MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Jim Miller STILL WINNING in UFC | Extra Credit Ep. 13

Episode Date: February 22, 2022

Luke Thomas is back with Episode 13 of Morning Kombat Extra Credit. Luke breaks down a couple fights from UFC Fight Night: Walker vs. Hill that he didn't get to on episode 267 of Morning Kombat. (1:30) - Jim Miller vs. Nikolas Motta (6:42) - Kyle Daukus vs. Jamie Pickett (9:22) - Stephanie Egger vs. Jessica Rose-Clark (13:55) - Chas Skelly vs. Mark Striegl (18:00) - David Onama vs. Gabriel Benitez (22:00) - Honorable Mentions 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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Hi, hi, hi. This is Morning Combat Extra Credit. This is where we get into all the fights that we didn't get to on regular MK. That's usually with Brian Campbell. My name is Luke Thomas. It'll just be me today taking you through right here on episode 13, I believe, of this podcast. We'll be talking about the UFC Fight Night card from over the weekend. Well, it had Jim Miller on it. It had Kyle Dawkus on it.

It had a bunch of people on it. Of course, it was headlined by Jamal Hill and Johnny Walker. First things first, if you're watching this on YouTube, thumbs up time, hit subscribe time. This is that extra something you've been looking for. Now, I didn't put any of the Bellator fights in the rundown today not because there weren't good fights but because we actually got some more of that on the regular mk we didn't get to hardly any of the other stuff that happened on this ufc card so um that's what we'll be focusing on here today let's take a look at the fights that we'll be talking about they're not in exactly a proper order this is how they're listed on the fight

card i want i'm not bagging on my producer. What I mean to say is I will be going out of order relative to this, but this is the fight card order. Dawkus versus Pickett was your co-main. Miller versus Moda. Onama versus Benitez. Stephanie Egger taking on Jessica Rose Clark, and then Chaz Skelly and Mark Striegel.

So those are the ones I would like to talk about. I mean, am I really going to say a whole lot about Buckley versus Rizizak Alhassan like probably not so with that in mind um let's get things started we'll start actually with Jim Miller Jim Miller taking on Nicholas Mota this was Mota's UFC debut in fact for all debuts this is actually the biggest differential in terms of UFC experience there had never been a fighter who had been that senior versus a fighter who had been that junior and that sort of tells a little bit of the story of what Jim Miller has done in his late career it's not like he's fighting the exact same level of guys in fact even I would argue that the two guys he has previous losses to are very good fighters and Vince Bichelle and Joe Selesky two very good grapplers in their own right and Vince Bichelle and Joe Selesky, two very good grapplers in their own right, and Vince Bichelle, a bit of a demon. Overall, I would say that the level of competition,

Jim Miller used to be towards the top 15, top 10, even top five for a time, and now he's certainly outside of that. But what I would argue is, one, these are guys with modern best practices, two, that they obviously have youth advantages, speed advantages, going to be a lot of strength advantages, and yet he is still finding a way to win. He did a great job in this contest using the inside leg kick. It would open up. They had opposite stances, so it would open up Mota.

It would force him to reset. It was a constant problem, but really the thing that got the job done for Miller were those blitzes he was trying, and what he did in the final blitz was fake like he was coming with the left and then almost with a bit of a delayed timing on it, then comes over the top with the right with an overhand right. Moda never sees it.

It floors him. And then Miller has just basically, what do you want to say, clinical follow-up at that point. Actually even telling Paul Felder, who was the post-fight in-ring, in-cage announcer, as well as obviously the color commentary guy, along with Dominic Cruz, kind of asking him, or actually I should say Jim Miller responding rather, that he thought that the fight had gone on too long.

The bigger point here is about Jim Miller and what he's able to do. He ties Donald Cerrone for most wins in UFC history. What is remarkable is that while the level of opponent he is facing has sort of gone back to where he was roughly towards the beginning of his UFC run, he is not literally facing a guy making his UFC debut. That's about where he was when he was making his UFC debut. So it has come full circle in that sense. However, what you have to remember is I'm sure he is fighting for money.

