MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Abu Dhabi Results | Joshua vs Fury Finally Next? | Errol Spence Jr. Retires

Episode Date: July 27, 2026

Happy Monday, Donks! Luke Thomas and Chuck Mindenhall are in the house going over all the results from UFC Abu Dhabi. Magomed Ankalaev took out Bogdan Guskov in the fifth round in the main event. Ramazan Temirov defeated Steve Erceg in the first round and Rizvan Kuniev finished Tyrell Fortune in the third round. The fellas break down those matchups and other highlights from the Abu Dhabi card. Plus, Errol Spence Jr. announced his retirement from boxing after suffering a loss to Tim Tszyu, who won by unanimous decision in his home country of Australia. Join LT, The Iceman, LIL and the MK crew on a Monday edition of Morning Kombat!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Revely, revelry. Look at this now. Here it's a bit of time. Oh, Jesus. Oh, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, combat. Oh, there's, whoa. You fit in seamlessly in this weird MK environment.

Do you want to mark a arena? We're going to do it to me, choose, choose, we say. Your marks get set and go on. Oh, they say LeBron James is going to play for Philly, but live in New York. He'll have to commute every single day, Chuck. But you know what he won't be doing to commute? Taking Amtrak. I know that. I know that. Welcome, everyone, on this Monday edition of Morning Combat, the 27th of July, 26. My name is Luke Thomas. I am merely one half of your hosting duo. I join you from the capital of Estadosonis on. Right here in. Yeah, baby.

Washington, D.C. There it is. joined by my Connecticut brethren. He's always rep in some kind of hat. He's the ice man himself, Chuck Mindenhall. What's up, brother? What's going on, Luke? You know, you worry a little bit about LeBron. This helicopter transport and going back and forth. There's another guy that they compare him with who did a helicopter ride a lot. And I just get a little bit worried about that parallel, my friend. I'm just saying, and it's not like you're taking a helicopter, like, you know, oh, on Fridays or game days or this guy's going to do this every single day. I mean, if you want enough money, like I'm like, I would have at least a little pad in Philadelphia for those late night games. I mean, I would just, I just, uh, that seems like a lot to me. Yeah,

I'd rather die. I'd rather die. And in fact, you might just end up doing it either way. Chuck, how was your weekend, my friend? It was good, man. Lots of him. This, this felt like a very fight heavy weekend. I felt like, and they were all kind of spread out across like Saturday. So, you know, even yesterday I was trying to catch up with some of the boxing and everything that was going on. But, uh, yeah, sometimes I like that and sometimes it feels a little bit, because there was nothing that was like, and I know we're talking about all this today, but there was nothing that kind of jumped out as like the big event. So it was just kind of like this plateau of fights that we had to get through here.

Yes, that's right. I mean, there are some high points, definitely. Yeah. Some low points too. That's true, both on the MMA and the boxing side. So we'll talk about all of it. We have UFC Abu Dhabi. We have the PFL's card here in D.C. that took place.

And then, of course, on the boxing side, frankly, the more interesting fight results, if I can be honest with you. Yeah. Anthony Joshua getting past his tune up by the skin of his teeth. talk about that as well as Errol Spence retiring after losing to Tim Zoo and everything in between. So thumbs up on the video if you haven't hit subscribe, please. You can follow us on social there. As always, for fan subs, for dead wrongs to reach the show, you can email us Morning Kombat at gmail.com. You can, of course, become a member. You can get badges, emojis, and more to come.

And then, of course, the merch. This is going to be, I think this is the last week for this. So all T-shirt designs are going to be re-released, or I'm not going to be there, I'm re-released this month and you can get them for 20% off at morningcombat.shop as well as posters for 50% off. Before we go any further, let's bring in the third member here of the show. Unquestionably committed to this project, questionably sober. It's Long Island, Luke. How are you doing, my friend? I'm doing good, guys. You know, I feel like LeBron, his whole career, he's been trying to be like Jordan. Now he's just trying to be like Kobe. Is that the whole thing? Once you got enough money, you just flex the helicopter, dude. I'm going to take a house.

helicopter this Friday to PFL Long Island. I'm looking forward to that. You are? Yeah, Luke, I'm taking a fucking helicopter to PFL long island. What do you mean? Of course not. Guys, UFC Abu Dhabi this weekend. Everyone hated it.

My bets went perfect. I fucking loved it. It was a great card. Don't ever say your bets can. I love how your experience is always just the opposite. Exactly. Exactly. It's great.

He bets in such a way where it's like if the card is great, great. And if the card is bad and I win, also great. You know what I mean? He bets in a way that he's like he bets all the over. So everybody's like moaning about the car. Oh, this thing. Oh, right. I'm like, please go over.

Please go. Let's go. Uncle I have. Yeah. You know, you laugh at me about the helicopter question. Helicopters, you can rent those in New York City. And am I? Yeah.

Man, did I see this? I could be wrong about this. I believe that like there is it either Uber does it or there's an Uber like service where you can like hail a helicopter on your phone in New York City, right? This is absolutely true. I remember looking into this at one point because it was just. like, you know, if you've been in the city long enough and you've lived there and all that stuff, and sometimes you wish you had that, that out because you just can't get across town or

whatever. But yes, that does exist. Or at least it did. It did exist for a while there. Flying in a helicopter is the ultimate, I'm literally above you peasants kind of move, isn't it? You flown in one? Only through the military. I've never flown in a commercial one, you know. There was one time I did a cover story for Fight Magazine back of the day with Hoist Gracie. I was just going to like hang out with him and stuff and he's like hey I'm going on this helicopter

tour of Charlotte because I met him out in Charlotte North Carolina and we they're like yeah come on come on like it was like one of these tiny things and I was getting on I was like no hell no so I'll catch you when you get back man so I just let him go by himself I couldn't do it no yeah I had never been on one

and I had no idea we were about to like embark on one so I had no preparation or mental preparation preparation yeah yeah I would have done it but you know I've done a lot of stupid shit yeah there you go. All right. Speaking of things that were not that awesome, let's talk about this main event from the UFC over the weekend. Topic number one, where else would we start? Oh, geez.

Probably not going to be on anyone's lists for round of the year or, I don't know, finish of the year or anything of the year. One of these fights were, Chuck, sometimes, I don't know if you ever think about this, do you ever think about like there's certain fights that happen? And sometimes they can be relatively important and you're like, I'll literally never watch this one again. Oh, yeah. Like, I'm not even sure how valuable this fight will be even for basic tape study in either direction. Just an absolute black hole of a fight. So let's ask the question here. Ultimately, Ankaliv gets the win. He gets a stoppage in the fifth round. But the stoppage is weird. The main event entirely lackluster. If you look at the stat sheet, Anka Laveh,

dominated and eventually score to finish. So like, let me just ask a sort of of a broad-based question. All right. What went wrong here? Why was this fight so nothing to it? Well, part of it was that Uncle I was involved in a fight with Gusekav.

That was the problem. No, it was like, I think that they're, like, I was, you know, you're watching it, you're wondering, and it's never a good sign, by the way, when the commentators are able to get off all the narratives that they want to talk about within the first round, like, you could hear them like,

you know, just talking, telling stories and stuff because there was no action really yet to be talking about. about within that round. So they're telling you all the asides that have been going on with these camps and whatnot. I just, to me, like, watching it, I was frustrated for Ancolaev to, I mean, maybe you have a different perception of this, but it just seemed like Guskov was contenting himself, staying on the outside, staying out of danger zone, maybe he's trying to set up counters, but not taking really much of any chances. And it just kind of hit a formula. And once this

happens, you know, I think that you could hear the crowd there just sagging. as it was going on. Like, by the second round, there were a lot of booze. It just didn't feel like there was going to be anything that happened. And Uncle I, if he had maybe went to the ground, like if he'd maybe went for the takedowns earlier, like, you know, sold out for that a little bit.

Maybe the fight would have, wouldn't have had to play out the way it did. But it was almost like an epiphany when he finally like, okay, way, I can take this guy down and he can't do anything in the fourth round, right? Like, it was all the way into the fourth round. And then by the fifth, if he didn't do, if he didn't finish it that way, it was going to be, it would have been a lot worse if it had got to the scorecard.

So I don't know what it means. Like Uncle I've, even if he'd had a really good showing in this fight, and he had a very tough dance partner here, I give, you know, in terms of like just trying to make it entertaining. But even if he had styled on Goose Gob, I just, that division is hard for him. And I don't know if the UFC wants to put him back into a title situation. So that was already kind of hovering over this whole thing.

But dude, the fight couldn't have played out any less entertaining than it did, honestly. it was just midway through that fight like you know sometimes you get yourself scrolling on the phone or doing something like that I was definitely doing that during this fight all right I've got some thoughts on them okay I definitely feel like

if not a big I mean maybe you can even say the majority of the problem to be honest with you is a function of what goose golf was doing or I should say not doing because on the one hand he was doing enough defensively particularly with his feet

when they were standing where he's moving and moving and moving. So he's not necessarily making it easy in that sense for Ankaliev, but he's not really ever offensively engaging. However, I'll get to the Oncaliov part in the second, but just on the Goosekhov side, it's like, dude, like, guys, I don't, if you're not, listen, fighting in a cage is got to be one of the hardest things I've ever seen. Fighting in a cage at a high level, it's going to be, you know, just the ridiculously insane.

And then, you know, trying to do that against a very good guy on late notice. Also, just, you know, one of the most difficult tasks on earth, certainly far beyond anything I could even be reasonably called upon to accomplish at my best days ever in my life. And I recognize that. But, I mean, I also think it's fair to say, just as an observer of these things, if you're not really prepared to offensively engage, you probably shouldn't take the fight, right? I just feel like that's, I mean, this is, this is. a fight. This is an opportunity

to offensively engage. And in fact, the whole point of a fight is that both fighters do that and then in theory, the better ones offense wins out. If you're not willing to offensively engage, you are wasting everybody's time. You're wasting your opponent's time. You're wasting your time.

You're wasting the UFC's time and you are wasting the fans time. And it just seems to me like that's not really all that unfair an assessment. Like, you can be bad or good, but you have to kind of try up to your ability. And I think there's some question about what Gustav's total limit is, but I know we didn't get close to it. And I want to be clear, part of this is also the way in which Ancolae of fights, both good and bad, kind of

roping you into a thing. And you kind of feel like safe if I just kind of keep moving because he's not going to do a sustained attack. He's going to score and let it go and score and let it go. and so that kind of facilitates some of this. But nevertheless, you cannot put in that particular sense, you cannot put it on him. Gustav has a responsibility to offensively engage, and he abdicated it, period. In fact, Chuck, before I go any further,

wouldn't you agree that the stoppage itself was not because we had reached some terminal state of the fight where Guskov was so battered, he wasn't defending himself. It looked to me, like here you look at this, he's just not really doing anything. He's been told to move and told to move and he's kind of covering up,

but he still has his base, like his knees are under him. He's not flat on his stomach. You know, he's kind of mildly posturing up for a second. He rolls to his side here a little bit and then Mark Goddard calls it. But if you actually watch the face of Gus golf,

he's smiling here in this particular moment. Like, it seemed to me that the referee was just like, listen, if you're, if this is all this is going to be, I'm going to call this off. Yeah, it felt like, you know, like a futility,

like it was, it felt like that like if that's happening in the first round there would be no the referee wouldn't be stopping that fight you know I think because the fourth round there were signs that goose cobb and I hate this because like you just laid out the reasons you know this is where like as

a you know a person who covers the game versus a person who fights you don't want to say that somebody wants out of there but he was giving bad body language in that fourth round and I think that's why like you go into the fourth to the fifth round and kind of the take down and kind of you know the advancement into the you know the

position he was in was so simple, so little resistance was going on there that you couldn't help but think like, this fight's over. Like, what are we doing here? And I think that the referee did the right thing there. We would normally, in any other kind of fight, be like, wait, why are they stopping this? But I didn't hear a single protest. Did you? I felt like it was just one of those kind of like futility killings. Like, we've got to just get this over with now. I did not. He didn't look to me like there was any protest. Long Island, do you share our characterization of the nature of the stoppage? Yeah, like we'd literally in real time, we're like, wait, they're stopping this. And then I was like,

whatever, man. If he had kept punching for another like 15 seconds, maybe it would have looked like a better stoppage. But like, like, whatever. We were all over it. Someone said it's like the first stoppage from boredom. Like Mark Goddard was just so bored. I think I want to give them credit. I want to say it was Jed. I don't remember. That's what it felt like, though. That's a good assessment. It absolutely felt that way. But the fight itself, like that's just goose golf and that's the finish. And like to me, the more vexing one here is obviously on coliav because he gets the win he statistically dominates so he's credited with three sub attempts i think he'd give him one take down as well

he had like eight or nine minutes of control time and and you know about that went you know just over 20 and you know like he obviously had the lead in significant strikes but like the the problem for me for on coliav is you know i do think i do think it's important to be well-rounded I do. And Ankaliev really checks a lot of boxes in that regard. And in particular, it's something I said on my personal channel, Chuck, which was, if you just look at the way Ankalia fights, the little in-between things about, you know, when to offensively engage in little tiny moments, little setups, when to use a setup, when to go, you know, when to be more defensively sound, when not to, but when to also just move or illicit responses to sort of, slow a fight down to park in a moment where if you're actually making grips, but even at range to kind of move in a way where, you know, your opponent is a little bit unsettled so they don't go. He's got a million of these things. And I think ordinarily, and I still think even now, that's actually something very praiseworthy.

