MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Chiesa vs. Magny Reaction | UFC 257 Expert Picks with Rashad Evans | Ep. 108

Episode Date: January 20, 2021

Different time, no Luke, same MK. Brian is joined by Rashad Evans as they react to the UFC fight island event that was headlined by Michael Chiesa taking on Neil Magny (4:30). Plus, they give their expert picks for this weekend's massive UFC 257 event with Conor McGregor taking on Dustin Poirier (42:20). ---------------------------- '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: store.sho.com   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Oh yeah, pouring a little sugar on the old mk in the name of love it is wednesday january uh i don't know where we're at right now uh 20th how about that 2021 in the year of our lord here and this is morning combat maybe even a special early evening combat edition as we come on here reacting of course to the just in the booksthe-books UFC Fight Night card. A little late-morning, afternoon action from Abu Dhabi. My name is Brian Campbell, CBS Sports Showtime. You know all the, you know my resume, right? I don't have to pull the sword.

The big-ass beige one right here. No, that is not Luke Thomas next to me, guys. He's in the air. He's in flight right now. Coming up northeast area. We've got a lot of good business this weekend. Showtime Boxing's back. Conor McGregor's back.

All that and then some tall, pale, and handsome BC here. Luke Knott in his place. The one and only former UFC champion. A Hall of Famer. Always sweet, never sour. A tower of ayahuasca power. Sugar Rashad Evans. I always get a little extra fired up when you're sitting next to me on this one brother bc i love sitting next to you brother i'm glad to

be back man i'm glad to be back thanks for having me i appreciate that appreciate that uh so look you know if you hate luke thomas this is your show right now and if you and if you love michael kiesa it might be yours as well before Before we break down the action from UFC Fight Night, before we look ahead and get Rashad's picks for Conor McGregor, Dustin Poirier, part deux this weekend, why don't you do us a little bit of solid here and like the video, subscribe to what we're doing here on good old MK Nation, Morning Combat in your face hole, right?

Coming for your sensibilities, for your soul. MK all day, nearly every day. So keep piling on those statistics for us. We're also going to make Rashad spin that wheel of death later in the show. So you're not going to want to miss that high and tight indeed. If you like morning combat, by the way, why don't you tell your friends by wearing it? If you employ Rashad Evans, why don't you send him some MK merch in the mail? Showtime and CBS already, okay? Can the guy

parade around in it too? Well, you can go over to store.show.com if you live in the lower 48. Pick up some of this great merch. Buy yourself a tumbler. Wow. All over the place here in BC. That's what we're going to do there. Also, you want 33 days of Showtime. Now is the time to get in on this. Go to showtime.com.

Showtime Championship Boxing is back this weekend. There's going to be some big fights coming up in the near future announced you got uh you know the comedy store doc you got a lot of good stuff going on there so check that out put all the ads in the book all the business behind us let's get into the business of doing what rashad does best breaking down fights this was stop number two on the three cards in eight nights or maybe eight mornings in abu dhabi, Fight Island, Yaz Island. Headlined by some welterweights, Michael Chiesa, Neil Magny, your late replacement, of course, for Chimaev and Edwards,

but Rashad, this was a top-ten welterweight matchup. We needed to see just the same. Both guys coming in with a three-fight win streak, but in the end, it was Mike the Maverick doing what he does best, which is taking Neil magny down and laying all kinds of all over him for five rounds unanimous decision let's hit it right there what'd you love about this performance well i love this smothering style you know that that kind of grappling that he did it's a very suffocating style and you know he was trying

to be deadly in there landing some clean elbows and landing some clean shots when he did but you know he just wasn't able to narrow i guess hold uh kneel down long enough to be able to do that but i mean when it comes to just to transition a grappling game and the pressure that he put on tops he really made a case for himself looking at those top guys in weight class those top heavy dominant grappling guys in weight class and show that he definitely belongs in the conversation with those guys and and it looks to me honestly speaking that you know he has a pretty good claim to be a problem in that weight class. I mean, you look at that weight class, you look at how it's just dominated by the upper echelon grapplers. The top guys in the weight class are grappling base, wrestling base, and Michael Chiesa fits right in there.

One thing I was very impressed with as well was his stand-up ability. You know, he didn't really do too much with the stand-up, but what he did do was he was able to nullify Neil Magny, who's got some pretty good stand-up. Now, that's a pretty big deal. And he was also able to use that stand-up to transition to get in the good grappling positions, to utilize the clinch positions, and dominate on the ground. So great fight, and on the stretch too. Down the stretch, the fourth and fifth round, the championship rounds, the harder rounds, the rounds that he's never been in, he looked phenomenal being able to close out the show.

Great job for Michael Chiesa. Yeah, this was a heck of a statement toward the idea of is this guy an in-betweener or is he a legitimate title contender? He's probably going to move into the top five with this win. Certainly going to be looking for a top five opponent. We'll get to his call-out in a second. But look, he showed you championship-level stamina as you talked about using that ragdoll style for five rounds.

I like, Rashad, what he said to me coming in on morning combat, which is basically, look, people don't think I can strike because I don't use it. I can definitely strike, but I don't think he showcases striking in this one necessarily to do damage. It was more to set up the takedowns. But there was one other thing he told me, Rashad. If I don't have a reason to get off of plan A, why am I ever going to introduce plan B? And you may have nailed something talking about the top of this division. You got your Covingtons.

You got your Usmans. I mean, this is wrestling city uh whether this guy's stand-up truly is on the elite level and on the up and up as he says now for a fight win streak since moving up to 170 uh he may never have to actually show it right I mean this is the right division for him right now in terms of the grapplers around him what do you think separates him though specifically when you're getting the ideas of matching his wrestling against those two names I mentioned? Well, I think it's his transitions in a grappling position. His transitional grappling IQ, I think is one of the best in the weight class. It's kind of like, I don't want to say too much like Damian Maia,

but it's Damian Maia-esque, you know what I'm saying? Being able to just be so efficient in those grappling transitions. And I think that's one thing that he offers differently than the guys, you know, top in the top weight class. I mean, you have Gilbert Burns who is, you know, a great grappler and has some great transitions, but I think the way that Michael Chiesa just puts that pressure on is more like Habib, you know? So I think he definitely has a um a good you know a good stake to to argue that you know he's one of the toughest guys at in a grappling standpoint for the weight class but at the same time if he's going to be able to really hold weight with those guys at the top five he's going to have to work on a stand-up because when you can't get those guys down to the ground

it's going to be a stand-up battle and we've seen that with Kamaru Usman versus Colby Covington. Both guys can grapple. Both guys were pretty good. But when it came down to their fight, it was all about stand-up. So if Michael Kies is going to really make a break in the top five, he's going to really have to round out his stand-up skills a little bit more. Yeah, it's one thing for me to say what I kind of did. Maybe he can hide those skills, but you made a great point.

