MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - 15: Weidman vs. Reyes, Greg Hardy, UFC Singapore, and Bellator 232

Episode Date: October 22, 2019

Will Greg Hardy ever have a fight without controversy? We talk "inhalergate" and where does he go from here. We look at a couple of big wins in combat. sports: Undefeated Dominick Reyes taking out Chris Weidman and calling out Jon Jones and undefeated IBF Light Heavyweight Boxing Champion Artur Beterbiev stopped WBC Champion Oleksandr Gvozdyk in the 10th round to become 15-0 with 15 KO's and lay claim as the best in his division. We look ahead to a great weekend featuring UFC Singapore featuring Askren looking to bounce back vs Maia and Bellator 232 with MacDonald vs Lima 2. We also have the finals of the World Boxing Super Series Saturday night in the Junior Welterweight division featuring undefeated champions Regis Prograis vs Josh Taylor in a rare matchup of two undefeated champions. Great things ahead as November 2nd around the corner with the BMF fight and Canelo vs Kovalev....enjoy it! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Or maybe even Morning Kombat, all right? And it's back with a bang to take over your week. We talk about mornings done right, combat sports, all of the above. Your boy, Brian Campbell from CBS Sports and the State of Combat podcast. And no, that is not Luke Thomas. He is enjoying right now an Escobarian holiday in the nation of Columbia. But he could be dancing with Mr. Brownstone for all we know, Chuck. You know he is. All right, but to keep the GNR references going, you used to do a little. Brownstone for all we know, Chuck. You know he is.

All right, but to keep the GNR references going, you used to do a little on this show. Right out of the gate. And the little wouldn't do it, but the little got more and more. It's the athletics, Chuck Mendenhall, the man in the damn hat. I love what you're doing for us on the show. All right, welcome back. I'm happy to be back, man. In your seat, too.

All right, well, not only do we love the viewers, the aggressiveness behind the comments, you can comment live now, and what do we have coming in here from the pollination? Is that Luke Mendenhall or Chuck Thomas? A little cross-pollination of the combat here, but we're back with a bang in this one. Like I mentioned, Off the Top, please do us that solid. It's the

holiday season, and subscribe on YouTube. Keep the combat flowing, despite me butchering the name of the show, off the top. Chuck, good weekend. You're back in the seat for the third time. We love you here. All right.

This guy's approval rating is insane in the MMA world. It's way up here. It's tough to compete against. You're basically looking at Joe Silva, GSP, the Just Bleed guy, and Chuck Mendenhall. No one said a bad word about you. Just Bleed. Just below that right there.

I don't know how you do it, but it is well done. The iconic hat. Yeah, we got a lot to get into in both the worlds of MMA boxing. Hey, Luke's not here today. We might be able to talk pro wrestling just for a little bit. Just for a second. I'll listen to you. I know you're fired up for that Brock Kane 2 matchup coming to a desert near you. All right. All right. Let's hit it. Let's hit it hard. Let's get into the biggest headlines of the week. And we start in the UFC. UFC Boston fight night this past weekend gave us a light heavyweight main event with title implications as Dominic Reyes scores a first-round knockout

of former middleweight champion Chris Weidman. In the end, wasn't much of a fight as Reyes did the damage, sending Weidman to his fifth loss in six fights. We'll get to Weidman in a second, but I mention off the top here, you're not seeing Dom Reyes in Toyo Tires commercials. This was an opportunity, a launching point, to put himself in title contention. He certainly, after the fact, made the calls of Jon Jones that you'd expect. Did we learn anything new from this performance, though, Chuck,

from the standpoint of saying he's ready, he's next in line at 205? I think that's what we learned, right, Jones that you'd expect. Did we learn anything new from this performance though, Chuck, from the standpoint of saying he's ready, he's next in line at 205? I think that's what we learned, right, is that he is ready. I wasn't sure going into this. I thought this was a unique matchup, obviously, with Chris Weidman moving up in weight. I wasn't sure what form we'd get him in, but I go back to that Jared Cannoneer

when he finished Jared Cannoneer, I was like, and that begins to look really nice too, given how Cannoneer has kind of started rolling himself. So now he puts this one together in a big moment. And I thought he shined, man. I thought he shined. And if you need contenders in that division, there's always a dearth of big talent at the top.

And I think we finally uncovered the guy to go after Jon Jones. You know, we didn't learn a whole lot because of the short nature of the fight. It was basically one prolonged takedown attempt from Weidman. They get back to the feet, and then it's a short punch right on the chin. But for Reyes, he certainly had questions that I thought he needed answering. Not that he's not good, but we know this is a shallow division. You know, you put a couple wins together. Johnny Walker doesn't seem to be ready.

They're going to give you that push. I'm not sure, though, even as impressive as this win looked, that I know much more than I did coming off of Reyes' last fight against Volkan Ozdemir, where I thought he benefited from getting a decision that maybe he didn't earn. He got taken down at will. So from the standpoint of your UFC and the

matchmakers, you're saying, okay, we've got to do the business. Jon Jones, Dominic Reyes next. We have a guy with good size, a good style. What is that Volkan fight to you? Was it an aberration? Because if he's taking guys down like it's a nightclub in Fort Lauderdale, just knocking dudes out, easy with Reyes, what's Jon Jones going to do?

Well, you would think that Jon Jones is going to capitalize on that, but the Jon Jones that I've seen recently is as susceptible as Reyes. I mean, he's fighting not to lose, not to win these fights. I thought he was going to cruise right past, you know, in his last fight with Santos, and he did not do that. In fact, I had him losing in that fight. So I think that just because that version of Jon Jones was our last look, he looks more right for the picking to me. And a guy like Reyes, just given that he's a natural, you know, 205-er, and he's tall. Remember the big Gustafson, the first Gustafson fight when they were marketing tall and then length and all that? I feel like he could create a few problems in there.

So I'm personally sold on it, but it's like the kind of thing where you skew it because you're not sure who else is around. It's really just that he's the most obvious choice at this point. Well, look, this was his first real main event A-side opportunity there. I mean, Wyman had the much bigger name, of course, but this was an attempt to showcase him, and he passed that test with flying colors. So you've got to give him his due.

And I think in some regards, Chuck, you don't really know who a guy is until they actually end up getting in there against Jon Jones. I never would have guessed that Maheta could give him five rounds of hell to that level, even from what we saw on the finishes that Tiago Santos had coming in. I didn't know he could go to that next level.

It certainly meshed perfectly, like you mentioned, with Jon Jones really not going for the finish, maybe not taking him down at the level he could have, or at least as pundits we thought he should have. We're not really going to know, I guess, Reyes-wise, until you see him in there. Had a couple of those performances that really give you those feels that he's got the size, got the volume, striking ability. Is there any sort of X factor you've seen so far where you're like, that's it, that's what's going to give Jones issues? Probably the hunger factor. Just because he's been gunning for Jones. I feel like Jones is more

complacent these days. He goes in there and you don't really feel the, you don't feel that energy that he had early on in his career. So just being the target for as long as he has, I feel like maybe he, you know, maybe that's an intangible. It must be difficult for him to get up for those types of fights in the end. And so

maybe that works in the favor of Reyes a little bit. I mean, look, Jones was in an interesting spot when he came back from the USADA suspension in that he fought, what, three times in seven months. None of those three, with the exception of the Gustafson rematch, really had like a sexy hook to it that you have to see. So I get what you're saying in that regard. But, you know, if you come at the king, you best not miss. Has Reyes connected so far from the standpoint of trying to get Jones' attention?

I mean, he's basically referencing Boogar Shugar and the bad habits that Jon Jones has had outside the cage. Is that going to get enough to wake Johnny up? At this point, it's just like everybody mentions that. You know what I mean? I don't know. It seems like Jon Jones shrugs off these things anyway. So, I don't know. I feel like it's just one of those things for Jon Jones.

If he wants to just kind of keep his legacy rolling because we have these natural contenders, this is who you want to fight maybe. I don't know if he's necessary. I mean, he doesn't strike me as a guy who's chasing like the big money fight. He's not going up to heavyweight trying to create like some marquee fight. He's reaching down. He's reaching down. He's reaching down.

So I feel like this is kind of a suitable guy for him. I don't know how much it moves his needle. If he goes in and he just goes right through Reyes, I'm not sure what that does for Jon Jones other than keep him rolling along. I will say this, though. My excitement level for Jon Jones and Anthony Smith was pretty low at that point considering this is Jon Jones, this is a title fight. True.

Same thing for Tiago Santos at the time. I think that's the biggest problem, right, is that each one of these has an equal low bar. Well, I was going to give Reyes credit here. Even though Tiago Santos exceeded my expectations, you can argue I should have given him more credit coming in. I still think Dom Reyes is going to be an interesting out.

He's willing to talk trash. He's willing to try to get in Jones' head. Hey, I'm in. I'm ready. I'm good. And he's had these flashes where he looks really good. So, like you said, I would have liked to have seen a little more in this fight just to get a better gauge of that. But, I mean, he got the job done. And he showcased his power a little bit. So, I'm game, you know.

And the B-side lead story to this, maybe even the biggest story coming out of this, though, is the fall of Chris Weidman. I mentioned it. Five losses and six fights for the 35-year-old. All five by knockout. Now, in his favor, Chuck, UFC, for the most part, you're always going to have to go big. These are five elite opponents that he's faced. These were some fights where he had moments and was doing well and suffered somewhat disastrous sort of bad luck knockouts.

