MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 277 Recap: Nunes Dominates Pena | Moreno Finishes Kara-France | Ep 330

Episode Date: August 1, 2022

On Episode 330 of Morning Kombat Luke is Joined by Hall of Famer Rashad Evans to recap UFC 277. Should Amanda Nunes go after the Valentina Shevchenko trilogy? How much did working with James Krause impact Brandon Moreno's style? Where Does Derrick Lewis go from here? The guys also discuss the news that Jake Paul vs. Hasim Rahman Jr. is off. What does this mean for Jake's future? The boys close out the show with a recap of Danny Garcia's win over Jose Benavidez Jr. (6:15) - Nunes Dominates Pena (34:00) - Moreno Stops Kara-France (48:20) - Lewis-Pavlovich Stoppage (57:00) - Paul-Rahman OFF (73:15) - Garcia vs. Benavidez Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Reveille, reveveille, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. It is August 1st. Can you believe it?

We're in the eighth month of the year of 2022. And it is time, ladies and gentlemen, for Morning Combat. Hello everyone, I am merely one half of your hosting duo. And no, Brian Campbell didn't get a tremendous tan on vacation. He is out today, where we are joined by the man himself, the UFC Hall of Famer, my friend and yours, the former UFC light heavyweight champion as well. It's Rashad Evans.

What's up, Rashad? How are you, man? What's going on, Luke, man? It's good to be here. Good to see you as well. You're in sunny South Florida, yes? Yes, sir. How is Florida this time of year?

You were telling me it's unbearably hot. Is that right? Yeah. I mean, you go outside and you're sweating swamp balls right away. It's the kind of, you don't even bother taking a shower because you know you're going to be sweating in five minutes, so you just kind of just roll with it. How far away do you live from your gym?

About 30, 35 minutes. So enough for the AC to finally get cool by the time you get there? Just enough to get cool by the time you get there and then you have to get right back into the sweatiness? Yeah, just enough. But the worst part about it is after you get done from working out, it's impossible to stop sweating because even after you take a shower, you're in the car and your body just keeps on sweating. So, I mean, there's almost no point of taking a shower after training, but you do got to get the funk off you.

All right, so last question about this. What is the best month to live in South Florida in terms of like being able to go outside just just the right weather what's the right weather month of Florida I would say November through February oh that's a decent little stretch that's a decent little stretch yeah I mean yeah it's perfect I mean in December when you're able to go to the beach and on Christmas it kind of brings a different kind of feel to Christmas but at the time, you realize how lucky you are. Now, you grew up in upstate New York. Do you ever miss the snowy Christmases?

I do because, like I said, you don't get that Christmas feel. So, I mean, there's been times where I just almost rolled right past Christmas and didn't even realize it because I missed the cues, you know, with the snow and just the whole festivities of it all. Fair enough. Well, we won't miss all the cues here today we have ufc 277 to get to we got some jake paul news to react to as well as some danny garcia stuff we're going to get to as well so if you're watching on youtube thumbs up on the video hit subscribe i think they hit the socials there you go there's the socials

right there if you want to give us a follow in either direction for morning combat sugar rashad evans and myself there as well and if you're listening on podcast platforms, give us a nice review on whatever platform that may be. I want to remind everyone if you want to get Showtime to watch Bellator, to watch Danny Garcia, to watch whatever. I think Adrian Broner is going to be fighting I think in South Florida next on

August 20th. You can catch that on Showtime. Go to Showtime.com. 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can bounce. And this is typically where BC will hawk some merchandise. I'll just say if you want some, go to MorningCombat.store. Have they ever sent you, Rashad, any merch from the show? I got one shirt, but I didn't want to complain. I'm like, you know what?

Let me get a couple reps on Morning Combat, and then maybe send me some more stuff. We got to get you some more. We'll get you some more. Don't worry about that. We'll find a way. We got a merch guy who's pretty locked on. We'll get you some so you can stroll around town with some of that stuff.

Yes, indeed. All right. Well, Rashad, we have a lot of business to get to. No time like the present. So if you're ready, I'm ready. I'm ready. All right. Let's do it here.

We start with topic number one, if we can. UFC 277. Amanda Nunes becomes champ champ yet again, reclaiming her title in what can only be described as an utterly dominant performance. Although she was pretty marked up by the end of the five-round fight, winning on scores of 50-45, 50-44, and then 50-43. It was a thrashing for the most part. Now, Rashad, I want to talk about how impressive it is in just a second. But first, we got a fighter on, and this is my favorite

thing to do, is to pick the brains of fighters. Look to me like there's two big things that she won that fight in terms of reasons. The southpaw switch, and then she went to the takedowns later but you tell me from your perspective how did amanda nunez win this fight what were the keys for her well i mean you know the x's and o's aside for right now but i would just say mentally speaking i feel like she's done the mental work the mental preparation when i lost to machida the hardest fight for me was the next fight against Tiago Silva. I had a mental coach with me, working with me all throughout camp and bringing me along even on fight day, just making sure I was mentally locked in because it's scary when you got to go back out there and compete in the same arena that you got knocked out in a fight before or just had a bad performance.

And so, I mean, that's what she had to overcome mentally speaking so I gave her a heads up for that because Julianna Pena was not going let me let me follow up on that when you say you had a mental coach like what were you dealing with anxiety like fear what were the things that you were worried about that the coach was trying to get you to get over? It was anxiety. It was definitely fear. You always have both of those going into the fight, but when you have a bad experience from the last fight, it kind of gets amplified even more, and then you start feeling yourself going down those holes where you're just like, oh my gosh, is this happening again? I felt like this last time, and then you start working yourself into a panic, and being able to go with somebody who's going to be able to mentally get you through it like a performance coach.

They teach you to kind of work past those cues, those red lights, as they call, and just kind of starting to rewrite those in your mind and starting to really kind of change the association that you had with it. So, like when I started to feel nervous, you know, my coaches tell me, no, that's not you feeling nervous. That's you feeling ready. You know, so I would just kind of change what it was in my mind that I was feeling instead of me feeling like I'm not ready because I'm nervous. He started telling me to feel like I was ready for it and nervous. So it was those kind of cues along with just the visualization that helped out a lot and get me right for that fight. All right. Fair enough. And to that point, actually, we can talk about that.

I didn't detect even the slightest degree. Well, she definitely was avoiding a lot of the stuff that got her into trouble in the first fight. I will say that. I thought she did get away from some of those things. But in general, she looked fresh. She looked like she was in good shape, right? She looked like she was mentally all there

do you share that assessment yeah she was all there she was tracking and she didn't lose focus at any point in the fight you know even when those times where Pena did have one good punch where it seemed like Nunez would start getting in the exchange and trying to shoot the 50-50 meaning they both can hit each other she didn't do that you know she of pulled up, pulled away and got a little bit of distance. And even there was times where it looked like she was getting hit with a shot and then she'll change the conversation of the fight instead of striking. Then she'll go with some grappling technique. What was good because before last time,

she got caught with a shot with Pena and her ego wouldn't let her to do anything else but exchange back. And what I noticed in that fight Pena has some power so that's what got her in trouble last time not being able to adjust that ego but I mean Amanda Nunes for me when she was able to come out there and start executing with that lead hook and I think that was the main reason why she switched to that soft paw stance and capitalized on that right hook I think it was just, you know, a foregone conclusion because Pena had nothing at that point. So help us understand,

why did that lead hook work? Now that's, she was switching stances, so that's actually her normal power hand, and she was catching Pena. I mean, Pena was coming in pretty straight, but from your vantage point, tell me why that hook was so devastating well because you know the way the way pena comes in when she comes in she almost she almost reaches first and she doesn't really keep her hand up she doesn't throw too much traffic by way of getting a man in this to react in order to keep her hands up so she's not going to be getting caught with a punch so whenever pena closed the distance she knew that she had that hook right there. And also that hook, it allows her to get off to an angle because if she's hooking out of the way as Peña is going straight down the trajectory to get the takedown, Peña's momentum

is going to continue to take her forward as Amanda Nunez is going to be able to go along the side of where the hook is. So it kind of served two purposes, but the power on it and the fact that Pena just wasn't able to check that left, that right hand with her left hand, it really caused her problems. It seemed like somewhere, I think in a fourth round, Pena started having a little bit more success and landing some more punches. And that was primarily because she started reaching out. She started reaching out and grabbing that hand that uh that Nunes was hitting her with that lead that lead right hand and she was able to kind of take the activity off it but it she didn't stick with that plan no she certainly didn't and obviously she got taken down there a bunch I don't have the stats here in front of me exactly I I gotta tell you I was so impressed by this performance for the

reasons you articulated um in terms of the mental approach I gotta tell you, I was so impressed by this performance for the reasons you articulated in terms of the mental approach. You know what really stuck out to me about this one? Tell me if you agree or disagree. I'm sure that you probably agree, but expand on it if you can. It was just comprehensively good. It was comprehensively good from the first round.

It seemed to me that Peña was trying to fight the last fight again, whereas Amanda was like, fresh start. And with that fresh start, she had a brand new approach. She had a brand new system. She stuck to it in the way you talked about, very disciplined in that way. And just when the fight was kind of settling into this rhythm in the second and then the third round,

then she switches it up, goes to the grappling. For the most part, had pretty good submission defense. A couple of those omoplata's were, you know, they were not very close. I mean, they were threatening or in the sense that you had to react to them, but they were not close. The armbar in the fourth was close. We'll talk about that in a second. But then, dude, her ground and pound was good. Her cardio was good. For me, all the boxes that she had to check, the big ones, I'm sure there's a couple of mistakes here or there, but the big boxes, were you in shape? Were you focused? Did you have a new strategy? Did you stick to it? Did you switch things up to keep her off balance she did all of that right yeah no

she she did 100 you know i felt also a part of it was you know uh painting up failed to make the adjustments throughout the fight and i feel part of it the well a lot of that blame goes to to the coaches and i say that not to try to call any coaches out. But when I'm listening to the corner advice, and I know sometimes you can get so caught up with just being in the fight as a corner person. But I felt as if Pena's corner wasn't giving her clear instructions on how to close the distance in an effective kind of way. They kept telling her, close the distance, close the distance. Well, she was getting close to the distance, but she was getting served up every single time. She was almost too aggressive closing the distance and not with a structured plan on how to close the distance.