When they cancel out, like in Covington and Usman, good God, you gotta rely on the hands. I do like his confidence though. Quickly on Neil Magny, look, I didn't give him a ton of respect coming in. As a fighter, respect. As a dad, respect, by the way. That vignette they showed on the broadcast today nearly brought a tear

to my eye. Love me some Neil Magny. I just thought, even though this was his opportunity to prove for the first time in his career that he's more elite than sort of uh you know middle class guy in this division my fear for him was he's not spectacular enough right he can give you a tough out and surprise you he can upset somebody by relying on his game plan but in a really big fight does he have that next level area to raise his game? Despite that little window in the third round when he took Kies' back

and he got to give Mike the Mav credit for never panicking, never really turned into too much danger. I just didn't see enough of Magny when we needed to see more. Does this, in the end, just sort of tell us that he is who we thought he was? Yeah, and I hate to say it like that. And I mean, you put it really well. But the truth of the matter, here's the reality. Like when you're going against the guys

that's the top of the weight class, there's usually one skill set that they have that they can lean on when they're going against the tougher guys in weight class that they may be able to edge those guys at. They may be stand-up or may be just a grappling submission or whatever the case may be. They have some kind of cornerstone of their game that they can implement on all the tough guys in weight class, and it may work.

You just don't see that from Neil Magnum. He's really good all over the place, but he just doesn't have that one dominating tool that he really needs to be that guy to get him out of those situations that you've seen with Michael Chiesa. If he had a little bit more power, if he had a little bit more oomph in his takedowns or whatever the case may be, we may be talking about a different fight altogether. But at the end of the day, we're not not and the truth of the matter is he just doesn't have you know those things to to really bring them to that next level when it comes to you know uh pushing in that top five you know maybe it's something that you know he can work on but for the most part he's he's he's got to have it you either have it or you don't right now yeah you

either have it or you don't right you know i'm i'm a pale guy i can't get tan i try it doesn't work for me on that regard. All right. I want to talk about what's next for Chiesa in this division. And I have two questions that border on the areas that people hate when we do it right here, Rashad, which is to take politics and take sports and intersect them like a gross night at a cheap bag motel. Right. But we do that on here. OK, no, this to be luke thomas clutching pearls but uh you know true or false did uh the usc cut a program against the damn induction uh ceremony here with uh biden harris with the timing of this card i mean i was feeling it i was kind of feeling it was a

little bit of a presidential snub but i didn't want to say i don't want to be all too conspiracy theory but i mean it just it just kind of seemed like it was kind of at an odd time but uh you know i was able to watch both just in case anything popped off with the whole inauguration thing but uh it was it was good you know it was it was a good wednesday card and those guys delivered on the main event yeah before i transition to the second question i do want to say i mean it was badass to wake up in the morning have breakfast and and it just turned out that this undercard uh was it was bad i mean it was fireworks all the time in the morning, have breakfast. And it just turned out that this undercard was bad. I mean, it was fireworks all the time.

Some names we're going to get into in a second, but I was fully caffeinated. I was full. I was ready. And I could use this schedule too. But my second political question covers around what Chiesa said afterwards. He was ready for a call out. He said, look, the election's over, Colby Covington.

Your shtick no longer matters let's do it let's get in the cage i love the aggressiveness do you like this matchup do you think it's the direction ufc can go do you like kiesa's chances should they make this fight i like the matchup and i like the fact that he's calling out that matchup because honestly speaking that's a really hard matchup for him because it goes right into the grounds in which i was just speaking you know it goes right into the grounds where he's gonna go go in there with a guy who he's going to have to be better with at the skill he wants to dominate in. And the fact that he's a grappler, he's going to have to dominate one of the best grappler wrestlers in the division at Colby Collington, who has a work rate, who does not get tired at all. And on the feet, he's relentless on the feet as well too.

So that is a call out that it just shows where his confidence at. But if he's gonna be able to really make something manifest out of that call out and really bring something to the table in that fight, he's gotta work on his ones and twos, being able to tell the story with his hands and with his feet, being able to really mix it up.

And listen, he doesn't necessarily have to be the better striker to beat Colby Covington, but what he can do is he can frustrate him, hit him, clinch him up real good, making sure that Colby's getting frustrated. And at that point, once the frustration seeps in, then everything is made easier. But he has to bring Colby to that point. I think he can cast his favor when you move forward. I don't know if he has what it Kobe to that point. I think in Kiesa's favor when you move forward,

I don't know if he has what it takes to get over that hill and become a champion. I once pitched to Luke, do you see Kiesa sort of topping out as one day having fought for a title but never won one? The jury's still out on that. But one thing he does have, though, is he has an out. He's a submission game. He can submit these guys possibly on the elite level here. You love the wrestling. You love

the way his body has adjusted to the new weight class, which turns out to be the right weight class to him. 4-0. We'll see what he can do next. I'd love me some Covington. Let's not forget, Kies also has history with Masvidal, although he lost that fight by submission. He had some good moments on the feet in that one back in the day, Rashad, right?

Yeah, I mean, he has some options, some interesting matchups as well. I mean, he's, and here's another thing, he's a big guy for 170. You know, Michael Chiesa walks around and he's a pretty big guy. So, you know, the fact that he's fighting in a weight class that he's closer to his natural weight class, it just shows in his performances. You know, he's been looking great. His muscle has been looking great. He's been fighting his game that he wants to fight from beginning to end.

And that really shows in a fighter when they're fighting in a weight class when they can fight their fight from the beginning to the end without showing that fatigue that usually happens from cutting so much weight. And he may be the only MMA fighter who has tattoos that aren't offensive or crazy looking. So he's doing well right there. Rashad, I think you and I are the only guys associated with this damn sport who

aren't all inked up, right? Maybe it's my favorite of the three needles. I don't know if we ever, if we ever talked surgery before, but three needle, it was a harrowing experience. You don't want to hear that story.

Rashad, will you ever, will you ever crack? Will you ever get, you know, I was thinking maybe sugar over the pelvis. Yeah. Oh, like a little trap

snap you're saying, huh? Okay. Nah, you know, I thought about getting a tattoo, but I mean at this point I'm 41 years old and I just, what's the point? I mean, it's almost over for me anyways. It's almost over. There's no real subhead to this card.

Nobody really, I mean, in some ways made a dominant B-story ways it's almost over all right uh there's no real subhead to this card nobody really i mean in some ways made a dominant b story statement but there's a lot of sort of things we almost need to talk about maybe in rapid fashion but rashad as you look up and down this car and i'll give you the first stab at it uh who do you think outside of the main event wins the mvp on this one because there were names i didn't know about coming in but you better know now after some of these performances you know honestly I kind of liked Worley Alvarez in that last fight you know the cold man event I thought that you know it was a fight because it meant something you know he's coming back into action and uh you know he's got a window over Colby Cunnington and it kind of fits right into the story of where um Michael Chiesa is going he's in an upward

trajectory but then you have, you know, Worley Alves come in that situation and he looks very dominant and just, you know, very efficient with that body kick. And he holds the win over Colby Covington. So that also goes to show, you know, what could he do with a couple more fights and a few more reps being healthy and everything like that.

