MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC: Thompson, Pavlovich Win | ONE on Prime Video 5 | Fury Dominates Chisora | Ep 382

Episode Date: December 5, 2022

On Episode 382, Luke and Brian recap this weekend's action in MMA and Boxing. In the UFC, Stephen 'Wonderboy' Thompson defeated Kevin Holland in a wild fight. Is Thompson is still a viable welterweight contender? Tai Tuivasa got bulldozed by Sergei Pavlovich in about a minute in the first round. Did Tuivasa come back from the Ciryl Gane fight too early or is Pavlovich terribly underrated?m Plus, at ONE on Prime Video 5, Anatoly Malykhin demolished Reinier de Ridder. Just how talented is the Russian heavyweight? Also, Tyson Fury dominated Derek Chisora en route to a 10th round stoppage. (10:30) - James Krause (22:45) - Wonderboy TKOs Holland (35:25) - Pavlovich Beats Up Tuivasa (44:50) - Dolidze & Rest of UFC Orlando (56:45) - One on Prime Video 5 Recap (69:40) - Fury Stops Chisora (89:00) - Dm's from Donks Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Reveley, Reveille, dogs Look at us now, tip to tip This is our life, this is our passion That's the spirit we bring to this show I'm Luke Thomas I'm Brian Campbell This is Morning Combat Hey, it's the 5th of December, you cheese-eating surrender monkeys,

and it's time for Morning Combat. Hello, everyone. I am merely one half of your hosting duo. I join you from the capital of the status unidos right here in Washington, D.C., which, by the way, a Tank Davis presser takes place today in this very city. But, of course, I am joined to you by my, well, he's not a, I'm not a New Englander, I'm a mid-Atlantic guy, but he's the King of Connecticut.

He's Mr. New England himself. It's Brian Campbell. Hi, Brian Campbell. Yeah. And the house that I live in, we consider new England estate here, Luke. Okay. It's, it's, you know, they're, they're the OGs of this country in a lot of ways, but

a great to be back at it. Luke Monday morning, it's getting cold. It's winter time here in the Northeast, but you know, at least we don't live in like canada or like alaska or minnesota or some absolute bullshit right yeah where it's like minus five fahrenheit when you get up in the morning yeah or philadelphia where it's not only cold but it's like gross and and just lacks culture no i'm kidding dude sean brady was like yo bc i'm about to i'm about to take you to pound town, okay? But I respect that man too much to shit on his city, though. I maintain. I maintain.

We are sports rivals, but I like the city of Philly, and Sean Brady is going to beat your fucking ass for shitting on it, which is going to be great. All right. But if he wanted to enter into a high court debate about Philadelphia, I'll make sure he remembers this name, all right? All right. Very good.

Oh, you're doing a Bilal Muhammad day. That's cold, bro. Too soon? That's too soon. That's too soon. That is too soon. We like Sean Brady here. I love Sean Brady.

He's a great dude. That's the thing. He's like the coolest guy, you know? He's all right. He's a good dude. All right. But we have a lot of show to get to. So we have Krausgate just keeps on going.

We have one on Prime Video 5. We have UFC Orlando. We have the Fury fight, the Circle of Titoc orlando we have the fury fire the circle latino or should i say the estrada fight considering he won by the way my picks horrendous over the weekend we'll talk about that yeah you'll be eating a lot of a lot of crow directly from the box luke yeah yeah kind of am hey listen this is the game we play i played it and it blew up in my face gotta own it so two thumbs up if you're watching on youtube please hit subscribe if you're listening on your favorite podcast platform.

Do be so kind as to leave us a nice review. BC, of course, Showtime is the label that pays. Showtime.com. Get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you can bounce. BC, any updates on the store, which, of course, that mug and that hat, if you're wearing, you can get those there.

I'm not sure about the shirt. No, the shirt is brought to us by our friends over there rally north carolina nice price books and records i mean what a great place luke you know that great song uh willin by little feet luke nope sure don't oh well this song is a tribute to the map that that trucker took in his 18 wheeler while uh you know uh ingesting those weeds whites and wine you know what i mean and the, you know, taking the back road so he doesn't get weighed. You know, Luke, Tucson to Tucumcari, right? To Hatchipita Tonopah.

