MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Bellator 277: McKee vs. Pitbull 2 | Nemkov vs. Anderson | Morning Kombat Post-Fight Show

Episode Date: April 16, 2022

Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell have you covered with an instant reaction to Bellator 277. The guys discuss AJ McKee vs. Patricio Pitbull 2, Vadim Nemkov vs. Corey Anderson and much more. 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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Okay, we're live. Hey, how about that? I didn't know. Okay, he said it was good. First, they're like, can you wear the least professional clothes you have in your closet? Hey, what a night at the fights. Bellator 277, Luke. This is my colleague.

He's homeless, and we took him in because we felt badly about him. But how are you doing, Brian Campbell? Jokes aside, this is Morning Combat, and this is your Bellator 277 instant reaction show. What a night from San Jose, Luke. The highs, the lows, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the in-between in Elite MMA. A tentpole event, if you will, Scott Coker. And it delivered some thrills and a lot to talk about. A lot of controversy here tonight.

So we'll talk about the results from the rematch between A.J. McKee and Patricio Pitbull. We'll, of course, get into the results of the light heavyweight world grand prix and a couple of other notes from the card. So obviously if you're here you don't want spoilers, or you don't care, but if you do want... If you're watching this video... People get bitter, dude. People get bitter when I say... What are you going to watch?

A preview of the fight after it happened? I know. People get sad. It's just they get unimaginably bitter. Let them know though, we're in Arlington, Texas right now. We are in Arlington, Texas. Thumbs up on the video, please. Hit subscribe if you'd be so kind. Alright, so let's be open with the main event right here we

go the results are as follows patricio pitbull defeats aj mckee the scores are already the subject of intense debate 49 46 on one scorecard 48 47 on the other two others a unanimous decision yes for the former champ. Luke, let me take it back from you right now, okay? You have to start with how you scored it. How'd you score it? How about I start with the headline here? How about you start with some pants, which you failed to do.

The 34-year-old legend, the face of Bellator's history, now 6-0 in rematches. He's remarkable. A three-time featherweight world champion just beating the guy who just beat him to become the biggest thing that ever happened to Bellator. What a turn of scoring aside.

Okay? We talk about Devin Sinfiguredo at the same age coming back with that big win against Brandon Moreno in their rematch. How about this? How about the Brazilian juggernaut, the savage, regardless of the scoring, pulling this out? That's a man out there tonight. He had a remarkable performance, completely disciplined from the word go, strong investment in the leg kick. It's really what I think won him the majority

of those three rounds. And he did, you know, the early going of the first and second round, a little bit reminded me of the second fight between Max and Volk, the one that I, not so famously, but stupidly tweeted that I had seen many, many times. The point being is one of the adjustments there that the team maxed it was they waited on Volkanovski to blitz them a little bit more than trying to chase him down. And you actually saw that with Patricio, with AJ McKee, and it worked actually really well for him. He was able to counterbox a lot better, again, invest in the leg kick, changing up the rhythm, changing up the location.

Dude, it was, and he didn't, phenomenal takedown defense. Now, once he got pressed up against the fence, I did think there was a strength difference and a grappling strength difference. And so you did see AJ McKee have some success there, but wouldn't you agree overall, that was a disciplined, researched, well-executed performance.

Most important, look, Patricio Pitbull won this fight in the first three rounds. And I think the scoring, I'm going to have to check out how the judges scored it. Yes, how I scored it. Three rounds to two in favor of Pitbull. I'll give the final two rounds to McKee. I do believe it could have been gone either way in the end because I believe there were swingish rounds. Although I think Pitbull did the better work overall. But if you ask me how he won this fight, Luke, it's what he did in those first three rounds to not only make McKee chase him, McKee the more dynamic striker who can seemingly sort of invent moves out of nowhere. I mean, we saw early on in that first

two minutes from the opening spin kick from McKee that he can pull out spinny shit, some wild shit that you've never seen before. So how did Pitbull counteract that? By staying in the middle, making McKee chase, but most importantly, making him pay that toll when he did cross the line. Sometimes that toll was in calf strikes. Sometimes it was counter right hands, but everything was heavy, and that was the key. This wasn't a high output turnout either way,

and unfortunately, Luke, I don't know what the fans in the Shark Tank in San Jose, you know, arguably one of the best home bases of pure MMA fans in the game I don't know what they were booing out there this rematch gave us the answers to key questions that we needed not only about where AJ McKee is really at this this star on the rise in the making already here uh 27 years old but what it would look like if they both had to constantly make changes for the other we got that we got high level changes this was my shit i love this fight people say how could you love this fight it was slow it was slow but it was tactical and it was

constant adjustments and for the first three rounds it was pitbull setting a tone that let's give mckee credit when people faded a bit in four and five. He made it close, but I'm comfortable with three rounds to do for Pitbull, and this is a hella tough performance. Incredible performance, and really it speaks to something that gets tossed around that is oversold as almost like a phony way to prop yourself up, but there is a kernel of truth to it, and it should be reminded that when fighters lose a fight and then they say to their opponent, oh, he was just better than me on that night. I've seen people take objections to the sort of disclaimer about on that night, but really it is quite true. Oftentimes,

guys don't get a lot. There's not a huge amount of times you can fight, so you get a real small sample size, and sometimes fights do mean that one guy is clearly superior than the other. Sometimes it's hard to know what they mean. Clearly what it showed us was on the first night that they fought, AJ McKee was certainly the better prepared for that moment and the better one who executed a game plan. But it doesn't necessarily mean that over time, if they had more fights, that he would be the guy who proved to be the best. This was Patricio's, I think, overall better night,

although to your point, McKee did rally considerably, having a lot of gusto, but not going too crazy with the risk in the fourth and the fifth. But still, it is true. Like, don't read. Sometimes people overreach in terms of what they read into the significance of wins and losses. This is a test case into recognizing sometimes people just have good moments,

and that's all they are. We're going to make the same question and answer about the co-main event, the light heavyweight final in a second, but I do want to ask you this straight up. If you're Scott Coker and Bellator Brass, I don't know if this was best case scenario, but it's great case scenario, meaning these are the two biggest stars, best fighters you've ever had under your banner, no disrespect to Michael Chandler. First time they gave you the highlight reel finish. Second time now we give you the aging fighter coming back and putting on a vintage adjustment performance.