But it's still five of six. He did barely anything in this somewhat desperate move up in weight, talking a big game, coming out there, really didn't able to get to show much but save for a takedown. On a scale from Johnny Hendricks to Hennon Burrell, how rough is this fall to go from champion to now we're straight up saying, where do you go next? Do you go anywhere next? I like that. I like that, trying to figure that out. I would actually put him closer to Hinton Burrell because I didn't see Hinton Burrell's thing coming. He had won like a decade streak where he was winning.

Dana White was calling him one of the best of all time. Dana told me he was the pound for pound king. That's what Dana said. We know Dana always tells the truth too. The way T.J. Dillashaw buzzsawed right through him, I was shocked. I kind of felt that way. It wasn't exactly like that, but when Rockhold was able to beat Chris Weidman,

it had a feeling like that because I felt like I had Weidman up here. He was a guy that actually, when you talk to him after he beat Anderson Silva, was already talking about Jon Jones. It was like he wanted to challenge the toughest guys. He had that wrestling base. He had the power. He's a psychology major, so he knew kind of how to play these guys in the lead-up. I just thought he had all the elements, man. So

to know that he's been on that kind of spiral, it really is similar to Hinton Burrell after that Dillashaw fight because he just never looked the same. The big difference, I think, for Weidman is you watch through your fingers a little bit, and I was doing that with this fight. You feel like if he gets hit clean, he's going down, and I hate it when you get to that point.

I hate it. It's Chuck Liddell flashbacks. It is. And it's unfortunate because in some of those fights, like we said, I mean, the Rockhold fight where he lost his title, he was certainly in that and controlled, you know, most of it. That was a brutal fight that went back and forth at the end. But for a while, he's ahead of that. You go into that Jacare fight, he's winning a great stretch of that.

Even Romero. That's the hard thing. Didn't he have moments against Romero? He did. He's looked decent in stretch of that. Even Romero. That's the hard thing. Didn't he have moments against Romero? He did. He's looked decent in most of those fights. This one is the only one where I felt like he didn't really offer much in terms of the competition. Problem is, the five of six losses, though, were no longer like, is it time? I know he came out afterwards and he said, look, all praises to God, all this kind of stuff.

I'll be back. I don't want him or need him back. So do you have any issue with the matchmaking run he'd been on? That there didn't come a certain point after two, three losses in a row where he said, okay, this guy's a brand. He's a former champion. He wants to keep fighting. Let's soften him up a little.

You don't always see that in UFC. No. And if he had lost that Gaston fight, imagine where. I mean, I can't imagine. Because that's the one reason to give him just the ounce of hope that he's rediscovered some of that old mojo. He'd be rematching Machida and Del Toro right now. I'm to the point with you, man.

You get a little squeamish when you watch certain fighters, the way they get knocked out. And let's face it, UFC 194, man, that was one of those fights where you know it took something out of them. You know it took something out of them. And it's just played out that way. I don't like the fights where you basically are are like oh this we might be talking bad you know about you know playing the you know the dirge music after this one because I it just it has that feeling. I didn't like the matchmaking to be honest on this one. I would rather if he's making that leap to go against more of a middle division guy who you know maybe he could uh at least show his offense a little bit. Maybe before

this fight. Yeah even before even before because they are loss? Even before, because they are monsters, man. Like you mentioned, these are all monsters that he was fighting. I mean, it's weird, because you could say that UFC did Weidman no favors in this 205 debut by giving him a name this big, who's on the cusp of a title shot. But yet at the same time, you know what I said on last week's show? Weidman gets a win over Dom Reyes. He's probably getting a title shot.

And that's what happens when you become sort of an aging brand, and you become sort of that Rich Franklin stay-by-the-phone fighter who can just fill in in multiple weight classes. But it was just three years ago that Weidman and Rockhold were on top of this middleweight division. And holy crap, a lot can change in a short amount of time. And both guys seemed unbeatable at that moment. I still got that UFC 199 poster in my office for the rematch that never happened.

And then Bisping changed the middleweight narrative. But do you point to anything for Weidman? Because now that we're sort of, in my mind, past the point of wondering if he still has it, he's just in that sort of Chuck Liddell mode where anytime someone touches his chin, I think it's over. What happened? How do you explain the wheels falling off Weidman? I don't know, man. I really don't know.

Like, it just happens for certain guys. I don't know. It wasn't like he was taking a ton of damage before. The weight cut was the big issue, right? And especially, like, I think it was, who was he fighting? There was a fight where he had to cut, like, 30 or 40 pounds in a very small window on a short notice type of thing. I remember back then thinking, ooh, this might be bad for his long-term career, you know, that sort of thing. But where the chin thing started happening, I don't know.

And I wouldn't have placed him in that category, man. It's just that it happens. When it goes, it's gone. It really goes quick. It's absolutely gone. I hate to see it. I'm not going to pile on Chris Weidman here, but you're going to buy in at all to my theory now that we are piling on that he never beat Anderson Silva, and Silva just lost twice? Just kidding. Just kidding. All right, bring in the comments. I know they're coming. All right. Stipe never beat DC. You know where I'm going with that. All right, also on this card, Chuck, we had a co-main event 27 days or so after we saw it in Mexico City for 15 seconds when Jeremy Stephens and Yair Rodriguez promised featherweight violence.

Almost a month later, they delivered it in three exciting rounds. Was it sort of worth the wait in the added wrinkles in the storylines that got us here in Boston? Yeah, man. I mean, because I was in Mexico City, by the way, for that fight, the first fight that only lasts 15 seconds. It didn't have any buzz.

I mean, it was just like these two guys didn't really like each other, but nobody cared. They were going in there, and then coming out of it, people cared. So I felt like it did have, you know, a nice little added bonus to this fight. There was some bad blood

that I think people tuned in to see, and they did put on the show, man. And I wasn't sure bonus to this fight. There was some bad blood that I think people tuned in to see. And they did put on the show, man. And I wasn't sure, to be honest. I wasn't sure how that was. A lot of people were like, why would you poke the bear with Jeremy Stevens? Why would you try to wake up a guy who's like that? You know what I mean? And hats off to that dude because he went in there and in the second round,

it looked like he's done and he survives and then that gets the crowd going. I mean, it was a fun fight, man. That second round might be the round of the year in MMA, or at least in the discussion. Anytime the narrative switches that thoroughly. That dramatically, and that's Jeremy Stevens' toughness. And even though in a loss, he's 33. My God, what, he's got 16 or 17 career losses?

He's a guy who's on one of those runs where all elite losses, all going for broke, all being little heathen, all or nothing, bringing the hell. Is he over that hill, though, now? All elite losses. All going for broke. All being little heathen. All or nothing. 32 fights. Bringing the hell. 32. Is he over that hill though now? Because he had that brief period before the Aldo fight where we're right in those features, you and I, for our respective brands saying, this guy's figured something out. I think he's, people talk about gatekeeper as a negative, right?

But I feel like he could be a very happy gatekeeper at this point. I don't really think he needs to go. I don't even think he cares about the title. He can just try to beat the guys trying to get to the title. I'd be okay with that, and I think he'd be okay with that. So keep him in that range, and I don't think he's going to ascend beyond that. If anything, at 33 years old and that many fights, I think we're probably going to see the decline soon. I think it was good from Yair Rodriguez's perspective.

27 years old, you know, they wanted him to be something in Mexico and be that big crossover brand in that community. And he gets a big win here. Ricky Martin could write the song for him. He bangs, he bangs. We knew that already though, Chuck, but I feel like he's ready to really make that leap. Maybe not title shot next at featherweight. We get a little, little, you know. We've got some big names up there,

but are you getting the feeling that he's figured it all out to a better degree? I think so. And have you talked to him recently? Because he's kind of a salty dog a little bit, man. He's different than he was a couple years ago because I thought he was pretty happy-go-lucky, to be honest. But now he's very serious.

It's like he doesn't really talk about it, but something happened in his life where it's changed him. He't really talk about it, but something happened in his life where it's changed him. He'll allude to it, but he's not really saying what it is. Whatever the case is, I feel like he's, there's a chip on his shoulder that I'm seeing come out, and I'm anxious now to see kind of how far he does take. I know some people don't

really believe in his stock, and I think it really, you go back to that Frankie Edgar, you know, fight. It's a humbling loss. Yeah, it's a humbling loss, and people, that just stays in your mind when you see something like that. But, you know, I think he was very young, and I think we'll probably see him make a run here. I'll tell you what.

Especially after that last second knockout, man. Well, I want to reference that, because if Max hangs on to the title, and look, Volkanovski's a big deal. Ortega's going to be back in the mix. This is a fun-ass division. We already know this. But if Max ends up being there, and Yair Rodriguez can get one more big win,

and we can match those two together, and more mature Yair ready for action here. Those kicks, I would love to see that. Oh my goodness, that's going to be a hell of a fun fight, and I wonder if he continues this run, when we look back at the Korean zombie fight in Denver, the

one second to go, elbow dropping up. Imagine that as a turning point where you would say, what would have happened if, but instead it went down that way. It's like a literal Hail Mary, right? You're landing something that pivoted the whole career. Because who knows what happens if he just loses that decision. I mean, we look at Anderson Silva's sub of Chael Sonnen as an ultimate fifth round Hail Mary with about, what, a little over a minute to go.

