MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 316 Pregame Preview: Dvalishvili vs. O'Malley Presented By Cuervo® | Morning Kombat

Episode Date: June 4, 2025

Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell are joined in studio by Aaron Bronsteter to go over all things UFC 316 this weekend at the Prudential Center in New Jersey. Merab Dvalishvili defends his UFC Bantamweight title against Sean O'Malley in a rematch from UFC 306 where Dvalishvili claimed the championship by unanimous decision. The rest of the card is stacked with Julianna Peña defending her women's Bantamweight crown for the first time against Kayla Harrison. Kelvin Gastelum takes on Joe Pyfer in a Middleweight clash, Patchy Mix makes his UFC debut against Mario Bautista and Vicente Luque faces Kevin Holland in the Welterweight division. Plus so much more!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Oh, yeah, right. We're talking about real talk like the men do. Welcome on in. Hey, it's UFC 316 pregame preview and this is Morning Combat. Brian Campbell, my typical co-host from DC, Luke Thomas, but special here by way of Sportsnet making his, I don't want to say in in person MK debut because you did appear at the Three Margaritas show. That's right. Never forget.

I was there for you on a margarita in person. But Aaron Broncetter of Canadian fame, of vinyl fame, great to have you here, welcome. Thank you, I do wanna clear one thing up that was mentioned I guess last week. So when I was on with Luke, he asked me if I was more of a mathlete or an athlete when I was in high school.

And you've been looming on this for a long time. So I'll break this down mathematically for you. I failed math in grade 10 and 11. So I was terrible at math. So really any athletic endeavor that I would have done in high school would have been better. Look at the screen, Abram. Yeah, I mean, as you can see.

Just hitting the gym. I had to take time away from the gym. They're in a, I mean, as you can see. Look at the neighbor on the screen. I had to take time away from the gym. They're in a self-proclaimed form of RCAP, but I never proclaimed it. So I played, like, pickup basketball, and like road hockey. So those athletic endeavors, to me, made me more of an athlete than a math lead

because I had failed math on two occasions. Were you high as a pistol from beyond? Yeah, I could shoot. Did your school have minorities? Okay. Well, I mean, do you consider Jewish people minorities? If so, we were like 85% minorities. Not like typically NBA ready. No, definitely not. You go to like a high school like I went to and you know, it's tough sledding. So on that subject when I went for summer school, because I failed math twice, like I mentioned many times before this, I went to Vaughn Secondary School, which

is where Andrew Wiggins played basketball. So I mean, I was athlete adjacent. Okay, very good. All right, we'll get more into that later. Well, nice to see you. Welcome here. It is Wednesday, June 4th, 2025. As I mentioned, we're a few days out

from just down the road in River from here in Newark, New Jersey. And if you're gonna travel there, please use Newark Penn Station. Luke Thomas sent ya. You know the good part about Newark Penn Station? Everywhere is a toilet. It's very convenient.

You don't have to walk to the toilet. You just go. That's what you do. You don't say, sir, where's the bathroom? They just look around. Exactly. They're pissed everywhere. And today's episode of Morning Combat is of course presented to you by DraftKings.

DraftKings, the crown is yours. Also, folks, this is pregame preview with our friends from Quervos. So, Luke, we should probably indoctrinate this episode and brawn into our way of life. It's not what the word indoctrinate means, but I'll run with it. Infestate? Infestate is not a proper word either. Where I come from? I don't think it's a proper conjugation.

Anyway, when you can get a little Cuervo Blanco in your life you should that's where I'm talking about especially when real men are gonna get together all right I do this now. I heard a certain someone is gonna chicken out of the not real man Good a chicken. Why can't you booze well because I'm doing an interview with Sean O'Malley directly after this You should show up to work smelling like piss. That's what you should do. So I should head over to Newark Penn Station. That's where I should send my Uber after this. Okay, you talk all that shit about how I'm not shooting

and you're pouring half shots. Oh, dude, this is a double shot. That's not a fucking double shot. It's a single shot. Hey, hey, hey, three margaritas, let's go. Let's go, all right. How do you get a double shot into one shot glass? You don't, that's my point.

Okay, I'm gonna go full. I'm going all in, all right? You can talk that shit. You gotta back it up at least a little bit. I'm not the one chasing it. I am chasing. Okay. I don't talk that shit.

I don't talk that shit. I have my lane and it's the pussy lane and I'm just gonna live in it. Hey, why don't you pour more on the desk, you fucking moron. Well, I'll enjoy my grapefruit infused water from this bougie studio you guys have here. Is weed legal in Canada? Yes, it is, right? It has to be yeah, what about tariffs Aaron? Okay, so we're gonna now

We're gonna tell him an uber driver from yesterday. Just I told him I was from Canada He just got deep into the political weeds with me. I was like come on man I'm just trying to enjoy my told you my rise Canada And he don't have as we say in Columbia Luke all right here. We go get your glass here Are you bow bow? Hi, I'm a. Get your glass here. Arriba, Bajayo. Arriba, abajo, al centro. Cheers. Cayo, Bajayo, gotcha.

All right. We're gonna do it. Great water. Grapefruit tinged, I love it. Man, fuck you, how about that? Wow, that'll put hair on your chest. If I wasn't on the clock, I would be indulging in this grapefruit.

What is your drink of choice? I'm a whiskey guy, bourbon whiskey. Like straight up? Yeah, usually I make old fashioned sometimes. I have the bitters and that's like, you know, if I'm winding down after a long day. Very enough. He's an old timey type of guy.

Exactly, I'm an old soul. He's an old soul. Jazz, music, and whiskey. Very much so. Guys, when I say words to you like 316, I don't want you to say, Hell yeah, bro. Yeah, yeah.

Do you think of Stone Cold ET? No, we don't. UFC 316, given the climate in UFC right now, and this will not be a negative UFC program, let's celebrate a pay-per-view that's coming. Let's have fun. But how do we rate the depth of this pay-per-view the star power all things considered Luke? Can we get a letter grade to kick this off? Oh, it's a good one

So I'm gonna grade it by like pay-per-view standard and we've talked about this before it's one of two UFC pay-per-views this month Which is a tough thing to do because one is clearly gonna be better than the other. I think fans prefer good fights over paying, because a lot of them don't pay anyway. So I think it's just people. I think this one might be better. Like this main card might be better than International Fight Week main card.

Oh, you're right. Top to bottom. I'm trying to remember what like, like I'm talking about the five fights in totality. Yeah, maybe also. You've got Patsy, mixed debut. The problem is that main event at International Fight Week is like so good. It's killer

Probably give it a B-minus Would you agree on this it's like in the B-plus range for me? I got you got two title fights you got Kayla Harrison potentially like okay. I like that story. She's revived that division like I mean that division was like Totally on the verge of stagnation before she came along. I think she has a chance to revive it. I do not believe. I personally would not say it's revived. She's kept it interesting because Nunes left.

Like if you look at the Nunes era and who were ranked in the top 15, like not much has changed. There's no obvious contender next. Like if Nunes isn't coming back, who's gonna get the next title shot? Like there's nobody there. So having Kayla Harrison come in and shake things up

I think has done wonders for again what I think a division that was on the verge of stagnation I'll give you that she's gonna add personality a great story And I love that you if she's like trying to tell it through countdown and embedded of you know taking on her siblings children And all that, but I think it's also just a great story with her You know Olympic background cutting this much weight. And I do believe she's the bridge to getting Amanda back. No, I think Amanda would come back if Juliana won, too. But I'm saying that's that's where I think they can really pump some life into, not just the division,

which is really kind of been down for a while. But women's MMA in general, I think this could be a spike to it. Right. Because I like pleasure spiked with pain. And the UFC women are my aeroplane. Get the fuck out. How can you hip hop horn that? Yeah. Red Hot Chili Peppers, baby.

You encourage this. I mean, it's one hot minute. I mean, it's not the best of the Chili Peppers, but. That's the Dave Navarro era. Yeah, exactly. I mean, listen, I think that the, I really do hesitate to call this a sea level event because Marab is the champion of one of the better divisions. The matchup can be hit or miss depending on what

O'Malley brings, but you know 135 title being on the line is a significant event to the point that you raise in the co-main event. Kayla, at least her and what she's doing has injected life. And then you got the the debut of Patchy Mix in the UFC, which by itself, I think Patchy Mix versus Mario Bautista could be the headlining of a fight night if they played it right. Very good fight. Joe Pfeiffer versus Kelvin Gastelum is a ton of fun there.

Now Kevin Holland and Vicente Luque. Not for Mexican zone. It's a fine fight. It's a fine fight to open the main card. Perfect main card opener. Exactly, gets you going, what's the appetite, all that kind of stuff. So I think there's definitely some quality there.

It just doesn't have the wow factor that some of the other cards later this summer has. But is there quality or is there quality? It is the beginning. If I'm trying to find some joy in this calendar year in MMA, I think it's the beginning of an upward trend. Yeah. June's packed and the summer does have big main events, so I'm happy about that. Let's get fired up.

Definitely. All of June, all four weekends have sick main events. No doubt about it. Our main event for this Saturday, UFC 316 All of June, all four weekends have sick main events. No doubt about it. Our main event for this Saturday, UFC 316, of course, is a rematch. Not a rematch everybody was screaming for, but the closer we get, man, I am interested when you take into account the storylines,

particularly former champion Sean O'Malley, as we've been talking about a lot leading up to this, swearing off everything from weed to podcasting to jaying the peen. I think that's how the kids say it. I think he was OD locked in against Marab Devalesvili, who man, he's indestructible. He had like the back injury in his first title defense against Umar Nurmagomedov that his team was begging him

to pull out of. He just broke a couple toes, I think, in the last few weeks. Either way, guys, when this was announced, people weren't raving. I've come around to it. So from the perspective that matters here, the fight itself, AB, let me start with you. What intrigues you the most X's and O's wise about this second chance for Sean O'Malley atop this division?

Well, I think with Sean, he's actually, I think, one of the tougher matchups for Marab in the division. I think his striking because of how elite it is. And I think his grappling is he's actually, I think, one of the tougher matchups for Marab in the division. I think his striking, because of how elite it is, and I think his grappling is fairly underrated as well, like in terms of, if you've ever watched his submission grappling matchups that he had a couple years ago, he's pretty good in that regard,

and I think he's probably only gotten better. So if he is coming into this in a much healthier fashion, he had a torn labrum last time around, I think you look at the odds last time and it was basically the same odds as it is this time except flipped, like O'Malley was like a minus 275 favorite. And the reason for that is- Oh my God, he was that big of a favorite.

Yeah, he was a big favorite in that fight. And the expectation was, oh yeah, O'Malley's gonna win, he's gonna knock him out or get a decision or something along those lines. Obviously we've seen from Murad and you look at his resume, it's like, it's absolutely stacked. But at the same time, I think that from a matchup standpoint, like this is an intriguing matchup.

