MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - 🚨 Canelo Alvarez vs. Jermell Charlo Instant Reaction | Morning Komat Post-Fight Show

Episode Date: October 1, 2023

Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell have you covered with an instant reaction to Canelo Alvarez vs. Jermell Charlo. Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts 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

Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only at participating McDonald's in Canada. We're live. We're live. Here we are. We are in the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Hi, everyone. It's time for the Canelo versus Charlo official morning combat post-fight show. How are you? My name is Luke Thomas. I'm merely one half of your hosting duo

here for morning combat. They can't pan the cameras. Brian Campbell is directly over here to my left. He's going to do CBS Sports HQ and then he's going to join us because old Brian Campbell has a lot to answer for, does he not? He had predicted that it was going to be Jermell Charlo that was going to win. Didn't go that way, did it? No, it didn't. Now, you might be hearing some folks in the background. That is the dulcet tones of Miguel Flores.

There are two more swing bouts from the preliminary card that they're going to air right now. Actually, they're not going to air. They're going to just have them right behind us. So you might hear some of that as we get going. We'll go for about 30 minutes or so. Not the typical hour we go for some of the other post-fight shows. Let's get to the results right away. And then when Brian Campbell joins us, we'll recap everything with him.

Canelo Alvarez absolutely dominates. And I do mean dominates, Jermell Charlo, dropping him, I believe, in the seventh round. Let me get the scorecards, if I may. I think Charlo won one round on one of the judges' scorecards, and then two rounds on two of the others. Your scores are as follows for the main event. Gaff, I can hear you, by the way. Here we go. Scorecards for Canelo versus Charlo. 119-108, 118-109, 118-109. Canelo wins via unanimous decision and retains, of course, all four of the super middleweight belts that he had moving into this contest.

Folks, I don't know if I would go so far as to call this a mismatch. I don't think that's quite right. Charlo was able to go the distance. On occasion, landed a decent punch on Canelo. As I mentioned, he maybe won a round or two, depending on the scoring. But in general was, I will say, not a mismatch, but very overmatched, ultimately, in this contest. If I can still hear you, by the way, just real quick on that.

You get the idea. So what happened? Canelo had, and I think operated in this fight like he had a point to prove. He was stalking Jermel Charlo, basically from the word go. Took his time a little bit in the first round, but by the second round, it was off to the races. This is something that we had talked about in the preview. This is something that we had noted on tape was really going to be something that Jermall,

excuse me, Jermall Charlo might succumb to and was going to be a big part of how this fight was going to be adjudicated, namely the movement. Why? Because Charlo gets backed up to the ropes relatively easily. It wasn't just Tony Harrison who did it in two fights or Brian Castaño who did it in two fights. Jason Rosario was able to do it too. Jason Rosario is not really known as like a very clever, heavy forward pressure guy.

That's not exactly his forte. I mean, he can do it a little bit, but it's not really what he does. And even he was able to back up Charlo all the way to the rope line. Now, of course, that was all the way back in 2020 when he fought Rosario, but you get the idea. The last fight against Castaño, that happened as well. He gets backed up to the ropes relatively easily. It wasn't like he was fighting Canelo off the whole time. Canelo would get up there and begin to just work his combos.

He was throwing his right to the left arm of Charlo. Why? Because Charlo has a very devastating left hook. It wasn't very useful in this particular fight. I think he landed it maybe a handful of times at most, something like that. Not all of them very clean, not all of them very hard. I think like one or two

decent left hooks got through from Charlo, but the point I'm trying to make is not many. And then Canelo begins to build. So if he's throwing to the arm, now he's throwing up top. Now he's throwing to the body. Then he's switching to the other side, and he's throwing left hooks to the body, left hooks upstairs. He just began to cook.

And as he really got Charlo up against the ropes, he hit Charlo with the same uppercut that he had hit Caleb Plant with, where he fades off to his own left. Charlo or Plant have no place to go but right. He kind of corners him and stops him, cocks back the right hand. What do they do? They dip down, thinking it's going to come sort of as a hook, and then he greets him right on the inside with an uppercut.

He hit him with that and then dropped him in the seventh with an absolutely fantastic overhand right. I don't think Charlo knew where the punches were coming from based on some of the looks and the setups that Canelo was giving him. Canelo comes over the top with his right hand, and Charlo had a decently tight guard. He's not a defensive wizard per se, but he is reasonably studious with it.

He had his hands right here. That thing came through. That punch from Canelo came through like a tomahawk right in the middle, split it. Charlo takes, I think, one more punch, and then elects to take a knee, as BC might call it, the Kodo knee, where the punch didn't actually knock you down. You just didn't want any more in that particular moment, right?

In any case, he takes a knee. That's a 10-8 round. And he just kind of cruised from there. I thought Canelo looked the best he's looked in quite some time. He looked better than he did in the John Ryder fight. I certainly think that Jermel Charlo is a better fighter than John Ryder. I don't. He obviously looked better than he did against even Triple G.

And certainly I would also argue against Bivel. Now the Bivel one is different. It was 175. You get the idea. But Canelo looked pretty good here. His output didn't fade too badly in the last three-ish rounds. Slowed down maybe a little bit but not that bad. Scored I think on Steve Farhood's unofficial scorecard the first five of the six rounds. So got to work early even though he's sort of a notorious slow starter in that way.