Like, you've just got a clear understanding of all of the mechanics that go into all the different phases and ranges and realities of a fight, like what to do in all these ways, especially to, you know, kind of pull it onto your turn. terms. He's very, very gifted at this. And I think that needs to be acknowledged. But like, the, like, with great power comes great responsibility. You know, it's like, on the one hand, people want to be like, oh, he's very good. He's very well-rounded. This is true. But you've got a guy literally not trying to fight back. And it took him 20 plus minutes to get him out of there. And the other part, too, Chuck is, you know, oh, he went for the takedown late or not until the fourth round, right? It was the fourth and the fifth, or there were first three rounds. Like, he often

makes changes late in fights, where he's getting leg kicked into oblivion against Jan Bolivich for several rounds that went on long before we were supposed to, before he ever made a switch about it. Like, to me, the question is not, is on Kalaya of well-rounded? Like, I don't really think what would even be the argument against such a thing? The argument to me is that he doesn't marshal his forces to do much more than score and exit, score and score. And and exit, score and hold, score and hold. He's not meaningfully trying to steer that fight with the accumulation of offense towards ending scenarios. He's just trying to play basketball, get the ball, shoot a three, get the ball, shoot a three, right? This will be over when, when the clock expires.

It's that kind of an approach to fighting, which is to me for a guy this good, kind of beneath his level, especially in a case where the opponent isn't really fighting back. Just a very uninspiring performance for me. You have called him Donkolaev in the past. Like just because he's some of the stuff he's done like, did feel, I mean, honestly, like the fact that he did figure it out, I give him credit, especially because this is a thinkless, this was a thankless kind of task. Like he stays on the card a couple weeks out. You have an opponent switch.

Who was supposed to be? It was supposed to be Roundtree? Round tree. Which, I mean, obviously would have been a better fight. It would have been a better fight. and it would have been a different kind of fight, obviously. Like, but he stays on, he does what he has to do, and he figures it out.

But I'm with you, and I think that that's what people sense. Like, when you're talking about a guy who, what would you call it? Like, it's tactical in a way that you're like, you know, he's, it's not going through the motions. It's obviously like he's out there and he's fighting, but you're right. There's not a sense of urgency or like some kind of hunger.

There's really no recklessness to him, right? And I know that some, you know, fighters themselves should not crave recklessness. this, but, like, you don't really see him put himself into danger, you know, and that sort of thing. Most of his fights kind of play out like this. I think that we sense that that's what he's doing, and that's what has made him a hard watch. And I'm positive that the UFC, well, you worded it perfectly. I think that the UFC picks up on this, this kind of tendency of his, and, you know,

you combine it with he doesn't have a ton of charisma, he doesn't speak English, you put all this into one big thing. And I think that's why he's, you know, he's, you know, he's. going to be a number one contender and I'm not sure like he's one of those number one contenders who's always two fights two fights away at this point you know what I mean I don't feel like the UFC unless they're desperate would want him back in a title shot I don't know what they're supposed to do long island what are we getting wrong or right about on calli of more broadly I don't know man I'm I'm always the guy who's like hey he's earned it give him the shot back but at the same time like where

like when is oldberg coming back oldberg's probably still not coming back till like maybe quarter one that's what he says yeah so like I was going to say maybe quarter four but I doubt it. So it's like he could wait for Oldberg got it like our fans going to be excited for that fight? No, but it's like

yeah, but I don't know. And then like Yeri, you don't want to give him Yeri either even though they've never fought because of Yeri wins now you've got to give Yeri another fucking title shot and it just feels like I think you rebook the roundtree match up and just hope if you're the UFC you hope roundtree

wins I think honestly that's probably what's nice. We have this well before we get to that before we get to that i'll i'll just wrap up here like on on coliyev in this fight like i you know it's

i don't want to sit here and be like oh the defining thing about him i think this is what i want to say i don't think the the strongest argument about on coliiv is that first and foremost he's boring i admit that this fight was boring

and i admit he's had boring and i admit he's had boring fights before, but he's had good fights too. It's not like it's an every time thing, although I also grant the style of him pulling the fight down to a more measured pace. Isn't necessarily fan appealing either, but I still think it's also like, you know, as a fan, I think it's a reasonable critique to be like, hey man, I'm going to spend my time in dollars on the people that I think are worth it. I don't think Uncle I was worth it. That's a reasonable fan critique. For media, I think it has to be a little different because just making entertainment such a dominant quotient by a media perspective,

I think to me is a little limiting. But I think what I would say after all of this is that you're also not fighting up to potential. Like you're not fighting up to ability or maybe your ability is that, Chuck, one thing I wondered is, he didn't donk it up this time, right? He didn't make boneheaded errors,

although he was slow to adjust, I thought, to what Goosekov was doing. But I, again, it's a question of is he not fighting up to ability or in order to manage risk he has to lessen his what what other things he's willing to do and so it's like are your are your is your error prone rate so high that the solution for it just kind of dulls your offensive personality I don't think that that speaks too great either if that's in fact what it is maybe maybe that's the way I would word it yeah I agree with you 100

100% man. And it's like, did you have any feeling, I guess, going into this fight that it would play out differently? I guess there was, I felt like there was a very real potential that we'd be having a conversation like this. You know, that just we would be left a little disappointed by this fight. Guskov obviously played a huge role in that. But unfortunately, I feel like that's kind of where we are. Like, remember, Uncle I was a guy who was fighting for a vacant, 2005-pound title, you know,

not that long ago against uh against yon bohobitch and the fight ends in a draw and rather than like okay we got to we got to do this again to figure this out they just on the very next pay per view at the time just give it to jemal hill and um who was he fighting glover to share right they're like this is for the you know this is for the vacant title this is kind of how he's been it's just like he puts on performances that you you you just don't want to revisit you know what i mean like they're just like you mentioned it off the top like you it's not something that you want to go back and watch and it i think it really does turn the ufc off too when they put them in a big spot like this and this is your takeaway we'll have to see now yeah olberg carlos oberg the champion put up this

graphic on social media about like what's next and here's what he writes quote after last night's fights here's my thoughts on colia versus yri give both of them a full camp it's the fight the division deserves and stylistically it's one of the it's one the fans would love to see then he writes Costa versus Roundtree. That's the wild card, high risk, high rewards. Someone's leaving with some serious momentum. By the time the dust settles, I'll be ready. Whoever earns it, see you in 2027.

So we can now say that that title is not. The fact that the light heavyweight title is not going to be contested all year is kind of like a real. It's ridiculous. It's just really quite a backbreaker. But okay, let's talk about it. What do you think about his idea? It's not the worst.

It is not the worst. I fear a little bit what Long Island was saying about like Yuri, right? Like if you get Yuri back in there, and I know, I know the fans love them, but this would be like the Uriah Faber thing or something like that where you're like, okay, we just keep throwing this guy back into into title shots. But obviously, you know, I don't know what you do. And I know that this is like something that you've talked about too. This division is just not as good as like flyweight is suddenly or like some of these other divisions.

The light heavyweight division is just the opposite. It just doesn't have a lot of imagination to it. There's so many guys that you have to see. Quint to even see how they should be there. Uncle I would be one of the clear definitive guys who should be in the title picture, but we just talked about the complications with him. If you want to book it this way, because there aren't better options, you know, you could do that, but you could also just be like, I mean, I, the champion heard is

really the wild card here, that him being off means that you probably are going to have to have some kind of fight maybe an interim. I don't know if they'll do that, but like the guys who came up from 185, like, Costa or, you know, Whitaker, it's a bright move. When you look at this division, the more I look at, the more I'm like, man, you're a win away from a title shot because you would be an exciting title challenger. And like, you know, like Whitaker being a former champion and all that. Like, suddenly this is compelling.

Like, because there's just not a lot, Luke, if you look at that top 10, there's just not a lot of good options there. No, there's not a lot of good options. But I don't, I'll say that. Sorry, go ahead. Not me. Go ahead. Oh, sorry. I thought I was hearing something on the other side. I don't, I'm not sure what to say about all of this. Long Island, how do you feel? Like, for me, Costa, I don't even know if he's going to be there. And then on the other side, Roundtree, I definitely like the idea that he'd be in the mix somewhere, but it seems speculative. The thing for me that I like the most is the oncolaia of Yuri one. I think that's the one that makes the most sense. I saw Jed is in the chat right now and he just said, you do Yuri because Ancolae versus Yuri can't be boring. And like I agree with that logic.

Like, Yuri will bring the fun out of Ankleyev. We hope the donk out of Donkolaev. But at the same time, it's like, again, dude, if Yeri wins, now what? We get Yuri Oldberg too. It's, I don't know, man. It just feels like, I love Yuri. I want to see him in fun fights.

But I feel like we need to like take a step back from the title picture. Maybe give him someone in like a little further back that like you're trying to build up or something and see how he looks. I don't know. I don't really. What happened to this? What happened to this once clam division? Yeah, for real. Well, let me ask you a question about that.

I actually think that's an important question to ask, namely, is this the worst light heavyweight has ever been? And a lot of times we have this recency bias where we're like, oh, well, you know, things are going badly now or they've been going badly for a spell. And then this is just the moment. And there's nothing more to it than that. And I do think there could be part of that. but like two things to kind of stand out to me if you take away Alex Pereira for the last couple of years

for light heavyweight and look at the fights that would be made available it's a pretty significant drop off from the level of celebrity and star power he brought but bigger than that Chuck like ever since the UFC really began to work with like a proto light heavyweight division which was I think the demarcation

line used to be $1.99,200 Frank Shamrock one of the early stars and again everything kind of split out from there but like if you want to consider that the modern era. Yeah, maybe right at the advent of the weight class it wasn't as good, but like the earliest days of the UFC's genuine crossover celebrity growth happened with Tito Ortiz is one of the early faces in Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture and Vitorre Belfort and obviously in Pride and Vanderlay and Dan Henderson and Arona and Rampage and overreem and

I mean, you name it, dude. This division was the thing that honestly, kind of built MMA. Where are we now? And dude, like, and like, so a lot of those guys were kind of like the holdovers from that era, right? They were coming up as John Jones emerged and then started to like brush off all the relics, get rid of them like beating Shogun, you know, just going through that the guys that you're talking about. And so you still had a guy at the top then who's this young,

hungry champion who was going to be there a long time and he was there a long time, even though he had multiple title runs given his many things that happened to him. But through that whole process, because John Jones existed, you know, in D.C. coming down to that division, those were still very good times. They were still very good times. They weren't as deep as they used to be. The division wasn't as deep, but still you survived it. But like, as you get into this and like, I think the best way to kind of look at is like, would Carlos Oldberg rule in any of these eras you know like a guy like Carlos Oldberg

and who would be your number you know what I mean like with these guys be into that discussion it's it's difficult to you know imagine all of that but at the same time I'm like when you've got Carlos Oldberg and I don't I mean I don't feel like we fully know everything about Carlos Oldberg yet like I feel like he's one of those guys here like you've got to see more

to kind of understand how good he is but then you look down to these other guys and I it's just tough, man. And I think this, I guess you could call it the Uncle Live era because he was, once he was fighting for that vacant title and they had that draw, we've kind of been in this like little jetty of, you know, guys where we, the fans want Erie to kind of be the guy, but he's not getting it done. So if you're looking at the whole thing as a like as a whole, like all the guys involved in it and who we're talking about in the title, I think it is the

worst. I mean, I'm not, I don't think it's the recency bias. You just kind of outlined it. It has through different eras, there's always been some kind of compelling, you know, rivalries. There's been guys who at times look unbeatable in that division. There's been dudes coming up. Like, just right now, though, I don't see it. Like, and there aren't a ton of prospects in that division either. Like the guys who are like, well, give them a year or two, this guy's coming. There aren't a lot of those either. So I think it is. I think this is the worst era for for light heavyweight. Man. Jesus. You know, what's kind of funny, too, is like the best fight of the weekend, in my opinion, in

MMA, I mean, there's a couple different choices you could pick, but for me was the light heavyweight fight for the PFL, the Sullivan Colley and Russell Mega Madoff. That fight was bananas. Yeah, it was, man. But the division generally is just such a mess. I don't even know what else to say about it. Yeah. All right. Well, that is the main event.

