MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 296 Instant Reaction | Edwards-Covington | Pantoja-Royval | Rakhmonov-Thompson | Morning Kombat

Episode Date: December 17, 2023

Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell have you covered with an instant reaction to UFC 296. The boys break down Leon Edwards vs. Colby Covington, Alexandre Pantoja vs. Brandon Royval 2, Shavkat Rakhmonov vs. Stephen Thompson and much more. 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

Hey, how you doing everybody? Welcome, my name is Luke Thomas. I am one half of your hosting duo for Morning Combat. This is the official UFC 296 post-fight show. How are you doing after that very unsatisfying main event for UFC 296? And yet, there were still many fights that were actually pretty great on that card. Let's talk about them here tonight. Brian Campbell is currently speaking to CBS Sports.

He will join us momentarily, and when he does, we'll do the show together. But for the moment, before he joins us, I will be your host solo. First things first, thank you for joining me. I greatly appreciate it. Thumbs up on the video, yeah? Hit subscribe. We just did a bunch of hours that were probably really bad, but we tried to do them nicely anyway. So give us a follow on social this is this today right now our last day here this is our very last show and

program in the bomb shelter you're looking at the last mk show of any kind in this and what better way to do this show than to talk about a dog shit main event. Seems so entirely appropriate, does it not? Man, that sucked. Not the card. The card had some great fights on it, but the main event was incredibly, incredibly underwhelming. All right, so let's get to it, shall we? In your main event, let me pull up the results here if we can,

and I'm just going to read them out to you as we customarily do. And, of course, you don't want spoilers. You know you've got to leave. Like, you've got to be done at this point. But, all right, let's get to it. In your main event for UFC 296, by the way, UFC 296 taking place, of course, at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, Leon Edwards retains his UFC welterweight title,

defeating Colby Covington via unanimous decision. 49-46 on all three judges' scorecards. Colby pretending that the result was somehow surprising. I guess he wins just the fifth round where he was able to get on top, and Leon didn't make much of an effort to get up. Not much of a successful one anyway. But he won the other four, I suppose, convincingly. In certain cases, very convincingly.

In other cases, a little bit less so. All right. The fight was not great. And to me, the big story is not what Leon didn't do because we've seen Leon be very measured. We've seen Leon take his time. We've seen a lot of fights from Leon go to decisions, not necessarily the second fight with Kamaru Usman, notwithstanding, not really a dynamic finisher. Very skilled, very talented fighter,

very deserving champion, but not necessarily a dynamic finisher. So the fight going the distance and the way that it did to me from the way in which Leon performed seems to be just sort of standard Leon. Good Leon, but that's what he does. The Colby-Covington equation is the one that really is worth examining.

Guys, can we close that door to the studio, por favor? That'd be great. Thank you. Colby-Covington just did not perform very well. Hey, can you help me literally shut that door? There we go. There we go. Thank you.

Colby Covington is the one that, to me, just did not perform very well. Went two for ten on takedowns, and one of those takedowns, and by the way, the UFC broadcast is now showing the fights between them, I think. Oh, wait a second. Hold on. I got to see this. On the UFC broadcast, they're showing Sean. Let's see what happens.

They're going to stick with the camera there. Sean. Oh, look at this angle. Oh, my God. Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh, that's amazing.

That's amazing. Look at Bilal Muhammad's face like, what the fuck? Dude, they got the whole thing on film. Oh, my God. Everyone's just laughing, having a good time. Are they going to kick him out? Are they leaving? Are they going to put him in custody?

Or are they just going to tell him to go somewhere else? Yeah, that's it. Okay. All right. There we go. That was fun. Very cute. Very cute.

All right. Colby Covington, guys. What the fuck was that from him? I couldn't tell at first if he was injured or something else had happened. Let's be very fair to Leon Edwards. Leon correctly noted by being able to manage the distance. We talked about him managing the distance early when BC was here. We talked about the linear strikes he was throwing up the middle to deter anything,

and he eventually got his leg kicks going. Not a whole lot else. Colby reaching for one takedown early, didn't get anywhere close. Eventually got one a little bit later in the fight, and then obviously he got one in the fifth round. Those are the only two that he got in the contest. He didn't really shoot. He didn't really pressure. He was being put on the back foot.

So I just want to say something. A lot of the reason why Colby Covington underperformed is because of the positioning that Leon put him in. It is because his pressure put him on his heels. It is because he would do things to confuse, like switch stances. It is because he would use lots of lateral movement. It is because he would throw feints or decoy strikes up the middle. And a series of other, I mean, level changes,

all different kinds of stuff to get him to back up and to not be able to approach him and get where he wanted to in striking range. And he would leg kick him as he began to move forward. All of these things together work to keep him pretty far apart at the end of the range where Leon Edwards had all the significant advantages, or the vast majority of them. He could see the shots coming from much further away.

I mean, everything that explains, or I should say many things that explain this. But what that tells you in the end is, I mean, you can pick whatever interpretation you want from that, assuming injury is not in play. But the fairest interpretation you can come to there is, Colby did not have any capacity once that motion had been set in through the rounds to really make any kind of adjustment he was able to get the takedown on the fifth but Leon didn't strenuously object to it and he had already won so cleanly by that point it didn't

really matter the eye the reality is that is I'm not going to say in all time like one of the worst performances in a title fight I've ever seen. I've seen worse ones. And we had Irene Aldana on this card redeeming herself after her really bad, that was an all time stinker performance. And what she turned in against Amanda Nunes. But this was a very poor performance from Colby. I can appreciate that he looked poorer than he actually is

because he went up against a very skilled fighter in Leon who made him look that way. But even if you look that way for a little while and you have no real answer for it, it really just speaks to the limitations and the inability to problem solve, the inability to have any other secondary layers to your game to really go to. And frankly, again, I'm going to say it one more time,

the 35-year-old stat, 125 to 170, there's only been two times in title fights someone over the age of 35 has won. Add in another one on the column for someone in the losing list. Age is a real factor. Ring rust, I do believe, is probably a real factor for Colby. I don't think that by any stretch that's the best I've ever seen Colby do. But he performed poorly in tonight's contest, which is kind of amazing.

