MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Calvin Kattar vs. Giga Chikadze Results | UFC Vegas 46 Post-Fight Show

Episode Date: January 16, 2022

At UFC Vegas 46, UFC featherweight contenders Calvin Kattar and Giga Chikadze battle in the main event. Luke Thomas takes us through the fight and event results, analysis and viewer questions. This is the UFC Fight Night: Kattar vs. Chikadze post-fight show. 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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And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. Hi, everybody. It is 10 p.m. You know what? Let me turn this off just to be on safe side. There we are. How are you? Hi everyone, it's 10 p.m. It is the 15th of January 2022, 10 p.m. East Coast time anyway. My name is Luke Thomas. I am one half of Morning Combat. This is our UFC Vegas 46 post-fight show. I will do this for about 30, 45 minutes or so. I have a, I should have put it up on this one. I didn't think to do it. I have a tweet up. It's not at this one. It's at at L Thomas news. You can put a question in there. We'll get to it at the end of the program. And yeah, we'll talk about the main event. There's not a whole lot to get to

beyond the main event quite candidly, but actually a lot to talk about in that main event. There's not a whole lot to get to beyond the main event, quite candidly, but actually a lot to talk about in that main event. Just a remarkable one to start the year off. UFC's first main event of the year. Very, very good. And Michael Bisping had a word for it. Inspirational was one of the things he says. I don't think that's an exaggeration or wrong. I quite agree with him. A lot to say. So thumbs up on the video, please. I'm assuming there's sound. Jesus Christ, if there's not, well, then there's not. Thumbs up on the video. Hit subscribe if you are new here. Yes? Or if you've been around and you've not subscribed at this point, do me a solid. Throw me a subscribe. Yeah? Okay. With that out of the way,

let's talk about it. Let me pull the results up here. Okay. And by the way, I'm assuming if you're watching this, you don't mind that there are spoilers or whatever the fuck at this point. Okay. Okay. So if you don't want spoilers now, it's time to go. Five, four, three, two, one. Okay. All right. This was UFC, whatever you want to call it, fight night, um, cater versus Chikadze, UFC Vegas, 46 UFC, whatever, whatever, uh, took place at the apex facility quite obviously. And Calvin cater defeats Giga Chikadze 50-45, 50-45, 50-44. And frankly, I'm not sure that that's wrong. I wasn't scoring in real time, so I can't exactly co-sign on it.

But when I first heard it, I was a little bit surprised. But then I was like, no, not necessarily. Especially the way, the truly dominant ending. It had a little bit of that Adesanya-Gastelum vibe of the fifth round of that contest, when he really began to take over, nearly secured the finish. It was something close to that. Whether it's 50-45 or 50-44 is really not the point, actually. The point is much different than that,

which is, I have to tell you, this is one of the, this is, the sport is just constantly remarkable, man. It's constantly remarkable. That's really, you know, a lot of people fall in and out of love with you, and also with MMA, but you know what I'm saying? Like, they have these real, like, passionate relationships with MMA, and they kind of burn out on them and I'm always like man if you just stick around and just kind of ride it out you you begin to realize that you have not seen it all it is relentlessly surprising it is not that I thought that Calvin Cater's career was somehow done or something like that I don't mean to suggest that. But obviously, I don't think it's irrational or wrong to have, at a mere minimum, curiosity about how he's going to look subsequent to, dude, one of the most historic beatings I've ever seen. Now, I mean, I've seen people injured

worse than that, so it's not the worst beating in that sense, where it was like the most gruesome. But certainly one of the more prolonged ones. I mean, it was a show. Whether you want to say you've seen someone get hurt more in the process, perhaps. But certainly we can all agree, in UFC history, it's a bad one. It's a really bad one. And Chael Sonnen was the one who has really been actually, I think, pretty correct and steady about reminding people it's not just that people get injured more in a five-round versus a three-round. Quite obviously, there's two more rounds, right?

You're going to get more. But that the rate of injury is like exponential in those championship round moments. Now, to what extent that's been measured and verified, I don't know, but the outcome certainly feel that way after the fact, right? Like, I mean, that was fucking brutal. First of all, Calvin Cater has broken his nose a million times. Looks like, and I've had him on my various shows through the years and I've talked to him, like he's talked about all the flights he's been on where his nose has been broken. And all the pressure from changing atmospheres has fucked him up. And how awful it is. And having to breathe through a KN95 mask the whole time through your mouth.

It's just, you know, it can be a nightmare. A little like he broke it again. A little like he broke it again. Which I broke it again which i would just like oh poor guy man fuck that is a that's gonna be another shitty flight home you know what i mean breathing through your mouth um and then giga chikazi dude what can you say gee lord have mercy these guys continue to impress me you just want to you i'm telling you, man, just when you think like the bar of what is just so routine at this point and what is so excellent is so high. Again, we've had this conversation a million times. I understand MMA fatigue. I certainly understand

MMA overload. Um, but when you just kind of learn to surf at a steady medium like I've done, you just begin to realize that in the way in which I am consuming it, you just see just these routine demonstrations of excellence. Excellence in what? Certainly occupational specialties, jiu-jitsu and kickboxing. You saw a little bit of that tonight in certain respects. But in Giga Chikadze's case, which is what we're talking about here, that dude is, I mean, I really hate the, me and my team, we're built different. Like, yes, you know. I bet, I bet. I bet you're different in all kinds of ways.

I really don't like it. But then, you know, it is sort of to the point, right? It's like intent. You know, marketing has turned into this sort of like ambiguous catch-all kind of fun statement of, you know, excellence and defiance and a few other things. But, you know, dude, some of these guys at the world-class level, I just don't think folks understand. Let me explain something. In the Holloway fight with Cater, you'll get people who walk into a gym and begin to spar at some point, whether early or middle or late within, let's say, a six to nine to a year, nine months to a year-long period, they'll take 1% of 1% of one, I mean, a 1% of nothing, right? To the nth degree of what Cater took in that fight with Holloway, and they'll go out of the gym and you'll never see him again.

