MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Errol Spence Jr. OUT Of Pacquiao Fight | Bellator 264 & Weekend Boxing Recap | Ep 191

Episode Date: August 17, 2021

Brian Campbell and Rashad Evans are live for episode 191 of MK. The guys discuss Errol Spence Jr. withdrawing from Saturday's Manny Pacquiao PPV bout with torn retina and undergoing emergency surgery. Plus, they talk WBA welterweight champion Yordenis Ugas who takes his place. Also, BC and Rashad do recaps of Bellator 264 and this weekend's boxing events. Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit: store.sho.com   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Rise to rewards with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. Terms and conditions apply. Reveille, reveille, 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. Oh, yeah. Fuck your vacation. We back. We back with a bang. It is Morning Combat, Monday, August 16th, 2021. The BBC with that BDE.

Brian Campbell, you're looking at me right here, one half of your hosting duo. No, that is not the great Luke Thomas next to me. He is continuing his vacation, and we wish him well. But this man needs no introduction. But I'll give him one anyway. The former light heavyweight champion of the world, a UFC Hall of Famer, always sweet, never sour, a tower of ayahuasca power, Sugar Rashad Evans, my man, my bro- bro ham how is it it's great man bc i missed those introductions man i love it i love it i love the tower of ayahuasca power that's what i'm

talking about you know you you've made a lot of money taking your top off in public and i'm very proud of you for that so great to have you back on this show. We got a big show. It's been about one week since we've done one of these lives. So thank you folks for dealing with Luke and I's conflicting vacation schedule. Somebody screwed up. Somebody dropped the ball there, but we hit you with some Q&A, some bonus stuff. BC chewing gum

on the air, making a lot of angry fans unhappy, but that stuff's over. We're back to catch up on what we missed. Set the stage for Manny Pacquiao pay-per-view week, all the MMA recaps and look ahead. You are going to need, it's MK. It's where you want to be. A quick note, Rashad, my parents had been both battling that awful COVID down there in South Florida. I've gotten so many great well wishes and prayers from our wonderful MK army out out there i'm happy to report

that after three weeks my mom is back home my dad's on the up and up life is good we're getting back hopefully everyone else out there is doing well the same some wild and crazy times out there but uh mk's back rashad i want to sell people our merch here at morningcombat.store but i think more importantly i want to make sure that the fine folks at showtime and mk have have sent you some merch because you are a big part of this family are you wearing our ish yet i well i'm not wearing it today but i wore it last uh episode and it was pretty i got one shirt i got one shirt listen and i'm not i'm not begging but i mean if i'm gonna wear it regularly i need more than one shirt yeah can we get this guy a hoodie a ball condom something here so he can

spread all right so he can spread it all? So he can spread it, alright? All around, MK style, indeed. Why don't you also take the plunge, 30-day free trial on all things Showtime. Go to Showtime.com slash something like that. 30-day free trial. Look, no risk, right? High reward.

You want championship boxing, you want the only place exclusively in the U.S for bellator mma movies docs galore i think there's this ufo doc that we're gonna have to check out uh and get in on that rish i know you can get down with that right oh yeah i mean aliens are real right yeah exactly so take that plunge showtime.com uh pound some sand if you don't like it i don't really care but i want you to be a part of what we're doing also what we're doing is winning podcast awards yeah i said that okay i'm swinging big i'm swinging for the fences so why don't you help us out by letting your vote be heard at this website that's about to appear on the bottom of

the screen worldmma awards.com slash nominees your boys at morning combat are up for best mma programming against some very heavy hitters including one joe rogan so this co-host is ready to bring the pain with some insufficient Novocaine. So why don't you put your vote out there in the world and do that shit. Bonus content, as always, is YouTube.com slash Morning Combat. I don't really want to sell you anything else because I want to sell you a great program today. Thanks for hanging with us, folks, through the vacations. But we're back big. Rashad's here.

Rashad, before we get into the topics that be in the combat world, little update on yourself. I mean, dude, sometimes we hear teases that you might fight again. A lot of old guys are fighting these days. What's the latest on all things Rashad Evans? Well, speaking of my manager, Ali, he's got some coals in the fire, and they're supposed to be materializing pretty soon but i mean i haven't been getting the calls i haven't been getting the ones that i wanted so i've been really just kind of patient just waiting for the right one to come but um you know i mean i want to at least give myself a chance to you know do as well as i think i can and the opportunities that i have gotten have been kind of like short notice and kind of put me in a disadvantaged position

and i'm not going to go back and be anybody anybody stepping stone so i'm going to make sure i get the time i need to train the way i need to take that sam alvey okay we ain't here for anybody's uh future okay we're here for that for that cheddar indeed all right there so uh big fan rashad evans thank you for joining us let's get into the headlines it's been one week since we updated you and hit you strong so let's start with our biggest topic of the past week and it's what sets the stage if we can get this, this nice little column right here flowing in. Thank you, Maniche. Unfortunately, maybe one of the biggest boxing calendar fights of this year and pay-per-view wise was supposed to be August 21st, this Saturday in Las Vegas, when Errol Spence Jr. was going to put his two welterweight world titles on the line against Manny Pacquiao, unfortunately, the pay-per-view is still going to go on,

PBC on Fox, but Errol Spence Jr. is out with a torn retina, has been pulled from the fight. Your Danis Ugas, your WBA welterweight champion, will step up. He was going to be on the undercard there against Marcos Maidana's brother Fabian, and he's going to face Manny Pacquiao, who last held that WBA title when he defeated Keith Thurman two years ago, was elevated to champion in recess. Now we're going to get a little clarity there. Rashad, it's not the fight we wanted. Let's be honest. Spence Pacquiao was one of the best and biggest fights you can make in the sport but separate from pay-per-view sales and commercial stuff in terms of the actual fight how much is this changing your expectations and the biggest storylines entering Saturday

well it's changing the biggest storylines by a large margin I mean for one you go with Manny Pacquiao looking to be what he once was as an older fighter aging and not knowing how many opportunities he have left to get a crack at it. So it was a big storyline in that. And, you know, just even being able to fight somebody, Errol Spence was going to be something, you know, that everybody wanted to see, but now he's going against a very tough Ugas who is not the story in the fact that, and don't have the belt, but a very tough out. I mean, you know, Ugas is one of those guys who fights very efficient, fights really well behind that double jab that he uses, and really makes not a lot of mistakes in there.

So he brings great pressure, too, has heavy counter-striking as well. And he's a big guy, too, so it's going to be a bit of a tougher fight for Manny, I think, in respects to the fact that he's not going to be fighting with the same enthusiasm that he would have been fighting Errol Spence. Yeah, Manny Pacquiao, 42 years old, two years since we've last seen him, but he's still doing what Manny Pacquiao has done in this remarkable, legendary 26-year pro career, which is constantly step up and take chances and face the big names. Facing Spence, look, the biggest storyline was going to be the danger involved in that and the fact that, you know, at his age, he's still doing big things when some of his contemporaries,

to be honest, are cashing them checks against YouTubers. I still think this carries on that theme, though, Rashad. Ugas maybe isn't as dangerous as Spence, but to your point, he's a very, very tough out. I mean, the hardcore boxing fans know what he brings to the table from that Cuban school. Only I think Ugas, who you mentioned is big for this weight. He's a little more aggressive than the traditional Cuban fighter. I mean, certainly from a Guillermo Rigondeau standpoint, who we're going to talk about later in this show, Ugas will walk you down. He'll get in there. He wears the Keith Van Horn high socks and he's hard to look good against. He's a clean counterpuncher and Manny accepted this fight Rashad on like

just like that notice and said the show must go on and you know there's talk of will Manny run for president. He had a fun little joke about you know I'm bipartisan politically in the ring too lefties or righties so he's going to switch from the southpaw Spence now to Ugas at last minute.

I had an interview with Manny Pacquiao in the last week plus that you can check on YouTube. We're going to throw to a clip of it now. Yeah, maybe part of it is a little dated, of course, because Spence is no longer the opponent. But I did ask Manny specifically about this legacy and the fact that he's still trying to face the best. And let's be honest, Spence wasn't available,

but he's not facing a cupcake. Ugas is going to come to fight. Let's hear from the great Manny Pacquiao. Canelo sometimes gets compared to you of late because he keeps moving up in weight like you did, where you were never afraid to take on challenges. Manny, you know it. This era of fighters, I don't want to say they're afraid, but sometimes they want the easy fights for

the really big money. Like what makes you different that you're still challenging yourself? I mean, like nobody, very few guys do that. Do you realize how unique that is? I think that the evidence of being passionate for this sport boxing. Because boxing is my passion, I want a fight, not only making money, but giving inspiration to the boxing fans

and also encouragement to other fighters, young fighters to work hard and have determination and focus on their dreams. Rashad, you've been around this combat game a long time. I mean, you know, in boxing, when you have star power, you can use it to your advantage. And we saw Floyd do that to a certain degree and face who you want, when you want to.

This guy turned pro in 1995 as a 15-year-old at 106 pounds. He's still doing the business, man. I never thought, even after the Mayweather fight six years ago, that this guy would still be challenging himself. It's crazy. It's absolutely crazy. You look at the fact that, you know, the way that he fights. Manny Pacquiao is one of those fighters who's not going to keep it safe on the outside

and pop shot. He's going in there and he's fighting. He turns it into a fight and lets it all hang out, takes big shots, gives big shots. But at the end of the day, whenever you see a Manny Pacquiao fight, you know, you just seen a complete boxing match. You've seen a great fight as well, too. And, you know, when when he's going now against Ugas and whoever else and keeps on challenging himself. That's unbelievable because at some point you think you're not going to be able to physically take the beating that you're able to take when you're younger. But he just keeps on just proving that he can. And he's not getting chinny. His legs are still good.

He still has the same bounce. And with Manny Pacquiao, that bounce that he has is the most important thing in this whole game. It helps him go in and out and land those big shots. So the fact that he's still doing it and at the level he's doing it is unbelievable. I mean, the fact that he's still explosive, has speed, it's wild. And it's adding a lot when you consider, you know, he beat Tim Bradley in their trilogy bout to add a little sugar on top, if you will, to his resume. Then he beats Keith Thurman, who was unbeaten and pound-for-pound ranked, and

now he's not going to face Spence, but if he goes out there and beats a hungry, active, strong champion in Ugas, I mean, I don't think it's going to be enough to touch Floyd, let's say, in the great debate of whose era was it. They went head to head. I'm not here to talk about

manny's shoulder or the salt water that healed him okay bro they went head to head finally floyd won that fight eight rounds to four in my view and it was it was concrete and solid whether it was entertaining to the level of casual fans you know preparation or not i may have just invented a word right there but i just never thought that manny could still be adding more. Again, I don't think it eclipses Floyd, but you're seeing people like Max Kellerman and others going, hey, hold up. Manny's building like a quasi-goat resume here, you know, in that conversation of the greatest of all time.

So we've got to give him that credit. He's been knocked out before. I mean, Marquez shut the damn lights out in the kind of knockout that ends careers. And he kept coming. So let's enjoy him while he's still here while he's still making big fights if you're not really up to speed on ugas he did suffer two defeats on his initial rise up he's put things back together in the last few years he had a big fight in 2019 against sean porter in which he lost a very close decision

rashad you saw that fight as well as i did where Ugas was not credited with a 12th round knockdown that would have lifted him to victory on the scorecards. It would have been huge, but he bounced back since there, handed the first loss to Brandon Figueroa Jr., won a welterweight world title. So this guy's legit. This should be a fun fight. Rashad, as we sort of exit this topic,

should we be worried at all for Errol Spence, who is one of the three or at worst four best fighters in the game today? He's unbeaten. He's got two of four welterweight titles. But we've already seen him survive a literal death-defying crash when he had the DUI that changed his life. Now we add a torn retina. Fighters have come back from that before, but fighters have also never fought again after injuries like this. How concerned should we be about his future, given that he's right in the midst of his physical prime? I think really concerned. I mean, you know, take a look at Michael Bisping.