There was no, hey, we're going to lay some cover, lead jab, lead jab, lead jab, triple jabs in order to close that gap, in order to cross that bridge and get in a position where she can start to get Nunez against the fence and kind of work the game, where she can kind of start to melt her down a little bit. And I feel like that's where she missed an opportunity in this fight because I believe it was like in the third round. She had a little bit of success withholding Nunez against the cage and landing some pop shots. That's the kind of fight that she needed to fight from the first round on and then allow herself to open up with the strike. And once she's melted down that great striking of amanda nunez yeah the thing is like did amanda nunez show great cardio she did

but the thing about it was she was kind of able to structure how she used it right like she she was ready she looked like she was physically fit please don't misunderstand what i'm saying but what i am also saying is she was working for the most part, for the most part, on her terms. She was never working on Pena's terms in that way. And so if you can work on your terms, you know this, Rashad, it's just a lot easier to know how to breathe, to be calm, to be in that space. It's just a comfort zone. She was, for the most part, in her comfort zone the whole time. Whereas Pena, to your point, in between corners, they were telling her to get to the clinch get to the clinch get to the clinch which i'm sure if she could get to the clinch more ably it would

have it would have done her some good but to your point they didn't give her the instructions and so amanda was able to work and structure her um let's say her gas tank and how she was going to spend that gas tank money so to speak in all the ways in which she wanted she had a budget right she had a budget for the gas tank and she got to stick to that budget the whole time yeah she did and it seemed like you know she was gaining confidence during a fight because after you see the first and second round she's she's smiling and then i feel like a part of the problem was also after the first round is over you see Amanda Nunes high-five Pena listen if I'm paying I'm not taking that high-five because I'm more than the friendlier she

got with Amanda Nunes the more comfortable Amanda Nunes got and once Amanda Nunes got in full comfort mode she started smiling she started having fun it was a wrap if you want to beat Amanda Nunez, you got to keep her in frustration mode, you got to keep her second guessing herself, you got to keep her with her head down, you got to keep her mad, you don't be high-fiving Amanda Nunez in a fight if you're expecting to beat her. That's a great point, I really hadn't thought of that, and it's part of the reason why she won the first one, right, because to your point, with the ego, she was just constantly wading into these bad battles where she was getting eating up uh or she was getting eaten up by uh pena's jab i hadn't

really thought too much about that that's kind of interesting that's that's that's good that's a good insight well let me ask you this were you a touch i can't remember anymore were you a big touch gloves guy no i wasn't a touch glove i wasn't a big touch gloves guy and i stopped being a touch gloves guy after I fought Forrest Griffin. And he told me right on the way and he said, hey, when we come out and we fight tomorrow, no tapping, no touching gloves. And it changed my mentality because I remember how I felt when he said that. When he said that to me, I was like, oh, this is serious. You know what I'm saying? It wasn't a competition anymore. It just took it another level serious, even though he probably

had his reasons for doing it. But I felt a certain certain way about it so after that i'm like if i feel that way about not touching gloves i'm sure a lot of people feel that way about touching gloves so i'm gonna take the security away from them we're not friends i'm not gonna let you feel comfortable this isn't a sparring match this isn't gonna be fun uh okay is it fair to say though that like this could be somewhat fighter or situational dependent? I mean, for example, there's the famous one of Pat Barry, and he always said that his idol was Crow Cop, and he was way too friendly in that fight. And I think it cost him, even though he was able to hurt Crow Cop. But I have seen guys that could high-five, and then they just go right back to just slinging the punches with abandon.

Is it fair to say that some people can kind of get away with it? Maybe not in this case, certainly, but in other cases. Yeah, 100%. I mean, I don't think anything is 100% anyway. I think everybody's different. And what motivates them to fight is differently. So it all depends on that personality. But in my personality, you know, I'm a friendly guy. You know what I'm saying?

I'm not one of those guys who, you know, you wouldn't see me and say, okay, he's a fighter. You know what I'm saying? So for me, in order to fight fight i had to bring that extra and part of me bringing that extra was was being able to mentally lock myself in and say this is not i'm not i'm not this guy's friend you know so i had to really be able to turn this switch and make that distinction all right that fourth round arm bar that was probably the best i i really thought watching that i was like that was her chance that was her chance if she didn't get that then it was kind of hopeless and so it was pretty close but to me the issues there were like with the arm bar she had it

fully extended but you could see amanda rotating her wrist so that the thumb was never in like this compromised position although by itself you know um it doesn't need to point to the sky but you know she you could see her playing with the wrist uh articulation so that it never really got fully locked out and then the other part was she just didn't quite have the squeeze on it amanda nunez in terms of excuse me um a pena in terms of heels to rear end and her knees pinched it was just it was a little bit too too extended, and so Nunes was able to cut the corner and come around. How close did you think it was watching it in real time? I thought it was a lot closer, more like on a forearm pressure, you know, like a little Tim Sylvia type action.

Frank Mir. Yeah, Frank Mir. I felt like that was a little bit tighter there, and that can be a little bit uncomfortable and make you make a bad decision feeling like it's interlocked and then you make a bad move but I felt like Nunes covered it pretty well but I feel like also you know maybe that was good that that happened to to Pena know that she can get a submission off her back but sometimes having a little bit success in an area kind of hurts you for the rest of the fight and I I say that because after that, she wanted to keep going for the same submission over and over again. And she got kind of tunnel

vision and not really starting to progress to the next progressive move that will work and be able to get her a real chance of finishing the fight. She did mount some attacks from the arm bar to the triangle transition, but I needed to see more as far as, you know, what about a knee bar? What about some other kind of challenges that's going to be able to kind of shake things up a little bit and get Amanda Nunes a little bit more uncomfortable and less likely to be comfortable just laying on top, you know? Fair enough.

You know, it's kind of funny. I have people being like, oh, why did she go for the takedown, Amanda Nunes? She did two of them. She had two judo trips. I think she went for the same one but one ended up being a back trip like an osoto guard the other one ended up being like a harai gochi from the front but i think it was only because pena was kind of twisting in the wind the whole time so it was just a question of like where she was when she ultimately got tossed but the thing was for me beast or um i was called you bc the thing for me was shot sorry about that the thing for me, I was called UBC. The thing for me, Rashad, sorry about that. The thing for me was if you look at the historical takedown defensive rate of Pena,

before the fight it was 25%, like her takedown accuracy was 25%. Now it's 23%. And, you know, we don't want to get too wrapped up in the stats because a guy like Habib was floating around like 48% or so. But I will say if you see see a fighter on a main card, especially in a title fight, and they have a sub 30% takedown accuracy rate, that's low.

That is low. That's not that great. Or excuse me, what am I saying? Takedown defense. Excuse me. Takedown defense. Her takedown defense was 23%. That's low.

That means like three of every four attempts that you try to stuff don't work yeah right and so amanda nunez was able to get there get on top and that's the thing it's like does pain you have a good guard yes she does she has a good guard but getting that you know this submitting a black belt from your back with your guard that doesn't happen against black belts all that often unless you hurt them like Anthony Pettis drilling that body kick to Benson Henderson and then getting the arm bar after it right so hunting off your back it's just a low percentage way to do it unless you can really put

some steam on them first with some strikes yeah 100% yeah it's kind of you know like um it's kind of a default position once you can't really keep the fight where you want to keep it. And, you know, I feel also that was part of Nunez's game. Like once she was able to get Peña down consistently, that was part of her winning the fight. Because one thing in a fight is it's all about morally just kind of taking it away from your opponent, you know, just destroying them in every single facet. And being able to dominate in the grappling was, I bet, one of Peña's, you know, what she thought she'd be able to do. But when you go in there and you just defang the snake and, you know what I'm saying, you beat them right where they think they're going to beat you, it's another ego deflator. And it just helps the process of just beating your opponent because

you're beating them every single place and there's really no place for them to go and then you start to see the look in their eyes and you start to feel that side come out and you almost feel as if like they're going to just cruise to the defeat but even though Pena did not cruise to defeat she was definitely beaten though yeah no doubt about it, this is an interesting one, Rashad, because 34 years of age, she didn't like, people talk about changing dims. It wasn't like she went from ATT to like AKA in that sense. She kind of put everything around herself. And I'm going to guess, I don't know this for a fact,

I'm going to guess even at ATT, she kind of had her own little system within the system, given who she was and given her tenure there, although she had previously started with MMA Masters before that. But nevertheless, she did have, let's say, a change in the gym situation or whatever you want to call that, and that loss and everything else. Just walk me through this. Not only just did she turn in an incredible performance,

but the age and then all the changes she had to experience. How incredible is this feat? How hard was it to do what she was able to accomplish on Saturday night? It was extremely difficult. And listen, because of all the things that you mentioned, I didn't think she was going to win the fight. I mean, because I know what it means to be able to make those big changes and the fact that, you know, she had a wife in training camp and then her wife didn't fight a couple of

weeks ago for whatever reason. So you just never know how all those things are playing into this, you know, into the puzzle. And, you know, being in a situation where now you go from being in a gym setting where the machine is running and operating and you don't got to do anything but show up, but then now be the orchestrator in your own gym and really have to worry about everything on the outside, that's another distraction that comes along with it. And it can definitely distract you and pull you in a way and pull energy out in a way that doesn't help on fight day. So the fact that she was able to get it all together, but more importantly, look better than she's looked in her two or three previous fights before that, it really showed that this move was the best move for her. And that's what I seen on Saturday. I

seen that she made a move that was the best move for her. And it may be something that she was probably thinking about a few fights prior because she competed with just a sense of just freeness that I haven't seen, and it was just the expressions in her face at times and when she was smiling when she was fighting. I haven't seen that in her in so long, and to see that come out on Saturday really shows that she put together a camp that made her feel good from a soul point of view. You know, what's interesting too is I saw a lot of, in the end, the comparisons were good.

