MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Norfolk, Wilder vs. Fury III, Adesanya vs. Romero | MORNING KOMBAT | Ep. 32

Episode Date: March 2, 2020

Chuck Mindenhall is back and he joins Brian to breakdown UFC Norfolk. They also preview Israel Adesanya vs. Yoel Romero and look ahead at Wilder vs. Fury 3 now that Deontay Wilder has activated the rematch clause. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, near, far, wherever you are, it's Morning Combat. It's back in your face. Monday, March 2nd, 2-0, 2-0. Brian Campbell, CBS Sports, in the pilot's chair this week, okay? Turned that into a little cabbage patch. No, that is not Luke Thomas. Luke Thomas is fine. He's not in a jail cell. He's not serving jury duty. He's a very solid human being, okay? Turn that into a little cabbage patch. No, that is not Luke Thomas. Luke Thomas is fine. He's not in a jail cell. He's not serving jury duty. He's a very

solid human being, okay? I do not hate Luke Thomas. I love that man. This is TheAthletic.com's Chuck Mendenhall, the man in the damn hat. People have called you, by the way, the lovers, the viewers of the show, like that cool, hip substitute teacher. It's quite a little

juxtaposition from your Anakin Skywalker comment. I mean, come on, come on. He does not look like Anakin Episode VI when they took the helmet off, although I've seen him under the hood, all right? Who's calling me right now? This is very Luke Thomas-like. We're back, and it's been a busy weekend of combat sports. We've got a lot to look back on from the flyweight tilt at UFC Norwalk, Norfolk, Norwilite.

I think you had it there. I think I had it the first time. UFC 248 preview as well. Cannot wait for all things Adesanya Romero. A lot of talk as well about Wilder Fury 3. We do want to remind the viewers and listeners, Chuck, to subscribe. Please get out on YouTube, wherever you access this fine piece of combat business. And leave a review, like it, subscribe. This thing's going. This thing's going.

This thing's going, okay? Come with it. Come with us right there. Chuck, I'm sorry for the awkwardness here. By the way, welcome to our new set. Thank you. Sorry for the awkwardness that you got a pair of tips over your shoulder. No, that's fine.

I'm not normally looking in that direction. But what people don't know is that the frame had to be re-taped today. It was breaking. It was falling apart. Yeah, some broken tips. I documented it, actually. I got a picture. Boulevard of broken creams

going on there. I don't know what's happening there, but what do you think of our new set? Welcome to Orchids of Combat. Yeah, no, this is great, man. It's much better. It's like a professional outfit now. You should see what the ending's like after the show. Very happy. All right, we are going to get into this show. Oh, follow his work,

by the way. You do a great podcast called The Man and the Myth with Sean Elshadi. We wanted to promote that out there. Very solid UFC original, UFC 1. I'm rocking a little home sweet home here. You want to reproduce the level up video? I'll be karate

hottie, you be holly. What do you think? Hey, how awkward is the start of this show? This is really the worst here. Let's just start from the top. Alright, what is in this cup? Let's break into it. the worst here. Let's just start from the top. All right. What is in this cup? Let's break into it. Let's go. Combat starts now, folks. And it was this weekend in the UFC Norfolk, Virginia.

A UFC flyweight championship bout, kind of, sort of. Here's what happened. Deveson Figueredo knocks out Joseph Benavidez in round two. But he missed weight by two and a half pounds the day before. Was not eligible to pick up that championship title. So Chuck Mendenhall. All right. The title was supposed to go vacant the second they entered the cage,

but we don't have a winner. We don't have a champion. I think that means Henry Cejudo is still your UFC 125 champion. He believes he is. What the hell happens next from this? They shut it down, man. You know? I really believe

that this might be the moment that they look at it and they shut it down. I mean, they've already lost, they've gotten rid of, I should say, a couple of the best

flyweights in the world, Demetrius Johnson, Horiguchi's gone. There's a lot of these guys where they've basically ended their relationship with. This was designed for Joseph Benavidez.

I really believe that. The whole division was designed. All the way back in 2012 when it was brought out was Joseph Benavidez. I really believe that. The whole division was designed. All the way back in 2012 when it was brought out, Joseph Benavidez needed a place to be. He needed a place to be because of Dominic Cruz. He couldn't get back through. They wanted to create a division, and they finally get to the point, and it's resurrected

to an extent. I feel like we've been talking pretty glowingly about the flyweights. They've been cracking a lot of the fights on the undercards this whole year and late last year have been pretty good. But Cejudo leaves, and now you get Benavidez who loses and really doesn't have a way back to a title shot. Nobody wants to see that. What are you going to do?

Davidson doesn't have the belt. Henry Cejudo's not going to defend it. This would be, if they're going to disband, if they're going to get rid of this division, this would be the time. Here's the problem, though, Chuck. You ready for this? Okay.

I thought that would be my take coming in. Once Davidson, I'm going to get very proper on the pronunciation because I'm trying to develop a good pronunciation. Filiberto. That's not. I don't think that's right. Once Davidson knocked him out, or once he missed weight, I'm sorry. I'm sort of like, wow, that's comical for this division.

If Joseph doesn't win it, you're right. Doom is coming. Here's the problem. You changed your mind. Here's the problem. The fight was frigging fantastic. It was good. It was two rounds win it, you're right. Doom is coming. Here's the problem. You changed your mind. Here's the problem. The fight was friggin' fantastic. It was two rounds of what elite-level flyweight action the UFC can be all about.

You had Benavidez breaking out of the submission opportunities role and constantly turning the momentum of that fight. You had back and forth. The early part of that second round was a war in terms of trading big shots back and forth. So the knee-jerk reaction is either fold it up, or hey,

why don't we bring back Henry Cejudo and have a proper handoff between him and Davidson Figueiredo? I've got a problem with that as well, and here's the deal. He doesn't want to be at this weight class anymore. That is a problem. That's a big-time problem, because if he comes down and cuts one more time and beats Figueredo, we're in

the same spot. So here's my solution to you. There's a lot of flyweights I really like. I was reminded how much I like this division. Let's have a rematch. Let's have Benavidez and Figueredo all over again. I know you can say well, didn't we already learn what we're supposed to? Well, no. The man missed weight. He cost himself. Let's do that a second time.

What happens if Benavidez wins? You have a natural trilogy there if he does. I don't think that's a horrible idea, Chuck. What happens if Benavidez wins? You have a natural trilogy there if he does. I don't think that's a horrible idea, Chuck. Say it to my face. All right. So this event was a kind of almost a throwaway event. Like if you look at this card, they just, hey, we could put a card in Norfolk. Look down that whole card and you're like, what was on it? It was just really this. And it was barely held together by this. It was not a very marketable fight, even with the backstory of Joseph Benavidez and even with Figueiredo being basically a guy

that is like a mini Yoel Romero or something like that, very different kind of guy. How about the hair, by the way? Yeah, but they still couldn't really set... Now, imagine doing it again. I just don't feel like there's much of a mark. There's a lot of money that goes into having a champion in a division.

Like, it's a different money set for the UFC. They're not stupid. I'm not sure they want to throw money to the, you know, champion, you know, pay champion prices if they don't get a guy that's marketable. Here's the deal. I don't like having a title fight headline a fight night. I don't care if it's Shevchenko

against whoever's next in the division. I don't care if it's Demetrius Johnson when they expected him to get low ratings after proving he can't get big ratings and they throw him out on UFC Fight Night Kansas City. I think that a title fight belongs in a co-main event spot if it's not going to sell. Or if you're going to load up a super card, an IFW type card in July, then make it the third biggest fight of the night. I get what you're saying on there, but this is something we've said to the UFC and Dana White from the beginning.

Piss or get off the pot. Make a frig' decision. The fact that we're still going forward with this, then let's commit to it. You may have a changeover of champions for the next two years, but is that awful? It's a weird time for them to recommit to something that they committed to and already started to dismantle. That's the only problem. They were half through the process when Henry Cejudo basically got

the title and then there was a new blush in the cheek type of thing with the division. Even though that's the case, I don't even know if there's 20 total flyweights on roster right now for the UFC. I know that for a minute there, there weren't. So the division has been decimated by just kind of push-brooming guys out the door, and now if they want to restore it, it's a weird time to do that given the flux at the top. I can see them doing it, but I'm just saying if they're ever going to, if they're going to have cold feet about keeping it going, this would be the moment that they'd say,

okay, the flyweight's done. I do believe they have to make a decision and stick with it. There is an opening to close it because of how badly this was all mangled and damaged, and you got to throw some shade at Davidson for not being able to make weight there. But what I didn't like about this fight coming in, despite the fight night main event status, was Benavidez is your ultimate long-serving bridesmaid, a great, maybe an all-time great fighter who is really on that short list with Dan Henderson,

where Bisping used to be, of the greatest guys in the UFC history to never win a title. How ironic was it that Bisping's the guy to go interview him right afterwards? I felt like that was just this extra little twist. I feel your pain. But, you know, in the end, the fight that should have happened was Benavidez and Cejudo in my mind,

because Benavidez had a recent win over him in 2016. It was a fight of the year. It was fantastic. But it's also a picture to get off the pot for me from the standpoint of Cejudo. In double champions in general, I like when people get a chance to win two championships at one time. It shows your greatness. I also don't love how UFC has picked and choose who gets to be a double champ for a long time. Right now, Amanda Nunes, for as long as she wants.

