MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 271 Recap | Adesanya-Whittaker 2 | Tai Tuivasa | Jared Cannonier | Ep. 264

Episode Date: February 14, 2022

On episode 264 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian do a full break down of UFC 271. How did the guys score Adesanya-Whittaker 2? What's next for Israel and Robert? Tai Tuivasa scored the biggest win of his career by knocking out Derrick lewis but where does he go from here? Jared Cannonier locked up the number one contender spot in the middleweight division and much more to discuss from UFC 271. As always the boys close out the show with Dm's from Donks, HYSTS and Odds & Ends. 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

it's the 14th of February 2022 the day of love the day of more the day where Brian and I will probably declare none of that and we'll just fight for two hours because it's time for morning combat hello everyone my name is Luke Thomas I am one half of your hosting duo right here in Washington DC I am joined by the crown prince of Connecticut, my friend and yours. According to Twitter, the biggest Robert Whitaker fan that ever lived. I think it's a little unfair. It's Brian Campbell. Hi, Brian.

How are you? Luke, I'm fine. Thank you. Happy Valentine's Day to you and your beautiful wife and daughter and mother-in-law and all the great women in your life, Luke. I am offering open-mouth kisses to every single one of our listeners. Today only, Luke, okay? It's a special I got going on.

Today only. All right. If you don't get COVID, you will get herpes. That's one way or the other. You're getting a communicable disease. How was your Super Bowl, BC? Did you do anything fun for it? You know, it turned out to be awesome.

And it was as low key as possible. Shout out to my wife, of course, for picking up some some yummy uh super bowl you know apps and then uh got to watch the first half with both sons but one of my sons uh went the distance with me so to be watching a game that fun and competitive you know with your with your 14 year old mini you next to you it was it was a great moment in father-son history okay my dad never a sports fan, but we watched a couple Super Bowls together. We watched all the Tyson 90s pay-per-views. We watched the early UFC cards in those times, Luke. Very memorable. I wish you and your father could have watched a few Super Bowls together, if only things had been different.

Well, I'm glad we're bringing up family troubles out of nowhere and for no good reason, BC. Glad you're here. Today on the show, we'll get to UFC 271 stuff. A lot of UFC 271 stuff, so that should be a lot of fun. And believe it or not, I think we're going to have a pretty interesting debate here today. I'm excited for that on the show. Plus, we've got some boxing to get to. Your questions with DMs from donks. Have you seen this shit? We have a lot to get to uh true or false true or false during

super bowl uh at lvi last night uh you had um uh what do you call that movie playing in your house at that moment oh in kanto yes yes no no no we actually did have okay so this is true we actually did have the super bowl on but i but I worked through most of it. Believe it or not, I did tape study through almost the entire version of it, and it didn't really matter because I had planned it. Like, oh, I'm going to take a break during the Super Bowl. I'll just watch that. And then I go outside, and my wife and daughter were asleep

at the National Anthem on. So that was my Super Bowl experience. I just worked. It was great. Great life I have. One thing I told my son at the end of that thrilling game when we both felt for young joe burrow was don't worry joe follows morning combat on ig he's gonna have plenty to be excited about today okay he played well too even through the injury he played well but what are you gonna do um okay we'll talk about the halftime show and whatnot

later i've got to remind everyone this is showtime in. In fact, you can catch BC on Friday on Showtime when he's on Showbox. Why wouldn't you want more BC? Showtime.com, get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, pound sand. BC, who is fighting in the main event on Showbox this weekend? We know how great this lightweight division is in boxing for so many promising young fighters.

You've got two that are looking to enter that group as Jermaine Ortiz, the unbeaten, who Luke just fought prospect Joseph Adornio to an exciting majority draw, is looking to prove that the good stuff he showed in that fight was no fluke when he takes on Nahir Albright, who is one of those rare

fighters, Luke, who's improving as a finisher the more he steps up in class. So I'm looking forward to this tripleheader. Friday night, Orlando, Florida. Barry Tompkins, Rahul Marquette, Steve Farhood, your boy BC. We're going to get down with it.

So I'm very excited. Sounds very good. I'm looking forward to watching it. I certainly will on Friday. I also want to remind folks, let's see, the email. We do it for Wednesday's fan subs. We do it for Friday's Dead Wrong. Or if you need to reach the show, morningcombat at gmail.com will be the email.

And then, BC, I know we have a morningcombat.store thing people can go to. Yes. Because we haven't had a sales pitch in a while. You know, we at times float some nice sales, some nice percentages off. Today, we're just going to tell you, we got the best merch in the game hands down over at morningcombat.store. You want to wear this fantastic new hoodie created by RJ Dunkelmaker and the crew. You want to wear this fantastic dad hat. It's available for you top of the page right now, morningcombat.store.

Luke, well, you would probably agree with this. Are some of our items gaudy if you're not into the jokes? Maybe. But does this shit shit feel comfortable does it make you want to wear it every day luke i know you chose the pastel dress shirt today in honor of easter and i commend that luke as if as if you know as a fellow celebrator of a great holiday but uh i will say that this mk stuff it's for life luke i wear my crap all the time if rj dunkelmaker is watching this i want that hoodie and hat bc wears i have neither of them all right you think rj and i have recovered from the dr nasser joke i mean i thought he was in on what we do here and then people like oh no you might be you might have gone too far this time bc yeah

i mean you only compared him to a guy accused of decades of serial rape i mean why wouldn't he take that lightly i just mean his attention to detail lu Luke, is very high, very high, okay? Yeah, there are probably other ways to communicate that argument versus that. He has the steady hand of a doctor is what I was saying, Luke, okay? Yeah, we'll leave the steady hand comment alone because this is terrible. So let's move on if we can, and let's start with UFC 271. Now, on fight night, I believe BC and I were not terribly far apart but pretty far apart but actually I feel like we've gotten a lot closer still

I did the post fight show BC we are yet to hear from you so I will pitch it to you first and early let's start with a very basic framing of the question and then let's build out from there first things first how did you score the main event between Israel Adesanya and Robert Whitaker at UFC 271? Three rounds to two in favor of Robert Whitaker. I know that's going to set off the same type of bells and whistles and alarms that happened on Twitter as soon as the fight ended. And yeah, I've kept those receipts.

I know who you people are. But here's the point, Luke. I ended up scoring it three rounds to two for Robert Whitaker, but this fight, it was really up for grabs in anyone's fight because this was the ultimate chess match. We came in banging this drum about the potential for this to be a historically relevant, great fight between two all-time greats, two of the greatest middleweights in the history of this sport. And while it didn't have the action and back-and-forth barn burner element, it was a fun-ass watch of the highest skill level across five rounds. But what I'm not here to do today is to convince you or explain to you

that Robert Whitaker, without a shadow of a doubt, is your rightful 48-47 winner in this fight. Or am I here to tell you that most of what BC said he will do was spot on. This fight will go the distance. Robert Whitaker will fight off the back foot and lower the overall striking output and make this a detailed chess match. And, you know, a couple other things he would mix in takedowns to produce the threat of it all of that happened what didn't happen was a consistent back and forth which leaves the scoring very very much open to interpretation

and i think what i do what i do want to accomplish today along with you Luke is at least paint the proper picture of what scoring actually is in terms of the criteria and what we actually saw Saturday night because I think groupthink was completely out of control on this one and I think it was fueled by Michael Bisping and Daniel Cormier on commentary no disrespect to two greats but uh I think overall I don't believe you can come out of this fight, whether you had three rounds to two like two of the judges, or whether you had a scorecard. I just don't understand from referee Mike Beltran,

who was judging the main event, giving four rounds to one in favor of Adesanya, including that fifth round. I don't see how everyone choosing Adesanya at the end of this five-round fight are as confident as they actually are Luke because you will you have to agree with me on one thing okay Whitaker was better than the first fight of course but Whitaker by fighting off the back foot and forcing Adesanya to be the stalker neutralized the great champion took what the what Adesanya does almost better than anybody in the history of the sport, which is stand back in that spider web,

make you come to him and counter you and eventually finish you clean. He took that away from him, similar to what Yoel Romero did. But I thought, Luke, he was offensive enough to have a say when those scorecards were read. I liked Robert Whitaker's confidence afterwards in saying, look, I'm going to take this as a moral win because I feel I won. I don't think either fighter did enough to leave no doubt. But if you're Team Adesanya, if you're Bisping and Cormier, if you're the fans who came at me on Twitter afterwards,

I would love a detailed explanation of everything Adesanya did right to leave no doubt that he won three, even four rounds on this night. Luke, that evidence is just not there. Can't give you four. I can give you three. But before we do that, let's back up a step one more for your scorecard.

Give me your scores round by round. So how did you break up the three for Robert Whitaker? Because I will note, there actually is some, a little bit of disparity about it, but most people, tell me if I'm right, most people who have Whitaker winning have 2-4-5. Is that you?

Yeah, I had 2-4-5. Shout out to Josh Gross, who outed himself to find journalists on Twitter for having the same in the same rounds. Here's the deal, Luke. Round one, obviously, Adesanya all the way, dropped him late, got the better of the striking. I think it was the most offensive Robert Whitaker was in coming forward. And I think he learned a lot that for him to have success, he was going to have to take that step back again, slow the pace and make it strike for strike.

Round five, I thought, I don't see how anyone is scoring round five for ready to hear a lot of Sonia when Robert Whitaker was countering clean throughout, did get a takedown. And look, Luke, I think two, three, and four. I give Whitaker two and four. And I'm here to tell you, round three is no brainer either, okay? Because here's the deal. If you're banking on Israel Adesanya's damage, and I got a lot of tweets saying, look at the faces of both of them afterwards. Yeah, that doesn't mean anything.

I got a lot of things to say about that. First of all, that first round is 10-9. You don't carry that along the rest of the way. He got a knockdown. Congratulations, okay? But you're essentially scoring Adesanya's calf kicks against Whitaker's counter jabs. And for everyone saying, oh, cool that Whitaker got takedowns, but he didn't do damage. Hey, guys, when there is no damage in a round to score, to interpret,

that's when these other categories come into play. Ring generalship. Not quite. Not if there's no damage. If the damage is perceived as even. Okay. To me, no damage is the same thing as equal. Okay, there wasn't no damage, but the damage was so equal

that to act as if at that point takedowns mean nothing limiting Adesanya to one strike at a time means nothing then I don't think everyone understands Luke this sport and how to how to score it at the end of the day I obviously get that there was so much groupthink coming out of that broadcast and believe me I got a paper full of time stamps to show you situations in which Whitaker landed clean shots and not only was the commentary team not recognizing it, they were essentially criticizing him during those same exchanges for not throwing more than one strike at a time. While I agree, Whitaker doesn't get to argue vehemently that he won

because he was throwing one strike at a time. What the heck was Adesanya throwing, Luke? One calf strike at a time. And he was on one strike at a time, what the heck was Adesanya throwing, Luke? One calf strike at a time, and he was on his back, and he had to fight off a choke. All of that stuff matters when the damage is equal. And Luke, go back and rewatch rounds two through five, which I know you did, and I'm sorry, I'm here to tell everybody, all of the damage was equal across the board, meaning not much happened from rounds two through five. So to act unequivocally as if the only way you can win a championship is by hurting the champion, that doesn't work. If the champion's not jabbing, if the champion is not

landing such a higher amount of strikes that there's no argument, or if the champion isn't regularly landing damage. And after round one if the champion isn't regularly landing damage. And after round one, the champion was not regularly landing damage. Luke, again, you can call me Robert Whitaker superfan all you want, but this is not that dissimilar to Romero versus Adesanya from the factor that the champion went to the scorecards and took a major gamble for the second time during this reign, Luke. Okay, so there's a lot there we got to get to um i'm not sure exactly where to start from my end

because i kind of want to meet you in the middle but i will tell you i i let's start with like the scoring we're actually all in lockstep for three of the five rounds we both agree round one is out of sonya's we both agree round fives are whitaker's and when i bring these two up i mean like it's clearly out of signage round one to me it's clearly round five for Robert Whitaker I I am shocked to see that Mike Beltran gave him a gave him the second round but not the fifth I don't I don't get that at all I also agree that Whitaker won the fourth so we are in agreement that the first the fourth and the fifth pretty easy to call it's the second and the third where where things get a little bit um dicey for me let

me tell you how i saw the fight upon rewatch bc and let's see if we can figure out where we differ and then what why that may be i actually share your opinion that a i did think michael bisping was good earlier than earlier in the night and i don't think that like dc and bisping ride for adesanya they may have had a good or bad commentary, but you would agree that like, I don't think they're pushing an Adesanya narrative, like because they really want to see Adesanya win. They just got kind of wrapped up in the moment. I think that's kind of what happened. Um, we can get to that a little later if you want, but this is where I scored it. Round one, Adesanya, right? All, we all agree about that. Round two, this is the controversial round,

but to me, I see the fight a little bit differently. I have gone back and I have watched round two a lot. Now, everyone's going to be different. You're right. It's mostly a decision about what do you count more, some of the jabs that Whitaker got or the leg kicks that Adesanya got. Numerically, which is not qualitatively, Adesanya landed more 16 to 12, and he threw more 49 to 38.

So he was a little bit busier that round that may have influenced the judges. For me, BC, for me, going through round that may have influenced the judges for me bc for me going through round two i cannot find it for robert whittaker i honest to god tried i couldn't do it i still give that one to adesanya let me stop you there if you don't mind one last sentence about it i can admit that you know what what landed more damage do i really know i don't i don't really know but for me it looked like they were having a little bit more authority than what the jabs were doing. That's just where I'm at. I'll say this.

