MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Patricio Pitbull Resume Review

Episode Date: July 27, 2021

Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell bring back the Resume Review for Patricio Freire ahead of his matchup with A.J. McKee at Bellator 263. How did Pitbull get to this point in his career? Which fights were the most important for his legacy? The guys break down most of his 24 fight bellator run. Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit: store.sho.com   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Well on July 31st all the way from Inglewood, California on Showtime, that'll be a Saturday, one of the most important fights in Bellator history will take place. Your featherweight champion BC, Patricio Freire, will defend his title against AJ McKee, but it's more than just a simple title defense. It's one of the most important fights Bellator can make, and BC, would you agree? One of the most important fights in Bellator history. Face to the franchise, Patricio Pitbull, two-division champion in the finals of the Featherweight World Grand Prix, which has given him no special pass as champion coming in. He scored three victories on one side of the bracket, but on the other side, 17-0, 26 years old, A.J. McKee, who's now against maybe the future of this promotion,

the division, maybe the sport. A.J. McKee has looked that great. We're pumped up for the fight. There's really only one way, Luke, to sort of look ahead. You have to look back to get all the way back around. And we call that resume review. How about we look back at the great career of 33 year old bellator mma pound for pound number one and two division champion patricio pitbull i can think of

no one more deserving at least on the bellator roster of this guy than an examination of how he got to the place that he's in now i know what the science haters and the people who are bad at math like to say they're like oh there's a, maybe there is, maybe there isn't. What do you want us to do? But BC, in all fairness, jokes aside, would you not agree this guy, if you really dig into his story, and here's the problem, he didn't grow up through the UFC. He grew up through Bellator.

I think a lot of people missed. They don't understand why he's so great now, and part of that reason is they kind of missed the moments that brought him to this place. He was 12-0 when he made his Bellator debut in 2010, Bellator 15. I mean, he was just 23 years old at that point. To see the large rises he has had to get to the finals

of different tournaments back when that was the Bellator format, to his early title shots, four defeats over this great career. But as one thing we learned in going back and reliving fight by fight is this is a man who learned important key lessons from these losses through his rivalries with former champions like a Daniel Strauss, like a Pat Curran. And it has come along to make him the fighter he is today. One of the most destructive forces, whether he's going to get a knockout, whether he's going to get a submission on the ground, just a savage elite fighter. And oh, by the way, Luke, it goes

without saying, to do a resume review of the great moments in Patricio Pitbull history, you're kind of also doing the greatest moments in Bellator history. And this is one of the most exciting fighters of all time. Going back through his catalog and seeing finish after finish, it really opens your eyes that he probably should be everyone's favorite fighter. He's that much fun. Yeah, so funny, sometimes we get tasked with doing homework on fighters,

and you think any fight, if you told someone what your job is, oh, I have to watch fights for a living, that must be kind of exciting, but we all know the story. Sometimes that's not necessarily the case. Dude, you go back and you watch this guy's library, it's not hard to sit up in your chair. It's very, very easy. In fact, I was looking at this BC. If you look at the Bellator records, I should say, not rankings, he's got most wins in title bouts. He's got most consecutive title

defenses. Obviously, he's one of a few multi-division champions and only one of two simultaneous multi-division champions. We're talking about very clearly. We should be no bones about it. This is, if not the face of the franchise, although maybe he is that too, there is no argument. Who is the best fighter in Bellator history? It is this guy. And there's not much of a contest about that. And there's certainly an argument that he's the best 145-pound fighter in the world today, that he is, Luke, legitimately among the best three or four pound-for-pound fighters in this world, depending on where you rank him, entering this fight at the absolute peak of his powers. But we're going to go back through an incredible journey.

Where should we start? I want to start with just one major observation, if I can. I know a lot of folks might be newer to MMA, or maybe you've been here a while, and you missed some of the stuff that made Patricio what he is. But let's say we've got someone who's like, okay, Luke and Brian, maybe I missed some of that stuff,

but I've seen what he's been doing more recently. I'm all in. I'm a believer. I want to just give you one piece of information to keep in mind. As we go through this resume here together, you have to understand something about Bellator's featherweight division. And this is true all the way back to the time that Patricio made his debut all the way back in April 22 of 2010 at Bellator 15. The featherweight division,

even in the tournament era, has been one of their, if not the, marquee division. You had guys who were standouts in that division, the Daniel Strausses, in particular the Pat Currans. When Pat Curran beat guys like Marlon Sandro, who was the big dude to do in Sengoku when he had come over, this was something of their glamour division. Now, I know that Eddie Alvarez and Michael Chandler have stolen the Bellator headlines and stolen the show, and God bless them, they did great work. But if you're just asking top to bottom which division over time has been consistently deep inside of Bellator, and now, of course, this guy has ascended to the top of it, historically speaking, featherweight has been the deep inside of Bellator, and now of course this guy has ascended to the top of it.

Historically speaking, Featherweight has been the division of kings. Joe Warren is a great name in that history. Started with Joe Soto, by the way. Joe Soto, who has fought for many organizations. I want to start at the Joe Warren fight. Can we start right there? It's actually a loss.

The first loss of Patricio Pitbull's career. His first Bellator loss. Season two Featherweight tournament final. This is the fight which was the beginning of the education of Pitbull, because. His first Bellator loss. Season two featherweight tournament final. This is the fight which was the beginning of the education of Pitbull. Because when he came out in that first round against Joe Warren in 2010, was absolute fury and fire.

Dropping him with that left hook right off the start. Joe Warren got hit so hard, he almost turned sideways, almost put his back to the action. Pitbull all over him and floored him. Came close to getting a finish after taking Warren's back and nearly applying that choke. But Luke, to Warren's credit,

he showed the toughness and the gas tank to come back. And this was such a young, 23-year-old version of Pitbull. He was not a complete fighter in all of those intangible categories, including gas tank. He spent most of round two and three on his back back fighting off the

more dominant wrestlers. So you got a taste of the explosiveness and the greatness, but this was a fight which finished for a split decision win for Joe Warren. You could argue, you know, Pitbull could have had a case at that, but there was so much more to learn and defeat in this. That's right. I mean, listen, part of the reason why people have slept on Patricio, aside from maybe the lack of exposure and some of the other more known things, is it took him time to become who he was. He had to learn, sometimes from losses, sometimes even from tough wins, but more to the point, he played a role in the story of some other champions first, BC, and he had to learn from that experience, I don't want to be someone else's story, I want to be the storyteller.

Also, this is what I mean, you're pointing out the fight correctly, BC, which is one thing we shouldn't lose sight of. I think I live-blogged that fight live when it happened. I remember watching it very clearly. Joe Warren had food poisoning. He had food poisoning, and he still found a way to go to the hospital and the whole nine yards

and still found a way to dig through and become the champion. Now, you're right, he had to use his wrestling and every piece of competitive gumption from wrestling all those years as well to get it done. The self-proclaimed baddest man on the planet. Baddest man on the planet. But you know what?

That night, maybe he was in that weight class anyway. That was a very special performance from Joe Warren. So in that day, in that moment, Pitbull wasn't quite ready to begin to tell his story yet. But you could see. Here's one thing you could see in that fight, because you disagree or not, you saw big power and you saw well-rounded ability. You saw some mistakes, you saw some rawness,

but you saw the physical tools right away. You know, when we talk about the losses of Pitbull's career, and it's Joe Warren here, and it's Daniel Strauss, and it's Pat Curran, and eventually a little bit of a freak loss against Benson Henderson, but it's what he learned in each one. These three championship fighters taught him so much about being a professional, about having a well-rounded game, and about finishing off the polish of those championship intangibles,

which are your game-planning ability, your IQ, your patience, your poise, your gas tank. And your push late. And what is most important is how Pitbull has responded to each of these losses. His initial stretch after this first loss of his pro career in 2010 to Joe Warren was to knock out Georgie Karhanian in the third round, was to beat the bags off of a very battle-tested Wilson Hayes. This was their rematch.

Pitbull had won a decision in the first fight, which was the fight before the Joe Warren fight. But Luke, particularly in this rematch which came at Bellator 41, 2011, you want to talk about a highlight reel. Pitbull's got one, and this fight was one of the big ones that stand out from that. He beat the bags off of him.

Season four of the tournaments, season four is the first time Pitbull begins to plant a flag in Bellator. Now, a couple guys came along later and took it out, but that was the first one. So to your point, he beat Georgie Karakhanian, a guy who'd been a known good fighter, great fighter, actually, out of Southern California for a long time.

Then he beat, I mean, you can see the Wilson Hayes fight on YouTube for free. Yo, that is one of the nastiest KOs you will ever see in the lighter weight divisions, period. I mean, he just manhandled him. He just beat the tar out of him. Pushed him up against the fence, and then the stoppage came just like a second too late, and he got folded backwards, the kind of like Krokop versus Gonzaga bit, but only from punches. This is what I mean. Even in those losses to Warren or the nice, some of the wins he had along the way, dude, you're seeing big power out of a small guy at 145 consistently.

And I would say, I would argue if you want to look at a consistent weapon that he's had even since then, doesn't have a great jab per se, good left hook right down the middle. He catches everybody with it. Well, these three straight wins, Luke, that he had coming off of that loss to Joe Warren in the 2011 season four tournament, it's Karhanian, it's Hayes. Those are a month apart. And then one month later at Bellator 45, he takes on Daniel Strauss in the finals of this season tournament.

And, Luke, it would become the first of four meetings against each other. Yes. I can't figure out, A, which of the Strauss-Pipple fights are my favorite because rewatching them to do this clip. They're all good. It was so damn entertaining. And I had remembered so many, I had forgotten, excuse me, so many swings in momentum, which is really one of the calling cards of why this series was so good. Before we get into the four bouts and particularly this first one, what do you think about the

contrast between these two that made this such an incredible wire? I would actually want to say something to you as well. I wonder what you make of this comparison. Again, whenever I make a comparison, it's not a totalizing comparison, but if someone had to ask me what is the Vasquez Marquez of MMA, I think the closest you could get to BC would be Pitbull and Strauss. The only thing is Vasquez and Marquez are similar in size and similar in style. It's the contrast between these two, talking about Pitbull and Strauss,

I guess the way I would mean it is you don't see a lot of guys in MMA fight each other four times. That's rare. And Strauss has had boring fights independent of Pitbull. Pitbull has had fights that were, you know, some good, some bad or whatever. But every time these two lock horns, they bring out the best in each other. I think that's what I mean. So the fact that they fought four times and then they draw themselves from this one. This was an interesting one.

