MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 254 Instant Reaction: Khabib Defeats Gaethje, Retires at 29-0 | Whittaker Beats Cannonier

Episode Date: October 24, 2020

At UFC 254, UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov defeated interim champion Justin Gaethje in the second round via submission, but following the result of the pay-per-view main event on Fight Island, Khabib told the sport historic and explosive news. Luke Thomas gets to all of this in his instant reaction video. --------------------------------- '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

Hey everybody, Luke Thomas here. Alright, UFC 254 is in the books. We've got the results. I want to get to them because it is monumental. Huge news about Khabib Nurmagomedov. First, give the video a thumbs up, hit that subscribe button. We're going to have tons of analysis for you, but we've got to get right to it about the UFC 254 main event. Let's do it. Okay, so hot off the presses, Khabib numergamedov retains his ufc lightweight title defeating justin gaethje at 134 of the second round via triangle choke now there is news to get to afterwards i'm going to set it up now but i want to talk about the fight first the news is that after numergamed won, he gets his hand raised and he

gets interviewed and says to UFC commentator John Anik that he is done. He is retired. This is his last fight. He will not fight anymore without his father in his corner. And as you may or may not know, his father, Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, passed away this year due to essentially complications from COVID-19. Let's put a pin in that. I know that's big news, but let's put a pin in that because I want to talk about the fight because the fight itself is incredibly interesting. Okay, so Nurmagomedov wins in the second round. I want to say something up front about this. You will probably never see another fighter like Habib Nurmagomedov ever again in your life. Can't guarantee that, but the chances are good. In an era where fighters are more well-rounded than ever, and in an era where the best practices are just improving

almost week over week, month over month, year over year. I mean, five years ago, people didn't understand that the calf kick would be so important. And here we are. And now you see so many people playing with ranges and fakes and feints. You see a little bit less of the ground game by virtue of the sort of natural progression of the sport. But the point being is fighters are better than ever in terms of the well-roundedness and they're better than ever in terms of the general best practices. And then here comes a guy who says, okay, I'm going to go this way when everyone goes that way. It's not true that Habib striking is not good. It's functional, but functional, as you can see, was enough. I thought his jab was actually landing pretty well. But the point being is, here was a guy in an era where everyone was going basically

one direction, decided to be a specialist, and was so good at it, he was able to amass a 29-0 record in arguably the toughest division, certainly during most of the time in which he competed in it. UFC champion in his weight class will likely be put at a pound for pound ranking at the very top of that list. We'll see on subsequent days. And this is the key. Anderson Silva, I think, fought more of his contemporaries. So did St. Pierre and certainly so did Jones. Nurmagomedov is retiring at 29-0 and they can barely land a glove on this guy. He has, to this point, still never been knocked down in a professional MMA contest, never even been cut. They can't lay a glove on him. You literally cannot say that, that he was never knocked down or cut in his UFC run,

about any other UFC champion ever. He is utterly peerless in that regard. He has no other contemporaries as it relates to that consideration. It is amazing to watch his dominance. Now, in the fight itself, what happened? Gaethje came out. Both were pretty reserved in terms of their movement. It was pretty clear Gaethje was going to go in and out, side to side.

And he wanted to, A, keep the fight inside the two black lines. And B, he wanted to keep Nurmagomedov turning as much as possible. Because to the extent he could turn, he could get out of the way of any kind of lunging punches that Nurmagomedov throws when he pressures. And also it'd be harder to shoot on him, right? Because it's just, you're not there. The target is just sort of fading with the current. And in general, he was fairly successful with that. Nurmagomedov did not have a bunch of takedowns. In fact, while I'm talking about this, I will pull up the fight metric numbers on this just so I can be 100% certain. In this fight, Nurmagomedov only had two takedowns out of an attempted three.

But in the first round, he attempted just two and only got one. It wasn't like, you know, some other fights he'll have like three four sometimes five attempts per round he was very cautious he was very patient and what you what you saw was that a couple times he locked up with Justin and Justin had shown this in the Poirier fight and the Alvarez fight and other ones which is when guys try to lock up with him and push Gaethje into the fence he's very good about just finding a way to like circle out whether it was that whizzer uh that he uses whether it was just sort of hand fighting and breaking contact in the clinch.

