MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 321 Pregame Preview: Aspinall vs. Gane Presented By Cuervo® | Morning Kombat

Episode Date: October 22, 2025

Brian Campbell and Luke Thomas are joined by one of MK's favorite guests, Chuck Mindenhall, to talk all things UFC 321 taking place this Saturday in Abu Dhabi. The main event features a heavyweight bout between Tom Aspinall and Ciryl Gane and the co-main squares up Virna Jandiroba against Mackenzie Dern in the women's strawweight division. The fellas break it down and spotlight the rest of the card on this edition of the Pregame Preview!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Oh, my God. It's us doing what we love. Two, three, two, three. It's time to bang. Oh, yeah, you know what that means, right? It's UFC 321 pre-game preview, right? In your absolute facehole, welcome to morning combat.

It's October 22nd of the 25s just a few days out from this weekend's UFC pay-per-view in Abu Dhabi. Brian Campbell, Luke Thomas, special. guest this week from the Uncrowned and many other websites throughout the great history of this sport. Sir Charles, the ice man, Chuck Mindenhall. Great to have you with us. I'm the counter Jed Mishu. That's what I am. Does that mean you shower? Yes, that's what it means. Hey, right? Yeah. Don't count yourself out yet. Oh, yeah. You know you're in your head. What is that song? Jimmy Eat World. That's right, Jimmy, right before he ate ass. But hey, this is going to be a great by the way. It's Aspen All Gone. It's Janjaro Bairn, too. It's a lot more. We're going to break it all down. We're going to get fired up. But Chuck, I don't know if you've heard this about this show. Okay. Let's hear it. There's some expectations that we would be real, that we would break things down with real talk. Like Mendo.

Like Mendo. Yeah. You know? Yeah. Okay. I'd like to say about timing, because now is a good time for this program. And now is a good time to remember, by the way. where tequila's story actually began. All right, let me tell you about it. In 1795, our good friends at Cuervo invented tequila. And since then, Cuervo has stayed true to its roots, the same family, the same land, and the same passion. 230 years later, Cuervo, still right here, right now, in every poor, and every margarita, and in every celebration. So enjoy the tequila that started it all. Cuervo, the tequila that invented tequila, proximo quervo.com, please drink responsibly.

And Chuck, anytime we get to get you in here with our friends at Cuervo to break down the big UFC card coming this weekend, it's always a great time. When I say UFC 321 to you, you say? Yes, please. All right. Yeah. Show over. I guess we're done. That's why he's the best in the world.

You know what I mean? That's all we need. Are we really throwing to me? Is that your, is that your T.O? I mean, you thought? You fired up. I think it's a good card, man. I really do.

the main card has a little bit for everybody. We haven't seen Tom Aspinall for 15 months. I feel like we need that big reminder of who he is. And I also love the idea of kind of, you know, sitting outside of all of this as guys like John Jones, you never know with Francis and Gano, things like that. The other heavyweights that basically have a say in this picture. I love setups like this where kind of the absurdity of the situation comes to the four.

So if Aspinall wins, if John Jones wants to come back, I mean. Oh, or Alex Pedetta. Or Alex Pedetta. That would, I mean, you know, but that's what I'm saying. There's a lot of, there's a lot of outside factors here. And I love when we have that kind of setup. Absolutely. Luke Thomas, you know we look for you in these early pregame previews before the alcohol kicks in to get a nice grade.

What are you looking at top to bottom on this card? Because I heard, I heard both of you say pretty damn good payper view this Saturday. Yeah. Great. Well, you got two title fights. Aspinall get making, I mean, I think this is the first time the UFC heavyweight title has been defended in years. In the full undisputed.

Now, you can argue. I thought it was when John Jones and Gan fought. That was the last time, but that was vacant. So you'd have to go back to Inganu Ipe too? I think that's right. Yes. Yeah. Yes.

Man, that's wild. Years. I haven't thought about that. So you have to be happy about that. Gone seems like as good a challenger for Aspinall as you're going to get. in this division maybe i guess we'll see um co-main event is an important fight because obviously the champ who was there moved up i do love we talked about us before long island luke and i were talking about the merzikanov and rackage fight i think that one is actually

pretty interesting the same thing about volkov almeida umar number gamadov is back now against an opponent who can be tough to look good again so i i'll say this i'll say b i'll say b now that's a solid b given the circumstances where aspinall doesn't have a we we think doesn't have a main rival. We've already seen the co-main event in a different form. Umar, who is prized, is up against a good opponent, but again, not one that tends to lend itself to

action-oriented fan approval. However, Volkov v. Almeda should be bananas for as long as it lasts, I suppose. And then as I mentioned, Rackertzikhanov might be the most intriguing one for me outside of the top two. You got to be. You got a B on the report card. That's pretty good. You end up finding out underneath it's a B cup. I don't know if you're as

excited, Chuck. You know what I mean? You got to take me through your history waiting on you on the crickets there yeah try your best yeah try everything you all right I'm fired up okay I will say the prelims on this card uh oh feel no well it's a mixed

review because it feels to me almost like a Bellator prelim if you know the thing about Bellator prelims you would watch them be like I don't know who the fuck these guys are but that man just died and they wheeled them out one guy just died and the next guy got paralyzed and then there was the worst fight you've ever seen after that and then another guy got they would have like eight of them

And it was basically just short of like the crane game where they just pick the injured guy up and they just take them out of there. It's even worse when they were post limbs after the main card because they'd be like, they would just drag a dude out of there and get another fight. I think there actually are some interesting ones on there. Don't get me wrong.

And Walter Walker taking on Louis Sutherland just feels like it's got banana potential all over it. All right. But, and by the way, Hamdi, Aldo Abdel Wahab taking on Chris Barnett should be fun for as long as it lasts. There's definitely some charm there. But there's also just, I don't know, A little different.

All right. At least it's not nubs. We plan on charming you just the same throughout this broadcast. You can like and subscribe to what we got going on here on Morning Combat. So excited to bring you the full pregame preview to you, brought to you by Cuervo. Follow us on our extended social channels right there. Hey, follow everything Chuck Mittenhall does. I think you already do.

Quick hello to the fourth member of our team today, the producer, director, Bong enthusiast, and a man who we're pretty thankful that there was an Aussie who was horned up. That's why he's here. it's Luke Noseed of the main card minute. Yeah. What's up, boys? I'm hype for this card. I'm going to give it an A.

I'm giving it a holiday. Yeah, Luke, you left out the two best prelims when talking about the prelims. The Rombetsky one? Rambetsky, Klein, and Nathaniel Wood, Jose Delgado, going to be a banger as well. I do like Wood Delgado. I'm not quite as high on the other ones. However, I do agree, Klein, Rombetsky is going to be... This is what I mean.

I didn't say that the Belter prelims don't have charm. They actually do. It just feels like it's up down, up, down, left. It just, you know, it's the contra. Yeah, it's just kind of all over the place. There you go. A quick reminder that if you want to dress like me and look like me, head on over to morning combat dot shop right now. October exclusives are in the building from the washed,

superwashed dads, average Joe art creation to how about that, Frank and Luke and Donkila, Halloween crossover, get your autographed posters, mix and match the colors. We got a great slew of evergreen items that I would love if Chuck would outfit his family and them. Head on over to morning combat. Dot shop. All right.

That kid does good with this. work by the way man like the artist there does oh yeah you're talking about average joe art i'm talking about average yeah i mean if you if you ever need some myth you ever need some myth i think he's done something yeah i think he's done something with me on it before i don't remember all right great gentleman uh it seems to have a lasting impact on you i can tell uh it's time to break in it's time to do this it's time to break down these fights and we're going to have some fun here with our quervo tequila blanco today you're ready to get you're ready to get white with me yes blanco right Okay. All right. Brought to you by Cuervo, now is a good time to enjoy the tequila that invented tequila. And we will enjoy that right now. It is 1109 in the morning. So why not, you know? There we go. I had three margaritas last Friday night, by the way. Did you really? Yeah. That's like, that's a lot for you these days. As you telling me, I was on my ayes. Margaritas. I told my wife I had to bike home just to kind of like cycle the alcohol through it. Yeah, what do you think about a grown man on an e-bike?

A knee bike? I'm an e-bike dad now. Okay. Eat my shit. Okay. That's how I feel. Take that, Joseph. I've had it for two months.

How many miles do you think I put on it? And I crossed the threshold yesterday. 176. 302. Wow. Now, Luke, we won't judge him more than at least three times. He will chase that. Is that enough for you?

He will chase that tequila. Is that enough for you? Is that enough? It's past the margarito line. All right. And let's put mystery. Now, we always, Mr. Recola in here. We do always salute to all the divorced women out there, you know, because this show cares.

As we used to say, here's the swimming with bow-legged women. If no one else cares. And Chuck, would you like to send this one out? I don't know, the troops. Where are you looking to, you know, to Colombian people everywhere? Where do you go? Let's go with the Paraguay. Yeah, to Paraguay.

Paraguay, yes, yes. A South American tradition that Luke never talks about. That's right. Capital of Paraguay is what, Assuncione. That's right. Asuncione. Yep. All right.

Luke, please, Cahill Barl Arriba Abajo Alcantro. Okay. That sounds like. Oh, fuck me. Al d'Anthro.

Yeah, that's a lot of, that's a lot of tequila. That's the, can I get a napkin by chance? Because I am a fuckhead. Yes. What a way. What a way.

Boy, look, I like that we touched on the fights a little before we got into this part. Just a little touch, you know what I mean? Yeah. They're going to go get Luke. A little. We'll touch. Not like our thing.

I don't know. Karaoke. All right. The good news here, fellas, with this main event, UFC 321 on Saturday in Abu Dhabi, is that finally the heavyweight division will roll on in its full, undisputed form. John Jones retired in January, vacated the bell, and then came back four days later once he heard about the South Lawn. But we're not talking about John Jones right here.

We're talking about 32-year-old Brit, Tom Aspinall. who has never been past two rounds in 18 pro fights of his 15 victories, by the way. He's got 12 by knockout, three by submission. His only UFC defeat was an injury-plagued moment against Curtis Blades that he avenged with a first-round knockout. He welcomes in anything but red hot, however, Cyril Gahn, who, after his 7-0 start in UFC to pick up the interim heavyweight championship by stopping Derek Lewis, it's been a bit of a struggle lately.

