MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - 🚨UFC 291 Instant Reaction | Poirier-Gaethje | Blachowicz-Pereira | Ferguson-Green

Episode Date: July 30, 2023

Brian Campbell has you covered with an instant reaction to UFC 291. BC breaks down Dustin Poirier vs. Justin Gaethje 2, Jan Blachowicz vs. Alex Pereira and much more. Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher and wherever else you listen to podcasts.     For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only at participating McDonald's in Canada. Oh yeah, you're looking at me right here. BC, Brian Campbell, one half of your award-winning morning combat duo. Wow, wow, wow. Maybe, maybe the busiest day, 24-hour period in combat sports history.

Either way, your boy BC was slotted to take down all things UFC 291 from Salt Lake City. Yes, going head-to-head with Spence Crawford, Luke Thomas of Morning Combat fame on the competing live stream. But what you're looking at right here, your instant reaction to what went down, BMF 2.0. And if you're somehow watching a Morning Combat reaction to a pay-per-view card expecting to avoid spoilers, you need to realign what you're doing with your

life hey i'm brian campbell and i'm fired up here justin gaethje the highlight five years after being brutally stopped by dustin poirier in one of the how about how about the best action fight of this division in this current era. They ran it back on Saturday. The ceremonial BMF title was on the line, and Justin Gaethje gains revenge, potentially putting himself in line for a third shot at the full UFC lightweight title with a resounding victory in this rematch.

Look, this is a wild card altogether for this BMF. BMF gave you what you wanted for a second round, surprising high kick knockout from Justin Gaethje. But I think this whole card in general, it just had a little bit of everything, you know? I love, well, look, we got to get out of the apex for all cards, but certainly for pay-per-view cards, I love when UFC goes to the, you know, the non-traditional markets. Salt Lake City, of course, they went there last August. Leon Edwards, the head kick heard around the world.

Obviously, lightning striking twice in one place. It's ridiculous that Justin Gaethje could essentially land the same finish on Poirier just from the opposite stance with the same setup. We'll get to that in a second. But this Salt Lake City crowd was on fire. You heard John Anik talking about it, that he made the boast that the crowd felt like it was 70% full at the opening fight of the night. I think this set a nice backdrop, and we had wild finishes.

We had surviving advances in the co-main event. We had a lot of stuff to get into. So thank you for checking in. I know what you're saying. Hey, BC, you're the boxing guy Why are you not at Crawford Spence? Where's Luke when we need him? Hey, this is morning combat

The same morning boxing and morning MMA We can do it all here We do do it all BC working from home this weekend You already knew that Because I'm a great husband LT on the scene in Las Vegas For what was, wow

A virtuoso performance all unto itself in that main event we're staying with MMA right here thank you for following the show and following us and all things we do Mikey Mormile of CBS Sports on the ones and twos but your boy BC you know you know you know what we got around here right we got the hottest white belt takes that money can buy in this space but all things serious for you enjoyed this card from top to bottom especially the pay-per-view portion of the event and let's talk about what we did see there justin gaethje who has long credited his 2018 loss to poirier as the turning point in his career and it was under coach trevor whitman we've

talked about that ad nauseum the win streak that's followed the adjustments he's made but even after evolving we still saw Justin Gaethje come up empty on the title level not once but twice and in I think both situations they were fairly disappointing finishes from the standpoint of you know Habibi was there with the leg strikes maybe maybe one leg strike away from putting him in peril. But when it was over, it was over quickly. And Charles Oliveira lost for Gaethje. I know it's weird. It's like I had him in my pound for pound even as a non-champion headed into that fight.

I've always respected what Gaethje has done. That fight against Oliveira made me question some things. I have to really enjoy the two fights he's had since then. The comeback win by majority decision over Rafael Fazeev earlier this year to put himself in this position for the BMF rematch. And now this calculated, poised, almost patient performance from Justin Gaethje to gain revenge over Dustin Poirier. I didn't think the winner of this fight coming out, we'd be talking about a title shot. I really didn't.

Now let's be fair. Islam Mahachev's your champion. He'll be in Abu Dhabi in October defending against Charles Oliveira, who had the resounding comeback win against Benil Darius to remind us of what he accomplished before yielding the title to Islam in one-sided fashion. I'm all for that fight.

I just thought what Dustin and Justin were going to give us in this rematch was carnage, excitement, fun. I was not against the pro wrestling variety of this BMF title. You got Masvidal in the cage. I was all in on that. I did not expect, though, this type of performance out of Gaethje and this spinoff idea. And basically, like, complete humble babyface Gaethje, by the way, in the post-fight interview.

I mean, giving thanks to God, giving thanks to his team, talking about redemption, second chances, turning it around, his passion for the game. Well, look, all of that was evident here against a fighter who, on paper, there were so many things that were similar between Justin and Dustin in this rematch, both age 34, both former interim champions, both had come up empty twice at the highest level in ways that seemed that seemed after their second title losses for both of them to kind of shut the door on their future now for Poirier he did come back against Michael Chandler and and just just turn back into classic Poirier again to keep his title hopes alive but like I just said a minute ago I didn't think the winner was going to look like this have this type of moment I thought it was going to be a war of attrition between them and what we ended up seeing was a very just

calculated Justin Gaethje he He looked fresher at 44. And this is what's interesting. A lot of us pick Poirier. And I still think that was the right pick for both the betting oddsman and even us with really bad okay bet records. But the whole idea was that Poirier had the better distribution system.

