MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Gervonta Davis vs. Ryan Garcia | UFC Vegas 71 | Bellator 294 & 295 | Ep 430

Episode Date: April 19, 2023

On episode 430 of Morning Kombat BC is in Vegas to cover Gervonta Davis vs. Ryan Garcia. Brian is first joined by Eric Raskin and Kieran Mulvaney to break down the biggest storylines for Davis vs. Garcia. Next up BC brings in Alan Dawson of the Insider to preview UFC Vegas 71, Bellator 294 and Bellator 295. You won't want to miss this episode. Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.     For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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, Wednesday, April 19th, 2023.

High stakes in the high desert and probably a few high production workers on the show. Yeah, you stumbled into it. It's morning combat. Your award-winning combat sports destination. My name is the BBC with that BDE, Brian Campbell. No Luke Thomas today or this week on vacation in the motherland, but you may notice the digs behind me. How about this?

Blue Wire Studios at the Wynn here in Las Vegas. Just three more sleeps, as the great John Anik would say, before Saturday's Showtime pay-per-view offering. Gervonta Tank Davis, King, Ryan Garcia, T-Mobile Arena. Lots of coverage coming your way today and the rest of the week, not only on the Morning Combat YouTube channel, on the Showtime Sports YouTube channel. And, yeah, there we go. I'm Awash Dad, and I'm here to entertain you.

Before we start the show, obviously going heavy on Tank Ryan. We will, though, set the stage as well for this weekend's UFC Fight Night card, a pair of Bellator offerings on Showtime from Hawaii as well but before we do that I wanted to talk quickly about a partner that I partner with often okay do I have multiple partners well you know it depends on what category of my life we're talking about not in high school I'll tell you that much I wish right but how about this partner it's called Athletic Greens it's called AG1 by Athletic Greens and it's's that green miracle substance, right? The little powder that I pour in a glass every morning to perk myself up, to take that special blend of ingredients and I don't know, build the foundation of health. I mean, it tastes great. Let's citrus

light feel not medicinal, not weird. But when you get that blend of ingredients together, we're supporting your gut health, we're supporting your nervous system, your immune system, all those great things. And also it's convenient. I take it on the road. I want to feel good every day. My diet is not trustworthy, but AG1 is. And that's how I like to start my day with a small minute habit of big benefits. And you can do it too. So quickly, let me show you about this offer right here, because you can trust my opinion, or you can trust the 7,000 people who have given five-star reviews to Athletic Greens and the leading health experts. We know Ferris, G those likes but how about right now you go to morning you go to excuse me you go to athleticgreens.com slash morning combat with your first order five free

travel packs and a one-year supply of immune supporting vitamin d drops you don't need a million different pills you just need ag1 by athletic greens and you can start to turn around your health situation today. Okay, that's what I do, but I'm also dying inside. All right, hey, it's time to kick off today's program. It's Tank Davis, Ryan Garcia Fight Week, and we're going to have a cavalcade of guests this week as we go up and down this fight from every possible angle. But to kick things off today in the Blue Wire studios, and special shout-out to all the folks who have made today possible here,

beautiful setting to do morning combat from, I want to bring in two very, very heavy hitters. They are the stars of the Showtime Boxing Podcast with Raskin and Mulvaney. On my left from King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, where they have nice malls, it is Eric Raskin. Raskin, thank you, fella. Thank you for coming in. Thank you for having me, BC.

I'm fired up. And we know that great Brit next to you, Karen Mulvaney, formerly of the Heavy Hitting Boxing Podcast. Ah, yes, indeed. And my gut health is fantastic this morning. I thought you'd like to know. I did like to know that. Thank you guys for joining me.

You guys have a fantastic podcast, as I mentioned, under the Showtime window, the label that pays us. And it's great to get back together because as we'll hit later in this segment, you guys have been up and down this road a fair turn with me, covering big fights in Las Vegas with yourselves. When we're talking about this specific big fight, we do have unique elements.

You don't often see, right, two young, unbeaten stars from opposite sides of the roads meeting up in their 20s rather than waiting until they're 34 and 36 or not at all like we've seen uh eric raskin as we start off just this unique nature of this fight i mean this one it's not hyperbole it's different it's different bro yeah it is this is the one we've been waiting for among this generation of young fighters that we've been waiting for some of these lightweights the four princes as as my partner Kieran Mulvaney labeled them. Finally, two of the princes are waiting.

Big Spin Doctors fan over there, Kieran Mulvaney. That was two princes. Sorry, sorry. Right, just two princes. But that's all we're getting Saturday is two of the princes. But yeah, it's really special to have a 24-year-old and a 28-year-old undefeated putting it all on the line like this. And you have to give a huge shout out to Ryan Garcia for being

the one who really pushed for this. I'm not sure if his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya, really wanted to make this happen. I'm not sure if the people around him wanted to throw him into this fight, this challenge at age 24. But Ryan Garcia conceded everything he needed to concede to make this fight happen. That's a good setup because, Karen, you are credited with, you know, we we don't, we hope we can get another four Kings and you know, you can watch that great documentary on Showtime. I'm sure still talking about the 1980s and those middleweight welterweight stars that cross paths a million times. You have dubbed this new generation, the four princes. Is that officially Teofimo, Ryan Garcia, Gervonta Tank Davis, and Devin Haney? Because I think you can add Shakur Stevenson certainly to that mix, But of the idea of this group of young 135 or 40 pounders who have next, I don't know

if you could pick a more exciting matchup than these two, as long as, you know, it's a big fight and everything Raskin said, but in the ring, it's pretty damn big too and exciting. Yeah. You know, Eric and I went through a list on our podcast not long ago of which of all the various matchups we thought would be the most exciting. And I'm pretty sure this one came top, actually. You know, you could make an argument for one guy maybe being better than the other, or Devin Haney perhaps having the ability to take out any of these guys. But I think in terms of what they bring to the table in terms of their style, in terms of their talent, in terms of their charisma, these are the two that you really wanted to see. Tia Fimo is the other one you would have really wanted to see in that mix. He's moved up to 140. I'm glad that we're actually going to see

two of the four princes actually get it on so that the whole title of the four princes doesn't look completely ridiculous. But I'm not sure we're going to get any other of those matchups because I think Haney's going to move up to 140. Tia is already there. But this is the one. And I think you can actually feel that. And I think we'll feel it later in fight week. I think the excitement is very clearly here for this one. These two lightweight stars are going to meet Saturday at 136 pounds, the catch weight. Obviously, a loaded Showtime pay-per-view card,

T-Mobile Arena, it's the big deal. Rask, so many angles we can hit on this, but if I just ask you as a man, I'm not asking you about your T-level or your producer, Matt Riles. That's another topic for another day. I was going to say, as a man than asking you about your t level or your producer matt riles that's another topic for another day uh i was gonna say as a man though when when someone says hey rask you're gonna watch this fight this weekend what makes you fired up what makes you fired up about this

there's quite a few things to be honest uh i'd say the two that stand out can i give you two answers you can give me as much as you want we have the space for another yeah go ahead so i think the two things that stand out are the star power slash potential star power, that we're looking at two enormous rising stars, one of whom could become the biggest star in American boxing, starting with the conclusion of this fight. So that's one angle is the star power here. And to dig down a little deeper on that,

Tank Davis, seven straight times he's drawn a crowd of 15,000 or more in six different major cities. That shows you this isn't just Terrence Crawford in Omaha or something where he's a huge draw in one particular place. He's a huge draw everywhere. And then I don't think I need to tell you 9.5 million Instagram followers. What's that about? 9.48 ahead of you, BC? Yeah, something in that area. See, he can just take his shirt off and sing or do something, and it's just click, click, DM, DM. I have asked to see those DMs.

I mean, I'm sure all guys like us, that's a fair question in this day and age, right? I take my shirt off and my Instagram account goes down. It's amazing, actually. It knows. So the star power is the one thing and then just the actual power power is the other thing that these are two legit knockout punchers i think it's 45 combined knockouts in 51 fights so the high likelihood that we're going to see someone

stretched out on the canvas makes this fight that much and that gets raski fired up right absolutely i mean you did go to high school with harry joe york you didn't you that is true and speaking of guys getting stretched out on the canvas. Oh, wow. No, but in fairness to Harry Joe. Alfredo Angulo in Hartford, Connecticut, that happened, right? Right, yeah. He had a fine career, didn't make it at the top level.

Okay, okay. Mulder, can we overdo it? Because some people want to frame this fight a lot of different ways. We already had the fight to save, but what was the fight to save boxing? Was that Mayweather-De La Hoya? Allegedly, yes. Allegedly. Do you agree, though? I had Oscar de la joya on the morning combat pod people can check that out

youtube.com slash morning combat and he tried to frame it like this not the fight to save boxing as larry merchant said a million times you're not going to save it or kill it i almost killed larry merchant by accident did i tell you guys that story before can i pause this yeah it was it was uh it was media day for canelo jacobs and and the fine folks over there at that other network brought in a lot of heavy hitters for us to interview. And Larry sat down with me, and he was obviously freaking great, right? I mean, a little slower on the delivery, but is there a more well-thought-out talking head in the history of this sport?

No. Maybe the late great Burt Sugar, your old friend, right? But Larry got up, and I'm watching, and I'm like, okay, if he takes three steps to the left and puts his foot exactly where the cord comes to a circle it could get him by the foot and yet so as he's going closer i go no and he steps in it and he trips and he's got a uh a large starbucks tea hot tea and i'm imagining him going face first and you know i'm the one who you know took out the legend right not wasn't floyd you know but if but if larry was 10 years older i would apparently i

would take him out but to larry's credit i mean wasn't he an ex-athlete probably he's a hard ass he stuck the landing he fell like he was about to fall on his face and he balanced the cup and went down to one knee and collected himself i'm sure sure it hurt. I mean, there was a lot of people in the media room that were like, whoa, whoa, whoa, what's going on over here? But I saved his life. But Larry said you can't fix boxing or kill it. But Oscar says this is the fight to grow boxing. Karen, is that true? Is there a ripple effect potential here? What does this fight mean in the larger landscape when people make those type of heavy-handed comments? It's a fight to grow boxing, right?

I don't know that there is any one fight to grow boxing. You guys already alluded to what makes this such a big deal is the fact that these guys come into it already very, very popular fighters. I've had people who I know who genuinely don't follow boxing, who know Ryan Garcia, and we've already talked about what a big draw that Tank is. So I think the fact that we've already got two tremendously popular boxers coming together, putting their unbeaten records on the line, makes this a huge deal. I think we can always put too much emphasis on any one individual fight as

being the fight to save boxing, grow boxing. We're having a pretty good year so far in terms of really good matchups and I think if we continue to do this, if other fighters look at this and go wow look at the money these guys are making for getting together, look at the attention they're getting and I'm sure it's going to be an exciting fight as well you put all those factors together i think it could very well be the kind of fight that helps what's already a pretty good year kind of go on to be a much bigger year because you've got other guys like tyson fury crawford and spence kind of kicking their heels not really making the fights that we want them to do we want these two guys to show exactly what the benefit is of putting it all out on the line there. I love that.