I did an article for Sportsnet this week where I went back to the first fight and looked at it from a judging standpoint with a judge. Which judge was this? It's a man named Patrick Lingenfelder. He actually invented a new app called the MMA Judge Analyzer so you can watch fights in real time and score in real time

and then at the end you look at how it scored kind of almost numerically so like get like 15 to 10 for this person and then you have a minute by minute break or actually it's more of a second by second breakdown of where you waited those rounds so it's kind of a cool technology. So when you went into the lab and rewatched the first one which I believe I was fairly confident going as high as even 401 Marab. Well, that's the thing. What did you find out upon applying this scientific, you know, which no one does in judging.

It's very nerdy, right? So, I mean, but. Yeah, you don't get laid with it, but it's. No, definitely not. Yeah. Anything MMA, really. But when you look at. Unless you're grooming.

My balls? No, as like a young fighter to marry, you know what I mean? Like a Celine Dion. Oh, unless you're like just being a sex pad. Yeah, yeah, yeah, fighter to marry, you know what I mean? Like like a sling. Oh, unless you're like just being a sex Yeah Thank you for bringing it back to me on that note, but when you when you look at it Again people I think thought it was more of a dominating result than it was but if you go back to it to it

Two of the judges... Oh, okay. They got you. You guys are crushing me. If you're listening to the audio version, you're not going to get what we're laughing at, so feel free to check it out on YouTube. But, sorry, O'Malley won rounds three and five on two of the judges' scorecards. And the first round, if you go back to it, it's a fairly close round. Now, I think that if you would have given that fight to O'Malley, people would have gone crazy. Like, the sphere might have had a hole poked in it by the fans because of how

Convincing that fight looks from Rob, but didn't rob get three takedowns in that first room. No, no, I think one takedown Yes, the one and it was negated not automatically but fairly quick Yeah, and I think the problem from Ali is he didn't put too much out in the first round So like I think that it's a comfortable round for it's like a it's a competitive but clear round for marab But that being said like like two, three more punches in that first round, like they could have potentially given that to O'Malley based on how fights are scored, round by round, and the scoring criteria.

But you have two really dominant rounds from Murab in there with two and four. So, you know, optically, Murab wins that fight. If you're doing pride judging, like 10 times out of 10, Murab wins that fight. So when you, but when you look at it again, round by round, very close fight, and I think that this fight's gonna be, but when you look at it again, round by round, very close fight. And I think that this fight's gonna be a close one as well.

I think that Sean is being kind of overlooked in the same way that Murab was the first time around. Luke, we did talk a lot about we're expecting a better O'Malley. He's not, he doesn't have the torn labrum that he delayed surgery for. Obviously he's going into the mental, he's not going full Anthony Joshua mental isolation. Like the four days in the dark room where you, like, do you think he has to use the restroom in this in the pitch black when he does it mean like Aaron Rodgers Yes, I just be wearing depends and just let it go my question Ultimately to you is how much better can he be than that first time? Especially when you add in now they got five rounds of video that they can look back on and try to you know

That's a smart coach and Tim welch right there. They're a very good team, the two of them. How much better do you expect to see O'Malley? I expect them to be significantly better. The question is whether or not that matters because you would imagine Marab is also going to make some adjustments along the way. And so they're going to play catch-up. I think no matter what, but you know, there's just some things about fighting Marab that you really

have to kind of come around to which is, you know I talked about this I think on Monday show or maybe last Friday show when we were like previewing this. I've been doing a lot of tape studying on Marab and actually it's kind of, this is true, I haven't told anybody this, I've spent the last week reaching out to fighters and coaches about some theories I have on how to beat Marab and like just getting some- How? Did anybody take the advice? All of them. All of them. Yeah, I couldn't believe it. People have it's kind of funny. Apparently, a lot of people have thought about this. Well, and to be fair, to, to, to, you know, handle your bag a little.

You have had active fighters, even champions reach out to you. I did. I had I had a UFC champion reach out for tape study, so I was pretty happy about that. But in any case, I asked a bunch of other ones, not that one. I asked a bunch of other ones like what they thought about it and what O'Malley could do. And one of the big things that like they kept coming around to was if you notice as time goes on, not the first round, right? Which was, you know, what we discussed previously, but the other rounds, a lot of times O'Malley gets taken down and he'll hold position with a guard or he'll spend a lot of time with O'Malley,

excuse me, with Marab on his back, not in any kind of threatening way for submission, but he can't build height. If you just time the clock, dude, he's burning minutes doing this. He's carrying a lot of Marab's weight. And also, like, if you're doing that where you're just focused on building height, there's just no meaningful offense there. You might be able to sneak a couple of short shots in, but there's no meaningful offense. You can't do that with him. You have to have a game plan where it's attack all the time. Not necessarily like

running at him, but whatever position you're in, it's time to attack. And that also has implications for the standup department because when he let his strikes go with some of those kicks in the fifth round, and I know that Aljaman Sterling was saying things like, you know, he fakes that kind of stuff, but after he takes the body kick in the fifth round, he tries for two takedowns and he fails miserably at them. I thought he might break in that moment. Exactly. So my thought is like, dude, you can't fight this fight being like, I'm going to protect

my space. Dude, you have to kind of throw what he does. You kind of have to match his intensity. You kind of have to, you know, take some risks along the way. You might have taken them. You better have the stamina though, because that's what he does to you. I think if you aren't injured and you're a champion in this weight class, there's no reason. You cannot match his, you can not, no one can match Morob's cardio, but you can have 25 minutes of good cardio. What was O'Malley's best round in that last fight? Exactly. The fifth round.

Exactly, so my point is, you're asking how different can he be with a better health to get better prep and better strategy. This fight could be a lot different. You know, in the countdown show, really focused in on what he's giving up from the distractions of where his life was, and I like that he even admitted, like, I was believing in the sugar thing a little too much.

I had become the gimmick, he kind of basically said without saying there. And now you're seeing him extreme family man. I'm wondering if the open side of that relationship is off the table now. This is not part of the analysis that you typically enjoy. But would that help him in the fight, do you think? I'm wondering.

I'm wondering if he's gone the full level of back to like one woman, one, you know. Do you need to crank the hog if you're just slaying the beast everywhere? You know what I'm really trying to set up here is that, um, Marab really hasn't outside of the fifth round where he did finally slow down, he caught that jumping knee to the face too. You know, like it caught up to him a little bit.

Had he not been disciplined by a striker before that since like the Marais fight, which was like the beginning of the streak for him. Or the streak of really big names. Sohuto cracked him. Aldo kind of cracked him a couple of times, but no one has... No one's been able to get him off of that A game, right?

Well, because everyone's fighting him on his terms. Exactly. Exactly. That's the issue. Like, they're all kind of waiting for him to do something and then reacting to it, rather than like setting the offensive tone, which again, hard to do, but. How rare is it to be a come forward guy

with that volume and constant pressure and become that responsible defensively? Because when I rewatched the first fight, that's the thing that jumped out for me. It's not just the high guard, which he constantly employed to stop the kind of O'Malley strikes that he's used to landing, to set up other ones.

It was the darting in and out. I mean, we know it goes without saying he's got, you know, historically great cardio, but he was like never in range. So how does O'Malley get him back to that range in the rematch? That's my question because obviously that threat of the takedown is a big part of what Marab does great, mixed with the pressure and the constant threat. You're always playing his game, but you have to, not only does he only have to land, he has to take back those terms. And without a wrestling game, it's not gonna be easy. I don't think you can match,

you can't match Marab's wrestling. Why would you try? Right, so you're automatically gonna be losing some of your stamina, because you're going to spend time using a lot of energy fighting off those takedowns. Again, why would you keep fighting off the takedowns? Put in a little bit of effort if they go, fine.

Reset the terms underneath. You have to completely reset the terms. And I talk about it all the time with Corey Sanhagen did against Devinson Figueredo. He gets taken down a couple of times. Did he stay under there and fight underneath? Nope. He inverted and was like, No, I'm gonna go for a heel hook, backside 50-50 and make you react to it. You have to make Marab react. And another part is that with on the stand-up, make you react to it. You have to make Marab react. And another part is, on the stand-up, guys will just hold it. They'll hold it. They'll hold it. Waiting for Marab to do something as he's moving side to side,

in and out, fainting side to side. And so you're just not throwing. You're not using offensive volume in that way. I'm not saying you have to walk him down and put it on him. You could wait for him to approach and then intercept him at the point of contact and then knowing you might still get taken down and then you'll have a whole offensive sequence. But the point I'm trying to make is any game plan that's going to work on Marab involves hurting him.

Any game plan. Any game plan that you can't beat him. Do we saw Umar? Umar, I thought, I don't know about you, Umar, I was like, okay, Umar can match him in the wrestling and can take him down and shut all that down. And then it turns out Murab's takedown defense is fucking awesome. But I think it was stamina induced. Stamina induced as well. It's also his technical. It's part of his plan. His technical takedown defense was so good in that fight. You can't do that either. So that is shut down. You have to hurt this guy.

And I think another advantage that O'Malley has, and nobody's had a rematch with Murab yet, this is the first rematch that Murab has had, is I don't think you can prepare for the mental energy that is going to be expended from having to face a guy like that, who is not going to go away, who's going to be on you for five rounds, who's going to be in your face. Like as much as you want to do in training, like you can't practically train for the mental drain that comes with having to face a guy like that That's just constantly gonna be in your face having dealt with that already for O'Malley. I think it's gonna be a big bonus for him as well Yeah, I mean he's gonna know what that drowning feeling is like and I'm just trying to figure out How like that is a dramatic change to his game or is it just he's

going to be 20 to 30 percent better fully healthy dialed. I think one of the big mistakes is there might be some real big differences, but in general at this level of MMA, small differences yield big results. I don't think you need to like completely overhaul it, but you might want to a small tweak to, for example, the push kick that was so successful in the in the fifth round. Let's just imagine something. He brings it out in the first. Now, of course, you would imagine also Marab is going to be looking for that for the takedown too. But let's just say he can snap it off a little bit and that

begins to create a chain reaction of events, sets up other offense, neutralizes the kind of come forward pressure Marat. This yields big results. So people are like, Oh, you got to completely change what you were doing. Well, maybe on the ground. I think on the ground he does really need to change on the on the feet. You got to do what they say. What Terrence Crawford does. What does he do? Ready? He goes, I get active. That's right. He has to get active out there. He gets active. And again, that first round, had he been more active in that first fight, he might have won it. And I think that's the X-factor from the Umar fight with Mirab was again I just think that mental energy

that you can't account for when you're fighting a guy like that that's what cost Umar down the stretch. He was just two steps behind when the championship rounds came about and I think O'Malley, I think the odds for this fighter are off. I believe this is a much closer fight. Could we introduce the fourth member of our team here, Long Island, Luke Nocita? We know how he got here. No need to rehash that history. Dad's from Australia. I heard. He was horny. Yeah, you asked him before the show. Nocita, do you have the DraftKings odds on that? I'm pulling them up right now. Last I looked, I believe Marab was minus 300-ish. Yeah, it was 275.

