MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Parnasse Impresses in UFC Paris Debut | UFC 332 Worst "PPV" Main Event Ever??? | Gaethje-Topuria 2

Episode Date: September 8, 2026

LT and The Iceman are in the house on a Tuesday, breaking down the highlights from UFC Paris. In the main event of UFC Paris, Salahdine Parnasse made his long-awaited debut and delivered, stopping Dan Hooker inside the first round. How much did Parnasse deliver on expectations and based on this performance, just how well does he stack up against the best in the world? Plus, did Axel Sola score a knockout of the year contender over Fares Ziam and how much better did Losene Keita look this time out. And the UFC 332 main event was announced: Natalia Silva vs. Wang Cong as Valentina Shevchenko's title is vacated. Those stories and more on a special Tuesday edition of Morning Kombat.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Revely Rep. Look at us now. Oh, Jesus. It's what 11 a. m. The combat. Oh, there is. You fit in seamlessly in this weird MK environment.

Do you want a barrio? Two, three, choose. It says, Lerbock's get set and go. You know, when you really think about it, there's just the, that whole reel is just me ingesting gross shit. That's kind of weird. Hi, everyone.

Welcome. on this eighth day of September, 26, for another edition of Morning Combat. My name is Luke Thomas. I joined you from the capital of the status of news. We're here in Washington, D.C. I'm merely one half, though, of your hosting duo, Jesus Christ, my glasses are dirty. The gentleman on the other side of the screen is my friend in yours. It's C4 Connecticut and Chuck, the Iceman himself, Charles Mendenhall.

What's up, man? I feel like you should, you know, you had the hiccups one time we started to show, your glasses, you've had other problems. I feel like we should go through a run through before we start these shows. It's better if I just look disheveled and stupid. All right. I know you went and saw Spider-Man, right? I went and saw Road Runner versus Acme.

I'm guessing yours was the better film. I don't think so. I thought that one's getting good reviews. Roadrunner? Yeah. I enjoyed it, but you seem to really enjoy Spider-Man, though. I mean, this is like- I guess I was a little bit surprised because I am not a big Spider-Man guy.

I mean, normally he is the fight. He's important character, so you care that he's there, but he's not like, you know, for example, spoiler, the Punisher shows up in this one. That's a little bit more of my speed. It's just putting a gun in everyone's face

and blowing their brains out. So I didn't really, like I wasn't anticipating much. Dude, the direction on this one was amazing. Like the other storylines in there was amazing. Like I was blown away at how good it was. So yeah,

go see that shit. Like, you know how you develop over the course of time, people tell you, hey, you got to go watch this. You got to go watch this. And it takes,

if somebody leads you astray the first time you're like, okay, I'm not, I'm never taking that dude's suggestion again. You've been pretty good. You've even turned me on some foreign films that I've watched. And, uh, and uh, and you even warned him, that's very slow. It's very hard. Whatever. And then you watch you're like, okay, well, that was still worth my time. It was very good in that sense. I have to say your recommendations are pretty spot on. So I feel like I got to see it now. Finally, another man of culture who can appreciate good taste when he sees it. I know a guy who can't. He's the producer of this show. It's Long Island Luke who's never seen predator. Holy God.

did that happen what's up dude the only foreign films you've turned me on to is smut porn so i don't know what you're showing chuck i mean that's kind of they're well done told you to not talk about that shysel i'm sorry i'm sorry guys ufc paris this weekend i thought it was pretty damn good how about fucking lusane kate's celebration that was like the highlight of my week i love that i feel like that was cooler than the main event i don't know we have a lot to get to including that we'll talk about ufc paris main event card we got to talk about ufc 332 because it's Where's the flatchelon sound? I thought that was going to happen there.

Yeah. Yeah, exactly. We will also talk about this revelation, if you want to call it that, this admission, perhaps, by UFC commentator John Anick saying that the UFC is considering running back to Poria and Gaichi, which I just think is completely fucking insane. We'll talk about that. Also, we didn't put it on the rundown, but I'll include it overnight, Poetan saying he's going to get, they're just going to redo the UFC White House car.

Just run them all back, you know? Let's get McKinsey Dern and Jillian back on the books again, right? Why not? There's mystery there. Why not? So we can do that and plus everything else that happened in the combat sports weekend. Thumbs up if you haven't on the video already. You can follow us on all the various social channels.

We do have an email here. Morningcombat at gmail.com. Morningcombat at gmail.com. Fan sub, dead wrongs, and to reach the show. We have memberships here as well. Badges, emojis, and more to come. We have merch, morningcombat. shop. We'll have a new release starting October 1, but we have some evergreen stuff up there

for those who may have missed it. What am I missing? Is that about it? That's the beginning and the end of all that? I think so. All right. Let's get to the show then, because there's quite a bit to get to. Topic number one, where else would we start with the main event of UFC Paris? Saladin Parnas defeats Dan Hooker in about half a round and did so quite methodically, quite violently. and very, very, I don't know, satisfactorily, if you ask me, you can see the stoppage here. He's going to hit this body kick. It's going to force Hooker to wince, right?

And then he follows up with it. He's going to hit him with a big right hand, then left hook there. And that's going to drop him and that puts him away. It was quite the showing, Chuck Bindenhall. Did he, Parnas, deliver on your expectations? And then based on this performance, where does he stack up with the best in the world? man i just don't think it could have gone better in the sense like maybe we were talking ourselves we've seen so many upsets this year that you start to talk yourself into hooker being a live dog

i know that people i had talked to um that like to gamble on these were seeing hookers kind of a live dog just given his experience and he'd never lost three fights in a row which you know some people look at these patterns in a gambling sense and all that stuff for a guy to debut and we were talking about this last week um for a debut you don't see this in the UFC where they're They get a home advantage to this point. They make their debut. They book it in their hometown. It becomes all about kind of showcasing this type of fighter.

We don't really see that happen in the UFC. That was a lot of pressure. They talk about these octagon jitters and all that stuff. I think they do exist sometimes. I wasn't sure it would exist in this situation because Parnasse has had the chance to go to the UFC before. And he's opted to, you know, fight elsewhere and make more money. So I felt like he was not super like, you know, he was. wasn't going to be um lose faith that he could go in there and do it but you know how it is man like

you get this kind of showcase it gets closer and the you know there's more press on you there's all that stuff when all that comes into the arena and you've got a crowd that i mean that crowd was that has to be one of the crowds of the last decade i mean they were just they were there early they were singing they were chanting they were standing they were you know everything that was going on that's french was amazing like they were there for him and to have that crowd and i'm guessing like his friends family, anybody watching on to get those credentials you're in the O.C. To go in there and kind of do that was pretty impressive. And I think from an analytical standpoint, like you're watching, I know you pointed this out too.

Like he's checking the leg kicks. He's seeing everything in front of him very well. It looked super poised in there. Just the way he was able to do it. He was throwing that high kick, which probably, it's probably that high kick that you unleashed a few, you know, a few times in the, in the scam moments he was in there, that probably caught hooker off guard when he took the one to the body. you know what I mean because all of a sudden it goes boom it's in the body just mixed it up really well for that for that small amount of time and looked awesome man I thought he looked as advertising I've watched him I know you have to you've watched him to the points coming up to this he's had some very good fights we saw him an MVP beating Kenny Cross who was game but was way overmatched I thought he looked awesome and that division you mentioned like where does he stack up in that division I was talking to my son about this who's like way into USC.

but has there ever been a more stacked time in the UFC's lightweight division? To me, this is incredible. It seems like every week we're uncovering somebody else who's now a player in that division, doesn't it? Yeah. Yeah, and this youth movement. So let's go through them here, all these guys in their 20s. I think Teporia is still in his 20s. Yeah, he is.

Right. So you can just barely, but still in his 20s. Patty's still in his 20s. Saladin Parnasse in his 20s. Kill and Saul killed, Quillin Saul killed in his 20s. Tom Nolan, by the way, I think he's in your, inside or just outside the top 10. Yeah, 26.

You know what I mean? Like there's just a bunch of these guys in their 20s that are. And I mean, if Uzman comes in, he's 28, you know. And there's another one you could add in this youth movement at 155, Chuck, to your point, is exceptional. But if you can, tackle the second part of that question, which is, you know, I know it's Dan Hooker. So who is not the best, not the worst opponent. He's just the opponent that he had. What can you, where did it when you, when this fight was over, what was your sense of like,

where he stacked up among the best lightweights in the world. You're talking about, you're talking about Parnas, right? Parnas, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think he's well polished. And I know that, like, in your realm, you'll watch tendencies and guys, how they, you know, manipulate space and all that stuff. I thought he looked very good in terms of just, you know, his speed, just his footwork, he was on the front foot,

like enough where you're seeing him, you know, kind of break down the barriers. I think you'd mention, like, you mentioned the check kicks this is something that's very subtle in a fight like this but very important right like he's not taking damage on his lead leg which enables him to do kind of what he wants to be able to do in that fight and uh i put him i i mean he's not he is not your typical this dude has fought in front of like you know in some really wild environments maybe not the caliber of like the best ufc fighters but he he's certainly been in big environments with you know, multiple weight classes and encountered high pressure situations.

And he has done very well for himself, except for the bridge too far at 170, right? So I feel like he's, you know, if he's not like your typical prospect, I think he's well polished. I would argue that he could be a top five guy right now. And when he's calling out Max Holloway, right? Like he's calling out Max Hollow, did you feel like that that was a step too far? I didn't. I was sort of like, well, you want to test yourself.

You want to throw yourself in the fire, baptism by fire. that's who you call out. But honestly, I was sort of like, you know, I'm not sure I would, I'm not sure I'd look at that as a slam dunk for Max Holloway. That's how good this guy is. Yeah, I fully agree with that. Can we run, before you run it, just wait a second. I want you to watch the kick that ultimately got Hooker to Wince, because if you notice, his hand is kind of in this range semi-neutrally and he actually, I think, moves it up because he had invested with those head kicks before. Let me see the tape one more time, right? So just kind of pay attention to hookers blocking right arm there.

Let's see, when it comes, when that, when that kick comes up. Yeah, you see it was a little high and he kind of just snuck it underneath there, like accurate placement, accurate, bam, there's that left hook. How about when he goes in for the kill, he goes back to that high kick for just a second he's closing in and is like, shah, slam that up. Crazy, man. Yeah, it's just crazy what he's able to do. I mean, to me, I agree with you.

I think he's top five right away. And in fact, I could easily see him as the best in the world. Now, I'm not declaring that he is the best in the world. but for me, because he hasn't beaten someone like a Sarjukian who's got that kind of wrestling, I've noticed that to me, he got really good experience on the regional. And then I think it's important to categorize his experience. To me, regional MMA is a very imprecise term. It's a useful term if we're just talking about the United States or Canada or something like that

or some kind of individual nation. But you've got these scenes in Europe where they've got mid-majures. you know, your cage warriors or at a high level KSW or, you know, Octagon or some other ones. And he was doing double champ stuff there. So that's not like you're not fighting the top five guys in the world, but you're getting a certain kind of premium experience that mimics very closely, which you'll get at the next one. And he was obviously acing, acing all of that.

You know, it cannot be overstated. I've made this point a million times. I don't want to, you know, go too far with it. but just suffice to say on MK, this kind of thing used to be relatively common, Chuck. You know this. You would get guys with 20 or more fights who held titles in other scenes, not just regional, but kind of international regional, mid-major levels,

or in a world where there was, you know, top five guys floating in other organizations, and they would come over to UFC and maybe they win championships, maybe they don't, maybe they are really great, maybe they're not. But at a bare minimum, they just had skill sets ready to go. Like they could move right into it, no problem. And look at what you got with this one. I mean, the contender series is cool, dude. But after this was over, you know, Long Island,

you can back me up on this. I went and I looked through the tonight's contender series. You know, what the records were of people on there, 5 and 0, 6 and 0, 7 and 1. It's like Solidine Pornass is probably naturally more talented than almost anyone on that card. And he waited until he had 25 fight junk. Right.

This was his 26th fight. Look at the fucking difference you get when guys can mature in just the right environments to get ahead. It's so different. Yeah, he should be somewhat of a poster boy for this type of thing. I know that you brought this up a couple weeks ago. And I fully agreed because, you know, you look at in general what a fighter prime is. And you said it was like 28 to 32. I find that to be the optimal range as well.

