MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 278 Recap: Edwards KOs Usman, Costa def. Rockhold | Usyk Beats Joshua | Ep 339

Episode Date: August 22, 2022

On Episode 339 of Morning Kombat, Brian is joined by Rashad Evans to recap a historic weekend in combat sports. First, they recap UFC 278, where Leon Edwards shocked the world and knocked out Kamaru Usman in the 5th round to become the new champ. Plus, Paulo Costa and Merab Dvalishvili scored wins. Plus, Alexander Usyk beat Anthony Joshua again. 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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Reveley, reveley, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. oh yeah get at it mond, Monday, but not just another manic Monday. This one is a big one. Long in the tooth this weekend in combat sports. Morning combat has your back to break it all down right about now. You're looking at the Funk Soul brother himself, BC, the beige one, Brian Campbell. No Luke Thomas again today on the flight back from vacation. You deal with him in that regard, all right? You know, I don't need him right now because I got this guy next to me, a former world champion, a hall of famer, always sweet, never sour, a tower of ayahuasca power,

fresh off the jet himself from Salt Lake. It is Sugar Rashad Evans. What's going on, BC? Good to be back on Morning Combat, my brother. Great to have you back as well. Obviously, I got much love for Luke Thomas. Don't be starting no conspiracies. It's Monday, August 22nd. The kick heard round the damn world from Leon Edwards. You know we're going to break that down.

Usik Joshua 2, Bare Knuckle Bonanza. So, showtime. I mean, what a time to be alive in the fight game. We're happy to be here with you folks. Wow. Rashad, how do you even like, I mean, I watched most of these events live and covered them and I still need to spend all of last night and this morning catching up on the rest. Do you ever remember a Saturday this crazy in the combat game?

No, it's been a long time and it took some time for me to catch up on everything too. I mean, I was at the UFC and had to catch up on the boxing, but I mean you can't ask for a better weekend than to have nothing but combat sports. Nothing but knockouts all the way. I mean, what a wild event. Showtime CBS Sports

Malka, the labels that pay and provide us. They have our back today. Mikey Morms in here. Gaff, Corey Minich back on the ones and twos. Long Island Luke. You can stream Showtime right now for things like championship boxing. Bellator. 30 days free. Why not take the plunge?

Go to Showtime.com. Support the people who support us. How about this merch? Hopefully soon we'll be getting Rashad outfitted in the kind of merch he can walk around South Florida in, like maybe those boxers where Luke and I are both pointing at the anus. I would like to see Rashad out on the beach in that. You can head and check out our new merch that's available right now on MorningCombat.store.

Bomber Jacket Sizzin is here, so get ready for the fall. You're going to want to look cool when you're at your son's soccer game this fall, alright? Okay? These are the circles, us old pieces of shit running. Would we have to sell anything else? You know I love AG1. Shout out to those folks.

I think that's about it. I think people want us, Rashad, to hit it, and they want us to hit it hard. So why don't we do that? Why don't we turn ourselves in the direction of the fights? And it went down Saturday. Rashad was in the building, very interested to get his take. UFC 278, Salt Lake City, Utah. What the hell am I even going to do to start this off on topic one?

The Rocky story became real right in front of our eyes as Leon Edwards, down on the scorecards in round five, being told to the world through the vehicle of the UFC broadcast that his obituary was written. His time was up. Only nobody told Rocky. A high kick that was set up beautifully, suckered in the champion Kamaru Usman. And here we are with the fallout. And Rashad, I mean, this could not be more shocking when you consider Kamaru as the pound-for-pound king,

unbeaten in the cage. All we're talking about is these GOAT theories. We got Hamza on the bullpen. Is Usman going to move up to light heavyweight? Is he going to tie Anderson Silva's record for consecutive win streak? He's not. He won't. And I know you're a longtime friend of Kamaru and you were there in support of him. Give us the inside reaction on what the heck that was like.

Maybe, maybe the most improbable comeback in modern title-level MMA history. Well, I mean, you know, the fight was shaping up the way that we imagined it would. You know, Kamaru made it out of the first round. And, you know, he had a little bit of difficulties in the first round. Something that he really didn't expect, but he made it through. And it seemed like he was getting stronger every single round, progressing after that. He was getting his wrestling and the pace going. And then he started letting go of his hands on heavy bombs and body shots too. And it looked like it was affecting Leon. And it just kind of took a lot out of Leon.

And you just seen Leon just fading and fading as the fight went on. So when that fifth round came about, it was just more of watch and repeat of the same. But in the beginning of the fifth round, I seen that, you know, Leon stuck a front kick and Usman like right out the gate. And I thought it kind of bothered him and it kind of put him on just like a different pace level. And, you know, he wasn't pressing the action. And I knew at that point, I'm like, OK, he's got to get back pushing the action. Got to get back pressing him because he was playing a little bit too much defense and letting Leon get off. And Leon set up that perfect one-two high kick and Usman went right into it. But just being there was unbelievable because I'm sitting right next to his family and his daughter's right next to me. And, you know, when when that

whole thing happens, you know, you just hear like this scream. And, you know, it was just kind of like very traumatic, you know, for me being like a brother to Kamaru, just watching him go down like that, man. And it just it just made me real sick because, you know, I I didn't think he was going to lose. But you you have like when your friend your family's fighting you have a feeling like an uneasy feeling and i had an uneasy feeling and i couldn't shake and uh you know when that kick happened it was like those worst feelings those worst things those worst thoughts were just realized in an instant it was it was devastating bc it it brought out every single emotion.

If you were inspired by Rocky Edwards, it was the ultimate, you know, look at me now. Or as he said, what was the phrase? Do you remember that he said in the post-fight interview? That he kept repeating? No, I don't remember what he said, man. I was still in shock at that point. Look at me now, was it?

Thank you, Mikey Morms. I mean, you can put that on t-shirts now, as John Anik mentioned. So from that point. Look at me now, was it? Thank you, Mikey Morms. I mean, you can put that on t-shirts now, as John Anik mentioned. So from that point of view, this is the ultimate inspiring apply-it-to-your-life moment of, you know, you're never counted out unless you count yourself out.

I can get down with that. But for all of us who were probably already forming the lead of our recap, you know, at this point in the middle of the fifth round, or if you're Team Usman, it's the ultimate heartbreak. This is definitely the type of shocking result that, you know, births new fans, that reminds you how dangerous the sport is, how there are so many ways to lose in this game, how unpredictable it can be, how, as Luke Thomas would say, we could think we know all we know about these guys but

whether it's you know male versus male or female versus female it's two humans that are going in their touching gloves anything can happen i'm i'm speechless rashad as i think we all should be how do you how i want to ask you how how did this happen now you mentioned sort of some things you saw and maybe that uneasy feeling of watching a friend in Usman sort of navigate this fifth round with a big lead, but we didn't see this type of life out of Edwards in rounds two, three, and four. In fact, this fight was sort of playing into that almost cranky prediction I made of what, look, this is going to end up being a one-sided Usman fight. It's not going to be that fun to watch. That was all becoming true right there. So did Edwards, do you think in hindsight you know come back to life from the the plot the pleading of

his corner and they were an a-plus level job on getting in his grill and trying to motivate him or was this really the perfect shot at the perfect time now it wasn't a lucky punch it wasn't a wild helicopter blow it was a a savage setup of the perfect strike at the perfect time. But we didn't see the body language in Leon leading up to that to lead you to believe this was even possible. Is this more fluke, or is this just precision perfection in the moment from Leon Edwards? Yeah, I believe, you know, I'm not even going to say it's fluke

because, you know, to make it through that grind, and when you get your face grinded and you got a guy on and you can't get him off you and he's on you like clothes and there's nothing you can do from that suffocating pressure. But Leon didn't do that. And sometimes as a guy in there imposing your will on a fighter, you can kind of sense when a guy's breaking. You can feel that energy just go. And sometimes my favorite part of a fight was watching my enemy, just the fight leave his eyes. And I'm sure Usman may have felt that,

but Leon didn't give up on himself. And that was the thing that really made the fifth round what it was, you know, the corner inspired him to go out there and just kind of keep fighting. And, you know, Leon set that that that kick up from the beginning of the first round, you know, from from the fifth round. Just, you know, throwing that one, two and just, you know, clocking Usman's his his his defense. And, you know, once Usman was clocked, it was just, you know, not having that suffocating pressure made it easier for Leon Edwards to land that kick because before that, Usman wasn't giving him a lot of space, you know, and there was no room for leg kicks because he was moving in after

he seen the hand. So just got caught on the defense a little too long. And I felt as if like it was a moment where Usman was just trying to rest and recover because pushing a pace like that is extremely difficult. So you need your pauses in there. And sometimes your pauses may look like activity, but you're just standing around, just kind of waiting to see what your opponent does. And you may get caught, and Usman did. Rashad, does the MMA world on varying levels owe Leon Edwards an apology for how dismissive we've been?

I mean, I got DMs up the A-hole going, BC, your hatred of UK fighters knows no bounds and limits. Finally, you have to eat some crow, which is certainly not the accurate way to describe this. But, like, we didn't really, I mean, I didn't give leon this level of a shot a chance that this moment was going to happen i felt for him to win this a lot was gonna have to go his way um i'm nothing but inspired and respectful of what he did in fact it's self-applicable i can look in the mirror this morning and say yeah rocky just did that shit okay so maybe i can get back on the peloton but my original point this was a y'all must have forgot, look at me now. You know, this was that type of moment.

If it demands it, I'm willing to say I was wrong. I'm sorry. This guy is the goods. No, you know what, man? I think that having the doubt and coming into this fight, people not believing, is the thing that kind of propels you when you're in an underdog situation. So, you know what? When I used to go into fights and feel as if like everybody was against me, it would propel me.

It would give me a little bit more to fight for when I was out. You know, when I was fighting Forrest Griffin and he had me against the cage and he was hitting me with all kinds of combinations and I hear the crowd just yelling and screaming. Then I went to my pad and, oh, you know, kiss my hand, pull my balls. And I said, you know, that's my, you know, suck my thing. And I went to my pad and, oh, you know, kiss my hand, pull my balls. And I said, you know, ask my, you know, suck my thing. And I slapped him with a punch, you know, but that's, that was a mindset. That was the attitude. And it was, I was reminded of at that moment when I was, you know, getting pounded that, you know what, I'm not going to give up. And, you know, going into a fight like that with Leon, and Leon feels he's an underdog, and people are not giving him respect, that's exactly what you want.

You want to be able to disarm your opponent and everybody in general from thinking you can win because at the end of the day, it's only about you and your opponent in the cage. And if you believe in yourself, that's all you need. This fight had the shocking of shockingest endings. It's getting rightful comparisons to the fifth round of Sun and Silva won, although different ending, different circumstances. It's among some of the most dramatic shit we've ever seen. But first round, as you teased earlier, also gave us some of that

with Kamaru Usman getting taken down for the first time in his, I believe, his MMA career. Certainly his 15 fight UFC run heading into that. You got to give the former champ now credit for the adjustments he made after that. He wasn't overly frustrated even with Edwards in full mount to close round one. He got back to business until the moment in round five. But Rashad, we don't have many fights to compare this to. In the grand scope of the drama how unlikely it was and for Usman how insanely devastating it was you were in the crowd near the family you were backstage with everybody afterwards you probably had some intimate

moments with the former champ and I respect what you can and can't share how devastating though do you expect this loss to be for somebody who, again, was pound for pound king? And we were outfitting him the crown and robe and giving him the key to the upper room of the greatest of all time before this. You know, when I see him go down on the canvas like that, I didn't really know how he would be once he came to and once he was able to gather his thoughts around the magnitude of everything that just happened. But I was really surprised to see him and talk to him. Right afterwards, I talked to him right away. He seemed to be pretty clear headed, but he still was kind of foggy. He kept his head up and was saying some positive things.

But it was the next day, the next day when we flew out and went back to Florida and I spoke to him, you know, just seeing him, you know, he came, you know, I asked him how he was doing. He said, you know, i feel very blessed because you know um it didn't go my way last night and and it was a very you know it was you know fucked up thing that happened he said but um i'm glad and i feel blessed that i get an opportunity to show everybody once again how great i am and i get to show my daughter yeah and he said and i'll get to show my daughter what it means to to fall down and have everything not go your way, but then still get up and keep on going. So, yeah, that that right there, when he said that to me, it gave me chills because that's a perspective that that you take once you have accepted it. And as and as a fighter, when you lose a fight, there's a there's so many things that you can blame. So many things you can blame. And sometimes you don't blame yourself. Sometimes you don't put the accountability where

it should be. But to own it and to really not shy away from what happened, to really want to just say, you know what, I'm going to confront these issues. I'm going to confront this feeling. And I'm not going to allow myself to just allow this feeling of feeling naked and stripped to sneak up on me because that's what happens sometimes you feel naked you feel like dang I can't believe I lost a fight and you feel vulnerable and if you let that feeling creep up on you without even mentally addressing it then you're going to be in for a rude awakening but he's on top of it and I feel like he has planted the seeds for a big return. Absolutely.