Wow. So, it's minus 285. Sean coming back plus 230. All right. I got a couple things to bring up here. Marab striking is certainly not something you need to... It's not a major threat, but it's evolved to almost an elite Habib level where he's used the awkwardness and he's figured out how to how to use to set things up. Will we see any increases in that? Well, will he have evolved in that area in your eyes coming into here at all? I mean, is it just the fact that it's odd timing and looping shots? Or is it the fact that he's just so active?

What's the real threat here on the feet? I mean, I think it's striking as well is functional and it's got some value for sure. I don't think it's just like poorly rudimentary and there's nothing else to it. But you know, you spend a bunch of time striking with Sean O'Malley and if he's got a different attitude, I don't know how much that's going to mean. You know, I think I think Merab's key to victory here is to get to get to the back control position ground and pound, rinse and repeat. I, you know, or if he can get him flat on his back too,

that's gonna be a place as well. I just don't think long term success is on the feet. He's gonna need not only the threat of the takedown, but he's gonna need the takedown as well to tire out his opponent. What Murab does really well in my opinion is when he gets those takedowns and he gets control, we've seen in the past a lot of fighters

get complacent with control, and I think that costs them on the scorecards, because they're not doing much with it. Murab is so active after the takedown with his striking. He's constantly landing and that's constantly scoring, because he's not afraid to lose that position, because he's confident he's gonna get it back. Right, and I think a lot of fighters,

they hang on to that position for dear life, and it costs them because they're losing valuable minutes of their own offense because they believe that they're winning on the scorecards just simply because they have their opponent on the ground. Then fighter gets up, lands a couple, you know, front kicks, punches, and suddenly you're down because you didn't do anything with your control. Marab's not afraid of losing that control,

and he's willing to utilize his striking on the ground to punish you when you're on the ground and when you're getting up. Okay. Let me put a cap, let me put like an asterisk on that though, because I fully agree with it. Did you just call a cap? No, I think that's, I think it's basically correct, but what I'm about to say is a matter of interpretation,

this is my interpretation. In that fight, and I think it's relevant who the referee is for this one, do we know who the referee is yet? Have they announced New Jersey? No? Not yet. Marab stalls, he stalls in my view. Now. Now what I what do I mean by that is he'll get to a control position where he's not trying to advance the position. So let's say O'Malley's got one leg up, one knee down, he's got behind the waist, and he'll throw knees to you know the thigh or something.

Not super hard, but to your point, it's kind of raining down pretty consistently. But you know, the thigh or something not super hard, but to your point, he's, it's kind of raining down pretty consistently, but you know, it's not effectuating anything as a result. He'll do this for a minute or more if you let him. And I think that the referee should put a stop to that. I, this is my personal opinion. My personal opinion is, and I had a long conversation with a bunch of referees about this too. Oh shit. Look at you. Yeah. They, they not so much more Rob Rob specific but what they say is they're starting to

see a lot of guys get to some kind of control position and throw a continuous barrage of what they call busy shots in order to hold it right. They're not actually scoring damage and they have no intention of putting the hooks in or flat leaning the weight and especially in the clinch just using those moments to just put that burden. But on the flip side of that, they're scoring more damage than the guy who's on the bottom eating the shots.

Oh, the guy on the bottom's not doing fuck all, yeah. And that, I think, when you're scoring a fight, matters. But I thought in the last fight, Herb Dean was way too quick on the trigger with that. I didn't. Murab would take him down and he'd immediately be like, get up. You know, be busy. I think if you have both knees on the mat and you're chest to chest that goes on for 30 seconds you're stalling but he wasn't doing that he was doing that absolutely was landing strikes the side he was landing there

was time if you have both knees and chest to chest and you're punching like this this is nothing I just I'm getting turned on by the adversarial nature of this conversation I don't think it is nothing though I mean listen it's definitely nothing. When it comes to the actual- There is no meaningful ground and pound, chest to chest, knees on the ground. It doesn't exist.

He was on the debate team in high school, I would remind you. But it's not that it's not meaningful, but it's meaningful enough that the referees, at least by the letter of the law, aren't standing them up, it's activity. It's not that it's meaningful activity, but it's activity.

It's busy work, it's not activity. There's a difference in my view. So what's the difference between that and passing? Like if you're passing. Passing, you're trying to advance position. I understand, but that's still being busy on the ground. Like that's still in the eyes of a referee. So it's true, you can be busy and being stall

and then you can be busy and then you're actively trying to advance. But I think that there's a portion of like, it's not like Marab is just like, and not moving. That's not the point that I'm making. What I'm making is he's doing an active version of this, where it's just kind of this, and there's really nothing happening. Now, you could make the claim that the guy underneath,

in the case of Sean O'Malley, should have done more. And I think for his winning chances, there's no argument. He absolutely needs just sitting there and being like, oh, I'm going to wait for the referee to save me. Good fucking luck. You know, you're totally at the, at the whim of whoever is doing that and they may agree with him.

They may agree with me. It doesn't, who knows? You have to have active offense underneath. I'm just saying I have, in my view, I have seen Marab go to places where there's nothing meaningful happening. And I, I think we should be a little bit more aggressive in calling stalling on that. Here's one thing I want you to weigh in on. O'Malley did a lot of work with Demetrius Johnson in this camp.

And we're talking about bright minds in MMA. I mean, there are very few that you'll find that are brighter than Demetrius Johnson. How many different strategic, I guess, advantages do you think you'll have just from working with Demetrius and being able to pick the brain of somebody like that? Hard to say, but I would imagine scrambling underneath would be a big factor for that. Movement is another big factor for that, like Demetrius' movement in and outside the side, setting up strikes, all that's going to be pretty relevant. Beyond that though, you just don't want to take a guy like Sean out of his game, you know, he has to still do Sean like Sean out of his game. You know,

he has to still do Sean O'Malley things. And I think just picking up ways in which you could create scrambles underneath ways in which you could, you know, pull pull Barab into things that could be hugely beneficial. Again, it's not a huge change. At least more than one sip on that drink. I mean, what do you put that thing through? Yours is gone. It's empty.

A B for those listening to close on this main event, O'Malley is going all in. I love when fighters do that. You know, no stone left unturned. All that stuff. He's still what, 31? He's probably entering that second half of his prime, but he's still in it. In terms of his aura and marketability, I know there's a lot of people on MMA Twitter trying to say, well, he never was that marketable, blah, blah, blah. Here's the YouTube numbers to fix it. Yeah. Does he need to win to retain what he's been known for as a star fighter in this

matchup, because some guys lose back to back to other great fighters and they're never the same more often than not. You know, I think it would be kind of foolish to say yes, just because we know that in this sport, like it's it's what have you done for me lately? And if you lose this to an erotic mob, yeah, it's, what have you done for me lately? And if you lose this two in a row to Marab, yeah, it's gonna hurt his stock, but if he comes back and has like an incredible knockout over somebody,

like, you know, we know how the fans deal with mixed martial artists. It's like, how did you do in your last fight? It's like, that's what you are. That's how they look at these fighters, which I think is wholly unfair, but it's also just the nature of the game. I think he might move up a featherweight if he wants.

Well, also, something that you didn't bring this up, but something to talk about Marab here as well. You know, if you watch the reaction after the the win over O'Malley, the crowd was, you know, nonplussed for the most part. But then when you watch the reaction after he beats Umar, the crowd really lights up. And I noticed online too that like the way in which he theatrically almost dismissed Umar, it won him a lot of fans. I honestly, you know, Long Island not too far from New Jersey. I know. Okay. All right. All right. Quick fingers over there. It's like, if you want to get

to sit in there, if you need, if you need meth, it's not hard to find between the two. But what I'm trying to point out is it'll be interesting to see what like what kind of reception either of them gets. O'Malley is supposed to be the bigger star. I suppose that he! But what I'm trying to point out is, it'll be interesting to see what kind of reception either of them get. So, Mali's supposed to be the bigger star, I suppose that he is, but I might venture to say that Marab might get a pretty big pop that night. And one more thing, you were in, and that's a great point, you were in the crowd at Sphere when they fought the first time. By the way, they're just calling it now at Sphere. Okay. Not at the Sphere.

Not at MSG Sphere, they're at Sphere. You know, some people from other parts of the country are like, I went to prom last night. So, you know, you went to THE prom. Like, what are you, an asshole? country are like, I went to prom last night. So you went to the prom. What are you an asshole? Or when they say I went to university. Yeah. Or I have to go bathroom, you know, like, just, you know, okay, sir. I mean, I'll third world your ass. I have to go potty.

A, B. The things that Tim Welch did say about the lighting being, you know, I'm bringing this up because the recent Times Square boxing card, which produced like really bad fights and it was hot in there. There were it was just weird. Right. There's flashing lights with the Times Square. Do you think there's anything valid to that being that you were there? And it's just a different lighting grid than they're used to at the start of it.

Then you've got this entire screen that encompasses. Last morrow about this yesterday, because I said, you know, they've been talking about this. You know, what was your experience fighting there? And he said he actually liked the lighting better at the Sphere. He said he wished the lighting was like that in all of his fights because he said he could see

his opponents so clearly. Really? He also said that he could hear his corners so much better at the Sphere because there's only one side of the Sphere had the fans, right? Because it's a theater setup. And he said he loved it. He said that in the fifth round, you know,

had he not been able to hear his corner and John Woods so clearly might have ended up, you know, taking undue risks that he didn't need to take because his corner was like, you've got this fight, just, you know, don't do anything silly. When he was getting hurt, just like, they were basically saying get away from him. You know, like that helped him.

So I think it's based on what your experience is in that fight and in that moment. So maybe the lighting was bad for O'Malley, but Murab said the opposite He said he thought the lighting was was better than any other fight that he's had That's weird This is the central question about the improvements that O'Malley wants to make how many of them are like oh I can change this And it's a real improvement versus how many of it is something he's telling himself as an improvement But it's no real actual change. He needs an extra gear, which he didn't have last time.

