MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Charles Oliveira | Conor McGregor | Khamzat Chimaev vs. Belal Muhammad | Ep. 245

Episode Date: December 27, 2021

On Episode 245 of Morning Kombat Brian breaks down Charles Oliveira's recent comments about who he wants to fight next and when. Is Justin Gaethje next up? Dana White told Daniel Cormier why Conor McGregor got 'special treatment'. Is Dana right? Belal Muhammad spoke more on a potential Khamzat Chimaev fight. BC closes out the main topics with some quick hitters (Rashad Evans, Kevin Lee, Jon Jones). 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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This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. Oh, yeah. The only combat cure for the holiday hangover. The one and only, MK Morning Combat back at it

Monday, December 27th, 2021. Top of the morning to you all. Happy holidays. Merry Christmas. Kwanzaa. A special Hanukkah shout out to Jay Aaron and his family. I am that BBC with the BDE, the American Alpha, the Brian Campbell, the only one who showed up today. Look, it's a it's a dead time for combat sports. It's the holiday season. You surely don't see our rival shows putting on a live show today. But luckily, MK has your back, whether you're back to work and you hate to tear or you are sitting at home and you're jam jams. Your boy BC is here. All that.

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Christmas, ugly sweaters, a lot of people touching tips. If you're not wearing, you could be wearing the underpants right now of Luke and I going like this, pointing to Uranus, you know? It's like, it's, it's, it's, uh, yeah. Okay. There you go. Uh, what are we doing today? As I mentioned, we're gonna be doing a little bit of this, a little bit of that, uh, having some fun here. No, this isn't Santana featuring Michelle branch, but, uh, uh, we're gonna, we're gonna do the business here. I am your boy BC. Let me just take another swig of this. No ad reads, nothing ridiculous here.

Just a Monday after Christmas spot to kick things off and keep it flowing. Luke will be back on Wednesday. We're going to have a fun couple weeks coming up as the combat sports calendar takes a hiatus. It's the only sort of quote-unquote off-season that we get in this game, especially with the way UFC has been running, just, just blockbuster every single week. So we're going to have some fun. We're going to return to the MK studio in Jersey city coming up shortly. Debuting unveiling was the word I was looking for our brand new studio.

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Shout out to Staten Island Sally on the ones and twos today, holding us down. Here we go. Our first topic of the day, if I can do the Rockaway and sort of lean, lean back. UFC lightweight champion Charles Oliveira did an interview just ahead of Christmas with Sherdog.com. And what did he say? Oh, you know that guy, Conor McGregor? Charles Oliveira is targeting a May return and his preferred opponent. It is the notorious one. How did we get here? Is this legit? Will this happen?

Should this happen? It's been an interesting debate fresh off of Olivera's victory at UFC 269 over Dustin Poirier, in which, of course, Conor McGregor tweeted out, Hey, Charles, you know, when are we fighting? Well, Olivera had essentially a response to that. Here's what he told ShoreDog. May would be a wonderful day. Conor challenged me asking a date and tweeted Ireland versus Brazil too,

which of course is a reference to Conor's victory over Jose Aldo. Not only him, but also myself and all of the world wants to see that fight. So let's make it happen. I'm waiting for him in May. It may be in welterweight, lightweight, or middleweight with my title on the line or not.

Just choose and I'll be ready so i know what you're saying what the f right rightfully so okay first of all what why wouldn't charles olivero watch this guy he's 32 years old he's on an insane win streak he's the ufc lightweight champion he's figured this game out how to be great oh now he wants to make a crap ton of money there's nobody better to make money against than the biggest star the sport has ever known in conor mcgregor who oh by the way right now to be fair happens to be a little bit of damaged goods not just in age but in injury coming off of that what leg snap that he had against dustin poirier in their third meeting and just the fact that he's fresh off at age 33 two straight TKO defeats the first two of his career uh in terms of strikes or in the

second one obviously an injury which which brought that up in the third fight this would be the time for Oliver to try to make his name to try to cash in an opponent that could be deemed easy who has had questions at times everything from gas tank to a lack of a ground ability. What's interesting here is the fact that Conor just doesn't deserve it. Now, it wouldn't be the first time privileges were given to those who can do things extra, can bring in the money. It would be interesting, though, if UFC goes in this direction, though, because you could argue that Conor McGregor at this point would be

would he be the least deserving title challenger of all time i think you have to go back in recent history books and look at the people who are in this category it's certainly uh chael sunnen fresh off his loss to anderson silva in their middleweight title rematch getting a very unnecessary 2013 light heavyweight title shot against John Jones, really just to fuel their ultimate fighter coaching and the potential ratings there. Of course, Sonnen sold the hell out of the fight the best he could. Nobody thought he had a chance. He got dominated.

It was his first light heavyweight fight in eight years. It was a debacle. It was about money. We knew that coming in. Dan Henderson getting the Michael Bisping rematch for the middleweight title hendo was 46 and a bunch of losses during that run i know he destroyed hector lombard at ufc 199 in in just vicious fashion to sort of keep hope alive for another big fight it certainly wasn't warranted for him to get the title shot there but they had the history from ufc 100 and to give dan Hendo credit at 46 in his final career fight, boy, did he fight like

a man and drop Bisping twice and damn near almost did the impossible. And then you've got other situations. Jose Aldo recently getting a Bantamweight title shot fresh off two straight defeats, although it was a questionable one at best against Marlon Marais. I thought Marais had done enough in that split decision. I don't think it was robbery. It was just what did you prefer at the end of the day. Aldo got it with the name and the history.

Holly Holm got that featherweight title shot when she was fresh off a couple defeats. It happens. That was a new division, though, like Aldo. This time you've got a Conor McGregor who recent history is just not good. Recent history selling, yes. Three losses in his last four fights. We give him a lot. We give him a lot of length and room for that cowboy Cerrone comeback win in January 2020. I mean, it was only 40 seconds long.

I'll admit that I, you know, I bit down a little bit too hard on it. He looked, it wasn't so much beating a guy in Cerrone who was washed, who was fresh off a ton of defeats himself and wasn't in a great spot. But it was that kind of looks so fresh, dialed in, a little bit of nuance added to his game. Yeah, it was only 40 seconds. But outside of that, in five years, he's lost three of four,

and all three were stoppages. You know, hidden in that is the fact that he gave Nurmagomedov at UFC 229, maybe the stiffest challenge of any of his title defenses is short of Justin Gaethje being one more leg strike away from putting him in peril. But you wouldn't say he was overly competitive in that one. He's on a bad run right now. Is this beyond the UFC to do it? Hell no. I just talked about the history.

They would love to do it? Hell no. I just talked about the history. They would love to do it. It's rare, though, that you get sort of all three entities, the two fighters and the promoter, being so willing to do it. That leads me to believe, hey, fans, you may hate it or love it, the underdog's on top. I think we're going to see this in May. Why? Because it seems like Dana White's comments have been leaning toward the idea of Dustin Poirier getting a big payday and pay-per-view you know main event close-up against Nate Diaz it would make sense even if Conor went in there and lost to Oliveira

which he would be favored to do that he could come out of that and fight either Poirier or Nate Diaz in an in a trilogy against Nate or a potential fourth fight against Dustin, regardless, really, of who wins that, Conor would really transition at that point into essentially big fight mode, which you can argue he already is. Do I like this better than him potentially, meaning Conor, cutting the line and going up and facing Usman for the title, which is equally as unwarranted, much more comparative to the Chael Sonnen light heavyweight situation that I mentioned.

Which one's more egregious? Both. Really, both. I mean, this is one of those situations where it sucks. You get it. You get business. It doesn't make a ton of sense, though. It doesn't make a ton of sense in terms of rankings and the competitiveness.

And Justin Gaethje, who I've argued is deserving even with that Habib loss, which I thought he did well in until he suddenly lost it quick and viciously. And I thought, you know, him bouncing back against Chandler the way he did, he's the guy who's deserving. You saw Gaethje's comments last week essentially saying, look, if Conor gets this over me, you know, I'm going to go January 6th style on the UFC and start throwing dollies and smearing feces on Pelosi's desk. And I think that that would be warranted in this case.

But business wins out. And look, two months ago, would I have thought the UFC would have the gall to potentially try this? It'd be hard to imagine it two months ago. Conor is off two straight TKO defeats in this division. So what's changed too much? Not much, really, right? Not much has really changed except for the fact that Conor says, I want it. Oliveira says, I want it.

And the UFC hasn't officially said they want it. But what they did say, if you saw that Dana White sit down with Bredo Komodo that we referenced on Friday's or sorry, last Wednesday's episode of MK, he didn't shoot it down. He did not say either way. He was noncommittal. And when a promoter is noncommittal on a typically controversial subject, it typically means they're going in the direction of the most controversy. They just don't want to say it.

So would this fight sell absolutely could it be bat crazy yes it could no question oliver goes to finish you every second of the fight he tries to and mcgregor is really one of the greatest first round fighters that we've seen in combat sports history in terms of going out there his mission to land that left hand on your chin and he's going to do everything he can to try to make that happen i could also see why connor could could talk himself into believing this is a style and a fighter in which he can beat because Oliveira is so reckless and comes at him.

Oliveira could do very bad things, though, to Conor. I think we all realize that. This would be an interesting cash-out of what's left of Conor's elite brand, meaning the title contending brand. This would be sort of an all-in because if he loses three straight, and if he loses, he's probably going to get finished, right? I mean, Oliveira finishes everyone.

That's four defeats and five fights all by stoppage. He would then at that point be, in my mind, a full-on, okay, let's get the Nate fight. Let's see if we can get Jorge. I mean, he's in big fight mode anyway. So it would be an interesting potential cash out of that. Olivera in that Sherdog interview was asked, hey, what about Dana saying before the Okamoto interview that Justin Gaethje is most likely next? This is what Olivera said. Gaethje was knocked out by Poirier, who I just submitted.

He was almost knocked out by Chandler, who I beat via TKO. But I'm a UFC employee. If they choose that I should fight Gaethje next, I'm ready too. A fairly diplomatic response there from Oliveira. Gun to my head, do I think Conor's next? I think he is. Should it be Gaethje? Yes.

And that would be arguably, right? You know how much I'm excited for Whitaker, Adesanya too, coming up to open this year. Everyone's excited about Gan and Ganu for the Undisputed Heavyweight title. But as far as potential big-time UFC fights that we could and probably have a great chance of seeing in the first quarter here, Oliveira-Gaethje would be right up there. That thing has the potential to just be the kind of same savage theater that the top end of this division has consistently produced, from Chandler Oliveira to Chandler Gaethje to, you know, you name it.

I still feel like Conor is the clubhouse leader, though. You get rare chances. Not that the UFC needs this pay-per-view, but even in a down year for Conor, two losses, both by stoppage, not a even in a down year for Conor, two losses, both by stoppage, not a great year in the headlines for Conor, he's still a big part about why this was the biggest financial year in UFC history. That ESPN deal pays them so much foundationally, but two monster pay-per-views with Dustin versus Conor. I mean, it's hard to not, if you're a moneymaker, it's hard. If you're sitting in the. I mean, it's hard to not, if you're a moneymaker,

it's hard if you're sitting in the offices at Disney, it's hard not to say, oh, we can get another title fight out of this guy. You get it. You know how that works. Oliveira also called out Gaethje for being fake after the backstage meeting that the two had at UFC 269 after Oliveira defeated Poirier. Here's his quote. To tell you the truth, I couldn't understand Gaethje's posture. He said a lot of bullshit about me, but when he faced me,

he said I deserved the respect that I was the real champion. A few minutes later, he told the press that he would break my face. To tell you the truth, I don't really care about all this drama. Eh, Social Justice Monday as it is, that's what it was. Gaethje responded on Twitter by saying, it's called respect, you fool. And we are in the breaking faces business. My respect that night was just as real as my intention to take everything from you and your country. So it's going to be an interesting decision coming up. As much as Conor doesn't deserve this, I don't think in the end. You're going to see a media, the media, you know, sort of go, oh, come on, really? I don't think you're going to see that from a media the media you know sort of go oh come on

really i don't think you're gonna see that from the fan base it'll sell like blockbusters casual fans are what put pay-per-views over a million buys and put them up in high categories casual fans want more conor mcgregor that's it that's at the end of the day topic number two still involves mcgregor and it's sort of a deeper look at this level of decision making. Why does somebody get such special treatment? Is it deserved? Well, that's a question Dana White was asked on Daniel Cormier's YouTube channel during their catch up over the past week. Dana's quick answer. Why does Connor get special treatment? Quote, because he's fucking special. End quote. It's not that this is a category that is opening up your eyes or breaking news here.