But people like DC get stripped right away. I almost feel like there should be a rule. You can win two titles, but you have to be stripped of one and be done with that division. It's almost as if winning a title in a second division, which typically happens in the weight above you, is your graduation into the new weight class. So from that part, it's a clean break and a clean divide. So as much as I think Devis and Figueredo look fantastic, as much as him versus Cejudo is an interesting fight, they've got to make a decision on the division, and Cejudo's just got to stay north in my point of view.

No, no, he does. That's the only problem with it. If Cejudo was still kind of saying, like, I want to fight at flyweight, I want to defend that belt, it would be a little bit different. But the fact that basically he wants nothing to do with flyweight at this point, I think he really takes the credit, too. Obviously he should for kind of resurrecting it and giving it second life. But he's moved on, and that's kind of where we've left things.

And just given that that's the situation, it's just kind of a mess. It was the worst-case scenario for Figueredo to miss weight because you just needed some continuity. You needed something to happen. You needed the page to turn and something good to keep happening in that division. And you got kind of the worst-case scenario. Hashtag justice for Joe. Make the rematch.

I'm telling you. And it's not because I love Benavidez and respect him so much that I want to see him finally. I mean, two losses to Cruz at the highest level, two losses to Johnson at the highest level. I was gutted for him, man. I mean, the bottom line is this is a guy who has been after this for so long. It's never going to be tailor-made for a guy to go in there and have his moment like it

was this past weekend, and he still did not get that. Shout-out to his wife, who had a very supportive tweet out there, very reminiscent of Mr. Weidman running in and saying, Chris is still my son! As cringe as that was, and it was cringe. On this card, UFC Norfolk. The other sort of interesting title discussion dilemma here is what's going on at Women's Featherweight.

Heading into the card, 145 champ Amanda Nunes did announce, I want to fight at UFC 250 on May 9th. Of course, that's the Jose Aldo against Captain Cringe fight. And she would like to see somebody from this UFC Norfolk card over the weekend make a statement. Well, two people made very large statements with first round stoppages by

submission and knockout, Megan Anderson and Felicia Spencer. Should either of them get the title shot next? Who should get it next? Should they fight each other? Where do you sort of sit right here? Well, that was the entire featherweight division fighting in Norfolk. I would say just on basic MMA math that Spencer gets it right because she just beat, not even a year ago, she just won against Megan Anderson.

So the bottom line is if you just look at that, I don't think you can make a case the other way. So it seems like kind of like an easy decision if the UFC really wants to make that Amanda Nunes is next. And if they want to keep that division going, which is even more puzzling. These are two almost extinct types of divisions we're talking about in this card in Virginia. But if they want to keep it going, that's the fight to make. And you can still check UFC.com slash rankings more than three years into this division. We still don't have rankings, which tells you a lot about it. I don't like anybody who's saying...

Not even any of those. They're not even listed. I don't like anyone who's saying they need to fight each other. They just fought a year ago. Spencer proved in that fight with a first round submission. It was a weird fight. She took Megan down, worked really hard, got the submission, but she sort of proved she's a one-up on her in that case.

I don't think they should fight each other a second time because you have no contenders in this division. I'd like to see the two of them eventually get title shots in their future. Mika Anderson made the bigger statement, I thought, on Saturday. That one-punch knockout, I forgot the name of the fighter she fought. Do you have it off the top of that dome up there? Was it a... Dumont? Something like that.

I made it up. Whatever. Anyway, it was a woman in the UFC. It was fantastic. I think it showed you that her evolution has been slower than we thought. Holly Holm really broke her in. It was baptism early. Lost that fight to Spencer. But we've got two viable contenders for the belt.

It's good. Let's keep building on that. Let's get to that point. Good for Anderson, too, because I know that she struggles to even get in there. She has some nerves, things like that. I thought she looked probably better than she ever has in the UFC. So it's good to see somebody catching momentum, too, because I know that she struggles to even get in there. She has some nerves, things like that. I thought she looked probably better than she ever has in the UFC. So it's good to see somebody catching momentum, too. And if they can form any kind of cue in that division, that's shocking development, right? Because for so long, there's been nothing.

I mean, you don't see one-punch KOs often in the female side in any weight class, right? I mean, when Andrade had that one over Kovalkevic, we were like, holy cow, and we just saw one recently, and I can't remember it. That's a great show so far. But the point is, when you make that kind of statement, she's a six-foot-tall featherweight, and she's got a bright future, can really fight on the ground.

I'd like to see where this is going indeed. Hey, let's slide over to what we saw in boxing this weekend from Frisco, Texas. DAZN had a card headlined by Mikey Garcia doubling down on his goal to make it as an elite welterweight, 11 months removed from his last fight, a one-sided shellacking against Errol Spence Jr. on pay-per-view. Mikey goes in there against tested veteran Jesse Vargas, a former two-division title holder, and comes away with a unanimous decision that Chuck was weird.

It was closer than the fight looked, or maybe than it should have been, yet Mikey was clearly the dominant fighter here, establishing himself as a hard counterpuncher. In your eyes moving forward, he's won titles in four weight classes. He's one of the pound-for-pound best. Is Mikey Garcia an elite welterweight? Elite? No. I would not say that. I still think that the

elite welterweights would beat him right now. But he showed, obviously his whole task in this one, right, was to show that he could do that, especially after the last fight. I think he did look, you know, outside of the overmatch, he never really competed in that fight. I thought this one, it took him a few rounds to kind of get rolling, but it seemed like once he did, it was like you could see him come to life in that fight. And especially after the knockdown, I felt like, you know, he kind of, I don't want to say coasted, but he was landing those one-twos, man, and it looked kind of like more like the vintage guy. His power is still showing up in there a little bit.

I mean, to me, man, it still seemed like he had it. I just don't know. It still feels like he's masquerading a little bit. I know the money is there, but it feels like he's masquerading. You love his dare to be great intention. You love the fact that he took on that Spence fight when people in his own family, his older brother, his trainer Robert, was like, don't do this. It didn't go well.

It didn't go well at all. He said he sort of rebuilt his body, and he looked better physically. He looked a little bit more muscular. But here's the thing that's tough. He took damage to have to win this fight, even though he largely controlled it. He's probably going to have to consistently take damage at this weight class to win these very big fights. And you've got to ask yourself, is the pursuit of a fifth title and as many weight classes for a guy who's not about the money, has been all about getting that promotional control over his career?

Don't forget, he set out two and a half years of his prime to get out of his top-ranked deal. He's signing one-fight deals at a time. That was a one-fight deal with the zone for options for the next one. We'll get to that option in a second of what it could be. But here's a guy who just recently was making 135 and was a killer at lightweight. And if you're a guy who relies on counter-punching and technique, and you're entering into fights in which you're going to have to take heavy damage to win, that's where you sort of go, is this the right move? Because 135 is loaded in boxing right now. And the idea of Mikey Garcia against Lomachenko is a super fight waiting to happen against Teofimo Lopez, who's getting the next Loma fight,

against the Devin Haney's, the other guys who are on the rise. Certainly there are 140. He's got plenty of options, but he's a stubborn dude. Did you think Vargas had a case afterwards to say he should have won it? I saw some hipsters on the Internet kind of having that as a 7-5 fight for Garcia. I get where Vargas never gave up and came back. Boxing scoring is weird, though, because what you see with your eyes can be different from the math, how it adds up. I kind of went back and watched it again, just kind of seeing that, because I saw a little bit of that online, you know.

I don't see that. I don't see that. I thought it was pretty, you know, after the, I would say, what, fifth round on? From fifth round on, it felt like it was, the fight had turned, the tide had turned, and it kind of just went that direction. I don't know. To me, that's like, the 116-111 scores was in the range that I would have had.

So it didn't seem that close to me. I was kind of surprised that they talked about that. I mean, his power, the pluses here is that Mikey showed legit counterpunching power. He had Vargas on the verge of being stopped on, I think, three occasions. Credit to Vargas for gutting that out. Now, the big story here is what happens next. Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Sport and DAZN have an option to match on his next fight. And the whole idea of bringing Mikey Garcia to DAZN for a $7 million payday, by the way, shout out to Mikey Garcia there,

is to set him up for a big fight, ideally Manny Pacquiao. Now the problem with that, Chuck, is that, as Eddie Hearn told me last week, there's 174 people who think they own managerial rights or some type of promotional rights on Manny Pacquiao. We were of the belief in the last six months, ever since Pacquiao last summer beat Keith Thurman in a fantastic pay-per-view main event, that Pacquiao had one, maybe two fights left on his PBC deal. Eddie Hearn's now saying from what he has heard and believes, that would be no fights left. And we just recently saw, of course, Manny Pacquiao signed with Paradigm Sport, Audiotar,

the same managerial agency that has what, Conor McGregor? You used to have Tony Ferguson, right? Adesanya. Yep, Adesanya. Big names in there. A lot. I mean, a lot of big UFC people. Would Mikey Garcia versus Manny Pacquiao this summer, maybe July in Saudi Arabia?

And by the way, you better get the air conditioning pumping if that's the case. Does that move you? Would you be in for that? I would like to see it. I honestly would. I mean, obviously Pacquiao, what is he, 41 or 42 years old? 41. He's 41 years old, but if the Thurman fight told you anything,

he's still got his speed, he's still got his power. As long as he's passing drug tests, I guess we've got to applaud him because that was an insane turn-back-the-clock performance. Fixes tax issues, going over Saudi Arabia. I would like to see it, man. I would like to see it. I mean, what else are you going to do? If Garcia wants to stay in 147, I feel like that's –

I want to see him in fights like that. That's the fight you want to see. Jay, I've got static like you would not believe in my ear right now. Just my lapel. Okay, we'll roll on. Let me know when it stops. It's an interesting fight to make. Manny can pretty much do whatever he wants.

