MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - 🚨 UFC 281 Results: Adesanya-Pereira | Esparza-Zhang | Poirier-Chandler | Instant Reaction
Episode Date: November 13, 2022Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell have you covered with an instant reaction to UFC 281. The guys break down Israel Adesanya vs. Alex Pereira, Carla Esparza vs. Weili Zhang, Dustin Poirier vs. Michael Cha...ndler 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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I'm Luke Thomas
I'm Brian Campbell
This is Morning Combat
Hi everybody, how are you doing?
It is 1.08 a.m. East Coast time
It is now technically Sunday, November 13th How are you? This It is 1 0 8 a.m. East Coast time. It is now technically Sunday, November 13th.
How are you? This is the official morning combat UFC 281 post fight show.
Instant reaction. Welcome.
As I may or may not have indicated, because I've been broadcasting now for about three hours.
My name is Luke Thomas. I am one half of the hosting duo for morning combat.
My co-host Brian Campbell will be here in just a moment.
Right now, you can catch him, if you want, on CBS Sports HQ.
When he comes in, we'll get all of his takes.
We'll start here with this.
UFC 281 is in the books.
We're going to get to all the results and the analysis of the main card
and maybe some other things along the way.
So if you're watching now on YouTube, thumbs up.
Please be so kind if you would do that.
If you're new here, consider giving a subscription. We do the show live Monday, Wednesday, Friday,
11 a.m. in the East, and then we do post-fight stuff for big fights like this too. So with that
in mind, if you don't want spoilers, now's your time to go. Five, four, three, two, one.
Okay, let's get going. UFC 281 took place at Madison Square Garden in New York, New York.
We join you now from the swamps of Jersey City just across the river.
Right here in your main event, how about this?
Alex Pereira defeats Israel Adesanya.
They have it as a time of 201-0-1 of round number five.
Man, let's talk about this fight, shall we?
And the story of it.
The story of it was that it was pretty competitive really throughout the course of it.
But you thought that someone like Izzy was pulling away.
That's what you thought, right?
Because Izzy won the first round.
It was close.
But then he kind of rocked him with that jab, hold, hand trap, right hand that landed.
He was able to go back to it through the course of the fight, as a matter of fact.
And so he took the first.
In the second round, Pineda had a great round.
He had one takedown, which he controlled for just 21 seconds of control time.
Not that long.
But you thought he did the better work overall, right?
So round two goes to him.
Round three, different story.
Champion gets a takedown, holds it for 347, does pretty good ground-to-pound.
The significant striking totals were 14 to Izzy and then eight to Pineda, right?
So he did really well.
Fourth round, it looked like it wasn't a super exciting round, hardly dominant.
But Izzy was just more active.
He was coming off the strong third round.
He was kind of pot-shotting, landing 20 to 15 overall in terms of significant strikes, not getting a takedown,
but having some control time, at least along the fence,
for a minute and eight seconds.
And you thought, well, man, all he has to do is sort of survive five rounds.
But what it looked like may have happened was,
so heading
into the fifth you probably had it 3-1 Izzy probably what had happened was it looked to me
like maybe Pineda took the round round four off or something but in general in this fight what
you found was that Izzy I'm not sure I can see here on the feet, who was visiting him? Oh, it's Glover Teixeira.
Yeah.
Izzy was courting danger along the warning track,
and we had talked about it a lot.
Pardon me.
Namely, that both of these guys use their feet to get away,
they block a little bit, but they all do a lot of the leaning.
Up against the kickboxing ropes where your torso is open
and the ropes are malleable to a degree,
you can lean and get away.
But up against the cage, it's completely different defense.
And Izzy chose when he got Pineda up against the fence
to get an inside angle on the shoulder,
clasp his hands up here with a gable grip up top
and kind of control him from there,
maybe lower his lock to the body lock to go for a takedown or some kind of trip or move him.
But what you notice he didn't really do except on the clinch breaks
was try to basically box him from there.
He wanted to close off the space to reduce that volatility that could come from that.
Pineda was not doing that.
Pineda, when he had Izzy backed up real close to the fence,
was trying to do exactly what you saw in the final sequence there.
His trademark left hook lands when Izzy had blocked or rolled
or gotten out of the way of those for the last four rounds and whatever.
All it took with a guy like that is one.
I do think that the pre-fight belief that Izzy had more skills
and therefore more ways to win seemed like it was true
based on the way this played out.
They fought four and a half rounds,
and Izzy was largely better through the course of them.
But that doesn't really matter, right?
You can be better for long stretches.
If the other guy has more danger,
you let him hang around for up to five rounds or more.
Well, not more, but up to five rounds.
All it takes is one of those, boom.
And you can't say it was accidental.
You can't say it was luck.
You can't say it was low percentage.
Every time he had Izzy in those circumstances,
the margin of error was thin.
He got away with it
because Izzy is typically pretty skilled in those positions,
but you've got to be perfect.
You've got to be perfect for 25.
Dude, if you want to fight Alex Pereira on the feet,
on the ground is a different story.
We'll talk about that.
But if you want to fight him on the feet, you've got to be good.
You've got to be – your defense can't have a lapse.
It can't have a lapse if you're going to fight him for five rounds.
It's just not possible.
And that makes it very, very difficult to fight him on the feet for that long. Izzy chose to fight this guy,
not exclusively, not exclusively. There was some wrestling involved, but predominantly on the feet
and the margin of error against him, even if you can beat him for long stretches, it doesn't matter.
It doesn't matter. The second time they fought in kickboxing and the first time
they fought in mma he's fought him now three times in in combat sports he's got a win over him in all
three you you just can't say it's accidental i thought is he won their first fight overall but
he got the judges felt differently second fight is he was winning the vast majority of that till
he got his shit rocked and put down and then this, it's very hard to catch Izzy now in open space.
He has too much space to lean.
He has too much space to roll.
He has too much space to simply move his feet away at an angle, whatever.
It's too much.
But put him right along the fence, and you have constricted his options by a significant margin.
It just makes landing on him a much more likely proposition.
Pareda pressured him there consistently throughout the fight, had a hard time finding him
consistently throughout the fight, but found one left hook that I'm not sure he saw coming
and the show was over. Let's talk about the stoppage there for just a second. What do I
think about it? I think it was fine. I think it was fine. You did see Izzy moving side to side. You could make an argument. He was still trying to be in it. It's a title fight.
It's the fifth round. You know, how much latitude do you want to grant? Okay. You could maybe argue
it was a little early if you wanted to. I really don't think so. I think what really Goddard did in the end was save him from a vicious KO.
Uh, in all likelihood, in all likelihood, what would have happened there with Izzy
that compromised is that he would have probably gotten knocked out because here was the interesting
part about the takedowns.
Izzy only got one of them.