Let's talk about the rest of the card, some of the ups and some of the downs. There were some actually some pretty good ups on this one. So let's start with all the other pieces of the UFC fight night Ancolae v. Guskov card. I know Long Island was loving this one. Ramazan Temerov defeats Steve Erseg in round one. So what do you say, Chuck? Were you convinced that Temerov is now added to the list of the surging elite

contenders at flyweight? Dude, is it like crazy that we keep talking about these new dudes. This guy, you remember John Dodson back in the day like he was five foot three and he had the he was a lefty though right like he was a southpaw so he had the big left I remember I was Caged side when he knocked out T.J. Dillishaw during tough 14 or whatever that was back in 2011 and I was

like you watched the way he was flinging those like just from the buckle bam like just flinging these big shots upwards because he's short that's what it reminded me of but this guy hits harder I think he was going after a couple of these shots I was like dude did you see

how fast that came out and landed and with what an impact like he's fully loading up on these shots, right? That's fun to watch. And it's a crazy division anyway. Like when you add his name to it, right? Like you look at this kid suddenly who is like, I want to fight them all.

And I'm like, you've got a few guys like that right now in that division. Dude, it's, it's exciting. I think he does. I think he is the next, you know what I mean? Like he's another guy in that fold who just makes for a crazy kind of, it's just his mentality and everything, but like just crazy kind of matchmaking. I thought this was a great test for him.

You know what I mean? Like because Ursaig has been a guy who, you know, has fought for a title and he went right through him. So to me, that is an exciting. This was the moment, right, that people were paying attention to him. Dude, I hated this fight from Erseg, but with Temerol, you know it's kind of funny.

I went back and I watched the finish. And even before the first punch rocks him late in the first, is another one that happens just before that, that was the same, meaning they were all. all right hands. I don't know if anyone noticed that. There was no, like he threw a left once, maybe. Yeah. But all the punches, and there were several of them, watch, right hand. Yep. He's not even like, he's not even like, the left misses.

Yeah, there was a, yeah, yeah. These both missed right hand. Watch this. Right hand. Right hand. It's all right hands. Ersig's picking up on those at least. He's, his face is picking up on him. I mean, that was the thing that got me. It's like, dude, Erseg was kind of like, you could even hear the commentators calling for him to jab. more because he was jabing a little bit like how you know he was like putting a little emphasis behind it but what he was really doing was like one of these double pumps you know what I mean

yeah he was doing one of these double pumps but then not putting anything behind it and actually play the finish one more time I think it happens off that off the jab let's see here not that one let's see just teeing off no it's the it's the initial one that already rocked him no no no this it already happened before yeah there it is comes right over the top and then by that point so like he's getting timed off of just, dude, like, I, I, this is just my, again, my opinion. My fucking opinion.

That's what MK's all about. My fucking opinion, your fucking opinion. My opinion. You need to have some kind of consistent lancing attack that deters pressure on some level. And that could be a front kick.

That could be a front kick, low kick, jab hook series, you know, all different kind of ways to do it. But you have to have something that like, you could have a forceful lanceing attack. That's what you're looking for. He didn't have one. And if you're not going to have a forceful Lansing

attack, you have to have very good, like, high guard defense and like good feet or good head movement, like, you know, really keeping yourself protected. And his lead hand is kind of here. You know, and so, like, between all of the, and the other part two is like, if you watch Ersac, he's barely throwing

anything with his legs, you know, he's doing a lot of moving, which is fine. But I'm saying, like, you know, really giving a guy who's winging heavy shots. you've got to give that guy something to think about to deter him. And there's just never any attempt at that. So like, do Temarov understands something fundamental about MMA that I think a lot of people don't,

which is, yeah, getting good at boxing in the way that Erseg typically is good at boxing, this can confer a number of advantages in part because it can bring you closer to your opponent. But if your opponent is shorter and pressuring you and you don't have something in their face at all times, or pretty consistently anyway, they can just leap into things somewhat recklessly. and that works in MMA and other sports, striking sports, that doesn't work nearly so easily. And he paid for it, dude. He paid for it.

And I think even the very first exchange, right? Didn't Ersick go down? Like it kind of got dropped on the very first strike. It wasn't too bad. Like a spinning back kick to the body. Is that what it was? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it was just like, it's just such a bad omen.

I don't know what's up with Ersig, you know, in that sense. Like, sometimes there's been a couple times like, you know, and obviously this was a guy who was thrust into a situation where he'd want to a couple of fights. He had one one knockout, like a very, I forget the, who the kid he beat, Matt Schnell. Yeah, it was like he showcased some really nice boxing. He got the knockout. And then he's thrust into a, you know, a title shot where he had to go to Brazil and face Pantosia, which was obviously too soon, kind of spirals from there. And, you know, he's been, I think he's five and four in the UFC at this point. And he's like, one of those guys that you, I think that we

put so much stock in initially, that now we're seeing patterns. that I'm like, hmm, this guy maybe was, I mean, you've probably seen this for a long time, but like this guy's probably, he probably should have never been in a title discussion at the time. He probably needed more time to get better. But it's unfortunate, but dude, like, you're right, that was a tough one to watch. If you were an Ersig fan and you're like, okay, let's make sure that we're, you know, that we're the true litmus test, we're the ones dictating what's happening here. You had to be severely disappointed in that showing right there.

Yeah, just not giving temerol. of anything to pump the brakes, any reason to pump the brakes. So he just kept firing heavy shots, heavy right hands. And the defense was so low, and the range was so close. Yeah.

A little munchkin can do a lot, you know? You think that that, I mean, obviously the division is stacked. I was like, dude, like you think about that division, right? Like Pantosia, van, cop, Royval, like Horaguchi, you've still got like Kavanaugh. You know what I mean? Like, you got all these guys up there. Can he fight that way?

Like, I know that, like, he's loading up. I mean, just loading up. And he fought, the guy he fought before, was it Charles Johnson? Who did he fight? Yes. And he, remember in that one, he was kind of like doing it. And then once that wore off a little bit, it goes to the distance. Yeah.

I'm not sure. Like, he's going to probably have to reel it in a little bit, right? I don't think you can get by with that kind of fighting with some of these names. It's not a thing that you can, I mean, all of these techniques, what you realize is it's just a question of percentage. like they're going to work in certain fights, certain rounds, certain exchanges, and they're going to come up short in other ones. So to your point, like, hey, it worked this weekend really well. It might not against the next guy at all.

You know, he'll be able to resist it, play a different game. And, you know, then it completely goes away. But like, this is still a point, though. You have to have an answer for it, you know. Yeah. Whatever that answer may be. And he just didn't. And it seemed like that was a more solvable problem than he made it look like.

you know that's not the problem for me fun though i mean that was like of the fights like if this fight didn't that kind of countered out that that main event a little bit because that was a fun one sure it's fun to watch for sure i mean again someone applying pressure yeah and and rocking a guy to a fight ending scenario like that's yep yeah that's what you want all right give me a grade i feel so bad they call him john pork i hate that name now because you know you can tell it bothers him so much but magamad zanakov he wins in his ufcd debut again Let me never pronounce the other guys, the Polish guy's name. Was it Chippets?

Jepetsky is how they were saying, right? Isn't that right, Long Island? It was a Jepeskyer. I mean, I was doing the watch along. I'm talking over them talking about it. I think it was Jepesky. That's the way I've heard it. But okay, Chuck, give me a grade on Zanikov.

I mean, I'd give him a solid B. I thought he looked good. I mean, he had a guy in Jepesky who was basically like, okay, I'm going to try to nullify anything that you want to do that's exciting. So every chance he could, he was, putting him on the fence. He was kind of like this. Like he was trying to do that kind of fight, trying to keep it in close. And so he, you know, you know, Chonko kind of had to like create his moments and he was able to do that. I thought it was fun.

Like the guy looked good to me. I mean, obviously like you want to see what he can do against somebody who's got more than there wasn't much that his opponent was doing to him here. Like other than trying to tie him up, make it a little dirty and close, and then occasionally try to catch him with a spinning something, but it seemed like everything was kind of telegraphed, and he had a pretty easy time of it. I think it was like 30, 27 across the board. I mean, as far as just like passing a good test, I think he did a good job. I'd give him a B. Long Island, I don't want to call him John Pork anymore. We got to call him Zanikov. How do he do? He looked good, but I got to bring this up. Did you guys see the back and forth exchange with

Danny and Ali about this? Yeah, Danny messaged me. Ali, went crazy on Danny. He went so hard for no reason. Oh man, I missed. All Danny said was Chonko is good, but he definitely needs some work and Ali, like, win after him. But all I'm saying is I felt the same way, Danny. I'm with you. I back you up. Let's go, Danny. I thought John, oh my God, I just called him John. You're about to say John's. The worst. Isn't it one of Philly's best cheese steaks, John's roast pork? I think that's right. Is that right? I don't know. LeBron can tell us in a couple months here. Yeah. Right. Okay. Dude, I thought he, okay. I mean, I also agree with Danny that like, hey, he needs some work. There's some areas that need to be cleaned up. I'll say this, the clinch work from

Zanacov was great. Those elbows in the clinch were continuous. More often than not, I mean, obviously, to your point, Rupesky or whatever, again, or Shepetsky, Shepesky, I think, he was definitely trying to lock up Zanakov a lot which made getting his offense going hard. But you know, between the clinch breaks, the entries, the elbows, some of the spinning attacks, he was just much more

on the gas on this one. So there's a couple times you overcommitted shock. There was a lot of times he did get pressed against the fence and they were locked in these 50-50 exchanges. I don't know if he had a bigger opponent than normal or if he's naturally a little undersized for this weight class as well. No say. I wonder that. But I'll

say this. I thought his clinch fighting in particular was in general, really a nice Well, he had to show it, right? Because he found himself in plenty of that position. But yes, he looked good. He also showcased a little bit. He had a couple of takedowns. I mean, he wasn't able to do much with them,

but like he has that element to his game. And I think that obviously if you have that threat, that just opens up the dimensions. And like, you know, for a guy who I felt like maybe had the hype around him and sometimes guys disappointed in that, like, I thought he held up pretty well. know, like it was a pretty good showcase for him. I mean, the significant strike differential, 74 to 16.

Wow. That is, man. I mean, that's a gigantic difference. Two of six takedowns, although Repetsch, Shepesky, yeah, five minutes of control time, but they match control time with a lot of times when you're just getting pressed into the face.

He did a lot of that. He did a lot of that, yes. So, nevertheless, a decent run for sure, but not the best one I've ever seen. But, you know, good start, I would say good start in general. Hey, he's got the Riz, Chuck. Riz van Kunev defeating Tyrol Fortune. Hard to hate on this performance because he kept up consistent high pressure.

Again, another guy using a lot of different weapons in the clinch, a different opponent, obviously, for a different reality. But Tyrol Fortune hitting him with hard right hands throughout this fight, but it didn't seem to do much. What do you think about Kuneev's win here? I thought it was pretty good. He seems like a lot to deal with, man. Like he comes and when he starts coming in,

he gets close, like he was very dangerous. He was able to use, like he was basically able to bully, right? Like he was able to bully the situation kind of dictate terms. And I thought he looked pretty good. Like when he stood at range,

Fortune had the clear speed and like was hitting him with those right handger mentioned. So it's like he was smart enough to like, all right, I don't want to play that game too long. There was a couple of times he did. he got lit up and, you know, I thought he looked good. I don't know, like, how far guys like this can go.

