MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC 327 Results: Ulberg Beats Jiri | Paulo Costa Resurgence | Hokit-Lewis Added to White House Card

Episode Date: April 13, 2026

UFC 327 is in the books and we have a NEW light heavyweight champion. Carlos Ulberg defied injury to dethrone Jiri Prochazka. We break down what's next for the division, Paulo Costa's big statement win at 205, the instant classic between Curtis Blaydes and Josh Hokit, Cub Swanson turning back the clock, and Aaron Pico's career-defining night against Patricio Pitbull. Plus — reaction to the UFC's White House event renderings, the AI trailer controversy, PFL Chicago results, and big boxing nights from Conor Benn and Tyson Fury.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Visit Don Valley North Lexus for interest rate reductions of up to 3% for lease and finance rates, resulting in lease rates as low as 0.9%. Plus delivery credits of up to $1,500. Only until April 30th. Visit Don Valley Northlexus.com. Revelry, revelry.

Look at this now. Jesus. Oh, 11 a. Yeah. Combat. Oh, there was. You fit in seamlessly in this weird MK environment. Do you want a Margarita?

Your box gets set and go on. I've never believed in mercy, Chuck. Never. Mercy, as they said in Karate Kid, is for the week. Hello, everyone. Welcome, welcome on this. What day is it today? The 13th of April, I should say, a Monday here in 2026.

My name is Luke Thomas. Welcome to another edition of Morning Combat. Yes, indeed. I'm on the road, but the road keeps on going. We have a lot to get to today. UFC 327 reaction, quite a bit to do there. A little bit of PFL, a little bit of a box ao there, Chuck, as well. On the back end of the show, let's set this all up.

As I mentioned, my name is Luke Thomas. I join you not from the capital of 1,000 meters. I'm on vacation out here on the West Coast, joined by my friend and brethren from Connecticut. That's what the hat stands for, I'm sure. It's Chuck Mendenhall. What's up, Iceman? you know how laverne from leverne and shirley had the l on all of her clothing that's what i do i put

c's on all of my clothing just so people know fair enough i'm well man i'm well yeah the weekend was fun a lot of combat sports is doing anything else besides combat sports uh not too much i mean just it was it's a nice kind of low key this weekend you know what i mean not a lot of obligations but i mean there were so many fights on saturday so it felt like i was duty bound to be inside that day which was beautiful on the east coast yeah yeah I skipped most of the fights live. That's not totally true. I caught some of them live, but I caught a bunch of them yesterday.

I had a nice chill day here on vacation. I did the bus tour here in L.A. Oh, yeah? On Saturday. You know those like hop-on, hop-off buses or whatever? Yeah. There's different companies. I do it every new city I go to, whether in the United States or abroad.

I just take the hop-on, hop-off bus. And, dude, it's just a great way to see the city all in one go. Then you find your stop. You get off. It's relatively cheap to do. So I did all of that on Saturday. It was quite a bit. Are you in Los Angeles, Hollywood, or are you like Orange County-ish where you're, I maybe

don't want to disclose. I'm staying in L.A. proper. Okay. All right. I got you. Which is, you know, traffic, it's weird. It's like, oh, this thing we have to go to is only 10 miles away. Estimated time of arrival, 57 minutes.

It's like, why does it take that long? I lived out there a long time. And you just, you just factor that in eventually. Like, you know, anything that's 10 miles is an hour. hour, you know? I'm just going to be a hermit and just stay here. All right, let's get to the third member here of the show who was also a hermit who probably loves L.A. for the marijuana. It's my friend yours. It's Long Island. Luke. What's up, my man? What's up, bro? L.A. does have good weed. I mean, no one can deny. I'm actually disappointed with the weed in New York. I got to be

honest. I mean, why? It's a whole other conversation week. I don't know, man. I don't go to the dispensary that often. And the times I have gone, I felt like the quality just isn't that great. And I'm asking for the expensive shit. I'm like, give me your best shit. And it's a whole thing. And it's, it's it's just not that great but anyways UFC 327 guys was a bang her as BC would say and pretty good card so you know I had a good weekend

I texted with BC over the weekend he's I'm not going to say where but he's on vacation having a good old time yeah and he showed me a picture of his vacation home let me just say this CBS is taking good care of him I'll put it that way I was like yo that's like doing the nicest rental houses

that's awesome man he likes to do that I think Usually it gets like a lakehouse out somewhere, like some rural part, like, but it's cool that he's, it's cool that he does it that way with his family. Yeah, this is not exactly that, but it's pretty close. And he's having a good time. All right, speaking of good times, we got a lot of show to get to here. So you can always reach the show, morningcombat at gmail.com. We will do fan subs later in the show. I'm told there's a gazillion of them.

I look forward to that. We'll, of course, also do DMs with donks. And let's see, we got merch, morningcombat. Dot shop morning combat dot shop you can get the root beer design the donkin design or the mkat tv design or you can get the poster the about about it luke baka poster there morning combat dot shop these are only available until the end of the month and of course you can catch us on socials in various spots there as well on your screen all right chuck without further ado i think we should get this party started no let's do it all right let's go topic number one if we can get this going the ufc 327 of

event is in the books, which means, of course, that main event is in the books. And what a weird, I mean, it just wouldn't be a Yuri Prohawk fight if it just wasn't weird, Chuck, in some kind of a way. So let's sort of set this up. Carlos Olberg suffers, we didn't exactly know in real time what it is, subsequent estimates or, or, you know, from afar, examinations by doctors indicate it's probably an ACL tear. We'll look at some of just a minute. But Carlos Olberg overcomes this. knee injury to his right leg to become the new UFC light heavyweight champion. He stops Yuri Prohachka in the first freaking round. Chuck is the story of this fight, the mindset of Alberg to fight through injury and stay on his game or the approach from Yuri Prohachka,

which he claims was an abundance of mercy. How do you understand why that fight went the way that it did? He needs to study under Pietro Yan who's like, what is his no mercy? Like that's his moniker right? Yeah. Hell yeah. I mean, I mean, that's got you got to kind of have that mindset. But I honestly, I lean towards giving this, you know, the metal that Carlos Oldberg had to kind of show to get through this. Because there were multiple times before that setup, before the whole sequence ended it, where he just couldn't put his weight on that leg. Like, he would go back in a natural movement and realize, oops, it's compromised. And that's, you know, when they talk about your back against the wall and the sports analogies and all that sort of thing, we're watching it in real time.

because if that fight survives the round even, my guess is that his corner was going to stop it or he just wouldn't be able to answer the bell. You could see that it was completely compromised. So I put it more on Oldberg, even though I think that, you know, Uri did exactly what he, what Carlos was hoping he might do,

was kind of rush in and take that shot, just to have the mindset to kind of set up because he went to the fence too, you know, where it's kind of, if you've watched Uri's fights, and I know you've done a lot of this, you know that he's going to come in. it didn't seem to me like he was playing no mercy in his mind as he went in for that kill. But you could look at it from the Uri point of view and be like, well, he came in and he got

clipped and this is kind of how Uri fights. But man, to dig deep in a situation like that, it did remind me a little bit with bigger stakes because this one obviously for a title. But the Chuck Liddell versus Rich Franklin fight when Rich had broke his forearm from a kick, blocking a kick, and then he knocked him out with his offhand with five seconds left in the first round. it had a little bit of shades of that where you're like, wow, man, like in a fight where you have to adapt that quickly and you're able to get something that big in that moment,

that'll stay with you for a long time. So I see it from the Oldberg perspective, I think. Yeah, I don't, can I be honest? I don't know how much I buy the Uri perspective. I mean, there was a moment after he hurts him, right, where he is, you can see him like flexing. Do you remember that part of the fight? He was like, raw, you can see.

He's like, you can see he thinks he sees the end in sight. And he points to the canvas, right? Like he's like, he's done the whole thing. Yeah. And it's like at one level, I guess he was right. He did see the end coming, just not the end that he thought he was going to see. But the point I'm trying to make is you can tell that he saw what we all saw, which was this guy's compromised and he was a sitting duck. And probability wise, that typically means that the guy who's injured is going to be the one who's going to suffer a bad result here.

So he like, I do think that he internalized. But the idea, Chuck. that this is a thing he would have done rather than this. Yeah. But for that, I got to tell you, I don't buy this. I mean, I know I go back and forth with Jed about this kind of a thing. And I want to just make this point here because I think it's important. This is why I'm super down, which we all should be down with the idea of Yuri being a weird guy, a cool weird guy, but a weird guy.

Right. And we talked about this, like those guys that make MMA just kind of function the way that it's supposed to function. I'm going to be a little out of focus here. But the reality is now you're seeing the limit of what this kind of approach to fighting can do. It's a recipe to give fights away that you have at the one yard line. It's a recipe for not having the kind of fine-tuned ability to close out an injured opponent. This is what I mean when I say, like, yeah, I want him to keep his personality, Chuck.

But I don't want him to just succumb to his base instincts to just feel his way through a fight rather than taking a disciplined approach. Yeah, I'm with you on that, man. And, you know, the leg kicks that were going on in that fight, right? Like, Oldberg was already, his lead leg was getting his comp. His lead leg was getting beat up. And you realize if he just kind of plays that game a little more, the fight's going to end. I mean, it's just there was no way that Carlos was going to be. be able to stand, especially if all of a sudden his lead leg can't support him either.

There was only one scenario. And I said this to my son. I was watching it with my son as it was going on. I'm like, oh, he just has to knock him out. Like we know his knee is, we know Carlos's knee is compromised. He just has to knock him out. I was kidding around because, you know, that's not a likely scenario. So when it happens, and I mean, you listen to the broadcast and they're just like,

it's all doomsday, right? Like this fights over. Carlos is in trouble. And then boom, just like that, it's, it's, it's, not and I think that that's one of the dimensions that I think that the UFC has to love about Yuri in the sense that he's not going to coast to anything. He's always going to be in a fight. I mean, most of his fights, right, like have gone, they've, they've all been finishes on either him or the guy he's facing. So we shouldn't be surprised. That outcome shouldn't be surprising.

It was just that he was that close. And, you know, in a human sense, he was this close to realizing something that he had tried twice before. He's in the third spot, which is very difficult to get back there again, and he blew it. You know what I mean? Like he blew his moment where he could have actually been a champion in the sport, again, like got back to where he wanted. And now he's, I don't know if he gets back.

If he does, it's because of attrition where there's just not enough contenders. But dude, it's just a tough look to come back from that. Well, here's the thing you have to wonder now. Is he going to get back there, Chuck, because they don't have anybody else. And over, if he tore his ACL, he could be out a year. Yeah. That's what I mean. These are the factors, right?

Like, now you've got these factors involved that you're like, do we say, do you shut the door on Yuri so quickly? I mean, the bottom line is he can, he can play the card, which he's doing, which is, you know, I had mercy and, you know, he's going to have regrets. And maybe the UFC will see some value to that and say, like, well, you get another mulligan. We're going to, like, Uriah Faber you back into a title shot. We're going to keep you going until we can't give you anymore.

But you're right, man. like, who do you put in there? Like, honestly, who do you put in there if they have to do an interim right now? If it's not Yuri, there's Uncleyev sitting there, which we know that the UFC is not anxious to basically stick back into that situation. And then who? I mean, it kind of drops off. You've got guys like Paula Costa who showed up and made a good debut.

Do they just kind of squint and put him in that position? They're in a, that's a little bit of a, you know, it's a problem, I think, if they want to run an interim title. Yeah, there's simply, there's simply no question. it creates some really weird complications. I mean, I want to talk about the Carlos Oldberg. We've been kind of speaking about the theory side if you think. But the Carlos Olberg side, dude, he had a really, really quiet fight week. There was that one interaction he had with Josh Hokit, who was like a black hole for media.

