MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Arman Tsarukyan Is a PROBLEM | Extra Credit Ep. 14

Episode Date: March 1, 2022

Luke Thomas is back with Episode 14 of Morning Kombat Extra Credit. Luke breaks down a couple fights from UFC Fight Night: Makhachev vs. Green that he didn't get to on episode 270 of Morning Kombat. (1:45) - Arman Tsarukyan vs. Joel Alvarez (6:00) - Armen Petrosyan vs. Gregory Rodrigues (11:15) - Ignacio Bahamondes vs. Rong Zhu (18:05) - Terrance McKinney vs. Fares Ziam (20:15) - Ramiz Brahimaj vs. Micheal Gillmore Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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This is where we get to the fights that we didn't get to on regular MK. I do a show with Brian Campbell. We get to usually the larger set of topics. This is where we get to some of the finer details that you guys might want us to discuss, but we just sometimes don't have time for. Okay. On the docket today, we have a focus on the UFC card. We really didn't get to a ton of UFC content on today's show, although we did do, I did do a post-fight show. So there was some content, but here you go. Here are the fights that we're going to focus on from UFC Vegas 49. Of course, this took place on Saturday at the Apex in Las Vegas. We're going to focus in on Armin Saryukian taking on Joel Alvarez. We'll talk about the Armin Petrosian versus, I thought it'd be Rodriguez, but I guess it's Rodriguez fight, Gregory Rodriguez.

A really action-packed, phenomenal contest. How about Ignacio Bahamondes out of Chile? Incredible job against, I think it's Rong Zhu. And then Terrence McKinney doing phenomenal work against Ferez Diam. And then Ramez Brahimah taking on, I guess it's still pronounced Michael. Forgive me for the pronunciation today. Gilmore. Those are the fights we'll focus on.

There was a lot of online chatter about the Priscilla Cachoeira fight, but I just don't want to spend a ton of time. I would rather focus on these fights. If that was of interest to you, I understand that. I get why, but there's, for me, other topics that matter. Okay, so let's kick things off here. First things first, thumbs up on the video if you're watching on YouTube. Please hit subscribe, and if you're listening on podcast platforms, give us a nice review

there as well. Always appreciated when you do. Let's begin. First things first, Armin Saryukian. This is where we'll start. He, of course, defeats Joel Alvarez at 157 of the second round. I talked about this on the post-fight show. If you saw this, some of this may sound familiar, but the basic idea here was there was some concern about, well, first of all, Joel Alvarez needs to be understood as a very, very good prospect. You didn't get a lot of evidence of that on Saturday, but I would really caution you to not close the door on him just yet. We still need to see. There's still lots that is unknown about him.

But he has shown flashes of very capable striking. He is rangy. He is lanky. He tends to use it more often than not pretty well so understanding that you had to assess what would be the threats to a blue chip prospect like armin saryukian it would be he was taller uh it would be that the knees could be a problem because uh joel alvarez has really good use of knees and in a lot of different contexts defensive wrestling or otherwise and um you know how would he close the distance? How, how would he solve the problems to get to the wrestling? Cause you, you figured once he

got there, it would, Joel Alvarez would have to show another gear of and level of defensive wrestling. He has not shown yet. And we know that the wrestling of Suryukin has been good since the moment of his UFC debut, giving Makachev, I'm not saying all that he could handle, but a handful. And then of course, what would he be able to do on the ground? You would imagine he would have to turn up the ground a pound because what was the larger knock on Armin Saryukian? It was that he was obviously a phenomenal athlete, great wrestler. Some of his other pieces of his game need to come together, but he was, he had a bit of an issue finishing. So, so this fight is a kind of an important fight for a