We get that. But here's a little deeper cut on Dana's response. When we started this thing and this guy was on the rise, meaning Conor, and believe me, I've dealt with a fucking thousand fighters. Oh, this fight isn't for me at this time. Or this isn't that. This isn't this. This fucking kid, Conornor we've been in the

house that he was renting and you saw that if you watch that documentary on connor when when jose aldo pulled out and connor is sitting there and standing there in the kitchen with uh dana and lorenzo and you can look back and say man for a fighter that young he's got the he's got the owners coming over his house and just sort of strategizing with him dana picks up and says i think it was when aldo pulled out this is what con said to us. I don't give a fuck who you get. I'm going to work out. When you figure it out, call me and let me know. That is a true story. Dana continues. And then the night Diaz fight, another fight fell out for him. And he said, well, let's get Diaz. Well, do you want to do blank? No, I don't want it at a catch weight. I don't, I want to fight

him at his weight. It doesn't matter. It's bullshit. If I don't fight him at his weight, another true story about Connor final quote here from Dana. Connor has been the guy since day one that he walked into this fucking company. So our, so for anybody to point the finger and say, Oh, this guy gets special treatment. It's because this guy's special. This guy's fucking special. You know, how many fighters I've fucking dealt with that'll talk to me about, this isn't good for my brand, I'm not fighting my friends,

not Conor. End quote. Here's the deal, though. As much as I said the UFC shouldn't do Olivera McGregor next, they should. Does Conor have enough money in the bank to justify it again not from the media we're going to rightfully if this fight gets booked say damn poor gaethje damn the the rankings

and the matchmaking damn connor's history at 155 is what an upset stoppage of eddie alvarez which was great but that was on the connor rise in November of 2016. That was the final fight of the Conor Rise. But since then, considering Cerrone was at welterweight, which they bowed to Conor's wants and demands in the comeback fight there, fresh off of a two-year break, he's lost

three times at this weight class, all by stoppage. So is he fucking special, as Dana says? Under the terms of the quickest way to Dana's heart, yes, he is. What does Dana want from fighters? He wants them to sell themselves. Conor does that better than anybody ever. He wants them, even more importantly than that, to be company men who will drop everything on the dime and go, I'll fight anybody you've got.

That has been Conor's M.O., and love him or hate him during this post-Eddie Alvarez five-year rollercoaster ride in which he's really not ever come close to reaching that high point, and it's been a lot of little mini hills, he still carries that same swagger, that same energy. Now, did he take a soft comeback fight against Wash Cerrone at a time where nobody gets soft comeback fights yet? Did he push the weight up to welterweight?

Did they bend him? Yes, they did that. He still came through and got the knockout win. Okay, whatever that's worth. But Conor exudes something that is catnip today, by the way. Oh, you're going to act like a badass in the era of fighter pay? Now, look, Conor's not going to complain about fighter pay for the most part because he gets paid better than everybody else because he sells more than everybody else. So I get that.

Although let's not forget in 2016, he was the guy saying, I'm giving you guys so much money. I should be getting a cut. I should be getting stock. I should get ownership. That's never going to happen. But I like that stance from him. But the point is this, like nobody sells more than Conor and nobody's as hungry to fight anybody at any time. That is a special thing in the entertainment business that we're in

that can't be looked over. He's going to get way more opportunities than everybody else. It just is what it is. He delivers with fun and exciting fights. He sells the fight and he's a reality show in a way that like, you know, late nins Tyson was after the fight in terms of just kind of living raw on his sleeve, good or bad. You know, I thought he should have been staying away from the Twitter on the post-trilogy Poirier stoppage. But, you know, this guy's just, he doesn't always get along with Dana. He'll show the DMs when he wants to make a point.

But this guy is the ultimate Dana fighter. So, of course, he's going to get that. Of course, it always spins back to, is that right, though? DMs when he wants to make a point, but this guy is the ultimate Dana fighter. So, of course, he's going to get that. Of course, it always spins back to, is that right, though? I think that's the foundation of business in a lot of ways. Like, this is different. So, like, team sports are built upon competitiveness. I know there's always great, you know, rumors or conspiracy theories that referees in big playoff games will sort of tilt toward the larger market.

You know, let's not forget Game 7 of the 2000 Western Conference Finals, Kobe and Shaq versus that incredibly great and deep and underrated Portland Trailblazers team that had Pippen, Rasheed Wallace, David Stoudemire, Steve Smith, Arvita Sabonis, had a bench that probably could have made the playoffs in the East that year with like Detlef Schrempf and Gary Grant and Brian Grant and, you know, Greg Anthony. I mean, they had a squad there. You know, the refs in game seven, they padded the Lakers side very aggressively, despite a great L.A. comeback fueled by that Brian Shaw bank three-pointer down the third period. People forget that. And of course, culminated that Brian Shaw bank three-pointer down in the third period, people forget that,

and of course culminated with that great Kobe to Shaq alley-oop, the theory at that time was we can't have two small market teams, Portland versus Indiana, who had already clinched by eliminating the Knicks, in the finals. You can argue those conspiracies and Tim Donahue, the referee, throwing games and all that you want. But at the end of the day, that's built upon a competitive backdrop. The best are going to end up playing the best. It's a tournament format in the NBA, the NHL, the NFL, Major League Baseball. It's all set up where the best is going to face the best.

Yes, there's going to be years where it's that team against that team. You know, Chicago White Sox against Houston Astros in 04. I don't think I watched a second of that World Series. I was a baseball fan back then. Sometimes you get those small markets, it doesn't matter. Fights are not, the structure and foundation of promoting fights have never been that way, and probably never will be that way. Does the UFC have a ranking system? Yes. But it's BS, and we all know it is. Whoever loses a title shot stays the number one ranked fighter

for some reason, it doesn't make sense. The rankings are only whole you know wholesome and and newsworthy when when we want them to be when it's oh this is number two versus number three in the band weight division what a hell of a fight no one really cares it doesn't matter in the way this works it doesn't matter in boxing by the way either where this sort of thing happens all the time historically you have a name in boxing in boxing, it doesn't matter if you can barely walk to the ring. They're going to rinse and wring you out. So I think if this happens, you do have to look at, for the most part, and I'm no UFC mouthpiece under any circumstance.

Watch that four-minute video to find out from last Christmas. You get so much of what you deserve and what you want that it is hard at the end of the day to complain for stuff like this. And when I said, look, this is business. Have you ever been in a job where you got let go despite you having an exemplary attendance record and you tried hard, but you weren't, you know, supernatural at your job? But then there's that other guy who is. And that guy calls in sick all the time. And, you know, didn't he have that weird scandal? And, oh, he's still employed. Why? Because he sells, because he makes money. And that's sort of how business works at the end

of the day. And that's why Conor McGregor will be on top forever, right? Until the end. And if you don't think this happens in boxing, you know, look at the history of that. It's a rare step in that direction for the UFC. You know, again, you can count them on your hands the time where somebody gets a title shot and you're like, wow, that doesn't make any sense. They don't deserve that. But let's not, as much as we call that out, let's not forget that Conor McGregor has been sort of in a lot of ways. I mean, you know, is Cowboy Sharone the model UFC employee you'll fight every weekend? Yeah, maybe.

But at the high level, Conor's everything Dana ever could have wanted and more. He's going to keep getting that shit. You know that. Topic number three. Interesting situation going on at Welterweight. We all want Hamzat Shumayev to fight somebody. Dana White has said on the record you he put it uh down again against to Brett Okamoto that Shamayev will not be getting an instant title shot he's got to earn it a little bit more than he has through his breakout campaign in 2020 in the pandemic through his time off for

COVID and now his comeback in which he just looks back freakingacular who is it going to be is it going to be a Neil Magny is it going to be a whatever it going to be a Neil Magny? Is it going to be a whatever? It looks like it could be Bilal Muhammad, which is very interesting. We all know Bilal Muhammad is fresh off that very impressive three-round decision over Stephen Thompson, which put him in the title picture. I get that the MMA fans of this show, say BC and LT, you know, you guys are a little aggressive in saying, you know, is Bilal in the title picture now? What about Luque? What about, you know, all these other guys?

Well, he's in the greater title picture right now. This really could be the perfect fight for both of them. And when you have both of them being so outspoken as they have been on social media wanting this, I'm getting fired up over this. So here's what happened. Bilal Muhammad talked to MMA Fighting before Christmas and said, to me, rankings don't mean anything.

You're right. It's about hype. It's about who the UFC wants to push and who's that guy. Who's that McGregor right now? Who's that next big star? As we saw last year with Masvidal, where it's like, you don't have to be number two to get the title shot. Masvidal getting the second title shot against Usman undeservingly

because of his name. Look, it happens every once in a while. Back to Muhammad's quote, you don't have to be number one to get the title shot it's about who's getting that push right now in that right moment right now in the right moment hamza you get the most hype from being a guy like him than anybody else honestly i think bilal muhammad's right on with that because he is up against it to a certain degree he He's in the overall title picture, but as I call up the welterweight rankings right here, you got Usman on top.

You got Covington number one, even though he's fresh off his second defeat, so he's a little bit out of the title picture. You've got a refurbished Gilbert Burns, but he's not going to be fighting Usman tomorrow in a rematch, most likely. You got Leon Edwards at three, and you've got Luque at four,

Muhammad at five, and Masvidal and Thompson right behind him. So Masvidal and Thompson are going in that direction. It's really about this top five. And it's probably down, if this continues, this talk of Muhammad versus Chumaev, it's probably most likely that Usman fights either Leon Edwards next, which would be a rematch, but would be Leon's first chance at the title, or maybe a stay busy against Vicente Luque.

It would be a fun action fight. You could do that. For Muhammad to crash that party, he's right. The best thing you can do is go after Dana White's toy. You know, that's what I said about Leon Edwards a year ago. I said, go in the direction of Hamza Chamayev, because you can't get a title shot any other way, despite your win streak and all the, you know, sort of bad luck that's what I said about Leon Edwards a year ago. I said, go in the direction of Hamzat Shemaev because you can't get a title shot any other way despite your win streak and all the, you know, sort of bad luck that's happened to you.

And you've got right now, Mohamed and Leon Edwards talking trash over their sort of aborted no contest fight because of the eye poke to Mohamed. This was the perfect sort of opening and Mohamed's hungry and aggressive. He wants that smoke. He wants to crash the party.

Potentially beating Tremayev is that. Now, on the flip side, obviously, we need Hamzat Tremayev to sort of beat one more, one more big name to leave no doubt that he's deserving. I want this guy to fight for a title sooner than later. When we talk about the best fights, which I'm sure we're going to talk about the next week, BC, what are the best fights you want to see in 2021? Or 2022, excuse me. And obviously, it's like, you know, when Karate Sanji was getting. But, dude, I need to see Usman versus Chemayev now.

It's one of those rare fights that I'd like to see somebody like Chemayev, who's 27, who just looks like a million bucks, wants all the smoke, wants to lick the blood off the glove, like just one of those savages. I'd want to see him in a title shot before we know how great he is. And it's rare. Normally, I'm the opposite.

Normally, I'm like, nah, dude, don't cut the line. You know, we got to find out what you're really made of. He seems to be so, obviously, next level and brash. And then you consider, you know, the part of the world where he's from and the run that these guys have been on and the success we just had with Habib before his abrupt retirement, this guy could fill that gap. Obviously, Islam Mahachev looks to be like sort of the next Habib or the Habib 2.0. He's not going to be the same, you know, dominant level as Habib,

but a guy with Habib in his corner who's next. Hamzat's got, you know, that Shmesh Factory foundation, but he's also got this swagger and this marketability and this trash talking that I'd like to see him against Usman now. I think it's interesting. Considering we're talking about Conor McGregor cutting the line and considering we're talking about other times in history where it's happened, Francis Ngannou got to sort of cut the line and fight Stipe in that first fight.

It was like a month after he knocked out Overeem. It's rare that it happened, right? I'm surprised that Daniel Witt's not going forward with this now and giving Hamzat this chance. I don't know. I don't know if he'd go in there against Usman and get swallowed up. I don't know if he won two more fights and he went in there against Usman, if he'd still get swallowed up. But I think the potential of not knowing that and seeing him in the theater of a title shot, going from the, you know, the small level. I mean, look, he looked amazing in knocking out Gerald Mearshardt then he goes up after the long layoff this past october and fights the the leech lijean leon and it just absolutely destroyed him could he do that the theater of not knowing if

he could do that on that level against newsman i think it's a worthy gamble though because if he wins you've got your next star. He loses. He's young. It's early. He's only got 10 pro fights. He can bounce back from that. That doesn't seem to be the direction, though, with UFC and Dana White saying, no, okay, fine.

Why not Bilal Muhammad? So here's Chamayev's response to the call-out for Muhammad in a long series of tweets here. The first one was, let's go to kill somebody, exclamation point, along with the fake fight poster of the two of them under there. Hamzat came back with, you number one bullshit. I need one minute to take your head.

Okay, that's saucy. That's getting me fired up. Then he said, when you got a finger in your eye, showing a picture, of course, of the aborted Leon Edwards fight with Muhammad, you gave up. How are you even going to think you fight me bullshit boy now look uh leon i'm sorry uh muhammad rightfully called out uh hamza for stealing both habib and connor's catchphrases during this rant but bullshit boy is a new one and i like that a lot if hamza can continue using

that one that's great uh muhammad finally came back and responded and he said, didn't you retire when you got a cold? Don't worry, friend. I've got some NyQuil for you. So if this was Social Justice Wednesday, that's a fairly strong comeback for Muhammad showing the Instagram photo of that very brief retirement, if you can call it that, that Hamzat had when he had that very severe case of COVID in, what was it, late 2020, early 2021. And, of course, we know what happened. Luke's boy, Ramzat Kudayov, ended up coming out and saying, no, this guy ain't retiring. We're going to get him back to health soon.