I mean, this was one second left in a fight you're going to lose. I mean, Chavez, Meldrick, Taylor in boxing with a couple seconds to go, but like we never really see something like that. It's still, when it happened, I remember just sitting there like that didn't happen. You're in disbelief that that happened. Then you're like, did that happen before the, you know, the horn? Like it was bizarre. To this day, man, watch out again.

It's just to this day, that is still remarkable that he did that all right we want to stay with UFC Boston but shift gears a little bit also on this undercard we saw the heavyweight the former NFL lineman Greg Hardy much maligned back in the cage another pump up opportunity third from the top on the card going in there against Ben Sassoli am I I going to nail that correctly? A three-round unanimous decision later turned to a no contest when it was deemed that the inhaler Hardy used between rounds was not pre-approved by the Massachusetts State Athletic Commission. So, Chuck, we got issues here because, once again, Greg Hardy... He's like...

Trying to do good, can't seem to figure out that I shouldn't knee a downed opponent. I shouldn't take medicine that's not pre-approved. Maybe I shouldn't throw a lady on a bed of firearms. I mean, there's some things in this man's embattled life that he just can't get right. I'm not expecting you to give me a long soliloquy about how this man's soul is dark and he needs to be removed from my TV screen for life. But what does this episode in the UFC run of Greg Hardy tell you about Greg Hardy the person?

I don't get to do my soliloquy. I was in the mirror all morning. Wow, wow. Had on or off during that? It's always off in the mirror. You know, truthfully, man, I feel like he's got that Husamar Paul Harris thing where you're almost wondering

if he's connecting all the dots. You know what I mean? If he just doesn't get it or if he's a natural hero. It goes beyond that because I think even in like, there's a tone deaf, and I know this extends to the UFC, but there's a tone deaf kind of thing going on. It's almost like defiance, but

it's not quite. I don't think it goes. Remember Andrew Gulotta in boxing? Stop punching the dude in the balls. Just stop it. Stop looking for a way out. But now it's a quite. I don't think it goes. So Paul Harris makes sense. Remember Andrew Gulotta in boxing? Yeah, of course. It's like, stop punching the dude in the balls. Just stop it. Stop looking for a way out. But for Gulotta. But now it's a pattern, right? For Gulotta, it was a pattern of maybe some fear, maybe some mental stuff going on.

What do you think it is with Hardy? That particular, this particular episode, it's a little baffling. Why would you even, why would you do that? It doesn't make any sense. It's a little baffling. Why would you do that? It doesn't make any sense. So the down thing, like when that Crowder fight, wasn't it? When he got disqualified. That particular one, you're like, okay, this is a guy that they rushed onto a big stage who doesn't even understand the rules altogether.

He seemed like he was genuinely puzzled when that happened. So why he was in trouble. And this time, I felt like the same thing. So it's almost like I feel like he's not playing with the full deck, is what I'm trying to say. There's a disconnect there. And I feel like we're only at the beginning. If the UFC keeps putting him in these kind of spot-lit gigs

where he's fighting guys, whoever it is, it doesn't matter if they're big name or not, but he's on these big spots on ESPN or whatever, I have a feeling we're going to keep talking about this because it feels like now bizarre things are going to happen whenever he fights. I mean, I hope we're not getting in that Galata Tyson, Mike Tyson late career run where it's just you're tuning in for the zaniness. But look, Ben Sassoli was who he was. He had a rocking, a fantastic mullet. The combat wombat.

I don't know if he, I think you think I would drink out of a shoe regardless of a win or loss, but tell me if I'm wrong here, engaging where we are on the Greg Hardy train in terms of his evolution as a fighter, I felt like if there's 30 more seconds in that fight, that the damn combat Wombat seemed to figure out how to get to that chin and maybe the guest head was empty for Hardy. What did this performance

tell you? I mean, this one was, I thought, a setup for him to just showcase on, right? Like, I thought he was supposed to go in there and slam dunk on this guy and get out of there, kind of like he did with Juan Adams. But that didn't happen, which then lends you to think, like, who is he prepared for? I wanted to see him against a guy like Todd Duffy or something like that, a guy who's not been around but a name that he might be able to compete with in that situation. At this point, I'm not sure, man.

I am not sure. I still think that the psychology behind booking Greg Hardy from the UFC's perspective should be to put doubt on it so that people tune in to see him get his ass kicked. Because right now, the guys they're putting in there are more tailored for him to do that. And that's not really what the public sentiment is on this. Well, what you're hitting is from the idea of marketing booking. And when you're staying in that side, it looked like in the beginning, and we talked about this on this show with Luke in the past, where it's like we're frustrated that we don't know the direction they're going. Or even Greg Hardy is going, are you a hero or a villain?

Right. Which one are you going? And at times he's yes, ma'am, and he's going in that direction. But now we have a calculated string here, not calculated, a random sort of string of somewhat heel villain moments in terms of the marketing. So maybe you're right. Just embrace that side of it. Be that warrior prince or prince of violence or whatever the hell

he's calling himself and just be not remorseful if he's going to go banging his chest and saying I'm going to be the greatest heavyweight

combat sports athlete of all time then you've got to start moving him up you've got to move him up a little bit so that's the next question I'm getting a little bored

at where we are now I get why he's ending up in the co-main and the third fight on the card but if it's going to continue to be the evolution at this rate, which as a fighter he probably needs,

I don't think it's musty. I don't think it's losing that appeal. It's almost like, I think he's had four UFC fights all within about a year span. He's making a ton of money compared to other heavyweights. It's almost like the deal was, if he's going to fight in the UFC, he's going to fight on these ESPN cards,

he's going to make this amount of money in this amount of time. Imagine how pissed off all those other heavyweights are, man. I gotta believe that. And I know a lot of people are getting his side and saying, look, he thought it was clear beforehand, but anyone you're talking to, referees, Dana White, who's been in this game a while, are like, what the hell is that team thinking? Shades of Strikeforce

Houston 2010, you remember that? King Moe and KJ Newlands with a little oxygen canisters there wow let's put UFC Boston to bed yeah but this weekend Chuck we got a pair of welterweight MMA cards welterweight fights leading both the Bellator and a UFC card that you simply don't want to miss can't miss on the Bellator side it's that welterweight title rematch with Rory McDonald going against two-time champion Douglas Lima the finals of that Bellator side, it's that welterweight title rematch with Rory McDonald going against two-time champion Douglas Lima. The finals of that Bellator welterweight Grand Prix.

On the UFC side, you've got Ben Askren's comeback from that five-second loss to Jorge Masvidal in July when he faces Damian Maia in Singapore. Early morning fight, all grappling all the time. But Chuck, I want to start there in the Bellator. I think it's 232 is the card this weekend in our home state here. I'm glad you're keeping track of the numbers. In our state

of Connecticut, our little backyard there. I'm going to check that out live. You're going to be there? I don't want to tell the people where you are. I will not be there for this week. All right, Chuck, you wake up in a tub without a key organ knowing our listeners putting all these comments on the screen right here. But I will say this, Chuck, for me, need to see this fight. Can't wait to see this fight. The first one kicked off 2018 in Los Angeles. It was when Rory McDonald really stepped up for the first time in Bellator, and I believe his second fight with the promotion. Yeah, I believe it was.

Wins the title in a five-round unanimous decision, but he went through hell. Yes, he did. And afterwards, he basically said, look, this is about the second or third most damage I've taken in a fight. His leg, man. We all know Douglas Lima is arguably the best kept secret in all of MMA. He's been this final in this welterweight tournament, having gone through guys like MVP, having done some big things. What's your gut feeling at where we are now in 2019?

It feels like when this fight first happened, that these two guys were almost completely different products at that point. It helped that Douglas Lima took out MVP like he did. I thought that that was one of the cooler things that I kept. You see that highlight a lot, that knockout. I think that might have jumped his stock a little bit, but he's a very soft-spoken guy. You know this. You've talked to him.

It's very difficult to get a guy like that more shine because they don't help themselves. He's more of just a put-me-in-the-cage-and-I'll-win-you-over-with-my-fighting. And I'm sold that way. I'm in the bubble. I love it. I think that it's fun to watch that guy fight, man. He is, like you mentioned, he is a best kept secret. He's a Bellator guy through and through, which I like. You know, they don't have a ton of guys who are just, you associate only with Bellator. He's one of their good ones that I really think that they should be marketing more. Came up the hard way. Yeah, man. Bounce back from losses. Yeah, and I just, to me, this fight,

I know we talked a little bit about this before, but when I was watching that first fight live, it felt like you were watching something fairly epic for a Bellator fight. I was sitting there like, man, this is crazy. I hope we get anything like that again. I hope we kind of get that, because Rory McDonald only sealed the deal in the fifth round, right?

Getting that takedown in the ground. Yeah, the fight was seemingly up for grabs, and he controlled that whole final round. I don't want those guys to take a ton of damage, especially Rory McDonough's been through some wars, but I'm like, if we get anything like that first fight, man, that's going to be fun. I think when you look at this tournament,

and kudos to Bellator when they've rolled out the heavyweight Grand Prix, now this welterweight one, they got the 16-man featherweight one coming at us. We've gotten great fights. We've gotten great matchups. We've gotten great results. If you're Scott Coker and company and you're looking at the tournament bracket beforehand and you're going to have Douglas Lima and Roy McDowell and it's going to be a rematch of that

great title fight, you're going to be super happy. I felt in the moment watching that first one in January 2018 that it was a fight of the year contender. That was brutal. Rewatch the second time wasn't as maybe dramatic as I thought, but it was grueling and it was top level stuff here. I think we all remember Rory McDonald's left leg.

