Tons of crazy things are happening in the MMA world. We at Heavy Hands find our selves surrounded by a rash of exciting finishes, rankings shakeups, and more than a few good old fashioned scraps. And UFC 214 is right around the corner, with an absolutely stellar main card.

But this is what we do. We are up to the task. And if being up to the task meant making this week’s episode about 20 minutes longer than usual, please forgive us. First on the docket, we preview the upcoming title defense of UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley, against much-delayed contender Demian Maia. After that, we shift our analytical gaze to Cris Cyborg’s third UFC appointment, in which she takes on short-notice replacement and all around badass Tonya Evinger. Among her many unquenchable thirsts, violence is chiefest. It should be fun, is what I’m saying.

But there is so much more to cover! We get into the upcoming middleweight showdown between deposed king Chris Weidman and ambitious prince Kelvin Gastelum. A bantamweight fight between Jimmie Rivera and Thomas Almeida will also be featured on the card, and we break that one down, too. By the way, if you’d like to listen to an hour-long interview with Rivera, in which he discusses his style, his training, and his infamous sparring sessions with TJ Dillashaw, you can find it on our Patreon.

Finally, it comes time to look back at UFC Glasgow. And while it feels like we couldn’t possibly have enough time for all of that, we still got into the nature of Gunnar Nelson, and the long but promising development of fighters like Cynthia Calvillo and Khalil Rountree. It’s a big one, folks, but we had fun talking about so much beautiful violence. We hope you enjoy listening to it.

To download this episode directly, just right-click and save this link.

You can also find Heavy Hands on iTunes, Google Play, and Stitcher, where you can subscribe and check out all our past episodes.

And hey, we put out two (or more) exclusive bonus episodes every month. In addition to the aforementioned Rivera episode, UFC mainstay Jim Miller gave a fascinating, hour-long interview in which he discusses his motivation for fighting, his training methods, and the impact he hopes to have on the sport of MMA. For $3 a month you can get access to this and all of our other bonus content—just check us out on Patreon. Or, for a taste, listen to the teaser here.