MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - 🚨 UFC 267 Instant Reaction | Jan Blachowicz vs. Glover Teixeira | Petr Yan vs. Cory Sandhagen | Post-Fight Show

Episode Date: October 30, 2021

At UFC 267, Jan Blachowicz and Glover Teixeira will battle for the UFC light heavyweight championship while the interim championship at bantamweight will be contested by Cory Sandhagen and Petr Yan. Also on the ESPN+ fight card is Khamzat Chimaev vs. Li Jianglang, Islam Makhachev vs. Dan Hooker, Magomed Ankalaev vs. Volkan Oezdemir and much more. 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:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Hi, everybody. You're going to see me sit down here because this thing got started a bit early. Here we go. All right. There we are. Hi, everybody. Hope you're doing well. My name is Luke Thomas. It is, let's see, it is the 30th of October 2021, and it is time for my, I'll actually say the morning combat UFC 267 post-fight show. I hope you are doing well. I know I am. Let's see. That's all right. That's fine. I think everything is going well with the connection. Yesterday on my personal channel, there were still some issues, but okay, here we are. All right, so if you don't want spoilers for UFC 267, which is now in the book, now is the time to skedaddle and get out of here. We are going to get to the results here in just a moment.

Of course, if you want them and you want more of MK, thumbs up on the video. Please hit subscribe here on this Morning Combat channel. We are trying to drive as many subs as we can. We appreciate your patronage just the same. And any other news and notes? No. The fights are in. The results are in. Let's get to the show as I adjust my thing right now. Alright, there we are. I'm going to take subscribe off. But I do want you to subscribe.

Thank you so much. Of course, if you're new to Morning Combat. It's normally myself and Brian Campbell. We do it three times a week. Monday, Wednesday, Friday. 11 a.m. in the east. But this is the post-fight Show. I'm hosting it today. Brian will be here for the Monday show, obviously.

But we'll get to a live reaction here on today's program. Okay. Well, I'm assuming you want spoilers at this point. I'm assuming that that is okay with you. And with that, let's get this party started. So here we are, UFC 267. Let me pull my notes up here if we can. Someone text me. What's up? Okay, I sound good. Okay. Someone says my producer. Let me pull this up. Here we go. Okay. UFC 267. This took place at the Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates.

And let's start with your main event, Glover Teixeira. I'm ready for this one. How about this? Defeats Jan Blachowicz via rear naked choke submission at 3-0-2 of the second round. He is your new champion. Glover Teixeira is now at 42 years of age. I initially wrote but then corrected that he was the oldest champion. Glover Teixeira is now at 42 years of age. I initially wrote but then corrected that he was the oldest champion in UFC history.

I think that would be Randy Couture, if memory serves. I'm not sure who else it would be. But okay, so now Glover Teixeira becomes your second oldest champion ever. And I was there in Baltimore when he fought Jon Jones and really didn't have a prayer that night. Remember, that's when he got his arm wrenched going this way and stuff. And he was just a bit of a shutout.

And I thought, well, that was his title chance. And now it's gone. And that's a pity. But I wrote this and I really, really mean this. Glover Teixeira is what it means. He exemplifies what it means to give your life to, or commit your life, I should say, to the martial arts. This is what it means. Obviously, he's a prize fighter, and that takes things in certain directions. But what I mean is, here is a guy who certainly has become a jiu-jitsu black belt, but I don't just mean what titles did he hold in martial arts. What I mean to say is somebody who has routinely lived the values of sort of the martial way of discipline and honor and respect and introspection and working on one's mistakes and all of the things there.

He's been that guy. That's the guy that he is. It has paid off, finally, at the very last stage of his career. This is not the only time we've seen people achieve great things, perhaps the greatest things they've done in MMA, in their very last twilight moment of their career. Michael Bisping would be another one. I'm sure you can name several others. It does sort of go to show that something to be said for longevity in MMA, the ones who can do it and the benefits that are conferred upon him are those types of people. But in the case of Glover Teixeira, he doesn't get here without that. He's very talented as a fighter. And as a fighter, he got pretty far up until today, right? So let's sort of exclude today's results for just a second. Even with that, he had had a distinguished

fighting career. But what put him over the hump is this dogged determination deep into his career about believing in oneself, having self-confidence, but also reflecting, before my dog comes in here, reflecting on the challenges of the journey, always trying to be a better version of yourself today than you were yesterday, being held accountable, working on all the small problems that you can, just really being committed to a craft, to a way of life, and to an end goal, and all of that merged here tonight with Glover Teixeira.

So how did he end up doing it? I want to pull up the numbers here in just a minute, and I will. Let me pull that up as a matter of fact. So let's see, because I got to tell you, I was a little bit surprised by some of what had happened. If you guys had watched my main event breakdown yesterday before I had an epic stream collapse, what you had heard me say was, if you look at the historical record of takedowns that Glover has, he certainly was never bad at them. That was not a thing, but that it wasn't this like overwhelming force. There were times he could get it, but it was usually against opponents who were a little bit undisciplined in how they managed

space or certain interactions where they should have been fighting the hands and takedown attempts and instead they were like going for something else, right? When you're not really dialed in with all of the details, he takes advantage of those guys. But for the ones who have really good takedown defense, it was a lot harder for him to do a whole lot too. Recall he had that big lift on Gustafsson. That was the one, right? Gustafsson's lift with DC got remembered more, but the initial big high crotch lift came from Glover and then flipping him over the whole nine yards. So he's always had good takedowns, but 40% accuracy, that means three out of every five don't go anywhere. And obviously, even if you get the takedown as a sort of a theoretical matter, that doesn't mean they're going to stay down. They did

in this case. The whole point was we knew if it got to the ground, there was going to be a big difference, and you saw that right away. About that, everyone kind of knew, but I have to say, he got those takedowns, so I think he is credited with two according to Fight Metric. He attempted six, so here's a case where he only got one of three. Takedown percentage is 33% in this fight, but that's all he really needed. It sort of shows the 40% is probably accurate, but not reflective of some of the broader realities that this fight offered. So in the first round, he was able to get it, I think, what he was doing a lot of times was he was attacking singles and then using that to either go to the body with a body

lock or using that to go to switch off from the single to the double. So he would entry off the single and then switch out later. He was able to get it and then pull out the legs of Blachowicz, turns him away from the fence when he gets it, stayed in guard the whole time, and then tried to use a can opener. I think that was one of those situations where it didn't create the most excitement any of us have ever seen, but I'm okay with that, actually, on both sides, right? So if you're Jan Blachowicz, what are you thinking here?

