MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Macau: Song Yadong Beats Figueiredo | BKFC: Darren Till Wants Mike Perry | RAF: Arman-Colby Set

Episode Date: June 1, 2026

Good morning, Donks. Welcome back on a Morning Kombat Monday with Luke Thomas and Chuck Mindenhall. First up the guys discuss Song Yadong submitting Deiveson Figueiredo with a guillotine and what's next for both fighters. The fellas recap the rest of the card and grade the overall event. Darren Till scored a win in his BKFC debut and said he wanted to fight Mike Perry. And Arman Tsarukyan is set to take on Colby Covington after the latter narrowly defeated Chris Weidman at RAF 9. All that and more with LT and The Iceman.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. Look at this now. It's what 11 a.m.? I'm back. You fit in seamlessly in this weird MK environment. Do you want to Margarita? Two, three, two, three.

That's it. Join us, great unwashed for a show with two of the most washed men you've ever seen in your life. Welcome, everyone. It's another edition of Morning Combat. Thank you for joining us on this first day of just the first of the month. Cash your checks and get up. Welcome to the show. My name is Luke Thomas.

I am merely one half of your hosting duo. I join you from the capital of Estabstados from Eos right here in Washington, D.C. joined by my Connecticut brethren. How does he have on today? I thought I'd throw the Denver Nuggets back on, you know, remind people, you know. They didn't do so hot this year, but I'm still representing. Oh, here we go. What happened to them this year?

I don't watch basketball outside of the Wizards until the playoffs. Complacency is what I'm going to say. They did have a lot of injuries. They were never really whole, even in the playoffs. Aaron Gordon was still hurt and all that. But I think it was just complacency. Jamal Murray, even though he's an all-star, I felt like he got complacent.

And he's usually very hungry in the playoffs. He wasn't there this time. Which of the 12 minutes that Anthony Davis is going to play for the Wizards is going to be your favorite, Chuck? It'll be the first 12. You're going to really love those first 12. After that, it's going to be a precipice drop off. Yeah. Well, welcome.

We have a lot to get to today. So let's set the table here. UFC Macau was over the weekend. One of those ones that was actually easy to skip both in terms of like, hey, there's not a superstar on this card. Although the fights, I think, to me, the fights felt a little MVP-ish in that they were all pretty quick. Yeah. And they weren't bad. Like, there was a bunch of first round finishes for crying out loud.

Like, who doesn't want that? Seven of them. But at the same time, like, not. all of them but most of them left me feeling like not a lot to chew on necessarily but we'll do we'll do some chewing just the same there was r a f over the weekend we'll talk a little bit about that there was uh well there's a lot of stuff happening we're going to oh darren till the bkfc debut that was a fun one actually you knew he was going to deliver one way or the other it kind of did so we'll get to all of that so thumbs up on the video if you're watching hit subscribe thank you so much

for being here we greatly appreciated we hope you had a great weekend uh you can follow us on the socials let's uh well you know what before we get to the rest of it let's bring in the third member of the panel here. He is questionably sober, but unquestionably committed. It's Long Island, Luke. How you doing, bud? I'm doing good. I feel like you downplayed that Macau card, Luke.

I woke up at 4 a.m. for it and I was actually not regret it. So here's the deal. Here's the deal with that. I'm not going to listen to a bunch of people complain about an MVP card where the odds were stacked in favor of one guy winning early. One guy wins early. Then everyone's like, the guy won too early, which I don't disagree with. And then you get and get the same necessarily the same,

uh, odds lopsidedness, but they were pretty lopsided, especially for a UFC card. You got a bunch of first round finishes. And then everyone's been like, dude, this was fucking great.

You got some dogs. You got some dogs winning. MVP didn't really have that. Okay. There's some differences. I agree. I'm not saying it's all the same, but I'm not saying they're bad.

I'm not saying they're bad. They were fine. I'm just saying it didn't leave me with like, I'm going to think about these results for days kind of vibe. That's all I'm saying. All right. I just felt like as someone who woke up for the Perth card earlier this year. Granted, that was a fun card too, but I also like, it took me like 48 hours to kind of get my sleep cycle back after that. This weekend, for whatever reason, really enjoyed the card and had a fine sleep schedule. So did your wallet get a little fatter or is it? Oh, Chuck, thank you for bringing that up. I actually went perfect on the main card too. So that was pretty sweet. And remember I brought up that under four and a half in the main event at plus money? I mean, how easy was that second round? We'll take it all day. So. I was feeling good.

But kids rolling in it. Let's set this up. We actually have some interesting merch this month. You know, Chuck, here are the June exclusives. Right here we have the morning combat kind. We're going to call this the Genesis logo, right? You can imagine why. We also have the biker logo for those who might be interested in an MK remix this way.

And last but certainly not least, we have Crown with a K that may or may not look like a familiar logo to some of the music heads out there. What we also have, and these are, of course, available at morning combat.combat. But we also have, uh, well, we got a little bit of extras here, Chuck. I think they're awesome. We're going to call these the basketball shirts. We've got one in the gray, silver and black. And then we've got one in the West. Yep. And we're called it the West bat, the basketball shirt in reference to a famous way I talked on a pregame or pre-fight show. And then there is the East the basketball shirt, which of course comes to you in

blue and orange and white. These are also available morning combat. Those are awesome. Those are pretty great. I actually do kind of like those. And then last but at least, if you care to reach the show for any reason, morning, excuse me, yes,

morning combat at gmail.com, morning combat at gmail.com. Okay, without further ado, Chuck, let's get this party started. Let's go to UFC Macau. Your main event, we're going to kick things off there. In your main event, Song-a-dong-wa made kind of relatively short work,

basically out of Devis and Figuero. He wins via guillotine choke in the second round. Chuck, what's sort of great here. You can see the pictures here. I have a few thoughts on the performance overall. But for you, did Song prove he still got very viable days as a title contender in front of him? Or is this more about Figuero? Maybe looking a little old and a little bit washy. I think I would go with the former, to be honest. I thought that, you know, I thought your Don came in there and he didn't look perfect in the first round and it was very strange because I think they mentioned that all the Chinese fighters on this card had already lost. It felt like a lot of pressure on him to kind of deliver in the main event.

But he looked like he took him a minute to get rolling. But I thought that when he was settling in there, especially later in the round, even though he got taken down later in that round, like he started to look like he was coming on a little bit. Second round, obviously he gets the win. I thought that it was a good performance, man. I mean, we could talk, and I know we're going to, the Figuero drop off is real, because he's lost four out of five fights. He's fighting really tough guys, but there were a couple of moments, and I'm sure that you were seeing this in this fight, too, where you're like, I don't know, it just felt like the old Davidson Figurado wouldn't have put himself in a couple of those positions.

And in the end, like, maybe it cost him, because the way he went out in this one was so fast to getting that guillotine that fast and tap that fast. I was like, that's just not the way he was. But I will say this. This is his ninth fight since 2023. So that's a lot of fights in a short amount of time for a guy who's now 38 years old. I'm not sure like his mind state on this in terms of figurato, but it might just be one of the things. Like, let's just try to get as many as we can. Let's compete as much as we can down the stretch here.

It felt a little bit like that. But I, if I'm giving him, we talk about this a lot, which lens do you want to look at through. But I think I'm going to look at it more as like Yadong kind of showed up. He's 28, right? like he's still a young guy he's fought some hard fights um i don't know if i saw marked improvement improvement but it looked like he was uh it still looks like he's viable to me and i i go back to the omalley fight you know in that second round he wins that round i'm seeing flashes of him each time and i'm like i feel like he's putting it together slowly for his age i feel like for me

he mostly just held serve but that's still a pretty decent place to to be for him given the context. Like, here's what I mean. I agree with you. Like, I'm not, I'm not suggesting that figurato, like the guillotine wasn't good. It's a little surprising because typically on the arm that is finishing the choke, the one that's around the throat, that one where, I mean, this is not always true by any stretch of the imagination, but like, kind of one of the things you're looking for is to see how far that same elbow is buried underneath the shoulder line.

And it doesn't necessarily even need to be. buried under the shoulder line. Everyone's going to have different mechanics and different results. But it's kind of like a good rule of thumb, how far it's buried down. And it wasn't buried very far. So like, again, that doesn't necessarily. You see how it's quite visible. A lot of times when you do it really well, it'll disappear underneath the shoulder. And then that same elbow isn't kind of so high. It's a little lower. So again, it sounds like I'm saying, oh, it wasn't real. That's not at all what I'm saying. I'm saying that this is, tends to be, let's put it this way, of the range of positions where that choke is successful,

this one tended to have a few of the things that often make it less successful, but certainly don't preclude it from working. I'm just pointing that out. I hope that that makes sense. That does make sense. Okay. So there's that, but he tapped very quickly again.

Maybe Song has like an incredible squeeze, and we just haven't really got a great look at it. The thing that stood out to me, though, Chuck, was like some of the things I was looking for in terms of improvement, I didn't necessarily see. Like, you know, he did get a jab working a little bit in the second round, especially to the body.

I saw that, but he was still doing a lot of wading around, which a low volume play, if the fight had gone 25 minutes, I don't think necessarily would have been the best strategy. Montel Jackson had the same kind of attitude and strategy, and I think it backfire on him a little bit, having to sort of like, I'm going to wait around attitude, didn't matter this particular case. But the thing that I will say is to the point that you raise,

I like the pressure from Song Yodong. He wasn't making bad mistakes in this fight by any stretch of the imagination. I think that submission, part of the reason why it did in fact work, was he had the element of surprise. I just don't think Devincent Figuero was really counting on that at all because it was a well-time takedown when he got it. I guess the point I'm trying to make is, given that he's 28 years old and now highly experienced,

did this win necessarily have a bunch of things you would hang your hat on as saying, wow, he's ready to make that next step. No, not for me. But at the same time, there are really no mistakes in this. And given that he is 28 and given that he is just now entering his physical prime and that he does have all of this experience behind him and you saw this sort of semi new wrinkle with this guillotine submission, I don't think you could write him off as a title contender. I just don't think you can yet. It seems way, way too early. Maybe he will get there by hook or by crook. And so he's still, for me, Chuck, he's still in this place where you still have to respect what the future could offer, even if there's been a lot of bumps along the way. Do you get curious as to how that around, like,

let's just say he doesn't tap out. It's not as tight. He's able, uh, figurato's able to survive. Would you've gotten the sense, especially let's just say that now figurato's on top, which, we saw that at the end of the first round, right? Or like, you know, at the end of the first round. and let's say that it played, I mean, he might have been losing two to nothing in this fight, you know, because the first round went to Figurado. I believe I looked at this and it was like two to one on the judge's scorecard. Can you verify that Long Island? Yeah, I'm pretty sure that that was the case. But like, that would have been interesting, right?

Because now suddenly the way I'm talking about, you're thinking, well, this guy, like I'm saying basically, I think he did kind of take a stuff for it. I think, you know, anytime you can beat Figurato, former champion and you do it in that way, I think is a good thing. But there was a chance if that choke doesn't work. I mean, he might have just been down, you know, just two to nothing in a fight where like he had to kind of win this, right? And Long Island is telling us two of the judges didn't have, did in fact, excuse me, have Figueroa winning the first round.

Right. Yep. I'm not sure how they would have scored the second, I suppose, it, you know, remains to be seen. Yeah. But for Figueroido, he looked, I don't know. There was something. that wasn't sturdy about him.