I mean, I guess if you like his shtick, then you got what you wanted out of fight week. But if that was supposed to be any prelude for what the fight meant, it obviously had an inverse proportion, given everything else that we saw with the theatrics during fight week. Colby had no ability to get Leon consistently on his heels. He had no ability to corral his movement. He really had very little ability to even get into jab range to push him back. He was not there to be hit in the same kind of way.

He was, again, constantly moving, constantly staying at range, constantly threatening, constantly leg kicking, just disrupting rhythm, disrupting timing, changing location, all of those things. Again, in that sense, not a beautiful fight, not one that you're going to remember for a long time for how glorious it was, not one with any kind of dynamic finish. But for Leon to be able to shut Colby down in the way that he did does take tremendous skill.

It does take poise and it does take the kinds of experiences that have raised him to this point to be able to do that. I want to get to some of these numbers, if I can, from Fightmetric. I tweeted this earlier. I want to read this tweet to you. It's from Fightmetric. It's from Richard Mann from Fight Metric. I tweeted this earlier. I want to read this tweet to you. It's from Fight Metric. It's from Richard Mann from Fight Metric. He writes, Leon Edwards' ability to force opponents

to fight at his pace is surreal. Colby Covington came in averaging 4.10 significant strikes per minute. Tonight he averaged only 1.76. He brings everybody down to the level, and they can't get much going. We talk about it all the time with Volkanovski. It's not simply what you can do from the offensive end of things. It's how much defensively you can also shut down

what the normal output is of your opponent and bring it back down to space. Guys in the back, if you could throw up my tweet, I don't know if you can get it or whatever i just retweeted it's from richard man i want to go through some of these numbers here leon edwards landing 57 of 108 strikes colby covington just 44 of 126 but a lot of those were like hammer fist pitter patter stuff uh edwards went two for three on takedowns can Can you believe that? Covington just two for ten. So therefore, just at not a great submission. Yeah, at 20%, obviously.

Submission attempts. Leon Edwards, two. Two submission attempts. He's credited with one reversal. Control time, one minute, 27 seconds. Colby Covington credited with five minutes of control time. Not a lot of great things happening in that fifth round. The most that anyone landed in any single round was Leon,

which is 18 significant strikes in round two. Let me pull up if I can. I want to look at some of the other pieces there. One second. Give me just a minute. All right, as I pull this up here. By the way, Leon now moves to 21-3 in the overall scope of things. Yeah, Leon Edwards targeting the head 36%, targeting the body 24%,

targeting the leg almost 40%, 38%. Colby doing 38% targeting, but then the head 45%. Distance, everything that Colby threw was basically that way that landed, and everything was 98% for Leon Edwards, just 1% on the ground there for him kind of straightforward it was a little bit more than prevent defense from Leon it was the kind of thing that was just enough to land to do damage on the leg just enough to land to rhythm disrupt just to deter, and then enough to have other defensive things in place to just turn Colby into a much watered-down, significantly watered-down version of himself.

The rebuke of Colby is not that Leon was able to do that. The rebuke is that he did it and had no ability to compensate, had no ability to go around, had no ability to really adjust late. This was a poor performance from Colby who really strangely after the fight was like, yeah, I didn't have a scratch on me. The guy is literally saying he doesn't have a scratch on him when his face is bleeding. Now, he didn't take a beating. That is true. But if there is anybody who was marked up, it was him and there was enough of it to be noticed and including on the leg.

That was a bad one as well and then said yeah you know i i felt like myself uh i felt great i you know i had some ring rust but i feel fine i could get back out there gilbert burns calling him out for ufc 299 which of course will be in miami and here comes brian campbell fresh off the commode brian campbell have a seat so here's the point i want to make we're still on the main event it's late as balls. It's so late. It's so fucking late. But this is what I argued. Tell me where you're at.

Yeah. Colby and his performance, he normally averages over four strikes a minute. Leon held him to 1.76. It really delayed and diminished anything he could do. He went two for ten on takedowns. Leon Edwards went two for three. Leon's ability to go side to side, to level change, to fake, to faint, throwing linear strikes up the middle, leg kicking, rhythm disrupting,

not being there, maintaining that distance. I give Leon credit for making Colby look bad. My criticism of Colby is not that he had difficulty up front. That was, you're going up against a great fighter. On a 21-month layoff, must great fighter on a 21 month layoff must be 21 month layoff age by the way the 35 year old stat i just told them is still in play another guy who got it wrong on the wrong end of things but he had no ability to adjust colby had no other gear to go to there was nothing he could he pulled out here let's take a look at the stats here on

the screen if we can for just a second bc and then i'll throw to you on this one you can see top line there where it says td two of three for leon edwards two of ten for colby 57 to 54 insignificant strikes two sub attempts they credited the the triangle and what was the other one he had i forget the rear naked choke baby uh you know the power guillotine yes the ninja choke uh and then he gets credited with a reversal the five minutes of control time a lot that's going to be either against the fence or on top. Colby's inability to have any kind of second or third gear really doomed him in this contest. Absolutely. Something happened.