You're thinking, I'm going to overhook, collar tie, and then guard. I'm going to hold on to this, either to get a stand-up, or to bare minimum, just to prevent much worse-case scenarios. Because Glover can shred guards. He's not just a black belt in some kind of way. We're like, oh, isn't that nice that he has it? He really implements it, and he has been implementing it for quite some time. He can pass. He has good knee cut passes. Not a huge mobile passer, but definitely a bit of a smash passer, and he's quite good at that. So I think the

calculation that Blachowicz made was, I'm just going to hold on, either get a stand up or to bare minimum, slow the fight down, kind of ride this one out. It's a five-round fight. I might have to give away some of this round or maybe even all of it, but at least things won't get worse. We'll come out for the second, standing on the feet, and now we're back to my ball game, which again is a little bit, it shows some of the limits of some of his game underneath, but none of us really ever thought Blachowicz was going to be a big threat from like guard or something like that. Okay, and you could see Teixeira using a series of things to open up the guard. Sometimes he would use some small ground and pound. He would tripod up for folks who may not know. It's a lot easier to open someone's guard, not in every case, but in most cases when you're standing versus when

you're on your knees. It can be done, but it's a little bit harder. So you saw him tripod up in post looking to get various points of opening there. But you know, I didn't feel like he was hunting that super hardcore. I felt like Glover was like happy to take it if it really showed itself without too much effort. I did not read that as Glover being like, oh, I can't open this guy's guard. I think he was actually pretty, I won't say happy, well, maybe. I think he was satisfied with, for at least that round, sitting in there because he was using the can opener, which is just bringing the back of someone's head and their chin all the way down, almost like a Thai plum, but on the ground. And obviously the back and the's head and their chin all the way down, almost like a Thai plum, but on the ground. And obviously the back and the hips can't go anywhere. They're trapped on the

mat. And so you can get the scenario where the only way to relieve the pressure from a can opener typically, or at least the standard way to relieve the pressure is to open the guard. That's sort of what it's designed for. Blachowicz didn't really do that. And he kind of, you know, was getting his neck cranked a little bit. He'll be feeling that one for sure, but I guess the point I'm trying to make here is both guys didn't have the most exciting round, clear round for Teixeira, but I kind of understood where they were. Also, I had mentioned this on Twitter. You have a scenario where if you've ever rolled with someone who has a bald head, and then its stubble comes out a little bit, and then they're grinding up into you, it'll tear your face to pieces depending on the length of it. And in either case, he was using his head to post under the chin to turn his head side to side.

He was putting his weight on it as he tripod it up to bring all the weight down in the front there. I mean, he was using it very, very, very effectively. Clear 10-9 round for Glover to share up. Now, we start the second round. Let me look at some of the numbers here. First round, Blachowicz landed six of eight significant strikes to share a 10 of 15. But attempting, by the way, 51 of 61, a huge percentage of the total strikes. Again, 10 of 15 for significance. Second round, things were a little bit different. In fact, Blachowicz was winning that one on the feet for as long as it lasted.

In fact, in the second round, Blachowicz, well, that's not quite true because he took a big left hook. I'll talk about that in a second. But up until that, he was winning. Landing 22 of 37. Again, fights are judged qualitatively, not quantitatively, but it gives you some sense of how much better it was going. He was jabbing his way.

He was throwing some combinations. Glover has a tendency to bring his hands up like this and kind of guard. And we've talked about this before on Extra Credit and some of my other podcasts. If you see this in MMA, it's not necessarily wrong, but every choice one makes defensively opens up a different set of possibilities or other things that fighters can do around it. And when you do this, you might block the punches, but then hooking punches can land, they can move around you because you can't quite see. So it's a sturdy way to block a punch,

but it's bad for some other reasons. And you saw some of the combos and some of the multi-punch sort of striking attempts that Blachowicz was attempting in the course of that. But eventually, Teixeira, you could see him, he was doing a good job of keeping Blachowicz kind of behind the two black lines, or at least on the back foot more generally. He would try and jab and cross his way inside. And then again, he goes from either a single leg or the body to the double. I think he got Blachowicz pressed against the fence and then pulled out the right leg and then from there immediately passes to mount and from mount Blachowicz rolls because he's getting banged on and then the choke went in and that was all she wrote dude Glover but once it

went to mount the fight was over but even before that as I indicated he landed that left hook they were competing for left hooks but it looked like because they were throwing at the same time like Dan Hardy Carlos Condit style so whenever that happens it's always a question of like speed and and who has the right distance if you notice Blachowicz's went around the head not quite to the back in fact like the forearm hit like back here so his punch more or less missed. Meanwhile, Teixeira's landed clean as a whistle, rocking him over, and that just helped him put the pressure and got Blachowicz in a state where he was now reacting,

anticipating, not really moving through this in a way that he should have. He should have been a lot more on his horse than he was to combat some of the linear pressure that you saw from Glover Teixeira. And again, Teixeira credited with one of four takedowns, one sub-attempt. He had 48 seconds of control in the second round for as long as it lasted. Teixeira is credited, according to Fightmetric, he is credited with four minutes and 29 seconds of control in the first round. So not a 10-8. There's no real damage and dominance in that sense, but an unequivocal round for Glover Teixeira. If you're looking at some of the targeting by location,

Jan Blachowicz doing a bit of some headhunting there. 71% and 21% respectively head in the body. Glover Teixeira not doing a whole lot differently. No leg kicks, interestingly. He's always been a bit of a headhunter, which in MMA, it's not as bad as in boxing. If you're a headhunter in boxing, worse things can happen.

In MMA, it's not as unjustified, certainly depending on the division. But 73%, according to Fightmetric, targets for the head, and then 26% of his targets to the body, 0 73%, according to Fightmetric, targets for the head, and then 26% of his targets to the body, 0% to the legs, just 7% for Jan Blachowicz. Some people had commented on Twitter, and I think they're right, that Blachowicz, for whatever reason, looked a little flat today. Maybe the first round took it out of him. He said he left his legendary Polish power back at the

hotel room, not making any excuses. Like, listen, athlete, listen, okay, so there might be a lot of Europeans watching this, but in the American game of baseball, you guys might not know this, but it helps to illustrate, the season is insanely long. They play upwards of 160 plus games a year. It goes on for weeks and weeks and months and months, and what you end up seeing was even with the very best hitters in the game, let's say the people who win all the slugging awards or whatever, you'll see that they'll have weeks or sometimes months at a time where they just can't hit shit. They're just not on it. Not every time you go out there is going to be your best time.

I've made this point before. I interviewed Matt Brown in Atlanta just prior to his fight with Wonderboy Thompson. And I asked him what he made of, at the time, Thompson's undefeated kickboxing career. And his argument was, I don't know if he's the best kickboxer. I don't know if he fought all the best guys, but here's what I do know. It can't be the case that in all 59 times or whatever the number was for Thompson, it can't be the case that every time he showed up, he felt great or didn't have an injury or didn't have something on his mind or everything just went right for him. Sometimes things just went desperately wrong, but he still found a way to win.

Now, in this case, obviously, that wasn't in the plan for Jan Blachowicz, but this is what I'm trying to say. People think when you argue that someone came out flat, you're taking away something from Glover Teixeira. Maybe Glover beats him on his very best day, but it did look like maybe it was that first round, maybe it was something else. Blachowicz not quite as acutely aware or just didn't seem to have some of the same urgencies

in the second round that I thought he would, even on the stand-up department. Maybe really Glover got in his head with the takedown. Hard to say exactly. But if Glover is the cause of it in the first round, then that's just fair game anyway. Then that's just one guy being better than the other guy anyway. There's nothing to dispute about this win. Glover Teixeira is absolutely your deserving champion. And I just can't say enough good things about him. Dude, when have you ever heard somebody come back and there's been a report about Glover Teixeira, you know,

fucking up gyms because he's some kind of loose cannon or there's these epic breakups between him and his coaching staff or, you know, you hear whispers about what a bad guy he is or, and you never hear any of that. He's like Dustin Poirier. Dude, you never hear stories like that. You never hear anything about Glover other than what's he up to probably in somewhere in Danbury Connecticut training and if not probably somewhere in Brazil training that's it man that's all you've ever heard about this guy you've never heard a negative story and I'm sure no one's perfect and I'm sure

if I learned more and you did we'd find something to nitpick but relative to his contemporaries and many of his peers and many of other fighters you know, he just stands apart from them as a lesson in what is possible when self-belief is really taken as far as you can take it. He's a lesson in what happens where if you just forget the negativity of your own mind, the negativity of the external world, and you just commit yourself to a process,

you might just be surprised at what you find on the other end there, both in terms of self-discovery, as well as self-improvement, as well as any number of other important life qualities and life achievements. In this particular case, the long eluded for him UFC light heavyweight title, Glover Teixeira gets to go down in history, even if he gets beat in his next fight. And if it's Yuri Prochocka, he just might, because that dude's tough as shit. Who's to say? Glover could win that one too.