I mean, it's never going to be old hat to me when somebody dares to be great. It's always going to fire me the frick up. I mean, like, when you, I was lucky to grow up, you know, with the Rocky movies as the gateway drug into that Four Kings era. Those were the first fights I ever watched. The end of the Muhammad Ali era into Hagler-Hearns,

Hagler-Leonard. And, you know, I guess I took it for granted that, you know, I mean, this is a business. There is a dangerous toll to take. You can't fight killers every single fight in a row, but they almost did that back then. You know what I mean? Sometimes maybe out of financial necessity,

but Rask, it's like when somebody does this, and in this case, the somebody is both fighters agreeing to it despite the hurdles and i think as we alluded to you got to give ryan garcia a lot of extra credit for almost saying okay i want this so badly that i'll sit in the b-side chair in certain categories if i have to to make it work i never want to stop flaunting that and putting that up there and saying man that guy's got got balls. Do you know a lot about balls? Do you mow your own lawn, Raskin? We were having this conversation earlier. I tried. I tried to mow my lawn once after we moved into the house and it wasn't for me. I'm too old and washed. You called yourself a washed

married man, I think, at the top of the show. I don't have to call myself that. It's written on my face. Well, I may be able to beat you in a competition for most walks. But yeah, these guys stepping up like this, I was trying to think of the right parallel for another fight around this caliber, guys around this age, and where it wasn't

an easy fight to make. And the one that jumps out at me most, your favorite, Oscar De La Hoya, Felix Trinidad, both undefeated. That's not my favorite fight. No, no, not the fight. But me most, your favorite, Oscar De La Hoya, Felix Trinidad, both undefeated. That's not my favorite fight. No, no, not the fight. But isn't Oscar your favorite fighter or of that era at least?

Yeah. I mean, I can't. You can't run from who you love at the end of the day. Isn't that true? Isn't that true? I said that to Miguel Cotto just the other day. That's the thing. You know, it's like, do I love what Oscar had?

Well, they've already canceled the show. Thanks, guys. Okay. I said, you know. They want more emphasis on us and less on the background. But seriously, that's why Oscar, I mean,

he does a lot of things, right? Unfortunately, but to me, Oscar's still Oscar in round 12 with that big set of nuts. That's like, I'm going to punch my way out of here. And I think,

you know, I don't know if Ryan Garcia or tank, but obviously tank showing more likely already that he's not only a star, but a pound-for-pound caliber guy and multi-division champion on his way to big things. I love that we don't really know who exactly Ryan Garcia is. Yet, like Oscar, like Canelo before him, he's like, I want to find out along with you on the biggest stage, even if it was hard to make all that.

Like, that shit's still real to me, damn it. Yeah, it's two guys stepping up to, in the case of Ryan Garcia undoubtedly stepping up and facing his most dangerous, toughest opponent to date, in the case of Javante Davis, Garcia may or may not be his biggest challenge that he's faced so far. He may be, but at the very least,

most dangerous puncher. Dangerous, yes. The guy who has a chance to take him out with one shot at the very least, most dangerous puncher. Dangerous. The guy who has a chance to take him out with one shot, one left hook, that's Ryan Garcia. So that's, yeah, that's what's so exciting here is that these guys are putting it all on the line. Mulv, we can spend a lot of time talking about the Ryan side of it because he's a little bit more improving as we just established. And because he, you know, I personally think he had to fight his own team, his own network. I mean,car told me straight up this week when they brought out the hydration clause that was part of gervonta davis's i want to say a side privilege and i don't have a problem

saying that by the way because that's modern boxing history to make fights you have to sit down at the table and figure out well i get this you get this and oscar did that to bhop oscar did that to mayweather right like that happens right but you know in ryan garcia's case he had to take maybe you know the 10 pound rehydration clause there's some challenges he had to make but on the flip side though for tank yeah he's the betting favorite but this is also right fight right time right opponent for what he's needed it's not that he's not critically respected he is is. But would you say on his way up, there is that loud vocal minority that's like, fight somebody your size, fight somebody who brings out that danger, fight somebody. He has been fighting somebodies and they've been pretty damn good and he's been handling

them. But even to the harshest critic, this feels like, okay, this is what you want. Let's do it right now. Yeah. And I think that criticism of Tank is actually kind of unfair. You know, he's been at 130, he's been at 130, he's been up to 35, he's gone up to 40, um, back to 35. He he's definitely taken the challenges that have been made available to him. Look, if people really, really want to criticize, um, Tank, they'll criticize him still, even if he wins this fight. Um, but I think this is really a great opportunity for him to showcase exactly how good he is.

I think that because we talk a lot about Tank's power, because he almost always ends his fights in spectacular fashion, there's a tendency to not pay attention to the rest of his game. Javante Tank Davis is an incredibly good boxer. He's really smart in the ring. He has excellent timing. His defense is fabulous. I think he's a really, really, really good all-around boxer,

and he's going to have to be against Ryan Garcia. He's got a height disadvantage. He's got a length disadvantage. Our friend Stephen Edwards always says it's not just fighting tall, it's fighting long. Garcia does that. He might not be as handsome as Ryan. You are.

You are. So he's definitely got that against him. is fighting long garcia does that he might not be as handsome as ryan you know you are yeah um so so he's definitely got got that against him this is a i think he's probably pretty confident but this is a genuinely very difficult fight for him it's a very difficult matchup and i think the style matchup is what gets me excited here as well about this um that that you've got the long ryan garcia you've got the shorted tank dav. Yeah, this is a sufficiently dangerous opponent for Tank to actually show us exactly how good he is. And speaking of exactly how good he is, Rask, I think it's a perfect transition when it's like the power can get Gervonta underrated in people's eyes, like Karen said.

I think also when you start your career with Floyd Mayweather's armor on you, there's this tendency as a fan to be like, because Floyd willingly made himself the villain. We, as median fans, kind of fell into that. Fight the guys we want in the order we want. So then you see he's got his boy that's Floyd's boy. Well, Gervonta has gotten out of that shadow to a good degree. But to echo Karen's point about the boxing ability, I don't know outside of Canelo,

maybe Jermel Charlo at times at the highest level, if there's a more efficient fighter who doesn't waste punches, is never in a bad position. Can we give some flowers to the IQ of Gervonta here? Absolutely. And I'll go all the way from the head down to the toes, the footwork. I spent a lot of time this week when I was watching video to scout this matchup, the footwork really stood out to me of how well he moves laterally, which is something maybe the biggest shortcoming in Ryan Garcia's game, is that he's really an up-and-back guy. And Gervonta really can move side to side well. But the fact that he is so efficient, so patient, that also tends to dig him a little hole in some of his fights. He can fall behind a few rounds

while he's waiting, setting things up. So far, it hasn't backfired on him, right? He sets it up and eventually delivers, sometimes pretty late in the fight, like when he moved up to 140 and needed almost the full 12 to catch up and get that one done. Mario Barrios. Mario Barrios, thank you. You could tell the name was a statement. Thank you for filling in. Yeah, so he got Barrios late, fell behind in that fight. You wonder whether Ryan Garcia can be so disciplined and box so effectively longer, as Kieran said, with maybe the slightly faster hands than Gervonta Davis,

whether he can build a big enough lead and Gervonta can't close the distance and catch up and get that knockout. So it'll be fascinating. You wouldn't be surprised to see gervonta tank davis fall behind in this fight and then the question becomes can his smarts and power combined bail him out as it always has you just prompted me for a fun game here i'm gonna i'm gonna name categories as we break this fight down and you guys are gonna knee jerk reaction tell me who's got the advantage all right are you ready all right speed i just ready? All right. Speed.

I just said that I think I lean Ryan slightly on hand speed. Tank hand, Javante feet. Ooh, that's an even deeper level of analysis. I like that. Power. Because speed is power. Speed is power when put together in combinations, right? It can be. It's the punch you don't see coming, as they say.

I think I'm going to go Javante Davis overall because it's two-fisted power. But if I could throw one back at you, whose left hand is more dangerous, Ryan Garcia's or Tank Davis's? I think the proof is in the putting. As Floyd would say, it's Tank Davis, right? Yeah, I'm going to go with Tank. All right. Experience we know is Tank.

How about defense from what you guys have seen? I'm going to go with tank. All right. Experience we know is tank. How about defense from what you guys have seen? I'm going tank on that as well. Although, I'll say that Garcia is showing improvement defensively under Joe Goosen to this point. And if he can take another step up defensively from fight two to fight three with Joe Goosen, maybe that closes that gap. Put a pin in Goosen. We'll get to him in a second. But, Mo, the category I think that's interesting that that brings up another discussion is chin slash durability

how overblown because i think people still referencing to this day that jose miguel cotto once rocked canelo alvarez and then never happened again right i mean he walked right up to gervonta i mean i'm sorry gannati's front door and was like, give me the Mexican style. I'm here for it. How overblown is the Luke Campbell early knockdown, in which he did get up off the canvas, stop the guy, and retire him, by the way, on that? So is that overblown entering this matchup?

Because the advantage here of history is obviously tank on chin and durability. How much do you question that for Ryan in this fight? Not a great deal. Yeah, look, he dropped his hands. He was being a little bit too casual. That's going to happen. durability how much do you question that for Ryan in this fight not a great deal um yeah look he dropped his hands he was being a little bit too casual that's gonna happen Luke Campbell is a world-class quality fighter if not quite at Ryan Garcia or Tank Davis's level he got cracked he got up he won the fight it happens um I don't I would lean if you were to ask me again who has the best gen I'm gonna say Tank simply because I'm not sure. Have we ever actually seen Tank Davis buzz?

I'm not sure that we have. Post-fight, maybe, a few times. Well, indeed. And then you just look at him physically. He's got that Mike Tyson kind of head bolted onto his shoulders kind of thing. So, yeah, I think Tank probably has the more solid chin, but I think we can totally... That whole issue with Ryan getting knocked down, that just happens.

Almost everybody gets knocked down at some point. And on the defensive point and the improvements he's made under Joe Goosen, the biggest thing that I've noticed is that right hand stays pinned to his chin when he's not throwing it. He's not going to get caught with that same shot Luke Campbell caught him with. That's going to be a big part of this matchup.

My second favorite Campbell is Luke Campbell. Oh, wow. I get to be your first? Absolutely. I thought you were going to go like prime Naomi Campbell or something oh yeah now that you mentioned it you know high school days there uh you you know i mean do you have a gross search history rask that's the question you know we're all thinking it right you know always delete the history bc um the last sort of head-to-head here i want to throw out it's multifaceted it's's intangibles. So some of that is experience, and Gervonta's got the edge. Some of that can be mental toughness slash how well they're dialed in.

I'm here to tell you guys, Ryan Garcia, from the close-ups we've seen in the press conferences, from him dealing with Tank being late for that New York City press conference, from his ability to stand across from him, whether that means anything in the long run, and I tend to think it does, we know he's dangerous enough to win this fight and score even a KO. I mean, he brings that. I also think he's confident slash maybe doesn't know any better enough or whatever the full percentages are, he's ready to go in there and win this fight. And that speaks to something. I mean, it should be automatic, but but it's not always and I think this is where having Joe Goosen in his corner and having him in training camp makes a big difference Joe is so chill he's

so relaxed he's been there he's going to convey that same sense of calmness and confidence to Ryan um I suspect there are probably a really good combination those guys and I think that's really going to help him obviously you know as Mike Tyson always said everybody's got a plan until they get punched in the face and we'll see what happens when we're actually in there I think we've all seen fighters who've looked pretty good in the build-up pretty good in fight week and then there's that ring walk that really separates the good from the great and we'll see what happens on Saturday night but yeah I think I don't think that self-belief has necessarily ever been Ryan Garcia's problem.