You know, Michael Bisping had a tore retina and he continued to fight. And then afterwards, he suffered great injury to the eye to the point where he lost vision in the eye. So it's a very serious thing with a injury like a retina because you don't know, you know, it doesn't get a lot of blood flow. It's an area that's really takes time to heal and get hit in the head. And you never know how the blows in the head is going to, you know, affect that eye. And then, you know, we don't even know how much of that accident really part, you know, partook in the fact that his eyes mess up right now. Because if you see some of the pictures right after that car accident, you see he had the

messed up eye and everything like that, the bruising inside the eyeball. So he had some impact to the eye. And just like he did fight Garcia after that fight, but just like a boxing match, it's the punishment that happened to the body. Over time, it continued to show its holes, show that it's there. So I think that, you know, with this retina injury, I think he needs to take some time and really heal himself properly and not get back in there, you know, because he feels like he needs to prove people wrong. You know, people saying that his retina is not really hurt or whatever, then they say they're saying about his injury. He just needs

to really take his time and really heal himself, try to find some, you know, unconventional methods to really heal the eye and make sure that it's really healed. Are we talking about licking toads? That unconventional? Where are we going with this? No, unconventional methods. I'm talking about like, you know, amniotic fluid, you know, amniowell, they call it, they call it, you know, stem cell, all those kinds of things that really help the body rejuvenate and heal itself on another level at an expedited rate. I think those are the kind of modalities that he can use to really help him, you know, get the edge and really turn the corner in his healing process. Because like you said, I mean, you know, the eye injury is a very hard

thing to deal with. And if you have an eye eye injury it's going to be something that always stays in your mind when you get hit in the eye in the fight and you can't see it's going to go back to oh my gosh is my retina detached can i see it's going to make that worry a lot more in a fight when you get hit in it if you don't have the confidence in that eye yeah same injury that put sugary leonard out in the midst of his prime for you you know, five years, basically. He did return once during that five years, but then we saw where he did come back after it was fully healed. We wish the best for Spence, one of the best fighters in the game. We want to see him against Crawford. We want to see him against everybody.

I don't know, Rashad, if we're going to end up ever seeing Pacquiao-Spence, which could be a big-time lament, but this Saturday's fight, good just the same. And I did want to shout out the folks at PBC on Fox for the matchmaking here. Rashad, on this pay-per-view main card is a washed welterweight sloppy Super Bowl that only your boy BC could enjoy when former champions Robert Guerrero and

Victor Ortiz are going to square off. And I'm not here to break down this fight. I'm just saying, I've had this idea from day one that, remember the Contender Series? It was like the Ultimate Fighter. We put these fighters in a reality house. I think you should scoop up all the washed welters under the PBC banner.

Andre Berto, Devin Alexander, all those guys. Put them in the same house. Do a redemption Contender season. Have them face off one another for the ultimate title of least washed. That's not bad. There's a place for this. there's a place for this level of matchmaking rashad no i like it i like where you're going but i want to say one thing um you know going back to the

whole manny thing and uga's fight um one thing that makes me feel as if like manny stepping in this fight also with not the same advantage or same mindset is because there's been rumors and talks about him talking about retiring. You were talking about will we ever see Errol Spence and Manny fight after Errol recovers. And it all depends. I mean, because he's talking about maybe retiring after this fight. And if it goes that way, if it goes a way where he doesn't feel comfortable, if he doesn't feel as if he fought to the level he needed to against Ugas, then we could definitely hear about Manny retiring and him fighting Errol Spence would never be. But that's just another thing in a hat to make you say, is Manny coming into this fight as confident as he would have if he was going against Errol?

Right. Or is he pushing through just for the money and to keep the train on the tracks? Does he really understand the challenge that's going to be there? Nugas, who's a completely different type of fighter, should be fun to watch. I did ask Manny about that retirement talk, and he told me, look, it's going to be fight by fight. It's going to be, you know, what do I look like? What do I feel like after this fight? And he's going to address that. Freddie Roach was on the show last month and said he thinks Manny will want to fight once more if he can become president he wants to have that sort of on his ledger of having won a fight as filipino president i don't know

about that but rashad to throw off of this topic your boy bc and manny we did get along like two peas in the pod people can still check out this interview in fact i wanted to challenge the great karaoke champion himself to a little duet. Let's check this out. But Manny, the most important question of the interview to close is this. Are you still singing? I never hear you sing anymore. Sometimes when we touch. Come on, Manny.

What's going on here, bro? The honesty too much. I want to hold you. you yeah you know the next line oh gosh this is the the sultry dulcet tones of the great manny pacquiao i love it tell boo boy we said hi best of luck on the fight manny thank you so much for giving us some time thank you i love it sometimes when we touch the great dan hill yacht rock classic there manny and i manny was holding up by the way he's on the cover of these new next level they're called next level hydrogen waters put over by the folks at Takeover Industries. Rashad, I've been drinking some of these free samples.

I love it, man. It's supposed to cure hangovers, smooth out your skin, slow the onset of dementia, recover, make you feel young again. So, you know, I don't know if we can get that in Rashad's diet as well over there, the folks at Next Level. I need that. I need that. Bring it. Bring it. All right.

You know, the best kind of snake oil is the free kind, so I'm here for it. But I've really enjoyed this product, so Bring it. Bring it. All right. You know, the best kind of snake oil is the free kind. So I'm here for it. But I've really enjoyed this product. So love that just the same. All right. Let's keep the show rolling on. And this past weekend, we did have some MMA for all your fans out there who hate when we talk about box endlessly. Well, let's get into the MMA. Bellator 264 took place this past Friday night on Showtime

from the Spitesphere at the Mohegan Sun. Gegard Mousasi defending the middleweight title in the main event. A third round TKO of submission expert and grappler John Salter. So Rashad, I want to sort of frame the analysis to you like this. Gegard's 36 years old. They're talking about him on the broadcast as almost like a living legend. When you look back at the ledger, which has seen him fight, what, upwards of something like

57 times over a great career across many promotions, do we give his legacy the respect it deserves, considering he went out there against a tough guy in Salter and did the business, and he's now 11-1 since 2015. This is not a you know once great but

now slipping fighter who's hanging on against nobody's he's 11 and 1 since 2015 and that includes having won his last four UFC fights how impressed are you I'm really impressed I mean to do it at the age he's able to do it at but you know what at the level he's able to do that still you know he's he's had a long career he's had a career where he's fought at heavyweight he's fought at light heavyweight he's really fought all over the upper three weight classes you know uh consistently and going back and forth in just different divisions and different um organizations you know being champion contending for championship belts and he's still here you know, being champion, contending for championship belts, and he's still here. You know, he still has that great style that ages so well. And I think that's what we're seeing right

now. You know, because he was an athlete who never really used those athletic attributes, you know, the quickness and all those things that all these great athletes are known for, he's kept it simple with just basic technique. And that basic technique has lended him a huge hand as he gets known for he's kept it simple with just basic technique and that basic technique has lended him a huge hand as he gets older and he fights because now as you get older the cerebral part the mental part catches up to your your physical part and then now you have a fighter who is you know great basics really great basics but now has a mental capacity to really imply it on other levels and also really know how to take the fight out of his opponents. I mean, what we're seeing in Masashi right now, he can go

up and definitely contest those guys that led heavyweight, you know, the winner of this tournament, and it could be interesting. Yeah, there's big business for him there. Should he want to do that? Like you mentioned, we got Rumble Johnson, we got Vadim Nemkov, Ryan Bader, etc. Buter etc but in this fight it was really the perfect let's say execution of what you're talking about a more efficient cerebral style where okay he's 36 but he still got that heavy jab and how about the way he put away salter he was willing to lose that first round and be have his back on the ground because salter was going you know guns blazing for the takedown relentlessly. But he knew if he waited around, he could get a weakened Salter who was starting to gas out. And once he did, Mousasi just sat down on those stuffed takedowns and really put on some vicious ground and pound. When you look back on this, we certainly can both agree, smart execution and win for Mousasi.

Was this the right game plan for Salter, given his strengths and weaknesses? I think it was the right game plan for Salter given his strengths and weaknesses? I think it was the right game plan. I think that what Salter, you know, what he did with Salter was he knew that Salter was going to come in and try to take a page out of Lovato's junior book and really put the pressure on Musashi, really make him wrestle, really make him expend some of that energy so that when he gets back up to his feet he's not striking as effectively as he normally does and and that was going to work but the problem is Musashi was all ready for it he came in there like a like a sponge ready to absorb all of that and then once he absorbed it he came

back with his own game and didn't show a lick of tiredness and was able to then you know start to you know sprawl on the takedowns and really put up a contestant for all that whole grappling that his opponent was trying to do. So I think that it was a great game plan by him. It's a great way to really take, you know, just listening to the visual cue, just listening to the visual, I mean, the audio things that his opponent was talking about. He was talking about being able to really just draw out his energy and really pushing the pace on him. He was listening.

He said, okay, we'll see. We'll see how much he pushes the pace. But he knew he was going to come with that pace, and he built that into the game plan, which is genius. And that's what happens when you have 57 fights. You really try to just understand how the other opponent is going to fight. Yeah, absolutely. It proved his record to 48-7-2.

And we can certainly talk about what he's done in his great history across multiple promotions. He was a Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion, to your point from earlier. He submitted a great heavyweight in Mark Hunt. But the recent run, the 11-1 in the past five years, really five years, is incredible. Let me dead wrong myself here, Rashad. He went five

and O to close his UFC run. And those are wins by the way, over Talis Laitis, Tiago Santos, Vitor Belfort, Uriah Hall in a rematch of a knockout loss and Chris Weidman. Then he's a big time free agent. He goes to Bellator and he's five and one in Bellator sense, including wins over a former champion at Carvalho, Rory McDonald, Liotta Machida, Douglas Lima. I mean, this is pretty damn impressive. I'm one of the media voting members of the new Bellator MMA rankings. And I got him No. 2 pound for pound under the Bellator banner right below AJ McKee, who's just, you know, torn the roof off the building with what he's done recently in the featherweight Grand Prix.

We got to really give Gegard his flowers. He's still got it, man. He's still one of the best in the world at either weight divisions that he chooses. Yeah, you know, one thing that for me that stands out when I think about Gegard and his ability to continue to rise to the top is the fact that, you know, the way that he approaches each and every single fight where he's not even, like, afraid to admit when he just had a lackluster fight. You know, most fighters are like, oh, make excuses, all these excuses. He doesn't make excuses when a fighter doesn't make excuses and they're able to face themselves.

Whatever deficiencies they had, you know, in the fight that make people question their ability, you know, he's able to face. And because he's able to face it, he's able to get better. He's able to learn from it and use it as a growing, uh, something to grow with. And, um, a lot of fighters don't do that, but I think that's one thing that makes Musashi the way that he is right now. Yeah. And even in his lone defeat under the Bellator banner, which was when he ended his first title reign with that loss to Rafael Lovato Jr. that you mentioned, I mean, that was a majority decision that could have gone either way. So a great career there that's going to keep going. And Rashad, we saw in that video, Austin Vanderford, the unbeaten top contender,

of course, Mr. PVZ, but he's making his own name now, Throat Tat and all. He came into the cage. He's still nursing that left arm injury. But that's going to be the next matchup. You know, it's early, of course, but how much of a challenge do you think Vandervoort's going to bring to Gegard? I think it'd bring a pretty good challenge. You know, he has some pretty good striking and, you know, he hits pretty good. So I think that in the striking department, it will be a bit tougher, but I think, you know, Musashi, sometimes he's a little bit too relaxed and too,

and just too placid sometimes in the beginning of the fight. And I think if he starts this fight a little bit more intense, then he'd be able to meet that intensity that's coming the other way with Vandervoort. But, I mean, when you're going against a guy, a younger guy who's stepping in there, who's never been there, who's never had a chance to fight for the belt, they're coming in with that energy. And you have to be able to match that energy right out the gate. And then slowly, once you dissipate that energy,

then you can do the slow melt like Gegard likes to do. Rashad, we always speak the truth here on all things MMA. And this was a, let's speak the truth, this was a very strong Bellator card, top to bottom, big time fireworks, big time finishes, but also really good matchmaking. And I know all week on CBS Sports HQ, you had been talking up this Bantamweight contender bout,

potentially a number one contender bout, when Red Hot Raffion Stotts went in there against my guy, Magomed Magomedov, who, of course, the only man to defeat, or to legitimately defeat, former UFC Bantamweight champion Peyotr Yan. Of course, he lost that rematch. Rashad, we knew coming in, this was going to be the battle of two guys going upwards both could wrestle i gotta say i was blown away that rafi on stats was able to neutralize almost anything magomed magomedov did to try to get the one up on

him you know for me uh stats did a really good job of just answering the call when it came to grappling you know when it came to grappling he never conceded to any position and he was always scrambling. And that was a difference in his fight. His ability to scramble out of Magomedov's takedowns and really just solidifying a position, he didn't allow it to happen. And because he was always able to fight in those little spots, it made it a lot harder for Magomedov to really capitalize on his positions. But then furthermore, when he got back up to his feet, that's when Stotts really was able to land in better shots and really put pressure on Magomedov, making him feel like he really needed to get the fight down.

And then it was more of just the same where Stotts was able to win the wrestling exchanges. But it was all captivated by the fact that Stotts wasn't afraid to even engage his wrestling. He trusted and believed in his collegiate wrestling. And he's like, listen, you know, American wrestling versus Dagestani, you know, Sambo, you know, that's what it was. And he really went in there and really displayed a good level of just the difference in

the two sports with just the ability to scramble and contest everything that Magomedov did. Rashad, we don't talk about Rafion Stottsts nearly enough to what he deserves. Now granted, this was his highest profile bout to date, and let's give him credit. He leaped through the screen. He showed up and he showed out. Like, this was a big-time fight from the standpoint of, like, two technically strong guys

with a lot at stake, and it was that unique fight where there wasn't a ton of striking, but there was a lot of adapting and all that. Rafael Stats, who's 32 years old, is 17-1 as a professional. And Rashad, his only loss was against Murab Davilashili, who's, I know I butchered his last name as I always do, but it was by spinning back for his KO under the ROC banner four years ago. He has rebounded so huge.

