MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Noche UFC: Alexa Grasso vs. Valentina Shevchenko 2 Results | UFC Post-Fight Show | Noche UFC Reax

Episode Date: September 17, 2023

At Noche UFC, Alexa Grasso faces Valentina Shevchenko in a flyweight title fight main event rematch. Elsewhere on the card, Kevin Holland squares off with Jack Della Maddalena while Raul Rosas Jr. and Terrence Mitchell face off. Tracey Cortez and Jasmine Jasudavicius also fight in a flyweight prelim bout. This is the Noche UFC (UFC Fight Night: Grasso vs. Shevchenko 2) Instant Reaction/Post-Fight Show. Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts 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

All right. Hi, everybody. We're live. It is, what time is it? It is 102 AM. Right here on the 17th of September, 2023. UFC Noche is in the books. UFC, or I should say Noche UFC, whatever. UFC Noche, Noche UFC, whatever you want to call it, it is done. It is in the books. We have finished it. Let me put this down just a little bit lower. There we go. Hi, my name is Luke Thomas. I'm one half of the Morning Combat Duo. This will be the official Noche UFC post-fight show. So if you would be so kind, we're going to get to the results, the analysis, your questions answered, all of the fun stuff. If you'd be so kind, please give the video a thumbs up. That's for free. Hit the subscribe up. That's for free. Hit

the subscribe button. That's for free. Doesn't cost you a thing. Helps us out a lot. We really appreciate it. You know what I'm saying? But I appreciate you being here at 1am in the morning to talk about these pretty interesting fight results. And I'm going to say overall for a branded fight night, I thought that was in general a pretty big success. So we'll get to all of that. We have a lot to do. We have to talk about the title fight, the co-main, some of the sprinkled highlights, what we thought about the card in general, what we thought about the marketing of it, the whole nine yards.

So without further ado, let's go. Let's do it. And we're back. All right. There we're back. All right. There we have it. As I mentioned, thank you for joining me. I have a tweet up right now. But if you want to get a question, you can respond to it there.

And then we'll talk about it through the whole thing. Let's see. Let's see. Let's see. I got, they just released the scorecard. So I'm trying to process this. Yeah, Jesus, they gave it. Okay. So let's talk about the results because we have to get to the scoring. The scoring is now a big part of the story and there's really no other way to talk about it. So let's do it like this. I'm going to read you the results,

and then we're just going to get into all of the different things. So let me ask you guys a question. How did you score that fight? Because it feels like, to me, 48-47 in either direction is very much understandable, and I don't think you could really cry robbery if you got either one of those. And I don't think you could really cry robbery if you got either one of those. And we did. We did get a 48-47 one direction and then 48-47 the other direction. But

okay, let's read the results. Valentina Shevchenko and Alexa Grasso fight to a split draw. Now, you might be asking, what does that mean for Alexa Grasso? Well, no one beat her, so she still has the title. She retains the belt. I don't know what this will do for her pay. I don't know how pay works for her, considering she would be normally entitled by being a champion to pay-per-view points, and instead is just on a fight night card that airs on regular television and or ESPN Plus without the pay-per-view component. So a lot of questions that are interesting about that. I don't know how that would work on a night

like tonight but what I can tell you is the judges had it in fact I've got it here excuse me for just a second I've actually got a picture of it I'm gonna I don't know if I can yeah I'm looking at it now I don't think I can share it on the screen because I would have had to oh you know what I might be able to uh give me a second here let me see something I might be able to. Give me a second here. Let me see something. I might be able to do that, actually. Let's see if I can show this to you. Yeah. Let's see if I can show this to you. Boom that they put up at the end so you have judge mike bell he had it 47 47 we'll come back to that in a second sal di amato having it 48 47 for shevchenko i think his scoring works for me uh rounds one three and four i think you could do that yes uh and then junichi rocamigia who i think is one of the best judges in the sport, he had it 48-47 for Grosso. His scorecard mirrors mine exactly. 2-4-5 for Grosso, 1-3 for Shevchenko, but again, there is some room to play with.

But if you go back to the beginning, it is Mike Bell with a 10-8 round 5. Gotta tell you, I don't know if I understand that one. Don't know if I understand that one as a 10-8 round 5, now I'm waiting for Fightmetric to update their numbers it might take a little bit, yeah here we go we finally have them by the way, Grasso landing significantly more now of course this fight went the end of the

4th and then all the way through the 5th whereas the first fight ended up being just in the 4th, so there's more time to throw. Shevchenko actually landing a little bit less. She went from 87 strikes landed, significant strikes landed in the first fight to just 84 tonight. And of course Grasso was credited with a knockdown. Let's take a look at round five.

That's the one that's most interesting to me. Now I think these numbers are done updating. I'm going to double check just to be sure. Grasso had a minute 30 of control time, 20, again, this is a quantitative total, 20 strikes. Grasso landed for 23 for Shevchenko, both attempting 43 to 41. So like in that 40 range. Now, of course she got the back and attempted some submissions, none of which were really close. I mean, you couldn't ignore them, but they weren't, they weren't on the precipice

of scoring. It wasn't what, for example, who was it today? Godinez did to Reid, which was just an absolute fucking shellacking. It wasn't that. Of the 20 strikes that Grasso landed, she targeted 11 to the head, 2 to the body, 7 to the leg. For Shevchenko, she landed and targeted 20 to the head, 2 to the body, 7 to the leg for Shevchenko. She landed and targeted 20 to the head, 2 to the body, just 1 to the leg. So that's close. That's close. The minute 30 of control time, which I'm not adding as control time. I'm thinking more of what it actually is, which is grappling from the back, right? Sort of like throwing the overhook by her essentially getting the back and then locking up

the body triangle trying to go for chokes but they weren't really all that close like she had to relinquish them because they weren't there now she did have the good ground and pound again I think she I think for me Grasso won the fifth but I'm just I'm struggling to see where the 10-8 was here for that one I don't I don't quite see it. Also, I'll just say this. I don't understand how he could get a 10-8 round five. But just zooming out from that for just a moment, this fight ending in a draw is not exactly...

I'm not tying it to the scoring. I'm simply saying, forget about the scoring. If you just looked at this fight, this was a very competitive fight. This was a very competitive fight and the scoring was tight. And these two were, you know, tooth and nail.

And there's a lot of factors that would go into judging something like this. So like that, it ended a draw in the sense of like, not so much a satisfying conclusion, but a fair conclusion based on how competitive it was in that very zoomed out sort of anti-contextual sense. I don't think it's that big a deal, but the scoring of it is crazy.

However, it ends up just kind of feeling like a loss for Valentina, which is not really fair, right? And there is no loser in this bout. There's also no winner, but she lost her title. And then in the immediate rematch, she kind of had a draw. Are they going to give her a third fight back to back to back?

