MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 286 Recap: Edwards def. Usman Again | Colby Covington | Justin Gaethje | Ep. 420

Episode Date: March 20, 2023

On episode 420 of Morning Kombat Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell recap a wild UFC 286 card. Leon Edwards defeated Kamaru Usman via majority decision. What’s the story of the fight and now their rivalry? Why is Colby Covington getting the next welterweight title shot despite not fighting in the last 18 months and having questionably relevant wins? Justin Gaethje showed serious grit in his decision victory over Rafael Fiziev, especially late in the bout. How was he able to do it? Where does this put him in the title picture? (00:07:30) - Ok, Bet Recap (00:10:30) - Edwards vs. Usman 3 (00:32:15) - Colby Covington (00:51:15) - Gaethje vs. Fiziev (01:02:10) - Vettori vs. Dolidze (01:08:00) - Rest of UFC 286 (01:15:00) - DM's from Donks (01:27:30) - HYSTS 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

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That's the spirit we bring to this show. I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This is Morning Combat. Yes, let's go. Let's go. Hi, everyone. It is the 20th of February, March of 2023. My name is Luke Thomas. I am one half of your hosting duo for the best damn combat sports, maybe even sports podcast in the world. Thank you so much for joining me. As I mentioned, Luke Thomas here, I started from the capital of Los Alamos, Unidos, right here in Washington, DC, joined by the, the AA himself, the king of CT with all the CTE you could possibly stand. It's Brian Campbell.

Hi, Brian Campbell. Hi, Luke Thomas. I mean, does, does porous dieting for, you know, multiple decades lead to CTE? I don't know. It leads to a black liver. I'll tell you that much, but, uh, you know, it must be the factory water I drank. Hey. It leads to a black liver. I'll tell you that much, but it must be the factory water I drank. Hey, happy to be back at it. Monday, Luke, UFC 286 in the rear view, but a lot to talk about today. Obviously, we start

banging that drum, Luke, for all things. Caleb Plant, David Benavidez this Saturday. Maybe even all things Corey Sanhagen against that other guy, Luke. Benavidez this Saturday. Maybe even all things, you know, Corey Sanhagen against that other guy, Luke, you know? Yeah. Chito Vera.

Is that who you meant? Chito Vera. That's Saturday as well. But yeah. Marlon Vera. Yeah. Let's remind everyone. Showtime.com to get the regular Showtime 30-day free trial.

If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can bounce. You know the drill. But for this weekend, BC and I are going to be on a bird. We're going to go to Las Vegas for Caleb Plant versus David Benavidez. That'll be on Showtime.com slash PPV to get your orders in for that. That is going to be a hell of a good time. But as you indicated, BC, great boxing weekend,

and of course there'll be some UFC. We'll get you ready for that as well. I mean, look, could we pick a busier week to slide into Mos Eisley Spaceport there uh las vegas there's sin city we're talking about what uh ww smackdown taylor swift at the damn dome the ncaa tournament in vegas pay-per-view boxing john cougar mellon camp cooger melon camp it's a big week luke okay where is where is uh what's that song outside to taste the freeze where is where is old melon camper harry bomb yeah yeah he's been closing with that lately look 71 years old he's still rocking you know i want to go to that show

but like do i want to play you know 250 vegas prices i mean do we know anybody maybe the maybe the doorman's a donk luke okay i heard my johnny cougar i heard that the ticket prices for like these ufc shows oh the average ufc ticket price was like 500 pounds or something something insane people telling me it took them a thousand just to get in the building for shitty seats and they're saying look great atmosphere great experience luke you know start to finish a big time pay-per-view the ufc still delivers but they are in full-on gouge mode and yeah i don't think enough people are talking about it like you know it's their right look at the super bowl look at a lot of things but they're doing it every month sometimes twice a month luke it's going to cost you an arm

and a leg to get in there but is it worth it uh at least once i'll tell you that much you know people are paying for it i mean i hear a lot of complaints about it people are paying for it so as long as they're paying for it that's the thing ufc is out there bragging about breaking all of these records for the gate which i believe but it's coming at some expensive prices i don't i don't think um is this a counteraction to the idea that they're not necessarily anymore in the pay-per-view promotional business because of the ESPN deal? So they've looked at other ways to max out revenue. And one of those is putting more big-name fighters in their home area and then driving up the gate in the ticket prices? There's something to do with that, I suspect.

Although I don't think it's just a counteract pay-per-view. I think it's also like they looked around and saw that ticket prices in general are high. And so this is just what the market will bear at the moment. I don't know how long that's going to last. Because if you go to any concert right now, ticket prices are just stupid insane. So I don't think it's going to last very long. Speaking of concerts, Luke, Saturday nightiladelphia you you had yourself a time didn't you i did i went and saw vinnie pass by the way bc i meant to tell you uh i was supposed

to there was a chance i was going to meet up with him ahead of time or at least on on the concert night it didn't work out but then he wrote me and told me he was going to make it work later so i was actually really happy to hear that but either way yeah i got to see the last probably the last philadelphia performance by the great ph rapper himself, Finney Paz. And BC, I got recognized a couple of times when I was there, which is kind of interesting. Did you have the MK bomber on by any chance? It was too cold.

It was too cold, so I had different gear on. But one of the guys who came up to me, this is true, he came up to me and he goes, are you Luke Thomas? I said, yeah. He goes, oh, man, you man, I'm a fan of MK. His wife came down and she was like, he makes me watch everything. So it started off great. And then he goes, yeah, man, I know you get tons of hate out there.

Boy, the world just fucking hates you, he goes, but I like you. And I was like, okay. I mean, I didn't really, that intro I didn't necessarily need, but I appreciate the support just the same. Oh, God. of these damn concerts in addition to all the things i mentioned on showtime of course the merch you can go to morningcombat.store you can get that bomber jacket you can get bc's shirt bc's hat lots of good stuff it's all available there as well uh bc now we should get now we've got to start things with okay bet let's kick things off here before we do we have to luke i don't think you and i are anything close to on fire in this category at the moment. No, I am decidedly mediocre, and you are decidedly bad. Yeah.

That's the MK experience, from mediocre to shitty. All right, so we both thought Kamaru Usman was going to win. That's an L in both directions for our main event, main card pick, or main event, I should say, for our favorite. I picked Vittori to win. I scraped by on that one but i get it you picked fazeev i thought it was a good bet he was winning some of the scoring in that fight by the way we'll talk about a little bit later some of the scoring that fight and the vittori fight a little bit suspect but okay are we talking about paul sutherland is that what we're talking about because he had a hand in all of those yes

yes uh so here's the one that gets kind of interesting i called i think uh for the underdog i thought i had joe herbert was going to win and you had mayas which you you scored on so good for you it ended up being a draw so bc and i agreed that in situations like this for picks like this where it ends up being a draw where you don't get a winner either way technically by gambling rules you would lose but for this game we're going to consider that a draw on the record. So I get like a blank blank in one now. Okay, for over under BC, I thought that Mokai Ophelia would take the under. I was right.

You had Ramirez versus Gabe going under. It was canceled. So that's no longer on the board. And then lastly, I mean, what the hell was I thinking? Julianna Miller versus Veronica Hardy ends in a sub. It did not. And then you had Mokai versus Filio ending in a sub, which you win, which brings this weekend.

You went two and two. The well, it doesn't count the Ramirez versus Rosado because it didn't happen. And we got a draw for me in my underdog pick. So I went to two and one. You went two and two. It brings my record to 2018 and one. It brings you to a whopping 15 and 23 your thoughts yeah um you know i wouldn't

say i'm doing great but luke you know like we talk about the arc of this show right you know start off disliking me find a reason to love me and then you know hate both of us so i think by the end luke i can turn there at least by the middle portion i can turn this thing around but um uh you know, I've taken some chances and then I've tried to play it safe and either way, I still suck at it. So we'll see what happens, but shout out to Zerno Ramirez, by the way, for coming in like eight pounds overweight. No, no. 12, 12, 12 turned out to be an error, a misprint,

but it was something like 7.8. They canceled the main event. Then they bump up the co-main event and jojo diaz misses weight by three pounds then they had technical difficulties and the main event almost didn't come off because of production issues and then it did and he got upset by the husk of mercido hesta the uh the next man he back yeah who who the last time we said that term was about 15 years ago so yeah it wasn't a great night over there, Luke. But, okay, Ben, okay, I'll see you at that concert at the end of the year. And I got a lot of time. I just need new strategies, I think, at the end of the day, Luke.

Maybe go against my knee-jerk reactions, and then I'll be on top. Well, I'd like to shit on you, but, again, I'm only better than terrible. That's what I am. Luke Thomas, better than terrible. There you go. That's the story of my life. All right, BC, if you're ready. I'd like to welcome you to my Cleveland steamer, but I don't take those offers.

Luke from Coho's, believe me. Okay. I bet you don't. All right. With that in mind, let's get the show started here. Topic number one, BC. We start where else? Today's going to be a UFC 286 edition, if ever there was one.

So we start with the obvious one. Leon Edwards defeats Kamaru Usman via majority decision. It goes to full five. BC, I thought this was the performance of Leon Edwards' life. I never thought I'd ever seen him look better than I did here. Tell me, what is the story of this fight and now this rivalry? The story of this fight is that there's times when two fighters that end up being a part in a rivalry cross pass. In this case, you had a very early time they

crossed pass in 2015. It turned out to be a clean and clear win for Usman, but in fights two and three, it's weird. It turns out to be a little bit like what we talked about in terms of Frankie Edgar and BJ Penn crossing pass. At one point, the second fight, they were very close, right? After the first fight, Usman was a far better fighter, more advanced on the come up, but that has changed. And that has changed. I don't want to say dramatically because one thing you can't miss when looking back at Saturday's main event was that it was a close fight, a competitive fight, a fight that had certain elements of drama lingering over it, even though it wasn't an all-action, necessarily back-and-forth affair.

But at this moment, Luke Thomas, unbeknownst to me, in the entire lead-up to Rocky Edwards ascending this throne and now defending it against the former pound-for-pound king, he's better than Kamaru Usman. And at the moment, he's the best welterweight fighter in the game. And what will that change in the long run? That's going to be up to Rocky. But for this moment, we both got it wrong. I've severely got it wrong. And Rocky Edwards, whether it's a, you know, in the end, Luke, it may be a combination of everything, age, the part, the mental advantages that Leon took over from Kamaru in the transaction of that second fight.

But either way, Leon Edwards doesn't win it in the manner that he does on Saturday. If he didn't grow even more from the rematch, step into a higher level of confidence, work on the takedown defense, all that at the moment, Luke, he's a better fighter. And I think he proved that on Saturday. He is a better fighter. I mean mean this was the performance that I was waiting for you know I this was this was what I was waiting for from Leon Edwards if you just look at the second fight it wasn't that it wasn't competitive surely that

it was and of course Leon wins in the end I don't mean that exactly what I just mean was you know Kamaru was the better fighter for the majority of the duration of that bout, rounds two, three, and four in the rematch. And Edwards, again, had sort of moments of clarity. He had, again, the takedown and the mount in the first round in that second fight, but overall just could not compete up until the fifth round where he had this moment of inspiration. And again, nothing accidental about it, but he was down. He was down.

That guy didn't show up on Saturday. That was the performance of Leon Edwards' life, ladies and gentlemen. I've seen a lot of talk about the decline of Kamaru. Yes, I am willing to entertain that a guy who's going to be 36 in six weeks or so, something like that, two months roughly, has in this kind of division with all the wear and tear he's had, is not going to be the same kind of guy he once was. That does not explain the result.