This is routine. This is routine. Like Like when you look at the spectrum of what tough looks like, like, you know, it's, this is what I mean, man. You ever true, I've had, I've audited it, man. I've audited it. You know, have you ever really truly audited how tough you are? Like truly ever audited it? You know, I've, I've tried and, and, you know, I'm not going to get the highest remarks out there, so that's reserved for folks like Giga Chikadze, didn't get the worst scores, you know, somewhere in a happy, in a happy medium, but I at least know, man, I know, you know, I know what the difference is between, between some of these groups, man, I've seen it, I've lived it, you know, and there's been some sorting that has happened, you know, and you can, it's unmistakable when it happens. Dude, Giga Chikadze is fucking built different, man.

That dude is tough as shit. And Calvin Cater is too. He is tough physically. He is tough mentally. Dude, both of those guys, that was just a declaration of grittiness from both. It was just fucking remarkable. Like, this is what I mean. Like, it's a random Saturday. I don't even know how many people are watching this shit. There's probably a lot of MK fans are like, oh, Luke's doing a post-fight show for this. Fuck that fight card. Skipped it, you know. Routine excellence. And if you can find the right wavelength to get it. And these two guys just, I tweeted about it. You know, these are the kind of fights, I haven't gotten to the specifics of it yet. We'll get into it. These are the kind of fights

where you're just watching in the middle of it and you're like, fuck man, I hope these guys are getting paid. You know, I just, I don't know if anyone else is that way. If you are, you're like me. If not, I'm not, you know, everyone's, I'm not judging. Everyone's their own way, you are you're like me if not i'm not you know everyone's i'm not judging everyone's their own way you know but that's just a natural thing that comes to my mind i'm watching giga chikazi get hit with you know spinning back elbows in the fifth landing with the sound you know i don't know what the medical diagnosis is but it sounded like his face shattered when it landed and you're just like and he stands and stumbles and then, you know, is once more into the fucking breach, you know, you're just like, dude, what are they getting paid, man? What are they getting paid? I don't, I'm not going to make

this a huge hallmark or a hallmark, excuse me, of today's review of the results. Don't worry. I will not be on a soapbox about it, but I'm just being, I'm leveling with the, with the, with the, with the audience here. I'm watching this. I'm just going, fuck. I, I, I, I'm, I'm looking, I'm going to see if there's going to be, will it be in Nevada to even share payouts anymore? I guess they don't, but you know, which is another problem with the apex is obviously great in many respects because we get lots of MMA, but because Nevada has changed the rules, we actually get a lot less information than we once got. Um, so if they were on the road and in California more, we would have more information about this, but you know,

I guess we'll see what happens. But anyway, um, sensational contest. Uh, and let's talk about Calvin Cater. I said before, he's got Michael Bisping's spirit. To take a beating like that and then, you know, that long trip home and then you got to heal from everything that happened. And I'm sure, you know, he's going to heal probably better than a lot of us might. But nevertheless, that's just a lot of abuse man it's a ton you know and and and a stinging rebuke of the placement between you and and uh you know and by his own acknowledgement the uncrowned king of the of the division that's a lot to come back from psychologically dude people should not take that for granted they should not he makes it look like it's just fucking ordinary. It's like

having a friend who could just walk over fire and not get burned. You'd be like, dude, everyone can do that shit. No, no, no, no, no. He can do that shit. You dumbasses cannot. Like Calvin Cater can do that shit. You dumbasses cannot. It's just the level of conviction, self-assuredness, appetite for brutality, frankly, is on another level. So how did he do it? As I meander around here, I'm just pointing out, like, you know, what the abuse that these guys tolerated, more so obviously Giga Chikazi tonight, but certainly, you know, what they are coming from, what he dished out tonight, people would take 1% of 1% of 1% of 1% of that and never show up at the gym again.

You'll never see him again. And these guys just do the most elevated version of that. And it is utterly remarkable. Okay, so how did Calvin Keter do it? Let me pull up the fight metric numbers while I situate myself. Let's see here. I should have had them up beforehand. Sorry about that, y'all.

All right, so we will orient ourselves at the beginning of this discussion around the numbers here. So how does it look? Okay, I'm assuming these are final. Again, the numbers on the broadcast are typically not great as a reliable indicator of the final numbers. So these are the final numbers. Obviously, a lot of grappling in the first round from Calvin Cater. Dude, right away, man, just setting the tone with intensity.

Chikadze slips on a kick, and he didn't just go for the takedown, dude. He pursued that takedown with absolute overzealousness. And in that way, what I mean is like dogged determination to get at high elevation. There was no way he was going to let that opportunity pass, and he didn't, and he secured it. It was remarkable. So not a lot of striking per se. There was a little bit of you know sort of minor work from calvin cater but we'll talk about the defensive grappling and the grappling um overall in just a second second round uh this is where you know it's sort of um no not quite second round chikazi landed more 28 strikes to excuse me 38 strikes at 28 strikes it turns in the third numerically. This is not an indicator of the qualitative

difference, just numerical. 25 to 22, that's when Cater takes the lead. Then round four was in round five. 36 to 28 in round four, and then 51 to 32 in round five. Also, he is credited with a takedown. Calvin Cater is in the first and the second, two of seven overall, with a control time of three minutes and 42 seconds. Great, great work from Calvin Cater in just sort of positionally staying one step ahead of Chikadze on the mat,

maintaining position, flowing with things, letting the other guy work through him a little bit harder as he rolled through to stay dominant on top. Making careful, good decisions about how to maintain not just a dominant position, but a dominant position where if you're going to really commit to it, you've committed to it because it's safe. It's fully, properly secured, and not you know making a little more careful

