MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - James Krause Retires | UFC Fight Night: Santos vs. Hill | WORST MMA Injuries | Ep 331

Episode Date: August 3, 2022

On Episode 331 of Morning Kombat Luke Thomas is joined by Danny Segura for a special episode. The boys start the show by talking about James Krause's retirement. How will he be remembered? Iranian Hulk had a boxing match this week. What are their thoughts on that? Next up the boys discuss the biggest storylines heading into UFC Fight Night: Santos vs. Hill. The guys close out the main topics by discussing PFL's new Playoff format and the worst MMA injuries they have seen. But that's not it.... We have Over/Under and a quiz for Danny of what makes a good MMA fan. (14:05) - James Krause Retires (26:45) - UFC Fight Night: Santos vs. Hill (56:30) - PFL Reveals New Playoff Format (62:00) - Iranian Hulk Exposed (68:30) - Worst MMA Injuries (79:00) - Over/Under (94:00) - Am I a Good or Bad MMA Fan? 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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I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. 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. Guess what day it is? Guess what day it is? Hello, everyone. It is the 3rd of August, 2022, and it is time for Morning Combat. I am one half of your hosting duo for today. My name is Luke Thomas. I join you from the capital of Estados Unidos right here in Washington DC joined by my friend. Look at this man. I was gonna call him El Bigote but I guess he shaved it off. Look at that. It's uh it's the it's the it's the what would you call him? I don't know. He's the king of South Florida. Some shit like that.

It's Danny Segura. Hi, Danny. How are you? Can you hear me? Oh, shit. He can't hear me. Well, we're off to a rip-roaring start. Oh, there we go. What's up, dude? What's up, man? A little delayed, but I can hear you. Thank you for having me. I'm hyped to be on this show. I think I set the bar real low as far as tech last time. So I mean, there's only up from here, right? Yes, there is. Yeah, you'll see a delay in the zoom screen, just sort of work off the audio, not what the picture shows you because there is a delay.

Okay, neither here nor there. Let's catch up a little bit, Danny. So you are currently with MMA Junkie. You live in Miami, Florida. You were living in New York for a time during the pandemic, you switched up things. How is sunny South Florida? it's good man i can't complain uh weather's great here i ran away from some of the prices in new york sadly uh prices here are getting you know through the roof rent everything i mean all around the country but south florida is like a special place as far as like real estate and all that is going off um but all in all i mean i can't complain life is good working for ma junkie very happy and uh yeah excited to talk to you about combat sports this morning we had rashad on monday who also lives i think in you know you're roughly your neck of the woods somewhere there in south

florida and he was telling me that the heat is so bad at this time of the year that you treat it like the snow in December in New York which is that like you just don't leave the house is that what you do how do you manage the how do you manage what the weather there yeah pretty much I mean doing activities throughout the day like if you're gonna go play sports or whatever it's impossible so for example I usually play soccer like on a weekly basis. And at this point, we're just all playing at night because during the day would be would be suicide. So. So, yeah, the weather here over the summer, it's it's pretty bad just because it's so humid. But I mean, you just wear out the storm and then around like September, it gets really nice. So, you know, we've got a couple of, and then we'll be good to go out. After that, nothing beats the South Florida weather from September to February, March, I would say.

Wow. It's a nice long stretch, I do have to admit. Yeah. It changes things up. Well, listen, we're good to have you. It is not the strongest week in combat sports, but there's still plenty going on. Danny and I are going to get to it. We havements we have a ufc event this weekend we have some pfl news we've got a bunch of the games we're going to play here today it'll be a fun one midweek for you here on morning combat so thumbs up on the uh let's see if you're watching on youtube hit subscribe let's throw up the socials there for our lower third there you go

you want to give danny a follow on all the various places you can check them out right there also as a reminder morningcombat.store for any of the merch i don't have any merch on today hey uh danny have we sent you any merch yet do you have any mk no zero man zero you guys gotta send some stuff my way yeah yeah all right we'll get that you know i don't know if we have in kid sizes, but we can probably find some for you to wear. Dude, I've been hitting the gym, my man. I'm, like, large on kids now, so, you know. There you go. Dude, this is a true story.

Do you guys still have the dad hat? I don't. I haven't looked recently. Okay, I like those. If there is, I'd take one of those for sure. All right, big dad energy there from Danny Segura. I had a buddy, my best friend in high school. This is true.

It's not true anymore, obviously. He's grown a little bit. When we were juniors in high school, just think about that. 16, 17, something like that. He was still so small that he had to buy pants in the kids section. I was like, you're just the runt of the litter. He's a little bit bigger now.

That's why I like to joke. We also have Showtime. Showtimetime.com 30-day free trial if you like it you can keep it if not you could pound sand by the way it's not just the sports side it's everything that showtime has to offer from the app on demand the whole nine yards in fact yesterday we i sat down here in dc with w kam Bell, who has had specials on Showtime as a comedian, but he also is responsible for the Cosby documentary, the multi-part documentary series that aired about him on Showtime, the award-winning one. So we talked about that. That interview will be out pretty soon.

Let's see, Danny. I'm trying to think if there's anything else here. Oh, yes. I know, for example, what we have to do. This is where BC just takes many, many liberties. I'm assuming to think if there's anything else here. Oh, yes. I know, for example, what we have to do. This is where BC just takes many, many liberties. I'm assuming you won't. BC, I did this to Rashad, too. I called him BC as well.

It's so ingrained, Danny, that I have a difficult time switching. But AG1, Athletic Greens 1. What do you do, Danny, as a young man who has no concerns in the world? What do you do to manage your health no so I actually started um I did a keto diet for a while and I'm like a paleo low carb diet I very much like the athletic greens like what they what they have I do use some supplements that uh that go into athletic greens so I got to check it out further but I I from what I've seen from athletic greens I do like what they what they offer and look for young people out there like you think your body

can hold up and stuff like that but you gotta look you have to start looking towards the future and investing in your health whether that's nutrition or supplementing with athletic greens like it's it's super important man yeah well i just gotta tell folks i mean i know it's impossible to believe but i was one uh young one time, too. You will turn into a Dodge Omni if you last long enough. So you better take care of it while you can. Obviously, if you're an MK viewer, you know the drill. Athletic greens, tons of high-quality vitamins and minerals.

It's not a bunch of pills you got to take. It's one scoop. Chuck some water in it. It's not too disgusting at all. In fact, it's one scoop. Chuck some water in it. It's not too disgusting at all. In fact, it's quite tasty. But I'm saying it doesn't give you that thing that, oh, I'm just going to put a bunch of vegetables in the blender and then stir them all up and eat them. No, no, no. It goes down smooth. It tastes real good.

It's lifestyle friendly, to your point there, Danny. Whether you eat keto, paleo, vegan, dairy-free or gluten-free, it contains less than one gram of sugar, no GMOs, no nasty chemicals, or artificial anything while still tasting good. Yeah, and it costs you less than $3 a day. You're investing in your health, and it's cheaper than your cold brew habit. It certainly is. Taking Athletic Greens as a small micro habit with big benefits, one thing you can do every single day to take great care of yourself. Yeah, for sure.

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Again, athleticgreens.com slash morningcombat with a K to take ownership over your health and pick up the ultimate daily nutritional insurance. Let me ask you, why did you go keto and then paleo what was up with that so i wanted to try keto just for for the hype i've been seeing a lot of it and actually keto is amazing like i i've i've never felt better in keto um but it's just very you know restrictive of what you can eat because you have to stay under like 20 grams of carbs which is is very, very difficult to do. Like for people just to realize like you eat a banana and you're already like at 20 carbs or close. So, um, so I just decided to try keto for some time. Then I don't want to live that lifestyle. So I just do low carb, uh, still eating very clean and more or less like paleo. So I eat a lot of of protein a lot of like leafy greens vegetables

fruits and i'll have some carbs every now and then some complex carbs but i i totally killed the refined carbs from my diet and you know how hard that is being colombian um you know with the pan de honos like everything bro like empanadas like it's tough dude but you know i'm getting used to it now i will tell i tell people this you know, I'm getting used to it now. I tell people this, you know, certainly I'm no expert on any of this stuff, but as a guy who just, you know, walked into a new world and is trying to learn it, Colombians don't eat a lot of vegetables. Not a lot of vegetables.

Just fried shit and carbs, dude. Yes. A typical Colombian meal for breakfast would be like an arepa, maybe an egg, rice on the side potentially, you know juice is a big one to your point right there's a lot of juices they do there's like there's hardly any there's no vegetables it's just a lot of carbs and a lot of proteins that's a that's a tough way to go but i'm you know you're looking here in good condition so yeah yeah no i feel great yeah and you know like colomb like you're in good condition. Yeah, yeah. No, I feel great. Yeah. And, you know, like, Colombians also eat rice, like, every day. Yes. So, you know, I had a breakout of that, too.

All right. Let's get this party started, if we can, without further ado. We start with topic number one. Now, we are going to get to the fights this weekend in just a bit. But I wanted to start with a bit of a different note here. Typically, we do lead off the rundown with whatever the uh biggest anchor event is of the weekend we will do that in just a moment but yesterday james kraus who has been a ufc staple for some time retired uh he retired i think on ariel hawani's mma hour suggested he was done

and this is a guy who's got an interesting reputation danny because james like if i had to ask you off the top of your head, the very best James Krause win, we should be very clear about this. He's got some good wins on his resume to be sure. And in all the wins, he showed well-rounded, thoughtful ability, but this is not a guy who was a previous champion. For example, I don't think he ever even fought for a title. I don't think he ever got all that close to be quite honest with you. He fought over middleweight and welterweight for the vast majority of his career. I think he had some 160 fights on the regional scene.

But if I had to ask you what the significance was of James Krause retiring and why we're talking about it for a guy who, again, good record, but not a hugely accomplished record as a fighter, what stands out to you about why this news is significant? I think it's significant because he is transitioning into a coach role although he's been doing it for many years and honestly he's become a really good coach not only in the octagon but also i feel like on sort of the lifestyle and and just outside of the octagon how to manage your money how to like

live a proper lifestyle making what you make inside of the UFC like I feel like that's that's very important and you see guys like Jeff Molina talk about it like oh yeah he got me to like buy a house and I didn't really know about that now I have it rented and I'm making a little bit of income and I think that's super important and so like all around he gets the game not only as a fighter because he was one obviously and stayed in the UFC for many many years even though he didn't become champion just lingering around the UFC for you know eight years or whatever the case was that's a long time and it requires a lot of skills so he's got that experience but at the same time he's not a guy that became champion as you said he's not a guy that was like a huge draw he made a decent money but more or less was kind of like in the middle of the pack if we're talking

about money and he's you know living pretty well has a house has a nice car i believe he has like a bronco if i'm not mistaken um and like yeah he's been able to like invest and really sort of manage the game well and i think he's sort of a good mentor for fighters uh in all aspects no doubt about it you know here's the thing that stands out to me and the reason I wanted to lead the show with it is again he was an accomplished fighter he did some pretty good things we're looking at his record he did have you know his most notable fights were ones that he in terms of the name value of opponent let me be clear about that were ones that he lost he lost to Bobby Green and he lost to Jorge Masvidal.

He does have a win over Jamie Varner, which I don't know if folks will appreciate because that was in 2014 here, eight years later. It's crazy to be like James Kraus fought Jamie Varner eight years ago, right? That's insane. It doesn't feel like time has passed, but it certainly has.

And of course, he finished his last fight with a win over Claudia Silva and has a win over Sergio Marais, which is a knockout win in the third round, which is pretty good. He had some performance bonuses along the way. You get the idea. He had a good career. He had a good career.