I actually think upon rewatch of rounds two through five, the round where I am the least confident that it was definitely a Whitaker round is round two, which makes sense that that's the swing round. And again, anybody, Richard Mann, anybody who came at me for my awful 48-47 score in favor of Whitaker, which is three to two, guys, two of the three judges had it three to two for Adesanya. So we are talking about a chess match rounds where it's a flip of the coin. So no score here, maybe except for Beltran's, in my opinion, is really out of line. But round two,

Luke, for all the criticism Whitaker had for not being offensive when he scored a takedown and you give Adesanya rightfully credit for popping up fairly quickly across the board and I also understand even some mild criticism for Whitaker for you know not filling those gaps when Adesanya did stand up not being as aggressive on the break as maybe he could have round two two's takedown, the first one of the fight, Whitaker landed three flush punches from top and side position. That's exactly how you, you know, hammer down the impact of a takedown. In round two, if you're going to say without question, that's an oddest on your round,

and I know you're not saying that, Luke, how do you look at the takedown mixed with three flush shots from top position and make a case for Adesanya's work being better than that when Luke you're I mean look the same criticisms Bisping and DC are giving Riddicker throughout for only landing one strike at a time, not stepping in and throwing combinations, you have to give that same criticism to Adesanya because I get that. Not if he's the busier guy, you don't. If he's the busier guy, you don't. In round two, mathematically, he is the busier guy. Not overwhelming enough, and I know you can just as easily flip my argument against me and say, look, Adesanya is the guy coming forward. So if we're really going down to what matters after damage.

To your point, let's just say. I'm saying this. But I know, but I haven't given the, I haven't given the case for what I think is the story of the fight. We're still stuck into the early part of the fight. The fight changes in the next round. This is the story. The story is the scoring and all here.

And what I'm saying is even if you want to use that argument against me, Luke Whitaker's forcing him in and Adesanya is not throwing. is the scoring and all here. And what I'm saying is even if you want to use that argument against me, Luke, Whitaker's forcing him in and Adesanya's not throwing. So in terms of ring generalship across the board, even in round two, Whitaker is controlling that as well. So how are you, even you, Luke, able to give more credit to calf strikes in round two than a guy taking a guy down and landing flush shots? He's taking them flush. I think they had an impact on his movement.

More to the point, the takedown, you know, you said he landed three punches. I looked at him. They didn't look all that heavy to me. They look like they count. I count them. But the total control time, which includes pressing him into the fence or afterwards because he had to run it down, is a total of 52 seconds.

That includes time along the fence line. This is just not, like, for example, we had a criticism that did Francis really do enough on top of Cyril Ghos gone in rounds four and five in their fight he was on top for nearly three minutes each time he had almost six minutes of total control time i don't think he had six minutes robert whitaker collectively over the course of five rounds in fact i don't think he got even close to that so to me it's like he got him to his rear end but here's the thing i was with you like when some of the in the fifth round when he takes the back and threatens the choke that's the best use of takedowns i thought he had almost the entire time if we're excluding the how it set up some of his strikes

um that to me was unimpeachable was great and i grant that he took him down here but here's the thing i actually feel like it's a little unfair to whitaker and a little unfair to izzy izzy's at the point now where his takedown defense and his scrambling is so fucking good. It's actually going to be really hard to beat him that way. Obviously, a bigger dude like Blachowicz was able to do it, but he came from welterweight to middleweight. It's going to be a lot harder for him. So to me, that's not really, I think, yes, could he have done more there? Yeah, probably. Probably he could have done more there, but it's pretty hard. But for me, I just thought the better damage was from adesanya not in

an overly conclusive way i grant you it is it is close but that's the way i saw it but this is where for me this is the change i have be luke and this this is the swing round i know you want to get me out of this round i would much rather be but luke i'll go 60 minutes on round two because if this is the swing round who would you rather be the guy that gets taken down and hit three times he didn't really get taken down dude if you pop right back up that i mean yes it counts but you got to do something with it three shots not a lot with it dude my whole point is i'm not here to tell you value there luke i'm not here to tell you that three punches on top are overly effective but when we're comparing that to counter calf kicks from adesanya in round two. Once again, I don't see the overwhelming argument that it's no doubt.

I don't even get how you score round two for Adesanya. Dude, I just think you count. You don't think those calf kicks are all that impactful. I think they're majorly impactful. I think they have a real benefit. When they land, they have a real benefit. He was lighting them up with those in the second round. When they're not being equaled by clean counter jabs which I think washes those calf strikes in the end I don't

think they I really don't think it does I count the jabs and the jabs end up being the story in many ways of the fight for Robert Whitaker certainly I would agree but in round two they were just not cooking enough for me but this is what I was trying to get to BC and this is where the revelation that I had here's what's kind of interesting for me I watched round two several times I couldn't find it for Whitaker and then we moved to round three and through the first four minutes of that round I'm like dude Whitaker's winning round three better than he's winning around like I was heading into round the the end of round three I was like dude this is Whitaker's round but I think what changed it and this is really what saved Adesanya I think ultimately is that the 42 second mark of round number three,

he lands either a leg or a calf kick, but it's the kind that drove a big reaction from Robert Whitaker. He actually lifts it, not as a blocking mechanism, but after he gets hit and then kind of stumbles a little bit. It was really demonstrative. And then after that, from the 42-second mark on, Izzy lands a series of hard punches that land straight to Whitaker's face, following up, and Whitaker backs up.

In other words, I think he kind of stole the round at the very end there by that last push. But this is what I wanted to say, BC. To me, that fight turns at the three-round mark. When the third round starts, what I learned from watching that upon review was that Whitaker took away everything Adesanya wanted to do. He stayed away, for example, like Fury did against Wilder where he had to double jab to get into range, which he didn't do the first time. He was able to intercept and get off the center line and throw his jab and then follow behind it.

Then later on, as we noted in the fourth and fifth rounds, bringing in more of of the wrestling and the control time in the third round was one minute and 38 seconds now that is pretty good that is substantial that's the kind you just can't overlook what do I bring this up to say BC the two biggest things to me that cost Robert Whitaker maybe you could throw in do more with the takedowns but I honestly believe that Adesanya we just got to respect it at this point his ability to get up off the mat, especially along the fence line, and then defend the takedown there is great. What I think cost Whitaker is, one, that 42-second push in round three, and, dude, he got started cold.

He got started cold. If that fight was one more round, there's not a doubt in my mind Robert Whitaker wins that contest. But the fact that he started, I think he was right to stay centered, right don't make too many mistakes don't get overwhelmed I got it but Izzy came out hot so we took the first round right away and now Robert has to win three of the next four and they're going to be close and difficult you shift that back one round the guy who started round two if the guy who started round two starts round one Robert Whitaker is your new UFC middleweight champion of the world I am sure of that look you, you know, I gave, I scored, what, the Romero fight three to two.

And I don't have nearly the confidence I do in this scoring. Nothing happened in that fight as well. I think it came down to interpretation of the guy coming forward and Adesanya throwing leg strikes or the guy landing heavy counter shots in Romero once in a while. Again, I thought neither man in that fight had the argument that they definitely should have won. And now look, this is the second time Adesanya is, look, leaving it up to interpretation, leaving it up to the judges on lack of overall output that they'll

reward supposedly his harder and cleaner shots. And while your argument for round three being Adesanya based on that late surge, again, if you interpret it that way, that's fine. But you know what round three was filled with? Every time Whitaker did have success, ducking under the jab and countering with clean ones on his own, you had DC and Bisping pointing out how much his one strike approach won't work. And then Luke, and I think here ultimately here ultimately look these guys aren't judges but they do so they do paint a narrative that becomes overpowering when you're watching at home and you're not scoring or you're watching at home and you maybe don't understand the nuances the same there was constant talk in round three and even the first half of four about how what

whittaker is doing cannot take the belt from a champion as great as Adesanya. Again, guys, that argument holds no value when the champion has no output, because at the end of the day, you don't have to take the belt from the champion, which is the working narrative. You have to win three of the five rounds against the champion. So we really have to move off of that idea of looking at it because even though Adesanya wasn't getting bruised bloodied he also wasn't effective really Luke after the first round you like that pocket of strikes at the end of round three that's fine well he wasn't more I think if I'm just asked like if I'm trying to think like how did the judges give it to him I can't think of any other reason to give it to him but for that that's all I'm saying it's tough and you know i'm not here to kill bisping and cormier just the same but also in

fairness to cormier didn't he by the end of that fight be like i don't know mike i think there's some pretty yeah swing rounds in the middle he started to tease that in round four which i thought was a not a clear but again when you're matching up the very little amount of offense that happened i favored whitaker's because yeah well, look, let me ask you this, okay? And to your, okay, to close on that point, yes, at the end of round four, Bisping says, look, I got it four to nothing. You got to take the belt from the champion, which is wrong. DC Conner said, I don't know, Mike, I think it might be closer and interpreted better. Luke, while we are overly praising Adesanya for getting up right away when taken down, and obviously you give him that credit.

Outside of the three punches he took in round two on the ground. He really didn't take any damage the rest of the way. And he got out of that choke, but because he's not doing much once he's getting back up and because he didn't even attempt to take down against Whitaker, let alone do it. Don't you favor those interactions and exchanges for Whitaker because he's taking the champion off of his game, forcing him to use energy to fight up? I'm not saying you would use that as your lead defense of why Whitaker could have won a round because no, he's not offensive enough in those situations. But when the damage is equal, don't those work in his favor?

Even if it's one takedown per round, it's the one mixed with the multiple attempts. I mean, as much as people don't like when we overly score takedowns that don't come with action, it sounds a lot like we're overly scoring the fact that Adesanya got up so quickly each time, even though he's getting taken down cleanly. Well, for the folks who don't know the rules, I'm not saying UBC, but for folks out there,

defense is supposed to be counted as its own reward. So Izzy should not be awarded metaphorical points for getting out of a takedown or escaping a submission. The idea would be if you stuff the takedown, if you get out of a submission, the reward is you're no longer being threatened. You're no longer being taken down. So for folks who don't know that, I would agree that if you see the damage as equivalent, like you've just looked at, you're like, I don't know, man. It looks the same to me. And then one guy gets a takedown, even if it's pretty fleeting. Now, if it's super you're like I don't know man it looks the same to me and then one guy gets a takedown even if it's pretty fleeting now if it's super fleeting I don't know about that but you know sits his rear end down or whatever uh yeah I would decide

that would be a that would be a tiebreaker in those instances and to me uh in that fourth and fifth round those I don't know if there were tiebreakers but the the the grappling work that he was doing, especially in that fifth round, but even in the fourth round, it adds to the overall body of work. And I would also argue that I don't think the striking is equal in round four. I actually think Robert Whitaker did a better job. So he doesn't even need that fact.

But to your point, yes, it would be a tiebreaker. In four and five, how did Whitaker get those takedowns? By ducking jabs coming at him and going right for the take so look there's a lot you have to like Luke I want to throw to some Michael Chandler tweets as we close sort of the debate about scoring here because while while Chandler was I think more aggressive than the case I'm ultimately trying to paint and maybe extra critical of Adesanya I do want to get your take as to whether there's merit in here. Gaff, if we could throw up a series of about four tweets here from Chandler. He started off saying, for as dominant as Izzy is,

he isn't overly offensive. And look, you've got to agree that's true. And I think you've got to agree that that's because of Robert Whitaker. I will agree it's true, but I think people don't understand why. It's actually a revelation I had. Let's come back to this. Okay. Tweet number two here in this in this run here by uh one michael chandler we playing a game or are we fighting asking that's i mean michael's entitled to his opinion i love michael

but he also tweeted what are we playing touch but now so you get that but we're we're building a narrative here luke he says trust me i love izzy but we've gotten to a point where a dominant champ just needs to stand there, throw a few shots per round, and he will not lose unless he gets caught, and he will always get the nod. Izzy got paid on his last contract. Go fight. Don't you dare spar. Luke, I'm not advocating per se to the, hey, Izzy, you're rich now.

Why don't you go out there and give us a fight? Dude, you want to play chess? It's in play. You want a John want to play chess? It's in play. You want a John Fitcher fight? It's in play. But my question, is there any merit in that after two very close fights, Romero and now Robert Whitaker, where you can criticize the champ for,

if not criticize the champ, criticize the combination of judging and the groupthink created by the announcers for basically saying because the champion's not in peril, he's not losing this round. Right. I mean, that should never be in play, but you're asking, like, whether it should or shouldn't be. Is it?

I don't know how you can say that that's not true when you look at a scorecard like Mike Beltran. Like, if Mike Beltran had had one through four for Izzy and then around five excuse me yeah one through four for Izzy and around five for Whitaker I know that you would still disagree with that scorecard BC but I could at least rationalize that I could rationalize you know okay of all the rounds you gave him you gave him the fifth that would make sense but to not give him the fifth and then to give him the second i i just don't know how you can argue that like champions in mma and ufc sometimes don't win just by virtue of the inertia of their championship i think there's probably a lot of evidence for that to be honest with you how much

on saturday night we can debate but do i think it's a relevant factor yeah yeah i do all right final final tweet here from chandler which is maybe further explaining his side. I'm not advocating banging over tactically fighting. I'll pick banging over tactically fighting if you know what I'm saying on Valentine's Day. Looks like the V stands for vaping, bitch. I'm trying to advocate for a spirit of inflicting dominance in the face of danger.

Don't play it safe. Take more chances. I don't need you to plot forward with reckless abandon, but have a little anger in your heart. End quote. Luke, obviously this is a consider the source. You know, Chandler's one of the greatest action fighters of all time. He welcomes the danger. That's not necessarily Izzy unless you're coming after him, which is what Whitaker did in the first fight, and you're just, you know, then he can use his strengths against you. Do you think if you're Eugene Bearman and company

that you do have to understand you may have dodged a bullet in the Romero fight and the Whitaker fight here, and you can't keep doing this or you're going to lose three rounds to two in a point fight if you're not, like Chandler says, a little bit more angry and wanting to prove your point. So I don't think that that's the best way to describe it,

but I think you guys are both on to something. Here is the revelation that I had about watching Adesanya this time that should have occurred to me before. It's kind of obvious, but it's worth stating out loud. I don't think this is some grand revelation, but just think about something. Let's try this exercise very simply. Let's imagine a scenario. It's not Robert Whitaker.

