MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - 🚨 Nate Diaz vs. Tony Ferguson Headlines UFC 279 | Morning Kombat Instant Reaction

Episode Date: September 10, 2022

UFC 279 has some new fights and Luke Thomas is here to break them down. Luke breaks down Nate Diaz vs. Tony Ferguson, Khamzat Chimaev vs. Kevin Holland and Daniel Rodriguez vs. Li Jingliang. Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only. And participate in McDonald's in Canada. Hi everyone. Let me turn this off so you don't hear double of that. Hi everyone. My name is Luke Thomas. It is currently 7 p.m. or so East Coast time right here on the 9th of September. I come to you now with breaking news. Not that breaking, it broke about an hour

or so ago, but we want to do a live reaction now. As a reminder, BC is in Atlantic City. He's doing Showbox tonight. So here I am giving you this live breaking news update about UFC 279. And as a reminder, join me right here tomorrow on Morning Combat right after the fights are over. I will have a post-fight show for you as well right then and there. And of course, you can subscribe to the channel if you'd be so kind for tomorrow's show. For any kind of sake related to Morning Combat, hit that subscribe button, give us a thumbs up. You know the drill. All right, let's get right to it. Not a moment to waste. Here's how this goes. UFC 279 has had a lot of changes. Let me start with the, make sure that everything is good. Yeah, here we go. Let me start with the biggest part of the update first. It should be, it might be a little loud. Turn it down just a second. There

we are. All right. Three new fights, but the same six fighters related to UFC 279. Here's what it was previously. It was in your main event, Nate Diaz obviously taking on Hamzat Shumaya. In your co-main event, it was Tony Ferguson taking on the Leech, Li Jiang Lang. And then it was another welterweight contest between Kevin Holland and Daniel Rodriguez. All six are still on the card, but now everything is kind of flipped around. Here's what I mean.

What you had was this morning, Hamzat Chemaev missing weight by seven and a half pounds. We will get to that in just a second. We talked about it live on MK this morning as it happened, but I have some further thoughts on it. Secondly, you had the situation between Holland and Rodriguez. Remember, Rodriguez took the fight on short notice, so they bumped it up to a catchweight contest closer to about 180 pounds. So the UFC had some choices to make. Li Zheng Lang weighed in at the welterweight limit, as did Tony, as did Nate.

Hamzat closer to 180, obviously, and the other two were already closer to 180 so they shuffled it in the following order. Your new UFC 279 main event is Nate Diaz taking on Tony Ferguson. Yes your co-main event by the way a five round co-main event according to a UFC press release that I received just prior to going live Hamzat Shumayev taking on Kevin Holland. Kind of noteworthy since those two had a bit of a dust-up that not by itself, but ultimately helped contribute to the cancellation of the UFC 279 press conference. And then last but not least, the leech is still on the card. He will be taking on Daniel Rodriguez. It's funny, I saw some odds come out already. Let me see if I can check them out here, related to the new matchups. Remember, Nate Diaz, or excuse me, I should say Hamzat, when he was fighting Nate Diaz,

was like a roughly minus 1,000 or more favorite. I saw some people saying he should be a minus like 2,000. He was obviously like a tremendous, tremendous favorite. Listen to these odds now. Nate Diaz taking on Tony Ferguson. Caesars, our friends at Caesars have it as a minus plus 115. Excuse me, what am I saying, a minus plus. For Nate Diaz, they have him as a plus 115. For Tony Ferguson, a minus 135. They have Diaz as a slight, slight favorite. So, the first thing you want to notice about this contest, it is eminently more competitive. The odds by itself don't necessarily say that. You already know that to be true.

But this kind of reflects the narrowing of the gap here. Remember, it didn't really make a whole lot of sense that Nate Diaz was fighting the number two guy in the world. The story, of course, is that he tried to fight Tony, tried to fight Chandler, tried to fight Poirier, tried to fight Luque, any number of other fighters. UFC didn't want it. And so they went to them with Shemayev.