I'm not quite sure how to explain it, you know? Like he didn't have, I feel like I've seen a lot more internal fight. And I don't just mean in fighting the gay team, which again, I think the surprise factor really, really plays a big role there. Chuck, also, you know, song is, you know, probably quite strong. But I think the other factor for me is, I don't know, dude, he was getting positionally kind of bossed around in this one. And I'm used to seeing him on the back foot, but I'm not used to seeing him

accommodating as much as he was. I don't know. It's hard to explain. What did you feel about him? Well, let me ask you, like, when he first was kind of burst on the scene in the, in the flyway division, right? And he's fighting Moreno and he's got, like, I felt like he had this extra dog, like something in there. Like, it almost felt like even if you put him in a bad position, he would make you pay, didn't it? Like, it just felt like he was, he was eager, like he had a sense of

urgency. There was just something really, uh, it's, he fought, he fought to prove something. Yeah. there was something more there and I feel like that's what's going like maybe it's a hunger and I obviously when you've kind of summited you've already been to the top it's probably hard to go back even in a new weight division but that's kind of in this whole slide honestly and he's fighting monsters man like most these guys are top five guys but I feel like that's kind of missing you know I saw it a lot was it the Sanhagen one the one that was in like south dakota or somewhere

or Iowa. It was like somewhere up there. And I remember that's when I kind of first saw it where you're like, I don't know, man. Figurrata just seems like he's lost something. He lost fast pole a little bit or lost some of that hunger. But I felt like it was kind of the same in this fight. It just didn't seem like he had that extra, you know, that extra dog and him to take it someplace that would make it, you know what I mean, make it his kind of fight? It just didn't seem like he had that. Long Island, how did you feel about the performances? Did you, did, did songholds serve for you as well? yeah i mean

it's hard to take much away from this performance in the year 2026 because figgy just had I know he beat montel jackson whatever but he's not yeah and he's not the figgy that like you said that was fighting brandon morana that was fighting joseph benavita remember him finishing joseph benavita

benavita screaming himself awake i mean that shit was crazy like he used to be violent he used to be mean he's just getting a little older and it's not there anymore so this was you needed to win this song you don't you probably needed to finish him too as a minus 600 favorite to yes to even hold serve that's what i mean about the lopsided odds on this card yeah so i don't i don't know that's what the line was god i didn't

realize that yeah it's kind of like he did what he was supposed to do i guess yeah best we can say you know yeah and that's not nothing that's not nothing at age 28 but like if we're still here at this level at 31 then i'm going to be like right well you know to we've seen that a lot though i'll say this for song your dog, he's 28. Like, for me, these next two years when he gets to 30, make a break is probably right, even though it sounds a little hyperbolic to put it on those terms. Like, if you're really going to make a move,

I'm not saying he has to actually win the title, Chuck. Yeah. What I am saying is he probably in the next two years, this should be the time when he begins to really make a move on the title, right? This is, this is the window. I want to see him put like, you know, if it's a 15 minute fight, you want to see him to put together 15 minutes, right?

Like, you want to see him put those, like a consistent kind of something because even in that O'Malley fight, he looked very good in the second round. And I think it was 1-1, you know, going to the third and it just doesn't get it done. And I'm like, I guess that's where it's at. You want to see him put it all together. For him to, like, you know, if he's going to compete with O'Malley,

you could look at it that way. O'Malley has won a title and he was able to compete in that fight. So that tells you, like, he's almost there. But I know he works with the team alpha-mail guys. And maybe that's where this, the Gilly got, strength and maybe maybe he is adding some elements but I just want to see him put it together man and a because even in this first round he left just enough there we're like I don't know if he wins it if if it goes the full 25 I don't know um but it didn't and I mean like you got to hang out your hat on

that but I still need to see him just be consistent if you'd won the first round easily and then had that happen we'd probably be talking a little bit different right now I fully agree long island Long Island pulled this little clip here. It's just six seconds long, but I think it speaks to both, I mean, if you noticed, everyone's corner gets happy when their guy wins, but there was a big smile on Danny Castillo's face.

I think this guy is really well liked, and people are kind of waiting for him to break through so that they can really share in that joy and that accomplishment with him. But for Song-a-dong, I felt like a big night for him. Here's what he did. The best moment in his life's before. Best moment in his life so far.

You know, I'll say this for confidence. I mean, but that's good, yeah. I'll say it to him. How's your Chinese? Mine's not great. You know what I mean? So for me, I don't know. Like there's something joyful still about him. I just, this wasn't the night. It was never really going to be the night, probably. But I am looking for this from now until 2027, June 1st, 2027. I would like to see at least one kind of real concrete step, you know, up the food ladder.

Yeah, I agree. Pride is like love. You feel it in your heart. IR. Radio. Canada's number one streaming app for radio and podcasts, including IHart Pride Canada, your favorite hits and must have party bangers, plus personalized and curated playlists,

like back in the day pride. Come together, celebrate love. Take pride with you anytime, anywhere. Just ask your smart speaker to play IHartPride Canada. Stream us on your phone or listen now at iHeartRadio.ca. that's a weird division right now isn't it that division's kind of crazy um like look at like so if you're trying to match me because he calls out uh yon right like he wanted the title shot at yeah i mean obviously that's like pie in the sky stuff for where he's at but almost everybody in that top 10

is booked you know like almost all these guys have a fight i know that marab is uh currently waiting on yon but like dude he just busted his nose up too i don't do that they're actually they're they're they're literally all booked so marab we're waiting on to get the rematch with yon to your point umar i saw uh marcel i think i saw marcel this morning say umar has a fight with david martinez he does crazy yeah uh sean o'malley obviously was on the white house card corey sanhagen's got the rematch with bautista and then song is sitting at five he's basically you know like he's gonna have to see what happens between omali and uh zhabi or or something else if you if you were if you're you dong and like and you get the

chance right obviously you want to you want to fight up you want to fight the guys who are in front of you or maybe one of these guys like you're mentioning you fight the winner or something like that but if the UFC offered you number 11 there Peyton Talbot would you take that fight just given that he's got like some juice to his name and like obviously like he you know in some ways he's a higher profile than a lot of these these other guys in front of them I mean that was advising song is that what you mean yeah

I would advise him not to take that okay all right Well, I mean, it's kind of screwy because right now, like, a lot of those guys, I guess it's such a tightly contested race that a lot of those guys like O'Malley is fighting Zobby. And I mean, there's spaces in between them and you have a lot of that where like the three is fighting the eight type of thing. So, I mean, he could he could go against anybody at this point. And, but I would think that another big win, he's got to start getting in the mix. That's like, that's why it's fun to look at that graphic because you realize there's a lot of guys who can start to make this claim. and soon. So you're like, well, he's going to have to hold court at least another time.

But I mean, any of these dudes in the top 10 would be, that would kind of do what we're asking, right? Like, we've seen him lose to a couple of these guys. So I think that, you know, if he's able to kind of put one together where he beats one of those top guys, then maybe you start talking about him against John. By the way, like, it's kind of interesting that you go to 10 because we just mentioned, well, the top five is fully booked.

But, okay, it's actually worse than that. So Song is sitting at five, all right? Yeah. Six is Amund Zahabi, as we mentioned, is fighting on the White House card against O'Malley. Seven is Figuero, who he just fought and beat. Eight is Bautista, who is also going to be fighting Corey Sanhagan. Nine is Martinez, who apparently is being matched up with Numerica Madov. Ten is Vera, who I think didn't song beat him not too recently.

He beat him in COVID and it was up at 45 and it was super controversial. Cheeto probably won. They could run that back. They could run that one back. But I'm saying like, that's who's left. unless he gets the winner of O'Malley and Zahavi or something like that. Yeah. Yeah, that's crazy, crazy division right now.

So then that brings us to, lastly, to Figgie, honestly, Figgie versus, because he already fought Vera, he beat him, right? I think he beat him as well. Yes. Yeah, he did. You could do Figgie versus Talbot. That's actually a pretty good fight. Ooh.

Now you're talking because, I mean, honestly, like, because I mean, with Talbot, I mean, obviously, like, there's a lot of eyes on him. He just had that very good fight. I guess now it's been six months ago. he thought Sehudo had a very good showing, obviously, and that was the one that people were like, oh, we've got to see him beat somebody like that. So that would be an actual kind of escalation

if you think that Figueros got something left. But he still has the name. I think that that would be a fun fight. I think that would be a fun fight. Because I'm not sure that Peyton Talbot, like, what do you think? I don't know if he's ready for some of those names at the top there. He's definitely not ready for the top guys.

Yeah, that's what I, you don't want to see him. Like, what was it the, the, the, uh, Barsello's fight, right? That kind of showed you like, ooh, although he's rebounded nicely from that. He has. He has worked on his wrestling. But to your point.

But he's just another, he's another great component though. But yeah, man, that's a fun division. Like you could almost book all these, like any iteration of this and it's pretty good, right? Yeah. And then multiple iterations out of two,

not just one time. You can get done a bunch of times. Yeah. So we'll see what happens from there. It's an interest, the Bantamway division is certainly, you know, for a lot of divisions that are kind of on ice.

This one is always moving. Yeah, for the most part, now is moving. So hopefully we can get that title fight moving here in the next Within the next few months. All right. Let's go to topic number two, which of course is the rest of the UFC Macau card.

Now we kind of discussed this, Chuck, before the show really got started. And I'd like to do it again. Rate the card. How was your experience watching it? What do you think? I'd give it like a B minus. I don't mind all of the, you know, the stoppages, all those early finishes. And I know that like you're mentioning, the lines were heavy.

But like Long Island said, there were, there was enough of a, But like when you get Menefield going in there and, you know, getting that knockout, you know, he's an underdog. So it's like at least it's not just going in the MVP sense straight to the prohibitive favorites in this. So I probably give it a B minus just because I know that we're going to talk about a couple of these fights. And but there's a couple of times you're like, man, is this guy UFC quality? You know, you get into that kind of conversation on a couple of these guys. And you almost think like, well, inevitably they're going to lose in dramatic fashion every time they step in there probably.

probably right a couple of these guys yeah that's more than a couple on yeah if you go down the full card you're right yeah this is why when dana white last week we never really talked about it because i'm just kind of over the the pay debate it's like people just basically don't care that fighters are underpaid that's really right that's the beginning the end of the conversation they just don't really including the fighters in most cases they just don't really care people just don't really care that's really the basic issue here okay but putting that aside um he tried to make this argument about pay the WNBA. He's like, so I should pay you $370k just to find out if you're good.

It's like, dude, Taitoivasa is 0 in the last six fights in your fucking organization. And you're still paying this guy. What are you talking about? Like we're so far past this idea of like, well, this is the big leagues and we're going to find out here. It's like, I mean, that definitely can be true, right? Especially if you escalate a little bit beyond kind of the bottom rung. But most of the guys on the roster kind of, you know, circle around. the bottom of the rung. It's like only the very special ones that really get to the top.

Like this is, it's such a completely disingenuous argument in every possible way. So wait, was somebody bringing up the WMBA's pay versus like as a as a standard? Yeah. Okay. That makes sense. But the thing is always different is obviously like the WNBA has a certain amount of players that come up and they're on the team, right? Like these are the players. And the UFC, it's just like there's always at the bottom this kind of turn style of guys trying, seeing if they can fit and it's just it's such a different kind of thing because there's it's not like you draft these guys out of some call you've watched them grow up and you know exactly what they're going to bring you know that sort of thing it's just so many these guys

we've never heard of until they step foot in the octagon you know and it's just uh you don't know until you see it and but you know when you see it like oh god this is this guy is yeah but i mean like the but to me the argument we don't have to get sidetracked here too much but like to me the argument is i mean i get that these guys you know who some guy will be like six and oh six and one coming off of the New Mexico fight scene. It's hard to really say, blah, blah, blah. But at the same time, it's like you're selling ads

and you're selling subscriptions against their labor. They should be compensated fairly for that. Absolutely. You know what I mean? And more to the point, this is the bigger one. Y'all are keeping people on the roster who can't win. Like, you're just, this is like scholarship for them. It's fucking crazy.

It's like these fucking guys can't win. All right. It's all the talented. Zero. That's why dad talking to me. All right. Sergei Pavlovich, I mean, speaking of which. Yeah.

Sergei Pavlovich just takes 39 seconds against Talas. What are we doing? Just like, it was like the first big right hand he threw basically. And to share just doesn't even like, doesn't track it or anything. It doesn't move. Boom. Just takes it. I'm like, what?

Because he was kind of, it was almost. like he was in a feel-out session still of like, okay, here we go. We're going to like, we're going to get into the rhythm of the fight. And then he kind of deeks like he's going to do something on a level change or something. Like he kind of puts his hands down and then boom, he just eats that shot. It's just, I don't know what he was thinking there.

