MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - 🚨 UFC 278 Results: Kamaru Usman vs. Leon Edwards 2 | Rockhold vs. Costa

Episode Date: August 21, 2022

Brian Campbell has you covered with an instant reaction to UFC 278. BC Breaks down Kamaru Usman vs. Leon Edwards 2, Luke Rockhold vs. Paulo Costa, Jose Aldo vs. Merab Dvalishvili and much more. 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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So stop sitting on your next trip and start saving on one. Don't miss out. Your chance to save in points ends February 23rd. Book at AirCanada.com. Conditions apply. It's a head kick heard around the world at UFC 278 Saturday night in Salt Lake City as Leon Edwards provides UFC fans with the ultimate Rocky moment in the main event. My name is Brian Campbell, one half of your morning combat duo, giving it to you live right now after midnight on the East Coast here. 278, what the heck am I going to say? The cruelest sport indeed.

Leon Edwards, who opened this fight in this main event by doing something no one had ever done before, taking down Kamaru Usman, having success on the ground, nearly getting in a choke to close the round. But what we saw in rounds two, three, four, and what was said on the UFC broadcast, rather justifiably so, that not only did Leon Edwards seem like he was on his way to a sleepy decision loss, seeing Thomas saying as much on the broadcast that it looked like he was happy with it.

He was just happy to get a moral win by losing. And he delivers one left kick to the head of the pound for pound King Kamaru Usman. One win away from attempting to equal Anderson Silva's vaunted UFC record winning streak of 16. Closing in a couple defenses away on GSP for Walter Wake Goatship. And overall, you know the narrative entering this week. Where's Usman in the all-time rankings? What else does he have to do to get there?

This is why maybe Luke Thomas is right, my other half of morning combat. You never can be sure when it comes to predictions. As much as I got killed this week for predicting Usman by fourth round submission, it suddenly looked like a finish that was very much in play with the way this fight was going. Usman yanking at the gas tank of Edwards, using a heavy jab as a weapon to set up takedowns and really just having his way. This is why combat sports, when it's at its best, it's unscripted.

It's unscripted as shit. I mean, you know, I use that term, the cruelest sport. You hear that said a lot about both boxing and MMA in different settings. How cruel was this for, for Kamaru Usman? Historically it's up there in terms of unlikeliness,

of course, with a broken ribribbed Anderson Silva coming back from a 4-0 deficit to submit Chael Sonnen. But it was extra violent, being that he not only landed a knockout blow, but perfectly set it up with that sort of inside jab that forced Usman to dip to his right. Only he dipped right into that left kick that was coming. This is as flip-flop a bizarre moment of your emotions. You know, it's like, I remember, of course,

maybe the greatest boxing match of all time, the 2005 Corrales Castillo part one, you know, which had that crazy turn at the end. And it's sort of like the fight's ending in front of your eyes. You see the ending of the movie coming and it just completely flips itself on its head now that can happen on a UFC prelim card which is by the way the setting for when Usman and Edwards fought for the first time in 2015 uh early prelims featured by you don't see that in title fights you don't see that in main events you don't see that type of situation when somebody's so far down and everyone's counting them out

look this is a testament to the human spirit of rocky leon edwards who had his moment but it's so odd i don't want to call it bittersweet it's not it's inspiring you know but it's it was a fight that was going one way and going one way fast. And then it was over. And it's a reminder of what's possible in this game, no matter who the two names are in there that are touching gloves. It's a reminder of what's possible in fighting and in life when you don't give up and you don't stop believing.

Only what made this so extra improbable and why I'm sitting here still in such disbelief while fully willing to give Leon Edwards his flowers was that he looked bad from rounds two to four. He was gassing out. The body language was bad. The output was down. Usman was doing Usman things. It was very much leading to the sort of one-sided prediction that I sort of had for this fight.

