MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - MORNING KOMBAT | Ep. 2 | De RANDAMIE, URIJAH FABER, PACQUIAO VS. THURMAN| BELOW THE BELT

Episode Date: July 15, 2019

In this week's episode, veteran combat sports analysts Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell ask: Did referee Herb Dean stop the Germaine de Randamie fight too early? Secondly, how on earth does UFC move forward with GDR at bantamweight? Can Urijah Faber get a title shot based on his comeback win at UFC Sacramento? Which Featherweight was most impressive on the card? And what's at stake on July 20th PPV featuring Manny Pacquiao vs Keith Thurman? MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL, Showtime's first live digital series, spotlights the weekend’s biggest news from the world of combat sports. MORNING KOMBAT airs live every Monday at 12 PM ET / 9 AM PT. #BelowTheBelt #MorningKombat Subscribe to the BELOW THE BELT with Brendan Schaub channel: http://s.sho.com/BelowtheBelt Get More BELOW THE BELT with Brendan Schaub: Follow: https://twitter.com/btbshowtime Like: https://www.facebook.com/BelowTheBeltSHO Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/belowthebelt/ Get more SHOWTIME: Website: http://www.sho.com/sho/home Follow: https://twitter.com/SHO_Network Like: https://www.facebook.com/showtime Instagram: https://instagram.com/showtime/ BELOW THE BELT explores the intersection of combat sports and pop culture through the eyes of former fighter, comedian and red carpet host Brendan Schaub. The program discusses the latest news in combat sports and pop culture, with Schaub delivering candid thoughts in his unique and unfiltered style. Below the Belt features interviews with the biggest names in combat sports and entertainment, road trips, fight camp visits, sketches, animation and pop-culture spoofs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reveille, Reveille, Docs, because it is Monday, July 15th, 2019, and this is Morning Combat. Hello, everybody. My name is Luke Thomas. I am the host of this program, along with my friend and esteemed colleague, Brian Campbell. We're here to take you through all of the weekend's combat sports action and to get you ready for the upcoming weekend as well. Brian, how are you doing, my friend? Hashtag fired up and well caffeinated. First of all, thank you to everyone who watched the debut episode. Really appreciate it. Got a lot of positive feedback. And as you can see, the upgrades are already in effect. And I should note, Brian Campbell, I should note, they are not done.

These are the first of many you will see. So slowly, week over week, you're going to see. I know you're not big on other people's opinions or the commenters. I mostly don't care. The commenters below. But they were a little fearful that we were in like Guantanamo Bay or maybe like Folsom Prison or something. Yeah, not without good reason. I mean, there are bloodstains on the wall here.

But I will say, we are allowed one conjugal visit per episode, though. So that's really not that bad. You know what? You are a weird person, but we will roll on just the same. So let's get to it if we can, Brian Campbell. Let's start out with UFC Sacramento over the weekend taking place, of course, in the named city there. Let's start

with the main event. I actually don't think that's the most important story there, but I do think it was the juiciest, which is to say Jermaine Durand to me defeats Aspen Ladd, I think something like 16 seconds. Herb Dean intervenes. Now we can all agree the right hand she landed on Aspen Ladd, just an absolutely thunderous crack. Coming out of the show though, everyone is saying, not everyone, but a lot of people are saying bad stoppage. Are you on the bad stoppage group or are you on the good stoppage group? Take us away. Bad stoppage are saying, bad stoppage. Are you in the bad stoppage group or are you in the good stoppage group? Take us away.

Bad stoppage. Straight up bad stoppage. Tell me why. I'm not going to sit here and give you the disturbing trend for Herb Dean's career going in the wrong direction. This has been an unfortunate two to three incidents in a row. But if we're just going to isolate what happened in Sacramento. You're talking about Ben Askren and Robbie Lawler and then this?

Yeah. Some people thought he left Luke Rockhold to take a couple extra punts against Jan Wawicz. I cannot. Wawicz. I just can't hit it. I'm glad you did your homework. I just can't nail that. Shout out to Polish Twitter, by the way. You ever see Polish boxing Twitter? Come at people. My point is this. It was a bad stoppage, straight up. Aspen Ladd

sits down from that punch. Never was knocked out cold. Never, of course, she didn't defend herself from the follow-up punch. So I see the people online going, look, in the end, you can hate it or not but her being did the right thing he saved her from a flush follow-up punch okay maybe that's in the long term a good thing for her long-term health but within the status of that fight that she signed up for that meant a lot in terms of the title picture at 135 pounds all she did was get dropped by one right hand wasn't out cold wasn't

on her back sat up up, got spun around. You kind of got to give her the chance to eat that shot, and you got to give her the chance to see if she can bounce back from that and make it a fight. I mean, Aspen Ladd's young in this game. I felt bad for her on that stoppage. She's merely a freshman in this game in a lot of ways. But it's like now she's guilt-stricken, sobbing with her head on the floor, and it's her Dean's fault. Yeah.

By the way, as I pointed out before, there was a question about whether this was a worthy main event. And it was a worthy fight. Aspen Ladd deserved to be there. But this was her first time on the main card. A couple of factors going into that. One, were there any jitters? I don't think so, but it's least worth it is a relevant question.

And the question I got asked, Brian, by everybody was, well, do you think Herb intervened because of the weight cut? And the answer is we don't know. Let me score the circle here. Here's why that's important. I actually think it was not a great stoppage. I don't know how bad of a stoppage it is. In part number one, I'm not a certified referee. And two, when the right hand lands, actually, if you look, Ladd was trying to throw, I think, a left hook as well. So she got spung by the momentum of the punch as well as her own. And she landed on all

fours. And she was not in a combat-ready position or even state of mind, it appeared, before the follow-up shot from Duran Dami didn't land because Herb Dean intervened. Here is the point I'm trying to make. Maybe he did save her from additional abuse, in which case, okay, great stoppage. Maybe it's not his role to save her from additional abuse, in which case, bad stoppage. I tend to think he should have let it probably go one more just to see what would have happened in that scenario. But if you show your back and you land, you're not preparing, you're not covering, it's a bad sign. My point is this, Brian. There is no referees association. There is no willingness by referees today. There is no willingness, for the most part, by commissions to, I'm not asking

them to defend to every Tom, Dick, and Harry, but the reality is most people, including us, we're not certified referees. We actually don't know what the proper protocol is. And the referees and the commissions enable this operate under Omerta. They will not speak to the public. They will never defend any decision. And here's my point about this. I'm not suggesting, again, they have to talk to every podcast and every show, but somebody should talk to something. And the MMAJA is an organization that, insofar as I can tell, is mostly worthless. I would like to see them... Wow, hot take. Well, no, I'm just saying, what is it that you do? They need to do something if they want to prove some value, which is make a deal, if at all possible, strike a deal with the commission so that maybe one referee per card per night gets the opportunity to speak to one selected MMAJA

member. Yeah, that's a problem across all combat sports. There would be more accountability in boxing or MMA if referees and judges were allowed to be interviewed. I think that's the best way that you fish out who can handle it at this level or not. You have a bad night, you screw things up, you've got to talk. You've got to be able to explain it. I think that should be a partial part of the business here. Well, the referees, their default position is, well, if we talk, we get screwed. If we don't

talk, we get screwed. Better to just make a call and then not have to deal with it. Mark Goddard had the same kind of situation when I thought all of his interventions in the Kamaru Usman, Tyron Woodley fight were utterly justified. And I made a whole video about that. I absolutely take his side on that. His point was, I just get murdered no matter what. Okay, Dan. But if you actually hear him speak on Dan Hardy's podcast, it was actually pretty illuminating. The point being is, if you are right, and if you have a degree of expertise over something, dude, stand by your call. The public does not benefit by less information. The public benefits by being able to make an informed judgment. The informed part is the big one.