Something happened. You can see the way Colby tried to attack the post-fight speech to try to, you know, protect the brand and look, I'm a loyal soldier of the UFC and all that. He got booed like a motherfucker, too. protect the brand and look, I'm a loyal soldier of the UFC and all that. And he should have really because of the promise of what the insults and what the blood feud nature we thought of Covington Edwards could be. Now obviously you have to look at Edwards and say his ability to keep his poise and deliver the game plan, be that efficient, that stingy, that technical. This is a step forward in like his pound for pound reputation. But Luke, I did sense some naivety in Edwards in the post-fight speech of maybe not understanding

the bad visuals like Rogan referenced that we referenced in that fifth round, that potential of like, what does it look like when he closes the fight? Edwards has championed two boos. This is probably the most marketed B-side he could find right now. Like I love Bilal. He's due. And even Shavkat, which will have some hype behind him, won't have that overnight buzz until people find out exactly who Shavkat is if they didn't watch tonight.

And good Lord. But in that regard, like, this maybe was Leon's chance to try to press the gas and try to finish this guy, especially how much Edwards had chopped up the leg of Covington to kind of, you know, slowly slow him down and immobilize him. I give Colby a lot of credit still for being a dog and turning it around finally in the fifth round and getting Edwards down, even though he wasn't able to bring it anywhere into a position to capitalize on it. But yes, Edwards, technically brilliant, but he tried to deliver almost a baby's face speech

and get it about the horrible comments about his dad. And he has a right to have gone through a very emotional week because of that. Are we turning this into Leon's failures? Why are we doing that? But because I do think they're both, there's a responsibility to both of them about what the responsibility is in some degree as a champion who's trying to sell, right? Like there's going to be some knocks against Leon for this performance and it was dominant and technical, but they both promised a fight that didn't happen. And I think Leon was too content to just control Colby, which champions do at times.

It's an efficient way to just limit your opponent from doing what they do great. But as much as we all have to point our finger at Colby, and I do think there's an injury there, Luke, I think that prevented him from having the camp to be in the shape that he was in. He didn't look exactly in that prime shape. The 21-month playoff does play in, but I think Colby didn't want to show that weakness like we talked about on the live stream you know probably figured if i really juiced this up and

get you know he's smart he's a marketer he understands how to make himself a vibrant pay-per-view brand he did that this week crass but he did it but neither together were willing to step on the gas enough to make this an entertaining fight to to put the capstone on what was a great pay-per-view to close a year that had highs and lows in different areas. There are a lot of fans that were fully happy with this year, and this was a great year, and this looked like it was going to be a perfect end. Luckily for the UFC, they got the Strickland-DDP fight that's going to point directly to the next pay-per-view, and it's red hot.

But I think if we're going to talk about the brilliance of Leon, we also have to talk about what he kind of left at the table. I wonder if he could have finished Covington. He was a one-legged fighter. He admitted in his interview with Rogan that he was disappointed that he didn't get the finish. I don't know exactly what he'll say went wrong from his perspective about why he couldn't get it.

Because remember, it wasn't like he ended strong. The fifth round was Colby's best, although it's a question of how much. I mean, this is the weird part right like leon well how do you explain leon's performance in the fifth would you say he coasted or he was content to win well i mean i didn't want to fight too like he wasn't fighting tooth and nail and no he wasn't he was fighting prevent defense and that's why i don't think he was panicking when he was taken down and to his credit he prevented colby covington from turning that valuable top position into any threat look like that's not the best version of Colby Covington by far and you chopped up his leg and left him vulnerable I know Colby's a dog and that's why he still had the

fight in him to bring the fight down but I need a little bit more urgency out of Leon if we all watched you react the way you did in a very crass ridiculous moment I did want to see that challenge to that eye of the tiger. Not a guy who was going to come out and be reckless. I still wanted him to carry it out the way he did. I just think there were more openings for him to really kind of go after and put a capstone on this. I won't say that that's wrong. I really won't. I won't say

that you've got some crazy idea, but what I would say is... But that's because Colvington sucked so bad in this fight. He sucked so bad in this fight. And also, dude, Leon's the fucking champ. Why does he have to risk what is, I mean, all the money is when you're. He doesn't have to. You don't have to. All right, fair enough.

But all the money is when you're a champ. All of the attention is when you're a champ. This is your prime earning spot right now. If you're going to make anything of it, giving up the belt or doing anything to risk giving up the belt. And also, I will say this, were there other things that perhaps he could have done in the standup department to really pressure and hurt Colby? I agree he led up there,

but going and getting two takedowns on Colby, the ninja choke I thought was interesting. The inverted triangle. There's a whole conversation. He went for it in certain ways on the ground. He went for it more than I thought he would. He didn't go for it as much in the stand-up, but that's also where he had the most success over the length of time.

Like when Leon says afterwards, I wanted to show you guys how skilled I am, I wanted to showcase that by going after the strength of Colby and beating him there. I mean, he did accomplish that, and you do deserve respect for that. But you can't say that while the crowd is raining booze and not expect there to be a receipt from it. look at the second half of gsp square luckily it already built himself up to a you know the superstar level and a proven brand but look he we all know what happened he became a decision fighter because of how much he controlled every aspect of the fight and it he still had the reputation to carry it through and maybe it's not about the marketing

for leon i mean i support the fact that you do have to survive in advance as a champion and if you find a way so efficiently to just shut the other guy down but what I'm saying is Luke you can't disagree with me that this night was peeking towards like we were peeking at the beacon I mean this was a blockbuster pay-per-view that was delivering and now you kind of go home with that one feeling you know what I mean like it happens if the fight here's a tweet from MMA Fighting's Sean Alshadi. Quote, Colby Covington is ultimately someone with zero signature wins,

zero wins over currently ranked welterweights, 0-3 in title fights, whose entire reputation was built off of two losses, who's on the wrong side of his 30s in a young man's division. It is what it is, he writes. But Luke, if the goal was to get people to buy the pay-per-view,

we could say oh like you know we could do the whole oh this is dana's fault in some ways look they chose business we got it we understand why but it also kind of i want to say it blew up in their face but it probably didn't because colby did do his part on the way into the fight you know what i'm saying so it's like does it hurt leon moving forward will hurt him a little bit but you can always repair that reputation or maybe if you find the right aggressive dance partner dude who i mean okay i get because i'm trying okay i'm trying to wrap my head around about colby's future right and his fandom colby's fans even before tonight you couldn't make a credible argument you like him for his fight style yeah he cashed himself out

tonight like you can't make that argument you can make the argument you like his antics or his identity or any version of whatever all that is. You can like any part of that. That's fine. That's fair game. But, like, it can't be for the fight style. So if he sells a fight, let's say, against Gilbert Burns. 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. Are you crushing your bills? Defeating your monthly payments? Sounds like you're at the top of your financial game.