He's very good about actually not getting pushed there. So you saw some of that, but eventually this was the big tell. Once Nurmagomedov got the takedown, it was pretty hard to get, or at least, you know, took time to get it, let's say. Although once he established contact, he got it pretty well. But that was not the key. The key for me was once it went to the mat, it went from zero to 60. I mean, the difference on the ground in terms of the submission, the grappling game, right?

It was enormous. In the striking game, Justin has the advantage. In the transition game, slight edge to Nurmagomedov. In the pure wrestling game, as it relates to MMA, slight advantage, Nurmagomedov. On the ground, massive, massive advantage for Nurmagomedov. Goes for an armbar, can't hit it, switches to a bicep slicer, which is similar to a calf slicer, but just for the bicep. You know, it's a pretty low percentage, but it at least controls Justin Gaethje and would allow him, if you wanted to, to transition, although the round ended there. But, you know, I think

Nurmagomedov had a great game plan. Take your time to get the takedown, and once you get the takedown, go balls to the wall in terms of attacking submissions. Now, you have to get to position really before you can do that, but he was pretty good about that, and he went for it. So that was really interesting. That was a really smart game plan, I thought, and paid dividends in the end. Second round comes out, and you saw a bit of this in the first, and it picked up in the second. You begin to see at the end of the first,

Nurmagomedov just marching Gaethje down. And Gaethje was landing on occasion. I mean, the left hook was finding a home, but because he was backing up so much and then himself turning to get Nurmagomedov to turn, there just wasn't as much potency in the strikes. So he might've been landing, but Nurmagomedov kind of rolls with punches a little bit,

lands some of his own. He had a good jab. He was landing some of the bigger punches. The right hand got through, I think, a couple of times from Nurmagomedov, but wasn't necessarily a potent weapon. But the point being was, even when he was landing some of the bigger punches the right hand got through i think a couple of times from number committed but wasn't necessarily a potent weapon but the point being was even when he was getting tagged by gaethje a lot of it didn't necessarily have a ton of mustard on it some of the leg kicks although they had some juice on it but again he wasn't getting

you know tuned up or anything like that it wasn't that bad but then the key was really he was just marching him down marching him down marching him down what he'll do is he'll make some kind of contact with guys that will stop them in their tracks for just a second. He'll reshoot. Did you notice how he did it? He shot, Gaethje sprawled. He went underneath Gaethje's sprawl to get behind him and then rolled through, forcing Gaethje to put his hands on the mat. And when he put his hands on the mat, he just kept rolling and then just maneuvered himself immediately and like almost like in one motion into a back take. I mean, it's one of the most beautiful back takes I've ever seen a professional mixed martial arts gets the back. Uh, I think

Gaethje rolls to the fence, tries to roll back down. Nurmagomedov moved to mount. And when he moved to mount, he moved to, I need to review the tape to be a hundred percent sure. But when he moved to mount, he moved to something called S to review the tape to be 100% sure, but when he moved to mount, he moved to something called S-mount, which is the setup for a lot of different submissions. You can go for arm bars from there. There's actually a lot of things you can do. You actually just hold it if you want to. It's called S-mount because your legs make a bit of an S. Again, I need to double check to make sure that's true. But in the end, what he really got, S-mount or no, was he set up for a mounted triangle so you are in mount you whip one of your legs you have to hold their head with one hand you whip the other leg behind it then you can grab that

then you roll to your guard once that's locked up and as you roll you don't wait till you get to your back but as you roll you throw over the other securing leg at the same time so that by the time you land in guard right on your back it's already locked up and then he did two things one he fished the underhook on the same side so that gaethje couldn't pick him up and slam him did you notice that it acts as like an emergency brake if you're trying that and you hold the uh the leg there that was one two he also used it to angle so if i you can triangle someone when you're facing them but the best best way to do it, same with the arm bar is to create a 90 degree angle on him. He did both Gaethje was not getting out of that triangle. It was over at that point. If he needed to,