Like, this division, again, this is, it's like the light heavyweight. You're like, you're not sure what you're looking at sometimes. You're not sure if, you know, if Kunev can do anything in that division. But I thought it was a solid victory, you know, like that's a guy, like, in terms of, that's a big slab he's going against him. There was no real wrestling attempt, you know what I mean? So I felt like it was kind of, it was a good showing. I just thought that he kind of dictated the, what was going to happen in that fight.

largely. Yeah, I would largely agree with that as well. I just feel like, how do I say this? It's a nice win. No, I'm not even trying to hate on him. It's a nice win. Tyrol Fortune is a tough opponent, not a super popular one in that sense.

But I don't know if it really, it's not the kind of thing that makes me go, oh, now I have to reconsider his upside. I mean, maybe that's not the point either, you know, to be able to him. But a nice win. Certainly the kind of win you're like, okay, you know, yeah, kind of win where a fighter just kind of like grabs the fight, you know,

and makes it. What did he heard him with? He heard him, he heard his rib, right? Like he heard his rib in the, toward the end of the second round. Is that what it was?

Like, was it a neat? I don't know what he hit him with specifically, but Fortune said in between second and third, he told his corner, he's like he got my rib. Because I was a little, obviously like broken or something.

Yeah. And he said, I can't do the game plan. And I was sort of like, sort of like, come on, corner, have his back a little bit there.

You know, need to go in there and take that extra beating at the end. I missed that. I didn't hear that in the corner. Yeah. He said he said that. So he went out and you got like blasted the last minute and then it was over. But I was like in that situation, you just kind of want your corner to be like, dude, if you're compromised, let's save you for another day here. You know what I mean? He wasn't going to win the fight at that point. Yeah, these guys are so afraid of like what might happen if they're shown to give up. But then they go and they get smashed in the process.

I don't know. I don't think it's better. Volter Walker defeating Thomas Peterson. Walter Walker's incredible. Here he is reaping, trying to get the heel hook. Peterson rolls. He's doing some of the stuff you would do to escape. He gets his knee past the hip line, but he doesn't get his ankle sort of off the crease of the hip, which is what Walker's holding on to here,

trying to sit up, can't quite do it, holds it because he's pinching his knees together. Finally, he grabs that far side hip, and he's able to come up. Peterson was trying to get away rather than refacing him, just trying to like, you know, what a untrained person would, just kind of get out of the way, which you can do, Chuck, if you're fast enough, obviously.

But if a guy is able to slowly climb to your back, you miscalculated, right? You obviously should have turned back into him at some point to free your ankle. And he didn't do that. And he paid for it. But I'll say this for Volta Walker. In an era where guys are trying to be as well-rounded as possible, and being well-rounded is important. Nevertheless, in this quest, Chuck, for a lot of you.

homogeneity in style having guys like who are specialists or you know not even all that great of a specialist but you know because it's heavyweight he doesn't have to be like you know Ryan hall level yeah but just to take advantage of like I know that these heavyweights are not training the shit you're not training calf's life defense that's true I just know you're not so he's just going to roll for it and it's winning every time and it's proof of what he believes which is one he's probably pretty good at it in general, but then more importantly, Chuck, he's just taking advantage of how open heavyweight is in all of these different dimensions, at least in this particular, well, there are many dimensions in which it is open. He is taking advantage of

it in this particular one. You can't be mad at him for it. No, and I mean, he's going against guys right now that maybe he can get by it with all this, right? Like this guy, this was one of those fights like Peterson, like he got in that position, he's trying to roll out of it. He's trying to get out of it. And it was almost like watching a sparring session. where he's like, all right, all right, hold on. I got to tap out of this one. Let's try it again. But unfortunately, that's not how it works in the actual competition. But he looks so like, oh, my God, I can't believe I'm going to have to tap, you know? That was just one of those weird things. I love the dude, though, Walker, like, you, I think that, like, he looks, it's strange,

because he looks like Travis Brown, you know, like you catch a glimpse in him. And I'm like, wow, he just looks like Travis Brown. But he's got like the zaniness of personality. And I mean, that division needs anything it can get. Like, he's bringing in some excitement. and like he has like a personality and he's like I want to punch you know Cyril gone on the back of his head and like eventually like whatever I don't even sure what all he was saying there but um I can appreciate it man and I know he's going against guys right now that uh oh is that what he wanted to punch herb dean is that what it was long island he said I'm going to punch herb dean in the back of the head I could not understand what the hell he was talking about but that was like you know it's it's it's fun because uh they don't have a lot of like there just aren't a lot of guys out there in the heavyweight division kind of creating that I dig it, man, and it's fun to watch him, like, go on this little streak of, uh, of these types of, uh, of these, of these types of submission.

Was that five in a row for him? So it's fun. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's, it's interesting too, because clearly what Peterson was doing was like, oh, I'm going to practice rolling to get out of heel hooks and to get my knee past the, the, the, the different knee line.

His knee past the other knee line. And he did. And I think he thought that. was the sum total of what he would have to do. And Walker's a crafty little bastard, isn't he? Yeah. And just kind of hung on there at the last bit. So he just sort of goes to show he's like, Walker is training stuff that he knows other heavyweights aren't,

and he's just using it on everyone. It's kind of fun. It's smart. There's some other ones you could point to, Muhammad Sidov, you know, beating the brakes off Dustin Jacoby's kind of a big one. That looks just like the, I think of the UFC on Paramount account was pointing out, this win looked almost identical to the Kevin Lee, Gregor Gillespie win. Although, obviously, with the head kick, Gillespie got finished.

And in this case, Jacoby got back up and then gets finished later. I want to play it again. People were comparing it on mind to Cowboy Soroni versus Rick Story. No, it's not that one. With the combo and the head kick, right? Yeah, no. It was a kick to the body. Sure at the beginning.

No. The combo that Soroni does is up high, down low, and then a head kick. Now, this is just headhunting, then head kick. that's not it's very different uh i also think that one was from open stance if memory served so that kind of changed it too but the one that thought was more interesting was sam patterson up the ghost of santiago panzanibio he had been rocked badly before this moment that you're everyone is seeing here chuck time for old ponsonibio bad run for argentina and sports time for ponsonabia to hang it up what do you think i think so man i mean i've kind of thought

i've already kind of felt that a little bit anyway but when you when you're in a you have When you're going to get that, I'm not, and there's no knock on Patterson, but this is a type of guy he was supposed to beat easily, right? Like at some point in his career, to see it go like that, I do think. So how old is he, by the way? He'll be 40 in September. See, I just think, like, at that point, you're hanging on. He had a good run, man.

Like, do you remember, like, the president of the country was, like, you know, inviting him out and, like, I felt like he was kind of a national icon there for a little bit, which, dude, how many athletes get that? So, like, he's had a good run. I know he didn't get a title or anything like that, but I don't need to see him take that kind of beating anymore. Yeah, and if you look at the losses, obviously he had a loss to the leech. Yeah, first of I got beat by Lorenz Larkin back in 2015.

Then he loses to the leach via left hook. But then his other losses, oh, Jeff Neal, Michelle Pineda, these are all a decision. But then it's right back, Kevin Holland's stoppage, Muslim Salickup was a split, D-Rod, stoppage, San Patterson, stoppage. So now he's putting stoppage losses together in ways that is, I think, I think is this the first time he's done back-to-back stoppage losses? Yes, I think it is. Yeah.

Yeah. So that's all you need to know. Back-to-back stoppage losses. I mean, these are happening like mid, you know, prelim. It's just not like, I don't know why you'd go on at this point. Also, if you've got a commentary career. Yeah. Just go do that.

You know, just go do that. I never understand this shit. Half the time. One of my favorite wins, Axel Sola. Yeah, that was nice. over Ismail Bond theme. He was beating the fuck out of this guy. We talked about it on Friday's show.

The initial pairing that they gave for Sola and his debut was a little bit too much in Mason Jones. But this one was much more appropriate. He went right through him. Still pretty high on Sola. And then I wanted to ask you, Chuck, if I can, the Nerulo Aliev and Mike Davis fight. Mike Davis was so pissed about this fight. We actually have a clip from him. I want to air it and get you to react.

All right. For the UFC, bro. I thought you were cutting wrestlers, bro. All they do is suck dick for 15 minutes and then don't even let you finish. Like, what are we doing? You've been cutting undefeated people on streaks all the time for wrestling. This isn't R-A-F, bro. This is gay.

That is gay, bro. I wanted to fight. I felt good. I took this fight. I'm sick. I've been sick all week back. And I still went out there and fought, and I felt great. I felt amazing.

I didn't take a deep breath the entire fight. I was fine. just gay people, bro, in the UFC. Get them the fuck out of here. Staying with me. I just want to bang, bro. I just want to bang. Now, Chuck, I do not wish to have my dick sucked by wrestler.

In Mike's defense, if you're going to have your dick suck, they do need to let you finish. I feel like that's something like. Dude, don't hate the player. Hate the game. Like, he, you know, that bet he did. He literally, hold on, Chuck. He literally says these wrestlers, all they do is suck dick and don't let you finish.

And I'm like, you know what? That's a fair. That's really not a fair way to go about sexual contact. It's all I'm going to say. And it came out all wrong, man. But I mean, from the very first, like that, as soon as they were like, all right, fight, that dude, that dude, that dude was in on him and putting him to the canvas. You've got to have a say in that, man.

If you think a guy's going to wrestle you, you've got to have something. I know, I know circumstantially, like, circumstantially maybe you didn't get a chance to train it. But, dude, these guys exist in the UFC. And if they think they can beat you at it. I think he thought his boxing was going to be the thing that would kind of get him through it, but, you know, Neuilla's like, no, man, I'm going to render that moot. I'm going to take you down eight times,

and that's what we're going to do. It's like you're hating, you don't hate the guy, right? You hate the game. Like, if you don't think that should be allowed, protest it. But like, that is allowed, and that was an easy victory, you know? I'll say this. I mean, obviously, he's like,

I guess all the kids, they are just calling everything gay again like we did in the 90s, which is fun. Isn't that fun? It's like, dude, it's like, I can't even be mad in that sense because when I was 13, I was doing it. But it's like, I don't know if Mike Davis is 13, though. Is he something? Yeah, well, I was just going to say that.

That was 1993 and I was 13. Like, what the fuck I mean? Oh, okay. Yeah. Putting that aside, the merit of his complaint, I actually don't think is altogether unfair. I disagree a little bit, Chuck. Yeah. Which is to say, like if you're wrestling, if you're fighting a dude like, like Aliyev, just

based on reputation alone, but then just looking at the record, like, you know this is coming. Like, you know, right. You know it. On the other side, though, it does seem like there is, I don't know about that. There can be inconsistent, let's put it this way, inconsistent application of the, oh, he's only wrestling and he's boring. Cut him rule. And it can be inconsistent if you're trying to not fight that way, but losing about

what value you actually have to the promotion in that sense, too. You know what I mean? And I feel like Davis is kind of caught in this no man's land where, yeah, like on some level, dude, like you just have to know like what's coming your way. On the other hand, to Davis's point, there are people that are fighting this way, because you've watched that fight, Aliev doesn't do a lot. Like he's a lot of control positions and stuff, but it doesn't do a lot. And so there are people that are fighting this way and absolutely getting cut for it, but not others. and then there are people who are like,

I'm not going to fight that way, I'm going to fight fan friendly, but they don't exactly get credit for it because it doesn't cross over. And he's sort of right there in that space. And I ultimately, I don't know how much sympathy I have for his position, but I don't think his argument is utterly without merit.