He had the better technique on the boxing. He's such a bricklayer, building those foundations before finishing guys and taking them out. But there was that fear in the back of our heads, and I think I said that this week, that if somebody's going to go quickly on one shot, it's probably going to be Poirier. He's had more of a flash chin. There's been some arguments about the true chin of Gaethje.

I mean, to me, Gaethje's chin is unreal. You've got to push him into hell to finish him normally. I know he got finished against Oliveira by submission and by submission against Habib again in title fights in which I just don't think that was the best of what we could see from Gaethje. I thought there were some levels of coming up empty in big spots. Well, he rallied against Fazeev to get to this point with some guile, maturity, veteran prowess.

And boy, was that on display this time around. So even at 34, I did feel like he had the better recuperative chin. I thought Poirier was going to have to really put it on him for a couple of rounds to put him in position to get him out of there like he did in the fourth round of their first meeting. But there was that feeling back in the brain. Is Gaethje fresher than poirier i wonder that but i'm the guy who said poirier has a great shot of looking old heading into the chandler fight and he didn't and it's not like uh he ultimately looked old here this was just a calculated savage performance from gaethje so the opening round between justin and dustin you get a lot it was pretty good it wasn't the full type of chaos, but it was fairly consistent, heavy action,

but it's a lot of trading, the trading of calf kicks. But I think overall it's Gaethje who is getting the better of these outside kicks, but Poirier, such a veteran mixing in the hard body kicks. His boxing was crisp. I thought they pretty much traded strikes with their hands on even terms in that first round, but it was ultimately the bigger, stronger leg kicks of Gaethje and the consistency of them that I gave him the edge after round one. But either way, you were seeing sort of a different Gaethje. You know, I think we all talk about that transition I talked about after the first Poirier loss where it was like, OK, I got to stop trying to be in the fight of the year every single second. I got to stop going balls out, guns, you know, guns blazing.

I've got to bring it down a little bit. And he's done that. I guess I just didn't expect this additional veteran evolution and change to his game at 34, even though we talked about this week and I said, Hey, Luke, could you see a scenario where Gaethje comes in more patient than we expect more patient than normal? I think I got seduced by the idea that the UFC put BMF back in the marquee, which again, smart move. Oldly, Gaethje found a way to fight smarter

and then still deliver the boom when it mattered. So the finish at the one-minute mark of round two, I mean, it's a thing of beauty. First of all, Poirier partially blocked the kick to his left side and the fact that Justin's still able to land that partially blocked and knock him out cold where Herb Dean's got to wave it off right away well we already know the thunder that Gaethje brings but when you watch those replays now it's just like the Leon Edwards against Usman from a year ago but like I mentioned it's the opposite stance and to see gaethje float out that right hand punch first which takes away the target and the defensive you know vision of poirier just

enough even though poirier like we said brings his hand back up to block the kick perfectly set up with craft with patience things we don't normally talk about when we're talking about justin gaethje even the the 2.0 version of him that twice got to the title level. Is he a viable candidate now for a title shot here? You're damn right he is. Now, I don't know how he would get over the top and beat Nislam Mahachev. I don't even know in a rematch with Charles Oliveira, if Olive comes back and wins the title and they don't need a trilogy there, how the odds would favor Gaethje. Because to be fair, these two title losses, they,

me being a big Gaethje supporter, they still kind of sting to me. I think even though we fought better guys and lost to better guys, I still feel like there was some element of fumble in the ball or not coming, you know, not showing his, his best self in those two fights. Maybe this is a different run format. 34, even with the incredible damage that has been accrued, he still looks fresh in there. He still carried it.

I mean, look, I'd be more shocked. I'm going to be honest with you. I had both like every, like every other fine combat sports fan on this craziest of craziest days in combat sports history. I had multiple streams up at once and I'm watching Spence Crawford,

but I'm working from home here on UFC doing recaps, you know, doing, doing a lot of different stuff, but I'm watching this virtuoso thing that's breaking out in Spence Crawford. And I'm shocked. home here on UFC doing recaps, you know, doing, doing a lot of different stuff, but I'm watching this virtuoso thing that's breaking out in Spence Crawford. And I'm shocked. I'm watching things on the UFC undercard that I'm shocked by the time that head kick lands. I, you know, I didn't have much shock left yet.

It still was shocking. I think Poirier has always been a guy. Look at the Michael Johnson fight who you can get with one big strike, but it really was the setup of Gaethje that looked so smart for him to get to that point and you know um dustin didn't do the interview afterwards but he showed a lot of class in congratulating him and it's hard to know exactly at 34 i mean dustin's still going to be in big fights it's what he does but this was a big breakthrough win and for me to not even been thinking the winner of this could enter themselves into the title picture. And now you got Gaethje calling it out. And after that performance, you sort of feel like, yeah, I mean,

to update the standings right here, you got Machup champion. He's going to face number one, Olivera. Poirier came in at number two. Gaethje came in at number three. You've got Darius at four coming off of a loss. Michael Chandler at five, who's tweeting for Conor to finally piss in that cup so they can do that tough coaches championship fight. And number six is Fazeev, who Gaethje just defeated.