And, well, I mean, it's true, right? I mean, all the attention was on him. I mean, you know, for worse, it definitely was on him. And, you know, Olberg just had like nothing going into this fight whatsoever. I'm partly by choice, partly by the way. the circumstances work, and then he has this terrible stroke of luck, essentially, in the fight, only to overcome it and win. What can you say about Carlos Oberg?

He's had a really, you know, you look at his UFC run. It's not without blemish. He lost years ago to Kennedy and Zishku, but, like, yeah. You know, he's been doing pretty commendable work. He wins a UFC title. How do you evaluate his all-time ability, if such you can, and what this rise kind of means? There was a moment. So he came out kind of fast, and I think that people were identifying him.

Like, he could be a problem in the division. He had a couple of chaos early, and he was putting together a nice streak. But then he had those kind of, I wouldn't say they were duds. They were just, it felt like he didn't seize the moment. And I think the fight was a, was a Blohovic. He was like, Blochich, and then he fought Ozdemar, I think. It was a couple of back-to-back fights. Yeah.

But they were decisions, and they were kind of lacklesser. There were moments when you're like, hey, man, you need to go in there and have a slam dunk if you want to fight for a title. And he didn't really do. that. But then in his last fight against Reyes, he kind of reverted back to that form. So I wasn't sure what to expect here, but I do think the fact that he, you know, there's a dramatic kind of escalation to this story, you know, overcoming that type of thing. This was the big moment for him, right? Like he's losing the fight and it looks like he's certain, like, I mean, if you're like,

you know how in basketball and baseball, they'll put the live, not the live odds, but the percentage winning, like what you're supposed to be like 99.9% that he's going to lose that fight. at this point, right? Yeah, yeah. And he somehow pulls it out. I think that that's going to go a long way for him and make people watch. But I mean, 10 fights in a row, right? In the UFC, I believe it is.

And that division is very tough to do. So regardless, if you don't think that he's the same fabric of like previous champions who, you know, obviously have bigger resumes and they've had bigger fights, I think that he's, it's warranted to look at him and be like, okay, he deserves to be here. But there are conditions. He's 35 years old. by the time he comes back from this ACL, he'll be 36, man. And that type of thing is like, I don't know what kind of run to expect from a guy like this,

but the fact that he had this moment, I think, is maybe where we should focus the celebration on him. Yeah, I think it's a good way to put it. I mean, I was thinking about his game, because you mentioned those two fights that were a little bit more lackluster. And I think I have a theory about this. I want to see what you think about it. Namely, it seems to me, Chuck, that, you know, it's not a question of like, is all we're good or bad. he's obviously quite good but it's a question of like where the limits exist and for me if you've got the kind of game where you leave defensive openings a guy like olberg is just going to feast all over

you know he's real good about finding little little you know windows in which to attack someone who's defensively liable and so in that sense a guy like yiri is a bad matchup for it's a bad for Yuri, I should say. On the other hand, a guy like Blahovic or even Uzdemeur to an extent, sure. They've got better boxing defense. So what I'm trying to point out is, I don't know that Olberg is the kind of guy to like create openings and then take advantage of them. He's more the kind of opportunist who waits for it to be there on a plate and then he snatches it. Right. That's kind of what he does. So like in retrospect, it's like, dude, this was a terrible matchup. I know. That's what I thought exactly what I thought when it was, you know, is you're absorbing what

just happened. You're like, well, I mean, that's what you say it on a platter. That's what it was. This was on a platter. And if you look at the previous one, right, against Reyes, it was sort of, not that it was that dramatic, but it was a guy who was going to leave him that, that moment. He was going to leave his chin out there. And, you know, it was going to be a moment for him.

You're absolutely right. It's hard to style on guys like Ozedimir, you know, we've seen, he's been in so many fights, very wily, veteran and, and same with yawn. I just think that when Old, when Oldberg was coming up, personally, I kind of discounted through those points because it's like you had this.

I guess we were trying to establish him as like a knockout artist of the guy who's like the savage finisher. And that kind of cooled everything down. But I think you just said it perfectly. If he fights a guy who's more strategic and going to force him to play their game a little more, I'm not sure he gets this result. I think that's just about right. Let's take a look real quickly of this. What is this doctor's assessment we have? So this is from Byron Sutterer. Now, this is not a person who has evaluated Carlos Olberg specifically, but he is making an estimation based off a series of, you know, how the body moves here and, you know, his own medical understanding. He says, quote, the tibia shifts forward from the ACL being torn.

And then the calf rippling is when the tibia shifts back. This was a crazy moment, Chuck. Yeah. And I got to say, like, you know, if you watch, I went back and I paid attention to like the face that Oldberg was making after it happened. And there was a little bit of frustration on it, but he mostly. stayed pretty cool about it. I got to say like, you know, fairly, pretty fucking impressive

championship medal when it really counted. That's, and I think that's what's, you know, you've got to give him those kudos, right? Because in the end, he's dealing with something he knows and he has to process immediately, like not just, okay, wait a second, my leg is compromised, what is my plan be or how do I survive this, but also

probably a quickly dawning idea that if I don't finish this fight, he knew his knee was blown out, obviously, because there's no mistake. stake in something like that. If I go to even to the end of the first round, this fight is probably over. So, I mean, it's one of those situations. I do believe that some people are really, really, they're built to be in that fire like that. I will give him that 100% because I saw the same thing. I went back and watched the whole thing this morning. And you could just see the resolve. I mean,

he was just like, all right, this is the situation. I have to battle through it. He's got that quiet resolve. I think that we've seen that from him in general. Like you mentioned, didn't say a lot during fight week. I think he's one of those guys in the Whitaker sense, right? Like a guy who's just quietly a warrior and he's just going to keep fighting. And to me, that was very admirable, that he was able to do that. But, you know, we'll see kind of, it's so unfortunate because it reminds me a little bit of the pan, even though he walked away with the belt, it reminds me of the Pantosia situation where now you have this,

you know, this kind of, I don't know, like, like this injury that he's going to be sidelined for so you can't capitalize anything. And so like Pantoja, who was going, like he lost his title, but he, we're in a moment where you're almost ready to kind of celebrate him, but you can't, you can't even get the rematch. You can't get it back until he's healthy. That part's unfortunate. We know how this sport moves, man, and it will move on pretty deeply from where we are right now, talking about Carlos Oldberg to the time he comes back. Let me see here on the list of things. Let's look at these quotes from Yeri, if we can, and how he kind of absorbed everything.

Quote, my stupid mercy in the fight, and it cost me this fight. I would like to fight a rematch because that was my fight. That was my fight, and I just gave him this opportunity to catch me. Big apologies to everyone who support me. Let's see the other one here. He says, quote, if this is the part to be the best, I take it. Mercy was out of place and this part of myself I need to destroy in the cage for sure. No excuses.

I lost the focus. He catched me. One more time. Apologies everyone for my performance. It is inevitable to be stronger than ever. See you soon. Let's go back home. See the miracle of life, strength, honor.

Okay. Yeah. I mean, if I'm the UFC, I don't, I'm not necessarily shying away from putting him back in there just by virtue of the fact that you just don't have a lot of great options. Right. But to me, of all the ways for Yuri to lose, you thought he would lose like a cumulatively over time by making a series of mistakes. But I want to say one last thing. Do you think, okay, so part of the reason that Yuri is able to have success in the way he does, Chuck, is because. he had durability. Yeah. Any questions about whether that durability is beginning to fade a little? It was a nice shot he got caught with. Yeah.

Yeah. For a year, you mean, like so, yes. That's, I mean, it is kind of the,

I feel like when, especially when tape is out on these guys a little bit, and you kind of understand their tendencies. And you've got coaches now who just break things down so well, know exactly what these guys will like to do. That's a problem, right? Like,

I'm pretty sure that Oldberg knew that he could catch him, even in that moment, you know? And so the durability becomes more of like, are people catching something? Can I add anything? Can I, like, deceive some of my movements? Or can I just exercise restraint, honestly? And I don't think so, man.

I don't think that's really who he is. We were talking about his, you know, the samurai code stuff and like where he comes from and him not wanting to play defense and those type of things. And I mean, here we are. This is the kind of result you're going to get from it. But I will say this, Luke, you tell me, like he's using the word murder.

He may have felt some kind of sympathy for the guy in the moment. Like he might have been like, oh, this sucks for him. He's compromised. But I didn't see it in the fight. I watched it again today. It looked to me like, I mean, you don't rush in like that unless you're trying to finish the fight. I think like mercy seems like maybe the wrong word that he's fishing for here. I mean, it seems like mercy maybe, if that is what he felt, mercy in the form of changing what weapons you were going to use.

Yeah. And therefore, hesitating or taking a little bit long. longer or going a different route to do it than you would have normally. You know, to me, I think it's more like let my guard down maybe is the best way to think about that. But I'm not exactly sure. What's before you move on, I mean, like, is there, who would you, if you had to do an interim, I was looking at the rankings this morning. I mean, if you had to put together an interim title, say in four months, because because let's face it, Oldberg, if it's a, if it's ACL, which we all

think it is, he will not be back in 2006. So it's like, who do you put? put in there in that spot you know who i know's got a good answer for this let's hear from long island luk long island who do you put in there all right it's not the sexiest matchup but hear me out here yam blahovitch boggden guskov are fighting i think what next next payper view in may it's a rematch if blois which wins that you could do the bloishevian uncle i have rematch they did fight to withdraw the first time again and then they were pushed to side yeah not the sexiest matchup but that's like merri marocratically is that the word i don't i don't know meritocratically whatever that yeah that's the way to do it you know some people are saying

roundtree uncle i which i think is a sexier matchup but roundtree is just coming off the loss to yearies isn't blovich coming off of like a bunch of draws and losses he just drew against bogden but they're running it back if he beats bogden now you can justify it let me tell you you know what it could be i don't like any of those answers well i'm going to try to correct this i didn't say they were good i'm just saying they're there man i mean i want to be clear i don't have better answers i just don't like those. I mean, in the sense that Paulo Costa's timing is right to kind of emerge on the on the scene here, what if Hamza, you know, gets through Strickland and he really wants to make that leap? Now all of a sudden, you've got, you've got a red carpet into that division, don't you?

Like, you could be like, all right, I'm going right in there and I'm going to win. Even if it's interim right away, like, I'm going to win that right away, right? Dude, that is such a great point. This, I hadn't even thought about that. This could be his ticket. You know what I mean? Now, the thing is, it's not just about beating Strickland. But if he goes in there, let's say thrashes Strickland, to the point where you're like, I don't really know who can beat this guy. He, wow, I had not even considered that. But doesn't it seem like because if you just went through the unsexy things that I can do. You're right.

And that is sexy, Chuck, but do you really give Paulo Costa a chance against Hamzot? Like, I'd rather stylistically, Ancolaev against Hamzot is way more like, whoa, maybe Uncleav could get it done. Yeah. So, I don't know. That one doesn't intrigue me as much. but it is a fan-friendly matchup. Dude, you're so right, Chuck. Wow.

We're going to have to, I mean, the other part, too, though, is like, as the UFC, do they really want, I mean, with how unfucking reliable this guy is and how infrequently he competes, how much they want him to drop a title, then go get another one. That is a good point. That is a good point. As soon as he won the belt he has, I was like, well, you're going to see him once a year. I mean, there's just too much compensation in the booking process.