Third round, you went all three rounds. The first time was Strauss. I think what makes these two, to answer your question, BC, such a great pair is that, first of all, they have different body types. One is a little bit longer, a little bit leaner. I would argue Strauss at that time, he's sort of a forgotten great featherweight, by the way. His switch stances was long, was accurate, his crap was tough as nails. He could wrestle. He challenged

the wrestling in a big way of a guy like Patricio Pitbull. He could push the pace. He was well-schooled. Remember, he was that American top team at the time, and he could box a little bit himself. Plus, BC, I would also say this is one thing that was a bit of a consistent thread of weakness for Patricio Freire, except for the last fight.

The left-handed stance of Daniel Strauss gave him a lot of problems. And that fourth fight when they fought, we'll get to it later, by that point Strauss had kind of blown his hand up a little bit and broken it so many times he couldn't really throw it that way anymore. But back when it was a potent weapon, it gave Patricio Freire all kinds of problems. This first meeting, May 21, 2011, as we talked about, it was in the second round where we saw Pitbull really explode. He had that slam and that takedown, and you really got to see his wrestling and top position and the control he had. Interesting what developed

in round three, though. Pitbull uncharacteristically celebrating, throwing his hands in the air. He would hit a right hand. He would showboat afterwards. It brought boos from the crowd. But I think that was his way of trying to lure Strauss into a war. It was unsuccessful, although Pitbull would take this fight, three rounds, unanimous decision. What's interesting, though, is that was sort of a tease to the future of this.

It's that he never really could get in Strauss' head. And depending on the style Strauss brought to each of the fights in the series, and sometimes each of the rounds in the specific fights, he could switch his style completely in his game plan and give Pitbull fits in certain spots and batches that I've never really seen any other fighter that he's faced consistently be able to do. That's right. Consistently is the word there because he's been in bad spots before with other guys, but not in the way that Strauss was able to do it.

But Strauss, there's just no denying it. He made Pitbull a better fighter. And one thing you brought up that we just should not lose sight of, I know that when Pitbull fights McKee, it will be the end of a tournament. But the way that Bellator under the Bjorn Rebny era used to do tournaments is, dude, these guys, and you can look at it on the calendar, they had to fight three times once every single month. Every 30 days, they had a world-class opponent, world-class opponent, world-class opponent. Dude, for a guy like that to learn on the job that way, BC, basically you're never out

of camp. For three months, four months, five months, depending on how you want to bracket it, that's nearly half the year or so where you are in one continuous camp. I think for some guys, like a Pat Curran, it kind of wore him down pretty quickly. But for a guy like Patricio Freyde, it took his learning curve and it made him accelerate as a fighter so much faster. Something very key happened at the end of this first fight between Pitbull and Strauss. Pitbull breaks his left hand, Luke. By winning this tournament season four in 2011, he was to get a rematch against Joe Warren, who was now your Bellator featherweight champion. Pitbull would lose that rematch because of the injury, and Luke, he would sit out for over a year and a half.

So this is 2011 when he gets three wins in three successive months, but then he's out for almost two years. By the time he comes back in 2013, Pat Curran has defeated Joe Warren and now become the face of this division. And let's be clear about something. Pat Curran didn't just defeat Joe Warren. Pat Curran nearly decapitated Joe Warren. This was when Pat Curran was beating the likes of Joe Warren and Shabalat Shamalayev and Marlon Sandro. He was doing the things that for the heads who

knew good MMA and they knew good featherweight action, he was at that time, I would argue, your best featherweight outside the UFC by a country mile. He was doing unbelievable things. So Pitbull wins season four, can't really build on the opportunity to fight for a title at that time. And so now you're right, he gets it. And when he comes back in 2013 and healthy, Curran's waiting for the championship

and Bellator books it, Luke. At Bellator 85, this is January 13, 2013 for the featherweight world title. And again, Luke, you would get batches of what makes Pitbull great, but you would still see not a finished product by this point. Now, the theme early on was it was surprising how patient Patricio was. Normally, he's that early knockout savage that gets after you.

He was almost too patient against Pat Curran, and I think the reason why this was the toughest challenge Pitbull has faced to this point because Curran was big for the weight class, Luke. He was very defensive. He didn't take chances, which means he didn't make big mistakes. That's right. And he was technical, and when you're defensive and technical against somebody who's used to walking

over you, while I liked the respect Pitbull gave from knowing he needed to be patient, this was a five-round championship fight. He was going to have to go the distance there. He showed Curran, I thought, way too much respect, and that played out in the way that this fight ended. Pat Curran, for the folks who knew at the time, had a reputation.

Remember, he was on that, remember the guys that short-lived, well, I guess it was remembered pretty well among MMA hardcores, that tap-out show with Charles Mask Lewis and Punk Ass and Skyscrape. One of the guys they featured early on that show, there was many guys who wanted to do great things. Pat Curran was one of them. And by this point, he had really achieved, I think, maximum skill. And one thing that should be pointed out is, yes, I think this was one of those times when Patricio was like,

I showed too much deference to this guy. But let's be honest. To tell the story of Patricio, you've got to tell it accurately. He always had a ton of ability, but sometimes he needed a bit of a kick in the ass, even in a win, to really learn that lesson. I think from this one, he learned two things, BC. One, I think you're absolutely right about the patience and showing deference to a guy.

Two, Pat Curran had great movement and a great jab, and he just didn't have the right kind of approach, but also tactically the right kind of approach to get to Pat Curran to really break through that defensive shield. And so I don't think it's fair to say that Curran coasted behind the jab, but the way in which he was able to use his boxing, it helped him win the fight. As we went through five rounds, though,

it would turn out to be a split decision win for Curran, who landed the cleaner counter shots throughout, actually landed big shots. So when I criticize in hindsight and saying, okay, this was a younger Pitbull who still hadn't learned and evolved, he showed too much respect. Well, the reason why he showed that much respect was he was getting pieced up. His face was very bruised and swollen afterwards.

So it was Curran beating him to the counterpunch, being more accurate, just really forcing Pitbull in a game he didn't want to be, which means if you're going to score against me, you have to come forward, only you're showing too much patience and reverence. Interesting, though, that it's a split decision, because the theme of how we're explaining this fight almost explains what Curran handled him. Not only do the judges have it split, Patricio said after this fight and for years to come, this was the fight that still sticks in his crow, that he feels he did enough in these

five rounds. Even though he wasn't as active as normal that he feels he did enough in these five rounds. Even though he wasn't as active as normal, even though he did clearly get out-countered by a more technical fighter, he feels he pushed the pace enough in spots where I think he learned, of many lessons that you just laid out, you can't leave it in the judges' hands anymore. You know, there can't be a debate there. No, there really can't.

And also, you know, this is why you've got to be careful about MMA narratives and buying into them or selling them depending on your position. Look at where Patricio is now. He gets a big push and falls just short to Joe Warren. He gets another big push and falls just short to Pat Curran. He is becoming at this time, at this time, the guy who can beat all the good fighters except the great ones, and he can give them a hell of a run for their money, but he hasn't yet gotten over that hump.

Still in his early to mid-20s at this point, but a narrative, however fair or unfair we see, actually I think he's still in his early 20s at this point, is beginning to shape around him a little bit. Yeah, he's in his mid-20s here. Coming off the loss to Pat Curran, he blows away Jared Downing in two rounds, enters Season 9 of the featherweight tournament, which was fall of 2013.

Yes. Luke, he would go 7-0 in the aftermath of this Pat Curran loss, but it started off with a knockout in the first round of Diego Nunes, a unanimous decision win over Fabricio Guerrero. Hold on. I want to break up a little step before you pass on. The Jared Downing fight was just a fight he was set up to win, basically, just to stay a busy fight. The Diego Nunez fight is the one that's kind of interesting. Nunez was a guy who had done great things in UFC. He had moved on from it at that point. I don't think anyone thought that was necessarily the very best version of them. I'll never forget this one. When this fight happened and Patricio just demolished him, I know there are a lot of people being like, wow, who is this guy in Bellator that was doing, that just did this?

Because we know the guy, Diego, he was a fun, action-oriented, striking fighter, and then he goes and just gets absolutely one punch dropped. Again, physical tools from day one showing up with this guy. That was one of the first times I really remember people who were not into Bellator turning their head a little bit because that got on their radar. He would go into the finals of that Season 9 featherweight tournament

against Justin Wilcox. And this was a step-forward performance at Bellator 108, Luke. This shows up in his highlight reel a lot because he put punches together in bunches against Wilcox. And also, you've got to understand something about Wilcox. This guy at 155, forget 145, was an absolute gorilla out of the American Kickboxing Academy, a Strikeforce veteran, you know, limited in some,

I think, of his technical abilities, although he had some to be real. The Silverback was his nickname, just to echo that. Exactly. Dude, you've ever seen this guy? He is massive and completely shredded. He was a physical challenge for anyone. For a guy like Patricio, who is on the smaller end of 145 pounds,

dude, he handled Justin Wilcox. It was never competitive, and not just in the striking department. Even in the grappling department, he was always one step ahead. That was one of those fights where you're like, dude, that little pocket Hercules can do nasty things to people. That would set him up after four straight wins for the rematch against Pat Curran for the title. Luke, this might be the first of the kind

of performances where you can say was maybe the most important or the turning point performance that showed you the potential long-term greatness in this guy. The setting was September 5th, 2014 Bellator 123 in Uncasville, Connecticut. I was in attendance in this 2014 bout. You were there? Yes,

I was. And Luke, there wasn't a ton of doubt in this one. The difference between the two fights against Pat Curran was showed maybe too much respect in the first one, even though he thought he had done enough to win, but his face was kind of mangled afterwards. I thought Curran landed the bigger shots. He showed no respect for Curran in this rematch and looked to walk him down from the beginning

and prove that physically he's not the bigger man, but he's always going to act like the biggest striker and puncher in every fight he's in because that's what he's made of, and this was a showcase of that. This was what I would argue is, I think the Wilson-Hayes fight was a rematch, but this was the first time he had a big rematch.