Now we're going to most likely get a trilogy, and we can argue whether that trilogy should come next right away, don't pass go, or it should come a little bit down the road. Either way, you continue this storyline and the rivalry between these two, and I don't think this loss, and you saw the way McKee objected to the decision I would

would have loved an interview I think he walked around the cage afterwards dejected but I don't think this kills that stock of is McKee the next big thing in this sport you got it you got to go through sometimes more than once the legends to get over that hump he went through him the first time we ran back this rematch if you're Bellator Brass you're, alright, let's go to the trilogy. Let's do this. It's kind of win-win in the end. Would they fight, would he really do three of those in a row? It's rare. It's not always advised

in the promotional game because why rush and cash that ticket? But I think this was such a unique, perfect storm when they fought the first time last year, meaning that we were allowed to justifiably say this is the biggest fight in Bellator history. It has the most meaning. It's the two best fighters the promotion ever produced. And in this unique special case, I think you do run that back a third time right now, because I think there are more questions that still need answered.

And so, hey, Pitbull, the veteran, won this battle, but he didn't win the war yet. And the wars is where the money's at and the sales but even aside from that storyline wise I can't wait to see what this third one looks like yeah I don't know if they would run it right back but I agree it's a little bit hard to know where exactly you would go like who would be the other person at 145 that has stood out in Bellator that you would you know what I don't well okay but then Aaron Pico gets into the conversation here a little bit as well not yet well I don't i don't want to pivot to him but what i mean to say is if you don't go the direction of a third one right in a row then you do have to figure out who

fills that slot you'd have to look at the rankings and it's not that there's not names there i mean we just had a featherweight world grand prix with elite names and and certainly uh uh i just think look this is hot right now. And I think, Luke, this fight, despite what those fans were booing, it gave us that ebb and flow and those adjustments and the high-level performances that we needed. If you're, I won't say Aaron McKee, shout out to the old one-sixers, if you're A.J. McKee, do you have a legitimate case, though,

to say I got robbed or they missed it? So we need to go through the scoring. Well, I want to ask you that. Yeah, yeah, but that's how I'm going to answer it. We need to go through. Because people are looking at this video going, oh, BC, tough day to ski. It was a tough time to skip leg day. Look, I've been skipping leg day for 43 years because I've been working out my lethal weapon, my mind. Okay, let's talk about the scoring here a little bit. Scoring round one, how do you score it? That I think is the big point

of adjustment because you saw John McCarthy on the broadcast give it to A.J. McKee. I gave it to Pippel. I thought that he did well to absorb the flashy strikes early from McKee and then made McKee chase, and it was the legwork in round one that has to go Pippel's way. I can understand somebody giving it to McKee because he was flashy early,

but if you know what you're watching and people say, I don't always know what I'm watching when I do these hipster scorecards, I think I got it, though. 10-9 Pippel in round one. I had 10-9 P always know what I'm watching when I do these hipster scorecards. I think I got it, though. 10-9 Pitbull in round one. I had a 10-9 Pitbull in round one, but I do recognize that is the swing round, or a swing round, actually.

There's a couple different ways you can go. I think that the case for Pitbull is stronger in round one by virtue of the amount and then the value of the leg kicks, but I recognize that that one's a little harder to call round two. That's a Pitbull round, right? That's a big Pitbull round. Yeah, that's a big Pitbull round. Round three. That's a pit bull round, right? That's a big pit bull round. Yeah, that's a big pit bull round. Round three.

That's a pit bull round for me as well. So round three, I think, will ultimately be the big swing one because here's what happened. Pit bull drops McKee. Flash knockdown of sorts, but McKee instantly then takes over. Chewing him up before that two. Instantly takes over top position. And to credit, McKee started to work the ground and pond a little bit,

and that's when it created the crazy sequence of momentum of momentum shifts and in that crazy sequence you had Pitbull with that guillotine he's the guillotine master now obviously maybe the bigger storyline is holy shit McKee got out of that yes when when nobody that's the finishing move and you know you hate when I bring pro wrestling references in here but that's a freaking the guillotine master that's his finishing move and McKee got out of it but if you're going to score that round, even though McKee did have a few offensive moments after that, he did end up taking top position back. He did, for a brief second, almost have his own choke to close the round. The damage was done by Pitbull.

Right. Let's talk about that guillotine for a second, because for me, that's a round for Pitbull, and I want to explain why that's a round for Pitbull. Here's the best approximation I can have. People think that if someone applies a guillotine, even if it's close, if they escape, that that somehow negates the effort. In other words, it's a binary question of did the guillotine work or did it not? That is not the question. The question is the same question you would ask of any piece of offense, which is what

else happened in the round? And the larger point is, if you put someone in peril that way, it can strain their neck. It is certainly difficult to endure, right? It counts as meaningful offense. And if added to other things on the part of a round, can that be a deciding factor potentially in how a round is scored? Yes, it absolutely can. It can be actually one of the most significant things you score in a round, even if they fully escape. So then you add on top of that that he got sent to a knee from the strikes. That's a round for Pitbull for me. And the argument the other way is not as strong as round one.

Do you have an issue with John McCarthy having it 2-1 Pitbull entering the championship? I'm sorry, 2-1 McKee entering the championship round? Didn't have any issue with the round one scoring. Again, didn't see it that way. I saw it for Pitbull, but I certainly recognize that that round is open for interpretation. And I do recognize that round three is up for debate, but I would say, you know, and John,

I think actually I would say John usually has really strong scorecards. Not to say that I'm right and he's wrong. It's just my interpretation. Don't ask Aljo about that, though. Well, it was a separate matter. But I guess I would say I was surprised. I was surprised because I did not see it.

Sometimes you disagree with him on a rounder here or there. That was two rounds where I was like, really? You were surprised too? I was a little bit surprised because, you know, then we transitioned to the championship rounds. John's got good judgment on that. And this brings in the same topic. Definitely Pitbull faded a bit in four and five.