I told you this. I remember when Dean Thomas said that on Mike Bond's podcast. Yeah. Like, you know, all the aggregators pulled it of him being like, yeah, you're never going to see how I'm not defend this. And then everyone yelled at Dean and I'm like, dude, this is why you need old dudes who, you know, speak their mind in fight sports. Because they'll tell you things that the rest of the fan base doesn't want to hear and they're usually right. All right. Yeah.

Topic number two. Let's discuss the rest of that UFC 327 main car truck will go. Speaking of the eraser, Bahaschina, talk about the domain event now. So Paul Acosta gets, I mean, I would argue his biggest win in freaking years at this point. He stops Osamat Mirzikanov in the third round. So let's ask a very basic question. How much of a player at heavyweight can he actually be? Well, I would have guessed that this was, I mean, we talked about this in the pregame.

I was like, I thought that this was more of a setup, you know, for Merzacanov to get across. I was like, they're giving him a guy who has some juice, you know, like the secret juice. But like he's got like a little bit of a mojo. He's going up. It's going to, you know, a co-main event at this point. It seemed like a perfect setup for Merzokanov to get over on a larger scale to the fan base who maybe doesn't pay attention to him. And instead, you know, the thing that stands out is he's an undefeated guy that Costa, and Costa looked huge in this fight. He looked like such a natural fit for this division.

Comes in there and not only wins the fight, but he looked like he was huffing air. Like he just couldn't catch his breath in the second round. I was like, this is just a typical cost of fight. He's going to fade down the stretch. It reminded me a little bit for a few moments of that Salt Lake City fight he had with Rockhold. Comes in. I don't know what happened in between rounds and the third round. He gets that head kick like a series of them and he's able to put him away.

That was just, it was unexpected. There was a lot of unexpected. That's why this card ended up being such a big deal in the end. Like there was so many crazy twists and turns to the outcomes in this fight. But I didn't see this coming, Luke. I thought for sure that Costa was. going to go in there and be shown that, you know, 205 was not going to be his weight class. But instead, with the timing and everything else, he gets a big win against a guy who was,

what, ranked fifth or sixth in that division. And suddenly he's now thrust into the mix of the title shot, I would think. I actually think he can be a player, but with a very limited way of understanding that. Namely, I think he's gotten a lot better. He beats Kavulov and he beats Mursikonov back to back. And he beat up Koppelov and, you know, Mersakanov obviously got stopped. And Morsikonov, you know, obviously put up a better, I think a better fight than Love did. But those are twins back to back if I, if we're being honest.

However, what I would say is I like the will understand a weight class change as truly impactful is if you can imagine their ceiling being higher in a different weight class. Now, that can be a few reasons why you can imagine a ceiling being higher. So, for example, if one division is a lot easier than another division, that is a contributing factor. But the point I'm trying to make is just on the talent side from 85 when he was trying to go up against Izzy to now being a 205 to go up against, I mean, I don't know if it's going to be Oldberg or whatever. You know, I don't think his chances are really that. I mean, Olberg is not Izzy. But what I'm saying is in 2026, I don't think his chances of getting a title at 205 are necessarily any high. higher now. An interim title is maybe an interesting

one, so I might walk it back a little bit in that sense. But I don't think he's revolutionized his game to the point where you can think differently of it. However, is he taking advantage of a moment in time where he is a little bit better and there's some better matchups and there's some openings

at 205 that a guy like him can exploit? Yeah, yeah, there might be a little bit to that. I do think in that sense he can maybe, you know, did it make sense to leave 85, Chuck, and go to 205? think that it did yeah yeah me too we do looking at merzikanov how big of a disappointment was that i mean i felt like the dude was finally getting some some buzz under his name and you know a big spot like for him to go in there and maybe to you know punch his ticket this would have been a if he wins this

fight obviously we're if we're talking about an interim title we're mentioning him first and foremost instead it felt like a 16 fight win streak ended with a thud to me well here's the thing so if you go back to the copulov fight one of the things that copulov also stood open stance so they're you know yeah the the rear the rear shoulder and the rear leg of ones doing all the power stuff and copulov just kind of stood in front of costa and costa is just going to win a battle of power in that way or if you're just dueling like that and you thought okay well merza khanov bounces you know he bounces he's getting in he's quicker and then you i think you did see some evidence of that kind of early but then as the fight wore on he just got flat-footed

And then when he got flat footed, it's like, dude, this is the copy law fight all over again. And sure enough, that's when he got blasted out. So it's like, you know, this is why I was trying to tell people. It's like, dude, this is why you see people like Volk think very long and hard about circling opponents, making them turn, making the opponent follow them, making the opponent try to catch up with him as he resets the terms and resets the angles versus just standing here. And yeah, sure, I'm moving a little bit, but I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not, positioning myself through the octagon, it just becomes a very different fight. And, uh, and, and Paulo Costa, if you're not moving on him and you're not changing angles on him, he, he, he's powerful. He can do powerful things, you know.

He did. I mean, he looked huge for that class. I was a little surprised by that. I thought that the size advantage to the eye at least would look in Merzaccom's favor. That was a little, the optics of that were a little surprising to me. Yeah. They were a little bit surprising to me. as well. Not that Mursa Kahnov is a big one necessarily. Put the picture back up. You may have already put it. I may have missed it, but there it is. Again, there's a

head kick and he just kind of followed him up. But to your point, look at this. I mean, if you had to look at these two and be like, who's the natural 205 or you would have picked Costa in this particular case. It's wild. All right. Let's get to what is, I mean, just one of the most insane fights you'll ever see. Josh Hokit,

defeating Curtis Blades via unanimous decision, which is a fair call in my judgment. Blades certainly making a strong account of himself, Chuck. But let's just ask this. Was Blades versus Hocat fight of the year? Man, it's crazy that we're having this conversation after everything we've been talking about with the heavyweights and then all of a sudden we're talking about a fight of the year candidate.

Kind of out of nowhere. And it's surprising in the sense that Curtis Blades would be involved in this. But it has to be considered because of that. I think that you have a guy, I mean, it almost feels like he has a death wish, right? like the Hokit to go in there and to fight that way. Like you're going in there. He goes in there. He's just throwing hands. He's moving forward. He gets, you know, he gets to the knockdown. He has a speed advantage and we're thinking this could end.

But what it ends up doing in the end was dragging out Curtis blades, stuff inside his best in terms of like his own metal, kind of getting him up, returning fire, you know, hurting Hokka. And then once that happened, this felt like, okay, this is wild. But did you not think that it would only last a round? if it could go that pace. I was like, if it's going this pace, there's just no way it goes,

you know, this thing will be dead. These guys would be dead on their feet by a minute into the second round. The fact that, and I know they kind of were, they obviously were very, very tired as they went on, but the fact that they just continued to try to keep a pace and were able to, especially after watching guys

like Twy Vasa, who couldn't even throw the last punch to end it at the end of his fight, was just wild theater to me. I mean, just the fact that they could keep that kind of pace, and I know it wasn't exactly the same as first, but just to keep going at each other for that amount of time, 15 minutes,

that was unique. Could you, what would you put this? Like, is there another heavyweight fight that you can remember where it was that back and forth? Because usually, if you take some big shots from the big boys, somebody's going down, but these guys were able to just keep going. So it was Mark Hunt Bigfoot Silva in Australia,

which was. Oh, that's a great call. Jesus. Which is, um, but that that one to me is better for a couple of reasons. not least of which is that one went five rounds that's right yeah you know and you're talking about guys not getting me both of them got hurt in that fight real bad but like that one was dude i remember i'm not even doing a bit this is a true story when bigfoot fought mark hunt i had i remember in round four i was watching through my fingers bro i've been watching fights a long time and i was like i can't i can't kill each other they're fucking killing each other you know i forgot man jesus

this is this was a three round version of that but that one still is kind of the king for me Yeah, and man, remember Dana had a shirt made up and everything for that fight, by Roots of Fight, like, designed them. It's very specific shirt. I mean, that is a classic. So I guess we have seen something like this before, but the way of the heavyweight division had been rolling. You know, over the last bunch, and I cited this, I did a column at Yahoo on this, but we had some evidence, I mean, some fights that you, like, suffered through.

There were heavyweight fights recently, and I think that that's the thing that, there's like a lower expectation on these fights. So I think when Hokit goes in there, and especially because he raises his own profile, right, by saying he draws all the attention, all the scrutiny to, it all comes in on him, and he goes in there and puts on that kind of fight.

I think that willingness and that kind of zaniness and him flipping them off 50 times. And also kind of, even when he staggered, you know, he does a little dance out of the staggering motion, you know, just hamming it up.

There was something entertaining about it, too. Like, as dangerous, as a minefield as it felt because there were multiple times where he was hurt, but yet he still seemed to be having a good time in there, and therefore the fans were having a good time. That part of it was just like, it was like nothing I'd seen. You know, it was just you don't usually see that kind of, you know, I don't know, like playfulness in a fight like that.

Yeah. Well, Hulk is an interesting guy now because, I mean, I'm going to say one thing for upfront. Number one, it is true that bringing wrestlers to MMA, like collegiate wrestlers, for example, to MMA is not necessarily as valuable as it once was. The game's gotten better. Best practices have gotten better.

It doesn't confer the same kind of advantages that it once did. But to me, it's not an accident that you had two wrestlers who had a fight of the year, two guys who wrestled collegially, one at a pretty high level. Like the idea that we wouldn't need them anymore because the game is just kind of evolved to me is really not true. Like, Hokit's a good athlete. He's a very good athlete. And he's not even competing in the right weight class, Chuck.

I mean, he's doing this because it's easier for him, I think. Right. It doesn't have to cut weight and like, look at how, look it. Like he's the guy went from unranked and beating number five. You know, that like that just shouldn't happen in a real division. You know what I mean? Yes. That kind of thing just shouldn't happen.

So it just kind of tells you the advantages. If you're a good athlete and you got a hard-nosed kind of style, which he does, you can go pretty far with it. That's number one. Number two, you know, I, like, it's like Josh, buddy. The comedy sketch is not really. working for me if I can be honest you know I don't think I'm impressed that you memorize that poem and he's still like he wasn't concussed like

I was surprised he was able to recite something like that yeah after that but anyway go ahead well I was just going to say yeah it's quite quite impressive that he had the wherewithal to do that in that sense but at the same time it's like dude if you're going to fight like this you don't have to worry about doing

dumb shit later you know what I mean you can just do that and the fans are going to fucking love you and it I want to be clear about something. If you watched Jokin's other fights, he didn't have blades in front of him. But this is how we fought those guys, too. Took the fight right to them immediately.

He just broke those guys. He couldn't break, fully break anyway. He couldn't break Curtis. But I'm like, Chuck, I mean, like, Kobe Covington was explicit that he did that whole Maka gimmick because he was concerned about his job security. If you fight like Josh Hocke, I don't think you need to be too worried about your job security.

Right? especially in that division unless they plan on it eventually just shuddering it up but i'm like in that division we have been having all these conversations and at some point you're saying they need somebody to come in there and you know breathe some life in it now they did also announce uh gable steveson would be you know signed into uc and would be fighting in international fight week so that so there was like this extra layer of hey heavyweight starting to like have something movement some movement again but i think that you know you're right i think that him just kind of going in there and saying like I'm going to leave it all out.

Even I think he was willing to get knocked out, obviously. Like I don't think that you're worried about your self-preservation and, you know, kind of, you know, that sort of thing. I think he just trusts his instincts to go in there and take it, take the fight to whoever he's fighting and he'll come out on top. We'll see how that plays out that. This has never been a sustainable style in the history of the MMA. But it at least temporarily gave us something to talk about in the heavyway.

division and honestly like they're playing it right i don't know if he should be right back into a fight two months later after a 15 minute war like that um with derrick lewis but it's the right opponent for him like you know what i mean like he's going against a hard hitting guy um who's on the older side and it could be another moment where a hoke it's able to go in there and do what he wants to do that's probably the right call before you start sticking him against guys who may solve that really easily yeah we'll talk about that portion of the conversation when we get to the White House side of things because there is a whole other kind of discussion around that.