couple of reasons. Yes, he got another finish over a, in this case, another unranked, but very good prospect, but he did it in a very specific manner. Last time he got a finish on the feet. This time he got a finish on the ground. I don't know if he exactly intended it 100% that way, but what he did do was he didn't just kind of defensively wrestle guys through scramble positions for 15 minutes. He put it on a guy. He put him on his back. He held him there and then he sliced him open. Like, you know, I mean, you guys saw the evidence of that. So here we are saying he could get, he didn't have to strike with the guy on the feet who I think he recognized was better than him. Although in the previous fights, Ryukin did strike his way to a finish. He recognized he

would have to stick to his strengths, but he has now added a layer of ground and pound beyond what we had already established was phenomenal positional control. He's going to be tough to beat. He's going to be tough to beat. If they match make him the right way, he's going to be tough to beat when it's all said and done. He is young, I think just 25 years old.

You see the athleticism. You already see the wrestling skill. You see the athleticism. You already see the wrestling skill. You see the fight IQ patiently thinking his way, solving his problem, solving his way through the various challenges that he encounters and now adding a dimension of brutality, frankly, behind it of real punching with intent, striking with intent, serious bodily harm is what he's, I mean, he is out there trying to put it on people, but not overly so, right? Working within the confines of what makes the most sense given the relevant fighting context. Anyway, I'm rambling, but you get the idea here. He is doing exactly what he needed to in this fight to show exactly

the kind of development that you would hope from a prospect to level up to. That does not mean he is in any way complete. I actually would say he's still pretty green in a lot of different ways. So I think the matchmaking by UFC would still need to be careful, and I'm sure they see that as well. But I guess the point I'm trying to make here is you had a lot of intrigue before, and now with these last two fights you got an exciting finish as a fan from an entertainment standpoint but you saw um not just growth but growth in exactly the ways you would hope right like what were some best case scenarios for growth

these are pretty close to you know i don't know best case scenarios outright but something like that so that was phenomenal this dude is he's already quite good could already beat very good fighters and is going to be a problem he is going to be a problem very soon so good luck with the people that gotta fight him because you're gonna need it uh okay we now move to a fight that was very controversial because of the decision but i gotta say was just excellent how about armin petrosian taking on, I'm going to just hate how the commentator said it, Gregory Rodriguez, split decision. That's what kind of marred it for people. There was one judge that had it 29-28 for Petrosian. There was another judge that had it 28-29 for Rodriguez. And then there was a third judge that had it 30-27. And I got

to tell you, even given my Armenian ancestry, I think that's a little too generous. I kind of, I rewatched it today just to be sure for the podcast. I sort of get it. I sort of get it. You could give him the benefit of the doubt based on activity in the first round, right? Second round, I guess, was closer, but I could see how he... I mean, you're squinting at that point. How he edged it out.

Because I overall thought Rodriguez did the better work, but the volume really kept him in it. It really kept Petrosian in it. That was the thing that kept him alive. But I don't see how you could give it to him for the third, where he gets basically rockeded and then his back taken has to fight out of it for quite some time now I will give Petrosian credit dude how about that last two minutes and especially the last minute of that third round boy he was pressing on the gas that

was heroic because that was a that was a tough fight to begin with competitive but tough he looked worse for the wear although that's not the full story every time, but he definitely was wearing it. I mean, he had a whole face mask of blood when he was really trying to press Rodriguez back at the end of that third, but that was commendable, man. He was putting it on him a little bit there, um, at the end. And, uh, and so I really commend the effort, but it's hard for me to see how you can give all three. I understand that there was that heroic last push from Petrosian in the third, but that's just too much for me. But I can understand the scorecard for maybe the first two. Anyway, what a fight.

What a phenomenal fight. I got to tell you, this was exciting as hell. Baffled me. I really appreciate how long Rodriguez waited to patiently take his time with a stand-up, effectively counter-strike, effectively box, do a lot of checking, a lot of parrying, a lot of blocking. But when he got on the ground, dude, it was so effortless for him. I was like, I appreciated how much effort he has put into his craft striking. But I guess what I would say is the overall posture,

while patient and calm, produced so many benefits. Maybe one of the costs of that style was that it just didn't have enough offensive urgency because you were a little bit at the mercy of the volume of Petrosian. But on the ground, he looked phenomenal. That knee bar he tried at the end. This has been called a Suluov stretch. I always thought a Suluov – I could be wrong about this.

