MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - 🚨 Instant Reaction: Fulton-Figueroa | Kambosos-Lopez | Vacation Stories

Episode Date: November 28, 2021

Brian Campbell is BACK with an instant reaction to Stephen Fulton jr. vs. Brandon Figueroa and Teofimo Lopez Jr. vs. George Kambosos. Plus BC shares some stories from his vacation in Jamaica. Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Wow. I back. Trust me. I back. wow i back trust me i back uh this sport right this sport of boxing it'll uh it'll break your heart a lot but when it's in tune when it's all together when you get a year like 2021 has been. And when you get a night like this Saturday night has been, I mean, savor the flavor. It is so sweet. I think it was, you know, the great poets Bush that once said, I don't want to come back down from this cloud. It's, it's taken me all this time, right. To find out what I need. Brian Campbell, the American alpha, the BBC with that BDE, cloud it's it's taking me all this time right to find out what i need brian campbell the american

alpha uh the bbc with that bde fresh off the plane from jamaica incredible vacation behind me obligatory dad vacation at on my head but you better believe i was tuned in and ready to watch a trio of boxing fight cards this saturday night so good, by the way, that I had to hit you up with the MK instant analysis. Morning combat, please like and subscribe below. If you're new to this MK journey, it's the best damn combat sports show, period. I'm one half of your hosting duo, Luke Thomas, the other half. You've been seeing him a lot lately when I've been off here for eight days, but we do this every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 11 a.m eastern on the youtubes this is the ia

loose fun reaction special gonna be recapping a trio of cards here the showtime main event a fantastic 122 pound unification instant classic between cool boy step Stephen Fulton Jr. and Brandon Figueroa also DAZN giving us maybe the upset of the year as Teofimo Lopez Jr. yields his three lightweight titles along with that WBC franchise belt to one beat and upstart George Cambosos Jr. in another absolute war that was thrilling content. And oh, by the way, Triller Fight Club had a big, desperate, but maybe successful pivot into the world of triad combat. So that's what's going to happen right here.

Brian Campbell, as I mentioned. So tip your waitresses, like the video, subscribe to all that we do here, and just get ready because this was theater. And I know that. Look, I take pleasure in this, that that a lot of people came to this MK journey. Morning Combat said, oh, I'm a Luke Thomas fan. I want my serious MMA. I don't want no no dong jokes. And, you know know it took them a while they went the full hamster wheel of hate to hopefully eventually love of your boy bc's unique abstract stylings well some of those stylings are fueled by what my love for this damn sweet science put lipstick on this pig

of boxing and celebrating it to some of you morning combat you just wish it was just luke solo mma takes but are you not entertained okay uh we force boxing at you because it's a combat sports show and because boxing is a tremendous sport uh when things are working right when the politics ain't getting in the way when the best fight the best and when they deliver and i'm overjoyed to see how many of you this calendar year have been, you know, BC, I, I, I took the, the plunge, you know, I took the taste test and good luck. You know, I mean, I kind of like it and I don't want to,

I don't want to bring any of you down at the withdrawal that eventually comes from this sport, but enjoy the high right now. Okay. Live it up. Just, you know, dance like nobody's watching the box is back. It's kind of hot right now. This shit. Holy crap. What a night. What an, you know, there's a reason why if you can get them honest enough that even the, the, the great MMA gatekeeping overlords and genius and hall of fame experts in this sport, like my colleague, Luke Thomas, like the great John Anik, the voice of the UFC, you can get them to admit something in their heart. You know, if you ask him point blank, when boxing is at its best,

there ain't no other sport like it in the world. I'm sorry. There ain't. I love me some UFC UFC delivers. And UFC is not all of them. And maybe you get my point. The MMA at its high, you know, delivers way more consistently. We never have a weekend off in the UFC, let alone a weekend in which we're bored and not entertained with loaded deep cards. But there's something about this classic sport that when it delivers like it

did tonight, you got that, you got that, you know, you got that kick in delivers like it did tonight, you got that kick in your step. You feel like you just caught digits out at the bar if you're still in the game. I mean, just wow, right? Wow. All right, let's start at the top here. This Showtime main event, it was a hardcore fan's dream. And I know even a lot of you, and shout out to Luke Thomas, and he had some great guests on, you know, Oscar Willis from MacLife

and my old friend Karen Mulvaney of the Showtime Pod to kind of break this fight down. And they did a great job. And, you know, maybe you loved it, maybe you didn't. But look, it's a hardcore fan's fight. It's unbeaten Stephen Fulton Jr. of Philadelphia bringing his 122-pound title against unbeaten Brandon Figueroa with the Mexican American style and and just the the you know almost like a tall long guy

who fights in a style that's not really representative of his best traits but yet says go out there and stop my style you know I just beat, Lewis Nettie to the body and knocked him out. And there was a potential for what this fight could be, but it was a hardcore fight fan stream. And not only did it live up, it, it exceeded that potential. And I think it brought a lot of fans over. Maybe it was the timing of these fight cards on this night that this one went on last. I don't think it went underway until 1230 AM Eastern time. Eastern time when that main event kicked off from Las Vegas to the Park Theater. But Showtime's commitment

to the 122-pound division over the past year plus, it paid off on this night in ways that I don't even think any of us could have guessed. We love the style contrast coming in. The fact that Figueroa is just going to give up his height and reach advantage and maul you. But do it in an educated way.