He's unbeaten in Bellator. Dude, he's looking like the real deal. And maybe it took him a little longer to put it together than others. But with that collegiate amateur background, he also can talk on the mic. You know, you say breakout star, that can be a loaded thing. But for Bellator's purposes here, this guy feels like he could be something big he really is i mean the way that he got the mic and started speaking afterwards and really selling himself on another level these are the kind of athletes that you really want to promotion because these are the kind of guys that's going to make people tune in you know guys that really talk a good game guys that really

just have that charismatic effect but at the same time can fight like this can fight as good as they can talk and and that's what we're seeing here you know we're seeing a guy you know that that's gonna keep getting these opportunities and keep on growing in the sport just because of the fact that he has great fighting ability and he has great on the mic i love that he was basically like i'm not going to talk about myself and my wrestling ability and then two seconds later he's like i'm the best wrestler in this division and in the world i mean it was it was you know flamboyant and hilarious, but to his credit, look, Magomedov's tough as nails. I still think you're looking at a potential future champion,

and Magomedov's credit. In round three, man, he just tried every single trick, sambo or not, that he learned in the Shmesh factory to try to turn this fight around. I didn't think Stotz had this level of everything, poise, adaptability, all of that. This could give him a title shot, Rashad. Nothing was announced. We know that his own teammate and friend, Sergio Pettis, is the champion right now, having just beaten Juan Archuleta. But Stotts said on the microphone, look, buddy, Sergio, if we got to do it, we got to do it.

But one thing to note, Rashad, there's been some rumors that if you're going to go and you're scott coker and you're going to go in that grand prix direction which they've had such great success at heavyweight light heavyweight welterweight and now featherweight maybe we go bantamweight maybe he doesn't get the next title shot maybe we look at this division on the outside looking in and it might be time to pick the the eight best names and go after it is it time for 135 for the bellator grand prix i think so i think it'd be a good way to kind of just you know reintroduce these guys to the world and i think it'd be a great highlighting you know for the division you have guys like stocks who are just these stars who are just kind of uncut you know undiscovered and really you know with an opportunity like like he had against maga meta he really shined on that level so there's's other diamonds in the rough. And I think

that Bellator is really finding that, you know, these guys are just competing at another level and not for nothing. I believe the tournament really helps these guys, you know, get to another level when it comes to learning how to compete under pressure and really just kind of, you know, getting their minds around, you know, making a fight just to fight. Sometimes in a whole fight game, we get our minds around who we got to fight and, you know, what my ranking is and all this. When I started fighting, I fought everybody, you know, I would fight in tournaments and it really, it really didn't matter. It was just a fight until, you know, I was champion. And so I was the best. And that's what fighting has to be. Fighting has to be not so much of a cerebral process sometimes

as far as making and deciding who you're going to fight. If you're going to fight, fight everybody in the division. And I like these tournaments for that reason because it's proven time and time again when these guys do this tournament, it just improves the whole entire weight class. The whole entire weight class just raises another level. I think there's two things from Bellatorator standpoint that they can accomplish by doing these grand

prixs one is what i thought the heavyweight tournament was it was more about show and flash rashad we had we had chubby rampage we had chel sun and we had fedor you know it was more about like let's just make some fun matchups and see what happens but some of the other divisions in which they've done these tournaments, I think the best thing that you can say about yourself is we're doing this tournament to show the world that the best fighters at this weight class aren't all in the UFC.

I think they accomplished that at featherweight, certainly. Welterweight, when you had Lima and Roy McDonald and others, you know, they had that chance. Light heavyweight right now with Nemkov and Rumble and Bader, they've got that chance. Let me tell you who could, could be in a Bellator, Bantamweight World Grand Prix should they go in this direction. Champion Sergio Pettis, former champion Juan Archuleta,

former champion Darian Caldwell. Now you've got Stotts. You've got Patchy Mix, who was on fire and lost that vacant title bout. You've got James Gallagher. You've got Magomed Magomedov, who could be a future champion. You've got Leandro Higo. And Rashad, along with guys like Matus Matos and

Eric Perez, how about two more names potentially for you? How about your boy Horiguchi, right? How about that guy? How about you get that guy on the phone? And how about, this is me talking, not Scott Coker, how about Patricio Pitbull Freyday, who said he can make 135

and he wants to be the first Bellator three-division champion. Rashad, there's not only depth and star power there, but you could almost tell the world, okay, we don't have Jan or Sterling or Sanhagen, but we got an argument for best in the world at 135, and that's what you want to do with these tournaments, right? Absolutely, absolutely. I think, you know, these tournaments work. And, you know, seeing Michael Chandler in a splash that he was able to make in the UFC,

he's one of these tournament fighters. He's been in a couple of Bellator tournaments, and it shows that, you know, it really was a proven ground for him to become the fighter that he is today. It really was one of those things that just tested his grit, tested his mindset, tested his ability, and tested his fighting capacity to be able to compete on the stage UFC, jump right into UFC, and then make that impact right away. These guys are competing in this tournament. It's non-forgiving. There's really no excuses in there. You're out there, and it's kill or be really no excuses in there you're out there and as you

know killer be killed and these guys are going out there and rising to the level and when you put the champion on the same the same plan as you do everybody else and you're like okay the belt's going to keep going throughout the tournament it's up to you champion to hold it that puts a pressure on the champion that you don't normally see and uh it's good because it makes everybody else fight at so much of a higher level. I think I just jazzed myself up. I got to clean up on aisle studio over here. I'm fired up. Scott Coker, make this tournament right now. I'm sure you probably are doing that. I don't think you care about my two cents, but let's do this thing. This should be fun. Rochelle, let's keep the MMA

flowing from the weekend. Friday night was PFL 7 in the kickoff of the 2021 playoffs from the Hard Rock in Seminole, Florida. They're right down the street from yourself. And what we got in the main event, Rashad, was you could argue the best matchup PFL could have made on paper to start the season, right? It was the one I wanted to see in the final because

of some shoddy judging in that Glebe and Tiso-Tebow fight last time around. We got it in the semifinals. Either way, we got it. Ray Cooper III, your defending PFL welterweight tournament champion from back in 2019, went in there against Rory, McDonald, and Rashad. This was an outcome that I didn't necessarily see coming. A wide, unanimous decision win for Ray Cooper III. He had the advantage on the feet, but maybe more surprisingly, he held a dominant advantage on the ground.

How big of a win is this for a guy who's trying to knock on that door and show the world that, you know, I'm coming. I'm one of the bigger names here in the future at Walter Witt. It's huge, and unless you live in Hawaii, you're not really well aware of the Coopers and their family and their story behind it. But the Coopers are, you know, a great story from Hawaii. You know, they have a little place that they train

and they have like an invite only. But, you know, it's a family, a fighting family, and they have a, you know, high prestige and high honor with them in Hawaii. So these guys fight with that mindset, you know, even though they're not in Hawaii, they bring that every single place they go with that mindset and fighting at that level. But I mean, it's a great fight for him. He showed that he has great striking, great wrestling, and he did such a good job of really mixing it up, landing those big shots,

getting Rory to exchange with him. And then once Rory was exchanged with them, whoop, right underneath for the takedown. Textbook, you-on-one but very effective and especially against a guy like Rory McDonald who's pretty much seen everything and really has a great ebb and flow of trying to understand what his opponent's going to do so um to get a guy like Rory and to dominate the way that he did on the feet as well on the ground i mean it just shows that this guy has another level in which he's yet to hit i mean it's really hard to downgrade this win at all because at 32 rory's still in this physical prime we saw him destroy curtis millender to open this tournament in his pfl debut and like i mentioned that gleason t-ball fight okay we got some shoddy scoring but you

know i thought rory made the adjustments and had sort of clearly won that. And he just wasn't in this fight at all. And you saw the pre-fight sort of video packages in which Rory said, look, maybe I won't have a complete advantage in striking. It would be even. But on the ground, I'm a much better wrestler, and that's going to be my game plan. Rashad, he didn't hide. It was deliberate, in fact.

I thought Kenny Florian pointed it out correctly, that it was almost too deliberate in what he was trying to do. He couldn't get Ray Cooper down, and he couldn't keep him there. Cooper was able to reverse positions, was able to get top position, and then was just a heavier striker. I want to ask you a real question here. It's real talk time, okay? The post-UFC run for Rory has had some legitimate highs and lows. You know, he beat Lima in that five-round thriller to win the title.

That was a high he had the weird john fitch fight the weird lima rematch the one-sided loss to musashi at middleweight was this fight more about where ray cooper's at or more about what rory is not willing to do anymore maybe not capable of doing anymore on the big stage let's be honest here i think it's a little bit of both, but I think it may go into the fact that, you know, Rory may not be willing to do what he once did before. I mean, you know, Rory talked about before the mental issues that he's had coming into fights,

you know, being able to, you know, does he really want to do this? You know, once you start questioning yourself that there's something you really want to do, you know, the reservation is already there. And then, you know, wanting to go to that place, that dark place where you know that a lot of fighters can't follow you, you don't want to go there anymore. But in order to really be the best, in order to really scrape at the top and be a champion, you have to be willing to go there. You have to want

to go there. You have to understand that if I'm going to go there, this guy is not going to want to follow me. And if he does follow me to this dark place, he's going to want to go back because he's not going to feel safe. And Rory may not just be willing to do that anymore. I mean, he's tried to reignite himself by coming here to Sanford and South Florida and training with some killers. And that's done a good part for him. But for the most part, whenever you're looking to really, really really transform your mindset you really have to do it from a mental standpoint inside inside you know and uh has rory done that i don't know and it doesn't look like he has you know i i may have may have sounded like i was contradicting myself where i said you know i don't want to discount this at all i can't discount this win at all and the reason why

i say that is because i think Rory is still technically very strong and very elite. And that's, I think, why he had great success against Thibaut and Melendor. Guys, he's better then. And he was just able to out-technique them. He tried to out, you know, be more technical than Cooper here and just got beat at every corner. So I'm not going to downgrade it.

But I do believe what you said is true. I don't think Rory wants to go to that place anymore. And I don't, you know, and I don't know if it's in, in, if he's unable, I think it's more unwilling. I mean, look, this guy's been through, I mean, hellacious war. Rashad, if he would have walked away from the sport after that Robbie Lawler fight, I would never have said a negative word about him. I mean, that says, that says far deep down the hell rabbit hole, you can go in a fight, I would never have said a negative word about him. I mean, that says far deep down the hell rabbit hole you can

go in a fight, right? But I don't think he wants to go there anymore, and he didn't need to go, let's say, there to beat Cooper, but he needed to go, you know, he needed to go in that direction. I don't think that's in him to do that anymore. And so, I'm not here

with the same concern that I was after the John Fitch fight where i'm like look if you don't want to be in here anymore don't be in here because it's going to end badly it's going to end destructively for you i still think he's technically strong to avoid really bad situations but you know we there's enough signs now when we look back i mean i'm still kind of sore about that lima rematch remember that rashad in the finals of the welterweight world grand prix under the bellator banner i just didn't see a Rory who was willing to do what it took to win. And I think we, I don't want to say we saw that again because Cooper was so

dominant, but we kind of saw that again, Rashad. You know, I don't, I'm not telling Rory to go away. He's still really damn good, but it's not the same man anymore. It's not the same red king or whatever the hell we're supposed to call him. It's tough because it's like this. In order to really go to that place, you have to be willing to burn the boats and there's no going back to where you just were. You're willing to just say,

you know what, if this is my last dance, then I want it to look like this. And you really lean into that. But when you start to experience life and start to have life outside of fighting and not putting fighting on that pedestal as you once did, you know, then it gets really hard to just really put all your cards in it because, you know, all your cards are not in it. You know that you have all these other options outside of fighting and you know that you can apply yourself in other areas and you know that this is hard you know saying just like yo this is a hard way to make a living and once you start thinking like that and once you start like really being like you know do i really want to do i

really want to go there it's it's a it's a wrap because the guy across from you is willing to go there and uh go ahead and it's easier obviously you know i want to be respectful it's easier for you somebody who's been there to say that then then keyboard warrior bc here who's saying well i don't think this guy's willing to die anymore i mean you know who the hell am i but to be objective i don't and and you know maybe that is a way to look at what you know take a closer look after this fight what he's doing why he's still here what he really wants out of it because this sport's too dangerous to come in here. Rashad, it's weird.

Some fighters are just businessmen who are here for the opportunity. Some fighters just love to freaking fight. There are some who carry a legitimate martial artist mindset that this is no different than having a local Taekwondo tournament, you know? But I think this game's too dangerous to be only that. You've got to be willing, able, and ready for this to take some dark, hard turns. And if you're not, then maybe you shouldn't. So it's a tough spot to be in. He's still really, really damn good.

