MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Belal Muhammad vs. Khamzat Chimaev? | Morning Kombat Extra Credit Ep. 11

Episode Date: December 21, 2021

Luke Thomas is back with Episode 11 of Morning Kombat Extra Credit. Luke breaks down a couple fights from UFC Fight Night: Lewis vs. Daukaus that he didn't get to on episode 243 of Morning Kombat. (00:00:00) - Intro (00:01:35) - Belal Muhammad vs. Stephen Thompson (00:09:05) - Amanda Lemos vs. Angela Hill (00:15:30) - Ricky Simon vs. Rafael Assuncao (00:21:15) - Cub Swanson vs. Darren Elkins (00:25:25) - Raquel Pennington vs. Macy Chiasson (00:30:20) - Honorable Mentions 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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Oh, there'll be no Jake Paul paul here today ladies and gentlemen how exciting does that sound yes welcome to mk morning combat extra credit this is the podcast within the podcast that i do to make sure we get to all of the mma action that we sometimes miss on the regular mk my name is luke thomas of, I am one half of the hosting duo from regular Morning Combat with Brian Campbell. But yeah, we got a lot to get to today. So today we're going to get to UFC Fight Night Lewis versus Dawkus, UFC Vegas 45, UFC and ESPN plus 57, UFC Fight Night 199. These are all the exact same event. As you can see below on the screen, give us a follow on various social media channels. If you're watching this on YouTube, thumbs up on the video.

Hit subscribe. If you're listening on a podcast, whatever platform that may be, please leave us a nice review. As I mentioned, we will not be talking about Jake Paul here today. In fact, I don't even want to say that name anymore. Let's talk about some of the top MMA fighters in the world. So here is the card for Saturday this is from top to bottom as you can see we're going to focus in on the five that have been highlighted we'll go Bilal Muhammad versus Stephen Thompson we'll go Amanda Lamos taking on

Angela Hill Ricky Simone versus Rafael Sonsal the main card opener Cubs wants to take it on Darren Elkins and then all the way down on the prelim card, we'll go with Raquel Pennington versus Macy Chiasin. I'll do a couple of very quick honorable mentions for some of the other ones on this card. All right. Well, with that in mind, let's begin. All right.

First up, your co-main. The first fight I want to talk about, Bilal Muhammad defeats Stephen Thompson. I mean, listen to these scores. 30-25, 30-26, and then 30-26. Let me see the, if I can, let me see the fight metric numbers for this. That is, this was easily the performance of his career.

Now, let me say something about all of these fights that I haven't quite said yet. I've said this before many times, but it's worth really going back. You're going to see this in some of the fights that I picked. You might have liked other fights on the card. For example, I'm imagining some of you are probably a little bit disappointed

we're not getting to the Charles Jourdain fight. Jourdain fight here on today's's podcast episode 11 of the MK extra credit I'll talk about a little bit honorable mention but one thing I wanted to show not in all five of the fights that I picked but in some of them it's obvious but it just it's worth saying one more time I cannot overstate how much you have to consider what a role the fence plays in mixed martial arts not merely as a place to push someone up against martial arts, not merely as a place to push someone up against for a takedown, as a place to potentially be avoided, right? So that will affect the way people circle or defend takedowns in striking once they get behind the black line, which I'll show

you here in just a second. And then near the fence line, their behavior changes because now their options are limited. They can't have the same kind of mobility now they become significantly different fighters these become significantly different fights there's almost two fights in in some of these MMA fights like this there's the fight that takes place closer to the center of the cage and then there's the fight that takes place along or close to the fence line and they're just dramatically different now this fight probably not the very best example considering in the third round for example that Bilal Muhammad was able to score a takedown in open space and actually seal the fight itself but if you look at the numbers I mean these are the worst numbers maybe for Wonderboy ever um they're terrible. He landed only 19 of 32 significant strikes. Is that the lowest for Wonderboy ever in a fight?

