MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 254 EXPERT PICKS With Rashad Evans

Episode Date: October 20, 2020

Brian Campbell sits down with UFC Hall of Famer Rashad Evans to get his expert picks for UFC 254. Brian and Rashad runs through the entire main to get Rashad's best bets for UFC 254: Khabib-Gaethje. --------------------------------- 'Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit: store.sho.com   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  To hear more from the CBS Sports Podcast Network, visit https://www.cbssports.com/podcasts/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You hear that? Ugh, paid. And done. That's the sound of bills being paid on time. But with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card, paying your bills could sound like this. Yes! Earn rewards for paying your bill in full and on time each month.

Rise to rewards with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. Terms and conditions apply. Fight week upon us, morning combat. UFC 254, it's the lightweight summit. So you know your boy C, the Brian Campbell. Gotta go to the experts for your UFC 254 expert picks. Let me bring him in right now in this MK Extra. Little bonus action here.

South Florida's finest finest you know him always sweet never sour the tower of ayahuasca power former ufc light heavyweight champion and hall of famer sugar rashad evans my mainest bro ham how is it down there in south florida these days man oh man it's it's steady out here man it's been going pretty good just enjoying life and i miss you man i miss you good to be part of the the morning combat crew man good to be back we are part of this mk extended universe we used to we used to dance around a couple times a week on the cbs sports state of combat but everything's evolving here great to still have you in the family of course rash, can I get a pulse check here on a one to 10 of excitement in a 2020 where you got to give Uncle Dan a credit?

You know, it's all killer, no filler as far as UFC main events this year. But when I say words like Khabib Nurmagomedov versus Justin Gaethje for the full title at 155, what is your body telling you? My body's telling me a lot of things, BC. I'm overly excited but listen i'm not gonna let myself get too excited because we still have to step into the

octagon there's still a few tests that we need to pass and you can't get too excited because if anything this pandemic has taught us is that never get too comfortable with anything so yeah i'm gonna hold back the the full excitement but i'm kind of raging underneath. I'm kind of raging. If anything of the Habib versus Tony Ferguson soap opera has told us is don't expect a main event fight until it actually happens. That's why we have that expensive insurance policy called Michael Chandler who will be in the building on Saturday, just in case. Thank you for tuning in.

Of course, to this. Please like the video. Subscribe to Morning Combat. It's blowing up. It cannot be. It's so big, Rashad, and so explosive, this movement, this show. It can't be confined to the banana hammock of normal podcasts. We had to take this thing to YouTube and just let it, you know, just let it get out there.

So thank you, folks, folks for joining but this is expert picks we want to get underneath the betting odds the storylines find out who's going to win and why and like i mentioned no better guy to pick the brain of than a man who's still out there training right over 40 still out there with the abs working and training because you never know rishad when that phone's gonna ring you do you do know that right i do know that man i've been getting ready man got greg hardy right now just in camp and helping him sharpen his tools, man. I'm feeling kind of sharp myself. So listen, if I get a call, BC, you don't got to push me into the cage. I just might just jump in that joint.

You know, I broke bread with Mr. Coker and I said, you know, this is me, the fan talking, bro. Get Machida up in the bullpen. Okay. I'm ready. I'm ready. Anyway, enough of that crap. Let's get into it. Habib Gaethje. This weekend, our friends at William Hill, the oddsmakers, Rashad, right off the top. Habib Nurmagomedov, a minus 330 favorite to improve to 29-0 and try to keep that unbeaten streak alive. The interim champion, Justin Gaethje, fresh off that demolition of Tony Ferguson, a plus 260 underdog coming in. When you look at this matchup from the X's and O's, what should we be looking at most?