I'm told that that was very surprising to the UFC, but they loved the idea. And then they took it and ran with it, and here we go. He was using it to get out from the UFC. But it didn't really make a lot of sense for a guy that senior, that, frankly, he's kind of old, 37, for fighting. Certainly on the older side, let's put it that way. Fighting the number two guy in the world, that just didn't, it's like, wow, that's a real big leapfrog.

That could actually get kind of dangerous. You don't see UFC odds at minus 1,000 very often. You saw them there. Now you've got a much more competitive fight. In your co-main event, it actually worked out more competitive in that direction as well. Hamzat Chemayev taking on Kevin Holland. Again, our friends at Caesars have Chermayev at about a minus 500.

They've got Kevin Holland at a plus 380. So it's still about where Chermayev is sort of heavily favored. But you have to love this contest because Holland was already much bigger in weight by virtue of not having to cut to the normal welterweight limit because he was already ready for the catchweight. So now he takes on an opponent who is, I think, a little bit closer in size, so to speak. I still think Shemya will be the bigger, stronger dude. I mean, he is favored for probably good reason. But you get, again, a somewhat more competitive bout. I think,

is Holland ranked at welterweight? I don't know if he's ranked. Let's see. Let me pull it up here live in real time. I don't think Holland is ranked, but he's going to be closer to that sort of 16 to 20 space. Certainly, I should say, you know, yes, he'll be closer to that 16 to 20 space than Tony or Nate were. So, or wherever they ended up sitting. Obviously, they only show you the top 15, but you get the idea. He was much closer to that space. This is a much more difficult fight, relatively speaking, for Hamzat, even if I grant that he is the deserving favorite.

Then, of course, the leech is the one that has to take the biggest ask here because his opponent, Daniel Rodriguez, might be a tougher fight than Tony Ferguson. We don't quite know that to be true, but that seems like not an unfair assumption, number one. Number two, Rodriguez is taking the fight on short notice, so he's still dealing with a lot, but he only had to make the catchweight limit this morning to face off against Holland.

The Leech made it all the way down to, I think, 171. So he's going to have to fight a guy who's a little bit bigger. This is going to be a catchweight bout of 180. Now, of course, he can rehydrate to his heart's content, and so can Rodriguez. So he's taking on an opponent with a bit of a lesser name who might be tougher, who's also bigger. The leech is the one in this particular case who is having to take the brunt of the biggest portion of the change that is unfortunate. Although you can make the case that Hamzat has to take a big change and a giant L for the way everything has gone by virtue of

losing his main event spot, still retaining the co-main event spot, but then sort of the stigma that comes with everything that happened here. It won't soon be forgotten. I said this on MK today. I remember when Habib Nurmagomedov had to pull out of the fight, went to the hospital right before taking on, I was there for this,

right before taking on Tony Ferguson. And that was supposed to be, I believe that was going to be the co-main, it was the main of the co-main, it was on the card, it was also Wonderboy and, I believe Wonderboy and Woodley, but the point I wanted to make was, I got news of that live on the air that Friday, so we had to react to it live on the air, and there was a while there where Habib didn't live down some of the damage from that.

Now, of course, if he comes out and has a big win subsequently, people will factor that in as well. But not a great day for Hamzat Shemaev. Here's the part about the Shemaev thing that just blows my mind. I want to talk more about the main event in just a second. And, of course, I have senior questions. We're going to get to them here. We're going to go through them.

The thing about the Shemaev one that kind of blows me away is they said what it was was a medical issue. Okay. Here's the thing though. He has a medical issue that prevented him from either losing or continuing to cut the weight. We don't really know what that is. Could be some kind of internal bodily function issue. Could be a sprained ankle. Who the hell knows? No one really knows exactly what that is. So it's a medical issue that prevented him from getting even close to cutting the appropriate amount of weight. And yet, on the other hand, he was cleared to still fight in a five-round contest. I mean, I guess if they were going to clear him to make the... You might be like, well, that's what he was supposed to be in anyway. Right. But he couldn't make the weight due to

a medical issue and he's still going to be in a five round contest. Like what is that medical issue that is so limiting that he can't even get close to the weight yet. So not limiting that they would still sanction him to fight and sanction him to fight in a five round contest. I would love to know more about what that situation is. I can't even imagine. It's really hard to imagine what that could be, how you can be both at the same time, but that's Nevada. So he's got a license to fight and there it is. A strange one to be clear, but that main event, dude, Nate Diaz's fortunes. I mean, you gotta be, and Tony's fortunes too,

to be honest. It's a more winnable fight for Nate relative to facing Hamzat. It's a much more winnable fight for Tony relative to facing the leech. If I'm being honest, I think, you know, not to dismiss either guy in either direction, but,

um, you know, the leech is a ranked guy at 170 pounds. I think he's number 14. Yep. He's sitting at number 14. He is a tough fight for Tony. We don't really know what to expect having gone to Jackson Wink and up a weight class.

