MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 270 Recap: Ngannou, Figueiredo Win | Magsayo Beats Russell | Ep. 255

Episode Date: January 24, 2022

On a big-time Episode 255 of Morning Kombat Brian and Chuck Mindenhall break down all the results from UFC 270 as Francis Ngannou earns the huge win over Cyril Gane and Deiveson Figueiredo gets the victory over Brandon Moreno in their triology matchup. Plus, the fallout after the main event, including Ngannou's contract saga and Dana White. Plus, Mark Magsayo ended Gary Russell's title ran on SHOWTIME boxing. 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

Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only. At participating McDonald's in Canada. You hear that? Ugh. Paid.

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

Reveley, reveveille, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat.

Oh, yeah. Who's hot? Who's not? Tell me who who rock who sell out in stores you better believe it's this damn award-winning morning combat podcast hell yeah we're back at it monday morning so much ufc 270 on the brain i'm your host brian campbell that bbc with the bde the beige bastard indeed but no that's not Luke Thomas right there. You're looking at two of the kings of Connecticut, of Connecticut combat royalty.

It's basically us two, Glover, Vince McMahon, the carcass of Willie Pepp. That's Chuck Mendenhall, the man in the damn hat. Chuck, Luke is away with some much-needed scheduled family time. We wish him well. But anytime we can slide you in to replace one of us, it's an upgrade, brother. I appreciate it, man. I'd like to send you guys on vacation more.

I love this. This is the first time I've done the remote, so bear with me. But I'm honored to be here as usual. Live from your office there somewhere in Connecticut. Is that a big cock you have on the wall behind you? It's actually two big cocks, a cock fighting. So yes,

thank you for noticing that. Thank you. Very, very on brand dog. Wow. There it is. All right. Quickly,

Chuck, just to kind of, you know, look, just check your temperature. The fans may have seen your great addition to our morning combat UFC 270 preview content in the past week. Plus from resume review to pregame preview.

But then Saturday, you know, post Ngannou gone, you're showing up on Team Helwani there on the ringer with Bill Simmons. So, you know, Chuck, congratulations to your checkbook, but who's side you on? That's what we want to know right now. Well, I got to go with the checkbook right now, but I love being here, man. This is great. Thank you for having me again. I appreciate it.

He's a damn gun for hire. If you like the great content that we've done with Chuck Mendenhall, there's one more you can keep checking out. YouTube.com slash Morning Combat. It is called High Court where the dishonorable one himself, Charles J. Mendenhall, presided over a Hall of Fame debate regarding Michael Bisping. So check that out. What was the J for? What was the what? The J?

What was the J for? Judicious, I believe. Okay, judicious. Okay, got it. Just big jerk. Those were our social handles below. You may be looking at this fine piece of merch right here, a little Call Me Crazy, one of our famous segments. You can go to morningcombat.store right now to pick up much of our merch in fact all of it in fact today we are

rolling out a brand new line of fantastic stuff you like uh the skeleton luke logo line that's new we got some new products right there we've got some new you know the i mean chuck our our logo it's the fist in the sun right but a lot love it, man. I got like a very quick look at some of the line, and I thought it was awesome, man. You guys have all kinds of cool shit going on there. Thank you. Thank you for that compliment, Chuck. And in fact, if you guys want it so badly that you're like, you know, I like it. I just don't want to pay full price.

Well, today is your day. We are offering 10% off right now at MorningCombat.store for the duration of this show. If you use our code, that's Live10RJDunkelhauser. Our fantastic merch maven is waiting for your calls or emails right now. Go on there. Get the 10% off. Outfit yourself in this great stuff. Also, our partner, right?

The label that pays us, Showtime, has a great deal for you as well. You want Showtime? You want 30 days free? Why not? Okay? Free 99 is the cost. Go the showtime has a great deal for you as well you want showtime you want 30 days free why not okay free 99 is the cost go to showtime.com it's showtime championship boxing which we'll get to in a little bit it's bellator which is back i believe this week right ryan bader with a bang we're gonna see a a heavyweight unification of their own so uh don't miss that don't miss billions don't miss dexter whatever the hell chuck do you watch anything in showtime it's a great app it's a great time i watch quite a bit of showtime actually yes i'm a big fan all right all right your very generic response leaves me to believe you're not but that's fine i do watch

showtime i do watch it but but the shows you're mentioning uh maybe not so much uh people aren't here necessarily chuck to see us sell shit they want to hear about in ghanu gone uh a fantastic uh flyweight title co-main event and a trilogy a lot of great stuff to get through we mentioned our social channels below um am i forgetting anything else chuck not that i'm aware of all right all right great great to have you here chuck you know that we call the uh oh there it is chuck there it is sorry uh we're still in line for other awards in fact we're going up against chuck's friend ariel hawani in the mma hour as well as a few other great shows including chris jericho sports podcast awards.com is rolling out their best combat sports podcast trophy plaque whatever

we're going to get and uh you can vote for morning combat go to that website right now you got to log in but you don't have to put like credit card or sign up for any loans or anything uh you can just you can just log in vote for us you know see what happens or vote for whatever your favorite show is vote for the ringer if they can make it one year you know yeah don't look for it they probably won't all right i don't want to waste any more time chuck uh wow wow wow saturday night it went down in anaheim california usc 270 a heavyweight title unification. On paper, we said, you know, could be for the ages, the biggest heavyweight title fight

in years, or at least up there in that pantheon. It obviously played out a lot differently than expected coming in as Francis Ngannou takes a unanimous decision using some Dagestani tactics by taking Cyr by taking cyril gone down unifying his heavyweight title we have so much to talk about debate and speculate regarding francis's future but chuck nobody better in the world to break this down uh i gotta i got questions written down i got technical analysis but i really just want to ask you straight up your reaction to Francis Ngannou, the damn wrestler in not digging in and throwing big power shots, but really doing anything it took to keep his title. Well, in context, just knowing that there was a knee issue, I was wondering if there would be some other added wrinkle to what we were going to see. So I would say that I was not entirely surprised.

And if you remember on our pre on our, on our tailgating party or whatever we call this thing, the pre the pre fight show, we, I basically said, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw some wrestling from in Ghana. And I remember Luke looked at me like he'd just taken a very strong gummy or something like that.

He didn't. It turns out Chuckie had, okay. But I, so there was a little bit, it was more based on like, maybe if he was getting outstruck on the feet, we might see some disruptive something in there, maybe something to mix it up, throw him off base.

I didn't really see it coming down though after those first two rounds, where it's just basically he's losing a fight where it looks like it's going to go five rounds, the pattern is set. So when he got that third round takedown, that big takedown, I think that that was an eye-opener. And the fact that he was able to kind of repeat that process, it was crazy, right? I mean, especially in the fifth round, the way the fight went down, it was not something that anybody

really expected to see. But I thought it was an awesome new wrinkle to like what this guy is actually capable of. It reminded me, you, you, you can tell me if you were, if this is an accurate kind of comparison, but UFC 165, we'd never seen, there were a lot of firsts in that fight. John Jones was, you know, taken down for the first time ever. John Jones was cut for the first time ever. John Jones was behind. Yeah. Against Gustafson. He, you know, he's losing on the scorecards, essentially going into the deeper rounds. And we had to see him dig deep and find a way. And in his case, I think it was a spinning elbow. And this one, it just happened to be grappling.

Nobody saw it coming, but it was very effective. And it was clear that Ghan had no real response for it other than to reach for some submission attempts and things like that. Just really wild stuff, man. But I think it adds to the layers that you were talking about a little bit with Nganou. As we were going in, you're like, what version are we going to get? I think it just adds to the dimensions of this guy. To me, it adds to the overall, you know, amazing, ridiculous, improbable story of him becoming, you know, UFC heavyweight champion. And in this fight, he had to really bite down

and just figure out, you know, you mentioned the comparison to Jones Gustafson. It looked in a softer way, a little bit like, you know, Jan Blachowicz versus Israel Adesanya for me in the same mid-fight adjustment to wrestling. But I'm glad that you brought up that, you know, you did mention on our pregame preview, which, you know, I'm happy to say

that is a forum for real talk, right? Like men do. And it turns out, which, you know, I'm happy to say that is a forum for real talk, right? Like men do. And it turns out there was, you know, at least one or two men who thought this could be a thing. Now, on Twitter, they were as shocked as we were. Can we throw up this tweet, you know, of the reaction to Francis wrestling, you know, with the great Polar Express picture there of the nerd? Actually, I knew Francis's offensive wrestling would be a deciding factor in the fight. Didn't really surprise me.

Well, Chuck, it turns out you said it could happen. I think you'd have to be a genius to announce ahead of time that that's even— Wait, what's that? Oh, we have video. There is actually—there's one person who predicted it. We do have video. Let's check it out. My greatest actual fight question—I know i'm talking very theatrical and

generic here but my greatest in fight question is what happens if francis gets a takedown and moves to top position and is sort of a next level grounded pound at force i mean what if he what if he's a freaking nightmare down there we saw him he looked really good against steepa in that rematch it was a very small you know sample size but like those are some of the things that I'm like what if you if he starts going downhill like he may never yeah I don't think I don't know if you can stop him and not even from a one punch scenario more from he's just gonna maul you and take you down well the only problem is uh Cyril gone granted 10 fights total so keep that in mind but he's got a 100 percent takedown defensive rate now also now chuck as you can see what i mean an award-winning take from an award-winning show

very good luke thomas predicted we had no chance of winning in that award by the way and that there'd be not a great chance that gone could be taken down consistently now my mention of takes don't age well do they they don They don't. They really don't. The mention of downhill from me there was, you know, in a football sense, if Ngannou's running downhill and he's using the wrestling to control, it could be a problem given his size. Now, Chuck, it turned out that he wasn't as busy on top. When I made that sort of, hey, guys, I think this could be something,

I'm thinking Brock Lesnar grounded pound. This turned out to be more of positional control, key times for Mangano. And when we find out, Chuck, what we found out afterwards, that those knee pads were not there for fashion, that Francis had torn his damn MCL weeks before and injured his ACL and some other CL in his knee in the weeks leading up to this, yet still took the fight, which is sort of a topic I want to put on the shelf until we talk about his future.

But in relation to this fight, I look at this as him having won this fight with heart, certainly, because he refused to stop finding an avenue to victory, but with IQ, to basically say, my knees will not allow me to plant and be the striker that I'm used to being. So I got to come up with something else. Yeah. Holy crap, Chuck. I wonder to an extent if this was the fallback option, because obviously the first takedown was pretty explosive, but he was still very raw, right? Like, like you mentioned him advancing into better positions. It didn't seem like he had all of the tools, but he was still very raw, right? Like you mentioned, him advancing into

better positions. It didn't seem like he had all of the tools, but he did have strength. And he did sort of seem to know if he took Cyril Ghosn down, that might be a very good way of just kind of keeping him there. And I think a lot of people were pointing out that Ngannou was kind of huffing after, you know, midway through the first round, his mouth was open. He just looked tired. I think that the narrative going in was like, hey, he wears down. We saw him do that through the first round his his mouth was open he just looked tired i think that the narrative going in was like hey he wears down we saw him do that in the first miyaj fight um if you take him into the deep rounds with see him kind of gasping for air early the fixation was that he's the one getting fatigued but as we kind of saw man i mean gone at some point is doing the exact same thing and i think it really played out once he was on the ground that he didn't have a

lot of answers there either so and gana didn't the ground, that he didn't have a lot of answers there either. So Ngannou didn't have to be polished. He didn't have to have, like, you know, extreme grappling skills. He just had to have his strength and, like you mentioned, the IQ to keep it there and kind of pound him out. He didn't get off. I was thinking the same thing you were, that we might see some vicious ground. He wasn't able to do that, but he was able to fend off any real danger

and kind of keep Ngannou dancing to his tune so it's just a masterstroke man yeah you know i want to get to gone in a second uh this also by the way if you love you some luke thomas which if you're subscribed to the show you do luke did do an instant analysis after 270 on saturday night go to youtube.com slash morning combat get luke's full take before he headed off on vacation. There were two key turning point moments not far from each other. The end of round two where I'm sure you had the same feel as I did texting Luke and Mikey Morms and CBS and going, you know, and Connor's giving this fight away. We weren't really fully sure at that moment the full knee injury and how much it could compromise him.

I just thought he wasn't trying enough. He wasn't letting his hands go out of fear, similar to what Cyril Ghosn did to Derek Lewis, by the way, out of sort of freezing him in fear that he'd get countered. Then I'm like you, I'm like, is Nganou, you know, already tired? What the hell's going on here? The turning point for Nganou, though, came at the end of round three. Round three was the first one where Nganou slammed him,

took him down a second time, but really just leaned on him a lot took his back briefly just put that weight on him it was big frank who said he saw cyril gone walking back to the corner and not only exhausted but defeated in his face so this ended up becoming in the championship rounds more about will than it was about skill or death defying power and all that before we get too further into this i got into a little bit of hot water with the hardcore mma fans after daniel cormier steep a mio chich part two where cormier dominated with wrestling in the first round slammed the shit out of steep a and then slowly sort of imploded and made big mistakes over the next few rounds and went away from that game plan.