I don't know if the division is really ready for that or what they want or how that's going to work. Also, this takes the record for champions over the age of 35 in the women's division. I think all time, when they're over 35, it's 1 and 11. So I guess now it's 1-11-1. Right? So you can't add it to the win column, but you can't add it to the loss column either, which is kind of strange. So that's my scoring. I'll just tell you flatly, I don't know how you get a 10-8 for round five. I don't really think the case is there. I do believe that what Grosso did in the fifth by taking the back, because she was losing really up to that point. Not like getting her ass kicked, although the jab all night and particularly in round five was on point. I think

Daniel Cormier had used that word up. Perhaps I'm inadvertently borrowing it. But nevertheless, her jab was on point. But I thought that what Grasso did in then getting the back and then attacking from there was better and more dominant and more threatening than even the accumulative total of what Shevchenko had produced in the round up to that point. So I thought that Grasso had kind of stolen that round with those late heroics. So, you know, an interesting one, just the same. Okay, what can we say about this fight? It's a great fight.

It was a great fight. What a great main event. We'll talk about the Mexican-themed stuff in just a minute, or a little bit later in the show, but great contest. Really well-matched. I thought both, you know, we talked about this on Morning Combat all week. We even did the pregame preview. And if you just went back to the first fight, what you really begin to notice was a couple of things. One, I think Shevchenko

solved for some of this in this fight, just much more offensive urgency, right? Much more intent. And then cleaning up a lot, like you didn't see her doing any spinning stuff. Now, she did kind of give a little bit of the back, which is how, you know, it kind of, I think she tried to get a head toss, right? So it came from the head toss, which is just kind of like a, it's a weak sauce move, fifth round in a UFC title fight. I'll just say it like that. You know, she's obviously a decorated champion.

I'm just a fucking nobody. But I think a head and arm throw, fifth round in a title. It cost her the win, basically. That's how weak sauce it is. It cost her the win. But in general, the first fight, it didn't matter really the stance, Southpaw or Orthodox. She was timing off the cross. They were standing really far apart.

And what you would end up seeing from Grasso is she'd take these big, long steps. You can see that even today. So if you could get her not so much on the jab, but the jab and then the two that would come behind it, then her weight has really shifted forward. And she's now brought herself to you. And it's going to be hard for her to retract or get off at an angle. That's what she would shoot. And she would get on top.

It was questionable amounts of damage. But in this fight, in the third round, she was able to get the back and then hold it for a significant period of time. Now, she got some decent grappling positions as well in the second round Shevchenko did, but she got fucking dropped. She got dropped with a right hook. They both landed right hooks. They were throwing and then they both came up at the same time and then landed a right hook. She got dropped in that one They were throwing, and then they both came up at the same time, and then landed a right hook. She got dropped in that one, and that was, and then, eaten up to the body afterwards. So I thought Grasso took round two.

But going back to that central tension, that's what they were trying to solve for. So I was really wondering, what is Grasso going to do to, like, solve that problem at the same time, not undermine the wrestling defensiveness that has to be there? And you did see some of that. She was able to catch underhooks, although she got overpowered with one in the fourth, I think.

Was it the fourth round? Something like that. Maybe the third or fourth. She hit the underhook and still got overpowered, but it was hitting the underhook and then framing. So if you could catch the underhook, drop your hips, and then you could get a frame on the inside of the neck or whatever she was particularly trying to put it at that moment in time, top of the crown of the head at certain times.

It worked fantastically. It worked really, really well. Like there was definitely Grasso, let's see. So it's funny, Shevchenko actually did slightly worse in this fight in terms of takedowns. She went in the first fight, she did get four takedowns. She did it on six attempts. In this fight, she did get four takedowns. She did it on six attempts. In this fight, she did get four takedowns. She got it on seven attempts. So it actually went down just a little bit and then Grasso getting, being credited with one takedown out of two

attempts. So I'm looking at some of the numbers here. In any case, I was looking to see how they were going to solve that problem. Grasso solving it, as I just indicated, with the frames and then the underhooking. It wasn't a perfect solution, but it was a little bit better. Still, nevertheless, Shevchenko cleaning up a lot of the problems. She didn't try and counter with the right hook like she was before. And then when she would check hook, she would actually step off at an angle, which she didn't do last time. Last time, she would kind of like paw out in front with the right hand and to try and check.

So Grasso would be able to close the distance and it wouldn't catch her in time and then she'd get popped. That was a big reason she was in trouble like that. So I was really curious to see what happened. I did not think Grasso had as quite a good of an answer on those questions as I thought she might have. She definitely showed some improvement with the defensive wrestling. Again, just one difference in terms of attempted versus the last one that went in her favor as a defensive score.

Which is really no such thing. But you know what I'm trying to say here. Like numerical totals. But nevertheless, Shevchenko able to just be much more dominant on the mat in general. Not in totality, but in general. I thought that was still a big feature of this. And what really saved, honestly, this one kind of surprised me. Like last time when you see Grosso land, she lands and it has an effect.

Don't get me wrong, but I will tell you, Shevchenko being physically sturdy in the wrestling department, that's not surprising. We've known she's like a physical powerhouse for some time, especially obviously at 125, because obviously she's fought at 135. But, dude, Grasso looked like she was landing with much more authority. As I mentioned, they both came up at the same spot. They both left their head. Like they dipped down to land and then came up at the same time. And they landed. I think Grasso was a little bit quicker.

So hers landed with a little bit more authority. Dude, she fucking floored Shevchenko in that second round. That was surprising to me. Like just the – Shevchenko looked like she was – I don't know if it was the weight cut or she's getting older or Grasso doesn't look quite as... It's just weird that she's so physically kind of overwhelmed at times and yet still has what appears to be much better punching power. And I realize that the way in which power punching and wrestling strength and grappling strength, the way in which they relate, there can be sometimes significant overlap, sometimes very little overlap at all. I'm just saying she doesn't, it's just a little bit unusual. I thought at a bare minimum, Shevchenko would have had a little bit more sturdiness to it, but no, Grasso must hit really fucking hard or certainly hard enough

tonight to do damage because, you know, again, I think she pulled some heroics out in the fifth. Second round, I think was going well enough, but obviously sealing it. Oh, no, sorry. It was after the fact that she got taken down. So, yeah, I think it was going well enough before the knockdown. And, again, Shevchenko couldn't really do anything after that, even though she got the double. Third round, catching the back, that was pretty great.

She was able to do that without much issue. How much control time? Yeah, I mean,. That was pretty great. She was able to do that without much issue. How much control time? Yeah, I mean, listen to this control time. Shevchenko, minute 20 in the first round. Is this the right fight? Yeah. Minute 20 in the first round. Shevchenko, 3.03 in the second round.