He comes in off of a fight against Alexander Volkov, the very few ultimately thought he had won. But as we set it up and break it down, I want to remind you that today's episode of morning combat is presented to you by Draft Kings and with Draft Kings, of course, the crown is yours. When we're looking at this main event, we talked a lot this week, Chuck,

leading into this episode about the pressure on Aspinall. I talked to Cyril Gaon this week, he said there's a lot of pressure on me as well. How live of a dog is Cyril Gahn here, considering that Aspinall must deal with that idea that John Jones ran from you for a reason. So now you've got to come out and show us exactly what that reason was. I mean, the pressure is on Aspinall in this fight. And I get why Gone is saying that.

This is a guy who has already, he kind of has lived the life in a strange way that Aspinall wanted, right? Like he wanted to fight John Jones could not do that. He wanted to fight in Gano. He wasn't able to do that. The guy has lost to those guys. you know so it puts him in a very strange position almost in that gatekeeper position right like if he goes in there and he loses to aspinall he's clearly now kind of just below the grade of the really elite heavyweights and i think that that would truly establish it obviously if he wins he answers the discussion maybe you start to let some of those fade away but for aspirin all it's very important for the for the heavyweight division to kind of get rolling in a in a momentum you know with some momentum and i think he's the guy to do it not only does he represent you know England and all of that, all that fanfare that comes with that. But I think that he would stand.

If he goes right through, if it's a typical Aspinal 5, it goes right through Gone, don't you think he kind of stands now as the guy? I think you could, you could make the argument very easily that he's better than Ingano, he's better than John Jones, where he's at as a heavyweight right now. And I think that's important for the UFC to, you know, for that division to be healthy. Well, every UFC opponent he's faced, he has finished meeting Aspinol. Luke, I was actually going to ask you that, the Chuck just sort of teed up. if we're looking at all the heavyweights in the world right now,

I know we can talk about everything we don't know about Aspinall. Hopefully we find that out in this fight. And he go to the championship Browns for the first time. What's his chin, ground game look like when it's really tested? But do you think he's shown enough to let you comfortably believe he is the best heavyweight in the world entering this fight? I'm not sure how to answer that. That's a great question because everything we've seen has been extraordinary

and special and fun, limited, because he only fought one time in 2020. And so it's been, in July, so it's been well over a year. I mean, it's been two, three years of this division just on pause. It's just insane. It's insane. So, um, so, you know, from what we've seen, it's been great. I don't think his success isn't any way that you didn't ask this, but it's not accidental.

It's, there's a lot of things you can see, B, C, C, C, the speed, the athleticism, the ability to cover distance, the ground game, uh, the punching power. Like, none of those things are accidental. The one problem is he's only ever been at. most to the second round and not even that often and not very rarely at that and it's like don't get me wrong he clearly has an off switch packed into his fist and that is extremely important but my rule has always and maybe tom aspinall's the guy to break this but i've always had a rule and that rule is i don't know when that day is going to come but there's going to be a day where someone matches up with you and they audit you can you might win or lose by the way it's not like an audit means you

automatically lose, but you certainly get pushed to a place that you never thought possible. Aspinol's never even been close. And, you know, we talk about donkolaev, but, you know, Count Dongula, Cyril Gahn himself is kind of also in this conversation with guys. You're like, oh, is this really the guy to push another guy? I don't know. So to answer the question, BC, the little tiny window we've seen looks like magic, but we're only seeing a little tiny window. Can I tell you what it is? I just, I did the math. He's six fights, four years. years, just over nine minutes of cage time. Like, he's fought

less than two rounds in four years. That's insane. He's even openly talked about, I like that there's no tape on me. He sees it, and he quite rightly, he's totally right. This is some kind of asset to him. So, I mean, I think he obviously wants to compete this way, and we all know the adage, you don't get paid by the hour in this

fight sport, but it's, but it limits what we, and also, you know, show of hands. Have you seen Aspinall do this? I've seen it a few You know what I mean? And you're like, okay, someone hasn't checked again. And you compared it to magic. You meant pre-HIV.

Adoms, like closer to his crime, right? No, seriously. Tom Nesmels, father and trainer called him on countdown, by the way. The greatest. The tequila is reporting. We'll just let that pass. The best knockout threat in UFC history. Now, obviously, you never got a chance to beat Ngano, who maybe we give that to.

But is that fair? I mean, he's finished. Everybody he's fought. He's beaten a lot better names. and people give Aspinall's resume credit for, the efficiency of his knockout skills are pretty damn incredible. And also, like, just consider that he's fighting gone who's, you know, up there. But, like, he's already beat the, what, the number two and the number three within the UFC of the official rank.

Because the next closest guy is Jalton O'Mahita who fights on the same part. So if he beats gone, he's already kind of cleaned out the top of the division, which is kind of a, you know, it's kind of a crazy thing. But I agree, it just, if you're gone, your whole thing should be, let's see what he does. if he's going later into a fight. I mean, that should be the whole mission going into this, right? Okay, I want to pause that. Can I pause that or do you have more?

No, no, go ahead. Because I asked Cyril gone that this week on my, you can check it out on the BCX, they're the interview. Hey, did you talk to these guys? You haven't mentioned it yet. We're going to show the whole interview in a second, okay. But I specifically said to him like, okay, bringing him into the later rounds has to be the plan.

And he was like, no, I can do it both ways. I'm just as willing to go to war with him in round one and try to get him out of there. That was a red flag. to me. That's a red flag to me because I don't want to be rude, but like, is he count donkula? Is he on first team all donk? There's been a pattern of Cyril Gahn at the very highest level when the lights are the brightest to maybe be a little, either his game wasn't fully ready for prime time. Let's not forget. He came to MMA in 2018. Yeah.

He debuted in the UFC one year later. And it wasn't that long before he was fighting for him. He started fighting at Muay Thai in 2050. Right. It's like, it's incredible. So there's things that he doesn't know that he doesn't know until he finds that out i don't know man i mean this is it when he told me i'm just as willing to go in there and bang and try to get him out of there you're gonna you're gonna walk into the hornet's nest if you do that with a guy who's probably just as fast of you hand speed wise with the power gap between aspiral and gone from a one shot standpoint just seems to be wide right seems pretty significant and also you know dude he had bad judgment in that john jones fight like like throwing with your backhand and changing

stances as you kind of throw through and now you're totally overexposing yourself you gave that fight to john and then that volkov fight i went back and i rewatched it in preparation for today you know he did some stuff well he had like a good double leg i think in the first round he got the flight to the floor in the or tried to get the fight to or he got taken down or fell back and then tried to get up and then had a decent scramble for a bit but like he's got he's got a strikers take down defense do you know what i mean by that like where you'll watch a striker build take down defense slowly over time through the years. And you can see every time they add a new wrinkle,

it makes it a little bit harder. But they never, it's all robotic. They never have a natural flow and understanding about how to keep it moving, what the next place is, if something gets shut down. Whereas a wrestler just kind of instinctively knows how to go to the next place to the next place,

keep moving, keep moving, keep moving. And, you know, that's not something you can easily fix. And it just seems to me like he's got, he's got some fatal flaws with his game in addition to the decision-making. being a big part of it. So I think he's saying that as a red flag for him. Well, I was going to say, look, Cyril Don, if you recall,

was 11-0 when he stopped Lewis and was suddenly the interim champion. But in his last five fights, we have a disappointing performance against a one-legged and gone, a close fight. Gone thinks he won still. Disappointing performance, right? Went to war with Tai Tai Tuivasa, probably unnecessarily got rocked a couple times, did get the knockout win. Completely laid an A against John Jones, and even he will agree to that.

Nice comeback stoppage of Sergei Spivak, but now he breaks his full. in the December rematch with Volkov and nobody thinks he won the fight, including Dana White, who promised Volkov, like, you know, he'd make it up to him afterwards. When I say that Gahn couldn't be entering this fight on less of a hot streak, like, if

that Spivak fight was the one fight in the five where maybe we saw the best version of him, how much better can he be? Because what Gond told me ultimately was, I made one mistake against John Jones, and everyone thinks I have a bad ground game because of that. No, that's not true. He made many mistakes,

and they were really not just ordinary mistakes, They were really bad ones. So, for example, he sat for that leg lock. He not only sat for the leglock, he sat and then for the wrong direction. That's not one mistake. That's two. Number one, you should have never sat for that ankle lock. You should have passed.

And number two, if you're going to sit for it, can you please know how to fuck to finish it? Finishing mechanics matter. He did it the exact opposite wrong way you're supposed to do it. Then repeated the mistake in the Volkov fight. This is what I mean, B.C., where he's like, I made one mistake. No, the fuck you didn't. You made many, and you compounded them in quick succession, and all of it feeds back to somebody who not recognizing what tends to be the problem here,

which is that you're out of your depth, you're going to shortcuts in the grappling department, and you think that you can take a shortcut to a submission finish. You cannot. You don't have the skills for it. Given that, like, people have seen kind of gone, I think, like, some of the things you're mentioning, like, obviously you're seeing at a little bit deeper level of analysis, but, like, we've seen him lose and we've seen him win fights that he should have lost. Sure.

is it a disaster if he goes in there like say he just catches you know aspinall like all of a sudden it's the gone era or what if you want to call is this like i think that's an official disaster for the heavyweight division to have to wait this long only to find out that aspiral wasn't that dude that would be terrible that would be terrible and also what are you going to get you're going to get jones coming back to fight gone again you're going to get jones going i was right i'll see you at the white house you know like that's it i mean this is a huge fight for tom aspinall you could say what you want about like how much you like the individual matchup or what you think the fight will be

but BC to the point you raise I mean if we were clear on this show I mean Aspinall was the guy that John had to fight and John did duck him those things are unimpeachably true

but what's not true is that we thought he was the guy that John had to fight because oh we know for a fact he'll beat him it was because he had the belt and because he had the best record and that's the guy you have to fight

but as I mentioned before BC like we've never really seen someone how does Tom Aspinall react act if he gets tired. Right. I have no fucking idea. What is the threshold where he gets tired? Couldn't tell you. These are big questions. You can answer that

for virtually every other champion on the roster. You cannot do it for him. Long out, Luke, can we get an updated Draft King's odds for this main event to see what, at least from a betting standpoint, Sarah Algonne is up against? Yeah, you know, just give my phone a second to load up. All right. It'll be pertinent information to have

at the ready, but that's fine. You know what I mean? That's good right there. We're on it. UFC 320. Uh, here we go. Uh, let me scroll down to that fight. Yeah, scroll to that, you know, uh, Tom Aspinall, minus 355 zero gone coming back at plus 280. Wow. I don't have any faith in, you know.