You know, like how do you not see that that's coming? The power hand. How do you not know that's coming? You know, you're going up against a dominant puncher. Yeah. You didn't want to wrestle maybe a little or so weird. It's like, what's your gameplay? Yeah, I'm going to slug it out with this guy. Yeah, I don't think that.

That's, I think it's a bad idea. Yeah. It's so funny, dude, because sometimes, man, like, I've seen it where I've, like,

I've talked to fighters before big fights, you know, and they've come to me with something like this. Like, they're facing some kind of like, you know, just devastating puncher. And I'll ask them like,

yeah, what's your game playing going to be? They're like, we think we can hang with them on the feet. And like, 99 times out of 100 when they say that, they get stretchered out, right?

You know what I mean? But I've definitely, Chuck, have you ever done that where you've picked against them because it's like, this is a bad game plan. And then that's like the one time they win, they, they, they will take that as evidence the rest of their life that there's no reason to take risk seriously. You know what I mean? We've seen it a lot, Luke. I mean, there's been so many times where you're like, somebody's

telling you that. And you're like, you're like, dude, I don't know if you're just telling me that to set like a, to set a trap. But if you're really going to go in there and do that, you're going to get beat. I mean, and we just know that. And I would say, like you said, 90% of the time, that's exactly what happens. And I've, this continues on to this day. You think that some guys might just say that like, you know what? We think we can stay hang with them and then they'll just wrestle them, right? Just to kind of set that. We used to see that a lot more, kind of the trickery in that sense. But these days, I think most guys mean it when they, when they believe that they believe in their standup, you know, and they just get beat up like that. Uh, Kai Asakura looked pretty good. I mean, obviously he wasn't

fighting Alessandre Pantoja. And so that left hook, he is speaking of devastating punchers here at 135, because this was at 135. He is a devastating puncher. Obviously, 125 or 135. Cameron, some other man, I think that this is probably going to be close to the end of the road here. But you know what? Nice to get Asakura a dub. And he won in Asakura fashion, right?

Like, this is what he does. So it was nice to see evidence of like the kind of thing he's good at brought to life in the UFC. Yeah, man. I mean, this is the thing I guess people had been waiting to see. But you're right. He got thrown into the fire in a situation. And the thing that struck me, I know he's fighting guys, some of them in like, you're like, he's not a household name. But it was at 1.35, and I know he's fought there before, but it seemed like his power was obviously a factor.

But it was still the speed. If he can have speed and power, like, that could be a division where he could do business, right? Like, that's what, and, you know, just kind of precision in that, you know, that, how fast he just pounced into action with that, with those shots. I think that that really stood out to me. Maybe he was missing some of that in, like, the Elliott fight, you know, or a couple of, like, the first couple of fights. But dude, it was the speed and the power together that made me think, like, okay, we found him now. This is the guy we were waiting on. I mean, I still wonder if this is all really just a function of like what level of matchmaking. Like, do you want the Kai Asakura experience? Then in general, you're going to have to play down a little bit to get it. It could be. I could be. You know, I, did you watch a lot of his fights in Risen? Like, I mean, I saw a few

of them. I didn't, I can't say that I watched all of them. But like, I've definitely seen, I know what you're saying. Like if he's if he's got a guy who's tailor made for him or you know, let's going to accommodate him. He looks very good. He can kind of style on those guys, right? Yeah. I mean, he, you know, he benefited a lot from the ring, which has the narrower angles. Yeah. You know, versus an open cage. I think it's a little hard. But he was obviously putting a ton of pressure on Smotherman in this one. So that's why it worked. So I just think that like there still might be some adaptation that has to happen with respect to some of this stuff. But, you know, matchmaking him appropriately to me is going to yield better results. But I guess

we'll see. Long Island as our resident Australian, the two Aussies on this card ended up looking pretty good Cody Haddon. He gets a win at 2-11 of round number two. And then Jake Matthews, who looked pretty good but couldn't quite put the guy away in Carlston Harris, he gets the three-round

decision. Who did you like more here? Got to be Cody, right? It is Cody. And I was saying Cody's one win coming into this was Dan Argetta. And I feel like people don't put enough respect on Dan Argetta. Like that's a solid win that I don't think people appreciate and now you come in here you finish this guy which is what you're supposed to do like

Cody Haddon is exciting. How do you pronounce this guy's name? How do you pronounce this dude's name? A Ricci Lang? A Ricci Lang, okay. Because they said it but it looks nothing like it's actually spelled. Yeah, nothing. Okay. But so he should win and also I would want to say he begged for the bonus and he got it. You know, that rarely

happened. So good on Cody Haddon. Dude, and he, that was his fight from the beginning all the way to the end. It looked like he was going to get the first round finish. He looked very good in that fight. If I wasn't paying attention to him before, I feel like I will now. He looked very good. Yeah, he looked all right. Jake Matthews to me is just kind of is what he is. He's a good fighter, not a great one. And that's really the end of it. You know what I mean? Like, I think he's 32 at this point, right? Which is insane because it feels like he goes 31, Zufa purchased the. It feels like he goes back.

Yeah. Yeah, he'll be 32 in August. So we're not far from that. Well, you know, you were talking a little bit earlier. And I know he's never had that potential, but like in Songu Donga, like, if he doesn't start to make the steps at some point, he gets relegated to a certain kind of fighter. And I mean, that that's an example, not that Jake Matthews ever, like, been a world beater, but he's been in spots where he could actually go forward and, like, maybe join that space a little bit, and he would drop that one and he just kind of stayed in a spot for the rest of his career, right? Yeah. I mean, he lost a Neil Magny. I mean, yeah. That's the end.

Still standby, he beat Neil Magny before I know. I know, but like, dude, you should not beat and then lose him. You should just beat him and then beat him again. Also, I got apparently dead wrong myself in real time that Cody hadn't apparently did not get the bonus. He begged for it and he did not get it. Oh, I was going to say. I was like, wow, they changed. He got the $25,000 bonus.

That's true. Yeah. Alex Perez. I mean, what do you want to say? He gets hit in the, in the old testes. God. Baby, please. And I just want to say this. Like, I remember a long time ago, there was a dude named Ron Faircloth. And Ron Faircloth, I think in Alessio Sakara's UFC debut. Wow, you're way back. Kicked him in the balls. And it was the first time I'd ever seen someone. I mean, obviously we've all been,

as men, probably been kicked in the balls or hitting the balls at some point by either our friends or, you know, just the fact of life. And it is really agonizing. an awful feeling. I had never seen a human until that moment dry heave and vomit from getting kicked in the balls, but Ron Faircloth did it to Alessio-Sakara. I want to say that since that time, there was like a, there was like years that passed, Chuck, and we never had to deal with this. And now I feel like I'm seeing guys dry heave into a bucket all the fucking time.

What has happened to the testicles of UFC fighters, Chuck? That's really the question I have to ask. No, you're right. There have been some pretty clean shots, and it seems like the guys this is, kind of shake it out and then, you know, they're right back into it, which is pretty crazy. You're right. I don't know what's happening with that. It's actually, this is more the, like this type of response is more of the response to what I feel like has been my life. If you get really a clean shot, you're like, it hurts to the point.

You're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, and you're out of commission. I couldn't return in five minutes, you know, from one of those type of things. So I don't know. I'm going to have to go back and look at that fight, though, because I feel like I remember that. But what, what arrow was? that had to been like pre that had to oh that's like UFC 40 or 50 that's what I was going to say it was like way back okay yeah a long time yeah all right I just I remember because he was on the ground and he yeah I've never seen that and then they went and got a bucket for him I'm like this dude's about to vomit from getting kicked it that is like a horrible fucking way to go man yeah also not for nothing but Alex

Perez has had the weirdest career ever he gets a no contest in this one after beating Charles Johnson after losing two in a row, after winning one, then losing one. And then just should be pointed out, he had a, rufus, these are all the canceled bouts he's had in his UFC run. He had a Sergio Pettus bout canceled, a Kai Kar a France bout canceled, a Brandon Moreno bout canceled, a Matt Schnell bout canceled, Ascar-Azkow, Matt Schnell again, Matt Schnell again, Matt Schnell again, Askar-Assad off again, all of those canceled. And Amir al-Boszi fight canceled, another Kai-Kara-France bout canceled. shit and a manel cop bout canceled and a uhulam beckoff and a steve ursac fight canceled as recently as august of 2015

wait no is this is this because i i i mean i do know that there's been a lot of cancellation but like is it largely his opponent's fault like you know when you look at it like this or is it like it's been both it's been both but there was a stretch of like probably four bookings i guess i have to call them in a row for Perez where like he made it to the scale and then like his opponent had complications. Complications cutting weights. They canceled it. It made it to fight night. He got injured. You know like shit like that like just the worst luck ever where it was like is he ever even going to fight again. And so here he is. He finally gets a win. He's back in there. It's a great one. It's a quality opponent first round and he gets his testicles lit on fire.

That's pretty sad. What a terrible, terrible way to go. Apparently he was in Cody Garbrandt's corner when Cody Garbrant just had this happen to him. So it's kind of ironic. It's like, you know what it is? It's like the final destination of getting kicked in the balls. You know what I mean? How would you like to go all that way to like to Macau, you know, for a fight?

And this is how it. Oh, that's brutal. Just to get your testicles barbecue. Yeah. Thanks. That's awful. If I may, I will say there's three names that I want to shout out because I thought they did really well. Ray Saruja, who had only lost.

previously to Josh Van, which, you know, hey, not the end of the world by any stretch. He looked awesome against Louis Gourouli's. I guess they're saying it. The emphasis is on the final syllable. But in any event, we know he came in on last minute notice, but dude, Surreal just looked awesome. Super in control. Really, really love this from him. Dude, Chuck, how about Angela fucking Hill?

I know. 41 years young. Beating. 41, yeah. Jingyang, shong, the, I'm sure you have, that's how you probably pronounce it the former one champion and dude not for nothing even in the last few seconds chuck yeah spin kicked her punched her was like really beating her up this was an awesome performance by hill it was awesome you really wanted to see because dude her if you go down her resume it's just so many

decisions didn't you want to see her get that finish like you just want to get thorangelo hill i mean she has so few of them but like she's so tough so sturdy she's been doing forever she's almost i mean jim miller has a lot of submissions, but she's kind of in this vein of like these people that you look at, a warrior like that. And you're like, how in the hell is she still going at this point? And still winning. I mean, still putting together wins. It's like this one, obviously, if she loses, there's a there's a skid in place, but yet maybe one of her better performances, honestly. And last one, at least for me, Rodrigo Vera out of Peru, he looked awesome. He, his boxing looked tremendous. And he gets the win in the first round over Kongji Zhu. I think that's how you say.

but I can say that wrong as well. Please forget me. What about Luis Philippa Diaz? And that's name, the guy who almost looks like Paul Horace. Yes, he also looked good as well. He looked very good in there, man. That was a nice performance. The only Chinese fighter who won on a Chinese card

was Song Yudong, so he kind of salvaged it at the end. But I think they were like 05 and 1 heading into the main event. They had trouble with that. Yeah, they've had trouble in the past. Like, it's just tough, I guess, to get like another, you know, Jean-Wiley or something where you really have a world beater coming from over

But it's good to see because there was a point in time where there weren't really any Chinese fighters. So it so feels like it's growing. True. And Jean Wiley was in attendance. Yeah. cheering him all, which was nice to see as well. It was cool that she was there. All right.

Let's go to topic number three if we can. What do you want to say about this, man? I mean, it sure as hell wasn't boring, which is the most important thing. And he got to win. Former UFC Walterweight contender, Darren Till, made his, BKFC debut. He looked as shredded Chuck as I've ever seen him. I don't know if he's got, you know,

some peptides of coursing through his system, like some Chinese dude made in the bathtub. I don't know. I don't know. But he does get knocked down by a guy who was on a reality show, although he's obviously had some real combat sports experience as well in the air in Chalmers. But then in an open side counter,

basically one punch stops him. I think in the second round, he then called for a fight opposite of Mike. Perry. Let's talk about it, Chuck. How would you grade Darren Till's BKFC start? I mean, you know, and it's crazy because I think it is very different. Like, because I know you worry then about breaking your hands. You don't want to break your hands early on in a fight and then you're, you know, you're kind of compromised. And I think that that was going through his head. It's also like, it's just a different, it's such a different setup. Do you watch a lot of the BKFC?

