MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 295: Prochazka-Pereria | Pavlovich-Aspinall | Q1 Fight Announcements | Morning Kombat Ep 512

Episode Date: November 8, 2023

On Episode 512 of Morning Kombat Luke and Brian get you ready for UFC 295. The boys break down Jiri Prochazka vs. Alex Pereira, Sergei Pavlovich vs. Tom Aspinall and much more. The boys also break down the recent fight announcements from Dana White. As always we close out Wednesday with Fan Submissions. (00:10:50) - Jiri Prochazka vs. Alex Pereira (00:51:40) - Sergei Pavlovich vs. Tom Aspinall (01:08:30) - Rest of UFC 295 Preview (01:37:15) - Q1 Fight Announcements (01:50:00) - Sean O'Malley Boxing Morning Kombat is available for free on the Audacy app as well as Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts and wherever else you listen to podcasts.     For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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

Oh, yeah. Get fired the heck up. The best damn combat sports show, period. Back in your face hole. Yeah, it's Morning Combat Wednesday, November 8th, 2023. Just three days out from UFC 275 and NYC MSG. How many more three-letter contraptions could I produce? I am, though, by the way, the BBC with that BDE. So how about that? Brian Campbell coming at you. That's my co-host that you're looking at. Fresh off a fantastic, by the way, sit-down interview with Corey Sanhagen that you can check out right now. YouTube.com slash Morning Combat. It's Luke Thomas.

Luke, happy hump day to you. Are you feeling what I'm feeling about 275, is all right let's do it you know let's do it yeah i feel pretty good i mean i think the pay-per-view card's pretty good right after that there the the prelims have a couple of gems on them but to me i would say that i rate even with the loss of john jones and all that kind of stuff i rate this card the pay-per-view card pretty good pretty good actually so a lot to like. Pretty, pretty good there. Luke Thomas, it's a great time to be alive.

It's a great time to be excited about the future. What's on your personal radar right now? Anything going on? Yeah, well, I left my glasses at 50-50 BJJ. So after the show is over, I have to drive back out to the belly of the Northern Virginia Beast and go retrieve them, which I'm not looking forward to. However, BC, the question is this. Do I pull the fat guy move?

Because I found this out when I went on Monday. Right next door to 50-50 BJJ is a Taco Bell. Oh, wow. Wow. Yes, yes, yes. And I resisted last time. I resisted on Monday. I don't know if I can resist two trips with no stop in on the bell.

I pulled off a patented fat guy move two weeks ago when I went to New York City for the My Morning Jacket concert, Luke, where I purchased a large meatball pizza from my favorite pizza place of all time in my hometown, Mike's Pizza Palace in Naugatuck, Connecticut. Ate five slices on the ride down, put the rest of the pizza in the trunk at the train station and then the next afternoon when i arrived back to drive home i had seven more slices for the way home so luke is that that to me is like an old school ahead of the game next level fat guy move dude but people are telling me that i'm risking my health by doing that dude i've left pizza out for days and ate it before you know yeah first of all the people who are like like for example you know my my my mother-in-law will refrigerate hot sauce and i'm like why would you it's full of salt and acid like you don't need any of that stuff people people get

a little bit too cautious about it i will say i was sitting here being like wow am i a real fat ass if i just stopped by taco bell for lunch? And you bought an entire pizza, ate five. I don't know when the last time I ever ate five slices in a row was. Maybe I was 14 years old. I can't remember. Are you serious? I don't know the last time I've purchased pizza and didn't eat between six to eight slices, right?

Oh, my God. I mean, I guess if they're the little ones, whatever. But, okay, then you left it in the car, came back and ate it. I got to tell you, that's a Fat Guy Hall of Fame move right there, my friend. Thank you. That is very special levels of Fat Guy. That's a Naugatuck classic. Mikey reporting.

Mikey Mormal, our producer of CBS Sports, said he once saw a headline where someone died for eating pasta that was left out for hours. Yeah, well, so it's a little different. So, like, I've seen this where people get sick off of carryout and whatnot. Sometimes it can be also, like, what you have in there do you have like uh shrimp do you have like chicken things that are a little bit more uh susceptible i think to foodborne illness and then also put it in like tupperware or whatever then leave it out so like all of the you're just baking all of the germ and bacteria juices together yeah that's probably not wise but well leaving a leaving a pizza in your car,

it's a fat guy move, but it's legit. I mean, I drank the tap water in a factory town, Luke, for many years, so I think I'm predestined to avoid any injury with that. But we do, I remind you, we do have a great show coming right at you, full UFC 295 preview. We will update Jake Paul's next boxing opponent. Breaking news. Yay! Just announced a little update on any more potential crossover UFC

boxing matches and an update on the calendar to come. Should be a fantastic episode. Like and subscribe. Thank you to Mikey Moore-Miller, great producer of CBS Sports, handling us today. You can also check out our merch house, morningcombat.store. Get that great Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles shirt

that Luke is wearing, part of the Average Joe Art crossover collaboration here. 1.0, 2.0, we got them all. There it is. Look at that. Just in time for the holiday season. Why don't you head over to our merch house and outfit someone you love

ahead of the big holidays coming in just a few months also uh show what else do we have luke we i mean i was gonna say it's still around a little bit they do exist can i just say something about this shirt because i wasn't even thinking about it not today because i had a jacket but like a few weeks ago i put this on just because like you know that's all i don't really wear anything but mk gear anymore and then i took my daughter to school just not even thinking about it like a few people definitely stared at me in unusual ways. How many people do you know walk around

with their own face on their t-shirt? That's a weird thing, right? Well, here's what happened to me, Luke. My son has been, one of my twin sons has become addicted with working out, going to the gym, which is obviously great. We encourage that. We bought him a membership.

I drive him whenever he wants to go. I go with him a lot. I went in the other day, and I had a sweatshirt on, and I was getting hot. And I'm like, what T-shirt did I put on underneath? Probably not an issue. Took it off. It's the holiday tip-to-tip of our two faces, Luke, pointing and touching tips with Merry Christmas around it.

Not the shirt I want to be wearing in public when I'm working out. And, you know, yeah, there it is. But that's the life we chose. That's the life we live. Buy our merch. Thank you very much. Don't forget, by the way, folks, the final pay-per-view in Showtime Boxing is incredible.

37-year history is going to go down November 25th. Las Vegas, David Benavidez versus Demetrius Andrade. Luke Thomas and I will be calling the prelims for that event. So get fired up in just a couple weeks. I've got an interview right now with David Benavidez versus Demetrius Andrade. Luke Thomas and I will be calling the prelims for that event, so get fired up in just a couple weeks. I've got an interview right now with David Benavidez. You can check out at youtube.com slash morningcombat. More to come with Demetrius Andrade later today. But, Luke, let's just final pitch here to the people.

You talked to Corey Sanhagen. We have been on fire before that with big interviews. We've got a lot more big names to come this week. MK not backing down here, despite all the things going on in the world. A lot of craziness in the world, but we're just trying to keep our heads down and make some good content. I had a great opportunity to stop by 5050BJJ, Falls Church, Virginia. And Corey Sanhagen gave me an hour of his time. He was very generous.

I said this on Twitter last night. Again, just because of the way the industry works, the majority of interviews you're going to do over the course of your career are going to be on that fight week track, either a week or two out, week of, fight day, post fight. It's just always on that calendar. So if you can get an opportunity to talk to a guy or a lady, whoever, but they're not on that track at that moment, I feel like you just get to know them as a person much better.

They're more of themselves. So we got that opportunity. We took it. Yeah, go check it out, please. Well, I've watched half of it, and all I can use are the terms thoughtful, Luke. You don't hear that a lot in an MMA interview, thoughtful. But also, you know, Sanhaken, I feel like he showed you behind the curtain. You know what I mean?

In terms of how he's wired. He's always been a, you've always had a good rapport with him in terms of getting his striking philosophy, but this interview in particular, I encourage people to check it out to really hear the deep pillow talk thoughts of one Corey Sanhagen as he looks at this fight game in general. Very interesting chat there from him. We did not get to chat about our favorite pornographers, but perhaps on the subsequent interview, BC, we'll get to that.

Hopefully. Hopefully, hopefully I'll see if he likes, you know, more of the grapplers or if you can call it that, Luke, right? You know what I mean? Yeah. Okay. Hey, enough of that shit. Let's get into our show. People hate these long intros that just get me fired up for what's to come. Topic number one.

Hey, you guessed it for the eighth time. Let's do the math in my head here. For the seventh time in the eight years since the sport of MMA was re-legalized, if that's even a word, in 2016, the world's leading MMA promotion will go to New York's Madison Square Garden on Saturday. No Jon Jones, no Stipe Miocic. We've been up and down about that.

We do have two absolutely killer title bouts atop the marquee. Nothing bigger than topic number one, Yuri Prohasko, the former light heavyweight champion, back after a long, lengthy recovery from his injured shoulder. He vacated this title and now he's fighting for the vacant title once again. Alex Pereira in his future here, Luke. Pereira trying to become just the ninth two-division champion in UFC history. So, Luke, I want to start right freaking here. Here's a great tweet, by the way, from Andy Hickey MMA that is looking at the statistics leading to this,

that Pereira becomes the 33rd fighter in the modern era to attempt to win a second title in as many weight divisions. Only eight before him have been successful. I believe only four have been simultaneous, but you can see the list there. Who do you think's the lowest rated two division title attemptee, Luke? Is that Gil Castillo? Who the heck's that, Luke? Or is that Jermaine Durant to me? Gil Castillo was like a 2003, 2004 era grappling-based guy.

I forget. I think he's out of the – who's the Gracie out of San Francisco? The one who's like super violent. I forget. That's a deep cut, dude. I didn't recognize that name at first. That's a deep cut. Fought Dave Manet, according to Mikey?

Yeah, yeah, yeah. He was a grappling-based guy, I think, out of the West Coast. But, yeah, listen, he is no scrub. Like, there's no one on this list who sucks. Like, there's not. The entire list is full of good fighters. But, yes, Gilka's CEO, relatively speaking, is probably less distinguished than some of the other names you saw. All right.

Well, Luke, look, one of the biggest things you can say about this fight, the actual fight we're going to see, Prochazka versus Pereira. We could talk at length about how crazy and ridiculous this division is of late, the title picture. I mean, we're fighting, we're doing vacant title fights that are going to disappointing draws. We're having two of the last three champions get injured. I mean, look, if you look at the title reigns since Jon Jones vacated this belt, it has been very short. It's been 100 days here, 100 couple days here for this champion. Injuries have abounded. But while it would be understandable for us to lead off on the history

that Pereira is trying to make here and the fact that he still has, like, what, like 10 career MMA fights, just has only been in the UFC for two years, and now he's trying for his second title in as many divisions. Why are we not talking enough about Prochaska's similar streak, considering he only has three UFC fights, and he's a former champion going back to try to regain his title. He's in the midst of an incredible win streak that dates back to 2015, including huge wins in rising over some household names.

Luke, what Prochazka has done and is trying to do here in this first fight back from injury, you got to admit, it's just as equally as impressive as what Poiton's been doing. Or is it? Well, I guess I hadn't thought of it that way. I kind of think of them as doing separate things, right? Poetan, to me, is still... I mean, at this point, yes, he's converted over, and he's done really well for himself.

I mean, to the point you're raising, look where he has arrived. But I still... Didn't he get entered over the weekend to the Glory Hall of Fame? Just a third fighter to do that, yeah. Right, so I sort of still see him as a guy who's still converting over under the tutelage of glover to shara he's picking up a lot he's looked very great you know we all know the story but i sort of see him as a guy who is very much trophy hunting with the limited time he has remaining whereas uh and not that i'm judging

it just sort of saying that's the track that it is whereas Prochaska is this guy who is basically just an MMA fighter as I mean he's a he's a he couldn't be anything else he's too wild he's too unrestrained he's very much that he's in every kind of way both what you expect out of an MMA fighter kind of what you don't but he really just he exudes that in his style his style is kind of frenetic and all over the place and violent and deadly and athletic all that stuff so they So they're just kind of doing different things. They have very different styles. But I guess the point you would raising is like the historical, not narrative rather, but the historical implications of this and the reality of it as well. I have to say, BC, the division has been in chaos. It's been a theme of the conversation we've had around it

for a long time. The fight that he had with Glover contributes to the part of that long chaos and then the subsequent injuries or whatever but what I would say is I kind of feel like guys this distinguished whether they have long reigns or not will probably help bring some order and control to this division especially if it's Prochaska even though he's kind of wild there are of a certain pedigree that, frankly, it seems like the rest of the division is not quite at that level. Yeah, that's like the silver lining in all this. Even though this fight had already been booked, right, and is now the main event after initially being the co-main event to Jones-Mijicic, there's like everything you would want in here.