That helps explain the result to a degree, yes. But the real story is the technical and strategic maturation of Leon Edwards. Both in strategy, here's what I mean. He was so much better. We talked about it, BC. Where did this fight have to be if you were Kamaru Usman? It had to be pressure. You had to get Leon up against the fenceon edwards denied him so many times how

many times you see him up this way framing off of that arm and then circling away not not doing this the double hands and then going square against the fence so he had a much clearer sense of of that he was moving side to side more often not just just side to side, setting up the stance, which is off the side to side, setting up a lot of the kicks off the side to side. So that was huge. He had this, all this motion, all of the striking game built in his punching was not very good, but it didn't really need to be. He had some success with it, but that range, it can't, it constantly kept Kamara Usman having to reset, having to follow, having to chase and BC. There's two more stats. I want to really want to get to here that I think are important, and you've got three fights to go through,

so you can really see how this evolution changed over time. Namely, in the first fight, Leon Edwards gave up, I think, six takedowns out of 13 in just three rounds. In the second fight, he gave up five of 12 over the course of five rounds. I think there was 10 minutes and some change in the first fight control time. Again, three rounds, 10 minutes and some change in the second fight. In other words, even though the second fight was five rounds, it statistically more or less added up to some of the same kind of effort from Kamaru.

But by the third fight, he went 4-4-15, 4-4-15, and had only five minutes of total control time. His ability to stop the takedown, create separation, get off the fence, use lateral movement. The kicking game was dynamic, and BC won more. This is huge. In the first fight, Leon Edwards landed three leg kicks. In the second fight, he landed 13.

On Saturday at UFC 286, he landed 50. 50 leg kicks. That is so important, not just for adding volume and then slowing Kamaru down, making him hesitant about how he was going to press, but also just it allows Edwards to hit and go. You saw it all the time. Folks, Leon Edwards won this fight by being the better fighter

from the beginning until the end with a couple of different moments for Kamaru in the middle. This is so unlike the rematch, utterly unlike the first fight, and it's because of the growth of Leon Edwards, a most deserving champion in my mind, Brian Campbell. Dude, Leon literally shut down everything Kamaru tried to gain success on and then in most cases sort of doubled down on on on just shutting here's what I mean by this okay it's not just shut down the wrestling or when he was taken down got back up or like you said when the fight lured into the areas that were more advantageous for Kamaru which is pinning Leon back against the fence Leon never got overwhelmed outside of that portion where he was taken down and, you know, Kamara was throwing those quick left hooks as Leon covered up.

And Luke, you mentioned that maybe Leon striking wasn't, you know, great or excellent, but it was formidable. Here's where I thought it was really good. If you go back and watch the beginning of that first round, when you think about it, you've got a Kamara Usman who is trying as hard as he can to reestablish the dominant, to show Leon that I'm the dominant player in this rivalry. I beat you in the first one, and I was beating you in the second one before the mistake happened, before the Hail Mary, as he called it, happened, whether you agree with that framing of it or not.

But as soon as Kamaru comes out hot and getting right in his face at the beginning of rounds, getting right in his face, Luke, to open the introductions of his name, of which you had that moment where Leon puts his hand out, meets him right there and does the headshot dead thing, is look at when Kamaru came out looking to be aggressive with that jab. What did Leon do? Counter the jab with two and three punch combinations right away,

showing Kamaru essentially that you won't bully me, you won't take the lead on me, this fight will not be fought exclusively on your terms. And even though throughout the totality of the five rounds, one thing Kamaru did very effectively was back Leon up with pressure, it was never effective pressure. It was effective at backing Leon up,

but it never turned into sustained offense or damage really outside of one shot here or there. So Luke, I agree with the totality of your terms, which is some element of Usman getting old true. Yeah, sure. Certainly. I mean, that's not the same guy who climbed that ladder and just ragdolled people. There's no question. But we do have to put some slander in the direction here of Usman in terms of strategy and execution. Now, I'm here to tell you that the lack of strategy and execution was largely because of exactly what Leon did. Leon studied this matchup better than Kamaru.

That's why he's won this third fight. I think Kamaru was maybe a little bit too more focused on getting back physically, mentally to where he needed to be. And to his credit, he did that. He was in great shape. He pushed the pace, but Luke, why ultimately outside of just Leon cutting, you know, cutting the angles, you know, responding to his jabs with combinations, shutting down the takedown offense, takedown attempts. Why do you think ultimately Kamaru's attempts were somewhat so telegraphed, basic, and vanilla. What I mean by this is I challenged Kamaru Usman in this third fight to come out and be a little

bit of the Kamaru of old. You could say physically with the toll on the legs and the knees through the years, can he be that same ragdoll wrestler over five rounds on the championship level? When guys age, it becomes harder and harder. But Luke, I didn't see any savvy in the way he looked to set up his takedown defense. I didn't see moments where Kamaru said, okay, this fight is close and these rounds are close. I need to bite down on my gum shield and try to get off combinations. It was largely jab, jab, or one strike at a time. So as much as Leon completely neutralized him, and I think that's why he deserved to have won this fight. How do you make sense ultimately of the strategy that, that Usman and his team had, because it wasn't let's return to the Usman of old and wrestle, wrestle, wrestle. Yes, there was a

certain level of takedown attempts, but didn't they seem very telegraphed against the cage? They were in moments and in ways you would expect. And guess what? Leon was there to shut it down. Look, it was almost as if Kamaru was playing too much of the point fighter game of hoping when they go to the cards that he had done enough to raise his hands I never saw true urgency from him in this fight he was made to do that he was made to do that I know a lot of folks again I'm not saying that Kamaru hasn't lost explosive ability or you know the the passage of time hasn't made him something of a different fighter in terms of risk assessment. I think that's probably true.

Here is what really Leon did. This is the big, for me, when I went back and looked at the footage to see, like, what was his ability to win, like, why was he able to do it? He was able to maintain better range, first of all. Like, all those body kicks right they went through and kind of pushes um kamaru back and he has to kind of you know lunge uh from a range and a distance but the biggest one is this this is for me my number one takeaway kamaru is very heavy on the front foot and he often moves into range back foot first and i know sometimes we look at these things and we think how consequential can they be they can be majorly consequential here's why when you come in front foot first when you move your

back foot first you'll see really good fighters cheat this they do it all the time like Izzy does it even Leon does it at times Leon did it to set up the head kick in the second fight but when you do it all the time when it becomes habitual you get really heavy on your front foot and sometimes it will angle you right in front of your opponent. But the biggest thing is that when you land on the front foot, you are now heavy. It prevents sometimes pivoting, and it brings you to your opponent in an off-balanced way, right? Because you're just so heavy leaning on that front leg.

They took that away from him all the time. Every time he tried to step into range with the footwork where he's coming front foot very heavy, that was when the leg kicks came. That was the angle change came that was when the post and turn came all of it came from that they were able to time and weaponize the way in which kamaru moves into leon as a way to set up all of leon's attacks most substantially kicking attacks um but more than just that movement off of it and kamaru had a hard time closing that distance he had a hard time navigating it so to your point the takedowns

didn't look great because he was made to be further away also i'm going to point out the grip the grip breaking and the grip preventing ability of leon edwards was much better this time because even if he got up against the fence the minute that kamura charged into him what did you notice he do he would hip into it whizzer over fire the underhook or at least do far side wrist control he just had a much better down blocking much better distance management and they timed the forward progression of usman to make it very difficult for him to even begin to set up attacks this is what i mean when folks want to deny leon i'm gonna say i i'm sorry i don't fucking see that at all this guy killed it on saturday i don't say any of this to try to put that you know american shade on leon and you know bc you're you're you

know you're always against the uk fighter sometimes it turns that way and i'm not against i'm just giving you analysis i do think ultimately ultimately this was Leon shutting him down at every turn. And I liked the way you broke that down from a technical standpoint. Do you agree at all with, with sort of my way of looking through what I saw and trying to figure out some other elements to this. We've never seen Kamaru Usman have to come from behind. We've seen him, you know, in this, this is what happens.

I don't, do I think Kamaru Usman is a front runner? No. But when you have a long stretch of dominating people on your own terms that can sometimes become it because you haven't had the necessity to make changes to the second third fourth gear or game plan now look it doesn't mean he hasn't had close fights the first fight with colby was a kickbox you know largely a boxing match back and forth until ultimately one guy broke. Yeah, one guy broke at the end. He broke in jaw and, you know, the referee jumped in. So that might be part of it. But I think ultimately for Kamaru, the worst thing that happened to him, tell me if I'm way off on this, is all the fouling and ultimately the point deduction from Leon. Why? Because it made the fight closer in Kamaru's mind than it necessarily would have

been if he doesn't lose that point. If that third round is, let's say, close enough where you could go either way, and then he goes back to the corner with his coaching team and they may have to give him the same speech Leon's coach gave him before round five of the second fight. Luke may be ultimately the point deduction in this fight being technically contested on fairly close terms turned out to be the wrong result for Kamaru because it never challenged him to find another game plan gear or anything different than I'm going to back you up with my jab and try to land right hands that really never were there. And I'm going to shoot at times but get

stuffed or get raised back up right away because if there's one thing he lacked Luke it was that next level gear urgency is some of that delayed by age maybe but I think the circumstances almost conspired against him because when have you seen Kamaru have to go to another level to pull out a fight it just hasn't been part of his journey. I think, I mean, there might be something to that. I can't say that's a crazy theory. I think that we should talk about the fouling of Leon for a second, because I called it a masterful performance. But for that, I think that that is just without doubt. When you begin to look at the fouling, you know, it changes the picture a little bit. And certainly, I went back and watched the second fight. Kamaru was complaining about fouls there. I mean, we should say something. I'm not even mad at Kamaru,

but I think that some of those fouls were very legitimate. I'm glad that referee Herb Dean took a point in the third round, I believe it was, for the fence grab. That was very blatant, and Leon deserved to have a point taken from him. Fair enough. On the other hand, I'm just not really willing to believe that that is the defining

reason why he won not saying that's what you're saying but just to be put it out there i could it have put him in a mental state where he didn't have to rally and therefore um you know there was nothing making him go to a next next level it could be true i just think he's also out of ideas a little bit right like leon leon who is he the only guy to fight Kamaru three times? I think that he is, right? So he's had several cracks at this in a way where you might like his chances. Imagine if Colby had a third crack at Kamaru. Like you get three cracks at a guy like that,

you're going to be able to switch up enough stuff to be able to really home in on a very, very detailed game plan, a very specific one. And again, at 35, 36 BC, it's like people are like, why didn't Kamaru do this? Why didn't Kamaru do that? Dude, he's at the age he's at. There are some certain limits with that. But on top of it, what was it you wanted him to do that was reasonably within his limits? If every time you're trying to get close to a guy, he's kicking your legs out, pushing you backwards on the move. He's clinch breaking. He's fighting your hands. You can't make grips on him, right? You can't make grips on him. You know, like the other guys just fucking better. I don't, I mean, I don't know why people can't just say that Leon has always been a guy

where he didn't have a dazzling game in the sense that he had, again, prior to the second fight, an array of knockouts, an array of submissions, like this devastating finisher. He's been a guy who could always play the levels. You saw that out here to the nth degree. It was marred by some of the lack of discipline. But the last thing I'd say on that, BC, is come on. Kamaru's a vet, and I ain't mad at him for it but he milked some of those uh fouls some of those were a little bit him you know playing the veteran they benefited leon leon ultimately benefited from it right that to some to some degree luke it shows because like

i almost felt like to some degree leon had to do that there was some element where he had to stand up to the bully because usman, okay, am I saying he had to follow to do that? No, but when you're playing into the idea here is Kamaru tried everything mentally to get in his head, right? Talking down to him throughout the whole build up, trash talking, trying to get in his face multiple times, including at the end of the first and second round, trying to start the round right in his face. A lot of this stuff. I just wonder, look, that was Leon showing back that you're not going to manhandle me mentally or physically. But I do think like I had just broken down that it ultimately led to it feeling like a closer fight maybe than it was for Kamaru.