It was in the third round, um, which he did hold for a significant amount of time. It was in the third round,
which he did hold for a significant amount of time.
It was a nice takedown he got.
It was a sort of a body lock whip where he was sort of spinning him over in a circle
and then taking him back to an empty plane.
And then he was able to hold it with good cross wrist control
through long stretches of it.
But he failed on the other three attempts
and they weren't really all that close.
Maybe one was kind of close.
And he was trying different things from the body lock,
but the polish on what he needs to make them work was pretty clearly missing.
It didn't seem to drain him that bad.
Maybe drained Pineda a little bit where he didn't have much of a fourth round effective effort.
But, dude, is he elected to fight this guy in the place where he's most dangerous and gave him a fair number of looks with him right up along the fence line?
Your margin of error is thin with that, dude.
It's just so thin.
What a remarkable story for this guy.
Sean Alshadi had a tweet about it.
I'd like to read it if I can um about what this all means and how it looked
Alex Pineda this is from Sean Alshadi quote becomes the second least experienced UFC champion
of the modern era behind only Brock Lesnar stunning scenes he needed a Leon Edwards moment
and he found it unbelievable it is remarkable what remarkable. What was that, UFC 276?
Now you have UFC 281.
Both of the Nigerian champs, in this particular case,
losing with fifth-round kind of comebacks.
I think Edwards had won at least one round against Usman as well,
if memory serves.
So kind of some interesting echoes in that regard.
Yeah, he had to do it.
And by the way, I got to say, first double champ in glory,
two-weight simultaneous world champion, getting a belt here.
You got another triple C here in combat sports, man.
You really do.
Now, you could say the Olympic gold medal for Henry Cejudo
is a little bit more prestigious, and I would certainly grant that it is.
But boy, to be a double champion kickboxing,
to be this inexperienced, and to get a title, even if there were some circumstances that were
favorable, only in the sense that the now former champion, Izzy, chose to fight him in what I think
he thought was his own strengths, but what turned out to be in the other guy's more dangerous ones.
That really is the story, man. He's just so dangerous. Let's look at some of these numbers here. If we can, from the fight itself, uh, 140 total strikes attempted by
potato landing 91, 119, uh, excuse me, a hundred and 140 landed 214 attempted 209 attempted by
the champion 119 landed 86 of which were significant one for four on takedowns for
Izzy one for one for Pareda.
Six minutes and 34 seconds of control time for the champ.
Again, some of that's actually most of that is against the fence.
And then just 31 seconds for Pareda.
Here's the numbers for the rounds themselves in terms of significant strikes that scored.
First round, 23 to 23, but Izzy rocked them.
Second round, 20 to 17, that's Izzy to Pareda.
Third round, 14 to 8. Excuse me, third Izzy rocked him. Second round, 20-17, that's Izzy to Pereira. Third round, 14-8.
Excuse me, third round, 14-8.
Fourth round, 20-15.
Round five, how about this?
28-9 for Pereira.
28-9.
Finished strong when he had to.
Finished commanding when he had to.
That was it.
He had to take that.
He had to act in that fifth round and found a way to get it done. Boy, that is incredible metal. That was it. He had to take that. He had to act in that fifth round
and found a way to get it done.
Boy, that is incredible metal.
That's incredible mojo.
Looked like he had a very difficult weight cut.
Still found a way to win.
Still found a way to persevere.
Had a bad middle of that fight
when he was getting taken down.
Didn't look great for him.
Looked weathered and lost a little bit in the fourth round
and then came back out there with purpose in the fifth and closed the show, grabbing
another combat sports title in an era when Robert Whitaker couldn't do that twice.
Marvin Vittori couldn't do that twice.
Derek Brunson, all the rest of them, none of those other middleweights could do it.
And even with the Blachowicz fight, he was going up a weight class and got kind of a little bit outstruck on the feet, but mostly outwrestled on the ground.
You're like, well, okay, that's one thing. Let's see how he does at 205.
Now what this does to the middleweight division is it puts it wide open, wide open.
What is the UFC going to do? All right, let's talk about this for a second. What are they going to do? Here you have a case where one guy has beaten the other guy three times, but the fight itself was very close
and the guy who won was losing it up until he wasn't in the very last round. And the guy who
he beat in this case was undefeated and the champion in this weight class up until this point,
would you do a rematch? If you're Robert Whitaker, I think he still has the fight against Paul
LaCosta coming up. I guess he can't get out of it. I don't know what they're going to do with that.
But if you're Robert Whitaker, you want to be like, no, no, no, no, no. I want the first shot
at that guy. Izzy had three takedowns that failed one that failed in the uh excuse me two that failed in the second
round and one that failed in the fourth most of them off body locks um one high crotch they what
was the major problem with them he just didn't quite have his hips underneath him in certain
spots um didn't have his elbow deep all the way when he needed to one of the high crotches
wasn't getting the the one takedown he did get off the whip all the way when he needed to on one of the high crotches,
wasn't getting the,
the one takedown he did get off the whip from the body lock,
he got the appropriate amount of turn.
There just wasn't the right finesse on them.
I think that's to me what was missing for them.
Some of the position was a little bit loose.
He just didn't seem to have the, and also that's a big body to move like that, right?
That's a large man to try and like position around.
It's not so easy to do.
He's going to have his weight and his base underneath him.
And so he just had a hard time moving him around.
He did get the one.
Again, capturing the wrist, that was really good.
He was able to return him to the mat a couple of times
as he tried to get up, force him to wrestle to his hands.
You could tell that that was not something that looked very comfortably
and normal as part of the attacking sequence from Izzy.
But he was able to get it done.
Scored a pretty good round.
Still a 10-9, not a 10-8.
Still got a good round out of it.
But just wasn't consistent enough.
You felt like if you could get the takedown more consistently, it would be a different fight, I feel like.
But no, no.
And so he had to stand with him.
And so as a consequence of having to stand with him, that was it.
Closed the show right up against it.
Unbelievable.
Let's look at targeting if we can here.
Izzy targeting the head, 47.
Man, nearly identical.
Nearly identical.
Listen to this.
Targeting by head, Izzy, 47%.
Pereira, 46.
To the body, 24% for Izzy, 29% for Pereira. To the body, 24% for Izzy,
29% for Pereira.
To the leg,
27% to Izzy,
24% for Pereira.
Nearly identical proportions
in terms of their targeting.
Pretty remarkable
in that regard.
And then again,
most of it at distance.
It was interesting in the clinch
how much stronger
Pereira looked,
but how much he was able
to be out positioned there.
Izzy was able, like, so here's the thing.
If you're going to go for certain kinds of takedowns,
the way you want to keep them flat along the fence typically is an underhook
on one side and then your head and shoulder,
kind of shoulder into the chest, head on the other side,
so you're covering both their shoulders.
