MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - 18: MASVIDAL BEATS DIAZ, CANELO KO'S KOVALEV, IS HE P4P? TILL AND LEE HUGE WINS!

Episode Date: November 4, 2019

UFC 244 is in the books and it delivered in a big way. Masvidal dominated for three rounds before the fight was stopped on cuts. Should the fight have been stopped and should there be a rematch? With this win, is Masvidal now fighter of the year for 2019? On the boxing side, they made us wait a loooong time but we finally got to see history as Canelo KO'd Kovalev in the 11th round to become the Light Heavyweight Champion of the World. Where does Canelo rank in Mexican history? Where does Canelo rank P4P? Back to 244: How about those big wins by Darren Till, the sensational KO of Gregor Gillespie by a resurrected Kevin Lee and Corey Anderson derailing the hype machine known as Johnny Walker? And who did Israel Adesanya call out next? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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And tell them Big Luke sent you. Oh, yeah. It's 12 o'clock somewhere, and that must mean it's time for morning combat. Welcome in to the nondescript Armageddon bunker somewhere in the swamps of Jersey. Sleeping bags and MREs are optional. But we are back, and we are back with a bang. It's Tuesday, November 4th, 2019, and you want to talk about a loaded show. You want to talk about a loaded weekend in combat to get broken down, to get fired up for. My name is Brian Campbell.

Of course, CBS Sports and the State of Combat podcast. You know this guy right here as a regular in these parts. Where's Luke? The man with the damn hat, the Athletics' own Chuck Mindenhall. You may be wondering... Where is he? Where the hell is Luke Thomas? I heard something about jury duty, but didn't he just have...

Washington, D.C., man. Jury duty. Do you think it's... Multiple courts. Do you think it's like maybe a cease and desist, an anti-doping agency, anything in that area? Something's going on. You might want to check into that.

Something is going on. The great Luke, he's busy today. That's just the bottom line, okay? You're going to have to reach out to him and find out. But, Chuck, you're becoming like part of this family, bro, okay? In terms of like internet and TV show history, you're probably the greatest acquisition since Beverly Hills 90210 replaced Shannon

Doherty with Kelly Kapowski. Remember that post-surgery? I do remember. Yeah, yeah. Business was moving up after that, if you know where I'm going with that. Look at you go, man. Wow. This guy comes in on a red eye and he still has his 90s reference ready to fly.

Yeah, let me just set the stage here. This will be a shit show. We got a lot to talk about from Canelo to 244, BMF and all that, but I'm coming off of three hours of sleep on a red eyeeye, which either shows you, Chuck, that I've got insane dedication to do this show or I have a really bad corporate travel agent. So that's for you to decide. But just a little disclaimer,

we do want you to get out there and subscribe to this show on YouTube. Spread the word. Spread it wide, right? Spread it evenly. Just spread it. We want you to be a part of this show, so send in your comments.

We want this show to do big things. Chuck, do you know what this show does? What? It's a refreshing take on combat sports. No BS. We pull no punches. It's my favorite show. Do you know what I'm saying?

It's my favorite show. Like, there's certain topics the fans need to hear about. If Valentina Shevchenko is going to change her hair color, Chuck Mindanao is going to come in here on Monday morning and give you a breakdown. Go ahead, Chuck. She looks good with that. What is it, like Auburn hair? I like that. It looks very good. I saw her at Luke's thing on social media. He had some kind of event, and she was there, and she looked good. I kind of feel like Amber is the color of her energy, too. You know what I'm

saying? Yeah. How about that? All right. Enough of the BS. Let's put that away. Are you ready? I'm ready. Are you ready? You loose? I'm loose. I'm going to be like Nick Cage and leave in Las Vegas. You've got to be my Elizabeth Shue. Like, prop me up if we need to. All right. Let's start this show. And the combat took place both sides of the globe, both sides of the states this past weekend.

I was in Las Vegas for Canelo. Cole Flev will get to that later. Chuck Mindenhall and Luke Thomas were inside Madison Square Garden, NYC for UFC 244, the main event being this, I can't believe it happened, the BMF Championship bout with Jorge Masvidal scoring a third-round TKO over Nate Diaz following a doctor's stoppage due to two cuts in the vicinity of Nate Diaz's right eye. So, Chuck, so many angles, so many things I want to break down

from the stoppage to everything else. But just from what this fight offered fans, BMF, baddest mother effer in the land. Did this deliver to the insane expectations that when you get Nate Diaz and Jorge Masvidal on a cage, did it equal that? I think it did. I think it did in the end. Masvidal coming out to the Scarface theme,

it just kind of transforms the building. I thought that Nate Diaz's walkout was really cool. So then they get in there, and right away, I'm sure you were able to watch it where you were at, but right away you get, you know, Masvidal knocking Diaz, almost knocking him out. It kind of set the tempo for the fight. And from there, I just felt like if they grappled, if they did anything like normal MMA, if you saw game plans in play, I thought it was going to tarnish a little bit, but for some reason, you know, these guys are who they are, and they were going to fight the way they fought, and I thought the crowd really bought into it, and you had The Rock over there bouncing

with the belt on his shoulder. It felt very pro-wrestling. Roberto Duran walking in. Roberto Duran, the president was there, which got a mixed reaction. It was quite a scene, but I thought both guys really, you know, they lived up. There's a lot of expectation for those guys, and I thought they lived up to it. I got to take a quick L here, and I've never been afraid in my life to sit down on that L and show you that I took it. Coming in, I had sort of criticized, look, you're picking two counterculture heroes that both play the same position in the marketing. What we didn't have for this fight was essentially mano y mano, two guys that wanted each other's throat. And I thought that would potentially kill some of the buzz.

Not allow the fight to reach its ceiling of buzz. What I didn't expect coming in when I actually watched the fight, Chuck, was just how happy I was for them. Just how much this turned out to be like a babyface story in pro wrestling, like going full circle and coming there. You have two guys that were anti-establishment that were so stuck in their beliefs on how they do things and going up against

the machine that they changed by not changing at all for so long that the machine turned around and embraced them. And I didn't expect to get those feels. And then when they walk into the cage, it was just such joy. It was basically the purest form of why we love fights. We love it for the skill and who's the champion, who's the best pound for pound. Some people just love it for the violence and the pageantry. But this was just that pure mano y mano. And to see Jorge Masvidal rush forward and pump fake the running knee to start. And to see those little moments of just genuine interplay between them.

It was like, this was like this badass Super Bowl that I never would have guessed happened. And, you know, you look at Masvidal's journey to get here. Yeah. Hitting that sort of crossroads moment a couple years ago, being on that reality show in the middle of nowhere, his career kind of at a certain point, and just decided, I'm going for it. I'm just going all in on it. And to see him get to this point, same thing with Nate to be embraced by the company, I caught the feels and I didn't expect it.

UFC had to bend over for this one, didn't they? Because I think by default, almost, and by Nate's idea to do this, the BMF thing, it came together. But if there was a viable title in play that they could have plugged into MSG, you know the UFC would have done it. This thing only existed because of timing and circumstance and Nate Diaz bringing up the idea and people kind of clamoring to see this thing come together. I know there was a lot of talk about the 165 division. This was kind of in lieu of that because I think Dana being so stubborn against the 165, it wasn't going to be an option.

He wasn't going to have been over quite that much. But I think when it all came together and they were in whatever meeting, it was the right move to just do this. It was very different. It shook up the paradigm. I feel like we still don't know exactly what it'll mean going forward, but it was a lot of fun.

And I thought that, I really think that even though it kind of ended anticlimatically, it kind of fulfilled everything that you were hoping it would. It turns out we had central casting. We had the right two people for the fight. They walked in there, looked in each other's eyes, and were like, if you got a big, let me search it. I mean, they wanted to find out who's more man in there, and I can get down for that. But the stoppage.

But the damn stoppage. Round one, basically a round of the year contender. Full violence throughout those first three rounds. Your thoughts on the New York State Commission's stepping in and waving this off. So you can see the cut. I mean, I'm sitting there looking at the cut. You can see my sweat.