But you get the idea. Even if it doesn't go for him in that particular direction, he has still reached one of the more important and, frankly, unambiguously, not just cool, but relevant and special milestones and achievements that is possible in combat sports, which is a UFC weight class title, undisputed, no interim, no nothing. And whatever you want to say about Jon Jones being gone and this, that, and the other, I'm not one of these guys who's just ready to believe that when Jon Jones comes back, he's just going to pick right up where he left off. I think the game is, maybe he could at heavyweight if he came back,

but even then I'm not so sure. And at heavyweight, I don't know why people just assume he's going to just take over there. There's a lot of questions that we should have about exactly what the upside might be. And I'm not here to take away Jon's win over Glover in 2014. I think that's when it was. That was an entirely legitimate win. But divisions move on. People have late chapters in the sport, even when you think they can't. And the ones who are really committed, the ones who not just are gym rats, I work harder, but this is how I organize my life around these qualities. I organize my life around activities that maximize those qualities.

And I live my life in pursuit of this until I can do it no more. And look at what he did. Dude, do you know when he made his MMA debut? Not UFC. Glover Teixeira. His MMA debut. He made his MMA debut on June 7, 2002. which he lost to some dude named Eric Schwartz. He lost in the second round at WEC3 in Lemoore, California. And he actually went two and two in

his first four fights. He lost to Ed Herman back in March of 2005. After that, spent a few more times in Lemoore, California, eventually being stuck for a long time fighting in Brazil before he was able to make his UFC debut all the way back in UFC 146 in May of 2012. He got a title shot about two years later and then couldn't get it done against Jon Jones. He's only ever lost to Jon, well, since UFC, I should say. John Jones, Phil Davis, Anthony Johnson, Alexander Gustafson, and Corey Anderson. Multiple fight of the night, submission of the night, knockout of the night bonuses all the way around. I just can't say enough good things about Glover Teixeira. Fairly one-sided affair, too, is what I would say. There was this question about what was the upside of Jan Blachowicz after he was beating guys like we pull his record up too so I don't misstate anything

after he because remember he got completely dismissed by Luke Rockhold in the run up to that fight and then he got he sent Luke Rockhold packing but after that he had the really kind of boring but I guess important fight against Jacare, which he won. Then he fought Corey Anderson, knocked him out. Then he fought Dominic Reyes, knocked him out. And you thought, aha, this dude has finally put it all together. Then he fights Israel Adesanya. And you thought for sure he had put it all together because he really slowed that fight down. He took away a lot of the things that Israel likes to do. And I thought, man, if Israel has a hard time getting through, Glover might as well. But Glover just barreled down and it kind of forced him to react to some of the punches he

was throwing in a little bit more of a calculated way, whereas Rockhold, I think, didn't fully respect either the power or just his overall ability to find openings is how I would describe that. Now, there is a question to be had here, and I know some folks are going to say this is crazy. It's not. There is an argument, and I am presenting it as no more than that. There is an argument to be made that the best light heavyweight on earth is actually in Bellator. Corey Anderson has wins over Jan Blachowicz and Glover Teixeira, and in fact, he beat Glover Teixeira pretty readily. Granted, that was all the way back in September of 2015.

Who the hell knows what would happen today. But Corey Anderson is absolutely at his best. I would love to see the rematch. We won't because he's in Bellator. But I'm just pointing out Bellator's claim. I mean, they've got... Diego Santos, by the way. Excuse me, what am I saying?

I'm reading the wrong one. Excuse me. here we go. Corey Anderson beat him in 2018. He beat Jan in 2015 the first time. Corey Anderson beat him in 2018. Even then, I think, he's massively improved. And in fact, that's the last loss on Glover Teixeira's record. After that, he beat Karl Roberson,

Ayan Kutsi-Laba, Nikita Krylov, Anthony Smith, Thiago Santos, and now Jan Blachowicz. No rematches he's won from those losses, but he hasn't won them again. So it's going to be what it's going to be. But I'm just pointing out Vadim Nemkov. We'll see what happens when he fights Corey Anderson. Maybe he wins, maybe he doesn't.

But if he does, I don't think his claim to being the best is ironclad either. I don't think it's just a foregone conclusion. Vadim Nemkov is the world's best 205-er, but I do think it is at least worth considering that the debate in almost any other division isn't a debate. The UFC has the best guys. At 205, it's a little bit harder to make that argument because of what Corey Anderson has done and is doing. More recently, just dusting Ryan Bader like it was nothing. And then obviously with some of his history over the both of these guys, although as we know, Jan got his revenge. And then we'll see what Vadim Nemkov can do. I would say, you know, your top five are going to be obviously it's going to have Vadim in there. It's going to have Glover in there. And then you

could put a couple other names in there if you wanted to. Corey, you could put Jan. You could put maybe Ankalaya, Prohodzka. Somewhere in there are all these guys. And it's just not totally, it's not just, it's just not ironclad. I think folks thought that Blachowicz was this runaway freight train. And he clearly had a great run since losing to Corey Anderson. And so everything from 2019 on, except for

tonight, has just been a phenomenal run for Jan Blachowicz. And I think it's fair to say, you know, let me look at Jan's record here. You know, he defended it against Adesanya, who was up a middleweight and then lost it against Glover. Does that mean he's a transitional champion? It means he was more transitional champion than the next guy to be the guy at 205. But okay, he still won the weight class. He still defended against the guy that I have been as high on as anyone else, maybe in the game ever. So his run was quite decorated too. And I like what he said after the fight, which is, okay, this is disappointing, but my story is not done either.

I have another chapter to go. I fully believe him. Maybe tonight just wasn't his night. Maybe tonight was just Glover's night. Wasn't the best performance from him. Some things to definitely work on for sure. But it just goes to show there's a, I will say this, between Bellator and UFC at 205, there's a lot of

parity. It used to be the case that Jon Jones, he ran through everyone, he ran through, what was the guy he beat at UFC 100? I forget his name, he was supposed to be the next big thing, but he got beat but then um you know he just runs through every guy ryan bader and shogun and you know we know the story from there he was kind of the guy for the time he was there and everyone was just kind of thereafter you remove him and you can see there's a lot of parody still with guys still getting better chapters still being written careers taking certain turns good or bad. There's still just a lot more to uncover. And there isn't a single dominant figure in the way that there has been at 205 for a long time.

And so you're getting what you get. But, dude, Glover Teixeira, he just, you know, one of the few guys who's just a joy to cover. He doesn't do, you know, big headlines. He doesn't say a whole lot of nonsense. He doesn't, you know big headlines he doesn't say a whole lot of nonsense he doesn't you know has he ever refused to touch gloves has he ever missed weight you know i don't i mean maybe i don't think so i don't think there's ever been a situation dude just shows up makes weight wins the overwhelming majority of the time tonight captures a weight class title then just goes on about his day. Hard to say too many good things about him. Hard to say way too many good things about him.