Let's see. He landed 19 in this fight, 19 in the Gilbert Burns fight. So identical. But the thing about this, he landed 171 in the fight with Jeff Neal. He landed 138 in the fight with Vicente Luque, 47 in the fight with Pettis, with Till, 30. And that fight was terrible. That was, of course, over five rounds,

so maybe that's about the same, actually. But you get the idea. Really, really low volume here. I'm looking at some of my notes. I normally don't make notes. I'm going to start for this podcast now if I can. You know what was amazing to me was a couple things. One, the ability for belong this is

a great win by balal muhammad so let's state that outright balal muhammad looks really good here uh obviously he didn't finish wonder boy there are some criticisms if you wanted to make them some no fighter is perfect um the choke was never all that close in the first round and the ground pound was good but not great. But the overall ground-to-pound effort with the takedowns and how he managed the fight was exceptional, truly exceptional. This was the best performance of Bilal Muhammad's career against the very toughest test I'd argue that he has had to this point,

and he looked fantastic, just totally in command. I have candidly maybe slept on him a little bit um and this was a bit of a wake-up call for me now what did i notice from muhammad that i thought was so good i thought the level changing was quick and he could cover distance with it right i mean yes sometimes he set it up with strikes sometimes it was in close range sometimes and sometimes he would get under the punches of Wonderboy then chase him along the fence line but a lot of times I mean he's having to cover a fair amount of distance and he did it and here's what was so interesting about him this is not true every time but if you look at the takedowns and by the way I think he had an incredible uh takedown run against Wonderboy seven takedowns of nine, 77%, extremely high by Bilal Muhammad. Did you notice how many

involved picking Wonderboy off of his feet and taking him to an empty plane? Right? So let's talk about that for just a second. Picking him up is obvious, right? Lifting him off of his feet and then taking him to an empty plane, meaning taking him to a space behind the line of his back, right? If you were going from shoulder to shoulder, the line that his back occupies, what's behind him? What is her open space? Call it an open plane because it's usually a little bit more involved. We were talking about tripping and throwing and judo on what foot patterns people are on, but you get the idea. There's negative and open space behind him. A lot of them involve picking him up and then turning him either to turn his hips over or to

just move him into a space where there's negative space behind him and that was mostly how he got it done like what contrast that for example with trips contrast that with say single leg where you're running the pipe contrast that with you know there was i think one double leg scoop a little bit later because it fit into a larger part of his game where he would go for these leg rides below muhammad particularly on left side, a little Hamzat Shemayev style. But in general, it was a lot of lifting Wonderboy off of his feet. I'd have to go back and look at the tape, but I think below Muhammad, who specializes in high crotch lifts and other kinds of takedowns where you're lifting someone off of their feet, it came in handy here.

That appeared to be a real weakness of Thompson. He had decent defense. If he could down block properly with space behind him, or if, you know, the takedown didn't really involve elevation, but that elevation and the turning of it. Um, I mean, if you think about it, that's how a sweep works in mixed martial arts or jujitsu, right? If I want to sweep someone, I have to lift them off of their base. I have to block aside and then turn them to that open space. If necessary, you would see under hooks. And there was times where he would grab out the feet so that you would tell that Thompson couldn't post so he could complete the hips turning over really good work from below Muhammad. I love the, I love the use of the lifting of the takedowns. I love the use of the negative space behind him.

He even got the back for a little bit in that first round. Couldn't do much with it, but he did get it. There was a Kimura attempt in the second. I didn't mind the Kimura attempt because if you're Bilal Muhammad, why not? But you knew it wasn't really going to go anywhere. He would have to have been very, very long and lanky to get that takedown or excuse me to get that kimura from half guard i can do it depending on the size of my opponent but i'm very tall i have long arms so that is a thing that's possible he was the shorter and the and the less ranger of the two so that's

going to be hard to do then he moved to side which is better it's still going to be hard unless you can step over the head which you really couldn't have done there very well it just i'm not gonna say he was stalling but it wasn't a path to anywhere, but it kept certainly Wonderboy on the back foot, metaphorically speaking, and was a nice way to control the round and then win it. And then the third, he was able to turn the corner on the

takedowns enough to sort of spin Wonderboy in a completed circle. It's just good work. It's good wrestling. It's a good read on what kind of takedowns had to get done. Groudon Powell was good. Again, not great, but good. Threats for submission weren't really there, but you should start imagining. He starts mixing in those and not just having overwhelming control, which is pretty good. A, he'll have to work less, and B, it will make the other parts of his game even that much more dangerous.