But we have context with Nate Diaz, do we not? Like we've seen this guy bleed in multiple ways and in ghastly ways. We have that context. I feel like if it's in Nevada or some other place, they might have that context. Tyson Fury's cut. Exactly. But here you are in a situation where you're in New York. They probably don't have this context, right? And I felt like that was the first disconnect. You have a diehard audience that really knows who Nate Diaz is. They know he's going to fight through it. They know that is not going to slow him down. And then you have this threat that ended up ending the fight. And I felt like that was kind of the disconnect between what was going on with people's expectations, what they wanted versus what the reality was with the commission. I still think

he could have answered the bell. I mean, the cut was, it was bad. Don't get me wrong, but I'm pretty sure he could have fought through that and made it through. I think people need to understand the New York State Athletic Commission's stance right now. For better or worse, right? A couple years, what, five, six years ago, Magomed Abdu-Salamov, the heavyweight unbeaten, you know, goes in there to fight against Mike Perez. Ends up going into a coma after the fight. Mishaps with the way it was handled with the commission.

Monster lawsuit. New York has really changed and become stringent since then. A lot of people remember Deontay Wilder, Luis Ortiz won from last year after Wilder got rocked in that seventh round. Next round, the commission stopped the fight, took a long look in his eyes, all that. So I understand it's a BMF fight. Nate Diaz has a history of this. Nate Diaz was coming on.

I understand the idea that how the hell. You almost want the exception, right? You want the bending of the, you want it to go to the extremes because that's the way they set it up. How the hell can you have a BMF championship and have it stop on a cut? And I get that. I get all the outrage. But you remember this. Do you remember UFC 202, Diaz-McGregor 2?

One of the best fights in UFC history, correct? Yeah. Five rounds on the feet the whole time. Do you remember what Dana said afterwards? I don't. He was like, I don't want a trilogy between these two. I don't want it anytime soon. I don't even know if I want it because these guys will never be the same.

Did you see the way they went in there and fought? There was a part of me in round three, even with Nate Diaz coming on, that I wondered if this fight went two more rounds, whether we were going to get into that scary territory where we want this pure violence so bad, but do I kind of want it in a three-round burst in this type of situation rather than a five and thinking about what his face could have looked like, what he would have been willing to walk through.

And maybe there's people watching this right now, they're like, what are you, a pansy? This is what it's all about. Of course they are thinking that. But in a weird way, this way that it stopped in both fighters' interest in a rematch could end up being a positive in the long run. And here's why. You ready for this, Chuck?

I'm ready. Get ready for this. Let me wipe my sweat off right here and tell you. Oh, boy. Dana said the BMF would be a one-off pro wrestling thing to honor Nate and Jorge. And we're sort of going, you know what? There's something so pure about this idea. Not about the titles, just about two guys going in there and banging.

We got to bang. Let's just bang, right? Let's keep that championship going. Not everybody's in this game to chase the big belt. Some people in there just to make memories. The Arturo Gattis, the Justin Gaethjes. If the money's the same, why not? I wanted to see that become a thing.

Doesn't this leave the potential that if they did a rematch and if they put that title back on at stake that this could turn into something? Do you want that as a fan? I'm torn on it because I feel like the novelty of doing it as a one-off is really what brought people together. How does it stand if they do it again? There's also the weird expectation that comes with a BMF, right? Like you cannot go in there and become a grappler or become a wrestler and eke out a decision and just kind of control and grind a fight, right? Like that would not be the BMF. The spirit of the idea is that you're going to have two guys that come from like basically the streets and they want to bang on each other like what

we're talking about. And I feel like to find those types of mentalities, which there are plenty, you know, it's kind of a refined idea. How do we collectively embrace that going forward? And I feel like if they're going to do that, probably every weight class has a couple of guys you could do this. So maybe it should be like a baton working its way up and down the weight. You know what I mean? Maybe it's one belt and it just kind of goes around like that. You win it and you don't hold it.

Maybe it just goes on to the next guy. You know what I mean? Something like that. That's the only way I can really see it working. I don't know if the novelty would be the same if they do this rematch. I don't know if it's going to have the same kind of buzz. Here's the thing, though. This is a gift to the fans. The fan interest, I believe, would be insane. BMF championship

fight each time they put this thing on the line. So it's interesting. But in terms of what could be next now, Jorge afterwards said, I love the quote. He was basically like, you know, I come in here to flatline these guys. I come here to leave my opponents, you know. He lives up to the BMF, man. And I love that he was willing to run it back.

Nate kind of going off on the whole using the word fuckery a lot. Can we use that on the show? Jay, can we say fuckery on the show? There was no C. It was just a so however you want to pronounce that. Jay has confirmed. Jay, don't mess with me today. I'm sweaty.

But, yeah, Jay confirms we can use fuckery in here. But if you're UFC, Jorge Masvidal's star is massive. Okay? What he showed us in that first round with those combinations, he has put his game to a level that I never thought he could get to. Is it time to just let him wait

for the winner of Usman and Colby Covington and plug him into that title shot and not really wait around for the BMF anymore? I think so. I think it is. Here's the thing that we forget in this thing because of the stoppage. Masvidal was killing him. I mean, he went in there and he went in there just like he was embracing the role.

He was doing it exactly right. He won those first two rounds going away. The reason it felt anticlimactic is because that third round, Nate Diaz started to come to life. People who know Nate Diaz, they know what he's capable of. They know he has these reserves in him. They know he can wear a guy down. He was starting to show that. His punches were starting to have some meaning behind him. They weren't the volume. All of a sudden, he's capable of, they know he has these reserves in him, they know he can wear a guy down. He was starting to show that.

His punches were starting to have some meaning behind him. They weren't the volume. All of a sudden, he's falling up with big shots. I wanted to see where that was going, but I thought Masvidal was convincing enough in what we saw in those three rounds to basically be like, hey, he won the fight. I don't have any reservations that he didn't. Let him fight for the title. This dude's star, I've never seen something like this.

It's a phenomenon. A guy who's been around for a decade who suddenly ascends to this level of stard star, I've never seen something like this. A guy who's been around for a decade, who suddenly ascends to this level of stardom, I've never seen that. It doesn't happen. And the cool part is, it's not just because of the three-piece and soda, it's not just because of his personality or the marketing. The performance he showed against Nate in round one, I thought Nate was going to give him problems.

I did not see that. Fantastic performance, I actually agree with you. I think that we need to see him on the title level. If the default was a rematch of this, I'd take it. One more thing on Nate real quick. We want to talk about feeling good for Masvidal. Feeling good for Nate when he gets to announce his brother on the stage

at the weigh-in and say, you know, the greatest fighter in history. I mean, the fan in you, it's just like, that's badass. It's great to have Nick walking out with him. I mean, it's full circle. And just the fact that it was his idea. Let's not forget that. Everything that happened on Saturday night was Nate Diaz's idea.

That's pretty big power, man. They said, we're wondering about being a needle mover. It's his invention. The whole thing was his invention. Jay's going to kill me, but one more thing on this topic. Dana afterwards says, Jorge Masvidal, Fighter of the Year. This locked it up. Your thoughts, because I had a big debate with my editor at CBS Sports,

Brandon Wise, about this. Everyone on my team is full on Jorge has done it. When I'm looking at Fighter of the Year, the first thing I'm looking at is who had the most important win, and then what do they have around that. How do you not have Israel Adesanya as your Fighter of the Year? He would be the only guy that would compete. Went in there against a pound-for-pound ranked champion and knocked him out and was in the fight of the year and won it

and sprinkle on top beat Anderson Silva. So we saw him coming, if anything. He was a little more telegraphed. We knew who he was last year. We knew he was coming up. Masvidal's was so out of left field, and this trajectory of going in, I mean, basically he's on the verge of a three-fight losing streak in March of this year. Goes into that till fight, which was designed, by the way,

for Darren Till to win in London. It was supposed to get him back off the schneid. Steal that fight, go to the backstage, get into a second fight, baptize two fools in one night, have a third guy in town basically calling him out and putting his name into the mix, right? You had Ben Askren there. So then that fight becomes this big deal. We're paying attention to Masvidal on a whole

different level as a gangster now. Goes in in five seconds, takes out Ben Askren in one of the craziest scenarios that you can see, and then follows it up in this made-up belt at MSG against Nate Diaz with that performance. That's tough to overcome. I mean, and I'm not trying to say it's not worthy. It's in the conversation. If any of you

vote for it, I wouldn't kill you, but you've got to be kidding me. So John632 just jumped in. I'm kind of with you. It depends, right? It depends. How do you want to look at it? John632 just jumped in with a live comment wanting our thoughts if Jorge could beat the winner of Usman and Covington. That's a toughie. I don't see how you wouldn't think he's got

a fighting chance with that performance against Nate. He's so well-rounded that I wouldn't put it past him to be able to offset some of the wrestling, some of the doggedness and some of the grind. But man, those two guys are very, very good at that. We've seen Masvidal lose to guys who fight like that before.