But the story here is Ray Cooper, a great win. And, Rashad, let's talk about where he goes here. I think it's October 27th for this division. Walter Wade is the championship round for PFL. I think the PFL playoffs will continue this week, by the way. But Ray Cooper advances to face Magomed Magomed Karamov. And why that is important, after Magomed Karamov defeated Sabadu Sai by three-round decision, is they fought once before, Rashad, in the 2018 PFL Tournament Championship.

That's the last time Ray Cooper has lost. Magomed Karamov has not lost since then. This could be a fairly epic battle given the wrestling shown by Cooper in this matchup going in there against a guy straight out of Dagestan, ready to put him on him. This is a sneaky good fight. Yeah, it is a really good fight. I mean, he's going to really have to be on his P's and Q's

when it comes to everything wrestling. But for the most part, he uses wrestling in reverse. He uses wrestling to keep the fight where he wants to, which is on the feet. He has some really good power and some heavy shots, and he stays in a nice low base being a shorter fighter. So he can really unload and land some nice clean shots, but he's got to be able to stay on his feet.

He's got to be able to stay out of wrestling trouble because if he's able to stay out of wrestling trouble, then he's not going to chip into that gas tank where he can stand on his feet and strike. Hey, the revival story of all things Clay Collard took an unfortunate turn when he lost a close, very close and disputed decision to Rosh Manfeo in the lightweight bracket there.

Rashad, Clay Collard had been a fun story going over to top-ranked boxing and ESPN during the pandemic, winning all of those fights when he was the heavy underdog journeyman. And then he brought it to PFL and he took it out on Anthony Pettis. And he was suddenly looking like the tournament favorite. But a good win by Rosh Manfeo to survive in advance. But you could make the case that Collard deserved more in that one. Yeah, definitely. I mean, Collard's a tough guy.

When he fought Pettis, he showed that he's got it to the next level. But at the end of the day, that's how competition is. You know, you look good against one guy, you can get yourself ready for one guy, but then the next test with a guy that doesn't have the same name, you're not able to bring yourself to that level. But, I mean, at the end of the day, this is a fighting, and you've got to fight the person in front of you. But for the most part, you're always able to bring yourself to that level. But, I mean, at the end of the day, this is a fighting, and you've got to fight the person in front of you. But for the most part, you're always fighting yourself.

It's not even about your other person. It's about what you can bring out of yourself. And if you're able to bring out of yourself what you're capable of doing, then it doesn't matter who's standing in front of you. You're going to have the same result. PFL 8 returns just three nights from now. We'll have definitely preview and coverage this week on Morning Combat. Kayla Harrison in the main event in her women's lightweight semifinal bout

against Jenna Fabian, so it should be a good one as well. Look, Rashad, I'm down for PFL. I've said that many times this year. They've won me over. They've made me a fan. I like some elements they do. You always get Luke Thomas on the show every week telling you, drop the stats already, all right?

I don't care that this guy throws a punch eight miles per hour. And I don't disagree with that. The one thing I will say, love the announced team and have been saying that all year. Really fantastic. Randy Couture, Kenny Florian, and who's the fighter turned play-by-play guy? I can never remember his name, Rashad. I forget his name, too.

I forget his name, too. We're killing this guy. He's great. Jason something. Yeah, yeah, whatever. Anyway, you know what I don't like? Let's not pump the fight noise in anymore, okay? It sounds like there's like a semi-truck backing up in the background. I know there's no fans.

What I like is the camera angles. The camera angles, they just bring a different kind of feel to the whole fight. I really like the way they they have the cameras where you kind of like looking at eye level with the fighters that sometimes it kind of feels like you're in a cage with them yeah good stuff right there they're they're trying some new weird things you got the regular season playoffs and championships and we'll see it continue to roll on rashad that's mma for now let's get back into the box a little bit because it was a loaded weekend for boxing.

And, Rashad, we've got to talk about what it was. And that was a stinker Saturday night on Showtime in a very important title fight at 118 pounds when Filipino slugger John Riel Casamero brought in his WBO belt against 40-year-old former junior featherweight unified champion and my boy, Guillermo Rigondeaux. And Rashad, the reason why I sound a little downtrodden here is the two combined to set a CompuBox record for the least amount of attempted and landed punches over 12 rounds. From that standpoint, it was brutal. But here's a few deals here. Here's the deal.

Dude, that's who Guillermoermo rigondel is that's who he's always been the two-time cuban olympic gold medalist has burnt bridges with promoters and networks every step of the way but i am here to give him a few few of those flowers and say at 40 he cut down in weight to go down to 118. He's still world-class and elite. Had he won this, you know, there could have been a Donair rematch unification. There could have been Naoya Inoue. But Rashad, this fight, for as weird and dull as it played out, there was some somewhat controversial scorecards here.

A split decision win for Casemiroiro nine rounds to three on one card for john riel i believe it was seven rounds to five on the other and then the third judge had it in favor of rigandau in the seven five uh territory i've been taking hell on twitter for about 48 hours because i scored it 10 rounds to two for rigandau why am i some rigandau superfan well i've been one of the rare guys holding the flag on top of the mountain throughout his career saying, you know, this is art and sometimes we're not enjoying it or witnessing it. Rashad, there are, there's a scoring criteria on how fights should be scored. And it's really hard for me to come on this show and defend a guy who's so hard to defend in Rigondel. It's like being the

mandated court appointed lawyer for somebody on death row, right? Like nobody, you know, everybody who saw this fight saw the scorecards and were like, good riddance, get Rigo off my screen. But Rashad, you score boxing rounds a little different than MMA where MMA is damage heavy all the time. And boxing, the scoring criteria includes defense, ring generalship, clean and effective punching. I didn't see Casemiro do any of this. Did Regal run far too much? Yes, but that's what he is and who he does. I thought Rigondel landed the cleaner shots. I thought he dictated the terms of this completely. I thought he confused and made Casemiro look pretty awful. And I also thought Casemiro was afraid to go after him

because of how hard Rigondeaux hits at 118. Rashad, am I going to be that guy standing out, you know, on the soapbox with the sign and everybody spits on me? I mean, I thought Rigondeaux got robbed. I'm going to be straight up honest. And I think that I felt like this was the continuation of this sport from guys like Dan Rayfield through whomever to just be like enough with this guy get this style off my screen I don't want this guy on there anymore and if

that's where you stand that's fine but we've seen um you know basketball teams hold the ball during the shot clock to try to win a weird way right there's different ways to win fights we've seen John Fitch have a great career this This was a John Fitch-like performance in boxing. And I'm here to say that I saw one guy was better than the other and it didn't get his hand raised. You know, I agree with a lot what you said. I thought that Rigendell fought a great fight. It was a Rigendell fight, like you said. You know, to me, the true mastery in the Rigendell performance was the fact that the angles in which he was able to take off of that lead hand, he was able to really set a nice trap and really get off the center line on multiple

occasions, either whether he was going right or he was going left. He really just kept Casemiro really confused on which way he was going to do. And the thing that made Rigondel so effective to me was the fact that he kept setting these traps and then once Casemiro would come in he would land that left hand pretty pretty solid and that kept Casemiro kind of on the outside and at some point almost baiting you know Rigondel to come in and really shutting down his his his press his pressure just to try to turn it turn the tides a bit to get Rigondel to try to turn the tides a bit to get Rigendale to try to press him. But, you know, I think the biggest thing that Casemiro did wrong was he didn't utilize that jab hand enough. You know, that jab hand was almost, it just wasn't effective enough.

He would throw it, but every single thing that he was throwing with that lead hand, it was too hard. And because it was too hard, it was a hook, you know, Rigendale seen it seen it and he'll get out of the way and catch him with a check hook and every single time. So what Casemiro needed to do was he just needed to kind of just use a jab like Ugas used. Ugas has a jab where he kind of throws it and then he throws two in a row, but he keeps it out there. He keeps it extended and it's not so much on the first one, but it's the second or third one that usually catches opponent and and if uh casamaro was able to do that against rigandale then he would have been able to better uh tell where he was going you know if he throws one and then he gets a beat on rigandale where he's going then he's able to then throw another shot where he anticipates

rigandale being but he didn't do that He just kind of was chasing the whole night and really almost walking into the traps of Rigondel. So I do believe that it was, it was close. It was a lot closer than the scorecards would say. And, and I do, you know, I was watching Rigondel and just at all at his defense, you know, it was kind of like sweet pea Parnell Whitaker, the way that he moves and at 42 years, to be able to move like that, you know, because your legs are the first thing to go. Your legs are the first thing to go as an older fighter.

But, you know, to have his legs the way that he was able to move them, to be able to just completely make his opponent miss and just not be there for the counter shot was very impressive. I honestly got, I was very well entertained by the fight because as you see, the 11th and the 12th round, the trap was sprung. Rigaral was able to land in bigger shots the last two rounds. And it was because Casemiro was getting very frustrated and just kind of walking in and getting caught with that straight left. Yeah, look, I'm not trying to say that this was for everybody. This was like Luke loves

ADCC or ACDC whatever the hell they call that grappling stuff there in Abu Dhabi and all that stuff. And that's great. I can't watch that stuff. To some people they can't watch this stuff. But I agree with you. I watched this fight, I don't want to say enthralled, but I saw the technical theater placing. It was a

master class hit and not get hit performance from Rigondel, and he was frustrating the crap out of Casemiro, and I felt the onus was on Casemiro to not take a chance, not rely on the judges, and instead to go after it. Rashad, you said something key. He wasn't at least putting that jab out there, even if he wasn't hitting. You know what that difference is? I was ringside when I got the poster, when Rigondel beat Nonino Donair in 2013.

Radio City Music Hall was the showdown unification bout at 122. And what Donair did to stay in that fight, when he was also getting schooled, was at the very least come forward and constantly keep that jab going. That at least gives you a case to say, look, this guy in front of me, he's running. He's not engaging. The argument here isn't should Rigendell throw more punches. Of course he should, right? Of course he's taking far too many chances that the judges won't appreciate his art

or they're just sick of him and they want him to go. But I don't know, man. I saw Casemiro just not willing to do anything because although Casemiro had a great first round in which you could argue he should have had a knockdown scored even though I thought he hit Regal late on the ground, after that first round, I didn't see him biting down and going after it, and it was brilliant what Rigondeaux did,

and this is a great division, and it's unfortunate for Showtime from an entertainment standpoint that Rigondeaux laid an egg like that. Rashad, I mean, even after he beat Donair, his promoter then, Bob Arum, was in the, you know, afterwards I was there with the media going, how am I going to sell this guy? Like, instead of playing up that we've got someone special here, he's like,

how am I going to sell him? But again, I can only defend Rigo so much. They gave him a showcase after that against Joseph Ekbeck while I was there in Atlantic City, and he did the same crap. Did nothing. He had a comeback opportunity on the Cotto Canelo pay-per-view undercard in 2015, and he crapped the bed again.

I'm going to give him his credit at 40 to show the legs that he did, to show the style that he did. He's just never been an advocate in the right way for his own career, commercially or now at point to like leave no doubt on the scorecards i'm not saying here that you know he can go pick it outside the wbo offices it's his fault he lost this fight i just think that if you look at the letter of the law and how you score boxing there were some things he did that were masterful and i don't know how those judges gave casimiro all those rounds for ineffective aggression one after another. And because, you know, the game is hit and not get hit.

We've seen Floyd Mayweather do that, and Rigondel did that beautifully. I don't know if he's going to get another opportunity on big-time TV. You can argue with this kind of style that he doesn't deserve it. You can definitely argue that. But I saw something very artsy on Saturday night. I want to give Riggo the props. I'd still love to see him in a rematch against Donair. Who knows where it goes from here, Rashad, but

letter of the law, it feels good to say the challenger needs to take the title from the champion, but that's not how you score fights. You score fights 10-9 round by round, right? So, you know, you could say tie goes to the runner, but it's up to the umpire to call. You know, it is what it is at the end of the day. No,

100%. You know, one thing I felt that Rigondel could have done uh you know to really uh add to the fact that he was moving to get out of the way is like whenever you move whenever you're evading a fighter right you're making a fighter reset his feet and that's why you move in the first place because you can make the guy reset his feet but you have to anticipate the guy resetting his feet. And then that's when you come with your shots after you made the fighter reset his feet. So after Rigondel moved to the position and then he has an opponent chasing him, at that point, that's when he's supposed to lead with another combination or shot. But Rigondel very, very rarely did that. But when he did, he was able to, you know, to land a nice left effectively.

And I think if he implemented more of that, then it would be no question in our minds or the judges' minds who was really leading the dance. But it really gets hard to tell who's leading the dance when you're just moving and evading and then not striking after you evade. Yeah. And keep bringing the hate to me on Twitter. How could you defend a runner? Well, there were some other nuances going on. Maybe you can watch a little more box and get that. Where there was no nuances, Rashad, we saw action on Saturday night. DAZN brought it to us from Texas.

