MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 270 Results: Francis Ngannou vs. Ciryl Gane | UFC 270 Post-Fight Show | MORNING KOMBAT

Episode Date: January 23, 2022

At UFC 270, Francis Ngannou and Ciryl Gane battle it out in the pay-per-view ESPN+ main event for the UFC heavyweight championship. In the co-main event, Brandon Moreno and Deiveson Figueiredo will compete for the third time for the UFC flyweight championship. 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

TD Direct Investing offers live support, so whether you're a newbie or a seasoned pro, you can make your investing steps count. And if you're like me and think a TFSA stands for Total Fund Savings Adventure, maybe reach out to TD Direct Investing. Hi everybody, it is 1.14 in the morning here on the 23rd of January 2022. My name is Luke Thomas. I am one half of the hosts of Morning Combat. And this is our UFC 270 post-fight show.

It will just be me today. But of course, you'll get all of the Brian Campbell you can wish for on Monday. All right. So if you are watching, please, please, please, if you would be so kind as to give this video a thumbs up, no matter who you are. And if you are new here, or if you've been around a few times, and maybe you haven't clicked that button, now is a great time. A phenomenal time. Nay, the best time to hit subscribe.

Please subscribe to the channel. We do a show three times a week, plus a whole lot more, including these post-fight shows for big UFC pay-per-views. UFC 270 is in the books. We're going to get to the results, the analysis, your questions. I have a tweet up right now at LThomasNews. It's like this, but you can skip the U, the K, and the E. If you want to go there, you can check it out. And this is, of course, where you can follow me on Instagram.

Okay? All right. Without further ado, let's talk about it. If you don't want spoilers, now's your time to go because we gotta get this party started all right so subscribe subscribe subscribe do all that good stuff. With that in mind, let's pull up this results and I'm going to get to the numbers as I always do. So let me get that as well. Um, because that is an important part of this show. All right, here come the results. Let's do it up first. Your main event,

of course, UFC two 70 took place at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. All right, in your main event, Francis Nganou defeats Cyril Ghosn. Incredible, right? Via unanimous decision. 48-47, 48-47, 49-46. I have not seen any of the numbers. I guess we'll take a look at those when we get them. But for now, what is there to say about this? Wow. Who do I start with? Let's start with the thing that stands out to me most about this fight. First of all, incredibly impressive for both guys. I think most fans can walk away and say that I don't know if either guy had their best showing.

I think it was in some ways a pretty unexpected fight all the way through, especially in that fifth round. But in general, I think both guys gave you a lot of reason for confidence too, right? Amidst all their errors. Here is my producer. Okay. What an epic miscalculation by Cyril Gahn in the fifth round.

I don't. Cyril Gahn spent a lot of time telling everybody, and I stand by it, and certainly I think I'll explain the difference. I think also Cyril Gahn had a bit of a learning lesson here about some of his own deficiencies, perhaps related to fence wrestling. I think grappling in general. Obviously, he comes from striking. A lot of his striking is, you know,

you saw here today, right, stick and move, either all the way in. He was clinching and wrapping, or he was all the way out, right, and that move, either all the way in, he was clinching and wrapping, or he was all the way out, right, and that kind of a thing, which was smart. That's why he didn't do those roundhouse kicks. I mean, that can be, you know, depending on how you work it, but sometimes that can be a real mid-range kick,

and I think, you know, with Gahn, and Gahn having an 84-inch reach, or 83, excuse me, you don't really want to play with that, but this is the point. On the feet, Cyril Gahn has, or Cyril, however you pronounce it, has an extraordinarily high fight IQ. He just makes constant good decisions, right? And when he is the one kind of doing Muay Thai-ish wrestling along the fence line, he also looks like he just makes really good decisions, right?

When it comes into his wheelhouse, he makes good decisions. And he is a good grappler. I think you saw that. He ran the pipe in the fifth round on the head outside single, which was great. I mean, that was textbook. He looked great doing that. So he does have some ability. But I think what showed up to me a little bit was there is a difference in the level of his decision-making as it relates to what to do on the feet

versus what's the decision-making on the ground and what are the proper things to do in certain situations. Obviously, running the pipe and having to get on top in the fifth round is not a situation that Gon found himself in a lot, but I want to tell you a story. Now, I've often maintained this, always maintained this, I will forever maintain this. My training experience is merely as a hobbyist. I don't in any way wish to suggest that, you know, you just want to be very careful about being the Al Bundy who threw four touchdowns in high school, and then using that as a reference point for professional athletes. However, what I will say is, and I think, you know, if there's

any question about this, and you know anyone else who grapples or perhaps you can ask your favorite grappler, I do believe that they will say that there is probably something to this. It is probably true that you will see a lot of really advanced grapplers get into situations where they might stand, wrap an ankle, and then sit for some kind of leg entanglement, heel hook, whatever. That does happen pretty frequently, but there's a lot of different context to it. There can also be someone who is a little bit more of a beginner slash intermediate grappler, and what they'll do is they might not know how to pass guard, or they might be tired and not want to pass guard. They might get a little bit lazy about passing guard, And if you find yourself in one of these situations, especially with another

beginner to intermediate training partner, what will often happen is their feet will be loose. And so you can just kind of grab it and then sit. I one time got like, kind of like, like smacked on the back of my head very lightly by an instructor being like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. It's like, yes, there are people who, of course, can do that. You know, you may be a Sombist or, again, really experienced leg lockers. They can work without having to pass. They've got all kinds of things. And you saw him use it.

By the way, you know, he did do something great where once Francis got to his feet, you saw him use it. He was extending to off-balance Francis because if Francis can get on his feet and you can't raise the heel of Francis the heel hook power goes away but he was able to off balance him so he did some good stuff underneath there but that decision to sit was epically bad a a giant miscalculation and it seems to me it comes from the fact that the decision making skills that he has earned for himself in these clinch positions and at range they are are very, very high. But that's because he has much more experience and much more, he's worked through these kinds of problems

in a much more ready way. That is clearly not the case on the ground. It seems to me that the lack of experience on the ground affected his judgment calls about what kinds of positions and attacks to pursue, and he punted, basically, on the fifth round as a consequence. Now, I'm only bringing that up not to say that that is the story of the fight. I do not think that is necessarily the story. It's the story of the fifth round, for sure, and it's the story, I think, of what Cyril Gann really got wrong. However, maybe the more important story is Francis Ngannou is really quite exceptional. He and his team are really quite exceptional. Let me also make sure I get a mea culpa here.

I thought for sure Cyril Ghosn was going to win this fight. I was pretty confident he was going to win this fight. I think he was barely the odds-on favorite by the time the fight started, but you know, whatever you want to say about that. I knew Francis was dangerous. I think we all knew Francis was dangerous. Did I believe that Francis could wait patiently, preserve enough cardio to win the fight with wrestling late? No, I didn't. No, I didn't. Got it wrong. Got it wrong. Got it wrong. Didn't see it coming. Never discussed it. I think I will give credit to Brian Campbell. I think he did. I think he was much more of an active believer in the wrestling of Francis. So credit where credit is due. I think Brian had more foresight about that certainly than I did. But I just, I got to tell you, I mean, just got to be honest with you guys guys I just didn't see it I knew that you know if he wanted to engage in that let's say in the second

round maybe early third that you know I thought he could do something with it but to be able to like get taken down like that and even though I thought gone made a miscalculation to get on top and then having his own sweep and reversal you well, I think it was a sweep is something where top goes to bottom or bottom goes to top using a guard or reversals when they don't. I need to go back and look to see if he used a guard to do it. But either way, you know, getting on top like that just he continues to be full of surprises. His growth is beyond real at this point. I didn't think anybody could give Cyril Ghosn a tough fight, much less a fight that looked like that. And he did, dude. He did. He did. At 35 years of age,

he is incredible. He is incredible. Dude, go back and look at some of those things. That takedown was just insanely powerful. And you know, he's not out there mobile passing and all that kind of stuff. There wasn't a ton of ground to pound on top because, you know, I think we all thought, well, if Francis could get on top and he's still got some cardio to do some wrestling, maybe he's going to have terrifying ground to pound. And I bet if he gets going, he does. He didn't this time.