Some guys basic, some guys will, you know, come into their own earlier and some guys later. But this is the type of guy that the UFC is getting at 28 years old, who you just went through like kind of what, you know, hit the circuit he took in high profile situations. He turned down, you know, a contract earlier in his career, knowing that he was worth more betting on himself. And he's able to do that. You're catching a dude in his prime.

Usually when you were mentioning before, like we used to see this in the UFC where guys would come over, established from other leagues because the other leagues were so strong at that time. but they were a little more shopworn, you know, maybe they'd taken some else. Like they had names or whatever, but they fought legends and, you know, that sort of thing. We saw a lot of that. This dude just hasn't really taken any damage either, you know? So I would almost be like, even with his experience and where he's at at 28 years old,

I don't really think you're getting a guy who, you know, has some miles on him in that way that you're like, you know, capture it now because you don't know where he's going. He's got years ahead of him, man. You know what I mean? I just feel like that's lightning in a bottle for the U.S. UFC and it's it is cool to see somebody coming from a different route and get that kind of love and have that kind of showcase right away. I mean, I also just think this is why it's important. Everyone is just like, oh, you know, we don't care if the PFL lives or dies and I mean, they're going to merge with MVP and I don't know what's going to happen to it.

But I just want everyone to understand like what is happening here in this space that like Solidine Pornas grew up. Yes, he's an exceptional talent, of course. You know, there's that too. And maybe he would have succeeded, Chuck in many of maybe if he was that same dude born in Brazil or born in the States or wherever maybe he would have been fine no matter what but the point I'm trying to make is you just look at the health of the outside world that Europeans elite Europeans have to operate in with all the different like for example Chuck like this was a home run for UFC for many reasons one of which is as you indicate like this is his UFC debut how many guys make a main event UFC debut in 2026 very very rarely does that happen and more to that point like dude they had a full sold out crowd eating out of his

palm he's already a name in his home country he doesn't need to be built there and like that kind of organic from the grassroots push up is one of the most important ingredients for worldwide stardom in my opinion if you can't be a big name in your own home country it's very unlikely you're going to be a big name in somebody else's but if you can if you can capture that support somewhere It's often very useful in fight sports anyway to be able to take that to other places. They began to raise the profile and they boost and they magnify their own. Solidine Pornas already has all of that. So UFC, man, I don't know if they relent.

Because before Chuck, remember, Parnas didn't come over here because he was like, I'm getting five or six X fighting fucking KSW. And we're like, dude, just pay this guy. Right. I hope everyone can see if I'm, and I'm assuming that they are paying a little bit more. Maybe I'm wrong about that. But I'm working under the assumption that they're not just paying him the standard fare. This is not standard fair talent.

This is premium talent. You should pay premium prices for it. That's just how it works. And look at how you and me all benefit when they do. Yeah, yeah, 100%. I did get the indication, you know, when he was asked about that. Like, are you getting paid? Is you supposed to paying you?

They seemed happy with what they're getting. So regardless, they came to an agreement. I do think that he's a guy who values himself and knows. his own value. So I think that they did come correct. You tell me, on that MVP card that happened in May, you know, the fights at the top, obviously, are the ones that

everybody was paying attention to in the sense of Ronda Rouse and all this. But from an MMA perspective, he was that one name on there that you're sort of like, well, dude, they've got Saladin partners. That should tell you something, right? When you're like, the bang for your buck is right there. It's not like, you know, the Nate Diaz, Mike

Perry thing. If you're not into these older guys kind of swing each other. pay attention to this guy and i felt like that even though he doesn't like speak english right like and i don't know we stuff to see about a little bit like how he translates in terms of uh you know all of that stuff with if he has charisma all that stuff i just feel like when you have a guy who can deliver to his like it's infectious a guy that age who has that kind of backing who bets on himself and puts on those kind of performances it doesn't get much right we just don't see it that often you know and i i feel like he brings

that value to the uc there's there's simply no question he brings the value i would like to talk about if i may just the fight itself and like what i found really impressive about it um you know part of what i was interesting i talked about the leg kicks i mean they do so the excuse me the check of the leg kicks if you actually look at the targeting by dan hooker like he had double digit targeting on the legs and it didn't really do much to pornais in part because parnass was able to either get out of the way very quickly uh but more so check everything and one of the i think you know checking does a lot, right? Because it kind of deters the other person because it hurts so bad.

Or they have to switch something up because they just can't get through. Like the, it's not, it's not working in the intended way. But, so it could pull people out of stances, which I think it did here for. I think Hooker ended up going orthodox because he felt like he wasn't getting what he was looking for from Southpaw in that first minute. But the other part that I think people people often sleep on is something I see on tape a lot. The guys who can effectively check and getting out of, you can't just check everything. A lot of people will, you know, get out of the way a little bit. or they'll move their hips out of the way. And that's all fine and dandy.

But the guys who can consistently check, they're able to maintain pressure much easier, right? They're able to maintain overbearing dominant pressure because they're not losing territory, like either by damage or by the person hitting and then moving, they're able to, if you're an effective leg kicker, you're able to chop out that pressure. So it's not just punishment.

It's, you know, you're landing first and then exiting first. It's a lot of different ways that you can manipulate that. But if you can check, it ends up being much harder for them to do that for a lot of, as I've indicated, for a lot of different reasons. And Parnas did all of that. And it didn't matter the stance he was doing it from because he was checking it once he moved to Orthodox too. And so like this is like this is what I mean about like he had defensive responsibility, frankly, very good ones at that.

He had obviously dynamic offensive firepower, need I say more. And then when he hurt the guy. with the body shot, and I brought this up on my personal channel, Chuck, just like, go back and watch the replay of his face. You can see on his face that he immediately recognizes, aha, he's injured. But he doesn't lose composure. In fact, he turns into a fucking killing machine right at that moment. I mean, I mean, yeah, dude, like we started this whole question of like, where can he compete?

I don't know if he can beat Justin Gaichi tomorrow. If they fought, I don't know about that. But I sure as fuck wouldn't count him out. Yeah. I sure as fuck wouldn't count him out. He has a credible argument to be, if not the best in the world, Chuck, certainly in very, very, very close contention. This debut, as far as UFC debuts, they honestly don't come much better than this. This is about as good as it gets.

I hate to make the, you know, the Connor McGregor and Irish, you know, like you think about that, though, there were certain guys who fought an Irish MMA before Connor ever got there, like the Neil Ciri types. There were those guys in you're like, okay, and the country was behind them. The country, you know, wanted a star. And I almost wonder if this is the guy who translates on that level because for France, in the sense like, you know, they have Cyril gone. Did you get this sense, though, that, like, he was that guy who was going to, like, you know, they're going to get behind and just be passionate about. Like, I felt like they love him and all that. So same with the like Manon, Firo and people like that. I just don't feel like they're there that they weren't the right one.

It almost felt like when Cedric Dumbay was fighting. a couple of times in France in the last couple years. He has that vibe. But this is the first UFC fighter, to me, has that kind of pool. Just there's something about it. Did you see that building? Dude, it was so electric. To me, it feels like he could, they've got something special in that sense.

Like a guy, if they're really wanting to invigorate and market to kind of like, you know, get in and maybe broader, more broadly across Europe and all that stuff, that's such a, it's just such a, it's such a big pool right away. Like what, what McGregor was, I guess, for Ireland in that sense. Like you can tell that they really want to be behind this guy. They want to, you know what I mean? They're going to live and die with this guy. That's what I'm trying to say.

Yeah. Then last thing on this, remember, Connor got a lot of attention because he was a double champ. Right. With it, had a huge hardcore following in Europe and then specifically in Ireland. I mean, I'm not, again, who the hell knows what Parnass will do from here, but you can just see some of the similarities. This went really well. Now we got to talk quickly about Hooker.

I have seen folks say, Chuck, that Hooker should retire. Do you agree with that? I mean, even if we say he should, he's not going to, right? Like he happily put himself in this position. And I think it to do that, and even when he was saying he would like, he would welcome Usman, you know, into the UFC, I'd be his welcome, all this stuff. I think it's a guy who sees himself on some level accepting that he's a litmus test or a gatekeeper. hate that term, but a guy who's like,

hey, I've been in there with the best. If you can get through me, you know, maybe you belong in the upper echelon here. I just, it feels like he's kind of accepted that fate and he wants to put on good fights and he's willing and he's kind of, he's still very comacazi about the whole thing. I don't love seeing him getting, was this

the fifth time maybe he's been knocked down in the O.C.? It's something like that, the fourth or fifth time. It feels like they're starting to add up. He's 36 years old. I think of the 25 fights, he's something like, I think it's 14. 11. I look this up after he, he did it 14 and 11 which is you know obviously not the greatest career but he has had really good fights he's had some very good victories in the oc beat guys he probably shouldn't at times and um when you get a guy like that it's complicated because you're like you're not i i don't know

and maybe you got like a you know a bigger opinion on this i don't know i don't know if i feel like he's done in terms of i don't know like i is he on the decline yeah he might be he's 36 years old it's one of those things but i don't know if he's he could probably still compete with guys mid-level guys, right? Like he could beat those guys, and I'm like, if that's really the direction he's going, great, but if they're going to feed him to the lions that are all coming up like they do traditional gatekeepers,

it's going to be tough to watch him take beatings, man. You know, I just, he's one of those good guys in the sport. I've always loved his attitude and all that stuff, but it's almost like we were talking about Edson Burbosa being a guy who would just kind of plug himself into the situation, very similar type record. I know that he was something like 14 and 11 through his first 25 fights, but he was fighting the best of the best.

It's very similar, but at some point you're like, did we need to see Edson take those beatings down the stretch? It's always one of those, right? I don't want to see him stay too long in the end. Yeah, I mean, his last three were Saurukia and St. Deney and then Parnasse. Like it's not like he's losing to. Right.

Ho's up in here. He's losing to tough guys. Yes. At the same time, I mean, you know, I've had concerns about him all the way back to December of 2018 when he was getting tuned up by Edson Barbosa. you know, if you recall, there was actually a fair bit of controversy after that fight because people thought that Hooker's Corner should have thrown the towel based on the beating

he was taking. Now, immediately after that, he went on a three-fight win streak. You beat Vic, Iaquinta, and then he had that really very, very closely controversial contested fight against Paul Filder, and then, you know, he's been up and down basically since then. There's no question in my mind that he should retire. To your point, I don't think that he will. And I do think that if you want to improve his chances, both of just winning and then not being fed to contests where he's really going to have a hard time defending himself, then the competition level has to be lowered pretty significantly. And I don't know to what extent Dan has interest in that.

Like he may say, I'm going to take my interests or my talents elsewhere. You know, who knows how, like Jim Miller doesn't mind that assignment. I don't know if everyone's Jim Miller, right? So that makes it a little hard to say. But I just feel like, you know, I mean, just this morning, was revealed that Diego Sanchez was arrested, you know, for probation violation and I believe some kind of alcohol-related offense. I have to double-check exactly. But, you know, not great news. Not great. He narrowly avoided jail time. And now I don't know what's going to happen to him.

And, of course, we just know about all the other arrests more recently. I just don't think we care enough. Like, it's so weird to me, you know, like it's like driving. You know, we know what the minimum age is before you can do it. But we're, We're like, oh, what's the maximum age? Like, right. Whatever we feel like it. You know, I just, we don't have enough pressure on these guys to make health decisions. But, and, you know, you just judge going into this fight.

He's pushing his chips in. I'll do it. I'll do this fight thinking he believes in himself on that level. He believes he can do that. That's the toughest thing. That's not going anywhere. You know, that's not going anywhere. And that's the hard thing to beat out of these guys because it's like, as long as they still have this belief, well, you're catching me.

That was a bad. that, you know, they can keep preparing themselves into thinking that they can return and keep doing this. We've seen it a million times. I just don't see that he's anywhere near right now, though, having a serious discussion with himself about that. So, no, he's probably discussing when he'll be back. Right. Yeah. Long Island, how impressed were you with Sarnas?

I was impressed. But to all the points you guys are making about Dan, I feel like, I mean, he was a minus 650 favorite. That's kind of what you're supposed to do as a minus 650 favorite. get the guy out of there in the first round. I'd like to see him against the real upper echelon of the division to see where he actually stacks up. But probably a future title challenger, if not future champion. You guys think they will give them that? Say, yeah, do you guys think they will give him?