The promise, not the possibility, the promise of two-way aggressive violence. I mean, I don't know if you saw Pereira in the UFC Embedded Series basically saying, this will be a great fight. This will be an all-action fight. It is up to me, he says, to make it one, and I will. So you got that. You've got the vacant title. You've got everything we're talking about,

the idea of Poetan becoming a two-division champion, potentially here in just such a short turnaround, when he's already a two-division champion and now Hall of Famer in glory. So we are talking about one of the craziest sort of transitions here that we've ever seen. Yet Prohaska's been off for 17 months. He only has three UFC fights. He is a champion like Jamal Hill, who was recently vacated, who didn't lose the belt in the cage. So there is so much to love here. But Luke, Yuri, 17 months removed. If you watch the countdown show, you listen to the interviews with his team,

they say that physically he has not only fully recovered, that he's actually surpassing his initial numbers on all of the tests. I don't know if you saw him. They hooked him up to machines, kind of like Drago in Rocky IV, and he was passing all of the tests in flying colors. So he's going to have to shake off cage rust. We know what he brings, but here's what I want to ask you to start off about the former champion. He had an interesting quote in the Embedded.

He said, against Glover Teixeira, I learned how not to fight. When you consider that he won that via fifth round submission to win the championship luke what do you think he's referencing and how much more dangerous could he be if we refine some of that craziness here's what he means i'll tell you exactly what he means just read glover he lost the fight but read glover's stat line from this fight. How about that? He landed 111 significant strikes. By the way, Glover, not exactly a light-touch guy, right? I mean, he's got good, very respectable power, number one. He threw overall 212 strikes.

He got five takedowns on him, BC, five takedowns. He was credited with his own submission attempts two reversals and then nine minutes and 47 seconds of control time what he's talking about is that yes glover to share might be old but he's very talented that was a dog fight that was a dog fight he had to fight for every inch of it because he continually continuously bc got hit he continuously made suboptimal decisions and in in the end, what really saved him is he's got an incredible chin, which by the way, you know, you're not going to have one forever, but it seems like he's got one now. And he's just got a real kind of incredible moxie to just try

things in ways other guys don't. He has a certain presence of mind in the middle of a melee to go for very, at times low percentage, but for him, effective techniques. And in the middle of a melee to go for very, at times, low percentage, but for him, effective techniques. And in the end, having the presence of mind to go for, not that a rear naked choke is some kind of thing, esoteric submission, but again, having just the awareness and then the, again, the willingness to go for it late in a very, very difficult fight, it speaks highly of him. But BC, dude, listen to this. Listen to this. This is not just the last fight. This is his overall career. Yuri's strikes absorb per minute. This guy's trying to reclaim a title is 5.4. Dude, you just, you know, again, the overall weight of Justin Gaethje's career will have his numbers a little high. But what I would say is in general, you have a number that high,

you're probably nowhere near the title level of the game, and you're also getting slept routinely. Dude, he is, statistically speaking, he is overdue to get viciously KO'd. I'm not even trying to jinx it or do a bit. I'm not making a prediction on that. I'm just saying every other guy with this analytical profile has been viciously KO'd at some point. It's just a really weird, unusual way in which he's able to succeed. So are we expecting based on those comments then, and based on what we've

seen from him in every one of his spectacular wins? I mean, look, Luke, he only has three UFC fights. Let's remember that despite all those knockout wins over household names before that in Japan, he's got three fights, two knockouts and and a submission but yet like he took damage against Volkanov's Zemir right he there it wasn't it wasn't a one-way you know traffic against Dominic Reyes until the finish he took tremendous punishment against Glover when you have 17 months off to not just heal physically but to reset mentally we have seen a lot of fighters come off along layoffs and having raised the true levels of their game, not just rounding it out, but improving some of the impaired areas. Are you

expecting him to be more selective? And I asked you off the top whether that'll make him more dangerous. Obviously, there's a flip side element. You can become too selective and you can lose the danger. I think the danger Yuri brings is not just the unpredictable explosive strikes, but the fact that he'll stand in front of you with his hands down and be willing to take your best punch in order to land that counter shot. Do you expect a change in that regard? I don't think he's going to look completely different. No, I don't, I don't, I'm not anticipating that on some level, what you see of him when he competes this way is just an expression of his personality, which itself is also somewhat unusual even in a world filled with unusual people I think

most people would agree with that he's a very much his own guy and when you see him compete you can tell he's kind of going for things that appeal to him that speak to him in a way in which he wants to compete but the reality is he has won. I can grant BC that because he does have that presence of mind and that athletic courage in the pocket in these melees to try things and go for things, that that kind of works for him, at least it has worked for him in most cases, or many cases anyway, up to this point. But the thing I want folks to remember is it's also put him in an unusual amount of peril because he has courted so much danger.

He, to me, has won in spite of it. I don't think you can completely change your style and not lose the baby with the bathwater. He's going to, I think, be better about decisions. He might be more selective about how long he spends in the pocket how much of the fight spent was on the outside i do think he'll clean up the edges so to speak of this but he is a risk taker he is a guy who likes explosive movements i don't think he's just gonna stop doing that this time no yeah all right we're gonna obviously have a lot to say about poet on but let's stick with yuri right here He caught up with Shaquille Majore of CBS Sports,

the Shaq MMA channel on YouTube. Good God, Luke, it's must-see TV, right? He'll text you. He'll text you. Boy, will he. That guy will get his shit promoted. He's a go-getter, and I can appreciate that. But here is Yuri talking about what I think a lot of us are thinking, the shoulder injury. How do you feel?

How do you expect it to feel in the cage in MSG on Saturday night? The life is a challenge for me. So all these things around is, but it's beautiful because every time when some obstacles before you, it gave you also, it gave you opportunity to to grow up to be stronger too and that's what I want to show that I I spent one year not just not just to to recover my shoulder but to upgrade my style upgrade my mindset, and that's what I want to show in the cage. You see the tail of the tape for this main event matchup.

Very similar one-inch height advantage for Poetom, one-inch reach advantage for Yuri. You can see the difference in KO numbers. That's mostly because of Prochazka having a much more lengthy, detailed career. Luke, we know that there's a possibility for Prochazka to raise his game in certain areas, but as we know him through three UFC fights, how would you characterize his ground game? Because, boy, does he have a large feather in his cap of a submission win over Glover Teixeira in the fifth round, which is one of the more shocking discoveries we've seen. Credible on the ground?

How do you sort of look at that, knowing that although Poiton has improved his takedown defense, his ground game, for the most part in the UFC, has been not part of his attack? He took Izzy down. That was interesting. That's true. Again, this is the story of Yuri.

It's like when he wants to be reasonably technical, he can be. I would say the fact that he still had grappling strength later in a fight is kind of interesting. So he's probably got a great squeeze. He looks physically strong. That's important to remember. He is not a tremendous threat at all off of his back. He will take his time to get to his feet. He's not super quick about it, but is methodically correct uh overall um he will take

risk he will he's not so much a guy who's like even correct me if i'm wrong even with the glover to sheriff fight he didn't really put the hooks in right it was almost more of a rear naked choke bulldog choke to an extent right so well did it feel like glover tapped out due to like exhaustion and damage which normally we might damn a man for but he went through freaking hell at like 41 yeah yeah he went to hell and back i mean that you just i i i tend to think it probably did play a role you know but the last thing i'm about to do on the show and i know you would agree yeah not going to question glover's heart in any capacity i just think when you've taken that kind of a beating for that long you just just can't expect anything from a guy. So you got what you got there. I'm just saying he has his,

he's not going to get overwhelmed on the ground, BC, although he could, I would also say this, what we found out in the Teixeira fight, his pound defense, not great. I didn't love that really at all from him, but he doesn't get super overwhelmed for the most part on the ground unless you're like a really technical passer

like Teixeira, which I do not imagine that a guy like Poiton's going to be at this stage. But he doesn't get super overwhelmed for the most part on the ground. Unless you're like a really technical passer. Like to share, which I do not imagine that a guy like Poiton is going to be at this stage. Not a threat off his back. Can be one on top. But has sometimes sloppy positioning. But at times pretty good. It really is depending on what kind of mood he wants to be in, I suppose. Yeah, that's going to be interesting to see how this plays into this fight.

Let's go over to Alex Pereira. Look, it's such an interesting scenario to see how this plays into this fight. Let's go over to Alex Pereira. Look, it's such an interesting scenario. Only his 11th pro MMA fight, just his 7th UFC appearance. And, I mean, he literally is knocking on the doorsteps of history. What's interesting, too, is he went 2-1 to start his MMA career in a trio of fights that took place over a 6-month span between 2015 and 2016. But it wasn't until 2020 that he joined forces with Glover Teixeira as a mentor, moved his life to the greater Danbury, Connecticut area, had that knockout win over Thomas Paul on LFA before kicking off the following year

his UFC career. But in short time, Luke, Poiton has made MSG an incredible home for him. Let's not forget he debuted at UFC 268 with a second round flying knee knockout win. He won the middleweight championship against Israel Adesanya in the same building at UFC 281. And now he's trying to become a two division champion. The Glover

relationship is so key to who Alex has become as an MMA fighter. How much though did Alex show you in that victory over Jan Blachowicz back at UFC 291 in July of this year, that that influenced particularly toward the ground game, the takedown defense, these areas where initially we were like, this guy's going to have a lot of trouble here.

Luke, he's making quick strides. How quick in your eyes? Well, I mean, let's talk about the facts here. So Blachowicz got three of eight takedowns. He got, let me see where they all came. He got one a round, basically. Now, he tried eight times. He only got three, but he was able to get one in each round.

To me, that's the more important statistic there. Also, he accumulated seven and a half minutes of control time. However, BC, first round, 450. Second round, 157. Third round, just 45 45 seconds so he got better as time went on so there's a bit of a give and take there when I look at numbers like that and what I see is I see a guy who probably is still very much behind the eight ball when it comes to overall grappling but has enough defensive fundamentals that he himself won't get necessarily overwhelmed and because of his other overall combative athletic skills can begin to get a little bit sharper as the fight goes on.

This one will be for five rounds. Keep that in mind. That could be kind of interesting as well. So I don't want to say that he hasn't made any progress on the ground. In fact, the fact that he got better with Blachowicz over the course of that fight tells you he clearly has. But also if you're able to be controlled for up to a minute into the third round of a three-round fight, you know, there probably are some questions about your ultimate upside and your real ability there.

So what I would say is, BC, it really kind of depends. Here's what I would say. Blachowicz is going to likely be a little bit more direct with his control on the ground than a guy like Yuri. I can see Yuri being a guy like going for the back, but ultimately if it proves unsatisfying, not going back to it, right? Not being disciplined about it in that way, trying to open up, trying to get some strikes going, which can be, you know, very hit or miss as a strategy. Whereas Blachowicz I think is going to be a little bit more risk averse in certain situations like that. So this, this fight will, if it goes to the ground might have some similarities but i think will be a little bit different especially the longer it goes and

how it looks uh i re-watched the blohovich fight i'm really i mean look it was a split decision a three-round fight like you mentioned not a five-round championship fight like this one but those leg strikes luke the the constant calf kick attack seemed to be a real key to what uh potato was perera excuse me was doing out there perera perera yeah yeah listen that's going to be key in this one too i think if you're i mean if you're team poet on what would you imagine like just imagine what would the strategy have to be short tight punches to offset the looping crazy explosive ones on the other side make him dude he's gonna make mistakes let him let him walk side. Make him, dude, he's going to make mistakes.