How you legislate out who talks and to whom, okay, it's difficult, I get. But just sitting back and saying, well, I'm just not going to speak about it. Dude, you know what's going to happen? The next time they're going to nail you to the wall. And the next time, and maybe you don't deserve it, but if you don't do anything to stop it, this cycle of, I don't know what you want to call it, ignorance or something else, will perpetuate itself. I don't get how you basically said, look, I don't know if it is a good stoppage or not a bad stoppage. How do you support that it is a good stoppage there?

My hunch is that it's not necessarily the best stoppage because for full clarity, that second shot that Durand to me was, I mean, she was literally in the process of delivering. He intervenes there. I agree that that probably, she probably had a chance to do that. So I don't think it's a great stoppage. But this idea, this crazy idea that, oh my God, Dean has no idea what he's doing, this is unjustifiable. You know what I would like to hear? I would like to hear Dean defend himself. Because I thought the exact same thing when Askren fought Lawler, then I heard his perspective, I think he did on the Joe Rogan podcast. And I didn't necessarily agree with

everything he said, but I got to tell you, boy, he made a lot of headway in explaining himself and in educating me about some of the things they look for when they do their job. Somebody out there on the referee side do their job. And by the way, other referees, I don't want to comment on this referee. Well, good. You are fostering an ignorant public, and you are entitled to all the fruits of your non-label. I just don't get how this stoppage in particular is one that anybody can defend. It's different when somebody's taking sustained damage and a referee in either combat sport is trying to jump in to save a fighter.

Especially when you see fighters late in their career. This is something that the fight just starts. Somebody's still conscious, sitting up, has a chance to pop back up. How many times have we seen people? Consciousness is not the dividing line. The question is whether she was intelligent to defend herself. Being on all fours and not looking as a punch is coming your way while showing your back. Nothing intelligent about it.

When it happens that quick, because this is what we say to give referees a proper amount of respect, and we should, because it's happening like that. They're not watching on TV with all these different replays. They're watching in real time and trying to make quick decisions. I give them that respect, but this was one punch. It was so early. It was somebody sitting up. When you're talking about the

idea of saving somebody from something, you're getting closer to making this sport what it isn't. In the end, it's a fight, right? The closer we get to carving that out, it's no longer a fight. Is it just going to end up being if you drop somebody, you win the fight? Because these kind of stoppages get us closer

to that. It would be a lot different had been laid out. Had she been head on the floor. You could justify that. The fact that she was sitting up, and I know you could say, well, she could have been half out of it there. Yes, she could have. But again, this is a fight, and we sort of fight to the point of unconsciousness. The point about stopping a fight, sometimes if you're watching someone's eyes go in the back of their head, or they're giving an ass screen where he was all wooden, you don't have to be a doctor to make some kind of medical observation here. But generally, you don't necessarily need to make a medical observation. You need to make a tactical one.

If someone is fully conscious, but they're just covering up themselves and someone's pounding on them, I don't know what their conscious state is. It seems like they're all there or they're enough. But that's not the point. The point is tactically what choices are they making. They're not making the right ones to deserve an opportunity to continue. Again, I don't think it was the best stoppage. I do think Durandamy should have been afforded another chance.

You brought up a good point though in the middle of that rant. I'm going to do something we don't normally do which is cut you off. Right now I got a shiv under this table if you're not going to let me do it. But my point is this. You mentioned the weight cut and we all saw the video of Aspin Ladd. And it was terrifying. You want to see a reason to cut extreme weight cutting out of any combat sport? She looked more injured there than she did in the fight.

100%. That video, if you are a UFC, if you are a state commission, if you are anyone associated with the sport, us journalists included, you're like, this is not what I want to be a part of. This is setting up people to fail. But was that scenario in the back of Herb Deem's mind? Right. This is my point. And people ask me the same question. Well, maybe Herb was considering the situation there.

But here's my question. Is he allowed to do that? I don't think he should. Right. Is he supposed to do that? Is that a good policy? Is that a bad policy? Is that something that California encourages?

Is it something Nevada encourages? You know how we don't know the answer? Because of Omerita. Because of regulatory Omerita, nobody wants to talk about it. Love big words. Love big words in here. Do you know what Omerita means? I'm notmerita, nobody wants to talk about it. Love big words in here. Do you know what omerita means? I'm not well educated, though, but I am passionate.

It's the code of silence that the mob operates under. That's what the word is. But the point being is a similar idea. I'm not going to say, you're not going to say, none of us are going to say, oh, the public will excoriate us. Yeah, because you don't educate them. You won't do your job to inform the public. By the way, you work for the government.

It's not a private enterprise. Some level of public accountability is owed. Again, difficult questions. Was the weight cut a part of it? I have no clue because I have no clue because they won't tell anybody. That's the most frustrating thing on earth. I love when you get fired up in passion. You were like asleep before we turned the camera down here. This is driving me crazy. They get mad at the public for being uninformed when they won't inform the public. Whose job is it? It's theirs. I don't want to get all Atlantis on you, but did you pick up the irony and the idea of Jermaine Durandamy and Herb Dean? Because Herb Dean taketh and Herb Dean giveth away.

Because the last time we saw Jermaine Durandamy lose, it was the current featherweight champion Amanda Nunez. And it was a stoppage in which Nunez is in full mount trying to attempt to throw punches and elbows down, not really hitting anything. And you remember in 2013, Joe Rogan going off, going, what is Herb Dean doing? If it was Josh Rosenthal and Lesnar Carwin,

two things would have happened. He would have let the fight go on. He would have gone home and got high. You've got to understand that. I'm not turning this necessarily into a giant referendum on Herb Dean. I'm only pointing out that without his perspective, we're not making an informed call, a fully informed call about whether or not he made a good call. Remember, had Yamasaki, you could say in the Larissa Pacheco fight, I believe it's who it was. No,

it was, who was it that Valentina Shevchenko just absolutely obliterated in her first flyweight fight? It wasn't Pacheco, it was somebody else. It's a great trivia question. Okay. I forget. But the point being was afterwards, Yamasaki said, let her go out like a warrior, which is not his job. It would have been a bad call no matter what, but there was another stunning indictment based on the things that he said that resulted in public accountability.