I know he's fought previously at welterweight, but, you know, more recently moving up to 170. It's really hard to know coming off a devastating knockout loss. It'll be an action fight with Nate. I don't think it's going to be an easy fight. Again, he is currently, as I speak to you at this moment, favored to win from at least from the odds makers perspective. Um, but it, you gotta be happy in either direction, right? For it, I would say again, easier for Tony to win. He's the favorite in this contest. I don't believe he was the favorite against the leech, uh, much better fight for Nate Diaz. But again, focusing

on Nate Diaz for just a second. I mean, you just got to be kidding me. You got to be kidding me with this shit. 48 hours ago, this dude was staring down the barrel of the division's boogeyman in a fight that he ultimately requested out of essentially coercion, but really didn't want. Took it anyway. Says he didn't really even train for the guy. Who knows if you can believe that. But was, you know, headed towards a potential serious beating from this dude.

It was really that kind of thing that was possible. And, you know, we were talking about could he just get a kind of loss where he doesn't lose too much face before. Obviously, Jake Paul fights Anderson Silva in boxing, like all kinds of stuff. And now, a day before the fight, he has another fan favorite he's going up against, who is an action fighter himself. We'll see how he competes on Saturday, but as an action fighter himself in a much more winnable contest, which means he could exit the UFC, not merely, you know, not taking a tremendous beating, but even possibly winning, even like he could put Tony's lights out. That's not altogether impossible to imagine either.

And then head to free agency. If he goes in there and beats Tony, let's say he submits him or knocks him out. I don't know if that's likely, but let's posit the scenario. Dude, he is going to go, and free agency is a term that we throw around that's not really real, but for the way in which we use it, if that happens,

Nate Diaz is going to go into free agency for MMA as the biggest MMA free agent ever. Like, by a long shot. Now, of course, as I've indicated to you, the way the contract works for Nate, my understanding is that the UFC has an exclusive renegotiating period for 90 days, and then they have a year-long part where they could match. They have not, to this point, ever exercised that with any fighter. You saw Tiago Santos recently go to the PFL. They didn't exercise it with him. You wonder if Nate Diaz is the difference and they might try in this particular case. I don't know.

The one thing that Nate faces is that beating Tony would be highly commendable. It would not be as athletically heroic as it would be to beat someone like Tony. So I don't think it would mean the same kind of thing. I said on MK that I think if Nate had miraculously defeated Hamzat, that they would have just done everything in their power to retain him. If he beats Tony, do they do that? Hard to say. Hard to say if it's the same kind of impetus that they feel to get that done. But, I mean, you want to talk.

We talked about luck before with Leon and Kamaru, and I really hated it that folks called it luck because it was so intense. Yes, there was a couple of fortuitous circumstances, but in the end, the reason why Kamaru fell is because of the very direct intentional actions that Leon Edwards took. Nate did everything.

I mean, Nate sort of created his own luck by asking for the Hamzat fight and then making weight. But, like, you know, this is all fairly ordinary part of the record. I mean, you're supposed to make weight. It's not like a, you know, oh, he got lucky and made weight. Like, that's an expected part of the process. He got lucky in the sense that his opponent seemed totally out of sorts all week,

trying to fight Paul LoCosto, waiting for Nate at the stupid-ass airport, the backstage melee with everyone else yesterday, and now this. He did get lucky that he ultimately found an opponent who just appeared to be unrestrained and bothered or whatever. Whatever's going on with him. We don't have enough clarity of information yet.