I wouldn't call it a full fade because I liked a lot of the moments he had in round five, even though I scored it from McKee. But that fourth round was A.J. McKee figuring out the distance as Pitbull faded a bit in four and five. I wouldn't call it a full fade because I liked a lot of the moments he had in round five, even though I scored it for McKee. But that fourth round was A.J. McKee figuring out the distance as Pitbull was slowing down, and he started to piece him up. And I gave him round four. Problem is, that's the first round I'm giving McKee. If you're John McCarthy and you have McKee up two to one, that means you've got to give him round four. Suddenly it's three to one, McKee entering the fifth round.

I get it's subjective, it's close. But I guess I'm happy in the end, Luke, that, first of all, it wasn't what I feel to be shenanigans. It could have been a split decision. Maybe that would have been more justifiable. Okay, but I think top to bottom, even though I had it 3-2, if you're doing it by prior rules, Pitbull won this fight. So I'm happy to see that in any form the three judges saw that too.

Do you agree with that? I do agree with that. I want your validation. Yeah, no, no. It's quite the right point. On my outfit. Less so. Did you not tell me that Mike Boner from MMA Junkie...

Fancy on an airplane if you let him, right? If it's consensual, right? Okay, Jesus Christ. Did you have to introduce that element of the conversation in? Fucking A, man. I'm trying to keep this job. Did you not tell me that he tweeted that he had heard AJ McKee's corner told him going in from the fourth to the fifth

that he had won all four? I believe that's what Team Body Shop was trying to say. I gotta tell you, I don't understand that. I understand lying to your fighter to get a certain kind of performance from them, but that wouldn't make sense because you have to know that through four rounds, maybe you think he's up, maybe you think it's tied, I don't know. But it's competitive, and who the hell knows?

I don't understand what response they were trying to get from him by telling him that. And I thought that fifth round, I even tweeted that, there was a lack of urgency from both with the fight on the line. Now, that lack of urgency ties into it. It picked up a little bit at the end. Okay, but I'm going to get to that. It ties into two things. One is stamina.

They both gave a lot. Two is they don't want to make a mistake. This is why I like this fight so much. Anytime any opening or mistake is there, the other one's there to counter right away. So I didn't like that lack of urgency, although I get it. But that final minute, dude, they put it on each other. They both went after it. Yes.

There were swings. And they both got tagged. They both got hit with big shots. You're right. They fought the first, like, half, maybe three minutes like they both had assumed they had it in the bag. Yeah. That's kind of how they were. But also, let's talk about this, too.

Getting back to the scoring. And, again, I think Patricio is the rightful winner, although I understand that, you know, there's elements of that fight that are close. The scorecard 4-1 for Pitbull, I'm a little bit less... That's not a great scorecard either. It's not a great scorecard. That would have to mean that they saw the fifth round for Pitbull, which isn't impossible because

there wasn't a ton that happened until that final 90 seconds, but I thought McKee had done better leading up to that. Yeah, okay. I guess I could maybe squint, even then my guess I could maybe squint. Even then, my blind ass couldn't see shit. And again, they're dealing with the crowd. Booing, you know, that was a little bit of a weird environment.

There were Showtime people here, and then we started talking, and then they motherfucking left, bro. Yeah, they did. They did do that. You know, they just split. They was like, fuck these losers. Well, then, look, I got to ask you the really hard question that I teased earlier and already gave my answer, which is this.

That's a great way to have a conversation. There was a lot of talk. I even said it on today's Morning Combat episode that we recorded right outside there in Texas Live. McKee has that feel of MMA's Tiger Woods or MMA's Mayweather. How much does this loss, and it's a razor-thin loss in the end, right? Even with the unanimous decision, it's still in your mind either way, right? You could have gone either way to some degree. How much does that kill the buzz of this guy being the next big thing? I don't think it actually does much because I overall kind of liked AJ McKee's performance and particularly his adjustments to what Pitbull was doing great. Do I think he deserved to lose? Yes. But he's also facing an all-time great. I mean, which is one

of the big differences is we know, obviously, let's just all-time great in Patricio Pitbull. One of the big differences is, we know, obviously, let's just say it out loud, Patricio Pitbull is the king of the rematches. That is what he is. He is the king of the rematches. Dude, we've said it all week. We said it in the lead-in to the first time they fought. Patricio Pitbull did not limp his way into the finals of that tournament. He beat the fuck

out of everyone in front of him. We thought that was going to be super competitive and the first time it wasn't. This is a much better representation of why we were telling people who may be new to the Pitbull experience why you should expect excellence. Because, dude, his adaptability, his resilience, and to have the kind of fire to want to go back

and compete after all the wars, the Koran wars, the, golly, man, the Daniel Strauss wars, the Weishaupt. Did you call Pat Koran coran right there yeah i like reading the quran um but anyway pat curran pat coran sorry it's late it's late we just watched bellator but the point i'm trying to make is you know the guy has been through an element of the grind that yeah someone like aj mckee as talented as he is hasn't even approached yet hasn't had the time to even do it. So I think that experience

also played a huge factor. But to answer the question about AJ McKee, I don't think it's a major setback, but I do wonder how it complicates. We should talk about it. His future with Bellator. Does this change where he ends up? I don't know. Because look, we were under the impression a lot of that is from

speculation from Ariel Hawane who had a good interview with AJ this last week that maybe AJ was on fight one of the three fight extension added on to his deal from winning the championship does that change does that deal change when you lose the championship does he still have two more fights yes well uh under the old scale you know what I'm not sure how the contract extension works anymore. I know that they can exercise for three, but they might have discretion in stopping that if they want. But I don't know if that's true. I don't know if that's true.

I don't go over and above and say, oh, the stock of AJ is hit after this. I don't think it's really that hit. Here's why, Luke. He's freaking great. He fought a guy who was fucking all-time great, and it's in play that AJ McKee makes adjustments,

wins the trilogy against Pitbull to win back the title, oh, and then beats his brother one division up. That's still in play if he's got two more fights on his Bellator deal. So we have to see the rest of how AJ McKee plays out, but in terms of some of those questions we needed answered, five-run stamina, backbone, adjustments to what Pitbull's showing,

again, I thought he clearly lost a close fight, but I don't look at this as major setbacks. I think McKee's going to grow from this. I liked a lot of what I saw. Am I crazy? Because Twitter's telling me, BC, you must be loving that Showtime money trying to say that was a fun fight to watch.