I said at the time, Stipe didn't win this fight. DC lost it. Obviously, Chuck, it's never that cut and dry because all the factors come together to make the picture that we see, right? But what is more true? That Francis Ngannou won this fight or that Cyril Ghosn lost it? Oh, God, that's a tough one. But I would say that Ngannou won this fight or that Cyril Ghosn lost it? Oh God, that's a tough one. But I would say that Ngannou won it. I think that that's really the way I'm viewing it. I will say

that Cyril Ghosn will definitely be able to look back at this fight and say, hey man, I could have done this different. I could have done this different. I was winning this fight. He's going to kick himself when he looks at that tape a little bit but at the same time uh you know and Gano had to go through the same thing right like he when he fought me edges the first time there was a lot of things he learned he came out a very different fighter almost altered to his detriment against Derek Lewis but then after that we've seen him kind of like build himself back up into what he's become I think it was actually helpful helpful for him down the line to have that fight. I feel like Cyril gone where he's at. And especially since he was

one of those first rounds, he's going to be able to use this to his advantage as he makes his next move. I know for, I feel like it's a certainty that he will end up in a title fight again. And it seems better than 50-50 that at some point he will hold that title. So I think he's going to learn from it. All right, let's quickly talk. I want to hit everything here because this matters. This was a monstrous fight. The scorecards in the end, 48-47. That's three rounds to do for Nganou.

And then 49-46, which ruffled some people's feathers. But to be fair, that first round was so anticlimactic with the stuff takedowns, the clinch work. And they both landed a couple strikes that it's not absurd to give Nganou the first round I didn't do it I scored it one and two for gone final three for Ngannou like most people but there is some rumbling underneath of saying look to the letter of the law in terms of top position I'm not sure Ngannou actually did enough activity wise to get the clear nod I want to know how you scored, and I want to know if there's a deeper conversation within that. No, I don't think there is because, honestly, I thought they were all very clear rounds.

One and two for Ghosn, the next three for Ngannou. The takedowns, given the level of activity, right? Like you're looking at what is actually happening in there. Now, so there's not a lot. You're getting Ghosn, piecing them up a little bit here and there, but there's nothing really happening that's definitive. So those takedowns actually factored in in a bigger way. Now, was it one of those things where he's, you know,

gone had some submission attempts. He was trying to do some stuff from the bottom. You remember like Chiruto versus Matt Hughes back in the day. It was Matt Hughes who was getting dictated to. Like Chiruto's on the bottom. You remember like Chirrutto versus Matt Hughes back in the day. It was Matt Hughes who was getting dictated to. Like Chirrutto's on the bottom, but he's the one completely always putting Matt Hughes in danger of submission. Fend off, fend off, fend off. Similar to the Miguel Torres fight with Demetrius Johnson. This fight actually was nothing like that. It was more like Hail Marys, you know what I mean? That we're coming from the bottom like, let me try this. But more of desperation, more out of need, not basic offense. It was more like Hail Marys, you know what I mean, that were coming from the bottom, like, let me try this, but more of desperation, more out of need, not basic offense. It wasn't

like he was trying to offensively get off from the bottom there. So I feel like, you know, Ngannou did more than enough in terms of just kind of dictating the action, and I think that that matters in this. And, you know, once he was able to, uh, once he was able to kind of keep gone there, I felt, I felt like he was doing enough. I mean, he was still trying to land. He was trying to improve his position. He was doing the things they're looking for. I just didn't feel like he had the skillset necessarily to get it done.

But, uh, the experience, he didn't have the experience for both. I mean, look, at end of the day, Cyril gone has been an MMA fighter professionally for three years. I mean, that's wild. That's insane. That is wild. So to your earlier point, he's going to get a lot better. He's going to be back in a title fight sooner than later.

Believe all that. But you nailed it. I agree with your take on the scoring. And I think we have to look a little bit deeper at this argument, meaning this. There's a difference between lay and pray, which is why the change in the scoring basis was necessary, that just control is enough, and being really offensive with fists and knees and what have you. But Chuck, what about weaponizing size or some technique to speed up fatigue?

Because that's the difference in those two turning points, the start around three to the end of it in gone never being the same and let's look at uh juliana pena and her upset of amanda nudis she doesn't get to the point of stopping her without tugging on that arm on the ground and wearing amanda down so there is something to be said for that i thought and donna nullifying right like you're nullifying the other guy's offense like he basically took gone completely out of a game plan and put him in in basic deep water that you didn't know how to get out of I mean all of those things should factor in a nuanced fight like this now look I want to limit the bad things we can say about Cyril gone because it's so new but you know and I also want to limit the amount of times I just dropped big doggies on on Luke's face here

but here's the deal, Chuck. Don't limit that. In an era of Barry Horowitz-ing myself enough, here's what I gotta say. What was my biggest question coming in for anybody that watched Friday's pregame show? You know, I certainly questioned whether Ngannou could use wrestling offensively, but my biggest question was, even though Cyril Ghosn looks

to be, in the fights leading up to this, like everything and more of heavyweight 2.0 the future all that stuff even him being the betting favorite at the end of the day i wouldn't have gone that way but i get it but my question was when you hear fernan lopez talk to luke or anyone else he did a great interview with luke back in october he said gone striking was so advanced for having so little experience that he chose to teach him how to be how to stay away from situations in which he can be taken down or hit clean in close

proximity and he basically taught him an avoidance style chuck that wins when you are completely controlling the terms of the fight which cyril gone did for every ufc fight and the first two rounds against inganu but i had questions about what would happen. Would he implode if the scales shifted? They shifted. We just don't have evidence outside of his submission wins early in UFC. We've never seen him taken down. We don't have evidence that he could not only have to come back from adversity, but make key adjustments on the ground.

A lot of it was assumptions because of how stinkin' dynamic he is with things like speed, timing, game planning, IQ, and even what we thought stamina because he had gone the distance five rounds coming in. Do you throw any shade at him and Coach Lopez, who after rounds three and four did say, you're down on the cards. You need to win. You need to win. You know, you need to come back. And maybe that fueled that giant fifth round mistake that a lot of people are harping on where Cyril gone, went for the leg submission, ended up losing the position, ended up losing the fight. How deeply are you going to throw some shade on everything I just said? I think it's fair to criticize for Dan on this because you know, it's fair to do it. But at the same time, nobody knows their charge. Nobody knows

their, their principal fighter quite like the trainer, right? Like this guy's been with him since the beginning. And I think that one of those types of situations where you kind of have to understand the mental makeup of your guy. So if you're telling him, hey, you're losing this fight, you need to go out there and do something. And maybe that did play into him making a stupid mistake. But I would like to think that he was dialed into his guy. And maybe that's how he thought he could best motivate him or give him a situation dour or whatever it is that he was going to go out and get an optimal performance in that last round. It's a weird one, man. I think the reason we can question him at all, though, is like you're

mentioning, some of the confidence that was coming out of it with the style, saying he's the best striker three years in, all those things uh basically playing a little more defensive with his uh his way and preventing the takedown those things kind of backfire right and everything it's all brilliant it looks brilliant until it doesn't work and this is one of those situations where it didn't work so um it's fair to criticize him man that's the fight game that's what the great thing is you can criticize them i paint in That's the fight game. That's what the great thing is. You can criticize them. I paint in broad strokes, right? And people hate that about me, right?

Oh, Speedy just started watching MMA last year. I mean, look at his paintings. It's just broad strokes. They're still telling you that? Chuck, you can see the butterfly forming in this cocoon, right? This is MK. We're coming. Anyway, I texted Luke after the fight.

I said, look, Ngannou found a way to get gone into the deep waters and gone. Couldn't swim out of the inexperience. He said, no, that's a mistake. You missed it. Is that casual general take true in this case? No, I don't think that's a mistake. I mean, Luke's convinced of his opinion. See, that's the thing.

That's, that's his flaw, right? That's the, that's the flaw in his game. But I spend the rest of the show just kind of breaking down Luke's flaws. Yeah, that'd be great. I mean, I would love to have heard Luke's take on this show, to be honest. But I'm with you, DC.

I'm with DC, DC, BC. I'm with you. I go by RC, my friend. RC. Thank you. All right, Chuck, finally on segment one here. I never call you that, by the way. That's just, that's why I stumble.

I never actually call you that. No, you don't. You call me Brian by my government name. I do. We're both Connecticut guys. Although, you know, you're Colorado by birth. I am Colorado. I relate to the 303.

Come on. I'm just out here. You, Mike Alvarado, Cowboy Saloon. All those guys. Chuck, finally on this, save your analysis on what this means into Ngannou's future, meaning, God, his knee injury was so severe, but he hates the UFC so much that he was like, I don't care, I'm fighting anyway. But in terms of the relation to keeping your title and being in this fight,

do you consider Francis Ngannou's decision to fight through disastrously potential major injuries, meaning he claimed his doctor told him a week before the fight that you're risking permanent damage on this knee if you fight. Now, look, he won't be the first guy to fight hurt. I get that. But look, this is a heavyweight title fight. You're in a key negotiation spot for your future.

He chose to gamble. He pulled it off. But is this reckless? Or was this like, hey, man, this is betting on yourself and just leaning on your toughness. How do you see that? Yes. Yes to both. I feel like it was reckless.

But I also feel like it speaks to a little bit about who he is and his situation. I think that he wanted to go through with this come hell or high water. Because honestly, if he loses this fight, he also has the same excuse, right? Like, well, my knee was compromised. I couldn't do everything I wanted to do. And then, right, he's a free agent or he has a, he's basically out of the contract. But in this situation, he's able to win it. He was gambling on himself and it paid off. And now you, I mean, now this is, this is the fascination in most historical context with the UFC. Guys who are gambling on themselves, the UFC wins it for whatever reason. The UFC always comes out with the desired result.

And the guy who was betting on himself ends up leaving or whatever it is or compromising because he didn't win that fight. So this is one of those rare hurdles that gets cleared. And now it becomes fascinating to see how 2022 plays out for francis but it was reckless i mean let's face it man like you go in there it was a calculated risk but it was reckless in that sense i mean where his mojo was at and we were talking about this after his last fight with miyoshich i mean like where he's at and where he's capable of getting you don't want to lose that that's where he you know that's where he's can be getting, you don't want to lose that. That's where he can be transcendent. So to lose this fight in some bad way would have hurt him, but he didn't.

So it did pay off. Good for him, man. I don't know if I would have done it in that position, but I think it speaks to who he is, man, as a competitor. Crazy, crazy time in a unique situation, being the champion, being at the end of his contract, fighting the management, just as much as you're fighting your own injury and your opponent. I mean, this is central casting in a lot of ways.

And, you know, 100% good buddy of this show, Oteel Burbridge, the basis for a dead and company was lighting me up after the fight going like, how is Francis not your favorite fighter ever after watching his story? And this, this is sort of like the the a monster plot line added into the movie about his life that'll one day be made i mean i don't want to go too far without stopping and just being like whether it was reckless or not francis being here right now at 35 is the result of some reckless decisions to to go after his dreams in life no matter what i mean it's it's it's sort of it's crazy but it's on brand it's consistent yeah that's why it's why it's kind of hard to tell him hey you can't fight fury you know like

if you if you his trajectory where he's come from where he's ended up and just what he's been able to do i mean the guy should be given those types of chances in life at this point you know what i mean that's kind of the that's kind of the lifetime award for having survived where he came from to get to where he is. It's crazy, man. And also, sir,

like we talk about gone, we'll be better for this. And I believe that if you're asking me what's next for gone, he's going to get right back in line. He's going to learn from his mistakes. He's, you could tell that the intangibles are there. So this will be his steep,

a losing the JDS in their first fight over five rounds, or even in Ghana, losing to steep a over jds in their first fight over five rounds or even ingano losing to stipe over five rounds in their first fight but for francis it's damn man i i love him i love the man because so you have a higher stock them because you're at the highest point of your if you're in ghana stock going into it's going into this fight so are you did it move up some you have like it did but in an unintended way, because I thought he was going to come out and be extra predator, like next level.

What we saw in that Stipe rematch was the teaser, but watch this shit go full bloom. Is he going to be doing head kicks? Is he going to be taking guys down and grinding them? I mean, there are so much potential, just as the same for Gon, to grow in huge ways, and yet he comes out and wins one, like the back doorway, the heart way.