By the way, you might hear my kid yelling. I apologize. But that's where we are right now. So let me see what your questions are. Let's go through and answer some of the bigger ones about them because this is a truly unprecedented moment. And I know that folks are asking me, oh, what is this going to do for the card, the controversy? I think it will help the card in large part.

Chemaev's still on the card, so you still get that I want to see the Chemaev factor in play here. By the way, who the hell knows where his head's at? Kevin Holland could do something tomorrow. Kevin Holland's probably going to fight in a way that will make him lose and I don't think in the wrestling department has enough to stand up to him, but like who the hell knows where Chemayev's head is at.

The other thing I would say also is like, and I tweeted about this, the UFC is a very nimble and agile organization to be able to put something like this together. What they did today is not possible in boxing. Not possible. You could rearrange one fight, maybe even two. You couldn't get all three. You could not get a guy like Li Jinglang to take an opponent who weighed in almost 10 pounds heavier than him. You couldn't do that. It would be very, I mean, possible, extremely unlikely. Now, of course, there's a culture in the UFC of fighters kind

of bending towards the will of the UFC's larger promotional interests, but whatever the case may be, man, they got everything they wanted out of this. An incredible, incredible moment. And really, like I said before, yes, the UFC fans, I think they like this card a little bit better. The fights are more competitive. You get legend versus legend in the main event. Again, the leech had to kind of take a little bit extra here, but in general, still on the card, still against the

respected opponent, still part of a bigger process. And if he wins, God bless him. I hope he gets something big for it. Same with Rodriguez, of course. He didn't ask for any of these crazy-ass circumstances, so there's no hate towards him. But in any case, let's take a look at some of your questions, and we'll see if we can do our best to answer them. This is just a really unusual moment. Here we go. We've never seen Hamzat go five rounds, and he couldn't make weight due to a supposed medical issue. He once made 170 after fighting 185 a week before, so it's likely true.

How do you think these things will play out against Holland? I mean, I don't... Holland making it five rounds probably is going to be more in Holland's interest. I think. I mean, well, here's the weird part. That wasn't supposed to be a five-round fight. And the Chemaev-Dias fight was supposed to be five rounds. So you would imagine that Chayev would be in a

better space. But as you pointed out, the missing weight thing blows that all up. Dude, your guess is really as good as mine. Your guess is as good as mine. His head space has been weird all week, more so than normal for a guy like Shemayev. Again, go back to the way in which he was greeting Gilbert Burns, which of course is a different fighter, different dynamic. But nevertheless, to go from that to this uncontrolled rage all the time, something's off with him. I really don't know what to make of it, but here's what I'll say. Should you be surprised if Kevin Holland wins tomorrow? I would not be. I find it unlikely surprising. No. After everything we've seen this week, no. No, no, no, no, no, no.

Do you agree with the sentiment that the card is actually better? I don't know if it's better for sales to the casual fan who may have liked the Diaz-Chemayev matchup better, but to, I think, intelligent, clued-in MMA fans, I think this is a much better card. Yeah. Kevin Holland used to avoid and complain about five-round fights, yet one of his demands is to accept the fight be for a five-rounder. Does he have a better chance now?

Yes, I think so. UFC considered Dustin Poirier as a replacement. Good point. Dustin was close to on-weight since the fight was originally supposed to happen earlier this year. Why didn't they give the bigger name to Dustin the fight? Well, because it would have blown up what was supposed to happen to UFC 281,

where they had just, I think, previously confirmed it yesterday that that was going to be, at UFC 281, by the way, a lightweight fight. And here's the other point about that. Not only would you have blown up a perfectly good fight between Michael Chandler and Dustin Poirier, that's bad enough. The other part is, remember, at 155, that could be de facto number one contender. Now, it's hard to say exactly. You've got Gamrot making some noise. We'll see what happens with him in his upcoming fight, I think at UFC 280. But even then, I still think he's far apart. So you've got a

de facto number one contender fight at 155 to get some clarity in that division, plus just an unbelievable fight on a card at Madison Square Garden. You would only want to use that if you really had to. I don't think they really had to. Well, it turns out they didn't really have to. Thoughts on Hamzat apparently eating and drinking last night. Yeah, he knew he wasn't going to make weight. Folks, the fact that he ate and drank last night is not the reason why he didn't make weight.