I'm sure that he wants more money. But it would be just incorrect to say that what this guy is doing at this stage is about chasing money. I think, yes, having a nice compensation package such that he has one is a motivating factor. But most guys at this age either don't want to compete at all or don't want to compete unless they're fighting the very best of this division. Unless there's some kind of other financial reward or there's a big to-do about it. Dude, this guy is on Apex shows when there's just a handful of people watching against dudes making their UFC debut. And he's as all-in as he ever was. That is what is commendable. That is what, when you talk about a martial arts journey,

that's what you're talking about. You can't lose sight of the fact that what Jim Miller is doing is just exemplary of what it means to live a martial arts lifestyle and life. I give credit to another person, Rafael Lovato Jr., going over to, he has won basically every award you can win in jiu-jitsu, then still goes over in the master's divisions and is still competing over there and winning the European IBJJF title. It's just incredible that these guys have this kind of hunger. And you know, they're not the very best versions of what they ever were, but they're still very good versions, clearly good enough to get two wins in a row,

but more than that, at the stage of their life and athletic journey that they still want to do that. And then they can have success still at this level, you know, all respective levels. Obviously one's a different sport in the case of Lovato Jr., but the point still holds. It is so exceedingly rare to see someone with this kind of competitive thirst in these kinds of stakes where Mota has everything to gain. Jim Miller, certainly our acclaim and our respect for insiders, but it's not like he's going to be tearing up the world doing this. And he talks about what matters to him is the respect of his peers

and that kind of a thing. It's a remarkable journey that he has been on, and he is still getting better in certain ways, still refining his craft. Obviously, he's a much older athlete. He's got his own fair amount of injuries. He had sort of a very documented bout, so to speak, with Lyme disease, but in many ways, he is still refining his craft, still testing himself. I think that's really what is so admirable here

is the willingness to test himself, to use parts of his game that were good previously, but he's found a way to, even then in his advanced age, still find the ways to sharpen them up, still have some new tools. Pretty commendable what this guy has done. Pretty commendable. Just an impossible-to impossible to dislike guy.

Truly impossible. How far he can go, I don't know. I don't think he can beat the very best guys out right now. I'm not even sure he can beat ranked guys at this point, given some of the guys who he's lost to. But his career is extraordinary, just the same. All right, we go to Kyle Dawkus taking on Jamie Pickett. Jamie Pickett never really had much of a chance in this contest, candidly.

On the feet, he did. On the feet, I think he did. He is a good athlete, well-trained, fast. He can do certain things. But on the ground, it was immediately obvious there was a huge, huge difference. In the end end Kyle Dawkins doing a great job of phenomenal shoulder pressure I tweeted about it you can see Pickett being the pressure is coming in so tight on this jaw he's being forced to look away because Dawkins is

leaning into it so it literally pushes his head over which is very painful and you need that you need to control the shoulders and sort of the neck for certain kinds of passing. I think he had like double unders or I think he had one under hook and that shoulder heads or the shoulder and the head angle. And he was trying to use it to pass. Couldn't get the pass because Pickett shrimps. But when he releases the shoulder pressure, Kyle Dawkus, Pickett tries to immediately put his head up and sit up. Obviously he doesn't want sit up. Obviously, he doesn't want to get back there. He doesn't want to get framed. He goes from being flat on his

back to his side, which is what you would want to do, but Pickett basically just walks into a trap that Dawkus is setting. Dawkus knows if he can't get the pass and someone scoots out, they're going to sit back and sit up afterwards. They may sit up this way or they may at least get to their shoulder or to an elbow. When they do, that's when you can wrap the head for the darts. He wraps it,

punches his way through for the arm, and then secures the choke from there. It was just solid work. Dude, the level of ability on the ground. Once it got to the ground, Pickett was not going to win unless he could stand back up or something. But playing that game underneath Kyle Daukus was no good for him. I like Kyle Daukus' game, dude. He was very clever and patient about closing the distance, getting both hands on wrist control to force close exchange and close positioning contact along the fence line. Then from there, getting his takedown methodically, working from the clinch, getting on top, working for the pass, finding the choke, getting it just moments, moments, moments, moments before the final bell closed. Kyle Dawkus is great, man. He's a good fighter. He's talented. He clearly thinks through the problem. He's clearly got