Maybe he thought the fight was closer than it was, but he didn't have that extra. I know he heard him in the fifth. I know that was a surging moment for him, but I didn't see that like electricity to him the whole fight. Marab had taken that from us. Marab style is so taxing and demanding prediction time or which way you lean in or anything. You're willing to go on record to say if you're a real man and you're willing to talk like men do,

willing to just say reckless, dumb shit, uh, uh, Marab by close and possibly even contentious decision is where I end up. I think O'Malley will be better, but I think the same equation O'Malley is facing against Marab is a problem for him in either situation. You know what I'm saying? You're going to get physically taxed fighting Marab. Umar was not the same Umar once that gas tank started to slip. I just feel like it's inevitable to be a little bit closer, but we're going to see almost a repeat of the first fight, just a little closer. That's kind of where my head is at too. I mean, you know, usually when there's a change in a rematch, it's either something went terribly wrong with the judging of the refereeing in the first one

and they book an immediate one and then there's the change you expected. But if something was, again, one side is a little strong, but you know, fairly clear who the winner was and then they're booking a rematch ten months later. One guy was active during that time. Yeah. Hard to pick against them. Momentum matters, momentum matters and right now Marab who can who's gonna try to close this year with four title defenses in one year, which is would be an awesome like

Historical note for him to have he's pound for pound ranked. He's badass. He's all that does he get it done a second time I'm gonna go with O'Malley this time around then. Yeah, I Don't think I don't think that KO is off the table either. I think that if... Wait, this man's indestructible this month. I understand that right? He's been stopped before.

I know but even Marais couldn't get out of there after killing him. I don't think he's been stopped by KO or TKO. No, not by KO, just by that weird Ricky Simone submission which I still don't really get. He was out I guess, whatever. I mean it's Mark Goddard, I don't want to question the guy think he's the best ref we've got right now but I just think that O'Malley has more ways to win this fight to be honest and I think that I think that when it comes to ways to win we're I mean I get that Marab's not a finisher so maybe the more creates danger that yeah I think I think that O'Malley if he can put put, make Marab start to think a little bit more in this fight,

maybe hurt him early, I think he can switch the tide of the fight quickly. And I think that, yeah, again, I'll just go on and on. I think that O'Malley- Interesting, I like it. Especially with it being a rematch, all of these different things are taking me more to that side. He would regain his aura real fast.

Yeah, I agree. Something to be interesting to consider is, O'Malley could lose like the first three rounds but then hurt him badly in the fourth and then finish him off in the fifth. Like it's not one of these things where he has to win a bunch of rounds. Oh, he's got to bank rounds early. Maybe he doesn't have to bank rounds at all. I don't know, dude. This dude doesn't. Injuries don't slow him down. Like nothing. Yeah, it's hard to go against Mara. The guy's been, he's the machine for a reason. He's been a momentum. I think is key. Yeah, and I agree together I mean it is it has been absolutely incredible long Alan Luke you have anything to add on this main event

5045 Marab Are you're in you're in what South Shore North Shore? Can you remind me where I'm Rob used to train North Shore, baby What city was it where would have Rob used to train me? I lived in these parts City where was it garden cities are long ago? Yeah, and that he lived in these parts? Garden City. Where was it? Garden City, Sarah Longo. And that's kind of near Long Island, right? It's on Long Island. It's on Long Island. Oh yeah, it might be a bit by the Long Island. He's an adopted Long Island brethren. What's the Long Island equivalent in Ontario? They have like a, you know, just this strip of land where it's like at the tip of it. If you go tip to tip, it's rich, but everything else as you go down the veins of the shaft, it gets...

Doesn't it get worse until you get- Maybe like Port Credit? Shout out to Port Credit Ontario. Oh, I thought you said Port Credit. I was like, yeah, I'm like, they have that there too. I had that in college, buddy. Hey, put the camera on me, please. I have something to tell you.

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for your plan. Additional terms apply. See website for details. Very well done right there. Hey, let's go to the co-main event also, Abandon Way Title Fight. See website for details. Very well done right there. Hey, let's go to the Co-Main event. Also, a band and weight title fight. This time, chicks. Two chicks at one time in the cage in Saturday's Co-Main as the two-time champion. But in my opinion, the rightfully maligned Julianna Pena, who's got that fighting spirit.

How many elite wins should somebody have to be a two-time champion? How many? How many? Elite wins? Elite wins. She has won and the champ was her. How many opportunities did she have? I guess she fought Shevchenko, but how many opportunities did she have to have elite wins? Well, that's the point though.

If you're not good enough, you won't get opportunities. Right. But okay, let me rephrase that. How many fighters in the Women's Bantamweight Division could have produced? Oh, would qualify? Yeah. Yeah, would have qualified as an elite win. She had two title shots that were unwarranted, in my opinion. Both of them, given the time off band the way division could have qualified. Yeah

Title shots that were unwarranted in my opinion both of them given the time off of the second one and the first one She hadn't beaten anybody she meets Sarah McMahon barely, but that's not neither. That's neither here nor there Yeah, I mean listen that also plays to my lack of elite well That's probably qualifying elite is probably why the odds are insane here as Kayla Harrison in her third UFC fight looks to climb the mountain become the champion at 135 Long I'll look according to DraftKings. Are we still at like minus 500 higher Kayla? We are at 700. I think now minus 750 and plus 525 back okay, Wow Style wise fighter to fighter wise

They're telling you Kayla should and will handle the business with ease. How much should we focus on the storyline of the 135 cut? She won two gold medals in July 171, you know. 172. Fought at 155, fought at 145 once and is now literally peeing blood in the hospital the week before the Ketlin Vera win. And she got beat up a little bit in there But but she got through the storm. It was a good experience builder How much Aaron Bronstetter should we care slash focus on this thirty five year old woman? Really pushing her body the limit just to show up. I think he's 34. So I don't want to age Kayla more than I think Yeah, I think she turns 35 in like a week or two weeks or something like that. Yeah. Oh, either way

I think it's obviously it's it's something worth discussing. I mean she turns 35 in like a week, or two weeks or something like that. Yeah, go ahead. Well, either way, I think it's obviously it's something worth discussing. I mean, she's done it twice, ever, right? And this is her third fight at 135 pounds. She's never made it 35 flat. This will be her first fight at 135 pounds flat after, like you guys said, competing at 172 and Judo 155 in the PFL, 145 occasionally.

She's had to change her entire life in order to do this. But even with a diminished product, will that still be enough to beat Julianna Pena? And I think the answer is most likely. I guess I'm asking are there potential weight issues, which could play into stamina, could play into anything, and it may not even be a thing, by the way. But is that the only way she could lose in your eyes?

Or is there, in this matchup, are people not looking? Because obviously nobody except for Luke, kind of half 50-50, was giving Pena a chance to win. By the way, but is that the only way she could lose in your eyes or is there in this matchup? Are people not looking because obviously we nobody except for Luke kind of half 50-50 was giving Pena a shot against noon as the first time rightfully so she pulled off one of the greatest wins in human Spirit history. Okay. I do think there's an asterisk after that rematch when we saw Amanda full healthy whatever is There is there part of Kayla's game like when Pacheco upset her in their third meeting that can be solved by Pena here? Well I think that the the big question is when this gets down the stretch into the championship rounds will that 135 pound version of Kayla Harrison have the cardio to

hang on if you've got a Julianna Pena who's going to be in your face and I talk a lot about that with with Mirab the mental energy that it takes that you can't really account for when you have a championship level fighter in your face pushing the pace on you landing strikes again putting out offense that's what Juliana Pena does like she doesn't go away like you have to get her out of there that's the thing that interests me the most about this fight is like when we get into rounds four and five if Harrison hasn't gotten a stoppage or Pena has gotten a stoppage if that's what it comes down to, what is Harrison going to be able to do to maintain that sort of composure? Luke, what might, as I take this shot of Cuervo Blanco, thank you, thank you very much, what

might rounds four and five look like if they get to that point? Man. It wasn't like I thought Kayla looked super depleted in the third round against Katelyn Vieira. I thought she looked for the most part still with it. Now that was a round she was able to get another take down in so she wasn't exerting an enormous amount of energy there. But you know she looked fine. So I'm not so sure she's going to fall off a cliff in the fourth or the fifth unless

she's getting busted up on the feet Earlier in which case all bets are off sure you're not I mean and one of the things that really comes to mind for me is Kayla is Sacrificing speed and explosivity trying to get down there like she moves in slow motion not because she's a bad athlete far from it But because it's such an absolute murderous Well slow motion kicked the shit out of Holly Holm, and I'm not even sure Peña beats this version of Holly Holm. I'm just being honest with you.

You seem pretty down on Peña. I mean, I'm picking Kayla quite clearly, but you don't give Peña any chance. I've always been. I'm just serious. I've always been. Understand something. Great cardio and chin. Great cardio and chin. The reason why Amanda Nunes won the rematch with Pena is because... She was healthy.

Well, yeah. And not injured. And it had a full... That's really not... And actually had a full training camp. That's really not it. She only didn't pull out of the first fight, in my opinion, because Dana gave her so much shit for pulling out of the Chachanko rematch.

I don't think that would have changed much. And the reason why I say that is because she was getting lit up with the the jab and she had no way of getting her head out of the way. So in the second fight, by the way, when she was in that same stance, she also got lit up. She had to fight southpaw the whole time because that was the only way she could control the lead. And she won 50 to 43. Oh, fine, fine, because she has big power and then once you take that away, elbows up and she comes running in like this. Yeah, it's a different ball. And then Lee, by the way, was just picking her off and sniping her. But I'm saying, yes, was she

healthier? Yes, the bigger can't matter. She was getting out technical in that first fight. You could say whatever else you want. That's exactly what happened. But like, is her best win, I'm being serious here, is her best win like a second market Kat Zingano or a still prime Jessica I? That's literally what we're talking about outside of that great victory over Nunes. Yeah, I mean, again. There's no tape that shows you,

that look, obviously the answer would be Rocky Pankton in the last fight. Which sucked, a terrible fight. But that was one of the worst fights of all time. I thought Rocky actually got robbed. Yeah, I thought Rocky won that fight too. So I'm saying like, where is, I mean, the odds makers are telling you that my

aggressive skepticism is real. So like, where's the argument unless, I mean. Because Harrison, I don't think at this weight can move very well relative to her real athletic potential. And Pena takes risks and will be quicker. I like Juliana a lot. I think that her fighting style is tricky because she's unpredictable and she does a lot of things

that I guess kind of overwhelm your CPU if you're not ready for it. Dude, she has 25% takedown defense, Peña, not great. I mean, she should probably get taken down and probably beat up. That's probably what's gonna happen. 41-year-old Sarah McMahon did do that. Right, this is probably what's gonna happen. 41 year old Sarah McMahon did do that. Right, this is probably what's gonna happen.

But like, if you got a fighter who has an enormous handicap with this weight cut, who has, I think again, physical mobility issues as a consequence, against someone who's kinda quick and a big ass risk taker, I don't think you can just dismiss that out of hand. I don't think that. Interesting, interesting.

Well we knew that the silver lining on this, along with the connection, potentially Amanda Amanda Nunes coming back, which I think she comes back no matter who wins this, but the silver lining in a lot of ways is the way this could be built. Now, I'm not saying this has been a grudge blood war, but we've had moments at that original kickoff press conference and in the recent interviews, especially when they're on there together, enough that I can refill that shot glass and tell you, it might be time for some Cuervo shots fire. This is Shots Fired brought to you by Cuervo. Now is a good time to enjoy the tequila that invented tequila.