And if somebody in Saudi is going to throw a buttload of money at Eddie Hearn and they can make that work, it would seem like a resting spot. It's an interesting fight. Would I love Manny against Errol Spence to find out how great he can still be at this age? Yes. Danny Garcia, yes. But I'll take Mikey Garcia if it ends up going in that direction. But it's just weird how Manny Pacquiao can still be at this point in his career.

Everybody thinks they own him or have some pull with him, but hey, you know, this is very loud. All right. Nothing like throwing me off. We're going to stay in boxing for our third biggest topic of the week, and it is Deontay Wilder fresh off a very one-sided knockout loss to Tyson Fury in the rematch a little bit more than a week ago

in Las Vegas on pay-per-view. Deontay Wilder will not be firing assistant trainer Mark Breland for throwing in the towel, and he has officially sent in the paperwork to kick in his rematch clause for a third fight this summer. Subsequently, promoter Bob Arum, the co-promoter of Tyson Fury, says July 18th in Vegas at the MGM Grand would be their preferred destination. Look at July shaping up. If you have international fighting in the UFC with, what, maybe Conor, more likely Jorge and Kamaru,

and a week later you're doing Wilder Fury 3, a lot to get into on this, Chuck, okay? Mention the Pacquiao possibility. That could be the same weekend as international fight week. If this fight goes down in July like they're saying it. Good move for Wilder, considering that we just saw him take an L as hard from a PR standpoint, and as frustrating, disappointingly, embarrassingly, blaming the

40-pound suit, blaming his trainers for throwing in the towel, blaming you, possibly, for taking your hat off one time on camera. Right move in your eyes here. I mean, ultimately, you would like to see him take a little more time off. In Fury's camp, did they not say that they would kind of wait it out anyway? If they wanted to kind of push it back, they would do that.

To me, I would rather they take more time, honestly. That was one-sided traffic, man. And it was a bad look, like you mentioned. He didn't really have anything. I also think the imagination needs to kind of come back to this fight. Unfortunately, when he made these excuses that you're talking about was right after the hysteria of having gone through it and everybody scrutinizing that fight and looking at it as just boring excuses, right? Like, and then you hear things,

they are kind of, the 40-pound suit, I mean, who's talking about this? It's like the David Haye little toe thing. I mean, it's like weird. You don't want to hear that stuff. It's just, it's, I feel like the timing is all a little off on this. But ultimately, if he has that clause and obviously the amount of money he got paid

and being a competitor and the unsatisfactory way in which it ended, I'm sure that it's not sitting with him well and the competitor in him wants to do it. I can see why he's doing that,

but at the same time, as a person who watched that fight, just like you did, you'd like to see him take a little more time. I stand by what I said last week from the point of anyone saying we learned everything we need to know in the rematch. We don't need a third one.

That's easy to say, but when you're talking about a guy with that punching power, dude, like he's going to be in this third fight. I don't care, again, if he comes in with a broken heart and an 80-pound vest. That power is going to give him a chance in it. I like that you're still sticking up for that because I feel like that's the romanticized version of Wilder that kind of got dispelled in it for so many people. You can't go in one dimension when the other guy has every other

dimension. He's going to dominate that fight. I will say though, I will hedge that and say it was extremely disappointing to see this reaction from him. And I know that, look, you have to be a con man as a fighter to talk yourself into a level of confidence and fearlessness that is just non-humane. So I'll give him that benefit of the doubt.

And also, the whole costume thing, as everyone's saying, this is the lamest, worst excuse ever, and it might be. I actually believe him. I actually believe he's saying it did weigh him down. I'm more embarrassed for him. But I'm more embarrassed for him that he would wear a costume like that and take that chance in the biggest fight of his career. It's ridiculously embarrassing.

From a business standpoint, though, he had to kick in this rematch. Just like Anthony Joshua ahead of the Ruiz one last year, where he had the same chance to take time off. Then you're admitting, I'm broken from the loss, I'm not the same guy, and you're giving up control, or potential control, of this

division through the belt process. We don't know if he's... So even though he kicked it in, I wonder if there's a chance here that this is also a really smart business decision because the fight everybody wants to make off of that fight is Anthony Joshua versus Tyson Fury later this year

for all four belts. It would be the biggest fight in British boxing history, Chuck. It would be non-Maypack 2, non-Conor McGregor Carnival would be the biggest fight you can make in boxing in any country. I wonder if he kicks that in, and if there's a part of him that doesn't want it right away, he could make a killing in Step Aside Money,

if he wanted to, right? Because he has the contractual control right now. Now it's a little more difficult, because since Wilder kicked that in, Anthony Joshua just announced that he's going to fight Kubrat Pula in June in London at a soccer stadium, and that's a mandatory defense. There's always the mandatory.

There's a lot of boxing politics. But if Wilder wanted to take the step aside and say, I'll just fight the winner, that could be an interesting road. But knowing who he is, I think he wants exactly what he's saying, to get back into this fight, and he's going to have extra motivation to prove everybody wrong. I would not favor him in this fight. I think Fury has figured him out. I think Fury has figured out how to be a different kind of fighter and walk him down. I'm just saying,

you cannot count out this man. As disappointed as I was in his reaction, when you've got that weapon, when you've got the biggest weapon in the war, you're in the war. He's going to have to rebuild it a little bit. The two things that they kind of built narratives around going into that fight was his right hand and his backstory. They both say his backstory evolves now, right? Like his backstory has this thing. How does he respond? But I still think, I'm not sure you can fall in love with the same elixir, which is just the power versus the technique and everything that was going in. You got the perfect, perfect fight, a perfect rematch given how the first one went. I just feel like he's going to have to do some work to figure something else out. Even from the campaigning standpoint, in terms of selling that fight, a perfect rematch given how the first one went. I just feel like he's going to have to do some work to figure something else out.

Even from the campaigning standpoint in terms of selling that fight, we're going to have to hear a little bit more from him. As much as we're disappointed that he didn't give Fury any credit and that he's making excuses, there's still a sale in that. If you're not giving the other guy any credit, you're saying, look, it was all on me, I had a million problems. There is sort of a potential sale in how you market that. Where did the line end up on this one?

It was crazy to me that Wilder ended up something like minus 160, minus 150. I think Fury, he's a favorite, but it's not that large. They've already got that out. I think for Wilder as an underdog, it's plus two something, almost plus 300. I mean, we saw the first fight. I know that Fury

wasn't the same Fury as he was when he's completely back in mental and physical, the right health, but we've also seen Fury many times, Chuck, play up or down to level of competition, fall out of shape, lose that level of focus. You hope for his sake he'd come into that third fight with it. But just what is on the line and what matters in this third fight, how often do we get heavyweight trilogies that matter, that live up historically? You get a Bull Holyfield. You get an Ollie Norton and an Ollie Frazier. It finally feels like we have a mini-Golden Era.

We're getting closer. It feels like that. I did say last week on this show, politically you don't really have a chance to see the winner of Wilder Fury 3 against Joshua. I still haven't seen where DAZN can do pay-per-view with the traditional pay-per-view guys, but Eddie Hearn dispelled that

when I talked to him on my podcast last week. He said, look, we'll find a way. There's some smart people there. There's a lot of money at the table. We'll find a way to make the streaming end and the pay-per-view end come together and make it work. By the way, that cat's had a big couple of weeks. I feel like he's all over the place. Yeah.

And I'll give Eddie Hearn this credit. He promotes. He goes on every single show possible and stays as long as he possibly can. He loves it. He lives it. I always tell him. It's like Dana from 10 years ago. I tell Eddie, I go, look, you know, you're a good-looking bloke,

6'7", with a waistcoat. I know you're selling me a used car with bald tires, but I want to buy from you for some reason. You're really, you know, he really sets you up there. Somebody's going to open Raiders Stadium eventually this year. In the first big combat Super Bowl outdoors in front of 70,000 80,000. Are you sure Conor wants to do it? You'd think

that Floyd might want to come out in the shadows and do it. It's going to be interesting to see who chases that cash. It sounds like we'll be in Vegas come July. Which is the worst? You talking about swamp ass season? It really is the worst to be in Vegas in July. Hey, International Fight Week, how about

Nova Scotia? Alright, there we go. Hey, let's move on to our next topic, which is UFC 248 this weekend in Vegas. A title doubleheader at the top that has to have you licking your lips for the potential, the violence, history, competitiveness,

all of that. And of course, in that marquee, it's Israel Adesanya making the first defense of his middleweight title against Yoel Romero. Can we take a pause for the cause? Can we pour one out for the homies here and just be like, I think if I do this fast enough, I'll start a fire truck. Can I keep going with this? Oh, my God. How freaking fired up. Shout out to UFC Countdown for using a clip of us in there.

That was cool. Priming that fight and getting it ready here. I'll just be weird here. Can you just tell me forget the daring to be great. Forget the title. Forget everything. Violence and entertainment. How wired are you for this?

I love it, man. And it's funny for something like this. There can be any kind of outcry about it. Because you do hear that. The people who kind of follow the meritokers. I get it. You know, there are other guys. There's other fights you could make. But to me, that fight was so close between Acosta and Romero.