But I was, and by the way, I did a video yesterday because BC and I, he forces me to do predictions, which I don't like doing because MMA is hard to predict, especially if you don't have inside information, right? And then the fighters take it personal, too. Oh, yeah. I'm kind of over that, but you're right. Like, it's difficult, you know? So I was with you. I thought that was gonna i thought that the i thought that basically they would pick up where they left off in the first one and credit to amanda she flipped the

script completely i really you know we can't say enough good things about it but the other one was like everyone's like well it's like saint pierre against sarah but here was the thing this is the difference and this is why amanda what she did is even more impressive to me, which is that St. Pierre was like 25 or 26 when that happened against Sarah. Amanda was 34, 34, much longer in the tooth, much more miles on the tires, so to speak, much more tread, I should say. There was a lot more. She had to like, there was a lot more forces she had to summon, it feels like, to get to where she went, because when Sarah and GSP

rematched he went right for the takedown it was knees to the body it was ground and pound it was a bit of a safer approach Amanda went southpaw which is a little bit riskier in kind of a way right like she had to really shake shit up to get it done and at 34 years of age Rashad as a competitive athlete you know this I don't know I feel like making those changes, taking those risks, showing the moxie that she did at 34, that's harder to do than when you're 26 years old. Oh, yeah, 100%. I mean, I was thinking also when you said Matt Hughes,

remember when Matt Hughes switched stances late in his career and it just didn't serve him well? BJ Penn also as well. Switch stance didn't serve him well. Sugarfoot. Yep, yep. And, I i mean you just never know you know especially when you're 34 years old and i and i was looking at amanda as

if like you know she's you know she's on the other side she's seeing the other side of things as far as like you know now she's you know growing her family and she's really into that that role of being a parent and being you know having having a family and things like that so that role of being a parent and having a family and things like that. So that kind of pulls you in a different mindset and you just never know what that mindset is going to be. And as a man, it's one way and as a woman, it's another way. So you never know how that's going to be as far as being able to continue to be the same savage you were inside the cage. Because in order to be in that cage, you got to pull that savagery out of you you got to be in touch with it you got to be friends with it you know and i'm not sure that leads to you know that that is a you know very i guess a close you know thing to do with family

you know i'm saying you have family on one end but then you have this savagery another another end so it's kind of it's kind of hard to see if you know both those worlds are going to mesh i want to say one thing about juliana pena which is that you know it wasn't her night and um she didn't get around on any of the judges scorecards and then of course she had a couple of 10-8s on one of the judges scorecards i will say this between the ground and pound she absorbed and between getting dropped what felt like a million times she might be one of the toughest fighters on the roster and I always kind of respected how tough she was I didn't know she was this tough that is crazy have you ever seen someone get dropped that many

times and then get right back up and show the same kind of composure and maybe to a fault because she didn't switch things up in the way that you kind of articulated that maybe she should have but still that resilience, that person. There was, I never felt like she quit. I never felt like there was a moment where she wasn't trying to win. Maybe, Rashad, she didn't have all of the right tools to get it done. Fair enough. But she was trying until that final bell.

Yeah, I 100% agree. Her heart was on full display, and it showed that she has tons and tons of heart. I don't have to win but this motherfucker he's gonna feel me he's gonna feel me you know he's going to feel me you gotta make him feel you and she made Amanda Nunes feel her you know what I'm saying like it was Amanda didn't after the fight was over I seen her at the press conference you know she had crutches and her face is beat up she was in a fight you know and that's what you want. She didn't win the fight, but Payne, you didn't win the fight, but she definitely made Amanda Nunes feel like Amanda is feeling her today. So she gave a good account for herself when it comes to toughness. But it's just that when it comes to just that

other element that she's going to have to be in order to be the champion and in order to grow into that toughness, she's going to have to pick up order to be the champion and in order to grow into that toughness she's going to have to pick up some skills along with that with the striking and things like that and just more of a comfort when it comes of understanding her style of fight and I feel like that's what it came down to was she didn't really understand her style of fight and that usually happens when a fighter starts to master their style and she hasn't really mastered her style all right so let's talk about what might be next now pena was like we're one in one but i just don't i mean you lose 50 44 and then 50 43 i don't know if there's a ton of momentum or uh say

fan enthusiasm for a third fight between them. We'll have to see. It seems like the big one would be a third fight with Shevchenko. In fact, Shevchenko getting out there and saying, aha, you copied my blueprint because she stood southpaw. She is southpaw as well. Although, if you go back and watch that fight, Rashad, between Shevchenko and Pena, they clinched for like 95% of it or on the ground, like standing apart.

There was almost virtually none. So let me ask you this. I'm going to work under the assumption that there's going to be a lot more enthusiasm for a Shevchenko trilogy than a Peña one, even though the Peña fights are vastly more exciting than the Shevchenko ones. Still, do you agree that the next right step for Amanda Nunes is to invite a third fight with Shevchenko? Yeah, I think so. And I think now is the time, too.

This is the time more than anything because you've seen Shevchenko's last fight. She showed that she had the chink in the armor. And she showed that she's beatable. And we know that Amanda Nunes is beatable. And this is where they need to fight right now because I feel like it's very intriguing for the fans, you know, because now there's no, okay, she's going to win, she's

going to win. And not one woman is just on that roll, even though Shevchenko hasn't lost, but she still has shown the ability that she can lose. She's still that tough, tough champ, but she did show a chink in the armor in the last fight. So I think that this is the time to make that fight happen. There's no much time left when it comes to Amanda Nunes being 34 years old and already starting to see the exit and already a double champion. Let's see if she can do it and put the 125 belt on the line. Well, they couldn't do that because the fight

would have to be advanced some way but i know what you mean like there would be essentially three belts on the poster so to speak right here's the thing though like if you're amanda how do you sell her on that you won the first one which was a three-round contest years ago second one was frankly i thought shevchenko won it but but the judges thought otherwise, and it was very, very close. Fair enough. You know, you've already got this status. If you're the UFC, like, how do you make her take the – I mean, obviously they can't make her, but how do you convince her to take it? Because obviously Shevchenko would get a shitload from a win.

Amanda's already got two up on her. What does she really win with a third? I think this is a legacy fight. I mean, you know, when it comes down to it, Amanda Nunez is going to go down in history as the best mixed martial artist of all time and one of the best of all time in general. So I think that this is one of those fights that kind of really just solidifies that legacy. It would be a shame if we walked out and these two, you know, went and retired and, you know,

decided not to fight anymore without giving it one last shot, because you always want to fight the best in your era. And that's one thing that I will always say that I'm proud of. Win, lose or draw. I can always say no matter what, I fought the best in my era. And to be able to fight the best in your era and to compete with those guys, that's what it's all about. That's why we even do it. So I feel like this is a big opportunity for her to solidify that legacy. All right.

Fair enough. I hope that they make it next. I'll be curious to see if they can sell it to her, but it will be a fun one just the same. Let's talk now, if we can, about the co-main event, Rashad. So Brandon Moreno stops Kaikara France in the third round with a vicious, vicious body kick. Let's start. There's a lot of things to unpack from this one. DC had noted, Rashad, in the broadcast, his stance was a little bit narrower. And of course, he had left his longtime gym in Mexico,

interim gym. He's now over with James Krause out of Glory, I think it's Glory MMA and Kickboxing. I forget the exact name of the gym. But James Krause, you know this, Rashad, one of the smartest guys, great coach, very talented fighter. How different did Moreno look to you?

How, again, not like he was wildly different, but you don't need to be wildly different to have big changes. Small changes can result in big differences. What did he look like to you? He looked better. It looked like he was more confident. It looked as if he was in excellent shape. It was almost as if he knew a secret the whole fight.

Even when he was getting tatted up on the other side of a butt whooping, he still made sure that he stayed mentally engaged. I say that because whenever you've seen him go into the corner, even after he had a round where he was just getting blasted on by Kaikai France, he still had that look in his eyes as if he was going to end the fight next chance he got. And that that right there showed me that in training camp, they worked a lot on just mental toughness. And more importantly, just that, hey, you're going to get this. You're going to get this. You're going to get this building that belief in himself.

And that's one thing I can say about what about Kraus is the fact that sometimes, listen, coaches can go in there and say, make you make you better with the X's and O's, make you do better differently and technically speaking, but there's also times where the coach is just mentally there, mentally making you find that other guy. And that's what I seen in Moreno. James Kraus held him accountable and made him find that other guy. And I seen James Kraus do that in other fights, have guys pull out a victory in the jaws of defeat when it was all on the line, just because he's able to talk to them, just because these fighters, they fight for him.

And that's different. That's totally different. When you have a coach that you fight for, it just changes the way you compete altogether, and I've seen that in Moreno. Now, if I had to ask you what's the best explanation for how he was able to win right a little bit of x's and o's tell me what you saw i i saw moreno uh you know staying with within the game plan within the game plan he

started off going to the body in the beginning and he's saying that eventually he'd be able to get to that body. But, you know, I also seen a guy who was, you know, not willing to sink away and go into feet. You know, he was getting beat up that left leg was meant to meet. And I don't even know how he even pulled that kick off. But the fact that he was able to do it just showed just how mentally tough he is. He was not going to give in. But I feel like it was a combination of just being so mentally tough and locked in, but also being able to plant that seed early and start getting that body work in in the earlier rounds. Yeah, I noticed.

So when I was watching it, I was trying to see how often he would go to the body. I noticed high kicks, obviously, upstairs in the first round. And then at the rough, I can't remember exactly if it's like 130, 131, 132, but at roughly 90-second mark or so of the third round, it's the exact same kick. And then Kaikara France is still circling, still doing his bit. And then later on, whatever the exact time was at the stoppage, he landed that other kick, just the exact same one. And that one finally put him down.

Let me ask you about the body shots, kicks or punches. So obviously everyone's going to look at that one and be like, oh, that was the kick that did it. But sometimes it can be accumulative, right? Like one shot will get through. And it's not the one that puts you down. You might have a good poker face. And it hurts, but you can kind of muscle through it. Do you think it was just that

one shot or do you think that maybe kai car france was feeling it a little bit and that one was the the straw that broke the camel's back i think it was cumulative i think like it was maybe something he got hit with earlier and it kind of felt like you know like when you get hit with the with the body shot and it kind of stings with stings it kind of feels like you know like like you got stabbed or something like that and it just feels like a it feels like you got a really bad cramp and it won't go away and you know kind of it kind of stays there and when you move a certain kind of way you can feel it and i feel like that's what maybe the been a problem with kai kai france because you know the way he threw that kick and not saying that that kick alone couldn't drop

him and keep him out, but it seemed as if when there's no fighting it like that, that means that you've already fought it one time before or a couple times before. You know what I'm saying? When your body is just like, yo, no, I can't. It just goes into shutdown mode. That means it's probably already taken a couple

that you probably don't want to shit yourself for taking, you know? Hardest liver shot you ever took. Where was it? It was in training practice. I was training. I was sparring Tyrone Spung, getting ready for, yeah, you already know what happened.

Getting ready for Phil Davis, and he threw a shot. I landed a combination, and I started to kind of smile, and then he was like, bop, hit me right into the kidneys, and it actually broke my rib too, man. So it was one hell of a shot, man. So you fought Phil Davis with broken ribs? Yeah, yeah. Is that why that was such a wrestling-heavy game plan for you?