Shout out to UFC. They went back to the old school, like let's put the two fighters on and just have them yell at each other. A little spicy moment here between Pena and Harrison. Let's what listen in Kayla you can get with last word and if you want I mean, yeah, absolutely. First of all, not Rhonda because Rhonda couldn't win an Olympic gold medal. And second of all, you are a great fighter.

You're she beat you are she beat you didn't she run to to my career and it doesn't matter because it's not about that. She beat you and it wasn't it? You're a manager that was literally saying that you're going to surpass all of Rhonda's accomplishments. I know you've got nothing to lose. I know that you're going to throw the kitchen sink at me because you have no idea how you're going to me. And on June 7th, I'm gonna put a hurting on you. Okay. Okay. Oh, I'm so scared. She's gonna put a hurting on me. So, Luke, it sounds like you kind of are feeling that Pena, I understand you don't want to just dismiss her. And we and I did that incorrectly ahead of the newness fight I know I know But I didn't know all the I just think historically we have to you have to add in that Amanda didn't have a full camp And was injured and shouldn't have been in that fight, but she took it. She lost it

She got it back 50 to 43 my point is Luke Do you see her waiting to the championship rounds if she thinks that's her best chance and just trying to make this a frantic High energy fight in the meantime. Is the whole goal here to push on that gas tank? Or do you think Juliana thinks I can out box her? I can get in there and hurt her. I definitely think she wants to make her work, but not not up close, right? I mean, if Kayla gets her hands on her and then can lock them, that's a problem.

Yeah, that's a problem at that point. I mean, the strength difference alone is going to be significant to say nothing of the technical difference. So it was going to play a distance game, but I think it's frustrate, slow down, stop, you know, put up put up some kind of roadblock to whatever she's doing if it's a grappling context and on the feet. Dude, I think it's about blitzing. I think you're going to see blitzing on the feet and not a head hunting as well. This is just an area of the game that Kayla struggles with for all these reasons. Who's a better boxer between the two? Is it the awkwardness of of Pena that's going to win out here in terms of that?

I mean, I think Aaron, maybe you disagree. I feel like Pena can do more with her striking. I don't know if I technically call her better. I think she has the deeper arsenal. I agree with what you're saying. Yeah, more effective. something like that, right? I mean, it looks gross, but it's more effective. Yeah, when they're out here, it's about my favorite,

but it gets the job done most of the time anyway. I would agree with that, but I also think that if she gets sloppy, Kayla's gonna have a good entry and take her down. For sure. And that's gonna be the problem. Nunes, I don't think, wanted to lose striking exchanges to Peña and was willing to engage.

I don't think that we're going to see that happen. Like, I think that when you, I'm sorry, I get distracted because they keep keying me with all kinds of weird Canadian stuff. What was the last one? It was probably voted first. What was the last one? True, it didn't even run in the last election, fellas. Maybe, maybe they were talking about an earlier election.

Hey, I didn't write those. I had no idea who put those together, but they're pretty brilliant. I think pretty North Korean I think I think that if we do see Pena get sloppy that that she'll get taken down and I think that's where she's most likely to lose the fight And we can say one thing like what's the best part of Kayla's offense? It's ground to pound and her ground to pound and I think here's a lot of good submissions You know, even if she's of depleted weight like I'm still thinking I've noticed in the Katelyn Villar fighters,

a couple times she could have gone for an armbar and bailed on it just to keep position. So I wonder at least early if she'll avoid that. Now maybe later in the fight, she'll just wrench into it. And Peña's got off her back also. If you look at the Sarah McMahon fight, for example, she was very active off her back. And I think that that could be a key for her as well,

is as soon as she gets taken down, throw up triangles, be creative creative be crafty from from bottom and try to create scrambles. I feel like Kayla is not only have the physical advantage mentally she's so and I know Julianna is arguably like the most mentally tough female fighter like she's incredible in that regard I think Kayla's iron will on that same level I just feel like I wonder if Peña who was able to actually break down Nunez and finish her ultimately is thinking It's gonna happen. It's gonna happen late. So let me just get through these rounds making it as taxing as possible. But Could Kayla get out to a big leap? It's gonna be interesting. I mean, I ask you a question, please This is what the show's about if you if we get a Kayla like like her best performance, right makes weight

She'll look terrible no matter what but then Goes out there and just fucking bludge ins. Yeah, Pena, right? Makes weight. She'll look terrible no matter what, but then goes out there and just fucking bludgeons Pena, right? How big of a star can she be? Because here's the thing. Even if you want to say that could be a big performance, I just don't know how many of these weight cuts she's got in her. No, I don't think she has a lot in here. And I think that she's actually, I don't want to say she's capped as a star because now her story is finally getting out there on a higher level. I don't think the star thing is going to go that far. But I do think in her true goal, which is to try to retire as the greatest of all time. She's from the beginning. She said, I'm that's what I'm going for.

If she can lure Amanda Nunes out and get a big fight there. I mean, is there any scenario where Cyborg comes back super old and you can get that name on your resume too? Cyborg? Or Pacheco gets signed. I'm just saying, like, is there, are there enough couple names in this short window that she can really put together, like, a strong career that you can close and say, I beat all these people, two-time champion in PFL, champion in UFC. I wonder.

I mean, I think at the very least, this is gonna get us, Amanda. I mean, I don't think it's gonna be a massive pay-per-view draw, but it's going to breathe life into these women's divisions which could use that right now. You need star power, you need rivalries. They actually, Kayla and Amanda, have the juicy ex-teammate rivalry. Yeah, for sure. And I think that a win over Nunez will definitely put her up there. I think Shevchenko is the more interesting name, really, if you're looking at 35, right?

I mean, I don't think the UFC are in a hurry to bring back a women's 145 pound division, although if you look at last weekend with Macy Chase on, and unintentionally at 145 pounds with Ketlin Vior. Or Macy Barber unintentionally. Well, that's a whole different story. But I think that when I spoke to Kayla yesterday, I said, how much longer are you gonna be doing this for?

And she's like, people keep asking me this, like I'm getting older. And I was like, well, Chevchenko just defended the title I believe 37 years old. She goes, oh, I'm not sticking around that long. I'm thinking that's like two years. So how much ground can you actually make up in that time? And I also think the onus is kind of on the UFC

to build new challengers at 35 in the meantime. Harrison has bought them time, because Nunez, if she's gonna come back, that's a no braininer of the next fight. Now you have to look at some of the fighters like a Norma Dumont, like a Luana Santos, some of the more interesting names at 35 to try to build somebody up. Where's your eh sound? Yeah, please.

But that's the thing. I don't think they should have made her beat Vieira. I thought they should have realized with the short window of amount of time she can make weight, get her into that title fight right away, try to set up an Amanda fight. But I think that's interesting that you fight right away, try to set up an Amanda fight. But I think that's interesting that you add Shevchenko to the list. Maybe there are a couple fights

that would make it worth it to make this weight a few more times and who knows what we'll be saying about her at the end of it if she defeats them all. But are we going, what are we going here? Are we going Harrison by mid-fight submission? Because that's where I'm going. I'm gonna go third round TKO.

TKO? No one TKO is paying you like that Elbows on the ground can take people out. Yeah, Harrison's ground a pound is real good. Okay, you got you got a you got an upset picker No, I'm going Harrison second round sub, but I think if it gets into later rounds fourth and fifth That's where I think Pena can really be dangerous. Okay. All right Let's continue on down the card. This is your non-title fight featured fight and it will come in the middleweight division. We almost saw it in Mexico, but then that damn country made Joe Pfeiffer sick.

Kevin, Kelvin Gastelum. So it's not like this is a great fight or anything guys, but did you see Joe Pfeiffer kind of doubled down on the Mexico thing, but also said I was misquoted. Unbelievable to me that he was like, I don't want to fight in Mexico City. I want to fight in a great place like Newark. Yeah, which is just... I mean, why don't you just go fight in some...

Why don't you just drink this? Be fair, he's from Philly, so Newark is like fighting at home. Philly is a lot nicer than Newark. They're both pretty gross. Newark is pretty gross. Newark... I'll give you that, yeah. If you want what Newark smells like, why don't you wipe the backside of my balls and then tell me about it?

Because that's what Newark smells like. Philly is not that bad. No, Sita, you interested? No, but I still want to double down that Philly is pretty terrible. Philly is gross, dude. Philly is gross. Philly is so much. Have you been to Philly?

Yeah, I've been to Philly. Nice. I haven't been in a while, but Philly is so much better than Newark. I mean, I f with Philly, but it's gnarly. It's gross. It's edgy. It's definitely gnarly. I agree with this.

Got some parts, but also Philly has some nice parts too. Like. It's gross. It's edgy. It's definitely gnarly. I agree with this. It's got some parts, but also Philly has some nice parts too. Like y'all are hot. Newark has no nice parts. You know what the nicest part of Newark is? Leaving. That's fair. I'll agree with you on that.

Like no one goes to Newark unless they're going to Prudential Center. I mean, they booed Shakur Stevenson his whole time to walk down the arena twice. Shout out to Newark for that though. Wow. All right. Guys, it is.

Hold on. You've been to Newark, yeah? You've been to the Prudential Center? Yeah. I saw Kimbo's nice spot. That's the only reason I've been to Newark for that. Yeah, wow, all right. Guys, it is. Hold on, you've been to Newark, yeah? You've been to the Prudential Center? Yeah. I saw Kimbo Slice Fight. That's the only reason I've been to Newark. I saw Kimbo Slice Fight James Thompson there. That's a true story. With that ear.

And Gary Shaw, do you know what the food was in the back that he catered? Hot dogs with no buns and chocolate chip cookies. I swear to God. Hot dogs with no buns and chocolate chip cookies. While wearing a track suit, full track suit on Gary Shaw. I was like, this is not like the other spreads that I've seen here.

You know what I would love if we could get Scala for room service diaries. Jared Shaw? Jared Shaw. Did I tell you the story? So back then there was a, I used to live in New York City at the time. There was a Circuit City that was in Union, not Union Station, Union, the fuck's the name? Square.

Square, sorry, Union Square. Circuit City's all, I wanted to take pictures at the Kimbo Slice event and I had a friend of mine who I got credentials to go to this. We totally scammed these people. I went to Circuit City and bought like a $1,000 camera and we were like super careful about opening it. He used it for the whole event, then repackaged it,

took it back in, didn't even have to pay a restocking fee, and I got all those photos for free. What is it? A cheater and a stealer? A lot of places used to have great, very lax return policies where you could just get stuff, use it for a week and... I was expecting to have to pay the restocking fee. They didn't even charge us that. All right.

How about that? Stealing, baby. A restocking fee is like a rental fee, basically, just for you to use it. Exactly. You know, I don't know if Mexican-American Kelvin Gaslim is fighting for that nation in this matchup against American Joe Pfeiffer But Pfeiffer has won six or seven he did bounce back from the decision lost to Jack Hermanson by getting Marc Andre Berrio Is he a legitimate future title contender and is this the fight against a name?