Look, is it not similar to even Brock Lesnar against Shane Carwin, where you're like, you know, he's really not that good. I think so. But Brock Lesnar just found a way to bite down and figure this out. And Gano's stock in that regard, in the superhero regard,

it couldn't be higher in my mind, which is the perfect transition into what the hell happens next. Topic two, I want to talk Tyson Fury. I want to talk Jon Jones. I want to talk UFC brass, contracts, free agency, and all that. But let's start right here. Two exclamation points came out of the end of this.

Dana White, UFC president, not in the cage after Ngannou's win to put the belt around his waist, which he did the fight before when Davidson Figueiredo defeated Brandon Moreno. And of course, we'll get to that later in the show. And it was Mick Maynard, the matchmaker, and also Dana, 100% no showing the post-fight press conference. Chuck, if we find out after, whether it's true or not, you know, Dana had an illness in the family had a runoff certainly i'll apologize in hindsight but as this stands right now i'm sorry it's hard it's hard not to say this is unprofessional this is a little bit gutless and this is majorly telling in terms of this larger soap opera in terms of like this is a real fight for leverage for everything for

francis and gou's future. How else could you look at Dana White not showing up as anything but what I just said, Chuck? I don't think you can, man. That was a really, really bad look. It's petty. It means that the road is never too low, right? Like he'll take that low road. And it is, the last word you said is the biggest one, telling.

It just tells you exactly where he holds. Now, just in Ghana I'm not sure but his management the situation somebody kind of publicly butting heads with him in these ways he hates when his businesses aired you know even in the ESPN era even with the the sale the sell of the company everything he just does not like when somebody negotiates in the public and he doesn't like it when that guy wins let's face it man so i feel like it was just a um you know it was telling it was telling i i was a little bit surprised because usually dana dana does what he's supposed to do even if he like he'll swallow the bitter pill here and there and he'll still go through with it so for him not to do that man it must be on another level what he's encountering here with Ngannou. You know what we ask of these athletes?

Cyril Ghosn showed up. We ask that even in defeat, even in knockout defeat, unless you have to go to the hospital, we ask them to come back to the podium and sit there and talk about what just happened. They put their emotions, their life on the line into these fights. And we ask them, hey, man, you lost come in tell us about it the fact that dana can't do that and look some people tweeted at me with this i have to i don't know you'd have to go back in real time and relive it to see if it's true but the ufc twitter account which tweets so often during fights to to kind of pull people in to try to tune in last minute they tweeted like crazy during the co-main event. Not a single tweet from the end of the Moreno fight through Francis winning it

until finally like 20 minutes later putting out that picture of Francis and saying winner. Chuck, that's no class. It's called a promotion, right? Like the idea is to promote. So when they're doing stuff like that, obviously it's's other level petty against your own guys, I mean, it's just, it's very strange, but honestly, all it does is really feed the nature of this beast, because when Bisping was, not Bisping, when Ben Askren was fighting in his first fight against Robbie Lawler in the UFC, after all those years being out, the sentiment was that he was

fighting, I guess the subplot of that fight was that he was fighting the sub, I guess the subplot of that fight was that he was fighting the UFC, he was fighting Dana White. Ben Askren seized it. He was like, he completely bashed Dana White and made it about him versus Dana White. I feel like Ngannou wasn't doing that, but that the UFC was doing that, that they were making it more of a storyline. It only reflects better on Ngannou and it's going to make the UFC look way worse as time goes on if this continues because who's the petty side here like who's the one you know bullying and who's doing all the bad stuff we have a sentiment right now because it's been roaring up for a long time it's just about fighter pay fighter treatment um equal you know equal distribution of all that profit and everything

that's going on the tv deal unions we talk about about this stuff. Well, here's an example of a guy being mistreated. Here's an example of it. And I know as this year goes on and Gano, he's going to, like, besides him just being a transcendent figure and a quintessential heavyweight, I think he's going to curry fan sentiment bigger than we've seen from other fighters. I think he should be a hero in so many ways, especially after this performance too, but just him standing up for what he believes.

And I know a lot of people clowned the Tito Ortiz tweet that he put out there supporting Ngannou because it had typical Tito errors in it, changing the meaning. But like, we're in the fighter pay era. This guy's arguably in the power position that a fighter could be short of being Conor McGgregor's level

of pay-per-view star he's the damn heavyweight champion he just beat the guy that they were hoping would would you know take him out and end this debate and you're not promoting him and and you've got the biggest fight possible on the horizon if you want well let's talk about that so i said chuck before this that you know i think winning cures all ills. It cures locker room pettiness and jealousy and all that. I think winning just says, look, he wants more money. If he beats Gerald Gahn, he'll demand more money. He'll get it. Everybody will be happy. But Francis's comments afterwards, when they told him during the press conference in real time that Dana didn't show up and didn't put the belt around him, he was sort of like, oh, man, you guys are going to have to ask him.

I didn't know about this. And then Francis saying, you know, which he said leading up that he's willing to sit out until December and just become a free agent with all this wildness going on. I have to stop myself because we've never been here in this exact situation. But like, I'm not sure just money fixes this because francis said in the post fight press conference it's about respect i've been treated with respect like you know i've been treated like a whatever for so long the john jones fight is massive it's massive people think i'm overblowing the idea that it could even compete

with the pay-per-view record because they both don't have history selling on this level but it's still freaking massive after this 270 main event is there just naturally enough money in that fight chuck that if the ufc just stopped being so stubborn and meets francis in the middle you know maybe not even involving a boxing fight at all and just pays him not 600 to show with no win bonus, but pays him three and a half million to fight John Jones and pays John four, five, whatever that they're underpaid to me. Chuck, tell me if I'm wrong, the whole card on Saturday, the payout was 1.8 million to the entire card. Yeah. And you have four, you have four, you have two title fights, you know, two contenders, two champions. It is absurd, right? Like when you kind of think of it

this way, but it's especially under particular scrutiny when, uh, the event arrives and that's what people are talking about. I mean, it's just, people are talking about this because Francis Ngannou is in a situation. It's ridiculous, man. You have one of the biggest fights possible, and I mean in history. I think that this is one of the biggest fights possible because Jon Jones, for the longest time, has not been doubted going into a fight. Basically, Vegas lines are always putting him at minus 350, minus 400. He's fighting woodwork guys out of the meritocracy because he'd beat everybody in 205. So he's fighting the Dominic Reyes figures, you know, he's fighting those types of guys. He's beating them, he's barely beating them,

but it's like, the thing is, going into it, because all of this plays out, all pay-per-view is in prospect. What are we going to earn? Him being cast as an underdog, psychologically, for a public that has heard Jon Jones and knows that he hasn't legit lost a fight yet, you know, he has not lost a fight yet, going into a situation where the doubt is cast on him whether or not he can actually fight a guy like Francis Ngannou, and how does he withstand, you know, this big-bodied guy with all this power at a heavyweight division he's never fought in, then you get Ngannou's side of it. It's just huge. I mean, it's as big as it gets.

I thought about this fight a lot, and I just think that it really doesn't get bigger. I don't know if it would hit the Nurmagomedov-McGregor scale, but I think that if not, it would be second to that only. It would be second to that one only. I think it would have potential to do 1.75 to 2 million. I think so, too. It would have potential. You'd have to promote it right.

John would have to be a very willing public player verbally. But, you know, again, you made a great point. The hate, the casual fan candy that Conor versus Khabib was, but it was also, you know, the two greatest lightweights maybe of all time and the champ who never lost his belt against the guy who has. I mean, it was a lot of things, but you're not going to be able to compete with that hate and the violence outside the cage and all

that, but it's still heavyweight fighting. And it's still, I mean, is Jon Jones trying to, to win a second title from this version of Francis Ngannou more impressive than GSP coming back from four to five years off and moving up in weight and trying to do the same against Bisping? It's, it's in the category. If not, I mean, it's right freaking there. I think it's bigger. I think it's bigger because GSP was very calculated, right? I think he looked, I mean, I'm not trying to discount what he did, but I think he looked at Michael Bisping as a guy he could beat. Aren't you the judge who just put him in the hall of fame on high court? Aren't you that judge okay just just

checking here thank you no that was uh my uh my evil but i do think that this one's bigger because john jones i just feel like john jones he's an athlete in being held in a in a in a very special place that he's not descended from or ascended from like right we He was the first guy to have Nike on his trunks. He was the first guy with a Gatorade. He was the first guy that we were talking about as a guy who is a big-time player in a sport that didn't have them that other sports did. He was that guy that you could put on SportsCenter because he was like that. This was early on.

He's never really gone above it or below it. This forces him, right? This forces him out of that space. I hate to use these Ali things, but to me, it's almost like the Zaire one, right? Like the Rumble in the Jungle or something, because Ali had to go beat this guy who was like a massive favorite, and everybody thinks, well, this is when it all goes to hell. And if he goes in there and does it, this is Jon Jones's moment. So anytime the stakes are like that, I just, I love it because you know, whoever wins that fight is really on a different level from where they went in. So to me, this one is a whole different thing. I just kind of, I think that a lot of people suspected

that GSP would beat this thing. That's all. So there's a lot more doubt. They're not too dissimilar. So me even saying three and a half million to Francis, you know, four or five to John, obviously that's still absurdly low paid compared to, you know, boxing where Canelo and- And UFC doesn't want to pay you the one of them. I feel like they're bickering with John too.

I mean, what do you think they actually deserve here? Not what are they going to get, but what do you think they actually deserve for payouts? I mean, is it $10 million apiece? Because in boxing, they'd be getting, for a fight this big, they'd be getting guaranteed $40 to $50 each, right? I mean, it's... It's because of the model the UFC has and the way that the distribution of the pay-per-view works. Even though they're still banking so huge on everything, I just, it's never been in their model.

The other thing is they're so cautious to not set a precedent, right? They don't want to set a precedent of like boxing where it's like guys can make that because once they do that, you're going to have everybody who thinks that they deserve more money. Yeah. I just don't. Connor in July, right? Connor in July at international fight week will be like, okay, Dana, now we work, now we play and now it's good. Let's do it. But what they deserve, I'm like, they deserve what you just said. They deserve, you know, they deserve that. $10 million, they deserve that. That's the type of fight it is.

But what they'll get, I don't think it's anywhere near that. I think that the compromise, they may get a couple of million, right? Like, I think that that's more in the range. And it'll be interesting to see how this, you know, how the UFC compromise, because that's the fascination of Ngannou Nguyen. Now I feel like we have to see how the UFC compromised because that's the fascination of Ngannou winning. Now I feel like we have to see how the UFC responds, but my guess is that they work something out more in that range.

It's not going to be what they should get. Rapid fire question here because I do have a lot of questions about this. From all the facts you have, from what we learned Saturday before, during, and after this fight, is it more likely that Francis Ngannou and the UFC settle on a financial middle ground

and he fights John Jones next in 2022? Or is it more likely that Francis waits until December and walks on his own and figures this out? I think it's more likely that he gets John Jones. Now I say this banking that the UFC knows it's business and that they've always made sound business decisions for the most part through their career there. That through their career. That's why they ended up where they are. I just think you can't throw that away. I can't imagine that you're going to let this guy sit there this amount of time. But the stubbornness of some of the UFC officials, especially Dana White, knows no bounds.

So I won't be surprised if we see the latter scenario. But as of right this second, I would be banking more on the former there. I like your point that they're too savvy to F this up. So maybe this large public statement of, Francis, we don't support you post-fight Saturday night is just a way to get three to five million off the final deal when they do sit down to do it. I mean, it's probably true.

All right, another rapid fire one is, Jon Jones was very confident. I didn't send in all his tweets because he deleted a lot of them, but he was very confident. I was wondering about that. I didn't see his chances against both fighters. Should he be based on what he saw or do you like me realize, okay, that's compromised knee Francis. I want to see healthy Francis again, because I still remember the steep a rematch. Okay. Who is, should John be more confident than he was coming in after watching this fight? I think he should be. I think he should be. But what's with the, the, the, the tweet at the very end where he's like, maybe I'll just

retire earlier or whatever. I mean, to me, I'm like, I don't know. Are you reading into the doubts he might be having? I imagine Richard Schaefer texted him and was like, Hey, don't seem too eager or the UFC is going to offer you 1 million to fight Francis. All right. I think you're right. I think you're right. Um, I would, if I, I think John Jones should feel confident, you know, I think he should feel confident. I mean, he is, he's a good standup fighter, man. I think he, and he has a chin and all that stuff. I think he should feel confident where he's at going into that fight. All right. Uh, I think, I think John comes feel confident where he's at going into that fight. I think Jon comes

closer, whereas when Francis blew away Stipe in the rematch, I'm like, for the first time ever, I don't think Jon Jones is going to beat every single heavyweight like I thought he would. Now, I'm easily favoring Ganu. When he first was coming up, it was like, you thought that it would be seamless. He would be able to beat

whoever the champion in heavyweight and he would go into, it would be seamless. He would be able to beat whoever the champion and a heavyweight. And he would be one of those guys who has a second belt. That is not the case anymore. Well, if you're, if you're, if you're John and you watched gone, you're thinking, okay, you know, I shouldn't point fight this guy for 25 minutes. That's where I'm setting myself up to lose. But I think John saw that and goes, I have better intangibles than him. I can also take him down.