very high level skills on the mat, was miles ahead of Jamie Pickett and just needs to be, I think, consistent, consistently needs to get out there, but stuck to his strengths, lorded it over his opponents, made great decisions. I just don't know what else folks are looking for. This is great. We want to see, obviously, more, and we will see more from Kyle Daukus, I think, certainly with a lot of Ws, but this was easy for him, quite frankly, easy. Stephanie Egger takes on Jessica Rose Clark. This was an interesting contest to pay attention to, at least for me, because Rose Clark has, I think, made a lot of improvements, and she came into this contest in her last fight, granted, against a very different level opponent, Jocelyn Edwards, but you saw what I saw. Well, I saw there Rose Clark just having a lot better success on the

ground in that fight, the previous one, doing a good job of controlling, passing, not a ton of ground and pound, but really dominant positional control, basically all the way through that fight, and I thought, wow, you know, she probably, I'm not going to say intentionally didn't try to finish, I don't think that's right, but, you know, didn't mind, anyway, I'll put it that way, didn't mind that the fight went three rounds because she got a lot of experience in the right kind of way that she would need to keep developing her game, use those kinds of skills in a real UFC fight, see what it does for you. Like it was, it was good. It was solid up against Stephanie Edgar. It looked to me like she was overmatched.

You know, I take Rose Clark's ability seriously. I thought she'd been a massive improvement. Stephanie Egger did a great job. Stephanie Egger finding from the clinch, a la Shavkat Rachmanov, from an underhook and then battling for some kind of – I couldn't quite see how they were tying up in the hand that was in front of them, but you'll notice in that final throw, what she waits for is some kind of tie-up. I don't know if it was inside bicep or she was grabbing behind the arm, but then she goes from the overhook and then as part of the throw kind of clubs Jessica Rose Clark forward to get on top, goes into scarf hold, a famous hold in judo.

They can get your back if you're not careful, but the way Josh Barnett against Dean Lister would be one of the more prominent examples. Granted, that's pure grappling, but not MMA. But he actually got a tap from Scarfold because he's able to lean in, and you can pin someone, and you can really lean into their chest. I think you heard Dominic Cruz talking about how hard it was to breathe. That's not an exaggeration. If you have a skilled operator who is using that in a way that they've used it before, it can be quite painful.

It can be quite, at a bare minimum, uncomfortable. And then from there, she tries to set up the Kimura, but then Jessica Rose Clark goes back down. So Rose Clark is here, which means, okay, you don't really have the Kimura, but you can probably get the armbar, isolates the armbar, and then goes to take the back, but isn't really taking the back, sits for the head when she does it, puts one shin behind the head, which is what you need. You need that scissoring effect, one shin behind the head, one on the back, or depending on where you want it, I suppose. But one has to be behind the head, and that's the one that uses to force the turn

over to come on top, and then from there takes the thumb towards the side where the arm is going, and then finally catches the arm bar from there. So just a really clinical job from Stephanie Egger in the end. I'm not sure what Jessica Rose Clark could have done differently except to disengage from those positions, but I think given the improvements she had made and what had happened in her last fight, this was a tactical approach that I think she felt confident in.

But Egger proving to be quite a formidable talent herself. That was just solid work. You don't see a ton from Scarfold. And by the way, Jack Slack had a video talking about a lot more, well, talking about specifically Islam Makachev, but talking about how some of these Sambist guys, you know, against the fence, they'll be, and I talked about it in my Shavkat Raghmanov thing too,

he'll allow himself to be pressed into the fence uh and even kind of put upright where someone's using their head to kind of position in when they can have that overhook if they can get the positioning right with the front hand battle and they can step out in front either uchimata harai goshi whatever they can take these folks for rides you're seeing it more and more and all three shop caught raghman off fights i showed he seeing it more and more. And all three Shovkat-Rachmanov fights I showed, he had his back against the fence in all three, and in all three he scored takedowns with that. Some of them being trips, some of them being throws.

Nevertheless, getting it just the same. There is a new meta happening, I think, inside MMA where people are now allowing themselves to get pressed if they excel at those kinds of takedowns. And the fact, I don't know much about Stephanie Yeager's background, but the fact that she had that kind of throw and then worked from Scarfold tells you she probably has a judo background. I think it's probably fair to say.

