MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Abu Dhabi FULL Recap | Bud Crawford Edges Madrimov | Full Episode | Morning Kombat

Episode Date: August 5, 2024

Another packed show for you donks this Monday as Brian is joined by the one and only Sir Charles Mindenhall as Luke is on vacation. The duo recaps a big weekend of combat sports, starting with UFC Abu Dhabi. In the main event, Umar Nurmagomedov takes a 5-round decision from Corey Sandhagen in the main event, calls for bantamweight title shot. What did this performance say about where the 18-0 Nurmagomedov ranks among the 135-pound elite? Plus, Tony Ferguson, 40, sets UFC record with 8th straight loss in SUB1 to Michael Chiesa, refuses retirement in aftermath. In boxing, Terence Crawford edges Israil Madrimov to claim title in 4th division in first Riyadh Season card on U.S. soil. How did you score the fight? Did any part of Crawford's performance make the idea of a Canelo fight at 168 pounds still viable? Plus, more DM from Donks and HYSTS. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only. And participate in McDonald's in Canada. Reveille, reveille. Look at this now. Tip to tip.

Oh, Jesus. Reveille, Reveille. Look at us now, tip to tip. Oh, Jesus. Do you want a margarita? Oh, my God. It's us doing what we love. Two, three, two, you know that sound. Back with a bang on this Monday morning, August 5th, 2024. It's Morning Combat, folks.

My name is Brian Campbell. Hey, that's not Luke Thomas. That's the Iceman Chuck Mendenhall back at it. First of all, we say happy 45th birthday to Luke Thomas, who's still vacationing with the family. But Chuck, it's been too long since we did this. Way too long. I think I was here on the second episode we did in this studio.

Yes. Which was months and months ago. So it feels brand new to me again. Thank you for always being a part of our life and just one phone call away. You know what I mean? Maybe we should do that. Happy to rescue. I didn't see myself on the intro there,

but yeah, we've tried, we've been trying to write you out of the history of the show. But Chuck, I will say, you know, people still talk about the pregame previews we used to do back in the day, you know,

the idea of maybe doing them again. I would love to bring those back. I think the last one we did was UFC one 94. Oh, he needs the right sponsor for that we'll get to that uh let's start it off hey 45th birthday for our boy luke thomas um we do love that man at the end of the day um i hope he's having a fantastic vacation i hope he's able to make 45 great again and and just you know turn it into maybe the best

year of his life do you have anything nice to say about this gentleman? He doesn't look a day over 43. Fair. That's fair. I'm happy he's no longer kind of guzzling Pepto-Bismol before the shows and all that stuff. I know that he's changed his lifestyle and I think that's why he's aging so well now.

He's changed it up. He definitely looks like the backside of my asshole, but that's why he's aging so well now. Yeah. He's changed it up. He definitely looks like the backside of my asshole, but that's fine. You know what I mean? I really, you know, seriously, Luke, happy birthday. We hope you're doing great. Get the unplug, get the break you need. Although I think he's still posting solo content from Columbia.

Is he? Okay. That man's an entrepreneur. You're never off. Never fully off. You never get off. All right. Chuck, we got merch. You can go to Never get off. All right. Chuck, we got merch.

You can go to morningcombat.store. You can even go as far as using 10% off with our code LIVE10. Now, will those items make it to you? Yes, they will. RJ Dunkel gangbang on the other end. Chuck, did they ever get you the merch that you deserve? I did get some merch, yes. Actually, I got a jacket that says Chuck on it.

They kind of personalized it. They did. Are you serious? I'm serious'm serious i meant to wear it today i'll have to do it next time what is it a bomber jacket it's a like yeah a bomber jacket i think yeah um i i do notice the uh the man in the hat hat the myth hat yeah i had to bring that back i love it yeah um what's how many you got in rotation these days? Not that many, maybe 100. No, I'm just kidding. It's probably maybe like a half dozen that I wear. Love it. You can watch us, of course, on the DraftKings Network

every Wednesday, Monday, excuse me, at 5 p.m. Eastern. I'm all over the map right now. And also, we would like to thank everybody here at Metal Ark in Manhattan. Happy to be with you. We got a great show planned for you today. A lot to look back upon from this weekend. Everything from UFC Abu Dhabi to Terrence Crawford finally making his return post Spence victory at a maybe a tougher test than expected. More on that to come in some

UFC news along the way. Yeah, I think that's oh, yeah, you can follow us on the social handles right there. Long Island Luke, of course, on the ones and twos. Luke, how are you, brother? I'm doing good, guys. How are we doing? Good. I like this. This is a new element. This is like a new dimension. Do you know that he's not just the producer of this or director?

I don't even know what he is. What are you, the babysitter of this podcast? Director, direct. But he has his own podcast called The Main Card Minute. Really? Big betting pod, this guy. Okay. Shout out, Chuck. Give it a follow.

All right, I will. This is... I like Luke. Chuck will do not. He he will not do that it would not be a freaking stingy with my follows um yeah so that's where it's at chuck you know i got two turntables and a microphone um how's your life and career you know if you've got 10 seconds can you tell us it's all good man still doing the ringer still doing the ringer mma show and uh you know right writing for the ringer so it's all the same whoomp there it is uh hopefully chuck as we are in maybe a down year for our industry or maybe a down era hopefully do you think it pulls out of the gutter i mean you know there's a lot of money to be made in combat sports in the gutter but

we're looking at those stars dc you know what i mean lying in the gutter, but we're looking at those stars. You see, you know what I mean? Lion in the gutter. I don't know, man. We'll see. We'll see. Maybe they can make UFC great again. I'd really be into that. Although I did enjoy this card on Saturday. Okay. You like that card?

I did. All right. You're about to tell me you didn't? No. No, I liked it. I thought it came off fine, but I wasn't sure. Sometimes you get a little sarcastic off the top here. I get a lot sarcastic right there.

I don't think I have anything else to pitch or pump. I mean, I can pump it more than once, but not on camera. You know what I'm saying? This isn't onlypipes.com, Chuck. You know what I mean? Chuck, I feel like I had something to ask you. Oh, what are you listening to, Chuck? You're kind of a hip guy. What are you listening to?

What are you rocking on your iPod? My God. What am you listening to, Chuck? You're like kind of a hip guy. What are you listening to? What you rocking on your iPod? My God. What am I listening to? I don't really think I've discovered too much new over the last. I'm trying to think. You know what? My daughter's got me. This is ridiculous because my daughter's like this artistic.

She's going to UConn puppetry. Oh, a puppetry art major? Yes. But she's somehow been roped into the Taylor Swift thing. And I've never actually listened to Taylor Swift until recently. And I got to say, she's pretty catchy. But that's a really disappointing answer for you. But you know, the truth is I haven't really been on one of those missions to discover new music lately.

I go on these Jags. No, no, not new, but just discovering music. I go on these Jags where I do new but like just discovering music i go on these jags where i do that yeah i haven't done that in a little while in jacksonville yeah yeah um i've been i've been deep diving the doors on a level that i never have before like a deep aggressive level like put the rubber glove on and maybe go elbow that's that delta eight it's just can you let dad cook just let him cook downstairs all right that's what i'm saying what are you liking from this what the doors of their cannon.

Well, I actually find their bizarre, the more bizarre and psychedelic they get in their records that are considered maybe their off records, I find to sometimes be the best. Like the early stuff, not the bluesy late. No, not the boozy bluesy LA woman album or Morrison Hotel. I'm talking about the weird stuff like Strange Days. I agree. Not to Touch the Earth. Yeah, I forgot the other name of it. Anyway, I'm talking

to myself at this point. We should probably get... Crystal Ship. The Soft Parade. That's the record I was talking about. I'm very into that. Alright, there we go. Were you the one that was telling me that you think Taylor Swift's future sister-in-law, Kylie Kelsey, is super hot, or did I just make that up?

No, I'm sure you did hear that, but it wasn't from me. All right. There you go. All right. Well, now we'll get into the show. Let's kick it off at the top, and that is topic number one in what I thought was a really good Saturday afternoon ABC UFC fight night card from Abu Dhabi. It originally had even better fights that got plucked last minute,

but top to bottom, it delivered. But how about this tactical Bantamweight main event? Umar Nurmagomedov with the unbeaten record and the very low ranking, though, would come in at number 10 here against number two, Corey Sanhagen. Five rounds later, though, we get a unanimous decision for Umar Nurmagomedov, and we get him calling for the next shot at the Bantamweight title and the winner of Sean O'Malley-Murab-Devalish-Chivilli later this year.

So, Chuck, for the 18-0 Nurmagomedov, we know about the talent, but he hadn't had the resume to back it up. This was that super close-up against an elite title challenger-ready guy to answer the question, is Umar the real deal? Five rounds later, what's your answer to that question? I think he's the real deal, and I think when you look at the kind of opponents Umar has faced, nobody near the caliber of Corey Sandhagen.

So it's one of those situations you knew he was getting a complete bump up in situation, circumstance, and all of that, also a an event that's basically Taylor made for him right like he's fighting over in Abu Dhabi he's getting a main event against the number two guy I think he was number 10 coming into it he gets the showcase and obviously if he wins that he catapults the field and now he puts himself into a title shot I think the UFC wants to be in their Magomedov business. I think that they like that name attached to any kind of billboard and marquee and poster and everything else. I think that they like that.

And he was able to make good. You know what I mean? To win a fight 50 to 45, if people were a little bored by it, that's okay. But he dominated that fight. Here's what's interesting. Watching it in real time, which can have its pitfalls as a journalist, Chuck, you're tweeting. You're texting people back maybe you're sitting in the eighth row of delta like it's possible and you know and maybe you you're not i thought it was

two two going into the fifth round on first watch when i saw the scorecards of 50 45 and 49 46 twice for umar i was like wow i don't know if that's the fight I saw. Upon rewatch, upon closer inspection, for as close, it's weird. The parallels between the two main events this weekend are interesting. Israel Modrumov didn't have the requisite resume, but had this reputation, this background,

and he elevated his game, and so did Umar in this case. But upon rewatch, for as close and competitive in a technical duel and the highest end of mixed martial arts as this was, yeah, I but upon rewatch for as close and competitive in a technical duel and the highest end of mixed martial arts as this was yeah i think upon rewatch 4-1 or even 5-0 is not incorrect right i think it was i think you could give sandhagen the first round i don't know how you scored it but i thought that you could give him the first round but he what's what happened in that fight was was interesting it was it was almost like a

pattern developed and you're seeing an exact facsimile not exact but a very close facsimile in every single round the takedowns looked exactly the same you always ended up with Sanhagen kind of sitting on the action trying to get out of it able to get out of it forcing it to stand essentially and I think the big surprise if there were if there were two surprises in this fight one was that on the feet Umar Namagomedov outstruck Khorasan who has boxing gloves tattooed on his leg I mean this is a guy who really believes in his boxing and also in the championship round Sanhagen had been I think this was his fifth fight in a row where he'd been in the championships rounds three of those had went the full distance I fully believed that if it went into the championship rounds, Sanhagen would have the advantage late.

That wasn't the case. It was actually Umar at the end kind of running away with it, which to me was a surprise. That told me a lot about his conditioning, where he's at as a fighter, and his preparedness for this. Well, that's going to lead me to a few questions. Let's start first. You mentioned that the UFC wants to be in the Nurmagomedov business as they should.

And by the way, Usman, another cousin was in the corner of the Bellator champion. I'd love to see him get to the UFC and see what he can do too. But Habib was back as coach Habib and Chuck, it's not only great for business when Habib's walking back out after the somewhat abrupt retirement and all that, but I think it's so much better for the fighters when he's in their corner.

There is a presence. Khabib has taken the role of his late father, Abdulmanap. Let's go to this great clip before round five. Khabib was not afraid to get in that ass of Umar at any point in this fight. And let's hear it. You are so much better than him with your hands. You understand?

This is the champion round. You cannot let this go. It does not matter what happens. You have to go for this show me you know i mean maybe maybe he's got financial reasons to be back i'm happy to see him either way chuck okay but my point of setting that up is i love seeing him back he's a huge asset he knows what he has in his cousin here umar Is there any rightful narrative to come out of this fight that as good as Umar looked and he passed the test against a guy who is as tough as it comes in this division, you did hear Habib a lot saying,

believe in your power and your striking, trust it, brother, go out there. There was a lot of urging to do more. When you look at this fight in totality, Umar did everything he was supposed to do to pass the test, but could he have done more based on Habib's words in your eyes? That's the toughest judge maybe in the game, right? Like if he's coaching and you're out there outstriking, I don't think, did you think that he would outstrike Sanhagen in the fight?

So, I mean, from our perspective, the surprise was that he was out there outstriking a guy who I think is very honed and skilled in that craft. But this tells you what they know about Umar, right? They're outstriking a guy who I think is very honed and skilled in that craft. But this tells you what they know about Umar, right? It tells you something about the depth of what they know about their own guy. And I've heard this a little bit more, too, that they believe in his hands and stuff like that. But sometimes people say this just to kind of send you in the wrong direction and put up a little obstacle over here. But that wasn't the case. If anything, it adds a wrinkle to his game that makes him super dangerous.

I wasn't sure, to be honest, how this would look. And contemplating a fight with, for instance, like Marab, would Umar be able to do everything with him? That looks a completely different fight. It just has to because of the style. That's what I'm saying. So I think, if anything, it just added more scope and dimension to what he's able to do i didn't think he was playing it conservative it looked to me like he was trying to get the finish it just i think cory sanning is that good well i think casual eyes which i sometimes have and and we all can fall into that is sort of like man he does look like he could be or should be doing more and it

does look like you know what we've seen him against competition, but that's what happens when you step up. I think it's the same thing that we're going to talk about in the Terrence Crawford, Israel Modromov fight, where it's like, there's this narrative coming out of there. That butt is old and see now what's like, no, you've got a really good guy who worked his balls off to make himself not easy to be hit. We're such a fickle audience. And when you're fighting Corey Sanhagen at this level, you have to be able to out chest the chess master. You got to give Corey Sanhagen respect this level, you have to be able to out-chess the chess master.

You've got to give Corey Sanhagen respect. Even though he's now lost all four times he's stepped up to the very highest elite level, all against great fighters, championship level, he never stops evolving, trying to get better. And Chuck, like... I think he likes that Delta-8 as well, to be honest with you. I would hope so. I'd like to hang with him. Do you think he would wear this out a little bit?

Like, I never know some of these guys, but I'd like to hang with that guy, or maybe he'd wear me out. What do you think Sanhagen would fall on that? For you to hang out with? Yeah. I think you guys would be like, that fellas. You think I'd wear him out, all right? But is he a Colorado guy, as you would say?

He's Colorado, man. He used to be a really good basketball player in the state. He's squirrely. I can see that. He had some pops. Well, look, doesn't Sanhagen kind of remind you of Maniche a little? Oh, a hundred percent.

Yeah. Yeah. Corey Maniche, shout out to that government. I mean, seriously, like his whole evolution and part, you know,

it's almost like a dominant cruise. That division is just very high, you know, very, they're, they're, they're doing a lot of mushrooms. They're high up and they're high,

they're high quality talent, but they, it's both of those guys. Like there's a couple of guys like that who are just, they evolve philosophically. It's not couple of guys like that who are just, they evolve philosophically. It's not just that they look at life differently as they evolve in the fight game. He's certainly one of those guys. And I do think from talking to coaches and stuff like that with him over the years,

that he is at it. He's trying to add wrinkles to his game, but it might just be one of those things. I mean, he brought in Trevor Whitman. He's bringing in an incredible, as they talked about in the broadcast, different looks in the training camp because he knew what he had in front of him, which is a guy that does not make mistakes and is great across every category. So that's really what I'm trying to say. You can appreciate, though, that he was like, let me fight Umar

because this is the second time they booked it. I mean, I love that. To me, that's what I love. I absolutely love that. A guy who believes himself will always want to go back into the fire. That's Corey Sanhagen. But I guess the point in making a parallel to the Crawford fight is you can only look so good against a guy like Corey Sanhagen. If you are of the A- or B-level, he can potentially get you out of there.

But if you have the potential to be an AA-plus guy like Umar showed in here, it's going to turn into exactly what we saw, a sustained chess match. I don't think it was boring. I think it was beautiful, brilliant, and tactical. Most of the losses that Sanhagen has, those guys had to earn it. I think maybe the Sterling fight was the only one where it was kind of surprising. He went in there, and he was able to kind of bust off. Was that two minutes in?