He knew he wasn't going to make weight and then probably just punted on really trying. That's the issue. But we have to figure out what the medical issue is. I want to be clear about this. I'm not saying eating and drinking last night is like, yay, we can look the other way. Who cares? But that's by itself not why he missed. He missed for a lot of other reasons. He could have ate and drank last night and then had like a tortuous weight cut and then maybe made it, certainly made it further than he did. When you're that far away, that means for weeks or even potentially months, you

weren't on schedule. I would love to know what he weighed in on Tuesday of this week. That would tell you everything. Is Kevin Holland a bigger, stronger, younger version of Nate Diaz? Yeah, minus the jiu-jitsu. I also don't think Diaz is quite as fast. Who do you favor in the main? Oddsmakers

give it to Tony. I think it's a toss-up. I'm probably going to lean a little bit towards Diaz. A lot of questions about Tony and his tolerance for damage. He's coming off of a devastating KO. A devastating KO. Now, he looked good in that fight up until the devastating KO. Folks kind of forget that. It's kind of like the Woodley and the Paul fight in boxing. That fight, the second fight, sucked. But then Jake Paul had a legitimately very nice, really nice KO.

So that's the only thing that people remember. I thought Tony looked pretty good for the most part against Chandler up until he didn't. Right? Up until he didn't. So, does he bring that guy back? There's just so many questions about Tony. It's really hard to know. But I think we could all agree is, for both Nate and Tony, a much more winnable fight relative to what they previously had. What do you think would have happened if Holland wasn't fighting at catchweight?

I don't know. I don't know. They wouldn't have been able to make all three fights. I really don't know. Does Chemayev take on the leech again? Does he fight Rodriguez? I don't fucking know. Does Poirier come in and fight him? I don't know. I don't know. Is there any weight to this shakeup being in play as early as yesterday, or is that all just conjecture? Oh, no, they knew. They knew. How much they knew is not clear. But I don't think they found out just this morning that he was having problems.

They probably found out at some point yesterday, either right before or after the presser. Again, they had to weigh in on Tuesday. What did Hamzat Shemayev weigh in on Tuesday? That's really your question. But they probably had some idea it was coming. How will books respond to the betting lines? I'll go through them now.

Let me refresh this. So UFC 279, according to our friends at Caesars. Again, Nate Diaz, plus 115. Tony Ferguson, minus 135. Kevin Holland, plus 380. Hamzat Shumayev, minus 500. Daniel Rodriguez, slight favorite, minus 160 over Li Jinglang at plus 135. Those are your current and present odds.

Of course, all subject to change. Are you surprised by how lenient the UFC are being with Hamzat? Guy nearly sabotages the pay-per-view but isn't finding. He still gets a showcase fight, which he likely wins. Yeah, dude. I mean, if he had blown it up to where the fights couldn't go forward, right? Where again, remember, he has a medical issue, can't make the weight for 170, but can still be in a five round fight, you know, with a different guy. It's like, I don't know what kind of medical issue allows you to do something exactly in that way. So what the UFC wants, always remember this, what the UFC wants is for the trains to leave the station on time.

Sometimes they have to rearrange the conductor of the trains. Sometimes they have to change the engines on them. But as long as in general, the fights that they make on the cards that they make go off at the clip that they're supposed to. They can ship content as scheduled, right? If they can do that, then they're largely not too upset with things. It's when something interferes with that. When they have to cancel a fight or two

or a card or delay it or whatever. That's when shit gets bad. I'll give you a perfect example. I've talked about this. DeMarcus Johnson one time took a fight late notice for them, but still missed weight. They cut him They cut him and their argument was and that's that's cut throat But their argument was you're not doing us any favors if you come in on late notice and then you still miss weight That was for the particular nature of that card Obviously, they're making accommodations in different directions here. But for that for that week, they didn't need that

