MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - McGregor vs. Holloway UFC 329 Fight Week | Mauricio Ruffy Named Main Event Backup

Episode Date: July 6, 2026

Welcome back to a Monday edition of Morning Kombat, Donks. Luke Thomas and Chuck Mindenhall are in the house getting you ready for UFC 329. Max Holloway hasn't received much attention, it's been all on Conor leading up to this week. So LT and The Iceman start there - What is the biggest question surrounding Holloway as we head towards Saturday's showdown? UFC lightweight Maurcio Ruffy took to social media (and reports confirmed) that he is serving as the backup for the UFC 329 main event. Was this the right choice and how does he match up with either McGregor or Holloway? Plus it was reported that middleweights-turned-light-heavyweights Reinier de Ridder and Roman Dolidze will face off on August 22nd at a Fight Night in Sacramento. How do these two match up?  That and much more with the MK crew!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Well, the big fight week is upon us, which is why I'm, remote today that's the kind of prioritization i have in my life welcome everyone on this sixth day of july twenty twenty six for another edition of morning combat my name is luke thomas i do not join you from the capital of usadus winos in washington bc i am on vacation sort of somewhere out in south america joined by my friend who mercifully was protected from the worst of the what do you want to say climate change weather or just bad weather generally it's it's the ice man himself chuck mendon What's up, Charles? Yeah, it was wild.

I was on a little vacation myself, drove back Saturday from Virginia Beach up the coast, got in. It's something getting 100 degree, like, you know, 100 degree weather for like two days. Get in, clouds move in right behind us. And then there's an alert on your phone within five minutes of being home that's like basically like take shelter. You're like, oh shit. So and then the last time this happened, it was like a macro burst or a microburst, one of those type of things. And it kind of flattened this town. So we did that.

You know, you kind of go down there and I'm watching from the. from downstairs and the same kind of storm and got up, you know, 10, 15 minutes later and trees down all over the place. Internet's down. But fortunately, they restored that and I'm able to join you today, Luca. That's the short of it right there. Well, welcome back. I am in a co-working space.

So because, you know, hotel Wi-Fi and Airbnb Wi-Fi is. Oh, yeah. Unreliable. So I got a co-working space. I'm hoping that this does the trick. It seems so good so far. So we'll see how this goes. I missed all. Are you keeping your location secure?

Like, are you not, are you purposefully? I just want to make sure I don't spoil it or hear it. I mean, yeah, I'm in Columbia. But, you know, I knew you're there. Okay. I don't need to know necessarily. But what I was going to say is, you know, it's been a fun time. And, you know, it's just hard to get reliable internet sometimes can be a little bit of a challenge.

But I think, I think we'll hold here. We'll see how this goes. Are you, by the way, before we get going, are you watching any of the World Cup? I've been watching here and there, much more over the past week because you're out, you know, finally with some time off. So I've been watching the matches over the previous week. Yeah. I mean, here, I've seen two World Cup games here in Columbia.

It was so funny, dude, because like Bogota, I was there for a week. Dude, like the traffic in Bogota is like, it's like nothing you've ever seen before. It's punishing in ways that's impossible to describe, right? Yeah. And we left during halftime because we had to get our stuff packed because we had a flight and stuff like that. And at half time, we breezed through the city. Like, there was nothing because the cab drivers aren't going anywhere.

The restaurants are full. The bars are full. The homes are full. Like, nobody is moving. So a trip that took us an hour to get from one place to the other took us 12 minutes on the way back. Wow. 12 minutes. That was wild.

I couldn't. But it's like soccer fever here. There's like nothing I've ever. I guess the English are football mad too. Yeah. But like they're insane about it. Isn't it crazy, man? It's kind of cool to go down to another culture, though, and catch the passion there.

I mean, this is the most I've ever seen it in the States where I just, a little matter who you talk to has an opinion on it. Everybody's watching it. It feels like one of those old, you know, monolithic things where you're like, everybody's paying attention, you know? Kind of fun in the sense. Let's bring in the third member of the show because I actually have a question for him other than what strain of marijuana is coursing through his blood.

It's Long Island, Luke. Long Island. Little Scout cookies. Oh. Yeah. Pee for space. Long Island. Obviously, the big fight is this weekend.

UFC 329. Do we know what sports might go head to head with it? Surely there's a World Cup game next Saturday. Yeah, that's, uh, God, that'd be a good question for someone to know. There's got to be World Cup. I'm assuming there's like MLB, but nothing. I mean, yeah, even. MLB does, I mean, let's, let's be serious.

Yeah, but what's the latest World Cup game, like an 8 p.m. game probably, right? No, they go a little bit. Well, the, dude, some of the games for the knock or the group stage were like 11 or 12. Yeah, because those were in like Seattle. I don't know if they've been doing that. that now. I mean, I could be totally wrong, dude. I really haven't been that keen on the World Cup. I'm looking. Let's see.

All right, yeah, Chuck. There's definitely like, there are World Cup games. The Norway, England game is next Saturday at 5 p.m. Eastern. So that will, you know, kind of overlap a little bit probably with the prelims. And then there's a game scheduled for after that, which is still to be determined to look. Yeah. I guess we'll see. I guess

we'll see. In any event, we're not focused on that, although it is kind of fun. We're focused on UFC 329. We have a lot to get to today. We're going to look ahead. Obviously, we're going do a preview show a little bit later in the week and we'll do a lot of our exes and o's at that time but there are some bigger questions that i'd like to explore for this episode we'll do that plus we get a couple of fight announcements that i think are very very interesting and i want to discuss those as well so thumbs up on this video if you haven't already subscribe if you haven't

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until the end of the month and then we're just going to kind of move on to something else. But these are available right now. All right, I'm trying to think of anything else I had missed. Let me have a sip of my, they call this. That Delta 8 design is still a favorite. And that speaks to me.

That speaks to the show. Dude, the Arby's whippets in the parking lot. That's badass, too. I mean, if there's nothing better than that, you know, it's just crazy. All right. With that out of the way, Chuck, ready to get this going. Let's do this. Topic number one. All right, here we go. Topic number one.

Now, UFC 329 is this weekend. And with that, of course, is the return of Connor McGregor. And naturally, no one's suggesting otherwise, but most of the focus is going to be on him, as it always tends to be. And we are going to ask some questions about him a little bit later in our top five. But let's start in a little bit of a different direction. Let's talk about Max Holloway. Max Holloway coming off of that pretty bad loss, not getting super beat up, but getting outclassed. against Charles O'Levara in the BMF fight, and we'll have some reaction to that in just a minute, but also, you know, going up to 170,

and he was only been in 55 for a little while, and there's just a lot of questions about, like, where he fits into this and what his future looks like. So, Chuck, let's start this off this way. What is the biggest question in your mind surrounding Holloway and this fight as we head towards Saturday? You know, it's almost, like, when we were doing, when he was doing that show with Michael Bisping

and he came across very incoherently and we're like, oh my God, is this the moment when Max Holloway is starting to fade off and like, you know, he's been compromised, maybe he's punched drunk. We didn't know exactly what it was. It feels like we've had variations of this conversation throughout his time

and he always responds with some kind of masterclass and you're like, okay, wait a minute, this guy, I don't know what's going on with him, but like he's still there. But I do feel like after that Charles Olivera fight, that the big question is, at 34 years old, is this going to be, be the moment where we start to see that decline.

To me, that is a big, like that seems like a concern. It just, it felt like, and I still kind of wonder, and I've never heard him expressly talk about this, but like in that Olivera fight, you wondered if he trained kind of, you know, like take down defense, if he was focused so heavily on just, you know, the standup portion of it, but it certainly just looked like when you mentioned outclassed, that he was outclassed in that fight and that he just didn't have a very good plan B. to go to. He didn't really have a way to kind of move off of that. And that was a red flag to me. So to me, the 170 thing is going to be a big deal because I think he only walks around, around 170, 175. Like,

he's not a huge lightweight. And certainly back in the day when he was like the pike like 145, or it made a lot of sense at his height and it gave him advantages. All of that will play in in terms of fighting a very big Connor McGregor who's going to have to cut weight to the 170. So that's really it, but to me, it's like, are we witnessing, I guess, the end of Max Holloway at this point? Man, that's exactly. I wouldn't, I don't word it exactly in that way. Like, is this the end? Although I certainly grant that you have to put that on the table, right?

Yeah. But for me, dude, you articulate. It's funny, I want to tell the folks pull the curtain back here a little bit. Chuck and I, when we put these questions on the rundown, we don't tell each other our answers. So, like, I'm hearing this for the first time. much like you are and I just want to say that that was exactly my question too and I want to be clear about this like this is not an this is not a declaration that it is um to your point remember the the narrative about Holloway prior to UFC 300 when he was going to fight gachi

everyone was like oh man yes he's going to get fucked up this is going to be so bad blah blah blah and then he goes in there and just dunks on Justin gauchy right and but there's also been times where like okay third fight with volk he's going to you know this this is is going to be the one and he got torn up in that right right so like it's not to say that he doesn't have these big moments of response in fact i think more commonly than not he does have those but i just think for me there's the the questions are as like dude what for me the way i would word it is what is left of max holloway like what is left because to your point chuck going up to 170 folks don't remember the the the rematch with four yeah right was the rematch because they

fought previously before right so the second one he goes up to 55 and i i knew his manager at the time And they were telling us they just cut less weight. Like they didn't have a plan to bulk. And then you watch what he did in the Gachy fight. That's when he bulked to 55. And you could see the difference. How was he going to bulk so quickly to 70? And even if he does, what does that do to him?

We're talking again about, you know, we had the same questions about Poetan. Everyone kept saying, oh, Poetan and heavyweight, that's his natural weight. That has nothing to do with whether or not that is your best weight. That's absolutely nothing to do with it. So there's a big question there. But more to that point, he's taking a lot of damage. He's certainly getting a lot older. Connor can thump.

If nothing else, he probably is power is going to carry a 170? Is Max's power going to carry a 170? These are smaller questions. But for me, while there is a huge opportunity here for either guy with a win, I just don't know how you can't look at the state of the game and then all the wars that Max has been through. And as tough as he is, as tough as he is. Yeah.

Without questioning, Chuck, whether or not we are now getting, past the tipping point of what was a more viable version of himself. Well, there is a, there's a little bit of a, you know, we, we talk about the inactivity because Connor McGregor's coming back from almost five years away, right? Like, we'll get to all of that stuff, but Max in that time has fought eight times. You know, in the time that we've last seen Connor McGregor, which this could be, like, we could look at that activity and be like, okay, he is, you know, this is a guy who, he doesn't have to figure out his rhythm.

he's going to still have some speed you know at 170 but you know so the questions are more like fine-tuned into what this means but he has been active and at some point like when you look at his full like what is this this is this 33rd ufc fight and i think this is i think that um connor's only had 14 and they came into the ufc about the same time like only a couple months off you can some you can almost go the back in way i'm like maybe it's to the detriment of max holloway that he's had that many like you mentioned man he has taken a ton of damage he's been in a lot of wars He's got into wars with guys he probably should have beat easier. You know, like, and he probably had the chance, but just kind of, you know, remember what was it,

the Ricardo Lomas one where he kind of threw the first time he threw down. Like, he just, he likes to put on a show to an extent. And I think he's probably taken more damage than necessary through his career. So these factors do come in, but it's in a weird way. It's almost like the book end or like a kind of Oroboros type thing. Because when he was a 21-year-old guy out in Boston, you mentioned that we're not talking a lot about, Max Hollow. We should be singing his praises at this point, kind of coming into this fight. But again, he's kind of being drowned out by the talk of Connor McGregor, which was exactly the

scenario back in Boston in 2013, you know, when Connor was the big attraction and it felt like Max was incidental. That's the kind of thing that you wonder if it works as an intangible in the way that Dustin Porrier kind of held that grudge. Like, hey, man, why am I overlooked when I'm going against this guy? Let's correct this thing. Maybe there's a little bit of an edge in that sense. I haven't caught it as much with Max as I did with Dustin, but it is eerily similar to that first fight where you're like, well, Max is just the opponent, even though this time he is the favorite. Max is calling himself Mystic Max.