choices about it you know navigating the choppy waters in that way expertly uh and you know chikadze was was constantly looking for some way around this for some way through this and cavalcator i think you know no one's was perfect, but it was a strong start for him in part because now Chikadze has been, you know, had to grapple for a round, right? Which is not like, you know, oh, now he's all of a sudden Superman without his powers. He is still quite formidable, but it is at least a little bit of work you have put there. It is a round you have put him through where it's not the front half of the second where you're going to feel it unless they're really out of shape but you might start feeling it at the back half of the second sometimes right sometimes that shows up and sure enough it did in this one too i thought you we did

see some of that show up at the back half but um what what cater did was essential about this and we are essential to this we talked about this on i talked about this on Friday's show slash chat. I did not see a way, plausibly, I mean, yes, theoretically, of course, but plausibly, I did not see a way for Cater to win if it did not involve strictly backing up, at all times, Giga Chikadze. It's the old Fedor vs. Cro Cop game plan.

If you're facing a lot of different kinds of opponents, but in this particular case, and in that one, referentially from the historical note I'm making here, if you have someone that is sort of kicking dominant, Cro Cop or in this case Giga Chikadze, really putting them on their heels makes life difficult for them. One that is exhausting to constantly be backing up because they really need their space and their timing to set and throw, even though they can throw it efficiently and economically. They don't need a ton of room, but they need some. And if you put them under a constant pressure,

it becomes very difficult for them. So it's taxing to do that. And two, it just sort of offensively mutes them. And then they begin to have to trade strictly on hands, and that's when the problems began to sort of become visible. Between that and also you notice there was really patient footwork from both of them. Calvin Cater doing a lot, not just sort of forward pressure, which was key, right? So under what conditions was he going to work? Behind the jab, one, and forward pressure.

Those are the two ones that we talked about on Friday's show, and I think you saw a lot of that here now, began to show that he needed a lot more after the jab got cooking, and they were just sort of openly trading at that point. The jab doesn't lose its value, but it takes on a different role in that kind of environment and scenario. Still valuable, but differently valuable. Anyway, point being is that was one where Cater was just going to win over time anyway.

So you have this exhausting pressure. You have this pressure that takes away these weapons because you're inside of this kicking range. You have this offensively sort of muted scenario that this guy is under. And he just begins to work it over time he would follow with the footwork where he would sometimes some of it what he was doing to take away weapons obviously they talked about switching stances to avoid getting hit with the giga kick to the liver but there could be other reasons why he would switch from taking you know hard calf kicks which by the way he got away from those because cater was really on on him on his putting

him on his heels constantly. It's sort of like the old Edson Barboza approach, right? You know, Edson Barboza can be insanely formidable in the right circumstance, even against a great fighter opposite him. But it's just been shown that like, you know, easier said than done, but a pressure-based approach just yields positive results, certainly more than any other game plan against them. It seems that, at least for now, at this point in Giga Chikazi's journey, he is susceptible to the same kinds of things.

Although, it should be noted, it's not like any bum off the street can just pull this off. That is in no way what I am suggesting. What I am suggesting, though, is at the... Remember, I think Cater was sitting at five in the division in terms of ranking and Giga at eight. And again, you can always quibble with the exact placement, but that does speak to a little bit of where they were. I agree that generally there is a little bit more sonority

and Cater had done better work to be ranked to that point i felt that that was appropriate um and and you know it was it was meant that was manifested here i think you saw there was there was a bit of a difference there and um for him to do it off the heels of that kind of a beating is man i just keep shaking my head because they make it look I just can never get over how routine they make it look man it's like

it's like a magic show you know like these are the magicians that actually do solve people in half though it's like it's fucking wild I apologize are the magicians that actually do solve people in half though. It's like, it's fucking wild. I apologize if I loudly swallowed on the microphone. I didn't mean to. Let's look at some of the targeting. Jesus Christ. Calvin Cater, 88% targeting to the head,

just 9% to the body, 2% to the leg. there is a story about the way calvin cater fights and uses kicking but it's it's not a significant i think most would agree it's not a significant component to the way he fights it has a role but it's a fairly minor one by contrast giga chikazi as you could understand going to the body right with the kick a kick and to the leg and everything else. 21%, but even that I would say is low relative to what he probably wanted. I bet he probably wanted, I don't know if you put a numerical threshold on it, but I'm guessing a little bit more than what he ultimately got, let's say. Went to the head 73%, and then of course, as you can imagine, most of the fight in terms of striking took place at distance versus the clinch and the ground.

Man, what, and by the way, I should also note that Cater, to end round five the way he did, you know, with this, I won't say last minute, but, you know, this triumphant, emphatic declaration of basically victory, but without the stoppage in official time in that fifth round, right, where Giga gets knocked down and the whole thing is almost kind of over before the time expires. I mean, that is such a, dude, good for Calvin Cater.

This business is tough enough and bullshit enough and hard enough. And dude, I mean, just look at the last 10 rounds of Calvin Cater's life. I mean, I knew... These guys have to know that this occupation carries significant health hazards

and risks and difficulties and the like. But the last 10 rounds that Calvin Cater's had to fight have been just the most brutal World War I trench warfare slog, man. And you lose long stretches of it and you win long stretches of it. But either way, dude, you come out with the fucking meat grinder on the other side man it's just i i i apologize i know there's gonna be people he's fucking sounding like a broken record you're right i am i apologize you're right but i just it's just it's just the the the routine this is um it is remarkable to witness. You wish it was compensated with the riches that it is owed.

And you are humbled by the ability to watch something like that and share the joy. As well as some of the apprehensions about it. Along with it, it's a complicated joy. Fighting is a complicated joy. Fighting is a complicated joy, right? Is that not a fair and ultimately almost like nothing statement, but enough to be true? It's a complicated joy. It's an engrossing joy as well.