There's a weirdness about who gets to fight which style, and it's not consistent across the board. Well, and I mean, I mean, we, we, you come up in this sport and you're like, there were tons of wrestlers. Wrestlers were the guys who were successful. And there were, we used to praise guys who could do this. You know, GSP was a guy who could just wrestle you if you needed to. Like, right? And we were like, well, that's just smart. This is kind of an evolution of the idea that you shouldn't, you know, I agree that you want to see,

like you would like to see something within that, like those takedowns meaning something, right? Like where you're doing so you're trying to work towards a finish or something. where the problem starts you're just like well this is going to be 50 he can't davis isn't going to be able to stop this is a 15 minute fight it's going to the distance and this is just how it's going to end that's the problem and i understand that from an entertainment standpoint but given the circumstance because this fight was only made this is this is kind of late notice right like it was um something like something was altered with it is that right i'm trying to see when that change actually happened i mean just given that there was like a slight circumstantial you know difference

i'm like you got to do what you got to do to win and something you're Sometimes, you know. Hold on. Let me see this. Aliev. Who was he originally supposed to? It looks like they were both originally booked against each other. I thought that this was like a short I thought this was like a three week type thing or like, you know, whatever. So it may have put this one. Yeah, it might have been a late ad, but it was a late ad. Okay. Okay. Yeah, I gotcha. But I mean, it's hard. It's hard. It's hard for me to side with Davis though in that situation. It's just I, I know what he's saying. But at the same time, I'm like, dude, you got to do something about it. You got to give him. something that's going to make him, you know, think twice on shooting in on you like that. Last but not least, Hussein subbed Cody Gibson, I believe, here with his head and on the prelims. Yeah.

Dude, this fight had like 10 submission attempts from each guy. It was crazy. In any event, that's to me of, you know, it's whatever. The one piece of news from this card that I would like to discuss before we move on, the UFC announced their UFC Paris main event. they're going to have Dan Hooker at lightweight take on finally the UFC debut of Saladin Parnasse, the guy who was a double champion KSW, failed to become triple champ, but of course, that's really difficult to do. And if you're asking what weights, he was trying to do 45, 55, and 70, that's obviously not easy.

In any event, he's been a pro boxer. You saw him on the MVP card. I mean, obviously what's happening here, Chuck is, you know, they are draining the MVP talent, right? They signed Robillus to Spain. They're signing this guy. just giving MVP less to use. Nevertheless, I personally believe Parnas can't miss signing. That doesn't mean he's going to be a champion,

but it means if you're looking for guys to sign, how would you not put this one on the list? What is your reaction to the making of this main event? Well, you saw some of the Parnas when KSW went to France. They did like a string of shows, and just the reception Parnas was getting like, it felt like he was a, you know, a rock star, just almost like Cedric Dumbay, right?

Like it was the type of thing where you're like, okay, this dude, they've got something going on. So to bring a guy in who's a known commodity in the country of France and like saying, you're going to be fighting, especially a fan-friendly guy like Dan Hooker who accommodates a good fight and is dangerous. You know, like, I think that that's a pretty exciting thing. Because when the UFC has gone to Paris the last couple of years, it doesn't feel like they're capturing fully, you know, the local interest.

It feels like, yes, they're a Frenchman. Like, they've had Manon, Furo on like a card and they've had some others. but like this actually feels like they're bringing a guy in who the fans are like way behind the guys he's 28 years old he's already had 25 fights he's fought mostly entitled situations big stakes for ks w all that stuff i think it's a slam dunk man and i you know we wondered for a long time when this might happen but he kind of preferred to be in the ks w but now at 28 years old just coming into his prime and getting this spot it should be a lot of fun yeah i love this fight it's a great fight hooker tough fight for him they're not giving

me they're not doing him hardly any favors to be honest with you but I I love the fight I'm really glad to us a lot right like Kenneth what was the guy's name Kenneth Cross or something like he was fighting on MVP yeah Kenny Cross I called it his fight yeah you were mentioning this because the dude was game he went in there and he was like I'm gonna I'm gonna try to put it on you and

eventually gets beat but I'm like it was fun like he went in and try but I think it was a Marcyne held was like the previous guy like this is a you jump up from from guys who I think that hooker's another level. So to get that in a debut in a big spot like that,

there's going to be a lot of pressure, especially in your home country like that. There's going to be a lot of pressure on Parnas through this thing. So that's it. That's the news from UFC Fight Night on Kalaya versus Goosegolf. Before we talk about topic number three, just want to remind everybody, this summer,

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Bet to get bonus bets that expire in seven days. Trade to get prediction dollars that expire in one year, $50 in rewards issued every seven days via click to claim for 14 days. non-withdrawable reward redeemable to terms at dkng.z.0 slash offer limited time offer. Let's go to the PFL now, Chuck, for topic number three. They made a stop here in my hometown. I didn't go. PFL, D.C.

Although, you know what? They did a lot of the right things here. They did a lot of the right things in terms of, you know, they could have had a more card catering to the locals, which they did not do. But they did some other stuff, including picking the right venue, that I really like. So they had an interesting main event. It was supposed to be Thadjian versus Shemil Musayev for the vacant PFL welterweight belt. But then Musayev, I think either I was after the way-ins, pulls out due to some kind of medical issue.

We don't know what the issue with that is just yet. So ultimately, Thadjian had to fight replacement Ernesto Rodriguez. Now, Thad-Gine wins. In fact, gets the stoppage. But Ernesto put him through the paces, rocking him badly. leaving the second round. Yeah. So the question for you, Chuck, is,

did Gene's resilience show you his championship material, or did Rodriguez's success show you that Gene still has a lot of learning to do? I think it's the latter, you know? I think that the bad gene, I think he's a dynamic guy,

and like his story is pretty great. Like, I remember talking to him like last year, and he's a very confident kid, man. I think that he's going to do good things in the sport, but it's very, very tough to switch opponents. And you try to remember that like, you know, just because they, like, you're supposed to, you're going to go against

Messiah and like, this is a whole different fight. Now they're giving you Ernesto, which is a completely different opponent. You've got to give him credit because he stepped in there and did this. And I think he wanted to showcase on it. You know what I mean? But just him getting hit like that. A couple times that, you mentioned that second

round, uh, him getting just kind of clobbered it. I mean, if that shot, that shot could have ended it. If it happens like a little earlier in that round, it happened. and toward the end of that round. But, like, seeing him get hit, and I think he got hit a couple of other times in that fight. That made me think there's probably still some work to do.

I know the circumstances were really bad for Thad Gene here, and he got the job done, but I'm not sure, like, if it was Musai, maybe Long Island knows. I'm not sure what the odds were on that fight, but this made me think that I don't know if he gets by Musai of that fight. We read more questions answered, I think, in that fight, obviously about where Thad Gene is, but he got it done, but I just feel like he's got work to do,

you know he just his defense wasn't too good there and uh you know there's just some there was just some moments i'm like okay well give this kid some more time i mean i think it's kind of adding to the intrigue for me because on the one hand you watched that gene you're like all right this dude's good man like he's got a lot of abilities physically big for the weight class um he seems to have something of an organic following that's developing for him true um great story or on top of it And the thing that I've learned watching guys, like, you know, when John Jones fought Ovin St. Peru on last minute notice, I forget what UFC that was. And he was supposed to fight somebody else.

And John looked, John won, but he looked in a real lackluster. And there are some speculations about like, you know, whether he was on PEDs at that time. And if he was, was he taking them at that time. And I don't really know how to adjudicate that. But I bring that example up because. is also something I've seen in other fights. We don't have, you know, A-level fighter versus A-level fighter, and then someone gets subbed out, and it's a B-level fighter.

And the A-level fighter still wins, but it's a much tougher fight than everyone expects. And you've seen stuff like that a lot. And I think, you know, I don't know what do you want to call that gene, a-level fighter already is an open question. But the idea is like, you know, superior versus less superior. However, I'll also say this, dude, Ernesto Rodriguez is a firecracker. He comes out with a ton of energy, a ton of, attack getting right after it he probably knew he couldn't go the distance so why even bother

and you know he gave a lot to that gene that i thought was important for him to be tested i think the point i'd like to make is i'm willing to kind of say with that gene uh i like what i've seen i definitely need to see more and i need to see he's only 28 so like he's just entering his prime so like now is a time to really begin to shore up some deficiencies and to get the most compelling fights. I'm glad that this division, by the way, in PFL now has someone sitting at the top of it. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah.

They're putting architecture in place. The right guy, too, I think. Right. That's a guy they can hang their hat on a little bit and promote a big show around. Yeah. Proof of concept. Former tournament winner, you know, the whole nine yards. But I'm with you in the sense that it's like, you know, have I seen like definitive

proof that this guy's the next big thing? I've not seen definitive proof in that way. way. Yeah. And like Long Island just posted like he was plus 125 in the original matchup. So I mean, he's a slight underdog and he goes to minus 850. I mean, that's just such a different, you know, that's just

such a different psychological warp because like you mentioned, you're going from a guy who's supposed to beat you narrowly or whatever it is to a guy you're supposed to crush, you know? The expectation is very different. So if you look at it from that perspective alone, I mean, you've got to give him his flowers. He went in there and that like he

that, like he, that Gene is like he could have played it a little safer, you know, and the fact that he didn't, I think that tells you about something about his showmanship, too. Like, he likes to get in there. He wants to go in there and win and, and put guys away. And he was able to do that in the end, even when he took shots. So I got to give him credit, man. I just, I, both things can be right. I think we got to see more on him. But in the end, like, he's, he's navigated everything he's supposed to. He has a title. I'm not going to put an asterisk on it. Like, and we'll see in the next one, if he goes up against his, you know, against your meal.

We'll see, I guess, where he's at that point. All right. Co-main event time. He's Brazilian, but he reps Germany. Raphael, they call him Chavier. Yeah. Raphael Xavier is how you would say it in English. Taking on Tyson Petro, Tyson Pedro.

Tyson Pedro is two fights into the PFL. He's lost them both. You know, Chavier is one of these guys, Chuck. I talk to some folks at PFL, and what you're noticing. we noticed this on the South Dakota card. It was obvious there. PFL Europe is no more. They're just taking their PFL Europe guys

and then just shoving them into regular PFL. And some of them are sinking, some of them are swimming. It really all depends. I don't have like super high expectations for Raphael Chavier, but I have even less ones now for Tyson Pedro. 34. I did see Eugene Berman when I was there. He was very friendly. I said hi to him briefly. Yeah. But dude, Pedro just looks like,

he looks doughy at 205. and I don't know, man, he just didn't seem to have a lot to offer in this one. What is your read? It's weird sometimes these guys, because you remember there was a point, what, maybe five,

six, seven years ago, like, remember this? Like, I felt like we were talking about him. We're like, watch out for this guy. But it's just kind of hit the skids.

He's only 34 years old. And it must, I almost wonder if it's, I mean, he's doing it. He's going through the motion. That's what it looked like to me. Like,

going through the motions. And you wonder if he's just not invested, you know, like he used to. It could be any number of things, but anytime your intensity levels are like you can't get, you can't get up for a fight and you can't like, you know, kind of match that side of the guys fighting you because he's still got a name enough where people are like, well, I want to beat this guy because he fought in the UFC and all this stuff.

I don't know. It's sometimes it's the right time. Unless you can rediscover something in you that wants to be a fighter, it's just a dangerous pursuit if you can't get up for these fights. And that's what that was my problem with this. I just didn't feel like he, it just. look like he was ready for the fight and it didn't certainly didn't look like he was

he had another like he was going to be able to dig deep in a fight like this right it just didn't look like he was there altogether no it didn't look like once some of the basic attacks landed but were ineffectual the leg kicks of chavier were crushing him

I don't know it just didn't seem to have a lot to offer it just it didn't look like a forceful effort you know yeah we see this sometimes they're just guys you know they have their moment and you kind of like they're on your radar and then they start to lose and for some reason rather than it galvanizing them like they lose interest

down the string you know and I don't know if that's where he's at but that was a pretty disappointing showing though you know it just didn't look like the guy that I remember from a few years ago. Maybe the best fight all weekend maybe the most entertaining fight all weekend and I'm not saying this because oh if I was in DC

and I talked to some people at PFL so I'm going to say nice things about them I'll say truthful things about him yeah bro this fight fucking banged anyone who watched it will Long Island, did you see this fight? No, I asked about the pre-show because I haven't watched any PFL. Guys, if you haven't seen it,

it was on ESPN, so if you got like YouTube TV and hopefully you recorded it or something, Rasul Mago Madov defeats Sullivan Colley. He does it be a unanimous decision. Sullivan Colley gave this fucking guy everything he could handle and then some. Now, Collie took the worst

of it between both the wrestling and the damage. But there were multiple times Collie was backing him up with extended boxing combinations, rocking Magamadov shit in a way. I've never seen anyone do to him. Like, Collie lost this fight and he deserved to lose this fight, but he gave Magamadov something that I've never seen any opponent to. Callie, if you don't know, wrestled at Arizona State.