He never got to fight Joe Warren again, so it was going to be the Pat Curran fight that was going to be the first time he had a chance. Of course, he fights Daniel Strauss right after this. But Ardanga Vaishal, I think. Maybe both. The point being is this.

Both, yes. After this fight was over, just like UBC, that was when you could say, wow, boy, not only has he gotten better than Pat Curran in that time, but whatever criticism

you could make of him the first time out, it was completely absent. Dominant. I think I'm going to say, I'm going to keep saying it. Dude, Pocket Hercules here is a dominant physical force at 145 pounds. We know because he got on with 155 and he was physically there too.

But these guys at 145 do, when Patricio puts hands on them, they don't know what to do about it. They've not dealt with that kind of power, that consistently through all five rounds in the way that Pat Curran did. By the way, credit to Pat Curran for having the gumption to go through with all that. And going the distance, credit to Pat Curran, because I wanted to say, look, what we said,

what he learned about the loss to Curran was about leaving no doubt in the judges' hands. Now, he would win this fight by decision. He was unable to finish Curran over the five rounds in the rematch, but he left no doubt, Luke. It was that left hook that dropped Curran early in the fight that you're sort of like, oh, this is different. The left hook, right hand combo

is just amazing. We didn't see Curran be this much affected because he wasn't getting as cleanly landed. Look, Curran gives you a small strike zone. In that first fight, he did an incredible job at keeping the chin tucked and really showing a defensive posture that I think Pitbull was a little confused by. In the second fight, there was just a different level of confidence, and it

wasn't just the punches to floor him. It was the timing of the takedowns, Luke. He was able to get Curran down more consistently. The ground and pound and volume was there. And then when he buckled Curran in round five, this really just cemented, if there was any doubt on the scorecards. He buckled him. Curran kind of wobbled a little.

And then you got the pit bull flying knee. Now, again, it didn't finish him. But we're seeing the full evolution on hand of not just the striking game, but, dude, the inside, the intangibles. I I'm ready to win the championship, or I'm ready to put the responsibility on my shoulders. Right. I mean, those losses clearly stung him, and to your point, you're seeing all the physical tools, but also you're seeing a guy who, to me, BC, when you watch this fight, you begin to realize, okay, now he knows which punches to pick. Now he knows

when to throw them. Now he knows when to step on the gas. Now he knows when to step on the brake. Before, I think he was flying a little bit blind where he didn't know exactly how to approach various tactical challenges. Now he was backing up the physical tools with the bad experience from making mistakes. Now with the matured skill set, and we already knew he could thump, dude, he was at this time, the first time I really began to say, wow. He is a formidable customer in this division. And again, season four was his big first moment of victory.

Season nine was the second. Petruchio Pitbull is now your Bellator featherweight champion. But four months later, Luke, there's no soft touches here. Nope. He would go into his first title defense. I was at this one. And it would come against Daniel Strauss. This is Chapter 2 of their four-fight rivalry.

And we set the stage here for this. The Pitbull-Strauss rematch. Bellator 132, January 16, 2015. Temecula, California. They met there. Meet me in Temecula, Luke. Yeah. And this time.

This is what I mean about the featherweight division this time. You've got Curran coming, Warren, Strauss, Pitbull, and other players too. Amazing how the belt would change hands and how the rivalries would shape. Right off the start in the first two rounds, we see Daniel Strauss has changed his game plan, and he's being defensive and technical. He's always got a technical advantage over Pitbull, but now we're seeing the footwork and the boxing, and he's really making it hard for Pitbull to consistently catch up. No doubt about it.

I mean, he came in, he learned some lessons too. Daniel Strauss was not to be trifled with. In fact, I think into the third round, I might have had Strauss up on the scorecards, but BC, this was the thing that it was kind of the problem for Strauss. Yes. He could fall apart at the last minute. Not any minute, because he didn't fall apart in the first round

or the second round ever. It was usually when you got to the deeper waters. For some reason, one of the Achilles heels of Daniel Strauss was that when the fight was a little bit into that stretch where you needed to make sure your cardio was on point. And I don't think that was his issue, but I think he would lose focus sometimes. Pitbull does not. Pitbull is well named. I know it's a common name to give to all MMA fighters, particularly from Brazil. It's well-deserved with him. He showcased a little bit of a gimme, a little bit of a gimme.

He was in that fight, but Strauss making a horrible tactical error, showing his back, and Pitbull showing no mercy. You're skipping some tactical errors. Let's not forget in round three when you had three straight groin shots from Daniel Strauss. Oh, call the fouls, yes. And they were in such quick succession, although none of them looked to be intentional, but they were in such quick succession that referee Big John McCarthy, by the third one, had no choice but to take away a point.

So that's the beginning of almost the ungluing and the great work that Strauss had done in the first two rounds where he was saying, oh, this rematch is going to be different. Well, now it's different for a whole new weird reason. So he loses that point, but they trade some throws. The wrestling was fairly even. That's right. There was a leg trip, almost like a judo trip by Strauss, in which Pippel almost got dropped face first on the canvas

and kind of spun and rolled out of it. There were wild exchanges right there. I think in terms of momentum swings and the craziness, this actually might be my favorite of the four fights. And it's not the favorite to be the favorite, because the third is definitely the best one. But this one's wild, and it wasn't an easy walkthrough. This too was also to your point,

they would do these throws on each other. They had a bit of a tit-for-tat, these two. If one of them landed a big, let's say, cross on the other one, the other one wanted to get it back constantly. And of course, you see that in fights all the time, but you would see it especially with these two. If one of them landed a big cross on the other one, the other one wanted to get it back constantly. Of course, you see that in fights all the time, but you would see it especially with these two. These two always wanted to make sure that they were almost like two brothers. They wanted to make sure

whatever you do to me, I'm going to do back to you. You saw a little bit of that, although not so much with Kraus. What we also don't want to forget about is the momentum surge from Strauss in round four before the mistake that would coughed him. He lined up Pippel with a one-two, and that left cross dropped Pippel. It did. Now, that was a surprising turn of events because despite the style difference,

Strauss was more of the boxer coming in, the longer guy. He could match him on the ground. But he hadn't been hurting Pippel up to this point. I mean, he lost the first fight. He was seemingly losing the second one at this point. This is what I mean, that southpaw stance gave Pippel some trouble. So Pippel gets up to his credit. He lands a big counter right.

Suddenly he's walking down Strauss to end the fourth loop. But then we get a cup shot from Pitbull. So we're trading fouls by this point. There's a lot of craziness. Pitbull's eye starts to get busted by the end of round four. So he's bleeding, leading to this win, which was almost made of the come from behind win, depending on where the scorecards were.

I'd love to go back and sort of research exactly where those scores were. If you look at Strauss has a Kimura with no guard, and Jimmy Smith warns that he can get armbar from there, like Matt Hughes and George St-Pierre, but forget that. There was no armbar. Just pay attention. You'll see the face of Pitbull against Strauss because he's trying to avoid the Kimura,

and the entire back of Strauss is covered in Pitbull's blood. It's raining down there like a Slayer song. And then when, of course, he eventually gets the submission and stands, there's one side of Pitbull's face that is camouflaged in blood. You actually can't see the eye because the whole thing is just a crimson mask to Mauro Ranallo on his whole side of his face. And when Pitbull first puts him in that rear naked choke, you saw Strauss's

legs, though, at some point, extend out, and you're almost like, is he out? No, no, that's all Pitbull doing that. That's Pitbull driving his hips into him and then leaning into it, and what it does is it forces the legs back and up like that. As we'll talk about very soon, because it's his calling card, it's his guillotine

choke, which he's used to finish big fights. Dude, when Pitbull puts his freaking arm, when he puts those pythons on you, and something that you had said this week when we were talking about this matchup and some of the videos we've done, is that Pitbull doesn't go for submissions that he's not certain won't end the fight. That's right. When he looks to apply it on you, he's ready in that moment to finish you, and dude, who's got a better grip in this game? I mean, you don't think of him. You think of him more as the knockout puncher than the submission expert.

But he's more than capable when the moment needs it to be the finisher. He's not the guy that ever needs the submission. I mean, think about it. Like if he never submitted the guys that he submitted, would he have still lost those fights? Maybe. maybe. But my point being is, imagine you told him you couldn't submit anyone, you had to finish him ground and pound or whatever the case. He could probably still find a way. So my point being is, if he settles into something, he's not some guy who's like, jujitsu or bust, that's the way it's

going to go. He's like, oh, are you going to hand this to me on a silver platter? And obviously, he has a great clamp and a great setup. But when he goes for it, I mean, how many times have you seen Pitbull go for a submission and fail? I'm sure there's a couple of times along the way. Not many, dude. By the time he goes in for that, he has a great degree of certainty that the show is over, the fat lady has sung.

What makes this win awesome is the visual when Pitbull gets up and his eye's a mess, there's blood dripping down his face, and then you realize he got dropped that same round, Luke. So this became a come-from-behind sort of situation to defend his title. Strauss was clearly better than he was in the first fight after having won the title in the two-fight series with Curran and getting a taste of being at that super elite level.

And coming off that knockout of Wilcox, he came to take this title. You had to believe, though, he had to kick himself for many things, Luke. Getting tapped out in that spot when he had such a big round earlier, Strauss, and losing that point for the three kicks to the cup earlier where it's like, man, things, I mean, he was so close. But at the same time, how close he was able to lose this showed you how dramatic Pitbull can be when he needs to hold on to his belt. This was the first, if the current win was the first sort of complete, yes, he's superstar

elite, this was the he's superstar elite special with an asterisk because you can find an avenue to victory when it didn't seem like there was one right there. Yeah, BC and I were talking about this show before we filmed it today, and we were saying, I asked him, what did you think was the turning point? And BC rightly thought, just like I did, well, there is no one turning point, but you can see a few turning points along the way where he becomes something different. I mean, think about it, BC.