I love the tweets or IG posts he had afterwards. He gave respect. He had perspective. We did see the post-fight press conference. I believe he interrupted Dana White's interview by calling him and essentially urging on the boss that he'll be back, he'll be okay. Look, he's going to potentially, and we can talk about it in a second, but get a chance at turning this into a Matt Serra GSP moment.

And as much as we love glossy records, that big O, which Usman had at least in the UFC, you become a legend even larger in some cases when you face this type of legitimate adversity and then you get up and come back. It's why Randy Couture, with all those losses and broken title reigns, is so beloved as Captain America for that same reason. We love the comeback. He'll have that opportunity.

And like we said, show me a great champion in the moment of his worst defeat, and a lot of times that'll tell you where he's headed from here and what will happen next, and we'll see if Guz Usman gets that opportunity but before we talk about what's next man I mean how do you sort of frame for Rocky Edwards what this does for his you know reputation legacy career in the moment because Rashad everything had gone against him in terms of like bad luck in public perception for the last few years. The injuries, the no contest, the fact that everyone just dismissed his marketability and whether he should get a shot. And then look at him now in his own words.

I mean, the Nate Diaz fight the last time, the reverse almost happened to him. And, you know, in our own cynical, critical way, a lot of us took away from what was a thorough sizzling performance from edwards against diaz because he almost gave it away at the end now he completely flips the script and like luke rockholder we're going to talk about in a second he comes out of there like the ultimate underdog baby face like this gives a big boom and i think a deserved close-up to who he really is okay not the trash talker not this not that but an elite fighter who now just gave you a legitimate freaking rocky balboa moment and it just happens to be his nickname and persona to boot i mean couldn't happen to a better guy right yeah i know leon's guy, man. He's a really good guy and one

hell of a competitor. You know, it takes moments like this, though, like beating someone at the level of Usman to be on the scene for people to say, oh, wow, okay, you are something, and people can really start to see what your value is. For me, it was my Chuck Liddell moment. After that moment, it was great to get that knockout, but what it did for me as a fighter was on another level. I grew up as a fighter that night because of everything that I was going through going into the fight, being the underdog, having the media talk to me as if I didn't even deserve the chance of being a cage with Chuck Liddell. Those are the kind of things that stick with me. And when I made it through that fight, I knew I could make it through any fight. And whenever I found myself in a position and fights passed, you know, after the Liddell fight,

I would tap back into that moment and just remember my mindset. Just remember the way I carried myself during that moment, because that was the moment where I really just grabbed my balls and said, you know what, we riding out and whatever happens, happens. And sometimes you got to do that. And Leon did that. I want to circle back real quickly once more to the, to the work of his corner. I mean, there's, there are these montages that are out there of, of after each round, what was said in, in particularly after that fourth round. And it's like, you know, we can spin that knife back on the coaches when it's like you know we can spin that

knife back on the coaches when it's rocky pennington's coach before round five against amanda nunes when she asks out trying to push her back in there and and you know you it's it can be a father-son relationship it can be a thing where you know the right buttons to push even as those buttons were getting pressed in the moment, I remember thinking, oh, that's really inspirational shit. But, like, is he going to go use that? Is that even his style to furiously rally back? It's not necessarily. But the combination of the never-say-die backbone of these coaches obviously mixed with Edwards, even though it looked like it.

I don't want to say it looked like he was counting himself out, but as much in hindsight as we can clown DC and Rogan for, again, writing that obituary and shout out to John Enoch for stepping in and now in a famous moment and saying, hold on, guys, Edwards is not of that ilk, which turned out to be true. But it did take Edwards not counting himself out and that coaching staff knowing him and urging him on. I mean, Rashad, have you had that moment at the highest level before,

whether it's with Jackson Wink or Coach Whitman, where you needed that? You actually needed that exchange to happen to go out there and raise yourself. Yeah, absolutely. When I fought Forrest Griffin, I was getting my butt kicked for the first two rounds. Forrest was handing it to me, catching me with everything. And I go back to the corner, and Mike Winklejohn was like, dude, what the hell are you doing? Like, this is your title shot. This is your chance. You got to get, you got to get after it, wake up. It's time to go. You got to go. And then he started just like to just, you know,

scream at me and just really wake me up out of the, the, the phone, you know, the cloud that I was in and just watching and observing myself get my own ass whooped. And once he woke me up, I was kind of pissed off to the point where I was like, you know what, I'm not going back to the corner and have him yell at me again. I'm going to go and do something this round. So that third round, I came out and I was ready. I was looking to counter. And then as soon as he threw something, I was on it right away. And then I ended up finishing the fight. But it was the corner work that really got me to just get off my ass and get out of my head and just, you know, turn the fight on.

Some legendary stuff from Edwards' corner to just do exactly what you described was done to you. I couldn't be more in awe of how it all came together. It was a movie. I mean, everyone's trying to say everything they do is a movie these days for the gram, right? But this was a freaking movie. No, it was a movie. I mean, everyone's trying to say everything they do is a movie these days for the gram, right? But this was a freaking movie. No, it was a movie.

Let's talk sequels here, Rashad, because, you know, in the post-fight show from Morning Combat Saturday night, my knee-jerk reaction, given, again, that Usman had five consecutive title defenses, he was, you know, Dana already calling him the greatest welterweight of all time, which, you know, I mean, GSP's still alive, last time I checked. But, you know, you get my point. Like, where Usman was. And I think a champion that decorated, and especially with an ending that was this sort of, you know,

holy shit, when he had been largely controlling that fight. If anyone deserves it, it's Usman right now. I want you to know what you believe what you think or I want you to tell me what you think should happen next and what you think will when you consider the options of an immediate trilogy potentially in England to take advantage of the hotbed audience there or two other options you see shooting out left and right maybe Hamza Chamayev if he gets past Nate Diaz in a quick matter getting right into a title shot or maybe one Jorge Masvidal I mean I don't love that idea Rashad

what should happen what will happen next for the welterweight title well I think Kamaru definitely should get an immediate rematch but you know for the timing of the immediate rematch is my biggest concern I will want Kamaru to take off at least to the spring in order to let himself to just to kind of, you know, let this settle in, but not only that, allow his body to heal.

And not only that, you know, kind of build up some of that neurological strength that, that, that needs to happen after you had a knockout that devastating, you know, Usman was out for a while. And when you take a big concussive blow like that,

it's really important to do the proper rehab to be able to get your beard, your chin, so you're able to take shots and take more punishment. Because if you don't have a good way of resetting your neurological system, then the next time you take even a small blow, your body remembers that and it shuts down. So if I was Usman, I would wait least until till the spring to do the fight now that leaves a gap in between time

because if diaz and and uh hamza they fight in september and you know it's a quick fight then hamza is going to be ready to go for december and and or or november november december and that will put leon in position to be ready for the same time. So I could see something like the UFC shooing him, Hamzat in a position to fight Leon Edwards as well to kind of wait for Usman to kind of heal up and get ready to get a shot. But it all depends on how well Hamzat looks in his fight with Diaz. If it's something that he goes out there and he looks absolutely scary like he's been looking in the past, then yeah, I can see him moving in for a November-December fight.

But I do think that it should be an immediate rematch for Usman. But for me, it's the timing that he needs to take off that might push that back. He has been, though. I don't want to say a company man. I think he became a company man through his willingness to fight whoever, whenever. And you know, he's always been consistent. That's why I didn't think there'd be a trap element with this fight, despite what turned out to be this ending. Um, there is that, that discussion you, if UFC can

get a date in the UK and can make this be a big thing and they call Usman, I knowing what I know of him, you know him better than me, but I would think he's going to take that challenge and take that opportunity. But I think you're right. That was a devastating knockout. Like, we can't, like, the pictures are floating around of him with the eyes wide open, but, you know, nothing's going on in there.

I mean, that was bad news. I saw Jorge Masvidal tweet, I guess we're going to England. I mean, I would get it, but I'd be like 46-year-old Dan Henderson against Bisping level upset if Jorge was rolled back into a title shot in this situation. If he had never gotten the second one against Usman, you'd be like,

okay, business is business. There's a storyline, but what are we doing here? We can't do that. But what about if Nate pulls it up? I mean, there's some things that can happen here that are wild. Yeah, there are a lot of things that can still happen here you know and I'm not totally convinced that Nate is uh it's a foregone conclusion between Nate and Hamza I feel like you know Nate is one of those guys who when he's tested like this and people feel as if like he don't have a chance that's when you get the Nate Diaz that you really didn't expect and show that

he still has a lot of tread left on his tires. One of the biggest things I can say about Nate Diaz is the fact that he still does have a lot of skill left, but just the inactivity has affected him. So if he can just get around that aspect of it as far as implementing some training that kind of mimics what he's going to be doing or get some good looks, then he could be able to go in there and have a great fight. It could change a lot of things. But for a guy like Leon, who's relatively still unknown outside of that big moment that he had, if you're the UFC, you have a big opportunity to really grow him and really grow the market in London once again. So having him fight Usman again in London probably would be the most lucrative thing and the most blockbuster thing they can do as far as pay-per-view is concerned.

So I think that that would be the smartest move. But there's a lot of commotion that losing a belt in the weight class has caused. And it's kind of revitalized a lot of belief and hope in fighters. So the 170-pound weight class is going to get very interesting again. Colby still lingering as well. There was some crazy online videos of his reaction, draw dropped. I mean, everyone's sharing their online reaction video, whether it's Joe Rogan at the desk.

I don't know if you saw this. People are accusing Henry Cejudo of jinxing Usman because there was video right before the start of round five in the crowd when Cejudo taps Ali Abdelaziz on the shoulder, and it's like easy money. I mean, you know, people will try to connect things to curses. If we have to blame Triple Cringe, we have to blame him, Rashad. I mean, look, I mean, you want to blame somebody

because it's just so unbelievable what happened, and you just don't expect nothing like that to ever happen, especially when Usman was just doing what he was just doing so well. So, I mean, my heart goes out to him. But, you know, one thing that I stick by is you got to take, you know, the bitter with the glitter. You know, you got to take it. You got, you got to be able to, to, to, to take it all because at the end of the day, no matter what the results are, this is why we do it. This is why we fight. And this is what makes it, you know, be what it is. When you're a fighter, you got to go out there and you feel that adrenaline and you're riding

that emotional rollercoaster. This is why you feel that because you know at one moment you can be the hammer and then the next moment you can be the nail and and and to know where which one you're going to be that's the fun i mean i had i had some mk viewers dm me and show me their betting slips of uh of uh you know lock tight parlays they had that involved an usman victory that would have you know netted themted them, you know, six digits. I mean, netted them some legitimate cashola that fell to the wayside with that kick heard around the world. But that's the crazy game we're in. And, you know, finally, I'll circle back to it.

You know, we were wrong, man. I mean, I remember Tom Aspinall going down with that injury. We're like, so much for the UK title hopes right now. People are like, well, Leon's also going to get a fight. We're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, look, I got to take all that back and say, you know, sometimes BC don't know shit, you know? I mean, yeah, I did predict Ngannou was going to wrestle against Ngannou.

Okay? I predicted Usman would get a fourth-round submission, and people were like, BC, man, you are just the casual of casuals dude you remember the end of the third round when he was you know nearly putting the choke on a lifeless Edwards it looking like it's going one way it went the other way shout out to Rocky what a freaking story

what a night we'll never forget topic number two on this Monday though we're going to hit up the rest of the big headlines from USC 278 and as wild as this main event finish was it had to be helped by the momentum from that wild ass co-main I don't like there's just not ways to describe what the hell we want Luke Rockhold who's now retired the former middleweight champion went out in a blaze of glory against Paulo Costa that I can

only compare to like Kevin Costner's character in the 90s movie Tin Cup, where it's like, no, he didn't win, but he won. He won in many different ways. Rockhold always respected in the skill set, but people love to hate this guy, right, for a lot of reasons. He comes out of here, I mean, just beloved for the insane amount of heart blood sweat and tears he showed rashad i have never seen a fighter that exhausted after a single round and round two he's bending over in the middle of the fight with his hands on his knees, and to see somebody so dangerously, desperately, and recklessly dialing up loaded strikes

and then landing them in particularly round three, which is among the most batshit five minutes of theater you could ever cook up for elite-level MMA. Costa takes home the decision. It was deserved, but this was almost the wackiest ending we ever could have cooked up until the main event of Who Spotted Edwards 2. When you look at this, even though he lost, Rockhold kind of wins this, right, Rashad? This is going out, I don't want to say on top, but all we're talking about now is the balls of luke rockhold i didn't think he had it in the murshad i really didn't you know when luke rockhold came out he

came out to a song immortal technique the point of no return and that song stuck out to me because that's the same song i came out to when i fought chuck liddell. So I knew what his mindset was when he came out. I knew he was on the mindset of he burned the boats. And I'm not sure if everybody knows what burning the boats mean or what it kind of alludes to. But, you know, there is this army general and he brought his people, they came in boats and they were going to go to war. And when they got there, they learned that they were out number. So when they were sleeping, they got up, they were all sleeping on shore and the army captain had someone burn all the boats. So there was no going back. So they had to fight. Yeah. I looked it up real quick. It's from art of war with, with Sun Tzu.