I thought it was thrilling, elite-level entertainment. Yeah, I got to tell you, I didn't have any problem watching that fight. I mean, I understand that there were moments of relative inactivity, but you're watching two craftsmen work a game, like let it breathe a little bit here. Yeah, do you go to one of those old-timey villages in old Williamsburg when the blacksmith

is showing you how it used to be, and are you up there critiquing his art? Like, oh, can you make that shit a little bit faster? When it's ready bitch. Not every scene of the movie can be the car chase. Not every scene. Maybe many scenes could be the car chase but not all of them. You know what my wife would say if she was watching

this right now? Two things. One she'd be horrified at me wearing this in public but two she would say you should put a pillow under that laptop so you don't get ball cancer. Okay. I will take that ball cancer consideration into account moving on back to the fights We move on from our testicles, please quite literally Getting back to the fight itself. I have you know who is trending on Twitter our HR No, okay

Volkanovski the name the name what an off ski is trending on Twitter because I think a lot of people saw this performance and think, oh, Volkanovski might whip up on both of them. Yeah, he might. He probably is the best featherweight in the world. Dude, we don't know that. Okay, A, we don't know that, and B, even so, dude, being second to him, even if that was the case, would still make you a very excellent, high-level elite special talent. Look, whether you are collecting checks from Showtime or not, and thank you, they're fantastic, to kind of come out of that, which I saw a lot of tweets of, oh, man, this proves that Volkanovski would piss on these two, that these two wouldn't be top ten in the UFC.

Get the fuck out of here. Okay, Luke? Yeah, I don't think he would urinate on that. That seems excessive. What are these, the R. Kelly tapes, Luke? I mean, you know what I'm saying? Luke, the thing is, I had some of my best material on the desk. That seems excessive. What are these, the R. Kelly tapes, Luke? I mean, you know what I'm saying? Luke, the thing is, this is the thing is

I had some of my best material during the fight. See, that material worked when the Chappelle show was on TV. I don't know if that works anymore. Yo, we should have had a Calabasas companion

filming this whole time, okay? Because I was bringing it, bro. All right? Dude, you were so fucking annoying. I wanted to kill you, but okay. Do you think Volkanovski beats him? Answer the question.

Beats A.J. McKee. Either of them. Right now, I think we saw that A.J. McKee is that dude. He's of the elite status, but you've got to make some adjustments. You saw what happened out there. Would Volkanovski tomorrow? Yeah, I'd favor Volkanovski, but I don't know what would happen, Luke. I don't know what's going to happen when A.J. McKee goes back to the lab,

goes back to the damn body shop and looks at the tape and goes, okay, we thought we won. They didn't think we did. It was close. It's going to be interesting to see what kind of lesson he takes from this. Yes. Because it's been nothing but, literally, it's been nothing but wins up until tonight. So what does a guy who's been accustomed to winning literally the entirety of his career

do the first time he takes a loss especially one that he didn't in this case i was he didn't tap he didn't get knocked out so he didn't he had to take the judgment of others um he that probably is great ones do not great the great ones like pitbull do they learn from it you and i did the resume review of the great patricio pitbull how many times has he had that close important loss on the come-up or different levels of the come-up and adjusted from it if? McKee is is the real which I think he is I think he still isn't hell Yeah, I think he still is he's gonna adjust from this and I think McKee should be favored entering into the trilogy Yeah

What if the real curse was that it curses the fighters to lose if they do the we do the resume review The first time they fight but then you're undefeated in motherfucking rematches. Yeah, for the rest. Yeah, I like that. You know what I mean? I'll take that deal. That's a Faustian deal, but maybe it's not.

But anyway. All right. So. How soon on the trilogy? Well, I got the list of contenders. So we've got. For you or no paper? We've got Patricio and AJ

as one and two, basically. Then you have Adam Boric, who won just recently in his last fight. See, that's an interesting thing because... Let me finish. Mads Brunel and then Aaron Pico. So we'll get to Aaron Pico a little bit later. But this is a weird conversation about who you give a title shot to because Boric would seem like the natural contender. But I don't know that's going to beat the market demand for a third one. I mean, could you do Boric against the champion Pitbull and Pico against McKee? You wouldn't do Pico and McKee in a non-title situation, but imagine if you did that. Imagine if you did that doubleheader.

For folks who I know that used to train together, I don't know if there's any bitter or bad blood. I don't know if that's the case, but it would certainly create for an interesting dynamic. Either way, great fights to come, but if you're Bellator Luke, you gotta run this back. You know what? Fight forever. You know? No, you don't. Just keep fighting. Just keep fighting each other. We'll do it on CBS

one time, we'll do it on pay-per-view. We've done the Lifetime channel the next, right after the movies about bulimia. Did you grow up having to watch that shit like I did? Yeah, bro. I grew up at the same time with the same fucking bullshit you did in schools. Yeah. I saw the Ben Affleck anti-steroid shit. I knew that was bullshit when I saw it.

Did you see that Hallmark movie where Fred Savage put his hands on DJ from Full House? You know, in my town, people were like celebrating that shit. I'm like, it is domestic violence. But they're like, no, that's fucking awesome, you know? Because it was like two childhood stars from our time, you know? I don't know what savage town of fucking abuse cheerleaders

you're from, but no, I did not see that. Hard scrabble. That's how I came up, Luke. I think just trash is usually a better way to put it. You turn it into like working class stuff. I think you're just trash. Yeah, yeah. Since the guy got caught vaping on camera today during a live broadcast.

That was fantastic. So, look, that's the main event, and it at least lived up, giving us a lot to talk about in some elite-level performances. This co-main event, though. All right, here we go. Okay, the finals of the light heavyweight world grand prix, only we didn't crown a new champion either way. We didn't give away a million dollars, and we don't have a tournament winner.