Rise to it with the BMO Eclipse Rise Visa Card. The credit card that rewards your good financial habits. Earn points for paying your credit card bill in full and on time every month. Level up from bill payer to reward slayer. Terms and conditions apply. Are the fans still going to buy it? Has there been enough disconnect between the pre-fight and what the fight itself is at this point that fans are like,

okay, what the fuck are we doing here? Or are they just going to line right back up for it? I'm going to ask it again because remember, he got booed at the end of this fight by people who were cheering him at the beginning of it. He cashed out a large portion of the reputation and the bank account he had built up with the fans

because they do love his character and they get behind him and it's Colby's credit. He did make that incredible fight with Usman and he was competitive in the rematch and so you can make the argument that he's more famous for you know losing as the b-side in those fights and that's proving true now that he's lost three title fights but um what i think that that's why i'm wondering about ninja i wonder if he got to a decision point not not dissimilar to where tj dillashaw was even though it blew up in t.'s face a lot of ways because of how quickly that shoulder fell apart. But, Luke, I literally wonder if Covington, like, had the injury, looked at the situation, realized that he's not going to get a second chance, not going to reschedule this, and maybe just said, you know, I'll try to train as much as I can.

But that wasn't five-round dynamic cardio Colby. He's enough of a dog and had enough of a well built up that he was able to be the fresher fighter somehow late and was able to turn the tables and have a moment. But the moment didn't go anywhere, Luke, and to come out in the post fight speech and just be like, you know, I wasn't scratched and that guy's boring.

And look what happened. Like, no, what are you going to buy now? Luke, it's, he doesn't finish fights. He gets you in into the building for the idea of a grudge match.

And like we said, against the first Usman, people will deliver that. Again, assuming he has an opponent that people reasonably care about which they would care about Gilbert Burns okay but they're not going to care on the title level anymore you're not his title you lose three title fights in the UFC it's over for you you're done yeah that's you know unless he fills in on an emergency kind of thing that would be with the one exception where like a title fight falls out the last second they need a replacement yes he could do that but in terms of

like scheduling him for a title fight that those days are completely over but what i am saying is if he gets gilbert burns people will they will they will love it if he goes after burns he has to go full heel so let's make the equivalent here it's like when when chael son and like he got the john jones title shot that shot that he didn't deserve, but this was similar to this in a way. It's like, okay, we've got to cash in that one more ticket. People will sell for Chael, and Chael did sell that, that Jon Jones fight. I mean, he talked his face off and was clever and witty,

but we knew what we were going to get. So where did Chael go once it was evident, okay, he doesn't belong at the title level anymore. He had already had the Anderson rematch, right? The Jon Jones was like the one after. He had the blood war with Wander that that didn't turn into a fight right until bellator i can't let you get close yeah so like at least it was a moment there but like you have to turn into full heel now so colby can win people back if he turns back into full gross heel

but luke how much grosser can you go he went as gross as you can go and didn't deliver in the fight and this isn't bc hates colby and bc hates politics I mean, I've actually been a registered Republican since 1996, Luke. I bet you have. It's just, you know, it's just do you like everyone in every voting cycle? Not always, though, right? Of course not, yeah. You know? But this is about, like, this is about Colby promised something

that he didn't deliver. That's going to be a major hit to his brand, Luke. That's kind of like in pro wrestling when, you know, someone's no longer at that level and other than those secondary storylines. That's where he's got to be on the way out. He's young enough to still make fights, but they've got to be blood wars to make it matter. That's where we're at.

35 years young, he said. Not young at this game. Not young, not young. He'll be 36 in February. And I'm not crying as a fan. The entertainment delivered in this card, if we're looking at it from that angle. Yes, overall the card delivered.

And Edwards survived in advance. But this isn't going to make you jazzed now to see Edwards versus Muhammad, even though Bilal deserves it, right? It's not going to get you jazzed. No, not at all. And who knows in advance, but this isn't going to make you jazzed now to see Edwards versus Muhammad, even though Bilal deserves it, right? It's not going to get you jazzed. No, not at all. And who knows shots from Mike Lapp? Here's the thing. We're picking on Colby because this was his shot. Again, Leon's the champ. This was for Colby. Your third shot,

if you didn't get it, you're not going to get another one, so that's over. We are picking on him a little bit, but I also think you're right. Are people super jazzed to see Leon's next fight? Maybe in the UK if they can put a fight over there that'd be a smart move that'd be a really smart move because i think it would lift him you know but in terms of the stateside audience no there is not going to be there's not going to be a huge groundswell of interest in whatever he does next unless the the shop cot thing we'll talk about that in a second that could be a bit

of an x factor um so i guess they might do below next we don't really know we should we can we can table that conversation we can table it but like yeah we should i mean we should we should keep going down this card but uh right let's talk about that co-main event here for just a second if we can in the co-main event alessandre pantoja defeating brandon royville 5045, 50-45, 49-46. BC, your biggest takeaway from the fight is what? Pantoja is a deeper reserve, deeper well than maybe we thought he did. We talked a lot about him pouring out the jug to dramatically win the title against Moreno,

but take all that punishment in doing it. He turned into a champion, though, on this night in his first title defense because he used his strengths to his advantage. He fought like a badass. He pushed a huge pace pace early and here's why this fight card was so great this is kind of largely a one-sided fight and the scoring represents that with 50 45 on two two scorecards like he said in 49 46 but yet it was dramatic yes because roival finally rallied in that final round but to see pantoja kind of show it all, Luke, he showed the pace. He showed the dominant wrestling and the strength and the slamming.