Probably out of concern for losing Cyril underneath, right? Cyril was not so dynamic. You saw a lot of times he would allow the mount so he could drive a hand underneath and then kick him past with one of his own legs, throw him past him, and then with the arm, use it as an underhook to throw Francis by, but a lot of times it didn't work or it kind of worked halfway and he had to use a lot of energy to get out of it. But you just got to take your hat off to clearly all of the hard work that Francis has put in the gym to stay calm under pressure, to maybe give away the first couple of rounds.

Maybe the first, well, I guess he didn't according to the judges, but I thought the fight turned in the third. But, you know, I've always found it impressive, not just to beat Gon over the course of five rounds, but then you spotted him the first two, so you had to win the last three. He is a marvel. He is a marvel, man.

I mean, this fight was kind of labeled... You know what? And including by Fernan Lopez, the coach of, well, previously of both, but certainly of Cyril Ghosn. You know, they kind of made this fight out to be bronze versus brains. But I don't, that was a crude way to look at it before the fight. And it's certainly not true here after the fact at all. Francis, yes, of course, He's got the dim mock. You know, he touches you

and he'll fucking turn you into sand in an instant, right? I mean, he will be, I mean, you know. Francis knocks people out and leaves their shadow imprinted on the octagon. I mean, he just vaporizes people. I don't know if his power

is going to translate into the fifth or not, but in any case, for Francis to not really use that somewhat, certainly as a threat, Dewey Cooper telling him to go to the uppercut and Francis doing it, that deterred, I think, a lot of some of Ghosn's initiation of exchanges on the feet. Like, I thought in the first round he was kind of in a little bit more of a flow before Francis really got cooking with some of the adjustments. And then when he got with the adjustments, then it was a lot more stuff at range, not quite as much with the hands. And to wait where you're even, you're still getting pot-shotted a little bit, you're still getting jabbed a little bit, to wait on that and then find an opportunity with pressure, careful pressure,

not to get lit up himself, because Gon does have big strike athletic potential as well, and then to control the fight with takedowns. And then when he got the takedown, immediately reaching for wrist control. Once Gon got to an elbow, like the Dagestani handcuff, all that stuff. So understanding how to control the position and managing his resources and not letting Gon do anything but work off the defensive. That's so impressive for a guy to be a late... I mean, a 35 is not super old for heavyweight,

but just as a person in life athletically, for someone to make these kinds of strides at this age, again, for heavyweight, I grant, not super old, but you even heard Francis tonight in the post-fight speech, like he's like, you know, I don't have a whole lot of time left, not some kind of immediate departure, but not a whole lot of time. You know, now is the time to start making some, you immediate departure, but not a whole lot of time.

Now is the time to start making some... You can see, he's 35 years of age, you can see why he's thinking about these things, why this is important, why it's something he wants to do, why he needs to get paid these big bucks. And to be this late in your athletic life and still... He's showing the kind of development that these guys show when they're 28, and they fight to fight, and they're like, he's showing the kind of development that these guys show when they're, you know, 28, you know, and they fight to fight, and they're like, it's just way, way, way better. He didn't show it as much in the Rosenstreich fight, but that was during the pandemic, and, you know, it was all kind of strange.

But in the Stipe Miocic rematch, and certainly in this one, dude, he knocked out Stipe Miocic and out-wrestled Cyril Ghosn in back-to-back fights. I mean, he is a marvel. He just continues to amaze me. And I didn't buy into the whole pre-fight thing, which we were discussing about its brains versus brawn. I thought there was a little bit to it. I thought there was something to it, right? Because Cyril isn't as terrifying as Francis. And Francis on the feet isn't quite as the smooth operator that Gon is. But it turned out that wasn't what made the difference in the end. Man, I got to tell you, if Curtis Blades can't beat Francis and Stipe Miocic can't beat Francis,

DC's retired, for now, Cyril Gon can't beat Francis. We'll retired. For now, Cyril Ghosn can't beat Francis. We'll talk about that in a second. I don't know who beats Francis. Got to tell you. Got to tell you. Tom Aspinall looks like a great prospect, but he's got to get through Volkov, and that's a hell of a fight right there. Who the hell are the other people he's going they're gonna fight him Jesus Christ who did they match that guy up with let's see who am I forgetting at this point Derek okay there's the Derek rematch but

uh no wait is Tom fighting Derek or is Tom Aspinall fighting Volkov who's fighting oh no Derek's fighting Taito Iwasa that's right so we got we got to figure out who that but like I know Derek Lewis beat him before but that was I think we can all grant a very a very different Francis um Curtis Blades is sitting at four Volkov is sitting at five

Rosenstreich already fought him sitting at six you know Dawkins just coming off the Derek Lewis loss at seven and after that point you know I don't think any of those guys are going to touch. I mean, who the fuck's going to beat Francis? I'm sorry. I didn't see more potential for this pre-fight, but certainly got the wake-up call on this now. Let me look at some of the numbers, if I can, with this. Very, very impressed by... I mean, I got to say, too, man, did you guys hear the corner work?

Did you hear the corner work with Eric Nixick in the lead, and then he's playing Maestro here, and then pitching it to Dewey, Dewey pitching it back. And then, you know, that's very coordinated. They knew exactly what the game plan was. They knew exactly what they wanted him to do. And they knew how to deliver it. And also, like, with Nixick, dude, he's so good at, like, certain rounds where he'll dial it back for certain pieces of advice.

Depending on the tenor of the round, he'll dial it up for other ones. And he knows, like, he doesn't, like, yell at you between the the third and the fourth he saves it between the fourth and the fifth and he says it to me been through so much i believe in you like dude i felt it like i know francis had to feel it i know we got taken down but then showing that perseverance through it you know you're seeing some of those same kind of grappling um advancements you know in a different way but like with with israel adesanya right where someone initiates something that looks kind of bad, but then they've got some kind of reversal through the process, shows a comfortability with that. It shows, you know, obviously a certain degree of technical proficiency with those moments, those positions, and those exchanges. So, man, I think the only guy who can beat Francis, candidly, at this point, and until someone proves otherwise, in the UFC is Cyril Ghosn.

And I do think Ghosn, I do think probably most folks will agree that that was probably 2-2 heading into the fifth he got the takedown he royally messed that up but but showing all the other things that he showed um I don't know who's going to beat gone either Curtis Blade seems interesting given given what the we'll talk about the John Jones thing here just a second Curtis Blade seems interesting now that it does appear that maybe we learn more about Gon not having... He had 100% takedown defense heading into this fight. And it looked really good in the moments that it was relevant.

It just turns out there's a different level of relevant. Francis is much better. Those long arms allow him to get really good into position, a la Jon Jones. He's got that going for him pretty well. And maybe Curtis Blades could make things interesting for Gon. I think that's an interesting fight to see what happens there, who could come out on top. A big test for Cyril Gon, given what we've seen tonight. Now, what about the Jon Jones thing?