Let's give him some respect. Got Joel Diaz has his own father in the corner. That mixed with the fact that Stephen Fulton Jr. can fight any style. But what happened on this night? I can't fully figure out if Stephen Fulton Jr. was completely willing over all 12 rounds to set up shop in that phone booth and say, you can bring that pressure, but I'm going to land the stiffer, cleaner shots that are going to get the judge's attention. Or if he just decided at some point that I've got to fight that style because this guy will not stop coming. Harold Howard from the UFC back in the day. What did he say? If you're coming on, come on.

Brandon Figueroa was coming on all night. And in the end it goes down as an instant classic, probably your fight of the year again in the 2021 that has been amazing. Unification fight after unification fight wars upsets. Just it's been great. This was an instant classic this reminded people of the great showtime trilogy at the same weight class with rafael marquez and israel vasquez although that was a little bit more violent and brutal this had a little bit more skill because let's be fair vasquez and marquez both kind of yielded the idea of defense and they, and they just, they fit so perfectly with one another, but it's, it's,

it's comparable this fight with that type of spirit. And, and I think it's also on par with those two great 126 pound wars that the PBC and Showtime was a big part of between Leo Santa Cruz and Carl Frampton just a few years back. I mean, this felt special because it was. In the end, it's Fulton coming away with a majority decision, 114-114, and then 116-112 on the other two scorecards, which is essentially eight rounds to four. And I saw, as you probably did, Brandon Figueroa's reaction

in the interview afterwards. It was a little bit of sour grapes, but here's the deal. He felt like he hurt Fulton many times and that it was a no-brainer that he should have won and he might be right even though I didn't score it for him how did you score at BC I had it even entering the final uh entering the championship rounds I ended up 115 113 for Stephen Fulton, seven to five in rounds. But my point is, however you had it, you were right. I mean, this was the Barry Tompkins. Shout out to Barry Tompkins.

He's still doing it in his 80s. He's the voice of Showbox on Showtime. But of course, you know, back in the 80s, he was the voice I grew up with on HBO. And after Marvin Hagler and Sugar Ray Leonard put on that incredible classic he said how do you like it how do you like it and so he says you know it's one of the greatest calls in boxing history and it's like you know how good was that fight how do you like it but it's also like how did you like it how'd you have it however you had it you had it and it was right these rounds were incredibly hard to decipher from one another most of the rounds followed the same script of Stephen Fulton

entering into that phone booth which is Brandon Figueroa's territory right that's the Brandon Figueroa wants you to get into that phone booth he wants to back you up to the ropes he wants he knows he doesn't have 12 round stamina he's got like 34 round stamina he wants to out but just wear you the hell down like he did louis nary but fulton set up shop in there and again said i'm going to be the craftier guy i might be landing the harder shots i'm going to show the i mean land of the kind of efficient shots that the judges are going to be able to see was the clear craft but every single round figueroa found a way to change that script and he came on. Sometimes it was only in the final 20 seconds.

Sometimes it'd be the final minute, but he'd go to the body. He'd flurry. He'd back Fulton up to the ropes and to his credit, there were a couple of times where it's like, oh crap, Fulton's hurt or Fulton's taking a back pedal. And you ended each round going, I like cleaner shots. Or do I like overwhelming volume and body shots and switching stances? And for how much Figueroa gets crap for for his style he really employed it well in this fight he really mixed up

the stance switching the lead right hands the stiff jabs at times which isn't his calling card I mean he's a mauler I don't want to say he's a full-on brawler though and is there a difference I think it's calculated mauling. I mean, he has a really hard style at this weight class to be. I don't know how much longer he can make this weight, by the way. He's incredibly big for this weight class and long. And even though he gives away that height advantage, he uses that length, almost Diego Corrales-like,

to get leverage on the inside. He's not the one-punch knockout guy like Corrales was, you know, at his peak in the, in the lower weight classes, but he just puts on the same level of relentless volume. Yet I thought on my card. And again, these rounds are, I mean, they're flip a coin because they're brilliant rounds in which you could make legitimate cases for either one. I just think there were key momentum turns.