Let him. Let him walk into stuff, right? Set traps for him. He's going to move into it eventually, even if he is more disciplined. You asked that question before, right? What are we expecting from Yuri? I do think you're going to expect him to be tightened up, but just a different style altogether.

That's just not possible. It's really not who he is, or at least I should say very unlikely, is maybe a fair way to put that. So if you're you're team poet on it's going to be the left hook it's going to be the jab it's going to be great footwork it's going to be letting the guy come into him um and that to me is a very doable winning uh executable strategy if ever there was one for that guy do you think there there's room for Poetan to be even more dangerous in the striking set if he relied more on kicks, not just calf kicks, but really made body kicks, high kicks a threat out there? He seems to be more boxing heavy in this UFC run on the transition from kickboxing. Probably a lot of that is a function of takedown concerns,

I would imagine, right? Dialing it back, the calf kick of all of the kicks. If you kick someone's thigh with your shin, it's not just a function of your shin being higher on their leg. In order to do that, you actually have to be a little bit closer to land with that kind of an authority. And again, it's all give and take about how you set it up, who you're fighting, where you want to kick them. But the calf kick allows you to be a little bit further away from their strikes if they're trying to get back at you circling out getting out at an angle gives you a little bit more of that room and of course they're very very devastating it makes a lot of sense to me that he would dial back some of the other ones to go for that and then work more in his game also dude one

thing about like again it's all there's there's positives and minuses to any style Pereira Pereira holds his hands kind of out here he He doesn't really hold them here, right? He's not, he's not, it's not a tight guard. Everything is kind of hanging out here. And so that makes him defensively vulnerable, right? Go back to the second, well, the fourth, but the second MMA Izzy fight where he's striking and then he's not bringing his hands back. He's just bringing them back here. It could cost him big time. But then you might be saying, well, why does he do that? For many reasons, one of which is if your hands are here and then the target's out there, it's just a longer distance to travel. But you see, he likes to hang them here because he can just touch the guy so much quicker

when your hands are already that far away from your body. So it's a give and take. You have to manage distance with your feet that way so you don't get hit. But it's a great thing. Dude, I think that kind of style with his hands out here, if he's really careful about the distance, that's a style that should light a guy like Prochocka on fire, right? That would be exactly the kind of thing you would want. Again, assuming his distance management is where it's supposed to be. So it's like you're asking of all the things that Poiton can do. Just his style of striking I think in general will serve him here with the caveat of course that Brohachka could come leaping out of nowhere with the most unusual angle and then sleep him you know that's on the table too absolutely on the table and I think I'd say

Yuri has a great chin great chin because you need one to employ that style. Would you say Poiton has shown, outside of the knockout loss on the counter shot from Adesanya, he's shown a pretty damn good chin, right? Nothing to be worried about in this regard? Bruno Silva, I think, kind of rattled him a little bit in their fight. Nothing too crazy, you know, in general good. Izzy nearly finished him around one of their first MMA fights. Yes, but of course, you're talking about a guy who was cutting enormous amounts of weight as well.

Dude, how did he make that? In hindsight, how the hell did he make middleweight nine times in MMA? I mean, seriously. Look at that guy. And again, doing it after the age of 35 in many cases. Just absurd. Completely absurd. So I actually think his chin will be better here, and he will need it.

This is the thing, dude. Prochocka doesn't just really start to chop you down with leg kicks in that way, in a dedicated kind of way, or the jab in a dedicated kind of way. He will just hit you with something malicious in a moment of openness from this chaos he's created, and it has devastating effects, right? So that's what he has to stay out of here, if you're Poetom. We only have one light heavyweight MMA fight for Poetom. We've got a longer history in kickboxing in general. But I wonder, Luke, if we'll end up finding out that Pereira is a better light heavyweight

in mixed martial arts than he was in middleweight. I wonder if we'll end up finding that out. Well, dude, I'll say this. If he becomes a champion and defends it, he would already right because he's been a champion at middleweight so if he became a champion here technically there wouldn't be a major dividing line but if you can defend that title i would consider that you know a pretty big marker of success uh especially considering what is he 37 now 36 36 yeah getting up there well we are finding out you know glover proved that that you can you can age late at light heavyweight.

Not as easy to age late at heavyweight. It's easier at heavyweight, but you can, Luke. I mean, Daniel Cormier was still light heavyweight champion late into his 30s. Look at Teixeira. Look at a lot of this division in general seems to be guys right in the midst of the tail end of their physical prime, but for them it's sort of putting it all together.

I mean, look at Blachowicz winning the title in his late 30s. So we have seen that. I want to get you the updated odds right now for this fight. According to our friends at FanDuel, it's close as heck, Luke. Minus 128, Pereira, your favorite,

plus 100, Prochazka, your underdog. Now look, that's basically a pick-em, but are you surprised at all that Poiton off of one split decision against Blachowicz is the betting favorite here against the former champion no I'm not surprised the time off for Prochazka is a significant

question I think in the NBC the way you're talking about it, as it will be like a refreshing reset moment, it probably will be. I'm not expecting him to look bad at all, at all. But will he be as finely tuned as he might need to be? That remains a question. I guess we'll see. Certainly for the amount of time that he's had off questioning it, I don't think it's a bad idea. And the other part is, there are questions certainly about Poiton and his ground game. There are questions about his chin, just given what we saw at 185. How much will that change at 205?

Not that it's some grand liability, but again, something to pay attention to. But because of this sniping nature of Poiton's striking, I would imagine that's why they've got him edged out as a bit of a favorite here. He is very precise. He is powerful. His left hook and, to an extent, his jab are unforgiving. His leg kicks, you can only take so many of them. For a guy like Prohachka who makes a lot of errors, you're going up against a guy you're not allowed to make a lot of errors

against you can only make a few against against a guy like poet on and sometimes not even that many before you're in deep deep shit with him and i can see why they would angle that direction all right how it's going to be significant if poet on wins this but i'm trying to figure out how significant he'd be a two division champion in the uf the UFC, not just MMA, in the UFC in just 11 fights. He obviously has an incredibly decorated kickboxing career because he's in the Glory Hall of Fame and he owns two wins over Adesanya, including one by knockout. If he wins on Saturday, these are the current or former champions that Alex Pereira will have defeated in his seven UFC fights. Sean Strickland by first round knockout, Israel Adesanya by fifth round knockout,

Jan Blachowicz, and now the potential for Yuri Prohotska. Luke, how do you frame that historically? Also, can Poiton become a sneaky star? Is the language barrier too much? Because he does embody a really unique badass demeanor. Look, tattoos, sports cars. You always see him with a sense of humor with these Easter Island statues lately. I mean, look, the guy's got some charisma underneath that. How do you frame, though, what the hell we will do Sunday morning if this

guy is a two division champion in 11 fights so a couple things I do think he can be a star the only issue that he might have is that it takes a longer time than you might imagine and often what you end up seeing is that by the time fighters become stars they're kind of on the way down I hope that won't be the case with Alex, but I do agree with you. He's got some real potential. And I don't make the rules, folks. I don't like this any more than you. It doesn't matter to me necessarily whether they can speak English,

but it does seem to have... The two do seem to be correlated. The extent to which you can speak English to a pay-per-view buying market like the United States, it will impact to what extent you can become a star is the way that it goes.

I wish it wasn't, but it is. Okay, neither here nor there. You're asking where he would be placed among these great champions, or how would we even evaluate his record? Listen, there can be no denying that if he ends up beating Prochocka, he has done something incredibly special, and I think we'll have to figure out exactly what that is based on the way he performs. But BC, we also have to be honest a little bit.

He has gotten, not that he hasn't necessarily made good use of it in a way that further rewards it, but he's gotten very favorable matchmaking. They put this guy to the front of the line very quickly in not one but two different weight classes. And he has done, in large part, everything you would want of a guy who has been given that kind of treatment. I'm not necessarily speaking out against it, but if this was a guy that everyone hated, they loved him, to your point, but if this was a guy everyone hated, they'd be pointing out, this guy keeps getting X, Y, and z and hasn't done shit to earn it right there would be those criticisms such that you would find them meritorious or not and as well you're also pointing out he got through Blachowicz to some degree I think questionably

so I think we can say he would be really really talented and I think would deserve a place among some of the more decorated champions the UFC has had but he has had a lot of favors done for him. That's not his fault, but they are just that, favors. All right, would you then, if we're not going to put him with this win on the level of the upper room, as I like to say, with the Joneses, GSPs, Anderson Silva, Fedor, Demetrius Johnson, if you prefer Jose Aldo or anyone else in that room, you know what I'm talking about.

Who's outside that room looking in? I think people like Volkanovski, BJ Penn, Randy Couture, Adesanya. I mean, look, there's Daniel Cormier. There's been so many great heroes. But would you say if he accomplishes this, that it's almost more comparable to the unique resume Henry Cejudo has where he's similarly, if this happens, a two-division champion who was given, I don't want to say preferential matchup treatment because that's not the case, but Cejudo's an opportunist. He got opportunities that I felt at the time maybe came too quickly, but to his credit, he stamped home those opportunities and became a two-division champion and put together an incredible resume in a short run. I think he's one of those unique guys because I think the thing that Cejudo also suffers from

is maybe not, like Habib, maybe not the length of the career we would have wanted, the amount of the elite names he has faced, but there's still something very unique that you would have to put up very high if he's able to accomplish this. And like Cejudo, he also had a background in another major combat sport and was highly decorated. So love everything about this, but let's not forget... I would say very quickly, very quickly, I would say Cejudo did have to earn it a little bit more in MMA and faced a little bit more setback.

I mean, this guy's gone from loss to now within two fights to another. And also, I think he's been done favors by matchmaking, but also just the timing. And I got to say this too, Ankalayev fumbling the bag a couple times has helped a guy like Pineda just slot right into the space that I kind of thought he was going to take. So he's got just good timing, good matchmaking for him,

good performances by him. It all has kind of worked, but we have to be honest about the circumstances that brought us here. I still don't know if Ankalayev is sort of like the uncrowned champion in waiting but now twice whether it's his fault or not in both scenarios luke he's come up empty from cashing in on either the title or if he had beaten johnny walker emphatically you'd be you might be lining him up now he may have been in i mean he may be he may have been already named the number one contender so here we are will we get though will we get some not closure but some what's the word i'm looking for here luke will the champion

stay the champion will we get consistency at the top from the winner of this fight or is the division too volatile because i know jamal hill is a lot more focused on fighting ariel these days but he's going to come back he says d Dana promised him a title shot upon coming back. So you're not going to have an easy path through this 205 run, no matter who you are. There are some killers out there, Luke. Yeah, there certainly are. Jamal Hill, we'll see when he'll be back and what that will look like.

Folks have asked, like, who should get a title shot next? And I'm like, well, I don't know. But if Jamal Hill's ready, it should be him. Certainly no doubt about it. The consistency thing i mean here's the thing bc i'm not expecting another person to go on like like what's volk up to now five title defenses looking for six something like that yeah i'm not expecting that from anybody i'm looking for two maybe three title defenses that's it i don't i don't think you can really

expect any of these even all these guys have one or two things that are really interesting and really special about them, whether it's their physical features or their backgrounds or some of the particular things that they do, but none has this overwhelming, total look about them or really the overall material of what's there that can give you the sense that there's something truly dominant in an era-defining kind of way. But I do think you have some guys that can put together some very respectable, difficult win streaks. You know, Fightmetric told me something, BC.

I don't know how true it is anymore. This was about six or seven years ago. But what they told me at the time was if you look at all the UFC fighters who have ever competed in the UFC, any one competitor, how many of them just have a three-fight win streak? 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. Get groceries delivered across the GTA from real Canadian superstore with PC express shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC optimum points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. How many of those? And the answer apparently was like less than 5%, right?

Something, some absurdly small number have a three fight win streak. Now you add onto that, you know know winning a title and winning another time like so they're they're being tasked here with doing really really difficult things in a historic way but um i guess we'll have to see how it all looks yeah prohotska comes in as the number one contender the former champion uh this is going to be a great fight where is i'm trying to figure out where is proton right number three overall luke there were a trio of big pay-per-view fights announced by Dana White that we're going to get into shortly. Get your reaction.