Yeah, yeah. I mean, I didn't even want to wrestle. I kind of wanted to keep striking, but I just, you know, took what he gave me. But then, you know, I shot it up with some cortisone and stuff like that, so it kind of took away the sting. But once the fight started happening, it was hurting again.

Jesus. Once you said Tyrone Spong, I was like, oh, you're fucked. I mean, that's, you know, it is what it is at that point. That's hilarious. All right, what do you want to say about Kaikara France? man he was fighting a good fight you know you go back and you watch the first one kaikara france the first fight between them he wins the first one pretty pretty cleanly and then moreno kind of takes over in the second and third you know this one was close at

times at times by that third round though before he got dropped, Kaikara France was in control. He sliced him up in the face. He actually got a takedown. He was beating him up. I thought up until shit went bad, it was going right for Kaikara France. It was going so right for Kaikara France. I thought that Kai was going to win. I thought that if he would have continued to keep doing what he was going to do, he was going to win. And it was going to get worse for Moreno because the mobility of Moreno was getting shut down. That leg kick was just in there,

and it looked as if he took one more, he was going to have to lay down and fight from his back. That's how bad those leg shots were looking, but it was just a very well-measured approach. Kai Kaifranz didn't come out of himself too many times overreaching and things like that like he did the first fight. I felt like the first fight, Moreno did a really good job of managing the distance and using his reach to keep Kai Kaifranz on the outside. But Kai was very smooth this time coming in and being out when he needed to and not fighting in that in-between zone where he can get hit, but he can't hit Moreno. So I felt like he did a really good job of managing the distance, but that kick, it was

the Hail Mary, to be honest, but it came from a very tough Moreno who just refused to give in. It certainly did. Although I will say one thing that I kind of saw when this was like, why was he throwing the kick in the way that he was? Cara France was circling one direction the whole time. You know, he was constantly going. If you're Kai Cara France, he was going to his right,

which sets up that left body kick the whole time. And I noticed he was going out and scooping to his right the whole time. And I'm not here to say that, like, that's wrong or anything like that, but everything has a counter for everything. And you would see Moreno flash. He loves those blitzes, right? that like that's wrong or anything like that but everything has a counter for everything and you would see Moreno flash and he loves those blitzes right so for example in the third fight between Moreno and Figueiredo Rashad you would see Moreno blitz with the hands and Figueiredo would wait on him and then clinch and go for a takedown or whatever and sometimes they would work and sometimes they wouldn't but he was intercepting that pressure with something he knew he could

deliver back right we all know that Figueiredo is strong, can wrestle, has good grappling. By contrast, you saw a lot of keep-away from Cara France. He has made dramatic improvements in his defensive wrestling and his defensive grappling. But it's not an offensive weapon for him all that much. Certainly it wasn't in this fight. And so he was constantly playing keep-away. It looked to me like they were just either trying to cut him all that much. Certainly it wasn't in this fight. And so he was constantly playing keep away. It looked to me like they were just either trying to cut him off that way or because he's going far away, you go to the body and you have to kick

because that's the right distance and everything. But it did seem like they were picking up on the fact that he was constantly moving in that direction, constantly at that distance. Moreno loves those blitzes. It was a bit of a Hail Mary in the sense that he was getting his ass kicked a little bit in that third round. But at the same time, I do feel like there was a method to a Hail Mary in the sense that he was getting his ass kicked a little bit in that third round but at the same time I do feel like there was a there was a method to that madness am I am I crazy no you're not crazy you're absolutely right I feel like they made the

reads you know they were clocking uh uh Kai Kyle France and seeing which way he's gonna go and you know that's the name of the game if you do anything too many times on repetitive matter you're gonna get clocked and you're gonna get caught it's just a matter of time because we got somebody at that high level they're going to be able to see it especially when you got a coaching staff like james kraus and those guys who they were to pick out the nuances and try to see ways to exploit them so yeah i mean he was definitely something that you know he's seen he he was able to capitalize on. But, you know, with Kaikai Franz, you know, he's seen an opportunity to really beat up on that leg and being able to really get Moreno, you know, circling on that leg and trying to beat him to that step

was one of his probably main motivations to even circling to that side to land that right kick. Yeah, fair enough. Now, this brings us to the fact that they brought Figueiredo into the cage afterwards. They're going to have a fourth fight because this was for the interim championship and Figueredo holds the real title, so to speak. So we're going to get a fourth one.

Based on what you saw coming off of that third fight, remember now Figueredo in that third fight was bringing in some of that wisdom and that coaching from Henry Cejudo. I thought he had a much better game plan. I will say this. Did I see something in this fight that gives me confidence that Moreno can get over that hump with Figueiredo? Not necessarily, but here's the caveat, right? Sometimes guys go to a new coach, and it takes a few fights for them to really settle in.

There can be some immediate benefits, but the full benefit doesn't necessarily happen right away. I wonder what you make of that and also how that factors into your thinking about what a fourth Figueredo fight's going to look like. I 100% agree. I feel like the fruits of the labor that they're putting and he's putting in at Krause's gym is not really going to materialize itself

until maybe the next fight or the fight after that. Like when you were asking me before, did I see anything technically different? I didn't really see anything technically different. If I was comparing anything technically speaking, I would say that he did a better job technically before when he fought him just because he's able to utilize his reach and stuff like that. So but but but the work that he did with James Krause was for me, it was, you know, a mental one. And it was a belief factor. And now, you know, he fights for James Krause. You know, that the moment when you see Moreno get ready to go into the cage and then you see James Krause is talking that shit to him, just getting his getting into his mind and just really, you know, really just lathering him up. That's a coach who's connected with this fighter, you know,

and the look that he had in his eyes looking at James Crouch showed that that connection was a very strong one. So, you know, he's fighting for that guy. So I think that going into this fight with Davidson Figueiredo is going to be different just on that aspect alone. And now if he can just amplify and just bring all the things that he's been able to learn by being there with Kraus and really learn to just kind of, you know, pull some of the positive that he had out of the last two fights and just really just make it full

display for the fourth one. I think we're have a really good fight for uh for moreno get groceries delivered across the gta from real canadian superstore with pc express shop online for super prices and super savings try it today and get up to 75 in pc optimum points visit superstore.ca to get started you know it reminds me of um t Tyson Fury switching over between Ben Davison and then going to the Cronk Gym. Yes, it was a big technical change, right? He went from a guy who was sort of jabbing on the outside to a guy who went into the storm, and it totally worked.

But then you see, for example, at the press conference, right, Tyson Fury doing Tyson Fury shit where he's completely shirtless and he's looking, you know, if you didn't know he was the press conference, right? Tyson Fury doing Tyson Fury shit where he's completely shirtless and he's looking, you know, if you didn't know he was the boxing champion, you'd think he was just an out-of-shape middle-aged dude almost. Yeah. But then Sugar Hill Stewart's

taking off his shirt too, you know? His coach is doing the exact same, that's that connection you're talking about, right? Yeah, yes indeed. Yeah, that's it. That's it, you know? And, you know, it's a big trust that happens when you, you know, when you truly buy into the program, you know, when you truly buy into the corner and they just say one or two words,

and they can just immediately flip the switch. When I was getting my butt kicked by Forrest Griffin in the fight, you're not going to the third round. And I sit on the stool and the coach was like, dude, what are you doing? And just him just talking to me the way he talked to me, the frankness that Mike Winkley done talked to me, I knew I was letting him down and I didn't want that. So I went out there and fought that round for him. And that's what you do when you have that connection with your coaches. That's a hell of a point.

By the way, what is old Mike Van Arsdale up to? He's over in Arizona. He's coaching some kids. He's got a good kids program out there he's over in uh Arizona he's uh coaching some kids you know he's got like a good kids program down there he's working with yeah he was always jacked as shit even when he always 44 years old and just arms is huge I couldn't believe I was like how are you this old with this many abs okay uh neither here nor there all right let's talk very quickly about Derek Lewis because this was um this was an interesting one I wasn't fully sure what to make of this.

So he loses in the first round very quickly, as a matter of fact, to Sergei Pavlovich. Now, first things first, before we talk about Derek Lewis and if he's coming or going and all that stuff, let's talk first about the stoppage by Dan Mergliata. Rashad, did you love it? Did you hate it? Where are you? I hated it. I hated it, but I was able to see, you know, when you see it real fast, you can see why he was concerned, but at the same time, you know, the minute he was, Derek Lewis' hands hit the ground and was on all fours, he was already coming back up. You know, that wasn't where he fell from his hands hit the ground and was on all fours, he was already coming back up. You know, that wasn't where he fell from his hands because he was at hands. He wasn't go hands to his elbows. You know,

he didn't fall like that. You know, it wasn't where he was just on his hands and within a tripod position on all fours and he bounced, he came right back up. So a lot of those shots that was thrown missed. And it's just an unfortunate situation because I know the ref was trying to do his thing and trying to save a fighter and make it so he can fight another day. And then heavyweight, you know what I'm saying, you don't want to get caught with too many unnecessary shots because it could be the end of it. But, I mean, with a guy like Derrick Lewis who has the ability to take those kind of shots, it's kind of like one of those things where you just got to know who you're reffing more than anything.

Yeah, but how many times have we seen Derek Lewis hurt and then storm back? Has he done it a million times? Usually with body shots more than getting punched in the head, fair enough. But still, it's pretty common. I will tell you, I didn't love it either. I saw some defense of it. I don't think it's certainly not the worst stoppage in the world you know but for example compare the amount of times that brandon moreno

had to subsequently hit cara france once he had like gone down and he was drilling him versus you know this was we i granted it looked bad i understand it looked bad where you know, this was, granted, it looked bad. I understand it looked bad where, you know, he's going face first and he kind of catching himself on the canvas. He just didn't get any time to recover at all. Like a couple more hammer fists would have told us a lot, I feel like. And he just didn't get that chance. So not my favorite stoppage from Dan Mergliata there. All right, but let's talk about Derek Lewis, who I think is 37 years of age.

I'm going to verify here in just a second. Here's what I was worried about, Rashad. He was coming off of the loss to Tai Tuivasa. Now, Tai Tuivasa is obviously a heavy hitter and a tough guy himself. But Derek Lewis is a guy who's been putting people's lights out. And finally, his lights got put out in that fight. And I was like, how's he going to come back from this? Again, I didn't like the referee stoppage.