Solid stuff there from Bilal Muhammad. He should be very proud of himself, and I'm sure that he is. It's good work by him. If we go to the next fight, Amanda Lemos. I'm told, by the way, depending on your accent in Portuguese or Brazilian Portuguese, it's Lemos or Lemos. It doesn't necessarily have to be Lemos, but I don't speak Portuguese, so I can only tell you what people tell me.

Amanda Lemos taking on Angela Hill. Now, I scored this fight for Hill, but I recognize that a scorecard for Lamos, 29-28, is acceptable. First round, of course, where she drops Angela Hill. And then in the third round, maybe as well. Second round, I don't see how it's possible to give her that round. And then on top of it, one of the judges had a 30-27. I mean, this is a comically off-the-mark scorecard, but okay. Neither here nor there.

Good front kick from Lamos in the first round. It drops Angela Hill, but Angela Hill, man, she has great cardio. She is durable. She had good composure. In fact, I would argue that while she lost that round, after she got dropped, she won the rest of that round. Not enough to win the whole thing, but to show great composure, to show overall MMA ability, to show veteran experience,

and to show the kind of skills, obviously, she's put together as an offensive fighter. So that was nice to see. She did do some decent work countering Hill in the second, but there was a lot of really gritty clinch work from Angela Hill. Angela Hill was forcing clinching in space, and then along the fence line was getting hit a little bit too, but I thought was doing the majority of the best work,

creating space, landing the knees, turning lamos at at times landing shots over the top of the clinch on the clinch breaks a lot of really good work from her there you know she was the one in the second round that was she was dictating what kind of fight this was going to be Lamos didn't necessarily take a round off but she definitely didn't put her stamp on that round like she did in the first and you know arguably somewhat the third as well. It was much less missing. To me, I thought Hill had really kind of regrouped after getting dropped.

She did get hit with the kick again in the third, but it didn't have nearly the same effect. Hill hit a nice strip from the back in the third. Did you guys notice that? She got behind her and then kicked out the leg, but as they were going, Lemos kept wrestling and then turned into her so you could see i've seen hill um doing some work on instagram with some various coaches that i follow in the mma and grappling space and she

has really come a long way you could see that was just great reaction wrestling from lamos to get taken down on your feet like that and then the instant your body touches the ground you are you are absolutely in motion fighting for your life for that position she did that not not just once but twice but in that particular sense so it was good to see Hill have this attack where she could pull from behind kick out the leg and then Lamos almost sits into her lap a little bit I think she was trying to go for the back but she turned into. And so then the scramble got restarted again. There was almost a moment where I think in the third, Angela Hill hits a double.

And then again, Lemos kind of uses her leg to kick her through. So what you can say from Angela Hill is she clearly has improved takedowns in terms of what she can identify and what attacks she can go for. But maybe you could also argue, while lemos was surprising with her you know situational wrestling a little bit more work in um sealing the takedown once you get to the bottom controlling it affirming it making sure that it counts so that you aren't subject to some of these looser kind of situational wrestling positions, right? I mean, part of it is that Lemos had just great tactical reads,

and then part of it was the position was maybe a little bit loose, which allowed her to get away with some of the stuff. If you're stuck to them like white on rice, even if they want to scramble proactively, you might be able to cut it off before that can happen. But again, it was good to see some of that growth and then in the third you know I can see how some might think that Lemos did slightly more damaging strikes I have to look at their numbers to see what they were overall in terms of numerically where they were on this right near each other 50 strikes to Amanda Lemos 48 uh angela hill that right on top of each other hill landing one of seven takedowns in that third yeah i mean they're right there with it amanda limos 18 angela