It was a coin flip, right? So in some ways, it's easy to squint and put him right into that position. And honestly, man, just the two physiques, just by themselves. If you knew nothing else about it. You're not a body guy, but even you are kind of blowing up right now. I mean, just as a spectacle, right? Like you're just looking at the two guys, one guy wiry, sinews, and like electricity, the other guy's like this Hulk.

I mean, it's just it doesn't get any better. I think that it's going to be a really fun buildup to the fight because of the eccentricity that's kind of in the air. For this type of guy, you saw the initial thing where Romero's doing a backflip, and Dana's like, what the hell's going on? Dude's 42 years old, and he's doing this type of stuff. I just think that it's a unique matchmaking experience, and I also think that it's the perfect fight in a lot of ways for Adesanya

as his first true title defense. This is a guy that nobody likes to fight, and he welcomed it when he didn't need to do this, and he welcomed it. And he's only a slight bit over two years into the UFC. To see what he's accomplished is insane. I will stand by and hold that sword up and say all you last year in 2019 missed it.

Adesanya should have been your fighter of the year. And I think if he can win this fight and I don't care who he fights in that, Costa Whitaker again, he could be your 2020 legitimate fighter of the year because he's daring to be great. He's putting it on the line. You have to respect that. But when you do that, when you dare to be great, you're always towing the line of daring to be reckless or daring to be crazy. He's been towing it. That's what's great. Same with McGregor. When he came up, all of it looked

dangerous. That's what was great about it. I heard Adesanya in that press conference basically say this, hey, Robert Whitaker, you went 10 rounds with Romero. And you can argue that Whitaker's never been the same physically from doing that. You know, Adesanya basically said, that's not what I would do. I would go three rounds or less with him. Well, that's an ideal level of thinking here. And look, I'd favor Adesanya. It's just that easy. You know, when you compare gas tanks and, you know, sometimes Romero has to take a round off after expelling so much.

But if he went life or death, meaning out of signing with Gastelum in 2019's Fight of the Year in Atlanta, love that fight. Romero's a little bit different cat than Gastelum. What are the avenues of victory here for Romero? Is it just come up with some spinny shit and see what happens? No. It's remember who you are, right? Remember your credentials.

You are an Olympic wrestler going against a Muay Thai guy who's taller than you. What you want to do is plant him on his back and then Hulk smash him. That's what you want to do, right? But I think you also want to kind of flex. I know how Romero thinks. He's a little bit more, he likes to demonstrate his power in the stand-up. That's where the fight is really going to be exciting, I think. But if I'm him, that's what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to take him down and just wear him out and take away his most dangerous assets, which is his limbs, man. You don't want him catching you from afar.

And that's what Adesanya is sublime at, right? So I feel like his best avenue is just to go back to who he's been, you know, back in the day. Like, be a wrestler. Dance with the, you know, you mind if we dance with your dates, right? Dance with the one that brought you here, right? That's right.

We've seen him go away with that. We've also seen Adesanya improve his takedown defense. But, again, Romero is a different cat. There is a potential to take a lot of damage in victory here for Adesanya. So there's a price you pay if he can get through this for telling everyone, I am that man. I'm going to go out in the first night of jail and go after the toughest guy, which is essentially what he's doing in this title defense here.

Do we see a five-round war? I mean, I can't imagine, as much as I respect and love Robert Whitaker, and I rightfully favored him there against Adesanya the first time around, I thought he was the rightful betting favorite. The way that fight ended, though, I could see that. I don't know if I could see that against Romero. I've never seen that against Romero. I've never really seen him in that level.

I don't think you can one-punch him like that. What are we going to see here? Five rounds of hell? See, that's the bar, right? Nobody has done that since all the way back to Fajal. Remember the fight and all the way back in Strikeforce? The only guy to ever finish him. That fight was so long ago.

Do you know that that was the night that Alexis Davis beat Amanda Nunes in Strikeforce? That's how long ago it's been. Nobody finishes him, so that's the bar, right? Like, if he's able to do that, then suddenly he's done something. If Adesanya can put him away, I think that's what he's going to try to do. Can he do it? I don't know. If it ends up being a five-round war,

I don't like that for Adesanya, even if he wins, because that is a lot of wear and tear on you, man, going five rounds with Romero, and at the accelerated rate of which he's been fighting and to go through another one after Gastelum and guys like that. I would not like that for him. It's very of his teammate, Dan Hooker. We were saying the same thing about it last week of sort of like you've just

put it all on the table to get through guys like Paul Felder, and now you want Justin Gaethje. It's like eventually we saw it with Robert Whitaker. You've got to admire that they want that. There is a limit. There's a limit to how tough you can match yourself against killers and the wear and tear that comes on your body. I'm not saying I want to see Adesanya go into point fighter mode

and try to, you know, completely ditch and dodge this type of fight, which I don't think you can against Romero because he'll catch up to you. But we are going to learn even more than we already know about Adesanya's backbone. Too much of a showman, man. Too much of a showman. I don't think he's going to be a point fighter for a long time. He's going to learn even more than we already know about Adesanya's backbone. Too much of a showman, man. Too much of a showman. I don't think he's going to be a point fighter for a long time. He's going to have to lose. He'll have to lose at some point and then say, like, okay,

let's dial this back and figure out how to just win again. But as he's on top, he still believes in his own invincibility in the sport. He should after the way he survived against Gastelum, after the way he walked down Robert Whitaker. Wow. This would be the statement of statements if he was able to finish the Soldier of God. This is North American moment. I think it really is.

There's still a little bit of pending, I think, for his superstardom out here. And I know he's a global asset, like the UFC sees him that way. But at the same time, I still don't think he's over all the way in North America. I still feel like he needs to do more. This could be his big moment. Could be the star of stars off of this. Saturday's co-main event is one you cannot miss, folks. We're right here.

All right. It is your women's strawweight title bout. Zhong Weili of China, a rising star, will make her first title defense against the former queen. My girl, JJ, Joanna, young J-Check, boogie woman. Spent the morning with her. Is coming. I did spend the morning with her in Manhattan interviewing her for CBS Sports.

Check that out this week. Chuck, biggest storyline here is really the redemption angle, potentially, for Joanna Young-Jacek, trying to become the first female fighter in UFC history to win back a title that she has lost. The counter question to that, how good is Joan Whaley? Do we really know from what we've seen so far in four fights? We don't.

See, that's what's fun about it, right? Because I think that she surprised a lot of people by knocking out Jessica Andrade. Now you're in a position where you're like, okay, you have somebody who has, you're wearing the bullseye, and you have a former champion who's hungry again and wants to take it.

It's going to be that kind of fight. I feel like this is kind of the extended introduction for Wiley Zhang. Like, what is she going to do in this? I don't think any of us really know her full potential yet. She's the champion, but we haven't seen her in every situation where we have seen Ioana in a lot of different situations. I think that this is the kind of gauntlet fight for her

to kind of figure out where she's really at. And it's crazy to say that for a champion. It's just the way it is in the division right now. I mean, I give Ioana a lot of credit for rebuilding herself. The win over Michelle Watterson was a reminder of how great she is. She's a five-round, deep-water type of fighter. But she even told me when I talked to her this morning, Zhang Weili is giant.

She's strong. So is it Zhang Weili? Is that how we say it? UFC is now going with Zhang Weili. I noticed that. And look, you know, that's the Japanese surname thing, the whole Suzuki, Ichiro, Ming Yao. I mean, look, I'm not cultured. Weili. That's the Japanese surname thing, the whole Suzuki, Ichiro, Ming Yao. I mean, look, I'm not

cultured. We are. This is well. I didn't go to the College of William and Mary. All right, Chuck? This is well established here. She's tough. Can't she go five rounds? We don't know that. But on the flip side, can Ioana survive that type of... Look, almost you can ask yourself, was that Andrade fight a little bit of

fool's gold? Jessica came out way too reckless. Easily, yes. And brutally paid the price for that. I'm sure Wang Jie, let's regroup here. I'm sure Zhong Wei Li could do that against anybody who runs at her full speed. Yes. But when she was in there against Atisha Torres, she had to go three rounds. She dominated that fight.

I can't wait to see once it goes from the early to the middle ground, can you want to turn that fight around like she did against Claudia in the rematch if Weili Zhang comes out so hard, so fast in the beginning. It's such an interesting matchup. It may come down to mental because Ioana is talking so much about

removing the negative influences in her team, and that's why ultimately she feels she had bad weight cuts leading into the first fight against Rose and the breakup with her fiancé and everything personal that just really dragged her down. She is insanely mentally tough. It's going to be stretched this time.