Like, you think they'll escalate him that way. I mean, the dude has the credentials. There would be no, I don't think that there would be a public outcry if they stuck him into a top five fight right away. Do you think they'll give him that kind of treatment? Well, we'll get to that at the UFC. 332 thing. Okay. Okay. Where if they need someone like that, then they will. Like, this is the, this is the part that Parnaz, like, this is why people just don't

understand fast tracking. Parnass is at a place now where they may or may not fast track him, right, Chuck, they may do it, to your point, you're asking, are they going to do it? But here's the key. If they decide to pull that trigger and they fast track you, I know Izzy, for example, was recently talking about how he, like, in 18 months, he had like a bunch of fights and you look at the title now, it's just not, and he was right. He was very, very active Connor when he was hot. I know he got injured, but they tried to make him, like, they'll take guys and they'll put them in moments in time where they just push. Parnasse is ready if they do. Like, that's the point. Like, I mean, I don't know if they will or they won't, Chuck,

but should they do it, he's got every bit of prep you could possibly have to be ready for that opportunity. And maybe he wins and maybe he loses, you know, hard to say. But I think if they really need him, he's a guy they can count on because he just knows when it's time. to go this is this is the moment you've been waiting for and it's time to lean into it and i think you'd be ready for it and put it in my veins because if you think about like him fighting again soon right like just you plug him in against a guy who presents a little more doubt man i think that that's the performance he had it's like the next fight now is going to feel big they got a match him right but it's going to feel big you know the max holloway fight is

interesting but like just straight up how would you like him versus patty for that i thought about that i thought about this i think that's a tough fight for patty porn can grapple. Can you imagine? Oh, that would be fun, man. And Patty's takedowns are terrible. Like Patty's got very good back control. That is true. Yeah. And of course, if you do what BSD did, he'll snatch your throat in an incident. Yes, of course. He's a real, he's a real grappler. But he's not a real wrestler.

You look at anybody in that top 10 pretty much of that lightweight division. Like you plug a guy like this into any scenario pretty much. And you're like, okay, all right, cool. I can get behind that, you know. So in any event, I think it's so great that the UFC finally decided. decided to do business with this guy and we're all going to pay the get paid dividends for it as a result now with that in mind let's talk about the rest of that card topic number two here so let's just sort of go through it i thought the rest of the card had some really interesting parts and it's had some duds too we'll talk about both the good and the bad if we can start

chuck with that co-main event i mean what else can be said do you want to call this chuck a knockout of the year contender axel solo over far as the um you like you like you like the soft one then. I mean, this isn't one of those ones that, that you would, you know, where it's just this clear knockout. This one was subtle in that sense of like he's, he almost looks like he's level changing this kind of, but he takes the elbow as he's doing it, but he kind of like, in that sense, when you saw it in slow motion, I think it should be considered, man. I just, I mean,

there's been some very loud ones that, like, there's been some good, like the Grasso one, right, with Barber, like that sort of thing where it's like, it just had this crazy as visual to it. And of course, that was, ended up being a submission, didn't there? How did that work? It was kind of both things happening there. But anyway, there's been some crazy finishes this year. But I like that kind of subtlety of it, you know? Like, you know, it's like it didn't look like a dangerous exchange until you see him crumple. And then you get the other angle and like, okay, now that's a thing of beauty. This had to have been, this is right up, this is up your street. Like, this is so perfect for you, right?

Yeah. I mean, I wouldn't call this a knockout, the knockout of the year. It wouldn't, it doesn't. there's too many other variables that aren't there. But in terms of the reaction and the eyes being open for Ziam when they zoom out and he's just laying face first, eyes open, it's like, holy shit, bro, that is a really, really, really bad one. Dude, Axel Sola's a fucking beast. He's a physical beast. It's kind of funny.

Like Mason Jones has this weird ability to fight up and down to opposition depending on what's happening. But I think very highly of him generally. I think he's a very technical fighter. And he gave Sola a tough run. his UFC debut, but dude, if you'd seen Sola in France, you're like, this guy's a fucking hammer. And in his last two fights, you've seen the evidence of that. Just a beast in this weight class.

Another young one. Yeah. You're talking about that. Another 28, like another dude coming up to those rungs. And again, the people don't appreciate this, but the French factory for talent is insane. Yeah. So terrible loss for Zion back to back here. But Axel Sola putting two wins together very quickly.

By the way, remember Sola fought like six, seven weeks ago. And here he is just viciously K-Oing him. That was amazing. Very impressive stuff, yeah. Dude, what the fuck do we say about MVP and Nerselton, Ruseboiv? Ruseboiv gets, by the way, oblique kicked and is now having to get surgery on that knee. And once he did, which was, I think, in the second round or so, the fight never got escalated. MVP wins.

And if you look at his UFC run, you certainly cannot call it a, failed run as it stands for wins and losses. He did lose to Ian Gary, but before that had beaten Kevin Holland. He then beats Chera bullet. He beat Jared Canineer. He beat Sam Patterson. And he beat Ruzaboyv. But all of those fights, for the most part, sucked major ass, Chuck. What do we say? And that's an understatement. That's the problem. Like, I mean, that Patterson fight, I was, I know that he had another fight, like, you know, but after that Patterson, but wouldn't I mean, if you could have let him go, I'm sure the UFC would have been like, goodbye. I mean, that's the kind of thing that it was the old, like, cliche of watching, you know, paint dry or something.

It was so bad that, you know, there was almost no excitement going into this fight, which there probably should have been moron. But, dude, to give it, I give him the credit. Like, you mentioned that oblique kick. That was really well done. Like, that's something like, you do something in that fight. But that was just this little flash out of six fights in the UFC where he's had very few. where you're like, okay, there's, wait, there's a little residual, you know, effect of what this MVP guy can do. Because we saw him sparking guys early on.

And it was like, he was such a showman. I remember writing columns about it. Like, just his body movements is like, you know, his playfulness, is kind of cockiness, all that, the arrogance. I remember writing about this. And it's like some of that stuff has stayed intact while he just completely remains holstered and does nothing, you know, just kind of deeks. he, you know, moves around, moves his head. Nothing happens. And I'm like, at some point,

it just feels like a joke's being played on you. And I felt like that's what was, this was going on. I could hear the booze and that stuff. But dude, after, like, when you, when you can make Kevin Holland, a Kevin Holland fight bad, you can make a Kevin Holland, like, that's just, and you're supposed to be a matchup where you bring this out of each other. And you can't even make that a good fight. It's just, I don't understand his running.

Went five and one, right? Like, you only lost the one time. Yeah. Just dude. Gary. what a forgettable 5-1 it's bad man yeah I'm just what's your favorite round

and I'm like none of them I mean this is one of those questions where it's like how can you be 5-1 and on the outs with an organization but like to me I'd have a couple of responses to that like you know everyone the problem with MMA not being like a sport

that's defined by rules you know where it's like oh you win 5 and 1 oh you advance to the playoffs automatically we don't have that like it's just all favoritism one of the problems with that is that people will use it way too often to the point where they want to override any decision about architecture as a consequence. And then you just get a confused mess. In fact, I'm going to make a version of this argument when we talk later about Ilya and Justice Gachchi being considered for an immediate rematch. You're hearing a lot of people being like, hey, you know, this is just the sport.

He didn't have to earn it. And I'm like, you've got to be careful with that. Here is a case, though, Chuck, where you can just definitively say, and then the stats, speak to this. This is not, there is no question that he won these fights. Like they're not over and you think, oh, the other guy deserve to win necessarily.

However, he's barely trying. Like, this is the problem. The problem is it's all entirely low effort. Now, I'm not saying that there weren't some tough defensive scenarios where he may have been fighting off takedowns, but here is a case where he wasn't really fighting off takedowns, certainly after Ruzaboy was injured.

And if you just look at the stats here, I'm sorry, I've got to pull this up for just a second. He totaled in his UFC career. Are you ready for this? The total amount of significant strikes he's landed. In his whole career, you're saying. And his whole UFC career. Okay, okay.

Yeah, I have to do the math on this. I believe it's $129. Maybe it's a little bit higher than that. But like in this fight, Chuck, this is a three-round fight. And again, Roosevelt gets injured, I think, early in the second. Yeah. Michael Page landed four strikes in round one. I mean, four significant strikes, I should say, excuse me, but the ones that have consequence.

Five in round two, and then three in round three. Like the same man. You know, like what are we talking about? Especially coming off of that Patterson fight where there was, he was roundly criticized for this very thing, timidity, just not doing anything reluctant. I know some people are putting that on, you know, they're putting that on the opponent. Okay, fine. but like dude the recurring pattern is obviously MVP you know and I just if you told me he was going to make it to the UFC this is the guy who put a dent in the skull you know of evangelisa sand

remember that the yeah with that it's just it's crazy that that's this is where this whole this whole thing ended up I don't know what happened to him when you say that he didn't have I guess that's what bothers people is you're like dude what are you waiting for what are you waiting for I felt like we spent all six fights waiting for him to come to life and he never did so I was effort. I was off a little bit. I quite a bit, actually. I forgot to add in one of the bigger ones. It's 173 total over six fights. But divided by six, 173 is just 28.8. Now, and most of those went the distance, right? So like you're talking about full fights here. So you're talking about a very, very, very meager amount of offense. And it's like there's only two ways you can interpret this.

So on the one hand, the way you would interpret this is you can say he is just not, he's, he's, is electing to do less. And this can be remedied by virtue of some kind of change that he can take into account, but he just hasn't or didn't. That's one interpretation. The other interpretation is that he is washed. And the reason why you can say that is because one of the telltale signs when a fighter is really kind of getting past it is they just don't throw as much anymore.

And he was never like a dynamic. I'm going to throw a bunch all the time kind of guy. But it's gotten to a point now where he's just hardly throwing at all. Yeah. And I don't know what people are supposed to be able to do with that. Like on some level, yes, he can be tricky to beat. But if he was actively competing, you know, really kind of trying to press the fight, I think it's to be a very different conversation.

But because he's really not actively trying to press the fight and there might be a reason to think that that's just not in him anymore, I don't think this is the same kind of consideration like, oh, he's five and one. He deserves another contract. Sure. that argument, but I don't, I think this should be reserved for people who are actively pursuing offense. Long Island, what was the odds on this? Because I'm like, was he being booked into this one, you know, like sometimes they send you off as like, okay, we're going to kill you off right now. You know, was he, he was a favorite. He was like minus 170 all week. Oh, wow. Fight night. He grew as

big as like minus 210. Wow, I didn't realize he was that big of a favorite. Okay. And I know, like, obviously like, you know, he's not fighting. It's not fighting the best. competition here. But I just, you know, Dana White, you remember when he first walked out, MVP finally makes it to the UFC. He walks out and he's doing the whole boogie thing coming down and like doing this big walkout. Do you remember how mad Dana White got about this? I'm surprised he lasted six fights in that sense, you know, just given that I never felt like Dana White was a guy, it was a fan of his. I don't know about the other matchmakers, but I don't know how you could have been. But to your point, Luke, like, I just think that the criticism that has found him for the

bulk of these fights, went in one ear and out the other. It felt like he was just sort of like, yeah, deal with it. You know, I'm 39 years old. I'm just going to do what I do. And maybe he was,

maybe that was just a, you know, a business decision on his end. It's just kind of like, you know, collect the checks, whatever, get the win bonus. You know,

get his bonus, his win and his purse. And that's that. You know, but that, it certainly did not feel like he was interested in putting on a show like he used to. And they removed him from the rankings.

So I think this is probably for the best. Daniel Donchenko defeated Punahelae Soriano. Be your decision. We don't have to get into that. Curtis Campbell did as Trevor Peek as well. He submitted him in round three. This was, again, one of these fights that has no business taking place at the UFC level. Ridiculous.

Curtis Campbell was first of course. Yeah. However, Losenet or Lusin Kata defeating Muhammad Naimov. Dude, this is, first of all, he just looked Chuck way better than his UFC debut. We don't have the full selly, but we have what happens after this, where he ends up sitting in a chair clapping for himself. Chuck, how impressive was this? And where does that rank on all-time UFC celebrations?