Because I tune in when it's something like this, right? Like I don't watch. religiously or anything like that but it always seems to me with it it takes a second to adjust even your eye to it because you're like oh my god this seems so brutal because you can hear you can hear the sounds of the of the skin getting like it you know getting hit with bone it's just bizarre but given all of that you know like just that he's in a type of thing and he took that early shot that early left hand that dropped him i was i would probably graded like a b or something like that because i think like him being able to rebound in a situation where the the advantage swings a little bit and what was it early, early second, the first punch, right?

That left right down, that short left, flush. I just, you know, I, that's what there. I mean, he's a competitor. I, I, we know he is, but like to kind of go in there and respond and get the knockout, I thought it was pretty good. Okay, can we talk about the knockdown? Sure. Are you surprised by it?

The one that he, when we went down. It seemed like it just caught him. I mean, I was surprised by it. If I'm being honest, like, I didn't thought, I thought he would be able to to kind of do what he did in the second round earlier in the fight. So for him to go through the adversity, you could put that until a little bit. But it did seem like he got, that was just, it was a good shot, you know, but a guy who's been through, like, he's been in the boxing ring, he's, you know,

he's kickbox, and we talk all that stuff, but like the, the MMA record, you wouldn't think you'd get caught with that, right? Like, you'd be able to avoid that a little bit. I, I am at once kind of surprised he got dropped, but at the same time, I wonder if you talk to him, like now that he's had a real bare knuckle fight under his belt, what he might say about some of the differences between speed or

how things look visually or you know, any kind of thing that may explain that. I think that might be part of it. I'm honestly kind of glad because like, there was a video the other day, Chuck, that I saw on social media. I forget if it was

Twitter or someplace else, but in the video, it was one of these talking head guys who is not a fight fan. okay and or he's not much of one I think he covered other sports maybe I think he was like a radio DJ somewhere in the middle of the country so you know probably traditional American sports American football baseball basketball that kind of thing and he was trying to argue after oh because he had watched Johnny Mansell in the brand risk thing right and what he had said was he was like I like this better that he goes he was you know it was a hot take he was like I like this

better than the real fighting and you know how many times if you ordered a fight and just doesn't deliver two guys just don't get after it look at this like i know know who the names are i was there for johnny mansell and it was crazy and it was stupid he wasn't like you know he didn't think it was the highest level or anything but he just wanted to make the point that like i actually like this i actually prefer this than the real thing and i'm not here to put that view on a pedestal i think if that's your appetite then you're you have the pallet of a toddler is basically the way i would describe that. But at the same time, what does that speak to? If that's a real thing that others might also feel and not necessarily be able to verbalize willingly or otherwise,

I guess the point I'm trying to make is Darren Till being vulnerable, but still kind of good, but like I think the market for fighters that we know are not as good as the really, really good ones, I think the market for that packaged correctly has grown enormously in the last 10 years. And so would you agree, it's like, Darren Till can actually, I think you can win at BKFC. I'm not here saying, oh, he'll be up, he'll be down. He might win the whole effing thing. I don't know. But what I'm saying is that he is vulnerable and that he is still also maybe good, all kind

of work together inside of this world where if you can be both of those enough at all, you're going to be just fine. And I don't know. It works for him, I think. It's funny. I talked to him. And I mean, we talked about this very thing. Like, you're basically saying, like, you don't want to tell a guy like, well, you know, you flunked out of the UFC or something like that.

You know, like, but you're saying you had a name in the UFC. You were a guy that people paid attention to. You had a very, at one point, he was such a prospect that when Nicholas Dalby, remember, forced that draw, like, by coming out with a 108 third round, it forced the draw that it felt like a major, major development. than because Darren Till was such a heavy favorite. I think that when you have that kind of thing, you've built a name and then you go into a situation, you know, where you're fighting somewhere else. And now you're kind of still the name, but like you should be better than these guys.

It does really fit. Like I was talking to him about like, you know, would you even consider MMA again, given that you can, you know, make money at misfits boxing or that you can go to, you know, you can do the thing he's just did with bare knuckle. And I think that he was like, you know, there's, there's lots of money right now. Now, would the UFC even pay me the kind of money I'm making now? And I think that that's like the big difference, right? Like he even pointed to Mike Perry who wants to fight, but like he was pointing to him saying, like, look what this guy has been able to do outside of the UFC by doing this very thing, maximizing his space, kind of like the big fish and the small pond type thing, you know,

and I think that that's what Darren Till is able to do here. I think you're right, though, man. Like it does translate maybe with his vulnerability a little bit because other guys may want to fight him too. The reason he's not in this way is because he at least, according to him is that people wouldn't want to fight them. Like you couldn't find a fight there. So, I mean, it's, I think it benefits him to have that kind of showing, to be honest. Yeah, I think so too.

I actually feel like this is going to be, I mean, you know, if Mike Perry came back to the UFC today, would he be better than the guy who left? And the answer is probably, right? I do think his striking has probably improved some. But, you know, how much has he been training the ground? How much has he been training wrestling? I mean, who knows? you know that might suffer a lot so like it may be at the end it's not but like the fact that he has

this new lease on life i don't think is proof that anybody can do it but till seems like an interesting candidate for it right till seems like the kind of guy who can deliver a big punch who you know will give you drama let's put it that way in a drama filled kind of intense sport such as it is in bkFC and again i go back to this thing i just think the market for sub prime guys. I mean, that's not the best way to put it. I don't want to. Yeah. How would you explain it, Chuck? People who you respect is good, but you know are not the best, something like that. Yeah. And they also have a certain amount of like marketability and brand power. Yes. And they got some edge to them. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Totally. That market is going from that to this dude.

100%. You know, you're mentioning this radio guy off the top and you're like, anybody who just peeks in and the fight game may think that way. Well, the times I've kind of watched the UFC a little bit as boring because there's, you know, parody. But the one thing that you start to develop, you mentioned a toddler's palette. I mean, if you're watching MMA over a course of time, you're never going to want to watch Johnny Mansell, right? Like, you're not going to want to watch this stuff

because you, there's something about that that's immediately gone from the truth of like what you're watching, right? Like, the truth is told. And when you mentioned guys like, would Perry be able to come back? Well, there was a truth to him in the Octagon. He doesn't have to live by that truth anymore. He doesn't have to

lose. He can go to another place and he can make his brand kind of the thing that matters the most and like he can fill out there but I'm the king of violence and you know he can live by that he can market that like you the truth gets snuffed out of you in the octagon that's why we watch UFC

like you know that's why the Johnny Mansell thing like yes you can have that simplistic taste if you watch one fight every like five years you know like sure why not but like if you watch that same display two or three times in a year you'd be bored by the third time you watched it yeah

just goes to show that if you if you fail within the UFC's system of meritocracy, whatever its benefits, whatever it's downsides, but it is what it is. And if you don't fully succeed in that, that used to be a little bit more of a death sentence unless you had some kind of really high level skill from a composite sport to fall back on. You could go back to kickboxing per se. But with the growth of misfits or BKFC, this kind of sub-elibed, genre of fight sports, there are ways to

completely reinvent yourself for a select few, and it feels like maybe, just maybe, Till is going to find himself in that slot. And that's just not a thing that was available to guys like him about 10 years ago. Kind of a big change in the fight.

Yeah. The biggest thing, Luke got, and you tell me, like, you remember, it used to seem like, if you were in the UFC and you didn't hang, right? Like, even if you were a good, your known fighter, maybe you were a contender at one point, and you went through your UFC career and you all of a sudden

were resurfacing somewhere else, a different promotion. You were a husband. And it's just because the UFC-centric fan base disregarded you. You were no longer in the UFC that just disregarded you. I just feel like the taste isn't as, I mean, there's still like this UFC-centric idea to things,

but like there's a different allowance now, I think, for guys like this. You know, we just saw with the MVP card where there's guys like, you know, Nadea's resurfacing. And I mean, people are going to watch. You can say what you want. Like he's washed up and all that.

But people are going to watch because it's a different thing. Now he's just a, it's about money and it's about opportunity. And people are allowing that. It's not so much that it's just washed up, especially for guys like Mike Perry and Dary and Daryntill and the types like that. If they're able to go somewhere else, they can have those careers because people will pay attention without denigrating them or like, you know, without diminishing their value or something. Like we used to, we used to just completely disregard people who.

left the UFC. If you fought in the UFC and then all of a sudden you know elsewhere, people didn't even know about it a lot of times. You know, they would just be, that was it. They were has been at that point. That's not the case anymore. It's not. And I'll say this. I think on the one hand, it's great for the lane that Mike Perry and perhaps

we'll see Darren Till's able to occupy. On the other side though, like, should we worry that there is this market? Like on the one hand, to be clear, I think everyone's happy for fighters who can find a lane and succeed, whether it's this one or another one. So no one's upset with it in that sense. But like, what does it?

Like, dude, this interesting part about Jake Paul, dude, Jake Paul's got some of the biggest numbers in the fight game, and he's almost never had a good fight. Like, that's true. I don't think he's ever had a good fight. He's had, he's been knocked out against Joshua and like the knockout was fine. And he knocked out Tyrone. Like that Tommy Fury fight, huh?

That was a good one. It was one of the worst fights you've ever seen. It's horrible. The Ben Asker and the K.O. I mean, who, you know, what is that? that even mean anymore. And yeah, you know, he knocked down Silva and he, I think Nate Robinson. Huh? Nate Robinson. He face-planted like three times. I know, but dude, who the fuck is Nate, I mean, I know Nate Robinson. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Nick's legend. Okay, but in the fight game,

who is he? He is nobody. He is nobody. So, like, he's got decent things on a highlight reel, but like, what was, what was like, what was like a four round stretch? You're like, wow, dude, Jake Paul really, these are great. I really enjoy it. Like, it's never happened. He just doesn't deliver good fights. And like, the fact that that does huge numbers to me, it's like, how can you be that good of a promoter for fights this bad? You know, that's actually quite strange. What does that say about the taste? That's what I was going to ask you.

Did he personally, or like his kind of, did he kind of do this? Did he drop the, you know, the IQ of the fan base down like a couple of notches here? I don't know the answer to that, but I have wondered exactly that. It's like has this kind of thing. You can't recall YouTube boxing anymore because it's grown beyond that. But that thing, did that change? how a certain segment of the casual audience, did it change how they enjoy combat sports as less of a contest of skill,

which was they were, you know, wasn't the biggest thing, but now it's been completely subverted to something else. I don't know. I don't know the answer to that, but it's kind of all my time. If it gives guys like Till,

you know, a landing spot to basically go in and, and keep doing what they're doing and, you know, resurrecting this other way. I'm like, I'd be all for it. But there is a point when the novelty fights,

though, I'm like, you know, there's just a point in time where you're like, I don't need to see Jake Paul fight anymore. I don't really need to see, you know, Mansell or that any of that stuff. I don't need to see that, you know, and I have no idea how long the appetite for that sort of thing will go on. Way back in the day, they tried this with boxing. Remember what was it like the celebrity boxing things where they had like Horshack fighting screech and like all those weird things? Yeah. Yeah, on Fox.

And I mean, for a minute, it's like this oddity. You're like, oh, I got to see what this is about. But it only lasts as long as it takes for that show to play out where you're like, don't need to see that anymore. Refrigerator Perry against a new bowl. Remember that one? You know what's wild is my wife watches one of these like

really popular reality shows in Columbia. And it's like their version of Big Brother. They don't call it that, but it's their version of Big Brother. And the people from the cast last season partnered with like one of the biggest streamers in

that country and had a celebrity boxing event that did monster numbers there, dude. like world cup numbers like you're like how the fuck is that possible but it's true it did you know it's crazy i guess i guess like didn't tanya harding do this too like i feel like if you put if you put these people in there if you throw them in there i guess people will watch you know because they're just not used to what tanya hard it's going to fight you know it's just all this is what i mean i can't quite tell it is this it's not new per se but has the market expanded such that there's now

a different calculation yeah where i'm at yeah uh before we get to topic number four chuck i got I'm going to ask you about, well, the NBA playoffs. Brother, you're a Connecticut guy. Are you a Knicks fan? I don't, I don't dislike them. You know, it's like they're just a team, but like on the East Coast, I see a lot of Knicks. I know a lot of Knicks fans, which are, which actually makes you sort of root against the Knicks and We're way because they're so obnoxious.