What's the biggest storyline separate from the death of Habib's father, separate from Justin coming in fired up? What the hell is this thing going to look like? What are you looking for? Well, I mean, it's definitely going to be, you know, the story of this fight is can, uh, Justin Gaethje keep the fight at least a little bit standing. Can he not get caught up in the washing repeat cycle that Habib Nurmagomedov is so famously known for and that everyone has tried to stop 28 opponents and try to stop and none of them have been successful. So it's going to be if Justin Gaethje, not, not, I mean, cause he's going to get taken down but it's can he get back

up and can he get back up to challenge Habib once he gets back up to his feet that to me the story of this fight uh I've always said the last couple years there's one man in this historically deep lightweight division this era right now who who I could really make a case that could beat Habib and I thought it was Tony Ferguson well Tony Ferguson's not coming through that door right now because Justin Gaethje went in there in May and just dismantled him en route to a fifth round TKO. Is it fair to say, Rashad, given Justin's, let's say, revamping, you know, transition from full-on brawler to now calculated assassin,

that he sort of assumes that mantle. Do you agree with this statement? If there's one lightweight who has a legitimate chance of beating Khabib, it's Justin Gaethje, true or false? True or false, 100%, 100%. And he showed that in his last fight because not only was he able to hit those big shots, but more or less what he was doing with his footwork. He was landing those big shots and getting out to the angle so then even if he's going against a guy like Habib who would shoot

underneath those punches he was nowhere to be found with his legs after he shot the combination so to me that showed to me that he was definitely in a position to to definitely challenge Habib now we haven't seen Habib since last September when he equally sort of demolished Dustin Poirier, which I mean, like if any wins from Habib have been eye opening Rashad, that one was to me in a sense where Dustin just never seemed to be in that fight. Every sort of avenue of potential victory was shut down hard. We haven't seen Habib since then because of the pandemic, because of the travel bans, because of the loss of his father, Abdulmanap, and coach this past July. I don't think layoffs, though, K-Dress, matter with Habib. He tends to only fight once a year anyway.

I mean, he missed two years and came back like nothing happened with that knee injury. Can we close the book on the idea that Habib's coming in with any extra baggage, even with, and let's give it the respect it deserves, the loss of his father? Do you have any misgivings at how all of that will affect this fight no i don't you know i think that ring rust and all the things that matter that slow an athlete down is what happens when you take time away from the octagon you know uh not only octagon i mean from training in itself i know that myself because when i took my longest time away from training

after i had a fight, that's when it was harder for me to get back into the swing of things. That's when it's harder for me to find the time that I had from the fight before. Habib doesn't have that. He doesn't have training camp. He just trains. It's his lifestyle. He trains every day like it's a training camp. So when you have that kind of mentality and when you're training your body like that on a consistent basis, you don't get the ring rust and you consistently improve on a skill level

because even as you're training, you're training and helping along guys who are getting ready for the fight. So you're sharpening your sword against guys who are sharp in themselves getting ready to compete. Yeah, indeed. I love this matchup in so many ways. So if we're going to stick with that theory that Justin might have the best

chance of anyone else, we got to talk about what separates him from anyone else again in this insanely deep division. So Rashad, I know, as he said last week, when he joined Luke and I Luke Thomas and I on morning combat with the interview that I hope all of you are going to check out. It's still out there on YouTube. You know, he he said i bring damage i i'm not going to go out like no bitch we know these sort of cliche parts about what makes justin different from the

standpoint that look at the dude's an absolute savage but do you believe it's as easy as he says it is rashad from i used to go into the octagon looking to get every bonus and be MMA's action superhero. And then after those two losses, one to Dustin Poirier and one to Eddie Alvarez, which he was stopped late in both in very fun and competitive fights, him and trainer Trevor Whitman, a guy you know very well, that it was just as easy as flicking that light switch that, okay, I had my fun. Now let's get serious. And now I'm not gonna lie like

this guy's among the top five or six pound for pound best fighters in the world so was it really that easy where this was in him all along and he just had to change the mindset or should we be you know mailing Christmas cards to the great coach Whitman here on what a what an insane job he has done refining the beast I think it was a littleining the beast. I think it was a little bit both. I think it was a little bit of he had it in him, but at the same time, it took some refinement. It took some of Trevor's angle work and just his mindset to be able to mold Justin