One that came under the radar that Ariel Helwani announced is a part of this division. He announced it on his MMA fighting show. It's No. 4 Jan Blachowicz against No. 5 Alexander Rakic right around the turn of the new year. We have some idea of how they are plotting the future. We don't know what's going to come out of those other matchups, but you still have Ankalayev at two.

You've got Krylov at six, Johnny Walker, seven, Anthony Smith, Ozdemir and Spann round out the top 10. I don't feel like though, do we have an up and comer outside the top 10 that we feel like could be a future title challenger? That's, that's what we don't have. Real depth at 205, right? We've got craziness. We got injuries.

We got anyone who could score a highlight reel finish to become champion on any given night, but I don't think we've got that next generation right now, Luke, right? No, they're going to run back to Blachowicz fight where I guess he lost via KO, but it was actually the injury. And so I kind of thought Rakic was going to take over. I've long thought once Rakic was going to take over I've long thought once Rakic fought Jimmy Mano I was like oh oh he might be the next one yeah but I think

he hasn't quite exactly turned that corner in the way that we had wanted as well so there again dude there's lots of guys with like interesting athletic profiles interesting wins certainly some very high level capabilities in particular dimensions but who's got that overwhelming tsunami force like you know and john jones of course is the apex version of that for that weight class but even like a daniel cormier version of that you just i just don't see that guy right now in that space i don't i don't see it necessarily either we'll see if we see in this matchup final storyline on prohotska versus pere. Let's not forget that Prochazka... What am I supposed... I'm trying to figure out.

I saw that John Anik tweet. So here's what you're doing because I have to learn this too. Spanish has a similar kind of way of using this. You have to learn how to flick your tongue on the R. So the way we would say it is you're right. We would look at that and we would say Pereira. That's how we would say it.

But they're going to let the tongue kind of lay on the back of the teeth like that, so it's more of a perera. I'm kind of flicking the tongue up at the roof of the mouth. So that's what led me to the perera, the all-or-nothing perera. Yeah, there's no D there. You're hearing a D. There's no D. It's just the tongue flicking the roof of the mouth, perera. Sounds a lot like cunnilingus, Luke, but that's just me.

The final bit of storyline that i'm referencing here is the fact that the last time we saw prohatska he finished glover to share the icon the you know de facto sort of uncle best friend here of alex perera so alex caught up with shaq majori on exactly that the idea of avenging his mentor's defeat. Let's hear from him. He was quite literally seconds away from beating Yuri Prochocka before Yuri found the submission. How much does it motivate you knowing that you can go in there and sort of avenge Glover and bring his championship and possibly now your championship back home?

Well, I'm not going to just fight with mixed emotions about vengeance because, you know what I mean? I don't want to play that thing. I want to go with a very positive mindset. So I'm going to fight like, I want to go with the mindset that they not even have fought before. But looking through the other side of being able to bring Glover's belt back and put that back in the gym,

that means a lot to me. No, Luke, he wasn't throwing his voice. That was a translator. But how badass was that Fatality Poetan shirt that he was wearing? And when Poetan's just doing this, it's pretty intimidating into the camera, Luke. But he wants to avenge his mentor's defeat.

Let's go back one more time to Yuri as good old Shaq Majuri brought the answer to him and got his reaction about this. Because let's not forget, Prochazka was supposed to rematch Teixeira initially. Then the injury happened. So did Yuri get a chance to pick between the two? Let's hear. How does it feel for you to get to fight someone who's looking to avenge what you did to their mentor? It's for me a beautiful story and a big challenge. Yeah, a big challenge yeah big challenge because uh i have to say alex

is not good martial artist like on the ground on the wrestling and but one thing he he can he can do he he know what he knows to do. And that's his striking. And it will be a pleasure to compete him in the stand-up. Alright, Luke, I may have set that up incorrectly, but you got your answer there.

I don't think it's going to go to the ground based on what Yuri just said. And let's see. This bromance between Poetan and Glover, like I want this for us. I also want to be part of this, Luke. So when are you and I going to travel on down to old Bethel, Connecticut to share MMA and fitness and get on the mats? I mean, do you think that Glover would remember us from the room service diaries? We'd have to bring Chuck with us so we can get, like, you know, accepted right away. Would he stretch me on the ground, like, Stu Hart style,

and hurt me to try to welcome me to the sport? Or would he be gentle if I was like, hey, Glover, why don't you show me one of those Darces you got? I don't even know. I wish he would mangle you. I wish he would mangle you. I wish he would mangle you. That'd be sick. He's a nice guy.

He is too nice of a guy. He always told me he doesn't dance at parties. He just drinks and tells stories. And I'm like, bro, you owe me some stories. Come on now. We do. Can we go to his house? See, he's such a nice guy that you and I are probably not that far away

from ending up in his kitchen with chuck and poet on drinking beers and just like being men right after showtime closed we weren't that far from mowing his lawn let's be honest we nearly became his groundskeepers all right well i only have one more question on this fight if poet on wins will he become the new king of connecticut remember in terms of the pound for pound-pound lineage, it was me. Glover had the title quickly. I want it back. Don't forget Dana White is also from Connecticut, Luke.

No, he doesn't count. He doesn't count. Okay, okay, okay. Oh. See, that's tough because Apathy has a new album coming out, and you've got to leave room for him. Parker Porter's in shape now, Luke. Parker Porter, he slimmed down.

He slimmed down a little bit. Parker, I wouldn't give it to him. The question is to me, does it go to Apathy or does it go to Poetan? You know what? I'll tell you what. If Poetan wins a second UFC belt, even though he's got some favorable matchmaking, just to do it is just damn near impossible. I think you've got to give it to him.

I think you have to give it to Poetan. Got to give it to him. I think you have to give it to Poiton. Got to give it to him. Got to get that. Topic number two, Luke, is a fantastic co-man event. No, it's not Jon Jones. No, they did not replace the star power, but we're past that, Luke. What we have is an interim heavyweight title fight that you can't miss. Tom Aspinall.

Did you just poo-poo that? What was this move, Luke? No, I'm saying you can't miss. We might miss it, you're saying. Yeah. No, I'm agreeing with you. I'm agreeing with you. Okay.

Tom Aspinall will be accepting this fight on just, what, two weeks notice, but still so good. Sergey Pavlovich, Tom Aspinall, here are your updated odds from FanDuel. How close is this fight? Minus 122. Your favorite is Aspinall, but Pavlovich also on the minus side, 104. So again, another, look, this is the best thing you can say about this. And there's the tail of the tape between the two of those, as you see the height advantage

for Aspinall, but how about a six inch reach advantage for Pavlovich? That's a huge part of the story, by the way. Who's riding a six-fight first-round knockout streak. Luke, what you would say about these two matchups are, damn, this is good matchmaking. Basically a pick-em in both fights in terms of the odds. I know we have Espinol on a short turnaround. Will that matter in the end as to who wins this fight? It could.

Which is always the answer. I think that there's a very strong chance you'll see to what extent preparation really mattered here. Sometimes you get a result and you're like, well, I have no idea how much prep mattered here. And then there's times you're like, oh, right, it mattered a lot. I think you'll get a case here where one way or the other, it'll probably matter a lot.

I love this fight, BC. And by the way, I got to say something about doing tape study for this fight. It's so easy. How about this? All but one of Aspinall's UFC fights has been in the first round. And the one that didn't only made it to the second. And literally every single one of Pavlovich's fights, win or lose, only has the one loss, but but whatever all ended in the first round you can watch their entire catalogs all in about 30 minutes yeah it's kind of fun actually

Aspinall shared on uh embedded or countdown one of the two that he is the number one fighter in the UFC in terms of shortest average fight time per fight and number two is Pavlovich oh that could be right I mean obviously there's got to be a minimum amount of fights on that but in terms of who qualifies that's one versus two of essentially who are the hottest finishing stars of the moment obviously that comes against lower competition as they're rising but both have started to face pretty damn good ones so let's start with Aspinall here 30 years old old, the betting favorite on short notice. Luke, the only loss in the UFC was the injury to Curtis Blades in July of 2022.

He came back one year, one day away from one year later in July and stopped marching Ty Burra in just over one minute. Luke, there are a lot of reasons that make Aspinall potentially heavyweight 2.0, the guy that we thought Cyril Ghosn might become in terms of just being kind of next level. What is, though, the one aspect about Aspinall's game that makes him so special? I know that's a trick question because it's well-rounded everything, but what is the one thing that is separating him from the group below him? Okay, so there's many things. You're asking, like, what he's good at, but what's the thing that is separating him from the group below him okay so there's many things you're asking like

what he's good at but what's the thing that separates him i would say well-roundedness mixed with um good athleticism and good hand speed speed and good decision making good decision making it's not one thing. You're like, the answer is everything, BC. Got it. Well, you're asking, like, what are the things? Okay, because he's got, like, he doesn't have dominant punching power. Like, he's a strong puncher, but he's not a one-hitter quitter.

But, you know, he's a big heavyweight, so if he hits, it hurts. But that doesn't make him stand out. That's not really it. He's got a great ground game, and I think he's got a better ground game than Pavlovich. But he's not, like, a world champion on the ground, So it's not like exactly what you would say there. Um, you know, so there's things you can go through that he's good at, but they're not like the stand apart things. The stand apart things are hand speed, foot speed, the, the, the, the decision-making things like that. Those are the things that really stand apart in this contest. But BC Pavlovich, dude, he does, I mean,

he's a physical brute and has had good time to prep. Of all the fights on the card, people I think might like the main event more. Your mileage may vary, but not to me. To me, this is by far the most interesting fight on this whole card. I love this contest. Pavlovich with what, a longer reach than Jon Jones

or the same reach at 84 inch? Same. 84 inch reach. And dude, I got to tell you, you go through Pavlovich's record and you realize so many of the guys he fought didn't take that reach advantage seriously, right? They just didn't. They were kicking when they were in the wrong range and then he lights them on fire for it.

Or they think that they've backed out and he lights them on fire for it or they think that they've backed out and he can reach him when he just you know changes up the timing on something he gets people and he uses his reach deceptively we see he's not constantly he does force people backwards but at time he really invites pressure and so i think people get that range management with him very wrong and he's very very good at deceptively using it and powerfully using it. He is unforgiving with it. Interim heavyweight championship on the line here.

Do we have an argument as to who has faced better competition in the UFC up to this point? Obviously, Pavlovich got knocked out by Alistair Overeem in the first round of his debut, has gone on to knock out the next six fighters in the first round. His last three are names that jump off the screen Derek Lewis, Tai Tuivasa and Curtis Blades on the flip side for Aspinall I mean certainly his biggest win has to be the the ease that he submitted uh good old Alexander Volkov and he adds a win over a rising Tabura Spivak's in there as

well uh do you feel like there's any advantage either way in that regard? I'd say the best win that they have between them is the Blades win that Pavlovich has. I would say, in general, the ease with which a guy like Aspinall got past Tabura and then Volkov two different ways. He basically submitted Volkov, and he basically he basically double jabbed right hand, knocking down Tabor and then just got on top of him and finished him off. I think those two wins are probably combined the best back-to-back wins these guys have. I mean, I guess you could say Lewis and Tuivasa or even Tuivasa and Blades, but Tuivasa, I didn't like his game plan. I don't

think he should have taken that fight when he did. Lewis also over-pursued. These guys, again, a lot of guys have... So many of the guys, including Curtis Blades, and this is to me one of Curtis Blades' more disappointing performances. So many guys have lost to Pavlovich because they decided to fight fire with fire. The truth is Pavlovich gets hit a lot. And if you go back to the Blades fight,

Blades was landing on him continuously. Big punches too, not small ones, big ones. And it didn't do shit to him within the time frame in which they fought. Maybe if it had kept going, it will. But the thing I want to point out here is all the guys who have literally tried to fight fire with fire with him have paid the price for it.