The first time he goes against Curran, and the first time he goes against Warren, he barely loses, right? Just barely. But the second time he has this big challenge, now the third if you want to call the second Strauss fight this, that's when he shows you he is not barely better, a lot better. I mean, really leaving no doubt about Curran.

Leaving, well, some doubt about Strauss, but still coming out there. mean, really leaving no doubt about Curran. Leaving, well, some doubt about Strauss, but still, coming out there... No, some doubt, because he had a rally. Yeah, some doubt, but in the end showing incredible durability and composure under fire. Again, we don't ever talk about that. People always say, oh, well, no one likes to get punched

in the face. Right. But some people handle it better than others. Nogueira acts like he's brushing his teeth. He doesn't care about your punches at all. Brock Lesnar, he could be in peril from a jab. Right. I mean, Brock Lesnar has a poor reaction to it. Pitbull had a, he got dropped, but in terms of his composure towards the fight, he didn't lose any.

Well, Luke, Pitbull's career and his arc has been so much fun that it's not going to be long before we're talking about the third Strauss fight that turns the momentum. But that's why I'm saying before we get there, he did come back five months after the victory over Strauss to defend his title. And you've got football against Daniel Weichel, who is no, no one to be messed with here at Bellator 138, June 19th, 2015. Uh, this is where you get another one of those insanely awesome highlight reel moments. And you were there in St. Louis, Missouri?

I was there. I was cage side for this one. And I'll tell you what happened was kind of interesting. In this fight, Daniel Vyshel has an interesting career. I think he's today 40 and 12. He fights, but I don't know when this is going to air, but he has fought for Showtime recently. But the point being is this, dude, he has fought all the very best fighters that Bellator could ever find for this guy. And maybe he didn't beat them, but he put them all through their paces.

And he was on a seven-fight win streak entering this fight with Pitbull, having won all four of his Bellator appearances up to that point, including two by submission. So this was a red-hot guy probably at the early peak of his career and before he retooled and came back. I'm glad you brought that up because that's what's so funny about this. The week of that fight, the narrative, this is when, by the way, Pitbull was getting,

I'm not going to say too big for his britches, BC, but as the kids might say, he was feeling himself a little bit. Well, he's starting to learn a couple English words. He's not doing the English interviews like he is now. I'll give him a lot of credit. But he's catching on to the slang and he's talking trash.

I think he was on a high from some of those wins and we all had thought that Weichel was well-rounded, could wrestle, good submissions, as you mentioned, and was a competent striker, like not some chump, but not on the level of Pitbull. And so what happens? The round is competitive. It's back and forth. But Vyshal, great movement, level changes, mixing up the wrestling. And right at the end of the first round, up against the fence,

not only hits Patricio Verde with a series of punches that hurt him, I mean really hurt him, to the point where Big John McCarthy, who was reffing that contest, when the bell sounded, he wanted to see that Pitbull BC could even walk back to his corner. He was so badly hurt. But yet at 32 seconds of round two, we would get a knockout finish from Pitbull that, seriously, tell me a better, on his knockout reel, tell me a better moment than this.out reel, tell me a better moment.

This is what I mean about big power with this kid. So, obviously, Patricio has a minute to recover, which depending on how badly you're hurt is not much. I thought Vyshal had, at least in theory, BC, the right game plan, which was I almost finished this guy. I was maybe five seconds, three seconds from putting him completely away, but the bell saved him. So, you get the minute, he comes back out, he wanted to get right back in Pitbull's face. And to his credit, he was from putting him completely away, but the bell saved him. So you get the minute he comes back out, he wanted

to get right back in Pitbull's face. And to his credit, he was landing on him. I was right, so Patricio's back was to my left when I was sitting there in the cage, and I saw Vaishal bang, bang, I mean going to absolute work on him. But the problem is he got sloppy

and planted his feet for one second, and he got hit and planted his feet for one second, and he got hit. I keep going back to it, dude. Patricio Freire has maybe the best left hook in the business, wings one around the corner, and drops him nearly cold. I have always said the best punch in Bellator history is the punch that Michael Chandler used to knock out Patricio Pippel's brother, Patrici.

It's a nice one. It's a nice one. Remember when he had that 80s adult film mustache, and it was just one of those? But this one is in that ballpark. That's in the category. It's in that ballpark. This is a violent finish.

I mean, if you have to show somebody one highlight of what makes Pippel great, and you choose the Daniel Weichel knockout, that's about it. And honestly, dude, you don't see fighters get pushed to that brink and usually fight back out of it. Usually, if you're as badly hurt as Patricio,

you might hang on and find a way to last the round and lose a decision, but mostly you're probably going to get stopped. You're certainly not going to win, but when you've got clubbing power and a, again, composure under fire in the way that he does, that one punch was all he needed. He, of course, I think he walked over, he may have landed one more, but that was it too.

That was a, not just a credible opponent. You want to talk about wrestling victory from the jaws of defeat. You have to have the kinds of skills and intangibles that Patricio has. And that's two fights in a row that he had to do that. So he's the champion, but his fights are incredibly exciting because not only could he finish anybody at any point, but sometimes he has to finish people and rally and do it. But yet five months later, this is the fight of the rivalry with Daniel Strauss,

the third one, that made it a legendary rivalry. Luke, first of all, why do we not talk about this series? These four fights on the same level that we even do, let's say, Josh Thompson and Gil Melendez of Strikeforce, great trilogy. Gray Maynard and Frankie Edgar of UFC, another great trilogy those are one of our early go-tos if you bring up what's the best rivalry in MMA history like oh that one, that one, why do we not put

Pitbull in this category? Because people don't know shit, people don't know shit, people did not watch, and also, listen there's another reason for it right, one is that it took place outside the UFC, which by itself is not a reason to ignore it, I'm just saying sometimes it goes that way but the other one is like like, Daniel Strauss, you know, he quit fighting,

and he's had a series of legal troubles. And here's the other part, BC. You know, Patricio won three of them. I mean... That's a fair point. You know, they were all... All of them were, except for the last one, they were all super, super competitive.

But Patricio really was the dominant fighter given the series. But not this time really was the dominant fighter given the series. But not this time, BC. This would be the time. And by the way, from the word go, from the opening bell, he faded a little bit down the stretch. And I was in that fifth round watching like, oh, my God, Dan Strauss is going to give it away.

But he wouldn't stop coming back. We'll get to that. The champ would not stop coming back. Let's start and give Dan Strauss the credit. When that opening bell rang, he put it on. And this is what I'm talking about. If there's one thing great that Strauss did in this rivalry, was constantly give different looks to Pitbull to make him have to adjust

and seemingly always be a step behind. This is the biggest and best win of Strauss' history, even though he had been the champion before against Jeff Kern in their two-fight series. It comes at Bellator 145, November 6, 2015. Did I? Yeah, Pat Kern. Jeff Kern's his cousin trainer. I'm going to constantly screw that up

and probably call them brothers when they're cousins. But here we go, Luke. This was for the title, and this would go down as a five-round unanimous decision win for Daniel Strauss. But to your point, as it started, the movement from Daniel Strauss was different. It wasn't the technical defensive movement that he showed to open up the second fight. This was, I'm going to your point, as it started, the movement from Daniel Strauss was different. It wasn't the technical defensive movement that he showed to open up the second fight.

This was, I'm going to come forward, duck your shots, and come back with heavy combos. He was going for it in this one. Absolutely going for it. Landing that left hand over and over again. Had Patricio ducking, dodging like it was dodgeball. Duck, dodge, dive, dodge, whatever the thing is. By the way, you don't see Patricio up against the fence a lot, unless he's in a bad spot.

You saw him up against the fence in the Vyshal fight. You saw him up against the fence a lot early on in this contest because he was under such... It was just raining Daniel Strauss punishment on him, and he was kind of lost. I would actually argue the first couple of rounds, he was just a little bit not sure even what to do, which you don't characteristically see that from a guy like Pitbull. If you want to know where Strauss had gone since losing to Pitbull in the second fight,

he had submitted Henry Corrales in the second round and that's back in much more prime Henry Corrales, who was a tough out, you know, certainly at that point. He's a little more sharp on this point. But he comes into this one and he's walking him down. There's a key sequence. I believe it was in round two. That's amazing. Where it almost seems like Pitbull misses a one-two combo on purpose and then instantly reaches down to go for the single leg takedown, gets it. Strauss rolls out of it, and as he's getting up,

he hits Pitbull with a flying knee to hurt him. Yes. That's an insane turnover. Strauss, again, a lot of people don't know who Daniel Strauss is. Just an excellent athlete. So gifted. Bit, a lot of people don't know who Daniel Strauss is. Just an excellent athlete, so gifted. Bit of a guy who had a wrestling background. I think that's what was the case. I've interviewed him in person a couple of times.

But his contributions to mixed martial arts have been totally lost. And you're right. He showed in this one not merely athletic skills and wrestling skills, but the kind of courage to try low percentage things on the fly. And if that sequence wasn't enough to be awesome in one of the high points of their rivalry, within 10 seconds later, Luke, we get a big one-two combo from Strauss that would drop Pitbull, which was an eye-opener right there. Strauss goes in, lands some ground and pound. Pitbull stands him up. I'm sorry. Pitbull applies the arm bar attempt.

Strauss then picks Pitbull up and nearly spikes him on top of his head like it's Andrade and Rose. I mean, that was some intense shit right after that. Yeah. The one clear advantage you saw that previously Pitbull had was much better jujitsu. So Strauss is not going to, you're not going to beat Pitbull at Pitbull's jiu-jitsu game. Just slam the fucker. He got slammed on the back of his head. He didn't get spiked, but he got slammed on the back of his head. The point being is that was, to me, Daniel Strauss showing I'm going to do every single thing it takes to win.