Right. Well, these are two normally, uh, well-mannered gentlemen for the large part, but there's been a little, man, a little bit of fireworks over the idea of did one turn down a fight earlier when it was offered and what that. And it got saucy enough that we had to bring Cuervo back in here for a little bit of something we could. call shots fire. And shots fired, of course, brought to you by Cuervo.

Now is a good time. Hey, right now? Okay, now's a good time to enjoy the tequila. Don't mind if I do. That invented tequila. Tom Aspinall had gone on record in the past and saying he felt like Cyril Gahn had ducked him for Dan Lopez, the coach of gone disagreed. They met up in the hotel lobby in Abu Dhabi and had some words, let's listen.

No, it's not. No, listen, from our perspective, that's what happened, genuinely. Oh, listen, I swear to God, I'm the age of it. And I was asking a journalist from, even another one here, talk with Enter, talk with Dana. Never has mentioned your name or any find before Manchester. That's the first time to life. But you have to understand for us.

They did mention Cyril's name before. Maybe not to you, but to us. Where, no, no. Mention is like, do you want to find him? They never even mentioned to me, I swear. All right. I can't talk to any one of them. I believe you.

So seriously, it was like, this is, I don't understand because this is they look so good with me. I'm always saying from, but from my perspective, is the truth. From your perspective, it might be different. Okay. But I'm just saying my truth. I would never make it up and be like, or is it, he's a pussy. whatever. I wouldn't do that. I'm saying the truth from our perspective.

No, it makes sense for it. Well, of course. I would have I'm not going to start making up some lies. But from our perspective, we're all friends. That's the trash talk before Manchester. It's about the break out into it. Don't know, don't worry about it. It's like you.

You're like, yeah. We love it. We're going to fight and it's going to be good. We need it. You don't, you don't, you don't waste heat like that. You don't waste heat like that. How much to do about nothing ultimately here, LT? It's not the John Jones DC braw in the MGM lobby, I can tell you that.

Where's Dave Schaller when you need him? We do, though, have additional sound. He runs PR for the commanders now. Really? I know he went to the 76ers for years. He not only runs PR for the commanders. He's the head of PR for the Sixers and the commanders simultaneously. It's the same guy who owns both.

The Josh Harris group? I didn't know that. So he started with the 76ers, and now he does, he's head of PR for the Washington Commander. I think he's from Atlantic City, right, Dave Schaller? Yeah. Rep, he's reping that hard. Yeah, shout out to Dave Scholar.

He was really, when Cowboy came into studio at Sirius XM, and the interview was over, he's like, where's the nearest titty bar? And I was like, well, I'll have to get up there. You're like, well, you already have it all printed out, right? Here you. Look, can you set up the sound by Cheryl gone having a little bit of beef here with Tom Asperal on putting hands on opponent's shoulders? What's this all about? Yeah, you know how he did the John Jones thing, almost like a meme where it's like a, hey, I'm being friendly, but it's a big brother. And he kind of does this somewhat repeatedly.

Gone didn't like the idea of having that being done to him. All right, serial gain. Let's hear it. Stupid thing. So if you want to reach my side, I must pull my hand on his shoulder. If you want to have his wrench, he just need to put his hand on the wall. He's going to have his wrench. Why do you need to push his hand on my shoulder?

What do you think it is? Do you think it's like a... I'm not sure if it's the... That's the truth. If he did that for that. He said he did that for that? I still don't know the answer myself. I don't think so, because he's not smart.

If you want to have my wrench, if you want to learn something about my range, I must to put my hand and you've got to have my range. If you put your head on my child, you're going to have your range. Yeah. So I saw every people with social media, whoa. 10,000 IQ, he's so smart. But no, brother, you're so stupid. So, yeah, that's funny. That's funny.

That's really funny. Tom's a big guy. There's no graceful way to grab a man's shoulder. There isn't. Yeah, he's got like a throat tattoo almost back to his spine. Hey, do you want to do this for the people of Colorado? Colorado. Yes, thank you.

Are they shooting each other again? What's going on there? Wow. Well, I don't know. I was told specifically no column bun jokes. Please, here we go. No, it wasn't a call. I mean, there's been like 5,000 shooting since then.

All right, here we go. Well, this has turned dark and tragic. What's it like watching Yolkich cry over his horse winning? Oh, God. And then acting like he got a bill paid. Yeah, when he won it, when he's like, the job is done. He's like, okay, right. The bill's paid.

Yeah, awesome. Great, you know. I think it's great, man. Yeah. I mean, that dude has been a godsend for the city of Denver. It's been, like, you know, but they, if they don't want it this year, I mean, they've done everything they're supposed to. to, like, put themselves in that position.

So it's going to be fun, man. Do you like him? You've got to like Yokic. I mean, I like the idea of him hating everything about celebrity life. Yes. But, you know, I have to worry about the wizards, and they've got a long way to go. There's a lot to worry about there.

Sometimes have their number. Hey, maybe Javars Crinton will get out soon and be able to... Andre Blatch. Yes, yes, remember him. Back to this main event, of course. Okay, maybe that's not the sauciest buildup in the back and forth between them. God has said repeatedly this week that he trusts his own ground game. He respects Aspinall's ground game.

Is this even something we have to think about? Will this fight go to the ground? I don't think so. I don't think so. If he's being sincere and telling you that he doesn't necessarily think he wants to drag him into a long fight or anything like that, somebody's going to go down. It's probably going to be him. I don't think it goes to the ground.

I think it does go to the ground. You think so? Yeah. But who initiates that? Aspinol. Oh, as a way to show, as a way to take advantage of a suspected weak spot. Yeah, like just to blast him off of his feet. Aspinall's, I mean, Aspenol subbed out Volkov from on top with the straight arm bar.

He's got, he's well-rounded. I'm not saying it like, sometimes we treat it like, oh, he'll take him to the ground as like a refuge. And I think of it more like he might mix it up, mix it up, take him to the ground and like really put a hurting on him there actually. I don't, I don't see it as a weakness. I see it as a display of a multitude of strengths. Yeah. But we don't see Aspirinal have to use that a lot. So it's really hard to tell.

I know he's got three submission wins as a pro, but. This all goes back to the lack of tape, right? That's what I mean. Yeah, that's what it is right there. When we talk about what they're fighting for, obviously we know that for gone, it's in some ways to save the trajectory of his career and finally live up to those expectations for Aspinol to cement that the hype was for real. And now we can get back to business and we may have a historically relevant heavyweight champion for all we know if this continues.

But in terms of like who's next, I know the Rosenstrike, I'm sorry, Rosenstrike, good Lord. I know the Jeltena Almeida, a Volkaw fight that we're going to get to you, could very well produce the next title contender. But are we expecting the John Jones comeback tied to the White House, potentially against Pereira, to be an alternate thing separate from the title picture at the moment? Or is there a chance that Ghan and Aspinall are fighting for a potential fight against either one of those? It feels to me, if I'm being honest, not so much in what the actual paper says about what the fight is.

The paper is this is a full weight class champion in a title defense against a challenger. But it still feels like this is the interim championship. And if John ends up fighting Alex at the White House, that that's almost seen as like, again, not formally the championship, but the most important heavyweight fight that the UFC could put together, certainly the one that the fans I would imagine would have the most amount of interest in, which is weird because it'd be one light heavyweight coming up all the way from middleweight, essentially. versus a guy who ducked the other guy who's been out. And you're punishing the guy that he was ducking. Yeah. There's a question. Like, B.C., let's see what happens here.

Let's imagine Aspinall wins, but it's somehow not like a very interesting fight or a mandate. And then you have a John versus Alex fight at the White House, and whoever wins, it's exciting and thrilling and like hugely momentum building. You just can't tell me that the stat—whatever they say, whoever has the belt, fine. But the stature of it— confers importance, and that importance would be ethily tilted towards that event, the White House event. Look, I would...

You're trying to get, like, resolution in the heavyweight division. I know. Imagine what that would do. That would just, like... But can you justify it? Because, like, as much as I hate what John Jones did and how he handled it in the length and everything, and now he wants to be back, and it's just like, oh, God.

Him against Pereira is a monumental fight, no matter how you frame it. But you're right. That would completely... We would consider that almost the heavyweight championship. You imagine a non-titled heavyweight fight being significantly bigger and more important than the heavyweight champions. We've just had two straight heavyweight champions vacate the belt.

And they had the potential to be two of the best of all time in Ngano and Jones. Can they do it though? Like you were mentioning a scenario where he gets bygone. But like he goes in there and he crushes gone. Like can they still do that? I mean, to put him aside at that point would almost feel promotional practice, right? Like you're, you have a guy who you should be 100% behind who's putting a smoking everybody that he faces. and he can't get into that big fight.

Like, that would be crazy. Okay, then, the absurdity of that? It would be absurd, but is the flip side that if God pulls the upset here, that that brings John Jones to the White House for the belt in a rematch? That would be the story. In terms of rewarding behavior. Timing is everything. But that's like throwing a dolly through a window in Brooklyn

and getting the biggest title fight ever as your reward. No, that can't happen. The only caveat out there is Dana White himself finding John an unreliable partner to promote. That's the one thing that no matter what happens could derail that plan. But, dude, I mean, again, I said it before. It's one thing if John is floating a fight, I don't want to fight the champion. I want to fight a light heavyweight, blown up at heavyweight, even though at that time he was the champion. But that's not the case anymore.

And now Poetan is the one lobbying for it, which totally changes the dynamics of how that fight is being perceived. What the UFC will do? I mean, your guess is as good as mine. What if Jelton Alameda, for instance, like a new blood coming up, wins? You know, wins convincingly. Aspinol wins, right? Now you have, like, a guy within those ranks who's coming for him, right? Could they do it then?

Could it be like, okay, now you've got a two-piece. You can't do on the same card or you're just pissing on the heavyweight jam? Maybe that's what they could do, right? Yeah, you put Aspinall in Europe against Adelmeda. I think if Aspinall goes in there and annihilates gone, that changes the equation. I agree. I agree. I'm just going through the hypotheticals.

But that's what I'm saying. The absurdity, at the very top, I was like, the absurdity, if he goes in there and wins, the absurdity of, like, who's waiting in the wings and all that comes into play. I think John Jones at that point, it's, you know, they're firing pistols at his feet. You're like, if you want to come back, that's your guy. You have to face him, right? Well, can it be helped along? I was going to ask you who Aspinall, let's say he knocks out gone in the second round.

