MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Ryan Garcia TKOs Conor Benn | Tom Aspinall Vacates UFC HW Title | Noche UFC: Silva Stops Delgado

Episode Date: September 14, 2026

Tom Aspinall has vacated his UFC HW title due to ongoing eye issues. In the main event of Noche UFC, Jean Silva survived some early trouble to eventually stop Jose Delgado with a dramatic one-armed rear naked choke in the third round. Luke Thomas and Chuck Mindenhall break it down and the other highlights from this weekend in combat sports. Did Brandon Moreno shed the "washed" accusations with a strong performance against Joseph Morales? How impressive was Alexa Grasso in taking the fight to Manon Fiorot from the opening bell? And did Tommy McMillen make you a believer in his win against Marwan Rahiki? And in boxing, Ryan Garcia stopped Conor Benn in less than two rounds in the first big stateside Zuffa Boxing event of this year. LT and The Iceman recap it all, and more on an MK Monday!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Revely, revelry. Look at this mouth. Jesus. Oh, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. Combat. Oh, there I did it. You fit in seamlessly in this weird MK environment. Do you want a barterina?

We're going to do it to read, choose, choose, that's it. Your marks get set and go on. We have a lot to get to today on this morning combat Monday edition. I stumbled through my words. I'm paid to talk for a living. I don't know why. Hello, everyone. Welcome on this 14th day of September, 26. My name is Luke Thomas, and this is, of course, morning comment. I am merely one half of your hosting duo. I join you for the capital of Estatus Nidotis right here in Washington, D.C., joined by Connecticut Brethren, the Iceman himself,

Chuck Minnan Hall. Chuck, you were not in Vegas, were you? I was not. No, no, no. I was not in Vegas. It kind of, there was a little bit of a fomo for not being there. I felt like that was a fun one. And I saw our boy BC all over the place. So that was good. Just posting on the feeds here. BC was everywhere. They're making him wear a belt now because it's harder for him to put his pants around his ankles when he has a belt on. So that's a nice thing for him.

But shots to BC, he certainly is everywhere over there. What I will say, I never get FOMO about Vegas. Ever, ever. As I'm saying that, I'm like, I'm lying. But the bottom line is I was like, it looked like a fun event, you know. Yeah. I mean, I definitely don't miss out on being in any event at this. point. Yeah. No, but like when UFC went to like New Orleans, I was like, oh, yeah, I'd like to

be there for that, you know, that's kind of cool. But you just want to be in New Orleans, though. I mean, that's just kind of. Yeah. Well, I mean, part of a fight destination is, I mean, I mean, the thing is if you've never been to Vegas or if you've been there maybe a couple of times, it probably has some intrigue. If you've been going like I have since 1999, like I just, I mean, you know, I don't care anymore. So it doesn't matter. And I never really did. It's not my kind of city. But you get the point. But like, you know, if it's a new place, if it's a fun place. I mean, that's part of the fight atmosphere too, right? I mean, that's sort of the whole thing.

Yeah, yeah. I think the most fun I ever seen you have on the road was in Denver, wasn't it? Like, I feel like you were having some fun. That was right when the dispensaries were opening up. Yeah. Everything was brand new. I had a friend take me to a dispensary out there. He lived in Denver.

And it was a glory show. And I went and had a chocolate bar and I asked the guy, how much of this chocolate bar do I have, you know, to have like a moderate amount? And he was like, oh, have one square. I'm like, I don't know what this pussy is talking about. I'm going to have the whole thing. So I had the whole thing. and then I went to sleep and I woke up and I called my wife and I realized I was still completely baked. So that was fun.

All right. Speaking of completely baked, let's bring in the third member here of the panel. He's our friend in yours. It's Long Island. It's Long Island. How did it go for you in terms of the Beton this weekend? It actually went really well. I will say Manon Furo screwed me over from getting a perfect card.

Otherwise, I would have went absolutely perfect. Called Curtis Blades called Brandon Moreno, both dogs there. But yeah, Furo fucking screwed it. But either way, I was going to say, I was going to make a joke, Luke, because you're like talking about eating the candy bars. I remember my first candy bar. But Chuck, I also thought you were making a joke about Denver by being like, Luke, you love Denver, right?

Because you're from Denver. You know, what did he really have a great time there? I don't know. That remains. He did have a good time. I like Denver. Yeah. Denver's a cool city.

Denver has nice people, good eats, you know, cool scenes. It's all right. I've never been to Denver. I also find it hard to believe you didn't get FOMO for the sphere card at no check. Come on. Who? Uh, I would go. You were there.

I was there. I was like, I can't have FOMO if I'm there. Yeah, no, I was going to say, L2. The answer is very obviously any show at the sphere is so good that, yes, I would want to go to it. But honestly, dude, I'd rather my plane, you know, just crash than go to Vegas. Like, next time I board it, if it crashes, I'll be like, this is better for the world. You'd probably leave after like five minutes of being there, too, at the sphere, right? Dude, like, when I go to Vegas, I'm at the point out of people, I try to explain this to people. Like, if you're actually there to work, which a lot of people kind of work and play, and I'm not there to play.

I'm there to work. Dude, it's like trying to study for the fucking SATs in a Dave and Busters. It's like, it's just not conducive to anything. I'm like, okay, but neither here nor there. Guys, we have a lot to get to. Obviously, the weekend, Ben Garcia, I should say, excuse me, Garcia, Ben, Noche, UFC. And of course, we got this breaking news. Let me just quickly set this up, if I may. Thumbs up on the video. If you have it, please hit subscribe. We can follow us on the socials here below on your screen. We have an email, morningcombat at gmail.com, fan subs, dead wrongs. to reach the show more generally. We'll do fan subs later in the show today. On top of that, we have memberships, badges, emojis, and we have merch. Morningcombat.combat. Dot shop is available

right now. Okay, we normally have five topics. We're going to have five topics today, but then news broke this morning. What do you want to call it? Topic 1A or topic zero, I don't know, but let's start with the most important breaking news here of the day. Namely, I guess I can't call him champion anymore. Tom, Aspinall has vacated his UFC heavyweight title. We had maybe heard some inklings of this. Dana White was asked about it at the press conference following Garcia and Ben. Or maybe that.

It was Garcia Ben or Nocha UFC. I can't remember which one. I think Garcia Ben. And he said, you know, they were kind of considering that Tom Aspinall puts out a statement. Let me put that up on the screen if you can here very quickly. I don't know if I'm going to read the whole thing, but it goes something like this. This is the truth. With ongoing complications with my eyes,

meaning I cannot get medically clear to fight right now. I've had multiple surgeries, accidents, and infections, and done everything possible to get back to competing. I had previously agreed to a fight date and was back sparring, feeling great, and ready to compete when an accident caused further damage to my right eye. This means more time away from the sport, and right now, the timing of my return is unclear. I know there have been questions about why I've been quiet.

I've always followed the advice of the UFC and focused on my recovery. while we've tried to make this happen. I've now made the decision to vacate the heavyweight title. I've asked the UFC to allow me to make this statement because I don't want to hold the heavyweight division up. I know what it's like to have your career put on hold, and I want the other fighters to have the opportunity to compete for the title. The UFC and Hunter have been informed every step of the way,

and I've seen the test, procedures, and medical information relating to my eyes. We have worked closely with different doctors and specialists to try and make my return happen, but unfortunately, it's simply not possible right now. He does say, I'm not done. Stepping away from the title is not stepping away from the sport or the dream. He says he's going to try and get back as soon as possible. Last but not least, what makes this particularly difficult

is that many of the complications I'm dealing with are a result of fouls that change the course of my career. Fighters rely on officials to enforce the rules and protect us in those moments, and it's hard to still be dealing with the consequences today. Thank you to everyone who has supported. me throughout this absolute nightmare i'll be back as soon as i'm medically able to be chuck let's go right to you i don't have to ask much your reaction to this news i i feel gutted for tom and i'm not i mean i i see a lot of people who give him endless hell do you see this like i feel like you know i i

i guess people believe that he is milking this thing that he is exaggerating his injury but man when i just look back you put this into context well he went through with getting just to get to this spot having to fight for an interim title, then defend an interim title, then to wait out John Jones as he sat on the fence as to whether he was going to come back. And to him and Holland to actually discount Aspinall through the process of being not worthy of a fight with him and all that stuff. Everything that happened, 15 months go by, he gets this fight. And he's right. He's in this fight. And I guess because the fight was competitive, gone was doing better than I guess many people thought he would showing enough where it was like maybe it was going to, you know, it was going to be a tough fight for

for Aspinall to get through. You know, it somehow skewed the idea of what happened. So like when he gets hurt in this and he gets put on the side, I feel like I've just seen so much hate towards Aspinall for this. But just taken into context, there's 11 months that have passed since then, and the 15 months prior, for 26 months,

he's had that one fight. And he gets poked in the eye. And this seems to me, like, to have this recurring damage and infections and all that stuff, that it might be more than just something that derail, just his timing on the on the heavyweight landscape but now you start to worry a little bit about his career and I know this is a guy who had aspirations maybe to box at one point and certainly to defend his title and all that stuff I feel bad for him man like to see him do this and

obviously we just saw this with Valentina where she's hurt and she's vacated or kind of push broom to the side while they make a title fight I feel like there was an immense pressure for Tom Aspinall in this position. And if you take him at his word without knowing the politics in between, it's the right move in the end for him to step aside until he's healthy because that's just something. It sounds like the pressure itself is as hard to deal with as the actual recurring eye injury at this point.

Man, this is bad. You know, he lost a year between after the Curtis Blades injury, right? Yeah. And October will be a year for him. since he got poked in the eye by Cyril gone. So we're going to be a year on from that. That's two years. He would have lost. He's 33 years old. That's still quite young.

Chuck, I think you would agree. 33 is certainly in that division. Totally. Totally. You know, so there is, you know, I don't want to sit here and panic and be like, oh, my God, this guy is falling. But at the same time, for that reason, he does have still relative youth on his side. Not a lot of wear and tear up beyond the eyes, obviously. So that part is great. but to your point, like, can he even return? If he does return and he sustains another eye injury,

other doctors going to say, that's it. Will commissions license him if he has, you know, continually detached retinas or something like that? One never knows. I mean, recall, this guy was accused of malingering. Yes. By the fan base. As a guy who is, not to this extent anyway,

but as a guy who has been on the receiving end of MMA fans, I are in, you know, not coordinated per se, but large campaigns. Let me just say, like, there's no version of those that are not dishonest or low IQ. You know, maybe not the entire part of it in every case, but in virtually every case, some part of it is at least low IQ and some part of it is at least dishonest. And this one is certainly no exception. Now, Chuck, I do think that him constantly trying to prove the nature of his injuries to the fans

didn't help anything because it just only, I mean, they're already being dishonest, more information of the kind that he can provide is really not going to change that. It's only just going to kind of make it worse. And it did. And I did recommend that he stopped doing that. But nevertheless, this guy was accused of malingering. I mean, I want everyone who did that to take a nice long moment and ask yourself why that was and why that was kept up for as long as it was.

Or why you even thought such a thing would be true? It's because you don't understand anything about these people. That's the reality. Like, nobody who understands, I mean, fighters are capable of doing anything that anybody else is. lie, cheat, steal, be heroes, be great, be virtuous. They can do anything that anybody else does, but there's certain kinds of realities when you're around them for long enough that you get exposed to.

And the idea that Tom Aspenal over time would be putting on some kind of fucking act as for what? I mean, this is the fever dream of the great unintelligent. I mean, that's what that is. And now it leaves us Chuck in this place where, you know, he is, again, does he make a comeback? By the way, it should be noted in this message, Chuck. and this message to the fans and to the sport.

I didn't see a timetable in there. You know, who knows exactly when he gets back in here. This, again, I don't want to say on a day like today that this is the time to ask this kind of question. But we are getting to the point now where we're adding up enough factors where in my mind, I'm beginning to get a little bit of a spidey sense of a what-if career situation happening here. I hope that's not right.

I hope he's able to come back. I'm assuming UFC is going to give him a title shot upon his return, whenever that is. But this is about as unfortunate a turn as a career can go for someone this young Chuck with this much wind at their back and this much athletic potential. This is not the end of the world. But, man, this is it rock bottom?

I don't know. It's something like that. It's certainly got to be among the very unluckiest. things we've seen from a fighter. I mean, you know, we've seen so many guys they get derailed. Look at like Shavkat, for instance, right? Like he's cruising along, he gets derailed, and now he's been on the shelf for

almost two years at a moment when he should be either winning the title or, you know, whatever it is at the top of that division. This was different in the sense, like, I felt like Tom Aspenall was almost a, he was almost a savior figure for this division in the sense that, you know,

look at the many iteration of the rabbit hole of this division. It's such a crazy thing. Just going back to Francis and Ghanu, you know, winning the title against Miyochic, right? Like he beats Miyoch, and then they wanted him to turn around really fast for UFC 265. He says, I'm not able to do that. So they create at a thin air for no good reason an interim title with Cyril Gone. And this is why it's sort of the absurdity of this cycle. Like Cyril Gahn was fighting Derek Lewis.