Rising, unbeaten, welterweight, Virgil Ortiz Jr. improved to 18-0 with 18 KOs in the biggest step-up performance of his career. It took place at the Dallas Cowboys practice facility. Rashad, I'm not going to ever try to pronounce Mean Machine's real name, although he is my Lithuanian brother in there, Edgidus Kavaliowskis. Close, right? Close, close, close. But I will say this, Mean Machine, as he did when he dropped Bud Crawford in that title loss, he brought the pain early. He rocked Ortiz in round two with a big uppercut.

You could argue he had deserved a knockdown there. But Ortiz weathered the storm like the truly great fighters do. Rashad, I don't know if Virgil Ortiz will end up becoming a truly great fighter, but this 23-year-old showed us something big time on saturday in terms of heart and adjusting he went on to drop me machine five times including four times in round eight to get the tko win uh i was out of my seat it was that impressive we got a big time player at 147 tell me tell me i'm lying rashad no you're not lying at I mean, when Cavaloskas came out and he caught Ortiz and dropped him in the second round,

or it looked like he dropped him in the second round, it looked like it was going to be a long night for Ortiz, you know. But Ortiz was buttoned up, and his defense is tight. You know, he has a nice high guard. And he kind of reminds me of that Tito Trinidad back in the day with that high guard and the way he bounces and he comes forward. You know, he kind of reminded me of that. But mean his hands up high his defense was sound and the pressure was consistent no matter what cavalos gets through at him the pressure was consistent and you've seen

that pressure being consistent and the power and the punching increased as a fight went on and as you've seen cavalos really just couldn't take it after a while because the return became so fast because Ortiz keeps his hands up so high and there's nothing for him to return a shot. And when you're playing that game with a guy who keeps his hands up so tight, if you're not fresh, then you're going to start finding yourself getting caught at the end of everything that you throw. And then it's going to make you not want to throw. And then because you're not throwing, then your opponent is going to get off. In the case Ortiz was able to get off and just pretty much just have his way with Kavaloskis after he melted him down with just great pressure and great defense. I mean, Ortiz looks to be the real deal.

And these are the type of challenges you want to see young fighters have to test, pass, excuse me, when they do face adversity. I mean, Rashad, this was legitimate adversity where we were like, oh, man, maybe he's not for real. Mean Machine came in in top shape. He was built like a brick shithouse. He brought the power. He had great technique.

But to your point, Ortiz's jab was so solid. He's a two-handed puncher and finisher. He goes to the body so well to show us the ability to clear your head clear those cobwebs and get back in on track and do what you have to do Rashad there is a new generation of fighters and this is so damn refreshing right now from Ryan Garcia to Gervonta Davis to now Virgil Ortiz guys who are going after it what do I mean by that maybe there was a lot of fighters who were trying to emulate Floyd. You can't emulate Floyd, right? Nobody's as defensively slick as him. Nobody's as great of a businessman as him, but we're seeing a lot of, during the

tail end of the Floyd era, fighters who want to become a star and then take easy matchups. And that, you know, that's why I'm praising what Manny Pacquiao is doing right now. Not everybody wants to go after it. These new young guys, Rashad, they want small pro. This reminds me of that spirit that really hasn't been there since the late 90s, right? When we had, you know, De La Hoya in Trinidad and Mosley and Winky Wright and Vernon Forrest in the welterweight,

you know, 154 in that welterweight there, Fernando Vargas. These were guys who went after it. Virgil Ortiz went after it in this fight, and he had the technical know-how to get through the storm, but he had balls, man. He's got huevos. Golden Boy has a true, legitimate future star. The only question is, can they get him into those big fights? He called out everybody.

There's some hope that maybe he could fight Terrence Crawford, but Rashad, we know Terrence Crawford has a purse bid upcoming that the WBO ordered to potentially face Sean Porter in what could be a fantastic pay-per-view if that happens later this fall either way I think that golden boy Oscar De La Hoya and company they're matching Virgil Ortiz the right way he beat Mo Hooker now he beat a tough out mean machine this watch this guy keep an eye on this guy 18 and 0 18 ko's uh gonna be something very special and then and it doesn't hurt rashad that he could talk a little bit good looking guy mexican-american it's all there it's all there he's got that he's got that mexican-american uh mentality too when it comes to fighting he comes and he brings that

pressure forward and you know, just is just relentless. And, you know, it's good to see because you said it's like a throwback to the 80s and 90s where boxing was boxing. I mean, and here's the thing, you know, he's a boxer that can fight. And when I say that, I mean this, you know, sometimes you watch a boxing match, but you don't see the fight. Case in point, Rigondon, right? You don't see the fight. Case in point, Rigondon, right? You don't see the fight. You don't see the spots where emotion is leading the way, where the holes are open, where you see a guy that's going to swing a punch just because he got caught with a good punch. That's when the fight comes out of you, when you're swinging in there, swinging from hell to try to hit your

opponent. That's when the fight comes out of you. with Ortiz, he fights good when he's in there brawling and with the fight, but he also fights very good from a boxing standpoint. And he can go interchangeably with those styles. And you've seen it in the fight. After he got dropped in the second round, he came back and he won that second round. And then he dropped his opponent in the third round. he he fights with that emotion and that's what we need to see because that's what makes boxing fun to watch when you see guys just kind of completely come unglued and throw all the technique out the window to start throwing bombs from hell very well said and rashad you and i do a fun little spin-off

series on mk story time with sugar rashad where we look back at the biggest fights of your career. What do you think was the fight in your career that's sort of most similar to this period in Ortiz's life, where we know that there's something there, but we need to see it. We need to see it tested. Was it the Bisping fight? What would you sort of circle when you look back at your run? I would say maybe the Bisping fight, maybe the Sean Salmon fight,

where it was kind of like, you know, I'm looking to kind of show show what I can do. And it's a big proven ground of what I can do on the next level. But I mean, you know, you got to be able to fight and bring the fight from for more than just a technical aspect, because at the end of the day, that's what the fans are feeling. They feel the emotion. You know, emotion is something that translates without even anybody saying anything. You see it. And when you see it, it just strikes you. You're just like, ooh, that just gave me a feeling. I just can't explain.

I got goosebumps. That's what you want to see in a fight. And these guys, they got it. These younger guys, like you said, they really want to fight like that. There's a lot of things that hurt boxing these days, from the best not fighting the best, promotional network wars, bad judging, corrupt, like, oh, there's a lot of bad stuff. Do you know what fixes a lot of that bad stuff? When they schedule a big fight, and the two fighters go out there and they fight.

Yeah, I mean, I miss that feeling. That's why pay-per-views like Canelo, Golovkin were so special, right? Guys went after it, you know, on the biggest level. So hopefully we're going to continue to see more of that. To close, Rashad, on the box from the weekend, had to shout out on the ESPN undercard. This could be a developing story

from the standpoint of just commercial appeal. The grandson of the late legend, the greatest, Muhammad Ali, Nico Ali Walsh, a 21-year-old middle middleweight made his pro debut we're not trying to say he went in there against uh against a future champion he was in there against uh maybe a future uber driver in jordan weeks uh it took just one round for ali walsh to get the victory but with flava flav in his corner wearing the 1960 Everlast trunks that were made for his late grandfather.

I don't know, Rashad. It kind of felt good. I feel like Top Rank, which signed him in ESPN, has got something here at least to gauge people's interest moving forward. I think so as well. You know, I've watched the guy. I watched him a couple of times. And I kind of like the way that he fights. You know, he kind of reminds me of, in a sense, of his grandfather.

The way he throws that jab right hand, it kind of reminds me because the way he does it, he throws it and he kind of pulls the guy into him. He kind of pulls the guy into him and then that right hand comes right after. And Ali had a really good job, I mean, really good way of bringing guys into him with that jab, calling him with that jab,

calling him with that jab. And then when they come back, he'll lean back and then he'll hit him with that overhand right or that right hand that Ali was known for. So his nephew, I mean, his grandson, he has that. He has that. And, you know, with the support, with the hype behind him, they know they got a star. You know, you got guys like, you know, the Flavor, Flavor. Follow him. You know, Flavor is a hype man. I mean, look what he did for Public Enemy. know they got a star you know you got guys like you know the flavor of flame follow him and you know and flavor is a hype man i mean look what he did for public enemy imagine what he could do for ali i love it flavor flavor in the post fight interview was like taking credit for everything too it's great he's like my godson i taught him everything um rashad so many times whether it's

the son or you know grandson of a legend i, the pressure on these guys in any sport to live up to that is ridiculous. And I don't know, dude. I don't know if Nico Ali Walsh is going to be a fighter. Bob Arum was even like, I don't know, man. We're going to see, right? You know, I don't know if one day they cash him out to a YouTuber. Who knows? But I will say I'm interested.

He seems like a good kid. He grew up in Las Vegas. His mother is the daughter of Muhammad Ali, and he grew up with a great relationship with his grandfather. It's fun. It's fun to see the legacy carry on like that. I mean, it doesn't always end well. It's rare that a Floyd Mayweather Jr. will be better than his great father

and uncle ever were in a boxing family, but we'll see what happens. We'll see. Maybe Rashad Evans Jr. one day is going to come out here and take over the mma world who knows maybe is there a rashad jr there is rashad jr yeah how old is he 14 he's a wrestler too oh okay okay okay interesting we can't keep note keep note of that for the future all right rashad i mentioned that we haven't done a live show in a week so there are a lot of lingering news stories i'd like to get your 30 second or more take on some of these let's hit some quick hitters from around the horn rashad tell me what the hell this is the great habib nurmagomedov who retired as your unbeaten

ufc lightweight champion has signed a deal with third tier russian soccer team fc legion dynamo is this what we think it is is he gonna play like like usain bolt did is it good like chad johnson did is he gonna play soccer on the side i don't know honestly speaking when i watch habib play any kind of soccer or anything like that it's usually like dagastani style where they're able to wrestle or incorporate what they do. Yeah, do you see them play basketball? They do like full court wrestling. Yeah, it's great. So it's the same thing when they do soccer. It's like full contact soccer. So I'm not sure how it's going to pan out with him doing soccer. But I mean, he's from, you know, he's from that part of the world. So, you know, they're all crazy about fuchi ball.

They know how to be able to move the ball around really well and he can kick it but i mean to play at that level i mean here's the thing about it there's going to be dedication that the the new coach may not be able to handle you know what i'm saying because i mean right now he's up for coach of the year with all the wins that he's been able to generate with his talent that he has underneath him so i'm not sure if there's going to be enough time maybe they should hire ted lasso as new coach um it sounds like a marketing ploy rashad similar to when manny pacquiao bought bought a team in the filipino basketball league and was suddenly like player coach owner general manager you know it's like all right let's let manny go in and shoot his couple jumpers and and and you know kiss the ring on the way out i don't know

if this is real competitive soccer for Habib or what, but we'll see what happens. A real fight that we were all hoping for, Rashad, this November actually at Madison Square Garden. Looks like it's going to be delayed. The COVID outbreak worldwide, but specifically in the Oceanic region, has likely pushed the rematch for the middleweight championship. Israel Adesanya, Robert Whitaker, too, from this fall to maybe sometime in 2022.

Rashad, your reaction, I've got to admit, I've got to guess you're disappointed like I am, but is there any long-term things here, or do we just, you know, wait until we see it again? I mean, it's unfortunate for the most part, but I think that this blow, this, I guess, the postponement, I think it errs in the favor of Robert Whitaker. You know, more chance to kind of allow himself to just completely, you know, get the game down of Israel and really kind of, you know, work out any rough patches that he may have with the champion, you know, based on their last fight. So, you know, it's kind of hard to even say when it's going to happen with just everything that's happening, you know, with the different variants and everything else that surrounds COVID. So, you know, who knows when this is going to be because, you know, it could be a postponement to

2022, but then they may not be able to get over here to, you know, to even fight just depending on what countries, if they go on lockdown, if there's another lockdown due to the variants that may happen this fall. So it's who knows when this fight may happen, to be honest. Yeah, hopefully we can see that at some point in 2022. It doesn't look like the UFC is going to be able to make it down, you know, down under anytime soon. You have to wonder, like, as UFC, and we've heard Dana said it, if the COVID numbers get really bad moving forward,

we may just see them in like the Apex and maybe Texas here, Taichi Palace here, Abu Dhabi here, maybe throw in a Florida, but I hope we don't get that. We can't lock down again, Rashad. We can't do it. We can't. We can't. We can't do it, bro. I need these fights. I need these armpit stains.

You know what I'm saying? All right, let's keep it going here, Rashad. The September 11th scheduled Showtime Super Bantamweight Boxing Unification bout, which is a great one, by the way, when Brandon Figueroa faces Stephen Fulton Jr. That has officially been moved to Saturday night, September 18th. It'll still take place in Las Vegas. But the hook here, Rashad, is Showtime's going to give us a full night, combat sports night in America, I think I want to call it here.