That's why we're here. So what can we say else about this? as well. That's why we're here. So, what can we say else about this? Oh, I did have another thought. It's something I've been sort of toying with for some time.

If you've heard me, oh, two more thoughts actually. Well, actually that one's about a different one. But this one. Calvin Cater and Max Holloway are very, very different fighters, right? Different in style and in many important respects.

But there's a lot of things that unite them, too. These are guys who typically do their best and most work in boxing range. You just heard me describe the numbers of Calvin Cater and where he's sort of, I mean, headhunting in general, but you know, you can sort of look at how many of those are kicks. It's not many, right? So this is a guy who does his work in a very similar kind of way in that respect. And what I've noted is, you know, another guy like this is Adrian Yanez, insanely talented, a delight to watch, seems like a wonderful guy.

Same thing here, Calvin Cater, I've interviewed him, seems like the nicest dude on planet Earth. But that style, it is, even on the winning end of things, man, it's a bit of a blood and gut style, man. You know, when you get guys like that, and they not only tend to be the more cerebral versions of it, and Yanez is quite bright, and Max Holloway quite bright, and Calvin Cater quite bright, they tend to have this influencing role on the fight itself, right? They have this ability to, and the best fighters do, to define the fight on their terms. Well, their terms are trading in these boxing ranges and angles and scenarios. And again, they get the best of it usually by a long shot.

But nevertheless, it just involves being in a place where contact is not just going to be inevitable, but frankly, frequent. It will be frequent. You know, I don't know how long that style is. Of all the styles in MMA that keep you in it the longest, I would not put that one at the top of the list. It seems to me that you get some of our brightest and most talented A-plus fighters that I'm excited about, you're excited about, we're all excited about. I do question, you know, all the shots are of, you know, questionable damage, certainly. Some are

quite pronounced, obviously some are not, but nevertheless, it's just the amount of just traffic is overwhelming, I guess is what I would say. There's just a traffic of strikes that is, I think, I worry anyway. I worry that it will cause problems. The other one was, one of the other fights on the card, I think it was at the co-main. I don't even know if it was the co-main. No, it was not the co-main. I'll come back to that.

I don't have a ton of thoughts about the Caitlin Shukagian and Jennifer Maya fight, although Shukagian, it's a great win for her. These are, I think, top five fighters in their division. I don't have the rankings in front of me, but I think they're either there or pretty close to it. Certainly, they've both fought for the title, so we're talking about the preeminent side of the women's flyweight division. Shukagian just was better overall 30-27 across the board even in the grappling department she was able to be the kind of one in control a little like Maya wanted to do a little bit more I won't say brawling but a little bit more you know Chukagian was able to work at range when she had to but it was also great in the grappling scenarios as well.

But the thing that caught my attention was not really any of those things, even though we should acknowledge this is a great win by Chukagian, is that, and I'm sure someone else has said this before me, I don't in any way suggest, like, I'm sure some of you have noticed this and probably tweeted about it and shared it so I am no way I'm like oh uh I've made this grand discovery it's not what I mean but something occurred to me today however late the first wave uh in the modern era of wrestling best practices like when people were like oh this is how you wrestle in mma when there was enough body of work there was a teachable skill set that was pretty effective for most

people in most fights even at the ufc level and that modern era and who was coming into the sport and influencing some of those things a lot of collegiate wrestling obviously so see where there was some olympic influence but it was generallyiate wrestling, obviously, is of some Olympic influence. But it was generally leg attacks. Of course, there are exceptions. Early on, there was the Raw team with Rico Ciparelli and Randy Couture. And then parts of that turned into Team Quest. You had Matt Linlin.

And a lot of those guys had the Greco background, of course. Rulon Gardner, even. There's always been a Greco influence. That's not what I'm suggesting. What I am saying is, in terms of the routine wrestling scenarios that you're seeing in MMA now, typically along the fence line, I'd have to go back and look and think about this a little bit more,

but typically along the fence line, but it's upper body wrestling. The first wave of best practices was all leg attacks and you know or predominantly leg attacks this new wave is that but um i think because fence wrestling has become such a like dude it's hard if someone stands in front of you turns to the side splits their base and is good about like head pressure and underhooking, dude, unless you're Habib or some shit, you're not going to get him down.

It's not going to go for you. No, it's not going to work. So what are you going to do? But upper body clinching, it turns out that actually can be pretty powerful, in part because we've talked about this, locked hands. There was another fight, we've talked about this locked hands dude there's another fight we'll talk about that one too the uh was it the bonterin and brandon roiville fight i mean part of the reason that we got kind of close to was bonterin you know you can question

what he was doing with it from a punishment standpoint he's got locked hands you know with these locked hand scenarios man you could just ride him out for long periods of time. And, um, anyway, you get the idea. I'm just sort of pointing out that, um, I don't know what the fuck I lost my train of thought. It doesn't matter who gives a shit. It's 10 38, uh, on a, on a, on a Saturday night and I'm drinking water. Mmm. I forget where I'll be going with this. Doesn't really matter. Okay.

Jake Collier versus Chase Sherman. You know, people want to hate on Jake Collier and fat shame the guy. Looks to me like he's got, I mean, you know, listen, is this the most optimal condition to be in athletically for his career prospects? It certainly doesn't, this doesn't seem likely, but he certainly looked great tonight, right? You don't want to deny that. His hands look good. Forward pressure was overwhelming. Again, he had Chase Sherman on the back foot.

