MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Dustin Poirier vs. Michael Chandler | UFC Fight Night: Santos vs. Hill | Morning Kombat Ep 332

Episode Date: August 5, 2022

On Episode 332 of Morning Kombat Luke Thomas is joined by Chuck Mindenhall to break down the latest news in the MMA World. They start off the show by breaking down the news that Dustin Poirier vs. Michael Chandler will be in the MSG card. The boys also preview of UFC Fight Night: Santos vs. Hill. Next up the guys preview PFL 7 and discuss some huge fight announcements. They close out the show with some quick hitters and buy or sell. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Reveley, reveveille, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. 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. It is, let's see, the 5th of August 2020 and it is time for Morning Combat.

Hello everybody, my name is Luke Thomas. I'm not sure if I can hear anybody, but you can see the gentleman to my left. He is the Iceman, the man in the hat. He's my friend and yours. It's Chuck Mendenhall. Hi Chuck Mendenhall. What's up Luke? Feels like a minute since we did one of these and it was only like two weeks ago, my friend.

I missed you. Can you hear me? Can you hear me? Hold on, Chuck. I actually can't hear you for some reason. Sure enough, at the beginning of the show, my fucking ear pods don't work, or whatever they're called. Here we go.

Here we go. Hold on. I'll go back in one more time. Let's try it again. All right, man. There we go. How are you chuck sorry about that i am well my friend i said it feels like it's been a little while can you

hear me now for some reason i can't hear you again okay what the fuck all right all right this is reminiscing now we're good okay this is reminiscing the old beat days okay kind of low grade operation chuck how are you i am well i should tell you this time that i'm really shitty man i should just i should lie to you now but uh no i'm really well i said it feels like a few minutes since we've done this and i just was thinking about it's only been a couple of weeks so i'm happy to be back man it's always fun i love the invite and uh happy to see you man yeah i'm having earbud issues i can hear you now because i took it off my thing so i'm gonna try putting it in the other ear this wasn't happening before but now it is all right let's see if this works a little bit

better let's see if i can get a little bit of results here uh let's try it chuck uh let's see here uh goddamn this is annoying as hell um if it's not one thing it's the other my friend yes let's see i like i like real-time troubleshooting luke this is this is fun this is good uh this is good tv okay now i can hear you in my earpods much better all right very good chuck what a wonderful friday it is the all it is the 5th of august excuse me sorry for the trouble with the intros we're good and locked on now now you are joining me from wonderful connecticut how is connecticut in the summer what's a summer in Connecticut like? It is, it's like standing in Brian Campbell's shade, you know, because he's the king of this state, right? It's hot and humid and generally miserable, I would say.

And the winters aren't much better because then it gets cold and gloomy and ice storms and stuff like that. So the real only good season out here is probably the fall. would say that that's probably true what do people do for like because i know there's a couple of options what do you do for like a oh i want to get away to the water with the fam where do you go when that's the when that's the goal well you can go down to the sound which some people do i mean there's like a couple of lakes this sounds kind of silly but when you're when you're a little bit landlocked you can there are a couple of lakes that have these beaches where a lot of kids go and stuff like that so um those are options and if you wanted to go to the sound i mean it's probably 25 30 minutes from where it's a very small state so um you can find water but it's not generally known for that you know what i mean like it's not going to be like

the beaches that you're used to out there in dc well the beaches around here are just full of maryland purple camo domps old bay under their fingernails i mean it's not you know it's actually a bunch of nice beaches around here but they're kind of actually a little bit hard to get to from dc in the sense that like virginia beach is four hours away yeah which is okay and then there's like dewey and then there's ocean city and there's rohoboth some of those are nice but if you leave on a Friday bro it's an all day trip to get there I'm not doing all that shit

well we make an annual trek to Virginia Beach you know Sandbridge that area down in the we make an annual trek down there and that kind of fills the need for water for the whole year for me I'm not the biggest beach guy man but I enjoy it for a little while if I can drink on the beach and hang out. So it's okay.

See, I love the beach. Also, shout outs to Outer Banks area and the Duck area in North Carolina. Those are pretty fun. All right, on the docket today here, Chuck, let's see, we've got some big news about a big UFC fight. There is a fight night card this weekend,

but boy, it is not strong. We'll talk about that a little bit later. PFL is back tonight. We'll talk about that a little bit later. PFL is back tonight. We'll give you a brief overview of that. We have a bunch of fights that were announced. Smaller ones we'll do collectively. And then we're going to play a little game called Buy or Sell with Chuck Mendenhall. I'm looking forward to that a little bit later.

I want to remind everyone, you can give us a follow on social media. Put the graphic up there below if you'd be so inclined. There we go. You can see it there for old charles is there himself uh by the way chuck has gotten really nothing to do with your name but i did see the new top gun which has iceman in it as you know i think i'm the only guy who calls you iceman uh have you seen the top probably true but you have such a a cult rabid following that um since started doing that, I have a lot more people calling me that. But you were the first, for sure. Okay.

Did you see the new Top Gun? I have not seen it yet. You know how they used to have the Dollar Theater after it made its run at the regular theater? They have it playing at our little town hall for this week. So I intend to see it, but I have not seen it yet. It's the weirdest movie. It's very fun. It's really fun.

You should really go see it. Better than Thor? Well, I mean, you know. I saw your review. I could take a dump in my hand and throw it at the wall, and that's more effort that they put into that piece of trash movie. What I was going to say was the Top Gun movie is really weird because it's good. Don't get me wrong.

You should go see it. There's this big mission that everyone has to carry out, and they never name who the mission is against. Like what country, what territory, what organization. Nothing. They just go through with it. You know the original goose from the original Top Gun lives in my town here. Is that right? Yeah.

We see him in the grocery store and, you know, about town. A very weird celebrity who lives here. But anyway, that's neither here nor there. Neither here nor there. I want to remind folks, if you want to get Showtime, Showtime.com is the label that pays. That includes Bellator. That includes Showtime Championship Boxing. That includes the W. Kamau Bell Cosby documentary on the app.

Lots of different stuff. You can stream it for 30 days if you like it. You can keep it. If not, you like it. You can keep it. If not, you can go pound sand. We also have merch, morningcombat.store. Now, you do have merch because here's the thing here, right, Chuck? We had Rashad on Monday, the guest hosting. He had one MK shirt.

We had Danny on Wednesday. He had nothing. I feel like you've got some MK merch, right? Yes. Courtney hooked it up, man. She sent me a nice box of stuff i have i actually have a coffee mug too which is really awesome but i'm wearing one right now actually matter of fact i'm a certified donk yes so i do i have like maybe

i have maybe uh three or four t-shirts and then the hoodie the hoodie with your uh your face on it which i wear in the winter it's a heavy hoodie but i love that thing it is yeah it's a very it's very comfortable what can i do to get the hat without paying for it? That's really what I want to know, Chuck. Well, you just, uh, you just send me your address and I will get you one and your head size. I need to know that as well. Well, just the largest. I saw Campbell pimping it out, man. That was awesome. I got like a bunch of sales right after that. I was like, what happened? Somebody must've mentioned it. And it turns out it was the influencer himself who, who put it out there. so we'll take that man i actually like those

styles of hats i just don't really wear it that often but i would love to get one all right yeah uh with that out of the way and with our tech issues behind us oh i never do it but let me remind folks i forgot the last two episodes mk is nominated for the world mma awards in back to back years and since i didn't pimp it earlier in the week, let me do that. Now you can use the QR code that is on your screen. If you're watching on YouTube, if you're listening on your favorite podcast platform,

let me read you the link. It's world MMA awards, plural.com slash nominees, world MMA awards.com slash nominees. Chuck, you've been, uh, you nominated a bunch of times as well.

We won together as part of MMA fighting when the site one, what was the last time you went to a world MMA awards event? So let's see, I was at the athletic. It was in 2019 was the last one I went to. Dolph Lundgren was the host. It was actually, you know,

those that you went to the last years, right? Cause you guys, uh, you guys won, hopefully get that, that, uh, that repeat. But, uh, it you guys won. Hopefully you get that repeat.

But it was very strange. I mean, the whole vibe of there is very uncomfortable. But generally speaking, it's gotten better over the years because I've been to some of the earlier versions of it. And I think that they've improved it. But it's still a very awkward experience out there. So Chael hosted when I was there. And I thought he did a really great job actually i'm gonna guess that they're gonna bring him back for another one of those that would make sense because you're like

dolph lundgren it's like it was very weird he was i will say that he had a few moments it was pretty funny but for the most part yeah the little uh like skits they do just so bizarre man they're so bizarre but yeah some of them hit most of them don't, but every once in a while they get one. But dude, you guys winning last year, I thought that was the greatest upset that we've seen. Take that, Juliana Pena. Take that, Matt Serra.

That's my list, exactly. All right, with that out of the way, let's get to some real fights here. And we kick things off with topic number one of course uh chuck correct me if i'm wrong i believe our colleague ariel hawani was the first to report this it's not officially signed but it appears all systems go for dustin poirier versus michael chandler now this is supposed to be as we understand it again we haven't had a full confirmation yet, November 12th at MSG, which of course would indicate the UFC is going to be back there on that night, which was largely anticipated, but seems to give us a date, something to look forward to.

But okay, first things first, Chuck, when I tell you that Poirier is going to fight Michael Chandler, forget about MSG for just a moment, but now it's on the books, your first reaction is what? Barn burner. about msg for just a moment but now it's on the books your first reaction is what barn burner because and i hate you know it's weird i hate putting that expectation on but i really do think that's the expectation if you just look at the gaethje math right like both guys had fights with gaethje one was a fight of the year the other was a very memorable fight and then you say okay they're willing to accommodate gaethje you know in his style of fighting and go in there and put on a fight like that, and now they're going to MSG, it has those title implications to it, which is kind

of the bonus to it, but I feel like, realistically, the bad blood between two very nice guys going against each other on that big of a stage, being the first fight, by the way, that's announced, or like is materializing first i guess um on a fight card that's guaranteed to have at least a title fight above it speaks volumes but i just think that those two guys man they you know i think that they want to put on shows and like that when you put them together and especially kind of in the build-up this this is one of the first times i can remember dustin poirier being truly you know disliking a guy you know what i mean going into it so i just i feel like it's going to be a really good fight.

And I love that it is shaken out where it might have title implications. So I think it's a barn burn. It's going to be one of those great swing bouts. They kind of the bang for your buck, right? Like if you're on the fence about buying a paper, you remember that's on it. You purchased it. You purchased the pay-per-view. Yeah, I don't, I don't imagine that this would headline but i do imagine

that it would serve as a to your point like an anchor fight on the main card something that really gives you some uh choices to make about your purchasing that month now as it currently stands chuck you got poirier sitting at two chandler sitting at. So here's the rest of the top five. There is no champion, right? I mean, you know, in reality, there is no champion. So Oliveira is one, Poirier is two, Gaethje is three, Islam is four, Chandler is five. Gaethje just lost to Oliveira. We have on the books at 280, Oliveira versus Makachev.