You know, I'll just, I'llit him and I'll figure it out. John, looking at this version of Francis, you've got to be careful, though, because that knee, I mean, God, there's an MCL injury. No one takes short of Kane making that questionable decision to take the first fight with JDS, even though he had that bad knee injury on Fox. I mean, back then you have no leverage. You've got to do it. I'm sure Jon Jones was watching this fight and he sees those knee braces and he's

thinking, I would be oblique kicking the hell out of that knee. You know what I mean? He'd be leading with elbows to the kneecap. He'd be going after that shit. Look at this. At the end of the day, I'm fucking them both up. I want to see that energy, by the way, from Jon. So I like those tweets. Closing on Ngannou's future, this is obviously, Chuck, not the perfect tryout fight to get

people excited about Ngannou versus Tyson Fury. So my question to you, Not, is would you want to see it? Like, no, we don't really want to see it. But it seems to be really important to Francis, the level that Joe Rogan actually asked him about it. So to Joe's credit, in the cage afterwards uh do you think this has a way a potential of ruining negotiations because francis wants this too much where if you're ufc you probably want nothing to do with this right so so how is this going to be a problem in francis accepting

what they're going to offer i don't know but i do think that this could be a big part of negotiation is saying let's go through through the Jon Jones or whatever scenario. That should be Jon Jones, but whatever the scenario is. And the stipulation being that he can to do that as a one off, it's it's uniquely arranged and he's uniquely set up to actually get something like this done. UFC has never really, you know, them promoting McGregor and the Floyd Mayweather whole thing, that's a separate type of situation. But I think that if they really want to be in the Francis Ngannou business, they're probably going to have to address that.

And if they're going to do that, I would make sure that he's fighting Jon Jones, right? Like, you try to get the fight you want, and then maybe you set something up where they compromise and they allow that to happen. But I agree with you, though. and then maybe you set something up where they compromise and they allow that to happen. But I agree with you, though. I think that the outcome, I'd much rather see Jon Jones. I just want to see him compete against that guy,

and then he can do what he wants. You know what I mean? I want to see that fight, and then if he wants to go on a lark and take on Fury, go for it, from my own personal perspective. Yeah, that's fair. And we're going to transition in a second to this co-main event in which we're going to talk about Henry Cejudo's role in that. Kamaru Usman's

role in Nganu's corner, obviously what you saw with the wrestling and the confidence in doing that. We want to talk so positively about Extreme Couture and Eric Nixick and Dewey Cooper. They were incredible between rounds in the corner, encouraging Francis. Everything was great.

But I wonder if Kamaru had a bigger impact in this when we realize and as much as this looks like BC stirring the pot up do you remember when Luke Rockhold threw out that comment in his interview with Ariel a couple months back where he's like man I think uh Francis Kamaru and Adesanya should join up as three African brothers and together make a stand against UFC to, to, to change contracts and fighter pay, because it'd be a lot harder for the UFC to fight off your three of your biggest stars, effectively three strong black men saying enough is enough against the white owner. I mean, it was, it was delivered in a way that you could go off. Forget that.

I think there's something there, Chuck. I think there's something there. I'm not saying union. Yes. UFC take away my, my fight credential. I'm not saying union, yes. UFC, take away my fight credential. I'm just saying, I wonder. I wonder. First of all, I don't watch the show that you're talking about. But secondly, like, you know, truthfully, there's something to that, right? I do think there's something to that. Dude, it's just fascinating times.

All of the things we're talking about, all these iterations, it just feels like there's a moment, like, well, after so much talk of fighter treatment and stuff that there's actual action being taken. Right. And it's now it's just a matter of what happens next. And to me, that's fascinating because you've covered the sport a long time. You've covered boxing, too. When you get into these moments, new precedents are set, man. New things happen and things get moved one way or another, or somebody digs in and it starts getting ugly, but it's just

going to be very interesting to see how it plays out, man. And it's not all going to be perfect for fans. We've been down that road before. Fighters getting a piece of it is going to slow down the momentum. UFC has an expansion and putting on the best fights consistently, no matter what, but it's a necessary change. All all right topic three chuck before we get too deep in the show is davison figueredo regaining the ufc flyway title in this co-main trilogy title bout it turned out to be another great fight in this rivalry a five round i guess you can say thriller but it was very it was very technical though it was a technical thriller meaning you had action and that's what you love out of these guys. But there was a lot of patience, poise, setup, game planning, nuances. And I think in the end, Davison Figueredo came out with the performance.

I didn't see coming. Not for a guy who has trouble making weight in this division. Not for a guy who's been so aggressive going for finishes each fight. He took the advice from Henry Cejudo and Eric Albarracin and turned that into a weapon in this fight. Chuck, there were leg kicks. There was, I mean, a 34-year-old for this division. I know.

To beat the guy that just stopped you in the rematch, this is a big-ass win, you know, and one that we really have to respect from Davidson Figueredo. And history has not reflected well on the guy who's lost his belt in a trilogy bout going back to get it right. It usually favors the Moreno side of it because that guy then carries momentum. He carries some kind of psychological edge in a situation like this. A lot of that was in play. I think that Moreno, you know, showing up and really putting on that last performance, you know, Figueredo was something like a two to one underdog going into this fight, which was

a little surprising. But I think the first real thing that you saw was on the scale. He looked good. He actually that that extra pound he shed was almost like a statement, you know, that we're like reading too much into the weight thing. So he comes in 124. I thought he looked great, man. He goes in there.

There was something reassuring, I think, like you're mentioning about seeing Cejudo. And, you know, this guy's in his core. He's very poised. He goes into a building that wants him to lose. He embraced that. You know what I mean? I think he had Moreno kind of right where he wanted him in the sense that Moreno was kind of out of character, too, so to speak. Like, he was, I felt like he was on a, he was acting in ways that he hadn't previously acted.

I didn't really care so much, really, for some the theatrics uh that were going on in the cage like basically stopping and smiling putting his tongue out all that stuff like it seemed a little weird to me but i just felt like figueredo was a rock man very poised he was doing exactly what he needed to do like you mentioned there's a ton of nuance i felt like he kind of had him dialed in and he got stronger as the fight was going on dude i i it's hats off to the guy right like it's like that he kind of had him dialed in and he got stronger as the fight was going on. Dude, hats off to the guy, right? Like, that kind of performance, I'm like, it's what you hope for a guy who's a champion, who thinks, you know, things went against him and he still believes in himself. That's the kind of performance you'd hope to see.

So it was awesome. The odds were so close because even if he's over the hill by a certain degree, at 34, Figueredo can still finish you. So that's why the odds are close. They've got a history of close fights, but it was Moreno who made all those adjustments in the second fight. I wouldn't doubt Chuck. If he looks back and says,

I was a little bit overconfident in terms of what I thought Figueredo was capable of, because you heard that pop when Moreno entered that Southern California arena of Mexican American, you know, boxing fans, most likely saying, no, this is our guy. And by the way, he still may end up being that guy because he's so young. And for all we

know, they could do a fourth fight in Mexico in front of 200,000 people. I mean, like he could still end up being that guy. I mean, they're trumpeting up, you know, Mexico, he's the first Mexican champion. They were like Mexican born champion. They have a whole video feature put out on him about his childhood. He's going into a situation where he is being kind of a hero in that market and everything else. I really believe he became self-aware.

That's what I didn't like. He was so self-aware it was almost like he was viewing himself from a seat and watching his own performance. Very weird. Some will say that's happened to me. I think Moreno's personality is so great that you know once he saw how much people liked it he's like oh i could be this guy all the time and then suddenly he's a clown in front of a camera in his basement you know with this haircut i've been there you know i know what it is but um i didn't want to draw

the comparison but that's what i was thinking okay that's exactly yeah you would not have predicted this performance from figueredo it speaks huge volumes of what he's capable of as a fighter, as a warrior, as a student of this game. We don't know the percentage of the credit that goes to celebrity coaching coming in like Albaracin and Cejudo. But if you see what this duo of a coaching team did with Weili Zhang in the Rose rematch, if chuck fans are jumping at me i know you have to take the fan reaction whether good or bad like john wooden said and just avoid

them both but a lot of fans like bc stopped trying to say rose had a case or uh whaley had a case on the scorecards in that rematch would you would you be the judge in this high court situation did henry suhudo guide whaley zhong to the point where you could have scored it for her in that rosary match? Yes. Right? I think so. I think so. Back to this fight. It ends up being three rounds to two on all three scorecards

in the end, which is the score I had. I do believe, though, that these rounds were so close it could have gone either way. You mentioned a key piece of analysis early on in this where moreno just looked different in there how much were the calf kicks just something that he did not believe he would have to contend to and maybe that sort of because you got to give moreno credit he still yeah finished a five-round fight with a case on the scorecards and and was an

action fighter in there but he was not leading the dance like the, like the Inganu gun, right? He was the one following constantly. That's exactly right. And I think that a couple of those calf kicks were like, they were early in the fight and you could tell that they're like, oh shit, uh, what am I going to do? Cause it was, it was disruptive, right? And those, those hurt, you know? And I think that that, um, set up some of the bigger shots too, that were coming from Figueredo down the line.

I just, you're 100% right. The too that were coming from Figueiredo down the line. I just, you're 100% right. The dance was being led by Figueiredo. That's why I really wouldn't have a problem with that scorecard. I had it 1-3-5, I believe, for Figueiredo. But I did think he was leading the dance. But I think you mentioned a good thing there. Moreno had his moments, and actually Moreno probably could have got that nod. That's a lot, too. Like, just the kid has a lot of heart. I just think that he was knocked just off his moorings enough. And whether that comes from him being self-conscious, him feeling pressurized by the moment, whatever it is, or if it was just something that Figueredo was doing, it all came in there just to tilt it in Figueredo's way. I mean, that's how close that fight was.

And this is one of those rare moments where you get through a trilogy and you're like, did they do a fourth? Are we doing a fourth fight? You know what I mean? And I think fans would be okay with it. Well, hashtag fight forever, Chuck. Afterwards, Figueredo said, look, I'll do it in Mexico. Let's do a fourth fight right away. He did sort of, he changed his tune a little bit since then, saying, well, maybe not Mexico, you know,

I mean, why give away such leverage, right? They want to make the most money. Look, I mean, there's a reason why UFC has lusted after this Mexican-American fan base and Mexican fan base. Chuck, they carry boxing. Sometimes when you think boxing's on life support, it's the loyal Mexican fan base that are buying these pay-per-views no matter what. I'd put it in Mexico.

But the key question I have for you is should the fourth fight be next? They're already the first rivalry to go one, two, three in succession with no other fights thrown in. Is there any reason not to go right back for a fourth? The only reason you might not, well, is because of the guys coming up, right? But you got Askarov's already got a fight coming up. He would have to get through. So it's a little complicated.

It's not as dialed in. I think that you go with it because you lose kind of the buildup of what's happening. I think you just kind of feed off of that. The division, they tried to shutter it, right? They tried to shutter this division not that long ago. And here we are in a situation where tons of people are paying attention to this division. It's treated like every other division. And you've got two guys that are kind of bringing that faithful together and have rooting interests, national interests, all this stuff. I think you throw it together for fear of losing it down the line. I don't think you'd want to lose the potential of how big it could be for them.

Yeah, it is a fight you could make at any point, even when they're old guys. But Figueredo's 34, not getting any younger, just had maybe the biggest win of his career. I mean, maybe it was more satisfying to win the title by stoppage, but with all things considered in this one, this is Figueiredo's, you know, this is his moment. And if you're a UFC business, you can get Moreno right back on track as a massive draw. I mean, what do people love more than anything?

A second chance story to come back and win the belt, which would be great. The legacy of this rivalry, Chuck, is it in Pantheon level now? I don't know about that. It's weird because I feel like in the lead up to this fight, it grew, but I feel like it was still more of a diehard's delight. It was still in the fight game center.

I would need to see it kind of expand into the broader context. I want to see people talking about it who don't normally follow the game for it to enter that. But if you're talking strictly from the standpoint of fans, you know, fight fans and all that stuff, I'd say that it's got to be real close to that, because I felt like this had, in the way it played out, I just feel like the whole thing has been, it's got the storylines, it's got the competitiveness, it's had a little bit of everything. You have the corner, the factions, like these guys like you're mentioning,

coming in and tweaking things up. I think it has all those cool elements that make it that way, you know? I think, look, if you're Figueiredo, you thank Henry Cejudo for his interest. If you're fans, you thank Henry Cejudo for keeping this division alive in the UFC because the post-Mighty Mouse Cejudo era is wild. And even if they don't go next with a fourth fight, I've got to see Askar Askarov in there. I've got to see.