He's going to have a call out ready. What do you call out in that spot? Do you say, F you, John, you had your chance? Poetton, you want to fight for the heavyweight title, become the three division champion? and I'm your guy, meet me at the White House. He'd be smart for him to do that. But also, you don't want to be left out of a Jones Pereira super fight. I think those are you call out John?

Like, what do you, or do you call it the UFC? I don't think you call out a name. I mean, if you want to, you can. I don't know about John, but I mean, you call it Poetton or whatever you want. You can't say, hey, match, make. That's a trolling job. Here's what you do. You put the ball in the UFC's court and you say, I've seen what Marab has done.

I want to do that at heavyweight. I had one fight in 2024. This division's been on ice. here to thaw it out. Amen. Make me active. Put me back in there in three months and I feel like you'll kind of get this resolved to a degree. John Jones, get your shit together. Long Island Luke, before we give our predictions, we want to hear your betting analysis here. You do have gone as a big for a title fight. This is a pretty big underdog. Is there any value in going surreal gone? It's just you guys talked about all the unknowns of aspirinol. You just can't put your money

on serial gone in this position. Not reliable. Not to mention the blades. injury remember 15 seconds in like that always comes into playing heavyweight like guys can get hurt so exactly uh i took tom aspinall in a parley it is a very chalky parlay but you know you got to do what you got to do here i i kind of want to dabble with a serial guns i bet but i don't think this goes the distance so i don't think it's even worth it what's the what's the parley uh the parley is aspinall money line uar money line bless you bc and over two and a half in the co-main

it's plus 115 bc is allergic to your picks i am very much so uh l t i want to go to you first. How does this fight end? Who wins? Probably Aspinall. Probably second or third round. Probably TKO stoppage. That doesn't mean it's on the feet. Could be on the ground, pounding him out, you know? But I like

again, I mean, if he goes in there and gets chinned, would you be like, wow, I never saw that coming? But I don't think that's the likeliest outcome. Or if he gasses out in a back and forth spirited kickboxing duel. But you know, like Cyril gone has good cardio, but not amazing.

amazing cardio like that's not a thing it's tough it's like look at who we're relying on he's coming here off of the worst scenario and circumstances gone is the kind of guy that looks real good when your fundamentals when the opponents fundamentals are real bad sure because he can he has athleticism and there are certain dimensions of the game that he can be quite technical like with the jab and then angling off he looks pretty good I don't think aspinall's that guy I think aspirin's prop and by the way aspirin so I'm sure you watch the countdown for uc 321 where he's like I've not been competing but I've definitely been like one working steadily steadily curious to see what he's got i'm gonna say i'm gonna say third round stoppers tom hospital chuck there's a rumor that you've been watching episode of episode one of uh ufc 321 embedded on like loop i didn't even seen it but i draw these strange parallels of i try to think like that says it right there i don't know yeah what's this oh here we go what's embedded episode one oh you didn't see it yet no no it was like ufc's attempt to cash in on durn's high value two minutes of Dern by the pool. So it sounds like I will at least have that on a little coming up.

And they followed her from behind. Like they did the full, like, you know, they put her in the thumbnail. I always want to draw these parallels because I think that the heavyweight division is finally, like, you know, you talk about heavy weights traditionally in any kind of combat world. It's the sport. Like, that's the division, right? And I feel like you compare this with Inganu kind of out there and John Jones out there and you have Aspinol to the 70s in boxing where it was like you had all these guys. and I keep seeing Cyril Gahn as like this Ron Lyle or Jimmy Young type figure, right? Like a guy who's always fighting those guys, but he's not beating him.

And I feel like that's where maybe this is like that romantic side of like how you look at the game. But I'm like, I feel like that Aspinall is in that spot to kind of like say, this is a real era of something happening and he can be that guy. And when he says that he's been training and he's not letting his guard down all that, I really believe him. So I'm definitely taking Aspinall. I think it happens fairly early within two rounds. I was going to ask.

We're all taking an aspirin. I'm taking him by TKO stoppage. I'm just wondering, will it come in round three where we get to see him pushed at least to a point we've never seen? You guys are calling it. But the more I think about it, the more I watch count on, the more I just like really look at tape. I'm like, nah, bra, this is a second round if that TK will win for Aspen. You guys have heard a designated gon a donk summer. What do you guys call on him?

I just called him Count Dongula. Okay, Count Donucle. I mean, if he goes in there and he gets smoked in the first round, I think he'll earn that nickname because that's, this is the The one thing that everybody's like, okay, the suspense of this fight is what happens if it goes a little deeper into the fight. And he's like, no, I'll show you that I can take him out in round one. That's where I was like, hey, dude, like, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. Hey, could you make more noise, wiping your face?

I got a runny nose here. I'm sorry. Just kill the mic when you do it. I'm sorry, I have a cough button for a reason. Cocaine. All right. Let's go to our coal main event and the build to get here to the vacant women's strawweight title bout is brought to you by Total Wireless, the official wireless provider. the official wireless provider of UFC,

get unlimited data that won't slow you down. Jean-Weilly has given up the strap at 115 to move up next pay-per-view at MSG to challenge Valentina Shepchenko in a flyweight super-ish type of fight. But what it has left behind is a wide-open division at the 115. Verna Jangeroba is what, 5-1 since she lost a decision to McKenzie Dern back in 2020. Dern, on the other hand, is five and four, and has been as inconsistent as possible, yet has shown, I think at times, much higher flashes of a ceiling compared to the steady, technical, well-rounded game of Janderoba.

Long Island, Luke, can we get our odds on this one right now? I got them ready to go right here. No, I don't. I exit out of it. I'm sorry. Give me one side. Well, I might have it. Well, Dern's the favorite here.

And that's where I wanted to leave it off. Dern is the favorite? Yes. Oh, no. For Draft Kings, no, I don't have it. Sorry. All right. I have it.

It is Janja Roba plus 150 during, oh, sorry, plus 130 during minus 155. So it's getting closer, but still, even though McKenzie Dern won a three-run unanimous decision over Janjarova 2020, they're, to me, they're well, they're much different in their evolution since then, but you had an alternate take. You said Dern has evolved more since then, and I disagree with that. Well, I mean, I'm not, you made a compelling argument when we were talking about this free show the thing is like i watched the first fight and like god durn seems so raw i mean just green is the moment yeah just i remember that she just kind of throws herself into

these exchanges like literally like like loses balance or just kind of throws punches there's no setup there's no fainting there's no thoughtfulness to it's just clashing it's just two rams colliding and she kind of out physicaled i mean there was obviously some skill on the ground or whatnot, but she kind of out-physicaled Gangeroba. Now, to the point you raise, Gangeroba hit her with that sort of kicked that ended up being a knee. That broke her nose in round two. During

that fight, many other ones, has shown us pretty good bearing under fire. Her ability to maintain composure quite good, and then on the ground obviously is still going to be superior to Gangeroba. I think you're right, B.C. I would say that the way in which she kind of, Janjuroba has, like, polished her

game, put it together a little bit She can wrestle a little bit more. I just feel like, I guess what I would say is this. Maybe I'll dial it back or change it a little bit to, I feel like Dern has cleaned up some of the more egregious things that she was doing if you watch that fight. To your point, though, there's like a level of technical, I don't know. I don't know what the word would be, but.

There's a don't think of a nice way to say this. It's amazing that, like, her wrestling has kind of struggled as long as it has, although it's gotten better of late. It's kind of interesting that she never really worked on a jab despite the, In fact, she worked with good boxing coaches. But have you noticed her striking can vary from fight to fight. She can either be locked in and technical. I have noticed this.

Or she can get thrown off base early and it becomes a wild bro. Well, here's the question you have to ask yourself is, again, to the extent that the first fight means anything to the second one, she, Dern was much more physical of the two, with some exception, but in general, you know, just kind of like was the one pressing the action, literally walking into Jangeroba. If she tries to be too technical this time, might she limit her offense to some. such a degree that Janjuroba can make it close, you know, and then potentially take a decision. Like, is there a case to be made that like, you know, maybe a little bit of, maybe

you don't need to be too technically savvy with this one. Just kind of throw offense with volume and then pressure and then let that kind of take, take it the, it's course. I don't know the answer. Look, I guess I can understand Dern being favored if you look at it as she's the higher finishing potential of the two, right? Incredible submission game. She also at times when she's locked in can really find a home for that right hand, but on the flip side, Dern caught up with a friend of the program, Shaquille Majori. I don't know if he texts you often. Not too often, no. Okay. I shut him. I shut him down a long time ago. And she said one thing that, that he brought up, I thought was interesting. She said, I'm glad this is not a fight

against Zhong Wei Lee, because I don't feel like I'm ready for that right now. I feel like I would need a few more fights. And I get that if you're just straight up comparing to her opponent in Jandropa, who in her mind, she's like, I already beat her four years ago or five years ago, that should be fine. But I think that explains the tepid nature I have in seeing Dern as the betting favorite here. Even she realizes she's not quite there yet. And if she's not quite there yet, even though Jangeroba is unassuming, 37 years old, doesn't mark, you know, isn't marketing it on the same level. She's solid, steady, well-rounded, and has gotten better fight by fight as her confidence is grown. You're talking about Jondaroba? Yeah, 100%. She's got her eye on the prize right now,

like without question it's in the you know in and how we perceived mackenzie durn coming up is that we always thought at some point because she was a darling within our industry and especially within the u.c that she would be given a title shot it always felt like they're kind of working her into that spot like they gave her some big fights but then she would kind of come up short or whatever i do agree that she has been kind of inconsistent but mostly improving as we go on Jeanne de Robe is weird because I probably would have picked Dern very easily in this fight if I didn't just watch the Janjano fight where Vern had basically dominated her. Vernon's gotten tougher and meaner.