Ryan Bader was in his corner this weekend, which was interesting to see. Magamatov has a wrestling win over Kyle Snyder. Granted, he lost a bunch of Kyle Snyder, too. But, you know, just to give you a sense of the quality, Chuck. Collie got right in his fucking face and tried to give him a fight. This is what I'm talking about. Like, you know, did Collie win? No.

Right. Did he come to fight? There's simply no question. Yeah. There's no question. He was trying to win. He was trying to score offense. Something Bogd and Guskov could never be bothered to do.

Right. I take my hat off to both guys, but Collie in particular for at least, you know, really, really making Magumadov work for it. Because it was going a certain. direction. It was going the way that everybody thought it would. Like if you're paying attention to this matchup, it's going the way you think it's. He's, you know, he's wrestling, he's, uh, he's kind of dictating where it's going. When you say

the extended combinations, I think we're talking about that one in the second round, right, where all of a sudden he's bleeding, you know, call his bleeding and he just launches and boom, boom, boom, and hurts him, right? And I mean, once you turn the tables like this, like, okay, wait a second, we've got to fight. Now you've got to see the response. You know what I mean in a situation like that? And, uh, Magamato, like he came back in the third and he was able to take it. So you had tables turning in that fight, but he forced him to dig deep.

And when they went to Ryan Bader and they're like, hey, what does he got to do here? You could tell that their thing was like, we're going to out dog the dog. We're going to go in there and exhaust this guy, right? And so we can like pounce on him. And that's literally how it played out like late second round and into the third because then there were some some crazy exchanges in the third round too. it turned into a fight the moment that uh collie like landed those shots and dude we've been through these a million times where a guy has no it feels like he probably has no business in the situation

then all of a sudden you realize he's got some kind of reserves in him that he's been holding back and you see the dog come out i love that stuff man yeah i like seeing when a guy who is not as good as the other guy makes the guy who's better like he's like i'm gonna you know the other the good the better guy's going to win but motherfucker you're going to have to I'm going to make you remember this night you know I love that shit I love that and so I also

I'll say this too like we're talking about the woes of 205 and I think that they're real but it should be noted that when we have good things to say about 205 we should this fight fucking ruled if you've not seen it you want to see what a good 205 fight looks like this was the one not the UFC main event

and I pointed this out Chuck you don't have if you didn't see it it's okay but I pointed this out. I watched this dude Eliza Kubanzah fight a dude whose fight I had called on contenders, they fought on contenders here. He's a dude named Chris Alvidras. Chris Alvigrez beats him. And so he gets cut and he goes over to PFL,

I think Africa. He wins there. This was his PFL state side debut, Elizer Kubanzah. And he beat the fuck out of Chris Mixon. Like this wasn't even really close. He was just better everywhere, heavy-handed. Finally finishes him off with a dars choke. Nice to see. It kind of sucks, man, because dude, there's so much

Flotsam and Jetsam Chuck. Yeah. On Contender Series, where now if you lose on Contender Series, everyone's like, oh, you lost some contenders series, you must be shit. Right. But I'm like, well, I know why you might think that, but the specific guy that he lost to on Contender Series, I'm super high on.

So I was good to see Kubanz to get a win here. I'll be honest. Yeah. I didn't get a chance to check this one out. But like, so you would say that this card delivered in that sense, right? Like, I mean, there was some good. fights on this. Yeah, you had, you only had the one decision win. Yeah. A decision and that was the Mega Madoff-Ka-Malie fight on the main part. Like, hard to be upset about that. I know. That,

that one that, you know, was sort of, obviously it wasn't the same impact, but it's like, it reminded me of the Bonner Griffin fight in the sense like all of a sudden both dudes are firing at each other. That was, I mean, and it's in the PFL, which kind of needs some of this type of thing to happen. And, uh, it was fun, man. All right. there you have it. That is the PFL card. Let's turn our attention now to boxing. Oh, my lord. Boxing, the sport of kings. Okay, yes it is. Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua had their tune-up fights ahead of what is anticipated to be their eventual showdown. Now, here's the good news. Both of them won. Tyson Fury won, I think, in the sixth or seventh round,

and Anthony Joshua wins in the second. Here's the bad news. Tyson Fury looked not great, defeating the corpse of Marius Walk here. You can see, pressing with these uppercuts, just kind of taking forever. They're in a crowd in Thailand. Everyone dressed to the nines, as you can tell.

Oh, wait, no. They're on their way home from work. That is very weird. All right. So this one's just totally fucking weird. he doesn't come out of the corner again. I think after the sixth of the seventh, they wave it,

a complete waste of everyone's time. They didn't even bother televising that shit. But that's not as bad as Anthony Joshua, who gets dropped three fucking times in round number one, nearly loses, okay? Storms back in the second and beats Pranga there. Finally gets it done.

Now, granted, the last time we saw AJ Chuck, he was fighting Jake Paul, which obviously went his way. And then he had that horrible, horrible, horrible car accident where he lost two of his friends. God only knows what the car accident did to him. This was his first fight back about seven months later. Here is my question. I can appreciate that Joshua had a rough run of it to get to this point. But this is my question.

It's very basic. Did the boxing establishment and then these two fighters specifically push this fight off so long that it's now become unpalatable, like, as a result. Oh, man, unpalatable. I mean, people are still going to watch it, Lou. That's what's so crazy, like, after all this. But, yes, it's went on too long. I mean, this is something that they've been baiting this hook for forever.

I mean, you go back to 2010 when these guys, like, they had a sparring thing and, you know, Fury was saying, like, whatever he was like, that he kind of handled the situation easy. And it goes back so far, you know, it goes back so far. 2018 you know uh i know that fury was like he's calling out josh we think that's kind of near in 2020 right is when they worked out the deal and then the uh the whole wilder thing happened the trilogy they had to do that it's just been it's been this dangling carrot now you get to this thing and this is the problem like they both fought on this weekend it could have went one way where you're

like okay they both go right through their opponents they both look really good and now you finally get to this point where you can put it together but we just looked at that footage and neither one of them, you know, contains that anymore. They just don't really have that. Like, Fury, like, you know, that's just such bizarre. It looks like he's at a local gymnasium, you know, like fighting. Like, I don't know what's going on. Like, he shouldn't be fighting in that kind of fight.

Getting paid good money, I guess. But, like, it's just, I don't know. He didn't look very good. He didn't look very in shape. And I know that that's just kind of his body in general. But, dude, I don't know. And then you see, you see Joshua getting dropped like that kind of smiling. And you're like, you don't know how compromised he is from.

Like you mentioned mentally from like what he's been going through and also just age. You know, these guys are both like 36, 37 years old. Eventually it starts to catch up to you. I think it's too late. I mean, but I know that if they make it, if they make it, people are going to watch. We're going to, we're going to, we'll tune in and all that stuff. But if you're talking about the absolute vitality of it, I feel like so much of that has moved off of this. I don't feel like it's must see anymore.

I, it's not must see anymore. It's like, okay. So I initially was like, wow, man, they might put this fight, Joshua or Fury Joshua. They might put this in, I don't know, New York or Las Vegas or something. And that would be a real travesty. No, it wouldn't. No, it wouldn't. They've pushed this fight off so long that I don't really think it matters where it is anymore.

It's not must see. It's not especially important. It's not historically relevant. it's not stylistically interesting. What you can say about it is both guys are still big celebrities, and because they both are so megawashed, that there's a chance that it actually ends up being like a fun kind of slop fest, you know? Yeah.

And there's some value in there. And I wouldn't argue with any of that. I would not argue that they're not popular or, or I'm not even arguing that it wouldn't be better in the UK. You could argue it would be better in the UK. Yeah. But like the idea that it would have to be there, Chuck, it would only have to be there if, like, You'd be hurting the fight by taking it somewhere else.

You know, like you owe the fight some kind of condition because it's so important. You got to get that detail right. Yeah. That's not this fight anymore. That's not what this is. This has nothing to do with it, not at all. This is just another big heavyweight fight you can make. It's not some kind of like all British showdown.

It doesn't mean that. It cannot possibly mean that. Nor should it anyone even try to suggest that it means that. If you want to say, like, listen, Fury had a distinguished career. Sure. A.J. had a phenomenal run. Sure. And where they belong in the history of British boxing will be a lofty place, Chuck.

It's not about like their all-time place. It's of that that they've pushed it and pushed it and pushed it and pushed it to the point where the fight almost didn't get made because a tune-up guy nearly beat one half of the participants in the first fucking run. round. Like the fight is in hospice care. Yeah, does it need to be in the UK? Fuck, no, it doesn't need to be in the UK. Make the fight. I'll watch. It'll be fun. But this is nothing more now than a big fight between fun personalities that would do well commercially at the box office. Might be a slot fest, but there's no other significance to this of any kind of genuine rooting historical power here. Well, there was so much of, of like a two heads of steam, right? Like for the longest time it was two heads of steam. What happens when you put these guys in front of each other? You had the different kind of promotions. You had, you know, England and, you know, England in play as a backdrop.

Like, there was so much that was about it. I just, this is one of those big botches and boxing. I mean, it's almost like, you look at the 70s, right? Like, and, you know, the foreman's and the Frasers and the Ailes. But this would be like at this point, like, you know, when like guys like, you know, Rob Lyle was like fighting. you know, shavers or something, right? Like it happens, they've already, like, so you have

Usick, who's the guy who's beat them both, like, and it just, it, it changes the dynamic, you know, and guys are older and all this. It's like that. It's just, it has, it's a fight that'll be relevant only because it finally happened and people got the resolution, but it has no real vitality in the boxing

landscape anymore. I, I found this whole thing, like, I don't know what to say. I mean, you could have gone, I mean, obviously one of loses this weekend. That would have gotten worse. But like as far as both winning,

that's probably the worst that could have went in terms of Joshua. That was a bad, that's a bad look, man, you know? Yeah. Again, again,

even with the context, like, yeah, seven months ago was tough. I, but if you're going to walk out there, you got to walk out with something to give us. Yeah.

And I can appreciate the effort. I can appreciate the effort. I can appreciate the try. But Jesus, dude, Joshua is like mega fucking washed at this point, right? Yeah. Like, I don't think that's unfair to say. I mean, his big wins have been against Paul and Gano and you know what I mean? Like, it's like he's, I agree. I, you know,

hate to like, but yes, I think that that's what this fight showed you. You know, it's just, you don't think he's got it. No. And then Fury is just out here beating up fucking. Yeah. I don't know what you want to say. Just dads. That dude's 46 years old. Walk. I'm, you know what I mean? It's 46 years old. I, I just feel like they, you know, if you see, you know, if you see, still make it. Did you ruin it? I don't know. But they've come close to ruining it for me. Yeah. In terms of what it. And also, we should just say in terms of what it could have been, two historic British heavyweights, champions. I know, man. If they had fought anywhere approximating their prime, that would be something like for the ages. But they're just two

faded donks now. You know what I mean? I do think it'd be hilarious if it's just some arbitrary city in the states though because it's just the way the whole thing is gone right like it's just went so far off of what the what the hot thing was going to be and what was so coveted you know like they might as well like i don't think it matters i don't know if anybody like just a few weeks ago though people were still like why would they hold this anywhere but england i just don't think i mean obviously like if now if it's in the states it just par for the course for the way this whole rivalry went down put it in el paso put it in put it in friend You know what I mean?

Oh, man. What's a bum fuck place you've been to there? You're like, I'll never go again. I went and talked to Josh Kostrad back day in Fresno. And I got to say that that is pretty much an armpit of the country, man. Have you been up there? Like, it's just there's not much going on in Fresno. It's like, it smells like that.

Yeah, it's not a lot going on there. I've been to El Paso to that's at least like there's a few things going on. And like, if you want to go across the border, you can do that, you know. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, El Paso's got some charm, I suppose. I don't know. What would be like a dump, like Amarillo or something? You know?

I mean, I'll take your pick. I mean, I've been all over the United States in terms of like through the middle of the country like that, driving and Hayes, Kansas and like all those places. And there's a lot. Like where the Bellator used to go like Thackerville, Oklahoma and those types of places, dude, there's nothing going on, you know? I know. People are like, people are like, this is the greatest country in the world. I'm like, in certain places. Yeah.

That's true. That is true. Maybe not where you live. Thackerville, but in other places, yeah, it's great. A lot to do. All right. Last but not least, let's talk about this. Tim Zhu defeats Errol Spence.