We need this guy. So could there be some backroom sketch on that? Probably. But Hamzat's back. If you can't make the title shot, make the Bilal-Halm-Muhammad fight. This is a very, very interesting test and would answer a lot of questions that we need answered.

I'll keep the show going. Our final topic is quick hitters, and I got a bunch of them here just to react to the spare items and pieces of news that have slid in while you have been sliding into those fluffy PJs that you opened up Saturday morning. And by the way, who's had the best Christmas?

I got to say Grogu, who is also known as the Child or, you know, mainstream as Baby Yoda from the Mandalorian series. There is more. I mean, the Mandalorian is not even hot at the moment, right? Like the season ended a while ago. We all watched it. We all loved it. You know, RIP Gina Carano's role. She was good in that though. Um, I, there is more Grogu material in

my house that was opened up Saturday morning than, than I've ever, I've got, I'm wearing Grogu pajama pants right now. I mean, they, they just, it's everywhere in my house and we're not even like, I mean, we're Mandalorian fans. We're not like diehard. So that guy probably won Christmas. Shout out toney's merch account on that one let's go to quick hitters rashad evans friend of the program cbs sports employee at times the 42 year old of course announced his comeback fight we haven't seen him since 2018 when he lost to anthony smith it was a five fight losing skid to end his UFC career. We know he's coming back January 28th, Eagle FC 44. It's going to go down to Miami. Habib's the promoter going to the U S Rashad's

got Gabriel Checo as his comeback opponent. So Rashad's 42 years old. I know that he's gone through some, you know, emotional, spiritual, physical healing since that five-fight losing streak. I did a podcast with him, State of Combat on CBS Sports, before the launch of MK, sort of retired that. And we talked week to week about the idea of this comeback. And he had initially announced the comeback about a year and a half ago, and it really never came to be.

Do I want him to get hurt? No, no, I love me some Rashad. Is this a good idea? Probably not, but he's not fighting a world beater here. He's certainly not fighting somebody who's an accomplished striker or a knockout threat. I do want Rashad to have the chance to go out on his own terms, right, because that five-fight losing skid just wasn't him in every sort of the way.

And he did go through the use of psychedelic drugs and the whole, you know, cleansing and healing program that he went through, licking the toad, all that stuff. You know that stuff. It's changed him. It's changed him for the better. And he's got Checo, who's 35 years old. 12-5 is his professional MMA record he's

from Brazil he's a submission specialist he's done a lot of these submission underground grappling tournaments he's got wins over Austin Vanderford Jake Ellenberger those types in submission based in terms of MMA 12 and 5 he has fought as high as LFA but this this seems to be a winnable fight for Rashad so it's going to be an interesting test of where he's at he's in incredible shape but at 42 does he still have the the hunger the quickness um i got questions about eagle fg all right all right they their first move in the u.s was to launch bigfoot silva in their main event luckily uh they pulled him out probably after everyone's saying what the hell are we doing and now it's's going to be Sergey Karatanov against Tyrone Spong.

It's an interesting fight. I mean, look, it's an uphill battle for any upstart promotion to come to the U.S. and try to make inroads. Habib's got a great name. As Luke mentioned, he's got access most likely to a pipeline of Shmesh Factory future fighters who are probably going to come through his turn style and eventually go other places so i wish him well but uh another fight that eagle just announced not for their january 28th miami debut in the u.s but for april 11th has me has me a little bit so we all know future champion is a future eagle fc champion you tell me Kevin Lee has signed with the promotion fresh off getting cut by

the UFC, but still being, you know, on this side of 30, meaning there could be something left in the tank. If he can turn things around, the odds are against him. Well, his debut looks to be based on social media posts by both verbally agreed to against Diego Sanchez. So you get the star power to some degree there for Eagle FC trying to make a name for itself, trying to give MMA fans a reason to sort of tune in.

I don't know if you have to pay for this. I don't even know what streaming they have set up, what network or whatever there, but I don't need to see Diego Sanchez anymore. And Kevin Lee's really not going to gain anything from going out there and potentially beating him. You know, I don't hold it against an aging fighter like a Sanchez to try to get as many paydays as possible. But I think we're past that point. He's lingered to his credit.

He lingered for a long time in the UFC as an old, quote-unquote, washed fighter. And he won some fights maybe we didn't think he could have. And he competed in others. He also had some weird fights and he's also going through enough in his personal life that's sketchy and weird that i don't need him taking blows so if you're eagle fc and again it's an uphill battle you want to make your promotion known you want people to tune in you want to have it have credibility coming out with bigfoot silver coming out with diego sanchez just ain't it so it's like, what else do you do? Do you get a mediocre guy who once fought in the UFC,

but he's been cut and put him in there? I don't know what the best choice is. You've got to, in this case, get names that's going to draw attention. Rashad Evans, for better or worse, is going to draw attention. It will. So will Kevin Lee. I just don't want to see Diego Sanchez in there anymore. It's tough. We're in a tough spot as fans and journalists of this great game when our heroes get to

this point. You know, you got B.J. Penn, by the way. I know he's kind of saying it in jest, but along with running for potentially governor of Hawaii, B.J. came out this week and said, you know, I would do one more fight under this circumstance. He's not talking about rolling around the parking lot in a lava shack. That could happen. Hopefully not.

He said, I'd love to do one more MMA fight and have Hulk Hogan walk me out. Hulk Hogan? Really? Hulk Hogan walked me out because that was my idol growing up in the 80s. Look, Hulk Hogan was everybody's idol in the 80s, you know, long before the eight back surgeries and the N-word drops and all that. I don't need to be seeing these guys anymore. And it's hard when, you know, there's no big three.

There's no three-on-three basketball league equivalent. Maybe triller triad combat could be that or something like that where it's sort of a soft exit. But it's hard when these guys are still capable for the most part of passing sort of like health exams. But they don't need to be taking head trauma. We don't need to be seeing them taking head trauma. I don't know what the answer is. Pensions? Medical benefits? Some type of transition.

But the transition of just getting your head caved in consistently just really, as much as I used to be the hashtag old guy fight guy, it's getting harder and harder to see this, knowing what we know about what this sport does to you. It's a young man's game, right? And it's, in a lot of ways, it's not a career. I mean, it's kind of like the NFL. What's the average career span of an NFL player? Isn't it something like I could be

wrong it's something like under two years or or whatever it I mean the that's not a career that that's something you did in your life for the most part high level MMA or boxing doesn't end up being a career it's something you did in your life at a fairly high level for a short window and when you no longer could do it at that high level. I can't believe how much this past year and a half, thank you, Triller, thank you, you know, all this, has really gotten that taste in my mouth for old guy fights and just changed that.

It's responsible to make that change. But, you know, I can't carry that in my conscience anymore. It's hard enough. It's hard enough to be a fan or journalist of the fight game when disaster strikes, when you see your, you know, your Thomas Hittman Hearns go try to do an interview and they can barely get the words out, when you see, you know, what happens in boxing more often than people talk about, deaths in the ring, you know, and you just sort of go, oh, shit, that's the price that some pay.

It's out there. It could happen any time. And I think people are right when they criticize, you know, when something happens to, you know, Pritchard Colon, the upstart Puerto Rican boxer who looked like to, you know, to be a big thing and then had that fight where he got hit in the back of the head a bunch of times by Terrell Williams and now he's, you know, paralyzed. And people don't talk about him anymore, and people get criticized saying, you guys don't talk about him after they get injured.

I don't know what we're going to talk about. I don't know what to say about Magomed, the heavyweight that fought Mike Perez there at Madison Square Garden Theater and got paralyzed. I don't know what to say about afterwards. So the only thing I can do is try to prevent stuff like that, which happened to guys, by the way, in their primes, not after their careers. But it's a sad enough and dangerous enough sport anyway

that I don't need Diego Sanchez or Bigfoot Silva in a main event anymore. So if I can change, you can change. We all can change. The promoters can change. The Florida Fight Commission can change. Hopefully, we'll see. But it's up to us as a people to be fair to start making some changes, you know, change the way we eat, change the way we treat each other, because the old way wasn't working.

So it's on us to do what we've got to do to survive. I think a great American poet, Tupac Shakur, once said that. Thank you very much. Hey, interesting Bellator fight reportedly Reportedly booked for February 19th. The card does not have a numbered name yet. The rumored site would be the Mohegan Sun Arena there in Uncasville, Connecticut, my backyard. But how about Neiman Gracie versus Logan Storley? Now, this is an interesting fight.

Logan Storley had that homecoming bout. You know, he's had a rough sort of pandemic run where he lost that number one contenders bout with yaroslav amoslav who's the current champion and it was a great fight and showcased their toughness and their wrestling and their adaptability and then he was supposed to come back and he got it got hurt or whatever happened and and he didn't have that fight at mohegan well then he had that homecoming fight in minnesota and you know he dropped the ball i mean he looked flat he was lucky to hang on. And he's going back into the fire here against a, I guess I could say a refurbished Neiman Gracie,

who seems to be, look, he's always going to be a submission threat. He's certainly a welterweight contender in this division. I think he's better than people realize under the Bellator banner. But this guy's been working on his striking, and he's sneaky. He's sneaky good in that regard. He's still only 33 years old. I liked that TKO victory he had in the first round against Mark Leminger. It ran back to the immediate loss he had to Jason Jackson by decision,

which was a key contender bout. Jackson moved up ahead. We'd only seen him lose before that to Rory McDonald in the Grand Prix. But considering his ability on the ground, considering Logan Storley's wrestling, and him really needing to step up now and prove that he's a legit, you know, sort of future contender in this division. This is a great fight. Can't wait to see who comes out on top in that one.

Also, the UFC has a March 26 flyweight bout on the books. How about this one? Kai Cara France against Askar Askarov. Gosh darn, if you don't know about Askarov, you better ask somebody because I think this guy's going to close the year. I was on Aaron Bronstetter's TSN roundtable year-end podcast. Shout out. I think it was Mike Bone, the Hansi airplane specialist himself on there,

Sean El Shadi, Mark Raimondi of ESPN fame. And, you know, we sort of did that fun exercise of who's going to be the title holder in each division in the UFC by the end of the year. And last year, I was reminded by Braun Sturter that I picked Asghar Asgharov. He didn't end up having this year the sort of activity in the year that could have given that. I think it's still my pick for next year, not because Brandon Moreno isn't looking like he's legit.

He's absolutely legit. I just think this division is still batshit crazy at the top. It's great. And the post-Devitrius Johnson, post-brief Henry Cejudo, savior run to keep this division alive, it's great at the top. Devis and Figueiredo, if he can make this weight one more time, he's in play. He's a live dog in that third fight against Moreno.

There's no question. Anybody can win on any night I feel like and when you look at Askarov we haven't seen him since March of this year when he wanted this decision to retire Joseph Benavidez he beat Pantoja before that he beat Tim Elliott the only blemish on his record since he's 14-0-1 is a 2019 draw split draw by the way with current champion Brandon Moreno. That fight was fantastic. It was three rounds of action. Escarov's got a backbone. He's good on the ground.

He's a great striker. He comes from Dagestan, so you know he can smash. Considering KK Francis fresh off his best win of his career, really, that knockout of Cody Garbrandt, this is an interesting title contending type fight that I'm going to be front row for. I cannot wait to see this ish. Very good matchmaking in that regard.

Twitter wars here. We continue with our sometimes social justice Wednesday feel. We all saw the report that Chael Sonnen, of course, had a fight off five attackers at the Luxor in Las Vegas after reportedly, per Chael and per the others that have told the story, somebody made a few ill comments at Chael's wife and he defended the situation. Shout out to the manliness, I guess. Although if you're going to be, again, hanging out in the Luxor, you know what I mean? Just shit on it. Right. I mean, I feel like the MGM owns all those properties anyway.

So if you're going to shit on one, you're just shitting on the same company. But I do like to play that social class game of like, where's your line in Las Vegas? If you go to Vegas regularly, I don't, I've never gone for pleasure. I've only gone for work. But since 2013, where ironically, when I went for Canelo Floyd is where I met Luke Thomas for the first time. Since then, look, I've been to Vegas 100 times, right? Like just a ridiculous amount of times. And you tend to get a stay at most of the properties and you figure out what your line is,

what your line of cleanliness, class. And I'm no highfalutin guy. I'm a factory town guy. You know this about me. But there are lines, you know, the MGM grand used to be above that line now it's very far below that line that's a sort of a a grimy place these days um to me one of my favorite activities is sort of setting that line and updating it and to me like

luxor excalibur i mean you may be able to get a room there for 49 and you may have a great weekend it may have been up to your standards but to to me, those places are below that line. If you go below that line, you're going to see some shit, okay? That's just what Las Vegas offers you. But Chael fought his way out of that. Dan Hooker went on Twitter and said this. Imagine beating up five people and not one of them is your wife, Jon Jones right now now with an emoji.

