MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 286 Instant Reaction | Edwards-Usman 3 | Gaethje-Fiziev | Morning Kombat Post-Fight Show

Episode Date: March 19, 2023

Brian Campbell has you covered with and instant reaction to UFC 286. BC breaks down Leon Edwards vs. Kamaru Usman 3, Justin Gaethje vs. Rafael Fiziev and much more! Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher 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

Reveille, Reveille, dogs. Look at us now, tip to tip. This is our life. This is our passion. That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat.

Oh, yeah. A little bonus action. A little instant reaction for you on this Saturday evening, at least East Coast time here. UFC 286 in the books in London in a trilogy welterweight title main event. Leon Edwards and Kamaru Usman is behind us. I'm here to break it all down for you. Brian Campbell, you're looking at me. One half of your award-winning morning combat duo every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday here on the YouTubes on the Morning Combat channel.

Luke Thomas idle this evening, but, you know, let's do a little art brush style, okay? Let's break this thing down. Mikey Mormile on the ones and twos behind me, and I guess there's no need anymore to say spoiler alert, right? If you're watching an instant reaction, it's because you want to talk about what just went down. And what went down was Leon Edwards' majority decision over five rounds to defend his welterweight title against former pound-for-pound king Kamaru Usman. Wow. This wasn't the fight I expected.

I don't think it was a fight a lot of people expected. There were certainly elements of drama and intensity to it, but it was largely a technical affair. But if you're looking for me to come out here and do a mea culpa, which I think a lot of us in this industry, especially us here on Morning Combat who picked Kamaru Usman, have a lot of respect for Leon Edwards, but didn't see him climbing this hill, at least in this way once again.

Yeah, I'm here to tell you that I was wrong, and I've been wrong about leon all along this victory was thorough this victory was technical and ultimately this victory was about the graduation the evolution the growth of leon edwards as as not just a mixed martial artist but but almost like a man in general because kamaru usman even literally up to the point of the start of the fight was trying everything to get into the head of Leon Edwards was trying to dull the potential of what that home crowd could do as a buoyant factor in lifting Leon.

And Leon was ultimately unfazed, unshakable. That's the fight right there. Look, it comes down to, if you're able to keep one of the most dominant wrestlers in the history of the sport in Usman, away from routinely taking you down, and then the rare times that he does, away from establishing a presence of dominance, of grounded pound, of really any sort of lengthy time on the ground, that's going to be a big opportunity to help you win. But the bigger reason here, along with that, why Leon Edwards wasn't this one hit wonder at the elite level who came into that title shot after a 10 fight unbeaten streak. But let's be fair on the look back. A lot of us saying, you know, maybe he doesn't belong, doesn't really belong here.

Will he belong there in round five of their rematch last August when he hit the head kick heard around the world, but you have to love the maturity and the growth in how he did this against 35-year-old Usman in this trilogy. The takedowns were huge, but on the feet, Usman put on a lot of pressure on him, constantly backing him up to the cage. But it's because of Edwards that that pressure was largely ineffective. Let's be fair. It turned out to be somewhat basic pressure.

It's Usman coming in with the jab, looking to land big shots, but really not doing a great job setting up his takedowns, level changing. A lot of the takedowns were very telegraphed or along the fence, and that's ultimately where Leon Edwards kept himself off the ground. But on the feet, you've got to love how smart his counterstriking was. We knew this had the potential with the point deduction, which we'll get to, and just some very close rounds where technique was high. Maybe there's a big strike or two,

but not a lot of sustained back and forth action. I think there was a fear here that the scores could be all over the place, or maybe that some, in some cases, the judges wouldn't recognize exactly what Leon was doing only because it was Kamara who was constantly putting him on the back foot, backing him up to the cage and walking him down, if you will, with pressure. But again, it turned out to be ineffective pressure. And that's because Leon Edwards counter kick game, focusing on that left leg from the beginning to slow down Usman's mobility was just on point along with the body shots, along with the counter left hooks, along with the big knees that he landed to great effect to not only wobble Usman there in round two,

but to really set the threat that that high kick was not a fluke, that that high kick could be there again. And I think that all played a big factor into somewhat neutralizing and, andman, who can be a dynamic fighter, was at one point the best fighter in the world, into a somewhat basic come forward attack on him. That's all credit to exactly what Leon was able to do this night. The judges scores in the end, 48-46, 48-46 for Edwards, which is essentially four rounds to one with that point deduction in round three for the blatant fence grab. And then 47-47. What could these scores have been?

That's an interesting question. A draw would not have been out of the question. I think even an Usman victory would not have been out of the question either, mostly because these rounds were so close. I ultimately scored it the same way two of the three judges did 48, 46 for Edwards. So what does that look like? I gave the round one to Rocky Edwards,

which most people did round two was very close and really could have gone either way. You had Leon Edwards landing the big knee that rocked. Kamaru, but Kamaru was able to come back with a big right hand of his own, a takedown. And then I think he did some of his best work when Leon got up, but was leaving himself covered against the fence. You have to understand the visual optics of that, of Kamaru slipping in big left hands at an aggressive rate. And then I think he did some of his best work when Leon got up, but was leaving himself covered against the fence.

You have to understand the visual optics of that of Kamaru slipping in big left hands at an aggressive rate. That could have been enough to steal it. But I think it was Leon's sharpshooting down the stretch of that round that allowed me to give him that. I had him up to nothing. Round three, another swing round. Yes, I thought the point deduction from Herb Dean was perfect because Leon Edwards had unfortunately for himself gotten into a pattern of fouling, whether it was, you know, grabbing the gloves, whether it was repeated load blows. In this case, he blatantly grabbed the fence to avoid being taken back down after rising. So that's either, you know, a 9-9 round if you scored it for Edwards or a 10-8 around the way if you scored it for Usman, which I did.