That's what I'm saying. Like I think there's a little, I remember she used to call herself the female Damien Maya. She used to say that she wanted. And the thing that's crazy about it is I can see that parallel in that Damien was a very cerebral kind of fighter. He approached it almost like a pacifist to what he was like, how can I do inflict? How can I finish this guy without inflicting a lot of damage? She's not exactly like that, but she's super tough in the way that he was, and I think that she's very cerebral, and she's actually very teachable, even though she's in her late 30s at this

point. Like, if you've watched her from fight to fight, you just see this escalation of what she's been able to do, and that's what makes it fascinating. I just think that both of them are completely different athletes from where they were, you know, whenever they fought was it four or five years ago. They're just in a completely different thing. Now you're like, okay, who's picked up? more who wants it more and it's tough to go against chanderoba in this one like i it's it's tough

because she's looks so good to me of the four losses that durn has had since their first fight janjoroba has faced three of those fighters and beaten them all like that it's sort of if does momentum matter or is durn ultimately going to always be feast or famine so we have to bet and predict this fight based upon whether we think this is a feasting night whether we think you know i feel like she fights better when the odds are against her right because every time it looks like she's about to make it there, she has a stumble, and then she always tends to bounce back in a big way. She's on a two-fight win streak. This fight isn't about bouncing back. This fight is about finally living up to those expectations. So does the question come down? I don't

think as much it's skill for skill. I think it's can Dern handle the big moment? That's what I'm looking at here. I mean, I don't, yeah. I tell you what, it's rare that I listen to you and you're very persuasive. You're actually very persuasive on this point. I was not persuasive with women in my 20s. Yeah. Well, in this particular case, this is pretty persuasive. I do think there This is wheelhouse, 115. Your belief about why Ganger Robo lost the first fight is because she just didn't quite understand what she could do. She said she lost complete confidence in her game when she lost two times in three fights to Hebas and to Dern. Yeah.

Do you think she'd lose to Hebas today? I don't. No, no, no. He does regressed. Yeah, and I think she certainly surpassed it. You know, it's also interesting. She said something. She compared herself not in terms of achievements, but in terms of inspiration.

She took something from Charles Olivera where she said, you know, I thought champions had to be these undefeited. You know, like St. Pierre wasn't undefeated, but, you know, something like that to be a champion. It turns out you can make mistakes and then iron it out and be real great. And so she kind of feels like she wants to borrow from that tradition. Now, to that point, Dern would also kind of be of that model. Dern made the same argument this week that she's comparing herself to Olivera, where he was up and down, up and down, then came to the third. They got to get all together. The difference with Dern is that she's still, it's no longer the case, but she's been living in the shadow of Ronda Rousey expectations for so freaking long.

And now they've kind of dropped away. But, you know, when she was coming up, B.C., or Chuck, that was, that was, the, the, the, the comparisons were ever present at that time. Yeah. And, I mean, even, you think back to some of the people who are in the same kind of unfair treatment, which was, you know, the Rose Nama Eunice's. There was other, I felt like it was just an impossible bar to go in there and do this. What we're seeing, though, is that you have to, like, earn it over the course of time. And, I mean, there was a, there was a point. Like you mentioned, she was, she's been five and four.

since the and I think over the last eight she's four and four which is not really the credentials but there's rare that you can look at somebody and say like she's made really good progress and like improved in a four and four run but I think that you can because she's been fighting very tough competition but it's just a good it's fun that way though like Jason Perillo's back and I think that's a good thing because when she would not have him suddenly and then I think didn't she have a boyfriend that was training her like for a couple of fights in a row and now but like wouldn't you say Perillo seems to be you're good Oh, thank you for going to that.

Wouldn't you say that has brought out the best in her when she's listening to Perillo's striking game plan and breaking it down? I tend to think that the advice he gives her is good. I don't know exactly what kind of training room that they have. I'm not saying it's bad or good. I'm simply, I just have no way of knowing. But I do feel like the kinds of things that Perillo can impart

are the kinds of things that Dern needs. You know, I think you really stated it really well, B.C., which is that like these moments where, she puts it together puts it together puts it together it's like okay right let's get it well look and then it just falls kind of short but that's a cantangela hill though to be fair and I want to I I want to see people fulfill their potential I've always wanted to see her

get to this level I'm just saying this fight I don't have the confidence I think that McKenzie Dern has always carried something of the novelty right like she was very strong remember everybody's like oh it's a fake she's not even American or remember she's not Brazilian remember this whole thing BC is one of these people who believes that she's been on a years long campaign to have a

muddled and somewhat fake accent for purposes that make no sense other than generating internet mocked. She's very in New York. She smokes two packs of dishes and speaks like a New York. Exactly. Exactly. Do you know her father's nickname is Megaton, which is what they call Luke

at Jessica Banks when he comes in again? No. But I do think that she carries that novelty into her title. Like there's something about her general perception where people still see her this way. I think this is the moment if she's going to show up and ever do away with that for good this is the time like it would be

the moment right but chuck you have espoused upon us one of the greatest theories that proved true of all time that maybe it wasn't adasonia's story all along it's got to become a drinking thing maybe it was poetine yeah it was maybe this was vena jandderdoba's which who story i'm trying to to pronounce it correctly and you know she's going to have one eye on her opponent one eye on the title no i mean that like you no i i don't know thanks guys you know i always joked that we're going to get fired i don't think i'm joking today what i'm really trying to say is this is jandraoba's moment i think that she is going to be the perfect the perfect kryptonite for whatever durn tries to do we go five rounds you've got a new champion whether you're ready for it or not

you got a new champion and she would have earned it. Who is the... Without going through Wei Lee, but she would have earned it. Who's the better story to win this? You have somebody who's persevering at her age. Is it Dern? No, it's... Well, I mean, better.

When you say better, what does that mean? Meaning, like, you know, Jeondroba's more of a woodwork figure. I don't think that people really saw her coming up until the moment she got there, right? Like, 37 years old, we've talked about the 35-year-old threshold a million times. So, like, she gets into this position. Her breaking through at this point. Is that a better story than McKinsey Dern, who we've all had our eyes on the whole time?

And you're like, wow, look, she finally grew up in front of our eyes and she won a title. Depends what you want. If you wanted the golden child who finally became great, then you, the answer is Dern. But, you know, the kid who had some sort of physical limitation that BC mocked ruthlessly just now. No, I was talking about her passion and focus on the championship. Sure, I'm sure you were. In any case, but who defied bullying and, you know, to a degree of poverty to overcome. It's a great story in all that.

I mean, they're interesting stories for very different reasons, yeah. I wonder if the winner is going to give Tatiana Suarez an opportunity to tell another interesting story of coming back, you know what I mean? Because this division feels that wide open without Wei Li Zhang. But does John come back if she loses to Valentina? I don't know about that, right? What do you think? I don't know. That's a tough thing.

We'll have to see it during the media cycle. That's because I would pick her to beat anyone. in that division right now i don't know what she wants though you know all right i got jandraoba by decision how are you going i have to tell you bc you have been very convincing on this one i will listen to you i think that uh i think your points are pretty good and i'll ride the same same position talk you riding this train i think it's john deroba i just think it's just i just think that like for what we talked about like she has shown that she's ready for this moment you know come on ride the train yeah i was born chew chew chew you know what i mean just take some time

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Maybe they'll add in $1,000 of spending cash. as well. Don't miss out, enter at any total wireless store from September 25th to October 26th. Time is running low. Head on over right now. This is the ultimate fan give away. More interesting fights on this main card. We'll go to the Bannonweight Division. Umar Namauga Medoff lost, despite being the betting favorite, his title fight against Marab Davao Svili in January at UFC 311. But as he told me this week, he said, look, I didn't gas out against Marab. I broke my left hand and he said there's science behind this it sends adrenaline to that part of your body

it pulls from your gas tank he says look I think I won that fight but that wasn't the best of me he believes if he gets past a streaking Mario Batista who's riding an eight fight win streak on Saturday that he will get that second chance at the winner of Marab versus Peodorian in December

the odds makers overwhelmingly agree with that Long Island Luke can you read this for us right now please it's minus 625 Umar plus 450 So I thought I was going to be talking more about Umar here. That's way wilder than I was thought. But first and foremost, why the disrespect this grand to Mario Batista.

I mean, look, here's the thing. I'm not going to sit here in front and say I'm picking Batista to win. I'm picking Umar to win. You're damn right. Probably all of us are. I thought Umar was giving... Spoiler alert. Yeah, well, I mean, didn't you feel like for most,

for long stretches of the fight, particularly early, I thought Umar was given Mara of real problems. He's the only one that can beat him in this division. That's what I feel like. That's what I feel like. So I'm not about to sit here and pick Batista. However, Batista is, a, I've been saying this for a while.

He's a very good fighter. He is hard to look good against. That is one of the problems. And sometimes, B.C., he's got one of these labor-intensive styles that is good for winning rounds, but doesn't tend to move the fight as further along as you want. So he doesn't necessarily win himself some fans. The Jose Aldo fight looks good on the resume, but then it tarnished his reputation because of how. Pachy-Mix, he was going to say he may have broke Patchy-Mix.

I mean, he did a number on patchy-mix as well. Dude, the guy can fight. He is very well-schooled. He has tons of energy. He's well-rounded, but he's limited relative to Umar in my estimation. So I sort of get the odds in the sense that it's like no one actually thinks Bautista can win. But the odds don't reflect, I think, how good Bautista is, at least making Umar work for it, who I suspect this fight will go the distance too, by the way.

So I don't know. Well, it's interesting. Umar did tell me that he doesn't plan to go for it in this fight. He doesn't plan to put himself in a bad spot. He plans to focus on grappling and submission to get him out of there. That's interesting. How big do you think the advantage on the ground for Umar would be? How good is Bautista's wrestling?

Pretty big because Umar doesn't see. I remember him saying like he hasn't seen Batisa try a single takedown. Like he was going on about this. So I think he looks at it like this guy doesn't want any part of the ground. And obviously this is where an Amaga made off will shine. So I think he looks at it like if he's going to have a chance, It's probably going to be in the standing realm. And Um, and Umar is just probably not going to play that game.

So I find it interesting that the line is that big. If you really look at Umar's resume, like he, you know, he only had a few fights in the UFC. The biggest fight he had was the ABC card out in Abu Dhabi where he fought Corey Sanhagan. And obviously he did work against Corey Sanhagan. Um, but before then, you know, this is probably the best opponent he's face outside of Marab, right? Like this is outside of Marab and Sanhagan, this is the guy.

You're saying we're grading on name and reputation. Yeah. So in a weird way, I'm like, you know, there's still a little bit of a trial here era, you know, like where you're like, and I agree with everything you're saying. We saw him against Mara. I thought he held his own. It's a very close fight. Like he's the one guy who throws doubt, I think, into like if you're going to have a rematch, that would be the one to have. But there's a little bit of like a, you know, I haven't seen enough of Umar in the division. And I've seen a lot of Batista and I know what he does well.