So I was impressed with that. Very efficient win by Worley. Yeah, first round stoppage of Lazé, who was coming in looking good. Afterwards, Worley, he got a little ballsy. I kind of liked it. I couldn't tell with the language difference and the tone exactly what he was really trying to say.

I heard Nate, I'm going to guess it was Diaz. It sounded more like Nate De uh did you gay did you gay no no forget jesus i don't know where he was going with that but uh i will tell you if he's calling out nate diaz and if he's doing it in a you know i'm the real come find me i'm here for that dude come on i mean i mean listen i want to see diaz fight you know i mean you know he's he's one of my favorite guys to watch fight because he watching him is pure entertainment from the moment he signs a contract to the moment he actually fights. And even afterwards, because you never know what's going to come out of his mouth. He just keeps it super real and he fights like crazy, you know.

So but one thing is I think his inactivity is hurting him more than anything. You know, he's in the prime of his career right now, and he has to really seize that opportunity. I think he's going to be maybe tough like this for another one, two years, and then after that, you're going to start to see a decline. But right now, I mean, he's got to strike while the iron's hot, you know, now that they just made it so that you can burn one and not get caught by Usada. He should be ready to go.

There should be no reason for him not to be fighting every weekend. We could have been hanging out years ago, right? I mean, this is great. Where's this been all of our careers, right? I'm telling you, man. Everything changes now. I mean, like, you know, good for those guys. I'm happy for them.

I'm happy. I love the walk-off knockout for light heavyweight Isaac Villanueva, which seemed to come, as he said in the ninth inning, with some reference to basically if he didn't win, he was going to lose his job. Big time knockout there over Vinicius Moreira. I mean, I will butcher everyone's names, so don't worry about that. I don't want to linger on that, though, Rashad. Can I just give you my MVP here?

Second fight of the night, and that's why this undercard was so friggin' magical for a season there. I mean, it was just like, damn! Umar Nurmagomedov, his older cousin Habib in his corner, he's a bantamweight. If you didn't watch his second-round destruction of Sergey Morozov, who came in fired up, in shape, ready to go. You could tell he was a tough out. Rashad, what else could Umar Nurmagomedov have done to impress us besides sing a song afterwards? Here's a guy who

they were saying on the broadcast, he's a little bit more Zabit than he is Habib, meaning he's a striker. His stand-up is fantastic. I was more impressed by his wrestling, his motor, his transitions, and then the fact that he put his opponent to sleep when it came down to it. I don't want to put the rocket pack on too many

guys right now because there's a few Hamzats few hamzats and and uh and kevin holland's in the air right now but uh this guy i'm rock hard with emotion right now as jk would say i mean he is everything that is great about dagestani i mean these guys that come here are just absolutely phenomenal and and the training ground and which those guys train under is just a who's who and if you can make it out of that training ground then you're going to be somebody just even making up the practice room you know i'm saying i watch these guys train and they just trained for hours and just going and just repetition after repetition and just never get tired always just dedicated to train themselves and you see the results you you know, great transitions, great grappling, all of it just seems to tie together and just a poetry

and just a flow. You watch these guys like Zabit and Hamza and those guys, the way they move, the storytelling of the fight from the way that they set up their strikes to all of it, it's such a beautiful art. It's almost, you know, it brings such a beauty to the violence of the sport. Yeah, Bill, I'll be doing some translating afterwards. That was a shocker, too. If you're DC, you've got to put the mic over and be like, hey, while we're here, Habib, we all know you're not coming back and Dana's lying, so can you out him already?

I mean, what the hell is going on here? But, yeah, I don't want to put any kind of carp car before the horse but uh this guy the younger nurmagomedov uh welcome to the bantamweight division where it's all killer no filler only when you look at his body i mean good god i mean the guy is ripped you look at the intensity the motor the the oh god i mean i'm ready i'm ready i'm ready for his next fight right now but rash But Rashad, I wasn't even able to really finish my erection on that fight because Lightweight's Mike Davis and Mason Jones came out next. Threw two rounds. I thought I was watching the fight of the year, Rashad. Great matchmaking. Two Lightweights looking to make a massive statement.

Mason Jones was coming over from cage fighting, had shown a confidence in himself. I was starting to get nervous because this was so competitive, so action-packed, so awesome, that whoever lost this was going to never be the same from it because they let it all hang out, Rashad. It was a beautiful fight, and that's what you want to see. You want to see guys go in there and just lay it all on the line, especially when you have a big opportunity to fight on a card in Abu Dhabi

and you're getting an opportunity to really fight on the stage like UFC. I mean, for a lot of these guys that come into the UFC and just finally get the chance to fight in the UFC and just the whole professionalism along the way, and then they finally get to fight in the cage, it's such a reward. And to see those guys go out there and lay it on the line, I mean, it's everything that the the ufc is about this is what makes the ufc different than every other sport is the simple fact that you you know these guys on the prelims and every guy it is the fight to watch you can't come and watch a ufc fight late and only think that you you didn't miss anything because you you probably did miss something

because the preliminary fights are most of the time better than the main event fights yeah hey hey dana take notice of what we just said here okay rules all right stop putting people on the show in your videos uh uh i'm sorry luke good god rashad evans uh let me speak with royalty here uh i didn't know a ton about either guy coming in should i have known about mike davis this guy looks like an absolute stud because me you could tell mason jones was delivering early the kind of shots that previous opponents didn't get up from and this guy Mike Jones just or Mike Davis just keep coming man no I didn't know much about these guys either and that was that was a bigger surprise to me to go

ahead and see these guys deliver like that and fight the way that they did I mean you I mean you you can't you can't ask for nothing better than that but I mean uh now i know and now make sure to watch yeah knowing is half the battle there um can we also lather it all over manon fior out the women's flyweight in the opening bout that uh used victoria leonardo as target practice i'm not here to say creepy stuff no ooh la la no sneaky anything how about sneaky awesome as a striker where's this chick been all of our lives with shod super smooth super slick i mean this is the kind of striking that takes you to the next level especially in a weight class like this i mean this is this is what it's all about these are this is this is the kind of thing that makes me excited to see you know how she can grow

and what she can do against the the the toughest of the toughest in the weight class you already already know who I'm talking about, man, because this is what we need. We need strikers who can go in there and deliver some, who can definitely be like, wow, she's got something to bring and definitely can contend with Shevchenko in the striking area. So I'm happy for it. I love to see new talent get birth that's going to give these champions that are just running away and has such a huge gap maybe a little bit of run and maybe something to worry about.