I mean, who just, who just beat a, Oh, Roy Val just had a great win over Bontorin. I mean, they're like, they're,

I love this division. It's suddenly great again. So let's keep the show going. Chuck UFC two 70 was not the deepest card, but as typically happens when a pay-per-view card gets shit on for not being deep, those hungry ass fighters looking for opportunity and pay and attention tend to you know i mean ufc wants to

keep underpaying these guys they keep them hungry down there this was a fun fight card in the end chuck when you look up and down there's a few names that jump out to talk about which were you most impressed with coming off of this undercard? Oh, man, there were some good performances. I mean, the Pereira one, and maybe it's just because it was the lead up. It was kind of the catapult fight right before we got into, you know, the co-main and all that stuff. But that struck me because I felt like he was weathering some adversity. And I think there was questions that everybody knows he's this crazy striker.

He does crazy things. He's bombastic. He goes in there. He does, you know, somersaults, all that stuff. I just felt like he weathered enough stuff there, and he still was getting off that way, throwing the flying knees, you know, coming off the fence with the Superman punches, doing the somersault stuff all in that second round as part of the arsenal. I just love watching a fight, man.

And I think that that was a nice spotlight moment for him to get that victory so i would probably say he stands out all right you're talking about michelle pedeta who i've been very critical of at times uh his opponent andre fialo portugal was in his ufc debut and was tough as nails and kept coming yeah this show the full basket of tricks that that that is the you know the michelle pedeta experience which i tweeted is like the only i mean he creates fast and furious movies within his fights i think he showed though too much of the good and the bad that he is chuck i didn't coming into this fight even having won three in a row and this is now his fourth i'm just not sure if he is or will become a legitimate welterweight title contender and i'm just not sure if he is or will become a legitimate

welterweight title contender and i'm less sure after because he got handled in round one surprisingly and his nose was bloodied then he does all the crazy shit in round two that you love and then he almost gasses out in round three and and he gets a timely kick of the nuts to his opponent to kind of take a break i mean chucky yeah Yeah, but I don't feel like he's one of those guys who's really chasing a title. I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong about that. I feel like he just wants to put on.

He lusts after attention. He'll say it. He's too in love. Again, you could compare him to me on this show, Chuck, and maybe I'm turning off a portion of our audience by daring to break something. Oh, no, they've been long turned off. All right, but this guy cannot stop trying to make people happy.

And in the end of the day, what's that great saying that the old wrestlers and pro wrestling always tell the new ones coming in? Hey, kid. Hey, kid. You can either make money or make friends in this business, but you got to pick one. You know what I mean? No, he's definitely going to suffer from that.

I'm telling you right now, he's going to start losing because he's going to keep trying to please. He's going to start losing. He's physically talented enough, Chuck. I mean, he's a freak. He's physically talented enough with that one fight we saw him wrestle that if he decided to go all in, yeah, he could make a run. He could make a run.

Remember that NOS commercial? Wasn't it NOS? Whatever that energy drink was where the dude comes in and he's like doing flips and he's doing all this stuff and the fans are all going crazy and his opponent's just waiting for him. And then the guy goes out and one punches him and knocks him out. That's always Michelle Panetta for me. I'm like, he's that guy.

He's that guy showing off. The Raiders of the Lost Ark airplane scene with Indy there. Yeah. No question about it. I wish him well, but I saw enough to love and enough to hate in the same fight. But Chuck, you know who was back from a long layoff? Saeed Nurmagomedov. And it turns out he's not related to any of those other guys with the same surname that we love.

He's not related to the other Saeeds? What do you mean? Oh, yeah. Sorry. Good point. Sa-da-wa? No, not related as well. But Chuck, he made a monster statement cody stamen is nobody's easy

fight and he beat the bags off him in 47 seconds getting a sick guillotine choke i mean it's it's it's the most general casual thing you could say is you know the abe lincoln bearded guys from dagustan area extended, the Shmesh factory guys always bet on them. Yes. I mean, that's not, this seems even way more than that. Like we've been sleeping on this guy, but he's good as shit. I have no objection to anything you just said. I actually believe that. I think to me, I was like, I felt like he might, I felt like he'd win this fight, but I thought he might struggle a little bit because like Cody, uh, is, is a sturdy veteran man who has wrestling chops.

He has like those types of things. I thought we'd see some situations where Saeed would have to kind of work out of things to watch him breeze right through like that was, I mean, this was his moment, right? I feel like this was his moment, um, for us, because there's what nine fights canceled off this card. He ends up in a situation where he, you know, he's, what, nine fights canceled off this card. He ends up in a situation where he's kind of getting a spotlight, and he handled it. So people weren't really talking about him going in, but I feel like they will be talking about him going into his next fight. That's all you can ask, right?

But he looked freaking great, man. Especially with Cody Stammen saying in the pre-fight sizzle package that, like, I cannot lose another one. He's just coming off the loss to, what was it? Riddell that he lost to where you're like, like, so he was coming guns blazing and the fight ended in 47 seconds. So the embarrassment of riches at, at Bantamweight across both UFC and Bellator is, uh, that pool is only getting deeper here. And it's another, uh, smash factory product.

He seems a little bit more chill and cerebral and not as much like i'll just you know bite your aorta but uh he'll get you out of there chuck also for a late replacement victor henry staying in this bantamweight division he went in there against uh barcelos and gets a three-run unanimous decision but people are tweeting as if like the next savior's here was it was ited? How important and impressive was this win? I think Joe Rogan needs this sort of thing because Joe Rogan was just beside himself. In fact, he was still Instagramming about the guy.

I thought the performance was really good, right? I think everybody expected him to lose. He was something like a five to one underdog going into it. I didn't really know that much about him, you know? So like to see him reveal kind of who he is, it was the volume, right, it was the willingness, the game, you know, like he was going in his chin seemed right, I think he caught the other cat off guard a little bit, I think he just went in there and he was, you know, way tougher, way tougher of an out, and once he got rolling, it's kind of like anything, any underdog in any sport, like you

give them belief and they bring, like, they give it their full thing as the fight, as the thing goes on. So I felt like he was getting better as the fight was going on based on the fact that he was kind of feeding off the energy of every expected him to lose. Um, it was a very cool performance and it was, uh, it was fun to kind of learn about the guy. Cause I'm being honest, man, I didn't really know that much about him going into this fight. All right. Well, I'm sure somebody on a Sure Dog message board did, but he wasn't just, he didn't just out tough. I thought, you know, technically he was very

sound for a replacement fighter on this sort of situation. He looked ready. By the way, Hany Barcelos, I think I'm saying that right, always makes fun fights. Want to always see more of him here in the random weight division as well. Finally, Chuck, the name I want to highlight is our down under fans were going sick for this.

Jack Della Maddalena. He put it on. Pete Rodriguez needed just two minutes and 59 seconds to get the TKO. But, like, talk about confident, explosive, athletic. He's charismatic, too. I mean, this guy was like he seemed like he wanted to become a star on this one night. He did. I mean, we did have a lot of that you know like if you're going to have a card where everybody's like oh it's top heavy we have two good fights the rest suck but these guys kind of

show up and prove that like hey man we're we're fighters too you know whatever i thought that he really stepped what is he like 25 years old he's very young but i always look at the poise right like you look at a guy's poison that he hit that he hit that left hand that drops uh the drops guy and he the way he just kind of surveyed him as he hit the ground and casually moseyed in to finish the job that always tells me that a guy is envisioning him first of all is envisioning this very scenario envisions himself winning these fights has the right mindset but also that he's just not you know he treats the spotlight right like the spotlight and him are going to make sense together. There was a lot of revelation there, man. I thought that that kid looked great. So now, I mean,

like is another guy that suddenly is on your radar that maybe wasn't before. But yeah, I mean, there were several people on this card, but I thought maybe his performance, Michelle, we already mentioned like his performance stood out to me quite a bit. This is his 11th win in a row. To be fair, this is Pete Rodriguez who took the fight on a couple days' notice, meaning Jack flew to the States without an opponent after his first one pulled out. I'm not sure. I forgot the situation. So this guy looked a little bit, Rodriguez, like a default template creative fighter

on UFC 4, Chuck, to be fair. The hair was a little regrettable, you know. But look, Mr. Madalena, Mr. Jack Madalena. You know, I was going to tweet out that Delva Funky Homo Sapien 90s joke, but it's so obscure that no one would have gotten it, and I would have looked like an old dad. I would have gotten it. I would have gotten it. Thank you very much right there.

All right, Chuck, we've been a little more than an hour through the show, and we have so much to keep going. Just breezing right through here. I mean, I'm going to keep you here all day to close on our main topics of the week. Showtime Championship Boxing was back to kick off the new year. Atlantic City at the Borgata in a very interesting main event, which has some

weird sort of gone and gone parallels from the standpoint that the longest reigning active male champion in boxing, Gary Russell Jr., brought hisbc featherweight strap in there against big punching uh uh filipino and and promoted by manny pacquiao he loves him so many pacquiao it was mark mag say oh but chuck it turned out atlantic city was upset city as gary russell who teased in the week leading in that he had an injury that he wasn't going to disclose turns out it was his right shoulder he would go on to claim it was an old injury it got activated when he landed a counter jab in the third round the rest of the fight he

fought with one arm yeah chucky fought really well with one arm it's like the old saying man i could beat you with one hand tied behind my back although he had to try it right at the end of the day a majority decision win from the much more active mark magseo uh big win for for the philippines for for mackie many pacquiao promotions all that and it was you know magseo was big for the division he's aggressive he's all that but the story is kind of like francis and gano's knee injury where it could have gone south and for gary russell it's like like he said afterwards he gave this kid a boxing lesson but two of the three judges didn't fully agree going seven rounds to five in mag seo's favor do you think gary russell jr should have gone forward with this fight given

the injury suffered in training camp well i think part of it kind of speaks to who he is, right? Like going in there and thinking, I mean, the guy fights once every blue moon, right? He's fighting the mandatory. So we were talking a little bit before this, but like he's in a situation where I think he believed he'd beat him anyway. And I don't think he really thought it would be an issue. I honestly don't think he thought it would be an issue. Now that could be either stupid or that could just be like, I think I've got him either

way. I think that we saw him. He's still outboxed the kid. Right. But at the same time, when you're doing it with one hand, that's a tough situation. But he showed,

he showed you like all the intangibles. He's 33. He's too terribly inactive, but he's quick to be able to keep a big puncher off of you for nine rounds with one arm and just land clean counter power shots. I mean, from that standpoint, he's always tough as nails. He took that beating against Lomachenko and his only pro defeat and, and his came back

strong, won the title in his next fight by knockout, but not against Lomachenko, but you get my point. Yeah. It's just sort of like, you know, yeah, he, like in Ghana, he would have had an excuse if he lost and he still does have somewhat of a built-in excuse because I said, he's using it a little bit, he's using it using it but you know he wants a rematch i think a rematch would make sense here but you know if he's fully healthy i think he pieces max ao up and i think that this is the type of style that he feasts on yes he's getting a little bit older i was only happy he

did this because he never fights and he's so good and you hate that you hate when those two things collide he's 33 years old too you better get busy you're in the he's in the sky i wonder chuck if this loss doesn't turn out to be a great thing for him because maybe they run this back in a few months or whenever he's fully healthy he said he may or may not need surgery maybe you go six eight nine months and then maybe other people go he's. We can get him. Maybe he gets the fight he's looking for now. Yeah. Yeah, I think so too. I do think that we'll see him fighting more often.

You know what it's like? It's like either if you don't have the, if you have the belt, you can kind of get by with being selective. You can wait. You can do these things. When you don't have the belt, you got to stay busy. And remember the last time he lost, you were just mentioning a Sloan chicken in 2014,

was the only time he fought twice in a calendar year. So I think we'll see some. Yeah. So let's hope that if nothing else, we'll see him in there more. Yeah, absolutely. But he did show you a lot despite the loss. I thought the judges got it right. Magseo was busier. He did enough. I mean, look, he had a great fight. I think he could have done even better.

He's a much younger fighter, not the same fighting IQ, but he's got Freddie Roach and Marvin Simodio in his corner. He's got Manny Pacquiao backing him. So if they do a rematch, I'm here for that. Absolutely. Chuck, normally we transition out of our five topics and go to DMS from donks. I want to pump that.

I'm not going to do that. I want to pump that to Wednesday. We'll have a heavy segment, uh, with, with Luke out this week on, on fan questions. So, you know, BC, I got, I got to F around. So last minute, thanks to our production crew for scrambling for me because I made them on a Sunday night. I've created a new segment, Chuck.

Okay. Okay. Why am I always part of the new segments? Come on now. A new segment. I'm like a guinea pig for you guys. To put Chuck in the hot seat here. I like to call it truth or trivia.

Oh man. Okay. All right. No, no dramatic music. What's this? No, not yet.