Hang on. There we go. Okay. We'll come back to that. And certainly if you have a question, I have put up a post on Twitter at LThomasNews, which you can answer and then get to. And then I'll look at your questions at the end. Let me type something out here real quick. Let's see here. Okay. Let's talk about the next fight. Let's make sure everything looks good. Okay, let's talk about the next fight down the list if we can. We'll come back to this if you have any questions. Let's talk about the next fight. Let's make sure everything looks good. Okay. Let's talk about the next fight down the list if we can.

We'll come back to this if you have any questions. Let's talk about the bantamweight title. At least the interim bantamweight title. Peter Jan defeats, or Pjotr, whatever, defeats Corey Sanhagen 49-46 across the board, which is exactly how I had it. I had Sanhagen winning the first and then losing probably every round thereafter. Maybe you could make a case he won the second, but certainly didn't win the third, fourth, or fifth. At that point, they were foregone conclusions,

although Sanhagen had a bad fourth round, then a better fifth round, even if I didn't think he won that one. Okay, a couple of things. Peter Jan is just a tremendous talent. A tremendous talent. I love how he starts because you can tell he's not a slow starter. But he's not an overly aggressive starter either. This is not a guy who rushes into anything. Just really kind of takes his time as he's looking.

Right? Really just sort of seeing what's out there. And then once he begins to figure out a few openings, slowly starts to implement them. And as those begin to have success or failure, depending on what works, he then finds each way, each round to make more difficult for you. Dude, that is the mark of an extremely high level fighter. One of the biggest differences between a very good fighter and a super elite one, although I'm not saying that Sanhagen is not super elite, although I don't think this was his best performance, which we'll talk about in just a second, because I actually think some of the more interesting story is a little bit there. But in the case of Jan, dude, it's the adjustments between rounds. I've made this point about Mayweather before. Mayweather in his prime,

and you can make some cases about, you know, did he take on the fights he was supposed to at the time in which he took them? Fine. But once the fight started, dude, if you don't win in the first six rounds, it's over for you. Because you sure as fuck ain't winning the last six. Whatever you had in the first six, he will just take away by the seventh round, probably before that. And it's this slow adjustment where you come out with all these ideas, you come out with all of these game plans, and he just removes them one by one. Peter Jan, in his own way, because he's a very different fighter and a very different sport,

but in his own way, he does exactly that. I'm going to find just this little thing that you did. I'm going to slowly take it away. I'm going to start pouring on my offense. And by the time I either stop you or that bell rings, it's over for you.

It doesn't. There was no coming back from that point. That is the sign of an extremely high-level fighter. I would have to go back and look at the tape to get a better sense of how he did it, because that's obviously a very, very difficult fight to judge in real time. Both guys are, in the case of the early rounds, Jan being very defensive and covering up, not sort of showing all of his cards. In the case of Sanhagen, trying to set the tone with a ton of movement, a ton of volume, blah, blah, blah. But what were the reasons why Sanhagen lost this contest?

Well, one, you know, he took his fight on a month's notice after a loss. I thought he beat Dillashaw. Obviously, he didn't beat Sterling, and I don't think he deserved to get the nod here tonight. But I did think he edged Dillashaw. Obviously, he didn't beat Sterling, and I don't think he deserved to get the nod here tonight, but I did think he edged Dillashaw, but it was a short notice that probably wasn't the best circumstance to come into this fight, number one. Number two, I thought the pop that Peter Jan had was noticeably better than Sanhagen's. Now, that could be for a couple of reasons. I think he was also the stronger athlete of the two whenever they had scrambles. And by the way, Peter Jan might be the most underrated scrambler in the entire UFC.

I mean, his skill is extraordinary. His ability to stand, his ability to come out on top, his ability to balance, his balance is sick. He is a very underrated scrambler. But you noticed he was a little bit stronger than Sanhagen. He was winning positions where they were both kind of there more or less the same time. It was one of those who wants it more. And you could kind of see him just kind of muscle into it. That last bit that Sanhagen couldn't quite keep up with. He would find himself underneath a lot as a consequence. There weren't a whole lot of scrambles, but when they did,

there was sort of a common denominator there. So I think there was a little bit more pop, a little bit of a stronger athlete in the case of Jan, I think is one. I think two, he didn't figure out the totality of Sanhagen's game. I don't think he was trying to. I think he was trying to find a handful of different scenarios that Sanhagen would go to that he could take advantage of. As DC indicated, let me pull up my notes. I took notes on that fight, actually, not the other ones.

I'll pull it up here in just a second. Here we go. As DC indicated, whenever there was that switch to Southpaw he would get lit up for the switch with the body kick that's a common thing you saw Volkanovski do something similar as we went over in my video on my personal YouTube channel breaking down the Volkanovski and Ortega fight you saw that a lot from there it's a common tactic that's why that was one that was going to and it really pinked up his ribs and the whole nine yards. So there was this physicality there.

There was this pop that was there. The left hand couldn't miss. And the big issue was, for me, was Sanhagen had two problems beyond some of these close contact scenarios. One was that he just couldn't get Jan off of him. He couldn't get Jan to respect what he was throwing at him. Jan had to respect enough to cover and roll. He couldn't just let himself get hit. But he also couldn't just...

It didn't look to me like he was feeling it. It looked to me like as long as he kind of covered and rolled with it a little bit, it took the sting off of just about everything Cordy was throwing. So there was nothing to make him... There were those takedown attempts in the first round, and I think you get a couple more later. I'll pull up the numbers on this here, excuse me, as I pull up my stats. There were those takedowns in the first round attempts to kind of get, you know, to mix things up with Jan. Obviously, Sanhagen probably not really looking for the takedown per se, although

he'll take it if he gets it, but using it a lot like Robert Whitaker, where it's just designed to turn an opponent, it's just designed to set up a strike. It's designed to set up some kind of strike on an exit from a clinch break. It's designed to do things other than just the takedown. But I guess what I'm trying to say is it wasn't merely that there was greater pop with Peter Jan. It was that the lack of pop from Sandhagen forced him to be really on his bike. Now, he was going to be on his bike anyway, but Jan could get closer and closer and closer. And the body shots that he was digging early were pretty impactful from Sandhagen, but he kind of got away from them. He didn't throw nearly as many of those later. He was a bit of a headhunter, has always been a bit

of a headhunter. And so, so Jan was able to comfortably kind of pressure this guy. You know, we had to be minding his P's and Q's, but nothing was ever really making him second guess or really hurting him or really making him go to a different option. He just had to be patient, ply his trade, but he could stay in San Hagen's face. Okay. And his defense is exceptional. Another thing that's just great about Peter Jan, you know, not only does he have phenomenal scrambling, dude, okay, his defense is exceptional. Another thing that's just great about Peter Jan, not only does he have phenomenal scrambling, dude, his defense is on point. Okay, that's the second part.

So it was, if you're going to be the guy that has to move, that's fine, but you do have to have those moments where when you stick your opponent, you really stick it to him. I didn't really see that this time. So that was a bit of a problem. And I think the other problem with what Sandhagen was kind of up against is the defense. He does on offense all of this switching and movement and side to side stuff and it's valuable and it has worked for him. And at this point he's pot committed. He definitely should not get away from that.