She's also been in this position. She knows how to handle moments when the scrutiny is at its biggest, and people are really paying attention, and so much is on the line. I feel like that could play into this a little bit. Like you mentioned, I don't think she's just going to go in there and throw knuckles and just kind of see what happens. Like Jessica Andrade, I don't think she's going to be wild like that. It really is going to come down to how she kind of handles it and if she can expose basically those nerves. Because let's face it, this is a new champion who's now coming in and especially just given

the whole backstory of what's going on with White Lee, just getting out of China, her travel, everything that's been going on. The gas mask poster by Ioana. And all the bad blood, let's not forget that. There's an emotional expense going on here. It's going to be very interesting, man. She kind of plays up that zen mentality a little bit. She likes to play the Kung Fu Panda stuff and all that. I'm like, that's all very cool, but it will really shine in a fight like this. You know, Ioana told me she sort of took offense to the narrative that through the two Rose fights that she became this villain, this bad person, this bully. And I mean, look, she hasn't helped

herself with putting out that meme, like I talked about with the gas mask. But it's interesting, a win for either of them would be massive. Now let's start with Zhang Weili. Not just the journey of changing camps three times, almost outrunning the coronavirus to get to the States for this fight, but how true is the... Every time you talk to Dana and you say, who's the brightest

star in your bullpen? He's like, well, the last time Zhang Weili was on Chinese television, five trillion people watched. I mean, is this like a financial linchpin to UFC's future? Zhang Weili winning this fight? I would think so, if it's really like that. And honestly, talking to Brian Butler, her manager,

and just seeing some of the numbers, I did a piece with him, and it looked like that from the Chinese perspective, man. It seemed like the whole country was paying attention. And if that's really the case, they do have a massive, massive star in their hands. Obviously, she's got to continue to do that work. And I would think that the UFC could go to China at any point after that and host a big event with her headlining. But a lot rides on this. This is a very dangerous thing. I always go with the Sean Shelby thing when he told me, when they book these, a lot of times they look at it like they're booking the challenger to win.

They want the champion to lose. Now, I don't know how much that's really true in some cases, but I think in this case, you know, you watch certain fights be made and you're like, why are they doing that? That's a very dangerous fight because it's not boxing. They want it to be that. They want the flux at the top. I love it. I love that if Ioana did win, the idea of, let's say, Rose beat Andrade and you have that trilogy for the title,

you've got Claudia rebuilding herself who wants a trilogy with Ioana. But to close on Young Jacek here, if she wins, there isn't really a female equivalent to, like, Captain America, Randy Couture, coming back and turning back the clock. And I know, look, Ioana's not old. I mean, she's going to be 33. It's not ancient. Maybe when Misha Tate beat Holly Holm at UFC 196,

it had that sort of redemption feeling of finally climbing the mountain. The key is here, Ioana's been on the mountain before. She was that close to equaling Ronda Rousey's title defense record and kind of becoming the next Ronda, not commercially, but critically from the this is our next all-time great. What would a win specifically do for her legacy here? I think it would do. So that's an interesting thing you said. I still believe that most fans who paid attention to Ioana and really understood how good she was during her run have sort of compartmentalized that violence and put it over here.

It's like Rose kind of derailed the whole thing, and then it's been an odyssey since. But I think it would be very easy to access that area again. I think that if she gets through this and she's suddenly the champion, that comes back into focus. I think that it would feel like there was a discontinuation at some point, and then she recaptured it. I still feel like she has that. But it could go away. I feel like

that's kind of the fleeting thing, but people have not let that go, and the UFC has been very smart to kind of latch on to her viciousness and really point her out as the nasty champion, all this stuff. I feel like they've done this correctly, and I feel like that's who she is. She could get all that back. I feel like she'd be right back there.

She's claiming that there's no weight issues, that she's never cut better. I remember ahead of her last fight with Watterson, she was sort of petitioning to the UFC in the last minute to move that fight up in weight. Oh, my God, that's right. How about women's straw weight? I say it, and people think I'm either joking or I'm talking about how beautiful these women are, you know, whatever and all that. I'm just saying consistently across the board,

men's lightweight is the deepest and best division right now in UFC history, even better than men's light heavyweight a decade ago. But women's strawweight, pound for pound, week to week, always delivers, Chunk. Storylines, matchups, depth. You look at the rankings, there's still some killers up and down there. I agree with you, and I think that it's kind of, well, it would be like the lightweight and the welterweight, right? Like you're going to have the most body types that are going to fit into that category. I guess that's 125 is really what the ladies are.

But you're right, man. It is always, it's always got a lot of, there's always eight people at the top that you're like, oh, that person could beat that person. I can't get enough. I can't get enough of the women's trial weights. And the only thing I'll ever ask you about that is you've got to promise not to stop when I say win. All right? All right.

She's saying, right? Wow. All right. That will wrap up the biggest topics of the week. Now I want to get this echo out of my ear, Jay. And I want to hear from the people. DMs for donks. People are always sending me up.

BC, how? Yeah, here it is. Wow, look at that ass. People are always asking me, Chuck, how how... Yeah, here it is. Wow, look at that ass. People are always asking me, Chuck, how do they get their question on the show? A reminder, at Morning Combat on Instagram, every Sunday night, we put out the full screen graphic.

Respond to that with your question, and you'll have a chance to have it read right here through my donk mouth. Let's hear from the people. You fired up, Chuck? I'm fired up. Let's do it. What do we got? This one's from at Roxy Depew. Maybe that's French. Alright. up, Chuck? I'm fired up. Let's do this. What do we got? This one's from atroxydepue. Maybe that's French.

All right. Chuck, who has the best chance to win a rematch? Conor Habib or Wilder Fury? So they're asking Conor McGregor or Deontay Wilder.

Who has the best chance to win a rematch? That's a really great question because I feel like they're very similar, right? There's the one that's sort of dimensional against a multi-dimensional.

I would probably go with Wilder in this scenario. I just feel like he'd have the better chance of actually finding a way to land that shot. And obviously we know if he hits you and it's flush, you're going down. So I think that I would probably go that direction. I know McGregor has that power too, but I feel like the V is too smart, man. I just feel like he's not going to allow him to get that shot off. Plus, even though McGregor is a slugger, it's a speed and precision that sets up his shots. He's not the kind of power that, like, if there's 10 seconds to go in the fifth round,

he still might get you out of there. That's true. Deontay Wilder can lose every second of the fight, as we've always said. Yes, we have to find out about his inside. Can he bounce back from his first defeat? There's a lot of intangibles, but I've said this a lot. A lot of people are so upset, right? Like, with the towel coming in, because

they know, especially with the gambling money, everything that goes into it, the people who paid 80 bucks, they know that there's an equalizer that he can still land. They know that it's still there. How about my subtle transition through that burp I just had right there, right in the air? No one even noticed it. It was great. No, you're right. And look, as much as Deontay still has to establish, because one loss

has broken the heart of many, a top fighter, he's very mentally tough. I am not willing to throw in the towel on Deontay's chances. The Connor side is like there's a fool's gold element to how great he looked against Cowboy because it was the perfect matchup. I do tend to buy into that fool's gold a little bit and believe that, especially mentally, he's a somewhat reborn, changed man from the guy we saw heading into that first Habib fight,

where I would give him a better chance to persevere and set up his offense rather than gas early like he did against Habib and then kind of be lost and wandering. I wouldn't favor him. I would just give him a better chance than the first time around. That's fair, right? I think that's fair. And if he fights Justin Gaethje in the summer and he's able to kind of do the same thing that he just did with Cerrone, then maybe this is a whole different scenario.

Because I actually put a lot into that headspace. And also, like, does he want it again? Because that was always the question after the Mayweather thing and everything else. How bad does he want it? If he does that to Gaethje, ask that question again and maybe there's a difference. Do you think they're going to do that fight? I do, actually. That's such a financial gamble to do it.

But then again, should he walk down and finish Gaethje, which we think is possible. Yes. Out of all the names that he could possibly go against. Think of the money that you're sprinkling on top. If Habib wins against Tony, and no disrespect to Tony, but if Habib wins, him versus Conor, too, would sell in any era, any situation.

But it would sell even more if Conor's fresh off of knocking out Justin Gaethje. That's a hell of a gamble, though. Look how big just beating Cerrone, even when people kind of thought, well, he might be a little bit shot at this point, you know, blah, blah, blah. Look how big that seemed when he did it anyway. Imagine him doing that to Gaethje in a big card in July. I think that that just sets, it's pretty much whatever he wants at that point. So if it happens to be Habib, but I also think that all the haters of that fight would then come back to it and say, well, you never know, because it's kind of etch-a-sketched the whole imagination. It's going to be the biggest month in Irish history in July if Conor fought on IFW and seven days later Fury fought in Vegas. We're going to have a Bono concert in between.

It would be great. Do you have any other Irish superheroes? Irish? James Joyce, right? Yeah. James Joyce, the juggernaut? You're talking about the English heavyweight? No.

All right. All right. Let's roll on here. You got more donks for us, Jay? We're live, Jay. Jay, we're live. All right? All right.

I'll just keep playing with my ear. All right. From at Johanna, or maybe how about at Johan Alexoff. So, all right, sorry. Pretty good. I mean, where are we going with this name here, Chuck? I don't know what that is. Who would have the best, quote, UFC combined 40-yard dash vertical, et cetera?

It is meat market time in the NFL. Who do you think is just that kind of athlete in the UFC? I mean, good God. Who do you think is just that kind of athlete in the UFC? I mean, good God. 42-year-old Yoel Romero might be in his actual prime right now. He comes to mind. He might actually be in his mental and physical prime. So does Israel Adesanya from a different perspective. Like 40-yard dash, it almost seems like he'd be like a gazelle.

I always felt like Tyron Woodley was like the perfect sort of athlete where you could plug him into any other sport. I know he'd be small for certain sports, but if you plugged him into football at halfback, I would have to believe he'd be fantastic. Trying to think who else. Paulo Costa looks like a centerfold. That's true. Anthony Johnson

back in the day when he could get down, he was he used to play football, but that guy. Can we get him back? Can he kill a mofo soon? I mean, this guy. I'd love to have him back, man. Who are we missing here? There's got to be some smaller fighters that are just athletic machines. I mean, guys like GSP, obviously, they come to mind.