But certainly you're right. It's all of a sudden there's a little bit of life left or injected into a heavyweight. And where did it come from? Chuck, it came from, at least on the talent side. It came from the wrestling side of things. I don't think it's really an accident.

Let's talk about Curtis Blades here for a second if we can. I mean, he got jacked up. We have a tweet here about his injuries from Mike Bond. Curtis Blades suffered a fractured orbital bone, excuse me, and fractured nose in his fight with Josh Hokit. he has been released from my Miami hospital is going to be heading back to Colorado I mean I give

Curtis Blades all the credit in the world he looked messed up at the end of that I don't I honestly I'm not sure if he's going to be all right after this because he definitely he showed tremendous metal Chuck but enough that it prolonged the fight such that it might really mess him up from here on out it's worth

paying attention to yeah and we've seen this before remember Robbie Lawler's like kind of rule and it like so it was just like a butcher shop every well-to-weight fight was like oh like taken years off each of his life that's what this was like you're right i don't know i i certainly don't think that critters of blades will ever want to be in a war like that again um if he if you come back from it in any kind of normal state because i didn't realize that he had the orbital but his nose was so smashed up and it just seemed like it was like a fist getting rammed into like

a you know a pulp you know after a while because it was just there was just so much blood on his face. And you knew his nose had to be shattered. Just looking at it, you're like, that nose can't. It's got to just be shattered. And that takes a long time to come back from. And also the mental kind of aspect of that, it starts to wear on you at a certain age

where you're like, how many more of these do I want to do? You know what I mean? And we've seen this with other fighters in the past, too. I don't think you wanted to do it this time either. It's just that dude, Hoke it forced to him. It seems like this, like, I'm not going to let this you know this this guy with this hick-stick you know bard thing come in here and uh and beat me i mean

it literally felt like he's digging deep saying like i'm not going to let this guy beat me and he he damn near won the fight i mean it was close it was it was actually a very close fight in the end um but that's what happened but it's just that type of thing like what he what he feels like right now on monday morning as we're talking it's not good man i'm sure his he's uh you know regretting some of his life choices this morning you know he probably feels like a bag of a bonus though yeah he did get the bonus so maybe that will help for sure it can't it can't hurt but jesus christ that's a that's a tough way to make a hundred k let me tell you that yeah um i don't know are is there anything to say about

dominic rayas and johnny walker what the fuck was that i don't even want to talk about it yeah that's what that's all that's to be said you know it's kind of funny it's like oh this guy's chinny this guy's i know surely this will result in a vicious k and in fact it was like both guys being like I'm not touching shit. I mean Long Island Luke what was the line on the under like it was 1.5 rounds right what was the line on it? So I had Fight Does Not Go

the Distance and that was like minus 375 something like that. Wow. Only bet I missed on the main card though. Oh you had the bet so like as they're not throwing punches for the first five minutes you what are you thinking? So I had it parlayed with Fight Does Not Go the distance in Swanson Land Weir so that hits

and I'm like guys this is cash and easy. We just need this point. Yeah, and pretty much five minutes in, Chuck. I was like, this is bad. And then they show the significant strike stats. And I'm like, holy shit, they're throwing single digits in each. Like, this is worse than I thought watching it. Yeah.

That's a little bit what Allberg happens when he gets against the guy with good defense. You just can't, you know what I mean? He can't quite crack the walnut a little bit. Yeah. Not to revisit that, but just so the point I'm making. I don't even know what to say. I mean, it's like, okay, you know, Reyes gets the win. Great.

You know, I don't know what, I don't know what it's supposed to mean. I'm not saying they won't have good fights. I'm not saying they won't have wins, Chuck. It's really not my point. Yeah. But this didn't do anything for anybody. That fight was so bad that it, like this, this fight card would have been, maybe been one of the best they've had in years in some ways.

Like if you look at just the way things played out, but that one fight balanced it out just enough where it's like you can't make that claim. One fight. Not only that. We didn't even mention it was kind of a robbery, too. Like I thought Johnny Walker clearly won that fight. and they gave the knot to Dom Reyes. That was, yeah.

I started watching TikTok reels. I don't blame you. I don't blame me. The fans lost. I thought, I actually, I agree with you, though, with Long Island. I did think that Walker won the fight, but for whatever that's worth, it wasn't much of a fight. Yeah. All right.

And then last but not least on this main card, Chuck, Cub Swanson, what can you say? Dude looked absolutely phenomenal. Stopping Nate Land, we were in the first, dropping him several times, as a matter of fact, and then polishing him off there at the end. what can we say about this performance and then ultimately Swanson's career at this point? I mean, to me, this is the best way you can possibly go out because the way he looked was that he could keep going, right? And I think that this is always our, like when we watch guys who start to fade, they start to diminish and they show it. But you get a guy in there who's just basically sniping, you know, his opponent, landing everything, putting his hands down too, just kind of like walking through.

I think Long Island was saying before we started taping it was almost like he didn't want it to end because he's just teeing off on the dude. I mean, and I have no idea what land wears. I have no idea what he was. Was this the David Onama kind of like playbook of saying like, I'm just going to take a 10-8 in the

first round, then I'll come back. I don't know what his plan was, but dude, he did not put up much resistance in that fight. It was a great slam dunk in for a guy Cub Swanson who I think goes down as just that kind of fighter man, just maybe a largely unsung but always game.

And I mean, pretty consistently thrilling fight. Like I was cage side for that fight in Toronto with Du Ho Choi, where that fight now would belong, like they inducted it into the Hall of Fame. And I just remember the crowd, I've been to some really good fights like that, but like the crowd, every punch that was thrown as that fight went down the stretch

was just like a roar. So, I mean, he was one of those guys, right? Like brought people out of their seats, turned sometimes a like a fight that maybe doesn't hold the public's interest into something of a live event when he was doing it, a lot of heart, a lot of metal, a lot of guts. And he went on

on his terms. I can appreciate that. Yeah, man. I mean, he did not leave the fight game on his hands and knees. He left his opponent on his hands and knees. And I think that tells you everything you need to know about, and I said this before a billion times. Like you, obviously we know we didn't win the title, but you know, the kind of guy who has the

respect of his peers, A technician, certainly by the end of his run, I think is a great way to be fair to him. And, you know, a credit to the fight game. These kinds of guys, Chuck, these are the glue that hold fandom together. Big time. I really believe that. You need Cubs Swanson's out there. You can't just have, oh, this guy was champion, that guy was champion.

There's more to it than that. And these guys make, they give it, they give MMA fandom the color and the brightness it's supposed to have. Yeah, man. You know what? I don't know. you remember when WEC got by Zufa and then a couple years later they integrate the rosters and suddenly we have

the lower way guys. Cub Swanson because he wasn't as, he wasn't as profile of a name as like, you know, the Uriah Favors Dominic cruises was almost like this hipsters choice, right? Like I felt like when he came in, people were like, you don't know, man, Cub Swanson. He's a warrior and

they were like the hipsters like because the people who had been watching the WEC kind of knew a lot of what the UFC centric people didn't which was these guys, there's so many dynamic fighters on this roster about to come over. It's going to change the whole thing. But I always felt like Cub Swanson was kind of a quiet author of that era, you know, like who really gave the WEC a lot of its early allure.

Like I remember, you know, the fights on versus, even when even that fight with Aldo with the flying knee and everything, it just, he added that dimension. And I only bring all this up because you said that he's that kind of glue that keeps fans together. I think he's the, you know, quintessential fighter like that who kind of can fit on the swing bout of a card and everybody will pay attention and, you know, has a fan base, nobody says anything bad about him.

Most opponents kind of respected him and just a quiet warrior who went about his business. I mean, he was that guy. And if you did beat him, it was usually a mark of high quality. True, that is true. So you could be like, wow, you beat Cub? Okay, all right, you're doing something now, you know. So congratulations to Cub Swanson.

Just a phenomenal way to go out and a sportsman sportsman, if ever there was one. So big shots to him. Let's take a moment here to thank our friends at Draft Kings, who of course make all of MK possible. Boys and Girls, the NBA playoffs are here, and Draft King Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA boosts every game the whole post season. When the lights get brightest, the best players in the world show you exactly who they are. Playoff stars turn it up round by round, and Draft Kings turns it up too, with a profit boost available every single game day from the first round all the way to the finals. New Sportsbook customers bet just $5, and if your bet wins, you'll get $300 in bonus bets instantly.

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For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see sportsbook.draftkings.com slash promos limited time offer. Chuck, let's turn our attention if we can here to topic number three, which of course is going to be the UFC 327 preliminary card. Let's go first to the top of that if we can. Pico had basically, I don't know if it's his best performance ever. I think that's certainly somewhat relatable, but maybe the best one he's had in years. He beats up and defeats ultimately by decision Patricio Pitbull.

I mean, how big was this really? Very big because he's coming off of getting a knockout. And I mean, he's been knocked out a couple of times where his aggression put him in trouble. And we've been talking a lot about this on this show, but where it just, you know, he kind of goes in there incautiously and gets hit. And it's almost like the power of restraint, right? Like he dials it back a little bit. He was very poised as he got rolling in this fight.

And what I saw, and you tell me too, because I know you watched these fights with an analyst eye, it seemed like as he got comfortable, like in the striking, and he started to understand like the range a little bit and that he could land these shots. He settled into it. He got into like on a nice flow state. Like it felt like his boxing was very crisp, but with the kind of added. dimension of there wasn't a wild man behind the punches it wasn't like he was rushing in there's a couple times he hurt uh perturcio like there's a couple times where it looked like he would i think in

the past he would have jumped in there and uh and tried to do something but he didn't feel the need to do that and that's what made him dangerous in this fight i think he could have finished you know like it could have went down that way um it could have been one of those typical erampico fights but i think the growth um that he showed in this fight by just having that restraint is what caught my eye. I mean, it just shows when he's thoughtful and he's dialed in and he's doing the things that he's supposed to do. He's pretty good. He's pretty good. I still don't know exactly what this means, Chuck, for how far he can go because it's really hard to get that Lerone Murphy loss out of your mind. Right. But this was, this was game over if he didn't win. So he won. And not only that,

he looked, as you, to all the points you raised, Chuck, he looked great doing it. And, and, and, he was, And, you know, Patricio started out a little hotter. And so what I actually really liked about this performance, hotter is a strong word, but, you know, a little bit better. Yeah. Is that Pico had to kind of take charge in the fight, kind of sort of midwayish through to really claim this one. And he did.

You know what I mean? Like, he really, he really buckled down and, you know, and, and, and, and just made sure that there was no other option except victory and didn't do it via recklessness, as you point out. So this is what we've been waiting. on. So we need to see more of this, but this was definitely a great. And he wasn't and he wasn't holstered. It wasn't like he was gun shy in there. He wasn't going to throw because sometimes you'll see guys get knocked out and they go the exact opposite way where suddenly they're

like, I don't want to engage. I don't want to test my chin. You know, I don't want to be knocked out. That wasn't the case. He was willing to engage. It just felt like, you know, he wanted to engage on his terms. He dictated that. And it was such, it was such a crisp boxing and, you know, him mixing it up a little bit. Like, I thought it was just what, you know, a few years ago when Aaron Pico kind of broke in and we were talking a lot about him being a prospect, I feel like this was kind of like him realizing that potential a little bit. Now, I'm with you that you don't want to draw too many conclusions based on it, because

how old is Patricio? I know he's longer in the tooth, like 37, 38 years old. Obviously, you know, if Pico goes in there and does it against, he gets a rematch with Lorone Murphy or something and he's able to do that, we might. have a different take but i would wait to see that i would taper it a little bit but dude that's a step in the right direction um from a guy that i wasn't sure would be capable of it at this point uh there i don't have much to add to that i think that's a great way to summarize it tatiana suarez ended and i should say endured something of a rough start speaking of somebody who also

had a bit of a rough start um ultimately to get the sub over lupy godinez are you ready to see Suarez back in a title fight, Chuck Mendenhall. Ah, man. You know, when she got kind of beat down because it was a pretty solid beat down by Wailie Zhang, right? Like, it was not that close of a fight. I think it was like 4-1, the way I scored it back at the time.