It seems to me if you're team tom aspinall you can't back down necessarily from the the reality of you're gonna have to slug it out with him on some level but you you take this guy to a different direction you make him work you do what over him did and you force him to the ground fighting fire with fire against sergey pavlovich seems like a very bad idea, especially when he's got a six-inch reach advantage, and Aspinall has a tendency of pulling back. Ooh, don't do that. Yeah, pull out before you pull back, all right? You know what I mean, Luke, right?

That's great. Hey, here's what I want to ask you. If I would have asked you, who does this fight favor if this goes into the third, fourth, and fifth round, The answer is we don't know. But here's the history between them. Tom Aspinall has never won a fight that went beyond the first round. Twice he has made it into the second round. He was submitted once. He lost by DQ in the other. Both came earlier in his career. On the flip side, Pavlovich has gone three rounds twice. He won both fights and went five rounds

once he won that fight as well that was back in 2017 all three of those fights came under the fight night's global banner in russia in the ufc though he's never made it out of the first round will that matter and luke do you feel there's an edge i guess you got to say aspirin because he looks smaller and maybe fitter. But like, are you worried either way? If this fight keeps going, who may show the, hey, not quite ready for prime time element in that regard? So here's the interesting part. On the regional scene, Pavlovich has gone five rounds before.

You're indicating through the record, but I'm just stating it here. In the UFC, he's only fought one round fights. So he has five round experience, but not in a long time and certainly not against this level of opponent. That's the first thing I'd say. And I just mentioned before, if you're looking at Aspinall's record, he's gone past the first round, including in the UFC, he's gone past to the second round one time, but he doesn't have extensive experience either. And he's the guy coming in on short notice. However, BC, think about what I just told you. Curtis Blades did really well striking with this guy on the feet landing, and you'll see that when Sergei Pavlovich starts out, he has his hands up here, and he's moving them

a lot, but they're covering at least the general level of his face. They're close to his body. Everything is about faking and fainting. And then when he starts to get going, he begins to whip them from down here. And Blades was setting them up left and right. And then what happened? Blades got hit with one shot coming over the top. It rattled him.

He changes the direction on his punches. So he's got a good jab, left hook. He makes it work. He'll go jab. Then he'll switch up the timing. And rather than throwing an uppercut, he'll kind of throw like a shovel punch. And it will get through. I'm just trying to point out, we go back to it,

the fighting fire with fire thing, it just doesn't work with Pavlovich. Not right now it doesn't. Not the stage he's in in his career. You have a very thin margin of error. He lands on you. Problems are going to start very, very quickly. Tom Aspinall kind of plays that game a little bit. He likes to punch in between guys' punches or at the end of their combinations.

And Pavlovich loves to draw those things out and go longer. So he has to really be careful. But BC, even with all that said, what we have to recognize is Tom Aspinall should be in decent shape even with the reality that he didn't get this fight with a full camp. You have to push Pavlovich into the second and third round. If you have to. You have to. You the second and third round if you if you have to you have to you have to you exchange with that guy when he's fresh and it's curtains for you it's just a matter of time until he does it he doesn't mind getting hit and he has fight ending power

all the fucking time make that guy work and if you gas out in the process then you gas out in the process better to go in there and be like, put your dukes up. And then you get your mouthpiece launched into the fifth row. Fuck that. I'm always, I'm always for, especially when you took a fight on short notice.

If you're just like, look, the best strategy for me is to go for it. And if you come up empty, at least, you know, Luke, I went for it.

I didn't wait. You know what I mean? I didn't need the judges to bail me out. I didn't need anything like that. Um, I can respect that. Yeah. I was dead wronged in there inadvertently, but you were right.

Pavlovich did. I said he, I'm sorry. I said that Aspinall never won a fight after that went out of the first round. There was the one. Yes, it was that second round submission win over Arlovsky. So I was dead wrong there. It was that one time. Still questions abound.

But Luke, if it ends up in the scenario that you're painting, where you would want Aspinall to avoid so he doesn't become the seventh straight first round knockout victim to Pavlovich I think Aspinall's speed and if he stays in a tight guard in terms of his boxing dude he may find holes to light up Pavlovich so it may be a situation where it's like you don't want to stay here and trade with him but I think he may be able to hurt and really surprise him. Dude, Aspinall's hand speed does seem to be different for the larger plotting types,

and is as dangerous as Pavlovich is with the long arms. He's definitely closer to larger plotting than he is the athleticism that we've seen from Aspinall. Yeah, I mean, if I was Aspinall, I'd be focusing on the kicks. He's got a great and dynamic kicking game. That's going to be the range that's going to keep you the safest against a guy with an 84 inch reach you can do good damage you can light up his calf you can make it hard for him to lean on his punches and for hard to reduce his uh or hard to make use of any mobility and then when that's sufficiently compromised I'd be going in with

uh heads up clinches right body lock takedownches, right? Body lock takedowns. You got a body lock takedown on Volkov looking for something like that and then wearing on that guy, right? Pressing him into the cage, making him split his base because then his punches don't have the same mechanical advantage. He could use his elbows depending on how he goes. So you got to be careful there, but you really reducing things, then level changing, taking all that stuff out or at least turning him over and taking him down, making the guy work. I wouldn't even try to finish him on the ground necessarily unless something emerged, but you have to make that guy work. And so, BC, I got to be honest, there's only, what, 15 seconds of the Curtis Blades fight with Tom

Aspinall. There's not much. And even in the Tabor fight, there's not a ton of tape. But dude, he gets hit too. Tom Aspinall has a real bad habit of pulling up back straight, which against a guy with a six inch reach advantage is a big deal. You might be asking, what should you do in boxing? You can roll underneath, but that can create problems in MMA where guys have knees and other weapons involved. And so it's not so necessarily easy about how to get in and out, but pulling back up straight is a huge problem. I'm telling you, if Aspinall gets greedy in the pocket dude he's gonna get lit on fire he has to be very disciplined with range with he's got to be either all the way out all the way in looking for takedowns tying up arms body lock getting on top just making pavlovich who's like

250 plus making that guy labor through transition that's what you have to do pavlovich comes in ranked number two at heavyweight in the UFC, Aspinall number four. We don't expect the champion John Jones to return until next, I guess you would say late spring at the earliest, maybe international fight week time. They still want to do the Stipe fight. So Luke, you'd have to assume if the winner of this fight, since it's only November right now, does not get hurt, we could see the interim heavyweight title defended again to open 2024 or maybe middle spring. So considering that No. 7 Jouton Almeida just won a wide decision, yes, we got on him for it.

Fans not happy with us, Luke. We told our truth on it. He called out No. 1 Cyril Ghosn next. We don't know if that's the direction they're going. No. 5 Curtis Blades who pulled out with an injury is still lingering as well. You got Volkov at 6. Who do you think, Luke Thomas, will

fight the winner of this in early 2024 for the next interim heavyweight title bout? You've already ruled out that there could be a rematch. We don't really know. We don't know how this is a rematch. We don't really know. We don't know how this is going to go. We don't know if the judges are going to do something crazy.

We don't know, God forbid, knock on wood. We don't know if there's going to be some stupid eye poke. We have been thinking, BC, that the light heavyweight division would have resolved itself by now, and it just hasn't. So we're getting a little bit ahead of ourselves. You're asking probable contenders. We went back on Monday.

Was Jalton Almeida that guy? Didn't look like that guy to me necessarily, but I don't think that you can preclude him from some of those broader considerations. Curtis Blades kind of still hanging out there as a thing you could do because it would be a rematch with either guy and then you never really got the Aspinall treatment that you wanted with their fight so

those are your most probabilistic two contenders bull call hanging out there potentially bone gamine i want to talk to you about that big bone from france luke gamine cyril gone he sent uh sergey spivak to hell in round two in that comeback fight after laying the egg against Jon Jones. Was that enough to face the winner, or will they make him fight Almeida? No. No, it's enough for Agan to get it, I think. I don't know exactly what their plans are for European shows or what they want to do on that level, but yeah. And then I think we did talk about this.

I think in a perfect world, you run back the curtis blades fight because both kind of needed at this point to get back where they want to go and i think that makes a lot of sense but i guess we'll see what the ufc does well look you could put that gone aspinall fight in a year in an english soccer stadium how you could put the the imagine if they put the octagon octagon at the bottom of the eiffel tower luke on the landing area underneath it and they ran ran it there. Maybe I'm getting too excited here. There's not enough room to do it there. Also, there's a box office underneath it. Oh, you've been there, Luke. I haven't been there. You're a world traveler.

Okay, okay. I haven't been there in a long time, but I recall there being a box office underneath it, so yeah. Yeah, forget that idea right there. Alright, man. I'm fired up for this. I am really fired up for this fight. Gonna be fantastic there Saturday night. The rest of UFC 295, this pay-per-view from the world's most famous arena.

Luke, I'm going to say we're not overly excited, but boy, there definitely are two to three must-see and then a few more interesting ones after that. Let's start with this. Former champion Jessica Andrade, three division knockout holder a former 115 pound champion she'll be fighting get this Luke Thomas for the fifth time this calendar year fresh off of three straight stoppage losses when she takes on Mackenzie Dern. Dern herself seemed to be one big win away from a title shot multiple times. We know the interest the company has here in taking the 30-year-old and potentially making her a star.

She did bounce back. Excuse me, the majority decision loss to Yao Shan'an. I did not give her credit for coming back against Angela Hill. Five-round victory in May in which she was dominant. Is it as simple as this, Luke Thomas? Is this matchup only being made with Dern at MSG to get a big stoppage finish on the ground against the former champion andrage and go directly to the next title opportunity

against zhong weili has to be right has to be they've been waiting uh so andrage i think you you know you'd get the rematch if that ends up i don't know if she gets it necessarily as easily bc i think this is a little bit more of the Mackenzie Dern show because there's just been sort of up and down for Andrade but if they went the Andrade direction because she's fun for a violent fight, you could do that because it'd be a rematch, that's one

the second one is, but it all seems to me like this is the Dern show, right they've been waiting for, Mackenzie Dern has been, when she was in LFA on like a developmental deal for a long time before she got to the UFC. Obviously, we know her record in BJJ. She's one of the more decorated competitors in Jiu-Jitsu history, especially on the women's side of the game. She has numerous legitimate black belt world titles in and out of the Gi.

But her MMA game has taken a long time to develop, BC. In fact, I did a breakdown for which fight was it? I think it was either the Yon Chow non-fight or the Marina Rodriguez fight. I don't remember. She just never developed her game, BC. It never came along. It was always very, very jiu-jitsu centric, but to a crippling degree. And even now, BC, you look at her takedown accuracy, it's just 15%. That's better than it has been. She got three of nine against Angela Hill. It was single digits before that, BC. Single digits. And there was really weird decisions she was making. So let me give you guys an example. Obviously, if she got on your back, I'm not here to tell you that

she doesn't know what she's talking about. She knows the back and how to be very offensive there, but she was tailoring her game to jujitsu. So what she would end up doing was she would get the back, the hooks would be in, maybe, maybe not, but she would balance on her head and then kind of punch in front of her like this. These mechanically disadvantageous ways that don't really work. She wasn't wrapping the legs to control movement. She wasn't putting herself like getting wrist control, driving them with that shoulder down, using the free hand to then punch or gift wrapping. But the things she could do with a different set of strategic priorities that are more in line with the modern MMA game, using her great grappling skills in a better way. Now, we saw some vast improvement in the Angela Hill fight. Remember, she didn't just get three of nine takedowns.

She knocked her down as well. It was better both on the feet and on the ground, and just in terms of urgency and finding position and really making good use of it. It was a real big showcase. But Andrade is a different level. She's a different level in terms of the level of competition she's defeated. Even if we grant she's in a bit of an overall bit of a rougher spot.

She's physical for this weight class in a very unusual way. Dynamic punching power. She's a much, much different test. But if Mackenzie Dern can pass this one, I just don't see any way they don't give her a title shot. They've been waiting a long time for her to turn the corner. This might just be it on Saturday. And look, it's MSG. You know, so many eyeballs are going to be on it.