It's going to start with that Figueroa Fulton card, Showtime Championship Boxing, September 18th. And as soon as that card ends from San Jose, Bellator will have a card live on Showtime. And your main event, the official Bellator MMA debut of Yoel Romero against former light heavyweight champion Phil Davis. Your thoughts on this matchmaking from Scotty Cokes and company? I mean, I think it's phenomenal. First of all, the boxing match is going to be phenomenal because you have two fighters cut from that cloth,

like you were talking about, of the 80s and 90s, late 90s fighters, where they would just go in there and they would brawl. You know, you have Figueredo who goes and fights at a pace that's unrealistic, going for the body of Fulton who can do the same. So that fight is going to deliver on all levels. But then you have, I mean, Mr. Wonderful and Yoel Romero. I mean, I'm so excited to see a Yoel Romero fight. It's insane at this point, point you know because I'm a huge Romero fan I'm not fans of many fighters but I'm a huge Romero fan and I'm really excited to see what he's going to be able to do in the Bellator arena especially against a you know very tough Phil Davis who's game against anybody you know Phil Phil is only going to lose by the slightest

margin so it's going to be a great fight I I mean, Yoel's not getting any younger, obviously. He's a marvel, a freak of nature in his mid-40s now. He had that eye set back, which pulled him out of the Rumble fight in the Grand Prix tournament. But technically, this is a tough fight. He's moving up in weight to light heavyweight. Phil Davis still has it. We saw that despite his loss to Ryan Bader.

Can wrestle, can be a technical striker this should be a very i mean whose wrestling is going to have the advantage will that will this end up being a war on the feet because of it it's interesting it's going to be on the feet you know because listen romero's not taking anybody down i can't remember one fight where he's actually uses wrestling like how you would think that somebody at that level would use his wrestling but i mean if it does go to the wrestling romero should be able to to win but i mean phil davis is the funkiest guy that you can wrestle against so who even knows in that department especially you know he's he's coming into form you know i think that this phil davis is a different phil

davis in the fact that he's believing in himself more than he ever has before. Let me dead wrong myself. Although Davis did fight Bader multiple times, it was the Nemcov fight I was referring to where Phil Davis lost. He's had two very close fights with Vadim Nemcov there. Rashad, let's close it out with this. Twitter wars are what they are, but sometimes they tell us things. The recent one dustin poirier and nate diaz has been interesting nate diaz tweeting out i i knew you was a pussy bitch that's two and oh referencing the time poirier pulled out of their proposed first fight and now you know the diaz's if you pull out against them or don't show up they win dustin the diamond came back with they're

lying and you're getting played there was more back and forth. Conor McGregor jumped in. But I got to ask you what this means. I thought Dustin Poirier defeating Conor McGregor a second time was going to finally set up him fighting for the real title, getting his second crack at it against defending champion Charles Oliveira. Does this suggest to you that we could be seeing Poirier Diaz instead? And would you be okay with that what the hell does this mean that's exactly what it means it means definitely we can see Poirier and

Diaz next because listen Poirier figured out something very very smart in his two matchups with Conor McGregor it's about the money baby it's all about the money you know what I'm saying so he's willing to forego being a champion or just put that on a back burner because, you know, with these blockbuster pay-per-views, he can get the money to keep him up at a certain level, you know, getting paid at a certain level. Because when you get that paycheck from McGregor, it's hard to just take a normal paycheck fighting another guy. You want to fight another blockbuster fight where you're going to have a huge payday as well. And I don't mind Poirier doing it because at the end of the day, I still believe he's the best guy and one of the best guys in the division. And I mean, truthfully speaking, the title is going to be there. And I think he can go and beat Diaz without burning too much tread off his tires

and then still go and compete for a belt. But then at the same time, Diaz is not an easy out as Leon Edwards found out and it's going to be interesting to see you know what Diaz we got coming out next time being the fact that he you know is not coming off such a long break so it would be interesting in that capacity but my money was still beyond Poirier and I don't think it'll take too much miles off him to do this fight make a lot money, and then go for the belt. It would be interesting if they would do it at welterweight. We've had DSA, and I'll fight you at middleweight.

Whatever, let's just do it. I mean, maybe this is me at this point because Poirier is securing his legacy in his own way, right? He's becoming a bigger star by going after these type of matchups. He's making a whole crap ton of money, which you know in this grind, in this game, once you can get to that 1% level, you don't want't want to leave it so i get that and there's many ways to lose against charlie olives i get that too i just never want to see this guy walk away from the sport one day rashad without rightfully holding that full title i say that every morning combat episode in which poirier's name comes up and if he makes the second straight decision to go in the other direction i mean what

if he one day you know comes back around and then loses it it would be interesting yes he was interim champion yes he fought once for the full bell then you know nobody beat habib so you know you can't take too much away from him although justin gaethje was one leg kick away from putting habib in peril let's never forget that right now okay please please never forget that all right please okay thank you but hey i'm not going to tell Poirier what to do. I think the UFC would go for this. I do.

Even though it's basically saying your best lightweight is not fighting for the lightweight title. I think they would go for this. They love money. We all love money, Rashad. Let's sell our souls for it. Okay. Rashad, that's our five topics for the week in which we ask each other questions. But luckily we have a segment every monday where the fans ask us questions and it is called dms from dogs

just a reminder if you're wondering how do i get my question answered every sunday night on the morning combat instagram channel we put out the post. You respond to it. If we pick your question, you show up right there. There are our social handles below. You can follow us and of course the email address morningcombat at gmail.com for Wednesday fan subs, Friday dead wrong, all that

good stuff. Alright Rashad, let's hit it from the people. We start with at Merrick3r8 make the case for or against gay guard musasi being the best fighter to have never won a ufc belt it's an interesting debate based on what we talked about earlier in the show rashad, I called the bridesmaids list, right? It used to include Michael Bisping, but he broke out of that jail. Does Gayguard have a, you know, a stake against guys like Dan Henderson, Uriah Faber, Joseph Benavidez, great fighters who have never held up that UFC title?

Absolutely. I think he, he definitely, you know, can go in that category. I mean, he beat Chris Weidman, beat Thiago, was it? Santos. Mojete. Yeah, he's beat a lot of tough guys in the UFC and just, you know, and really was a tough contender in the UFC. But just when he was there, I mean, it was just, you know, didn't really get in that position to fight for the belt. But, I mean, it was just, you know, didn't really get in that position to fight for

the belt. But I mean, yeah, I agree. I think he's definitely one of the fighters, you know, when I think of amazing fighters who have never held the belt in the UFC, he's one of those guys. And when you look, when it's all said and done and you look at his resume, you know, his maybe at the time when he retires, maybe, you know, 60 or 70 something fights. And I'm like, dang, and this guy was never UFC champion, but he's in champion, all these other organizations.

Yeah. You're definitely going to think that because almost every organization that he was in, he was a champion. So he's definitely on that list. Obviously this debate is, is a fighters who have fought in the UFC, but never won the UFC title.

That's why fade or, or even a Patricio Pitbull is not in this specific debate. Dan Henderson still, to me, might be number one. I mean, he came pretty damn close. He gave a good effort to Anderson Silva for the middleweight title, and then in that rematch with Bisping, good God, he almost shocked the world twice in that fight at age 46, whether he deserved to have been in that or not.

Who are we missing, Rashad? I put Faber in there. He was the WEC champion, never won the UFC strap. Are we missing anybody huge? Poirier? Dustin Poirier, right? Dustin Poirier, yeah. Dustin Poirier is one.

Right at the top there. Yeah, that's all I can think of right now. Lance Evans, you know. Lance Evans. Tough alumni, right? Tough alumni, yep. Tough alumni. Indeed.

All right. Let's keep it going. This is from at CLP Film. They want to know, is Randy Couture the best fighter ever with a, quote, bad record? Now, what does bad record mean? It basically means you've taken some losses. In MMA, losses are more forgiving than in boxing, where it's rare somebody with multiple, let's say 10 losses,

goes on to win a world title. It's happened, but it's rare. Rashad, Randy Couture was 19 and 11. Would you say he's the best fighter of all time with a, quote, unquote, bad record? Yeah, I can say that. I mean, yeah, I can, I can, I can say that. Yeah, I think, I think so.

If you're looking at records, but I mean, you know, with Randy Couture, uh, the, the, the win loss doesn't necessarily truly, you know, give the story with him just because of the fact that, you know, even, even in the fights, like, I mean, he was one of those guys that just really set himself apart from everybody by the way that he was able to just grind people out, whether in the light heavyweight or the heavyweight division. I think his run at heavyweight really, you know, put him on another level when it comes to his legacy, you know, being, you know, when he was able to bump up and be, you know, those guys at heavyweight that really show that he was an exceptional talent when he, you know, so I think so. I can agree with that. Yeah. I mean, look, part of Couture's mystique as Captain America was the ability to come back from losses and get huge wins that we didn't

think he could like knocking down tim sylvie and all that so sometimes you got to take those l's to be able to you know vander holyfield right he was the first heavyweight to win the title three times you know he took big losses in his prime but came back in big ways and and i think at the end of the day rashad we connect with those guys more right i always said that about floyd mayweather like we can't relate to floyd mayweather he's perfect he's got way more money than we'll ever see you know what i mean like we never saw that guy take the l and come back right it was because he you know to his credit he was perfect we can relate to somebody who hits hard times that's why we love the the comeback story in this american drama called life right absolutely yeah all right that's why we

want uh luke to come back from gallbladder pains and me to shake off this uh this black liver that i've got here rashad but uh i'm working on it okay uh rashad love to fight underscore two slides in with a boxing question can gary antonio russell versus rashi warren be next what's next for each of them so rashad both of these bantamweights had feature bouts on the main card showtime the rigandau card saturday night unfortunately for gary antonio russell who's the brother of gary russell jr the featherweight champion and who looks to be very good his fight uh was over before it started 16 seconds in against emmanuel rodriguez there was that awful head clash, Rodriguez busted his nose open and the fight was called off

but big win for Rasheed Warren, the former champion at age 34, just four knockouts on his career ledger he went out there and sent that man to hell, Damian Vasquez dropped him four times and finished him I could see them fighting each other again at 118, sorry, fighting each other

after this, maybe this card, which had three Bantamweight fights on it, was sort of a setup for that. That'd be a very good matchup with Warren being the veteran, the southpaw, and, you know, Russell Moore of the younger riser at the moment. I do want to give Showtime credit, Rashad. They've already got the 122 division on lockdown. That's why we're seeing that unification between

Coolboy Steph and Brandon Figueroa. But they're doing pretty good things at 118 as well. vision on lockdown that's why we're seeing that unification between cool boy steph and brandon figueroa but they're doing pretty good things at 118 as well you know we saw casamaro beat rigondel can we get him against nonino donair next they were new ways out there i mean i want to i want to keep seeing big business i want to see the best face the best i applaud what showtime's been able to do there if the next fight is warren versus russell i'm down with that what i'm not down with though rashad and tell me if i'm being ignorant or mean similar to george foreman naming all seven or whatever of his sons george gary russell's dad gary named all of his boys gary russell oh no and they're like all fighters dude dude. They're all fighters. There's like Gary Russell Jr., Gary Antonio, Gary Antone Russell.

I mean, that's a little much, right? It's a whole lot. It's a whole lot. I mean, what is his sister's name? Gary? Garika? Yeah, I don't know where they went with that. Yeah, I don't understand that.

But, hey, to each his own. Anytime somebody – you know what I used to do, Rashad? Like you find out when your cousins name some kid some ridiculous awful name. I'd be like, that's awful. Somebody should tell them. And then you realize you're just being a hater. You're just being a Karen at that point.

You know what? Name your kids whatever the hell you want. You want to name your kids weird names, go for it. Rashad, you got any weird names in your kids? Do I have any weird names? I got different names, yeah names i got different names yeah okay that gives it gives them a unique identity right they're all not named gary it gives it gives them a different you know they never hear before my son his name is solaris yes yes so do we call him sol we call him soul so oh soul i like that all right all right all right hey let's keep it rolling here from at i'm actually ozzy wow is that the real ozzy sliding in is bc the the real life homer simpson

rashad your thoughts you know bc is something else man i don't know if he's a real life homer simpson but he's a he's a character a hundred percent i mean i you never know what's going to come out of bc's mouth but that's the fun of working with bc bc says some stuff and you're just like wait what you never know when your career is going to end thanks for something i said it's great you know it brings a real edge to the broadcast but no i have a much better hairline than homer simpson and hopefully i'm not and and a better waistline too thank you very much and like billy hoyle and white man can't jump i will say it's hard goddamn work making something this pretty look this buffoonish for your entertainment folks. Okay. Thank you. There is a method to this madness or is there? That's for you to figure out more news at 11. 8889 as Luke would say one of the worst handles in social media history do you have a favorite Disney Pixar movie

Rashad I brought up the list of specific Disney Pixar movies to refresh myself I don't normally go down this lane too often if Luke was here he would be shouting out the praises of Coco do you and the kids whether it's Toy Story A Bug's Life

Monsters University Inside Inside Out, any of that? I mean, is there a favorite in your household? What's on the list? Because, I mean, I know I like a lot of Disney movies. I mean, I've been watching a lot of them. Cars 1 and 2, The Incredibles, Monsters, Inc., Monsters U, A Bug's Life. I said that already. Soul, Luca.