I know we've got some younger up-and-coming hammers behind that, but the door kind of did open up for Justin Gaethje here, and I'm happy to see it in that regard, and I'm happy to see the heartfelt post-fight interview afterwards. This is a mature one. I think it's weird. So one interview, you say, well, one interview, I really heard the maturity come out of justin gaethje's mouth and it's coming off of a performance where

you saw extra maturity it was it was championship guile and maturity that got him through that physique fight by the way in which he was kind of falling down early and was in there against a young hungry aggressive guy but this was a hell of a comeback win considering how big that first lost to poirier was in the transition for him. And, uh, you know, considering the stakes, a pay-per-view main event, a ceremonial title at stake felt good. Felt good to see the highlight back in this point, he'll be an underdog going for the title against anybody, but yeah, he does have always the power at all times to, to make tough fights for people. I mean, when he commits to those leg strikes,

I don't know what you're going to do. I don't know what, you know, it's like Poirier tried his best to match him, but it's almost as if the more you do it, the more you're encouraging Justin to get off the same to, to counter you in that regard. But we're seeing, we're seeing somebody who realized I got something left. Maybe it was, you know, not in a great spot, unlikely to get back to this point

but he's put two big wins together against two very good names and here he is so maybe i should stfu and let this whole thing play out um just a uh just a shocking you know i gave away a lot of my shock earlier as i said to some of these other fights but just a shocking end to this uh it's a bit of a disappointment even though the first round was fun it wasn't crazy and with this fight being a five round rematch i expected craziness i expected caveman stuff but i kind of like the storyline even better and how you spin off of this and the fights that you can still make from this i think that's very interesting um exactly where poirier goes from here we'll talk about that in

morning combat this week and sort of look at the landscape that's available for him but he took the flash ko well and here we go Justin survive in advance over Dustin this isn't going to best their first fight this was you know won't be talked about in the same level it wasn't in some ways it wasn't a bmf fight right in some ways it wasn't this blood and guts back and forth even actually it was Gaethje the winner who ended up having a cut there at the end of the first round but um a big win just the same somewhat similar stakes here in that co-main event at light heavyweight the 205 debut in the ufc for poet on alex is where i'm really gonna just struggle see i used to be okay with the fact that i butcher poet onan's name, Alex Pereira.

Pereira. But now you guys have made me really self-conscious over the last week for some reason, as if you had never heard the fact that I routinely butcher this and can't figure it out in my brain. Either way, Alex Pereira surviving and advancing against Jan Blachowicz in a three-round fight that felt like it was a number one contender slash winner, probably fighting Yuri for the vacant title. Maybe if he's healthy enough, I'm not really sure. Could have had an interim title at stake, could have had the full vacant title at stake. But this was a weird and interesting fight to see Jan Blachowicz,

the former champion, shoot for a takedown,ately, no setup, right off of the start of the fight. And then ultimately, pin Poiton down, take his back, keep all of his weight of the legendary Polish power on his back, threaten with a choke a couple times for rear naked chokes. But in the end, despite almost five minutes here of direct sort of advantage for Blachowicz didn't get that close to a submission didn't really let anything of note from striking yes wins that opening round but here's what's interesting by the end of this fight it goes down as a split decision but I wonder if the deliberate nature of trying to bring the fight down not in the flow of the action but right off the start

and giving five minutes that even though it's Poiton that's carrying Jan's weight, Jan did work, lose a lot of that energy in the process of trying to wrestle. And it was interesting to see Blachowicz start off the fight with that, just basically going, look, I know how dangerous you are. You're in a new weight class now, which could give you, like I talked about this week, you know, a deeper gas tank, which I think certainly was shown here by Padea, considering how much he had to do on the bottom at points in the wrestling. But and also obviously the takedown defense, which I'll get to a second. But it's interesting. Blachowicz played it safe. It's kind of like when he fought Jacare in that fight that I think after the knockout of Luke Rockhold, it was sort of like his Blachowicz kind of becoming a contender. Well, here you get this fight night main event against Jacare and I thought Blachowicz played it as safe as he possibly could almost to a detriment that turned out to be a surviving advance for him he ends up

winning the championship by the way right and uses somewhat similar veteran poised sort of deliberate work against Adesanya to make that title defense and And of course we remember him against, you know, Ankalaya they fight to that majority draw with the title at stake and neither becomes a champion. And we sort of looked at that fight as did either guy really go for it? Well, Blachowicz looked like he was trying to survive in advance and it ultimately backfires for him.

It's 29, 28 on two scorecards for Poiton, 29, 28 for Blachowicz on the third, but that weird first round where you have to-28 for Blachowicz on the third. But that weird first round where you have to give it to Blachowicz for taking his back and staying on him, that turned into an interesting second round where the tables kind of flipped. That's where you're seeing the full-fledged 205 Poiton, again, a former two-division champion in glory kickboxing, including at light heavyweight.

So there was no real fear in terms of like the durability and whether he would have the power to be a threat. You knew that. Well, when Blachowicz was a little bit tired after the grappling in round one, what we saw in round two out of Poiton and then into the third round, I thought it was just incredible. His takedown defense won this fight. It was night and day. It wasn't perfect.