Cyril Gond wins. Now he's the interim champion. Now they funnel that into UFC 270. and these two guys fight right. But then after that, the whole contract thing, Ingano leaves. So now you've got your lineal champion is out of here. And at this point, I feel like this division has just been in this vortex. And it just keeps going down these side streets and you can't get it back to anywhere normal. And so, like, each guy, there's like these asteris to start to compound. So, you know, when Gano's gone, John Jones fights, he beats Miochich.

Then he's on the show for a long time. That's when Aspinall comes along, wins this thing. He has to actually defend his interim title. They stick by the guns. They hold, have John, you know, fights Miyoch, 42 years old.

He beats him. You know what I mean? This, and then John, like, keeps Aspinol waiting all that time when he leaves. And now there's two asteris and like, you're getting steps away from millennial championship. And all of this,

all the way through. And there's a million other things that have happened. And now you're at this point. And I'm like, dude, it's, it's not just, you know, it's Aspinol's first and foremost. You're like, this is, this sucks for him because this was, this was his moment. This was his moment to kind of be the guy. And if he was ever going to fish one of those guys back, he was going to be the guy, right? Like if John Jones was going to come back,

you'd have to go through Aspinall. This was all supposed to beat his moment. And to see him now be derailed, another guy who hasn't technically lost, but will lose the belt. This is, it's a disaster on every level. You know what I mean? But in the moment, you know, just getting this news today, it's all for Tom Aspen. I just feel bad for that dude, man. I really do. You're so right, though, but this is why the health of the division runs through its stars. That's not totally true, but just consider to your point, right? Everything was kind of about this moment in the heavyweight division, its momentum, and where things were leading,

where Tom Aspinall was supposed to be this generational figure, right, where this new crop of heavyweights finally takes over from the old, and he was the leading face of that. And then this handoff just has not gone. And so he's missed his moment, Chuck, and or again, not necessarily permanently, but this moment in time, yes, he did miss it, right? We can say that now. He missed this moment in time.

That doesn't just mess up his career. And to your point, Chuck, I wanted to just underscore one more time, that's the most important consideration here, particularly because we're also just talking about someone's eyesight. Like this is, this is the most important consideration. But a secondary consideration is because Aspinall cannot not ascend to the place that that kind of the forces were guiding him and needed him to be. That affects the health of this division too.

Understand, Francis Inganu, John Jones, Tom Aspinall, these are the last three weight class champions. None of them lost the belt by losing to another guy. It was all administrative for one reason or another in the end. That is terrible for the health of a division, Chuck. terrible. And it's to if you're like a new fan coming into this to try to describe like okay well the heavyweight division

here's how we got here it would be you'd have to be like a you know a scientist or something. It's just it's too difficult now to even trace. I mean you can but it's just it's so difficult that you don't even want to hold on to the details all you want is a stability to return to it and I think that that's where this aspirin all time and it felt he felt inevitable

in a weird sense like you know remember he blew out his knee on that Curtis Blades was supposed to be his coronation moment in London. He blows out his knee. It didn't happen then. So he kind of, you know, like you mentioned it off the top, like he kind of has to wait out this timetable, recover, come back.

And then he, and then you feel like he's in his moment, only to have everything just goes so south for him in this way. And, yeah, it's, it sucks on every level given all that, you know? It's just, it's not like we've talked about like, we, what was it, in March, April? We were talking about shuttering the division because of how bad it's gotten.

You know, just this theoretical, like, if you had to get rid of one, which one would you get rid of? It'd be heavyweight. But he's kind of the guy, right? Like, he's the dude. He's the guy there. Like, if you talk about Cyril gone, he's, what is he? He's 02 and 1 in actual, like, he's 02 and 1 actual, like heavyweight title fights, but he's like 2 and 0 in interim. It's bizarre.

But yet he keeps defaulting into this thing. And unfortunately, that's not the makings of a star, right? This just keeps feeling like you've got a guy that it's almost like a wrestling, a pro wrestling storyline like we keep forcing this guy back into the storyline it doesn't hold the same meaning as having one of these guys who just you think would clearly beat anybody thrown against them you know let's talk about the case here for cyril gone i just want to point this out so after losing to john jones okay here's how he got back to the title he beat sergey spivak who was ranked seven at the time so he fights a guy not even in the top five which fine for that moment in time it's not a

big deal what i'm just sort of pointing out you fight a guy outside of the top five Then he fights Volkov and he gets a split decision. This one was extremely questionable. I scored that fight for Volkov. Dana White, after that fight, famously told Volkov, we're going to take care of you because the decision was extremely debatable. I think is the way I'm going to put that. Right.

Then he fights Tom and he gouges his eye, perhaps permanently altering the course of his career. We shall see. And then last but not least, then you win the interim championship in this case by beating a guy who was making his first fight ever at heavyweight. Now, I'm not saying that this makes a game. his holding of the UFC title, the worst one I've ever seen. I've definitely seen worse. But Chuck, like, this is what I'm talking about. It speaks to both like how, you know, this is, Seeril God, like look at the factors around us. Cyril gone is not supposed to be the guy,

at least not right now. It's not supposed to be the guy. The factors are just crumbling around him that leaves him standing in a place where he is one, but it speaks to this kind of dysfunction and frankly disrepair that you're seeing here where, now gone has ascended to a position of power that is, I mean, you can't say undeserved, Chuck, but this ain't typically how you earn it, right? You know how like for the longest time, the apex, you'd see the apex shows and you'd be like, it just reminds me of the pandemic. And to see this empty warehouse, you're like, oh, just it's like we're still living in the pandemic. He's the weird reminder of all the guys that are gone, you know, because he loses to John

Jones, you know, he loses to Francis and Gano. And now he's put. you know, he's put Aspinall on the shelf, and yet he's going to be back in the center of all of this, right back into the position. He's a reminder of all that's gone. He's a reminder of how good that division, like the guys who are better than him in that set. So like that,

that's an unfortunate thing for him. I mean, he can, in a weird way, he's the, when I was talking about, you know, you're talking about Aspinall being the unluckiest guy. I think gone on the opposite end seems like the luckiest man. Like he's got the horse, like, remember, Frank Mare wearing the horseshoe up his ass that Barack Luzer. I feel like that's actually belongs to Gone at this point because he keeps defaulting.

Like it doesn't matter. Like he kind of defaults right back into a better position, no matter what happens here. So let's talk about what the road ahead looks like. Josh Hokit went to social media and said the following. The fans deserve me versus gone. I'll give Cyril what he has coming. If Alex can win one fight in my weight class, I'll give it to him too, early 27. I'll be the most active champ in the company.

Now, I've heard that before, but nevertheless, certainly not a bad thing to have an active champ, if such that one can be. Well, that's music to people's ears right now. Like people are like, please, yes. Yeah. I think he's right. I don't think the fight to make is the Cyril Gone and Pereira rematch. I think it's gone versus Hokit. And I don't know what you do with Pereira.

I mean, maybe you make him fight one more time. Maybe you don't. He's kind of always in that mix. But after Saturday, and we'll talk about the Curtis Blades and the Waldo Cortez-Costa fight a little bit later, Chuck. I think he's right. Yeah. Do we have to talk about that fight, by the way? Not much.

I'm just kidding. No, I agree with you. I think that Hocat, I mean, you put him on, you plucked him after that Blades fight, which everybody's like, okay, this dude, watch out for this crazy, like, wild heavyweight fight. He gets plucked and he's thrown into this White House thing. Why did you do it if you're not, like, setting him up, I guess, for this type of eventuality, if it all fell to him, which it is. Now it's falling to him.

I don't think you put him in that position unless you mean to give him a catapult to a title and here's the moment I gotta be honest man I've talked about this a lot but like Alex Pereira it seems like nobody is pining for that rematch outside

of Danbury Connecticut right down the street here and his guys and himself I really don't feel like people want to see the rematch between gone and Pereira if they end up making it obviously like you're like okay well we saw we saw that Pereira came back against Uncle Laiv.

He was able to avenge the loss. Maybe he's able to do this. He's had other series where they play out in interesting ways. Maybe this happens. We'll try to find the storylines. But that is not the fight to make. I think that you got Hokit, who's put himself in a position where everybody's paying attention to him. He's very smart and how he's handling that, you know, being very vocal and calling for it.

To me, if you want to make, if you want to make, whoever you plug in a egg is gone, that's the biggest fight to make right now. He's a natural everywhere. everything he's supposed to do. He's obviously a fire brand like people are talking about him. That's the fight to make. Yeah, I think it's the fight to make. I don't know if that's the fight that they will make. I guess we shall see. But that's the place to go. I just want to point this out here. So we mentioned Aspinol vacated because of eye injury. John Jones basically just didn't want to fight Aspinall, right? And then you had Francis Ngano who left the UFC after his contract expires. Do you know how long it's been since the heavyweight champion lost their belt inside the cage,

lost their belt inside the cage. It had to have been 21. About right. Five years and 181 days. Almost six years. That's insane, man. That's insane. I mean,

it's extremely insane. It's like it's you could, it's almost hitchcockian or something and it's in how in the vertigo it's caused. It's one of those things that literally it's like I made a joke today like to hold the belt, the real belt to this point. It's like the new Madden curse, you know? Yeah. Because it seems like whoever holds it.

something either happens to them or like a contract dispute or whatever but um it i mean right now that division is desperate desperate for something to happen where there's a guy who becomes the staple and like you know things seem like they go back to normal uh let me just say this too two or smaller points if i may then we'll move on here to the weekends fights number one again you could i was going to make this point after the brief discussion about curtis and cortez o costa which is like how can you look around to be like yeah we don't need francis and ghanu it's like i don't think francis can solve their problems chuck but he can solve a couple of their problems at least for a little while and that's not nothing at this point to be honest with you and the second point and then we can move on just very

quickly if i may i'm not necessarily saying that but for the ufc's inaction on this um or i should say due to the ufc's inaction on this tom aspinall got poked in the eye it's possible he would have been poked in the eye no matter what i cannot make a causal relationship So what I would say is more of a cautionary tale. We have good evidence. The Association of Ringside Physicians has looked into glove geometry. And they have said any kind of, there's different kinds, but Everlast Power Lock and there's other ones that curve the knuckles over.

And I know people are talking about as well, Trevor Whitman's gloves. But there's multiple ones. But the Association of Ringsside Physicians has shown that there is statistical evidence to connect the curvature, the glove geometry, their curvature substantially reducing eye injuries. It does not eliminate them, but it substantially reduces them. This has been known for a long time. And I just feel like at this point, whatever else you want to say about why they haven't had a

curved glove design, like, this guy might lose his eyesight. He might lose his entire career. And it's not clear to me that that was so hard to avoid. If they had incorporated a better design more proactively, this evidence has been known for a while. I would really, really, really like to see a new curvature glove design to hopefully minimize the amount of situations like this in the future. Preach man, 100%.

I will say that whatever happened to this Trevor Whitman thing, I thought we were actually sort of close. Remember when they were bringing this up a few months back? And I felt like they were talking. They were getting back into talks. I thought it was fairly imminent, but I have not heard anything else about that. I guess we'll see. I don't know what the answer is.

All right. Let's go now to topic number officially one. If we can, I guess it's topic two. Let's talk about the UFC main event for Noce UFC. John, John, Jean, Silva survived some early trouble, Chuck. He was getting rocked by doing this like mannequin bit. I don't quite understand it. However, he eventually stops Jose Delgado with a very dramatic one-armed rear naked choke

using his chin to seal that on the other side. Chuck, if this was an audition for a title shot, did Silva pass? the audition. Man, in the end, I'm going to say that he did, but I think that he also added some strange dimension to this whole thing because, I mean, honestly, going into it, I was like, it's not his fault that Yair Rodriguez's the original opponent fell out. He was headlining this event as a guy of intrigue, and I think the UFC really likes him.