But I think what stands out to me is as good of a fighter as he was, I think he's going to be a much better coach, a much better coach. I think he's already sort of showing himself to be where are your best attributes? What do they put to the best kind of use? And being the guy who can train these younger fighters, people are now flocking to him. He now has a champion

in his stable. Now granted, he had a guy who was previously a champion who lost in this interim title, but the fact that Brandon Moreno left a very good gym in mexico whatever his reasons may be to go join james kraus kind of tells you what he's putting together there in the midwest is something of value and i think a lot of times we look at fighters get into a coaching role maybe habib is somewhat different because his whole situation is unique and we sort

of wonder about whether or not not they'll fade into obscurity or, hey, that was a guy who used to fight. I actually feel like his profile might elevate by virtue of the performances that he's had to this point, Danny. And what you see is a, it seems to me, maybe I'm reading it wrong, so if I am, by all means interject. But it seems to me that he's building momentum as a coach in a public way that I'm not sure he ever accomplished as a fighter.

Yeah, I have to agree. And look, I interview Brandon Moreno a lot. And I talked to him and I asked him, I'm like, hey, why did you decide to leave Entrem Gym? Because, dude, he became a champion with Entrem Gym. He became history. Like, he became the first Mexican to to win a ufc title fighting out of mexico which people don't really realize how difficult that is given the resources uh that you know you find in the u.s and everyone just tries to go to these major gyms but he did it out of a small gym and put

tijuana on the map as well as entram gym who has a ton of prospect as well that team is ridiculous um but and also like when he lost his last fight with entram gym when he lost it was a close fight against Davidson Figueiredo. It's not like we saw him you know look terrible or anything like that but he had told me that for one fight and I think it-ins. And James Krause sat next to him. And then they just happened to be talking. And then James Krause is like, he tells me he's like this fight nerd. He's just obsessing and watches every single fight. And he was, you know, telling him how good he was and all these things that he liked about his game. And maybe some of the holes that he saw and this and that. And then once Brando Moreno saw this, like, dude, this guy has me like analyzed.

I barely know him. He's like, OK. And then once he started taking trips to Vegas, Jim Scrowls for fights, they started kind of training together. And that's why Brando Moreno, as soon as he left Entram Gym, that's straight up the first place that he went to. He did not decide to try any other big gyms. He also kind of likes that personalized boxing style training training camp where everything's focused around him rather than go to a big team and sort of be one of the many big-name fighters around there.

Is there a way to explain the Entran Gym dynamic to people like us? You've been there, right? You've seen it. For folks who haven't seen it, you've done a documentary from... That was on Lobo Gym. I haven't been to Entran.

That was on Lobo Gym. That's right. We had to say Lobo Gym. Have you been to... So have't been to it that was a low ball gym have you been to end the so have you been to brandon marino's old gym i haven't uh but i'm dying to go i gotta make a trip to to tijuana but they got tons of good prospects um michael morales who fought at ufc 277 huge prospect from ecuador i mean everybody that that is training in latin america and can't get into the u.s because of visa issues or whatever, they go to Mexico and they go to Entrem Gym because that's literally the best gym right now outside of maybe like Shuto Box in Brazil or a few other big teams in Brazil. But excluding Brazil, Entrem Gym is probably the best gym you can find in Latin America right now.

Interesting. Super crazy. Yeah, so we'll see what happens with this there is one or one more note to the story which i don't even know what to make of it's not really related to kraus's accomplishments per se but he had revealed to ariel yesterday he makes the majority of his money gambling on mma now i don't know what to make of that because on the one hand, Danny, if you did this in team sports, you'd be banned for your, you know, significant portions of the season, but that's it's a little bit different, right? I mean, there's there is a dynamic in play there about, you know, obviously to start with employment versus independent contractor. Obviously, the betting aspect of MMA is sort of inherent in it, but no one seems to care a bad an eye about it.

I'm not saying I care all that much either if I'm being perfectly candid, but it is unusual for someone to just openly and brazenly admit that they make a ton of money betting on fights when, in fact, you're part of an operation where I think that the incentive for winning is so strong, especially given the financial constraints, that no one would purposely blow a fight, although certainly you could bet in a way that they would, but you can imagine the, at least, I'll put it this way, the appearance of impropriety, right, at a bare minimum, it's a little weird for

a dude right in the thick of it to be like, i make all my money or tons of money anyway betting on uh mma like should we care is it is it a story where are we on this yeah it's funny how i'm like uh praising james cross here for like being financially smart and helping fighters like invest this and that and then like you know uh there's also this part that he makes most of his money gambling which is usually not like the safest route or how to do how to invest your money properly. Let's just say that. But yeah, it is weird. I think something that kind of takes away a little bit and makes it a little bit less of a big deal is that he's not fighting. If you're fighting, I think that's if you're actually going in there, that's a little bit more concerning, i think because you know maybe oh i'm gonna you

know just a hypothetical situation if you're a fighter you could be like if you're really good maybe you could be like oh i'm gonna get this guy out in the fourth round because that's the round that you know the betters predict um you know the odds are the worst for me so then you know i'll coast and then i'll try to look for a finish etc but since he's a coach role i think there's a little bit less of that but still i do get your point um i think maybe it should be a little bit of a bigger story but at the same time there's so many things that should be a bigger story in mma but they just aren't for whatever reason like people just don't seem to care um but yeah it is it is a little weird it's a little weird is the way i would put them yeah a little weird all right. Let's now move on to the next story here.

This is the one that's the anchor event of the weekend. Of course, let me just quickly get your opinion on this in a second. This was supposed to be Jake Paul fight week, right? This was supposed to be Jake Paul versus Haseem Rahman Jr., Madison Square Garden, and it's not. Now, we covered this story already on um yes or i should say monday's mk so danny very quickly your thoughts on everything that happened in the disintegration essentially of the event yeah bummer because um it was jay paul's return and you know i'm not huge fan of jay paul but

i did like this fight because in this fight i feel like he wasn't just fighting he was going to be forced to box in the previous fights he was just fighting and you know there's a big difference between actually boxing and then fighting with this one he was actually gonna have to put combinations together you know he was gonna have to be in this conversation within the sweet science that we've never seen him before before it was just like dodge punches and look to land the right hand. You know, not a very complicated way to go about these fights. And here against Rockman Jr., like Rockman Jr. obviously is in the best boxer in the world. But he's a boxer. Like this guy's out there in the sweet science.

He knows the sport and he's actually doing the damn thing. So it is a bummer that we don't get to see that next step, that escalation. It's crazy how everything fell apart right from the start. Like it just when Tommy Fury wasn't able to get into the U.S., they found a late replacement. There was the hydration clause. Like there was already a lot of hurdles. And this kind of just blows up on Jake Paul's face. Not the best look.

I mean, it's a crazy situation but um i just hope that whenever that he returns he kind of keeps the same vibe and goes up against the boxer last thing on this assuming that nate doesn't get like his his his um how do i say this assuming nate makes it through the homs out fight without his, you know, without the, without the market's desire to see him damaged, right?

They still want to see him, whatever that means. How big is Jake Paul versus Nate Diaz in boxing? How many, how many buys put it, put it on the line, Danny. That's huge.

I mean, I don't think, well, you think like 800,000, I think, I think it does a million. I think, I think, I think you can do a million. I think, no, again, all do you think like $800,000? I think it gets close to a million. I think you can do a million. I think, again, all of these things have to line up.

It has to be the right promotion. It has to be done well in advance. Both guys have to do interviews. You might even want to do a media tour for it. But I think under the right circumstances, yes, I could sell a million, no doubt about it. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. That'd be an about it. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. That'd be an interesting fight.

I'd definitely, I'd watch that for sure. All right, let's get to the fights this weekend. We have, however you want to label it, UFC Fight Night Walker vs. Hill, UFC Fight Night 201, UFC on ESPN Plus 59, UFC Vegas 48, whatever. We have a card at the apex. Now, Danny, the UFC has been doing something a little bit interesting. As things have changed and the world begins to open back up and the UFC goes on the road a little bit more, right?

They're not just going on the road for pay-per-views. They're now going on the road for fight nights. They were in, of course, Texas. They were in Long Island. They'll be in some other places soon. They're going to be in San Diego for the Chito Vera fight. What's ending up happening is that the Apex is still a valuable place for them, but it'd be hard to argue that the UFC is reserving their best fights for the Apex, all things being what they are. You do have a decent main event we're going to talk about in

just a second between Jamal Hill and, excuse me excuse me yes between Jamal Hill and Tiago Santos uh nevertheless what is your assessment of how the UFC has treated the apex of late the card quality there the card quality this weekend what is your view about how all of that is sort of created a tiered system of content. Yeah, it's interesting. I think we are seeing this is because clearly the cards on the road are better. And a lot of people are attributing it to like the crowd. And I think obviously it plays a factor into the fights being better, the fighters getting amped up and all that. But if you just look at the cards on paper,

the cards outside of the Apex are just much better. And one of the reasons is because at the apex the ufc doesn't have to sell tickets so i i don't think that this card uh in all the respect to all the fighters competing at this upcoming card this saturday i don't think you can put that on the road and sell out so you do have to you know put a little bit of muscle in those cards that are on the road because tickets are a big part of it. So what happens is that for the shows that are at the apex, we're now seeing, you know, the UFC not really put as much emphasis in those cards. So if it's already an apex card, you know that, OK, main event, common event are going to be good.

But then below that, there might be a few gems here and there. But more or less, it's not going to be a very strong card so that's i think that's the biggest thing i think ticket sales um influence the ufc into actually putting more muscle into these cards so um i love the ufc on the road just because it guarantees us a better event but um you know i don't really dig too much of the ufc apex to be honest but it does serve a purpose nowadays with so many cards with so many fighters on the roster who they have to give fights to this is a good avenue to sort of keep the machine rolling yeah people complain about the apex like it's the apex by itself that's the problem but i didn't mind the quiet fights with not much of a crowd during the middle of the pandemic to me i don't the apex. What I mind is that if you're going to give all of the very best stuff

to your pay-per-view and then some really good stuff to the fight nights, there's just not going to be on the road. There's just not going to be much left. Now, with that in mind, let's talk about this main event, Danny. Tiago Santos in a 205-pound main event against Jamal Hill. Jamal Hill on a two-fight win streak. Tiago Santos having lost three of his last four. The last loss to Ankalayev was thorough but boring. I think most folks would say there just wasn't much action. He did have a win before that against Johnny Walker

but since the fight to Jon Jones and the time off and the surgery and everything else, hard to argue he's exactly the same as he was before. In fact, he's a pretty big difference. Size up this contest for me. What do you see as the most relevant way to look at this fight? Yeah, I think this is, Jamal Hill's a pretty interesting guy in the division. I think Tiago Santos hasn't, I agree with you, he hasn't looked great since the Jon Jones defeat.

Obviously, he has some really bad knee injuries that he had to take time off but he he hasn't been the same he he just doesn't fight with the same level of activity doesn't fight with the same level of meanness um so I think this is kind of setting up Jamal Hill to become an exciting contender at 205 if he's able to pick up a good victory here and remember he'd had that crazy knockout win over johnny walker not so long ago i mean what the 205 division needs right now is names and top contenders so i feel like this is a great opportunity main event against the former title challenger to sort of kind of propel

jamal hale into that conversation and have them you know uh be set up for future uh bigger bouts here in the in the division so that's kind of what I see here. I think this is Jamal Hill's opportunity to sort of go beyond just being an exciting fighter that gets good finishes here and there and actually become a contender and become a threat in the division and somebody that we start talking about as a potential future title challenger. Tiago Santos currently sitting at age 38. He'll be 39 in January.