Was it Priscilla? Priscilla Cachuera. That's right. Good call. Very quickly with GDR. Now what does the UFC do with here? I was thinking about this. Wow. Okay, so here's why the main event was suitable in certain capacities, which is they think about, okay, let's pick a division. Let's think about two ranked contenders, somewhere in that top ten, top five space.

Let's put them together and see where the chips, where they fall. They were certainly expecting Aspen Ladd, I think, to come out of this looking great. One of their big knocks on Duran Dami was that she's not very active. She is very good, but there's a ground game issue. Let's say one of the big knocks. There's many big knocks against her. No, no.

Well, also, people pick against her because they don't realize how good she is, but there are certain deficiencies in her game. Some her fault, some not her fault. Absolutely. But they conspired to make her this odd villain. She gets no quarter here for the way she treated the Cyborg situation. However, the volume of venomous bile spat at her is, at this point, over the top. And stripping her over social media, by the way. Stripping her over

the title. She kind of got screwed there. I'm only saying about this, Brian, about what the UFC is supposed to do with this. I don't think you can put her in a title fight. I really don't think you can. You have to put her in a title fight. I don't think you can. You have to. In any other circumstance, you could. Blackball would be the back word. It would be the bad word. On what planet can you

possibly trust any respectable stewardship of that title? On a planet where, in a lot of ways, the UFC's women's featherweight division is a joke because there's never been depth or division to begin with. And then in the same planet where Amanda Nunez, your greatest of all time, has cleaned out that division one and a half, two times over now. There's nobody left. Aspen Ladd just lost. Everyone else in that top ten is a complete retread.

You have to give Jermaine Duran to me because by the way, for all the hate that we put on her that she's caused to bring on herself, which includes by the way, hitting Holly Holm after the bell, which didn't make us love her. She's not a great interview. She's got a hard name to pronounce. She wasn't supposed to win that title. It was supposed to be Cyborgs, but then UFC gambled and allowed Holly Holm a chance to do it when she didn't deserve it there.

So it's all going against her. But she's the one laughing now. Because, look, you remember when you were a young prime, Luke? No. No beard. Like mid-20s, right? I mostly exist in a haze of being hungover and sad. Post-Marines, angry, listening to a lot of new metal.

Yeah. Trying to, you know, slaying and banging. You know what I'm saying right there? And sometimes, look, you may not call a girl back. You may break her heart, right? But guess what happens? You go to the doctor's office the next week. You find out that same girl got a job as the nurse right there.

And now you have to deal with her. This is what's happening with the UFC right now. They want nothing to do with GDR, but she's the only one left standing who's got a pulse. And by the way, she looked good in the 16 seconds on Saturday night. Go back and watch the Rocky Penningon fight. She looked even better.

Jermaine Durandamy is a very talented fighter. And you're right. Under any other consideration, I would say they would probably give her a title shot. But the way she handled it was not, I don't agree with it at all. You don't take a title fight and then say, well, all of a sudden this person is not a respectable choice because I think that they have used performance enhancing drugs. When the case that she was relying on for that was kind of weak, first of all. And then to just drop the title, no chance you can award that person that position. Was UFC justified to strip her?

Let me finish. I want to hear that from you. This is a strengthening of the position, if you ask me, of Cyborg. She's on the last fight of her upcoming deal against Felicia Spencer. Yes. So if she wins that, the UFC is going to say, well, you know what, Amanda, we really think this will be a great opportunity for you because I don't see any real scenario short of absolute removal of anyone else in that top ten

that they're going to give Jermaine Duran to me. Who else, Luke? Who, by the way, is a part-time fighter? And even if she, let's say she wins, by the way, which is not out of the question, if she beats Amanda Nunes, let's say it's some kind of striking battle. Again, I'm saying that's likely, but let's say it's possible. If that happens, Brian Campbell, because we've got to move on. We don't have to go anywhere.

I'll be here all day. Here. You're going to rely on someone who's had, what, four fights in three years? Okay, but you set up a trilogy. You set up a trilogy. And you say you've got to be here, you've got to be healthy, and you do this. But what about Chris Cyborg, by the way? Do you see her Bellator tweets?

I did see those. Is that public negotiation? Time? Different conversation for a different time. Let's move on. All right, so next up, California Kid comes back, has the best win of his career, really, in terms of the shortest win anyway. I won't say it's the best win of his career because he beat better competitors,

but just coming back 40 years old, looked to be in tremendous physical condition. The only aging was he had slightly bigger wrinkles on his face, ever so slight, but he looked to be in tremendous physical condition. Came out the Ricky Simone, kind of put it on him a little bit early, wobbled him with a couple shots. That flying knee I thought was going to end the fight. I actually did too. And then he

comes back with a right hand, absolutely sits him down. Nothing. That fight could have gone a little longer. I think Mike Beltran was the referee, but not that big a deal. Clearly the guy was in command after that a right hand, absolutely sits him down, nothing. That fight could have gone a little longer. I think Mike Beltran was the referee, but not that big a deal. Clearly the guy was in command after that big right hand. So the question now is, he gets on the mic and he calls on Henry Cejudo. And everyone's like, here's my initial response. My initial response was, okay, look, man, he was either the biggest or second biggest underdog on that card,

depending on which betting odds you looked at, number one. Number two, okay, I don't think that he's going to climb through the bantamweight division, but I didn't think he was going to win that fight. He bought himself a ticket to try. Good for him. Good for him. He has now earned a right to see how far he can go.

Well, he wants to jump the line. And then Henry Cejudo says, calls him a cornrow princess. Then he says something about his own testicles. Yeah, there's a little teabag. And then he responded again, Suhudo did, by calling him Mr. Silver. Question to you, Brian Campbell. Tell me, is it crazy to think

that 40-year-old, six-time title challenger, four times, by the way, after winning one fight, I think, can get a title shot and skip the entire bantamweight queue? Title challenger, four times, by the way, after winning one fight, I think, can get a title shot and skip the entire bantamweight queue. Is that crazy? That's not crazy at all in modern UFC entertainment business where you're trying to make fights that people want to see. It's weird, though, because we pick and choose when we get angry at that. When Dan Henderson throws those motorcycle gang elbows on Hector Lombard at 199

and suddenly at 46 he's got the biz ping rematch for a title, obviously we were like, what are you doing here? This is a joke here. Shout out to Hendo. He fought well. He almost won that, by the way. That would have been a fiasco. I didn't like that for all the right reasons. I kind of like this for all the wrong reasons because I like me some favor.

I didn't expect him to look that good. In a lot of ways, I'm not calling that when fool's gold, but Ricky Simone runs into oncoming traffic. What do you do when you're facing a 40-year-old who's been off for two years? Test his gas tank? Try to get him into deep water? Almost three. Maybe find out if he still wants to do this at this level and be in a fight with a 26-year-old with a hanging

kind of rat tail thing going on? No, he just gets too reckless, which if you're Faber, you still got speed. You obviously have the timing. Perfect case scenario. But what you're Faber, you still got speed. You obviously have the timing. Perfect case scenario. But what you're asking me is should he jump the line? He actually should. And it's not because. Oh, no.