And even when they were fighting on the striking, Luke, I thought he was controlling those striking terms. Pantoja could, I'm sorry, not Pantoja. Royval could have a counter combination there. But Pantoja was moving him with the counter right hands. He was really dictating the flow of that fight. So, Luke, you got the dominant performance from the defending champion who's maybe starting to reign here in the division with so much parity.

And, you know, you got a gutsy performance from Royval. He had a flash. He had a moment. But this was about, holy shit, Pantoja, give him the pound-for-pound respect. It doesn't look like he's ready to hot potato, Luke. He's ready to start a reign. And he looked like a strong-ass dominant champion. That's what we want on this parody crazy

division yeah we want some stability yeah listen to this uh listen to this uh stat line pantoja landing 95 of 156 attempted significant strikes 8 of 14 on takedowns uh he's credited with a submission attempt in bc it's just going to be hard to win fights when you give up 15 minutes and 51 seconds of control time. Again, not all of that is on top. Some of that is against the fence. But in general, when you're being controlled, when you're being pressed against the fence for that long an interval, there's only so much you can do. Now, it's interesting.

I'm looking at a stat line from the Moreno fight. Can I interrupt for big breaking news for 299 or no? Go ahead. Okay. Dana just said the press conference. 299. Michael Venom Page versus Kevin Holland. Wow. Song Yudong versus Piotr Jan.

And Ian Machado Gary versus Jeff Neal. Ooh, that's a grudge match. 299. Ooh, that's a grudge match. That's March, so there you go. There you go. They're not going to do the Luque fight then. Interesting.

Interesting. Yeah, but dude, Pantoja, beast. I respect Royval, but beast Pantoja. The story of that fight is what? That basically Royval did have good defensive sensibility. He had better takedown defense. He was patient in many cases. Active on the bottom.

Active on bottom. He could survive, but he couldn't get much offense going really at any point two of the judges having it 50 45 which i think is probably pretty fair to be honest and it wasn't like moreno performed poorly excuse me i'm marina i'm sorry rovo didn't it wasn't like he performed poorly the jab was a nice weapon for him but bc the thing about the jab was he would touch touch touch there was never a big home run after it right there was never he never was able to like i'm with you really get the guy going and in fact don't you think that's because Pantoja kind of spammed him and put him at such a defensive posture

that any time Royville may have had a moment, take down three minutes on the ground. That's why he came out so intense. He was going to set the physical tone right away. Right away, I'm in your face. You're fighting for your life. Damn. Right away.

Shark attack right away. And it worked. It worked. It worked. It put him in this defensive sense. And again, if you look at this fight when compared to the first one, did you see defensive and overall skill improvements from Brandon Royville? No question about it. No question about a guy who would normally,

here's a big level of maturity you can identify. If somebody gets like, you know, they're accepting a takedown attempt, they're trying to defend it, and then they just jump on a low percentage submission, and then they're tying it to some other kind of like low success rate maneuver, that's when you can tell that they have some skill, but they're not really fully defensively sound. He didn't do that this time.

He didn't jump on bullshit. Yeah. Right? He took his time to defend things the right way it's just you you spent so much time defending but i will say this man pantoja absorbed 147 significant strikes against moreno he absorbed 111 a lot of that is you know debatable quality but numerically 111 significant strikes dude that's been a hellacious 10 rounds for him we we our x factor for this one was was he going to come into this contest banged up from the last one sure no appears to be the answer but look at where he is i mean now he just added another five

rounds on top dude his what he does in i'll say this what he does is not sustainable so enjoy it while you can by the way we said that about Figueredo. The problem is that Figueredo had the harder cut, it seems. It seems harder. He had a harder cut. Also, I didn't think he had like a hellacious kind of, he had a little more finesse in that rock-cloth fight. And he fights more reckless than we,

this was not a reckless version of Pantoja, to your point. Like this was a calculated, he looked bigger and stronger. I mean, he just, dude, he looked like a finished product and a champion. Whereas when he beat Moreno for the title, which also speaks by the way to Moreno's toughness, he, dude, he, I mean, it was caveman brawling. It really was. It was caveman brawling down the stretch. It was two exhausted guys.

Just, just, we loved it. It was great. But he took so much punishment to do that. This time, man, suffocating Royval. But look, it was bend and don't break down the stretch, and I'm happy for Pantoja. As much as I like Raw Dog and did pick him, I'm happy for Pantoja that it didn't fall apart,

that he was able to seal it. That's it. And now we've got to start looking at who's next in line, right? It could be a newcomer. It could be who. I don't know. I don't know who is going to be next in line. That's a great question.

Oh, you know what? The winner of Moreno and Albazi. Albazi is making moves. That's one versus three. Brandon Royval was question. Oh, you know what? The winner of Moreno and Albazi. Albazi is making moves. That's one versus three. Brandon Royville was two. Who else would it be? I mean, is KKF still coming off a loss or did he bounce back? But he had the, he's four, but remember he had the concussion issue.

That's right. That's right. So he's kind of not really at play in the moment. And he's had title opportunities before too. He's been on camera for like eight hours tonight. I know. I'm so tired. I'm so fucking tired.

But it's got to be Moreno and Al Bazzi, right? The winner of that. That's got to be it. Probably. Probably. And they're going to have that. That's the one in Mexico City? Bon Terrain. I'll tell you that much. He's gone. Yeah, for 18 months. He's gone. BC, also, well, I like the jab of Royville.