to really get him to see that he didn't really need to shoot and throw his punches from the 50-50, that range where both fighters can hit each other, but on the side or on angles where he had the advantage on his opponent and his opponent had to turn and face him. So that's what Trevor's been able to do. But more than anything, I think the mindset of Justin is a unique mindset. I've never really seen a fighter that encompasses the mindset of Justin Gaethje. When you talk about a fighter who really, really loves

the fight, this guy really, really, really loved the fight with everything inside of him. And he fights and trains like that all the time. So you have a guy who looks forward to having someone who can grind him out or who can challenge him in a way that will make him grow as a person. He told me, he said, Rashad, listen, everybody I spar, I challenge him. I say, listen, I'll give you 100 bucks, 200 bucks, whatever you want, if you can drop me to the body. And that's not so more or less so he can get himself hurt. But at the same time, it's a challenge. And the more that guy's hurting for that body shot, it lets him know that, listen, I can

be hurt. Listen, this guy's trying to hurt me and it makes him that much sharper. So knowing that Habib has a tool in his shed, knowing that he can take them down and dominate the fight is definitely going to keep Justin Gaethje his sharpers on Saturday. All right. So I can believe in that. I can believe that there was a mentality change, a change in focus on what Justin's really going after. Right. It's not so much bonuses anymore it's world titles it's championships it's respect it's everything that goes with that so let's talk again about what makes him different and why he might be able to win this because our knee-jerk reaction aside from he's a savage he's got one punch knockout power which he does

uh you know he's willing to pour out the jug so maybe there's that potential that he can drag habib into the kind of fight that we've never seen habib have to be in i get all that but we've also sort of knee jerk said you know he also can wrestle guys i know he never shows it but he can wrestle i'm starting to see sort of people reacting negatively to that idea be like that's all great that he's got a wrestling background, but if you don't use it, is it really there? If a tree falls in the damn woods, did it happen? Did it make a sound Rashad? How much are we overplaying underplaying what Justin's wrestling ability, you know, might mean to Saturday's outcome? You know, it's really hard to say just because of the fact that there's a level there's wrestling and then there's Habib level, you know, and, you know, there's guys who know how to wrestle, but there's not a lot of guys or if any, who knows how to wrestle at the level of Habib.

So it's really hard to say, and it's really hard to say right now if he's going to be able to match Habib's wrestling, you know, tit for tat. But here's what I can say, and here's what I'm trusting. And I believe the fact that, you know, he can scramble enough and scrambling enough creates openings. And there's one thing about Justin Gaethje that I admire more than anything of his punching power is his ability to land at punching power off of off balance shots. And that's where I feel that he may be able to land a shot that hurts Habib and changes the dynamic of things. And that may happen in the fact because he scrambles and he's the king at scrambling in certain positions and hitting those power off center shots. And he's also got, as we laid out a fantastic coach in Trevor Whitman, who, who was for, you know,

formerly your coach in a certain stretch in your career, he's done amazing things with Rose Nama Eunice transforming her into a mental, you know, savage machine, great boxer from a, from a fighter who in the beginning was sort of all about the ground game. You know, had that great one-off fight just recently with, with Kamaru Usman in which you saw a lot of evolution there. So I think Habib knows this because in that one sort of public teleconference that Habib did, he didn't want to give Justin a whole lot of praise.

It wasn't crapping on him. Habib's very respectful unless you you know cross that line and and talk bad about his his creed and his family and his religion and his wife and all that as Connor uh once did plus threw a dolly through a window and didn't get in trouble for it that's another story for another time though Rashad but uh Habib did make constant mentions to what makes Justin great is he has a great coach. So Coach Whitman here, I don't think, tell me if I'm wrong, I don't think we've ever seen him in a spot where he had a game plan against Habib. Is this a legitimate part of us handicapping how this fight will go? I mean, can this genius, this man who can invent the only MMA glove that seems to work,

but UFC doesn't want it right now, can this guy come up with something that we've never seen anybody try before and against Habib and is Justin the right man to carry out this execution? When you talk about strategy, there is in the game to me, there's Mark Henry who's a really good strategist but there's also trevor whitman who's an excellent strategist and as you mentioned i trained under him uh for a few fights and it was my best fights and just his approach to the game how systematic he is from training from the aspects you need to work on what the goal is in each and every single round and that's one thing that Trevor always does. He always makes a goal.