It wasn't flawless. But the work he's doing in connecticut streams wrestling for his life with glover to share who's like the ultimate coach big brother mentor coolest neighbor of all time just absolute badass dude it worked because the more that this was just a striking match particularly in that second round on the feet and they traded big shots even though they both had their moments in that i think perera shots landed bigger and i think at the end of that second round uh you saw on twitter you had a lot of people tweeting out like hey man i'm not sure jan can can keep up this pace i'm not sure he has

the stamina or the chin to hang in there against him uh big left hook slate from poet on in that second round really gave you the idea that if this fight stays there in that position, blow, which could be as in trouble, but then you have this even weirder third round where I like early on the leg kicks from Poiton blow. If it's actually counted him with a big body kick and it seems like it's going even the whole time, who's going to win this round before the takedown that ultimately turned the tide there in that third round or,

or threatened to, I like the striking just a little bit more poeton but then blohovich finally lands a takedown now he had been stuffed the first two times including 30 seconds and he got stuffed hardcore along the fence by per data which was really the key to this fight but even though blohovich finally gets a clean takedown at 30 seconds he's not able to do anything with it and that's what's key did not get off clean ground and pound was not able to really advance his position i still felt like it could have gone either way but i like in this case that the judges or two of the three of them at least

because the third round was the swing round that was ultimately what decided this fight on all three scorecards they went the way of poiton i thought he slightly edged out the striking there in round three and even though he gave up that takedown, it was the defense of the takedown earlier that opened up his striking opportunities. Alex Pereira, potato, parade.

Isn't interesting out here at two Oh five. This wasn't, you know, like breakthrough shining, huge, emotional, incredible finished performance. This was survive in advance,

but Poiton had to survive in advance through his biggest weaknesses coming in. A weakness so glaring that Jan deliberately shot right off the start with no setup to basically show you, I know what you don't have. And it was almost exactly like the opening fight of the night when Miranda Maverick came in as like a last minute replacement to take on Priscilla Cachoeira, who we all knew had an opening, just the same a glaring weakness on the ground. And what a Maverick Maverick dude just went right after it and controlled the fight.

In fact, afterwards Miranda said, I only took that fight last minute because of the style advantage in that regard. Jan almost kind of like after on and played himself. I think he kind of tired himself out for all the effort, even though, but think about this.

If you're Poetan, I really quit. This was the wild card factor in me picking him. himself out for all the effort, even though, but think about this. If you're Poetan, I really quit. This was the wild card factor in me picking him. And I, by the way, I think I might've gone four and one on. Okay. Bet this week. I got to check my stats again to find out, but I want, you know, I knew that not having to cut down and wait, being able to eat what he wanted more of, but is was going to make him potentially have a deeper gas tank,

be more dangerous. I thought it would come in the striking instead, that extra energy. You really saw that showcased in his ability to carry on his back throughout that first round, getting out of those choke situations and then not letting that kill his gas tank. He was the better striker over the second and third round. That's why he deserved the win. And yes, a very close fight, but it's, this is not like the knockout when I predicted that you'd be like, okay, let's get this guy suited up for a title.

And oh, by the way, am I trying to outmatch, make myself, could they really fly in Izzy and just do the trilogy for the vacant title? Well, I don't think that's going to happen here. But what I do think is going to happen is Poe Town's going to fight for this belt against whoever's healthy, whether that ultimately is Yuri Prohotska or, I mean, could it be Ankulayev? Probably not likely, but we'll see which way. It's interesting, again, that the UFC did not show their hand.

Normally they are quick when things happen to just throw an interim belt or just patch it up and fix it the best way they can. In a weird way, they're allowing this and the women's band and weight division, as we saw with the Holly Holm-Maira-Bueno-Silva main event that did not have title implications. They're kind of just letting it play out but i have to think they're relatively excited that poiton could really be a player here it's not just for the for the the magnet or the catnip to eventually lure izzy to 205 when he's done with strickland if that fight even happens based on strickland's tweets it seems not sure

or obviously when ddp is healthy if they want to cash in and make that fight for the real African championship. But this was an interesting advancement for Poetan, because what do you want out of this guy? You want him to approve where there's holes. I mean, the holes are glaring there, but he does have these intangibles. And he showed that in the first Izzy fight in the UFC, obviously by being dominated and nearly stopped and somehow short on gas in round five, pulling off the big finish right there.

He's a threat for this title at 205. Again, not the breakthrough knockout performance where you're like, damn, sign him up now. Let's see. The evolution is going to have to continue. They're going to have to be in that stream in Brookfield, Connecticut or Bethel or outside Danbury, wherever the hell Glover lives. It's decent area of the state, Connecticut, decent area. I grew up not too far from there. Hardworking, a lot of Portuguese and Brazilian population.

I respect those, those guys a lot, but he's got to continue this. But if he fights Yuri Prochazka next, you're telling me you won't jump out of your chair to be excited. You're damn right. You will. That fight would be absolutely crazy. And I like who Poetan's becoming now. I mean, it's, it's insane how quickly he's transitioned,

even with the glory of the other kickboxing background. How many times have we seen guys with big kickboxing backgrounds, try to make that instant transition. And then it goes really, really badly for them. This has been incredible. This has been absolutely incredible. He's now on the doorstep of a title in the second weight class in his second fight in that weight class. His transition this quickly, even while benefiting with the fact that Izzy had already cleaned out the division

and there was a short path to the top. He's not young. There was a short path for the UFC to cash in on that rivalry, and they did it. They won the freaking title. But look at how he's closing up those glaring weaknesses now. If you are not able to take Poiton down at 205 and use it against him, or in this case, even if you have some success,

it's not going to gas him out. It's actually going to gas you out. And he's also, you know, made out of stone and can knock you out at any point and has just true, deep inner toughness to fight through stuff. This guy's a problem. this guy's this guy's a problem this guy's it's gonna be a problem again in this division it's not gonna be as dominant i don't think at middleweight although again i mean he was dominant to get to the title winning