But again, she got dropped, so whatever. And then didn't do much with the ground and pound. And also, remember, she had 3.03 minutes. Three minutes and three seconds of control time and only landed 15 strikes. Grasso landing 28. So nearly almost doubling her. In the third round, neither of them doing much, but 3 minutes and 16 seconds of control time.

Just 9 strikes to the Grasso's 4. So okay, Shevchenko takes that. She's up to 1. Round 4 is tight. 20 strikes to 19. Just again, these are numeric totals, not qualitative. Each one gets a takedown. Shevchenko, a little bit more control time,

but not significant, less than a minute. And then you have that weird-ass 10-8, where technically Shevchenko landed a little bit more numerically, but gave up a minute 30 of control time, and then obviously control from the back and some submission attempts as well. She's credited with a submission attempt there. Shevchenko credited with a submission attempt in round three, but Grasso getting the reversal. That's the story of that fight, man. They are extremely, extremely well-matched.

Shevchenko just took away the spinning stuff for the most part. Again, the head toss is a little bit of a sort of in-between category. Not pawing with the way she went with her right hook. I thought, you know, as I mentioned in the fifth round, kind of lighter on her feet, kind of staying a little bit further at range. You could hear the corner work that she had. Stay away from her, stay away from her. Keep distance, keep distance.

Because obviously, you know, that threatening forward-pushing boxing that Grasso has, especially with the way the punches were landing, Jesus, it had a huge effect on her. It had a huge effect on her. Now, maybe I'm missing something. I'm not sure what MMA Twitter is saying about a 10-8 round 5. I'm really curious to see what you guys think about it.

I don't get it. I don't get the 10-8 round 5. I really don't. I think people are reaching for it. I don't get the 10-8 round five. I really don't. I think people are reaching for it. I don't know what it would be. I don't know what that argument would be. That's funny. Someone wrote a funny little comment here.

I don't get it, folks. I don't get that one at all. So the question is, will they do a rematch? Or I should say a trilogy. I don't think they'll do an automatic one. And it leaves a little bit of some undesirability about how this was supposed to set up a future narrative for any kind of potential title fight, whether it's Manon Fiorot, whether it's Aaron Blanchfield. I don't really know how that's going to go. I don't really know what the story is there.

They can make either of those. They're still all great fights. It's not like they're all of a sudden bad fights. I want to be clear about this. Both ladies come out of this fight tonight looking great, I thought. Shevchenko showing an absolute, undeniable competitive fire. Grosso, I think, meeting it right when the moment called for it the most.

I mean, these are very, very skilled competitors. These are decorated competitors by no accident. The whole nine. But obviously you would have wanted for some kind of either triumphant moment for Grasso to really seal this changing of the guard, or you would want Shevchenko to be able to reclaim it with at least some kind of a fair authority. By the way, blaming the...

She's like, eh, it's kind of like a Mexican... I don't know what her words were exactly, Shevchenko, but it was something to the effect of, you know, eh, it's kind of like a Mexican night here. The crowd was like, boo! They didn't like that shit at all. I mean, it happens all the time in boxing. I don't like that shit at all i mean it happens all excuse me it happens all the time in boxing i don't know why that's like the craziest thing to suggest

but i don't i don't know why mike bell scored it a 10-8 round five i don't we don't and of course the commission's not going to tell us and so we were just left to speculate on what that could be i just feel like that's a really fucked up scorecard uh at least a fucked up scorecard as it pertains to that round the rest of it's fine, let's see, he had rounds one and three and four for Shevchenko. Yeah, fine. I don't think it's really a problem at all. I didn't have it that way, but I don't think it's any bit of a problem. I will say, for as much as the scoring might have been weird in this one i do think that the the take-home from all of this should be like just how much this division has developed i mean this division's reputation a year or two ago um was that it was the division of like plumbers and uber drivers who were just

part-time fighters and yeah shevchenko might have been good. This is not, I'm not endorsing this worldview. I'm merely articulating it. And, you know, Shevchenko is, she's good, but she's just beating up on a division that just exists between two good ones. At the time, 135 was a lot better.

Not so much a year ago, but, you know, sort of like post-Ronda, it was still doing pretty well. And then, you know, she comes along and she's beating people that i think a lot of the audience didn't they respected shevchenko for her abilities but not that they thought that she was beating up on the world's

toughest division the maturation of talent in this division 125 has dramatically improved this rivalry is extremely interesting in that way um you know that Shevchenko, for the longest, was going to be able to only get beaten by Father Tom. I do think that probably plays some kind of role here as well, but she's being technically pushed out as well. It's not like you're looking at a clearly lesser physical version of her. Again, the punch resistance is kind of an interesting one. I don't know exactly what to attribute that to.

Grosso might just be a dynamic puncher in ways that seem somewhat surprising. But she would otherwise, I would otherwise attribute Shevchenko's, I would otherwise describe her attributes as still not quite in prime, but quite, you know, she's quite still with it. But the rest of the division has just climbed up to that level to join her. That's how you can tell. It wasn't like she was like, oh, you're looking at some cheap facsimile of what she once was. You're just looking at a clearly degraded version, some washed up boxer who's still got enough you know of a name to fill a decent arena in their hometown and then you know maybe win a round or two in some kind of 10 round contest but that's not what i don't that's not what it is do these

these these fucking ladies have gotten way better let me pull up 125 here if i can the rankings for just a second i don't know what this is going to do. It's not going to move him, obviously. At 125, I mean, you've got Grasso sitting there. Let's go last pound for pound. Excuse me. Grasso's your champ. Then you have Shevchenko. Blanchfield sitting at two.

Fiorot, who didn't wow me in her last contest, but is certainly a good fighter, sitting tied for two. And then four is Tyla Santos, who I think proved against Blanchfield that she's still a force to be reckoned with. Shukagan sitting at five. They are trying to push some of the older names out who had their chances against Shevchenko and kind of fell short.

Andrade, I think, is on hard times. Lauren Murphy is in that space as well. Obviously, she's an older athlete. But then you've got eight. Macy Barber, Viviana Rujau at 10. Amanda Hiba, still kind of roaming around there at 11. Casey O'Neill, Tyler Santos,

Tracy Cortez, who had a big win tonight as well, and then Karini Silva. So there's just a lot. You can still see some of the older sort of senior members of this class, of this weight class, hanging around in that top 10, but I think their days are numbered. And Shevchenko's inability to recapture this with any kind of direct authority speaks to this larger changing

of the guard that's happening in this division more generally. Pretty remarkable. Are there any other stats? Let me look at the targeting. The targeting for Grasso. Yeah, this doesn't... Man, Shevchenko, headhunting. She went 76% of her targets were to the head. What were they in the last fight? I bet it was something similar. In the last fight, Shevchenko targeted the head 78%. Yeah, her numbers barely changed at all. Jesus. Grasso was 52 in that fight, and then this one, 64 64 so she actually went to the head a little bit more as well they were both headhunting a little bit but Shevchenko didn't wildly change her offense she took away the deficiencies of things that like more readily cost her

that head and arm throw the hip toss notwithstanding in the fifth she cleaned up some of the stuff that cost her this time. And then was much more mindful about distance. But didn't change a huge amount. Didn't change this vast degree of what she was applying here. This wasn't Amanda Nunes completely changing stances to go and find some way to figure out how she was going to get around the dipping jab of Juliana Pena. No, it was none of that. She just kind of stuck to what she was good to get around the dipping jab of Juliana Pena. No, it was none of that.