Yes. Yes. So he burned the boats. And sometimes you got to burn the boats because there is no going back. There is no going back. Your life is forever going to be changed after this moment. And for him to go out there and to say, you know what, no matter what happens, I'm going out on my shield. It takes a lot of balls because a lot of times when you're out there and you have that intent and you're getting your face beat in, you start thinking like, yeah, you know what? Let me just stop because I'm going to quit and retire anyways. But I knew at weigh-in, when I talked to Luke Rockhold, he was just burning up. He was super geeked, almost as if

he was just on something, but that was just him riding that adrenaline. If you've seen him at the weigh-ins, he was pacing back and forth. He was salivating at the mouth, and he was talking in tongues, like, I'm going to kill this dude. So you knew that something was different about Luke, but I kind of felt like something was different about Luke going into this fight all along, just listening to his interviews. He was just raw the whole week

yeah yeah he was slinging trash talk at Costa even to levels where it was like abrasive you know and fighter pay honest sort of download that he did that had Dana against him my favorite part of this fight in many ways and we'll get into have you seen the shit shortly we'll be able to look at some of these crazy moments but Dana's's post-fight press conference after, when he was like, look, we had our ups and downs this week, but I'm never going to say another bad word again about Luke Rockhold after this, it was almost like Dana giving him carte blanche for the rest of his life, because that's, you know, that's the quickest way to Dana's heart, this type of nomadic, barbaric performance, but what Dana said in particular, he was like, people like us, and this is Dana

finally aligning himself with the scumbag MMA media and saying, we have no idea what those two men had to do to make that fight happen and to finish that fight. Rashad, again, I've never seen a fighter as exhausted after one round who went on to have moments in the fight like Rockhold did how would you describe how deep he actually did dig within himself to pour that out because he's known for in the second half of his career great fighter but if you clock him clean the fight's going to be over and this went past stamina iron will I mean he was dealing with i mean he was fine he was taking one of those scoopers inside the protein pack and just going deep it rashad hold on i don't know if this is legal i mean just going deep and pouring that shit out on top of costa i mean dude like that's like they got me pinned down my family's about to die and the only way i can i can get there is by get you

know is by crawling on my stomach after the plane crash to get to the i mean this is some of the most insane manly courageous shit i've ever seen i didn't think it was physically possible rashad how did he do that you know what i didn't either especially luke you know luke is kind of a pretty boy and uh you know knowing luke outside of a pretty boy. And, you know, knowing Luke outside of fighting, you wouldn't think that, you know, the balls that he had, he would just go out there and fight like that. But, you know, it was truly him saying goodbye to the sport and he was trying to say goodbye to the sport on his terms. So he was willing to go in there and fight to to to death until he had really nothing left to give. And I mean, I don't want to make it seem like, you know, he was, you know, kind of suicidal. But at the same time, his mindset was going to the place where it's like, you know what?

I don't care how I come out after this. And when you go that deep, you have to not care. You have to not care, you know, if if you're going to have a scar that, you know, that stays on your face for the rest of your night at this at that moment, you're living in a moment so much that nothing exists outside of that moment. And you can tell Luke was in that presence of mind where nothing exists outside that moment, because even when, you know, he was down and out and getting his butt kicked, he would throw an overhand right and be like, what, what? And just, and like hearing him just like talk shit the whole time and getting pounded was just like, this dude, like if you're Costa, you got to be like, dude, what do I got to do to get you out of here? Because he just, he just kept hanging on. It's incredible.

And I'm glad he was able to give that moment, forget us and our entertainment level, or forget Dana White, for himself himself because he's had injuries. He's had doubt. I mean, didn't he almost have leg amputation? I mean, he's had like some some shit and he's had also spectacular losses in moments where we thought he might be back and trying to afford something. So to see him have that moment, but then to retire on his own terms and just be like, fuck, I'm too old for this. I mean, we all can relate to that. It was great.

It was great. Oh, my God. I mean, and then, like, he's not known for that. So you can't overemphasize how dangerous that third round could have been for him. Not just, you know, how close he was to pure exhaustion. But when you're fighting that recklessly, you could just get caught with the type of, I mean, you could just get caught with the type of i mean you could just get caught with the type that you don't recover like you know you don't you don't mentally physically recover from he got through it so when we flip the script to paulo costa who again it was the oddest 30 to 27

across the board fight you ever saw do we take anything away from costa and how much he was getting lit up with those you know wounded, wounded animal strikes from Rockhold? Or was it so batshit crazy that, you know, survived by any means necessary? No, I don't take anything away from Kasa for that because it was a fight. And by that, I mean, it's like when you fight versus, you know, versus, you know, how it typically plays out. Like in a fight, you fight with more emotion. You know, when you're not fighting, it's more of a technical aspect of it, you know, and it's all about the X's and O's. But when you're fighting, it's like,

I'm going to throw a hit and you hit me with that shot and that shot hurt and it pissed me off. And without even trying to be calculated, I'm just gonna hurl something back. We fighting right there. You know, almost technique goes out of the window when it's a fight. And that's where the vulnerability comes in. That's where you can take a fighter who's a better fighter and make him a less of a fighter

because he's fighting with that emotion. And I've seen Kosta fight with that emotion. And that's a dangerous place to fight from because that's where you get exhausted. That's where you are less calculated and that's where you can get caught but fighting at that emotional level it really makes fans like drawn to you because they can see the heart that you're putting into it and you kind of bare your soul when you put your when you just go out there and you fight like that and look look, to be very fair, there are a lot of people who believe that that art form of the emotional fight is lost at the highest professional level

in MMA today, and you hear, like, you don't hear it as much because the UFC has gotten to such a level that it's so mainstream that there's so much attention on it. But Luke Thomas always says it right. I mean, there are, like, that generation of hardcore fans in the mid to late early you know 2000 the aughts 2005 to 2010 that run a lot of those fans are no longer mma fans and they were as diehard as ever back then and i think when you go back and watch those fights those fights even

though you're seeing the evolution of skill in front of your eyes they're still fights even the guys who are the skill technicians still have to fight through this emotional barrage of craziness that has been homogenized now that everyone is a complete, well-rounded mixed martial artist and, you know, everyone's technical, that when we get Nate Landwehr against Onama in that wild third round, when we get moments like this, it a reminder of for a lot of us especially as older fans the reason why we got into this in the first place and it's not just you know a lust for violence or a love for for combat style versus combat style it's that

what i'm seeing on the screen reminds me of like fights i've seen in the schoolyard or in the bar you know what i mean like that that whole type of just like emotion coming in this had that some of paulo costas biggest fights have had that but do you believe costas fully back meaning there's the same fighter who who built that road to the title opportunity against adesanya yeah he's still going to be wild he's an offensive force, but I think this week I saw him get back in the shape he needed. And even mentally, Rashad, he was taking all the things people say bad about him and making jokes about it.

He had the bottle of the secret sauce and secret juice, whatever it was. I saw a different Costa and I kind of liked it. Do you think that's good enough to put him back now into this title mix and believe he can make another run? I believe so, you know, because he fought with that emotion. And when you fight with that emotion, it makes you tired. And Costa's biggest thing and one of my biggest knock on Costa was the fact that he gasses and you can gas him out.

And all you have to do is weather the early storm, but then you have a different Costa of the second and third round. But, you know, he shattered that. You know, I think that he he fought really well. He you know, he fought, you know, economically when he needs to at times. He sprinted when he needs to at times. But either whether he was sprinting or his fight economically, he wasn't overly gassed afterwards. And, you know, my favorite moment was after the fight was over and he was doing an interview and he made a comment. And then and then he had he said a phrase and then the crowd said the phrase back to him. And in that moment, it showed me that the fans get him and he's figured it out on a fan level.

He's figured out how to market himself. He's figured out how to be that heel, but also walk that line where he's also a fan favorite as well, too, because it's one thing to be a heel and just be completely despised and hated by everybody and no one cheers for you, but it's another thing to be that heel that people love, and that's what Kosta definitely is right now. I would agree with that, and as long as he's making weight and he's physically and mentally healthy, he's always going to be a bit of a wild card because he does swing big and sometimes his defense can get lapsy. But I did see enough to know he's still at least going to be a force,

maybe not as much as I thought he was going to be caveman from here on out. But I think there is a sly fox under there, and this was a comeback fight to some degree to snap the losing skid. Rashad, let's keep it going here on this card. On paper, maybe the best fight of the card in the deepest division in the sport at Bantamweight, and it was Merab Davalish-Wheely extending that win streak to the next level over three rounds, taking a decision from Jose Aldo. There's some dispute over whether the third round takedown was an official takedown or not.

Some people are tweeting at me and saying, no, he was 0 for 16. Either way, Rashad, that constant, constant pressure of the takedown and some of the wild strike attempts, that's gas tank Marab. That's what he does. How impressive do you think was this win given where Jose Aldo was at? Yeah, he's 35, but he came in here ready to get back into a title fight. I think it was very impressive. I mean, you know, to fight somebody like Jose Aldo who was just, you know, he is so amazing in so many different ways. And I say that because as you age as a fighter, it's so hard to recreate the game of competition so that you stay mentally in it, where you're striving and constantly trying to reach the top. And once you've climbed a mountain

a few times and became champion and stuff like that, it's really hard to recalibrate your mindset to do it again after you fail time and time again. And to be where he is right now, to be getting better as it seems as he's getting older, to be getting better as it seems as he's getting older, to be getting stronger, to still be able to hang in there cardio-wise with these younger fighters is absolutely amazing. And now you take a fighter who still has the same strength, you know, same skillset he did when he was still sharp, but then you put the experience behind it, you're fighting a very well-rounded fighter, not only that a very smart cerebral fighter so that's what uh marab had to go against and to be able to defeat him that's a huge cap in your feather because watching jose aldo live and watching that fight i was just

so impressed with just the speed the the the the striking conversation that he was able to have the angles that he was able to get at. I mean, I was just, the takedown defense, I was so impressed with Jose and for Merab to beat him, I was just like, wow, okay, this guy is a real deal. I mean, it's so bittersweet right now because Jose came in in insane shape. He came in in great form.

I thought his defense and his defensive strategy and his ability to stuff the takedowns was like a 10 out of 10. But Rashad, he's also 35 cutting down in weight. And I think this was a fight where, you know, there's a great reaction video, by the way, out there of him and his wife consoling him in the locker room afterwards and his head is in his hands. He has to believe, and you can tell me if i'm wrong given the constant pressure of marab that because he was not offensive enough he kind of left that back door open he didn't have an argument for the decision in his way and he looked in great form he fought very well but the

leg strikes and the body punches that were there for jose in round one he just wasn't trying in rounds two and three. It was almost as if he knew he had a certain amount of money to spend in this fight, if you will. And he put all that money into defense and to, you know, keeping himself in positions where he could try to mount some offense, but the offense never came. So do you look at this as a by-product of Murab's never-ending pressure? Or maybe for the great veteran, the king of HeO, the just badass of badasses. And by the way, that Salt Lake City crowd just showering him with love gave me legit goosebumps.

Did he kind of mess up a little bit in the strategy here for what he should have been able to do to give himself a fighting chance? Yeah, I think he did. I felt as if in the first round he was doing a really good job of pumping that jab out there really fast and really making Merab have to think twice before he was able to just come in with that kind of pressure. But then he's really got out of just that throwing the jab and really looking like he was going to throw anything and started just kind of riding the edge of the cage and I feel like that was what the judges seen when it came just to octagon pressure and control that Merab had and then also you know he found you know himself you know striking at short distance meaning the fact that when you're inside of that black line you don't have much room to strike you don't have much room to do anything because all the all your opponent has to do is throw one strike one kick or one attempt or one the next thing you know, they can clench you and

put you against a cage and just jam up the action for the next 30 seconds to a minute. So it really kind of started to shape in that fight for Jose, but if he could have got his back back to the center of the octagon, he really could have started getting the offense going again. But my biggest thing with Jose is, listen, his biggest weapon was his kicks. No matter who he was going against, he would always throw these kicks. And those kicks will take a lot out of the fighter. And they will completely destroy everything they have as far as movement is concerned. And he hasn't been going to that for a long time, not consistently.

And I feel like that's one of the biggest problems in his game. His boxing looked great. He looked very sharp with his boxing, but he's missing that other element, which is his kicks. I mean, for a guy that age with that, I mean, he's bricked up, Rashad. I don't know if he has enough stamina to beat these young guys in a three- or five-round track meet. Now, that three-fight win streak to get him to this point was inspiring,

but it's going to get to a point where he's got to take more chances, and then that opens him up to either potential exhaustion, to getting taken down, to getting clipped. Man, he was ready. He was ready for his moment, but Murab took it. Now let me spin it back on DeVos-Wheely. I believe it's eight straight wins now. Damn.

