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00:00now let's talk about this this has been kind of a mangled card we'll see what kind of fights we
00:04get out of this there were some names that were dropping out left and right we had some you know
00:07fights that were changed the order was changed because of fights that were changed so now the
00:12way we end up this is how the picture stands at the moment of course uh this is time recording
00:17we could have a completely different card by the time we get to the start of these fights as we
00:22have seen before but coming up as the main event was tyler santos versus juliano velasquez after
00:28being changed because of another uh fight changed before santos is out of the tournament juliano
00:33velasquez moved down so we start at the main event of the bantamweight tournament the bantamweights and
00:38the women's flyweights getting under action here and leandro higo versus josh reddinghouse higo the
00:4436 year old brazilian's 23 and 6 in his ma career won his last two fights in bellator and was supposed
00:50to fight magomedov but magomedov was pulled reddinghouse now gets to move up into the picture
00:55here and we'll see what he can do against this very veteran opponent in higo uh you know when
01:01you got a replacement like this you might have the the younger fighter the more less known fighter
01:05kind of jumping in there trying to make a name for himself but i'm still going to roll with the
01:08veteran because a lot of times they're not out of the weather storm they're going to be more patient
01:11and in a situation like this that's very very apropos because you know it's not just this fight
01:16you're looking at you're looking at down the line with a possible three fights in five months so
01:21i'm going to take higo to be the smart one to get the victory there then now as the co-main event is
01:26liz karmouche versus ilara joan joan is 33 the 30 year old brazilian 12 and 9 in mma for a bellator
01:34and pfl fighter she lost three fights in a row before winning her last one in december against
01:38shannon young karmouche the 41 year old california girl the gorilla you've known her a long time
01:43bellator fighter ufc fighter pfl fighter 22 and 8 in mma used to hold the title for bellator before that
01:49became obsolete got you know the wrestling grappling base uh to me she has obviously a
01:56little bit of an age difference that could hurt her but i think the wrestling and the grappling
02:00that she has practiced throughout the years has kept her from taking a lot of damage that some
02:05other fighters might have at that age and i think she can still do uh you know what she needs to do
02:09to move on in this tournament against joan in this battle i mean we'll see if joan can use that
02:15brazilian uh jiu-jitsu that she has obviously growing up down there but a 12 and 9 record
02:19doesn't make me think that she's going to be the most high level practitioner on the ground
02:22to really negate gorilla taking her down and trying to you know grapple with her and dominate her there
02:27now another bite fight that is uh a change we're supposed to have elise taleb versus
02:32the bui ruiz that one was canceled francesco nuzzi was stepping in there now he gets a new opponent
02:38and mando gutierrez berserker francesco nuzzi is 28 year old italian 10 and 1 in his career mostly
02:44italian fights besides a 1-0 contest on a pfl card last on august of 2022 mando gutierrez a 28 year
02:51old american steps into this fight now 10 and 3 he's got six wins by submission coming in on a
02:56two-fight win streak this one's gonna be very interesting i haven't seen much or any of either
03:00of these guys i haven't i don't know if you have but this one's gonna be hard to pick i'm gonna leave
03:05this one off of my betting card but this one should be very interesting to see two guys that are
03:08gonna be hungry trying to make their debut and see what they can do to make a name for themselves
03:12in the pfl next is kasum kasama versus jason wetzel kasama the 30 year old russian 16 and 1 in his
03:18mma career nine wins by submission supposed to fight sean clark the irish fighter who unfortunately
03:24suffered that mcl injury and is out now so now he'll be fighting wetzel the 33 year old american
03:2910 and 2 in his mma career 4 ko tko 5 by decision is on a three-fight win streak it's going to be very
03:36interesting to see if he can keep it standing and try to batter his opponent like he has shown in
03:40other fights but i think that kasumov is the one who is obviously to play here try to take it to the
03:45ground smother his opponent and you know either get the submission or go the distance and get the
03:49points i think that's the way it's going to be for him then we also have next as we said juliana
03:54velasquez moving down this card and she gets her fight against the former uh on call fight there
04:03that we used to had earlier that you know we have always these backup fights on these cards for this
04:06reason ekarina shakalova the ukrainian the 27 year old is 8 and 2 in mma who's in 1 and 1 in
04:13bellator uh coming off a decision loss to aspen ladd last may she goes against velasquez who is 13 and
04:19three in mma the former bellator and pfl fighter seven wins by decision five by ko tko i'm going
04:25to lead obviously on velasquez even though she's 38 over a decade older than her opponent that
04:30experience like we talked to with higo coming in against a late replacement uh you know that can
04:35be tough for a younger fighter to train for someone then all of a sudden you switch up the
04:38game plan switch up everything you need but that's better for a veteran like juliana velasquez
04:42you also have matos versus hadley hadley the former ufc fighter is trying to make a name for
04:46himself here in the pfl that's coming up later in that card you have wantabi versus bishop
04:51all those going on tonight on espn 2 and espn plus