But again, in full disclosure, a very, very close round. But the championship rounds, the right fighter peaked at the right time and showed that he proved to keep that belt and still be champion. I gave Edwards rounds four and five again, as did two of those three judges there. So it could have gone either way. It could have been a split decision. It could have gone the way of Usman. But I think if it had, even though under the 10-9 must system, it still could have worked because of how close these swing rounds were.

This is one of those fights that watching it without scoring from a distance and you ask yourself, who did better? Who won? Who would you rather be? It was Edwards. I think the only thing, you know, again, ultimately potentially negative optically was the fact that Usman kept backing him up so much. But Usman's just ineffective. And, you know, is that a mixture of, of, of the long layoff, 35 years old coming back from the head kick knockout?

I wouldn't say I saw that. I mean, does that play into this factor to some degree that Usman in this fight was unable to break through and be as consistently dominant as he had been on the lead up to winning the title and some of his title defenses? I'm sure it plays some level of a part, but that would be robbing from the effort, defensively countering technique that Leon ultimately did. And, you know, I'm here to tell you, I was wrong for most of the ride to get to this point. Although to be fair, Leon had lacked some big name wins throughout the totality of this unbeaten streak. But when he stepped in with these big names on these last few,

he ultimately showed out and showed exactly who he is. Is that second fight when we look back more about that elevation in Salt Lake City? The fact that Usman regularly trains at elevation in Colorado and a lot of fighters on that card, Edwards included, really had to dig deep and he was able to find that fifth round moment. I don't know, but a year later, you know, or nine months later, eight months, wherever we're at there, don't know but a year later you know or nine months later eight months wherever we're at there we saw a fighter who's you know not not that much younger than usman but looked to be more prime more fresh and had done more work and i'm not

saying kamar usman didn't do the work to come back in in great shape which which he did and he always does and to do the work internally right to really make sure that all these pre-fight narratives of the combination of his age with the knockout loss, with getting your lights turned out, with all of that. I'm sure he did the work to get himself back to this point commendably to be in this fight and again have somewhat of a chance on the cards. But some of the posturing from Usman, and I took note of it leading up to this, because you wonder, because when Ronda Rousey gets head kicked by Holly Holm, we then look back at that press conference, the weigh-in,

and we look at how manic Ronda was acting. And you start to say to yourself, here's somebody at that point who may have at some point overlooked that opponent, was busy outside of the cage the cage certainly rushed that fight in went in there was trying to hype herself up I wonder if that's exactly what Kamaru was doing mixed with the idea of let me big brother you let me bring the intensity let me kind of bully you and show you that I'm the real champion here what happened last year was a fluke and I'm going to show you so Kamaru comes walking into the cage and during the introductions comes racing right up to Leon. And I think he put some form of a figurative gun and no, no glove touch at the face off.

Kamaru is not making eye contact. He's looking into the chest of Leon. And even after the first round ended, which was a clear Leon round, you saw Usman getting in his face. None of that worked at the end. So when it doesn't work that consistently and you start to look back on it you wonder how much of that is Usman walking into enemy territory trying to you know resurrect and resuscitate himself and get himself up to a certain level again I commend Kamaru for getting back to this point for being in a somewhat close fight in which he had a you know an argument or a lane to potentially win it.

But Leon Edwards ultimately succeeded in kind of making him look somewhat basic. For as much as he had the success of backing Leon up, he just couldn't do anything with it in these advantageous positions. I thought maybe the clinch could be big for Kamaru to use that strength and explosiveness. Was really unable to bully him at any point outside of those flurry of punches when Leon was covering up. Yes, both landed key sort of big strikes that could have swayed the round in either direction. This was a very mature and focused victory by Leon Edwards. And, you know, in this case, as an analyst, you sort of happily eat the crow and happily say I was wrong about this guy because the poison performance he

showed here and that he showed in round five of the rematch I don't think that was the same fighter throughout the majority of this win streak I think in a lot of ways he grew along with it gaining the confidence working on his game but you know who worked harder between fights two and three on the type of things that ultimately were, we're going to allow them to win this fight. It was Leon Edwards. That commitment to the takedown defense was a monster.

Part of this game plan was a monster. Part of his success. I hedged that with some level of concern though. And I teased it off the top. It was mine. I don't think he shot at all in the first round. And I didn't really love a lot of the setups, although he was successful. I don't have the stats in front of me,

although he was largely successful at times in pulling a single leg or backing Edwards up to the cage and shooting down quick with a double leg and sort of dragging him down. Not only was Edwards popping back up, but there was a lot of the nature there that Edwards could see those shots coming. This was Kamara who just sort of lacked something different. And it's like, it's an interesting spot because what was my analysis coming? What was Luke Thomas's analysis coming?

What was a lot of us, right? I mean, I think you had a lot of people split on the idea of who was going to win because you couldn't overlook Usman's age. You couldn't overlook the knockout loss. And sometimes when somebody gets somebody's number in a rivalry, look at Poiton right now against, you know, uh, against Adesanya, it's sort of, sometimes that momentum just sort of mentally shifts to a level that you just sort of grab that control and you can bite down and win no matter what. But, um, Usman law, you know, seem to seem to have really lost something in

that second fight in terms of the momentum and I don't want to say self-belief, but Rocky rose because of it. And if Rocky Edwards was a one hit wonder, he would have had that moment and he would have come in here in front of the home fans. And he ultimately probably would have been taken down a ton, ground pounded and beat around, but he grew tremendously between fights and the poise is through the window. I mean, you can't land a head kick like that in the fifth round of the rematch without tremendous poise and focus, but what a performance. I mean, what are you going to say about it? You come in with the idea like a lot of us did that, that back to the point on Usman's game, that, that Usman essentially had the mindset of it was a mistake. So let me get back to doing what I do. And if I execute doing what I do,

it will be enough. But here's the thing though, because of Edwards growth, it wasn't enough. And it was ultimately, you know, largely a stalemate in some big moments there because of that Usman never had either an extra gear, an extra trick up his sleeve or any, you know, I would have, I would have thought he'd almost coming out on a spam level of takedowns, get himself in incredible shape as he always does. Come back with that eye of the tiger motivation and really look to use the threat of those takedowns to set up big right hands. Ultimately, it was almost the opposite. Using his jab, using the striking to get good position, but then really being ineffective in shooting for takedowns that were never really surprise shoots.