So I feel like it would be interesting. I want to see him, especially with his confidence where it is and basically this attitude of his. I want to see how that translates because when you start to feel that way, when you feel invincible, I feel like you're capable of doing those type of things. And let's not forget Marty, the one-man party. Beat Woodley if he beats Covington.

He's in that conversation as well. All right, let's shift gears and go to topic number two of the week. You want to talk about a competing giant fight. It brought me to Las Vegas on DAZN. It was Canelo Alvarez moving up two weight divisions to take a light heavyweight title from Sergey Kovalev via vicious 11th round knockout, becoming the fourth Mexican to win titles in four different divisions.

Chuck, this was a heck of a historical statement. Yeah. Because we know Canelo's great. We know he's not perfect, right? There was the clenbuterol gate. There was the, does he get the benefit of the doubt in the scorecards a lot like a lot of stars? Yes. But he consistently goes out of his way to fight, take fights that he doesn't need to.

Other people have taken those fights in history to make them stars. Canelo's already the star, the biggest global force in the sport. And he continues to do this. And here's what I'm going to say about this performance. This fight was up for grabs going into the 11th round. One judge ahead, even two judges had Canelo up 96-94. So what I love about the way Canelo ended this fight is we can't say, oh, Kovalev was 36.

Oh, he's a front runner. Oh, he doesn't like it to the body. Oh, he has no chin. Because this wasn't Crusher. Yeah. Right? The prime 2012 Crusher Kovalev. But it was the best version 36-year-old Sergey Kovalev could have put out there.

Yeah, I agree with you. How impressed were you with this? I was impressed. The fight had a very subdued feel. And I know there are multiple reasons for that. It felt like it was living in the state of anticipation and pending from either side, really. Because it was almost like there was a conservation of energy from Kovalev where

he was using the jab, but it was clear that he wanted to be able to have a lot left when the late rounds got there. He was trying to preserve himself. I was waiting for Canelo at any point to just come to life. I think that that's where I was at. Because a couple of times he landed in those middle rounds where you're like,

okay, his punches have some more mustard on them than K than Kovalev Kovalev wasn't showing that kind of power so you're waiting for it to happen and it was funny because you were actually ringside but on the actual telecaster like they they mentioned like where's the fifth gear when is it going to come in the figure right almost on cue is when he lands that left and right and then the fight is over a vicious combination awesome though in the sense of like just it just reminds you how I agree with you 100% it reminds you just how good and explosive this guy is over. A vicious combination there. Awesome, though, in the sense of like just, it just reminds you how good, I agree with you 100%, it reminds you just how good and explosive this guy is as soon as he connects like that.

What can you say negative about Kovalev? The only thing he didn't do was discipline Canelo at any point. He didn't act like the bigger man. I never would have guessed this fight from the opening bell would have played out with the larger Kovalev, the longer, the taller, the bigger puncher

acting like the boxer, and the smaller fighter in Canelo walking him down, landing the big power shots. And we find out after the fact, by the way, Keith Ideck of Boxing Scene had some reporting that, okay, Canelo didn't stretch him with a catchweight, but there was a rehydration clause that nobody was willing to talk about,

reportedly because there was an NDA attached to it. So you wonder if that compromised Kovalev a little bit. But here's the deal. Kovalev entered the championship rounds with a chance to win that fight. Not a chance to have a say at winning it, but then the three judges speak otherwise. He had a chance to win that fight. So that shows you that he committed to his game plan coming in of being a boxer, gave Canelo fits, yet Canelo still figured it out in the end.

So when we flip this to say, what does this say about Canelo?, yet Canelo still figured it out in the end. So when we flip this to say, what does this say about Canelo? Where is he now in this pound-for-pound debate? I want to put the disclaimer out there that I think it's a historical time for pound-for-pound. There's five or six guys who have acclaimed the Spences, Crawfords, Lomachenkos across the board. Here's where I think Canelo gets the nod right now. There's different ways that you make up your pound-for-pound, and that's where the gray area comes in. And by the way, some people think it's worthless to have this debate. No, this is the real currency, especially in a sport like boxing,

where there's BS titles left or right. The real currency are things like the lineal championship and pound for pound. Okay. Is it journalistic nerds like me in a basement somewhere coming up with it? Probably. But here's the deal. Part of it is the eye test. Part of it is accomplishment. So on the eye test, could you say what would happen if Canelo got in the ring with Lomachenko or Crawford in a mythical weight class when they all had the same strengths and weaknesses in relation to their own weight class?

I could see where you would like the dynamic nature of both of those other fighters. But what else would Canelo have to do than what he did over the last 14 months? Beat Triple G in like a fight of the year contender to unify middleweight belts, move up to 68 and fold Rocky Fielding in half for a secondary title, unify against Daniel Jacobs in a beautiful boxing performance, and then move up two weight divisions and send one of the most dangerous punchers of this era to hell. And I spit on you for effect, Chuck. I like that.

It's a emphasis. I like it. I don't know what else he would have to do before I would just wake up and go, yeah, I think this guy's the best fighter in the whole sport. Your thoughts? No, I agree with you 100%, man. And here's the thing that you've got to love about it, too. He is visible, right?

He is the face of boxing. I think that his escalation, it's one of those be careful what you wish for. Because when Kovalev was fighting Yard, for instance, in his last one, what were we talking about? They were watching that fight almost as like it's a turnstile to get to the fight that they're going to. And I feel like that kind of pressure that you bring on yourself and you're able to excel in these types of moments,

especially in a fight that maybe wasn't going his way. I'm not sure he could have definitively, I know you mentioned that he's had the benefit of scorecards, but I'm not sure he could have definitively thought he was, you know, where he was at. But he comes to life in that fight, and he comes to life in every big moment. I put all that in there, too. And I think that I do.

I think he's like, I think he's ascended to the level where you could basically put him at the top of the pound-for-pound list at this point. And let's be honest about what he's accomplished. He's 29 years old. He had a short amateur career and turned pro early, so he's got almost 60 fights. Yeah. One title is in four divisions. Okay, the super middleweight belt is a bootleg bastardized title, but he's got wins over Kodo,

Lara, Trout, Triple G, Danny Jacobs, Sergey Kovalev. You look across the board at what he has accomplished in a short time that okay, maybe it's not time yet to do the whole, is he the greatest Mexican fighter ever? Because I think people will crash this bomb shelter down and show you Julio Cesar Chavez senior tape.

But he's on the road to becoming an all-time great. True or false? I agree with you 100%. I like what he's doing. I like that he is basically challenging himself. Some people, you know, they might have said, oh, Kovalev's washed. He's not the same fighter. People are always going to do that in both sports.

They do this in MMA. They do this in boxing. But the fact that he wants to challenge himself, the fact that he's got the happy feet in his division, the fact that he could return, you know, at any point back to middle, even though he says he's not sure he can, I know that that's BS. He's also playing a heel. You know what I mean? He plays the heel very well.

He gets people interested. He shrugs off the triple G fight. I just think everything he's doing is other level right now. I really enjoy what he's doing. We got a comment from CC2.0. Four-weight champ, what more could you do to be the pound-for-pound king? I mean, it's a mixture of accomplishments and the eye test and who would beat who. It's a weird formula, and some people lean too heavily in one direction.

But let's talk about what could be next for Canelo so he surprised the media this during fight week by basically being like you know cruiserweight who knows look that's to me I love that he introduces that type of thing I mean Big Red's got huevos let's be honest right here but that that seems a bridge too far maybe even staying around 175 and fighting the Archer Betterbe better seems a little bit too far. I like that. It'd be a great fight. Now look, at 68, there's some names there. The big names are at 160 pounds in middleweight. Dazon has Golovkin. They've got Andrade. They've got connections

to Billy Joe Saunders. There's some names there to fight. But I don't think any of those... I mean, Triple G certainly is a big fight and a big name, but I don't think any of those extend historically, which seems to be what Canelo's trying to do. Yes, he wants the big money, but he's not, unlike Floyd, it's not more like, let me evaluate him from two angles. He wants the best challenge and the best marketability, right? Like he wants a big fight. Floyd wanted the biggest purse with the least amount of risk.