And look, he just for whatever reason, all reasons combined, Kamaru didn't have that extra gear. He didn't have. I mean, I just wonder when he goes to the scorecards with his hands raised. And again, was a close fight. Could you have given it Usman by one point? There's a way you could have made that math work based on how you watched it. I'm not saying I would recommend that, but I don't want to belabor the idea of what usman didn't do because again i spent most of the reaction show late saturday talking about what leon did do but in a larger sense is aggressive wrestling just not a sustainable style for a mid to late 30s elite mixed martial artist did habib get out at the right time luke although not for that reason do you know what i'm saying because like i asked dc to do things in his early 40s against steepay that apparently just weren't physically possible to to keep that gas tank going for 25 minutes and try to grind people

i mean i i thought leon was somewhat physically fading in the fifth somewhat if you go back and look he's a lot he's a lot more move and stop which he did throughout the first four rounds but he's a lot more like that in the fifth but again i just think that kamaru met his match all the time when you see a dominant figure like this lose everyone wants to go to some kind of explanation to say oh this is why it's different like they lot they were at elevation last time and now they weren't so you know leon somehow has better cardio and car kamaras is always good does this explain the difference? I'm sure it helped. I don't think it explains the difference. The fouling, could that have mentally rattled or somehow changed the game plan of Kamara or certainly his expectations anyway for what was happening? Probably to some extent. I don't think that explains it. In the end,

the simplest explanation is typically the right one, right? Occam's razor. The simple explanation, guys, is on Saturday night, Leon was for the vast majority of that fight fouling notwithstanding much better he was much better and again this is a guy me and you right heading into the fight we're like okay he performed well in the second fight but i just didn't see enough okay now i have seen enough now he has convinced me this was a for me not a doubter or a skeptic of Leon but someone who had some questions about what his true ceiling was yeah boy he made a new spot for that he raised that ceiling and that's where you give him credit and oh by the way Luke although that lightning never struck twice with the head kick I got to give Leon a lot of credit for establishing

the foundation with those jumping knees and how close he came a couple of times for the high kick of that Camaro block that you fuck around, you try to bully me, that's going to be there. So ultimately, you know, why wasn't Usman more urgent in some key areas? Because Edwards established that I'm quicker, I've studied you better,

and I could get you out of here a second time if that happened. So yeah, at the end of the day, shout out to Rocky Luke. On the same weekend that I finally wrapped up this, and I could get you out of here a second time if that happens. So, yeah, at the end of the day, shout out to Rocky, Luke. On the same weekend that I finally wrapped up this Rocky and Creed journey after nine movies, Leon Rocky Edwards, not a one-hit wonder, 31 years old, peak of his prime, your welterweight champion, and now it's time to talk about, Luke, what the hell is next? Well, one last thing on this.

I asked you about the state of the rivalry. Do you remember last week I was like you know in some ways Leon has become like the dominant rival of Kamaru I I I still I definitely feel that I feel that way even more now than I did last week I mean he's got two wins over the guy I guess to your point it doesn't change the reality that Colby was a more um celebrated rival and sort of and groomed for that position. But in the end, it was Leon Edwards who solved the puzzle. Eventually, all the champions get solved. We saw it with Valentina. Like, you're going to get solved.

There's too much. We talked about it last week, right? We should bring it up again. How much tape is there on Kamaru? And if you're Leon, you had basically, because it ended at 50 seconds of the fifth round the second time, you basically had eight rounds of practice heading into this contest. And sometimes that's not enough for people, but it was enough for him.

He really proved himself to be more than a worthy adversary. He proved himself to be the adversary to this point anyway of Kamar Usman's career. And it's a remarkable achievement. All right, BC, let's talk about point number two. Okay. Colby Covington featured quite prominently in this event in a way that none of us had expected. I think someone asked me on my live chat last week, like, where's Colby? And I was like, has anyone seen this fucking guy? And then sure enough, he weighs in the next day. And then BC, this was the interesting part. They had him sitting cage side in addition to weighing in. The cameras were on him as the reactions were not read, but afterwards, like he also played a role in the reaction drama.

And then after the fight was over on the pay-per-view broadcast, they had Colby give his assessment about the fight and what might be next. And, you know, him asserting his place as the rightful contender. And then Dana White basically confirmed it. Although Leon Edwards was like, why on earth would it be Col be Colby BC let me ask you the same question that Leon Edwards asked the world why is Colby Covington getting a title shot uh number one star power let's not forget that he and look am I necessarily supporting this idea no do I understand it have I been talking about it leading up to because I know how this company works? Yes. He has star power. He is a natural villain. Is it an overplayed forced role? Most of the time, yes. But I don't have to teach you marketing when you get a baby face champion in a pro wrestling term, which Leon Rocky Edwards is this inspirational journey overcoming. And you got a guy now who represents this market. And I don't know if you watched Dana White's post fight press conference on Saturday,

but along with him not hearing every question and needing it to be relayed, Luke, every single question was about when are you coming back to the UK reworded, or can you go to this UK city or can you go here? You need the natural villain that can elevate the baby face like Chael Sonnen ultimately did for Anderson Silva, even though that's not the perfect comparison because Silva just, he's in the hall of fame. I mean, he's one of the greatest of all time. He would have probably been anyway,

but when you have a yard barking rival across from you that people want to see get his ass kicked, it's perfect. On top of that, Luke, when you look back at the last eight years of Colby Covington's career, he's lost to only Kamaru Usman twice. One of them very close and actually both very close-ish, right? I mean, both very, very close. I'm not saying he has been busy enough to make this make a lot of sense. I'm not saying he has, you know, Brent Brookhouse, our colleague at CBS Sports,

broke down every Colby fight based on who he was fighting, what their recent record was coming in. You have to go back to 2017, the last time Colby fought a guy who was like coming in on a multiple fight win streak and, you know, had momentum and was looking to climb the ladder of the rankings. To some degree, he was able to be the riser as some of these names were coming down and he beat them in advance. But Luke, if he didn't have his last fight be a pay-per-view main event against Jorge Masvidal, one in which he largely dominated, I would play further into the idea that this is just Dana White privilege. And by the way, Bilal Muhammad actually quote tweeted that

and now deleted it when somebody asked him, why is Colby getting this? And he said, because he's white. I don't lean that far into this, but I do lean into the idea. What's the history of the UFC? Rewarding guys with big names who get a lot of growth, you know, gain a lot of attention through their mouth

and their ability to play that role. This is what this is. And look, if he was coming off defeats or whatever, I mean, like I know he sat out and been extra strategic and I know by default, everybody hates him. And I know this division is getting some real, you know, it's getting heavy. It's getting at the top. It's getting busy at the top. There's a lot of guys who want to see, you know, how soon for shop got all this stuff, but Luke, I get it. I don't think it's a, it's a, uh, it's a, it's a major sort of,

you know, black eye on the marketing or promotional direction. Um, it just doesn't serve ultimately like the idea of the guy next in line. Let's see. Colby sat out, I thought, strategically, and now he's getting the reward for it. And what did he just do? Exactly what the company expects from a company man. Show up last minute on essentially a day's notice, cut 18 pounds, which is what the rumor was in the post-fight press conference, and then make wait for Dana just in case something happens. So, I mean, look, you get it, right? I'm not saying I want this fight next, but you get it.

I'm not sure how much I get it. I'm not sure how much I get it. So, okay, clearly we can say this. The UFC does not appear to be very interested in putting Bilal Muhammad in a title fight. Right? We can say that with strong confidence. They're giving him the Leon Edwards treatment.

True or false? They are giving him the Leon. That's a great way to put it. He's the new one. Right? He's the new one. By the way, reminder, Max Holloway had to go through the Leon Edwards treatment, too. People forget that.

For a little while. Certainly. Certainly. But Max also was able to change his fortunes by getting a series of stoppages in ways that you know uh it's a little bit different but i just i just want to remind folks like two two questions remain for me first one is the obvious one which is the worthiness of it in terms of his resume so here is his resume colby covington his last fight was a was a win over jorge masvidal back in about about a year ago right in march of 2022 he had a loss to kamar before that he had a win over 2022. He had a loss to Kamaru before that. He had a win over Tyrant and then a loss to Kamaru.

Then he had, this was his win streak, Robbie Lawler, Dos Anjos, Demian, Don Kim, Brian Barberino, Max Griffin, Jonathan Meunier, and then before that to Worley Alves. Meaning the only person inside the top 15 he has a win over is number 11, Jorge Masvidal, who is probably on the decline of his career at this point, although certainly we'll see what happens at the next UFC event UFC 287 that's it like the worthiness of his run is utterly manufactured I know some folks like well he you know maybe he doesn't deserve it no no flat out he doesn't deserve it like not there's not an argument from a meritocracy

standpoint on his record he deserves deserves it. The period. The bigger question is the star power one that you raised BC. What is the evidence in your mind that he has? I'm not saying he doesn't have a bigger star profile than below Muhammad. Cause I think he does. He's been in bigger fights in terms of a spectacle and whatnot. He's been on pay-per-view main events. Okay.

How much of that really translates to sales? Okay i have proof here on tickets no but is this not the exact type of athlete that the ufc wants i'm not saying colby covington fights in the same blood and good style that is the quickest way to dana's heart as i often say no but ready willing and able to fight anybody gets the promotional side of it and just did the company job that they asked of him to his way to Dana's heart, as I often say. No, but ready, willing, and able to fight anybody, gets the promotional side of it, and just did the company job that they asked of him to fly to London in that. Again, do I think meritocracy, this is the right move? No, I don't think this though is some monster outcry. It's not cool for Bilal Muhammad, but Luke, when you look at Muhammad's run, I mean, it's not his fault that no contest with Leon happened. And that would

have been one of those sort of key critical wins against a highly ranked guy that you sort of need to get out of that doghouse at times when you're not overly marketable. But this is what they do, dude. I mean, are you surprised that Connor's talking about if I beat Chandler, I'm I want a welterweight title shot and everybody's like, yeah, it's inevitable. So why not? Yeah, but Conor has proof that he can pull on pay-per-view. Okay, but to the metrics that the company likes, doesn't Colby check every one of those boxes with the exception of regularly fighting a blood and gut style, which he did show against Kamaru in the first fight

that he is willing to do? Since when did Colby Covington's fight style become a thing that people liked? I'm only asking you from the standpoint of does he check the boxes that the company prefers and wants? He's a better self-promoter than Bilal, and he'll be much more antagonistic towards Leon, even though Leon and Bilal had a previous fight and it went nowhere. Which will make Leon a bigger baby face in his home country. That's the point of this.

That's why. Yeah, but I just don't believe that Colby is, I don't believe that the difference between Bilal and Colby is so big. I do believe there's a difference, but I personally, it doesn't matter of course, I personally don't believe it's so big that it matters

looking past what Bilal has done in favor of Colby. I actually don't. If there was a really clear difference in star power, like a major one that we could detect, fine. And maybe they have internal metrics to that to support that. But from the external metrics, it just seems like, yeah, he's better. He's bigger as a star, but not like by a ginormous amount.

And he has no claim to this title shot whatsoever also here's my question back to you he has been ranked in the top three for like five years uh there is some level of claim look i'm not a colby guy but when his only losses in eight years are to kamaru in two close fights it and he is coming off a pay-per-view main event win i'm just saying luke it's hard to frame this as insanely egregious white power right privilege all that yeah yeah i'm not saying, Luke, it's hard to frame this as insanely egregious. White power, white privilege, all that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not saying any of that. I don't think it's, I don't, I don't, yeah, I don't buy into any of that.

I think Bilal was frustrated. But yes, I don't think that plays a role. I think, I will say that, you know, Colby doing the Trump Supporting Act probably helps a little bit. But even then, I don't really think that's really what it's got to do with. But it's, I mean, I want to be clear. This is, Colby Covington has zero claim to this title other than he was just gifted one for, I guess, doing the UFC a favor. And there doesn't appear to be anything more to it than that. That's really the story. Also, I've seen some of the odds floating around.

There's nothing official yet. And by the way, Leon could decline the fight, in which i wonder what happens there he kind of indicated he would he was like i get to decide we'll see what happens no look i love that idea but at this point i mean they've taken belts off of people for less okay i'm not saying that he's in line of getting stripped if he doesn't take this fight but you saw what happened to nico montana you saw what happened to jermaine duran to me, they'll do that shit to you. They will. Although I don't think they want to do that to their most, I would argue, their best British champion ever.