That were really sort of focused, walk you down, get you there. Leon Edwards was ultimately able to get it done. The maturity level on this, can't say enough about it. Love the crowd saying headshot dead. And, you know, I mean, Leon screaming that in the microphone after getting a majority decision win, as my colleague Shaquille Majore comically said in our Slack channel, you know, you could certainly kind of throw a shot against that. But the crowd backed him in a way that you'd expect, but it lifted him. That was an

element in this. That was a big part of it. And now you've got a, suddenly a Colby Covington who weighed in for this event, didn't, wasn't needed in the end is trying desperately to get himself back into a title shot, which you can certainly argue coming off a pay-per-view win over Masvidal a while ago, whether that's warranted, this is a heavy division at the moment with hungry contenders and you've got retreads lingering and you've got a big Masvidal fight coming up against Gilbert that could decide some things. And you've certainly got the Rachmaninoff type of new breed coming in. Although Dana White seemed to answer our question this week on the idea of what truly is next for Hamzat Shemaev. And it does seem, according to Dana, that it is middleweight moving forward.

But I didn't expect to be in this reality of saying, OK, matchmaking wise, the hell are we doing next? You know, is it Colby Covington? And I think ultimately when Leon was asked that, he said that man hasn't fought in like a year and a half. He hasn't fought nobody. But it seemed like he was willing to do it if that was the direction it goes. And if you're looking to now establish Wyatt Edwards as this, not only inspirational sort of hero champion,

potential crossover star, not real crossover, because there was always some sort of built-in limitations, but you can't overlook what that inspirational win did last time out in the second fight to really raise the awareness. And then for him to come out with a performance this solid, you could argue that a prepared villain like Colby Covington, you know, sort of, uh, is the, is sort of the,

the, the perfect first defense type of, uh, opponent to throw at him marketing wise to get that going, but there's going to be no shortage of killers knocking on the store. And of course, below Muhammad, uh,

atop that list as well. And we'll certainly get into the what's next in depth this week on morning combat, but a close fight, sometimes a weird fight. And, you know, I'm just happy in the end that the right guy won because there, there was sort of some elements in there where you could have gone three to two Usman, especially if you gave him a 10, eight in that, in that third round with the point deduction, and it could have went in his favor. But I think when Kamara looks back on this, he didn't have enough.

He was outgunned in this. They met, you know, early on in their career and Kamara was certainly better at that point. They met a second time last year and I think Kamara at that moment was still better. He lost that fight though. Not better anymore. Leon Edwards is going to have a deserving home after two straight wins over this version of Usman

in the top 10 pound for pound. If he wasn't already there after that head kick knockout, he was for me in sort of the back half of the top of the top 10. But respect is in order after a thorough performance across the board. You know, and he was a threat to those knees, the leg strikes, which which really, you know, Kamau did his best to sort of hide what was going on with that and continue to come forward. But that played a big role ultimately in preventing Kamaru from going into destroyer mode, going into that terminator mode

where he sort of just takes the lead on everything, starts walking you down. And then when the threat of the takedown start mixing in and he's yanking at your gas tank, that element wasn't in in play and it has to be disappointing for kamara when he looks back although he can certainly raise his hands and say you know i had a case in this fight but he did go down a notch from this back-to-back two-fight rivalry it could coincide with age he didn't retire afterwards that we that we speculated win or lose it could happen he wants to spend time his daughter wants to go back to the drawing board to some degree. But the right guy won, and in a lot of ways,

it's a new era now in this welterweight division. Will Leon Edwards stay on top? Will he build a fun stretch? Him being out of the UK can't hurt him right now from the UFC standpoint to continue to do the type of events that we just saw with an incredible crowd and that type of attention and the price gouging on the tickets there, UFC. Don't think we missed that.

But what an interesting night there atop in the main event, not going the way I expected, even if I expected it. Even if you expected a Leon win, would you have expected it that way? It was a thorough, smart, defensive, technical victory from him with enough threat of that offense, and the head kick was close a couple times. It would have been the ultimate irony, obviously, if he's able to hit something like that, that could affect or end the fight. But I think that constant threat of it and Usman getting the block up or the

times that, that Edwards just missed, it was, um, it was a, it was a Camaro who was confident in his ability to move forward and pressure, but he had his own limitations of the risks and chances he was ultimately willing to take. And I think it almost hurt. It's weird. It almost hurt Usman, in my opinion, that the point deduction went in his favor in round three. And that suddenly it looked like he was so much back into this fight. And again, look, one, one scorecard had to draw, okay. Which would have been a unanimous decision for Leon had it not been for that point deduction. But my point on the point deduction is it kept the fight close enough where Usman didn't never

really took chances where he felt, Hey man, if I stay on this, if I stay on this with the jab, if I keep kind of backing him down, if I keep the threat of takedowns up, that's going to be enough. Well, it almost forced him into a position to ultimately play it too safe when what Usman needed to do was knock him down, walk him down, take him down, beat him down. None of that was able to happen at the end of the day. So another champ, man, this sport moves so fast, right? And it's another changing of the guard on top. And it's funny, the guard already changed. Edwards was already the champion last August. But when you're fighting a guy who had a 15 fight win streak, who was the pound for pound King. And when you do it miraculously

in such dramatic fashion that people can use words like, Oh, was that a fluke? You do need to do it twice at this level against guys that good. Leon Rocky Edwards did just that. I mean, the, the, the, the takedown stuffs had to be demoralizing for, you know, and Kamau never showed, right. Never showed when he was getting hurt to the body with some of those shots, never showed the tell of when his left lead leg was getting charred up. And, and interesting enough though,