But I, you know, given their hardships over the years and what was this, before any of us were born the last time they won it. And I'm like, that's, uh, in that way, you know, I'm a Knicks fan, like sentimentally. Island, I got to tell you, I'm pumped for Nick Spurs, bro. Hell yeah. The NBA playoffs this season, would you guys not agree? Have they been great? The NBA playoffs are always great.

Let's assume with the NHL playoffs, man. We got to give them some love too. They're always great. But dude, I said in the beginning of the playoffs, I wanted to see this rematch because it's 1999. This is the Knicks lost to in the finals. But then people were asking me going into game seven. They're like, who do you want to win?

Spurs Thunder? And I was like, man, I'm going to hate whoever the wins anyway. So like, who cares? Exactly. I didn't realize this. KC worse though. I know, but I'm bummed because I'm going to leave this series hating Wemby,

and I like Wemby. I know. I know what you're saying. I was looking at the lineup from the 99 Knicks who played. Dude, that team had Marcus Camby on it. I know. I think Larry Johnson was on that team.

Grandma was on that team as well. Larry Johnson hit the four point play to send them to either the conference finals or the Oh, that's right. Oakley. Oakley was there, right? I don't know if he was in the starting five. Patrick Ewing was still there. Wow.

But he wasn't, I saw the introduction of starting five. He was not in the starting five. Prewell. God, they had some attitude. I think Ewing got hurt. So this is what I mean. I'm like pumped for New York. I'm pumped to see what happens. I can't wait.

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terms at DKNG.c.c.c.O. slash audio. All right, very good. Let's go now to topic number four. We don't have to spend a ton of time on this, Chuck. But it's worth kind of discussing at least a little bit. So RAF9 was over the weekend and feature just an entire slate of MMA fighters in action, with the main event being Colby Covington,

sort of just getting by, basically, I believe 5 to 4 was the final score, by against Chris Weidman, which brings his RAF record for Colby to 2 and O. And apparently now a match with Armand Sorukian is apparently set for July in RAF as well. Chuck, is it safe to say Colby maybe he made the right call to retire from the UFC? And I guess how big do you think this can be for both Covington and RAF? I think that he probably did. I mean, this feels like, you know what it's like? Like if you had relatives, right, who come from a certain European, whatever,

and they're speaking the mother tongue. Doesn't this feel like a little bit of some of these guys who came into UFC? We didn't know much about the wrestling curse sometimes. Like you knew that they were wrestlers. And all of a sudden they're kind of done in the singlet again. And this is like they're speaking the native language. You know, and you're like, oh, this is fun. Like I felt like that a little bit watching this event.

And I think that like Colby, like his shtick, like he's still trying to do that stick a little bit. And you're like, fine, go ahead, whatever you want to do. But he wasn't going to be. It felt like he'd run his course in the O.C. You know what I mean? Like it just felt like the fan base was over him. When they basically, the day that he was outed and he was like,

I'm out, I'm no longer in the OCs, retiring or whatever it is, you would think there would be some kind of groundswell just as a three time, whatever he was, contender, like you think there'd be like a moment of like, man, that guy, this or this, but it was almost nothing. It was like there was no ceremony to it. So it was just time to go. Don't you think he's 38 years old? And if you can get some kind of recognition,

and from what I understand, the pay is not too bad here at RIF. Can you give me a sense of what that might mean? Well, the things I've seen is like 80 grand for a match. Like, doesn't that seem like a lot of money for these dudes? I mean, especially with the pacing of how quickly they book guys, they basically matchmake the night of the bouts. They're like, all right, next one's made. We're doing this next month, you know?

They do that so quick that I'm like, if I'm one of these guys, especially in my late 30s and maybe you don't want to be cutting a ton of weight or whatever. it is you don't want to be fighting in you this is a great landing spot if you have that scaffolding if you have that love of wrestling and you can still go in there and do this at a high level then you should you know and i i felt like that's what i that's what i saw you know it's like wide bin looked like he kind of did you watch the whole thing because i felt like he kind of down i watched his whole match yeah i watched that whole match i watched a couple of the others because there were some good names on there but like he it seemed like he faded you know

down the stretch and that's understandable in the situation here because colby's always had a good gas tank if nothing else. Wait, who faded? I felt like Weidman did a little bit. Oh, yes. I thought you said Colby faded. Oh, no, no. I was saying that Colby was just going to be able to outlast him. And that's kind of the way it played out. Yeah, I mean, I thought there was like it felt to me like there was a pretty big difference in size.

But Colby was still pretty good. What was this at like 200? Is that what the weight was? I believe that's something like that. Don't quote me on that, but I believe that's correct. Yeah. You know, we were just here talking about Darren Till, Chuck, and like these opportunities. for guys outside of the octagon. But whenever we're talking about that, it always involves almost exclusively striking sports.

Yeah. This would be a question of whether or not that viability in the growth market for, again, I don't know what to call fighters like this, subprime. I mean, I hate saying that because a subprime mortgage is like a distressed asset, basically.

I know what you're saying. That's what I mean, that makes sense. You know, they're no longer in the twilight. I don't mean it in that sense, in the financial instrument sense. But that, but the sort of gray to fighters, but like the question is, does that extend to grappling sports? We're trying to find that out with UFC BJJ or maybe CJA, depending on your perspective or, you know,

can it happen with RAF? Does this idea of like, we don't need to see the best fighters? And we don't even need to see him fighting to be perfectly honest. We can even watch them wrestling. I wonder the gamble that RAF is making is that they can take advantage of that. They can get the star power that comes with guys like this. However, diminished it might be relative to the peak or something. something, but, you know, relative to the average just donk wrestling, it's still, because, dude,

they had some, like, really good names wrestling on this card, but like, Snyder. Yeah, like, guys who are, like, legit. There's still, yeah, always have been wrestlers or not. Kyle Snyder was on this car. St. And Ryan Rutherford was on this car. We're not even talking about them, you know, I know. And they were kind of like the be attractions because you have guys like Marab. And when we're talking about guys in the subprime or what we want to call it, some of these dudes are not exactly in that space either. They just want to be busy. Like a Marab in there getting his nose busted up, that's kind of crazy.

And of course, you've got, you know, Armon, Sarukin, who, like, could be a champion at some point in the UFC. So, like, you're getting, I think that it's a, it's an interesting thing. Who is this that we're watching here? What was that was? That was Mara. Maraub. That was Maraub. Howled Frankie Edgar, bro. Housed him.

I think that was a tech fall, if I'm not mistaken. It was a tech fall. It was like a, that's like a mercy. Like it for people like, right. I think it's if you score 10 onto uninterrupted points. That's right. then or or I forget exactly how it goes but the basic idea is if you if you just run up the score on them in wrestling they'll just stop the match they'll be right you know what you're just getting

your ass well we're going to what happened I mean Frankie was game early in this in early in the ballot but dude he's 40 he's going to be 45 years old and uh it showed it showed as it went on chuck I got out of bed yesterday okay I had a cramp right before that so I had to kind of like pull my heel back up. I couldn't walk all day. Do you understand that? I couldn't. I almost had to ask for crutches to get around as I hobbled as a 46-year-old man.

Why is Frankie Edgar wrestling? What are we doing? The dude just loves to compete, you know? He was one of those guys I knew that would have to be kicking, you know, kicking and screaming out of MMA. I knew that, like, right? Like, you just knew that he was that guy. I'm glad they're like he's able to kind of find these places, but

I don't know, man. He just loves to compete. You've talked to him before. Like he's, that's his mentality. He just likes to be able to compete. Yeah, but you're not competing at this point. I know. Well, he's, he needs to probably now stop. I mean, that was what this, like, watching something like this. It was interesting, because he's not going to get punched in the

head. Yes. But like, obviously, like, he was not going to be, especially against Marab. Like, you're like, man, you're going up against a machine. He's like, literal, like, he's going to just keep doing this the whole time. He couldn't hang with that. Show us the celebration again. I love how his these hand springs off of his

head. This is what they do. Like, elite wrestling rooms for warm-ups. And then he does like the Georgian cultural dance. I like how his celebration, Chuck, is just more exercise. I know. Well, dude, he's fought like, he's had those five-round fights in the UFC, and he's not breathing hard. They go do the post-fight, you know, in the cage,

and he's not even breathing hard. I mean, he is a freak athlete. Maybe the great, maybe he's the best athlete going, you know? I remember the first time I saw Miguel Torres in the fifth round, like mouth completely closed, just inhaling through his nose. And I was like, that is impressive. Marab does that like it's nothing. Like it's nothing.

Who's the guy? Zhang, what's his name? The guy who's in the co-main on the, Mingyang, is that his name? The guy who's in the co-main of the, Oh, Ming-Ging, Zhang, yeah. Ming-gang. He was one minute in that fight on the fence.

Huffin and puffin there. Huffin and puffin. Like, take the comparison there. That guy was done after a minute. Like he was like, let me catch my breath before I try to come to life here. That's, I mean, just imagine the difference here. And Dana's like, it takes me a lot to figure out of your UFC level.

I'm like, Yeah, we didn't really get into his. Also on this card, Gable Steven made short-ass work of Alexander Romanov. He tech-falled him as well. This is, I think, the ending of this. He looked like he's playing with him, too. Yeah, you didn't even look at him. For folks who are watching what to look for, look at how much

Steven is hanging on the neck in the head, just dominating these tie-ups, right? Which, by the way, if you've never had someone do this to you, it pulls on your lower back and your stamina. It becomes very hard. Look at him manipulating his weight, making him change where he's stepping, goes behind like this. Just absolutely, here's going to get him on a tilt. I mean, just completely, completely dominating him. But not that this is some big surprise.

Look at him. He's just like, whatever. I think he dislocated his shoulder or something. Didn't he like kind of pulling down on his arm? It was. Yes, he might have. He's holding like his wrist and he tapped. So I don't know if he got hurt.

And it's like his arm is in a sling or something at that point. Like he's just completely limp. I don't. I don't know what. happened to him. I didn't read up on it, but he got dominated. That showed the power, though, because Stevens are like, just, you could see him break and like, he just pulls him by. The thing

is, he's so fucking agile. He's so agile. It's like a cat out there for a heavyweight. So I don't know what is, like, I mean, he had some suspect striking defense in his last MMA fight. So I'm not ready to be like, oh, he'll be a champion in the future. I mean, obviously, there

is good reason to think that he might, but you know, I'm going to take a wait and see approach. But, Chuck, I mean, the athletic difference between this guy. Just on that term, just the athletic difference. It's a different species than the rest of it. 100%.

The only thing, like, I thought Chal Sondon brought up the key philosophical thing, right? Like, is he a wrestler who's fighting or is he a fighter who's wrestling? You know, and it's like, because we know him as a wrestler,

but he's also a guy entertainment business in general. Like he was, you know, into pro wrestling, like he was going to do a lot of stuff. You're like, how deeply committed?

I know he's got John Jones. He's got good, he's got good guys around him. They're going to tell him, what it means to like embody like to be a very good fighter but that that's what remains to be seen to me like how in is he on the fight part of it you know like is he going to be all the way in is he going to dedicate himself fully because if he does that you can see man like you just said he's such a freak athlete he's so light on his feet for a guy that size he can do backflips

and shit like this is a guy who's just on a different level in terms of heavyweight um fitness but i need to see his dedication to it like is he going to stay in that lane is he going to be dedicated to it to the point where you can be great. That's what remains to be seen here. I don't know the answer to this exactly, but my understanding is he flamed out of pro wrestling. Like he was, I don't know

if the fans rejected him or he did poorly or some combination of the two. Probably. I didn't feel like it was a very successful pursuit, right? And then he flamed out of the NFL, which was a long shot to begin with, but nevertheless, he's kind of here because it's like,

yeah, I know. What else is there? you know. What else do we have on that there, as I mentioned. Oh, and then Armand Sauriuki, and he, dude, Mugsy hit a four point throw on him. Yeah. So I don't know if we have any part of that match Long Island or not. I guess we don't. We just have the poster for the July 18th card.