I saw that. Yeah, that's pretty good. He actually gave a prediction for the Connor McGregor fight. Let's play this. I want to react to it. Mystic Max have arrived. He's taking it is what it is. So I'm taking Mystic Max.

What does Mystic Max predict for this week? We drown them. We drown them. We're going to get him an old Hawaii style beating and drown them. We're taking them deep waters. Yeah. I mean, here's the thing, Chuck, Chuck, like, we'll do more of this on Friday, but he doesn't look intimidated by the moment.

He's obviously highly experienced. Obviously, being on UFC 300 was a big deal. This is an even bigger one. But what I'm going to say is, like, you know, you also probably have the same feeling that I do, which is that, hey, listen, if Max is still viable and he can push this fight to the late third, fourth, fifth round, he might do something special here, right? Like, you can't, this is the other part about Max.

Like, you just can't write him off yet. You absolutely cannot do that. Well, dude, we've seen him get into rhythms. And you could fully see this in this fight, right? Because you're dealing with a Connor McGregor coming back. You don't know his timing and just this speed, what's compromised. But you could see Max in this fight, like visualize him getting into that rhythm that he was finding with certain guys like Justin Gachie where he goes up and he's just just slamming him like just

with whatever he's throwing in like the Calvin Cater fight that was live on ABC where he just you know as the fight goes on it felt like he couldn't miss you know he's just he's so hot like he's so revved up I could see him getting into that rhythm in a fight like this because and there's a lot do you take let me ask you this man do you take anything from the first encounter can you look at that and be like you know can you look at that and take anything at this point 12 years 13, whatever it is later. Sort of. Yeah. Because you remember Connor was throwing a lot of kicks,

like a whole arsenal of kicks. And I think that's something that Max would better handle now. Like, you know what I mean? Like that sort of thing. I mean, the way I look at it is, like, look at the difference between the second and third Poirier fight with Max. Right? Where Max not only

bulked up the right way, but like you could just see how much he had technically matured in that time. So the, you ask, like can you take anything from that fight? I mean, yes, both guys were raw, you know. When I say yes, I mean, there's some things you can take, but the thing that I always look at it is that is a moment in time

for both guys, but especially for Max that no longer exists. He is vastly better than that. And the other part, too, I want to say about this is like, you know, listen, I don't know what the ultimate truth is going to be because I just need to see how the fight plays out. But like, we should discuss this a little. bit too there is a bit of a damage to his brand coming off of that Charles olivera loss now olivares eating shit because he didn't fight in a Bmf way

but for Connor to lose sorry for Max to lose that one again whatever it would that fight was supposed to be what was it it was domination and then if you go up to 70 which is its own kind of inadvisibility and then you lose to a guy who hasn't won in basically seven years and hasn't fought in five I don't you know what I mean like that is a that is a that is a loss to your stock that I'm not saying is not recoverable but at 34 it might be not recoverable right right yes you know there could be in the sense of Angano versus gone back in the day like where you're like he's mentioning let's take him to the deep waters we're going to take we can get him a Hawaiian beat down now we know what he means we're talking about it like he wants to put you know find a pressure and a pace and just kind of put it on him on the feet. But you remember the first fight. If you take anything from this as well, Connor was able to kind of,

and this is because he, you know, he blew out his knee, like mid-second round or something like that. And he was, but he's, at that point, he just took it to the ground.

It, at this bulky weight and also like a, in a distribution, I guess, of your, of your adrenaline and your energy and just that stuff. Do you envision a situation where

Connor needs the W, right? It matters a lot. And Max should be actually paying a big amount of, of attention to being taken down. Do you see any of that kind of threat here? It's a good question from Connor. It just didn't seem like Max was like concerned that way in the last fight.

So it seemed like a double red flag. If he just shows up to this one and for some reason in that first round you see it go to the ground, you'd be like, what is happening here? Wouldn't you? Like it would be very strange? It's an interesting question like would Connor Russell? Because I've not really given it much thought. But let's stay on this topic. Max talked to Brett Okamoto about the Charles fight and kind of how he interprets what that all means. Let's take a look. You know, just plain and simple, I'm not a complainer, so I'm not going to complain. And at the end of the day, everybody keeps talking about how you felt because, you know,

around the BMF belt, there's a certain aura. And of course, there's a certain aura. And so much people are so used to that aura with the lineage of the belt. That's why I need. But you can't be mad at Charles because he went out there and he just did what he thought he had to do to win. You know what I mean? And that doesn't line up with the belt, but it stood a fight.

You know, so at the end of the day, be mad at me all you want, because I should have stopped what I did. I had my opportunity to go in there and fight my fight. I did it. You know, he went out there. He fought a different fight. Like, of course, in my mind, too, I had, when I think of BMF, you know what I mean, I think of, you know, certain fights, you know what I mean?

And that wasn't the fight we got, you know? And that's just the way to cookie convo sometimes. You know, the guy still got to win, and it is what it is. But then, you know, to that, it goes to a point, you know, it proves a point. It's not, in the UFC, you know this. You saw this all the time. It's not, it's not even winning in this sport. And I mean, like, winning is great.

Winning is awesome, but how much times we see guys win and they don't get, they don't get certain opportunities, you know? You got to win in this sport, but you got to win exciting, man. We're in the entertainment business to get. So at the end of the day. Yeah, but that's a question for the prelims. It's not a question for the main event. You know what I mean?

I guess Charles did have to eat a little shit because of that. But, you know, like, you cannot afford a loss here. Nobody can't. Nobody in that role could afford that loss. I would say that's why he gets better, right? That's why he gets better. Like, he's generally like this. You know, if something happens, you don't really hear him get up and say like, you know,

some guys are like, out of bad weight cut. I was nursing a, you know, whatever, the whole camp. You don't really hear him hang his defeats on something like that. He's basically saying in that thing like, you know, yes, he had a certain expectation for that fight and he knew the fans did but you know it was his job to stop it from going the way it did and i always feel like the guys who have that kind of accountability even if you was thinking it was going to be a certain like that that's why they get better over the course of their careers is because they just they look something in the eye and they have to correct that they have to prepare for

all situations right i love hearing that stuff from max and he he has every reason to want to go in here and uh and like to him i mean like this is he got that early loss and he was treated like such minceme, you know, just pushed aside. This is all part of Connor's story. And he gets a chance to correct that. And I feel like he's, you know, even if it's a very kind of unsung situation for him, I feel like when you hear him in these clips, he's got, you know, he's got it dialed in. He, I think he understands the meaning of this fight that way.

Yeah, I was, I was, you're reading my mind. I was just going to say that, you know, he's definitely saying the right things. And he definitely looks like he feels the fire competitively. and I think all of those things speak well with him. I'll also just say this too. Like, you know, again, Charles had to eat a little bit of shit because of the way that fight went based on fan expectations, but he's the one holding the belt.

Like in the end, you'd rather be in that position than not. But like the amount of, I mean, you know, for Max to have to leave 45 and he gets knocked up by Ilya and he can't beat Volk and then he comes up to 55 and he gets kind of handled by Charles to then go out there and beat Connor, which, again, I don't know what that means after five years other than you're beating a very, very, very, very, very, very. famous guy. And that has its own level of reward. Like the amount of aura improvement that is

available to him in this particular opportunity, especially since he's saying all the right things, it's profound. It's profound. Like to your point, if there is one thing about Max, it's like, Max was for a while the best 45 or in the world. That's true. And I don't know if he's the best 55er. and I definitely don't think he's the best 170 or. But on the right night, Max's ability to just kind of wait, wait, wait, go, and then score a huge win. So it's sort of his calling card to a degree, you know? He's making his way to Kormier. Remember he wanted to fight Kornier.

But the, you know, what does he do? Like seriously, like, since we're talking about Max, I mean, this is an obvious thing for him. Like when they were trying to book Connor McGregor, you're like, Max Holloway's out there. I mean, this could make sense and now they're doing one seven, but what does it mean, I guess, for him? You know, let's say he does go in there and he does what odds makers think he'll do. he wins like what do you do do does he stay like you wouldn't stay there right like this has to be kind of more of like a lark you know he's not going to be able to compete with the one seven years who are you know at the top like even in the top 15 i mean unless he looks fucking unreal at 70 yeah

why would you stay i mean that's a huge leap 15 pounds man what are you going to do you're going to be max holloway you're going to fight michael morales you know what i mean like no you're going to fight carlos brachess like dude this these are unwinnable fights you know what I mean like that's not even for the best guy at 55 those are not really all that all that winnable so maybe it gets for Islam but you know what I mean like it's not it's not he's about the only guy who could probably pull that off and so no I think he goes back down but I just feel like max has been max is max is a jackhammer in slow motion like he's just constantly chipping constantly chipping and so to the point we raised at the beginning of the segment I don't

really know where he's at I don't know I just don't know what we're going to get I don't know we're going to get out of 170, but he's saying all the right things. Most of the attention is on Max, sorry, I was on Connor. Max has an opportunity to come in and just disrupt the whole shit and change his fortunes. And I do think, let's say he knocks out Connor in like vicious fashion, right? Which Porriet did it. So maybe maybe Max can do it too. You know, he might be in line for a title shot.

I do like that. I mean, you know what I mean? Like it's the amount of things that that gets you is profound. Yes. And it is such a high profile. file fight. I'm guessing, you know, I know you probably talk about this later on the week, but this is, when you have Connor McGregor at the

top and the card is constructed in a pretty good way, like it's a pretty good card, I think that there's a lot of eyes and we've seen, man, if you're a favorite, you know, and people pay attention, if Max goes in there and does this, like, his star will rise again. You know what I mean? He'll be

right back up there. Do you think he's going to get booed at the presser? I don't think so, man. Do you? you think he'll i think he might get a little booed yeah yeah fans are mutants for the most part this is this is the story within the story though it's kind of like how what is the reception of connor i know he's going to have his faithful there and they're going to be like you know they're going to be the same thing

but at this you know there's a lot of controversy going into this one we'll talk about it and later in the show but it's like dude the the irish hate him now not no so are the irish going to travel for him i don't i don't know how that works you know unless they're forced to by their media people um i keep seeing you know pizzi like he's over there and he he's like this is the worst fight week because he'll send me like you know actual newspapers you know like the actual images with these horrible headlines about you know disgrace and stuff i mean it's it's bad over there it is bad for connor mcgregor so i mean there's a i mean can you imagine, I don't think this is true, but could you imagine a world where Connor gets booed and

Max gets cheer at the presser? You'd be like, are we in the upside down? I know. That would be very strange. But it wasn't quite like that for Porre. You know what I mean? Like, it's true. So I feel like it had become, Max has been very beloved. But in the situation where you're going against this guy, you know, kind of McGregor, we know how this goes. You kind of get drowned out. Yeah. We'll see how it goes. But I just think it's kind of interesting to start this conversation today about Max because all eyes are on Connor and I feel like Max is kind of going unrecognized maybe for good or for bad we'll see let's go to topic number two which is we stayed with this fight and I believe that I saw Marcel Dorf report this so I'm going to take

this as gospel but Marisio Hoofee appears to be the backup for the main event so obviously that main event at 170 will be Connor McGregor taking on Max Holloway and they wanted to slot in Marisa Hoofee and here is what he wrote I made myself available for the Connor McGregor fight and Max Holloway. I'm going on a trip to Las Vegas. And it sounds like what he's saying there is he just kind of declared himself. But again, I saw Marcel Dorff report it. So I feel like it's probably legit.