Is it fair to say it seems impossible to deny at this point? For Dustin Poirier, having gone up against Habib and falling short, and then against Charles and then falling short, I think that Poirier versus Chandler is a number one contenders fight. Is it not? I think it is. I really do. And it helps that Charles Oliveira now is in doubt. Now, especially if Islam is to win that fight, is it not? I think it is. I really do. And it helps that Charles Oliveira now is in doubt. Now, it'll be especially if Islam is to win that fight and he wins the title.

I think that you then have a situation where it's a new guy. It's a new challenge. It's new blood, all of that stuff. So I think that the winner would be, I think, a slam dunk, depending on how the fight plays out with Islam and Charles. But I do think that even if Oliveira is able to win, that if this is a good showing, right, like in the timing-wise and everything else, I think probably it is. I think it's just, it's set up to be that way, and like you just mentioned, where they're at, having to go through, one guy has to go through the other to get to that, so I just, I think it sets up perfectly to be the number one bout, yeah. You know, this fight is incredible, because to your point you called it you know your first thought was barn burner I would

completely agree number one you've got stakes as we just indicated it seems like I mean no again I want to be clear as Chuck and I are discussing this UFC brass haven't confirmed that this is a fully thing and and even if it is that it's for number one contender by the way there could be a couple things where if God only knows what happens at UFC 280, is there a world where this one at 281, which is what I'm guessing it's going to be, is somehow for an interim title if something happens to the champion and he's injured?

That's a good point. Dude, there's all kinds of ways that this could be already big stakes, but potentially even bigger. But the action fight thing, two things stand out to me. It's like, number one, bro, for Dustin Poirier to still be an action-oriented fighter this long into his career with as many miles as he has is fucking remarkable. Like, even just like the Alvarez fights and then the Gaethje fights,

just those by themselves, not even including the Holloway fight, not even including the Pettis fight, which was actually kind of blood and guts for a while as well, is truly remarkable. gotta say this man don't you agree and if you don't by all means tell me but I feel like you might Michael Chandler made the move from Bellator to UFC a and I thought the right time right like if he was gonna do it that was the time yep and B you know yes has he been up has he been down no question he has done both but in terms of delivering what he said he was going to deliver which was a shot into the arm into the division and to kind of always be that ever-present threat at the top where now he's in an ostensibly

number one contenders fight i don't know if he's going to win this fight chuck but of course he might but my only point is everything that he basically promised from going from bellator to ufc he has more or less delivered on and then some this fight hasn't even happened yet when you reflect on him making that switch do you agree with me that it's gone and again not best case scenario but yeah you know promises made, promises kept. I will say that. Yes, and he's exponentially gotten bigger. I think that was the key, too. I think that he was...

The Bellator brand has done a pretty good job of making these guys visible, but I feel like once he got to the UFC and you're seeing him against these brand names, it became a different thing for Michael Chandler. He's only 2-2 in the UFC, but somehow because of the style of fights he's bringing and just what he's putting these guys through to get those Ws has kind of translated into, it doesn't matter, it kind of transcends the win-loss column. Obviously, you can't stack too many losses, but the types of fights he's been putting on, man. He's as advertised.

I think the willingness to go in there, take on these guys, ruffle some feathers. Actually, he's gotten very good on the mic, too, man. You've probably talked to him over the years. I think that originally he seemed like almost like a goody two-shoes in the game. Like for the Bellator for a long time, he was doing the Dave and Buster commercials. And he seemed a little religious. It was just he was kind of like he just wasn't the shit talker that he's kind of become. And I think that that's he's always playing the game a little better too. But man,

when you go out there and you make promises and you uphold those promises, once you're in there, people love you, man. It's kind of that, you know, it's that thing with Israel Adesanya, when there's a big talk, but sometimes the action doesn't deliver on what he's saying, that feels disappointing sometimes. With a guy like Michael Chandler, I feel like every time he goes in there, man, he puts on one of those fights. So you hate to call it a guaranteed barn burner, but I feel like this is about as close as it gets, right? Like this is one of those types of fights. Right.

I mean, you don't know how long it might last. That's always the issue. Right? True. But for as long as it lasts, like Chandler's not going to be the guy that jabs and low kicks his way to five-round victory. You know what I mean?

It's just not who he is. Yes, and you know what's kind of crazy about this? It's Madison Square Garden, once it's finalized, all that stuff. But Madison Square Garden has been kind of a house of horrors for Michael Chandler. He lost to Brent Premis, remember, back in the day, like 2016, a major upset back then and then he did have the fight of the year you know with Justin Gaethje but he ends up losing that so he's 0-2

in the mecca man so he's gonna have to uh I I kind of I don't want him to go down as the guy who couldn't win at Madison Square Garden either you know what I mean so hopefully for his case you know or for his uh peace of mind he shows up and he gets it done you know what I mean now how does this in or maybe it doesn't. So, like, I guess the question would be, to what extent does a win here transform anything for them? Again, let's work under the premise for now, and this could be, you know, it's totally invented.

But let's operate under the premise that the winner here does get a title shot. Now, here's the thing. We saw Chandler go up against Oliveira. He got very close, but no cigar. We did see Poirier get the interim title against Max Holloway, but then subsequently his efforts at unifying it or reclaiming it didn't go well. So it's not like we necessarily see them in brand new territory exactly. But I'm wondering, getting back to that spot,

well, I guess winning the championship would be the only thing different right if they were actually able to get there and then persevere for Chandler to go from Bellator then two and two in the UFC then three and two because he would have to be the win over Poirier and then to claim the title would be a true incredibly insane feat and then similarly for a guy like Dustin Poirier to finally break through in the way that he has these would be transformative moments but I guess what I'm wondering is short of doing that does getting back to that point that's not it's it's it's it's impressive yes but it's not different right right I think history remembers getting over the fully over the hump. Right. Like you got to be the champion. You got to do some things.

It is impressive. I look at like you mentioned off the top of this. You look at the Poirier's run, especially remember he kind of was introduced at such a young age. And then he had that documentary that added kind of this weird expectation to him. Like maybe he was going to be, you know a champion sooner rather than later yeah the whole yes fightville which was it was very interesting it's still it's actually more fun to watch now now like at a remove and go back and watch it than it was in the day but uh you know the whole conor mcgregor thing where he was kind of buried just one of the victims of conor mcgregor during that whole boom period for mcgregor it's kind of remarkable, man.

Like you mentioned, he's just gone through a sustained amount of battles in there, some of them wars, and here he is still doing this. And honestly, after he lost that last fight with Charles Oliveira, he kind of indicated like he might not even want to keep going, you know, like he was really all the options were on the table. And I know some people speak emotionally about that. But when you have a career like his, which is, you know, you kind of move up, but you don't quite get over, you know, you kind of move up, you don got to get back there, and I think it would mean a lot to him and his career, his legacy, whatever you want to call it, to not only just get this fight, which is a big one in Madison Square Garden, but then to put yourself back on that radar and then go get the belt.

I think that that would round out a truly remarkable career when you look at it. Now, my brain is full of Swiss cheese, Chuck, so I might be saying something stupid here, and if I am, by all means, help me out. Has anyone gone from Bellator to UFC and claimed a weight class title? Now, obviously, we've seen the opposite. Yes. But I'm trying to remember. I don't think we have.

I don't think we've seen someone do that. Not just yet. Well, what about eddie alvarez oh yes what am i saying yes he's already so he's the he's the one yes yes he's the one i don't really believe yeah i don't believe anybody else has though i think he's the one right he would be the only one yeah sorry again when you're hosting a show your brain just doesn't work i understand barely listen my headphones barely work you know what i'm saying cut me a break here why do they pay me for this job i don't know c277 just happened a week ago luke i don't know i couldn't tell you

much about that card at this point okay nevertheless eddie underground king had a lot of titles and a lot of other weight classes still it would represent something significant for chandler on the other hand to go and do that i think chandler has been kind of seen like promises made promises kept in terms of what he told fans was possible. Because he never told them, I'm definitively going to be the champion of the world and there's no denying it. He's always said, I'm there for a good time, not a long time. Nevertheless, for him to go in there and claim the UFC title, especially after losing to Charles in the way that he did. You know, the Gaethje fight was not for a title, but it was kind of thorough-ish in the way that he

lost dude that would be big for him as well this guy for for folks who may remember for a long time like do you remember when he was fighting rick hahn on spike tv oh yeah dude bellator wanted to make this guy the face of the organization for him eddie alvarez oh i don't think he ever occupied that space for bjorn rebny not in the same kind of way so for to take that guy the former face of Bellator and then for him to go to UFC at the very last good window he had and claim a title dude that would be fucking huge that would be huge and that you nailed it I think that he happily took that mantle as being the face of Bellator for the longest time man I mean I think he was happy to do that but there was the face of Bellator for the longest time, man. I mean, I think he was happy to do that.

But there was the side of him that always was like, just like with any good Bellator fighter, there's always this, what if the partition was down? How would he fare against these other guys? Well, for him to get through the gauntlet that he's gone through and then end up, so he gets through Poirier and he ends up getting a title, that would be huge, man. I mean, I honestly would would then his career becomes almost a study in itself like going back and looking at everything that he's been able to do um i do think

that that would be very very big especially given that he fights the style he said like like you like you mentioned man i mean it's like if justin gaethje um had ascended and now was on a title reign you'd look at him the same way like Like that's not sustainable. It's not sustainable for living and it's not sustainable for I'm holding a title, but to get it right. Like to win it, that would speak volumes for how good he has given that style. Fair enough. All right. So let's move on now to topic number two, which is of course the weekends

fight night card. All right. I mean, let's just say this up front. I like the main event,ago santos versus jamal hill it's not my favorite but i like it i'm not gonna sit here and say i hate it because that wouldn't be true i like them i really like the co-main vicente luque versus jeff neal danny and i talked about this on wednesday you have the finals of the ultimate fighter i'm going to ask this knowing full well what the answer is last time you watched an episode of tough beginning to end you can skip commercials

oh my god beginning to end okay so i think we did touch on this but i think i'm with you because i believe you said this when they introduced was it was a straw weight class right when they yes so that would be the last time and i really only watched that one because it was a whole new crop it was a whole weight class right like being introduced so I felt like it was my duty to really know who everybody was but before that man you're probably going back to the heavyweight season with Kimbo Slice like I remember watching that one with some interest and that was like a full 10 seasons before that so tough 10 it was probably like if you're asking me legit where you're just watching it to see what's going to happen it was was all the way back then. Have you paid attention to even

five seconds of the current tough season? I'll raise my hand and be like, I've done nothing. No, I have not, man. I have not. I can't. I just can't, man. You've been in this game a long time too. It's like the times I've, and over the seasons, every now and again, I'll put it on for a minute just to see what's happened. I can't't do it I just can't watch that same kind of drama playing out the house stuff um the fights themselves I'm okay with and I try to catch up on those a little bit um as it goes on but I just can't do it I can't do it anymore I'll tell you this much I um I don't watch it and the reality is like putting young men with alcohol in a house, young women too, whatever.