No, it's not going to be the Jon Jones-led, you know, casual crossover that it had the potential to be, but they're propping her up. But the question, yeah, I got some questions here, Luke, okay? Now look, Andrade is fresh off of three straight stoppage losses, but two in this division, yet she comes in here ranked fifth overall which i just don't understand even with her championship pedigree that was now somewhat of a long time ago she's bounced around almost erratically between divisions

just looking for big opportunities mackenzie dern coming in ranked seventh i guess i can understand that because she has swapped wins with losses in recent history but look i got a lot of questions about the 32 year old andrage if you had told me knowing that andrage's ground game is her weakness knowing that for example valentina i mean just abused her on the ground put her in a damn crucifix correct i'm not i'm not mistaking that right just absolutely dominated her you crushed her i would have thought that have thought that considering that this is the fifth fight for Andrade, considering that she's been stopped three times in the span of six months this year, very ill-advised matchmaking in my opinion. And to recap that, Andrade did divorce her wife to open the year,

so maybe that affected the decision-making, but she beat Lauren Murphy. Divorce will wreck a person. Yeah, you've got to give her a bit of a moment she she defeated lauren murphy by unanimous decision in january came back on short notice against blanchfield less than a month later and was submitted in the second round knocked out by yon shan on in the first round just three months after that and then luke gets submitted by tatiana suarez in the second round just another three months after that. I would have thought if you told me the odds were like minus 400, minus 500 to Dern, who has to be looked at as a submission threat here.

Yet look at these odds from FanDuel right now. Are they putting too much respect on Andrade, who is a, get this, plus 164 underdog against the minus 215 Dern. Luke, I'm not acknowledging that there aren't frustrating holes in Dern's game. You just laid them all out. I'm not acknowledging that we haven't been waiting for that moment where she can turn the corner, and it hasn't necessarily happened yet at the elite level, although I've been a nine lives guy with Dern.

I think that the positives that are there are so positive that eventually she'll figure it out and eventually she'll fight for the title and get her chance. But how do you explain these odds? Am I just overlooking what one big punch from Andrade can do? I don't think I am, dude. Dern has a chin. Say what you want about her technique and defense and some other things. She's got a fighter's spirit, a warrior spirit in there. I don't see how people are giving Andrade this level of chance on the betting odds. I don't see it.

I just don't see it. So, wait, you think Andrade, you said when she was, what, plus 164? Yes. What do you think would be a fairer representation of what actual chance you give her? I think she should be plus 450, Luke. Oh, no. Okay, but why is that crazy when she's been stopped in three consecutive fights

when she does not have a ground game? Great question. Great question. Very good question. Totally fair. Totally reasonable. Let's answer it. In January of 2023, so just this year,

she put on what I would consider one of her better performances we've ever seen. Not we've ever seen, but a very strong performance against a very decorated, certainly older competitor in Lauren Murphy, but an experienced and talented veteran herself. That was in January of this year, not like two years ago. Just this year. Now, the Aaron Blanchfield fight she took on short notice, inadvisable. She paid the cost for it and then overcommitted against a Jan Schaunan, not also great. And then she really compounded her problems taking the Tatiana

Suarez fight when Suarez was able to get the guillotine choke on her. Although she did show some pretty decent resiliency at various moments in that contest, but okay, ultimately overcame it. So I grant that Dern could be the kind of person to take advantage of somebody who is a bit of a wounded animal. However, BC, Dern has a good chin, but is hittable. I can get to her numbers here in just a second if you want. More to the point, she's not the kind of person who has that real wrestler strength to jump on a neck and then sit for it. Her submissions are more carefully set up. She can probably jump on the back, but even then that's not necessarily how she gets stuff. She's the kind of person who gets them flat on their back, works from the legs to the top position, gets an

arm, gets them to turn. It's much more labored and time extensive, not the kind of one that a good strong wrestler with good grappling skills is also going to get. So I can understand Mackenzie Dern being the favorite. You're getting a, at this stage, we think, somebody who is not at the best state. Even though just this year we saw them pretty great. Fine. But you're talking about like plus 450. Like she's just going to walk in there and then fall over.

She is much physically a different athlete than the kind of athlete that really Dern has ever beaten before. And if she's not careful, she's going to get absolutely bludgeoned here. Dern should win, but it's close. And I can understand that. I mean, look,

I know me saying that as a potential line of what I think it should be is, is overrating what Dern can do. Yes. But I do think Dern showed in the hill fight as you mentioned that she's starting to put it together I do think she has a big right hand that that maybe isn't always set up the best most technical way but dude does Andrade have a great chin it's been proven that you can get to her in fact Luke okay Andrade is only 32 that's one argument on other side, she has 36 pro fights over the last 12 years.

She's 24 in 12. But in her last 10 fights, which goes back to beginning with the title loss to Zhongwei Li in August of 2019. So that's her last 10 fights. Four wins, six losses, five losses by stoppage. Could you argue that she's always facing elite competition yeah could you argue that she's bounced around over multiple divisions which sometimes you know maybe doesn't always give her certain advantages i i guess but i'm wondering now at 32 if that's an old 32 due to the mileage and i'm wondering if 115 is even you know the best weight class for

her right now does she have a puncher's chance? Yes, but Dern's got a great chin. You have to believe Dern's going to take her down. Interesting. I'm wondering if the odds makers really just don't believe in Dern up to this level and would they have an argument not to? Certainly. Interesting fight, Luke. Very interesting fight in some ways. I came in there with that one-sided feeling that this is just a setup for a popular fighter to become a title contender. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm going to miss out because Andrade has bounced back before. You have to give her that credit. She got absolutely knocked out by Zhong Weili in an ill-advised sort of square up and come fire in performance.

She has bounced back from them to knock out. I will say one thing. I will say one thing. When you note how much she's been bouncing around weight classes, she's fought at all three of them, right? She's fought at 135. She has knockouts at all three. Knockouts at all three, weight classes, she's fought at all three of them, right? She's fought at 135. She has knockouts at all three. Knockouts at all three, yeah.

Yeah, knockouts at all three. And so you're talking about somebody who, you know, goddamn, her power carries. Like, that's pretty incredible that she can do that. At the same time, two things I would say. I agree with you that it's just unfocused to be bouncing around like that. And I'm going to take this fight on short notice on this weight class. And then we go back down to this and then back up to that.

It's a lot of unnecessary change. And I do wonder, this is something that I hear a lot more and more now talking to people behind the scenes. Is like what all of the different bouncing around to the weights does to your body chemistry. Does to your hormone levels. Does to all the things that you kind of like, what difference would it make? It can actually make a pretty big difference when you're putting your body in these different positions that it may not necessarily want to be in or consistently in at all. It can mess with your shit a little bit there.

So I do think, BC, that some of that has not served her well. I just, you know, she's got too many physical tools for me to think that her chance of winning here is remote. Not really possible for me to say it's remote. I don't know. Her tools are waning, though. Like, she's not a great boxer who uses a consistent steady jab to set up her big right hand. She stalks you. She'll absorb a beating.

She's always a threat to do something explosive against you. But she's fighting one of the do something explosive against you but she's fighting one of the more physically strong and there i think i don't give a shit how strong you are if your technique sucks it doesn't matter it doesn't matter at all you need to have yeah okay we all see like derrick lewis stand up from underneath but what you don't see is the timing he does it there are methods to his madness about where he's pushing from behind the back of the arm or the cup of the armpit, pushing them back in a diagonal manner. Like, all of that is rehearsed. All of that is practiced.

You can be strong. If your balance is bad, it doesn't – it's not going to be – you're not going to be very strong. Like, you can move weight in the weight room or something, but if you don't have good balance, you can't – dude, try picking up heavy weight with one foot and the other one behind you versus two feet on the ground. It's much more difficult to do. Dude, Dern has shown her back will round when she goes for takedowns and she's often losing her balance and kind of stumbling. I agree with you. She's probably a physical athlete, especially in jujitsu where she can be on top and then she's putting pressure on top of you. Now, that's different.

There, I think you probably feel it. But just in terms of locking up on the feet, dude, Jessica Andrade is going to throw her around like a rag doll, I suspect, at least early. We'll see what happens later. You know, you unfounded, I guess, some of my unnecessary white belt ignorance, and obviously the odds makers tend to know more than I am. It shows you how strong the top end of this ufc card is even after needing big surgery to repair it that the top three fights are all kind of close to pickums and the fact

that the biggest favorite of those three fights is dern at minus 215 i mean that's that's crazy so those i mean who would have thought luke that benoitoit Saint-Sandinet is a wider underdog than Jess Andrade is in this fight. But, you know, styles make fights. Great matchups are there. And we have another one here and the one I just teased there, Luke. This lightweight tilt between bangers on the rise. Matt Frivola, friend of the program, Long Island's finest, going to on bsd friend the frenchman himself damn i nailed that look right i mean i really did i know you're gonna think it's ignorant but i think

i nailed it dude right ben was benoit saint denis or benoit son denis all right do you know everyone in my family except me and my brother speak French? Is that because your dad lived in France for a while? My dad lived in Paris for eight years. That's where my sister was. My sister was born in Beirut, but my sister didn't come to America until she was 10. Whoa! Yeah, they only spoke French at home. My mom spoke five languages, but they all spoke French at home.

They didn't start speaking English until they came here and had me and my brother But then my parents got divorced so being my brother got no help. We don't speak any of that shit Kind of sucks your mom's first name Rosetta by any chance look that's incredible five last let's go legal Yes, let's go level five languages dance. All right English. These are all fluent English French German Arabic and Italian. Maybe a Farsi in there just for fun? No, Farsi is Farsi. I'm watching a Farsi movie right now, or movie in Farsi, I should say.

Oh, that's fantastic. You love subtitles, this guy. He's amazing. Even on English shows, you run subtitles. Golf Tom Chibigi. So, Luke, let's talk about this great matchup. According to FanDuel, minus, I'm sorry, I was wrong earlier BSD is the betting favorite

Not the underdog I screwed that up again I read it wrong According to FanDuel Minus 245 Benoit Saint-Denis, the favorite Against Matt Favola at plus 186 Luke Thomas, I could

I could white belt you and say this is going to be a banger, but what are you looking at in terms of game plans, in terms of technical skills, in terms of what we should expect when these two styles clash on Saturday? I don't know. Because this one, you actually do have two guys who I think are definitely rounding the corner themselves in terms of getting better at applying

like who am I as a fighter what's my game what's the best way to apply it I feel like both of those guys are beginning to really figure that out for themselves it's not so obvious people think it's obvious it's not necessarily all that obvious and they're beginning to get much more mature in that skill set but both of them

will just you know god bless them we love them for it they'll fucking throw down, dude. You know, and it creates just an element of risk that, and unpredictability. Damn technical breakdowns. This is going to be a brawl, you're saying. I would say this. I saw a lot on the ground in the last fight from St. Denis

that I thought was very mature, very good decisions, better decisions even standing along the fence line as well he was looking to me like he had much more calculated thinking and then so in American football we have something called route trees where before they hike the ball the wide receivers they know where they're going to go there's a path that they're going to run and they might be all different kinds of wheel routes or curl routes or go routes or whatever but there's a path they're going to run they're called route trees. We have something kind of similar in MMA.

Like if I do this, where is it going to go? And then where does it go from there? And where does it go from there? Understanding what the offensive route trees are, you're beginning to see that Saint Denis has really, Saint Denis has begun to piece all of these things together. There's an anticipation and a pushing towards that rather than just kind of being in the moment and seeing what happens. And I think you're getting the same from out of Rivola as well.

Much better boxing, crisper combinations, better timing, better, when I say better combinations, better placement, better timing, just an understanding of when to go, when not to go. So I'd be curious to see because listen, if santani tries to like slug it out with ravola that's a coin flip at best for him i really wonder i really wonder if this one might be a little bit more like the last one to take place on the ground so bsd your betting favorite here four straight wins all by stoppage since his lone defeat in his uf against Olazu Zaleski Dos Santos, a unanimous decision defeat. Most importantly, Luke, this is his third fight since July.