So that's shots fired at one Jon Jones, who did not take that lightly. Let's remind ourselves, of course, that Jon had been essentially a two-year Twitter war with hooker's teammate Israel Adesanya there of CKB, City Kickboxing. And Luke, of course course has a very pronounced city kicking boner, but you know, it's another topic for another day. Uh, John Jones didn't take it lightly. So here's his response on Twitter quote, bro, your career is simply not panning out. That's my response. Only that wasn't the end of it. He came back with every opportunity you've had to make a name for yourself and to be closer to your boy Izzy you drop the ball you can't achieve greatness so you hop online and attack someone who has sounds about right Hooker fires back that same

day life hack if you don't beat up your wife family events will be more enjoyable merry Xmas bitch end quote uh Hooker went on to say I was triggered by your disingenuous attempt to bring attention to Chael's situation. He was arrested for defending his wife. You were arrested for assaulting yours. Apples and oranges. Interesting little dust up there. Who gets the win in the in the what do we call Luke? Dr. No. Luke. Oh,, Your Honor, Luke Bader Ginsburg, who would he rule that to? I think that's a close 10-9 for Hooker, you can argue the other way, of course.

Either way, it's – I'm not saying Jon Jones has to take all this shit on the chin, but until Jon Jones can clean up his name a bit, and he's not – I think he's done a horrible job in the aftermath of this. Was it an arrest? I don't even remember at this point. It was a bad look, what it was. I think he took a plea deal and got out of it. There's times you just got to go quiet.

Conor McGregor recovering from the Lakers, go quiet. If you're going to put stuff out there, put stuff out there that promotes your brand. But just go quiet. Don't get into this shit. Hooker takes that win in my regard. It's's interesting, we were talking about McGregor earlier, and it's like, there's always going to be great what-ifs in MMA and in any sport about, you know, what if this guy had panned out? What would it look like? What if this guy didn't get an injury? What if this guy didn't get a drug, you know, issue? What if Dominic Cruz never got hurt? Would he have been, you know, unbeaten at bantamweight forever there's certainly an interesting debate within that on john jones and we've long said it you know i've always been the

one who said in print john jones is equally the greatest fighter of all time and mma's greatest sort of like not hardship sort of like what if story you know like what if john jones had been dialed in his entire career and you know reading those bible verses and spending time with his family and training and and not going out at night and not getting arrested and not all this other stuff you know what could he have been and it's hard because within that argument is the argument that living on the edge helps him as a fighter I know that sounds stupid but like you know I always make the Manny Pacquiao debate okay the argument that living on the edge helps him as a fighter. I know that sounds stupid, but, like, you know,

I always make the Manny Pacquiao debate. Okay, Pacquiao's career is amazing, and he's still freaking going for all we know. But, you know, the Manny Pacquiao pre-rededication to his Christian faith, and by the way, I'm dedicated to my Christian faith despite making, you know, mistakes like anyone else, so I'm not pointing fingers here. But, you know, before he had rededicated himself,

when he was known as a gambler and womanizer, his fights were awesome and he was awesome. And I think that, you know, you can argue age or the knockout loss to Marquez in the fourth fight played a part in this. But he became, for a season there, a little bit more of a boxer and had a little bit more mercy on his opponents and wasn't a finisher. So sometimes living on the edge can make you better. So I'm not always sure about that Jon Jones argument. We're talking about somebody who I call the GOAT.

So how much can I pick apart? What would he have done if he lived the clean life the whole way? Well, he probably would have went up to heavyweight earlier and won that championship. But for all we know, he's number have went up to heavyweight earlier and won that championship. But for all we know, he's number one goat with a bullet cemented in. But in my defense, in his defense, he already is. So that's a debate. I wonder about Conor, though. I don't think we debate this part about Conor enough.

When he hit that mountaintop in 2016 by beating Eddie Alvarez in that insane year in which he, you know, won and lost against Nate, but he redeemed himself and he had knocked out Aldo before that. And in the 12 month span, basically he had four insane record breaking pay-per-view fights in one of the titles and two divisions. I mean, it was the most insane sort of 12 month stretch, you know, we'd ever seen. We talk about how great Canelo's year was this year. And if you, if you count the, count the Calum Smith knockout from December,

he had fought, you know, four times. Or was it five times? Basically, he had fought unbeaten champions, you know, not counting the Avni Yildirim stay-busy mandatory fight. He had fought three unbeaten champions and stopped them all. So Canelo had an insane year. Nobody had a year like Conor had, commercially, critically. But he was never that guy again. and stop them all. So Canelo had an insane year. Nobody had a year like Conor had, commercially, critically.

But he was never that guy again. And, you know, he was riding heavy, and he needed a break. We all knew that, and his wife was going to give birth at the first half of 2017, and we all knew he was going to take a break anyway. But, you know, whether it be excess, the lust for big-time money by Boxing Floyd, the, you know, all that stuff conspired against him. What we have had in the last five years with Connor is big moments and big events,

but a lot of black eyes and a lot of losses on top of that. And we've got one win, the Cowboy Cerrone win. You know, I'm going to probably always wonder what if he hadn't, let's say, you know, Floyd was like, Oh no, I'm not boxing you. let's say you know floyd was like oh no i'm not boxing you let's say that was never a thing let's say he came back international fight week in 2017 and fought in the ufc and never stepped away never took two full years off is it's like what what could connor be today could he have have been the first three-division champion in the sport, or is that just projecting levels that he never could have achieved? Because to be fair, him winning just the featherweight title

was something initially we thought he never could achieve, because we're like, okay, when he finally goes in there against a real wrestler who didn't take the fight on two weeks' notice, we'll see what happens. He, in a lot of ways, seemed to overachieve already through the adi alvarez fight then did things that he reached for that he believed i mean he had a belief system in 2014 15 and 16 that was you know i don't think i've ever seen somebody that dialed in mentally maybe that was never going to be able to be maintained and maybe he would have inevitably felt fallen

after that anyway just by consistently fighting that top end competition i don't know but i would like to have seen a different five years from him and see what that could have been like i mean obviously it's the same debate with john jones what could what could have happened what could he have been um it's what makes sports podcasting fun i guess to fill time when your co-host is taking an extended vacation and you're wearing a tie-dyed shirt and you're pale as shit. All right. Also in the news, UFC light heavyweight King Glover Teixeira, fresh off that amazing upset

victory over Jan Blachowicz, knows he's going to be setting up to fight Yuri Prochazka this coming year and has announced, telling Sherdog, that he's enlisting the help of one Mohamed King Mo Lawal to come help train him. Lawal of course is one of the top coaches at ATT, former strike force champion, Bellator veteran. And by the way, I should do a podcast with Mo Lawal before MK. Of course it was Rashad Evans and myself, but before that, it was your boy BC and King Mo and I love me some King Mo,

very smart guy uh very fun guy you know obviously a great fighter in his day i don't know if everybody remembers this but he's the last guy to defeat yuri prohotska came new year's eve 2015 at the rising world grand prix uh mo fought two times that night the first time was against Yuri, and he won by first-round KO. And the key, because Prochazka obviously is super aggressive and dangerous, there's openings in there. And Mo was patient to find that opening, and he turned his lights off, and it's the only loss Prochazka has had dating back to 2013.

This is kind of interesting for Glover, who, you know, getting the close-up on him ahead of this title fight was interesting. I mean, he trains, you know, not too far from me down there in Danbury, Connecticut, and I think he lives in Bethel, Connecticut. Hold on, I got it. That's Chuck Mendenhall territory down there on I-84, east or west down there. You know he's got that boxing coach that's good. He's in there with the Alex Pineda from Glory Kickboxing,

now in the UFC, which has been a key to his training. Bringing in a mind like King Mo, especially somebody with this history, this is going to be very interesting. I don't think many of us are going to make Glover the favorite, and this feels like an uphill battle against a destroyer like Prochaska, who's so dialed in coming in there to take your head off.

But I like the look of this, at least. I'll watch the countdown in the embedded series and be entertained by it. So it's an interesting look. Claudia Gadella, as we already know, this is a little bit more than a week ago, announced an abrupt retirement of her own at age 33. Finally, though, we've got a little bit of insight as to why. She was in Brazil on the Cambache podcast, and she said, though, we've got a little bit of insight as to why. She was in Brazil on the Combate podcast, and she said, quote, I was feeling strong headaches. After some tests, we found out that I had suffered a severe concussion.

The doctors made me take care of it for a long time. And when they allowed me to train again, I started to feel this really strong pain, like a knife stabbing my skull, not to mention dizziness and nausea. That's when I decided to retire for good. I don't feel like training or fighting anymore. I can do nothing right now but applaud, Claudia, Klaja, if you will. 33 years old, has been to the top before, you know, lost the title opportunity the week of UFC 200 there against Ioana in their rematch. Fought great against Ioana in their first fight, a non-title fight,

a three-round fight uh has had ups and downs since then but she's always been such a aggressive hard on her sleeve fighter who goes after it she had sort of created a second life in her early 30s moving her camp up to new jersey there and in trying to round out her game more and and to know though that something's wrong this is not a feeling i want it doesn't feel safe to push through and to walk away on your own terms i wish more fighters would do it i think as media and fans we need to go out of our way go out of our way given the dangers of this sport uh to applaud when it does happen i remember that great feature who did it was it fighting did on spencer fisher that we read three, four months ago about the physical struggles he's going through now,

trying to just maintain life after all the damage he's had in UFC fights. These are, these are unforgiving sports. So for somebody who still seems to have something in the tank, but just as like, you know, I just don't like the way this feels. This is not healthy. My body's telling me something. Get out now. Get out now while you can. Gadelha is 18-5 overall. So she's fresh off the November 2020 loss to Jan Janan by Jan Janan. Right?

Jan Janan. I'll butcher any name, and I'm trying hard. I'm sorry. She lost that unanimous decision. She had had two decision wins before that, a split over Angela Hill and a decision win over Randa Marcos, but she really sort of alternated wins and losses in the big fight she's had since the Ioana rematch, which was in 2016, beating, you know,

a Carolina and Carla Esparza, but losing to Andrade and Ansarov. So there's been a little bit of ups and downs. She's a high motor fighter. Loved, I love, by the way, that rivalry with Ioana. in answer of so there's been a little bit of ups and downs she's a high motor fighter loved i love by the way that rivalry with you on i loved when they were coaching opposite each other in the ultimate fighter i was always sort of an advocate maybe i'm just a big deal on a champion and strawweight fan and maybe just a creeper you can be you know you can do the math yourself but i always wanted the trilogy between them even though you know claudia had lost both i mean

you could argue that she won the first one and And in the second one, which you can't argue that she should have won, for the first two rounds of that five-round title fight, and I was there in Las Vegas that night, she put it on Joanna. You know, she may have gassed herself out a bit in doing that, but her aggressive wrestling approach, it looked like JJ was going to have a tough night, and credit to sort of what prime young Jacek brought to the table and her ability to switch gears and start to use that stamina

and that volume striking to turn the tide in the third round. But that was a very interesting sort of styles clash that you saw two different fights in one on the same night. If that was the best of her, Clutch is a great fighter, one of the best in this division's history. And I think it's kind of hard. look, I, why do I love straw weights, is BC a creeper, no, no, stop that, stop that, okay, here's the deal, we know that 115 is the best weight class in, in, in sort of women's MMA history, in terms of consistently across the board, I mean, try to fill out a top

10 at 125, 145, 135, It's just, you know, 135 was great in the Ronda run, right? But that thing's sort of been emptied out. 115 has been consistently the deepest one. You get slam dunk fights all the time. The first UFC fight I ever attended just so happened to be the 2014 tough finale in Las Vegas when Rose lost the inaugural title to Carla Esparza. I had watched that Ultimate Fighter season and one of the rare ones I'd seen, by the way. I think I definitely saw Rampage Rashad. I definitely saw like the first two or three seasons. But like a lot of people, I sort of tuned out after a while.

I think I came back for Connor, you know, that heavyweight season with Kimbo and Shobb and, you know, no one's ever going to, that was must-see TV. But this was a fun season. And now to see from 2014 when they launched this division, some of these OGs going away, Carolina Kovacic, it's like some of the, it's kind of sad to me because, you know, a lot of these, these, these women made such incredible fights against each other. It's been so much fun to watch this. But hat tip to Klausia. Well done on that career. Finally, in our quick hitter segment, which has been anything but quick. But, you know, what else are you going to do today?

What are you at work today? No, you don't care. All right. What do you think Luke Thomas is doing right now? Not this. Okay, I'll tell you that much. Boxing news that has me fired the heck up. I pitched this news story to Luke last week, and he scoffed at it.

He said, I don't care about that shit. Okay, Luke, you better care about it because it's coming your way. You may not have heard of boxing's welterweight contender, Imantas Staniosis, of Lithuanian fame, by the way. But he was the WBA's sort of next in line to fight WBA welterweight champion, your Dennis Ugas. Ugas won the, just beat Manny Pacquiao. He has the title.

But the WBA at first came up with this idea to consolidate all of their reckless amount of titles. They've got like a regular champion, an interim champion, all that shit. They were going to do a mini tournament. The problem with that is Ugas, who's the WBA champion, is coming off of such a big win over Pacquiao. You want to see him against the other big welterweights, right? He fought Sean Porter and probably deserved a decision.