Let's see here. Am I right about that? Right. Egger is a judo black belt, having won the 2010 European Under-23 Championships and was the Swiss judo champion in the plus 63 kilogram category. Those judo bubba's, they're so good at throws to that position, and then Scarfold is a big one for them because you can win, obviously,

I think via pin with it, or at least you used to be able to or whatever the rules in judo are, but it's a big thing for them. All right, let's go to Chaz Skelly taking on Mark Striegel. Chaz Skelly, dude, I like Chaz Skelly. I've known him, well, he used to come on my show and do betting picks, and they were always pretty good. He is, and I'm going to say this not in an insulting way, he's something of a relic. And what I mean by that is he was in Team Takedown.

There was this team, if you guys don't know the story, years ago, where basically they were recruiting these guys who were NCAA one national champions or finalists or whatever your Johnny Hendricks is. And there were some other guys out of Oklahoma State they were getting. And the idea was pay them six figures. This is back when those guys in the regional scene couldn't make any money. Pay them six figures, have them train, and then, you know, basically when they get to the UFC, begin to make money on their checks.

But the problem with that was it was forcing a lot of the team takedown guys, I think, into bigger promotions early because, you know, it takes a little while, even with a National one national division one wrestling champion to take sometimes it can take them a while to get into that mma groove and so they were kind of rushed along some of them didn't bother them some i think it messed up their development anyway long story short that was an old relic back when mma magazines were a thing and he was part of team takedown because he had obviously a decorated background wrestling um at uh well here we go he let's see he wrestled for all-american honors seventh place finished at nationals for oklahoma city university and was a wrestling partner of johnny bedford yeah this dude can wrestle right anyway he's always had a pretty good career he

had lost to jason knight darren elkins and mirsad bektich but he had wins over maximo blanco folks don't realize how good that is uh kevin soza jordan griffin the dude can do some things this was supposed to be his retirement fight striegel was just on the back foot the entire time you had a guy in um a guy in in chas skelly kind of pushing back, doing what he wanted for the most part. In the end, getting it by back again, continuing to back him up for pressure, varying up his strikes, throwing elbows up over the top, landing a punch. And then there was a big height differential that you guys noticed, right? We have a height differential.

And who's the king of this? Dan Hooker. You get a big height differential that you guys noticed, right? We have a height differential and who's the king of this? Dan Hooker. You get a big height differential. A lot of times if guys are closing the distance, they don't have to level change and look down for the knee to be there. Chaz Skelly is long and lanky. There was a height differential. You can just bring it up and brings it up under the chin. It didn't hit in the forehead or the cheek or the side. It comes right up under and then rocks him back. And then from there there he's able to follow and finish up. It's just good awareness from a veteran like Chaz Skelly. It's good presence of mind, shows all the things he's put into his game to get better.

He's a respectable talent. If this is the end, I think he's had a very respectable and honorable career. He had some good wins. He, he, I hope he made some money. I don't know exactly what he made,

but this was just a guy in Striegel being essentially overmatched. Really. Mark, Mark Striegel just didn't really have an answer for the ability of Chescale to pressure him backwards in the wrestling department really was quite overmatched. And I think had to resort to the kinds of attacks that are just riskier, just closing the distance like that over and over again.

He was getting timed. And for a guy like Chaz Skelly to show good timing on the feet, good range awareness on the feet, good weapon selection on the feet, trickery with weapon selection on the feet, letting him get even closer and closer, and then popping him with the elbow. Just stuff like that. He could keep winning at this level for sure. If he wants to retire, then certainly you want to allow him to go out on his own terms. But he could keep winning for sure. This is not a guy who is being beaten by the game.

Same with Jim Miller. Now, if Jim Miller hangs on a little bit longer, you may end up seeing that. But you heard Amir Khan talk about it recently. He doesn't want boxing to retire him, although he's getting pretty close to that. But you heard Amir Khan talk about it recently. He doesn't want boxing to retire him, although he's getting pretty close to that. But guys like Jim Miller, guys like Chaz Skelly, they're not getting retired by MMA. They're doing the retiring on their own. You have to love him for that. And then last but not least, David Onama. I think that's his name. I want to make sure I pronounce it correctly. I'm not sure what the correct pronunciation is. David Onama, out of glory, MMA and fitness, taking on Gabriel Benitez.