He's a guy of intrigue who, if he wins a fight, he's got to be right in that mix. And he talked about that. I talked to him in the lead up to this fight. This is what he thought was going to be. the case to see him come out there though and do that thing you were just talking about the old time he kind of planted you know like he's a statue and he's just kind of pivoting around while the guys rotating around like and he didn't throw a punch i don't think until like around the three minute mark it was like what he was doing there i don't know because i'm like if it's an audition

he went into this thing not treating it like an audition which was bizarre to me and i don't know if it was just part of like if he was just kind of being a showman on some level or if he was you know what what the hell was a going through his mind. But obviously, like, that is not a good look. It was very weird. It almost introduces this idea that he's not, like, he's not mentally, you know, something, something's off with him that you're like, I don't know if I really want that guy near the title. But obviously, once he starts getting clocked a little bit, they got a little humatoma, his head, he's bleeding a little bit between the rounds, like the first, I think he's from the

end of the first round, he started to do stuff. By the second round, I felt like he was in the fight, and he was starting to do what he does. And by the third round, he's stalking him down. He's putting the pace and pressure on Delgado and eventually he gets the choke. So, I mean, he came to life in a fight, but it was almost like he had to be activated by being punched, which is a very bizarre look to me. Yeah, I mean, I think the way you put that was so nice, the strange dimension. It's like, okay, so on the one hand, the finish, one more time, if you could, Long Island, just roll that finish here.

This is so nice on this setup, right, sealing it. He'd obviously, you know, obviously practice this a million times and getting to a place where it's hard to hand fight on that same side. The other arm is then trapped by, you know, his far side leg. I mean, all of that is really. And by the way, the way he set it up, Chuck, going across the body to elbow and then getting, they got it to reach as a consequence was just like, it was very nice. It was a really, really nice finish. But then he gets up there and then bizarrely hands his gloves to Hunter Campbell. Hunter Campbell looked like he was accepting, you know, I mean, like He had found some kind of species, not species, but tribe that man had never encountered or something.

Like, you know, he was the way he was looking at him. I'm not suggesting it was a fair interpretation, but like the way he was looking at him was like, it was so strange. Anyway, so he takes his glove off and he gives it to him. And then, you know, he just, then later, Chuck, do we have a video of this? I don't think we do. Then later he says, yeah, I was knocked out twice in this camp. I don't even remember the Diego Lopez fight because he was like, oh, this was my real debut

because I don't even remember, maybe Noce UFC or whatever, main event. It was either Noce UFC or main event or one of it because he had never done it before because he doesn't remember the Diego Lopez fight. And it's like, I'm sorry. This is, he is the most 2000s MMA guy in 2026 I've ever seen, right? Because he is what we used to see more commonly,

which is a very talented guy who could fight very high or very low depending on, you know, the way he was feeling and was a genuine weirdo psychopath, right? Like a true, absolute, total weirdo. And he brought that in here. And it's like, I don't, I don't think, Chuck, that that is going to preclude him from getting a title shot. Sorry, I don't think it's going to preclude him from getting a title shot. Yeah, yeah. But, I guess after Saturday, I would say maybe it's not automatic. Yes. That's my thought. But at the same time, I'm like, you know, the UFC operates in mysterious ways too, Luke. It's like it's, I truly don't know in some ways, like, if any of that matters to them. But he is very different. I mean, it's just, it's, it's not like he has, like, I guess the bigger habit would be if he doesn't show up for fights.

Right. If he got, like, yeah, you're like, you know, or somebody like that who, like, you're not guaranteed he's going to be there. I'm not trying to throw shade on Yair, but like, you know, guys who have fallen out fights. It's not like you fear that with him. It's just that he's very different, man. I interviewed him beforehand just on a Zoom, like on Wednesday before a fight weekend. Everything you'd say, and when he starts to understand what you're saying, it's like a lot of facial expressions and wagging a finger and just kind of telling you, like, just kind of almost like a possessed person, you know, like where he's just kind of like channeling in real ways, like weird energies and like he's giving you these, he starts barking all the stuff. very different. I'm okay with all that. Like you said, I think that's very apt. Like in 2000s,

we saw guys like this quite a bit. But the sport has kind of went into this way that we don't see guys like that too much anymore. We just don't see it. When he jumped over and he was doing the gloves, I'm like, what is he doing? It was cracking me up because Hunter's face was just like that. But he's like, what is he going to do? What is he going to do? He did all of that with his teeth ripping off the tape, don't just to shake his hand in hand in the gloves. I was just like, I mean, it's different, isn't it? It's just very, very different. you know it's almost like george the animal steel or something where they're dealing with a guy who's a little bit of a wild man you know remember the persona he would eat the turnbuckles and you're like i don't know

the turn buckle he's like but that's kind of what it gives the feeling is he you're like dude doing you know i mean i here's what i you know whenever you get a genuine weirdo like a like a real like absolute down to the mitochondria weird guy you have to ask yourself because here's the thing he starts out fighting like this, Chuck, where he's like robotically moving. And Delgado was like, okay, free lunch. I'll have that. Yes, he did. Delgado like that.

He did exactly what he was supposed to do. Now, once Silva kind of woke up, he couldn't sustain it, of course. But there was a moment in time. So you would be tempted to say, Chuck, you'd be like, well, can he cut that out and then just do the part where he's good? Right. But then when you have a genuine genius who's also a genuine weirdo, and maybe genius is a strong word, but like a very talented guy. who's also a very, like very eccentric guy, I think is putting it euphemistically. If you cut out the ability for him to express himself fully,

do you actually make the other part lesser than because it just fucks up the whole flow of it? I don't know, but I'm just going to say this because my second question was to be like, you know, he might get a title shot, but like to what extent of this performance make you think he could win it? I will tell you, if he can't cut this part out of it where he has to just be weird during the fight itself, No, I don't think he can beat a guy like Volk or Mozart. No, I don't. I don't like you got out of there kind of lucky against Jose Delgado, who's a good fighter, but maybe not a great one.

Do that shit against a great fighter and you're not going to, it's not going to work. I wonder, and I mean, this might be too calculated, but you wonder if he might have taken this a little lightly, given like, you know, Dogata coming up guy who's thrown into the situation, just thinking I'm superior. And he played around with his food a little bit.

He may have done that. He may have done that. But you're right. He plays that stuff. stuff against one of those guys. And I know that he, you know, I talked to him about, you know, facing either Mossar or Volk. And he seemed to think he matches up very well with both of them. But you pull that stuff, man. It's just not, it won't work. I can dig theatrics, but there's a little bit, like I had done a bigger piece on him last year. I'd seen him out in Miami when he was fighting

Bryce Mitchell. And I was talking to him a little bit, you know, he's seeing weird stuff in his youth. You know, like, he grew up fairly impoverished, right? Like, he didn't really have a lot, but he saw things happening to his mom and things like that. And you wondered to what deep, like, psychological bearings he has that maybe create this thing that's going on. And sometimes that gets more and more magnified as you get bigger and bigger into the space. And as you get into title shots and the spotlight gets bigger and all that. So there are factors. I feel like there are X factors for him that you have to pay attention to.

Mental being the biggest one, you know? Question it is now what comes next, right? So does he get a title shot? We've been kind of talking about that. Here's an interesting little twist. Al Jermaine Sterling tweeted that he's calling for a title shot or Silva next. He says, I'm next in line, or we can fight for it, December, run it. Al Jemaine Sterling versus J.on Silva for number one contender fight at MSG November 14th.

I have to tell you, Chuck, if we're just calling it down the middle, plus, by the way, I don't hate that fight. at all. I like that fight. But I'm just saying even if I didn't like the fight, what's up Long aisle? I just want to point out, hasn't Aljo like notoriously not been able to get medically cleared in New York? Like, I feel like he's never fought in New York ever and he always is saying the New York Athletic Commission won't let him fight there. So I don't know why he's called for MSG, but it would be dope. Let's assume for the sake of argument that's not in place. I'll just say this, Chuck. I think if you're calling it down the middle, you're just looking at this as such. I love this idea. I think this is exactly the right idea. I just don't

know if the UFC's going to do it. What was that? What was Al Jusk? Why am I blinking on this? What was his last fight? Because it was, we had this discussion. You see the law. That right, right, right. And I mean, obviously, like, we were talking about, should he get a title fight? And we're like, well, it's not the worst idea. You know, like, if you want to throw him in there as a former champion and its other

weight class, I don't mind that, but sure, if you, if you believe in his credentials to get that title fight, and you're unsure a little bit about John, like, I would, that fight makes complete sense to me. And actually, stylistically, given that, like, you know, Sterling, his bag of tricks and some of the stuff he does in there, that would be fairly fascinating, wouldn't it? Like, putting those two guys together. And then you would have, I mean, in my mind, you would have a fairly definitive number one at that point. Yes. I think that, I mean, I don't know. I don't know what they'll do. It's a little hard to say. That fight between Mosar and Volk is UFC 33 Abu Dhabi, which is late October. I mean, they might have some sense about where they want to go based on that.

Right, right, right, right. Yes. So I was only just looking at the timing. Obviously, like, if they could do that, November is a very fast turnaround for John Silva. But I'm like, but if they're able to do it, keep it kind of timing wise near that fight. I mean, why not? I mean, it should be a four-man thing. Volk, Mozart, Aljo, Silva. That to me, like, that's how the division is set up to be done. And I think the metterangs of like Arnold Allen. in that top five there but i but jean seville just beat him right and i think lorne murphy is kind of hovering around there but i don't know you know i think that it would be fine to kind of zero

like like that i think that that's the right for with that in mind let's turn our attention now to the rest of the noche card this is topic number two so let's go through this event here if we can for a little bit all right chuck mindon hall your co-main event brandon morano gets a split decision over Joseph Morales. You could probably say that splits maybe a little strong for how Morales performed, which was not bad, but he never, I mean, he did well on my

opinion. Yeah. I thought he won the first round. You know, what did you think? Yeah, I thought he went the first round and lost the second two, but yes. And as you can see on Andrew top scorecard, he gave him one and two. I don't really agree with that, but one I do agree with. Yeah. But you know, Moreno kind of took over. So let me ask you, like on Friday's MK, Danny

I think was right. I mean, Danny made some picks that blew up in his face real bad. However, again? Yes, dude. Long Island, what did Danny pick? It's become a theme. Long Island, what did Danny pick that ended up being so bad? He said Edgar Chires was a lock and Tim Elliott got the dub. And everyone was joking about it all being like, we got a bet on Tim Elliott, right? And I was like, guys, come on, come on. And then it came true. It was actually hilarious.

He's the only guys like 0 and 5 on his locks. Come on now. I know, I know. However, I will say this. He was right to kind of push back on me a little bit. I thought Brandon Moreno was like washed after his last fight. I knew he had fought good guys, but I was just like, oh, he looks bad. And he looked a lot better this time. Granted, you're fighting a lower level compared to, you know, Tetsuro Taira and Joseph Morales. But Morales is a pretty good fighter. And I thought Brandon Moreno, for the most part, looked pretty good, Chuck.

What about you? Yeah. And I mean, you got to always factor in like a guy like Morales, who trains with Yeriah and those guys, right? Like he's one of their camp. And I mean, he's got good guys around him. And you got to realize he's circling Moreno is like the former. champion. This is the guy that I could hurdle and put myself into a conversation. So like this is his Super Bowl in that sense, you know, like he's going in this fight.

I felt like you saw that in the first round. I thought Morales probably won that first round. But as the fight went on, I felt like Moreno just kind of got into his rhythm and there were flashes. I don't want to, like, to call him washed after that, it would be a little extreme. I mean, maybe you have a different opinion of it. But like, I felt like he, he showed flashes of I don't know if it was the same guy was beating like Royval and, you know, Figurato down the stretch and and those guys in Kai Kair France and all those fights where he was really, really on top of his game. But there were certainly flashes of it. And I thought he kind of controlled the fight.

And by the third round, I felt like he was in control of that fight. So I thought it was a very good performance of shutting a guy down who had some hunger coming into that fight to beat him. Alexa Grasso defeats in one of the most amazing turnarounds for her after those Shepchenko fights. She beats Macy Barber, knocks down Manonfiro. And of course, she had the savage finish. of Barber didn't get the finish in this one Chuck and I will give credit to Fioro who I thought kind of got the fight back under control by the third round but by then it was too little too late how impressed are you by Grasso not really in this fight man but the energy she's had the last two

fights I mean like to call comeback fight over the year is like it's it's crazy really like but at the same time I'm like I don't know if it'd quite be that but she is certainly one of those people who it's like the resurgent fighter of the year or something you know like because I think after she loses to Valentina in that kind of rubber match like it just seemed like, okay, we've probably seen the best of Grasso we're going to see it. And that's kind of unfair given she's not that old

and all that stuff. But you felt like to an extent she'd coughed off all of her charms, you'd seen what she's able to do. She does that against Macy Barber in one of the most memorable finishes we'll get, you know, and it's going to be there at the end of the year as one of those talked about, you know, moments where Macy basically was dead lying on the mat.

and I was like, okay, well, Grasso's not done. But I know Long Island was talking about this, you know, Furo is a different beast. She comes in there and I'm like, the way she's been able to like handle rough situations, that Aaron Blanchfield fight when she went to Atlantic City and just shut down Aaron Blanchfield in these ways that you're like, dude, she'll just nullify you and make you look bad.