But Mugsy hit a four point throw. Yeah. And so for a while there you're like, dude, how is this match close? But then Armin just ran the score up on him after that. And I think it was like 16 to 4. it ended or something like that. But kind of funny, just the same. They've got like an interesting thing because,

first of all, I really do think if you watch one of it, I recommend people should watch it. If you like fighting and like you like the kind of drama of what's going on, you should watch these because they explain it. You know, they've got Juliana Pena and they've got, they had Kurt Engel, I think, on this last one, right? Like, and they've got Chal Sun and they kind of, they speak in the language,

but they kind of give you a lay version of what you're watching. And I think it's very important to, to do that at some point. But it's a lot of fun because you get a guy like Armand who wins his fighting against Mugsy and then at the end he's like, I would love to go up against Colby and at the end Colby's like, yeah, let's do it. And not only that, but we're going to fight, whatever

it is, we're going to meet in Milwaukee on July 18th. It's already known. You know what I mean? Like, so this is like, for people who like the immediate, what's going to happen next. I feel like R.R.F. is all about that. They're like, we're already sat in the table for the next one and the next one. And it keeps going. We shall see.

Yeah. Fun times for them all the way around. All right. Our last and final topic, an interesting one, a bit of a strange one. You know, I'll be honest with you, Chuck. I don't know ever on MK. My instinct is to not talk about any kind of political dimensions. Yeah, you're on all the big shows to do that, man.

You're like, all over the place. Well, the question is like, is this the appropriate venue for that? And for the most part, my feeling is for the most part, not. And this next topic actually is really not quite that much. I'm just sort of giving a indication to the viewers. It's something that I'm trying to, like, to the extent we introduce it into MK, I want it to not be as acrimonious as other things. And this will not be.

I want to be very clear about that. But it does affect some parts of it. So I do think it's worth having a little bit of a discussion about, namely the Washington Post reported on Friday, Chuck, that U.S. military personnel, and we knew this, we knew that there was going to be U.S. military personnel

about, I think somewhere between 1,000 and 2. I've seen as little as 1,200. I've seen as much as 18 or even 2. So I'm not sure what it will exactly fall. Let's just say 1,500 plus, something like that probably. To attend the U.S.C. White House event, they have to meet height and weight requirements,

and they have to pay their own way to get there. And so the question is, like, what you make of this report, And by the way, here are the things. Long Island, can you read this because I got this new monitor I'm having a hard time seeing it. Yeah, so it says to be eligible, military personnel must meet current waste height ratio and current physical fitness standard.

Travel costs will be member procured, meaning neither the UFC nor the defense department will cover arrangements or accommodations. The memo also states, tickets must be distributed to genuine UFC fans, not solely to high-ranking DVs, and troops will also be required to wear their short-sleeved dress uniforms. Okay.

DV would be a distinguished visitor, I believe, in this case, because you'd obviously have to get some kind of clearance to get in. So I can go first on this one, Chuck. Yeah, I was going to say, this feels like I'd love to hear your take on this. I mean, listen, the reality is this, okay? The reality is this. We can say whatever we want as a thing about this event. this event has no identity other than as part of a political spoil system.

This is a reward for the UFC for politically helping the president, and the president is now you can see how much gratitude he has for it by virtue of him doing this. And there's lots of ways you can tell that this is true, not least of which is one of these memos, where these kinds of things are required. Now, some folks might say, Chuck, that like, you know, having the troops having a heightened weight requirement,

how is this a bad thing? And by itself, it's not. I want to be clear, like, if you're going to do an event like this, having the troops there makes a lot of sense. I support it, right? And, you know, having them pay their own way sounds kind of bad, and I don't think it necessarily should be that way. But you would have to imagine there's an enormous amount of them

in the D.C. area or on the East Coast. This is not necessarily a gigantic financial burden for them to be able to go. In other words, of all the things to be upset about, that's really not it either. But the thing that I would say, and I don't want to like come down here and have just one like, oh, I've got a completely negative thing to say about it for the purposes of this show. I have other criticisms to make about it. But here's what I would say is just a plea to the organizers.

And I know that they won't listen, Chuck, but it's just a plea. I don't mind that they're trying to have height and weight requirements also per se, right? You're going to put military personnel on camera, some attention being paid to how they present on camera is probably worth a little bit of attention. this doesn't offend me. What I would say, though, is a lot of rhetoric about this event has been that this is about celebrating America's 250. It's about for everyone. It's about celebrating the country.

And if you're inviting the troops to be a part of that, which I don't think anyone's upset with, and you want to present them well on camera, all of these are fine. But it seems to me you can better honor the values that you're saying this show is about by making sure there are some invitations that are handed out to the wounded warriors at Walter Reed. I have been to the old Walter Reed. I have been to the new Walter Reed. I did a story, for example, Chuck, for UFC magazine, I think 12 years ago or something like that, where I met with a guy who was teaching jiu-jitsu to a bunch of either single, double, or triple amputees who had come back from war and want to learn jihitsu. Walter Reed for folks who don't know, they give these guys, it's really, it's really an incredible

place. If you are banged up from war and you're missing a hand, an arm or a leg, and you want to do archery, they'll find a way. If you want to do kayaking, they'll find a way. Whatever is you want to do, they hired this guy to come in and teach jiu-jitsu. And I did a story on him and then the warriors themselves for this. We all know these guys are huge UFC fans. These guys have sacrificed for this country in ways most people cannot even possibly fathom. And many of them, Chuck, are not going to be eligible for something like this because of height and weight requirements. My plea to the UFC, my plea to the organizers is you don't even have to get away from

these regulations. But what you can do is please make an exception for those guys down there, the women and men down there, because I know they would love to be there. and they'll be the biggest, loudest fans in that entire place. That is my plea to them. I mean, everything you just said is, I don't know why you wouldn't do something like this, especially like, do the right thing, do the right thing. It's like, of all the publicity this thing has gotten, so much of it is very polarizing,

obviously, very alienating, but it's also just kind of negative on a lot of levels. And then you get this type of thing, and it was a fairly, I don't know what you saw out there. I felt like it was a negative response. It was like, uh, I feel like, uh, I feel like, like most people are kind of pointing to the the Hegseth thing, right? Like he doesn't want to look at fat generals or fat soldiers, things like that and obviously you get into

like what you're doing, but so much of it then, it just feels so off. Like when the U.S. you used to do the fight for troops cards. You remember those like they would, they'd be at a military base and it was like this fun thing. All the guys were. They'd be in a hangar. Exactly. Exactly.

And they would let the Marines, whoever it was, they would let them wear their camouflage uniforms. And for folks to understand, I'm sorry to interrupt, I'm No, no, this is exactly what I was talking about. For folks who don't know this, and again, the different services are different. But when I was in the Marine Corps, if you had your camouflage on and you had to stop for, let's say, gas in the civilian area, they would let you do that. But you're not supposed to go out to eat.

You're not supposed to present that way. So in other words, they're letting them have relaxed uniforms in a relaxed environment. And, dude, they were hooting and fucking hollering. That's what I'm saying. It's just, that's all I'm at. Like, there was just a feel good. It felt like the U.S. was doing the right things. You know, they would go to these things. They, like, you just said,

it was like these, these were these, like, special events. I felt like the fighters themselves were very honored to go to those places and fight. I just wanted to be in that spirit. You know what I mean? Like, what you just mentioned, you know, would be an awesome way to do it. But just to kind of put out there and for it to go around like, oh, we're going to be monitoring this and this. It just feels so cold compared to that. And I wish they could fix that. I wish that it didn't have to have such a negative feel. it. You know what I mean? It feels weird. The thing is if they're just going to be pretty troops who are all musly and they fit nicely in their uniforms, like that's cool, but they're

props, right? Right. But a guy who's missing three limbs and half his face is covered in chemical burns, he's not a prop. I mean, at least where he shouldn't be or he's not going to, he's not going to be a prop as like a model, right? That's not what they're going to be there for. And I just feel like if we're honoring the people who have helped the country get to 250 years and who are right down the road from the White House. It's not far to get to Walter Reed. It's just on the northwest side of town. I don't know, Chuck.

I hope they take your, I hope they take your advice. That would be the way to go. I mean, that would be a very, that would feel very like if you're trying to celebrate America and things, like wouldn't that not feel like you're doing it in the proper way, then? It's an easy PR win, I feel like. You know what I mean? By the way, I went down there, man.

I drove past there on Connecticut Avenue. Oh, did you? I was blown away. So, like, there's a, so Pennsylvania Avenue is obviously the, what is the address of the White House? 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, right? So it's essentially what would be 16th Street. 16th Street exists on the other side of the White House. It doesn't exist on the, on the back end, which you're looking at, it goes right into the yard, essentially.

But 16 bisects, the White House. Dude, so on Pennsylvania Avenue, I was all the way back at 5th, okay, which these are long avenue. So 5th is a long way. I could see the top of the thing coming over to the top of the tree. line. I was like, holy shit. All the way up to 15th, you can see it. I went all the way on to the other side of the White House on my bike to then 17th.

You can see it clear as day over there. This thing is huge. Wow, man. It's a monster. And then if you go by on Constitution, which is on the other side of the ellipse, by the way, I meant to say this, too, I'll get to in a minute. First of all, from that side, you can just see it's enormous. But, dude, you know what I noticed?

So on the ellipse, they're building, like, you know, little pavilions for all the different activations are going to have. meet and greets and you know uh i'm sure they're going to have like a place to go by at ufc gear or whatever ufc merch merch will have like a merch area can they do that can they do it so there was definitely some of these chuck what they were doing is they were building like a place you could walk in so like some kind of like you know area of gathering and then they had a place on top that was completely sealed and air conditioned and so i was like who's getting the air condition because it's not on every single one of them it's only on a few of them yeah

So someone's getting the AC treatment. I don't know who that is, but it's going to be somebody. This whole thing is just so different than anything else that we've covered. It's so bizarre. I just don't know what they're back. I can't even think what would be close because you mentioned like the fight for the troops things, but those were fight nights. You know? Yeah.

They were just smaller. They were cool, but they were smaller, you know, so. Yeah. Yeah, I just, I don't know. I mean, I'm like, I got credentialed. So I guess I'll go check it out. I'm going to, I'm going to go. I mean, I generally don't go to so many fights.

anymore, but it felt like, you know, it felt like they were like, you should go. You should go cover this one. And I'm like, you know, have reservations about it. Are you going to get put inside the White House? I'm not real sure. They said in the, they approved the credential, but they said within that, this doesn't assure you a spot on the White House. I just as a credential. So you'll either be at the hotel type thing or whatever they have set up as an auxiliary or you'll be on the Westlaw. We'll find out. Dude, when you get to town, we got to meet up. Oh yeah, we should. Yeah, I'll be there. I'll be there a day in advance to at least.

So that'd be fun. And it's on Sundays. It's in two weeks time, we'll be breaking it down. Can you believe that? That's wild. It's going to be crazy. That's wild. Long Island, what were you saying?

Oh, we could do a live? I was saying both of you in D.C. We should do a live show that Friday, but I'm remembering we don't have a show that Friday because we're doing pregame. We got a pregame. Oh, that's right. That's right. Yeah, we are doing the pregame. All right. So anyway, there's my plea. Hopefully someone listens. I know that they won't.

Okay, that is it for our top five, Chuck. With that in mind, let's pivot now if we can to where the fans get to ask us questions. It's time for DMs from dogs. All right, from at the degenerate MMA underscore fan, did you guys hear that Rodrigo Vera tried out for the ultimate fighter and neither Michael Bisping nor D.C. picked him. Laura Sanko was teasing Bisping about it on the broadcast, and he was quick to remind everyone that D.C. passed on him too.

does this just prove Chuck that even two world champions can get it wrong when it comes to spotting future talent? What do you think? Yeah, I guess so. I didn't know about this. I didn't know anything about this. That's pretty wild. But sometimes people can use that as

motivation, right? Like you hear about sometimes really big players in the NFL and stuff, or they remember the slight more than they'll ever remember people spotting their talents, you know? So it's like, maybe it's a good thing. I mean, I'll say a couple things. One, to your point, he could have just gotten better since then.