Dropped him, as I mentioned, in the seventh. Added up more rounds as we headed into the 12th. And I thought to myself, I'm not even sure what the score is. But I can say this quite comfortably. Charlo can't win this fight unless he stops Canelo in the 12th. And he just didn't. He couldn't. There was nothing for it.

Canelo and his team, this is something that they're very gifted at, and you see it obviously much more in wins than you do losses, but their ability to assess an opponent and come up with great answers for it. They knew that Charlo, again, he has a decent guard where he keeps his hands up, but he is susceptible to the body because he doesn't transfer his defense all that much. He kind of keeps it a little bit locked and then just kind of rolls the dice on what kind of punches he'll be able to block versus not. So they went to the body. That was a great answer that they had ready for him. The punching to the arm, the left arm in particular of Jermell Charlo taking away that left hook, that was brilliant as well. He had well-timed

jabs. And again, he was just walking him down right into the rope line right right backwards or into the the the post the ringside post the um the corner post pushing him back there as well charlo you thought if he was going to win what was he going to need the lateral movement which he had a fair amount of that was decent you know canelo had to kind of find him at times but this was the big part he wasn't jabbing very much and the other thing that really sort of stood out to you is, for a guy who's got a great one-two, you almost never saw it, of the two that landed the better uppercuts, it was Canelo. Canelo just blasting, as I indicated,

Charlo with an uppercut in the second half of that fight. That reminded me exactly of the one he hit on Caleb Plant. If not in this arena, I think it may have been at MGM Grand Garden. Either way, in this city. And you would have thought Charlo would have gone to the jab a little bit. You would have thought he would have been a little bit more active. You would have thought he would have done something to get Canelo off of him. And he just never could. He just never did. That was never a part of this fight. There was never a part of this fight, once Canelo started moving downhill on him,

that he was deterred by what Charlo was doing. Never happened. Charlo was never able to physically deter Canelo from what he wanted to do. So let's talk about some of the bigger questions related to Charlo heading into this fight. How was he going to navigate the two weight classes? You know, I think he probably did about as best as he could, but it didn't really amount to much. Canelo looked much thicker. He looked naturally bigger, although his frame is smaller. But I mean, like physically, like when they were on the inside, who was muscling who? Who was the guy who was muscling the other folks? It was Canelo. Canelo looked to be, like, stronger on the inside, even though I think Charlo said he had ballooned up to, like, 173 or something like that.

So on the inside, he looked strong. Canelo did. So you're like, well, how is Charlo going to manage that? He didn't look slow by any stretch, but it didn't. It was weird, right? He didn't look slow by any stretch, but it didn't, it was weird, right? He didn't get dragged down by the extra weight, but he didn't get lifted by it either. It wasn't like he'd added a bunch of heft to his punches. It wasn't like it added a bunch of punch resistance to some of the stuff to the body or any other place.

It just didn't do him a lot of good in this fight. So I thought he navigated that probably about as best as he could, but there was no real great upside to it, ultimately, for Charlo in terms of how he's going to navigate that. You already saw what happened when he backed him up to the ropes. Like, no problem at all. Got him right back up there. Time and time again and again and again and again charlo utterly unable to deter him

couldn't get the left hook going dude let me tell you something if charlo can't get his jab and can't get his left hook going he just can't get going he just can't win that there's just not a circumstance where he can win and do that it doesn't work that way those are his two best weapons by a million miles. And I also thought Canelo did a great job of not being in range for the left hook, in addition to just deterring it physically, not being in range when he was kind of swinging wildly to catch him. He was able to get out of the way and kind of, and yet still restart that pressure campaign that he had the whole time. So, you know, how, oh, here was the other question.

The other question was what about the time off that Charlo had? Was it 16 months since the Castaño fight? I do think that it hurt him. We had Charlo not on this particular stage, but on the little dais that we had, the little, not lectern, that's not the right word, but, yeah, the little riser that we had in the production room at the studios for Wednesday's press conference, it was BC. This was the moment that you might remember when BC threw me under the bus to Jermell.

He was like, I'm riding with you. And then BC's like, but he's a snake, he's not. Yeah, this is why. This was why I was not riding with him. I didn't expect necessarily this kind of one-way traffic, but I didn't expect him to win. That's why I wasn't riding. And, you know, it was a bit of a weird moment altogether when he was doing all that kind of stuff. But we talk about the layoff.

In that particular interview that we had with Charlo, he was like, I don't even believe in ring rust. And then he gets in here tonight and says, yeah, I didn't feel like myself. Well, I believe in ring rust again the rule of the ring rust after nearly 20 years covering fighters in the fight game is whether it's boxing or mma or any other combative sport where they throw strikes the rule is pretty much the same it doesn't affect every fighter every time that would be false but it does affect most fighters most of the time when they've had a year or more layoff, even very good fighters, and let's not forget at 154, Jermell Charlo, well, he's no longer undisputed. He actually got technically stripped of, I believe his WBO or WBA title, which now makes Tim Zhu the

official champion for that particular belt at 154. They're probably going to have a fight to unify after the Brian Mendoza one if Tim Zhu wins. But you get the idea. He's still quite good down there. But up at 168, he had nothing for Canelo. Nothing. Not at all. And that ring rust, I absolutely think, made a difference. You go back to Tank and Ryan. Who had the tune-up between their fights? Tank did. Who won that fight? Tank did. You go back to Spence and Crawford. Who had the tune-up among those two before they had their big fight? It was Bud Crawford. Who won the fight? It was Bud Crawford.