Kamaru open Southpaw does a lot of stance switching, but even after that steady supply of kicks stays in that Orthodox stance, the rest of the way with that damaged leg lead forward. So didn't love across the board, but did love the performance from Leon. What an interesting night though, on this UFC 286 there at the O2 arena. We talked about changing of the guard now completed atop the welterweight

division. I thought there was going to be potential like end of an era moments here in that co-main event when Justin Gaethje and Rafael Fazeev touch glove because Fazeev, the betting favorite coming in, six-fight win streak, spectacular knockouts. I mean, you saw the first round of this fight. Insane speed.

Video game speed. Stupid, stupid, scary level speed. You know, it had you feeling like, is Justin Gaethje, I don't want to say the last of this old guard group because Dustin Poirier just had a big win over Chandler and is in the larger title picture for sure. But, you know, a loss here for Justin Gaethje following two title losses in the past three

years would have been the end of the run for him and the division at large for this aging group of the Fergusons, the Connors, you know, Habib's gone, Poirier, Gaethje, all those guys, although Conner could stumble into a welterweight title shot after, if he beats Chandler, who knows about that. But it didn't go that way again. This was a hell of a three-round victory for Justin Gaethje. I mean, just, you know, at 34, I didn't expect him to be washed. I didn't expect him to get stopped, right? I didn't expect him to be a, you know, where he's getting lit up, but he's still trying to come forward and make the fight.

I thought he would get out, uh, out technique here against, uh, I knew it would be big, big picture moments with, with the, with the violence and aggression, which you expect from these two. And ultimately this fight lived up to some level of the expectations for just batch of craziness, right? It wasn't a fight of the year necessarily type of back and forth brawl, but it, it had big moments in the threat of big moments in there but i thought what we saw in round one really could have been the theme the rest of the way for rafael fazeev which is to control that fight from distance and really get justin gaethje looking you know looking like he's in concrete at times trying to catch up with it trying to get off

his shots the only thing is though we're asking if a physique who's had, you know, those six wins, three early-ish spectacular stoppages is, can you do this grind? Not at the five round pace, that would be to come if he keeps advancing, but at the three round pay-per-view coal main event pace against a guy who just won't freaking go away. And I thought, you know, Daniel Cormier had a, had a, had that great line, what it's like to make this leap from the you know top 15 top 20 guys into now the title contending top five or six guys is that that quote he had about you know the elite guys they don't go away when you hit them with their big shots and that started to happen there midway in round two and uh it's kind of unto itself had some interesting scoring there that justin gaethje takes a majority decision.

29-28, two rounds to one. 29-28. And then that third scorecard by good old Donald Sutherland, which will be a repeated pattern of mentioning this fella tonight. He scored a 10-8 round, which I did not agree with in round three. I scored round three for Gaethje. He landed huge shots. The cuts that were in the bruising that was already there around the eyes of Raphael Fazeev got busted open, crimson mask. I understand the feelings, the notion there of a potential 10-8 round, but that ultimately made a

little bit weird majority decision, but this was Justin Gaethje's fight. Gave round one to Fazeev like everybody else. He was so scary, but when his gas tank starts to slow down a bit, when Justin Gaethje starts getting up on you and is starting to be able to close that distance more, you found out where Fazeev belongs right now. And he still is going to be something dangerous and super special. But I think he needed this sort of leveling up moment where you level up, right?

And he showed a lot of himself at a very high level against his toughest opponent to date. But he hit that ceiling of leveling up moment where you hit, where you level up, right. I mean, he showed a lot of himself at a very high level against his toughest opponent to date, but he hit that ceiling in leveling up where, okay, I got to go back to the drawing board. I got to work on this. I got to work on that. Um, the look, the third round, it turned more into a Justin Gaethje fight. And when it did, and he could strike at range, it was uppercut city. And, you know, does not only is Justin Gaethje, as he says, and I agree with that,

the most exciting fighter consistently in the history of the sport. Um, I, I don't think I've ever enjoyed watching somebody mix, you know, a brawling savage nature with some technical craft and setup. You know, he's a calculated destroyer, calculated brawler. The third round, when they were at some very close range, that's exactly what it was. But that second round ultimately, I thought, was the swing and Gaethje gaining back not only the control and the scorecards to win this fight,

but the fight itself. And what's interesting is Fazeev opened round two with a kick that looked like it rocked Gaethje. And you had that quick flash of like, we know when that chin goes, boy, it's going to go. But Gaethje held true. He stuck in there. And when Fazeev slowed down just enough,

you got to really see where that craft of Gaethje is, where it's not just going to come in through brawn crazy. And if it was, he probably would have gotten lit up. But it was working some hard leg kicks, which of course he's known for. his ability to land explosively hard leg kicks in close range is particularly unique. And, you know, depending on your understanding or look back on history, will you, will you go to bat one day agreeing that he was one kick away from putting Habib in peril in that

lightweight title five? It's up to you, right? It's up to you. It's either the most ridiculous thing you ever heard or, hey, I think Khabib confirmed it one time. But that did a lot to slow down Fazeev, who was starting to kind of look around and go, man, I just hit this guy with some shit in round one.