And I was like, ah, Swaraz's going to be one of the stories of the Sisyphist character who like keeps pushing the bold and then she just can't get it up the hill. But this particular fight, I don't know. There was something about it. Like, maybe it was that she faced a little adversity early and I was thinking, see, I knew it.

she's she's starting to slip and i think even the odds on that they weren't like i think sweres was a slight favorite but in the if this happened a few years ago she would have been a huge favorite i think in this fight it was like there's a perception on her that she's slipping so for her to kind of turn the tables and then uh get dominant and then get the submission i thought that uh that was pretty impressive so given where the division is at i think she should be back in the title picture the problem is what are what are they doing with mackenzie durn at this point are they going to have her fight whaley or is it going to you know i feel like that's the natural fight so i don't know where that puts sweras but if they go with an alternative i think she is

the one that you would look at especially if it's mackenzie durin because she hasn't faced her before long island how high are you on the idea of a tautiana swarres title shot being relatively close i mean yeah relatively close i'm not high on it dude like that first round you know she was losing that fight i had a bet on she got dropped yeah and i'm like oh my god loopie's going to get the up like i didn't even consider betting on lupy i was was like Tatiana has this all day. Like Chuck said, I thought she would be a way bigger favorite.

She was minus 148 on fight night. That is pretty nuts, man. I'm like, okay, I'll take that value. Ended up working out. Looking at the division right now, dude, maybe you throw her in there with Verna. Werner's coming off that win to Tabitha Ritchie. You get a true number one contender,

and then you do Dern Wealey in the meantime. Yeah. That's probably the best one. Yeah, but not too far. Not too far. And again, it's like it's not just the win. It's quality. The opponent, very quality.

The sub, really quality. but rescuing herself from a bad start is to me maybe the most important, not the most important, but a critical way to understand the value of this win and the importance of, you know, because I've been ready to bury some of these donks, Chuck, and then they do stuff like this, and you're like, all right. It's also, she's went through so much, man, you know, like just with her cancer stuff and then so many injuries she's fought. I think this was only her 10th fight in 10 years.

I mean, she's averaging one of year. and I don't know I've talked to you guys about this before like when people start showing up with their significant others you know Brian Ortega when he's showing up you know he's got his girl and like they're walking in

and it always feels like when this happens these people drop off I don't know like and I don't know I was just I was thinking about that with Tatiana and Patchy Mix because they were dating and all of a sudden he was kind of plummeting and sometimes I don't know why but there's this intangible thing

that I have to look at more closely and be like It feels like the couple itself drops out of the picture. You know what I mean? Like sometimes one drags the other one down. So I told my family not to have, they're having a shower over here. Yeah. I told them not to do it. And they're, of course, that's exactly what they're doing.

So you might hear screams. I don't even hear. You might hear Godzilla running around without a towel getting the whole house wet. I don't know. Yeah, I like this. This is a glimpse into the Thomas life. I like. Yeah.

I mean, it's like, you know, I say, okay, I need you to do X. That ain't going to happen. Yeah. You know what I mean? Doesn't matter how many warnings you give. All right. Vicente Lucay, Chuck, submitting Kelvin Gastilum in the first freaking round. I mean, here's what I want to say about this.

This was so cool because, of course, this is the trademark sub of Vicente Luque. You know what I mean? And he's always gunning for it. So in some sense, it's not surprising at all that he got it. But he's kind of been on his last legs for a little bit. And Gastilum is now getting subbed in the first round. it's like on the one hand I'm super thrilled for Lucke

I truly mean that you're like a good guy in the game and there's not too many of them so you really like that but at the same time Chuck Jesus Christ like what is I don't even know what's left of Kelvin Gaston that's exactly what I was wondering myself because there was a little bit right like there's a little bit of a you know this kind of

I don't know what would you call it like grandfathered idea of oh you know Kelvin won the tough season that Uriah Hall was like they were showing him so much like the ambulance taking people away and stuff, but yet somehow Gastilum, the Lilinja gets through this fight. But his career has been so crazy, man.

Like, I think he's missed weight, what, three or four times, you know, forced to kind of go to middleweight and, you know, do things, but he's lost. I think 11 total UFC fights at this point. And he gets submitted in this kind of fight. I go through that too. When you see guys like at this level, kind of hit this plateau,

but they've had some really big fights. Like Kelvin Gasolm has a fight in the Hall of Fame, just like we were talking about Cub earlier for that fight that he had with Izzy, right? Like that Izzy fight. So it's like you get, he's not like he hasn't had some moments and he's had some other performance of the night issue,

but like on whole, I don't know, he's a very complicated fighter because do you ever get excited when you see Kelvin Gaston, especially over the last like three years or so, when you see him on a card, do you're like, oh, Kelvin Gaston's on the fight.

I'm excited to see what he's, what he's going to bring. No, however, if it can be situation dependent a little bit. Yeah. Like the Pfeiffer one to me was interesting. Yeah, yeah. Well, that was because Piper, like, his first good litmus test, right? Yes, exactly. So it was more a function of like what he was doing for somebody else. But, you know, I can't say that I wasn't interested. I was. Right. Okay. That's fair. But I guess that's where he's at, right? Like, he's a litmus test for the guys coming up. I, Otherwise, I don't know. I don't know.

I got to pull in Long Island here. Long Island, this is why I can't get excited about Esteban Ribevix or however you say his fucking name. Because the fan base starts hyping up dudes who have like wild fights and they're like, oh, these guys are good like Ryan Battle. And I'm like, they're not,

you don't know if they're good yet. No, see. Sorry. I was continue. Sorry. I was just going to say. And then Matejj Gammarach comes along. You're like, oh, yeah, right.

These guys are not good yet. You know what I mean? Like, this is not the same. This guy doesn't know what they? the fuck he's up against. So I did Jedd's podcast last week, no bets, Bard. And I was saying, I was like, I love Esteban Rebovich. He's a really fun fighter. It sucks. He's going to be in a really boring fight against Matush Gamrod. I was like, this just isn't a good matchup for anyone in this division, unless you're fucking Charles Olivaire and you could finish Gamrott yourself.

It just feels like Ludovic Klein was another guy. A lot of people were high on. He fights Gamrod. It's a boring ass fight. Like, I'm not taking anything away from Rebovich in this. fight in fact i'm just like wow great performance gamrod i thought it would go the distance you got the sub but uh i still think rubevich has something but this just wasn't the fight for him yeah it's not the five for him because he's not that good that's the issue there's so many guys chuck you'll see them they'll have they'll have like you know they'll have i don't know like kind of yeah they'll have pronounced wins like they'll do something to a guy but it it's never it's not never it's often not evidence that they're good it's just evidence that they had some kind of advantage

relative to the opponent but it doesn't prove anything. And again, we did this with Brian Battle and the family's like, yeah, this guy's the next everything and I'm like, they're not, Raoul Roses Jr., he's a prodigy. I mean, he might end up being really good, but like, he's got a long ass. He's got a long. These guys just get anointed very

early. People got to pump the brakes on this and then people whiffed on Ilya to pour you. It's like, well, you know. The Zohuber, like a Riebevich fight that happened at the sphere. I was there for that and I think that it's, you're right. When you say that like they have like a big fight of the year type you know thing and people talk about it and they celebrate

it there is this expectation now of oh this guy's going to go in there and he's going to put on crazy performances and they equate that to being good and unfortunately that is i i wonder sometimes if it's just a matchmaking thing too because why i don't know why the ufc would put him against a guy like amrod because this to me was the most predictable fight on the card um just the way almost exactly the way it went down. I didn't know he'd get a, I didn't know that Gamrod would get a sub in the end, because he doesn't really do that too often, but it was very easy to say that he, they would kind of shut down the offensive tools of Ravich, maybe take him to the ground, and maybe you'd get a ground and pound finish in the

second or third round. That was easy to imagine, wasn't it? I mean, I didn't, I didn't really think that Rivavich was going to compete in this one. Long Island, how did you score the Padilla Medeiros fight? Okay, well, also, is it my imagination, or is this like twice now Buffer has had an issue? So this. This is, wasn't buffer's fault i found out they showed the official scorecard and the official scorecard had the correct scorings but in the bottom right it says what the outcome got you right that's right okay said majority decision so buffer just read that part got should have said majority draw um i had it well michael buffer was having some issues doing some comment bro i had it 29 27 i thought pedia clearly

won two rounds and then you subtract the point that maderos got taken away yeah i guess i had it the same as whoever that is on the right. I can't be the score. But dude, for it to then, like, what, like, I know broadcast is dealing with whatever. They had to let like the Tatiana Loopy fight play out. But then after that fight to be like,

guys, remember that fight that just happened like 30 minutes ago? Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's a draw now. And you know, everyone, including me, we had Padilla bets and we're all like now refreshing our apps and our, trying to see if the money's in the account. Yeah, I'm like, oh, what the fuck?

And, and, you know, It was kind of, again, I don't like using the word robbery, but I really thought Padilla won the fight. I thought Padilla won two. Same here. I haven't overturned to a drug. It's like, what the fuck, dude? It was, yeah, that was. That's the worst, man.

Can you believe this shit, Chuck? That's just unbelievable. But weren't MMA, Luke, I would, but I believe everything here. Anything else on this preliminary card that grabbed your attention for any reason? I mean, oh, Kevin Holland. Oh, yeah. I wouldn't say nearly subs Randy Brown, but, you know, got kind of close. He had that shit locked in for like two minutes.

I thought he was going to get it. I thought so too. He couldn't quite finish it. I guess there's a little bit of daylight under his wrist, which is what you're seeing there from Brown, like near the chin, there's a little bit of a little bit. So it's just maybe a positioning of the angle a little bit

because he's got the head trapped a little bit. Oh, we've got to get the feet too. He didn't, you grab the feet. In any event, you know, nice win by Kevin Holland. I just, I don't know what to say. I can't ever tell if he's coming or going, you know. He's quite talented. I mean, that's where he's at.

You never watch him fight and you're like, oh, he sucks. No, he doesn't suck. He's good. He's a good fighter. It's just I don't know what he's building to. Yeah. You know what I mean? What about Chuck Buffalo?

I mean, he showed up. He did some work. My man loves slurs. Holy shit. Doesn't he? Doesn't he? Yeah. It's like, you must be fun in children's parties.

This is something here. All right. With that in mind, let's go to something else that came out of the, UFC 327 event, namely some stuff about the UFC White House. So, okay, a few things have happened here, namely Chuck, the UFC released renderings of what the UFC White House event, in fact, is going to look like. Let's just sort of start there. What is your reaction?

Here's the, you're the renderings. And, you know, Dana White had kind of hinted about what these were going to be on the Logan Paul podcast. This is a look here. Now, this is, this is looking out from East Street. If you're on East Street facing north, the ellipse would be behind you, right? And you'd be looking at the White House in front of you. This is what it would look like.