He was taking a gable grip on an inside shoulder look,
which gave him the angle he needed for a takedown or to turn or for a trip
and some offense, but that position does allow them to move off the fence
a little bit more nimbly as a consequence.
Now, he did have the gable grip, which means he would have had to frame off
and push, and that creates some extra working requirements.
So maybe he didn't want to fight through that necessarily.
But it looked to me like Pareda was stronger in the clinch physically, more offensively dynamic, but a bit willing to give up position a little too easily.
And so that was what enabled Izzy to control that space.
But I wonder what they're going to do now for a title fight.
I really do.
Whitaker is, you would think, as long as he can get a takedown,
which you would think you'd be able to do pretty regularly,
he's a nightmare matchup for Pereira.
They would have to pull him out of the Costa fight,
which I just don't think they would do.
Man, he's got to get through Costa,
and then that's his shot back to Pereira,
assuming they don't do a fourth fight between.
I don't know what the appetite would be.
I don't know if there would be a lot of appetite for a fourth fight.
There might be, right?
I guess I'll have to see what what bc says and what they ask
him but it really is going to be up to what ufc wants to do in that regard and i don't know what
the appetite would be i don't know how folks feel about it from what i could tell online there was
some appetite for it but that's that's not really uh an accurate reading uh yeah that's funny um
so we'll see what bc has to say about that we'll see what he has to say
about that amazing fight full of tension slowed fourth round i did hear the crowd boo a little
bit i mean i don't know what y'all want y'all had a spoiled night the whole night was full of
fucking crazy antics um oh i think bc. Yeah, let's go.
Bring it in, bring it in, bring it in.
Hey, let's go to the bullpen and get the righty, okay?
Let's do it.
Oh, the bullpen, is that what you are?
You're Mariano Rivera?
I like Trevor Hoffman coming here, okay?
All right, BC.
Exit light.
All right, BC.
The story and truth of the fight is what for the main event?
That whether it was the pressures of the fan base to be more exciting
or whether it was the history between them for Israel Adesanya
having lost twice before to Alex Pereira, having been knocked out,
whether that motivated him to want to come in and make a statement
or whether he thought against a guy this dangerous,
coming after him was going to be the best play.
For me, the biggest takeaway is equal.
It's two things.
It's one is that we already knew the power was for real
for the new champion here, Alex Pereira,
but we didn't know about the poise, the gas tank,
the ability to hang in that fight and find his moment
after seemingly taking round four off
and saving up his energy.
But on the flip side, Adesanya waited willingly
in that pocket far too long against a fighter that you know even with his
unproven history late into fights starting there in round five at the midway point round five what
did I say I asked you is Izzy one takedown away in this moment here from potentially ending this
fight I loved his offensive nature I love the focus and intensity he had but in round two which
was a big round for Pereira, in segments in round three,
it was too much of a tease where Izzy, when backed up, was too willing to hang out at
range.
Sometimes he exited to the side.
Sometimes he used the one-two, and that right hand was a big punch for him to create that
space, but trusting too much in his head movement against a fighter like that in the fifth round,
it may have been him who fell victim to fatigue in the end and kept himself in that strike
zone too long and paid for it.
This game is crazy.
We saw a head kick from Leon Edwards just a couple months ago against Kamaru,
which is point proven.
But it's hard not to look at Izzy and wonder if he'll be kicking himself
for that decision, to stand so close for so long.
Could he have won it with a little bit smarter safer game plan down the
stretch i'm sure that's one thing he had a bad game plan here's what i think happened to him
what'd you think he went for four takedowns with whiffed on three of them if he was more regularly
able to get takedowns if it was a much more consistent threat that's a different fight
one takedown on the fifth is how way you're putting it. But I'm saying he tried it in several rounds
and was only able to get it one time.
And the one time he got it, he used it to great effect.
His mat wrestling at that point was much better than Pineda's.
But his takedowns just weren't there.
So it forced him, and maybe he chose to some degree as well,
but it looked like it forced him to some degree to just stand up more.
But if the takedown was more readily available, it would have been used.
Do you think he wanted the fifth-round finish
and it was a little bit too much of his focus?
Nah.
But it's a fair criticism to say for stretches of this fight
he hung around in that pocket for way too long.
Yes, he did.
He did.
That's where the fight's lost.
He did.
You know, he did good things to take Pereira down when he could.
He did good things to try to stay on his back
and pull on his own gas tank and try to get him out there.
Did he largely win the striking battles when they were at close range,
which was most of this fight?
Yes.
That pull right hand sort of delay to get the defensive Pereira down,
the right hand was on point.
Let's not forget to close round one.
Pereira legitimately two to three seconds away from that fight being stopped,
looked out on his feet and getting lit up.
So there's not much bad you can say
in terms of Izzy came out with intention, he came
out trying to execute, but
when it was clear that he's built
a lead, and I don't know, is that clear to him in that moment?
That he's up 3-1 on all three judges' scorecards?
It seemed that way. It seemed like it.
Man, it's weird. It's like
there was
the legit buzz of, is he
boring? Is he GSP five round?
Is he,
it's like,
it's hate.
Don't you hate that?
We're,
we're kind of that I'm picking out and criticizing something that like the,
you know,
the casual fan base was like,
come on,
he had all that intention,
but it,
it was,
it was proven misdirected in some way.
You can't,
you can't dude,
you can't hang out on that street corner without the ladies coming up to you
without getting a little on you.
You know what I mean?
Dude, not everyone's going to be able to do what Pereira did,
which is keep his head, manage what was left of his gas tank,
hang in there, and in just his fourth UFC fight,
win a championship after being a two-division glory champ
and kickboxing him.
And this is wild what he was able to do.
But in hindsight, could it have been easier for Izzy.
It could have been.
Or is Pereira always going to walk you down and close that distance?
You know what?
That's tough, man.
That's tough.
It's tough because when a guy has power like that,
when he can do exactly that to you, then you're going to have these, you know.
I mean, is he too offensive overall too?
Who, Izzy?
Yeah.
I mean, did he just get caught in your eyes
or was this a preventable trap that he got?
I don't think it's an,
when you say just get caught,
I don't think there's anything accidental about it,
if that's what you mean.
Like, no.
Like, he had, again,
if he was able more regularly to wrestle,
then you can choose how you want a fifth round to go
by virtue of where the fight's going to take place,
what kind of risk you want to accept. Like, if St. Pierre, if that's St. Pierre, granted against
Bisping, who was more willing to strike, but against someone who you thought you had a real
distinct advantage over in the wrestling and like, hello, is this kind of throw on the feet? Would
you wrestle him? You're going to fucking wrestle him. Look what he did to Dan Hardy. He fucking
wrestled him the entire time. So you don't hold it against him for playing too safe, which is
almost what everybody was trying to get him to not do. It's a question of, I don't know how much he was like willingly,
willingly accepting it versus,
okay,
the takedowns weren't there as much as we thought we were.