It's not because. Wait, wait. I asked you, will he? Now you're advocating for this title shot gerrymandering. There's a difference, though. I'm going to put some asterisks on here. There's a difference. Is it right?

Absolutely not. Okay? Does it throw the idea of UFC rankings upside down and spit on them? Yes, but UFC constantly does that themselves. So we're in a world where there really is no fairness. So you gotta just roll the balls out. Yes, it's a deep division now. There's other guys I wanna see. But, hear me out.

I'm not high, though. Not high, though, okay? I'm not crazy. I'm just a little unwell. But hear me out for one second, okay? Vapor's resume and his legacy and his career is sort of like, I know he won a WEC title, but he's like the ultimate bridesmaid. He was Bisping before Bisping stopped Rockhold.

I love when those guys get a shot essentially to finally put the cherry on top of their career at the end. So I tell you what, Michael Bisping... And it's a feel-good story. My point is it's a feel-good story. Michael Bisping got the shot at 199 because he came in on short notice. So fine.

You want to put Uriah Faber on the we'll call you if we have an injury list? I have no problem with this. But for him to jump the queue over Peter Yan, over Aljamain Sterling, or at 125 over Joseph Benavidez is a fucking crime. It's a crime. I'm going to use my one F word. I'm going to cash it in. It's a crime. Wow. Really? You want to pick that up? It's a crime. I'm going to use my one F word. I'm going to cash it in. It's a crime, dude. And for you to advocate a position so reckless.

I didn't get to. It's frankly alarming. I was reckless in my delivery, but I didn't fully advocate it. All right. It's a feel-good story. You have to like Faber to be behind it ultimately. But here's the other reason why I have to want it right now. Because the champion at the moment.

He wants it. Cejudo wants it. And while I have nothing bad to say about Cejudo's resume and how he got to this point, because certainly that last win put away any critics who said, well, you didn't actually beat Johnson, it was close, whatever. He's the cringe master. He's pretty damn cringey. This kind of is central casting to cast Mr. Faber, as Sage Northcutt would call him,

as the ultimate daddy baby face coming back, been away from the game, first-time father, all this good stuff, against the cringe sort of heel in Henry Cejudo. Yeah, but the problem is Henry Cejudo's cringe is now unleashed on the world. So it's like this cringe black hole. So now he's taking a guy like Faber who is a – I mean, I couldn't say anything bad about Faber if I tried. Other than his tweet about these nuts, I was like, oh, my God. It's like, dude, I'm turning 40 in less than a month. He's older than me.

How are we still writing tweets like it's 1994? There was no tweets back then, but if there were, that's what they would look like. It was like, oh my God, like how are we still, how are we doing like I banged your mom jokes as a way to like get advancement in the professional world? I just can't, I can't abide by it. You know what I can abide by? I can abide by beating Juicy or Formiga. I can abide by beating Jimmy Rivera.

I can abide by the things that in this world actually matter. Look, favor's not going to be around long. So this comes down to entertainment versus a sport and the purity of a sport. I will agree with you. You will agree that the purity's out the window, right? No. The purity is only out the window to the extent you don't want to be a responsible steward of it. The idea that you can just say, well, let's load the baby out with the bathwater.

Dude, that's how you get CM Punk in the UFC, which is a failed experiment. And then everyone goes, oh. That's how we get Greg Hardy on Saturday. Right, which we'll get to in a minute. That's how everyone goes, oh, right, that was a really bad idea. There are times to skirt the rules. There are times you've got to play a little fast and loose. But a guy coming back with a great win, don't misunderstand me,

he has a right to face contenders, ranked ones. I absolutely agree. I will take nothing away from him. But to jump the queue because the guy, here's the whole reason why it's happening, because they won't pay Henry Cejudo the same to fight Aljamain Sterling or Joseph Benavidez as they would for Uriah Faber. Uriah Faber sells more. Let me make sure you're coming at me with the same energy.

Hold on, let me explain. They have set up a system to force fighters on their own to want unnatural matchmaking to get rich. You pay them the same, you don't have this problem. Look, if it wasn't a world in which the UFC isn't violating their own rules or good thoughts or best practices, then I would say yes. But because we're in that world, I say no. Did you have the same energy when GSP came back because we're in that world, I say no.

Did you have the same energy when GSP came back and cut the line? Yeah, I didn't like it at all. I called into Michael Bisping's radio show and told him to fight Yoel Romero, and then this is a true story, hung up on him. What do you know about that? I hung up on Michael Bisping. At least you're consistent on your curmudgeonry. But I think in the end, because it's entertainment,

you're telling me you want to get fired up from a I want to see that? All those other guys are still going to get their shot. We'll see about that. I don't know. All right. Other parts of the UFC Sacramento card, then we'll wind up here. I'm finishing this part off. There were three standout 145 pound winners.

I'm going to go first. I want to ask you who you think was the real 145 standout winner. So the winners were Josh Emmett. We can all agree he looked fantastic. Andre Feely surprised me with that win. Touched me, yeah. Yeah, amazing. And then Ryan Hall with, I thought, a really novel win on the prelim cards. I'll go first, then you go.

For me, the top 145, I have a soft spot for Ryan Hall. I've known him for a long time, and you'll see I'm dissected that something I'm going to get to. But you've got to give it to Josh Emmett. And the reason why is because, number one, he's more advanced than the other two inside that division. For example, Andre Feely would have a five-fight win streak, but for the split decision lost to Michael Johnson, okay, Josh Emmett had him in a KO of the year situation. And really what stands out to me is for somebody like Josh Emmett to suffer an absolutely brutal

injury at the hands of Jeremy Stephens, a totally legit and legal one, but a brutal one just the same, to then come back and have a KO of the year contender, and then after that to then really put it on somebody as respectable as he did. Dude, Josh Emmett is, and he finally got a bonus, by the way. How stiff was that jab, by the way? Unbelievable. I always thought it was a bad matchup for Miroslav Bektic, but I really thought he would test him in the wrestling.

He had nothing for him. Josh Emmett is one of these guys. Certain guys come into the UFC, and they're kind of just out of the box, ready to go, push him to the front of the line. Josh Emmett was kind of good, but just didn't quite, it just didn't materialize for him. He is putting all of the pieces of the puzzle together, even after a bad defeat.

And here's why I mentioned Michael Bisping. Michael Bisping is the king. What's his superpower? He had like a quarterback. He could forget an interception, get back out there on the next series, and then march down, score a touchdown. Dude, for Josh Emmett to not be mentally scarred by a vicious loss like that, where he doesn't even have taste buds, or I should say feeling, in part of his mouth now still, and to have

these wins back-to-back like this, I take my hat off to Josh Emmett. Who's your top? And one more bonus point for Josh Emmett, by the way. UFC is the house of bad tattoos. We talk about it all the time. Darren Elkins' chest looks like a fitting rage. An ex-girlfriend scratched him up. Josh Emmett might have the actual best set of tattoos going.