Yeah. That was the only one that I can recall where it made it look easy. You're 100% right. He is just a tough out. I think it's his adaptability, too, man. He's very good, but it's his adaptability. He kind of reads what you're going to do. He reacts, and he's always been able to do that so people i don't i don't know what the criticism

i feel like there was some criticism for umar but at the same time you're like dude 50 45 i mean that's well i wonder if we can if we can say 50 45 if we can say he passed the test if we can now talk about what we what we are is that he's a legitimate title contender i don't think it's wrong to look at what we did see, which was, just like Krofft and Modrumov, a lowered output, I think, for both, because of the quality of the guy across from them. Now, I think this Sanhagen fight was a little bit faster than the boxing match at times, but still it was very checkmate, very back and forth.

It seemed like he had to respect that takedown, the level changes, more than he probably wanted to. I think the problem is we saw Umar against lower-level guys. Now we're seeing him against a high-level. We never kind of saw the in-between where maybe he finishes some of those guys because they go for it in certain points of that fight. They make big mistakes. That's the thing.

Neither Umar or Sandhagen was really willing to risk making the mistake that could cost them that fight. That's true. And I sometimes wonder, with a guy like Umar, you're like, you know, what is the point of it? Like, if you go through and you buzzsaw Sanhagen, of course, everybody's going to be pining to see you sitting cage side for O'Malley's fight with Marab. But at the same time, one of the big things for me,

and I think it will resonate, is does this guy add doubt to the next matchup he'll get whether it's o'malley or marab do you now think i don't know if they can beat umar and i think that he did that and i think that that's what's good about it right you know he didn't give you the the the big time finish where you're like oh shit he's the next champion but i think if you know mma and i'm trying to say that from a standpoint like i know mma it'll be like me but i'm saying you do know i do do I do know a certain amount of MMA. Mixed marital arts. We're talking about mixed martial arts.

Mixed marital arts. I'm big on power couples in the MMA game, you know, in terms of charting their progress and all that. But I will say that what I saw was a guy who's ready to become champion now because Umar does not have any holes in his game, and he is rock solid across the board. Now, was I surprised that he was unable to create big moments of success on the ground despite being able to take Sanhagen down? Yes, but that's also a testament to what Corey Sanhagen can do and how the size that he brings and his ability.

It's funny. You keep mentioning the Madrima fight with Bud, but it's like in a weird way you could look at this. It's always like a recency bias or a recency thing that happens. This is where we're at but you could see how O'Malley would be like or people who love O'Malley would be like well listen man if he can kind of thwart takedowns and just keep it standing he'll tear him up on the feet compared to what you know Sanhagen was able to do it adds these dimensions I love that aspect of it but honestly I'm like I'm not sure that o'malley can

prevent the takedowns like san hagen did well that builds a great segue to where we're going which is o'malley's reaction in a second but i'll say that you're right this is interesting but umar like there's not only no holes dude he is i mean that's what he's built i mean he's a brick house chuck there there there seems to be no flaws physically or mentally. And he seems to have, look, I don't know if he has what Habib had, which is that next, next, next, next level of poise, control, the ability to slow things down in chaos and make the right move. I mean, Islam's got that.

Obviously, it's all part of that Dagestan Abdulmanap coaching tree. But Umar might be a lot of that with his own level of dynamic offense which makes him different and unique to the family look as things stand right now from what i saw in the in the way that he dealt with all of the the unique challenges that a guy like cory sanhagen brings i think he beats every band weight now not not not not demonstratively but i think we saw in there that this guy is ready to go from number 10 to the title. He is. He's 100% there, and I think the one fight,

I mean, you could plug him in against O'Malley, it would be fascinating. Especially, let's say O'Malley just blows the doors off of Murab. You'd be like, oh my God, that's a fascinating fight. And Murab's the betting favorite, and he should be. Exactly. But if Murab does what the betting favorite is, what betting public thinks he's going to do and wins that fight, that sets up a ridiculous fight that marab versus umar is suddenly one of the most

hardcore amazing fights you can make in this you got a cardio guy who can just go 25 minutes hard and and and honestly win the fight anywhere too like he's one of those guys i think who just he just overpowers you wherever you are but you also you're just mentioning umar in terms of being a chip off the old block with his guys in his camp, like Khabib. One of the things Khabib did is he would kind of surprise you. Remember when he knocked down McGregor? He knocks him down with a punch, and you're like,

whoa, that's not supposed to happen. Of all the things, all the scenarios that are supposed to happen, Umar's got that. He's got this weird subtly better than you even at your game. He's got that quick twitch, too, on top of that, and the discipline to wrestle. So, again, I don't know if he's as fully – is he more well-rounded than any Nurmagomedov?

I'm trying to figure it out in my head. I mean, Islam's pretty damn well-rounded. Islam's striking game has gone up. And Habib, too. Habib found a way to make his striking game elite even though it was unorthodox and not very diverse. True. Man, it's a tough one.

I think that we need to see Umar. This was the first big evidence. I mean, going against Barcalos or Kelleher, you get some information. But not a ton. You get your information in a fight like this. I think you get more on the next one. I'm not sure. To make the full comparison to Habib or even islam i think we need to see him a little

more but he certainly looks like he has it's almost like there's something there's another gear and it's just a it's it's a gear to meanness like just no nonsense like tenacious like there's something in those guys so humorless cold oh it's exacting that mean this is the best way to say it it's weird though they have like all those guys have that demeanor. They have that debate on the Dizone broadcast when talking about Terrence Crawford. It's right. Crawford has this like backbone to him that is like, I'm just not going to let you one up me in anything. And if you have a moment, I'm going to have two moments after it.

Umar. And that goes back to the way that these guys are wired. And these guys, not just the guys from Dagestan, but specifically this tree. What they're building is a family dynasty here. And it's incredible to see. Could you imagine? Even though Islam is not a blood relative, right? He's more of a friend.

Yeah, just a friend. Brother, friend. But imagine if they had Islam, Umar as champions at the same time, and imagine if Usman and Raghamedov came behind them and joined the UFC, who he could be a run. He could be a potential title contender. It's crazy to see. Some of it feels inevitable.

It does really feel inevitable. Let's hear Sean O'Malley now. This was on his YouTube channel, I believe, immediately after giving his reaction to what he saw from Umar. I spoke about the champion, Sean O'Malley. What do you want next? Just give me a title shot. Only, only, you know, for someone else.

It doesn't matter. I'm here. This guy is fucking smart. Now, guys. All right, boys. Umar got the job done. Pretty close fight, in my opinion. It looked like he did win.

But again, that was a very close fight. Corey is, in my opinion, one of the pound-for-pound best guys in the world. So for Umnar to be ranked number 10, a lot of the guys wouldn't fight him. So I'm not surprised that he didn't really have any high-level fights up until this. Or at least high-level popular opponents. No one in the UFC wanted to fight this guy. Incredible performance performance by both guys really cory did a really good job shutting down that uh umar's offensive takedowns and wrestling striking was pretty close umar looked like he landed harder shot overall i mean that's as high level as a fight as it gets me versus umar next

question mark hashtag we'll see. Figgy called me out. Ilya and Max are going to fight soon. Undefeated. Umar, 18-0 versus undefeated. Sugar Show, 19-0. Beat a Dagestanian? I wouldn't mind that. That'd be a real good way to get at Conor.

Ooh, imagine how jealous he would be. I might just go with Umar just for that reason alone. Could be a potential massive next. Dude, I have to say, Sean O'Malley's starting to grow on me. I never really connected. Wait, were you reluctant to appreciate him? I never connected with his shtick and his character, if you will, of what he's selling to the people.

I know that fans love it. I'm starting to like his humor and his cleverness. That's a big-ass comb his daughter had there. Yes, yes. Shout out to Umnar there. Do you echo what he said when he said look nobody wants to fight san hagen so almost this one victory for umar raises him all the way up do you agree what he said that sanik is basically pound for pound level if he doesn't

have the if he doesn't have the breakthrough wins that keep him in there do you think ability wise though he is sort of i think so and i think you know a guy like o'malley is a student of the game probably sees it analytically like he can look at it and say like i can see what this guy does x's and o's he's very good i think that he is among the very elite he's also weird though because you mentioned it he kind of gets into a penultimate spot i think he looked at this it was kind of punching down right because the guy's number 10 but he knew umar had a lot of juice going into this fight. If he takes that, he can solidify himself as a title shot, all that stuff. I think he's kind of in that Dustin Poirier world of like.

He is. He's like, he can beat the guys to get you there. Then he kind of falters when he gets to the big fights. I mean, his losses are Aljamain Sterling, TJ Dillashaw, Piotr Jan, and now Umar Nurmagomedov. I can't say that without bumbling. I'm sorry. Umar Nurmagomedov. I can't say that without bumbling. I'm sorry. Umar Nurmagomedov. That is the top of the pops. That's the best you get.

Does he have another run at 32? I think so because he is only 32, but this is why I mentioned Poirier because Poirier is, what, 35 or somewhere in that range. More mileage. Yeah, exactly. More mileage. I think we've seen what Poirier can do. It doesn't necessarily take away from you in today's UFC from getting back there a couple wins.

He could be back there. I think his resolve is to get back there. He even said that afterwards. He's like, you know, now he's really good. He's ahead of me, and I have to get back to him. I think that that resolve will help him. I do think he has another run in him. What remains to be seen is if he'll ever really do that

or he'll become a Dustin Poirier, which is totally fine. Or the Dan Hooker of the lightweight era. Or the Dan Hooker, you know? These guys are completely respectable fighters. They're very good, you know? I think San Higgins is even better compared to his own division than Dan Hooker was. No disrespect. All right, look, if it's Umar versus O'Malley, it's a monster fight that we must see.

We just talked about the potential style matchup that it could be if it was Marab versus Umar. Marab and Sean O'Malley are going to meet, of course, in September at the Sphere. Here is Umar after the fight being asked who he would prefer to face. They said, I'm next for the title. I am number one contender.

I will fight for the title next. Doesn't matter if it's going to be Marab or O'Malley. Be careful, guys. I'm coming for you. Doesn't matter who's going to be next. I'm coming. Would you rather fight Marab or would you rather fight Be careful guys, I coming for you. Doesn't matter who gonna be next, I coming. Would you rather fight Merab or would you rather fight Sean? You know, if I will choose, they will think I scared one of them. That's why I want to fight with both of them. I don't scare no one. Doesn't matter. Even if both, I will fight. I will smash them both. He will smash them both.

And that is on, that's what you're supposed to say when you're from that. I love that he's got that voice. That's great. It sounds like he's speaking on 1.5 speed the whole time. Chuck, let's talk about the larger picture, because related to this is a very important Bantamweight fight that we also saw on Saturday's main card. And by the way, the Bantamweight division is still the deepest and best in the world at the moment.

And that's former flyweight champion Deveson Figueredo edging out Marlon Chido Vera on the undercard to improve now to 3-0 at Bantamweight. Remember, he left the flyweight division following the four title fights with Brandon Moreno, of which he won one of those, a draw, and two losses. But now he's got three straight wins here. And then he called for a title shot of himself. So first of all, Chuck, to get uh your your opinion here figuerito's doing what you don't normally do which is get older and age to his late 30s and reinvent himself in a new weight class higher like the higher one right decidedly smaller we have a highlight of the

knockdown that seemed to really push him forward in round three of a very close and competitive fight in this shock the mma world because no one does this to Chito Vera. He's never been knocked down as far as I know. What can we say about the viability here of Figueiredo as a Bantamweight title contender? I think it's legit now. This was the fight I needed to see. And it's funny you mention it, man, because this is an era of the UFC where there's very strange outlier examples of things that don't traditionally happen. You have Alex Pereira who did the exact same thing. 185, loses his belt, goes up to 205 as a 36-year-old guy

who's been in a lot of wars from the kickboxing world. Now owning it, right? Like he's one of the UFC's biggest stars, winning all these fights. He goes up in weight. Now you get Figge, who's coming around. And I always thought, like, you know, maybe he's more suited to 135 obviously he had his issues at 125 it just feels like he'd be happier there and i think it's kind of showing he's just more comfortable his strength really adds up to knock cheeto down man but he looks so much smaller than cheeto he did look smaller and that is the

big question i guess but at the same time some of these guys like umar for instance has just built like a hydrant you know, and including Marab. Like, they're not the biggest in terms of length or whatever. They're all kind of these compact muscle dudes, and he just adds a completely— He relies on his strengths, and it's not just the pinpoint nature of his punches and the pop. His footwork, he's never—if you notice, he didn't hang around long enough to become a problem until Chido made the, Chido, I thought, made the adjustment too late. It was at the end of the second round that he started to really walk him down. But look at what Figueiredo does to counter that adjustment.

I didn't think that small he'd be able to carry his power up, but it seems like he's picking his spots as a counter punch perfectly. The greatest thing that happened in that fight was that he got a couple of takedowns in that first round. And he was basically saying like, Ch cheeto we can do this all day i can eke out this thing you know and just kind of grind you to 30 30 27 type of situation that didn't happen in round two he gets shut down there but it was almost like he was like i'm not real committed to it anyway i'll just light you up on the feet and he showed that he could do that and then around three catches him and i think that that's where that level you know threatening to kind of do the takedowns and stuff like that kind of opens something up.

He's just dangerous, man. And he's a dog. I would not have expected that he would move up in weight here, look to be the smaller man every time, and then beat Rob Font, which is not an easy debut, submit Cody Garbrandt. You can say what you will about what Garbrandt has left, but it's still not an easy fight.

This was supposed to be the fight that corrects that, where you say, okay, hey, nice job trying to make a run here. Instead, he passes this test as well. So, 36, I believe. 3-0 in the division, former champion. What do you do next? Now, it's going to be Marab versus Sean.

It seems like they're telling us Umar already has the winner, and we've already talked business-wise that last name, Nurmagomedov. But you could almost argue that Figi Umar already has the winner, and we've already talked business-wise. I think they set it up, yes, for that bit. That last name, Nurmagomedov. But you could almost argue that Figi Umar should be the next fight because Umar doesn't have as many big-name wins, not even close to as many big-name wins. That's what I was thinking.

If you compare the resumes, like I was mentioning, Kelleher, Barcelos, those types of names, that's all good. You get in there, you've got Sandeng, now that's his first big name. But if you really look at it, you know, to me in my mind, Rob font, Garbrandt,

these are bigger names. You're three and oh, with an escalate, clear escalation of really big names. I think that you could make that argument right now that he deserves. If anybody's going to be waiting in the, you know, cage side at the sphere next month,

it could be Davis and figure it out. I just feel like the UFC is expediting Umar into the situation for reasons that we've talked about. I also don't like that matchup for Figue against Umar. Oh, so them fighting together against each other. I think for Figue to truly get the title shot and potentially have a chance to win, it's got to be matchup dependent. There's some size issues, man.

I agree with you. But this is true. And I think if there's going to be somebody who exploits is i think you could almost this is true and i think if there's going to be somebody who exploits that size issue it's going to be umar who just like o'malley with the range i mean there's a lot going i thought cheeto was the perfect matchup because he could exploit the technical gap between them and the speed if i'm o'malley and i mean he's been like i i love watching that clip because i hate the muhammad ali things but like you always go to you reference the muhammad ali because he was always like brash and like, I take on any of these guys.

They always had a word for whoever was coming up. I love that kind of thing. I feel like O'Malley gets that. Like he always is like, yeah, I'm not afraid of him. What are you looking at this little twerp? Look at this twerp,

you know, treat him like a paper football, flick him out of here. You know, like get your guitar on the MTV. That ain't working. But it's like, I love that.

But if he beats Marab and somehow he fights Davidson, I would think that that would feel to him like this really favors me having an era. I'm going to be able to run with this for a while. I would think that he would feel good about that matchup. I'm still not over being amazed that Figueredo was able to win back

his title at 34 at 125 being barely able to make weight against a guy who had just finished him. Right? Yeah. I think he had finished him. Yeah, Moreno submitted him in the second fight. And then the third fight, he comes back and wins the title back at 34.

Dude, that showed you that it's not just this flashy dude who talks a lot of shit. Man, he's a warrior, and he can back it up. This reinvention is really fun to watch. It is. Seriously. I love the division because I think that we could have been having this discussion two years ago and you would have had a different set of names. Some of them would still have been there.