I felt that that was going to happen in this fight. And instead, it was just the opposite. And I mean, Grasso, her striking was, It was, I don't know, I don't think she was loading up. I think she was just kind of going forward. Winging punches, very straight, like very powerful punches. They were landing. She was able to knock her down.

I felt like the threat of any kind of takedown she was ready for, even though there wasn't a lot of that. Dude, she just looks completely, I don't know what happened to her. Like, since the barber fight, I'm like, but she looks completely reinvigorated and ready to make another title run. And with Valentina kind of clear right now, and we don't know what's happening there, she may be able to do it. Then we have to talk about a, what can you see?

say fight of the year contender, I think is a, I think it's a fair way to put it. Tommy McMillan gets the decision unanimously over Marwan Rahiki, but boy, he got put through the paces. McMillan dropped in the second round, bad, recovered us a little bit, but is still getting wobbled and rocked. But to me, Chuck, perhaps the most impressive thing here for Tommy McMillan, who I've called the gathering of the juggalo, you know, but you know, in fairness to him, in his last fight, he showed me that his pace was legit. And in this fight, he was able to use, I think his wrestling could be more useful for him. It was useful in this fight, but I mean, I think there's another level to which it could be

useful that he hasn't quite gotten to yet. He still is a bit of a blood and guts fighter. But the resiliency he showed, because to me, Chuck, he gets dropped real bad in that second round. And then he looks, I didn't know if he was going to make it out of the round. But if you actually go back and look at the end of the second round, the round he got dropped in earlier. He actually, I mean, he doesn't win the round by any stretch. But at the end of that round, Chuck, he's now pressuring back against Rahiki in a coordinated and he was starting

to get the better of things. And as that frame ended, I am very impressed by his resiliency. I'm very impressed by his pace. I've got plenty of questions about both of these guys. But what a fight this was. Well, we're going to be in studio tomorrow during a pregame preview in New York City. And I know that Jed is going to be there. We're going to have to keep pushing the table down on his side because this is his kind of fight. Is it not like this is one of those types of fights? Yes. And this is probably his new God in the UFC.

So I look forward to like, I look forward to actually have it like, seeing what his thoughts are about that. But dude, it's one of those weird ones, right? Because I kind of dug that you could see the poise of Rihiki trying to win out and it should win out. It's the kind of thing where he had a kind of poise

and is striking, very patient. He was countering very well. And obviously, and by the second round, his style starts to prevail. Like he looks like, like he's about to put the fight away.

But anytime you get the introduction of a guy who, like he said, he was going to outdog him, right? And I'm like, anytime you see it in real time where you see a guy that's like, you're going to have to kill him, man, you're going to have to kill him. Because all of a sudden, after that happened, and Rahiki starts to huff breath, you can see that he's no longer, he's no longer kind of like in control of the fight. It's turning the tables and it's got to be like an existential moment for a guy when you've already put everything you can to finish somebody and he's still coming at you. And that's exactly what happened by the end of that second round and all through the third round.

It's not something sustainable. But I mean, we said this about Justin Gaichi back in the day and Robbie Lawler at times you'd say this stuff. And they were able to kind of carve out careers. It's very interesting to see where he can go with this. But dude, that dog that's in him is really right now all the, like that's what that's the star potential for that guy. Because I feel like you have to, you're going to have to kill him. You know, it's like one of those situations for him. What did you think of Rahiki?

I thought he looked good. up until he didn't, but I think it's because he's gasped. Well, that is true, especially that. But it was almost like he looked poised, but I felt like he was emotionally invested in this. It was almost like he was getting off his moorings because I felt like the dude bothered him. And he wanted to do something.

Probably just enough off his morings to loosen up those defensive stretch. But like in the end, I thought like his offense looked pretty damn good. Like he had some pretty good snipes in there, didn't he? Like I felt like he was standing in there in the pocket a couple times. you'd see like you'd see uh you'd see a you'd see mcglin kind of come in and he would kind of back up his eyes wide open and just kind of you know pangang and hit him i thought that that sort of that that showed a lot to me that he's got potential to do stuff maybe he needs to shore up some stuff but dude he's got a future for sure um i thought rakey's offense looked really good i thought his

defense got him into a lot of trouble here like to beat a guy like mcmillan you can see Rahiki had the offense. He did. But for the most part, but he didn't really have the ability to stifle McMillan and make him go to B and C games. He was still able to get most of his A game going, even after

he got hurt, you know? All right. Then we have, oh, Jesus fuck, Curtis Blades and Waldo Cortez-A-Costa. I mean, who gives a fuck, to be honest? Like, here's the thing. I'm not even mad at Blades. Dude, he had that ridiculous fight against Hokit last time. Yeah. I don't expect

him to come on here and look like, hey, I'm ready to just go Vanderley-Silvo on everyone. I don't even mind it. I'm just saying, like, look at the state of this division, bro. Like, what are we doing? I know, man. I know. And it's like, and honestly, like, you're sort of like, and it's no, it's no knockout. We're going to do have him retire. I'm like, the guy's got to fight. But at the same time, I'm like, what does it do? Like, I don't know what it does. you know, because the other dude like he'd already kind of he was the guy that we were watching

in terms of the streak to see if he could get to a title fight and he's already kind of lost before this. I don't know what it does for anybody. And the Curtis Blades, if we were talking about Cyril Gone as being like this guy who defaults into crazy situations and the big fights, Blades would be the other guy that you're like,

well, because there's not a lot of other competition if he wins a couple of his fights, he's going to keep defaulting into bigger fights because there's not enough competition at the top. And I guess that's the only thing that we're getting out of this. It was, it's a tough one, you know? Yeah, it really is a tough one. I don't have anything else to add to it.

I mean, I'm glad. I'm happy for Curtis Blades. I like Curtis's person. Same here. Same here. This is a classic example of one of those fights where my betting perception gets in the way. I'm like, guys, this was a great fucking fight. Curtis Blades won.

Let's go. What was your bet on it? What was it? Did just for him? Curtis Lade's money line plus 175. Yeah, that's nice. He was plus 175? Fuck yeah.

saying he's the dog of the week. I even asked Danny about it. Danny said Waldo all day. So there you go. Another one. Run it. Run it. David Martinez, we don't have to talk about it very much. Beats Dan Ege. It's a nice win for Martinez. Ege's first fight at 35 at age 35. And Martinez, great athletic tools, very, very skillful.

But Chuck, against these better guys, his game becomes about winning rounds and not producing fight ending scenarios. And I think that's going to hold them up a little bit. Yeah, and you mentioned Curtis Blazeman. Ege is a very nice guy and he's very game guy, but he's going to be, I'm not sure where he's going. He's going to, you know, his best scenarios, he's able to scratch out

some more wins, make some more money in the, in the division. That's kind of it, right? Tim Elliott defeats Edgar Chides in a phenomenal fight where Elliot was getting his shit rocked early, that's for sure. And he made it the ugliest of ugly contest, Chuck, but he kind of took the fight under

control by the second and certainly by the third. Gritty as shit. from the 39-year-old. He's kind of like, you know, like what Jeremy Stevens was at some point in his career. He's just this veteran who, like, you plug him in, you just don't know. Like, he's going to show up and do this type of thing. But dude, like he's, the guy obviously has a gear sometimes that he can hit that,

that kind of distance him from like the ordinary type, you know, the ordinary run-in-the-mill fighter in front of him. He can do that. He keeps showing it. It's kind of crazy to watch this guy. we don't have to say much about it. We have a cool photo. Ignacio Baimondez defeating Muslim Salakal.

That was a fun little fight. Ustri, Bill Garwee, defeating Jordan Santos. I don't have much to say about this because I didn't think much of Santos as an opponent for a guy like Bill Garwee at this point. But Bill Garwee did Belgarwi things. You can see here, he's banging on him. Yeah, three, I think this is his third sense his contenders, third fight, and I think they're all TK. It's definitely a promising start. Like, he's a got to be watching at this point.

Yeah, he's got to be watching at this point. he's got obviously like look at that i mean just kind of knows where to go with the shot selection and he got you look like a dude on those last two punches he looked like a guy you know those those bags that gauge your your power that they have at the institute like all that stuff he looked like he was hitting those didn't he just like kind of like step back and hit him twice with that um Tommy gant gets a reverse triangle or jacar close he got a little high off the back but then turned it into a triangle um and you know then taunts him here which you're not supposed to do almost got into a fight at him. That's kind of funny. Nice win by Gant, who moves to 13 and

oh, by the way. Talk about a guy quietly putting a very impressive career together here at their age 33, Chuck. Yeah. Long Island is, was this guy on your radar? I feel like this is one of your guys. Yeah, I mean, he's undefeited. He's out of New York. But, Luke, I saw you talking about this on your reaction too, and this pissed me off to it. What's with DC just getting up in the middle of the broadcast to go corner him? I don't, I hate that. Just get a different person to do the broadcast that night. We don't need DC on it if he has to corner somewhere. Or just don't corner the guy.

Or that, sure. One of the two, you know, find someone else. I hate it. I hate it when the U.S.C. Comitator has to leave the booth to go corner a fucking guy and then come back. I was like, no, no thing. I mean, did we just get through this with Dean Thomas? Like the whole thing, like it's just you'd keep them separate on fight night at this point.

Wrong Zue beat Rafa Garcia, which was kind of surprising. I thought Ruffa Garcia looked pretty bad in this one. Sean King the third having this is literally, I'm not kidding when I say this, Chuck. this is literally one of the better slam KOs in UFC history. You so rarely see him. It's awesome. He picks him up. Show it one more time if you can. I know the commission was going crazy for him. Here.

So here he gets under this, goes to the back, traps the far arm, elevates, and then drives him into the canvas, knocks him out on contact, and then just puts three coffin nails in there just for fun. Dude, I mean, I'm not saying that's right up there with Igor Zenovi of getting slammed, you know, maybe Evan Tanner versus Tito or something, but it's not far from that. That is an all-time highlight. What about that, Androsh Nama Yunus one?

Remember that one? That was pretty wild. That one's probably better than this one, too. But I'm just saying, like, these are great fucking slam. We don't see them. I know. We don't see them like this too often. And when it happened, I was like, oh, shit. Every time that happens where there's a slam and you're like, you see the guy kind of limp-wise he's hitting. Oh, shit, did he get knocked out from the slam?

There's something still exciting about that. Isn't it? Like, dude, I can't believe that worked. Yes. And then Regina Tarin, Tarin defeats J.J. Aldridge. This fight was fine, Chuck. She's hyped up as a 21-year-old prospect. I think it actually is great that at 21 she beat J.J. Aldrich and she beat her pretty convincingly for the most part. But I didn't see anything at 9-0 that while I was like, you know, oh, we got to fast track her to the title. No, let's take our time. Yeah. Still a little green. And JJ should change her name to Cody, right? Like she's become one of the Codys on these prelims. I suppose. So, hey, Chuck, correct me if I'm wrong. Your Broncos play tonight. They play tonight. Yeah, they play tonight.

You know, I'll be drunk, you know, watching that game. Are you going to be shirtless with like, you know, one of the letters for Broncos painted on your chest? No. No, I think I'm, I think that those days are behind me, but I will be watching for sure, man. That's a, it's fun to open on the road against a division rival like this. Commander's played yesterday. They had a moment there where they could have turned the tide, man. I thought they're going to want it.

I will say, did you see the Tyler Owen special teams? highlight from the commander's game. Yeah. And I think that everybody's going to be showing that for long time, man. Yeah, he's like, he's beating two guys. Then he gets through hit nice and then he like just stabs through the last, the ball handle. That was awesome. That was the sir. He was an undrafted free agent too, if you can believe that. Unbelievable. Well, guys, the weight is over. Football is here. And so is draft Kings. Draft Kings is now live in all 50 states. One app every sport nationwide. New draft Kings customers sign up with the code combat. That's K-O-M-B-A-T. Spend five bucks to get 200 in rewards within 21 days, includes all markets.

That's code combat, KOMBAT, and partnership with Draft Kings, the crown is yours. Gambling problem, call 1-800-Gambler, 1-800-Mye reset. Connecticut, call 888-789-77-or visit ccpg.org. On behalf of Boothill Casino in Kansas, bet tax pass-through may apply in Illinois, 21-plus void in Canada. That with Draft King's sportsbook to get bonus bets that expire in seven days or trade with Draftings' predictions, to get predictions dollars that expire in one year. Event contract trading involves risk of loss. Predictions offer void in New York,

non-withdrawable rewards issued as $50 click to claims every seven days for 21 days. Terms at dkng.c.co slash offer, limited time offer nationwide based on sportsbook predictions and free-to-play sports contest availability varies by state. Chuck, we roll on to the boxing side of things in topic number three. Ryan Garcia. Wow.

stops Connor Ben in less than two rounds. Basically four minutes and some change was this fight, Chuck. This was the first big stateside Zufa boxing event of the year. Now, again, technically it was a ring magazine thing, but really Zufa was the one promoting this in every way you would typically understand it. So Chuck, Connor Ben just gets rocked here. He stands up, right? Let's watch this through.