Again, not throwing a combination a hole up behind it. I didn't like that. And the other part I didn't like was, you know, if you look at like the knockout I think he has on Nicolau Royville, it was a step through knee. He didn't throw those as much tonight. I think out of fear of giving up the takedown, and it limited his offense in that way. But to me, the real big Achilles heel, excuse me, of what I saw from Royville tonight, the inability to stop the takedown was such a problem.

That was it. And that was why. Man, that was where the fight was won or lost right there. We said this in the live parts, but it was like that's, I thought he was going to be able to have more success at preventing that. And credit to Pantoja. Wow, Luke, can we talk about Shavka? Can we make that transition?

You want a transition? That's all you have to say? I mean, I have a lot to say. It's also 2 a.m. We've been on the mic for eight hours. All right. All right. Yeah, let's say it. We're doing a show Monday too, you know? say? I mean, I have a lot to say. It's also 2 a.m. We've been on the mic for eight hours. All right. All right. Yeah, let's say it.

We're doing a show Monday, too. Yeah, I know. We do too many of these. Well, I don't think we have to break everything down. We could leave some meat on the bone, Luke. You know, maybe. We can look forward. Yeah, that's true.

That's true. Well, let's finish the talk. To the pornography, I'm going to. Dude, it took longer than maybe some fans want. Well, no, it didn't take that long. The end of the second round, Shafikar Rachmaninoff's nasty. Okay. Wonder Boy survived a long-ass time, but, it didn't take that long. The end of the second round, Shavkat Rachmanov's nasty. Wonderboy survived a long-ass time,

but it took everything to survive that long. Okay, so officially, Shavkat Rachmanov defeats Steven Wonderboy Thompson via rear naked choke at 456 of round number two. Nearly went to the third round, but it did not. It ended there in the second. So let's set up the table here one more time. 18 fights, 18 wins, 18 finishes.avkat rachmanov retains his 100 finishing rate and if you're one of these people who has now decided that all of a sudden rachmanov

is not entertaining you're a bum you're a i think colby took him off the hook but yeah they're wrong to begin with you're a a fucking bum. Okay, did the first round between Wonderboy and Shofcott suck the horn? Yes. Terrible round. Won't defend it even a little bit. Just pressing Wonderboy into the fence. His takedown defense tonight looked phenomenal, BC. It did.

Again, didn't have any offense behind it, but he didn't get overwhelmed in that first round. Big problem. That was Royval's problem until the end, too. These fights were kind of similar in some of that regard in the physical dominance, but when Shavka turned into that python and got the squeeze going, I mean, Luke, he is just...

He's tenaciously patient in a creepy manner. It's surgical. I want to defend the guy. He had one bad round in a career manner, surgical, just, I mean. I want to defend the guy. He had one bad round in a career with a 100% finishing rate. I don't think people are actually making this argument. No, I mentioned. You sometimes read one tweet and you think that's the one.

No, no, no, I got a bunch of these. I got a bunch of these. Saying that, well, that was, you know, now he's boring. Off of one fucking round in a career with 18 wins and 18 finishes as a consequence please be fucking serious and also bc the way he set that up sitting on the leg reaching through capturing the far side wrist then collapsing him to the same shoulder that the wrist was captured on this way so that he's on the mat and then using the mat as the placeholder to keep his arm behind him so that he can sneak it around

and then ultimately get the finish is some assassin shit. Yes. Assassin shit. That is what I'm talking about, man. It's a mix of wrestling. It's a mix of great ground and pound. Obviously, it's a mix of great risk control, submissions, the whole nine. And this dude can't do anything but overwhelm great fighters.

It's what he does. So many tools. And you could say, well, he didn't have that many in the stand-up. No, he didn't. No, he didn't. But he didn't get lit up with anything too big in the stand-up. And what fight is he supposed to fight against Wonderboy? We said it.

What were the last two losses that Wonderboy had? Wrestling losses. There's nothing bad. We don't have to defend Shavkat here, Luke. He was amazing. Thompson was durable and sturdy. I think you're rational, but I see a lot of people being like, oh, that was so terrible.

Yeah, the first round was terrible. The second round wasn't terrible. They don't think that once they watch the main event anymore. Oh, that's a fair point. Yeah. So we look back and look. We had to learn Shavka against this level, which gives Stephen Thompson credit.

And where he still is at age 40 was a tough level. But look, the Jeff Neal fight had a couple questions left over. I know there's different fighters, but no questions anymore. No questions, Geronimo. He didn't march into range this time, right? He didn't just, I'm just going to walk in there and get popped like on the way in. No. He took his time and just kept going, just kept chopping away.

And, dude, who's going to take that heat? Who's going to take that heat, dude? I mean, so Dana was asked, and he says he doesn't want to talk about what's next when they said it's Bilal next. So he did say it makes sense for Edwards to fight in England. So maybe it's Edwards. Yeah, that's a retz the right move. So do you think, and we'll talk about this more on Monday. Yeah, so probably Bilal. But, hey, you never you never know we'll see i mean this this was a very good

win for shavkat in my opinion um but no it wasn't like the spinning head kick one you know shot chopped his head off oh my god let's annoy him the next big thing but those who know no he is the next big thing and you were right and he's coming the hell on and laura senko was right to have those to have those eyes you know what i mean she know what she saw just sexualizing her work there's nothing sexual about that it It's more about this thing is coming and just get ready. Get ready. Is that a Benny Hill thing?

No, it's when you get the horny police. Oh, yeah. BC, what about Wonderboy? Should he retire? He could. And we wouldn't have any shame because this does sort of signify the end of the title hopes unless there was a big comeback. But, you know, he's 40. He's still very much there.

