Eric Nicksick looks ahead to UFC 312, catching up w/ Chael Sonnen

On today’s episode of UFC Unfiltered, Jim and Matt are joined by a combat sports legend in women’s bantamweight Holly Holm and a burgeoning social media star in Chase DeMoor. Fresh off signing a brand new six-fight deal with the UFC, the 41-year-old Holm shares why she believes that her constant evolution as a martial artist has her feeling more confident than ever that a co-main event win against Yana Santos on Saturday’s UFC Fight Night: Vera vs. Sandhagen card keeps her in a great position to recapture a UFC title. The guys are then joined by reality TV star Chase DeMoor, who talks about how playing defensive end at the college and professional ranks led him to his current place in life starring in reality shows and fighting fellow influencers with large social media followings. Jim and Matt wrap up the show by plugging Saturday’s card set to take place in San Antonio.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

23 Maalis 202354min

Fresh off Saturday’s massive UFC 286 pay-per-view in London, Matt and Jim return for today’s episode of UFC Unfiltered with plenty to talk about as the MMA power couple of coach John Wood and women’s flyweight Joanne Wood join as guest co-hosts. Returning to the cage in the United Kingdom for the first time since 2017, Joanne shares how it felt to end her 1-year layoff with a win over Luana Carolina. Alongside his Scottish wife, Syndicate MMA owner John Wood shares the perspective of what it’s like serving two important roles as both Joanne’s husband and head coach. As Jim shifts the talk to the rest of Saturday’s fights from UFC 286, Matt and John use their coaching experience to dissect the game plans utilized by both Kamaru Usman and Leon Edwards in their welterweight title fight before ultimately working their way through the rest of the fights from Saturday’s main card.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

21 Maalis 20231h 1min

Friend of the show Phoenix Carnevale fills in for Matt Serra as a guest co-host alongside Jim Norton for today’s UFC 286 heavy episode of UFC Unfiltered! Jim and Phoenix begin the show debating whether Jon Jones’ three-year hiatus should’ve been more thoroughly considered when making the decision to place him atop the male pound-for-pound list over more active fighters in lightweight champion Islam Makhachev and featherweight champion Alexander Volkanovski. Canadian flyweight Malcolm Gordon then joins the show to talk about how his days of playing goaltender on the ice rink as a youth hockey player created transferrable skills that allowed him to develop nicely into a mixed martial artist. Gordon makes a strong case for why he prefers to let his coaches watch film of all of his opponents as he discusses the stakes of his upcoming matchup against Jake Hadley on Saturday’s UFC 286 early prelims. Jim and Phoenix then discuss whether they think there is more pressure on Leon Edwards or Kamaru Usman going into their highly-anticipated trilogy fight for the welterweight title in London. As Rafael Fiziev joins the show, the Azerbaijani lightweight contender reflects on how his upbringing led him to Thailand to develop a strong Muay Thai skillset that ultimately became the base for his foray into his career as a mixed martial artist. Fiziev discusses how riding a six-fight winning streak shapes his mindset going into a high-stakes co-main event against Justin Gaethje. Finally, Jim and Phoenix go up and down the UFC 286 card for fight predictions before Jim wraps up the show with special news about a recurring segment set to return to UFC Unfiltered episodes starting next week!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

16 Maalis 202359min

It’s a Serra-Longo Fight Team party on today’s episode of UFC Unfiltered! Not only does the great Ray Longo end his six-month drought of not appearing on the show by filling in as a guest co-host for Jim Norton, but he’s joined by bantamweight Merab Dvalishvili fresh off his dominant win over Petr Yan in Las Vegas at UFC Fight Night: Yan vs. Dvalishvili. Matt and Ray sing Merab’s praises as the proud Georgian fighter explains why he’s at peace with allowing close friend and teammate Aljamain Sterling to finish out his run as bantamweight champion before requesting a title shot of his own at 135 pounds. When Merab leaves the show, Matt and Ray recap the rest of last Saturday’s fight card and share a couple of names of fighters who impressed them the most. Finally, the guys take a sneak peek at this Saturday’s high-stakes UFC 286 pay-per-view card headlined by the welterweight title fight and third iteration of Leon Edwards vs. Kamaru Usman. Ray and Matt find themselves on opposite sides of the argument over who leaves London as the king of the UFC’s 170-pound division before rattling off the rest of their fight picks from Saturday’s stacked card.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