Well, again, I thought Cyril was going to advance tonight and even be better than Jon. And so certainly in being wrong about Francis, probably have to dial back that. But who the hell knows? Because we haven't seen Jon. So maybe that's right. Maybe that's wrong. But not really a relevant point of discussion. Obviously, Francis is the big one. So we're asking about in that heavyweight division who can beat him, but one guy not listed there is, of course, Jon Jones. How would he do here? Could Jon put a pace on Francis where he lands a lot actively? What is Jon Jones really good at with his striking?

Jon Jones excels at what I call single strike high variance. He does throw combos time to time, Jon Jones, but what he really is quite gifted at and very, very smart about is he'll throw side to side, high to low, punch to kick, knee to elbow. In other words, punch to kick, knee to elbow. In other words, it's coming from all over the place, right? He's just pot-shotting you, and they're accurate, and they're fast, and they whip into you. And he's never really doubling them up. Or sometimes he'll go same side.

He'll go body, head, even standing. So it would be like that. But you get the idea. It's a lot of single shot, single shot, single shot coming from all different places. Could he do that at range long enough to avoid big power, maybe clinch with him if he had to, and then kind of be on the run and, you know, really work his footwork? Maybe. Maybe that seems doable. Could Francis take him down? Could Francis out-wrestle him?

You know, I don't think Cyril Ghosn's takedown defense is bad by any stretch. I want to be clear about that. Like, it didn't show up in the way that he needed it to for him tonight, but I don't think it's bad. Although, I got to say, another thing that he did that I really didn't, when they go for the standing Kimura as, like, a takedown defense, you can go for the standing Kimura if you can step out and around and then use it to like reverse position. Or if you've already got it over their back and then you can kind of sit, you can pull them into almost like a seated,

like a pulled Kimura. But just locking up Kimura where you've got the grip. I've said it before on this live chat. Why do people go for the two-on-one? They call it the double wrist lock in catch wrestling. It's because it's a very powerful grip. If someone gets it on you, you can't just wiggle your hand free. It's extremely powerful. And so when someone does it, it can slow someone else down.

They can't do a lot to you, but you're not going to reverse anyone, anybody good, anybody heavy, anybody strong like Francis. He sat for that shit too. I was like, I think a couple of times, I was like, not great, not great to be candid with you. So there are clear issues there. Where was I going with Francis on this detour? I'm not so sure. Okay, let's use that as an opportunity to take a look at some of the numbers, shall we? These are courtesy 3027, which used to be formerly known as Fightmetric. These are the official stats providers of the UFC.

It should also be noted that the numbers you see on screen during the broadcast are routinely incorrect. So, with that in mind, let's get the correct ones. Okay. Wow. Francis Ngannou. He was numerically outstruck, but how many of those were like the slapping things that don't really count? So these numbers, we should be very careful about them. We should always be careful about numbers, but I'm going to extra caution you this time. 63 of 91 for Gon, 43 of 104 for Francis. Francis actually was busier and got four of five takedowns. Can you believe that? Amazing. Wow, man. That, I mean, if you'd have seen, if you'd have showed me that part of the stat line, like if you could, someone from the future was like, hey, look at the stat line. I'd be like, okay, 43 punches. Like if Tommy was going to go five rounds, you could imagine a

case where Cyril Gahn wins going five rounds. That's at least plausible, right? If you would have showed me in the stat line, okay, I'm looking at zero knockdowns. Okay. 43 of 104 significant strikes. Okay. Total strikes, 71 of 139. Okay. Subattempts, zero. Reversals, one. That's interesting.

Control time, eight minutes and 29 seconds. That's interesting. Takedowns, four of five. Four of five takedowns. I'm sorry. I just didn't see. Totally wrong. Didn't see it coming.

You'll learn something new every time in this fight game. Every time. By the way, the judges on this one with their scores. I read the scores to you previously. Let me assign the names to them. Sal D'Amato had it 49-46. Ron McCarthy, 48-47. Derek Clearly, 48-47.

Okay. Let's look at targeting. Francis Nannou. Dude, this is a big part as well. How about Francis doing a ton of body work at range? Not chasing the head of Cyril Ghosn. A couple times looking for it, but I thought it was so impressive how Francis and his team, you could tell they had worked on it.

Dude, this guy's going to lean on you. He's going to move side to side on you. He's going to turn you. He's going to be hard to hit. you. He's going to turn you. He's going to be hard to hit. But what will be there is the body. What will be there is the body. Always, when you have an opponent that sticks and moves, look to see if their opponent has a clear game plan to the body early.

Canelo against Erislandy Lara. Canelo against Caleb Plant. If he came out right away knowing, I've got to kill this dude to the body if I'm going to have any success. Because he's going to stick and move. Great job. They did a great job. 20% to the head. 20%. Francis' most impressive knockouts all came...

Let's look at Francis' knockouts, right? Who has he KO'd? Okay, in the UFC. he stopped Luis Henrique on the feet with punches to the head. Curtis Blades, same thing. The Mihaljevic guy, I think that was ground and pound, but that doesn't really count because that guy didn't belong there. He submitted Anthony Hamilton, so it doesn't count. Arlovsky, head punches.

Overeem, head punches. Curtis Blades, head punches. Cain Velassky, head punches. Overeem, head punches. Curtis Blades, head punches. Cain Velasquez, head punches. Junior Dos Santos, head punches. Rosenstreich, head punches. Miocic, head punches. In this fight, according to the targeting stats that we have here, where he only went 20% to the head, he went 48% to the body. He targeted half of everything he threw to the body, 30% to the leg. So understand that in this fight, even though Francis has the most terrifying one-punch knockout power we've ever seen, he and his team realized that's not really going to help us here. We have to be good enough. We have to be good enough to put together a game plan on our other strengths

that uniquely fit the challenge of Gon. Because going to the head, you can do it sometimes, obviously, especially with the uppercuts. But in general, he's going to be hard to find. And so they neutered themselves, so to speak, in terms of one of their greater strengths. Also, they could focus in on things that clearly Francis still has abilities in, but which we would not say are necessarily the things that have made him, certainly not what got him here.

Body punching is not what got him here. Going to the head, one out of every five things you throw, including anything with your leg, so all total strikes, one out of every five, is not what got him here. Dude, that is extremely impressive that they did this. Extremely impressive that they did this. That is remarkable. That is remarkable that you can take a guy, I don't know if out of his comfort zone is the right word,

but out of the territory where he has done, matter-of-factly, the best work of his career against the very best foes he could have. And they didn't fight that way. They fought a different fight. That's very remarkable for a guy who, you know, all the talk was about Gon, who hasn't been training that long in MMA, which is true. But let's not forget, it's not like Francis has been, you know,

well, he's a seasoned vet, I understand. But it's not like he's got, you know, double-digit experience under his belt either. I don't think that he does. Not yet, anyway. So that's just extremely impressive. And then I mentioned the control time as well. 8 minutes and 29 seconds for Francis. Dude, Francis was on top.

Again, I was worried about the lack of ground and pound, but Gahn did a really good job of like from half guard, sitting up, putting his head underneath Francis's, firing an underhook. And if you've ever been in one of those positions, even when to the uninitiated, the person on top might look like they're in control. But I'll tell you, ask any grappler who would you rather be, the person who is sitting underneath, who is lower than the other person, but has the inside head position and the unhook, and even, let's say, a foot or two covering the inside space. You are always going to want to be that inside guy.

Always, always, always. Because if you have an underhook and an inside position, you can stand, and then you can take him down, you can reverse him. There's just so much more you can do, even if the other person looks to be on top, right? So I think that was negating a lot of what Francis wanted to do. But that is, dude, I'm blown away by that, man. I'm really, I'm very, very, very impressed by that, man.