Is this the right guy for this? And more to the point, not only is this the right guy. Listen. And you're there for heart-wrenching knockout. The world's biggest stage. And breathtaking triumph. 2026 FIFA World Cup The knockout stage

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What is the UFC saying By putting him in this role? Well they seem to really like Hoofie, right? They're putting him into a pretty big situation especially because he was just on that White House card, and he came out, I think, fairly unscathed. I don't think he really took any damage. I think that because they had talked about a potential.

Did they mention Hoofie? I'm trying to remember now. I'm trying to remember because when McGregor was, you know, you're going through the carousel of speculation of who he might face. I felt like that that was a name. Maybe it was because the styles are so similar between Hoofie and vintage McGregor. But I think that it's kind of a, you know, it's fascinating in the sense like a 170, right? Because Hoofee, again, is a 155er, and he's kind of like, well, this is all on a lark anyway.

And he probably, just in the sense of Michael Chenley, probably loves his chances against either guy. You know what I mean? And I think that the UFC loves the idea of Hoofie kind of delivering when he gets these chances. So I think it makes a lot of sense. Who is the guy? James Yon Topp? Is that how he pronounces his name? The guy he fought and he missed weight.

Remember this whole thing? And so if he had a little experience, I guess, in having to face a guy who was bigger than him. And he persevered in that fight just fine. Like he was able to get through it. And I think they went the full three rounds. You know, these are just things that you think of when you're like, how would he handle himself at 170? He's actually had more experience than, say, Max, you know, who hasn't really fought there. So I feel like that that has to factor in a little bit, just that he's had, you know, he's had a tough look where he had to overcome that once already.

I want to just be clarifying here. UFC has not declared this true. So we are kind of, you know, let's wait to see what they actually do. Kind of funny that they didn't, you know, there's a few choices that they could have gone with. I'll say this, dude, who if he looked so bad against BSD? Like so bad. So out of his depth. So like what the fuck are we doing?

And by the way, BSD, of course, is on this car against Patty. That's the co-main, right? I believe that's the common. Yeah, right. I believe it is. So it's like, that was such a bad loss. That I was like, wow, dude. I don't even know where you are.

But then you recall the guy made some change. in his life. He had and I think they one preceded it, but it didn't matter. Now he's with a slightly different or a different team. He's got a different training focus. To your point, they put him on this white house card. Chuck, you missed this. We did this exercise with Jed, I think last Friday, maybe, maybe it was Friday where we were kind of discussing, you know, hey, if Diego go Diego Lopez goes to 55, who would you match him up with or, you know, what are some of the best fights to make for the rest of the year? And both Jed and I, and again, same kind of thing. We didn't see each other's answers.

There's we both had hoofy in like all of our answers there is something magnetic about this guy dude he is just out and and when I say something it's not a big mystery what I mean to say is you know his style is interesting he's got flash he's got pizzazz there's just he is he is as bad as he looked against BSD number one even if Connor wanted to wrestle or Max wanted to wrestle they're not going to wrestle like BSD right so you don't really have to worry about that with Hoofee in this particular case. And then more to the point, dude, like, you know, I don't know if he's going to learn English and I don't know what it means to be a star in the streaming era. But in terms of the fight style, people can't let go of this guy. Can't let go of him at all. He is magnetic. And I think that this kind of this interest in him, whether it's true or not, this interest in him speaks to that. I mean, he delivered, what he should do is, I mean, he strikes me almost like a,

a straight mercenary, you know, a bounty hunter or something. They could put him in the Empire Strikes Back, you know, with Bosk and all those guys. Like, he's like that, he's that guy who, he just shows up. And if you talk to him, have you ever talked to him? Because if you talk to him, he's going to give praise to God and he's going to talk to you, like he's kind of, you know, just, you know, talking about God and that's it. And like, he'll give you the most basic answers in terms of fighting. Like, he will not give you anything.

But in some way, you're like, it doesn't really matter because all the talking he does is once he gets in there, man, and starches these guys. And I think you're right, man. When I saw the, uh, the, the sense, the Sandinian one and we're like, okay, we, we, we were probably, you know, overhyping him to an extent. But the way he has responded, again, is very lone, like this lone wolf who's out there just on a, you know, a course of destiny, right? Because he goes, I feel, I feel like he has looked so much better since he got around Volk.

And I don't know how they, like, I don't know they're dynamic, but it feels like since he's been with, uh, with those guys a little bit. his game has certainly gotten better and he is not afraid to kind of be like that nomadic guy almost like yire Rodriguez and kind of you know float around and pick up different pointers you know what I mean like in like in different things so I feel like he's one of those guys who's dialed in right and it's going to be a lot of fun to watch him man like you can start to match make him and like with all these like you just mentioned with like you know Lopez and stuff like that it becomes a lot of fun to contemplate yeah dude like to your point like we were we were talking about this with jed it's like

What's a bad fight for Hoofee in the sense that like, oh, the fans wouldn't like it. It's like, okay, I mean, Armine, if he just wrestles him or something. But like in general, there isn't a bad one. There's no way to do this badly. But the question does become then, Chuck, what would make more for an interesting substitution? Connor versus Hoofee or Max versus Who. Probably Connor for me. It's only because, I mean, you've watched them.

Like they kind of do this blade, you know, karate stance. they like to get into this. The white stands kind of backward posture leaning and they kind of go at it and then they both. We know that they have, you know, knockout power. So, you know, it'd almost be a little bit like mirror. Now, I'm talking about obviously the vintage McGregor. I don't know we're going to see exactly that for him. But I would, I would assume he's still in that kind of range. So it almost be like a mirroring aspect and somebody would go down. So I feel like that that would be fun. I'm going to say this. I think the bigger one, obviously, is going to be Connor because of the celebrity, but to your point, also because of their styles.

Yeah. That'd be really interesting. But then the, the, the, the, the, the hoofy thing really throws a wrench into it. Because if Connor goes out there and just gets wiped out by Hoofee, you know, that's good for whoofy, but is he really ready for the top of 55 for the kind of celebrity push that this might give him? I don't know about that. I think to your point about Volk, Volk is, or just new, the new training environment.

Right. Yeah. More than one guy, obviously. But the thing I was going to say was like, obviously he was more technically skilled and flashier than eerie. But he could have gone down a path where all of those fighting nerds guys where they're, they're reckless and wild for fun to the point of their own demise. And it seems like what the new training environment has done has allowed him to just still be who he is. But it has tightened up a lot of the defensive lapses or just the decision making about that.

and that has I think really propelled him and that makes it a very very tough fight obviously for either max or Connor in that regard but even with that I'm still like it's still a process right he's still he's still solidifying this more coherent game that's you can see it jelling you can see it it's not quite there yet so I actually feel like if he fought max that beat max you'd be like okay that's a nice win but that would feel like more of like an incremental win right like like that proper escalation to where that's right yeah whereas with connor it's like oh you're fucking strapped to a rocket right yeah you know he has you know you're talking about this and i'm thinking back like he has a little bit of that john jones thing where you all of us like

you just watched it with chanler right you throw him in there with hoofy and they're like dude do we need to see that you know like to see this guy just get like ravished by uh you know by this beast and like if he did the same like just presuming he gets into there and he was able to do it he does it to either one of these guys really it would be like when john jones was kind of you know taken out all the holdover relics from pride and you know the original tough and all that stuff where he was just taking them all out and declaring basically a line in the sand of a new era you know like that's that would almost it almost have that feel a little bit because it would be like dude these guys who've been the the you know the the gold standard for a long time can't keep up

with this young guy right he's only he's 30 it's not like he's super young but it would have that feel to it a little bit. Long Island, if he has to sub sub in, what would you rather see Connor fight, right? Nah, give me Max. Wow. Why? Just because man, I've said this before. I'm so over the fucking Connor, like, trade, like just the whole, like, I want to see him in like super fights of anything. Max is a super fight, sure, but like Hoofie and Connor, that's not, that's not a super fight. Come on. You know, whofy doesn't answer any questions for us.

Let me, let me ask then. Are you hoping Connor gets waxed this weekend? I'm not hoping for anything. No, I don't, I almost said I have nothing against the guy. I don't, I don't really have anything against the guy. Obviously, he's a terrible, he's done terrible things allegedly. So, you know, whatever. But for the sake of the sport, we don't like, I want Max to win. I just feel like it'll move things along.

Okay, we did this side show thing. Now we're done. We're back to whatever. But in, in today's era, who the fuck knows, man? Dude, if Connor wins, though, that is, that is a true contemplation. Remember with the Donald Seroni thing, which is only win in what, 10 years or whatever the hell it is? Yeah.

Yeah. I mean, more than that, yeah. Yeah, because you have to go back a ways before then. But man, you remember how it all read back on this graphic? We have last fight July 10th, 2021. Last win, January 18th, 2020, lay off 1,827 days.

An insane, insane gap. Is there even an equivalent to that? I mean, I know that, like, you got George Foreman's and people like that. And, you know, Paciel came back. Well, he was like 46 when he fought a barrios. Like, I can't even think of like the equivalent of something like this. You know what I mean? Like where a guy comes back, devastating to him.

It definitely wasn't as long, but GSP coming back to fight this thing? How long was that? That was a long time. That was four years. Yeah. That was four years. But this is, this is so different for that. That's why this fight is so fucking weird.

You know, like it's very weird. And also the other part about the story that gets lost. And I know we're talking about who of you, but it's like they wanted to make, the Nate fight. That's what they wanted to make. And then Nate went with, went with MVP or whatever he's doing. And, uh, and they just waived it. So they went on to, to make the Max fight. But it's like, man, that's a, that's a much tougher fight. It is. A much tougher fight. Yeah. Let me ask you this. Is it like we're talking about

hoofy in this topic, but like the, who's the harder to fight for him? Like in a weird way, in a strange way, Max. You think it would be? So let's, let's posit this. So let's assume who he fills in because Connor pulls out, right? Yeah. Assuming that it stays five rounds, I definitely would pick Max. If it goes three, that's a little different for me. Okay.

Because I feel like Max's ability to put a pace behind a jab event and his durability, which I don't think is, and we didn't talk about this in the first topic. Do you feel like Max's durability is compromised after, you know, getting caoed by Ili? Oh, man. I don't know. I mean, to me, that's a tough question. Like, you know, some guys get the good chinny. Like, you see, like, their minds are shut down at the earliest adversity.

It's like, they're like, I don't want to be in this. It's like trauma. I haven't really seen that. I went back and watched Max's fight with, with Ilya. And he was, I think he was losing going into the third round on the scorecards, but he was holding his own. Do you remember, like, he had thrown an enormous amount of volume, like, 200 and some strikes.

and he wasn't like super efficient, but it was good in terms of the shorter guy keeping him short, keeping him at distance and kind of avoiding it up until the moment he got struck in like the third round. Like I look at that one because it wasn't that long ago and I'm like, you know, he took a punch and you could see him like you could see he was wobbled

and he, but he shook it off and he was able to go. Now he was out within a minute of this, right? So like he got hit with another one, I think it was a left and that was what put him away. I said it like put him to the ground. but it wasn't like his lights got shut off immediately, you know? It was like he still was, his chin was durable enough. He's just getting hit with a guy who, you know, throws with tremendous power and was catching him flush.