If you look at what could be out there for him, my podcast partner, Rafe Bartholomew, your colleague at The Athletic. Jay, I got you, buddy. I got you. This guy, this guy in my ear. He's crawling up in my ass right now. I'm basically, he wanted Andre Ward. And at that time, I was just sort of like. Did a great column about it today, actually.

I was just sort of like, no, dude, Andre Ward can do anything. Canelo's not a light heavyweight. Well, Canelo proved on Saturday he might just be a light heavyweight. Andre Ward's been out of the game for a couple years. He's 35 years old, but he's unbeaten. He can fight and beat any style, and he's already proven through his career that he can take multiple-year layoffs and come back like nothing happened.

Chuck, this might be the perfect fight where you get enough commercial element to it, but critical, you could attach to this the idea of the winner is the face of this era post-Floyd Mayweather. I love it. You're the one who, you've the winner is the face of this era post-Floyd Mayweather. I love it. You're the one who, you've mentioned this before, even before this, but I'm like, I'm behind it because when Ward walked away, he basically was like, he needed restoration. He was, you know, physically, mentally, he wanted out.

He's had time, you know, the cushy TV gig. His name is always right there, right? Like, you know, he left at 30. He's still young enough where to get in there. I dig it. I hope that, I know people kind of keep bringing it up to him in these subtle ways. People ask him, and he's just kind of like, nah, man. He's not saying flat out no, but he's just kind of like, nah, I'm good where I'm at right now.

You know, that sort of thing. I think it would be the perfect time for something like that. You know how it looks like? When there's not the clear-cut guy. Yes. The Triple G thing sounds like it's going to be complicated. So if there's not a clear-cut guy, if that was the option, I would love that. And look, we all want Triple G, but the opinion is becoming that Triple G is more over that hill to the side of the water where he can be washed.

And Canelo's like, look, I'll do it for the business, but I have nothing to gain here. I think Canelo's showing you that he might actually be past that fight. Canelo says he wants the fights representing business, right? Like representing business. That's his word, so I'm like, that would represent business. I can't say anything bad about Canelo anymore. I mean, like, I get that you can get caught up on certain things that he's done, but he gives us what we want. And he's also got a weird affliction for loading up his left forearm with tattoos. His

new one is his wife's eyes right here. That's dedication in a marriage, Charlie. So think about it. Anytime you're going to grab that, your wife's looking back at you, right? You know what I'm saying? Uh-huh. Yeah, okay. I sang on Do What You Like, but if you missed it, I'm the one who said. We need a counter on there, too, for inappropriate stuff. Yeah, just grab them in the biscuits. That's where I was going with that.

All right, to close on this, we've got to hit this topic. DAZN on Friday makes a decision that with the competing cards, UFC 244 and Canelo Kovalev, they are going to wait for the finish of Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz before coming on with the main event. Initially to that news, you had a lot of fight fans who wanted to watch both going, hell yeah, now I get to not miss it live. I was one of them being in New York at that event. You're like, yes, they're going to accommodate me.

And then us that were going to be ringside in Las Vegas started to go, there's not as many fights on the boxing card as there is on the UFC side, and some of these boxing fights are mismatches like Ryan Garcia's first-round knockout in the co-main event that we could be in trouble here. And shout-out to my East Coast brethren where I normally are at because if it's 3 a.m., they must be lonely, and it got close to that. So what this amounted to is after Ryan Garcia's first-run knockout in the co-main event, Canelo Alvarez and Sergey Kovalev,

who were already gloved, hands-wrapped, shirtless, warming up, breaking a sweat in the locker room, had to wait, I think it was 97 minutes. 97 minutes for the UFC 244 end of the co-main and entire main event to go through.

And in unprecedented fashion, the MGM Grand contacts ESPN and says, can we play the main event in the arena? So it kept the MGM Grand fans happy. They're watching on the big screen with volume. That's what I was wondering. They actually were happy to watch that? They were okay. It wasn't uproar.

Online, boxing community, major uproar. If you're watching at home on DAZN, and they're just vamping and stretching, and I'm knocking things over here. So here's the deal. DAZN's basically saying our number showed us it was a smart move. Everybody got off the UFC. They tuned into us. But the optics and what this message sent

out, I think it's horrific. What does that say to your existing subscription base? What does that say to the people who have already subscribed? So here's what it says to them. That MMA and UFC is a better product, that MMA and UFC is a more important product, that we actually want you to sit home and wait for an hour and a half, turn the channel, go to sleep, have a chance to not come back to the broadcast

because we think that this other thing is going to crush us. That's a horrible optic. Look, I don't get into the boxing versus MMA debate because I love them both. I think it's so old school and worthless. But if you're in that, this is a statement about boxing that you can't. Yeah, I agree with you. So to do this for commercial reasons but alienate your audience. And how about Canelo Alvarez?

He got paid $365 million over 10 fights. That's his deal. He got $35 million for this fight. And he's laying on a couch having to wait 90 minutes. He's got $35 million reasons to stand up, kick that door down. I mean, I don't know if you saw Leonard Ellerbee's tweet, the CEO of Mayweather Promotions. He goes, if Floyd and Showtime were on here, this wouldn't happen. If Floyd was in that seat, and it shouldn't happen.

If you're going to compete, then compete. Right. Because in the end, they punted. And you could have soft punted. You could have gone live with Canelo at 11 p.m. Eastern, and then UFC goes on after that and acted like you're competing, but you're really not. But to straight-up punt, you had the better product.

I went to Canelo Kovalev for a reason. I love me some BMF, but Canelo had the potential to be the bigger fight. It got more traffic on CBS Sports. It was a big reason why I went there. They had the best possible event they could have had. And they're saying, no, this other one in another sport 3,000 miles away is probably going to do better than us. Believe me, there is a psychology in play. There's a psychology between the boxing fans and the MMA fans.

MMA side, being newer and kind of having to build itself over time, has an inferiority complex. It just does. I don't think that MMA people believe that there is cultured or anything as boxing because boxing's been around. They've had the great chroniclers. They've had the big fights for so long. This was the first time where I've seen it where somebody took the reins and said, UFC is actually bigger. You can imagine the UFC or any MMA stopping its event like that and halting it for that amount of time. Imagine the UFC doing it. It would never happen in a million years.

That would never happen. And imagine Oscar De La Hoya or these guys who Dana hates Oscar, they hate each other. Imagine being him or imagine any of these guys. There are some pretty hard feelings between these two sports when it comes down to it. I know you don't want to get involved with that, but that does exist. So you can see why the boxing side would be like, why are we doing this? Because a lot of the boxing purists can't stand MMA. And so to put that on there, it's like, it's a slap in the face. You know, and Bellator,

I'm sorry, DAZN CEO James Rush, you know, just sort of come out and saying, we're going to war against UFC with Bellator. And then to see this decision, it's kind of baffling. But we're going to roll on. We're going to go back to UFC 244 in New York. And what you saw was some two big name fighters who took a big chance, went all in on themselves, and ended up coming out victorious in the co-main event. You had Darren Till moving up to middleweight, claiming a decision over Kelvin Gastelum. And then you had Kevin Lee moving back down to lightweight and getting a highlight reel knockout.

Chuck, you want to see a dead body against Gregor Gillespie? Chuck, they both went all in. Both could not have afforded a loss here. Which win was more redemptive in your eyes? Man, that's a toughie. I would probably go with Kevin Lee's, though, to be honest. I mean, I feel like Till was kind of thrust in too early to his title shot. Yes.

And then he had a very difficult, obviously, the Masvidal fight was kind of geared towards him. But we've seen how that played out. That's tough. It's funny how the sliding doors in that sense, by the way, Masvidal fighting in the main event until trying to resurrect himself in a different weight class. But I think that with Lee, just given that, you know, I feel like people were really starting to cool on him. I think that there was a big time moment when he had a lot of potential.