Herb Dean, by the way, I thought he missed maybe one of the low blows or like eye poke or something. I think it was a low blow that Gon was complaining of. Maybe Herb missed it, but in general, was kind of invisible in this fight, which is what you wanted. That's what you want, right? You don't want the referees to be involved in this kind of thing at all. So, man, I got to tell you, that is easily the best performance of Francis's career. And you're going to say, oh no, the Overeem knockout is better. Or the, you know, pick something else. I don't know, Velazquez or Olavsky or whatever.

His highlight reel is incredible. How about this? How about Francis? How about Francis breaking the resume review curse? How about big old Francis blowing up the curse? Canelo, of course, blew it up and it didn't exist. But how about Francis blowing that shit up, huh? For some of you, this will be highly relevant. Probably the mouth breathers among you, but nevertheless, nevertheless, it will count. How about that? He fucking blew it up too. Caught me by surprise. Amazing. Amazing. Amazing that

he's able to do this at this stage in his career and that his team worked on this. I can't wait to talk to Eric. I hope I get the chance to talk to Eric Nixick about what the game plan is because they, I don't have to go back and look, but they figured that out one to a T. Okay. I'm meandering. I'll come back to it. Let's talk about the co-main event. Devison Figueredo defeats Brandon Moreno. 48-47, 48-47, 48-47. Unanimous decision. He now claims back the belt that Brandon Moreno took from him. Fair and square, but now Figueredo takes it back.

Fair and square, depends on your view. I thought scoring would have been all over the place. I thought Figueredo did a little bit more. That fight I also thought could have been 2-2 heading into the fifth. I thought he did a little bit more in that fifth round. It's amazing how it often comes down to that between these people. And I thought that made the difference. I thought it was just a little bit ahead and a little like the judges agreed now

I've not seen the scorecards know exactly how they did it. I will try to look and see Yeah, I gotta find that Honestly what I can do about that but you get the idea okay what's the story of this fight fair to say Figueiredo had a better game plan

Brandon Moreno acknowledged it said as much in the post fight interview with Joe Rogan by the way anecdotally for whatever it's worth I didn't see very many complaints Joe Rogan. By the way, anecdotally, for whatever it's worth, I didn't see very many complaints about Rogan in DC tonight on my timeline. Usually I see a fair amount of complaining, and you know, it's Twitter. People complain, which isn't to say that the complaints aren't correct, you know, time to time, time to time, of course they are, but anyway, I didn't see hardly any of that tonight. But okay.

It looked to me like the wider stance and the leg kicking, which was probably Cejudo influenced, played a big role. Not brawling as much with Moreno, played a role. I actually feel like lowering the amount of offense played big role. Not brawling as much with Moreno. Played a role. I actually feel like lowering the amount of offense played a role. The first two fights were electric because there were so many moments where the shit was just dialed up to 11. And I think Figueiredo has had a style up to this point where he liked... I said it before, he's got a good clamp. You see the really good grapplers in MMA aren't the ones that necessarily have

there's a certain kind of skill that guys have to get a bite on something where they can their initial attempt to grab a submission, a lot of folks have to grab it and then work their way into it and that can sometimes just be a circumstance situation but some of the better ones are the ones that have a good clamp. Charles

Oliveira has probably the better clamp. He might even have a better clamp than Demian Maia. He's not a better grappler than Demian Maia, but he's got a better clamp. And Figueredo's got a great clamp too, right? With his legs and with his arms. He can just find a submission fast. And he wasn't pulling the trigger with that as much. He wasn't trying, and the instincts behind that too, like clearly what Henry told him was, okay, what are you good at? Let's do those. But let's do those in a more calculated,

systematic, programmed way to the extent possible. It's a fight. It's chaotic. Things are going to happen. But to the extent possible possible let's bring this back now I wonder normally I would go to the stats a little bit later but I wonder if the stats

back that up in terms of aggregate volume I've actually not looked so let's see what they actually say about this because if I'm right there should be a little bit less volume across the board I think from both of the three fights.

Well, the second fight didn't go very long, so I guess between the first and the third. But let's see. All right. So this fight, 105 significant strikes for Brandon Moreno. 86 for Divison Figueiredo. But, and this is a huge difference, three knockdowns. That is, it's going to be hard to win fights getting knocked down three times in a championship contest.

And if we look at, so we got 105 to 86. Okay, so if we look at their first fight, yeah, first fight, 132 to 137. So about another round's worth of volume, basically, even more. And what was the average output in the second round of the first fight, or excuse me, the second fight? So Brandon Moreno, 25 strikes landed, significant strikes in the first round of that one, then 10, and then 12. Let's see in this one. How did he do? 10, 28 in the second. Okay. 26 in the third. Those are good numbers. Gets back down to earth a little bit. Volume was high, so that doesn't count. No. So that's not the issue on that side. But from the second fight.

But relative to the first one, significantly less overall volume. Okay, I'll come back to the stats here in just a minute. So it didn't so much pair out for the second. Well, the second one and the third one were more alike, I guess. But it certainly was a difference between the first and the third. Neither here nor there. Clearly, Figueiredo had great leg kicks.

Brandon Moreno, I think, was a little bit surprised by him. And Brandon Moreno had an interesting game plan that I thought was really well situated for their first fight. Which was, he was going to play a counter-fighting role. Sometimes counter-fighting even through pressure, but counter-fighting just the same. But the two were related. The counter-fighting with high activity allowed him to land and then push Figueredo backwards. But without there being much activity here, he couldn't land as much, which means the pressure game was inconsistent. It did work at times, but it was inconsistent.

Sometimes they were just kind of facing off in front of each other, and he couldn't get that part that really slows down and minimizes Figueredo on the feet going as a consequence. That's really smart by Henry Cejudo and the team. Smart to dial him back a little bit. Not a whole lot. They didn't turn him into a different fighter altogether, but they made him a much more focused fighter. He wasn't throwing garbage out there and chasing these scrambles like squirrels. They tried, his team anyway, tried to get him to avoid that this time, and it paid huge dividends.

So he had a better outside game. He's not going so crazy. Let me look at some of his targeting on this one as well. So this is targeting for Devison Figueredo. He targeted the leg 31% of the time in this one. What about the second fight? He targeted the leg 16% in that one. Wow. And in the first one, you got to be shitting me. 7%. 7% in the first one, he targeted the leg, Deveson-Figuretto. 7%, 87% to the head. Okay, so 87 and 7 were the numbers there for head and leg for Deveson-Figuretto. And this time it was 46 and 31. Much better distribution of targets.

Much more... much better distribution of targets, much more, and I think it doesn't need to be this balanced for every opponent, but for this one, nice balance of different kinds, 46% to the head, 22% to the body, 31% to the leg.

So he ratcheted up the pot-shotting that was hard pot-shotting, but pot-shotting at distance. He didn't chase the leg. So he ratcheted up the pot shotting that was hard pot shotting, but pot shotting at distance. He didn't chase the firefight. He didn't chase the scrambles when he could avoid it. There was a couple of times where, you know, Brandon took it to him and, and, and, and had some success with it. What rounds were those? I have to go back and look. Let's see here. Moreno got a takedown in the fifth, certainly. But that was a hell of an effort from the Brazilian there. That really was so smart of him. And you got to give credit to the team, man.

They did it all right. His weight cut was phenomenal. He looked great at 124 on the scales. Sucked out, of course. That's a big weight cut. It's not nothing, but it was handled expertly. Dude, you can just see the difference. Dude, look at the camp. Not to say that Gon doesn't have this. Not to say that Moreno doesn't have this. That's not in any way what I am saying. But I am saying, just look at the winning corners here, dude. They've got, everyone's got a role.