I'd have to really go back in my notes and figure it out, but there was a couple of times in the middle. And then in the second half of this fight where it's like, ooh, Fulton's putting together two consecutive rounds here. Or Fulton's changing the momentum because he's going into that phone booth and he's getting off first. And he's making a point to show Figueroa and the judges that he can land cleaner and harder even and I think that was enough over the totality of these three round mini classic rounds which you know again if you're a boxing judge you're not judging the whole fight at the end you're judging 12 individual fights or rounds I thought he did more he didn't end up attempting or landing more than Figueroa in the end Figueroa had the edge on the CompuBox numbers but I thought Fulton did the better stuff.

But again, if you didn't end up scoring it that way, the fight was so great, so close, so brilliant that I'm going to talk in a second how Teofimo Lopez kind of, you know, he should have just took that L and not doubled down. I didn't have as much of a problem with Figueroa doubling down. I did think it was good that they separated them,

even though I'm the pro wrestling guy who usually wants them to go at it. I felt that could have gone down a wrong Hill in the interview afterwards, Figueroa got to say his piece. I don't think he's going to get an immediate rematch, although it's possible. I think he's more likely to move up and wait, as I mentioned, but these two will see each other again. And I hope it, you know, it becomes a trilogy. I hope this becomes a key rivalry in these weight classes. And in addition to the Vasquez Marquez, uh, great rivalry at one 22, let's not forget that, you know, this was in and around the weight that gave us that great stretch in the, in the two thousands when it was Pacquiao, Morales, Barrera, and Marquez.

And it's one man. Well, Marquez, of course, that just put on insanely great fights against each other you know almost like a four kings type scenario and I know they eventually moved up in weight but I don't I'm not here to say that Fulton and Figueroa are are already or even on pace to enter the sort of legendary status that those guys were and are but I'm saying that this fight belongs in any kind of territory and it has the potential with how good this 122 pound weight division is in terms of the the depth and the names to to be a very fun era and i showtime's commitment to this division coincides nicely

with the fact that we we find that like americans you know in the unbeaten marketable. Well, you know, well-spoken exciting American fighters to sort of get behind and, and Figueroa. Okay. It takes the first L of his career, but this ain't a loss. You know what I mean? This, this, this is a incredible performance, whether he goes up in weight or not, they're going to see each other again. And if Fulton and Showtime can find a way to make a true unification fight in this division for undisputed status. What I mean by that is the WBO and the WBC, I believe, titles are now under the belt of Stephen Fulton,

but it's those other two belts that Murajan Akhmadaliev has, MJ Akhmadaliev, who had the long layoff during COVID, just came back onto the zone recently and scored a nice win. He, of course, beat Daniel Roman in a fight of the year contender in early 2020 before the pandemic. Daniel Roman is also a key contender. So if Fulton could just as well be fighting Daniel Roman next, then that would be a great fight.

I'd love to see them try to find a way to make it work with the politics. You know, allow MJ, Akhmedalia to cross the street and come over and fight Fulton because Aqua Dahlia can fight. He can box. He can, he can get in there and dig in. And this division's hot, big win for full. And I don't necessarily know if he's the best 122 pound fighter in the world. I don't know if he can beat Aqua Dahlia, but Fulton can do it all though. And I think that the, the reason again,

why, why he edged on my scorecard was not just the cleaner work for larger stretches than what figueroa was doing was there were actual stretches in the second half of the fight where he established his jab and he created space and you have to create space or figueroa is going to swallow you up and again and uh back to my original point did fulton dig in the trenches because he wanted to or because he had to I don't know against against Angelo Leo when he won the title in that in that title defense I think he did it more because he wanted to he wanted to show people this may have been because he had to it's hard to keep Brandon Figueroa off of you at 122 but Fulton really had a fantastic performance and what a great fight shout out to Showtime shout out to the two fighters right there

if this was the only story of the night I still would have been you know ready willing and Fantastic performance. And what a great fight. Shout out to Showtime. Shout out to the two fighters right there. If this was the only story of the night, I still would have been, you know, ready, willing and able to fire in a, an instant reaction here in, in hit you up. But it's just part of what was an incredible night, but what a fight. And if you haven't watched this and you're, you know, should I, should I take the leap? I'm an MMA guy. Should I take the leap? BC go watch this fight, seek it out should i should i take the leap i'm an mma guy should i take the leap bc go watch this fight seek it out find the replay of it a 24 year old and 27 year old unbeaten american champion went in there in a unification fight and let it all hang out i mean this was this was war it was a beautiful war it wasn't sloppy it was beautiful so shout out to

those two uh just as well i could have opened this instant reaction though with which was probably the bigger story overall and probably your upset of the year in boxing so teo femo lopez jr the takeover uh the brash uber talented pound for pound ranked coming in unbeaten unified champion we thought he was undisputed champion, but then WBC screwed up the belts and gave Devin Haney his old belt and made him franchise champion, which I would need about 20 minutes to explain to you what that actually

means. Either way, he came in there with either four belts or three in the mandatory against George Cambosos jr. That should have happened a long ass time ago, but you remember what happened. It went to purse bid. Teofimo found that clever way to basically say, okay, top rank.