I don't know what that's going to look like on the other side, obviously facing out to the Washington Monument, which is off of Constitution Avenue. But what do you think there, Chuck? I mean, it looks like a poster for like Independence Day from back in the day, like right? Or something like something being in New York trading. It's just a, it's, I mean, if you had cut and showed us that, that rendering, years ago, you would think it's just somebody like, you know, spoofing on something or like, you know what I mean? Like, it's just, it's so surreal to even look at something like that. I don't know.

I mean, and also like, I know you've been talking a lot about this, but you just imagine how many people are actually going to, like, what is it? What is the capacity for it? They told us and I forgot they're claiming between three and five K. I think it's going to be closer to three than five. I mean, you know, and they're walking out of the Oval Office and other, but like, can you imagine what that gathering is going to be like yeah that's all i was thinking about gathering of the juggaloes baby then fago um but it's like gonna but it's uh it's it's so different than anything we've done that it's like it just kind of pounds that home though like oh my god this is actually they're going through with this thing you know it's kind of wild is i've i did a recap on my

personal mma channel and then i did a like a like how was trump received video on my channel and the one on my politics channel which by the way that channel is half the size not even not even half the size like a fraction of the size of my MMA one and that video the video on the politics channel is doing like 10 times better it's fucking insane

because like you know Trump was in attendance and Marco Rubio was there as well like the political dimensions of this are kind of hard to ignore especially from from Saturday however what I would say is put the rendering up one more time I mean listen I'm not really I think Donald Trump should be removed from office. I think he's a threat to the U.S. prosperity and world stability. Putting that aside for just a moment if one can

and just looking at these physical renderings, this is an ambitious project from UFC. And to me, Chuck, the real tragedy of this event is that they're trying to build, like you can look, they're trying, like I remember one time I toured, it's okay, you can take it off. I remember one time I toured, this was years, and years ago, like 20 years ago, I toured the Sports Center studios, but one of the 20 years

ago at this point. And was it Stanford, Connecticut? Where are they? Bristol, Bristol, Connecticut? I'm not sure. The Sports Center studios? Oh, Bristol. Yeah, yeah. I'm sorry. I thought, yeah, I used to work there. I should know that. Yeah, yeah, exactly. I was going to say what you 30. So I went there one time and I remember that when they give you this tour, what they told us was that the studio that ESPN used was designed and built by the Disney Imagineers. You know what I mean? So you were getting like this real state of the art kind of feel because they were trying to make something special that, you know, now you can question how much that's the case.

But, you know, certainly 20 years ago, they were leading in sports content that way. And there's a certain degree of ambition that went with that. And I think you see that from UFC. The real tragedy for me is that, like one thing. that we really want from UFC is to be ambitious, to not just do the same old factory line assembly thing that they keep doing. And this event, and the way which they're solving for these logistical challenges, to me, really satisfies that request.

The problem is it's just in service to a political objective. And it's just hard to disentangle the two in terms of my enthusiasm for it all. Yeah. Can you show that like one more time? Like explain to me. Okay. So is there like a, like, I guess like a roof over the octagon? Is that how they're doing this?

Because you live there. And look, they even kind of put storm clouds around it like. But like you lived there. And I know that the weather can be a problem. Is it? Yeah. Is the octagon covered though from like the elements? That's what I'm trying to figure out.

So Dana was asked about this. And he's kind of saying that, hey, you know, the only way we would stop is for lightning, which obviously makes sense. We wouldn't stop for rain. That doesn't mean that it would be like fun to fight in rain. Also, like, you know, again, I don't think we'll get a summer storm or if we do. I don't know if it'll be an all day thing. The chances are likely that we would not get that.

But like, dude, summer storms in D.C. are powerful and then they roll in and then there's wind blowing. And I cannot tell you how many times I've had to collect debris from the front of my yard from like a summer storm just rolling in this way. And it's like, dude, add on the bugs. Add on what's only going to be crippling. Locusts. It's like, dude, I mean, again, could the event pull out like, just on pure fight terms and be a huge win. I think we all have to be prepared for that, of course.

But there's just a lot of ways that it could also get interrupted. I do think, though, that like, again, just put it one more time. I mean, I will say this. This is an oppressive engineering feat that they're trying here. You know, with the lighting coming down on all these angles, matching the White House in the back. And like, again, the broader service of the project is not my favorite by any stretch of imagination.

I just wish they could apply this energy. Chuck, why can't they, Why can't they make Ilya versus Armand somewhere in L.A. And with this kind of thing. And then just have the greatest fucking night of your life. I don't understand. I mean, or these apex cards. Like you're,

you think that they're going to get out of the apex. They still do these cards because there's a lazy element to like shove that to a side. Yeah. I mean, this whole thing is completely out of whack. It's like all the focuses went onto one card essentially while the rest kind of suffer from it. But, yeah. Now, we do have a new fight added to it. Dana White, we have video of Dana White explaining the story, and then let's react to it.

You guys, just, why is Derek Lewis not on the White House card? And I said, hold on a second, Mr. President. I stepped away and I called Derek Lewis. He said, Derek, the president just asked me why you're not on the card. Do you want to fight on the White House card? And he goes, of course I do. Tell the president, thank you. I want to do it. Then the Hokit card plays out.

The fight plays out. He beats the number five rank on the world. And Joe Rogan says, is there still room on the White House card? Go up back and talk to him. Hokit versus Derek Lewis was just added to the White House card in the last 10 minutes. Chuck? I mean, I pointed this up before, but he was in the equivalent of three car crashes each per round. I mean, and they're just toss them in and like 10 minutes later into a fight.

That seems crazy to me. He should beat the shit out of Derek Lewis though, right? He should. And maybe that's kind of what they're, I don't know, but who's going to be the more obsequious Trump guy in this situation? I mean, Hokkaid or Derek Lewis. I mean, that's also race to the bottom, my friend. I don't know. Yeah.

Although Hokit didn't do that this time. No, not really. I mean, it's more of the aesthetic, right? Like he's got the bandana in the Oakley zone. and all that stuff and you're like, okay, I know this guy. He's got a Trump flag and I pick up outside my... This is a guy who tells N-word jokes at Daytona Beach, you know, loudly. He's very clearly patriotic, but he also like thrives on being the heel.

I could see him going and being like totally left leaning. Dude, I'm telling you about this. Somebody's got to do this. Someone's got to be like an annoy, like as a fighter, an annoying, annoying, an annoying woke lib just to trigger the shit out of everyone in the industry. They would be fucking the biggest villain on Earth. Especially on that card. Did Hokit? I'm trying to remember now he got the victory, but did he go over, you know, like these guys climbed the fence and go shake Trump's hand? Did he do anything like that? Do you recall? I don't recall. Yeah, I don't remember. Long Island, do you recall? The only one I remember is Costa.

Because Trump was like, you're a beautiful man. You're a sexy man. Trump was like, I would like to have sex with you, please. Dicks. Come to the island. Dicks. Dude, that was so weird. He was like, you're a beautiful man. Oh, my God. We should, we should smooch. What did you think of Joe Rogan's embrace of Trump, by the way. I mean, I know that you've been, you've been going after old Joe for his, uh, his hypocrisy. Well, I mean, he just, he gets on his show and he cries these crocodile tears about the hell that's being unleashed on everybody. And then when, you know, Trump's right in front of him, he's back to back slapping and cheesy. It's like, you know, I mean, what the fuck are we doing? But if you want more of my rantings, you can go somewhere else for that. Okay. Um, so quickly put up the White House card one more time.

Now, I will say this, Chuck. I don't know if they're going to, I mean, they're talking about Hokka at being ready. to your point in two months. That was a fucking insane situation he was in. But if he's in there, you know, does it change the card exactly? Not exactly, but it makes it a little more fun for sure, right?

Yeah, I think it makes it more fun. And I mean, one of the things that we had talked about was just the lack, general lack of American fighters on the card, and especially one that you could guarantee is going to win. Yeah, good point. So, I mean, now you've got two Americans and, you know, very patriotic

fellows, and I'm guessing, you know, know, they'll kind of get what they need to from that fight. Yeah, fair enough. Before we get to topic number five, let's thank our friends from Cuervo. You guys know we were just there last week for our UFC 327 pregame preview. We'll have one, certainly, for UFC 328 early in May. And you guys know how it goes. From face off final decision, fight night delivers the adrenaline and Cuervo, the energy to match it,

whether you're hosting your crew at home or catching the action at the bar, Quervo brings good vibes that turn every round into a celebration. From Margaritas to Palomas, every main event simply tastes better with the world's most iconic tequila. No matter who walks out with the belt, with Cuervo in hand, you're already celebrating like an undisputed champion for every round. Keep it fun. Keep it Cuervo. And one more time, we had a great time last week for UFC 327. The pregame preview there in New York City, Chuck. It was fun with Jed.

and then we'll do it again for 328, which, by the way, going to be a bit of a home game for 328s until it'll be at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. That should be a fun. We might get a fighter for that one. Would a fighter drink with us, you think?

I don't know. As long as it's a, well, you mean like a fighter who's not competing on the card, though, I take it. Yeah, obviously. Yeah. I mean, there are certain fighters who might do it anyway. Yeah. But yeah, that would be fun.

It's been a long time since we've done something like that. For sure. I wanted us when we had the Showtime budget to get trash barrels on the roof and light them on fire. I remember they didn't like that idea, but I still maintain it was a great one. We got close a couple of times. Like we were on the roof. Yeah.

And they were talking about like, could we really do that? Yeah. And I was like, you can do that, bitch is doing it. And now look, the window's closed. No more. It's always better to ask for goodness than permission. I mean, it's right. Got to strike while the iron's hot.

Yeah. All right. Topic number five, there were some other events over the weekend. Let's start with PFL Chicago here, Chuck. Mitchell McKee gets the biggest win of his career. It scores a unanimous decision victory over. Sergio Pettis, should we be surprised by this victory? Here are some of the stats. To me, Chuck, the real one is take downs four for McKee. Yeah. That one is, I mean, look at the

arm strikes, three, leg strikes two. There was some ground strikes certainly, especially from back mouth, but you get the idea. I mean, this Mitch McKee, he's undefeated, right? Like, he's younger guy, wrestling base, still proudly an insistent wrestler and likes to kind of mix that in, you know, I, so surprised no. I mean, Sergio has had some very nice victories, including the Magamed, Megamadov, like the last one he had, because I think that that's why, maybe Sergio's kind of like hitting his stride a little more again, but ultimately if you look at his career, I mean, it's kind of mixed with mixed results, especially against guys who will wrestle. I know the patchy mix fight, you know, from back a few years ago or whatever it was, like comes to mind. But like guys who want to dictate against him can have success like that. So I wasn't totally surprised.

I think it's kind of cool when a guy like that gets a shine, you know, in a big spot because it was head to head with the UFC, which was really stupid. I know that you want to talk about this. But in terms of just getting a main event, you know, against a guy who's known, this was a big moment for him. I don't understand what the PFL is doing. Now, part of it is what ESPN wants them to do, which often affects when they can go in terms of like if you're going to have a fight on a Saturday, when that can be, you know. but at the same time it's like dude why the fuck are you going the same weekend as you have it's not

and not just UFC Chuck a UFC numbered event like their their premier tier essentially I just again I understand that ESPN is making a lot of calls but it's like okay well why the fuck is ESPN doing that you know that also and ESPN is not NFL's fault still

more than anybody ESPN knows that you don't do that right like they just they had UFC in a partnership deal and they kind of understood the monopoly and just the vortex of fandom that goes into that. I have no idea why they would do that, man. It did make any sense to me. Most people that I knew didn't even know the PFL was going on.