I feel like this is really the benefit, if there is one, of UFC pushing forward and fighting through the quarantine as aggressive as they did. I mean, it is, as Michael Chiesa said on our show last week, it's the era of opportunity. I feel like there's more young, hot studs at the moment or potential studs, we're going to have to find out, than I ever remember

before. I mean, I think maybe it's just if you stay in shape and you stay by the phone and you're a badass and you go for finishes and go after Dana's heart and you're willing to fly during COVID, I mean, you could become something quickly. And a lot of people doing that. This flyweight, Sue Madaragi, I'm going to butcher

this. All I know is he called himself the Tibetan Eagle. How about that tall, long-ass flyweight there? Loved what he did against Zarouk Adeshev. Same thing with Omari Akhmedov. Different situation, different weight class, but, you know, stock a little bit down coming out of that Chris Weidman loss, and he put it on Tom Breeze, a great boxer, submitted him, took him down. Even Vivian Adarujio, as Cormier would say, Adoraggio turned Roxy Matafari into hamburger meat.

I got so many good things to say about this show, Rashad. I know. It was a great card. I mean, I'm a Roxanne fan, so I hate to see Roxanne get beat. Roxanne is one of those girls who just, one of those fighters who just kind of, she grew on me, man. She was not the most skilled, but she's like one of the hardest workers. You know, she definitely earned a spot in the roster and she was definitely getting a lot of trajectory and going up and winning some fights. But I mean, she ran against a killer today. That girl was tough, tough.

Beat her and beat her. Beat her. You know, it's bad when you get beat in the area where you're where you're looking for safety you know i'm saying when you get dominated on the ground where you were like man i'm if i get her to the ground she's in trouble but then you're on the ground you're just like man this is you get no wins anywhere you know that's when that's when the the sails get just like just taken right out of the right right out of your said the wing is taken right out of your sails you're just like you know what what can i do against this're just like, you know what? What can I do against this person? Yeah, and to Roxy's credit, she was tough as nails, never stopped trying. She had a couple moments on the ground there, but big day

for breakout performances. So shout out to everything we saw there in Abu Dhabi. We are just a few days away, of course, from the third of these three cards. UFC 257. We're going to get to your picks later in the show, but Rashad, on a 1-10, because we're journalists, right?

We're journalists, I think. I think we're journalists right here. Some people think we're entertainers. I like to think a little more like we're artists. But I will say that we're also fans, Rashad. I sort of had my check moment this morning. I woke up to do a little CBS

Sports HQ with Luke Thomas. As we're sort of setting the stage, I'm, check moment this morning. I woke up to do a little CBS Sports HQ with Luke Thomas. As we're sort of setting the stage, I'm just like, holy crap. You know, we put up with a lot of crap fights. But, you know, this is why you lift them weights in the offseason, Bill Parcells, for moments like this. We get Conor and Dustin, Chandler and Hooker. Like, are you kidding me? I mean, you're fan level right now. You got a hard on from here to Hanover. Where are you at?

Man, I got a phoner. I got, I got myself a phoner, man. I can't listen. I've been, I've been excited about this fight for the last two weeks since we talked about it last. And, you know, it's just something about a Conor McGregor fight that just kind of just brings such a uh excitement you know it's such a um it's such an old school excitement because back in the day like we used to get up for fights you know because there's so much anticipation you know so much build up before the fight but it seems like when Conor McGregor's fighting no matter how many fights are scheduled before him you're always counting down to win Conor McGregor fights and here we are it's on saturday and it's gonna i mean it's it's gonna be exciting man it's gonna be one of those fights

because you mean connor's gonna come and bring he's talking about having a performance of a lifetime but then you have dustin poirier who's just been on a tear i mean this ain't cowboy no disrespect here this is a real ass fight and i don't think you can over-say what you just did about what Conor does to the whole business. And some people say, you know, I always use this, like, oh, you American journalists, you guys just want to suck off Conor because he's white and he's blah, blah, blah, and you overrate him and blah, blah, you know. Dude, this guy brings, like, an insane amount of life to the sport. Like, covering a Connor fight in vegas

rashad have you been to vegas during a connor fight oh yeah yeah it's there's dude there's nothing there's just nothing like it first guy who made weigh-ins press conferences public workouts events that were legitimately more exciting than a lot of fights rashad and like you know i don't care if you love or hate him right i don't care if you love or hate him, right? I don't care if you only want him back so the sport can be healthy. Lesnar came close, Rousey came close. No one's been able to give this type of feel to the sport. So as we know, Rashad, with that long break, you know, came back a couple of times with that long extended four and a half year break, really, you never knew if he was going to come back and get back in line and try to be a real fighter again i think that fact is what excites me the most that

this ain't you know diego sanchez that he's fighting or even nate diaz for a third time which would be great he's getting back in line for the title i love it i love it i love i love it too man and like you're saying you know the best thing what i like about connor is the fact that you know he he makes people believe you know he puts such a belief out there because he fights with so much belief he believes so much in himself that you know he makes believing like yeah i believe too you know he makes each and every single one of like you know what i i can do it he makes because it's like um watching him go out there and just set these astronomical goals just like dude you're absolutely crazy

there's no way you're gonna beat jose ld about to get slept and then he goes out there and knocks him out in 20 seconds he just like what you know it just doesn't seem it just doesn't seem right but then you keep watching this guy and he keeps on showing and proving you know becoming the first you know double champ and all those different things that he's manifested and he said you know after a while as a fan you start to be like yo this dude he he's he's on to something you know his belief in himself it's infectious you know i'm saying you just want to be like can he do it again i think that's why when there were comparisons to muhammad ali at the peak of his 2016 run it wasn't you know sacrilegious because uh you know he doesn doesn't have the cultural effect that Ali had,

but it's the whole idea of just making you believe that no matter what he can do, it mixed with the way to sell himself. Yeah, big weekend coming up. But before we get to that weekend, before we put you on the spot, Rashad, and get your picks, we're going to put you in the damn hot seat right now. A new segment we have called, I don't know, the Wheel of Torture, the Wheel of Death, Spin the Black Circle. Let me give you the preface here rashad we got 10 categories you are going to spin the wheel five times and you must answer no matter what the question reads i'm sorry that's

the game the pressure is on you it was created because luke thomas can be look look we respect luke rashad right but the guy could get his panties in the bunches. Right? Right? I mean, come on. So, you know, I'm not talking about that. I'm not... No.

Rashad's going to face you here. Do we have any intro animation here? Am I missing anything? Should I read the categories before we go to the spin? All right. Thank you, Gaff Producing Today. No J. It's a No j wednesday believe that

uh here are your 10 categories rashad for the wheel of death this week um and here we go number one leaky pipes sticks and stones butt stuff carried over from last week the tracks of my tears stump the sugar money never sleeps i wanna yoana oh hey wow let me don't you know wow uh puke thomas boo boo wild thing wow shout out to john on that one and city cock boxing rashad can you step up please here and spin the damn wheel all right let, let's hit the animation. How I spin this wheel. There you go. There it is. All right. Hey!