It's up there, man. I loved this one. Like, hop in the business, I suspect, oh, yes, very nice, very nice. It's like, that's a great one. I have not seen anything like that, so that's good. He used to frown on guys jumping the fence. I feel like we're seeing that a lot more these days. They still do.

It's just, yeah, they're just doing it anyway. You know, I felt like he was Nathaniel Wood, right? like he fought him in London and I felt like he had kind of some hype on him. And it felt like maybe he just was a little gun shy or something in that fight. I know that in some of those exchanges, like he just, he would lose an exchange and you're like, you know, this is kind of surprising. And obviously Nathaniel Wood, who fought on this card as well, is a tough out, you know, or no, not Nathaniel Wood.

What's the dude's name he, who did he debut against? Was it, Keta? He did fight Nathaniel Wood. Okay, all right. I was like, wait a minute, maybe I'm like, but anyways, he looked good in this fight in the sense like, you know, it just looked like he was light on his feet, you know, he had

some power. I was just, you know, I think this was the guy they were hyping for that first fight and now he showed up. Yeah, he looks way, way better and good for him. Then he called out. Who did he call out? I forgot. What was the call out, Long Island? I don't know. Oh, Lauren Murphy. Oh, was that? Yeah, too big of a call out,

I feel like. But wait, I just want to say that the thing that made the Selly so good was how quickly he exited the Octagon. Like, the crowd hadn't even come down. from cheering for the knockout and he was also clapping along with that. Did he just see those empty seats and say like, fuck this, I'm going to jump over.

I don't know, dude. That's hilarious. Felipe Lima and it defeats Morgan Sherriere, which was a good competitive 145 fight, nothing too remarkable about it. Mario Pinto fought like a donk, but that was still enough to put away the very tired Ryan Span.

We always get one of these, right? Yeah, I mean, this is the guy supposed to be the future of heavyweight, and it's like he's... I mean, the answer is yes, he could be, but not in a way that is particularly interesting. Yeah, Modestis Bukowskis overcomes a very aggressive Umar C early to put him away viciously in the second round. Real gritty performance from Bukowskis who has, you know, is he going to be the best in the world at any point, Chuck? No, but he has massively improved and I think made a lot of this second run.

He's out here, second life anyway, in UFC. Yeah, he has, man. then we go down this list here i'm trying to see what the special would be for uh oh we're going to get to my favorite one paville andruska never even heard of this guy defeats nathaniel wood gut check times dude this fight was very very interesting this kid andruska is definitely one to pay attention to the reason why i liked him chuck is because he constantly had new ideas about how to advance the fight yeah you could tell he was thinking trying experimenting and if things didn't go right he would defensively work his way out of it but a lot of times it

went pretty well. Like just, you know, always trying, trying, trying, real, real good. And that's just the same kind of thing all the time, you know, varying it up. I love this performance from him. Welcome to me. I mean, who saw this coming? Who saw this coming? Like, this is Nathaniel Woodwell. And then, Thaniel Wood would coming off that fight that we're just talking about. I'm like, well, now you're thinking, okay, five days notice too. Like this was one of those weird opponent switches. Like, where did this come from this kid from Moldova? And like it wasn't, you know, like you just mentioned, I felt like the great thing about him was he took the fight where he wanted to. And like you said, he just had ideas of what to do. Like his takedowns were good.

He got in there like some elbows and like some dirty boxing on the fence. Like I felt like he was kind of showcasing a lot of things for a 24-heel dude and very poised. Made it look really good. Also showed a chin. He got kind of rocked in that second round and he was able to kind of take it back in his realm and come back and recover. I mean, I kind of, I felt like he kind of showed a million wrinkles in one in one debut there. Fabia Sintes defeats Michael Al Jirouge. This was not an interesting fight. Nora, I don't know.

How do you pronounce her name? Nora's last name, Long Island. I say Cornoli, but I don't know if I'm saying. Yeah, had a very unremirable fight against Claudia Segula. This one was a little bit better. Matthew Duclos defeating Luis Felipe Gias. You can see here. He polishes them off.

And here it is. This closes the show. Got a bit of the coffin nails there with the hammer fist. That was a decent one. But the one that really stood out to me, Chuck, Delphine, I'm going to mispronounce her name, Benuais. Ben O'She. Dan Hardy shouted her out on Friday. We had Dan Hardy on the show.

And he was like, yo, watch out for her. Sure enough, boy, she put a beaten Montenegro from Argentina. Hunter was face, dude, at the end, all that blood. Jesus. Look at that. Look at this grounded pound, bro. I'm waiting for a sick photo to come out of this because she chokes her unconscious with the bloody face. like I need a photo of this. Where's Esther Lynn

when you need her? Yeah, that's reminiscent of. It's not quite as bad, but it's reminiscent of BJ Penn. If you guys have never seen it and I know everyone's like, oh, it's a BJPen reference. I'm sorry, but it's true. When he chokes out, you know, Long Island, have you seen it when he chokes out Joe Daddy Stevens? Have you seen that? Yep. Hell yeah.

And then the geyser of blood comes shooting out of his forehead when this is right, man. You're like, okay, well, that's horrible to watch. That's some golden days. in any event not a bad card Chuck I mean all these fighting my cars on the road

I mean it was reminiscent on maybe slightly lower scale of the UK you know during that little golden era they're having where they put a bunch of UK fighters on they all showcased well most of them won this is what this was for France it was a lot of good Frenchmen and French women coming through and showcasing that crowd had a lot of reason to cheer

except for MVP who tried to ruin it and he couldn't you know yeah Vali an effort. Yeah. Valley and effort. Hey Chuck, I believe that the football season starts tomorrow. Tomorrow, Wednesday. Do you have big plans for Sunday?

Not really. I mean, my team play, my team Denver Broncos plays on Monday night. So, I mean, I'll watch it. You know, it's like the opening weekend. You got to watch it. You tune in a little bit. So it's always fun for me. Yeah.

I'll do the same. Well, listen, boys and girls, the weight is over. Football is here. And so is Draft Kings. Draft Kings is now live in all 50 states, one app, every sport nationwide. So here's what you're going to do, Dachings customers, sign up with the code Combat, that's Combat with a K, spend five bucks to get 200 in rewards within 21 days, includes all markets.

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based on sports book predictions and free-to-play sports contest availability varies by state. All right, Chuck, let's stay with the UFC Paris broadcast, but with news about a different event, namely UFC 332 here in topic number three. During that broadcast, the company announced a few things. What they told us was UFC 332's main event is going to be Natalia Silva taking on Wang. I'm going to say Wang Tong because that's the way I've been shown that it's been pronounced, but if there's a better way to pronounce it, I apologize. But just for today, I'll be doing it that. So, so, There's your main event.

Now, you'll notice it's not for the interim flyweight championship because Shivchenko had to either vacate her title or one way or the other. It was vacated. So this is the full weight class title. This will be the champion when this is all said and done. It should also be noted that the entire thing is going to be airing, I believe, at least the main card anyway, is going to be airing on CBS. In fact, this will not be at the typical time of 9 p.m.

because remember he used to be 10, they moved back to 9. The main card for this one will be at 8 p.m. 8 p.m. Okay. So, Chuck, based on what I can see, online fans are some combination of angry and sad at this. Calling it the worst pay-per-view main event of all time. I know it's not a pay-per-view for us, but technically in parts of the world it actually still is. Is that a fair criticism?

It's fair. It is fair. And where do you want to start on this? Is it because, like, you look, at somebody like, is it Wang Tong? Everybody Wang Tong. I could imagine Brian Campbell, by the way, singing that song to you. There it is. We'd have been canceled by now.

In part, and I went to UFC 329. I remember Wang Tongue was fighting on the early prelims of that card, which was her last fight. There's barely a soul in that room, you know, and I'm like, so you're thrusting somebody as a challenger, I guess, you know, into a spotlight where there's

not a lot of buzz on that name. And then you take Natalia Silva, and I think she's one of the more unsung type contenders in a division, but obviously the A side of this was going to be Valentina Shevchenko. But the problem is they have not got behind Natalia either. Have you felt like the UFC has given her buzzed? Do you feel like people are talking about Natalia Silva?

I felt like she was going to, it was like where she had to win through the meritocracy in the end and say like, hey, I've done enough. I've won eight in a row. I've beaten former champs put me in this spot. But she just doesn't have that name. And so now I joked about this when I was with Ben Folks and a Pizzie Carroll on Friday. I was like, they mentioned this scenario as a possibility.

And I said that I was like, dude, there's no, that is impossible. It is impossible for the UFC to do that because in my mind, you're thinking of the worst events. I'm like, that would have to be up there. That would have to be up there for one of these circle designated events, pay-per-views, whatever you want to call it as the worst. Because honestly, you'd be hard pressed. And I know you, I know you kind of looked up a couple of these, right? like you'd be hard pressed to find a main event that has less buzz than this.

You know, I just can't imagine. I know UFC 149 in Calgary always stood out as the worst card. And it was because it went through like a million iterations. It had the worst luck. It was snake bit from the word go. It felt like there was 15 different versions of what was going to happen. And what they got stuck with was a bad, bad card. And if you remember, the fights themselves played out so poorly that it was like panned on the way and panned on the way out.

that one maybe comes to mind that was a Uriah Faber fight right I'm trying to remember the main event but I mean you studied your eye favor to me like this particular it's partially the UFC's fault they don't build up you just all of a sudden you can't put Wang Tong on a you know on a main

card so I think she's going to be good enough to bit into this situation um that tell you so you've not given her any love you know and like now you're just thrust into the situation it's kind of on the UFC too here I mean there's so many different things to say about this. First of all, like there's two other cards that come to

mine as maybe the worst cards of this particular variety ever. One would be UFC 149 as you indicated. Another one would be UFC 122. You guys have never seen that. That was in Germany in November of 2010. I remember this one. Here's your main event, three rounds. And this was not the one that was originally supposed to be.

It ended up being this because Vito Belfort got injured. But it was Yushin Okami in a three-round fight over Nate Marquart. Dennis Siever versus Andre winner. Amir Adala versus Peter Sabota, Christoph Soshensky taking on Goren Relyuk and then Aureliich, and then Dwayne Ledwig taking on Nick Ossipshack. Like,

even a hardcore MMA fan from my era would have not been sised for that one. Like, it's impossible for any modern fans, even know who have 90% of those motherfuckers all that, right? So that one is real bad. That one only pulled 600,000 at the gate and just a little over 8,000. I mean, even in Germany, they were like, no we're good thanks though

it aired on Spike TV so like one of the things that like you know how Dana White's always getting out there being like you can't judge a card until it's over it's like brother we know you judge a card before it's over because you give it to us for free when they're real bad you know what I mean yeah and I know it's on Paramount for all

of us which is not free but you know I'm free to air TV what's the difference though in those ones you mentioned you mentioned 122 and you mentioned 149 these types of cards had intentions they had booked headliners that would have made it different, right? Like, they would have been a different sort of thing.

This one, it just felt like they were like, I mean, we don't know what was going on behind the scenes, but it felt like they were just like, I don't, I mean, we got to have a title. That one, you know, it just feels like they were desperate to do something. To your point, it's one thing to like try and make a card and then you see one of the major problems that Chuck is describing,

you used to see this all the time. And I believe the card where like, I think Rashad Evans fought Tiago Silva back in the day had a similar kind of problem, which was they tried and book an A level event and then it just kind of becomes a C or D level event by the time it limps to the finish line because, you know,

because of injury. But like, to your point, Chuck, I think it's a very astute observation. This is them just saying to themselves, we've got so much shit going on and so many other things we have to solve for because we owe a certain kind of talent in October.

probably for the Middle East show, the Abu Dhabi show, right? We have all these other commitments to use all these other talents in certain kinds of ways. So they're just trying to origami their way into making a puzzle piece fit a series of other business concerns and broader content delivery realities that have nothing to do with like, how do we make an event this month the very best, start from first principles and deliver for our partners in Utah? because remember for folks who may not realize this, Utah is paying for this shit,

which is part of this conversation too. Everything is about, this is what it means, Chuck. Like, obviously this event should be canceled. Obviously, obviously. You don't have the ability to put this on in a marquee way. It is not a marquee event, period. I'm not saying that the fights are bad, Chuck. The UFC can basically make almost anything, not good,

but it's very hard for them to make a product unpowerful. even when half-heartedly trying. There's usually something kind of to it. But there's no like razzle-dazzle on this one. There's certainly no celebrity. You know, Chaos Williams, I don't think is a bad fighter, but he shouldn't be on like a pay-per-view again, paper-view main card.