What we do have is another big fight, because you're going to have to run this back. With officially four seconds left in round three, the fight gets stopped. You had an accidental headbutt. I think three seconds left, even. It ended up being officially four. Corey Anderson dove in just as Vadim Nemkov, the defending champion on the ground, adjusted. It goes down like a spearing headbutt, massive cut.

They bring in the doctor, and they stop the fight. Now, you're getting a lot of people going, man, if only the referee had presence of mind to know the situation. I think this goes back to that famous Julio Cesar Chavez versus Meldrick Taylor boxing fight with Richard Steele, the referee, where Meldrick Taylor gets dropped in round 12, and there's three seconds to go, but Richard Steele doesn't like the look in Meldrick Taylor, boxing fight with Richard Steele, the referee, where Meldrick Taylor gets dropped in round 12 and there's three seconds to go, but Richard Steele doesn't like the look in Meldrick's eyes.

He stops the fight and it's this great victory. It doesn't matter the time. It matters what the referee or the doctor sees in that moment. And in that moment with four seconds left, and the difference is obviously if it goes four seconds more, it goes to the end of the third round. It's officially a fight. Corey Anderson would go to the scorecards,

would probably be up two rounds to one, and would win the title. But look, he would win the title, in my opinion, largely as the result of a headbutt, which came in the midst of a competitive fight. Fine. So I'm actually happy at the disappointing result of the no contest.

Why? Because this matchup turned out to be a really fun fight with Vadim Nemkov controlling the first round and Anderson making those adjustments in two and three with his wrestling, with his gas tank. This was headed into the championship rounds. It was going to be a barn burner. I'd rather do it again, let it be its own main event.

Scott Coker gets in wrestling what they call a dusty finish. One of these, like, the result pulled out, you know, on the rug in the last minute. But guess what? We get to run it back again. Let that cut heal. We're going to get business all over again. I know it's not preferred.

I know that shit. But Bellator's going to benefit long-term from it, true or false? Long-term, maybe. Short-term, it definitely is. It might be a net win, but it would be just that, a net win. Like your choice to team up with me.

Yeah, it's a... Remains to be seen if it's a win. It's a net win. Like your choice to team up with me. Yeah, it's a... Remains to be seen if it's a win. It's a net something. There's definitely some trade-offs being made. But the point I'm trying to make here is I guess we'll have to see how the rematch plays out and whatnot. It's not a disaster. It could have been,

but I wouldn't call it that for the reasons you articulated. But I think the thing that I feel, maybe this is the best way to put it because the rules are Obscure and a little bit weird. We'll walk you through them in a minute. I just feel like the strength of Corey's performance is unjustly It's fit There's a failure to reward it with the result the result does not speak to what the truth of the fight was which was

Corey Anderson was prepared for this moment and he looked to be running away with the fight potentially. Can you hold the phone on running away though? Running away is a little strong. He took control of the fight at the, not midpoint, but you know. I want to make this point. Here's why I think running away is, you're right, it's an exaggeration. But I will say this, he controlled Nemkov in the ground in a way that I do not recall Phil Davis doing for longer stretches.

That by itself was extremely... I don't know if folks appreciate this because I honestly don't know how many people have watched Nemkov. But dude, trust me when I tell you, people don't do that to him very, very commonly. That was very uncommon. Long minutes, three minutes at a time. That's unusual. I was very much anticipating before that cut what the fourth round was going to look like. I even said it out loud to you.

I want to see what Nemkov has to adjust. I felt he was going to come out knowing that he needed the big round and would have got it on the feet. Because when they did strike on 50-50 even terms, it wasn't 50-50 results. I thought Nemkov took control of that action. Obviously, it was Anderson bringing the fight to the ground that caused that momentum shift, but I didn't think Nemkov was going permanently in the wrong direction.

I was waiting to see that adjustment, which is why I really want to see this rematch, because both guys showed out. There are certainly unsettled questions. I just mean, I didn't know. To be honest, I'm a little surprised Corey Anderson was able to do it as easily as he did. That is very impressive that he could do that.

So I was actually kind of taken by surprise. But you're right. Fair point to that. One note I want to make about what the doctor did in stopping it. Different jurisdictions will have different doctors that would very much let that go. And I know you've probably watched fights where you've seen cuts like this and been like, they kind of let this go. Right. But this doctor in California, San Jose, they have a very good commission there.

They're going to get very good doctors. And they might get doctors who don't really give a shit what you want as a fight fan. And they're going to stop it based on a medical basis. And that might be disappointing. And I'm not here to tell you you have to like it. But it seemed to me that this doctor was making one decision and one decision only is this whatever medically troubling thing he saw there or not it was he called it you're you would have been fine with the fight continuing i know and give give the corner man a chance to do his man i'll say this i have seen i have seen fights where

shit like that has gone on good or bad i don't know but i mean i could see russia from my house through that cut. That's how deep it looked, okay? That's a deep Sarah Palin cut right there, right? I know you're a former Washington, D.C. speechwriter, so you could appreciate that bullshit comedy, right? I could tell you about the Naylan Palin movie. Oh, wow.

See, this is the moment we went too far. I thought it was earlier. It's right now, though, yeah. Yeah. Oh, boy, you know? That's a famous movie. It's right now, though. Yeah. Oh, boy. You know? That's a famous movie. It's a very good movie. I mean, she did all of Dallas, really? I mean, we're here to find that out, right? I mean, come on. It's Arlington, Texas. Hey, tomorrow night, Errol Spence Jr. and the other guy for Pay-Per-View Gold. I cannot wait, Luke.

All right, let's get back to the co-main event here. Scoring round one for Nemkov, right? Yeah, you're right. On the feet. Very technical, but heavy. Heavy, Luke. Yeah, I thought he did the overall better work. We did ask the female members of our staff, I don't know if this is an HR violation,

if they felt Nemkov was a striking male. No, sorry, when you say we, what you actually mean is only you the answer resounding yes i did not i did not also take part in this informal poll of yours in any event um round two clear round for cory anderson round three clear round for cory anderson but to your point as well nemkov showing some life at the end of the third to make you think had the fight continued whether it not it should have or not that potentially something another turn of the third to make you think, had the fight continued, whether or not it should have or not, that potentially another turn of the screw was possible.