And who's been the more active one here? Not so much a tune-up, although I guess the rider fight, you could call it that. It was Canelo. And who won? It was Canelo. Activity matters. So again, does ring rust affect every fighter every time? No, of course it does not. But it affects most fighters most of the time.

And I absolutely believe it affected Jermell Charlo here tonight. So you just begin to add up all of these circumstances and you're just like where was Charlo gonna win? You're looking at his game plan too getting backed up as easily as he did not really firing back as much as you might imagine that he would. And this is the result,

not enough jabs, not enough power punches, getting backed up too easily. Then there's the ring rust power. Didn't, you know, he doesn't have bad power, but it didn't grow at one 68. His punch resistance didn't meaningfully change at 168, where were the where were the ingredients contributing to success enough for a win anyway, there just wasn't much I do want to make one point before Brian sits down, he'll be done here in just a moment

if I can make one more point, and the point I'd like to make is I know some folks are going to clown or at least get after Derrick James, because Derrick James has guided now Errol Spence to the defeat against Bud Crawford and, of course, now Drew Melchiorlo against Canelo. And I know what folks are going to say. They're going to say, ah, you see, he wasn't very good.

He's a big fraud. This was all a bunch of nonsense. And listen, maybe guys' reputations get too much inflated at times or too much deflated at times. There can be hyperbole in either direction in the fight game around people's reputations. But let me just say this. The fucking task that he had was to send his fighters to go beat Bud Crawford and Candelo Alvarez. Guys, that's hard as shit to do. Yeah. Boy, if you went one and one in that particular quest, I'd consider that super impressive. And now we're talking about a situation where they've got to win both?

Or if they lose both, now they're frauds? Get the fuck out of here. His two guys had to fight Bud Crawford and Canelo Alvarez. And Canelo Alvarez at a weight disadvantage. Frankly, both of those in weird weights. Errol Spence getting drained too much? I still think Crawford would have won. I still think Crawford would have won.

But, you know, that wasn't the best weight for Errol Spence. And here's another one where he has to come up two different weights and win. So you can save the Derek James slander, or at a bare minimum, you can more focus it around specific criticisms, around potentially game plan or preparation, or something very, very specific that you can identify as a weakness, as a feature. But just looking at the results and being like, oh, Derek James' guys lost back-to-back, you know, super fight main events.

He must not be that good. I'm like, yeah, guys, they had to fight Terrence Crawford and Canelo Alvarez. Like, good fucking luck. Good luck. Two guys who are undisputed in their respective weight classes. Good luck. Good luck. You're going to need it. I really will not tolerate

I'll say unthoughtful Derek James slander as we get going. But I'll tell you, you know whose slander I will tolerate? I will tolerate that Brian Campbell slander. Because he talked all this shit all week just a gang of shit all week about how Charlo was going to win

threw me under the bus in front of Charlo to score a stupid point and here he is having to explain to CBS his dumbass pick that he made on CBS Sports HQ, where he went on a 15-minute diatribe about how Charlo was going to bring it, and the exact opposite thing happened. You know how long he goes on about picking Woodley over Till? I'm going to bring up this one as like the opposite of that. Hey, remember when you picked Charlo over Canelo? And Canelo beat the living dog shit out of him.

Remember that? Remember that one? What was up with that call, Nostradamus? I'm going to do that shit. I'm going to do that. Oh, they got video of him? Oh, no, they can't do it? Ah, dagger.

Yeah, he's over there just bumping his gums. Oh, there he is. Look at this fool being like, yo, guys, I'm sorry I picked Charlo. I don't know what the fuck I'm talking about. God damn, I know nothing. I know nothing about this guy. I've been watching boxing for 40 years. You know what I know about it?

Fuck all. BC, I've been watching boxing for five minutes. I got more picks right than you. How's that possible? Huh? I can't wait for him to sit down. I'm going to grill him. I will say this.

Before he comes back, because we'll talk about the Canelo fight. Boy, how about the scoring in that Erickson-Lubin-Jesus-Ramos fight, huh? 117-111. Erickson-Lubin-Jesus-Ramos fight, huh? 117-111. Erickson-Lubin, I'm sorry, what the fuck were you watching? Patricia Morse-Jarman? What the fuck were you watching? Because it wasn't anything here. Hey, hey, where's the guy that picked Charlo that I host the podcast with? Is he available? Here he comes. Brian Campbell is now finished. Hey, are you the guy that picked Charlo?

Can you have this seat right here? We can talk about it. I don't know what's happening here. Can we let him on air? Yeah, let's let him on air. Hey, why don't you just hit more things? What landed more punches, that lamp on your face or Charlo on Canelo? Honestly, I think it might be the lamp.

Hey, what happened with that Charlo prediction? Is this going to be a professional show? Or is this going to be what is becoming the default for a Luke Thomas production? I mean, it's actually pretty surprising that your immune system has held up this entire week. If you really want to compare who was scheduled to take the biggest beating. Look, let's be really honest right off front. By the way, here's our socials below. You can follow us there. Here, let's be really honest right off. By the way, here's our socials below. You can follow us there. Here, let's be honest right off front,

and thank you for holding it down, Luke, while I was finishing up the news hit with our folks at CBS. This is a really bad performance for Jermell Charlo. Not great. We look back on it, and when he did enter the ring, black hoodie over his head, that scowl on there, was it intensity, was it focus, was it ready, or was it a little bit overwhelmed?