I mean, that's what Leon Edwards is, right? Well, they'll solve this with money, Luke. They'll solve it with money. That's another one they could do. That's certainly another way they could go. Anyway, what do you do with Bilal Muhammad now? They're talking about having him fight Shafqat. Can you imagine being Bilal Muhammad where you've beaten all these fucking guys and then they're

like you're coming off the Sean Brady win his best win in terms of how he looked and how prepared he was right finishing off a guy was with the way that he did with strikes unbelievable and they're like your reward is not a title shot even though your claim to it is pretty good your reward is gonna be Shafqat Rachmanov I mean you got to be like if you're Balal like what the fuck bro yeah so Balal's winless in 10 I'm sorry he's he's got a he's got an unbeaten streak going of 10 fights and when your last four wins over Sean Brady Vicente Luque Wonderboy Thompson and Demian Maia like know, there's some element of claim there. Is there enough though? Prime in the moment, top five wins that could trump everything else.

Colby has, has going for him. And I'm not saying Colby has a bunch of active wins over top five guys. Colby again, fought. It turned out that he, that he strategically fought guys that were going in that direction as he was coming up. Tyron Woodley fight is another example of that, which is his, you know, his last big win outside of the Masvidal one. But is this claim enough, Luke, the 10 win fight, Lin win the streak, those four strong names in a row? Is the Sean Brady, what was Sean Brady ranked at the moment?

Like, I know I'm playing, you know, huge, almost dick role of devil's advocate here. But I guess I just understand promotion luke and and if bulal had beaten sean brady was a great level and he got past it by stoppage to your point like it was a breakthrough win but has he beaten a top five guy which is normally if you're not knocking on the door because of commercialism and marketing if you're not knocking on the door because you're somebody like hamza who's just you know destroying everybody you sometimes need that top five win to get entry he has not had that yet correct I mean where was Wonderboy at that at the point of that fight I don't know where he was at that time he currently sits at seven Bilal at uh four Bilal has beaten number seven Jeff Thompson number nine

Sean Brady number 10 Vicente Luque um so you, all three of his most recent wins are better than Colby's last win. For sure. But is there enough argument in there to trump what the company perceives that Colby brings? That's really it. Because, Luke, if they make it, it's a big event in the UK just because it's Leon. But, I mean, I get it. I get it. I mean, I get it. I get it. I mean, I hate that.

I hate that ball's got to go through this journey. I wish, I wish they would remember the name, Luke. I wish the meritocracy would angle in there more, but let me ask you, I've seen some of the odds have Leon as a slight underdog. Again, these are betting odds. I got to tell you this again, this notion that Leon like underperformed on Saturday, I find completely baffling. It's the best performance of his career.

The last minute of the second fight, notwithstanding, it's just shocking that people are saying this to me. So we don't tend to over inflate the, the early overseas odds. This is what we're talking about, right? We all get those, but Luke, according to that plus one 10 Leon Edwards, minus 130 Colby Covington. Even if you're looking at this from the standpoint of, well, that's an older Kamaru Usman was coming off a, you know, being knocked out cold, which I think would be largely wrong to lean in that level. A lot of times these odds makers are smarter than we are, Luke, or it's an element of I need to induce betting in this direction. What is it with this line?

Because I get the in-theory idea of Covington's going to spam takedowns more than what we saw to Usman really in fights two and three, even though he had more success taking down Edwards in fight two. But, you know, is Colby a threat on the feet to Leon? No. Not even a little. And if Leon just stuffed Usman to that level, I mean, I know it's only plus 110 for the champion as the underdog.

It's not, you know. This is what I mean. It's like, well, Colby could do something that Leon, or excuse me, that Kamaru can't. Okay, well, they're not the same fighter, and I certainly grant that there is... By the way, Colby a little bit more willing to attack the back than Kamaru has been.

I think that is a noteworthy difference. Fair enough. That could end up playing a role. But, like, dude, what the fuck are people talking about in terms of, like, thinking Colby is, like, going to fix the things that come up. Colby's 35 years old.

Kamaru is 35 years old. Colby's last relevant win is Jorge Masvidal. The other guys aren't even in the fucking UFC, the vast majority of them. What on earth gives people confidence that that guy has like the missing, not to say he couldn't be competitive or win, because I'm not even saying that. He could be competitive. He could win.

But that like he's the antidote to what Kamaru could. Is he younger? No. Is he a better version of Kamaru? No. Like does he have like radically different takedowns than Kamaru? No. It's a bad look.

I don't understand what people are fucking looking at here. And Leon's also a big welterweight. I mean, see, you know what I mean? Right. Did you see what kind of shape he was in? Dude, he looked like he was in tremendous condition.zilla uh let me let me ask you this one thing i know that we don't take the ufc rankings as like life and death why because the ufc can often flip the middle finger at their own rankings and just say oh no guy number nine guy is going to

fight for the title because we want him to but i think the biggest problem fundamentally with the ufc ranking system is that whenever somebody loses a title fight, they are then automatically installed as the number one contender. When in reality, sometimes, yes, you build up a run winning three, four, five fights in a row and you become a number one contender. But then when you lose, and in a lot of cases, when you lose dominantly, the reality is, especially in a busy division, you should be put back at four or five, six in a ranking based on the situation. Both times Colby fought Usman and he lost close. So in this case, maybe that's not it.

But just the fact that they automatically made Colby the number one contender after each time he lost to Usman and then he's not being active. And again, then he's coming off a win over Jorge. It is hard for the company under their own preset rules to then push him back in the rankings and try to make you know try to make room for Bilal so partially the system is flawed partially you understand what the like Luke from the promotional standpoint they probably believe Leon should win this fight so you're using Colby to get Leon to the next level and And, and then you find out there and look,

if Bilal has, well, he's got to climb another mountain and that mountain may be shop cut. And that's asking a lot of him. But if he does that Luke, and I'm sorry, his unbeaten streak currently is at nine. If he extends that to 10,

which is where Leon was coming into his first title fight. Finally, there will be no holding him back. I love me some Bilal Muhammad. Look, he's, I mean, you know look he's i mean you know he's got great chesticles i mean really the guy his pecs are yeah amazing bc here's a

little uh here's a little uh the data point for you so in title fights we're talking about the overall record in title fights of uh fighters 35 years or of age or older between flyweight and welterweight so we're not talking about middleweight and up so 125 35 45 55 70 okay what do you there's 30 fights to talk we're talking about we're talking about the record of the guys who meet that right so over 35 between flyweight and welterweight what do you think their their uh record is in 30 total fights. Under 500 by a good degree. You're right. How about two and 28? Two and 28.

Two and 28. Colby's 35. He'll be probably close to 36 by the time they make this fucking fight happen. Tell me why he's the antidote again to a guy who just shut down Kamaru Usman for four and 15 get the what the fuck unless it's an idea of of let's induce bets for for leon to even this right exactly that that explanation i get i get that completely but uh other than that i just don't what do you think again he's a threat i'm not saying he's not a threat but like like he's the guy like here's

the problem though if you are of the belief that ball's getting screwed here and that this is all about ufc just keeping their favorite guys alive here with colby getting the shot and dana was like unequivocally colby is next um luke not that this should necessarily matter but if you already hate colby he hasn't updated the shtick at all and that's kind of pissing me off not that i'm saying he has to come off with like desantis 2024 t-shirts and completely change it but it it might it might be timed. I mean, it's certainly time to drop the stick. I'm okay. If the trash talking is real and smart and well angled,

but as much as Colby became a student of the great Dan Lambert on how to become a pro wrestling heel, I don't feel like he's ever added to those teachings and boy, is it cringe? I mean, the closeup he got this weekend those teachings. And boy, is it cringe. I mean, the closeup he got this weekend of the interviews he did, it's like, damn, can we get a, can we get a strategist, a strategist in his corner, Luke, and help him figure out a new angle here on how to be this villainous trash talking character, because it's pretty not, not, you know, it's pretty vanilla right now. It is. It's coming to a close. It's coming. He's 35. He's got a few big

fights left and that's probably about it. So we'll see. All right, BC. Speaking of big fights, let's talk about this one. How about that co-main event? Man, can you imagine if that thing was five rounds? I don't know how much longer it would have gone past three, but the three we got were incredible. How about Justin Gaethje, ladies and gentlemen? What a performance by him.

Because, BC, a lot of the things that we had expected from fazeev were true how about the uppercuts well actually from gaethje we call those but how about this did i not call explicitly and you heard him talk about on the broadcast the speed of fazeev dude he was wheeling and dealing through certainly the first round good portions of the second but justin gaethje absolutely storming back in the third. Second round was close enough. He gets the nod in the end, although that was pretty close too. BC, how was he able to do it?

What did Justin Gaethje do to get this win? And what does this win mean? We'll start first with the title picture at 155. Well, quickly, he weathered the storm of that first round when the speed difference and really the technique, the technical difference was, was on high alert because it is hard to match Fazeev when he's, when he's fresh coming out of the gate. I mean, those, those, I mean, he would dart in for those, you know, body kicks and just get the hell out of there after landing a big pop. But I really felt Gaethje made an adjustment in the second round to shorten up his punches, not wing them as much as, as look, he was throwing in the first round, Luke,

the kind of hooks he throws when it's two-way, mano-a-mano battle. I thought he made some very slight adjustments in the second round. And then ultimately it became a lot of what the commentary was talking about, the fact that Gaethje wasn't going anywhere. And he got rocked at certain points in the first round and early in the second by Fazeeb, where that was certainly in play because, you know, look at Fazeeb's run of knockouts of late. But I thought Gaethje really figured out how to fight him at close terms, get off his power shots, add a little bit of craft and wrinkle to it.

And he lured Fazeeb into an area where it basically was like, if you're going to knock me out, you're going to have to stand in the trenches with me, like Eddie Alvarez and Dustin Poirier did, and be willing to. And, you know, that's not the best use of Fazeev's game, even though he can dart inside on you and land big strikes. And, you know, he wore obviously a lot of that in return, but I think Fazeev needed this to kind of, you know, to kind of level out at this moment of the things he needs to add and work on. A lot of people are going to get blown away by first round Fazeev, even at this elite level elite level he's that good but Justin Gaethje was was grittier and and and you know as much as I you know I I wrongly just like I wrongly framed that

Poirier would show up old in that Chandler fight I wrongly framed that we'd see a Gaethje that would return to more of that caveman style and go away from some of the changes that made him super elite for a season. No, he leaned back into those Luke. And there was enough of the threat of the take. I gave us the obligatory takedown attempt, and then he scored the, the one finally at the close of the third round. But I like that. He said, he's not going to be here for a long time. He's 34. He's taken an ungodly amount of risk and damage. But in this short window, Luke, he absolutely still is a viable lightweight contender. But it's not like Fazeev's trying to take him down, Luke. And when does Gaethje come up empty at the super elite level? His lack of a jiu-jitsu grappling submission game there.

And his lack of his use of his own wrestling game. So this was the ticket that showed us he's still here, he's still in this, and he's certainly got a big enough name and experience where if he gets a call at any point, whether it be one more fight for the title, or he's still in that spot where he could get a call at any point, he's got a chance here, Luke, to still live out the dream. But I think he's still got to go back into the workshop and try to work on some things. And I think we're seeing more and more, Luke, when people dedicate themselves,

like if you're not known, let's say, for stopping takedowns, and then you dedicate yourself to it, you can make quick growths and quick evolutions. You know what I mean? Like not everybody, not every circumstance, but this was ultimately matchup dependent, I think, where he was able to pull it out against such a guy so dangerous. But he deserves to still be in this title picture,

and I'm happy because he is, along with Dustin, who's still lingering, these are the last of the Mohicans on this incredible class of lightweights that stormed through and made some of the best fights we've ever seen and made just such great rivalries. They're all going into legend old guy mode now. Gaethje's probably the last guy along with poor a who still got one more shot at this yeah i mean these guys are not going to go away quietly it tells you the the the strength of this class of lightweights is so formidable that even a

guy like fazeev who was poised to do well and did do well for long stretches couldn't keep it up enough in the end what a special group of lightweights, of which Gaethje is a part. But again, the guys that have been in his era are some of the best you'll ever see. So I want to make a moment historically like that class of lightweights. Exceptional. I thought this was so impressive from Justin Gaethje.