What's the goal of this round? What's the goal? So it really makes it easy as an athlete to understand which each objective is every single round and what to do. So when it comes to just coming with a great game plan, a great strategy, Trevor has that. And when it comes to being able to devise a game plan that's going to be able to create some wrinkles and create some opportunities for Justin Gaethje, Trevor has it as well too. So it's going to come down to Justin Gaethje being able to execute that and not getting so caught up in those moments of

where he feels very excited to fight. And we've seen him do it. We've seen him get very excited. He starts, you know, 10 toes down and brawling. And sometimes that worked out, but sometimes it doesn't. I'm wondering Rashad, I'm wondering, because you know, no toes down and brawling. And sometimes that worked out, but sometimes it doesn't. I'm wondering Rashad, I'm wondering, because, you know, no one's again, no one's really had to make Habib fight, like really fight, right? Because he's always has the advantage of being able to take it to the ground. Yes. Michael Johnson landed some shots and seemed to wobble him early.

Look how that ended. Yes. Conor's the only guy to win a round against him technically. Although can we shout out Gleason Tebow, please? the judges missed it that night all right he was he had some success but no connor kind of outboxed him in a round where i think habib was checking his own gas tank looking to make a statement on the feet didn't take it to the ground whatever no one's dragged this guy into a brawl is it possible here is it possible how do you do that do you have to hurt habib and wobble him to get him to have to throw everything at the wall and fight you man-to-man toe-to-toe uh it's just

in the man to do this i mean i'm trying to imagine how this fight can go i love the idea of gaichi being that being able to pull the saw outside of just, you know, oh, he might be able to knock him out. But no, can he make Habib do what he doesn't want to do? Is that possible? Yes, and I think it's going to be possible. I think it's going to be mandatory for Habib to jump through that hoop. Just like Justin Gaethje has to jump through the hoop of grappling in order to beat Habib, well, Habib is going to have to jump through

the gate of going through a brawl in order to beat Justin Gaethje, because here's why. In order for Habib to even have any amount of success with his grappling, he has to establish the hands. And not only does he have to establish the hands, he has to establish respect with the hands. He has to be able to let Justin Gaethje know that he can hit him with some shots. And then once Justin Gaethje knows that he can be hit with some shots, then the takedowns become easier. You know, wrestling is only six, seven minutes for a reason. It's because you can't do it for 25 minutes straight.

I don't care how good of a shape you are in, you cannot wrestle at a high level for that long. And when you're going against a guy like Justin Gaethje, who has the ability to maybe neutralize certain positions or at least make you work harder for those positions, those certain positions that you would be able to score on everyone else, then you're going to have to at least let those hands go at some point. So we're going to see it. I want to get your reaction to how both have framed publicly what their strategy will be. And you never know, are you answering honest?

Are you just spitting out words? Are you trying to plant seeds? I don't know. Habib, in a, I believe it was an interview with ESPN, said, I plan to drag Justin into the deep waters, tire him out late in the fight, and then around the fourth round, choke him out. I don't think Justin Gaethje gets tired, though. I mean, he's training up at elevation. I mean, it would be really crazy to see him get tired. But you're right. He doesn't get tired. And that's going to be something that maybe Habib is going to have to adjust his game plan for.