I think in hindsight we have to say maybe a little bit overwhelmed by the moment. Yes, you're looking at the guy who did pick him by upset, knowing that despite the weight difference, which I don't think in the end is the story in the end of why this fight was lost. Why this fight was lost is Canelo Alvarez really

is that great and had such a technical advantage. But when we talk, Luke, about the disappointment of what Jermell Charlo didn't do, to not come out and use the jab at all. This wasn't, I couldn't get the jab off because Canelo was countering me so clean. It was just not a part of Charlo's attack in the first half of this fight.

Not much in the second half either. That's unacceptable for me, knowing what he was up against. Obviously, it seemed to be there was something built into Jermell's mind of the recent trend from Canelo in the last three fights where he looked a little agey, was fading late. That script flipped up, ripped, and we threw it away because Canelo here at 33 years and two months younger than Jermell, Charlo looked like the bigger, fresher fighter.

But Jermell, it wasn't so much couldn't get off, it was maybe wouldn't get off. And then Luke, obviously the key here, and Canelo does this so brilliantly, is takes what's available to him. Charlo living behind that high guard for most of the first half of the fight. So what did Canelo do? Targeting the body, of course, but clubbing away at the left shoulder, the left bicep, the left arm in general of Charlo to say, look, if you have plans on using that jab or that left hook,

which is your money and your go punch, that's not going to happen. I do want to obviously give Charlo some say, look, if you have plans on using that jab or that left hook, which is your money and your go punch, that's not going to happen. I do want to obviously give Charlo some kind of credit. He did try to mount offensive surges in the second half, but it was going to be too much of an uphill battle against a guy who you're not going to land one punch against for the most part here. A guy who's never been down in Alvarez and has walked through shots from Triple G, Sergey Kovalev, on and on. Disappointing in that regard, because I felt like this could have turned into an interesting fight in the second half, but to see Charlo be so timid and really overwhelmed, overwhelmed by the moment in the first half, and if you're going to be overwhelmed by the moment early,

it's going to be harder to rally when your all-time great opponent across from you quickly answers any question as to whether age or decline will be in this. It was not part of the equation. Unfortunately, Luke, on the flip side, this wasn't the best version of Charloth. So, you know, there was some form of a disconnect. You heard his corner in the second half. They got after him. Pleading for him to start something, do something.

And again, while he had a couple offensive stretches with combinations in that second half where you say, hey, maybe you can build on it. It's hard to build on that when you're down seven rounds to zero, when you're down eight rounds to zero. And obviously that seventh round knockdown, just an absolute beautiful shot from Canelo to curl that right hand in between the guard. You can't spend that much time with your back against the ropes either. And that's the thing. I thought the speed and the sting of Charlo's shots could not discipline Canelo, but could basically say, hey, you're not going to overwhelm me. You're not going to walk me down. You walked him down with ease.

I mean, this was the part that I thought was kind of interesting. We had talked about it. I did a whole preview for it, which kind of tanked, which made me sad. But the reality is... If we can get past your emotional status for a second. Well, there's also jubilation at your failure here. But nevertheless, if I could just be serious, I thought, okay, if Harrison was going to do it and Castagna were going to do it, but they were a little bit reckless with marching down, then you thought, well, maybe Canelo will be somewhat reserved. But Canelo's posture from the word go, BC, not the opening bell, but the second round on, he was just almost running across the ring to establish it. And Charlo gave all of that distance away. Guys, if you're not pumping your jab, if your opponent is punching your arm, which is your best punch, the left hook,

and you're giving up the space in the real estate so your back is along the ropes basically the entire fight, how is that a winning strategy you're just not gonna win that way now do you think in hindsight here we couldn't get inside the minds of Derek James or Charlo or obviously am I not just not going to be able to remember Juwan Guzman's name this entire week I just got it right there uh do you think the strategy was to to wait on Charlo because when you're I mean to wait on Canelo and the problem with that is Canelo will do that because he'll take the computer,

take the Snapchat. He'll give you a couple rounds sometimes to figure you out. Yet it was Team Charlo that's just like, no, we'll give the round back to you to just basically take. They had to be assuming he would fade late and that Charlo would come on. Here's what I believe. I believe that when they faced off,

even if he felt that he was going to be under pressure, Charlo and Canelo, that when he looked across from Canelo, he was going to see more openings and be able to land with more authority than what actually happened. Canelo, I think, you know, he would come with a high guard, but dude, Canelo, it gives a lot of looks that all look the same. And then the punches that come afterwards, they're all different. And Charlo got to a point, because to your point, he didn't start early enough, very quickly by the third round, you could see Charlo not knowing what punches are coming from the same setup, because now he's getting confused. Yes.

So between the retreating and the somewhat reserved posture, it just gave Canelo all of the oxygen he needed to get off to the strong start and then continue downhill thereafter. And that plays into an argument you and I had ahead of this fight where I basically said, he's got to be on his wheels with the jab making Canelo chase,

because your only chance to beat Canelo for the most part, unless he's old and fading late and you can somehow stop him and no one's even dropped him, is to try to win more rounds with him. And I know nobody beats him by decision, especially in Vegas. Not consistently, not typically. But when we saw Charlo by round three, we're realizing he's not here to box.