This is sort of another scenario where the same kind of thing went in there. And, you know, the grappling was good too. Like, there was a clear difference in the grappling. Like, Chase Sherman was, you know, you could see him pressing. And then his, like, half guard just comes wide open as he's pressing because he's not wrestling in that moment anyway. Like, again, this is not in any way suggesting I or you could do better just watching what happens like just think about it and if if someone passes your guard you failed to do something correctly someone takes your back

you failed to do something correctly so you had the just vicious ground and pound because he had moved to mount. And he moved to mount effortlessly. He put pressure right on top of him. You see Sherman essentially pin himself underneath when his guard gets put like that. And then Collier just uses that pressure on top to just ride essentially into three-quarter mount and then full mount. And then he just absolutely hammered him through the canvas after that. He turned over and then he got the tap. It's great work. For a co-main event between two guys at heavyweight who, you know, are not at the top of the division, that's a best-case scenario. Fans should be grateful to Jake Collier. So, you know, yeah, good for him. Great win.

Brandon Royville defeating Rogerio Bontorin. We talked about this a little bit. There's a controversy in the third about the tapping. Did he tap? There's two competing theories, basically. In real time, I thought he did. Okay. Upon review, I'm less certain, but leaning towards that, I asked people to make an argument to me about which way they felt about it. Did he tap? Did

he not? To the arm bar. And people were were split there are sensible arguments that were given to me from either side and by the way it should be noted many of the people who say he did tap were in the black belt slash um training officiating crew side of things right so these are not you know amateurs or something like that that doesn't mean that they automatically get like what we just defer to them but you know these are not people who are, amateurs or something like that. That doesn't mean that they automatically get like, well, we just defer to them. But, you know, these are not people who are unaccustomed to watching this kind of stuff. And basically the two arguments are,

one is, did he remove his hand from being trapped to tap and then regret it once there was a slightly different feeling. Perhaps that is one theory. The other theory is that he removed it and then in the process he kind of flailed. And in flailing, it looked like tapping. It does look like it, but that's not actually what it is. You know, you be the judge. I'd have to go back and look at it again

i've only seen it you know when it happened live and then a handful of uh replay times you know it's um i can't can i say all right can i say perhaps you are different can i conclusively say uh he was tapping? Because here's part of what the situation is. When people say, oh, he tapped, he didn't tap, what are we saying? Like, if we're saying he's tapping, tapping has to mean something. Now, I understand there's a sort of colloquial way of describing it. Oh, it's this right here, right?

And we all kind of know it when we see it. But here's a clear-cut case where some kind of clearly defined parameters for helping us understand what we're looking at and what is defined as a surrender. And I guess some states probably, by the way, have this. It should be noted. But that's all that matters when we say, did he tap? So I'll tell you what I'm looking for. One could be a clear signal that

someone is surrendering, right? A very aggressive tap, let's say, on the ground sometimes. For example, Chase Sherman tapped to the floor. He didn't tap to the hands of his opponent. But what you're really looking for, for me, is intentionality. because he tapped once or again either either on purpose or not there was one tap um people were like oh there has to be three for it to be a tap but that's not really true like uh sonnen versus silva fedor versus verdun these are clear one tap cases sonnen versus was it filio but no sonnen versus was it Filio? No, Sonnen versus, was it Filio the first time? Some shit like that. Who did he, who was that too?

I can't remember at this point. Anyway, you get the idea. It does happen. It is rare, but it's not, and it's certainly rare in jiu-jitsu tournaments. Like when you do see tapping there, it's like very direct. So it's like, if you watch, if you watch tapping at the black belt level,

you know, it's kind of funny, right? Because sometimes people get it and it's, you know, so it's like if you watch if you watch tapping at the black belt level you know it's kind of funny right because sometimes people get it and it's uh you know so it's really kind of painful like estima lock you know where you have to tap immediately to relieve this unbearable fucking pain or when uh what was her face when it was tammy musumechi got her fucking arm armbarred all the way behind her own back you know shit, shit like that. But usually what you see is a very calculated surrender, like checkmate in chess. You know, where you've seen two fucking grandmasters and one guy just goes boop.

Tabby's the same way. It's like they know when certain conditions are in place that the jig is up. They just, you know, very matter-of-factly, indirectly, like doo-doo, and it's all calm, you know. There's obviously a lot of exceptions to that rule, but there's a lot of that that happens. Anyway, where the fuck am I going with this?

Did he tap? It looked like that in real time. I don't know. You be the judge. It didn't matter in the end. Brandon Royville got his hand raised. He deserved to get his hand raised. He, I thought, was really good about keeping his sensible defense underneath.

He was very good about always framing, creating frames and separation underneath. He got to his feet, you know, not effortlessly, certainly, but it was never not part of the action he was putting together unless he had some kind of really dominant grappling position, which certainly at the end, he did. Great show by him. I think he was saying he wanted to come in and show a little bit of patience, and I think that's exactly what he showed. Split decision, by the way, here.

29-28, 28-29, 29-28. But that was a very, you know, did he show brand new skills he never had before? No. But did he show a kind of competitive strategic application of them that yielded better results? Or it certainly yielded the kind of results he wanted under significant duress from a very talented opponent. Yes. Yes. And that's very much important and something. Anyway, I think I got lost somewhere talking about Chukagian and Maya, but Greco-Roman wrestling appears to be much more important in modern MMA

than it ever has been. How about, was it Santa, what does he call himself? Santaslav, is that what he calls himself? Vyacheslav Borshev hits a fucking rib-roasting liver shot to Dakota Bush, puts him down, 347 on the very first round, does a dance. I don't know what it's called, but it was spectacular. Just crowned this man already. Whereas, I mean, forget about giving this guy a post-fight bonus,

although certainly he is entitled to one. Is there a crown that they could give as well that he could walk around with unironically? Because he has earned it. What a fantastic performance. What a memorable, what a way to stick out on a broadcast is what I would say. And looked good doing it. Looked sensational. Dakota Bush did not lay down prior to getting his liver deformed. He was making it as competitive as possible. He was certainly trying. Great, great win. Bill Algeo defeating Joe. I didn't even know how to say this guy's name.