I'm guessing here. I always thought a Sulu I could be wrong about this. I'm just I'm guessing here. I always thought a solo stretch was like a cupping of the behind the heel versus a knee bar where it's almost wrapped with the full arm. But anyway, it was sort of set up in a similar manner. And the fact that Patrician was able to get out of it was just absurd. I mean, this was a back and forth dogfight between these two. Rodriguez had the style on the feet that was kind of interesting, right? A little Yoel Romero-ish where there's a lot

of time spent being, let's just be defensive on purpose, but defensive with a little bit of intent where you're checking kicks, right? You're not just getting out of the way of them. You're actively checking them and staying right in his face, pressuring him with footwork, fainting, the whole thing, putting him on alert, but

absorbing a little bit. And then when it's your time to go, you really make sure you put a lot behind it, sometimes in volume, sometimes with power, like finding the right one strike that they're open that you've seen. He was doing that very effectively for long stretches of this fight. Quite commendable. I just think it put him offensively on the back foot in terms of what he could dish out

because he was kind of at the mercy to an extent, even though he was landing and rocking Petrosian at times, he was a bit of at the mercy of his tempo at what he would produce. And dude, I'll say this for Petrosian, pumping the jab, really getting after the leg kicks, even though there was extensive checking, going back to them late, he didn't quite forget about about them although there were stretches of the fight where he got away from him but dude this was a commendable effort i mean you really have to be uh quite excited about the effort you got from both of these um both these guys a lot to work on for both maybe for rodriguez and turning up the intensity a little bit sooner when it's needed you know sort of recalculating that uh a

little bit but the skills are all there and for patrosian took a little bit, but the skills are all there. And for Petrosian, took a little bit of damage on this one. There might be a little bit of style adjustments in terms of working on eliciting a reaction first before going. Again, I'm not his coach. This is just things I'm thinking of out loud. Those decisions will be made by people who are in a position to make them. I'm just sort of thinking about things that could be incorporated to what he's already doing quite well. But, man, he's got a ton of gas. He's got a ton of heart. A ton of gas.

I'm going to get killed on Bojashino Depot for that. But he's got a ton of a huge gas tank. Excuse me. And I think just cleaning up some of the defensive things, he's going to be a handful as well. Great fight, man. For a middleweight, people complain about the middleweight division, and this one has, you know, no fight is perfect.

It has its own criticisms you can make of it, but it was a pretty good affair. Okay, so let's go to the next one. Now we move to the preliminary portion of the card. This is a catchweight fight that was at 160. Ignacio Bahamondes taking on and i'm hope i'm saying this right i'm i'm sure i'm not wrong ju uh defeats with a bravo choke right so instead of uh like an anaconda instead of starting behind the neck and then ending with the arms and the lock behind

the arm they start behind the arm and the lock ends behind the neck and head okay you get the idea uh bajamondes is just a treat to watch. What a fighter this guy is. He is a delight. He does so many things you just have to love. First of all, activity is there. Cardio is there. I don't think he's perfected it yet, but he definitely makes a clear effort at fighting long, using his range, really sticking with the jab, front kicks. We always criticize the long lanky guys for not doing that. He makes a real good effort at it. No one's perfect, of course. It can be perfected, but he certainly is putting in solid work there

and has so many different gears to go to, so many stances, so many looks, throws a diversity of strikes, but not just for diversity's sake. Throws it to the extent that it is useful and then uses the things that works and goes back to it like there's a lot you got to like and I had said on the post fight show that he takes a lot of damage which generally is still true it is still true that he takes more damage than he should in fact from a statistical standpoint as I had articulated previously, I'll give you this number here because it is valuable. Ignacio Baja-Mondes' strikes of sword per minute, now it's gone down.