You don't want to raise my salary after I beat facility Lomachenko last year for these belts and that thriller. Then I'm going to find a way to get this to a purse bid. Triller bit of ridiculous amount of money. They ended up defaulting on it. This fight got rescheduled nine separate times with five different venues and cities and even countries discussed. The real downfall for Teofimo was that he lost this calendar year of momentum in his absolute early prime, where he's this breakout stud after the fight against Lomachenko. And he didn't get an immediate rematch, which he could have.

And this delayed him where this was a 13 month layoff coming in. But yet, you know, I'll be honest. I didn't give George Cambosos Jr. The unbeaten Australian a chance, a chance. I mean, the betting odds didn't give him a chance either. And I knew who he was. I saw that he beat Mickey Bay and he beat Lee Selby, who used to be names in this division but a little bit faded but it like they said in the broadcast it was true it wasn't you know is lopez going to win it's it's how quickly or

can you knock him out quick enough that it won't call you know it won't bump up against the show time and event instead we have a monster upset in a thrilling 12 round war that really with the drama and the pace and the action would not be out of bounds to have. This is an honorable mention for fight of the year. Just the same. Triller defaults on it. The zone, which was the second biggest bid in that purse bid all the way a year ago, ended up televising this in a main event and they did it. The whole city, did they do it? and does it even matter at this point i'm not sure it even matters i i can look that up for you um

this was madison oh the damn theater the hulu theater madison square garden in new york guys this was wild teo fimo lopez comes out guns blazing going for the knockout he gets floored on a beautiful counter right hand from Cambosos that could have knocked out many a fighter but Lopez got back up and got back in the fight but what it proceeded to be in the end a split decision win for George Cambosos but a deserved one and I think there's two things you want to talk about here. One, we did not give George Cambosos enough respect. I did not give him enough respect coming in. He fought the fight of his life. Now I don't necessarily agree with Chris Mannix on the broadcasting is the biggest win in Australian boxing history. Although I get his hipster angle

guys, when Jeff Horn beat Manny Pacquiao in Australia in a war to win a welterweight title, even though Pacquiao was old, that's the biggest win in Australian boxing history, even though it was controversial. Let's not forget Pacquiao rebounded from that to knock out Matisse, beat Broner on pay-per-view, and then edged Keith Thurman in a thriller. So it's not like Pacquiao was washed. He was just older. Either way, though, Cambosos fought the fight of his life. He was tough. He was versatile. His counterpunching was clean, but he also was smart in the way he fought

and didn't give too many easy openings. And what you had was a 12-round thriller in which both fighters hit the canvas. And although I wanted to say that out front and say give Cambosos the respect he deserves Teofimo Lopez lost this fight more than Cambosos won it and I'm content saying that because we all know the betting odds we all know the talent of Lopez he fought a horrifically bad game plan And this was one of those where he almost salvaged it, right? He scored a 10th round knockdown of Cambosos. And he almost did one of those band-aid jobs where we'll say,

oh boy, he came pretty close to losing it. Just like, by the way, when we had that really bad night at the office against Nakatani before the knockout of Richard Comey, before the Lomachenko fight in which we find out later, because he's had a lot of turmoil in this camp that his mother and sister did not approve of the woman that he eventually married and they almost had a fish fight backstage and his mind wasn't where it

needed to be and Nakatani almost pulled the upset but Teo rallied and he pulled off a close win and that was sort of the aberration on Teofimo Lopez's small but very impressive resume this though was was bigger than an aberration this was the type of thing that I don't want to say expose because he's 24 and I mean he came out there you saw his talent around one of me he's crispy sharp he's dynamic but he was tested mentally physically in a lot of different ways and he failed a lot of those tests across the board. And that's why he lost this fight. His game plan was horrific. He went for the knockout the entire fight and did not try to win rounds,

did not try to establish his jab and really gave away so many key rounds through to inactivity. Now look, it's not like Cambosis doesn't have a role in that he does. And he fought the fight of his life, but Lopez is the more skilled fighter. If he goes back and if he can humble himself. And by the way, I love that man. I've interviewed him since before anyone ever heard of him and we get on

great, but it doesn't mean I'm not going to sit here and tell you he blew this. He blew this fight. You're blowing it. Son as Angelo Dundee once told Ray Leonard against Thomas Hearns. No, you blew it. And you would have wished in hindsight he had an Angelo Dundee in his corner. Instead, he had the very controversial brass Teofimo Lopez Sr., who, by the way, is nicknamed Junior, which I don't ever understand that. Another topic another day.

Teo did not have championship level coaching on this night you had his dad basically alternating between telling him he definitely won the round even though he definitely didn't in a lot of these rounds because he didn't throw enough punches or just telling him what the fuck why haven't you knocked this guy out already teo fimo not only did not throw enough punches, seemed to fade at certain times in key moments, which again, 13 month layoff did not help him. The whole drama with Triller did not help him, but he did not help himself, particularly when the momentum clearly went back in his favor. He had a big round nine and then round 10, he drops Cambosos with a beautiful right hand, but does not put it on him. Comes out in round 11 and lays a fat egg, does not throw any punches, gets beaten to the punch and just punts on around basically.

