On To the Next One: Matches To Make After Finish-Filled UFC Belgrade Event

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**Mike Heck** (1:29)
Well, hello there, everybody, and welcome to a brand new edition of On To The Next One. The Matchmaking Crowns are back after a historic WWE Superstars edition of UFC Fight Night Belgrade, where we had so many squash matches on paper, almost all of them delivered in squashy fashion, and we had an upset or two, and records are broken. 12 finishes in 14 fights. I think we had the most first round finishes in UFC history. I think this is the most finishes ever on a UFC card. Is that true, AK? My best friend?
I'm sorry.

**Alexander K. Lee** (2:08)
I still muted.

**Mike Heck** (2:09)
I unmuted you, but is that true? Is this the most finishes ever?

**Alexander K. Lee** (2:12)
I think I saw someone tweet that. Definitely, I think it was the most first round finishes, for sure.
It helps that it was a massive card. This was a 14 fight card, and thank goodness there were so many finishes because we knew on paper, we're like, boy, this looks like a little bit of a slog. Even given the talents involved, I shouldn't say that. Even given that we knew there would be some fast fights, we're like, man, I don't know if this needs to be 14 But as everyone made weight, everyone stayed healthy.
I think fans are used to by this point, Dakar is being booked for 14, 13, 12 fights and having at least a couple fall through. That wasn't the case here. We got every fight and mileage may vary. I thought it was an overall pretty fun card. I don't know if it was the best card of the year or anything, because I know people love finishes, but I think we remind people all the time. A lot of quick finishes doesn't necessarily mean you're watching great MMA. It means, as you said, Mike, you might be catching an episode of old school WWF superstars, right? Which is fine. That's how you get people over, get to see cool moves, get to see people work on their gimmicks. I drew up the great Michael Carroll at MJC flip the script on Twitter. He said some UFC records that were set or matched, hold on, finishes at a modern UFC event. First round finishes at a modern UFC event. Significant strikes landed in a three-round fight. Oh, that was the Todd McMillan thing. Sorry, this is like 2026 records.
Tied for longest submission streak in modern history, that was Walter Walker. So sorry, just for Serbia, Belgrade, most finishes and most first round finishes. So both, I think.

**Mike Heck** (3:46)
The reaction to it has been interesting. I had a bunch of people reach out to me and be like, yeah, that was really fun. Then I had some people being like, yeah, I didn't enjoy that at all because none of the fights were competitive. Like everything that was supposed to happen, happened outside of Gilbert Urbina.
And then I was like, well, Taufik Masayev wasn't upset. But I mean, like everybody who won was like a minus 700 favorite. They're all massive favorites. So like, but again, every Apex event should be this. It should be exactly this, all squash matches and then a main event with some significance. My, our lives would be so much better.
It would be. And by the way, Apex card should only be 10 fights. Boy, our people, some people were really upset with me when I was like 14 fights is too many.
Most people agree with me, but there are like a couple of people who was like, you shouldn't even have a job in the score. They get that. I'm like, dude, 14 fights is crazy. Like we don't want, we don't ask for five quarters in an NFL game. We don't ask for four, for five quarters in an NBA game. Like sometimes you get it if there's a tie, but it's not the norm. You're not supposed to get that every single time. We'd like to enjoy other things during the day. It's okay to not sit here and watch seven hours of fist fights, especially when every fight ends in the first round and it's still seven hours of fist fights. Like it's, it's just too many fights and that's okay. My stance, you will never convince me otherwise that 14 fights is too many. 10 to 12 is the frigging sweet spot. 10 should be every apex card or less. 10 is the absolute maximum that an apex card should be. And a fight night should be 12, no more than 12 There's nothing wrong with that.