It was in the high five pluses, but now stands at 5.03 because in his last contest, he actually did a much better job of limiting the damage. So from a full context standpoint, that has been something that has been a bit of an issue that I have flagged. Again, you know, you see most high-level fighters, strikes absorbed somewhere in the mid twos, mid threes, sometimes mid four range, but that's at the, usually at the very upper end of it. To be above five is high. It's high. So, you know, he's still young, has plenty of time to work on it, but that was one thing I would want to see. And the good news is it came down in this fight because, dude, he really

put it on him. This was just, Rongzhu had some courage. There were times he was able to mount some offense and really push Bahamondes on the back foot. And I think obviously he's a bit of a, when, you know, he's dealing, it's a lot with forward pressure. So that was a thing he had to handle, but he did. And I think this was a performance where he was really able to round one of the first corners that you would want to see a prospect round. Like, guys are going to learn offense a lot. I've said this before, and I think this holds true. Again, there's going to be differences everywhere. But in general, I think a lot of people learn about,

particularly, well, jujitsu too. They learn offense a little bit before they learn proper defense. Defense usually trails a little bit, and that can happen a long time. So his offense is dealing. It's quite capable. In fact, strikes landed per minute. So I'm giving you the story about what he absorbed. Strikes landed per minute.

How about this, folks? 8.33. I mean, he's dealing. He he absorbed. Strikes landed per minute. How about this, folks? 8.33. I mean, he's dealing. He's dealing. Make no mistake about it. Take down defense, 95%. Strike defense, 58% because he's just trading a lot. So, you know, percentage-wise, that's actually not super.

It just needs to be higher given his style. I'll put it that way. Given his style, that's not sufficiently high as evidenced by the fact that five is landed per minute is still his going average okay but here's what was so interesting about this fight again bahamond has just really had him constantly trying to close in constantly trying to close in and he was just making him reset with jabs front kicks you name it a lot more than that it was effective circling for the most part effective movement um the interesting part was the finish so he goes for a power guillotine right that's the there's many names for it i call it a power guillotine it's basically a guillotine with a rear naked

choke grip right here like this right no armin so it's just that's why it would be it wouldn't be an armin choke it would be a. It would be a power guillotine. And then sits. His opponent bails to the inside, belly up, to defend it. And he holds on to it. But then he begins to turn clockwise. As he turns clockwise, his arm actually, the choking arm actually, what would you consider the choking arm,

comes actually on top of the throat of Zhu and then he puts his body weight on top of it now I had noticed this on Twitter last night and I saw I tweeted about it it's not it's not this choke but it works mechanically in a similar way to a gi choke that is called the bread cutter the bread cutter would be uh typically where if I can remember this correctly come under the arm if you're inside control and grab the gi with your collar on this hand and then with this hand you would there's a few mechanisms to get there but you would have the other grip cross collar and then you would bring your own forearm down on top of their throat and your body weight on top of it and then pressing into it like you really put a you put a gangster lean into it um

true story ryan hall one time i actually asked him to help me on my, this is like 10 years ago or something, a long, long time ago, actually asked him to help me with mine. And he showed me a couple of tricks about setting up the grip, especially for the, for the, for the pressing forearm. And I hadn't, and to this day, I have never had someone that size put that kind of pressure i it was it was shocking is to put it mildly i could not believe how much pressure was behind that um anyway it's a savage choke and there are no gi varieties someone put me uh someone hit me to it on social media but it's it's really you know it's it's it works best let's put that way. I think it's fair to say maybe as a gi choke. You just, you know, you don't see them in MMA because we don't use gis.