And then even in the 12th, he was aggressive. There wasn't a holy shit. I'm going to lose this. There was no urgency you had a horrible game plan really just trying to land that one big punch the whole time yet not putting enough pressure on to even justify the idea that screw the cards i'm coming in there to knock you out it was really like bizarre did not get the proper coaching and it does expose that you know this was the chips were down this wasn't just okay you're underachieving against a more difficult nakatani but oh you put it together when you had

too late this was an exposure that his camp's been turmoil for a long time his family's wild his dad tries to you know make a lot i mean his dad went up to lomachenko and pushed him and accosted him and that's you know and he got remember remember before up to Lomachenko and pushed him and accosted him. And that's, you know, and he got him. Remember, remember before he beat Lomachenko when this was first even being talked about? We're like, your son's 22, 23. Why are you throwing and trying to throw him in there against the pound for pound king? Well, Tao Jr., you know, back that up. And he went in there and he won that fight, even though it's not forget he did fade down the stretch of that one before coming out in round 12 and sealing the deal in impressive fashion. But there's turmoil in his camp and there's always been, you can really argue after this fight, is his dad the right guy to be his trainer? And I don't want to take away everything

his dad has done to create this dynamic style. This look, very few people can do a Roy Jones like style. And if you used to listen to my old podcast in CBS Sports, The State of Combat with Brian Campbell, you know, I had Roy Jones on here and I said, Roy, is there any fighter who reminds yourself of you? And he's like, Teofimo Lopez. I mean, for Roy Jones to say that. Roy Jones doesn't do anything but talk about himself.

He loves himself. I love Roy Jones. No one has that kind of fast twitch fibers, can throw leaping left hooks, can just do unorthodox stuff. I'll give his dad credit for harnessing that and for really building up this confidence there is a maturity to teofimo lopez that is that belies his age it always has it's why he got married at a young age it's why he's all these you know he can handle the the the stardom and the in the you know the the showcase and all that and he can handle his dad's you know loud claims

and the shit that his dad gets him into until now until he couldn't and this performance overall exposed that lack of real maturation and you know i thought teofimo has had always exceeded in terms of being more mature than his age but i feel like this caught up with him. I don't know if his dad's the right guy anymore. I don't feel like he is. And there also used to be other guys in his camp that I don't know. Where's Joey Gamache? Was he in the corner? If he was, I didn't see him or hear from him at all.

Joey Gamache is an experienced trainer. He was sort of a good second to have next to Tao Sr. I don't think Tao Sr. is that, Teo Sr., who they call Junior. Teo almost pulled it off. And yes, this was a close fight. Now, I had it wider than some. Let me get to that for you. I thought Cambosos deserved this. I got my notes here, but I just got to scroll through them. And again, I don't want to take away from what his performance was. So in the end, I score at 115, 111 for Cambosos. The scorecards in the end are 114, 113 for Lopez,

and then 115, 111 for Cambosos and 115, 112. Now with the two knockdowns, my score is essentially like saying eight rounds to four for Cambosos. And by the way, I'm okay with that. I'm content with that. I think there was a point at the three quarter mark where you really couldn't give more than two rounds to Lopez. He wasn't throwing enough punches.

So the way it played out, Lopez kind of had it coming for the way that he acted. And I thought that he doubled down on the interview afterwards. And I look, there's high emotion. Lopez had a bloody nose, a badly cut left eye. He's got swelling under his right eye. I mean, look, his left eye is a swollen mess on top of the cut.

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Book at AirCanada.com. Conditions apply. You know, could he have been concussed? I, you try not to like the famous, the very famous Showtime fight in which one Manuel Lopez, Juanma got knocked out by Orlando Salido in the first fight. And Felix De Jesus is doing the interpreting in the ring in Puerto Rico afterwards. And this is why you don't interview guys who've just been knocked out. Right. Because Juanma famously said it's the referee. He has a gambling problem

and that's why he caused me this fight and felix de jesus who i talked to all the time the translator for showtime he was like it was like you could see the dread in him like i have to really say this out loud he's like well he has a gambling problem and so does his family i mean like so you know in this case lopez wasn't knocked out. So I'm not saying don't interview him, but you want to almost not hold it against him what he did. But yet it was ridiculously arrogant. And again, for as loud, brash and arrogant as his father always is, not dissimilar to a Danny Garcia and his father, Angel Garcia, like Danny Garcia, Teo Jr. has always been able to sort of be that cool, even keel opposite that. This was Tao just kind of coming out of his shell and kind of taking on that villainous character and saying, I won 10 rounds to two. Bro, you didn't win 10 rounds to two.