Ah, you get what you get in this game. Sticks and stones is the category. Here we go, Rashad. Hey, Rashad, whether staged for promotion or fueled by dislike, trash talk between fighters remains a seductive draw for fans ahead of a big fight be honest with us here because you always do what was the one thing that was said to you or about you by an opponent during your ufc career that like

legitimately hurt you or affected you the most oh man let me think here you were a part of some of the juiciest rivalries let me remind you okay okay okay john jones i'm gonna be honest i'm gonna be honest the one the one that got me that hurt me the most was uh it was it was uh the rampage the stanky leg, Machida. Oh, that killed me. That killed me. You know why? Because I was fresh off that knockout. It was still in my soul.

Like, I couldn't even watch the video yet. And then he hit me with the... I appreciate the honesty here. Yeah, that one hurt. That one hurt because it was funny. You know what I'm saying? Like, it was funny. And then, yeah, that one kind of hurt a little bit. I love it.

I love it. He's honest. Just so everyone knows, Rashad doesn't know the questions that are coming. Here we go. Let's spin the wheel. Let's find out. It's a random draw. Oh, hey, Rashad. You get what you get tracks of my tears you're getting personal and introspective with one rashad evans today rashad straight up what has been the biggest regret of your

professional fighting career oh man put you on the couch here, okay? Okay. Oh, man, this is tough. The biggest regret of my professional career, I feel like when I look back on my career, I felt like I allowed myself at one point to get so caught up in the politics of the game and the whole me not liking Dana and the feud that I had with Dana at one point and not getting a fight that I felt like I really deserve and I felt like I just now looking back I should have just kept fighting and kept fighting and just kept fighting because

um having now sitting here being like man, I wanted to have more fights. You know, I missed the opportunity. I missed the time. You know what I'm saying? And I think that was probably the biggest one, one of the biggest one of the biggest mistakes. And also I made a lot of mistakes in the John Jones camp that just kind of that stuck with me, man. I feel like during that camp, my whole camp just kind of got out of control and I didn't do my best to reel it in. You know, I allowed I tried to I tried to be too nice, you know, try to be too nice and didn't and didn't make some executive decisions that I need to. And this was the first camp away from jackson's uh really the first big fight with the black zillions um and and that right there was a lot for our growing team who really hadn't settled at the time with the hierarchy of who was going to be coach and you know who's who's

uh direction i was going to go under and all those different things and it kind of got into a little uh a weird back and forth kind of beef with uh henry hoofed and my my coach uh mike renarsdale gotcha gotcha appreciate the insight there you mentioned um looking back on maybe being too caught up in the business was there like a turning point for you when you figured out the business because there's no playbook for a fighter coming in right you know i i figured it figured it out. I figured out that what I figured out was just fight, man. Just fight because I can never win an argument with Danny White. Even if I'm right, I can't.

You can never win an argument with Danny White. You know what I'm saying? He's holding the keys. That's where I wanted to go, right? So I wanted to be champion of UFC and I would just allow myself to just get so caught up in things that he would say off the cuff in an interview and be like oh man Dana White shouldn't say that or whatever case may be and just start reacting to it and then you know I'll get goaded into these these these these fights with Dana and I'm just

and for what you know silly I hear you I hear you. I hear you. Well done right there. All right, Rashad, we head back to the wheel. So I was looking down for a second. Luke Thomas texting me ass barf. I mean, you know, this is really going to delay your own show that you helped build for, for this, these hijinks. People think I'm the, uh, sophomoric a-hole of this duo. Uh, let's hit the wheel for spin three of five. Here we go. Oh, half of America was hoping for butt stuff there, Rashad. You get stump the sugar.

It is trivia time in these parts, Rashad. Here we go. I'm going to put 60 seconds on the clock on my phone. Rashad, all right. There have been 22 former UFC champions. I'm talking full champions, not interim champions, that are currently still active and on the UFC roster. 22.

That's an error on the lower third there. I'm going to put 60 seconds on the clock. Can you name 10 of the 22 active UFC fighters who are former UFC champions? Go! Former UFC champions active. Are they current champions or just

no? Just only the ones that used to be champions? Former champions. Okay, okay, okay, okay. You said former okay i'm just trying to stall for some time all right uh jose all those one um uh cody garbrand is two yes um uh let's see oh my gosh um 30 seconds oh my gosh okay okay you don't have to say 30 seconds, Rashad. Oh, my gosh. Okay, okay. You don't have to say 30 seconds. Jeez. 185.

Oh, my gosh. Max Holloway, three. Three. 15 seconds. Okay. 15 seconds okay dang Rashad it was a it was an effort I'm not going to say good effort 3 out of 10 okay 23 there were actually you named

Cody Garber which is actually correct there's 23 ex UFC fighters that were active. You could have hit us with something as ridiculous as Nico Montano. Right? Right? There's GDR. There's Arlovsky. It's a wild mix.

Oh, yeah. John Jones. You know, Chris Weidman. You know, I know it's meant to put you on the spot. John Jones. Chris Weidman. I forgot about these guys. All right.

All right. Rashad, two chances to redeem yourself on the wheel. John Jones, Chris Weidman, I forgot about these guys. Alright, alright. Rashad, two chances to redeem yourself on the wheel. Here we go. Hey, Rashad. Fight week, which means big bucks for the UFCc big pay-per-view buys to come but if ufc fighters were stocks and you were betting on the next five years of the sport rashad who do you think is the ufc's second most valuable commodity under roster besides conor mcgregor when you're looking at stocks rising and falling over

the next five years it has to be the style bender style benders that guided me i think that um what he can do at the 185 division and then going up to the 205 division but i mean his ability overall his his likability his um you know he's able to communicate with his next generation, and he fights like hell. I mean, he's one of the toughest guys out there right now. And, I mean, I think he's the guy. That's a great question because I don't think he's even begun to tap into his true commercial prime window.

And, you know, if he can get a Jon Jones fight, if he can win the light heavyweight championship, heck, right now in play maybe along with connor maybe suhudo as the as the guy who's who has a chance to get the first shot at being a three division champion potentially so it's uh that's certainly a strong pick of potential sort of brands that that have next behind connor um you know john jones never would have been wrong, but there was a ceiling to his drawing ability. Look, it's a small club, Rashad. You know, like Anderson Silva and GSP were good long-term brands. You know, solid, you knew what you were going to get.

But there's really only been the Conors, the Rouseys, the Lesners who were just, you know. Yeah, but Conor's like almost on the league of his own, though. Almost on the league of his own. I. Almost on the league of his own. I mean, Rashad Evans twice has been in the main event of pay-per-views that drew a million buys. I'm just saying, okay? So you are a guy who understands this, all right? I understand.

All right. Final spin of the wheel, Rashad. Look, you never know what you're going to get in this segment. Let's get it. Entertaining could be lame. Here we go. Come on, butt stuff. City Cock Boxing.

Rashad, as you may or may not know, Luke Thomas, my cohort on this show, is the biggest fan of all things Eugene Bearman and the Thunder over there from down under at City Kickboxing. He loves it so much sometimes we have fun with the name. Great fighters there, okay? In fact, you just mentioned a great fighter.