I think a lot of people had for this fight. But again, Leon proven why you can't count people out, and certainly from Leon's background, excuse me, you heard him teary-eyed afterwards talking about living in the wooden shack in jamaica where he's from first jamaican born champion in ufc history by the way shout out to that but had been a man of multiple countries fighting out of the uk but didn't seem like everybody embraced him i know i got accused of just constant uk leon hate of overlooking him overlook him no more but

the fact that this fight and this result came for Leon immediately after almost a flip-flop ending against Nate Diaz, which was only used in a lot of cases to sort of criticize Leon for him to do that and do it this way against the, again, the pound for pound King who had figured him out in this rematch and had overcome that surprising early adversity. You know, this is why we watch the fights. You know, this is why, you know, none of us really do know anything, whether we're inside the game on a journalism standpoint, whether we're inside the game having trained or being a part of it in some way, or whether we just love this ridiculous, wild, unpredictable sport.

I'll never forget Brett Okamoto. We know him. We love him from ESPN. But when him and I were teammates, you'd always get that text from him after a wild ending. This sport, all exclamation points. This fucking sport. I mean, this fucking sport. What do you say?

What do you say about that co-main event, which was wild as balls? But what do you say after such an improbable ending? You say buckle up and get ready for a likely trilogy bout, which of course I believe Usman would deserve, and it would be the next move matchmaking-wise. But as weird of an ending, not just in the shocking nature of it, and it's not that Edwards didn't have any moments, As weird of an ending, not just in the shocking nature of it. And it's not that Edwards didn't have any moments, because certainly that first round turned out to be a surprising turn of events.

But this is as improbable as it gets. It feels great to see someone like Edwards get his moment to be that emotional look in that camera. I think John Anik said it best, you know, print those T-shirts of, look at me now, we now have a new catchphrase. You gotta believe Jorge Masvidal wonders if business just picked up and another potential big opportunity for him could somewhat fall in his lap. But this fight was crazy. And once Usman sort of righted the wrongs from the, from the second round. And once you started to see that true difference in gas tank with Usman really just being a freak and next level sort of nothing can tire him out. He committed to the wrestling more than a lot of

people thought. And I, and I'm happy to say, I did feel like that first fight wasn't necessarily something you had to throw out in trying to relate to what this main event might look like seven years later, that, that foundational advantage was still there. If Kamaru could consistently take Leon down and then use that takedown as a threat to open up his offense, that's exactly what happened. And it wasn't just Kamaru wearing him out on the ground. It was, you know, a strong jab. It was mixing in power shots. It was a firm command Kamaru Usman performance.

Until it wasn't. And that's wild. But that is this game. Let's add Leon Edwards' name to the history books. Let's retell his backstory and inspirational run to get to this point. But this was a fight where the fans were booing. Booing the long clinches in the corner. You saw a lot of online chatter about how many times is referee Herb Dean

going to let both of these guys sort of illegally grab the fence or grab each other's gloves. And there you go. And that's why we watch this. And Leon deserves every opportunity to make that money and come back just as much as I believe Usman does for the run he was on, 15 consecutive wins, unbeaten in the octagon, five straight welterweight title defenses

to try to win back that belt in this opportunity. So apologies if anyone believes in the year 2022, they can somehow click on an instant reaction video and be mad when they stumble into spoilers. But can we wake up and realize how the world actually works? I mean, you either watch the fights live or you avoid social media. So let's not get worried about that. But I will say, you know, Usman doesn't feel like as much as this is a Cinderella story and an upset, I'm sorry, Edwards, excuse me.

Edwards doesn't, it doesn't feel like he's not of this ilk. And that's why I always wanted to keep that line and saying that I think this could be a one-sided rematch. I did because that's how good Usman is. But Edwards is pretty damn good. And in a lot of ways, he showed that by being able to keep that poise that I thought he was losing visibly along with his gas tank, but still keeping that poise and still trying to set up opportunities and then landing that. It would be hard to guess that he was confident in that fifth round, that it was,

you know, it wasn't George Foreman, Michael Moore, right? It wasn't, you know, I'm losing this fight every second of it until I'm not, but I've been setting him up that whole time for that one shot. But maybe it was to some degree for Leon and Edward, for Usman, it's heartbreaking, but that's the game. And whether it's a cut, a bad scorecard, a spinning high kick out of nowhere, I mean, there are so many ways in this game to lose. And we just saw as dramatic as it happens on the highest level, putting a halt to some historical pushes that it appeared Usman was on. Let's get into that co-main event, a wild middleweight tilt on paper, meaning Paulo Costa and Luke Rockhold both badly needed the win,