They needed somebody who can make the weight. And so when he missed it, they were like, fuck that. Because in their mind, that interfered with the trains leaving the station on time. That's what they're always looking for. And fighters who accommodate that, who help that schedule,

those are their favorite kind of fighters. Those are the ones they want to reward. So in some sense, Hamzat fucked him over with this. On the other hand, he's accepting this fight and continuing on. And by the way, is he continuing on because of pressure from the organization

and he shouldn't be fighting? Like, who the fuck knows? He missed weight by a basically historic amount. Big questions. Kevin fought bigger and higher names than Tiago Santos and Jacare. How do you like the odds against an unknowingly compromised Hamzat? I think the odds are probably fair, but I'm going to say it again. Hamzat should win this contest. Kevin Holland might. He might. Could Diaz have walked away with his fight person, gotten out of his

contract without fighting anyone? No. According to his contract, he could have been extended. The only way he would not have been extended is if the UFC had called the whole thing off. If they called the whole thing off, not the commission, not him. He had a right to call it off. But if the commission called it off or he called it off, contract gets extended.

If UFC calls it off, no problem. But that's not what they were facing. They offered him another opponent. He was either take it or get extended. There you go. Do you think the MMA gods are looking out for Tony and Nate? Maybe just a little bit. Maybe just a little bit.

They are often violent and cruel, but maybe just this once they were doing it. Is this the most dysfunctional fight week of all time? It's up there. You would have to go back to fight weeks in the aughts for something quite like this. And even then, I can't quite remember. I mean, you had Chris Barnett, who missed the limited heavyweight. Irene Aldana and Macy Chaston, however you pronounce her last name, had to extend to 140.

There was a couple other women at 145 who both needed to get down to the birthday suit to make it. Like, this was a crazy weigh-in week. I don't know what the fuck was happening. Chimaev is going to get a lot of heat for this weigh-in issue. I'm told he got booed at the weigh-ins. But surely it's yet another reason why weight cutting needs to be looked at. If someone's got a good idea about how to fix weight cutting, let me know. I haven't seen it.

Oh, what about what one does? Yeah, what about it? That ain't a fix of anything. There are certain things you can do, but they require a lot of oversight. These are independent contractors. It's not so easy. And more to the point, something that folks just don't really think enough about in this way, you're talking about how do you fight competitive sweating? It's not nearly as easy as you might imagine. Weight cutting is a part of the sport. We have to kind of get used to it. You have to

give credit to the UFC for building a card where they have other fights in the weight class, again, where guys are relatively, except for Chermayev, relatively commensurate levels. You can put them together in ways when something falls apart. That actually makes sense. What kind of precedent does this set to other fighters? Don't switch up last minute and get crucified or switch up an opponent and get paid more for someone you didn't spend your whole camp preparing for.

Yeah. Dude, these fighters, Nate Diaz, Tony Ferguson, I'll give them credit not for the miss, but for accepting it, Hamzat Chemaev, Kevin Holland, Li Jingling, and then Daniel Rodriguez. Dude, thank these guys. Thank these guys. This would basically, basically, basically not be

possible in boxing. Boxers don't fucking play that game, especially A-list boxers. They don't fucking play that game. You miss weight by fucking seven or eight or nine, 10 pounds, you can go fuck yourself. Remember, dude, weight classes in boxing are, in many cases, seven pounds apart. Seven pounds. Junior welterweight is 141, 141 41 welterweight is 147 You know what i'm saying like you're seven or eight pounds over dude, you're you're Two weight classes where outside where the fuck you're supposed to be You know what I mean?

Like they don't play that shit ever They don't play that kind of game and they they wait for things to be much more in their favor And I dude I don't blame them their of game. And they wait for things to be much more in their favor. And dude, I don't blame them. Their fucking health is on the line. Their traumatic brain injury concerns are there. And everything, all these guys, man. Like in a boxing special too, where like a loss can be devastating. You're just going to take another guy on last minute notice.

You need to thank these fighters. You can be mad at Hamzat for all the problems that he caused, but for accepting the fight and all the other guys, dude, you need to be grateful for them. This is not what they have to do. This is what they chose to do. And yes, under some coercion, under some pressure, I'm sure they want to make money. I'm sure they want to compete. They did not have to do this and they chose to do it because they're fucking Gs. That's why. That's why, dude. I'm'm telling you you couldn't pull this off in boxing not on a 24 hour notice couldn't do it couldn't do it where does this rank on wildest ufc days

well when they canceled 151 that was a wild day i still was i was on that press call when dana called greg jackson a sport killer so that's up there. But this is top five? When was the last time a fighter missed by eight pounds and was still allowed to fight? And, remember, missed by eight due to a medical issue. Path to victory for Tony and Nate. Great question. Path to victory for Nate, I think, would be putting me at the end of his reach.