They know. Yeah. Well, the thing is this. It's like, dude, when I was living in a fraternity house or in near approximation to it, let's say two, three, four years after that, yes, that seemed relatively interesting to me. Dude, I'm fucking old now. I've got kids.

You think young men drinking in a house is remotely fucking interesting? All I want to do is go to bed early and not wake up with my back hurting. Like, what the fuck? It's of zero relevance to my life, you know? No, you're right. There's something about that drama that no longer holds its essence, right? Like, I don't care to see that either, man, at this point. All right. Well, the Muhammad Usman versus Zach,

and I'm sure I'm mispronouncing his name, I apologize. Zach Palga would be for the heavyweight championship winner, which, of course, Muhammad Usman, the brother of Kamaru. And then you have Brogan Walker taking on Juliana Miller. That one's pretty close in odds, by the way. But let's start with the main event. Tiago Santos taking on Jamal Hill. Jamal Hill is an interesting guy Chuck for a

lot of reasons I really like his game and I was watching some tape on him last night and uh this morning just to sort of see what his strengths and weaknesses are remind myself right and I watched a lot of his fights dude I mean when he's I'll say this when he's dealing he is phenomenal on the feet he has and you saw this in the crude fight to an extent and the walker fight really he's dealing he is phenomenal on the feet he has and you saw this in the crew fight to an extent and the walker fight really he's got a really good ability to play with range in ways that a lot of other light heavyweights don't and what i mean by that is he'll pressure pressure pressure pressure and then stop and then let opponents walk to him and then he drills them as they just walk right into range he did it to walker he did it to crew now the paul craig fight

was a little bit different i want to talk about that in just a second but man people keep talking about his championship potential i do have some reservations about it in the broader picture which i'll get to but his strengths the boxing the range management do i think that kind of thing is potentially ready for the very high end of this division? I actually do. I actually think that part is very good. Give me your assessment of his upside as best you can tell right now. I think that this type of fight, when you get a matchup against Thiago Santos.

I was about to say Silva. I'm like, that is not correct. a matchup against Tiago, what's his name? Santos. Yeah, Santos. I was about to say Silva. I'm like, that is not correct. When you get this kind of matchup, it usually, it's because there, I don't want to call it quite a showcase fight, but it usually means that there's a guy like him that they want to see get through this guy on a big platform, a big spotlight, and then so that you can enter that conversation a little more cleanly. I do think that he has shown those flashes.

I know that you're more the analytical guy, like you break down the styles and stuff, but I just like the fact that he does what you said, which is let the fight come to him sometimes and then start dealing. He's one of those guys I feel like needs to kind of activate within a fight. Like you watch him and like he starts to get the rhythm down and you see him when it starts to click and he starts to roll and things start to land. So he's got a very, a very explosive style, a nice style. And I think he's got the personality, right? Like to kind of make people care about him. And that matters in the fight game too. So I see a lot of upside,

man. I see a lot of upside. I don't know if he has, you know, like what it takes to go all the way in the division. But he's and we've seen him we've seen him slip, you know, before, too. But I I do feel like he's figuring things out. He's learning. He's adding more tools. And his upside looks pretty good to me, man. This would be a big step too I think like kind of getting on people's radars who haven't seen him yet to be in this situation against a guy a heavy hitter who has uh you know I think he's tied for fourth with the most knockouts in UFC history of the 11 um you know to go in and do it against a guy like that I think it'll speak volumes for his upside too I will say this though about Tiago Santos well I want to finish on this point with Jamal Hill but Santos is in a different place in his career this comes to us from Richard Mann who works at say this though about tiago santos well i want to finish on this point with jamal hill but santos is

in a different place in his career this comes to us from richard man who works at fight metric and he writes quote through his first 18 ufc fights santos had a plus 2.85 striking differential so for folks who don't know what that means that means you take strikes landed per minute and then deduct strikes absorbed and even then he's at 2.85 which is very high so yeah that rate that rate the two the plus uh 2.85 would rank 12th among currently ranked ufc fighters independent of weight class however in his last five fights he only has a negative 0.31 differential which would put him 150th out of the 175 ranked fighters not great um but okay sticking with Jamal Hill talk me off the ledge here a little bit dude when it comes to the

striking I don't know how many guys on that division have a whole lot for him I mean Uncle Ive is obviously a beast you know obviously Blachowicz has seen a lot of different looks I'm sure he could be an interesting counter, particularly with the kickboxing. But you go back to the Paul Craig fight. Now listen, Paul Craig is a unicorn doing all kinds of totally insane shit that a lot of other people don't do. But there was a situation where if you watch the fight, Craig uses double overhooks, pulls him to the ground, and then tries to go for submission.

Hill gets out of it and then lets Paul Craig recapture the overhook on the right side. And the reason why that's relevant, it's like, I try to explain this to people, and anyone who's ever trained understands this, you cannot overstate the significance of allowing an opponent to put a grip on you, any kind of grip, not just the hand grip, or if you have the gi, the gi grip with the lapel or the sleeve, but that overhook is a grip dude i mean if someone makes a grip on you and you know that that's going to let them set

up different things you have to either a prevent the grip from even happening but you have to address the grip right away he went right back into the gripping sequence and for me that kind of indicated like i got a little bit of cyril Ghosn vibes. Remember when Cyril Ghosn fought Francis? Like, on the feet, Cyril Ghosn is miles ahead of that division, right? On the feet, he's just way ahead. But on the ground, his decision-making isn't nearly as good because he doesn't have that part of his game isn't as developed. Now, I'm not saying, Chuck, that Jamal Hill has a bad ground game. We just don't know enough about it.

But for example, you take the Craig fight. That's one thing you can look at. Here's another one. Take down accuracy for Jamal Hill has a bad ground game. We just don't know enough about it. But for example, you take the Craig fight. That's one thing you can look at. Here's another one. Takedown accuracy for Jamal Hill is at 0%. Now, that's not saying he's never... They might be saying he's never gotten a takedown. What I think that actually says is he's probably never really tried. Trying to go back here to the Ovin St. Preux fight.

Yeah, he didn't even try. You go back to the Klitsen-Abreu fight. Let's see. Didn't even try. So for the most part, he just doesn't show you that other part of the game and i always say this a fighter can have an a and a b game and if your a game is so completely dominant your b game can just be defensive think of habib for example yes but unless you're that your b game needs to be developed i do have some and by the way sant Santos, black belt in jiu-jitsu, I don't know, this one could get a little weird for me.

That's an interesting thing, man, and this is why I like talking to you, because you do think of these things on that level. I do feel like that's the thing about him, is there are some questions as to what his plan B would be, because we've seen it with Kevin Holland type, right? You're not sure what happens when he's put into deep water in a way that he's not used to being put in and uh you see him get dominated now I don't really know to be honest how that would play out or even if I if

if if Santos is smart maybe he does uh play this type of game you know what I mean maybe you do try to get it to the mat and see what you can do there. But honestly, man, I don't want to say it's a red flag, but it's one of those concerns. I think that we just haven't seen him in those situations enough. And maybe that's where the intrigue starts to come in. You mentioned like an Uncle Iov or one of those types of fighters. I mean, they're very smart fighters and they're well-rounded everywhere. That would be a concern right now. You know, if they were a concern right now you know if

they were to fight right now I'd be like how does that translate so I think it uh it plays into the same thing with Santos but I'm just not sure Santos is going to I'm not sure he's going to actually want to test that I mean do you feel like he will no I don't I feel like Santos has not been the same I mean no we always go back to it with these debates about what you're supposed to do in terms of tolerating injury in a fight. And, you know, to blow out both of his knees in the way that he did,

um, you know, there's an argument to make, right. Where like, this is a title picture. You may never get back here again. Um,

just let it rock, like go through with it, you know, cause I don't know if he tore both right away. I think it was a cumulative over time, but the point is like, you just let it rock like go through with it you know because i don't know if he tore both right away i think it was a cumulative over time but the point is like you just let it go but like dude i you know everyone does this shit in nma and it drives me up the fucking wall where it's like okay you got to just make that sacrifice it's like okay let's make that sacrifice fellas ladies if you are going to say something like let's make a sacrifice for this

short-term moment and there could be a good reason for that by the way very there very much could be this one or any other you must also like if i could make them sign a waiver in the argument the argument would the would also include i recognize up front that the sacrifice is worth it knowing full well this will carry long-term consequence this will carry long-term significance for both his potential quality of life and certainly his ability to compete at a reasonable level past this event and there is always the discussion up front of how it's worth it without any of the discussion on the back end about what the fuck this is going to do to you dude he is not

the same fighter he is not let's just say it out loud he is not even close to the same fighter that he once was and you can draw a fucking clear line in the sand because he had ups and downs before the the jones fight obviously but in terms of the style he fights yeah the glover fight was kind of close he kind of recaptured a little bit of magic and by the way saying he's not the same fighter is not me saying he can't win but it changed him it completely changed him and so all the folks who are like it's worth it but don't let don't let the doctors get involved blah blah blah blah great welcome to the bill being due how do you intend to pay it's what i always try to tell people i'm sure those same people will be checking in on him five years down the line to make sure he's

doing okay. When he has arthritis at 50, I'm sure they'll be right there. I know. No, I know what you're saying. I know what you're saying. There are a lot of very short-sighted ideas that just persist in MMA but yes that is definitely something that's bugged me over the years too man um and you know in his in his case gosh you can point to some hard luck cases uh over over the course of the fight game but man that guy was so close to beating Jon Jones you know what I mean at least it seemed to me at the time like it was so close he was so close to um you know realizing something in this game and now he's on the other end of that and i don't want to say i'm watching through my fingers with

him but i agree with you that it's it's one of the situations where you're like if he flashes any vintage form it's probably going to come out of his hands right like it's going to come it's he's going to maybe get a knockout but realistically he's falling more and more into the puncher's chance than he is of a guy that you're like well he's he's a hard you know what i mean like i just feel like he's slipped into that spot now but he's still got some juice on his name still got some juice on his name still has big power i do believe that i do believe that um you know he's fought guys like jamal hill to an extent certainly from an experiential standpoint like how many fights does he have i think he has like 10 or 12 fights something like that not that many so in that sense it's nothing

really new but it just i can't stand these conversations that everyone has all the time and they never ever want to acknowledge what the cost of that is after the fact and here we are living through it and then and then they dump on the guy right right? They'll be like, oh, now he's boring. Yeah, motherfucker. He had both of his knees shredded. Like trying to fight maybe the best fighter we've ever seen that everyone cheered on. Like, yay, go, Tiago. Can you imagine his Instagram comments at night? Like, you're a fucking warrior.