Garcia is right on him, literally measuring him. I want to point that out. measuring him, hitting him at angles here, comes back again, measuring him with that. Look at these right hands, just all over him. They separate him one more time, and I believe after this, he begins to bomb on him. Oh, nice shot to the body.

Man, and then you could see Ben not throwing here at all. He is moving, Chuck, but he's not throwing. He's not moving his feet. He's moving his trunk. Some called it a little early. I think you could call it a little early, but Ben didn't protest in the end. is the question is as follows.

Is the lesson here that Garcia has really become one of the standout talents on this division or that Ben has been overhyped and was fraud checked? I almost want to lean toward the latter. You know, I just don't know if Connor Bennett. Actually, I think we were talking about this when the UFC first threw out 15 million for the one fight part of it against Regis. But he's going against the guy that kind of showcasing him against a 37-year-old. kind of more washed guy. You know, like, I don't, I don't really feel.

So, like, when they put this one together, this felt like it was setting itself up for, for a fraud check, right? It just felt like you might get this kind of result. And you could see it in the early exchanges that this, this might be the case. And so I feel like in a, in a strange way, it's like Connor Ben was kind of, I don't know what the UFC, like the UFC when I say, Zupa boxing, you know, Dana White, the enamored situation. I don't know if it's an Eddie Hearn thing. I don't know if they just see something within his star power that they're like, let's explain.

We can make him a bigger star than he is. We can bank on a guy like this. But to throw him in there against a guy like Garcia in this situation was, it's tough. And I felt like it was going to be tough even going in. Like I just, I didn't foresee him winning this kind of fight. And Garcia himself, I'm still a little scarred, you know, from the Roli-Ramero fight at Times Square. I was at that one. And I was expecting to see this version of him and it didn't really happen.

gets dropped in that fight and all that stuff. I feel like this version of him is very good. Now, they both, both these guys have had trouble. They've been in trouble with commissions for, you know, for illegal substances.

There's always this red tape and these asteris that are thrown up. Like, let's just hope. Honestly, if Garcia's going to go through all this, that he's able to kind of stay there, you know what I mean? Like,

and not have some controversy that will obscure this kind of victory. But I certainly give him credit, man, because that right hand, we used to always talk about his left hand, you know, was his left hand, off the left down super quick it's going to that tamp you like now that he's like got his right hand

involved in this and that right hand was right down the boulevard i don't know if ben just didn't expect him to be throwing it like that but dude he didn't like that that was flush that's as flush as they get the one that initially hurt him he got fraud checked i'll just say it outright he got fraud checked um that there's no i i i rarely i don't know if i've ever used that description for a major yeah i don't fight before yeah because it's you know it's tough to say that but i you know this is it, right? What do you want to say? I mean, like, there were, here's the thing.

What's kind of funny is Garcia didn't really have a jab in this fight and moved a lot, like almost, almost because, yes, he, yes, Ben was barreling into him. But if you can just tell, like, I think Garcia kind of wanted that. I think Garcia wanted him to, you know, to barrel into him because he hit him with the uppercut first a few times earlier in that second round, Chuck and then hit him with this, obviously, this right hand that drops him. but like, you know, getting him to just charge into you, I think, was part of the process. But the thing I want to say here is, you know, we actually go back and you look at Ryan Garcia,

Chuck, you know, Garcia's got his chin up here a little bit. And he's weighing in some big shots. He's throwing uppercuts where there's barely a curve in the arm. Like it's just kind of coming up like this, you know? Yeah. It wasn't like he was boxing super technically. I think there were some things he was doing that were great, moving maybe a little bit too much, but at least moving a lot is something to say.

And, you know, there's some other things that I liked about it. I'm just trying to point out. But at the end of the day, you got to see the Ryan Garcia experience. Yes. Right? You got to see the fast hands. You got to see it. Not the trademark left hook, although that was landing,

but that's not what dropped him in the end. It was a right hand in the end. But, you know, what, like we've known Ryan is a puncher. We've known he's got fast hands. You got to see that. That was on display. But then you get to Connor Ben. And the thing we had said about him on Friday was, you know,

obviously he had beaten guys like Chris Algeria, although that was close to the end of his run, you know, and whatnot. and it looked like he had power there, but then he had the PED stuff. And, you know, he had a certainly a spirited fight with Chris Eubank, but that was at a very different weight class. And he hasn't had a stoppage since then. And like all this stuff were like, his real big skill is not technical boxing. It's just being very, very tough and durable.

And, you know, like being able to have a knockdown drag out late. But then he gets dropped in this one. He did recover a little bit, but then gets stopped. Doesn't protest the stoppage at all. Doesn't find a way to like clinch and hold the fight. And so, you know, get to the third round, get to the sixth round. Like, Devin Haney got his shit rocked and still found ways to do that. I want to point that out to everybody, right?

And you could say what you want about Haney's performance in that fight, but he got his shit rocked multiple times and still found ways to get to the finish line. Ben couldn't even approximate that. So the thing that we had been told about the Ryan Garcia experience, basically you got. The thing we had been told about the Ben experience, you didn't even get a shadow. That's true. That is true. Nothing.

You got nothing. That's why I'm saying it's a fraud check dude. On a biggest stage of this guy's career, they did four months of buildup for this one. They did tons of press. There were so much made about it. And you got to see nothing of anything that was supposed to be resembling what he is like

his vaunted durability. I don't know what you can call that except a gigantic failure in every way. 100%. And when somebody, Luke, when somebody comes up to you and they put their palm on your forehead, when you're saying measuring them up, You know.

It's like, that's what he did. You got a guy measuring you. I know. Straight up measuring him. And there's no other way to say it. You know what I mean? I think that that is that's why it just, it was not a good optic. I mean, it looked great for Garcia,

but it's not a good optic for the guy they were throwing all the money into, you know. I want to say this too. Like, look, I think that this, Muhammad Ali Destruction Act is probably going to get passed. Saudi Arabia looks like itself on the ropes by virtue of geopolitical events, which we're not going to get into.

But I don't know what their financial commitment long term is going to be. I think it's a way I wouldn't put that. But it may not matter because if they get the law changed, like we all kind of know what's going to happen here. Like sooner or later, TKO's probably going to get their way. You know, they're probably going to take over boxing. They're probably going to take over sports jihitsu. Like ADCC

was this weekend. Did anybody follow it? You know, blah, blah. But I just want to say, And I also understand Chuck that like I get that there is a larger strategy behind why they signed Connor Ben. Partly to stick it to Eddie Hearn, partly to send a message, you know, partly to say to announce like what they want to do in the UK market, blah, blah, blah. But I also just want to say this. I think it's important to say this. The two big like, oh, these are our guys. We're going to build like, you know, we want to be in business with these guys because we believe in them.

where Connor Ben and Callum Walsh. I've got to tell you, it may not matter in the end, Chuck, because TKO might just have everybody so they don't even have to worry about these considerations. But whoever is doing the talent scouting at TKO, you are not good at this job. Straight up, you're not good at it. Their eye for talent is poor.

I was at the Callum Walsh, the fight with Dean Sutherland, you know, the one that was at Madison Square Garden around around whatever, St. Patrick's Day. And I remember Dana and Hunter show up. And it was like, this was all, obviously, before Zupa boxing was an actual thing just yet. It was on the, you know, everybody who was on the horizon. But just watching them how enamored they were with this kid was, was very interesting to me. It was very interesting.

It was the Hulu theater over there at Madison Square Garden. The crowd was into it, obviously. But like, the way they were into him was a very, it was weird. It was almost like teacher's pet kind of stuff. And so when you're talking about this, I'm like, I don't know why, I don't know why, like, what dictates their, you know, their fetish for, like, for certain guys. But I'm like, they, they really, they really, really were behind him. And so I went to that Zufa one event against Ocampa when, when it was in there. And it was just the most anticlimatic, you know, anticlimatic thing, like pageant or whatever you want to call it that I, that I've seen in that, in that sense.

Like, it just felt like you could see. that Calvin Walsh just probably isn't the guy maybe he never will be or maybe he will be eventually, but he wasn't yet. Just not a fun experience, but yeah, I guess in the initial sense, they kind of had to get behind somebody and I guess

they thought they're maybe capturing a little bit of lightning about being a Freddie Roach guy. It's like, what, 23, 24 at the time and, you know, he's Irish, maybe they, well, we had big success with Connor, we can do this again, but it hasn't really translated and boxing is just such a different world. And I feel like

maybe they're going to have to learn some of those things on the fly. And when it comes to Ben, I'm guessing that there were probably ulterior things like you're mentioning. I feel like it's more that than it would just be the straight up talent. They probably, I think that they really love his aura. But dude, what an aura diminishing, you know, fight this one was. Like if he had that, that aura, whatever it was that he took into the UBank series and all those fights, like, don't you feel like it took a major, major blow?

They did him more harm than good by putting him in there against Garcia. They did absolutely more harm than good. I mean, Dana White was asked by Cigart Talk, which is this podcast and boxing, and they were like, you know, what is it you like about Connor Ben? And look, again, part of it is probably Turkey just wanted him. Part of it is just sticking it to her. And part of it has nothing to do with how good he is. But one thing he said was, like, you know, this is a guy you can build a business around. No the fuck you can't.

No the fuck you can. After what, dude, dude, if he had lost, right, but he had fought really well, yeah, you could absolutely build a bit. Like, you can't be, like, cats out of the bag on this one. toothpaste is out of the tube. This guy is not world level and probably never will be. How are you going to build a UK business around a guy like this? This is what I mean about talent evaluation over there. Like it needs some more. It's not it's not super awesome. And and and they rushed it in this way before it was ever really due because they want to make a grudge match and it's like well now what do you I mean again I think eventually they're just going to get

all the pieces that they need. But the way in which like you're plotting a path to take over a market in the UK as well as beyond, but certainly the UK with Connor Ben. That's a strategy I've never seen before. Okay. Let me ask this. Who would you rather see Ryan fight next? Teofima Lopez or Devin Haney? You know, I would have said Haney easy, just given the way the first fight went,

and Haney being who he is and obviously like the tainted, you know, like you get, you got the asterisk on that fight. I think that after seeing, I mean, I'm a sucker for this type of thing. thing. You know, when you see Teufima like being held back and like there's this, I love a good, bad blood type of thing like that. I guess I would kind of lean that, but actually, I, I don't know if I would actually say that. If I'm really being honest, I'd rather see the Haney one next, you know, that Barclays one. That was one of those, when they, when they fought the first time, it was just, there's something about that matchup, first of all, that was, it's just, it's fun, but like, where,

where Garcia is. And I thought I saw it this time. I thought that if, if nothing else came out of this event, I saw it. Like, you see this, dude, this guy somehow speaks to a larger world. Maybe it's just the complexity of his character. Maybe he's controversially slightly, you know, unhinged, you know, maybe, who knows what it is. But like Garcia, like he's young people, old people are going to have opinion on it, like older people in the game, but the young people love him. Like he's kind of like an influencer in that sense, but he like he's delivering. I just feel like he, you put him in something against Haney, another young dude like that in a rematch.

it feels to me like the magnitude of that is what I want. You know, like it would feel like a big event to me. I think the biggest fight for sure is the Haney rematch. But I got to say, if they make Tiofima. I know. That's the thing. That's hardly a bad fight. Although, like, Lopez didn't look amazing.

That's what I was going to say. The Shakur one took some of his horror. It's like one of those things you're like, but I would capitalize on Haney, but you could still revisit that. Like the tail one just has a way better buildup. Like, does anyone really get, I know Devin Haney's good,

but does anyone really get excited for? for Devin Haney fight? Like, come on. It was the first time they were fighting and it was Devin Haney or Teo. I think Teo would be more interesting. But because of all of the hooplaff in the first one, I think that Devin. Yeah, but I just feel like that fight's always there if you're Ryan or Devin. So just do the Teo fight now.