O'Malley was the guy who was way down, but now he's up in there. It's just I love that you can plug all these iterations in and they're all kind of fascinating at this point. You still have Henry Cejudo who's hanging around. You've got guys like that. I find it to be so fun because some divisions you get like, you know, like middleweight or something where there's the Vittori's and those kinds

of guys. And they're always kind of mucking it up. Like they, you know what I mean? Like, and you're like, ah, we've seen him already. We've seen him already. I've seen it. It's so wide open at bantamweight. I really, it really is in, in Figueredo for whatever he lacks. He's, he's sharpening and leaning on everything he does bring. And it's fun to see. It's great to see. I love this division.

Did Jose Aldo just get a fight announced? He does. It's Batista, I believe, who's fighting. Mario Batista. I don't like that fight for him. No, they could have plugged him in. Like, in this new scenario, the way it's shaken out, they could have plugged him into a better fight. Yeah, bigger name, older guy, whatever.

I mean, can we get Dominic Cruz against Aldo? Can we do that? I keep thinking that that's what they're going to do, but then they older guy, whatever. I mean, can we get Dominic Cruz against all those? Can we do that? I keep thinking that that's what they're going to do, but then they don't do it. All right, let's go on to topic number two, also from UFC Abu Dhabi, Terrence Crawford breakdown still to come. And Tony Ferguson jumped into this, in this top five of topics, with what he's been doing lately.

Losing, unfortunately, at 40 years old. He set a new UFC record. I mean, you can argue he broke BJ Penn's record for consecutive losses in the cage. You can argue that BJ continued that streak at the Lava Shack, but at least for UFC purposes in the Octagon, I would argue that. This is now eight straight defeats. It came against Michael

Chiesa, and it came in a largely boring fight that ended in a quick and dominant submission for Chiesa at the end of round one. So Tony doesn't take a ton of damage, but afterwards it felt inevitable that we're going to have to talk about retirement because how the hell could the promotion continue to promote a guy who takes big damage? Yet the crowd does love him and he is a living legend. There's no question about that, but he can't win anymore at this level.

So Chucky did the, I'm not going to put both fight gloves down and retire. I'm going to put one down. But here's what happened immediately after he put one down. He said, I'm going to keep the other one just in case, which led you to believe, okay, he doesn't really want to do it, but he knows the UFC is going to make him. He did make that one comment in the post-fight interview of, I love the UFC.

I don't want to fight anywhere else. Right. Then he punched the glove on the ground that he left. And then as he was walking out the arena, they started to change. Let's watch the glove on the ground that he left, and then as he was walking out the arena, it started to change. Let's watch the first Ferguson video here. Tosses the glove. That's worth some money.

I think it was right here he decides that he wants to keep fighting. Tony, is it time? No, I didn't time yet, man. Surprise, surprise, mother effers. And this is a hard conversation. Boy, that suspense, it lasted like 90 seconds. Will he retire or not? These conversations are hard because we love these guys,

but we don't want to see them. So I got more clips to show, but before I continue, let me ask you the first question here. All right. There's no chance UFC gives him another fight, even a Nick Diaz fight. There's no chance, gives him another fight, even a Nick Diaz fight. There's no chance, right? It shouldn't happen. It shouldn't happen.

I don't think it happens. It's unprecedented, right? Like eight in a row, what are you selling at some point? They've given him basically, I think, the last couple of fights have been like, okay, we'll give you this one more, and they keep giving him the one more. What would be the best outcome for him? Did he win? So they give him the one more fight And they keep giving him the one more because there's not going to be, what would be the best outcome for him? Did he wins his like, so they give him the one more fight.

He wins it. Now what? Now you're dealing with like a Tito got that against Bader and then he upset him. And then it was like, Oh, that led to 20 more Tito fights across multiple organizations. Right?

Yeah. I remember he was plugged into Rashad, right? Like right away. Wasn't that what it was? It was crazy. I remember that whole thing. That was a,

but it's, it's, it's one of those situations that you, you're perpetuating something that is hard. It's hard for the fan base. I don't know how you felt about his last couple of fights. But when he's on a card, you're like, ooh, Tony Ferguson. It's like this little bit of like, there's like some dread to this.

You don't want dread on your cards. I got ripped because I started to almost come around after a few of the last few fights because he fought hard against Patty and didn't get beat. I did the same thing. He hurt Chandler like i mean there was moment you know but and in this one i was like he's basically fighting a pacifist who's like gonna use his jujitsu you're like okay well let's see if he can at least keep it in his realm and i thought he was there's a little bit of you to this like now he's not fighting like tony ferguson he's trying not to get taken out of there quickly and it becomes a little more boring so then you're like we're defeating the purpose of even getting a vintage tony ferguson for only

the third time since he won the welterweight tough season back in 2011 he looks soft but i'm not gonna he's 40 years old sure it was a weird fight until it ended now we got him at the post-fight presser where he's definitely not retiring but he brings up points about the fans and chuck to his credit before we hear this dude they love tony he's getting his flowers all the time and he deserves it let's hear tony again look we know what dana said right and at the end of the day he's the one who gets to call those shots if the ufc say to you i'm sorry tony no more what do you do do you consider competing for other people do you call it a day on that or what do you do i'll talk to my homeboy lloyd right there and what we do is we go get do something else and i want to be real if those fans out there are willing enough to come

out here and fly and spend thousands of dollars to come watch me compete somewhere i guarantee fucking to you they're gonna follow me somewhere and that's the humblest thing i could fucking say because no matter where i'm at no matter what i'm doing i'm gonna get better and better and better and better this is hard because there's there's motivation in. There's a lot of delusion in there. And it's like... Well, you've seen it a ton. You've followed both fight games. You see this all the time with guys who just cling and hang on too long.

Right. And for all we know financially, maybe he needs to keep fighting. So the point is, there's a free will. And he's got a name where whatever levels of organization he wants to go to, it seems like he's ready to go. So it's like, how do we stop his next stop being BKFC fight against Mike Perry or Jake Paul boxing match? Like, how do we stop that?

I mean, I don't think he would get either, but maybe he would. I don't even. I feel like after hearing what he just said there, which is, hey, as long as fans want to see me, I'm going to give it to him, you know. And I feel like that's the biggest endorsement that there could be one of those opportunities for him and i think he takes it and i as much as i don't want to see it we have seen and you know the the bare knuckle thing has been weird they've they've experimented i remember they brought in chris lieben who was having like heart trouble we'd seen him take a ton of damage and you're

like dude don't brush off him and throw him in there that's a that's a bad idea but they did they don't traditionally do that but i don't think they're above it if they think that tony will draw some people and some interest they'll do it i don't need to see that but i don't think you can convince it i don't i don't think you can convince him he's gonna be in a boxing ring soon somewhere it's gonna be something there's too many i'd rather it be boxing than bare knuckle i don't know i mean that's just well it depends on if it's you're right but i mean if it's if it's a it's against some equivalent in a boxing room with the bigger um gloves maybe but i mean i don't need to see it i'm not trying to advocate i'm just saying if he's going to do it based on like fan interest and him watching him make that walk again i hope it's something

that you feel better about than just him going in there and getting mauled. Yeah. Weird coincidence, though. His longtime rival, the guy he never got to fight despite five meetings, Sabine Ramaga-Methoff, was there on the card, and they did ask him for his words about Tony and where he's at in his career afterwards. It's not a surprise for me because he is four years old.

I just want to wish him all the best. He is truly one of the best whoever was doing it in UFC. Nie jestem zaskoczony, bo jest 4 lata i chcę mu życzyć najlepszego. Jest naprawdę najlepszym, kto by w tej chwili był. Chcę mu życzyć najlepszego. Jego życie zaczyna się od tego, co myślę. Bo jest 4 lata i skończył karierę w MMA. Teraz będzie to zupełnie inna, lepsza. Oczywiście, w prime, w moim i jego prime, powinno być bardzo interesujące. life much better of course in prime my prime and his prime it's supposed to be a very interesting

fight but what what i can do it was uh he have couple time injuries i have couple time injuries it is what it is you know sometimes we have planned but god have his plan you know and we cannot control this i have to say chuck i don Chuck, I don't know this whole financial situation for Habib. I'm just referencing what I see in the headlines. Could he have some outdated beliefs on certain parts of life that I wouldn't agree with? Maybe. But I love Habib, and I love that he's aging like a fine wine to me.

There's a lot of wisdom. He didn't dunk on Tony there. He was very polite, and I don't know. I love Habib. I don't know. I love Habib. I hope he remains a huge fixture in the fight game. What about this? Tony Ferguson, boxing.

Habib Nurmagomedov, not known for his stand-up. That's grosser than I was going to ask you. I was going to ask you if they fought tomorrow. Just on where you think they're at physically right now, who would win tomorrow if they fought in an MMA fight? Like Eagle FC main event. But Khabib, I know that Ferguson just went through camp and he was going on about all the repetitions and sparring and everything.

Dude, Khabib looks, you see those people like sloshing around in the sweat at that gym? Oh, yeah. It's disgusting. Khabib, no matter how big he gets, I think he's always going to retain the meanness, the ability to take you down. Nothing a double leg couldn't figure out at any point.

I would think he would find a way to win that. But no, I don't want to see them box each other. That was very respectful. No Tere Masu references, no nothing. Not that Khabib would. I could see why a promotion, boxing promotion, would be like, hey, let's give the fans what they wanted all this time. I see I'm down for that.

That's why I want UFC. I know it's not going to work because they'll probably find a way to screw their fighters there too, but I wish they would do Zufa boxing and focus on all these fun. Did that materialize? It never quite did.

It never quite did. All right, there you go. I hate to see this. This is a rough portion of the Tony Ferguson experience, but you heard Habib say his life just begins now. Not yet.ony's not ready to go and if you're not ready to go you're going to keep finding a way to fight you've you've done this a long time i've done this a long time when you hear guys basically saying especially that this was this in the walk back he's like yeah you know what i don't know why i was taking off even the gloves right there i'm going to keep

fighting if they're doing that he's definitely going to fight again he's definitely going to keep fighting. If they're doing that, he's definitely going to fight again. He's definitely going to fight again. And I think you just have to kind of know that that's going to happen. I mean, it's his story in the end, and he gets to do that. But it's not something that I think happens in the UFC. I don't think the UFC goes along with this adventure anymore. He's not on this level anymore. I mean, remember when Dan Severin went on to have like 300 more MMA fights until he was like in his 50s, right, taking on all comers?

That's right. He did have a lot of fights. until he was like in his 50s, right? Taking on all comers. That's right. He did have a lot of fights. But that's like the lowest level of regional Michigan scene. Shout out to Brent Brookhouse out there in regional Michigan scene. Let's go to topic number three. And as we continue down this UFC Abu Dhabi card, which really had a lot of interesting storylines or arrivals or breakthrough moments. None to steal the headlines, but enough to get us talking about it. How about Shara Bullitt?

In the co-main event, the red-bearded pirate took on Polish brawler and Al Faran impersonator Michal Oleg Shayshek. It didn't go Oleg Shayshek's way, as we got a three-round unanimous decision for Shara Bullitt. But Chuck, let's start here. Where are we at in the, how do I say his name in real life? Shara Bullitt and Magomedov? Yeah, I don't know in the chara bullet experience yeah that's i don't think he deserved fight of the night although this fight wasn't awful but i'm not getting the vibes yet that he has this next hamza neon sign behind him i don't feel it yet am i being a hater what did you see in this because

it's another one he's calling out nick diaz i mean but the thing is uh you know it's i think that it's very interesting that we're talking about a dagestani guy looks the part right he's he looks the part he looks the pirate he's doing all this but yet he has from what we've seen almost no wrestling like in grinding skill like he's he's almost like so light on his feet that it feels like uh like i don't even know like he's the mascot of the dagestani gym you know like the tommy fury of the fury boxing clan right he looks like this but he uh i thought maybe we'd see that a little bit in this fight and instead the times where they kind of were at the ground he was at a complete disadvantage he's fending off being submitted um as the round is closing out. Got dropped, too. I got dropped. It's just there's a lot of red flags all over this guy. And red hair.

Red hair, red flags. I mean, do you think the carpet? Yeah. Bet the carpet. But I do think that he's an intrigue, and I think that the UFC probably sees him. They have to see him somewhat as a novelty. I mean, the crowd pops.

Hasbulla shows up. It's a big deal. Hasbulla was there. I think if you, like, so he's only going to be able to fight in the Middle East. Now, is that dude at Visa? I never know anymore. He was in the States filming a movie before this, so I think

it might be the fact that he only has the one eye, but I don't know. I can't make it. I can't make J.J. Robo cross-reference jokes. You can't make me do it, okay? I won't do it. Well, Michael Bisping knew how to kind of fool people. That that's true but i don't think this guy's trying to fool anybody um he's kind of missing the eye okay he might as well just wear the patch in there i mean are you more a believer of patty pimblitt or a shower bullet right now in terms of like becoming

legit patty pimblitt right now i'm shocked to say that but i think patty pimblitt showed us something in that last fight uh against green yeah maturity and the way he was able to get it done it was almost like a showcase event for him so given his age that he's able to see out of both eyes and all of that i would probably say that's a plus a man can't see he can't fight uh you know who brings that line back a lot your boy corey graves on wwe even though i don't watch wwe anymore every time i tune in i I hear that. Heard from him recently, man.

Dude, I ran into him at the Chicago airport one time randomly, and we were like, what's up? He's a very nice man. I like that guy. He's cool. Good looking cat. He's heavily tatted, that fella. Heavily tatted. Had a good life.

You mentioned the call out. This is really what I didn't like about Shara Bullitt's performance. Call it Nick Diaz. Nick Diaz. Let's go fight. You striker, I'm striker he needs a pair i'm junior fighter let's go this is very interesting fight popular these fans let's go oktober okay first of all i mean the only fight i'd actually want to see tony ferguson again is

nick diaz because i want them to have the softest landing possible. That's actually probably the right shout right there. What are we doing here, Jarrah Bullock? Come on, dude. No. You know, okay, so I was talking to Pizzi Carroll, and Pizzi is in communication with people who've kind of known his career, and they were saying that he was more, Jarrah was almost more of an influencer

in a strange way in Russia, right? He was kind almost more of an influencer in a strange way in Russia. He was kind of more of an influencer. Got his acting thing going on. So you got to remember a little bit the entertainment side of this. I don't know how committed he's going to be to try to chase this. So if you look at that,

I think that the call out of Nick Diaz makes a lot of sense. But you're never going to get him over there. That should deflate all of our balloon into who he can become and what his true intentions are. That is true. Well, I mean, I don't think he's going to be able to fight outside the Middle East. So now you're looking at just the schedule of whenever they go out to the Middle East.

So is he like Butterbean, basically? That's probably a closer comparison. He's this attraction that, I mean, I'm all for it. I'm actually not against it. If they want to put him in action fights and against non-wrestlers but like also let's not try to fool the public that he's right a rising contender right and I don't know if they're going to do that we're just I think that there's a bit of buzz on him we're comparing him to Hamzat because it feels a little Hamzat-esque in terms of the way that he got a couple quick fights all this he clearly isn't as dominant

as Hamzat but why do I feel like this is going to lead to Jake Paul being offered a UFC fight against him at some point? Why do I feel like that's coming? I mean. No, people are mad that I just said that. I take everything that I just said back. I think those two words are like, they're like, you know, using derogatory terms at this point. They're using words. Let's talk about people coming off the scale instead.

Mackenzie Dern, Chuck. Every couple fights. You paying that about people coming off the scale instead. Mackenzie Dern, Chuck. Yeah. Every couple fights. You paying that cameraman? You're paying that cameraman. Every couple fights, she gets in extremely high-level shape, commits again, Jason Perillo back in her corner, which seems to be the right move in terms of striking comfortability.

And then she goes out there against a not-a-joke opponent by any means in Lupe Godinez, who fights in Alexa Grasso's camp and brings toughness and boxing and looks like a I don't want to say future. No, it's not crazy. She looks like a future contender. She does. Chuck, you mean that we've had nausea on this show's history about the things that she's still missing. Yet I've always given her a lot of grace because I think some of her strengths are super strengths. I mean, really, I talked a couple weeks ago. I said, you know, Ioana said,

I'd only come back for a women's BMF. And I'm like, is there really fighters that are women's BMF material? Mackenzie Dern is women's BMF material. But this is not the conversation we're having right now of whether she makes fun fights. We're talking about whether she really put the career back on track.