And now I guarantee if he turns in a bad fight, what a fucking bum. Fuck this guy. It's like, holy shit, man. They're both there. It's the other side of the both there it's the it's the other side of the coin it's the same thing don't you get it don't you get exhausted trying to like fill in the context for people who do this i feel like i'm in a constant when i used to do the mailbags at espn and later on and stuff like you'd always be answering questions like this like

you're talking about or like just an attitude about something where like, well, you're not considering the whole situation here, especially when you're dealing with like major injuries or stuff like that, where a guy has had to come through it. To just push all that aside is ridiculous. But I hate having to go through and do what you just did, which is like add the context for somebody just to bring them around to the idea that they should, you know, be perceiving this whole situation a little differently. Gosh, I get that. That just goes on and on. At some point, you would think there would be a larger sense of,

I don't know if empathy is the right word, but just like memory, you know, of what these guys have been through. But Luke, you've been in this game as long as I have, and I have not seen that development. I mean, I'm still explaining everything just like you are. Yeah, and then, well, sometimes the debate changes by virtue of the fact that it has to like the fighter pay debate has changed because we now have court documents and you know there's it has moved and so as a consequence so has the conversation but like i've noticed it that's why i do the five-year thing i

think mma fandom for the most part and then you know you and i might be different or whatever but and there's other other other different people of course but what i mean to say is it lasts about five years about five years yeah people get red hot with it then they kind of begin to fade and then the same questions you were answering in the first five years they come circling back all the time because dude it's new fans who don't have any prior relationship to the sport trying to figure it out and so i get it, you know. But it tells you that like, this was the thing that we never talked about,

I'm kind of on a tangent here, but this is the thing we never talked about. Like there was a real concerning time at the beginning of the UFC's deal with Fox, where, you know, the ratings were not great. They were okay, but they were, some of them were good. Like the first event they had on Fox was like a big hit.

I remember I was on vacation at the time overseas. And but you know over time like in 2014 the ufc had gone to brazil like seven times and one of those places was a place called uberlangia that's not a joke i was like that's a real fucking place but yes it's a real place and so there was this question about like is there watering the product down and what i ended up thinking was like i was worried that like are they just running the sport into the ground what i got right was that the ratings were declining and there was this lack of enthusiasm and fans were leaving what i didn't count on and didn't see coming was that there would be this natural life cycle of a new crop that went right in behind them and then rousey and mcgregor ushered it in and everything else but like

there is a real life cycle whether it's five years chuck you tell me but it does feel like there's this constant churn so we constantly have to revisit these issues i think that that's exactly right because i really started covering the sport maybe in 2007 2008 for sure is when i was really uh involved in the sport now that and under the five year thing you would see three iterations of fans or three you know um three cycles there and i would say that that's absolutely true when i first started coming to sport and you probably remember this too um everybody's big peeve was that if you came in during the tough one finale right like anybody who was old school before that was like you you're noob man you're a noob like you you know and uh the

enthusiasm just kind of shifted as as that happened and then there was there's been multiple like you mentioned the McGregor and uh Rousey period I felt like that introduced a whole I mean that was the biggest moment in MMA is when those when those two things were going everything was all there's a ton of money being thrown around in MMA coverage and everything else. Like just everything was just big. And now you're into a new one. And it's I think that I'm I'm the one who's slow to to pick up how it's working. But you do have guys like O'Malley and the YouTube generation, you know, and guys like Jake Paul. Right. Who brings attention to it? A whole new audience. There's a very there's, there's a younger audience that's getting involved in it again. It is replenishing as we speak. And so I do feel like, um, you know,

what, what our central focuses were five, 10 years ago, whatever it was, if they're coming around again, you have to kind of go through it again. Like you have to actually add that context for those fans. It's a, it's a crazy sport i do think though man like running all these events all the time it just it can't be more than five years even i'm sure you've had burnout at some point man like at some point you're just like i can't dude i just need a break from this like this is just going on and on and on um it's it's tough to follow like for 15 years straight like just wall to wall it is very tough to do yeah i mean you know folks like what does it take to be one of his mma journalists and like you know you had israel out of sign

up being like i could do your job and in certain ways he actually is correct but it's like well i can tell you what i've lost i've lost a lot of friends i've lost 15 years of saturday nights i've lost girlfriends i've lost you know uh a life outside of it basically like you know you guys want to do this for your life. That's the cost. That's what's going to come with it. You can do the act of journalism. You could be on camera, but the life that comes with it, be very careful

what you wish for. I'll put it that way. Okay, back to the card as we sit here reminiscing about what two old pieces of shit we are. It's a natural conversation. It's a natural conversation. The co-main, now this one is uh all action vicente luque taking on jeff neal we talked a little bit about this again on so let's see sat excuse me wednesday with danny what am i saying saturday vicente luque

got this guy who's been up there up there up there now he's getting a little bit you know um yeah he might be coming into his prime in the in the sense of his age he's 30 but he's got a lot of fights he's got 31 fights or so 30 fights or so he's coming off the loss to ball Muhammad but but here's the question for you Chuck before that win over Nico Price win over Randy Brown win over Tyron Woodley win over Michael Chiesa who he submitted by the way and then he loses to Bilal but the Bil Bilal fight, while thorough in the sense of, you know, it was arithmetic by the time the fight was over and he was controlled, he didn't get super beat up.

He's just 30 years old. I'm going to ask you the same question about Luque, although the odds, I should note, they're very tight on this one. For the main event, they were not. Still, with Luque, I feel like he's tasted the higher end of this division in ways that Neil has not to this point. Your thoughts on his upside at age 30. Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore

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Conditions apply. Difficult to say for sure, but I agree with you 100% on the resume, the strength of resume. I think that for Jeff Neal, this is the toughest fight he's had. This would be the think that for Jeff Neal this is the toughest fight he's had this would be the toughest fight for Jeff Neal whereas with Luque you could say like he has had tougher fights I think you know he's fought Leon back in the day um he's he's had to stand in there against some very good fighters but his upside it's almost it's kind of it's funny because he's he's I think he's so well-rounded like and he's such a he's such a finisher in his mind, you know, like I think 13 of his 18 fights in the UFC, 13 of them have been finishes victories that he's won. I mean, it's just kind of absurd that and he's able to do it, you know, on the feet, on the mat.

It feels to me like he's got tremendous upside but then he does slip so it's it's one of those uh it's one of those situations where i'm not sure he's you hate to say it but i'm like i'm not sure i can't envision him being a champion in the division for any sustained amount of time or even maybe ever getting it but he'll always be that guy in the top five for like around the top five for as long as he's uh as long as he's going and hold that space he's not a gatekeeper he's a he's a he's just a he's a machine but i just i don't know man i i just don't see it like i don't feel like he's as rounded as some of the other guys are like they're like maybe some of his weaknesses could be exploited you know by really smart fighters things like that i just i'm not sure he'll be a a champion at any point in his career yeah i mean he certainly is very talented

right and he gives good fighters tough fights like that fight for what you call it the fight for um as i just mentioned against balal muhammad like that was a hard fought it was not easy at all and it went the full distance i believe you know so these are things that are difficult for him but you're wondering i think this is where i'm at it's like okay what's he's got one or two more corners he has to round before you're like okay he's a threat to Usman right he's a threat to Colby because if Bilal can control him you would imagine that those two guys could right just as well on the feet though I'll say you know he you would agree on the feet there's not a whole lot of guys at 170 at this stage that i think could give him a problems here are the rankings let me pull them up here uh at 170 so let's go

to the top 10 so you have shopcott rakmanov i guess we'll see i mean that dude appears to be a fucking nightmare yeah right behind right but right in front of him is sean brady another fucking nightmare but then you have masvidal thompson thompson's on his last legs here kind of as a as a guy luke sitting at six below at five burns at four now burns obviously is going to be a tough fight then you got hamzat leon yeah you know what i'm not sure there's a seems to me like there's a couple more couple more uh corners he really has to round before you can say yes obviously a good guy obviously a top 10 guy maybe obviously a top 10 guy, maybe even a top 5 guy, but not a championship guy just yet. Especially when you go through that list, God, man.

That is just a murderer's row. And the way that those guys can beat you, like you mentioned, just controlling a fight, like the way that they dominate fights. It's just tough to see Luque getting past some of those. I think he'd be the underdog in more than half of those that you just named you know so um it's an uphill battle for him but you never know man I mean it's just one of those things but he is 30 years old I think that this would be the moment for him if he's going to make that run I think that it's got to be like now and uh and we'll see how he does but um like Hamzat and you're mentioning Brady and all these guys.

I mean, it's just that's too much for him. I just don't think he's better than those guys, to be honest. I will say, though, being 30 and having this kind of experience, the next couple of years are going to be interesting. Still, it takes us to his opponent, which is Jeff Neal. Now, Jeff Neal was a guy I think had some hands of steel, Jeff Neal. Remember, he got a lot of pop because he was was a waiter remember that yes yeah yeah I remember talking about it yeah yeah and I do I remember I have a I have family in Dallas they were telling me that

the restaurant he was waiting at waiting tables that was actually a fun place for brunch so I'm told um yeah in any in any event though um he's a lot older he's 11 lot older. He's 11 years older, basically, than Vicente Luque. So he's what am I saying? What am I saying? No, he's one year younger or older. Sorry, what am I saying? Dude, I need new prescription glasses. Could I be worse? I was going to say, if he's 11 years,

I'm missing part of the story. No, no, no. It's about one year or so. So he's about 31 or 32 at most. But okay, he's kind of been up and down. So he had the nice wins over Nico Price and then Mike Perry, which, by the way, these guys share a lot of opponents in that way. He had the loss to Wonderboy, which was basically one-sided.

He had the loss to Magni as well. He rebounded against Ponzinibbio, but then I asked Danny this, and he was like, yeah, but this Ponzinibbio is not the guy from a few years ago. Right. It's a different version. How much is – what's a reasonable expectation for Jeff Neal? I feel like he's already kind of busted the expectations. Like, he's already kind of ascended to levels where you're like, well, you've already done it, man.

Like, you've gone where you need to go. Like, you mentioned he was a waiter. I remember talking to him. He's like, I wouldn't even quit the job because it's guaranteed money. Why would I quit it? I'm just going to do this on the side. And being like, what? You know, because he was moving up fairly fast. This was after he knocked out Camacho out in Dallas with that head kick.

Remember that? And, you know, since then, I feel like he's just had a pretty remarkable run. The only thing I'll say is maybe he needs to rediscover. Like maybe he's gotten to the point where he's not taking the chances that he used to because I think his excitement and his upside was based on him taking those chances like he had a bunch of finishes early in that run the last few have not been like that they've been more calculated methodical and he's starting to lose a couple of these you'd like to see him kind of rediscover that dog a little bit, that weird.

I don't know what it is. Maybe it's not. Obviously, he cares about his career now in a way that he didn't before. But maybe he needs to throw caution a little more to the wind. I actually think that that's why this is a fun matchup for him because he's got an accommodating partner who's going to say, like, hey, I'll bring that right out of you. Let's do this.