It has to be that combination of kind of athleticism and... I mean, Demetrius Johnson was a freak athlete. Let's be honest with that. Hey, to close that flyaway conversation... Demetrius would actually probably surprise us in all of that. Demetrius did go public a couple weeks ago and basically was like, I'm going to end my career in one. I have nothing else to prove.

That's going to end my legacy. You wouldn't like a scenario where when he's like, whatever, 36 or whatever, and he's run the gauntlet at one, and if he's still the guy, that he would come back and try to pull an aspirin. Pull an aspirin and kind of come back late and just, you know. It would be very poetic. It really would because the way Dana and him button heads all that time, it would kind of be like this strange victory.

His biggest victory of his career would be kind of like, here I come back, now you need me type thing. I need to read a Chuck Mendenhall athletic poetic breakdown on that. He's the best writer in MMA. You think so? I think so. Thanks, man. Thank you.

Thank you. Shout out to anyone else who's in second place. Rafe Bartholomew. I don't know if you ever heard of him. I wanted him to shout him out. From theathletic.com. Here, my bro-ham. All right, we'll roll on here, Jay, if you're willing.

I've got to hear from the people. From at Darren Robinson Fitness Star. Wow. I'd have to check out that profile, right? He wants to know, Okay, Donks, long-time fan here with an odd question. If you had to breed the best MMA fighter, which female and male fighter would you breed?

No tip to tip on this one. You know what? I think this is a secret plan here from Darren Robinson to basically play like fantasy MMA porn with us. Like which female and male fighter do you want to see bang? I mean, so he's basically breeding factory. Steffi Graf and Andre Agassi, probably, you know, they got kids. They're probably going to be tennis stars.

In MMA, who you got? Who do you want to see go under the covers? So that we're just straight up... You can't watch... No, you're on the outside. I thought we were

talking about the kid. You have to wait nine months and years for it to play out. A kid that I would like... Tisha and Rocky? Where are you going with this? No, like a child that...

What would be the child in the end? What kind of monster would this be? It would be Joanna and Yoel well from our Wow imagine that kid trying to set something for Vegas Saturday party Wow Wow I see you soon boy yes yes yeah I'm a question you'd want the freak athleticism of you

well you would want the mindset can Can you transfer mindset through... Yes. You can transfer badassness. Your old man was probably a badass, right? Hey, man, Tyson Fury came from his dad's nutsack. That is true. That is true. Yeah. I mean, look, I can match up.

You can match up any two great fighters, but I think you specifically want one to be a Hulk. You want another one to be precise. I mean, Io want us pretty precise. That'd be a hell of a fighter there. Who do you got? I'd officiate that. Yeah.

You made me say it. Let's hear yours. You and Amanda. All right? Really? We'll get your poetic brain. Nina's going to step in there and make that happen. I'm going to get in trouble if we keep this question going.

Let's move on to the next one. At Web Scream, how about this guy uh have people begun to realize that the coronavirus will be the reason we won't see tony habib five as the entire event will be scrapped due to public health concern get it get out of here web scream with that crap you know no no no ricky bobby no you know what's sad is you see something like that and you think, well, maybe that's the case. Only because this thing has been so cursed that you almost feel like any scenario is in play, right? Like anything to make it not happen is in play. Like that's how I read that.

I'm like, well, that's as good as the chance of anything. This fight is going to happen, okay? And this fight is going to be awesome. April 18th, UFC 249. The fifth time is the charm. There's a reason why we had to wait this long to see it the first time, it matters so much right now no, Corona's not getting in the way here although the cases are kind of popping up

I don't want to get you on a neo-political kick here but they're popping up left and right it's a lot of fun walking through New York City right now I was wondering if you were going to wear a mask on set today no, I was assured I don't know what's funny about that, people are trying to save their lives yeah, this is a safe spot yeah, it's not going to break down from at No, I was assured. I don't know what's funny about that. People are trying to save their lives, Chuck. Yeah, this is a safe spot. Okay, this is a safe spot.

All right. Yeah, it's not going to break down. From at thisispotu? Pot you? Yeah, thisispot you. Do either of you have burner accounts? My guess is at LukeThomasNews doesn't, but at Brian C. Campbell has at least three. No, why would I have a burner account?

I live my life very outwardly. I put the tips on the table, on the wall over there. What do they want? What am I going to go lurk from an assumed name and be like, that Brian guy is pretty cool? No. Nope, I don't have one either. I do know a lot of people who have them,

and I think it's because they get blocked by enough people that they want to have someplace where they can go. So Dana White and people like that who end up blocking guys like him. I get a lot of DMs from people saying, they give me screenshots of being blocked by Luke and they're like, please, I never meant him any harm. Please get Luke Todd blocked. Luke would have like 1.3 million

followers if he didn't block everybody. What are you saying about his character? His character? It's poor? No, I'm not saying that. He's a good guy. We love Luke. People want me to hate Luke. Why? Why? I mean, come on.

It's easier that way. Yeah. No, he's a great guy. But yeah, he was unbelievable. But he blocks. I get it, too. And I do not work with him weekly like you, but people tell me all the time, like, ask Luke to unblock me. Didn't somebody in the Philadelphia 76ers organization, they got fired because they had a burner account

or their wife did or something? I saw somebody, there was some police chief in Vermont just got fired with a burner account. You don't want to mess around. Go on your Facebook. Make sure there's no pictures of bongs from early Colorado days. You want to wipe that crap up.

Luckily, we came up. We're old. We have old balls. We came up in a time where you could do really dumb shit, and it's not... Yeah. Consequence-free back then. Not anymore. Remember how much not. Yeah. It's not. Consequence free back then. Not anymore.

Remember how much condoms used to cost back in the day? Oh, man. No, we never used them, right? Shout out to you. Great movie. I got to keep going back to it, right? It's a great movie. Who's on the 90s counter today?

Jay, can we step it up? Yeah, where's that at? I know you're reliving your. By the way, Jay was in a boy band. Did we get into this yet? You talked about that a little bit. We found a picture that Jay, the classic Jay, he is a real person, was in a boy band in the early 2000s.

There's no records of this. Very early 2000s, he says. He had blonde hips. He had dance moves and stuff. One day we'll play it on here. He still plays, doesn't he? He's a guitar player. He does.

There's a weird YouTube video of him doing a Johnny Cash cover with fingerless gloves. Jay, I don't want to expose you to the people unless you want me to, but Jay's got a lot of work out there, all right? He's a documentarian as well, okay? Enough Jay. Jay, got any more for us? No. All right.

Hey, it's time for the most exciting show in combat sports. All right. We're going to do it. The most exciting segment. This is where we search the globe, Chuck. Oh, wow. Oh, here it is. Look at this.

I love the new graphics. Look at that. We search the globe for the good, the bad, and the ugly. If it happened in the world, you'll see it on this show. Chuck, have you seen this shit? Let's start with UFC Norfolk. We've got a few entries, Chuck. Check it out on this screen over here, Chuck.

Oh, yeah, this was great. Jan Kutelaba. Who's the bloke that he fought? This was before the fight started. Have you ever seen him in the face-off, Chuck? Basically, I mean, we thought they might go tip-to-tip. No, they're about to throw punches here. Who's the bloke he fought?

Onkulov. Yeah, look at that. You know, this guy is crazy, man. This guy is off kilter you see him when he dresses like he does the whole green and the Hulk thing and he rips off his shirt

I have never seen something like this and I got fired up for this it always cracks me up when I see something like this where they get into a fight before the fight or between rounds

you're like dude you guys are fighting let's roll on to the end of this fight you want to talk about a questionable stoppage this fight almost got more bizarre so Kute Laba's in the black and and Chuck, he was saying that he was faking

that he was on Queer Street. I don't know if you've ever been there. Been down there. And the ref jumps in to stop the fight. Oh, look at the slap. He gave him a little slapdick there. What do you think about that? Well, you watch it in this, like now in real time, though.

If you were looking in real time, it did look like he was wobbled and he was hurting. So he was faking. But if you watch it, not a lot of those head kicks are landing. He's blocking most of them, and you kind of see him actually anticipating. So are we trying to believe that he's faking being punch drunk so he can come back with a counter? I don't know. I think that's what we're to believe.

All right. He certainly, like, it took him like one nanosecond to start disputing that. Yeah, and can we play more of, is it Ion, Yon, Eon, Eon?

How do you pronounce his first name? Ian, right? Ian? It's I-O-N. I don't really speak whatever that is. Can we play the next

file here, folks? There it is. And this is what he's known for at the waves. Wow. Wow. Wow.

Love it. How long do you think it took to get that stuff off? That's pretty damn good, man. Wow. That guy's ripped Love it. How long do you think it took to get that stuff off? That's pretty damn good, man. Wow. That guy's ripped, too. All right, let's roll on.

Have you seen the shit also at UFC Norfolk this weekend? I've got to run that back, by the way. The aforementioned Megan Anderson went into the crowd to pull off the Aussie special with the shoeie. Is this hot? Is this redeemable? Does this make you want to hang out with her, Chuck, and get tattoos? What do you think? It was as impressive as her punch though. I mean, you know what I mean? Like, she does two things

that are very impressive. I didn't really think she'd be the one to go for this, but this is other level disgusting. First of all, I hope that that's a brand, like somebody's brand new like, is that a Reebok? Whatever it is, I hope that's a brand new shoe, but I think that that's like just somebody's shoe. There's some dirty motherfuckers out there. I don't wear socks, Chuck, most of the time,

so if she wants to do that with me, you're rolling the dice. Show the veins. No, I am wearing socks today because it was cold out. But that's how I live my life. I mean, she wants to play this with me. I'm here. I'm here, all right? Yeah, well, she's...