I'm sure he remembers it when he was growing an object coming out of his shin right there. That poor guy has been through so many weird injuries. Here's the deal, though. Rory used his wrestling so smart in that fight to anytime he was in danger on the feet, anytime Douglas Lee was picking him apart with those big time kicks, he could take it to the ground, he could rest, he could control. He ends up getting the edge on the scorecards.

A lot's happened for Rory since that fight and we have to be honest about this. Seems ill advised that he moved up for the middleweight title against Musashi. Got his lunch handed to him. Has that fight with John Fitch. That ends up being a draw. Rory gets the advancement because he's the defending champion, but he didn't look good.

He didn't fight good. And we all know, of course, the post-fight interview where he questioned whether he still has it, mentioned his deepening Christian faith. So nice bounce back against Neiman Gracie, but I didn't see the Red King. I didn't see that killer. And Chuck, you need to be that guy,

or Douglas Lima's going to figure you out. If I'm a betting man, Lima's the picker, right? Given all that what you just mentioned, that's exactly what you want to know when you're handicapped in a fight like this. I'm not sure where Rory McDonald's head is at this point. I know he's fulfilling what he's supposed to do, but I'm not sure how much he wants to be there. I feel like

that's the subplot of this whole thing. He's navigated the field. He probably should beat those guys to get here. But now he's in this spot. You're like, if he doesn't dig into that reserve that we knew from before, that kind of sadistic, crazy, psycho killer dude that he was, I don't think he wins this fight. It's going to be tough.

Lima's certainly going to have to keep the fight off of the ground. He's going to have to be able to dictate the terms of it. So much has changed. Lima's stock only going up. I mean, you can make the argument that he's the best fighter in Bellator pound for pound right now. I'm sure Pitbull will not want to hear that conversation. You could make that. Yeah, for sure. You can certainly make that argument.

This is one hell of a people flying in with these comments. Pantheon Moon, hey, Showtime, put the Morning Combat coffee mugs in your damn store. Wow. Wow. What loser told you not to have those mugs in the store? Fire that moron immediately. That moron is our producer, Jay.

I would like, speaking, if anyone from Showtime is listening, can we get some damn merch? I love the mug, but can I outfit my kids in a morning combat hoodie? Can I open the show and call it Mortal Kombat again? Wow, that's a regretful moment there. But thank you, listeners, for jumping in. That's not the only Walt Tour this weekend. And by the way, Bell Tour got back-to-back cards.

Friday and Saturday in Connecticut, you're going to get a different fight this weekend. And by the way, welterweight got back-to-back cards Friday and Saturday in Connecticut. You're going to get a different welterweight rematch. Frank Mirren, big country. Excited.

Roy Nelson. Oh, I see. We the people, Jake Hager. For everything that that welterweight final is, that's the opposite.

Yeah, as Jake Hager once said, I'll flip it though, I'm not rock hard with emotion. I do not have a phoner at the moment. I do need to see, though, this welterweight fight I mentioned Saturday morning

on the East Coast time when the UFC invades Singapore for a fight night. It's Ben Askren. It's Damian Maia in that welterweight main event. Askren's got some explaining to do, Chuck. Five-second loss to Masvidal. The most viral, ridiculous, dramatic knockout that we've ever seen.

What kind of danger is Ben Askren the brand in of taking an L here when you consider, yes, he beat Robbie Lawler. He persevered in that fight. But that's a wacky fight with a weird ending. Persevered is the right way to say it, too. And then he never got out of the blocks against Jorge Masvidal. So we never really got to know what was that fight going to look like. Damian Maia is the perfect opponent right now for this.

For sure. What happens if he takes a hard L, though? I've taken a lot of Ls in my life. I'm sure that surprises nobody. I'm back right here. Can he come back? I don't know, man. I don't know about this one.

Because if he loses to Maia, I feel like any of the vitality that he had or the relevance of coming in undefeated, that was part of it, right? It was like this guy who didn't get along with Dana White. He was undefeated. He's coming over. The partition's down. He's going to face these UFC competition. A lot of that starts to go away.

It starts to erode. It already has with that five-second knockout. So I feel like this is a big moment for him if he's going to remain into that conversation. We know how big it is just from the evidence of where Masvidal is after doing that to Ben Askren. It was only because he was Ben Askren that Masvidal gets into this big fight at Madison Square Garden. That's a good point. So he has that still. I think he's going to have to keep it.

But if he takes that L, I'm not even sure he would want to continue. I feel like he might just be like, I'm done. I want to get into his mental makeup in a second here. But as things stand right now today, Tuesday, October 22, 2019, as we do this special edition on Tuesday this week, this week only, by the way, who has won that trade?

Demetrius Johnson to one championship, Ben Ashburn coming back this way. Is it a wait and see for Saturday morning? I think it's a wait and see, but I think you've still got a win-win situation, right? I mean, I feel like Demetrius Johnson is getting everything he probably wanted. He showcased very well again in his last fight. So I feel like one championship is getting what they wanted. They weren't going to get any more fights out of Ben Askren. And I feel like the UFC obviously just built a main event on a pay-per-view based on Masvidal over

the same thing we just talked about by beating Askren. So I feel like they're getting all of the stuff that they wanted, and they're monetizing it and all that. So if you're just talking about the promotions, I feel like it's a win-win for those guys. All right. Big fight for Askren. Big opportunity to show his mental toughness. When you endure a loss this badly, this devastating, this embarrassing, if you will, and it was, you certainly are worried from this. You eat a lot of crow when you go down. You eat a lot of crow. You're certainly worried from this side how he responds to that. I'll say his words after have been strong. Him coming out and saying, look, like, I didn't suffer lingering

damage from this. I sort of just woke up and didn't know what happened. I sort of got lucky from that. I'm fairly confident from that standpoint that Askren has the mental toughness to be able to dodge this bullet, to absorb and come back from this. If it comes down to simply nothing lingering from the past, we start fresh against Damian Maia. I think this is a matchup he could and should win. How much do you think, though, Maia's got left in that tank? Because every time I want to write him off, I wanted to write him off after Abu Dhabi, dude. Every time you want to write him off, he's got that just a little bit of reinvention. You're going way back.

I've done this too. I've sat and I've been like, well, Maya can't. And I was 41 years old. He's going to turn 42 and he's on a two-fight winning streak again. So I don't really know, man. I'm waiting for that decline. But it's almost like he shows you new wrinkles even in his stand-up. And he's incorporated over time that wrestling as part of his base to to get into his world of the grappling jiu-jitsu. It's just, he's one of the quiet cerebral types in this game.

He puts it together in the right way. So, I'm not putting it past him that he goes in there and does the same thing to Askren, but I, at some point, that's got to slow down, right? I feel like we're seeing. You're wondering, this fight, though, it's weird when you get two elite, and in these cases, like, all-time great grapplers, right? And that's not crazy to call Ben Askren an all-time great MMA wrestler. It can cancel each other out. We've seen that many times. I mean, how many times can we watch Phil Davis and Ryan Bader

and not stick objects into our eye sockets? But in this case, is this going to be the ultimate nerd Super Bowl? Maybe. Is all these ADCC fans going to rock out with Luke there and enjoy this? Considering that's the best fight on the event, it's the main event, and really there's not a lot else on this card, I hope it doesn't pan out that way because it would seem like just such a dull event at that point. But I could see that happening, man. I'd say that there's major intrigue, though, when it does go to the ground. At least at first.

If a pattern develops and you just see that it's going to go that way for 15 or 25 minutes, whatever it is. It's a 25-minute fight, right? Yes. If you see the pattern emerge, it's like, at that point, it'll be boring. But I feel like the first time it'll go to the ground, there'll be a lot of intrigue there. It's going to be interesting. Breakfast at Wimbledon here.

Oh, yeah. Breakfast in Singapore. Kalang. ADCC style. Have a drink on me. Get stoned. Great song. Back in black. Come on. You know where I Have a drink on me. Get stoned. Great song. Back in black.

Come on. You know where I'm going with that one. Yes, I do. Hey, by the way, speaking of morning combat merch, how about that hat with the old MK Ultra logo on top there, right? Maybe we can go into business together? Yeah. You know, get that out there.

Grease this part. Grease it up there. All right. Let's shift on. And we had plenty of topics this week outside of the ring, outside of the cage in combat sports that really seem to dominate the headlines. I don't want to go long on all of them here, but I want to sort of hit up an unfortunate news in the boxing world as 27-year-old junior middleweight Patrick Day died and succumbed to the injuries he suffered inside the ring on that DAZN undercard

more than a week ago against unbeaten Charles Conwell. Passes away due to brain injuries. The real larger connective tissue story here, Chuck, unfortunately, is this is the third death in boxing in three months. We had two in the same week with Hugo Santillan in July and Maxim Dadashev, the top-ranked prospect there. Day, who I unfortunately mispronounced his first name last week. Patrick Day, New York product.