The question, though, that we wanted answered by Murab was if Jose was able to suppress the takedown, which he was time and time again, could Murab make the leap on the striking level to have the type of success where we could talk about him as a legitimate title contender? I'm not sure that was a question that was ultimately fully answered. How do you feel about is Murab well-rounded enough to take on the killers that we have here at 135 at the very top? I think he's well-rounded enough.

And I say that because of the fact that, you know, with a guy like Jody, although he was still able to go from A to B without taking too much damage in between, A to B meaning from the outside to the inside without taking too much damage, and whatever he had to do to close the distance. I mean, he didn't have really clean shots, but he had the perfect kind of transitional shots that allowed him to get into the position that he needed to be in. He threw a lot of big overhands, which is, you know, one of those punches that clears the way because either your opponent gets hit by it or he moves out of the way. And if he moves out of the way or he gets hit by it, it does enough action for you as a wrestler that's bringing it forward pressure to get to the position that you need to be in order to be close enough to work your game which is a close game so i think he has enough of the uh the transitional space from

his striking to get to his position which is which is striking i mean which is grappling but you know with the guys who are have a lot better movement than jose i think that it might be for a problem might be a problem for him if they can keep him on his feet and at the same time get in angles and strike. Whether he impressed me enough with his striking or not, you made great points. He used it effectively, even with

his takedowns being shut down, to control and win this fight. And this is no small victory. So, Rashad, I wanted to sort of ask you where this puts Murab in the title picture. It's not a title shot next where what would be the best opponent, but this is muddled a bit by the aftermath of this fight and the reality that he's teammates with the champion Aljamain Sterling.

And there's probably no better person to ask than you, who famously had the on-again, off-again friendship with Jon Jones that led to that big title fight and the breakup in camp. When you saw Murab leave no doubt, no stone unturned, don't ask me again, I will not fight my brother, my teammate, and you hear him so honestly say, I'm only where I'm at as a professional because of the love and brotherhood of Aljo making me work and helping me and teach me. Is this the right play for Murab given how close they are to just say,

it's not happening guys, but I'm going to keep fighting whoever they put in front of me. You know, there's some times in life, man, it's, it's the morality of a situation that means more than, than the, than your own personal growth because your own personal growth, you know, it may be disguised in a sense where you feel as if you had the best personal growth by taking the opportunity to do the fight. But the more personal growth is in effect to not take the fight because it proves that, you know, you know, that you are real about coming into the fold and the fact that you respect the people who were there before you, but it shows that you're not greedy.

And the fact that, you know, he's straight up and he's, you know, willing to just allow his teammate to be champion without challenging him for the belt, that right there is truly what it's about to be a mixed martial artist in the fact of you know being in the team setting but you know at the same time you only got so much uh time in this game you know you only got so much time in this game so um it's a tough situation to be in. And I give him respect for his take on it. But if the main goal of having this opportunity to fight is to get as far as you can down the road before the proverbial car runs out of gas, then, you know, he might have to take that fight because, you know, you make a whole

different pay once you have become a champion once you've become meant to the champion you know your pay scale is forever going to be different which changes your life which is you know helps feed your family whatever whatnot so it's more to to the whole equation than that and the fact that he's not taking a fight it shows that he's you know morally just a good dude but but it's tough, man. Yeah, I mean, there's levels to this moral good dude thing. We've seen Daniel Cormier leave the division not to mess with Cain Velasquez, his friend and training buddy.

I think this conversation changes if Aljo is able to get through the gauntlet, which is TJ Dillashaw next, the potential of fighting the winner of O'Malley Yan, the potential of fighting the winner of San Hagen Yang. I mean, this Song Yedong, excuse me. This is as deep a division. It's an easy, nice thing to say now, knowing that this, this title could go hot potato, but a year and a half from now when Murab's 32, you know, I think you're right. I think that the situation, if Aljo puts together a reign, would have to be

revisited. Right now, you're actually seeing Aljo in his corner. That shows you how close they are. What do you think is a right fight for Murab? When I look at the top 10, I kind of like Chido Vera coming off a huge win going against him. Is that the right fight for both of them in your eyes?

Yeah, I feel like Chido would be a great fight for him. I mean, I feel like, you know, Chido looked amazing in his last fight and really, you know, got people talking about him. And to fight somebody like Murab would be another great fight because Murab is going to bring it on his end. So yeah, I think that'd be another great matchup, another blockbuster, another main event for both of those guys.

So I think 135 is one of my favorite weight classes you know it's so deep and it's just got so much talent and these little guys are really changing the way we see uh mixed martial arts in a lighter weight class you know these guys are super competitive and they're fun to watch you know they're they're super fun to watch so I mean no matter who's at the top at 135, you know, it's going to be a lot of good action. I mean, you've got a window to fight for a title, and you don't take it. It may go away.

We may have to say, you know, Henry Cejudo could parachute into this division again. There's a lot that could happen. Well, I mean, Henry Cejudo is parachuting. He's getting ready to fight, man. He's going to come back and fight. I've seen Henry at the fights, and he looked like he was ready to fight. He looked like he was in fight shape, and, you know,

I think he's getting ready for something. Jose Aldo, 35. Just the man. I mean, just the freaking man. We all love and respect him. He's still really freaking good. I mean, what does he do? Take big fights against other old names?

Move in weight? What do you see as the future here for the King? You know, I don't know. I don't want to write his obituary because, you know, the fight that I seen on Saturday didn't necessarily spell the end to me. You know, honestly, I felt as if, like, I felt that, in my opinion, I thought that Jose won that fight on just the fact that he was able to stop the takedowns and he was able to land the cleaner shots. The pressure was a problem, but I felt as if he handled it pretty well.

So I don't think that that fight, to me, was all telling on the fact that he needs to only take blockbuster fights against, you know, big name fighters. I feel I still think that he does, you know, present some problems to his weight class. Now it's just a matter of, you know, does he still believe it? Does he still want to continue to chase the rabbit and continue to, you know, see if something can happen and he can fight through another loss and get himself back on path to you know get a potential title shot so but but i feel like skill wise i don't feel like i've seen a slippage in his game yet no he wasn't getting hurt i mean two of the three judges had it 29 28 marab so it shows you how close jose may have actually been with maybe a one more surge here to taking this fight.

Still on the level. I'd love for him to do anything he wants to do moving forward. Rashad, quickly on that crowd. Talked up on the broadcast the whole time. Not an usual spot there in Utah that the UFC goes to. Was it a great crowd in your eyes? Oh, man, the crowd was absolutely phenomenal, man. That crowd was super loud.

They showed up pretty early. And they were into it, man. They were into it. They was just, from the first fight, they just really just, you know, gave the fighters just, you know, a huge, huge adrenaline push when he went out there. I know they love Karl Malone and multiple wives in those areas. I didn't know they loved the UFC on that level. Sister wives.

To close, Rashad, the prelim featured bout was heavyweight Alexander Romanov looking to keep that unbeaten run going, but he did run into Marcin Tybura, and I've got to bend the knee and say I was wrong. Aaron Bronstetter said this could really be the tough fight that could catch Romanov on this growth. Although he dominated the first round, how do you sort of gauge this performance for Romanov and what he may need to do to fix it to get back on track? Well, I mean, we kind of got a peek of Romanov and what his weakness was. I think it was maybe three fights ago.

I forget the exact fighter he was fighting, but it was one where he got completely gassed. And we've seen a lot of that in this fight. And I think the first round with Romanov, he's doing a lot of big moving and posing. He's wrestling. He has great wrestling. He has great skill. And he's a strong guy. But when you're expending that kind of strength and you have a guy as stubborn as Tybore who's not going for it, you need to pack a lunch and you need to also find different ways of controlling grappling situations without expending so much energy. And by that, I mean this. There's a whole

wall and brawl technique that no one did better than Randy Couture. Randy Couture can melt away rounds of the fight just by being able to control the guy against the cage. Now, the cage and using the cage is very analogous to using the ground because you're able to force your opponent against something flat and be able to work your magic from there. And they have to work their way to get off it so i felt as i feel as if like romanoff needs to find another way to impose his besides using these big energy you know uh taking techniques in order to control his opponent i feel like and also you know in in salt lake city the altitude was giving a lot of fighters problems you know a lot of fighters problem and i think that's another aspect that a lot of fighters problems you know a lot of fighters problem and i think that's another aspect that a lot of fighters didn't truly anticipate you know because you you it's like when you go to denver and you go to places that you know that that are typically known for for

high elevation you know you know to kind of be ready for that mentally but when you go to places like you know albuquerque new mexico or City, you know, they're high altitude and they don't necessarily get the hype for being high altitude. And sometimes you go there, you get a surprise. And it looked as if like a lot of fighters were surprised with just how they were feeling. And Romanoff was one of them. But I mean, I wonder what Jose Aldo like we're like, hey, man, pull the trigger. He may have been doing everything he had at that elevation to keep that fight in control.

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, but I've seen it time and time again throughout the night. Fighters were just fading and fading. But, you know, you know, Marcin,

you know, he withstood that first round and then you just start putting together a solid game plan of just simplicity. You know, ones and twos and sprawls. Ones and twos and sprawls.

And by the end of the second and third round, he had a dang Romanov who was just struggling, you know, to just kind of do anything that he was doing remotely close in the first round. So Romanov just has to fix his gas tank, man. Yeah, and I think the fight you were mentioning for Romanov was Juan Espino, where it ended up being a technical decision, split decision in the third round when Romanov got kneed to the groin and couldn't continue. And, you know, he barely pulled that out, 29-28 on two scorecards.

So if he can fix that, he could be potentially dominant. But, you know, shout out to Ty Burra. He was stingy in just about every category and tough enough to withstand the damage and just outlast him. A big win for him. All right, Rochelle, we're going to get back into MMA with some PFL and some BKFC MMA crossover in Topic 5. Let's go to Topic 3, arguably the biggest fight of the weekend in terms of stakes and attention, although that kick from Edwards certainly blew up social media to levels we didn't imagine. It was Alexander Usyk and Anthony Joshua.

Part two from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Three of four heavyweight titles at stake. This was the contractual mandatory rematch because, look, you fight somebody on AJ's star level, you're typically in boxing going to have to beat them twice. Rashad, the stakes, the storylines were a bit different in this one because AJ doubled down, brought in new trainer Robert Garcia. You saw him adapt a bit, go more to the body, change his stance, and Usyk legitimately coming off the front lines of war to put his flag on his back and come in with an intensity that I don't think I've seen in him before. It didn't

turn into the theatrics I thought we might see, you know, potential of both guys going down, ending in a knockout. This was a boxing match. It was highly technical. It was fun. It was drama at times. But it was more of the same from the first fight. It goes down this time, though, as a split decision,

as one judge, Connecticut's own Glenn Feldman, giving seven rounds to Anthony Joshua, which is certainly debatable. I had an 8-4 in favor of Usyk. He did Usyk things out there, Rashad. At the end of the day, what was your biggest takeaway from watching this rematch? Well, I mean, shout out to Usyk. Usyk did a tremendous job putting your people, the Ukraine people, their plight on his back and really finding a way to work through all of that and go out there and have a great performance.

You know, I thought that Usyk was very sharp with his combination striking. His jab was really good and it gave, you know, Joshua a lot of problems because he would change up the angle of the jab. You know, he was very crafted the way he was switching that jab up. And I feel like the fight was getting away from Anthony Joshua at the gate because, for one, it was a bad, I think, game plan if the game plan was to go in there and box with the boxer. You know, Anthony Joshua, you know, he's a bigger guy and as a bigger

stronger guy, he needed to make the fight like he made the fight from the seventh round on where he got the referee more involved. Listen, you got a referee in there. Lean on this dude. Lean on him. Let the referee get his shirt all sweaty and wet and full

of blood, keeping you guys apart. But lean on him. And whenever Anthony Joshua did lean on him, you've seen how tired Usyk was. And that's where Anthony Joshua was able to land those big shots. You're not going to beat a boxer by throwing ones and twos and throwing one punch at a time. You got to throw combinations if you're going to be boxing with the boxer. And Anthony Joshua just didn't do that. And it seemed as if like there were moments where he was going to start throwing combinations. But let's face it, he's not a combination boxer. So if you're not going to be a combination boxer you have to use your other tool

which is your size lean on them get them tired land that big shot you nailed it right there uh the first the the mistake in the first fight was potentially underestimating ustik it was trying to box the boxer and let's give us a credit in fight one he went early to land big hard left crosses to sort of send a message this again more of a boxing match and even though Joshua went back to the lab with Robert Garcia and I like the the crouched down stance I like that he was able to stand at a closer distance he brought back the jab in ways he didn't in the first fight although he didn't consistently stick with it and I think that was because as you said Usyk's variety and how he countered the jab whether he's going straight

whether he's going underneath the up shovel-shovel jab, it was beautiful. It was perfect. And here's the true fact, Rashad. And maybe this is what fueled a second straight miscalculation for Joshua. Is outside of Tyson Fury, there's just not fighters in this division who can do what Alexander Usyk did. Who are 6'3", southpaw with that type of foot speed, IQ, mental toughness. So I can't do anything but look at this rematch and say once again, yeah, Anthony, you fought better, but it's the wrong style at the wrong time.