So maybe the answer is we just don't know a whole lot. But this was by far the best opponent Sergey Pavlovich had defeated. I mean, Alistair Overeem walked right over Pavlovich like it wasn't anything. And so, you know, there's a big sort of question there about is he actually this good? We don't really know. What do you make of the, let's say, the career stage of a guy like Derek Lewis? I think that Derek is at one of those stages where he's got to recalibrate himself you know what i'm saying like i feel as if like

you know at 37 years old uh and heavyweights you know they don't necessarily they age later on and they kind of you know get better as they get older but then there there is a point where he has to just kind of you know decide i feel like he's kind of in that lukewarm position that he was before he started having all this success. So I feel like he just needs to take another recalibration and see if this is still something that he wants to do as far as fighting from that place to be the best. Not just getting a check, but to be the best. And when you fight to be the best, you fight differently than you do with just getting a check. And right now, I feel like he's fighting to just get a check. And when you fight to be the best, you fight differently than you do with just getting a check. And right now,

I feel like he's fighting to just get a check. And I say that because, you know, I watched the interview he did with DC and I know sometimes, you know, he's a funny guy. He's a funny guy. But, you know, he's like, I don't, you know, he didn't,

he didn't really know the name of his opponent. And I'm not saying you need to know how to say it, you know, all those different things. But I mean, it's attention to detail. You know what I'm saying? Like when I got to fight a guy, I know his name. I know his wife's name. I know everything I can know about this person, you know, and I do that just so my mindset get really familiar as I can with this person. So it's not a stranger that I'm in there. I feel like I know him really well. And I feel like when you're at that level, like Derek Lewis, you have to approach the fight like that.

And I feel like, you know, he's kind of missing that element of it. And maybe he's never that kind of guy. But for me, if you want to be the best, you've got to be dead center. You've got to be locked in. Yeah, I mean, as we all know, 37 at heavyweight is not necessarily, it's not like a spring chicken, but you're not necessarily over the hill for 37 at heavyweight. And we did see in the Chris Dawkus fight, which was just last year,

December of 2021, that he was able to put his lights out inside of the first. We know he's got big power, but he's lost three of his last four. Now you look at who he's lost to. Cyril Ghosn, who's maybe a future champion. We'll see. Taito Iwasa, who again, is very good, very tough. Pavlovich just doesn't... I mean, these are his losses in the UFC.

Rashad, you ready for this? These are his losses. Okay? Now, excluding some of the early ones against Sean Jordan and Matt Mitrione, I don't mean to diminish them, but those were 2014-2015. Since then, Mark Hunt in 2017, a big dominant puncher and the like. Cormier, JDS,

Cyril Ghosn, Taito Iwasa, and now Pavlovich. Of all those guys, Pavlovich is the least, to this point anyway, we'll see how he does in his career, the least accomplished. When the quality of the opponent begins to change, that's when you're like i'm not sure where this is going am i reading too much into that no you're not you're

not you're not at all you know but i feel like also like that's what derrick was like because because the fact that he doesn't necessarily take it as serious as he should. I feel like he leaves a lot of room for people to make those assessments of him. I feel like he does still have some tread left on his tires. I feel like there are some things that he can definitely still turn around if he really wanted to, but it's that very, if he wants to part, does he want to, does he want to be the best, you know? And when you're uncertain on, you know, where you're competing from, it's impossible to have consistent results because you're not anchored in a place that's, in a place that is going to be, you know, is holding you accountable you're not you're not

you're not holding yourself accountable to any kind of standards of being a champion so i feel if he reorients his mind and decides where he wants to be then he could make a run or he could turn things around but if he just wants to be out there getting a check then i don't see it yeah dude fighting is one of those things where it's like, you know, far be it for me to tell anyone how they should fight or what the mentality is. But just listening to, like, the very best fighters over the course of covering the sport for as long as I've been doing it, I don't think I've heard one guy yet be like, yeah, kick your feet up. You know what I mean? Like, take it easy, you know. Yes, being relaxed can be a big part of it. But like every single person you talk to is like you need to be extremely focused, extremely dialed in.

Otherwise, bad shit will happen to you. Fair enough. Dan Mergliata did not have the best stoppage here. And I can readily agree. We'll see how he looks in his next one. But I think you would agree in his next fight, that's where we're going to get a great read, right? For all the mistakes that may have happened here, he's probably got to know. That would be three losses in a row, right?

First time in his career that's ever happened. That would be a real gut check moment to see exactly whether Derek Lewis is coming or going, right? Yeah, 100%. And also, Derek Lewis has some great skills. He has some great athleticism that is very unexpected. But the thing with Derek Lewis is that he's always been one of those athletes who have all these different tools, but he's never really took any time to organize his toolbox. And I feel like if he does take it a little bit more serious on that respect of just kind of deciding where he wants to fight from uh being a champion or not then he's going to take the time to really organize how he can

best get consistent wins by organizing his toolbox fair enough all right so there'll be more ufc conversations and uh breakdowns i'll be doing on morning combat extra credit be on the lookout for that got a couple new twists coming to that podcast but let's turn our attention to some news that broke on saturday night rashad i was actually live doing a showtime stream when i found out i was at the danny garcia fight jake paul versus hasim rahman jr canceled now there is a lot of he said she said or i should say he said he said anyway between them there's a lot of you know I'm just sort of using the old adage. And there's a lot of theorizing from a lot of different folks. The very, very basic detail is that Haseem Rahman Jr. had to come down heavily in weight.

And basically was not making the requisite progress that he needed to make in order for that to be there. So there was some negotiation. He was initially supposed to be at 200 and there was an agreement if he could make 205 between both Paul and the commission. And you should know this, Rashad. I interviewed Jake Paul about this. There were other opponents that they had considered

for both experience and size and whatnot. And the commission made weight a very big point about what they were going to approve and not approve both in this contest and any other one that he was entertaining at the time when tommy fury had fallen out so they agreed if you can go to 205 we'll let it slide then the rockmon camp basically came back and said well it's got to be 215 and again it was contracted for pounds. I've got some thoughts about who's sort of at fault here and why this all kind of fell apart.

I'd be curious to get your perspective. When you examine why this fell apart, what is your best explanation? It's on Rahman to me. I mean, listen, could have Jake made the adjustment for Rahman not being able to make the I mean, listen, could have Jake made the adjustment for, uh, Rahman not being able to make the weight. Yeah, he could have, but he signed a contract. You know what I'm saying? You, you signed a contract and he knew his situation going into signing a contract.

It's not like he didn't know, you know, how hard it was going to be signed a contract when he was 230 pounds and knowing he was going to fight at 200 pounds you know so so for me i'm not really buying the whole like i couldn't make weight type thing because you don't sign a contract to fight 30 pounds lighter if you can't make it you know somebody came to me say hey rashad i want you to fight at you know uh 170 i'm not going to be able to do it you know if i do sign a contract then then then i'm signing something I'm not going to be able to do it. You know, if I do sign a contract, then I'm signing something I'm not going to be able to fulfill. So I feel like Hasim on that aspect, just failed to do what he was contractually obligated for. And it pains me to say this because I don't dislike Jake Paul, but I'm not the biggest Jake Paul fan.

So in this situation, it's with the person who signed a contract. Yeah, I mean, I think there's a little bit of examination all the way around that should happen here. I basically agree with you. Like, dude, you signed a deal. You knew what the deal was when you signed it. You knew what you were tasked with if you're a Hasim Rahman Jr. And you agreed to be able to make it. Now, it's funny. I wish BC was here for only one reason. I'm very delighted to be talking to you. But we had had conversations

privately off the air about what I thought was going to happen. This was my prediction. My prediction was the weigh-ins were going to happen, which have been on Friday. I told BC this. He can back this up. I said there's no chance Rockman makes weight. I don't know how much he's going to miss it by, but he's not going to make 200 pounds. I actually thought he might make 205 or like 207 or something. And then I thought the commission would still find a way to let it go, right?

The match would happen. And that Rockman would beat Jake Paul. That was actually what I thought was going to happen. So the second part of that I guess we'll never find out. But the first part, it seems like it would have been right on the money. I just didn't believe he was going to be able to do it. We interviewed Rockman Jr. as well, BC and I, and he was like, oh, I've got a nutritionist and they're keeping me on this and they're keeping me on that. And then there's another video that comes out where he's like, my body just wouldn't let me. It's like, dude, I understand you have to say certain things to the media to promote fights.

I cannot stand it when I get lied to directly by a fighter. I cannot stand it, Rashad, when they just outright. If you want to hedge or fudge or you don't want to talk about it, fine. But an outright lie drives me up the fucking wall. I cannot stand it. And that was just an outright lie. It was totally different things he was saying. So I'm like, my level of sympathy for a deal you agreed to, you knew what time it was when you signed the deal, is not high. However, I will say this,

and this is where I think Jake Paul has some reflecting to do. I don't think he did anything wrong necessarily. He was definitely trying to stack the deck in his favor by getting a guy who was heavy to come way down. But of course, he's in a difficult position because you're headlining Madison Square Garden. You need a dance partner that can also... Hasim Rahman's got his dad's name. So this is something that, at least in theory,

you could use to help promote the fight. But I made this point about CM Punk and the UFC, and these are not identical scenarios. But with CM Punk, the UFC was just not the right opportunity for him, not really because he was never going to go on and beat somebody who was actually really good, but it's like, dude, if you actually want to get good at MMA, you cannot cheat the system. You have to start at the regional show when no one's looking,

you've got to get your amateur fights in or however it was. I know in your era wasn't exactly like that but now you can get some amateur fights in. You can get some low-level pro fights in and then you can work your way up and there's a reason why you want to do that. You don't want to be under the bright lights when you're first starting out. You're not ready for them. They're not good for you. You need to just focus on the task at hand he's got competing problems on the one hand he needs to be you're headlining Madison Square Garden on the other hand this was only going to be his sixth pro fight so they got to find just

the right kind of guy to make that work which I think Tommy Fury would have been and it kind of all fell apart and so my thought is this. It's like, will they be able to find someone else going forward? Maybe he'll find Anderson Silva or something else like that, and maybe it'll all work out. I don't know. But there's a reason why, if you actually want to develop through the ranks, you do it quietly at first through that system, because you don't have to worry if you're fighting your six-pro fight and you're just Joe Schmo, who the hell the guy is across from you. The promoter will worry about that, and you don't have to worry about you're fighting your six pro fight and you're just Joe Schmo who the hell the guy is across from you the promoter will worry about that and you don't have to worry about selling

tickets and you don't have to worry about any of those things but when you're the promoter and the guy and you're inexperienced it's so many competing interests that it just makes doing the job very very difficult and for that reason especially because it was rushed in the sense that Fury was the original opponent and it didn't work out, I just feel like it's very, very difficult to balance those competing. Because listen, Rashad, you would agree, they could find a cruiserweight, right?