I was like, what is it? Joan Derson? Joe Anderson Brito. 30-27, 29-28. I'm sure I'm saying Brito wrong. 29-28. Bill Algeo. Bill Algeo is scrappy as shit, man. That dude is scrappy. What was this? His fourth UFC fight? I remember the first time he fought, let's see, it was, not the Contender Series one. By the way, you know who he fought against was Brandon Lachman. He lost to Brandon Lachman on the Contender Series.

Dude, Brandon Lachman's a good-ass fighter. Like, that's the guy that, no one ever talks about that. Everyone's always like, the trivia question is always, oh, that's the guy that we don't no one ever talks about that everyone's always like the trivia question is always oh who was the fighter that you know won on the contender series but didn't because he went for a takedown in the last second Brendan Lockman but no one ever asked right but who's the motherfucker who he beat dude was Bill Algeo Bill Algeo is a good fighter he's a really good fighter anyway uh he made his debut against Ricardo Lamas but I remember he was scrappy as shit then he put a beating on Spike Carlisle. Ricardo Llamas is tough, and he got overwhelmed in that one, but he rebounded on this one, and Brito kind of took the fight to him in spots,

backing him up. But overall, here's another guy using great grappling, great use of the locked hands, making a strategic application out of it. It's just very, very hard to break, and if people don't know how to break it and the guy using it really knows how to off-balance an opponent and redirect them and move them into takedown territories if that's what they want or into big strikes or just mentally kind of leaning on them. Dude, it's a brutal, awful place to be.

And he had some of that going for him here, among other skills as well. It was a nice, well-rounded be. And he had some of that going for him here, among other skills as well. It was a nice, well-rounded performance. He made it quite memorable at the end, saying he wanted to fight Giga Chikadze, which, by the way, Giga losing perhaps makes that more likely. I don't think they'll make that fight, but perhaps they might. One never knows. But accusing Giga Chikadze of being a Biden voter,

which I thought was like, that's a very, yes, I am watching MMA. Yes, I am. God bless it, right? Long may she last. Hold on. But that's a very MMA moment. But he looked great.

Give him his flowers. He looked great. He is constantly... Spike Carlisle was an overmatched opponent, you know, because he's certainly physically tough and wild, and that's its own kind of challenge. But Algeo, to me, has shown great well-roundedness. Can really, you know, this guy can be in gritty, long, drawn-out, complicated, difficult grappling slash wrestling slash,

where you're just getting beat up every which way kind of scenarios. And he does it for long periods. He does them on the feet too, where he's constantly pressing in to opponents. He's a tough guy. He's a tough guy. That was a solid win. And hey, memorable call-out. Memorable call-out. Got's a tough guy. He's a tough guy. That was a solid win. And, you know, hey,

memorable call-out. Memorable call-out. Got to give him credit. From the prelim card, Jamie Pickett defeating Joseph Holmes. The prelim card wasn't a lot of fun, I'll be honest. Court McGee got a nice win over Ramez Abrahima, I think is how you say it. Brian Kelleher looked pretty good against late replacement Kevin Kroon, who looked huge, by the way. And then TJ Brown got a nice win over Charles Rosa as well. There you have it. First ones in the books. All right, let me take a look at some of these questions that you lot have, and then we will call it a day. All right.

Do you think Cater and his team learned from the pressure Max put on him and to a degree tried to replicate it when building a game plan for Giga? Perhaps, perhaps, you know, I would have to ask, certainly. But I think strategically, it wasn't necessarily, listen, that's not like, we talked about it on Friday, I brought it up on the show, it's not some grand insight, right? It's just, I won't call it obvious, but it's just hard to imagine a counter-striking scenario against a forward-moving Giga Chikadze that's going to yield you better results than a difficult early start to backing him up, but one which, once you break through, yields significantly good results, right? It's just a more rational game plan. And so I think they

rationally knew that was what was on the table for them, to the extent that getting backed up in that way reinforced how powerful that could be. Or perhaps he did learn some technical lessons from that, and also, you know, ways a retreating opponent could survive, right? Because he had to go through so many different scenarios where he learned what worked and what didn't. There's no denying an experience like that could be potentially invaluable, assuming they're not mentally scarred by it. But I would also just caution that that was the rational insight.

The question is not that. The question is, what do you do technically and tactically to pull that off? And I think it needs to be said, Calvin Cater's footwork tonight was just excellent, consistently excellent footwork. It was very, there's a few times, a few times, hey, a 25-minute fight's going to happen. A few times he's out of position. A lot of times, man, he's right where he needs to be. He's doing excellent work, dude. And he's intercepting Giga Chikadze. He's steering him. You know, he was doing really good work in that way.

Why did so many people assume Kader was going to lose to Giga just because Max crushed him? The reason why is because a lot of times, I don't think this is a bad question. I actually think it's a really important question. Why do people like me harp on that? Okay, the reason why people like me harp on that is you got to be careful about just... Being an MMA fan is difficult, man. It's actually difficult.

One, you get charged to the nth degree, but two, you get asked to look at these fighters as these vessels of entertainment. And, you know, over time, if you have this, if you become unmoored from the community, if you're not part of the community, if you're unmoored from it, or you consume it at this almost like distant way. You know, I think people can lose sight a little bit about understanding. I'm not making a moral judgment here. I'm not, that's not what I'm saying. But I think at times if you're not like, if you're not, if you haven't seen it up close a lot.

I just don't think you realize what the toll that these guys, I mean, these guys, it's slow motion maiming. It's slow motion maiming. You know, it's like the worst bear attack spread over 15 years you've ever seen or something like that, right? You know, and so each part, you see it incrementally build. And these come at a cost. These guys, I started the show with it. Here I am repeating it again. They make it look like this is a thing that like if you just really try hard, you can get over it.