To me, one of the big keys to him doing it was the jab. The jab, it made Fazeev more hittable and it slowed him down at the same time right because if he's constantly kicking and going away there's not much you can do but as he moves you can pump that jab in there in front of him it's disruptive to him he had a longer reach he was actually using it i thought more effectively finally and he was really able to find and slow down fazeev over time and then how about those uppercuts, dude? Did we not call the uppercuts of Justin Gaethje to a T on Wednesday and last Friday?

You saw those play out massively in the third round. So this is what I love about that finish. It wasn't just that he had to endure getting rocked, which he did, and tremendous pain, which I'm sure he did. Dude, he had a strategic answer. Like, we go back to the main event, what was missing? Komaru didn't have an answer for it. Justin Gaethje did. Justin Gaethje did have an answer for like, what's another way in which I can approach this problem

in terms of diagnosing it and then having a problem solving solution ready to go. He did. He did that. He did at age 34, probably. Well, I guess by the way it was judged, it wasn't down on the cards, but you know, he didn't know going into round three that he might've been down on the cards to, Oh, right. He had no clue. And so that was to me, dude, so impressive from Justin Gaethje, the old one who fought Alvarez and Poirier, he would have just kept lunging forward or something like he would not have had the same thoughtful response. So what I love about Justin Gaethje is, dude, if he wants to be a barbarian, trust me, I don't even need to tell anyone out there,

you know he has that gear in him at all times. But BC, here he didn't let up off the violence. Look at the face of Fazeev by the time the fight was over. But he out-thought him. That is what I love. Still out-thinking opponents, coming up with the right solutions, and having a little bit of that dog in him, which everyone talks about, to bring it to life, to take the fight to Fazeev, no matter what those guys were throwing at each other. Man, I have so much respect for this win by Justin Gaethje. Earned it absolutely.

I would argue one of the hardest ways to earn that fight, the win, was the way he did it. And he did. Age 34, extremely impressive. He's also a special guy who's able to weather that storm of Fazeev of that very high pace and the violence in there. And Fazeev learned that when he slows down, you know, inevitably due to, you know, fatigue and damage against a guy this good, there is a difference between Fazeev in the first three, four minutes of the fight and rounds two and three of a hotly contested fight

against an elite guy who won't go anywhere. So I think there's still a lot that Fazeev can add from this, you know, technically, certainly mentally and evolve from this and you know technically certain mentally and evolve from this and and continue to work on that gas tank too but um yeah i mean that's a mature that's a mature ass veteran win from him and it was really great to see after i you know after both of us sort of softly counted them out right sort of said i mean i thought i you know you thought he could win but you didn't think he'd win by just kind of dummying fazeev in the third i that one

was like wow man he really had something for him here in a way that that part i i just didn't expect that i really did talk about your boy paul sutherland who gave a 10-8 round for for uh gaethje and rob three which didn't make sense but it made it a 28-28 scorecard to make it a majority decision. And look, that's after blowing the Deleuze-Vittori one kind of by going 30-27 Vittori and then scoring at 30-27 for the guy that lost badly against Chris Duncan and Omar Morales in that early fight. Yeah, 30-27 Morales, yeah. Wow, dude.

Thief for Sutherland over here. Who is this guy? The next Doug C crosby what's going on here yeah those were some strange scorecards i would not use that gentleman again if i could i'm not here to like do one of these bits we're like these judges are the worst people he seems like an inexperienced judge it's not a very good one and looks to me like he needs a little bit more work so you know i'll leave it at that. But in the end, you know, the right people won. There's not like somebody who really has a strong case otherwise.

But yeah, his scoring awful. By the way, one thing on Fazeev, he clearly looked faster, right? That part was true. I was a little bit surprised at how much smaller he looked than Gaethje. Yeah. Do you think he can make 145 or am I being crazy? I mean, if he could, Luke, this is a, it'd be an interesting, it's been interesting idea to throw into the, into Dr. Frankenstein's lab here and figure this out.

He could come out dynamically dangerous, but you got, you know, he's, he's already jacked and cut a shit, Luke. So I don't know about that. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I'm asking a lot. I recognize that, but it was just kind of interesting. Like, I do think I had not –

I did not realize the difference was as big as it was. And I do think in the end that played a little bit of a role. Justin's sturdiness and then his own power punching, it looked like Fazeev's kicks can drop a horse. But it looks like his punches sometimes can be great. Sometimes – and they were hurting Justin too, but they were not quite enough to get him out of there. And to me, like some of Justin's punches wore on him quite heavily. Yeah.

But, you know, either way, it wasn't like Zeeves performed poorly. He just, he met a veteran who had a great call in the third and part of the second two. And he got beat. He got beat by a better guy that night. Simple as that. So the new class of 155ers with the Z's and the he got beat he got beat by a better guy that night simple as that so the the new class of 155ers with the z's and the v's in their name they're still coming bc but it's a it's a tough road to to push that poirier gaethje ferguson habib that whole class it's gonna be

tough to get them out of there very easily yeah luke what movie uh that horse is a diabetic i don't remember come on look half baked come on oh yeah i haven't seen half baked in a while and then you know i was half baked when i saw it so there you go all right bc let's talk about this one because i know this one's going to rub you the wrong way marvin vittori so marvin vittori edges, and I do mean edges. Roman DeLizze, he gets back in the win calm again. Some of the scores were whatever, but okay, he gets the win. BC, did Vittori reassert himself in the middleweight division with this win? Yes and no. Vittori's well-rounded nature of his game, it's what won him this game against a guy who was a little bit more raw, a guy who had huge power in the first round and was hulking,

but a guy who started to slow down in his biggest fight to date, Roman Deleuze, stepping up a fair level of competition after a spectacular 2022. Vittori used some of those veteran skills. I mean, look, he is, you know, we know the shape he comes in. We know the incredible chin he has, but we always talk about it. He's, he's pretty well-rounded, unfortunately, on like a warning track level across the board. So he, after that first round, when he got, you know, his nose bloodied and he got, he got marked up and banged up a little bit, he made some very

nice adjustments to, to really start to expose the, some of that rawness in Roman Deleuze and pull out a decision that knee jerk, I didn't agree with. I thoughtess and Roman Deleuze and pull out a decision that knee jerk I didn't agree with I thought 29 28 Deleuze was a little bit better that last round could have gone either way uh and had they both had some big moments there but certainly a score you could get yourself to in a close competitive fight didn't love 30 27 from Paul Sutherland but that's another topic but Luke I don't know if't know if he's still figured out the identity crisis of how do you beat the very elites when you're not a finishing threat in any one category.

Great call. Great call. Sorry, go ahead. That's it. That's the analysis right there, Luke. When I put the bits and bits in the cupboard, sometimes I'm credible. Sometimes I'm not. No, no. I think you nailed it, BC. I really do. Here's the difference, BC. In the end,

this is why... Tell me if you think this is a good explanation for why Vittori won. And this isn't obviously the sum total of something. It's kind of what it represents but vittori landed 106 significant strikes the leads age of 71 on a basic level on a basic level vittori was just busier busier with the jab and just kind of pressing the action a little bit more at a time to be like okay but he did it was this accumulative work that he was able to get so i appreciate that he was able to do that especially against a very hard hitting theitting Deleuze. He rocked him a couple of times. But Vittori is tough, dude.

He's physical. He's a big guy, and I think he fits really well at 185. And he really wants to win. He doesn't run from tough challenges. And I will also say this was his first camp in a new camp. He's got Extreme Couture now. He's previously had Kings MMA. It's going to take a little while for that to really for the dividends of the camp switch to really show up it doesn't always happen automatically sometimes it can take two or

three of those trainers there is it eric so no i didn't see nissic there i saw dewey uh dewey cooper was there dewey cooper was in his corner and some other guys i can't remember off the top of my head but i did see dewey cooper there, who's a phenomenal coach, right? He's a great coach. So it takes some time to get there, but the same concerns I think I still have. I appreciated the grittiness and the willingness of Vittori to just kind of keep poking when he had to, and that was the difference. But did I see anything there that leads me to believe he's still on a path to claim a title by having the technical development that he needs no i did not see that now he's still young 28 or so he's still got time he's still got plenty of time uh i'll look up his age here to be sure just you just don't want him

to take too much you know to let the grind and take too much damage because he does have a great chin and against the very elite that's how he's been able to push them distances, Luke, to be in those fights, you know, ultimately one-sided, but I don't know what the answer is. Is the answer retooling his striking to land more damage, Luke? Is it leaning into the idea that he's in incredible shape and he's hugely motivated? Should he be more about a high volume striker and try to win rounds that way? Should it be more about the wrestling? I'm not sure what it is, but that version of him is still not going to beat the very elite unless it's a a matchup specific one you know like you talked about before what about him against poet on if that ever happened does he have an idea you know is there a lane in there where he can make that fight tougher

you know maybe but uh good win to it survive in advance deliz who's older, has a smaller window. By the way, Vittori, 29. Yeah, and Vittori, and Delidze, 34. Luke, and I thought he lost the second round because he faded a bit after the pace he pushed in that first round. I did like, Luke, that he bit down and came after it around the third, but this fight was supposed to

tell us exactly whether he's ready to parachute into the top group. Not ready yet, but is there still time? What would you do with a raw, dangerous package like Roman Deleuze to try to maximize it? For Roman, it looked to me like distance closing was a bit of a problem. When he can close the distance or when guys crash into him because they don't have nimble footwork or they're –

Vittori is surprisingly good at maintaining range and kind of staying out of trouble for the most part when guys can do that with him it looked like to me like he just didn't have a lot of answers he was kind of winging punches and it was a bit of a problem for him and so vittoria was smart by slowing the fight down that way again dude vittoria fought a good fight he just didn't fight the kind of fight that i thought would give me the inspiration to say oh he, he can absolutely contend for a title in 2023. I didn't see that. So, Deleuze just needs to work, I think, a little bit more on setting up from 50-50, right? Like, where are we here? How do I get in? How do I make that work? Because obviously, he's got a big punch.

He's dynamic as a finisher. He attacks the ground huge ground and pound that's a great way for him it's just that distance closing bit of a challenge for him bit of a challenge yeah all right we see we wrap up all things on UFC 286 with the following point number five tell me anyone else anyone else at UFC 286 who in your mind took a noticeable step up or a noticeable step down? Jack Shore had a nice comeback win in the new division at Featherweight there against Makwan Amirakani. And I think he challenged Ariel Hawane to a darts match afterwards here, Luke, but I'm really focusing in on the development.

Coming off of the loss to Ricky Simone, not as bad of a weight cut for him. Second round submission via rare naked choke should we get back on the jack shore hype train because i liked what i saw there out of the uh is he a welshman luke is that the truth jack shore i believe is a welshman yes yeah so so you know i've been adopted by them so i i see something in him um uh do you do you like him as a featherweight now um i didn't get a great read about that in beating amir khani i don't know how much that tells me it's a nice win get back in the win column like i'm not bashing it but it's like what does that mean for his future at 145 beating my uh amir khani in 2023 doesn't tell us much um so i i if you're asking me do i have like a high degree of confidence in his abilities?

Yes, I think he's very talented. But let's see. Let's see is sort of my answer there. I think I can win OK Bet if I focus all my picks in the future on the UFC's women's strawweight and flyweight divisions look because I do have an A-line. Yeah, you might because I actually was going to say my answer was Jennifer Maya beating Casey O'Neal. Dude, Jennifer Maya on the feet just looked way better. Yeah. Just way better.

She had better movement, better accuracy. She was getting off first. She was hitting in combination. She was getting off first and then getting off at angles. Like O'Neal, I still have, it's not like I think O'Neal's some kind of got terrible future or is a bad fighter. No, none of that.

She just ran into someone that night who you could tell, BC, do I think Maya's the best fighter in that weight class? No, I don't think she's the best fighter in that weight class. But she is clearly experienced. You can tell this is a fighter who's had some good fights, had some bad ones, had some tough competition, had some easy ones. Like, just done a lot of stuff in her career,

knows how to build her own game plan, had a great one for this contest, and executed it. And executed it over the full distance. No problems. I was very impressed by my, I thought that was one of your better picks of the card in general or the okay bet segment. And she looked great.