Let's just stay with him anyway,
which is kind of like a requirement.
But there's a difference between standing with him and trying to work your
jab,
which in spots Adesanya did a great job with.
There's a difference between that.
And when the distance is closing behind you and you've got nowhere to go
and you're,
you're backed up to the fence playing chess with him at that range, you can't.
Yeah.
I mean, it's Russian roulette at that point.
Especially when you're potentially tired.
Once you're up there, it's Russian roulette.
It really is.
And he lost when he played it.
It's as simple as that.
There were many times that Pereira could have broken if he wasn't for real.
End of the first round, no question.
Gassed out potentially on the bottom the first round, no question. Gassed out potentially on the bottom
in round four, no question.
Points where Izzy was getting off with
consistent jabs to the body or front kicks
that could pull on his gas tank.
Dude, he showed us a lot of poise in there.
I mean, that's some championship.
Okay, so a couple questions here we have to get through.
Damn. First. There's a lot of dams. Damn,
right? You can feel it. It's like exhale. Damn.
First. Is UFC going to make a rematch out of this?
I just talked about that with Hakeem Dermish from CBS Sports HQ.
Doesn't Robert Whitaker have a fight scheduled?
Paul Acosta.
All right.
Could they pull that fight and give it to Whitaker and no one would think that's crazy?
No.
No one would think that's crazy.
I don't think anyone would think that's crazy.
The Izzy second fight, the rematch was disputed.
I thought Whitaker won it.
Whitaker, all he's done since then outside of those Izzy fights is win
and show you that he is a living legend, a former champion who's right in the mix.
Could they go that way?
Yes.
But because he already has a fight scheduled and because Izzy had five title defenses
and because was winning 3-1 on all these scorecards and because, you know,
this was a great fight.
The combination of enough action.
Yeah, the fourth round was not so great.
Okay, enough action with drama.
Sometimes drama overstakes.
Sometimes the tense feeling can overtake actual action.
Yes, I think you run this back.
Only this time, Luke.
You ready?
I think you do it in Brazil.
I think you make Izzy go into Brazil to get it back.
Yeah, you could do that.
You could do that.
He already did that the second time they fought,
and it didn't really work.
Remember I asked you late in that fight,
how do you learn strategic lessons from the loss to Jan?
Not enough.
Not enough.
Who, Izzy?
Yeah.
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level up from bill payer to reward slayer terms and conditions apply yeah yeah the grappling this is uh so this
is interesting remember my whole theory about like the a and b game and one of the criticisms i had
made of the champ or the former champ again excuse me of izzy was that his a game you can if your b
game is not so great it's okay as long as your a great a game is super dominant yes like habib
right his a game is outrageous and so his b game while not
so great doesn't really matter all that much but you have to be a major hardcore uh specialist with
a major decisive advantages for that to work as he was kind of getting to that with uh middleweight
i thought with his striking maybe but it would really depend on how he could get past a guy like
this no he couldn't.
So then it becomes a question you go reflect back on his B game.
Defensive wrestling along the cage, pretty good.
Wrestling it out in the open.
He did get taken down here once, but that was a pretty good takedown by Pineda.
I'll give him credit.
But more to the point, because the takedowns failed him,
and he tried and couldn't get him,
there was just much more of a riskier kind of fight he had to approach.
And he accepted that risk in those situations more willingly than perhaps he should have.
But again, I go back to it.
Like if the takedowns were more readily there, I think you would have seen it more readily.
I mean, you know, it's hard to say in hindsight he should have done this because he didn't know he was going to get knocked out.
So in hindsight, should he have gone for a takedown midway through round five?
Yeah, I would have liked to have seen it, have tried.
It doesn't mean he needs to spam takedowns like Maya against Woodley, right?
But situational, you know, experience and knowledge,
it was surprising given all those circumstances.
Official.
Sorry.
I mean, you wouldn't be listening to me anyway,
but if you've got something more important, just come out with it.
I love you.
No.
Israel Adesanya was up
on all three judges' scorecards heading into
the fifth, 39-37. I revealed that
a minute ago, a minute and a half ago. Did you?
Yeah, I did. But that's fine.
His situational
knowledge of having to know where he
was and knowing, look,
I don't know. There's
a difference, too, between saying he should have shot
and maybe he should have tried his best to No, I'm not saying he should have shot. No, I'm saying it's, too, between saying he should have shot and maybe he should have tried his best to make the center of the game.
No, I'm not saying he should have shot.
No, I'm saying it's easy for me to say he should have shot.
But there's other things he could have done beyond that.
He could have worked more from the outside.
And I just, I don't know.
I feel like there was a part of him that really wanted to send that message
and put that exclamation point.
And had he been able to finish this guy in round five,
it would have been triumphant and we would have been saying, you know,
was that enough to take back the pound-for-pound spot from Volk?
I mean, look, we're asking a lot of these guys under duress
and under pressure and under exhaustion,
but he's too experienced for this to happen like this, the way it did.
This isn't even the Kamaru getting lured into the head kick.
It's okay. Also, let me ask you, so then what is your major criticism of Izzy?
It's merely that he spent too much time in too vulnerable position, right?
Yeah, he spent too much time in an area where the margin for error is just too low.
It's too thin, yeah.
It's too easy to make a mistake, and it's too much time to spend there.
Okay, fair enough.
You know, that was a question we had coming in.
Even though we don't know if this guy can go five rounds,
is it too dangerous for Izzy to play with this guy for five rounds? Turns out, yes.
Yes. Turns out, yes.
But I'm going to make this point one more time.
The fact that his offensive wrestling was not
more dynamic put him on
this path as well. I don't know. He just
had success in round four with wrestling.
Round three. Round three. Okay.
What was he doing in round four? It was the kind of shitty round
where not a whole lot happened.
After the success of round three, to not go back to that well once in round four together? It was the kind of shitty round where not a whole lot happened. I mean, after the success of round three,
to not go back to that well once in round five,
especially at that point where you're two and a half minutes in the round.
You're both having moments.
It's a good point.
I mean, look, all I'm saying is we talk about the experience coming in
and would Padeta fold.
He had a million areas to fold physically, mentally, game plan wise,
and didn't, and it was Izzy who made the critical mistake,
and then the fight ended.
And there it is. And it was Izzy who made the critical mistake and then the fight ended. And there it is.
There it is.
So my preference is a rematch between them.
And I think it's going to be a big fight.
I mean, look, anytime the established champion
was winning on his way to it until he wasn't,
there's intrigue.
And you give now the history.
I mean, he's 3-0 against Adesanya.
That's wild, Luke.