And nor should it be. If you're a professional price fighter, you've got to have that. Conversely, obviously, Tank's got some other issues going on. But I also think he's the kind of person, and Eric and I were talking about this on our podcast, that he's able to compartmentalize that kind of stuff in the same way that Floyd was able to compartmentalize that kind of stuff in the same way that floyd was

able to compartmentalize the best comparison you can make i say it's unflappable i compare it to john jones in the mma circles who's got a lot of outside the cage issues and then walks right back in there and he's the john jones of old um part of this overall intangible bubble hold on to close on garcia's confidence and i want to bring you in resk i i say it should be automatic you know if it's a prize fighter if he's going to fight somebody in Las Vegas on pay-per-view he's not scared I'm not saying that but I'm saying not everybody's willing to risk it all sometimes for strategic purposes sometimes it's just not in them remember when Danny Garcia fought Errol Spence and it's sort of like okay you're probably going to lose this fight by decision as it's going on

we're like go for broke it's that's just not who he is right Ryan Garcia whether it's ends up being good for him or not inside the ring Saturday night, I think he is. I think he's going to go for it. That's not always automatic. But the tank side of it, Rask, he does have impending legal issues. There will be a court date that tells you after this fight the odds are in the favor that he could be serving time. We famously saw the comparison to Mayweather in 2012 when he had the looming court date against Cotto. I mean, the state of Nevada was like, we'll just move your fight to a different,

we'll let you delay your sentence so that we can bring in hundreds of million dollars to the city's economy. That's how they do it out here, apparently. But Rask, that's real though. That's real. Is that not even in your mind that it's in Tank's mind coming into here?

I think it could be. I think we have to be aware of the possibility that that's looming somewhere in the back of his mind. As Kieran said, as we said on our podcast, Showtime Boxing with Raskin Melvini, available where all... Download and like and subscribe now, yeah. But yeah, as we said, he has shown an ability to compartmentalize to this point. This is a bigger potential distraction than anything he's faced previously. I forget who it was that we had on our podcast who was talking about his fight against Hector Garcia and how when the fight broke out in the crowd. It was Bob Santos. It was Bob Santos. How the fight broke out in the crowd and Javante Davis was so locked in that he was able to,

in the moment, he was getting a little tired, it seemed, kind of in the moment, able to direct the referee to sort of pause the fight he had going on with Hector Garcia and call timeout while they dealt with it. He was so in control of his faculties in the middle of the fight that it just seems like he has that ability to hyper-focus when he's in the ring,

when he's in the moment. So I would be very surprised if we see something less than 100 mentally focused tank davis because of everything going on but just like you don't know until you get punched in the mouth you don't know until you're fighting two weeks before a court date exactly how it's going to affect your point and when you make that reference and we've the floyd is the obviously one it reminds me of floyd judah right 2006. right uh you know judah's low-blowing him,

hitting him behind the head. The trainers are fighting, and Floyd's just like, come on, guys, can you finish up so I can make these millions, right? I mean, you were probably here for that. I wasn't here for that, but I was here for Floyd Cotto,

and even during that fight, remember, Cotto actually even bloodied Floyd's neck. Yes. And Floyd just went back to the corner and smiled. He was like, all right, now we're going to have a real fight. And that's the thing. That's what the very best, like the very best athletes generally,

and particularly the very best price fighters are able to do. They're able to compartmentalize. I mean, when you think about what their job is, their job is to get into a ring with somebody who's trying to render them unconscious. Just by definition, to be successful at that, you've got to be able to put aside anything else that might be in your brain that's going to stop you from focusing on that person yeah and i really you know i think tank davis is one of the smartest most mentally focused guys in boxing in the ring yes outside of the ring might be a different issue

it has actually in terms of we can't avoid that it has been he's got legitimate issues that he's facing and it's hurt his reputation but i don't think it's hurt i don't think it's hurt his fan base or the dollars because at the end of the day he delivers in the ring and that's what what people want to see but you know if he has taken something from floyd it's the compartmentalization remember even when floyd got hurt against mosley how calmly he held the arm how calmly he got out of the situation and did that. I actually hope in this fight, you know, because we want to see the best fight possible. I hope Ryan Garcia lands that leg tuck. I hope we get to see some of that from Tank.

And I have to believe from what we've seen up to this point that he'll be ready. He'll be on point. Rask, we were talking about the trainers and Joe Goosen. Do you think he improves the style game at all for Ryan Garcia? Because Joe's got more Canadian tuxedos than, I don't know what the reference point here is, but he's got a lot of them, you know what I mean?

More than Prime Jon Bon Jovi. He had a lot of them. Which I have to say, because where I grew up in King of Prussia, it was known as a New Jersey tuxedo, not a Canadian tuxedo. Oh, okay, because that's where it's like we're close enough to Jersey that we look like Jersey, but we're King of Prussia. Right, we look down upon New Jersey. Yeah, yeah.

John Slippery went wet. They say that about you in high school? We're not going there. Yeah, a little fruit just dunking on it. But the Joe Goosen effect seems to be strong. And you know the tip I got from interviewing Joe Goosen ahead of this fight in the area. Because when I first heard of that matchup, I'm like,

Ron Garcia is already one of the most dynamic offensive fighters in this game and the most dangerous because of his willingness to walk you down with the speed and power and combinations I'm like I don't know if you need to match him with one of the most dynamic offensive coaches of this modern era a guy who think Diego Corrales think John Molina stopping Mickey Bay late on showbox think of all these like he gets in that ass and gets these people to go. But what goose ultimately the, the, he's going to be in the hall of fame this year, isn't he? Yeah. I can't wait to see what he wears by the way. What he seems to have brought in his eyes is the stability and almost that

father role. And I think we have to remember that. I mean, look no further than Oscar who changed trainers constantly in his prime, and a lot of times for strategic or situational purposes, but also probably for that relationship. Ryan Garcia felt when he was with Eddie Reynoso and Team Canelo that the same thing that happened to a lot of Freddie Roach fighters when that stable got popular, that they're not getting the same one-on-one time because the gym's full of champions.

Now he's got the guy. Does that matter, Karen? Do we see that on fight night? Do we see the results of that? Beyond just keep your hand up to got the guy. Does that matter, Karen? Do we see that on fight night? Do we see the results of that? Beyond just keep your hand up to block the hook. Beyond, hey, man, we got to move that chin a little bit more if the tape is telling us anything. It might be just, I'm here for you.

I love you. I mean, remember when they threw the pizza at Victor Ortiz, man? I remember Joseph Janet, Coach Haas was ready to get in there and brawl, and he stayed with him in the hospital that night. Sometimes you just need that brother in the dirt with you. You know what I mean? Yeah, and that's what i was referring to earlier when talking about ryan's state of mind coming into this the fact that joe as we know is such a calming presence he has been there he's seen it he's done it you only have to look at that famous 10th round

of corrales castillo to see how incredibly calm uh and how good his advice can be under the under the most difficult of conditions. I think, you know, to get back to your question also about stylistically why he would hook up with Joe, what I like about it is that it shows to me that Ryan knows who he is and he's not trying to fix himself. And that was a lot of the problem with Oscar. He was always trying to fix this or fix that or change this or change that. I suspect that Ryan's like, you know what, this is the kind of fighter that I am. Joe Goosen is the right kind of trainer for that um he's good for me tactically he's good for me stylistically plus there's that whole extra element that you just feel chill around joe you

just do um and and i think that combination is probably going to work out pretty well more than even like ryan move your feet a bit better and all that kind of stuff so i think you're probably right i think that matters at the end of the day and as it pertains to this fight rask i think the the calvin ford the trainer i think tank from what we've seen in the all-access close-ups is they are very well respecting the danger that that ryan brings and they respect joe goose's presence as a veteran in that corner like i don't think you're gonna see a ton of trash talk we saw a little bit of trash talk in the face-offs in the press. Again, it was mostly connected to the idea of you're the A-side and you're running late, you're getting in my head, you're embarrassing me.

I think there's a lot of respect, and that seems like a good sign if you're putting your money on tank this week. I agree completely. This isn't a Benavidez plant situation where the animosity is a huge part of the storyline. Maybe these guys like each other, maybe they dislike each other. They definitely don't hate each other. I'm not getting that sense at all.

This is a fight that doesn't need the animosity to sell it. You just have the quality of the fight itself and the star potential of these two fighters that really stands out here. Yeah, about the Joe Goosen trainer change, I guess it's a perfect case of, it's good to change trainers at a certain point when your original trainer has taken you about as far as he can. You need a new voice in the corner.

There's an excess of trainer changes where it starts to backfire on you. Oscar being an obvious example, he had too many, but right now we're seeing it, I think, with Anthony Joshua to an extent, like, this was my trainer, now I'm going to try this guy. Oh, that didn't work. I'm going to jump to another guy.

And you don't know who you are at a certain point. I think Ryan Garcia, as Kieran said, he knows who he is. He knows what he needs. Joe Goosen is the perfect guy. It would appear at this point to fine tune that and bring out the best of Ryan Garcia. I wish there was like, remember Choose Your Own Adventure books? Of course.

Those were great, right? You know, and every time you read it, it could end differently. And you felt like you had some control and i always felt with my cable box as a kid that like if you were watching a movie and it looked good and it was like a hot chick but then they were like press this button and for 25 she'll go topless for the rest of the scene like i always wish there was that pay-for-play element in there um i had i had a punchline for this but like i caught up in that part of it do you have a favorite choose your own adventure i'll tell you mine.

Oh, I don't offhand. What do you have? Who killed Harlow Thrombey? Remember that one? No, I don't. That's an older school reference than even I'm willing to make there. Man, I was cooking. I had something that was connective tissue.

It was going to land with a bang about this fight on Saturday. I was trying to bail you out. Who I am and where I was and where I'm from. All right. Well, maybe that's a perfect transition into our next part of this segment, guys. And, you know, Rask, you're an old piece of shit like me, class of 93 high school. That's right. So, you know, when I say Joan Osborne's biggest hit, you're like, what? What if God was one of us? Or is it just called one of us? One of us, I think. I mean, just the slob, like one of us, you know, just a stranger on a bus trying to make his way home. What if Gervonta Davis, star fighter, was just like one of us?

And by one of us, I mean just like me, BC and GTD. All Access is a fantastic pre-fight vehicle at the Showtime people put together to get us fired up for this fight. There's two episodes for this. You can catch them both right now on the Showtime Sports YouTube channel. Episode two kicked off with Gervonta Davis getting a little post-workout snack. And your boy BC gets this feeling. Let's see if you do too.

Let's run the videotape. Yeah, you know. When you go pot taro, you got to go smooth. What a Jolly Rancher Truys? I will get that, but it's not glazed. The King Pack. You always go King. Got to go purple Skittles. Got to get them. And this is all while I'm in camp, too. Definitely don't worry, because I'm definitely making weight.

Laffy taffy bikes. Get a couple of these, too. I'm Gucci. 70, 46. Thank you. See you tomorrow. All right. I hope the people were able to see that.

That didn't kick in on our monitors. They didn't. Okay. Apologies for that error. You did get to hear it, at least. We'll run this video back. But first of all, this man spent $70 on like a 7-Eleven. So shout out to that. I mean, you know, you load up on those beef jerky's, it can get there.