And he did. That guy's not going anywhere. Gaethje's still in this. And he had some interesting quotes afterwards, ultimately, in saying, I've got one more. I feel like I got one more title run in me, but I'm not going to be around a long time. And I actually liked hearing that from him, because with the style that explosive and crazy that takes so much out of himself, you can't be around. And if you are, you're going to become a punching bag.

And I like to hear that. a win this, this hard fought and earned against a guy that dangerous and skilled and, and, and technically sound too, from the outside, um, he's going to have another shot at probably winning another fight that, or two that are going to put them right back in that title picture. I think it's good to see because when Gaethje can mix the violence with the, with the, um, the Trevor Whitman coaching and just the slight adjustments and just take a little bit off your fastball here and do this. And here he dangerous he's hella dangerous did it help in this particular matchup that we weren't going to the ground for the most part yes of course it did because we see what happens to gaethje at the super elite level when that lack of ground game

uh comes out to to hurt him and it hurt him against oliver hurt him against habib but how about justin gaethje trying a takedown defense? I think that was late in round two and it was his only the second takedown attempt he's had in his entire UFC run. As we talked about on Friday's MK show, which is really ridiculous when you think about it, especially considering his amateur wrestling background, but scores and successfully completes a takedown late in round three.

And you heard that quote afterwards. Do we have that quote, Michael Mormont? Perfect dance partner. There's no way. This fight's not exciting. Got my takedown. Everybody can shut the fuck up now. 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. Yeah, all of the critics, not the fans, all the critics can shut the fuck up about those takedowns. I like that.

That was funny to see ultimately. But, you know, another thing that Gaethje did in round two, which I think was key, was shortened up his strikes because in round one, when there were more, like Fazeev was so good at keeping distance in round one. Keeping distance, more, like Fazee was so good at keeping distance around one, keeping distance, hop in. You know,

I want to say almost Manny Pacquiao, like not the same sort of footwork patterns, but the idea of let me get in land explosive shit and then get out of there. You saw Justin Gaethje winging a lot of his hooks, which, which you can do in close range fights that are ultimately mano a mano battles.

Fazee was moving too much to allow that, but the adjustments Justin Gaethje made in round two were not just the calf strikes, which I think helped in slowing down Fazeeb as his own stamina of a very high-paced and crazy dramatic round one. And when I say high-paced, I don't mean just a lot of volume. I mean a lot of dancing around each other. Tension, when you've got two knockout threats and there's that tension, like sometimes the best fights aren't even batshit crazy,

but that constant threat of it. Think Deontay Wilder, Tyson Fury part one, right? That constant lingering threat that creates anxiety, which equals fatigue in a lot of ways. That's why a lot of times pressure fighters remain pressure fighters because just that constant threat of being in a guy's face and just throwing, you know, it can tire somebody out mentally just as much physically. But in that second round, when things were starting to get a little bit more on even terms, Justin Gaethje shortened up those punches and started started to wear on Fazeev a little bit more. This was a hell of a good victory, a really good victory that I didn't necessarily think he he had in him it's not too far removed from what i thought i thought fazeev was gonna was gonna hold

that distance for the majority of it be in some tough back and forth exchanges and he was but ultimately use that but geishi inevitable he's inevitable at luring you into some shit because if you are quick and smart enough like fazeev was in that first round along with having the type of striking that a couple times it looked like h.e was wobbled um that's great but can you keep that up in rounds two three and then obviously on the championship level four and five where guys start to implode that's why the victories that eddie alvarez and justin and sorry that dustin poirier had over the you know 1.0 version of the highlight in the ufc right the guy that was in that

spectacular war with michael johnson those victories where they like walked through the depths of hell and met justin gaethje at his gnarliest and ultimately stopped him like there's a couple people on the planet that can do that to that version of that guy. Right. You know, and he, through the years of adding just enough alteration to his game, even though he's,

he's craftier and smarter, that equation still Matt, that's it's still there for you. If you're going to fight him, you're going to use a lot of energy to stay away from him, or you're going to use a lot of your gas tank and your resistance standing with him. And he's going to suffocate you and he did ultimately suffocate fazeev but did it in such a smart way that you gotta you gotta give him a lot of a lot of credit there in

that regard still a factor in this lightweight title picture still one of my favorite fighters of all time and if he's not yours it's not in your top three i mean you know re-examine your life process. Surprisingly quick win there for Gunnar Nelson. Not that he wouldn't have a huge advantage on the ground against Bayern Barbarina. And he got the armbar finish with nine seconds to go in round one. But with the long layoff, you know, I was really ready to pick against him. I thought Barbarina could make it a sort of a war.

And I thought, you know, you heard those pre-fight comments from Gunnar Nelson where he said, like, I don't look to win point fights. I don't look to win rounds. I look to find the avenue to finish you and go after that. I assumed here that that would be to his, not to his benefit. When you're coming off a long layoff and you're looking more to find something against a durable opponent that isn't there, could you lose a scorecard on activity alone? I thought there was that potential there, but Guder Nelson got back into focused, shaved head, you know, child molester mustache looking guy. I mean, that's a, that's a director's insult. I'm sorry, but you know, a guy with a mustache like that with the bolts, but kind of looks like he's driving one of those cargo vans

with the curtains in the windows, but man, quick, efficient performance. And I don't always get it right on. Okay. Bet, you know, and more often I don't always get it right on OK Bet, you know, and more often I don't. But how about that gutsy effort from Jennifer Maya to turn down the recent two defeats at a very high level here against a tough Casey O'Neill and just outbox her over three rounds and get the decision. Really like that performance.