Like this is all being constructed because it's slave to a broader set of processes that have nothing to do with like what it means to. We're going to take a mission or make, like, think about, I mean, I realize that the White House card is very, very different. Sure. But like it's not a, it's like the, they pulled off everything they wanted to pull off there because everything was very intentional.

And this is the definition of spillover catch. Right? Just trying to catch what spills over and then put it together and make something else. And then look at the result. And also like even if this were fire, which it's not, right? We're less than a month away. Yeah, yeah. I know, man.

What is this? That's the crazy part about it. It's just it's taken so long for them to announce anything. So even like, you know, you get a fight that you're like, like, oh my God, that can't be real. That can't be real. But I mean, the fact that you announce it this late in the game is only worse, isn't it? Like, you're like, dude, that means that you really did try to get stuff and you just, you had no answer for what, what to do here. You remember UFC 151? And I think 176 was the other one. They were like those, those paper

views that just basically disappeared from the timeline, they got canceled because the one was Dan Henderson gets injured by So could you, um, in his training or something that John Jones, that whole sport killer thing that was happening. They tried to get Chaleson. and John Jones, all that stuff. I don't remember, like, if you have it pulled up, do you see what the rest of that card was? Because I remember, like, it was, from what I remember, it was like a fairly well-constructed card,

but they canceled it once you lose your main event. I mean, that's the, this is the difference in mentality, and obviously those were pay-per-view days, but the difference in mentality is, you know, they weren't going to put on a product in those days that was, like, inferior on those levels, right? So they were going to cancel the whole event. and take that bullet.

I don't know. I mean, I guess this is, but they can't cancel it, right? Because they owe Utah. And it's not in their, they don't believe in canceling events. They just believe in making them happen no matter what, even if they're like,

no one wants it. That's rather than making the next thing even better. Long Island, do you, are we missing something? Do you think we're not articulating how the fans really feel about this? Where are we?

This is the best card of the year. I don't know what you guys are. Here he is. There is. No, in all honesty, though, I was, on submission radio on Sunday. Dennis said this is still,

like I just want to point out, this is still a pay-per-view in Australia. I'm sure some other countries. This is it like, just because it's free on CBS for us, doesn't mean that everyone else is getting it for free. So that's another factor you got to, like no one is paying for this card,

which is just crazy, dude. But on the prelims, I will say we got Damien Pinas and Wang fighting on the same card again. So that's pretty good. Everyone's always excited about that. Anthony Wint, I'm hyped for that.

Because that could be anyone. That could be Gable Stevenson. You know, it could be boat. Let your imagination run wild. It could be anything, dude. I'm hyped for that fight. But, yeah, I'll be looking forward to this one. There are.

I will. In credit, though. Like, you, like, the couple of the dudes, like, obviously, you know, you get, Peyton Talbot, for instance, like, prospect, good, good fighter. You have, like, and they have a, a team of go-tiers on this card. Like, they have a couple of names. And obviously, like, you can see what they want to do a little bit with the CBS. Maybe this could be in the, if you want to give them credit, like, we're trying to build stars.

That makes sense for some of these guys to be on here. But, dude, it's just, it's not, that's not, that's just not the caliber, right? It's just not the caliber. I can't prove it, but I really, I'm not even asserting it as true. But I have to tell you, like something on my mind here is whether or not Shevchenko really had to vacate the title, you know, Yeah. I don't know what, again, I want to be as clear as I possible can. I am speculating. I am speculating. Okay. But having been in this business for a long time, any promoter, including the biggest ones and the most successful ones, are always going to use promoter tricks. That's just kind of what happens. And to what extent she was actually injured such that she really did have to lay off for such an amount of time that they had to move on with the weight class. It could be true. I'm not. asserting it otherwise but when you're this late to getting to an event that you owe a state

partner which again is its whole complicating factor that I think is terrible for the sport I think it's much better for the sport when the promoters have to try to impress a crowd versus make a deal with a tourism board right I think you can see the difference in quality when you get that it's much worse for the consumer as a consequence but putting that aside here Chuck I've even put my own I've lost my own train of thought here I forget where I was going with this but in any event, in any event. If Val really vacated. Oh, if Val were vacated.

I'm so sorry. I got to fly truck. Yes, but thank you. It would not, I would say this. To me, it is not unthinkable that the UFC and Val had to work out an arrangement to make the weight class title available because they needed it for this event. Yeah. It is not, I'm not declaring it as true.

I'm just asserting it is not in any way. I mean, I would imagine. Yeah. that feels very likely they couldn't have done an interim though I mean that would have even been that would even been

one more step into the absurd wouldn't it I mean I don't know I don't know well I also like I don't know what kind of arrangement like with the state whereas like they have to bring world title fights and you could bring an interim one but only if you're bringing another full one that is a good point on top

that is a good point they had and so like just going off of history they the time they did the BMF out there, did they have an actual other title fight attached to this? Or was it just the BMF? What was that, 291? It was like one of those.

I'll look it up. Yeah. I just was curious, like, if you're, I mean, it is full on possible that a belt has to be, you know, contested here. It was just, uh, the BMF one. Okay. So I don't know.

Who knows? Yeah. One thing about Salt Lake is they have had, they've been spoiled in the past. Leon Edwards, you know, with the Usman one, and, you know, that BMF one was a great one. I feel like there was another really good one out there too. But like they've had some big events that like delivered in a big way, you know. So it's time for them to get a dud, you know. Did Pereira fight out there?

Oh, yeah, he did. 303 against, um, um, Cavill-E Roundtree. Oh, 303 was Yuri. Oh, yeah, which one was it? Yes. He fought. That was in Salt Lake, right? Did a $16 million gate on that one.

Yeah. And then that title was up for grabs there in the main event. So I don't know. Like there may maybe the BMF title qualifies. Maybe I'm making up. There's no real requirement. I just saying to me it's like, you know, I don't if it's true that Valentina is going to be out this long, she might be 39. 40, Chuck, by the time she gets back. That's the worst part, you know. I will say this. If she's out that long, this is a real injury. I don't mind that this not as a, I'm not saying I love this as a headliner for a numbered event. But what I am saying, is Shevchenko kind of leaving moves the division around a little bit more. It makes it possible to make so much other other fights that you couldn't make. I don't think that's the worst of all things. True. That is true. Because that particular division

we do like a rankings and like the women's pound for pound. I believe that division, which is flyweight, has several that appear in our pound for pound. So like it's not like that you have a dearth of contenders there. You definitely have some women coming up and

maybe that does free things up because that division has just been bottlenecked and stagnant. It's just not moving at all. And I guess in part, you know, because, you know, Waley came up and challenged, but all those contenders have just been asked to kind of be idle for a long time here. Let's put this card up and I want to grade it. Long Island, if you can help out with like some of the grading here. So for the audio listeners, it's Natalia Silva, Wang Tong, and the main event, Deveson, Figuero, Patent Talbot, then King Green versus Esteban Rebovich, Chaos Williams, taking on the debuting Roberto Soldich. It's going to be good to see him in the UFC.

Obviously, a very, a very quiet and weird run in one. And then I'll tell you about it, taken on Roman copy law. And then you can see very quickly here, the bout list. I'm not going to read through it, but you can see. There are some interesting ones. RDA versus Alexander Hernandez is on this. Look at Votory all the way down at the bottom now.

I know. Can you believe it? And then Johnny Walker fighting Mick Parkin. If you're into sloppy-ass MM-A, that's going to be there as well. All right. Johnny Walker's heavyweight debut for what I got. Exactly. That's precisely why it's going to be heavyweight. Don't forget penis.

Penises back. Yeah, penis is also cock and balls is also on the card. All right. Getting back to the main card here, give me a grade on this one, Long Island. The main card. Oh, main card? All right.

Well, am I grading it on a pay-per-view scale or am I grading it just in general? So give me both because I do think it's important to talk about absolute and then, you know, relative. So paper view, I'm giving you a letter grade. Whatever you want. this is a fucking D minus. You know, you can't really be an F. This is a D minus, though. There's some fun fights, dude.

I'm hyped for Roberto Solich's debut. Peyton Talbot Davis and Figuero, I mean, Talbot probably finishes him, but I'm still kind of looking forward to that. King Green Riebevich has the potential to be like fight of the night. Atiba Gautier Roman Coppilov really isn't doing much for me. It's a step up in competition for Atiba, but like, I don't know, man. As far as just general fight night card,

because again, it is on TV here. I'm putting it out like, I'm going to go number here, 7.2, you know, like it's decent. But again, it is a pay-per-view. So on that scale, it's probably more like a five. It's pretty bad, too. I think it's pretty fair grades.

I mean, taking it as a fight night, if it was part of a fight night franchise, be a solid fight night, you know? Yeah, it'd be okay. I mean, it wouldn't, it still wouldn't excite me. Like, ooh, I got it. I mean, honestly, put the card up one more time.

I'm so sorry, Long Island. to me the most interesting fight on that card is by far the comane figurato and talbot i like that one a lot more and then the the debut of roberto solditch is interesting i gotta be honest silva versus tong does fuck all for me i mean i realize that it's an important fight that you can make for important reasons and hey if a chinese fighter wins that's great for mb a may like there's just obviously there that that scene is starting to mature a little bit like all that's great but i it doesn't do anything for me king green versus esst Bon Rivavix, I'm not interested in even a little bit.

And then Gautier Coppulov will probably be hard hitting, but could be low volume or, you know, could be a lot of Gautier chasing Copilov ghosts. I don't know about that one exactly. Copilabs always brings a pretty good game plan, sticks to it and it's got a high IQ in there. So like, I feel

like that'll be fun. He's got a good violence game, but it doesn't go while it just collapses. The whole thing just collapses. They try to make these sometimes where it's almost like, okay, Gotee, we're going to stick you, we're going to slide the stake under the door, go kill him. And sometimes we see these and you can almost forecast you're like, it's not going to go that way, is it? It's going to be one of those things where you're like,

it actually kind of hurts your guy you're trying to get across more. Like, even if he wins, like it's going to be uglier. It has that written all over it. Yeah. In any event, congratulations, everyone. This is, oh, let me ask this one, because I did see this come up and then we'll move on. Do you blame getting rid of the pay-per-view paywall for contributing to the creation of a card like this. Like I've seen people say that hey, listen, everyone was cheerleading, getting rid of the paywall and moving to Paramount Plus and everything is now not free, but all part of one charge. And isn't that great. And now there's, there was some of these concerns articulated at the time, but now they've resurfaced being like,

this is what you get. Do you make any causal connection between those two events? Well, we, you know, people still bitch about like these pay-per-views in the same way in North America as if they're paying for them. But the great, the, the, the, the, crazy thing that happened over the last two years is people were actually paying for them. And so, like, there was always this obvious price marker and people could say, like, I'm not paying for that. I'm not paying for that. And or if they bought it and it turned out to be bad, they could complain in reverse.

I think that the fact that that that loud, vocal majority who was watching the fights back then, you know, can't have that anymore. I feel like that factors into the UFC. Seriously, I believe that like you, the backlash. can't be as bad because you're not paying for it. And so, therefore, they can, they can do a card like this with a little less severity. Like, they're not, they're not going to take as big, big of a beating because it's just part of their package with, with Paramount Plus.

I do think psychologically that plays in. I'm not sure, because you'd have to go back again, it's all intention. Did they try to book a big card on this? And then, they're a big fight on this. They probably tried. They never announced anything. I don't think anything got close. And this is what they came up with.