We're going to add to that. Chuck, here's the premise. I have five MMA trivia questions for you. A master of this game, a respected long time journalist. Cause I'm going to follow my face here. And historian.

You will have 30 seconds per question. Each question will escalate in difficulty, but the hook to make old BC happy here is any question you get wrong, you must answer truthfully a personal type question that I'm sure you

came on today hoping you didn't have to talk about, all right? I'll do my best. All right, I appreciate your willingness here. No, there's no wheel. You don't have to drink out of anybody's shoe, but here we go. Some silver linings. Hold on, let me, I'm almost there.

Let me call up my notes. All right, here we go. Number one. I can't even cheat. I'm using my phone to film myself. I can't even cheat. You can't even cheat. All right.

Of the 14 different men to wear the undisputed UFC light heavyweight championship, 13 of 14 were born in the United States or Brazil. Who is the lone 205 champ from outside of those two nations? 30 seconds starting now. At 205? Yes. I would say, uh, Jan Blouovic.avich all right chuck you got it all right you know you always start out one of those halftime segments where you got to shoot they start out with a layup right and then you go to the free throw then you go to the three-pointer harder from here all right then you're trying to hit a half court shot to win your tuition all right here we go number two oh that personal question would have been great damn all right

number two uh chuck conor mcgregor has reached the end of the third round in three different pro fights all of which came inside the octagon name the opponents your 30 seconds starts now so he hit the end of the third round in three fights okay um Three fights. Okay. Diaz one, Diaz two. Or is that just one opponent? They're separate fights. I need three separate fights from you. Okay. So those two fights, those two fights, and I'm trying to remember the

Ramaga made of. I'll say, I don't think of that one. Holloway. Okay. Diaz one, Diaz two, and Holloway. Okay, Diaz won Diaz 2 in Holloway. Chuck, that is incorrect. The Diaz 1 was a second round submission. Rightfully got the only decision win in Conor's career when he beat Max.

I'm sorry, the first one when he beat Max Holloway. The other answer was the second decision win. Went five rounds with Nate Diaz. The third answer was Habib Nurmagomedov finished in the fourth round. Chuck. All right, here we go. Chuck. It's time to get personal on truth or trivia.

Let's try it. Chuck, what was the most difficult personal moment of your first 25 years on this earth? And what did you pull upon for strength to get through it in order to become the man in the hat that we know and love good god what a question man uh man that is tough um well i would say in the first 25 years like especially with writing side like that's what i really wanted to focus on i think think I knew that fairly early on, and I was batted back quite a bit through those years. I would say my biggest adversity has been finding editors and stuff like that who want to help and to build you and all that. Chuck, in the question, your most difficult personal moment.

Personal? Yes, Chuck. All right. My most difficult personal one? don't know man i don't would you have an answer to this one i'm trying you had those those meth years in kansas right oh wait was i not supposed to say that yeah see you man now i'm like that's just being revealed how square i've been yeah that illegitimate child in uh in dayton no no god no i don't i mean i was with i was with a girl for uh

nine years who i didn't end up with uh oh in the end so i would say that was a personal um that that'll hurt bad at the end of it chuck yes chuck what did you draw on for strength this is what people want to know how you got here you know self-belief brian self-belief all right we're getting close we're getting personal is this like an odd way for me to create a therapy couch from i guess all right trivia question i was expecting like uh like these are like real philosophical and hard hitting all right now i know what to expect i got as always chuck it's a mixed bag when you put okay okay they're both sometimes sweet sometimes sour here we go all right though the seat is hot jesus chuck max holloway earned consensus fighter of the year honors in 2017

and likely cemented his hall of fame resume with a pair of third round tko title wins over former featherweight legend jose aldo the two events were UFC 212 and UFC 218. Which cities did those two pay-per-view cards take place in? Okay, so the second one was definitely in Rio. The first one... Chuck, I will help you with this.

The first one was in Rio. UFC 212. Oh, that's right. You're right. 218 was... I want to say detroit what is your final answer that'll be a detroit oh chuck that's a big pull right there well done ufc 218 in detroit wow chuck's like i will never offer up anything personal again or appear on the show thank you very much i just i disappoint when I give you my personal information. Go ahead.

Go ahead. All right. All right. Trivia question number four on Truth or Trivia. Here we go. Hold on. I lost my notes. I'm resetting.

I got computer. Here we go. Number four. Ioana Young-Jacek, Chuck. Mm-hmm. I know her. She owns a UFC record five defenses of her women's straw, former women's strawweight title. Name all five opponents.

God, that you wanna defended her UFC strawweight title against. Oh my God. Your 30 seconds begin now. Well, this is going to be a tough one. Uh, Claudia Gadelia.

Yes. Uh, let's see. God, I'm totally blanking on this right now. Jessica Penne. Yes. Two of five. 15 seconds to go.

I'm blowing them. I have a blank here. Chuck, very good attempt right there, but it was Jessica Penne. Valerie Letourneau in Australia on the Ronda Rousey- That would have been a pull. That's right. Claudia in the rematch, Karolina Kovalcavich up to a five. And Jessica Andrage in Dallas. All right, Chuck. All right. Let's get personal. Here we Dallas. All right, Chuck. All right.

Let's get personal. Here we go. All right. Given what you learned from our good friend, Luke Thomas's failed attempt at keeping the MMA hour on the tracks for Vox Media in 2018 after the exit of Ariel Helwani, what do you believe was Luke Thomas's biggest mistakes

in trying to follow Ariel? And how would you have done it differently in hindsight had MMA fighting offered you the keys to the car with the same existing setup Luke had just four years ago? This is incendiary, isn't it? I wouldn't have done it. That's the thing. I wouldn't have done it. Um, that was just that type of situation, man. You can't win. You know what I mean? You wouldn't have done it. That was just, that type of situation, man,

you can't win. You know what I mean? You can't win that situation. I don't know. I know that there was a certain amount of defiance in the air about like, well, we just, we got to keep rolling. That's from the MMA fighting side of things. Luke, I think, was cast in the position. It was unfortunate, man, but he did it. He's got to do it. Like that was a, that was a big moment for him. It just sucked because it was the same name. I don't know. Dude, I just wouldn't have done it. I would have just flat out said no.

What do you think went wrong for Luke in the end? He's been honest about it, so I'm not here to shit on him. Well, I think it was just destined to not work. So I don't know if it's something that he did wrong. All right, if they offered you the kind of money. If I recall, though, he did try to sort of reinvent some of the show, right? Like he tried to kind of give it some, spruce it up with some updates and do some different things. But, man, it's just when you have something that's already established like that

and you're trying to, you know, kind of resume it or take over or whatever the situation is, it was just doomed to fail, you know, in my mind. What if they had offered you stupid money and they're like, I don't care. This is the way we're doing it. I mean, what could you do in that case? What could you do? Show your, I would have tried if they came up with the right price, you know, mercenary, right? Like, but I mean, if they come up with the right price, I would have given it the old frosh effort. I would have tried it. i honestly if luke can't salvage something luke is a very good uh at what he does and if he can't salvage the end of you good lord if he can't do it man i i can guarantee you that i would have failed at it that's his forte and then that is not my forte chuck you didn't dodge it you went after well he dodged a little but you went after it all

right chuck one more i don't know if this segment ends our friendship. We'll see what happens. Here's the final trivia question in the debut of Truth or Trivia. All right. Chuck, the inaugural, the first ever Bellator MMA card titled Bellator 1 took place on April 3rd, 2009 in Hollywood, Florida. The card though, featured a future ufc champion on it a future ultimate fighter champion on it and two fighters who went on to challenge unsuccessfully for a ufc title including one of them in his ufc debut chuck name three of the four fighters on the bellator one card it says all four there but i want to give you a shot here name three of the four fighters on the Bellator 1 card. It says all four there, but I want to give you a shot here. Name three of the four fighters on the Bellator 1 card. Three of the four went on to fight for a UFC title. One of them winning it.

And the fourth went on to win an Ultimate Fighter. Eddie Alvarez was on that card. Michael Chandler? Oh, Chuck, you had a good run. We were looking for Eddie Alvarez, Jorge Masvidal, Joel Soto,

who of course as a late replacement fought for a UFC title in his debut against TJ Dillashaw. And don't forget about tough season 12 champion Jonathan Brookens. How could you forget? Oh my god. Dude. You want me to get Soto or Brookens? Come on.

Hey, wait. Real quick though. They did escalate in difficulty and personality, you know, personalized. Alright, Chuck. Wait, wait, wait. Real quick. Joe Soto. That's funny that you mention him. Joe Soto is the one reason I've got, uh, you were talking earlier that Dana White wasn't in the press conference. That could mean a lot of things, but because one time he missed a press conference in here, right here in the state of Connecticut, when they, when they had a card at Foxwoods and he missed it because he took me backstage and

dressed me down for something I'd wrote about Joe Soto. And I remember writing, because Joe Soto was fighting for the title, like you mentioned, and I'd written something that they took, which is funny in retrospect. It's a funny story now at cocktail parties. But I said that Joe Soto could, I said that, who was it, T.J. Dillashaw? Was that who he was fighting? T.J. Dillashaw could go in there and shoot red beams from his eyes and disintegrate. And everybody would just say, yeah, but it was Joe Soto. It was Joe Soto.

I'd written this in a column. And, dude, him and Dana White and Joe Soto missed the press conference to pull me in the back and dress me down for about 20 minutes. That was the highlight of my MMA life right there. I can't tell if you had fear of what personal question was coming in number five because they escalate. And that's why you decided to open this personal chapter But this this this segment was designed to get the fence to know you better Chuck. There's a great ass story What was their tone like was it like principal mostly? it's mostly that Dana White was uh,

You know, Dana White was kind of actually Dana was kind of the read the voice of reason He was like why you know, come on, you know, blah, blah, you guys don't even know what the hell you're talking about, you guys don't know what you're talking about, and that sort of thing, the guy who was really doing, fuming was Joe Silva, marching around the room, coming at me pretty hard, just basically reading back to me what I wrote, you know, that sort of thing, just, it was, it was, it's hilarious in retrospect because everybody has a, has a story about an encounter, especially from the old days, like with, with when Dana really, really cared about like his product and everything.

Like it was, it was pretty funny, but Joe, but it was really Joe Silva, man. He was the one who was fuming. I think Dana was kind of the good cop in that situation. Love it. Wow. Great story. They didn't pull your credential though. That's good to see. No, they did not. All right, Chuck, we get personal the final time. All right.

What was the biggest regret misstep or miscalculation you have endured during your professional career that either still eats at your crow today in regrettable ways, or maybe taught you a valuable lesson on maneuvering the shark infested waters known as the MMA journalist in broadcasting space. I mean, really Chuck, what are the biggest lessons you've learned in managing this career? You've been a part of major companies like ESPN before you've also succeeded on your own. What can you teach the audience here about what, you know, you've endured and learned along the way? Biggest misstep was agreeing to do this truth or trivia, Brian.

No, I'm kidding. They, uh, you know what? I, I, I've thought about this because I think it was a misstep for me when I went to MMA fighting from ESPN, uh, and spent six years there. I think that was ultimately a misstep. There was just, we were never aligned. I don't think, uh, me and the editor there on, uh, what my role should have been, you know, cause I, I fancy myself at ESPN. I was a, basically a columnist, a blogger. I was writing all the

time. I was filling the page. And, uh, as going over to MMA fighting, I was doing that, but they, they have a way of kind of making it more that you're just writing MMA or recaps or you're doing, Hey, can somebody grab this little, this tweet that Connor just put and they start doing that sort of thing. And so it was a discounting. Yeah. It was like, yeah, it was just kind of like you're discounting yourself. I wanted to, I should have gotten out of there a lot earlier to be honest. Um, so that I would say that knowing that that was, uh, not going where I wanted to, I should have, that, that should have been like a three year timeline, not six. So I feel like I wasted some of my prime years in that place.

That's a very fair and honest take. Chuck, I think this worked. I mean, what an episode we're giving. Yeah. Yes. Thank you for crying. Thanks for bringing the crowbar. The reason I leave all this stuff under my cap for no one to see about me.

Chuck, let's, let's also do a segment that we love doing. You've done this before from the studio many times. I scour the globe personally each weekend. And by the way, the fans are so good at helping me get the fuel for these segments. I want to shout out the,

the drunken Swan. That guy on Instagram is just a river of stuff. You should check. I always say you should see the ones that I don't put in the show. All right. I searched the highs and lows, the good and bad, the ugly, the in-between of combat sports and beyond from the past week. It's called Have You Seen This Shit?