I feel like that's, I haven't seen it. What about you? I mean, I know you watch tape, you know, very carefully. Like, what do you think? Do you think he's getting that way? I think if he fought Hoofee, we'd find out real quick. Yeah, that is true. That is true.

Yeah. With Connor, too, you might, especially at 170. my hunch is that it's not fully compromised. My hunch is that it's largely, his durability is still largely intact. I do wonder though, with like a knockdown dragout with Max or a knockdown drag out with Hoofie,

at 34, now you're starting to cause, you know, like at 34 men, you can have hard fights, but you should not be having slobber knockers. You know, that's when you can really facilitate the end. exit. That's why Justin Gachie's such a different breed. Like it's just how he does that. I don't know. I mean, yeah, it should that makes no sense to any evidence in the fight game, you know,

and to all of our relevant experience. I know. How many guys have we seen? It just doesn't make any situations. Yeah. And then they hit 35 and 36 and then they start having slob knockers. You're like, okay, well, you're on the way out. And then he comes back and he fucking beats a little bit for you. You know, what the fuck? You know, so, um, so I, I don't know, I just think whoofy is a really interesting guy. I feel like I wanted to include him in this conversation because not that he got left on the side of the road for dead after BSD, but that was such a shock to everyone. It was so bad. And I feel like by the end of this year, Chuck, if things go a little lucky for him, he could have erased every last remaining bit of doubt about him. Certainly as a

person to be excited about, you know. Yep. And he's always ready, by the way. Like when I remember talking to him in Miami when a Chandler I would know who was it somebody was on that card but he was there and he was like I'm ready to jump in if they need me this was like the Tuesday or Wednesday before that fight card in Miami he's just he's that guy like he wants to fight I think the UFC has to love a guy like this too right

like anybody who is just like every single time there's an opening he's like I'll do it I'll do it as long as it kind of escalates them he's always ready to do it striking his style works against anybody you know against truly anybody so we'll see before we get to topic number three

do you have a feeling Chuck on which way you might be thinking the main event goes like by that I mean like person and method you don't have to commit to something in other words you have you can reserve the right to change your opinion as it stands right now where are you

there's a part of me man and I don't know if who was it was it hit manhood we always talk about this sleeping in the soap pajamas or whatever it is the sheets and like Conner's Hagler Hagler. Hagler or last Walter.

Yeah, I was one of those guys like they and it's so true. We've seen it so often and I'm like, so like how much can you fuel the hunger to get back? You know, and there's just so many factors involved. But I could see. I could see it second,

third round type thing where Connor, you know, he's just getting beat and then that's it. You know, Hagler is what it is. That's what that happens. But, uh, yeah,

but like I could just see it. And it's just because you're like, can he dig deep? Can he dig to that hunger again? I think that that's something that eventually goes away when you really get super rich or a businessman, you've been through all this stuff. Like, you know, I just don't think he can dig like that anymore.

So I could see a second or third round where he's just taking damage and that's that, you know? And to say nothing of the fact that I haven't seen a single combat athlete come back from that injury and look the same. I was thinking about that, man, and I know we're going to close with Connor and all that stuff. But Chris Wydenman, right, like was like, you have to look at like the guys who had something like this.

And in retrospect, looking at Anderson Silva, who came back, I think, 13 months later, and a pops, obviously, because he's probably, he's doing whatever he's doing to kind of get himself built up and strong. But he comes back after 13 months and fights Nick Diaz. And that's just incredible to think back on. I think Chris Widman was out of like two and a half years. And obviously, if you go back and watch that fight, he was very, very reluctant to engage. It looked like he was holstered. You know what I mean?

Like, I think it was Brad Tavaros, right? Like, he just didn't look like the same fighter. So that is the extra element that folds into this. Well, if you've got to read out there like Long Island, like me or like Chuck, or maybe you've got a better one, we've teamed up with Draft Kings to bring you a brand new offer. Draft Kings is now available in all 50 states from New York to California. So no matter where you are, you're always connected to the fun. New Draft Kings customers, sign up with the code combat.

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Trade to get $50 in prediction dollars that expire in one year, issued every seven days via click to claim for 21 days. One non-waddrawable reward redeemable. Predictions offer void in New York ends July 19th. Terms at dkng.c.c.o slash audio. All right. Let's go to topic number three. We have a bunch of different fight announcements. I'm going to focus on two of them.

One for this one, one for the next one. It was reported this week. And again, I know for a fact, Marcel Dorf did this because I pulled it from his write-up on heavy. That middleweights turned light heavyweights, Rineer or Rineer-Durter, and Roman DeLide's Day are going to face off on August 22nd at a fight night in Sacramento, California. Now, I don't think that they're the main event, but they're on it. Both have experience, as we all know at 205, more so for Derritter. But how do these two match up now? And more importantly, like what do you make of this pairing, Chuck?

I don't mind it. Like you mentioned, they both have some experience. was it uh deli fluffy fluffy robocop is the main event so it's oh okay that's a good fight um i guess i've been a way but i didn't even know that was happening but the uh you know having the experience and i think it was anthony smith who delizzi fought right not that long ago and he looked pretty good you know he looked pretty good at that weight he's getting up there if i'm a guy and i'm a bigger guy like you're cutting a lot of way especially in your late 30s like deletes a and you're like well I might have one last push and I could go up in weight class.

You're looking at guys like Paulo Costa, right? They go up there and he gets one victory at 205 because the cupboards are fairly empty comparatively. Like, you know, he's ranked number four right now with a single victory. And I mean, I know that like competition is not exactly the same. But it's, it's if you're going to have like one last kind of like let's try to run up the flagpole one more time and see if we can become a contender if that's even what he wants to do.

that's not a bad move. I mean, I think he's got, he's a bigger bodied guy. And for Derritter, like you mentioned, it's the same thing. You know, why not do it? He's in his mid-30s as well. Like, why not go up there? Both guys are coming off two-fight losing streaks. Yeah.

Both of them. But I feel like, tell me if you disagree. Long Island, let's pull you in here. I feel like Derritter, while both are coming off of a two-fight losing streak, I feel like Derritter still has more upside, true or false. true did you guys say their ages yet how old are they 37 is the lezze right like yeah deline's up there that's why I'm like okay I can see also RDR did fight at light heavyweight in one right

so yeah so I feel like this is a solid like let's see how you're going to do it light heavy but giving him another middleweight I don't love but again Deleaday has fought at 205 before I believe like catch weight or something right was that Anthony Smith yeah Anthony Smith yeah that's right so I feel like this is just let's see where you're at i think he should win this there aren't odds out on it yet i was going to pull those for you but you mean der der r should win yeah sorry i feel like rdr should be like minus 200 or something so uh i love this fight because both guys are at least teetering on washed i mean that's not quite right but no you're right i think that's pretty pretty close

i feel like if they don't delete a you know yeah yeah especially delizzi like if the leads they loses three in a row. It's like, okay, well, where are you? It was also the way that Fluffy, you remember Fluffy like just kind of handled him, man. I mean, and then it was the last one was Christian, what's his name, Duncan Leroy? Like that was, I mean, and again, it just felt like he was going away. Like he was, you know, it wasn't that close of a fight in my mind. So. Yeah, I was just going to say, for me, it's like, I think it's dire in both directions, because three consecutive losses in the UFC is a problem. It's not a deal-break. or like it used to be, but it's a problem.

And then the other thing I was going to say is that like, if you're RDR, you've beaten better guys than Deleizze. You know what I mean? Like you've done that. And Deleizze is at least he could stand with you the whole time. That's true. But he might be very willing to accommodate you on the ground. And so it's like, you've beaten better guys than this.

He's aging. He's also coming off of two losses. And he might be able to accommodate your stand or your game plan. And I'm not going to say it's a situation, Chuck, where he shouldn't lose because that's overly simplistic. But, you know, if you're RDR and you can't win, just thinking about this way, like, you're changing weight classes to go back to 205, which again, he was a champion in different organization. But if you're, if you're leaving the weight class you were in to go to the next one and then you can't beat a guy who's like not even really in that weight class. And even if he is, is teetering on the edge of it. You know what I mean?

It's like, I don't know where you go from there. Conversely, though, if he gets to be. it's a real nice dominant win. I'm not going to, again, it's too simplistic to call it a tune-up, but it could be just the right kind of fight to get his 205 feet wet in, if that makes sense, you know? It's kind of like the Dan Henderson thing when he came over from Pride. I know that he'd lost his belts in terms of Derritter, right?

Like he came over, he'd already lost his belts. But it's kind of like that, you know, it's like you had two divisions to choose in the end. So Dan Henderson kind of play both waters and he had title shots in both. I feel like that's RDR's a moment. And it's got to be said, like you mentioned, I think this is set up for him, you know, because he's a, he's kind of a compelling new face in that division. He, like you mentioned, he beat Whitaker, he beat Bone Nickel. He beat guys like that, which to me, they really stood out.

They were like the type of things like you're paying attention. And he was right there for a middleweight title shot. Like he was closing in on it. So one big victory, I don't know how far it moves them, but just to get your feet wet in a new division, I feel like that's the setup here. you know and delides a de lead's a man he's like i said he's looked kind of bad but he's like one of those guys have you ever talked to him because he's one of those guys like if he's out of the fight game you don't worry about him he owns like a grocery store and is in his home city there and he like he's got all these other business things going on he's one of those guys like

he's a rational mind when it comes like he's going to be a rational guy and i'm i'm sure that like if he sees that the writing's on the wall he'll just he'll just get out eventually you know yeah i was going to say to me the interesting part about this matchmaking is it to me it very much signals you UFC is like, all right, RDR, we'll give you another shot. You know what I mean? We'll see what you can do here. You don't have to cut four times in a year.

And if you do, it'll be a 205 and not 85. You know, this is a guy who is not a pushover, but beatable. And we're going to, you know, it's not main event. So it's just going to be three rounds. You know what I mean? Like there's a lot of reasons if you're already are where you should feel confident about what you can do here. And I honestly feel like, of the two, who is more marketable.

I'm going to say RDR, not just same here. I mean, both speak English, but RDR's English is obviously better. Yeah, yeah. But I think his style, like the fans still have a, like, DeLidze is a guy who is a lunch pale, you got to respect. Right. It's so true, yes. But RDR's got a little bit of, you know, he's got a little bit of, he's got a signature,

you know, and I think that they want to keep guys like that. Yeah, he's got wow moments in his arsenal. Yeah, because he did that even against Bo Nicol. I mean, like, bad matchups where you're like, oh, Jesus, he still has these moments and breaks, breaks a guy like that. You're like, okay, like this is how he kind of operates. Yes, he's definitely got the upside. I feel like people were talking about him a lot as he was making that run. Oh, we didn't talk about it on the show, but fluffy Robocop is a fucking balls out main event.

That is a sick ass main event. Where is this fight card happening? Sacramento. Oh, Sacramento. That's right. Which, that's a fluffy home game then. That's basically like where that's his, uh, He hates any city.

He considers Sacramento a big city. But like he's like, he goes there as a necessary. I'd rather die. I'd rather die than a Sacramento. But I'll say this. I'll say this. You know, people sleep on Sacramento like a lot of great UFC and MMA generally has happened there.

Because the alpha male guys are there. They've brought shows there. Yeah. You know, Sacramento is actually a surprisingly good, uh, UFC town. Yeah. But I'd also rather just die than go.