I don't think there would be a pay-per-view in recent. years, especially like where you could, you could point to something that bad as a lure to to get your disposable income. I don't think you could find that, you know, so I feel like it's, I don't feel like this happens in the pay-per-view era. I don't feel like this card is put together in a paper viewer. Do you? I just, I feel like it's a step. It's just too obvious. It's too obvious of a step down. You need something, right? Like, it's got to be some kind of hook here. I've tried to, I've tried to tell people, you let monopolies do monopoly things and then create a system where they can remove

the promoter can then remove themselves from competitive pressure. You're signing deals with tourism boards to get guaranteed money and you've got a shit ton of money from your regime aligned friends at Paramount. Why do you care if you're trotting out in Italia Silva Wang Tong? You're going to get paid a fuck

ton regardless. Like what the Abu Dhabi card happens when? It's like so that you have this one on October 3rd. The Abu Dhab is that three weeks later? 24th. Yeah. So like look at that card. like you could easily distribute some of that

like if you want to do I'm going to say this last week Chuck I said they should pull the comming Peotryon Moravre three and move that up three weeks but everyone was like you can't really tell these guys to move up their camp three weeks I get it but yeah that's the issue

that is the issue now because they waited too freaking long you know they should have addressed it a while ago this is this is you try to it's the most hostility I won't say the most

But the second most hostility I've ever received from MMA fans is arguing for a world where their interests are better safeguarded. Yes. They don't want that, Luke. What the fuck have I done with my life? I don't know how to answer that. All right. Let's talk about topic number four. Speaking of encountering ridiculous low IQ hostility, because I put out some ideas on this on Twitter.

And of course, people have no idea what they're talking about. But let's get to the facts of the matter. commentator John Anick recently seemingly revealed that what he had heard is that the UFC is at least considering doing the rematch between Ilya and Justin Gaci. This of course was the main

event from the UFC White House card. Here is John Annick's quote, I'll read it to you. A lot of people wonder aloud, what is next for Ilya and there's certainly an obvious foundation for a fight between him and Patty Pimlet. But if you have Ilya as a fight promoter

would you not want to think about putting him back in a championship setting, given how big Freedom 250 was, I think there's strong consideration there. Okay. Here's my question to you, based on this information. Namely, Toporia was stopped and took a bad beating along the way. Yeah. Is an immediate rematch, which is basically what this would be,

is an immediate rematch justified or and or a good idea? idea. No. And it's not a good idea for Toporia, for sure. Like, I mean, I think it was Matt Brown. I saw somebody, but I mean, I've seen a lot of people who weigh in on this, but like Matt Brown was basically saying, like, you could ruin a guy like Ilya who has had this kind of magical run. Right now, this could still be a hiccup in his career. And he's got that kind of charisma and he's got, certainly got that kind of talent to just make this a footnote in his career. Even he put that video out last week where he's like he accepts his defeat and all this stuff i just think was there i know you have strong feelings on this but like are you that would be like to me

even from his standpoint a risk that you're like you're putting him in there against a guy who did that kind of damage to him you know again psychological we've seen this in rematches that i just don't know why you would do that for ilia but i also the my bigger issue i mean i guess it's a similar issue or like at least an equal issue is that like when you don't you right ahead of UFC 3 30 with the Los Angeles event when you've got um you've got Armand Sarukin on there right and he's fighting hoofy and you're like okay the the maybe it's esoteric but like you have these stakes that basically are pointing all directions are like that this could be it for arm if Armand gets through he's going to get a title shot don't you make that moot like if you if you do this like I don't

understand like if they're really contemplating this and obviously This is just John relaying it. I don't know why you would diminish a fight that's just about to happen. It has like big stakes feel. And I think there is a majority of people out there that's like, let's get arm on. From that level, too, doesn't make sense to me. Now, I know you have strong feelings on this, though. And I want to hear it because I saw you not just like doubling down, but tripling down and like,

and calling these people out, which was fun to watch. I was reading all the comments. I was eating all this stuff. But let's hear it. Everybody's wrong about this. First of all, I want some people, I need, I know the MK audience is pretty good about this, but I need them to hear me now very clearly. Okay.

A lot of times what people do with debates like this, is it a good idea, is it a bad idea, to do a rematch based on the particular set of circumstances from the first fight to get to the second one? And what they think they are doing, Chuck, and you see this a lot of different places and a lot of different kinds of debates. what they think they are doing is they think they are arguing from first principles, right? They think that what they're doing is applying a consistent or at least a defensible worldview based on just the particulars of this moment. And what I'm trying to get everyone to understand is this is not a conversation that any

promoter who cares about the long-term interests of Ilya Tuporia would even entertain. You are looking at a sport that is dominated in terms of the way it functions based on what kind of material returns are given to the promoter. And this is important, not just in the usual way that that normally happens, but in a highly unusual way where they are even willing to degrade their own assets because they have so many of them and their vision about returns are so short-sighted. They'll just burn through them without ever thinking twice. This is, first of all, any kind of conversation about this is tainted by years of logic that UFC and now TKO have put into how fights should be made and when fights should be made.

And it's not always been this way. I think it's actually gotten a little bit worse because here we have Alex Pereira getting out there. I'm sure you saw this being like, yeah, I want to rematch with Cyril gone and it looks like that's going to happen. Now maybe he's putting that out into the world, we shall see. but if that's at all true, that is, that is a, that is a matchmaking crime. I mean, there is zero reason to do that, but except for one thing. And this is not a new practice by any stretch of the imagination. We're not even having this conversation about Tuporia, Gachi to or Ghi to Porea 2, I should say, in fairness to Justin Gachi, or Ghan versus Poetan 2.

We're only having this conversation because of the same kind of problem I just articulated previously, which is that, like, do you people, really think that what happens to MMA in 30, 40 years is of any kind of interest to TKO other than whether they can control what's left of it? You have to open your mind here a little bit and understand the broader climate in which all of this is operating. The idea that we're even having a conversation about this, but for the fact that it is commercially viable and that means a variety of different things, but because it is commercially viable, that is the only way, which this conversation happens because for all the other reasons, you would never

fucking dream of doing this to say nothing of how bad it would be and how out of a bare minimum risky, I should say, Chuck, it would be for for Ilya, for Ilya to Poria. What the fuck are we talking about? The guy got stopped at the end of round four and a you know, certainly the bout had, it was very competitive in moments, but he got beat the fuck up and ultimately stopped where his corner or whatever the final mechanics of it were had to call it for him he was a champion and near the top of the pound for the pound list and he got beaten up by a guy not even on the fucking list and you have people telling me that plus the risk of what could happen if you put him right back in front of that again this is a good idea this is a

good idea if you're a fucking idiot if you're a fucking idiot if you're a fucking idiot it's a good idea. It makes money. And I recognize, Chuck, I recognize that there are ways in which this could go well, right? If Deporia, you know, has searched within himself and fights a smoother fight and blah, blah, blah, but the risk you are running, if that doesn't happen, is extraordinary. You would only ever have this conversation because they don't want, Connor McGregor fucked it up. They don't know what to do with him. They want to keep Gaichi around to kind of maximize on this.

He might want one more. And they're just trying to say, you know what? We're not going to protect the long-term interests of some of these assets because no one long-term asset is all that beneficial to us. But a bunch of short-to-medium-term assets, well, that's very, very good. And people are defending this. You have to be out of your fucking mind to defend this. it's crazy it's crazy promotional malpractice is like the way we used to that was your old one uh

dude i i mean there's you run into all kinds of other problems besides just looking at it through the teporea thing you know like from teporea standpoint of like running that back is it's just crazy but like i think you've got like you have an inherent like what if you have to poria what are you doing i thought they the patty pimble the thing does it get better than that like you're talking about like guys sometimes where you're, there's an obvious fight. And I don't understand why we're forcing rematch. This used to be a big pet peeve of Dana's when you get too many, too many, that tells you

we're in a different day with TKO, right? Like, he used to have a pet peeve of too many rematches. He was like, he would get upset by that. What are we going to do? Just let everybody have second chances type thing. And you're looking at a guy who didn't really, Teporia did plenty. And obviously winning two belts and kind of getting to the pound for pound list, the top of it like you mentioned is a big deal.

But duty, he hadn't defended the belt yet. It's not like he's this long-tenured guy who's been in that situation. From every perspective, it just kind of doesn't make sense. But it was too definitive. Like, if the fight were different, I don't know, like maybe, I know that Gaichi took a lot of damage too, but if the fight had gone differently, you saw a guy withstand in terms of Gaichi, withstand everything thrown at him and still prevail and still stop him in a way the way he basically saying he quit, you know, or like they had to quit.

broke him, however you want to look at it. Why do we need to see that again? And who would want to see that again? Like honestly, in the end, I don't need to see that. Maybe, maybe down the line, I know Gaitch, you probably won't stick around that long. Maybe down the line you do this again, but I just don't, I do not understand it on any level. I think that there are a lot of people who don't mind seeing it because they can't think, like, you know, dude, being old sucks. Like, most of the shit sucks. You're, like, if you were ever cool, you're not cool when you're older. If you ever had brain functioning, it gets shittier over time, like your body breaks down. Like, it just fucking sucks, getting old fucking sucks. But if there's one thing that it can provide

you is you can see shit for long periods of time so that when a thing comes up again, you're like, aha, I'm not very smart, but I've seen this before and I saw it go bad. This just, this is, this fight is only happening, Chuck, because there's a bunch of people that are like, well, would there be a good storyline in terms of, you know, getting, getting to pour you back in there? like ultimate redemption. On some level, you could see it that way. You know, what if you beat some? Would that be a big turn of events?

Yes, of course it would. And they just don't see the same kind of electricity in other pairings. So they're willing to ignore all of the potential massive downsides to say nothing of the fact that just flatly to Poria didn't deserve it. He doesn't deserve it. Oh, he had an amazing run before that. My guys, you cannot be near the top of the pound for the pound list and get. fucking beaten up by somebody off of it

and then be like, oh, right, I'm entitled to rematch. What the fuck are you talking about? It's almost like an acceptance issue, you know, in the end, like, don't accept it, that Toporia went out like that, that he lost his standing like that. And so this then starts to define the nature of the fluke. Like, people want this to be a fluke.

But unfortunately, the way that fight played out was no fluke. There was no fluke in play. You know what I mean? It's not like he got caught and something, you know what I mean? There was nothing about it they would make you think that a second run through may be the better, you know, may produce the result that they were certain was going to happen, you know? And I feel like there's an acceptance issue to this.

But dude, that's what made it so great. It made it so great. That's why Gay-Chi's crowning moment was because he was able to go out there and do that withstand, the kind of stuff that lived, those liver shots, or everything that was going on, like he was able to withstand that and prevail. You're not going to beat that storyline. The dude's walking out. He's reading like, you know, dude,

This is easy to, this is crazy. To your point, Chuck, this is easy to do. Show me the other fight that you could make with Gachey now that McGregor's out. So if McGregor wins, we're in a very, I mean, the idea we didn't be talking about this of McGregor wins, forget about it. But McGregor, like, had not only lost, but looked, obviously, totally injured and, you know, whatever else. Who's the other one you would make here that would make this kind of money that this fight would

bring in? So a rematch with Max or rematch with Charles probably, those, be good, but probably not. You know, a Patty. I mean, you do a rematch with him, but probably not. And also that one, we literally just saw that one. Like kind of why not, though,

if they're going to throw it to Portia, why not do Patty? Exactly, though. I mean, there's that too. But my point being is they're clearly going with this one because they don't have a marquee fight to give the lightweight champion. So why don't you just rush a marquee fight to happen? And maybe you get lucky. I cannot guarantee it would go bad. It might go great. It might go really great. Yeah. But if it goes bad, it goes real fucking bad. And that and the end, the guy doesn't even deserve it.

I know. Like he doesn't. I know, man. The whole conversation is mad. And I mean, Tuporia should be handled a little differently. Seriously. Like, he's a guy who represents, you know, kind of what the star of today looks like. You see the paparazzi following up. Like, you see the kind of star he is. And I know that like in short, short term, maybe that that's why you. you think about something like this, but dude, if you're looking at the long, you know, the big picture, the long view, I just don't think you do it for the risk of ruining that, you know? Why derail a guy? He's not derailed right now. This is his adversity.