It's somebody else. Let's say that Israel Adesanya is in the fight of his life and he's down four rounds to zero. We're heading into the fifth. He's beat up, but he's not so beat up that you couldn't imagine a rally. After all, it is Israel Adesanya. But let's imagine that those first four rounds are just like, there's no doubt he lost him like whatever that means he lost him everyone agrees it's either knockout submission or you lose what would Adesanya do in the fifth round tactically do you believe in your heart of hearts if he went into that fifth round he would choose to wrestle as a way to switch things up do you believe that no right and that is the point here is what i realized about adesanya he fights only one way he fights only one way one of the big revelations they have a lot of tricks that he pulls off but one of the big revelations of the blachowicz fight was i've talked about this he took away not all of

it but he took away a lot of the leg kicking in part by taking him off of his feet in part by checking a lot of it that forced adesanya to go and box a little bit more, and from there, Blachowicz was quite competitive with him. He could actually do a lot with it. In other words, while Adesanya is as... I mean, no one has said more nice things about him in the last four years than me, and I still believe all those things. What I mean to say is he only really fights one kind of way.

If you shut off the spigot of leg kicks it shuts off a dramatic portion of his offense because he's not going to go to these other levels could he go to a takedown could he go to the back i'm actually sure that he could but he doesn't well let me finish i gotta get this out bc i gotta get it out the point being get it out i want to hear it luke okay the point i'm trying to make here is one of the things that's going to cost him is because he keeps fighting everyone more or less the same way. Now he has different degrees of success, smaller tactics that he employs, some things he wants to do in terms of a very granular approach.

But he's going to strike with you. He's going to use his leg kicks. He's going to try and jab. And he's going to try and just do that. He's not going to try and take you down. He's not going to try and look for the back. And so what you saw from Robert Whitaker was a transformation that allowed him to account for those. What I'm arguing is I think Izzy is the rightful winner on Saturday. I grant it's close, but I think he's the rightful winner. However, it is clear that people are figuring out how to

fight him, how to take pieces of his game away. And because he doesn't have very many pieces in terms of the overall body of what MMA offers, shutting off just one or two has an enormous impact on his influence offensively. Look, not only do I agree with you wholeheartedly, although you're leaning heavy on the, if he can't calf kick you, he can't have success. I agree with you so much because this is what I said on Friday's show, meaning to be able to pull this off, you have to be Robert Whitaker level. You have to be well-rounded, tough, all that.

We already said, even though I predicted a Whitaker win, that it would be an uphill battle. But what I said was, I'm not going to call Adesanya one-dimensional because it's insulting and essentially says he has no other way of winning a fight. And look, he's too great. That's not true. But he's so much more likely to win a fight if you come at him. And he only comes forward when the tables have turned, when he is now going downhill because his opponent is either fatigued

or Izzy has completely figured out their rhythms, similar to the second half of the first round against Brunson, where it's just, okay, he's going to go now into first gear and he's going to put it on you. If you take that away from him and make him come forward, obviously you're going to have to be super elite to pull it off. And like DC rightfully said ahead of the fight, you may have to be super elite to pull it off and like DC rightfully said ahead of the fight you may have to be boring and risk you know getting booed by the crowd to do it but it is possible because if you stay in that strength of Izzy that what makes him so great that spider web nobody's coming out of that you're gonna get pieced up but if you make him think and come forward

look he's not the same fighter it's just a fact now I just want to point out just to go back to the thing I I I'm more or I'm more or less agree with that I'm more or less agree I think it's a little bit overstated but I think you're generally correct but I just want to go back if St. Pierre has been striking for four rounds and he's down in the fifth he's coming I mean he's going to wrestle before that but the point being is he would wrestle before that in part because he can and in part because. He's coming out. I mean, he's going to wrestle before that. But the point being is he would wrestle before that, in part because he can and in part because he would need to. I think it's worth thinking about.

There are guys like Adesanya whose striking is so good that he can lord it over the division. But as a division gets mature and wise to a guy who competes in a similar, nearly identical kind of way, again, there are subtle and meaningful differences. That should be noted. But because he keeps going back to that well, they have picked up on what works and what doesn't and it took him a long time to do it but the i'm not gonna say the cat's out of the bag but for the

high level operators they've got much much much more of a roadmap and if izzy can't find other gears not just like defensively wrestling the way he did is phenomenal dude even robert whitaker couldn't really do shit to him on the ground, not in a meaningful way. Enough to win certain pockets of the fight, yes, of course. But you know what I'm saying? Like, he didn't dominate him like he did Kelvin Gastelum. Dude, we got to give him to him.

Izzy can do that. But that's not the same as taking another guy down and backpacking him. Or Izzy, you know, being good at ground and pound, and that being a way he wins fights. Like, Chet Congo, completely different fighter, but he was a striker when he got into UFC, and now in Bellator, he's just a fucking wrestle ground and pounder. He found other ways to find ways to win.

I think if Adesanya wants to have continued success, that's going to be important to really add those layers. He's going to have trouble without it. Let me say this up front here. Adesanya is one of my favorite fighters of all time. He's amazing. I favored him to beat blachowicz i think you know he's still number what is he number two pound for pound at worst i mean this guy's great but i did get a little felix trinidad feeling let me explain this to you luke you remember felix trinidad and boxing in the late

90s he was unstoppable at 147 15, just by walking dudes down with that pressure. It's almost the opposite of Adesanya. He was more coming at you at all times. But Oscar De La Hoya, in that very controversial loss, and again, you have to be a super elite to pull this off, created a blueprint where Trinidad just wasn't the same fighter if you are circling away from him and making him chase because he's so much better at chasing you on his terms, you know, sitting down on his shots and letting his combinations go.

But when you are just making him chase, it's different. What did Bernard Hopkins use to finally beat him in that great fight at middleweight? The blueprint that he put out there. So, you know, I'm not fearing that Adesanya is the death star here and that some, you know, some orphaned pilot from Tatooine is going to be the guy that eventually implodes it. I'm just saying, Luke, it's going to be interesting moving forward

to your point, and I'm wondering, truthfully, if now's the time to go up to 205 full-time, where you can lean much more in the speed and technique advantages um I don't know Luke it's an interesting debate it certainly is an interesting debate let's before we move to Rob Woodhurt let's say one last thing about Izzy for me again I think you would agree it's not hard I mean okay there is even you would agree there is a case for Adesanya to win this fight and for me I I can't find three rounds for Whitaker although I again I think the story of the fight is that it turned in the third and what he did was really the

impressive part still for Adesanya and I made this point on Saturday I do want to make sure we get say something nice about the champion here because he did win and again I do think personally he is the rightful winner BC you would agree however close this fight was and it was close we knew Whitaker was going to be a tough customer. It is, to me, quite remarkable that a guy like Adesanya, when Anderson Silva came to the UFC, he already had four losses. Different career, different era, I understand. And then what he did in his 30s was unbelievable. But to be undefeated in MMA all the way through, now other guys in your division, including former champions, getting a second crack at you and to still be undefeated,

especially when you fight kind of one way the whole time, it is remarkable. He is a special champion. That's why even guys like Robert Whitaker, as good as he did, even he had to really kind of struggle to get three rounds from him. Adesanya is a fucking force and has been. He's great. He's great. That's why if you had a 3-2

Adesanya yeah I mean that you know he he you know what he did Luke he avoided getting any kind of serious trouble and into it to a certain degree that's what champions do obviously I just need I need something more I need a consistent jab I need something Luke his kicking game you know I mean look the the calf kicks kept him in it in my mind if I'm scoring at 3-2 Whitaker but I don't think there was enough constant threat of his kicking game constant threat of high kicks funny you mentioned that yeah he was strong with it for the first two rounds and then kind of got away from it a little bit which was funny because I re-watched the Blachowicz fight ran a different fight okay but through two rounds he was heavy with the kicking there and then kind

of got away from it a little bit which could be just you know the way in which he likes to fight i'm not sure what best explains that but you're right it wasn't a uh it had its moments it had its moments but it wasn't a consistently applied technique uh in a way that you would imagine it could have been i think that's probably pretty fair luke, isn't Izzy the same age John Jones was at light heavyweight when the others started catching up with him a bit, when you could have scored it for Maheta or Dom Reyes? And to be fair, Luke, you know, and I've said this in the Maheta fight, you could have scored that 3-2 against John, and the criticism against John would have been, you're not offensive enough. You're playing it a little too safe.

You're trying to be a little too perfect. They're catching up. They're catching up to Izzy, Luke. I don't think it's as much due to timing and physicality as maybe for Jones, but they're catching up, Luke. So what's happening is we've got to move to Whitaker, but what's happening here is I think he's had these winning performances like Romero, the Blachowicz not, but a lot of these winning performances, second Vittori fight, this one as well, where you're seeing that guys will have a little bit of success here or there, and you begin to be like, oh, that's why they're having success. To me, Whitaker is the first guy to take a lot of that and then put that together. Learned practices about what works and what doesn't.

Sometimes through trial and error, by the way, in the case of Whitaker. What works, what doesn't. Let's put together the best game plan we can against that. To me, this is the best one I've seen against Adesanya ever. Final question. Blahovich won, but in terms of other middleweights. Final question. I mean, is 3-2 Romero crazy, Luke?

Yeah, I don't buy the 3-2 Romero. I don't see that. Sorry. All right, that's fair. Let's talk about Whitaker. This is one more question about this. Point number two, it'll be in the rundown. Let's just move to that because we more or less got everything in point number one.

Where does Robert Whitaker go from here? Because he was calling for a third fight. At the time, I didn't think much of it. Dean White didn't think much of it. Even though I've had a greater appreciation for what he's done BC I don't see a lot of people urgently calling for that and if Izzy goes to 205 Kamaru could come up if you're advising Robert Whitaker on his next step what do you say you got to stay at middle weight because he's too small for light heavyweight obviously look you could say really for as close as these guys fought on saturday night the fact that he's that much

shorter and and has a length disadvantage against somebody like izzy who's obviously not only tall and long but incredibly skilled and quick to go with that that that height and reach advantage you know did a lot to keep him uh on the outside and not able to throw multiple shots at a time so it's got to stay at middleweight, but Luke, you know, it's something that he did mention after the fact, when they did ask him about what's next and could you get a trilogy down the line?

The only thing you can do given his age is go back, face the next top guy at middleweight and, you know, win as many as you'll have to win in a short period to get another title shot. And to your point, it may be, is he again,

once he, once Robert, you know, if he does, it clears out everybody else in front of him, or it could be a completely different fighter. Izzy could very well, you know, after this fight next against Cannoneer, if they end up doing it, could move up to 205 then full-time. And I think again, that's, that might be the right move for Izzy to take the time to put on the weight properly and do it. And to sort of say, look, this is chapter two of my career. I've more or less cleaned out middleweight.

Maybe I got cannon near left and that's it. But I think if you're Whitaker, Luke, you are still right here below Adesanya at middleweight and everybody else is right about here, right? I mean, Whitaker, he had some close fights in that three-fight win streak to get here, but he proved each time he's the guy in each one. He's going to have to prove it again Luke but I think he will and I think that's the right mindset because he's not done competing for the UFC middleweight title I don't think how how the hell could you say that after this fight yeah I

would agree this is not Anderson Silva Rich Franklin right in the rematch with with Rich Franklin Anderson wiped the floor with him or you know and the rematch well I guess that was the first time was different but in the third fight, you know, Liddell picked up off where he did on the second fight. Or, you know, these times you've had these dominant weight class guys and then the challenger come up, like, you know, Uriah Faber to Aldo.

They were just never really that close. It was never really, there was one guy who was better than the rest of the guys and then there was one guy ahead of that. You have that dynamic. Whitaker is better than the rest of the guys and can't beat the other one. But here's the difference.

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Rise to it with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. The credit card that rewards your good financial habits. Earn points for paying your credit card bill in full and on time every month. Level up from bill payer to reward slayer terms and conditions apply rich franklin as i mentioned got run over these other guys were never close dude whittaker was real close like really really close i know the scores don't reflect that per se but the reality reflects that so if i was advising robert whittaker i'd be the same as you stay at

middleweight stay patient stay calm i know that's not what you want to hear, but there is at a bare minimum another title fight in your future in this weight class, if not the belt itself, and potentially who knows against who. And just to counteract you, to come at you a little bit, you just said the scores didn't indicate that. Yeah, they did indicate how close it was. Two of the three judges had three.

46 doesn't indicate how close it was. Okay, that's one, and it's a bad scorecard. The other two tell you this is a 3-2 fight, which tells you that if one of those swing rounds are seen the other way. You know what I'm saying? There's not the kind of push based on the results afterwards, enough that the public accepts that there should be some kind of rematch. So in that sense, the scores and then the attitude don't reflect the closeness.

And I don't want to criticize Adesanya without saying the same and i said this on cbs sports hq after the fight the reason why rid of whitaker again didn't win this and doesn't have the overwhelming argument to is he also took that same chance that the judges might reward his art and craft against adesanya when there was such little offense landing so luke if whittaker had been busier which bisping in in cormier wanted him to would you say he more than likely could have got pieced up and stopped if he was so that was sort of the best fight he could have fought i just go back to it dude i think that cold start really hurt him like can you really gripe with his performances from again some people might think you run one round two it's dicey whatever but can you really gripe with his performances from, again, some people might think you run one round two, it's dicey, whatever,

but can you really gripe with his performances after round three? I don't think you can. I really don't. I don't think you can. But that cold start fucked him. It really did. And you should give credit. The hot start from Izzy absolutely was essential.