So if he was, you know, concussed in saying that or embarrassed or whatever, that's fine. But the key thing is here, that's an embarrassing loss. It's not necessarily a career-breaking loss, but it could be a career-altering one. Now, he's too talented for it to be a career-breaking one, although obviously it's not necessarily a career breaking loss but it could be a career altering one now he's too talented for it to be a career breaking one although obviously it's possible uh i feel like he's gonna grow and learn from this and do what he has to do maybe or hopefully but i don't think he's getting an immediate rematch it wasn't in the in the in the uh. And on top of that, Teo really has trouble making this weight class 135. His body has outgrown it.

And with the timetables, with a 13-month layoff, I think that that was a big part of it afterwards. I would have much rather him to come out and say, look, I underestimated Cambosos. And even if Lopez wanted to be humble but hedge that humility by saying, okay, I lost. He was the better fighter tonight. But, guys, come on.

I had the layoff. I had the tough weight cut. I had the triller bullshit. I had all this stuff. He could have done that, too. But instead, he came down and just said, I won the fight. But no, he didn't win the fight. I think he's going to go north to 140.

And I think he should go after Josh Taylor next. I don't know if he can win that fight, but he already won the four belts at 135. And he made a good point after he said, most guys, when they get the undisputed, they instantly move up afterwards because there's nothing else to prove. He didn't go after the Lomachenko rematch when he had the chance to do that on pay-per-view on ESPN.

So him coming back to fulfill this mandatory in hindsight, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, especially since his goal was to move up. Now, of course, I think he hung around with the hopes of making those big fights that we all wanted to make. Gervonta Davis, Ryan Garcia, Devin Haney, you know. But in the end now, it's George Cambosos who is in the driver's seat to get those. So he's promoted by Lou de Vela.

He's a TV free agent in the U S and, you know, Lou said afterwards, we're going to take the highest offer, whether that's Ryan Garcia, who Oscar de la Hoya, his promoter already tweeted about that. They want to do that fight. It could be Devin Haney who has that WBC belt and has a big fight coming up on the zone against Jojo Diaz jr. You know, you wonder if Lomachenko has a chance to slide in.

Somebody's going to come to the table with a lot of money and Cambosos is going to cash in. Will he cash out, right? Will he sell his name and titles to that? I don't know. I don't know if he's truly at this level. This was the performance of a lifetime from Cambosos, but he's still going to have to prove that this was more

a performance of the lifetime and less a horrific night at the office for Teofimo Lopez, which it was. If I'm team Lopez though, maybe not directly like next fight, but I go up to one 40. I don't mess around with it, with the weight cut anymore. I go up there and I also go back to the drawing board and I go back to boxing. He's a dynamic counter puncher. He can knock people out by accident.

I mean, look at Lopez's rise of knockouts when he was sort of making that leap to title content. They were ridiculously impressive. Look up the one against rock hard, mighty. That's the real, that's the guy's real nickname, Mason Maynard. His nickname is rock hard, mighty. God bless him. Watch that knockout. This guy is ridiculous, but those knockouts come better when they're built off the foundation of boxing. He's got some work to do in there to humble himself and do that, but go up to 140. That's a big fight. You know, ESPN and top rank wants to make it Josh Taylor

versus Teofimo Lopez for all the belts at 140. If I'm Teo, I put this loss in the rear view. I don't talk about it anymore because there's nothing else to accomplish at 135. If he has trouble making the weight, which he says he does, what are you going to do? You already won all four belts. And I know the WBC kind of screwed him, but you already won all four belts. So now go up to another weight class and try to win all four belts. That's the best way you take this taste out of your mouth and you move

forward. But shout out to Cam Bosa who lost his grandfather to COVID recently had the birth of his son. And it was really Cam Bosa who finally put his foot down and forced the trailer withdrawal on it. You know, they defaulted on it by saying, no,

I'm staying in Australia. I'm not coming to the U S for you just to change the date from one week to the next, because you don't want to go up against the baseball playoffs or one of that football. He was the one who stood firm and said, no. And that, you know, so shout out to him in that regard, shout out to the performance he had to win the fight. Now he's going to get a monster payday and fight a big young gun when you're

the opponent and Kambosis was it's best case scenario. So that's well done there. The fight was a joy to watch. It was theater. It was great. We're going to have a lot more on these topics. Of course, on Monday's Morning Combat, you'll get Luke's take. You'll get my nuanced advanced take.

So I don't want to beat this horse to dead because I know a lot of you here are just like, all right, BC, all that traditional boxing stuff is fun. But we want Triller triad combat talk okay all right i'll give it to you they went to uh the home of the texas rangers and they filled that stadium up pretty well they're claiming on the broadcast they had 30 000 a metallica concert which also featured fights. So here's the deal. This idea, this is a desperate pivot from Triller, who was originally the Jake Paul home, the old guy fight home with Tyson and Roy Jones. And we know what happened next.