He's the only man to stop him and he's done it twice.
That's crazy.
Across both sports. I mean, that's crazy. That's wild, Luke. He's the only man to stop him, and he's done it twice. That's crazy. Across both sports.
I mean, that's crazy.
Damn, Poiton.
What a man, right?
Yeah, and I wonder what that's going to—
How do you think Izzy takes it?
Knowing his makeup.
Wow, they have Teddy Atlas on the desk there at ESPN.
Yeah.
Knowing his makeup.
Brian Custer on the desk right there as well.
Yep, Showtime's Brian Custer.
There he is.
On the UFC desk right there. well. Yep, Showtime's Brian Custer. There he is. On the UFC desk right there.
Wow.
Teddy Atlas.
Anthony Smith.
Knowing the competitor in him, Luke,
and one thing I always say about Conor,
he knew how to lose.
Conor always knew how to lose.
He always in the post-fight interview, right,
except for the one when he was calling out Poirier's wife.
Conor's always kind of already on the plan of like,
oh, I know what I did wrong.
Here's how I'm going to fix it.
I think Izzy's going to be that style.
I think he's going to come out and realize in certain situations,
Izzy was doing incredible work that was way better than Pereira in this regard.
And I think as he continues down the path of rounding out his ground game,
especially against somebody in Pereira who, as we saw tonight,
it's not a strength for him, Luke.
It's not an outward weakness.
I know you're not listening to me, but that's –
I am. I am. I'm just watching some, but that's... I am, I am.
I'm just watching some of these replays.
I am.
Yeah, we'll just wait until they're done,
then you can read about that.
There's the one takedown he got that was pretty nice in the third.
Laying up again.
Oh, man.
I mean, what do you want?
You're going to lay up in the fence against that guy?
Look at that.
Oh.
Can't do it.
We saw that coming in round three, didn't we?
We saw that coming in round two.
Can't do it.
Can't do it.
All right, BC, let's talk a little bit about this co-main event,
if we can.
Not sure what there's a whole lot to say about it,
to be quite candid with you.
There is a lot to say about it.
Want me to tell you?
Hold on.
Just get to the results here very quickly.
So,
Zhongwei Li defeats Carla Esparza
via submission,
a rear naked choke from the back
with a crucifix,
basically,
having it 105 of round number two.
What you got, BC?
The best feather, I mean, the best strawweight in the world right now
is Young Wei Li.
And the fact, and it all goes back to how she turned herself around
after that loss to Rose via head kick in the first fight,
and her looking in the mirror and saying, you know,
there's so many things that I do well,
but I've got to get better in every category.
And she didn't lose the Rose first fight on the ground.
She lost it by Rose beautifully setting up that high kick.
But Luke, what has she done since then?
You know, getting the time with Suhudo
and the Captain Albarocine,
showing the wrestling improvement in the Rose rematch,
which could have gone either way and she lost it.
But, you know, adding the danger of the spinny stuff,
which she did in the Ioana rematch,
and now showing you that she's got jiu-jitsu,
that she's working enough in her ground game
where she can make a key transition right here
and take the back, and before you know it,
the fight's over against an elite riding a long win streak.
She's closing holes.
She's an absolute savage.
But now that there's no outward flaws like that in her game,
she's an all-timer.
And for her to come back and win this belt after losing via head kick
and then losing the rematch versus close decision
and to come back and get better each fight, dude,
but banging the drums for her versus Rose part three,
it's got to be next because that's an historic fight.
It's a great fight.
And, you know, because when Rose is at her best,
she's the best we've ever seen in this division.
That's not a disrespect to Ioana.
Who's got the most title defenses,
but Whaley's going somewhere super special.
And the only flaws she's really had up to this point were two losses to
Rose.
Now she can get a chance to redeem those with the bell as champion in a
trilogy.
Like straw weights always deliver for us with the exception of Rose Carla
too.
It's like that,
you know,
it's like the,
it's like the Rocky V type,
you know, sore thumb sticking out of there.
But Whaley's dangerous as shit.
She's as good as it gets.
I'm really looking forward to see who can outsmart the other one,
who can win this in a Rose trilogy.
I mean, give me a reason why Rose shouldn't be next.
Give me a reason.
I don't have a good one.
I don't have a good one.
I think you'd probably go, well. I don't have a good one. I don't have a good one. I think you'd probably go, well...
I don't think you penalize Rose for
coming off a loss, considering
the champ that has the belt now, she beat twice.
Right? You don't penalize her.
I don't know if it's a question of
penalization. Well, I mean, you have to take
that in mind when you're thinking. Plus, there's
no obvious contender, because Marina
lost. You could do Amanda Lemos.
You could do it. You could do it.
Not when you've got a chance.
I mean, you know, they've got the champion again who they can market well,
of course, in China where they're making big inroads.
It wouldn't be nearly as big or interesting, but you could do it.
Rose just had the documentary.
Yeah, you're doing Rose Whaley for me.
Who's going to be the betting favorite?
Who's going to be the betting favorite?
John Whaley, I think, is the betting favorite there.
Even with two losses to Rose.
That was a weird performance she came off of,
and Zhong, she looks amazing.
She looked like an absolute force of nature.
The theme of Rose's documentary is that she can come back
from being brilliant, brilliant, and then the exact opposite
and getting either dropped on her head or having that fight.
But when I rewatched that second fight with Carla,
which not many people will rewatch it.
Now, I'm not going 49 times, so fuck that, right?
Fuck you. But, Luke,
I will say that Rose
was like, remember she was dancing? We were talking about this off camera.
She was dancing in that rematch
against Carla. Dancing like,
look at my artistry, look at what I'm doing. I'm making
you miss, only putting nothing on top of it.
So I get that it's not like Rose doesn't have
questions to answer. But when she's in a position to answer those questions she often takes things to another
level the exact level she'll need to take it to beat this version of way lee damn i love this
fight it's a great fight what can you say about carlos barge he showed out a lot of pressure
the fans turning on her booing no one giving a few moments in the first round right people making
her feel like a paper champion she She had some moments in there.
She didn't shy away from trying to upgrade her striking look.
I know, can I have you back?
I'm listening, fucker.
I'm trying to do a few things at once.
Okay, but you're not good at listening to begin with,
so to have you watch something else, you know,
when I'm actually trying to set you up for a question that I now forgot.
You did that, not me.
Carla's setups were better offensively to try to get in, duck under the jab.
There's a couple things, but she wasn't able to do it consistently.
She had a little bit of wrestling success.
Let me pull up some of the numbers here.
A little bit, but, you know, and Whaley's not perfect, Luke.
I still think a striker like Rose can piece up Whaley
and control a fight from the outside.
It's though, can Rose have the same success keeping Whaley away on the ground?