So there, I feel like that line is just kind of skewed. I'll also say this. I mean, you know, usually if you have. someone who's like a plus or excuse me a minus 600 favorite you're like well dude him beating his opponent means nothing sorry a beating maria bautista's a quality win if umar stops him this guy's on an eight fight win streak at 135 pounds with some very good names on there if you stop bautista that's a very quality win i mean again i'm not expecting that i do think it will go the distance i'm just sort of pointing out the odds

they sort of make sense but they sort of don't look i love this is not an anti Morab, Brent. A healthy Umar, I think is the only person that beats him, and I think he does beat him. We got to see it. He's got to win this fight first. Maraub's going to have to get by Peota Jan, which is not an easy fight. You've given up on him, huh? But I love Peottyon. I don't know if he can do this in a rematch, although he's going to be fully healthy, apparently. But one time, I mean, well, look, I'm not crazy. Umar might be one of the 10 best fighters in the world right now. Yeah, as I think Luke said earlier, like, Umar is the second best guy in this division, for sure. I just, I got to disagree with you. Marob takes the rematch. Let's go.

Oh, wow. But that's a long island heavily based take, isn't it? When I talked to Omar, you talked to him this week, he basically was like, he talked to him to him or two. And he was like, he leans in, he's like, the secret to beat him a Rob, you got to take him down, you know? Like he's just like, he's been thinking about this. The piece I wrote, I was like, you know, he is center in his being right now. Like he, that's, you know, his focus is on Batisa, but his whole mind is on getting that fight back. So I feel like how humble he is.

Then when you talk to his brother Usman and the PFL, he's just like, Rocky trash sock and everything. But maybe, Umar, it's going to be the best of them all in this family. You never know. One time walking in the, it was, I think it was in the New York, New York, remember this? We're going to ride the roller coaster. You got Lice? We're going to, yes.

Well, that's just a given when you stay there. We were walking through the, the casino, and you ran into memory. Chuck, it's Peter you on. And you're like, you know, I'm going to introduce him. He wanted nothing to do with us. He was looking at him like, who the, who's the greatest thing ever? And we may have taken a picture with Brandon Wise, the CBS Sports, and Pierre Diom was. It was just like, dude, this guy visited D.C. one time and tried his like, hey, everybody, how's, what's the deal with airplane food?

Of course, he bombed. He bombed ritualistically. And then he's like, God, they don't like humor in D.C. They are, the service workers in D.C. are not friendly. Not friendly. Not so sure about that. It does explain Luke Thomas to a certain degree. Although I've never been to Valdasta. Connecticut, it works, baby. That's like, uh, people are nice in Connecticut. Yeah, they are nice over there. In Connecticut? Yeah. They got nothing else. They're well educated. They pay high gas prices. Yeah. You know, they know, they? There you go. How much is gas in Connecticut? I actually paid $2.69 the other day, and it was like a world record. I can't believe I got it for that cheap. How's that fucking? It's $5 a gallon in D.C.

It's typically three and a half to four in Connecticut. Right now is a low period, though. Yeah. And Nogatuck it might be, but not. I don't live in Nogatuck anymore. Noggi Tuggett you find the guys using, they'll suck the gas out of one tank and put it in the other time. I cannot fight against these statements here. So we're all taking Umar here.

We are. Yeah. Yeah. Again, I respect Bautista. in ways that I know the fans kind of disrespect him, but I think he's a very good fight. I mean, over the course of a full fight, he'll find the way to wear him down, you know?

So I feel like that's the pick. All right, Alexander Volkov had brought a four-fight redemptive win streak into that December matchup against Cyril Gan. Gone broke his foot in the first round. We all thought Volkov had won. Dana White thought Volkov won and said he'd take care of him. What that means is a matchup against Jalton Al-Meda.

That could be basically a number one contender fight for the next title shot, even though Alexander Volkov is the betting underdog here against an Almeida who is seven and one in the UFC he did fall up what was that one lost for Almeida he fell apart he got stopped remember that Curtis Blades Curtis Blades thank you but really outside of that he has looked great what are the updated odds long Island look plus 164 Volkov minus 198 Almeida now look Volkov's kryptonite has been the ground game but yet like Curtis Blades took him down at will in their first fight and then gasped

himself out doing that there's something about Volkov where you feel like 36 years old, that means he's in the midst of his heavyweight prime, inevitably he's going to get to a title shot. He does have those skills. Whether he wins that or not, depends on the opponent. There's still some slowness to his game. There's still problems in his game, but he's got the long hair right now, which is trying to tell me something here. I still feel like Volkov can get this done, even as an underdog, but Luke Almeda's takedown game is pretty serious. Can he counteract that? This fight actually kind of rules because Volkov should be in the title picture, but he's not, and we've been over this point.

You know, I watched some tape on Alameda in preparation for today's show. I forgot during that Spivak fight, he was kind of lighten him up on the feet. Now, it did have long stretches on the ground, both where he was dealing and then being dealt. He doesn't commit to a striking enough, Jelton. I think that might be right. I think there's an argument to be made that there's a little bit more he could be doing, except, you know, Spivak also wanted to engage in the ground, so that kind of complicated

it. But he looked a little more fluid. The problem is, though, you have to imagine, you know, Almeda's, path to winning rounds and there I say the fight itself probably does not lead through striking right he's gonna have a hard time closing that distance Volkov is slow he's

talented but slow you know Almeida 6 foot 9 though and he uses it like he does what I mean like if you're gonna play this game that's a tough game to play and he's not a lamb on the ground outside of that quick submission loss to Aspinall he's pretty strong on the ground yes he is if there's anything he is rapidly improved

and steadily it maybe is a better way to put it but certainly it's a ground game as you indicate it Absolutely. Remember, gone was trying some stuff underneath him and tried to that ankle lock and couldn't get shit going. That's not for nothing. That there's something to be said for that. But BC, you just have to realistically imagine if you're Al-Meda, what is your path to victory? It has to be some kind of back exposure or top control. It has to be. And so the question is, like, we're like Volkov, BC, who is sturdy with some of this stuff. And certainly much, you would imagine he's going to be very aware of the threat. Can he do what Blades did? is you get taken down, taken down, you get messed up, taken down. But you kind of just wait it out until he doesn't really have the same kind of zip and pop, and then you put it on him, and then he just completely falls to shit. It's a workable blueprint, I think. When we talked about the argument earlier of whether the heavyweight championship will get devalued again

if John Jones comes back against Poetan, does the fact that Volkov has lost twice to Gahn and once dominantly to Aspinall play into the idea that he could get passed over for this or not? I mean, do we believe, did Dana, like, put it in his back pocket? It's like, I owe you one, man, because you got robbed in it. Do we believe this? I think he said one, not two, right? So, yeah, yeah. But, I mean, this is, we started this off.

We went through scenarios as to who, who, what this means for the heavyweight division of Espinol wins, all this stuff. We'd never even mentioned, really. We did mention Jelton Almeida as being a fresh blood because he's the only guy who hasn't lost already to Aspinall. But the guy that we're not actually mentioning is Volkov, right? if he's able to do the work and he goes in there and does it, it'd be very tough for the UFC to kind of push him aside as well.

But at the same time, that is not going to be the sexiest match. Like, it's just the way it is. And the jailton now made it too. I was going to ask you guys, like, have we ever seen a guy in his position? Maybe we have. But in the heavyweight division who's in that kind of position where he's kind of flirting with the title, one fight away perhaps, with less kind of like name brand. Because, I mean, honestly, like his, I feel like if you mention his name to somebody who's kind of a casual fan, they might not even know him, you know.

Dude, I remember when Volkov got bodied in Bellator by Vitale Minichov, which was like a long time ago. A long-ass time ago. And now, whereas he, like, look at the difference. It's kind of insane. He's, to anyone who's been paying attention to M.M.A. for 10 years or so, he's been around doing pretty relevant stuff. But he's never gone like, oh, shit, wow, amazing. lost the fight before the title fight like multiple times, multiple times. The one against Derek Lewis, he would have gotten a title shot at that.

Yeah, remember that? All the way he's winning the whole time. The thing is, though, he keeps hammering. He keeps signing up for a chance at another crack at it. And you've got to wonder, like, what point, maybe he won't break through all the way, but he will break through to a UFC title fight. You know, people who are perseverant, if you just keep asking, blows mouth, don't get fed. I think he gets out of this. I think he gets himself to the title level with a win here.

It's not going to be easy, tough fight. but if Almeida tries to strike for strike with him, I think it could be a problem here. With that long jab, I agree with that 100%. But I have that push kick. Then I would use the push kick on a guy who wants to take him down. I'd be shocked if Almeida, like, played that game for long, you know?

Yeah, I think Almeida might, like, in transition for certain periods. But dude, again, if you're Almeida, do you think you're going to win a striking battle with this guy? You're going to get chew to pieces. You might, because you just stopped Spivak. You might. Long Island, Luke, betting wise, you're taking the plus money on Volkov? Hell, yeah, I got him at plus 200, too, I think. I like the odds on that a lot more.

He's plus 164 now. Don't love it as much. But, yeah, if you can get him at like plus 175 or higher, I think it's worth it. I have an update. Oh, oh. I'm feeling these margaritas. Yes, yes, that's what I'm talking about. It's almost time for a third quervo shot here.

Let's talk about the opener of the main card. Alexander Rackage, trusted contender. I love this fight. Yet riding a three-fight losing skid against the elite competition, but it's still 32. too, right in the, you know, we still haven't seen the best of him as what I'm trying to say, but he's facing an Osamot Mirzikonov, who is 15 and 0. It's such a thinkless job.

But yet, it hasn't maybe fought the highest level yet. So long, I don't look, let's set the stage with the odds here. You want the odds? Yeah, yeah, do. Minus 110, it's a pick-em right now. Wow. Okay, so they are looking at this. How good to start off, Chuck, is Merzacconoff?

How impressed are you by his performance? I've been very impressed. I mean, he's undefeated, right? like 15 and 0 and the so far on the UFC he's looked very good i think most of his uh fights have been finishes look at the gentleman right here yeah um but i do feel like that this is the guy that you got this is the litmus test right like you get a guy like rackage who came gun blazing out of the gate i think he won like five or six of his first like seven fights and he was just on a roll and remember the jimmy manual when he was smoking those

got dead kid yeah devon clark i remember he was knocking these guys out and there was a moment I was like, this guy, it's just a matter of time until he's fighting for a title. And obviously, he's fought some really tough dudes and he overcame some injuries and some time off. He's kind of in that weird situation talking about rackage where it's like you're on a three-fight skid. Either you're winning and you put yourself back into that spot or you could be possibly on the ice flow kind of leaving. You know, it's like it's a way too good to lose four in a row and have his job security question. Right? Way too good.