That gives him some momentum because he doesn't seem to have momentum right now. Where are you at on the Joe Pfeiffer? Do you want to be like Joe Pfeiffer? Yeah, everybody should try to be like Joe Pfeiffer if they're going to be on Contender Series and get those finishes. Do you hate your parents? No, I don't.

I love my parents very much. Shout out to Alex and Eileen, my parents. Wait, what's up with the parents comment? Oh, he hates his family. He has no relationship with his parents. Joe Pfeiffer? Yeah, and I think his dad was abusive. Sometimes I wonder if you follow MMA.

You never know who's dating who. I have learned to not take interest in their lives anymore. You have like no idea which guys are actually cucks and you know, I could get, we could do a Patreon podcast together, you know? The fighters have taken the joy out of getting to know them. He won't agree with that, but it has been the way for me.

Is Joe Pfeiffer evolving, escalating to the area where taking him seriously should be our focus? I think top 10 is certainly in the conversation for Joe Pfeiffer evolving, escalating to the area where taking him seriously should be our focus? I think top 10 is certainly in the conversation for Joe Pfeiffer. Championship level, I think we have to wait and see, because I don't think we've seen enough yet to really make that determination. And I thought that the Hermansson fight

was a big eye-opener, because it kind of fell apart as that fight went down the stretch. Hermansson, Hermansson tough and gritty. Yeah, very much so, and those are the fights you learn the most from too, not to mention training with Sean Brady every day. Pat Sabatini's on a roll right now. Like that's a really good camp

with guys that are on runs right now. So I think that, no pun intended, with his trip to Mexico City. But I think that right now we're gonna see. The drizzling shit. Yeah, exactly. See, I'm getting the MK spirit. I came out of my shell.

So I- He hasn't talked about Pharoah's navel at all. Who? Manon Pharoah, she has an Audi, Chuck in this team. She and all furrow she has an Audi Chuck in this stage You got an Audi you don't remember Chuck in this joke. Okay back Memory hold it but yeah, I think that Piper's a guy to watch in this division I think that 85 is coming around finally. It's like it's taking some time, but we're starting to see a lot of good Challengers coming up at 85. I think Anthony Hernandez is a guy that could fight for the title at some point in time.

He's really good. Well, the fluffinator needs to prove a little bit after that last performance, according to me. No, he was great in that last performance. He was super sick, too, if you recall. His antibiotics and the whole nine yards. So we'll see. But you had questions about that.

Luke, break my heart gently here. It's a rare time. Kelvin Gastelum, one half of the UFC 236 Coleman event, which was the greatest fight experience I've ever just lathered on my show. I just put it on myself like butter, right? It was great. Like K.Y. Joey. Yeah. Well, yeah. Well, I mean, I think about that event, though. I know about the Atlanta event because I've said this before and people get mad at me.

That there were you there. You were there with Jed Meshew and me and I didn't know that white trash guy. Yeah. But the. Fight between Max and Poirier at the time felt kind of like an afterthought. It did, I remember tapping somebody and going, we'll probably not talk about Max versus Dustin too ever again because of how fucked up it is. I really watched that fight and that fight was an awesome fight.

But like Izzy versus Gastelum was like, after that fight it just felt like you had a Thanksgiving dinner. It was 25 minutes of sex which I've never Enjoyed never gotten there. You know what I mean? I don't even want to do it for 25 seconds I'm really asking you is Kelvin Gastelum. It's a rare time right now. He's coming off the wind shout out to him Who was it against? Kelvin Gastelum. Yeah, he's actually right I think I know who it is. Who is it? It was Chris Curtis, wasn't it?? Kelvin Jastlin? Yeah. He's actually riding a- I think I know who it is. Who is it?

It was Chris Curtis, wasn't it? Was it the most recent win? No, it was D-Rod, wasn't it? Oh, D-Rod, that's right. Oh, you're right. I forgot about that fight. And look, there's- That was where he like, showed up ten pounds overweight or whatever. Yeah, that's like his way of handling it.

Look, it's probably not gonna go well moving forward. It hasn't gone well before that. Can he upset Joe Pfeiffer here? Is there like- I mean like- He could. He's still like 32, like, I mean like, he's still like 32, 33-ish. I think he's 33. He still has a big left hand, but he doesn't move his head. He's slowing down. All those things are negative. The issue for me is 85. He's just not an 85er. I mean, he can fight at 85. I know he's got some wins at 85. I just don't feel like he's going to do his best work. Now you might say, well, his best work

was at 85 though, like definitively. But there's a real ceiling to it is the problem for me Whereas I guess the counter to that would be like well He went up against Sean Brady at 70 and he got rolled in that one So maybe the movies back to 85 but Piper to me is like a real 85 er and he's young It's not like fighting Chris Weidman But he's angry too much longer in the tooth at the point where you were fighting him So, you know, I understand why he this is one of situations where like there should be a weight class between 70 and 85 if we're actually taking athlete health seriously, although I get that, you know, there's business

considerations involved. But listen, he is durable. He's certainly much more experienced than Joe Pfeiffer. There's no question about that. And at 85, he's not going to be drained by the weight cut, we think. Now, if there's weight issues tomorrow, or Friday I should say, There will be, come on, there will be. Then then it's a completely different ballgame, but I just feel like the firepower of Pfeiffer and the, I don't know, I think he's probably much more athletic than him, should be enough. Is this the bad period of Gastelum's run where he starts getting knocked out cold?

That's what I'm concerned about, right? Like that to me is the big worry. And I think the odds for this are a little bit off. I think Piper's like a five to one favorite and I think the guy is good and tough as Gastelum. That's hard to see because I think that means people believe that Gastelum is in the era that you just mentioned where his chin is gonna start finally getting checked. I love him, he gave a lot of fun fights.

He doesn't make weight a lot, but I mean, he just, damn. He's kind of like the ultimate underdog fighter too. He's competitive in so many losses losses with the last pick on tough Yeah, and then moves up to 85 and gets the championship level I mean you got to at least respect Kelvin Gaston for everything good He's achieved this version of Kelvin Gaston at 236 true or false that was a championship version Yeah, temp is up level I mean except for that takedown attempt Yeah, that one he really fucked him so but so many guys have done that I mean, except for that takedown attempt. Yeah, that one, he really fucked him.

But so many guys have done that. I mean, even good ones. Steve Erzsäck, right? Oh, fucking Steve. Men's Bantamweight main event, women's Bantamweight co-main event, but a very good men's Bantamweight fight on this card. Two fellas riding a seven fight win streak. One of them, Mario Bautista, people don't love what happened in the Jose Aldo fight. The other former Bellator MMA world champion and PFL refugee,

Patchy Mix, who is riding seven fights in a row, all against the best names available for him, and a lot of that by finish, by the way, including that dominant decision went over Kyoji Horiguchi. Guys, this is a gift to the UFC Bantamweight division, getting Patchy Mix for nothing. There's no trading Mighty Mouse for this one. What do you think of this Mighty Mouse-Guru podcast

collaboration post pay-per-views? I haven't watched it yet, is it good? Well, they're gonna start it. It's a new relationship. It's, you know, two worlds collide, rival nations. You know what, I'm gonna be an optimist about this and just say that I feel like Guru will start to respect the fighters a little bit more getting the opportunity to sit and be with with a former fighter in I wonder what Guru's reaction was to Big John's John Jones story about the official

I think it could be like an enlightening period for him. Luke, what do you think of that? I haven't thought much. All right, Luke, Patchy Mix is a gift for this division. He's in his absolute prime at 31. We've always said of people not in the UFC, he might pound for pound be the most talented guy out there, even with that whole hum performance in his one PFL fight against in the rematch, the unnecessary rematch with Magomed, Magomedov. Luke.

Should we be expecting because he's got a tough fight, a guy on a seven fight win streak, you win this, you're going to get catapulted to the top. Are you expecting instant title contention for Patchy Max in the UFC? With a big win? Sure. Yeah, I think with a big win, absolutely that's on the table. Now,

I don't know if he'll leapfrog Corey Sandhagen, that's a little harder to say. He does seem to be the guy that's in the catboard seat to that point. You even heard Marab say, hey, I think Corey is probably the next guy. Although, you know, Sean probably has got his own sense about all this you know but the point being is if you're we don't see a lot of people signed away from other organizations all that often anymore and so I mean we just saw Kai Asakura there's been a couple I like that the UFC's putting these guys

in big fights there was a time I mean what was happening like fairly regularly and it just was a big to do when it ever did and they're a little bit rarer these days. And by the way, a lot of fans won't even know who he is. It's going to be insiders telling that story. But I just feel like, you know, if he can come in here and do what he did at the Bellator Bantamweight Grand Prix, which was one of the most electrifying tournament runs I've ever seen in all of MMA, I don't know how you can deny him. However, as we've said before, many times he had the one PFL fight where he looked not like all that great against Mega Med Mega Madoff,

split decision, struggled. And after, but he put him to sleep in the first fight to be fair. He did, that's what I mean. That run of that tournament was insane, but then this part of it, it's just hard to know exactly. It's not easy to get up around Don, you know what I mean? With two ends, Don with two ends.

Yeah. Certainly you can say he's, Don with two N's. Yeah. Certainly you can say he's going to be motivated for the opportunity. How about that? Long Island, look, Mario Bautista underrated. Give me an odd line on this please. I think he's minus like minus 185 or something along those lines. He's minus 180 right now, plus 150 on Bautista.

Aaron, is it fair what people, I mean Bautista's on a seven fight win streak, but Jose Aldo was a step up from the Black Shears Boom Kelleher's that he had been beaten on this build Does he warrant the people that have just sort of said ah if this guy he's boring. No, I don't think so I think if you look at Bautista's previous fights They've been pretty exciting for the most part the Aldo fight was kind of a self preservation People are angry at him I know people are mad and they shouldn't be really be mad at him

Like I mean if you don't like the way that that fight was was judged I mean be mad at the judges. I thought that that was a very close fight So it's not one where you really? Like I thought although one, but I mean it's not one where I'm gonna like get all upset about it It's a hobby one that you're gonna get all upset about no this makes sense to me, too Like I and again I had all the winning that fight. I had all the winning that fight I told I told him in that after the fact, but okay apparently I do need to go back and watch that one. But regardless of that, I interviewed Patchy Mix yesterday,

and you mentioned, I guess the question you just asked, Luke, was can he be next in line for the title? My very suggestion that Corey Sanhagan should get the title shot before him, if he wins on Saturday, he looked at me like, are you an idiot? Do you not know who I am? Like are you a moron?

Like you don't think that I should get the next title shot? Like that's how confident he is. Like I was backstage with Patchy in LA earlier this year when Marab and Umar fought. And he was like in such a good mood. And he was like, yeah, you know, I've trained with both these guys. I'd love to see my level compared to them in the UFC.