And in their rematch, Whaley had success taking Rose down.
Carla Esparza credited with one takedown in the first round
and control time of 53 seconds.
It's pretty good.
Zhang Weili given a minute of control time in the first round.
Zhang Weili landing 33 strikes in the first round, significant ones,
just five for Carla Esparza.
And then in round two, just four significant strikes landing for Zhang Weili,
one for Carla Esparza.
And, of course, there's a submission attempt for the crucifix from the back,
although she was, you know, internal position.
Boy, Zhongwei Li is a full, well-rounded threat, is she not?
She's physically strong, you're right.
She can be hit, but she fights with so much power and verve and intentionality.
Rose has her number in striking.
That was clear in the rematch, which was a close fight.
But I think
Whaley gives her problems. Even though Rose has
decent takedown defense, she can be an offensive
wrestler when she needs to. And she has good jiu-jitsu as well.
But Whaley's so strong that there were moments where
she could just out of nowhere dump her to the ground. You're like, damn.
And also I think it's a question of what positions she
picks. So if she goes and picks
where, for example,
from Turtle,
getting Rose to her
hands and knees, grabbing a wrist
and then using that position to collect and do damage
rather than going to traditional
full guard or side control or
something like that, she could do good work.
It would be a hell of a fight. I do think this would be the
best chance Zhong Wai Li has to date
of the various matchups she's had.
Of trying to separate herself, even historically
here from this great group of fighters.
By the way, the MSG Magic was back tonight.
Yes, it certainly was. This was a special one.
It really was. It was a great card. Some people
say card of the year. I think it's certainly in contention.
It's in the discussion, man. Early on.
UFC 280, for all the hype that we had around it,
wasn't really, as a card,
all that great. The prelims
alone were featuring just ridiculous violence
over and over and over again.
One last thing about Carla.
It just seems to me like she got the title
in a very nascent stage of the division.
Yes.
I think that's a fair way to put it.
And then got the title again.
What would you describe it?
When the dominant powers just seem to have a little bit of a lapse
right she gets sort of getting through between the cracks of the dominant powers it's like when
no staying power is really the issue which is why i think she's kind of separate from the pack
remember when we were kids in like 89 and um the uh the the eagles had that home football
playoff game and it was like the fog ball against the Bears, and the players couldn't even see.
But you're like, that's still a real NFL game.
It's a playoff game, right?
They can't even see, Luke.
They can't even see the field.
Carla winning that title against Rose in that rematch
was kind of like a fog ball game.
It's kind of like it would never look like that again
if they ran it back, right?
I don't even know if they never will.
They never will.
They probably won't. Carla's got two wins over Rose in title fights they ran it back, right? I don't even know if they, they never will. They never will. They probably won't.
I mean, Carla's got two wins over Rose in title fights.
That's wild, right?
Yeah.
And one by finish, right?
I think the first one should finish.
Yeah, I mean, that was dominant finish the first time.
Yeah.
How about this one?
Dustin Poirier defeating Michael Chandler despite the crystal ball.
Crystal ball didn't do you so good this time.
F'd in the A.
Wow.
I mean, wow.
Your rear naked choke at two minutes of round number three.
BC, Michael Chandler credited with three of seven takedowns,
but two submission attempts from Dustin Poirier.
This was a fucking blood and guts fight.
This was better than we thought it could be.
By the way, definitely better than Gaethje and Chandler,
which was a fine fight.
This was better than that.
This was better than that.
Chandler was winning the first round and then, what,
almost out on his feet in the closing seconds, right?
Did that happen or was that my thinking of the?
No, in the, was it the first round?
Yes.
And then Chandler had a much better response.
Then Chandler comes back in the second round and he's wrestling
and you're like, is Poirier weakening?
Poirier dug in and did Poirier stuff.
And, you know, I almost have to apologize for questioning his, you know, his mettle.
And it wasn't his willingness necessarily.
It was more like, you know, had time caught up with him.
Or could Chandler's rocket right hand just bridge that gap and split the guard?
And, you know, dude, he almost, he rocked Poirier in that first round.
I mean, you know, Dustin's career has been about bending but not breaking.
Man, dude, for both of these guys, they both get elevated
because, Luke, Chandler fought like a –
Chandler is so freaking dangerous against anybody in the world,
and he proved that again at 36.
He's not slowing down, Luke, or making catastrophic errors necessarily.
He's just gunslinging, and he pulls the fight or flight out of you,
and he almost did this.
And it was kind of a shame that with the announcement of Volkanovski
that took some of the stakes off of this fight,
that somebody could do something crazy and punch their way in.
But Poirier embraced the violence, put on the war hat.
It had me feeling like it was going to force him to walk into an ending.
He damn near almost did.
But because he's Dustin Poirier,
he came out with a monster win at this point in his career.
What can he do with this win?
Is he not done competing for the UFC lightweight title?
If I'm him, I don't know who.
I mean, do you think he wants to fight Dariush?
No, he should sit back and wait for the phone call.
No chance he wants to.
Who the fuck wants to fight Dariush?
No.
Tough-ass fight and not a huge name, right?
So I don't think he's going to want to do that.
I think he's going to want to hang around,
but that leaves a question for what Dariush
is going to do. He could get strong-armed
into taking a fight that, like, other guys
would turn down. Yes. So that, because he
seems like the kind of guy that the promotionally, just whatever
they ask him to do, he kind of does. I guess we'll have to see.
But, dude, this was a hell of a
fight. Really, really was.
I have to tell you,
Michael Chandler, man,
and we talked about with Jean Wiley a little bit,
Michael Chandler is so good with takedowns.
I mean, he manned that fucking takedown in the third round.
That was unbelievable.
But it did cost him.
I mentioned he doesn't make cluster mistakes.
He made a mistake there.
It reminds me of like judo takedowns.
I mean, it wasn't a judo takedown,
but if you watch judo takedowns in judo,
what you'll notice is they'll throw them so hard sometimes,
they don't even worry about securing the position
once they get to the ground. It's just about getting the back to touch for epon
right so they'll just roll through there's no control of it he rolled he tried to slam or a guy
i think guide him down but didn't do with enough authority and then controlling it so he got whipped
around and got his back taken that was pretty fucking amazing um by dustin poirier but i will
say this about michael chandler's game if he could more easily weaponize attacks from the back,
I think it would transform his game, BC.
Because he found himself there a number of times.
He did have some decent ground and pass,
especially when he had that one wrist trapped
in the second round that forced Poirier to come up to stop it.
But that was some pretty good ground and pass.
But it wasn't like super dominant ground and pass. It was really good, but it wasn't like, it wasn't like super dominant grounder pound.
It was really good,
but it wasn't amazing.
Would you take a little bit off the fastball?
Cause he's still coming out reckless throwing bombs.