the title took took some level of miraculousness and then he get knocked out in the rematch but um for a division that's so wide open to begin with and jamal hill's out and who knows when year is healthy and whatever happened to rackets you to Rakic, a lot of uncertainties here. Poiton is looking at least pretty certain that he belongs in this title picture at the moment. And again, he's helped by the chaos of this division. But I don't usually love to reward surviving in advance, but when you show these type of skills. I mean, it was clear like yan was trying to steal this fight with takedowns and poetan rightfully got his hand

raised big win absolutely big win but he also landed the bigger shots which forced yan to wrestle more kind it's weird it's kind of a puzzling performance from yan kind of but he was also outgunned in certain areas. The legendary Polish power is just that. But you can't at either division stand and trade with Poiton, especially when you're tired and hurt, as was going on at the end of that second round. You're going to be in a lot of trouble. One note of a fight that unfortunately didn't go down,

which was Steven Wonderboy Thompson, was supposed to be right in the midst of this pay-per-view card against Michelle Podata. Podata missed weight badly by three pounds. We saw that decision come out late Friday on Twitter or Instagram, wherever it was, where Wonderboy is basically like, look, this has happened to me before, somebody missing weight, and we still went on with the fight, and they got the upper hand against me. I respect at his age, the decision

of wonder boy who had the chance to go forward with the fight, but because of that weight change went against it because of his recent history. And I thought, you know, his long written excuses were, were very understandable of at my age with the opportunities. Like the one thing I loved about the message that wonder boy put out there was that like i'm not trying to get money or or you know glorified name fights like i'm in this to win the title i i respect that so he pulls out of this fight to not give that advantage in such a key pivotal fight to his opponent but then according to reporting from mike bone mike bond of uh mma junk, who, you know, hand check on the flight to Salt Lake City, Mike, right? He says the UFC not paying Stephen Thompson show money in this situation.

That's a little dicey. That's a little, that's a little. So it's like from the promotion there that's a standpoint beyond the fact that they're insanely cheap in these areas of um thinking okay well you were healthy to fight and you chose not to well we're not going to kill you for it or or or whatever but we're not going to reward you for it is that fair i don't know if that's fair. I mean, this wasn't a weight miss by like three tenths of a pound and, and wonder boys just being pedantic or trying to protect, like, for example, speaking of Michelle potato, when Diego Sanchez leaned into that DQ and just to kind of survive at events in his own career, it was kind of a desperate move, but it was a

desperate act by a desperate man with a weird coach behind him who's chasing him with knives so you got it you understood it um this is a three pound miss this isn't you know pedantic wonder boy trying to one up the company wonder boy showed up and was professional and showed up to fight can't get his show money for the camp he put in that his opponent effed up and he didn't want to give that opponent the advantage so he doesn't get show money when you're on your biggest financial year in ufc history and this is a former two-time title challenger who's also speaking to bmf on this night he's also the nicest mother effer and everyone makes jokes about that

it's not like that's not a great high morale move for the company that's not it's just not it's consistent all right i'm sure dwayne johnson got compensated for everybody wearing his shitty sneakers out there i don't know if i'm extra mad because it's wonder boy and we all like him or because this is a calendar year in which there's a lot of ufc bs outside of the cage but that just that just didn't sit but that just didn't sit right. That just didn't sit right. Let's continue on down this card, though, because I liked a lot of the things that went down. It kept me on my toes.

Big thing that went down there, the heavyweight division, the Black Beast, Derek Lewis. Guys, this was an all-time great, like, bat-shit weird moment. And Lewis has a ton of them in his career, right? My balls were hot, all of that. Where's Ronda Rousey's fine ass? All of that. And we've always loved and celebrated that. But not only did Derek Lewis, like, badly need a win here.

Badly, right? Three-fight losing skid. Lost four or five. Most of the, I think all those by stoppage he badly needed the win which is why he put on the six-pack abs and got into great shape for this fight against marcos hogerio de lima but then he goes out and arguably offers his most derrick lewis moment of all time afterwards which i think is crazy like a fox i think because we find out in the post-fight speech that lewis who by the way scored a 33 second tko of delima which we'll get to rogerio delima which we'll get to in a second

he um this was the last fight of his deal so with the three fight losing skid all by stoppage this is basically ufc saying like let's go see what happens if you can go out there and win and look great we'll see what happens well not only did not only did Derek Lewis get in shape for the part against, in my opinion, a second tier heavyweight, but a second tier heavyweight who had beaten four or five coming in, not world beaters. He beat the type of guys that Marcin Tybura beat to have a winning streak of seven over eight fights

for his most recent step up fight and destruction loss against Aspinall. But it was the same type of deal. Not only does Lewis get in the top shape to save his job, not only does he deliver an insane performance, he then does the most endearing and ridiculous over the top stuff for even and over the top athlete that we love, which has to make everybody go,

damn it. I love that guy. That's smart. When you're in your final fight of your contract and you're, you know, everybody go, damn it. I love that guy. That's smart. When you're in your final fight of your contract and you're, you know, just look, he's not going to get cut. Even at 38, he's obviously got the power to always make fun fights and he's a name and Dana White loves him. We all know that it was possible.

If he got stopped again, he was going to get cut. That's very possible, but it's mostly for this. And this is why it was so important that he repaired this, not just with the performance, but with getting in shape, the performance. And in my opinion, by doing that extra endearing stuff on top is because the losses, and no one else talks about this. The losses were self-impulsive.