He can outbox almost everybody else in the division because he's a great athlete, he's smarter than people give him credit, he's learned on the job, and he's become a very good fighter overall. But Tyson Fury and Alexander Usyk are great heavyweights. They are the class of this era. You cannot beat a great scientific wizard heavyweight by trying to stand in there and out-technical him. You know, out-box him. So while the addition of the body punches were good,

and let's give him credit, rounds 8 and 9 were AJ's moment, and he hurt Usyk to the body, he backed him up, he started to mix in some shots. But Rashad, you show under duress what you're really made of. Usyk showed that his intangibles are A++ by his ability in round 10 to not only come back aggressive and flip the tables back on AJ when we were sort of questioning, is Usyk gassed? Is he finally hurt to the body?

Will he be immobile? And I don't know if you saw that one right cross that Joshua threw. In the midst of Usyk making a comeback, most people get knocked out by that right cross. Usyk head got jerked back, and he came back with combinations. His ability to answer all the single punches Joshua was doing with two- and three-punch combinations, and really Usyk didn't commit to power shots like he did the first fight.

He leaned on his skills. He leaned on the technical advantages. He got it done. I know AJ was upset with the scores and himself, and we'll get into in a minute that bizarre meltdown he had afterwards. But Rashad, if he's not willing to commit to risk the knockout in order to get one, you just can't beat this guy. I mean, Styles make fights for a reason.

I don't understand the strategy here. I mean, maybe there's part of them that thinking we can slow him down, and then maybe what, we get a backdoor scorecard because of our aggression. I don't know. There's a certain point in that fight where you have to find urgency. He never found that. Never did. No, he never found it.

He never found it. And he didn't even look close to even understanding the method in which way he needed to fight. It seemed as if like he was trying to, you know, he believed in his training. He believed that having a new trainer was going to, you know, he believed in his training. He believed that having a new trainer was going to make him a better boxer and it did make him a better boxer, but you're not going to close the distance on the kind of skill that Usyk have in a training camp. You know, that takes years and years and a long time to experience in order to master that ability to be comfortable throwing the punches, how Usyk does in a combination sense. So Anthony Joshua, you know, it seemed as if like he understood the fact that he was a bigger fighter.

And even speaking about what you said, you know, about his post-fight talk, he knows that he's a bigger fighter. He knows that he's a stronger fighter, but yet he didn't use it. And I think that that was the most frustrating part for him fighting Usyk. And it kind of let me know that he gave into frustration because when you think that when you think, OK, this guy, I'm bigger than this guy. I'm strong as guy. But yet you still feel like you're getting hit. That is frustrating as hell. So I can kind of see that that may be frustrating the frustration not only just you know being out skilled but just a frustration also helped to usher in the demise of the night for uh joshua and look let's talk about it we're probably going to see some of these elements and have you

seen the ship but his post-fight uh meltdown included him taking the championship belts throwing them to the ground storming out of ring, pushing his father out of the way, almost having a dust up with a member of the crowd, then spinning around, coming back in, commandeering the microphone. And this is where this is where it really rubbed a lot of people the wrong way. You got to understand Usyk's fighting for a nation. We don't really understand the emotions involved. Right. We haven't had a sort of big boxing match during wartime where, you know, that Lewis Schmeling 2 feeling of like, you know, USA's fighting, not Joe Lewis. We haven't had that in a long time. And Usyk's got tears in his eyes.

Only AJ commandeers the mic like he's Luke Thomas at a live Las Vegas show after too many margaritas, Rashad. And, you know, all the compliments he gave Usyk were backhanded. He's complaining. He's almost going into like this weird character where he's like, people say I can't throw combinations. I'm not fucking Rocky Marciano, all right? I'll weigh 18 stone. I mean, like he was really, look,

I get you're frustrated that you lost when maybe you thought you put in a performance that was better than the first. It was a little bit better than the first. But he completely commandeered that moment, and I think for a lot of people that think AJ is a little fake, a little bit of a robot, a little bit of let me show you on the mic that I'm this grand guy, the real guy underneath may have come out in that.

And I liked his apology afterwards on social media, and everybody deserves, Rashad, a chance to screw up now and then. But that was cringe side of the road. Like, get that away from me watching. How was Usyk that poised, Rashad? I mean, most guys are just, you take a flag off that guy's shoulders and put it over your own as you're disparaging him. How did you sort of read all this?

You know, it was very awkward. And I felt as if, like, maybe Usyk may read all this? You know, it was very awkward. And I felt as if like maybe Usyk may have not been, you know, may not been all the way, you know, tuned in to just like the backhanded compliment that he was getting or just, you know, but I mean, it's it just truly showed to me more than anything was just, you know, the frustration that Anthony Joshua was just feeling on so many levels, you know, and the simple fact that he wasn't able to go in there and improve on a way that amounted to a win is frustrating because now if you're him, you're left with, okay, what do I do? I truly gave my best and there's nothing

more frustrating and spells the end or kind of feels like the end when you gave it all you got and you just have you just don't have enough you know and that's you know going back to luke luke rockhold you know when he was talking about he's old and he doesn't have anything left he gave everything you had and it just wasn't good enough and sometimes you just feel that way and i wonder if anthony joshua was kind of feeling a shadow of something like that. Look, when you have no excuses and you give everything you have and you lose in any sport or any endeavor, that's the potential turning point moment where you either go in the other direction or you dig deep.

Let's give AJ credit. He's always dug deep, whether in fights, getting up off the canvas, coming back after the embarrassment of the Andy Ruiz loss. I think he'll be back. I think he will make huge fights the rest of his career, whether it's finally fighting Wilder, whether it's, you know, finally fighting Fury. There's a lot of opportunities here potentially for him. I think he'll be okay, but yeah, there's a lot of looking in the mirror, and I hope stylistically to figure out against certain opponents I can only do certain things.

We'll see. Before we get into Fury and what could be next, I did want to hit up Usyk Rashad just from this standpoint. He's becoming historically relevant. He's undefeated, Olympic gold medalist, became the first four-belt undisputed cruiserweight champion and went through a gauntlet in that tournament a couple years back to unify and get here and now he's got two wins over Anthony Joshua and a chance to fight for undisputed heavyweight championship um the only problem up to this point is like he's still in the midst of his prime this he's only had four heavyweight fights we haven't seen him you know go beat Dillian White go beat Luis Ortiz go beat Tyson Fury go beat all these guys but for up to this

point are we truly watching something special in your eyes? I mean, does it jump through the screen to you like it does for me and a lot of my boxing compatriots? You know, it didn't. I wasn't somebody who got Usyk right away. It really took some time for me to really look at him and just kind of see what I'm working with here. But I'm really starting to get on the hype train of Usyk. He's got something. He's a very smart fighter. And he's got one of those things that is very hard to plan for if you're a fighter. On tape, he looks one way. But when you get inside the ring with him, it seems as if a lot of fighters are like, oh, man, this is nothing like

I thought it was going to be at all. He he's faster his combinations are better his footwork is better his eye you know his ideation on where to throw where he needs to be is so much better you can even pick up on film and i think that's what comes across and when you get in there with them it's a total different story so i think he's definitely somebody who's you know gaining more respect and who's definitely becoming a huge problem now the next step is is really i mean you know with respect to spence crawford which has maybe a higher pound for pound impact there's no bigger fight you can make in this sport than alexander usic versus tyson fury for all four heavyweight titles whether it's the end of this year early next year look it has to happen for the sport. I thought the best thing Usyk said afterwards was, Tyson, come out of retirement. Let's do this. You're not retired.

And if you don't do this, I'm not fighting anyone else. That's the best move. And Rashad, I've said it a million times. The retirement thing of Fury seems to all be fake or just a waste of time or whatever. Until he gives up that WBC belt and allows somebody else to fight for it, he's not retired. And if he doesn't fight Usyk right now, as much as I love Tyson, put that scarlet letter on him. You can't recover from that type of ducking. I still think Fury will be favored across the board. And really, as great as Usyk is, he's going to have to notch it up another level to beat Fury. How do you sort of see this potential matchup playing out because Fury at six

foot nine is a total freaking unicorn and Usyk at six three can do things shoe shine wise you know technique wise that guys this size just don't do but if anybody can solve that it's gotta be Tyson Fury right I think it's definitely Tyson Fury because I look at Tyson Fury and you look at the way Tyson has fought Deontay Wilder and his few fights, you know, his fights after that is the fact that, you know. Want to own part of the airline you flew with on your last vacation? Or part of the company that makes your favorite triple shot latte with extra foam? What about owning part of a company that one day could send you on a tour of outer space? Now you can.

With partial shares from TD Direct Investing, you can own part of your favorite companies. Just pick a stock and decide how much to spend on the share. It's a piece of cake. Learn more at TD.com slash partial shares. TD, ready for you. Tyson Fury can fight in many different ways. He can be the boxer. He can be the grinder. He can be the power puncher. He can be slick. He can be so many different things. And he can be all those technique because he's so fluid and he's so good and he's so cerebral the way that he fights you know if this fight was to happen i would like

tyson fury in his form but i think usic would definitely give him a bit trouble with his combination punching and his ability to kind of stay inside and also not for nothing usic is a lot more physical than you will think for somebody of his size. He fights very physical for somebody being as small as he is. So don't think that you're going to just bully over him with his strength. So it would be very interesting, but I do like Tyson Fury because he has more ways, technically speaking, to win. Yeah, that's why I don't want to believe that this is all a setup for a duck. I think it's just him trying to build leverage, all that, and shout out to him for Fury on that.

I think you're right, because as much as we're saying, look, AJ, you've got to mirror what Derek Chisora did in the fight before AJ, when Usyk won a close decision and he got physically handled because Chisora was so physical in wrapping him up and coming forward. Well, any time AJ even sniffed that out, to your point, Usyk two-handed shove. It wasn't overly, like, dirty, but it was timely in the momentk two-handed shove it wasn't overly like dirty but it was timely in the moment two-handed shove create that space throw punches he's special

and even though I still would like Fury against him although we need to see that fight don't underestimate that Fury's able to do all of these quick things he's doing against heavyweights that in comparison to Usyk are slow and plotting youding. You know what I'm saying? So it's still going to be an adjustment for him against somebody like Usyk. But, man, what a night, what a time. The division, I mean, heavyweight boxing is just different, Rashad, at this level. When you get guys like this, it's just different. It was a joy to watch this fight. I loved it.

I loved it. Yeah, me too, man. It's really what's bringing back boxing you know what i'm saying the heavyweight division like before it was a lightweight class that was carrying the whole boxing scene but once the heavyweights re-emerged on the scene it just brought back this excitement in the weight class i mean in the boxing in general and kind of like put jumper cables to boxing yeah yeah speaking of the box we'll continue into topic four here uh saturday night in hollywood florida i was there for the prelims with keith thurman shout out to all you who took part but it went down a quadruple header in the main event a 140 pound

uh last minute replacement with adrian broner out former world champion sergey lippin yet's in it was a comeback story for omar figueroa jr from a rough couple years and defeats and a bipolar disorder and many other things going on. But this turned out, Rashad, even though he was the last-minute replacement, to be a showcase that Sergey Lipinets still might have it here, the former world champion, who moved back down from 147, took a couple losses there, especially against Boots Ennis. This seems to be the weight class where he's at. They gave us the action we expected, including Figueroa jumping all over him. But Lipaniets was a samurai in there, Rashad, akin to his nickname. You had to like the counterpunching and the way he was able to, in the end,

overwhelm and stop Figueroa. Lipaniets was just on point. He was on point. You know, he was aggressive. He jumped on it. And he didn't waste no time. You know, his punch selection was on point. He was aggressive. He jumped on it. He didn't waste no time. His punch selection was very creative. It was hard. He threw a lot of punches and he threw them with power.

The domination of this fight was just out of control. When he knocked him down, I believe it was in the second or third round. I forget which round it was. It was just When he knocked him down, I believe it was in the second or third round, I forget which round it was, it was just kind of like, okay, how is this fight going to, how is Figueredo going to come back after this? But, I mean, Lipinets was just on point, and he really just beat the snot out of Figueredo. It kind of made me sad a little bit, to be honest,

to look at Figueredo and just kind of see him just morally just get destroyed. I wonder if he heads into retirement after this night. And I saw some comments from him that may have teased that. It's his third straight defeat for Figueroa. He's always been somebody who, like former champion at lightweight. But I don't want to say he was looked at as a weight bully, but he was somebody who was going to be bigger at that weight class, could cut down, and then could just get in your face, lean on you, and throw those haymakers all night, force you into submission. It's the same style his brother Brandon uses at featherweight, but ever since moving up in weight, Rashad,

you know, the punching power hasn't carried, so when you have long arms, yet you don't use the length, and you have a style that walks right into oncoming traffic if you're not mentally physically spiritually emotionally at your best you're going to find guys like this and what Lippin Yates does so great is he's a technician but he uses a brawling style meaning he's a technician in front of you in the pocket and he had to take you know some some flurries early but once he figured out Figueroa's odd style of switching stances and coming in at angles, Figueroa can't hurt him. And that was the major problem, which led to his father, Omar Sr.,

who was back in his corner after a long absence, throwing in the towel after round eight. I don't know if Figueroa should continue, Rashad, because this style doesn't age well in these divisions with these level punchers. He's been through a lot. He seems to, as much as it was brave for him to get back here wasn't a lot to love overall with this performance hey you know what like Scott like they say it's in the eyes Chico it's in the eyes and in the eyes uh Figueiredo it just didn't look like he wanted to be there you know I don't know what he's gone through and what he's been going through on a personal level, but the story about him trying to make it through depression and making it through the mental health issues,

I've seen a bit of the remnants or it seems you can still see a bit of the remnants of that in this fight. It just didn't look like he was confident. And once the fight started getting away from him, you just kind of see him sink into this expression where it almost spelled like, I want to quit. But at the same time, you know, he knew he, you know, he didn't want to quit in front of his people. So he kind of felt, you know, fought through it.