He was 9-2 coming out of the gate. He had some big time wins. He was very loud, very boisterous. I felt like he was going to be something in the division or in the UFC in general. To see him kind of cool, and it was almost like nobody was talking about him. People were writing. I was one of them. I wrote a big piece about Gillespie.

I thought that that was going to be his big breakout moment. He's an undefeated fighter. He knows how to control the cage. He's a big-time wrestler. He knocks people out. I was like, this is a horrible matchup for Lee. But yet, he goes in there and just handles himself very quietly. Conducts himself with a game-time wrestler. He knocks people out. I was like, this is a horrible matchup for Lee. But yet he goes in there and just handles himself very quietly, conducts himself with a game plan in place, keeps the fight where he wants it, and then delivers that kick, man. And I was just, you've got to think that that guy just came rising,

raging back from the dead, honestly. That's what it felt like to me. So I think I would put him higher than two. And it was a performance in which he legitimately went all in. Look, I've been one of those guys that day one-ish is like, Kevin Lee's going to be a world champion in UFC. And every time it was looking like it's about to happen, it's weight issues, it's losing a big fight. For him to come back, I thought he took a lot of unnecessary damage against Gillespie, but then to finish it like that, what are you going to say

about that? He's moving back down to the deepest division in the sport and he's looking like a player. And if you're going to write about him, can you get to the bottom of this third nipple? Was that another staph infection? This guy's... There's always something like that with him. I don't know. He said it was an ingrown hair. So...

Wow. All right. I do want to say, though, shout out to Darren Till. I've never been big on Darren Till. I thought he got rushed. He's been very honest, too. He was very candid in his interviews about his feelings. I was just going to hit that.

I thought he got rushed. I thought they were hoping he was the next Conor. They gave him things he didn't deserve. And for him to come out and say, I was in the locker room trying to come up with a fake injury because, and look, I predicted Gastelum would walk right through him. I thought this was a bad fight to take. Dana White said this was a bad fight to take. Talk about going all in on yourself.

Props to Darren Till for being that real. The fight wasn't the greatest. The building kind of sagged during that fight. But I thought when I watched it in retrospect, especially when you think back on it, I'm like, I think that Till fought the fight he needed to fight. He needed to get his confidence back, especially knowing that kind of context. You know who else said that exact thing about you're backstage, you're so nervous, you're thinking about a car coming and picking you up and taking you out of there or faking an injury? GSP. GSP is another guy who had that a lot.

It's one of those situations I think these guys, not a lot of guys are going to be honest about that situation, especially when the BMF is at the top of this thing. People think of these fighters a certain way, but they are human beings, and I think that that's a common sort of thing to flee. I love GSP, but never forget when he wore those jorts that went down below his knee when he cut that

promo on Matt Hughes. I mean, what are you, John Cena? I mean, come on, shout out to that. All right, staying in line with UFC 244, so many storylines this weekend. We had a light heavyweight bout. That was must-see when you're talking about Johnny Walker running through folks at 205, flying knee knockouts, flying dong knockouts, I mean, flying everything. And then he ran into Corey Anderson, a gritty veteran, a true wrestler.

And Corey Anderson straight up beat that ass. Chuck, this was a brutal finish, a dominant performance. And considering where Corey Anderson came from recently, showing up at a card show, I think, assigning to try to get a title shot from Jon Jones, being told by Dana White, no, no, you're not of that ilk. You don't move the needle. And then blowing away a guy that we thought was ready for a title shot. Yeah. What's next for Corey Anderson after this? Well, I don't know if he's going to get the title shot. As crazy as all this is, and he's actually going on record just like,

hey, if you're not going to give me the title shot, then release me. It's almost like he's still continuing on with this angsty brought into this situation. He looked like a very dangerous spoiler in this situation. Honestly, his intensity all week was like that. I wasn't surprised. He's always been a tough guy. He's looked very good, but he doesn't usually finish. Over the last three fights, I mean, the reason he's not getting in the title discussion is because his fights are just kind of nondescript. You know, he's been grinding. But the run he's putting together of names is pretty...

But now it changes, right? Because he goes in there and he beats up the guy who they're kind of grooming for the situation. I'm not sure he jumps into that pole position, not with Dominic Reyes out there. But at the same time, I think he just did himself a lot of favors. I think he put himself either into a title eliminator type of situation or against a big enough name where they can market it the right way to get him to that. I tell you what, if they plugged him in against John Jones, it wouldn't be a bad move. No, I'd be fine with it.

But I would say, but I do think Dom Reyes and he's got the Toyo Tyros commercial, which shows you they're ready to push him to the top. Um, for Johnny Walker though, it was a bad performance. I'd been harsh on him cause, cause the carnival circus antics. I haven't been a big fan of it. You don't have sensuality in the walk. Uh, there's a creep, there's a creep vibe coming out of that. But shout out to the performances he had

to get to this point. Look, I want to live in a world where one loss doesn't derail somebody in either combat sport, right? I want to live in a world where you can bounce back from that. So I think for Johnny Walker, we have to understand that when you're blowing away dudes in 30 seconds, you don't actually know how good you are. We don't know how good he is, and

we just found it out. And I think that he's got so many tools that he's certainly got a great chance to bounce back, as long as he doesn't fall on his shoulder or anything. 100%. He's also, just what I realized, this is the first time I've really been around him for a fight week. I felt like he's got that charisma, man. He's got that something more about him that I think will translate over the long haul. But I agree. He needed to show that.

I was more interested if this fight went the full distance, how he'd look over the course of three rounds. It did not last that. But, you know, he's got a lot of room to grow. I think that he's, we've seen his power. We've seen what he's able to do. Add some wrinkles to it. I think that he'll be just fine, man.

All right. Also staying in the UFC here, final topic. UFC middleweight champion Israel Adesanya told our own Luke Thomas during Friday's radio show in New York City that he indeed wants to defend his title against Yoel Romero next after Paulo Costa was injured, kind of pulled off of the title fast track at the moment right here. Chuck, you want to talk about a bag of sex? That fight has like, I'm already sweating and I think I'm sweating even more, but it's interesting right now. Darren Till just resurfaced in a

new division and looks pretty damn good off one fight. Jared Cannoneer's been putting together a thing. Considering some of the close calls Romero has had, does he deserve to get plugged in right now? So the fact that Paulo Costa was supposed to be the guy, but he can't fight. But yet Romero just

fought him. If you just do this basic math equation, they just fought in one of the bizarro, epic fights of the year, I think. It was just a crazy fight. Did you saw that fight? I mean, it was just Costa and Romero was one of those fights that will stay. I'll remember it in 10 years from now when you're looking back at this year. That fight was so crazy. The fact that Romero looked that way at 42 years old and was able to kind of like push Kosta into that. I'm like, to me, you could have flipped a coin, either one, and they'd be the contender anyway. So Romero was that close to being able to beat Kosta and go on. So I'm like, plug him in.

I'm fine with it. I'm completely fine with it. Here's the thing that I love. You have a guy who's a champion who wants the hardest fight possible. I love that. This is something we don't get anymore. He wants all the smoke. Shout out to Steven Jackson and Matt Barnes there.

Absolutely. He wants that fight. Who ever calls out Romero in a situation where you could completely avoid him? I'm all about Israel Adesanya on his bravery and his courage and all that stuff. Him wanting that fight and wanting to prove that shit, man, I'm down. And I think a couple months ago we had a long debate on the show of like, I don't know if I've seen Romero lose yet on the high level. I thought he beat Costa.

I thought he beat Whitaker the second time around. I agree with you on that, man. I mean, could you imagine this fight on paper? This is as good as it gets. It's awesome. Inject it right into me right now. And speaking of other Showtime franchises, were you a big Red Shoe Diaries fan in the 90s?

Not big, no. I wouldn't say big. Were you? It must be the Irish curse. in the 90s? Not big, no. I wouldn't say big. Were you? It must be the Irish curse. You just want to get your counter. All right. Yes, there we go on the 90s. One more thing about Adesanya, though.

Okay. Did you see that tweet he put out yesterday from Madison Square Garden? There's kind of a revolution going on here. I think he's joining it. Jay in the back, do you mind throwing that tweet up? Touching tips. Who would have thought that two crazy ass Polish warriors during a weigh-in who were so jacked up that they had to go shaft on shaft that they would start a movement, a world tour. People touching tips all over the globe now, Chuck. If Jay says one more thing in my ear, I'm going tip to tip with him.