Everyone loves him. All the heartfelt honors coming out his way. Luke and I hit up at length last week the whole sort of how do you deal with this as a fan, as a journalist, being complicit in the danger of this sport. How does the sport deal with this? How should the sport deal with this? Ring deaths and boxing are not new. This has been around for a long time. The whole idea of the dangers of this sport are not new. When you do have three and three months, it's a little bit more of a wake-up call. I feel like boxing can

end up being, to a certain degree, like the NFL. The more you try to protect the inevitable in a compact sport like this, the more it stops being boxing. I'm not sure outside of regulations what else you can do inside the ring. You know what you're getting into. It's just – It's tough, man. It's a tough question, and it's going to keep happening. It will inevitably happen, and it's happened all through history. It will happen in MMA.

It will happen at some point, you know, in the UFC probably at some point. It's just one of those things you can't really gauge it. I didn't watch the fight live, but I went back and watched it because you get intrigued if you're going to be able to see something about just the demeanor or is he showing signs but he didn't really show signs. Did you watch the fight?

I did and I also saw that letter Conwell wrote afterwards to his opponent while he was in the hospital but again, to your point, it wasn't one of those insane all-time wars. You know, when the Magomedov-Dusselamov, the heavyweight, had that incident in New York, you know, I was at that fight. In the last couple rounds, I remember going, come on, we've got to stop this.

What is there to gain at this point? The fact that all three of these deaths come from fighters that are 27 and younger, this wasn't somebody lingering on too long. Look, Deontay Wilder, the WBC heavyweight champion, always says it best, says it in so many interviews, that a doctor told him early in his career, you're not meant to be punched in the head. We're not designed for that. But this sport endures. The problem is there's no way to put a positive spin on it. There's nothing positive about it. We're all complicit in going on to the next week's fight and praying for a war, right?

This is how a lot of us get hooked. The excitement. The opportunity for the human spirit to overcome within drama, in the fires of hell inside that ring. Part of what makes fighting profound is that possibility. It is the truth. They go hand in hand. The fact that these guys are staking their lives out there when they go fight, I never lose respect for these guys ever. It keeps you grounded in what you're watching.

It keeps your respect level pretty high. But I think that that danger element is actually part of what makes people tune in. I really do. It's a horribly tragic thing when you see something like that. But it's the fact that that's even a possibility, I think, is part of the, I don't want to say exhilaration, but you know what I mean. It's part of the strange allure of when you watch a fight. You just know that these guys are putting their lives on the line, which is a crazy thing to do in sport, you know?

Well, I don't have an in-ring fix, and I don't necessarily want an in-ring fix that would alter the sport in a way to protect it. Let's not forget, though, when you hear the stories about the champions 70, 80, 100 years ago, they're like, they fought a 44-round fight and they were victorious. We look at that as sort of the dark ages from the standpoint of rules and fighter safety. I wonder 25 years from now whether we'll look at now, whether certain rule changes will come. I mean, look at even in football, you know, going helmet to helmet. Now it's just sort of like taboo and outlaw. You'd never do it. How much we tailor to make these guys as strong and powerful as

possible. These athletes are completely different over the time. It's crazy. It's humbling. And that wasn't the only news this week. We also, of course, had unbeaten unified welterweight champion Errol Spence had that unfortunate car crash at 3 a.m. in Dallas, flips his Ferrari multiple times, gets thrown from the vehicle. We find out after the fact he gets charged with DWI. And here's the video. This is as scary and humbling as possible.

Certainly the narrative was how miraculous this was. Spence ejected from the vehicle, a guy who's on the verge of breakout stardom, back-to-back pay-per-view main event opportunities, really one of the pound-for-pound bests of the sport. And it was, wow, this is a miracle. In fact, he had put on his Instagram page in a now-deleted comment being like, no broken bones, I'm a savage. Then you find out

the news of the DUI. I mean, there's nothing really to say here. I just hope this is the right wake-up call for not just Errol Spence, other fighters, all of us. That Instagram post, wasn't it Instagram or whatever on social media? When he says something like that, though, you're like, oh. Because you want the lesson to be

that, because he's a young cat, man. He's got the world. But there's that sheen of invincibility that he still has. You want to see that in the ring. You don't want to see that out in this situation because he's very mortal, and he's very lucky. It's crazy because you have a guy who, like we mentioned, the potential for stardom, the potential to be the pound-for-pound king.

It could have been gone, his life. It could have been gone with just his career being taken away, and he comes out with just basically scratches. Hopefully this is the, I don't know where he's at mentally in terms of wanting to get back into the ring, or if or when, but this gives him the opportunity to really. They were supposed to fight in January, right? Like he was, that's what they were gunning?

They were talking about Danny Garcia, but yeah, so we'll see where that goes from here. UFC side, Common McGregor is only in the news for bad things lately. Now we have, from the New York Times report, goes from here. UFC side, Common McGregor is only in the news for bad things lately. Now we have, from the New York Times report, a second sexual assault allegation against him through a publicist.

McGregor has denied it. Habib Nurmagomedov goes on Twitter through a translated one and basically calls him a rapist again. Why does he even have to go on there?

So here we are. Yeah. Chuck, if I would have told you November 2016, right? New York City? Yeah. UFC 205?

Yeah. Conor McGregor, Eddie Alvarez? McGregor caps off one of the most insane years in combat sports history. Couldn't be bigger. Couldn't be bigger. Couldn't be a bigger star financially. Talking about being an owner. Top of the world, wants to be an owner, suffers his first UFC defeat and runs it back in dramatic

fashion. Yeah. world wants to be an owner, suffers his first UFC defeat and runs it back in dramatic fashion. And if I would have told you then that three years later, he would have one fight, a dominant title loss. And you could take the Floyd fight and either add it to this or just throw it out the window because it's not UFC. But just that we go three years and the biggest star in the sport would have one fight and would be embroiled in this much consistently bad headlines. The punch of the old fella at the bar that he's going to have to deal with there.

I'm sick of it. When will the public be sick of it? Should the public be sick of it? I think they are sick of it. How bad is this for his brand overall and consuming everything that's happened lately? I mean, it's on brand with his brand at this point, because whenever I hear his name now, I feel like there's this dark cloud. It's kind of the reversal of fun, right?

Like he had, his first part of his career was this vicarious thrill for anybody watching it, his country, you know, everybody else. It was fun, and he was living up to a nickname of the Notorious. Now he's spent the last few years trying to live it down, but he just keeps making it worse, and it actually becomes more of a profound type of situation. But he's a human spiral right now, man.

These things, I mean, he may never fight again at this point. And you hear reports like every other, well, he's going to fight Frankie Edgar, he's going to fight Justin Gaethje, he's not going to fight at all. I mean, I'm tired of that. He's going to fight Habib.

I mean, it's getting to the point where we're all sick of it. All of us who do podcasts, and you do a great one on The Athletic, The Man and the Myth. The Man and the Myth, yeah. With Sean Ostradi. Sean Ostradi, yeah.

A good guy right there, Sean Ostradi. He's a very talented guy. My State of Combat podcast, I mean, look, every week it's the same thing. Is he coming back? Who should he fight? I'm just so sick of it at this point. I know. Simultaneously, you've got Dana White and Conor kind of having a public war

in which Dana says now Conor's not the man anymore. Habib's the man. You saw the response on Twitter from Conor that sort of attacked Dana. Does he have a point? I get what he's saying. I think he does. And you certainly have to believe it's fueled by negotiation issues of Conor putting his brand and believing it's at this point.

Dana hoping and wanting it to be at this point. Well, Dana's a pretty smart guy in how he manipulates the situation. I mean, Khabib's calling the shots, but are we getting to the point where Khabib is a bigger brand than him? I don't think so, not yet. I think that there's an inertia that's part of the McGregor thing.

So if he does sign on to fight, all the people will just get back in. All the casual audience will tune back in. I think. There is a little bit of a question mark there, but I think that that will be the case. I don't really think that Nurmanga Madoff is at that space yet. Every day that goes by, though, it gives you less confidence, less care, and less confidence

that Conor can come back and be that guy, because staying active is so key. It is. It's huge, man. Staying active and being there. You know how fast the fight world goes. I mean, it's just every weekend, you literally start to get buried. People don't remember even the profound nature of how you connected with them. I just said three years ago was the idiot. I know. We're coming up on three years of that.

He's losing a lot of that vitality. It's insane. Boxing Hall of Famer Oscar De La Hoya also has similar allegations in which Golden Boy Promotions put out a statement refuting it. It's ugly. Also, we've got MMA manager Ali Abdelaziz, who sometimes is in hot water, getting banned from the PFL playoffs moving forward due to a backstage fight with manager Abe Kau. I don't care. It's on brand for Ali in a way. He's got his own notorious thing going.

Does this tickle anything on you? Not really. The fight game periphery is always fun, though, right? There's all kinds of things. We want outlaws. You're in the fight world. We want everybody to be an outlaw, right? Exactly.

And the fringe element is what makes it so fun, because there's all these people who are off the hook. I feel like Ali is right in there with the crazies in this game. And, of course, the Kawas are these big-time managers. So only in the sense of a peripheral thing. If Bruce Buffer got in a fight, you'd be interested. It's just like that. Bruce Buffer, Joe Martinez, who do you got? Just kidding, just thing. You know, if Bruce Buffer got in a fight, you'd be interested. You know, it's just like that. Bruce Buffer, Joe Martinez, who you got?