I'm wondering to just be super clear about that. There's not a lot happening there, Luke. I've been there. You know, we know what's happening. there fluffy robocop that's well that's that would be the reason to go yes i do have to i i will have to say i fucking love dude i'm telling you like obviously you know my opinions about the the ufc aligning with donald trump aside people were very excited about the white house card and here's connor and you know whatnot

but for my money dude like just like what what what purely represents mma these fight night cards on the road and i know i sound like a broken record about it but because we're going to get to another one. Well, actually that one's at the apex, but like in general, these fight night cards on the road. Yeah. They're just my favorite thing. They're just my favorite thing. I love them. Remember the one it was like in Cincinnati? It was Matt Brown against Eric Silva.

Do you remember this one? And they went like it was a I know that they fought. It's ridiculous first round. But the crowd there was just so on top of it. And I was like, you can point out a million of these. And there's just a random fight night. But you had a real live audience that just came to life and like made that such an event. And I agree. Sacramento usually does that too. bro it's so funny like so many times people ask me like my favorite fights and if you're going like you know best heavyweight fight you are going to end up on a pay-per-view or something or you know like a major card or pride or something but like when i think about the fights where i had the most fun it's like caro parisian versus diego sanchise oh yeah it's some shit like that word which is just a fight night just a fight night um and those kinds of pairings do i i don't know why but i remember them more i i resonate with them more

I think in part it's because, you know, the fighters themselves typically aren't using the N word to promote themselves. That's true. And both, both if you're in a main event there, both guys are still trying to actualize that's what it is. And they're usually their first main events. Like you remember the Congo, Pat Berry? Like it was there was like nine fights that were booked on that that got all warped and it became Markort was supposed to fight so and so. And like it got all, it got all messed up. Charlie Brennan actually ended up beating Rick's story, like in a huge upset.

Like it was like a crazy card in Pittsburgh. But the Congo Barry fight plays out in this ridiculous first round where, you know, it's like Pat Barry is just dominant. Remember this? Like he has, he has Congo beat and then Congo like basically Hill Mary, boom at the end of the round, knocks him out. And it's just like, and he folds. He just folds and he lies there.

Like he's dead for the next few minutes. This was one of those fight nights I was at that I was like, I'll never forget. But it is that kind of atmosphere, just wild. Yeah, I love that shit. That's like, I don't know if there's much better than that, except for like super, super, super high end. But like if you're not doing the super, super high end, you can skip a bunch and then get to the fight night main events.

And I'm like, that's where I'll be. All right. Topic number four, let's stay with some of the matchmaking, but let's move it forward a little bit. And this one is very interesting. Listen. And you're there for heart-wrenching knockouts. biggest stage and breathtaking triumph.

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Available on IHeard Radio. So rising Australian sensation, Quill and Saul Kiel now has his first UFC main event. Now, it's not a pay-per-view, and it's not even a fight night on the road. It's going to be at the apex. This will be August 8th at the apex in Las Vegas, but he's taking on division stalwart and wrestling extraordinaire, Mateus Gammert. Okay, so clearly, Chuck, the UFC believes in Salt Kild,

who's coming off that win over Benil Daryyush. But the question is, you know, are they right to believe in him as much as they do right now? and do you think, like, just in your head, he's got what it takes to defeat the wrestling and the grappling of Gamrod? This is a hell of a way to treat an upcoming star, isn't it? Like, not only do you bring him over and throw him in the apex, when you could actually showcase him on one of the things we're talking about,

like one of these events and be like, hey, here's our young sensation. What is he, like, 26 years old? Here's this guy coming up. They put him in the apex, but then they do this service of putting him against Gamrod, who we talked about, we talked about this a lot. Like he can just nullify the most electric fighters out there. And this is a guy who took down Armand Sarukin six times, you know? Like he's got, he's got like, he's got fights where he like, remember the Jalen Turner one too.

Like he took him down and held him down a guy who was a dynamic striker long lean. Like he's, he has that in his arsenal. So you're feeding, you know, this young kid, 26 into a situation where this might be one of the, worst matchups that you could you could give him at this point but yet they're throwing them in there in a in a room in a warehouse in Vegas I mean like this is if he's able to get through this this is this is like a major hurdle for him because this is it is not set up for him you know there aren't many advantages to this setup you know long island how high are you on salt killed because I think this is an important way to frame this conversation god I hate to say it because I am high on him

but I do not like this matchup for him and I'm going to be very intrigued when the come out because I do feel like Quillan's going to be the favorite and I might take Matush Camrod at plus money. I'm just saying. But you know, I also like that would be smart money. The Gamrod Oliva fight if we look back on that. Matush Gamrod was like plus 1 10 and I was like, whoa, we're getting Gamrod at plus money and you know, Oliverer runs right through. So maybe I have too high of a praise for Matuch Gamrott, but I'm not sold on Quillin yet. I got to see more out of them. Beniel's a solid win. It's not a current top 10 win, we'll say, because Benile, I think is obviously a little past it.

So I'm interested. I'm very intrigued by this matchup. Yeah, I mean, I'm super intrigued by this matchup because I'm just like Long Island. Like clearly Saul killed is good. Clearly. Yeah. Not going to sit here and say he's always some fraud and he's going to get fraud check. No, I mean, you're losing to Gamrod, you're not a fraud.

But if you do lose to Gamrod, you're not ready for the top of that division. And again, to your point, Chuck, 26 years old, maybe he's not supposed to be. Maybe he needs another year. Maybe he needs another 18 months or something like that, right? And so you can have that conversation. a little bit later, but they want, they kind of want to see what they got with him now. And I just think it's crazy risky, especially over the course of five rounds. Gamrod, Gamrod's not the best fighter at lightweight, but dude, he's tough as shit if you're not

ready for that kind of a thing. And Saul killed to me, like, this was my read. I went, I went back before today show and I watched the Darius fight. To me, like, he wins that fight and he wins it because he made a lot of the right decisions, but he also looked real nervous, you know? and part of it was Darius also not making the best decisions. And that can happen to Gamrod, but that doesn't happen as often to Gamrod.

In other words, like, Saul killed did what he needed to do in that fight, but I think he also got a little bit lucky, a little bit, and I don't know if Gamrod's going to give him that. Gamrod's not perfect, but dude,

Gamrod is just on you like white on fucking rice. And honestly, like, you just watched the Darius fight. Darius took him down for the first couple of minutes, primarily that's where the fight was happening so i mean that's that's the thing that's a red flag in terms of gamrod because his game plan is going to be that right it's going to be like i'm going to take you down and kind of nullify the things that you're very good at what do you

think of uh saw kills i know that you there's not a great sampley he finishes a lot of these fights early but like do you like his takedown defense it's good i don't know if it's great It's good. I think there's something bigger that's happening here that I would kind of like to articulate. Now, Long Island, if I'm missing something or I'm not realizing something, please let me know. But you got to remember, TCO signed an arrangement with, I think, New South Wales, but maybe even other places in Australia to bring shows there. And if you just, this show is in Vegas, I understand.

But what I'm trying to say is, if you look at the crop of Australian fighters, Jack Dela just kind of fizzled, at least fizzling right. now. Volk is amazing, but how much time does he have left? And, you know, there's obviously more Australian talent than there's ever really been. But Whitaker's, you know, I know he's going to 205, but I don't know what that's going to be, you know. Yeah. They need bigger names. They need headliners. They need people who can advance. And I think a couple times this year, right, they fast track people. And I'm not putting Saul Killed on the level of readiness of Joe Pfeiffer, and I'm not saying Joe Pfeiffer's also like the world

beater, but at least a little further along. Yeah. You know, and it worked. Like, they bumped him up to Izzy and it worked. I feel like this is not quite that because Gamrod is still a little bit fresher and more this, this to me is more of a genuine fact-finding operation, I think, for UFC. But I think they also need big-time Australian stars. They need Australian names, guys who can headline cards in Australia.

And Long Island, I feel like a lot of those names. names are dwindling isn't part of what's happening here the ufc saying to themselves we got to start facilitating the next generation of these guys possibly but also i just real quick the new south wales deal i think they've already played that all out those were the three paper views and i think the last one was 324 which was earlier this year and uh or maybe 325 but when we had those back-to-back ones it was volk diego or whatever yeah um but perth more realistically i feel like is where they've been going. That's where Quillan's from. That's where JDM's from. That's where Ersegg's from. Those three guys could headline fight nights in Perth, but to your point, can you,

you can't put them in a pay-per-view headliner unless you build that star. So I do think, yeah, I think they have a solid crop of guys to headline fight nights, Luke, but I do think they are struggling for like, besides Volk, obviously, a title contender at this moment. Yeah, like a standout name, a guy who can care who could be a flag bearer for Australian in MMA, whether they've got to deal with New South Wales or not, Australia is an important market for them. You know what I mean? Yeah. Gamrod is ranked above Salkild, right? I know Salkild were like some people were basically like upset that Salkild was as high as he was given that, you know, I don't think Darius is ranked and, you know, you know, Malargan, guys like that he's supposed to

beat. He was a huge favorite. But, um, so in the meta, in the meta rankings, Gamrod is six and Quillen is eight and in the media rankings, Gamrod is eight and Quillan is 12. Okay. I got to say the media rankings sound a little more. I know they do. Accurate than me. Yeah, that seems pretty generous to be number eight. But in either case, I'm like, it represents a chance to kind of maybe, you know, leapfrogging to that top five space.

But at the same time, man, I am just, I'm surprised they would put him against Gamrod. That's all it is. especially in especially in i mean maybe if you're putting me as gamrott the the apex that's fine because the type of style it is but at the same time man i thought that they would showcase he just feels like a star man like he feels like a star and you think about you know the comparables you think about like connor mcgregor boston dublin like the places they were putting him in his build up and like you know i just expect you know i guess i was thinking that's what they're going to do with this kid so it just the whole thing the man

Matchmaking and the location is very bewildering to me. If Gamrod wins, what does he get here? Oh, man. And it's tough because a lot of that, there's a lot of, you know, confusion at the top of that division. I don't know. What are they doing with Justin Gage? He's going to get Arm on because the one thing he's got in his back pocket

is that victory against Armand, right? Like, Sarukin. So, like, he's got a very nice victory. This would be very nice because you're taking a dudes, like, who's built up a lot of juice, you know, like, and people are paying attention to him. I think it would, I don't think, I mean, I don't think he gets a title shot out of it. But I think that he would be then in a conversation.

If the UFC is playing it, you know, with their rankings in a meritocracy or, you know, it should put him in a situation where he's in a title eliminator type fight, right? Like he should be at the cusp of a title shot at that point. I don't think they believe in him at all. Yeah. I don't either. I don't either, but they believe in him in so far as he's valuable in fights like this. Right.