A lot of them, they were the gone loss in his hometown of Houston. I talked about it this week. He, you know, he admitted afterwards, he just, the moment got too much for him hometown trying to win a title got too much for him I think if you look across his major losses I mean maybe he's always going to lose to DC at

Madison Square Garden in that spot but DC had a horrific back and you know that was during a time where Derek Lewis would always say these weird things in interviews not the normal weird things but like the where you just say like it it's just money for me. I only care about the money. I want to feed my wife and kids. Like, I don't care about this, the title and all of that. I think he has always been his biggest enemy in the idea of maxing out fully who we could be. Sometimes I think it's like laziness and work ethic. Sometimes I think it's injury. Sometimes I think it's self implosion. I think mentally he's folded a few times um what we end up finding out if you listen closely on the build-up to this was his last fight or the fight against sergey

spivak that he was stopped in the third round we find out that he had cut or was it the third round he found out that he had cut just a ridiculous amount of weight by fasting during fight week, passed out. So that was his last loss. It was a first round submission, excuse me, in February of this year. And we ended up finding out that he went through hell physically to get to that point. So if three straight stoppage losses and four of your last five being defeats, albeit against

good competition, isn't enough to wake you up and get into very good good shape entering the final fight of your deal and knowing they could cut you because again when you're self-impulsive a lot of ways you're not trustworthy right to some degree he fixed it all in this fight and he did it with a running jumping switch knee off the opening bell. I mean, it was like absolutely ridiculous, except it landed. It perfectly split the guard of Rogerio DeLima. Now, is this guy's last name DeLima or is it Rogerio DeLima? Is he middle nog? You know, all right, maybe I'm not going to work on my hard five. Sorry.

My hard, yeah, there we go. He split, you know, DeLima has the defense for it, but that knee just lands perfectly and i actually love the patience of of the the the beast there the black rhino when he got on top but was kind of like picking his spots with the ground and pound to set up that finish he ends up getting the finish 33 seconds and then derrick lewis does stuff that of course I'm going to pop for the, the shorts came off and the underwear is ball free and the DX crotch chop and the run and jump on top of the cage in his underwear.

It's like, no one's ever done this before. And you know, and he's hilarious in the post-fight interview. I hope this is the right wake up call for him in this regard. He's got to be in better shape. I don't know. I don't know what third, like, I think he's done angling toward a shape i don't know at 30 like i i think he's done angling toward a title shot i mean he kind of maxed himself out pretty damn good if you consider he fought daniel cormier at msg for the title and then fought for you know against uh gone

for a second chance there at a portion of the belt but ufc wants to employ this guy because of moments like that because of the he's the all-time knockout winner they employ this guy because of moments like that, because of the, he's the all time knockout winner. They love this guy. He does have to commit to being in more shape. And if I think, I think if he does, he's not going to get injured as much. He's going to have the best chance to max out because even at 38, he's still explosively fast and powerful in the right moment.

Even for a guy that looks, you know, fakes being tired. Sometimes fakes being heard and looks like he's can be a circus clown at times, man, he can he can strike like a cobra out of nowhere and hurt you. And he's still an interesting out if he gets his stuff together. Most guys, when they have that many consecutive stoppage losses, it's normally, you know, again, due to like a poor chin falling apart. And, you know, a few of these he's fighting killers, a few of those he took some big shots. But when he gets out of his own way, it's inspiring.

I want to see that continue. I want to see more of that. And, and, and, you know, if we're ranking power rankings in, in his most hilarious moments, this is the best, this is the best one. It's the best one by far. That was great. It was one of the best things I've ever seen. I absolutely loved it. Huge star, huge fan. Oh, let's keep on going down this line here. This lightweight tilt between Bobby green and Tony Ferguson was not what we expected. Now, I'm sweating out my okay bet.

Bet. Not like anyone. I don't know if you guys are into this, but, you know, this is a tight race between Luke and I, and I'm not particularly good at this. I picked that this fight wouldn't go the distance, only I picked it would be really sad. You know what? It wasn't really sad. Tony Ferguson just lost his sixth in a row four of them by stoppage and before this step down in competition against a still very dangerous bobby green it was largely all against super elite competition but there were moments in that stretch including against nate including against michael chandler where he actually hurt him i mean gosh he dropped gaethje early in that stretch, including against Nate, including against Michael Chandler,

where he actually hurt him. I mean, gosh, he dropped Gaethje early in that fight for the interim title that he ended up, I think, pouring out most of the jug of what's left in his punch resistance. But Tony, who's always in great shape, and yeah, I know he had said crazy comments coming in that I'm in my prime.

I got to give him a lot of credit. You could see he went back to the lab and tried to reinvent himself. And you know what? He dropped green in the first round and he wasn't easy to mangle. It really wasn't until the second half of that second round that he just started to get lit up. It felt like anytime green's flapping that jab out every time he's just

ringing the bell on Tony, but especially in that first round, even with that, you know, I wonder if that eye poke that brief eye poke, which halted the action, it kind of halted Tony's momentum in that same round, even with that, you know, I wonder if that eye poke that brief eye poke, which halted the action, it kind of halted Tony's momentum in that same regard. He, I took a lot of punishment. Yeah. He got finished again.

And no, I'm not trying to advocate for a guy who just lost six in a row to come back again, but rumors of his, I'm walking on tightrope here, but rumors of his extreme demise, extreme demise might be slightly over-exaggerated. You know what I mean? Like, like I give him a lot of credit. He came in, he fought well.