If you're not here to box against the bigger man, the bigger puncher, then you're not here to win rounds against him. You're only here to try to set up some late surge. And to Charlo's credit at 154, that late surge brings menacing Charlo's credit, at 154, that late surge brings menacing power that he can change

the future of a fight with one punch. He did that against Harrison. He did that with accumulated shots there against Castaño. I'm disappointed in that regard, because that was my argument to you, that if he's not trying to be the boxer early, knowing inevitably Canelo will adjust and make it a fight, then he's not trying to be the boxer early, knowing inevitably Canelo will adjust and make it a fight,

then he's not going to win the fight in what we saw. But I don't think I can throw all of it on Charlo. Canelo does not give you openings. Canelo is on you. We should say Canelo had a renewed vigor tonight that I think put Charlo in that posture he ultimately assumed a little bit more quickly and a little bit more authoritatively than otherwise the one he had against John Ryder would have done.

For sure, for sure. And I also think, you know, for Canelo, he's getting in better shape. He's taking this more serious than a John Ryder. And then you saw that performance that he delivered right there at the end. I mean, just commanding. Let me ask you. We didn't talk about this yet. What did you make of Canelo at the end being like, Cinco de Mayo, I fucking love boxing.

Boxing is my life. Something was on the line for him tonight about, I think, how he felt and how he felt about his place in the sport. Sure. And it was about reclaiming a little bit of that lost territory with some of these lackluster performances. Because while we said, look, we said, you've got to kind of trust Canelo because as a, you know, look,

membership comes privileges. When you're the pound for pound king, which he was up until about a year ago, and you are also boxing's biggest face, I mean, you have a certain level of wiggle room that other fighters don't. Yet he's largely used his power to help boxing,

to help fans. So when he says, hey, guys, you know, I agree. I haven't been at my best last three fights, but I know why and I'll fix it. I felt like we kind of had to believe him. But at the same time, it's like when he fixes that, he had the motivation to do so. Because I don't think Canelo has liked that in this three fight stretch, which was a close loss to B-ball in scoring, at least. And then obviously the two wide but ho-hum victories that followed that. I don't think Canelo has enjoyed all the fanfare

of that in Iowa. In a way, the monster's been getting where that Terrence Crawford just got from defeating Smith. A great pop here tonight from the crowd. So I think the motivation was mixed between the idea of Canelo saying, look, I know I had the loss to B-Vol and I know you guys maybe think

I'm old from those last two performances, but I'm still in the debate of number one pound for pound, and would you agree or disagree that that performance at least puts him back in the conversation? Crawford won, Inouye too, and that's hard to put a guy who just did what Inouye did at two. Yeah. But could you argue that Canelo put himself back in that discussion? I think that's the fervor and motivation that was in Canelo.

And that's the reason why he went to Lake Tahoe. He fought a guy two weight classes below him. No. But it wasn't the size that lost Charlo this fight. It was the skill gap and the strategy. A little bit. A little bit. First of all, we haven't talked about it.

I mentioned it before you got here. I do think that the ring rust didn't help him. It didn't help him. He denied it was a big factor. But then he gets out and says, I didn't feel like myself. Dude, that's the number one didn't help him. It didn't help him. He denied it was a big factor, but then he gets out there and says, I didn't feel like myself. Dude, that's the number one telltale sign. When a fighter says, I didn't feel like myself,

and they've been off for a long time, probably ring rust is the factor. That's the first thing I'd like to say. And here's the other part too, BC. I think his power, Charlo's power at 168 was probably fine, right? I don't think it was bad. I mean, he put together combos

in little moments in that second half that any other fighter may have shaken. Fair enough. And it's hard to know how big they are because Canelo's got one of the most rock chins you've ever seen in your life. But nevertheless, I agree that this was more of a skills issue than it was any other

kind of weight issue. If we're measuring one or the other. But I don't think that charlo physically settled into 168 all that great here's what you have to ask yourself there was the perceived speed advantage that look if you're combining a potential speed advantage with quick footwork and getting in and out with the jab like i thought he would do it's one thing he didn't he either didn't use the speed advantage or it wasn't as pronounced because he put the muscle on. So to your point, you know, I think a lot of people said maybe he should come in not 167.4, same weight as Canelo,

but maybe come in closer to 160 and really try to ride the speed. They ultimately, it seemed Luke chose to build on some mass on his body that maybe did not get physically overwhelmed. But, you know, I don't think that ultimately they put their best foot forward in this. But also, and this is something Steven Jackson said to us during Friday's weigh-in show, he's also fighting a goat. He's also fighting a motivated goat who really wanted to come out and, like I said, prove to us that he's still among the pound-for-pound best. But do you like what he did knowing Crawford's ringside?

Just said, look, can we say the F word? He said, I'll fight fucking anybody. Like, just, you know, whatever. Okay, who should he fight next? No, no, no, don't give me this bullshit about what could happen. Who should he fight next? There's two names that he should fight next. One, Bud Crawford.