he could have pulled down the head with one hand or whatever the case, but that was over. He could have transitioned to the arm. If you wanted to, it was over Gaethje tapped. And then the referee, Jason Herzog didn't see it. So he eventually just went to sleep, and then that was it. And then Nurmagomedov wins. That was the key. At range, striking, Nurmagomedov wasn't going to win that. Pressuring Justin backwards, he was going to take some licks, but he was beginning to put the fight almost like,

it looked like the Barboza fight. You guys remember the Habib-Barboza fight, where he just marched Barboza down? It felt like that, even though Gaethje didn't necessarily have the same game plan that Barboza did. Although some of the leg kicks obviously is a slightly similar strategy. But that really began to wear Justin down. I think even, by the way, just the act of turning himself was exhausting for him. And so he does all of that. And then the real key was once they got to the mat, massive, massive difference in the, on the ground ability. And there's been stories that Justin

doesn't really train all that much jujitsu in the gym. I don't know how true that is, but I can say that however true it is, um, like let's say he actually, here's what I say. I can't say how true it is, but to what extent he trains jujitsu, it's just not enough. It's just clearly not enough. Not enough for Numerik Amadov anyway. Numerik Amadov, it appears is going to retire as your pound for pound best fighter in the sport.

UFC lightweight champion, undefeated, 29 and 0, never been dropped, never been cut, and does it with a skill set that doesn't really match what you see from most modern, even elite modern fighters. You'll just never see somebody like this probably again in your lifetime, man.

It'll be a while. It'll be a while before you see something like this. Truly a genius, a master craftsman. And I'll say this, and this is certainly up for debate. I recognize maybe you think Tony would still be the guy. Maybe you think Michael Chandler would have been the guy who knows. I don't know. I can't mind read, but to me, there's not a guy on the planet that could beat him. Not a lightweight, maybe upper weight class. It'd be a little bit different at 155 pounds. I don't think there's a lightweight on earth who can beat that guy. Not given what he can do in terms of having a good chin, sort of very functional stand-up, both defensively rolling with punches,

blocking, parrying both from the front and the lead hand, putting pressure on guys, getting them out of their game, and then having this ace-in-the-hole skill set in both wrestling and grappling. So both in getting the takedown, controlling the person, and then advancing to a position where you can do ground and pound or get submissions. I just don't know anybody on the planet at that division who can do what he can do or stand up to what he can do.

I mean, Dustin Poirier finished from the back. Gaethje finished essentially from mount, not explicitly because he rolled, but set it up all from mount. Conor McGregor finished from the back. From, I think it was side control, finished. Michael Johnson and then Al Iaquinta. We all know the story. If you take a fight on short notice, it was 24 hours at that point.

There's going to be some weirdness. Some of the times the champs don't perform up to the level to which they are commonly accustomed. People wanted to read into that way too much. Way too much. Well, look at him now. Just blowing through these guys. I keep trying to tell people,

you keep going back to this Gleason Tebow fight, you got to stop. That's not the same guy anymore. He is so much better. So much better in the way in which he has arranged his games and the setups that he needs and the things that he wants to do to get better. It's not the same guy anymore.

Not even a little bit. And so the question is, what happens next? Folks will say MMA retirements don't really last. That is true, but I have a feeling this one might be a little bit different than the others. Who's to say? Maybe in 18 months and two years, he'll feel different. He'll be 34 at that point. The division will have moved on to a degree, and maybe he'll want to come back then. Maybe he'll be back in six months to a year. Who knows? But the reason why he claims he is retiring, which is that he doesn't want to fight without his father anymore,

it just feels like there's more weight to that. He's not going out at the bottom of his game. He's not going out like BJ Penn where they're just forcing you to stop. He's going out because I think he is devastated by the loss of a loved one, a loved one who had a profound role in his professional and athletic life, to say nothing of his just personal upbringing, and somebody who made the journey possible. Maybe he'll feel differently as his heart heals. I mean, you never get over the death of a parent,

as anybody who's lost a parent will tell you, myself included. You never really get over it. You just kind of build the reserves necessary to deal with the pain so the pain doesn't debilitate you in the way that it did. And you saw after Nurmagomedov won, one, excuse me, he was in the middle of the octagon crying, which I think you could well understand. Maybe that will change, but for now, I'm going to assume that it's not, which means there's no St. Pierre fight. I didn't like the St. Pierre fight anyway.