She just kind of stuck to what she was good at, tightened up some of the screws, and then put in basically the same game plan and got a lot of the same targeting, a lot of the same numbers, better top control results in terms of time, but ultimately insufficient for getting a win, however you want to describe the scoring in the fifth there for Judge Mike Bell. And I think for Grasso, as I mentioned, catching the underhooking, the framing, didn't have so much of an answer for closing the distance, but at times was able to get Shevchenko to go into combination work with her, and then she was able to punch with her. And then when she did, popped her. And then, again, I don't know if it's a punch resistance issue or Grasso was just kind

of a dynamic puncher that we didn't really fully realize. Or certainly I didn't fully realize. Either way, it paid a big, big difference. Also, god damn, Grasso's ability to find late heroics when she needs them is pretty remarkable. And if you make one error with her when you're tied up, right? Because it was the spinning one, the spinning kick the first time. And then she just climbs on the back and then ultimately gets the over the jaw

rear naked choke in the first one. In this one, the hip toss, she just gets basically, basically Grosso hits a throw by, basically, not quite, but hits a throw by, and then is able to take the back from there. Her ability to weaponize the back instantly, instantly,

is extremely good. She is quite gifted at that. And it obviously has massive consequences that she's able to do that. So I don't really know. I would like to see Blanchfield get it. I think Blanchfield is a much more interesting test for Grasso. And frankly, that's a tougher, r rougher fight which I think might be a little bit cooler to see if I can be you know candid with you but I really I honestly just

don't know which way the UFC is going to go with this one I really don't this one was a little bit like what do we do now you move the chains but there's no obvious direction in in the way in which they're talking about it or which which we had kind of hoped, I should say, would be there by now. All right. Let's see, how long have I been going? 31 minutes. Yeah, let's take a look at some of the other fights on this card. This was not a pay-per-view, although I will say this was the biggest fight night has felt

in a really long time. I do want to talk about some of the production accoutrement that they added that I thought really lifted the broadcast. And it's like, well, dude, why doesn't the UFC do more of this shit? But okay. Man, I look like I got hit by a fucking bus today. Good lord, man. It is shocking. I haven't always been a Dodge Omni, but I am now.

All right. Let's go to some of these other results here if we can from the card. How about this very underwhelming co-main? Jack DeLaMetalena defeating Kevin Holland via split decision. 28-29 and then two 29-28s. I thought DeLaMetalena, I'm going to call him JDM because I don't want to keep saying his name. You know, it sounds like I'm saying, oh, Black Betty Bam-ba-lam the whole time. I thought that he won it. I thought that he pretty cleanly won it. I thought he won the first and the second and that

Holland was a little bit busier in the third to get it done. But this fight was underwhelming to me. I thought it started out, I actually liked the first round. I thought the first round was pretty great, pretty competitive. I got to tell you, what JDM did in this fight, I'm seeing it more and more from a lot of strikers. And if you haven't been watching MMA for all that long, you might not fully appreciate this. Guys, strikers having both good offense and good defense by the way in which they shell and the way in which they roll or whatever and the way in which they use their feet both for distance management as well as evasive footwork you're seeing more and more evidence of that and uh of uh guys who can do that effectively for like winning strategies in the ufc Jack Dillamant obviously is one of those.

Now, Christos Gyagos would not be a good example of that, but I thought Kyle Nelson winning, we'll talk about him a little bit later, I thought was a good example of something like that. You're seeing a lot more strikers with sturdy defense, good offense, who are selective about their shots. They are selective about the amount of offense. They fight much more disciplined, and they use their feet effectively to both maintain range, disengage when needed, and then certainly move their opponent, either pulling them into traps or just using evasive footwork to get out of the way. Daily Madalena, or again, I'm going to say JDM. JDM was just much better about that. Kevin Holland, to me in this fight, I have a lot of respect for his ability.

I have a lot of respect for his willingness to take fights on short notice. It's not that I thought I got a good look at someone here tonight who I thought was performing at their best. I just thought it was a guy performing. And when you perform regularly, people think that regularity ultimately heightens your ability to do better. But the most active guys, historically, I don't think hardly any of them ever get title shots. Cerrone did and got crushed in it when he fought Rafael dos Anjos. That cowboy style of taking fights. Now, there might be a real career logic to it, which is you might actually surmise that your best way long-term of getting the most amount of money

is not being able to beat all the rest of the guys in your field, but by fighting exciting, staying active, the UFC rewarding that, getting bonuses, that sort of thing. You might actually feel like you can make more money that way, and I would understand that. I don't take issue with it on that. But what you cannot argue is that that kind of regularity is best for peak function. It might be good on certain times.

There can be certain waves of momentum you can ride. That's true. But in general, against the very best guys, that style of, that frequency of fighting doesn't really do you a whole lot of good. And in this fight, I felt like, number one, he couldn't really break the defensive shield, the guard, that JDM was using. You know, he wanted to be long range. He obviously looked much bigger in terms of the frame than JDM. But it looked to me like if the guy is catching everything and blocking everything and rolling with it, right? Dude, you got to peel it. Remember what Sean Strickland was doing to Izzy?

How he caught him with that right? He peels the guard and then punches with the other one. He wanted to keep him long. And I thought some of the front kicking was pretty great, actually. I thought that was pretty interesting. But he didn't have a great ability to... He was getting the one... He was the one being backed up, which was a problem.

I thought he needed to be the one doing the backing up. And then, dude, guard manipulation. You got to peel. You know, again, I'm just a dude on the internet. These are pro fighters. But in a way in which you watch that fight, you're like, was that ultimately the best strategy? It felt to me like he was kind of feeling it out. And he got kind of going by the third. But by the third round,

it felt to me, personally speaking, your mileage may vary, it felt to me like a sparring round. Round three, not the entire fight, but certainly round three to me like a sparring round. Round three. Not the entire fight, but certainly round three to me just felt... I don't know, man. I don't know what we were doing there. I just didn't really enjoy it all that much. They were just kind of touching. Colin couldn't quite break through.