It got grosser. It got weirder. Are they a concert promoter? Are they a fight promoter? What are they? We've had a Vander Foy field fight when he's 86 years old and they defaulted on the tail. So like they didn't have an identity. What are they doing? Can they keep pissing away millions?

Well they try this desperate turn to an MMA boxing hybrid, which is really boxing, but it's got some rules. And Oh, by the way, we're going to do it in a triangle sized ring. And I know what you're saying. Doesn't BYB extreme the bare knuckle league run by dada 5000 don't they do the trigon the triangular octagon yes they do they also sued triller and ryan cavanaugh uh but yet the fight still went on as planned and you know what good lord these cockroaches. It was pretty damn good. It was entertaining. It was the best thriller card yet. And I think it's a pivot that has some legs, folks, at the end of the day. So the main event had Kubrat Pulev sending Frank Mir to hell and Dan

Margriota trying to bury him in hell. But it had a mixture of boxing versus MMA across the board from Albert Tumanov was on there. Mike Perry, my platinum friend, was on there. And you had that added part of Rampage Jackson coaching the MMA fighters against Shannon Briggs. Let's go champ coaching the boxing fighters and this running scoreboard, which is so gimmicky as shit. Yet probably because of the personalities of both again it kind of worked and it was all about teasing the potential of a fight between rampage

and shannon briggs and they've done a you can argue either a great job in the build of this fight and on saturday's fight card to promote that or a cringe job probably both but that's kind of what this should be and what i mean by this is trillers trying to serve you know what i used to want from hashtag old guy fights this sort of carnival gas station hot dog side of combat sports where you take people who are washed but not dangerously washed and just throw them together and it's fun. They've created now, again, it's not an original idea, but here's what they did. They put eight ounce gloves. They put it in a triangle boxing ring.

They allow you to do the MMA stuff like holding and clinching and dirty boxing. But the whole idea is MMA versus boxer. And that's the theme. And maybe it was the personalities involved or whatever, or the fact that the fights in this setup actually delivered. I mean, there were absolute wars. Mike Perry and Michael Seals, the former light heavyweight boxing contender who was a big slugger but doesn't have good technique.

That was a war. Matt Mitrione went in there against Alexander Flores, had an absolute war. These were fun-ass fights in the end. And it's kind of interesting because what Triller was trying to do of late sucked. It's like, no, look,

was Metallica awesome? Not really. But if that's your cup of tea, then it could have been awesome. And was all these other hip hop acts awesome to me? No, but if that's your cup of tea, it could have been that stuff either means nothing or it helps a little

bit, but your fights have to deliver. And recently they tried to do this old guy shit. But if you're going to do fighters like a Vitor Belfort, like even a fat rampage, you have a little bit left to offer. You put them in there for two minute rounds and this triangle thing where you can't run.

And yet you're going to, you're going to get action. And there was really no snoozers. The fights delivered. And this is interesting now because did the goal actually work to level the playing field between MMA and boxing? It kind of did. But I think that that's obscured by the fact that the majority, except for Kulap, who brought Pulev in the main event. And by the way, Pulev is not at all far removed from fighting Anthony Joshua for, you know,

three heavyweight world titles. Besides him, look, they picked washed up boxers, journeyman boxers, and washed up journeyman boxers. You know, God love him, Brian Vera, Scott Sigman. I mean, these are, you know, so when you put him in there against younger mma guys who are decent as boxers within their mma fighting style and they have the potential to use the rules to their advantage i thought matt matreon was really the only mma guy

who really used the holding and dirty boxing and spinning backfist to his advantage you know although uh the one fella from bellator had the had the superman punch and had some good moments you know the guy you know who i'm talking about he was in there against uh the other guy yeah there you go it's great analysis bc um i think that the fact that it was kind of well matched in the end you know kind of washed up boxers who don't have a chin or much of a hope against guys like mike perry who can push a pay mike perry i thought he was gonna get sent to hell because michael seals can really punch but the way the rules were set up and perry came in in great shape and he was aggressive man those fights were fun and those guys had a walk through hell they got up thank you they

delivered beatings you kind of have to in this triangular phone booth and you know what triller still kind of sucks in key regards the broadcast is cringe and this isn't a shot at ray floris who i love and i've worked with and friends with and all that but just the combination of all of the all the factors nick cannon as the host dressed like a vampire we got a round table of rappers we got like i'm like okay why is peter guns and eric b there i love eric being rock him but why why is Eric B dressed in a tux giving me boxing analysis? And why is Fat Joe drinking and yelling Gigliotti 1,500 times and making fun of Ray?