Was this tournament cursed, Luke? Because it was supposed to be Rumble and Romero. We never saw it. This is why tournament... It's so funny now. I've been thinking about this because I remember for so long when Bjorn Rebny really wanted tournaments done. And again, he did them a little bit differently.

And I think a lot of those guys got ground to a pulp in the way that he did it. But there was a lot of pushback on the tournament model. And one of the reasons was for what unfolded here, which was even when the promoter puts their best foot forward, and there was certainly some successes from this, it's just they're difficult to do. They're difficult to do. There's so much injury.

There's so much instability in fight promotion that it's just inherently difficult to do. They're difficult to do. There's so much injury, there's so much instability in fight promotion that they're just inherently difficult to do. I don't think it's cursed. Okay, you didn't get the final result you wanted. No, it's not cursed. They're difficult to execute cleanly. They just are. It doesn't matter who puts them on. Do you remember the old Grand Prix's had 50 cent coming out with that large champagne bottle? Why did that gimmick stop to present the $1 million check? Why does any gimmick stop? Sometimes gimmicks just stop. It will keep winning as many awards as we can. This gimmick stop sometimes gimmicks just stop it will keep winning

like this gimmick this gimmick will fucking stop i guarantee that um so look what we're still going to get that answer in the end of who's the best light heavyweight in bellator which also might be who's the best is cory anderson going to get his flowers if he goes in there and beats nimkov in the rematch hell yeah he will do people properly respect what that win oh no look there there is there can be a gap in this fan base between, as you always say, the MMA fans that only watch UFC and every other organization is second rate to them. If you only watch UFC, you are only a UFC fan. That's just what that means.

You come to Bellator on your own terms, getting out of your UFC deal with a, you know, despite the knockout loss on the way out, a winning record during that stretch, and you come into a tournament that has Vadim Nemkov, Ryan Bader, you know, despite the knockout loss on the way out, a winning record during that stretch, and you come into a tournament that has Vadim Nemkov, Ryan Bader, Phil Davis, forget Rumble and Romero, right? And Machida, you come out of that as the champion and $1 million richer, you better get your flowers, bro. I mean, I get if you don't subscribe to the, oh, he might be the best 205-er in the world.

If you don't care about that debate, that's fine, okay? But give him his flowers for making the right career moves, for improving, for finding out how great he can be. If he can do it when they rematch this again, if he can beat Nemkov right now, look at who Nemkov's beat and look at how he has done it, Luke. Yeah, I've got to tell you, if he can go in there

and do that again, it almost seems like in modern MMA now, you have to do everything. Anything big in MMA that really matters and is really difficult, you you have to do everything, anything big in MMA that really matters and is really difficult, you've got to do twice. That's why Shobby's doing his second standard special. Okay. Poppy Gringo's in the house, bro.

Okay. You know, I try to play ball. You know I do. I try to be. Walk me out of here. I mean, there are reasons. This ain't my being unreasonable. I mean, we're talking about fights here.

You, oh, God. All right. You know, I love you, but sometimes I want to hit you in the head with a tire iron. Do you want to talk about that Timothy Johnson slop fest we watched with Linton Vassell? Oh, we'll get to that here in just a minute any other final thoughts

on how Nemkov he looked a little bit like I said there was panic on his face there was going to be pressure on him in the championship rounds

he was feeling it and changed the momentum of this fight but look I think that's in him he has the ability to grind if he needs to and make the adjustments

and look he could have easily come out in that fourth round and changed that. And suddenly you can have a 2-2 fight going into the fifth. So we'll see. They'll do it again a second time. I don't discount him at all. I don't take away from him. Sometimes these no contests are what they are, sort of a detour, a bump, a speed bump on the way. Also, the last thing I'd say is I don't have any real criticisms of Corey's performance.

But on the ground, the way he was throwing grounded pound, I don't think that that headbutt ... It was obviously accidental, but if your head is flailing in the way that his was, those are going to happen a little bit more commonly. Something to think about there. I don't think that was just completely like, oh my God, how did this happen? That's how that happens. All right. Aaron Pico at a 150-pound catch weight defeats Adley Edwards, who came in on an extraordinarily short notice, less than two weeks.

That's some hella punishment. Okay, dude. That third round did not need to happen. After the second round, here's my view. Let me see if you agree. I know you probably agree in boxing. Let's see if you agree in MMA. If a guy is coming in on short notice and is durable, but you can

clearly tell it's going from he's being beaten up to now it's getting abusive, if they're coming in on short notice, I believe in throwing the referee intervening or the corner intervening much earlier by virtue of how already their chances of winning are poor. If you're taking a beating, dude, do not take a... Here's my thing. Take a savage beating when it's a title fight. If that's what it requires, then that's what it requires. Do not take a savage

beating on a fight you're filling in on on short notice. That makes no sense, especially when you're not competitive in it. Kind of like the Chris Moutinho fight against Sugar Sean. He did not need to go as long as it did. He proved how tough he is. He'll get another fight. We don't need that.

For some reason, or actually I know the reason why boxing has seemingly made a change in the last 10-15 years in what you're saying. Being more merciful in those moments. Maybe because look, the way boxing is set up you get deaths in the ring. You get some really sad situations. You see adjustments to that. I think MMA

a little bit too much of a hero culture, so a little too much. Yeah, there is. A little too much. What can you say about Aaron Pico? He looked amazing. It was a last-minute replacement. Is he ready for a title shot?