JDM didn't quite answer in the third. Now, he was answering him in the first and the second, doubling up on some of those left hooks. I thought that was pretty great. And some of that getting through. But not the most exciting affair. However, for JDM, this to me, I think, said a lot of good things. One, Kevin Holland is a quality opponent,

even when I didn't think you got the best from him tonight. But nevertheless, he is talented. He hits very hard. And JDM being able to kind of just navigate all of that by keeping most of the fight at his range, and then most of the time landing when he had clearly better positioning, I thought was a really good sign. Like not taking as much damage as he did before, being selective but effective with his strikes. And then diagnosing what he was getting.

People at MMA apparently don't want to work. So Kevin Holland was using the Philly shell, right? So Philly shell, you're going to get in a bladed stance. You're going to try and catch everything here. And then the other hand is going to be up here. So you can kind of roll and the punches kind of bounce off. Or you catch it here. Sean Strickland was doing a version of that.

But instead of being bladed, he was much more square. We've been over this a million times. I have a breakdown on my personal YouTube channel about the whole thing. For folks who may not know, on the Philly show, what you would want to do is you want to go to the open side. What's the open side? That's the shoulder with the hand that's down. You actually want to move over to that side.

And you saw Deleman Atlanta kind of double up on that side, which is not quite the same thing. But Holland was able to make it work, as they indicated on the broadcast. They're right. We talked about this with Izzy. We talked about this with Sean Strickland in that fight last weekend. He's able to kind of roll the shoulder, right? And he's able to duck a little bit. He catches everything up here, right? And then he leans. He leans really, really, really far back it works in mma if the guy is trying to chase you you're already at long range that octagon is way more open your footwork doesn't need to be quite as clean you can just kind of back up sometimes even in straight lines and if you can lean enough

you can get out of the way but the problem is like in a boxing ring for example that wouldn't work for shit you'd get backed up very quickly into that. Then they would go around to that open side and absolutely annihilate you from there. There are so many puns. If you can work an angle on someone using the Philly shell to the open side, I mean, you'll destroy them. But in MMA, you can just get away with it. The part that's kind of interesting to me, and they brought this up on the broadcast, and again, I did a whole thing on Sean

and Izzy last week. You can go check it out. Dude, when you lean like that, like when Sean Strickland, people are asking, what could Izzy have done to have fought Sean Strickland? Again, Sean is much more squared. He does a lot of heavy hand parrying, whereas Dylan Madelaine is

kind of catching and stuff. We're actually talking about Kevin Holland. He's just kind really like leaning and getting out of the way it's not as active and in front it's more of a retreating Philly show than it is a walk forward Philly show but the point I'm trying to make is people are asking what could he have done to counteract

Sean, like what were some things that were available to him that he just didn't go to and we talked about one, going to that open side I thought that was one, the other one was it was like to me, one of the things that was something of him that he just didn't go to. We talked about one, going to that open side. I thought that was one. The other one was, it was like, to me, one of the things that was something of an indictment on Izzy is that if you get a guy balancing on one leg and he's leaning, or even if he's balancing on two legs and he's leaning and he's already, let's say, transferred his defense or he's come up high, whatever, like he's doing this, he can't move anymore.

He can only go back to his this, he can't move anymore. He can only go back to his balance before he can do anything else. You double leg him. Dude, this is what Jan Blachowicz did to Izzy when they fought. Get him using all of that trunk and shoulder movement to get off balance. What does Izzy like to do? He likes to invite pressure so he can hook in tight and he's kind of off balance doing it, right? He got him off balance and then picked him up and sat him down. Now, JDM didn't necessarily need to do that here, but if folks are asking like, what could he have done? If the guy is able to resist and you can't keep up with him and he's able to get away with it because the octagon is so big and the angles are so open. Where you don't have the same constraints of the four 90 degree angles that you would get with a ring.

Then you just go back to the MMA terms. If you can't get the angle around him, go underneath him. Pick his ass up and drop him. But they never really got there. They never really got there. So folks would be like, oh, we're seeing more Philly Shell. We're seeing more Philly Shell in the case of Sean versus Izzy and now JDM versus Kevin Holland. And in both fights, all four fighters, like not even trying to go to the ground.

Right? So yeah, the Philly Shell and MMA can be more utilized in circumstances like that. But if your opponent has designs on taking you down, yes, you can kind of keep that hand low and you can catch it under hook from there. But I'm just saying, leaning back like that, dude, you're going to get taken down immediately. It's like you would never wrestle from that position. If you were someone who's like, give me the most optimal place from which you want to defend and attempt to take down. Do you think leaning like this would be that? It would never be that. So, didn't need it.

Didn't matter in the end. Let's look at some of the numbers here. Those are always of interest to your boy. Very quickly. Yeah, De La Maddalena actually landing less, but a lot of what Kevin Holland was throwing was like some of the pitter-patter stuff. A lot of it was catching on the arms. It was just like leg kicks. Some of the leg kicks werepatter stuff. A lot of it was catching on the arms.

It was just like leg kicks. Some of the leg kicks were hard. Some weren't. It was a bit of a mix. Overall, 127 for Kevin Holland. 105 for Jack de la Maddalena. They were nearly even in round one. 40-41. 49-34 for Kevin Holland.

But again, a lot of that is going to be just not high-quality stuff. And then that gap narrowed a little bit. 38-30 in the third. Their targeting is fairly similar. Kevin Holland, 46-43 to the head. Kevin Holland, 25-34 to the body. And then 27-21 for the leg. There's not much of a story there,

except I thought De La Manalena just much more disciplined, careful, selective, not fighting, or I should say not striking on Kevin Holland's terms. Kevin Holland's knocking at the door consistently. He's not really going then. He's going at times when it's much more advantageous, when there's less risk or there's much more defined openings, either through position pulling or pressure or whatever, fainting,

or if Holland's going and then getting on the outside of it or getting around it, that kind of a thing. Much better in that way. There was attempts from Holland to do some work in the clinch. I think a lot of that was ultimately kind of denied him at times too. Was that the first part of the, was it the first round? I have to double check. Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's.

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So a bit of a disappointing one. Now you might be asking where that puts him in the rankings. If we look at welterweight, which just has like no movement at all. Kevin Holland was sitting at 13. De La Manalena at 14, so there'll be something of a bump up. But you've got Ian Machado-Gary sitting at 11, Neil Magny sitting at 12, Luque sitting at 10. Boy, I got to tell you, Vicente Luque taking on JDM, that sounds great. I'm all in favor of that. Give me some of that. Shavkat Rachmanov, by the way, was supposed to fight Kelvin Gastelum on this card,

and this fucking guy still has no fights. They don't want a piece of him. They don't want to fight him even a little bit. So I think you could get away with it. I don't think they want to match up JDM with Gary, like two kind of up-and-coming guys, and there's some other names that kind of need some shuffling out. So I don't think they'll put that one together, but the Vicente Luque one, Sean Brady, they

could run that one back again. Sean Brady's still sitting at nine. Any of those, I think, could be great for Kevin Holland. Does it really hurt his stock? I don't think so. I don't think that. I don't think that's like super damaging, right? I think in general, what? He kind of underperformed, but that style is one where at times you will overperform and at times you will underperform and you kind of yo-yo like that a little bit. And this was just one of the nights where he didn't look bad. He didn't look bad. He just looked...