At the same time, what you end up seeing is he stays in the pocket or in range way too long. And so he gets over committed. A lot of the stuff he likes to throw is a lot of like hooking and straight combos off at an angle, but kind of close contact. And so what did you see Peter Jan doing? He might double the jab. He might double and then triple, but then he would find usually a left hand over the top as Sanhagen was so close he couldn't get away. And Sanhagen doesn't typically roll underneath hooks, he leans to get out of the

way. Well he was leaning and then just getting lit up every single time. So Jan just knew he had to find a way to hold on, cover distance distance and then he could tear this guy up with his punches and that is exactly what he did that was especially evident from the left side in that fourth round Sanhagen just has a sort of way of pulling back where he just keeps getting clipped and he got dropped obviously I think it was in the third round. Let's pull up the numbers here if I can. Man, Sanhagen's volume is insane. 449 total strikes attempted. One of six takedowns.

That was a pretty good takedown he got. I think it was in the fourth or fifth round. Yeah, fourth round. He got one of three in that round, the only one of the fight. Sanhagen landed 169 of 445. Much more economical by Peter Jan Just 270 attempted significant strikes 280 total, it was only a 10 strike difference

And then landing 149 So technically Sanhagen landed more But qualitatively, you could hear and kind of see That Jan was doing the more damaging work I don't know how anyone could deny that. Let's look at the best round for him. Peter Jan, just 19 strikes landed in the first, 38 in the second, 36 in the third,

36 in the fourth, 20 in the fifth. I want to point out something about Sanhagen's hit ability. If you look at his overall numbers, this is what I'm talking about. This is what makes Sanhagen's hit ability. If you look at his overall numbers, this is what I'm talking about. This is what makes Sanhagen great, and I think this is one of the things that's been holding him back a little bit. Strikes landed per minute, 6.32, extremely high, extremely high. A lot of that is just touch, touch. It's not designed to hurt you. They were talking about this in the broadcast. It's not designed to hurt you. It could be designed to cheat the angle, close the distance, blind you, whatever, and then

something with impact comes behind it. Still, 6.32, extremely high number. Here's your problem. While he does have a positive differential, strikes absorbed per minute is 4.05. That is high. That is extremely high. I'm trying to find anyone in the top five. Let's look at the top five here. So Glover Teixeira, strikes of sword per minute, 3.84. Jan Blachowicz, 2.79. Let's try Peter Jan. What's his strikes of sword per minute? 3.55. Still a little on the high end, but not too bad. How about Islam Makachev? 0.77. We'll talk about him in a second. They don't lay a glove on that guy.

Right? Let's go to Dan Hooker. Strikes absorbed per minute. 4.66. Okay? A little bit higher than Corey's. But he only lands 4.95. And would you say Dan Hooker has taken some beatings in his career?

I think you would. I think that, you know, you wouldn't say he has bad defense, but that it has, his defense has not, his chin has saved him. His defense has not. How about Alexander Volkov? Excuse me, let me pull this up real quick. I'm going to go through this real quickly. Volkov strikes a sore per minute, 2.88. Marcin Tybura, that fight was not good, 3.31. How about Kamzat Shemya? We'll talk about him later. 0.1. Strikes absorb per minute. 0.1. Okay. Li Xianglang, 3.65. Magomed Ankhalaev, which we'll talk about in a second, 1.78. Volkan Uzdemir, 4.24. So those two fighters who had more in Hooker and in Uzdemir, they all lost. In fact, every fighter on the main card who had a strikes absorbed per minute higher than 4,

Sandhagen, Uzdemir, and who's the other one here? Somebody else here. Oh, Hooker. Hooker. Hooker. They all lost. Now, not necessarily because of that reason. The case of Hooker was totally different. But you get my point.

Dude, that's a liability. That's a liability. It's going to be hard. Not so much to win in the UFC. You can still win. But it's going to be hard to, A, win at this level. Especially against a guy like Jan. And it's going to be hard to cred, win at this level, especially against a guy like Jan, and it's going to be hard to credibly say you're maximizing your potential if you're accepting that kind

of punishment. I think what Sanhagen might say is a very smart guy, because he is. He might say, well, one, it probably is true that I shouldn't take as many punches as I do, but a lot of those don't land, they don't hurt me, they don't phase me, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Fair enough, but he did get dropped. Maybe he got off balance, but he did get dropped with that spinning back fist in the third or whatever it was. I think it was the third. I have to look at the numbers here again. Let's pull this up from the Peter Jan fight. When do they credit the knockdown? Yeah, the third round. And in any case, it certainly, you can't say that it didn't play a factor in this fight, the defense.

There's a question of how much your offense caters to certain scenarios that doesn't allow your defense to be what it needs to be. Whether that's adding certain things, but rolling under hooks, or getting in and getting out, or hitting at different kinds of angles or tightening some things up. I leave that to his very capable coaches who know what they are doing, certainly much more than you or I, but the numbers speak for themselves. You cannot let people put gloves on you like that. In the case of Jan, accepting some of those numbers from Sanhagen, maybe you could get away with it if A, a lot of it is blocked, or B, it just doesn't really,

it doesn't meaningfully land, right? I mean, he was getting physically, you could see he was turning pink, you could see all kinds of sort of telltale signs, you could hear them. You know, if you're getting hit like that, your volume, it needs to have a corresponding kind of effect. Maybe not all the time, because you're throwing more volume,

but if your opponent is visibly marking you up, dropping you, you need to return the favor. And the offense that Sanhagen had was good, but it couldn't get Jan off of him. He had a hard time breaking through some of those defensive shells and positions that Jan was applying. And then on top of that, he was just taking too much. Too much.

If the guy you're fighting has superior firepower, and you're taking four strikes a minute, it's going to be hard to win a title. It's just going to be hard to win a title. I still think, I mean, these guys are both in their fucking 20s, you know, I think that Peter Jan is going to beat Aljamain Sterling.

Aljamain Sterling had a post being like, you know, see you when we're ready, and blah, blah, blah. His comments were, the comments beneath it were a fucking graveyard, which you can imagine. But I don't know who beats Peter Yan. Maybe Henry Cejudo could come and give him a run for his money. I don't think that's the guy either. I think that's the best bantamweight on earth by probably by a considerable margin. But here's what I think about Corey Sandhagen. I've been extremely high on him i think that there are probably some physicality

issues that some strength and conditioning could could um address over time not right away i don't think he should rush into any more bouts i think he needs more experience and uh i mean i'm not saying this was the wrong call like if they call you with a title fight against peter yami this was as everyone was not saying this was the wrong call. Like, if they call you with a title fight against Peter Yan, I mean, as everyone was calling it, this was the most official. Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich.

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Level up from bill payer to reward slayer. Terms and conditions apply. Interim title fight, maybe in UFC history, right? But I think there's some strength and conditioning issues that have to get, not conditioning, but some strength issues that have to get addressed. I do think there are some calls he and his team have to make about how much volume do we really need if it can't sit opponents back or down? How do we really cross that threshold but not lose the kind of style that he's developed about all the switching and all the input? What is Sanhagen's sort of style? It's giving you so much input to think about, you don't really know what's coming. But for a clever guy like Jan who can sit back and wait and then figure it out, roll

with punches a little bit, and then can see you positionally overcommitted, and then he takes advantage of that. His body kick on the switch was phenomenal. He found just a few things to go to, and he went back to them over and over and over again. And that was how he won. He didn't win with a ton of tricks. He won with a lot of defensive acumen, a lot of understanding of real estate, a lot of great timing, a lot of amazing reads, and then picked just a few spots and took it away from him.