But Rask, people know my brand. They know the liver that I'm constantly hurting. They know. I don know my brand they know the the liver that i'm that i'm constantly hurting they know i don't know if they know this but in uh middle of nowhere utah on my vacation last week i bought a 20 bag of prime rib beef jerky from this uh from this alien looking rest stop do you have a history i know maul does and i want to get into it because he's british so there could be crisps involved do you have a history of abusing yourself in a 7-Eleven like I do, and that's how you came up, because that's the way I was raised, bitch? You may have to pass it to Mulv sooner than you expected, because to me, gas stations are for pumping gas, BC. I don't eat from the gas station.

Gas stations are for the rollers, Rask, okay? They're for the nachos, they're for the slurpees. I mean, would you say that your parents tried to raise you with the values that you're too good for this? That's what you're trying to say. Well, to be honest, I was raised kosher. So there wasn't, like the gas station hot dog would have been, my God would not have approved of that. Okay, okay. So there's that on time. Now I'm lactose intolerant.

Oh, boy. I'm not the right guy for this conversation. Kick it to Mauve. Because Mauve, people know when I go to Cumberland Farms, they know what I'm looking for. What's Mauve get down with? It is the gas station egg salad sandwich. Oh my God, that sounds like,

why don't you eat that off an armpit, please? How long has that been sitting there typically? It doesn't last very long afterwards. Do we count in hours, days, weeks? Yeah, possibly. That's honestly not a concern. I think sometimes the longer it's been sitting there, the better. I mean, once you're making that commitment that the gas station,

the gas station is where I'm dining tonight, you're not necessarily focusing on the freshness factor. It's a choice. It is a lifestyle choice and it's fine. And the problem is I tend to be one of these people that, like I'm in this city and the first time I was in this city, I got an egg salad sandwich at this gas station. Now I must always get an egg salad sandwich at this gas station. Plus ruffles with bean dip. That's the other thing. And a Diet Coke. Wow. Wow. I, um, I've sadly, I've been there many times and, um, I will say this. I used to work at a newspaper, by the way, that had a machine that had like fresh food in it every day. And by fresh food, I mean like chili dogs and meatball grinders. And I used to work at a newspaper, by the way, that had a machine that had fresh food in it every day. And by fresh food, I mean chili dogs and meatball grinders.

And I used to eat there for five straight shifts one time. You know how much inner damage. When I went to the UK, that's what I'm trying to get to. Because MK was in the UK. I hope you saw it. I don't know if this footage is ever going to see the light of day or if the next documentary is coming out or if Jake even works there anymore.

But I will tell you this, Karen. I sampled the cuisine there in London because I wanted to feel like... Because at the end at the end of the day, London's like classy. It's an international, you know, circle of hope in life. But it's a bougie factory town. We can be honest, right? Yeah, absolutely. Okay.

It's now a bougie multicultural one. There you go. Yeah, there you go. Not when I was growing up in the UK. Everything was boiled. But now it's, yeah. So I go in there and I did crisps. And by the way, they do UK candy. It's just off the UK. Everything was boiled. But now it's... So I go in there and I did crisps and by the way, they do UK candy.

It's just off the charts. I mean, it's not even close. But they sell three sandwich packages and the sandwiches are wildly different. And so it's just really thick white bread and three separate. So the first one

was basically like a spread of barbecue sauce with like a pesto consistency and a tasted pork in there just spread between two pieces the next one was like peanut butter and then all these other weird i mean it got weird is there any and it went worse there was like egg salad next way i mean you would have loved it is there anything though that the that the the americans just don't don't know that you wish you could take back from the U.K. and put it into your local, what do you rock, a Circle K? What's your, when you go to do the sin, you know? People don't do Branston pickle here, right?

It's the cheese, it's the Plowman's sandwich, right, which is thick cheddar cheese, Branston pickle. Oh, wow. Yeah, and a good bread. That's the thing. That's classy, Rask. Can I get you into Slurpees or anything? Don't you miss that too?

I like a good Slurpee. It's not gas station. And maybe this doesn't qualify in your mind, but my wife often criticizes me. I'll buy the grocery store supermarket sushi. Is that almost... That's disgusting. You should stab yourself in the heart right now. Oh my God'm a i mean food buying habits yeah no seriously i wouldn't

go anywhere near that i mean i do have limits i've done the hot dogs with the cheese pre-inserted by the way oh and the pretzels too with the pre-insertion on the cheese hey let's close with this because um and we got more great show to come on another guest a lot of mma talk and boxing and sandwiches i don't know this thing attacking me i don't know what's going on right now um i want to close with this you guys um i say this and i and i hope it doesn't come across rude but you know when i got into the boxing game a couple years behind you guys you guys were my idols and and i think you still are okay i love you guys let's man hug um no i will say that you know you guys are tremendous writers and i've been blessed to become friends with you and go up and down the road and cover big fights.

We're almost at the 10-year anniversary of my first Vegas trip, and that's September Canelo versus Floyd. Well, if you and I, you know, that was a— Dude, I did pick a big one, a great one for my first one, right? Yeah. Because I don't think I've even been at a fight week, Mayweather Pacquiao included, Mayweather McGregor included, that felt that joyous and fun like a celebration

like we finally got our super fight it's back it didn't even matter if the fight wasn't great and it wasn't it was not great but we've been doing this for a long time I love talking to you what's my favorite thing to do take you out for a beer and be like all right uh Pacquiao Marcus for what was it like what did it smell like we've been up and down a lot in that regard I love how he says Las Vegas too you know he's got very classy R, you are the go-to guy when it comes to Atlantic City, the Gotti run, all of that in local New York. But what was your first Vegas fight? My first Vegas fight was Holyfield-Lewis 2, or I guess I should say Lewis-Holyfield 2, 1999, stayed at the Hilton. That fight wasn't that bad. It's just that the controversy of the

first one stained the whole series. Yeah, it's kind of interesting. I actually thought the second fight could have been score to draw, which the first fight, of course, was very controversially score to draw. They gave Lewis the, they needed to give Lewis the decision in the second one. They love corruption in boxing.

They just love it. We saw CJ Ross that night of Mayweather Canelo. But you, you know, we've, the whole point is this long setup is we've been up and down the road and I went through my phone in the saved pictures, which I only go to on airplane flights when you can't play the chess app or Mahjong anymore.

You know what I mean? You've listened to every CD you've got downloaded. So now I'm looking at old fight pics. I wanted to try to chronicle for us and the fans our journey together as men. Okay, let's look. Here we go. Let's see this first. This is Karen Mulvaney and i on the set

of sports center doing espn digitals making the rounds back in 2013 yes our eyes are closed karen you look a lot bit younger in that photo yeah a lot bit yeah yeah that's uh there seems to be something different i can't quite uh by the way as you and i were remembering the the director that was on site from a producer from actual show time was like what we got to do another one the and then when we walked up on set i mean they they could not have wanted us there less but that was a big moment early in my career thanks for being part of that i was very happy to be there and i was happy to make my joke about boxes underwear being incredibly heavy because you get fight a step on the scale and they're clearly overweight and then they just take their underwear

off and by magic they've lost half a pound and boy that that yeah did not land everybody on site was like really two dicks that's your punchline okay yeah never met her all right uh let's go to the next slide here as on our journey look at this three-man boy band ready to break out. 2015 Vegas, Kodo versus Canelo. That's Eric Raskin in the middle, your boy BC on the left, and Rafe Bartholomew, our brother in arms, right? Our podcasting bro hammer right there, Raskin. That was a fun weekend.

Remember that? So many gingers in that photo between Rafe and Canelo and my bright red shoelaces. I don't know what those were about. What were we doing? A Charlie's Angels boy band bit right there? I mean, I'm not quite sure what it was. 96 degrees? I don't know. I hope I'm not spoiling an upcoming photo, but was that the same weekend where we went campeoning with Eric Morales? We did. We did. I don't have that photo, but I do have other campeoning photos. If we can go to the next slide um here we found him on the uh mandalay bay casino floor and rask you and rocky have that same type of like i know i look washed

but this shirt says i'm ready to bang what's going on right we're almost wearing the same shirt there yes you know my favorite thing about that photo is every photo i've ever been in with you and rafe i look like i'm five foot two rocky Juarez keeps me from being the shortest guy in that photo. I was a huge fan of your writing and still am. And when I saw you in the men's room at Radio City Music Hall, and we met for the first time before the start of Regan Dow versus Don Air, I was like, wow, he's a lot shorter than I thought he was. I don't mean that to insult you, Raskin, but it is.

In my prime, I rounded up to 5'9". Okay, okay. And heels? Wow. That was in fishnets? Wow. How many other boxing hall of famers do you want to mention? Let's go to the next piece of content right here.

Oh, look at this. Remember that? That great pod. This is Gennady Golovkin, I think, versus... Maybe a Lemieux fight? Maybe that's Golovkin-Alvarez one. Maybe. And my little blue snowball.

Either way, that's when you guys did that podcast with that other network. Never heard of it. And I think we've got a couple more here of our great moments in Rath... Speaking of great moments, this was in Vegas, but I believe we have Richard Schaefer on set right now to relive this moment.

This was after Lucas Matisse knocked out Mike Dallas Jr. Was it Mike Dallas? Well, so I think you may be conflating two different things. Are you talking about the Manny Pacquiao line? Yes. So that was after Matisse knocked out one of the Lamont Peterson. That's right. To set up the Danny Garcia fight, which by the way, Synergy was the co-main event of Canelo versus Floyd in 2013. But Richard Schaefer commandeered the mic and wanted the world to know that Lucas Matisse was the next. And we happen to have Rask. I don't know if you, you know, you do a great bit here.

You do a great impression of old Tricky Dick there. Would you like? Sure, I'll make it as though he was talking to Jim Gray. You know, Jim, there is a new Manny Pacquiao and his name is Lucas Tamachin Matisse. How weird is it? Have you been following Richard's pivot into MMA now? He's John Jones's, like, go-to Al Heyman, basically?

It's interesting in that regard. Yeah, wow. All right, do we have any other on this photo tour galore? Oh, my God, how did this get in here? What the hell is going on? I'm not here to rip you or your culture, but what is happening here? I have four

numbers for you. Is that the way to say it? 1990s. That's the 1990s. Come on. Is that your bar mitzvah? Are you going for the Jerry Seinfeld look there or something? No, it's hard to tell in that photo because it's kind of dark, but that's all from the top of the head. It's not a mullet.

That was like the long hair grunge, 1995. Do you know what this screams? Didn't get laid. That's what that screams. Do you know what I mean? I mean, it does, Raskin. Everything about me in that era screamed that, but that, yeah. If only we had a photo of young Molf chasing whales, chasing the muff around.

I actually think we do here. Oh my God! There he is. There he is. To catch here. Oh, my God. There he is. There he is. To catch a predator, we caught him. There he is. Wow. Was that on a big oil tanker in the Arctic Circle? What happened?

That was actually on the deck of a ship in Singapore, and we were getting ready to go to the Antarctic to go chasing after whaling ships. I think I'm 23 there. Yeah. No difference at all, right? Absolutely no difference at all. It's amazing how well I've aged uh appreciate the fun uh guys it's been great going up and down with you uh you guys are not

just here to be on my podcast you're here to work and the showtime boxing podcast with raskin and mulvaney is a fantastic in-depth look at uh you know different levels of dad jokes than than what my show produces but also great boxing analysis. Do you guys have anything to plug this week? I mean, what's going on here? So we drop our podcast every Monday. Every Monday morning, 9 a.m., our podcast hits. But this week, of course, we're doing all sorts of extra stuff.