I'm going to give you full credit for this. This is you. Wow. Could you ever be that angry at another guy where you're just going to walk right up? All right, that's it. That's it. Thank you very much.

All right, that'll wrap up the big topics of the week. Now we want to hear from you folks. It's time for DMs from donks. Please let your voice be heard. Who do we got this week? We got somebody named Webscream, or who do we got? At shoes underscore mustache. That's a hell of a name.

Does it make more sense to use doctors familiar with the sports and fighters or to use commissioned doctors unfamiliar with no bias to focus simply on the athlete's health and safety? This is in regards to the stoppage of Nate Diaz's cut. What do you think about ringside, cage side doctors and their fight knowledge? Generally speaking, I feel like this is a non-issue. I mean, most cases, there's very few fights. It's usually when there's a big gash like that. It's very superficial, but it could be blinding to them. I feel like in most cases, they handle it appropriately. And in most states, I mean, I feel like this is really, it doesn't come up.

It was just the magnitude of this event and the kind of scrutiny behind it and the expectations behind it that made this different. If you really step back and just say, like, if it's just a normal main event and there's a, you know, whatever it is, are you going to have a problem with that fight being stopped because of a cut? I wouldn't. No. It's just that it shouldn't have been for the BMF.

That's all. And it just so happened that Nate was coming on. And he was coming on. He was coming on, man. He was putting the fists together. But, yeah, I mean, look, I'd want somebody to be a better doctor than a fight fan. I get the question. The question is, would you understand certain fighters better who has a history of being able to take damage and bounce back?

But I'd just rather have the best doctor possible looking out for their health. I think so, too. I don't mean to get soft on you people, all right? No, I think so, too. You don't want some guys like, hey, man, I know you're tougher than that. I'm going to let you go. Yeah, yeah. Remember Rocky Pennington was like, no, I want out of this fight.

No, you're fine. Go back out there in the deep waters. All right, what do we got? Let's hit it up from the people. At McMichael Josh, is Johnny Walker the only guy that crosses his arms to take his T-shirt off? I don't know what this is in reference to. So what is he? I guess it's like this.

I don't know. I don't understand. How do you take your T-shirt off? Do you do the manly, like, let me reach over? Or do you do, I do it like the six-year-old way where you put the hand through the shirt and you're like. I've definitely done it that way if the shirt is tight. You wear your shirts very tight. Well, that's because I'm getting fat.

Hey, shout out to this shirt right here, right? Wow. Wow. You got a little Roots of Merch on right now? Yeah. Oh, look at that Helio Gracie. That guy got some balls. Yeah, yeah. Right? Wow. So, I don't know. Yeah, I don't know where that question's going right now. Johnny Walker is a weirdo, though. Let's be really

honest, okay? At least he wasn't trying to seduce his audience this time. I mean, usually he's a former dancer, right? Like, there's been a couple times he's stripping on the way to the cage. Hey, some people get down with that. That's fine. That's fine, you know? Maybe he knows something we don't psychologically about the strip.

All right, Donktoberfest rolls on with, at CVasquez1214, should UFC and DAZN, boxing MMA promotions, work out a schedule together for big events like this weekend. This is a good question because you've got arguably the biggest boxing fight of the year or second or third. I mean, it's one of the big ones, Canelo Kovalev, and you have a can't-miss UFC 244 card. Should one of them have altered the times or switched nights?

No. Or do you just say... Well, switched nights maybe. You don't want to see them go head-to-head. As a fight fan, I wanted to watch both things. They're not going to work together. We don't expect networks and promotions to work together. It will never happen.

I like it when it just... So you get to the point where you're like, you watch all the fights just like I do. You set a DVR or whatever, you set it up and you try to do it. I like it when things just work out. This one did not work out at all. The timing was way off. It just

didn't work. I would rather that the promotions, and I know the UFC had their event first, right? I would like people to be a little more cognizant. Yes, because Canelo was going to go in September and then he pulled out of that. So it's like you would like them to be a little more cognizant and if you're going to go head-to-head with something like the UFC

and something like that pay-per-view, regardless of who was booked, it's a pay-per-view. You know it's going to be a special event at Madison Square Garden. Just accept it. You know that you're going to go head-to-head, go head-to-head. If you're going to do that, if not, book it for another day. That's all I would say. It'll never work the other way.

I mean, it's never ideal when a giant UFC card and a giant boxing pay-per-view are going head-to-head. It's the I would... It'll never work the other way. It'll never work where... It's never ideal when a giant UFC card and a giant boxing paper beer are going head-to-head. It's the world we live in. I'd just like to see more fight promoters, and they're slowly doing this, get off of Saturday night. Why is Saturday night specifically putting it on at 12.30 p.m. Eastern on Saturday night? Can we go to Friday

or Thursday or Sunday when people are home? I mean, I get you're not going to go against the NFL. There are certain seasons for this. But can we stop? The Friday night thing, I'm like, please, just move the boxing night, move it to Friday night. Can we wake up and do that, please? Let's do that.

All right, is there any more donks here? I need to hear from the people. At MT Booble, wow, that's getting somewhere. With the ridiculous circumstances during the WWE event last week, the crown jewel in Saudi Arabia, should that raise even more concern for the December 7th rematch between Joshua and Ruiz that is also happening in Saudi? So just in case you guys don't know,

WWE went back to Saudi Arabia on Thursday. It's a controversial thing. They're getting millions to do it. And there was this weird sort of thing that's been reported by longtime wrestling scribe Dave Meltzer and others that the Saudi government may not have paid in time. Vince McMahon may have threatened to not go live with the broadcast. Then suddenly there's wrestlers left on a plane on a tarmac with mechanical issues.

They're left for 24 hours. They don't make it to SmackDown in time. Like, it's just mayhem there. The wrestlers feel like they're pawns in this game. We already know if you're going to take the money, you're kind of dancing with the devil. Because there's some certain human rights issues going on in Saudi Arabia right now. Would you have fear if you're DAZN right now? I mean, with reports that AJ's getting $75 million to go there?

Jesus, man. I mean, yeah, probably. I mean, when you're dealing in that kind of money, and basically this is all this is, right? Like you just mentioned, you're crossing some moral grounds here to go make that money. Yeah, if it's all about the money and you're hearing reports or whatever's going on behind the scenes here that there's some snags that way,

that would be concerning. You agree? Yeah, it's also a really bad look to go there and take money these days from them. But if you're going to do it, you got to deal with what's going on over there. There's no bad looks. You know, I mean, you got to be willing to fight.

And I guess in a way, Vince McMahon was. There was some standouts, but whatever. It's whatever. Whatever on that. All right, we got one you've got to be willing to fight. And I guess in a way, Vince McMahon was. There were some standouts. But whatever. Whatever. Whatever on that. All right, we've got one more from the donks. Let's bring him in here. At Emilio Brucia, what would be your walkout song if you were a fighter? Chuck Mendenhall.

Gosh, there's some good ones. Rory McDonald walked out to tools 46 and 2. And I thought that was cool. I thought about that one before. It just has this creepy buildup. And then when it hits, it hits. And you enter the octagon right at that moment. That would probably be up there.

I've thought about that before. There's another song. I like some instrumental ones that I've heard that I've, over time, you're like, oh, that would be a cool walkout song. There's one by Deer Hunter called Dot Gain, which is a really cool one. Look that one up. I'm glad you're not dipping into Luke's territory of, like, slaying children or whatever.

No, I can't. Abortion rock. I don't know what Luke listens to. He's all about, like, Josh Barnett's walkouts and things like that. Yeah. But I might, no, I wouldn't go quite that crazy. I think people would assume I would dip into the 90s, maybe go, like, Breakfast at Tiffany's by Deep Blue something,

but I wouldn't. I would go with Van Halen's Mean Streets, right? Okay. You know that opening guitar? It's just grimy. It's just grungy. I would go with Van Halen's Mean Streets, right? Okay. You know that opening guitar? It's just grimy. It's just grungy. I could see that. Look, I need to set the tone that I'm coming out there to do two things, right?

Kick ass and take names and take your girl and all that stuff, you know? That would definitely set that. That would be probably pretty lame by today's crowd. That's dating myself there. That's showing that putting the old balls on the line. All right, those are the donks. Thank you for chirping in this week. Continue to hit us up on Instagram each week and let your voice be heard.