Coming out, I mean, you could argue, by the way, BC, he started a little bit too hot because it gave him that advantage in the first round but then he kind of faded down the stretch but it was crucial in how the fight was defined at least according to the judges that he came out i think we shouldn't lose sight of that he came out really hot dropped him and that might have set the intellectual tone or the or however they were perceiving it for the entirety of that fight at least up until the fifth anyway so and as much as I want to say Izzy wasn't busy enough to fill everybody's argument, through two fights, he's proved he's the better fighter.

There's no question about that, which is my point of saying, had Whitaker been busier, I think he'd get stopped. So I think he fought really the perfect fight to have an argument. But even if we say negative things about Izzy, he's the better fighter through now nearly seven full rounds against one another. That's why you can't gripe about him surviving and advancing at the end. That's right.

I mean, this is the wake-up call to everybody. It's like, dude, Robert Whitaker had basically seven rounds, seven times he got to come out from the back of the corner. Obviously, the first round doesn't count exactly that way, but seven times, are you ready? Are you ready? Go. He's had that, and he couldn't get the win.

And again, I feel like Adesanya is the rightful winner from Saturday. But the wake-up call, the lesson here is, okay, let's say, obviously, Izzy won the first time. Totally fair. Second time, very, very close, at a bare minimum, very close. But the lesson here is, dude, look at the ground that Whitaker gained on him and what he had by the end of

that fifth the way in which Adesanya competes is overwhelming for some but for the right kind of operator they can read all the patterns because it's kind of focused on one two dimensions of the game there aren't these other threats I really think that's going to be something you're going to see people take advantage of if some of those things don't change on Adesanya's end going forward. Do you think, final question, final, final, final question, do you think Jared

Cannoneer, Sean Strickland, Paulo Costa, anybody else in the top 10 who's hoping to get either their first or another chance at Izzy, do they exit 271 more confident in their chances? I think we'll talk about Cannoneer in a second. I definitely feel like he likes his chances. Now, you could say that's delusion. You could say he's right, but Cannoneer is going in there to win

whenever they fight, and I don't think there's any debate about that, but I also feel like whoever these guys are, you're going to all have to see Robert Whitaker eventually, and yes, good luck. You're going to need have to see Robert Whitaker eventually. Yes. Good luck. You're going to need it. All right. Point number three. Let's talk about the co-main event.

What a fucking fight this was in its own kind of way. Taito Iwasa easily gets the win of his career, knocking out Derek Lewis. I called it a one-shot elbow on Saturday. Yes, there was this whole skirmish before, but it was the one elbow against the fence and then he drops. I realized he'd been hit before that, but okay. That's why I said it that way. Either way, BC doesn't matter in your mind, based on what you saw from Tui Vossable, talk about his upside and everything else in a minute. Was that the kind of fight that told you he deserved a title shot? Wow. Wow. Uh, not yet, but he made a massive freaking leap. And the only reason I say not yet, Luke, is look, there's a bottleneck here.

We don't know if Francis is coming back. Jon Jones is about to make his debut. Stipe wants a big fight. I mean, there's a little bit of a—there's some business in front of him. But look, obviously, first and foremost, dude, let me take that L, and let me take it really hard. Luke, you mentioned easily beat Derek Lewis. There's nothing easy about this fight.

You know what Tui Bossa had to do? I mean, sorry. If I said that, I didn't mean to say that. Let me correct it. Not easily. He actually had to work for it. But he won, let's say, emphatically. I think that's it.

He had to get up off the ground in the first round multiple times. He had to eat some pretty serious shots along the cage wall. And that's when you saw Ty really go into fight or flight mode. And he chose to fight and stand in there. But, Luke, why did I say I don't see a path to victory? Why did I just kind of crap on to his chances here? I underestimated his infighting, which certainly led to the finish and his ability to force a clinch and have success there where from distance, look, Lewis is going to knock you out. And, you know, number two, Luke, it wasn't that one shot, that jab that he landed before that elbow,

I think that put Lewis straight up on queer street. I think he hurt him and had him ready to go. I think Lewis imploded surprisingly once again, Luke, and I had to feel bad for Derek after this. You know, this was the Houston redemption of the Houston redemption where he brought nothing to the table against Cyril Ghosn. And oh, by the way, Cyril Ghosn's great.

So that thing ended the way it did. But once this stopped going Derek Lewis's way, Luke, the fight was over to the point that I got people DMing me going, bro, have the balls to say it on MK on Monday. Lewis quit. No, I don't think he quit. No, but there was an implosion

that happened and luke we only get to that implosion point like juliana painier against amanda nunes if tui vasa is that tough and that opportunistic and daring to be great luke remember i would mention in you know mk Instagram follower, Joe Burrow and how, you know, he's so cool under pressure and his youth coach had said, he's got this sort of, you know, not natural as a child ability to navigate stress in tough situations. And look, you know, the great ones in anything have that. I wasn't, you know, I had no reason to believe Ty Tuivasa had that Luke, but the only thing that was easy in the end, I guess, was how cool he was through the whole process.

He never seemed afraid that he was stepping up in class so high against the greatest finisher in the sports history. And, you know, he took some big shots, delivered it like ho-hum, and I actually think his post-fight celebration was almost muted to what I expected. There was part of Tui Vassa that acted like this was what was going to happen all along, Luke.

And we're not naive to not realize that it's heavyweights, and you got two bangers, anything can happen. And again, that's why Vegas was smarter than BC and had Tui Vassa as only like a plus 40 underdog. But Luke, would you agree? Ty Tuivasa has a certain poise and calmness in chaos that allows him to do what he did on Saturday night. I don't think there's any debate. I think that's 100% true.

Both of us were wrong on this one. We both thought, I think we had a pretty high assessment of Tuivasa, but we both thought Lewis was going to win, and so I'll take that L as well. I'll hold it. Tuivasa, you know, it was funny. People were like we both thought Lewis was going to win, and so I'll take that L as well. I'll hold it. Tuivasa, you know, it was funny. People were like, oh, he won because he brawled. I don't, I mean, sort of, right?

But not really, not really. Like, here's what I mean, BC. You're right about the jab. Also, that elbow off the clinch he used in a previous fight, almost identically. That's like a weapon he has honed, and it makes a lot of sense.

Either they ricochet off the fence and you catch them with the elbow, or you hit them with the elbow and then their head has nowhere to ricochet, and so they absorb the full blast of it. Either way, it worked. It was phenomenal. But to your point, you know, he brawled a little bit. He certainly brawled a little bit in the first and especially in that second round.

They were swinging and banging at times. But to me, BC, he was doing it a lot when he was really under pressure and he was just trying to get Derek Lewis lewis off of him um or along the fence line and he would have these chaotic moments but i would point that to you that he was a little bit restrained by it and in the end what won him that was not the throw and at range all crazy like it was to your point the infighting wrapping up getting control of situation, and then exerting known forms of offense that he had done previously and then bringing it back here, and it worked. Now, it also should be known when he was getting –

dude, how he took those shots from Lewis when he was getting up off the canvas, I think in the first round, and Lewis was just hammering him. He did lean on his chin there just to save him there that was nothing tactical about except to get up but but in general what I think you saw was a guy who can still brawl who still will brawl but BC this guy's got more layers to him he's got some gears that he can hit and at 29 years old I don't think he's ready for a title shot but I think he is absolutely top four top five at bare minimum in that division, has a lot of room for growth. Well, five fights in a row, a winning streak,

and then you put somebody to Derek Lewis' class. We have to readjust the conversation. The UFC has not updated their rankings as of now on Monday morning, Luke. They still have him at number 11. Where do you think he belongs now in the top ten after a win like this? Man, so what, Lewis was sitting at three? I'm not sure who's sitting at one and two i guess gone and miochic are probably somewhere in there right so he'd be

right below that and then blades thing is you know the one win over derrick is a late uh is a win that derrick excuse me that curtis blades could not get and so for that reason you could potentially put him right at three they could sub out the spot i guess i'm just sort of pointing out who i think his company is whether or not it's the actual numerical designation given to him. Now, I still think, BC, a guy like Curtis Blades represents an interesting challenge. One Derek Lewis was able to pass, but that doesn't mean that Taito Iwasa necessarily is able to pass it.

And we would both agree, Ghan and Nganou are the class of the division. We'll see what happens with Stipe Miocic and Jon Jones and everyone else. But he has put himself among his peers. Let me quickly tell you what's going on in this top 10 okay luke because number five right now alexander volkoff is going to be fighting tom aspinall who's number 10 on march 19th so they're busy curtis blades is going to be fighting chris dawkus on march 26th and they are both in the top 10. They are busy. Do you match, and he may have a fight, Rosenstruck may have a fight scheduled, and I just don't know it, but do you match Tuivasa with Jairzino Rosenstruck so you can allow Jon Jones and Stipe to fight for

the interim title, which feels, it feels like it's coming, Luke, because Dana did say he met with Francis again. He did say Francis is going to be out a while, and given a torn MCL, among other things, around his knee, that makes sense. Whether Francis fights again in the UFC or not, dude, given the star power of Stipe and John, even BC will tell you, go ahead and put an interim title on that. Make it even more special.

Stipe versus John for the IC belt, Luke, is massive, okay? It's an event. matters it's John's debut So is the next Best gift for Tuivasa A step down against somebody Like Rosenstruik or just keep him there In the chair in the prime position And save him for the second half of the year

Against a really big name So he's got about against Marching Tybura at UFC 273 That's Volkanovski versus the korean zombie okay if he wins that i like that fight i don't know if that works out for the timeline but to your point either way does it make sense depending on how you match make two e does it make sense to give john and steep in internet or a not international excuse me an interim title especially as you noted francis has got some knee issues to work out.

It could be, well, yeah, I don't really mind that. I don't think that's the very best use of interim belts, but it's hardly the worst, so why not, right? I think Ty fights whoever looks great winning those three matchups we talked about. It could be Volkov, for all we know. It could be whoever really comes out of there with a strong win. You're going to see Ty, two of us, on that level moving forward. And you know what? Five wins and knocking out Derek Lewis in his

hometown? It's freaking justified, Luke. By the way, we should note something. Derek Lewis scored two of three takedowns in the first round. How about Derek Lewis taking a page out of old Francis Ngannou's book and wrestling a little bit, adding some gears. This is what I mean going back to the Adesanya

conversation. Dude, Derek Lewis, if he could reasonably get the fight to the ground if he needed to or something his ground and i mean his control on the ground is not great but his ground and pound is fucking ferocious it adds another layer of depth and complexity and difficulty to his game i really feel like uh it was a nice little thing he did there it's a growing heavyweight trend and i thought he did it well. And he's obviously so big that, you know, when he gets on it, if Derek gets on top of you and he can land that Lesnar-style ground and pound, look, that's the same thing I said.

If Francis could develop that consistently, we could all be in trouble. All of us. We could all end up getting killed by Francis. But let me ask you quickly, is Jon Jones going to wrestle at heavyweight, Luke, or is it going to all be quick defensive boxing? I think he's going to wrestle in the clinch at heavyweight I think he's going to do a lot of that a lot of throwing guys around trips that sort of thing by the way targeting by Derek Lewis he targeted almost 90 percent to the head to Ivasa just 50 percent to the head 37 percent to the body we don't talk about it fair amount of body work at least in terms of targeting by Ty to Ivasa just a dude you know i gotta say he did brawl a little bit but he mixed in a lot

of other things that clearly showed he was trying to think through problems that's what you're looking for and when you add in all the power and everything else he can do it's a formidable competitor you got there after the fight in the interview tuivasa at the press conference wasn't talking like oh shit man i'm you, one win away from a title shot. He was framing the narrative more around Derek Lewis brought something to this division as like that guy. Right. The knockout guy. I think this was a changing in the guard in that regard. Do you do you see that as being true? We'll see, dude, because here's the thing. Lewis, if you look at overall ability,

should Lewis be a guy who's beaten Curtis Blades? And the answer is the way in which he set up the uppercut was beautiful. Like, yes. But what I mean is you would imagine that on paper, a guy like Curtis Blades should win more often than a guy like Derek Lewis, or rather win against a guy like Derek Lewis more often, although we realize that on paper isn't always the way that things translate. Taito Iwasa has to pass that test. Beating Derek Lewis is insanely difficult,

but it doesn't mean the same thing. Even if you consider it to be a higher quality win, it's still a very, very different challenge than, A, what Volkov will bring. That's going to be another interesting fight. And then if they can make it, although Aspinall might beat him. Aspinall is another guy to pay attention to. But what I'm trying to make is um about Lewis Lewis passed that test but that

has no bearing on whether Tui Vassa can because it requires a set of skills that we just don't know if Tui has those particular ones so I I actually feel like Curtis Blades is a great test for gone for for Taito Iwasa for a lot of guys in that division hell yeah uh all right so let's talk about the other fight on this card BC because this was like you know people were shitting on this car but it had some interesting moments certainly the the I would call it the feature bout not the main not the co-main but the feature bout point number four how about the fucking elbows of Jared Cannoneer good lord he's your number one contender with a bullet afterwards Dana White was like yeah I'm not saying no to that guy.

How could you? BC, how does he do? Before we talk about the fight itself, you kind of hinted at this a little bit. Give me the best case scenario for Kananir. What I mean is not winning or losing. What can he do to the champion based on what you've seen both on Saturday and in previous fights? Well, look, you know, Kananir is the ultimate puncher's chance in this division, but he's more than that, Luke.