I mean, Muhammad Ali lost. You know what I mean? Guys lose and they can come back. We saw Connor McGregor lose to Nate Diaz. They come back. His next, his response is all important, you know, and I just don't think that that's a smart play, long view to throw him in there against Justin Gaichi, who's going to be willing to die again. in to go out on top. I mean, it's just that doesn't make sense to me. But I mean, I, I enjoyed

reading all those comments, to be honest. I see these groundswells sometimes of people and the kind of logic and play of what they want to see. And unfortunately, like, I don't see it that way on this one. I'm with you on this one just because I'm like, I don't think you risk a guy who means that much to the UFC in the situation. I just think people will, they'll say, hey, this is a sport where kind of promoters work by whim. And that's true. That's true. And unfortunately, that can poison any kind of conversation because it's always a chance to like, oh,

we don't have to do it the right way this time. This time we can make an exception. And then you just have a series of exceptions all the time rather than respecting like the kind of not just the architecture of sport, but some of the norms and practices. If we were actually thinking long term about Tuporia's interest

and his ability to maximize what he can do, you would not say yes to this fight. And if there's The lesson from the Solidine Parnas fight, it's that if you want to protect your development, you have to protect your development. If you want to protect your career interests, you have to protect them because the UFC's got business needs. And they're going to ask you to feed those or not. And this idea that like organically, it's the best idea when it's a risky. And frankly, a guy doesn't even deserve it.

it just we have gotten to a place where we're just looking for fucking sugar highs all the time. Yes, that is it. And also, I'm going to say this too, Chuck, because they don't build enough marquee events, everything just kind of bleeds together. Yeah. People have this thirst for them on, like, you know, yes, I'll leave it at that. People have this thirst for them, in my opinion. And I understand it.

I don't think it's a crazy thirst. It's a very normal thirst. Five fans want big events. Jed Mishu over the weekend had an article being like, hey, there should be four, majors every year that the UFC does in the calendar year so that you know every quarter you're going to get one kind of amazing event and it's that merit that idea has merits and it has demerits but the idea is that they're trying to think about how to bake in pageantry give me more is what they are saying and because they don't get enough of it I feel like they're willing to just burn

shit in ways that is just not fucking smart people need to be smarter I guess though and how they see the storylines because honestly when you see like Alex Peretta for instance saying like hey I want to have that rematch and to even give that with Cyril gone, which had a division that has just gone down one rabbit hole after the other from where it originally was supposed to be, you know, like it's just to give that any kind of thought. Like what kind of interest would you even have in that rematch? That's a whole different thing. That's what I'm saying.

Like, what, dude, Tom Aspinall's out there. And I mean, obviously we're waiting to find out what's happening with him. But indications are that he's turning the corner and he's coming back. why would you do this to give Alex Pereira his choice, like to say like, oh, yeah, we're going What do you want, Alex? We want to do what you wanted. That's ridiculous. You know, it's not

his call, you know? Any event, I guess we'll see what happens. They might do it. And to your point, dude, Teporia has a real shot at beating Gachi, at least in theory, right? We don't think that that's out of his reach. But like, I don't even think

Pereira has any good shot of beating gone. I think that's a completely total waste of time in that sense i'm with you there's no compelling case to make that by the way just on this whole thing i mean we're just bearing arm on again which i i've i've joked about this that eventually like the guy can come into plain view and have a fight set up basically to launch him into this and you can still forget about him as he's happening what at that point wouldn't you just be saying like you're never fighting for the belt if you book this fight i mean like you're basically slapping him in the face both ways bam

both sides you know and Josh Hokit was even getting after like dude who the fuck are you to be asking for this stuff and like you know Hokkits is a lot of shit I hate but that was right he's right on that level he's very very right like what what's happening here are you know what people are desperate they're desperate for

what we got all the time with pride what's up it's right but also Hokit and Poetan is the was the rumor so I think Hokic just trying to grasp that fight back Oh he's trying to get what he wants he wants that's make that's the fight to make I mean, just like, batty and Taboria is the fight to make it.

Like, make those fights. You have fights that are built in. Just make those. I agree completely. That's definitely the route to go. Speaking of which, and fights to make this weekend, we have Noce, UFC coming up. But also, we got some big boxing. Ryan Garcia taking on Connor Ben. Boxing fans, mark your calendars. Ryan Garcia puts his welterweight world title on the line against hard-hitting top contender

Connor Ben. Plus, undefeated Australian superstar Jai Opataya takes on Noel McAlean, all live on Paramount Plus Saturday, September 12th. That'll be this Saturday. After years of bad blood between Garcia and Ben, the feud reaches a boiling point and one of the biggest fights of the year. The best part, no pay-per-view.

The entire event is included with your Paramount Plus subscription. Saturday, September 12th stream, Zufa Boxing's Ryan Garcia versus Connor Ben live on Paramount Plus. And of course, on Friday's MK, we're going to get you guys ready for that. We'll get ready for Noce, UFC. We'll get ready for Ryan, Ben, and Connor. I'm sorry, Brian Garcia and Connor Ben.

We'll get you ready for all of that. Also, Chuck, I need to remind everybody, we're going to be in studio a week from today. A week from today, we're going to get everyone ready for UFC 331. Wow, are we really going to do a pregame preview for UFC 332? I mean, that could be fun, though. That's bad, though, if you're asking that question. I mean, that sums it up.

Just to up the ante, Chuck, we'll just do heroin live on the air. This weekend, I'll be doing the crack. Yeah, there we go. You're going to really be doing the crack. I'll be doing the crack. All right, let's go through topic number five here, which is just some of the smaller stories or the kind of items of note that happened around the combat sports world.

True or false, Chuck Mendenhall, Katie Taylor's final fight at Croke Park in Ireland was a fairy tale ending. Dude, look at that shit there. Looks like AI, doesn't it? It's not real. It's crazy. Yeah, man, for sure. That's, I, I, we've talked about it a billion times, Luke, like there's so few graceful outs. And this is somebody who went out on her terms.

She wanted in a principled way to actually do Croke Park where, you know, I've been told, and if you know the history of Croke Park people in talking about this, Pizzi has been talking about this, it's supposed to represent the national identity, you know, the events they hold there. It was built on that spirit. And that's what, you know, that's one of the big kind of things that survives. through the generations. And for her to be that kind of icon who gets that kind of send off, dude, I mean, how often do we see this in the sport?

That's a fairy tale. And that's as good of a fairy tale ending as we'll ever see. I thought the walkout was amazing. The comments afterwards were amazing. I mean, you're just, dude, to get an exit like that from the sport where even like the very best to your point, Chuck, sometimes go out on their hands and fucking knees. To go out triumphantly celebrated. Yeah, as a hero.

Yeah. A national fucking hero. You won't see that very often. Yeah. What does it mean that Shavkat Rachmanov says he should have never fought Ian Gary? Did you see these comments? I did see that. Yeah. I don't know if we have any on. No, we don't have any from this. But basically, he's still a little bit injured and says that, you know what?

I was injured going into that fight. It was probably not a good idea to do it. Can we take anything from that, Chuck? I mean, it just sounds like a guy who's watching, you know, that 28 to 32 range, we were talking about like watching these years slip by, what, couple of years now. And this is a guy we had bookmarked to be a champion. I think a lot of us were like, this is just a matter of time until he at least gets a shot or he will be a champion.

And he's watching this thing slip by regrets of state and business a long time. I'm guessing that he, I'm guessing that, like, looking back on that, you know, he realized he compromised a big portion of his career by taking that fight. where he might have been healthy, he might have gotten healthy. It's tough to look back on that, isn't it? Especially as everything is moving right now where that division has had so much happen in the two years since he's been gone. And the only thing missing is him, right, to kind of add to this dimension and he's the missing piece.

That's got to be very, very hard to watch. Can you imagine if what we had gotten was Islam Makachiev versus Shumkat, Rodmanov? Oh my God. That would have been, dude. I mean, that's as good as it gets. That is as good as it gets in terms of fight matchmaking. That would be, I mean, what would be the equivalent of that? Maybe when Cormier came up to fight Jones or something,

like you're talking about two of the very best going to each other at that point in their careers. It would be insane. That would be really remarkable. I mean, that's, to me, that's, you can't quite say Volk versus Islam because Volk was already a champion. And we never got there quite with Rachmanov. But, you know, it feels something kind of like that. Damn, dude.

any surprise that Hamzat Shemayev pinned Tyron Woodley in about two minutes at the RAF event in Moscow, Chuck Mendenhall. No, man, I talked to Tyron before this, like a few days before, right as he was heading to Moscow, essentially. And he's kind of living up because he had its hand raised for the first time in eight years. He's kind of like living this high of like, I won something. I'm feeling good. But he's even admitting, like, I was never a world class, you know, wrestler.

And I learned a few things. And like the way he was talking about was like it just felt like he was on house money, but he was got this fun thing he was going to go do. I'm not surprised at all. You're going against Hamzot, especially in run. I mean, like I didn't really think it would be too competitive. Did you? I thought it'd be a little more competitive than that.

It was pretty quick. Did you really, Luke? You thought Hamzaat Shemayev and Tyron Woodley was going to be competitive? Come on. No, I didn't say that. He said more competitive than that. Yes, I thought it would be more competitive than that. All I know is I'd rather get fuck to death by one dick,

whale than watch R-A-F. That'd be a big-ass dick. You're not going to find a one-dick whale anywhere. I mean, most of them of these three. Those are only eight dicks. All right. Patty Pimlet has shared a return timeline for December, Chuck. What do we think? If he's going to come back on December, I still think that Teporia fight is by a million different miles the best one to make. It's a slam dunk. It's a slam dunk. Patty, first of all, and this is a volatile market we're dealing with. Patty, right? Like, because we saw him lose the gate, but then you see him come back and do this the Benwasan, and they're like, he's at

the height again. People saw this in a big profile event. I don't know if you're going to get him there again. So if you want to like cash in on a big moment for Patty Pimbleau. That's what you do. You put him against Tuporia. They have all this bad blood. You know that the buildup would be huge. I'm guessing, like, would Tuporia be available if we're keeping

to this timeline? Would this fall into a, I guess, his recovery time, like, from coming back from that fight? I think it would still. June to December. We have to kind of think about a world where he couldn't do it. If he can't do it, then what do you do?

Yeah. And beyond that, I mean, dude, there's a lot of, you mentioned part-ass. I mean, you think about shit like that and you're like, that would be a lot of fun. I don't know if they would do it. I don't know if they, again, we talk about like killing off contenders. And I'm like, I still think in the back of their UFC's mind, they've got to worry about that a little bit. You got two guys, you don't want to kill one of them off.

But, dude, that would be a fun fight. I mean, there's Saul killed. Who else is out there? Like, I feel like you could... You got to match up Holloway. You got to match up. You got to match up all the way. Dude, you throw one of those in there.

And obviously, like, those are the standards, right? The hits, the classics. You throw one of those in there and it's going to be big. You can't go wrong, but I just think that you get to... That's a Poria fight. And what would you prefer for Toporia coming out of the, like, what he just did? It's like, we just had this discussion. I'm like, for me, that's the kind of fight that he should go into next.

You know? That's where he should be. And then last but not least, I just put this quote on the fucking screen from Ian Gary. I feel like if I fight him right now talking about Islam Makachev, I beat him. I just want to get back in there tomorrow and do it all over again. Well, I mean, like this is the kind of thing where it's like, man, well, someone please hand me a dead fish so I can fucking slap this guy with it. Use your inside voice again. Don't say that out loud.

Just use your inside. I don't have a large reaction to it other than I'm just like, while you see it, you're just fucking grow. I would love to say fat chance, but if they're giving everybody like, hey, we're doing Mulligans, we're going to give me, like, maybe he's, maybe he's got a case. Maybe why not just air that just in case, you know? Yeah, dude, Islam's fight against Ian Gary was way more competitive. Sorry, way more dominant, I should say. Yeah.

Oh, sorry, what am I talking about? Way more competitive. I mean, yeah, it's not quite true, right? Because Teporia dropped. Yes. Yeah. Justin. So that's not quite true.

But in the end, you know, taking two rounds off of them is, and making it to the end relatively unscathed. Something to be said for that. I mean, Ian, it felt like was like kind of got the little bit of favoritism even to get that spot to begin with.