I can't not make mistakes. I can't be better than him at jiu-jitsu, but I'm going to find a way around that problem. And he really kind of checked all the boxes here. So he took chances, which was key, Strauss. He also disguised his attacks in ways that he wasn't doing. More feints, more setups. It was just a different Strauss. Altogether, his boxing in round four was tremendous

because Pitbull's trying to rally in round four. Pitbull's great at when he's on the wrong end of a big moment, knowing that it's these momentum changes that end up swaying close rounds. A couple big punches can change the whole thing. But Strauss kept him away until we get to the fifth, and this is when Pitbull was landing again with two minutes to go. He's putting it on. Yes, to the point now, we talked about whose back was against the fence.

Dude, now I was watching this to myself being like, oh, my effing God, because now Daniel Strauss is shelling up. Now Daniel Strauss is havinglling up. Now Daniel Strauss is having to defend takedown attempts. Now Daniel Strauss is just sitting there eating punishment. And this is the point about Pitbull. It's like, dude, if you're covering up and you can't see what he's throwing, this is not the average featherweight. This is a guy that has, in this division, one punch KO power. You thought at any second the floor was going to collapse here, but to Strauss' credit, he found a way to hang on.

So Pitbull, he finished this fight the fresher fighter, the aggressor, the guy who was landing better late. Even though Pitbull loses this fight by unanimous decision and loses his title, and it's another elite-level key loss, like consistent to the theme, he learned so much from this fight. And I think unlike those other ones, again, he's the fresher fighter. He sort of figured Strauss out, even though he lost this fight. And Strauss deserves to have won it.

It was as if Pitbull figured him out a little bit too late. A little Tyson Fury, Dante Wilder-ish. Exactly in that regard. So now you've got the belt in Daniel Strauss' hand, and we only get a one-fight bounce back here for Pitbull, and that's against Henry Corrales, and he himself gets a second-round submission win at Bellator 153. And it was quick.

As soon as he locks up the guillotine, it was an arm-in guillotine. He sits for it. I think in both cases he was getting pressed against the fence. Sits for it, and Corrales tapped almost immediately. The torque on Pitbull's choke at that point was insane. One thing you should look for if you guys go back, I guess the team's going to add highlights to our commentary here.

Watch how the bicep of Pitbull sits just on the back of the head. High on the neck, low on the back of the head and watch how he just drives it down. There was nowhere for Henry Corrales to go, so that tap was good. Again, by the neck, low on the back of the head, and watch how he just drives it down. There was nowhere for Henry Corrales to go, so that tap was good. Again, by the way, showing a diversity of skills,

because Henry Corrales is a bit of a banger. Maybe Pitbull's better, but that's kind of a much more dangerous way to go. Pitbull now making smart decisions and becoming so dangerous as a finisher that, yes, he probably could beat you on the feet, but if you give him any reason to snatch a neck or a limb, he can do that too. Now, I believe Daniel Strauss gets hurt at this point as the champion. His left hand was having constant problems.

He doesn't fight again before the next Pitbull fight, and Pitbull gets the submission win over Henry Calhoun, but then Pitbull takes kind of a long break for himself and what he's used to. He had fought in April. I'm sorry, he only took a four-month break. He's getting back like crazy and what he's used to. He had fought in April. I'm sorry, he only took a four-month break. He's getting back like crazy. And he moves up to lightweight because the reason why he moves up to lightweight,

this is me bringing it home, is that because of Strauss' injury, he's got to kind of wait for him to come back and get that title shot. So his stay busy idea, and this is the beginning of that daring to be great attitude, which would finish with him as a two-division champion. And as we record this, he's even talking about maybe going down to Bantamweight one day and trying to win the 135 title, is when he steps up into these big moments. He's as equal to where he needs to be against Benson Henderson, your former UFC lightweight champion, who had not yet begun that slide.

This is only August 26, 2016. So Henderson's still not the hot free agent who came over, but he's at a much more fresher version of himself. At a bare minimum, he wasn't fighting Koreshkov at 170, right? Bellator 160, Anaheim, California, Luke, in 2016, and you got Pitbull dropping the big lightweight early in this one. Right, so again, look at what his power does at 145. You've seen it now.

We'll talk about the Chandler fight in just a second. But now you've seen it demonstrably. Here are guys at 155. By the way, guys, in the case of Benson Henderson, known for taking damage and being able to march right through it, feeling the power of a guy like Patricio Frani. But more than that, BC, when he was on his back, he could get to his back. When he wanted to grapple and take the dominant position, he could. He was pushing.

I mean, Benson Henderson was, I would argue, uncharacteristically defensive this time. Not by accident, though, but because Patricio was on him a step ahead. Patricio was quicker. He was more technical. He dropped him with that big right hand. But as he checked the kick with his left leg, this would come in the second round, Luke. He knew it was broken right away. It didn't take him long to just know that he couldn't continue.

Just waved it off. And it goes down as a TKO victory via leg injury for Benson Henderson. So it's a freak loss. It's also the last time we would see Pitbull lose because he would go on an incredible run that has led him through this featherweight world grand prix and will get to the rest of that journey to get there. But this was very interesting because it was a moral victory in a lot of ways because he looked better

he proved that he could play at 155 if he needed to but he also had to continue to wait out Daniel Strauss so this would be that longest stretch of his career sitting out that I had mentioned I also want to say something about Benson Henderson here remember he had the bad fight against Koreshkov where he just got absolutely demolished and he he had, again, I think some moments of redemption along the way. But this fight against Pitbull, it looks good on the record to have that. But I'll distinctly recall at the time, the narrative was Pitbull didn't quite get the credit for that dominant first round that he deserved. People did score it for him, but it doesn't get talked about. What gets talked about is that Benson barely beat a guy at 145

and only did it through injury. So it was weird. It was like it was a knock on Henderson without it being a boost for Pitbull. Pitbull, the moments of boosting in his resume, they've not been as visible or as fair as maybe they should have been, I guess, up until recently. So the leg injury and the combination of Strauss' injury would keep Pitbull out for eight months,

which he is usually on the dot. If he wasn't in the early tournaments fighting every month, he was every four months on the dot. But he would come back to defend, I'm sorry, to once again fight for his old title. This is Bellator 178, and this is the fourth meeting of the Pitbull-Daniel Strauss rivalry. Strauss coming in as the defending champion, Uncasville, Connecticut. I was also there for this. This was the only fight of the series that I was there for. Luke, what's the big takeaway after this incredible rivalry

reached a new level with the third one for this fourth fight? You know, one of the reasons Pitbull is at the place where he's at is, I don't want to say it's a tortoise and the hare scenario, that's a little bit of an exaggeration, but a guy like Pitbull, the reason the Henderson fight is kind of interesting to see is because he is characteristically quite durable. He did have a couple of moments early in his career where he had to take some time off. But in general, he's been very active, very consistent, not having a lot of problems in

the gym with how he is trained and what it's done to his body, at least up to this point. And in the case of Strauss, I think it was the exact opposite. I think he began to have some law enforcement troubles at this time, but at a bare minimum. So I saw his hand. I was at the UFC Fan Expo, and we had done a show there. I was with Sirius XM at the time, and I saw Daniel Strauss. What are those hats that you can wear if you're fishing, but they have a 360 bill? You know what I'm talking about? It kind of guards your face a little bit. And I was like, Daniel Strauss. And I called out to him, and he came and sat on the stage. And he showed me the scar on his hand from the surgery he'd had.

He's had multiple surgeries on that one, at least reinfections and stuff. You know, I'm not going to say it looked like Alex Smith's leg, but it didn't look good, dude. It had this giant scar, and it runs all the way through, and you could see all the stitches and everything. He just wasn't the same guy anymore. And I don't mean to say that Patricio was the exact same. What I mean to imply is that, again, their careers just kind of bifurcated after that last one. Patricio's lesson, the lesson of his career is that he was not immediately great. He has become incrementally something that has added up to somebody really special.

By the time they met on that night, BC, I think you would agree it was not very competitive. They were trains going in opposite directions. That is exactly right. Because this was a Pitbull who had learned from those previous defeats, as we talked about, and was coming off two in a three-fight stretch, one of them being the freak leg injury. But he came back a patient counterpuncher. And that's interesting, because I feel like there were moments where Strauss, earlier in this rivalry, forced Pitbull to be the aggressor, and he wasn't.

And that's normally his natural makeup, but it was because Strauss was countering and kind of outboxing him that it became a problem. This time, Pitbull was much more comfortable as the counterstriker. Well, let's go back real quickly. Let's keep it there for a second. Why? Because what was the game plan? Again, different tactics, but same strategy.

What was the game plan that Weichel had used? He put it on a guy like Pitbull. He thought you cannot let a guy like Pitbull come forward on you. You've got to back him up. So Pitbull said, you know what? I'm going to learn how to strike backing up. Now what are you going to do about it? That's a big turning point.

You saw that on display here. Explosive with the counter right hand. Because he's not panicking or saying I've got to win, the judge is not, by just being more voluminous and sort of wasting shots. Because he's being more picky, it raises that danger level when he does land like a coiled cobra and strike. He was landing big right hands. You could see that he's just more confident.

You could see the frustration on Strauss. He could see everything coming at him and what decision he wanted to make about it. A very mature performance. So Strauss looks so frustrated by the start of round two that I think his frustration led exactly to the fight ending. He goes for another takedown attempt. But you're seeing Pitbull stuff the takedowns,

and that stuff turned right into a guillotine. And Luke, like we just said, if Pitbull's going to get his arms around you and commit to it, it's because he's got it. Luke, this was almost like a violent choke. I mean, he put that shit on there, man. There was no doubt about it. It was like the Henry Corrales choke. Dude, once he sat for it, Strauss was done

for. And it's just one of those moments that was maybe a thing, maybe he could have done that before in the other fights, BC, but I don't think he was mentally ready. Maybe he wasn't even technically ready. But this is what I'm talking about. Incremental good to the point where you have accumulated greatness. That is the story of Patricio Freire. And that night, dude, you good to the point where you have accumulated greatness.

That is the story of Patricio Freire. And that night, dude, you can go watch this one on YouTube as well. He made it look like it was easy. You would have never guessed that that guy had put him through his paces three different times. Luke, his immediate test after regaining the title, now Pitbull's a two-time featherweight champion, is to do what he does, which is try to stay busy. Comes back in July 2018, Bellator 203, a rematch with Daniel Weichel. Luke.