So it leaves a question about the lightweight division and what's going to happen next. Folks, this opens it up big time. First, it's a bit of a baller move to hand a belt back to a division. It means that no one in that division could touch you. When you're St. Pierre and you're just giving the belt back because they have nothing for you, it says a lot about your dominance. So first there's that. That's usually never good. Usually you want someone to be beaten.

You want the man to be beaten by the next man so that they can take that star power. You're not going to get any of that this time, which is unfortunate, but you know, lightweight is still full of a lot of celebrities and stars and big name fighters and people that fight fans care about. Now, at least of which is Conor McGregor. So you're going to have this Conor Justin fight. It seems like next quarter, look, you've got some good opportunities there at lightweight. They could have a mini tournament. They could have a mini tournament. They could do a four-man, eight-man, whatever they wanted.

But there's a lot happening at lightweight that this removal of Nurmagomedov just completely opens up. Totally opens things up. I mean, without the boogeyman there, you may see the title get passed around a bunch. You may see someone hold it for a couple of fights, and then someone else holds it for a couple, and then they may come out of nowhere, and blah, blah, blah.

But it definitely opens things up at lightweight, creates some interesting possibilities. Maybe Justin ends up being champion after Nurmagomedov leaves. Maybe Conor McGregor gets back there. Maybe Michael Chandler ends up being the guy in the UFC. I mean, who the hell knows at this point? It's going to be really interesting to see. I know some people are going to be very disappointed that there's not a Habib GSP fight. I'm less inclined, you know, to be that way. Um, I just feel like, yes, it's true.

GSP would have had the striking and the range management, the great jab and the footwork, the defensive wrestling, the offensive wrestling that Nurmagomedov never really had to face. And so that would have been an interesting challenge, but you know, he's, he's knocking 40s door down and he would have two fights in eight years. I don't know how I feel about that, but you know, we'll see if that ends up happening one way or the other, as far as it relates to, um, Justin Gaethje, you know, I'm making the claim that when it got to the mat, the difference in skill was extraordinary, and it was. But who else is that guy that's going to test that? Now, maybe you think Michael Chandler could do that.

Maybe. Maybe you think Tony Ferguson's that guy. You know, we already saw what happened with Tony and Justin Gaethje fought, so maybe it would go different the second time. But I tend to think that not really. I don't think he's going to be as... No one has the takedown to control to submission game that Nurmagomedov does, certainly in the lightweight division. So it's like, for all of the holes in Justin's game, I'm not sure who else is as capable as Nurmagomedov is of making him pay for it. Maybe you could say Chandler,

maybe you could say Tony, but that's probably about it. And so from that standpoint, you begin to wonder, like, does he really need to change things up? I mean, fixing his striking has done wonders for him, but how much can he really devote to getting the rest of that game up there when he may not need to. So there's that part as well. But an incredibly... I mean, Nurmagomedov's just peerless, man. He leaves you kind of breathless because you just can't believe that there's somebody out there who can do what he can do, but he can. And he does.

And he did. He is, at least for the moment I speak to you, your UFC lightweight champion. I don't know when they'll officially remove him from the rankings or take the title back or whatever the case. But folks, I hope that you can appreciate what close, but in terms of how he can put distance between himself and his contemporaries, um, it'll be a long time before you see that a long time. So celebrate him. If you got a chance to do that, pour one out for him tonight,

toast them, whatever the proper celebration for that may be, because y'all got to witness something special with him. If you liked the video, give it a thumbs up, hit that subscribe button, point of order. We will have more analysis for you, I think throughout the weekend, but obviously Monday's show for Morning Combat is going to be enormous. A huge, huge show. We'll get BC's perspective, We'll get all of your perspectives.

So give us a follow at Morning Combat with a K on Instagram. Get those questions in tomorrow when we put the post up for it. We have a lot to get to. This is just, of course, my initial reaction. Okay? Thumbs up, hit the sub button. We'll see you all on Monday's show. Peace.