MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Bellator 255 Post-Fight Reaction | Pitbull vs. Sanchez 2 | MORNING KOMBAT

Episode Date: April 3, 2021

Luke and Brian recap all the action from Bellator 255. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi, everybody. Welcome, welcome, welcome. My name is Luke Thomas, and I will be with you for now until... There we go. For now until the next 30 to 45 minutes. This is the Bellator 255 post-fight show right here on the Morning Combat YouTube channel. This, of course, is the Morning Combat Studios. And I, of course, am just one half of the Morning Combat hosting duo. Brian Campbell, as we speak, is doing a post-fight wrap-up.

Hold on, Jesus Christ. Almost made it through without a technical error. Brian Campbell is somewhere else in the building doing a post-fight hit for CBS Sports HQ. When he is done with that, he'll come right on set. We'll go to the two-camera. So for just right now, it will be me, but he will be here, I'm sure, very soon. To get things started, first things first, please give the video a thumbs up. If you are new here, subscribe as well. Send this to a friend who

will subscribe, and if you have subscribed, click that notification bell so you know when you get fresh morning combat content delivered right to you. Okay? All right. Very good. So we will go over the main card results today for the fight that just ended, Bellator 255. It, of course, was the debut for Bellator on Showtime. There were some other results on the preliminary card. We won't really get to those. We will not spend a ton of time on the stuff outside of the main and co-main, but we will get to some of that as well. I have a tweet up. Manish, in the back, can you put up the lower thirds for our social for just a second, if you can? I know it's a tight shot, but if you can put it up there.

If you see my Twitter handle there, see where it says LThomasNews? I have a post up there asking for questions. If you want to put a question in for me and Brian to answer after we get through some of the analytical work, we will happily get to it. Okay? And you can give us a follow there as well. All right. While we wait for Brian, let's get things started. I'm assuming if you're watching this that you don't mind spoilers. This is a results-oriented show, obviously. We will start here. I have some thoughts about the broadcast and Bellator on Showtime and stuff like that. But just to get to the fight results that happened, let us start with the most important event,

the one, in fact, that just finished, the main of them. Here we go. Patricio Pitbull, Patricio Freyde, defeats Emmanuel Sanchez via technical submission guillotine choke. The reason why they call it technical submission is because he put him to sleep. It happened at 335 of the very first round. It is hard to overstate how good that win is. Very hard. Three years ago, Emmanuel Sanchez, who is perhaps the most underrated member out of Duke Rufus' gym. I mean, there are other good fighters there, but most of them get their due. I don't think Emmanuel Sanchez has ever gotten his due. And three years ago, he gave Pitbull basically everything

Pitbull could handle. But in the end, the accuracy of Pitbull's punching, the power of it, and really that championship medal that he had in that fifth round made the big difference. It was probably two to two heading into the fifth. He has this push that secures the win. He wins a split decision victory. Three years pass since that point. Now, since that point where he had lost to Pitbull the first time around, here's what he did since then. He beat Georgie Karakhanian in March of 2019. He beat Tyjuan Claxton via triangle choke. He finished him off in September of 2019. And then last year, yes, he had a rematch with Daniel Vyshel, another one of these guys who's an absolutely,

totally underrated fighter. And he nearly finished him off a couple of times. Their first fight, I think, was sort of tooth and nail. This one, he nearly wiped him out. The fact that Vyshal lasted was kind of impressive because he was at the precipice of defeat several times. But in any case, Karakhanian and Vyshal are undeniably talented featherweights. And the key to understanding what Sanchez had shown through those three fights following the loss to Pitbull all the way back in 2018 as...

Oh, here we go. Oh, God. Adrian Broder's tweeting. All right. There's some Showtime folks sending me some Adrian Broder tweets. All right. That out of the way. The point being is that what Sanchez had shown was that if you look at his early career, he had a good motor, he had good defense, he could take a shot, he was durable, and he could just keep coming forward and forward and forward. But he lacked a little bit of the polish. He lacked a little bit of that sophistication to really move the fight along. He could accumulate damage and therefore win rounds. And because he never got tired,

he could put the high volume out. But he wasn't exactly, in that way, as dangerous as he could be. He wasn't as lethal a finisher as he could be. Now, he did have those two decisions that went to Karakhanian and Weishaw, but Weishaw made it out by the skin of his teeth. He had the finish against Taiwan Claxton. And even if you watch the Karakhanian fight, you just get the sense that, like, okay, now I believe that Emmanuel Sanchez has really began to get into that stage of his career where he is polishing his skills to the point where he can become, I don't know, a finisher

every time, but he can be much more dangerous than he had been. He didn't, I want to be clear about this, from the three years where he gave Pitbull everything he could handle, he got remarkably better, and he got better in a very particular kind of way, the kind of guy who can take a fight from just winning rounds and then ushering in a finish, or certainly dangerous situations, to put the opponent on a very particular kind of back foot. Since that time, discounting tonight, he had three years ago, Patricio Freire getting by the skin of his teeth, beating Emmanuel Sanchez. After that, he TKO's Michael Chandler in the first round,

knocked him out, or technically knocked him out. He beats Juan Archuleta, who's now a champion. He demolished Pedro Carvalho in two minutes. And then, of course, he had the fight tonight. And now, in their first meeting, well, I should say the subsequent meeting,

since their first fight three years ago, Sanchez, for all his improvements, and they are clear, I really feel like, if you're not familiar with his work, get to be. I absolutely believe you will see some of the same things that I did. And he couldn't make it out of the first round with Patricio Freire. Dude, Eric Albarracin has been telling me, this is the guy who's behind Henry Cejudo. He's behind the Pitbull brothers. He's an American who wrestled for the Army. He's natively Colombian, but he's sort of all over the place.

He's been the Pitbull liaison. This guy was telling me before it was even fathomable that he could become, Pitbull could become a two-weight champion, do something really special. You're like, eh, how good is he? Then you talk to Henry Cejudo and you're like, no, no, no, he's really quite good. And now you're seeing that in the three years since their last fight, not only were some of the warnings, so to speak, from El Baracin prescient, it turns out, over time, but more than that, he's gotten infinitely better as well I mean the whole story of this fight was Patricio is a two-weight world champion who is the best fighter in Bellator

history he's the dominant figure to beat but that was really it kind of stopped there in many places and for Emmanuel Sanchez the narrative was look at how much better he's gotten right finally okay this guy's beginning to turn a corner. Pitbull barely got past the first time. Now that he's better, how's he going to get better? But there was just not a lot of narrative around the fact that in the last three years, from 30 to age 33, Pitbull's timing has gotten better. His accuracy has gotten better.

His power has always been good. But if your timing and your accuracy are better, that means guys are going to be more defensively vulnerable. They're not going to be able to roll with the punches, roll with the shots in the way that they normally do. It's going to be a difficult problem for any opponent for them to solve. And it turns out that it has paid exponential dividends. These sort of fairly minor adjustments are not that minor.

They seem kind of minor, moment to moment, maybe round to round. But in totality, it has a huge effect, and it has made him much more lethal. He doesn't exert the same amount of energy because he doesn't need to. He has much more ironclad takedown defense, so more time is spent at range. He measures range well. He discovers his range quickly. It doesn't take a lot of time for him to realize how far apart he is and what he can throw in that time.

And so here you had a case where Emmanuel Sanchez, you knew the pressure was going to be there, found a moment where Sanchez was pressing, hit him with an accurate, I think it was a 1-2 combo, maybe a 2-3, you have to go back and look. In either case, drops him and then goes for the guillotine, knowing you're going to be underneath. Dude, do you understand what kind of confidence you have to have in your guillotine choke

to go for something like that? When there was still well over a minute there, and maybe you thought, okay, I'm still going to win the round, but if he gets out of it or something, but you're still taking a risk jumping guillotine, even if a guy is rocked, but he does it, and he saw it was actually kind of high, that bicep, it wasn't pushing on the back of the head.

It was more pushing on the crown of the head, but it didn't matter. I did think the referee stoppage, a little slow, but it could have gotten there a little bit quicker, but probably all's well that ends well. I don't think that, I certainly have not seen any report that Emmanuel Sanchez is in any kind of medical condition or anything like that. But yes, I would have liked to have seen him get to him a little bit quicker. I cannot overstate how good of a win that is for Patricio Pipo.