Chuck, it is time for my favorite segment of the week where I scour the globe over this past week to get the highs, the lows, the in-betweens, the good, the bad, and the ugly from combat sports. Have you seen this shit, Chuck Mendenhall? This is my favorite segment. We start out at Burka Young Eagles. A man named Roman Avdil.

Check out this spinning back fist. Oh, dead. Dead. You know what? I think that referee's actually ripping back the canvas and starting the grave for him right there. Look at that. He doesn't even hit for him right there. Look at that. He doesn't even hit him with his hand.

Look at this. Oh, wow. Was that extra shot necessary? No, but you don't often see face first. I think the floor KO'd him. I mean, that's just, oh, God. Dude, shout out to Gribaca. Always. Shout out to Gribaca. Always.

Shout out to fueling all of us with what's going on around the globe right there. Look at his feet are stiff. Oh my god. That's a crazy one, man. We roll on to an event called Mui Hardcore. Alright. Alright, check out... What are their names? Can you... I don't know. Farsad, Sign King. Where's Linda Blair? You want to see an

exorcism here, Chuck? You want to see an exorcism here, Chuck? You want to see some Holy Ghost power? Oh, watch. Oh. Did you see the demon come out of him right there? Wow. And look at the referee. He hits his head on the ropes.

Oh, wow. And why is this ref counting? Look at this guy. What are you counting right now? Three, four. Wow. Yeah, wow. That could be an ST now? Three, four, wow. It burns. Yeah, wow. That could be an STD.

Wow, wow, Chuck. All right there. Wow, we're really bringing it this week right here. That is crazy, man. Chuck, have you seen the shit does roll on? Let's see this one. Here we go. Chick fight time at Eternal MMA 49.

Sometimes if you go for a flying arm bar, that can happen. Oh my God. You can knock yourself out. Another one. Wow. What is up with these people's heads kind of popping up after they're unconscious? That's a hashtag fail. That's a hashtag jujitsu fail. Look at her opponent.

She was probably watching Demetrius Johnson, Ray Borg. She's like, I can do this thing, right? Jesus. I mean, no disrespect to her. She went for it. She went all in, right? She put on the weird camo shirt. She went all in.

But she's all out now. That's going to be the strangest knockout you'll ever get. She is all out now. You know, I got to give these people credit, Chuck. Like, it's 2019. There's cell phone cams everywhere. There's cams on. Like, you try something wacky, and you get knocked the hell out like this.

I mean, people like us are sitting here with, you know, making fun of them. It's a tough world we live in, right, Chuck? You can't even get a fight on the bus anymore without people putting it on the internet, right? Man, her head's moving, her arm is just limp. All right, let's roll on here. Chuck, you know the infamous UFC legend called the Just Bleed guy, the greatest guy of all time? Of course, man. Look at that guy getting high above him. The greatest fight fan in UFC. I've never noticed that. Shout out to Mark Kerr. I've never noticed that. The greatest fight fan in UFC history Shout out to Mark Kerr. The greatest fight fan in UFC history. Two weeks ago during Jeremy Stevens' fight,

there's a new Just Bleed guy. Watch this, okay? Stevens getting fired up for Barbosa. Was that Boston? Yeah, Boston. Look at this guy, the Just Direct guy. What is this a-hole doing? You have your moment.

You have your chance to get fired up to spit, to bleed, to let your fluids fly. And you're like, no. Wow. How lame is this guy, Chuck? But if you go head to head. Whoa. Is that the same guy?

I know the Just Bleed guy went to jail for a while. There's been some great features written about that. Yeah, he's out of jail. I know nothing about the Just Bleed guy. Is that the same guy? I mean, first of all, look at that old guy right there. I don't know. This is like, aw.

Is this taken in a bathroom? Look at that guy's face. But Chuck, this might be the same person. I might need you on The Athletic to get. It's just like aged by what, like 10 years or something? Yeah, look at the. I don't know when the Just Bleed guy came out. I love the intensity.

But the evolution from Just Bleed to Just Cut, I don't know. What are you doing? Are you cheering for cuts? Who comes up with that idea? That's pretty lame. Who comes up with that? Speaking of lame, let's go out to the desert for WWE crown jewel, Lin-Manuel heavyweight champion.

I said Lin-Manuel. Yeah. Tyson Fury against Braun Strowman. And Chuck, I got to be honest with you, this was a shit show. Tyson Fury might be one of the worst celebrity crossover wrestlers we have ever, ever seen. Six foot nine of get the hell out of my ring.

He ends up finishing the fight with a knockout punch and it was comically bad. I mean, look, shout out to the guy for going after it when you got a big heavyweight rematch coming up, but Braun did the job to him. Fury went over and it was carny. It was carny.

It was heavy carn. All right? So he's not as good at this as, say, Cain Velasquez, as his crossover. No, and speaking of Cain Velasquez, he had the rematch heard around the world. They called it the biggest combat sports event of all time. The rematch, nine years later.

I didn't know he was wearing stockings. And I don't know if you watched it, but it only... Prostitute. Wow, brown pride. It only lasted like two minutes, and Kane ended up tapping out due to a Kimura lock. Okay. So Tyson makes Strowman do the job, but Kane walks in and Brock went over, bro. That's crazy.

I'm not sure I buy that. I don't know if you watched their actual fight. The literal fight. The literal fight. The one at UFC 120. Oh, Brock wasted the best beard of his life that night. Yeah, that's true. But just to report, Kane actually is a good wrestler.

They did this match in almost like an MMA shoot style. Yeah. It was interesting. It's going to be interesting to see, though, what they do with Kane's personality. Because there is not one. You didn't want to carry that over to WWE? No, apparently not. But the guy can move a little bit.

Probably wants to get up on those PEDs, though, now that he's out of the USADA pool. You know Vince can't be looking at those moves without thinking, you know, let's somebody inject, the boys need their candy. Come on, we got to get out of here. All right. Chuck, I know what you're thinking. We just went through five Have You Se seen the shits? And nobody touched a dong.

Nobody went tip, tip, tip. I do have bonus footage for you. Here's a bone cancer survivor, a teen, that's thrown out the first pitch for the Red Sox multiple times. Oh! The bone giveth and the bone taketh. Right into that. Oh, my God.

Right into that photogs bone bag. Look at that. First of all, who wears a pink? You think the guy regrets wearing a pink shirt now, now that this happened? Oh, I mean, shout out to the kid. How do you even, oh my God. I mean, if you survive bone cancer, you can do what you want. But, wow, that is some ball on tip action right there.

Did that happen recently? No, that's some old footage there. But shout out to that right there. Oh, wow. All right. Good times. We're going to close this show this week with odds and ends. Chuck, why don't you...

It's hard to follow that. You can't follow that. You can't follow that. Why don't you go first? All right, Chuck? What are we doing? Odds and ends time. Odds and ends.

You know, at UFC 244 this weekend, your boy Edmund Tarverdian, right? Tarverdian. Head movement. Yeah, head movement. Was back very quietly with his prospect, this 21-year-old prospect from the Los Angeles gym, Edmund Shabazian. And that cat, first of all, has looked very good in the UFC so far. He's looked very good. Nobody's really talking about him, though.

This was kind of still under the radar, but people who have been paying attention are starting to basically know that he's good. He's fighting a guy, Brad Tavares, who's a very tough out. Not a lot of guys beat him. He's very tough to put away. Shabazz was able to go in there and basically get a head kick and score that victory,

and it was very nice. I looked over at Ed and Tarverdian, who's had a hellacious run. Yes. After the Ronda Rousey. He's been a permanent meme. Jake Ellenberger, the Travis Brown. He's been a meme. He's been everything. Like, who's had a hellacious run after the Ronda Rousey. He's been a permanent meme. Jake Ellenberger, Travis Brown. He's been a meme.

He's been everything. He's had problems outside. He's had court problems, legal problems, everything. And this guy was going up to congratulate, and he stopped and crippled over and just started wailing, bawling. I didn't see that. He started bawling. It meant so much to him.