I mean,
it's just,
he's loading up,
but he,
he puts you in a spot where you can never be comfortable.
You can never,
I mean,
it's crazy.
He does make you fight his fight.
You can't avoid fighting his fight.
Maybe,
you know,
maybe Islam could just take him down,
but.
And by the way,
to your point,
like,
think about this.
Dustin Poirier was getting lit up against the fence too,
but that's only a three-round contest.
If Izzy versus Pineda was a three-round contest,
you saw what would happen.
He would have been fine.
But all he needs is just enough openings,
and then that's it.
Breaking my balls.
Breaking my crystal balls, right?
But I'll say this, dude.
What do you take away from Dustin Poirier
that maybe you felt like
you weren't appreciating
or maybe not?
But what's the major lesson
here from Poirier?
That I've done it before
and he's proven me wrong
and you don't doubt this guy.
No, no.
I also got to a point
where I doubted him
for so long that
when he fought Oliveira,
I'm like, okay,
this Dustin Poirier,
he's going to do it.
That's still a disappointing
performance.
It's also a big win
for Charlie Olives on that insane run he was on.
But no, no, man, he still got it.
I mean, he embraced the grind and it didn't end up costing him.
He embraced the war like he tends to do.
So it's like, is there a celebrity fight we're not thinking for him?
I mean, what can he earn with this separate from waiting in line for a title shot?
You're right.
Another fight with Conor? No no but nobody wants that colby
i don't know why anyone would want that fight i think colby wins that one
relatively easily i hate to say we don't need a max trilogy we don't need that no uh okay so bc
here are michael chandler's wins. Dan Hooker via KO,
Tony Ferguson via KO,
but he has lost his via KO to Charlie Olives.
He got decision by Justin Gaethje, and then tonight
he got submitted by Dustin Poirier. So,
losses to Oliveira, Gaethje, and Poirier, wins over
Ferguson and Hooker. How good
is he? Very good.
I don't think, I mean, like, you can
criticize whether the balls-to-the-wall
style is the best use of his skill set now.
You can also argue that it makes him the most dangerous.
It makes him a title contender, no matter if he's two and three or not.
He's still super dangerous.
I mean, the will to be able to withstand what he did
and be right back in that fight and, you know,
I mean, he was willing to go blood and guts in that third round.
Look, he still got it, and I think he still got leverage with the company. This is another just badass performance, you know, I mean, he was willing to go blood and guts in that third round. Look, he still got it. And I think he still got leverage with the company.
This is another just badass performance, you know,
and he still got the leverage where, I mean, what do you do with him?
Do you put him in there against Conor coming back?
Do you put him in there with Gaethje in a rematch?
I don't know.
I don't know what the next obvious move is for him.
But I don't know.
I also don't know if he's not done, you know,
is he always one knockout away from fight for a title?
Chandler RDA?
Yeah, why not, right?
Chandler Gamrot?
No, no.
Why?
That sounds like an awesome fight.
Yeah, it is awesome.
You would agree that Chandler versus anybody is awesome?
Yeah. I mean, you could awesome. I mean, you would agree that Chandler versus anybody is awesome. Yeah.
I mean, you could do Chandler-Fazeev.
Yeah, that's also explosive.
But do you like that for Conor?
Sometimes somebody asks that.
Chandler for Conor?
Yeah.
People really like that.
Okay, that's an interesting one.
Conor's going to be off like two years, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I mean, Chandler's hittable.
He is hittable.
Yeah, I would be okay with that fight.
That's a good one.
That would sell because of the anticipation for a first-round knockout.
And you just know, like, by hook or by crook, dude, Chandler's fights are not boring.
They're just not.
They're not boring at all.
Dude, he is.
I mean, Poirier is an all-time great action fighter.
Chandler's almost like just a little bit more exciting than him.
You know what I mean?
That's crazy.
Poirier's so excited.
He's been in so many great wars.
Chandler's fights are insane.
So are Gaethje's.
Like, this era has been, we've been so, I mean, what a, damn.
This was so entertaining tonight, that fight.
I mean, just batshit crazy.
Yeah, I would say this. Charlie Olives needs a fight, too, so let's, that fight. I mean, just batshit crazy. Yeah, I would say this.
Charlie Olives needs a fight, too, so let's not forget that.
What about Chandler-Charlie rematch?
Oh, my God.
You could do that.
You could do Charlie Olives that way.
Loser might be done after that kind of war, right?
You could do a Gaethje-Chandler rematch.
You could do a couple of those.
Like reloading?
Yeah, my throat's itchy.
I mean, I'm sure the vaping helps.
You know, it's good for you.
All right, BC, let's talk about something else on this card here
while we still have some time left.
Yeah, I mean, Frankie.
Frankie, when...
Yeah.
Chris Gutierrez shutting the fucking lights out on Frankie Edgar.
Frankie Edgar landing two strikes.
What do you think about Frankie's Valentina tattoo across his chest?
Big Shevchenko guy, you think?
Doubt that.
Yeah, okay.
Okay, all right.
He loses at 2-0-1 of round one.
Chris Gutierrez going linear up the middle and caught him.
It's what happens.
It's the end of the road for a legend.
Jesus.
I've seen him get laid out stiff more times than I would like,
and I'm glad that this has come to an end.
And he had a fucking great career. But it's time.
It's really fucking time.
And Chris Gutierrez, it's a great win for him.
But it is a tough position to be in.
Because no one wants you to do what the fuck you just did.
You know, in that moment.
They'll celebrate it years later.
But in that moment, nobody wants a thing to do with you.
Dan Hooker got a big win.
Now, that's not the best performance from Claudio Pueyas,
who had an opportunity to kind of kick the door in himself.
Yeah, up the gut.
Dan Hooker needed that.
Claudio Pueyas just landing five total strikes in that fight.
Jesus.
That is not much.
You like Dan Hooker against Charlie Olive?
It's not a bad matchmaking. No, that's not the right fight. That's not the right fight. What is the right fight for Dan Hooker against Charlie Olive? It's not a bad matchmaking.
No, that's not the right fight.
That's not the right fight.
What is the right fight for Dan Hooker?
That's a great question.
He had lost four of five before coming out here and getting a win.
That's going to buy him some time.
It's going to allow him to...
So he's sitting at 12 in the rankings.
He's between Demir Ismagulov, who was a bad fight for him,
and then Conor McGregor.
You could do Dan.
What about Dan Hooker versus Tony Ferguson?
Didn't they already fight? I don't think so. Then yes, You could do Dan. What about Dan Hooker versus Tony Ferguson? Didn't they already fight?
I don't think so.
Then yes, you can do that.
You can do that. You could do him versus
Grant Dawson as well, but I think Grant kind of tears him up
maybe from the wrestling.