We'll be on Radio Row, in the media room, interviewing everyone who's in town. We'll have new editions of Showtime Boxing with Raskin and Mulvaney dropping all week. Drop that shit like it's hot. Mulv, I think the first fight we covered together was Hopkins-Pascal 2 in Montreal. And I want to say this, you could not have been more gracious and nice. And you could have easily been like,

all right, kid, get away from me. But, you know, you didn't. You let me into your life, into your room, into your wardrobe. No, that's right. That was the waitress pen. I'm sorry about that. But, Mulv, yeah, thank you for being a friend. That was the waitress pen. I'm sorry about that. But Mulv, yeah, thank you for being a friend.

That was a great fight weekend, right? Yeah, somebody should do a song about that. Thank you for being a friend. Travel up and down that road. We're almost old enough for that song. Yeah, your heart is true. I think we're actually older than the actresses were during that. Your heart is both true and failing.

So congratulations, guys. Great to be up and down with you. The great Eric Raskin, Karen Mulvaney. I've had a great boxing life with them. Let's enjoy this fight this Saturday with our pants on. Thank you. Thanks, BC. Great work right there.

All right, to transition here into segment two before we do, I got something important to say. And this is not a bit. This is about real life, aging, about being a man. We got a new sponsor for our show today this is the first time and i need this sponsor they're called caldera lab say goodbye to that generic face wash that you that you use on your counter because caldera lab is here to save the day when it comes to your skin the backed by the leading clinical trial where nine out of ten men nine out

of ten experienced healthier and visibly improved skin. Caldera lab has all those tools, but you want to know, Hey BC, would you use it? Let's be honest about something. We joke a lot on the show. Is that nice? Sometimes does that hurt my feelings? No, because it's a stupid podcast, but we do joke a lot about the quality of my skin. I'm in washed aging old man and my skin is country time pink lemonade along with some blotches over here of

some yellow i mean i don't put my skin first but since i've been working with caldera lab and trying out the morning and night routines a little bit of this a little bit of that right i'm here to say that caldera lab is making me believe that even i can improve my visage for camera for massage right purposes for whatever because at the end of the day the clean slate that caldera lab gives you that's where you want to start your day that's the cream that i use there's the base layer as well there's also the good your go-to at night before bed and a clinically proven multi-functional serum that helps your skin look tighter and smoother as well as to help to reduce the visibility of wrinkles and all that stuff i don't know i've got moles do i have

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that can stop looking like an old washed POW? I got another one that's coming through right now, and he's one of my favorites in this journalistic game today. A rare breed, somebody that covers both sides of it, boxing and MMA, and he does it very well for Business Insider there, Insider, whatever I want to call it. I'll find out what he calls it.

And he even moved to Las Vegas and took his family here to put his face down and really get after it. And let's welcome him in on his first time to Morning Combat. It's Alan Dawson from the UK with Love. Brother, long time coming here i appreciate you bc i mean you were talking about your media idols with eric and kieran and you're one of mine you've been nothing but supportive since we met in january 2020 at serenia mcgregor and you've been supportive ever since i appreciate you having me i appreciate the work you do your attitude all that

and uh you get to straddle and cover the big topics in both sports across the board. We've got some MMA we want to talk about, but man, I can't stop and need more than just two hours on a show to talk about seriously how excited I am about Tank versus Ryan. One of the pieces I'm working on this week is focused on the business side of like, how did this deal actually get made? Because as a fan, you want to not care about that, right? You want to see Spence and Crawford to not care about that right you want to you want you want to see spenson crawford and not care who's promoted by who are managed by who but if you're going to follow this game and stay addicted like we are you you got to know the players and

the movements there this is like really rare that this happened the zone being a part of it but not taking co-pay-per-view rights some of the agreements that both fighters made regarding the weights in the in the um you know the the rehydration and all that but this was two opposite sides of the agreements that both fighters made regarding the weights and the in the um you know the the rehydration and all that but this was two opposite sides of the streets it was both fighters younger than they probably normally would have how hard at the end of the day would you describe what what what this actually was and how this happened how hard how unbelievable is it well they were linked uh years back anytime i spoke to like leonard alibi in early 2020, I'd always be bringing up, you know, Ryan. And when I was speaking to Behop or Eric Gomez over on Golden

Boy, I'd be bringing up Gervonta. They just seemed like the natural, you know, dancing partners. And the feedback, you know, 20 to 2021 was always, you know, that they respected each other, but it just didn't seem like the fight was happening or would happen in the near future. And then something just changed, you know, midway into 2022 where they were clearly talking. And the time to make that fight might not have been 2020 because the time to make it is now. And, you know, when you speak to like Steven Espinosa and Leonard Elaby, people at PBC,

the amount of high net worth celebrities and athletes that are interested in coming to this event. You know, McCarran Airport is going to have like private helicopters, private jets parked up like the old days of maybe not to the extent of Floyd Mayweather at his peak. But, you know, you're going to have Odell Beckham and Denzel Washington. And these kind of like, you know, these are young guys. So to have them not only speak to youth culture, but also speak to, you know, older celebrities and athletes, that's, I think, what is going to turn this event into, you know, something that's already pretty much sold out, you know, already in the top 10, pushing top five for the biggest boxing

gates of all time in Las Vegas. But also, you know, I think it should be a home run in the modern era of the papers. So do you think, and you're right, and like literally we could spend another hour going even deeper of what makes this unique with the fan base. I mean, there's everything. My kids, my kids are teenagers and want nothing to do with combat sports, but they're sending me TikToks that are involving Ryan, and they're like, yeah, we know who this guy is. So it's got so much of that.

Is that ultimate? It's rare in boxing when people make, people in boxing, there's so many cooks in the kitchen and they're all almost like ruthless outlaws in their own way, in a legalized sense. But it's, you know, how often do they make short-term decisions to get as much of the piece of the pie as they can

and say, damn with the long-term. And these are people sometimes that we work for and love. That's the game. That's the business at times. Or at least that can become the perception if you get jaded. And it's not hard to get jaded as a boxing fan. I'm a jaded current boxing fan. I just love the drugs in too much. But like the powers that be at some point had to look at themselves and say, we're not going to get in the way of this. Yeah. I mean, I also give credit first and foremost to the fighters. Ryan spoke really early last year saying this was the fight he was really forcing and he wasn't interested in anyone else.

And it seemed like as soon as that was happening, Gervonta really wanted it as well. So they forced kind of PBC, Golden Boy, the boxing side. Leonard Elaby was working out with Eric Gomez in the summer. I know that they were talking in Los Angeles face-to-face, quite a few meetings. So once the boxing negotiation was wrapped up, it then had to go to the networks. And really, it just became too big to fail. There were kind of obstacles that were being reported on, but by that point, there was so much money on the table for everyone involved. And money fixes everything, right? That's why Floyd versus Manny finally gets done.

That's why I think we've seen some big heavyweight fights in recent memory of people from opposite networks, you know, ESPN coming together with Showtime or Fox. I mean, there's been great strides, but I think for this fight to have been made, you needed the powers that be to all buy in because there's the potential of so much money and ripple. You obviously need the fighters.

You need Ryan not to be turned off by taking a little bit less money or by you know the weight necessarily the all the all the um contract specifics is what i'm trying to say but you also kind of i don't know it's weird you just needed everybody to go this is what is going to be best for the sport we're all going to benefit from it let's do that so is there a ripple effected potential or is this just that rare unicorn of the right fight with the right young stars at the right time and everybody being willing does this lead because i've been i i hedged that i i ask you a question and cut you off and answer it for you quickly just to say i do believe at least from the american fighter and i i specifically say american because i sometimes feel like the fighters in the other countries are more willing to just, I'll fight anybody at any time.

The American star seems more willing than ever before to have that old school persona and Aaron say, yeah, let's do it now rather than waiting. I think you needed all of that for this fight to happen. I just hope it becomes the trend. I hope we have the 80s spirit all over again. Am I asking too much? You see how the sausage gets made in this game. I don't think you're asking too much.

I feel like boxing was quite slow to come out of the pandemic, and we were making cult heroes out of Clay Collard at the top rank in their bubble at the MGM Grand, whereas the UFC just came straight out of the gate and had Fight Island. The Fight Island became a character in and of itself, and that was a huge deal at the time. And it feels like boxing now, we had a lot of trade fights but you know Caleb Plant and David Benavidez last month was just a fiery atmosphere and an amazing

performance from Benavidez you know feel like that was uh you know 15,000 screaming uh Mexican Californian Arizona fans paying for Caleb Plant's blood in his like second adopted town and then that was just an hors d'oeuvre serving into uh you know this month with Davis Garcia next month we've got Haney and Lomachenko which for me is a bit of a passing of the torch with the you know the double gold medal winning Olympian to uh passing that torch to Haney the the American guy coming up uh and then maybe we've got uh Crawford and Spence coming up later in the summer so boxing's on a hell of a run when it comes to the big shows and you know whether Davis and Garcia is the unicorns it's two guys in their early, you know, mid-20s coming

together. I feel like the ripple effect is keeping on going and boxing at this level is on a run. And I hope it's here to stay because, you know, when boxing gets it right, there's nothing like it. There is nothing like it. I mean, it's right. And, you know, Max Kellerman always does that illusion or whatever the word is about, like, if there's four's your favorite four sports breaking out on all corners of the street, you're going to inevitably run at the fight one, at the boxing one. So it's like when they get it right, man, can they get it right in that regard? I want a ripple effect. I want all of those things ultimately to happen.

But do you believe, if we want to get super optimistic, that there's really this much money in Saudi Arabia to put on two heavyweight fights on one night and have Fury versus, or in South Africa or wherever we hear these rumors. Could the heavyweight division in your eyes be added into this? Is any of this real? The recent rumors of there's so much money in one spot and they want to do a final four of Wilder, Joshua, Fury, and Usyk and make it almost a mini tournament. I mean, that's almost, that's too good to be true, Alan. That's not real, is it? Well, there's a lot of things in boxing, and you know there's a lot of bullshit.

So that is going to cost a hell of a lot of money. But Saudi Arabia has made these heavyweight fights happen. But whether that would involve Wider and Ruiz is a... Oh, Ruiz is the fifth? Yeah, okay, so he's the fourth. Who's out of that initial group? Are they talking about Usyk for this or everybody else? Usyk and, well everybody else? Usyk and

all of the top four. Joshua is still there, thereabouts. But I don't think all of that will go on in the same night. Or at all. Let's be fair. We hope, right? That's another element to this run that boxing's on.

Wilder separating Robert Helinius from his senses. this run that boxing's on like wilder separating um uh who's the finnish guy that you thought robert helenius yes you know from his senses just an awesome you know when wild like you know gets it right man he doesn't just knock people out he's got that jeremy stevens quote he like fucks them up you know for a while and the hardest hitter at 145 we know we know for sure uh in specifics about this fight before we transition to mixed martial arts, Luke Thomas, my co-host, has made some comments. You know, maybe this is what's really at stake.