He submitted Ismael Bonfim in July, came back in September to stop Tiago Moises. Now here, what, two months later, taking on Favola. Favola riding his own hot streak of three consecutive knockout wins and we sat down with him for a very fun room service diaries a couple months back in which the 33 year old was hoping to get Patty Pimble and it didn't happen he does have BSD at

MSG and how fired up is the Long Islander to be back at the world's most famous arena let's hear from Favola actually describe what that feels like because you were actually, you were in a preliminary fight last time, so it was your second appearance at MSG,

but it was, you know, it was a pretty good placement. To walk us through when you walk out and how different that is at an arena like that and it also happens to be more or less your hometown. It's unreal. It's the most famous arena in the world. And the first time I fought at MSG was actually the craziest thing for me because, you know, I was an undefeated amateur. I was five and

going into contender series, won that fight, was six and going into the UFC. So I was pretty, you know, young in my career. And then I have my UFC debut and I get knocked out in the first round, my first loss ever. Before that, I thought I was unstoppable. I had no game plan going into fights. I was just like, what do you mean? I'm just going to go in there and steamroll, and that's what I do. But my UFC debut, I lost.

And from right then, I was like, all right. You're a guy no longer in the UFC. Very surprising. Yeah, exactly. And after that, I had to reassess everything. from right then i was like all right guy no longer in the ufc yeah surprising yeah exactly and uh after that you know i had to reassess everything you know again ray longo got my head on straight got me using my head you know and uh and then after that they uh they offer me uh lando venata at at madison square garden coming off my first loss ever and i mean i remember lando i've been watching lando for a long time you know i've watched him almost beat tony ferguson because his ufc debut yeah uh yeah

exactly and uh i knew lando was i knew him for a long time and uh and to be fighting like the first name the first guy that i've known coming off my first loss and at Madison Square Garden. It was a huge fight for me. And then, you know, just walking out, like I had all my friends, all my family, everybody was there. And then that fight was insane. Luke, BSD is 27. He comes from a hotbed right now for MMA for the UFC in France, which has been a big focus. He's more of the rising prospect about to have a tough matchup and find out who he is.

Favola is closer to the idea of a veteran, not a journeyman, but a guy who has tasted big defeat, but has figured out how to come back and make the best of himself. He is 33 now. So what's at stake for him in your opinion in this fight against such a hot riser and but in Saint Denis um I mean listen that win over Dober was remarkable there's I think we all kind of listen we've all kind of thought Matt Favola was good we all kind of thought he was good for good entertainment what would you call him tv fighter friendly right you would agree with that he doesn't run from that either he likes being him and exactly they like being badasses we can't write that from them but here's the deal i think he also has dreams that extend beyond just being really

you know good and entertaining and then that's just about it i think he actually wants to turn into something so you're asking like what is on the line here i don't think a loss is like going to mean the end of his ufc career or If that's what ends up happening, he'll get another fight and he'll be reliably entertaining and will probably win that one. But he's trying to do something more. He's trying to do something elevated. He's trying to do something different. To me, this is his audition.

Actually, frankly, if I'm being honest, BC, this is both guys' auditions. Both guys kind of had a reputation as fun fun slugging it out brawler and they've gotten better and they've gotten better wins and they're kind of meeting at this point it's like huh which one is actually going to really take the next step into something that's a much more serious territory in terms of the kind of opponents i mean the winner here is going to be fighting you know probably someone that's the best fighter they've ever faced up to this point each one is about that level of escalation there's no other kind of way to look at it um that's the best fighter they've ever faced up to this point. Each one is about that level of escalation. There's no other kind of way to look at it.

That's a big deal for Vola, especially given the age. Not too old, but now is the right time. This is the time, right? Strike where the iron is hot right at this particular age. So I'd actually say in that sense, really big stakes. Well, look at this division as a whole. Vola comes in ranked 14th, BSD unranked, but boy, could he splash with a big win here.

Look, this division, while still incredibly exciting at all times and it has a dominant champion on top, who's the pound-for-pound king in Islam, dude, there's a lot of older tread on a lot of these tires. You know, even guys like Darius, who's still a factor, still going to be in big fights, but you join him with that larger group that's aging. Yes, you've got Saruki and guys like that on the come-up,

but especially for Santani, if he wins here, we could be looking at the future in the lightweight division. I mean, does he carry... Luke, does BSD carry that same level of hype in your eyes that we talk about other guys, where you do see a future title contender here in this in this young body uh i'm not as convinced by that yet yeah title contender i think um listen you would be very wrong to say oh no he's not oh he's not that that's not my

argument that's not at all my argument he has shown very interesting flashes of ability but for example bc strikes absorb per minute, 5.27. I know what everyone says, this largely comes from one fight, but he's hittable in other ways too. He takes bigger punches more often than he shouldn't, or more than he should, excuse me, in ways that the tape shows up as well. So I know that some of that is pushed by a particular fight that he had. Nevertheless, the larger tape doesn't necessarily exonerate him.

However, there's other things that stand out about him as well. 5.5 strikes landed per minute, takedowns 4.72 per 15 minutes. He's good for more than one around. And he's got pretty good takedown defense as well, 80% and goes for subs. He's just got a lot of offense. I think what people have seen is that not only does he go for the gusto, but he's got, at times, really powerful, impactful striking. He does have good wrestling. He does have the ability to go for submissions. He does have ground and pound. And in each of these areas, he has offensive urgency.

People respond to that. People like it. Whether or not it is refined enough to say he's a future title contender, to me, I've not seen that yet. But the knight is young. Let's see what we can get out of this performance which will tell us a lot i think well you got to get through that american muscle and for vola say what you will the guy goes after it if there's going to be a moment for him to have another big moment at an msg i have to believe he's going to swing big bite down and get after get after it. It's what he does. I am looking for this fight to steal my heart on the night, Luke.

Take the under. Take the freaking under. All right. Can I just say one thing, though, before we move along? I know we have some limited time overall today. Dude, the opener of the main card, Diego Lopez taking on Pat Sabatini. I'll just say this. This is a tough fight.

I don't know. I don't have the odds, BC. I would love it if you could read me the odds on this't know i don't have the odds bc i would love it if you could read me the odds on this one because i don't have them nor in front of me okay here we go odds minus 104 diego lopez minus 122 pat sabatini look this main card is incredibly well exactly this is what i mean this is what i mean this main card is pretty excellent if i'm being honest and i know what folks are going to say. Who's Pat Sabatini?

Have I heard of Diego Lopez? Of course, folks have heard of Diego Lopez. He was the Brazilian coach. But for a lot of the Mexican women fighting that you might like, Alexa Grasso in particular, but certainly more than just her, and other folks as well, had had an interesting UFC debut in his last contest. He's had three fights. But he gave Movsar Evloev, even though he lost,

a really tough fight and then has rebounded with a win since then. But he's got an action-packed, aggressive, submission-hunting style, including but not limited to, off of his back. Let me just say this. Pat Sabatini is one of the very best grapplers in the UFC, and the level of acclaim he has is inversely proportional to his popularity. So if you're saying, huh, I've never heard of that guy, right, that should tell you that there's certainly an injustice in the world, but proportionally, his game is very, very, very good. BC 3.83 takedowns per 15 minutes.

Takedown defense not high, but he can scramble. Nearly two submissions attempted per 15 minutes which lets you know he goes for it he stumbled a little bit against Damon Jackson but rebounded in his last contest I have a high degree of belief in him and the kind of game that he represents this one should be action-packed on the ground how many times do you see fights on the ground you're like ah it's not going to go anywhere dude these two guys are going to be like cats in a bag. Can't wait for this one. I'm looking forward to it as well. Look, I'm looking forward to it if we're going to pick off the menu

and things that we like on here. Marco Madsen back. When you consider that he suffered his first defeat last time out against Grant Dawson, a submission. That was one year ago to this month. He's 39 years old, 12-1 overall. We know the amateur wrestling background this experiment of transferring over to the ufc has been highs and lows just the one defeat but

we've seen questions about his gas tank he's taking on jared gordon here have we seen everything we're going to see from marco madsen are you expecting a big bounce back now he's the problem is he's a great athlete he's just old he's like nearly 40 years old at this point, right? Okay. Okay. You know, listen, he's a phenomenal athlete and a phenomenal competitor. It's just, you know, father time's undefeated, bro. What do you want me to say? It's not personal. My boy Slava Claus is back.

Via Sheslav Borshev. He's taking on Nazim Sadikov. Should I bet big on Mr. Faber's boy over there? No. Again, I haven't seen the odds, which would inform that decision, but probably not. The rest of the fights down the line are okay. Denis Buzukia, who fought in the Contender Series out of the Team Longo,

he's going to be making an appearance here as well. Also, Roosevelt Roberts, who had been bounced from the organization, I think took a fight on short notice, so he's back against Mateus. I don't know how to say his last name properly. Rebecki? Rebeski? Yeah. Minus 146, Sadikov is your betting favorite. Plus 120, Boryshev.

So let's see if Slava Claus can pull that off. Tabitha Ricci, Baby Shark Luke. Enough said, right? Yeah, right. Pants around your ankles. I get it. I don't agree with that statement at all. Alright, let's bring this great

show home, Luke. Topic number four. I reacted to these in a one-off video that we posted late Monday after we finished our Monday episode of Morning Combat. Big fight announcements from Dana White directly about the UFC's 2024.

No dates, no cities officially announced yet, but you can see the graphic right there. In January, probably Toronto, Sean Strickland will be in the main event defending his middleweight title against Drikus Duplassie. February, we've heard LA, we've heard Australia has possible sites. Alexander Volkanovski will be back coming off that short turnaround of the head kick knockout lost to Matchev against rising Spanish stud or at least adopted Spanish

stud Ilya Teporia. Wow. Sean O'Malley not going to face Sanhagen. Not going to face... Who else we got, Luke? Not going to face whoever else was in the conversation. Umar. Marab's probably going to fight here. Cejudo. He's going to take on Chido Vera. I want to start right there, Luke, not going to face whoever else was in the conversation. Umar. Marab's probably going to fight here. Cejudo, he's going to take on Chido Vera.

And I want to start right there, Luke, to get your reaction. Because I was okay with this from the standpoint of building O'Malley out as a star. This is the one blemish on his UFC record. It's a fan favorite and a badass. Let's just run this back. If O'Malley survives in advances, you get star power at the top. He goes further as a brand, and we bring on the killers, murderers row of contenders.

A lot of people, though, say, hey, that might be good for the company, but doesn't Corey Sanhagen deserve better than this? Doesn't everyone else in the list? Didn't Chito just get dominated by Sanhagen? Luke, explain this to us from your point of view. So I'm with you, but perhaps somewhat different reasons. So I would say this, even Corey Sanhagen didn't necessarily mind that they made this fight. The thing that he cared about was that they made it for March. He was hoping they would make it for January so that he could then fight in March or

April because his arm is doing much, much better if you watch the interview that I did with him. But it's not where he can fight right away, but he doesn't want to wait too long. And now it puts him in a spot where he may have to wait either a really long time or take a fight in between. It really interrupted his schedule. But he didn't mind that they put it together. And I think folks should remember that.

Secondly, BC, what I would say is I agree. Again, we go back to it. Sometimes guys don't get back to it. Sometimes guys don't get favorable matchmaking. Sometimes they get favorable matchmaking in the sense that here is a guy that in Chido Vera, did he realistically have the best contender resume to merit this call up to fight the champion? No, he didn't. And there's no real argument about that. He doesn't have the best resume. He's got a good resume, but he doesn't have the best one to merit being number one. But what I would say is, BC, there's history. You can sell it. Sean O'Malley is important to

all the reasons you pointed out. What I would also say is, I thought Corey Sanhagen made a great point when I spoke to him, which is Sean O'Malley probably will be favored to beat Chido Vera, but Chido Vera is a uniquely tough matchup for some of the perceived weaknesses that Sean O'Malley seems to have. And I say perceived because there's been a narrative coming out of that first Chido Vera fight that he was somewhat brittle. We haven't seen much evidence of that more recently, so I don't know how fair it is. But what we can say is Chido Vera is probably not the sniper that Sean O'Malley is, but is one of the most durable, tough guys in the UFC. He is hard to hurt. He went three rounds with Lineker, no sweat. How many times have you seen Chito Vera take a shot and then sit on his

ass or do the fish dance? It just doesn't happen. My man's chin is legendary. That will serve him well against Sean O'Malley. fight to me is extra compelling for that reason the particular gifts and strengths that a guy like Chito Vera has match up very well with some of the perceived weaknesses that we think Sean O'Malley might have this fight goes a long way towards answering that in ways that other ones may not necessarily do that and bc gets to all the things that you talked about so i don't like the timing of the fight but i don't really mind the fight at all to be honest no i i like it i get what people are saying but i also believe you do have to build stars when you have the chance this is not as

egregious as biz ping defending against 46 year old dan henderson just to tell that story at that time in the middleweight division, I think is a better story to tell right now. We do have badass matchups with Murab taking on Cejudo potentially soon. And you mentioned Corey Sanhager's reaction. Let's watch it. Let's listen in. You were with him yesterday in Virginia when the news broke. Here's Corey Sanhager.