hill 17 um yeah yeah that's it i mean there was just no other way uh to do it the one issue that i think uh angela hill keeps running into is her cardio is good. Her reads are good. Her overall growth has been phenomenal to see. She doesn't have an ace in the hole, like an uppercut kind of punch that not only lands a lot but drops opposition or some kind of giga kick. I mean, this almost sounds like pro wrestling like with a special move with a special move i don't mean it to be that but i just mean to say when she makes a fair amount of contact with her peers in this case numerically almost identical and yet it just looks like limos lands with a little bit more authority and of course you could

just say well limos just might have the greater punching power of the two in fact limos identifies herself as a striker first. Fine. But it just seems to be a bit of a consistent theme in Hill's career that, listen, a lot of times she's off balance or on the move or whatever. There was a right hand she landed on Lemos, neither the first or the second, that wobbled her a little bit and certainly knocked her off balance.

I mean, it's not like she can't crack, but it may be some alterations to the way she's striking or something else that can give her just a little bit more authority on them so that she doesn't have to do as much work. Again, easier said than done. I am not her coach. I'm not in a position to sort of fix these things. But it just looks to me like if you see something over and over and over again

where someone can land and it does damage, but maybe the opponent can kind of weather it and match it and exceed it in certain cases, there might be a call to sort of say, what are some other weapons we can have that have a little bit more of a lights-out kind of property to them? Again, significantly easier said than done because Hill's got a lot of other great things.

She has a game that's still building, which means there's still some upside. She's fast. She's in shape. She's building, which means there's still some upside. She's fast. She's in shape. She's physically, I think, pretty strong for the weight class and can strike well, like puts good combinations together. There's a lot she does really, really well. But staying opponents consistently is not necessarily one of them. And so it may have cost her here just a little bit, although I grant that one scorecard. I mean, you know, she had no chance of winning the fight as long as that judge was there.

Okay, so next on the line, we go down to a fight I wanted to put on here because I thought it was very interesting. Ricky Simone taking on Rafael Sonsal. One of the problems in this fight was Asonsal just not nearly active enough. Let me pull up his numbers here as well. But I was like, dude, you got to do a lot more than you're doing. Of course, he's coming off of that terrible loss to Asuncao, to Cody Garbrandt, and then before that, Santay, and then before that, Marais.

So this is his fourth loss in a row. That might be it for him here. I think at age 38 or 39, whatever he is. But Ricky Simone, I will tell you what blew me away here. By the way, Assuncao's numbers, seven of 25 strikes he landed in the course of a round. Or round two, excuse me. The official time was 2.14 of the second. Not hardly any offense from Assuncao.

And you could say Simone is partly responsible for that for what he was doing, is true no doubt about it um but that's still way too little way too little it's gonna be a hard fight to win if you can only get off seven punches in a round and a half or seven strikes anyway some of those are just leg kicks too um so what can we say about overall the fight between Simone and Asuncao? Aside from Asuncao not doing enough, Simone has a phenomenal jab. The jab appears to be key to everything he does, certainly in this fight. Now, he does a lot of different things. He has good takedowns, and he mixes in other phases of the game as an overall development. But what I mean to say is his jab is very interesting.

He double jabbed into a level change for a takedown once. He double jabbed into a, to elicit a punch from a sunset, which he then slipped and then drove a body shot to. The jabbing and the slipping both work together. But here's what I will say. The boxing game of Ricky Simone really caught my attention in this game. I always knew he had great cardio.