I like Soul. Soul. Soul. Named after your son, of course, right there. I like that. Soul. I'm a big fan of, looking at this list quickly, I would say, I don't watch these often,

I'm a big Ratatouille fan. I liked Wally. Oh, Ratatouille. Those were some good, good, people are, Maniche, our producer, saying, put some respect on Finding Nemo. Nah, nah, brah, nah, brah, okay. You ever go on the Finding Nemo ride at Epcot?

What a waste of time come on step it up give me something here epcot please all right thank you uh rashad do you guys get down with the animated movies like like the thomases do oh yeah absolutely listen i love it i love those i love those uh disney animated movies i love them man they're um they're they're high in ev, especially, you know, with all the kids and everything, watching them all the time. On Saturday, took the kids and the wife and mother-in-law to Jungle Book with The Rock. Or Jungle Cruise, whatever the hell it was called. Something with a jungle.

Okay. Hey, this guy, Dwayne Johnson. You know, I think he's like the most unhatable person on this planet. Like, you want to be like, all right, Rock, what do you got here? Dude, he's like the most unhatable person on this planet. Like you want to be like, all right, rock, what do you got here? Dude, he's, he's entertaining as hell.

What are we going to say negative about him? No, you can't. I mean, he's the man when it comes to, you know, those kinds of movies. I love watching them.

Yeah. I'll have what he's having, whatever rocket fuel he's having to, to get, uh, that kind of body. I mean, you know what kind of rocket fuel he's having.

That's the gas right there. That's the gas all day. All right. Well, I mean, you know what kind of rocket fuel he's having. That's the gas right there. That's the gas all day. All right, that is excuse me, that's a burp right there. Excuse me. That is your fan submissions. Now, Rashad, I hope you're ready. I hope you buckle up because it gets a little wild in these parts. You're a veteran of this. Every Monday

we search the globe, the highs and lows for the good, the bad, the ugly, and the in between in combat sports and we show it to you it's called have you seen this shit all right let's get the let me load up some shit rashad are you ready because you know the fans say i take it easy on you okay the fans say i don't give you the ridiculous give me the ridiculous i want to see the ridiculous all right let's start in boxing i did mention rashi warren the former olympian despite just four ko's rashad here's the highlight of him sending damian vasquez oh man oh man he got hit with the the stagger lee right there

the he did the stanky leg, Rashad. What do you call that? That right there is called the staggered lead stance. He's just caught with the stagging, just tap dancing. That's bad, man. Warren went after it in this bout. It's great to see a technician kind of become a slugger. Big time victory right there.

Let's see that one more. Oh, man. Drunk driving. Drunk driving right there. Let's see that one more. Oh, man. Drunk driving. Drunk driving right there. You had too much to drink, sir. All right. Let's head over to DAZN in Eddie Hearn's backyard. Rashad, get woke if you're not already to unbeaten light heavyweight Joshua Buozzi.

This was his toughest test to date. And in round 11, he sent Ricardo Balotnick. I'm sorry. Ricards Balotnick to the to the bollocks of hell there with that right hand. Good shit, man. It was perfectly measured, too, the way he leisured it up and just let it go. Man, that's a big right hand. See, that's a big punch right there, man.

Look at it. Buddy didn't even want to know. He couldn't even get up after that. Done. His family is from Akra, Ghanaana although he was raised in the uk rashad you know that tiny that city of akra ghana produces one banger of a fighter after another and this kid who won a silver medal at the olympics a few years back is looking to be the real deal josh buazzi so watch that closely let's go to the top rank undercard from tulsa car Carlos Balderas delivering the boom to Fidel Cervantes.

Oh man, he was out before he hit the ground. And he almost got woke up. Oh man. Yikes. Look, to get up as composed as he did, I mean that was impressive

in itself, but dang. Balderas went on to finish him off but this was the highlight. That short left hook, you're dang. That was a heavy shot. I wanted to finish him off, but this was the highlight. That short left hook, you're right. He was already hurting. So he was knocked out, and then when he woke up, he woke up when he hit his head off the ropes. Crazy.

But that wasn't our best fight of the weekend, Rashad. We go to the Rams-Chargers preseason game for that one. Check out superfan number 99 here. He's ready to take on the whole village by himself, Rashad. Did you see this shit? Nah, I did not see this shit. Let's see this. You gotta be careful talking trash to a whole group of friends

because you may get all, all of the smoke, Rashad. I mean, he's a big dude, too, so the big guys are usually the ones that are not the toughest, so he'll be down like, oh, look, uh-oh. Oh, look. Oh, no. Oh, no. He's throwing spinning back fists into a group of friends.

Now it's getting dirty. Oh, boy. Oh, man. Oh, boy. We're going to see some ass cracks. He's got good technique, though. He's got good crowd fighting technique. Oh, God. Now it's just a buffet.

It's a buffet. Everybody's getting some. It's like the palace brawl oh my god somebody saved this guy geez wow they're dragging him out his draw look at they're dragging this guy look at that oh crack kills their fat joe okay let's get out of here wow good shit all right rashad they say i don't challenge you enough so what do you see when you see this picture rashad oh oh my gosh that's it's just it's just a father kissing his daughter i don't it is oh

oh i thought it was somebody here whoa whoa let me ask you a question Rashad yes no those are not oh shit I think we just got cancelled yeah poor baby indeed alright alright yeah

hey let's head on over to the high seas Rashad when you got money and champagne and bitches, you can do whatever you want. Look at this guy, just living. Okay, he's got... Yeah, make it rain. You do have to watch your footwork. Oh, no.

My God. How uncorrected can you be? How uncorrected can you be? It looked like a rap video for a moment, and then it turned into some shit. All right. Hey, we're going to play some sound on here. People hate Luke Thomas' COVID takes about vaccines, but maybe this will change their minds, Rashad. Some of y'all are scared to get the COVID vaccine because of what might be in it.

When you know damn well you put unwashed dick in your mouth several times. You've done that several times. You've done that several times. I think we're shot. What? I think what she's trying to say is we need to look in the mirror and address our vaccine concerns first before we share our opinions with others. Oh, my gosh. I mean, wow. Wow. Unwashed dick. Yeah, some have. Some gave all. We're shot. Yes, they did. All did. Let's keep it going here. Hey, Jake Paul, who's back next weekend

in a Showtime pay-per-view on Sunday night against Tyron Woodley, has put out a hit list. Now, if we can zoom in, Rashad, I'm seeing Woodley, Canelo, the Diaz's, Kamaru, Timmy Fury, that's supposed to be Tommy, by the way, Conor McGregor, KSI,

Gervonta, Logan Paul, question mark. I'm not seeing what sugar rashad evans on there can we get ali to get you in the sweepstakes here what is going on here you know what it is because he knows he'll get his ass whooped bc listen you can't convince people to want to sign up for an ass whooping oh because he knows that he knows he knows listen he knows this he knows he paid people off on a list. They'll do the fight they really want. But he knows, I'm not going to take a peg.

I'm not going to take a dive. And that's what they're avoiding, BC. That's the bigger question. Come pour a little sugar on yourself, Jake Paul, in the name of love, all right? Okay? Because Rashad's still got it. You can make 185 or 190 easy. You'll be looking jacked.

Easy. Is that the weight they're fighting at, 190? Yeah, about that. I think it's 185. 185 or 190 easy. You'll be looking jacked. Yeah, easy. Is that the way they're fighting at 190? Yeah, about that. I think it's 185. Yeah, that's fine. Yeah, I can do that. Alright. We mentioned Nico Ali Walsh had his pro debut. His godfather is Flavor Flav flipping out here at the weigh-ins, enjoying

some Tulsa action. Rashad, you needed a celebrity hype man in your day. Wow! Flavor Flav. I used to roll with Flavor back in the day, man. He'd be like, wow, Rashad, let's get it. He used to be like, he used to be out there, but I mean, I did need a hype man. Hype man just makes everything, because listen, if you have a good hype man, you don't got to say too much. Actually, I did have one hype man. His name was BZ Hype. He came for the John Jones fight and he would just talk trash to John Jones and the audience. Now I just sit there. A hype man helps out a lot. It's less you have to say. You once served as a hype man for Mike Tyson on AEW Pro Wrestling. Yeah.

We see that come back again. Rashad, we have a segment on the show called Regional MMA where anything can happen. know regional mma people can parachute in from the ceiling let's start at golden beach cup mma evgeny karabat with this combo it's the calf kick suplex finish i haven't seen this in my mma playbook lately look excuse me gosh that was dirty yeah yes that was dirty that was dirty he spun. That was dirty. That was dirty. He spun him with the leg kick and then took advantage of the position that he spun him in. You can't, I mean, wow. Yeah.

You want to get that guy through TSA, fold him up into a suitcase. Well done there. Let's go over to the regional scene. Matt Mooney escaping this ankle lock very creatively. Oh, my gosh. I see it. I'm sorry. Escaping the choke attempt with an ankle lock. Spoiler Oh, my gosh. I see it. I'm sorry. Escaping the choke attempt with an ankle lock. Spoiler alert.

All right. There we go. Okay. Okay. Okay. Let's bypass. We see it. We see you here.

Yeah. He's got the choke. He's got the choke. He's got the choke. He's got the choke. Oh, you crossed your legs. Don't ever cross your legs. Don't ever cross your legs.

Oh, wow. Don't ever cross your legs. Don't ever cross your legs. Oh. Don't ever cross your legs. That's some Anderson Silva Chael Sonnen shit right there, right? Rescuing victory from the jaws of defeat. Absolutely. So what did he get him? Did he kind of figure form there? Yeah.

So what he did was the guy crossed his legs in between his crotch. And because he crossed his legs in between his crotch he used his hip bone his pelvic bone his penis as a lever and then he used his legs yeah pull back on it look at that chin is that what what they would call white belt shit rashad that's the kind of shit you get caught in you get mad that you got caught in it because your coach tells you don't ever cross your feet uh let's go over to thunder fight here's nito makari with a superman punch off the cage somebody get anthony pettis on line one wow that was thunderous that was thunderous and fast yeah you better do that on the regional scene nobody does that in real life on on the on the

pro level so you got to do that on the wow and the best part about it was he caught buddy as he was throwing at the same time flawless good shit right there let's keep it going patrie marari here in some uh kick butt pro kickboxing check out this insane spinning back kick oh got him got him what It didn't even hook. It looked like it even hooked just in case he tried to move out of it. Wow. Yikes. Yikes.

That's some good shit right there. Wow. It looked like he still might. If we call him, it looked like he still might be asleep. Yeah, that's spinny shit done right. Oh, wow. That's a Hail Mary that got caught right there. All right.

I keep calling you Luke. See, people get very upset, Rashad, when Luke calls you BC. I call you Luke. I'm just so used to it, you know? It's all good. I don't mind being Luke. All right. Be Luke.

Here we go. Let's see. I want you to vote. I'm going to show you two really bad calf kicks. Tell me which one was worse. This was Michael Lombardo Friday night in BFL getting a calf kick KO. Vicious, right? Vicious, vicious.

See that one more time. Lombardo was a, he was on the undercard at Welterweight taking on Kyron Bowen. Just snap that thing, just chopping him right down. But that may not have been the worst calf kick of the week. Let's go to the farm. Let's check out this loser. You dressed like that, Rashad, you might get what you deserve. Oh my gosh.

Somebody tell him he's got a doogie pile on his right shoulder there after going down. That's a beautiful calf kick. I'll tell you what, calf kicks, they change the game, Rashad. Calf kicks change the game. I think that was a better calf kick, for sure. Hey, you ever seen a grown man with crabs on this segment, Rashad? This might be a first.

Let's go to the videotape. You've got to be careful of this. Pull this guy out of the water. Oh, that's painful. That is painful. That's when you wait too long to go to the doctor. You see what happens? Yeah, yeah.

Yeah, wow. You hang around in a brothel long enough, Rashad, you'll get a souvenir. What are you doing? Oh, my gosh. Somebody save that guy. Hey, we've all been there, right? Wow, soldiers fill the hotels on the weekends. Anything can happen.