Let me see what they have for... They've updated fight metric. Let's see. I doubt they have. Yes, they have. Holy shit. Okay, so reach. It's identical.

Interesting. I'm still going to point out that Nate Diaz, I would try to put Tony at the end of his punches. I would actually work to both back him up if you could, but also Tony's probably going to put pressure on you to intercept that. If you're Nate, intercepting the boxing pressure, clinching him, initiating the clinch when he does get close proximity, pressing him into the fence. Because if it sets up a grabbing situation,

I would actually say that Nate's grappling is probably, not his wrestling, but his grappling is going to be far better than Tony's. Although Tony is slick as well. Like, can't sleep on that motherfucker. His darts chokes are amazing. But if I'm Nate, I'm Nate. I'm going to try and box him up. I'm going to try and intercept that pressure with heavy punches.

And I'm going to try and put him off balance in that way. And then again, if he tries to, and by the way, like, strikes absorb per minute, they're nearly identical. Wow. 3.73 for Nate, 3.81 for Tony. Tomorrow might be a bloodbath. It might be a bloodbath. We'll see. If Holland wins, what's next for him? Stardom. You go in there, Hamzat is now, people are, remember, Hamzat still had a lot of buzz, but Hamzat got, people, there were some people, which I thought was unfair, but they didn't like

Hamzat's performance against Gilbert, and then he follows that up by turning in this fucking performance up to date, you know? Like, people are pissed. People are pissed at him. Kevin Holland goes in there and acts like fucking Superman already Forget what he does on the streets to save people Then goes in there and does that shit tomorrow night Get the fuck out of here That guy's going to be a star in good form He'd have earned it

I'm going to do a few more of these Some of these are starting to repeat What do you think Nate does Post UFC if the Paul fight isn't an option Don't know I think the Paul fight isn't an option? Don't know. I think the Paul fight's an option, but that's a great question. It probably goes back to UFC in that case.

Like if Anderson Silva just torches him and Jake is rethinking everything, he probably goes back to UFC. Don't forget Anthony Johnson versus Vitor Belfort. Is that the one where he fell out and then John took the fight last minute I forget I forget how that worked did you just get your hair cut yes all right last one on this how will this affect pay-per-view buys it might decline them a little bit I don't it's hard to say because Tony is a well-respected name but he has been on the decline obviously since the Justin Gaethje fight so I don't know that he's ever been a huge proven pay-per-view draw he still

got Nate in the main event so that's big and there's been a lot of controversy for the card it's hard to say I would say that you might get a relative decline based on what we were expecting previously you know obviously if it made sense to book fights 24 hours out more promotions would do it but it doesn't it makes sense to build all the assets and everything else up front and then just promote the shit out of that. They would have done it differently if they thought it was better for their sales, probably, but I think between the controversy,

between Nate still being on there, between Hamzat still being on there, Tony being beloved by the fan base, it's still being a very competitive fight. Pay-per-view buys will still do well. Would they do as well had things not been jumbled? A little harder to say. Okay. Why does your co-host always look sticky? Okay. All right. We'll call it a day there. Reminder, folks. Reminder, reminder. Come right

back here tomorrow night, right after the main event is over. Immediately after, I'm going to be right here taking you through everything. What a crazy, crazy day. What a crazy turn of events. I am so excited for tomorrow's fights. I know you guys are as well. Again, I think if you're an intelligent MMA fan, you're looking at this card thinking, this is an upgrade. Good for me.

Good for you. So I will see you tomorrow after the fights. Be safe. Take care of yourself. Don't do something stupid. Come right back here tomorrow night, and then we'll call it a day. Yeah?

All right. Thanks for watching. I'll see you all tomorrow, and until then, may all your gains be loyal.