Not the biggest fan of his haircut, but we'll say nice things about him here today. I always knew he had great cardio. You knew he had great resiliency. You knew he had great wrestling. What else is there? If you want to climb the ranks of bantamweight, you got to have... Those things are great. But I mean, I think even he would tell you, you got to have a lot more than that to climb the ranks of bantamweight, you've got to have – I mean, those things are great, but I think even he would tell you

you've got to have a lot more than that to climb the ranks of bantamweight. This is the first time I really saw some great stuff from Ricky Simone. Not to say he didn't do it before. I'm saying I saw just great boxing. As I mentioned, the jab to close the distance, the jab that he was blinding Asuncao with it a few times as he was trying to set up other punches, and then you combo that with the slipping because, by the way,

he would slip to the outside sometimes. He would slip to the inside to change angles with it so he's jabbing jabbing getting a response before i slipped over here and now i'm going to slip this way and i'm going to use this side to punch to your near side right so then he catches him that way and actually the way he closed the whole thing was, I think he caught Asuncao completely off guard. He jabs twice, then leans, then throws and you see that the throw is off of a slip

from Simone. It lands on Asuncao and Asuncao gets kind of off balanced with it a little bit. No, actually, you know what? Hold on. Let me check my notes here. Yes. So he slips it, right? And then as he's coming up, Simone slips the punch, throws, it lands. As you see a sort of scrambling kind of Asuncao pops up, he gets hit on the half beat from Simone. So Simone is now slipping, throwing, opponent moves, jabbing again to off-balance him right in between his steps.

Right there, right in between his steps. And then he goes to load the right hook. I think he was expecting an ass on style to be below him and kind of in motion brings it a little bit higher across himself. Why do I bring all this up? Because the jab is being used to close distance. The jab is being used to blind an opponent. The jab is being used to elicit a response so he could slip.

And then from that slip, which, by the way, slipping punches is hard to do. It's not like an automatic skill. It's actually you have to have really good is hard to do. It's not like an automatic skill. It's actually, you have to have really good timing and reflexes. It's not easy. So he slips it, different sides, slips it, creates offense, moves his opponent over, cuts off his timing, and then doubles him up on that

right side. That is, that's just solid work, man. That's just really, really, really well, I think the jab was to the left, the right hook behind it, but you. But putting combinations and punches together, he hits him on the right side. You see Asuncao fall over, and that's all she wrote. Dude, that's good boxing, man.

He was moving in Vs off of jabs sometimes, single shots, right? So he's coming in at an angle and then leaving at a different one. It makes him totally free from any kind of response from Asuncao. Dude, that was solid. Now, how much of that was based on the wrestling and how much of that is based on the overall game? Like how would he do in a pure boxing match? I don't know, but we don't have to worry about that.

He's not in one. But just from this, just from the jab work, go back and watch the jab of Ricky Simone, how much it enables him to get in range to do things, how much he's able to use it plus his slipping to off balance and then land on his opponent and then his own timing behind that to disrupt and then close the show. Dude, that's good work. I'm going to use a series of different jabs for different kinds of needs to get inside.

I'm going to bait a punch. I'm going to get off of it. I'm going to land. You're going to move. I'm going to cut you off while you move and then land the finishing shot as you're off balance and scrambling. Dude, that's good work. That's really good work from Ricky Simone. Amazing. Cub Swanson defeating Darren Elkins. The official time on this is TKO. They give him a spinning wheel kick and punches.

I don't even care about that, but 212 of the very first round. Good work from him, Cub Swanson. He had hands low. You could tell right from the bell he's anticipating pressure, and he's using this kind of jagged side-to-side motion to land and create openings on Elkins. He knew that Elkins was going to be bearing down on him, probably a lot in straight lines.

So what he had to do was find a way to intercept that pressure and then exit as needed. And that's what you saw. He was, by the way, slipping and countering himself because he could see the punches coming. So he's getting inside and bringing a right hand over the top of it, or he's slipping to the outside and stepping with his left. You know, he constantly was catching Elkins moving in. The final one was set up where he goes, He was standing orthodox, then kind of goes square, and you see him doing these jagged left-to-right steps.

It is when he steps back from the left, he actually sees a punch and a step forward from Elkins. He then steps on that left. I should say, well, actually, it kind of happens. He's kind of going side to side. As Elkins pressures, he then steps on that left. I should say, well, actually it kind of happens. He's kind of going side to side. As Elkins pressures, he moves left. That allows him to slip and it loads the left foot for him to just drive a left hand straight up the middle that catches Elkins clean.