Let's talk about the pay-per-view opener, though, because it had big picture potential here in the middleweight division as Marvin Vittori, who's been here at the highest level, was taking on a real comer here in Roman Deleuze, who big time, big time sickening power. But did he have the well-rounded game? Did he have the stamina? Did he have the ability to make the adjustments to win a fight on this? Even though I felt like he was going in the other direction by the end of the fight, Deleuze, meaning he was exhausted.

He's starting to get lit up with shots that he wasn't always getting hit with early. I still thought he won this fight and I thought he won this fight 29, 28 in the end, but the scorecards, um, did I say there was going to be a recurring theme? Can we show these scorecards? So that fell on the right, there's the yellow scorecard and that's Paul Sutherland. He scored this fight 30, 27 for Vittori. And it's not that this fight wasn't close. It was a very interesting fight. Very interesting chess match here. Outside of those big shots that Delizze landed in the opening round. And oh, by the way, there's some people, and you can see the judges here ultimately, they gave Vittori that opening round because they felt outside of the

big shots that rocked him and bloodied his nose from to lead say that Vittori ultimately did everything else better. And I think for the most part he did, I couldn't give him around one though. And I certainly couldn't give him all three rounds. This is not a robbery anyway. I think that Paul Sutherland scorecard, I tweeted that it's gross. And the reality is okay. Paul Sutherland's performance on the night. I'll get to that roundup in a second. That was a little bit gross. That scorecard is just a close fight that could have gone either way. But I think a lot of us watched that fight and we felt, Hey man, it could have, or should have been to lead Zay two to one could have just as easily been Vittori two to one, as you saw two of the judges scored, but let's give Vittori a lot of credit. I don't think he's ultimately fixed the problem with him.

And the problem with him to me is what we said coming in. He's the Jack of all trades, master of none. He's got warning track power in every category, which means he's not going to get, he's not typically, unless he's fighting, you know, Whitaker or Adesanya, he's not going to get handled or manhandled or dominated or lit up to a high degree. Although, you know, it doesn't always have the best defense. It comes in very aggressively. So he's there to be hit in that regard, but in a fight against a guy, you don't want to be there to be hit against. And in the first round, Vittori learned that the adjustments he made to just stand in a, you know, to rely on his technique, get off with his jabs, um, avoid the big shots and bring this to the third round where we're

going to find out exactly what the leads they had. You got to give Vittori a lot of credit for that. He played the angles much better around two after round one. I think he was a little overwhelmed by that pace by Deleuze backing him up just by, you know, Deleuze doesn't overly set up his shots. It's a lot of big time clubbing, but that big time clubbing and bullying matters when it's at a high pace and he's pushing you back into the fence. But you got to give a lot of Vittori a lot of credit. Like if Deleuze wasn't truly ready for the top, Vittori should have been able to beat him. And I think ultimately that's what he did. Even if I felt the leads, they should have had the edge there. Um, Roman turned it on to open the third round,

tried to get back to that bully beat down style, put up a good face pace, but that gap between the two of them and technique that played in the advantage of Vittori. And that's, what's interesting about him is I don't think he fixed the problem that against the very elite, he's not dangerous enough in any one category to ultimately beat them. He's sort of inevitably set up to be stubborn, be competitive, but lose a competitive but wide decision ultimately when he's facing the very best. It's those guys in the middle or those guys that want to be the best. That's why there's some gatekeeper qualities to him, even though that's an insult to him after this big win here. But you know, he can usually rely on technique and outpoint these guys. Some of those guys he can hurt and get out of there, but I still would like to see a commitment in one direction to

really raising up his game, whether that's becoming more of a wrestler or, or really looking to set up big power shots that change the game more often. Um, he had a big customer against him and he used technique. He pulled on the gas tank and overall it was a thorough performance. I just think that third round they traded big time late. Um, it could have gone either way. It was a close fight, but Tori was the better technical fighter in this one. And that's ultimately why the judges gave it to him and he survives in advance. But I think for it to lead say it's certainly a, you know i hit my i hit my own ceiling here like fazeev did i got to figure some things out but i think there's there's got to be a lot to like here because this was a fighter who had been around the ufc for a couple years it traded wins

and losses but it was this past calendar year 2022 and the three very early and violent knockouts that it woke us up he can catch anybody on the right night. If you, if you play his style or if he lures you into it, you know, that could be trouble for you, but he does have, and he's not young at all. Came to the sport ladies, 34 years old. He does have significant things to add and work on to try to make another run at this. And, you know, there may not be time that may not be possible, but it's funny how this game goes.

Cause he could have just as easily won this two to one. And then we're talking about, okay, how high of an opponent is he getting now? Is he getting a top five guy? Is he two wins away from a title shot? One, one big win away from a title shot. What is it now? He's got to go back to the drawing board.

But you know, Victoria, I don't, I don't see it. It's hard. It's hard. You don't see a lot of elite guys truly like this, that are sort of like good in every category, but not great yet able to, I mean, you know,

he works hard. You can see the conditioning there. He's very durable. And I think that's all, those two are probably the, ultimately the things that separate him from being an average fighter and being allowed in this upper group. But can he figure out another gear to get ahead in that upper group?

It still remains to be seen in the long run. Let's bring back Judge Paul Sutherland here. So to recap, he had three particularly, I don't want to say egregious necessarily, but interesting moments. The first one started in those prelims. It was in the regular preliminary card, and it was a lightweight bout between Chris Duncan and Omar Morales that goes down as a split decision for Chris Duncan. Only guess who had the dissenting scorecard?