Ryan hopefully wins. And then you do the Devin fight with the two belts on the line now. That's a lot better. I'll take that. Yeah. Well, again, like I said, dude, it's not like I thought Garcia fought amazingly. I mean, he, obviously, if you get a win like that, shit went right for you. I'm aware. Again, the trademark stuff

was super on display. And again, the fact that he beat the guy with his right hand, not his left hook, I think is an... That was... That was cool. That was cool to see. But at the same time, it's like, dude, he was fighting loose. He was fighting a little recklessly and it's like... But do you think he knew... I almost felt like he kind of knew what we're talking about, which is like, dude, Ben's not on my level. Yeah. I can get by with showcasing on this dude. True. True. Like how much of this was like, this, this, this. This, this fucking guy. You know what I mean? I'll just do whatever I want and beat him, which is basically

true, right? That's basically true. Terrible, terrible, terrible setback for Connor Ben. Let's ask a separate question in topic number four. Oh, no, no, wait, wait, wait, let's stay. Let's stay. Stay. So I want to talk about this very quickly. I apologize. Oscar Di La Jolla wasn't there. Oh, right, right. Dana has something to say about this. There has been additional reporting that I want to bring up after this, but check out Dana's explanation for why. Now remember, this was not a co-promotion between Zufa and Golden Boy, but Ryan's promoter is, in fact, Golden Boy. And when you heard the fights announced by commentator Joe Martinez, he even mentioned, you know, in association with Golden Boy. So they're,

they're part of it in a, not the biggest sense, but a real one. So why wasn't Oscar there? Here's what Dana said. Was that of who he here tonight? He wasn't. And I heard there's some rumblings. Let me explain something to you. I do not like De La Jolla and De La Jollaoya does not like me. We would never, I would never disrespect him and say, oh, he shows up here and we treat him like shit. I would call him on the phone and say,

hey, don't fucking show up at his event because we're not going to treat you well. That was not the case. Why he didn't show up, I don't know. Okay. Let me update everyone on this. So Dan Rayfield initially had reported he didn't get a credential. And then that that people were saying, oh, that's not really true.

But then he came out with a Fuller report and it's sort of true. It's mostly true. Here's what Dan Rayfield is hearing from people, several different sources. And this is one of the better reporters in boxing. He is hearing that, no, they didn't ban De La Jolla from showing up. That's true. He was not banned. He could enter the facility.

But what they did do was they only gave out two, two, one credential, one ticket. The one credential was the photographer's credential, Chuck. And they didn't even give him a ringside position. They got him second tier so he could take a long telephoto lens from on top. All right. So that's the first thing that they did. And the second one was they were supposed to have a seat like where the television camera fits all like the main people like celebrities and TKO officials. He was supposed to have a seat there.

They gave him just another seat somewhere else in the venue. And that went to someone else who worked at Golden Boy. And that was it for not just De La Jolla, the entirety of the Golden Boy staff. Like that's all they were allowed to have. On top of it, apparently, and we don't quite know who changed the story here, Ryan was initially going to walk out with Julio Cesar Chavez, who was the greatest Mexican fighter of all time, and then De La Jolla, the greatest Mexican-American fighter, boxer fighter of all time.

That would have been a scene. We don't know if he changed his mind, if Golden Boy changed his mind. It's really not clear, but that attitude got scrapped last minute for Bereda, who is a great Mexican fighter, not the best one, but a very good one. And then Ray Mysterio Jr., who just saw, happens to be a WME client. I don't know. I can't necessarily make a connection there in terms of like what I know or don't know. But your reaction to De La Hoya not being allowed or, you know, let's say not incentivized to show is maybe a better way to put it.

I like by the way that Ray Mysterio showed up in a neck brace because of the previous day, still in character from the wrestling event that happened the night before we got slammed through a table with a stretcher. But anyway, someone had to explain that to me. It's just so stupid. but I'm taking it that this is an ego thing and a pride thing from from from from Oscar's standpoint like if I'm a guy like that like and it's you know it's a big Mexican independence show

and you've been heavily involved in these types of things and they're they're basically giving you a seat not up there you know with the celebrities like you're mentioning but like somewhere else I would take offense to that you know I'm I but at the same time I mean I still feel like I should you know, I still feel like he should have been there on some capacity. Even if you had to buy your own ticket, maybe that's the way that you do it.

But I'm like, the bottom line is he probably still should have been there. I was surprised that he wasn't. And it's, I think in the spirit of the thing, you know, the spirit of what they were doing with the Zufa box on, you know, the whole thing with Noce UFC parlaying right into this boxing card. And it's a big celebration. I don't know why the UFC would do Oscar dirty in that way, to be honest, you know. I get it that Dana hates him. I wanted to make a fishnet, you know, joke and all that stuff. But at the same time, I'm like, I feel like he got his pride hurt in this one, don't you?

Yeah, I mean, there's no way to defend this, right? This is just not the way someone like, dude, I mean, De La Jolla is not sympathetic either as a character. I want to be very clear about this. It's not like, oh, it's Dana versus De La Jolla. You know, this is, you know, right. St. Thomas versus, you know, St. Vincent or something. That's really not the way this is going. but you know they obviously they shouldn't do that right he should have a little bit better treatment but like

this is the kind of thing i've been trying to say this whole time like boxing just kind of sleep walking through all this shit you know never taking the threat of tk oh never never at understanding like what was coming meanwhile people in mma have been trying to tell them like dude this is how it's going to fucking be from now on these people don't play like they this is not what they do they do not pussyfoot around shit they do not play oh we're just going to take our foot off the gas. It's not the way they play ever, ever, it's not the way they're ever going to play unless everyone involved in the organization just moves on. But honestly, Chuck, I think it's just part of their corporate DNA at this point. Like, that's just who they are. So like, you know,

do I think it's great? I don't. But at the same time, it's like really hard to have sympathy for a lot of these boxing bozos who were warned extensively to take a more proactive role in defending their sport, decided to wait until the last fucking minute, if at all. And now these little indignities that they're seeing over and over and over again. These are only just, they're going to turn Chuck from indignities to just straight up ostracism to then straight irrelevance. That's the only way this is going to go. I mean, the evidence was always there even through.

If you look at the UFC's track record, right? Like the evidence has always been there about how the UFC kind of treats it. They, for the longest time, they wouldn't deign to mention strike force. If you had a guy coming over from Strike Force before they bought Strike Force and all that, or Bellator or one of those, they would not mention. those promotions on their telecasts. They simply didn't exist. And I think that, you know, if you talk to promoters, you know, in the MMA, like,

they certainly understood the gamesmanship of what's going on with the UFC. This is always the way they've been. So in that sense, like when you're, even though they, I'm guessing, and I never quite understand, like when Golden Boys attach to this and obviously their guys in here, I never understand exactly how boxing pieces all this together in terms of, you know, distribution of promotion and all that stuff. But in this case, I feel like they, they demonetized it the way that they, as much as they could. You know, they did it as much as they could in this. And I, you just worded it perfectly.

I had to go from that to straight, they'll ostracize them. They will push them aside. That's where this is heading because that's the way Dana and I guess now TKO, that's the way they're going to handle it, you know. Let's quickly go to topic number four. We don't have to spend a ton of time on this topic, but it's something that Ryan Garcia declared after the fight was over, which I thought was worth of at least a quick discussion, Chuck, namely that he thinks he's the face of boxing.

He thinks he is that guy now. Let's play what Ryan says about this, and then I want to talk about whether there is any merit to it. Here's Ryan. With this win today, with the knockout, does this officially put you as the face of boxing? You got to say so, right? I mean, you have to say so.

You got to respect it. You know, I'm going to hold that as high as I can and try to always be the best champion and the best, you know, face of boxing I can possibly be. And I'm going to continue maturing, continue evolving. The wisdom will get deeper. And I just want to thank God for everything he's done for me. Thank the Lord for, for, you know, dying on that cross for me and giving me this opportunity. It's amazing, and I'm going to keep going.

I'm amazed he got through an answer without the N-word, but putting that aside, Chuck. This is a new Garcia, Luke. Yeah, it's a new one. Only every other sentence to you get the N-word. Chuck, does he have a point? Is he the face of boxing? Even who all might be. When we were talking, like, when Jake Paul, for instance is saying, like, I'm the face of boxing.

I'm the face of boxing. There was a little bit of, like, there's a little bit of relevancy to that because you're almost like, well, I mean, the world's paying attention. to you when you do box, like in a weird way that you are, but I think that people understood that he's not the true face of Biden because he's more of a novelty still in that space. But when you look at a guy like Garcia, he really does tow the line of, you know, a new, like, you know, kind of the new way of thing, like social media feeds and, you know, like more like an influencer in the sense of like how he's gotten some of his recognition, you know, some of it's so over the top, some of it so controversial, all that stuff.

kind of draws in it like it tracks a big big um you know a big following like not just young but older people i think that from at my standpoint i'm an mama centric guy who pays most of my attention to the mama side of things you see a guy like this and like i said i've been to a fight or two of his and you know the feeling of him is that he has he commands like a big feel like a big feel you know to what's what he's doing and he's young enough like and he's you know he's brass enough he's Vegas, you know, like, that feels to me like he has that. But, of course, would you put, I mean, like, I was at the, like, the Canello fight when he was, when he was fighting Baranga, like, a couple years ago, right? Like, at that whole event in Vegas, I don't know if he's at that magnitude, but I'm not sure Conello at some point can hold that man to.

So, like, is he the new face of things like that? He could be in my mind because I think that he's, he handles himself spectacular. Like, I felt like he handled himself really well this week. Did you? Like, some of the stuff that we used to talk about with, uh, uh, him drinking, like, you know, acting crazy and where they're telling him, like, is he even fit to be fighting?

We're having these comments conversations. This time I felt like he handled himself really well through the fight week and people were paying attention. And he shows up and he executes and he does the same with the Devon Haney, even though that wears Astrid. Like he shows up in big moments and puts on shows. I think he's got to be up there at this point.

I'll say this. I don't think there is a face of boxing right now. right because I think we're in a bit of a transition period you know we came out of the pacquiao mayweather era and uh canelo to me was really a big part of that uh and i think was the face of boxing for a very long time but that is slipping he didn't fight on mexican independence day which has been historically like his day for for a number of years now uh and then of course he had Cinco de Mayo and fucking Saudi Arabia like you know just what are you thinking but but putting that aside for just a moment you know we're

His stature has declined, but also look around Chuck, like AJ and Fury. They're kind of on their way out. Moses It Toma is certainly, I think, going to be a great fighter, but he stumbled in his last contest as well. He doesn't have Perismo either. He just doesn't have like that big presence, you know. Bam Rodriguez, I think could one day be, but he's a smaller guy, is a little bit on his way. Noia in a way, certainly the face of boxing in Japan.

But, you know, I don't know if that really translates stateside. Crawford is out. You know, David Benavides, I think. can be one of these guys too. But so I guess my point is like I feel like we're in this place where, you know, one class is kind of graduating and going away and one is surging. And it's not exactly clear who the face of boxing is.

I will just say this. It's hard for me to believe Ryan can be that long term. Yeah. Unless I really see him clean up against a quality opponent over time, some of the things that he does that gets him in trouble. Right. Because, dude, David Benavides, he doesn't have right. now what Garcia has in terms of fan attraction popular appeal instagram following he's not nobody

but he doesn't have that but he's got everything ryan doesn't like there's just no fucking question about david benivides his long-term potential it's zero none he'll absolutely do magnificent shit whether people are watching or not i can't say that about ryan garcia but i can say he's more popular than most so i guess we'll see you yeah i do give uh zufus some credit for bringing benedavitas in like you know letting him be a part of of that thing with Opataya, like setting something like that. That, that to me was like a, you know, maybe that builds towards something like that. But right now, I agree with you.

I don't think through it. Like, you just watch Katie Taylor, for instance. It's women's side, but like she sells out Croke Park. You could throw her into a mix like this too. But, I mean, I think for a while it was, like you mentioned, it was, you know, Pac Yao. It's been, it's been Mayweather and then it's been Canelo. Guys get long in the tooth. I just feel like, and it's also the interest change that, you know how it is in MMA.

like the fan base changes you know what i mean like new new people come up and they want to tell you what they see and you're like dude i've been covering this since you're you know shit and green you whatever but like it's one of those things um once you get these new fans in there it's it changes and i think right now like garcia like he certainly has the new fans interest in the sport all right topic number five finally let's conclude by going around the world of combat sports for some smaller stories we were going to talk about dana white potentially stripping tom aspinall that's fucking done. So let's go to this one.

This was also part of this Garcia and Ben, fight night. Now, they did get Benavides to play this kind of opposition role to Opitaya, but they wanted Lopez in there. And there's just a lot of confusion about getting fighters outside of the ring into them for callouts. And then the boxing fans are upset. Chuck,

how should boxing fans feel about TKO being, you know, making it very difficult for these, not impossible. Sometimes they allow it, but it doesn't happen often. I was surprised. because I mean, obviously, like, Teofemus coming in there. He's, like, he's needing to be restrained.