Maybe not next, but you can't do this too much more because although there wasn't a big challenge in terms of the threat of strike coming back at him, this is who Aaron Pico is now and should be in terms of the 2.0, leading wrestling first, letting those hands go. His left hook to the body is a thing of beauty. It's a vicious shot, but he can just grind you out if needed as well. And his ground and pound is sensational. He's showing you, Luke, that he's ready for the top. I'm not saying rush him in

there against Pitbull or McKee next, but like in the next year, we got to have a plan to get this guy the title shot. And Luke, when he gets to that point, win or lose next year, we've got to have a plan to get this guy the title shot. And Luke, when he gets to that point, win or lose, the fact that he got to that point after the disaster that was his first five or six pro fights, I'm going to tell you. In the NFL, we see a lot of those quarterback busts that get picked third over, like Jamarcus Russell, Todd Marinovich. Anybody who's come through D.C., anybody. It's happened to Achille Smith, a lot of these, Ryan Leaf, all the D.C. quarterbacks,

with the exception of Jason Campbell, who played his heart out, but the fans didn't appreciate him. Kirk Cousins had better numbers than Campbell, if you can believe that, in D.C. How do you like that? I don't. I think that they're both awful. I don't know what my original point was. Dude, like, we got to give him his flowers, Aaron Pico, at this comeback.

I know he's still in the midst of it, but dude, he's doing the right things. He's saying the right things. And like Errol Spence, who bought a farm after the accident because he needed to structure himself. He knew the therapeutic value of horses. Aaron Pico moving to New Mexico and finding that horse, that horse Rocco. You know that horse I'm talking about? The one that had the fire hose underneath it? Yeah, that changed him.

It could change a man. This is the stupidest show. I cannot believe we get a paycheck from this show. With that being said, is he title ready now? Fuck my life, what? Is he title ready now?

Okay, I'll say this. You've got to give Aaron Pico a ton of credit. You also, I want to make sure we give credit to his coaching staff. I know Brandon Gibson, chief among them, but there's been many others as well. You want to talk about taking a guy who was maybe on the precipice of being ruined. I don't know if it's that bad, but he was in bad shape by the time they had to work with him.

And I was talking to Daniel Segura about this. Man, he made the most of a rebound. Wow. That is how you build back. Now, does that mean he's the perfect fighter? No one ever will be. There were things I saw tonight. Kind of when he begins to chase offense past the black line towards the fence line,

there's still some lack of defense that may eat him up eventually. But overall, this performance was razor sharp. They built this guy back brick by brick. Clearly, he has begun to put it all together. And that is not an automatic or easy thing to do. And they executed it.

So credit to Aaron Pico, obviously, and the whole team. And they're still building it physically and mentally. And I say that because the post-fight interview, after beating late replacement guy tougher than he should have been,

Pico's still talking about all those bad things people said about him. So he's still using that as motivation. He's still trying to prove people wrong that he is maybe not the full incarnation of what we thought he was the the biggest mma you know the the most hyped mma prospect in history but he still may be able to

climb that mountain and become a world champion i don't know about doing boxing and mma at the same time which sometimes he says no that was kind of crazy at the time and obviously in retrospect was almost silly. But I will say, I've never... I got to tell you, when he was at the end of the string of getting stoppage, the knockouts and everything else, I did not know if a comeback was possible. It was at that point where I was like, yes, it is possible, but it is also 50-50 that this turns around. And they turned it around, man.

The poise he shows in all the dimensions and then the savagery. This is the thing that stood out to me. Yes, he was fighting a guy on short notice. This does not tell us exactly his upper bound limits. But, dude, you know what he fought with tonight? Just unmistakable confidence. Unmistakable belief in his offense. No doubt about it.

He knew he could execute it, and he did. And I think that's why he was opening up with a lot of the body attacks, which to your point, dude, he hits hard. And that guy stood there, but he kept delivering them. It's great performance. And I mentioned the move to New Mexico thing, because look, I think he's rebuilt himself on his own terms when the first version of him was very controlled by his dad, who was his manager. His dad was the one that pushed him to go a division above for his pro debut at Bellator MSG, and he got submitted in seconds against Ian Freeman, and it was, I think he got out of that shadow a bit. I mean, look

at how Marvin Gaye's dad ruined his career. You're like an episode of Family Guy, only much more pathetic. Like, you're just random jokes. Like, hey, remember that one time in high school when, like, you know... Oh, I want to make a joke of your expense so bad.

You know the first rule of improv? BC, I'm not your motherfucking improv partner. Or maybe I am. Maybe you are. Maybe this is my version of improv. Yeah, yeah, I guess it is, Luke. So, we have a heavyweight slobber knocker to kick off the card. I've got to ask you.

Linton Vassell, Timothy Johnson. Timothy Johnson. Very, very quickly, 421 of round one, TKO. Timothy Johnson, floors, bloodies. Linton Vassell is all over him going for the finish. And then in like a span of seconds, the tables were turned and he got finished. Was that an exciting fight or is that just sloppy heavyweight? I couldn't figure it out in the moment.

Okay, okay. It's like a salad. It's got a little bit of heavyweight slop thrown in. But I will say this. You've got to give... By the way, two headbutts having an effect in two different fights tonight is just kind of crazy. But that aside, dude, that was impressive resilience from Linton Vassell.

Timothy Johnson is a big, strong dude and was reigning. Some of the shots looked, I'm not saying they're intentional. I'd have to go back and look. But they did look to be in suspect areas where not necessarily supposed to suffer offense. Anyway, even then, a lot of them were legal. You're talking about rabbit punches? I'm just saying, like, when the guys are moving, things just happen in the course of ground and pound where you get hit in locations where maybe you shouldn't. I'm not describing intentionality to it.

In any event, he withstood all of that. He was bleeding and everything and then turned it in an instant, flattened him out, and got the finish. Dude, that is like... That beating went on for a little while. I was impressed by his metal. Well, I was impressed that Vassell turned it around and then called for a title shot afterwards.

When you look at the recent run he's had since moving back up to heavyweight. Yeah, let's go through it. I mean, it's not as if this Bellator heavyweight division is deep. You know what I'm saying? Fedor is still a relevant name. He knocked out Timothy Johnson. If you're living Vassell, winning is winning. So where does he have in terms of? So he did lose to Valentin Moldovsky, who is he interim champ? He was interim champion. By the way, he called for a rematch with him if he can't get a title shot. Okay, so then he did lose that one. However, since then, he beat Sergey Karatanov

via TKO. He beat Hany Marks via TKO. He beat Tyrell Fortune via split decision. Which is a good win because Fortune won again tonight.