Megan Anderson is better. She has good black and gray work. Who's your top 145? All right. The answer, not to agree with you, is Josh Emmett because he's closer to a title shot and for all the reasons of what he came back from, and he looked devastating. But from sort of a touching your heart perspective, I thought Ryan Hall's performance jumped off the screen in terms of creativity,

in terms of evolvement. Look, we've never seen him lose in the UFC. We kind of forgot about him because he disappeared for two years, comes back against BJ Penn. But when you look at that performance, I thought it was an evolution in so many ways, adding striking but creative striking to what is already a very impressive jiu-jitsu practice. I mean, you can say what you want about Elkins as an opponent. He'll test you in a certain way, right?

If you don't kill him, he may end up getting up in that ass by the end of the fight. Speaking of Miroslav Bektas. Speaking of Septic Tank there. But ultimately, why Hall impressed me the most is he's got that special style. He sort of brings that the old air of the one-dimensional era of the Damian Mayas, but got smart guys in his corner and for us and Kenny Florian. And in the end, dude, he was doing Mr. Miyagi type stuff there. It was very efficient. It was very calm. It was very just sort of slip out of the way this way and kind of come with

these crazy roles. I'm interested to see if he can keep getting better where he actually fits in. I don't like the idea of him going up to 155. But at featherweight, I wonder how his style would work against the very elite if he can keep winning. I agree. Also, I don't think evolvement is a word. Dude, I'm making things happen here. All right? You can do it.

Okay. And last thing, we didn't mention Harley at all, but for Andre Feely. Dude, I thought for sure. I didn't know. I never, like, think for sure someone's going to win or gonna win or lose but I you know forced a gun to my head I've been like Shaman Marais is like strong athletic good good everywhere and all the guys he's ever lost to are like very good fighters to be a mega man Sharapov and Sadiq Yusuf so I thought Andre Feely had his hands full dude and to get a guy like that out of there in the

first round extremely impressive he almost had the biggest pop of the night I know there were a lot of Sacramento I was looking for Mitch Richmond to walk out there like that out of there in the first round, extremely impressive. He almost had the biggest pop of the night. I know there were a lot of Sacramento. I was looking for Mitch Richmond to walk out. There were a lot of Sacramento guys on that card. But the pop for Feely on that knockout was insane. No doubt about it. And he earned it. So congratulations to him as well.

Okay. So we now look ahead. Because, you know, UFC Sacramento, Dana White was like, if you don't want to watch these cards, don't. Mission accomplished. I saw the website traffic. Woo. Okay. So the point being is this.

We now look ahead. UFC on ESPN Okay, so point being is this. We now look ahead. UFC on ESPN4, I believe, is this coming weekend. I think it's, is it 5, 4, or 5? No, if you're, by the way, if you're still calling it ESPN on Fuel TV 17, you're a nerd. I don't know. It's ESPN Fight Night San Antonio. Okay, can we get this? UFC San Antonio, but it's going to air on ESPN.

If you actually look at the card, except for that main event at UFC 240 between Frankie and Max, I'd actually argue this card's deeper. So I'll pitch this one back to you. I went first in the last one. Now it's your turn, Brian Campbell. When you think about this card, there's a lot of different ways you could go. What is the biggest and most important storyline heading into it? I think it surrounds the main event. And because this welterweight division is so hot right now, it's not only reloaded and flipped upside down with Usman beating Woodley, bringing a fresh face on top and a new set of contenders who hadn't faced him before. But when you add in the Jorge Masvidal factor, now you've got a red hot guy,

a guy who's putting the words Conor McGregor in his mouth, by the way, which is very smart right now. Suddenly this fight, I think, means a lot more to the idea of getting yourself into a very important fight that we want to see. And also it's just sexier at the moment because RDA is not washed. I thought he might have been washed on turn that last fight. Agreed. RDA, not washed, brothers.

Tough bastard. And when you look at how good that last win was, and now he's got an opportunity to come out against a guy who's red hot right now in Edwards, he's not that far away from either a title opportunity or, because the division is so hot right now, a big opportunity. When you have names that people want to see, it's a good idea to be a veteran where you're just hanging around. And RDA could be perfectly in that bullpen on deck circle spot

where it's just like, that guy got hurt, this fell through. Hey, we need you to jump in right now and get an opportunity that may be your two steps behind on the ladder, but because of your name and your recent stretch, we're ready for you right now. Great spot for him. Let me ask you a question. You think if, let's say Leon Edwards wins impressively,

like first round stoppage amazing, you think they would match him up with Jorge Masvidal based on the three-piece and the soda? That's exactly where I was going to go next. For RDA, it's giant fight potential, maybe one more away from a title fight. For Edwards, if you really want to take advantage of the Masvidal hype, you're going to put him in there with Conor. I know you like the idea of him and Nate Diaz. I know you could even fast-track him for a title fight. For Edwards, if you really want to take advantage of the Masvidal hype, you're going to put him in there with Conor. I know you like the idea of him and Nate Diaz. I know you could even fast track him for a title. But if

you're UFC and you start to map out the future and you put the chess pieces in place and you realize don't really have that for Masvidal yet, Edwards is the perfect storyline. If Edwards can get by RDA, it's the biggest victory of his career. You look at that run he's been on and then you have the natural storyline of the three-piece in a soda,

and that becomes a main event right away. And that's what this division is now. Top five or six guys can make main event fights all the time. You've got to see Lawler and Covington. And now suddenly this RDA and Edwards fight is almost as exciting. I would agree with a lot of that. I think the part you're missing, though, is the three-piece in the soda, if you had to ask the average fan who said three-piece in the soda,

the average fan is probably going to get it right and say Jorge Masvidal. They might think it's somebody else, but okay. But if you ask him where did it come from, who did he sucker punch, or whatever you want to call that scenario, to do it, I don't think anyone would know that short of hardcore fans. But that's why it shouldn't be the first, second, or third choice for UFC. So Edwards beating Dos Anjos doesn't meaningfully get him a whole lot closer, even though he has that.

Oh, it does. It does from the ranking standpoint and from a credibility standpoint. From a marketability standpoint, Leon Edwards is almost entirely devoid from the three-piece Minnesota as it relates to any kind of larger casual audience. He is an anonymous figure. Except for should UFC start mapping it out and go, you know what, Conor's not ready, Nate just did this, this guy did this,

we can't give him a title shot yet. It's the perfect fallback. Because Jorge against anyone else, you'd be a little bit disappointed. If it's not a title shot, if know what? Conor's not ready. Nate just did this. This guy did this. We can't give him a title shot yet. It's the perfect fallback. Because Jorge, against anyone else, you'd be a little bit disappointed. If it's not a title shot, if it's not Conor, if it's not super creative like Nate, you're going to be disappointed, right? Yeah. But if it's Edwards, you slide it in, you got the video. They're not afraid to show that kind of video.