But, you know, it's something that he always sets his mind for. You know, that's his things that he needs to focus on in each and every single fight. he knows when he sees a guy's uh gas tank going down and he sees their their energy bar starts dwindling that's when he puts the pressure on but that may be hard against a charge and just engage you who's who has that power that doesn't fade when it comes to the shots and it's very hard to know how much gas just engage he has in the tank because he's very surprisingly athletic in certain positions. And with a guy who's very surprisingly athletic in certain positions,

they save a little bit. And it's hard to say when that explosiveness from the athleticism is going to come forward. And then, you know, Justin's flip side, he said, I'm going to kick him in the leg four times and then I'm going to knock him out there. Habib did, they did relay that back to habib and his response was people don't kick me in the leg in inland damage because when they

get that close i take them down uh just is just kind of relaying caveman interview stuff there right i mean or you think like leg kicks is going to be a big part of this like no i think he's definitely going to kick his leg and i think he's's going to kick his leg to show that he's not afraid to get taken down. And here's the thing that I think that Justin Gaethje is understanding the fact that he knows that he's going to get taken down and he's not afraid to get taken down because he understands that in order to keep him down, Habib is going to have to expend a lot of energy. And that's what Justin wants. Because a lot of guys who have the game plan of Habib, they have the wash and repeat cycle, and they can hold guys down and rest when they're there. But if they have that interrupted by some scrambling and can't keep the guy down and then coming back up to his feet and having to pay the piper with some heavy shots and play defense, it changes the dynamic on things then they think a lot more uh more more strategic about when they're going to go for the shot and then that's when the strikers game plan

starts to implement you know i'm wondering if this uh i think the best case scenario for this fight because we're always like can somebody make habib fight their fight well how about can somebody do that over a long period of time? Maybe this fight ends up looking like the great UFC 196 title fight. Holly Holm, Misha Tate were sort of for five rounds. Each person implemented their own game plan and strategy and seemed to have success over the entire course of that round. I mean, that would be fantastic if it went back and forth in that regard.

Obviously, we're going to find out on Saturday night. So expert pick time. You're the expert, Rashad. Habib minus 330, Justin plus 260. Who wins? What's the bet? What are we doing here in Abu Dhabi at 254? All right.

This is a tough one. You know, it can definitely go either way for me the way i see it you know with their imposing games uh but but for me the thing with this fight is is like i said earlier you know the wash and repeat cycle of habib can he keep him down and more or less be able to eliminate getting loose when he gets up in the scramble position and not get caught with an off-center power shot that justin gaethje hits all too well and I think that for the most part in order for Habib to get the fight where he wants so he's gonna have to cross through the fire and that Justin Gaethje fire across is absolute hell and that's where I think that Justin Gaethje gets the win in this fight. I think it's going to be an upset, and I think that Justin Gaethje is going to catch him

with maybe something like a, not so much of an uppercut, but something like a left hook or something. That's what I'm feeling, like he's going to catch him with something like that. Justin is in a mindset right now that I have. It's rare to see him in a mindset like he has right now. He's just super ultra focused, and I think he's going to do it. Wow, there was a great American fighter who once said,

I'm going to make you skip to my loo. Okay, all right, all right. Let's see if Justin can do that on Saturday. Rishad, we also have a hell of a co-main event here. Wow. Middleweight division, probably a number one contenders fight here to see who has next for middleweight champion Israel Adesanya when former champ Robert Whitaker squares off with the red hot, but coming off an injury layoff, Jared Cannoneer.

Let's update William hill's line here plus 100 underdog for robert whittaker minus 120 favorite for cannoneer now rashad i don't want to discount cannoneer's chances at all and i certainly want to hear your breakdown here i was a little bit surprised though whittaker had bounced back he outpointed darren till in his comeback fight looked very technical seemed to shake off all the cobwebs of is your mind still in it can your body still take this grind all that stuff that sort of slowed down what I thought was going to be a lengthy title run for Robert Whitaker obviously now you got Adesanya's uh rocket ship flying up right through the middle of that you think this line is right to start things off here? This is a close fight, but Robert Whitaker, he showed in his last fight that he does still have it.

And he showed that with the right focus and with his heart behind it, he still can be a showstopper. And he still has some amazing fights to show us. But he's got a very tough fight in Cannoneer. Cannoneer is not a deer in till in the fact that a physicality of it all. And I think that's some aspects that may be given the betters or the bookers, you know, a little bit pause when they're making this line is the fact that, you know, we got a physical, the physicality of Cannoneer is unlike, unlike anybody that Robert Whitaker has met apart from Yoel Romero. So I think that this is going to be a lot tougher fight for him in that respect.