That's great. Okay. Let's go over to uh to a wedding i love weddings rashad it is wedding season i went to my cousins just a week ago uh check out how fired the hell up this bridesmaids gets to catch this thing rashad oh my god what are they serving at this wedding i gotta check this out what are we joel cola yo wow rashad you ever been single at a wedding looking to mingle you see this type of energy you go after it right no you run away from it because

maybe i like a little crazy yeah okay you run away from that energy like like whoa she she really wants to. Like if you're her guy, if you're her boyfriend and she cut that bouquet and she did that, you might be like, do I really want to do this? You know what I'm saying? Like, do I really want to commit to this? They say some people, Rashad, has a God complex, but this is how you know you're not Jesus. You're not the second coming of the savior when you attempt to walk on

water let's see how that worked out for this guy watch your step there sir this is not good you're starting off that already look at yeah you take those sandals off you know we've all had to navigate the the channel oh god he's gone he's gone yes yes yeah he's not coming back he's not i think that's the third death we've ever showed on this segment. All right. Hey, Rashad, I want to close with a little game. Every time we have you on, have you seen this shit? I go on IG and I search the hashtag Rashad Evans and I find some weird pics.

So here we go. Here's Rashad Evans hanging out with the let me bang, bro. What's the context behind this one? Can we zoom in? Where are we at here? Where are we? I think it was at a... Bare Knuckle?

Bare Knuckle event. Yeah, we were at a Bare Knuckle event. And you can tell it wasn't too long ago because I had the little, the starter locks in there, the little rat titties in my hand. Yes, yes. You and Rumble, they're hanging out with the uh with the let me is that justin lane is that the guy yeah yeah see that i mean that's when i was thinking about maybe trying it out with the the bare knuckle boxing but after i watched that event i was like you know

you don't want that no no that's that's the uh that's the that's the bottom of the combat food chain you don't want that yeah you don't okay okay better than that. Yeah, you don't. Okay, okay. Rashad, let's keep this going. Let's be honest here. How many of these you still got in your possession? Let's zoom in here on some toys. I got one. I got one.

I got one. That's a little me. My son, now here's the funny thing about it. My son has that, and he has one of Chuck Liddell. He breaks the one of me, but he loves the Chuck Liddell. He carries the Chuck liddell he breaks the one of me but he loves the chuck liddell he carried the chuck liddell around all the time that's like his main toy no respect no respect doesn't he know what you did you to that you made a tournament the dry ice yeah because he loves chuck liddell i can't even show him the chuck liddell fight like he loves chuck liddell

so much i'm like chuck is the man oh you oh you think Chuck's your hero? Watch this show, okay? Watch what Daddy did, okay? Yeah, that's what I'm talking about right there. I'll let him have Chuck as a hero. I don't even try to... I love Chuck, too. Yeah, I'll let Chuck be it, man. Chuck is the guy.

All right, what's the context of this? It looks like you're at a party. Luke Rockhold's giving you the stink eye. Johnny Hendricks is there. What's going on here, Rashad? Oh, my God. I don't want to out you. I don't want to get you in trouble here, Rashad. What's going on here rashad oh my god i don't want to out you i don't want to get you in trouble here rashad what's going on here a lot a lot up to no good you can tell by the way i'm

sitting like that sliding that drink in my mouth that was no good no good that's sugar that's sugar right there that's sugar right there and if you see if it's luke rockhold though you know it's bad news of luke rockhold man that's what i'm saying i wonder if you stumbled upon luke rockhold's girl by accident because every girl is lu Rockhold's girl. I just want you to know that Those are the old days Those are the old days Put them behind us. No one's getting in trouble here I'm pretty sure I wasn't

supposed to be at this party I'm pretty sure I wasn't supposed to play that on this show Alright, let's see more celebrity friends of Rashad Here's the hot tub Poppin' bubbly with one Phil Brooks CM Punk Is he a good hang of Rashad. Here's the hot tub popping bubbly with one Phil Brooks. CM Punk. Oh, yes.

Is he a good hang, Rashad? Phil Brooks is a cool guy, man. This is when me, Phil, and Luke Rockhold did Exos when the UFC were kind of working out a deal with them. And we went out there and did like four or five days, like a week of training. So it was good because I just got done from knee surgery. So I was fat and out of shape. So it was much needed. Forrest Griffin in the house as well. Let's close with this, Rashad. I'm sure you've gotten plenty of

fan art over the years. I found a lot of them on hashtag Rashad Evans. Here's my favorite fan art. I want to see this framed in your house. If we can go split screen here, we can bring in Mike Goldberg, virtually identical, Rashad.

You know who I look like? You know who I look like? I look like Bavon Lewis. You know who Bavon Lewis is? Yes, I do. I think Uriah Hall took his soul once. Yes, that's not necessarily to scale, Rashad. They're not doing your forehead any longer.

They didn't do it right. I mean, the forehead is kind of large, but that just made it joint like, hey, he was teasing me. Do you have any great stories of fan art or gifts? I know there's a lot of, I mean, there's some fans of ours that came up to Luke and gave them self-made beef jerky out of a gym bag, and we're like, here,

eat this. So, do you get weird stuff from fans, Rashad? Oh, yeah, I get all kinds of stuff from fans. Art much like that, like you've just seen. I just take it, you know it you know i take it smile or i sign it and stuff like that because i mean it's all love you know what i'm saying even if it doesn't flatter me like that picture i still appreciate it and just you know these guys put their time into it i'm an artist myself so i like to draw so oh really yeah you you do drawings i do drawings yeah i do. I have to create a segment here where we show some art, Rashad. I'm into that.

I'm going to show you something. I'm going to show you something. Yes, yes. Bring that shit. Let's go. I'm a big fan of this art. All right. One day we'll do that.

Okay. We always close the show, Rashad, with odds and ends on Monday. Any combat stories, announcements, anything we missed? What has tickled your fancy this week in combat sports? Tito Ortiz and Anderson Spider-Silver are going to do a boxing match. That, I mean, that to me was huge. I mean, but here's the thing about it. It's going to be at 195.

I mean, Anderson Silver looked great against Chavis Jr. Looked like he should have been boxing a long time. Looked actually like a boxer. He's going to be going against Tito Ortiz. Tito Ortiz is not known for his hands. More of the grappling style wrestling. But, I mean, working with Jason Perrillo, you know, Tito's hands are kind of decent. But at the same time, Anderson Silva's on another level.

And then you have Tito Ortiz cutting weight to 195. Tito is massive, walking around at least like 235, 240. I don't know how he plans on making 195. And then if he does make 195, how even effective is he going to be? So that's my only thing with this fight. But my main question out of everything is, why am I not getting a call, man? What's going on? You know what I'm saying? why am I not getting a call, man? What's going on?

You know what I'm saying? Why am I not getting a call, man? Can we get the Tito trilogy on line one? That head's still pretty big. It's kind of, you know, it's a good target right there. Rashad, this will take place September 11th, and it'll be on the Triller pay-per-view headlined by Vitor Belfort and Oscar De La Hoya. It's an interesting piece of theater.

I just saw that matchup, and I was like, Tito doesn't have hands? How is he going to win this? Yeah, I don't know how he's going to. I mean, I think he's going to get work pretty good. But, I mean, it's going to be interesting to see. But I want to see guys fight. Like, I want to see a boxer fight an MMA guy. You know what I'm saying?

I feel like guys that are MMA guys kind of like, I don't know, kind of lose it a little bit for me. Yeah. I mean, I'd be willing to see these two fight MMA and, like, Bellator if they want to make that happen. But boxing each other, eh. I agree with you. I'd rather see Anderson Silva against, like, a fake boxer or, you know, against De La Hoya, something like that, where you're like, okay, I can talk myself into Silva being quasi-competitive here. Yeah, it's interesting right there. Rashad, my odds and ends takes us back to Bellator 264.

We didn't, or I didn't, let me say, talk a lot about this, but one of my favorite fighters in the world came back, and he came back with a bang. Spartan Andrei Koreshkov, the former two-time Bellator welterweight champion, had a co-main event duel with Saba Homassi. And after a bit of a slow start in that first round, two years removed from his last Bellator fight, Koreshkov put it on him. It was a ground-and-pound wrestling mauling over the last two rounds,

took a wide, unanimous decision. This guy, when he's on, Rashad, we've seen him in the past, right? In the trilogy with Douglas Lima. He's been in some great fights, lost very early in his career to Ben Askren, but came back, retooled, became a champion. I had almost forgot this guy ever existed. He had a low-profile comeback fight last year for a russian promotion but it's been two years since we saw him in the cage i thought this performance against homasi was so

strong that you got to kind of parachute him back into the top five of the bellator welterweight rankings did you get the feeling like if this is who koreshkov is and i think he's only what like 32 he's not not too too far down here he could be a problem for Yaroslav Amosov. This could be some great booking in the future. I agree. I think he looked phenomenal in this fight. Everything about his whole style was great on Friday.

His knowing when to strike, his knowing when to impose his wrestling, the shot, the punch selection, the striking selection that he chose was on point i mean he just looked as if like he didn't miss a beat he actually looked as if he got a lot better you know in the times where you seen sabah kind of surge a little bit it was interesting to see how he handled that and uh he weathered it pretty well was able to get back to the positions that

you know had him ahead in this fight and just really just cruised to a really pretty comfortable decision. But it wasn't one of those fights where you seen him letting off gas. He put the pressure all the way through. Hats off to Sabah, who really made it a competitive fight and made it a fun fight to watch because no matter how much he was getting his ass whooped, he still came back just enough where it made it so interesting to see what was going to happen in the end. Yeah. And he pulled out a strong performance out of Koreshkov by constantly pushing him, like you said. And I did wrong myself. Koreshkov's only 30.

And I remember he had lost that split decision to Lorenz Larkin, and he kind of went away for a while. I think there was an injury involved. But so he's got Alexander Shlomenko in his corner, and he looks to be back at it. And I always love this guy because he just smashes, man. He just goes in there and looks to grind you out and smash you out of there. And considering Amesov's wrestling advantage over most opponents,

that could be a very interesting matchup. So more to come in the future of the Bellator Welterweight Top 5, which also has Logan Storlie. We're going to see Douglas Lima against MVP in a rematch. So some big business at 170 for Bellator. Rashad, that'll wrap up our show for the week. No Luke Thomas will be off this week, but you'll be seeing Rashad again. I think I'm going to slide in another special guest.

Also going to reunite my boy Rafe Bartholomew and myself in the Boxing Hardcores and take a real deep dive on all things pacquiao ugas this week so look out for that i may even f around and take luke's live chat chair on thursday and see what i can do there but uh rashad great catching up with you going up and down um where can we see you again maybe on an espn broadcast uh maybe you got a set coming up at the comedy store where are we going to see you again uh i mean you'll see me here you'll see me here i just been focusing on um you know just on whatever i need to focus on just locally here i've been doing a lot of training i'm trying to get a team going you know really focusing on my team just kind of expanding myself in that

compartment but uh i'm around will you be a trainer a full-time mma trainer one day yeah i'm looking i'm looking to do so I'm looking to do so. I'm looking to do so right now. I'm looking at a couple options right now with some gyms and really just kind of figuring out how much I really want to dive into that. But I've got it mapped out where I'm able to give some dedication to that and still be able to do all the other things that I have going on as well too. So pretty exciting.

Great stuff. Follow us on the socials below make sure you are following the great sugar rashad evans which is the handles on both twitter and instagram follow our show uh guys like and subscribe this video the push to 100k is frighteningly close so uh thank you for the love again thanks for the love and the support and the prayers for my parents who are on the good side now and turning the corner down there in North Florida. Excuse me. And, yeah, man, thank you to our fans. Take the 30-day plunge for Showtime on Showtime.com.

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on the road. Cleveland, Ohio, baby! All things Jake Paul, Tyron Woodley. Rashad, I know you got to be a little excited about that fight. Oh my God. Listen, watching the countdown show, they did such a good job with the countdown show. I'm so excited about that fight oh my god listen watching the countdown show they did such a good job at the countdown show um i'm so excited about this fight i can't wait and i'm kind of like

on the fence i don't know who's gonna win it's just it's very exciting i you know look i don't i don't need to tell you what to do with your life but you want to show up there right wear a t-shirt that says uh you know f the pauls right you know what i'm saying have one in-shirt that says, uh, you know, F the Pauls, right? You know what I'm saying? Have one in your bag that says F Woodley, just in case, because it's going to be a brawl. But, uh, no, I think this will be a very fun fight. And look, it's down the lane of celebrity circus boxing, but it's got two guys who were taking it serious though, and who are seriously coming in there to get the KO. So it should be very fun. That all access is live by the way. Uh, uh, check that out. That first episode, by the way. Check that out, that first

episode. Very good stuff and inside look. Do you believe Jake Paul's mom when she's like, my son's just playing a character. He's just an actor. No, he's an asshole in real life. You can't play douche that well. Believe me, I've done it, okay? I've been doing it for years. Alright, for the great Rashad Evans,

for our folks at Malka CBS Sports and Showtime, Corey Manich, Gaff Pierre on the ones and twos, thank you so much, gentlemen. That's it. So Luke Thomas is healthy and happy and sound. He'll have a few days off, but he'll be back in the future. Next week's big.

This week, we do have some great fights. Pacquiao, Ugas, and more. So we'll be with you all week. Check us out. Until then, I am BC giving you two words. Rashad, hit them with it. We out.