So he's sort of halfway through it there, give or take. Not quite. A little bit longer, actually. Jamal Hill just turned 31 in May. What is your view of the upside of Jamal Hill? You kind of got to it. Since he joined the UFC, he won on the Contender Series. He had the no contest to clits

and abray which was originally a tko uh hill for win overturned after he tested positive for marijuana which is obviously bullshit we can be honest about that follows it up with the oven st pru and he did lose to paul craig he got finished inside the first to paul craig but then rebounded with wins stoppage wins in the first round himself against jimmy crude and johnny walker what great hand speed, good boxing. But to your point, as good as he's looked, maybe there's still definitely some, not questions, but there's further challenges to answer before we get a more complete picture. Yeah, for sure.

And before we talk about it, how BS is the whole no contest for marijuana? I know we've talked about this. Media has just talked about it for many years but now that vegas not that the nevada athletic commission made it i guess they don't test for marijuana anymore should they go back and like give all these guys that got their wins overturned to a no contest shouldn't they get their wins back because i mean they're not testing for anymore and they're saying it's cool so you know what what's going on there yeah they should i mean it's fucking bullshit that they ever did it to begin with they don't have any way to know if he

was actually on feeling the euphoric effects of it during the time of the bout of the the fight itself so no the commission's fucking blow we know this yeah it's ridiculous but yeah um to your point yeah i agree like good hand speed good boxing i think uh he's a little bit green he needs a little bit more experience uh jamal hill obviously uh you know he's just uh 12 fights into his mma career so understandably so uh but this is a guy that again needs experience and i feel like above everything he needs victories over guys that have name value for confidence and also just to kind of beef up the the record and the resume and i think this tiago santos fight is is a great next step um i really like this matchup for jamal hill and i

will see how how this guy evolves i mean he's 31 we know that light heavyweights or heavyweights usually tend to have longer careers usually they they get into their primes a little bit later into their into their uh careers compared to lighter weight classes. So I think at 31, considering he doesn't have a ton of experience, I think there's still a lot for Jamal Hill to gain here and to evolve. So as of now, I'm not screaming, hey, this guy's title contender. This guy's a threat. But who knows? Let's wait and see what happens to Tiago Santos.

Maybe he makes a statement here. And, you know, fighters can evolve greatly in between fights. So he certainly has a lot to work with in terms of his athletic ability, hand speed, power. He just has to add a few things technically, I think, and he's up there, man. Yeah. In fact, if you look at the rankings, which was probably a big driver in how this fight got made, currently at the time of the broadcast broadcast Jamal Hill sits at 10 which seems about right Tiago Santos sitting at six now what's interesting is that Paul Craig is sitting at nine nine uh Craig has a stoppage win over Hill but my guess is that what they're looking to do is they want to get some fresh contenders in there because if you look at six to ten it goes

something like this six is Tiago Santos who's had a title shot I think is on the downside of his career. Which isn't to say he can't win on Saturday. That's not what I mean. But his best wins are probably behind him, is what I think. Dominic Ray is sitting at seven. Not sure what to do with him. Already had a title shot.

Actually, a couple of them. Eight, Vulcan Uzdemir. Got a nice win over Paul Craig sitting at nine. But again, Uzdemir already had a title shot. Craig is sitting at nine. Then you have Jamal Hill at 10. To your point, Jamal Hill doesn't have the same experience as those guys.

With a win over Santos, I don't know if he'll take the number six spot, but it puts some new life into the top of that division. With the exception, Danny, of Jan Blachowicz sitting at two, one to five is Tashara, Ankalaya, Rakic, and Smith. So Smith's had a title shot. Tashara, the former champion. Actually, you know what he has?

Tashara Blachowicz. Yeah, they're trying to get some new blood in there is the basic idea. They're trying to shuffle some new life into there. Jamal Hill at 31, one of the younger guys given that position, it put him just outside the top five-ish in that space. Conversely, if Santos gets a win

to me this would be his most validating one Johnny Walker sitting at 13 if he could be like a like a surging let's put that way semi-surging Jamal Hill that would shut up doubters like potentially you and me or somebody else out there who thinks oh well he can't you know this is the end of it that would it would be a real validating moment to keep his spot hovering on the outside of that top five basically yeah no for sure i think that's that's what it is he's looking to prove that he belongs in that spot at number six because right now um you know tiago santos career as you mentioned is a bit on a downfall he doesn't look this he doesn't look to be the same fighter that he once was but if he loses to jamal hale i think that's a clear indication like hey hisal Hale I think that's a clear

indication like hey his better days are over because that's a different type of defeat a different type of loss so this is very much guarding his spot and and guarding um I'm not saying he's gonna become a title contender with this win but guarding yeah that spot that like hey you know I'm here to compete and I'm still among the top 10 in the world look at this guy that was coming up that was ranked at 10. He couldn't get by me, give me a big fight in the future. And for Jamal Hill, it's that. I think if you beat him, you get a former title challenger in your record.

A lot of people saw him beat Jon Jones. I think this opens the doors for the top five, and all of a sudden we're going to start seeing him in meaningful bouts that could have big consequences at 205 for sure. No doubt about it. Yeah, somebody who's not title shot ready, but top contender fight ready is the way I would put that. All right, so our co-main event is actually maybe the best fight on the card.

In fact, if you were ranking, tell me if you disagree, Danny. If you were putting the fights in order in such a way where you were putting it like very best fight on paper first this is what it would be of all the fights on the card Vicente Luque taking on Jeff Neal at welterweight that's the best fight on this card by a mile neither guy is shot neither guy is by any means potentially even reach their peak yet that's some debate over that but where are they where is Vicente Luque in his career Danny and where is Jeff Neal and why is their meeting here significant yeah this is my favorite fight on the card and I think it'll be Manny's as well um I think Vicente Luque is in a similar position uh to Tiago Santos not exactly

in the sense that you know he looked terrible in his last outing and we're thinking he's going downhill no I think his better days are still ahead, but he does share the same ranking. I believe he sits right outside of the top five. He's number six nowadays. And he's always been a guy that like he's clearly talented and picks up important wins. But once he needs to make that big step and really face somebody against the top five, he's come up short, right? This time around, it was Bilal Muhammad in his last outing. Prior to that was Steven Wonderboy Thompson and then you know he takes those L's and he goes on these long streaks until he meets again a top five um will that be the story in the future I guess we'll find out but this is that this is that rebound to kind of uh just check Vicente Luque real quick like okay

clearly you couldn't get past the top five for now um but let's just make sure real quick you're still you know above the pack of the top 10 and uh fighting here um jeff neal i believe he's ranked number 14 i think that fight serves that uh while on the other hand for jeff neal it's you know an opportunity against one of these bigger guys so he can go in the future hey you know i deserve a big step up in competition and certainly a win over vicente luca would probably be his best right like vicente luca is is an animal certainly he's he's super super good and something that i like about luca here is that he's always been open to like taking you know tune-up fights and i'm sort of throwing the air

quotes here because jeffrey was no tune-up fight but this is as close as you can get to a tune-up fight in the ufc and i think that's great i mean usually guys of his position would want to just you know keep uh in the top and just fighting guys that are in the top five or close around vicente luke after big losses he has no problem like going okay let's just get some momentum back let's get some victory back and uh and yeah i think that's exactly what he's doing in this bat in this matchup so i think this is a a perfect fight for luke and a perfect fight for neil as well dude i completely forgot because it's so hard to keep up with this stuff now in ways that it never used to be but in 2019 jeff neil has a unanimous decision win over balal muhammad i completely forgot about that number one and two, it tells you a lot of things because Neal's last fight, which was a win,

over Santiago Ponzinibbio, that was nice, but it was split. It was a tough fight. Questions about where Ponzinibbio was at in this stage in his career as well. And then prior to that, he had losses right back to back to Wonderboy and Magni. And the one to Wonderboy was like,

I mean mean extremely one sided by and large so it tells you that like neil has kind of tripped up a little bit is trying to catch his feet he might be able to continue that that process here on saturday conversely dude bilal muhammad is a guy that i i've been wrong about bilal more times than i am happy to admit that dude has turned into a genuine force and i know the criticisms are going to be, well, his game is not all that entertaining, but you would certainly agree, dude. Bilal has really turned into a dynamic

force in this division in terms of giving very good fighters like Vicente Luque in their last contest, I believe, a really, really tough, frankly, I won't say punishing victory, but complete, certainly in the sense of there was by the time they went to the scorecards there really wasn't much question about the arithmetic

was there yeah well muhammad has really turned a corner he has losses to both these guys here and blah muhammad is just a really good fighter and i think yeah he might not have that many stoppage wins a lot of his fights go to decision but i would say out of everybody at welterweight he's one of the guys that fights most responsible um he sticks to his game plan doesn't deviate from it um you know minimize his risk as much as he possibly can i mean the guy really does the best and puts his uh his his tools he does the best that he can do with his tool set and uh yeah it's a guy that's uh a lot of people doubted him

and a lot of people i feel like are still doubting him but he's you know he's picking up the wins and he's on his way up and forcing his way up quite frankly because um he's on a crazy win streak and i think he's going to be one of these guys that he's going to have to prove and become undeniable in order for him to get a title shot very much like kamaru uzman at some point yeah exactly and kamaru turned several corners i suppose in his career yeah but jeff neal let's talk about him for just a second otherwise he's obviously had some personal issues in his life but he's only 31 years of age and again he is coming off of win against ponsonibio so let me actually reflect on that because i'm, where do you,

like, okay, let's ask it this way. How much can you read into that win for Jeff Neal? And I'm going to ask that in a way where Danny, I'm asking you to give me an assessment of what it means to beat Santiago Ponzinibbio in 2021. What does that win actually tell you

about Jeff Neal? Yeah, I think that win's is important i think he didn't beat the old santiago poncinillo the prime santiago poncinillo back when he was you know headlining events when the ufc was really going to south america he headlined in argentina believe he uh headlined as well in in chile if i'm not mistaken but um that santiago poncinillo was a top five fighter in the world top five easy uh Easy. This Santiago Ponsinivio that we see that he came back after this crazy bacterial infection that almost cost him his life is still very good. I do think he's a top 15 fighter, but he's not that top five threat that he once used to be. So I think this is still a very important win. Getting by Santiago Ponsinivio is not easy. The people that have done it usually are involved in fight of the nights and take a good beating

in the process. It's not easy to get by Santiago Ponsinivio. So I do put a lot of weight in that victory. I think it is a good victory for Jeff Neal, but it's not a victory that claims, hey, this guy's going to be the next in line for the title shot or anything like that. But I do like Jeff Neal. And I remember like a few, just a couple of years ago, before he had that loss to Steven Wonderboy Thompson, he was on this crazy streak that included that victory over Bilal. And a lot of people were wondering, hey, this guy's on the come up. Is he the next title contender? Lost a step, lost to Stephen Wonderboy Thompson, a pretty dominant decision, lost to Neil Magny, who's a complete stud. And I feel like he's kind of just getting the momentum back. And at 31, I still think there's a lot of upside. We'll see tough, tough fight about here

against Luque, but I think he still has some good fights ahead of him. All right. We'll talk about some of the stuff in terms of x's and o's on a friday there a little bit for luke i want to ask the question this way and if the answer is no then say no have you given up on the idea of vicente luke as at least a title challenger as a guy you will actually see fight for a UFC welterweight title no not yet not yet um I do understand why people may have those doubts and I think it's fair because again he goes on these a really good winning streak against like top 15 top 10 opposition and once they've put him to take the step for a top five he's come up short so I understand that and it seems it's a

repeating pattern at this point but the dude's only 30 right now this is the prime of his career he trains out of a really really good gym um let's not forget his last fight against belal that was his first main event ever that was his first five round fight ever so it just shows that even though he does have a lot of fights there's still a lot of experience to be gained um and hopefully as he gets more uh main events in the future um we'll start seeing a more complete Vicente Luke and I do think he's probably better suited for a five round fights anyways just given how dangerous he is across the entire fight and something that he told me because I talked to him a couple days ago uh something that he told me that he learned from the Bilal fight is that going into that fight it was his first time fighting 25 minutes. And he wasn't really sure

about his cardio because he always swings hard. He always goes for the finish. And he thought that maybe there could have been a chance that towards the end, he could have lost some steam. So he kind of held back a little bit too much. And he said, after the fight was over, I'm like, dude, I have so much more to give. And that kind of hurt him as well. Obviously, Bilal did a fantastic fight too. And I think technically it exposed Luka to certain things. But overall, I do think he can tweak certain things in giving how dangerous he is. Not only on the feet, but on the ground as well.