And I think ultimately the reason why Bobby Green won this is because he didn't fall for any of the attempts by Tony to make this a crazy fight. Tony was actually kind of disciplined in there. And I think that made Bobby Green have to be disciplined at times. And once he was, once he made the adjustment, I thought Bobby Green's second round adjustment to just work behind that jab and his speed advantage, it was the difference, right? And their third round was a little bit different.

Tony actually landed a cracking right hand early in that third round. And I did wonder, like, is he going to win a decision here? Like, is it possible Tony could pull this off if he rallies down the stretch there? But Green turned the tables quickly, picked him apart. And then Tony goes to pull guard and go for one of his rolling attacks. You know, I had spicy California rolls for dinner here from Big Y. I'm not afraid to at least it's not gas station food. Right. He tried to go for one of those in Minari, you know, I don't know, dragon rolls with a side of –

Okay, so it always comes with that green stuff that's like super spicy. I'm not going near that stuff. But that thin white stuff that you put over each one, that's weird, right? Maybe he was going for one of those. And green, I got to give him a lot of credit. Didn't get the submission attempt right away, for it and then got the arm bar and i think tony ended up uh tony tried i'm sorry i'm confusing the two fights in my head did not get the arm bar i'm totally confusing with the other fight um it is after midnight right now so we do

have to let it all hang out on the east coast um i'm confusing it with the arm bar uh in the earlier fight this was the arm triangle choke. And, dude, Tony bit down, man. He tried his best. He tried his best to get out of it. It looked like he actually potentially could have finished off that last final 20 seconds, but Green got the choke tight enough, got him to fall asleep. Perfect stoppage.

There's six seconds to go. I get the under on my okay bet. Does Tony still have a job? That's the thing. It's like he actually, you know, he fought better than Cowboy had during that stretch of really bad finishes that led to his finish. BJ, I mean, God, this was better than the Lava Shack. But, you know, I didn't want to see Diego Sanchez keep going out there,

and I don't know if I still want to see Tony. But, Tony, I love you, man. You fought. You brought it. You got into shape. I mean, you're always in shape, you you brought it you got into shape I mean you're always in shape but you brought it this time it's a good one for Bobby Green um because it was harder than it should have been it's actually the first I love the step they throw out their first submission win since for Bobby Green since his UFC debut 10 years ago wild wild turn of events there but this was kind of a

charming fight on a largely charming card and to kick off this pay-per-view main card again losing wonder boy against pereta the other one perera pereta um kevin holland gave us the breakthrough win that we've wanted needed and asked for for a long time and the fact that he can package this with the one punch knockout win of san diego ponsonibbio in the fight before now means he has legitimate momentum but I think even the difference between this fight and that last one was he both leveled up and matured now tough fight for Michael Chiesa coming off nearly two years away with sustained injuries and I think it's natural to say like you know he's got a really good sort of second career. He's starting as a analyst in the studio.

He does the podcast, I think, with Paul Felder. And he's becoming, you know, kind of a favorite UFC guy. So I'm not, you know, maybe that does begin to lend the idea that half, not one foot out the door, but a half a foot, maybe three toes. Maybe I got bare feet right now, but you don't want to see it. I know you don't want to see it. I look like he was actually going to see it um i look like he was actually going to retire afterwards like he was taking off the gloves they were kind of teasing on the broadcast but i don't think it ended up happening either that or or i looked away to

check out what was going on spence crawford and i missed it but for kevin holland at age 30 to hear that he put all that money into starting basically his own training camp hiring his own full-time wrestling coach this was the change this was it this was the change that he needed because his takedown defense against uh kiesa was was absolutely fantastic and it was and even in i mean even in times where he had top position on the ground and you're starting to see kiesa lock him up and we know what kies could do on his back to see holland deal with all of that bring the fight back to the feet where we knew he would have a striking advantage and then you add in the fact that

kies is on a long layoff yeah dude kies was in great shape he typically is but he was in great shape here and he talked in the pre-fight interviews that they the package they showed about rounding out his game and showing kevin holland a different look we didn't get to see that rounding out and sometimes you know that long time off it can be hard you can get caught early and it's weird it looked like the jumping knee from Holland here that set up this finish was ultimately the thing but Holland would say afterwards in the interview that he didn't really land it flush but he kind of put Kiesa down and saying in the past when Chiesa kind of gets hurt or close to hurt, he kind of starts to fall apart. And according to Holland, he not only was prepared for that, that's what won him it.

And then he even took a shot at Neil Magny saying if Neil Magny was a smarter fighter, he would have figured that out too against him. But this is a big win. I mean, Holland, like he was the ultimate pandemic opportunist. He won five fights in 2020. But that led to this other reputation. I called him the new cowboy, right? Not only Vera.

I don't think he has that, that I don't think this, I don't think his stuff is that potent. You know what I mean? Talking about cowboy Cerrone. And when you take fights, hard fights at the last minute, short notice,

move divisions and you're fighting killers, you're going to juggle wins and losses and it's going to affect your reputation and and and your standing and what people think of you and i think sometimes he got kind of drunk on being young and crazy and remember there was that stretch in the cage holland was doing so much talking that we're starting to say like is this becoming a detriment to who he is even though as he would say that's that's who i am that's why i've always been this is the commitment we've wanted and needed because his move down to welterweight actually wasn't desperate.