What a night, Luke. I mean,
I don't know what happened on the show before I got in
here, before they went to the bullpen. They were like
enough of this gray guy over here.
Was it high energy?
Was it like, holy shit, what a night?
No one did any of that, yeah.
Oh, all right.
Or was it like, hold on, guys, I need to...
Well, dude, my nose doesn't work properly.
Then I got to vape.
Let me get the vape over here.
What would you like me to do?
Yeah.
Hey, can we look at the x-rays of your black liver fuck face?
Why don't we do that?
Why don't we do that?
We should say something here first.
We will be on on Monday.
We'll have reactions to everything.
Dude, how about very quickly?
Or a special guest maybe?
Down the line.
Hold on.
Very quickly.
Quick reaction.
Moikano Riddell.
Dude, that was a... I mean, Moikano, as expected, came...
How about that post-fight speech?
Came out ready to deliver.
Dude, he was nasty.
He landed hard shots.
He was, you know, headhunting with that right hand. Brad Riddell didn't look himself in this one. I don't know. I don't know what the story... No, no, no. Don, he was nasty. He landed hard shots. He was headhunting with that right hand.
Brad Riddell didn't look himself in this one. I don't know.
Don't get me wrong. Moicano
is on fire.
He's on fire. Please don't misunderstand me.
Listen, he
might have won regardless, but he won
at just 320 of round number one.
I would have thought Riddell could have put up a bit
of a better fight than that.
Moicano came out for war.
Look at this. How about that interview? How about that interview just from getting I would have thought Riddell could have put up a bit of a better fight than that. He came out. Boycano came out for war. He did.
So look at this.
How about that interview?
How about that interview just from like getting noticed?
Because he took that fight against RDI on short notice and came out.
He fought like a maniac.
And, you know, you got to pull him out of there.
And he did another big interview after that.
Like he's emotional.
He's asking for the money.
I mean, like this is how you get noticed, dude.
Okay?
Yeah.
There's fun fights you can make with Moicano against anybody.
Sure.
Ryan Spann, Dominic Reyes.
It might be the end of the line for Dominic Reyes.
32, man. I can't believe I'm saying that, but it might be.
So that's four straight losses and three of them.
Am I correct in saying three by stoppage?
Let me double check that.
Yeah, it was the title bout.
Yeah, so he got decision by Jones, viciously KO'd by Jan Blachowicz,
viciously KO'd by Yuri Prochocka,
and now viciously KO'd by Ryan Spann.
Damn.
Man, this night filled all the emotional holes, didn't it?
Aaron Blanchfield, Molly McCann.
That's what I said.
It filled all the emotional holes.
Right, you're disgusting.
Hey, no, seriously, Aaron made big news at 125, all right?
She's coming on.
What about her against Macy Barber?
You could do that.
It's a fight you can do.
You can do it.
Okay.
All right, we will be back live Monday, live at 11.
I don't want to be back Monday at 11.
How long was this show?
It felt like it was five minutes.
About 50, 5-0.
Oh, wow.
I'm going to go back and watch.
It's been an hour?
Yeah, we're done.
What was the first half hour like?
Sex.
We actually shot pornography in here. It was great an hour? Yeah, we're done. What was the first half hour like? Sex. We actually shot pornography in here.
It was great.
Okay.
All right.
Luke, it's been wild week.
All right?
I'm still ready to go home.
All right.
Girl, I love you.
I need love.
Look at me in the eyes.
I got a full pad tie I'm going to eat now.
You haven't eaten yet?
I've nibbled on it.
Oh, okay. We should thank the eyes. I got a full pad tie I'm going to eat now. You haven't eaten it yet? I've nibbled on it. Oh, okay.
We should thank the crew.
Yeah, so this one
goes out to Mark,
Gaffney, Jim, you know.
Big Lou who loves
racist Italian soccer.
No, no, he does not.
He's just big on like,
you know what you call it,
re-racking when you got to,
you know, sometimes your pieces
get out of order.
Just shuffling the pork and beans
down there.
Long Island Luke, you know.
Mikey was here. Mikey was here.
We saw Courtney.
Yeah, Chris L in the house.
I mean, our people. Gaff did a great
job this week. Gaffney Jim, that's my guy right there.
Yeah, alright. Thank you to all you and thank you
to the, you know, I mean, Jay Paquette.
Luke, we could shit into a can and he would
watch it. I love that guy. What a
guy, right? Alright, can we go home?
Yeah.
All right.
Back live Monday at 11.
We'll have a guest join us then.
Not Tukey Thomas.
Not Tukey Thomas.
Morningcombat at gmail.com for any questions or any follow-ups or anything else you want to know.
Let us know about the Moneyline Hammer of the Month.
Oh, tonight.
Who was your Hammer of the Night?
Ooh, I'm going to say...
Michael Troisano, right? Moicano. Dude, we can't forget. Oh, tonight. Who was your hammer of the night? I'm going to say...
Michael Troisano, right?
Michael Moicano.
Dude, we can't forget.
Troisano versus Troy round one was insane.
All right, Aaron.
Aaron Blanchfield.
You want it, you got it.
New Jersey tough.
New Jersey strong, all right?
There you go.
So you can tag Moneylion on Twitter,
at Moneylion, or on Instagram, at Moneylion Inc.
Tag them up.
Let them know who it is.
Use the hashtag hammer of the month or holy hammer. We'll accept either. For more information, you can go to moneylion or on Instagram at Moneylion Inc. Tag them up. Let them know who it is. Use the hashtag hammer of the month or holy hammer.
We'll accept either.
For more information, you can go to moneylion.com slash morning combat, okay?
All right, BC.
Tequiero.
Taquitos?
What?
No, okay.
Don't be racist.
All right.
Whoa, whoa, whoa.
I mean, you know.
How about one of the producers being like, yo, fucking Francis is from Nigeria. Listen, whoa. I mean, you know. How about one of the producers being like,
yo, fucking Francis is from Nigeria.
Listen, racist.
You take that racism out of here.
Yeah, and put it back in the live chat on YouTube.
I mean, those people are just, the P1s, you can't, you leave them alone.
Yeah, I don't think that's the,
I don't think that's the NAACP.
Chit chat, that's just my feeling.
I could be wrong.
Do you think if we just linger, they'll pull the plug?
Probably.
All right, let's get the fuck out of here.
Thanks to the crew.
Thanks to CBS Sports.
Thanks to Showtime.
Thanks to everybody who watched.
Dude, what a wild night of MMA.
Seriously, we watch a lot of bullshit nights to get a night like this.
I mean, what a night.
Incredible card.
We'll talk more about it on Monday.
For Brian Campbell, I'm Luke Thomas.
Until next time, may all your gains be motherfucking loyal.
Yeah, they're never that loyal.
No, I mean, you know.
You took my mouse.