I just didn't see enough specific... He didn't seem like he was diagnosing the particular problem in front of him as quickly as he could have. And I'm guessing part of that's obviously he's fighting a very difficult guy to beat. That's going to be part of the explanation. But I have a feeling part of it is also just kind of like I'm going to take my time kind of figure it out like there's not that like contrast that with

the urgency that Valentina had granted in a draw of an effort but like look at the urgency that she employed I just don't quite I didn't quite see that from Kevin so I still think he's a very talented guy fans will still love him they. They love guys who just get active. They say yes to everyone. That's definitely a lane that you can drive, but it's not going to maximize the wins. There is just a natural and inherent tradeoff to all of that, and you saw some of that today.

All right, elsewhere on this card, let's look at how about Raul Rosas Jr. defeating Terrence Mitchell at 54 seconds of round number one. Now, let's try. Okay. Any analysis about this kid goes either in one direction or the other with nothing in between. Like, it drives me fucking nuts that the analysis of this guy they're like oh my god he's back he's the future of the sport i'm like guys if you're telling me you can look at something like you looked at today and i don't mean like good or bad i just mean you got enough information. You saw his contender series fight.

You looked at any of his previous fights. The last one that he lost. And then this one. You can look at that and you can be like, oh God, future of the sport right there. Because I'm telling you, I can't. Now, I want to be clear about what I'm saying. I'm not declaring to you he is not. Because I don't know that either.

What I think you can say responsibly is there were a couple of really big improvements that we needed to see this time. Number one, the guy headed into this fight with less, his strikes landed per minute were less than one. I don't think I'd ever seen that except until I saw his opponent who also was that this was a tailor-made opponent who looks likes to go to the ground fights a bit like a spaz this was a tune-up there's nothing wrong with that the kid's fucking 18 so i'm not like in any way bashing it so he like if he had lost this that would have been calamitous winning it and then winning it quickly is great, but it doesn't, like, oh, future of the sport. No, it doesn't mean that at all.

The two great things that you can take from it is that, one, he used ground and pound this time from the back. We already knew he could find the back very well. Like, that part, he is quite good at finding the back. Great. Great job with that. And then he went for the heavy ground and pound. Much better. Much better. Great, great job with that. And then he went for the heavy ground and pound much better, much better loved every part of that. I was like, okay, great. It was a little bit wild. It was a little bit reckless, but it was effective. And it was so

much better than just constantly swimming and hand fighting from the back and trying to get chokes and everything. It just way better, way better. So that was great. He dropped the kid on the feet. Now, he was getting hit a little bit early, and he was swinging wild as shit. And the guy was wide open coming right at him. So he landed a good shot and dropped him. So that part was better too.

He was starting to use his hands. So what I think you can say is, okay, he is now employing a much wider arsenal of weapons to get the job done and is showing, in certain cases, great aptitude. I think anything attached to work from the back, he's going to excel at.

That part seems very clear. And on the feet, I don't think you can infer much for an opponent who doesn't have great striking and was a tailor-made guy they brought in to fight him, basically. But nevertheless, he got the job done, even if it was wild. So what you should say is the opening up of the weapons, much better. It was wild and unrefined, but I think turning that corner is important to build the next set of things. This is now clearly headed in a much healthier, formidable direction. But what you need to look for is not like some fucking beast who's just out

here, he's fighting like crazy. The guy was like a minus 700 favorite heading out there tonight. He was supposed to win, and he did. So he did his job. But what you want to look for, and before I'll ever be ready to be like, that's future of the sport shit, he has to methodically win, right? He has to beat someone of significance, and he has to do it methodically, right? Not just raging into a guy, which, like, when you go watch, if you go to, like, regional level MMA,

you'll see rage monsters get all kinds of success in regional level MMA. All kinds, because their opponents just are not capable of standing up to that. But you get to the highest level and the opponents are much better about standing up to that, and that shit doesn't work nearly as well.

So, you know, I know everyone's going to say, oh, here's Luke Hayton on him. I'm not. He looked better tonight. By the way, I thought he was going to win, predicted he was going to win. He did win. Again, that was, you know, he did it right and looked better this time than he did the last time by a considerable margin. I consider all these good things. What I'm just not going to tolerate is, you know, oh, future of the sport shit. You can't possibly know that based on what we've seen.

And everyone wants to do this bit, which is, all right, you know, he's 18 years old and he's in the UFC. Guys, this isn't the make a wish foundation. Like you don't get to grade them on a curve. Oh, he's in the UFC, but he's 18. Right. But he's in the UFC. And they can give him some interesting fights along the way to help build him. But the point is, either you succeed in the UFC or you don't. What will be remarkable is if he becomes the youngest champion, which is still his stated goal. And which, by the way, I'm not saying it's off the table. Listen to what I'm saying very clearly. I'm not saying it's in any way off the table.'m not saying it's off the table listen to what i'm saying very clearly i'm not saying it's in any way off the table i'm saying the way you should look at this is the way we looked at it with john jones john jones started beating the fuck out of everyone first and then we started

noticing his age we don't start with his age and then grade him on a curve because he gets a win not if you want to heap rhetoric on top of him like, oh my god, this guy's got, you know, he's going to be, he's going to be champion within two years. Like you just can't, you can't look at what you saw tonight and think you can declare that. You can't. You can't declare it's not true. You can't declare it isn't. You can only have that moment and what it was good for relative to the last one when you have someone who is green like Rosas Jr. is. He is very, very, very, very green. So if you want to say he looked a lot less green in certain respects, I completely agree. He did his job. He did his job very effectively. This was important to get back in the win column.

He executed on exactly all the things that I thought he basically needed to. But can we please pump the brakes on beating a guy who he was very much expected and essentially the match made him designed to beat him, beats him authoritatively, and this is evidence of eminent title implication. It is not those things. So just be fair with the analysis to him. Be fair to him.

He has a long way to go. He's very green. He's got some things that are really good. Back control. And then everything else looks pretty green to me. And then you know. The other issue too was in the last fight. He didn't have proper resource management.