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Had everything. This one goes five rounds, though. Yeah. He handled them in the first fight, although Weichel had big moments. How much was this a back-and-forth affair to start off the rematch? Yeah, this one is, this is not a one a lot of people have seen. Bellator 203 took place in Italy. I don't even know what they, this is what's funny about Patricio, by the way,

just note something. You start watching him, they're on ESPN2. Then you see the mat, and it's, or ESPN Deportes, excuse me. MTV2. Then it's MTV2, and then it turns into Spike and then it eventually becomes DAZN and Paramount. It's funny, you can learn the story of Bellator by watching the canvas in his fights

throughout, but this one, BC, again, a sort of lesser known one, although it is available online, it just had everything. But you had a guy like Emmanuel, excuse me, Emmanuel Sanchez, you had a guy like Daniel Vaisal, I keep saying it, his resume has these L's that don't tell the full story. He had to me the right kind of mix in this one where he was trying to make sure that Patricio was,

that he was voluminous enough in his offense to put Patricio off of his game because he couldn't get going, but never to overcommit to something to make some kind of mistake. I think that's the way I would describe it. Weishaw had won four in a row since the loss to Pitbull the first time around.

He'd been back around in the rankings to get himself up there. At the end of the day, though, it goes down as a split decision, title defense victory for Pitbull against Daniel Weishel in their rematch. That's July of 2018. He'd come back in November in another important title defense. This would be the first meeting with Emmanuel Sanchez, this time in Israel. You and I have talked about this fight at length because it was ahead of the preview for the rematch, and we had to go back and investigate it.

And what we saw there was that Sanchez was able to fight on equal terms, and he went into the final round of this championship bout with the fight kind of up in the air. And also, think about something that he has faced. Does Emmanuel Sanchez have better boxing than the very best Pat Curran? Probably not. Does he have better wrestling and scrambling, let's say? Is he as good of an athlete

and physically as fast as a prime Daniel Strauss? No, he's not. But what does Emmanuel Sanchez at this point in time have that was pretty incredible and undeniable? A frickin' motor,

I'll tell you that much. A motor. Murad Davalashvili in UFC has the best motor in that organization. Far and away, Emmanuel Sanchez has the best motor in this one.

And just by virtue of how consistently he can just stay in your face, forcing you to do work when you clinch up. Maybe he doesn't get to take that, but you're constantly defending. Maybe the punches don't land, but they're coming. You got to do something about them that puts you on the back foot. And eventually, when the waves keep crashing into the wall, they will eventually break it. And so you see, he does have moments where he's able to hurt Pitbull a little bit. He's able to land. He's able to outwork him. This was a close one all the way through. I mean, Pitbull's not, the key, the real fun part about rewatching his fights is,

you know, he's in control of the key momentum spots in this fight, but he's got to get through these fights. He's got to get through really tough fights and take damage and sometimes have to rally. That's what makes his career so fun is it's not all perfection and dominance. He can blow guys away who aren't on his level, but when he meets his match, he'll show his vulnerability

just because he gets in there going to win. When you go try to win a fight as often as Pitbull does, people don't realize, you do put yourself on the edge of danger. That's why you celebrate the fact that he's got that championship backbone, the chin, the motor. What we're learning now as he becomes a more mature fighter,

the ring IQ, which is certainly growing in him. You can see his game planning with Eric Albaracin. He's also got more skills to be able to make more diverse game plans. He can go a lot of different directions. What he shows us, though, consistent with the beginning, maybe the Joe Warren fight, he needed to learn that lesson. When he faded it in round two or three, outside of the Joe Warren fight was he needed to learn that lesson when he faded it in round two or three. Outside of that Joe Warren fight,

we're always seeing Pitbull as the fighter who's peaking in the key moments. This Manuel Sanchez fight came down to round five. Pitbull freaking peaked, and he put it on Sanchez and buckled him and really almost stopped him against the fence. So yes, you can come out of that with the narrative of,

damn, Sanchez is pretty good, man. Pitbull can be beat. You also have to stand in there in round five and actually get the better of him if you want to take a decision against him. And that's something Sanchez couldn't do. Yeah, and more importantly, I think you could even, not even, I think you have to say at this point, when you look at the totality

of Pitbull's career and pieces of the puzzle like this one, dude, if you have him hurt and you don't get him out of there, your window has closed. Like, okay, maybe he lost to Warren or to the first time to Kern or whatever, and Strauss got a day there. But in general, the second time y'all meet, you're not getting the same guy, not even close. And the things you did the first time that worked, they're not going to be there at all. And so for a guy like Sanchez, pushing Pitbull was admirable

and, in fact, interesting that you could do that kind of a thing. But one of Manuel Sanchez's problems in this fight and in other ones is just a little bit of a lack of finishing ability. That's not at all the problem with Patricio. I think in the end that's what made the difference. So look, it's a big title defense for Patricio, and it's kind of so big, and he's sort of at this spot now as the two-time featherweight champion, but everyone they put up against him, he's finding a way out.

Or if he loses to them like he did against Curran or Strauss, he would always win the war, right? He would always win the full rivalry. He's starting to look around at the other options out there to him, Patricio Pitbull. And he finds a potential opportunity to move up once more to lightweight. We'd seen him in a brief cup of coffee against Benson Henderson, looked great before the freak injury now he's going to go for the full champion Chandler at this point is on the second of the three runs he would have as lightweight

champion I'm sorry no this was the third of the three yeah this had to be the end this was the end he had lost the fight to Brent Primus on a kind of a should have been an injury stoppage in a lot of ways I won't call it like uh I mean that was a legitimate win because he did get kicked in the perennial nerve, and that counts. But he couldn't duplicate it with a second try, which sort of tells you that was a difference in ability. So the run Chandler had gone on, this wasn't the guy that fought Eddie Alvarez

in two sloppy, crazy fights. This was the face of Bellator, right? This was the most exciting guy in Bellator history. It's not just that he's the biggest name, most exciting, he's in the Dave & Buster's commercials. He's the guy for them. It's the fact that this run he went on when he went 3-0 after the loss to Primus, he gets a decision win over Yamamuchi, Goichi Yamayuchi.

He submits Brendan Gertz by triangle choke, he puts him to sleep, and then he beats Primus in the rematch. This is arguably the peak Prime, best version of him. And there's the emotional aspect. Patricio Pitbull's brother, Patrici, had fought Chandler for the title and had gotten destroyed by KO1 that I talked about earlier. It was one of the most devastating one-punch knockouts in the history of the sport, Luke. I mean, he...

Remember, he knocks him out, jumps on the fence, and Patricio is in his face, barking at him, and then you see Michael Chandler, I think, either do a throat slash or, like, you're next. Like, you could argue who's at fault

or who's, you know, rightfully so. Either way, you don't poke this kind of bear. You don't get Pitbull this pissed off and make it about the family and give him that fuel. Listen, hold on. I watched all the Strauss wars and the Warren fight. Even I thought Patricio might be biting off more than he could chew with Chandler.

I remember at the time, I was like, that's a tough fight for Patricio. Winnable, but tough. We all kind of predicted Chandler by KO, right? I think so, but then, well, this is what I mean. Accumulated good becomes something really special over time. There was expectations it would be a war,

obviously, but there was expectations that Chandler was just bigger. He's on a hotter run right now. I think more people were focusing on Chandler because he was the face of the franchise. And maybe weren't, to be honest here, maybe weren't watching every chapter of the Pitbull run in order and getting it. Because, look, they're brothers. They look like twins. You know, Petricky would be on one week.

The other Pitbull would be on the other. People, I don't think, were as in tune maybe because of the language barrier or whatever. He didn't have the star level that he has now, but I don't think people were watching as close to maybe realize what we should have realized. And also, again, big portions of Patricio's career happened when Bellator was moving around and finding its footing, and that's not entirely true. I mean, he's had several years on Spike, but I'm just pointing out that there's a lot of ways he kind of got lost in the shuffle

where we should have known better, BC. We should have known better, and we didn't, but you know what? He did. If Pitbull's fight July 31st against AJ McKee, if this isn't hyperbole, and that's the biggest, the most important, whatever you want to call that fight in terms of what it's going to mean to Bellator history in the finals of the featherweight world grand prix,

this is sort of the reigning champion of that argument at the moment, right? That's right, yeah. This fight where Pitbull moves up in weight, faces the face of the franchise, has the opportunity given where Pitbull stood in the record books at this point in terms of most wins and all that kind of stuff, two reigns of the title, this was what the same terms are going to be in the July 31st one. If I win, I'm the guy now. I'm the face.

I'm potentially pound for pound number one under this banner and have an argument against the world. But it only lasted 61 seconds. Rosemont Horizon, Bellator 221, May 11th, 2019. And we always talk about how it ended, Luke, but you forget until you go back and actually watch the full 61 seconds that Pitbull's counter right hand was making its mark. BC and I were talking about this on the way to work this morning.

We were watching it and we were saying, dude, okay, when you think about this fight and you've watched it, what do you think about? You think about the punch landing over the top of Chandler's, him slipping off his own punch that was incoming. And then you debate the stoppage. That's it. Right, right, it was like, was he there?

But you know, clearly, people landed a tremendous shot on him. You forget, watch that thing from the beginning. He had him timed immediately. He landed that punch in different ways, some of them grazing, some of them not, different locations, several times already. That was just the one that closed the show.

And Chandler didn't show a reaction that screamed something, but there's almost a subtle reaction that he showed, like very subtle. Like, fuck. Where you're like, did the screen just, like, skip? Did I just see a little, like, a certain, like, oh, damn, this kid can, like, this guy can bang. I don't think, honest to God.

It's not that he didn't know. He had finished Petricchi. Like, he knows who these guys are. And he knew that. I interviewed him before that fight, and he even said to me he knew Patricio was better than Patrycki. He did not think he was getting the same guy. But even he, I think he was like, fuck, that guy is way better than I thought he was.