It mechanically functioned, Bahamondez's choke, almost the same way. It's not exactly the same, obviously. There's some big, big differences. It's still, I guess, technically more of a guillotine. But that mechanical function of the arm on top and then pressing your forearm weight, your body weight in a concerted way right into it. What's finishing that choke is the jamming of the forearm into the throat through the body weight, which comes all the way from the toes and

everything else. That looked almost like an upside down bread cutter. Anyway, just a really weird and interesting finish. Go see for yourself. Maybe you have a better name for it. I don't even know what to call it. I'm just saying it mechanically functioned in that way. So for Baja Mundus on the right track is what I would say on the right track. He's young, got a lot going for him. Uh, this was a great performance and he should be quite proud of it. And I can't wait to see what's next. Let's just keep that train of, of a defensive development. Um, w with what he's already, is what I would say at this point. Okay, we go to the next fight on the card.

How about at lightweight, Terrence McKinney? This was, man, defeating, I hope I'm saying this one right, Fares Ziam via rear naked choke, 2-11 of round number one. Dude, what about this? This was, they closed distance on each other and through an accident of them throwing strikes at roughly the same time

and how everything landed and it worked out, it caused this crazy scramble where almost McKinney ends up on his back, but he continues, through situational awareness that seemed almost instinctual, he scrambles through and ends up on top and

then proceeds to just take it to him. I mean, it was over from there, basically. He just had to work through the problems to play the chess to get to where he had to go, but that was it. It was done. What a job. Basically, constantly passes and did so with phenomenal wrist control including on both sides that forced ziom to um well he was a half guard he tries to hit a scramble then mckinney

captures the wrist on both two hands on the same side i think and was able to nearly take the back from it so that's right so zion rolls to mount and then from there is pressured still back to his back and this was the thing that i thought was the most incredible look at the finish what he ends up doing is something quite interesting and it was purposeful and he actually tweeted me about it so i think i'm on the right track he's he seemed to indicate i was correct um he puts his he has to post on the left hand and then capture with the right to hold um his opponent's head zion's head so he doesn't lose his and then capture with the right to hold his opponent's head, Zayam's head, so he doesn't lose his balance.

But then he passes right to left. And when he does that, he puts his left arm in front of Zayam. Now, why would he do that? This is all intentional. Zayam does what anyone would do in that situation. He captures the wrist immediately, right? So left hand to left hand, he captures it. Then what you notice is you see McKinney kind of look through and then dig his hand underneath, waiting to post it, but doesn't do it right away.

What he actually does is put the hand even further along, waiting. I think he baited him, and he actually baits a two-on-one. Well, why would you bait a two-on-one? Like, you know, that's the safest position you can be in. Well, if a two-on-one is still on the opposite side the opposite side, there's still something of a choking threat there, right? I mean, if they break your grip, which is hard to break, but I'm just saying, it's not like it's on the other side where there's no choke possible there, although

I suppose they could wrap their head behind. You know what I'm trying to say. But the bigger point here I'm trying to make is that Zion's thinking he's got the perfect position possible. I'm okay here, but there's a little window where the position is not exactly established where you can act fast. And so what he ends up doing is at the instant that Zeon goes

for two on one, he exposes his own wrist. So there's McKinney waiting on his own right side, immediately grabs the wrist, pries the hands apart. So he just essentially all in one swoop holds the throat while pulling the other hand behind him and then sags him to that direction, obviously through the weight of the arm. I mean, it was just this incredible handoff. It works immediately. The hand snakes through anyway,

and he gets the choke, right? So you showed, you thought, Zion thought he was getting the safest position possible, but it was just a bait to get wrist control, break posture, slide the choke on through anyway, because he acted in the narrowest of windows. That's one of those things you couldn't do if like the position was established and you're trying to go spot to spot to spot.