Oh, God. Here we go. My favorite segment. All right,'s get let's get buckle up here we go chuck um hey hey gaff yeah for you there i forgot we're skipping this first one right you're good with that we'll do it we'll show it later gaff all good with that all right so we'll skip that here we go chuck it starts ufc 270 in anaheim we broke down the card but let's face it brother for better or worse vanessa demopolis was the big winner this weekend chuck this was at the weigh-in that's a very uh flexible pose right there that's interesting

uh does the split chuck your reaction to her celebration after submitting silvana gomez juarez just kind of jumping on joe rogan and all that stuff i mean it's just uh so first she went out there she gets dropped by a massive right hand i'm reading this stuff out of order here um gets the sub but look at this Chuck, your thoughts. Well, let's put it this way, man. There it is. It's just painful. And then they're like the, the, the arms strike into heaven. I love it. Um, dude, I was sort of, again, it's just somebody that I hadn't really paid attention to knowing her backstory, man, in the fight game, we have so many unique things going on. That is not a backstory that I feel like I've heard before. So we'll get to that backstory,

Chuck. We're going to live this. We're going to live this back in real time. Okay. In real time. First of all, I couldn't do it. It was a great win because she got dropped early by a big puncher yet never gave up, hung on, found a way out with that submission. It was great. The split was wild, but then we get to Joe Rogan. By the way, this is like the weirdest night for people being like in awe of Joe Rogan's celebrity, which I understand, but nobody else did this. First, the love, the hog, the pickup, and then we get to the end of it. She would say after the fight that she planned this

uh this hug pickup coming up here gaff can we go there oh my god uh do we do we not have it do we skip it all right let's go to the video at least here's uh let's just let's just play the audio here we go gymnastic background or is it just karate or how do you do that so amazingly yeah that's my stripper guard right there so nice i don't think it's a secret i was an exotic entertainer for 13 years and i didn't actually say this on the mic but i'd like to say it right now i walked away from being a stripper to continue this camp um i quit dancing about like six to eight weeks ago just so I could focus full time on MMA, take this extremely seriously in the gym every single day. So, yeah, but that's where that background comes from.

That's where those splits come from. And a lot of my jujitsu actually comes from my expertise as a pole dancer. Stop sitting on your aeroplane points and get big savings so you can be somewhere you actually want to be, like on a beach. Right now, you can save up to 25% in AeroPlan points when you book a trip to one of 180-plus Air Canada destinations worldwide. So stop sitting on your next trip and start saving on one. Don't miss out. Your chance to save in points ends February 23rd. Book at AirCanada.com. Conditions apply.

Want to own part of the airline you flew with on your last vacation? Or part of the company that makes your favorite triple shot latte with extra foam? What about owning part of a company that one day could send you on a tour of outer space? Now you can. With partial shares from TD Direct Investing, you can own part of your favorite companies. Just pick a stock and decide how much to spend on the share. It's a piece of cake.

Learn more at td.com slash partial shares. TD, ready for you. Okay, Chuck. Oh my God. First of all, she's a two-sport star we didn't realize that but chuck you know we've seen wrestling jiu-jitsu that question was already over at the uh the turnstile getting like a hundred ones you know what i mean we we've seen our wrestling karate boxing be great uh forbearers to get good at this sport here's the picture of her getting picking up by joe um i don't know maybe this starts a trend for for a uh transition from stripping to this i mean 13 years dude 13 years and as of thanksgiving which wasn't

that long ago she was still stripping come on on. Going into the holidays, she's still stripping. That's crazy, man. Put it behind her to take the sport serious. Got a big win. Look, look. I've seen this energy before. A lot of people tweet at me. That's a factory town MMA fighter if I've ever seen one. I've been around this energy before, Chuck.

But this crazy is fun. This kind of crazy is pretty fun. You've been around that energy? Yeah. You've got to admit this. There are a lot of strip joints in Connecticut. Maybe you know of them, but not near me. Oh, yeah.

I mean, I would never go near that person with a long pole anymore. Mine or anyone else's. But Chuck, I will say this. She tried to win the weekend. She damn near did, right? That's a strong overall performance, correct? That was a very strong performance,

and especially getting dropped. I mean, if you're just talking about a competitive, getting dropped and then turning that into a victory 30 seconds later, that was pretty impressive. That was, if you're just talking about a competitive, getting dropped and then turning that into a victory 30 seconds later, that was pretty impressive. That was big. Big win for old Demopolis there. All right, let's keep going on 270.

All right. Real recognizing real. You know I love these power broker moments. Francis Ngannou takes the decision from Cyril Ghosn, and look at Justin Gaethje, like, yeah, yeah, motherfucker. Right? Where is he? Watch that fist pump.

We'll run it back. All right, all right, all right. Yeah. It's like, who let that fan close to the fighters? Chuck, I mean, you may have heard the story. When we won the award at World MMA Awards, Gaethje grabbed my arm as I was walking past. She was like, yeah, dude, yeah.

It was basically the same thing. Yeah, he was like, congratulations. You guys are awesome. Yeah. That dude's a berserker, man. That's just how he is. I was in a room once in Orlando, and he came in with Ali Abdelaziz. I was talking to Joe Silva, actually.

Again, I was talking to Joe Silva. I forget about what, but we were sitting up in his room, and those guys came in, and it's like 1 a.m., you know, and I don't know what they've been out doing but he came in with that exact same energy it's hilarious that he i think that's just who he is man he comes in there and he's always just like he's fucking drink a pot of coffee you know what i mean that's the spirit he brings to the sport i bring that same thing to the show chuck okay yes you actually do that is wow wow okay uh boy i hope i don't end up with cte uh michelle

potato chuck uh delivered everything. And I think this is the first time I've seen Harold Howard try this before. I don't think I've ever seen somebody land it this good. Michelle Padea, what do you call this? What do you call this kick? It's not a, what do you call those? It's not an M&R roll or whatever, right? That's not that.

I'd call it a firecracker kick. What is it? A firecracker kick? I don't speak like the terms that the, forward kick? I don't speak the terms. I don't either. I don't either. But I was thinking that exact same thing. He lands it.

He lands it on the top of his head, but he does land it. We've seen guys try this kind of stuff before, and it usually just looks funny. Because the guy just does a somersault in front of the other guy while he backs up. That actually hits him on the top of the head, so it was effective. All part of that very unique second round he had. Chuck, referee Mike Beltran had a tough night on social media for letting fighters be warriors in the cage, but what do you think about this body lock he put on Trevin Giles after Michael Morales gets a stoppage win?

I noticed this in real time. I was like, what the hell is he doing, man? I mean, he's used to detaining people. I think he's a detective in his private life. Well you if you have facial hair like that and you flaunt it you can handle yourself there's like there's rules right nature has rules i mean i mean it's a little invasive you know what i mean yeah he's i don't even see the conclusion we just see like you just see the beginning of that yeah it's like it's like showtime softcore um yeah polish mma always gives us special stuff this is a true kaposa special did you see this brutal ground and pound ko to the body brother okay let me see here i don't know

the fighters look at that agony oh god dude no i didn't see this wow man, man. That is, Oh, I just, it's right to the, that's filthy. That is right to the thorax. Yeah. Put a hole in them. Mouth guard comes off. That's insane footage right there, man.

Uh, Chuck unified, Jesus unified, 122 pound boxing champion, Steven Fulton jr. You may have seen him on showtime. He got to ring the bell at the 76ers game. He was also in the crowd Saturday in the Gary Russell fight

and said to Jim Gray, he's looking to either unify belts again next or do a rematch with Brandon Figueroa. Good to see somebody from my team boxing get the shine here at the 76ers game. Did you see that Fulton-Figueroa fight from just a couple months back on Showtime? I am sad to say that I have not.

But see, here's the problem. Now that I'm dealing with you guys at Showtime again, I want to watch all the fights to say that I have not. But see, here's the problem. Now that I'm dealing with you guys at Showtime again, I want to watch all the fights again, but I have not been doing it. I've been so stuck in the MMA world, you know? It's very hard to do both at a high level, Chuck. Okay, that's why. There's only one of us who can do that, Brian,

and I think we know who that is. There's a few unicorns out there like Andreas Hale and your boy BC and yeah. Chuck, Saturday's Showtime boxing co-main event was all action all the time as Subriel Matias gained revenge over his only pro loss, stopping Petros Ananian. Chuck, here's just a little sample of the savagery. Can we go full screen here, Gaff?

This fight was a wow, a war. Give me that blown up shit here. Yeah. Damn. wow a war give me that blown up shit here yeah damn matthias was the winner there in the gray trunks but uh they're just two guys they sold out the whole fight they just sold out you'll love to see it okay i do love to see that oh they're just both right right in each other's wheelhouse there too yeah all night long as lamo richie used to say woof okay uh chuck let's face it that's enough fighting for have you seen this shit people just want to see injuries and drunk chicks okay in

this segment so that's what we give them let's go to the poll speaking of uh of what we were you got to be careful on the pole chuck oh my god now who do we got here oh my god that's who did we have here chuck that's a ko oh my lord you know who has a pole like that in their house uh 50 cent probably but the guy i was going to mention was chuck liddell i did a piece on him once and in the second floor he had a stripper right in the middle of his floor i was like man he must have some wild parties back in the day yes yes all right let's keep it going we'll skip over the one that doesn't work uh you got to be careful uh there we go full yeah 7c let's go there you go bingo uh you got to be careful you know you got to plan your dives correctly some people want to go all in on life

chuck but you gotta you know you got to check the pool below you what the hell is going on yeah yeah that's not yeah i wouldn't survive that. I wouldn't survive that. You want to see a real alpha. Look at the water splash off of the sand. That's hilarious. Yeah, how do you walk that walk of shame off? Speaking of a real man, check out Ronaldinho, Brazilian soccer legend. I probably just butchered it.

You think I care? Is it Ronaldinho? I mean, come on. Ronaldinho meeting some of his female fans, Chuck. Okay, all right. How do we get this famous, Chuck? Okay. Yeah.

I mean, I've had this happen a couple times, but usually they're signing me. It's not. Yeah, yeah. He should forget his name. He's just right. Yep, that's a D. That's definitely a D. All right, let me just sign that.

I love it. Hey, he's game. You know what I mean? Oh, he's game. BC, I bet you would do the same thing in his position. I'm a family man. I know you are. But, you know, would you pay $4.99 a month just to read his DM?

You can't screenshot it. Just read him, all right? Oh, God, yeah. Yes. Okay. All right. Let's go. Check out this guy.

Speaking of hunger. Wow, Chuck. Wow. This is man shit right here. You know, you take the girl of the game, buy the slice of pizza. Oh, my God. Oh, wow. Wow. This is man shit right here. You know, you take the girl of the game, buy the slice of pizza. Oh, my God. Oh, wow. Yeah.

What is this from? What was he doing? Come on. I mean, that's not for everybody, Chuck. Okay. Well, you know what, man? If they put you on the Jumbotron, make the most of it. You know what I mean?

You got it. You got it. Automatically. When I used to get on the Jumbotron, make the most of it. You know what I mean? You got it. You got it. Automatically. When I used to get on the Jumbotron at minor league hockey in my drunken early 20s days, instantly you got to DX chop or do the gross sign or something gross. You got it. You keep posting this thing where you're playing a flute, but it's like a drumstick or something. What the hell's going on in that?

Yeah, that was on a cruise in 2002. And I was very drunk with the i laugh every time i see it yeah so it was a flute that i bought in the gift shop and i just would play it in public to annoy the relatives that were with me to embarrass them and like large groups of like the you know families be walking by they'd stop and they turn around and i'm just i'm going after it chuck right you know he's always been this way, I think is what the story here is. Yes, yes. Well, Chuck, you mentioned you're from Colorado. I did.

So you could probably appreciate this. I don't know what they call this, the water jug bong, but could you survive this move here? Cypress Hill always giving us the good stuff here. I mean, that's commitment, Chuck. That's commitment. Oh, my God. No, I would not survive this.

You think you'd pass out instantly? I would. I'm a lightweight man. Okay. This is hilarious, though. Wagenheim walks away, right? Oh, Wagenheim. He's fucking...

That wouldn't be enough for him. If Luke Thomas was here, you'd probably say, Oh God, yes, I need this on my house. Give this to me right now. We got some little aficionados dealing with this show. Let's go back to regional MMA, Chuck, because anything can happen, including incredible face-first KOs. Look at this shit.

Oh, there's on the back. He's like, you don't need a shovel. I'll start digging for you, right? Chuck, there's usually a lot of love on this show for big booty Latinas because that's Luke's taste. But does this crazy lady turn you on or turn you off, Chuck?

I want the public to know what you prefer. Oh my God. Oh. That was like CGI. Yeah, that's right close to Freddie. Oh, man. No.

Yeah, that's not your thing. Okay. All right. No. Street fight of the week. Oddly enough, it took place right outside of an Arby's. Yes, sir. It is an Arby's. Check out sir, it is an Arby's.

Check out this road fight, road rage pulling over. And we're going after it. Yes. How civil. It can't be Florida, can it? Oh, wow. One punch of power. Power is the last thing to go, Chuck.