Peter Jan is going to be a very hard guy to beat. And I don't think there's anyone in that Bantamweight division currently competing that I can see that's going to have much of a chance against him. I think Sanhagen has the real possibility of getting a weight class title, but for him, it's time to go back to the lab, really work on his game, really work on his defense, really work on his... But I will say this, I thought his wrestling offensive looked improved tonight because that one takedown. I mean, yeah, he missed another one. But I don't think he was really trying all that hard. And then I will say this.

I thought his defensive wrestling was very, very improved in this fight. So you can see it's there. He just needs a little bit more time. More time in the lab to perfect what is clearly going to be a title threat in this division for some time to come. But not tonight. Tonight was the night of Peter Jan. And he is an exceptional, exceptional fighter. And a very worthy, in this particular case, interim, but champion.

Just the same. Here, as a reminder. If you haven't already, please subscribe to Morning Combat for when we do our regular shows and for all the interviews and everything else, please subscribe. Okay, so I'm going to get to your questions here in just a second, but before I do, let's talk about the return of Hamzat Shemaev. I mean, bro, what do you want to say about this guy? He is something else.

Okay, let's pull these numbers up. Oh, you know what? I didn't get to Islam and Dan. I'll get to them in just a second. Let me just go here because I know you guys are probably itching to talk about them. So what was my argument before? I was ready to believe he could be as much as the hype said he was, but we just didn't have enough evidence, right?

It's not to say it's not true. We just can't make a call. We just need a little bit more evidence. And I made a point that like Shavkat Rachmaninoff didn't have nearly the hype but had been way more battle-tested against the better opposition to make a broader call about his upside. And I still think, by the way, that guy might win a title. We'll have to see.

But as it stands right now, what was interesting about this fight heading into it was that you're like, aha, right. The leech, Li Xianglang, was clearly the best fighter he had fought to this point, battle-tested himself, pretty well-rounded, aggressive, heavy puncher at times, and seemed just quite game for the moment.

And you were like, okay, let's look at his career here for a second. Who has Lee beaten? Santiago Ponzinibbio, Elias Uzaleski dos Santos, who had his own issues tonight. I mean, well, the referee, I guess. And then some bunch of names that some folks may not remember.

Frank Camacho, who I know and used to train with years and years ago. Zach Otto, Bobby Nash, blah, blah, blah. David Zawada. So the Ponzinibbio win was his best one, but he got it in the first round. He looked good doing it. And, you know, he had lost to Neil Magni

via decision in a three-round fight. You know, understandable. So we didn't think he was the best fighter on earth, but we thought, okay, now this is a credible challenge who has shown dramatic improvement and really deserves to be taken quite seriously. So what does Chimaev do? Chimaev walks across the octagon, shoots under a punch with like, you know, his level change, like how low he was able to get and then how deep he was able to hit the penetration step. Picks up the leech, walks over to where Dana White, the UFC president's position on the cage, and then begins to shout at him about God knows what that maniac was shouting about. What makes Hamzat's game good? I don't know how it was received on Twitter. I'm sure a bunch of idiots said a bunch of stupid things we don't have to listen to. But one of the things that kind of occurred to me was Hamzat's top game looks a

little bit like a mix between Habib and Colby. What do I mean by that? Colby has very little ground and pound. He doesn't do a lot of it. He does have a high volume on the feet, not on the ground. On the ground, he likes to move through half positions, fake chokes that you have to respect but are not really going to be applied. Now, this was a real choke here, but you know what I mean? That's what he does. He kind of just smothers you the whole way. Kamzat has some of the smothering style of Colby,

but he's got the urgency and the physicality and then the ground and pound and then the choke threats of Habib. That's what I mean. It's got a little bit of both mixed in. Obviously, Habib is a dominant position grappler as well, but not necessarily in the same way as Colby. What was Chemayev good at? Dude, Chemayev is so good at hitting a leg ride. So he's wrapped one leg, right? So he's halfway on the back on the leg. He'll extend the leg and wrap like a lockdown to keep them from being able to post on the leg.

And he's very good at getting himself either behind the opponent or halfway behind the opponent to prevent the opponent from using the fence. You guys ever notice that? Hamzat is quite good at getting right here so I can't wiggle free and then stand up. He takes that away from his opposition by getting to those half positions. That's actually why the choke didn't work at first because what you notice was if you have, again, it doesn't have to be this way, but in an ideal world, you would want to have your chest and their back to have complete

almost shoulder symmetry. The more you have that, the easier the choke is going to be. He didn't quite have that. You would notice that rather than being this scenario, you would kind of see the leech a little bit off to the side. So the choke was probably tough, probably hurt, but not really enough to put him out. So that was when you saw Chermayev eventually go left arm around behind the leech onto the mat, kind of what Nate Diaz did to McGregor in their first fight, and then switched it through to the other side. And then I don't think he clipped it with his hand. I think he was just up here. And the leech was hand fighting the whole time, and then switched it to the other side. And then, I don't think he clipped it with his hand. I think it was just up here. And the leech was hand fighting the whole time.

And then switched it to the other side. And once he did and then pulled him across, he kind of pulled him into a more symmetrical position between chest and back. And that was how he was able to close the show. Plus, he probably has a fucking ridiculous squeeze on top of that. Okay, so how do we rank Hamzat Shemayev? Here's what I would say. If you want to believe in the upside, it's not like one victory at this point proves everything, but I think you are much more entitled to believe in the upside now. That was real evidence. Dude, in four UFC fights, he has outstruck in total strikes his opponents 254 to 2. He has outstruck them

something like 100 and something significant strikes to 1. He has absorbed one significant strike in four UFC fights across, in this particular case, two weight class, two weight divisions. Richard Mann is a writer for, not more than just a writer, he works for Fight Metric. He's a stats guy for them. And he wrote, I think quite correctly, that record is going to stand a long time. Think about who you have to be for your first four fights, and they can't land but one fucking glove on you under the significant strike definition. One. Four trips to the octagon.

I don't know if they'll ever see that again. I've seen some bad motherfuckers come through. I don't think I've ever seen that. I saw Jon Jones. I remember when Jon Jones made his debut against Andre Guzmão. You guys may not remember this. Guzmão was coming out of the IFL. He was widely regarded as the guy who was going to win. He was very respected. Jon beat his ass. I remember when Conor McGregor was coming around and he fought Marcus Brimage. Dude, he

looked phenomenal. He didn't look like that. And again, who's to know what kind of career that Kamzat will have? Because while he had the terrible bouts with COVID, it didn't seem to slow him down this time. But life can be unpredictable is merely all I am saying. We never know. And it should be noted, what does it look like when this guy gets pressed into, you know, there's going to be as legitimate a challenge as the leech was. I think we can all agree the wrestling at the top of the division

is several orders of magnitude more difficult. But, but, two things I want to say about Shemaev. Number one, folks, I have been around the fight game for about almost, not quite, two decades at this point in terms of covering it. I'm old and I'm fucking lame. But here's one thing I know. One of the most exciting times in a fighter's career, whether it's Habib, whether it's Conor, whether it's Jon Jones, whether it's you pick your favorite, whoever that might be,

Demetrius, blah, blah, blah, whatever. Although his rise was different. But I mean the ones who immediately capture your attention at the UFC level, right? Those guys. Their rise through the contendership, their rise is perhaps the most fun time in their career. Hold on just one second. So you should get ready to have some fun because I don't know exactly who he's going to beat, but he's going to beat some good fighters. That seems inevitable. Already has. And that push through the contender queue when you're like, could he do it against this guy? Could he do it against that guy?