The other part too is that like, you know, PFL is starting to have a good thing going. And I do think that the way in which they're matchmaking and setting up event and what cities they're going to is much better than what they were doing before. But like they've got to be careful about these main events. Like you've got to be, if you're going to be a cheaper alternative, like your tickets are not as expensive and you're going to try and be a fun alternative. you need to be careful about who you're booking in main events

because there's nothing wrong with what Mitchell McKee did in terms of like what MMA fighters just do in fights especially if they have like you know a strong wrestling advantage that's just what they do yeah but I don't know if that was suitable as a main event for an organization that because of the 2026 is like a really really important year for PFL you know I'm not saying it was a disaster it's not what I'm saying but it needs to be better than that you know it's also it's not just okay so it's like it as an attraction but it's also like

like what you're catering to. Because so this is what, three in a row, they went to Spain and they had Castello, Vinstinas, and that made a lot of sense. That was a slam dunk in that sense. But they come to Pittsburgh, and what's the guy's name, Dalton? Dalton Rasta.

He's from Pittsburgh, and they put him in a situation where he just gets creamed. He just gets beat up in that one very quickly. So that kind of backfathers. And you put Pettis. I know he's not from Chicago, but he has ties to it.

He's from Milwaukee. He's from the area. and he is the ace side in that situation and he gets taken out too. So it's like you're kind of backfiring on the reason you're in these regions to begin with. Yeah, yeah. And just also like if he's going to lose, have it be against something that you get the fans excited about, such that you have that kind of talent.

Now they've got a guy, they just got a cross who is going to dawn the singlet. You know, that's what he's going to do in every fight. And I don't know what you do with a guy like that. If you're not going to put him in a, you know, and to the title,

whatever it is, it's like, I don't know how you handle that situation. now. Long Island. Anything else from this card? I know Ralphion Stotz lost as well. Anything else from this card stand out to you? Yeah, this chick. I'm going to butcher her name, but uh, Wisnuska. Yeah, she beat the shit out of uh, Watnabi and this was a bloody mess. Gaff, Gaff's big on PFL, like he knows all the prospects and Gaff's like, I told you that girl was legit. So he's been high on her. So shout out to her. I didn't watch the card at all. I'm not going to realize. Whatnobie is not that good,

but that does look like a nice beating that she handed out. Who's the dude who Stats, Kavlov? He looked pretty good. I forget his, it's some Russian guy. Yeah, Dagestani. I mean, anytime you get the Dagestani you know,

young 27. Yeah, Renette Kavlov, yes. Yep, yep. He was good. Also, Dan Hardy and Sean O'Connell

are just phenomenal as a commentary do. I really, really like that. All right. So we also had some interesting stuff happened on the boxing side of things.

Let's talk about, you know what? I want to start with Ben and Progray. I watched that fight this morning. I'm sorry about that, man. You got to get up so early. Can you, I mean, dude, this motherfucker robbed a bank. He robbed a bank.

Connor Ben, let me just say it outright. He is not good. Regis ProGray. So, for example, Chuck, we were talking about how Cubs Swanson went out, not on his hands and knees. Right. Pro Gray did, you know, and I like Progrey a lot. I'm just saying you can see the differences between how his career is ending versus someone like Cub as a fighter. Pro Gray looked fucking shot.

He admitted afterwards at all the rumors, by the way, of all the injuries he had. were all true. Do we have this Long Island? What do we have here? Oh yeah, pro gray. Yeah, we got the clip of him saying it. Play that. Let me see it. You know, the rumors and stuff about me being hurt. You know, that was true. But I was terrified. I didn't know what was the whole up. And, um, but my son is right here. I told him, like, when you're scared or something, go through it. You have to go through. When you're terrified or something. And I'm not going to

lie, but I wanted to pull out this fight so bad. Like a month ago, I wanted to pull out this fight. But I didn't. And I kept pushing. I kept pushing. And I was so. terrified. Even today, I was thinking about, you know, pulling out today, the day of the fight. Even yesterday, I was thinking about pulling out. But I went through with it, and I'm so glad that I went through with this fight. What was the injury? Honestly, and so in camp, I had about four injuries. My right hand was messed up. I had an eye injury. My jaw, I had a rib injury. That's four right there. And I had a bunch of things, you know, so it was rumors. I know who stirred the rumors, too. This man right here spread out,

my rumors are out, but it's fine. Look, you know, but it held up. I'm not going to lie, man. Like, nothing I was scared of happening in the ring. Like, all my injuries, literally nothing had, nothing showed up in the ring at all. Tonight, no injuries at all was, I had to worry about nothing. He couldn't move. I mean, I don't know what he's talking about.

He could barely move. Connor Ben is, I mean, he was calling out Ryan Garcia afterwards. I'm like, I don't even believe in Ryan Garcia that much, to be honest with you. And Garcia would fucking. I know. Smoke him. It seemed like such a fleecing. It's never, it's never helpful when

Eddie Hearn is yawning in the, see him yawning through the fight. You're like, man, this is his guy, his old, you know, his old charge you might end up with again. But I mean, just the whole thing was just, I don't know. It felt like a fleecing. Pro Gray's booked into this, this event basically to get crushed.

And Ben doesn't have, you know, it looked like he lost some of his power. I know he's not like he hasn't been knocking guys out. recently, you know, but I remember the Chris Algeria, like, you remember the moments when he kind of had it. I'm like, there was nothing of that in evidence. Like, this guy was, he was rolled out in the

situation to kind of create a star moment, I guess, for the new audience with Zupa boxing, but it just didn't happen, man. I mean, that's, I almost felt like other than, other than Ben getting knocked out or something like that, this felt like the worst case scenario. Yeah, listen to Ben ask for Ryan Garcia. We have the

audio. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Garcia, I want my belt. I want my belt. Keep my belt warm. September, let's go. Any day of the week twice on Sundays. 10 rounds easy.

Garcia, you're next. Keep my belt warm. Can I tell you, I've ever sit on a public toilet and the seat is warm? I get the, I don't, it's like not at all a thing I enjoy. Why would you want someone to keep your belt fucking warm?

Like, their body heat is on this? Get the fuck off my belt. How about that? I've never understood this. This might be a stupid question, but it's a genuine question. Aren't title fights 12 rounds in boxing? Yeah, why is he like 10 rounds any day? I want your belt.

Like, because he's not interesting or cool. That's why. He's not good. All right. And then last. Wait, wait. What did Dana say, though? What did he call him?

He called Regis Progrys? Did you hear that promo? Oh, my God. Yes. Progris. This is how we're hyping it, too. Like, this is the hype machine going into it. I watched that.

So he does this like Zupa boxing video, right? So like, you know, he's like, if you thought Dana was checked out on MMA, you haven't seen shit. He's wearing like, I think you have like a Zupa Boxing polo or something. And he's like, you know, check out our Zupa fighter tonight,

Connor Ben, as he takes on. And you can see him pause for a second. Regis pro grise. And I'm like, just crack me. I have so much. And I'm like,

Dana, is this the first time? you're saying that word out loud? Because like, how does no one correct you? You know what I mean? Like, in any event, Tyson Fury defeats, uh, Arslanbeck, MacModov. McModov started out kind of interesting, Chuck. Yeah.

And then just kind of faded, clinched a lot. I don't know what to say about it. Yeah. Honestly, neither Fury nor Ben looked particularly good. Fury wanted the AJ fight. AJ wouldn't get out of his seat for it. I'm not sure what to say. These guys, these heavy weights that kind of have been,

great the last 10 years, Chuck? This is all coming to a close, it seems like. Yeah. I don't know. I mean, if it's and so it's Fury, like, I know he's retired like 16 times, but is he like done if we're not doing Joshua next? It's like, then that what he's basically insinuating here. It seems that way. I think that

Turkey will probably find a way to get that done because it is such a big fight. That dude, man, he speaks so at a turn like on the broadcasts, like, you know, I remember the UFC thing where the ordain is like, hey, we're not announcing that yet. They had to kind of shut him down. And this time, you know, Turkey's basically like we're going to have a big announcement later tonight you know like it's just these

premature check whatever that it well he's just always premature oh yeah i like how we play yeah that sound every time we even reference anyone's sexual dysfunction you know what i mean yeah yeah in any event so tyson fury wins it looked like kind of besorrah doing it those are our top five topics. It's time now for you get to ask us questions. It's time for DMs from dogs. Let's see what we got here. From Cresenzofano, I guess I'm saying that wrong. Is Yuri now solidified as the number one dog of all time? I was wondering this honestly, because once it gets knocked out in this situation, I'm like, all right, now does he qualify now into that donkdom that you've got going on, like your donk rankings? So it is donked them except the problem is that that long guard that like, what you call it? Oberg uses.

It's kind of a trademark weapon. It's not a new thing. It wasn't a Hail Mary. I mean, it was a Hail Maryish in the sense of his injury. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, but like that kind of punch is a thing he just throws a lot. And again, I know that Uri seemed to have some kind of mental change by observation of the injury. But, you know, motherfucker, you get hit with these punches.

like I don't know what to say you know yeah well I mean it was a I hate to call him a dunk because I know so you kind of broke everybody's heart on the microphone afterwards and I'm like you try to give the guy some grace you know and he puts on good fights but in the end in the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the end of the moment ohberg even said if they had gone to his corner even said if they had gone to his corner and he's probably over right at the end of that round so I don't know that was definitely a don't know it's a don't moment ohberg even said if they had gone to his corner they wouldn't have let him back out. So like, it's just, all year he had to do was just not fuck it up. It's like the John Jones Chale Son and thing. Remember this toe? Like John Jones, bow. I'm like, if it just goes, if it just makes it to the end of the round, it changes your whole life.

History is all different, you know. Next. From Jets Jits. That's a. Is it better or worse for the light heavyweight division to have the belt get passed around so many times? It's kind of. Yeah, it's reminiscent of the old days. Remember before Jones, it kind of was doing this a little bit.

The point is, if you have someone dominant, they have to be dominant in a way that's exciting for the fan base. So, like, just because they're dominant, Long Island, you can come back, just because they're dominant doesn't mean that it's automatically better. However, the title being passed around kind of indicates that there isn't a transcendent figure to rally around, and that can be a problem too.

I was just going to say, when is the belt getting passed around ever really a good thing? You know, you want to see, because then it's just a bunch of fluky champions that we all go. Yeah, Sean Strickland was champion. It's like if anybody can just beat anybody on any day,

why is anyone special? You know what I mean? It's crazy, though, like for the dominant champions that are not like box office draws, it can feel like a sentence as they go through their reign. But, I mean, even in those situations,

the stability of it, that there's this target at the top that everybody has been gunning for for a year or to that it does translate into something like you know like there's some integrity to that like okay this guy is the standard everybody's trying to beat the standard um so you're right it never is a good look if you just have a different champion all the time the fact that like this division before had forest griffin and you know there were guys drifting through carrying the belt that you're like whoa this should have never happened you know so i feel like we're a little bit in that era

again. Next. From HP Hatecraft, HPX. Did you notice the rhetoric around the White House card go from, it's just coincidentally taking place on Trump's birthday to come celebrate the president's birthday with us on Saturday? I did notice this.

This is sort of like, I mean, again, we don't have to make this a show intensely political. There are places to go for this, Chuck. But it's just kind of an observation. It's like, the thing about all this is just so, it's how disingenuous it all is. like oh this is not about any one president it's about the office please shut the fuck up nobody is that stupid i mean well i guess some people are that stupid but not everybody is that stupid that's one and this other one be like oh it's america and it's america 250 celebration it's

like okay but i live in that town and i know what the other america 250 celebrations are and this one's completely disconnected from it and it's happening on this guy's birthday like if you're going to do this stuff where we're going to be like magnifying a a politician at their house, you're literally partying on their fucking lawn, then you should be honest about what you're fucking doing. You know what I mean? And I don't think, honestly, I don't care who you are.