I thought for sure, for sure, that I figured he might win, but that this would be back and forth, up and down. You'd see the clinch, you'd see the ground, you'd see it at distance, you'd see every kind of phase of MMA, and that eventually some of the differences in terms of their skill level, it would materialize over time. If you told me he was going to dust this guy off in a round and make it look easy. What has he done in the Bellator Featherweight Grand Prix? He fought Juan Archuleta to open it, decisioned him, nearly stopped him a couple times by drilling him, beats Pedro Carvalho in a couple of minutes, and it took him only three more minutes, basically, to finish off Emmanuel Sanchez. The first fight did go the five rounds. Since then, he's gone collectively about a round and a little bit of change.

So about six rounds for the entirety. He's averaging about two rounds a fight heading into this finals now in June with AJ McKee. That is remarkable. There's going to be a lot of people who probably watch this tonight who have heard people like me and BC and other ones who watch Bellator, I think, a little more regularly, that we think Patricio is one of the best fighters in the world. I think he's got a legitimate claim to being one of the, if not the best, featherweight up there. Folks might ask, how does he do against Volkanovski? I don't know.

How does he do against Holloway? I don't know. But if you don't think that he can beat those guys, I would very much suggest that those guys would have their hands full with him. You saw what he did to Michael Chandler, right? You saw what he's done to a lot of guys. His power is extraordinary. His accuracy is better than it's ever been. His timing is lights out and pinpoint.

He's a handful for anybody who makes his weight class. And they were talking about this guy being a potential triple champ, 135, 145, and 155. I don't know if he's going to do it. You see some real interesting contenders coming along the lines at 155 pounds and 135 pounds. We'll talk about some more of those later. But if anyone can do it, I mean, you saw how he matched up frame size with Emmanuel Sanchez. Sanchez was way bigger, and that was 145. Remember, he's got the belt, Pitbull does,

at the weight class above this one after beating Michael Chandler the way that he did. That is extremely impressive. That is extremely impressive. He is a very... Showtime must be thrilled. Not Showtime, I should say Bellator, rather. They must be thrilled they've got this guy. They must be thrilled. Especially now that he's speaking a little bit more English. Especially now that he's trying to let his personality shine.

You're going to get a little bit more of this. I don't know how much longer, you're going to get a little bit more of this. I don't know how much longer his prime's going to last, but for sure, we're in the middle of it. We're at the peak of his powers that I've seen. I mean, this is a guy that Joe Warren outwrestled however many years ago. How long ago was that when he got outwrestled by Joe Warren? I mean, that was 2010. A Bellator Season 2 featherweight tournament final. You know, it's a long time ago. And he had the loss to Pat Curran, which he later avenged.

Strauss, which he avenged. And Henderson, which was just a leg injury. Other than that, his resume is, it's gotten better over time. It's pretty flawless. It is, he is a remarkable, remarkable talent. Now, it brings us to a question about, well, first of all, let's actually reflect on Emmanuel Sanchez's strategy here a little bit. He was very reserved, which you could imagine early. You know the power of Patricio is going to be significant. You don't want to be reckless with him. But I will say it did look to me a little bit like, and of course this is hindsight being 2020,

but it did look to me like Patricio had a little bit too much room to operate, a little too much time. He wasn't being forced into decisions where he was having to calculate too quickly. And as a consequence, he was able to kind of work at a much more measured, less hectic pace. I wonder about that. I wonder if you should really have a wrestling-heavy game plan with him. I wonder if you want to strike with him on the feet. You really got to get him questioning. They were asking us, like, what are the keys to victory for this guy ahead of this fight if you're Emmanuel Sanchez? If you really believe that he has a chance to win, what's the

realistic path to get there? And, you know, we're not DeGrufus, but we're just trying to think through, like, where are some of the weaknesses we've seen with Patricio and what are some of the conditions you have to establish? You got to get that guy out of game plan a and b you have to force him into c and I think a big way to do that is you got to really put the heat on him you got to really back him up you have to have him answering for your offense you have to really hurt him take him down you have to force change on him that makes him make adaptations and you have to do that I think a couple of times in the fight very very difficult to do doable for the very very best ones, but but There was never a moment early in this fight

As long as it lasted that I was able to see the leg kicks were pretty good I thought from Emmanuel Sanchez the inside leg kicks the calf kicks were pretty good. All of them were pretty good but they didn't really deter and change anything from Pitbull. Maybe they would have if they had continued, but that by itself wasn't enough. And a lot of it we had his hands up kind of waiting to parry, waiting to see what was there. It just wasn't enough heat, I think, on Patricio.

If he's got time to make reads, if he's got time to calculate distance, if he's got time to figure out how to absorb your pressure, when I say time, I mean both the distance and the amount of time that the setup takes for you to charge into him or whatever it may be, he's going to have his way with you. Certainly the level of ability he's showing now. There just wasn't enough of that. There was way too much time, way too much separation. And dude, the window for him to connect on someone, the window on that guy to hurt him, it doesn't need to be very big for him to have devastating consequences. Doesn't take much. Doesn't take much for him to rock a guy. And once he's got him rocked, he's an absolutely

lethal finisher. You know, you can't, you just can't make a lot of mistakes against this guy. Who always says that, right? Trevor Whitman always says that. Like what separates the elite ones from the ones who are just good or even very good. Really, they're all pretty talented. Like when you look at how they can execute their game plans at the highest level, there's a lot of, with special rare exceptions, there's a lot of parity in terms of just ability. But the difference is, is that ability consistently applied over time. The good ones don't make mistakes. Patricio just doesn't make a lot of mistakes these days. You know, to have Emmanuel Sanchez finished off like that,

coming on the heels of the Pedro fight, coming on the heels of the Archuleta fight, coming on the heels of the Chandler fight, that's a decent run. That's a decent run. Takes his record to 32-4. So now it takes us to a position where we're discussing the finals of this tournament. This is who they have. They've got the best fighter in Bellator history ready to take on the other finalist who is the rising undefeated star whose entire career has taken place in Bellator. You saw what he said, AJ McKee. He actually wanted Emmanuel Sanchez to win so that he could beat Sanchez, claim the 145-pound title, then move up to 155,

and then fight Patricio on those terms. Looks like he's not going to get his wish, but that's what he wanted to do. Now you have this scenario. If you're Bellator, you know, you got to be thrilled with the way this tournament has gone. Obviously, the big caveat to that is the pandemic interrupted it, and one side was done before the other one, and so it didn't go off perfectly without a hitch but in terms of who you got at the end of the tournament whether it was AJ McKee on one side on the left side of the bracket and now Pitbull on the right side you got two of the most interesting names you've got maybe the most interesting pairing you've got the guy that represents the very best on one side the champ, maybe the champ champ champ in a

future date, who is the best that your brand can produce in terms of talent, versus a guy who has looked phenomenal fight over fight, even when he got pushed in the Derek Campos fight. He had that incredible triangle. He ran through Georgie Karakhanian. He ran through Darian Caldwell. His entire career has taken place in Bellator. And now to capture the title, to win the tournament, to get the $1 million, all you have to do is be the champion of this weight class who's the best to ever do it. That is a very marketable scenario, I think, quite frankly, for Bellator. Listen, I'll be honest about it. I talked to some folks here today in the studio and some friends that I have and some other folks I know who are MMA fans. Is BC coming back? Yep. And some of them were telling me this is the first time they've

watched Bellator. Bellator is going to need compelling figures and they're going to need compelling matchups to, I think, raise the visibility, get folks interested, and the like. All right, and here he comes. Come on. I held down the fort for you, but now you're here. What, do you have a Gatorade sponsorship? Yeah, I have a Gatorade sponsorship. All right, there we go.

Let's go to the two-shot. My name is Luke Thomas, of course, from CBS Sports and Showtime, and you know this gentleman. He did the CBS Sports hit. Thank you so much for doing that on CBS Sports HQ. And now he is here. I'm Luke Thomas. That is Brian Campbell.