There's a little window there where you got to, you got to make that, you got to pass that baton. You got to make that handoff. And he did it perfectly, perfectly unbelievable job. Dude, how about all these young guys on this, on this card, man, just getting it done. There's a lot of youth in MMA doing really, really, really good things. All these guys I've mentioned, so are you can Petrosian Bahamondes and now McKinney. Um, I'm not sure exactly what, uh, Petrosian's age, but in general, the point stands incredible stuff.

Um, so then we move to, I think, the last fight for today's conversation. And again, these names are going to trip me up. So if I mispronounce them, I swear it is not intentional. Ramiz Brahima defeating, I'm going to pronounce it Michael Gilmore. I hope that is correct. Via Rear Naked Choke 202. Boy, this was one-way traffic. I'm going to say Ramiz in the hopes that I'm saying that correctly.

Just a hammer. Just a hammer, this guy. You can tell he looks to be in phenomenal physical condition. He was able to close the distance. He got under a punch with an absolutely dynamite level change. It could just be my imagination. I feel like maybe there's no evidence of this or maybe there is it just feels like the level changes in mma have gotten way better in terms of like just just way more athleticism

behind them maybe it's maybe that's just a function of there being better athletes over time i'd have to think this through or just look at the tape more closely but this dude's level change was like lightning not just getting down quickly but then getting into position timing it perfectly he got to his hips before Gilmore had a had a chance and then from there uh Gilmore was actually you know forced to turn he takes the back there's a hand fight he survives the first one and then he goes right back to it and hand fights the opposite direction and gets it um this was this was I think the performance that this guy's been waiting for. I don't think he's had exactly the UFC run to date that he had imagined for himself. Not that it's been poor or anything, but up to expectations or something.

But it's been good, and this is a great job by him. This was everything he needed to do. You beat someone in a UFC fight within three minutes, and not because you ended with a knockout punch at the three-minute mark or some kind of accident just all of a sudden stops the clock there, but I mean, you have to methodically work your way. Dude, that is very quickly working your way. Like, how fast should it look?

That's fast. That's fast. Like's fast. You blew through that guy. I am in no way suggesting that the opponent is not quality. Far from it. That was just the level of performance that he had in that night. He was

on and it showed. Of course, he is obviously well-skilled and well-trained in the whole nine yards. Great jobs by them. There were other interesting fights on the card we talked obviously on the post fight show about the co-main event with turman and cirkunov just a great job timing the arm bar you know just great awareness um and there were some other good fights on this card but these were the ones that matter the most to me the thing that i would want the folks to take home is i just believe that you've got the youth there is just, if you have high expect,

if you're curious about what comes next in terms of youth development in MMA, there is a lot of reason for excitement across many different weight classes, across many different parts of the world. So a great time to be a fan. And the last thing is on these fight nights, I used to be the guy who would poo-poo these the most, but it was at a time I felt like there was a couple times in the 2010s where there was some stagnation in the technical development in the game, and then they would have these bursts of inspiration over time. I just feel like everything is moving so fast with technical development these days, and you see a lot of redeeming things watching cards like this

and seeing guys in their mid-20s um from the united states from russia from chile i mean on a single night turning in performances like that that's pretty or armenia however he is properly labeled um it's it's nice to see it's fun there there is merit to those fight nights if you know you have that kind of fandom if you don't it's cool and we're not judging you for it. But for the folks who like that kind of thing, if you care about these kinds of things when you watch MMA, you get a lot out of fight nights, even ones like these. Although this obviously had some ones that had some gems on it.

But there's a lot that are not necessarily. Okay. Thank you guys so much for watching. Let me know what your fights that you liked were. Leave a comment below. Excuse me. You can see there where our relevant social media channels. You can give me and LBC a follow if you want. Morning Combat is right there.

Of course, we'll be back on Wednesday live at 11 a.m. in the East. Morningcombat at gmail.com is the email for the show. And I'll be back next week for a post. We're going to have a big one for next week after UFC 272, so that should be a lot of fun. Stick around for that, and until next time, thanks, y'all. Enjoy the fights.