but seemed to be in very different portions of their career. And I think the biggest upset, if any, in this wild fight was how much Luke Rockhold kind of turned his career and the ending of it into sort of this baby face, as I tweeted out, tin cup Kevin Costner moment, like in that movie, where no, he didn't hit the ball over the water and get it on the green and end up winning that tournament. But he created an exit that was more memorable

than a victory might have actually meant. And for Rockhold, who'd been out of the game for so long and 37 years old and injuries kept him out and devastating knockout losses and a lot of sort of bad things said about his chin, his punch resistance, all that. For him to end with this type of performance, where he looked not only gassed out after rounds one and two, but in almost an unsafe condition, bending over, putting his hands on his knees. Heck, in round two, in the middle of the round, he bent over and put his hands on his knees

in ways of outright fatigue that you almost never see, and then rallied for that batshit crazy performance in round three, in which loading up on every strike and Costa slowly tiring out himself. Somehow, Luke Rockhold nearly won this fight by absolutely ridiculous dramatic knockout, then made a mistake and got taken down and then up on his back, and then somehow found just a ridiculous, almost sadistic will inside of himself

to reverse position and end the round on top. And this is the same round in which Luke Rockhold twice yelled, fuck you to the face of Costa and then loaded up with almost the kind of determined left hand that was like, if I don't land this, I'm going to die. I don't think we've seen a fight this wild in some time. I mean, did it have some hints of the Nate, the train land where brawl against. So now I'm a from last week, I guess to to some degree because that third round saw both sort of almost win

and then take their eyes off the prize for a second, then almost lose. And this had some of that. But Luke Rockhold crying afterwards, I mean, he put out a heroic effort and defeat that he'd only stole the show, stole the headlines, but he wasn't loved and liked and beloved or liked by fans. I mean, he was, you know, the pretty boy who maybe right at the peak of his career, couldn't stop finding ways to sort of lose control of that. But he sort of, you know, even after complaining about fighter pay all week and having Dana White call him delusional and all that,

he comes out and delivers the type of currency that's a win to fans, to fight that aggressively, desperately, recklessly, and nearly win it. I mean, there were some legitimate questions about Costa, obviously, entering this fight, despite still being young in his early 30s, but two straight losses, missing weight, red wine, you get exactly where I'm going there. And there may still be some questions with how much he sort of left that door open and Rockhold rallied there when Rockhold really seemed one strike, one push away from just exhaustion and folding. And he not only couldn't close it, I mean, maybe it was the recklessness of rockhold wounded animal sort of syndrome but costa got lit up and this nearly fell apart and he ends up taking a wide decision in the end and and survives in advance and will still

get big fights and and prove that he can make weight and still get into great shape but what what that's some wacky theater that's some wacky tabacky type of theater and um i did love it but 30 27 the scores across the board in favor of costa as he survives and advances but you can't help but not look at this emotional fight and say it was like for public appeal and in the way to go out i'm not sure it gets better than that in the weirdest possible way for Rockhold. I mean, it gets better if he had a win, but this had some low fricking moments for Rockhold and some pretty big, ridiculous ones that we almost didn't see coming, especially in round three, as he's suddenly swelling and bloodying and rocking Costa. And then of course the big moment on the ground that would, that would be hard to miss

and not mention when he rallies to get the sweep in reverse positions and get in top position, and then he's rubbing his bloody face all over. I mean, that's going to – we see the gif sometimes of BJ Penn licking the blood off his gloves or a maniacal axe murderer, Von Der Ley, doing some ish right there. I have to believe that you're going to see that rubbing of the blood on the face. And Costa, for his money, was just sitting there laughing, basically. I mean, that's some weird-ass theater right there.