So it's really interesting to see how he fights this. How does he handle this type of fight um does he do that you know does he let it go a little more i feel like you tell me man maybe you've watched his fights a little closer it feels like he's been a little more holstered his last few fights out like he's not the same guy who was uh shooting up the ranks at the when he was coming up there yeah and remember in december of 2021 he had the dwi arrest you know oh that's right yeah which yeah which is not like the end of the world like i know a lot of people who've gotten in and turned their lives around i mean i'm not here to say drunk driving is no big deal but i'm just here

to say that um i know people who have made mistakes like that but then really cleaned everything up and got around it and you can't judge a person in totality by one mistake like that even as potentially egregious as it could be i think that's the way i would say it i want to yeah a little more delicate nevertheless kind of made you wonder it's like he had the losses and then that happened and you're like hmm or where are we coming or going on any of this i i tend to think that like look he's with a good team he's with safe side i believe out of uh fortis mma he can he has big power but with luke and i would say he's much further behind luke in terms of overall game development they're just

there he got he has a good skill set to get him where he's at but to get where he wants to go there needs to be more added i mean it's just really as simple as that. He has to add way more than what he's got. And so it's not just the significance of beating Luke A or not. It's the significance of what other things are you doing to develop the game in the middle of your prime where it's still kind of possible to put yourself ahead in this pack where now you're seeing it at lightweight and now you're seeing it at welterweight,

this next generation bubbling up we talked about the saryukians and the gamrots here come the bradys the rachmanovs chumayev's already here in many ways there's just a lot going on there so that's kind of where i'm at it's like which one of these guys is actually going to be able to level up past this win on saturday in that sense luke is a little bit further ahead in the race although it is close I will say yeah I agree with you man and I think that yeah and I think that with uh with Neil I mean I don't know like how long he's been now full-time like into MMA but I agree with you I feel like you kind of see you hate to say this because you're right he's 31 years old but I feel like we've already seen his ceiling and it's probably wrong to believe that because I know that he could still add a lot more to it but it just feels that way

um it just feels like you've seen him at his highest already and maybe that's the narrative he needs to combat and and uh and overthrow you know what I mean like because I feel like a lot of people sort of feel like that about him right now fair enough um on the rest of this card there's Terrence McKinney who is an enormous favorite over eric gonzalez terrence mckinney i don't think he's ever been to anything other than a finish one way or the other so he is an all-action affair uh minus 850 jesus that is high but we gotta talk about it very quickly yeah minus 850 that's fucking high wow uh sam alvey's still on this card bro sam alvey's out here doing it but he could tie the record or i think he didn't set the record

um with another loss here with bj penn in terms of consecutive losses i think this would be like explain that one to me what is it a modest uh eight fight unwinding streak like he i think he's lost seven of those right like how in the hell is he i don't i don't really understand the sam alvey thing i love him he's a very nice guy um and all that stuff but like does he have dirt on the ufc or something what's going on with that yeah dude his last solid win was 2018 like good god no yeah i mean i i i was in a very different part of my career in 2018 i I know. Lifetime ago.

Jesus, I don't even know what the answer is there, to be quite honest with you. It sounds like you're wishing bad on them. No. And also, there's not a finite amount of roster spots. They could assign more people if they want to assign more people. It's not even that. But it's just pretty clear that there's no no upside here you could get a win potentially but like where is this train going it's not it's not going

anywhere not in this organization and so that's kind of part of part that's kind of got me um and of course ariana lipsky opens the card against priscilla catch where a woman's flyweight contest lipsky entering this contest off of a win, although she had two losses previously to that. And then her opponent in this case, Priscilla Cachoeira, something of a redeveloped fighter since losing to Shevchenko in the way that she did a little bit. She comes in and wins over Jiyeong Kim.

Anything on this card stand out to you besides the fights I've mentioned? I like the McKinney fight because I think that after he got his first loss, right? Like the first loss in the UFC. You always want to see how they respond. And he's such a dynamic guy. And when I was looking at this card, you're right. There's not a lot of imagination to it. There's not a lot of things that are going to pique your interest.

But for sure, I still got my eyes on him. So I'd say that on the prelims,'s the that's the one fight I've got circle all right fair enough uh let's move on to PFL don't have a whole lot to say about it it is tonight um the PFL 7 it's an interesting time for the PFL so let me pull up my notes here for this particular event if I can now this is the weird one you've got anthony pettis taking on stevie ray in your main event they just fought a few weeks ago chuck where pettis loses via like a sort of rib crank i guess is the best way to describe it but this is the semi-finals of the lightweight tourney so it's not like that doesn't

count it counts but they both were still able to move on based on how points and everything else are established well i gotta tell you pettis i admire his willingness to get out here and continue to fight my man's taking a lot of damage yes he is a lot of damage a lot of damage i think this is a winnable fight i do but i wonder if he loses this chuck where does Pettis go from here I don't know but it's not a good place man because he would then be one and four I believe in the PFL since coming over and uh you know to lose back-to-back fights against a guy he would have I think we can agree would have destroyed at earlier parts of his career I don't know and

you know they're they're paying him right like the pfl's paying him a lot of money and i think there's some pressure that comes with that obviously to perform um i just i don't know man i it's one of those those strange situations where um you know he's chasing this new kind of goal but if he can't achieve it against guys i think he should beat to be honest i mean even at this new kind of goal, but if he can't achieve it against guys, I think he should beat, to be honest. I mean, even at this stage, I'm like, I think he should still beat, you know, Stevie Ray. And I honestly, he probably should win in the finals if he makes it. Like, this is set up for him to win. So, but if he's not able to get there, if he's just not able to do it,

the writing would be on the wall. I feel like for some people it already probably is. But it's a weird one. I think the red flag for me a little bit too is, you know, you've been in this a long time too, like where accountability when you lose and just kind of what you say afterwards or what you start to believe. A lot of times I don't really like what Anthony Pettis says after a loss. Like he was basically saying on this last one that he didn't really, it was hard getting up for the fight because he knew it didn't really mean as much and uh you know it like like he kind of already resolved before the fight that it didn't matter but i'm like it always matters when you know you're in a situation

where you're being brought in as a showcase talent like a guy with a big name and all that stuff it always matters so i i don't know it's it's not even not even just his record that concerns you. It's just maybe the way he's viewing the game. And, you know, it's just his basic, like, hunger for the game still at this point. Some of that's in question, too. So I'm not sure, man. If he loses this one, I feel like it's time for a little bit of introspection from him, I'm sure. No doubt about it. And, again, the odds are – I mean, it's a pick-em.

It's a pick-em. Minus 110 in either direction. You saw the first win, the first fight anyway, that Stevie Ray had over him where he did that little rib crank, which was nasty but pretty fucking cool at the same time. I don't... Listen, Pettis are...

You know, you want guys to... It's weird. You almost want guys to have a foot out the door like when they start doing commentary gigs or now he's got his own little promotion and whatever the fuck else he's doing you know you like seeing that because it's like okay you're beginning to set the groundwork for something else you know what would be great for pettis is if he wins the whole thing gets the big check at the you know the end with a whatever and then can say he made all this money and then he can go about his day that would be nice and if he loses it's hardly the end of the world I mean he's utter pushing his best but I just I genuinely worry Stevie Ray has been is long in the tooth but not I don't think he's taken

nearly as much damage as Pettis although maybe he has who's to say but the thing I worry about with Pettis is he goes through with all of this really continues to take more injuries and you know doesn't have a whole lot to show for a post ufc career in the end which again i'm not here to slam him for i just i don't know man when these guys get to a point where they're getting injured they would have as much damage as he has absorbed over the course of his career and they're still out there trying to beat guys who are, I think, Stevie Ray, I'm not going to say his career is unfulfilled. I don't know that. But he's not achieved what Pettis has, right?

So it means, probably by definition, significantly more to him. I just don't ever really like those scenarios. That's something that gives me a little bit of, ugh. Well, and you wouldn't be a human being covering the sport if you didn't have some of this because we have watched anthony pettis forever man i mean the guy has been around doing this for a long time um we've seen him at the top of the game like i i was watching him recently i think maybe it was on ariel's show but he was they were talking about how you know he was getting those million dollar like bonuses in his mail and stuff like that he was on the Wheaties box I feel like actually that's where it started to go south for him a little bit

is the moment he appears on like the biggest moment became like the highest moment he reached and then he started to decline because he lost the title after that and he's been he's been hit or miss but he's been a lot of misses and I you do see him taking a just an extraordinary amount of talent I mean a damage and you I know in the rufus gym back in the day at least you know those guys were sparring hard too man so you just it's it's it's just been a long long career and i know he's made a lot of money i don't know if he's invested it well and all that stuff but he's one of those guys you're like you've made you've made some good money in this sport um you would like to see him if it comes down to that not continue to take

that damage it's just tough man we're human beings who watch these guys you write about them you talk to them and over the course of time man it's just uh you don't want to see a guy just get repeatedly beat like that and and there are very few graceful outs in the sport we talk about this all the time but you just don't want to see him go through too much of that yeah now again the fight is competitive basically the odds makers think it's 50 50. so he could certainly get the win move on to the playoffs and uh obviously if he does in that particular circumstance again my notes right here he would then take on the winner it seems of olivier albin marcia versus alex martinez this is an interesting one to me olivia albin marcier had a decent run in the UFC,

but then basically got ousted on three consecutive losses to Hernandez, Gilbert Burns, and then Armin Saryukian. But you're like, well, that was Hernandez at his very best. That was when Hernandez had that two-fight win streak where he beat Dariush and then this guy. And then he lost to Burns and Saryukian. Since then, he has not lost a fucking thing. He beat Marcin Held, Daryl Horcher, Nat Natan Schultz and then the guy who was the winner last season who has dumb power

Hauschman Fio he has had a really nice little run here in the PFL something very good is very possible for him do you not agree no I agree 100% I mean honestly I think it's his tournament you know it should be his term if he if he uh keeps going the way he's going um i would favor him probably to win this and you know it's funny like i i hadn't really thought of that but like those three fights consecutive at the end of the osu no shame in losing to gilbert burns and uh and sarukian right like you lose to guys like that i mean these are these are guys who are way up there in the rankings and all that stuff so um very tough fighters i do i do like the way i feel like it's uh this setup is really good for him because i'm not sure he could ever make a million dollars in the ufc man but he could do that here so uh yeah i'm intrigued uh uh indeed now on the other side of the equation for this main card

you have uh it's a light heavyweight. So the main card is basically the lightweight semis and then the light heavyweight semis. The one that is most interesting to me, there's one between Rob Wilkinson and Delon Monte. We'll talk about that in just a second. But the one that I find much more interesting is the bout between Josh

Silvera and Omari Akhmedov. Omari Akhmedov kind of got bounced from UFC. Good fighter, not great. Then he's taking on Josh Silvera. For folks who don'tari Ahmed. I've kind of got bounced from UFC. Good fighter. Not great. Then he's taking on Josh Silvera for folks who don't know who this is. This is the son of Conan Silvera. Conan, you might see is the humongous guy that's always in the corner of Amanda

Nunez. He's been like a staple at ATT forever. This is his son who is undefeated and it should be noted. Chuck moved to this position with a win over a guy that everyone in the pfl who i talked to or who was there secretly was telling me like this is the guy you want to pay attention to this is the guy his name was uh martine hamlet and silvera polished him off in the first round with a k a head kick and then knees from the clinch according to this well i saw the fight the highlights we talked about here on the show but you get the idea he is very good but he's only nine and oh

size this one up for me how do you assess this matchup well i think that that is the factor i know and it's funny too because these guys have a little backstory too because they're both they were both teammates right like they've they've trained together they know each other maybe that will actually um play into it could go either way obviously but maybe that plays into the inexperience it actually uh kind of um you know covers up for some of that inexperience just knowing who amari is and what he can do it is an intriguing fight man like amari it was he had like 15 fights in the ufc he's a guy who stood in there against guys like Weidman. He's fought a lot of good guys in the sport. It's cool to see him have some kind of other path in the PFL and to be doing this.