You're like, maybe his approach should have been to be a little more poised in that, and who knows how that would have worked. But the bottom line is, I'm like, dude, set it up. Like, even if you're not going to make that fight, you want to, the whole point, and this is what the UFC has done so well over the years, is just creating in real time the next dangling carrot for whoever just fought. Like, it's always, it's about the present, but it's always about the future, too. like they're always one foot you know one step ahead so I would have liked to have seen that you know

why wouldn't you why wouldn't you want to see that like I feel like that is something that should be addressed is this is this really a policy because I had people telling me that too about the teafima thing like I made a comment on or something and you know people are like this should have let them in there but is this a policy of Zufas to not let guys in there in that situation? General rule yes they will very occasionally let it slide maybe if they had planned it ahead of time or if they've got two guys they know we're not going to just go fucking bananas. But they don't know Lopez and they don't, you know what I mean? I know. That's true. I would say I actually don't hate the TKO policy of not letting it happen,

but I feel like this is going to be like boxing fans are used to it. And so it's one thing to be like, oh, there's not really much of a culture of it in MMA relatively speaking, although that's not really true either. But let's just say that it was, but there's definitely a culture of it in boxing. Yeah. And so to me, if I was, at TKO, I would be insane to myself, okay, how can we get ahead of this next time? So that, hey, if we do have a guy, like, who might you call out if you win? Or I might call out Lopez. I might call. So then you know where he's seated and there's a security plan to bring them in like kind of ahead of time. I realize that's, you know, me just putting more

work on the promoter, but it's better than just saying, no, you can't come in. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. All right. Chuck, Hamzat Shamaev said, if he doesn't get a fight soon, he might just sit out for a while. Here's the tweet. If nothing happens in October or December. I'll take a little break. I have a lot of little injuries that I need to get treated. I just get sick often. I don't have half of my thyroid gland. I've been under anesthesia seven times and had six surgeries. I still have to live my life. I'm not even sure he should be fighting, Chuck. Yeah. What is the future here for Hamzaa Shama, especially if there's no rematch with Strickland? I mean, it's like, remember the whole, the COVID thing? Like he was in bad,

he was in a bad way and it makes you kind of wonder a little bit man I mean the guy must be dealing with a lot more than we give him credit because you know how we you know fight fans in general just they cut out all the nuance and they say why isn't this guy fighting this guy why isn't this guy fighting again

and it does sound like he has more going on than that he this dude though has he's only fought like since 22 he's only fought once a year it's not like he's ever been a prolific fighter I guess what bothers me about it is it seems rare that he's like itching to and the UFC's like not they're the ones dragging their feet like well dude if he wants to get in

there put him in there you know what I mean um I don't know which way like he's not getting the title fight next right like he's not uh did they already they haven't actually booked the title fight right he's not no we're still waiting yeah yeah no there's still official figure it up but I'm like I in my mind like I don't want to I don't necessarily need to see him fight for it's auto so I'm like I don't know why you wouldn't if he's ready to go I would book him because it will be a long time after his next fight. It will be a long time before we see him again one way or another. So I'd rather see him one more time before he goes away like that.

Jelton Almeida lost his first fight outside of UFC. If you can believe, look at that look. I mean, you know, just despondent. Chuck, where there's the UFC right to cut him, especially now you've got Taito Ivasa who could be eight-no after next weekend. Did you watch this fight? What am I saying? Oh, and eight.

Did you watch it at all? I watched some of the highlights, yes. Okay, same here. and I mean honestly it's maybe unfair but I was like until he shows interest in fighting that was the issue I felt like he was indifferent about whatever

he's stepping there and you're like I don't know give her to take it I don't know I might it's just you can't have that attitude just doesn't have the interest to fight and it looked like it carried over to this one so I'm like you know as far as I'm going to the UFC got it right until a guy wants to be fighting

like you don't want him fighting for you know the other part too is like you know there's a difference between like, oh, the game is, you know, he's, oh, he's just a grappler. He doesn't have anything else. It's like, okay, but you can still fight to win that way versus like fighting to get through it. Yes. And he just kind of fights to get through it. And I can see why, you know, again, that doesn't necessarily mean that we should have a world where people who have winning records should be cut, but it's the same kind of thing MVP. It's like at some level, the pursuit of the fight needs to be there, you know? Yes. MVP is, I guess that is the

close example of this. It's just you gotta there's gotta be something more to it. It's got you gotta bring some kind of like want to the cage to want to win the fight and want to bring a fight. I just don't see it with these guys. Last but not least, it's my fault because I wasn't even paying attention. ADCC was over the weekend and it got rave reviews in general.

And some of the finals were and I think for the for the absolutes were a disaster because they don't like calling stalling in some of those formats. And so dude, like, any grappling sport where the referees don't call stalling. You can keep me the fuck out of that in general, with some exception. However, there were some highlights. First of all, there was a brawl.

Do we have the brawl? Yeah, look at this. Gordon Ryan was involved. One of his teammates, Dorian Olivares. There's Gordon Ryan at the sort of the bottom of your screen there in the blonde hair getting jumped on, you know, because what would it be without people acting like fucking idiots at a combat sports event? But, oh, yeah.

And the dude jumping in. Hey, yeah. Yeah, someone's going, sick. seven six seven dude we are lucky this video is muted that's all I'll say yeah the guy filming it is so fucking annoying oh my god at least there's no nazi flags waving in the background there

Luke we can take yeah yeah maybe on someone's like phone you know somewhere but but who knows nevertheless dude there were some insane fucking highlights on this one I don't think we had you don't have the cooichi gari to flying arm bar do you know I should have given that once you dude these two guys were locked up in a ground

you know they're sort of standing and they're kind of, you know, hand fighting and whatnot. And one of them, what's his name, Hokic, I think is his name. He goes for a Koichi-Gari. So, you know, let's say we're kind of facing each other. I would take my leg and I would kick across to the inside of your leg to kind of destabilize your stance to get you to open your stance, right? He does that, runs him in that direction and then does a flying arm bar off of it and scores it. One of the sickest fucking flying submissions, truly I've ever seen.

seen. I'm not to look this up now. It is. I retweeted it. I think Jack Slack retweeted it. It is out of this fucking world. Also, there were some interesting performances to Helena Cravar. This is New Wave. That's, you know, John Dan, her and Gordon Ryan and all that. She becomes, there's a question about how true this is relative to Cade Ruotolo,

but in any event, Flood grappling is calling her youngest ever, 80CC champion and the only woman to secure a, obviously, Kate's not a woman, but to secure a perfect submission rate through the finals and she won the 65 kilo world championship. I don't know why she didn't compete in the absolutes. There was a bunch of people who won their weight classes but did not compete in the absolutes. However, it looked pretty fucking cool. Yeah.

So sorry, ADCC, I didn't cover you, but I just got to say here, TKO kind of fucking this one up too. There's a bunch of names that weren't on it. And enthusiasm was down this year. And it's like, I can't believe, Chuck, that what people want is like, you know, we want, I don't care what kind of. of combat sports it is. I want one fucking company in charge of all of it.

It just sounds like such a fucking, you know, loser mentality, if ever there was one. Well, there's like a the Dana trail, like whatever Dana's interest in, like we kind of, like even in this Paramount Plus marathon they ran, you know, NoJ UFC going into the boxing event.

I felt like a lot of the MMA fans who probably never would watch it. It ended up watching it. It's so weird because it's just a day and it's just like the, there's some of the media that covers the UFC, finds himself reporting on like power slap. Like, dude, these are not, I don't understand why you need to be committed

just because Dana is committed. That doesn't make any sense to me. But this seems to be a mentality that people do. I don't know. I've noticed it more and more, especially as he's gotten into the Zupa boxing world here. With that in mind, that's our top five or six. From here, let's now go to where you guys get to ask us questions.

It's DMs from dogs. All right. We put up a, what do you want to call it? A listing for questions every Sunday on Instagram and then you guys fill it out and then the producers pick them. All right. From Train How You Fight 979, the MMA equivalent of Connor Ben, a British level fighter at best who skipped the line due to his name value, got a world title shot and got completely outclassed and stopped. I don't know. Who's this? I said Diego Lopez. I don't know. I'm like, he kind of. He didn't get it. He didn't get it. get stopped, though. That's true. He didn't. I don't know. Somebody who got stopped, if that's specific.

Yeah, it's tough. Like, I feel like there probably is one, though. I just can't think of it. Long Island? What are we missing? It's such a specific question. Yeah. It's a British level fighter.

So I'm like, Patty, but he didn't get stopped. True. He got kind of skipped the line a little bit and then got outclassed in the title. fight, but like, I wouldn't. But also he made it the distance, like credit to him. Yeah, I wouldn't I wouldn't even put it on that list. That's just the

closest thing I could think. That shows you how bad this was for Ben, dude. You're like struggling to be like, who's even remotely like that. People in the chat are saying Darren Till, that's not bad. Yeah, maybe that's not bad. Did he get stopped against Woodley when he fought? Yes. That's right. I was at that fight. I can't even

remember. I just know he got it one-sided. It was ridiculous, you know. Yeah, Woodley got his black belt from Dean Thomas after that. That's right. That's right. From the D's nuts podcast. That's a real podcast that they had. Can't believe that one didn't take off. All right, from Rithstronaut, Jayon Silva versus Volk,

what would Silva have to do versus Volk to gain a victory? He obviously can't take a roundoff by standing there. I mean, the answer is very simply, he has to hurt Volk. Because if you don't, then there's nothing else that you have on him. You know what I mean? I think you're right. Like, his pressure, like when he started to pressure Delgado,

for instance, obviously the fight was very different. It looked hard for Dogata to figure that out, that point. But yes, we've seen Volcanovsky, man. Like he solves he solves puzzles like that in real time, no problem, you know? Uh, from my co-prime, they ask, can McMillan go further than Patty the Batty? They started off in the UFC with similar vibes. I'm really not that high on McMillan. I will say this, Chuck. I'm trying to be nice about it because it's two fights in a row where he exceeded my expectations. And that's, you know, you got to take something like that serious. but like, I don't, I don't see a future title contender.

Not right now. Yeah. And I don't know why I will do. He's kind of, it's like when Glenn Danzig showed up on the, you know, the kind of rock radio. Like he started to show up on that from his, you know what I mean? It's like, it's one of those things you're like, I'm not sure how he fits in yet. But like, it's intriguing. I don't know if I, I guess the upside of it.

I guess I see a limited upside. I feel like you're seeing kind of everything like that he's. going to be but i want to be surprised by that and uh and watch him develop a little bit i've seen some good things but i haven't seen the kinds of things yet where i'm like oh wow this is someone to really pay attention as a top five i don't see that yeah uh not yet but but let's see let's see how that goes all right from dalin m johnson we always hear of fighters that were jim heroes heroes spelled wrong but couldn't perform when under the bright lights who were one or two of these fighters that you know of.

Guys who were gym heroes, but then, yeah, I feel like there's some good ones, especially back in the day, because they were guys that, I don't, I want to be clear. I don't, I don't want, because the answer sounds almost derogatory and I don't want to do that. But I guess what I would say is guys whose gym reputation didn't match their ultimate fight outcomes, I'd go Mike Pyle. Everybody in the training room raves about Mike Pyle. And they should, like he's very technically skilled. I mean, he's retired now. I want to be clear if Mike Powell sees this. I actually like Mike Powell.

I think he's a good fight. It was a great fighter. But I'm just saying he had a reputation in the gym as like the elite of the elite. And he had a good career. He didn't have a bad career. But it wasn't like, oh, man, like he's beating everyone up in the gym. And that translates exactly there for everything you saw in the octagon. There was a disparity there.

Yeah. I can't do it. Because I feel like this was more of a thing in the earlier days. Like you would always have these guys on reputation in the gym that would kind of step in. And maybe there were other guys in the gym who, you know, were champions or whatever. Or like they were very well-known fighters, but they'd be talking about some guy. And that guy would get his chance and not, and not, I feel like there's some good examples. And I just can't.

The problem, the problem is this whole wrong second one long island. The one, the one problem is a lot of those guys who come in and then they get blasted like that, they don't last very long. You know what I mean? There's not many guys who are like, oh, they're winners in the gym, but they lose in the octagon that stick around. That's why, again, that's why I kind of feel bad for the moment. Mike Powell on because he actually was a good fighter. It's just that they're like, if you heard the reputation of the gym, it was, you know, it was like an angel sent from fighting heaven or something.

What were we going to say, Long Island? I saw you. I was saying Chris Holdsworth out of Team Alpha Mail. Everyone always said he was like the best guy in the gym. He did get injured catastrophically. I know. I'm not saying that that's not his fault. I mean, I still think it falls in.