Just kidding, just kidding. All right, all right. Let's hit up some boxing to close out our big headlines of the week. And in Philadelphia over the weekend on ESPN, you had a light, heavyweight Super Bowl title unification bout. Two unbeatens, Artur Beterbiev, the Russian fighter who fights out of Montreal against Ukrainian Oleksandr Vodchik. and this was Beterbiev entering beast mode. Chuck, you better believe it.

Late stoppage, but this was a fight where just signing it at this point in their careers was both guys going all in and wanting to be great. And in the victory, of course, by the way, you had Beterbiev becoming the lineal champion as well. But the manner in which this fight played out, this was a chess match back and forth, but a physical one. And it was Betterbeave who had knocked Vodcik out 10 years earlier in the amateurs, acted like the bully throughout, dealt with the adjustments that the marksman, the craftsman that Vodcik was doing and just had something else for him at every turn. Chuck, you don't know how great somebody can be until they're forced to. And I think with Better Beef, we knew his name.

He'd won a world title. He'd been blowing through guys. But he'd been going through the political scuffle where it was hard for him to stay consistent and get big fights. When he got pushed to another level by Vacek and had to be great, he showed you suddenly who he really is. He's going to be 35 in a few months.

So it's not like he snuck up on us out of nowhere. But the idea that he's potentially a pound-for-pound threat did, how impressed were you? I see him showing up on this already. I was pretty impressed.

I tell you what, his power is ridiculous. Because even the dirty boxing, the inside stuff, he's still mashing through the vines, man. He's going right in there, and you can see. I felt like you could feel the frustration going on in that fight

because he was just getting manhandled in there, you know what I mean? So to me, man, that was a hell of a showing, and I'll be paying attention to that guy. Anything Vodcik would do to adjust, and he did such a great job, and he ended up in the hospital for two days with a concussion afterwards. Yeah, that's pretty late. I didn't know Betterbeave had the 12 round championship stamina i didn't know he had the craft to go with the bullying and the big power punching 15 and 0 with 15 ko's never would have guessed that this is a guy who i voted this week number 10 pound

for pound and that we're talking about as a star and you look at this division now we got dmitry b-ball the wba champion he wants it that would have to be a dual network thing because Bivol fights for his own, but everybody seems to want it. And then you've got Canelo and Kovalev for that fourth belt. So the new Kovalev or the old one? I mean, Canelo's got, what did the guy in Major League Two say? You know, the Japanese guy. You know who I'm talking about. I do know who you're talking about. The guy who ran into to the wall. Yeah.

He's got big ones. Yeah. But I don't think they are that big, nor should they be that big. I think if Canelo beats Kovalev on November 2nd in a fight, you've got to see. He's just going to lay that thing down and say, hey. Canelo's not going to go. We had a great run here at 175. Beterbiev, it's all yours. Although, another big payday for Kovalev, right?

If he somehow beats Canelo. This division is... I mean, yeah. It's funny. Looketerbiev, it's all yours. Although another big payday for Kovalev, right, if he somehow beats Canelo. This division is – I mean, yeah. It's funny. Look, this division hadn't had an identity. Remember, it was Kovalev, it was Adonis Stevenson kind of hijacking it and never fighting each other. Now we got some business.

Now we got some fun. I know there's European names hard to pronounce. I love when boxing gets like this. But get used to saying Beterbiev, okay? Beterbiev. I don't know if Luke says – Beterbiev. Beterbiev.

Whatever. What do you think Luke's drinking down there? Get used to it. I don't know if Luke says Beterbiev. Beterbiev. Whatever. What do you think Luke's drinking down there? Oh my God. Pepto-Bismol. Probably. Yeah, probably. Probably in a jail right now.

All right, all right. We'll leave that at that. That's it for your headlines for the week. We want to hear from you now. It's DM for Donks time. DM from Donks. Is that where we're going

with this? DMs from Donks. All right. Thank're going with this? DMs from Donks. All right. Thank you very much. We appreciate you watching, sending in your questions, your feedback on our Instagram channel. Please subscribe there as well. Let's hit it up with the first one from at Johnny underscore rockets underscore. Yeah, that's a great name there.

Great spelling on Poirier. With Dustin Poirier and Justin Gage, both waiting for the money fight, who do you like for lightweight Dan Hooker next? Chuck, I'll let you play Sean Shelby. Pretty impressive stuff against Iaquinto, right? I feel like he needs a top five type of guy. I wouldn't mind Paul Felder.

I wouldn't mind seeing a Paul Felder fight. Felder is coming off a win, right? He's coming off a win. He just fought in Abu Dhabi. I think that that would be, you know, they're similar. I think they're in the similar position. So he just, he's coming off the Barbosa win. Yeah. This is the deepest, most dangerous division, but Hooker has really sort of put himself like, I'm ready for that top five level. That's great matchmaking. That's a hell of a fight. Well, they both kind of are in the same space. They're not going to get a title shot, but I feel like you put them, it wouldn't necessarily be a title eliminator, they both kind of are in the same space. They're not going to get a title shot, but I feel like you put them... It wouldn't

necessarily be a title eliminator, but I think it could be if you wanted it to be. Well, I think when you have a division this deep, there are levels to title elimination. There are, you know, get into that top five, get into that top three, get in the bullpen waiting, and then get into that Tony Ferguson. It's as deep now as it's ever been. Speaking of lightweights, did you see Tony Ferguson today, this morning

on Twitter, telling Jon Jones I'll move up two weight divisions and fight. I bet Jones would be into that one. He'd be like, sure, let's try it. Yeah, let's get another smaller star. All right, donks, what do you got? Did he do it in all caps? Yes, Tony was in all caps on there.

All right, from at Mikey Lachey. OK. That Nick Lachey's boy there from 98 Degrees. See, 98 Degrees of the late 90s, 2000s boy bands, which there wasn't a lot of masculinity coming out of those three or four groups. I thought 98 Degrees had an edge of cool factor to them, right? Because I'm not going to vouch

for Backstreet and Sync. Who was the fourth one? Sync, Backstreet Boys. Who was the first one? New Kids on the Block. I was thinking of those guys. Yes, the fourth one I'm thinking of was the one that came out of the MTV reality show. You know what I'm talking about. O-Town.

Thank you, Jay. There it is. Wow. By the way, whatever listener put hashtag FJ as one of our comments last week, Jay's feelings felt that. O-Town, not too manly either. Look, we have an account. This is awesome.

All right. So Nick Lachey's boy. Let me hit up this question here. See, they could make a drinking game out of this now. This is what I want. This is what I want. It's Ashley Parker Angel. Yes.

Went solo, by the way. I can vouch for a solo album. I went pretty deep on those weeds. Wow. Wow. Yeah, there is a three-drink minimum on this show. All right. Let's check.

Jay, enough getting you in the spotlight here. Let's find out what Mikey Lachey had to say, OK? Oh, wait. It's fine. There it is. Chuck, love the hat. Love the hat. I'm a big fan of Macy Barber, but hate the PVZ fight.

Who do you think would be a good option for her with a bigger challenger to set that stage on the UFC Boston undercard over the weekend? Macy Barber had a destructive first round knockout for her. Yes, I believe so. I believe so. I forgot who she fought. She stole the headlines. Yes, Roberts her? Yes, I believe so. I forgot who she fought. She stole the headlines. Yes, Robertson.

Yes, there you go. Calls out Paige Van Zandt afterwards big time. Sure. There's a shallow division there at a UFC women's flyweight. It's smart, though, right? I feel like this is a smart call out. I mean, she should want that fight. I feel like Paige Van Zandt has a name and probably somewhat of a factor in there that people probably want to see her humbled a little bit.

Let's just put it like that. So I feel like Macy's kind of setting herself up for something that she feels like she's in line with the public's. That's the ultimate, I'll take the fight and I'll take your fans on top of that. That's a big opportunity for Macy there. I mean, she should come out and say, I'll smash your girl. She would smash. Anytime somebody's like, you know, I make most of my money on Instagram posts, I think that then that person becomes the target for somebody like Macy, right?

Instagram's a wild place. You having any relationships with any female fighters' Instagram accounts right now? Relationships? I think I have to unfollow you. We'll do that. Comment here from Andrew Garosby. Carson Daly

versus Bryce. Carson Daly is washed right now. You'd blast him. I would take him down. I would take him right downtown. There aren't a lot of people I'd favor you against, but I would favor you in that one. I got the dad bod going on here these days. Okay, thank you very much. We got any more donks coming at us? Come on, bring it. Bring

the heat, all right? From Pastor Blin. Oh, a man of the cloth there. He says, is the jump from 185 to 205 just too big of a gap for fighters going up? Is there something to be said for a 195 division? It seems to make just as much sense as the 165 at this point in time. He's talking about the gap between middleweight and light heavyweight. It's always been there. It's always been there. It's always been big. The only problem, I think, with the 195 is that the 205

division typically doesn't have a lot of people in it. There aren't a lot of new challengers, and I feel like we've been in that spot for a long time now. You wonder if that would deplete it that much further. I feel like the 205 would just be like a ghost town at that point. That's fair. That's fair. I want to get away from this. I even want to get away from the 165 title, even though I love the idea of taking two BMFers or taking two names that aren't in the lightweight or welterweight title picture and matching them up, which we've had a lot of these ideas for that. The reason why I don't want to do it is because I've lived in boxing.