And I sat there and watched him. He probably was wailing for a good two or three minutes before he could even get in there. He was crippled over basically crying. And I realized just how much he's been going through silently. Because he's not been talking a lot. He's not out there putting out interviews. He hasn't really redeemed himself in any public way. But to see something like that, you know how the fight game goes, man.

He silently kills some of these guys, man. And to see him kind of have that moment for his guy. And look, I've kind of clowned him in public, too. When I see him, it's like, Edmund, what's up, man? And you go up and you give him a false high five. And he'd been grooming Edmund Shabazzian for a while, like since he was a small teen. And to see him blow through Brad Tavares like that and show you that.

That was awesome, man. He's a player at middleweight, long term. He's 21 years old. What is he, 11 and 0 now? I mean, that was show you that. That was awesome, man. He's a player at middleweight, long-term. He's 21 years old. What, he's 11-0 now? I mean, that was... Yeah. So shout-out to Edmund. He's so poised, too, Shabazzian.

He goes in there, he doesn't... Some of these guys, especially Madison Square Garden, he's going against a veteran. I think we were talking with Luke last week. He's like, you know, if you beat a guy like that, that's on your resume. That's like the meat of your resume at that point. It kind of goes a long way and serves your street cred.

He went right through him, man. That was a showcase. That was a showcase. Oh, and shout out to Aljamain Sterling. Aljo filled this chair late last week for a special edition of Morning Combat. He was great. He's not afraid to give his opinion. The people like him.

All right, odds and ends this week. Saturday on DAZN is the KSI Logan Paul rematch. First time with the headgear off. The pro. Going head-to-head against Russia? UFC Russia? Yeah, yeah, going head-to-head against that. So here's the deal, Chuck. I've interviewed both guys.

I've got to be honest, like, they're charming. They got me to care. They got me to care. They have respected what this fight is. Their first fight, which was with headgear, was actually, like, kind of a decent boxing match. Yeah, I mean, Logan Paul did tell me a story about how he lost 15% of his right ball, if you want to check out my podcast, because that's the content that the people crave.

But I talked to JJ, KSI. And I got it. I don't know if you saw them at the press conference. There's a lot of weird handjobs going on. I care about it. I know I'm that guy that they're going after, right? Yeah. But it's gotten to me. They've guaranteed a knockout. They've guaranteed murder, basically.

Yeah. And for both of them, they're sort of putting the future of their entertainment careers, in their words, at stake, where if they lose, they don't feel like they're going to be able to cross over into music and do these things because of how embarrassing it would be. That's a good point, man. Will you care, though? You're sort of the perfect guy who could be on the fence. You could hate this crap. I've been following it peripherally. I actually get more interested in how the boxing media responds to something like this because the boxing, I love the curmudgeons that exist in the boxing media.

You being one of the exceptions, I feel like you kind of keep it very light. But there's a lot of guys in the boxing media that can't stand this kind of shit. How is it being handled that way? Are people, are the... It's a mix. I mean, when I had Logan Paul on my podcast, the hardcores went at me. But, you know, I've been surprised

at how much boxing has embraced us. More on the business side. Guys like Devin Haney, the bright young prospect, Billy Joe Saunders are like, I need to be on this card because of the exposure. There's actually something good this can do in terms of crossing over. It's just bizarre.

It's bizarre that in 2019, we're having essentially a pay-per-view fight with two YouTube stars. They had, back in the day, what was it, like Celebrity Boxing where Screech was fighting like Horshack and those types of things. And obviously that's a whole different thing. I do think that some of that feeling is attached to it. But I'll be paying attention, man. I mean, I like the weird and arcane, you know, I like that type of thing. To closing on UFC Moscow this weekend, we talked at length last week with Luke about

Greg Hardy. So this main event, Featherweight, Zabit, Magomed, Sharapov against Calvin Cater, not a bad fight here. How long if Zabit gets this, if he can win this fight, and I want to know if you think he can, he's got to be knocking on that door. It's got to be Zabit time soon. It will be. I feel like he's been groomed, and he's, I if you think he can, he's got to be knocking on that door. It's got to be the beat time soon.

It will be. I feel like he's been groomed. And he's, I mean, like, it's the same kind of escalation, right? Like, he's getting a nice build. He fought a couple guys he should beat. Then he gets a couple of guys who throw a little doubt. Now he's fighting a guy, which was supposed to happen in Boston, by the way, and it moved, which is kind of crazy for Calvin Katara.

Yeah, they could have had the just cut. Yeah, to go over there. Yeah, he's going over there. The just direct guy. He's going over to Russia to do this. I just think that, you know, he trains in New Jersey. He trains with Nick Catone and a lot of those guys, Frankie Edgar. And if you talk to those guys, they've been talking about him like it's an eventuality.

You know, it's inevitable that he'll be a champion someday. I feel like this is the big moment for him because, obviously, it's a main event. It's happening in Russia. I think that, you know, one big more, especially against a guy like Cater, a resounding victory here probably puts him right into that mix. And that's going to be a violent fight. It's going to be a violent fight.

Calvin Cater, man, wanted this fight. And that cat, man, is just. He's on a run, too. He's on a run, and he's mean. I could see. I mean, this isn't a run, and he's mean. I could see, I mean, this isn't a slam dunk for Zabit. I mean, I feel like this fight could go either way, to be honest. But the idea of Zabit and Max...

I would love that. He's one of those guys that, yeah, genuinely brings, like, something more to the scenario. I feel like that's going to be a big-time fight when they make it. All right, I've got to flush Vegas out of my system, out of my veins. Oh, one quick thing.

I took the subway here through New York City. Yeah, I am the worst, Jay. You know, I grew up 90 minutes from New York City. I've got the ingrained street smarts for my parents. No eye contact, put your wallet in your front pocket, that kind of stuff. So this gentleman, I've got to tell the story because I don't wonder if it actually happened.

This gentleman sits down next to me, no introduction, no hi, how you doing, just starts telling me his life story out loud, no eye contact. And he tells me that he's 37 years old and he's fathered 19 children, all boys. And he has seven grandkids. And I don't respond because I'm creeped out. And then he tells me that having all boys is a blessing, but the problem is they've all ended up like him. They don't respect women. And then he proceeded to tell me, conceivement by conceivement, what happened out loud.

I'm looking at the faces of the other people. I'm like, this is bizarro world. And five of those pregnancies happened because a woman laced his weed. I'm just like, I need to kind of like, I need to cycle off of this conversation. I never said a word, but I did want to stand up and be like, you really hit the skins for the hell of it, right? Just for the yell of it.

For the smell of it. Do you think he was telling the truth? He didn't look like a crazy person either. He looked like a regular guy. Like, this was insane. I've had many encounters on the subway, like, from pretty crazy people. But that takes the cake. I don't know.

It's always weird when you don't know if they're crazy. Like, they, like, it. For all the hell you know, he's telling you the truth. I don't know why he's telling you that. You know, maybe he needed an air, a shoulder. Maybe he needed a tip, you know? And I would have, I would have, okay, we got, yeah, you're right. Let's end the show.

Back to the tip. Let's end the show here. Where's our tip counter? All right. Follow us, please show. Let's end the show here. All right. Follow us, please, on our social media channels. There's our personals right there. Follow us at, what do we call it here? Morning Combat on Instagram.

Please subscribe. Luke Thomas will be back, so hopefully he gets out of jail this week. Chuck Mendenhall, we can check out your work at The Athletic. You've got a pretty damn good podcast. Do you want to tell the people about it? It's called The Man and the Myth. And it's now free, by the way, on all platforms. It's not behind the paywall like the written word.

So Man and the Myth every Monday and Wednesday. I love it. I love it right there. Thank everybody for checking us out, staying with us. Look, we're the real, right? We are the real. We bring it. We bring it.

We don't pull any of those punches, okay? We are bringing it. We are getting into your ear holes. We are changing lives. We are brain into your ear holes. We are changing lives. We are brainwashing you MKUltra style, so continue to come back for more. We want to take this thing to the top, brother, okay? I bet you never knew, but now you know. We're the undisputed kings of this combat disco.

For Chuck Mendenhall, you can't follow that. You cannot follow that. For Chuck Mendenhall, it's your boy, BC. We're out of here. Get some rest, my friend. Oh, may your host stay loyal. All that good stuff. Thank you. I'm out. I'm out. That's it. I'm done. I'm done. Thank you. We'll be you next time.