Israel Adesanya. He's unbeaten. He's great. We all love him. No one loves him more than Luke, of course. But since Luke isn't here, Rashad, let's look into the camera and be honest. Let's look into our crystal ball. Who will be the first fighter to hand Israel Adesanya a defeat inside the octagon, if you had to guess? I don't think, I don't know. Well well if i was to say anyone i would say hamza shemayev whoa whoa at middleweight are you saying yeah at middleweight very interesting if i if i was i mean

looking at the skill set and and being able to i, Hamzat's grappling and his ability to get guys down to the ground coupled with the stand-up is a problem. It is a problem. What I've seen him do at Couture's, I knew it was just training, but I've seen he has another level of skills that he's about to show and that he can go. So he's my top, top guy to be like, he can upset some people, man. I love the answer because I didn't see it coming. And it's not impossible in a lot of ways when you look at, we don't really know yet whether Adesanya is going to make it at light heavyweight or heavyweight in the UFC.

He could go up and win it and not fight there again or win it in a dangerous fight and not want to stay there. And we also don't know how quickly, if Hamzat's as good as he looks, that he can become a legitimate title contender and or champion and or superstar. So that would be interesting if Chumaev became a brand quick, started making noise, said, I'll go back up to middleweight and fight Izzy. Wow, wow, very interesting stuff there. Jon Jones could have been a good answer, but we don't really know, Rashad.

I don't know what the hell that fight would look like. I mean, listen, I would have said Jon Jones, but that fight is not going to happen. It's not going to happen because you don't spend the amount of time that Jon Jones is putting in to gain this kind of size just to cut weight to fight at 205. And Izzy's not going to be a heavyweight so that fight is not gonna happen all right all right that's fair it's fair we'll see we'll see what happens right there uh love speculating love me the fact that we got some big stars that may or may not be bumping into each other uh in the near future man uh you know no kissing ass to make goodwill uh

2021 really has the potential to be a monster year if you're an MMA fan, if you're a UFC stockholder, so to speak. Grid transition to get into this weekend, Rashad. We talked about it earlier, UFC 257, of course. Your lightweight doubleheader atop the marquee. I want to bring up something. I'm going to ask Luke about it later in the week when we do a bunch of shows, but I certainly want to get your take on it,

that there's an elephant in the room for UFC 257 with these four lightweights because four of the top five or six lightweights in the world are going to fight each other with no vacant, no interim title on hand, which is very surprising. We all know of the supposed meeting with Dana and Habib. I don't say supposed because I know what happened. I saw the video. I just say supposed about the content of what was actually said and Habib. I don't say supposed because I know what happened. I saw the video. I just say supposed about the content

of what was actually said and taken place. Of course, Dana said, Habib's at maybe. Let me watch the fights this weekend. Let me see if somebody jumps out at me that I can come back and do 30-0 against. Rashad, I don't know if you saw, but in the last 24 hours,

Habib did give an interview in Russian to a Russian reporter at the hotel. If you don't know, Habib cornered his cousin today. He's going to get on a flight and go to Vegas. He's not going to be there this weekend in Abu Dhabi. But he gave the interview. It was a little bit cryptic. But let me sum up what was actually said. Habib said, I don't have the hunger or fire to get back in the cage. He straight up

said it. He said, there's no reason to believe I'm going to come back into the UFC in short notice. And he specifically said, my mother is the most precious thing I have left in my life. Why would you put me in a position to try to disappoint her? Now, the reason why I say, Rashad, this interview was kind of cryptic because he never specifically said Dana's lying. Dana was wrong. And he never specifically said there's no chance I'm going to come back. But he said, at least right now, he has absolutely no hunger. How do you read this whole entire situation? Because knee jerk, I want to be like, Dana, you just got caught lying to try to gain buys for Saturday night. Do you think Habib's going to sit in front of that TV and actually go, all right, somebody impressed me. Give me a reason.

Listening to what you just said about him not wanting to disappoint his mother and the fact that his mother's all he has left and knowing how I feel that he feels about his family and his word as a man, I think there's not a chance in in hell but i also think that there's a side of him that the competitive side to him that might entertain it might entertain it and and uh if enough zeros come in the equation motivation can come quick you know i'm saying like right now i'm not motivated to fight anybody i have no motivation to fight anybody. But if you say, hey, Sha, we got a cool meal for you. I'm like, hey, I want to fight now. You know what I'm saying? Now I want to fight. So money changes everything. Money changes the conversation. And who knows what Habib's price point is. And honestly speaking, it may not even be about

a financial price point with Habib. It may be about just walking off with that 30 and 0, but going from what you originally said, how you started off, I just don't feel that he would do anything to make his mother feel like he went against his word to her. Yeah, I tend to be more on your side than Luke's of the idea that there is a price,

and maybe the Conor fight is the only fight that could get to that price. And not because I believe Nurmagomedov is motivated by money per se, but you know, he talked in this short interview also about his own MMA promotion and all the things he wants to do for that. So maybe there's something on the inside of that meeting that had to do with helping Habib's organization. I mean, who knows? Who knows what level Dana would go to to try to make this happen? One thing I will never put,

one thing I will never underscore, Rashad, even though I believe more in Khabib's conviction than I do the odds of this rematch happening, there are very, very few times you're a promoter and you have a lottery ticket the size of Conor Khabib 2 in your pocket. And if Conor does win on Saturday, look, they're going to go full force,

meaning UFC, to sit Habib down and say, dude, what do you need? If it's not money, what is it, right? What the hell do you need? Because how often do you have a fight where you're like, it could not only break the pay-per-view record, 2.4 million buys for the first Conor Habib,

but Rashad, if done right, meaning if Conor's coming into the rematch fresh off of stopping Dustin Poirier this is maybe the only true MMA fight not including a damn Paul brother that can go three million I mean it's it's it's in play I I totally agree I totally agree um it would be it would be epic to say the least but I mean it's like do you remember that lead up for the last fight it was bananas it was it was it was anxiety filled you know what i'm saying like whenever those two interacted my heart was racing like the fight was going to pop off at any time it was just one of those lead-ups to the fight that is just epic and um imagine again imagine what it would be like again i'm sure that connor would be a little bit more tactful as far as the things that he said,

because he has matured and seemed to have changed a lot. His approach when it comes to just talking trash and what he's doing about how he's amping up the fight. So he's changed in that respect. But at the same time, with the blood so hot between him and Habib, I don't know if he'll be able to resist just saying some things that's going to just push the envelope of habib and even if it was cordial the build of the second fight and was a dud from that wwe per se you know standpoint i mean you know you're not going to get a dolly through a window this time around to really start you know the the coals burning

and it is true that sequels don't tend to out draw the original fight in, in big fights. And also, you know, movies, sequels are typically never as big or as good as the first one. But I just think, you know, Habib's brand has grown so much because of that Conor McGregor fight because of the fight afterwards. And then again, if Conor's reborn, I mean, you're talking there again, there's no, there's no ceiling. There's no limit. I don't feel like we're going to see it. Once I saw that Habib interview, I'm just like, I'm back on the, you know, easy data. But again, again,

until Habib's doing an interview in English in which he's pointedly asked a question and he gives you a direct answer. It's really tough to know whatever the hell they talked about, but let's talk about Rashad. Well, we do have this weekend. You and I a couple of weeks back filmed an early preview looked at the storylines looked at the mindsets looked at everything we could do from every single friggin angle for Conor McGregor Dustin Poirier part due we know they fought in 2014 first round stoppage for Conor I don't want you to tell me how much Dustin's grown we We know all that. Let's talk about this damn fight when they touch gloves. Is it as simple as we sometimes say about fights?