No, dude. These guys are fucking psychotically competitive in ways that the average person off the street cannot even remotely comprehend. They just make it look effortless. And I really, if I say nothing else, I hope that people really understand that. Truly appreciate that. When you see a beating like what he took against Max, I understand why some people may not necessarily have that instinct to be like, well, it was a bad beating, but he's young or whatever. That's a fair point as well, and it certainly turned out to be truer

than any kind of panic about the immediate negative results it would have. But I think as well, as just a general posture, if you see someone lose in a five-round fight and in this particular case you're like oh well what's the dividing line between when we're concerned and when we're not well how about one that's historically the most significant at least quantitative beating we've ever seen you know or just go look at the tape do you mean don't you remember there was controversy about when that fight should have been stopped I think as early as the third round.

And there was debate at the time. Not everyone thought it was a fight that should have been stopped. So that should be clear as well. But just pointing out, it was a really bad beating. And I think, man, I've just seen what,

I've just, you know, dude, it's, Teddy Atlas has said it. Every time these guys go do this, they are giving a part of themselves to this thing. They come out a little bit less. You know, and it sounds dramatic and like, you know, almost hokey and maybe like poetic or something. But it's not true in the literal sense, I suppose, or in some ways even that is true, but certainly it's a good way to describe the nature of their sacrifice to you.

Like, they come out of these things, man, and it's a, you know, it's the worst car crash you've ever seen over the course of however long their career is. You know, it's like, if you added up all the injuries they got and then someone survived that in a car crash, there would be a news special about them on 60 Minutes. You know what I mean?

It's like, oh, torn both ACLs, broken femur, punctured lung, God knows how many lacerations, and twisted ankles, and now they're getting towards 40, they need a hip replacement, and neck and back issues, and nerve damage. If someone survived all of that in a car crash, you'd be like, God damn, dude. I don't know what message he's trying to send, but he's definitely trying to keep you around for now. You know, so I just think you've got to put yourself to the extent you can. You've just got to really try to be as, you've got to see the humanity in these guys as much as you possibly can. And that's why the last thing I'll say on the fighter pay stuff is,

that's why the fighter pay stuff matters to me. It's not that the fighter pay makes up for it ultimately ultimately it's still I think a kind of trade where the house which is not the fighter still wins and always wins at least metaphorically but

but I think it's the closest you can get to morally absolving yourself for liking it right right? Is making sure that the people doing it get the kind of compensation that they're entitled to. That's my belief, basically, in a nutshell. Like, if you're asking, why do I cover fighter pay with perhaps the fervor that I do relative to other issues? It's because I just think the unique nature of what they do can only be rewarded

by the maximization of that in a nutshell. That's sort of what I believe, basically. I mean, there's a broader defense to it, but that's the... That is the basic idea. That's the basic... That's the gist. I mean, there's a whole fuckabudge more of these.

Hang on. Best way to nullify forward pressure like Cater displayed tonight other than clinching. Well, certainly you could have a retreating game plan. Carlos Condit used a retreating game plan against Nick Diaz. It's not like a retreating game plan ultimately fails. It's just taxing and difficult, and it reduces you. There's a lot of ways to it. Yes, there's footwork ways to absorb pressure, take angles.

But in some way, you just have to kind of fight. And again, you could sort of fight fire with fire, but for any kind of issue like this, there's always going to be... God, this is a terrible answer, but the long story short is, what is the best way? The best way depends on what the skill set is of the fighter and what the challenge calls for,

what they can reasonably be asked to pull off. That sounds a little bit unfair of an answer, but that's really the truth. So here in this case is, what would have been the best way for Giga Chikadze, in this case, against Calvin Cater? If he could have found a way to really lead, I think, with the calf kicks. Offensively, wrestling, I thought, may have been on the table as well,

but that would have not have worked. So here again, the question is not what could someone theoretically do. What did Max Holloway do to take away the forward pressure of Calvin Cater? Calvin Cater wasn't trying to put as much forward pressure on him, but he tried a lot. Max Holloway and his team noticed that when you have Calvin Cater starting out, he's jabbing. He's got good footwork. He's setting things up.

He's faking. He's fainting. He's moving. But if you throw back, he'll just cover and move away. So what they realized was okay as soon as soon as uh he throws we're gonna let him throw and then as soon as he throw we're gonna bait him to throw whatever as soon as he throws whatever reasoning that we baited it or he did it we're going to then basically just blitz him with four or five punch combinations we're going to pressure

into him we're going to mix up high low left, left, right, body, head, right? Because he's just going to cover up like this. He doesn't really, he doesn't, what does Jose Aldo do? Jose Aldo is going to slip and then come back and then throw. Now, Max had a different answer for that problem, but you know, you get the idea. So he's not offering that kind of defense. He's not offering that kind of pull. Anyway, I forgot where I was even going with this fucking answer. Jesus, I'm off my game tonight. I'm tired. The answer is to this. Where was I even going with this? So disappointing. I'm so sorry about that

I did not take notes today I took notes the last time I did not take notes today And now I'm regretting it Because there's a bunch of shit I wanted to say Fuck it I will come back to it I apologize to the audience

Alright The elbows on the kickboxers Seem to be one of the more underrated strategies versus crossover kickboxers. That's interesting. I don't know. I would say Cater's always been a pretty clever boxer and a surprisingly clever striker, too, more than just that.