But it was a dead man walking. He didn't really fight like he wanted to be out there. Yeah, we'll see what happens moving forward for Omar Figueroa, who's given us some incredible fights and always game. For Lippin Yates, you've got to believe he's going to be able to spin this into a potential title opportunity. He still seems game, still seems ready. Now back in his right weight class and quickly Rashad on that opener.

We saw unbeaten Brandon Lee, who was a young puncher at 140 worth watching, got knocked down for the first time in his career and got knocked down on a nasty shot, but got up, righted the wrong, got a decision win. I think we got a replay here potentially of this knockdown. It was pretty nasty. His body went in the other direction. But, you know, he said afterwards, these are the type of fights I needed. And he's coming off a decision win in which he also, against Zaka Choa, didn't

shine in other ways. He's doing that. Rashad, when you're a young fighter and you're knocking everybody out and blowing them away, you kind of need people who will no-sell you and make you work for it. There's the knockdown that we mentioned to sort of find out who you really are when the other person doesn't go down. So it could end up being a really important step for Brandon Lee, who's a heck of an athlete. Yeah, absolutely. As a fighter, you hope to get tested at the same time you really don't

because those tests come in a form of, you know, getting knocked down and potentially losing a fight. But it's through these moments of working through adversity, of working through things that are not going your way that makes you a fighter who can make it through any situation. And you have to have moments like this if you wanna be that guy.

If you wanna be somebody who truly, you know, is historical if you want to be somebody who truly you know is historical you have to be somebody who's able to rise and and and go where you know when things are when the chips are down you still find a way to get it done absolutely uh lee was 24 and 0 with 22 ko's coming in but he goes the distance here over will madera gets the job done uh we'll see what happens he's going to be fun to watch, but this was another learning moment there. We'll go to topic five, which is a rest-of-the-weekend hodgepodge. Rashad, I don't know what the networks and promoters were thinking putting on about 17 events, most of them in England, it would seem,

and PFL 9 was one of those, the semifinals in two different divisions, and Kayla Harrison in the main event two-time champ defending champion at women's lightweight excuse me 155 took on Martina Jindrova and uh it didn't take her long three minutes plus in an arm triangle choke after going to full mount this was full domination and before we get into who she'll face next and why it's actually an interesting matchup for as quick as it was uh what'd you see here from the the one woman gang of Kayla Harrison well I've seen that she's gotten a lot better with her striking and just being comfortable to set up her takedown in that transition you know she had a really nice bounce and uh you know

really good defense too as far as seeing punches coming. So I think that's a huge wrinkle in her game and something that she can start to develop more because, listen, the takedowns are not always going to be there. You have to be able to find a way and feel comfortable enough to strike and close the distance with your hands and keep the fight on your feet potentially if you have to. And it looks like she's starting to get to that point. But, I mean, when she's on top, she's just so physically dominating that it's point but I mean when she's on top she's just so physically

dominating that it's a foregone conclusion once she gets on top and you know it's really hard for me to imagine her going against somebody who's able to compete with her on the ground with the strength that she has at the very least Rashad where Kayla's in a division in a promotion in which she's just mopping the floor, dominant. What is she, 15-0 at this point? And I know she's looking to next year and hopefully bring it in Cyborg. She was calling out Amanda Nunes.

I mean, she's calling out everybody. She's got the pro wrestling shtick down for the promos. I haven't gotten the feeling she, like, loves being here like there's any real competition. At the very least this time around, she's going to have somebody in the championship who, yes, she knows well in larissa pacheco but somebody rashad who is on fire the 27 year old brazilian who fought kayla harrison twice in the 2019 pfl season once in the regular once in the championship and although she lost both she pushed kayla to the limit losing decisions three and five rounds in both and Rashad she's now five and oh with five first round finishes since that fight in fact the only person she's lost to

in the last 10 fights is Kayla Harrison they're going to meet now for a third time in the championship because Pacheco went out there against Olena Kolesnik who she had knocked out in last year's season and did it again in the first round with big punches Rashad I didn't even realize this was the same fighter who had two UFC fights going back to 2015 and got stopped by Jessica Andrade by submission at Bantamweight got stopped by Jermaine Durandamy and then got cut so okay she had two losses to two champions she's now two weight classes higher and she's a freaking threat she's a train that's coming on and she already knows that she's had at least some level of success against Kayla

Harrison how good is Larissa Pacheco here because she's blowing people away well she's really good to be honest she's really good I mean her stand-up and her ability to keep the fight where she needs to keep the fight is just is good but I mean having the experience-up and her ability to keep the fight where she needs it, keep the fight is just, it's good. But, I mean, having the experience, you know, of going with Kayla a couple times, it kind of makes it easier for her to, you know, to fight her for the third time. Because now she's not that monster, you know what I'm saying? She's kind of got knocked off the pedestal a little bit of just that anticipation. Sometimes you fight somebody and, you know, you're so nervous to fight them and they have all these accolades going in. You're beat before the competition start.

Well, that's not going to be the case because, you know, she's taken her off that pedestal because she's gone the distance with her and she knows what it's like to be in there with her. So it's going to be a difficult fight for Kayla, I believe, you know, in so many ways because of the fact that she's fighting somebody who is not afraid of being there. And look, how many Kayla Harrison opponents have a potential legitimate chance under the PFL banner to knock her out with one strike? You would say, are there any? Well, there is. It's Larissa Pacheco. And even though, again, lost twice to Harrison, Rashad, those two losses are now three calendar years ago. Pacheco is not the fighter that lost at 135 to Andrade and Durandamy anymore. She may not even be the fighter that lost to Harrison twice three years ago.

Aaron Bronstetter tried to get me hyped up for this fight, and I told him, look, you know, I know tsn has exclusive canadian rights to pfl but you know don't sell me this timeshare i'm not willing i'm willing now rashad i'm looking forward to this because you know harrison is harrison one woman must see tv yes kayla harrison is truly elite a potential special athlete well she's got someone who's hungry who can finish her and has a nice high and tight fade larisa pacheco so shout out there um i'm looking for this rashad we'll see what happens on the men's featherweight side you had bubba jenkins finishing rioji kudo by first round rear naked choke some two suplexes got his back and got him and then we had brendan lochman you may remember him getting uh rejected

by dana White for wrestling too much on the contender series. He's battled all the way through this tournament and he went here with Chris Wade and they did not like each other. And Brendan Loughnan took a three round 30 to 27 unanimous decision. Bubba Jenkins, Brendan Loughnan embraced after the fights. They were laughing. They like each other. You know, they're going to go to battle. This has become sort of an interesting draw here for PFL at 145 pounds do you have a feeling of which way this is going to go come championship time because both jenkins and lochman looked really good in their particular fights here yeah bubba jenkins really seemed to figure it out you know with his wrestling and also with this striking so

now he's kind of figured out his special sauce and it takes some time you know in order to figure that out as a wrestler coming into the sport but it looks like Bubba has figured out but Brandon is a special athlete I had a chance to train with him a few years ago back in LA with Dominic Cruz he's really good friends with Dominic Cruz and you know he I was really impressed with just his overall skill you He's got some rhythm too. You know what I'm saying? So he's got that smoothness to his style. So it's going to be a very interesting matchup. And the thing with Brandon is that he can fight at many different levels.

He can wrestle. He has really good striking. And he has a really good imagination. So being creative inside the cage, it's going to be a really good fight. And I feel like if Bubba's going to win this fight, he's going to have to really win it on his feet first before he can start imposing it into wrestling.

Wade had been in different weight classes, a regular here in the PFL playoffs and making noise, and Wade landed a high kick to the back of the neck of Lachlan in the first round, so Brendan had to really fight through that, and he ended up getting all three judges the scores in his direction every round on all three

scorecards, 30-27. So I'm looking forward to this. Look, PFL, it's like two years ago, get off my screen. Last year, I kind of like it. There's some personalities, there's some old names you know. They got me. They got me, Rashad. Now the smart cage, that's another story. Don't get Luke Thomas

going on the smart cage, okay? I mean, how smart is that? I mean, it's a chain fence, okay? I mean, what are we doing here? Can you order your food from there? I don't think so, you know? I mean, maybe like Alexa, maybe the smart cage is always listening, Rashad. Yeah, maybe that's it.

All right, there you go. That was PFL 9. We closed Topic 5, the second half of it, with what went down also in London, BKFC. Michael Venom Page signed a one-off contract to get away from Bellator for a hot second to take the money, take the opportunity.

Maniac Platinum Mike Perry was in front of him. Rashad, I didn't have the balls to pick Mike Perry, but on Friday's show when I told everybody, look, this is not the format for MVP style. You got to be grimy as shit. And it's not that he's not willing to go in there. He fought six rounds with Mike Perry, but I'm here to say, I'm not surprised motherfuckers that Mike Perry found a way to get inside and just almost outgross him or outwill him. People told me I was crazy, Rashad. They've told me that a few times in my life.

I don't know. I kind of popped when the decision was read. Mike Perry earned this shit. He went into the, you know, behind the building into the street to earn this. He got the job done. I don't even know how to ask you a question here. What did you think of this slop here? Man, I love it, man.

I'm a huge Mike Perry fan. I absolutely love the way that he fights and the place that he fights from. You know what I'm saying? He fights from that fuck it place that I absolutely love. And he did that. He did that on Saturday. But, you know, one thing that I really felt that, you know, the MVP did himself a really disservice is the fact that technically speaking, I just I just I felt like he really missed a big opportunity to capitalize on his size. Now, now listen to me when I say this, like he's a long fighter and he could have just kept Mike Perry at the end of his jabs the whole time

trying to walk forward. But for some odd freaking reason, MVP thought it'd be a good idea to throw his right hand all night and really didn't use his jab at all. Now, now, now listen, he has a stance where he's kind of, you know, he's very like that karate stance. Right. So when he kind of throws his right hand now, his right hand, it doesn't have the reach. It doesn't have a length. So now his right hand is the same length as Mike. Mike Perry's is for him. So now he's punching with Mike Perry and they're hitting each other simultaneously instead of him being able to hit Mike and Mike not being able to hit him if he were to use his lead hand. And that's what kind of just perplexed me

because whenever he was able to use his jab and use it effectively, it looked like Mike Perry couldn't find where he was at. I fully agree with that analysis. No jab. You're the longer fighter i thought this fight could be competitive because as we talked about last week mike perry or mvp can't use the threat of the knees and the legs to to freeze guys i mean this is this is what it is these you know you're going after it here it's a different game you have to condition your knuckles differently you have to load up at certain times when other times not there's clenching and dirty boxing involved i thought if mike perry could get inside he could yuck this up

to where he could have some success they both in the end i'm giving credit had to show a ton of heart and will to get i mean look they went five rounds it was ruled a split draw uh page got knocked down in the first round perry in the third round got dropped to his hands they went to the overtime round and you saw mike perry just go to a place that he's frankly more comfortable being in it rashad i've said this time and again sometimes i clown because like bkfc is fun because they don't hide from who they are right it is what it is they have an opening where if you're like if you're just grimy as shit and you can talk on the mic pro wrestling style, you can become a star there. But if you are a still elite,

somewhat elite MMA or boxer, you do have to think twice about chasing the money because not just you could get carved up. Stylistically, it's not the best use of your talents, to be fair. Like, Rashad, here's the deal. I'm a keyboard warrior, 44-year-old dad with a bad liver.

You're a world-class athlete, former champion who's still got it. If you and I were to sign to fight for big-time money in any discipline, judo, wrestling, boxing, fight, you're going to win, okay? But what if I challenged you to a fight in a men's bathroom stall? Naked. Yeah. with the lights off? I don't know, Rashad, if you're coming out of there with your hand raised because I'm grinding your shit, Rashad, okay? I may have to do things I'm not proud of to win that fight. You fight Mike Perry in a bare knuckle circle? Dude, he's going to find a way to win the fight, right?