But he's got to find, and I gave him credit in the preview of this fight. I said, I think he's going to knock out Brunson, and I think that, you know, he showed you against Kelvin Gastelum that he really understood what he needed to learn from the loss to Robert Whitaker, where he proved that he's at that level. He hurt Whitaker in the final minute. But look, you know, in that fight, outside of the leg strikes, Kananir wasn't a huge

threat in terms of consistent offense. He's got to find a way to be more consistent, either with a jab or something. But Luke, are you telling me, could he attempt to model something that Whitaker did in it and at the very least slowing down the output and the pace of the fight and establishing him as the scary, heavier counterpuncher, oh, hell yeah, he can do that. If I'm Kananir, I want to make Inada Sanya come forward and try to chip away at my legs or try to jab me and let me counter him,

let me go after his legs from a counter defensive position. This could be an interesting fight. And I heard, you know, I'm going to call out Brandon Wise of CBS Sports, my editor, who said, you know, this fight does nothing for him. What are you freaking kidding me? Luke, if Izzy's staying at middleweight, I love me this Kananir fight. Not that I'm going to overwhelmingly make this grand argument of how Kananir's to upset him but luke at 37 he's maximized his abilities he's as scary as hell finisher but he's got patience he's got poise he's growing in technique he's an insanely sick shape and i really think he recovered nicely from getting so handled on the ground i mean you know the end of that first round he's almost in tap out mode and for

him to make that adjustment and bounce back dude dude, Kananir is a scary dude. And you saw that at the end against Whitaker. And it goes beyond just his punching power. This could be a very tense title fight against Izzy because the same limitations that we all knew that Costa and Vittori had, that if Izzy could stay out of trouble he could he could handle himself with I don't know if those same limitations are in place with Kananir Luke I don't here's the thing about Whitaker Whitaker had a hard time landing like a really hard shot on Izzy if you think he won you think because he had this accumulation of like definitely good shots but not like that

wham shot that really you know sent someone into a perilous situation in the fight. I don't know if Kananir is that guy, BC, but the thing I took from the second fight was, one, dude, he is very perseverant. This guy is mentally bulletproof. You cannot discourage him. We go back to the Whitaker fight with Kananir, and he was getting his ass kicked. He got dropped in the third round

and then rallied his best portion of the offense after that fact. I mean, that's who Kananir is when he needs to be. I do wonder, even with all of these best practices, this blueprint that Whitaker laid, can a guy like Kananir really follow that to a T to get the kind of victory he needs? I certainly would be skeptical.

I would favor Adesanya to win. But two things I would say. One, you would agree with this. The guy earned it. I mean, give him his title shot. Whether you think he's going to win or not is irrelevant. He earned it. Give it to him. And also, you have no idea what's going to happen in fights. One punch

from Whitaker could change everything. Well, I'll say this. Sorry, from Cannoneer. To echo you, no, Cannoneer is not the fighter to take Whitaker's game plan and mirror it. Outside of just saying, look, I'm not here to win rounds against Adesanya. So, if I have to slow down the pace of this fight

to keep myself dangerous as a counterpuncher, you know, as a potential knockout, that's what I got to do. I think there's avenues where he can bring some of that strength back to him. But Luke, it's all or nothing still for Kananir in terms of knockout or nothing. You know, I mean, he's going to have to hurt Adesanya

and change this fight and lure him into a real fight. It's going to be fun watching it because this had this win for cannon near not only showcase his finishing ability, but like you mentioned, showcase that toughness, Luke, which I think at this point, you really got to shout out those power crystals. Luke, you do have to shout out the power crystals. One thing I want to mention about a cannon near that I think needs to get noted was when you noticed some of the ways in which he was

pursuing certain positions, you could tell he had drilled that thing eight million times his hands and feet and body were exactly the place it needed to be now that doesn't mean he executed every part of the offense to perfection but what I mean to say is don't lose sight of the fact that a there's a lot of tape on Izzy on how to beat him whether Whitaker can pull off excuse me whether Kennedy can pull off a Whitaker has done, I am admittedly skeptical. But he comes from a great camp. He is well studied.

He is well prepped. He is physical for that weight class. He has a lot of different gears to go to, and he is extremely filled with self-belief. While I think Izzy is the more talented of the two, A, he earned it, and B, it'd be foolish to look sideways on that also bc for brunson he seemed to indicate he had one more left for him on twitter afterwards which you know folks forget this is a guy who's been doing good work in mma since strike force he's

been in this a long time he made the best of it whittaker excuse me cannon here came out on top but i think brunson's had a very commendable, uh, end to this. Um, it's not over yet, but this last chapter has been a really good one for him. Saturday night, notwithstanding the reinvention was fun to watch. And I like that.

He leaned so hard into his strengths to out wrestle guys. And you even like in this fight, which was kind of like his super bowl, he gave himself the best chance to win in the opening round. I mean, he was aggressive and he took cannon near, and he had him in a choke. I mean, you know, he landed big shots. He imploded quick when the tables turned, Luke.

But, yeah, shout out. I mean, look, no one saw this coming. He was becoming the Michael Johnson of middleweight, right? A little more than that. A little more than that. And also, Michael Johnson was... No, he was becoming that, where you're like, you're too

talented to lose more often than you don't when you step up but you know he was on that road and he turned off that road and made a final run so you know nothing but respect to blonde brunson who's now blood brunson luke after that backhand shot that uh cannoneer hit him with and how about the dude how freaking nasty were those elbows on the ground it was almost oh my god it was almost dan hendo on hector lombard at 199 dude just also how about how about how about uh referee carrie hatley putting his arm in after first of all there shouldn't have been a second elbow but he puts his arm in after the second elbow but doesn't actually like physically stop cannoneer so cannoneer just drills one past him one more time i was like dude you ever seen that gif of that somewhere in europe

the guy just like touching people's sides and then they go past and he's the security i was like carrie hatley you got to get in there a little bit more save poor derrick bryant those were fucking hammer of thor he was laying down there and then he took at a bare minimum one too many i would actually argue two too many i would actually argue two too many but okay neither here nor there last but not least on this point number five our producer gaffney is offering that brunson is the favor of middleweight get no get out no favor was hugely celebrated uh before aldo came around and was even after that a huge fan favorite i think people begin to realize that brunson was good, but no, that's not a very good respect. I'm missing. All right. Last but not least, BC, any other storyline from the fight

night point number five, anything else from UFC two 71 worth mentioning? Well, before we mentioned this, Luke, do you want to, do you want to tease? Don't you have a great morning combat extra credit coming out today? Yes, we'll have extra credit. We're going to focus on Moicano. We'll focus a little bit more than this, but I'm going to put some respect on Bobby Green and Hanato Moikano because I thought they looked great on Saturday. Aside from those consecutive strong victories at lightweight by Moikano and Green, which put both into a top-ten contention in a lot of ways, Luke, that Casey O'Neal-Roxanne-Mataferi fight had the potential to be very interesting,

not just Casey O'Neal's upward bound potential as a, as a title contender in this division at age 24, but the whole story about Modafari's great career and all this, Luke, Roxanne Modafari went out on her own terms, as ballsy as you possibly could. And even though I don't usually get down with her whole anime, you know, character crossover thing where she models her performance after certain ones and dresses like them and cosplay at the weigh-in. The way that she broke down whichever character she was modeling herself after for this fight, which was all about putting everything she had out there for the benefit of the next generation that you could not have had a more like blood and

guts never say die this is my final fight it's no gimme fight against some old lady it's no no this is against somebody who might have next and i'm gonna give every single ounce of forward motion effort and take anything that I have in return. Luke, the final story is what we kind of thought it would be coming in about, okay, Casey O'Neal passed a tough test. I never expected this three-round test to be this tough. And I don't think Casey did, who got her nose busted open, who really, if Casey O'Neal doesn't have the backbone to contend with the top 10 in this division she would have faltered in this fight in maybe the same way Macy Barber did on the ground uh I agree actually I totally agree also uh it didn't get mentioned and I think folks just

assumed that they would but sometimes they're not so great about this they were good this time I'm glad they gave apropos of the ending I'm glad they gave roxanne a chance to speak um to the broadcast that was not an automatic thing i was expecting and they did i was really really happy to see that so shouts to the ufc producers and you're glad forrest griffin didn't ruin it right oh like grabbing it like he did before and then running out or whatever yeah no who did he ruin tito's retirement is that who he ruined something well i forget i forget who it was i'll just put out we'll talk about this more on extra credit but how about dude andre arlovsky getting it done again wasn't the most thrilling wasn't the most exciting and it hasn't been but

this is a guy dude understand arlovsky went winless in strike force i think all by way of stoppage if i'm not mistaken like this is a guy who's had numerous losing streaks in his career to the kind where you're like, how do you even recover from this? And he fucking did. BC, I actually, he gave me permission to read this on the air. I was talking to him. This is from, not from Orlovsky, this is from Dean Thomas. I was texting with Dean Thomas over the weekend

just to get his perspective on some things because Dean's smart as shit. And by the way, he's no holds barred, manred man he tells you his opinion we were talking about guys who changed their stance we were talking about Whitaker leaning to the right and then Adesanya throwing that high kick to get him to go upright because as Whitaker was leaning that's when the jab comes behind it right so that was part of this cat and mouse game that they were playing but we were talking about a lot of guys who switch stances and not just like left to right BC but I mean like bring their hands a little bit higher tuck their elbows in you know widen their feet a little bit about a lot of guys who switch stances and not just like left to right bc but i mean like bring their hands a little bit higher tuck their elbows in you know widen their feet a little bit these

subtle changes that carry dramatic importance and i was asking him like how often do you see fighters do it man because our losky is using this like to great effect and this is what he said i don't think and he said i could quote him so dean don't get mad he goes i don't think most fighters even think about it. They're Neanderthals. Here's a really good case of a stance adjustment. Robbie Lawler, as he's gotten older, his stance has reflected as such. He holds his hands in position to defend punches better without overreacting to them.

This is why he's able to absorb 500 shots from Colby, but because Robbie's stance allows him to deflect, roll, and misdirect a majority of power shots. However, Robbie was always a physical fighter relying on athleticism, and his offense can't keep up with the younger, better athletes, which is why he's losing. But he points out the better guys realize it's not just what you throw, it's how you collect yourself and where you start before every piece of offense comes off of you.

Arlovsky is one of these guys who is smart enough to make that change. I give the guy a ton of credit, man, a ton of you. Arlovsky is one of these guys who is smart enough to make that change. I give the guy a ton of credit, man. A ton of credit. He's 43 and he's won five of six, Luke. I mean, this is, I know he's, he's winning gatekeeper-ish fights, but that's his job and his role. And he keeps getting better. I mean, it's wild. And look, you know, you're going to shout out more and extra credit. So I'm not going to go hard on Arlovsky, but to close on Matafuri, like, do you know what was're going to shout out more and extra credit. So I'm not going to go hard on her. But to close, I'm out of furry. Like, do you know what was most inspirational about that?

Not that she took so much punishment was willing to. She has maxed out her body and mind throughout the entirety of her professional career. You know, I don't think it can be overstated how hard it is to come back from seven consecutive losses in your prime and not quit the sport. Even until her final days pushing 40, as she was her own level of gatekeeper in the 125 pound weight class, she completely maxed herself out. Luke, that should be the goal of all of us in our, in our life and our stated passion and our profession, you know, in our, in our, in the way we work out, and it's not always easy, and rarely any of us get there. But I got a lot of goals in my own career, Luke,

and keep pushing more. To see a performance like this, I've never been a Roxy super fan, but I got respect for the lady because that was – I want to go out the same way, Luke. She was never going to win a major title, at least in all likelihood, probably not going to win a major title. And she was never going to be in the Hall of Fame for incredible runs. But what she could do was give every ounce of herself,

as you indicated, to this pursuit. And you can't find one person who argues she gave anything less. Dude, you're right. You don't have to give that much you can give whichever you want but when someone gives that much when they sacrifice that much on the altar of athletic greatness and you could say clearly she does not have all the athletic gifts in the world for her to have the career that she did is unbelievable and i take my hat off to her in the most commendable of ways oh look do we have time to mention that kyler phillips

at bantamweight is coming? He's coming. Extra credit. Extra credit. Don't take it from me. Extra credit. He's coming. Yes.

And I'm going to have to guess that light heavyweight Carlos Allberg has probably got some hot fire DMs, Luke. I mean, just – His DMs must be the exact opposite of ours. No one is offering him Land Yeager. They're offering him the other kind of Land Yeager. Luke, I'm not even attracted to men, and this guy is hot, Luke, right?

I know. He's annoyingly handsome. I'm like, will you fucking stop? Please, for the love of God. All the women, would you stop with that? I mean, come on, Luke. All right. Hey, fun-ass card.

I mean, Luke, the bangers on this early prelims, the Douglas Silva de Andrade against this Kazakh warrior, fun-ass card i mean look the bangers on this early prelims the the on the douglas silva de andre against this kazakh warrior sergey uh morozov look that was like in a freaking action movie that fight are you kidding me it was great how there was a couple of times where guys were getting served early and then just rallied and put it on their opponents the douglas uh the silva day or douglas silva day andrage was one of the more prominent ones but that wasn't the only one and again we'll talk about moicano and everything else but am i crazy is this a fight a legitimate

top three fight of the year contender a legitimate i know it's early but like that fight was it's it's hard to beat five rounders but for a a three-round scheduled bout, it's up there. I mean, the highs, the ebbs and flows of, like, ridiculously conflicting, you know, moments of drama were just incredible. What a, that guy's like Minnie Belfort, Loke. I mean, I'd love to see his bloodstream, but what a tough POS this guy is. I mean, he just kept bringing it.

He's fucking jacked. All right, but that's it for our top five, BC. It is time no longer for you and us to ask each other questions. It's time for the DMs from donks. And these DMs are not going to be filled with wonderful things to look at. Just questions from idiots. Hee haw. Okay, DMs from donks.

Not idiots. I'm just being me. Will you play the graphic, please? There you go. Thank you. Got gaff under fire today under fire gap i know we're slandering him all right uh i don't even know here we go i do okay from at nosebleed seating between rob and izzy oosman and colby max and volk figueredo and moreno why are so many divisions becoming two-man shows? What a great question, BC. Why? Well, look, it's great when you can get two dance partners of the same,

more or less, elite level. And obviously, if you can make a real rivalry. Figueredo and Moreno are in the midst of a real rivalry. Amazing fights, back and forth dramatic ways of victory, the title changing hands. It's unfortunate, Luke. Demetrius Johnson never got his rival on this level. He was too good. He was too

good. He was too much better than everybody else. You wouldn't argue Cejudo? You can't argue it because they split fights, but the fact that we never got that trilogy. I mean, look, I get that they traded. You're right. If they had had a trilogy and they had kind of gone back and forth or whatever, it would be a little bit closer. And the problem is the real fans know that DJ deserved that decision,

and he was heavily injured in that fight. No disrespect to Cejudo. But, Luke, you know, we're lucky right now. That's why. We're lucky that we have, you know, at Bantamweight and Lightweight, we don't have two-man shows. We got, like, six or seven-man shows. You know what I mean?