Two, David Benavidez. Don't want to hear anybody else's name. Okay. Don't want to hear anybody else's name. Okay. Don't want to hear anybody else's name. Crawford is a unique, insanely appetizing, just dream super video game fight. But because Charlo, as you heard, also called out Crawford,

saying that he's going to come back down full time to 154. The elephant in the room is that he's got to fight Earl Spence first, meaning Crawford. So if Canelo is pushing off to next May, yeah, let's do it. The Mexican monster, David Benavidez. I know Benavidez appears to be headed toward a Demetrius Andrade shot later this year. That seems to be the rumors. But here's the thing.

He's coming. Do you want to wait? Do you want to wait until he gets older and more experienced if you're Canelo? You might have to do that fight. You got to do that one now. I get, like, you know, even when Canelo was flirting with a second

B-Ball fight, which is such a level of daring to be great, that normally we'd be like, man, you can do whatever you want if you're going in that direction. Or even when Canelo was flirting with the idea of moving up to Cruiserweight to maybe chase a title there. It's hard to say, man, you can do whatever you want if you're going in that direction. Or even when Canelo was flirting with the idea of moving up to Cruiserweight to maybe chase a title there. It's hard to say, man, you're ducking. You're ducking Benavidez. But Benavidez just established himself earlier this year

on the pay-per-view level against Caleb Plant, a dominant victory in the end. If he can do the same against Andrade if they make this fight, it's just like... What name am I not understanding who he should be fighting? What's up, MK fans in the house? There we go. But, Luke, the whole point on this is, like,

I don't think in the court of public opinion, even with as dominant and incredible as this performance was and where we are still saying he is pound for pound, if it's not Crawford and it's not Benavidez, you're going to really start hearing it from the Benavidez side that's, like, you're on the same side of the line, business-wise, TV-wise. Got two more fights with PBC.

It may be time to do that, because would you agree, and I'm going to ask you your real opinion here, that Jermell's performance canceled a need for Jermall, should he come back? He's supposed to have a comeback fight later this year, should he put himself in line? I want to be careful about what I say, because I don't want folks to look at this performance from Jermell and think,

oh, Jermell's stock has dropped in a dramatic way in all ways. No, he dared to be great. Let's put some respect on it. But what I am going to say is, this was a lifeless enough of a performance. Lifeless isn't quite the strong word. This was way too timid of a performance, I think, to help his stock or to capture the imagination of Bud Crawford if the Canelo Alvarez opportunity really is there. Let's say you had a choice between them. Like the Crawford versus Charlo sweepstakes have, I think,

plummeted in terms of interest after a contest like this. And Dremel, certainly the bigger of the two, but he's got plenty of questions. We've always said part of the reason we wanted Dremel and not Dremel in this bout is because he's the more skilled of the two, but he's got plenty of questions. We've always said part of the reason we wanted Jermall and not Jermall in this bout is because he's the more skilled of the two. Well, if he's the more skilled of the two, what would be the argument for Jermall? What do we got?

Here's a tweet. Mikey Mormala, great producer at CBS Sports, just hit me up. Terrence Crawford has tweeted at Twin Charlo, which is Jermall. Here's the quote. You went out sad. Didn't even try to win all you did was try to survive you should be ashamed of yourself end quote that is some cold ass direct shiat from bud crawford bud is feeling it right now well i mean rightfully

because you see his dress shirt tonight that he had on the red carpet holy it was like seven amazing shirts all put together in one. Yeah, you know how we said like Abner Barres has three different haircuts in one, like in an ecosystem? Terrence had the same thing. Alright, so Luke, to go back to that topic, Terrence versus Canelo is a hell of a fight.

Is there any chance we could talk Errol Spence out of the need for this rematch? I don't think so. I think he wants it, unfortunately. I don't have much interest in it, but that doesn't mean he won't. Would you be more interested in what do you think is better for the sport? Canelo versus Crawford, Canelo versus

Benavidez. Canelo Crawford better for the sport, but Canelo versus Benavidez better for the hardcore side of the sport. And certainly for the Mexican fans, who by the way, there were plenty of them here tonight good lord dude this has been like the entire month of september in las vegas has been like mexican celebration month did you see i got i got i got a mark here from that thing falling on me

did you see that did you from that that light or no sorry i headbutted the light the lighting yesterday people no one's talking about this that during our live uh weigh-in shit just fell on me something fell and it hit you right in the crotch but it missed like right here the tarjay by like an inch you know i mean they could have canceled your future fatherdom your future sire ability i would have been there like three needles right i would have needed a sire for hire okay a sire for hire me i had the thing you think i want to put your genetics into my family's bloodline? My lord. Back to the genetics of boxing. Yeah, look, Bud Crawford versus Kendall would be absurdly special. You only have certain windows to make fights like this.

To really. That's true. Two Hall of Famers. Two all-time greats that are operating in much wider divisions separate from each other. That are willing to come together and the boxing public would embrace it. It would have so much meaning in the pound-for-pound race of the moment of this era. And, oh, by the way, don't forget who said it. This guy may have gotten it wrong about what Jermell Charlotte was going to bring to this fight.

Maybe it was wishful thinking for a little chaos in boxing, but it was a wrong pick. But I did say the day after Spence Crawford that Crawford is so good, Luke, that should he try to F around and go up to 6'8 against that big red man, I wouldn't tell him not to. So Luke Thomas from the Canelo, the refined, refreshed Canelo that you saw this evening, what's a betting line on Bud Canelo? What would be your early feeling on that? Give us something.