But I don't know. This is obviously a bad style matchup. I think he can still beat good fighters. He still could. He can still beat good fighters. He's not 40 in terms of what he's showing us. That's for sure. But, again, his title days, they're done.

They've probably been done for some time. Like him against Colby. I don't want to watch that build. He's going to accuse his dad of being a pedophile. They can mess up his business. Like, who wants to do that? I mean, does he have to fight Ian Gary now? I mean, it's just this.

Ian Gary's fighting who again? Oh, so Ian Gary's going to fight Jeff Neal. Jeff Neal. Yeah, that's a good one. Okay, that's a two-night dinner. I remember Jeff Neal's coach is Saif Saoud. He was real bitter when Ian Gary put the mugshot on the T-shirt. Yes.

He didn't like that too much. So that'll be a fun little rivalry fight. Dana said Moreno-Albazi is probably next, so you're correct on that. Yes. Dana apologized for seating DDP and Strickland next to each other, said it was on him. He didn't even think of it, and he's like, I'm an idiot. Yeah.

Or close enough to each other. Close enough. I'm dying here, Luke. Let's keep this going. Okay. So then let's go further down the card if we can, BC. How about Patty Pimblitt and Tony? What do you want to say? It was a lot of drama.

It was a suspenseful fight. It was fun. I will say this, dude. Patty showed a lot of weakness. I was going to say they both got out of it what they wanted, I think. I know it's the seventh straight loss. Tell me why. Because Patty showed enough poise and sort of this hitman demeanor.

Yes, there were times his chin was still out there. Defense was not at a premium when they were throwing at the same time. But look, when Tony was trying to mount a rally in round three, Patty made the veteran move of stepping in and taking him down and sort of just snuffing it. And I think it was overall like a step forward. Patty's not perfect. He's not ever going to be, right?

There's always going to be limitations. There's always going to be things that he does better than you realize or are willing to give him credit for. But he was in great shape. He did have to come back from a serious injury, a one-year layoff, and the critical respect from that Jared Gordon fight just not being there anymore. I know Tony is Tony, but Tony also wins in my mind. Debate his future employment all you want, but he wins in my mind because, yeah,

it seemed like he had to go through hell to prepare, but he seems in a better place mentally. His chin looked better than ever. I'm not trying to advocate for him to return. I think they will let him, but I'm not trying to advocate that. But I think he retained – he almost had a moment late. He retained a lot of the respect that we all really do have for him. He fought well, Luke. He tested a prospect who needed it.

He kind of worked out the way it's supposed to he didn't get injured although he didn't take damage in certain sequences but you know he does tie bj penn for seven consecutive losses the most the worst streak it's time to it's time to end it in ufc history you know i mean what's next lava shack bkfc i don't know luke but um i don't know i feel like they're going to give him more i do they did to cowboy like i just feel like they're going to give him one more. I do. They did it to Cowboy. Like I just feel like they're going to go. What is it? You know, Matt Brown. What is it?

They're going to give him one until he retires on his own. Like I'm going to hang it up here tonight kind of thing. Yeah. I don't even want to keep like debating that. But I think they will. I think they will. I think they're going to give it to him. I'll say this for Patty.

He looked more muscled this time. He had a really strange haircut. You know, he got the cornrows. Yeah yeah uh which is that's always a choice that's really like if you pass out day drinking at the pool at an all-inclusive in like so when your buddy's like oh yo get the brain lady over here like that's what happens it's like dude if that haircut wasn't functional you have the kenny powers haircut yeah you know what i mean but it's functional for mma so i get it past his muster um he looked more muscled His striking looked a little bit more fluid. His defensive problems are very much still there,

and make no mistake about it, he gassed in the third. Right? Is that a fair assessment? He gassed in the third. His chin is still on a silver platter. But veteran move to snuff it out. But he had a good game plan, finding the opening for the right hand. He was very good on the ground.

He was wise to put this fight on the ground when he did in various but within second and third round in particular obviously like he did a lot of good things that i had not expected him to necessarily do i will say i think he stepped up here and not a not one not a picture that is without criticism but uh i thought there was growth in patty's game ultimately. Dana White says that the pressure of performing in front of Donald Trump may have gotten to Colby. And on the flip side, Edwards probably felt pressure following Colby's comments. And White says Colby looks slow and old tonight.

He did. I mean, he did. I like when the boss is being fair. The boss got to be fair there. I mean, look, Colby doesn't stay faced with that speech afterwards. The speech afterwards sucked. You know what I, Colby doesn't stay faced with that speech afterwards. The speech afterwards sucked. You know what I mean? It doesn't do anything, yeah.

I mean, it doesn't mean like he won't capture our hearts again. Colby wants to bang Donald Trump. All right, this is just getting out of here. He just wants to go out there and let him have it. You know, Josh Emmett may have had the knockout of the year. It's so brutal. It's so brutal. Dude, that is easily.

We've got to close after this. That's fine. That is easily one of the most devastating KOs in MMA probably. Well, MMA history is pretty full. It's definitely one of the most devastating KOs in UFC history. What I mean by that is was it the most spectacular, acrobatic, whatever? I don't know. But in terms of what it did to his opponent,

when they had Bryce Mitchell twitching on the mat, he ran into the punch. You saw him go low and then come way over the top. And, dude, Bryce Mitchell, we didn't move his head. We talked about it. He's moving into it as the punch. You saw him go low and then come way over the top. And, dude, Bryce Mitchell, he didn't move his head. We talked about it. He's moving into it as the punch is moving into him. And BC, when they go face first like that, and then when they start twitching and then the toes curl, it's all bad news.

He needs, dude, I got to be honest, that's a career-altering KO potentially, right? I hope not. I hope not. Now Dana said that Bryce went to the hospital and passed all the tests and, you know, is doing okay. Yeah, he needs some time off. Oh, yeah.