Not a world title. It's a 136-pound catchweight bout. Devin Haney is your undisputed champion. He's got all the belts in the critical respect, for sure. But, like, maybe the winner is the face of boxing. Oscar, when I talked to him this week, said, yeah, whatever the post-Canelo era is going to look like, you know, Canelo still at the end of his prime, very well in his prime, but you know,

he's in the second chapter. Then this, the winner of this is the face of that. What about specifically in this 135 to 140 bubble where it's the four princes, as Karen said, and it's Shakur Stevenson. And it's like the biggest conglomerate of young, exciting talent in the sport. Is the winner of this Ryan Garcia-Tank Davis fight almost the power player? Is that fair to say because of how many eyeballs will be on this and how much Tank sells? I think Gervonta already is the power player. But, yeah, I think this fight is bigger than a title because, as you already kind of touched on,

the winner would be the face of the American side of the sport they'd be on gracing the covers of magazines you know especially if it's Ryan you know look how good looking he is but if it's like either guy they'll be on the front cover of video games everything they can really run the sport I kind of agree with your caveat what you said about Canelo because I feel like if it's not the second chapter I was hoping to see more from him you know know, coming back against Golovkin and, you know, just to really establish the momentum that he had previously. But yeah, whoever wins here, particularly if it's in style, they're for sure the face of the American side of boxing. Me personally, I'd want to see it quite competitive up until I think it's going to be a

finish towards the mid to late rounds. But, you know, providing it's competitive up until then, I think we'll see it again. I think they'll run it back. When you hear your boy BC say things like, I love all these fighters, but Shakur may be the last guy standing in the end. Is that crazy? No, no, not at all. Like, especially like, I feel like what you're saying about the four kings,

people wanted to see them fight straight away. But, you know, Haney went over to Australia and he fought Kambosis twice. You know, Tio fought Lomachenko. We got this fight and now Tio's gonna fight Josh Taylor by the way which is like badass I love that matchup because it's two wildly crazy guys and uh you know one of the things I love rooting for in boxing and MMA is just chaos and I feel like I feel like that fight is going to produce some chaos because uh how could it not yeah yeah absolutely uh so so fired up for what the future is going to bring uh i mean in a perfect world could the winner of haney and lomachenko fight either shakur or the

winner of this fight on saturday even with all of the network uh issues and hurdles i hope i want to believe i want to live in that world why i believe it but either way big bit you know when you make one this big there's only going to be the potential if you do it right a big spin-off business to close on boxing real quick though we mentioned canelo what do you think his 2023 looks like because he's going to be john rider on may 6th so we know half of it is he looking in your eyes more to rematch b vol and try to you know add that light heavyweight crown or can we get benavidez in the bullpen can we make because that dude you you mentioned being in the arena for plant versus benavidez it felt different it wasn't we make, because that, dude, you mentioned being in the arena for Plant versus Benavidez.

It felt different. It wasn't quite Mayweather level, but it felt different, right? It felt different. It felt, it was the best atmosphere and energy I've experienced at a boxing show

since Anthony Joshua and Alexander Usyk, but that fight was mainly because we were coming out of lockdown in London, so it was a very carnival party. Was that one or two that you were at?

That was the number one in London, in the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. So that was just a really good energy, but it was more because of the freedom that people were feeling, masks off and, you know, beers down their skull. But the energy that was at Benavidez Plant

was pure boxing. You know, it was all about, you know, Benavidez's performance. Caleb Plant had just like a otherworldly warrior ability to stand up to that onslaught. I personally think he should have been pulled out at some point. Sure. I thought Redman might.

He showed a ton of heart. But you're almost unnecessary. That fight's going to change you. I feel like that fight might change you because that was a beating. I'm glad you brought that. Didn't it feel like Caleb Plant was, it was almost like Rocky won? The outcome didn't matter. Rocky won.

Ultimately, the message I take as an adult is it doesn't matter about winning. I'm fighting to show the world that I'm not a piece of shit. And that's not necessarily what Caleb Plant is saying, but his willingness to take that punishment and go the distance, that's the only way he knows how he has to do that to show you who he really is, whether you respect that or not. Yeah, it was a moral victory of sorts. Yeah, wasn't it?

It was like a high level like and that could be dangerous and we don't love that yeah because it could be career changing i think you know i don't know how much benavidez took out of him in the in the uh going forward but mentioning what you're going back to what you're asking about uh canelo i feel like the yeah the likely players once he beats john rider in in front of his uh home crowd in mexico that the play the more likely players that will see the rematch with bivol uh i don't think it matters too much because i feel like benavidez has so many options um you know in in-house with ppc and showtime i feel like what they're

developing is like a modern version of what they had at 154 over the last like five six years they've got kind of like a round robin where they've got morel who's fighting on the undercard on saturday uh you've got ondraad and i know that um've got Morel who's fighting on the undercard on Saturday. You've got Andrade. And I know that, you know, PPC think that, you know, out of everyone who deserves and has, you know, done enough to show that they, you know, warrant a big fight. It could be Andrade that maybe gets Benavidez maybe later this year. Wow. Because it's interesting you say that because David Morel Jr., as you said, is in the co-feature on Saturday. And he's been outright saying, I'm going to dominate this guy and show you that i'm ready for benavidez whereas once you

mentioned what could be next for benavidez if it wasn't canelo my first thought is germal charlo sat down with us it was like i'll fight any of those guys and he goes if you think there's bad blood between plant and bed of years watch when i get involved you know i'm like come like come on brother let's do it you know yeah there's so many options for Benavidez. He's made himself, I think Dan Rafael had it, you know, said it perfectly, he's the people's champion after what he did there, and just the reaction and how over, you know, you talk about like WWE star, how over he was with that crowd, so that eventually when we do, we will get that, we will get the canelo fight with benavidez at some point because

once uh you know regardless of where that result goes with b vol you know there's just too many options on the you know pbc showtime side of things i think canelo you know he's fought in showtime before the relationships there uh so whether he goes straight into uh benavidez maybe at cinco de mayo uh in 2020 what year we in 2024 next year yeah okay but yeah there's there's plentiful options um for canelo after i'm not sure what else he would have after a b-roll fight if he stays with match room but yeah i the the fight for me is is benavidez and um and canelo and i feel like when that's made that will be like this sort of level of you know holy shit you need to you need to be here for this well you needed to be in las vegas to continue your job and the great work you're doing at Insider,

and you moved your family there, and you get to be on the front lines for not just boxing, but obviously you're right at the UFC Apex all the time. You're covering the mixed martial arts game on that same level. I ask all my friends, Brett Okamoto, anybody who moved to Las Vegas, like, how the hell do you do that? Because coming here sucks, but it's different in real life. Can you explain that? Yeah, I mean, when I had like, you know, growing up in the UK,

you're kind of subjected to like, you know, parts of American culture. And the image I always had of America wasn't really like, you know, thinking of like the New York cityscape. It was always the American Southwest. So when you come here and you're living here, no matter what direction you drive in, when you're in Vegas, whether it's two to six hours north, west, east, south, the terrain just changes. It's a beautiful landscape.

And there's a perception of Americans outside of America that they don't travel. They don't have passports. But when you come here and you see what's here, you can see why. I was just in Utah, brother, this past week. Yeah, I'm a Utah. Oh, my God. It blew my mind. Yeah, East Utah.

I've been to Moab. And Canyonlands is gorgeous here. So it's easy to move here. It's easy to live. It's actually colder more often than it's hot, which is crazy. Wow. Yeah, I'm surprised you're sitting here in a T-shirt, like, with the way the AC is in here. This is an MK golf shirt, okay?

Thank you. I don't golf. Oh, no, I like the merch. But I'd have the MK hoodie on. But, yeah, like, the UFC has kept me so busy since I moved to January 2020 like last year and if there's one difference between MMA and boxing last year is that MMA was so consistent you know the UFC in Las Vegas alone had four pay-per-view shows at the T-Mobile arena yes twice a month every month they'd have shows at the apex you know sometimes even twice a week because of the contender series

I feel like one of my favorite storylines coming from UFC last year was just the sheer amount of young talent coming through the Contender Series. I loved seeing Bo Nickel, Cameron Simon, and Raul Rosas, and then seeing their debuts. I was kind of surprised Raul Rosas lost recently, but Bo Nickel looks like a beast. Dude, they've built a factory.

They've built a factory system that produces willing hammers. Yeah, for sure. And this year, I feel like one of my favorite fighters that I've seen live at the Apex was Erin Blanchfield, what she did to Jessica Andrade. Cold-blooded as shit, right? Mate, she's not been in the UFC long,

but she's come into the game, she's fucked shit up, and just set a division ablaze. We see it rarely. It reminded me, and I said it to her post-fight, it reminded me of the way Conor McGregor just came in and Israel Adesanya just came in. Sooner or later, she's so close to a title shot if she's not going to get it already.

She's had a wild ride, and she's just making a name for herself. I love the role you play in the combat sports journalism game today because you lean heavy on being an actual journalist. You go after it. Obviously, I have respect for people that are creators or people that play a character and all that. But Dana White doesn't seem to have a lot of respect right now for anybody. He just ran against the schmo.

He's always ran against the media. I love that you're willing to go after it. You've been written heavy on the Daniel Kinahan situation. You take people to task, and you ask the hard questions. What would you say right now is the temperature of Dana White publicly from the power slap to the slapping incident to him now threatening more media documentaries about how they were wrong? And he was right, even though the context is never quite truthful. Do you think he's long for the game? I mean, WWE just got acquired by UFC's parent company. There's a lot of changes

going on. Dana seems distant, uninterested. I don't know. I feel like he's really interested in power slap, I'll tell you that. Who is it? The way that that power, like I went to the finale, and I was covering it beforehand from speaking to neuroscientists and ringside physicians, and yeah, the feedback wasn't good. The way that we see knockouts in MMA and in boxing,

it's, you know, it's shocking and it's like, oh shit moments. But the knockouts that we saw in some of these slap fighting events, it's like they have this fencing response where the body stiffens, you know, and they're doing this, but they're completely cold. That's, you know, what I've been told is a traumatic brain injury. So I was going into the finale thinking, you know, this is going to to be awkward and weird but i've got to say the production was pretty good there wasn't any of those finishes and it was it was like i'd say it was actually quite fun wow i didn't expect this review yeah i know it's like trip advisor five stars nobody got cte it was great yeah but um yeah i don't know how much staying power it has

he's definitely got interest in pushing that. I know they've got a second series of it that's going to probably go quite quickly and they're putting that in Abu Dhabi. We'll probably see more kind of storylines with people we saw from that. You know, he put himself, with what you're saying about the incident

with his wife on New Year's Eve, you know, he put himself in front of us in the media. We were free to ask questions. That came out of the blue, though. Normally, he doesn't attend the post-fight Apex press conferences. It's just the fighters. So he came out of the blue, and he put himself in front of us. You know, and we were free to ask questions.

But, you know, he seemed willing to do that rather than being anti-putting himself in front of the firing line. I thought he handled it fine. You don't get into too many uh journalistic beefs i don't see the schmo ever challenging you to a charity grappling match i find that cringe to be honest yeah reporters we shouldn't be challenging each other to fights you know what we're playing at um you know should just be covering the sport uh you know and showcasing the good and the bad and the ugly and there's a hell of a lot of all three of those there is

let's speak about the good quickly uh it's been a big couple months, like redemption stories, Leon Edwards breaking through with a second straight win over Usman, Adesanya coming back and winning the title. It's made the pound-for-pound debate in a lot of ways with what happened with Mahachev and Volkanovski facing off in that fight being a flip of the coin, and who do you have, one or two? Well, Leon Edwards is in the mix, John Jones returned, Adesanya's there.