Benitez missing weight again, gets viciously KO'd. He was doing a great job in this, but he, same for, it's a similar-ish kind of ending to the main event where you didn't have Johnny Walker inventory, what it meant for the stance to switch. Same kind of thing here for David Onama. Onama opens up to his, he stands orthodox, so his open side is his right side. Benitez throws a kick as he gets pressured backwards. The left hand was landing for

Onama over and over again. So he's landing, but he's landing, but it's sometimes missing and it's just coming up short. So he's standing orthodox. Benitez throws a kick and then tries to circle out, but what does Onama do? He just steps forward with his right and closes the shell. Remember, if I switch just in the same place on the same center axis, like a fireman's pole was coming through my head or something, I can switch on that axis, but I can also do what Adesanya does and just take a step forward, or what Gaethje did against Barboza, where you're trying to escape or Stipe against DC. If I take a step forward, not only am I switching stances, but I'm getting closer to you, and in that particular case, cutting off the side from there, he jabs with the right and

then throws with the left. And when he throws to the left, it begins to connect because he has now made much closer distance. Benitez, when he's got open space, can move, absorb a little bit. He was getting tagged some, but it can move back. When he's up against the fence, he can't. So he doesn't inventory the stance change. Onama puts it into place, closes the distance, lands the left that had

been kind of finding the mark the whole way, then lands the right behind it. And then from there, just kind of unloads against the Benitez who was hurt up against the fence line, much more upright against the fence line. You got to circle out to the weak side. You have to learn how to roll under. I'm not saying Benitez can't or whatever. And I realized why you would want to escape to the open side depending on what you throw, but you got to make sure you really inventory that you got this guy off of you.

You didn't really get him off of you to get enough movement. And it was still up against the fence line. It had to be one or two more to really push him back. And then you can get moving, but he doesn't do it. And so he gets caught and that was it. And Onama had been hurt bad before that. Benitez and Onama were exchanging in this one. Onama doing a little bit more headhunting.

Benitez doing a little bit more, actually a lot more body work. And it was good body work. The body work, bringing it on the head, bringing it on the hands, excuse me, then going to the head. It was solid work from Benitez. He was hardly doing poorly. But you just can't make mistakes at this level against guys who are this offensively aggressive in the way that Onama was. Didn't inventory the stance, which gave up the distance, gets clipped, and then from there, dude, what can

you do? You get hit with one shot in the sport, and it changes the whole thing. The whole thing just goes up in smoke, right? All the good things you were doing just get erased in an instant. It's not fair. It's a cruel game. It's a very tough game, but it's the game nonetheless. So good resiliency by Onama against the fence line, man. I talk about it all the time with his takedowns, but also along the fence line, look at how Adesanya waits until he can either fully escape, does the work to back you off, and gets far away. And then when he moves, moves with a purpose. He really is adamant about not having to fight up against that fence line if he doesn't have to.

He wants that movement. He needs that movement, that space, that freedom, and has a whole programmed way of offense and defense going when he gets into and then out of those scenarios to make sure he's not fighting in ways where he can get clipped by someone shortening the distance that way. You got to be real careful. Happens to the very best fighters, no doubt about it, but it happened here as well. You know, the Joaquin Buckley, Abdul Razak, Alhassan fight, I didn't think was going to go as long as it did. I guess Buckley just sort of did more in the end

kind of a thing, just did more in the end, but not a great fight. I will say I'll give a shout-out on the Bellator card, Adam Piccolati getting a nice win over Giorgio Caracani, and Giorgio is super talented and I thought better at 155 than 145, bringing some of his strength quite literally to bear, but Adam Piccolati is just good everywhere, dude. He's good everywhere. He is good.

You can find the back. He got good great takedowns he's just a solid black belt wrestler type and those guys man they've got a lot of their bases covered in that department they're going to be hard to deal with you saw some of that there so that's a very good win by Adam Piccolotti that I think a lot of folks need to pay attention to and that's it episode today. It wasn't the biggest weekend of fights in terms of non-main event action. Well, non-comain, I should say. Non-comain event action, but the rest of the card. So what'd you like? What did you dislike? Thumbs up on the video, hit subscribe. What fights mattered to you? Which ones didn't? And then shouts to all the winners. They all did a great job. Okay. This is Morning Combat Extra Credit. My name is Luke Thomas.

We'll be back next week. I appreciate everyone watching. And until then, enjoy the fights.