Yeah, absolutely. That is such a great analogy. And it's so true because you've seen Mike Perry just kind of settle into the grime of the fight. And when he started settling into the grime of the fight, you've seen the exact opposite in MVP, in his body language. He was just like, holy hell, what did I get myself into? You can almost see the look in his eyes of him saying, dude, this is not what I thought it was going to be. And so once all that pretty, all that pretty shit wasn't working, oh man, he was realizing

that maybe I should have stuck to MMA. Well, I think he thought if I could just line him up as he's coming forward with a right hand, it'll be over. He did line him up with that and it wasn't over. hand, it'll be over. He did line him up with that, and it wasn't over. That's how you had it. That's what happened there. Quickly, before we go to the end of the show, Mike Perry wants

a rematch. MVP said yes, but he hedged it after saying more people have to say yes than just me, and I think that means the terms of his Bellator deal. Could you see a scenario where Mike Perry gets offered decent money to rematch this his Bellator deal. Could you see a scenario where Mike Perry gets offered decent money to rematch this in Bellator? Yeah, I mean, well, I don't know.

I don't know. I mean, I don't know how much Bellator wants to ride off the coattails of what Bare Knuckle Boxing did. You know what I'm saying? Yeah, that's a fair point, Rashad. That's a fair point. It is the last stop on the combat sports journey, unless they offer you a lot of money and you take it.

And I do caution people of taking that, because shit can go down here. Let's keep the show rolling. We've got two more segments for you. Every Sunday night on the Instagram account of At Morning Combat, we put out the DMs for Donks questionnaire. You respond to it. You have a chance of getting your voice heard on this show. Here it is. We've got some mail here. It's DMs from Donks questionnaire. You respond to it. You have a chance of getting your voice heard on this show. Here it is.

We got some mail here. It's DMs from Donks. Hee-haw. Hee-friggin-haw. Alright, we've got mail. Viewers, let's see what they have to say. Here we go. Will you post it? There it is paypool does leon's ko surpass anderson's late triangle versus chael as the greatest comeback in the history of mma let's start with that question first rashad

does it yes and i say that and i say that because of just the devastating nature of it. I mean, like with the Anderson Silva, you know, you kind of see that he was kind of setting it up and it can potentially happen. But with the way the head kick happened, no one's seen that coming. No one even seen that even Leon even had that much gas in the tank to even land with that much power. And the fact that he did that you could hear like a pin drop it was just like so like everybody mouth was on the floor my heart was you know in my stomach and i was i was ready to throw up man but yeah i think so i actually think it might surpass that as the greatest most shocking one i mean the anderson one was hella shocking and he

had a broken rib and chael was on the stuff and he was putting it on him but when chale got caught in that you're like that was a way to win like i could see that happening as surprising as it was this this was wild uh there was a second half to that question could you flash it quickly if we still have uh at patty bears question long island luke you with me here at pay atul, sorry. Similarly, which was the bigger shock, Leon's win or Biz Ping's knocking out Rockhold? Oh, it was Leon's win.

Because look, Usman was the pound-for-pound king, you know, undefeated in the cage. That's it. That's it right there. Let's keep it going. Our next DM. Are you there, listener? From at Telvin Kipapa, Hawaii's own. We love this guy.

With Leon's win over Usman and if Sterling beats TJ Dillashaw, do you think there's a possibility of UFC Jamaica? And he closes with, yeah, man. That would be very cool. UFC Jamaica, that would be amazing. I don't know. I mean, it would really take both of those guys to really

become more of a fan favorite, especially Leon. If Leon fights Usman again and he wins and he's able to then go and beat somebody else, then I can see them doing a UFC in Jamaica. And to quote the movie Half Baked, what part of Jamaica should they put the octagon

in? Right near the beach. Right near the beach. Boy, we got any more of these tricky DMs here? From at G Glowloose. I mean, I don't know who these people are, Rashad. This could be some, yeah. BC, where did you get the energy for this pound-for-pound type weekend you had? Love the solo show show but I love the

instant reactions to AJ and UFC 278 on top of having to be on the broadcast with Keith Thurman BDE yes it was BDE indeed it was fueled by caffeine and my great team around me but that's with Luke on vacation that's a day for the ages in terms of the

load I also write in recaps and stories but Rashad we got the job done ages in terms of the load. I also write in recaps and stories, but Rashad, we got the job done at the end of the day. I won't sit here and say I was as good as I could be in each of those streams. You can pat yourself on the back. You can pat yourself on the back, BC. You did your thing.

I'm not hesitating to do that there, but the thing about BC that I think my staff knows is you turn that red light on, Rashad, it doesn't matter what condition I'm in, okay? All right? It's like a horny teen in the red light district of amsterdam right glassy eyed i'm gonna find that red light and i'm gonna i'm gonna i'm gonna bang all right there you go uh anything else for the dms at love to fight underscore 14 17 wow that's great grady threw that underscore in is utah going to always produce, quote, boring fights because of the high elevation?

Seems like every fighter gassed out after round two. Well, I don't know about boring fights, Rashad. It was pretty boring. You know, for me, watching it live, it was not boring. It was a pretty exciting card, and I mean, this is coming from me a couple weeks ago, watching one of the most exciting cards, 10 fights and 10 finishes at the ufc apex so i felt like this was a pretty entertainment entertaining night i don't feel like uh any of the fights i was i was really bored at i mean it the the utah crowd they got kind of spoiled early because there was a few finishes early and like if they the action stopped for one

minute they were already booming so those fairweather fans i get it i get it right there uh i think that's it for dms thank you to the folks we got any more no one more from at ilia745 does anthony joshua own the worst post-fight reaction of all time in combat sports after a loss uh it was really bad rashad if he had just walked out and not done an interview, we would have respected it more. But would you say this was worse than Forrest Griffin and Tito Ortiz and the commandeering the mic? Our team is offering,

GAF is offering Al Iaquinta's you don't even pull me! Al Iaquinta. But Al is more real. But you know what? I feel like with Anthony Johnson, Joshua, I think it was definitely the worst. I mean, just raw emotion. He just spoke out of raw emotion and pure frustration,

and it happens sometimes. It does. I don't know what Ariel's doing tweeting out, great to see AJ being so real. He put Usyk over. I mean, come on, Ariel. What are you doing, dude? Bro, what are you doing?

Alright? None of that is true. None of that at all. Alright, those are the DMs from our donks. Thank you very much. Don't forget, Wednesdays and Fridays, you can also let your voice be heard. MorningCombat at gmail.com for your fan subs. I'm sure we've got a backlog of those with Luke out and your dead wrongs.

You know, I'm sure they've got a long list coming at me but rashad we close this monday with what we always do it's your boy bc scouring the globe for the good the bad the ugly the highs the lows the in between from combat sports and beyond get ready i got a load of shit here have you actually seen it we're about to find out oh oh uh rashad ufc 278 in salt lake city look at leon edwards i didn't realize this in real time doing the billy strut vince mcmahon and conor mcgregor style that's a badass way to walk off a win there that's a badass way to walk off the way but it made me just want to jump his ass it made me just want to jump leon edwards i couldn just want to jump Leon. I couldn't stand him at that moment.

I couldn't stand him at that moment when he walked off like that, man. It just bothered the hell out of me. But big ups to him, man. So the winner go the spoils. Here's Rocky in the post-fight meal getting a little pizza dance on. He earned this one, Rashad, okay? Yeah, he definitely earned it. Look at that.

Look at that pizza. Look at him. He about to he definitely earned it. Look at that. Look at that pizza. Look at him. He's about to choke on that pizza. Look at his ass, man. No such thing as bad sex or pizza in life, although I'm sure pizza in the U.K. has got to be just gross. That looks like cold pizza, too. It doesn't even look like it's even warm.

Like, Rashad, I didn't realize I grew up in Connecticut, outside of New Haven, outside of New York City, and just the pizza hotbed of this earth outside of maybe Italy. I don't know. I don't, you know, I'm ignorant, but I mean, Florida ain't got good pizza. You already know that, Rashad. I will not debate you there. Thank you very much. All right. Let's hear the sound. This is the best shit of the weekend. It's Leon Edwards calling his mom immediately after pulling the upset. I told you. I told you, Mom.

I told you, I told you. I told you, Mom. That's just great. That's just. Now, right there, that's a beautiful, beautiful moment. No matter if you're behind Leon or not, that moment right there, it speaks to the heart of anybody who's ever tried anything.

You know what I'm saying? It really does speak to your heart, man. See, that was a great moment. Rashad, you've long done a great impression of Rashad's mom. What was her reaction when you won the championship? Rashad! Rashad, you did it. Rashad, I'm so proud of you, Rashad. Rashad, you did good.

Rashad, you did real good. You listened to Joe Rogan, Rashad. Go back to the hospital and tell them to fuck off because you're the full-time fighter now. All right, there you go. In exchange, in an insane exchange between Bantamweight's Jay Perrin and Aori Kai Ling,

did I butcher that? All I know is they're butchering each other. You see this finish to this undercard fight? Jeez. Oh my gosh, that fight was a rock'em, sock'em robot, and it was like one of my first fights that I walked in and seen the other night,

and it kind of set the tone. I mean, it was like one of my first fights that I walked in and seen the other night and it kind of set the tone I mean it was just amazing and you just thought somebody was going to just hit the ground but these dudes were just throwing like it was nobody's business throwing leather uh they made our show shout out to these guys you know who else made the show Luke Rockhold I got a lot of Luke Rockhold videos he had a big big week. Here we go. Rashad, the stare down at the ceremonial weigh-in and look at the phoner. Or this was after the press conference. Oh, no. Is he looking at the... Oh, you know what? You know what's so funny?

You know what's so funny about this? I mean, Paulo is rock hard with emotion. I had Bruce Buffer come to me and say, Hey, Rashad, have you seen the waves i'm like yeah you see paul costa i'm like no i didn't see him oh you didn't see it then he showed me this picture and i i had no idea i had no idea but that's funny man that's yeah it looks

like eggplant is in season in salt lake even look rockGrock holds like, damn, bro. I mean, what if he just hung like that, though? You know what I'm saying? What if he just... Look, we've seen Conor McGregor at the Mayweather weigh-in. Sometimes you get so jacked up to fight, Rashad, that, you know, it's... I mean, I don't... I've had morning wood, but I don't do this before fights, Rashad. But, I mean, hey, maybe it's not a wood, though.

That's what I'm saying. Maybe it's not a wood. Maybe he's just blessed. Maybe he's just blessed. Maybe he's just blessed. You only get this kind of analysis on Morning Combat. Rashad, here's the video that everybody's talking about. The fight club scene in real life. Luke Rockhold, after dramatically reversing position,

just grimy rubbing that blood in the eyes of paulo good and costa smiling look at this yeah that that was that was uh that was a moment them two actually made up you know what i'm saying like they're gonna act like they hate each other but that's that these these two they're gonna end up liking each other one day you know what i'm saying like and i feel like maybe i mean this is that i don't that's that's what i'm saying like uh afterwards costa would say it was disgusting and he took a long shower but hey he was licking that blood the worst i mean what are we doing here all right here's my actual favorite moment of the fight it was when rockhold in the third round looked like he was on the verge of being stopped yet twice screamed fuck you to the face of costa and from the depths of hell uncorked a left hand that i think would have knocked most people out rashad if these two

weren't cyborgs what a moment dude what a moment what a moment to just say you know what fuck it all man and that's and that's And that's what it's about. You know what I'm saying? And when he did that, I'm just like, hell yeah, Luke. You didn't win the fight, but you definitely made an impression in the war. He didn't win the fight, but he took a victory tour afterwards. Here's his longtime teammate, Daniel Cormier, running from the announce desk to catch Rockhold on his way out of the arena. Look, this is two men just embracing.

And there were a few of these videos with Cheeto, with everyone else. It's emotional, Rashad. What a moment. It's very emotional. I mean, those two have been close since D.C. got into the UFC. And I know it has to be hard for DC to speak and analyze and, you know, and give his take when his boy's fighting because your heart's in your chest.

But that's a good moment. And Luke earned the respect of everybody that Saturday. No doubt. We go back to PFL nine in London. I mentioned featherweight Bubba Jenkins who advanced to the championship, took Ryoji Kudo to Suplex City twice. Look at this, dude. Oh, my gosh.

He got air miles on that one. Quickly took the back after the second toss. Gets the rear naked choke. But you did have Randy Couture mentioning, Rashad, that even though this looks great, the amount of energy exerted may not equal the amount of damage given. Do you agree with that? I 100% agree.

You know, in those situations, many times the juice is not worth the squeeze. Okay, there you go. Let's go to Larissa Pacheco, as I mentioned, who also punched her ticket by punching. Here's the finish she did. I mean, look, she touches people, they go down. This is what happens, you know? Wow.

Damn. That's power right there's that's a lot of power it's good to see it from a woman like that just i mean that's that's that's something rare that you really don't see but that's very impressive oh kayla's like i gotta take the headset off now and she yeah yeah she got serious she felt she felt that stomach that feeling inside your stomach when somebody something happens like that that's good that's good she's when something happens like that. That's good. That's good. She's taking notice. And Larissa's got them throat tats, too. I mean, she's aggressive. She's going after it.