This is great. Dude, when they have these pairs these mozart and sally was it salieri salieri i can't never pronounce you know i don't know that shit luke at all what i'm saying is whenever you have these pairs like this why do you have the pairs why do you have your because dude rich franklin was not i mean whittaker was very very close to adesanya whether you thought he won or not but we can all agree he was very very close fucking rich franklin was not that close now he eventually lost some fights at middleweight too but he was still like the number two guy for a while you see this one two pairing a lot i don't know i don't quite have a good explanation for it but it does

seem to sort itself that way often it's great in the dance partners whether you're better than them in the long run and look you know volkanovsky's got two wins over max right now so you know he's proved you know is he's got two wins over whittaker whether you're better than them in the long run. And look, you know, Volkanovski's got two wins over Max right now. So, you know, he's got two wins over Whittaker. Whether you're better than them in the long run, you know, by a margin or not, you need that other person to raise your game, to drive you. Luke, it's why the success you've hit in your career after meeting me, Luke, you know, it's certainly not because of me, Luke.

Arguably had more success before, but okay. Let's go to number two. At Dylan Magnuson1, this is a question I got a lot on Saturday night. Do you see Hamzat, Hamzat Chamayev, giving Adesanya a problem? Do you see? Wow. You know, I see him giving Usman potentially a problem, but we all know that Chamayev can fight across two divisions.

Style-wise, yeah, Luke. If he is all that and then some, right? Tall, pale, and handsome like he's looking to be. Yeah, he could be a problem. I mean, look, we've got to see what he can do at the very elite level of the welterweight division. We've got to see him stay healthy and consistently appear in the octagon regularly, of course.

But yeah, Luke,ke that style that hunger that nastiness you dude you gotta to counteract what chandler said over the tweets though you gotta be nasty luke you know miss jackson if you're nasty i just happen to you don't have to be you have to be i mean well adesanya was nasty against gastelum when he had to be luke he he said at the start around five you know you know, I'll die right here, bro. Here's the funny part. We should go back to that one, too. We didn't bring it up in the conversation,

but I think when people look at parts of that Gastelum fight, you can take parts from it and build the Robert Whitaker game plan. Now, what Robert added, subtracted a bunch and added a bunch of different stuff. But getting inside that space of izzy when he goes behind the jab whitaker had a lot of success with that dude and i think there's a lot of lessons to be learned with that wasn't enough sorry not whitaker too but gaslam had a lot of success with it well not enough but but dude they're getting there they're getting there with that

net look you know sean strickland has that nastiness although he doesn't always he doesn't always he just came off a fight where he wasn't throwing enough so so I really wonder if that might hold him back a little bit. But look, we don't know. We're not going to really know about Hamzat until we see it. The thing about Hamzat is, one, there's still too many unknowns. B, Dana might let him play back and forth between middleweight and welterweight. It's hard to say.

But I think for right now, he's locked up at welterweight. So between Izzy potentially going to 205 and we don't really know do I see Hamzat Shemaev potentially giving Izzy problems I mean it's conceivable but it seems so far away at best that maybe is the answer but it just doesn't seem like worthy of thinking about all that much at the moment this one however BC has This one, however, BC, has got BC written all over it. Underscore Josh Herbold. That's what he says. Could a prime injury-free, prime injury-free Joe Calzaghe beat current Canelo?

Speed, power, six to seven punch combinations, balls out grit, Calzaghe had it all. BC, I know you are a big Joe Calzaghe guy. Under these conditions, does he beat Canelo? He might. Dude, he might. know i'm sorry that's a fight interesting right that's a fight that we have to see because look uh for all the incredible success canelo's had at 68 and even 75 he's heavily undersized for those weight classes i mean you know part of canelo's greatness is that he can raise up in that weight and still be the bigger puncher mean, you know, part of Canelo's greatness is that he can raise up in that weight and still be the bigger puncher and still, you know, really beat you in any style. So Canelo's

fricking all time great, but Joe Calzaghe had the combination of hand speed and daringness in terms of the angles and the type of punches he would get off at close range that Luke, I'm going to say this, you know, I love me some Joe Calzaghe, 46 and 0. Amazing. What stops you from putting Joe Calzaghe in the upper, upper, upper rooms all time in the sport is that, you know, he didn't really max himself out. He came to America late, right. You know, fought B hop in, in Roy Jones, but he did it late in his career. He stayed in the same division in the same country there, you know fought b hop and in roy jones but he did it late in his career he stayed in the same

division in the same country there you know wales in the uk and and beat on you know beat up all comers and he's got some great wins you know michael kessler um chris eubank senior i mean you know but when calzaghe fought jeff lacy and that was the fight that made Calzaghe. Do you remember Jeff left hook Lacey, Luke? Of course, of course. Dude, we thought Jeff Lacey was going to destroy him. We thought Calzaghe was just another UK domestic guy who looks great against white guys in his own country. But what happens when he comes to America? Well, this fight wasn't in America, but he beat the freaking bags off Jeff Lacey.

He essentially ended Jeff Lacey's elite unbeaten career in that one fight. And I bring that up to show you that certain guys got in there against Calzaghe. And when they saw the combination of hand and foot speed, and although he's not a monster punch power puncher for this division, he gets to your chin so quickly and so accurately that yes, look, he's's a freaking problem for Canelo. It's going to go 12 rounds, and it's going to be a split decision probably because of Canelo's ability to adjust counter to the body, be a big puncher even in that weight class. But Calzaghe's tall, Canelo's small. Dude, that's a tough-ass matchup all time.

I love that idea. Love it. Love that idea love that idea all right from at talal underscore aa767 i don't know what was your favorite moment from the super bowl bc um you know i hate to be that guy because look you know i'm normally that guy who watches the super bowl halftime show and then while everybody else is going nuts, like you for Shakira a couple years ago, like every other year when my wife sees some lineup of musicians, she's like, oh, I like this one. You know, this is great.

And I'm sort of like, man, that show blew and sucked. Luke, this halftime show was awesome. And maybe because I'm a 40-year-old white dad and these are all my jams and, you know, and seeing these guys, seeing Fat 50 Cent was great. But seriously, the... He brought out the boostier again. The production level, everything about it, dude.

You know, even given that rap concerts never live up to the, you know, musically, having a live band there, and yeah, there were some, you know, lip-syncing, piano-playing elements to it. But all in all, Luke, it was a great game. The OBJ injury really changed the momentum there. But shout out to the Rams for just being grittier. But I would say the best moment was that damn halftime show, Luke. That's the first time since who? Where they nailed it.

I know you're going to tell me someone awful nailed it. The weekend, Luke? Really, Prince didn't nail it? You're going to make that argument that Prince didn't nail it? Prince nailed it. Michael Jackson nailed it in 93, Luke. He nailed it. I would say this.

I didn't really watch much of the Super Bowl because I was working. But I really enjoyed the halftime show. I thought it was great. The only thing I thought was kind of, there was a couple things I didn't quite get about it. One, it didn't quite have the crescendo i was hoping for although i i grant it was still really well done i two thumbs up for me i really liked it and i noticed that most hip hop fans loved it um the thing i didn't love was if you didn't know the old rap videos i don't know

if like when subog was rapping on the house and whatnot the little construction thing that they had made these are all callbacks to the original videos that they had made in the nineties. If you didn't know that, I'm not sure what you made of the set. Cause it was a little bit like distant and, um, uh,

a little artsy artsy in that way. The other problem was, I know I'm going to get killed for this. I just don't really care. Dude. Eminem fucking blows. Like he hasn't always blown, but he fucking blows.

He's like the, the stuff he's putting out now. And I realized this is the song from eight mile, which by by the way he already performed this at the fucking oscars you're trotting out this one again and then he kneeled it's like do you think i'm multimillionaire is kneeling get the fuck out of here but mom's spaghetti is timeless dude it's not that good dude it's okay it's okay it's not a bad song it's fine but like dude the level he's gotten to now it's like you know you ever meet those people in high school who were like they would love to tell you i grew up in south georgia so this is prominent for me the people who are like you know you're into like whatever was in the 90s sound garden nirvana whatever and

they come to you they're like bro i got this fucking christian rock it's about loving the lord and then you listen to it and it's just budget rock and roll music eminem sounds like the rock the christian rock version of himself he's not rapping about the lord dude he's about like about like getting sober and being happy you think i want to hear you rap about that shit get the fuck off stage i don't want to hear that shit it's boring and it's lame this was legends legend living legends of rap dre and it was legend snoop and it was the nfl saying we love black people, so don't get on us. Right?

I mean, it was them trying to be hip. But it worked. It was hip, Luke. It was awesome. I'll just say this, dude. We grew up in an era when hip hop was way too dangerous for the Super Bowl halftime show. Yes. Now it is on the Super Bowl halftime show.

They sanitized it. Yes, they did. Yeah. And that's a good thing. That's ultimately a good thing. But it just doesn't represent what it was for us when it was, like, taboo and your parents were trying to find your CDs and fucking throw them away.

Yeah, Suge Knight ain't getting invited to the Super Bowl halftime show in the 90s. It's just not happening, Luke, okay? But it was great. It was really well done. Dre was great. Snoop was really good. I thought Snoop had a high energy the whole time.

It felt like... Kendrick was good, and 50 was fine, but 50 was the only surprise right can we get mary jay in some age-appropriate clothing look am i gonna get battered for i'm not even touching that fuck you she was great dude you gotta let mary be let mary be she was great all right last question on this uh a similar topic bc from telvin kipapa who always asks good questions favorite dr dre song now that's an interesting one where do you go well the problem luke on on a lot of the things we loved from that era whether it

be rap music or comedy or certain movie humor is that boy does it not date well in 2022 so can i tell you that uh the final track off of the chronic from 1993 bitches ain't shit was always my favorite trash song luke i mean you know about these bitches luke right just i know they're not shit apparently okay you know looks on these nuts and you know but me too and indeed luke so i'm not gonna be out here spouting that type of nonsense to the world anymore okay but good god that thing dude when you were a white kid in eighth grade crossing over into ninth grade as i was you know the summer of 92 and you you know and you pick up the chronic at strawberries your local tape and cd store dude that that shit made you feel hard luke and i'm not talking about jake hager all right i'm

not talking about you know watching emmanuel on cinemax i'm talking about that made my wimpy ass existence feel hard luke uh i was in fifth grade when the chronic or sixth grade when the chronic came out i think that's right i was in sixth grade when the chronic came out and that was one i always talk about how pantera's um uh not far beyond driven but vulgar display of power was like this moment where music doesn't sound the same after i don't know how if you were a kid in middle school or whatever you were and you heard the chronic and that didn't blow your fucking mind sonically about what you had heard it was unlike anything i'd heard up to that point. Think about the timing.

It comes right at the peak of the commercial rap era, meaning the UMTV raps, you know, Young MC, MC Hammer, like, you know, really how nerdy kids like me get into commercial rap. And then you get hit with The Chronic and you're like, oh my God. It's similar. How about that era? How about that two year one year stretch when you got the first the first 92 93 94 is like unbelievable well think about it you get the first rage album coming out which blew it just blew all of our minds this just was like what the hell is this you get the nirvana album with with teen spirit you know you get nevermind coming out and smell the teen spirit video just changed everything look before nirvana smells like teen spirit my middle school

dances were basically play rap songs and everybody stand in a circle and the two hip kids in the middle would do moves and then smells like teen spirit came out and they would play that like five times in a row at the eighth grade dances luke i mean it changed it changed everything i mean obviously nwa preceded dr dre's solo album but like in terms of commercial success and nwa was big but i was a kid a lot of that stuff was shielded the chronic was one of the first things that bled through to a lot of people before um you know nwa did for obviously for people like me i caught it later and uh it was it blew me away to answer the question i'm gonna go with nothing but a g thing uh there's a lot of choices you could go with on the chronic But that's probably my number one

But you're rat to tat tat that Ass that's a great song too. Obviously Dre's Not on it. It's on his album but escape from Death row when who was it Was it our was it RBX who was it and get Burned like must keep that one Of that line is one of my favorites so Bitch

On that song stranded on death row was Burn like my skeet. One of that line is one of my favorites. Bitch, ain't wanting to be a bitch. Who was on that song? Stranded on Death Row was RBX. Yeah, corrupt RBX, Lady of Rage, and Snoop. All right, that's it. That's all of our DMs. Oh, sorry, Luke. Let me ride is the correct answer.