It should be a fun one, man. I think that Josh, just in hearing his interviews, seems to me like a pretty cool guy in terms of who he is too like just his story and his dad and everything and everything that's going on he's been around the gyms since he was like eight years old nine years old and i just um you know this is his this is his breakout moment it's kind of reminds me a little bit about ray cooper back in the day when he was first coming up in the pfl he just had this this look to him that you're like uh kind of sneaking in there and and and doing stuff in this in this league and becomes one of their guys um so i think that he's got a little bit of that vibe and i wouldn't be surprised at all if he shines tonight you know what i mean

i think he's got that and by the way dude if silvera goes in there and just does what i mean he moves to 10 and 0 with wins over guys like omari akmedov i thought he was a good prospect blue chip i didn't know but you beat a guy likehmedov. I thought he was a good prospect. Blue Chip, I didn't know. But you beat a guy like Akhmedov in your 10th pro fight. Yeah, you might be. You might be. Now, of course, the winner of that will have to take on the winner between Rob Wilkinson and Delon Monte.

Wilkinson, for folks who might not remember, he had sort of an unremarkable UFC run. He fought Ciar Bahadur Azada, loses. Then he fought a debuting Israel, a destiny. I were out of sign. That's the main thing I remember. I know. And he was trying like a motherfucker to get that takedown and Izzy wouldn't let him have it. So that was Izzy's UFC debut. Since then, he actually has done pretty well. He's fought in the UFC twice. I'm sorry. What am I saying? He fought in the PFL twice, winning once in 2020. Well, both of these are 2022. He beat Bruce Suto and then UFC vet Victor Pesta.

Delon Monte obviously enters this contest off a win over PFL and then formally, I think, even World Series of Fighting standout Emiliano Sordi. He does have a loss to Shoe Face, although I can't imagine the same kind of threats are in play here. Do you have any strong opinions about Wilkinson and Monte not really I really don't on this one but to me you know it's uh it's kind of like the old Bellator brackets where it's like you got one side of the I don't want you know I'm not trying not to be too strong but like the kind of woodwork guys within it but then the other fight is like

well that's your winner that's your that's the guy that's coming out of it um so that's kind of woodwork guys within it, but then the other fight is like, well, that's your winner. That's your, that's the guy that's coming out of it. Um, so that's kind of how it feels to me. Uh, I'll actually, I have not really watched Wilkinson in the PFL. I did watch him when he was in the UFC. I haven't really seen, um, what he's done to his game to be a little different, but, uh, so I guess I'll be answering these questions a little bit later as I watch this with you, man. All right, let's move on to topic number four. We have a bunch of fight announcements that we have to get to. We'll just go through these relatively quickly, see what you think. Set for October 15th, I don't have the card in front of me,

but Brandon Royville is set to face Askar Askarov. Now, for Askarov, you know, had a real close fight, obviously with Kaikara France, who just lost. A win over Royville. By the way, Royville has a win over Kaikara France. Well, I won't say as well, but has won. Big fight for Royville. This would be his best win to date.

But for Askarov to get a win over Royville, it's not like that would represent necessarily his best win. But it would be a... You're talking about two guys who are well suited for each other. And yeah, Askarov is kind of like, he needs a little bit of momentum to get back into that title picture. Whenever Royville certainly helps. Yeah.

Yeah. Um, I don't know about you, but I've, I've had Askarov like circled for a while. It's not quite like there's a beat, uh, back in the day,

like where you're like, that guy's going to be a champion, but Zabit uh back in the day like where you're like that guy's gonna be a champion but I've had him circled like where you're like I felt like he was going to be a champion at some point in his career I really haven't come off that I saw him in Mexico City when he fought Brandon Moreno and I remember you know it was uh just being like you watch some of the things he's able to do and they're very closely and you're like man this guy is good so I still feel like he's the guy with this tremendous upside in this division and who will obviously factor in there at some point but I love this challenge for a man like going against Brandon Roybal who's also stood in there against the good guys and I think this

was a big fight for Brandon Roybal right like losing two in a row you can't make it three and stay in that picture so it's a big one for him and it's a very tough match for him to have to you know break a losing streak no doubt about it we move to angela hill taking on lupita godinez this will be august 13th coming up at ufc san diego hill obviously out of the san diego area hill had you know she was pushing up there against the top of that division and there's probably a couple times that i thought she deserved the nod and didn't get it, which is unfortunate. And now she has to kind of resettle back at a lower part of this division, still against relevant opponents and relevant matchups. But that was a tough stretch for her, for sure.

Yeah. And again, what is she, like three in a row? So she's kind of been a staple, and I feel like she's one of those game fighters who's like, yeah, just short notice, whatever, let's do this thing. So another tough spot for her, but man, for her sake, I hope she comes through in this one, man. Amanda Hibas taking on Tracy Cortez.

Boy, I wish BC was on the show for this one. Good Lord. Why? Which one does he love here? Yeah, I'm not sure. Well, all of it. All of it would be the answer. UFC fight night. it'll be december 3rd an interesting one he boss i think the ufc had kind of circled as like oh future title

challenger and then she does have some obviously very good ability but she has got some real known weaknesses too tracy cortez i thought in her last fight looked good, but kind of struggled a little bit down the stretch in that fight, although she won. Good matchmaking. I like this matchmaking. This is good for the division. This is a nice—this one could definitely go either way, and sometimes a lot of these fights don't. Hiba's had so much buzz just recently. Like, you know, not that long ago, man.

I feel like if she slips here, maybe that buzz goes away forever, to be honest. But I still believe in her upside, man. You know what I mean? I still feel like she'll be a player in the division within the next couple of years. So it's a good match for her, but it's also a big one for her. Yeah, no doubt about it. They have one on here, which I know for a fact is off, so I'm not going to read that one, producers.

Then we move to matt schnell taking on matthias nicolau this will be again december 3rd the same card as he boss and cortez uh schnell i just you ever interviewed matt schnell i have not no dude he's a smart guy he's a different dude like he's he really is um a lot of times when i talk to fighters this is boxers too when they're really dead set on it has to be my way they fail to calibrate that correctly they think that like literally they have to do everything a certain way which is their own way and and i find that that's you can do that for a while but eventually gets you into trouble yeah the kinds of fighters that are the best that have that inclination are the kinds that also know how to put the brakes

on and hand the reins off on occasion while still making themselves it's hard to explain. They still make themselves the nucleus of their own operation. And then you get guys who just hand everything off and I don't think that's good either. He kind of really deftly swims in both of those.

Anyway, I interviewed him after his last win over sumadarji at that ridiculous long island fight you you do you interview fighters at all anymore like is that a thing that you do rarely over the last like year year and a half since leaving the athletic basically i have not been talking to as many fighters but uh yeah but i've i mean i've most of them most of them i've talked to at some point in time but just never had the chance to talk to max now well as as it stands this just seems to me like a rankings fight else excuse me uh schnell i should say sitting at eight matthias nicolaus sitting at seven so it's seven versus eight here that they

make these matchups a lot nicolaou is a good fighter and has good wins although one of the best wins probably via split he's been in the ufc since 2015 but has been like fairly inactive he had one fight in 2016 one in 2017 one in 2018 a loss wow twice in 2019 skipped 2020 completely and then in 2021 he's been on a real nice win streak he beat manel copp he beat tim elliott and he beat david devorek in his last contest all of them decision. And a guy like Matt Schnell is not that kind of guy. By the way, Nikolaos fought as high as Bantamweight. He's back to flyweight. Good fight.

Nothing super special to say about it. Who do you favor in that one, man? You like Schnell? I do like Schnell. Schnell's got a lot of ability. Yeah. Yeah, I probably would take Schnell in in that one yeah probably probably it's close it's close yep all right on the on the bellator side of things you have patricio pitbull taking on adam borich i love this fucking contest at 145 bellator 286 october 1st patricio pitbull doing what i

thought was impossible getting his title back from AJ McKee. Adam Boric had a fucking blood and guts fight against Mads Brunel in his last contest to get this. Dude, you gotta love this contest. People always talk about, like, where's the quality outside the UFC? Them two motherfuckers right there. And nobody talks about Boric, man.

They should be 100%. Dude's like, I mean, he like I mean he's like he's like that one loss to Caldwell right like and otherwise he's just like he's must-see theater man I love watching that guy fight he always brings it so um this is this could be his moment I mean honestly I wouldn't put it past him to do this thing and and and get this victory and suddenly change everything in that division but um I love watching that guy fight man last but not least i touched on this very briefly i think with danny i would love to get your opinion but it's one of

the fights that's been announced this week aj mckee who by the way was wearing pfl shirts on a pfl broadcast which is just like i don't know what the fuck is happening there it's anglin yeah he's taking on spike carlisle and now this is going to be a bellator 286 at lightweight so he's going to go up a weight class here here's the thing i don't love this fight now when I say that let me explain what I mean uh do I think it'll be an action fight Spike Carlisle doesn't fight any other way it's up a weight class so you wouldn't want to throw AJ McKee to the wolves in that sense fair enough but on paper the difference in ability there in terms of what they've shown is dramatic dramatic difference in upside spark spike carlisle is very athletic but he takes a

fucking ton of abuse we'll see what mckee looks like at 155 but this could be i'll say this if mckee loses this this is a real bad sign no and i think that that's what they're i mean i would i would think that that's kind of how we're looking at this too it's like well it's a bounce back fight um maybe doesn't have to kill himself you know making the weight all that stuff you know what i mean like it's a bounce back fight he can get back in there it's very difficult to know like i've had a lot of questions from people who are like, you know, did he piss off, you know, Bellator? He must have. Yeah, I mean, there's got to be some of that in play, right? Especially when, like, not only are you talking before, you know, before his fight with Pitbull, you know, you're talking about potential UFC fights, which is always bizarre to, like,

for a guy to do that. But also, like you just mentioned, I didn't see this, but if he's wearing a PFL shirt, I mean, it just seems like, uh, it just seems like there's some, some acrimony there behind the scenes or something like that. Well, they didn't give him the toughest fight they could have given him. I mean,

again, you don't want to, you don't want to be MMA. You know, this like when Tim Sylvia was fighting Ray Mercer, I was like, poor Ray Mercer. I mean,

old Tim's going to beat his ass. And then Ray Mercer just decked him that one time and that fucker just fell like a you know a big ass tree that is true you gotta be careful you have the odds on this one i don't see the great question let me see i do have i was just curious as to what this would uh aj mckee though i mean like dude he's, I don't know how you feel about him, but I felt like he was kind of nearing that true star status where you're like, man, it just felt compelling, everything he was saying and everything he was doing. And you've got to see how he bounces back.