Wouldn't she have two losses straight coming in? And I think her stock was as low as it's been in a while. I come out of here going, if you can get in that level of shape and keep that level of mental focus to the game plan, this is not over yet by any means, Chuck. No,

that's exactly the same thing. I thought, I think a crazy thing. And this is almost like the main event we're talking about. Like if you said McKenzie Dern is going to outstrike loopy right like you'd probably be like probably not but she did loopy has outstruck her last four opponents i had to go look this up because i knew that she was a decent striker but to see the kind of improvement if you go back and just look at mackenzie dern in her first few fights and her stand-up i can remember people just openly again if we were memeing as

hard back then we she would have been all over the place but we her striking was so bad it was almost like if she can't get it into her realm she's going to lose she has brought that striking up to where it's pretty good uh and actually above good like i think now her striking is a true asset for her what she's bringing in there um but we know that she has sublime submission skills. So now it's a pick your poison. I think once she gets into that space and if she's able to stay in shape, like you mentioned, she's definitely going to make a run.

I really do believe she – I think the UFC loves her. They always have. They would try to expedite her. She's always one big win away from a title shot. So I feel like – but now she looks the part. This was the fight where I was like, she looks the part to me. Well, it's never that she's in bad shape. I mean, remember she came back after the pregnancy so quick that time.

And was still, I mean, she's a warrior. She's always willing to get after it. But there's obviously levels to fitness. And when she comes down on this level of fitness, she's pushing forward the entire time. But when you're bringing back sensible striking, when Perillo wasn't there or even times when he was, it's like every other fight.

Look, when it hurts, when her technique goes and it's not that she's ever had great striking technique. There's times that she set up the one, a basic one to enough to where I go, OK, she's got a powerful right hand. She's a she's big for the division. She steps into it. Now you're seeing a little bit more patience in there and it looks completely different fighter. But I think she needs that gas tank to push she has to push the whole time because if she doesn't she's going to get picked apart technically in the chess match i think so too but like it's just like you mentioned her

patience her cardio like i thought i felt like everything is just better like you know just picking her shots she had some good really good flurries and combinations in there where she landed most of those shots i i just think that if she's able to kind of show that against somebody like lupo i have a lot of respect for i think that you're right i think that i was people have seen her as like a potential contender at some point if she if she's able to kind of get rolling i really believe that she'll get the title shot and it's weird because i think i put her away a couple of times like not it's never happening god shot. And it's weird because I think I put her away a couple of times. Like, nah, it's never happening. Oh, God, yeah.

You know, it was more akin to, like, almost like she was a throwback to the kind of Gracie world of, well, they're very good at one thing, but if you can just force them to stand with you, you know, or something, you could beat them. She seemed the closest in our modern era to that kind of fighter, but I feel like she's bridged that gap. Well, her intangibles in certain categories, willingness to fight jujitsu they're through the

roof yeah but i've always looked she looked to be i don't want to say not coachable because i'm not no one's on the inside we can't see but there seemed to be a disconnect in terms of her game planning and her commitment this fight seemed better and by the way i thought when they were walking to the cage i suddenly was was like, man, Lupe's better than I remembered. Like I was looking at her resume and I'm like, this could be a disastrous loss if Dern doesn't step up and do this. So she did. Now

obviously, and she even said in the post-fight interview, the key is going to be consistency. Can she be this dialed in? I don't know, Chuck, I don't know, but there does seem to, would you agree without knowing the insides of her life in camp, there seemed to be pockets of chaos that come out and they definitely seem to affect her willingness to like buy into that next level of game planning, patience, poise. And you know what I'm saying? She wings it.

She wings it too often. This was not that. I mean, she's always kind of been on that line of, you know, almost celebrity. Like she enjoys the celebrity. She'll show up at events, cameras on her. She hey yeah you know what i mean like so she's and there's nothing wrong with that but i get what you're saying i get what you're saying i think that her but i mean honestly looking at that there's no reason to believe now that she won't be dialed in like that i think now that you've seen it and see what that looks like i mean and she's gonna get going to get the, I don't know where she'll end up in the rankings.

I have no idea about that sort of thing. But I think when she starts to see that that's where it heads, and especially having gone through it, falling down a couple of times, I think she'll be able to ride it this time. I still don't think she is successful or even largely competitive against the Whaley or Tatiana level of this division.

But I think she showed us with this loopy fight that she can get to the title shot. It's going to be up to her from now and then how much more she can add to this. Yeah. She's still in that, was she 31 maybe? I think she's still in that prime window where she can still enter her peak and put it all together.

This was a promising turn. It was, and it was good to see. Let's keep it going down the list. How about lightweight Joel Alvarez, Chuck? Yeah. Dude, he looked like a killer. Was this matchup dependent against Elvis Brenner that he looked this great or is he starting to put it together in your eyes it probably is somewhat both but dude when you're

watching that ty plumb like he's got his hands wrapped around he's just slamming those knees up in there rich franklin i know it was that's what i thought of exactly i was like dude we're looking at rich franklin getting just creamed by Anderson Silva back in the day. I haven't seen a finish like that in a long time where basically the Muay Thai is that pronounced and vicious. It looked crazy. It looked choreographed almost. It was nuts, man. But I think that that's just I think that's how good he is.

He's in sick shape. You know, there's like great shape. And then there's like Umar next level shape. He looks to be and that always tells you when someone is going all in there's levels to all in chuck but at some point these fighters get to a point where they're like i've got to find the best of myself i have no stone left on turn and he looks to be in that role does he have the complete game though to withstand that in this division and get i mean i'm gonna need to see him against somebody probably a little more accomplished than bruner no doubt so it's like you going to need to see him against somebody probably a little more accomplished than Bruner. No doubt.

So it's like you're going to need to see that. And then once that kind of happens. But I got to say, like, you know, what's the state of my mind? The Bernabeu? They're talking about with Ilya Toporia fighting there in Spain. Yes. He's got a little time. I have no idea if the UFC will pull this off.

I feel like optimistically we always look at these things. We're like, ooh, God, this is amazing. But if they were really really to do that this guy is on the cusp of becoming like a star as well and i think that if he gets one more big win he could showcase and something like that and maybe and maybe at that point yeah i think at that point he might actually put it all together to the point where you're you're talking about him that way there's an opening at lightweight because of how aging the that old action group is that are on the way out. Poiriers, the Gaethjes, the Chandlers. There's an opening for guys like this to step in.

BSD is one of them. I think he's going to bounce back big from that Poirier fight. I heard Paul Felder say, like, hey, this is one of the reasons I got out of the division. For these hammers coming up? Yeah, and that makes sense. I mean, you do think of those older guys, like, I don't want to be playing these games anymore, man. One more from that card. I want to pick your brain on this because I really don't think I had heard much about this guy, and he really jumped out.

Light heavyweight, Azamat Mirzakhanov, 35 years old. He improved to 18-0, took Alonzo Mennefield to the woodshed in the second round via knockout. That's no joke. And then in broken English through a translator, he calls out the UFC for putting him on the undercard and not giving him like top five opponents chuck like where's this guy been all my life how how where had you been of him and what'd you make of that performance not too much i did know that he was undefeated

obviously and i knew he came up through dana's contender series but you were not really paying attention because you see these guys and there's usually a reason if they're buried a little bit you know they're still green whatever a little longer in the tooth for that kind of thing, too. He probably knows he's got a certain shelf life and he's like, let's get this thing rolling. I think it's hilarious. It comes up on Dana's contender series. But yet he's five fights in to his UFC career. And he's like, hey, man, you know, this is promotional malpractice.

What you're doing to me. I think that that's great. Like, I want to see to know overall. It's like a monster. He does. I think four of his fights in the he gets 18-0 overall. It's legit. He looked like a monster. He does. I think four of his fights in the UFC have been KOs too, right? He's just kind of obliterating guys. He needs a big-time step up, and I'm with him, man.

At this point, you know, Minifield is one of those guys that kind of feasts their famine. He goes in there and he destroys guys too. There's a bunch of guys like that that have been lingering in this division for a while. And I'm like, but now you want to see him? All right, plug him in. Why not? I want new blood at that. In that division especially, I would love to see that. Sure, and I'm like, but now you want to see him. All right, plug him in. Why not? I want new blood at that. In that division especially, I would love to see that.

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All right. Have you seen this shit still to come? How are we doing here, Chuck? You doing good? you need anything can get our trusty staff i'm good man i'm good all right got my coffee over here long island luke i haven't heard much from you you're doing what you're doing well back there we're chilling over here we're all right we're chilling we're chilling let's get into topic number four we'll slide quickly into boxing and it was a big one on saturday the first riyadh seasonizan card funded by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Turkey Al-Ashiq on U.S. soil.

And it was the return of Terrence Crawford for the first time in one year since he demolished Errol Spence and their long-awaited welterweight unification. He moved up to 154. He took on the largely unknown Israel Madrimov. And for all the celebrities that showed up and any of us

that thought Crawford was going to make quick and easy work of this guy, turns out Modrimov with that 350 fight amateur experience, despite having only 10 pro fights. Oh, he was up to the challenge. This turned out to be a chess match at the highest level and an enjoyable one that did produce though. A weird fallout of narratives coming out of there. So we've got a lot to talk

about here chuck bmo stadium or bmo whatever you want to call it there and there's a lot bmo yeah i don't know there's a lot we have to talk about about the pacing of this card and everything all the weirdness there was a lot of weirdness on this card man like you're mentioning all the celebrities he's like trying to identify all of them that was fun that was fun to see uh for a 19 hour pay-per-view. Let's talk about this at the top. It goes down as a unanimous decision for Terrence Crawford. He becomes a champion in a fourth weight class, but it was close. 115, 113, 115, 113, and 116, 112. First and foremost, Chuck, what'd you make of the scoring and how did you score this fight?

I would like to know what you thought of this too. I had 115 113 same as mine okay for who well i had it for the right guy which was the guy who won did you have it that way i had it for crawford yes i thought for a minute your life was gonna be like okay i didn't know we didn't prep this i didn't know where you're coming so i did think though and i you could tell me if you felt the same that crawford had to win those last rounds though to get it i felt like it turned down to. It turned out on two of three scorecards. It was even going into the last round. So he, he,

he needed it. And boy, did he step up? Yes, he did. And I think that if you wanted to look at Crawford at any point where it started to look, I think that people were just in wait,

right? Like when's he going to, when's he going to start doing, you're going to figure them out and kick him out. And it just didn't happen. But I think the closest you came was in those rounds. And I think that that's what distinguished it in the end. I'm like, to me, it was like, listen, man, he was able to do more in those last couple rounds at the very end that kind of steered it for me.

And I think that that's why I'm like, because he didn't look good or live up to the expectations doesn't mean he lost the fight. Well, that's what we need to get into. Did he look good? Mostly. I thought he looked very good. But I think there are things we definitely learned about him at 154 pounds and things we definitely learned about him against what turned out to be a world-class opponent.

And forgive us for not knowing that because, look, Modromov hadn't beaten world-class competition. He was only 10-0. He was a legitimate world champion at 154. Crawford had a knockout streak. Crawford has knocked out everyone he fought at 147 in his last 11 fights. That's what I mean. He has more knockouts than the guy who had professional fights at this point.

And look, even when Crawford steps up against great competition, he finds a way to change southpaw, figure you out, wait for you to make that mistake or that opening, and get you. What made this fight what it was, which I thought was technically brilliant. Not an overly through-the-roof classic of entertainment, but those that know, know. You got to see a lot of the greatness from Terrence Crawford need to come out, just not in the way that people thought. People thought, okay, he'll just step on the gas. He couldn't do that against Modrumov, but also Modrimov couldn't do that against him. This was kind of like

Sanhagen-Umar, like I'm saying. It's at such a high level that they both couldn't make a mistake and open it, but what we saw was Bud doing what Bud does. Make adjustments, make more adjustments than him. The biggest story of the fight was how great

Madrimov fought. I scored it seven rounds to five for Terrence Crawford. I did rescore it again on the train this morning to get a non-distracted look, and I came out the same way. Do I think there's a ton of close rounds? Yes. Do I think a score four Madrimov or a draw is crazy? No.

If you had it seven, five Madrimov, Chuck, there's rounds you could. Trust me. Because they both risk something. By playing it so surgically and so carefully you always risk what's going to happen in the scorecards because when you lower the output for yourself and your opponent you're judging on such specific moments of apples and oranges comparison when you go back and rescore do you just do it no sound you just watch it or do you still listen i had the sound this time i don't look i love the guys on that broadcast i don't think they had a great call of this fight i heard a lot of criticism about that as well um but i was only asking because but also can we stop with the four-man

booth please can we just stop with the four-man booth like please that is true i think that you hear guys like jim lampley i i hear guys who are just you know they're old in the game they've been there forever and they just have the same kind of like cautionary tales with boxing which is always like listen before the fight right like they say will Crawford win you know he's a huge favorite I think it was minus 900 minus a thousand which is crazy it's nuts it was stupid but like they caution you like can Medrumov win they They say, no, probably not, because there's a subjectivity layer to this, right, in the judging. It says, we are on American soil. It says, there's a crowd that's going to influence things.

And I always think that this is the craziest thing. Now, we get this in MMA. It's just a very smaller, you get three rounds or five rounds. You don't get 12. But it's always a strange thing that you have three rounds or five rounds you don't get 12 um but it's it's always a strange thing that you have to contemplate going into a fight like this so that's why i was asking when you rescore it do you you take those in because i'm almost like if i re-watched it and it was trying to be completely objective would i come across it would i maybe see it the other way

i know that uh you know madrimov had his moments he had his moments i you that right hand there was a couple times when he ran. Oh, rounds eight and nine, he was peaking. That's what I mean. It looked like he was on his way to it. I felt like, and I was like, man, this is going to be crazy if this is the way it goes down. I think part of it, and you tell me too, man, because we're in a day and age where gambling is, you know, people gambling on the fights has become so widespread that it sways.

Everybody has an opinion on this. Everybody's got an angle including Long Island yeah yeah I'm sure you had some kibble on this one but it's a different thing and I think coming off of that the Spence fight where he knew from the second round on basically

he was just his power was translating everything was just so fluid he couldn't miss it was his virtuoso performance. I don't think he's ever. So you put that together. I think some people are like, where's that? They wanted to see.

Where's that? Against this guy we never heard of. But I want to be fair here and say, we had reason, if you watched a lot of Madrimov tape, to believe what the odds were telling you. Now, I don't think minus 900. I mean, boxing odds are definitely more bloated further away from reality than it may because they're trying to induce the big bets. But I think that if you watch Madrimov's fights, he didn't beat a lot of killers.

He only had 10 pro fights. You couldn't gauge how good he would have to be when he steps up against this level and how much he was going to be willing to commit to try to win it. What do I mean by that? I mean by this. Even Crawford was shocked at this one thing, that Madrimov brought such an educated game plan with Joel Diaz as his trainer, but he never wavered from it. He stuck to it, even ultimately to defeat, right? But because he was willing to not-

People hate game plans. Because he was willing to not waste his punches, and because he was willing to commit to an active upper guard the whole time, the whole time, never, same thing in a way, but differently, that Tyson Fury did to Vladimir Klitschko when he upset him. He used that active guard, and Klitschko's just sort of like, I'm not really sure. He did that to Crawford the whole fight.

Unfortunately for Madrimov, his commitment to that is what lowered Crawford's output and gave him a chance to win it, but it also meant that if he was going to take more chances to try to win it, he was probably going to get countered and lose. So he had to almost be perfect, Chuck. And he came as close as you can come to doing it. And it sucks because he'll never get another chance. I don't think so.

I think that's why Eddie Hearn went nuts. And we're going to get to that in a second. There's so many things to talk about here. But I have to say, Madrimov's commitment to that guard, even Terrence said it afterwards. He said, look, I was waiting for this guy to slow down or to see his technique fail you know through fatigue where i was going to come through and that bud always does that he figures you out late and he walks you down and bud tried that but to madrimov's credit he never got tired he never

got he never lost his poise he never lost focus. He showed you that he had the true championship mindset to come in there and keep pushing. And I thought he won round 11. I thought he had moments late. That's interesting. Because I thought that that's the one that it probably hinged on somewhat too. I thought that Bud won that one, but I didn't go back and rewatch it. I had Bud, I think it was, I had Bud 4-2 at the midway point.