And then the punch came. It was a counter right hand just about a minute in, and it hits Chandler behind the ear right about here. So it is kind of borderline. It's legal, but when I say it's borderline, it's so close to being a legal punch that if you can land it there, it's going to do monster damage. It's going to be an equilibrium shot. But this is the point.

He got a little bit fortuitous with the landing in the sense that it wasn't lucky, and that's a vulnerable spot. Fair enough. But to me, if you can... Dude, slipping a punch is hard. We see boxers do it, you take it for granted. Do you know how long that skill takes to learn for people who are boxing? Years before you can finally

begin to time someone and get the movements where you don't get counter yourself. Slipping is hard. It's very difficult to do. He is consistently slipping and then he times the punch over the top that way. Dude, to me, that was like, he's the smaller guy. That is a much better striker

than Michael Chandler. Fact. Before we get to the fallout of that punch, by this point, Pitbull has mastered how to be a complete fighter. He knows which guys I need to rush against and which guys I need to be patient against. That savviness was not there earlier in his career. No.

And he knew that in this matchup against Chandler, he was going to have to rush him and show that threat of the jab. And that threat of the jab is probably what opened up that counter right hand. Hits him behind the ear. He goes down. Instantly, you got Pippen. I would argue slightly, though. I would argue that he did, to me, there was a little bit of a seesaw on this one where sometimes he was pressing into Chandler.

A lot of times he was letting Chandler come to him. Remember, in the end, it was a counter shot, slip, punch over the top. So he understood sort of how to surf the waves and kind of balance a little bit. That's, I mean, people take it for granted. I mean, four fights with Strauss, in terms of negotiating distance and being able to control it.

And like an aggro wrestler. And learning the dance. That's a dance, look. It's a footstep dance. Absolutely. And he learned it. So he lands some pretty savage, quick ground and pound. But look, the more I watched the stoppage, I didn't, I never protested then because it was such an accomplishment to see Pitbull drop Michael Chandler and definitely

put him in peril. Whether you can argue whether he was out or not, or was he kind of out? I mean, he was in trouble. There's no question. But the more I watch it, I feel like it is a bit of a quick stoppage. Am I crazy? I do. I do. Here's my thing. Whenever I see there's a quick stoppage, a lot of times I'll try and pay attention to what the ref is doing and what the body language is of the fighter. Okay. You can make an argument there. Is it Mike Beltran, I believe, in this? It could have been Beltran. I have to go back and look. But the thing for me is this. I've actually interviewed Michael Chandler a couple times about that. He's never protested. Now, you can argue he's playing the professional role here and he doesn't want to make us think about a loss and make excuses. And that probably plays, if not the

chief role, at least some kind of role. I mean, again, whether you, wherever, he got caught. But I've heard Michael Chandler complain about other things. He does it in a very professional, very thoughtful, and usually he's right about it, by the way. He only complains when he's got a good case. The fact that he's never really complained about that, ever, maybe he was a little dizzier than he let on from his body language too, you know? And I think, even though

I do feel like it was a quick stoppage, he was going to finish him on the ground. Like, I had no doubt about that. I mean, you get people on top of you at that pace. I mean, that was a savage pace to try to force the stop. And again, it wasn't just the punch that landed. Dude, all the preceding ones got very, very close. He had him timed right away. And you know, it was

like, what do you call that game at the fair? I thought you were doing Phil Collins. I can do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Yeah, so I mean, this is an incredible victory, Luke, because now we're not, okay, he has taken the mantle now as face of the franchise, but you're also like, he's putting together like an all-time great career.

I mean, like, I don't know if we always realize, I don't even know if we realize that right now. Let me ask you. In terms of what he's accomplished, Luke. Let me ask you, let me ask you, we see this win, maybe the second Strauss win, maybe the current rematch. Which one has been his biggest leveling up performance? It has to be this because it's officially one division up,

and that's a level up in physical terms. But Chandler at this point was awesome. I'll say this. From a perception standpoint, there's no level up like this one, period. I will say from a competitive level up, I'm going to say the fourth Strauss fight or the second Strauss fight, depending on how you want to look at it, that's where I would point to as the moment where you're like, oh, shit.

There's many moments to his credit because the Joe Warren fight, again, his first loss is the only one where he didn't really have a great argument for the decision because he was fading late. Every other fight, he had the bigger moments late where even though you're like, okay, yes, he lost to Strauss in their third meeting. And that's, again, a big part of what made this rivalry so great. Yet he's the guy coming on late and finishing stronger, being like, you know, let's fight in the streets to the death,

right? So where he's at after this Chandler thing is it's like he's writing his own ticket. So I love to call him the small weight class's Wanderlei Silva. Because, you know, they're Brazilian and they're warriors and there is some level of comparison there. But am I wrong? Don't kill me here. He's

going to accomplish more in the long run than Silva has. Where Silva will, he'll never be the beloved at like character and almost like movie villain. I mean, he's like a movie villain, right? I don't agree with that. There's a belovedness with Wanderlei that I'm not questioning. Right? Sure. But I think Pitbull is a better fighter and is going to maybe accomplish more by the end of it.

I think certainly Pitbull is A. Well, here's the difference. There are different eras, too. He's a different era. That's one of the problems. You know, Wanderlei did incredible things in Japan. But it was like, you know, 10-minute first rounds, and he fought Mark Hahn, and you could stomp on people. And, you know, he could sort of get away with swinging wildly.

I'll say that Wanderlei was more openly feared and revered in his time, but I do think you're right. When you compare the Brazilians' resumes in terms of, like, quality work over time, and this is, again, I'm going to go. And that wasn't a skillful era where you had a lot of skilled guys. So I get the. Well, his 205 was really good at that time. That was the golden age, 205.

I know what you mean, though. I do want to say this, though. One thing about Patricio that just should not get lost is one of the reasons why he can be, you know, accumulatively great is because he just has a resilience over time. Like, where's Daniel Strauss? Is he even still in the sport anymore? I think he may have had law enforcement troubles. I don't wish that upon him, but he is not currently active on our radar.

He fell apart after that. He fell apart. Pat Curran kind of fell apart, too. He was working. The last time I interviewed him for one of his last Bellator fights, he was installing air conditions and stuff. He was really moving on to his next. And I called him Jeff Curran three times in the show, too. And the point being is, dude, Pitbull is still here, still relevant, still in good health as far as we can tell.

Well, you're almost waiting for him to crack because he only really had that one hand injury. Yeah. And then the leg injury. Sorry, he did have the leg injury. The leg injury. Here's my point. He's been this durable and this important and this lasting. It's not just that he's outlasted his competitors,

but to some extent, he's just outlasted them. Like the great ones, seriously, like the great ones, he's getting better with age. He's not better all the time than Jose Aldo. I'm not making that comparison. No, he's not. But he's maturing at a later age and staying

more relevant, where But Jose was better early. But Aldo was still great after the Conor loss. There was still a window there where he was great. 100%. And then he would just lean on the greatness to fall on the sword twice against Max Holloway, but

Pipple is like number one pound for pound in Bellator and arguably has a chance number one pound for pound in the world in an argument right now at the moment. He is still on this trajectory, whereas Aldo has already peaked and is sort of on the steady but still competitive decline. Now, Pipple's going to turn 34, I believe, right around this fight.

Yeah, pretty close. We still have a few fights to go, though. No, I'm not closing up shop. So July 7th, he's going to turn 34. So by the fight, he'll be 34. So to still be this great late and to see the run he had to go to after the Chandler win,

we start the Bellator Featherweight World Grand Prix 16-man tournament. And in the first round, Pitbull at Bellator 228 gets Juan Archuleta. September of 2019, Luke in Englewood, a three-round decision. And this was, there's no argument. Five rounds. September of 2019, Luke, in Englewood, a three-round decision, and this was, there's no argument, this was dominant. Five-round. I'm sorry, five-round.

This was dominant. This was absolutely dominant. Listen, I'll give Juan Archuleta credit. Who went down and won the Bantamweight title right after this? Right. I mean, this is really a Bantamweight fighter. I mean, that's what he is. He was, to his credit, daring to be great against a guy like Patricio. God bless him. I really admire it.

But, dude, Patricio had his number in the striking department over and over. He could wait for a guy like Archuleta, who's going to use movement and blitzes and whatnot and level changes and wrestling to really try and make his mark. And he tried. He tried for 25 minutes. I give him all the credit in the world. I have a lot of respect for Juan Archuleta. But when it came to the striking talent and the pinpoint accuracy and the ability to intercept a moving opponent, he could not be beat on this night. It's a unanimous decision, as I mentioned,

but you wouldn't see Pitbull back right away because then Corona hits, Luke. It doesn't. And that breaks up people's plans, and that puts, look, this is a 13-month layoff for Pitbull. He doesn't do this, except for when he broke his hand. He doesn't take this kind of time off, but he comes back in that second round last November of 2020, Bellator 252 against Pedro Carvalho.

And what was the bigger storyline coming in was maybe the team Pitbull Brothers versus SBG Ireland rivalry. That was getting some play. But you have to admit, there was some hipster talk to the idea that maybe because we saw Pitbull get tested by Emmanuel Sanchez through five rounds a couple fights earlier, right? Maybe Carvalho could, you know, this is the peak moment in his career in terms of we've never seen him any better. Maybe this is sort of an upset waiting to happen. That wasn't crazy.

There was a little whisper of that. No, no. Okay, are you asking me did I see that being bandied about recklessly by Rubes? Yes, I saw that being recklessly bandied about by Rubes. There was that one if. It was getting stronger. But I think most of us knew Pedro had an uphill climb. Now, to Pedro's credit, in the lead-up to this fight, he was talking a big game,

and not in the kind of way where he was just saying, you know, insulting things. I mean, he was bigging himself up. He really believed that he was going to go in there and put hands on a guy like Pitbull and get his hand raised. I mean, he was committed to the idea that he was going to have a big night in his career. The problem was he didn't. He got hit with a combination, the last punch of which flattened him on the canvas. By the way, did it not look like he hit the—

Dude, these guys look like—they don't just— When Pitbull hits them, they don't fall to the canvas. By the way, did it not look like he hit the... Dude, these guys look like... They don't just... When Pitbull hits them, they don't fall to the canvas. It looks like gravity is slamming them to the canvas. Yes, yes. The Vyshal KO came just the same where there's this massive head bounce

that happens. This was exactly the same kind. And Carvalho had won his six previous fights coming in here. He had been unbeaten under the Bellator banner. He had some power. He had some reputation. First round, two minutes and ten seconds,

absolutely floored him and cleared him out. Light work. I'm sorry to say that, but it was. It was. It was dominant and easy. And then we get to the semifinal bout, and that would come in April of this year, April 2nd, Bellator 255. Emmanuel Sanchez and Luke, we did video previews for it.