I am boxing. Boxing sucks. Boxing does not get out of its own way. Boxing has 17 weight classes. I know, man. That is the problem. And then they have four recognized sanctioning bodies who put out their own champions per weight class. And then you have the WBA who puts out upwards of three champions per weight class, per whatever. Greatest psychological connection between the UFC and its fans was accessibility. You could pay attention to a UFC fight on any given weekend and understand exactly. It would be a great entry point.

You would understand exactly what the stakes are, who has the belt. It's very simple. I feel like I agree with you 100%. The interim belts and all that stuff, you get a lot of that going on. It's complicated. But it gets more complicated the more divisions you add, especially when you have people kind of bouncing around. This is what Dana White missed.

When he got super crazy angry at the media before and after the Atlanta card in April with the Adesanya-Gaslund fight and another seemingly unnecessary interim title, his idea was, you guys don't understand. They're next in line. This is making them fight harder. This means we get a five-round fight. All that stuff's great. And when you get fights that great, holy crap, it makes sense.

But it's us who have watched boxing are going, no, this is the wrong direction to go. Considering that Dana and the Fertittas who saved the UFC and made it what it is today did so by essentially saying, we're boxing fans. We love boxing. We hate the mistakes that boxing is making. Let's build up this new fighting organization being everything that boxing isn't. So, no, I don't need a 1-9-5 title. I don't need a 1-6-5.

You know, we always think in boxing, we go back to the glory days of eight divisions. To your point, everyone knows who the champions are. That's how you make stars. That's how you make fights that people need to see. Not 17 divisions. Not four champions or seven champions per division. Not every televised fight has to be for some BS regional belt.

We don't need it. Hey, WBC, I don't need a Mayan title, all right? Shout out to the Mayans. I don't need anything, okay? Get off my property, get off my lawn, and whoever that guy was, the Pastor Blin, God bless you, no 195 title, all right? Get it out of here.

Next question. This is the first time I've agreed with you. Next question, all right? We're live, guys. We're live. Next question, all right? At DannyKelly064, which five active fighters, excluding Maz Pidal and Nate Diaz,

are currently on your BMF list? This is a fun category. If you were making a BMF pound-for-pound list, I think they're all going to linger probably around that lightweight welterweight 165 area that we're talking about, but just under the spirit of BMF.

Who else is on that? Justin Gaethje has got to be right there. Gangster like that. Maybe Cerrone? That's what made that fight fun. Because those dudes don't have any Fs to give. And I feel like those guys would be there. I'm trying to think, though.

I feel like there's a couple of guys like that. Tony Ferguson is a star who has the BMF personality. Matt Brown is another great pick. Yeah, these guys. I'm trying to think of guys like that. I don't know. I think Brian Ortega has a little bit of BMF in him, although he's more of a glossy, title-challenging,

potential superstar training Halle Berry for a movie. I wonder if he smashed. You've got to wonder. You've got to at least wonder, right? You've got to think about it, right? Of all the cats who have the chance, I'm sure he's the... I know when you were on the six, like J-Lo on the train on the way in, you're thinking about that, right?

He's a pretty man, you know? I'm sure. Wow, wow. He's not struggling. Do you know what I hate? I saw that photo where Brett Okamoto put it up. I was going to say, another pretty man, Brett Okamoto. Shout out on his re-sign.

It's his birthday today. Shout out on his re-sign. It's his birthday today. Shout out on his re-sign with ESPN. Posted that picture of Ortega shirtless with the hair in the back. You got a little confused there, right? It's like when the lights go out at a club. He's not even confused. He knows who he is. It's like a blind man at an orgy.

You're just feeling around. You know what I mean? Where were we? All right. So, yeah, I like those pics. You've got to have a little gangster to you, though, right? Mike Perry? Mike Perry is gangster, is a BMF-er, yes.

Yeah. I mean, guys like that, that's who, when you think of what the spirit of this thing is, I think. Ray Carruth, yeah. Ray Carruth. Too soon, too soon. Too soon, it'll never be too late. It'll never happen.

All right, is that it for Donks? No. At Sequizzle93, what should Duran Wynn's next move be? Duran Wynn, of course, the former Golden Boy MMA star, protege of Daniel Cormier, lost at UFC Boston over the weekend, split decision loss, missing weight in a division where the average fighter is around 5'10 to 6'1, while being 5'7 and taking an L.

Who did he fight? Do you remember who he fought? In this last one? It was a split decision loss on Saturday. I forgot the fellow that he lost to. This is great. This is well-researched here. Anyway, Deron Wynn's got an issue in that he's this big.

He's a tough fighter. He's in the gym with DC. Did you like having DC on commentary with his boy? I didn't really like that. Yeah, that was weird. Back in the day, if Roy Jones was on and he had a guy, he'd step away. That's always going to be the problem, though, with the guys like DC and these guys. There's a lot of cross-pollination

there. There's going to be some of that. I don't know what he should do, man, because I thought he was pretty well placed. I was hoping this wouldn't happen because I know he's a bigger guy, but I think he should stay there, maybe try to get down a little earlier. I think his best bet is still in the division he's in.

The problem is he looks like a welterweight. Kind of reminds me of Tyson Griffin. He does, but I don't know if he can get down there. Yeah. He was stout. Yeah, the big, thick dude. But he was short. He was very stout, yeah.

He's kind of like DC mini-me, right? Yeah, he is. I think I'd like to see him exactly where he's at another time, and if he doesn't make weight or whatever the case is, then I guess he'll be all right. He can always make a run at that Golden Boy open weight title. Yeah. If they come back again.

All right, that's DM from Donks this week. Please continue to let your voice be heard and send it in. But, Chuck, this is a debut time for you in my favorite segment. Chuck Mendenhall, have you seen this shit? Because, Chuck, we're home in the desert, all rightendenhall have you seen this shit because chuck we're home in the desert all right and we have found this shit let's hit it up number one chuck all right from this weekend bkfc8 bare knuckle bigfoot silva against wash gabe gonzaga oh my god wow the bigfoot is down and he is out chuck it's a disturbing rite of passage these days like

the migration of glove down to the nether wearing shoes so it's a disturbing rite of passage these days. The migration of glove down to the knell they're wearing shoes, so it's like... Yeah, you know when a 40-year-old dad gets divorced, he's automatically got to get the ponytail on the sports car? I feel like every washed UFC guy is like, you know what, I've got to finish my career by donating my soul to this bare knuckle crap. This doesn't move me.

This is so sad, man. It's one of those where you think it's a good idea coming in. I always make the reference, have you ever had a gas station hot dog with cheese in the middle? See, yeah. Boston, Massachusetts Turnpike, they got those with the cheese. Yeah, of course. Had those. Streamlined in the middle.

You've talked to me about these before, actually. Yeah, it's like taking a gun. It's like taking a cheese gun. You need the counter for that reference. Like, if I could inject my veins, like, directly with cheese, just mainline them, you know how quickly I'd sign up? Sounds like a good idea. The problem is, man, that they're just all these guys are retread in terms of they've already taken such a beating

through their careers. They're older. These guys, man, who wants to watch these guys get hurt at this point? For whatever amount of money they're making. I don't even think you had armpit hair when he sent Prokop to hell with that head kick, right? That was a long time ago. Yeah. Wow. Get that off my screen. Get it off. Get it off my screen. Alright. Alright.

Alright. Alright. One more time. What's the second one? Hit me up with the second off. Get it off my screen. All right. All right. All right. All right. No, that was the first one. Hit me up. What's the second one? Hit me up with the second one. Oh, here we go. What's this? PFC Gladiator 6 in Russia.

I went to a fight and a rave broke out. How unfair is it if you're this Zabit-looking guy on the ground, and during a fight the lights go out in Georgia? What the hell is happening here? And by Georgia, I don't mean Atlanta. I mean the caucus region. Is this fair? Is this legal?

Incense. Can we check his blood system for Molly and MDMA or whatever afterwards? I mean, it was TKO via date rape, Jug. What's happening here, Jug? I mean, this can't. The people are. They like it. They're bouncing to this. This is like a night at the Roxbury, too. I mean, you can't. The people are. They like it. They're bouncing to this.

This is like a night at the Roxbury, too. I mean, you've got to get a no contest out of this, right? Oh, my God. You ever take your kids to, like, midnight bowling? How do you find this? You ever go to, like, midnight bowling and the lights are flashing and people are sticking fingers in holes? Yeah, it's really gross. Wow.

This segment off the rails already. Wow. Are we still live? Oh, boy. All right. Let's go to the. That was bizarre footage right there. Let's go to the All right. Wow. This segment off the rails already. Wow. Are we still live? Oh, boy. All right. Let's go to the end. That was bizarre footage right there. Let's go to the PFL playoffs here.

I don't know this fighter's name. Couldn't find it anywhere. Look at how the coach fires him up. This is how you water a guy down. Look right back at you. Spit in the face, Chuck. I just spit in your face with excitement right there. You didn't see it.

Wow. Let's see this again. That is, you know, it kind of reminds your face with excitement right there. You didn't see it. Wow. Let's see the skin. That is. You know, it kind of reminds me of like old school carny wrestling bullshit. You know what I'm saying? Like Luke wouldn't allow this here. But it's a throwback to Hornswoggle.