They could find some cruiserweight out there who's 4-0, 5-0, but he didn't have the name. And so all these things, they just make that job way too difficult to do. Yeah, they're really waiting for the stars to align with the perfect opponent and have the social media following and all the things that make all the heavy lifting about promoting the fight easy and that's the thing about it like you know he's not at the level where he's going to be able to get somebody with a big following that people know but then at the same time that's a credible boxer because you know if you're a credible boxer you know you're you've

you've proven yourself and you have you know way more experience so uh he's not going to find what he's looking for and maybe that's why you know that's precisely why he was going for the the non-boxers than the mma guys in the mma, just trying to capitalize off of what we've done in MMA and trying to, you know, use all the fanfare that we got and try to use it for his boxing and get the attention. But I mean, this is a six fight. So it's like, what is he really trying to do here? I feel like he's really just trying to get maybe a few more big fights like this before he's able to get a big fish you know before he's in a big fish i mean someone not saying mcgregor do it but someone like a mcgregor someone that's a big name fighter that makes all this worth it and i feel like that's what he's looking for than any more than anything i don't feel like he's

really looking to be champion in boxing or anything like that. I'm thinking that he's really just looking for blockbuster fights with guys that have big names, and he's going to use these fights with Rahman and other fights with Tywin Willey and other people he can fight in order to hold interest until he can get a fight like that. I didn't like the Rahman fight for him you know rockman's got a lot of issues where um you know he's never been a guy who was widely regarded as the most professional i mean i don't know if you saw the press conference rashad even his dad aired him out at the press conference being like yeah he hasn't really focused and trained the way he's supposed to in the past you know i've been and i'll just be he told the whole public that you know yeah so so i get that uh and you know but the guy had 100 amateur fights and he had 13 pro

fights dude that's all and he was a big guy obviously he was you know sitting around 230 at the time they signed the deal roughly speaking you know that was i thought that was way too much of a leap for jake paul if he'd beaten that guy that would have been actually legitimately quite respect i would have been very impressed, to be honest with you. It seems like, to me, what he wants is, he's waiting to see what happens with Nate Diaz. I think that's the one he's waiting on. Size that one up for me.

How do you imagine, and we'll see what Hamzat does to him on the way out, by the way. That's a meat grinder, if ever there was one. What do you make of a potential Jake Paul, Nate Diaz boxing match? Now, that would be interesting. That would be interesting because of a potential Jake Paul, Nate Diaz boxing match? Now that would be interesting. That would be interesting because, you know, you have a Jake Paul who's going to be able to use his size, who's going to be able to use his strength,

who's going to be able to use his explosive punching power. But then you have Nate Diaz who, you know, when it comes down to it, is one of the best boxers in the game. And it's kind of crazy because you look at him, his striking, and sometimes it doesn't just jump right at you. The effectiveness of his style, but his style is one, you know, that that's really hard to beat because, you know, it's a lot of volume. And he's one of the best volume strikers, best combination strikers that has sneaky power in those volume strikes because he changes the tempo on those volume strikes. Sometimes they come fast, sometimes they come harder, and he does that really well. It's really hard to tell if he's going to have the power to put out a Jake Paul, but I would say

Jake will have the advantage with his size. I think that Diaz is going to have to be able to fight from a different kind of way and bring the fight in a different kind of element in order to get the win if he does get the fight. And by a different kind of element, I'm talking about he's going to have to utilize the grappling aspect and the clinch, you know, punching him up, frustrating Jake, making him make those kind of mistakes from a very just a point of view where he's not used to, where it's not boxing, you know, and I feel like a lot of the guys, well, Tyron Willey, I don't think he used enough of what we do in MMA, which is tie up and grapple and really make him work out of that and really strike from that position afterwards. Yeah, and then push him along the ropes as well or into the corner.

Yeah, you got to beat them up. You got to beat them up. This is like boxing. There's boxing, and then there's a fight aspect of boxing. You can't go in there and box with the boxer and think you're going to win. You got to fight. You got to make it a fight. And the difference between a fight is when you fight you engage emotion you

engage emotion somebody hits you in the face you want to hit them back but when you're hitting them back you're not thinking technically speaking you're just going with it and that's where the vulnerability comes when you make it a fight no doubt about it yeah i love the fight between jake paul and nate diaz in part because i think it's a competitive fight right i think that they're actually a good match for each other. There's reasons to think that Nate might win, but again, to your point, Jake's got obviously much more pro-boxing experience. You can say what you want about it, but he does.

And he's bigger. We've seen what he... I mean, he one-shotted Woodley. I don't think I've ever seen anyone do that to Woodley. Not even Nate Marquardt did him that way. With the same kind of punch, anyway. So he obviously can thump. He can thump a little bit. And I like that. And by the way, that'd be a huge fight. It would sell gangbusters.

That, to me, makes sense. The Rockmont thing, everything about it just seemed rushed. It just didn't really work. So we'll see what happens going forward. But you know what? A little bit more on this, though. I feel like whoever's managingake really has to understand that this is where his bread is buttered with with these fights with guys like nate diaz and tywin

woodley you're not you're he's boxing but he can't i can't say he can't but this is not what he's doing he's doing something totally different and i feel like his team really have to truly understand that part of it. Of course, they want to go and make sure they get the respect in the boxing world, but at the same time, this is the kind of fights that he needs. He needs these kind of blockbuster fights. This is what the people want to see. No doubt about it. Again, I think that will do really, really well.

It's competitive. It's hard to know who might win. I hope they make it. I really do. I think it would be good for Nate to get a giant pay do really, really well. It's competitive. It's hard to know who might win. I hope they make it. I really do. I think it'd be good for Nate to get a giant payday that way as well. Those are the kind of fights I think that make sense right now. And listen, if he goes in there and he beats the shit out of Nate Diaz, whether we think that's likely or not, yeah, okay.

Then let's see him ratchet it up against some guys who've got some real pro boxing experience. But I think given what we've seen against Woodley, he's making improvements. I did a tape study on him I don't know if we're gonna put it out or not I'll just kind of tell the public that my bosses at CBS were like hey we need you to do a tape study on Jake Paul and I was like okay I'll do it so I did it and I noticed there was a lot of differences between the first and second fight that were really cleaned up he actually did do a lot of things that were better but there were still some problems that lingered all the way through and it's like he's still at a

point rashad we're like you know and it's understandable what does he have five fights how good are you supposed to be after five you're supposed to not be that great you're supposed to be you know still working on shit yeah it's like if you're still in the stage where you're still working on shit like that take the guys take the fights that make the most sense for you given that development. Again, it just goes back to the conversation. How do you do that and then sell as a headliner in the biggest venues in the world? It's not easy to do. It's not easy to do.

Nate Diaz gets that done. Not many guys can. By the way, last thing on this. Do you like a fight between Jake and Anderson Silva? I mean, I like it for Anderson Silva. I don't necessarily like it for Jake. Um, I think that, you know, uh, it would be another great fight. I think that people want to see it, but I feel like when it comes to it, um, you know, it's one of those fights where if Jake goes in there and he stumbles a bit and he doesn't look as good as he can look or good as he people think he should look against a 43 year old man.

Then then I think it kind of just kind of takes away from everything else that he's trying to do. I mean, granted, is Anderson Silva. But for a lot of the people that follow Jake Paul, they don't really understand the legacy of Anderson Silva. So for them, they have to see him getting, you know, a close match or even beat by a 43-year-old man. So they become, they may not, you know, may fall off the bandwagon. So I think that, you know, it's an MMA and it's kind of same, following the same kind of formula, but it's a lot riskier. I just got to say, I will, if he fights Anderson Silva and he beats Silva, he would very much have my respect for that. I think Silva's not easy to beat at all.

Yeah, exactly. Like, you do that. That's, I take my proverbial hat off to you at that point. All right, last but not least, I'm not sure if you had a chance to check it out here, Rashad, but I was at the Barclays Center for Showtime on Saturday night, and Danny Garcia, who was a world champion at 140 pounds, and then another world champion at 147 pounds, took about two years off, came back,

bumped up to 154, and took on Jose Benavidez Jr. in the main event of Showtime Championship Boxing. Dude, first of all, I just got to say one thing, Rashad, before I get your thoughts on this. The scorecards blew my fucking mind. Now, there was one that was 117-111. No problem. I understand that. There was one that was 116-112, which I don't love, but I'll tolerate. I'll tolerate it.

There was one that was 114-114. Rashad, there were maybe, maybe two rounds you could give to Jose Benavidez Jr. There was one you could probably give him no problem, which was the ninth round, and maybe another one in the third or the fourth that you could give him. That is it. That is it. And one of the judges, Roldan,

had it 114-114, a fucking draw. I just don't even know what to say to something like that. I mean, it wasn't like Benavidez Jr. got his ass kicked, like he got dropped and he was bloody and barely hanging on for dear life. But he got outboxed. He got outboxed thoroughly by Danny Garcia. I will tell you, for all the complaining that we do about the scoring criteria in MMA and the judges don't get it right,

here was a case that was a fucking lay MMA and the judges don't get it right. Here was a case that was a fucking layup for the judges and one of them had it 114, 114. I don't know if you remember this Rashad, I covered Mayweather Canelo live in person. Do you remember the CJ Ross scorecard? They had that one to draw as well. And Mayweather was like, what the fuck are you talking about? That was how I felt watching that that night. So only question to you or i guess my only point would be for all of our belly aching and mma boxing's been around much longer they got much more of an opportunity to figure this all out and they still turn in scorecards like this it is frustrating yeah it really it really is man and i know what you mean i've seen him fight as well.

I thought that Benavidez did a decent job of doing the style that he does. He has a kind of Manny Pacquiao style where he kind of jumps in. He does the odd angle punches and that very aggressive counter striking, which is very hard to really box with. But I thought that Danny did a really good job of utilizing that jab and really kind of, you know, making Benavidez kind of slow down a little bit and giving him pause. So that way he wasn't able to just kind of, you know, run away with that that that style. But I feel like the judges may have seen because when i was watching a fight i did see that garcia was a better boxer but when i when i was hearing the punches it kind of sounded like ben

avida's punches were hitting it with a little bit more base and and they were seeming like they're a little bit more effective because they're hitting a little bit more base but you know i i didn't feel like he was um landing enough of them or imposing his will enough of them to really matter on the judges scorecards to even warrant you know to be you know him winning more than a couple rounds but i feel like um you know one thing i did see though i felt as if like danny garcia if he's gonna fight in his weight class he's got to get bigger because I don't feel like his power, his power carried, you know, I felt like he was still the better boxer, but I don't feel like the power that he needs to fight at this weight class carried. You know, so funny.