You do have a threat here. You do have a threat. He's got a... His takedown defense is good. But what happens is that when fighters shoot on him, sometimes they might not be able to um his takedown defense is good but what happens is that when fighters shoot on him sometimes they might not be able to get the takedown but they're able to press him against the cage they're able to control him and that obviously doesn't look good on the eyes of the judges and it costs him so again a few little tweaks here and there and i do think he can be a

legit title threat he's also again one of the younger guys at at 30 i'm talking about the guys at the top like they lost 34 already so who knows it may be a year or two once kamaru was like 36 and these older guys that are at the top start facing out he can start coming into his own at 32 33 and be that title contender and fight for a title i think that's possible all right moving down the card here a little bit i'm not trying to be the guy that does the cliche thing where like i'm too cool for school and let's just spend 30 minutes taking a shit on the ultimate fighter i've been taking a shit on the ultimate fighter for 10 years plus i mean i gave up on it long time ago long time ago before i guarantee you 90 of the people watching

were even watching mma i just it's not been what it used to be for a lot of reasons but okay that we've done that thing before i'm i don't really give a shit to do it anymore nevertheless danny there is something to be said where it's not just old you know hipster assholes like me who no longer watch it i'm not really sure who does now there obviously is enough of an audience because they do it on ESPN+. They had Juliana Pena and Amanda Nunes as coaches. Fine. If there's enough of an audience, great.

What can you say about The Ultimate Fighter at this point? It's just another show. I wouldn't go out of my way to clown stuff they put on YouTube like, oh, best knockouts or whatever. I see it as sort of commensurate with that. It has a purpose. Not a a significant one and that's the end of it yeah I don't know why honestly it's it's still around to be quite frank with you um it used to be and I think this is what's

hurting and one like back in the day you know this like in the early 2000s reality television was everything um so obviously having a a reality tv show for mma that was big for the fans as well i think with the demise of reality tv that's kind of hurt the ultimate fighter and also what's hurt the ultimate fighter is that before years ago it was super hard to get into the ufc there weren't nearly as many events so the roster was a lot smaller so to get a spot in the ufc was like huge it was huge and winning the ultimate fighter would be like okay this guy's entering the UFC and that sort of had a whole prestige around it just being part of the UFC roster nowadays with contender series and so many

fights uh falling out because of COVID this this and that and all all of a sudden we get a huge influx and the roster is huge and we get fights every weekend. Now it's not as meaningful as it used to be to be part of the UFC. So it's like, okay, you're gonna go weeks and go through this entire grueling tournament that doesn't really reflect sort of if you will do well in the UFC or not

because it's just such a vastly different format. And then at the end, you get like a contract. I feel like there needs to be something more than just a contract because at this point so many fighters get contracts you know we we see the influx on fighters uh it's huge nowadays so it has lost a lot of a lot of pop i do think they need to do something if they want to keep it around they need to do something to sort of of bring it back to life a little bit. Because, yeah, it just doesn't have... There ain't no bringing that Frankenstein. There ain't no bringing that Frankenstein back. I mean, it is...

You think so? You think it's done? I think that they can keep it alive, but I don't think they can turn it into something that it was. Something that it was... To your point, the way I think you even started the point was exactly right, which was, yes, in 2005, I was 25 years old, right? The middle of my 20s, when you feel like you're king of the world in certain ways, even though you're not, obviously, in almost all of them. But certainly, it tied to your youth.

And in 2005, what they were trying was incredibly relevant. Now, it's changed over time to adapt to the time. But each new iteration it occupies is typically less significant than the last one. The thing that it was and what it represented is tied to a time

where none of that is relevant and even the adaptations to it, only the brand just goes like this. And you can, listen, I think they're doing the best. They've done, it sounds like nothing but insults, Danny. They've done the best that they can with this.

They have managed the decline softly. That's best case scenario by and large. Yeah, you get television shows like Jeopardy, which lasts for decades. That's not the realistic expectation. That's not a real model you can follow. For it to be around as long as it has and to still have at least, I can acknowledge,

some relatively small, but some value, that's all that you can do with it. There's no turning this car around, so to speak. Now, with that in mind, quickly, any thoughts? There's a heavyweight tournament championship between Zach Pauga, I think is how you pronounce his name, and then the brother of Kamaru Usman, Mohamed Usman, and there's, of course, a women's flyweight final between Julianna Miller and Brogan Walker. Any thoughts on any of these fights? I think the interesting figure here is obviously

Usman's brother. I've seen him fight a lot because he fights out of he used to fight out of Titan FC here in South Florida, and he also had a fight in PFL. But, you know, not to diss him, but it's also hard, right, to live up to the expectation of his brother. But he's not nearly as good as Kamaru. Obviously, he's a heavyweight, so maybe, you know, his prime might be ahead of him.

But I think he should win this fight against Sakpaga, who's actually a light heavyweight moving up to heavyweight for this tournament. And he's fought in cage warriors before so we'll see i think the the interesting name is usman there we'll see um he'd be a nice addition to the to the heavyweight roster because you know they need big names but uh yeah i don't have a ton of thoughts for this and let me just say this look the pfl is having like good success with the tournament what if they did like something fairly similar but they they added a prize, like half a million dollars, a million dollars to the winner,

or sort of they spice things up? Do you really think the Ultimate Fighter is done for? Done for? No. Again, do I think there are ways to keep the brand alive? Yes. Yes, I do. Do I think that there are ways to make the brand have, let's say, 2x the ratings they have now? No, not really.

I don't see that. Yeah, it's tough. Also on this card, very quickly, a heavyweight contest. Augusto Sakai taking on Sergey Spivak. Kind of guys in that 11 to 15 range, you know, looking to climb maybe closer to the top 10. You have, I think, Violence Queen Ariana Lipski taking on Priscilla cachoeira uh terence mckinney's on this card there say again that's the bc special for sure no they're not they're not american so i don't know how well it works for bc's uh terrible preferences but just the same uh terence mckinney's on this one uh Maria or Myra I've never heard her pronounce

her name Bueno Silva's on this card against Stephanie Egger there's a few decent names up and down there for sure Terrence McKinney actually one of the more interesting names anything else stand out to you about the card and then we move on Sam Alvey's fighting that's interesting how the fuck is that still happening bro he he's he hasn't fought he wasn't he hasn't won a fight in his last past like eight bouts i think he has seven losses and one draw i don't know how he's still in the ufc it's a big big surprise um yeah i mean what do you think he sticks or if he takes a loss here do you think he sticks around i would would have said no. I would have said no. I don't know.

Just to remind everyone, this is... Okay, so he had a two-fight win streak when he beat Marcin Prakhneo in 2018, who literally walked straight into him with his hands down. I mean, it's one of the most bizarre UFC finishes you'll ever see. Then John Valante, who is, you know, I think it's fair to say, hittable. Then he fought... He loses to Rogerio Nogueira, then Jimmy Crute, this started in 2018,

then Clitson Abreu, then Ryan Spann. He had a draw against Da Eun Jung, then Julian Marquez, then Wellington Turman, and then Brendan Allen. The last four of them, actually, Jesus Christ, I can go, yeah, starting from Spann, he gets a decision loss there, and then Daun Jung, another one.

Julian Marquez finished him. Wellington Turman finished him. Brendan Allen finished him. I'll say this, Danny. If he loses, but it's a decision, he might stick around, to be perfectly fucking honest with you. I mean, probably not, but there's even a chance. If he gets finished, I'd say there's no chance.

I mean, this is, you know, a lot of times guys fall off a cliff when they get older sam alvey is currently sitting at let's see 36 not the oldest but whatever but you know his situation is where if they start to lose you're like and lose consecutively let's say or you know like in big spots like you got one win in your last four or something, that's a bad sign. And then when that turns into injury or finishes, that's when you know you're really at the end there. Tyron Woodley's end was not nearly as long as this, but he just went from lifeless performance, lifeless injury, stoppage.

That's sort of usually the way it goes. We might be well past that here with Sam Alvey at this point. Yeah, we'll see. I mean, i don't even know to be honest i won't even put a prediction on his future with the ufc because this whole situation is just so bizarre but um outside of that i really like terence mckinney i know he had a loss to drew dober but even then i thought he looked pretty good in it he's pretty young prospect um i like the upside on him um yeah that's it that's probably out of the prelims. That's the guy that I'm keeping an eye on, Terrence McKinney. All right.

Next in the lineup here, something you mentioned, you had introduced the PFL. Let's talk about this very quickly. So CEO of PFL, Peter Murphy, told John Morgan something I thought semi-interesting. Namely, quote, In New York, which I'll get to that event in a second, I have it pulled up, we will have two fights that lead into the four-fight semi-final fights

that are do or die, meaning the fighters who win those fights will secure their position on next season's 2023 roster, and whomever loses, we're going to say, thank you, it's time to move on. Let me set that up one more time. Two fights that lead into the four semifinal fights. So the four semifinals are the light heavyweight between Wilkinson, Monte, Akhmedov, and Silvera.

And then they have lightweight ones between Pettis, Stevie Ray, Aubin Marcier, and Martinez. The two ones that lead into it, I'm not sure which ones are on the contest they're referring to specifically, but they're taking a little bit more of a cutthroat attitude on talent acquisition and whether or not they want to retain them. You like the move from PFL? I don't, to be quite honest. Because what happens, for example, like Jeremy Stevens didn't make the playoffs. Right. So what happens with him last year, like Anthony Pettis didn't make the playoffs.

What if he fights on a card? Is if this is a rule that's applied to everyone, are they just going to let go of these like big talent acquisitions, these big free agents that they fought for? I don't think that's a smart decision. And I don't like picking and choosing like, okay, these fighters are at risk. These fighters are not. You know, there's a famous saying in Spanish. I'm sure you've heard of it in your household. It's, o todos en la cama o todos en el piso. Like it's either everyone on the bed or everyone on the floor. So it doesn't do a whole lot for me.

It's not like I'm now looking forward to these fights. Who's going to get cut and not going to be there for next season? I think you just try to get the best names and the most interesting names for the season, and that's it. You don't make them sort of fight for it while the playoffs are going on, in my opinion. And by the way, it's going to start with New York, which is PFL 7. But it's actually going to apply to Cardiff and london as well as what murray told him the cards uh these are cards with purpose meaning every fight truly counts of course we have our semi-final matchups but every fight on the card will really matter so the four fights

the four fighters looking to secure their place on the promotions 2023 2023 roster would be martin hamlet and cory Corey Hendricks, as well as heavyweight matchup between Marcelo Nunez and Dylan Potter. I'll just say this. I often do this role. I mean, listen, whatever PFL needs to do, and if they have a right to retain guys they want to retain and whatnot, but it's kind of interesting. John Nash brought up a point to me, and it's always remember something like this.