Put the young guy through the pace. let's see what he's got you know yeah but if you win it's like this is like the boxing thing where it's like a guy wins you know some 10 round upset and you know what's he going to get it's like well the guy you upset is the person that people care about they don't magically care about you now that you beat him sometimes that can happen often it can happen but not always and because gamper the problem with gamrott is that he's had these other losses that were kind of clear already to your point like the olivara loss was like yeah fucking run over you know yes and so people are like oh okay well that's just you know gamrod's good but gamrod's gamrod you know what i mean and this fight if he wins

that it doesn't really change that you know what i mean it's like oh you beat a guy who got you too early you know yeah so it's like it's weird i feel bad for gamrod because it's he has to fight all these tough ass motherfuckers and even if he wins i don't know what he gets i don't know what he gets yeah no you're you might be right i mean if they're if they're following their own thing he's got some nice victories but you're right he's almost a michael johnson type fighter in the sense like he sometimes beats guys you don't think he will and then he loses the guys you think he'll beat I just don't get the sense that the U.

like I could understand Gamrod fighting at the apex like that makes sense to me because that's I think that's more akin to what the hell the UFC season but at the same time it's just the Sal killed thrown us maybe maybe you're maybe you're right that they're like let's see what he can do here we'll put him in a very tough test and it doesn't kill him you know it just make him stronger if he loses that type of thing yeah I'll say this too like for Saul killed

unless gamrott looks crazy washy, which, you know, is possible. This would be the kind of like the thing, the problem with the Daryush win was that it's like, okay, you beat Daryush and that was fine. That was good even. But we keep talking about it every time we talk about that fight. It's like, okay, but Daryush is like, you know, really close to being done. It didn't prove a lot to me. It proved something.

But dude, unless Gammarot looks. washing, which I'm not expecting, this would actually prove something. This to me would be like, oh, okay. Because we know his striking is good, right? The NASCAR hackler-asselin is a great example. If you can handle this and actually do feel like

you're off to the races, you know what I mean? Yeah, I mean, you're right. This becomes, if he passes this, I said it, I'm like, this might be the worst matchup for him. I'd have to really look through it, but this is definitely one of the matchups. You're like, ooh, stay away from that one. And here he is. So if he gets through it, that'll speak ball

for where he's at 26 years old. At that point, it'd be like, then you're like, you're like, it's not, you know, if he's going to like ascend, it's just how long is it going to take him to get to the top? That would be the feeling on it. All right. With that in mind, let's go to topic number five. Now, we started today's show with a discussion about Max Holloway. And the question was, you know, what is the biggest storyline you're paying attention to?

What are people not talking about? Like, when you think about what was happening with Max Holloway, what question stands out to you most? Let's flip it. Now, there's so many more with McGregor for a lot of different reasons. But Chuck, it's the same kind of thing. Ahead of his UFC 329 return, what is the biggest question mark surrounding Connor McGregor to you? My God, you're right. You have to narrow this one down because my guess would, my thing would be, what does he have left in this situation?

We've seen people and nobody, because he's basically unparalleled. like he's impressed like he's a guy who came along it was all exceptions the whole way through even some of his victories were like that we're like how did you do that so there there's this we always again the mystic max stuff from the day but there is an element of that we're just like if anybody could come in there you know and do something and this would feed into this it factor that he has it might be connor mcgregor who can come back and do something like this i don't i don't even know what the odds are on this fight i got them for you ready okay yeah our friends are friends at draft kings And again, these lines are subject to change.

Connor McGregor currently sits at plus 180, Max Holloway, minus 218. Yeah, because I would have him as a, I would have him at plus 350. That's to me, to me, this is an uphill battle. There's just so many things. And if you, if you go down the list of, I guess the 170 pounds is the one thing that he should have an advantage on, right?

Because he's a big guy now. Like he's big. The 170, he's going to be big on fight night. He's going to be bigger than max. And maybe this place. is a favor? Maybe not, but does he have the speed? Does he have the cardio for this? Does he have the desire for

this? Does he, is some residual fear with his leg coming back from all this time? It goes on and on. There's also like this huge because he's built it for so long and he's dealt with pressure and

expectations so well through the course of his career. Like there's also that. Like there's this mounting like, you know, bigness to what his return, does he deal well with that at this age? Like he turns 38 years old like days after this fight, right? Like he's, his birthday is right afterward. And it's just, then you get into the age factor.

You get into the, you know, the rustiness and can he find a rhythm? Like there are so many questions. It's almost like what you said, it's a completely strange main event because of all of that. There's just so much that it's unknown for this fight. You know, the thing that I think about with this is, you know, everyone should understand, like what this is. This is the end of Connor McGregor in the UFC, whether he wins or he loses. And what I mean by that is obviously we know he has two fights left. So he's got this one this weekend. And then according to Connor, the next one will be, I think, April is what he said,

2027 or something like that. Let's assume that that's true for just the sake of argument. This is the end no matter what. It's the end no matter what. So even if he wins both of those, I guess if he becomes champion, Chuck, in some kind of way, that wouldn't be the end. But I really find that to be unlikely. Yeah. So it's the end no matter what. So that to me is not really the question. The question to me is, is this going to be a bookend that feels like the beginning, the book beginning or I mean, the book ends or things that holds the book. But what the point I'm trying to make is he started off of a rocket ship and there's been a lot of bumps.

But like the thing that I think about is as he has the he wins a 205, the UFC 205, and then he fights Mayweather and then, you know, that people say, oh, that's the end of Connor. And I'm like, well, that's not the end of him. That was the transition into that next phase of his life. And again, I think criminality had a role before that, but it certainly had a role after that. And what people are hoping for is that on his way out, he can rededicate himself, refocus himself and get the kind of opportunity to reignite the mysticism, the mystic mac kind of phenomenon, at least in some kind of a way. That's really what they're trying to do. It's going to end either way. Just to be clear about this, like, he wants to go fight on Netflix and he wants

to go make a shit ton of money on Netflix. And I think that's not very difficult to understand. The question you have to ask yourself is, is he going to go out on his feet or his knees? And there's a lot of reasons to believe the knees are going to be the thing that is going to have to carry him out. But I just think, you know, a lot of people are kind of expecting, I don't know, return to form. But the thing I'm trying to say, Chuck is to me, the direction his life took after the Mayweather fight wasn't just an aberrance. It was the only path it was going to take. And in so doing the Mystic Mac chapter, it came to a close. It cannot be reopened. That's my personal opinion. I think fans are asking, can it be reopened? And even if it is the exit,

what and I just feel like this is just my personal opinion on this I just feel like he could win on on on Saturday but the things like his life was only that when he was being Mystic Mac and his fighting in the center of his life it was only that during that part we are so separated from that what I feel like the question I think for me I'm gonna be asking myself is if he loses bad It's not a question of like is mystic mac over. I think people will begin to like I wonder do people really begin to realize that like this is this the last opportunity for hope for him? Not for a big payday.

Right. I know what you mean. But to be something again. He unfortunately set a bar that's impossible for him to meet anymore. Right. Like it's just the bar that people want him to be at. I just don't think like obviously like he's not. going to get there again. I think you're right, man. I think that people, especially because

it's five years, five years, there's a lot of new fans who probably never really watched him compete, but they've heard endlessly about Connor McGregor and they probably caught up, like, going back, but it's impossible to replicate, like you mentioned a rocket ship. It's impossible, like to tell people who just weren't there and they weren't paying attention to this, like, what that was like, because he changed the business. He changed the UFC. He became an exception to every rule. It was just a complete. different thing. He raised all boats, right? Like he brought up

everything in the way that that played out. So I think that's impossible. I think that on some level that's what people want to see, right? Like he's got now a chance to do something. Like if he goes in there and wins, it's going to be like a monumental feat and it'll feel like

we are kind of dealing in some kind of vintage moment with Connor McGregor again. But honestly, what you're saying is, I mean, there are a lot of entrepreneurs and bulchers and everything else. hanging out on the wires watching this. Like what good is, you know, what form will we get kind of bigger? So like Netflix,

if they're standing by like what, you know, they want to have a big pay, they're watching this whole thing and they want to know what form they're getting. I know the BKFC, you talk to David Feldman, like he's like,

of course he'd want to fight in bare knuckle if he's still kind of relevant in this way because he gets equity in the business. You know, it's his business. Like he's an owner. These are all the things. It's all the sidelines, all the ventures,

all the business, all the people who are involved in these things. they're very interested for him to retain an ounce of his vitality, you know, to kind of come out of this in some way that it's just not like, you know, where Conn McGregor just looks like a complete washed has been like with a nobody, you know, that people sort of lose interest in. That's what they want to know. They just want to see him retain some of what he did, you know,

some of that Mystic Max said. Yeah. The question for me, though, another one that I'd like to put to the audience, too, is like, who is the most successful athlete to recover from this injury? Now, we know an MMA, we had Wyman and Silva who, let's just be honest, did not recover. Right. They did not recover. I mean, I know that they can walk around and shit like that, but like they never were the same.

Yeah, their records were both nosedived after that. The one that was, that I know of in Washington, D.C. was, remember Alex Smith? Yeah. But his was different. He had, I'm going to show my hands here. He had a spiral fracture. Yeah. So his didn't just break.

He was twisted like a sponge, and that is what broke it. If you've ever seen his leg, have you ever seen the surgeries on his leg? I've seen it. It's a wild image. It looked like he survived a great white shark attack. It does. And a burn. He somehow still played after that.

But he played, but he also didn't recover. That's true. What about Joe Seisman? You were saying, watch it, I thought you were going to Joe Thysman round because you guys have had a couple of, I mean, that was way earlier. But like, that's the thing. That was so long ago. I know.

I almost can't get that. But Alex Smith was relatively recent. That's true. More modern medicine, too. Long Island, do we know if there's any athlete who had some kind of a shin break that mostly recovered from that incident? He was just a part of one of the worst trades in NBA history. Paul George. Paul George broke his tibula and fibula like two years ago.

Or sorry, two years, like 10 years ago. Excuse me. A gruesome compound fracture. It was in the Olympics, Team USA. Oh, that's right. Yeah. And then Gordon Hayward as well, another Celtic player on like opening the night. Did he recover?

He didn't really recover. I'm just saying I'm naming players that didn't come back and play. Ed McCaffrey did. Ed McCaffey broke the same kind of thing. His leg, you know, snapped like that. And he ended up coming back and being pretty good. You know, like, so I guess there's a. Paul George is like what he was in 2014.

He's kind of never really been an all-star. I mean, maybe it was an all-star since. then but I feel like he kind of fell off a motherfucking Celtics I mean still yeah for jaylum brown which fucking crazy but uh I still feel like he's probably the best example of so besides Alex Smith which who I was going to bring up if you didn't look yeah but Alex Smith one is like the story of Alex Smith was that he made it back to the field and you're like wow man that's impressive but it wasn't like he was like oh well now he's just going to start for the team again you know it's not how that yeah maybe he started a couple games I can't remember anymore

But like the story was, wow, it didn't completely end his career. It just mostly ended his career. But the Paul George one is kind of interesting. Again, remember, dude, he took all those PEDs during that time, which the New York Times reported, which I don't really have a problem. There are conditions under which PEDs even I don't like, you know, for example, like people who are minors should not be taking them. And honestly, if you're less than 25, you shouldn't be taking them. But like, okay, but putting that aside, right. I don't really have a problem that he did that.

I actually feel like it's to me a medically very interesting question of that controversial decision by him to do that. What will that serve his interest in not only these next two fights in UFC, but if he fights Jake Paul on Netflix, how much of this can he keep? To me, this is, and I don't know on fight night, Chuck, it's going to be hard to disentangle. Hey, we're in round four and he's been off for five years and it's going to be hard to know what's what. but I am curious to see how he throws it, how he moves, how he looks. And if he goes into the point you raise, Chuck, where he's moving around, he's landing heavy shots, he looks light on his feet, who's going to say it was wrong to take the PEDs at the time he did?