Similar to what you got here with Charlo in terms of the betting line. I'd say probably a minus 400 or so. Dude, that's Bud Crawford that we're talking about. Canelo's much bigger, yeah. Minus 400, yeah. I would still not expect Crawford to win, but I want to see him try because he appears to be able to do the impossible. And what do you think about Crawford's...

What do you think about the surface level of Crawford's trash talk to Charlo? You know, it's not even great trash talk. It's just mean. It's like, yo, your parents don't even love you. It's like, god damn, dude. But in terms of what he's trying to say, what he's trying to say is, if I have

these huge options for these big fights, why... We're already there? We're already there. Are we already there? Hold on, I gotta turn this off. I have to do it. I mean, you popped the team. Yeah, alright. I guess we'll do the

forward... Hey, Brian, what's your prediction for the fight? Oh, great pick! Great pick, Brian, what's your prediction for the fight? Great pick. That's your best prediction yet. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I picked Tavoris Cloud to knock out Bernard Hopkins once. That has lived in me. Hey, does this one cancel out the

Woodley Overtill, you piece of shit? Hey, there are two people on this earth that knew that Ngannou was going to win. And you heckled me. There was also one person on this earth that knew that we could beat Rogan and Ariel on a podcast. That's true. You gave us... No chance whatsoever. No chance.

Real quickly, because I want to wrap this up. Well, I was actually... I was already somewhere, but we just. Who gives a shit? Yeah, we left. Jesus Ramos and Erickson Lubin. Some of the worst fucking scorecards I've ever seen. 1-17, 1-11 for Erickson Lubin.

Now, I will say this. Shakur Stevenson and Caleb Plant were like, oh, yeah, Lubin won this fight. And then you look at the scoring, you're like, dude, I don't think he won even by that margin. No. Okay, so here's the deal. I can't support 9-3 Lubin. I can't really even won even by that margin. No. Okay, so here's the deal. I can't support 9-3 Lubin. I can't really even support a unanimous decision. But the whole time when I'm watching this fight live here,

reading media scores online, and seeing not only our colleague Steve Farhood scoring, and that was what he saw from his vantage point, but also what the analysis was being put forth from our Showtime brethren, I thought that in general they were missing some of what Erickson Lubin was doing. I get that Jesus Ramos, by putting pressure and being right in front of him, he took away the power hand of Lubin. This is a passive performance from Lubin.

But what Lubin did do, in my opinion, in a lot of those middle rounds, was still work that jab consistently. And for as much success as Ramos had, constantly cornering Lubin. And I do agree with Al Bernstein sort of saying, like, why is Lubin so willing to constantly back up to the ropes? Ramos was not overwhelming him with clean shots. Body shots here and there, which was a big part of his offense. But he would flurry against Lubin several times,

and a lot of that got through. And it's just hard for me to believe that guy lost. Look, there was just a lot of slow-paced rounds that the crowd booed. The fight was not great. The fight was not great. And did Ramos take his foot off the gas in the final? Yes, he did. So I basically had more rounds It was the De La Hoya versus Trinidad bit.

I basically had more rounds scored for him in the early part of the round than anyone else seemed to do, but I thought some of those early rounds, again, were just so passive where would I have taken more of Lubin's jab, backing up, catching Ramos coming in? Yes, I did. So the key for Ramos here, Luke, is it's bad luck in a way. Basically, I thought it could have been 7-5 either way is really what I'm saying here.

I would have lived with it a little bit if we had gotten that. But for Patricia Morse Jarman to be like, yeah, 117, 111, get the fuck out of here. Yeah, I basically was – there was one round I just couldn't figure it out because it was a shitty round and it was so even. Whichever way you go, really, either guy could have gotten the lean there. But it's a wake-up call to Ramos, though. He didn't do enough. So, look, he did discipline Lubin.

But the jab was hitting. The jab was accurate. You've got to put that statement on. You've got to cross the line when you have him cornered against the ropes and light him up. There wasn't enough of that there in a big spot. Mario Barrios getting the best win of his career, stopping Jordanis Ugas. And I want to just say this, too. I thought Barrios looked great.

Getting back with Bob Santos was amazing. His jab. This is the second fight of their comeback. You were talking about Charlo not having a jab. Yes. Barrios didn't have that problem. But I want to say this. It was a decision.

Okay, they should have stopped that fight. He didn't get finished,, they should have stopped that fight. He didn't get finished, but they should have stopped that fight because Ugas' eye, the same eye that Errol Spence destroyed, it's swelled up in this particular fight as well, which means it looks like it's a permanent condition. Are you saying Ugas should finish? Is that what you're saying? I think that his career might be over, and I mean that for his own health.

I don't want to see that eye do that again. Here's what I'll tell you about Barrios, okay? Bob Santos turned him back into a boxer. The Barrios that we'd seen, big balls, Aztec warrior for days, right? But we'd seen him on the highest level against Keith Thurman and Tank Davis, and he fought admirably but came up short. Specifically against Thurman, he was a one-punch-at-a-time guy, and I know he was making the transition from 40 to 47.