And then the other one I want to name, which might not be as good because he's, he's still elite and shit. But Kioji, everyone says Kioji is like the best guy training at. ATT like we just saw him come up short against Manel you know like is he even top five I don't know just interesting yeah those are good examples though last but not least from mj silver fang with autumn quickly approaching what are some things you three digity donks are looking forward to not like a sentence with a preposition number one I always like the colder weather I got to be honest some people love summer man I'm like always happy when it when the temperatures drop so that is thing. Well, I'll say this. I do like summer, probably because my birthday is in the summer,

but yeah, yeah. One of my favorite times of the year is when it starts to go cool, not cold, but cool. Yeah. So you have to wear like, you know, maybe like a long sleeve shirt. You can have fires outside. And in DC, dude, that's the best time of year because it's when the mosquitoes start finally dying, you know, or at least not coming out for like. So you can be outside without getting eaten alive, you know. Yeah. I love. So I love that. I'll say this, you know, I got a little girl. She likes to go to the pumpkin patch. I'm going to take her to the pumpkin patch. That's that's so fun. I had my in-laws from Columbia here last Halloween. I cannot explain to people. It's just the nature of where I live. Halloween in my neighborhood is a fucking event. I've never seen

another neighborhood. I love it. Like this one. Do we get 100? I spent $500 on candy last year and it was gone in an hour. What? Yes. Dude, I one time took my kid trick-or-treating in the the neighborhood we can't go very far because there's like every half dude there is a neighbor whose house has its own ham radio station that plays spooky music during Halloween as you can take my when you're you know going around on your biking shit or whatever or just walking around but i took my kid one time just around the neighborhood like there's how you know her bag fills up in 20 minutes like it doesn't take any time so then we just kind of went back because she likes to hand out candy too and there was a line down the street to get into my walkway

to hand out candy. Like Kanye West or whoever's popular was fucking sitting out there or something. That's incredible. We have like a main street here, like in this small town here that does something similar. But I mean, that's a big main street, you know, area. But that sounds like five notches crazier than this. Yeah. My in-laws came.

They were like they because, you know, a lot of people who live, like if you live in a major city in Colombia, you know, there's not many like town homes. Yeah. Everything is just apartments, you know. So, you know, I was like, what is? is it what is Columbia like when you have an apartment complex to people to go trick or treating in the apartments and then the answer is apparently yes they do wow and then you know maybe up and down the street but not this shit where it's like that's wild man yeah it's just

children of the corn motherfucker up in here you know keeping those dentists in business in DC I like it that's right all right all right that's our DMs from donks now it is time for us to look at your artwork and put it on our proverbial right time for fan subs you've got mail All right, Morningcombat at gmail.com is going to be the place to get those in. Let's go number one to Jordan G says behind the scenes of the upcoming UFC 332 pregame preview. Oh, man. Are we doing this at a Joseph A. Bank? Is that what we're doing this?

I guess so. I got to give you guys the address, new address tomorrow. Yeah, that's hilarious. Also, as a reminder, pregame preview for UFC 3. 331 tomorrow. Tomorrow we're in New York City. All right. Tird's bigger than all of us right there.

That's crazy. Say again? That turd was bigger than all of us. I mean, I drop one of those before the show. From left lane, we have a meme. Luke Thomas and Danny Seguer are getting ready to over pronounce Mexican names. I like how pronouncing them correctly, Chuck, is called overpronouncing them. I will say in his defense, he did send this before Friday's episode. So he was just foreshadowing that you guys were going to.

I mean, listen, I don't mind the joke. It's fine. But it's just very funny when people are like, oh, you're over pronouncing it. I'm like, I don't think I am. I think that's how you pronounce them. I got to say that little curly mustache on Danny there look pretty good. That actually looks very natural on him. Yeah, he can rock that shit. I just look like a child molester.

You drive a windlass van. All right, we have Jesse from Canada. So Luke Thomas's babysitting preferences. not watching the fights. Oh, no, not Jay on Silva. Oh, yeah. Wait, because this is what I said, McMillan over Silver and rank that card?

Yeah, you said you'd rather McMillan. Chuck, he said he'd rather McMillan babysit over John Silva. I mean, come on. What are we doing? Who's watching your seven-year-old kid between these two? Oh, my God. Right, exactly. This is Sophie's choice.

Yeah, that's not. Tommy might Loki be a good babysitter Because like I don't know You know you get high You start playing the kids games He seems young Kind of fun He won't eat the dog food

You know what I mean? He might He might eat the dog food I don't know All right From Danny J Danny Hota we have a meme What do we got

Danny Sigurro's betting tips Betting the house on Yes We're starting to learn That this is the case It's like I do. I love Danny's analysis, but then he'll be like, he'll strangely be like, yo, you got to bet the house on this, uh, this guy who's missing five fingers. It's like, I don't think I'm going to do that. Oh, all right. From this is apparently his name, Wizzleho. Okay. And he writes, so the new elephant graveyard video went live 20 minutes before Luke's live chat and it went straight to the watch later list.

I don't, what am I missing here? I thought you would know. I don't even know what the fuck the elephant graveyard thing is. Oh, Elephant Graveyard is this guy Jesus, 1.1 million views 16 hours ago, fucking hell, is a critic of Joe Rogan, but more than that, like the whole Rogan sphere, and he's made three videos. This was the last of them. Oh, yeah, I've heard of this.

Like kind of critiquing it, and I don't know what the significance of that. Oh, I guess, you know, I would come after Elephant Graveyard, which, you know, I appreciate the consideration. That way. All right, from Wes, who's got a meme? Did he say then? It's then. Dude, there's nothing that drives me more insane, Chuck.

Oh my God. When they use when they use then T-H-E-N sequential, but when they're trying to talk about the different than T-H-A-N, dude, I've just noticed that people are increasingly illiterate. I hear this one a lot, though. This is actually like fairly ubiquitous. This is fairly common. Yeah.

But you know, we've talked about this before when people say your bias, B-I-A-S, like I'm the act of being it or I'm the noun of it. Yes. Versus what it should be, which is by-y-y-est, B-I-A-S-E-D, a person is by-est. We have been dealing in that one for 20 years in this game. You know, I have seen that one pop up for 20 years. It drives me fucking. I'm biased. I heard someone say calm promise the other day.

Com promise. Who said that? motherfucker. A person at fucking Harris Teeter here and they're, and they legit, didn't know what they're doing. Instead of compromise? Instead of compromise. Compromise. I'm going to start using that. That's nice. I was like, I think you should just walk into traffic. You know what I mean? All right. From Sebastian, we got a meme. How to get out of a minor inconvenience by an eight-dict walrus.

wait wait oh my god dude look at the shitter it says joseph a bank on it oh no who's mowing the lawn is that my neighbor yeah it says neighbor neighbor neighbor number one then bc's walking in a weird looking a i bc i'm like zoo attendant ripping a bong oh he's walking towards straw weights yeah he's walking towards straw weights and i'm walking towards donk enclosure okay this is a good one you can flag this one for or I'm sorry, Chuck, Long Island Luke. This one's great. How to get out of a minor inconvenience. That's funny.

All right. Danger Mouse has two memes. Show 9-11 memes on 9-11 or draw 25. Chuck, they sent them in. They sent him in for Friday's show. We couldn't do it. Oh, my Lord. All right.

What else we got? Integer memes on MK. Lawnmower memes. Nine-11 memes. Yeah. Funny that when BC leaves the show, the 9-11 memes, they tend to go away. Oh, man.

It's more of a him thing, you know. All right. From our nod, he says, last Friday with Dan Hart, I guess this is like two Fridays ago, but last Friday with Dan Hardy and Luke Thomas, I couldn't help but notice one thing. Oh, LT, would you forget to charge your camera again?

Oh, for fuck sake. Hold on. Let me give me one second. Just take me off camera. Yeah, Chuck, we got a stall here. Hey, what's happening? Where are you at on this? You can't pop up here?

Oh, I can't. I can't. I can't. I can't. Let's try this. Let's try this. All right. let's see. No, that doesn't work either.

That's all right. It's all right. Chuck. You want me to tell a story? Yeah, tell a story. Let's hear. Ah, geez, I don't really have any of the top of my head. Am I back yet? No, you're still color bars, LT. Color bars.

For fuck sake. This is kind of fun. For years and years, there's been, you know, people talking about Luke's technical problems. Yeah. And they've mostly gone away. They've mostly gone away. know but every once in a while people love it let me go let me go give me like one minute to go

it's it's funny that it happens during this segment which is like it's it's like we're producing our own right now you know it's funny because i knew exactly what this was right away because l t joined the other day with color bars and i was like what the fuck's up with your camera and he's like i'm charging it i forgot to charge it this would be a meme yeah this will be a meme is what matt just said you know but like just in the and the little bit of uh tom i've been doing the show like we've not just that but like the hiccups you know there was like a whole show where we had Luke had the hiccups oh yeah yeah so i mean there's been a there's been a lot of last show the last show if you remember we couldn't even have like a post we couldn't do a post show word

like we usually do because we're back we're back he needed to use the uh there we go the bathroom so bad yeah i back oh here he is there he is let him put it in his headphone there you go there you go all right Let me open this up. Okay. How's that? Looks good. You're good.

Talking with gas. All right. Where do we leave off? Arnaud had two memes. All right. Last Friday with Dan Hardy and Luke Thomas, I couldn't help but notice one thing. So with the help of AI, I give you Luke Thomas as Dan Hardy. And Dan Hardy is Luke Thomas.

This is going to be terrifying. Holy shit. You look like a dude from a big Lubowski in this, you know? I look like a guy who like does, you know, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, I'm like, like an antitates crypto guy or something yeah walter that's it that's funny jesus you know what i like how we just turn dan hardy sadder this really is a very depressing that is hilarious we've got the pants are injured though it's like if we make dan hardy look like luke yeah he just looks depressed actually it's all it is uh all right that's pretty good actually all right from josh we have two memes

Integer, Luke, throwing feces. Wait, what? I'm throwing, oh, the integer is, oh, I throw that out. Anything to do with numbers, you say integer, you throw that. I mean, it's kind of kind of, kind of, integers are kind of important to numbers. I don't know if anyone knows that, but, all right, that's one. Two, Chuck, Luke, and Brian, how Brian feels watching MK.

Oh, God. How did this make it through the North Korea? Yeah, usually. Yeah, usually these are. These are sent between us and we're like, yeah, that one got gone. I like how it's racialized too. Boy, that's a... That guy sent a meme, racialized cuck meme and then a gorilla throwing feces meme.

I don't know if we can take his memes anymore. Something tells me the 9-11 memes would have got through this week. I don't think there were any North Korean censors. I don't know if we should have shown those. I'll be honest. If I get fired, I apologize, everyone. This was my last show. Oh, man.

All right, Chuck, with that in mind, What do you got going on for coverage this week? Well, I'll have my usual stuff coming out. Probably have a column based on this Aspinall news to bring this thing full circle. I'll probably have something later today on that. And then I'll just have other coverage on uncrown. I'll probably be on the crack come Friday. And then is this, are we into our paper?

Yes, we are. Jesus, it's so hard to look forward. But we are in a pay-per-view week. So I'm sure I'll have a post-fight show as well. Yeah. And, of course, we'll see you tomorrow in New York before the pregame preview. Yeah, I forgot all about that. I'll be there. I'll be in New York tomorrow.

Absolutely. Long Island, I know we have 331 pregame preview tomorrow. What else you got going on, though? I'll also have a bet break out tomorrow. I'll have a contender series watchalong tomorrow night, live chat Wednesday. I'm doing the prop quiz awards, first annual awards on Friday, and then full card watch along

Saturday for UFC 331. Bank of me there. Be there. I'm guessing we'll be part of those awards, Luke. We'll probably be getting something, right? I mean, all the winners may or may not have been informed already. Sorry. It's like, well, you know what? I'll wait on my invitation later.

For me, I got a lot going on. So we have, again, one more time. UFC 331, UFC 331 pregame preview tomorrow in studio in New York. That'll be a blast. I can't wait for that. Drinking during the day is always one of my favorite things to do. So be on the lookout for that. Then, of course, I'll have my regular live chat on my MMA channel.

I'm going to have a political live chat on my political channel. So if you're into that kind of a thing or not, watch it or don't. It'll be great. All right. And then of course on Saturday, I'll remind everyone tomorrow, but on Saturday I'll have a watch along and post-fight show for UFC 331 as well. All right. For everyone here on the show, oh, let's remind everyone. You can see all the socials here, right, all that. Morningcombat at gmail.com, fan subs, dead wrongs, and to reach the show, memberships, badges and emojis, morningcombat.combat.com shop for merch. All right. We will see all of you tomorrow a rare double-header two days for MK in studio in New York City.

So until then, for everyone here on the show, may all your gains be loyal.