Okay, BC. Can we talk aggressive, savage Brazilian champion that deserved much more pound for pound? I have given my take on the overall fight. Some things I thought went wrong for Sanchez. Delved just a little bit into the finals of the tournament. Let's go back to you first. Your big takeaway from Patricio Freire's huge win. You know, we knew he was great coming in. He's better than we thought he was. For all that talk

about Sanchez's improvement, and rightfully so, that was the storyline to set up this rematch. He had such great success the first time. Could he repeat it and improve upon it? I think we slept just a little bit on how much better Patricio Pitbull is. When you consider the rounding out of the game, he has no holes, no cardio issues, no wrestling issues, even in a fight in which he was uber patient in this. As you saw Sanchez come out and flip the script uncharacteristically instead of being straight ahead, really looked to come up with change-ups,

leg strikes from the outside, and really owned the pace of the fight, the distance, but look at the patience of the champion. When it was time, when the moment opened up, and you saw Sanchez attempt a flying Superman punch, that's where Patricio countered with the right hand. Didn't land fully clean. I think it might have caught him on the chest, but it was enough to knock him down. And once he went in position where there was an opening to do something,

I mean, the fight was over just like that. So how about that? A little goldberg uh throw call that there right a little goldie throwback uh either way look luke um i saw something you tweeted that you know wouldn't be criminal to to consider is pitbull the best featherweight fighter in the world at this moment um he's one of the best three or four fighters on the planet regardless of weight creed division yeah he's, anything across the board. And I think, Luke, that was one of the storylines you and I hit coming in. Will he finally, if you consider Bellator's move to Showtime

and this inaugural card to kick off a new broadcasting era for the promotion, will that get Pitbull maybe in front of new eyes and he'll finally get the recognition that I don't think he gets across the board globally? If he can't get it now, Luke, and if this fight with AJ McKee can't get you fired up, can't produce the feels coming out of you, what else does he have to do? Because this guy Pitbull has become a special force at age 33. He had to deliver tonight on Showtime.

The card itself I thought was okay. We'll talk about it. Usman Nurmagomedov looked awesome. Didn't really care that much for the women's fight all that much. The heavyweight fight was what it was. It was a guy I last-minute noticed. Fine, whatever. I thought the co-main event was fine.

I thought it was fine. I got a lot of DMs about that women's fight. You have a lot of questions about it here as well, so we'll get to those later. But I thought the main event, I was like, okay, first main event on Showtime. Everyone's talking this guy up. He's the best fighter in Bellator history. Dude, he completely lived up to those expectations. If you were like, dude, dude, this is the guy you got to watch.

But what about that? He answered the bell. And he did, ultimately. But what did you think about that opening block of the fight where Pitbull seemed content to kind of try to figure Sanchez out, even to the point of just like, you know, I'm going to sit back and just take notes. So I thought, let me see what you think about this. I thought that was a really, I thought it was a miscalculation on the part of the Sanchez team. Now, Duke Rufus knows, has forgotten more about martial arts than I know. But here's why I say that. Because I thought the leg kicks for Sanchez were working pretty well, right, for the most part. They were having an effect. They were hurting. And they were probably making, you know, some choices for Patricio to

make. But if you're Patricio Pitbull, here's what I took from this fight. Dude, he is so accurate. His timing is so good. You already knew about his power. You give a guy like that room to make decisions? You know, we talked about it before, dude. Like, what do you think was the way for Sanchez to win? Dude, he had to get in his chest.

Get the respect. Get the respect. And I understand what he was doing. He was taking his time because, look, you rush in on Patricio, and you're going to work up at the lights either way. Like, you know, it's a bit of pick your poison scenario, but I do believe, BC, that was too much time and space. You know, you wonder, though, because would those leg kicks have accumulated?

Were they having an effect? You know, in the moment, you're thinking, Pippen might be giving away this first round, really. He's been very passive. He's been sort of, you know thinking, Pippel might be giving away this first round. Really, he's been very passive. He's been sort of, you know, not a step behind, but very cautious in taking a snapshot. And I was wondering, are those leg kicks having an effect? Is this the equivalent of going to the body early in a boxing match and sort of building that investment? I wondered.

And again, now the storyline is Pippel lived up and exceeded expectations when it was time to go for that finish. And Luke, I mean, you've got to be shocked at how quickly he produced a, not a tap, but a nap out of a world-class rise in stud in Sanchez. I'll say this, too. When he jumped guillotine, I thought it was a mistake. I was like, oh, no, no, no, no, no. He's going to wake up. Or not wake up, but, like, pop his head out.

And, you know, you may win the round, but whatever. Nope. Well, the force that he sat down on that with when he had the standing guillotine and then dropped, Luke, it seemed, like, violent, like whiplash. I mean, it seemed like, damn, he was down there. Nope. such a calculating level at this point where he was very confident, very patient, found his opening, got it done. I don't know what you can say negative about Sanchez except for maybe, did you lean into your strengths enough? But it seems that they had a strategy to try to slow down the pace, maybe try to edge him out, maybe try to slow him down with those leg kicks and then explode. What would the fight have looked like then? You wonder, but there's no wonder after

a finish like that. I was, I'm just amazed at how much better he's gotten so quickly. I was going through their resumes since their first fight, which, again, I encourage folks to watch because Pitbull got pushed to his very limit. I mean, if not his limit, pretty goddamn close. Split decision, the whole distance, Sanchez doing a great job, and then three years later,

he can't even make it out of a round with the guy. This is the first fight, obviously. This is the one from Tel Aviv. It was high pace. Pitbull gets dropped in the opening round. And there's moments, there's windows for Sanchez of wrestling, of taking the lead with striking. And then you see in the fifth round, as you mentioned,

when the fight was up for grabs, Pitbull exploded. But that's why I started to feel confident that I'm wondering if we are setting ourselves up for an early Pitbull finish. Because San's why I started to feel confident that I'm wondering if we are setting ourselves up for an early Pitbull finish. Because Sanchez, again, to get to this level, to be the guy to give Pitbull his toughest title defense in the first meeting, we know that the story should have been

about his world-class evolution. But good Lord, when Pitbull, I felt like a statement was coming, and boy, did he deliver it. You know what's interesting to me? Let me say this. I think he's getting better. He is? But it? Let me say this. I think he's getting better. He is?

But it's more than how he's getting better. So, for example, if you look at some of the things he was landing in that first fight, here's what I'm saying to this. He's got a little bit of Derek Brunson happening, which is, what did we say about Derek Brunson? No, this is not totally true. We were saying for Brunson, is he showing you new skills? Not necessarily, but he's definitely not making the same old mistakes. With Pitbull, you have a little bit of both.

Yes, he actually is getting better. His timing is very crisp. His distance management, very crisp. Oh, and on top of it, all those things that were a little bit, not like terrible costliness, but it cost him a little bit, they're virtually gone. That is a hard guy to beat. That's a really hard guy to beat.

And he has a swagger that isn't just, I'm an absolute badass and a savage. And we love the quote he gave us, Luke, right? When we asked him in that announcement at the press conference, you fight like you've got a chip on your shoulder. Oh, my brother and I, we come to kill you. It's not just that. I think it's an increased next level confidence of, I have figured out this entire game. There are no stones unturned. There are no holes in my game. This is now easier than I thought it was. I'm getting that swagger out of him. And maybe we saw that in why it was okay for him to be that poised and that patient, eat leg kicks, try to check some, never panic, and then explode when it was time for the finish like he

did. It's scary when you're riding that level of confidence. It's scary. And did you get the feels when him and AJ went nose-to-nose? And you thought it was going to be cordial? And then the dog came out of both of them. Did you catch any of them pro wrestling little hairs on you or not? I heard about it. I was paying attention to it a little bit. I was trying to get the thing off the ground. I was paying attention to it a little bit. I was trying to get the...

I was feeling it, Luke, okay? I was trying to get the thing off the ground. I was rock hard with emotion. Were you rock hard with emotion? I had a phoner. All right, let's talk about that a little bit. Here's how I set it up. I mean, if you're Bellator,

I said the pandemic got in the way a little bit and he had one side of the bracket finished before the other one. So in that sense, the tournament has not gone off without a hitch and there's been some problems. But in the way a little bit and he had one side of the bracket finished before the other one. So in that sense, the tournament has not gone off without a hitch and there's been some problems. But in the end, you got the young up-and-coming guy, maybe the future of the sport. Central casting. Done everything in one organization, this one, undefeated.

Oh, on the other side, the best one to ever do it with a Bellator glove on. Dude, if you're a Bellator, you gotta be happy with how that final has arranged itself. This whole tournament has played itself out perfect. And again, you love the commitment to this format by Bellator because you're going to get what you're going to get.