Everyone reflects on fighter pay as like the disparity between boxing and MMA. But really, it's not. There's an entire posture that everyone assumes that you can see play out in myriad different ways. For example, Danny, Brandon Moreno wins against Kaikara France on Saturday and they bring in Devis and Figueiredo to the ring. If you're the a side in a boxing contest, right? And you win, you get the final say over who enters and doesn't enter that ring. For example,

Danny, you would get this. We had Errol Spence recently on Showtime fight your Dennis Ugas and he beat Ugas. You think there's any fucking chance that the promotion brings in Bud Crawford into the ring without Errol Spence approving something like that? It would never, never happen. True or false?

True. Yeah. Okay. So here's what I mean. In this way, if the PFL wants to retain these guys or not retain these guys certainly that is well within their rights right you can keep guys you want whatever the contract says if they're up to the job or if they're not your call but my only point is they keep framing this like you know in in boxing the promoters kind of bid to see who they can make an attractive offer to to get people to sign with them. In MMA, it's the inverse. It's we control the show and the fighters have to consistently try out

to get to come to our show. So I don't mind it in a vacuum. In a vacuum, there's nothing at all by itself inherently bad about it. I want to be very clear about it. But it is one of those things where if you ask yourself, yes, there are tournaments in boxing on on occasion that do happen but sort of you know standard run-of-the-mill boxing operations something like this a promoter would never fucking say it would never even occur to them

to say it i think that's where i come down on this yeah i think i think that's fair um so yeah we'll see how it plays out especially like if they have any bigger names that don't make it to the playoffs like are you gonna apply the same rule if they fight like is their job on the line we'll see definitely interesting i'll give this to pfl pfl kind of is a little bit of a disruptor in the um in the space just because their their format is so different and they are trying different things so i'll give them that i think there is um i think there needs to be a little bit more innovation and see what works and what doesn't not a big fan of this exactly

per se but i do like the spirit of hey you know trying to switch things up and trying new things all right let's move on to the saddest topic on earth that is really just you know i realize that people have buried him but we've not talked about this on this show bc's not here so danny you get the wonderful honor of having to walk us through this the iranian hulk is back in the news god what a sad sack this this mfr is sajadharibi. I'm sure my Farsi makes me pronounce that name incorrectly, but Sajad Gharibi, known as the Iranian Hulk, a man who is 6'2", 385 pounds, and if you knew anything about fighting,

it would immediately occur to you that he couldn't fight his way out of a wet paper bag. But because Instagram is stupid and the culture around it is stupid and everyone just sort of looks for it like circus animals and circus acts this guy got some traction and he was supposed to fight martin ford who's this actor but he's an enormous man he's like six eight six nine and he's jacked as shit and uh they had a they had

a shoving match for yeah all natty definitely got looking that way on eating tapioca and getting a good night's sleep but neither here nor there they have a stare down and he shoves the Iranian Hulk. And obviously this guy is, you know, he can barely stand upright. I mean, this dude probably wakes up with headaches because he can't get a full night of oxygen in his sleep. And people are like, he's going to be a good fighter. Okay. So he gets disowned by his family for looking sad and weak in a stare down against Martin Ford. A fight that doesn't happen.

Mind you, doesn't even fucking happen. Then he has this boxing match against a dude called the Kazakh Titan. And it goes about how you might expect. I don't know if we have the footage or any of the videos. I'm hoping that we do, but we may not. If we do, just roll them all. Yeah, there we go. Danny, look at this shit bro i mean this guy is he's literally a guy in day one in the gym

at your gym is he not yeah he's uh he's terrible and i don't know how this guy became famous like a lot of people the whole thing before this guy actually was on like camera and not like edited on photoshop like he was just massively like just a huge guy people were like oh my god the iranian hope but it was so clear that it was photoshop like you can't get that type of body just by working out but somehow people bought it and it became like a whole legend or thing in the mma community and now that he's like fighting because celebrity boxing is like a thing now um yeah the dude's just sucks he's terrible i mean it's crazy isn't it weird that in mma we get these characters that become like things like even like

i know this is vastly different but like hasbulla you know i'm sure you know him like there's like these like personalities that become famous in combat sports i don't know why well here's the thing it's like combat sports this is the place for why. Well, here's the thing. It's like combat sports. This is the place for them, right? Because again, insiders, people who are, you know, are especially fighters and coaches and people who live in the gym, they, they understand. Like I never, if you watch one year of MMA one year and let's say regional and like high level and everything else, what, what's one of the major conclusions you might come to? For me, Danny, one of them would be there's a lot of different body types

or different weight classes, but in general, the guys who look more like gymnasts, even less than that because they're pretty jacked, but like Michael Phelps. The fighters with the physiques like Michael Phelps, they tend to do better than the bodybuilder types, than the big fat types. Again, all different types succeed, Michael Phelps, they tend to do better than the bodybuilder types, than the big fat types.

Then we, again, all different types succeed. But in general, that's your ideal prize fighting body type, you know, give or take. There's a little bit, obviously, some changes you would make there too, given that he's just a swimmer. This idea that like some big mammoth motherfucker like this is going to be able to move and fight. It's like, dude, what the fuck are you talking about but i'll say this going back to the pride days where you had your giant silvas and you know the crazy like uh crazy guys who had weird physiques and weird looks and everything else what was that always been uh akibono was oh he was a yes he fought hoist gracie he was he was legit into sumo obviously obviously, but yes, some guy who looked like some crazy, almost like comic book villain or something. There's always going to be a place for them, and there always has been a place for them in combat sports, but it's for the dumbest audience.

Let's just be real about that. That's who it's really for. It's the least savvy audience that watches combat sports. Dude, this was inevitable this was never gonna go any other way if you lack mobility like in the way that this fucking guy you know dude he has trouble breathing danny i mean he has trouble fucking breathing what kind of fighter do you think he's gonna be probably not a great one and now he gets to go home after lose i mean whatever humiliation he suffered in the shoving match, imagine what he's going to get now.

Poor bastard. I actually feel kind of bad for him. Yeah, I read his Instagram because they're going to come after him for sure. What's your least favorite part about Instagram? Least favorite part. I think it's like probably, I don't know, I would say even Twitter is more toxic than instagram i don't know instagram is one of like my favorite platforms um would you say about like the actual

content or the actual platform itself i'll give you an example i mean more the content so my least favorite thing are these guys who go to the gym and they do this these circus lifts where like they'll climb some giant apparatus and then they'll do dips which is fine but they'll do dips with like a monster truck tire tied to their hips or something and they're balancing on the least stable shit imaginable it's like dude i've seen all you motherfuckers who get injured from this you deserve every bit of it that shit that this inclination to do stupid circusy shit just for clicks which is what the iranian hulk basically is oh yeah no for sure but i would say probably the most annoying thing about instagram and just social media in general

like all these like prank videos that like these people pull out that are like clearly fake that are clearly set up but somehow they blow up and everyone's like tagging everyone oh my god look this is so funny man it's clearly set up like i would say like more than half of those prank videos are set up it's like bullshit i don't know if you've seen it like a guy's walking around and he puts a box over him and the guys are what you know like it's just stupid as fuck like they're they're at home depot and the box over guys yeah slap him in the ass and be like hey why'd you touch me like dude please yeah you're these guys well the good news is danny we we may not be able to get to see it but there's a decent chance all of those kids or guys are going to win darwin awards within you

know five years or less so take heart that natural selection will weed them from the gene pool probably sooner rather than later all right yeah that brings us by the way to our last and final point here for the top five danny which is worst mma injuries let's throw this up on the screen if you haven't seen this boy do we have an injury for your ass this is terrible now i had the uh notes here about who this was uh yes this is blake perry look at this fucker's nose. Danny, you think it's broken? This happened at A1 Combat 4, which is actually, this is Uriah Faber's show, I believe. It took place at the Stockton Civic Auditorium in California. Easily one of the worst broken noses I've ever seen, right? Yeah.

That's up there with Mike Perry for sure. That is gross. I saw it on my Twitter timeline timeline and the way they edited this was perfect because they kind of have like the towel over his face and then they just kind of do like a big reveal that thing's gross i can't believe they let him fight i know did you see the video of them putting it back in no and i i don't want to oh disgusting it's fucking awful it is and dude here's the other part too like i've had no surgery i've had nasal problems for the last like i don't know five six years maybe a little bit longer than that you've known that as long as you know me i've had breathing problems in my nose because i got a

bunch of damage up in there from years of living like a stupid person man trying to sleep or trying to avoid like headaches and how like the the position you have to sit when your nose is fucked up, I can only imagine the weeks, probably months of absolute misery he's going to be in, even if the nose heals. Which, by the way, all the scar tissue and shit is eventually going to have to come out there like that that's one of the most uncomfortable injuries even if it's not like you know it's not life-threatening or it's not necessarily career-threatening in that way but like quality of life shit real bad real bad yeah dude and this was only his second pro fight and sometimes i like i know people that are like training mma just for fun and they'd be like, oh, yeah, I might just do one, like, bucket list MMA fight. He's like, dude, I don't know about that. Like, unless you're trying to be, like, a pro fighter and take this shit seriously, like, show them that.

Like, dude, you're gambling. You're rolling the dice every time. That was his second pro fight, bro. F that. How much do you think? And, hey, you know how much he made for this? Probably a couple grand. Couple grand, yeah.

Maybe. Hell no. Dude, I wouldn't take that for like, you'll have to pay me like a million dollars for me to get my notes like that. Yes. Cash, by the way. Not like, you know. Shit I don't have to declare to the IRS type shit. Like, I'm taking all one million of those with me home. All right.

So it leads me to the question, Danny. Tell me, we watch a lot of violence you and i and we've been watching a lot of violence together for a long time right we are you know i'm an og in this game but i feel like you've become one as well you've been around for a little while now tell me an injury through all of the years of violence that you've watched that kind of stuck with you in the middle of a fight i'm talking about some stupid ass car wreck i mean in a real fight what injury really to this day was like oh that one was that one was bad dude i think the worst ones have to be like the tibia breaks like chris weidman anderson silva those are by

far the worst i mean they're disgusting the legs flopping around i remember years ago before that even happened there was like a really famous kickboxing fight that you would see the highlights every now and then float on social media. It's a guy whose leg just wraps around the other guy's leg, almost like if you were kind of using a whip. And you just see him fall to the ground and be in so much pain. And then years later, we saw what happened to Anderson Silva. That, to me, has to be like number one, especially like the one with Chris Weidman where like it snaps and he actually put it back to like plant his weight on it and it just kind of collapses oh that one gets me all the time like i can't i could barely even see it like you see it live and then you're like nope i'm not watching that again uh but then you always got like the mike perry one where like the

nose is completely destroyed they actually have to remove his bone from his nose and now he just has cartilage and he can like press his nose flat like i've seen some pretty disgusting shit uh i'm gonna that's a pretty bad one too then he had to fly home from remember that fight was not like in his backyard that flight was in uruguay so he had to go all the way from peace them up who's fighting this weekend yeah that's right i'm just saying man if you have a nose injury or like a face injury where you know uh the pressure changes can affect like headaches and shit that's one of the worst fucking ways to go home breathing through your mouth oh god fuck all that it just gives me the heebie-jeebies thinking about it i'm gonna say the worst injury for me and it wasn't the one

that looked gruesome like for example the one you brought up is a good one where like Silva gets his leg broken and and Corey Hill back in the day in the ultimate fighter too or um yeah actually was on the ultimate fighter but like on one of the fight night shows but those are gruesome to like look at there the ones that kind of stuck with me were the ones that were like you talk to the guys afterwards and the recovery process was you know months in the in the making so i'll give you two of them one when mvp broke literally broke the skull of of uh cyborg santos right that was a fucking bad one that i said this at the time danny tell me if you disagree that is one of those injuries where, you know, like people break their hand pretty routinely and they get cut pretty routinely. If people's skulls were breaking that routinely, you couldn't have MMA.