This was in Australia. We knew the Errol Spence had, it was via a unanimous decision. The scores were pretty wide, you know, I think 118, 111, 11th across the board, or at least in two cases anyway. Errol Spence, you know, he won some rounds, three or four rounds. you could probably give him maybe maybe five if you're being super generous but i don't think that's right and he retired directly after so let me just ask chuck like what can be said about this win for zoo who performed ably and then how do we remember spence man for sue like

i mean it's a big name i felt like he acknowledged like dude i'm finding kind of a legend a hall of Famer. If I'm able to do like, you know, it's not a title fight, but like if I'm able to do this, this goes, this looks nice on my record, especially a guy coming back, you know, from like some losses in his career. Over the last couple years, I think that this was a big deal for him. It felt like a big deal. There's 20,000 people, right?

Like, and I know that part of that is Errol Spence, but like when you get a fight in your home country, it felt like a big win for him, you know, in that sense. As far as Errol, like, I mean, it's just, it's such an unfortunate thing, man, because this is a guy who was just on another level like going into that bud crawford fight and i know you were there at that fight like that was the one you're at right like the one uh and it's like the way you know because we talk about this all the time when you get two heads of momentum and boxing it just feels so big like the event feels so big and that's how that felt to to think that was just like the fight before this one right and it was three years ago and the way it went down it

just felt like everything careened off obviously he had his own car accident and like a lot of people, you know, have talked about like his, he didn't look right, you know, when he came back from that. And maybe that's the case. But like, I just think that that Bud Crawford thing was just an altering, an altering moment. Three years later, two weight classes, he comes up. He fights this fight. And obviously, it was very, it was a very different arrow spent. Like, he's, he's the one being kind of pushed around. Like, he fades down the stretch. It was really weird to see it, man. His, his legacy, I think he's got a very strong. legacy is a Hall of Famer. I think he's a Hall of Famer.

So all that's going to be intact, but that Bud Crawford Crossroads, dude, took something. And that's, that's, it's when sometimes when you talk about a big fight and the stakes attached to it, these are the stakes. This is kind of what happens. Do you agree? I mean, I felt like he was just, that spooked him, man. Like, it was like, after that, it was like, the way he got handled in that fight was just so shocking to watch, you know? I think, I mean, I think a lot happened. It's kind of more than one thing. So on the zoo side, this was a good win.

I don't know if there's really any... I feel like zoo is kind of well known now enough as a commodity on his own, absent his father's name and like, what does it mean for the son of Costa Zoo to be fighting, where people kind of know what they're going to get. This was a good win, certainly by name. And in general, you know, he was the better guy. He deserved to win.

I don't know that it changed the perspective or some of the concerns that people might have about him. But it will get him another big fight and it will get him in a big event. And it served a purpose for him. And I'll say on that much, not transformative, but valuable. On the Spence side, he needed, I mean, I was so glad he retired. I ended up remember, one of the reasons I got the pick so drastically wrong. When I worked at Showtime and we were covering the Spence Crawford fight, Showtime came to me ahead at that fight and was like, hey, we want you to do a breakdown on this.

And I was like, all right, because you know, you have to use approved materials for their broadcast to be able to do that. And they were like, we've got all the Spence's fights because he fought on PBC. So we'll send you all of those. And they sent me a bunch of them. And then I was like, let me get some bud footage. And we couldn't get any top rank or whoever it was. I forget who it was at the time. Maybe it was a top rank.

I don't want to. But somebody, we couldn't get access to any of his fucking fights. So I ended up just having to do a Errol Spence breakdown. And, you know, this is like the Lamont fight, the Chris Algeri fight, the Ugas fight. There was just so many of them. Kelbrook, I mean, just, you know, we, dude, if you didn't see, it really gave me an appreciation for Errol Spence. I know he ended up just getting whooped in that Bud Crawford fight anyway. But like, if you saw, if I can describe to you what I saw on tape, when I saw Errol Spence fight like

Kelbrook and stuff like that, he was a fucking battering ram. He got physically in your face. he was very hard to hurt. He used a jab to get through all of your defenses. And once he did, he would light you up to the body and then completely torch you by the end of that fight. Like he was just inevitable. He did this in the Ugas fight. He ultimately even did it in the Porter fight.

I certainly did it, as I mentioned in the Algerie fight on the Lamont Peterson fight. And then that Kelbrook fight to me is one of my favorite fights from Errol Spencer. Well, that was the eye opening one, right? Because he won his, yeah, I remember that fight. And traveled to, you know, hostile. territory to get it done. He was a marvel. Southpaw, I mean, again, tremendous. And dude, like the other part too, but like Spence is Spence had a lot of tricks for like pinning gloves, Pete, guard peels, where to position himself for, you know, body shots and how to like change angles and like move over.

He was so freaking good at that. Obviously, it wasn't enough for a guy like Crawford, but, you know, I just hope that people can recognize. I don't know if he'll go into the Hall of Fame or not, Chuck. I mean, perhaps you have a stronger feeling about it. than I do. But I'll say one of the most exciting and, you know, technically skilled fighters is very lead hand educated, um, dominant for the most part in an era where there was a lot of guys who had at least some kind of, you know, name and records, Thurman's, the porters, the Garcia's, you know, he was better than all of those guys, I think. Um, the thing, though, that I come back to in all of this, like watching this fight was, you know, just the accumulation of,

of how many bad things had happened to Spence by his own doing or the fight, you know, the bud fight. Because everyone wants to make it about that. But dude, like, you know, like he drank a lot. It was sort of known as a partier. He had that terrible car accident. And each one of these, you know, wasn't by itself, like some gigantic demarcation line. But like, by the time he showed up to fight zoo, he had no bounce.

He, like, his power didn't carry. He wasn't the physical bruiser that he was. They were Friday at 169, 147 or 154, even. but I don't know like he looked nothing like the guy I'd seen on tape nothing nothing there was no reason

to keep going and I I am left with though a bigger realization Chuck which is I think PBC might be done bro yeah like all those guys that were of the Errol Spence era you know particularly as I mentioned all the names I just mentioned Thurman Porter Garcia

they're all gone Bud gone Spence now gone who they have like they've got Lamont Roach okay, take Davis, but who the fuck knows what's going to happen with his future? Oh man. And it's like everything that that would like that core

group of guys who were kind of the backbone, either the heavy weights or you know, the 47ers or 54 guys they're all gone. PBC's guys are just all gone. I don't really know what's left for them. I'm happy that he, you're 100% right man. I'm happy I guess though that like you said that he does retire and I

it's sometimes very important. Like dude, made some really good bank like what did he make off of that uh off that bud crawford wasn't it like 20 million like he got a lot of money 25 25 million and you're like you're you're glad that he he got his bags man like he was he got paid and he's going to get out like he said he's got a family still got his his mental capacity and i'm like to me like if a guy gets out that's a triumph too that's a win in their career that they get out i don't need to see him either like when you're when you're going down that list man and you start to reflecting on some of those do because he's he's He was the first guy to stop Algeria.

I mean, if you were going back down, like, the types of things he was doing, you know, at that time, you know, breaking down Lamont, you know, like, just like breaking these guys. Like, it's a hell of a run, man. That's why I say I think it's a, I think it's a, I mean, obviously, I'm not as entrenched in the boxing world as I am UFC and like MMA. But, uh, I think it's a Hall of Fame career. And I mean, that, that run he had going up to Bud was pretty damn impressive, man. What was he like 28? No. I mean, like just where he was at, the names he'd beat. If you, like, that's the way you pay respect.

Go back and look at those, those early times, the vintage spans. I think that that's where it's all at. Fair enough. I don't have much to add to that, but a great career. My favorite win will be, I mean, he had bigger wins, but my favorite one to watch was the kill. You think he was compromised going into the, like, I mean, like mentally, do you think he, do you think he was already diminished when he fought Bud, you know, in the end?

Like, like, when you saw it? Or do you think that Bud just was that much better? I think he was partly diminished. Yeah. But I think Bud was also Masterclass stuff. Masterclass. Again, I've said it before.

It terms of things I've been physically there to witness. That was one of those stuff. It's the best combat sports performance I've ever seen. Yeah. That's one I kicked myself for not having intended, you know. Yeah, that was a crazy one for sure. All right. That is our top five.

Now is the time where you guys get to ask us questions. We put up a post every Sunday on IG. you can follow us there, the producers pick questions, and then we answer them. It's time for the D-Ads from Dalks. All right. Pardon me, from It's Not Cage Fighting. Why are we open to an interim belt at 205, but mock the idea of one at Women's 135? Both divisions have injured champions with major questions over when or even if they return.

It's hard to build interest in that class when meaningful fights aren't happening, Chuck? I mean, the women's 135, though, like who? I mean, it's just not been a relevant. It's just not been a relevant weight class. And I understand this, like, they should be treated fair. But dude, I mean, who's talking about the division at all? Like, really? You know, it's just nobody really cares if there's an interim title. So you might as well just keep all the focus on the big fight that you have there. The 205 has traditionally had compelling storylines and you know, contenders and all that stuff. It's just in a very unfortunate state right now.

We say this strictly because if you're trying to get something going, like trying to get anything going in that division with Carlos on the, you know, on the shelf right now, it just makes some sense to have, okay, well, you can make it basically a number one contender fight, but we give them the interim. It just sets up a date. I don't know.

But it's just, it's not needed, but I think it's just because the division is in such shambles right now. It at least gives it some kind of structure or something, like some form of excitement. I know it's like you go ahead I was going to say I also just think they rely on 205 for main events for title fights that's headline paper views whereas like women title fights are often co-main events they're not as like ooh we need to make a main event let's make that you know from the degenerate

mma underscore fan serious question are we living in bizarro world how was terence mcini how has terence mcini never won a single performance of the night bonus but risvon kuniev and tyrol fortune just got 100k bonuses. I genuinely don't understand the UFC's bonus system. Dude, this is, I've talked about this a lot. I feel like McKinney is just a bad luck, man. If you go down the car, like, go look at the cards he's on. And you'll, like, you'll see that there's always these crazy performances on his cards, but it is stupid. It's absurd. You know, the guy has done so much. Like, he should definitely be winning some bonuses. The guy puts on the exciting fights just about every time

out. And Kuhnev winning that, come on. That is, it is a great comparison because you're like, guys like that shouldn't be winning uh i mean it was a fine he fine performance we talked about but it's like is that a fight of the night i mean generally not you know i mean i don't get it at all yeah i used to understand their system better now i'm like poor terrence i hope they're if if terence terence try to fight on these cards with donks with like you know i know on these abu dhabi cards or something yeah where they're filling it up with with guys who are even that's not really true that doesn't work i don't work i don't know i don't know what to tell you

fuck it all right from train how you fight 979 what's the mama equivalent to a j fury as in two washed fighters fighting each other way past their cell by date chuck tito three oh my god

that was such that was if it's that level dude we're in big trouble man law island says Connor Nate three I mean so so we're saying a fight that they could make that would be like basically the equivalent of them finally coming together yeah something like that right it would be something like that

Conorate 3. Yeah, because it's just, there's no real relevance. It's just straight up resolution. People just want to see it because they've been wanting to see it. That's it. Like there's no real real. Yeah. Yeah.

Like stuff like that. Like the things that you're like, you know, they, there was a moment in time, obviously, like everybody wanted Lesnar Fade or they wanted Randy and Fade. Remember it was like they wanted these fights, but you could never get them. And, uh, but there were people still talking as Fader was started losing all. They were still talking about seeing him fight these guys. So that's, it's like, it's more of like an itch

that never got scratched and so people still want to do it right but it has no real relevancy from phahey dot Liam does chenko this is uh megabed zanikov have the best moitai in the ufc or would you give it to uh raphael

Fiziv I mean whatever they're in amateur accolades just in terms of how they apply it in MMA against high level opposition you could not possibly put at least not right now anyway Zanikov over Fiziv fuck no you could do that. You probably find others too, right? That would be

there's other. Yeah, I mean, I'm not sure in terms of like pure Muay Thai who's got at the current level like, because Cyril God has some Muay accomplishment. I don't think it's a very high level one. Yeah. But his striking obviously is very effective in the heavyweight division. I guess there's really not a ton.