It's like the Wheel of Death on Wednesdays. You know what I mean? There's no dodging it, and there's certainly no champion's advantage for Pitbull. Every single fight had to feel like it was the final of the tournament because everyone's coming at you with their best performance for your belt. But you're right. For the two that you would want who represent the promotion the best, who are probably easily the two best pound for pound in this division

and are making the case within their own promotion, and I think for Pitbull the whole sport of where they stand. But what I love most about it is we don't freaking know how good A.J. McKee is. Pitbull can't know. McKee can't know. I mean, he's pretty damn good, the McKee team against Darion Caldwell, the eight-second knockout against Karkadian. I mean, he has had these signature moments there. But I don't know if his ceiling is enough to take down Pitbull.

And the fact is that I have that doubt that I'm not really sure. I've got to see it. I've got to see it play out in front of me. And that's what you want right here. You want Pitbull to face a challenge that nobody else in the tournament could have given him up to this point, right? He fought different styles. He beat him. He did what he had to do.

Now you got a guy who can just end the fight at any point with a wild submission. Now you got a guy who's athletic and quick and goes after it. And he's, oh, by the way, really smart. This has the potential to be an incredible final. I've been, I always thought A.J. McKee was talented, but is, oh, by the way, really smart, this has the potential to be an incredible final. I've been, I always thought AJ McKee was talented, but I was like, oh, he'll beat Karakhani, and I think he was going to beat him in eight seconds. Like, I thought he'd beat Darian

Caldwell. Well, actually, I think I thought Darian Caldwell was going to win. So, A, I didn't even think he was going to win. And then to beat him so quickly the way that he did, and then, like, again, to have a validating win against Derek Campos, which he was getting pushed in that fight, found a way to win, and then to go to the Pat Curran fight, and same kind of thing. He's, like, just consistently been able, if you're A.J. McKee,

to sometimes he kind of had to grit his teeth through it a little bit. But most of the time, when Bellator has issued this guy a challenge, he has answered it. He's leveled up. He's sort of figured out, I can do this. Oh, I can do this, too. And then some. As the challenges have gotten greater, the answers have gotten greater.

And almost anyone in this spot who would have advanced to the final and, oh, as you wait to see who you get, good God, I'm getting Pitbull, and I'm getting him after he faced a guy in Sanchez who deserved all the accolades he had coming in. And, oh, by the way, he finished him in the first round. We'd be like, hey, McKee, it was a good run, man, but there are levels to this, and you're not ready for the end of the video game boss in Pitbull. But instead of that, I believe I'm holding my heart open to say, I'm not sure if it's going to be that easy for Pitbull.

Like, I really need to see what this fight is going to look like before I really have a full understanding of what's going to happen in there, Luke. Yeah, I think if I'm trying to think, like, what's the biggest weapon you think that AJ McKee has? And you can say things like speed, I think is probably a big one. Length. Size, right, I think that's going to be a key. But more than that, it's also like, you kind of alluded to it, I don't know if AJ McKee really even, does he really know how good he is?

I mean, you've had guys like Adesanya being like, I actually like to get pushed in the fifth round against Gastelum, because it taught me, if the fight goes there, I can do that. He actually did not know if he was going to be able to do that until he met the moment and then he answered the challenge. I tend to think a guy like Pitbull, you're going to find out if you can answer that challenge here pretty quickly. You can't make hardly any mistakes against this guy.

And a guy like AJ McKee, who's still young and figuring that out, that's a tough fight for him. I want to see if McKee's backbone gets tested in ways that we've never seen before, where he's got to show the ability to rally, make adaptions, show a chin loop, overcome cuts or injuries and at the same time, you want to see Pitbull challenged against a guy who athletically can do

some things and go 0-60 and put you in precarious positions that guys like Sanchez and some of these other ones who are great fighters, but they can't do what AJ McKee does. He's sort of this unique type of fighter where only he can do exactly what he does. That's why you love this matchup. Best case scenario for the promotion, we can't wait to see it. I don't want to wait a long time.

I need it. June. I need it now. June is good. That's when it's going to be. Did you like AJ McKee on the microphone at all tonight? I thought he got better over time. Okay.

That was a little bit, a little bit. He wasn't our favorite interview ever? Yeah, I don't understand what that was all about, because I've had him in studio before, and it went great. He was not feeling us that day, but, you know. It could have been when you asked Loretta about her DMs, it just kind of went downhill. I still think that's a weird question,

and I still think it's actually the only question to ever ask her. Again, Brian Campbell, Luke Thomas here. If you're a thumbs-up on the video, subscribe if you're watching. What did they ask you on CBS Sports HQ? You know what I thought about this final matchup. You know, what can you say about Pitbull after a win that quick? That kind of good stuff right there. Do you think he's the best featherweight in the world?

I don't know. I still think Volkanovski is the best featherweight in the world. I'm not convinced that Max isn't the best featherweight in the world. Max Holloway, because I saw him beat Volkanovski in their rematch. I've got to tell you, by the way, Volkanovski versus Ortega is going to be your tough coaches. So if you wanted a quick turnaround with that fight, congratulations, you're not going to get it in December. So you have to wait five to six months for that fight, which is not fun. But for some reason, I would want to see Volkanovski versus Pitbull, but I would really want to see,

I don't know why it appeals to me more, I guess because of the size difference. It would be Pitbull versus Max. That's a tough fight for both guys. You know what I'm kind of getting jazzed about is when Pitbull keeps saying, you know, I got the lightweight title, I got the featherweight, you guys don't know I can make 35. I'd love to see him try to make a run at a third title in Bellator. Did you not see how much bigger Emmanuel Sanchez and AJ

would keep more than him? And to see what would he look like if he can make that weight comfortably, and then could he just be the slugger at that weight class against some of these Archuletas, fantastic Sergio Pettis competing for the title. We saw Magomed Magomedov on the undercard, which we can get to, look like a fantastic title-ready bantamweight performance. So there's a lot of business, I think, for Pippel on this side of the line, where, Luke, I'd love to imagine whether he could actually go in there

and beat Alex or Max to prove that he's the best featherweight in the world, but I don't think it's wrong right now. And we're certainly not being pushed by ComCBS to say this. I'm saying this from what my eyes are telling me, that Pipple's no worse than the second or third best featherweight in the world in the moment. That's right. And after a performance like this,

what would stop you from having him top five pound for pound in the world? I don't know. I think the only thing that would stop him is how much they know about Emmanuel Sanchez. And to watch Sanchez grit his teeth through this entire journey, I've been interviewing this guy for a long time, for him to watch, to work through this process, all for it to culminate in three minutes

and 35 seconds of getting put to sleep, that's heartbreaking for him. After having success? I mean, he was winning the round up to that point, Luke. And you have to ask yourself, where do you go if you're here? Because his power, he's not a big power puncher at 145. Maybe he can make 135. I doubt it. And I don't know if 155 is going to be much better for him either

in terms of what his athleticism will carry, which means if you're Emmanuel Sanchez, I think he's how young is Emmanuel Sanchez? He's not, I think. He's right at 30. August, he'll be 31. You know, you're in a bit of Rich Franklin territory because you can beat the Daniel Weichels.

You can beat the Taiwan Claxtons, the Karakhanians, the Sicilias and the Strausses. The point is, could you ever do enough to earn a third pit bull fight? Probably not. Would a promotion put that together? You'd have to clean out that division all over again. After the way he lost here? Yeah.

They're not going to make that one quickly again. And then, of course, the Bellator rosters are not as deep as the UFC rosters. They don't have as many fighters. They don't have as many of the high-end fighters. So sometimes you can get a title shot a little bit quicker. Sure. But even here, you got, I mean, pack a lunch, dude, because they're not going to be quick about it.

Let's talk about the co-main event here for just a little bit, if we can. Now, you've been big on this guy because Rashad's been in our ear a little bit. Rashad Evans, the unofficial third member, I guess, of Morning Combat. Jason Jackson defeats Neiman Gracie via unanimous decision, which I was a little bit surprised by, but I do think the right guy got basically won. 29-28 across the board. Now, Jason Jackson had to overcome

some adversity in this fight. He got his literal eyeball scraped against the chain link fence. Now, for folks who may not know, the chain link fence has a rubber coating on it, so if you get pressed into it, it doesn't hurt in the way that you have metal poking into you.