She looked great. I think she struggles at time with fighters who have a quick, accurate and plentiful jab, you know, and, and Caitlin Chukagian, who she's lost to twice, gave her a lot of problems with the footwork and sort of setting up strikes. And, you know, we've seen her lose to Valentina. We've seen her lose at the high level before. But she didn't even rely on her ground game, Luke, which can be a strong suit. And we saw her certainly challenge Shevchenko with that. She's 34 years old right now. She's she's proved in this fight that she's still she's still alive in this game.

And it was the improvement of her boxing and head movement. You said, in learning how to make the right hand a weapon, I thought a few times she gave Casey O'Neal pause in trying to rush forward and be the aggressive King Casey that she's known for. But this was the first fight after a long layoff and a serious injury for O'Neal. Didn't fight awful, take the loss, advance, learn from it. But yeah, big win for Jennifer Maya there. And Luke, on the same lane of talking, I don't know if Muhammad Makaev is ever going to walk again, but he's a flyweight future title challenger without question at age 22. You in with this on me? Not yet.

Not yet. And again, that's not a no. Because if I was really down, I'd be like, no. So not yet. He clearly has a lot of ability. He gets the finish here. That was really nice. Again, you thought he was going to win.

I thought he was going to win. You thought he was going to not go the distance. Same here. We were very much in sync with that. But he's so young. He's still got some control issues. There's just a lot of pieces of his game that in some ways are developed. But you see, I was talking to this with someone else else the thing with mokaev and me it's because

he is so young it almost feels like one of the like like a really talented kids at uh at the adult class where like he does have a lot of the skills and maybe more so than some of these other ones but almost feels like he quite can't he he can't quite, excuse me, physically impose them with the same thing because like he's 16 and the people in the kids' class or the men's class are like 25. You know what I'm saying? Like he's got a lot of the skills, but he seems to not be able to like physically impose them

in the way that maybe he might be able to at age 26, 27 when he's a full-grown man strength. Not a finished product. That's my one thing. Was in huge trouble there with that knee bar, but his ability to turn that around, Luke, and get the win. Damn, it's an interesting fighter right there. I'm looking in.

And, Luke, a lot of people want to see him go up against somebody who had a big win on this card, local product. Jake Hadley had that first-round knockout of Malcolm Gordon. Were you moved by the long-term potential there of that U.K. bloke? That was one of the fights I was not able to see, so I'm going to chamber that round and wait until I see what the fight looks like. Keep it in the chamber pot, Luke, okay? In the old chamber pot.

Also, Luke, can we also shout out Team Hardy? Because that was after three years off for old Veronica veronica maicedo now turned hardy wife of dan against killer miller dude that was a it was a gutsy win man it's a gutsy ass win from over on there the thing is 27 years old and i picked miller to win and i was now i'm like really regretting it on tape man her movement looked really like she just hadn't had a whole lot of time training striking on the ground we talked about her ground game. She has the win over Mosquita in EBI rules. And I was like, okay, well, then she'll just be able to do that.

Nope, nope, couldn't get it done. Not at all. So great win. I think Miller got popped early and never recovered, Luke. And she tried hard to challenge on the ground and make some things happen. And she did land some good combinations at times. But the technique of Hardy was just to another level. And again, considering three years off,

interesting long-term player in this division if she can stack some wins together and continue to grow, Luke. Because she's got a great ground game. You know, she's a student of the game. And also, she has more, she had much more experience than Miller too, which is something I should have more readily recognized.

You know, you win some, you lose some. But yeah, that was a good win by her for sure. So congratulations to Team Hardy on that one. All right, BC. It is time for no longer you and me to ask each other questions. It's time for the donks. We put up social posts every Sunday. People fill them up.

The producers pick them. It's time for your old DMs from the diggity donks. Let's do it. Which member of the Malka staff made those sound effects, do you think? Ashley. All right, here we go. I was going to say, were they in the bathroom when they did, Luke? But no, that changed the equation.

Sorry, Ashley. All right, BC, first question from at Amy Cusol. However the fuck you say that. BC, what did Luke make of BC's brilliant end to the post-fight reaction for UFC 286? So what am I missing? I did not see. I saw the first five minutes of your reaction, not the last five. What happened?

Well, I tried to keep the train on the tracks throughout the show, Luke, the show luke because i'm trying to be you you know i mean i look up to you luke no one does better than you and you know and i tried to keep the the skits and bits on the down low but i you know it fell off the tracks down the stretch and i was i think i said that you know luke will be back on monday but knowing him you know you'll probably see him post something on his personal channel you know and he will be back on Monday, but knowing him, you know, you'll probably see him post something on his personal channel, you know, and he'll probably charge you for it. But Luke, now I'm charging people for it. I'm about to say, you really just mocked me for my live chat.

And then you turned into a cameo whore. You really have no fucking ground to stand on. It's not my fault though. My buddy, Lupe Contreras, you know, Lupe, Luke, but great boxing announcer, MMA announcer as well with Combate. He was like, Hey man, I think you'd be good on this and you know i like i like connecting with our people luke so cameo.com slash brian campbell uh you know it's a good deal especially if you're used to paying super chat prices but luke um you know that was me filling in there for you on the old mma breakdowns you can take that job back i mean it's not easy all right very good all right

bc at it's not cage fighting assuming he gets Very good. All right, BC, at It's Not Cage Fighting, assuming he gets the Leon fight, where would Colby rank among the most undeserved title shots in UFC history? Now, that's a great question. All right. What is the shortlist poll? Is it Dan Henderson at UFC 204? Is that the first reference?

That's a big one. You could even do Couture going up against Sylvia, right? Because remember, Couture gets knocked out at light heavyweight, retires, takes, I don't know how long off it was, maybe a year or two. I can't remember. I can go double check. But there's a time off where he's like done. He's like, I'm going to come out of retirement.

I want to fight at heavyweight. And UFC's like, fuck it. You can be in a title fight. That one. Weren't they secretly trying to get him like knocked out because they were always at odds with him business-wise there could have been that it ended up blowing up in their fucking face if they thought that but um that's a big one there's been there's been some several ones but uh how about um how about this how about jose aldo after the split decision lost

to marlon marais which i don't think was robbery. I thought Marais did enough in the close fight for him to then get a title shot in his next fight. Did not love that. And how about Holly Holm, fresh off of losses to Misha Tate for the title and Valentina Shevchenko got the inaugural featherweight title opportunity against Jermaine Durandamy

when Cyborg couldn't make it. I didn't love that either. Yeah, so he's it's hard to say because he's not coming off of a loss he's coming off of a win and his last win is over a ranked contender so it wouldn't be as bad as some of those but it's still not great it's still not great dude i i don't know how i turned into colby supporter here because i i do remember the name but his only losses in eight years are to kamaru usman as champion in very close fights can we not like that is a part of it right like come on so we're gonna give him a title

shot because he lost well like dude it's who you fucking beat it's supposed to be like for example for example canelo has a mandatory coming up against john rider now uh i don't know what belt that's for but whatever sanctioning body all four super middleweight world titles yeah but one you're right one of the sanctioning bodies made him the mandatory right and so he got that in theory that mandatory status because he had to beat enough guys to get there yes like colby just is not the mandatory fucking challenger here like not not not not not not not not not at all not not not yeah all right uh bc from at keith underscore hickey underscore 90 looking back do you think usman moving to work

with whitman actually had a negative effect on its style no denying whitman is one of the best coaches in the business but does it highlight just how important it is to find a coach that meshes with your style? Okay, I want to jump on this. I got to tell you, BC, I don't buy this reasoning at all. I saw a lot of people saying, man, shout out to Henry Hooft, who made Usman a dominant champion.

I think Trevor Whitman allowed Usman, and let's be fair, was it the timing because he was supposed to be fighting Gilbert Burns and they were teammates, so he got a new new trainer for that or was that before that look I'm trying to think of the timing of when Trevor Whitman came into his life it was during something like that I can't remember anymore but in general did Trevor Whitman elevate help help elevate Usman's game especially rounding out some parts of his striking that allowed him to ultimately become the pound for pound king the answer is yes

but similar to the question i asked you about can you actually sustain a wrestling heavy style in a weight class like this in your mid to late 30s did he go away from some of the elements that made him consistently great and dominant yeah yeah lu, um, Mikey jumping in Mikey, our producer, Mike Mormyle saying Trevor Whitman made Kamaru too confident in his striking. That might actually be it. Luke, that might be it. You know what I mean? Like, did he abandon wrestling? No. But again, Luke, I thought there was, I didn't, there was no like variety to his takedown attempts here in this fight. It was very much like, I'm going to back you up into the cage and then shoot it instantly,

shoot a double leg and try to just drag you down. I'm not saying that doesn't work in key, in key parts, but where's the using the striking to set up the takedown threat that wasn't there. We've been, we've been over this. We've been over, we've been over we've been over this he tried 15 times dude he tried 15 fucking times um i i just don't think people are really giving leon no credit he deserves but it's more than just stuffing them if i can destabilize the conditions before they begin there is no takedown really available or there's a shitty setup that you can try and grasp for. I think that's what folks are missing. Yes, the takedown defense was nice. It was very good, but it's more than that. It's more than I'm not even going to give you conditions

where you typically shoot from because I know what they are and I'm just going to take those away. Like you do that. It makes it fucking hard. Now to that point, to that point where Colby might be more interesting as Colby might be like look i'm really not going to strike with this guy at all i'm just going to go balls out bonanza wrestle wrestle wrestle wrestle wrestle and that might work for a while but i think even then he will find his comeuppance uh ultimately so we shall see people abandon their wrestling once they get their striking up to a certain level and And it's not always the best choice. That's true.

That's true. That's true. I can't deny that. That's definitely true. I mean, Tyron Woodley stopped wrestling, right? At a certain point. It worked for a while. Yes, but also you get older

and your capacity to wrestle like that also diminishes. You know, that's where it's like. I'm asking you once again, did Habib get out exactly on time luke yes or no no he still could have beaten the people except i mean he wouldn't fight islam but he could have beaten the other guys besides him i think he would have whooped up on charles uh all right bc from our good friend telvin key papa he asks oh why is it new i guess it's a new meme like sea level cane does nose breathing gaethje

fall under the category of mma mythology of sea level cane motivated bj and luke's favorite trt so i haven't heard this is this as opposed to mouth breathing gaethje can you explain this i haven't heard this i didn't know that nose breathing gaethje was a thing but i'm gonna guess that he was breathing through his nose this time in a way that was like designed to control his emotions and his breathing and energy resources and maybe that made a difference i was watching it on my ipad so mikey says he got his nose fixed before the fight well see i had no surgery too and it didn't really work so i'm i'm less i'm less uh confident that's a huge determinant look people have said and I know you're not going to like to hear this, but people have said that along with C-Level K and Motivated BJ,

TRT Belfort, that when Luke Thomas enters an MK episode, you know, willing to sell, willing to give and take, willing to have fun in the old barnyard, the entertainment possibilities are limitless. That's true. That's true. That's true. Yeah. That's true. All right, BC, last but not least,

at JoshHerbold92, without necessarily naming names, can you confirm that there are well-known fighters in boxing and MMA that blatantly lie about their height? Is this a long setup for some type of P.F. Chang's Joe Rogan joke? Because if it is look i'm not playing i'm not i'm not i'm not biting down i think i think you just did i think you okay uh doesn't everybody lie about their height dude there's things that people lie about all the

time women will lie about their age right oh here we go they'll lie about how many partners they had right yeah and men will lie about their many partners they had, right? Yeah. And men will lie about their height. Those are the three things that are guaranteed, right? I mean, I'm an exception. People are always like, BC, man, you're so much taller than I thought. What are you, 6'3", 6'4"? I'm like, no, I'm 6'1 1⁄2", Luke. That's all it is, 6'1 1⁄2".