Everyone understands it. There's a hierarchy there. The fighter has a game plan. He has an objective. Everyone knows it. Everyone understands it. And they execute and then make adjustments as it proceeds. And there's all, it's very structured and very ordered. And it has to be

given how chaotic this is so the question you have to ask yourself is if you're one of those trainers or those coaches is okay we can get this whole process dialed in but do we have the right idea about what works sometimes they do sometimes they don't do they did and and they executed it to perfection how about these guys Deverson Figueredo, 34. Francis Ngannou, 35. Getting with the right people. And again, not to say that the people they were with before didn't level them up. Because they did. Everyone plays a journey in the development of a martial artist and a fighter from nothing to their highest heights.

Everyone plays a role. But turning that corner for what they needed at that time in their career. What can you say about what that was? Phenomenal. Didn't work out for Zhong Wai Li, but even she looked to have a better game plan. And that was smart, man. That was really, really, really smart. Take away the legs. Don't brawl. I will say this about Brandon Marino. You know what stood out to me about him that I thought was impressive? Because I was going to say go for the takedown with Devison Figueredo, and they did. They went after 11 takedowns. He attempted three in the first, four in the second, but, and I'll explain why I

think this turns, just one in the third, one in the fourth, and then he attempted two in the fifth. The two in the fifth, to me, looked like he was just putting in the effort to win, but I will tell you what the story was. The one thing about Brandon Moreno that I really thought was good here. The problem was because Figueiredo dialed it back, he just stood around too long waiting, not doing anything. If I'm waiting for someone to throw, famously, if you watch the, I think it was the last fight on Rico Rodriguez's contract. Rico Rodriguez, for folks who don't know, Tim Sylvia beat him to get the title. But Rico Rodriguez, back in the day,

was considered like the future of what heavyweight fighting could be and blah, blah, blah. It was really impressive and athletic and could wrestle and could strike and do everything else. But eventually kind of washed out of the UFC and his last fight was with Pedro Hizzo.

And both of them were counter-strikers. And for three rounds, they fucking look at each other. It's the most unbelievable, bizarre shit you've ever seen. You're like, dudes, because Pedro Hizzo was a violent finisher. And Rico Rodriguez, I think that wasn't peak, but they just stood there in front. So for Brandon Moreno, he just stood around too long, just kind of waiting.

But, but, but, but, one of the things Figueiredo did that worked early, that Moreno took away from him, was a lot of times he was going way out, you know, like calf kick, calf kick, circle, constantly turning Moreno. Did you guys notice that? Always making him turn. And what he would do is, I'm trying to think about exactly how I want to say this. What Figueiredo was able to do initially was throw through a blitz

and then get some response from Moreno and then get underneath it. So he was waiting for either responses or combinations through responses, and then he was trying to get underneath it every time, though, right? Like really put doubt in Brandon's ability to blitz with combinations and move forward because that's how Brandon – when Brandon's busy, he's better. He has to counter-strike to be busy, but when he's busy, he's good. When he's not,

it's a little bit harder for him. But what I noticed with the takedowns were at first, that was working really well where it was really offsetting Brandon. And then he goes from defending it where he's able to either get up off the bottom or whatever. To now he's kind of neutralizing it and then separating. Because he knows it's coming now. So he's adjusted for it. You can see him. So what he would do is he would throw it and immediately fire an underhook before he could even see a level change from figueredo knowing it would be necessary and sure enough he was right it was right so that was really smart and then he went from like getting

off of his feet to like defending it to neutralizing it to then he was the one he would throw block the takedown and then he would throw on top of it, and that completely dissuaded Figueiredo in that third and fourth round. Again, by the fifth, the fight got a little bit more opened up, but you get the idea there. Very, very, very impressive by Moreno to encounter something that was initially trouble for him, not really take it away, but then actively, to take it away is like a threat to yourself, but then actively deter him and make him even stop doing it. Not completely, but a lot. In any kind of concerted way,

by virtue of how you have really adjusted well to that. Very, very, very good work from Brandon Moreno. And again, this was a fight where afterward, Figueiredo says, let's do a fourth fight, and let's do it in Mexico City. No one, no team, no pair has ever fought four times in UFC. It happens in boxing a little more regularly, but it's never happened in UFC. I can't think of a better time to do that than this. These two guys are built for each other. And I think my friend RJ Clifford, who works for

Sirius XM and I think UFC as well, he tweeted like, okay, these guys have fought three times and I'm really not sure who the better fighter is. I still kind of feel like Moreno's the better fighter. He's certainly the better fighter in the firefight. That's true. But it still remains to be seen. Figueredo had a better game plan tonight of the two.

He did. It was better. It was smarter. It was smarter. He knew that they worked in a way where one was kind of waiting on the other. So how do I turn the spigot off and then just blast him when I want to? Rather than having a fire hose, they put the thing at the end

of the fire hose where you now can pull the trigger on it and spray it in a coordinated way. There's your analogy. That's a very dad analogy. But you know, I'm fucking 42. Who would I have to hide? People don't think I'm cool. They never have. They never will. It's okay. I don't mind. All right. If you're watching this, thumbs up on the video. Hit subscribe. Please hit subscribe. Hit subscribe. Hit subscribe. You hear me saying this to you, I need you to do it. The power difference. Joe Rogan, or maybe it was Cormier, I can't remember who, one of them said they thought that Moreno hit harder than Figueiredo. I don't think that's true. I think that Brandon is better, as I indicated, in the firefight. He likes the

heat of the moment. I think he's got a better chin, even though he got knocked down. Now, some of those knockdowns were from the... One of the knockdowns was from the leg kick, I think. Again, I have to go back and review it. But they were big punches too. But I just mean to say that Brandon Moreno is durable as shit. I think that Figueredo hits harder and so Brandon was eating harder punches I think Brandon hits plenty hard

don't misunderstand me I'm just saying I think Figueredo is a little bit more of a power puncher but I thought that Brandon's punches it was weird right they were having this effect where it like it would look like Figueredo would like go go slow motion for a second and then kind of pick it back up. I didn't know exactly what impact they were having all the time. But dude, if you're giving up two takedowns, that's not super detrimental. But the three knockdowns and then two and almost a half minutes of control time, you just can't do it. You can't give it away.

And again, here's that stat line. If you had showed me, okay, Figueredo's going to land 95 strikes. He'll go the distance. He'll get two of 11 takedowns. I'd be like, okay, it's a little surprising, but not that real. No, that's actually pretty good. That sounds about right. Blah, blah, blah.

Oh, he'll get three knockdowns. I'd be like, three? Fuck. That's a lot for a guy who got... I mean, Moreno ran through him last time. Impressive. That's impressive by him. To be able to really fine-tune...

Like, if you think about it, they changed his stance a little bit, they widened it, but did they really reinvent him? They didn't, right? Like, they took what he's good at, gave him a couple little extra dimensions, and cleaned it up, and then sent him back out there,

and he executed. So, for Moreno to beat Figueiredo, you could say he got pretty close tonight. True. But the thing that really slowed him down was the waiting and so therefore the relative inactivity. And as a consequence, he's going to have to find some kind of way to create more openings. You guys know my work and then you hear me say it all the time. There is going to be a difference between fighters who take advantage of openings, which is, by the way, no small feat.