How long ago were we talking? Yeah, that's Long Island, do you know? I assume this season. Oh, well, then, I mean, I don't know what it is then because you look pretty good. Because they're the current coaches, Bissing and D.C. Oh, well, then, yeah, they fucked up big. I'll say this, dude, like, first of all, talent identification is actually very difficult. Yeah, and there are people who are really, dude, to me, it's like talent identification.

I would honestly put on the level of like people who are professional gamblers. Like you know how there's people out there who's like, oh, I've got picks for you. But you know, they're just they win as much as they lose or maybe they lose slightly more. Right. And then there are people who like you can clearly tell like they're not going to be 100%, but they're going to win over time. Right. They're really, really gifted at it.

That's kind of what it's like for talent identification. That's true in every sport. Do you think about the resources that every NFL team does into background research, meeting with these candidates, you know, talking to their families, talking to their coaches, watching them practice, looking at years of tape on them, you know, basically just trying to find, like, do like, they're vetting a presidential candidate. And then the majority still bust, right? The majority still bust. It's like, this is a very difficult thing to do, even with extensive resources. So in fairness to them,

like, that's a hard thing to do. At the same time, dude, like, how many times have I interviewed a fighter afterwards and I've asked them questions about stuff and like what they're doing or what they're seeing and they give me an answer where I'm like how are you a professional at this? You know what I mean? It's like you can't believe how like sometimes they're like the most clued in and sometimes they're the most checked out. It really can vary quite widely.

Yeah. Yeah. All right from the dodo bird. He writes nearly all the Chinese fighters lost. China has an amazing weightlifting program. That's true Chuck. Their weightlifting program is. Is that right? Okay. They are. Dude, they are terrifying. Okay, if they put in the same level of effort into MMA, do you think China could become a powerhouse in MMA such as Brazil, Russia, the U.S.?

You know what's crazy is do China as like, for example, their heavyweight female weightlifter is the best in the world by a zillion miles. Like she's incredible. Understand what they do for the weightlifting program in China, okay? First of all, they haven't, the state helps them from the earliest age through elementary school. or we're talking early stage elementary school like you know six seven right six seven my daughter does that shit

trust me man I see a lot of yeah I know it's the worst it's the worst but the one I'm supposed to say is around that age the state goes around school by school identifying the top athletes that the school itself makes a list of for them the the Chinese authorities to come look then they make them all try out for it based on a series of things that they're looking for

and they only pick the very cream of the the Chinese crop to then get invited to live and basically just do this full time for years on end up until the point where they're able to compete with both the junior and the senior level like do they do they do I mean they find needles and haystacks that's what they do yeah if you did that and again it's all and they just pour in so much money into resources and training and programs and staffing the whole nine yards if they did that for m m there is I mean almost any country would have any elite

every team, you know? Especially China, man. When you look back at when we, do you remember rough, RUFF, there was like an organization. They were the first to kind of

break into mainland China. And it was a big deal because it was like, oh, you're tapping into a billion people, you know, and that's like a huge portion of our population on the globe. You know,

it's like all right there in China, has martial arts kind of, you know, historically, you know, has been in martial arts, things like that. So you're, you're looking at this untapped kind of place.

And we've been in this spot for a long time where you're like, okay, if you really tap into it. Like we've seen countries like Australia or continents, you know, like Australia bust on the scene where they've got a bunch of, you know, very noteworthy champion type of eyes. It's just kind of crazy that we're in this day and age and we're still not seeing that. Because it's, M. M.M.A has been in China now. It's been in Macau. It's been various other surrounding areas too. but like you would think at some point that the emphasis would be there, you know,

that they would have the emphasis and they would understand. You know what I mean? Like that they would just want to be involved in the sport on a global level. But it just hasn't happened. Like this type of thing we were mentioning up the topic, getting a few Chinese fighters feels like novel enough. Like, okay, there's enough to put like five,

six Chinese fighters on a card now. But man, I would have thought back in the day when we were talking, I did a ESP in the magazine piece on Rough back in the day. And I thought by this point, we'd be talking at least a couple of Chinese. type champions and, you know, like, we'd be regulars over there at this point, you know?

It just hasn't been the case. Well, I don't think it's because they lack athletic talent. No, no, no. I think it's just an emphasis. It's just not emphasized. I've never been there. It's weird to your point. You're like, martial arts is like a part of, you know, the culture quite deeply, actually.

Yeah, I thought ahead of like Australia and some of these other places that I thought China would be one of the first to really start to break through. But it's been slower than I, would have imagined. Yeah, for me, for me as well. But if you guys want to know, like, anyone, who's a good Chinese weightlifter? He doesn't compete anymore, but he did recently. Lu Xiaujo. So his first name is L-U, his last name is X-I-A-O, I think J-U-N, L-Shausun. Okay. This fucking dude, Chuck, his back looked like a turtle shell from muscle.

Just, you just, I'm not to look him up, though. And he would do what was called a split jerk, which is, I'm sorry, I know, a squat jerk. I'm sorry, he would do a squat jerk, which is rather than splitting to get under the weight, he would just sit into a squat. And then with an overhead press, just stand up out of it with this, like fucking dumb, strong.

Crazy crazy. I used to watch a lot of that stuff. I remember back of the day, you used to love watching that. I mean, I do watch it because, I mean, especially if the Chinese are like,

for example, like the Asian championships, because the Koreans are good lifters too. The Japanese are pretty good as well. You know, there's actually, I mean, there's good lifters all over parts of Asia,

but the Chinese dominate, obviously. And the Asian champions, Championships when they're out there is like it's I mean the Chinese out there and just are hacking with the shit These fucking people. It's crazy. I love it. All right from I can never pronounce this guy the guy's last name, but I think he's one of my Armenian brethren. Mike hereinashine I can't pronounce this one at all 1995. Do you think Dana is secretly seething that the new video game is coming out on Junete? Oh my God. Folks who don't get that, June teeth is a black holiday.

You know what I mean? It's a federal holiday, but it's a black holiday. I'm going to say no. I'll say probably not. You know, he's very much not political. When I think about Dana White, I'm like, who's the least political guy? That's true. It's got to be Dana White.

I'll say this. Long Island, maybe you can help us here. You're the younger one of the two. Do you play the video game? No, I don't even own a video game system. Look at this guy. It's surprising to me. That is surprising.

Well, I take that back. My girlfriend has a switch that we play sometimes, but I don't, I don't have like an Xbox or a PlayStation. Otherwise, I probably would own it if I did, to be fair. Yeah, I don't. Yeah, I don't, I haven't seen the new game. It looks like the likenesses are way more dialed in. I mean, it's a, I saw like comparisons and I was like, wow, they've got it like, these look like real people now.

It's crazy. Pride is like love. You feel it in your heart. IR. Radio Canada's number one streaming app for radio and podcasts, including IHart Pride, Canada, your favorite hits and must have party bangers plus personalized and curated playlists like back in the day pride come together celebrate love take pride with you anytime anywhere just ask your smart speaker to play iHeart pride Canada stream us on your phone or listen now at ihartradio.ca what have you made

of dana white's media tour that he did last week I mean you've been you've been kind of on your own media tour and you've been talking about it. I don't know. I mean, I guess I'm not surprised. I guess there was a couple of things that are just so blatantly like if there's any fact checking left in America that you're like, dude, we know that that's

not the case. Some of it was the way, the thing that always bothers me is like the beginnings of the sport, at least when Zufa purchased is always so like, why is it so confusing for everybody? Like what was going on? You know, it's like UFC, what was it? UFC 29, right? But UFC 28, this is

pre-ZUFA was in New Jersey. Yes. And like this is one of these. Yeah. SEG opened it up. And I mean, like it's, it's, you can look this up. It's not that hard. But Dana's out there saying like, we couldn't get into New Jersey and Trump helped us. And he like has this narrative that I'm like, man, this is ridiculous.

This is, you had nothing to do. The one thing I object to, like, I mean, there's a lot of things he said that I really object to. But the one thing I really object to that they've been trying since 2016 is like, oh, Trump is the one that saved the UFC. And I'm like, guys, I don't know how to tell you this. not only is that not true no one was saying that ever until Dana White just started saying it in 2016

when he did the RNC 100%. Like that was never mentioned that. He never mentioned that. Yeah, crazy. All right. From life and combat sports, what are the odds that on the 10 year anniversary of Muhammad Ali's passing TKO will make some kind of post praising him falsely claiming they're honoring him

by pushing for the revival act? Well, I got his wife on board. So how hard would that be? to do, you know? Yeah, that's true. I feel like, I mean, yeah, I don't, minus 10,000. What is the, what is the 10 year anniversary of him passing? What's the specific one? I don't know.

Hamid Ali, let's see. I remember I was, there was a UFC happening when it happened. I was on a plane heading out to it. He died June 3rd. Okay. June 3rd. 74. Wow. Yeah, that's crazy, huh? That is crazy. I don't know. I don't know what

they'll do or they won't do. I'm sure that they probably will. Of course they're going to do it. What do you mean? I said minus 10,000. They're 100% doing it. Yeah. You know damn well they're doing. It's probably Yeah. I mean, they're not running from it. They're putting his name on

the on the act. You know what I mean? You know another one that not to like labor this, but like Dana when he was on the rounds. Somebody had asked him, who's the Muhammad Ali of the UFC. Did you hear this one? And it was like, Connor McGregor is. He's like, Connor McGregor is. And I'm like, I understand it from one standpoint, but man, try to compare their, their actual careers. I mean,

if that's our Muhammad Ali, if that's UFC's Muhammad Ali, I'm like, it's just that's, I don't know. Like what, I didn't know. Muhammad Ali was a civil rights icon. That's what I'm saying. He was banished from dragged through court and held liable for sexual assault. Like, what are we talking about? Yeah. I was like, they're pretty far apart. Uh, last, I think, It's just the trash talking thing, right? That's just all that it has to be. Yeah, that's what he's.

I guess what we're focusing on. From five, Telviki Papa says, who do you guys? Oh, here we go. We should talk about just a little bit. Who do you guys have in the NBA finals? Who's going to win, Chuck, the Knicks or the Spurs? I tell you what, it's, at first I thought the West, whoever came out of the West was winning it slam dunk, right?

Like, it was just, I thought that that was going to be the, I thought that was going to be the case. But, man, the Knicks are like doing stuff now that I'm, I'm like, I didn't. I mean, they're killing everybody. If anything, I'm worried about their layoff a little bit. Like, maybe that sometimes will factor in, like being on, like, too much time passes. I'm leaning towards the Knicks now.

I just, you know, Spurs, first of all, like, the Spurs are coming in. They're, like, relatively green to the process. I know so are the Knicks. But, like, you've got guys like Wimby who are just coming into their own. Year three. Year three. And I mean, like, like, they keep saying ahead of schedule. I'm like, I knew they would be a problem this year for sure.

But I didn't think they'd go this far. And the Knicks, though, man, they're just hitting on all. They're beating teams in those games in the elimination games by like 30 points every single time. It's just crazy, man. That dude, Ananobe is also like real good at guarding Wembe, apparently. Apparently, statistically, he's actually quite a tough matchup for him. That's a great point too. I mean, they probably present a very tough matchup for the Spurs.

It's not going to be a walkover. I thought originally I was like, whoever comes out of the West will run through it. But the way the Knicks have played, just the, I mean, they've been turning it on. They look like the best NBA team we've seen in a decade. you know, they're just, they're that good right now. I'll say this about Wembe. I didn't watch really, I haven't really watched them at all and like sitting down watching full games, honestly, until this year.