Let me ride is the best. Let me ride is probably in number two or number three, but yeah, it's up there as well. All right. Okay, go ahead. Luke, you know what we do every weekend? I spend a long time on sundays and then gaff spends an even longer time corralling these picking out the most viral

videos of the week in combat sports and beyond this one's called have you seen this shit have you seen it all righty then luke bitch all right this is off this is off of a pay-per-view you gotta you gotta deliver these big today bc you gotta have a tie to evasa like performance here i hope so here we go usc 271 luke at the referees instructions before the start of the main event did you catch israel paper rock scissoring Robert Whitaker. Look at that. Dude, I'm telling you, coming out hot the way Adesanya did, it hurt him down the stretch, but it may have won him the fight

because he started so strong. I really believe that. Yeah, paper covers rock, last time I saw. Speaking of the rock, Luke, did you think his welcome to the Super Bowl scream was a little commercial and bitchy luke after after he turned on rogan like that it was funny that he uh i don't know if you could tell he got a pump before he went out there like he had clearly been working out like right before he went out there and i was like hey he still hasn't mentioned why he didn't give any of the fighters a raise

after taking over the reebok deal so funny about that that, right? Wow, so have you turned on Dwayne? I was mostly just disappointed. I was like, dude, you took over. I don't give a fuck about the tweet. You took over for Reebok. You put out this video, and in the video, that was the thing he was like, well, I didn't put out pictures of their shoes

because I wanted to make it all about them. Yeah, I hope you did, Rock, because you sure as fuck didn't give them a raise. A video highlight of all their videos is about the least thing you could fucking do since you're doing no better than reebok another take this is what gets me it's like all these guys who say all these nice things about the fighters and it's not just rock it's a bunch of people like especially the rich ones we we love them so much hardest workers in the room and when it comes time to actually come up off your pocketbook to make sure that they get more

they all are takers let it be known who he really is when the chips were down do you think the rocks the next arnold schwarzenegger is that who he is he's too old i actually think he's getting out of that he's actually kind of aging a little bit so he's still got action he's still got action movie potential left for several years but i actually think he's slowly transitioning to a different a different level who has bigger biceps him or his ex-wife, Danny Garcia? I'm not going to touch that. She's a successful professional, and you're mean-spirited.

No, look at the pump she gets, Luke. I'm envious, all right? I wasn't asking you. The Rock's physique is tremendous. His home gym is tremendous. I didn't ask you if you'd rather make out with Danny Garcia or Danny Swift Garcia. I didn't ask you that, Luke, okay? You didn't, and I'm not going to answer that

because it's also a question that will get us into trouble. Luke, welterweight Jeremiah Wells tried to get himself pumped up to start the night against Blood Diamond. Watch out for that wall, Luke. What a... Water. I don't...

He turned it around. He turned it around, but that was not an auspicious beginning. Boy, did he. Luke, let's be honest here about one Mike Metefethi, a.k.a. Blood Diamond. I hated to say it, but he looked worse than CM Punk against Mickey Gall in this one, right?

Well, that's a little strong, but he did not have a great showing, to put it mildly. All right. Well, Jeremiah Wells got the W just the same. Let's listen to this sound. King Casey O'Neill got that hard fought win against roxy and then luke she she settled right into to heel mode here pro wrestling style luke that was very raging al-esque but it's kind of it's kind of hot too right looks kind of sneaky listen she's full of competitive fire they're not always going to love being booed i get it i get it she was ready willing

and able to wear the black hat after this so let's see what happens moving forward uh we've got more sound luke this comes from bannon uh or do we yes bannon wait ronnie lawrence had a hard fought unanimous decision win oh i knew you were gonna put this in okay perfect leo mana martinez and luke he had a much deeper battle he overcame before this fight. You know, we all go through stuff before about to have a fight. People have it all the time.

I mishapped my salt intake and I had diarrhea. And I don't know. I just didn't feel so good tonight. Luke, you've been there. No, I was like, dude, I could just say that same speech every morning. After a cup of coffee, it's like I had diarrhea. I don't feel so good.

I wasn't myself. You know what made it great? Was he deadpanned it? It wasn't a joke. He's just like, no, seriously, you know, diarrhea. He treated it like, you know, I didn't get a good night of sleep, and it really affected me. He was like, I have diarrhea.

That was a fun fight, by the way. That was another one of those early bangers. Luke, let's rate this shirt. Celebrity Dustin Poirier in attendance at the fights on Saturday. Your thoughts? He loves these loud-ass shirts. Shout-out to Nobby there with him, right? From UFC PR? Yeah, here's what I'd say, though.

I don't know what's cool, so, like, I'd love to bag on the shirt, but it's probably a lot cooler than anything I wear, so. Well, first of all, it's got to cost at least $450, and second of all, that's my shit. I'd wear that. Yeah, shout-out to Dustin Poirier all the way, all right? Yeah. Let's go to Bobby Green.

You'll have much more on him on Extra Credit, but how about this way to enter the cage with some swag, Luke? Some style. Yeah, he always does this. Damn. And so he used to. I don't know if he does it. I can't remember if he did it post-fight or even when he was announced.

He used to do, was it Triple H who would, like, put the water in his mouth and then spit it in the air or whatever? Yeah. Bobby Green has done that time to time. Got them hands dude he is at another level at age 35 more on that from Luke later today Conor McGregor was back to drunk tweeting during the card on Saturday Luke and he gave us this secret inside revelation about his personal life yeah it's getting a little sad for him do we take the twitter away from him at this

point Luke I mean I mean he's horny Luke he's horny okay well you know it's like guys i mean he's just tweeting out guys i'm horny like you know we saw the video him eating ice cream i'm not even mad about that lord knows i've giggled my way through a few ice cream cones in my life uh on who knows what but you gotta lay off the tweets man it's just not looking good and also do you see uh tyson fury sent him to hell oh yeah they're going back and forth and it's getting a little weird. But, Luke, Conor not the only one shooting his shot on Saturday. How about friend of the program Brian Boom Kelleher saying, Hey, Conor, would you like to corner me in my next fight at 272

against Habib's cousin Umar? What did Conor say? Nothing. Who the fuck is that guy? yeah yeah no he didn't respond but uh but i like where your head's at boom trying to get a little uh you know a little wwe style hey listen he makes noise he gets out there and tries to rattle the cage a little bit i like brian uh luke your favorite game of the week on have you seen the shit it's obvious it's called rate that tat errol spence jr adding a big fish tattoo to his right foot luke your thoughts these guys man i don't know what they're doing is that he boss level luke where you at it's not great dude it's really not great um

it's he took it's not great it's it's bad in concept or in in technique and finish i don't love the concept because i don't like the lettering above it because uh it just is a little weird um but you it's there are guys who could do sharks biting you've seen these guys who specialize in like gorilla roars or some kind of big cat showing teeth or in the case certain fish as well or sharks whatever but um this one's not it's it's everything is kind of pressed flat there's no real depth to the photo, and it just looks like... I mean, I don't really want to say what it looks like because it would be bad, but it doesn't look good.

Are you saying it looks like a vagine? I was going to lean on my days of bang bus material to make a different argument, but it's pretty bad either way. Well, look, we do know you. We know you prefer ass tats on men, right? If it looks good, if it's tribal and it looks good, let's go to the subway. That's not quite the right way of putting it, but I we do know you. We know you prefer ass tats on men, right? If it looks good, if it's tribal and it looks good. Let's go to the subway. That's not quite the right way of putting it, but I'll let it go.

Okay, let's go to the subway, Luke. Rate this ass tat. Okay, Luke? Please. Oh, God. Again, if I never go. Are you what the fuck, bro? I mean.

And what stop is that? Did they show what stop it was? Is that Wall Street? Where is that did they show what stop is that is that wall street where is that is that is that uh that fulton street luke 23rd that's 23rd yeah that's 23rd and 3rd that's the six what line is that uh or no that's the ace that's on the west side of the letter one yeah yeah dude that is dude man i swear, I swear to God, people are like, I'm never going to wear a mask when this whole mandate is due. And then people have stopped.

Let me explain something to you. I'm not going into the New York City subway without a fucking hazmat suit. It's the most diseased place on earth. It gets you where you need to go. It does do that, but you are going to get every communicable. Fuck COVID.

You're going to get everything else on Earth if you go through there without a mask on. What do you think this guy charges, Luke? What do you think? You know, you're getting off the train after a long shift. You're like, you know what? Let me get that shit on my ass, bro. How much? He's not looking at him.

He's just face all up in his ass. Yeah. All right. right hey luke remember when i mean what is dude just the dude i'm telling you if i never ride that subway again it'll be the greatest thing that ever happens to me luke little inside baseball on our mk docks there was a shirtless picture of you that you asked jake the documentarian to blurt out you're like i ain't showing that much skin on this shit well luke they got me with my toes as we know but as i countered you know that's what men do okay real talk real walk all right well luke you sent me a text of what shack believes men do luke what the hell's going on with shaquille O'Neal's toes? Can we watch this one time only, please?

Can we zoom in, Gaff? Dude, look at those fucking... He's got fungus the size of fucking turtles on his toenail. Wow. Wow, Shaq. You know? I know. It's like, my man, you need some Aquaphor on them feet.

I mean, we got to hydrate that skin. Well, Luke, he's still getting it done, though. By the way, I keep talking about it. You see how his big toes go in like this? I mean, it opens up wide, but the toes collapse in on themselves? It's because he's wearing shoes that fucked up his feet the whole time. I'm telling you, it's true. You do know what

they say, though, about guys like me and Shaq, right, Luke? That you guys are infrequent showers no gross feet but just massive hammers Luke just you know I mean just like yeah right I don't know if they say that but in the case of Shaq I would only imagine that he's got Hasabulla in his pants you know what I'm saying he's just got an absolute see Shaq Shaq to be fair is too rich to have feet that gross you know who else is really rich luke canelo alvarez look at him showing off his brand new is it pronounced la ferrari the ferrari's first full hybrid vehicle luke there's only a few of them being made right now the msrp on this one

1.4 million dollars Canelo's new ride. Wow. Good for him, bro. That is so sick. I don't even know what life is like at that level. Dude, like, I always argue, like, you know, I buy my wife the 1899 bottle of red wine, but I'm like, you know, what if today I bought the $65 one? Like, would we both at night be like, oh my God, what's it like driving this car for five minutes, Luke?

Would you never be the same again in your in my orange Subaru Crosstrek? It's it's it's like just I mean, even if no one is actually blowing you, it's like getting blown while driving. I mean, it's got to be just the most intense feeling. Total, total phoner. Anyway, Luke, we got to roll on. You know what they say? Hell hath no fury like a scorned woman protecting the paint on a basketball court. Let's go to the hardwood here.

Oh, yeah. Get that shit out of here, Luke. Wow. Yes. Bah. She came in like a volleyball player. Woo. Yes. Luke, we did a bit last week on two sport

athletes you know crossing over we know ronald mcdonald of a success in his field at bringing smiles on kids faces now he's into pro wrestling luke in japan let's see the results can we zoom Here comes Ronald. Nice running. Oh, no. Oh, no, Luke. That is... That is not appropriate. That is... That is against her own will. Luke, that is not appropriate.

Would you like to see his happy meal just the same, Luke? It's still going it's still going he's still doing this bit how do we get out of this luke this is why how do the japanese i'm assuming these people are japanese how do the japanese have a character whose sole bit is to look like McDonald's and then sexually harass everyone? Well, they have a guy that my friend at ESPN and I used to trade clips with. He's called Razor Ramon HG. And the Razor Ramon HG part of it means hard gay. And he comes out and molests other men.

He's dressed like the village people, Luke. It's a very dated sort of look at the, yeah, yeah. Wow, okay. Luke, let's go over to this sound. This is not from this weekend. It's from his last fight. But Robert Whitaker, a man after your heart, none the same. You, you, you.

Yeah, I'm done now i can just go upstairs and go back to doing what i was doing before just hardcore masturbating luke true or false on the road this is usually the last thing you say before heading up to your room, to anyone on the team that's listening. I don't know what you're talking about. I've never said anything like that, and I don't appreciate you lying to the audience in such an obvious and direct manner. By the way, Rob Scott, I call him Rob now because apparently we're friends, Luke. I don't know. He's got a funny personality that does not show enough during interviews, dude. Maybe with the submission radio guys because they're all like down under bros, Luke.

You know what I mean? He apparently hates me. I don't know why, but he does, and I didn't get a great interview from him. But yours was pretty good. It was okay. I mean, I think he hates you because you love the shit out of his rivals, Luke. Not all of them, just one. The big one.

The one that matters. The big one. Admittedly, the big one. Now, Luke, Shuey's got a bit played out this week because of Taito Iwasa. In fact, I'm not even showing footage of his post-fight Shuey because we've seen it. But how about the folks on the UFC weigh-in show getting involved?

Laura Senko and Daniel Cormier. Luke, your thoughts? I mean, when we did it, it was very played out, and I appreciate the wonderful Laura Sanko doing it. Can we zoom in here, please? You know, look, they have brand-new shirts. Not shirts, I'm sorry, brand-new shoes. It doesn't really count.

Like, we took someone's diseased shoe from the crowd. That's what you got to do. These guys have brand-new kicks right out of the box. DC just spit. DC's spitting his own shoe, Luke. Yeah, but what does that matter? You're going to get it all. And then he pours it out off the side like Turner and Hooch's drool. Yeah, he's got the walrus beard of the beer coming down.

Look, Senko was more man than DC on this, Luke. She went after it. Yeah, she was game for it. She was game for it. But I got to say, if you're drinking it out of a brand new shoe, you know, that's only halfway. That's only halfway. Well, Luke, Angela Hill, the UFC flyweight and, I'm sorry, strawweight,

and, you know, I say friend of the program because we both have a lot of love for her. She took it to a new level while posting her mybookie.ag pics on Instagram, Luke. We've heard of the copy because Tuivasa threatened to do one. So here's Angie Hill's husband providing the cup, Luke. You into this at all? This moving you? I want to party with Angela Hill. That's my kind of woman right there.

She went on to do one out of the high heel, out of the flip-flop, Luke. She got to stir that up first, you know? That is exactly the kind of person. You know what? We got to get her in studio. I feel like we could have fun with her. Yeah, I think we could. I think we could.