It's one of the most exciting times in a fighter's career. Enjoy it. Because we're about to get it and I can't wait. That's the first thing I'd say. The second thing I'd say is, do we know everything about Shemayev? No. We need to see what it's like if someone takes him down. We need to see what it's like if he takes a punch. We need to see what happens if he gets tired or blah, blah, blah. There's still a lot of questions that have to get answered in the course of time, but he represents the future of this division. He

represents the future of mixed martial arts. Well, the present in many cases too. He's coming. He is on his way. And he is about to tear through some folks. I really believe. And I think if you were a little bit on the fence. Which I kind of was. I didn't think.

Again, it wasn't a choice of is he bad or is he good. It's obviously good. But how good? Yeah. He might be quite special. Once rare kind of thing good. He is a dominant force. Now, I do wonder what's going to happen when some guy stuffs his takedowns

and all the other things, you know, or whatever. I mean, there's just so many unknowns as he tries to climb the ranks. Also, I think it was Aaron Bronstetter who made this point on Twitter. Maybe it was somebody else. There's a question of who's going to want to take a fight with him. Who's going to sign up to take fights with this guy? I don't know. I don't know who the hell they're going to convince to do that. People are like, oh, they'll offer him to Nate Diaz.

I mean, maybe Nate takes that fight. I don't think so. But, you know, dude, strikes landed per minute. So this is what he's dishing out. This fucking guy, Hamza Chemaev, is at 9.03. That is almost as high as you'll ever see. And then strikes absorbed, 0.03. That is almost as high as you'll ever see. And then strikes absorbed 0.1. I don't think I've ever seen a differential that wide. Strikes landed per minute minus strikes absorbed.

I don't think I've ever seen where the difference is basically nine, the integer. He's from another dimension. He's from another dimension. He's from another dimension. If he can stay focused, he was born in 1994. If he can stay focused, he's young, he's talented, he's hungry. I think you are entitled to now daydream about what is possible. And I think we should all get ready. Because I think what he's about to unleash is going to be

so dynamic, so eye-popping, and so fun. Where it ends up, maybe a title, maybe not. Hard to say. Probably at some point, right? He's that good. But that run, that run to the top of the division, that before you actually get the belt,

it's one of the most exciting times in a fighter's career, and you should absolutely enjoy it. Alright, last but certainly not least. Obviously the Magomed Onkoliah fight against Volkan Ustamir was a big deal. I'm probably going to save that for extra credit. Which if you guys don't know is a secondary podcast. We do here at Morning Combat. That I get to all the fights we didn't get to on Big MK.

He looked amazing. He's one of the next guys at 205. Amazing is a strong word. He looked good. He's one of the next guys at 205. That's probably going to contend, maybe hold a weight class title. The Russians are here. You know, what are you going to do about it? Volkov and Tybura, we can skip. Let's talk very quickly, if we can, about the Makachev and Hooker fight. Hooker taking this one on semi, pretty late notice as well. And you knew he was a threat in the stand-up department. He's got great linear attacks up the middle. He's beaten several guys with his knees. He is a dynamic force that

way, but Makachev, I don't know how this guy's not going to contend for a title right away. I mean, maybe they'll give it to the winner of Chandler and Gaethje, maybe, but to me, Makachev is more deserving. Hooker is a legitimate opponent, and I hate to say this, but it's the reality. This did not look very hard for Makachev. I don't say that with pleasure. I like Dan Hooker a lot. But you just got to call it what it is, man. Did that look like that was super tough to you for Makachev?

That didn't look like it was super tough to me. So how did he do it? He catches the kick. He goes for the double. I think he was level changing at the same time, but he caught it. He gets to the double. I think he was level changing at the same time, but he caught it. He gets to half butterfly, and then he was trying to lock up the head and the arm. If this is the head of Hooker, he moves the arm over it like this, and then puts his head behind him as he attacks the arm that's in front of him here. He locks up the Kimura grip like this and then gets himself

out of half butterfly and goes cross body. From there, he takes his right leg. I believe it was his right leg if I got that right, then steps over the head. Why is stepping over the head so important? A lot of reasons. Two, one is that when you step over their head, it stops how far they can sit up. They can't sit up their way out of it anymore. That's the first problem. The second part is that when you step over the head like that, you can now plant and then drive into the submission, which if Hooker didn't tap there, that shit was getting torn to pieces. I mean, he had him come. That is, that's, that's about as close as you're going to get to checkmate in, um, in MMA grappling. That's about it right there. It doesn't get... His shoulder was going to get trashed. His elbow was going to get...

I mean, it was all going to be bad. I don't even know if he tapped. Maybe it was like a technical submission. But... What are you going to say? It was over. Folks asked, how would he do against Poirier or Oliveira? Well, against Poirier,

I think he would have some advantages on the ground, obviously on the feet. First of all, Poirier is no slouch on the ground, but I don't know if he's on par with Makachev, is what I would say. On the feet, though, obviously he could tear him up. But then, Oliveira is the interesting one, right? Because Oliveira's stand-up dramatically improved,

and on the ground, dude, he is a tough customer. That Makachev, if Makachev ends up fighting Olivera, that could get very interesting, very fun. I don't know exactly how Makachev does there. Against guys that are terribly overmatched, yeah, he looks awesome. Would Olivera be terribly overmatched? I have a hard time believing that. So that would be interesting. Of the two, I actually think that's the much more interesting fight than Makhachev versus Poirier. But Poirier may end up winning, so we'll have to see how that goes. But that guy should be your next title contender.

I respect Michael Chandler a lot. He had his chance. I respect Justin Gaethje a lot. He had his chance. But the reality is what the reality is. I think that guy has done more than anyone in that division to deserve the opportunity, and beating Dan Hooker, he didn't just beat Dan Hooker.

He just easily beat Dan Hooker, and again, it pains me to say that because I think so highly of him, but 225 at the first round is the number. I mean, it did not look especially difficult for him. It barely broke a sweat. So Islam Makachev deserves that respect, and I think, you know, Dan Hooker will be back. It wasn't like he took a ton of punishment or anything.

I'm sure his arm is okay. It'll be okay. You know, he'll be back in there in no time at all, and he'll get some good wins. Dude, Dan Hooker's a good fighter. He's going to beat good fighters. But tonight belonged to Islam Makhachev. I mean, look at the names who won, man. The Brazilian in the main event,

a Russian in the co-main, a Russian Makhachev. I mean, look at the names who won, man. The Brazilian in the main event, a Russian in the co-main, a Russian Makachev, Volkov in the heavyweight fight, Shumayev, who's from Chechnya, but, you know, part of the same part of the world anyway, and then Ankhalaev.

It was just a Russian and Brazilian bonanza, basically, on that main card. All right, so if you've got a question, I'm going to get to it now. Let me pull it up. 74 of them. Let's see. I'm not going to get to all of them.

Let's try. Where does this comeback from Glover rank all time? How many fighters lost their first shot then went almost 10 years later? It wasn't 10. I think it was 2014 where he fought. So seven. But seven years between UFC title shots and then claiming it the second time. I don't know if there's any precedent for that.