It's one of those injuries where if that was something that was regular, the sport would have to be banned. Yeah, no, for sure. I mean, that is that is that's like close to death, right? Like I'm not I'm no doctor. But if your skulls collapsing, which holds your fucking brain, like, dude, that is that is um that's like close to death right like i'm not i'm no doctor but if your skull's collapsing which holds your your fucking brain like dude that is horrible that is absolutely disgusting that's like that has to be number one injury right and i can't imagine like for anybody that's been like injured i can't imagine like actually like feeling like a giant dent in your skull like that must be like the most like the most stressful the most worrisome

shit ever like i've had like a hernia i've had like a meniscus tear because of jiu-jitsu um and that shit sucks but i can't imagine actually having like a freaking hole in your forehead um that's horrible also like your forehead isn't it supposed to be like the strongest part of your body or something like that um of your skull yeah i think it's one of them and i think it's right you know don't they tell you in soccer you want to head the ball right around where the hair line is like that that part right there the crown is typically the strongest i'm not sure where his was broken but that one i was like dude that is that's real that's like when a medically like serious in a way that was alarming the other one i'll tell you this one dude that that beating that

sage northcutt took to cosmo alessandri that was a bad one dude he shattered his face into a fucking like like thanos snapped and he just disintegrated that's what happened to the bones in his face lengthy lengthy process i think multiple surgeries shit like that where you know if you don't get the matchmaking right, the matchmakers, people like to think the job is easy. Action fighter against action fighter. It's a little bit easier in the UFC when you've already got guys who you know have pretty good chins, pretty durable,

pretty talented, come from pretty good camps. You've got a lot of material to work with there that someone at a different level has to make a little bit more precise calculations. Obviously, Sage accepted the fight, so he and his team made a miscalculation as well so it's not just on the matchmakers but the you know you got to be honest about that when the matchmakers fucked that one up they did and dude alexandre i mean he nearly ended sage's career uh the you know the fact that he may fight again to this point is i'm'm going to say, somewhat miraculous.

Those are the ones that stick with me. Yeah, those are right. I'll mention one that's kind of personal from an interview that I did with Ricardo Lamas. When he fought Kelvin Keter, he suffered a broken jaw. And they had to put titanium plates on his jaw. I'm going to read you a quick quote from the interview that I did with Ricardo Lamas. And this is what he says. Quote, my bite doesn't feel the same as it was before.

I don't think maybe it will ever will. My teeth just don't align the way they used to. So it's a little annoying. Dude, like, I'm like, are you serious? And he would tell me, like, oh, there's, like, this clicking sound now. And, like, my jaw doesn't exactly align. Like, dude, these guys, like, go into the sport and they come out like a different person. There's no denying it.

Like, you stay in that sport. I mean, the fact that St. Pierre kind of got out, you know, largely intact is what I would say. Largely is, you know, the fact that he won is amazing. The fact that he can still have a pretty decent quality of life is the other amazing part. If you can win a title, make some good money, and come out with your health intact, buddy, that's the trifecta. That's it.

You beat the game. If you can do that, you won. But that's very difficult to do. Yeah. Money, health, and legacy. If you're able to walk out with all of those dude you played the game right you're you're a winner 100 i mean i'll just mention one real quick i'm not going to mention his name because this was uh off camera but i don't know if if this person wants me to mention um his name but it's a famous coach used to be a former fighter and was having neck issues and was telling me that, like, basically it was a big reason why he retired. Because when he would grapple, he couldn't do a good grip.

And he started noticing, like, his right side of his body go numb because he would go to the gym and try to, like, lift dumbbells. And, like, the dumbbells on his right hand would just roll off because he couldn't just do a strong grip. So, yeah, this sport is is brutal so wait so he so i guess in that case his central nervous system had been fucked with i suppose or maybe it's like a pinched nerve or something but like he he couldn't make like a really hard face or couldn't grapple well and again when he was lifting like he couldn't really hold on to the dumbbells i'm sure there's pt and things to take care of it but like that's pretty scary shit dude you know i mean from jujitsu if you can't make a grip dude you can't do shit with that thing just i mean that's it

you're over so all right that's it for our top five here to start the show let's do a little game we're gonna play a couple games here on a light wednesday danny since we don't have any huge fights this weekend so let's have a little levity in this bitch let's play a little game. We're going to play a couple games here on a light Wednesday, Danny, since we don't have any huge fights this weekend. So let's have a little levity in this bitch. Let's play a game that we like to call Over Under. Let's do it here. Bomp, bada, bomp, bomp. I think we have a graphic for it too. Let's see it. There it is.

There it is. A little Over Under. Okay, this is how it works. We'll read a number out and then Danny's going to tell us whether he's going to take the Over on that number or the Under on that number. Now this one's a little bit unclear but the the number is 80 that is the amount of the if you're thinking about a percentage of things a fighter says that pisses dana white off so when they talk four out of five things that they say makes him angry are you gonna take the over or you're gonna take the under i'll take the under

i feel like they dana has like pretty thick skin uh there's certain topics that will irritate him but uh more or less i feel like fighters nowadays try to stay away from that you'll see like the really disgruntled fighters maybe touch up on that but more or less they stay away from it and usually the trash talk if it's corny or whatever if you get guys like henry sahudo or colby where dana's not really too fond of what they do he kind of just brushes that aside i would take the under on that all right i i think it's also less than that i don't think dana has thick skin uh but i do think that also in general most fighters are you know that you get the guys like mark hunt who are like fuck everybody and then you get the guys like Mark Hunt who are like, fuck everybody. And then you get the guys like Nate who are on occasion very outspoken.

But in general, most fighters, most of the time, they toe the line, to be honest with you. So keep that in mind. All right. Over, under, the number is three. The number is three. The number of years Amanda Nunes has left in the UFC. Are you going to take the over at four or the under three or less? I'm going to take the under.

I think the magic number is two here. I think Amanda Nunes was already thinking about retirement before. I do think that the Juliana Peña loss did ignite a fire in her and she's kind of like, okay, and we saw like a better improved version. Like she's clearly taking the sport

way more seriously than she was maybe in her previous fights. But I don't know if that's gonna last very long i think she's gonna do a couple big fights maybe the valentina shevchenko at some point if juliana pena gets back on winning ways a trilogy but all that will last about a couple years i think tops yeah i'm gonna take the under as well now maybe a little bit more than two, but probably not. I mean, if you think about two, what is that, four more fights? She had four more camps left in her. There were four more fights. I mean, you never know.

It could be one a year or whatever, but give or take, probably about two a year. I just don't see her. I just four more times against two. Shevchenko is one you could do. They could maybe, maybe do a P a pena trilogy but i don't think there's a lot of market demand for it um you know what the fuck is going on at 45 i don't even know so yeah i guess there'd be like the irene aldana fight which maybe might happen there's a possibility

there irene and caitlin viera are like the the two that she hasn't fought two other ones yeah and listen and listen if you're either of those that's the biggest night of your fucking life if you're amanda nunez that is not the biggest night of your life at all you know so uh now dana did say one thing that i think some folks may have dismissed i don't know how dismissible it is let me read the quote to you see if we can do it in terms of reaction this is from dana post fight now to be clear dana did have a lot of positive things to say but he also said this and i'm not sure he's entirely wrong. Namely, I think two things, he said. Julianna's tough as nails, and her will to win was second to none. She wanted to win. I think as dominant as Amanda was, and she was dominant tonight, I don't think it was close any way,

shape, or form. It was a complete shutout. But, Dana says, she still looked a little gun-shy to me. Going in against the person who beat you the first time, I could see that happening. I mean, it's stupid for me to even say that. It was an absolutely dominant performance, end quote. Of course, by the way, today is the nine-year anniversary of Amanda Nunes' UFC debut, which was at UFC 163 in 2013 against Sheila Gaff, which she won, of course, by TKO. Surprise, surprise. But Danny, any merit in your mind to the idea that for as good as she looked, maybe she was a little gun-shy?

Yeah, I actually agree with Dana 100% on this. And my analysis going into this fight, and I'll actually go out and say it, I thought Juliana Peña was going to win was that I think that Nunes was the better fighter but I think that Juliana Peña's toughness and chin was going to take her all the 25 minutes was going to take her through the fight Amanda Nunes was not going to be able to finish her and that's exactly what happened the fight really played out the way I thought that that it would what i didn't expect was amanda nunez cardio to hold up i thought that this was gonna amanda juliana pena was gonna make it into a sprint she was gonna be winning early but the fight was gonna come down to cardio versus cardio and we've seen amanda nunez sort of uh fade away in later rounds so i thought that maybe you know juliana pena was gonna get her ass kicked in the first, second, third, maybe fourth or fifth, pick up a stoppage win. That's the way I thought.

But part of what Amanda Nunes did here was not only have good cardio, she didn't have any issue and sort of make sure, you know, her conditioning was on point. But I do think there was a little bit of fight management. And you saw a lot of times that she had hurt Juliana Peña. Usually in her previous fights she would go in there and and take out the fighter completely but this time around she knew how tough Juliana Pena was and she knew if she really went ham if she really went killer instinct trying to take her out maybe there was a chance that she would gas out so I don't think she was gun shy I just think she was better at managing the fight because she still had a pretty high output.

It's just she kind of made sure to spread that out throughout the fight. That's my takeaway from the fight. Yeah, I don't think that's wrong at all. I think you're right. And also, there's something to be said for, like, listen, going southpaw in the way she did was clever. It was clever, and it worked, too. You couldn't say it didn't work.

It did. However, there's also something, and I want to be very clear about this, not cowardly about it, but part of that is to disarm Peña. It was to dissuade Peña. There's a part of it that is we celebrate for how clever it is. And by the way, complicated things can be that. They can be two things simultaneously. The world doesn't work in these perfect, neat categories. It is both smart and clever and winning, which is really the most important part.

But also, to me, the fact that she didn't really address the things that got her in trouble the first time with the dip jab and everything else kind of tells you there was some lingering concern about it. She was worried about it. So she kind of went to a way that I thought would and it worked slow down pena for a time and then ultimately create trouble for her and then you know she got dropped a gazillion times but if there was there was something built into the strategy danny that was inherently a shield that was thrown up to protect her and in ways that were somewhat unusual for her i guess is the way that I would put that. Yeah, no, she definitely, I feel like, learned.

And I know a lot of people might not want to see a trilogy about, but I kind of do. Not immediate, again, not immediate, but I do think that Juliana Pena is one of the fighters that made Amanda Nunes work the most. I mean, that fight very much reminded me of the fight between Volkanovski and Brian Ortega in the sense that it was, that fight very much reminded me of the fight between Volkanovski and Brian Ortega in the sense that it was lopsided, but Brian Ortega made Volkanovski work.