I'm trying to think, am I missing anybody who at least has a claim potentially at the top? How do you map out, if you do at all, sort of your top three or five pound for pound at the moment after what we saw in recent months? I'm embarrassed to say this because I was picking Gant to Pete Jones purely because of how Jones was looking at the tail end of his light heavyweight days, the fact that he'd been out for so many years. And inactivity can be a real killer at the top of the game.

And yet he just came back and smoked Gann. And it's like, considering he was the number one for so long and arguably the greatest of all time, I'm kind of thinking, how can you not have him as number one right now when he's just come back and completely murked Cyril Gann? Oh, so you have a number one in the game at the moment, Jon Jones? I probably would, yeah. See, I don't think that's wrong. I think there's a nice debate in there.

But can I ask you why that specifically trumps either Volkanovski, who's my number one, or Mahachev, who is still getting number one votes across the board? Just because of how he'd, you know, what came before. And just thinking it was the pre-match booking odds it was like I don't think anyone thought that he was going to come in and do what he did to gan that quickly and he just seems like you know who after doing that who can really beat him at heavyweight and heavyweight isn't like how comfortable does he look at heavyweight you

know that how comfortable did he look at light heavyweight it's so hard I think we've been spoiled for choice when uh fighters try and do this, you know, champ-champ stuff. You know, Conor McGregor did it. Dan Cormier did it. But really, the reality is it's hard to do. Like, as Volkanovski, who's supremely talented beast at featherweight, you know, he struggled to do it. I feel like there's a few other examples where it's actually more common to not do it than it is. And for Jonesones to come up a division uh mates take a claim again as as the uh the the goat you know i just feel that kind of trumps uh what else is kind of on the landscape it's a great debate to have because it kind of shows the health oh for sure when you

have this we are at top level mma i felt we were just in that maybe still are in boxing but specifically like a year and a half ago it was like i never remember the time when there was five or six people with a potential claim at the top right now in MMA is pound for pound. If you care about that stuff, there's literally four or five guys who are like, yeah, yeah, I could say that. Yeah. He's probably your pump for pump best. I mean, when Adesanya comes back and does what he does, that's how do you keep him out of the mix? You don't. So Adesanya's future? Pineda moves up to 205. The division that he's cleaned out, Israel, has some new people. I mean, he wants Drikus Duplissi in South Africa,

Drikus Driskis, what, at Pickleball? Drikus Duplissi. Yeah, if he can get worthy enough fast. But Hamzat Chamayev's in that division now. Do you see, is it more likely that we start on the path to the potential Hamzat versus Izzy big attraction fight? Or do you think Izzy goes, you know what, I've done this. Let's move up to 205 in chase history. I like all the options.

Like with Hamzat Chumayev, I remember seeing him for the first time on Fight Island. And the UFC were pushing him for the media in the bubble. And he's the only guy I think that's comparable actually to Javante Davis in the sense that they're completely different fighters, completely different sports. But I've never come across someone who's got such a quiet but menacing aura as those two guys. Chimayev's just got something about him where I remember we went to see a UAE Warriors show on the Friday.

So this was outside the bubble. You know, the bubble was different at this time. And Chimayev wasn't fighting. He came into the VIP bit. And there was a security guy who was just saying, you know, I think he was looking for a credential, not knowing it was Chimayev. And Chimayev was just like,

you know, you're giving me a lot of shit. I'm going to smash you, brother. There was nobody else there. There were no cameras, but he was still giving this, you know, he was ready to throw down with the security. So you're saying he's about that life i'm shocked i'm really shocked yeah uh yeah so i i you know the the fight of the year he had with gilbert burns um yeah i i'm i'm big on on shimoy i think that would be uh yeah a great match um uh dracus duplicy i think that the pre-fight narrative would would probably be quite grim because of

that yeah that's like that has already been said. That's like Cooney versus Holmes flashback on sort of some of the racial lines of how that's going to be used to play up some of the political elements of that. Also quickly before we get into this, Saturday's UFC Vegas 71 card. We just saw a big win from Max at Featherweight. Volkanovski's got Yair, which could lead to a lot of things.

In that same regard, do you think Volkanovski eventually moves up and chases mahachev and you know then continues his pound for pound uh search and that might open the door for max to get into the title picture again i think so because volkanovski showed us enough to show that he can do it against uh islam let alone the rest of uh the division so yeah i think that would be the play for him in the medium to long term and you know max is just that dog you know love him yeah love him yeah arf arf yeah that's good he's got that going ufc vegas 71 is uh is that the apex this saturday it is yeah uh hell of a heavyweight tilt in terms of the future because john jones according to dana white they're looking at Madison Square Garden November for the Stipe Miocic fight

that has a lot of historical elements to it. I'm of the belief John Jones stays if he keeps winning, and this is just this version of John Jones. I think he loves being on top. Luke thinks he's going to go, maybe even after Stipe. But the idea of who has next could come out of this fight. Sergey Pavlovich coming in as your plus 145 underdog against the always strong and

perennial contender Curtis Blades who despite multiple chances still can't get up to that highest rung but he's a minus 170 betting favorite we know he can wrestle how good is Pavlovich though because what we've seen so far screams like really freaking good yeah I mean he he's like uh like he can bang what he was doing to um tie to avasa it looked like two of us had been in a fight with a cordless uh hedge trimmer you know and he only was that was only like a 45 second tk01 edward scissorhands yes yes so um yeah i mean like his just crisp mid-range sort of striking is it's just merciless the way the way he comes at you and it's a real real nice style matchup

because Curtis Blades is just ferocious with the way he can just attack the takedown against, no matter which opponent it's been from years of opponents. That's the only way I think he can. And he can strike, but he does get in trouble against better strikers hanging in the pocket too long. Pavlovich has got a scary long reach too. It like John Jones level reach it's ridiculous like he will want to stay away from from the stand-up game I actually am surprised Sergei's the underdog I quite like him in this fight yeah he certainly feels like he's been coming on of late Sergei

Spivak had a big win as well in this larger picture but along with Tom Aspinall who we want to see bounce back from injury I feel like it is Pavlovich and Aspinall that gives me the who might have next threat it was Cyril gone for a long time and that seems to have been not solved but but like Anthony Joshua he's got to go back to the drawing board and the table here and figure something out in that regard of of what's the best style what does he need to work on but he's still lingering um how much does this aspinall hype slowed down by the injury in your eyes not high but like potential you know the yeah it's such a what have you done for me lately sport both boxing mma but yeah i mean maybe it's the uk link i like aspinall i think like um he's shown a lot with his hands you can go a long way in the heavyweight division in the UFC just with striking and knockout ability.

But, you know, he's got a decent underrated ground game, and he's won on the mat in the UFC. So, you know, when he comes back, I think he's still in the mix. But like when you're saying who's next, Miocic, Pavlovich, if he wins against Blades, you know, Aspinall, once he returns and gets another win, maybe he'll be in the line after that. All right.

Chael Sonnen was on our podcast here on Room Service Diaries one time. Very highly rated and clicked on interview. You can check that out in the files along with currently our John Jones chat. And by the way, we've got two more in the bullpen coming on RSD. They're great. You're going to love those two. But Chael told us at that point, this was about a year ago, when John comes to the heavyweight division,

the toughest matchup for him is Curtis Blades. curtis blades wins against sergey pavlovich which is no given but he's the betting favorite how much of a threat do you think he is to this new john jones well how much better would gan would have would have done if he if he was uh better up you know with the wrestling yeah a lot better than losing in the first 40 seconds yeah a lot better like two blades can really offer something that, you know, Gann just couldn't. Yeah, I really like it. You know, I'm kind of with Luke, though.

I'm not sure how long Jon Jones will stay around. How long are they going to keep this on me? That's what I want to know. This guy's talking, yeah. I feel like, you know, Jones is just coming back to kind of reinforce why he's the GOAT. And once he beats, if he beats Miocic, I feel like he'll think that that chapter's kind of closed and maybe he'll see what happens with the landscape in the next one to two years.

But in that time, we've got a few decent challenges coming up to threaten his rule. Crowded combat schedule this weekend. This is not the deepest UFC card. There's always a couple, you know, items on the menu when you dig down. I mean, I don't hate seeing Kamaru Usman's brother after winning his Ultimate Fighter season, Muhammad Usman, the big heavyweight coming back as the favorite against Junior Taffa. Any fights on this undercard that has your eye twinkling? Yeah, I mean, I've had a few chats with Backwood Bobby Green. I think he's really fun. And, you know, good striker.

He's a 44-fight veteran, fun personality. He's looking to rebound from back-to-back defeats. And he's in with Jared Gordon, who's coming off a controversial L to Paddy Pimblitt. You know, some people thought that that could have gone, you know, in his favor rather than Paddy's. So I feel like whoever wins there, that's the fight to make,

because if it's Bobby Green green and paddy pimbley you've got two real gift of the gab talkers the build-up would be insane dude i never even thought of that until now you're right pimbley needs green to be that guy that that bring you know brings out the eye of the tiger in him but really gets that talk cycle yeah because that that promotion would be box office in and of itself and if gordon wins then you know that pre-fight narrative will be like you know i should have had the W the first time around so I like that fight because of what could come after it and I really feel like the place should be whoever wins that that should be Paddy Pimblitt's fight wherever they have that in you know Paddy Pimblitt could do well in New York

over here in Vegas he's fought before or of course the O2 arena in London absolutely uh Brad Tavares Bruno Silva in that co-tilt there in the middleweight division uh busy mma weekend also takes us to hawaii this weekend and only on showtime it's bellator 294 and 295 friday night and saturday night and uh some tasty offerings across the board on both cards i love the way the crowd pops there i hope one day ufc also goes to hawaii although i think even more recently dana was like yeah we tried but they don't make it easy and it's not happening the saturday night special there uh 295 for bellator on showtime is the one million dollar bantamweight world grand prix finale the interim title at stake here we know the full champion

sergio pedis excuse me is going to bounce back from injury and take on Patricio Pippol in the attempt to become the first major or second or whatever. I know people are digging in the history books, but the first super elite three-division champion. But Raffaele Stotts and Pachy Mix, Alan, is a hell of a tournament finale when you talk about two red-hot motor vehicles. Let me tell you the odds, which is a little surprising to me. They're close.

Minus 135 for your favorite Raffian Stotts, fresh off the control of Danny Sabatello to get that decision win against the super red-hot atomic Patchy Mix, plus 115? Should we go to the books? I mean, it's a great fight. Either man can win. Is that surprising at all the line to you? I mean, I feel like Mix has been in that position before,

and I feel like he keeps on proving people wrong. Like the run he's been on is great. I remember when he beat James Gallagher, and that in Europe was seen as a bit of an upset. James Gallagher was always seen as like, more so than Conor McGregor, the proper archetype student of John Kavanaugh at the Straight Blast gym with his jiu-jitsu game.

You know, and since then, Mix keeps on, this is probably a really niche and probably wrong reference, but you might appreciate it. But he kind of, his run kind of reminds me of Andre Ward in the Super 6. Yes. Because Andre Ward was the outside, you know, he wasn't even thought of before in the Super 6. He went on to beat

the tournament favorite, Alpha Abraham. Went on to win the entire thing. Mix has gone on to beat the pre-tournament favorite, Horiguchi, in this Bellator competition. I fancy him. I'm surprised at those odds. I'm surprised at a few of the odds this weekend. I just feel like he's

overcut. He keeps on overcoming that underdog status. It's not just the submissions. It's not just, oh, the fight's over. The way he took out Magomedov, I mean, it was nasty, man. Joked him to sleep. It was just like, damn, Patchy Mix has put it together. You know, he fancies Tatiana Suarez in the offseason. Okay.