Yesterday he was like a different dude. Like he's dialed in. Like he came in with like a different dude, like he's dialed in. Like he came in with like a chip on his shoulder when I spoke to him. And this is a guy that I think is gonna make a lot of noise in the UFC. I think that if you were to rank the Bantamweight division, you'd probably put him at like number three right now

based on what we've seen from him. I like this respect. The Bellator Bantamweight division was no joke. Like that field was really good. You got Sergio Pettis. You got Horig Gucci. You've got Sabatello like that was a good field of Bantamweight and the guys that he's beaten like they're no joke and he beat a lot of them in pretty dominant fashion So I really like patchy mix

I think that he is gonna be a title challenger here in the UFC and he's one of the best bantam weights in the world And I'm looking forward to seeing this fight against Bautista because I think it's an interesting Entry level fight for him into the UFC can be a big leap though if he gets the win especially if he's a guy On that win streak look who's more likely in mixes bed to gain UFC gold first him or Tatiana What? Like which of them is gonna win you more likely who you said what does that have to do with a bed they share a bed I was like it's not I'm not I'm I didn't make this news up it's a fact I see you're

just framing you may have he may have he may have like sleep apnea and sleeping a different way they have a story sleep divorce you know one-third of American couples are sleep divorce you ever see watch those old shows I love Lucy yeah her and separate side besides have single beds yeah save a marriage you know what yeah that's my wife she wants me to get a CPAP machine I might have to get that shit no don't do that be like you just take the Gary Brekha plan just charge it just Gary Brekha's plan all right what you need to do is ground yourself and also take testosterone yes okay okay don't forget

about cold plunging every morning I That can help with the snoring. Yes. Yes. Fucking hell. Anyway, um, it's gotta be him. It's gotta be him. She had a shot and it looked like she came well short of it. She's not done though. She's not done, that's true. As long as she can stay healthy.

But, hold on. If Waleem moves up and fights Shevchenko, if there's an interim title, it could be her versus Verna. It could be her versus MacKenzie Dern for all we know, you know? But that's an interim title. I'm not dismissing it. I'm not dismissing the possibility she could do it. You're asking which one I think is more likely I think it's probably gonna be patchy because he should get a win here a potentially really good one Although I do think about these about these two could very much play spoiler But probably him probably I wonder if Bautista will be more too aggressive in this one Just to try to like and I've heard lots of stories about him and marab in the training room and what it looks like When they go at each other, it's kind of interesting

He knows marab's weakness and room and what it looks like when they go at each other It's kind of interesting. He knows marab's weaknesses better than anybody else. So It'll be again. Maybe Sean wins this weekend. Maybe Corey wins the next one Who knows but like if you do get a patchy and marab matchup, it's intriguing for that reason indeed indeed on that one Let's go to the final bout of the pay-per-view main card, and that, by the way, takes us to the welterweight division. Vicente, Luke, Kevin Holland. I don't hate this fight.

It's going to be action. It's going to be fun. Is there anything at stake here? How would you identify that? Is this just a fun banger to kick off the card, Aaron? Yeah, pretty much. I saw Luke yesterday and I said, welcome back to the Motherland, because he's from New Jersey.

He was born in New Jersey. Yes he is, yes. His dad lives 15 minutes from the hotel that the fighters are staying at, so shout out to Vicente and the New Jersey contingent of his life. But yeah, just a fun fight, right? Like, I think that Holland is a different animal

at 170 pounds, I think he should stay at 170 pounds, and listen, if his goal is to make as much money as possible, take fights as often as you want, by all means, but I think that his- He's often as you want by all means But I think that he's a new cowboy Well, yeah but I think that his level at 170 pounds is so much like a ceiling is so much higher than it is at middleweight and I think that he's gonna give Vicente a lot of problems with his his length in this fight like he has done with a lot Of 170 pounders. Oh, I lost four of his last six though

Who are the losses too? Renear DeRidder, Roman De185, Michael Page, Jack Delamadelano by split. So Page and Jack Delamadelano by split. JDM is like the champion. Wonderboy and Hamsa. Dear boy, and it was split. Wonderboy and Hamsa before that. Yeah.

Victoria E. Brunson before that. Exactly. Lot of D85ers. Listen, he can fight up, he can fight down, but I agree with Aaron. He's got, I think, a very high level that he can access, and I think his best chance of accessing that easily at 170 pounds. Lukey not young anymore. Lukey, 33 years old, it felt like there were health issues.

He had the brain issues. He had the brain scan issues. Which seems absolutely legit, but he is coming off a win against Garimbo. He's won two of his last three. I'm not asking you if there's a run here, Luke Thomas, for Luque coming up, but how do you feel about this matchup? Do you think he can get the win against Holland? Holland can fight in disappointing ways,

so you can never really count him out, and I thought Luque... I thought he was really done, and that's really not the case, but this is Holland's fight to lose. Holland's got the range. Remember Holland at both 85 but definitely at 70 can crack. This guy put out Joaquin Buckley's lights up at 85. People forget that.

People forget that dude, he can thump. So and he's got good jujitsu and he's absolutely not afraid. The question is like, is he gonna fight in a way where he's dialed in and not like fighting down to the level of competition. It's up to him, it's up to him. It's up to him. But like, I think his, when you just look at like

what he's got on tape, on paper, you're like, there's a lot to work with here, man. This guy, maybe not a champion, but he can beat good fighters. He should beat Vicente Luque. It'll be an interesting one to kick it off. I kind of like this pay-per-view, I'll say. I kind of like it.

It doesn't have that wow factor. The wow factor is missing, I'll say. I kind of like it. It doesn't have that wow factor. Yeah. The wow factor is missing. But, quality fights. And for our first weekend in a month of nothing but bangers for main events, it's a good way to start. It really is. And that takes us into DraftKings Pick 6 because

there's more than just the main bouts going on in terms of who's going to win or lose. You can put a little cashola on there and bring some in yourself when we look at the Draft Kings website and look at the over-unders here, it's all the combined points. We know the categories of like take down, top control, strikes, everything going on. Statistically, we love the guys that finish early, the guys and girls, and the guys and girls that go the distance and pad the stats. Nobody pads the stats

more than the very active Marabd of Alishvili. Luke Thomas right now DraftKings has his significant strike total at 78.5. You have to go high or low over under basically on that. What are you thinking heading into this? I'll take the over on that. I think he can absolutely again.

We even said it whether or not we consider it stalling or not matter of debate, but like he's going to be applying Something at all times if they're locked up like even on the feet. I'll do it, too You know mirab at seventy eight and a half Aaron Sean O'Malley 72.5 total significant strikes is the over-under for DraftKings here on this pick six if he has a big day Yeah, I feel like this is going 25 minutes. I'll take the over on that I like the over and a half. Yeah. All right interesting stuff I mean the only thing the only downside for both those is if this fight ends early like by KO or something You're done

They're not gonna land that in three rounds indeed Kayla Harrison 68.5 on the significant strikes But if she can put together an early stoppage, I might take the under all right Also, don't forget our wing wing tong back on this one. All All right. Everybody went on the next highest over under at sixty two point five. So head over to pick six that DraftKings dot com for more on the rules. All of that presented by DraftKings. It's pick six. And you already know that the crown is yours. I'm definitely adding. I'm definitely adding more to my pick six team.

Oh, I don't know if you can. Can you, for that DraftKings promo, can you consider prelim card guys? Absolutely. Did that Josh Van Bruno Gustavo de Silva fight? That one's got, that one's got Barnburner written all over it. I believe it does. Let's speak about it now. The, from the preliminary card all the way down to the early prelims.

AB, give me a storyline you care about on this card Well, I think that can Harrison I think is the big story Below the main car. Okay below the main car I liked it this chaos Williams and Andreas Gustafsson fight kind of came together It's because both of them kept losing opponents along the way Gustafson was supposed to fight last weekend at Trevin Giles I guess got hurt when he was trying to do his weight weight cut and then you know chaos Williams He's an opponent part of a disastrous night at the Apex, yeah. And they had signed someone else to fight Chaos Williams, and they had a medical issue of some sort,

and he had to get pulled out. So the fact that these two guys are coming together, because Andreas Gustafsson is like a madman, like this guy is like a Viking. He's just gonna move forward, and Chaos Williams does the same kind of thing. Like, this is gonna be a fun fight that I'm glad kind of came together at the last minute

as a band-aid solution for both these guys. I'm with you. So that's gonna be a fun one Luke chaos got bone-femed last time Bravo choke. You think he bounces back in a big way here against Andreas? He should I think he's got enough. I think he's got enough things going in his favor to Probably get the win here But honestly just if I can that Bruno Gustavo de Silva and Josh van fight, Josh van fought four times in 2024. Now again, it wasn't without some blemish along the way, but he's just 23. He's already fought in 2025. This is the second fight of the year, three fight win streak. I like this guy staying active. He gets better every time. He's got a ton of natural ability. Josh van at flyweight flyweight needs some fresh prospects.

You know, they're pulling in guys with title shots, you know, great They got they got a look they got some choices depending on what happens later in the month between Manel Cop and Raw dog, but nevertheless nice to get some guys on the younger side of the 20s out there doing some impressive things still in The prelim card where he should be. Yeah, but I'll I'll sure it's a feature the way and by the way Bruno's coming off of a loss, but before they had like three performance of the night bonus. He met virtuoso cop manel cop gave it to him Okay, but van is maybe not at cops level. So this is a very intriguing fight Does this feel like Joshua vans getting the push? Is that why this could be the feature prelim according to Wikipedia? Yeah, maybe I think that Joshua van is a guy that's coming up pretty quickly in the flyweight division and

As long as you can keep making the weight like it seems like he's had some problems keeping that weight down. So we'll see. There's also Quillen Salchill on the very early prelims. Like he's a guy. Whoa, whoa, Long Island Luke, he just lost it. He's an Australian prospect. That's true, Australian prospect. Quillen Salchill is really good.

That light weight. The man is 25 years old from Pinjara down under. Is that where your dad's from, Luke? No, I think he's from Western Australia, my dad's from Melbourne. I think he trains in that camp with Erzeg. How blessed are we that UFC decided not to put this fight as an Apex main event? We can just get it on this undercard. Sergei Spivak versus Waldo Cortez Acosta, Luke. I actually feel like Sergei Spivak has improved his game enough that I got a lot of respect for him.