He just kind of went hard in the first. And then fell apart a little bit in the second. And really fell apart in the last fight he didn't have proper resource management he just kind of went hard in the first and then fell apart a little bit in the second and really fell apart in the third he was not managing his resources well on this one either didn't matter because he got the guy knocked out i saw the fight too but if again you do that kind of shit against someone who's really good it will go poorly it will go poorly so it sounds like, I always sound like just old man hater every time Rosas Jr. comes up. And it's only because everyone else is saying, oh, this guy is Jesus Christ reincarnated. Jesus Christ came back to earth. Y'all look at fucking Jesus Christ. He's beaten the shit out of these people. Jesus Christ is back. And I'm like, guys,

I don't think he's Jesus Christ. Um, at a bare minimum, I don't think you can tell that he's beating the shit out of these people Jesus Christ is back I'm like guys I don't think he's Jesus Christ at a bare minimum I don't think you can tell that he's Jesus Christ how about that no no no no this guy's out there walking on water out there that octagon like he's not he's not there's not he's not really walking on water oh no no no no he's turning water into wine out there my guys he's not he's not doing, he's not doing that. He's not doing that. He's just doing good work for someone who's very green and has decided that they want to go to the biggest promotion in the world when they're green. So that's it. That's the whole bit. All right? Good win. Important win. Helpful win. Some clear improvements along the way.

That's all you can say for a kid this green. You cannot say anything else because it's just no fucking way to know. He's way, way, way, way, way too green. All right. Daniel Zellhuber defeating Christos Gyagos with the Anaconda. Was that one of those second round? Just lightning Anaconda.

Drops him with it. Right? I think he tried to sit up and then scramble. And then he hit him. He stopped him with the... He stopped the... He sprawled on him and then locked up the Anaconda. Turned over. He gator rolled through on the gator roll. Came through and then

Gyagos tried to grab the back of his leg. I guess in this It's more commonly. You see that when guys get head and arm triangled where they'll pull up their own leg and then grab the back of their own leg. And it's designed to like pull, uh, essentially to,

uh, put enough pressure that the choking arm comes a little bit off and you can get a little bit of relief there. But you know, it doesn't, it wasn't going to work because of the way the end of condos situated can be, cause it goes more of a twisting side angle.

Anyway, he gets it. I thought that was amazing. I thought there was a lot of things that were great. But he got rocked in that fight early. So he showed some great poise and resilience. But I also thought he was having a little bit of trouble diagnosing how to solve some of that problem. Until later into the second. When he was able to like, once he was able to corner Gallagos and limit his movement with much better cage cutting when he finally got his range right.

Dude, he was just significantly more hittable. And then you were like, oh, right, here we go. I mentioned, we talked about the JDM and the Kyle Nelson game plan. Gallagos was trying something similar. Couldn't quite get it to the same degree, but you could see he was trying. But finally, once he got cornered by Zell Huber, then it was a different fight. It was a completely different fight. So great resilience.

Plenty of stuff for him to work on over there at Extreme Couture. But a good win and a much better win, I think, for the adversity that he kind of had to overcome. And then lastly, but not least, Kyle Nelson getting a win over Fernando Padilla. 29-28, 30-27. Didn't quite understand the 30-27, but the right guy won. Kyle Nelson, again, kind of like JDM, slightly different, but really mindful of the range, never letting Fernando kind of get close enough, begin to build an offensive rhythm, catching everything, blocking. When guys can't land, it not only does it obviously take away the impact of that particular strike, but a lot of these guys are kind of momentum builders or offensive system builders.

And they need something to score so they can build stuff around it or begin to open up into other places. And when you deny them that, when the stuff just doesn't land, when they catch it and then they're off on a corner and then off on a corner and they're rotating, you just don't even know what to throw. You're just kind of like, well, what the fuck do I do with this shit? You know, I can't, I have all of these keys on my belt and I cannot open the door really no matter what I do. So it ends up kind of offensively muting them to a degree in the end. You got some of that. It was a bit of a learning experience,

I think, for him. But Kyle Nelson showing real improvement. That was a very, again, I'm going to say it, disciplined performance from him. And I thought he was landing heavy shots. I was amazed at Fernando's chin, frankly. And he obviously can thump as well. Nelson's face was messed up. And then he's like, after he won, he was like, my wife is pregnant. The crowd's like, boo, fuck this gringo. So anyway, so that's what you got there with that. Very quickly, how about, I'm just going to mention something here. Lupita Godinez defeating Elise Reid. Just an absolute one-way fucking ass-kicking.

God damn. I mean, just dismantled her arm with this brutal armbar attempt that went on and on. Shouts to Reid for being tough as shit. But that was hard to watch. And she gets out of it, but then she gets tuned up a little bit on the first round. She got dropped, then she gets tuned up big time in the second, and then finally, you know,

was able to catch the back and then polish her off. Reed was tough. You know, she was trying her best, but good lord, that was just, that was a, I mean, high amplitude throws. You name it. Godinez did whatever she want. Roman Kopylov beating Josh Fremd with a punch to the body.

That was fucking great. I'll have more on that a little bit later. You had another no contest with a controversial stoppage between Charez and Lacerda. We'll talk about that on regular MK. Tracy Cortez getting back to the win column on this one. Jazz DeVisius does not move in her head. Fading a little bit Cortez in the the second but then answering the call a little bit in the third storming back doing enough to

stay out of bad grappling positions and then launch her own offense thereafter and then the opening bout was just kind of a there was one of the scorecards that was 30-24 it's like dude if you lose 30-24 you have to go to that person's like house and mow their yard or something that's really really bad

you know before I get to these questions, let me talk if I can about from this card, the UFC Noche thing, the Noche UFC, Noche UFC. I thought it was great. I wasn't sure how it was going to go. Basically what they did for you tonight

was they gave you what it's like when a big Mexican headliner fights on this day in Las Vegas in boxing. It's just like this. It's a big Mexican party. When I went to Canelo versus Mayweather, the tourism board in Mexico was handing out stuff all week to people and doing all kinds of advertising. When I say it's a Mexican party, I genuinely mean it. It's not just a bunch of Mexicans are there, but rather they are promoting the national interests to a degree. Certainly on that day they were, of Mexico. But more broadly, so many different elements of mexican history as it relates to

sports and otherwise and then moments of and then sort of these touch points of culture they were using spanish language for some of the weight class graphics on the screen they they had you know uh rather than the sort of ordinary ominous music for tail of the tape they had someone playing the tambor they had you know they had great music in between to throw to commercial. All of the Mexican guys coming out all walked out to Vicente Fernandez and just all these iconic Mexican figures. And then you had all of these different, like Gilbert Melendez narrating a piece about these important moments in history for Julio Cesar Chavez. And I think Mario Lopez sort of connecting MMA fighters to the rich history of boxing that obviously Mexico occupies. I thought in general, it was great.