I mean, it's the least shocking thing that he did this, right? It's the least shocking thing because it's like, this is a guy who just holds so many fortunes in his hand. You think he, I mean, honestly, I would have been more surprised. surprised if you'd heard that he tried to go an organic route and holistic. You know what I mean? Like where he just, he didn't want to,

uh, to do anything. I think that would have seen shocking to me for him to recover that way. But no, man. And we saw like through this process because we've never lost track of kind of America. You saw transformations in his own physique,

right? Over this whole course of time. So I mean, that's why we're fighting at 70. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So I mean,

it's just part of a story. It's part of a story. guy who's had exceptions along the way just about every stop. And I'm like, it's just another thing that you have to pack into a complicated sort of legacy, right? And as you kind of enter into these final acts, but I honestly

don't think anybody's going to talk about, if he goes in there and he's competitive and he looks good or if he wins, I mean, I feel like so much of that just recedes into the backdrop and we're just back on, you know, people are talking about Connor McGregor. And that's kind of the magic of him is

etches sketching anything that came before. it. Before we get to DMs from Dons, I want to do some Draft King's UFC picks of the week, presented by Draft King Sports. Draft Kings, the crown is yours. Draft King Sports is now available in all 50 states. Check it out, excuse me, check it out for the fights this weekend and make your picks. Long Island, why don't you walk us through some of the, what you're seeing on some of these betting lines? Let's talk about them here for a bit. Well, I mean, we were just going over the main event Connor and stuff I'm normally an over guy when it comes to a lot of bets the over under here is set at two and a half and I feel like the under two and a half is like it's calling my name

right now you guys how long you think this fight goes I feel like how long did the second and third porre fights go both under two and a half I want to say round two and maybe round yeah they were now max doesn't have what we think max doesn't have poria power at 55 oh sorry round one and round two One was doctor stoppage in between round one and two or whatever and then round two. I mean, what do you think, Chuck? That under. I tend on that under as well. I just, I foresee the way I kind of imagine is Max getting into that rhythm.

And then he's just putting, he's just putting a, you know, nickel and dime hurt on him. Basically, we just, he's tagging him enough where he just saps the will out of the enterprise, you know. The thing about Connor, too, is like, I know Connor was somewhat resilient in the Diaz rematch but dude like when she goes bad for connor it goes bad very fast have you guys noticed that yeah he's not resilient in that way he's a frontrunner i mean i remember that whole narrative remember this we talked a lot about that back in the name he was a front runner um i agree 100 i feel like he's going to bum rush him quick and gas out in you know five minutes after that yeah that's a part too about like what kind of cardio is this fucking guy going to have who know uh here's

what i know he's not going to have max hollowies cardio i know that's true that's i know that but i want to focus on some of these other fights, guys, especially like on the prelims here. Tracy Cortez versus Wang Tong is a pickum. I feel like Tracex should be like a decent favorite. She should be. Yeah. Why would they, why would that be a pickum? Because that sounds like they don't believe in Tracy more than they believe in Wang Tong. I'm thinking they think it's going to stay standing and Wang Tong could maybe outbox or that. Like I really, I really don't know because in my head, I'm like, no, I could see Tracy taking her down. I could see, I mean, I see it going the distance, probably the over two and a half is minus 280 but i i kind of like just taking tracy straight up there

uh luke riley is back and he is highly touted out of liverpool he's taking on kai kumaka who says his second stint in the ufc and like i do think kakamauga has improved a lot since leaving the ufc but man luke riley is really good and i feel like he should win this fight he's minus 290 right now but i really don't mind paying that price because i feel like he's probably going to get it done there. Kamaka, one of those Nixit guys that's been there forever. And to your point, tough test, but Riley looks like he's very, very good.

He looks like we're putting together a chalky parlay here. Well, wait, how do you feel about this, guys? Because Cody Garbrand, Adrian Yanyes, which is a fun fight. I mean, that is a banger. Yeah. Cody Garbrand plus 320. Minus 410

for Yanaz just feels a little too expensive. So I definitely feel like Janyes should win that I agree, but at that price, I think it's worth the flyer on Cody Garbrand. I don't know. Yeah. What's the over under on that? The over under is one and a half and it's at minus 188 for the over, which I like that a lot

too because I actually think this fight goes decently long. Garbrandt too is like he's been a little more cautious. He doesn't just go out there and like throw down like he used to, man, because he knows he's got the chininess. He doesn't want that. You know what the problem with Garban is is like when Overeem became chinny, he just switched his style to be able to fight from long range whereas garbrand now has to be a very different fighter and i think he's i think he's better now at using footwork and like touching and going but it

means he has to fight much longer fights you know and whereas over him just seemed very crafty i feel like garbrant's just kind of surviving i don't know if that's a fair way to put it's really it does feel like that um the other fight that i really like the odds on for a favorite is Robert Whitaker Nikita Krillov. I mean, who do you guys think should be the favorite there? Okay. Whitaker is a much, much, much, much, much smarter fighter than Krolov. Size is obviously going to be. Piz is part of your role here too. But Krillov is dangerous by virtue of how much he'll just try. You know what I mean?

He'll he's not afraid of contact. He's not afraid of just going for shit. Well, if you think he's got a chance, Luke, he's plus 120 right now. But I like the other side of Whitaker at minus 142. I was going to say I take the Whitaker on Whitaker and I don't know man Cryloff. Oh you're not in one of those dudes man he is one of those guys who just he hangs around he wins

far more than he loses like he finds ways to do it and he's he's fairly opportunistic too like he's a blood in the water guy you know he gets you do you guys know the story of his Sherdog Fight Finder picture no so shouts to the late Jordan Breen he told me the story

so Krilov like he's always been a donk but like when he was on the regional scene before he got to UFC he was like the king of all dogs he sent in to the sherdog editors before he was like this is before contender series this is like he hadn't been signed nothing he dressed up like al capone because that was his nickname i remember and then bought ufc gloves and put them in those like the like the fight finder picture is just like a square and kind of put them there and they were he was like please use this for my fight finder photo they're like okay well that's weird but i guess we'll do it uh He should have done it with PFL gloves.

That would have been way cooler. I don't think PFL existed. Yeah, they weren't. This proceeds all that. Last fight I wanted to mention here, guys, obviously we're going to do a full card preview later in the week. We'll go over all these. But King Green and Terrence McKinney.

Now, it's obviously not going to last long. We're not even going to talk about the over under. Yeah. Hammer the under. But the money line odds here are intriguing to me. Terrence McKinney, a favorite, minus 148 to King Green plus 124. I kind of like King Green there.

Really? Yeah, like I know it's going to be a barn brother. Wait, so what King Green doing his last fight? I feel like he's one of those guys who doesn't have. Daniel Zellhuber, right? Oh, he did. Yeah, but like, dude, McKinney is the evil-caneval of M.M.A. He's shot out of a cannon.

He's the most exciting. Currently, you know, Justin Gitchie did hold that title. But right now, Terence McKinney is the most exciting fighter in M.M.A. I think that's fair. I like McKinney a little bit more there because Green is better than Sikis. liquor. But the reason why McKinney wins and loses, it's the same reason,

is because he forces quick reactions and quick decisions. And Green is a little bit like, he's crafty, but I don't know how he deals with like constant blitzing, you know? I don't know. I'm intrigued by that. Either way,

that fights. What are the odds on like just McKinney finally winning an end and the night bonus? I mean, it's just, uh, so in certain states, they don't always offer those. So I don't,

I don't think in New York, we were... I was just curious because of all of his fights, how does he not have an end-in-night bonus? It's just, it's one of those complete anomalies in their sport. Absolutely absurd. But, all right, well, let's do one more fight maybe while we're here. Brandon Royval and Lonnie Kavanaugh, all right? You know, Kavanaugh should be the favorite.

Are you intrigued by Royvall at plus 180 either? I am. Royval's got... Kavanaugh is much slicker on the feet. and I don't think that's any debate. Royville is a dog, a raw dog, if you will. And certainly much more battle tested, much more battle tested. And Black Belt and Jiu-Jitsu has a lot of ways to win it.

I like Kavanaugh. I think he'll win, but I would take, that's an interesting bit to take. All right. And then the rematch between Corey Sandhagan and Mario Bautista, Mario Bautista, not as big of a dog as I would have assumed. Corey minus 148, Bautista plus 124. like the price on Corey there Batista is like the most criminally underrated

I know I know but he's still in that like prove me state of mind too or he's like he wants to go out there and do it man he always competes with a chip on his shoulder dude all I can say is there's a lot of really close lines on this card and there's going to be a lot of dogs hitting as a result so I'm looking forward to it if y'all want to get in on that action listen

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Check it out for the fights this weekend and make your picks. All right, with that in mind, it is time for the viewers to give to ask us questions. It's time for DMs from dogs. Chuck, this is from Karen Gosh. Okay. Let's assume for a second that the layoff hasn't played a factor and that Connor is actually in great shape. How does he beat this version of Max, who has not only improved, their last fight, but who has also more experience fighting modern MMA fighters.

How does Connor actually win, Chuck? You know, have you re-watched the first fight? Because Connor goes in there and he uses this full arsenal. I remember Joe Rogan was like, oh, my God, he was his name and kickboxers. And it's so unorthodox. He was naming the eight different kicks that he was going through. And it was very effective. I just can't imagine, especially given the layoff, the changing of the climate, you know,

all that stuff. And then the injury. like I can't imagine he's going to be able to do the same thing. So to me, it's going to have to be where at some point he catches Max. That's the way I see it happening. I think the further the fight goes obviously it favors Max. So I feel like it's got to be something up front early where he hurts Max, probably just on the feet with a punch. And to me, that's his route for victory.

I don't see him out pointing Max Holloway at all. Like I feel like that's the least scenario for this. It has to be big power. Yeah. It has to be. like you have to hurt Max, stun him, and then make him fight aggressive. You know, Max is one of these guys. You've seen it where if someone hits him with a big shot, you're like,

we want to get it back, you know, you got to do that times 10. I will say that, and we pointed this out, if he wrestles for some reason, like if he just opts to just use his weight and wrestle a little bit, it does get a little interesting. It'd be maybe not the fight people expected, but that wouldn't that be like a strange wrinkle to this thing? Yeah. So, I mean, who knows on that level. All right, from Train How You Fight 979, would a McGregor win be one of the biggest

comebacks in UFC history for sure, considering the layoff injury inactivity and someone as good as Holloway in front of him? Chuck, I'm trying to think of a scenario. Again, we talked about it before, GSP off for four and blah, blah, blah. Remember, GSP handed back the title to the division when he left. Connor left in a fucking stretcher. I know. You know what I mean? Like, it's not the same at all. And you know, like guys like Brock Lesnar's coming back for Mark Hunt, who was like 40 at the time. And, you know, like you can look at any of the ones that you kind of think up,

nothing even comes close to this. I mean, given the amount, yeah, all of those factors, they're just, that's, it would make it by far the biggest comeback. And Chuck, like, you mentioned the Michael Moore fight, but like, that was not Foreman's first fight back. Right, exactly. He had been kind of working up to it. And, you know, there's a, and great, that's also different because Moore was a champion.

in so Max is not. So in some ways, that was also a little bit more difficult, too, but you know, you get the idea. And also, Foreman wasn't coming back from a devastating fucking injury. That's the whole thing. I know. There's so many. This is what I mean about Connor. Like, again, I don't like the guy.

I think he's a dirtbag. But just in terms of athletic accomplishment, winning on Saturday, unless Max is completely washed, is beyond remarkable. It's, like, insanely remarkable to be able to do something like that. In a sliding door sense, too, like, I mean, the UFC has had some, like, so we were talking about the White House card and you lose two big stars. You lose to, not that you lose them, but they lose, right? You get to Poria, right? Like, loses this is a big deal on some, on a level of.