We're going to throw the sound here of Kayla Harrison's post-fight promo, in which she specifically called out a trio of Brazilian sluggers. Kayla Harrison, she was just imploring the crowd, asking, is it too much to ask for a USA chant? Are you going to get this crowd to do a USA chant? Hey, what's up, everybody? London! Listen, you guys know a couple of things about queens, right?

You got a queen over here? Yeah? Listen, I'm here to tell you that I am the queen. Not of PFL, not of the 155-pound division. I am the queen of women's MMA. And if those three Brazilians will take off their track shoes and need me, then you'd find out. A lot said there. Look, one Brazilian...

I mean, Rashid, it's nice, but I don't think those three Brazilians are running from her necessarily. Pacheco is going to fight her next. I mean, Cyborg is, you got to put the money out there and sign the contract, right? Hey, listen, it's not about what's real. It's about what people perceive is real. You can say anything is real. You know, I learned it from Chell. Chell just say anything sometimes, you know what I'm saying?

And sometimes, yeah, I was making it up. So, I mean, but they don't know, you know what I'm saying? People don't know unless they look into it. So, as far as the world's concerned, there's three people running from her. Alright, well, she would go on to call them all out. It's Pacheco, it's Nunes, It's Cyborg.

For her sake, I hope sooner than later she can get a huge fight, but she's got to get past Larissa first. We'll find that out. I do like Kayla's turn into the pro wrestling demeanor the last two seasons, probably Dan Lambert-fueled, but it's getting her attention. It's working. She just became the self-appointed queen of MMA there in London. Let's go over to Mike Bone of MMA Junkie.

Caught up with this UFC superfan wearing the Joe Rogan collage shirt in Salt Lake City. Rashad, can we get you outfitted in this? Oh, my gosh. Look at that. Look at that. That's a lot of Joe Rogan right there. Yeah. Wow.

Yeah, there's a lot of Joe Rogan right there. Indeed. That's a fashion statement. Real recognizing real this weekend in the parking garage as Jamal Hill, maybe the UFC's finest basketball player, running into the hitman Thomas Hearns. You know I pop for this type of cross-world respect, Rashad. Oh, yeah, the two Michigan natives. That's cool, man.

That's real cool. I've ran into hitman a couple times. But, I mean, Jamal Hill, I mean, you know, he's cool man that's real cool i've ran into hitman a couple times but i mean jamal hill i mean you know he's turned into that guy and now everybody's starting to take notice indeed uh let's have some fun rough and rowdy style r and r 18 from west virginia bar stool putting on their their recurring scene of fat guys falling over the ropes. Look at this, Rashad. Sloppiness. Sloppy soup. You know they like them extra sloppy. Oh, God, look at that. Look at Big Cat there.

It looks like some ass juices coming out. Just messy, just sloppy. Just gross. We also had a vicious knockdown here. Check out this white guy diving into it. It always looks fake. It's so sloppy know it always looks a little bit fake but here we go oh oh boy oh oh but how do you get up like that look at he was like he was stiff all the way down and like bounce right back up that's unbelievable I think

he used his face to check the punch yeah that's great wow i mean they know their demographic they go right to west virginia for these cards rashad they know what they're doing there bkfc in london here's an undercard uh moment for you franco tenaglia with the sick counter left hand oh wow wow that was nasty left hand oh that was it that counter that's the one here to quit it right there he's looking for a way out now wow boy he's looking for everything he's looking for who he is rashad we probably should have knew who was going to win this mike perry mvp fight by this interview that that uh perry gave during fight week uh here we go i mean i try to keep it real you know i remember my dad used to say he a thousand and oh in the street and i give anybody the benefit of the doubt anybody can win at any given time a lot of these guys you know if i'm not looking i'm

at the bar and you hit me in my face i see a lot of videos of old men taking out young dudes and people talk shit about me because that old man came at me and I swatted his ass. I swatted a few people in these streets. These hands is bisexual, motherfucker. They everything. Anybody can get any gender. Anybody can get this shit

at any given time because I don't trust nobody. Anybody get too close to me, it's going down like that. But, you know, I mean. Rashad, while I won't advocate hitting women, although he said anybody can get it, his hands are very progressive. You know, you got to give him that. Wow.

He's got equal opportunist hands. That's one hell of a statement. But Mike Perry is so hood. I love it, man. He's so hood. It's just in him. It's in him. He once said he's 2% African-American, Rashad, which would allow him to use the answer.

I think he may have got raised by a black family, you know, like a boy. Yeah, like the movie The Jerk with Steve Martin. Yeah, he got raised by a black family or something, man. Something's got to explain this. Something has to explain this behavior. Shout out to the Mac Life for that clip. That was Perry before the fight. Here's Perry afterwards. Look at this still

shot. So you want to be a bare knuckle fighter. Good God. Oh, wow. Look at that face. Look at that face. You know what? Well, Perry got the win in OT. So who'd he call out? Let's hear it.

Jake Paul, you need an opponent. You need the money fight. I'm the real money fight. And maybe I'll put the pillows back on if you're scared to get in here. Rashad, is this a money opportunity here for Jake Paul that he should take or what? Jake Paul should definitely not do no shit

like that. Listen, sometimes people are just too rough, okay? Like, look, it ain't worth it, Jake. It ain't worth it. It ain't worth it. Don't do it. He found his home here in BKFC, and here is his post-fight celebration

dance backstage. Look here, okay? You can criticize his moves all you want. He earned it. Look at this. Yes. Look at that. He got that. Look at him. That's Oshun Shaddy right there. The money dance. The money dance right there. Coach Latorre was in the ring afterwards cheering him on. I love it. He had a weekend at Bernie's and everything, too. Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah. Speaking of Jake Paul, he made the rounds in South Florida, your territory. Went down to Marlins Stadium. Here's Jake Paul taking batting practice. Rashad, your thoughts on his technique? Yeah. Not bad. Strike one.

And there's – oh, okay he got it on he hit that one it seemed like he's not swinging all the way though yeah he's doing like a two strike contact yeah he's kind of like not really putting his hips into it yeah the hips don't lie Jake

you gotta go all in NFL preseason Rashad always gives us good moments like fan fights, but check out this Denver Broncos fan who yelled out a warrior cry and then... I would have died. I would have died. I had a friend actually throw up on me after he took his shot and it was something like that. I wanted to kill his ass, but that's unacceptable. Obviously, that's not the Denver Broncos.

That's a different Broncos team. I butchered that one. So dead wrong me in the moment, but that guy just dead wronged himself. You gotta love that. Wow. Hey, Rivershot, how about some phallic hot dog love, right? That fits the segment. Some people say a real man. Oh, my God.

Oh, man. You got to break it before you bite it. But this guy going all in, Rashad. You got to be careful with the glizzy sticks. You don't want to have a glizzy that big in your mouth. He was aggressive and he went after it. But if you're going to go all in, you might as well go all in. Let's see this next fella.

Got a guzzy in my hand and I do not waste no time. This is guzzy, guzzy, guzzy, guzzy. Wow. Oh, wow. Wow. Is that a party trick? That's impressive. Yeah.

I've got a long history with hot dogs. I've never tried that move. Let's see. Okay. Rashad, you're a happily married man. Find a woman who loves you as much as this lady in the Walmart parking lot does. Look at this. Show of affection of PDA.

Oh, my gosh. Oh, my gosh. What? She smells like love, Rashad. Smells like love. Wow. Wow. love. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Oh my gosh. Crack Hills, where I come from, but not really. Oh, see, that's why you can't be shaking everybody's hands. You know what I'm saying? The fist bump. Boop. All right. A happy birthday is out to a great pair of Polish twins.

How about Joanna Champion and her twin sister Kasia celebrating 35 on the IG this week? Let's let that four go. Wait, wait, wait. Let's bring in the five. Joanna has a twin sister? I know, I only found this out last year, Rashad. Oh, my mind is blown. Yeah.

If Luke was here, we wouldn't be able to celebrate this, but enjoy retirement, Joanna. You earned it. Shout out to her sister as well. Usyk Joshua 2 from Saudi. The co-main event, Callum Smith is back. Look at this left hook in round 4, sending

Matthew Badrlinke to the bottom floor. Oh, wow. Wow. He just deleted his access. He did. He did.

He did. All right. Let's go over to Anthony Joshua having a full-on meltdown, as I mentioned. Here's a little snippet of it, if you missed it. A little snippet.

He drops the belts. He says a lot of shit on the mic mic look at Usyk looking at him like come on bro come on yeah there we go see at that moment Usyk had a look in his eyes like am I about to fight this dude for real like yeah he lost his shit there's no doubt

we mentioned does Tyson Fury have interest well he put out a video immediately after the fight let's hear from the big gypsy himself no doubt. We mentioned, does Tyson Fury have interest? Well, he put out a video immediately after the fight. Let's hear from the big gypsy himself. Hey, Tyson, back in the ring, please. Back in the ring. That is first Alexander Usyk's backstage message for Tyson Fury, I was in the wrong order. Yes, please get back in the ring. You know, Usyk also has a great catchphrase,

and they caught him in the Saudi Arabia airport on the way out of Jeddah, asking him how he feels. Let's hear it. Champ. Champ, how do you feel? I feel, I really feel. Champ. Rashad, the champ is very feel, which is on brand for him.

And over to Tyson. He always looks so surprised, though. He always looks like he just, like, he's just like, I don't know how to make my eyes do that, but he always looks like he's just. Oh, dude, he's a comedian. I mean, he's a joker. This guy's the best. Seriously, get to know him on instagram here is tyson fury i think he was liquored up but

here's his reaction to the fight after watching that that both of them were shite it was one of the worstest heavyweight title fights i have ever seen it was Bullshit! Come on! Shite. I hate both of them. He was absolutely shite. Fucking shite. You got to love you some Tyson Fury. We're going to close out here with a couple more. Shout out to these truckers, the real soldiers out there on 18 wheels, keeping our country safe, strong, and well supplied.

But sometimes, Rashad, you know, you flip a trucker off, you better be ready to throw hands. Look at this. Oh, my gosh. Let the action begin. Look at these guys. Oh, man. Uh-oh.

Look at that orange crush going after him. Look at that. Oh, my gosh. Buddy, get off your feet. Yep. Oh, wow. Wow. That guy's got his hands today.

Yes. Oh, my gosh. I love it. Rashad, no elder abuse today, but we do have young kids getting hurt. Where's the parental control on this, please? This went from happy to sad in a quick second. You know that hurt because he's doing I got a pee dance. Play stupid games, get stupid prizes. There you go. You know that hurt because he's doing I got a pee dance. He's doing that.

Oh, my God. Play stupid games, get stupid prizes. There you go. You are a little guy, man. And finally, here's your knockout of the week, Muay Thai style. Oh, my gosh. What? Wow. You know, that kind of looks like how Leon set that kick up, right?

Yeah. Wow. Wow. Wow. He looked like he is dead for real. Wow. Yeah. Good news is they revived him, and I think he was the Uber driver that brought everybody home.

So shout out to that guy. That's the end of the shit for the week. Rashad, we did over two hours. What a time to be around. Oh, my gosh. Time went by fast. We can follow Morning Combat and Sugar Rashad Evans at these fine handles below.

If you like what you hear on this show, subscribe, like the video. Rashad, where can we see you? You got a tight 10 coming up at the Comedy Store anytime soon? No, I do not, but you can check me out on Instagram. I'll be on there posting more stuff, but anytime soon? No, I do not. But you can check me out on Instagram. I'll be on there posting more stuff.

But everybody, thank you. I appreciate you. Rashad, you once talked about a colon cleanse you were into. I'm thinking about getting the MK doc cameras and just releasing all that shit that's caught up inside of me. You think it could really make a change in my life? Hey, BC, you do a colon cleanse, you're going to feel like a new man. You're going to feel like a new man. You're going to have a new muffler. You're going gonna have a new muffler you're gonna have a new muffler you're gonna sound better

when you fart all of that man it's just gonna be way better after years of swallowing hot dogs whole rashad it's time i might be trying to get these sticks from bc uh shout out to our great team showtime you can get 30 days free right now. The great Bellator unboxing and so much more. Showtime.com. Enjoy that. Get our merch. We want you wearing this around town. Morningcombat.store. Representing right there. Shout out to Phil McKagan, our good buddy from South.

You know Coach Phil? I do know Phil. I do know Phil. That's my guy. Associate head coach of University of Colorado football. He said he just got his new MKk shipman in love that guy right there and love the fans out there thank you luke thomas back this week rashad it's been great running up and down the road with you bc is always a pleasure man love the energy love the comedy love it all together man as you can see on the lower third a final reminder if

you love us help us win an award how about you you go to worldmmawards.com slash nominees or scan the QR code below for the second straight year. We are up against Rogan, Helwani, all the big hitters, Dana White. But we find a way, Rashad. We find a freaking way. That's the show for this week. We love you all. Thank you so much. Two words on the way out. We out. Enjoy. Thank you.