Well, he said in the interview his eyelid folded backwards. It was cut and shit. But it still hurts, dude. You're still getting pressed into a pretty solid force. And he got his face scraped up against it. And he got his other eye raked by Gracie. So he had some vision issues. There was times where he was like,

he was getting hit with some stuff, especially in that second round. I'm like, you shouldn't be getting hit with some of this, but you understand his vision. Still, though, in the end, BC, if I had to ask you, why did Jason Jackson win this fight over Neiman Gracie? What would you say? Well, Jackson won it because he played to his strengths,

which were the striking on the feet, the opposite, the complete contrasting style of Gracie on the ground. And I loved this fight on paper coming in. You can argue the winner was going to put himself in the position for a title shot, but it was a real step-up opportunity for Jackson. And while Luke, I scored it for Jackson, and I felt afterwards like he should have won. I thought it did come down to that first round where he spent more time on his back than not, but I don't think Gracie was effective on top,

and I also think when that fight was on its feet in the first round, Jackson landed the telling in destructive blows, where I thought it was enough to give him round one. I also gave him round three, and there you go, two to one. But I don't necessarily think Jackson getting the win is the story here, even though it's what, seven out of his last eight, with the one loss being that split decision to Ed Ruth that could have gone either way. We're seeing Jason Jackson continue to take a step forward toward a somewhat unlikely run to a title contender.

I mean, this is a guy that kind of came out of nowhere, but tell me if I'm wrong. The story is that Neiman Gracie had an opportunity to prove how great he really is. Turns out he's not all that great. He's great in his great skill on the ground, Luke, but I think there was too many openings that he was just unable to take advantage of in this fight

where I came out of there going, this is a major setback for Neiman Gracie across the board. I'll agree with some of that. I thought that Gracie made a change. It's a fact that he made a change to go and train with Rafael Cordero. You saw his corner. He had some legends in there.

He had Henzo Gracie on one side. Of course, Neiman is historically out of the Henzo Gracie Academy in New York City in the whole nine yards. He knows all the Danaher Death Squad guys. They've all trained together, blah, blah, blah. But he decided to at least move his camp and certainly some of the striking for it to Rafael Cordero's Kings MMA out in Newport Beach. You heard him, in fact, introduced as fighting out of Newport Beach, California. And I don't think that that hurt him in any way, but I don't think he's really

fully absorbed all of the wisdom that Cordero could impart on him. So here's what I want to say. He's 32. I don't want to call him a completely finished product, but you do wonder how much more he could get better at. I'll say I'm going to reserve judgment. I want to see Gracie a couple more camps with Cordero. But I guess my point is, Luke, that Jackson made the adjustments and just gutted this fight out. And I thought he did enough to win it, and I was happy he got the win. But Jackson wasn't overly impressive. I think it was more about what Gracie didn't do with the openings that he had,

the top position and close to near mount positions that he had. He was really unable to come close to any form of submission, even taking Jackson's back multiple times. Now, look, that doesn't mean that Jackson isn't tough. He's a physical big man who did well to avoid falling into that trap where he was going to lose by submission. But if you were Gracie, you've got to do more. You've got to do more to have a larger argument saying that you have won that fight.

Yeah. Then even if he did edge that, Luke, I don't think it would have been a strong win in the end. No, it certainly would not have been. Although I think there's just no – Jason Jackson is going to be one of these guys that's going to be hard to look good against, even if you beat him, right? Which is the case – obviously Gracie lost here, but it's just hard to look good against him. But here's what I mean about Gracie. It's that I understand – good against them. But here's what I mean about Gracie. It's that I understand by the way.

I think I made this point. I forget who fought last week where we had this debate or this conversation, which was I understand by what the letter of the law states that Gracie was getting to a lot of control positions, wasn't doing a lot with them in terms of damage, and then on the feet was more or less losing that. Maybe a couple punches got through here or there. Okay, fine.

So I don't mind that he won. I think it's okay that Jason Jackson won. But I will say though there's a lot of times where you have to understand the nature of these grappling positions. Even if he's not doing damage, Jackson is in a position where if he makes one wrong move the fight is over. To me, if you can keep

someone like that in a pretty perilous state, which is what that is, of high stress, where they're having to constantly answer to you just to survive the position, and the work on the feet is negligible, which I'm not saying it was, but let's say that it was, by the letter of the law in terms of how the scoring criteria goes, you may not give the person who was doing good jiu-jitsu work the round, even with some of the law in terms of how the scoring criteria goes, you may not give the person who was doing good jiu-jitsu work the round, even with some of the factors I've

brought up. And I tend to think that's actually a problem with the scoring criteria. So I do think that Neiman Gracie's work on the ground does deserve to be acknowledged, perhaps a little bit more than the scores reflect is what I would say. But I think what you're highlighting is correct, BC, which is that, listen, at age 32, you want to get another crack at Douglas Lima. Even to get a crack, much less to beat him, you've got to show

a lot more on the feet. I think my biggest issue for him was the third round, where he's on the bottom, which of course he's comfortable with, but Jackson's not known for grappling and wrestling and top position, and he kind of allowed Jackson to, I'm not saying comfortably, Jackson had to stay firm and solid and avoid getting trapped

in any kind of arm bar or triangle or anything like that. But, I mean, if you're Gracie, that's your calling card. You should, that's what you're supposed to do. Put him in precarious positions and have him close to a potential submission. And I didn't see him come close in that final round. For Jason Jackson, he might get a title shot here against Douglas Lima. Do you see anything there that gives you a pause about Lima's chances? I don't.

I don't. I think there's levels to this. I don't think Jackson's on Lima's level. I've loved his story. I think he's going to be a tough out. He can slip in a head kick. He's aggressive. He's got a lot to do offensively that I like, but he's

not on Douglas Lima's level. It has potential to be a fun, contrasting style fight, but he's going to have to get to Lima's chin, and I think Lima's too good for that. By the way, I also think it should be noted for folks to be like, oh, you all want to say that all the Bellator champs are as good as the UFC champs. No, not necessarily.

I'm not one of these guys who thinks Douglas Lima's the best welterweight in the world. I think he is among the top five, probably. I think I'd probably put him safely there. But I think Kamaru is actually far and away the best welterweight, much better than Douglas. When it comes to pitbull, I think it's a lot more debatable. I think it's a lot more open-ended. So that should be noted.

Now, Tyrell Fortune defeats Jack May at 316. Jack May filling in very short notice for Matt Mitrione, which we did not get that fight. I don't know how much. It went like it was going to go. It went like it was supposed to go for the situation. We did get the little sprinkle on top of trash talk and then Fortune sending him to hell afterwards and that'd be broken up. Are there any fighters who

are 6'8 and good? Who don't look like they're bouncing? Like Volkov? Isn't Volkov like 6'9? 6'7? He's really good. Alexander Volkov? Yeah. From the UFC? That's right. I'm talking about any fighter who is like 6'8, 6'9, who's like really good.

Semmy Schilt was a 7-footer and he was really good. I'm just saying, there's a lot of really tall fighters in a lot of weight classes. We had a 170-pound 6'7 fighter tonight. Not good. Tyler Goody? Yeah, I think that's his name. He got lit up like a Christmas tree.

Yeah, yeah, he did. So we can skip this one. Now, this is big. You interviewed this guy. To me, Pitbull's the big winner tonight. But here's your runner-up. Usman Nurmagomedov, the cousin of Habib. You saw Habib there. Defeats Mike Hamill.

Unanimous decision. There was one 29-28. I don't know how the fuck you score that fight 29-28, but okay. The rest, 30-27. Usman Nurmagomedov is the real deal. He's the real freaking deal right now at Lightweight. Pitbull's got the belt there.

He's tied up in the featherweight picture for a while, but we're going to start having to have conversations if Usman Nurmagomedov fights this way. What I love most about it, there were two things. One, that Mike Hamill, who was outgunned, came to fight and put the pressure on him because it forced a style out

of Usman that is nasty, Luke. And that style is cold-hearted, calculated, counter-striking, but the efficiency, the fact that he doesn't waste shots, he doesn't take unnecessary chances, he is content, Usman Nurmagomedov, to chop you down with hard leg kicks,

hard, clean counter shots, never really putting you in peril, but just bludgeoning you over time. And what I also like is that you're kind of waiting this whole fight. You're under Magomedov. Shoot in. I know wrestling isn't, you know, your dominant 80-20 sort of lean, maybe like a Habib.