It was great. It made the night feel bigger. It didn't hurt that the main event was a great scrap. Scoring notwithstanding, the main event was a great scrap. The crowd was, I'm telling you, I've seen Canelo fight so many times that you get jaded by it. And if you ever saw Kodo fight in the garden for the Puerto Rican showing up for him, you get something similar from that. But dude, I've seen these Mexican fans on non-Canelo weekends in Vegas. This is what it's like.

They're like the most rock-ribbed fight fans maybe on the planet. They show up big time for their own, and they obviously now have a crop of talent that they can really believe in in MMA. The UFC coming around to this, I wasn't sure how they were going to handle it. I think in general, it really worked. there's a particular kind of social media loser that, they're prominent all kinds of places, but in MMA, they're the kind of person who has no ability to absorb any part of the world around them without then refracting it through some kind of culture

war lens. Like they actually can't even process anything without automatically trying to understand it as a function of where it fits in some kind of culture war, even when it doesn't really fit. So people got on me for one of my tweets being like, I didn't really like the Kevin Holland taco eating thing. And people were like, oh, here's a fucking virtue signal. Guys, guys, I'm not an expert on Mexican culture, but from what I have seen of it, it's significantly deeper and richer than

I ever learned in American public schools. But more to the point, if a gringo is bringing you on camera a nearly three-pound taco that looks like it's been designed to feed somebody's dinosaur that has been made by some weird billionaire somewhere, like who else could eat something like this? You're not having a Mexican culinary experience. You're having a Texas culinary experience. You're having an American one at a bare minimum. But you're having a texas culinary experience you're having an american one at a bare minimum but you're having a texas one he's like he's rib busting fucking 72 pound steak if you could eat in under two hours without having a coronary and you know in the words of patten oswalt eating all of our angry food you'll get a free t-shirt on the way to the fucking er that's texas like when you know

you can tell a story about mexico's history with food without somebody bringing out dinosaur portions that only exist in places like Texas. Get the fuck out of here with this. Like, please be serious. They can only understand it as like, where does this fit in in the culture war? I don't really know. So I'm going to put it here because I can't possibly understand what good faith point Luke was trying to make. So let me just culture war this. That's really my handicap because I have no other frame of reference. I don't read books. Right, guys, I didn't hate it. I realized that it was a lighthearted segment. I'm just saying,

don't lecture me about like, well, this is, you know, we're all having fun. This is a Mexican thing. And the guy's bringing out a taco that, you know, is the size of a fucking Ford Fiesta. Get the fuck out of here. All right. Neither here nor there. Let's get to some of your questions here and be done with it before I get fucking canceled. All right, here we go. What do we got? Mike Bell gave Brasso the 5th 10-8. That's insane. Yep. This really highlights what the Strickland team talks about with optics and closing out a round strong. Yep. Great point. This person writes, I thought Valentina's damage was much more than Grasso's in the last 90 seconds, but control looks important. That's a fair point. I didn't quite see it that way, but I can understand what you mean.

People say the trilogy might be inevitable now. I don't know about that, but it could be. Sebastian Hackle. I think he's a WWE guy, if I'm not mistaken. Yes, he is. Does tonight's result from Rojas really show us how much in terms of overall growth or development? Again, a little bit. Some very valuable.

But we're still way over here. We're not even close to a place where we can have bigger conversations. Still way over here before we're not even close to a place where we can have like bigger conversations Still way over here Should joe martinez have been the announcer instead of bruce buffer so that would have been nice Because joe would have done a great job um But I think was he calling there was a top rank had a mexican independence day card as well

I don't I don't know if he was calling that, but I know he does work for them too. So maybe he was booked already for something like that. I don't know. But yes, it would have been nice. I mean, Buffer did a fine job, but you know, from Guadalajara, it's a little, he gringos it up a little bit, but in other words, it was a fine job.

All right. If they do the trilogy, Blanchfield's going gonna pull some hair out tonight agreed they shouldn't do you think Blanchfield exposes Alexis takedown defense yeah that could be bad for her that could be bad for her and also she has heavy ground upon at times so should we blame bad judging for the draw or the fact that Valentina ironically ended up getting a 10-8 scored against her because she attempted that sloppy hit? Well, what you're saying is karma. But that's not the same thing as saying, was that fair scoring?

That's a little bit of a different question. Does this technically count as a defense for Grasso? No. Did JDM restore the hype train? I think a little bit, yeah. Yeah, that was a good win. I mean, it wasn't a dominant win. Round three was like, eh, but it was a very quality win by virtue of who he beat and then the way in which he did it, methodically, right? I've noticed that this person writes that MMA boxers don't use uppercuts enough

against opponents who are trying to level change on them. I thought you saw a little more shovel punching, but I thought you saw that from Zell Huber. Can someone tell me how Valentina won that fourth round? I didn't have it for her, but I don't think it was like such a reach that it's impossible to understand that. How many edibles do you think Mike ate? I don't know. Someone writes, this person writes, since Valentina is old and washed,

who should Grasso fight next? I mean, she's not old and washed. Do they need to run it back? I don't think so. What should be done to Mike Bell? The question is not what should be done. The question is what is going to be done. and you guys know what the answer is nothing nothing absolutely fuck all will be done you know that like we can complain about it i think you're right to complain

about it like i don't think the commission should just like you know pretend that nothing happened but like oh what's gonna happen to a motherfucker you know what's gonna happen nothing nothing nothing i will say that they handled the instant replay right for the prelim card bout, which we'll discuss on Monday. But what did you think of the commentary tonight? I thought DC and Dom were pretty flat, this person writes, especially compared to Laura Sanko. Laura, I think, is the best one they've got. You know, Dom going after Chris Taione for stopping that fight The Lacerda fight And then you know being like

Well watch Herb Dean he's going to get it right I mean just you know Driving the point home I'll put it that way What's Mike Bell So many questions about the 10-8 Mike Bell needs to be investigated Not investigated just you know it just didn't go right. He just did a poor job.

I don't know how else to say it. Like, this is, yeah. All right. I think that's it. I think that's it. I am tired. I am tired as fuck. I am old as fuck, and I am tired as fuck.

Like I said, I haven't always been a Dodge Omni, but I turned into one. So I'm going to go. I'm going to go. I'm going to say thank you for watching. I'm going to remind everyone. Monday's MK. We haven't heard from BC. So we'll hear from him.

We'll go over some of this stuff and a whole lot more. Thank you guys so much for watching. Thank you for being here with me. I really appreciate it. And it means a lot that you would spend your time on a Sunday morning, Saturday night, doing this with me. I really appreciate it. And it means a lot that you would spend your time on a Sunday morning, Saturday night doing this with me. All right. But I'm going to go. So we're done here. Thank you so much. Catch us on Monday. And until next time, stay frosty. Yeah.