I mean, it's a rite of passage. In that country, I think it's a rite of passage. I like to see hands back to top. It's freaking gross. We can joke a lot, but it's freaking gross, Chuck. That is really freaking gross. That is really... I don't know how they do it in Australia, but... I mean, can joke a lot, but it's freaking gross, Chuck. That is really freaking gross. That is really. I don't know how they do it in Australia, but.

I mean, I've seen it. I've been in bars. Have you been to Virginia? Virginia's for lovers. You don't want to drink out of somebody's shirt in Virginia. All right. Speaking of weird people in Virginia at UFC Norfolk, how about this guy auditioning to be the next Just Bleed guy?

What do you look at his shirt, Chuck? What does it say? I love dirty chicks. Wow. Virginia is for lovers, Chuck, as we established. And this guy is an absolute dirt hole. I love dirty chicks. Wow. Virginia is for lovers, Chuck, as we established. And this guy is an absolute dirt hole. But it did not win T-shirt of the weekend.

Be careful of that because this guy will be coming after us. Last time that guy was coming after us. Just direct guy. He did not win worst T-shirt of the weekend in sports. Check out this hockey game. What about this guy, Chuck? Wow. Wow. Wow.

Wow. Yeah. I don't doubt him. That was more of like a life slogan for you in your late teens, right? Yeah. All right there, Chuck. One of my truisms. Hey, let's roll on from MMA this past weekend.

One championship, speaking of coronavirus. Oh, my God. They had an empty arena event in Singapore due to that virus. Check out this entrance. I don't know the man's name, do I? Oh, Shannon. Oh, dude. We rat-chat? Check out this entrance. I don't know the man's name, do I? Oh, Shannon. Oh, dude. I love that he,

I love that his face, like he actually puts, he does the facial expression. He sold it very well. Look at him just walk away. Oh, man. Yeah, that is, I'm down with that.

That is some good stuff. Where was this at? This was in Singapore. Oh, in Singapore. Empty arena though, which is weird. You know, I mean, hey, you gotta protect.

You gotta protect. Yeah, you gotta protect. But that's, there's gotta be some relatable thing here in this. Am I the kid in Luke's arms there? I mean, hey, you got to protect. You got to protect. Yeah, you got to. But there's got to be some relatable thing here in this. Am I the kid in Luke's arms there? I mean, what's going on? This is like something to this show, right? I can't get enough of that.

Is that just a giant? I love his face. It's hilarious. Is that a giant green dong from Eon the Hulk Kudalaba right there? All right. Also in one this weekend, here's what really mattered. We're going to look at him again. Yes.

Yoshihiro Akayama. Sexy Yama is back sending fools to hell Chuck life is good when a well tanned Sexyama is back in our lives with the what kind of hair is that color that's like the gray what do you call that

the gray the dyed gray what do you call that silver is correct platinum thank you camera guy The gray, the dyed gray. What do you call that? Silver. No, not silver. Silver is correct. Platinum. Thank you, camera guy. Platinum. Thank you, Jay. He's got the platinum.

Look, this is really like my hero. Sexy Yama is the man I aspire to be in life. I'd forgotten all about that guy, man, until this weekend. He lost his one debut, but he came back with a bang, Chuck. One more time. Look at that right hand. Get out of here. Wow.

Guy went down in sections. Get a suitcase out. Scoop him up and get him out of here. Wow. Guy went down in sections. Get a suitcase out. Scoop him up and get him out of there. You think you can get that guy through TSA after that? An implosion. Clearly, Yoshihiro Akiyama is too sexy for this cage, right? Are you getting any right-side Fred vibes? Can we play that in the back? I'm getting those vibes.

Can we hit that up there? Can we be a little faster here, Jay? Oh, yeah. Look, a shout-out to the 90s here. Uh-oh. Look at these guys. I can't imagine these brothers like girls, but that's fine. I mean, look, you know, they were ahead of their time, Jay? Oh, yeah. Look, a shout out to the 90s here. Uh-oh. Look at these guys. I can't imagine these brothers like girls, but that's fine. I mean, look, you know, they were

ahead of their time, right? I mean, no. How old that looks now. Wow. So he's a model and you know what that means, right, Chuck? And he does his little turn on the catwalk. My God, I haven't seen this. Would you hang out in the back of that car? That looks like the same car from the How Bizarre video by OMC. You know what I'm saying? Look at the shirt just fall

off. Yeah. I kind of wanted to be these guys when I was in seventh grade what I'm saying? Look at his shirt just fall off. Shirt's off. Yeah. I kind of wanted to be these guys when I was in seventh grade. I'm like, these guys have to get all the girls. Turns out they don't at all, Chuck, and that's fine. But, you know. How about the brother on bass? Good confidence, though.

Good confidence. All right, yeah. I don't think you can play that bass at all. That's a sexy video. We should stay in the 90s. Remember turning on MTV like spring break, being like Daytona Beach, people's tops falling off, you know, and just being your parents sitting next to you on the couch?

Like normal, right? The 90s were a wild time, Chuck. You know what I'm saying? Oh, man. All right. Hey, what else kind of shit we got this week? We got more? Yeah.

You ever seen a sidekick KO like this? We're going to Dublin. This is Jamie Falding in the black shorts, in the white shorts. Oh, my God. I got to see this again. Damn. It's like throwing a dart and hitting a bullseye. Whoa.

No, you don't really see that too often. Sidekick from the deep, dark depths right there. That guy's not getting up, Chuck, okay? Let's roll on to one more time, one more time for the people. No, we're in boxing over the weekend. Former heavyweight champion Joseph Parker was back when his third straight send in Sean Bell Winters threw the ropes onto the apron with a vicious four, five, six-punch combo.

I don't know. Just enjoy it, Chuck. No, that's not. Oof. No, he's not known as being a great finisher. He has a Burger King sponsorship in New Zealand, so shout out to that. You ever seen the middle of the ring when he fights down there? He's trying to get back in the title picture, so this was a good showcase for him.

Remember, he lost the unification bout to Anthony Joshua a couple years back. Pretty, man. He also had a bad spider bite last year that kept him out for a long time. You ever get a spider bite in that? Never. Yeah, it's weird, right? It's real weird. Yeah.

All right. All right. Thank you, Joe Parker. It's beautiful, actually, man. Speaking of KOs. Those are nice heavy shots. Yeah, let's go to some logging here. All right. All right. Thank you, Joe Parker. It's beautiful, actually, man. Speaking of KOs. Those are nice, heavy shots. Yeah, let's go to some logging here. We got some logging action.

Sometimes you just want to throw a big log. Oh, my God. Throw a big log and it hits you with the ghetto blaster, Bad News Brown style. This guy is out cold. Oh, my God. What are you guys trying to do? Good Lord.

Hi. Who's filming this, right? That's what I always want to know in these situations. This is like one of those Rex Chapman. Do you follow Rex Chapman? Yes, blocker charge. Yeah, this is. Like one of those type of things.

Wow. Shout out to that world of kooks. Where do I find this stuff? That guy. Yeah. Hey, we scattered the globe for Weird Pro Wrestling. He's back. He's back.

He's the smooth criminal, Chuck. He's back. Look at the kip-up right there. What do you think of this? I don't know what country this is in, but it's pretty creepy to see Michael Jackson. Yeah. To take out these young guys. This is, wow. Now, do you find this? He's bad.

Did you find this? Well, I think it found me. I think it found me. He's bad. Wow. Yeah. That's amazing, man. You know, it doesn't matter if he's black or white.

You know what I'm saying? Those moves. Not everybody has dainty ankles that can do that, you know? I got dainty ankles. You do. What does that mean, though? That's weird, right? Where is this?

At a mall? At a strip mall? It's black. It's white. Hey, hey, yeah. I could get down with the Michael Jackson wrestling. Yes, yes. So this was only the second creepiest and most dangerous thing he's ever done with young men.

Can we roll the first one? Where's Blanket? You remember this, of course. I do remember this. The dangle. Oh, God. He put so many young people in danger. It's unbelievable, this guy.

I mean, rest in peace. You don't want to talk about this. You don't want to talk about the dead with ill will. But you have a favorite MJ moment? No, not really. Okay. I wouldn't. Okay. All right.

Not even the moonwalk at the... No, I used to dig the moonwalk. That whole album was awesome, like the Beat It video. Yeah, the Thriller album. I mean, it was... Thriller album, yeah. You remember second grade, you go to a birthday party? Thriller was like an 11-minute video, right?

Thriller? The Thriller vinyl was playing wherever you were back then. I can't even believe that he's... Like, you watch that now, and you you're like... What do you think his kids are going to grow up doing? Auctioning off his weird artwork? What do you think? I don't know. I could watch this all day. All day on a... Have you seen

this shit? Yeah, I've seen it. This is weird. Look. Wow. Alright. Hey, let's roll on to something even creepier here. Check out this guy wearing high heels. Sudden death is coming, Chuck. Get ready for it. Oh, God! What happened? Seth! I thought we

weren't allowed to show death on this show. We tried to show a circus act with a snake. Choked a guy out and he killed him. First of all, I mean, there's a lot of effort going into this. That's like... I mean... That's pretty impressive.