I mean, and he took a beating against Taperia. So you hope it's okay. But that could be one of those that changes the course of your career or at the very least, unfortunately, it would take out a chunk. I mean, everyone said that just to compare like when Corrales Castillo had the all-time greatest boxing, you know, everybody knew in that moment they poured it out and they were never the same. They're still in it out. And they were never the same. They're still in big fights, but they were never the same.

And I hope not for Bryce, but that's a perfect shot. And, dude, Emmitt needed it, and he was in great shape, and he had the full camp. He took advantage, and I hope he – I don't know. I don't know if he still has life left to turn it and make a run, but he needed that. He got it. That's it, Luke.

Eight hours in a row, man. Dude, Josh Emmitt, remember, he got viciously stopped by jeremy stevens and here he is handing out reconstruction yeah handing out one of the most vicious stoppages uh ever we're just gonna we're just gonna bail like that oh yeah you should probably we should probably say goodbye you know i mean well hold on this is the last one dude we're just gonna end like that oh that's a good point it's a lot wow you gotta end a little bit better than that man this is This is the last one, dude. We're just going to end like that? Oh, that's a good point. Wow, this is it. You've got to end a little bit better than that, man. This is the last one in Showtime boxing history.

This is the last one in Showtime sports history. This is the last one for not an MK history, but MK in the damn bunker. Dude, thank you to all the fans who helped us have all the fun that we had here. Oh, how about Seferino? He just sent us holiday gifts. You got death metal comic books. Oh, how about Seferino? He just sent us holiday gifts. You got death metal comic books. Dude, I got a badass Depeche Mode record too.

Seferino, my man. Thank you very much. Seriously, thank you to everyone who allowed us to do the show here. Thank you to Brian Daly for having a vision for MK. Thank you to all the Molka dogs who were on the phone. I mean, we're talking about, yeah, we're talking about legends here. We're talking about, you know, Maniche and the Jake Rose,

Von Amstermans and the, you know, the Long Island Lukes and the Gaffs and the Tristans and Brandon. And, you know, when Lou was re-racking that time at the Big Lou, you know. Hey, Big Lou had a big role in Doc and The Last Doc. People don't talk about that. With the drone, you know, that was a good moment in my life. Thank you to everybody. I mean, Matt Snyder and Courtney Magg, who was here. I mean, you know, that was a good moment in my life. Thank you to everybody. I mean, Matt Snyder and Courtney Magg, who was here.

I mean, these are, we, but the show's not ending. But the show under the Showtime era is ending. This is the last one. This was part of it. This was a big part of it. I mean, look, when we came in here for day one of the bomb shelter, which was the day after International Fight Week in 2019, John, what was it? John Jones, yeah, he had fought.

Tiago, maybe? Tiago or somebody. And the set was kind of hideous, but it did have, like, a little bit of charm. I mean, I don't know. I didn't know. How many years are we into this? I didn't know.

Four. I mean, I knew we had the magic, but, like, you don't know if, like... I mean, things change. I mean, Showtime just shut down. I mean, things change. Things change that are out of your control. Or sometimes, you know, you could do a great show and no one's watching it.

But we've had success, and it's because of these crazy fans. But this structure has meant something. We've spilled fluids in here. I don't want to know which ones, but they've had them. I've not ejaculated in here. You know how many great interviews we did, right? The Room Service Diaries? You know how many times?

Not that many. We're trying to figure out where that couch is going. Maybe it'll just stay there. Again, they're going to torch the place and collect the insurance money. Somebody definitely stole a lot of good records. My Portugal the Man record's gone. Your Portugal the Man record thing? Yeah.

Hey, it's been a run, man. It's been a fucking run. We had Aljamain Sterling in here one time, right? We did. Yeah, we did. Hey, how about Jay Aaron? Do you want to shout him out? Fuck that loser.

Fuck that loser. First thing I do is I put the mozzarella. Hey, I put the mozzarella. What are you doing? You don't talk like this. Yo, Jay's fish tank video reviews are just incredible. Why don't you just review what it's like to put a toaster in a bathtub? Why don't you do that?

Oh, you popped the controller with that one. just incredible. Why don't you just review what it's like to put a toaster in a bathtub? Why don't you do that? You popped the controller with that one. You know, I would say if we weren't so washed, I would do a shot of Tiger thing, but we're washed. Should we do one? This one's for Shob. Yeah, we should do one. Shob played a part in the birth of this.

I have to take medication after this. Yeah, it pairs well. Alright, you gotta do it out of your MK mug, Luke. I gotta really have a very mild one. Then we gotta do that whole Colombian Parabuda Mara Yuta. You gotta do the Schaub stuff, because Lord knows you got enough

laughs off of him. No, we started this in some ways on Schaub's channel with Schaub. When we launched the bomb shelter and launched Morning Combat, it was on the Below the Belt channel, right? Beyond the Belt. These are mini shots, but that's fine. All right.

Well, ladies and gentlemen, for one last time, my name is Luke Thomas. That's Brian Campbell. I'm taking those records home with me, by the way. It's fine. I'm not going to fight you for them. Oh, where's my Columbo? Oh, and by the way, you won OK Bet.

You won OK Bet. You won OK Bet. You won OK Bet. OK, well, this is a hell of a prize for winning, Luke. Here we go. Here we go. For one last time, can we put the fucking, there we go. Here we go. For one last time.

Oh, pa-pa-roomba? I'm going to show you. I'm going to show you. So here we go. Hey, everyone, thank you for making this studio what it is. We love you. We'll see you on the other side. We're not dying.

We're not dying. L-T-B-C-M-K. Yeah. Arriba Abajo Pal centro Par dentro Positive and incorporated

We're out We'll see you Monday That's thick That's thick That's thick Three C's Oh wow Walked me into my trunk

Had to Okay you can end it now Bye Wow We're done