Fortune's coming on for a hope at a title shot. Listen, that's as good as, those are good wins in the Bellator heavyweight division, yeah. Dude, Tim Johnson packing that lip

around the scale on Thursday. I just love that shit, man. I just love that. Yeah, I bet you do. Do you think he shut down a public restroom within the last 10 years? Well, again, let he who is without sin cast the first stone. Yes, yes. So, having given that very important disclaimer, do I think that he has?

I'm going to go with yes. I'm going to go on the yes side of this. Yes, yes, he has. You know, maybe on that trip to Moscow. By the way, he said that he only fought on even terms with Fedor because he wanted to bring excitement. You know, Fedor's homecoming to Russia. He wishes in hindsight he fought boring, you know? To, like, stick it to the Russians?

No, to beat Fedor and not get knocked out. You know, take the old man down. I didn't know this was some political stance. No, no, no, no. Just to win, yes, of course. There's no politics on this show, Luke, except for the behind-the-scenes

jostling between the two of us. Yes, that's about it, yeah. And that was the card. That was an interesting and kind of insane card where these headbutts have an outsized role. Oh, did we fully explain

on the headbutt for the co-main event that had the fight gone four more seconds, it would have been a full three rounds, and then the rules change about how it would score. That's why I argued and said it's not the referee's job to, even if they know the situation. The referee's job is not to do you a solid. The referee or the ringside doctor's job is if they see something that needs an instant judging on whether it's safe to go on, you make that call in that moment regardless of where you're at.

So I get what you're saying, man. You know, wouldn't you have liked that to have gone? No, I wouldn't have liked that. Because then Anderson would have won the damn title on a damn headbutt. So this turned out, I don't say best case scenario, but decent, but good case scenario. All things considered, it did. Definitely not a disaster.

Also, let me make one point. I do feel like this is a small thing, but it is an important thing for me. And maybe they'll see this, and so that's why I want to say this. I say this with no malice, but a genuine plea. It is time for Bellator to have an apparatus that is accessible to fans and media that goes over the stats of fights. You have five round fights. You're calling for a smart cage? I'm calling for a motherfucking smart cage that can call you an Uber home and maybe order you Amazon and all that shit. In all seriousness,

you know, those main and co-main events tonight, those are world-class fighters. There needs to be some kind of stats database and coverage that makes the product more accessible. And it's missing from Bellator. And for me, it is very frustrating because it would very much illuminate a lot of different conversations.

Is there some Richard Manplug right here? He's one of the leaders in this game. Do you hear the words coming out of your mouth? What? Because I put Manplug in the same sentence? You put Richard before it, actually. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Shout out.

Hey, Bellator. We're five years old, by the way. It's showtime, by the way. What a weekend for combat sports, right? We got a big one tomorrow. Spence and Ugas. If you know, then you know. It's for the Unified Welterweight World Championship.

Three or four world titles. 9 p.m. Eastern, Showtime pay-per-view tomorrow night. But the action kicks off 7 p.m. Eastern on Showtime. That's right. On Showtime's YouTube channel. That's right. A two-fight card to kick it off with your boy BC on the call. Inside that giant-ass AT&T stadium. That's right. On Showtime's YouTube channel. That's right. The two-fight card to kick it off with your boy BC on the call inside that giant-ass AT&T stadium.

That's cool, bro. You're going to call fights ringside in an AT&T stadium. Dude, I am fired up for that because the first few times I called fights was remotely in a closet. It was COVID, nobody in the arena. Was that for DAZN? Yeah, a couple other networks I've called for. And then even with Showtime, I've done small crowds,

not 60,000, 70,000 in the damn dome. So your boy BC's going to be fired up tomorrow. I think they're expecting 40 or 50. 40 or 50? Okay. Was this a very office moment? You know what I mean? Like the real David Brent kind of taking you down a peg? Now this is where Luke says,

if you haven't seen The British Office. No, this is where you say it, motherfucker. I didn't say anything. Like Kurosawa, I make mad films. There we go. I mean,

your selection of film choices is just so utterly I'm so deep in neo-noir, dude. Did you ever see Nighthawks with Sly Stallone and Rucker Hauer? You did recommend that to me and I've not seen it.

Where is that? Where do I get that? Good, bro. No, sorry. Probably check the Showtime app and then check some others, too. Yo, look at this crew. They want to get the fuck out of here. Yo, they're...

Yeah, yeah, that's true. All right. Well, that is it for us. So we will be... We will have a post-fight show tomorrow for Spence versus Ugas. So stick around for that. We'll go over all that. Inside.

Inside AT&T Stadium. We have been told that we are inside the AT&T Stadium. Now, the question is, are we in the men's room? I don't know. I once did a CBS Sports HQ hit at Madison Square Garden outside the men's room at a UFC card. And as I'm wrapping up, you know, there's just drunk fan after drunk fan jumping in.

It was just a debacle. Yeah, I've had a few. Remember we had fruit flies at... Yeah, it was great. Whatacle. Yeah. I've had a few. Remember we had fruit flies? Yeah, it was great. What was that market called? No, no, no. It was at, I won't say the place.

Right, it was at the Mohegan Sun. Yeah, just say the place. Great place to watch a fight. Thanks, Ash. If you're a fruit fly, a lot of singles there. A lot of singles. Ready to mingle.

It's like fruit fly grinder. They're ready to mingle. All right. Do you believe in Spanish fly? You're such a fucking idiot. Well, it was a good plug for the Bill Cosby doc. This dude's imagining cavemen riding dinosaurs, drinking fucking Red Bulls. You're the worst human on earth.

All right. For Brian Campbell, I'm Luke Thomas. This sound guy that we got, the local guy, fantastic. Yeah, he's fantastic. Many of the worst human on earth. Alright, for Brian Campbell, I'm Luke Thomas. This sound guy that we got, the local guy, fantastic. Yeah, he's fantastic. Many of the locals are very friendly. Can you put him on camera? We don't do that. No, no, no. Don't play games like that. Alright, we gotta get out of here. Brian Campbell, Luke Thomas.

We'll see you guys tomorrow night for Spence Ugas. Enjoy the fights.