They're still showing the dolly going through the window. I tend to think they've marketed him very well, Leon Edwards, at least much better, obviously, where he's from in the UK. Here on the States side, I just don't think anybody knows who he is yet. Yet. That's why it's a fallback. Maybe so. The other thing, just quickly on the Jorge versus Nate thing, the reason why I think

it's just better is because I just don't think Conor versus Jorge is going to work. I could be wrong, but Conor versus, excuse me, Jorge versus Nate seems, from what I understand, I kind of thought if he beat Pettis that he'll just demand title shot or I'm out. From what I understand, he actually wants to be more competitive. That's what I'm told. But he has been saying that for three years. Fair enough.

I mean, again, let's see. When the rubber meets the road, let's see what actually happens. But let's hold him to his word for a minute. If that happens and he really wants to stay competitive, that's a fight that actually might work. I don't know, as a headliner, but maybe as a co-headliner for a title fight. I think that could be pretty great. And then, I don't know, as a headliner, but maybe as a co-headliner for a title fight, I think that could be pretty great. And then, I don't know, man, it's just more doable.

And I don't think you get as much out of it as a Conor fight, but I think you get more than people realize. From the standpoint of top-end marketing to cash in the most that you could, the only problem I have with Nate and Jorge, and obviously as a fan I'd pop for Nate and Jorge, but the only problem I have is they both play the same position from a marketing standpoint.

They're both the crazy D-side. You don't get the contrast, but what you get is you get the unbridled enthusiasm of the fan base. Who's the baby face in that then? Nate. I think Nate might be the baby face in that one. Yeah, because Jorge's a little bit more like the cold-blooded villain in a way-ish kind of thing. I agree. You don't get Captain America versus whatever the opposite might be. There's not that stark contrast, but in putting together two fan bases, one that's been an established brand with the Diaz brothers that have a cult-like

following, and then on top of that, you cash in on Jorge when Jorge Masvidal's never been hotter. By the way, the fight itself might also be awesome. The fight with Conor would be awesome too, I think. Two great strikers. We'd see how it would go on the ground. But nevertheless, I just think it's a little bit more reachable. Would Jorge cut to 55 for Conor? Yeah, for the money?

Yeah. Yeah, he would. I mean, he's smart. What he basically... Dude, Jorge Masvidal. Oh, can Jorge Masvidal make weight? He makes weight every time. But I love what he said in his comments.

He said it without saying it, essentially, that money is more important than the title. I've been in this game 16 years. I've got to get paid. If you're not going to give me the title, give me Conor. It's almost him saying, I want Conor more because it's more cash. And I respect that. Getting a UFC title unless you can just skip the queue is so goddamn hard. And then you have a responsibility to hold on to it.

You now have the baby. You now have to nurture this thing. And that's just not very easy to do. By the way, a final comment on Jermaine Durandamy. Did she pass Nico Montano, who lost on Saturday, as the least impressive champion in UFC history? Ooh. She got out of that dungeon is what I'm saying.

Yeah, that's a good question. Is it on Montano now? Or is it on a couple of those early guys, like a middleweight? See, I don't have – okay. The shots after the bell by Durandamy are a bad thing. I just don't get lathered in the same kind of soap of hate that all the other fans do with how crazy they get about it. So I agree that it was bad.

So to me, no, I would not say she's the least impressive. However, I would say, again, the way she handled it against Cyborg, utterly indefensible. No way you can countenance that. Montano got screwed worse, by the way, in terms of getting shot. I agree. There's a lot of ways that didn't go well for her either, and not necessarily her fault. Okay, so let's turn the page if we can.

We mentioned UFC San Antonio coming up. Oh, I didn't get to mine right here very quickly, just fast. Greg Hardy is going to be, I don't think he's on the co-main event anymore. He's going to fight Juan Adams. I think they put it out of that co-main event rule. So here's what I have picked up on. I wonder what you think of this theory. I don't know it to be sure, so I'm actually not going to stick my heels in the ground

on this one. I have a feeling, though, that fans are either, fans are never going to like him, but fans might be willing to hold on to their hate to a degree that it's marketable. Hold on. Unless he looks bad again. And then I noticed there was like this enthusiasm for CM Punk who of course was not that he was very much the hero but he looked really bad and against Mickey Gall and then he comes back again against Mike Jackson and looked like there was just no go away he it

was x-pac he was get off my tv screen so here's what I'm thinking this is my theory about about Greg Hardy if he can turn out to be a legitimate heavyweight prospect and I don't know what the answer to that is again small call five people like what's the value in that? When a guy is that green, talking about Hardy, he needs reps for the camp, needs reps for the walkout, needs reps for everything. No, Samolikov is not going to get him ready for the next title shot whenever that may happen, but it's just a matter of getting reps. That was the value in Samolikov. So now we're taking on Juan Adams. Boy, he's got a real heavyweight in his hands here, so we're going to see exactly how good he is. My only point is, if he looks bad against Juan Adams, I think we're going to get to a position where both the UFC and

the fans might say to themselves, you know what? I'm kind of just done with him. I don't even have the energy to dislike him. You only have the energy to dislike Greg Hardy if he is taking advantage of something you feel like he didn't earn, or you just don't want to see someone like that in that position. Again, my view is, I don't know the guy. I think what he did was reprehensible. If you can't fight in a cage in this country, I don't know what you can do. But a feel-good second-chance story, which is still in play, only works if you're good. Only works if you have ability.

Right, and he has never apologized for what he did. He's not entitled to a second-chance good-feel story, at least not to the wider public, maybe to the people that know him. All right, real quick, if he does look bad, still gets a win, but just, does UFC cash him out? Or do they find a Houston Alexander who's willing to circle away from Kimbo's life for no reason? Yeah, I think he probably gets another run at it, but then, you know, they'd be looking for the exit probably at that point. All right, there's a couple other things in that card that I think we have to mention at least.

Let's save that for the odds and end segment. We'll get to that at the very end, but I agree, there's a ton of little nuggets in that whole thing. So let's talk about the other, I got to tell you, I am so pumped for this upcoming fight. First of all, the UFC San Antonio card is excellent, as we mentioned. Pac Thurman, Danny Pacquiao, taking on Keith Thurman. Dude, you're the boxing guy more than I am, certainly. I am all in on this fight. And I'll tell you what.

Let me tell you why I'm all in, then I'll love to tell you uh hear you respond it is one of these fights where the storylines in boxing and in MMA as you well know a lot of times they are amplified to a degree where they no longer seem palatable to to your sense of reality it's like what does this say about his career it says fuck all it doesn't say anything like nothing I mean that's not always the case, but it was like, what does it mean for Canelo Alvarez to fight Rocky Fielding? Not a damn thing other than, you know,

let's make sure the check comes in on time to zone. That kind of a thing. This one to me, though, Keith Thurman with the elbow injury and then the shoulder injury, I believe, as well. Hand injury, yeah. Yeah, being out as long as he was. Then coming back against Josecito Lopez. I rewatched the fight today, or I should say

on the way up here. Oh, my God, dude. Oh, deep water. He was in trouble. He was in trouble. And by the way, everyone talks about the seventh round. Six and eight weren't great for him either. Yeah.