Like, it's still important, perhaps the most important, given the regularity of it, but there's a difference between that and then somebody who can create openings, right? That there's nothing going on that was going for them, and then they can do things that now make openings appear and then take advantage of them that those are the ones you got to be really really worried about if Moreno can advance to that gear and every indication is he

seems like the kind of guy who can but the question is how fast and blah blah blah is that that's the missing piece of his that's the that's I'm not saying the okay I almost said that's the missing piece that's a missing piece of his game I'm not saying the... Okay, I almost said that's the missing piece. That's a missing piece of his game, but perhaps one of the more important ones. Because he doesn't have to do things that he doesn't like. Not all the time. He doesn't have to change who he is anyway. But if you're going to wait on offense,

your best work is contingent upon your opponent's activity the predominant amount of the time. If your opponent clearly deprives you of that, you are going to be swimming upstream at that point. You need to create your own downstream where I can just look at you, move in a certain way, feint a certain way, throw a certain thing, whatever. Whatever we have to do to get you to be open and then attack. If Moreno can do that, and he can do that to some degree, but if he can really lean into that, he can be something pretty impressive. So that was really the issue there. By the way, I've got to say, that gave me vibes.

Was that the Honda Center? I forget where Cain Velasquez beat Brock Lesnar. But I think that was the Honda Center. I could be wrong. If it is, dead wrong me or whatever. But I remember when Cain... You know, you go to most MMA shows. This is changing a little bit now.

But like back in the aughts, you know, dude, it was like 98% just normal American white people. You know, it was very few of anybody else. That's changing a little bit now. But I distinctly recall, I'm not saying a pejorative. I'm just saying that's just who's there. That's just who's there. That was just who was there. Obviously a lot of Brazilians and shit like that too. But okay.

I remember when Kane beat Lesnar that that was the first time you just looked in the audience and you had never seen that many Hispanic fans out to see at a moment in MMA, for the UFC anyway, like in the United States, not so much in another country, but certainly like in the United States at that point for a Hispanic fighter, right? That connection between the Hispanic market that's here and then the Hispanic fighter. Now, granted, Brandon Moran is from Mexico, but this was in the United States. And it reminded me of that. Now, he didn't obviously give them what they want in the end.

Some people might think he won. Up to you to decide that, but that reminded me tonight, and I do think it was smart of them to put this fight in LA. I think that was a good call by UFC, and by the way, in the California Commission, they got, for the most part, they got pretty good judging.

I know some folks probably agree with this call because Brandon Moreno is extremely well-liked, and it was close. But you've got a great team of officiants, for the most part, for this. Frank Trigg out there doing some interesting work as well. So if you have a question about this, we'll get to it. All my tweets. How long have I been going for? Jesus Christ.

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. Pretty long. Okay.

On the rest of this card, I'm not sure what to say. Michelle Pareda defeating Andre Fialio. 29-28 across the board. I don't have much to say about it. Said Nurmagomedov defeating Cody Stammen. Man, Cody Stammen's a very talented fighter, and I think he'll want this one back. He gets submitted guillotine choke 47 seconds into the first round.

I think he'll want this one back, because while Nurmagomedov was slick to sneak the arm behind him in the scramble, as Cody got taken down, so then he begins to sit up. As he sits up, he puts his ear like a head outside single or head outside double to Nurmagomedov and Nurmagomedov snakes his arm in transition around so you know Nurmagomedov was slick with it but at the same time maybe I think if you talk to Stamen and I haven't obviously but I have a feeling that he would probably say he wants that one back because he didn't need to get up that way so quickly. And then Michael Morales defeating Trevin Giles.

Trevin Giles making some interesting choices that I just didn't understand. Galloping into Morales and then throwing a punch kind of far away and missing and then just getting chewed up on the counter. Michael Morales didn't even look. He looks down when he throws. Go back and look at the footage.

He actually looks down before he throws. Go look at the footage. He actually looks down before he throws. It landed, and it landed hard, but he actually was blind when he threw it. But we'll talk about some of that stuff on maybe, what do you call it, extra credit. All right, let's see what some of your questions are, shall we?

Who do you think Jon Jones gives the hardest time to at heavyweight? Stipe, Gon, or Francis? At this point, I guess, again, before tonight, my answer was Gon. I need to see what kind of retooling he does with his grappling and his wrestling and some of the decisions around that. I guess it might be Francis. I've been wrong about Francis. And so probably Francis. Yeah. Yeah. You know, one thing about John is John makes good fight decisions too. He has high fight IQ. You notice he didn't really brawl it out with Thiago Santos.

He didn't really, like the big punchers, he kind of stays away from. I think Francis could give him some interesting problems. Maybe John's more competitive than I give him credit as well. Certainly, that can obviously be the case. While he won, I't think francis raised his popularity very much doesn't have much more bargaining power than before viewership weigh-ins press conference did better than 260 but not as much as usman izzy yeah yeah um maybe he didn't do a lot well okay he didn't do a lot. Okay, he didn't have a performance that is going to be memorable in the kind of way that I think perhaps UFC might have hoped if he sticks around or that maybe even he would have hoped.

Like it wasn't this dramatic knockout, right? They're not going to make a lot of NFTs except for maybe anything but the slam that Francis had. But at the same time, remember, the New York Times did a huge article on him. ESPN the magazine did a huge article on him. He was on the Daily Show. Celebrities are shouting him out. Even though he didn't look super amazing in terms of being entertaining tonight, he made good on the promise of a win. That counts for something when you do these kinds

of, when you get these kinds of press exposures, these media cycles, they do count even with a win. And again, dude, it's not like he doesn't have a good highlight reel outside of this fight. And also again, dude, again, people aren't going to buy a Jon Jones fight. Like, I know what your point is. This was not the kind of thing that makes me want to, like, see a, you know, by itself doesn't want to make me see a Francis Ngannou fight. But, dude, are we really going to say Francis' fights fucking suck? It just wasn't his, like, most exciting fight tonight. No, but here's the thing.

If you're an insider, if you're a hardcore fan, if you know better, then I don't think I'm the only one saying this tonight. I bet you that other people are saying it tonight too, which is, okay, maybe this isn't the kind of performance that gets the crowd on their feet. But it gets the insiders to go, huh, yeah, Francis is fucking good. We can remove the most dangerous part of his game and still beat the most dangerous threat. Wow, man. Wow. How the fuck are they going to beat this guy? They're not going to, they're going to have to wait until he dies of

old fucking age and then do weekend at Bernie's to get any shot, you know, based on the way that he's beating motherfuckers these days. It's just unbelievable, you know. So your point is, I understand it. I saw a John Nash tweet that like, oh, this will ruin his bargaining power with the Fury fight. I mean, I don't know what bargaining power he would have if they can end up even making such a thing.

But I got to tell you, I'm a big believer that they could sell the fuck out of Fury fight. I mean, I don't know what bargaining power he would have if they can end up even making such a thing. But I got to tell you, I'm a big believer that they could sell the fuck out of that fight. Even with tonight's performance, I got to tell you. They would... Dude, again, Francis' highlight reel, his status, you know, they would find a way. Even if John is declining,

I think this fight shows he has a better chance than I thought I would agree We'll have to see No one really knows how Jon's going to look But I will agree The idea that Gon and Francis are so lights out dominant That Jon couldn't hope to compete Is pretty clearly not true

Or so we think Is this a problem for Gon now In that other people will be able to take him down And make him do dumb stuff Or was that somehow an Inganu thing Could be just an Inganu thing Because it was a training partner scenario That could be true

I think we'll have to see There's no way to know You're right to think that He could have quirkily done it With a guy he knew really well, and so that threw him off in some kind of weird way. That's possible. We'll have to see.