It's kind of a, he's still so young, his dad being who he is and all that stuff. I still believe in that guy. I don't have odds up here. I'm looking at best fight odds, which is where I typically go to. They don't have them listed yet. All right. All right. I'm looking at best fight odds, which is where I typically go to. They don't have them listed yet. All right. I'm sure he'll be a sizable favorite. Yes, to put it mildly.

All right. A few quick hitters here for topic number five. Just a few of them, and then we'll play a little game to close out the show. But topic number five, where are you on Clarissa Shields? Because, accordingly, she is going to be fighting on a PFL championship card in November. Now, I give her credit. I give her a lot of credit. She is trying a thing that most boxers won't.

Now, of course, she's doing it because the economic incentives make sense for her in ways that they don't on the men's side. We should be very clear about that. But nevertheless, it is a difficult thing she is attempting to do in fighting MMA fighters who don't have, obviously, any of her boxing experience or maybe her athletic ability. But they've got a lot of MMA or jiu-jitsu that can make life difficult for her. Here's my thing, Chuck. Tell me if you're on the same level, which is, I'll watch this.

I have a lot of respect for Clarissa Shields. But if she's going to be mostly boxing and then kind of moonlight and MMA, this is all it's ever going to be. Yes, that's how it feels. That's how it feels. It feels like cameoing. Like she's just and it's still I'm still vastly intrigued, to be honest. But we were just talking about Jeff, Jeff Neal.

I think that they're just two different sports. I think if you're going to do MMA, you have to go, you know, both feet. Right. Like you got to do it all and uh i know she's got the name i just don't know if it will translate that way i i appreciate if she's making good money doing it go ahead and do it you know like uh it'd be like herschel walker almost like moonlighting and like you're like go go ahead and see what you can do but um she has a boxing match right like in september so it's that that's always fun too when they've got like two things on the horizon um which you don't see an mma strictly so it's i'm intrigued with her in general man i just i think i'll watch like

whatever she tries to do but i don't really have high expectations for her mma career you know what i mean unless she really says like i'm going full-fledged into that, which I don't really think she should. But if she did, I don't have the highest expectations. But I'll still tune in for sure. She has a fight against Savannah Marshall, which is going to air on ESPN+. And for folks who may not know, Marshall, I think, beat her in the amateurs. Now, they've had different careers since then.

I suspect Shields will win. But something to keep in mind there. Yeah, I mean, that's sort of where i'm at it's cool i appreciate it i would love to see how well she could do prove us wrong you know uh but she just kind of is a boxer like hanging out in mma what's the story there you know yeah all right uh how about this conor mcgregor set to make his acting debut alongside jake gyllenhaal in a remake of roadhouse and apparently mcgregor's gonna have like more than just a hello kind of thing he's gonna have a speaking role apparently significant speaking role and jake gyllenhaal is going to play a former UFC fighter turned fucking shitty bouncer in the Roadhouse remake. Got to tell you, you know this movie is going to be doo-doo. I mean, it's going to be the worst,

but I'm probably going to see it. What about you? Are you a fan of the first one? I mean, in the sense that there's 80s nostalgia, pain don't hurt type bullshit, yeah. I mean, honestly, it was fun in the day. I watched it. It didn't hold up as well, but I don't know what to expect.

This is the second time we've contemplated this, by the way, because Ronda Rousey was cast in some kind of role of a remake back in the day, like a few years ago, which never materialized. The only thing that's surprising about this is I remember Conor McGregoror very distinctly saying he had no interest in acting didn't want to mess with hollywood you know that he had offers but he wasn't doing it so obviously we've had a change of philosophy here and there is a little bit of curiosity like how he'll do you know what i mean like it i guess i'll definitely be i like the first movie if i'm being honest man but i'm like i'll probably uh i'll probably go see it. Yeah, I mean, it's going to be bad. Let's just be very clear.

Oh, yeah. That has to be the expectation. Yeah. But, you know, I'll watch it. Have you ever watched the McGregor documentary? I can't bring myself to watch documentaries about fighters whose careers I've covered. Yes. Have you seen it?

No. Are you talking about the Notorious one? Yeah. It's on airplanes and you know i see it on no i haven't seen that i have not seen that i'm told it's good like i'm not on it i'm told it's good and by the way good for listen this is like to me it's like you know i'm you never want to overly be like oh because mcgregor's in movies he won't fight again or he won't fight well again. But it's almost like I'd almost rather see him do this stuff than the other stuff, sort of. I feel like this, to me, when I heard this, I was like, yeah, that makes sense. You mean the stuff like Whiskey Baron and all that stuff?

No, no, no. I don't mind that. Look, dude, this is where I always come back to with him and you know i don't know what is in his competitive heart and brian and i have kind of agreed that like i do think that connor has at least one like very good win left in him yeah although that remains to be seen but i do feel that way yes but like it's like dude you beat the game you beat the game you know you made all the money in the world you had the first to hold two titles at once you got in i would actually like to see him get out because you know these other guys who are in that way unfulfilled they're way way hungry and dude this is the other part of the game like when you

begin to like pay attention to the the science of fighting and the way that i try it moves like that it moves like that yeah take as much time off as he does you are missing gobs of time you can't get back yeah i think you nailed it like it once you kind of get to the certain set and we've never seen anybody do this in MMA, by the way, you know, like, a guy who is able to make whatever, I don't even know, because obviously a big portion of that came from the boxing event with Mayweather, but he was able to ascend into, like, the Forbes top athletes for years in a row, and all that stuff, which we just never see, I don't know, I mean, it's funny, because because i kind of i kind of side with you i'm like

i don't really need to see him do too much more honestly like in this uh in the space and the fight in the fight world i've seen enough but i do do we cling to it just because we remember like so fondly like the boom period when he was doing it like i feel like people still want to match make him into all these different ways and throw his name out there. People still call him out, obviously, because he's a money fight. But I feel like journalists, you know, like, are they, is the clinging to, like, the old magic? Is it just saying, like, yeah, but it was a lot more fun with him around. Let's get him back rolling again. You know what I mean?

I feel like that's what people want. He's like the party. He shows up, the party starts type thing. And also, people kind of treat fighting a little bit simplistically. Like, you're a bartender and you've been off for vacation for a year, and then you just get back to working a shift. I'm not here to say being a bartender is easy. I don't think that.

But you can miss a couple years and go back and get your feet under you relatively quickly. Dude, fighting at this level is not like that at all. At all. Like, there is a window where you can do it, and you have to marshal your athletic forces, your psychological forces, the things that are happening around you in your life,

and everything else. All of this has to be summoned if you want to be fighting guys like Hamzat Shemaev, like Mateus Gamrot. You have to live a very, very different way. And Conor beat all of it. He beat all of it in the most dramatic of ways. It's like, dude, you already won.

It's almost gratuitous to keep doing this in a way. And I just, with the way the fight game's going, and like, you know, it's... He's a material man, though. He's a material man. You know he's still going to take some of these fights for that money. So he's going to... Yeah, fair enough.

Which is part of the trade. Which is part of the trade. And I will watch. You know, it's funny. I'm going to bit a bit of a teaser here. I interviewed W. Kamau Bell, the comedian and author and producer. Oh, yeah, yeah. And I asked him, are you a Conor fan or a Conor hater?

And the conclusion that he came to was that he was a Conor customer. In the end, that's what we are. Conor customers. You know what I mean? We're Conor customers. That's just how it goes. 100%, yeah. Including with Roadhouse.

All right, last but not least, Logan Paul looking to make a return to boxing. Before the end of 22, apparently he told Pat McAfee, I'm a boxer again. Well, it doesn't quite work like that. But, quote, we're getting back in the the ring we're going to go from professional sport to professional sport i want to get a fight in december i have some people in mind but i can't say you know

you only get one first impression that's part of my ability to make moments i like making first impressions big so i want to wait until we're ready i'll say this for this kid i mean my level of interest in watching in box is low yes um i will say this someone sent me some highlights there's look at bc look at bc probably holding in the world's most disgusting fart imaginable um but i someone sent me some highlights of logan paul guess it was on SportsCenter's Instagram, doing whatever the fuck he was doing at a recent WWE event he was competing on. He actually looked to be pretty fucking good at it. Now, I don't know shit about professional wrestling,

so if I'm wrong, by all means, people out there can dead wrong me or whatever, but I did see some potential there, which seems right because he is athletic, he does have a big mouth, and he knows how to use it and self-market and comfortable in media roles the boxing thing for me is like i i you know i don't yeah i don't care right well i'm with you too man i just there's really there's really not a lot of interest on my from me on that but i will say that both pauls it feels like whatever they try and i i give them a ton of credit because whatever they try is fairly successful they're they're pretty good at it i did see the wrestling thing and uh you know the guy looked like he had been doing that's not an easy thing even choreographed and you know following what you're supposed to do

but to make it look you know in the world of pro wrestling and and as natural in that world as you're supposed to um he looked like he'd been there for years you know what i mean he was able to like i don't know like a frog splash i don't know the actual terminology but he went off the top rope outside and threw a table you know all that stuff pretty pretty pretty cool to see i mean i don't really pay that close of attention but i mean he's pretty seamless at these things and so is jake at just kind of like jumping into other areas and handling it but i will say that my my level of interest in his boxing career is pretty low as well i there's just really no i like obviously with jake there's a lot of intrigue but it feels like that's more his terrain i just don't have that same thing with logan God bless him. All right. Let's play our game and we'll end the show on this.

It's time. Chuck Mendenhall. Yes, sir. Game we call buy or sell. Boom. I think we have some graphics. There we go. Yeah, we do.

All right. We got 10 of these. Are you buying or are you selling? Number one, the flyweight champion in 2023 will not be named Moreno or Figueiredo. Oh, shit. Did you cut out? Say something again, Luke. The flyweight champion in 2023. Let's see it on the screen, too. The flyweight champion in 2023 will not be named Moreno or Figueiredo.

What do you think? Buying or selling? I am buying that. I am buying that. I'm going with my boy, Askarov. I was just mentioning this whole thing. I think that he leaps back into the picture and he's going to have it. I'm going to sell that.

I think it's going to be one of the two. Yeah? Yeah. You think Figueiredo is going to be one of the two. How about that? Yeah. You think Figueredo is going to be able to get down to that weight again? That's the big concern, right? I don't know. Yeah, that part I don't know. But I think one of the two will be able to hold on to it.