Right? But when he last left the division, so when was he top? March 2017 or so? At that time, I went back, I looked at all the rankings. He was number one or number two in that division at the time, depending on where you looked in his division. Pound for pound, certainly top ten. And since then, here comes Errol Spence.

Here comes Terrence Crawford. But Bud Crawford. Even up a division, Bud Crawford. When he won away from the sport in March after beating Danny Garcia in 17, he was the best welterweight in this post-Mayweather Pacquiao era. Just so happens, by the way, that Pacquiao is still lingering. Right. So then he goes away.

He comes back, and he did not look all... He didn't look terrible, but he did not look himself to the point where people are saying, oh, he was a power puncher. Now they're saying, well, the right hand's not what it used to be. Now it's the left hook. And Manny Pacquiao, who looked like ass against Jeff Horn, then has a nice win over Lucas Batiste, then has a nice win over Adrian Broner. Didn't stop anybody, but looked pretty...

Oh, he stopped Batiste, but didn't stop Broner. But looked a lot better. People are betting on 40-year-old Manny Pacquiao. He just became the favorite. It just switched. Over 30-year-old Keith Thurman. What is going on here? It's wild.

It is so wild. And it's like this fight, just star power-wise, it's a big deal. Summer blockbuster pay-per-view, that's all good. But the most intriguing thing was kind of exactly what you nailed, that Pacquiao has less questions to answer entering this fight at age 40 than Keith Thurman. And that's wild because if you would have booked this fight two years ago, after Thurman gets the win over Sean Porter,

gets the win over Danny Garcia, he's the next big welterweight at that moment. You'd have to favor Thurman. You'd have to favor him big because he was still Keith one-time Thurman then. Two years later... Now they're calling him run time. They call him a lot of bad things that have to favor him big because he was still Keith one-time Thurman then. Two years later. Now they're calling him run time. They call him a lot of bad things that have to do with time.

Yeah, and now it's not just being knocked on the ropes against Jose Cito Lopez and not covering up, not punching back, just sort of looking lost. Was sort of lucky to get out of that and survive with a majority decision. Yes, he won more rounds in the end. That was a good performance. But he looked so bad against a journeyman comeback guy that you mix that with the time away and during the time he got married. And I'm not saying that women soften a man.

I'm saying that, I don't know, he just does not feel like the same guy. I'm glad you're not saying some dumb ass shit. He does not feel like the same guy from before then. And it kind of goes back to that Danny Garcia fight. Because if you remember the Porter fight from 2016, rough and tumble, 12 rounds back and forth, give and take. Danny Garcia fight was Thurman

building a lead and then coasting down the stretch. It was almost like De La Hoya against Tito Trinidad when he gave away the end of the fight. In the end, it's a split decision, and you're like, wait, did Keith Thurman run? Did he just kind of give that away? And the hardcore critical fans are still holding that in the back of their head. And then you go, hey, by the way, I know we talk about Manny Pacquiao

ending an eight-year streak of no knockouts recently. Keith Thurman hasn't knocked a dude out in a while. You're really entering this fight going, is 30-year-old Keith Thurman coming back from that break still that elite guy? Does he have the backbone? Is he willing to bang if this fight gets dirty? Or is Pacquiao at 40 somehow the more reliable betting? Not just on the betting odds, but the more reliable product.

Yes, he's not the same explosive guy he was, but it's absurd how Pacquiao has kept his speed. Fighters from small weight classes do not age well. Not only has he aged well, not only does he still have the boxing and the angles, but he's still a problem from what he does. What does Pacquiao do best? It's the speed mixed with the crazy angles. And the foot speed, entry weight. He's still a problem from what he does. What does Paco do best? It's the speed mixed with the crazy angles.

And the foot speed, too. And it's still a problem. He gave Broner health for 12 rounds. It's still a problem. So if Thurman doesn't enter this fight trying to be the Keith one-time Thurman of old and decides to roll the dice and see if he can outbox Paco, he's probably going to lose this fight. It's amazing.

That's why you need, if you're going to bet on Keith, you need him to be the one-time of old. And that's what makes this intriguing because there's so much at stake. Not just the WBA title, but the idea of Terrence Bud Crawford is over at ESPN with top rank. Who knows if he's going to fight the best. But in PBC, you're having almost like a Final Four right now. And we're going to see Sean Porter and Errol Spence.

A lot of people think Spence is probably the guy. But the winner of that faced the winner of this. That's big business. That's the biggest fight you can make. You kind of want Thurman to be that guy because he showed so much great promise. But by the way, that guy might end up being Manny Pacquiao and that's wild because I know we always give him credit. Eight titles and eight divisions,

only got to do that in boxing. But he did that like eight years ago. And what he's done since then is almost more remarkable. He's in his 24th year as a professional. Nobody goes that long and gets to this point at 40 is in the biggest fight of the year where they're not just selling their last name. He's not selling his last name in this fight.

He actually has a chance to prove over the next six, nine months that he's still the best welterweight in the world. And that's wild because we wrote him off rightfully after that Horn fight. If this feels like, even though Thurman got the win over Lopez, this feels like he's at the same juncture Pacquiao was after that horn fight. To me, what is this fight about?

To me, the fight is about who is Keith Thurman, right? And you would have sworn after the Garcia fight, okay, not, again, split decision win, wasn't his best performance, but you would have said, okay, this guy's battle-tested. He's faced the inside brawlers, the outside movers. He has a good right hand. He's been rocked in fights. He's come back. He's kind of done it all.

Maybe he doesn't beat a Spence or a Crawford, but this is a completely known commodity. What is so funny about this fight is it's the known commodity in Manny Pacquiao versus the seemingly unknown commodity in Keith Thurman. And by the way, I had Keith Thurman on my radio show. I spoke to him already. Here's another factor. I think he hears all of this chirping. And he likes to say it doesn't bother him. Nonsense.

It absolutely bothers him. To the point where he has hired not one but two different strength and conditioning coaches. I also wonder if he might suffer a little bit here from a bit of a Goldilocks syndrome. Where he is against Lopez still kind of getting the rust off. Okay, but is he going to overshoot next time? Is the porridge going to be a little bit too cold? Rather than calibrating it just right against a guy like Manny Pacquiao, who, again, do we both agree, prime Keith Thurman,

the one who's on NBC, the one who's on CBS. That guy could beat Manny Pacquiao. I just don't know if that's this one. It's unbelievable. And what's crazy about Pacquiao is ultimately I think his legacy will end up being, along with longevity, along with the eight titles and eight weight classes, the ability to fix things that were broken and sort of rehab his brand at key times and keep it going.

He's been able to readjust. I mean, that knockout loss to Marquez in 2012, their fourth fight, is as devastating. It would have killed anyone's career. So in the fights after that, wins over Brandon Rios, those type of guys, he was boxing more. It wasn't the Manny Pacquiao of old. The last two or three fights, favorable matchmaking and one against Jeff Horton, which he was forced to fight that way.