We did a lot. This was a big fight because Sanchez and Tel Aviv a few years earlier had pushed him the five-round limit, had had a chance entering the final round to sway the momentum and win on the scorecards. I really talked myself into this. Emmanuel Sanchez had the win streak, had the toughness, the pedigree, the training and the great camp.

There were so many reasons to love his chances. Absolutely. There really was, where you're like, okay, maybe it goes five. Maybe it's another split decision. Maybe Pitbull hangs on by the skin of his teeth, but he's going to be tested. Luke, he wasn't tested. No. Well, understand something.

Let's set the context here. Where was Emmanuel Sanchez coming into this fight? Now, what was the criticisms we have made of him, he's got a motor like nobody else, and he's kind of good at everything, but he didn't necessarily have some of those finishing abilities. He fights Georgie Karakhanian. He does decision him, but it was absolutely dominant.

Then, by the way, he fights Tywin Claxton. He triangle choked him. There's your submission. And he fought Daniel Weishel. Here's the thing. That one goes the distance, but he beat up Daniel Weichel. Which is not easy to do because what has been the theme coming in? Even Patricio has only done that for one round.

I was going to say, Weichel's a tough bastard. I mean, that was not going to be an easy situation. And, dude, I'll just say it outright. Emmanuel Sanchez beat him up. Like, I could not believe what I was seeing. And there were several times where Weichel is rocked, and he's the one that has to clinch. I couldn't,

I was so shocked by that. So, what Sanchez, the Duke Rufus trained Sanchez, are you getting by the rematch? You're getting the one

that was kind of putting all the old criticisms to rest. You knew he could be there for five rounds if it was a cardio question. You just wondered about the maturation of his game.

Well, hello. It had arrived. And what does Pitbull do? Puts him away inside of a raft. Well, hello. It had arrived. And what does Pitbull do? Puts him away inside of a raft. Well, not only that, he uses his finishing move. It's like pro wrestling, which you hate, Luke.

Coming off the top rope with like an inverted, some kind of frog reverse jump. I always thought Hulk Hogan had the worst one. Yeah, the leg drop was pretty lame, although it cost him his hips. I mean, you're going to wear yourself out

doing that all the time. Luke, he put the guillotine on him. And this has become a trend. When he puts it on you, when he gets it, I mean, you're going to wear yourself out doing that all the time. Luke, he put the guillotine on him. And this has become a trend. When he puts it on you, when he gets it, I mean, the torque, the strength, it's over. The fight's over. Three minutes, 35 seconds, it was over. For all that talk about Emmanuel Sanchez, Pitbull's that great, Luke.

That's where he's coming in, that version of him entering July 31st. And again, can we double back on the biggest takeaway here? Pitbull should be your favorite fighter of all time. This was an incredibly fun journey to go through, fight by fight. Okay, I didn't watch enough. I should have watched the first Vychel fight

and watched all five rounds of that action at the same intensity that I did the Strauss rivalry. But every fight, he's given you a story, you know, either a finish or a story, right? And again, I want to look, I want folks to make sure they examine this. He is climbing a ladder here, and a couple times he has to go a rung down.

But if you think about it, dude, he has just found ways over time through, I think, an 11-year Bellator career. He's been fighting professionally, by the way. I just want to point this out. He's 34 years old. He's been fighting professionally since 2004. Dude, he's an all-time great.

We're in the midst of all this. I mean, it's fucking unbelievable. I'm not drunk on hyperbole, Luke. He's an all-time great fighter. Again, he's the best fighter in this organization's history by a country mile. It is not particularly close. And then to do what he did to Emmanuel Sanchez, the most dangerous

version of him, to snuff him out like he was a nobody, and he is not a nobody, it's hard to comprehend. But the question you have to ask yourself is, can a guy be this good for this long, this durable? And we know it can't last forever. So when does this train come to an end? Because BC, here's the impression that I'm getting by doing this exercise. You feel like he's peeking into something, right? He is, he is really at an all-time high or in A.J. McKee, is he being set up for the fall? This is what's crazy about this because I just got so high just a minute ago on talking about how much I love.

I've also been farting consistently. How much I love Patricio Freire's career and now his legacy, even though it's not over yet, Luke. And I'm like, you know what? He is an all-time great. Am I being too hyperbolic? Well, you know what I can say about A.J. McKee, if you want to get extremely hyperbolic?

Is he kind of the closest thing we've ever seen to Tiger Woods of MMA? No, he hasn't fully cashed that in by any means, but just looking like a freaking natural. There's been very few guys, Jon Jones was one of them, where at certain points in the rise, you're like, oh, this one's special.

That's just different. A.J. McKee feels different, Luke. He really does. He does. You know what's funny about A.J. McKeeee is a lot of times I've had him in studio. We've had him. We talked to him at the Bellator Media Day. We talked to him, by the way, at the Mayweather versus Paul Wayne.

He stopped by. He was cool, cocky, and confident. You know what's funny? Every time somebody who is in the MMA industry who hasn't met him meets him, the thing they always come back to me and say is, that kid's impressive. Yeah. That kid's impressive because they vaguely know about him. They'll look him up a little bit. Look at his resume. Like, God damn that kid's impressive. Yeah. That kid's impressive because they vaguely know about him. They'll look him up a little bit.

Look at his resume. Like, God damn, he's undefeated. That kid's impressive. And he's got a certain swag and youth to him that is just impossible to emulate. The thing I'll say, BC, is Tiger Woods, I don't know. I don't know. I don't know enough about golf to make any kind of informed judgment about that. But if you wanted to, how do I say this?

If you wanted to be maybe a little bit unfair to Patricio, but not too far from the truth, you could say he's the new version of Patricio Freire. Not that they have the same game, but the guy who built his whole identity through Bellator, who cut his teeth.

In a way. Yeah, no, that's fair. Except, except, unlike Patricio, he's never made the mistakes that cost him a win. They are different species.

Very much. That's part of what, and I know that's weird talk, but that cost him a win. They are different species. Very much. I know that's weird talk, but that's part of what makes this matchup so great is the style contrast, the personality contrast, where they are in their careers, all that. But they're two different species that already ended up in the same place. That's true. We don't know if AJ McKee's going to walk this out how it started, but they both look like they could be great, which is why you're into this fight. I want to say, too, with AJ McKee, listen, I know everyone's like, oh, the jinx. Again, maybe we fucked Patricio here. I don't this fight. I want to say, too, with AJ McKee, listen, I know everyone's like, oh, the jinx. Again, maybe we fucked Patrice here. I don't know.

But I want to point out something, too. AJ McKee is one of these guys who, when it's all said and done, I want folks to remember this video, and I'm being serious about this. I could be wrong. Maybe I'm jinxing this, but I don't think that I am. I do think AJ McKee is going to blow up in some kind of way. You're saying this with the confidence of, like, Suge Knight right now. Well, I'm saying I think he's going to blow up in some kind of way where

not that we called it, plenty of people have called it, but I want folks to remember, you shouldn't be surprised when he ends up being a big deal. Yeah, and if he wins this fight, he will be. He will be a big deal. And if you haven't checked out... He'll have beaten this guy. If you haven't checked out the media teleconference that I

moderated, and it's on YouTube. You can go to Showtime Sports' page. You can go to Bellator's page and catch that. It's the two fighters, A.J. McKee and Patricio Pitbull, just talking junk most of the time. They're coaches first, and then the fighters. I was surprised it kind of got this personal. I was surprised it got this intense.

It is personal, dude. And I was surprised that A.J. McKee, to our point, to put a cap on it, he looked not only comfortable in the deep end, he was the guy verbally, language difference, all that, but verbally he's the guy who was bringing it to Pitbull. That was like a, oh, okay. Listen. Let's get the popcorn, Luke. This is going to be.

In the past, a great fighter could beat Pitbull. I don't think a great fighter can beat him anymore. I think it's going to take a special elite fighter to beat him at this point. But it just might be the case that AJ McKee's that guy. But still, for today's purposes, BC, if you didn't know the story of Patricio Freire's career, if you didn't understand what made him special, dude, we're talking about somebody who should go down in the record books as an all-timer. Just in terms of, forget about wins and losses, what he's given to fans and what he's tried to do. And he may be,

you know, it's different than Ivano Le Silva, but he's carving out his own unique niche reputation and like love affair that I think people are finally catching on with

and people are going to love what he brings to the table and savagery and like, he looks like a movie character. I mean, he's a badass.

Right. He's an absolute, dude, no seriously, in terms of a man's man, he's like an absolute badass savage. When he's on the stage and it's Pitbull and then it in terms of a man's man he's like an absolute badass savage when he's on the stage

and it's Pitbull and then it's BC and then it's me there's one man on that stage but like there's a presence there you know when I oh you know you guys are kissing up

no like it's impressive you can see that he walks in with a certain air of confidence that is unmistakable and he should look at what he's done and again

going up and down and experiencing that journey over again. Let's call it a day. It has just been wild. So hope you enjoyed that as well, Luke. Maybe you can just, you know,

I'm in. That's it. Yeah, I don't even know who's hosting anymore. Doesn't really matter. Thanks for watching. Thumbs up on this.

Hit subscribe button. And yeah, enjoy doing some homework on Patricia. If you missed some fights, thank you for watching Resume Review. Sorry if we've jinxed you,

but I don't think we have because it's not real, but maybe we did, who knows? Anyway, until next time, enjoy the fights. Don't be afraid of the magic. Don't be afraid of it.