He's more of a striker on the feet. I like that Usman didn't need to go to the ground and didn't even try because he's showing you, Luke, that his calling card is more on the feet. The wrestling will be there if he needs it. It turns out he didn't need it. This guy is a stone cold, efficient, savage force that it's going to take someone special to hand him his first L. I think it will. Yeah, just his second win via decision.

All the rest have come. And didn't you feel like he could have gone if he needed to? He could have gone in there and probably got a finish. And I don't say that negatively. I say that like, he was just like, this flow that I got going, I'm hurting you with everything I'm hitting you with. I'm not ever

getting countered too clean. I'm just going to roll with this. First of all, a couple things that really were amazing to me about this guy. 22 years old to be that complete already was pretty interesting. And then two, dude, for a guy, you're fighting a guy who was a Division II, what, national champion, like All-American?

Certainly a good wrestler. And the amount of kicks that he was throwing, Nurmagomedov. Hard kicks. And to the body, to the legs, to the inside, to the outside, head kick, fakes, question mark kick, teeps, everything. And the snap on those high kicks that he was doing. Great.

What I'm saying, you're fighting a guy who's a wrestler. Typically, they tell you to tone down the kind of kicks or abandon them altogether if you can. Nurmagomedov's like, fuck that. I'm going to absolutely not do any of that. And still tore Mike Hamill apart. I also have to say, this is one thing where if you know a guy's going to barrel down into you, you need some kind of answer for that pressure.

This guy had a jab. He had combinations. He had a driving elbow. He had all the kicks we're mentioning. He had so many good answers to deal with the pressure, including what was it, the second or the third round, BC, where he, I think, hit him with a teep to the gut or the spinning back kick. Those are nasty.

Credit to Mike Hamill, dude. He's obviously. He took a beating the gut or the spinning back kick. Those were nasty. And had Mike Hamill. Credit to Mike Hamill, dude. He's obviously. He took a beating. Yeah, he took a beating. He's quite tough. He went the whole distance. A lesser man would not have, and there's probably a lot of them.

And he shot in. He had some moments there. He had some interesting moments. But in the end, you saw the takedown defense of Nurmagomedov. Way too good. The striking game, extremely advanced. A lot of different weapons for a lot of different scenarios, and he has full command of them. And instead of, like I said, instead of trying to criticize him

for maybe not going for a finish against a guy who wasn't hurting him when maybe I thought I saw an opening there, I was just more impressed that it's just consistency. Like, I'm just going to bludgeon you and beat you down until you can't keep coming after me. You love the poise and the precision at that age. You just also love like, I mean, it's the Dagestan way. It's the smash factory way, Luke.

These guys come mentally complete, it seems like. They are ready to just enforce their will upon you in zombie robot-like efficiency and just take you out of there. Yeah, and at 22 years- There's no emotion. I mean, it was just, this is what I have to do. I'm going to go do it. And to have Habib as your head trainer now is pretty... At 22 years of age, like, you don't need to rush it.

Go get three rounds in Bellator. You've been sitting in quarantine in the Mohegan Sun doing everything. Listen, if the guy folds, whatever. But if he doesn't, that's good. You've got 15 minutes of cage fighting time. Who knows when he's going to be out here again and what the situation may be and everything else. So it's probably some good experience for him.

I'll say this, BC. You've already got on the other side at light heavyweight, you've got a Russian champion. I've got to tell you, folks, you should probably expect more Russian champions in Bellator and then more widely in MMA. The Russians are here. They're the new Brazilians in your eyes.

Yeah. Yeah, dude, they're fucking good. Yeah, they're taking over here. They're super good. And by the way, in the case of the light heavyweight champ, not all of them are from Dagestan. Some of them are from St. Petersburg, and they're all different kinds. Siberia. But obviously, we see these guys

who, although Usman doesn't have the chin beard. No, he's not rocking the Magomedov Abe Lincoln adaption, but Moro toyed with that on the broadcast, saying Habib's one of the greatest fighters of all time, but he is starting a new chapter where he could be one of the greatest trainers. I mean, he's 3-0 so far as the head coach in the corner, but Abdulmanap, his late father, had so much influence on all of these guys

who are just breaking out now and starting to become something. And to see Habib sort of take father's place now, Luke. And you know he's delivering the same game plan, the same focus, attitude, all that. We are going to see some Habib lights from time to time. Not everybody named Nurmagomedov or not everybody from Dagestan is going to win a championship. But a lot of them are because the Abdulmanap coaching tree, Luke, has now fallen down onto the sun. And it's really cool to see Habib in a spot to focus all of his efforts

on giving back, and they're raising a stable, Luke, that's here to smash. Let me pull up the rankings here. I want to see who they had for Would it be for the division? Insensitive or racially motivated to say the Redcoats are coming? I mean, the flag is red, Luke. The Redcoats would be British.

Right, but the red flags are coming. Okay? They're taking over. Okay. Brent Premis is number one. Patricio is two. Goichi Yamauchi, then Benson Henderson, Sidney Outlaw, Miles Jury, Adam Piccolotti, Alfie Davis, Aviv Gozali, and then Georgie Karakhanian. Georgie, I guess, moved up to 155. Either way, dude, you've got a lot of guys to go through there before. Well, do you think that, I mean, Pitbull's tied up for now with the featherweight.

We're going to wait in the AJ McKee fight. But if he's serious about Bantamweight, I wonder if Scott Coker and company will say, you know, will we have the patience to say, okay, we'll put two divisions on hold while you now go to a third division so you can try to become the first simultaneous champ, champ, champ, triple champ, you know, all that. Or would this be a time, especially with his brother as a viable lightweight contender, that maybe we could be closer to Pitbull saying goodbye to Leite? Yeah, he wants his brother to get the title.

He told us that. So it looks to me like he's looking for a scenario where he can give up the 155-pound belt in a situation where his brother is in, obviously, the fight to capture it. I don't know when or how that might be. But if you end up with Petrycki, the older brother, against a Brent Primus or against a Usman Nurmagomedov, then the lightweight division is in good hands moving forward. It certainly is.

And then last but not least, BC, Kana Watanabe defeating Alejandro Lara, split decision. This one was a little bit harder to judge, but in the end, 29-28 for one, and then obviously two 29-28s. A lot of grappling exchanges. For the other. I didn't love this fight, if I can be honest with you. Let me say what my problem was.

I thought that both showed some flashes of ability. But not complete games. Yeah, not complete games. Not great decision-making, especially on the part of Alejandro Lara, trying to time just a single left hand, which Watanabe was able to self-time and get under. And then one thing I noticed was she would clinch break, and she had some good elbows in the clinch, actually. I thought those were some of her better weapons.

But then she wouldn't circle back to the center of the cage. She kind of just stayed in the warning track. And I'm like, dude, she's just going to clinch with you again and push you against the fence. And then sure enough, or use that space for tripping. I mean, I thought Watanabe actually performed pretty well. It was a gutsy win for Watanabe. She gutted it out and figured out the

angle that she had to try to win this fight and hats off to her to do it. I think there was maybe an opening for one of the two to really make a statement of where they stand in this division and I think somebody like Alejandra Lara who's very marketable and you're starting to see a little bit more of a buzz rise ahead of each of her fights. I know she's done some reality TV shows in Latin America and stuff,

but this was supposed to be the fight against a very tough, unbeaten foe that gave her the chance to say, okay, I've lost to former champ Alimale McFarlane when she had the belt. I lost to current champ Juliana Velasquez, but I've figured things out. And while you like some of the things, like you mentioned, that working with Alexa Grasso and her family there in Mexico is doing for Azul, Luke, for as much as she can land the flashy left cross or the spinning kick, I don't feel like there's a lot of power on these shots. I don't feel like these are strikes that are changing the momentum in the fight at all. I thought her elbows in close range were fantastic.

Outside of that, I'm still seeing a little bit more flash, a little bit more sizzle than steak. I think she's got a lot more work to do. Yeah, she had a good one too early. She was popping the head of Watanabe. That was the thing about Watanabe. It was like, okay, in the clinch and on the ground, okay, she's fine. At range, she was standing way tall and getting lit up over and over again.

And the two wins Lara had after those two losses, those fighters weren't on this level. Certainly not. Certainly not. This was a winnable fight for Lara. It would not be true to say it was not winnable. I thought there was maybe a chance she could have pulled it out, but I thought Watanabe had won. And in the end, that's exactly what she got.