Paul Sutherland, 30 to 27 for Omar Morales, who was the losing fighter in this one. Yeah, that one's not good. Then he goes 30, 27 for Vittori, which again, it's either two to one either way for the most part. Although, you know, it's not good then he goes 30 27 for vittori which again it's either two to one either way for the most part although you know it's not lost on me that there's an argument for vittori in the first round it's not lost on me but you have to give him every benefit of the doubt in the entire fight to score that one 30 to 27 and then the same paul sutherland rocking that 10 8 and round three for justin gaethje which was what made that a majority decision win and not an ultimate, not unanimous. So, I mean, are these enough to like, you know, stone that man, shame that?

I mean, you know, no, he's not, you know, Adelaide Bird on the boxing side, although she's apparently welcome cage side at any time she wants. You know, this isn't cj ross this isn't uh what douglas crosby but uh that's not a that's really not a uh a great showing altogether just the same there uh let's go up and down the thunder card a little bit more on what we learned nice bounce back win for jack shore and moving up and wait from bantamweight and he's in there against makwan amir khani the second round rear naked choke submission um he's smooth there's a nice element to him and i know he had that loss against simone that was a come down to earth leveling moment for him in that regard but went back to the lab found a better weight class for him wasn't facing a world beater here but but looked

looked pretty good across the board um here's a little preview for Monday's Have You Seen This Shit. How about debuting from Israel here, Yanal Ashmaz. Ashmaz. Looked like a Shmaz match in the end here against a very hungry Sam Peterson. Do we have this highlight here, Michael? Sam fights away. Still undefeated.

Spoils the game. Wow. What a right hand. Some good shit right there. That's certainly a name to circle. The size difference height wise between them for a lightweight bout was overwhelming uh patterson looked like at least a middleweight maybe more ashmaz standing across from him looked like you know i don't know freaking bantamweight but uh he's compact he's powerful that was a one minute and 15 seconds in

a very eye-opening performance but the fight before that, this was wild. So flyweight Muhammad Mokaev is what, just 22, 23 years old, uh, 22 years old from Dagestan nine and O coming in seems to be dark horse, legitimate title contender in this division. It's got a crap load of submissions coming in. Uh, he's taken on a Jafel feel hole from Brazil, uh, feel low feel hole. I don't want to butcher it to insult anybody, but it's possible. It's very possible. Can we show the picture of the late in round three? Mokaev gets caught in this knee bar.

And yeah, that's painful. That's nasty. I'm not sure if he'll ever walk again potential there. Sean Sheehan, who also had that tweet right there, then pretty much had the tweet of the night. Apologies if this offends anybody more than my child molester Van Joke earlier. But yeah, that's Mokaev celebrating the win because the same guy that got his knee jacked up, turned that fight around into a neck crank submission there with just 28 seconds to go in the fight. That was wild.

That was wild. Makhayev looked like he was on his way to winning that fight anyway. There was a bunch of submission threats from both of them in that third round, but for him to score that, and he could barely stand after the win, yet he's still jumping up on the cage

and celebrating. That's somebody to watch at flyweight moving forward that young got that dominant wrestling ability that high motor just goes after it but under that type of perseverance uh in danger to turn that around is that's some gnarly freaking shit right there the rest of that early card you know was there's a lot of bollocks in there it's an interesting um jai herbert ludvoit klein fight that could have gone either way there was herbert getting that majority decision win in the end that saves part of luke thomas's okay bet campaign looking to not go oh and five again this week but let's talk about the front of the program to kick it off felt good to see veronica

hardy nay uh my sado come in here three years removed from her last fight. Yeah. She got married to Dan Hardy and he's in her corner. And, you know, the thing, the commentary team rightfully played up what that meant to her in terms of the, you know, the education and the time she put into the, to the gym during this long layoff, but the layoff was injury fueled. And it was also, she had some, it turns out severe concussion issues for a while and took a long stretch of time off and you know when you're in that spot you're sort of

contemplating your future but three years removed now 27 faces the always aggressive and fun juliana killer miller and um you know i over i mean luke did too luke picked juliana miller to win this by submission in our okay bet and i you know big hopes here for Miller to come in and make a lot of noise. She's got a fun personality, a very aggressive style. But for all the good that she showed on the ground, particularly, of course, in her ultimate fighter victory, this is a big regression in terms of her performance. It was raw. It was sloppy at times.

She got into trouble a lot. You heard the announce team sort of questioning her decision-making, on her jujitsu setups in the end. But I think a lot of what she thought she would be effective with, uh, Veronica Hardy just stood in there. That's a gritty performance to be off that long and then to go 15 hard minutes in a, in a fight. And even though, you know, Hardy large, largely dominated this fight, there were some close moments of submission attempts, some clean punching from Miller from distance, but this is a humbling loss. And I guess it's not her UFC debut officially, because that would be the tough finale win. But humbling in that regard, because she does have a lot to work on after this. But Veronica Hardy, I don't know long-term if she can stay

active and stay healthy, what she can be at 125, but the human spirit of her coming back, congratulations. And the Hardys are a friend of this program, so congratulations, Dan, healthy what she can be at 125, but the human spirit of her coming back. Congratulations. And you know, the Hardys are a friend of this program, you know? So congratulations, Dan in the corner there. I liked the addition of Bisping on the commentary because of that English connection, the first British champion there and all that. But I don't like him on the, on the pay-per-view broadcast as much. I think he's better in the studio.

Maybe I'm alone on that. Great on the podcast. Amazing personality. I don't think he on the on the pay-per-view broadcast as much. I think he's better in the studio. Maybe I'm alone on that. Great on the podcast. Amazing personality. I don't think he meshes well with DC. Ultimately is really where I'm going with that. I think Rogan does either. I think what they've got to figure out is they got John Anik. He's the best in the game.