Again, a Curtis Blades fight would be very telling. Very telling. Luke, how do you feel about Ngannou being given the fifth on the basis of half a round of control and no damage? That's the other part, too. It's like, what do they reward? You see, Gon got the takedown and then sat for a submission and applied it. I saw one, maybe two decent applications of it where he was kind of cranking.

You know what was weird to me was that he never reaped the knee. It was almost like when he was going for the heel hook, he was going by certain tournament grappling rules, like IBJJF rules or whatever the fuck, for no-gi grappling, where you're not allowed to reap the knee. You can reap the knee in MMA. You can absolutely do it and he wasn't doing that. No, he was doing a different kind of heel hook

that wouldn't have... He would have to switch his grip. I have to go back and see what he did in the transition. It's all a bit of a blur. Anyway. Dude, why the fuck did he sit? I mean, what an epic miscalculation. Anyway, we'll have to see what the fuck he does next time.

Oh, let me look at the numbers for the fifth round. So this is the fifth round in numbers. And again, numerically, let's see what it says. So they're going to give Cyril Ghosn 7 of 12 strikes Francis just 5 of 13 that's interesting so Cyril Ghosn landed

2 more in that round but Francis attempted 13 and is credited with a reversal. It's close. It's close, dude. That's what I mean. This is why Cyril sitting to that thing, it's like, okay, I guess you get the submission there. The attempt is like an attempt to, you know, advance the fight, but it was not a very tight heel hook, and it was not like, I mean, it was okay. It wasn't like terrible, but, you know, seen better. I don't know what the hell he was thinking. I really don't know what the fuck he was thinking. All Alright, let's get back to some of your questions here.

Any thoughts on Dana not putting the belt on Francis and skipping the post-fight press conference? Before we jump to conclusions, we should maybe hear what, there might be something going on. Not so much with these two, like behind the scenes, some issue at T-Mobile or not T-Mobile or Honda Center,

or maybe he has some personal emergency. It doesn't look great, but we don't know. We should admit that. We don't know. Someone says, if you didn't know, Askeroov and Pantoja were injured, not ready. Feel like Moreno needs a win before a fourth. That's fine. That's fine.

And they couldn't really go to Mexico City anyway because of COVID bullshit. But that's fine. I'm not saying the fourth one has to be next. But if they ended up... I don't know, Pantoja gets the next one has to be next, you know? But, you know, if they ended up like, I don't know, Pantoja gets the next one and Figge wins and then Moreno beats Askarov in some kind of rematch, I wouldn't mind a fourth. How about that?

Someone says, Feels like most people only remember that Moreno-Figge one was a draw, not the fact that if not for the point deduction in that fight, Figgy would have won it by unanimous decision. Yes, but that fight is pretty different than the third fight, and certainly different than the second fight. But I mean, even if you want to compare the two five-rounders, there's this major strategic shift, which we've been talking about,

that just makes them very different experiences. Is it possible the heel hook didn't work because Francis' knee was already blown out? LOL. Maybe. Honestly. That's funny you bring that up. Maybe.

Maybe. Do you think that Francis won the fifth round despite Zero having success on the feet and going for a sub? Yeah, we kind of went over this one. I know Francis won anyways, but to me, it looked like he had multiple opportunities for the Von Fluh choke with Gon's arm wrapped around the back of the head. However, Francis continually moves the arm off. Do you think he didn't know about it or just chose to keep the control? No, dude,

let me explain something to you. When you're a big, strong guy like that, the first fucking thing they teach you at jujitsu is head and arm triangles. It's the first fucking thing. I mean, you might learn guillotines first. You might learn rear naked chokes first. But I guarantee, if you're above 250 pounds, every fucking instructor on earth will come up to you and be like, Hey, big fella. Especially if you're new. Let's work on the head and arm triangle.

It's such a power move. You go back and look at the head and arm triangle. It's such a power move. You go back and look at the head and arm triangle that Brock Lesnar hit on Shane Carwin. From a technical application, it's not well applied. That's not a textbook head and arm triangle by a million miles. And Shane Carwin had lactic acidosis or whatever the fuck was ailing him. Fair enough. But still, the point is that you can with that position in MMA. It is often possible to just fucking he-man it.

You can he-man that position. Von Flew would be a little bit different. Von Flew requires you would have to wrap and then trap his arm with your own grip. Head and arm triangle you would not have to do that. But the point being is one of the problems with being a big man. And going for a head and arm triangle is it actually can be a pretty technical position. There's a few different ways

that I've seen it taught to be finished. I had one instructor show us that you can actually kind of put your chest on the back of their arm and kind of like rise up into it. And that's one way. You know, a lot of other guys will then twist, you know, is another one you can do

to kind of finish it, walk away from it. There's a lot of things you can do. But the point being is a lot of times big guys will put a lot of energy into it, right? They'll fucking, ah, you can get it. But in the fifth round of an MMA fight with an opponent like Cyril Ghosn, and granted there was other opportunities,

but I can understand why he might be apprehensive about that. He absolutely knows how to do a head and arm triangle. I think he chose not to and probably wisely. Tell us how weight and size is considerably more important in grappling than striking. Francis has improved technique, but this is exactly how to beat somebody when you've got size on them. Yeah, dude. Gon's size is good because he's still big enough to handle himself, 247 or so, to handle himself when he has to in the clinch and to an extent on the ground as well. But obviously, he's lighter. He's like a tight end. He can kind of move. He can dart. He can

get in and out. And he's bouncing, right? So a tight end. He can kind of move he can dart he can get in and out And he's bouncing right so he he he gets to manage his resources that way But uh, the problem with that is if you lock up with somebody bigger than you And they're strong as fuck You know, you are giving up he gave up at least 10 maybe 15 cormier thinks 20 pounds man that dude 20 pounds with somebody Who knows how to use it, it's like being trapped under a sheet of fucking ice, ha, it is terrible, bro, it is terrible, you know, there's been times where there's this dude we got paired up with, I used

to train with all the time, he was well into the 300 pounds, and technical, and technical, and, you know, you get underneath him in side control, and sometimes the fucking coach will be fucking around and will put like a nine-minute round on the board. That's a long nine minutes, bro. Let me fucking tell you. That's a long nine minutes. You know, there is not a lot of air under there. It is absolutely fucking horrible.

And the guys who are good, you know, who was it who taught me this? One of the great things that was taught to me was, and there's different ways to execute this, but let me give you an example. How do you put your pressure on top? If you've never trained, you cannot appreciate this. But people talk about certain people's crushing power. You guys hear me all the time talk about shoulder pressure, right? If you can shoulder pressure your way into someone, you can make them look away and immobilize the top of their spine, and then you immobilize

their waist. You can pass them. It's extremely painful. Bernardo Faria, that's the one I always talk about. He showed me his shoulder pressure once, and I thought my jaw was going to shatter into a million pieces. It was so painful. I couldn't believe how fucking hard it was, right? So you, so, and that's what, when, imagine he, I think he's even smaller than me. So imagine someone like fucking Francis being on top of you. You know, it must be hard as shit

just to get that underhook. And like, you know, I was telling you before, where would you rather be? The inside guy or the outside guy? If you're sitting up, you got the underhook

and you got your head underneath. But those guys can lean on you and then they can break your spine down so you don't have that pressure to keep up and it's heavy and it fucking sucks. But the thing that someone showed me one time, if you've never trained, you can't appreciate this. You can try it if you go to the gym the next time. Get a medicine ball, put your hands behind your back, start on your knees to first put your chest on top of the

medicine ball and then try with your hands behind your back. We're using your feet, walk around the medicine ball and then change directions, like dynamically your back, using your feet, walk around the medicine ball and then change directions, like dynamically move around it. And you might be asking, where should you be positioning with your chest relative to the medicine ball for this drill to make sense?