I'm glad you brought that up. So I was there. So, so for example, I think it was on the Mayweather Canelo. Uh, uh, it was on the main card, but it was under Mayweather Canelo Danny Garcia at 140 pounds fought Lucas Matisse and at the time Lucas Matisse was this like super feared heavy dominant puncher from Argentina I mean he was fucking people up left and right and they had the odds makers had Matisse as the favorite heading into that contest and I remember uh Danny Garcia's dad Angel Garcia gets up there at the media conference and was like, the writers don't know nothing. Vegas don't know nothing. I know everything. And sure enough, Danny Garcia went out there and won.

At 140 pounds, Garcia was putting people's lights out a lot. He could thump, no doubt about it. 147, not as much. Not as much. But he was definitely, you know, he had some decent artillery. I agree with you here. You can look on the screen and look at the highlights you know benavidez wasn't able to get off much for folks who may not know he was shot in the leg and i think 2015 or 2016 it really fucked up his mobility and i think that plays a big part in the in the way which his

style has turned into but look at the height difference look at the frame difference i agree with you like danny garcia you would agree with this, baby, Rashad. If not, tell me I'm wrong. He was light on his feet, and he was mobile, and that was good. That was definitely something he needed, and he was showing great cardio, barely had a scratch on his face. Like, he looked great by the end of the fight. I didn't see evidence of a lot of pop.

And in boxing, when you don't have a lot of other things to go to, there are no takedowns, there are no armbars, there are no backtakes, whatever. Pop really matters, depending on your style. 154, like, for example, who's the guy in this weight class that has all the belts? Jermel Charlo. He's got all four of them. That dude can pop.

I mean, he's got some thunder and lightning between them. You want to go up against a guy like that, dude, you need to be able to put something on him that can deter him. This is one of the problems. he could not keep benavidez off of him in that way true or false no 100 and that's what that's what made me believe that you know he's he's too small for the weight class he needs to do a little bit something if he's going to stay in his weight class to to really uh you know to prove it i mean not prove himself but just really uh you know give an account for himself when it comes to just size, because I don't see him standing up to the bigger punches,

the better movers, you know, all the better boxers, you know, because, you know, what happens when you go against somebody who's a better boxer than himself, you know, then it's not, then it's not so much about, you know, the boxing, he's going to get outboxed and he's going to get hit harder too with the power. So he's got to be able to find a way to uh you know get bigger you know lift some weights and uh you know just just if he's gonna stay in his weight class but i feel like the biggest win for uh garcia in this fight was being able to just complete this fight you know after the fight was over he talked about very emotional, speaking about, you know, what he's been through in order to get to this fight. And it kind of touched me because as an athlete, I understand what that's like. I understand what it's like going into the fight with those kind of, you know, feelings and being able to try to put it on the back burner in order to go out there and put things together for a fight and really perform at the level that you want to perform at.

So I do, you know, hats off and credit to him. And I feel like because he spoke on that, you know, I feel like it gives other fighters who may be dealing with something like that a roadmap to follow. Because back in the day when I was fighting, to even talk like that, to even be, you know, talk about how you feel and being nervous or afraid or having anxiety or just all the you know depression and all the things that happens as an athlete uh you know it was looked at as weakness but it's good to see that he's you know found the words and more importantly found a belief in himself to make it through those tough uh mental issues i'm so glad

you brought that up because i mean if you look at his resume, he's a two-weight world champion. He wants to be three. There is an argument inside boxing that he's right now maybe on the bubble of the Hall of Fame. Like it's not clear if he's like a shoe-in candidate. He might get in. He might not.

It's kind of hard to say. But if he got a third title in third weight class, that would probably solidify his chances at that point. But obviously, he wasn't losing to chumps at 147 pounds. Errol Spence, Keith Thurman, and Sean Porter, these are good fighters. But it kind of put his career in like, okay, you can't beat those guys. Who can you beat? So he wants to go to 154.

And he took all this time off, 19 months and everything else. And he cried, cried basically when he spoke to Jim Gray but he was letting out that anxiety I'm wondering either you've seen it or maybe you experienced it not from a loss have you seen someone cry in MMA as they let out all of the stuff they were holding in after a win yeah I mean I've I, I've felt that way myself. I've felt that way before, you know. I may not have cried on camera, but, you know, in the back room, I've definitely cried and just kind of let out that emotional release. And it's a crazy feeling because, you know, the doubt is there, You know, the fear is there.

And just when you're dealing with feelings of depression, it's very hard. Because until you really got bit by that depression, you don't really truly understand it. And you don't really understand how hard it is to shake. It's not just like something you can just kind of snap your fingers and get it over with. You got to go through it and going through it is the hardest part about it because you don't want to feel like that, but going through it and feeling like that is the road to getting back. But being able to put those shoulders, put those feelings on your shoulders and go in there and fight and execute and then come out on the other side, it's definitely, you know, a cap and a feather and

really let you know that, you know what, I can make it through this. I can make it through anything. So I feel like this fight was hugely important for him. And you know what, you know, I think maybe he may even go back down to 147 because maybe this fight needed to be at 154 just for a lot of other reasons rather than the fact that he couldn't beat anybody at 147. Or not anybody, but just the top guys. Yeah, he was actually talking about some catchweight fights he might take as well.

He wants some big fights. He certainly earned them in his career. He's had a great career. It's just he's at a point now where it's like, what else can you do? He's trying to figure it out, but took months off came back look good and let it all out i i you know it was very commendable performance all the way around um truly from a real kind of and i'll say this too one of the most underrated chins in boxing for benny garcia he's a huge chin

and i feel like he's a little bit underrated because you know you lost to errol spence okay you're not errol spence but the thurman fight, on one of the judges' scorecards, he had seven rounds. Like, you know, it was a split decision. He was, I mean, just think about it. A couple more rounds go your way in the judges' scorecards, and you beat Thurman. I think that fight was on CBS at the time. You know, the whole thing could have gone in a different direction, right? Yeah, 100%.

But it didn't, and so he now went into the one he's in, and he's trying to make the best of it. It's fucking hard, man. That's really hard. And he was wearing it, so I'm impressed by what he was able to turn in. Yeah, and I think also being able to work through this mental issue and stuff like that, it may give him the confidence that he needs and the belief in himself that he needs in order to go back at 147 and give it another crack fighting those guys.

Because like you said, I mean, I feel like for me, it's like this. He's going to have to squeeze some juice in order to get, you know, whatever he needs, whatever he's going to get to make the best of himself at 154. He's going to have to lift weights. He's going to have to do a lot of extra effort in order to be a competitor, a serious competitor at 154 he's gonna have to lift weights he's gonna have to do a lot of extra effort in order to be a competitor a serious competitor at 154 well why won't he just do that and stay at 147 because i feel like if you squeeze the same juice his efforts will go a lot further in 147 and i think he'll do a lot better with those same efforts so you know i feel like 147 is where he needs to be we shall see we shall see. We shall see. Okay, that is it for our top five topics,

but now the readers, or I shouldn't say the readers, the viewers get to weigh in. We put up an Instagram post every Sunday on the Morning Combat account. You guys fill it up. The producers pick them. It is time for DMs from dogs.

I don't know if I have them here in my email, but I can just read them off the screen no big deal alright let's throw them up here boys let's see what we got let us see okay first one from madman456787 who the fuck picks these names I'm just gonna put random integers next to

each other alright now there were some moments now listen I'm not here to beat up on pro fighters especially after they had like a you know a tough fight and a tough loss but okay Pena's arms out to here man the elbows flared you know way outside so the question is is Pena's boxing worse than Ben Askren's the answer is no because she also had the dip jab that got her a great success in the first one but I will say it is weird to see an experienced fighter right this long into her career elbows out here when she throws punches it's just mechanically inefficient Rashad no it is but you know um

you know that's part of that's part of her her progression where she needs to grow at you know and it shows how much she still can grow and and listen it's um she she's been told that probably over and over again but it's just like you, it's something that she really just has to focus on. And that's what it is. It's like when you start to clean up your technique and just start cleaning up the little last few things on a technique, putting your elbows in, getting your head off to the right spot, having great footwork and those kind of little little things that go a long way. When you start focusing on them, then you start to tap into the mastery of your skill level. And that's what I meant earlier when I said that she hasn't mastered her skill level. When she masters that part of the game, she's going to be a beast.

All right, what do we got next? From O'Reilly. Again, they just love these names and the numbers behind them. 7-4- 7402. Has anyone in the history of the UFC shown as much improvement as Brandon Moreno has since his initial run in the UFC? Now, you might recall, Rashad, he was let go from the UFC, had to kind of rethink things, got back, captured a title,

lost it, but then recaptured this interim one, changed camps. I got to say, you don't see a lot of guys uh lu get cut from ufc come back and become fucking champions that is super unheard of what do you make of that i i totally agree you know that's the same thing i think of when i see this guy you know i was seeing him uh when we went in mexico city we fought on the same card and just watched him then versus the person he is now. I would have never imagined that that little mousy guy, and no disrespect, but he's kind of mousy, can turn into the animal that he is right now. Like you see him now, there's no mouse in him anymore.

He's all lying, watching him walk out. His eyes have changed. His mindset's changed. The way he moves is different. He's a guy who believes in himself and it just goes to show how when you believe in yourself you can totally make a complete 180 and he's done just that.