That's all you're getting from me, okay? I know who I am, Luke. All right? Well, the thing about their height that I don't understand is, like, dude, the commission will take it or the promotion will take it. So, like, the promotion might say it's something. But, like, I don't know of fighters, like, going around being like, I'm actually 6'7", but I tell the world I'm 6'2". It's like, motherfucker, we know you're not 6'2". Remember when Byron Houston of Oklahoma State in 92 was at one point expected to be a lottery pick

at power forward then they actually measured him for the NBA draft camps and they're like oh this guy's 6'4 and he's not necessarily Charles Barkley same thing you know that happens to young to point guards Luke that are try to put six feet even when you know they're like 5'11 you know 5'10 and a half right yeah I don't I just don't I've never heard of fighters in MMA or boxing trying to lie about their height. I've just never... I've never really encountered that, I don't think. Are you 6'4", Luke?

Is that the truth? Yeah. No, I've been measured multiple times because I was in the military. 76 inches in height. Yeah, 6'4". All right, wow. Shoeless.

I just have, like, shit posture, but yeah, I'm 6'4". Okay, okay. Josh Urballs, that's the guy's name. Urballs in your mouth, everybody from the north end to the south, right? Remember that song? Weevils wobble, but they don't fall

down. All the rap songs you like are like the least relevant ones ever written. I just want to point that out. They're all white guys, apparently. I don't know. The third bass was fantastic.

Although, BC, I got to tell you. Boy, you know who was at that concert? A lot of white Pennsylvanians. Let me say that. A lot of dudes who wear hoodies and have neck beards. That was me hentai on Saturday. All right, Luke. I mean, yeah.

All right. Yeah. I mean, yeah. All right. Yeah. I mean, was this like a Vinny Paz go-away tour? Like, this is the last time you'll get to see me? Yeah. So he, well, technically it was Jedi Mind Tricks. It was not, because Vinny has his own stuff, although he played solo stuff, but technically it was the group.

And yeah, so it's his last tour. He's done touring. They don't want to do it anymore. I mean, he might have a performance here or there, but yeah, so it's his last tour. He's done touring. They don't want to do it anymore. I mean, he might have a performance here or there, but yeah, that's it. I want to give you a compliment because I know you don't typically DM with the fans, Luke, but they DM me a lot,

and although people think your rock tastes are largely abhorrent, I've been told many times that your taste in hip-hop is like hipster good-ass shitke like i try i try like you know what's good luke you know you know i i can say i respect that out of you okay i try i try i had a i really enjoyed the show um you know the guy who met me who's nice i just wish he could have been like hey you can leave off the preamble of how the world wants to set my balls on fire thank you i appreciate that all right like seriously who does that who does who goes up to someone's like yeah man nice to

meet you i mean yeah you know listen the rest of the world wants to uh put a pole axe up your rear end and uh yeah spin you around uh like a like a top but you know other than that i think you're okay i mean look what you're gonna find in this world is that, you know, you can't please everyone. So you've got to please yourself, Luke. And that's why your search history is a disgusting mess. That's why on the airport bathrooms, just don't go in after me. You know what I'm saying? All right.

BC, that's it for me. You want to take it away with BC Species, please? Yeah, here we go. I scoured the globe. There's a small batch, right? Small batch here. Mikey's on the one. Yeah, small batch.

Great, great small batch, right? Small batch here. Mikey's on the one. Yeah, small batch. Great, great small batch, though. The highs and lows, the good, bad, the ugly, the in-between, combat sports and beyond. We call this. Have you seen this shoot? Oh, God. Oh, God. Luke, so let's start off here. This is actually like a reaction a bit to news here. Do you remember last week when we played up the extended Twitter battle between USADA and Conor McGregor that stemmed from the appearance on the MMAR with Ariel Hawane?

I certainly do. Dana White, UFC president, was asked this week about that rivalry. Yeah, let's hear it. And speaking of Conor, it seems like there's a bit of a misunderstanding between him and USADA. You know, he said two tests and I'll be back. USADA put out a statement and said six months of testing as it usually is. Can we see an exemption for Conor or is it?

I have no idea. I don't pay any attention to that shit. That's not my job anymore, man. And I'm happy to be out of it. Talk to USADA. I have no idea. I want nothing to do with the whole drug testing side of this business. Not my job.

Not my circus. Guys, I can't even be suspended for half a day, lest this company suffer without my vigilant oversight. But when it comes to drug testing. Or athletes. I'm not involved. He was asked again at the post press conference. He just kept saying Jeff. Jeff. Jeff.

Jeff. You guys know him. Reach out to him. He'll give you all the answers. Here's the answer. Connor's going to steamroll USADA. To doing what Connor wants. So there's your answer.

And you're going to make a lot of money off of that pay-per-view. And probably charge $500 for the worst seat in the arena. That's how this business works. But to just as the president of the company to just be like you know what i don't know anything about that and i don't want to so why don't you go dial up somebody else that's great dude that's fantastic hey ufc 286 from london time Luke, listen to the sound of this Veronica Hardy head kick. Here to land. Oh! She's hurt.

Massive shot from Hardy up top. Miller's hurt bad. Dude, you see how Miller just walks into range? And then look how she holds her hands like this. You know, it's like, it's not like I'm better. I'm not saying I'm better. I'm not a coach. I'm not saying I'm a coach.

I'm just saying this in straight i'm not a coach i'm not saying i'm a coach i'm just saying this uh in straight lines is gonna cause problems it's gonna cause i don't know if people were able to hear that because it seemed like i heard it it was loud play it play one more time here to land oh she's hurt yo shot from hardy up tough miller's hurt bad yo miller's tough as bro tough as she moved into it too right it wasn't like she was leaning back and it caught her she was coming right dude tough tough lady tough lady look you know what comedic impression is lingering in my head paul craig by the way paul craig was sitting behind arnold allen in the arena that when they passed that bet you they talked about room service

diaries look i hope they hope so. They were fantastic. Do you remember when Paul Craig was doing the Mike Perry bit and he was like, let's fucking go Scotland. That's what I was feeling when Scotland's own Chris Duncan showed up at the weigh-in. Check it out. Oh, look at the blue. Did Mike Perry tell him to? I hope so. He has a blue fist too.

Dude, it would be amazing if he's got a kilt in his hand or something. It would be amazing if every Scottish guy who wore blue was because Mike Perry like DM them and was like, listen, I know what works for the Scots. Okay. Jojo Calderwood's like, we won't get out of my DMS. He wants me to paint myself.

You know what I mean? It's great. You know, is she, what isn't she too? A Scottish or no. Yeah. She's 100% Scottish.

Yep. Actually, she had a big comeback win on Saturday. She had a nice win. Yeah, yeah, yeah. In fact, Dan Hardy posted a picture with John Wood, who runs Syndicate, and is married to Joanne, formerly Calderwood, now just Wood. Yeah. And he posted a picture with them, too, and then himself and Veronica Macedo slash Veronica Hardy and he wrote

team husband as the caption Luke Kamaru Usman as I mentioned tried to intimidate Leon Edwards at the start of this fight what do you rank Leon's reaction of the handgun gesture with the

with the oh you know what i never saw that in real time oh that is sick yo i love that i love that from leon that is he had a counter for everything kamaru had on this night seriously everything do you remember when is Izzy did the second Whitaker fight when they met in the middle and then Whitaker stuck out his hand and Izzy went, and then did like, I think

it was like paper beats rock or whatever it was, and then just grabbed it. Just little shit like that where guys are just not intimidated by the moment at all. Oh, yeah. Definitely. Luke, Justin Gaethje wasn't intimidated by this celebration what would happen to your body if you tried this luke oh man god you'd never walk again he almost he almost paralysis is the answer paralysis

well mohammed mokaev may never again. Luke, we saw how he survived that nasty knee bar attempt against feel hole, but this was him warming up before the fight. Now we know why that flexibility was a lot. Dude, I would love to put my, uh, my, is that his grundle? I'd love to put my grundle flat on the ground like that. How long would I have to get into stretching to be able to do that? How long? I wish I could do this and then put all of like your toothbrush,

your cutlery just all underneath my satchel and then rub testicle grease all over it i mean i mean this is a big graphic but you know yeah that's very graphic look you know steve uh aoki the dj you know that famous guy right yes yes i think he's got in vegas all the time where he cakes people? Did you see this footage? Check this out. The fuck? Oh! Yo! Dude, we need a bit like that at our live shows, Luke,

where people bring signs that say, like, KBC, like, you know, piss on me or something. Like, yo, not that type of concert, okay? But something like that, Luke. Okay. Dude, that is amazing. I would love to kick someone like that. That is great. I love it. We had a bit where people come up to the stage and like Luke blow incredible vape smoke at me with design. So it just engulfs me, right? You know, I had an idea in college when we lived in the fraternity house that I was going to buy a chimpanzee and then teach it to throw feces at only one fraternity member. So that way he would always have to clean it up. Obviously, this idea never came to fruition, but I still think of it all the time.

Another reason to avoid fraternities, sororities and all other selective clubs of that nature. By the way, Luke, last night and I, my wife and I watch a TV and it and it was like you know one of her shows that i was sitting in with her on it's uh all american no all american homecoming it's like this college drama show and uh you know they were they were having frat and and sorority like pledge week and you know they're going through these rituals and being treated like slaves and i'm just like man this sucks and she's and she gave the exact responses that you always do. She's like, yeah, easy for you to say college dropout, right? Your own wife is roasting you with that shit.

That's great. I like her already. Yeah. All right. There you go. I'll look, I found a video that perfectly describes every time a PF Chang's reference tries to get snuck through MK security. Here we go.

Hey, this homeless woman's crotch, I could have done without. You in that scenario, you know, it's always like there's... This woman was living in a van down by the river, quite literally. And they're like, hey, let's just look at her unwashed crotch. She probably used to be a BBL back in her day. But look, she got knocked out by that. Here's your real knockouts of the week.

Let's start in ACA 154. This is Leonardo Silva. Oh, he walks into it. Guy in the green watch this boop oh just shut the lights off in one go yeah don't bring your head back to the same place don't do that didn't that look like um this is not a bit uh shab versus rothwell had an ending like that okay what what why are we doing 50 000 shab bits today what are we said it's not i just told you this is not a bit didn't i can i make ufc history references to like the uh is that is it that similar well no the thing is okay we're being serious the thing is didn't rothwell have follow-up shots on the ground maybe but he

was getting lit up, and then he landed one big left. They were throwing at the same time. Oh, and then he fell. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay, yes, you're right. You're right, you're right. I mean, I've graduated from skits and bits, Luke, okay?

BC, BC, look at me. You'll never graduate from skits and bits. Skits and bits is who you are. It's who you are in your heart bro yeah i know i know uh the zone boxing over the weekend here's jorge chavez luke check this out i gotta see this i didn't see any of this dude he ate that right hand flush yeah overhand right left hook pushes him off left hook bang yeah that's over sometimes the best knockouts luke are before the fights during the face-offs

this is europe somewhere right let's check this listen oh i mean well come on fellas like yeah i mean you know you gotta you gotta protect yourself at all times luke right that's the deal oh boy wow all right speaking of protecting yourself at all times watch this highlight this is the sport of kings this guy's over here like concussion barfing and then the guy just comes up he's like fuck that i'm gonna hit him that's gonna say should the referee like call time out if somebody's about to puke or is that fair game yeah yeah they're puking well first of all if you vomit in a fight it's over it's their fight's over like done so you know

my man my man the referee there just taking his sweet ass time to get over there. That was the rule at the dinner table when I was a kid, Luke. I could avoid the endless amounts of raw cucumbers I had to eat as long as I puked. So I discovered, I always discover new things about BC. So BC folks, I didn't realize this, doesn't eat any melon of any kind, which would include honeydew, cantaloupe, watermelon. Do you eat mango? No. Do you drink mango juice even

so look at this i wasn't tortured as a kid luke but as about a second or third grader my parents got a hold of this like book that was like vegetables and fruit almost nothing else you'll be the healthiest person of all time and we lived lived that life for two years. So, you know, when you're a kid and you like sugar cereal and all kinds of, you know, Luke and then the, no, for two years, you're only going to eat like plates, just plates of chopped. It took, you know, that's why when you and I go to the salad bar at Cava, Luke, I've got to tell them right away, get that cucumber out of there. And I don't want any pickles either because they're cucumbers in disguise, Luke.