Not quite the right distance. He was actually a little too close, but still it was plenty, plenty hard. And in fact, he doesn't just slip, step, and throw. He then brings the right hook behind it, and when he brings the right hook behind it, it lands with a ton of authority. In fact, he threw like a left-right-left. The final left hand didn't really land.

But that left straight right hook, boy, that landed with absolutely all the authority that it needed. And it's interesting. He had a perfectly timed outside step into southpaw and then he finishes it off in orthodox right so understand what i'm saying he was orthodox mostly then he kind of goes square to do his side to side motion as he's anticipating pressure he gets the punt he gets the slip leans back on left leg, drives with a step to his right as he throws the punch. So as he is stepping, throwing, lands on his right, now his right leg is forward.

And this is why actually the third punch was a little bit too close. Because he's not just switching stances, he's stepping forward while switching stances, going side to side. I'm level. I anticipate pressure. I lean left. I step right. Now my right foot is forward. That means I am southpaw while I land the left hand. So I'm landing my strongest punch in my strongest stance. Then he steps forward with his left. Now he's in orthodox stance and then uses that step from right to left to throw that right hook behind and crash into Elkins. And when he throws the left hand, again, it's a little bit too close. But you get the idea there, dude. The jagged timing, the left, right, the stepping forward, the changing of the stances,

the slipping to create offense. Dude, I really like these guys in MMA who slip to create offense. It's hard to do, but the ones who just cover up like this with their hands in front of their face, sometimes you need to do that. Sometimes that's the only thing you can do. Again, one thing is not necessarily wrong or something like that, but you'll see a lot of people rely on that kind of offense, right? Rely on that defense, I should say. Lean on it way too much where they don't have any other kind of defense.

If I can slip and you're throwing now I've got a window where you're wide open and two you're still close to me right I'm blinded with my hands in front of my face and you might hit an exit if I slip I catch you at a vulnerable moment and even if I miss the second one behind it might catch because you're still close to me it's just a much much mixing, slipping in, if you can do it, I think is a better way to catch opponents who are getting better and better about their timing in MMA. Harder to do, but reaps more rewards.

So that was really great to see from Cub Swanson and a very tough loss for Darren Elkins. Last but not least, it should go not without being noticed, Raquel Pennington defeating Macy Chiasan. This happened at the submission guillotine choke. Almost like a 10-finger front choke. 307 of the second round. What was interesting about this fight was actually how it was contested at range.

What you saw from Pennington was some stance switching, which didn't work all that great. But what she was trying to do was blitz her way off of some of those foot feints into range. She would kind of be far away and then almost Fred Flintstone her way into those kinds of positions, trying to land a right over the top when she did it.

Again, there's more to it than that. That's not the only thing she did. But while she did get a takedown, she asked him at the end of the first, um, and Pennington was starting to get timed on some of those blitzes and even some of the jabs that she was throwing. You saw Jason kind of slipping and throwing her own at the same time.

What ended up making the difference for Pennington? Cause by the way, you know, at one 45, she didn't look that big. I mean, remember this was a featherweight fight, not a Bantamweight fight,

but, um, what ultimately got the difference for her was you see her try to um it's interesting she's having this back and forth with chiesa they're close to the fence line but they're still on the good side so to speak of the black line that's about you know a little bit of space from the actual cage itself that's the warning track is what we call it. What's interesting is you actually see exchanging a little bit. But then I would argue two things happened that worked to Raquel Pennington's benefit. One was the body kick response that Jason throws. She kind of throws it and then brings it back slowly.

And in that time, she's now behind the black lines as she resets her feet so she's closer to the cage and she does it where she's not very quick about it and doesn't exit very quick and then you'll see as a consequence a consequence excuse me Raquel Pennington kind of uh jagged step her way inside well that what is that going to do that's going to force Jason to exit but she kept going to force Chiesan to exit. But she kept exiting to her own right side, the left side of Pennington. What does this mean? This means as she's exiting, two things have gone right for Pennington.

