this one. Hasan is a destroyer. Here at Flyweight, the idea of having someone that is that much of a finisher at 125 with the awesome fighters we have at the top is very exciting, it's a smart position for the UFC to put him in on a huge card, and I'm sure he'll deliver. Now the mark of a great MSG card, or any card really, is always how intriguing the prelims are, and we've got a send-off for everybody's favorite nice guy Stephen Thompson to close them out. So beyond the main card itself, it'll be worth being seeded early. A lot of fans were pissed off that Stephen was not being given that main card card opening spot, but I feel like the UFC does this a lot. It's not really surprising anymore, especially with an older guy who's not really a star anymore, but still they see that final prelim spot as a showcase point. It definitely meant more when these numbered cards were actually on pay-per-view and you had a paywall after the prelims, but all the same, I get the UFC's perspective on this one and the fans as well. It's just one of those things. Thompson has already declared his retirement. We know this is it. And for his final fight, he will be taking Taking on Chuck Buffalo, which is one of the best nicknames And so I will never refer to that man by his real name. Obviously, things haven't been going super hot for Wonder Boy in recent years. Other than his victory over Kevin Holland in 2022, where he beat the absolute ---- out of him, the former title challenger has gone 1-6 since 2021. So he's definitely making the right move here to go ahead and call it. He has said that it has nothing to do with how he feels or anything like that, but he's doing it because he's a dad now, Wonder Dad. So he's doing it for his daughter. Whatever the reason, it's the right call. a fight that Thompson can win, and of course I know that all of us are hoping that he does. That said, we'll see. Chuck can be dangerous. He KO'd Matt Simmelberger in just 51 seconds, he's got three UFC stops, and it's hard to say if Thompson can get it done. You know, largely these retirement moments have gone well for the UFC. They put together these really cool packages for the fighter, and sometimes you get a fantastic finish like Robbie Lawler getting that fast KO against Nico Price, but then sometimes you get the horrible ones like Shogun's retirement When that guy knocked him out and danced on- I'm just saying, these things can go pretty badly. So given how beloved and what a nice dude Wonderboy is, let's hope for something far more Robbie Lawler so we can actually enjoy that video package after he calls it. And man, I hope they do not have to cut him short for some reason at the end of the prelims, but they're usually pretty good about that. Also fighting on the prelims is the man that refuses to retire and will likely still be fighting long after the sun explodes into a red giant and consumes the earth, Jim ******* Miller. The man defeated Lyme disease. Performance bonus winning stop of Jared Gordon in his last fight. He's 7-3 in his last 10, and he is inching his way towards UFC 400. I am not counting an appearance out. I don't care if he will be nearly 50 by that point. This man is unstoppable. And I mean that literally. The last time Jim Miller was stopped was in 2018 by Charles Oliveira. That is a crazy stat. The winningest fighter in UFC history will be taking on Terrence McKinney, a volatile opponent if there ever was one. The man has never seen the final horn. in 27 fights, he is either taking you out or he is going out himself. T-Rex is the favorite here, but I am never ever counting out the most veteran of UFC veterans in Jim ******* Miller. That's stuff that intrigued me the most about UFC 334. Look, overall, this absolutely has the potential to be a really great night. For as much as I was shitting on the main event, the fight itself could be fantastic entertainment, especially if somehow Hokken is able to do this million-strike, middle-finger-waving brawling with Gunn. I seriously doubt that, and I would think he's going to want to utilize that wrestling pedigree, but it has the potential to happen, and it could end up being a really great fight, or a very sour ending to this big-time MSG card. It's certainly a downgrade from last year's MSG card, with Islam moving up to welterweight, Superfight between Valentina and Zhang. At least on paper, I mean, it was better going into it. But heavyweight is a really complex mess. I can't entirely blame the UFC for this clusterfuck, even though they certainly have plenty of blame to go around themselves on it. But a lot has happened, and that division has been in shambles for a while now. So we'll see how this plays out, but I'm hoping for some sort of definitive outcome here at the very top. And then the rest of the night should be really interesting. Some solid matchups, some solid showcases. We've got a huge women's title fight that means It means a ton for both fighters' legacies. Overall, I'm walking into 334 slightly jaded about the state of the heavyweight division, but also knowing that I'm probably going to have a really good time on Saturday, and that's ultimately what it's really all about. We'll figure out the rest of this ---- on Monday, as Dana always says. And something I always say is thank you to the editor of this video, Max Randall. Dude does an amazing job. Please show him some love and watch the videos he's been making on the channel. Dude is a prodigy. A big thanks to our channel members. Thank you guys so much, your support is always appreciated, if you want to become one, hit the join button, you get exclusive content, you get early videos, highly recommended, like and subscribe for the best damn MMA content you're gonna get anywhere, leave a comment about what you think of 334, are you hyped, are you not into it, I'd love to hear, and thank you so much for watching, have a wonderful day.