This guy's elite. He's legit. And the WBA had it set up where he was going to have to fight two guys back-to-back that nobody wanted to see him fight just to win this mini tournament to keep his belt. Well, cooler heads have prevailed. How? Because our guy, Imantas Staniosas,

has agreed to take step-aside money to allow WBA champion Dennis Ugas to enter a pay-per-view likely unification bout against who? Unified WBC IBF champion Errol Spence Jr. Probably going to see that in the first half of 2022. It's a heck of a welterweight title unification fight. And if anyone's sitting here going,

ah, dude, okay, I mean, you know, Ugas isn't that exciting, but he's good, yeah. But I'd rather see Spence Crawford. I want to see Spence Crawford too. But if I have a chance to see Spence Crawford to close next year for all four titles, if it happens that way I'd like that more than sort of rushing them out now I like Ugas I think he's deserved to be in

this spot he's a very tough out for Errol Spence Jr. this Ugas is big as you saw against Pacquiao he gets in your face but has very good defense behind his high guard and he's technically brilliant from that Cuban boxing school this This fight against Spence is, is going to be one of those fights where I just got to see what it looks like. I got to see whose style can come out and with Spence, who's great, but how many times can he, you know, have a career threatening injury or illness or something that, that sort of takes them out. You know, he had the accident,

which miraculously came back from, he looked great against Danny Garcia, but he had to pull out, of course, from that Pacquiao fight due to the detached retina and the surgery that followed. So there's going to be a lot of questions facing him. If he's going to get that Terrence Crawford, look, if you're saying BC will give you a Bud versus Spence tomorrow or you don't get it at all, give it to me tomorrow. It should have happened two years ago.

Okay, we all know this. But I'd love to see Spence get a third title, and then we do that. And then we find out who's the welterweight king of today, who's the best welterweight of this era. Because I got something to tell you that I think you already know. Errol Spence Jr. and Terrence Crawford, they're all-time great. They're the Leonard and Hearns of this welterweight era. Are they as good as those guys?

No. Those guys are, you know, two of the greatest of all time. But they have potential to get close. You know, we're going to find out. I mean, Terrence Crawford's performance against Sean Porter, I was on vacation. I never even got to talk about it. That was some brilliant shit.

That was a great fight. Sean Porter, in the final fight of his career, it turned out, I mean, he came to win. And for Crawford to sort of casually make those adjustments and then put it on him, I want to see the best face the best, of course. But I like the idea of having all the titles at stake and doing it the right way, in the best way and the best. So Spence, who gave Porter hell, and I'm sorry, Porter, who gave Spence hell

and barely beat Ugas, he lost to Crawford. He's out of the picture. Let's do Spence- who gave Porter hell and I'm sorry, Porter, who gave Spence hell and barely beat Ugas. He lost to Crawford. He's out of the picture. Let's do Spence Ugas. Let's have the winner's face off. Give me that shit. OK, give it to me.

Let's go. All right. That's segment one in the books. Your news segment to BC wanted to have some fun. Fill in time, filling your hole, if you will. I hope you don't. I hope you won't. All right. Look, I get asked a lot by people, or I make comments a lot. You know, what are, BC, what are the best fights you've ever been to? And I want to start right here about this. Okay, I'm a journalist,

right? I don't really look at myself as a journalist. I'm more of an entertainer, a talking head, whatever you want to say. But there's an emotional connection to the fights that I've been there for, right? As there should be, as there should be for any fan who's, you know, maybe only been lucky enough to go to two or three fights, but those fights mean a ton to you because you were there. There's, I'm a journalist or entertainer or whatever, but I'm a fan at the end of the day. And, you know, when you have, when you were there, front media section, third row, whatever, and you got to experience that, it seeps into you. It's the drug, you know?

I remember the first fight I ever covered. It was a boxing match. It was 2011. It wasn't a remarkable fight, but Sergio Martinez defended his middleweight crown against former junior welterweight, sorry, former junior middleweight crown against former junior welterweight, sorry, former junior middleweight champion, Sergey Zinzaruk. I was at the MGM Foxwoods in Connecticut. I was front row there right up against the ring.

And I just remember the feeling of just being there and feeling the sweat and emotion and pain and adjustments and seeing Martinez stand right in front of him and pick him up. I was just like, this feeling that I'm feeling right now, this isn't even an action fight. I want to feel this for the rest of my life. This is my domain. This is what I do.

This is what gets me out of bed in the morning. I love this shit, okay? You may think BC just started watching MMA this year, which is not true, but I love this shit. And there's something about the fight you were at that it's a it's similar to being in a concert. There's moments if you're a concertgoer and if you're, you know, if you're going on tour with Fish like like I did for one summer for a handful of shows or you're whoever you like. And, you know, you get up close there in the front of the stage. And, you know, it's a shared collective at times, almost like spiritual experience.

You know, it's like, you know, it could a shared collective at times almost like spiritual experience. You know, it's like, you know, it could make you cry unannounced. You know, it's emotion provoking. And there's something about that in the fight game. So I wanted to task myself, BC, what are the top ten fights across boxing and MMA you have attended in person? My caveat in this is that you you got to be in the arena. Okay, UFC 196, one of the greatest cards in UFC history, I was in the media room. I could feel the wall shake when Nate rallied to submit Conor.

My table was moving when Holly Holm got tapped out by Misha Tate in round five, but I wasn't in the building. I was kind of next door, right? UFC 205, I was doing backstage interviews for SportsCenter. I wasn't in the building when Conor stopped Alvarez. You had to be there. So here is BC's top ten countdown of the best fights I was ever at and why. My honorable mentions quickly that did not make the cut.

Errol Spence Jr. versus Sean Porter, that 2019 welterweight unification fight at the Staples Center. Wow. Great theater. Amanda Nunes versus Chris Cyborg. It's not going to make the list because the fight was, what, 51 seconds? But there was something about being there, cage-sided in Las Vegas, and just an all-out war between two all-timers, and just an ending that

you're just like, oh my god, she went in there against the beast, and just conquered her, and they both took big shots, and I think similarly, although some may laugh at this, Bellator MSG, remember that fight from 2017, Matt Mitrione versus Fedor Emelianenko, not going to show up on many people's top fight lists, but that double knockdown, which preceded Mitrione pounding Fedor out and getting the knockout win, it's just one of those holy shit moments. And I was happy to be there. But without any further ado, number 10 on the BC countdown of best fights I've ever attended in person,

it goes back to UFC 229, October 6th, 2018. But no, not Conor versus Habib. People forget about this war. Tony Ferguson versus Anthony Pettis. It only lasted two rounds inside T-Bowl Arena. Nobody talked about it that year as a fight of the year contender like they should have. Why do I have this fight on there because it was bat shit crazy it was one of those where you're sitting second row or first row

in the media section next to john morgan's blue shirt and you're tapping the guy next you're going oh my god are you seeing this it was nothing but savage highlight reel moments of course the stoppage came after round two when Pettis' corner looked at the cut and the damage accrued and just basically said, no more, we don't want you to take any more of this. It was two great fighters who maybe we didn't realize it fully at the time,

but were sort of past that point of full-on greatness, but still had enough in the tank. So what that means, and these are the best fights ever, by the way, when you get this equation, they're vulnerable enough to get themselves in some shit, but good enough to try crazy stuff and, you know, and try for the finish and maybe get it. This was just one of those slip between the cracks fights. If you remember it, Tony Ferguson had slipped on the cords at the Fox studio and fallen

out of that of that Habib fight was off for a long time. I'm sorry. It was off for a short amount of time. And this was 2018. He came back after the Dolly incident, which basically subbed Connor into the Habib sweepstakes. He kind of took a big chance. You know, there was an argument and maybe it should have been where Tony should have sat out, should have sat out the rest of the year. He had already, you know, he had already acquired the rights to fight Habib many times over, right? This was, what, the fourth time their fight fell apart? He took a big gamble, I thought,

by coming back against Anthony Pettis in nothing more of like a stay busy with a lot to lose, not a ton to gain. There were legitimate concerns about his knee and whether that would hold up. That was the weird fight night where at the workout two days before, Tony finished and gave Luke Thomas that weird sort of, I don't know what that was. Tony's weird, right? This fight was savage, man.

It was great to be there. Nobody ever talks about it. Your boy BC lived that shit and loved it. Number nine, the first meeting between these two great welterweights. UFC 245, December 14th of 2019, Kamaru Usman defeats Colby Covington by TKO5 for the welterweight title in Las Vegas. One of Dana White's favorite fights of all time. In contention that year for fight of the year, I don't know if it ended up winning it or not, but look, this was two great in their

prime trash talk, you know, guys who didn't like each not. But look, this was two great, in-their-prime, trash talk, you know, guys who didn't like each other. Actually, let me amend that. There was a small amount of trash. For all the trash talk they had in the build towards signing this fight, once the fight was signed, Colby sort of stopped being MAGA Colby, and he was serious training Colby, and I don't hate him for it. The fight was savage.

And it was two great wrestlers and neither one attempted one shot the whole time it was basically a five-round boxing match you guys all know it and I think that it lacked a little bit of character to make it like you know a top five all-time great UFC fight nobody got knocked down there weren't huge swings of momentum there was a little bit of controversy with the way mark goddard handled that and of course colby has barked about that like crazy but these are two great fighters just essentially standing right in front of each other and letting their hands go it was it was uh humbling to watch and and i thought both of them were gonna maybe never be the same from it but usman stopped him and uh you know run he's went on since then had a much tougher time in the rematch of course which could have been argued to some degree either way number

eight on BC's list goes to another fight no one's talking about November 21st 2015 it was in Vegas Mandalay Bay the co-main event for the Canelo Alvarez versus Miguel Cotto middleweight title pay-per-view Francisco Vargas took on Takashi Mayura for the WBC junior lightweight title. Mayura from Japan, a noted warrior. Francisco Vargas, nicknamed Bandito. If you don't know this guy's action history, look it up. Vargas was cut early. He gets cut off, and he was getting bodied by Mayura.

And really, I remember, in fact, not really paying attention to the fight. It was so one-sided that you're talking to the guy next to you, I'm doing sort of, you know, live updates and writing recaps ringside, and I remember not watching some of the middle rounds. This fight ultimately gets stopped in the ninth round, but right around seven or eight, Vargas starts coming back, and you can feel the momentum. I remember specifically, you know, getting tapped, and somebody going, he's coming on a little bit here.

Francisco Vargas had one of the comebacks for the ages. Again, it's the low weight classes. They're not huge household names. No one talks about this fight. But Francisco Vargas had one of the great rallies in a title fight in sort of modern boxing history. Again, nobody mentions this. With a closed eye, basically, he rallies back to stop Mayura.

Takashi would never fight again. He would retire after this. It was one of those holy shit Grand Slam home runs in the last inning to win the game when you were hopeless and behind. A great moment to have been there. Thank you. Number seven stays in boxing and stays under the category of why why are you bringing this up nobody ever talks about this fight they should you remember

when floyd mayweather retired and had a showtime pay-per-view to send off when he fought andre burto september 12 2015 you may not remember that all the way in vegas because it really was interesting matchmaking floyd was looking for somewhat of a soft touch on the way out Berto was just three and three in his last six the fight went as expected but this co-main event another junior lightweight title banger for the WBO title and a rematch so Orlando Salido and Rocky Martinez go to hell and back for 12 straight rounds they had fought earlier that year the first time. Rocky Martinez of Puerto Rico got a questionable decision win. Salido from Mexico, so you got that Mexico-Puerto Rican war going on. What made this fight so interesting is it was in the midst of this run

Salido had to close his career in which he was basically Mexico's Arturo Gatti. He does not get the love and attention he deserves for having been, in about a four or five-year span, boxing's chief chief action star some of these fights weren't even on american tv you had to get streams like we went to japan and fought koka gym but these were wars with knockdowns he went in there in this rematch against rocky martinez i thought solito who got i thought he got a bum rap in the first fight against rocky i thought he deserved the win in the second one it goes down as a split draw but what was incredible about this fight beyond the fact that it was just back and forth with two little guys fighting for their country's spirit in an absolute war was that nobody in

the crowd blinked at it. There's a thing that happened at the tail end of Floyd Mayweather's pay-per-view run where he was attracting, you know, a celebrity crossover crowd. And a lot of these crowds knew, you know, maybe the undercard wasn't for them. They were going to show up just in time for the Floyd main event. This was a half-filled arena there at the MGM Grand that was not filled with fight fans. These were Floyd fans. And shout out to Floyd for getting to that level.

There was no applause. There was just no reaction except for us hardcore boxing scribes, ringside, going ape shit about this. I thought it was in contention for the fight. 2015 was a great year for boxing. I thought this was right there in the top three for fight of the year. I was humbled again to have been there.

I remember standing up and applauding and people looking at me like, what are you doing? Oh, Floyd's up next. Okay, no, guys, give these men the respect they deserve. If you ever want to do a dark deep dive, not dark, but fun up next. Okay. No, guys, give these men the respect they deserve. If you ever want to do a dark deep dive, not dark, but fun, grab a couple of beers, just watch the last six

or seven fights of Orlando Salido's career. You will not be disappointed. I always wish this fight had gone to a trilogy, but it never did. Number six on the best fights BC's ever been ringside for. We go to the Wilder Fury heavyweight trilogy. I wish I was at the third one. I wasn't. I was in the CBS office in Stanford, Connecticut that night. I was at the second one, but there was some drama in that first meeting like I have never experienced before or after. Of course, you know the story. Staples Center's in LA, December 1st, 2018. No longer called the Staples Center, by the way. It got some ridiculous uh crypto.com name to it now but this was tyson fury coming back from four years off yeah he had some tune-up fights

beforehand but this was a first monster test he had been the heavyweight champion you know the story about depression about ballooning to 400 pounds drug drug use, all that. He goes in there against unbeaten Deontay Wilder. And they have a 12-round fight that's one of the most interesting fights I've ever seen. No, it wasn't action personified throughout. But it was Tyson Fury doing what felt in the moment like the impossible. It's not impossible that a 6'9 guy who boxes that well could avoid Wilder's ability.