I mean, it's wild. I can't believe Rockhold almost won this fight. I can't believe he didn't get knocked cold. But I think the best quote was Costa afterwards saying, you know, everybody says he has no chin. He has, he proved he has. Yeah, he has. He has the will. He found his want again. And in a weird way, it's hard not to, to be happy for Luke and share him on the way out here. Three straight losses to end his career. A bunch of violent knockouts, but this weird sort of moral win um he goes out he goes out with a bang and maybe you know is it better to burn out or fade away right that's the the forever question

that empire records presented us great 90s movie introducing the new mcspicy from mcdonald's it looks like a regular chicken sandwich but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only at participating McDonald's in Canada. Are you crushing your bills? Defeating your monthly payments? Sounds like you're at the top of your financial game. Rise to it with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card, the credit card that rewards your good

financial habits. Earn points for paying your credit card bill in full and on time every month. Level up from bill payer to reward slayer. Terms and conditions apply. He burnt out spectacularly to end his career, but it is an old man's game, as he mentioned. He's fucking old. Good, good work by the MK, uh, social team to tweet out. That's basically Luke and BC after every show. True, fair, true. But this was wild, bloody theater where I think we all thought, um, it's going to be

a first round knockout winner. At least I did for Costa, but it could be wild before then a rock hole could have moments. And you never know with Costa who tends to lean heavy on his chin these days. And of course, as we know from his fight against you, all Romero will take massive swings and, and, and go and take chances. He almost got caught taking those chances, walking into something huge. What a wild, wild fight. Uh, let's go to the, to the, to the featured fight before that, the Bantamweight tilt that in a lot of ways on paper really was, uh, the, the fight I was excited for, the best fight, a fight with legitimate title implications at Bantamweight, the sports deepest division, especially if the living legend

Jose Aldo had won against Marab Davalosvili. And let's shout out the Salt Lake City crowd, which got a lot of love from Joe Rogan on the broadcast. It was loud and aggressive and really helped, you know, that arena, I guess, top there. Yeah, as usual, you hear the UFC broadcast talk about top, their box office gate record, despite having held the NBA finals there before.

But this crowd is giving Jose Aldo the kind of victory lap adulation that boy does he deserve? Because at the end of the day, this fight, which goes down as a unanimous decision for Merab, the Volus Willie 29, 28, 29, 28, and 30, 27. I scored a 29, 28 from a Rob. Um, you know, it's a huge win for Roberts's eighth in a row and it, and it puts him legitimately in this core group in the title window. But Aldo, you know, he's going to kick himself for not being active enough.

But he fought great. He was in intense shape. He came in with such a focused demeanor as usual for Jose Aldo. But as much as we love seeing the fans give him the old guy legend rub as he's walking to the cage. He was very much in this fight. You can argue he should have won this fight, meaning strategically, he should have done a little bit better. So what ended up happening was the constant threat of moving forward and takedowns from the Georgian, uh, weaponized stamina King of Merab Dvash Willie was in effect the whole fight.

Aldo's takedown defense was just lights out. I mean, that is just old school veteran stubbornness. You know, Max Holloway in his prime, Chuck Liddell, I am not letting you put my back to the ground. There just wasn't enough offensive behind it after that first round. I gave Aldo the first round, what two of the three judges did as well. He was more active with the kicks. It wasn't a throwback Jose Aldo performance in terms of letting his feet go,

but he was checking kicks. He was landing hard kicks. He was throwing the left hooks to the body. He was at times even counter chasing Merab to try to put the pressure back on him. And even though Devalish really did end up with a successful takedown until the third round, it was Jose's eschewing of consistent offense in round two and three as he got tired that ultimately did him in. And, you know, we knew Murab Duvalish Willie was going to have to really answer a lot of questions about his striking to win this fight. Was it on a high level?

I don't think he actually answered those. You know, he did land some good shots. His consistent attempts at getting off offense, you know, was what gave the judges the fuel to give him the edge because of Aldo's inactivity. But Aldo left it where Murab never really had to prove it. And I think that came down to how arduous and taxing a 35 year old who late in his career is now cutting down in weight, but yet is in such insane shape.