So is it just. And coming into his prime really, too, like a 30. Is there you're facing better competition lately? So he changed teams. I think that was part of it. He was training out of Vienna, Austria for a long time. Go ahead and do your shot. Yeah, I was going to, you know, I was going to throw this shot to Brian Carraway.

It gets a bad rap for the ATV incident, but there are two sides to every story. You never know. All right. I mean, I'm not going to say I hope you die, but. Is he still dating Misha Tate? I don't even know. Is that what your dungarees look like after you're done peeing? that's it you okay with her buddy we're done don't you go dying on me uh luke this is the part

when we used to do it up on the rooftop with the and you never got your fire where we'd take a walk down to the other side i love that until luke's in sync we had a good run right there look um rackets though we know he's too good to be i guess in this spot no no this is no i feel like this is real good matchmaking it is to be honest with you rackets to your point i mean go back to ufc 300 he was dealing on Yuri Prohajka early in that fight. To the point where I was watching with my friend Othello and

Othello was like, oh, you know, he's beating the shit out of this guy. He's going to win and I was like, just just wait. But you can understand someone watching that who didn't know the broader context being like, dude, the guy who's doing the dealing is really good as you mentioned the man-o-one. And by the way, when he needed to wrestle fights to win

rounds, he could do that as well. Yes. But he's definitely hit his ceiling and he's definitely had some issues, I think, with defense. that's been a big part of his problem. And Mirzikonov, man, here's the thing. He was supposed to fight Johnny Walker in his last contest and that he got injured, not Merzikonov, but Walker. So they threw in like a last minute sub-Hibero

who he just demolished inside of a round. Right. Merzikanov is not the sort of hulking physical athlete that Rackage is, but go watch the way he moves. Fluid, quick, fast footwork, fast hands, combination. South Paul, by the way. He's got so many things.

that for a guy who is probably a better overall athlete and certainly beaten better guys in Rackage. But B.C., he's been off. He's had a bad knee injuries previously. He's changing teams. There's a lot of questions about where Rackage is. And Mersikonov is like chomping at the bit to get somebody like this.

He is. And when I said Rackett was too good for this moment, I didn't mean the opponent. I meant being on a three-fight losing skid. But if you look at it, he's really lost four of six overall. And the wins were against an aging Anthony Smith. and Tiago Santos, who left the promotion right after. So for as good as he looked.

He looked real good against the year early. And the Boehovich lost was a knee injury as well. So that Ozedemir loss too was like a very controversial. Split decision, yes. But against Anka Lyev, granted, Anka Lov's good. That was an aggressive big onk in that fight. Yes, it was. And I just felt like he had a good answer for the kinds of things that Rackage does.

Is Mursa Kanov that same kind of force? He's 36, by the way, Mersa Kano. Yeah. But again, dude, he's got a certain kind of, I mean, I'm not comparing him to Fadoor, but Fadoe had a certain kind of flow and effortless flow and fluidity to his movement. And again, Mursa Kanov's not that, but he's got relative to rackage a little bit more. You think it delivers in that spot? Because obviously the UFC puts it on like the, it's the kickoff, right, of the U.S. of the pay-per-view. Yes. Usually they want like something that's going to deliver. You feel like that's the right choice. Like, well, see, here's a thing. If you're rackage, you might be looking for the takedown. He's done it in previous fights where he's. He needed to win rounds and or fights. Mursa Kanov's biggest threat is not on the ground. It is absolutely on the feet, particularly at boxing, but kickboxing range to... He's got knockout power. He absolutely has knockout power.

And again, even if it's not one punch, the fact that he throws in combination, bop, bop, that's when the problems begin to emerge. It's the one, two, the one, two, three. If you're, if you're rackage, I suspect he's going to be hunting the takedown and top control. So to your point, is that deliver on the main event? Mersa Kahnov is going to have to make it deliver. That's a good point. It's going to be a very good play.

Because Rackage might just need to get the win, right? Like the bottom line is he just needs a win. If you're Rackich, dude, losing is absolutely not a fucking option. Mersakanov knocked out Andre Munez in Russia on the regional level. Did not know that. The need's a little bit of count dungula as well. All right. Hey, by the way, this podcast is also presented by Draft Kings.

Of course, the Crown is yours. And when we are talking about putting your knowledge to the test, how about Draft Kings pick six? You can download that app right now and use our code combat with a K. Yes, that is Combat with a K, play just $5, get $50 in pick six bonus picks. Make the call, ride the upside in partnership with Draft King's pick six. The crown is yours. And when we're looking at the way that you play pick six, it's grabbing two or more stats. It's the more or the less when you look at how this card is going to break down.

So let's go takedowns when we look back at this main card. Umar and Amalgamatov against Mario Batista, three and a half take. downs over three rounds. Chuck, more or less? I think more. I think more. Um, but it also, that, that's a weird one because it depends on if can Batista just get up from whatever the first takedown is, right? Like, or like if there's just one in these. Moore has good top control, but not unstoppable. Um, three total in the fight, three and a half. Yeah, three and a half total in the fight is the, is the more and a three round fight. So I would take over. I would go over as well, but what about Joutts and Almeida?

One and a half. One and a half. Take downs. Now, it's a three-round fight. If it was a five-round, different ballgame. I'm going more for days. Yeah, I'd take the over-in-man. That doesn't mean, you know, it doesn't mean, you know, just take-down. That's it. Yeah. And by the way, never forget, I mean, Volkov is a little hard to do this on, but

they count Matt returns as takedowns in MMA. So it's a little bit, all I do is just get behind, pick him up, and return him to the mat, and they count that as a takedown. Good point. You know, so we'll see. And when we're talking about. Total significant strikes is the five-round title bite. Tidal bout.

McKenzie Derns, 61.5. More or less. Significant strikes, more or less. 1-15. 61 and a half over five rounds. How many? 61.5 significant strikes. I want to take the less on that.

You know what? Hold on. Let me see that. You said 61 and a half. 65 and a half is the more or less line. 65 and a half. Okay, let's see something. I think she got close to 20 in each round of the first fight. So I feel like you got to take the over that.

Okay, but Janjarova said at 44. and a half so they really they really believe that this will be a so durn averages 3.3 strikes landed per minute uh so for 15 minutes that'd be what 45 plus some change there a lot though it's a lot and they're saying what's the over under 61 and a half durn so that would be over the average for her yeah yeah uh i'll take the under on that i'll take the over on jane drover by three rounds i will take the that's five i'm thinking what you are at 44 and a half for jane roba i'm taking the over there How silly of me. Okay, then I might take the over, yeah.

All right, your boy, Rebunchki, you know? Oh, Mateous? 46 and a half, significant strings. Bro, that motherfucker. Go over for days. He's like, Cam, who's that, who's that, who's the running back for the Giants? Cam Scataboo, Scataboo? Yeah, he's got a good neurologist when his career's over

because the way he fights is just, or the way he competes is just... Well, we have to check back when his career is over in 2007. We'll see what's going on. Wow. Download the draft picks six app right now. gambling problem call 1-800 gambler help is available for problem gambling call 8887-8-9-77 or visit ccpg.org in connecticut must be 18 plus age and eligibility restrictions vary by jurisdiction pick six not available everywhere including new york and Ontario void where prohibited one per new customer bonus awarded as non-withdrawable pick six bonus picks that expire in 14 days limited time off for see terms at pick six dot draftkings dot com slash promos heck yeah all right fellas Let's look at the rest of the card below the main card.

Prelims, early prelims. There's a buffet of decent to interesting options here. As of right now, it looks like the featured prelim will be lightweight Nasra Haqparas against Quillian Sakhiel. What am I doing here? What am I saying? In Salkild. Are those real words?

He's an Aussie. All right. He's an Ozzie. You got to speak Ozzy if you're not. Chuck, when you look at the undercard, you can go in any direction you want. What are you looking at? I don't know. I don't have that in front of me.

And I can't see that. The big ones are going to be Iqram Alaskaroff ticket on Park Jun Yong. That's for Alaskill on Turtle. Alaskaral of much, Alaskarov, excuse me, much more skilled. But that one could be fun for as long as it lasts. As we've already indicated, Klein and Rombetski, that should deliver. I mean, Rombetschi is going to make Klein work for it. You know that super well.

Volter Walker taking on Louis Sutherland. Again, this has got heavyweight fun. As long as it's early, because if it goes, past a round and a half. At flyweight, Azat Maxim taken on Mitch Raposo is a, I've been very impressed by Maxim. Dude, how about Chris Barnett coming back at Heavyweight?

Yeah, I mean, I mean, I know the, I know the, I know the, I know the streets are very, very, very, many streets are, are, they love that, I don't care about that. You were telling me you were a huge Hamdi, Abdel Wahab fan. I've been a fan for a while, you know, I got a poster of my room, but like, this is a tough fight for him. So, who's he fighting? Deep, Chris Barnett, Chris Barnett.

Oh, that's the Barnett. Look, what is Barnett's nickname? Huggy Bear, yeah. And Beast Boy, he's got... Oh, Beast Boy, that's right. Oh, Beast Boy, did. I used to watch him on HDNet back in the day. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

If you guys had to guess who steals the headlines, sorry for touching your half-drinking glass. Who ultimately, who wins UFC 321? Who steals the headlines? Who is the biggest? The referees for doing a bad job. Oh, man. That's a little hanging fruit.

I'm waiting. I'm just waiting. Do you think we get David Shaw or Dana White after? really what we're down to try to pick this? I think Dana has been in Saudi Arabia. That's right. He'll be there. He'll stay there for that. But no, really is this, this is Tom Aspinall's night, isn't it ultimately?

It's set up to be. I think it's set up to be that. If you take him out of the equation, because I mean, that's obviously the big return and all this. What do you got there? Like after you, after Aspenov, you just take that fight of the equation. Who's the... Well, Vena is going to have a moment for herself.

You think so? Yeah, the question, I think also Umar, if he really has a strong performance, and then plays it up, like, Marab, I'm coming for you. That could lead, I think, a lot of, because people want to see Marab tested, whether it's Volkall. I agree. And that has grown so much, even from the first fight, because the fanfare of that was kind of mild. It was at the beginning of this year. And this guy has been on the sideline that whole time, while Marab is now breaking records for title defenses in that same year.