And those shots that he was hitting on Robert Whitaker, he's going to have to add a little bit more to it. And the question is, does he really have it at this point in his career? Will this fight be more of a technical affair like we saw against till or will this fight be like most of bobby knuckles biggest fights he see welcomes entering into a war he's a classy warrior meaning there's so much skill i think he's among you know some of the most well-rounded elite fighters that that the ufc has today and he can take punishment he went 10 rounds with that piece of iron and steel known as Yoel Romero and kept standing, even though let's be honest, Rashad,

the rematch at the very least it was, it was Yoel's night. Come on. Come on. Oh yeah, definitely. I know he misses weight all the time. He didn't really sell out against Israel out of Sunday, but you get it. Okay. Anyway, what do you think this is? I mean, this has all the makings in some ways to be a brawl, but I thought the same thing about Whitaker Till. What's this fight going to look like? I think it's going to be largely fought on the feet,

and I think it's going to be a lot of power strikes, but I think it's going to be Robert Whitaker trying to stay off the line, trying to stay slick, trying to stay quick with his motions. But I think that power of Cannoneer is going to definitely take charge at some point. One thing about Cannoneer, he's a guy coming from heavyweight all the way down. He's worked his way through his career to get to middleweight. And now you see him right now and he's like a sculpted art. You know, his body is tracking.

And more importantly than his body's tracking, his mental is tracking, his spirituality is tracking. All these things are aligning you know when you have all these things in synergy working together you really become an unstoppable unit in yourself and that's what i see with canon near you know he's just really ultra focused but more or less has a belief in himself that comes from more than just fighting and and that's what that that's to me is going to be an obstacle in itself that Whitaker hasn't overcome yeah it comes from the damn crystals he's not going to try to hide one of those crystals in the uh in the banana sack right I mean well the crystal power is something else he's tapping into it he's tapping into the metaphysics of everything you know he's trying to

he's trying to tap into that uh that subtle energy that that exists in the universe and um you know did he lick a toad or something last month and get a third eye what happened here i might i might have to get him on lick of the toad crew you know uh but he's definitely on the level you know he's um he takes this fighting and and it's just not a fight to him, you know, and as an athlete, as a fighter, when, when fighting is not just about a fight, it's about the spiritual process. And along the way, so much can be gained in that aspect because it is not just a fight. It's, it's a, it's a moment of your life where you get a chance to grow. So the, the fight holds so much more weight in a different regard and the focus is a lot different and you see that in janice jared cannoneer uh quickly on whitaker

before we get to the pick here it seems like this is the fight like i mentioned that can get him back to the title level and obviously a rematch with him and adesanya given that they're both stars in that oceanic region it seems inevitable it'd be a great fight i'd love to see it is there anything whitaker should change meaning it seems like the issues he's had was more sustained injury you know overworked grinded the the you know he was burnt out and then he got caught against out of sign yet have you seen anything through this journey that's concerning or is it just as simple as get healthy no you know i i seen him hit the reset button. You know, he hit the mental reset button and he started to take some, you know,

account of how he was feeling and really started to, you know, to battle that demon inside that happens to so many successful athletes after a certain amount of time. You know, you just start being your worst enemy and he's facing himself and he's facing himself to the point

where he's speaking about it. And when an athlete starts and he's facing himself to the point where he's speaking about it. And when an athlete starts speaking about the troubles that come on a mental athlete aspect of competing, that's when you know a fighter has or an athlete is changing and turning the corner. And that's what I see in Robert Whitaker. He's turned the corner and I don't know if that equates to a win in this fight, but more or less it equates to him being able to understand where his fight is