It was a train wreck, okay? Cynthia Conte, who normally does good boxing work, had a train wreck interview with Ryan Kavanaugh. They knobbed on Ryan Kavanaugh the whole time, the CEO. And okay, that's fine. They do that on broadcast. But if I had to hear another time that Ryan Kavanaugh was changing the world of combats, stop, stop with that shit. And Kavanaugh's extended five minute rant challenging Dana White and sending him an

invitation to come see how a real but like, just stop with that shit. OK, that's not the angle you should go. The angle you should go is to try to basically stick it to be KFC who has developed something decent to be YB, who you're going to have to meet in court someday. But basically these are the promotions that are going after again, the gas station, hot dog, bottom of the food chain of combat sports. I think this trailer fight triad combat is actually the best representation of what I seen. And they are developing an okay stable where, you know what?

I kind of want to see Shannon Briggs and fat rampage in this weird boxing hybrid. Yeah. Like, okay, I'll see it. I kind of want to see Vitor Belfort against one of these guys. Yeah. It kind of worked at the end of the day. So shout out to Triller in that regard, but the rest of your broadcast is great. Sean Wheelock probably should have been, Charlie should have had a bigger role in there.

He actually was doing great. Boss Rootin, God love him. He's, you know, he's on the second half of his broadcasting career. He's still very likable though, but it's cringe. The whole thing's cringe, but the fight's delivered.

And that's at the end of the day what's gonna keep people coming back not metallica not any of this other bullshit the fight's delivered and they have enough interesting wash names i mean albert tumanov can box man where if you want to continue this team thing and you can get coaches that can actually i mean i'll give shannon briggs credit he's like getting in the corner at final round, telling Scott Sigmund, you can do anything for two minutes, go in there and guns blazing. You got to win this fight. I mean, that was kind of compelling. It was kind of compelling. It was interesting.

So what a wild night of boxing at the end of the day, what a wild night of theater. And I know I've rambled for a while, but I'm back and i'm back with a bang bc uh thanks to luke thomas for holding it down on morning combat without me luke's great right it's probably great solo to a lot of you and some people think bc solo is just a train wreck i think bc soul is a fantastic operation that's really improving and really has a bright future but the point of this self-serving rant is that there ain't nothing like MK when BC and LT are together. As good as we are separate, there ain't nothing like MK together. So hopefully you all had a fantastic Thanksgiving

holiday. Shout out to everybody who doesn't celebrate. I know because I was in Jamaica on Thanksgiving and they don't celebrate. So I didn't get my fill fill so to speak uh but i'm back i'm fired up i'm refreshed and in this great year of combat sports this great year of boxing and a loaded december to come which has a uh what do we got going on here giovante davis in a pay-per-view one weekend dustin poirier way back in a loaded ufc pay-per-view the following weekend jake paul in an interesting fight the following weekend mk's gonna bring it your boy bc's gonna bring it lt's got his his his number two back right well who does number two work for he worked he's right here he's the co-host he works for for MK and the boys are back in town. So thanks for holding it together through the look.

We have vacation time. Okay. Family first folks. All right. I used to hate it too. I was the biggest Mike and the mad dog fan, like anybody else with an earshot of six 60 WFAN. And I hated them both separate so badly. You know, I feel like Frances is always going on vacation and it's like, as much as I like when mad dog would stick it to francesa i freaking hated when it was mad dog alone or when it was francesa alone you know you need the other one to call the other one out on his bullshit and

offset him so uh boys are back in town monday 11 a.m eastern on the youtubes check us out um jamaica was fantastic this actually was the best vacation of my life so um i always you know you always say you probably do this with your own kids or whatever we're like you know this is the vacation that we're going to actually relax i'm going to actually read a book i'm gonna i'm gonna do nothing and then what do you end up doing you end up you know spending five days at disney walking around for 12 hours a day nobody actually ever does that i did that this time i did nothing all right i read a whole book where is it jack mccallum's uh unfinished business the story of the 1991 boston celtics i read the whole book cover to cover glorious um i had many a pina colada. Okay. What a week. A lot of jerk pork.

Shit. Spicy as hell, but it's great. And, you know, Canelo is going to fight a cruiserweight. What? Don King's trying to get in the way of this. What? A lot of stuff going on in boxing and MMA. So we're going to bring it in December.

It's a long rant ended by a long rant by me just to say, thank you, MK fans for making this family this weird family you probably went back at thanksgiving and visited your actual weird family a weird family okay we got a we got a rapey french uh teacher who's trying to sleep with his students we got uh the great web scream uh we got we got a weird antoine in alaska i see you okay enoch who with the great record store in uh rally durham. We got a great weird family of people. I love y'all. Even the snarky ginger redhead who hates me. This is me though, signing off after a fantastic night in the box.

I'm glad you guys are getting a little taste of this. It's a, it's a special amazing sport, but it is that drunk uncle who may clean up every, every other year, but he'll embarrass you at the end in this sport world too. But for now we riding high baby. Woo. I'm an old dad with an old dad hat, but signing off it's BC and I'm feeling really good right now. My sport, my sport delivered. Thank you.

I'm out. We out.