Then Madrimov went on his run on my scorecards. He ended up pulling even on my cards. And then I thought Bud pulled away, despite losing round 11, was able to just 7-5, just win it. But here's the larger narrative question here. There's two questions that are, I think, aligned. Bud is either 37 or is about to be. I think it was unfortunate for him that he waited a full year to come

back, that the business didn't line up. He wanted Canelo and he couldn't get it. He thought he was going to rematch Spence because that was the contract Spence decided last minute, not to, I think it hurt him in terms of his activity level for sure. But I think it also hurt the commercial level to some degree.

And then like you said, now he's back and everybody's like, okay, our number one pound for pounds back. Let's see him do exactly what he did to Spence. But it wasn't the same. It wasn't the same opponent. It wasn't the same setup.

So, Chuck, the two questions are, did he show you that he's old and fading? And does this make it where he shouldn't want anything to do with Canelo? So let's merge those together and sort of talk about it. Chuck, I don't think that this meant he was old or that this made that this performance made him look bad in fact i give cofferd credit because he had to bite down and dial down on his focus sure to the craziest level and was still able to find moments against a guy who was so defensively responsible we had no business understanding that madrimov could be that good that he wasn't saturday because he hadn't had to against any pro opponent but But to his credit, he raised his level all the way up where Bud had to face that,

still figure out a way to win against a bigger opponent, and still was the guy landing the better, bigger punches late. To me, Chuck, is he the same guy he was at 32? No. But there's levels to this game, and he not only moved up a division, he fought the surprise of the division. He fought a world-class guy, and he still found a way to beat him. I love that you appreciate it at this level. And he not only moved up a division, he fought the surprise of the division. He fought a world-class guy.

And he still found a way to beat him. I love that you appreciate it at this level. I think that that's great because that means you are a true purist. I get tired of people just like, oh, you know, he didn't perform well. Or they just see something that's disappointing. And you know what, man? I know we're going to talk about this. The pacing of that show didn't help.

Oh, God, no. The fact that you kind of that show didn't help. Like, just getting to— Oh, God, no. The fact that you kind of limp into your main event like that is just like, oh, man. I saw Cliff Roll had a great tweet, which is basically like, it put so many pitfalls into that show going later and extending that you get to the point where you start questioning, why am I even staying up for this? Do I even care about this fight that much?

They got us to there. We'll get to that. Okay. But I don't think Crawford was too old. But wait, do you think his, my big thing was this. I felt like Medrimov fought defensively, like you said, responsibly. He was able

to, his head movement was great. Like you said, everything he has is wickets up. Like he's just, everything looked like he was kind of sticking to making things as complicated as he could. But did you think that this was the thing, you know, having watched Crawford from, you know,

going back to his original weight class all the way up now to 54, that his power wasn't translating? Not on the same level, no. That's what I worried about with this fight, honestly. I thought he could have been able to stop Modromov if Modromov wasn't the real deal. Modromov showed a great chin when he needed to. He showed great offensive creativity in that second half to be able to,

once he was able to slow Bud down a little bit, find moments to land big shots. But I just didn't expect this performance in every single category. Neither did Bud. I think he thought he was going to mop up on him. So, Chuck, I don't think that he's a step down, outside of the obvious level that aging is going to lower your overall output, your overall ability to dig deep and deliver.

Was that compromised a bit with this age? Maybe to some degree, but he still figured out how to win. But with that said, I do think we learned enough about him, what he looks like at 54, what his strengths and weaknesses are, and one of those is the power will never be the same at this level than this and the lower ones, that I think this performance was enough to show him and one of those is the power will never be the same at this level than this and the lower ones that i think this performance was enough to show him and all of us that we do need to stop talking about this canelo fight i think we do i i'm not gonna go and be like everybody else and be like

see he never should have done it because i think i think that was the fight and he wanted it and he tried i think coming out of that momentum he might have been it when you never know no one had more momentum from one fight to another maybe in boxing history than that moment, he might have been eight. You never know. No one had more momentum from one fight to another, maybe in boxing history, than that moment. If he would have hit that fight at the right time, he was peaking. Who knows? I'm not saying he definitely gets knocked out and handled, but there are levels, there are weight classes for a reason.

I know that he only seems to want, and to his right, to make big fights on the way out, and he is one of the hand-picked golden child of Turkey Al-Ashiq, you know, has outspoken one of his favorite fighters. So he's going to get those opportunities. But if you look at his own division right now of where he has a world title, there's a lot of interesting fights.

There's Tim Zhu, right? Yeah. There's Jermel Charlo coming back, the former champion. There's Madri Moff now, who has shown himself to be an elite player. Sebastian Fundora, who's a big player in this. Who am I missing?

You got Lubin. Oh, and Errol Spence potentially coming back, although Crawford did shoot down, and he want to rematch that. Where do you redirect him if he's not going to? And then he's got, and then he got Boots Ennis basically saying, I want Crawford so bad that I'm willing to come up to 54.

We've also got Teofimo. Can we jump to the Teofimo sound quickly here? The age is catching up to Crawford. The age is catching up to Crawford. The age is catching up to Crawford and I would love to get Crawford now before it catches to him later on. It's already there and all I can say now is

let's see what he does next. I don't think he should fight Canelo. I think he should fight the guy that's coming up next. Now, I know Crawford's ego. I don't think he's going to go from telling everybody he wants to fight Canelo at 68 to fighting a dude coming up from a couple weight classes below. But my point is, I think he has enough creative options to find some big paydays and also some things that can add to his legacy.

I just, I no longer, I want to get your take, Chuck. I no longer feel like, I was starting to believe that he could go into that fight and have a real big chance of an upset win. Now I just think it's going to look like Rory versus uh Musashi remember that we're just sort of like that's not gonna work 100% and Turkey basically like beforehand right is like yes I've already made the call wait now I could see why Canelo would probably be like sure we'll take that money Canelo wants to only do what Canelo wants to do right now. True. He's got a lot of money. I don't really see, because I think when you, that's the thing, right? 154 pounds, that's probably, I'm good with that.

I don't really need to see. I mean, he's 37 years old. I don't need to see him try to do that at this point. So that would be two more weight classes. I know. So if that's how good, I mean, did Bodrumov give you the opinion and the belief that he's probably as good as he gets at 54? Probably, right? Like, that's as tough of a fight as Bud has actually ever had as a pro.

Yeah, I think so. Outside of the Gamboa fight where there were moments where he got hurt and some craziness. So he proved that he's on. Like, here's what I'm going to say. I tweeted this, and I mean this. If Bud stays at 54 and gives us a couple more on the way out against the true elites, I think the Tim Zoo fight could be big money-wise. I think it's going to be so fun entertainment-wise because Bud now, like I said before, he's still super elite,

but there's realities of his age. Not washed, but there's reality of there's only so much he can do moving forward. I think that's going to make, now that these guys are bigger, they have more power. I hear people mention it. Did you actively see him slowing down? No, I just think the age means you don't. His offense's output was much different in the first place.

I think Modromov, because he's stuck in that form and that mold and was so difficult the whole way without exposing himself and being able to take Bud shots, that it turned into this longer chess match than Bud thought. But I guess my extended point is I think they won't be this tough for him, but I think he's going to find more of these extended action chess battles where we're going to have to see him

pull deep into his greatness to pull it out. And that's going to be fun. What's the most fun trope in pro sports, in my opinion, watching a beloved athlete in their tender, older years, like Noback, Larry Bird, or LeBron right now at 40, dig deep one more time and find that moment.

In LeBron's case, it's growth hormone. But like a lot of. And nepotism. But no, I'm saying I think that we have to stop with Canelo. Now let's hear Bud talk about it. Because I thought if you listen to his tone closely immediately after the fight, it tells you something. I didn't want to talk at all about Canelo Alvarez coming into this fight because you were focused on israel madrimov now

that that fight is over this fight is over is canelo alvarez the fight you want next well you know what i say if the money's right we got to fight but at the same time you know he got a fight you know that he's focused on i'm gonna go back to my family i'm gonna relax i'm gonna enjoy this uh win and enjoy all the accomplishments that i uh made in the sport of boxing look this is not an insult because what we were asking of him and him asking of himself with the idea of this canelo fight at 37 to go up three weight classes essentially against one of the best in the world it's insane but i think i heard in his voice that he also realized naturally that there are limits to this.

And we've seen this before where Adesanya talking about, I'm going to go up to heavyweight. And then he met Blahovic and sort of like, let's. Exactly right. Let's peel that back a little bit. I don't know where he's going to go, though. It's going to be up to the turkey to give him a big amount of money. I don't think he's going to be able to hold this peak form

at this age a lot longer. That's why I think the zoo fight to me is a, is going to be a big one that will be worth it. But maybe he doesn't care about that. Like you like that fight or no. I think he does bad things to fund or, but I think it's a marketable, entertaining fight for sure. Great stat here. Crawford becoming just the seventh boxer in history to win titles at both 135, which is lightweight, and all the way up to 154, which is junior middleweight. But the key part of the stat is the names that he joined, Lloyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao, Oscar De La Hoya, Pernell Whitaker, and Roberto Duran. Wait, any big names? Yeah, who was in attendance.

Chuck, let's talk about the whole night. A couple of the key undercard moments we'll see later and have you seen this shit, so I don't want to undress all of those. Wait, any big names? Yeah, who was in attendance. Chuck, let's talk about the whole night. A couple of the key undercard moments we'll see later and have you seen this shit, so I don't want to undress all of those. I didn't, look, this card was a gift to boxing fans in a lot of ways. And I love the commitment from Turkey Al-Ashiq to make it so deep.

It almost felt like a blockbuster UFC card. Like there's fights you had to see. But there's too much of a good thing pregnant but i've ever sometimes too much uh there's a lot i didn't love about it number one the pacing's awful and i didn't love that for as good as this card was depth wise and it was it was i don't love on the broadcast being told every five minutes that this is the biggest card in u.s history because i'm not even sure it's actually true anymore i think originally when you had tim zoo versus virgil ortiz jr on top of all these great fights unfortunately that fight fell off because uh zoo's cut wasn't history because I'm not even sure that's actually true anymore. I think originally when you had Tim zoo versus Virgil Ortiz jr.

On top of all these great fights, unfortunately that fight fell off because a zoo's cut wasn't healed in time. I think it took a hit with that fight falling off, but it was almost matter of fact, like this is the greatest card of all time. I don't know about that. Number two, Chuck. I mean,

I like the look of it. I like the fan appeal. There's celebrities everywhere. We don't need a seven-fight main card. We just don't in any sport. There's a point where it becomes too much of a one thing. Well, 6 p.m. Eastern time start, right? Yes.

And it ends at like 1. When did the main event come off? 1.30? 1.30. I mean, I have no legs to stand on. I was a part of Masvidal Diaz. I didn't control that being a card that had the same pacing. But, Chuck, this was horrific pacing i just don't

think we need a four-man booth first of all because there's too many voices i also don't think we need to go even though i like doing those jobs and i like being the people that fill the time that i'm complaining about i don't think we always need to go to every corner of the arena for a five six minute breakdown after every single fight like don't need that we don't need that but my problem don't need that either We don't need that. But my problem. Don't need Eminem. Don't need that either. Well, look, I'm not going to say it was okay.

I dug it, but there were parts I did dig too. And I do, I do acquiesce that he's such a big name and he's a Crawford fan that I'm not going to hate on that. I do think there is room to some degree. I don't love it. I'm a 46 year old man living on the East coast. Who's going, I don't really need six Eminem songs right now. I just need the boxing main event that I want to love it. I'm a 46-year-old man living on the East Coast who's going, I don't really need six Eminem songs right now. I just need the boxing main event that I want to see here.

You kind of cut them short a little bit. Yeah, so I don't want to be that old curmudgeon that's like, no fun, no music. But when you're doing all of this at once, then it becomes hard to not say something. And when the cherry on top are weird fan giveaways that only extended the card, but you're giving away a car.

That's that's heavily invested by the Saudi Arabian government that no one's heard of yet. This guy in the crowd that won, it doesn't seem like he wants it weird. Then they gave away a trip to Saudi Arabia at the end. And then they sang the Saudi Arabian national anthem. And I'm not going to be some, like there's no place for that.

I do have some level of respect for what Turkey's bringing, which is a lot of money and a willingness to make these fights happen with the level of propaganda and i have a much bigger tolerance for this and then someone like luke thomas for sure but because of the respect and love and the purity i have for boxing whatever is left of boxing purity it's a ridiculous obsc absurd sport, but there is some sanctity within that. What I saw in that Nevada boxing hall of fame, honorary induction, it's bad enough that we have to have another fake WBC belt made that we're going to give to him as a gift and whatever. It's fine. Like, I mean, I, at some, at some point I respect Turkey and like what he's doing,

but this fight was in LA and seemingly in general, you can argue that what Turkey's doing. Sure. But this fight was in LA. And seemingly in general, you can argue that what Turkey's doing is taking the focus off of Vegas to begin with as the fight capital because he's putting big fights in Riyadh. He's putting big fights and he wants to go to Tokyo, Sydney, Germany, all that. Great, great for boxing.

But he never did a fight in Nevada before. Yet the Nevada Boxing Hall of Fame enters the ring to give him an honorary induction in which they're basically bowing down and worshipping him. And it's just awkward TV that makes no sense. And again, from whatever is left of boxing sanctity and OG-ness here, Chuck, it rubbed me chalkboard nails, cringe, get this out of here. We don't want this. We don't need this

chuck i'm all for turkey being in here i'm all for making the fights same i don't need this this extra stuff is starting to drive me the wrong way we get used to a certain kind of pageantry and there's always going to be a kind of huddle around the money right like there's always going to be people who huddle around wherever the money is at and you're going to see people play that game but it's usually fairly submerged. You don't really see it outwardly. It's more just an action over the course of time. The weird thing for me is, I know it's prize fighting,

but how many hands are warming up on this campfire with the obsequious kind of like, you know, his excellency, you know, just outward respect. Like, the Hall of Fame thing was way over the top. It made no sense. How does that even make sense? It just, it's, it feels that if it reduces the whole fight game to some kind of groveling, like, all right, we want to be a P, you know, we're going to be a part.

It's weird. To some degree we are, because we are fans that have been left out for so long that we are waiting in line going, please, sir, can we have another great fight? Right. But there has to be a line. There has to be a line. I just don't need to see that kind of pageantry i don't want to be a part of that kind of pageantry and and like is this a parallel to what is going on with the ufc and donald trump where it may not be your side of the political side or maybe you just don't want politics in your sports isn't that used to be what the ufc was about i remember just

like four years ago dana was ripping on the whole NBA went woke thing. And now we've got that going on. And now in boxing, we've got this going on. I know. Is this the BS we have to deal with? It opens up too many complicated things for, you know, simple fight game journalists as well. Like I always, I feel like I have to talk about so much. I've been asked you about the women boxing and all that ridiculousness going on there.

I don't remember the show today for that. You know what's funny, man? It's not too close of a comparison, but it's somewhat. We've seen pageantry. Remember the Triller card where there was all this concert splice through? Yes. And it was ridiculous. And you're like, dude, this is just nuts.

I can do one Metallica show. I don't need nine rappers. But I was at the Affliction show in 2008. It was Fedor Milonenko, which is funny because I remember Donald Trump was part of that, but he was part of the ownership group with Oscar de la Hoya, but they had Megadeth playing.