He's kind of been the Manny of old to a degree. A lot more offensive, a lot more willing to trade. So when you look at this fight, if Thurman can be the Thurman that we kind of want him to be, there is a lot of firecracker potential in here. And I want to put this out there. When Floyd Mayweather beat Manny Pacquiao in 2015, fight of the century, maybe it didn't live up to your expectations, that's fine. Floyd basically told you, he's the best welterweight

in the world, he's the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world, he's the best of this era. That fight meant a lot. We had to wait five, six years, but it was for who's the fighter of this era. Since then, who'd Floyd beat? Birdo, beat a couple MMA guys, beat that Japanese kickboxer. I'm not saying that Manny,

with a win here, goes past Floyd. But if Manny can keep going and staying active and beat the hungry young lion and Thurman unbeaten, when was the last time Manny fought an unbeaten, in-their-frame, hungry guy? Floyd might have a theory about his longevity, by the way. Well, so will Paul Manalji and a lot of other people, too. I'm just saying, Manny Pacquiao has a way.

We thought his resume was sort of ceilinged, and it was insanely credible and great. He has a way to push that even further. I would never, ever, ever, ever favor him against a destroyer like Errol Spence. No. But if Pacquiao can beat Thurman and get into a fight like that, good God. Also interesting to note, it'll be against Broner. I believe he did around

400,000 pay-per-view buys. It'll be curious to see what kind of pay-per-view buy rate this returns. Also, it's just another thing to consider, like, we talked about Spence coming up the ranks

and then Crawford coming up the ranks. Also, since the time he fought against, I think, Garcia, Canelo has fought, let's see, he fought Rocky Fielding,

he fought... Gennady twice. Twice. Daniel Jacobs. Jacobs more recently. So he's been much more. And by the way, I think he fought Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. as well.

All in that time. So you had Golovkin coming in, you had Canelo coming in, and now heavyweight boxing is hot. Dude, people forgot about Keith Thurman. They straight up forgot about Keith Thurman. He has a chance to remind everybody what time it is. I cannot wait for Saturday.

I'm all in. I'm all in. All right. Before we go, odds and ends. Any story you want to mention from the weekend or looking ahead that we didn't get to? You mentioned that UFC San Antonio card. I have one from that myself.

What about you? It's just that weird heavyweight rematch. You have to stop and just talk about it. It's just two old guys, right? It's Ben Rothwell against who? Is that Arlovsky? Andre Arlovsky from Affliction. But it's from Affliction Band 2008.

It just stopped for a second and realized how friggin' long ago that was. Speaking of longevity. What the landscape of MMA was. It was Fedor against Tim Sylvia. You had Vitor Belfort buried on the undercard. You were probably listening, like I said, New Metal back then. I mean, did you have the thing? Did you have the?

I was just out of the Marine Corps, so I had a little bit of fish in my hair. I don't have a stat to back this up, but is this the most absurd, like I fought you once and then I fought you in a rematch this far removed? I mean, it's pretty ridiculous. Heavyweights have more longevity than any other weight class. That's a fact. And popularity, as Kumbo Slice showed us, dies hard for old, more established figures. By the way, I'll say this.

When Arlovsky beat Rothwell the first time, that was peak Arlovsky, man. I'm not saying... A little post-peak. I mean, peak Orlovsky beat Rothwell the first time, that was peak Orlovsky, man. I'm not saying... A little post-peak. I mean, peak Orlovsky's UFC... That was the fight that led him to get the Fedor fight, if I'm not mistaken, in which case he was looking awesome in that fight. Right, but he got sent to hell. But...

He had a valley after that, I agree, but he had this rebirth here. All I'm sort of pointing out is, to me, in a way it makes sense when you understand longevity and then rivalries and how it sort of can get the fan base attached in that way. For me, the story I'm looking for... Well, I policy for second say trivia question on that affliction banned card There was a concert attached to the mega death I could death the grosses which by the way when I was the editor-in-chief of bloody elbow I wrote out and said that was the dumbest choice ever and the fans said I was being a hater No, I was right per usual. Yeah, anyway, God's Mac. All right. Yeah. Well, no mega death is a legitimate band

I know that's great, but you look back on that, it's just, you know. It's all of a sudden, it's like, okay, we're having fights. Let's, um, let's have a limbo contest in the middle of these. No, let's finish the fights, but okay. For me, at UFC San Antonio, I'm going to look at Alexander Hernandez. He had

all that momentum, and he was calling Don Cerrone, Daydrinkin' Don, heading into UFC Brooklyn, and everyone was like, okay, alright, like, this guy appears to be ready for the spotlight, and he was calling Don Cerrone, Day Drinkin' Don, heading into UFC Brooklyn, and everyone was like, okay, all right, like this guy appears to be ready for the spotlight, and old Day Drinkin' Don had another idea, didn't he? But here's the thing. Alexander Hernandez is very athletic. He's still very young, and we know that when guys are in that 24, 25 range, they can go from one fight to the next, and they can look incredible. So what I'm looking for here is, he's got a legitimate opponent too, but what I'm looking for here is, he's got a legitimate opponent too, but what I'm looking for here is what kind of leap does he make,

or does he let that bad loss take a hold of him? I have a theory that Hernandez licked his wounds and was obviously hurt about it. I am looking for an excellent performance from him. I'm not guaranteeing that, but my hunch is that we're going to see a guy who really utilized that loss. They say you learn more from your losses than your wins. I'm expecting some wins from Dan. Hey, James Vick, Dan Hooker, put it in my veins.

I'm here for that. I had him in studio on Friday. He looks ready to rock. That's an important fight. One guy's going to be going in the wrong direction. And also, Dan Hooker coming off that horrible loss to Edson Barboza. You had James Vick coming off the, I think, heartbreaking loss to Paul Felder. You punctured a guy's lung and you still couldn't win.

By the way, he told me he was looking for that money to pay off his house. He didn't get it. So this is the one where he's looking to pay off. I mean, there's a lot on the line here, man, on Saturday. So Pac Thurman as well as UFC San Antonio and this podcast. You can get this on Apple Music. You can get it on Spotify. You can get it a lot of places. So if you like the video, give it a thumbs up. Subscribe to the channel,

donks. We appreciate you guys watching and give us some feedback. How do you like the new set? How do you like some of the ways we're doing things here? Let us know in the comments below, okay? All right. You're going to- I'll be in Vegas for Pacquiao Thurman, yes. Please don't get lice, which is common in Vegas. All right, that was weird. I hate Vegas. I hate going to Vegas. It's so gross.

It's only going to be about 110 on Saturday. It's the grossest city in America. Swamp ass for days. It really is. Really bad food. Nobody talks about that. No. Really bad food in Vegas. Bad common food.

Very expensive good food. Oh, of course, yeah. If you buy the $150 steak, you're going to be living. Anything short of that, you're hurting. On that reporter's dime, that reporter's dime, not so great. All right, thank you guys so much for watching. We'll, you're going to be living. Anything short of that, you're hurting. Yeah, on that reporter's dime. That reporter's dime. Not so great. All right.

Thank you guys so much for watching. We'll see you next week. Take care. We'll be you next time.