Yeah, yeah. I think this is really worthy of the million dollar check because this is really a showcase of two of the best, two of the top 15, you know, bantamweight fighters in the world. If they were in the UFC, I feel like they'd be in the rankings. Rafael Stotz felt like the best kept secret in this weight class right before this tournament started. And he got, you know, his victory over Magomed Magomedov was a big eye opener.

And then what he's done in this tournament now, and he wears that MK Bomber jacket with pride. Yeah, I saw you, Rafjan Stotz. It was something like, I wish I had the video ready. There was some basketball. They brought him out at halftime of a game. I think it was an NBA game. And he shot a three and made it wearing the MK Bomber jacket.

Have you got some here? I mean, can we put Ellen Dawson in some MK clothing, Mikey? I need some of the golf shirts. The golf courses in Vegas are great. I need one of those. Yeah, you're going to be sweating like Kevin Aioli out there. You've got to be careful. Rafion Stotts is, though, coming on as much as Pachy Mix feels inevitable.

He's big for this weight class. If he can take the fight to the ground, normally he has success. How much do you think Stotts' strong wrestling background, which he neutralized Magomedov with that wrestling, can he stay out of that submission trouble zone that Mix will put you in? I don don't know I'm glad you said that because I think Mix is a bit of a monster and yeah I think I feel like the win over Sabatello for it was a bit like unexciting but I feel like Mix can kind of offer more and yeah I like him here in what is in the upset yeah the Pineapple Princess the former Bellator flyweight champion Alimale McFarlane is in the co yeah the pineapple princess the former bellator flyway champion alimale mcfarland

is in the co-feature on saturday night's bellator 295 card she asked for this fight against khanel watanabe she's threatening to retire i think i mean she's close right now but she always draws a big crowd she'll be the betting underdog plus 115 mcfarland against watanabe minus 135 aaron pico back on the same night saturday night. He'll be a minus 720 betting favorite against James Gonzalez plus 520. But Alan, for Pico, it's more about let's bounce back from the injury against Jeremy Kennedy. It didn't go his way. I hope he doesn't have TJ Dillashaw shoulder after they tried to jam that thing back in. Should we have fears? The odds makers don't have the fear. I'm so glad you brought up Pico because I mean, like you, I've been boxing first coming into

combat sports media and I started covering MMA after after boxing around 2017 and my first show that i covered was a bellator event in london and i remember scott coca you know we're talking about guys to keep an eye on and he was so high on aaron pico so i feel like i've really seen yeah you know the start of pico's career and you know i was hearing so much about his uh wrestling background the fact that he was uh brought in freddie roach at the wildcard gym for his boxing game and there were rumors coming out of roach's gym and i've got pico to confirm it that when he sparred miguel cotto like he was you know he didn't get handled he had moments like he was in that yeah jesus i mean i believe it there's this like he went on to lose his debut i think he went up to four four

and one and then got four two four three so it's like the the thing with pico there was so much hype behind him that it was like um aj mckee has actually gone on to have the career that um people probably thought pico might have true but would you believe though that pico seemed to be if he had beaten kennedy and didn't get hurt they were ready to finally see what he's got at the title level oh yeah right there i would like as soon as i see pico on a bellator card i'm always gonna watch and be so invested in his career because i feel like you know no matter how much momentum he gets this time or you know if he you know suffers a loss before he gets to a title shot i feel like at some point he's always going to put all of those skills together and can become a reality show

following and covering his career right yeah like he's not trying to make it that right but it feels like that and did you see the size of his horse's uh manitalia did you see that i don't know no he when he moved down to jackson wink he uh he got a ranch and he has horses and he you know he's got like uh what's he's like the he picked out horse so freddie over there all right let's get out of that topic and just remind you also on that saturday card a good one mads burnell against justin gonzalez that should be fun yancy maderos back against charlie leary uhary Kai Kamaka the third with the great chest tats is here but dude people sleeping on how good this fight is Ray Borg Kyoji Horiguchi Saturday's Bellator 295 card Borg plus 195 his post UFC run he's put some wins together Horiguchi minus 230 favorite in this one he was

our favorite for that tournament after what he did against Sergio Pettis until he got knocked out so I feel like now people are sleeping on Horiguchi he got knocked out of the tournament by Mix it's like can he make another run here this should be a good test man oh yeah and I like this um I feel like it's kind of significant to note that Hawaii's got this event because they actually had a combat sports tragedy recently with the passing of Victoria Lee and it feels like you know now a few months later we've got like a real celebration of combat sports tragedy recently with the passing of Victoria Lee. And it feels like, you know, now a few months later, we've got like a real celebration of combat sports on the island and for the state, for the people there to come together and, you know, and celebrate the sport, you know, not just for one night, but for two.

Yeah, and there's, over the course of those two nights, there's a lot going on and I'm looking forward to seeing. Also, Bobby King, Hawaiian native on that night. And then the Friday card, of course, in the main event, we're going to get a title defense at 125 on the women's side. Liz Karmouche, who had the weird win for the title, comes back against Juliana Velasquez in the rematch, wins that, has her breakthrough moment confirmed.

Now she's taking on Deanna Bennett, plus 360. This has been a revelation for gorilla Liz Karmouche. You know, a lot of us got to know her for the first time if we hadn't followed her early early run as a pioneer going through strike force when she did meet rousey in the first ufc women's title fight i was happy to see it all come together i feel like this is another matchup she could and should win here against oh yeah i've got her as well she's one of the fights she's ever had at bellator and it feels like she's uh yeah she's been around for so long and now it's all coming together for her the wind is blowing in her direction, heading into this second fight with Bennett.

And, yeah, she's had so much success in her Bellator career as champion. I feel like she's, you know, no matter where the fight goes, I feel like she's the superior athlete. Well, she's got the ground game, we know. But when she digs into the striking and goes after it, we've seen her have really bad, boring fights. That Shevchenko title rematch should be wiped from the memory, you know what I mean? But when she sits down on it and goes after it she's still aggressive um Tim Johnson and Saeed Soma

is a heavyweight clash Friday that should produce fireworks Arlene Blanco people sleep on her she makes fun fights there in that women's featherweight division she'll be back against Sarah McMahon that should be actually a decent till altogether Danny Sabatello a plus a minus 490 betting favorite in his first fight since losing to Stotts is going to take on Marcus Breno Danny Sabatello a plus a minus 490 betting favorite in his first fight since losing to Stotts is going to take on Marcus Breno Danny Sabatello man it's hard not to talk about him every time you see him uh I think he did a great job whether he is it a poor man's Colby Covington bid it's something it's pro wrestling there's something going on there he couldn't beat Stotts but they re-signed him I mean mean, how bright is the ceiling here?

He can talk his way into anything, it seems. But can he really fight in your eyes? I think it's, yeah, I think he's, it's the same situation with Horiguchi coming out of the competition, but still being on the show in these two events. And yeah, I mean, when I see him, I kind of want to see what he's got to say.

I know you've had him on the show before. Right, and obviously he can wrestle, but for as much junk as he talks, he does have a style that's just rag doll wrestling rinse repeat that same way i wonder if there's time and he can put the striking together on this level to live up because if you've got that gimmick and you believe it and you stand in it you die you're here like you're you know running the territories in in the mid south in the mid 80s there it's a it's an attractive package there's some cringe elements to what he does in his arts when he dabbles just the same but friday and saturday night bellator 294 and 295 only on showtime what a loaded fight weekend we have

in front of us ellen dawson from business insider man i could just talk up and down the road you do do you have podcasts what are you doing these days days? Where can people get in deeper on your product? Yeah, I've already spoken to a few people who are involved in this show, so I'll be having stuff coming out on Insider and Business Insider this week. Also, I'm teaming up with the guys at Fight Hype, and we're going to be doing a few live shows.

Nice. Maybe on Thursday, and then another one post-fight as well. I mean, you've dug right in and gone after it. fight as well that's I mean you've dug you've dug right in and gone after it um I I say it and I say it again your work on Daniel Kinahan has been fair aggressive important um no one's like knocking on your door at night though right not in Vegas not in Vegas there's there's enough of that going on um here's what's weird though that Kinahan thing got to the level where the furies can't fight

in the states right now and there's travel implications put in do we get there with some of the stuff that gets luke thomas really pissed which is when he sees elite championship level fighters aligning themselves in photos with dictators from other countries we're talking about kadirov and in chechnya over there in that area is that going to get to the kinahan level should it be? Do you have fears when you see these guys all, you know, showing up at the kid's birthday party and all that? I think it's one thing when it's, you know,

like the Dagestan-Chechnya fighters doing it because you don't know how the situation behind it, that they feel they need to do that. It's different when it's American fighters going over to take those photos. And that's when it's it's different when it's american fighters going over um yeah to take those photos and that's when i feel it's when you know luke thomas and karim sudan have got a point about uh the sports washing element of it the photos of daniel kinahan though have died down completely um you know darren till posted one with him tyson fury was seen with him frequently

um sunny edwards as well um since uh the u.s Treasury sanctioned him in February last year, and then the following day, there was a $15 million bounty put on the heads of Christy Kinahan Jr., which is his brother, and Christy Kinahan Sr., which is his father, who used to allegedly run this billion-dollar cartel. It's all alleged. Yeah, but $15 million is a significant amount from the US Treasury because Osama bin Laden

had a $25 million bounty on his head. So that's kind of how serious the US is taking it. But yeah, since then, it's all kind of died down. There's like rumblings that, you know, Kanan still kind of, you know, has his say in a few things. And when you sign so many fighters and when you've been around so many fighters

in European and British boxing, those relationships are probably still going to linger. So I always remember one thing a source told me that knew how he operated in boxing and Kinahan's not the sort of person that you end a relationship with. He's the sort of person who ends a relationship with you. So the key is to never get involved

in that relationship in the first place. I've been in those relationships with women and it was, it wasn't them. It was me apparently. All right, there we go. Hey, a great show today.

Special thanks to Karen Mulvaney, Eric Raskin of the Showtime Boxing Podcast, Luke Thomas on vacation. I think he's back next week. I hope he's a great guy. We love him here, but Alan Dawson, thank you for joining us on the second half.

We'll have plenty more special guests this week. Friday, live morning combat, 11 a.m. Eastern on the YouTubes. From right here, the Blue Wire Studios inside the win. And obviously, Thursday's press conference and Friday's weigh-in for all things Gervonta Davis tank, Gervonta tank Davis against King Ryan Garcia. I will be part of that panel. Ariel Hawani, Kate Abdo, my co-host. We're also going to be calling Saturday's fights on Showtime pay-per-view countdown leading into the start

of this massive pay-per-view from the T-Mobile Arena. Can't wait. There's a fight that crosses over even to you MMA fans. Tank versus Ryan. This is the big one. Alan Dawson, thank you so much kindly for getting up early and joining us here. It's been a blast. Oh, yeah, pleasure. So Mikey Mormyle, our producer with the mostest and the great folks here at the Blue Wire Studios. This has been Morning Combat. Enjoy the rest of the week. You know, loyal hoes.

That's what we normally talk about on the end. We out. Yeah, thank you.