And Mini Boogeyman. There it is. Mini Boogeyman puts the worms in his face. Hornswoggle comes back with the green mist. You got to love this stuff right here. Come on. There's got to be part of your soul. I do love this. I do love this very much. Oh, God. Shout out to the

great Muta. Did it great with the mist, right? You should have warned me that we were going to be looking at this stuff. Wow, yes. It's very Asian to do the mist. I don't know where this Irish man gets off doing it, but shout out to Hornswoggle right there. Wow, great footage. Look at that. Look at that. I don't want my corner man doing that to me, though, you know?

Alright, we're going to Brazil for the next one. At the future MMA 9 card, Jonas Speed Bilharinho after a three-year MMA break. Do you remember? This was the guy Jose Aldo used to mimic Conor McGregor. Running knee shades of Andy Silva and Michael

Bisping. Somebody's going to lose an eye with that kind of knee strike there. And look at the care and compassion afterwards.'s going to lose an eye with that kind of knee strike there. And look at the care and compassion afterwards. Look at that. Immediately concerned. A man with those kind of back taps. Look at the love he's showing afterwards. He's folding over on himself.

That was bad. Wow. He looks like he's already out. He's backing up there, man. Look at three years away from the game, though. Wow. Yeah. Impressive.

You think Mick Maynard's watching this? I mean, come on. I'm sure he is watching this. By the way, he's watching this show. They could have stopped. I'm sure he is watching this. By the way, when... He's watching this show. They could have stopped the fight when Silva hit that knee on Bisping, right? Yeah. I think he got screwed on the cards, too.

Yeah. Speaking of Silva and getting screwed, I know I told this story before. Do you think it's weird when Anderson Silva opened up that L.A. dojo for a while and was selling his clothing line that his PR people reached out to me and said, hey, we'd love to have you come to L.A.,

sit with Anderson, get an interview. And then in fine print at the bottom it said, Anderson would love if you brought your spouse, too, for the workout. You've told me this before. It's so weird. This is like indecent proposal. Remember we were talking about the weird periphery of what's going on in the sport, man. I get me coming to the gym

and they were like, you can roll with him, you can wear his workout stuff, but sure, bring your wife if you want to. I got a call back to a 90s movie there. That's normal? It's normal. Brian, I back. Trust me. Trust me, Brian. I back, bro. Oh, man. Remember, he was buying some

of those pills around that time from Thailand or whatever. Oh, no more dick pills. Yes, yes. All right. So I'm just theorizing. Wow. All right. Have you seen this shit? Number five here. Top-ranked boxing over the weekend. Lightweight prospect Joseph Blessed Hands Adornio with the red hair.

Look at this. Sending this fella Damien. I forgot his last name. This is WWE-like. He set him up for the Rey Mysterio 619. Look at this. Whoa. Oh, just hang out there for a while.

Booyaka, booyaka. You get that like that? Good old boy down there. This guy, though, good-looking prospect. 14-0, 12 KOs. He's got a brother who fought on the card. He has a bunch of these highlights there. I guess that's why the ropes are designed, to just catch carcasses. Watch the guy's bro there.

He almost hit the ring bell with his face there. That's got to be something. Look at that. Blessed hands indeed, Chuck. I love this segment, man. Wow, wow. All right, I got a I love this segment, man. Wow. Wow. All right. I got a bonus video this time.

All right. All right. You know when you go to a college party, you know, you're politicking with this chicken wondering if you're going to creep her, right? Little hood rat bee from 26. So she's like, let's put on the gloves. We're going to hang out. Oh, somebody's got a camera.

Oh, let's see what's going to happen. Oh, she took your soul. See, the problem is, Chuck, here's the problem. When you and I were effing around with college chicks, okay, you could take L's in the 90s because there were no cell phones. There were no MySpace or Facebook. There was none of that, Chuck. I had a feeling this was something like this was going to happen.

Okay, maybe the reputation would follow you. Boom! Maybe you just never hang out with the people in the room again. But in 2019, you take L's like this? Wow. That's going to be the... That bastard had it coming. in 2019, you take L's like this? Wow. That's going to be the... That bastard had it coming. That guy had...

Look at this purple shirt jerk. Look at this guy. Look at the guy with the Crocs and the socks right there. How are we looking past that? Wow. Look at this left hook from hell, though. Tucking the chin. Boy, she's just...

Wow. She was setting him up. She was setting him up. Wow. Cucked and loaded. Brought it on that guy. Look at those people living it up in the back of it. Just watching it on a loop for the rest of the show there.

Oh, wow. Okay. All right. Hey, we always close this show with... Wow, I don't think I can recover from that. I think I need a cigarette or something here. We always close this show with odds and ends, Luke. I mean, Chuck, filling in for Luke.

Do you want to go first on this? Sure. What do you got this week? You know, I thought it was awesome that Wiley Zhang, who now has the belt, is being asked about Ioana Janjic, who just won her fight, and obviously a lot of people think that that should be the fight. She doesn't really want it. She would rather fight Rosnami Yunus, she said, or Valentina Shevchenko.

And I love this type of justice when the shoe's on the other. It's like instant karma. It's like instant karma because Janjacek herself told the Eurobash guys in one of the podcasts that she turned down a Wiley Jang fight three different times. I love it when it switches gears like this and then the other person won't allow it to happen or doesn't want it to happen.

Here's what I really think, though. I think that Wiley Jang actually wants that fight. I just think that she's kind of giving her a little bit of her own medicine. The more little taste we get of Wiley Jing's personality, there's something there. I talked to her last week. There's a little bit of an honorary side going on there. Yeah, she is. She brought her hands.

The gun show is indeed there. I got two pieces of boxing coming up this weekend. Look, boxing, we talked about how unorganized it is. It's hard to get the best to fight the best. DAZN have been doing something special with this World Boxing Super Series tournament that had been going on the last couple years. We have the final Saturday in England of the 140

bracket unification fight. Unbeaten Regis Progray. Unbeaten Josh Taylor. Winner will have control of that 140 division. Trying to set up a long-range fight with Jose Ramirez, one of the other champions there. This is a damn good fight that we have to see. I think it's on in the afternoon in England.

Pro-Grey on beat and managed by Peter Berg and Mark Wahlberg. This would be the sort of breakthrough victory that he's yearned. But I'll tell you this. When you're an American boxing fan, we have these stigmas of these UK guys where it's like, okay, great, you're great on the domestic level. Come to the States and we'll hand you your ass. We'll remove with your soul carefully and leave it there for you. Josh Taylor's got a backbone. He can fight. He's got some length. It's sort of classic boxer against a puncher and Rougarou. This is going to be a hellacious fight. Can't

wait for it. Also on Showtime this weekend, Reading, Pennsylvania, you're not going to want to miss this. In the main event, junior middleweight prospect Erickson Lubin, just 24 years old. We saw him in that loss to Jermell Charlo, the first round knockout just a couple years ago. He's really rebuilt himself nicely. Kevin Cunningham's his trainer, the guy behind Devin Alexander, a bunch of other big champions.

Lubin's got the confidence back. Three straight wins by knockout. Sent Ishe Smith into retirement. Sometimes that looks like Ishe Smith. I can tell that. Is that Deontay Wilder or Ishe Smith right there? Sent Ishe Smith into bare-knuckle fighting. But Erickson Lubin turned pro right out of high school, was originally promoted by Mike Tyson, is really becoming a thing, a southpaw with power.

He's got late replacement Nathaniel Gallimore who's filling in for Terrell Gaucher. Even though Gaucher is more technical, Gallimore brings the heat from Jamaica. This will be a fun fight. Lubin can take a step forward. Love the Colman event as well, by the way. Hard charge in Adrian Granados against Robert Easter Jr. at 140.

Some good action. Lots going on, man. Coming up this weekend. You got any fun weekend plans here? It's the fall. People don't realize, unless you live in New England, that the fall is like, it's heaven. So you got to, you're going to peep some leaves, turn any pumpkins into a bong. What do you got going on?

You know, not too much. My son just celebrated his ninth birthday, so I think we're going to do a little party for him. Time to make him a man. Time to make him a man. What do they do in your culture? In your Coloradian culture. Chuck, what is it? It has been a pleasure, Chuck.

We did the business today. Appreciate you having me. Luke, we wish you a speedy comeback from South America. Enjoy the rest of your vacation. We've got a fun weekend of fights ahead. I guess I won't be seeing you Bellator this weekend, but I'll be there for Rory Lima, too. Follow Chuck and myself on these social media channels you see in front of you. And please, on YouTube, subscribe.

Do us that solid. We're really getting up there pushing 25K. We want to see this thing go to the next level. We want to take MK on the road. We want to, remember WWF used to have those in-your-house interviews? Maybe we'll do morning combat in your house. You can serve me the damn coffee, all right? But for Chuck Mendenhall, your boy VC Brian Campbell. May all your hoes be loyal.

What did Luke used to say? Jump up, jump up and get down. Keep your hands high. Yeah, the show's over. We out. We're back next Monday 12 Eastern. Be there. You can't miss it. Look, folks, we're taking over your life. MKUltra is

retraining your brain and brainwashing you. This is combat done right. No holds barred. We're not protecting any sponsors there, although we'll take your life. MKUltra is retraining your brain and brainwashing you. This is combat done right. No holds barred. We're not protecting any sponsors there, although we'll take your money. Chuck, thank you for filling in. You're a member of this family. We love you. Thank you, sir. We out. you you you