I don't think, first of all, you shouldn't be partying there, number one. Just number one, this shouldn't even be happening. But if you're going to do it, just level with the fucking audience a little bit, I think. Well, maybe that's what they were doing a little bit by saying his birthday. I guess I have no idea. Only after gaslighting people like me for months on it. I know. But, and also, this is a Sunday card, right?

Like it's on a Sunday. So, yes. I mean, you know, they're not doing that. It's going to just be on a normal day if it's not meant to be on his birthday. So it's kind of disingenuous in that way, too, you know. I mean, everyone should just know what they're getting out of it. You're going to probably get some really good fights in a really good card or, you know, what's to say, but probably.

And at the same time, you're going to get sports washing up your butthole. So just be aware of that. Okay. All right. Next. From Daniel C. Young. With Hokit stock soaring, which it certainly is, if he beats Derek Lewis in June and being that he's a smaller heavyweight anyway, because you see the UFC offering him a fight for the interim 205 title to build a new star while Ulberg recovers.

What do you think, Chuck? So he's saying for the light heavyweight going into that? The guy could make light heavyweight. 100%. I didn't. I didn't really. I mean, I have contemplated that he's probably in the wrong. He's two 30.

He's smaller than Forrest Griffin. Yes. But heavyweight is so bad already. Why would we take like the one? unshining thing at heavyweight. That's, move it to a different division. Yeah, fair.

I don't know if the UFC would love that. That's what I mean. Like, you're kind of like, as soon as Jelton Almeida was like, I'm going to try my hand at 205, they're like, no, we're punting on this guy, you know? I'm not going to, first of all,

we needed you as a heavyweight and you weren't performing. I mean, I just think that you got, you got some life at heavyweight. I don't think that they'd want to do that. But, I mean, if Hokeet, like, it does seem like, you're right. Like, he should be a light heavyweight.

I saw somebody making the case, he should be a middleweight. Yeah. He could do it. All right, next. What loss in MMA was the hardest for you guys to watch? Man.

Well, the ones at the ends of careers. Who was it? Frankie had to got knocked out at the end. It was Chris Gutierrez. Yes, Chris Gutierrez. That was a brutal one. It was just so brutal. Tony versus Justin Gatchee might be more worst ones.

Yeah. Frankie's last few now that Chuck mentions it because he has the Ortega, the Corey, Kio, and then. Gutierrez like all of those were brutal. You could take your pick on the BJ Penn fights down the stretch. I mean, they were all, and I remember being in the, you know, post

press conference when they did the three cards all weekend. Remember that? It was like three in a row. It was like an exhaustive. And he fought on the Sunday night. I'm trying to remember. No, he fought on the Saturday night. But against the I year? It might have been that. I'm trying to remember, but he was so sad and just talking about it.

And I had such huge reverence because in the early days, man, B.J. Penn to watch him was just like, it was a it's only god it that's what i mean and i had him in such a high regard to see him at that podium at that moment was just like it was so hard man next that's it that's it that's it all right well now we uh let's remind everyone it's time you know what let's set it up you can let's just play the intro and then we'll set everything up it is time now for fan submissions you've got mail viewers.

So you guys know how this works. You can email the show. You can see it right there. Morningcombat at gmail.com. Morningcombat at gmail.com. Best meme gets a signed poster this month. So send them all. And by the way, we're looking for some Chuck Slander.

There's a lot of BC slander. There's a lot of L.T. There's an all-timer chuck today that for me is the front runner for first place. All right. Okay. All right. All right. All right.

So let me pull my list up here so we can get this going. let's go first from Oh wait, no, wrong one. Hang on. Sorry. From Danger Mouse. Hope you guys like, hope you, excuse me, hope you like those guys.

Oh, and by the way, there's Morning Combat Tapology League if anyone wants to join. Maybe Luke and Chuck can join. I'm bored of kicking Long Island's ass week after week in the Topology League. What's he talking about here? Let's see.

I have a main car minute Tapology League, and there's like 200 people in it, but Danger Mouse last year came top three. He finished in the top. Oh, okay. He's been pretty good at it. But here we go. We got four memes from him.

All right. Michael Chandler. And it turns it to a Brazilian. Connor McGregor, that's nice. All right. Brian Campbell. Oh, shit. The train's coming through.

Yeah. Oh, God, they got him on the bus, too. Cake lady. Cake lady. Just dropping a grenade into the cake lady's house. Yes, that's something I would probably do. In fact, yes, indeed. Long Island Luke.

Saturday at night apex cards, his girlfriend. Hell, yes, dude, they're killing you for this shit. That's awesome. That was it for danger. Next up we have a video. It has audio, so I'm going to play that. All right, from John McLean. Luke does a great job putting things in perspective.

Here we go. God kill me. Watch 9-11 happen in my dorm room, my senior year in college. And if there is one thing that I learned as a result of all of that, is that just know that Bert Kreischer exists. Oh my God. That's a good one. That's a good one.

That went from a sad tale to something tragic. Yeah, that's a great one. All right, we got a couple here from Jesse. Luke, can we get you on prop quiz again? I'd rather be fucked to death by an eight-day followers. Yes, indeed. Very good. I bet he's thinking about politics again.

Man, fuck Joe on it. I don't ever think about that. You guys bring that shit up. I never bring that shit up anymore. What was the last time you saw me try and pine for a fighter interview? I haven't done that in years. All right. We got a couple here from Jonas.

He says this car, one from Jonas, excuse me, this cartoon is called the duality of man. And it says here, just making a play for the casual fans, minimal advanced offense, so unimaginative.

Fuck this title fight. And then instead it's just two fat guys. And me and BC, cheese and out. out over it. Is that accurate? Not bad. Not bad. All right. Let's go to Luke.

You get drawn in to like those. You have like, my algorithm is sometimes we all of a sudden you're on some like street fights or like in Brazil or whatever like people on motorcycles hit and you know. Yeah. I get drawn into this stuff. I got I got pulled into all kinds of like people fist fighting in the streets in Columbia and shit too. Like I got all kinds of stuff.

Can't turn away from Lucas. He says Long Island Luke's girlfriend on a random Saturday night trying to seduce him into adult fun in the best. bedroom. Oh, God. Sorry, babe. It's Chelsea Chandler fight time. That sounds like some adult fun in the bedroom if I've ever heard of it. Chelsea Chandler. All right. We got one here from David or David. I'm not sure which one. Long Island Lucas is a podcaster producer, newly single and emotionally available between UFC events. Hobbies include bongs and turning $50 into zero dollars on prelim fights with confidence,

looking for someone who doesn't like to spend weekends thinking. This is like a Tinder profiler or something. I love it. Turning $50 into $0 on prelim fights with confidence is the best part. That's a great one. That's a great one. That's a great one. That's a great one. Are we got two from Kevin? He says, first one he calls three flushes.

Oh, God. Joseph A. Base janitor when looks so glad I know what this is about now. Look at BC's AI family in the background. And then the second one, he says, man without. the hat. Oh, here we go. Here we go. Is this your old timer? No, this isn't it. You'll know. You'll know. You'll know. All right. All right. We didn't know when you were Anakin Skywalker. So what can you do? At least I'm not the little boy, Anakin Skywalker. All right. Who, by the way, just, I mean, they should have thrown him into a volcano. He sucked. All right. From Gabriel, we have a video. Let's check this out. Hi, Chuck. How are you? I'm fine, Professor. Professor Finnet. sir. That's the common thing I got called. I got called a lot of slurs. People are hitting me up in my

personal live chat with a very good question and a very fair one. And I don't have an answer for it. Maybe you do. Chuck, are you interested in having a lot of finishes? That is a great question. 100% dude. We'll make that happen here pretty soon. Not for this month, obviously, but perhaps for the next one. Yeah. Yeah, I got to be honest. I mean, I'm normally the guy who finishes up and down. Definitely a lot of overflow that comes behind that. But that by itself, to get the process. started. You know what I mean? The whole thing is behind a paywall. It's on my substack. Interesting. We've been waiting on that. I sometimes clear like the schedule for a minute when I see you post something like this because I can just sit for half an hour and it was fun to see.

It's fun to see. Thanks, man. We need a t-shirt, you know? All right. With that in mind, let's commit sex crimes in the interest of like intellectual nuance. You know what I mean? 100%. There's no shame in it, right? Oh my God. That one went on a little too long. That one was uncomfortable. Yeah, but I feel like it got better with time like Chuck being like oh that's on your substantive look forward to that. It did. It did.

All right. We got we've got, uh, that was Gabriel, right? Yes. Yeah. So we got one person left. We have, we have Christian L who's got four different memes. Let's see these. LT after he loses on prop quiz for the fourth time.

Yes. Although my, my PC is, uh, it's not quite as busted as this one, but fair enough. The crack. Hunter Biden. and Chuck. This weekend I'll be doing the crack. This is the all-timer, Chuck one. This one made me laugh so long. That one is great. That is great, yes. That is awesome.

All right. Zero days without clogging the toilet at Metal Arc Studios, Luke Thomas. Zero. They weren't against that over there. Brian Campbell, watch a strawweight fight while fully clothed or draw. Oh, yeah. Thinking about it.

Oh, these are great. Yeah, that's good. That's it. That's it? Yeah, that's all of them. Fucking awesome. Those are great. Yeah, that was really good.

All right. Chuck, where can folks get your coverage for the rest of the week or for anything related to UFC 327? Yeah, I'll be just, I'll be doing the regular stuff this week. The crack is back on Friday. I'll be with Pizzie Carroll and I'll definitely have some coverage. I don't even know. Like I said, I don't even know what's all coming up this weekend because I was so focused on

UFC 327. but you know we always get busy toward the middle of podcast brain yeah exactly uh long island how are you ignoring your significant other this week uh well you know i'll have my ufc winnipeg which is this weekend chuck uh bet break down out tomorrow you know prop quiz friday winnipeg watch along on saturday you know nine canadians on the card let's go woo woo all right has already listen he's got all the details about it already bro winnipeg is a crazy crazy place i'm sure it's nice because canadians are nice and i like every time i'm i'm I've been to Canada. I've had a good time.

But, like, you know how it is. We live in, I live in the Mid-Atlantic. You live in the Northeast, but our weather is reasonably similar. And you'll get these, like, cold bursts that come down from Canada. And it'll be like, it'll be like zero degrees in New York City, like seven degrees in D.C. And then you look at Winnipeg and it's like minus fucking 40. And you're like, dude, how do people live there? And how is that a thing? Yeah, I don't know. I don't know, man.

I've been there. I've been there. And it is that desolate. I just don't get it. Yeah. I don't get it. But all right, they love their hockey. Let's remind everyone, of course, all the socials, we're available in all these different places. You can see it there.

Morningcom at gmail.com to reach the show for fan subs. By the way, they were great today. Great job. Yeah, that was great, man. And then, of course, merch, morningcombat. Dot shop. You can reach it. You got the MK root beer.

You got the donkin design and then MKTV plus the bout about it, Luke Baca poster. These are only available until the end of this month or while supplies last. Let's see. I'll be out for a couple of days, but we'll be back. We'll have a regular Friday show. I'll be back in D.C. by then. And I'll have some fun stuff for everyone on Friday's show. All right?

So for Long Island, for Chuck, for everyone here on the show, thank you all so much for watching. We really appreciate it. We'll see you on Friday. And until then, may all of your gains be loyal. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human.