And I remember how weird it was because they kind of spliced in a couple of sets from Megadeth with the fights. And I was like, this does not go together. Like as much, even if you liked Megadeth, you'd be like, this does, this is just two different interests. I was getting a little bit of that. I get that the,

it's almost like a Superbowl vibe with Eminem because he's a big name and he's kind of, you know, he's revving a crowd up. And they certainly seemed in Los Angeles to really dig it, but it was such, it was after so much other pageantry that it was just, I know. And there was just, it was tooantry. It was 1 a.m. I know. And it was too much. You know how you start to feel almost a little ill with all the gratuitousness of something? That's what it felt like. It's the same feeling I had a couple years ago, WrestleMania at Giant Stadium in New Jersey,

where it was the same thing, where it started at 3 p.m. and it's still going on at 12, 15 a.m. And you're just like, I love this. But you know what I mean? There's got to be. Well, it takes away from the thing. It does. You're calling it the best. But I'm like, I love this, but I, you know what I mean? Like there's gotta be, it takes away from the thing. It does. You're calling it the best, but I'm like, people want to see Crawford, you know? I'm like, let's, let's get on with the fight. I was watching a,

I was watching the ppv.com feed and there's like a, there's like a chat. Yeah. There's a chat going on and everybody on there is like, let's get on with the fight. Let's get on with the fight. It was a bad look. And you're adding this, like, look, there's, there's an elephant in the room with Saudi Arabia's placement here. And we've all kind of come to terms in some degree with that.

This made you question or queasy or weird. I love what Turkey's doing. In fact, I kind of get a kick out of Turkey as a personality to a certain degree. He seems like he's a funny guy. How do you feel if you're a Madrimov team where this card is about, in some ways, is Crawford going to look good enough to fight Canelo,

and you got Eminem, who's Crawford's buddy, coming out, go Crawford on the mic. I mean, it's just like small things that, like, you know, they ask Turkey's prediction. No wonder Eddie Hearn felt like the whole world was against him that night. Which we'll get to, but they asked Turkey for his prediction before the main event,

and he's like, Crawford by eighth round knockout. And it's like, if you're going to play the role of that promoter. I mean, I get it. Wait, who echoed it afterward to the, like,

uh, his excellent set a throne. I'm going with a throne as well. Too much, too much. Let's close here on Crawford about what could be next here. Um, Eddie Hearn lost his mind first about this scorecard.

Um, before we throw to it, I don't think Eddie Hearn is, is believes what he's saying. I think that he's trying to do his best for his fighter, Madrimov, thinking, look, he came as close as you can come to upsetting a guy who many think is the pound for pound best in the sport. It was unlucky.

If I fight and argue that he got robbed, it's going to be my only chance to get him this big money rematch. But he did go too far. Let's hear his rant. It's a fight that could have gone either way rant and it feels like a waste of time when you lose 116 112 it's like they've already filled out before everyone knows his excellency they're coming up to me oh oh you've ruined our plans and it was that kind of fight and then you hear the scorecards it's a waste of time appreciate that you know israel will be back guys just like

the wrong rant for the wrong situation like Yeah. It was a little surprising. I mean, as great as Modromov fought and as great as he looked in round 7, 8, 9, that window, he didn't do enough in the first half to win these close rounds. He just didn't. True. There's no way you can call it a robbery. No. You just can't call it a close fight or robbery.

He's okay with the two scorecards, 7-5, but not 8-4. It's like this fight was so close that, like I said, if you have Modromov winning, no one's going to argue with you it was that close. There were people, though, that came out and was like, yo, Eddie, you're going too far. One of those was Dan Raphael, who said that Eddie was whining. Well, they relayed that message back to old Eddie. Let's listen.

They both gave it to Crawford, and Dan Raphael said, you need to stop whining. Yeah, I saw that. Dan Raphael can go fuck himself. That's number one. Yeah, I saw that. Dan Raphael can go fuck himself. That's number one. Oh, wow! Okay! And with the pajama.

He looks like Hugh Hefner with his pajamas. He does. I think he's just doing what's best for his fighter. The one name I didn't mention in when I said 154 is so loaded that I think there's big fights for a butt if he stays here. One of those is Virgil Ortiz Jr.

who is actually fighting this Saturday against Serhe Boachuk, which is a very good fight, I believe, for a vacant title. He's promoted Ortiz, who I think is 18-0 with 18 knockouts by Oscar De La Hoya. That could be a big fight on the DAZN side with Turkey Bank rolling it. So I think there's a couple stops for Crawford. I think we're going to all stop talking about Canelo, though. I think we should.

I think so. Well, no, maybe it doesn't suck. It is going to put the pressure back on Canelo to eventually fight Benavidez. It's just an interesting thing because I think if you're just a casual fan, right? Like if you're a casual fan who only tunes in for Canelo, you maybe catch the Crawford fights here and there and a couple of others. Maybe you're watching Fury or Usyk. You're probably still like, let's get that fight. But I think if you watched what just happened on Saturday night,

I don't know why you'd want that fight. I just don't think it would be competitive. Why would you want to take – I don't really want Bud's mystique to take a hit. No. I'd rather him retire unbeaten and make comments about where he should land historically. Be like, look, I never got beat. These are the names I beat. Where do you guys think i belong historically let's start having that discussion one of the reasons i believe it was that it was the spence fight right like that luke was moved

to like basically tears and i think that that's the kind of cathartic event it was it was so cathartic that it moved him into a space that you're like he's going to be in that conversation i don't want that compromise we should get lu Luke almost on a Grateful Dead-like tour of Crawford fights just to heal himself. Forget about acid. This is how Luke's going to heal himself, right? I want Luke to be happy at the end of the day, don't you? That's all I'm interested in. No, I'm just kidding.

By the way, happy 45th to that great Luke Thomas. I love that man. UFC news and notes,ic five here, Chuck. We got a couple of things that need to be mentioned. They're both involving Dana White. And the first one is a big announcement that I loved. Dana White two days ago coming out on social media. Here's your lineup for UFC 308.

October 26 in Abu Dhabi. But it will air, I believe, in U.S. primetime. Yes, I think so. I think that's what it's going to be. Check this out. Ilya Toporia versus Max Holloway for the Featherweight Championship, arguably the best fight you can make in the sport. That's another Luke boner right there.

He loves that thing. Big, big boner for Luke. Robert Whitaker in a five-round co-main event with Hamzat Chumaev with huge middleweight title implications. Magomed Ankhalaev not getting Poiton next. Instead, he's going to fight Alexander Rakic, who's coming off of two defeats, but that is an interesting fight. And then Cyril Ghosn, Alexander Volkov,

the rematch for a very important heavyweight title contention. I say a lot of bad things about modern-day UFC matchmaking and where we are in the history here, but Chuck, I got nothing but good things to say about it. How good is this fight? You think the UFC will clip you saying that you have nothing but good things to say about this to use in one of their promo packages? They don't do that. They'll clip my reaction

to Dana not understanding how pound for pound works. Chuck, rate this card. How freaking great is this? I rate it pretty damn high. I want it to stay intact. Give me a letter. I need like a letter with like a report card style. I'd give it definitely an A minus. A a that's a full way i mean honestly all of those fights are vastly intriguing i love the fact that a guy like so uncle i have that's the the craziest part of

this is uncle i have having to fight again right like because you almost feel like he's always going to be one fight away i feel like the uf is not eager to give him a shot. And it's almost like the Bilal Muhammad thing, but at that weight class. I do think that he would be hard to deny when you put him in this situation, I think, if he goes in there and beats Rakic. But what I love is that Rakic now has a chance to steal it. And I like that guy, too. So he's got a chance to steal the thunder and actually get that. Does Ankulayev have room to be mad here? Or do we always go back to that draw where he should have done more?

I mean, it wasn't the greatest fight, but at the same time... He deserves the shot, right? I think he deserves the shot. And I mean, you're already talking about a guy who... It's crazy that you could argue that he's kind of cleaned out the division, but he's almost done it that quickly.

Oh, my God, I know what this means, Chuck. What's that? I didn't mean to interrupt you like I always do, but Chuck... It's an epiphany. mean to interrupt you like I always do, but Chuck. It's an epiphany. I let your epiphanies roll here. You stuck your finger right in my epiph. Wow.

Dana has doubled down this week that he doesn't think Pereira should go to heavyweight next. And he thinks, like he said, let's let Pereira clean out this division completely. And then if there's no one next, we'll bring him up to heavyweight. Okay. But if you're not going to then set up on Goliath versus Poiton to give him that chance to clean it out and you're making him go through racket, she was coming off two defeats and taking another step. Isn't this Dana opening up the window? Should Israel Adesanya win back the middleweight title?

Or maybe should he not? Let's say he has a great performance but loses to DDP. I think this is their opening. Resolve the whole thing? Let's do this. I mean, because that's one of the biggest fights you can make. No one's going to be mad at Izzy versus Poiton at 205 after Izzy knocking him out last time.

No one's going to be mad at that. I think it's an intriguing. I've brought this up, too. I've said this before. I was like, well, Izzy is going to fight in Perth. He's able to regain. Or maybe not. Like you said, maybe it said this before. I was like, well, Izzy is going to fight in Perth. He's able to regain. Or maybe not. Like you said, maybe it goes both ways.

But I do think one of the biggest fights out there for Pereira still is to have that trilogy, you know, with Izzy in the Senate. And especially if he wins. I think that that is a very. Well, besides Jon Jones, it is the biggest. True. The greatest thing about Poiton is he's kind of stationed between all kinds of things. You could throw Aspinall in there if he was going to fight for the interim. You could throw that and there would be a huge fight for him, too. He's kind of stationed between all kinds of things. You could throw Aspinall in there if he was going to fight for the interim. You could throw that, and there would be a huge fight for him too.

He's kind of stationed between everybody. But that is a very intriguing thing. I hadn't really thought about if Ankalayev is already busy, what this might mean. And this might mean that they're looking at that fight or something like that. I think that that Izzy fight, you lose it at some point in its total vitality.

You've got to kind of do it when you have that window. Yeah, you've got to do it while you have that window. And if he wins back the middleweight title, oh, boy, that's even bigger now. Especially because he's the last guy to actually give you a visual of Poiton losing. And he is the last stylebender. Oh, and by the way, Randy Couture prefers like grass on the tea. I don't know if you've watched that Twitter debacle breakout. Do you know what I'm talking about or do you not?

No, I don't know what you're talking about. Uncle Randy, I thought you were joining our show today at noon. Apparently not. Look at his Twitter account, and it got really weird. But it's not safe for work, and it's involving jeans. Okay. What sounds like, yeah. The other part of this news item here was involving Dana White deeply here.

Here's the update on the UFC antitrust lawsuit that appears to be headed to trial in October based upon the one judge belief that, look, I'm not John S. Nash. I can't break this down for you on that way. But here's what I'm pulling from this, Chuck, is that both sides don't want it to go to trial, right? The fighters just want their money now. They're like, F the long term of this. UFC obviously doesn't want this to drag out and become a thing and have all these secrets further unpeeled there. But Dana White went on KevinIoli.com's app podcast and he had a new wrinkle, an angle to this story about him and the judge

having there's always something more there's always something more let's listen in yeah i've literally said this the entire time through this whole thing it's not something that i focus on or uh you know let lawyers deal deal with that stuff but i can tell you that let me say this it's probably the only thing i've said since this whole thing's been going on it's getting to a point now where this feels personal you know i went to high school with this guy with judge bowler yeah me and lorenzo went to high school with him i don't know what the hell me or lorenzo did to him in high school but uh this seems very very personal wow yeah yeah we went to high school with this guy yeah i mean that that that is very interesting so okay well we will move on from that but uh i just wanted to get your take on that uh you didn't beat him up in high school

though or you didn't bully him did you i don't think so i mean he doesn't know for sure oh doyle rule i was gonna say wait wait what is the what what the hell happened, but there's no doubt in my mind that this feels absolutely personal. And whatever it is with this guy, we'll let the lawyers deal with it, and it is what it is. Which movie was it, though, that Steve Buscemi is taking out? He's got the hit list. Glad I called that guy Billy Madison. Yeah, same movie. By the way, the best movie of all time.

Chuck, I don't expect you to Eric McGracken us or any of the other respected guys in this area. Is this Dana just distracting the situation? Because obviously the thing I hate the worst about Dana's reaction to this lawsuit all along is this has nothing to do with me, guys, like at all. You'll see. And the whole

level of like, let's never talk about the actual thing at stake, which is the fighters getting paid the lawyers handle that part yeah you know connor does not deserve to be uh suspended by us after throwing a uh thing through a glass window and getting glass in people's eye he paid enough in legal fees is it that chuck or like does dana have something to stand on here i think it's the former um i i think that i think that d Dana doesn't want to get nicked for more money. They probably have resolved, right?

It was $335 million, which is not nothing, but it was also anticlimactic from where it looked like it could be heading and all the potential. And it allows them to change the contracts for good. So Luke always says it's nothing in the long run. Right, exactly. So I think that they had resolved that, hey, $3 that hey 335 all right let's just get past this and now they're kind of being told they can't if i'm you know if i'm him i'm probably pissed off as well especially i don't

know this is the new wrinkle right the whole bulwark thing who knows what the hell that's all about but it obviously he's a master of kind of swaying public sentiment yes and manipulating the perception on certain he's gonna run for governor of nevada and then eventually president one day i've been saying this for like seven years and no one wants to hear it now now it seems obvious right like this he is morphing into like this kind of figure isn't he like he really is it's a very strange thing that i didn't see coming but his latest interview with hannity talking about powerslap just i mean about Power Slap, it's going to be bigger than the UFC one day, Chuck. You'll see. There you go.

All those years fighting for MMA, the sanctity of MMA just end up in an idiocracy where they're now defending Power Slap. Don't you just feel like no one's really going to win by this lawsuit now in the end? Especially with both sides not wanting it? Because I think that we all want it to go the full trial and it lead to change in the industry but it doesn't seem like i don't

think it will either and until the bull war still hasn't come out with like an actual explanation right other than to say like i didn't think it was enough yeah which is telling in itself but if anything there's probably going to be a stiffer monetary you know settlement because they can still settle this thing right like so i feel like it's just it probably gets revised i have no idea man like i like you keep mentioning you preface this i don't know that much about um how the legal but i do know that the ufc tends to handle things of the best interest and they're going to figure that out uh final question on this do you think that the watered-down matchmaking is in a result of money being put aside to pay all of this off? Or is this just the reality of the content era with the deal and the ESPN and all that?

Watered-down matchmaking? What do you mean? Really shitty undercards and unacceptable fight night co-main and main combos. You just got clipped. Yeah, just the whole sport not feeling like 2016 ever combos and you know you just got clipped yeah just the whole sport not feeling like 2016 ever again you know yeah probably i mean we all have that time in our life that we you know look back on and some people are still living in their glory days high school years in their head i know that you have to move on at some point but man i'm we were

just weren't we talking about that long island look i just missed 2016 so much that you miss it the feeling in the air, anything can happen. The boom. Well, there was a lot to that. There was Connor. There was depth. There was still Brock and Ronda. I mean, there was a lot going on.

There was something still about, we were trying to turn it, right before the sale. And I think you're still all like kind of lifting up the same thing. You're all saying like, come on, man. We're all involved in this. It's sort of like when someone gets in such great physical shape ahead of a high school reunion or a wedding, where it's like then you want to hold them to that shape for the rest of their life, but that shape is not sustainable.

Are we holding them to an era or year where they had so much motivation to be the very best they could ever be for the sale that inevitably it will never equal that again, unless there's a major boom. I think it was a perfect storm, because if you look at 2016, I think that that's the key year. It's a pivotal, just a pivotal time. You have Conor McGregor, but you also had Ronda Rousey. You just can't replicate either one of these.

The press events were as good as the fights back then in 2016. The thing was on fire. Ronda Rousey was on the cover of Ring Magazine. I always point this out. Ring Magazine, people are saying she's going to be- Rousey wins again, bro. She wins again. That's all she does is win, no matter what. Okay.

And they were talking about her beat. There was legit... Was it Clay Travis? Somebody was like, she should be fighting... She could beat Floyd. She could beat Floyd. I mean, you just think about that, how blissfully ignorant and stupid we were with everything that was going on. And I just don't think

you can recapture that there's way too much built-up cumulative cynicism for that to occur we're we're now closer to the old stodgy boxing media as mma mma journalists than we've ever you know because that's what happens you see corruption up close you see lies up close for a long time and you just start to become jaded you know it's like You know what's crazy is out on the road today, I saw a UFC Reebok sticker on a Cadillac. A little voice inside my head. Don't look back. Oh, that's a great song.