I mean, I've seen a million highlights in whatever, but, oh, that's not true because I watched them in the Olympics as well. But in terms of the NBA that was this year, he's fucking good. He's really, he's quite good. What was the game? It was like one of the games, they were in OKC, and he just coolly steps up and hits like a 35-foot game,

like shot to tie it at one. 108. I didn't send it to overtime and I was like, when you saw that, you're like, dude, he's, he's, he's big time. Like, he's not just a, you know, a freak athlete or whatever, like a freak size. The guy has that clutch gene, too. And that's a problem. Like, I wasn't sure 100% he had that until I saw that. I was like, okay. Clutch gene. He'll block on one end of the floor and then sink of a three pointer from the half court logo on the other. It's fucking insane. It's going to be a fun series. I'm going to say Nixon six. What about you, Long Island? Nixon six. Nixon six? Nixon six It's going to go seven Nixon seven All right Fair enough That'd be I think of a little faith

Oh ye of little faith All right you can always We put up an IG post on Sunday You guys fill it up The producers pick the questions And there you have it there Those are DMs from docs That takes us now to when we look at your artwork

Like proud dads Putting it on the refrigerator It's it's fan subs Let's do it You've got mail Viewers We have mail viewers is that Campbell the same viewers no that is that's gaff that's gaff oh it is that's all right all right

all right from ryan we have a meme i can't read this for shit oh someone's got to read this oh wait wait yeah read it read it i can't see it either it's hard for me to fucking read it one is aerial one is john nash one is okumoto and one is chuck let's see what these say though what are they yeah okay let me see here if i can read all right on the one okay if the first one's Ariel Hawani, MMA journalist of the year. The second one is John Nash investigative journalist.

Chuck says, often wears hat. And then Brett Okamoto is fighter interviewer. So Chuck, they're really not being very friendly to you there. Sorry about that. Come on now. All right. Let's see. Let's see.

Let me get this back where it was before. I have to change screens on this ship. You all are making my life hard. All right, let's go to Wes. West has three. Rememes. On number one, introducing the anti-L-TLC task force featuring more man on a mission. Solar salesman, front yard gym spotter, the lawnmower man, and baby Gunzel and her friend. They're loud. They'll set off your alarms. They really don't seem to care about your sound quality. Can a mid-40s white guy with a podcast catch a break? I thought this was America. Not a chance,

commie. Not when the anti-L-L-TLC Task Force 5 is around. So this is kind of funny. I mean, people thought I was being serious. I'm obviously not being serious that my neighbor can't mow his yard at three. The only thing I think is very funny about it is just seems very coincidental, whether I'm on at 11 or at 3 or at 5 or at 9. He always just seems to be mowing his lawn when I'm on the air, but I'm good friends with him.

He's a cool dude. Yeah. I used to have this problem with a guy where I used to live before, like who had a leaf blower and he would always have it going. It felt like every time I was. It's never, it's like, it's like, it's just, it's just always on. Like, whenever you're having to do shit, it's just on. So obviously he can go most fucking yard at three people.

I'm not a communist for crying out loud. But it's just annoying that every time I'm like, all right, here we go. Hit record. Like, fuck. All right. You need a tranquil dart to throw at them. I'm told there's three memes. So that was one.

What's the second one? Oh, man. Oh, no. Yeah. Oh, God. Okay, you can get that off the screen now. That is, please quit looking at my Swinney, Sweeney,

Sidney, Sweeney, Titties. Please, please, please quit doing that, all right? I'm very conflict. Respect my body. Respect my body. My eyes are up here. My eyes are up here, right? All right, last but not least.

All right. Pop quiz here, 90s, 2000s Latinas, bovine music i don't know what that mean you got to read the caption it says long island luke found out how you can get luke back on pro quo quiz oh here we go 90s 2000s latinas yes bovine music what's bovah cattle decapitation i guess uh espionial surnames spell wrong mathletics and then also more latinas bonus dmv public commodes i would slay that category all the all the point totals 69 and 420. All right.

Those are pretty good. Those are pretty good. I like those. All right. Chuck from John McLean, we apparently have a video. All right. While we're on the subject of Derek Lewis's balls, we didn't make one song your dong jokes. They're like, your dog's looking huge, man. That's all I got to say. Way to go, us.

I'm almost 50. All right. You can't tell me you don't want Derek Lewis on the White House. that's pretty good man listen i am nothing if not an obvious and brazen hypocrite chuck you know we were talking about you dong off the top of show and i was thinking of i always have this a little bit where like what would brian campbell do like and i was like i got to make some kind of joke i never was able to make the joke but i felt like he would have not let that whole segment go without

making some kind of joke right he'd probably is touching his dong while he's watching this oh yeah all right we got jessey here with three photos he says long time donk first time Joseph A. Bank shitter. It was a first time for all of us, my friend. This month, I had to let everyone know what a retro, excuse me, what a degenerate. I'm sorry, what a degenerate I am with my MKTs. Ah, look at that. The first two are my wife, her friend and I at Rockville. Is that Rockville, Maryland? And the last one is me getting blackout drunk at Epic Universe like Luke after a few more. Oh, he's got the whip its shirts. That's cool. It looks like a cool bar. Yeah, it does look like a cool bar. What's the thing?

the coolest bar you've ever been to, Chuck. God, man. There's, I've been to some really cool. Cycle through these a couple more time, Long Island. Cycle through those. Go ahead, Chuck. There was a place in Colorado called the Bucksnort that was like this

very rust, it was crazy, like, you know, mountain bar. Like, it felt like it was first open like 1875 type thing. That was, that one always sticks out. I think it's still there too. Wait, go to the first picture, Long Island. are they at the Maryland Death Fest?

I don't know where they are. Where are they? Rockville, apparently. I don't know. Well, I guess he went to Maryland Death Fest. I'm not sure. I mean, I'm not sure if that's what that is. Is death fest a concert?

Is that what we're talking about? Yeah, it's a concert. And they're all just like, to answer the question about best bar or, you know, most like interesting. I bet you've been to McSorley's. Yeah, I've been to Missorley's. Yep, yep.

So McSorreleys for folks who don't know is the oldest bar in the country and they only serve two kinds of beer. You can take it off now. They only serve two kinds of beer, light and dark. That is it. They don't serve anything else. They give you two little beers rather than one beer. Yes, that's right. They serve like onions and some of the cheese and onion clatter. Yeah.

Which is good. It's mustard, you know. Yeah, yeah. They only started letting women in there in the 70s and that was only because they had to. Yeah. They were forced to. And there's sawdust all over the floor. I want to shout out. This is awesome, man.

There's a speakeasy in Portland, Maine called Lincoln's, and it's like truly hard to find. You're like in this alleyway. You have to like touch a mirror and this side door. It's all, it's crazy. But anyways, everything in the bar, $5. No matter what you. Let me get a double jacking coke. Five bucks.

Let me get a water. Five bucks. Let me get a beer. I just be honest, I would rather just have a fucking place I can find. Is that a lot to ask? It was really hard to find. But once you got in, it was cool, dude. and they had a two-way mirror

so you could see people trying to get in and not being able to figure it out. You're in the bar laughing. It's like, I want to go to the bar, not the escape room. Can I just go to the fucking bar? Is that okay? Once you're in,

you're in, you know? There's a million of these kinds of places in D.C., do these like speakeasies? Yeah. Did you ever go to Chumley's, the old, like, in the village in Manhattan? It was like, it was at 86.

I forget the exact address. 86, there's a term. 86, the customers, or 86, whatever it's meaning get rid of or whatever. And that's where it comes from is an old speakeasy. It only shut down like 10 years ago. But it was a cool place. I mean, it was

they kept it like in the speakeasy vibe, but it was like a very cool place. They had like these mastiffs that would just lounge around on the floor and there these dogs. Yeah. They had books all over the shelves and then they had pictures of like, you know, these poets and stuff that you know, drank there 80 years ago or whatever. It was just, it was a cool place.

I think I've been there, but I don't, not not yet recently. I'll also say I went to the original Delirium Tremens Cafe in Brussels. Oh, wow. Yeah, if you've ever had Delirium Trevins beer, it comes from run original place. And it's in, that's cool, man.

Dude, I got drunk as shit up in there, too. I'd love to get out there. I was watching that, the, the PFL that happened out there. It's just like, that's one of the places I'd like to hit at some point, you know? Yeah, yeah.

And honestly, um, um, there's been a couple of bars I've been to in, in Columbia. have also been like, you know, built into the side of a, yeah, a rock or, you know, uh, some kind of weird location, um, that are kind of cool as well.

I forget some of the names of them, but they've been cool. All right, we got. All right. Jesus Christ. Mike has five memes for us. All right. Let's see what we got. Here we go.

Uh, LT tried to work. Tuki knocking on the door. I'm working me or more. She's not paying any fucking attention. Hey, all of your gains. We should do it. Dude, my daughter came home last week and is crying about something. I can't do anything about it.

Then I hear her stop crying. And then I hear her and her friends, screaming like the house is on fire, like outside my fucking door. And I'm like, of all the places to scream, you're doing it in like the one bad place in the universe. Please don't do that. Oh, my Lord. Next one.

That's funny. He's going live. start the Oh yeah dude first of all this meme that everyone does

this Ed Harris Truman Show meme is the best it's like okay he just left the house he's walking into the into the post office put five people

in front of him at line you know that is funny man that is so funny that is so funny people got really animated about the yard mowing thing do you guys really think

I think 3 p.m. is a bad time to m. Am I allowed to just complain? Am I allowed to just complain? You should be allowed to complain. I just complain. You know? I'm not looking. I'm like my wife.

I'm not looking for solutions. I just want to complain, you know? All right. Next. Donks under 40 minding their own business. I don't quite get this one. Is it because I'm telling you your 40s are a nightmare? Yeah.

This is everyone in the comments of the last episode was like, oh, thanks a lot, Luke. Way to bring the mood down for seeing you. Oh, yeah. Yeah, guys, just I'm not going to walk this one back at all. I'm not going to walk it back at all. Everything is going to come undone in your 40s, just so you... All right. Let's see.

What else do we have? Regional level slop, decent talent. With the U.S.C. thing. There's a fair bit of truth to that. It's a fair bit of truth. All right, what else? I think I have one more. Chuck on Friday, look at me.

I'm the crack. This weekend I'll be doing the crack. Hell yeah. I think that's it, right? Yes, okay, good. That's good. We have to announce. We don't have it ready for

today, right, Long Island, but we got to get a winner for last month announced here pretty soon. Do we not? Yeah. I think I know who the winner is. I'll text you about it. But, yeah, well, that's on Friday. And of course, if you want to get these fan subs in, the best one each month gets a free signed poster that continues on for this month as well, morning combat at gmail.com.

All right, Chuck, before we get out of here, what do you got going on this week? How can folks get more of your coverage? I will be on the crack come Friday. That is true. I'll be doing that. I've got a couple pieces coming out. I can't actually mention it yet because it's going to be revealed of some stuff within the piece. But I got a feature coming out tomorrow and I'll have another one on Friday, I think.

Okay, big ones then, huh? Yeah, on on Crown. Not like, not big, but just the things that are being announced, but they're like just hold off to that type of thing. That type of thing, you know, not like big, huge pieces, but there'll be fun features. All right, looking forward to that. Long Island, what do you got going on? I got a new prop quiz dropping Friday. I'll have the usual bet breakdowns, all that stuff.

But no watch along for me this weekend. Because I got my buddy's bachelor party, so I'm not going to be around. Oh, man. Go check out. Biotic. Gaffel do a full card watch along on his channel. One more round fight. So go check that out. Yeah, I won't be there.

All right. Very good. And of course, stay tuned for all the coverage that will happen this week. Who is fighting this weekend? Am I like, I feel like a law. Muhammad and then one of the bond. We do these Monday shows. And it's like, I can't even look.

I can't even look that far into the future. Like, you know, you're just catching up on what you. watched you know yeah two weeks until we have uh we'll be talking about white house so that's right that monday show is now be bonkers all right uh oh yes and of course we have the june exclusives we have the three new designs here we have the genesis design this is i think my personal favorite of the month here for sure then we have the biker t-shirt june exclusive at last but certainly not least the morning combat with a crown t-shirt june exclusive and don't forget we have the basketball specials. We have the East Basketball and the West basketball. Get them while you can.

Morning Combat.combat. Dot shop. All right? Okay. Thank you all so much for watching. We greatly appreciate it for Long Island for Chuck Mindenhall. Thank you so much. We'll talk to you guys on Friday. And until then, all of your gains, be loyal. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.