I get a lot of inappropriate comments in my DMs about this fight. I'm not here to talk about this. There was a lot of... What are these people? It wasn't intentional, but there was a lot of, I won't say TNA, but A. Advantageous positions? Yes, there was a lot of advantageous positions. That's a lot of what it was. All right, BC, I asked the view.

Oh, before we go any further, Roger Huerta got smoked in the prelim card. Is that really Roger Huerta, though, Luke? Because that's not your father's Roger Huerta, right there. It's a new version of him, I guess. Did you notice he had the weird shorts and there were no sponsors on them? Look, I know this is low-hanging fruit. We could probably get on Roger Huerta's ass or his pelvic bone for very cheap if you wanted to get that Morning Combat logo on there.

I'm thinking about doing that. All right. I think we can get him out. Might be the only way we get on a Showtime broadcast. Might be the only way you get into fighter shorts, right? Yeah, exactly. Alright, so Magomed Magomedov beats CJ Hamilton. It was very easy.

How about this new guy? Not new because you've seen him in Bellator before. Faraz Ahabi trained. Don't go too fast over Magomed Magomedov here. That was a bit of a set-up fight. It was, but that's a Bantamweight title contender there, Luke. He is Magomedov, yes. He looked awesome. But, you know, I'm not saying C.J. Hamilton is some scrub.

He took it on late notice, but, you know, it wasn't a serious challenge of him. But how about Mandel Nalo? Woo! Beats Ricardo Seixas. I don't know how you fucking say his name. Oh, the big sexy. What were they calling him on the program? Seixas. I don't know how you fucking say his name. Big sexy. What were they calling him on the program? Seixas? Nolan. Seixas.

Our guy Nolan in the back was like, man, if this guy's name is Joe... Rose's name, what's his first name? Well, they said that the announcer should be called Seixas. If you announce fights in Bellator, your name should be Ricardo Seixas. Your name is Ricky Seixas. You're getting something. Dude, Mando Nalo, his nickname, we're not making this up, it's Rat Garbage. And if you go to at Rat Garbage on Instagram, his entire profile is just weird art paintings.

The kind that really make you ask the question, is this art? Are we art? What is art? What is this art? I can't stop following this man. I keep unfollowing and refollowing him again because I need to know more. Luke, he walked in there like, you know, what am I doing here? Dude, he beat the fuck out of our conversation.

He walked in there like he was walking into a convenience store that was being robbed, only he didn't react to the danger of that. And he's just like, hey, you mind if I get a pack of smokes back there while you're being handcuffed? Or, you know, while there's a gun to your head, can you just grab me what I need I mean there was just no panic or fear or whatever nothing and just accurate as shit strikes Luke everything he threw you know Big John said on the broadcast he basically threw like a no-hitter out there everything he threw landed flush and it did damage and we're like where did this creature come from you gotta send Bellator prelim cards some guys on there will be like regular Bellator fighters and for

whatever reason they put them down there like a UFC card. Sometimes you'll get guys who are doing like Bellator tryouts but they have like a one fight deal. A lot of times they'll be guys who fight for another organization. They're just moonlighting here because they worked out a deal with a promoter. You have to think of Bellator prelims a little bit more, not like

so much UFC prelims, a little bit more like boxing prelims. That's not right either. There's local fighters looking to sell some local tickets and round out the car. Yeah, here that's less relevant because they're in the bubble. But yes, that's typically how the prelims work. Still, I think that Mandel Nala was a guy they had their eye on because he does train with Faraz. He looked fucking awesome in this fight. He demolished the face. He had that 1973 cab driver haircut that you mentioned. Yeah, they were looking, him and Satius were competing for who had the best haircut in 1974, but it looks like Nalo wins by virtue of default. I mean, it's hard to know if he's a player, but he's must-see TV from here on out. He had our entire staff just, you know, going nuts, Luke.

Are you following him on Instagram? I will be soon. All right, let's go to some of these questions folks were asking us. Manish, if you can throw up the social graphic one more time now that BC is here so that folks can get a hold of us. There we go. I put out this on Twitter, so what do you think of these, BC? Here we go. You can follow us on Twitter. I'm going to read these from Twitter itself.

If Patricio is able to successfully defend his title against AJ and win a third belt at bantamweight, where does he rank among all fighters ever? Oh, God, that's a loaded, interesting question. Yeah, what happens to the first guy to become a champ, champ, champ? Champ, champ, champ. But it wouldn't be one of those where, like, oh, he did it in secondary organization. When he's knocking out Michael Chandler in the first round a minute and 11 seconds in, when he would have beaten Sanchez for the second time, when he would have beaten A.J.

McKee in the unbeaten in the finals for this tournament for $1 million to defend his title, and then we're saying he goes down and faces Archuleta or Pettis or Magomed Magomedov, whoever is there at Bantamweight waiting for him? Does he pass Fedor at that point as the best fighter to never fight in UFC? Wow, that's a great question. Right? That's a fantastic one. Again, that's a great question. Right? That's a fantastic one.

Again, that's a big if. That's a huge if. You've got a lot of work to do. But if he does... It would be a historical move. And again, I don't think it would be watered down by, but you haven't done it in the UFC, because he's doing some big things right now.

Someone asking what we think about Goldberg being dropped by Bellator. I don't know. Not our call. Y'all know how I feel. I would have preferred Morrow to Goldberg. I'm never going to cheer for someone not having a job. It's not me, but I don't think he was the right guy for that job. So that's what I'll say.

And if you have two quarterbacks, you have none, right? That's right. So Morrow, that's my quarterback. That's my quarterback. All right. If Chandler wins, Mauro, that's my quarterback. That's my quarterback. Alright, if Chandler wins the UFC lightweight title in May, how significant will it be that the current Bellator lightweight champ won his belt by first round

KO over the lightweight champ for UFC only two years ago? It'd be a significant. That'd be a big fucking deal. That'd be a big, look, it would be one of those milestone moments, I think, in some weird way for Bellator where it's sort of like, you know, there are times you can make arguments. Look, could you make the argument right now that Bellator has the best light heavyweight division in the world?

You can make the argument. That's the argument they are making ahead of this Grand Prix. Jon Jones is no longer in the light heavyweight division in the UFC. You had a surprise champion in Jan Blahowicz come out there and win the belt and then defend it against Adesanya. You could make that argument. But if Pitbull is your reigning champion and he has just recently knocked out a guy who could become in his next fight against Doe Bronx Oliveira

and Michael Chandler the next UFC champion, yeah, that would be one of those times, Luke, where you can say, hey, you may have the second best in the world at this weight class at the top of your throne, UFC. And what does that mean at the end of the day, Luke? I think it's another step forward in Bellator carving out their own space and really trying to make moves. You know, look, Showtime's paying us. It's still a big move for them to go to Premium Cable and deliver a card that we were entertained by at the end of the day.

It wasn't perfect, but it was, you know. Yeah, I thought the main event was spectacular. I thought Usman was spectacular. I thought the rest was okay. Makomed Magomedov's a badass, Luke. Yeah, he's good. Hold on, there's more of these questions, some for you in particular. He'll scratch your eyeballs out, I bet, in like a bar fight.

Someone says, how do you adjust the arm and guillotine so that your opponent is out in seconds flat? I have to go back and look how he had it. Again, he didn't have it on the bicep on the back of the base of the skull. He had bicep on crown. And if you have the crown, that actually means you have more of a push. Because if you're on top of the bicep, you're further

closer to the neck. You're actually closer to the top of the head. And you push. You're pushing at the end of the fulcrum. So you actually can get more that way, but I still have to see the grip. I didn't even see what grip he used. You know, you should do one of those MK Brosected clips on Pitbull's submission. Brosected clips on Pitbull's submission.

Brosected? Yeah, what do you think about that? I might. A lot of questions about the status of Pitbull's contract. When will they go to UFC? You think fucking Bellator's going to let that guy go anytime soon? No chance. Hey, that man has money.

All right? Straight up. He beat me. All night long. Check, check, check. This one's for you alligator blood what was BC thinking about those angles

during the Watanabe and Laura fight lol be careful here well if you know can we get an HR alarm put in here

because I don't think the alarm's going off for me I mean did you hear the words that came out of some of these staff members Luke was Mauro doing his

10 centimeter joke again do people remember that do you remember this oh theyro doing his 10 centimeter joke again? Do people remember that? Do you remember this? Oh, they were doing some kind of joke. He was calling a strike force fight at the time. This was years ago. I think they were talking about Gina Carano, and he made some joke. I forget exactly how they set it up, but they were talking about some unit of measurement, and they had Gina Carano in the sentence. And then, I think Mario... Probably not supposed to be saying this, but whatever. It's fucking 12.30 in the morning.