Hold on, Chuck. Chuck, don't forget. Don't forget. Hamzot had lost the month before the White House card. That's right. Then those two lose on the White House card, and now you have this one. So, Pereira, now you come up to this fight, and wouldn't it be just like Carter McGregor to do this, to reclaim the star power that he'd like

because all these other guys diminish right when he shows back up. It would just be so, I don't know, like UFC. Like I have a theory that Dana White is the devil on some, you know, on certain occasion like he's actually Satan. And that's how this would work. Maybe he's not Satan. Maybe he's just Faust and he made it. It could be foul.

Actually, that's that I like that better actually. I was going to say this, though, like one thing that you do have to consider. So again, it's not like if, if, Hamzot loses and Strickland wins, the UFC doesn't benefit. Like, they still get some benefit from that, obviously, because they have both guys. Like, obviously, in boxing, if you're co-promoting, it's a different story. But can you imagine if Hamzot loses, then you have Toporia losing,

Poetan losing. Yeah. Now, let's imagine Connor losing, which, again, is not as detrimental, but still. Yes. And then imagine, imagine, just fucking imagine if Ian Gary beats Islam. That's, they would be like, what the fuck? That's the kind of thing, like what you're mentioning, that would have been cataclysmic earlier in the UFC's trajectory.

Like, you couldn't have withstood that. I just thought, you know, but they're built to do this now. But man, if you're trying to latch on to the old fight game invincibility thing at the casuals who are like, this guy can't be beat, they're having a hard time right now with that. For sure. All right, from Fitman Eats. Is the win against Eddie Conner's Peak?

The K.O. Valdo was special, but with Eddie, it was up awake. class and he was hitting Eddie at will with punches he never saw coming. Eddie was baffled. Chuck, I was there that night. I'm pretty sure you were there that night. I don't think I've ever seen a guy more in the zone in my life in MMA than that. Nope. And I think that there was a big question mark coming out of it. Because if you recall in the post fight presser, you get now you've got you've got McGregor talking about like equity in the UFC and things like this. And it was just like this shift of like, okay, I don't know how the UFC is going to handle this.

this monolithic thing that they've built, you know, and, uh, and obviously we saw that at that point, he goes on to boxing. And from there, you know, obviously Conner's made a ton of money. He's ended up on the Forbes list, all those things. But competitively, it's all been downhill, right? Like, so I feel like that has to be the peak, you know, there were moments. And we, the reason it felt like a peak is because he'd go in through other peaks. He kept going higher and winning that second belt and seeing them up there and just handling the mic and all that stuff, Madison Square Garden. I just, there's no way. It has to. to be that, right? And Eddie, just to revisit it for, you know, folks who may not have been watching at that time, Eddie was no bitch. Eddie was as proven as could be. He could wrestle. He could strike. He'd been hurt. He'd come back. You know what I mean? Like Eddie was proven, proven, proven. And Connor just dismissed him. That to me, I've just never seen a guy more dialed in than that in MMA. I agree. All right. From at left leg cemetery, will there ever be another UFC star as big as McGregor?

you know, I hate this word ever because, you know, once the rotation of, like once the fans kind of replenish is a whole different, you know, thing going on, like it could happen. But that was lightning in a bottle, I will say that. There were so many factors that went into that. One being that I just, I really don't

discount that, you know, you had an Irishman and somehow, you know, you got to Notre Dame fighting Irishmen, you had the Lucky Charms thing, you had all this thing, like people, really, like, half of Boston's never been to Ireland, but they claim their Boston, I mean, their Irish roots, right? Like, this is one of those types of things and I feel like America was so on board with saying like let's get this Irish

this is insane you know he could talk he's got charisma Ireland was behind him as a national icon essentially it was lightning in a bottle and for him to just the escalation of how things played out that Aldo knockout and then you know we're talking about Eddie Mendez come back like those types of things I mean it's just it's lightning in a bottle I just don't if it happens it's going to have to be like that where it's just in a one improbably meant to another until guys just to that level but it's hard to do it you know um yeah i don't want to say never but yeah highly unlikely is where yeah all right from at mj silverfang what are fun things to do in Vegas during international fight week chuck the answer is leave that's the answer asking the wrong

guys because i mean it used to be remember like it would just you'd never even had to leave the casino like you'd be at the mjm grand or whatever like uh you basically didn't You'd go from the airport to that place and then back to the airport when it was all done. You didn't really do anything. There are times I try to get out and see a show or like, especially the food is improved to the point where like you can make some nice, some restaurant stops. That's really it though. Like most of the time it's just trying to navigate through, you know, drunken buffoonery

and ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. You know, it's like that's pretty much the experience I have. Yeah, I mean, if you hang out in the MGM lobby, you'll see some barefooted bridal what do they call it the parties where before you get married the bachelor's bachelor's yeah you'll see that every single fucking time yeah you'll see some shoeless bachelor's party

somebody holding somebody's hair as they throw up in the plan definitely that I mean listen marijuana is legal in Las Vegas they have marijuana drive through stores maybe get the first one of those and get fucking dude I'll tell you don't go to Planet 13 don't get duped into the prices they're like twice the price of anywhere else go to Reef shut out Reef

Rief, dude, they've got this, they've got this, I think soda, I think it's called Keefe, where if you buy it in, for example,

if you buy it in D.C. or Maryland, it's a can of, like, soda, like orange cream or root beer or whatever. And each one,

if you buy it in D.C. or Maryland, it's like 10 milligrams. You have to drink, like, a bunch of it to feel anything. Dude, the ones they sell in Vegas

are 100 milligrams per can. Oh, shit. Like, you literally have to be careful pouring it. Because it'll just completely, completely bake your shit. The quality out there is high. So just go do that.

Let's go do that. That's actually not a bad show. All right. If you want to reach the show, morning combat at gmail.com. Morningcombat at gmail.com. That's for fan subs. That's for dead wrongs.

To reach out to Long Island, Luke, whoever you want to talk to, morningcombat at gmail.com. With that in mind, it is now time to look at your artwork. It's fans up. You've got mail. Viewers.

Yes, we certainly do. All right, from Supreme Homey G. We've got a meme here. Hey, Luke, you're finally, you're spelled wrong. Finally awake. You hit your head pretty hard there. UFC White House, Zufa Boxing, Donald Trump and the UFC, I don't know what you're talking about. Look, look, hurry up. Frank Meir is about to fight Nogera. And then Rashad Evans versus Forrest Griffin is next.

I don't get it. What am I missing here? Like somehow your mind is back. I don't get it either. I thought maybe you would know the reference or something. I don't know. I guess it's the idea like there's this old style of MMA or this old era and then you hit your head and you wake up and it's Donald Trump is hosting a one. Like the direction it took.

Yeah. Yeah. All right. From Rundem Cheeks, what do we got? M.K. Fans showing up. For the audio listeners,

it says NK fans showing up to the next live show and it's an old dirty man riding a lawnmower. All right. Pretty good. Two in the afternoon, pretty much it looks like. Say again? That's at two in the afternoon. It looks like right around that time. People are always like, why can't he mow his yard at three in the afternoon? I'm like, because I'm on the air. Fuck you. That's right. That was right. That was good. All right. Mike's got a bunch of memes. Let's take a look.

When you're up next in the Joseph A. Bank bathroom. All right. That's a win. That's a win. Next. MMA analysis, not to be political, but 30-minute political round politics. Yeah, fair enough, fair enough. I can't escape it. I can be caught up there. You know, what can I do? All right.

Batman says, or no, Robin says, finally a weekend with no fights, we can hang out together. Ba, BKFC Liberty Brawl, and it's Long Island Luke beating his girlfriend. All right. Yeah, this is a little messed up. Also, I didn't even watch BKFC Liberty.

I was going to ask if you watch that. I was going to, yeah. That's a tough, that's a tough sell, by the way. You know, like to go out, getting ready for the weekend. This weekend, I'll be doing the crack. I love it. That's a great one.

I think we have one more. Why'd you lose? Oh, yeah, yeah, what's her name? Sophie, what's her name?

Yeah, yeah, Cunningham, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's a great one. That's a great one. That's a great one. That's a great one.

Is that it for him? Oh, one more. Am I too political on MK? No, it's the fans not being political enough. The, the principal skitter,

me. Yeah, yeah. I mean, guys, they're holding events on the White House, but I'm the one being too political. Suck my dick. How about that? We can just get the foot.

People are so fucking insane. Okay. All right. Mike from Oregon, different Mike, has three memes. Cover a fight card or draw 25. But who is the draw 25? Oh, cover a Connor fight week. Oh, they're making fun of me because I want vacation.

Yeah. The thing is this. The thing is this. My wife's work is different than it used to be. And we only have a certain range. literally it was just these two weeks. I obviously didn't plan it this way. I just don't really.

It's either this or no vacation. I don't think it's a shot at you directly. I think it's just like saying he would rather draw 25. Like anyone would rather do that. Oh, I see. Yeah. Well, I mean, in fairness, like, people have asked me like, why aren't you going to be covering the fight live on Saturday?

And the reality is I'll have a live stream on Sunday. This is bad. I mean, like, I was at the Whitehouse and I'm going to be at this one, right? So like, I can't think of two, more complicated and, you know, very bizarre events to go cover back to back. You know, you're going to wade into very strange, you know, terrain with these things. It's just how it is. It's the goon era of M.MA.

It is. Yeah. Mastrobating. All right. Next. The crack. This weekend, I'll be doing the crack. All right.

That's the, was that the aliens beam? Oh, at Long Island Luke, Marked safe from spending time with my girlfriend today. This sounds pretty good. I'm not going to lie. All right. These are not bad. These are not bad. You want more of this.

If you want to make fun of me, you want to make fun of the show or Chuck or anybody, hell, you can do whatever you want. Morningcomat at gmail.com is the place to send those. Let's remind everyone, quickly, before we get out of here, morningcombat. All of these designs are available. All the t-shirts are being re-released,

20% off on all of those until midnight, July 31st. And then, of course, 50% off all the posters, morningcombat. dot shop. We have MK memberships here on the channel. You can get emojis, badges, and more to come. With that in mind, Chuck, I know you're going to Vegas. Yes, sir. What is the coverage

point? Well, I'm going to definitely have a couple of pieces coming out beforehand. So I'll be out there putting out material. I think I'm going to be, I'm not 100% sure in terms of if we're doing the crack out there in Vegas or not. So I got to find out what's happening. You can do crack in Vegas.

That's very easy. Or even a post fight show. I haven't been given the game plan. yet on all this. So, but I know there will be a, you know, some video coverage as well. I'll be definitely making appearances. Okay. Long Island, what you got going on, man. I mean, it's 329 fight week. I got full bet breakdowns. Jed did just text me. I haven't answered him yet, but he asked me to do no bets barred. So he'll be on no bets barred this week. And then, uh, full card watch long Saturday. So be there. Return a penis this week. As we didn't even mention. We'll talk about it on Friday. Does Jed pay you for that? Like these appearances, I hope he's at least paying. Yeah. It's, it's only like a

couple of thousand but it's you know that's not bad i would probably yeah solid uh i don't walk to my mailbox for less than that luke i will still do the mk that's good i'm still going to do the mk later this week so i will be back for for the friday mk and then i'm obviously not going to be around saturday but i'm going to have a live stream reaction show probably around noon or one p.m. on sunday just to get some kind of a response up from all the fights all right all right uh let's see here I think that's it. You can, of course, like us on social. You can follow us there.

You can see more in Combat and me and then Chuck. And I think that is it. So we'll see you guys on Friday. Chuck, have fun in Vegas. For Chuck, for Long Island Luke, for everyone on the show. We appreciate you watching. And until next time, may all your gains be loyal. This is an I-Heart podcast.

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