You know how, how physically taxing it was defensively. And of course, you know, in terms of stuffing takedowns for Aldo to put off a performance like that. I mean, his head movement, his defense, obviously the takedown defense. I mean, it was just on point. And I think at this age that he had to pick one or the other and, and he picked the, and he picked the defense, which in theory sort of sets them up for the opportunity to have a moment. Only there was a bit of a failure to launch and release to attempt to have that moment.

And I think you saw that frustration in Jose once he finally heard the scores and fell down onto his back, knowing how close he actually was given his name value. And he had been saying all week, if I win this fight, you know, it doesn't matter where I'm at. He said, I'm going to get this title shot. I'm the one that deserves it. Three fight winning streak was not easy, was not against, uh, secondary names. And I think all, all thato will know, you know,

when he puts his head down on the pillow tonight, that he was in position to potentially win this fight. It wouldn't have been automatic. He would have had to let his hands go. He would have really had to put himself in position to potentially gas in doing so, or have a bad moment, or open up a door of opportunity for Murab to really put something together.

He didn't take that chance in the end and had to be frustrating in his mind. I don't know what he thought in terms of what type of advantages he might've had on the scorecards, but you got, at the end, you got to give Devalis wheelie credit for, for getting the wind done, no matter what it took. And for him, it ultimately just took consistency and aggressiveness and being who he is. And you take your hat off to him. What was most interesting after the fight was he really does enter the title conversation so how do we figure that out with the fact that not only the division champion aljamain sterling is his teammate but it was in his corner for this fight

and they've got us such an incredible friendship that seems to go beyond regular teammates you hear marab really giving uh all joe his flowers afterwards in the post-fight speech saying, you know, I'll never fight him. And, you know, when I came to this country, he was the guy that made me a fighter. And, you know, this amazing guy, my brother was the quote. He is the reason why I'm here. I remember 10 years ago, I was coming to the U.S. I didn't speak English.

I started training with Al Jermaine. He made me humble. He made me realize how amateur I was. He made me who I am today. I have a seven fight winning streak because of all Joe. I'm living in my dream right now. He would close it by saying, please don't ask me any more of this question. We are not fighting each other. We are brothers. Okay. There's part of you that, that to be fair, that wants to see the competitor come out of him. We've seen this before in teammates, Gilbert Burns and Kamaru Usman. I mean,

we've seen it before where it can be done respectfully without a John Jones, Rashad Evans, like blow up. It can be done strategically to say, okay, we just won't train in the same camp for the builds of this fight. There is part of you that wants to see the competitor go,

look, I love me some all Joe, but this is my time. This is my career. This is my moment. I respect him so much that I want to fight him. I want to give him that challenge, but maybe these two really are so close in terms of not knowing, not only knowing the deep, dark fighting secrets and vulnerabilities between the

two, but, you know, hearing Murab say, I'll Joe actually made me hit, you know, his teaching corrections, his, his work. I understand it. It's polite. It's great friendship. It's a la Daniel Cormier moving down in weight, knowing that he's not going to, you know, upset the great chemistry he has with Cain Velasquez when Cain was heavyweight champion. It's not unheard of, but it was a little bit shocking to see that so bluntly put by Merab and who's, you know, done a great job in transitioning to English and, and did the whole post-flat interview in that. Um, I get it. I respect it. Uh, it would be interesting to see what happens though. If Aljo held onto that belt through Dillashaw,

through the challenges that follow. And if Merab can get to a point where it's like you would be turning down something that doesn't come in every day and that the window doesn't always open. Would that change things? You have to wait and see. Or will one leave the division and move up? Not as likely. But for Aljo, he's got to worry about T.J. Dillashaw keeping that belt.