You can argue Nemkov, Yuri, or Jerry, whatever his name is, on Kalei over the best light heavyweights. But I think UFC has a better division. That could be true. That could be true. Does this title fight show how good Jones was holding onto the belt for a long time? Yes. Yes.

In his day, yes. However, I want to stress, I don't know if we're in that day anymore. He might still be Glover, but that he is the same force he was as he was back then? Same force now as he was back then? I am very skeptical of that claim. Considering Hamzat takes no damage and likes quick turnarounds if he gets a top five win soon he could jump Leon for a title shot he might I don't think that's all that crazy he might I just person has asked like ten questions we get

somebody else my only question was legendary Polish power versus old man strength. That was thoroughly answered. Yeah, I suppose it was. How about a UFC Russia versus USA Mega Card like Rocky IV? You could do it. The Russians are here, folks. Get used to it. Should UFC consider having Dean Thomas shift to the commentator's table for more detailed commentary

over the jerky style of Felder and somewhat DC? I don't mind Felder and DC in the way that you do. I do think Dean Thomas is quite good in that role and maybe could get a spot. I would need to see how he does because sometimes he repeats himself. Like Dean's knowledge and the nuggets he drops are like primo. Still working out some of the broadcast bugs, if you ask me. But I love Dean. I'm glad he's there. He's earned that spot. And he's good at it.

What I learned from 267, this person writes, is ground game outweighs stand-up. Big time. Nope. Who's next to face on Kalayev? Reyes, maybe? Whoever is close in the numbers if they can get someone to say yes to him how do you feel about fighters calling their training partners fights felder seemed neutral but it's i don't know what that means oh uh i don't like it but i'm not ufc

doesn't seem to really mind that kind of thing they don't seem to think that's a big deal it kind of is what it is who poses the the toughest test for Peter Jan going forward? I actually think it's Corey Sandhagen. Just not right now. In a couple of years. Right now? We'll see how TJ does, I guess. What would you say is the best counter to the smash style of MMA?

Is it extremely high level BJJ? Gilbert Burns level? If someone is not that high level on their particular submissions, I think a good jab, believe it or not, and it's phenomenal footwork, clinch breaking could be great. But then also, yes, you have to make them pay

as soon as you get down there. So someone like Oliveira, again, here's my thing, I don't know how the Oliveira-Makachev fight goes, but that would tell us a lot. Do you think Sandhagen will need to sit down on his punches more going forward? Yeah, a little bit.

A little bit. Did Jan over-the-top friendliness with Glover in the build-up cost him the fight? I don't think so. These guys are too long. Maybe. Could be. These guys get in their head a little bit, but I tend to think it was more just not his night. Is Hamzat the most impressive prospect ever?

He's on the short list for the first four fights, for sure. That's the best first four-fight run I've ever seen in the UFC. Right? Who has a better first four fights. How do you think Jan's striking style compares to that of Holloway and Volkanovski? Very different from both of them. Jesus. Holloway is

much more volume jab heavy. Not nearly as kick heavy. Volkanovski much more faint movement based. Jan can be something of a counter-striker more often. They're very different. Would Adesanya beat anyone in the top five of the light heavyweight division?

Sure. Remember the visa issues Glover had from 2008 to 2012? Yes, people were concerned he might be past his peak when he made his debut at 34. Yep, now he's champ. Amazing. Great point. Do you reckon Hooker will ask for a fight on the December card if his arm wasn't injured? CKB teammate Brad Riddell is on that card, so a bunch of CKB coaches will probably be there. If I was him, I would take some time. I don't think that's what he wants, but I think that's what's in order. Top three welterweights excluding Usman, who does

Hamzat Chamayev have the best chance against? Covington, Burns, or Leon Edwards? I think Chemaev would chew up Leon Edwards. Covington and Burns, harder to say. Harder to say.

Love to see all of them, right? That's the whole point. That's when you know a guy's starting to make it. It's like, oh, I'd love to see all those. Did the fight between Glover and Jan play out the way you expected?

No, it definitely... Well, I knew if he got to the ground it would be better, but the ease with which he got to the ground kind of surprised me. Do you think Henry Cejudo has a better chance of beating Peter Jan than Sterling? Yes, I do. Does Nate Diaz seem like a good fight for Chemayev, given his impeccable chin and diverse skills on the ground? No, I think Chemayev would do terrible things to Nate Diaz.

If I was Nate Diaz's team, I would stay the fuck away from that fight. How scared should the rest of the UFC be of the Smash Factory after watching this card? Bro, if you didn't know that the Brazilians, uh, Brazilians, if you didn't know that the Russians were here, this was a wake-up call. Can you explain the possible thought process

for Jan diving for that Kimura that led to the finish? Seemed like a really bad decision making by Jan giving up position. I'd have to go back and look. I didn't know. Was Jan a little shy in his approach? Maybe a little. Maybe a little. Do you think Jan's son is cuter than Hasbulla? I don't understand what's so funny about Hasbulla. He's some small dude who's not a baby and then says outrageous shit and people think it's hilarious. To me, it's like, I know that's not what he is, but it's like, I'm not supposed to say this word anymore, but it's sort of like immature. Everyone's going to be, oh, Luke, you're old. Fuck you.

Yes, fuck me. I mean, fine. I don't care. But it's just sort of like immature, oh let's laugh at uh little people let's laugh at midgets it's like that's not what he is i think he's some other condition but count me in as being like i don't get what what's so fucking awesome but okay everyone loves him you got to talk about the justin gaethje tweet to dcmma let me see what he said suck it harder.

Oh, I guess when DC must have asked Makachev about, you know, well, why should you leapfrog those guys? Nah, nah, nah, nah. Yeah. Okay, so that's where you get into problems. Like Felder maybe should have interviewed him. You see what I mean? Dan Hooker at 145 seems like his best chance.

No, dude, he looked like shit at 145. Too much of a cut. Should DC remove himself from the commentating for his teammates' fights? Maybe post-fight if they win. Can anyone stop Makachev? Happy for Glover, but Prochocka is going to go to jail for what he does to him. I would probably favor Prochocka, but tonight I don't even want to say something like that because tonight belongs to a guy by the name of Glover Teixeira.

Tonight is a night for... Dude, I'm 42 and thought I was being brave because I walked... Not brave, but you know, I'll walk home from my barber who was all the way across town. It took me like an hour to walk home. I was like, okay, you know, I'll do that because I'm 42 and I need to. This motherfucker fought Jan Blachowicz in a cage at 42 and we're the same age. God bless him, dude. God bless Glover Teixeira. What a fucking hero this guy is. Okay, so if you haven't already, one more time, one more time. Like the video, hit subscribe, join the Morning combat movement on Monday. It will be me,

Brian Campbell, and you to get to all of this and more. This is just the immediate reaction. We thank you so much for joining us here today. You are the best. We love you. I hope you enjoyed the fights. People are going to say, you're a boomer. Yes, I'm a boomer. I don't give a shit, but I love you guys I appreciate you watching what a great card maybe one of the best free cards in UFC history it was that good and a wake up call about what the future of MMA

is going to look like and it is looking decidedly Russian and decidedly smash factory and you know what we're the richer for it so congrats to all the winners tonight and to the losers you will be back thank you guys see you Monday're the richer for it. So congrats to all the winners tonight and to the losers. You will be back. Thank you, guys. See you Monday. Enjoy the fights. Get some sleep.