Your reaction to O'Malley versus Vera in March? Why March? Fight earlier so that I can fight earlier. What do you think of the fight? Who wins? I don't think it's the most favorable matchup for O'Malley, but I still think that O'Malley will likely win. March.

What were you hoping to get? I was hoping that they'd fight in January, and then I would be able to come back in April or May or something. So does this mean you might take a fight in between or no? I'll see what they say, I guess. Yeah, I don't know. That's a bummer. March? Damn. Well, that's what we're dealing with here in the Bantamweight division. Sanhagen ranked fourth. We expect two and three. Marab and Suhudo to fight. Aljamain, the former champion at number one, as UFC tends to do. Aljamain, the former champion at number

one, as UFC tends to do after a title loss, keeping him there. And then you've got Marlon Vera at number six, getting the call over the likes of, yeah, you could have said Umar. I guess you could have. I don't know. You don't want to go too far down that list. This is the right fight. It just is, okay? But Luke, that second fight is the best of the three. Volkanovski versus Teporia. It's a month later than we thought on the quick turnaround and everything that Volk said about mental health and just wanting to be really busy are we going to keep this narrative going or is it time to just say look he's a grown man he made this decision let's figure out who's going to win this fight him versus Teporia in February well I'll say this they delayed it long enough where I don't feel as bad about it I don't feel

like it's great but I don't feel quite the trepidation that I did before right they get they pushed it back from January which was the right call so I'm glad they did that they just didn't push it back very far did they just another month um listen on paper of all the fights you could make in MMA this is my number one fight this is my number one fight of all the fights you could make in MMA, this is my number one fight. This is my number one fight. I mean, I guess Francis versus John, but within the UFC universe, so to speak, where we're not talking about unlikely co-promotions, I really want to see this contest. I just don't really know exactly how ready and available and in the kind of shape he needs to be up here

volkanovsky is going to be after getting head kick ko not that long before that contest but everything else about that fucking fight is phenomenal and i just i really hope it can deliver he's gonna have to deal with luke thomas's favorite stat under welterweight 35 and over unless you're tyron woodley at Welterweight and under, you have not historically got the job done. Damn, I love that fight. Now, what do you think? Will they go to Australia to be an oceanic homecoming for Volkanovski?

I'll say this. If they do, I don't know if Teporia can win by decision. It'll be tough. It'll be tough, dude. The Aussies go ballistic for anything that Volkanovski could sneeze and they would say Aussie Aussie Aussie oi oi oi I mean they go they would lose their mind so Teporia I don't mind them going back I mean that's part of the market they're trying to nurture but if Teporia goes down there he's gonna have to really have the performance of his lifetime to win

all right so these three fights and we're to get to Strickland right now, they're 297, 298, and 299, with the expectation, of course, that UFC 300 would be in April. I know I've been talking about, hey, let's get Adesanya back up and maybe fight the winner of Strickland DDP. I'm going to respect that he says he wants some time off. He's going to stay away. So this is our fight for 297 january probably toronto damn i don't love that co-main event of women's band and weight we talked about that but luke i like strickland ddp the fans seem to love it but we do get a lot of people saying what about hamza chamayev is this the right match at the right time right now for 185 dude of course it is who did both of these guys beat to get here Sean Strickland beat Izzy

Drikus Duplicy beat Robert Whitaker guys I gotta tell you if you beat those guys cleanly and in the case of Whitaker he got stopped in the case of Izzy no doubt about it clean sweep basically are pretty close to it for Sean Strickland, a dominant win. There's no argument in my mind about who should be here. It's these two guys, whether or not they're promotional darlings, whether or not you love this fight, fuck all of that. Every once in a while, it is nice to see people get title shots because they earn them. These two guys, and of course, Strickland is the champion. He's not a title shot.

But to be in this fight at this moment, these two guys, more than anyone else in the division, earned it flat out, no questions asked. Of course this is the right fight to make. May the best man win. Strickland opened as a small betting favorite on some of the early books that took action. Luke, are you surprised by that? You said Strickland did? Yes.

No, because his defensive shutdown seems like that could be the kind of thing that could really translate across opponents, even guys as physical and out there as DDP. So I get that, but let's see how the line moves. It'll be interesting to see how the line moves between here and there. And also, the Canadians, I suspect, will embrace Sean Strickland. I know he was railing on Twitter about his perceived lack of freedoms there, but I suspect by the time that fight's over, he'll be very happy with the Canadian treatment.

Luke, we've got to bounce out of here quickly, so we're going to punt fan subs to Friday. Apologies, but we have so much meat on the bone to talk about. I wanted to quickly ask you this. It's not a dead wrong, but I do respect when people don't like our opinions and they clap back at us and say, maybe you guys were unfair. We do seem to be catching Storm for two things.

One, not giving Almeida any credit for a 50-44 win and basically saying that he should be penalized from it, that people are like, yo, you guys need to sober the F up. Two, I did drop monster doogies on Silva versus Pennington for the title. And I get a lot of people going, who else is it supposed to be when you're using meritocracy in a shitty division? These are the two best fighters. Peña's hurt.

What the hell else were you going to do where you're really going to take Rousey Tater home off of mouth balls and put him in there next to Walt Disney's frozen head? No, Luke, you probably weren't. But still, the fight sucks. The division sucks, right? What do you want me to say? God, the fight sucks. Listen, it's weird. People only want to criticize fighters when there's one way to do it, which is like when they make an overwhelming mistake, you know, and then there's just a pile on. But what's the appropriate room? Listen, Jelton Almeida is obviously very athletic and he has excellent control and that's going to give him distinct advantages throughout the course of his career probably

and certainly in this heavyweight division for the time being. Fine, I'm happy to admit all that and we said as much on Monday, but if you think you can look at that skill set and be like, that guy's ready to fight for a championship, you're just kidding yourself. You're just only lying to yourself. It's not really true. The better fighters in this division, they could lose to him if they fought 10 times, whatever. I suspect he could get a few along the way. He does have that kind of ability, but he has so many things lacking. It's just not appropriate to look at that performance and

be like, oh, he controlled it for 25 minutes. That's great. He controlled a guy for 25 minutes who at times was laying flat on his back and had no offense intentionally, and he couldn't put him away because he doesn't have the ground to pound skills and he couldn't set up the submission despite having an opportunity to do so for Mount for seemingly well over 15 minutes. That is somebody whose skill set for the level he's in is underdeveloped. Getting the back and holding the back for a long time or getting the Mount and holding

the Mount for a long time is impressive. But if you're at the UFC level and you have it for 15 minutes and you cannot score a finish, it almost automatically says the level of refinement you have is lacking. I don't know what to tell you, folks. This is what the tape shows. I agree. It is what it is. I don't think we were unfair, Luke.

I don't think in either case, really. I mean, what do you want to say about Buono Silva? It's an ADHD. What is it? Well, it was ADHD medicine. That's what it was, ADHD medicine. So it wasn't a different typical level of popping. I'll tell you what. I've taken an ADHD medicine before. there's all different kinds i don't forget what i took i definitely took uh ritalin and i took other stuff it'll it'll wire

you it'll wire you poor man's no spears luke we know this all right quickly also as well but then we got one more topic we can get out of here a tweet from at world's worst hero i love morning combat bc and lt but they're fucking killing me with their struggles to pronounce pereira fellas you guys are white just pronounce it like white guys the world will forgive you for not being able to speak brazilian portuguese luke i have just been granted permission to be a gringo should i accept it yeah you should accept it but the thing is i don't really fully agree with that. I definitely feel like we should, you know, have some humility about how we say it.

But I know that Pineda is a good way to say it because my wife's aunt lives in Pineda, Colombia. It's spelled the exact same way. It's pronounced almost the same way. So, yeah. Okay. Topic number five, our final topic. Fan subs on Friday.

Luke, Sean O'Malley has publicly stated that the UFC has interest should he be able to attract a boxing crossover matchup against Ryan Garcia. Interesting. He's revealed that UFC's open to the idea. He also, after bantering with Devin Haney on Twitter, has said the UFC is not interested in him fighting Haney because UFC does not believe Haney has enough of a profile. I think that is fair to say if you're going to compare the pay-per-view viability of a

Ryan Garcia to a Devin Haney. At this point, that is true. Luke Thomas, are you surprised considering the only time we've seen UFC be willing to co-promote or help out a boxing event was Maymac, the biggest one ever, and was the idea of Fury versus Jon Jones that Dana White pitched probably to try to hurt Francis Ngannou's options at the moment. Are you shocked by this, that for all the talk about more crossover boxing fights with MMA fighters, that O'Malley is saying UFC is okay if he can get a Ryan Garcia fight to go.

Well, I'll say this. I'll be more shocked if they go through with it because right now it's just him talking. That's it. Lots of people want things to be true in the world when they just talk about it without it actually ever happening. You can celebrate when it actually happens and lots of things can trip that up. But what I would say is BC, again, let's see if they actually go through with it. But if they do, wouldn't you think it'd be the smart thing to do? They've got difficult contracts to get out of. But if you can marry that with, hey, for just the right kind of guy, we might actually give you the very occasional, very hard to get boxing opportunity

for some kind of purse or legacy, whatever, that you would want to get and then get in on the cut and then just really limit those. If it happened once with McGregor, the chances of it happening again with someone else have gone up exponentially, right? Every time it happens, the chance that another one happens simply goes up. And so I actually somewhat understand it, but also just to sort of remind folks, like when he said no one knows who Devin Haney is, if you go up and look up the Google search trends, which again are not an apples to apples comparison, Shakur Stevenson and Devin Haney is. If you go up and look up the Google search trends, which again are not an apples-to-apples comparison,

Shakur Stevenson and Devin Haney have a bigger central profile there than Sean O'Malley, and then Tank Davis has a bigger one than all of them by a considerable distance. Like, it's not even close. So, you know, we should be very careful about who is and who isn't a star, but nevertheless, BC, not that I say we could predict this we didn't because we've we've always thought they were kind of obstinate but we've often been like why don't they just do it on occasion here's one such way you could do it yeah I agree with you he said that uh he said he's

not interested in Haney and Shakur and those other guys because they're not pay-per-view stars he would be in Ryan Garcia final bit of news right here Luke to close Jake Paul has officially announced his opponent for his December 15 return onto zone. Not pay-per-view, by the way. It's because Jake Paul has that series, that prospect series MVP. They need it at a date. Jake's going to fill that. His opponent, 35-year-old Houston-based boxer Andre August, who's 10-1-1 with five KOs,

but he got knocked out in his only defeat by a guy who's 7-16 overall. Luke, I tried to ask people close to the Houston boxing scene. They said we have no idea who this guy is. Your final response here. We have 30 seconds. Your thoughts on this matchup. Yeah, very quickly, this guy, August, lost to a guy who's 7-16 by KO.

So I don't mind that Jake Paul took this fight, but I would just say it's cool. It's no big deal, but it's just a guy. It doesn't mean much more than that. All right, we'll have more on all of this stuff. We hit our limit here. Hope you enjoy our Friday show, OK Bet, and all that. For Luke Thomas, I'm Brian Campbell,

Mikey Mormel on the producing. Thank you. We are out of here.