But either way, for DeVos, Willie, he's elite. You go out there and do this to this version of Jose Aldo, despite being a little bit too passive offensively, which cost him and you make the leap. But you know, what I said earlier isn't a criticism, but it is the facts. We didn't learn what we potentially could have from Marab offensively. Now on paper and foundationally we did. His goal is to take you down and wear you out. And he wasn't able to do that in terms of take you down until the final round. But part of that equation, the take you down and wear you out,

is the wear you out. And he did wear Aldo out while still really trying to establish that offensive stand-up. So you don't take any credit away from him, but still not only room to grow from Rob, room to answer some questions about exactly where he's at. And this division, so historically deep, so many great names,

so many great matchups coming up from San Hagen, your dong to Aljo Dillashaw to, to this one right here. It's a big win. It's a big win from Rob. Know him now, if you haven't before and consider him in that group for sure. The other Friday note,

which was bumped down to the prelim featured about from the main card a couple days before of course was that heavyweight tilt and the rising alexander romanoff who had almost a 10-8 style suplex city mauling first round against marshing tibera where it looked to explain what i thought coming into here, which is, yeah, Tybura is a tough out, but Romanov's coming on and this is what he does. And he did what he does in that first round, but let's shout out Aaron Bronstetter, who was on our show last week on Wednesday for identifying this and saying Tybura does have that well-rounded stubborn potential to be the type of guy that potentially exposes some of the things, maybe being not ready

fully for prime time for Romanov. And over the final two rounds, I think that's exactly what happened. And Romanov certainly had to deal with the gas tank, but this is what happens when you're steamrolling guys. And he was, he was the largest betting favorite in UFC history last fight when he mauled and destroyed Chase Sherman. You know, you don't, there's things you don't know about yourself until it's time to know it. And in this case, Romanoff fought somebody who wasn't going anywhere in

Tibera, who is stubbornly tough and is strong and a well-rounded nature where you're gonna have to be really good to dominate him. And it looked like Romanoff was on that path at the first round until he wasn't. And Tibera fought his way back. And even though Rom Romanov finished the third round, really trying to make something happen offensively, I thought the judges nailed this. And it is a little bit of a humbling defeat and a slow of the roll. Certainly not, you know, a treacherous slow losses happen and they happen often early in the rise of, of fighters, but he came in with that glossy unbeaten record and he's throwing people left and right. Pump the brakes a little bit on Romo Tavez. It's a very firm and solid win for Marcin Tybura right there. What a crazy, wacky day of combat sports. If you haven't seen it

already on youtube.com slash morning combat, I already hit you with a little post-dated instant reaction of all things boxing, Alexander Usyk, Anthony Joshua part two, which was earlier today. Hope you check that out. Keith Thurman and I went two hours on the Showtime prelims from South Florida to set the stage. Had a good time calling the fights, hearing where Keith is at. I haven't even caught up on PFL, on BKFC. By the way, I told you folks, okay? I didn't go as far as picking it, but I told you folks that this sport's different

and that Mike Perry's going to have a chance to make this a gnarlyly night for MVP and I hear that's what happened I can't wait to check that out uh this is as wild a day as I can remember in terms of the schedule the vastness of it and just things happening left and right and trying to keep up I hope you enjoyed attempting that as well uh multiple streams multiple TVs however you had it set up there. Just wanted to give you a quick little reaction here as we set the stage for the big show Monday. Luke Thomas is in the process of returning from vacation. He'll be back live for the first time for Wednesday's show of next week. But don't fret.

Hall of Famer Rashad Evans coming in on Monday. We're going to go at length about the fallout. What's next after all the fights from this weekend? We'll hit you up a little bit more on the full UFC card, but thank you for joining me. I am Brian Campbell, one half of this morning combat experience. What a day, what a time to be alive. This is why we lift them weights in the off season to it,

to put it all together on nights like this. Thanks for watching. Hope you enjoyed it. This is why we watch these fights because what Leon Edwards did tonight, man, I mean, party at the Edwards house, you know,

party all week. This is what it's all about. He stepped up for his moment. It wasn't going his way until it did. And he created a moment. It is the ultimate Rocky moment. So it's hard to poo poo that and that and not take the inspirational feel-good moments from that.

So I'll take that with me. Early playing to catch, so BC is going to call it a night. Special shout-out to my man, Mikey Morms, on the ones and twos behind the scenes for CBS Sports. I am Brian Campbell. We'll be back with a strong bang Monday morning to give you your full cup of the best damn combat sports show.

Period. We out. That's it.