Now he's four and two overall. And what's most interesting was that his post fight comments didn't even have anything to do with welterweight. In fact, his post fight comments were that I only came down to 70 for the BMF belt and it doesn't look like the BMF belt is going to be around for me. So I'm going to go back up to middleweight. And this quote was great at the end. He said, I want to eat steaks and lose weight by having sex, which I actually got into my

CBS sports recap, by the way. So that's fantastic. It got, you know, even the editors reach back and we're like, that's a hell of a poll. That's a hell of a quote that you put in there. It's a hell of a quote he delivered. And maybe if it's just from the idea of not having to do that weight cut and and but it seemed like he figured the weight cut out like i don't begrudge him if he feels like he'd be just as good as middleweight why go through that physically but even though he's four and two overall since cutting down to welterweight

if he's going to start having this type of success and, you know, to be fair, he's, he's really focusing on his ground game, especially the wrestling. He's that has a good submission game, but, but to see him really work on the wrestling part of it, if he feels he needs the extra gas in the tank and, and should try that at middleweight, I perfectly understand that,

but he was an interesting experiment at welterweight and per the welterweight version of him. This was the one we've been version of him this was the win we've been waiting for this was the win he needed it's i mean he's quick he's long he's a lot of thank god they were comparative to tommy hearns a little too aggressively right there although i understand the comparison on the broadcast but um i was happy to see that i mean you're always happy to see like derrick lewis tonight like justin gaethje tonight like put poet on tonight when people either mature or evolve or do both on the same night and put it together.

It's inspiring. So that's what I got for you here. I don't want to. I could be here for a long time. Also want to shout out in the preliminary feature about there on ABC and ESPN. Gabrielle Bonefeam of the Bonefeam brothers making his official debut in the UFC after scoring a win on the contender series. Holy crap. We have to readjust our who's coming through that welterweight door pretty soon conversation that used to be Hamzat coming through that welterweight door. Not anymore. We may have another Hamzat type, not, you know, not exactly the same skillset, but his first round submission in 73 seconds against Trevin Giles via guillotine was just one way, just absolute man domination. The ease in which he pulled guard and got that thing sunken in.

He's jacked and huge and aggressive, even coming out, pushing that pacer off the start. And Giles throwing bombs and they're exchanging heavy strikes. It's like, damn, um, he's, so this is my guilty pleasure in this sport. I love the, whether it's bone nickel Hamza. And I love when guys are so good early and we don't have the answers to the questions of, you know, championship stamina and intangibles and IQ and all these things that can only be answered when you finally get pushed back. I like to see him just go, go as high as you can go before, before we see that. Cause sometimes we don't end up seeing that to the highest level, but if that means rushing somebody into a title shot and I don't want to break somebody, right. I mean, was Darren Till kind of rushed into a title shot? Yeah. I didn't think he'd be wonder boy, but that's another question.

I'm one of the only people who predicted that Woodley would finish him, right? I mean, everybody was so down on Woodley heading into that fight. It was crazy. That and gone getting out-wrestled by Francis are the two things that you're going to put on my MMA gravestone, hopefully, one day. But Bone Feme looked like I want to see him against the top like five guy right now now he called out a ranked guy afterwards it through the translator and just said ufc like match me up let's match this guy up let's see what we have here because this is a a i mean he's chiseled so i'm not saying sexy because of that but this is a very sexy rising first fight in the ufc like open our eyes

i mean they put him in the feature about on you on ABC for a reason, right? He delivered. We had some other fun finishes on this card. Miranda Maverick actually got a win. She much needed, but I'm going to wrap this up. This is the craziest night in combat sports in a while. This is wild. Luke Thomas has your Spence Crawford MK instant analysis on the MK channel, youtube.com slash morning combat.

I encourage you to watch that as well. Um, hope you were able to catch all the events or maybe you'll watch them afterwards. What a fun night, but two 91. It delivered. Got a lot to talk about here on Monday. As we match it forward, we'll get Luke's take after he watches the the full i know he was tweeting some and watching that along with in the arena they're watching the boxing undercard but um what a year i know i talk a lot about this year because it's like 2023 and boxing is like amazing and mma hasn't been like as great as it can be but obviously

at least in a main and co-main event since we're still getting very good and meaningful fights in the fights we want and need, short of Francis versus John and Conor versus USADA. But as crazy as this week was and this day, this is, you know, I mean, I'm going to ad nauseum that line from Bill Parcells, but this is why you lift them weights in the offseason. This is why you put up with those fight night cards at the apex this is why every time boxing breaks your heart on a bad scorecard you know what i mean for days like this for nights like this for moments like this for years like this i love this job if i didn't have this job i'd be right with you guys

in your living room watching it watching a watching Ariel and Luke and Kate. Thank you for being on this journey with me. Hope you enjoyed 291. Hope my white belt takes didn't ruin you at all either. But thanks for Mikey Morms on the ones and twos. You can get this shirt, morningcombat.store. Probably our third best item besides the bomber jackets and the drug rugs. This is high quality shit right here.

Hope we didn't get demonetized for that swear. I love the show i love you all combat sports is fantastic right so good i mean did you guys see what happened with spence and crawford i can't wait to talk about this on monday i didn't see the whole thing i i saw flashes i saw flashes of extended brilliance in a way it was like four days ago, guys. I mean, shit's happening. It's happening. It's really happening. It's good.

This is really good. All right? That's it. BC, I'm out of here. Take care of up here, and we'll see you next week. It's going to be great. One love. One love.

We out. Thank you.