13 Maalis 202354min

Jim and Matt begin the show by reciprocating the love Dana White showed for the UFC Unfiltered podcast on his personal Instagram through reposting Matt’s hilarious, highly-specific and accurate prediction of Jon Jones’ first-round submission. They are then joined by Steve Howey, who not only shares what it was like spending 11 seasons as a cast member of Showtime’s hit show Shameless, but also discusses his Muay Thai training, watching UFC fights back in the day and his role as the lead actor in the new CBS show ‘True Lies’. Then, 14th-ranked heavyweight Alexandr Romanov joins the guys ahead of his co-main event fight on Saturday’s UFC Fight Night: Yan vs. Dvalishvili card. While assessing his matchup against 8th-ranked heavyweight Alexander Volkov, Romanov explains how his confidence going into the match stems from years of wrestling experience dating back to his time as a 7-year-old learning from his father in his native Moldova. Jim and Matt wrap up the show by sharing their excitement for the fights on Saturday’s card leading up to the highly-anticipated bantamweight main event between Serra-Longo trained fighter Merab Dvalishvili and former champion Petr Yan.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

9 Maalis 202354min

Fresh off the heels of Saturday night’s massive UFC 285 pay-per-view, Matt and Jim return for today’s episode of UFC Unfiltered with plenty to talk about alongside guest co-host John Hackleman. The show begins with ‘Mattstradamus’ taking a Monday-morning victory lap after having accurately predicted everything about Jon Jones’ first-round submission win over Ciryl Gane for the vacant UFC heavyweight title. Guest co-host John Hackleman then hops on the show to provide a coach’s perspective on Saturday night’s fights. The Hawaiian Kempo founder finds particular interest in the strategy successfully adopted by newly-crowned women’s flyweight champion Alexa Grasso in her upset win over long-reigning champion Valentina Shevchenko. The guys are then joined by lightweight Nazim Sadykhov roughly two weeks removed from his Fight of the Night performance in his UFC debut against Evan Elder. The Serra-Longo trained fighter talks about his journey as a mixed martial artist which began in his native Azerbaijan before eventually moving to Brooklyn as a kid with his family.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

7 Maalis 20231h 28min

Jim and Matt peel back the curtain of Saturday’s stacked UFC 285 card on today’s episode of UFC Unfiltered with three special guests — middleweight Bo Nickal, welterweight Shavkat Rakhmonov, and gambling expert Gianni “The Greek” Karalis. After Bo shares his mindset going into his highly-anticipated UFC debut against Jamie Pickett, the 27-year-old wrestling prodigy explains how being raised by a mom with an amateur boxing background and a dad with decades of wrestling experience fostered his desire to venture into the world of mixed martial arts. Matt and Jim then run through some of their picks from the main card of UFC 285 before their chat with unbeaten Shavkat Rakhmonov and his translator. While Shavkat admits that a fight against Khamzat Chimaev would be an entertaining matchup between two undefeated beasts, the UFC’s first-ever Kazakhstani fighter insists that he remains keenly focused on Saturday’s fight against 7th-ranked welterweight Geoff Neal and taking fights that will inch him closer towards a title shot. Riding an impressive winning streak of accurately-placed bets in the UFC’s first two months of 2023, Gianni “the Greek” caps off today’s show with the rationale for his red-hot takes from the prelims on up to Saturday’s highly-anticipated main event featuring heavyweights Jon Jones and Ciryl Gane.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

2 Maalis 20231h 6min

On today’s episode of UFC Unfiltered, Jim and Matt are joined by a special guest co-host in Tristar Gym owner and head coach Firas Zahabi. With UFC 285 right around the corner, Firas explains why he thinks the main event between Jon Jones and Ciryl Gane for the vacant heavyweight title is as mouthwatering of a matchup as the recent Fight of the Year candidate put on by pound-for-pound kings Islam Makhachev and Alexander Volkanovski at UFC 284. With Tatiana Suarez successfully bouncing back in the win column on Saturday for the first time in her 1,358-day layoff, Firas explains why the 32-year-old’s 2nd-round submission win over women’s flyweight Montana De La Rosa proved she can return to the top of women’s MMA and have a Khabib Nurmagomedov-like reign in the women’s strawweight division. Finally, Jim takes Matt and Firas on a stroll down memory lane of the years the two spent on opposite ends of the iconic welterweight rivalry between Matt and Zahabi-trained fighter Georges St-Pierre.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

28 Helmi 202353min