That's not easy to be the only kid at field day when the dessert is watermelon to be like, no, I don't eat that stuff, Luke. Well, watermelon's delicious and you have the palate of a toddler. It okay it's too close to cucumber with the seeds it's disgusting it's your signal is frozen or is it just me all right there we go let's keep this show going i got strong mcdonald's wife i got like taco bell wi-fi at the moment here it's much stronger than mcdonald's uh yo so little little little hendo on biz ping 2.0 right here right so he drops him does he get on top ah yeah a little bit although although hendo went like jumping and then left his own feet and then like came down you know like the hammer of thor or something by the way if you're asking what's on my hand it's temporary tattoos I got from my kid I have a cow

I have a cow Luke I got a key question for you how many white guys does it take to remove a tree branch just two just two Luke two look it's the answer all right dude show that one again show that one again oh yeah here's friend oh jesus christ steve what happened yes yeah you two are fucking idiots that's what happened yeah that's friend oh jesus christ steve what happened yes yeah you two are fucking

idiots that's what happened yeah that's what happened all right hey let's go down on the boardwalk luke you know down on the shore down on the boardwalk we were having some fun this is definitely something i want to do bro this is a true story a true story when i was in turkey one time man there was like a big ass um uh soccer match there it was uh galatasaray versus fenerbahce and i know you want to appreciate that but trust me when i tell you like turkish football the fans are known for like setting off flares at the events and shit like that like it's crazy and there was a dude chasing another dude down the street and i'm not making this up with a donor kebab sword the swords they used to cut these fucking giant pieces of meat he was chasing a guy down the street and i'm not making this up with a donor kebab sword the swords they used to cut these giant pieces of meat he was chasing a guy down the street with a donor kebab sword

i was like yo turkey is for me uh how did you not have the same like religious experience you had attending that madrid game is because those turkish teams are not as globally successful luke no i didn't go to the game itself we were in the area of galata which is in istanbul and so there was like um there was just partying i mean the streets were full it was like a street festival and then as we made our way out um there are the the the fans the teams were greeting each other or at least running into each other and uh yeah it turned into a fucking nightmare so for the for that guy for that guy i like spinning me spinning meat is very attractive luke i would love to jump over and take a bite out of that there but let's go to the orwalk pizza parlor luke tell them your pizza is shit you pay there's a receipt for that yeah right

dude i honestly if someone told me this is how you pay for pizza in jersey i'd believe it dude if i was hanging out in there i'd grab as many slices as I can just run. That'd be great. Like, listen, I'm not, I'd like a slice of cheese with three uppercuts. Hey, Luke, I realized I didn't have any elder abuse in this week's batch, so I found the greatest hit. Let's hit one of our greatest hits all over again here.

All right, all right. Oh, hit old grandma with the crossover. Yo, what's up, bitch? Hey, granny broke your ankles and your hip. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is it. All right. Luke, people ask me a lot.

How do you warm up for MK each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday? I got it on video. Here we go. Instead of a heavy bag, though, it's just other women in line at Starbucks. Are we still? Okay, we're still here. I had Wi-Fi. We're here, fucker. That's great.

Luke Chubb Rock on the It's called Shale o'meal and he is my new basketball hero yo yo yo chub rock over here yo he hit him with the no look wow yo this big fella has he got any ups no zero ups he's just wishing the rock you don't need him you don't need him luke look at that from way downtown dude just draining in front of these fucking guys he's he do he's the m him and the guy who drank a bunch uh or the mk mascots also bc this guy would fucking torch you and i in a game of horse believe that true but his stamina's got to be in question at this point oh yeah then you have a coronary on the on the on the court yeah hey it's time for some nut shots let's hit it you know i love a good parkour fail once yo wow fuck off

yeah luke i can't tell if this next nut shot is accidental or or this is the beginning of a close relationship you know the black guy just ruined his balls with the parkour but these two white gentlemen bumped into each other's balls oh how about this guy look this guy's great look at that suit do these kinds of parks like this oh oh yeah wow right in the uh we Right in the back door there. Yikes. You know what? That's karma. Castigo de Vino.

That guy shouldn't be reproducing anyway. He looks like a loser. Do you ever go to the mall in a shitty city on a weekday morning? And like if you're like if you're like, you know, in your early 20s and you're real high and you have no other reason but to go eat at Arby's and try to see if you can buy a CD or something. And there's a guy walking around in like a pimp suit luke like with the cane and the hat but like it's the most elaborate dress suit you've ever seen i'd love to know those guys stories how they got here you know what they're into i i don't even understand what you're talking about i don't go to the mall at all and if i did i wouldn't eat at arby's i'm also not in my 20s and there's no guys in pimp

suits so showing up to Pentagon City Mall. Yeah, sorry. I spent a lot of time in Waterbury, Connecticut in my life. Anything can happen. Hey, look. Real recognizes Real again as Gervonta Tank Davis and Denzel. Catch up, Ed. Wow.

Why is Denzel dressing like... I mean, is it cool to dress like a busboy like Joe Rogan? No, he dresses like he runs a hardware store. That is true. That is true. You know what I'm saying? Indeed. What's your favorite Denzel role off the top of your head?

Malcolm X. Training Day? Malcolm X. Malcolm X. How about him in Glory? It was amazing. Amazing. That's a great one.

You know, even smaller ones. They don't make movies like this anymore but like pelican brief yeah like he killed it in that um the equalizer equal equalizer is okay i wasn't so into him on that role you know uh he got game how about he got game dude yeah he got game he fucking kills it and he got game yeah public enemy on that soundtrack too loved it uh luke let's go to the gym you know you've made fun of the lifting form of other former ufc fighters in the past no skits here dude back off here's former light heavyweight champion tito ortiz luke oh tito is that normal no that's not normal so here's just like a basic idea like here's how you know it's messed up Oh, Tito. Is that normal? No, that's not normal. So here's just like a basic idea.

Like here's how you know it's messed up, right? There's like, okay, just as a basic rule to understand something, right? If I'm pulling this way, right, that is a meaningfully different pull than overhead pulling down. But if I lean back far enough, I can just turn it into a row. You see the difference? Pull up, row. Roll the video again. Roll the video again. He's trying to do a pull up and ends up just doing a row. You see that?

Because he leans so far back. Yeah, he's doing both at the same time, Luke. Well, no. He's on a piece of equipment that's designed to work a different part of your musculature than the one he's doing. And also he's leaning back to throw the weight back so he can row it. It's like, it's like, it's like, okay, Tito, take about three notches off the plates and then just do it normally. Like you're fucking supposed to.

Luke, unbeaten boxer Francis Hogan made some, made some noise at the weigh-in over the weekend by going full banana ham. All right. I mean, this thing in MMA where guys get stupid haircuts and then wear Borat swimsuits, it's just really got to go. This is boxing. This was in Boston at the same card put on by... Combat Sports. Combat Sports. Tom Loeffler that was on UFC Fight Pass.

I think Callum Walsh was the name of the guy in the main event. Luke, Dana was there, and did you hear that he told the Sports Business Journal this weekend, Dana White, that Zufa Boxing is, in fact, not dead, and Dana once again has plans to make some noise and make big fights in the boxing game. Your thoughts. If you never quit, it's never dead, right?

That's a fair point. That's a fair point. It's not really alive either but you know yeah uh i got some food fair for you luke would you would you would you take this thing down at the county fair not with mayo not with the secret sauce luke yeah maybe a little mustard or ketchup but i you know that's about it we close this week's shit with the award-winning segment sub-segment not brought to you by mamitas it's called rate that tat luke here we go this for bald guys what do you think about this idea okay what the fuck are we doing isn't that what lebron did to fix his widow's peak luke i don't think LeBron did this.

I'll rate that a fucking negative 8 billion. I mean, what has this person done? Dude, people do some dumb shit, man. Stolen the steps of the Capitol on January 6th, Luke. Okay, what else have you done in your life? I mean, seriously. I mean, there's no way that this

guy was like, you know, a Fields Medal winner or a... Yes. It's like the Nobel Prize. They only give it out every four years, though, Luke. That's what they say. This is actually coming along nicely. Yeah, rate this back, Tat.

Let's check this thing out. Well, it's unfinished, so it'll be a little bit hard to do that, but this one's coming along. The snake looks pretty good. I don't think it's unfinished. Look at the horns. There's some negative space there's some negative the horns are unfinished right they have to be they could what if it's just negative white what if it's just pale white skin luke then it's not so great but assuming he's going to finish it this one's got a little bit of promise to it

i mean i would never get also a man's ass crack yeah i mean this is great. Finally, Luke, our final tattoo for you to rate actually combines two of our favorite things together. Meet me in the middle here, Luke. This is okay, not great. It's not bad. The arms are a little bit out of proportion for the body and the head, so there's some proportion issues. And her feet get a little bit weird at the ankle, how the ankle is all the way up by her calf. That's a little weird. I mean thematically, Luke, okay?

This is a BBL hot dog tattoo. I mean, come on, bro. Short of that, though, it's okay. I would call this tattoo decent, not great. What flag is that? Okay, so it looked like it was on its way to being the Chicago flag, which it might be because of the dog at the top, but the Chicago flag has four red stars, if I the dog at the top, but the Chicago flag

has four red stars, if I'm not mistaken. So I don't know. All right, there you go. That's your shit of the week. Thanks to Mikey Mormel for picking the kernels there out of the feces. We'll be back next Monday with more. And of course, morningcombat at gmail.com gets you entry into Wednesday's fan submissions and Friday's dead wrong.

All right, let's remind everyone here very quickly. You can email the show for Wednesday's fan subs, Friday's Dead Wrong. We are going to have a Wednesday show at home, and then we'll be on the road for Friday's show in Las Vegas. But morningcombat at gmail.com, morningcombat at gmail.com. The producers will see it. Brian and I will not, so just keep that in mind. Showtime.com is the label that pays.

You get a Showtime.com 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can't bounce. But of course, for Saturdays, Plant vs. Benavidez, Showtime.com slash PPV. You can go ahead and order that now. And then merch, we see morningcombat.store, all the good stuff therein.

Anything else that we need to remind folks? Yeah, YouTube. Vote for us if you can. We forgot to do that at the top of the show, right? Oh, yeah, vote for us. Sportspodcastgroup.com. They have launched the nominees in all of their categories. We are up for best sports combat podcast for the second straight year.

We'll see what happens with a lot of heavy hitters this year going up against us. Luke, I wanted to mention quick that youtube.com slash morning combat is where we have our extras, our in-betweens, our bonus content that allows me to accurately say mk all day nearly every day and i took the kids yesterday luke to creed 3 and imax i did okay let's hear it let's hear it well don't spoil don't spoil i think i'm going to put it out on a separate video and rank all nine rocky and Creed movies together. Not under the normal ranking system I do of like, what's the most rewatchable. So I'm always like, dude, Rocky three and four, man.

But I'm really going to look at it as what is the best films in order in this great genre. Luke, I liked Creed three. It was great with my kids. It was fun. Giant IMAX theater, it was good. But yeah, I'll have more content on that tomorrow. Thank you. Awesome. I can't wait to see that. That's going to be great. All right yeah, I'll have more content on that tomorrow. Thank you. Awesome. I can't wait to see that. That's going to be great. All right. So we'll have that

for you at youtube.com slash morning combat and yeah, all the socials, give us a follow on all the places, Instagram, Tik TOK, wherever, wherever the fuck you see it. Give us a nice follow there. If you'd be so kind. Thanks to Mikey. Great job on the ones and twos today. Really appreciate that back on Wednesday live at 11. And that's it for us. So for Brian Campbell, for Malka, for Showtime, for CBS Sports, the great Mikey Morms did a great job today. We're out.

We'll see you on Wednesday. And until then, may all of your gains be loyal.