All right. Number two, buying or selling. Sean O'Malley will be ranked inside the top seven after his fight with Piotr Jan. Now, we didn't say he was going to win now we didn't say he was going to win we didn't say he was going to lose yeah we just said he's going to be ranked up there after his fight with yon oh i'm buying you know why i'm buying because i think he's going to be peter yan is that are you out of your fucking mind do you really think he's going to beat him yeah yeah

yeah i think he's going to beat him this is set it just sets up a man i mean sometimes you have to look past the – The rankings? Yeah, the rankings. But not even just that. But even like all of the visual evidence and context and everything, the styles, all of that. You have to just look at the pattern of chaos that the UFC goes through like all the time. And I could just see this after a fight where I think it was largely anticlimactic with Pedro Munoz where now he gets this ridiculous point. Nobody expected him to get in this big card out in Abu Dhabi, and then he goes in there and wins it.

I could just see this scenario happening. That's all. Just the gut feeling. I'll say this. To the point again, when I saw Ray Mercer beat fucking Tim Sylvia, I was like, anything is possible. Yes. Anything is possible. Sean O'Malley 100% can beat Jan. I'll say this. can beat yan i'll say this yan should not lose

this fight he should not lose this fight i can agree with you on that number three featherweight will have a usa-based champion before the end of 2024 meaning obviously volkanovski who is from uh australia would no longer be the champion in that case now that doesn't mean he loses it he could give it away who the fuck's to say but by the end of 2024 now we're asking like two years in advance here plus sure volkanovski won't have it buying or selling um i am going to sell that oh interesting i'm gonna buy it but go ahead are you well i'm gonna sell it only because i right this second and this is these are tough I am going to sell that. Oh, interesting. I'm going to buy it. But go ahead. Tell me why. Are you? Well, I'm going to sell it only because right this second.

And these are tough, man, because so much happens within a year. And we're talking about 2024. That's a ways off. But I just think that Volkanovsky is that good. I feel like he's that good. So if he loses or whatever happens happens it might be because he bounced to lightweight and eventually he was just stripped of it or had to you know forfeit his belt like that's how it would happen but i honestly i don't foresee that happening so uh i think he retains it

see i'm gonna say he doesn't because he's 33 now he turns 34 in september so about a month away he turned a little bit more than like six weeks or so he turns seven weeks he turns 34 add another two and a half years to that you know you're talking about 36 at that point that's hard to be a 36 year old champion in in this division um these are tough man we're forecasting all the way to 2024 these These are tough. Yeah. Listen, these are stupid, but that's why we play that game. Number four. Here we go. Buying or selling. We're going to stick with Volkanovski.

Alexander Volkanovski will not compete at lightweight in 2023. Buying or selling? Selling. I'm selling that, man. I think that... I mean, he's already like... He wants to do this very badly. I think... And like you mentioned, his age. I think Buying or selling? at some point very soon. I would agree. I think that's right. I think there's probably at least one lightweight fight in that year. Okay.

Number five. Kamaru Usman will stay at 170 for the rest of his career. UFC career. UFC career. Buying or selling? I'm going to buy this. I'm going to buy this because I feel like he's, what does he have, like five defenses right now? Like he's been doing very well, like, and he's starting to enter that GOAT conversation in that division,

which had a GOAT in the sport, you know, just an all-time UFC fighter in George St. Pierre. I think that he'll want to break that if he potentially can. And to do that, he's going to have to stay there. And at the end of that run, I think that he would be fairly through the game, to be honest. I don't know who else would be left for him in his age and all that stuff. So I'm going to say he's going to stay there, and he's going to try to get that record.

I think he's going to do it almost exclusively like St. Pierre did and then try and get one last one of a weight loss. I can see that. I can see this. You know what I mean? Yeah. All right. Number six.

We will see Izzy fight Pereira at least twice in the UFC. Now, of course, they've already fought twice in kickboxing, but we're talking about two times in the UFC. Buying or selling? I'm going to buy this. Yes, I agree. Go ahead. Yeah, I'm going to buy this only because I feel like they've now tapped into this natural rivalry, and obviously Izzy is bothered by this whole thing.

Now, it doesn't necessarily have to be predicated on whether or not Alex Pineda wins this fight, although that would be huge. If he wins this fight, obviously we're going to see it again. But even if he puts up a very good showing and throws doubt into the thing, makes a competitive fight and all that stuff, which I think he will, I think that the storylines would be there, regardless if it's in a year's time or whenever it would happen, I think that they'd see each other again. I agree completely. All right, number seven. The light heavyweight title will not be defended more than twice

by the same person in the next three years. So understand that. They could win the title and defend it two times, but never more than that over the next three years. Buying or selling? I'm buying that it will not. I feel like now it's a musical chairs thing up there, man. And at any given night, a lot of those guys, I feel like anybody could beat the other guy within that top space it's the now that john

jones is out of there right like he's no longer the landlord of that division i feel like you're going to have a lot of guys um changing hands i feel like it's going to be like it used to be back in the day when it was just a hot potato i mean i and there's no one guy coming up like when john jones was coming up be like that might stay with him for mean, and there's no one guy coming up. Like, when Jon Jones was coming up, you're like, that might stay with him for a long time. There's no one guy, is there, like, that you see that's like, he's going to get it and he's not going to let it go? No, I don't see that.

You could maybe argue on Kalayev. On Kalayev is about as close as that you come with that. But even then, he is not. It's just hard for me to see, like. Well, on Kalayev is the only one you could maybe say that about. I would agree that he's... Yeah. If anybody's going to do it, it'd be him, I think.

All right, number eight. Francis Ngannou and Tyson Fury will begin contract negotiations before the halfway point of 2023. Buying or selling? I'm buying that. Yes, I'm buying that completely. it's i mean come on man it's a big payday we've seen this and uh yeah i'm buying that 100 all right number nine rose nami unis will retain the strawweight title uh let's say through the end of 2023

oh man so yes i going to buy that. And this is one of those weird like Ouroboros things where it's like one person can beat this person. We beat that person. I think that Carla Esparza will drop the title at some point because this is the kryptonite of Namutis. And then Rose Namutis will then beat that person and regain her title. Agreed. All right. And then last but not least.

They put pound for pound here. But I guess we mean. Well I guess you could say pound for pound. Or goat or whatever. Okay. Valentina Shevchenko will not pass Amanda Nunes. On whatever list you have. Most people would obviously.

With Nunes being double champ. And having the wins over Shevchenko. They would rank her above Shevchenko. That will not change. Right? Until Amanda Nunes retires. In other words, as long as she's active, there will always be this imbalance. That's a toughie, but I will buy that. I will buy that.

I'm going to buy that too. Yeah. I think just because they have fought, and I think they will probably fight again, and who knows what happens there. But I think that Nunes, right now that's manto especially after what she just did the pena and showed like the you know who she is again all that stuff she kind of reinforced it i think that she stays there all right and that ladies and gentlemen is a show well done charles you know we started out with uh my earbuds fucking the world up but we ended on the strong note, I feel like. You always recover.

You recover well all the time, man. I got a crazy... I didn't want to say anything. I was distracted. I got a crazy-ass text message from someone inside of MMA. A manager in the middle of my... the middle of the show, so now I have to go and deal with that. Oh, man. Fun times.

It's going to be real fun. No, it's okay. what is going on with you this weekend i know obviously we have the fights tomorrow pfl tonight you're gonna do anything with the fam uh not actually it's one of those quiet weekends uh probably just watch the ufcs i actually contemplated going because it's not too far obviously to go down the pfl but there's just a there's there's too many like things you've gotta you know get through uh to make that happen so i'll be watching all the fights and laying low this weekend, man.

Well, my wife and I were supposed to be in New York city today because tomorrow was supposed to be the Jake Paul fight. And so we had planned to go up there. And then when the fight fell through, we couldn't get a babysitter to do anything this weekend. So that's what I'm doing this weekend. I'm going to be,

you know, no, no, it's cool. I'm going to take my daughter to the pool. Yeah, I'd be good. I like doing that. You get a picture it's cool. I'm going to take my daughter to the pool. Yeah, that'd be good. I like doing that.

You get a picture of her sleeping. I love those ones. That series that you did. There was like a two-year period in my daughter's life where I'd be like, all right, we're going to go do something fun, something different. And the first thing she'd do whenever we go there is just fall the fuck asleep. It's the greatest. It's the greatest.

You know kids. Let's see. I want to remind everyone, our social's below. You can take a look there. I put up the graphics. You can follow the great chuck mendenhall on instagram on twitter you can follow morning combat and me as well bc will be back on monday yes he will so we'll talk to him then showtime.com is the label that pays you go to showtime.com get a 30-day free trial you can if you like it you can keep it if not you can bounce want to remind everyone world mma awards

world mma awards put that qr code up there and again if you're if you're watching on youtube you can just put your phone up to there or if you're listening on the audio side world mma awards dot com slash nominees so it's plural there on awards and nominees and then uh morning combat dot store go get your loved ones repeat baby yeah thathtag repeat, baby. Yeah. That's right. That's right. You know, I hate the word repeat, though. Or at least I'm always like I never use it. So this is a pet peeve of mine.

I'll end the show on this. This is a pet peeve of mine. In the line of work that I did in the military, one of the things, because I did what's called call for fire missions in artillery. So I was positioned, let's say, 20, 30 miles away from the cannons they obviously can't see what they're firing at so they're relying on you to tell them what they're firing at what kind of charge all different all different manner of things to tell them what to fire and the command to repeat is a very specific command it would basically mean just unload the fucking cannons on them.

Okay? So you would never say that unless like under a very specific circumstance. If you need someone to repeat what they were saying, you say, say again. So if you're ever watching a military movie and someone's on the phone

or the hooks or the Syngar and they're saying, repeat that? Bitch, no. The military consultant fucked it all up. You would never say I repeat. You would never, ever say it. So I always want to say again.

I say, all right, well, listen, how about this? Hashtag back to back, baby. Here we go. Yes. There we go. Back to fucking back. All right. Say again.

Yes, it is my birthday today. Yes. Is it really? Yes. it is my birthday today. Yes. Is it really? Yes, it's my birthday today. I'm old as shit. Happy birthday, brother. Look at that. I get to spend part of your birthday with you.

That was awesome. Yeah, that's right. The least interesting part of it. I'm teasing. I'm teasing. I'm teasing. Yes, it is my birthday. I'm an old piece of shit today.

So there you have it. All right, Charles. I will see you soon, my friend. Great job as always. There it is. Oh oh what a nice little graphic i appreciate that very very kind of you um thank you very much for all the well wishes and all that good stuff and uh i'm falling apart i don't know how many years on this planet i have left but i plan to spend them doing things like mk so there you go if it was buy or sell i would uh i would say i would i would buy that you have at least 10 years left.

I would buy that. I'm probably going to buy the farm pretty soon based on the way that I feel. But we'll figure that out at a different time. All right. For the great Charles, Chuck, Iceman, Mendenhall, the man in the hat. For BC, who's back on Monday. For Malka. For CBS.

For Showtime. I'm Luke Thomas. Enjoy the fights this weekend. We'll talk to you all on Monday. And until then, may all of your gains be loyal.