If it ends in the first round, you got to go Conor. If it goes after that, who knows? If it goes to round three, you got to love Poirier the rest of the way. Is it that simple or not? I think so when it comes to this fight because I mean well you know what let me take that back because Conor McGregor has has shown the ability to to not fade out like how he was. I think we're kind of all left with that impression in our minds that Conor that fades out in a Nick Diaz fight and those you know those fights but you fights. But he's shown in the fight with Habib that he did get dominated, but one of his best rounds was a third round after being taken down repeatedly and being dominated.

And to go out there and have a great round against Habib after you've just been mauled for the last two rounds is a big deal. It shows that he's definitely fixed some things in a gas tank area, you know, but he's going against a guy who fights in a phone booth, who loves to brawl, who's able to tap into that other guy to bring out that mentality that it takes to go down the stretch and really trust

that you're going to come out the other end of those 50-50 exchanges when both guys are swinging and the first guy lands a punch. I mean, it takes a certain mindset to do what Dustin Poirier has been able to do, been doing lately. And it kind of makes me wonder, like, how is Conor McGregor going to be able to handle that kind of a fight I mean we know that he has the the fight ending power in the left hand but what happens to that left hand after it gets a little bit tired from grappling and and all the things that I think that Dustin Poirier should come out and do you know if I was Dustin Poirier and I was being his coach the first

thing I would tell Dustin is listen what we're going to do is we're going to try to grapple with Conor as much as we can. Get him to try to get the lactic acid out of that arm. And that would mess up his power and that would mess up his accuracy. And when you look at that left hand and then make the fight, make the punches, I guess, more bearable as the fight go on for Dustin Poirier, who does get hit. You know, that's another thing. He does get hit. Yeah, he does get hit.

I mean, that's why it's in play that, you know, a refurbished version of Conor that's fired up in the best shape possible, adding new tricks, that it's in play. He could get a first-round stoppage. Is it likely? I mean, I don't know. That's certainly something we have to find out. But Dustin Poirier can be hurt.

Finished is maybe another story, but he certainly can be hurt. So it's out there. It's in play. One thing I did see, Conor had a great interview, I thought, with Aaron Bronstetter of TSN a couple days ago. Some real poignant, angled questions. And Conor basically said, look, everything talking about Poirier's evolvement since the first fight, you know, it's a plus because of the experience.

And he's fought, you know, we know he fought a murderer's row of guys. But Rashad, he was in a ton of wars. I mean, a ton of wars in the last six years. And one thing McGregor said was, you know, how much of those wars going to help him at this point in this big fight? I've been not only adding things, you know, there's not a lot of tape out there of what Conor McGregor has been up to lately. So do you see that as a plus for Conor at all? When we would normally say that that's a negative that he's been out of the cage for so long. I think it's definitely a plus for Conor.

I mean, you know, the murder's row that Dustin Poirier went through was just phenomenal. And those fights, you know, taking on, you know, a mega puncher and striker and Justin Gaethje. I mean, Justin Gaethje, for me me he hits the hardest in the weight class you know what i'm saying and and dustin beat him beat him you know so it it shows that he's not totally like he can't he can't take a big shot and he can't take a shot from a big puncher but then you start adding the fact that okay well he had a really tough fight with max holloway and

then he also had a great tough fight with dan Hooker and that adds up after a while man your chin could only take so much before it just starts to just just just not allow your body to do it you know and that's the thing about it it's not even something that you can mentally do yourself it's like when that button is pressed it's pressed and you don't even know if those battles even though he didn't get knocked out if that button has been hit um one thing i have liked about the fact that dustin even in those wars he took some time off and and the time off that he took off took off was because he was injured but that allowed his body to heal that allowed his his his faculties to come back and his beard to come back stronger as far as being able to take a hit. You're not in there sparring and things like that.

So those are the kind of things that make me think that he can still take a hit and he can still hang in there with some of the big punchers. But Conor McGregor's power is different and he's proven that time and time again. All right. You know what is different, Rashad? Your ability to pick fights. If people haven't followed what you and I did before the morning combat took over on the State of Combat podcast or followed you on CBS Sports HQ, where our friend Hakeem Dermish has dubbed you Mystic Shad for the accuracy. Rashad, your picks. You know, look, everyone's going to miss and people can always find a miss. But there's actually fans that DM me. One did today. Hey, is there any chance you could reach out to Rashad

and find out who he likes in the Magni fight? Because I'd love to bet it. So let's just know that coming in. William Hill, our friends there. Right now I have McGregor minus 333 as the favorite, plus 250 for Poirier. Before I get your actual pick, a couple of my friends on the CBS sports staff are good guy.

Brandon Wise was looking at the odds real close. A lot of money if you can get McGregor by decision, like plus 600 in that area. Is that in play in this fight, do you believe? I don't think so, man. I don't think so. I think that, you know, if McGregor is going to come out and he's going to be looking like the McGregor that can, you know, be a world stopper, then he's going to be the McGregor that gets a finish all right you heard that from the mystic one now it's time for your pick Rashad uh no one cares about my pick this is about you

the hall of famer put it on the line Connor Dustin two who wins when why how as much as I want to pick as much as I want to pick Dustin Poirier I I just can't. I just feel like Conor, man, he's got the power, that power in the left hand and accuracy. I feel like the way he controls the range and the way he keeps people at the end of the left hand and how smooth and how straight it comes out and how it hits, I think that's a big problem. I think that's a big problem for Dustin, who a big problem for for dustin who sometimes has to get hit a couple times to just wake up and be like okay i'm in this you know i feel like you take too many of those shots from connor you're not taking too many shots at all after that you know and that's just the truth of the matter so i like this fight within the first three rounds

for connor love it wow wow Big, big stakes. Big opportunity for both. You gotta believe it's a I wanted to say it's a guarantee whoever wins that fights for the damn UFC title but you don't want to say guarantee when Khabib's kind of out there and you know who knows what's going to happen next. Rashad, we all want to hit this co-main event as well.

I mean, look, Dan Hooker, Michael Chandler, this could be your fight of the year. I mean, this is going to be 15 minutes if it goes that long. Oh, hell. I mean, look, Dan Hooker, Michael Chandler, this could be your fight of the year. I mean, this is going to be 15 minutes if it goes that long. Of hell. I mean, I can't wait because they're both action heroes. How much, though, do you think either Chandler's wrestling or Hooker's size and maybe technical advantage will play a role in this? I think Hooker's size is going to be a big problem in this fight.