Hey, let's fold the five topics. Thank you for playing and get into your questions every Sunday night on social media at Morning Combat on a few different places, including Instagram. We give you a chance to chime in with a question that will probably make fun of including your handle and username this one's called dms from dongs chuck just define that noise what is that animal it's an ass uh just kind of braying it's making an ass braying ass remember that time connor put that instagram video of uh d

on the d i mean that guy's got a lot of balls right we'll see him and have you seen this shit all right question number one of the dms comes from nate the great lux he wasn't a pioneer so is tony ferguson a surefire hall of famer as many as of the MMA fans believe him to be? Or does the long losing streak at the end hurt his chances? Always an interesting debate. Super long losing streaks at the end of great careers, like let's say Roy Jones. Hasn't really hurt him historically. BJ Penn, we make Lava Shack jokes, but we're only thinking of prime BJ Penn.

What do you think about this question in regards to Tony? It's interesting because we never know exactly the criteria of what the UFC is looking at. But I will say this. Listen, if Donald Cerrone was inducted into the Hall of Fame, then Tony Ferguson should be a surefire. But Donald Cerrone was 0-6-1 as he checked out of the UFC. But what did they focus on? They focused on this career. It never says no.

His best perform, I think his best stretch was in 2013 to 15 where he was like eight no in that run you're talking about tony ferguson who went on a 12 fight win streak one of the best win streaks buzzsawing guys rda dude won an interim title you know it's just i think you got to look at all of that and in the end will outweigh um whatever's happening at the end of his career and if they go by that, if they just look at like this badass guy who did it for so long, then he should be in. I mean, even Tito, who is comical, he stayed on forever.

You're not talking about that, right? I mean, they're still going to talk about him as one of the greatest early pioneer light heavyweight champions and pay-per-view stars that we have had. But I do think he fits into that Dustin Poirier slash, you know, mode where he came as close as he can come without winning an official undisputed title, but still flashed a Hall of Fame.

Yeah. Willingness, style, fan favorite, always action. Just the feud with Habib. For having never fought for Habib, we have so much mileage out of his. It feels like such an injustice. Remember he was measuring the distance from him at the face-off that one time at that press conference?

You know what I'm saying? It feels like a perpetuated injustice that you never got it. I remember people would say each time it would fall through, they'd book it, it would fall through, and they'd be like, please don't tell me we're never going to get this, and we never got it. It's just one. And they'd be like, please don't tell me we're never going to get this. And we never got it. It's just one of those travesties in the sport.

Some of the things we promised in the MK 2.0 makeover that have never happened are just going to be lost promises. We're here. We're still here, though. It's great to have you, Chuck. Question number two comes from JBeebs3000. Where does Bud Crawford rank on the pound-for-pound list after last night's performance?

A two-way undisputed and now four division champion i assume he's talking about the current pound for pound list are you getting that feeling yes all right okay so i don't know how you had your list but like azucic did you have i had i think i a lot of us penalized buds in activity since the suspense fight that makes sense because there are transcendent all-time greats with him, including Usyk and including Inouye, I've had Bud at three, but it's one of those weird times where I mean, look, this is a bountiful pound-for-pound era.

I remember even two years ago, I was looking around. These are historic. They're both like the four all of these guys. Two years ago, I was like, there's seven guys right now that have an argument at number one. It's not that same now. I think there's three massive, legit guys that have that huge argument. I don't think he loses a spot. If you had him number one, though, because he was challenged so much and because of the inactivity,

I think you can dock him that and move him down below Usyk or Inouye. But he can't be worse than third, in my opinion. I would agree with that. Let's give him credit for what he did on Saturday. I mean, Inouye, but he can't be worse than third, in my opinion, because... I would agree with that. Let's give him credit for what he did on Saturday, right? I mean, Inouye was dropped, right, in his last fight, but then he comes back and dominates. It's always how you want to dissect these things. I'm like, but at the same time,

gosh, I don't really participate in boxing pound for pound, but if I'm looking at... You're big on the whole John Jones' number one debate in MMA, which we'll get to. We'll get to that. god yes the mma i get fixated on that but uh i mean i'm with you 100 on the top three i just don't think i would if i had bud at one or two i don't think his performance takes it away i think that he's he still showed even at his age he's crafty he's cerebral he knows how to do it his combinations in the second half of that fight when he was trying to walk Modromov down were just brilliant.

Just short, perfect, brilliant shots. I mean, he's still Bud. But, like, we got to give Modromov a ton of credit, dude. He's elite. He's world class. People are paying attention to him now. It was a win-win, right? And I don't feel like we get, again, I don't feel like we get docked for having not known that.

He hadn't had the requisite opponents to show you that, but you can't mess with a dude from Uzbekistan with 350 amateur fights. It was funny on that broadcast, by the way, that they'd be like, this is the biggest boxing card of all time, but also say, we understand if you've never heard of Madrid. I know, that's why it can't be. That's the reason why it can't be. It was one of the deepest ever, yes, but let's not overdo it or ruin it.

Question number three from World's Worst Hero. Wow. Four-man tournament at 135. Great question. Figgy, Umar, O'Malley, and Marab. Who wins it all? So I guess I gave that away. See, what I said was what Umar looked to me on Saturday, a champion in waiting.

But I've also said that about Marab. And that's the greatness of this division. Until you see Marab fight again, then you're like, Jesus, that guy's a machine. From what we know now, I think I'm content with Umar coming out on top. That is a tough question, man. Any of those guys.

Was the fourth one Figueiredo? Yeah, I don't think Figue goes through that. Yeah, I think he would be the fourth. He's going to have to prove something more still. The other three can come out. But the other three, and O'Malley just because he's such a different type of striker with his length and all of that too but I think ultimately it does come down to Umar and Marab and right this second without trying to be in recency I maybe lean Marab but that's just only because he's such

a cardio machine and I'm like if he's able to just be able to, you know, you can imagine a Numar matchup, including the O'Malley one, where he's just able to take it in his domain and just make the guy play his game. And if he does that like he's done in the past. Become the master of another man's domain. That's what he does. That's what they do in jail. That's what he do.

Well, they do lock that cage. That's what I heard, yeah. Cage is all related. This division is so great. I love Bantamweight. I love Middleweight, too. Middleweight has the best, like, sexy storylines going on right now at the top end, you know? A lot of sexy men in there, I guess I heard.

Number four is from Sasquatch Toys. Does Chuck have a go-to fast food spot yet? Chuck, how grimy do you get when it's time to get all turned, you know? Man, that's a tough—you know what? What sucks is, like,'s time to get all turned you know man that's a tough you know what what sucks is like where i live in connecticut you know about this a couple of my favorites are not in connecticut i would say that if you heard of freddy's like they're like the little it's like little smash burgers thin fries very much almost like no it's like uh it's it's called freddy's i think they specialize also in custards and stuff. But if you ever had like, what's the other place?

Steak and Shake? Yes. That place is very similar to that. Okay. Which is not that dissimilar to a Checkers, which I think is a very strong brand from Florida. But okay, Connecticut-wise though, with what you have, if it's that time, Chuck, if it's just like, you know, you get some shitty news, right? Your favorite on is ill. And you're like, you know what? I'm just going to take down a double-double or something to just get gross you know, you get some shitty news, right? Your favorite aunt is ill. And you're like, you know what?

I'm just going to take down a double-double or something to just get gross. Where are you going? Are you going to Cumberland Farms? Where are you going? Is Chipotle considered like fast food? People give that answer a lot. And I'm like, okay, technically it is, but it's the same way that Subway is fast food, right? It's just like you.

So you want like a drive-thru where you just order a sack of something. Like that time at, people forget about this. Two days before UFC 201 when Brett Okamoto and I went through the drive-thru at Crystal in Atlanta. Oh, my God. I love Crystal Burgers. And he was like, you really want to order something here? I'm like, order something? Did you see their dollar menu?

They have the most ridiculous things. So I got like seven items. And as he's passing them – Like somehow you've spent like 50 bucks at a dollar menu. No, I spent $7. The best $7 ever. It made my liver black, dark black. But as he was passing them over, he was like, can you open a window?

I don't even think I can be around this stuff. When it's that time. You've got to write a book at some point. I mean, look, we can all try to be classy, but we all have that fast food in us who can just take that shit downtown. I would have said, and I feel like I've dropped off from Chick-fil-A. For a minute there, it probably would have been at Chick-fil-A. No problem with that. It's probably just because they've gussied it up.

And I've seen my boy Luke at the old studio kind of going downstairs and getting the Taco Bell, too. It's probably Taco Bell. Taco Bell, true or false, makes you feel the least shameless when you're done eating it. Seriously. That is true. You don't instantly want to straighten out a hanger and pull that meal right back out. You know what I mean? Like we're

in a Lifetime movie or something. It's great. We don't have the best fast food in Connecticut. We've got pretty shitty fast food in Connecticut. It's not the best. Are you big on Nardelli's? I do like Nardelli's. It's a chain of grinder chain that started in Naugatuck, Connecticut. I am a fan, actually. They make good

sandwiches. Or whatever they call them, grinders. Grinders, that's what we call them. My fantasy football name team in high school was the Meatball Grinders. Yeah, I bet it was. Damn right. We got one more for you here from the fans, Chuck. I didn't write these.

This is from MT Booble. What hat does Chuck wear to go incognito? I have a very nice Little House on the Prairie bonnet that I put on and it's very delicate. So when you're out on the town in the greater Danbury area. So true or false, you've run into Glover Teixeira in regular life

a lot of times. I would say he frequents the exact places I do. There's a place called, maybe I won't mention. Actually, I give him a love. Farmhouse. There's this place called the Farmhouse in town. What town? In Newtown.

Newtown, Connecticut. And then also in Bethel and Damien, there's a place called Michael's Tap Room, which is one of those places that has a ton of beers on tap. And I have seen him there a couple of times. I bet he likes a good Pilsner. And Alex Pereira, the best. I've told you this story where Alex Pereira and him,

it was Halloween. These two dudes come in. One's like a psycho clown. The other one's kind of keeping a chain on him. And I'm like what what is going on and they take it off and it's freaking out and he comes up to me you know and took pictures with them and all so they recognize you as both a pillar of the local community and the mma community at the same time yeah you get a lot of he spec'd from them don't you i do i think i love that i don't know i don't think i've ever pissed them off you know what we failed to do during i know we did have glover on the couch for rsd was our first

room service diaries interview right it was fantastic all that we failed to to uh completely boondoggle the the the abilities we had under the showtime budget to take cameras to their gym and basically just like go to glover's house on the back porch and drink like that's all he does and drink light beer or something like you know i mean just talk shit like every time he posts he's like in a hot tub like he's like he's living the dream life you know what i mean he is dude love that man all right um chuck that'll do it for the fans this week but i got a healthy batch of shit here i got an interesting batch here uh no i'm not talking about the triple flusher that luke did at joseph a bank recently which i did get live uh text during that i'm talking about the triple flusher that Luke did at Joseph A. Bank recently, which I did get live text during that.

I'm talking about what I do on Sundays. I scour the globe for the highs and lows, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the in-between from the worlds of combat sports. So these are yours. This is my shit, Chuck. You're the only one to buy. All right, let's go. Have you seen it?

Look at that little soft serve. I like that. Chuck, we start with Mr. Dana White on the Kevin Aioli app. And I don't even think he was asked about this, but we all know he believes that Jon Jones should be pound for pound number one with a bullet. So he went back to the well. And if you don't agree with him, Chuck, you can kiss his ass. All right.

John Jones is ranked number three pound for pound in the world. Most fucking ridiculous, embarrassing, stupid, know nothing about fucking fighting ranking of all fucking time. John Jones is the number one pound for pound fighter in the world, period. End of story. To have anybody above John Jones right now just goes to show that you know absolutely fucking nothing. It's undebated. Anybody who even tries to debate this with me, you're just hating on John Jones and you don't like him as a person. It's illegal. These are fucking facts.

It's not like me and john jones have this unbelievable relationship what i'm saying about john jones is undebatable the baddest dude debated to ever walk the face of the earth in combat sports dana no one's saying he's not the greatest fighter of all time you can be the you cannot be number one pound for pound in the moment and still be the greatest fighter i like how. I like how he gets, when he's really mad, he gets the four wrinkles on his forehead. He used to turn beet red, but now it's just the four. He's just disappointed.

No, when he gets really mad, you can see the hairline. It comes together like a V at the top of his head. Jokes aside here, Chuck, or maybe keeping jokes in line, when I quote tweeted and made fun of this, I'd love to teach dana what pomfom means look obviously like john jones is up there but i mean he's not active guys okay and he fought a guy who you know sat down in 20 seconds and got tapped so it's different when guys like poetan and obviously uh when um uh what's his name islam is just you know yeah It's just, you know, yeah. And why shouldn't you be celebrating these guys?

Like, when Jon Jones was coming up, Dana was all about Jon Jones then, too. Why shouldn't you be celebrating these other dudes? So here's the theory that people are just, you know, it's not a crazy theory. It makes sense that people are hitting me up with left and right on DMs. They're like, don't you see?

Dana knows that nobody wants Jon Jones to fight Stipe and knows that Jon Jones is probably going to retire afterwards. So how do we get people to care about this fight when everybody else, when the real MMA media narrative is Jon Jones is probably going to duck Aspinall. He can change that narrative to a degree temporarily by overly

playing up. You guys don't understand Jon Jones is the greatest full-time, which he is, by the way, in overly playing up that this is crazy and Jon Jones is going to show you why he's the greatest against 48-year-old Stipe who hasn't fought in six years. I mean, I'm being ridiculous, but so are they. So that makes sense, right? That's probably what he's doing.

It's possible. I mean, I've thought about all of this. I think that, like, it does seem ridiculous for the Jones-Miocic fight to carry on with Aspinall defending and being that guy who everybody sees coming, there's probably some truth to all of this, yes. Imagine if he defended the interim title in the co-main event, like he's trying to get the UFC to do he wants to fight Poiton.

I mean, that would be great if we had the doubleheader, but what that means to the title that we're allowing. It's such a big fight that it would be crazy for Jon Jones to be the main event in that card. That would be crazy. I know. Let's continue the shit. And you can't write this shit.

It really happened. BKFC, dude, you got to give them credit. They know how to draw a crowd. They know how to show up where it matters. They went to Sturgis for a card this weekend. And this was the main event weigh-in on Saturday. That's Britton Hart, the flyweight champion on the left, and Taylor Starling on the left. I'm sorry, Britton Hart on the right.

Chuck, a picture is worth a thousand words. This picture sums up BKFC and Sturgis better than any other, correct? Like, this is what you're getting with BKFC. Like, full on, in your face. Table's moving on your side over there. What's happening right now? Well, sorry about that. But, Chuck, what I will say is this card wasn't ultimately about these fighters,

although credit to Britton Hart for, again, getting a key title defense and a brutal performance. She's fantastic. This was about the co-owner, Conor McGregor, who not only showed up to Sturgis, this was his Triple H, WWE-inspired Donald Trump at the UFC walkout, which included smoke, women, a motorcycle, and old-time rock and roll um i am so all in on the absurdity of conor mcgregor as co-promoter right up your alley firing people when he wants

to on social media and basically acting like he's a star in his own b-level action movie like he he's acting right there like roadhouse is still going on. We have not said cut. Chuck, if you have any belief that this guy is even remotely close to getting back into a fighting surface, it's not only not happening, but... So you're saying he won't be headlining that Salt Lake City card against Michael Chandler.

That's not happening. I don't believe so. What do you make of this version of Conor right now, which is kind of the same version the last couple years, who doesn't give a fuck, and when when he shows up he's there to party chuck it seems it does seem like that i just think that it's the craziest turn like from whatever from wherever he was when you know and he's been and all of the business moves he's made this is the one thing i would have never foresaw coming was him association part ownership bare knuckle showing up at these events in this form this is like it's it's on par with his with who he is but it's just a crazy spectacle

because bare knuckle what were they they're nothing now all of a sudden they're like must see tv uh long island luke wasn't there uh comments at the end of that walkout video i didn't see any i think connor looks in the mic and goes there's nothing more american than fighting in good time rock and roll uh he might have said that but we can't play the clip because it's got the music all right let's go to the next clip you think dana's talking to him isn't dana and sturgis too like didn't he bounce out there with some boys to yeah i saw on his instagram he was heading out to sturgis oh my god went there for looking for a fight like a few years ago that's a while but i mean i just saw it like yesterday so connor brought the party

to the center of the ring here i don't know if you saw this joke bkfc63 at the sturgis buffalo chip at sturgis south dakota one of the most wants more badass than bare knuckle, and American rock and roll. Nothing, baby, that's what. Here, take off the gloves and fight, bitch. He looks like Name Wrong. He's the co-owner. He's the most famous person in all of combat sports, besides probably Mike Tyson, and they spelled his name

wrong on the lower third. Chuck, this is a character of himself, but it's hilarious and absurd. I have to imagine that Dave Feldman equally praises God that this fell into his lap and then equally is like, how does this end? You know what I mean? 100%. But doesn't he look like he's morphing into Dana White?