Remember, we had that kick that Chiesan threw, and then she kind of brought it back slowly, and she's closer to the fence. So one, both of them are closer to the fence. Two, by virtue of that strike she threw, she now has a slow escape route. So as she's trying to escape, Pennington, who is in the proper stance this time, left-hand forward in orthodox, just intersects with her. Remember the time Justin Gaethje was standing in one stance and Edson Barboza tries to circle away? So all that ends up happening is that, and Stipe did this to DC too, he just switches stances so that he can be on, he can close the door into whatever direction Barboza was exiting towards.

She does that, but she's only able to do that because she could cheat the steps because of the kick that was thrown and some of the general positioning that she actually took on. So by virtue of being backed up and then having a slow exit and the proper stance from uh pennington she closed her off from there and then once they got closed off they clinched and that's where she found um the guillotine choke thereafter but i'm just trying to point out it was cage tactics that got her to a place where she was able to do better offense cut off an escaping opponent and then ultimately use some of her you know veteran savvy and some of her great submission skills to get it done but let me just talk about i mean

just think about what i just brought up balal muhammad versus wonder boy fence played an integral role amanda lamos versus angela hill less of one but certainly one ricky simone versus hafei al-sansal i mentioned all the things he did part of it is he was backed up against the fence and he was not as nimble in some of the ways in which he could move us on sound he got caught again great timing as well from Ricky Simone but you get the idea the fence played a role there as well Cup Swanson versus Darren Elkins less so but then Raquel Pennington versus Macy Chiesa played a huge role I realized that the fence is going to play a role no matter what because it is an enclosing space and people

always seem to push out right you push into your opponent it just naturally has a consequence of ultimately finding its way along the fence line like the fact that they end up there is not coincidental but i just want to talk about not that they or rather i want to reinforce the idea not merely that they end up there by coincidence but that the fence plays dramatic and differing roles in elite MMA outcomes, whether it assists wrestlers, whether it assists strikers, whether it assists them in an X kind of striking scenario or Y kind of grappling scenario, or for opponents trying to escape along the fence line and to what extent stance plays a role it features prominently in how outcomes are decided in mixed martial arts i think that's the point i'm trying to get across

it's been true for a while it was very true on this card and it's probably the most true in that macy chiesa and raquel pennington fight uh very quickly at two honorable mentions if i can the charles jordan fight against andre yule great work from him. 30-27. Excuse me. 30-26. 30-27. Then 29-27. You could make a case that maybe Ewell won the first. I don't think that's true, but it got worse for him, I'll put it this way, as it went along.

We talked about that on regular MK. Good stuff from him. Justin Taffa becoming the first person to miss weight at heavyweight in the UFC, but he just destroys Harry Hunsucker inside of a minute. Gerald Mearshart now has, I think, most finish. Does he have most? No. Obviously, that would go to most finishes in the middleweight division

via sub. Nice work by him as well. Don Telamaze doing some pelvis pumping in his fight with Josh Parise. And then Jordan Levitt getting an inverted triangle over just a mat. Sale's not really paying attention. He scoops the legs and recovers them for position and then lets one of them go and then kind of moves his head into the space

and then it just gets wrapped up. I didn't know what that was all about. I mean, I think he just wasn't thinking right. So you get the idea. But that's it. Oh, you're bonus winners. Five of the Night, Lamos and Hill. Performance went to Cub Swanson and then Melissa Gatto.

Melissa Gatto getting a win over Sajara Eubanks uh with a body shot um in the in the third round of their contest so all the way good work what was your favorite part of the card what did you notice what stood out to you thumbs up on the video hit subscribe that's it for me here today kids you can see on the lower graphic there if you're watching on youtube all the places you can give us a follow for morning combat for brian campbell and of course for me as well And yeah, I don't know if we're going to do this one the rest of the year, this podcast. We might. We'll figure something out. But either way, I appreciate you watching. Thumbs up, hit subscribe, and until we meet again, ladies and gentlemen, enjoy the fights.