But given everything he'd been through, watching that play out in front of you, it was edge of your seat the entire fight, because you knew that even though Fury is seemingly banking rounds, first time this guy gets touched by something big, it could be over. He got dropped, I think it was the sixth or the eighth round, and he got back up. I think you're watching it right now. That's round nine, excuse me. He gets dropped in round nine by a right hand, but gets up. But obviously the 12th round is something that

should be put in a time capsule along with the 12th round, by the way, of Sergio Martinez versus Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. It's just one of the great. I can't believe I just saw that moment in boxing history. And I was lucky enough to be there in the front row at the Staples Center. Of course, you know, if Yuri goes down on that twopiece. Wilder celebrating like he won it and rising like a phoenix from the ashes like the Undertaker. He gets up and not only survives, not only finishes the fight, but puts it on Wilder to close as they went to war over that final two minutes. I mean, you get dropped by a guy that big of a puncher, and you have two minutes to survive in the final round. It was like watching somebody throw a perfect game or no hitter

but has nothing left, right? It was sort of that level of drama where you're just sort of like, oh, my God, can he do this? But like I mentioned, Fury started to put it on while they're late. Why is this fight in here? The prestige and the drama, for sure. I stood up at ringside at the end of the 12 rounds and my pants were soaked. I didn't, I didn't piss myself. I didn't spill water. I had never sweat this much at a fight. Meaning the drama of the fight overtook

me so much that I was just clenched so tight during the second half of that fight that I was just dripping sweat that's that's that's what I'm in there for that's the drama that you know you know let me let me rub that on my gums that that's the good shit right there that's heavyweight championship theater like none other I was at the rematch of spectacular one-sided domination for Fury. Would have loved to have been at that third fight. One of the best of this year, one of the best of all time in terms of heavyweight title fights. But this first fight just held that, it just held that drama like really no other fight I've ever been to. I've seen better action fights. I don't think

I've seen something more dramatic than this because when Fury went down, it was just sort of like, wow, what a great fight, man. He pitched that shutout the whole way, and then he finally got caught. But no, he got up. Of course, the scores were all over the place. It ends up going down as a draw, 113-113, 115-111 for Wilder, which I know there were some scribes like Dan Rayfield, like Lance Pugmire, who had it either a draw or had it for Wilder. Again, I don't see how you could have.

They did the math that way. And it was also 114-112 for Fury, which I think is how I had it. He won, obviously, way more rounds than Wilder. The two points get taken off. So if you take away those two points, that would be 116-112. That would be eight rounds to four. I think I gave Wilder three rounds. So I think my score was one point in the other

direction, but what a great night. All right, number five, you've heard me play up this fight before. It would get more love, both in my countdown and the countdown of the greatest fights in UFC history, if it didn't follow an outstanding co-main before it, but April 13th, 2019, State Farm Arena in Atlanta, your main event for the UFC interim lightweight title, Dustin Poirier and Max Holloway in their rematch put on five spectacular rounds of aggressive phone booth fighting. It goes down as a unanimous decision, and it wasn't disputed by any means. It was Poirier winning 49-46 on all three cards. I think the scores got it right. He proved to be the bigger man there at UFC 236.

It was really a mountaintop moment in his career in a lot of ways, although you could argue that stopping McGregor in both of those second and third fights are similar for what they offered. And, of course, it was a redemption angle for him running back the loss to Conor. But this was Poirier securing the fight against Habib, climbing that mountain, and it was really, I think, Max Holloway that made this fight so special. It's not that Poirier didn't dig in and show his warrior spirit. He always does, but Holloway had significant

disadvantages here in punching power, but you wouldn't have known it by how aggressive he was, even into the fourth and fifth rounds, just trying anything he could to put it on Poirier. Holloway did not take a step back, and this was humbling to see again. I use that word a lot because, you know, I don't fight. I fight in life. Maybe that's why I like the fight game so much because it's such an inspiring parallel. But to be able to be this close and see the facial expressions of what they're enduring to fight through, this fight was special, and it sucks that it followed one of the greatest fights of all time.

And I'm sorry, I don't hear anybody be like, oh shit, remember Max Dustin too? That fight was great. Nobody talks about it. Nobody. Not that anyone forgot it, but this was a great, great fight. It was Max trying to be, you know, pour out and figure out how great he can be. You know, he had tried to do that. Oh, I don't have that poster up anymore. He had tried to do that, of course, what, the year before when he was going to fight Habib on short notice. And then, of course, he had to pull out. And there were some scares about him.

And he turned back those scares in his comeback fight. But this was him moving up and really daring to be great. And it was Dustin's greatest moment. And he fought a great game plan, and he fought off Max's volume, and it's crazy about that night, because not that any of you really care, but I was riding hot and heavy that week, I had been in LA for about four days filming a bunch of episodes for the PBC face-to-face boxing show I was doing on Fox then i flew a red eye that thursday night to atlantic city hosted the uh clarissa shields uh uh weigh-in stream there for showtime and then as soon as that was over i got in the car and drove and flew from from ac down to atlanta i was running ragged i didn't want to be there i was i think as

you can see cage side i, I was wearing, like, an orange pullover jacket. I wasn't even dressed nice. I was just sort of like, man, I got to get through this and get home. And what did I see? One of the most unexpected greats. I remember when my bosses were like, yeah, we want you to go to that cartel. I was like, really?

You want me to go to 236? I mean, it's a great car. It's two interim title fights. But I think the narrative at the time was sort of like, why is Dana floating out not one but two unnecessary interim title fights, but I think the narrative at the time was sort of like, why is Dana floating out not one, but two unnecessary interim title bouts? And it turns out, although they were unnecessary, they produced the want and the hunger in all four of those fighters that really created a special evening in Atlanta.

So thank you. Thank you, UFC. Thank you to all four fighters for that. I'll never forget it. Number four greatest fight BC has ever been ringside for. The second fight I ever covered. MGM Foxwoods Theater in Connecticut, a venue that's never used anymore for boxing, but you are on top of the action.

Victor Ortiz against Andre Berto for Berto's WBC welterweight title. It was their first meeting. The second one was a quicker knockout. And, of course, remember Victor Ortiz getting hit with a box of pizza in the face. But this first meeting, they were both still in their primes. And what we didn't know coming in was that this turned out to be a tryout of sorts of who was going to be Floyd Mayweather's next opponent.

That night, by the way this is one of the last fights that al hayman of pbc fame openly sat ringside for and like showed his face and walked around but this was a situation where floyd mayweather was hanging out with then his good friend uh 50 cent they were hanging out in farmington connecticut at the mansion that 50 cent owned that was formerly owned by mike tyson that's by the way like six miles from my house right down the road they took a helicopter to the Foxwoods theater and they sat front row and it turned out that of course Victor Ortiz by winning this classic fight got the Floyd shot and they went to the pay-per-view meeting which was one of the

weirdest endings in boxing history but Berto Ortiz won it's a tale of two fights the second half of the fight round rounds 7 through 12, it's not going to go down as one of the greatest fights ever. They were both kind of surviving and hanging on. But the first six rounds of this fight, it was an instant classic. And this was the first taste I ever had ringside of how super freaking special this sport could be, MMA as well. You know, this taste of this this close if you don't

remember it goes down as unanimous decision win for Ortiz 114-111-114-110 and 115-112 but Berto got dropped in round one Ortiz got dropped in round two it continued to be a war through rounds three four and five as they both threw defense out the window. The previous narrative here was that Victor Ortiz had a reputation of being a quitter. If you don't remember, Victor Ortiz, when he was coming up, Oscar De La Hoya was his promoter. They were calling him the next Oscar. He was going to be boxing's next big thing. I directly recall before Victor Ortiz's fight against Marcos Maidana, which turned out to

be the first sort of major hiccup in him not fulfilling his true potential, SportsCenter ran a package, an actual SportsCenter. This fight wasn't even on ESPN. They ran an actual package about how Victor Ortiz was going to be the next Oscar. And he went out that night against Maidana. We all know what happened. He ended up essentially quitting and saying, I'm too young to take on this damage. So he was known as sort of a guy who, when things got tough, he wouldn't fight through. This was the fight that he fought through. This was the fight that he bit down

and took everything Birdo had and kept coming. And it all culminated in a round six for the ages. HBO televised this fight, and the late, great trainer, Emanuel Stewart, was on color commentary that night. And his call goes down in boxing history because here's what happened in round six. At the end of the round, Ortiz gets dropped by Birdo. Stewart was on color commentary that night. And his call goes down in boxing history because here's what happened in round six. At the end of the round, Ortiz gets dropped by Berto. Second time he's been down, right? He gets cornered. Referee Michael Ortega is there.

Berto's putting it on him in the corner. There's like 15 seconds left in this round. Ortega's getting closer. He leans in like he's going to stop the fight, but doesn't do it. What happens two seconds later? Ortiz gets out of the corner, hits Berto stop the fight but doesn't do it. What happens two seconds later? Ortiz gets out of the corner, hits Berto with a left hook. Berto shakes. Ortiz comes back with a second left hook to drop him. And Emmanuel Stewart, who was sitting ringside not too far from me, yells out, oh, my God!

Oh, my God! Stewart had been known, of course, during James Toney versus the classic cruiserweight fight, which was, by the way, at the same resort, against Vasily Jerov. He had given that famous call of, oh, my God, look at this! Look at this! We didn't get to look at this. We got a pure batshit crazy, oh, my God. When you see one fighter get floored and on the verge of being stopped, only to throw a Hail Mary punch and drop the other guy, that's the good shit.

That's the catnip, man. That's the drug. That's the drug. Like, I've got to wake up Luke Thomas and anybody out here who questions my motives and intentions. They're not journalism-based motives. Yeah, they're entertainment-based. I like having a good time. I like wearing tie-dyed shirts and cracking old dad jokes, but it's about that experience, it's about

that drug, you always hear Luke say, oh, I don't need to, I've been doing enough fights, I don't need to sit ringside, he's done, we go to fights together, he sits backstage, it's fine, it's his choice, right, I gotta get that, that's why I'm in it, this shared experience, this drama, there is nothing, nothing. And maybe it's funny. Earlier in the show, I talked about, you know, we've got to stop these older fighters from keep fighting because this sport is so unforgiving. It is. And maybe it's that sense of danger that really fuels our interest.

Like, we know we shouldn't be liking this, but we do. There is nothing. I mean, if you get a chance, if you're a fan out there, you're like, man, I always wanted to go to a big fight, whether it be boxing, MMA, whatever. You know, whatever it is. Do it. Do it. Save up the money and do it.

You sit that close. You get that feeling. You get lucky enough to see something like this. It'll change you. It'll change you forever. It's why we put our names on this sport. It's why I go to, you know, youth soccer games and the dad from accounting goes, oh, what do you do for a living? I cover boxing and mixed martial arts. And then, they inevitably go cage fighting really you know really yeah yeah really

you want you want some of this drug too i got a you know first one's free i got a few of them as well all right ortiz burto was just it was crazy theater you know and uh shout out to lou de bella for bringing fights back then to the mgm grand fox nobody does anymore uh carl frotch about jermaine taylor there you've seen a few big fights ever again let's go back there i love that shit number three on the greatest fight i've ever seen ringside cage side or whatever you really could put both of their fights in this rivalry in my top 10 but to save space i only did one it is sept September 15th, 2018, the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. Canelo Alvarez and Gennady Golovkin met for the lineal WBC and WBA unified middleweight titles, and it was Canelo Alvarez in the rematch coming away with, once again, another disputed win.

The first time was a draw, of course, which was very disputed. This time, a majority decision win for Canelo, 114-114 and 115-113 on the other two scorecards. I scored it, I think it was for Glovekin, 115-113. I scored the first one for him as well. But obviously, the second fight, it was pretty split in terms of what people thought had won. And the reason why Canelo deserves our love and attention for his career and really for this sort of, I mean, is this his greatest moment? It might be.

So the first fight, we all know Canelo got a draw he probably didn't deserve. I mean, it's closer upon rewatch than we thought in real time. But obviously that 118-110 scorecard from Adelaide Bridge just spoiled it. But what did he do for the second fight? He said, I got a bigger puncher in front of me. He's got a big jab is coming at me all fight. I'm going to stand in the pocket against the bigger man and I'm going to walk him down. And Canelo became the first one to make Triple G take steps backward. This was a instant classic. This was a throwback middleweight title fight fought at close terms the whole time at an

insanely high skill level, which needs to be said because Golovkin for being a destroyer has a craft in an amateur background that is unlike most, you know, big knockout specialists. Golovkin had come in here. He had just snapped his knockout streak because Danny Jacobs took him the distance in a close fight, But he did knock down Danny Jacobs. I mean, he was looking to break. I'm sorry. Yeah, looking to break the middleweight record for title defenses that he had tied with Bernard Hopkins. And he had just snapped that like 23 fight knockout streak.