What the hell is happening? He is kind of, but Dana White doesn't chug beers in the middle of the ring before the main event. We got more Connor video here from Sturgis. We got this knockout first. Let's watch this knockout and Conor's reaction. There's a lot of crazy knockouts between tattooed white men on this card.

And this is the video that brought the Dana comparisons. Watch the reaction here from the two co-owners, CEOs. And make America brave again, says Dave Feldman. Dave Feldman, he's buying in. Well, Conor was not only there for the festivities in the ring, he was there at the Sturgis after-party, Chuck. Again, I shit you not, this is not an AI. This is Conor in a biker vest with nothing else on.

Again, I think he's still in Roadhouse. He's a method actor. I think they're filming the second film right now. And then there's a short lady who tried to grind on him. She's taking her shot. Chuck, we're woken up to the belief and understanding here that this man didn't even notice he is not fit to fight and this is like this is a lifestyle that is not sustainable i

mean what is going on here what do you do if you're michael chandler and you're seeing this it's like every week is like something you better try to get further gaethje or get a gaethje or poirier rematch every week he seems further away from that fight. That's always far away. You know what? It's too bad too, that Holloway's reinvention with the BMF win made the Torporia fight, the fight you had to make because Chandler Holloway for BMF would have been pretty wild. I would have liked that.

I would have been very good. All right, we got to keep this going. Here's a couple of UFC Abu Dhabi leftovers. It was Corey Sanhagen fight week. Hope you heard it. All right. Turns out Corey's just like one of us, Chuck.

I don't know if you saw the curtain jerker on the night, but middleweight Cedricus Dumas scored a victory, and he wanted the world to know, Chuck, he is not a woman beater. After everybody went to bad mouth me, tell me I'm a woman beater online and all this shit, bro. I ain't no fucking woman. I mean, excuse my language. I ain't no woman beater. I literally to bad mouth me tell me i'm a woman being online and all this shit bro i ain't no fucking i'm excuse my language i ain't no woman be i let it come in this gym every day work my tail off that was in the past that was some bs and i'm here to stay like i told dana when i'm a contender series i'm here to stay don't give up on me big man i'm here to stay that's how you clear your name yeah yeah you bring it to attention to people

who probably never heard of them and then now they're going to google them and be like oh that's the woman yeah i think that brought unnecessary attention uh pfl playoffs hit nashville on friday night and afterwards by the way reporter brett cagle who reached out to me shout out to that guy he asked ray cefo of pfl if they any have any interest in muhammad mukayev after that fiasco ufc just publicly parted ways with mu Mukayyaf. Is that somebody that the PFL would be interested in bringing in? Muhammad who? Mukayyaf.

Undefeated flyweight? No. Actually, you know, I've spoken to people that is in the know, and apparently he's just a pain in the ass to deal with. And so, no, we're not interested. Yeah, who's that? Who the fuck is that? Interesting.

You know, for as good as Conor's acting was, Ray Cepho's is not so good. Not so good. 25-year-old Dakota DiCeva, Ariel Hawane is a big fan. Oh, yes. Big fan. Yeah. The 25-year-old improved to 13-0 with 12 finishes and got a TKO one here after being initially taken down,

advancing her to the $1 million flyweight final against Tyler Santos. First, let's see the highlights. What she's going to have now getting up is going to be unbelievable. Shit, Chuck. Beautiful knee from the plum. And Bishop beckons Jenna Bishop back to her feet Oh, shit, Chuck. A big week for Muay Thai.

Yeah, a huge week. See, I can get down with that. A little like, shh. Yeah, she doesn't have to silence the crowd in PFL, though. I don't think they usually have people show up. No, seriously, this is what I've heard. She wanted going back to normal, just shh. Yeah, exactly.

Let's go back to those COVID cards. Oh, wait, they didn't even play during COVID. I don't mean to rag on PFL, but I really have disliked the season that they've had in terms of making any proper buzz. This seems to be one of the bigger storylines they do have in the playoffs. Chuck, how good is this, Chava?

Because this was supposed to be the fight she got exposed, right, by a wrestler. That didn't happen. I think it still remains to be seen, though. I think the next one, right, will tell us a lot. The next one's a good one. Only because you didn't have a point of comparison. Somebody who took Valentina and Taylor Santos, like, took her the distance. Some people thought she won.

So, like, if you're able to get by her. That night, she was super championship elite, Tyler Santos. Santos defeated defeated Liz Karmush by unanimous decision. And then we did a face off. This has to be the matchup. Most people are going to be circling. And it almost got personal once she put the lip balm on. I'm like, where is this going here, Chuck? Yeah. Wasting it up a little bit. I think even Dakota is like, well, I know everybody else is like, oh, BC's horned up again. No, I'm just reading the room here. No, I mean, there was no proper explanation given about what was going on there.

Let's transition to the amateur wrestling match. You know those crazy parents, Chuck, that they're always screaming at the referees and stuff? Watch this. I can't really give you a play-by-play here, but there's probably a high C, and then some guy's running the pipe. But then the ref sees something. Watch this. Dad's not going to like that.

Uh-oh. Oh, God. All right, sir. This is an RBC. Wow. To that referee's credit, he did not get up and try to fight him. That's a concern, Dad, right there But that is some aggro from that dad.

All right, Chuck, it's time for your motorcycle accident of the week. Wow. Good God. Got jacked up, right? Wow. This isn't one of those things where we're laughing at somebody dying. No, but you were actually, I believe, on the show the only time we accidentally ran a death in this segment's history. That's why I'm being careful here. That circus performer with the snake in London.

I never know what you're showing me here. Let's go to drunk chicks on the escalator, Chuck. We're going to need a live play-by-play for you. Oh, no, no, no. Don't do it. I've seen this kind of behavior in Vegas before. Oh, my God. I'd like to get their numbers, Chuck. This is great. This is fantastic. Oh, my Lord. I'd like to get their numbers.

Chuck, this is great. This is fantastic. All right. That had to have been Vegas. Yeah. Chuck, you're a big historian. Okay. And now a brief look at automotive history.

Did you know that in the year 2000, the S2K was introduced? But little did everybody know, a year later, we... Good Lord. Like, wait. Like, how do you even find this shit? There's your history lesson of the week. I like your silence, too. Come on, now.

Did you ever hear the term catcher's tip? No, I don't think so. This might redefine. Okay. Okay, yes. Oh oh that is oh wow wow that is tip on that is ball on bag right there that is you're not that's just that'll ruin your afternoon chuck wow i don't that's why i'd never play that position indeed indeed uh let's go to riad sisson in la hey jared big baby anderson the unbeaten American heavyweight prospect, got knocked out in a war by Martin Bacoli. But look at this uppercut in slow motion.

Chuck, it almost looked like he jacked his entire jaw. That was brutal. Watch this again right now. And then the uppercut. Oh, this is not the one with the uppercut. But this is just an extension. There it is right there. Geez.

Wow. That was a big breakthrough victory for Bacoli. And afterwards, 92-year-old Bob Arum giving some comfort to Big Baby. You're right. It'll only be tomorrow. You tried. I know. Don't worry.

We'll bring you back like nothing happened. And this time, you'll be bigger and better than ever. That is a caring man right there. That was like a wholesome moment. That was very wholesome. Imagine if like— Bob needs to stack a bunch of those to bounce some shit out. Shut the fuck up, Coppinger.

Shakur Stevenson and Vasily Lomachenko were in the crowd, by the way, because Shakur's a free agent courting with different promoters. He was introduced to Turkey by Eddie Hearn, and then Turkey was like, did you tell him of the plan? And it seems, by the way, the plan is for Shakur to fight unbeaten William Zepeda for his lightweight title on a Riyadh-Sizankar later this year. But Shakur and Loma started jawing.

I saw this. and I'm told by people that were there that Loma was legitimately fired up he was fired up security ultimately needed to separate see I'm all about this type of thing you don't need to show me like celebrities getting along

show me guys that are ready to throw down. You could argue. World class fighters. Outside of Modrumov, you could argue the biggest winner on the fight card was in that co-main event. Jose El Rayo Valenzuela, who came in against Pitbull Cruz with huge advantages in reach and height, ultimately outboxed him. But he also landed some big shots. Look at that uppercut. Damn.

To win a world title at 140. He was crying afterwards, dedicating it to his parents. He's fun to watch, man. He's always been a fun puncher, but this was like next level boxing that he broke out. Yeah, that was awesome. He was taking some shots, too, early. Absolutely. That was an excellent performance. Andy Ruiz, unfortunately, was not able to come back and show that old school upset heavyweight title form. His form

was very big coming in here against Big Baby Miller and unfortunately they fought to a kind of a weird draw. I thought Big Baby got robbed Jarrell Miller this time in the sense that he didn't get the victory but afterwards check out what Andy Ruiz revealed on his hand. That's a pretty bad looking bone there Andy.

This is how it was. Man like I said you're a warrior bub but I probably push it through i push it through so much as much as i can but my fucking hand oh my gosh he's a lovable dude but i like how the i like how big baby's like it's just part of boss yeah it's just part of it's just like what he just totally downplayed it you know what sucks is if andy Ruiz came out and looked good and hadn't sat out for two years, he's probably getting any heavyweight he wants, right? I mean, Usyk and Fury are tied up, but he might get Anthony Joshua for a third time. You never know.

Francis. And here we are. Francis, that's interesting. And we talked about your fast food love, but here's your true drive-through moment of the week, Chuck. Oh, my God. Just drive right through it. All right. All right, let's read your sign of the week.

Oh, my Lord. I'm sure Chris is a great guy to his friends and family, but this is a little too much, Chuck. He bangs. He's non-discriminating. He just bangs whatever, you know? Chuck, do you know the most efficient way to clean up ketchup? You're going to inform me. Yeah, let's watch.

All right. I had to play that for you and not Luke, because Luke would have called me racist for playing this, but I just thought that was weird. What was that? The hills have eyes? I can't imagine what actually was going on. But things got even weirder than that at the Paris Olympics.

Chuck, let's go to three-on-three U.S. Hooper, Jimmer for dead. He had issues, so he brought over the trainer. It looked like those issues are going away. I'll have what he's having, Chuck. Wow. I'm providing a lot of footage for you, man. Little how's your father right there.

Wow. That is great. Speaking of dongs, let's go to the Olympic pole vault. I knew this was going to be on here. So France's Anthony Amirati had a chance to medal if he could clear this height. Turns out his mom's maiden name was Sofretti, Chuck. Wow! I mean, this is actually

a moral win, I think. I think so. I can confirm that it's very awkward when things like this happen to you. It's like, you know what I mean? You're like, I was a man with a rather large baggage. It's very strange when something like that gets in the way. I could have been a contender. I was going to meddle.

At least the world knows. I mean, this dude's going to be all right. Wow. Speaking of pole vault, it doesn't always go well for everybody. I don't know how this guy lied on his application. Let's watch this. Oh, my God. I mean, first of all, you've got to be crazy to pole vault, right?

Yeah. This could happen in public. That's like the existential vertigo when you get to the top and you're like, I'm not going over. I like how he's laying there. I still have never seen the rest of that footage. Is he dead? I think he's dead. Yeah, I think he's dead.

The Paralympics will follow the Olympics this year in Paris, but let's travel back three years ago to Tokyo for this Olympic highlight. Paralympic. Not in Mutombo's house. Yes seriously not again wow not in my house yes oh good catch right there not a good catch for this guy in the outfield this might ruin their relationship chuck bobbles the ball and then oh my lord yeah i don't think she's being a good sport about it though you think she's been through this before not the first time i believe i could fly yeah all right there you go uh chuck your ko of the week comes from muay thai and it is insanity i don't know the guy's name. Okay.

You can't read that? Oh! Look at that. This guy just rolled thunder at him, right? That's a thing of beauty right there. Wow. Looks like a star, too, with the dyed gray hair. Anytime you pull from that type of thing, like these Muay Thai events or something, I know something cool is coming up.

Chuck, I randomly found my favorite news blooper of all time. Do you remember Bills player Kevin Everett, who they were afraid was paralyzed after a hit in the NFL? Yes. Yeah, they had an update on local news in Florida. Let's watch. News 12 Sports with Pat Murphy. Great news regarding Bills tight end Kevin Everett.

He moved his arms and legs today. And doctors now believe that's the wrong video, by the way. That is not the right video. Oh, my God. Never stops being awesome. And finally, Luke, not Luke, Chuck, I'm a big cereal head. Big cereal head. You?

I do like some cereal. It's like the comfort food of life, cereal. This man, though, is a major cereal head. I don't know, Chuck. I don't know, but I like it. I do kind of like it. Magic Sister is my thing. What are you thumbing through to find that?

Well, you should see. It's interesting. That's an algorithm that's your shit of the week well we gave him two hours and 15 minutes of the best show in combat it's like i'm sure your ringer show is like really good like people should probably listen to you ariel and pizza cariel on it yeah yeah yeah cariel hawani yes they should uh can oh have you been watching the ariel hawani uh olympic download that's been i've been seeing some of it but man that dude is like it's like every night i can't watch all of that.

Yeah. I've seen some of it, though. Yeah, there's a lot going on. He's trolling out there quite a bit. He's got a great opportunity, though. You've got to give him that. That is a big deal. Chuck, it's been great to have you in the studio here.

I get the call every, I don't know, four, six months, something like that. Yeah, every time one of us has a vacation or dies or something, then we go to the bullpen for Chuck. Anything you want to promote? You got a set coming up at Caroline's or the Laugh Factory? A cruise ship. You giving away a truck at all on your podcast or anything?

No, no. But you can catch the Ringer MMA show usually Thursdays before, you know, Thursdays of every week, Tuesdays before main events, or main cards for UFC pay-per-views, and then afterwards we do pay-per-view post-fight shows. And you still write for the ringers? I still do. I run the rankings over there, the pound-for-pound rankings,

which Dana loves very much. And we still do the odd feature and column, so you can catch me there. And at TheMyth.com, is that still a thing? Myth.com, yep. I probably write a piece every month. And if we want to buy that beautiful hat. I need to bump that up some. Yes, you can pick up the hat.

You actually sold some for me once. Oh, I appreciate that. I actually love mine. Mark Ratner wore one at the Apex. He wears it every time. He was wearing it in Manchester. Every time you see those weigh-ins, that gray hat he's wearing is a myth hat. Could you get Dana in a myth hat?

Like, what do you think Dana thinks about you? I'm not sure Dana does, but he blocked me a long time ago from Twitter. Okay. So I'm not sure how much he thinks about me anymore. I mean, I don't think he spends a lot of time thinking about you. I think he respects you, right? I've never wound up in one of those clips, those hit clips yet. So there must be a little bit of respect there.

All right, we should send these people home. Thank you, Long Island Luke. It was great working with you, all right? Thanks for having me. They're probably going to let us go after that. Have you seen the ship? But we had a good run, right? You know what I mean?

It was all right. All right, for everybody else, thank you so much. That's Chuck Mendenhall. Hey, it's Luke Thomas' birthday, so reach out to that gentleman on social media. He turns 45 down in Columbia today. Luke, we love you. Safe travels.

Enjoy it. Unplug and just, yeah, just get after it. I mean, do you think he's wearing dark sunglasses at all times so he can check out the BBL action and not be caught? I would hope so. You've met his wife. She'd make his ass. She would beat his ass. You know, she once rolled with Roxy Mata Furry. Is that right? I did hear that once in Vegas. Yes. That's the show. That's the great Chuck Mendenhall, Sir Charles Mendenhall IV. Your great grandpappy was a whiskey?

He was, yeah. He made moonshine. He made moonshine, yes, that's correct. I think you got your facts right on that one. I don't think he paid taxes, and he probably definitely slept with women. Didn't even know what taxes were. All right, for Chuck Mendenhall, it's Brian Campbell. Thank you so much.

Morning Combat, we love you. We'll be back next week, and it's going to be awesome because we're going to preview like 305 and stuff. Whatever. Later. We're out of here.