There are dudes who probably had at least as good of a case for a title shot that definitely have that case now. So if they put him in another one, that'd be ridiculous, right? Certainly would be. But people love rematches because they're bored. All right. That's it for our top five. Let's go into when you guys

ask us questions. We put up a solicitation for questions. Well, it was Monday this time. Or actually, it was on Sunday, too. We just held it over. Every Sunday night on Instagram, it's time for DMs from dogs. Right, Chuck from Watch the Ops. Has Parnasse already surpassed? That rhymes. Yeah, yeah. Cyril, Gond, BSD, and others as they face. This is what I was talking about. I think he has. That's what I'm saying. I'm not going to say yet. No, I'm not going to say yet. You know what I found out? talked to those French donks when they were here for that event, the White House event,

and they were telling me gone is a really big deal over there. I guess I haven't seen that. I know to an extent I've seen it, but like you haven't seen, like, this was just a clear vision of what that looks like. Like, dude, they celebrated that guy, Parnasse. I mean, that was like a true homecoming. It felt like they've been waiting for this guy, you know? I agree.

And we've seen Cyril Gone NBSD headline in Paris and it did not feel like that, both walk out and like celebration when they got their finishes. You know what I mean? I'm told that what I'm, again, who the fuck knows? I don't know. But I'm told that Gons podcast is a big deal in French. Yeah. Good friends.

You know what? I was in the, uh, in Washington. I was in the media center across, you know, obviously not on the one, but like you're watching and there was a French contingency for Cyril gone. And as he was winning, you should have seen those people, dude. It's a press box, right? But they're just dancing, jumping up, dancing, high five and taking laps around the room.

I was like, dude, this is. what happened to objectivity even if you're from the kind like dude you're supposed to be like a member of the press it was yeah you know it was so funny too i asked those guys i was like does ufc like read y'all stuff and then like give you feedback if they're unhappy they're like no they don't do anything we just published they never see it not i never see it but like they don't ever you know they don't have a ton of like staff in french monitoring french language so like they can get out there and talk greasy about ufc without much blowback we used to get and then if I like back in those days

I'd write stuff you'd hear from the matchmakers you'd hear from Dana occasionally like what happened of those days I mean they're they don't read that shit anymore well you can just jump into a bag of money scrooge McDuck style tends to change your perspective all right from is he asks Parnas versus Tuporia

who you got do you think oh man oh Jesus Tuporia is not as fast as Parnas he's obviously powerful and he's very very very, he's very gifted. But you know what? Like that thing about Gaichi is, you know, Gaichi is not

Parnas. They have very different styles, Chuck. Yeah. But there's a certain willingness for Tuporia to just kind of shell up and then wait or get hit and then wait. And a guy like Parnas would be a real bad matchup in that particular sense. That's a fun one to think about though, isn't it? Man. But Tuporia can wrestle. That's the other part too.

To Porea can fucking wrestle. Blackbell and Jiu-Jitsu. Like, he can do shit, you know. We haven't seen. I didn't watch. I, admit it. When he tried for the 170 pound pound ass, like, I did not watch that particular. I don't know if you watched it. But I haven't, I'm obviously that's a step too far. Like, it was a step too far. But like, I haven't

seen him challenged. I feel like if nothing else, DePoria is going to put him into some areas that you'd be like, okay, now we get to see what he's got on that end of the pool, you know, the deep end over here. That would be a fun one to contemplate. I just don't know if we have enough, you know. I don't know if you, I don't want to

discount DePoria, I guess is what I'm saying. You know, like I don't want to just do that. But I think it'd be a Yeah. Interesting fight. From Kasim Husani, he writes, do you agree that in the coming years, the aftermath of CTE will become a major story like it was in the NFL? Blood and guts fighters like Hooker, of which there are many,

will likely be front and center news headlines, demonstrating the sad repercussions of a career with little to no regard, little to no guardrails when it comes to the issue. It's inevitable, isn't it? Like, it's just, it's going to happen. The greatest thing the U.S. you had to go on for it is when they had the boom was that it was

so, it was so new that you couldn't have those guys yet. You just couldn't have a, the sport was too new. Like if you went back to the 90s, oh, that was a different time. We're under our, all, you know, the unified rules. We've never had a death. We do all this stuff. Safest, it's safer than beach volleyball or whatever. Remember, Dana would go on all these things.

It's safer than these things. They've had catastrophic issues. We've never had a serious injury. They just didn't have enough time, right? Now they're going to get into a situation. And you've heard, you've seen many situations where, we're already seeing it. You see the BJ Penn stuff.

You mention him a lot. People don't realize what an icon he was in the aughts and what he's kind of going through. And then you see these other guys, and Anthony Smith, who knows what's going on there, but you see guys like this, Destin Porier, guys who leave the sport. Now, I'm not saying they have brain damage.

It's like one of those things, but you don't know yet until you start to see the generation of fighters that we all grew up with get older. And then like at that point, that's when you'll see it. I know of a few, like that Spencer Fisher one, for instance, this is a guy who was in a lot of battles,

and I know he suffers from it. And there are plenty of others. It's just they're not, it's not Spinks or one of those guys from boxing, who like everybody kind of really saw as an older person. But dude, they're coming. It's inevitable. I can't add much to that. From M. Alley 4.

Has MVP's run in the UFC been the most underwhelming run by a fighter with a lot of hype and expectations? crossing over from another organization. No, dude, there's been a bunch of those. This is the one that's most recent. But, dude, there's a lot of guys from Pride who didn't pan out. Big time. Big time. You know, they got there late or, you know, some other kind of thing.

But, like, no, I mean, Hector Lombard. I mean, he kind of rebounded a little bit because he has some exciting fights. Pretty underwhelming, though. Felt, ultimately. It was pretty underwhelming, though, Lombard. Like, I remember, you know, I thought he would do more. He was on that 149 card we were talking about U.S.C. 149. I think he bought Tim Bosh.

Honestly, and I hate to say it because in his time, he was great, but the Norfumi Yamamoto, Kid Yamamoto was a bad. Patsy Mix was even worse. Way worse. They definitely have happened. No, I don't. Dude, five and one, no, this is not the worst. No.

Yeah. No. It was not fun. It was underwhelming in the sense of what you expected from him in terms of like what he might be able to do, but, you know. All right. And then from IWNA, TLK2, Samson, this is someone's fucking Wi-Fi password. I find myself not caring about.

about prelims because of the bloat of the roster. Who are some guys and girls who are unranked that we should be watching that might be a top fighter? Long Island, you got any judgment about who you got a favorite unranked guy to watch? I mean, I could go division by division. I mean,

I'm trying to think of up the top of my head because I don't know who the fuck's ranked anymore with the meta and media, but Abdul Rahman Yakyaev. I've been really high on him. He's at light, heavy weight. He looks really good. Mario Pinto,

who just won this weekend. I know it was a slobber knocker of a fight, but he's still unranked. he's undefeated at heavyweight. Who else, man? Before he lost this weekend, I would have said Nathaniel Wood at featherweight, but maybe I got to rethink that one.

Shit, I don't know. There's a bunch. There's a bunch. You got to watch these apex cards. Any of the Cody's, right? Any of the Cody's. Oh, any of the Cody's are right there. They're like one win away, Chuck. The problem is they never get a win. I know. They've got to start winning, but yes, pay attention those guys.

All right. That is it for our DMs from Donks. when we put your artwork on our proverbial fridge. It's time. It's my favorite. You've got mail. Viewers. All right. So let's do this first. We have to announce our August winners.

And as we always state, every winner each month, it's a free signed poster. So keep those coming at morningcom at g-emel.com. And if you win, also email the show. All right, we're going to go from third to first. This is the winners from August. In third place, we have Jordan, with integer training day.

Yeah, that was a good one. Yeah, that's not bad. Not bad. I definitely like that one. That's number three. Congrats to Jordan. Good job on that one. Number two, Kevin S.

Me and BJ Penn having a very formal relationship. I think it's very important to see. This is number two. Very, very good. I didn't see that one. That must have been a Friday one. Okay. Yeah.

You never saw that one? I don't think so. I don't remember that one. All right. And then last but not least, Danger Mouse is your winner, with this one. Got the house on G. Young, G. Money

change my mind. We had a good laugh about this one. On a show on a Friday, Chuck, he's like, you know, put the house on G. Money. That's G. Young. Yes. And then he fucking lost. And he was like extra confident about it. These people don't forget, Luke. They don't forget. No, they don't.

So congratulations to everyone who participated. Thank you. Keep them coming. Danger Mouse. Hit up the show. Would take good care of you. Okay. And thank you. And congratulations. all right as for this week's submissions chuck mendon hall we have one from jonas what my family thinks i do what the ufc thinks i do what society thinks i do on maga what bc thinks i do is i just shit myself i'm not sure what that is what the press thing i don't want a kid and shit i guess it's like you're taking care of toki or something oh i see got it got what i think i do and i'm in a war torn area

and then what i actually do do you ever feel like farting on women athletes. Yes. This is a That's pretty good. Tender for finals. That's pretty good right there. Yeah, it's very good.

That's really good. All right. From Spencer, we got a meme. A Joseph A. Bank stock associate going into the employee bathroom for a bait hit. Accurate. Not bad.

Not bad. All right. From this is their name. Dorito Ho. Jed York, Jed Mishu, paying $140 for a trailer park prostitute? Oh, yeah.

Did he admit to being a guy who pays for sex? I don't even know who Jet York is. He's the owner of the fucking 49ers, bro. Yeah, over the 49ers, yeah. Yeah. All right. I don't know if he did. I don't know if he admitted.

From Telvin Kipapa, he writes, Aloha donks, Hawaiian legend, Telvin Big Papa, Kipapa here. I just wanted to share this pick of someone that looks awfully similar to a host on MK. I got to say, excuse me, got to guess someone is getting that content creator and CNN money. Anyway,

keep it up. Great work guys. And Aloha. No, that is not me. Also, another person sent this to me with the same fucking joke. Weird. So it appeared. Every time we see this guy in one of my watch-alongs, we say fake Luke Thomas is sitting. Weird. I got to see a better picture. That doesn't look like Luke to me right

there. It's vague enough that it's like, you know, you see it. Also, I just have to set the record straight Long Island. I do go on CNN time to time. They've never paid me. I do those gratis. You know what I'm saying? Why are you setting that straight with me? Set that straight with Telvin.

He's the one. Yeah, exactly. By the way, if you're going to say like a former B, a former M.K. host or whatever they said there, I mean, BC's been at the,

he's been kind of caged side for the way. I thought that that's where they're going. Oh, right. Yeah, you could see him. I'm just sitting up close to when I'm not often, but I thought they'll go that. He's going to be at,

I think he's going to be at the Garcia fights. I think he's going to be. Oh, yeah, yeah. What's he doing on Friday? So, dude, during he, there was one fight where he was doing the post-fight interviews for showtime, like for the showbox. And then the fight was scheduled between two guys and he's like, can't wait for September 11. We're like, well, maybe don't say it quite that way. You know what I mean?

Like can't fucking wait for that holiday, you know, like Christmas. All right. Five, we got one from John McLean, BC, that fourth gas station hot dog. Yeah, kind of taking it to the body. Not bad, not bad. and then last but not least from left lane we have a meme when you're watching an MVP fight and the striking integers are equivalent to the 2018 rocket's shooting numbers in game seven

holy shit yeah they are pretty fucking similar Jesus Christ you see integers are helpful yeah I've got to take an insane shit so we got to wrap this up morning combat at gmail.com is the place quick Chuck where can folks get coverage you have at uncrown I'll have some stuff out this week with doing the beat and I know that people keep asking where you're at.

They've revised the beat over there with Ariel and obviously at some point, I don't know how that all works, but love to see you on there. Yeah, I wouldn't wait for that, but you know, one never knows. People ask, you know. People ask. Yeah, so all on crown this week. Just check out the site. Very good.

Go to uncrown. Long Island, what do you got? Hashtag Luke to the beat. I got Dana White Contender Series watch along tonight over on Gaff's channel. Go check that out. We got live chat tomorrow. Bet breakdown today. Prop quiz Friday, watchalong Saturday, you already know.

Nocee 2 p.m. And then we're doing Garcia Ben after that as well. Double watch along. Yes. I will also have double streams this week. I'll have one for, I'll have one for Noche UFC and then one for the boxing main event as well. All right. I already mentioned the email.

So the badges and emojis. You can get them from being a member. Of course, we have the merch morning combat. Dot shop. And we'll see you guys on Friday. We'll get you ready for Nocha UFC as well as, of course, the big box. boxing event over the weekend for Chuck Mendenhall for Long Island, Luke and everyone who works on the show. We appreciate you guys tuning in on this special Tuesday edition of MK. We'll catch a Friday.

And until then, may all of your gains be loyal.