coming from going into the fight. Yeah, indeed. All right. It's pick time. Plus 100 underdog is Whitaker. Cannoneer minus one 20. Who you got? Man, I was all sold on Robert Whitaker. I really was. And then I started to watch more Cannoneer and just the power that Cannoneer has the over overall physicality, his punch selection, just everything that Cannoneer has been doing since he's been in the middleweight division has shown to me that Robert Whitaker is in for one on Saturday,

and I got to go with Cannoneer on this one. Ooh, by stoppage? It could, but I think this is going is gonna go to the judges but i got canon there all right interesting heavyweight fight real quick on this main card alexander volkoff coming in as a minus 160 favorite against walt harris plus 135 underdog let's be honest harris seemed all set up for a big storyline that big fight with Overeem during the quarantine uh there was the story of losing his daughter there was all that good feeling there was the idea that a big win there maybe he's a dark horse heavyweight title contender and then he kind of

screwed up and fell and Overeem sent him to the dark depths one plus 135 coming in against a guy in Volkov who look no one ever looks good against. Straight up, right? I mean, you know, Volkov seemed to win every second of that punch, that one-punch knockout loss, of course, to Derek Lewis. So odds are close in this one. You lean in any specific way? I'm going to lean with Walt Harris, and I say that because Walt Harris has that wrestling and that grinding ability. And I think that when you're a tall guy like Volkov,

it's going to be hard to keep a guy that has the ability to throw punches that make you cover up, but then at the same time, the ability to take you down by shooting underneath and making you pay like Walt Harris. So I think that that's going to be Walt Harris' strategy. Touch up top, go underneath. If not, he doesn't... With a tall guy like Volkov, you can put him on a horn to dilemma the whole fight. Go high, low, high, low, high, low. He can't win that exam. You know what I'm saying?

So if Walt Harris does that, then he can definitely get Volkov out of here. But Volkov is a very tough and tricky fighter because he's a very long fighter who knows how to fight long. You know, there's not a lot of long fighters who know how to fight long and keep guys long and make them pay as they're coming into their zone and Volkov has that so not for nothing Walt Harris is going to have his work cut out trying to cross a barrier to implement his shots and take down but at the same time I think he's definitely capable of doing it I like Walt Harris in this fight Volkov looking to bounce back from being out wrestled by Curtis Blades in his last fight. Rashad, you look, you're a big fan here of this riser at middleweight, Philip Hawes,

who made a big splash for himself in the Dana White Tuesday night contender series. He's a minus 280 favorite here against Jacob Malcoun. What should we be looking at in this one? Phil Hawes has been a guy who's been in the game for a long time, for a long time, back training with John Jones and Jacksons, came over, was training in New York City under Henzo Gracie in Jersey, and he's been one of those guys who's traveled as a journeyman a while, and now he's here in South Florida.

But now he's figuring it out, and you see him, you know, figuring it out and not battling himself anymore. You know, there was a few years where he was just kind of battling. Do I want to do this or do I not want to do this? And he has all the physical acumen to do this. But it was just a matter of him deciding if this is really what he wanted to do. And now you see that he's made that choice. And, you know, he's been looking phenomenal and he's excited to be there and seize the opportunity. So there's a lot that this Phil Hawes can show a lot of people. He's one of the most athletic and most dynamic athletes I ever trained with, you know, I never trained with someone as explosive as Phil in my life, you know, so he's definitely got a lot of tools. and I look to see him start to really start to show people in this fight that, you know, he's somebody that,

that people should take notice of. Opening up this pay-per-view main card is Magomed Ankalayev and Ion, Ion, Ion, I never can get it right. I'm sorry. Is it Ion? What the hell is it? Kute Laba, the maniac. They fought already. Controversial knockout from Ankalayev. We've tried to book this almost Habib and Tony levels. We're finally going to get it, I think.