I think that Hooker's ranginess and also Hooker's ability to keep the fight standing. I mean, Hooker is a striker, but let's be honest, Hooker can wrestle too. Hooker can wrestle and he can keep the fight where he wants to. So I think that this fight is going to be a very difficult fight for Michael Chandler. I mean, fighting the taller guys, I feel uh it's going to be a little bit tougher for chandler um especially the ones who's so proficient and smooth at striking at as uh as dan hooker man i think that um getting in the ufc also i think with with with coming over to the ufc there this is a whole new ball of wax for him. Everything has been totally different. There's so much anticipation and guys who normally come in from the Bellator, there is like a little bit of a slow start or just kind of like, you know, they don't jump right in. You know what I'm saying?

Especially going against a guy in Dan Hooker who's been on a roll. You know, he lost his last fight against Dustin Poirier. But I mean But in that fight, it was one of those fights where he's like, do we really have to pick a winner? Because both of these guys fought such an amazing fight. And Dan Hooker is fighting at that level right now. When I watched him fight in New Zealand, you just seen him come to life in a different kind of way and really just own that spotlight and really have a sense of belief in who he could be in the future as far as being champion so i think that in this fight i'm gonna go hangman hooker all right it's minus 125 for hooker as a very slight favorite chandler a plus 100 dog do you have a method of victory here um i think is i think it's

going to be a decision i think it's going to be a decision. I think it's going to be a hard-fought decision. I think that when it comes down to it, I think that Hooker's just going to be able to keep Chandler on the outside. And Chandler's going to want to come in and lay those big bombs. But I think that the kicking and just the knees up the middle is going to really stifle a lot of the game that Michael Chandler does. Yeah, best opportunity for a hooker here since Heidi Fleiss' Hollywood turn

in the 90s, Rashad. Is there anyone else you like on this card? I don't want to preview anything else, but I do love me some Amanda Hibas. That's a tough-ass fight with Marina Rodriguez. Any other one fighter you're looking at that feels good on this one? Who do we got? Who do we got? Who do we got? It do we got? Who do we got?

It's not the best undercard. You got Jessica. I Jojo Calderwood. It's almost even money there. You know, it kind of, you know, it kind of slips down from there. It's kind of, it's kind of top heavy, but I love it. Just the same. I'm trying to, I don't have the card in front of me, man.

I'm naming some names. I'm not looking at the card right now. Brad Tavares and Carlos Jr. squaring off. Matt Favola and Azatir. I mean, it's round three. You know, one of my favorite guys to watch is the steamroller Favola. I love Favola, man. I love watching the steamroller fight, man.

That's going to be a good fight. I think that the Joe and Calderwood fight is going to be a great fight against Jessica Ai. Both of those girls were in position to be the, I mean, Jessica Ai had a chance to fight. And she's trying to make her way back to the championship level. And Joanne Calderwood missed it after she lost her opportunity from a fight that she took. So it'll be good to see Joanne Calderwood see if she can seize another opportunity to get back into the winning square to actually get a chance to fight Shevchenko again. So it's going to be a great card all around. She lost her ticket to the title there.

Jennifer Maya took that away from her. So we'll check that out. But he misses rising, Rashad. I mean, look, this is a great fight. But she's going to be in that title picture soon. All right? She's coming. She's coming. She's coming.

You see the dad get the tattoo on the inside of his arm of his daughter? That was bad. No, I didn't see that. I didn't see that. Oh, man. Luke, of course, made fun of it for a half hour because he's the best tattoo artist around. All right. We love ourselves some Luke Thomas.

If you love what we do at Morning Combat, please like this video, subscribe, because this week's going to be killer. Luke and i in the same area same building same hotel we're going to be going back to the bomb shelter breaking news thought we were headed to mohegan we're going to reconvene in the bomb shelter this weekend you're going to check us out hosting the showtime championship boxing weigh-in on friday we're going to have plenty of bonus content friday's live morning combat episode is going to move a little bit toward the afternoon maybe like a one o'clock start time.

But Luke and I will be all over CBS Sports HQ. Please send in your questions for room, service, diaries. The way to do that is to head on over to Apple Podcasts, give us a review, click the five star, say something nice,

put your question in there. We'll read it on the show. Rashad, I don't know if that's the smartest format to drink and then do a podcast but you know you might you might end up saying something that you might regret later on i mean the people seem to like it you know i mean you know hopefully japanese mma doesn't come after me again misunderstanding there uh the man you're looking at right there is the great rashad evans the sugar man you can follow him him at sugar Rashad Evans on all things.

Do we have a social media? Oh, there we go. There it is. You know, you ask, you get it back. All right.

So follow that man. You know, I don't know if his DMS are open. Don't slide in. No, nothing like that. I'll head on over again to store.show.com. Get your morning combat merch.

You want to be looking good. Like a bill and Jen out there in the RV in the West coast, right? They bought some more merch.show.com. Get your morning combat merch. You want to be looking good like Bill and Jen out there in the RV in the West Coast, right? They bought some more merch, okay? Get some yourself. Showtime.com for a free 30-day trial. Why not, right? Why the fuck not? Why not? Why not? You know what I mean? You don't like it, you know, you can pound sand in Luke's front yard. Rashad, let's, you know, one final question here. What's up?

Luke Thomas is a 41-year-old male, somewhat of anad let's you know one final question here what's up thomas is a 41 year old male somewhat of an upstanding you know citizen in the city of washington the guy works out in his freaking front yard how weird is that rashad he lives in a city and he works out in his front yard what does he got like uh weights like a squat rack and like all this like ropes and random stuff. Come on, right? That's like, you know, that's, yeah. Yeah, that's like Rocky type style. You know, go in the backyard, get a gym, do something.

I bet he goes out, you know, picks up the morning paper with the boxers with the opening in the front. You know what he's doing while he's doing it in the front yard so everybody knows in the neighborhood who not to mess with. That's what that is. That's a fair point. He may be smarter than we think he is. I'm telling you. I'm telling you.

All them games are definitely loyal. That's the show for this week. Special thanks, Rashad, to you for sitting in. Hopefully people can cash out at the window with your bets. Anything to promote? Anything good coming up for you, Rashad? Not much, BC. I just want to say thank you.

It's been good hanging out and going tip to tip with you, buddy. It's been great going tip to tip with you. Yeah, that's how we do it. At least in theory. Never in person, though. Never in person. That's the Sugar Man, Rashad Evans. My name is Brian Campbell.

Special thanks Showtime, CBS Sports, and Malka. Luke Thomas will be back. We got so much content coming your way. Until then, may all of your ex-lovers be satisfied. This is your boy BC. With two words, tell them Rashad. We out. Thank you. We'll be right back. We'll see you next time.