Indeed. Indeed. She got a fight coming up as well. I forgot against who. But speaking of dc luke he took no shit this week from the houston rockets mascot while while uh courtside oh lord oh some staged bit yeah poor man's charles barkley type bit look at kiesa loving it oh hit it oh oh oh oh he's not gonna drop oh he does oh yeah he body slammed that hoe that was great yeah yeah see that's great that's great if you just punched him and

threw him that's no good but if only that mascot had seen star wars episode three luke and learned the same lesson that anakin should have learned about high ground. Let's go over to the street fight, Luke. Check out Obi-Wan on the high ground here at the Mustafar system. Oh, boy. Hey, John, I'd like to ask you a pot. Luke, does that look a little bit like Jake, our documentarian, that guy? This reminds me of the pre-fight 214 press conference. Yeah, it does. Yeah yeah it does yeah it does

all right all right uh luke we here on mk we want all the smoke and no that's not a showtime digital joke uh here's the world's largest bong luke your thoughts dude why am i not in that that's what i don't understand how is it that this person gets to be there instead of me when all I want to do is just live there? This guy like a young Augustus Gloob caught in the Chaka River pipe, Luke. Look at this. Yes. Wow.

Honestly, if he died from asphyxiation, I'd consider him a hero. Look, he went out doing what he loved, Luke. You got to respect that. You really do. That's the way to go right there. Speaking of skills in this game, check out Anthony Joshua, former heavyweight champion,

Eje, rolling up a fat chicken fajita blunt here. Luke, your thoughts? Okay, let's see here. Does he lick it? Does he go, ah! Ha ha ha! He did! okay let's see here does he lick it is he gonna oh he did dude we gotta you know what there's a lot of people we need to party with i was gonna say

aj knows how to party look he's not just rich he comes from the other side of the tracks he's got a backstory he's lived it like we did okay, this is not his first time trying to make something like this happen. Not at all. Good job. All right, let's go over to the sign of the week. I mean, this is a general instruction for most of us. The thing about the bathrooms in the subway station in New York City is, you know, some of the people, they'll wash that shit right there, Luke,

in the sink. They have no care, you know? No, see, they read this and they're like, oh, I must wash my hands with my anus. That's what they think it means. All right, read your MMA, Luke. Anything can happen. We'll go to FuryFC57.

Here's John Yanis with, as Rashad would say, a one-hitter quitter. Oh, Jesus. Wow. Boy, it does not get more authoritative than that. Lord have mercy. Nope. Wow. Hope you're all right, kid.

Good Lord. You could see many a dead body on a regional show. Look at this. By the way, I talk about it. These guys who can slip punches in MMA. It's true in boxing, obviously, but in boxing, a lot more dudes can slip, so it's not nearly as relevant, but it's relevant in MMA. If you can slip punches and put offense behind it,

you are going to be a much higher level fighter. It's just a fact. Hey, Robert Whitaker's defense on Saturday, Luke, pretty good. Pretty damn good, okay? After the first. Not so great in the first. Yeah, except for that one shot yeah hey ronnie deutsch is back we haven't seen this guy drink oh yeah fucking hey

yeah this is great let's see look at him celebrating goonie's nostalgia by putting on the sloth mask luke first of all that picture is just more important than anything tesla is doing let's point that out number one i mean luke you remember that guy on the man show who did the ziggy zaggy ziggy zaggy oi oi oi yeah and then he died doing what he loved a couple years later just yeah i mean ronnie deutsch's life span expectations or are they they can't be high right now no but he's gonna go out in a blaze of glory and god bless this man and he's still jacked and always has chicks i was was going to say, he's like Takeru Kobayashi. Even Joey Chestnut to a degree. They eat like these mounds of hot dogs, but they don't look too bad in the offseason or whatever.

Yeah, they must purge like crazy, Luke. I mean, who hasn't? Who hasn't, Luke? You know, I did come back from two hours of basketball last Tuesday night. You know what I did? First thing I did when I came home, Luke? Purge. Purged.

Okay. Because I'm an old, exhausted bitch, okay yes all right uh you can always find a wife at the bowling alley luke if you can find a lady who can act this classy check this out that's my wife Is that duck pin bowling? Yes. Oh, look at that. That's a 7-10. That's pretty good.

I mean, she dresses like somebody who, you know, is in the trench coat mafia. That looks like Mikey Mormile, our producer there at the end. That's great. All right. We're going to keep it going, Luke. You got to be careful giving keys to the kingdom to a kid when they're too young, Luke, okay? I know everything looks like toys these days.

Oh, God. Oh, no. Oh, no. This is what happens when you don't parent, you know, like in the modern era, we don't parent hard enough, Luke. You know, I try to be a little old school. You hit your kids?

No, not anymore, but, you know, I'm a disciplinarian, though, just to say. Yeah, this is going to be me in, like, five years, so I can't talk shit. Absolutely. All right, two more for you, Luke. You know, when you become a dad at a certain age, you just got to put gymnastics away because bad things will happen. Let's check out this dad after a couple pops. Oh, dad. Oh, dad. Oh, dad.

Yep. Well, you know. Dad, it ain't 1979 anymore. Sorry to tell you. Now he's got a new at-home project to repair. Luke, that's great. One more for you. Let's go, drunk chicks.

Let's go on. I mean, you know, everybody wants to get off the wagon and, you know, and get involved, but you got to be careful on that wagon i can't believe they're white it's so unlike them oh god dude that one is particularly good wow first of all i hope that horse is okay yeah yes definitely that the drunk chicks now we they can be they can be replaced easy all right yeah the heifers i'm not too worried about roll that video one more time this is great oh look at them oh like my neck my dude they had the full spine bend on oh yeah my neck and that horse was not having it that horse was like fuck your life

i mean who took it the worst it's got to be this chick oh yeah like yeah oh yeah the one who went ass over tea kettle who nearly got uh decapitated that's the best yeah like you want to make a scorpion's cover band yes we're never walking again that's great okay look that's the shit for the week that's all i got uh all right time now for uh odds and ends we see what he got for odds and ends yeah we, what do you got for odds and ends? Yeah, we had to zone boxing from the UK over the weekend. 35-year-old Daniel Jacobs at super middleweight, the former middleweight champion, taking on, look,

a tough, aggressive John Ryder. And Luke, first half of this fight, I thought it was, you know, 6-0, 5-1 in favor of Danny Jacobs. But credit to John Ryder for putting it on down the stretch. Once he figured out how to get inside Danny's jab, it was a different fight. Ryder surged in the second half, takes home a split decision, and Luke, there were already a lot of questions about what Danny Jacobs has left coming off of that long layoff, the win against Gabe Rosado, in which most thought he lost.

I just did not like the body language of Jacobs as this fight heated up. Ryder was putting it on him. Jacobs just didn't have the zip on his punches. Luke, I mean, it's not just a want scenario because I think at his worst in recent years, sometimes you want Danny Jacobs to be more offensive, to take more chances. I don't think it's in him anymore, Luke. This is a big win for Ryder. He wants Canelo.

I mean, you know, everybody wants Canelo. But I'm not saying danny jacobs has to retire but at 35 he is just not that dude anymore luke and it was it's tough to see i always huge respect for this guy got up against triple g i thought that fight could have been a draw you know fought well against canelo but big cancer has been an inspirational dude but it don't look like it's there anymore luke time comes for everyone, and Jacobs looked good early, right, but then faded down the stretch because that's probably what he's got to give at this point. He can be good for about half

of it. He can be the old self or something pretty close to it for half, and then the other half he can't. That's not to say that Ryder didn't earn it inside, but you get what I'm pointing out. I just don't think... You know, Jacobs was relying on a lot of skill, a lot lot of skill but also that skill mary with timing and taking his time as well to get his offense going at certain cases anyway and yeah time is closing in on him for

that kind of style to work um for my odds and ends by the way also jamal charlo getting arrested over the weekend god who the hell knows what's going to happen with that but not not a great scenario yeah it was a fight there's no details uh too deep on it but it was a felony arrest for what assault of of a family member that's what that's what the police report was and by the way he was arrested not too long ago and all the for taking money from a waitress and all the charges were dropped i don't know what's going to happen here but you know if you're in the middle of canelo negotiations probably not the best idea to get arrested but okay neither here nor there uh for my two for my odds and ends bc what did you make

of Joe Rogan not being on the broadcast it seemed like Michael Bisping was put there I don't know last minute but seemed like fairly late in the game now Dana why UFC president afterwards was asked about it he said well uh it wasn't a scheduling issue Rogan could have worked tonight if he had wanted to but he didn't really elaborate on why he didn't and then during the course of the main event he was texting ufc commentator john annick now bc i have zero evidence i have not talked to brendan i've not talked to joe i don't know anything and you know you could take dana for what he says but like dana has you know he's lied on the record before i just don't know what to make of anything he says at this point do you you think that Rogan took himself off so they wouldn't be a distraction

or that someone from Disney put down a call being like, hey, just let it breathe for one more event? What do you think? Because of the nature and tone in which Dana handled this, he was very dismissive and matter of fact. And look, from his stance, while I may not always agree with Dana's stances, but look, you know, he has those reasons I get from his stance, why he thinks this is all just nonsense and, you know, censorship and all that, even if I don't agree with it. But the way that he retweeted others for essentially acting like this was a giant witch hunt, it really leads me to believe, Luke, and how quickly that narrative went from, you know you know, scheduling conflict to know that's just bullshit that yes, Luke, he was asked by the higher ups, whether that's ESPN or Disney or

both to just say, Hey, let's sit this one out. Let's let this situation go by. Let's, let's, uh, you know, let's, let's let it, let's let it happen. And, uh, you know, you saw some people having fun with it saying, can't wait to see Joe Rogan during black history month. You know, maybe we'll have Michael Chandler on again to celebrate it. But it's tough, Luke, because when you and I broke this down after the Joe Rogan thing on last Monday's episode, we both didn't really get to say everything we wanted to say. But I did agree more on the whole idea that this is censorship and more of a witch hunt. But I also know that, like, look, as much as I want there to be some type of room for growth in people who, yes, if a video does come out of 10, 12 years ago when they were

ignorant, you know, I don't, I don't want to see everyone lose it all with it said though, Luke, that was some pretty inflammatory stuff that came out. So, you know, I'm not against the idea of let's sit this one out or let's forcibly sit this one out just to kind of you know clear the air a little bit you just want everybody to be transparent about it and i didn't think we were getting full transparency of what really happened yeah i mean who the hell knows i mean here's this this only thing is like do i take it as potentially true that rogan had enough foresight to be like been in a lot of controversy recently don't want to take away from the athletes let's just let them have their thing yes that would that does sound plausible to me but the other thing that sounds plausible to me is that disney

was like no no no no no let this one pass and then he can come back and then uh it'll be what it is but you know the idea that like i don't know when does does the UFC, whenever they're pressured to do anything by outside parties that they don't want to do, when do they ever show restraint? It's just not their modus operandi. They're like full bore into problems. That's what they like. So unless someone makes them do something else,

I just don't, it doesn't sound plausible. But here's the deal. He'll be back for the next pay-per-view. So for everyone who missed him, good news. You're going to get him back at UFC 272. Luke, what is your ideal three-man team for the biggest pay-per-views every year? What's your choice? Does it have to be three?

Yes, it has to be. Well, unless you want to go two. But it has to be two or three. And look, I've been on record saying that even though the Anik Rogan DC threesome can sometimes, you know, they can get things wrong. It could be more of an entertainment broadcast. And I tend to prefer that. I feel like I know, you know, enough about MMA that I don't always need to be educated, but I will say that Joe's kind of, even DC, they're kind of wearing on me a bit. I'm trying to figure out what is actually the best combination of everyone that we regularly see that should be their big fight team moving forward.

I mean, it's all a matter of preference because look, here's the thing. I've made this point before and I think it was true for, for, for Saturday, dude, MMA commentary is very hard to do. It's hard to be entertaining for the audience watching at home. It's hard to get, even if you were not trying to do that and you were just trying to describe the action as such it's hard to pick up on what's happening in real time it takes you know not just a very special uh observer but it takes it's just even the best ones miss a lot of stuff it's very very difficult to do so like I don't think that there's any one combination like I have some that I think are better I don't think any one is a whole lot better than the other but for me Anik obviously I'm gonna go Dominic Cruz I think are better. I don't think any one is a whole lot better than the other. But for me, Anik, obviously, I'm going to go Dominic Cruz.

I think Dominic Cruz, for me, satisfies what I'm looking for. And then from there, you could probably throw in Bisping. I like Paul Felder as well. I like DC in the right circumstances. I think Dan Hardy is missed. I think Dan Hardy and Cruz probably would have been the best one, to be honest with you. But Cruz and somebody else is what i would say and then annick obviously i think you know maybe maybe this maybe because there are things about

dc that people don't like and i i think cruz is is really the polar opposite of dc right cruz is the non-sense of humor you clean cut, give it to you. But yet it's really good and really well thought out. And DC is the entertainer who's been there. I think DC Cruz and, and, and Anik might be the elite one. And I'm not against, I don't think Joe Rogan is completely past it. There's certain elements that Rogan brings that makes it feel like a big fight and his reactions can be great.

But, you know, I think we are at a point, Luke, and we've had this debate before, where, yeah, I mean, Cruz is probably the best pure analyst they have. I agree with that. We do have to get out of here, because we have meetings, and we have, I have another podcast

for this fucking channel I have to do, so we got to get moving, but I want to remind everyone, thumbs up on the video, hit subscribe, of course. Don't forget Wednesday at, or excuse me excuse me morning combat at gmail.com will be the email for fan subs and then friday is dead wrong please get those in remember bc is going to be on showtime on saturday there's also going to be bellator on saturday so

you need showtime say again friday night showbox bc is on showtime on friday bellator's on saturday excuse me either way you get a double header for boxing and MMA Friday and Saturday if you want Showtime. Showtime.com, 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can pound sand. And then, of course, morningcombat.store for any merch. BC, any final thoughts before we close out an epic, epic show for today?

I love this show. I love our people. We may not always agree, Luke, but we end up all showing up three times a week to make each other laugh to make each other think that's morning combat I agree I agree BC I will talk to you on Wednesday folks don't forget extra credit is coming up next

we'll talk a lot of Bobby Green and Renato Moicano and thank you so much for watching for Malka for Showtime for CBS Sports for everyone else involved and to you listeners and observers and watchers thank you so much until next time may all of your gains be loyal