And the answer is, you need to press the medicine ball where it actually hurts the most on your chest. This is actually, I won't say a super painful drill, but it is an uncomfortable drill. It hurts. Because that position, while it is quite painful to you to do that drill, that is exactly the sweet spot where you are driving maximum force down on top of them. And it takes time to get the feel for that. Where exactly do you go? Where do your grips need to be? Where do I like to grip?

Some people like to take their middle finger, go underneath someone's neck, and then grab the armpit of the other guy and then pull that to them. Like all these things you got to figure out for you to do. But if you can get someone heavy who has done that work and is just a top control guy,

shit, bro. You know, you better call the fucking, you better call the excavation crew where's Francis on the heavyweight goat list? Brian Campbell believes with a win like this he can set himself up for a path towards

goat but he's not quite there yet even though he did beat Stipe and blah, blah, blah. And then beating Ghosn is just extremely impressive. I don't know. On the journey, I think we'll know when we get there, but we're not quite there yet. Does it make sense now if Francis and the UFC make up to run it back with Stipe? Is that where the market is? Or is the market with the Jon Jones fight? I tweeted about it before the fight.

I couldn't believe how... I knew Stipe would not be the focus of discussions around this week. Or about the possibilities of what was going to be in the future. Okay, fair enough. But he was fucking invisible in discussions, which I thought was strange. But telling. I think the fan base kind of soured on him a little bit,

to be honest with you. Not like as a person, but as somebody who they're clamoring to see. Does anyone want to watch the next Cyril Ghosn fight? You know, this wasn't his most dynamic offensive display But he's got some good ones Should Ghosn's leg kicks where he had zero power in them count for anything? They count for Ghosn in the sense that he is setting things up with them

He's doing them to elicit either a reaction or to set something else up. So for him, they have value. What you're saying is, should the judges weigh those heavily as a strike that does damage? No. What is left for Francis at heavyweight if Jon Jones doesn't get the 10 mil he wants to fight Francis? Well, John's not going to get the 10 mil he wants to fight Francis. Although, despite my many differences with John Jones, and they are aplenty, I certainly agree he does deserve 10 million and a lot more than that for his fights.

Yeah, I don't know. I don't really know. This is why a potential boxing match versus Fury. Oh, I don't want to see that now. Bull fucking shit. If they can make that happen, that would do gangbusters. How similar is Gon's run to the title and defeat compared to... And Gon who's lost to Miocic in terms of rookie mistakes and improvements in a potential rematch.

I would say Gon is much further along in terms of overall fighter development. But the narrative parallels certainly appear to be there in some kind of fashion. And the one thing I will say though is Francis is excuse me, Francis is Francis stumbled a little bit against Derek

Lewis, but the larger story is quite clear. He has righted the ship and really revolutionized himself. I think Cyril Ghosann doesn't need a revolution, but he does need an evolution. And so we'll see if he can get that. Would the results have been different if Francis did not have a torn ACL,

meaning would he have KO'd Gann? Maybe, because he maybe would have pursued more. Hard to say. A lot of questions about Jon Jones. Is it eerie how Gon looked lost on the ground like Francis did in the first fight? Again, dude, Gon did not look nearly as lost on the ground as Francis did.

He looked lost on the ground in a similar way, relatively speaking. Gon is way ahead. That's how bad it was for Francis at the time. He was well out of his depth. Gon's got already more tools than that, but he has some stuff to work on, for sure. Yeah, more questions like, does Jon Jones have more confidence? He probably does. Probably does. It's hard to know.

But again, I still... The one thing I'll just maintain with Jon Jones is he did leave light heavyweight at the moment that I believe the division was catching up and then about ready to pass him. I do believe that. Maybe they'd still be kind of nipping at his heels a little bit. First of all, I thought Dominic Reyes beat him.

I thought Dominic Reyes beat him fair and square, quite honestly. I thought Texas really fucked that up for Dominic. Now, obviously, Dominic then lost to Jan and then Jan, blah, blah, blah. We get the story. Do I think John could beat Glover Teixeic. Now, obviously, Dominic then lost to Jan, and then Jan, blah, blah, blah. We get the story. And, you know, do I think John could beat Glover Teixeira? Yes, of course I do. But, and he already has. But I kind of thought the division was catching up with him.

And so the move, I thought, was smart on John's part. Because, in general, heavyweight won't be as difficult as light heavyweight in certain athletic respects. I don't think the division is as good. However, you got these two guys at the top, so that's where it gets kind of complicated and interesting. John says he wants to come in at 270. The guys John's got in his corners, like, you know, Brendan Gibson, great striking coach, but I gotta tell you, Stan Efridean, the rhino. Dude, Stan Efridean's a fucking beast. I have a very high opinion of Stan Efridean. I think he is, um, you know, smart. I think he is one of the guys who really understands what works in the gym,

what athletes need, how to correct that for them. Like he's got good people around him, man. So we'll see. We'll see. I, I will say, you know, I've been a little bit poo pooing John's thing to wrap up here on the point. The one thing I will maintain is that I do think the idea of like preordained greatness is still like as automatic is still just premature I still think it is very much worth being like let's see what the John Jones heavyweight experiment looks like but fair enough some of the concerns about what we think we might have or what we're going to encounter upon his return, some of those concerns appear maybe a little bit unfounded. As impressive as Ngannou's performance was tonight,

can we agree boxing would be a terrible idea for him? Well, if he had KO'd Cyril in the first round, would he have had any better of a chance against Tyson Fury? Do Tyson Fury, it would do terrible things to him. I actually walk away with this having a better feeling about his boxing because he at least was able to be disciplined about targeting. Again, questions about the goat. What did I think of Henry's tattoo?

I didn't see it. Someone says, I had gone one, two, and five. I think that's fair. The slam was insane. Someone says, Gon should have got that decision. Francis was basically laying on top of Gon. Yeah, again, I think 49-46 is ridiculous. I agree. I don't see four rounds for Francis.

I think he won the fight rightfully, but I don't think he won four of them, no. Do you think UFC was happy with Rogan mentioning boxing? They might have asked him to do it, to be honest with you, for headlines, for ESPN's sake. Like, they're often, I'm not suggesting they tell him what to do.

I don't think that's, I don't think anyone tells him what to do, but they are suggestive. Yes. Ariel said somebody from a Vegas area code texted this to Francis this morning. I'm pretty sure we all know who sent this. Is that real? That can't be real That can't be real That cannot be real Is that fucking real?

That cannot be real. Is that fucking real? That cannot be real. Holy shit, it is real. Wow. Well, this is from his manager, Markel Martin. I'm sorry for sort of like mouth-breathing on the air. Someone, this is the manager of Francis Ngannou. So someone with a 702 area code. He doesn't say who.

The number is blocked out but for 702, which suggests Las Vegas. Quote. Let's see who gets the last word after tonight. I'm just going to read what it says. You dumb black bitch. This is the quote. The fact that Francis would ever listen to you lets you know how much of a dumb piece of shit he is, too.

After this, you will go back to selling suits at Nordstrom, you fucking moron. Wow. I don't know who sent that, but that is... That is... Jesus. That is... Jesus. That is fucking terrible. Wow. Okay.

Well, on that note... Jesus, that is awful. Thank you so much for watching. Thumbs up on this. There'll be a morning combat on Monday. And yeah, what did you guys think? What was the standout thing to you what did you agree with what i said would you disagree with what i said post a comment let me know and uh yeah you want to email me you can email me luke thomas news at gmail.com it's 2 30 in the morning and with that bitches it's time to get some sleep