And, you know, Waldo Cortez Acosta has done OK, but, you know... Dude, Waldo's riding a four-fight win streak. Yeah, yeah, yeah, but, like, you know... He sent Ryan Spann to hell. He did, he did. I just don't, you know... All right. Is there... Long Island League, you got sleepers. Find me a sleeper on this card. I want to say that's a mom or the con off

Yeah, but I mean the guy he's going against by the way has a 10 inch reach advantage on him bread son habaro But him that's that's the Freddie like that's the impaler Con of wins that I wanted to point out the fight that Aaron brought up chaos Williams versus Gustafson chaos Williams Not the greatest takedown defense Gustafson did get two takedowns in his contender series fight. I could see him wrestling him there. That being boring, but on paper, that does seem like a banger. Interesting stuff right there. Is there any- who's gonna make a leap? I mean, let's- can we- we can- Ariana Lipski don't call her that. Now-

Da Silva. Da Silva taking out Wang Tong. That's a decent matchup. That's going to be the feature- See, Wang Tong should beat the fuck out of her What's that? What are the odds on that one? She's like minus 480 or something like that. Wang? Yeah. Yeah, she's minus 550. Yeah, yeah, not that not that competitive. Well Da Silva's riding a two-fight losing skid but to decent names in Karine Silva and Jasmine from Canada. Who did she marry that she changed her name? Mr. De Silva. Mr. De Silva.

Steve De Silva. Maybe it's Paul De Silva. I don't know. But if that might get to the ground, she's pretty crafty with her submissions and her arm bars. Yeah, Luke. Don't count her out. I'm counting her out.

I already saw Wing Tong lose. Okay? That's true. That whole joker bit doesn't really work for me either, by the way. Not after you lose like that. She bounced back. I mean, she looks legit, but she's got to continue to rebuild obviously is phenom on the feet, but you're right. Yeah tested

This has been absolutely fantastic. Look I want to talk shop for a minute though with you a Bron Man you are at every pay-per-view card you get there Monday to kick off the week you are living the life How what are you in a little over one year at Sportsnet? Yeah, since I guess I started January last year When DLC was in Toronto, so that was you know good timing all right? Yeah, so But yeah, it's been awesome sports. That's great shout out to my producer Dan Fernandez. That was an awesome job Yes, and follow him on Twitter. Yeah, he's a great follow and whenever he's he's with me on during fight week He's always putting out cool videos of things that are going on behind the scenes and clips of the interviews, so shout out to Dan.

Hell yeah, we can check out your work all over. You're at what, at Aaron Bronsteader on socials? At Aaron Bronsteader, pretty much everywhere. Alright, alright. I need something big from the UFC. I need some resolutions. Can we get the Jones Aspen all thing figured out, please? Well, I'm pretty bummed out we're not getting Ilya versus Islam. This man, this man, thank you. I'm pretty bummed out about We're not getting Elia versus Islam like Man, I've got a man. Thank you. I'm pretty bummed out. I'm saying what needs to be said I thought that is the best fight you can make skill wise right now in USC. It's just a ball of sex And it was there. I'm not hating on it. It was right there, but I also think though You know Elia versus Charles Oliver is about us can't miss of a fight as you could book in MMA like

Is there any chance that fight could be bad that is not gonna be crazy for as long as it Lasts, so it's gonna be that I mean that's that's not a bad consolation prize I hadn't had experience with him But I did want to throw an RIP out to Jordan brain who's been getting a lot of love who passed away an innovator in the MMA Podcast radio space among other things a brilliant mind that I've read about Luke you have a long history back in the day Yeah I don't want to talk about it here. Okay. Thank you. No, I don't mean to. I'll probably talk about it on my live chat tomorrow, but—

Hey, tune in, folks. Bring your cash. But terrible. Terrible. Terrible. Terrible situation. But easily one of the most brilliant minds in all of combat sports I've ever spoken to, and it was great to work with him. I was actually looking up old emails that he sent me yesterday, so I don't wanna talk about it. It's a little hard for me.

That's okay, I gotcha, I gotcha. Also RIP John Brankus of Sports Science, and Mike McCallum, the body snatcher, and Leo Santa Cruz's dad, Jose. How did he die, do we know? He had cancer. Oh, he did? I don't know if that is the I don't know

You know that's officially how he went yeah, but um well Well, we're ending this on the worst possible most somber note possible. I had to I had to send a tribute Do you have AIDS away? Clean the towel are we gonna we should clean the palette here um? How many only fan subscriptions are you up to these days of just UFC fighters? Zero okay, Luke from what I would guess. I mean not my scene. All right. What about you fuckface? I'm a merry man. Why ask the question?

Whoever smelt it dealt it. Is that where you're going with that? Luke Thomas? You know we have a couple minutes left here to just talk about the, you know, the great, like, do you have anything to say? You look mad. I mean, we have a new merch website. MorningCombat.shop is where you can grab your merch right friggin' now, okay? You want autographed posters?

You got them, all right? Check that out. Some of these items are limited edition. Shout out to Long Island Luke on the backend. Yeah, and Average Joe, others we were back. We're back I showed you guys on my phone that the posters were sold out and long Island Luke's like no They're not sold out I was gonna give you guys major props cuz like the website came out and I don't know if it's because I'm

Having me up about said that they were sold out and I was like how shout out to those guys. They're massive Yeah, we're just lying. We're just Trading FOMO. Oh, we're just lying Trading FOMO Everyone out there who are supporting us in this manner and want to represent MK. Thank you so much We definitely definitely appreciate that sure you're wearing. Thank you very much. I actually bought that same shirt I believe for my friend Dan Tom who shout out to contenders just a Dan Tom. He's a good guy. Yeah You know bringing down the mood you want to talk about Yeah, man, I feel real bad, you know bringing down the mood. Um, you want to talk about uh, breast implants and women's mma at all?

Not really. How well do you sleep in hotel rooms? Not bad. Actually I do. Okay, because um I have a white I have a white noise app on my phone and I use that because usually you hear all kinds of noises outside I fell asleep like 10 15 last night or like 10 30. It was pretty amazing because I had to get if I don't have drugs I can't do it. No Prescription drug. No, I understand but I mean, yeah, well, what's the what's the hangup? Anxiety I have to sleep now with earplugs in a nose strip and now and the mask and the mask Wow, that's the 80s equivalent of when you had like the braces so bad that you had like the yeah I mean, it's like literally like the only thing missing is like shackles

and you could take me to Guantanamo Bay. I mean, that's truly what I have. And on airplanes, that's no no no go for you. I imagine not possible. I got a Pluto pod and I'm loving that. If I'm really tired and this used to happen with Showtime every once in a while, if I'm really tired and I have a first class seat where I can like really lay out, I can maybe catch a couple of couple Z's but if they've got me back with the fucking the Long Island donks back there at the north

That was unnecessary just catching just catching crab lice and shot in covid shout out to Northport long like a baby I bet you are highest balls with all that marijuana in your tummy. I'm also like 5'8 so on an airplane It's not a big deal. Yeah We would go in the road. I would come back But you go you go back to your family wrecked his shit. Oh always travel kills me I don't think people like get the light the rigors of travel I didn't understand what people would be like Oh, I'm tired when I travel and I was like a teenager be like how I just sitting

No, no, it wrecks your yeah You could I landed in Vegas last weekend and I just randomly had a hangover for a day and a half without drinking That's how it feels that feels like what the crunched But those you know those are first world problems because we're living the dream the three of us I like especially in my 40s like once I hit my 40s. How do you know 43? No, but like it really started to live in a dream, bro. Everyone was like oh It's different when you get over 30 not really Dream, bro. Everyone was like oh, it's different when you get over 30 not really

Oh, yeah, everything just sucks everything program reminder. We will not have a show this Friday, right? You're watching the Friday episode right now Thank you to Cuervo for all things UFC 316 pregame preview You can follow the show right there But can I get 10 seconds of your excitement level on Saturday's top ranked boxing card? Keyshawn Davis making the first defense of that WBO lightweight title against Edwin De Los Santos at the scope. I'd say a solid eight out of 10. Pretty high. Pretty high. Keyshawn told me he's going to walk through him and knock him out.

And Edwin's the puncher of the matchup. Let's go. What's with all these like tune up fight guys winning this year in boxing? I've noticed that all these guys that are like expected to win so they can set up the next fight are losing. Also- It's a nightmare for boxing. It worked out for UFC. They had Kayla and they had Juliana.

They have a different level of control over them. Fair enough, but the plan didn't fail. They could have just put them together and they didn't and now they are and it worked. Unlike McGregor Chandler. It didn't really work out for them. But yeah, it's been a wild year in the box It's gonna be a good fight this weekend. I'm ready Abdullah Mason and the co-main event. I did see a lot of bodies Okay, you've seen this kid Abdullah Mason. Yeah guys guys got amazing footwork. He looks fucking incredible. He's exciting. He's thrilling right there

I had one other box thing. I want to make. Oh, do you see Teo Fima just pulled out of the Haney fight? Yeah, I love it 11 million at the table that was made and then suddenly it was off But that would have been a Riyadh though that is not a Riyadh fight He's not putting fights in fucking Riyadh please for the love of God, but some fight night UFC fight night fights in Riyadh All right, let's go you could do that That's why I get a more active crowd than the apex but although they're making changes right making changes What have you heard about that about what the instruction? Yeah, it's been under construction for months, so they're building it out So they can have like I think it's like triple the amount of people that they have now

They basically want it so that you can walk up the box office and buy tickets there and there's gonna be enough for people because And they also want to accommodate family and friends and things like that, too So they're building that and they've been working on it should be ready. I think relatively soon I mean Zuck will rent that shit out in a heartbeat Yeah, fuck him Do you think he should have joined that Imperial March before the main card of the main event when the whole yeah Do you think he should replace Kid Rock or Tucker Carlson in that lineup? Well place you Elan's out so I mean

Pretty simple fix out out for X in for thread is he like this is very equivalent to when um Bgl was on the outs on the shot breaded sphere and then suddenly like was sharing all the secrets of the inside and stuff The fuck is Bgl? I Didn't know if you were no first on the homeless cats or not. But I will say that it is reminiscent of that. It's very interesting. Wow.

All right. We can, this is finished. We had a good run though today. We definitely had a good run today. Thank you to Cuervo. Thank you to you, the viewer. Thank you to one Aaron Bronstetter of Sportsnet. Just one of the nicest gentlemen in the world today.

Aaron, do you have anything else you want to pitch? You got... How can people get your work on Fight Night? Just on all the different social channels. If you go to Aaron.report, it's my website that just links to all my stuff. That's what I'm talking about right there. Too breezy. For the great Aaron Bronstetter, for Long Island Luke Nocita,

Nocita, pitch your weed podcast. Your bullshit-ass podcast. Join me on Main Card Minute thisita, pitch your weed podcast. Your bullshit ass podcast. Join me on Main Card Minute this weekend, full card watch along. Thank you very much. And buy some merch, morningcombat.shop. Morningcombat.shop. Shout out to Gaff, by the way, of the Main Card Minute. For LT, AB, and the old BC over here. And Nadir and Ken. Ken's back, baby. Ken is back. You ain't sober, are you?

This has been Morning Combat. Enjoy. We love you, take care of yourselves. Thank you. Thanks, Ken. Yeah. This is an iHeart podcast. Yeah.