Mario made some joke about, like, how he'd like to offer his 10 centimeters. It's true. He said it on the air. What do you want me to say? It's a fact. Look, did you ever go to Denny's and order moons over my hammy? I've never done that. That'd be a good way to describe watching that fight tonight.

Some questions about Ortega and Volkanovski. We'll probably get to those on Monday. Why did Bellator's canvas make so much noise compared to UFC's? I don't know if they're different, but I'll say this. And, yes, it's obviously not exactly the same, especially now that UFC is going to go back to some crowds, at least not now and again. But I've been saying this for years.

This is not new. Certainly long before I was employed by Showtime. Dude, Bellator, whoever does their production, they do a much better job of micing the cage. You hear their feet skip along it in a large part, I would argue, based on the acoustics of how it's set up and the folks in charge of that. Yeah. Just like when Metallica set up the microphones for St. Anger,

and they set up the pots and pans for the drums. This is for you. Would you consider what Pitbull did tonight art? Oh, yes, yes, I would. Yes, I would. It takes one to know one when it comes to artistry. We may have different brush strokes that we apply to the canvas, but that's some savage art. I can't read this, but I want you to read it. And you know what he's talking about.

Yeah, I've never heard it called that specifically. Neither have I, but now that he says it, I'm... I mean, they're talking about a potential wardrobe malfunction in the fight. Leave it at that. Leave it at that. We're going to get in trouble. Leave it at that. Red lights. We should have a bat phone, Luke, and it's like, you know, it's... If it rings red, that means one of our jobs is on the line. Yeah,

probably. Big John seems surprised at the decision in the Gracie-Jackson fight. You thought Jackson had won. Yeah, I thought him and Morrow got it wrong, but again, when I say got it wrong, it came down to that first round, Luke. It's easy for your eyes to tell you that maybe Gracie should have won that first round

because he spent most of it in top position. But again, he did not land damage or put Jackson that round in anything precarious. Gracie's round two was clear. He won that round. But Luke, I had to like Jackson's work on the feet early with the right hands, but specifically after being taken down in that final minute, he got up, he landed a couple shots, and he ended up reversing and getting top position. All in all, I think that's a 10-9 round.

It's close. I think that's a 10-9 round for the ass-kicking machine, okay? That doesn't mean it's a slight at Big John McCarthy. Yeah, and I think reasonable people can disagree as well. How about that guy's torn up a restroom before, right? Just absolutely like no mock. Big John? Yeah, right?

Wow. I mean, I've done that today, so I can't, you know, let him do that simcast the first time. How unhappy do you think our two camera people are? Well, he's audibly yawning. I can hear him. I mean, that's, that's fucking bad. It's like the camera guy is audibly yawning. Maniche wants you

to get rid of this, okay? Uh, okay. Here, I'll put it in my ear, Maniche. How about that? Ready? There we go. Alright. It just paired with my phone, too. Do you know how talented our staff is? Okay, here, I'll put it in my ear, Maneech. How about that? Ready? There we go. Alright. It just paired with my phone, too. Do you know how talented our staff is? Yeah, we should also... Put up the graphic, if you can, Maneech. One more time for social, if we can.

This is the end of programming. The rest of the questions are all stuff we've already answered. Or stuff we can't, really. Maybe we have to save for Patreon. No, I mean, there was one person who was like, what can Bellator do to close the gap with UFC? You know, it's going to take some Patreon. No, I mean, there was one person who was like, what can Bellator do to close the gap with UFC? You know, it's going to take some years.

More fights like Watanabe versus Lara. Yeah, less fights like Watanabe-Lara. I was going to say more, actually. Oh, right, right, right. Sorry.

More like that, and then also more like the main event. But in all seriousness, you know, I thought for the first show, Showtime, Bellator, you know,

none of these things ever go according to plan or perfectly but I thought in general especially with the main event fine good

I mean I could use more Luke Thomas on the broadcast just my own editorial more news at 11 that's a statement people are making I didn't say that

but I've also heard that they could use more Brian Campbell that's a statement that people the thing I have I have a

working statement for my role in the industry right now have check will cash it. You want me? Call me. We should thank some folks because we have to get out of here. We appreciate everybody who's watched. We will be back on Monday.

We'll do a live show. We have room service diaries tomorrow. What else do you want to say about the week that was? We're done here. I just want to thank all the people and our staff here at the Malkin Showtime. A round of applause for the staff. Let's do that. Luke, these are some talented people. I mean, Gaff has bars.

He has a hip-hop pseudonym that he's developing. We know Maniche is a honky-ass soul motherfucker. And how about our sound guy, Nolan, just being like, yo, I tore it up at Showtime at the Apollo. I won, bro. Yes, he won contests at the Apollo. We were talking about people who got the hook. He never got the hook.

He didn't get the hook, bro, okay? That's a crowd you can't... I'm saying we gotta get them together with... What's Remington Steele's new stage name? Pennington James. I don't know if you saw it. Is it Remington Steele? Something different? Yeah. Did you see Jay Aaron's Instagram this week that he's about to drop a John

Lennon tribute from Central Park under the Pennington James label? All I'm saying is we have... He's going to do Imagine. We have talented staff members. They should make us a theme song. Who's worse? Pennington James or Yoko Ono? For John Lennon's legacy. Oh, boy.

Wow, wow. Who did more damage to John Lennon's legacy? Asian hate, please. Wasn't that risen enough, Luke? Oh, God. Yeah, that's a fair point. I want to take this time to thank the staff, who just people are here late at night. Trust me, I know they don't want to be here. I mean, Grace probably hates us.

Grace fucking hates our guts. She had a great run. She has good reason to. And also, Julianne has stayed here late. Maniche has stayed here late. No one's stayed here late. You know what my favorite part of this week was, when Julianne would order a great lunch for the staff,

and Luke would be like, you know, I'm not eating that. Can I get my own thing? Like, every single time. That was real nice of you. Well, you know, this is a learning lesson for Julianne would order like a great lunch for the staff and Luke would be like you know I'm not eating that can I get my own thing like every single time that was real nice of you well you know this is a learning lesson for Julianne to then ask me ahead of time what I want that way you don't have to like do it twice so part yeah you're such a particular uh yeah no everyone here played a role everyone was great thank you for making this week possible um thank you to Showtime for having us out here to do this, as well as CBS Sports. And you know what I learned this week again? That you and I are over the phone, over the Zoom. You know, it's all right.

You and I this close together, Luke. I don't know what it's going to have to take to get us in full-time proximity. Aren't we full-time? Do you have an extra room in your house that my family and I can move into? Not in the way that you think. Yo, Reggie Jackson would tear your shit up, bro. He'd be like all over. I don't have room for Reggie Jackson, unfortunately.

I think we need to do this more often, okay? I certainly agree to that. Love the plants here. So, yeah, the plants are great. We did a lot this week. Some stuff you haven't even seen yet, but it's on its way. I want to thank everybody who watched, everyone who has subscribed. Everyone who sent us shit, thank you.

Everyone who sent us stuff. Thanks for making this week possible. More tomorrow. If you want to try Showtime, today was a free thing. You can do a 30-day free trial. And then you see it right there. You can go to show.com slash Bellator MMA. If you like what you saw tonight for Showtime,

you can watch that plus everything else in the Showtime experience for just $4.99 a month for the first six months. I don't know what's stopping you from subscribing to Morning Combat on YouTube, but if you don't, you're going to miss out on what you're doing. There's just not a show like this. I don't give a fuck who you watch. There's nothing like this. What country you prefer MMA takes from?

You like Canada? Well, it ain't this. It ain't this. I'll tell you that much, okay? But there you have it. You can follow us. You can like us. You can subscribe us.

You can block us. You can do whatever you want. But we thank anyone who makes it all possible. Okay? We're done, dude. I'm done. Alright, for Grace, for the audible yawner. You don't even know the guy's name. That's what I love about him. For the audible yawner, for Maniche,

for everyone else who's here, thank you guys so much for watching. We appreciate it. We'll be back on Monday live for a show, and until then, may all your gains be loyal. you