And at some point in time, he threatened with like really close submissions just as Juliana Peña. But yes, it was a one-sided beating. I think if Juliana Peña is able to pick up some wins, address a couple things and inspire that she can improve and give a little bit of a better fight to amanda nunes i'm telling you when it's a sprint and it's cardio versus cardio um i think it could be it could be interesting but again not immediate but she'll have to pick up some wins and show improvement fair enough all right over under danny over under the number is 0.5 number is.5. Not five.

.5. Here's the sort of question as such. The number of pay-per-views Hasim Rahman Jr. will headline throughout the rest of his career. Are you going to take the over at one or higher? Or the under? I'll take the under. You think this fight with Jake Paul happens again you think they rebook it

I think it would take an act of God yeah I don't think so I think they're going to go and visit something else and unfortunately for Rockman Jr this was it this was his big pay per view this was his big fight with 12 on 1 record

I don't see him actually fighting the boxers and moving up to a spot where he fights in a big pay per view of you this was his big fight uh with 12 on one record i don't see him actually fighting the boxers and moving up to a spot where you know he fights in a big paper i mean listen is it possible they could meet again it is possible it is possible but this was all as i said on monday show it was all kind of rushed because of whatever happened to to Fury. And so they were trying to put it together. It didn't really work. And I don't know that the public has a significant appetite to see Hasim Rahman Jr.

Fight him. Now here's what I thought was going to happen, Danny. I thought that they, I, again, I said this on Monday show, I can't wait for BC to come back to validate this.

I told BC my prediction. My prediction was he was going to miss weight on Friday. The commission was going to let it go. And he was going to beat Jake Paul. That was my prediction. My prediction was he was going to miss weight on Friday. The commission was going to let it go and he was going to beat Jake Paul. That was my prediction. It was all three of those. Had that happened and he had beaten Jake Paul, depending on how that might've looked,

yeah, there could have been a case for a pretty big rematch there, right? There is a way where that could have gone where like Tyron Woodley, he could have gotten a couple of those out of it. But the way this one fell apart ahead of time is the public really clamoring for this fight to happen as the one that has to happen, especially when Nate Diaz is one fight away from being a guy who can just do whatever the fuck he wants. Color me extremely skeptical of that.

Yeah, there's tons of options. I think Anderson Silva is still one of them. We're never going to get him on short notice anderson so uh deserves a lot more respect and he's definitely not going to go in there on short notice and fight jake paul uh but now with like with this fight off and now they can actually build one with like a legitimate longer camp i think anderson so is back uh in that pool as well uh tommy fury i he's always there, even though Jake Paul hates on him and says fumble the bag and we'll never fight him again

or we'll never get another fight booked again. If they solve the visa issues and they're able to get back in the US, I think that's a possibility as well. I think Rahman is at the bottom of the list for a potential fight with Jake Paul at this point. Yeah, I would agree. All right.

Okay, the number is three. Yeah, I would agree. All right. Uh, okay. The number is three, three, Danny, the number of months until we see Dustin Poirier in the octagon again. And by the way, he just tweeted fight news coming soon. Minutes ago, three. What do you think? I'll take it just about three. So I guess the under, um, I think it'll be a little bit less than three or about. I think he's going to come back pretty soon. And look, things are setting up. If you look at the top five of the lightweight division, all those guys are booked except Michael Chandler.

So that fight, I feel like that fight's destined to happen. Obviously, there's Justin Gage as well, but he just had a nose surgery. From the guys that are available, Chandler's the only option. And Chandler's itching to get back there. I don't know if you've seen his Twitter. He's out there putting crazy workout videos. That guy's probably one of the best athletes, if not the best, at 155. That fight has to happen, and I think it'll happen before the year's end.

Completely agreed on all counts, including the workouts of Michael Chandler, which are insane. All right. All right. All right. The number? 38. 38. Okay, that's the number.

Here is the statement. Are you going to take the over or the under with the number of pro MMA wins Andre Arlovsky has at the time of his retirement? Now, for folks who don't know he currently has uh a 34 and 20 record so that would mean four more wins and by the way he has a fight already lined up august 29th he could have 35 so we're saying four more wins before he hangs it up what do you think i'm taking over all day wow dude andrejelovski is he's really a marvel i feel like he doesn't get the credit that he deserves because he was champion so long ago that people

even forget um but the fact that like he's been around the game for so long and has been able to reinvent himself go to different gyms i i think that's even i'm not i'm not comparing it to winning a title, but I think it comes close. Like longevity in the game at the top. I mean, you know how hard it is to stay at the top with the evolution that this sport brings. Super, super impressed. He's developed this style where he doesn't take a whole lot of damage. He's great at managing the fight. He's in great shape. I think he can keep doing this for several years. I see him picking up a win here against Lima and picking up three more and breaking that.

I'll take the over for sure. I've been wrong about Arlovsky in ways I've not been wrong about anyone else. I've been uniquely wrong with him, so I'm going to agree with you. I'm going to take the over. I think he might get to some pretty special numbers now again the bottom could drop out you do recognize it is also possible that at some point this you know okay it's an it's an inevitability that for everyone the career

will come to a halt but what I mean to say is you know who knows he could suffer an injury and then the whole shit comes apart and god only knows if he gets this number but his ability to let's say overachieve in this last part of his career has been i think nothing short of remarkable quite frankly i can't think of many other guys who occupied you know he was a champion he was a champion and is still kind of hanging on with this unique little blend of a game he's got which is different than he used to fight completely yeah yeah it's crazy like reinvention at this point of the game is like it's mind-blowing you know certain guys like you see it with chuck liddell like towards the end like he just wasn't able to change up and you saw him against like i think it

was rich franklin he tried to wrestle a little bit but then he was like no i have that and then went wild with the striking um dude fighters like overene fighters like erlovsky that are able to like reinvent themselves late, even Gloria Teixeira, that to me is so damn impressive. I'm a huge fan of Orlovsky. And something also that I like is that you see it with, for example, like JDS, like towards the end, the UFC was just giving them straight killers, right? And Ganu, Cyril Gan, Curtis Blades.

I mean, the guy, Derek Lewis, the guy was just fighting the very top. With Orlovsky, I feel like the UFC has a different approach. They like having him on cards and they more or less give him like mid-tier heavyweights. And I think that's great for his longevity. That's going to allow him to stick around even longer. I would agree with that as well. All right, let's play a game here

to close out Wednesday's edition of Morning Combat. We've never done it before. We're going to try it. We're going to call it Good Fan, Bad Fan. So I'm going to read you a series of statements. These are not things that I necessarily agree with. And by the way, I want to be clear about something too, Danny. There's a difference. You would agree. There is a difference between being a good person and a good fan, a good dad and a good Dan, a dad, someone who's a good fan, a good, uh,

someone who's financially responsible and a good fan. So keep that in mind. We're not asking if you're like the nicest person in the world, we're asking, are you a good MMA fan or are you a bad MMA fan? If you do the following, make sense. Yep.

All right, let's do this. Here we go. Danny Segura, am I a good fan or a bad fan if I audibly woo at MMA events? Woo! Which am I?

You're either highly intoxicated or you're a terrible MMA fan or a combination of both. But no, I'm not for the woos. A good fan sits there and watches the fight. Shuts the fuck up. Maybe yells when the fight gets crazy. But the whole woo specialty of the fight is boring.

That to me is like an anti-mating call. That just shouts infertility and bad genes. Not for it. It definitely means that you have genitalia that are totally unfulfilling to any sexual partner you've ever had in your genes. Not for it. It definitely means that you have, you know, genitalia that are totally unfulfilling to any sexual partner you've ever had in your life. It's definitely what that means.

I would also add that, like, I think a good fan, you can be boisterous and noisy for sure. Yeah. But like, you know, for example,

let's talk about this. If you go to Ireland and Bella Tordes have rocking shows in Ireland, UFC two, whoever, you know when the crowd is singing zombie together in service of something related to the fight in a positive way good fan that's a good fan but to your point if the action's whatever and you're just wooing because you're bored or because you want everyone to like look at you i don't think that makes you a good fan i think you can be loud you got to be loud for a purpose yeah exactly yeah

it's the woos is the actual noise is the actual you know call that uh that just fucks shit up yeah you can be loud 100 uh but no it was man all. All right. Good fan, bad fan. I make my significant other watch fights. Good fan. Good fan. Because I've been there. I think good fan. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I'll say this. Good fan. You're a good fan. However, if you've been with your... Like, you know, Danny, I'm... But, dude, my 10-year wedding anniversary is next month right you know i don't need to make and you've met my wife you know my wife i don't need to make her watch shit anymore so i do feel like you can make them do it but after a little

while the proselytization has to stop a little bit. Fair or unfair? I think that's fair. I think it's getting your significant other to start watching. If they don't like it, okay, fair game. But you do have a responsibility as a good fan to be like, hey, look, this is the good shit. You got to watch this. You got to give this a shot. You got to teach him, hey, look, this is what's going on. This is who he's fighting.

This guy's in this position. If he wins, this means that. That's a good fan. If you're trying to introduce your significant other to make sort of a power couple mma power couple but if they say no they don't want to watch mma i think that's fair you you can't shove it down their throats right like there's got to be a line but for sure at least an introductory fight an introductory event i think that's fair i think you're being a good fan bro i lost girlfriends with how many times i tried to make them watch mma don't

regret it at all fuck them you know what i mean so yeah no for sure dude especially make them like at least they have to tolerate it you know there's got to be like a low all right number three good fan bad fan i pirate a significant amount of mma events to watch live now listen to the way i worded it. I didn't say everything. I didn't say nothing. But I did say, I pirate a significant amount of MMA events to watch live. Good fan, bad fan? I think you're a bad fan.

I think this should be like a low amount. A low amount. If it's a significant amount. Let me pitch to you. What is an acceptable amount of piracy uh i mean technically none of it because it's illegal right but but i do think that like there there's cases man like there's a fight and you know you gotta catch it real quick all right whatever do you right but like if you're like consistently on a schedule for watching fights

and you're constantly doing i don't think that's cool and look if you don't have the money because it is a lot of money like go to your boy's house do a do a little you know watch party everybody puts down 10 bucks i think that's doable or go to a bar go to a bar get some food there's options for that but if you're out there pirating every fight or most of them at least i think you're a bad fan because if you love mma and you want to support it dude you gotta buy the paper yes a good fan. Because if you love MMA and you want to support it, dude, you've got to buy the paper. Yes, a good chunk goes to the promoter,

but another one goes to the fighters. Yeah, I think my attitude is piracy is bad and it's illegal, but it is also inevitable. So I'll look the other way on it in the way you're talking about, where if you really don't have the financial option anymore and the fight is big enough, not some random, like, I'm just going to watch, you know, cause I'm too cheap to pay for cable or something like that.

But you know, something where it's a little harder to get access to, or again, you're working, but you only have so much money. Do they do? I mean, here's the part about piracy that these MMA promotions just don't seem to

realize in totality, what they ask from their fans in terms of time and money is way more than what other sports ask. It's fucking insane so like some piracy again it's illegal and i understand that but they have to know some of it is inevitable given the financial constraints of of the world yeah all right it's expensive to be an mma fan it's fucking stupid how it do it and and by the way like if you're like us you know Danny I know you watch boxing too yeah you can say what you want about

the DAZN pay-per-view thing which by itself is just fucking hilarious did you see the price on that fucking pay-per-view it's 85 dollars for Canelo versus Triple G3 dude that's fucking when I first started watching that was literally double the cost of what you had to pay it's stupid it's gotten stupid expensive. So, yeah, I understand a little bit of piracy. All right, fine. But if you're out there like an MMA fan watching everything constantly, like, dude, you got to figure some shit out.