I've never seen a guy in high heels crumble like that into pieces, you know? I mean, that's pretty impressive. I've never seen a guy in high heels crumble like that into pieces. You know what I mean? Just damn. Wow. It's a meat shop after. He's got good balance, though, in those heels, Chuck. How are you in those? Not as balanced.

Not as good there. Hopefully they swept that shit up, right? Get a dog out there. Chew on that meat. That is not weird. That's weird. Okay. That's very weird.

All right. He did a good job with that, though. That's weird. Okay. That's very weird. All right. He did a good job with that, though. Let's get something manly and badass in here. How about Mike Perry at Submission Underground? Al Iaquinta not having it. By the way, you're looking for a condo in Long Island. Al Iaquinta will sell it to you. Don't smoke inside of it, though. He's not happy.

Shades of Ricardo Mayorga, the boxing king from Nicaragua. That is bad to the ass. Did he win the fight? I didn't see. I don't know if he... I don't pay attention. Who really follows that? He is an interesting cat, man. I mean, this seems like the least... I feel like he smokes you around and drinks whenever he

wants. I think he's 2% black, so he can say the N-word, too. That was awful. I can't believe he did that. Alright, let he can say the N-word, too. Well, he can. That was awful. I can't believe he did that. All right, let's close with this. We always have hijinks to end it. Somebody's dong gets hit or something. Oh, my God.

That got right to the pills. Look at the reaction here, Chuck. Check out the guy in the green. He can't even handle it. Can't handle it. What do you expect? What is this? Vicarious puking.

You don't notice he's got the life jacket on? Can we get a... I don't like to see that. We're going to close with this day in MMA history, Chuck. It's been exactly 1,367 days since UFC 199. Has it? Do you remember when Michael Bisping pulled the upset and then he pulled apparently that...

What is this? What is this? What is this? I didn't mean to give you the shaft. That is, yeah, that is, wow. There's some creative types out there. Somebody sent that. One of our fans sent that in. Wow.

I don't know if he made it himself. I can't read the guy's name. I'm a little turned off by this. Essentially what happened. That is kind of what happened. He did take his manhood that night and his title. I was there. Were you?

I was not there for that one. Los Angeles 199. Yeah, I was not there for that one. Los Angeles, 199. Yeah, I was not there for that one. The Forum. Yeah. Look at the look in his eye. I noticed I said eye. All right, here.

Let's get off of that. It's time. Thank you in the back for dealing with all that BS. It's time for odds and ends. Chuck, I'm going to go first, okay? Okay, go ahead. I don't know if you saw this weekend the co-main event of that DAZN card in Texas. The great, and I knew him being great, Ramon Chocolatito Gonzalez, the former pound-for-pound king.

You may remember, Chuck, at the peak of his stardom, which really was the back end of his prime, he had those two fights with Cisrisket Sorungvisai, lost a close, brutal decision. The first one got sent to hell in the rematch, had one fight in the last two years, but came back on Saturday to reclaim a belt at 115 against

Kal Yafai. Walked him down, stopped him with a beautiful, brutal one-punch KO. So here's the deal. The fighters in the extreme low weight classes, and by the way, Chocolatitos won titles in three divisions. He really didn't get the fame and attention until really he was on the back half

of his career, fighting in a weight that's above his head where he's taking damage to win fights. He went in there and just reminded you of who he could be. Yafai was a little too ballsy. He tried to walk in there and punch with the puncher. He got sent down. But to see a guy, I know he's only 32, but that's old for these weight classes. To see a guy empty the jar one more time, you want to talk about the big business that could be ahead. Did you ever see his 2012 fight with Juan Francisco Estrada,

who's a pound-for-pound ranked guy? I did. He's the king at 115. They do that rematch there. Yeah. You're all about it? How about a trilogy fight with SSR? It seems like that's the one he wants, right?

But it's understandable. We want to take it back. These lower weight classes are always under the radar, but Chocolatito is a man. He is a man. He is a king of kings. He is a great dude. Was he on the McGregor Mayweather card, wasn't he?

No, he wasn't. He would be on the Triple G undercards for a stretch. When HBO got a hold of him, they kind of put him out there. He likes manly stuff. Do we have that in the back? You know, he's just, you know, I mean, you know. My man. What's this, Jack? He's a dude, isn's just, you know, I mean, you know. My man. What's this, Jack?

He's a dude, isn't he? Oh, well, yeah, you know. All right. Hey, this is HR. I mean. It's hilarious. All right. That's it. Chuck, you got any odds and ends you want to get into? You know, UFC 248 is this weekend, obviously, and Sean O'Malley. Remember this guy?

Remember him, yes. 23 years old. Last time we saw him in the cage, and he's finally returning. It's been, I think, almost two years. There he is. Look at him. If you remember, in that fight, his last one at UFC 222, I thought he was kind of on the verge of kind of breaking through

and a new start. Reebok was putting out, like, tie-dye shirts about this guy. He was doing all kinds of stuff. Didn't he love Nate Diaz? He wanted to basically be Nate Diaz? Every time the show, he's got a split. He's always doing this stuff. I felt like he was on the verge, but for the last two years,

he had that foot injury in the fight, and then, you know, I think he had hip surgery. He's been suspended. He's been wronged because of the residual effects. He's been pulled off a car. Don't get Luke Thomas started on your side, though, right? I'm only just barely touching on this. I can call Luke right now.

I know this is more Luke's domain, but it's good to have him back very, very quietly on the prelims this coming Saturday. It's kind of a crazy thing that it's been two years. The guy is now 25 years old. You know what's crazy is in that age range, they just took two years away from this guy. That's when all the stupidity is out there, right? This guy would have had like four fights in that time. That's when you're stupid and you do crazy things,

and it would have made him a star. I would have liked to have seen that. They took those years away from him. I hope he's still the exact same guy. I hope he built up the resolve. Yeah, I hope he stayed in the gym and is just going after it. And he is a funny dude. Yeah, I remember they were interviewing him, Joe Rogan.

If you get a tattoo before your eye, doesn't that mean you're in a gang, or is that just a teardrop? It just means he's a star. He's a star. He's a star. That's what he said. Chuck, do you have any tattoos? I don't.

Do you? No? I don't. Do you? No, I don't. I'm a little afraid of needles. I don't really like them. I didn't even get a flu shot this year. That's good. Yeah, I don't want to get on any anti-vaccination rant here. Here we go.

Luke will take me out there. Chuck, thank you for joining us this week. It was fun. We want you people out there watching and listening to us to hit us up. Can we hit up with the socials here, Jay? Can you follow us on Instagram at Morning Combat? Follow us on YouTube. We need you.

Here's the deal on YouTube, all right? We're building an army here. We want you to like this video. More importantly, we want you to subscribe. If you are still watching this show, if you are still drinking from the Areola every week and enjoying it. Guys, can you pay it forward? Can you just click subscribe? This thing's taking off like a rocket ship, all right? Like the Challenger.

We don't want to be any school teachers left behind. It's been far enough. I can make that joke. Yeah. We want to see this thing take off to the stratosphere. So do your part in that. And follow this gentleman right here. They probably just saw it.

Chuck Mendenhall or something. Very simple. The Man and the Myth podcast. Man and the Myth, yeah. Theathletic.com. We love your work, Chuck.endenhall or something. Very simple. The Man and the Myth podcast. Man and the Myth, yeah. TheAthletic.com. We love your work, Chuck. Thanks, man. The people love you.

You know what I'm saying? They should. You have a scary, almost Arash Markazi-level Q rating with the people. You think so? Yeah. I don't know if I'd go quite that far. That guy is a man of people. He's got restaurants in Vegas that name meals.

I know. I've eaten his. That's right. I've eaten it. All right. That's the show for this week sorry if we creeped you out at all uh luke thomas will be back next week and as you guys know 248 this weekend giant things to come morning combat will be with you as we head into tony habib season as we head into wilder fury through this is going to be a great this is going to be

the year for combat sports mma boxing boxing together, the consummation station, I'm right in the middle of it, okay? Let's hope it all happens. Yes, let's hope, let's hope. I got nothing else to add. That's it. You got any instructions for people?

No, I think you've said plenty. Spay to neuter their animals or anything? We bringing that back? No, Bob, that died with Bob. Is he still alive? Price is wrong. Price is wrong, bitch.

Is he dead, Jay? No. He had that long, real thin microphone. That was a little creepy, right? Price is wrong Price is wrong bitch Is he dead Jay? No He had that long Real thin microphone That was a little creepy right He'd always like Hold it like it was Like a joint

Get him a roach clip Yeah he's like He's like I bet Did he ever touch Those women on that show? Oh my god It'd be a full matu

Very hands on approach Very Harvey W. Potten Get us in trouble With these little extra things I know I'm sorry Who didn't kill himself? The other guy Didn't kill himself Very hands-on approach. Very Harvey W. Potts. Get us in trouble with these little extra things. I know. Einstein. Sorry, Weinstein. Who didn't kill himself?

The other guy didn't kill himself. Epstein. Sorry about that. Epstein, yeah, yeah. Hey, shout out to our team here, guys. A lot of Andy Kings in here. They'll take one for the team if they need to. I really appreciate that hunger out of them. I'm lingering, but the show is over.

May all your hopes be loyal or something like that. May hopes and dreams get in the weight room whatever you got to do here a lot of people call me a chubby Lance Bates it's time to get in shape the spring's coming swimsuit season is going to be on the horizon morning combat is the show

there's nothing else like this until they cancel it for now we are hot fire thank you. We out. Thank you.