And that might catch up with him eventually. When guys go on these stretches of a lot of fights in short periods of time, sometimes they max out their durability. they mix out a few things in that moment. You know what I'm saying? I hope that doesn't catch up with Marab. He seems, what are we seeing now? He's sparring five to ten rounds the day of fights. Five to ten rounds?

I'm being serious when I say this. Marab is in terms of durability and cardio, Marab is unlike any fighter I've ever covered. I mean, even Poetan finally broke down. Even Poetton broke down. Who was the standard back in the day, Nick or Nate Diaz or something like that? There's nothing that compares to what he's doing right now. I was thinking about this because I did a column right afterwards

and you're like, I really don't know the equivalent to what he's doing. There is none. I've never seen a guy like this. Nothing compares, Chuck, to you. Yeah. I can eat my dinner in a fancy restaurant. Yeah.

Wow. That was a lovely timbre. Yeah, you know, yeah. You know, Luke has been very happy lately. Yeah. I'm really enjoying that. I slip like shit. Maybe it's the tequila.

You know what I mean? Yeah, actually, you know what that tequila is money. It is kind of. It is. This mug is money, man. That is a shit right there. Will you be, like, live streaming your life this Saturday? Hell yeah, dude.

I'll be live for the full card. Also, prop quiz drop in Friday. Might go at MK time, since we have no MK. Yes, who's on this week? I don't like give it away this early. Okay. Why don't, but let me ask you questions. It's like we asked him in Social Security.

Who puts out a fight card without saying what the main event is? That's a fair point. This isn't a fight card. This is prop quiz. Okay. I'm using analogy. No, I'd like to tease it on the Friday. Truth be told, I haven't recorded it yet.

I don't want to jinx it. That's a bad. That is, okay. Chuck, how do you feel about this set up? I mean, paranoia right there. You, you truly are a Colorado and white dad.

I mean, look at this motherfuckers. You like that shit. Those are trout, baby. Are you still rocking with Arnold or what? You don't run. No, it broke. I had to switch. No, I got like a Brooke trial.

I got it's magnetized and I've got like a, you know, there's a green back, green back. Let me have your state trot. This is better than the Kate Spade one. Yeah, yeah, it is better than that. Yeah, a little Jimmy there. Different speckled trout. Even some C-run speckled trout.

We've got all the trout on there, man. I don't care. You know, the Blanco was flowing today, right? I am absolutely. It's good. I'm taking the train home. Yes, yes. Act responsibly.

Meet Virginia. I need to act responsibly. I can't wait too. Right, yeah. I dated a girl who loved, that was that band, Train. Train. Yeah. Meet Virginia.

I'm like. Why don't you get the fuck out of the car? Wow. Wow. All right. Chuck, can you tell us a few things about your life? First and foremost, when was the last time you actively lit a bong, Chuck? Actively?

Yeah. Oh, God. It's been a little while. It has it. It's been a little while. I don't know. Pre your post Columbine. Dude, what the fuck?

I'm looking at it using it as a marker in time. I'm not. Why can't you just say 1999? 1990. Well, it would be post-1999. It was a stressful time. I'll give you that, yeah. Yeah.

Been a long time at home. Dude, we did Monday's MK. And you know how he does? Have you seen this shit? Yes. And every, I was like, who made this? Andrew Tate? Like the list.

It was, dude, I'm not kidding. The first 15 videos. You challenged me to like step it up. So I thought I did. Chuck, the first 15 videos were guys farting in their spouses face. Yeah. Yeah, but then that chick farted on a slice of pizza and that kind of less. And then she ate it.

It didn't happen that kid. All right. Chuck, seen any... He's on point tonight. Chuck, seen any good concerts lately? Concerts. Not too many, but I did... I saw...

You know who hound mouth is? No. Why the fuck would we know that? What about dying... Well, dying fetus? Like, have you known that band, right? I do know dying fetus, yes. Because, yeah...

I played in North Dakota last night. So, yeah, I didn't see that one. I bought concert tickets this week. To see? Cattle decapitation. Oh, my God. Wait, no. Where do they stack up against the...

Dude, cattle is one of my favorite fucking bands. They're awesome. He called them cattle. What's crazy is they probably know them and they want them back to say it. Dude, cattle, the cattle decaditation, better than goat whore. A better band than goat whore. Chuck, who have you seen at Red Rock? Oh, that's a good question.

Oh, shit. Are you serious? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's the last time I was in 90s. On the damn core tour? Yeah. I've seen some... I've only been there a handful of times.

What's the other one? It was Stone Temple Pilots. I saw Stone Temple Pilots and Rage Against the Machine. That's not bad at all. The opener was Cypress Hill and Deftones. Okay, that's a good night out at the concert. Who else did you see there, Chuck? You're having problems.

Yeah, I don't remember. Well, I mean, I used to write about music back in the day. So I saw so many bands that they start to run together. It's almost like we were talking about a podcast praying earlier. Like, they start to all run together at some point. Give me a memorable night. out at the concert. Give me a venue and band where you're just like, that was the fucking night.

I mean, I've seen some really good ones. I saw like the cult one time at the Viper Room when there was probably 50 people in this room. She seeks sanctuary. Is that the cult? Yes, Dana was there? No, he wasn't there, but that's his band. I've seen when I lived in Los Angeles, you'd get invited

to these kind of more exclusive small room, big band type shows. I mean, and those were always fun, man. You ever hit an eyes wide show party afterwards? Pantsless I mean I wore pants but I For a while Did it turn into a Scientology recruitment

This guy man Look at this guy was trying to purge my body themes I went to the sphere with him and saw the Essentially the remnants of the Grateful Dead He saw a few a few songs yeah Well I gotta say That's pretty damn cool experience I saw YouTube I'm not a big U2 fan

But I did see U2 during their stint there It's an experience to go there and check it out I saw you two at MSG They were I like you too like anybody else I mean they're their My wife loves you too So we went to go see

But dude I gotta say if you haven't seen If you haven't seen a show at the sphere It's incredible It's I mean I know everyone's like down on it Because of the I mean I don't know if backstreet boys Is great there

But I would go out of this shit I would do that they've been doing some They've been doing some bands earlier I'm like But do you imagine Metallica there Or tool there or something like that That would be so good It'd be insane

Radiohead there would I'm not gonna go see Fucking Radiohead I'm not gonna go see fucking radio head Fuck you would If somebody gave me a ticket Chuck, do you have a favorite radio head album Are we just too deep in the

In the weeds right now It would be the Pablo Honey one Right like the first one? Yeah Because I mean you don't I don't like all their like What's the one from what Karma police is on That one's good

Okay computer is really good Okay computers Those would be the ones though I don't really like some of the stuff You didn't get into kid A Not really not too much no What's the next concert you're going to? Unscheduled at the moment

Oh yeah okay Cattle decadensation Yeah, that's it Are they coming through They're going to Baltimore, so I have to go see them in Baltimore or Philly. I like how you'll go to Baltimore for, like, the cattle. You don't come to D.C. anymore. That's what I was going to say, though, but like, I've heard you say some bad things about Baltimore in the day.

Well, listen, Baltimore is, uh, it's got nice places to eat, but it's like the backside of my balls. You know what I'm saying? Chuck, you've been, if you will, Chuck, will you, that you've been a part of this show for six plus years. Is that right? The entire existence of this show, you've been a... And yet, I was watching your intro and, you know, I saw you wearing the wig, you know, on the judge himself wasn't that. Do you call the Pube Bickwig? The Merkin?

The Merkin. I saw you wearing the Merkin. Great moment in Donk, in Donk, I forgot about this. Chuck, are you surprised that this tower is still standing? No. Come on. I'm surprised it's not flourishing a little more. I mean, you guys have like now plateaued it somehow.

No, I'm kidding. Okay. But I always fully believe that this show was going places. Yeah. Yeah. all right we're just going to sit here and I had jet fuel theories but I thought maybe we'll just do this to jet

I never stick around for the end of those shows does he do this for Jed? Yeah but at that point he's usually hawking his ambulance chasing law service so we have to kind of come on Friday but you can reach out to this great program at morning combat at gmail.com for your fan subs for your dead wrongs or just to complain about our jokes thank you so much Luke will you be live streaming

things this week? Yes definitely we're going to be doing a watch-along probably for the full main card but certainly for the top three fights and then a post-fight show live YouTube.com slash Ludthomas. Yeah, there it is. That's the home for your great content.

Chuck, where can we find more of your fantastic work? Primarily at uncrowned.com. That's where I've got a bunch of features this week. You know, we've got Umar coming up. I've got something on Jean de Roba. Will you be on the crack? I'll be on the crack on Friday. I'll be on the crack.

I didn't know. I'm sorry. I didn't know it was pronounced crack. I think that's hilarious. What did you think it was? I thought it literally was like crack. And it's like Celtic for like twisted ball bag or something. That's like the Germans pronouncing it.

The Irish pronounce it crack. Crack. Yeah. I just found out about the crackheads. Yeah. Is that what they're called? That's brilliant. That's what he,

that's what Petsy calls him. Crackheads? Yeah. Really? Yeah. Actually pretty cool. That's funny. I hope you've told Pizzi you like him though because for years he was.

I've done it several times. I fucking de-end him. All right. I was like, bro, what are you talking? about thinking loop doesn't like me oh don't you have that big moneyberg feature coming out this week which one moneyberg no that's not that's not me okay okay all right so that got me that was a good yeah yeah yeah we know sometimes you slipped one through right you know that's how a few marriages start yeah he's getting he's getting some airtime these days that's all the jokes we have for today

really sorry if we offended anyone but i hope we fired you up for ufc 321 thank you to our Hollombine, John DeRoba, just a few people. All right, all right. Just a few people. Thank you to Cuervo. Thank you to our fantastic sponsors. Draf King's Total Wireless as well. 321 is this Saturday.

We'll be back on Monday, live and direct inside this studio to break it all down. Ken will be here, Luke, right? We love Ken. Look at that guy. Yeah. Why is he in studio wearing a fur coat? Always, all four seasons. He would make a good mugshot.

This coat is good for this studio. And also Antarctica. Yes. Okay. For Long Island, Luke, the great Chuck Mindenhall of uncrowned and caps everywhere. And for Luke Thomas of D.C., we'll be seeing you. Take care of yourselves. Believe in yourselves.

We ought to here. This is an I-Heart podcast.