Plus 220 underdog Kute Laba, minus 270 for Ankalayev. Who are you liking in this one, Rashad? As much as I love Kute Laba and I love the energy that he brings and all the craziness, I just think that technically speaking, Uncle Ive is just at a different level. It is what it is. Sometimes guys are just better than you, but that's what we've seen last time that they fought. It's been a while because this fight's been trying to book for a while. But from what I've seen of Uncle Ive, you know, he's just, you know, too technically sound, and he fights very smart, very strong physical guy. The only way he can get in trouble in this fight is for him to get caught up

in what Kutalava wants to do, the whole brawling wild style, and caught in the emotional part of the fight. Uncle Ive is a Russian, so they're very divorced from emotion. So if he is tapped into his Russian side, then he should be fine and just be even killed this whole fight and go out there and get the finish. He's not just Russian.

He's also in a hurry. Rashad, when you look at this prelim card, where should we put our money? Anybody on this prelim card jumping out at you that you want to take a flyer on? Oh my gosh. What do we got on the prelim card jumping out at you that you want to take a flyer on oh my gosh what do we got on the prelim card we have here the uh because uh our guy some people would

say smiling sam alvey hasn't been smiling lately rashad because he's lost four in a row he's a plus 300 underdog against da on jong who i feel like is might send him not just to hell but maybe out of a job here yeah i i yeah that that could um sam melvy is is facing a tough one i mean but but you know what sam is still around you know i'm saying i just don't want you know rashad i just don't want sam one day to be bouncing the grandkids on the leg and go, hey, guys, you know, I once beat UFC Hall of Famer Sugar Rashad Evans, right? Not on my scorecard, not in the Campbell household you didn't. Not on my scorecards either. I know, I know, I know.

But you know who I'm excited for, though? There's a little bit of gold in this headway matchup between Stefan St struve and tui tui vaza i butchered his last name but you know what i'm talking about yeah but but but tai tui vaza these guys are both on i mean he's always fun to watch and especially being able to fight where he's you know gets this kind of attention and he's always fun to watch and especially being able to fight where he's, you know, gets this kind of attention and he's going against a guy in Steppen True who's kind of rewritten himself after going back home, you know, and, you know, trying to make a march to that to that belt. So it's going to be interesting to see this fight, this matchup and see where both of these fighters are right now and what they both need to achieve in order to keep their, you know, heavyweight career in the right trajectory. Yeah.

That's the kind of slop I'm here for. That's the, your prelim main event there on ESPN Struva minus one 25 favorite. He hasn't retired in a while. I wonder if two of us can send them back there as a plus one Oh five underdog. Good. Interesting to see also Casey Kenny back.

That's the, let me bang. Won't somebody That's the, let me bang. Won't somebody come in here and let me bang with them. Bringing, bringing back to life. The great Julian lane comment from a tough, right? Right.

I mean, let me bang bro, please. Bro. Bro. Just let me bang. All right. Sugar.

Rashad Evans. We are fired up for Saturday. Thank you for sharing your insight. We can follow you on the social medias at sugar. Rashad Evans, we are fired up for Saturday. Thank you for sharing your insight. We can follow you on the social medias at sugar Rashad Evans. Uh, what, what should we be looking out for? You're going to be on the ESPN telecast anytime soon. You got a comedy set coming up at the Carolines. What's going on?

What's in your future? Uh, Halloween weekend. I'll be back in Vegas, uh, doing the UFC show. And, uh, I'll actually be um cornering greg hardy that night too for the fight nice he's got he's got a big one too against maurice green so we've been uh last few months just buffing out the the iron you know and making sure that he's on point and firing at all cylinders he's looking good is this the first time you've cornered somebody in a ufc fight um no i've cornered a few people but i mean this is i was gonna say i was in a long time i was

ready i cornered vitor when he when he fought uh when he fought john jones oh i oh really i didn't know that how did i not know that that was a little bit like wwf revenge style right there he almost caught him he almost caught him he almost caught him damn I was going to try to compare your coaching record to that of the great coach Latore Gonzalez who undefeated bro all right until somebody beats her okay there it is uh sugar Rashad thank you so much morning at combat uh all day every, almost every day in your face hole. That's how we do it here. Enjoy the fights this weekend.

Rashad, you got any two words maybe for the people out there? Hey, we out.