Back in the day, there were a lot more Muay Thai, like guys who came from Muay Thai. Remember? I mean, there was a lot. He might have men at, not that yeah, I think he is, but he might have met at lightweight only, only because of the physique. comparison and Chonko is a lightweight so he said in the UFC

that's true I'm just saying maybe he missed word yeah yeah again I don't mean to disrespect John Pork no am I suggesting he's like oh overrated that's not only what I'm saying I'm just saying like for MMA's purpose I mean if you're talking about pure amateur accolades I don't know the answer if you're talking about like how it performs in

MMA physique is widely ahead of him you know all right last but not least from MT Booble Chuck which game did you prefer as a kid? Tetherball? Oh man. Dodge ball. Ooh, that's actually a really good question.

Dodge ball was fun. I don't think that it is. I mean, it's, but I mean, like, I'm saying only in the second, they were both recess-type games, right?

Like, yeah. But I would say that dodge ball, I was very good at dodge ball. Because I got good reflexes, you know, you could get out of the way. And I was very good at catching the ball.

You know, like somebody's trying to hit you from a question. You just catch the ball. I'm like, fuck you know, have a lot of fond memories. I was never very good at telling me. saying this question is, dude, the choice is dodgeball or kickball.

Those are the two games. You're right. Tetherball, nobody really played it. Nobody fucking, you know, I literally just wrote in the chat. No one played tetherball. That's true. Those polls were just there and people would do other things, smokebime or whatever. Just smack them in a circle.

What do you think go around? You get tetanus on the rusty ass pole that the tetherball thing was on. Nobody actually played it. Oh, dude, who the fuck is playing Tetherball? I don't even know how to play Tetherball. don't even know how to play to other ball no you're right kickball kickball kickball is fun that would it's kickball or dodgeball and then the answer is still dodgeball although kickball was a lot of fucking fun i had to find my daughter has a they don't play kickball at her school i don't quite get that shit

yeah these kids like these days they put bubble wrap around them right they don't want them yeah that's part of it too because they don't do dodgeball either you know yeah and i'm like you've never had your face turn red from from getting fucking melted by you did it all the time you aimed at their face. If you could close up, aiming them, you're trying to like knock them off, you know. Dude, if you were playing dodgeball against me, and you're a guy, I'm aiming for your face or the ball is going to go

to your balls. You know what I'm saying? I'm either going eyeballs. I'm like, the only place you can foul in MMA, that's where I'm throwing the ball. You would look them in the eyes like you're going to throw in their eyes and then throw it deliberately at their balls. I mean, that's what you do. Throw it at their fucking testes. Yep. All right. That is it

for you guys asking us questions. Again, you can do that every Sunday. on Instagram. And now it's the time where we take a look at your artwork where we put it in our provoial fridge.

It's time for fansubs. You've got mail. Viewers. Viewers. All right, from OSL key. I don't know what the fuck that is. Says when LTC's a fighter stat

that is almost a whole number larger than his opponents. Did you see Friday's Chuck by, Friday's show by chance, Chuck? I did not know. Okay. So I used the word integer because integer has a very specific meaning. Yes.

Would you like to use a specific word? I mean, people should educate themselves. This was the thing that drives me nuts. For example, the other day I had said, who I was fighting this way? Oh, it was DDP. And DDP, I said, was fighting in a more intelligently restrained kind of way. He was not making as many reckless decisions. And someone was like, why are you using those words?

Why not just say he fought smarter? because they don't mean the same things, you fucking idiot. That's why. I love when people call you out for being like, you know, having a fuller vocabulary. It's like, it's like they don't understand the words they don't, like sometimes they can be interchangeable. Right. Sometimes they mean appreciably different things. And like having that like 1.421, this is not an integer.

You know what I mean? And I could say more words, but if I'm being parsimonious, integer is better than whole number. Yes. But do it. And so it's just in my mind. That's just how my mind works. And I'll say it. And people like, why are you trying to flex?

I'm like, guys, if you live in a word, a world where the word integer is a flex, you're the dumbest person in your family. Our demographic. Yeah. You're the dumbest person on your block. Everyone on your block knows when you walk outside, there goes that fucking idiot again. All right. But anyway, they're mocking me because integer, I guess, sounds good. like the naughty word that doesn't worry.

It's going to be bad though, you know. It is going to be. And it's better than the N word. I mean, if you just use the N word. I'd get made fun of less if I did. All right. We have two from John McLean. Let's see what we got.

Jed, Luke teaching him the word. What's it got like a? Oh, okay. That's like he's like a piece of meat. him fire. I know, I know. Discovering fire. Yeah, yeah.

That's, that's hilarious. That is funny. Luke, after waiting 10 years to use, I've been using the word integer on the show. Nobody has noticed until Jed. Lies.

Lies. You see this, Chuck? Then they just lie about you. So Jed made a big deal of it. This is why, this is why we're, okay, all right. Because I wasn't even thinking.

I was looking at two different guys as, yeah, strike, strike percentages. Yeah. Anyway. All right. Jordan has two memes. Let's see what we got.

Hello, everyone. My name is Luke Thomas. Welcome to my live chat. And then there's Burns and he says, I've heard enough. Release the hounds. The hounds. I don't know if you guys heard.

Did you hear the city cutting cement outside my house today? No. No, thank God. I didn't hear it. I literally sat down at my desk at like 845 and I hear. You know, like you ever seen those giant rotational saws? Yes.

That they used to cut cement. they're doing outside of my fucking house it's like what the fuck oh man I've dealt with this shit too though man I get a leaf blow or whatever like there's always going on when I'm recording so I get it Jordan had another one

when a Gringo walks in and tries to order a surprise oh my god all right that is I mean dude this is so many levels of MK I don't even know what to say Chuck do you get this one at all Well, I've heard mention of this, but I'm not sure I know the backstory here. The basic idea is, first of all, this photo is for when I was on CNN.

Like, not last Friday, but the Friday before. All right. And I was on there, and one of the panelists said something real silly, and then I made a look at the camera. I wasn't even trying to, but I just did. And so they took that. Oh, my God, dude. One time before I knew any Spanish, my wife, she wasn't my wife at the time. Yeah.

Asked me to go to Starbucks and to get her a Sorpreza. and I thought that was like Spanish for like whatever it was on the fucking menu. Right. And I asked them like, you guys have like, like grande sorpresas? And they're like, sir, we don't know what the fuck that is. So I had to just like order something. And I went back. I'm like, yo, they don't have no fucking sorprosa.

It's like, what were you trying to get me to get? And she's like, well, you fucking idiot means surprise in Spanish. So there you go. So I have seen for whatever reason I've seen this word pop up on MK. So this gives me the best story now. Okay. Soor Prisa is surprise. right, I got it. I got it.

So my wife was just basically like, surprise me. You know, surprise me. And I'm like, I sure will. Because I don't know what the fuck you want, Luke. I mean, that's how you learn it. You're not going to forget that word. Oh, I'll never forget. I'll forget my name before I forget that word. All right. We got Mike. Mike's got a bunch of these. Let's see. All right. Say the word, Luke. Oh, my God. This has been dominating integer. And everyone laughs.

Fuck you, hoes. I've been saying integer for years on this show. And you bass. Never noticed. Just want to point that out. All right, next. Brandon Royville, Tetsu Roehra, Steve Erseg. Oh, we're killing poor Steve Erseg. Yeah. Previous UFC Flyway title challengers.

All right, fair enough. I mean, not wrong. Okay, number, digit, figure, integer. Guys, how is integer on this level that like we are treating it? Like it is like, now I have to go back and watch the Friday episode. You really don't. You just got to go. All right, here, Luke Thomas

playing with his predator toys. You know what? Fuck you. I finally understand the Donald once in my life. And then Luke Thomas at 39 at 40. It is a cliff, bitches. I can't even deny. I can't even fight this one.

All right, never ask a woman her age, a man, his salary, or Luke Thomas, what Joe Rogan said. That's actually a pretty good meme. Yeah.

That's a pretty good. But one day I'll do it. people keep asking me why don't do it i had to explain this on last week it's because dude like you know how this goes you've ever been sitting on a juicy piece of information and then you share it and all of a sudden you just know you're going to have to deal with yes shit and i'm like i don't want to deal with shit my life is much easier and not having to deal with this shit that's how i think and i've teased it enough where now it's all everywhere yeah i think is that is that all six yeah that's it for the fence okay all right and that's a pretty good pretty good job by a mic there and then last but not

least, I want to share this email that we have from Rob. Rob writes, Chuck. Hey, Luke and company, this feels weird, but I just wanted to reach out and say that a little over a month ago, I lost my brother to his battle with alcoholism. He was only 41 years old. He was a huge fan and weekly listener of MK, a giant fan of MMA and MK. I know that he would have loved his name being read aloud on the show. He loved being the center of attention. Rest in peace, Brian, John Charles Johnson, John Stinn, excuse me. Let me. it one more time, Brian, John, Charles Johnston. We used to watch your

show all the time when we live together. It was a staple of the whole postcard ritual. Thank you for everything, and I just wanted you all to know that you have lost a loyal fan. Never take anything for granted. Love to you, Luke and Kruh, and love you, Brian as well. Five fandom will never be the same. This is from Rob. Rob, obviously, we're very, very sorry.

Oh, man. For your situation, but thank you for the support. Thank you for the years of support. Thank you for sharing your story. The difficult parts of it, as well the good parts too. And I'm not sure what to tell you, except you have our sincerest condolences from everyone here on the staff. And stay with us. We hope to bring you many more positive days such that we can. And thank you for everything. Thank you for sending that note.

And you hear stuff like that, man, it puts things into perspective, doesn't it? It's just, yeah, deepest condolences, man. And that is the show. That is the show. Before we go any further, Chuck, what you got going on this week? So I've got Yeah, I'll be on the crack on Friday. I've got a couple pieces coming out, but I'll also be attending. I know you'll love to hear this. I'll be attending the SummerSlam out in Minneapolis. I'm going to go check it out.

My son is into it. My daughter is into it. So I'm going to take them out there. So we'll see how that goes. Raising some real brainiacs, huh? I was waiting for that. Yes. Yes, I am.

Dude, someone, this isn't quite the same, but someone on my live chat asked me the other day, Chuck, they go, hey man are you excited about the days you're going to be able to take violetta it's a cannibal corpse I'm like yeah be a let's have a cannibal corpse I'm like there is a significantly higher probability I'm going to end up at a Taylor Swift show before that ever happens what's going to happen yeah you know or whoever's popular has your daughter made you go to some shows or you're like dude what the fuck of I'm not bad though like I went to some shows with her but they're she's got pretty good taste in music like I would actually go see some of these bands you know

they're more like alternative type spans. So nothing bad, no. Okay. And your son? He hasn't really, like, he hasn't really got into the concert thing yet. He's still just on that cusp. Like pretty soon, I'm guessing he'll want to start it. But you, you know, dude, it's going to be like

Kendrick Lamar or something. He's going to want to go see. It's like it's going to be some some shit like that. What was I going to say here? Long Island. What do you have going on? I got a lot going on this week. And I got really excited when Chuck said he will be attending. I thought you were going to say PFL Long Island because the PFL is on Long Island this Friday and I'll be there. So I'm looking forward to that.

Going to do a live chat of my own this week, LT on Wednesday, 11 a.m. I don't know how often I'll do it, maybe once a month, something like that. But I feel like whenever we're doing the watchalongs, I'm always just answering people's questions and not focusing on the fights. So I'm trying to separate that a little bit. So that's my plan for that. Otherwise, bet breakdowns. UFC Serbia on Saturday 10 a.m. start. You know I'm doing. a full card watch along be there for that who's the main uh medich and d rob that's right okay yeah so i don't know we'll see which way it goes but uh big week ahead yeah i mean i'm not going to be watching that one live live life i'll tell you that now

you got to live life while you still can fuckers um i'll have coverage we're gonna i'm gonna announce the new book in my book club i think today i have to go check the post schedule uh either today or tomorrow morning uh and then of course you know standard stuff on YouTube. You can go check that out there. Reminder, you can email the show, MorningCombat at Gmail.com. That's for fan subs, dead wrongs. To reach the show, however, that's a place to do it. Let's see. What else? You can become a member. You can get emojis, badges, badges, and more. And then, of course, you can go to morningcombat.combat.com. This is the last week to do this

where all of these designs are up for grabs. And after this, we move on to a new slate of design. So get them while you can. 20% off. Morning Combat, that shop and then 50% off of all posters as well. All right. All right. There you have it. Thank you guys so much for watching. We greatly appreciate it for everyone on the show, including Chuck Mendenhall, including Long Island and everybody else. We'll talk to you guys on Friday. And until then, may all of your gains be loyal.