UFC Unfiltered with Jim Norton and Matt Serra

Jim and Matt return after the Labor Day break for a show that invites middleweight Andre Petroski and featherweight Kyle Nelson on for a chat ahead of their respective fights on this Saturday’s card.   Joining first is Petroski, who gets candid about the lessons he learned in his latest victory — a unanimous decision win that put an end to the first two-fight skid of his pro MMA career. Andre breaks down his matchup against Dylan Budka before ultimately explaining why he thinks a win puts him in a great place to finally get the Bo Nickal fight he’s been asking for.   Shortly after, Kyle Nelson calls in from a local store in Vegas to talk about his upcoming fight on Saturday’s main card. Originally set to fight Calvin Kattar before an injury forced him off the card, Nelson explains the shift in his mindset as he now prepares to take on Steve Garcia, who boasts an impressive four-fight knockout streak of his own.   Finally, Jim and Matt wrap up the show with four picks each from this Saturday’s UFC Fight Night card at the APEX headlined by Gilbert Burns and Sean Brady.

Today’s episode features two separate 125-pounders of opposite genders in women’s flyweight Erin Blanchfield and men’s UFC champion Alexandre Pantoja.   Blanchfield walks through what went wrong in her recent loss to Manon Fiorot before sharing her views on jiu-jitsu tournaments. The New Jersey native wraps up her interview with thoughts on the type of fight we can expect in the high-stakes trilogy between current women’s flyweight champion Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko in a few weeks at UFC 306.   Feeling re-energized by a small but much-needed break, Pantoja takes a look down from his throne atop the men’s flyweight division to assess the depth of the talent pool with the intent of figuring out if Kai Kara-France has the strongest case for the shot to compete for his belt.

On today’s episode of UFC Unfiltered, Jim Norton and Matt Serra are joined by a pair of winners from Saturday’s card in The Ultimate Fighter Season 32 featherweight winner Mairon Santos and women’s strawweight Tabatha Ricci.   Fresh off a scintillating knockout to earn his way into the UFC, Santos bonds with Matt over their shared experience in The Ultimate Fighter house before discussing the string of events that led Mairon to forego his soccer dreams back in his native Brazil to pursue a career in martial arts.   In between interviews, the guys share their takeaways from UFC Fight Night: Cannonier vs. Borralho.   Shortly after, Jim and Matt catch up with Tabatha Ricci — who unpacks the keys to her decision win over a tricky veteran like Angela Hill. Ever so determined to reinforce her striking, Tabatha outlines her plans to bring her talented boxing boyfriend Callum Walsh with her to Thailand where she seeks to focus on her Muay Thai before a planned return to the cage in 2025.

On today’s episode of UFC Unfiltered, Jim and Matt are joined by a pair of U.S. Army veterans turned UFC veterans in welterweight Neil Magny and middleweight Jared Cannonier.   Looking to build off a resounding upset win over Mike Malott, Magny talks about his standing in the game as a veteran and how his experience keeps him calm enough to capitalize off mistakes made by younger opponents. Having just signed a four-fight deal to remain with the UFC, the 37-year-old Magny then goes on to explain what he expects from unbeaten 25-year-old Michael Morales on Saturday night’s main card.   Shortly after, Jared Cannonier calls in ahead of his main event on Saturday against 12th-ranked Caio Borralho. Eager to move past his most recent loss to Nassourdine Imavov that many observers (like Matt) believed may have been stopped too early. Cannonier wraps things up by looking into scenarios that could help the middleweight veteran re-emerge into a title picture amongst current champion Dricus Du Plessis.

With UFC 305 officially in the books, Jim and Matt extend an invite to UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad for an episode of UFC Unfiltered that recaps Saturday’s action.   But first, the guys give Belal the floor in his first appearance on the podcast as a world champion to address his fellow welterweights and assess which of them are deserving of his first title defense.   As the conversation shifts to UFC 305, the guys break down what went wrong for Israel Adesanya in his first fight back in 11 months to UFC middleweight champion Dricus Du Plessis. After that, they wrap up the show by sharing their other takeaways from Saturday’s card — including flyweight Kai Kara-France’s statement win in the co-main event and lightweight Dan Hooker’s gritty performance in a split decision win over Mateusz Gamrot.