I guess you could say maybe the guys on like season four of The Ultimate Fighter. So for folks who may not remember, I think it was season four. It was the comeback comeback season that was the one where the fight the finale was terrible it was chris lytle versus matt sarah and they had an awful fight but then matt sarah wins the winner there got a title shot and that was actually how sarah ended up fighting gsp as a matter of fact it's not

as dramatic as that but it's a different era but i will say matt sarah early in his career getting you know spinning backfisted by shoni carter and then turning into the guy who was putting people's lights out because folks forget it wasn't just sarah excuse me it wasn't just gsp he did that too like go back and watch the frank trick fight he fucked frank trig up too like his hands turned out to be really really good later on you'd be surprised man you get some of these guys you know they come into the ufc when they get on your radar you get an impression of them and that holds you for a very long time and you kind of begin to doubt them but then they just don't they don't doubt themselves they get better and better and better and better and so you have to let go of that way you initially got introduced to them because it's

not even relevant anymore brandon moreno's case is like the exaggerated one but i can think of a lot of guys where i was like shit man this is not the dude who i thought existed two three years ago or whatever yeah 100 man i mean moreno is a great example of that i mean the way that he's grown and listen he still continues to grow he still continues to like show new wrinkles in himself and i think we've seen a new wrinkle uh this past saturday so it's interesting to see what he brings in this fourth fight with Figueredo. All right, what do we got next here, fellas? From Aurelius92, is Lewis just taking fights in Texas because he doesn't have to travel far and can be lazy about training? Well, I don't think he's, it's, obviously they want him in Texas because the fans love

him anywhere he goes, but he's going to be much bigger in Texas, obviously, being from that area. I'm not sure what to say, Rashad. I don't think that he's like – because how does it work with UFC? They don't offer you a date and a place, do they? They offer you a guy and then they fit that on – how does it work when they offer you a fight? Do they tell you, hey, it's going to be this guy, this date, this venue? Sometimes they do.

They used to do that before, but it all depends on your general interest in wanting to do the fight. I can see them saying that, hey, you want to fight this guy? And he says, well, where at? And he says, in Dallas. And he's like, okay, that makes it even better. Yeah, I'll do it. So I can see something like that happening. But I feel like with Derrick Lewis, he's fought

all over. He's fought everywhere. I don't think it really matters to him where he fights. If anything, I would think maybe fighting at home would be more nerve wracking than anything. And I'm sure he probably would say the same thing. He would much rather fight outside of Texas, just because of the fact that when you're at home it's such more of an obligation you know you have so many more time constraints and your time is pulled on a lot more from other areas where it's not when you're out of town so that little added pressure can definitely add more to the fight so I can I can see why some fighters would not want to fight at home just because of the stress of it all.

Also, I'll just point out, I remember him complaining about this in the early part of his career. They were flying him all over the place. So this is the early part of his UFC run. He started out in Vegas. Next fight was in Mash, Nantucket, Connecticut. Wherever the fuck that is.

Then LA, New Orleans, back to Texas, Vegas. Then then zagreb croatia then he fought in vegas again albany new york halifax nova scotia and then auckland new zealand it wasn't like my man wasn't on the road for them a little bit you know he kind of was and now they're taking him a little bit closer to and he fought in uh wichita kansas new york city you know he's put in his miles i feel like yeah 100 and now you know they're tapping into that base i mean it's smart though right it's smart when you got someone like derrick lewis who's just you know you put a camera in front of him you put a microphone in front of him he's gonna say something he's gonna make

people interested enough to want to watch him fight so why not put him in his hometown you know no one ever talks enough about it but when everyone talks about when he said when joe rogan was interviewing me he goes my balls was high that was definitely funny but really to me what sells that whole thing is rogan goes i understand all right what do we got next let's see uh from cole underscore brown 858 is the upcoming ufc san diego card the least stacked event with a crowd we have seen all year so let's go to this one i believe this is the chito vera card so let me pull this one up for you rashad so we both have uh accurate and fair information so he is gonna fight uh let's see i think this is u on ESPN 41. Yes, this is in San Diego at the Pechanga Arena. By the way, before I finish this,

did you ever not get to fight in a place that you did want to fight? Yeah, I've always wanted to fight in Brazil, but I never got a chance to. Wait, did I fight? No, I never fought in Brazil. When I think about it, I'm like, wait, I never fought there. You've probably been to Brazil, haven't you? I've been to Brazil with Michael Johnson, and it was like I was fighting, but I didn't fight myself.

So that's why I had to think about it for a second, because I had to fight Fields, but I'm like, I don't think I fought. No, no, the Phil one was on Fox, if my memory serves. All right, so the main event is great, which is Marlon Vera, Chito Vera taking on Dominic Cruz at Bantamweight. Sensational fight. Then you got a flyweight fight,, Chito Vera taking on Dominic Cruz at Bantamweight. Sensational fight. Then you've got a flyweight fight, Alexa Grasso taking on Vivian Arujal. That's pretty good. Aspen Ladd, Sarah McMahon, that's pretty good. And then from there, it's not that, it's not full of stars is a good way to put it.

You've got Gerald Mearshart versus Bruno Silva. Bruno Silva's a pretty fun fighter. Let's see, you've got Gabriel Benitez versus Charlie Antiveros. Nate Landwehr versus David Onama. The reality is you've got about three fights at the top that have some known names with some ranked fighters. Then after

that, it kind of falls off in terms of something else. Maybe you could say Nino Nunez on the card as well. It's a little bit different. I'll say this. It looks to me, Rashad, that people complain about the Apex. I don't think it's the Apex that's the problem because the Apex was the Alamo when everything was shut down, so it served a valuable purpose.

But now that the UFC is going back on the road, what we have noticed is the UFC Houston show, the UFC Long Island show, these fight night cards that are not pay-per-view, they're stacking those pretty well. And so when they do go back to the Apex, if you're getting all your best stuff not pay-per-view they're stacking those pretty well and so when they do go back to the apex if you're getting all your best stuff on pay-per-view or the fight nights on the road it doesn't leave much for the apex now to the point of this question they're in san diego is this the least stacked of the ones on the road probably probably but you do get some

decent fights at the top of it, I would say. Yeah, you know, like, one thing, I've been, I've been fighting, I've been, I've been working at the Apex for a little bit when we had these shows where it's not the best names on, I can't say the best names, the biggest names on the card, right? But those have been the fights that's been delivering. Like, I've been on a few fight nights where I'm like, dang, these dudes came out there and really fought and they really, you know, make a name for himself that night. So a lot of these guys that we don't know where the card is not that, you know, they're not really name driven.

These are the cards that we need to watch because these are the cards that these guys, they come and they put on. And when you hear about them a few fights later on down the road, it was from a card where a bunch of guys that didn't have a big name went out there and they showed out. And I feel like in the last five or so that's been at the apex, they kind of showed out. They kind of went out there and really made some great fights happen happen so i feel like it's hard to really put a stamp just because it doesn't have the name power right away because these are the fights that are fun to watch

all right let's see what we got next i think that's three of these we got a couple more from pandemic underscore boy 001 following moreno's and dober's liver shot endings what are some of your other top bot oh this is liver shot endings what are some of your other top oh this is the last one what are some of your other top body slash liver shot KOs and TKOs in boxing or sorry in MMA I was thinking about boxing I believe

didn't Bhop stop De La Hoya with a liver shot right I think that's right and he just crushed him with that one do you have any favorite liver shot finishes in MMA? Yeah, I do. What was the one? Well, what was

the liver shot finish? Remember the one shot where the dude, it was on Ultimate Fighter Show, where he's calling him... Scott Smith and Pete Sell. Yeah! Yeah, that was one of my favorites of all time, even though Pete Sell was able to recover and land that big shot. But when it comes to showing what a liver shot can do, it just kind of turns you and just makes you just almost want to drop and shit yourself at the same time.

To be able to turn around and come back like Pete Sell did was very impressive. I'm trying to see if there's a list here of the best liver shots that we could look at. There's a lot of body shot KOs and whatnot. You know what? Another good one is RDA versus Cowboy for the title. That was when Cowboy was on that run at 155. And that was when RDA was. I mean, RDA is still very, very, very good.

But that was like fucking hammer RDA. And I always say this, folks don't remember this. Anthony Pettis went into the fight with RDA off the Wheaties box, you know, pretty Tony, the whole bit. And RDA just mugged him. I mean, he mugged him. He beat him up like bad. And I don't think, I personally, I'm not sure that, you know, Pettis was ever the same after that, to be quite honest with you. But that was that guy, right? That was the level of RDA it was. And RDA hit him with a liver shot that fucking folded him. It was a body kick, if I recall, because they had the open stance.

And he crushed him. That was a good one, too. It was. Remember when Anthony Pettis caught Cowboy, too, with a liver shot, too, when they fought? I believe that's right. Yeah. Yeah, he got hit with a few of when they fought. I believe that's right. Yeah. Yeah.

A few of those. Yeah. I'm going to see if I can find. And by the way, Bass Rutin, obviously the king of the liver shot. That was one of his most famous things. I wish I had a better list up here to give you guys. Because whenever they ask these questions, off the top of my head, I have a hard time recalling them in real time.

But the RDA one certainly stands out to me. i'm trying to think of there's another one oh um who had one in boxing that i saw recently oh god i saw one the other day that was fucking awesome i can't remember i can't remember but there you go there's there's our terrible answer for that one sorry oh uh jones shogun right before he landed the knee yeah he drove a left hook to the liver as well you remember that yeah popped him with one and then they and then he hit him with the knee and then now and i think he he was falling after that uh as a consequence so that was a good shot all right rashad well you have done a more than admirable job sitting in today for the washed Brian Campbell.

How can folks get in touch with you or find all the stuff you're up to? What can they do? You can go to my Instagram, Sugar Rashad, at Sugar Rashad. And, you know, I post on there quite regularly. But, you know, stay tuned to what I'm doing. I usually post on there. I've got a few projects going on. So find out what I'm doing on there.

And you're back on the UFC desk this weekend, correct? This weekend, yep. I'll be on the desk, so make sure to tune in. Do you know who you're working with? I think it's Karen Bryant and Alan Jobin. I like Alan. He's a good guy. Alan's the best, man.

He's cool. I was telling Alan, I forget when I saw him, and I was telling him about this. I don't have this gym membership anymore, but a few years ago, I was working out at this gym called Equinox. It's sort of a higher-end gym. They're okay. They're not

worth the money, but it's a nice gym. And I was getting water at the water fountain, and I looked up, and they have pictures of all these insanely jacked people, women or men, all over the place. And it was fucking Alan Joban. I was like, dude, do you realize you're in

equinoxes everywhere? He was like, I didn't know that. I was like, you didn't know that? How the hell did you not know that? My man's everywhere. Yeah, he's so good looking I can't stand it. Yo, fuck Alan Joban for being handsome. That's what I have to say. Alright, Rashad, great job.

I want to remind everyone, if you guys don't have Showtime, you can get it at Showtime.com. 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can bounce. MorningCombat.store MorningCombat.store is the place to get some merch. We will be back Wednesday. We're going to have a live show with another special guest host. Stay tuned for that.

Be on the lookout for extra credit. And that is it. So, for the great Sugar Rashad Evans, I'm Luke Thomas. BC's on vacation. We'll talk to you guys live on Wednesday again. And until then, may all of your gains be loyal.