But Santos brought back not just the jab, but the combination punching, the confidence, the double-triple jab, get out of there. He never was standing in one spot long enough for Ugas to really unload. And while Ugas, like, I don't want to be lost in the totality of the dominance, was that Ugas was in this fight in the middle

and that the middle rounds were really fun. It was a fun-ass fight for a while. Sure, yeah, actually, it was a good fight. And they were trading evenly, but I thought overall Barrios was getting the better of him. And, Luke, this is a mature step-up performance because, be honest with me, if Barrios had been outclassed in this fight, what would be his reputation after this? A guy who gives good fighters good fights but can't beat them. Right, max effort guy but just not good enough.

Not good enough. I think he opened up a new lane for himself, and it's going back to some of the boxing beginnings. Bob was originally his trainer, Santos. Then they kind of parted ways. Now we're back in. He was with what, Virgil Hunter? Yes. This second fight was definitely a step forward, because now

I mean, could you see him fighting Boots? Could you see him fighting... That's a tough fight. You're not going to get Crawford in there. Crawford's got bigger business. Boots they might do, but boots I think works him over like a summer job. Nevertheless, great win for Mario Barrios. Love that. And then also the opening bout, Elijah Garcia. That was like a mini war, right?

Fucking great fight against Armando Resendiz. And the best part was the final combination, BC. He goes left hook to the body, which gets Resendiz to scrunch over. He goes right hook to the body and then doubles it up. So as Resendiz is elevating his own posture, he goes right into the other hook, sits him down, polishes him off thereafter.

What a phenomenal combination by the 20-year-old. What about the 20-year-old, though? He got hit a lot. He did. And he was in there with a game guy. Look, Ray. Yeah, I said the guy brought it. The guy brought it.

Ray Sendys, as you're telling me. The accent is on the second E, so it's Ray Sendys. Did what's-your-name get you down? Ray Sendys nuts. Okay, we can end the show at any point. All right. Can you play the fart noise again? Here's the point.

Don't mind if I do. Elijah Garcia will be better from this. He's got to shore up that defense, though, in close range a little bit. But, hey, that kid held firm. He didn't fall apart. He got rocked a few times. He didn't fall apart. All right?

There we go. By the way, Luke, I didn't say this in real time, but my tolerance for your disgustingness is getting out of hand. During dinner tonight, which was Luke and I trying to scarf down some quick fast food over there before we started, you openly, openly shit your pants while we were sitting next to each other eating, which is gross enough, okay, even for a humor guy like me. Are you mad because you picked Charlo?

Then as you were getting up and leaning forward, and this wasn't like to get me. This is just your filth in motion. You let out three disgusting burps as you're bending up to pick up your trash. As I'm sitting there biting into my sandwich. I definitely am guilty of the farting, not the burping. Your lack of self-hygiene slash awareness among others close to you. Oh, I'm aware you're close. I just don't think you're worthy of anything.

You must have many Dutch oven victims in your house. Many, many. Remember, like, I used to barbecue with that guy in Cleveland. Who would have known he had all those women tied up in the basement? Like, that's definitely you right there. Why don't you pick some more fights? You're doing really great. You know, I did pick Charlo by upset.

And I have to say, I have to say I'm a little disappointed. It didn't go. It could have gone better for him. It could have gone better. For all the lion fury that he has in the lower weight class, it just you know, it's like when you're by the

fire pit and it's wet out and your wife's like, don't burn the soggy ones! Because, you know, it brings all that smoke up and stuff and you're trying to light that thing outside and it just won't light. He couldn't light the fire. He wasn't trying to light it that hard, though, you know? He was trying. But not that hard, though. He was trying. Not that hard. Alright, well, let's wrap

this up here. So, let's thank the entire Malka crew, Luke and Gaff and Tristan and all the other serial killers that are here. Filthy Phil. They'll put on a great show and stab you in the bathroom. Filthy Phil's got some crazy conspiracies that go well beyond Building 7. He's just

another level. Thanks to the Showtime crew, of course, that were out here as well. Thanks to Mikey Morms, our intrepid producer from CBS Sports on the ones and twos. And thanks to all you folks. This week has been challenging for any number of different reasons, but we persevered, we finished it, and we'll be back on Monday, right? I guess we are. I mean, we are paid to appear. Are you all right with that?

How about Cedric Dube, a PFL, getting a seven, or I think it was officially a nine-second KO? How about Stan Fairtex becoming the champ? Dude, Angela Lee retiring? Did you catch any Newark Penn Station this week? I did hear you coughing a little bit. I think it's from the kind of weed I'm smoking. Are you coughing all the way to the coffin, Luke.

All right, so like and subscribe. Thank you guys so much for watching. I picked Charlo, guys. I did. Hold on. Can we just take a moment to think about that? Luke, I picked Charlo. Here's what I want to say.

Can I Bundy this up? There we go. So I did, guys. You're going to have to. I mean, I'm going to have to deal with that. I also picked Woodley over Till, but I did pick Charlo tonight. What do you think Canelo would say about me if he found out

that I picked Charlo? Would he call me Cabrones? I don't know. Here, let me put the soundtrack to this picture. Ready? Here it is. Yeah. This is what picking Charlo looks like on this pay-per-view night. Undisputed versus undisputed. All right.

All right. That's Brian Campbell. I'm Luke Thomas. We're done here at Morning Comment. We'll see you guys on Monday. This is our last show. It was great entertaining you. Thanks for being here all week.

We appreciate it. I'll never see you again. Bye, guys. Thank you. Yeah.