And, you know, if he keeps this up, he's going to be the best of all time at this in mixed martial arts. And that's saying a lot. You know, more run out is in this picture right i mean you know you can like luke often says more might be the best of all time considering the flexibility of of combat discipline and and the ability to be such a leading man but they got the right guy in john and i like dc in that role and he's not outside of the wrestling he's not always going to give you the the most-depth analysis, but I think you need an entertainer in there. I think that's why a lot of ways Rogan has worked so well through the years,

even though Rogan obviously really knows his stuff in certain and most, you know, disciplines of the game. And it was certainly, you know, a factor in his own right and Taekwondo, but pairing them together, it becomes too much of a watch along party.

You need one. And I like DC in that role. I think he's got that America's huggable bear feeling going, and he can raise the wow factor, the sound effect factor in the big moment. I think they've got to figure out who should be that consistent third, because I think that third should be a student of the game. It should really be. And it's not that when you pair Rogan and DC together or Bisping in this

stance and that, that the two of them combined don't know what they're talking about. They do, but is it a consistent, you know, does, does it work in the roles? This is hard to do.

I love, you know, sports broadcasting. Oh, we always have even long before I ever believed that I could actually do this. I, you know,

I sort of studied it, had my favorite announcers in every sport. Loved it. Not easy. Not easy to play a role. If you go from a two-man booth to a three-man booth, not easy at all. I give anyone who does this, and I'm trying myself to make a career out of it, look the same. And it's the most fun thing in this game.

I mean, it's a drug unto itself. It's the most fun thing you can do. But I do think you need the entertaining guy and i do think you need that you know and you could play different roles sometimes on fight broadcast i play the role of not being an ex fighter or trainer or having a ton of training experience i can play the role more of narrative pusher and and you know and and more of the more of the mindset side of it and all that. But you got to have the technical person. I just don't think there's anyone better than Dom Cruz at it right now. Dan Hardy's really good.

He's with the PFL now. Dom Cruz is really good. And you can say, is he too rigid at times? Well, hey, you pair him with DC, it's fun, right? You can poke each other in the belly. One more rotund than the other, and you can have that. But I just didn't love that trio tonight. Ultimately is really what I'm trying to say,

but big fan of Bisping, the personality. And I mean, he won a world championship with one eye. Can you take that away from him? So did Joe Frazier, by the way, crazy,

right. They ended up finding out the heavyweight legend years later that he really only had the use of one eye throughout his entire career. Like when you find stuff like that out, I know Bisping's, it was a turning point where it happened but um that's wild that's wild um what a night though what a night i mean i don't know are you still watching this my my only one in here that's the question right now you know i'm sure you want luke thomas's thoughts i'm sure he'll be back on monday's morning combat and we'll chop it all up you know maybe you know sometimes he'll surprise you on his own personal channel too despite my constant request to stop you know i mean let's put this

brand first now go for it charge those people um hey by the way speaking of charging people for stuff i'm on cameo now i don't know how that happened but uh cameo.com slash brian campbell okay don't don't uh don't hesitate to reach out you know you want to shout out there you want uh you want me to sing 90s tunes whatever you got there all right we can all we can all have our side hustles they're just the same luke thomas though we'll be back you can follow those socials below but um you know your boy bc for better or worse just to spend an hour with you and uh it was fun watching these fights ufc 286 leon edwards he's the guy he's the freaking guy it's good it's good ass win man he's absolutely back he's that man you know and it's let me admit you because you know a lot of people go obviously yeah yeah

you know you i heard you know even though you give them their flowers you're still hedging you're still saying usman that didn't do this and this you're still not trying to give him the love i'm trying to give him the love here he deserves it i did think did think it was interesting early in the broadcast when Cormier's like, you know, tonight we'll have, you know, two of the all-time greatest welterweights of all time squaring off against one another. And, you know, I was like, we got one of them. And Leon Edwards comes out and defends his title and shuts me the hell up.

He's freaking good. He's that good. He really is. I mean, all-time great. I don't know about that, but he is that good right now in this moment. Mike more and more behind the scenes. Thank you for pressing the buttons. We made it, we made it to the end of this onward and upward folks. We transitioned in the morning combat space from UFC two 86 this week.

Of course, UFC will be back next weekend with a fantastic Bantamweight, Cheeto, Vera, Corey Sanhagen matchup there in San Antonio. And we'll also have Showtime pay-per-view, Kayla Plant, David Benavides. So we're going to shift the gears forward, look back on Monday's MK show, set the stage, and then drive it forward. We're hitting Vegas.

Big time boxing. Can't miss it. Two guys then drive it forward. We're hitting Vegas. Big time boxing. Can't miss it. Two guys that hate each other. Don't miss that. If you're an MMA fan, you don't even touch the box. You don't even know what step three is. Open the box, then put the thing in. I mean, that's what they used to say, right?

Put the thing in the box. This is a boxing match. You do need to see Caleb Plant, David Benavides, hot-blooded. Check in and see, right? Got a fever of 103 right yeah yeah i mean you know what am i doing right now right i got ufc's uh ultimate beatdowns here volume one courtesy of the the great guys over there at mma on point in the uk shout out to uh my guy bailey and they're nicely done there all right um found my room a hotel room key again. RDA and Conor McGregor. This is

arguably my favorite piece of generic memorabilia that I own. Maybe with the exception of this Leo Santa Cruz headband. So, you know. My name is Brian Campbell. We just chopped it up. Let me go put my sweats back on. Enjoy

yourselves the rest of the weekend. And, you know, I was going to try to close with some, you know, some interesting life advice. But, you know, who am I? I mean, look at me, right? You know what I mean? All right. We're out of here. Yeah, thanks.