All right? If you fight, dude, throwing up your dukes if you have no idea what the hell you're doing like that. It's just, what are you doing? Like, I mean, like, he's all squaring off. Work the jab, work the jab. And then. And then the first opening. Chuck, he is wearing a hat very similar to you.

The hat does translate to power. I found that out. Potency and power. This isn't social justice Wednesday, but here's a boxing Twitter beef in four tweets. This was interesting. Gervonta Davis begins with beautiful pictures of his new child and he's being a dad. He's having

fun. Look at this. By the way, I love Gervonta's tat setup. It's aggressive, but I don't speak to technique like Luke does. A lot of us were touched by it Even Walter way Ivan Redcox was Yeah

Congratulations on the newborn, right? Nice Gervonta's response There we go A little faster. Oh, wow. That's that wow that's pretty extreme there tank and then here's Ivan Redkotch's comeback I mean there's only one way to settle this right Chuck oh my god Javante Davis that escalated quite quickly

yes it did they almost fought a few times you know Oh my God, Javante Davis. That escalated quite quickly. Yes, it did. That's funny, man. They almost fought a few times. You know, I mean, it's interesting. You guys, this segment's perfectly timed because social media at this point offers so much. You know what I mean? When we first started,

it was kind of harder to find this footage. I feel like now you have to sift through millions of submissions, don't you? Absolutely. And they're usually gross and ridiculous. Yeah. Yeah, just can't do it. All right, hey, Chuck, you want to talk about

poise under pressure. It was Francis Ngannou taking the fight to the mat on Saturday night. It was also this guy teeing off despite the carnage in front of him. Oh my god. That is funny as hell, man. You got to play through, right?

I'm guessing this is in Colorado. Yes. Right? It looks like it. That's crazy, man. The neighborhood I'm from is actually, this is the neighborhood, bro. Between Boulder and Broomfield, Colorado, it's in that area. So the subdivision that was leveled, I know exactly which subdivision that is.

But that's funny, man. I mean, we don't cheer for this stuff. No, we don't cheer it. Finally, Chuck, I'm so happy that you and I haven't had to go back to the Jersey City MK studio by taking public transportation. Oh, wait, don't you always take public transportation? I do.

I do. Yeah. All right. Well, you see stuff like this, Chuck, our video of the week. This one had it all. Look at these two guys just going at it in the public square. Oh, my God. The dog. Dogs don't give a fuck. Oh, boy.

Man's best friend also going at it, Chuck. This is something. Oh, boy. The indignities are piling up on that guy, man. Oh, my Lord. At first, I was like, wow, what a protector this dog is. Jumping in there to get close up.

Oh my God. Look, Grandma, that's great. That's fantastic. That's the shit of the week. Chuck, we close most Mondays with a little odds and ends action. What we missed over the weekend, news, all that. Let me go first because I got to hand it to our fine social staff here

at Morning Combat, Malka, Showtime, CBS Sports. This clip they put out of what went down Friday during and after our Morning Combat episode involving one Luke Thomas. And so it started when we shouted out our boy biggie of the new day of wwe fame who shared his public love for us let's throw to this well-edited clip right here biggie's a badass he's been nothing but kind to you and to me so you know what i guess he's my favorite professional wrestler right because i do like the rock we don't really do it anymore three hours later project rock is proud to be the official footwear of the UFC. I mean do all he can to win the WWE title. If you smell

what the rock! I mean... I mean, Chuck, could you ask for that kind of timing where Luke is like, oh, you know, probably say The Rock's my favorite wrestler, and that happens the same day. Chuck, be the judge. Be the arbiter. Did Luke Thomas get sent to hell by The Rock? Sure favorite wrestler, and that happens the same day. Chuck, be the judge. Be the arbiter.

Did Luke Thomas get sent to hell by The Rock? Sure looked like he did, man. I like that you're right there to provide the elevator. You hit the down button for him. He went right down with it. I love him, man. I did get a text from Luke this morning that says, anyway, have a great show. The Rock is an exploitative hoe with dad sneakers.

I forgot to brush my teeth. I'll talk to y'all later. That is great stuff there. You guys have a very unique relationship, Brian. I like it. So, Chuck, here's the deal. Like, Luke was actually right. You know, you could certainly make an argument.

So the deal is that the Rock shoe company, which we didn't know he had, just signed with the UFCfc to become the official footwear provider for the ufc so that so they put out this what is like an awesome promo of like the rock using uh great ufc fight montages to talk about being a soldier and being you know i mean i was i was kind of fired up coming off of that it was pretty badass yeah but no mention of the sneaker and it's a sneaker commercial so So while Luke isn't wrong, meaning that we're only harping on this because the rock's like the most famous person in the world and he happened to just drop that bomb on Luke. But you know what makes this situation so perfect? You know why this was the perfect edit,

the perfect day for me to play this today and just laugh at it. Luke doesn't get why we care. Luke doesn't get why this is a thing. He's just like, I don't care what I don't get. I mean, look, I wasn't wrong. You didn't send me to hell. I mean, you know, it's cool. Like, he just doesn't get it, Chuck.

I love that. So from your elevated perch, it's even funnier. like that man i think it's great i mean i don't mean to just keep pointing at my friend and be like hey everybody laugh at it but it's like the rock just the rock just dunked on you like after you put them over like this is great and luke's just like i don't even understand why anybody cares like this you know you didn't even you know actually he was wrong so yeah shout out to Luke. Enjoy your vacation. I love it, man. We love you. Absolutely. So Chuck, by the way, those do look like Walmart sneakers. I mean, are you kidding me?

They do. Or British Knights. Remember those? Remember British Knights? I mean, is this just like clout fucking at its worst? Like, oh, we don't have an official footwear provider. Yeah. Okay.

Yes, it is. And what percentage of this deal do you think the fighters get, Chuck? Yeah. Okay. Yes, it is. And what percentage of this deal do you think the fighters get Chuck? Yeah. Go back and watch the opening segments of our show. Come on. Yes. Yes. Odds and ends indeed. Chuck, what do you have this week? Well, mine pales completely in comparison to yours, man. Mine is nothing like that. I just wanted to give a shout out to my boy. Who's my neighbor here. He lives very close to where I'm at here in Connecticut. Glover Teixeira, who now has his first title defense set up for the light heavyweight belt. May 7th, I'm thinking it's going to be Rio.

That seems to be what he believes it's going to be against Yuri Prohoshka. Again, he will be installed as the underdog in a fight. I think that'll be three or four in a row that he'll be the underdog. And man, I gotta say, I don't know how it feels for you, BC, out where you are in Connecticut, but in my section in western Connecticut, this is global country, man. I feel like they celebrate everything that goes on with this guy.

They had a parade for him when he came home from his last fight when he won the title. Every restaurant here has a red carpet center for him. It's hilarious to watch this guy in town. Shout out to Connecticut right there because I was going to say, Chuck, I'm typing in your red carpet syndrome for him like it's just it's hilarious to watch that's awesome yeah shout out to connecticut right there because i was going to say chuck i'm looking i'm typing in your uh your uh your town did you see how far away we live you know we don't know how to yeah or anything

i mean chuck you and i live 36 miles apart it's not too bad that's the that's the length of the state by the way it's about 36 miles and he doesn't even have forget a footprint he doesn't even have a priest or a chance in hell that anyone knows he is out this far. But love this fight. Love that they're doing it in Brazil. Chuck, preparing these trivia questions reminded

me that Max Holloway had to travel to Brazil to dethrone Jose Aldo. I love the idea of Moreno, Figueroa going to mexico like the figurado yeah the idea of that type of that's what's great about it that's what's great about it if you're going to be a heel put all the to say you beat a guy and then you put all of the chips in his corner and you say like hey let's go do it again on your terms and i'll just do the

exact same thing i just did you that's love that's healed him you know what else i loved so glover i i don't know if like he was in or sorry he was in anaheim uh to meet with officials and sign the deal or if they flew him out to do a little advertisement like they do with the fighters who have a fight coming up so they put glover in the front row like they do a lot of times and chuck you've been to these ufc fights it is um you know it is a it's a different crowd but it's like they're you know if the mma awards that we went to was like mma prom this is like, you know, people flaunt it. And he shows up in like the dad venom UFC track suit that he probably got for free. Like just total, like that's Glover, man.

He doesn't give a damn, man. I mean, he doesn't give a damn. That is exactly who he is. He's nobody other than that, man. That's exactly who he is. So would you say that beyond just living close to him and probably having interviewed him that is exactly who he is he's nobody other than that man that's exactly who he is so i love it beyond just living close to him and probably having interviewed him in person a few times are you guys like friends like is this like because you were friends with cory graves of

wwe fame a great guy well cory lived right down the i mean literally i could walk to his house i could walk and when you're like yo bro you should come over like i got cory graveshine like oh shit like like you're not having like blover's not like in your basement like telling you inside stories about how hot you wanna is on instagram or anything like that that's not like really happening right no he says it he says it right in my driveway he talks about you wanna like but like in terms no but we uh he lives so close that uh we've had dinner once he wants to do it again uh soon so i mean like i don't really know him, but dude, he knows that I'm involved in the game

and he's just so down to earth, man. We need a Connecticut summit of us power brokers here in Connecticut. Come back, Connecticut. Bad Chad Dawson also in that group. He'll be fighting Vitor Belfort coming up if you care. But no, love that fight. Love it's in Brazil. Glover's getting his victory lap here.

Whether he hangs on to the belt or not, this has been a great story, Chuck. It really has. Absolutely, man. Yeah. Chuck, it's been great. Thanks for having me on, brother. It's been great having you here. Where can people find you?

Please shout your entire catalog out here. My entire catalog? Well, I think the Twitter is probably the best one. It's just at Chuck Mendenhall. That's it, right? And then I do have an Instagram. Are you guys posting it? I don't know.

I don't know. Yeah, Instagram. Oh, there it is. There's an Instagram. It just has Chuck Mendenhall. That's it, right? And then I do have an Instagram. Are you guys posting it? I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, Instagram. Oh, there it is. There's an Instagram. It just has the underscore in there. I actually need to start doing the Instagram more, man. I feel like I neglected. You should do it.

Instagram, you know, Luke loves it. Luke's always like, BC, what? You know, you don't put enough social posts out there. You know, like, you know, Luke wants to give all his takes out. I like your social posts because it's your family. It's your dog. It's your cat. It's stuff like that.

I get to see a different side. That's good. Well, we can listen to you with the Ringer Spotify show. What should the fans know about that? Yeah. So we're doing the Ringer MMA show. It's after every major pay-per-view, but we're trying to do it either every Thursday and every Saturday, so a couple times a week.

It's still being kind of worked out, but that's generally when we do it. Wow. Imagine if we end up going head to head with that show, meaning we morning combat, you know, something you're also a part of in, and you, it's like this WCW WWF thing. And you're showing up on one show when it's like you're Rick root or something here, Chuck, get that, you know, at that point, are people voting for, you know, us or Ariel, or are they voting for you? You know, it's going to, it? Hey, man, I've got skin in both games.

You know what I mean? I celebrate all of our awards. This is great. Absolutely. Chuck, great to have you. You can check out our Morning Combat merch, which Chuck has a few items that we gifted him. I hope that you'll wear it around your area in Connecticut.

I do. People could be like, damn right. Morningcombat.store is our great merch store. And right now, you can get 10% off using the code live 10. We have plenty new merchandise on there. If you like the whole Luke skull line, we got more items in that category, more items in the logo thing with the sun and the asshole.

So check that out as well. The fist in the sun. Yeah, there we go. Live 10 is the promo code 30 days free of showtime. Hey, Bellator back with a bang. Bader Moldavsky for the Undisputed Heavyweight title this Saturday night. You can get your 30 day free trial right now at Showtime.com. Check out Bill. I'm a billions guy. They got, they have, you know what they have on Chuck? If you get the app, then you look at them.

They're on demand content for movies. They are overloaded with great 70s neo-noir crime films. I love that shit. Really? Yes. See, I'm into that shit too. I was watching Serpico. Yeah, I mean, I was going deep there. Nice. Nice, man. Check that shit out. Go to youtube.com slash morningcombat right now to check out Chuck joining us for High Court debating the Hall of Fame

resume of one Michael Bisping. So you can check all that stuff out. You can check out Chuck's great work. Do you have your own website? Is that the deal? Yeah, themyth.com. M-I-T-H. The man in the damn hat.

There he is. That's right. For our great team here at Morning Combat, at CBS, at Showtime. You see our email address right there, morningcombat at gmail. For Wednesday's fan submissions, Friday's dead wrongs, and for our great staff here, Gaff on the ones and twos running the show today. My name is Brian Campbell.

That is Chuck Mendenhall. Luke Thomas will be back next week, but give him his time. Let him enjoy it. Who's going to be next to me this week? You're going to have to wait and see, but we got two words for you. We out.