He was a killer, a destroyer. He fights Canelo to a draw. And then they go to war a second time. The second fight's better than the first, and it's because Canelo was willing to take the damage necessary to stand in there and try to win this fight. I remember specifically being there, and, you know, sometimes after the fight they do the post-fight press conference

right in the ring. They take the posts down and the ropes, and they just set up. I remember thinking, both of these guys should be at the hospital. They should not be here answering questions right now. They went to war, but it was a high-skilled war. And there's just something, like we all love the crazy brawls, right? But if you can get a high-paced action fight with damage and violence but also skill, that's the real good stuff, right?

That's the hot chick who also, you know, has a master's degree. Like that's the good stuff right there. This was the best boxing match I've ever seen in person. And it, it, it stands the test of time. Um, rewatch it. It's great. It's a great fight. And maybe this is, you know, this, uh, for anyone that thought Canelo was a pretty boy or he wasn't a Mexican warrior, all the, he turned all that shit aside. He, he fought like a man. Okay. I don't want to see a third fight between these two. I think Triple G's passed it, but they gave us this gift. Number two on my list, not going to be a surprise here.

I may have been watching through my fingers, cage side, but March 7th, 2020, right before the pandemic breakout, T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, we got UFC 248. Of course, Adesanya and Romero in that weird main event. But the co-main event is the greatest fight in women's MMA history and I believe to be frank here it should be in the top five of greatest fights ever regardless of anything when Zhang Weili and Ioana Young JTEC put on a five round I mean slugfest wouldn't cover it there was no like I don't want to say there was no like i don't want to say there was no craft there was high craft here but

there was no like subtleties here there was no like crafting this was just two trains that were like i'm going through you and i'm willing to do whatever it takes to get through you to get to the other side and win it was joanna the former champion who had sort of rebuilt herself when she had beat Tisha and she had, she had, she had beat Waterson. I'm forgetting the exact run right there for you, but Ioana was, was refurbished is what I'm saying. And she was coming in there in the early thirties, you know, trying to empty out the tank for one more run. I'm sorry. She had just the one win because she had, she had beaten Tisha Torres following the losses to Rose. She had moved up in weight and lost to Shevchenko pretty soundly. Came back, beat Watterson by decision.

And in that Watterson fight, she looked in the return to strawweight like she was back, right? No longer were we saying, can she still make this weight? And, you know, Joanna sometimes becomes a meme or a joke on this show for various reasons, normally fueled by Luke's weird dislike for her. But she didn't just fight like a Joanna champion. She just fought like a champion. She fought like, I mean, they can't pay these women enough to justify what they put in.

Ioana fought like losing was going to be the end of her life. And we sort of want that out of our warriors every fight, right? It's sort of like, well, that's what we look for every fight. But then when you get it sometimes, and I, you know, I got it, I was sitting in the front row, I was in the John Morgan position right next to him. And it was hard to watch because it was so freaking brutal. And of course, you know, you want as ridiculous hematoma alien shaped head that she got from that stands out, but both, you know, maybe, maybe, maybe Whaley will never be the same, you know, maybe, maybe, maybe Whaley will never be the same,

you know, maybe this took something out. It had to have that, that, you know, she, you know, maybe she'll still have some big wins, although she's coming off those two losses to Rose, of course, but I don't know how you can put into words what it's like. I mean, look, being at a fight is different because you see angles that you can't see on TV. You hear things you can't hear on TV. You see the impact of damage when you're sitting that you can't see on TV. You hear things you can't hear on TV. You see the impact of damage when you're sitting that close that the TV cameras just don't tell you, right? The natural sort of facial reactions, the sound,

the breaths that come out of someone when they're taking damage. This was as savage. And I've argued in the past, maybe it's because they're female that we tend, as male journalists sometimes, to be like, oh no, oh no, but this, oh, no, oh, no. But this was an oh, no, oh, no fight. Maybe it should be stopped. This is hellacious.

And they both went to the finish line doing nothing but trying to win the fight. I don't know. I don't know what to say. I mean, what more could you ask out of two fighters in a championship fight? You know, like, I don't even know if Ioana should ever fight again. You know, like, this was the rest of what she had, and she was willing to pour it all out, and she did. And, you know, I give her credit.

It's a split decision. Luke scored it for her. I scored it just for Whaley, just barely. The scorecards in the end were 48-47, two of them for Whaley, and I believe 49-46 was for Ioana. The other one seems a little bit wide, but either way, whether I got it wrong or not, it was a split decision. Ioana got one of the three cards. This is one of the situations where I hope, John S. Nash, are you listening? I hope UFC is paying these people ridiculously well under the table to make up for S. Nash are you listening I hope UFC is paying these people

ridiculously well under the table to make up for this finally as I'm just rambling and running along I don't know if you're still with me if you are that's great thank you I do this for fun anyway the best fight you know what it's going to be it's UFC 236 it's Atlanta it's 2019 it's the interim middleweight championship when Israel Adesanya and Kelvin Gastelum five rounds. It's a unanimous decision for Adesanya, 48-46 on all three scorecards, which seems right, but it doesn't tell the story of what this fight was. It was Kelvin Gastelum sort of realizing his moment. He's had such up and down moments on that path, and he went all in in this fight, kind of like what Ioana did in that Whaley fight. He put everything he had

to try to reach the mountaintop of his career by winning this interim title as Robert Whitaker, who was supposed to fight Gastelum before that, right, and fell out and was hurt. Adesanya, at this point, we looked at him as just a dynamic, amazing striker, but, you know, he hadn't been tested like this. He hadn't been put in the wars, and we all know what happened, and I've interviewed Izzy a bunch of times and talked specifically about this and thanked him for his performance in this. He hadn't been put in the wars. And we all know what happened. And I've interviewed Izzy a bunch of times and talked

specifically about this and thanked him for his performance in this. When he started that fifth round and was like, you know, I'm willing to die in here. And he talked to Gastelum across the cage. This fight had just, you know, there were near submissions in the championship rounds. There was just, it was an intensity. There was an intensity in this fight.

If Ioana and Whaley was just savage violence, this fight had if Ioana and Whaley was just savage violence, this fight had the ebbs and flows and drama that you want in a big title fight, but it had an intensity that they were both willing to do, and go, again, go to those places damage-wise, but also stamina-wise, they were just both willing to leave it all in there, you know, I knew instantly, I was shaking when they read the decision, you know, it was like goosebumps, it was like I knew instantly I had seen something otherworldly, I don't know, I knew instantly. I was shaking when they read the decision. You know, it was like goosebumps. It was like I knew instantly I had seen something otherworldly.

I don't know. You know, I've never watched a little bit of this here and there on UFC Fight Pass. I've never really sat down and watched the whole fight again. I don't know if it holds up on TV. Sometimes when you see a fight in person, you kind of don't want to see it with the commentary. You don't want to change what you experienced. What I experienced here was something special. The skill was high. The want was, was higher. And, uh,

man, I don't think people realize how great Gastelum was that night and how much better, you know, Izzy had to go to a place that I don't think he knew he had in him, to be fair. None of us, look, you'd ever know that. I think that's also why I love the fight game. I've been tested in life. We all have, to a certain degree, but I've been tested. You know, I'm a survivor. Thank you. I know what I'm in. I don't get in the cage, right?

But you're not going to know, whether it's life or whether it's in the cage, you're not really going to know how tough you are, what you're made of until you have to. Why would you, right? Hard to recreate that. You can't necessarily recreate that in training camp, right? Izzy is a real deal, folks, okay? He was that guy that night, and I'm glad he was able to find that out,

and I'm glad I was able to watch that firsthand. All right, we close the show as we often do on Monday, really every Monday. Swig of beer for the working man. Thank you, Stone Cold. beer for the working thank you stone cold morning combat glass thank you got some apple cider in here enjoying that shit hopefully I don't have to crap afterwards DMs from donks what do you got for me folks

let's hear it alright hee haw hee haw Sally can you throw the first one there up on the screen All right. Hee-haw. Hee-haw. Sally, can you throw the first one there up on the screen? This one comes from at Andrew R. Cox, 1984. Christmas memories, would you like to go back and relive? I think I've said it before.

The best Christmas I ever had, and I really got to give a shout-out to my dad for this, was third-grade Christmas. I think that's 1986. Two reasons. We were, you know, we were making, as a family, we were doing well. And that year I got the greatest gift I've ever received in my life. It was the seven foot long G.I. Joe aircraft carrier. And, you know, I was a big G.I. Joe fan at the time. I had a million vehicles and, you know, the base and all that, all that shit. But you wake up Christmas morning and you come down the stairs and there's a seven foot long setup in front of you that holds all of your toys. It's the greatest thing ever. In fact, it was one of those where you're like, I don't even care about any other present. I just need to do this right now. I had that thing set

up in my room for like three years. It's the greatest toy that ever happened. And why I give a shout out to my parents and my dad specifically is he stayed up all night putting it together in the garage downstairs. It's seven feet long. It's massive. And as he was carrying it up the stairs at like one in the morning, he dropped it. And it was the stairs that went from the garage up to the to the first floor that had like gaps in them. So behind the stairs, you could you have to crawl in there. So all the pieces fell and just crumbled in front of him. And he said he swore like five thousand times and then was like, all right, let's rebuild it. And he crawled under there and pulled out all the pieces and rebuilt it again. And not only is that the greatest Christmas and Christmas present of all time, but, you know, I was a huge WWF mark at the time.

We all remember the LJN figures, the big, heavy, you know, rubber ones. That was the, that Christmas they were in their third series, and I had most of them, but that Christmas was the last time I had every action figure that WWE offered at the time. Now, look, this is very materialistic, but as a kid, to feel like I have every single toy they offer, I had like 25 of them like that's a that's you'll never forget that I've had great Christmas in which we traveled or we did this or we did that and you know some of these simple like these COVID Christmases have been great because you're really you're focusing on what really matters you know the quality time with

the family but when you're a kid it's and you grow up in sort of this you know Santa Claus field culture it's sort of you know could I could I be blown away by some gift I didn't think I could? There's a seven-foot G.I. Joe aircraft here in the living room when I came down the stairs. You're never going to forget that, Chris. It is what it is. Thank you. Next question, please, as we roll on from the DM. At Carl M. Baharucha.

When we conclude 2022, who do you believe will be the UFC's middleweight champion? Great question. I did this exercise, as I mentioned, on Aaron Bronstetter's TSN show, so shout out to that. Here's what's interesting. The fight I want to see most above all,

we're going to see it early first quarter, it's Robert Whitaker rematching Israel Adesanya. I do believe two things entering this rematch. One, Whitaker was not who he needed to be in that first fight. He just, you know, the wear and tear, the mental, all that. Like, everything was just, he was on the end of his run. Maybe it's 10 rounds with Romero just breaks you down in every way as a human. Credit to Izzy.

He rose in the big moment at Marvel Stadium. He got it done. He knocked him out. That wasn't Robert Whitaker. I didn't know if we'd ever see Robert Whitaker again, but he comes back with this win streak. He had to go through the wars, man, and he might be a better fighter

now. He's more patient and crafty. I mean, he could not be entering this rematch at a better part. I think we're going to get the fight in the rematch we could have or should have or would have under different circumstances the first time. I think it's going to be spectacular. I think Robert Whitaker wins it. I really do. I think he just has, he is just the perfect kryptonite for what Adesanya brings because he can do it. I think Robert Whitaker is the most, he's among the most well-rounded fighters in the history of this sport.

He can wrestle, he can punch punch he's durable as shit he's smart all of that stuff great stamina everything and does that mean he closes the year no why because i think these two were destined coming from the same greater oceanic region there to be all-time great rivals i think short of anderson silva who's the greatest middleweight in history these two may end up going down as two and three for a while in that category in terms of all-time great middleweights. I think

Whitaker has a great shot of winning this rematch just as Adesanya does of winning a trilogy later this year. So gun to my head, who do I believe will close the year? I say Israel Adesanya. Obviously I can get there the easy way if he just defeats Whitaker in the second fight and then, you know, fights somebody else.

But I think we may get there the hard way. I think these two, and I've been saying it forever, and maybe I'm just, you know, putting it out there so that it can come true. But these two are all-time great fighters. I love them. I cannot wait to see them again in this rematch. And I think we're getting three. In some form, we're going to get three of them.

Thank you. What else we got here? Let's roll through. I'm on fire. What am I most looking forward to in 2022? It's a very general question. A couple things. Whitaker out of Sanya 2? Heck yeah. The heavyweight boxing picture. You cannot take for granted. Now, this is about the, this heavyweight renaissance that we're having in heavyweight boxing. It's about three or four years into it, right?

We've had, I mean, you know, AJ versus Klitschko was insane. The trilogy with Fury and Wilder was insane. Every year, it's a gift for any of us who endured the run that began in 2004 when Lennox Lewis retired and ended in 2015 when Tyson Fury upset Vladimir Klitschko. That 11-year run was the darkest it has to be in boxing heavyweight history. And that's not a slap at Vladimir Klitschko or Vitaly who had moments there but got injured and ultimately retired. Klitschko or Vitaly, who had moments there but got injured and ultimately retired. Klitschko fought everybody he could, and he won the majority of those.