All right. Number four, good fan, bad fan. At parties or even the workplace, I intentionally bring up MMA just so I can talk about it good fan bad fan i would say that's not even a good fan or a bad fan i would say that's a new fan i feel like people that have been watching mma long enough they know not to bring that shit up because it's a little weird right um especially if you're like obsessing over it but you know man and i've been there too like once the like mma bug gets you especially early on and you're just fucking watching fights non-stop

and just consuming that shit like um sometimes you're a little too passionate and you like you know talk to people about it at parties or whatever um ah that's a tough one i i would i would break the rules in this one and i would say that's a new fan because, bro, I've been there. I'm not going to say I'm better than that. I would agree. I would agree. I think it does reveal not good or bad, but newness. So in a sense, it's actually – so here's the thing.

It is bad, so to speak, but because it's new, it's forgivable is the way I would look at that, right? That seems pretty fair. Okay, let's move along here. five good fan bad fan i claim to have watched mma since ufc one good fan bad fan bad fan bad fan if you claim right like if you're out there like you know puffing your chest like oh you know this and that and you actually haven't uh yeah you're a bad fan um usually those fans usually those fans are even casuals like oh yeah you know i've been watching this shit since day one like i don't know i am just like i i the the funniest thing dude was i used to get callers and they wouldn't even say

ufc1 but they would say ufc2 like you know when people get pulled over and they wouldn't even say UFC one, but they would say UFC two. Like, you know, when people get pulled over and the cops, like how many beers have you had? And they're like, always two, which is like, you know, which is just the idiot's way of confessing to drunk driving because their

calculation is, is quite obvious. They don't want to say one, but they don't want to say the exact amount. So they kind of hedge it by giving it a little bit extra one, but that by itself always gives the game away to UFC two used to be the guys who would call into my radio show on sirius xm who claimed to be watching since again that time and then they would always have complaints about how the fights suck and they'd be like when was the last one you watched like bro i haven't watched in years it's like okay

all right i mean what are we doing here exactly this doesn't make a lot of sense so to me i'm gonna say either way you want to slice it whether you're just trying to flex or you're lying or you know whatever the in between there might be bad fan bad fan on this side bad fan 100 dude people have been watching the sport for a long time they don't brag about it like it's just like if it comes up in a conversation sure like oh yeah how long have you been watching mma oh i actually started like uh x year but uh usually like you don't wear that as a badge of honor like uh at least from the mma fans like the good mma fans that i've met they don't they don't brag about that shit

it's like dude you know like the like bragging about that's like do you know how many years of saturday nights you've given up with friends to do that yeah yeah yeah that's that's not the flex you think it is okay yeah number six danny number six now this one think about for a second unless you have like a really strong opinion good fan bad fan i kinda but don't really care about ufc fighter pay i kinda don't really care good fan bad fan i would say bad fan i feel like that's a sign that you're like a casual like yeah i don't give a fuck about fighter pay i don't get give a fuck about these guys like health um like a good fan that actually tunes into the sport they all want to see these guys make money

and be well off and be healthy um shit they're fucking giving us their health for our entertainment so i think that's a bad fan i'm gonna say i know. To me, it's a little inconclusive because here's the thing. I would agree with you that if you stumbled upon someone like you met them and they cared about fighter pay and they were, you know, they were informed about what's happening. They had good takes that were fun to talk about with. Yes,

that is definitely a good fan. But at the same time, if we're trying to win the fighter pay argument, the fans interests are heavily aligned with the promoters sometimes against the fighters i don't know if winning them over is what we're trying to do we're trying to just win over the power structure and to change it well like are we really trying to convince fans to care about fighter pay i gotta say to me that's not my line in the sand i actually think you it again i would agree with you somebody who is empathetic is going to be a much better fan but i do think it's possible to be a good fan and not wrapped up

in the issue am i crazy no i think that's fair and look i'm not saying like be out there like campaigning and and boycotting the ufc and this and that and but i think just being in general of like hey being aware of the situation and you know being happy for fighters you know making money making the making the bread you know what i'm saying like i i feel like fans that have that mentality i think those are good fans all right i've got a few more of these here we go good fan bad fan i've watched every mma movie and i think that warrior is genuinely representative and good good fan bad fan um i would actually say that's i'm not a big fan of mma movies but i would say that's a good fan. Tell me why.

Because, I don't know, that just shows that you're passionate. And I would say that Warrior is probably the better MMA movie. And that standard is pretty low. But overall, MMA movies just are pretty shit. They suck. Boxing movies, on the other hand, there's a few that are actually pretty damn good um so yeah this one i'm a little bit split but yeah maybe good all right i would agree with good i don't think mma movies are very good i think warrior has definitely some good performances

in it yeah nolte kills it and tom hardy kills it tom hardy's a great actor tom hardy's a beast i got i mean you're not gonna hear me you're not going to hear Tom Hardy slander on this show. He's a great actor. But the movie itself was like, it was okay. Here Comes the Boom was, you know, here comes the boom. Yeah, I'm glad those fighters got paid on that movie. But other than that, it'm not a big fan. It's BC Species.

All right. Number eight. We got 10 of these total, so just three more. Good fan, bad fan. I secretly love watching injury highlights or groin strike replays from big fights. Good fan, bad fan. I feel like that you're either a psychopath and if it's just the groin strike replays you're an mk fan um yes i think that's yes yes that's what it is yes first

of all if you like watching dudes get hit in the balls for sure you're an mk fan number one yeah secondly i'm calling on you danny, we have seen injury highlights go. We just talked about this motherfucker's nose on the side of his face. Dude, I think good fans, there's a part of them that also is repulsed by it, a natural human reaction. But those things go viral for a fucking reason. It's because hardcore fans know that, you know this, it's not just the amount of MMA injuries.

It's the unique, weird, bizarre nature of them that happens in MMA. I think you're actually a good, because listen, here's what I said. I didn't say that you proudly brag about it. That would be weird. The guy who's like, I love watching people get fucking maimed. But, you know, secretly, you're kind of dialing that one back and watching the gif in rotation. I don't know, Danny. I don't know. Yeah, I mean, we all love seeing people get knocked out right like you consider that an injury right

like a concussion um yeah you're right you're right i'll get it listen if it's like if it's like a sad injury then not necessarily you know i don't mean that altogether there are obviously like the cyborg one when he falls and holds his forehead you're like oh yeah but there can be cases of it cases of it where it does happen all right number nine good fan bad fan i think conor mcgregor's i shit on bus the thing he kept saying to habib or colby covington's nerds and virgins jokes are legitimately funny good fan bad fan see i'm split on this one because i do feel like there's a difference between connor and colby um yes the question is unfair i'm not saying it's a fair question i'm gonna go with i'm gonna go with good fan man because um

this is part of the sport right like the trash talk uh the going you know towards the line and sometimes navigating those weird waters like you don't see it anywhere else um and whether you like it or not it is part of it and uh you know fans eat it up fans eat it up i would say good fan yeah i'm gonna say good fan i'm gonna say good fan now you might have the sense of humor of uh you know someone who's been hitting the head with a tire iron for a solid year but we're not asking whether you have a good sense of humor we're asking whether you're a good mma fan i actually feel like it would fit more into the ladder all right last but not least this one's a bit of a

layup but i just had to include it because i'm trying to think of cliche things that fans say or kind of believe or what comes up good fan bad fan i definitely believe that by watching mma but never having trained i could still beat up most people on the street good fan bad fan i'm gonna go i feel like that's most fans to be honest but i'm gonna go with bad fan dude i feel like people that really watch mma kind of have a reality check of like yo you know these people are certainly like some other level they're not me um but i would say dude most people that like watch mma feel like hey i feel like i can kind of do this so i don't know i'm kind of split on this one i feel like it does represent mma like I can kind of do this. So I don't know. I'm kind of split on this one.

I feel like those represent MMA fan base, but, um, I don't, I don't necessarily think it's like a good part. I definitely think it makes you, I definitely feel like it makes you a bad fan. Um,

or, you know, well, you know what? Yeah. Bad fan, bad fan. Because if you watch MMA long enough enough this instinct should get weeded out

right so it could be going back to the other one where it could be newer fan you know versus bad or good i would say casual i would say casual definite casual definitely like but the kind of casual where you watch you watch fairly regularly but you don't watch enough to know like oh yeah these are this is a totally different thing like watching it doesn't mean shit you know you you eventually get to that but this is the kind where it's like yeah man i see what these guys do those guys and by the way those are the same ones that also go back to the water cooler and it's like hey did you see the fights this past weekend blah blah blah and just making it all about them. They're connected. They're connected. Yeah, 100%. I agree.

All right. That is it for our show today. Danny, if folks want to get more of the Danny Segura experience, what can they do? How can they find the tremendous work? By the way, I should point this out. In English, in Spanish, I watch your videos in Spanish more often than I do in English at this point,

in part because I'm trying to work on that. My Spanish is shit, but I can listen to you and get better. And in part because I feel like you get, I've told you this before, I feel like when you talk to the Spanish-speaking fighters, you get a little bit more of their personality when they're speaking in their native language. So either way, where can folks get some of your stuff? Yeah, for sure.

You can find my English work over at you can follow me on all social medias at danny tv twitter instagram facebook and if you're interested in spanish work whether you're a spanish speaker or want to get better in spanish you have no idea how many people have reached out like i've been trying to get better at spanish and because i love mma like your content is like perfect for that uh so if you want content in Spanish uh head over to Hablemos MMA in YouTube uh you can find it all over my Twitter as well if uh if you don't can't type in the name but uh yeah if you want Spanish content check out Hablemos MMA on YouTube and uh interviews analysis whatever you want oh we do have one last piece of news to react to I don't want to forget this because Bellator

announced this live during the show Danny Bellatorator announced patricio pitbull versus adam borich for october's october 1st for uh that well i guess that title fight at 145 and then aj mckee uh very quickly just give me a reaction aj mckee is going to stick around and fight spike carlisle who gotta tell you that is close to being a mismatch your your thoughts on this yeah not too thrilled on the spike car like a guy i mean i i remember him in the ufc like he's all right he's like an athletic dude but he should beat his ass here to be honest uh the borage pitbull fight dude i love borage some uh stanford amir kill cliff actually nowadays um adam borch is an absolute to be honest. The Borich-Pitbull fight. Dude, I love Borich. Some Stanford-Amsterdam-Killcliffe, actually. Nowadays, Adam Borich is an absolute stud, and we know what Pitbull brings.

So that fight's actually amazing. I love that title fight. Yeah, I love Pitbull versus Borich. Interesting to see McKee against Carlisle. I'll tell you this. McKee should not lose that. If he does, that would be quite bad. All right, we'll save some of that

for Friday's more fuller analysis. Danny, thank you so much for joining me i want to remind folks showtime.com is the label that pays you can go to showtime.com get a 30-day free trial if you like it keep it if not you can bounce you can go to morningcombat.store if you want some merch uh i guess we're gonna save fan are we doing fan subs are we gonna save that for next week right we'll save it for next week we'll save it for week. So we'll do fan subs and Dead Wrong a little bit later, but you can always reach the show, Morning Combat. You can see the email right there, morningcombat at gmail.com. The producers will take a look at it.

All right, Danny, great job this week. Thank you so much for joining me. Check out Danny's work at Hablemos MMA and then, of course, MMA Junkie as well for all the English-speaking stuff. It's great no matter what language it is in. I appreciate you, my friend. Have a great time there in sunny South Florida.

We will have you back on soon. And for Malka, Showtime, CBS Sports, BC, he'll be back next week. Thank you all so much for watching. We'll talk to you on Friday. And until then, may all of your gains be loyal.