He's had the elbow in the Stevenson fight, right? Or Jeremy Stevens. Excuse me, not Stevenson. Jeremy Stevens. He had the elbow in that fight. And where else did he have the elbow? I'm not sure where else. But, oh, Carlos Condit had it against Tiago Alves. That's another good one. How good is Max? Yeah, Max is fucking good. But that was his answer to the forward pressure. So to answer the forward pressure question once and for all,

the answer is lots of different ways. There's lots of different ways to do it, but it really kind of depends on the specific blueprint of what you have as a fighter in front of you and what reasonably they can be asked to do given what they're good at against a specific task by the time they get to the UFC. Even after this incredible comeback performance from Cater,

do you see him beating Holloway or Volkanovski? Not yet, but dude, as a rebound, you can't ask for more than that this time. Maybe next time in subsequent fights, but to do what he did after what happened to him, amazing. How much of an impact was that first round takedown? Huge, I think. What are the chances of seeing Volk and Max five to six times? That's a little much. Who was being... How much more

impressive does this make what Holloway did? Yeah. Again, dude, Holloway is pretty special, dude. He's very, very good. This is the other part about Holloway. It's like everyone's like, oh, he's skilled as a boxer and whatnot. Dude, I keep going back to this. His team, Eugene Bearman himself has told me multiple times on the record, it should be noted, him and his team might be the

best strategists in the game. Certainly some of the very best at the, you know, top of the fucking food chain level of ability. Dude, those guys are clever. You ever notice they don't do any interviews? They don't talk about shit over there, man. I constantly, I used to try to ask those guys on there. Shouts to them. They're great guys. I get it, man. They're not trying to, you know, they're trying to do their thing. I used to try to get those guys on there. Shouts to them. They're great guys. I get it, man. They're trying to do their thing. I used to try to get those guys on. And every time I'd get them on, man, they were nice as shit. And they're very friendly and gracious with their time.

But they would never tell me a thing. They would never tell me a thing. They might tell me some of the stuff about their theory on fighting. But they would never spill the beans. But, dude, they're very clever. They're very clever they're very clever smart people and so you've got a guy like Max who's got all this ability

who's got all that fighting mojo and spirit and he's got a team that comes up with a game plan that is a lot of you think was a winning game plan for his two fights with Volkanovski,

at a bare minimum, has put him exceedingly close. And Volkanovski is another one who's got top of the food chain people behind him. So, you know, you're talking about guys who have the bases covered as fighters in ways that, you know, even most other pro fighters couldn't even imagine. Was Giga looking past Cater? No, I don't think so at all. What a bigger surprise. Is Giga unable to adjust his game plan or Cater's ability to absorb the Giga punishment?

What's a bigger surprise? For me, I guess I should not have been this way I was wrong but I'll say for me the bigger surprise was cater being like walking into a lot of punishment to pull that off that's a hard game plan to pull off like you know what it is man dude sometimes battle plans are very sophisticated people don't like it the more sophisticated it is, the more dangerous and high level. But, dude, sometimes that's not really what the challenge is about. Sometimes the challenge is like it's not complex what we have to do strategically.

It's just going to be brutal. It's just going to be brutal. There's really no other way to do this. There is no, I can smart my way around the punishment and difficulty of this all. No, you cannot. You just have to have a hard, difficult slog. And that's the reality.

All right. I'm not going to get to that one. Some of these questions are a little bit unfair. Cater Ortega next. I hadn't thought of it. I should have thought of it. Man, that's a great fight. That's a great, golly, dude. They're putting Ortega through the meat grinder. Man, that division. These guys are absolutely, I keep saying it, but it's so true, man. It's like, that, that division, these guys are absolutely, I keep saying it, but it's so true, man. It's like, oh, you're, here's your reward. Brian Ortega. I mean, and he's talented as shit

to help with a beating on Calvin. Dude, here's what I know about Brian Ortega. Win or lose, he's going to put a beating on Calvin Cater. You know what I mean? Like that's just what it's going to be. Golly, man, these guys, it's, it's just guys. It's just brutal. It's brutal. Someone says, Calvin's boxing didn't seem as sharp tonight. He was much more interested in a game of kind of speed chess than chess. He did have some nice boxing. I thought he had some uppercuts that adjusted some of the kind of like

leaning pressure that was showing. did a good job I thought dude a lot of what he was doing again was chasing uh Giga a lot of it was angling Giga and forcing him to just move and constantly in this sort of state of tension a lot of it was you know pressuring through so it wasn't designed to yield like the prettiest boxing in that way. And again, just a very difficult game plan, a very simple game plan, but an insanely difficult one. I mean, there was more to it with the way in which he approached and he was setting angles. I don't want to say that there was no thought process to it. Please don't misunderstand me, but you get the idea. Part of it was like, you're just going to get hit a lot by Giga and you have to accept that. And he did. He accepted it fully and it worked.

That's impressive. I figured the high guard of Cater would leave him ripe to the body for the taking. When Giga stopped kicking, did he seal his fate? Yeah. But I think part of the reason why he stopped kicking was because he just could never set his feet under constant duress. All right. Well, I apologize for all the times that I meandered into a state of nothingness. Surely that is worthy of being lampooned, and I'm sure that I will. But I want to thank you guys for watching. Like the video. Hit subscribe. If you have an email for me, you can shoot me an email, lukethomasnews at gmail.com. I try to respond to everyone.

I don't always get the opportunity to do that, but right now is a good time. So there you go. All right. Love you. Let's see. No show on Monday, but Monday resume review will be out, which is going to be great.

And then Tuesday, we have another video for you that you're going to love that's going to set the tone for UFC 270 fight week, basically. Well, also resume review might do that as well. I guess we'll see. But you get the idea.

So Monday and Tuesday, fresh content headed your way. Yeah? Should be a good time. Thank you so much for spending some time with me tonight. Again, apologies for meandering. Should have taken some notes. I did it last time. I forgot this time.

I will not do that. Make that mistake again. So I appreciate you sticking with me. I hope you enjoyed the fights. Hope you enjoyed watching this until next time, get some sleep. Bye all.