And he won dominantly, and he was an ambassador for the sport. I don't have bad things to say about Vladimir Klitschko. But it became boring because there were fighters that it was such a dead time for heavyweight boxing that he's not only big and strong, he's also skilled, amateur, backer, and all that. He would fight a guy, he's fighting no hopers. He's fighting guys who are either too small or they can punch but they can't box

or they can box but they have no power. He was just fighting no hopers, and the division was struggling. And really, you could argue that short of Floyd and Manny, the sport was struggling because, you know, as the heavyweights go, as Burt Sugar would say, so does boxing. And that's, you know, it's a long-held sort of idiom there if that's the right word but then Tyson Fury

flipped Vladimir Klitschko upside down and it started this run that we're on now and it really picked up with the AJ Anthony Joshua versus Klitschko fight 2017 and it's been great since then we're just coming off Wilder Fury 3. I want to see what happens this year. We've got Alexander Usyk probably going into this Anthony Joshua rematch, which is high theater. We've got Tyson Fury probably fighting Dillian White, which could be crazy. Could we close the year with the winners against each other? Could it be Fury versus AJ or Usyk inside of, you know, it could be anything. It could be a number of things.

Is Wilder going to come back? I don't know. I'm most looking forward, even more, to be fair, than the idea of Errol Spence versus Bud Crawford, seeing what plays out in the heavyweight division. MK-wise, what am I looking forward to? I'm looking forward to, in a week or two, to get back to this brand-new studio that they've built up for us. Shout-out to my peeps, okay?

Showtime, CBS Sports, Malka. They've done everything they've said they would for us and beyond. Now, do I believe MK has over-exceeded expectations? Yeah. Shout out to Luke, myself, our team, and obviously shout out to the fans who made that award possible. Look, what does that award mean at the end of the day? It's just a piece of heart, right?

It's the fighters only. It is what it is unless you want it to be something. To me, it is something for two reasons. One, higher-ups really care about that. They do. It's a flag you plant on top of the mountain. And two, it was the fans that voted that. It was you guys.

So what do I want for MK in 2022? I want to grow things like subscriber numbers on YouTube. Sure. I want to get to like subscriber numbers on YouTube. Sure. I want to get to 200,000. Yes, sure. Okay, that's great. But I don't just want to be the best show, which I believe we are. I want to dramatically evolve.

And, you know, we do weird things. We do fun things. We do documentaries. We spin wheels. We do a lot of weird stuff. I don't want the weird stuff to stop. I never want this show to ever feel like it's mailed in maybe sometimes that feels that way for you you get too much jake paul or today you get way too much bc not enough lt whatever your

flavor is there's different reasons you come to the show i want to never stop leaving you guessing of what's coming next and that falls on our staff we got a new studio coming that i think is going to change the way the show looks and feels. I want, now that, well, I was going to say now that COVID is lightening up. It ain't lightening up at all, I guess, depending on, you know, I watched the Today Show this morning.

It was Omnicron in my face, Omnitron. Is that the, is that a transformer? I don't know. But all I know is I want to be back in that studio often. We're going to do big things this year, okay? Really big things. I want a live back in that studio often. We're going to do big things this year. Really big things. I want a live show. I want crazy, awesome-ass merch.

We're going to do some big collaborations with other brands. We're going to do a lot of fun stuff this year. That's what I'm looking forward to. As a dad and parent, my sons are going to be turning 14 in February. They're going to be out during high school next year, this is the time, man, this is the time to be alive and

a parent, and really focus on that, and have those memories with them, you know, that's why you say, BC, man, you're going on a lot of vacations, I am, I am going on a lot of vacations, I didn't have the money back then, and, you know, pretty soon, these guys are going to be gone, this is the double down years, these are the years that you make the most of then. And, you know, pretty soon these guys are going to be gone. This is the double down year. These are the years that you make the most of it. You make it happen, you know. And even more importantly than that, I want to take care of my mental health better than I ever have. And there's some areas that I'm lazy with.

I think a lot of you fall into that trap too. It's like, okay, I know if I go out and run every morning, you know, my mental health will be dynamic. I need to start doing that. You know, I need to do more. I need to, I got to take, we all got to take better care of ourselves. But, you know, this is going to be the year that MK goes for it. I think this is going to be the year that BC goes for it. We weren't supposed to win best MMA program.

So where do we go next? I don't know. Hasn't Ariel Helwani won best MMA journalist for 11 straight years? Am I a journalist? Not really. I'm an entertainer. Maybe I make a run at old Ariel Dasani there. You say it can't happen? The thing is, though, I'm coming. I'm coming. Maybe I don't get there. Maybe I do, though, I'm coming. I'm coming. Maybe I don't get there.

Maybe I do, though. Okay? We're about to find out in 2022. What else we got, Sally? From Flannel and Jits. Flannels and Jits. If MMA had a Kings of a weight class documentary, what weight class and fighters would it be about?

Okay, so the Kings reference is to Showtime's The Four Kings, which documents, of course, Hagler, Hearns, Leonard, and Duran in and around the welterweight division, although obviously Hagler was a middleweight his whole career, so they all eventually moved up. If MMA had a Kings, so essentially what is the golden era of a single division? That's what it's asking. I think knee-jerk.

Knee-jerk, you've got to go light heavyweight in the, you know, in the 2010, 2011 era, that area where you had that stretch where one, the stretch as Jon Jones was coming up the ladder, that one Hall of Famer after another took turns swapping the belt, right? It was like Liddell gave it to Rampage, who gave it to Forrest, who gave it to Rashad, who gave it to Machida, who gave it to Shogun, eventually gave it to John Jones that run at 205 light heavyweight where you had the former sort of face of the franchise and Chuck Liddell handing it off to some guys who had some great moments but

they were short and eventually handed off to John Jones and then once John Jones got it he in turn turned around and fought all of those guys one after another and probably the most insane stretch of fighting. I just credited Conor McGregor's insane stretch from the Aldo fight through the Alvarez fight. Insane, although he lost one of those fights. But what Jon Jones did from that stretch of Shogun through all those guys, I'm not sure that will ever be equal in terms of fighting top-level competition one after another. And the fights were exciting as shit, and they were great.

That's probably it. You could argue lightweight from the past few years, but part of the problem in that is that we never got Habib Tony despite all those times doing it. Conor was in and out and not really active. It was so deep and such a great division, and we got great fights, and we're still getting great fights. So maybe lightweight could be it, but knee-jerk,

it's got to be light heavyweight there from that one are there anything else to close down or is there anything else from life at life is strawberry how many more elite title defenses does charles need to make to lure habib out of retirement this is interesting because you know i i've like lot of people, we've been late to the party because Oliveira's win streak had been so heavily leaned off the start of Nick Lentz type guys. No disrespect to Nick Lentz, but you beat a bunch of Nick Lentzes in a row and we're like, okay, let's see you do it on the title level.

We're going to, we're going to mark you an underdog for this fight. And then he goes in there and he barely and he nearly gets stopped by Chandler, and then he stops him. Oh, my God, right? Okay, you can't do that against Poirier, right? Oh, God, he did. He sat on Poirier for a whole round in round two and dominated him. At this point, it's opened all of our eyes, rightfully so,

to what this guy, 10 wins in a row, 32 years old, most finishes, most submissions, and, you know, he's sort of adding. He not only, you know, turned his striking around, but look at what he did with this top game against Poirier. The now debate is, you know, could he have been the one to give Habib a problem? I love that debate.

I'll spend an hour on a podcast filling, you know, I'll do a whole podcast about that debate. I love it. Will it ever be enough to get Habib out of retirement? I don't think so. Something we said from the beginning is that if anybody is true to their word, if anyone is, it's Habib, right? If anyone is true to what their stand on, the principles, the promises to the family,

it's Habib. Okay, well, what if Charles Oliveira beat Conor and Gaethje and, you know, you name them up and down the list of people that kind of get refurbished and come up, you know, Zeeb. Oh, what if he just beats all of them? Mahachev, what if he beats all those guys? Still I say no because I believe Habib is focused on coaching. I believe he's focused on promoting.

And I believe that promise is true. But if there was an angle, and I don't think Charlie Olives is this type of McGregor despicable nature, but let's say Charles Oliveira has a title defense against Islam Mahachev, and Habib is in the corner, which he would be, and Charlie talks a shit ton of trash, and then knocks Mahachev the fuck out. And I don't mean Rocky IV Drago style where he killed him. I'm not going in that direction. But let's say he freaking destroyed him. And Habib's in the Rocky Balboa spot saying, man, I should have thrown in the towel. Could you conceive some type of narrative in which Habib comes back to avenge his teammate?

That might be the only way. That might be the only way. That might be the only wayge his teammate. That might be the only way. That might be the only way. That might be the only way. All right? That might be the only way. Probably not, though. All right. We are late on time.

How about we do two more quick ones, Sally? If you can give me two more quick ones in and out, and then we'll close up shop. From atcha__vita, what are your top three favorite fighting or martial arts movies of all time? Probably not as, certainly not as, you know, I love me, I love me some, Rafe Bartholomew and I love me some bad martial arts movies from the 80s and 90s and bad action movies and all that, yeah, I love me some Bloodsport, yeah, Luke and I watched Warrior and it wasn't that bad, right,

we did that COVID book report on that. By the way, I like Here Comes the Boom a lot more than people do. Why does Luke shit on, why does everybody shit on? I watch it with my kids and they love it. It's a way for me to bring UFC into my living room and people sort of handle it in a bite-sized fashion, in a safe way, right? And it's Paul Blart, mall cop in a UFC cage, right?

And Krzysztof Szczesinski's the bad guy in Boss Ruin Rules. in a safe way, right? It's Paul Blart, Molkop, and a UFC cage, right? And Krzysztof Szczesinski's the bad guy in Bostro and Rules. But no, I don't really have a go-to top three fighting one. I mean, you know, if we're going to bring in the Rocky movies, it's going to change the discussion and the debate. I'll have the debate with you all day, which is the best Rocky movies. You know, cinematically, obviously, it one, but you know, four, you can argue three pound for pound, just, just start to finish, but there's nothing like four. Come on.

It's, it's cheese. Yes, but it's tasty cheese, but no, I'm not, I'm not credible enough to say, here's my list of top 10 fights movies, but we got one more for you here. What do we got here? So then they're going to kick me out at, Oh, that's that Irish name again. Wysen? Wysen? I mean, knowing that it's Irish, it could be pronounced Aaron for all I know. Underscore McCarthy 96. What are your wildest predictions for 2022? Again, not to steal all my material from the material I delivered to Aaron Bronstad

on that TSN show, but it was heavy in that category of picking champions to end the year and then picking bold, bold claims. I think we had to make a one-star, two-star, and a three-star bold prediction. I think one of my predictions was that Dana White will not talk about Jake Paul at all until Jake Paul beats Anderson Silva, and then Dana's like, crap, we've got to end this. Let me find somebody to end it. He tries to get Adesanya. Adesanya won't do it.

So he goes, all right, Kamaru, you've been a great soldier for me. You want to make a lot of money. You don't want to fight that much longer. We're going to put you in a boxing match against him, and we're going to co-promote it, and we're going to go after it. That's a pretty bold prediction. I just don't believe it will happen. How about this bold prediction?

Amanda Nunes decides against a rematch against Juliana Pena at 135. She says, you know what, that weight cut is compromising me, and I want to be the featherweight champion, and I want to be a mom, and I want to do what I want to do the rest of the way. Meanwhile, UFC brings in Kayla Harrison and says, not only are we bringing her in, but we're going to take BC's idea and combine the 45 in a non-existent 55 division and make women's heavyweight. Suddenly Cyborg wants to come back. You got Kayla. You got Amanda. Okay, so what happens at 135? Juliana Pena defends against Holly Holm at 40 years old, and you want a wild prediction to close 2022? Holly Holm is your UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion again. Crazy, right?

You see, you're stupid, right? No, I don't know. I just got this weird feeling, okay? I got this weird feeling that Holly's going to raise that belt one more time, that she's going to put that capstone on her career with the longevity and all that. Maybe I'm wild and crazy. A lot of weird things have to happen to open that door.

We'll see what happens. Shout out to our great team and staff. This may have been a weird mail-in episode and very BC heavy, but that's what I do when they leave me alone. Sally on the ones and twos, appreciate you. Shout out to Staten Island, even if you won't shout it out yourself. Thank you to the fans for hanging with us here. Buy our merch at morningcombat.store.

I'll tell you this. The quality of it is really fantastic. you can buy digital gift cards today maybe you want to get somebody a uh what holidays are in january i don't know president's day i don't know okay you can buy digital gift cards available now as well wear the tie-dye stuff wear the drug rug whatever you got like and subscribe follow us on social and um luke thomas will be back on wednesday we will not have a friday episode we want everybody to enjoy their new years but luke thomas is back on wednesday we'll hit the latest news and all that we'll look ahead hey risen my favorite fighting federation rise and risen they're back this

weekend okay not tension nasa kawa i love this shit. Okay. You're going to, we're going to preview that on Wednesday. Gains will be loyal as they are. I hope you guys have a healthy and happy holiday season and we'll be back in a couple of days. There are my great staff and, and yeah, that's it. My name is Brian Campbell and I've got two words for you.