I mean, it's a classic route. It's fantastic, you know. All right, well, I don't care about any of that shit, so who cares? Let's see. We also have, of course, you can get the merch. You can get, as I mentioned, Showtime.com, 30-day free trial. If you'd like it, you can keep it. If not, do whatever you want to do with your life.

MorningCombat at gmail.com is the store for Wednesday's Fan Subs, Friday's Dead Wrong, or to otherwise reach the show. And yeah, BC, we got a big week. I'm going to see you on Wednesday. We're going to be in Mohegan Sun together, briefly, anyway. I mean, I hear rumblings that there's a rematch scheduled between us and the punk you know i was texting big john over the weekend nice yeah we'll see is he prepared for this

rematch or what uh he was in a good mood so i don't know if he thinks about it like a rematch per se but i got no issue with big john but the last time we brought our award-winning podcast to try to coexist with theirs, Josh thought it was like round four of the Nick Diaz fight or something. Or Nate Diaz, excuse me. I mean, what are we doing here, Josh? But if he wants to fight in our fighting cage, our audio fighting cage, Luke, I'm here for it, all right? All right, very good.

So we'll do that. And then, of course, Bellator is going to be the end of this week. And then, of course, the UFC has a big pay-per-view at the end of this week as well we'll lean into that as the week progresses but bc we have a lot to get to today so first thing pre-game preview luke can you can you flaunt that yes yes everyone's killing us for the pronunciation of jerry pro jazka which of course is not how you pronounce it i don't know how you pronounce it i don't speak czech and by us they're killing you for for trying to go all out of sonia on calling him yeezy the same day that the real yeezy wore a black mask and was you know glorifying some that's

coincidental it's sort of like a yersey or like a yizzy more than a yeezy but even then i don't speak check i really can we just do one thing collectively as an mma media unit like i respect the shit out of people like john annik who try to get it right. And ultimately, I do believe that we should try to get it right. I also believe if you're somebody like Israel Adesanya and you've become a champion and become a household name with one pronunciation, and then we just, you know, Ariel just decides one day, no, guys, it's going to be this. And then Luke decides, no, it's Adegroina or something like that. It's like, no, dude, can we all just, can we all just, you know, Americanize the names

here and call them Yuri Prochaska. I mean, that's good enough. I used to call him Jerry. So it's good enough. Yuri Prochaska is good enough. I don't need you bringing Yeezy on me. I don't need you ruining Alexa's last name anymore, Luke. I just need us to just get uniform in one thing that we can all pronounce.

Okay. Because Luke, I can't roll R's. I really can't do much with my mouth all pronounce okay because luke i can't roll r's i really can't do much with my mouth to be fair luke you can't roll your r you can ask the women in the history of my life um no i can't roll ours no you can't say caro you can't do that no look i'm from a factory town from french roots we don't do stuff like that okay all right well yes listen uh the problem with trying to get the names right, if you don't have a very clear sense of it, is that when you try to get it right,

if you don't have someone kind of guiding you who can really help you, you end up, there's a certain nobility in attempting, but you just come off like a goofball if you don't get it right, and the chances of not getting it right are high without that. So you do your best. But I will say this, BC. The Sir Honorable Charles Mendenhall, Iceman himself, high without that so you do your best but i will say this bc the uh sir honorable charles minden hall iceman himself he did a great job if for no other reason they should watch it for that yeah

well he's the balance between our our ridiculi luke the so that's it's perfect when the old man in the hat comes around so check out pregame preview youtube.com slash morning combat who knows you may find some surprises on there okay that's all i got to say about that very good uh bc i want to remind everyone about ship station as you know christmas is coming it's the most wonderful time of the year forget thanksgiving and it can also be however the most hectic time of the year if you're anything like me bc you put off shopping for the last minute and look if you're like us and rj gangbanger and you have an online store you know that feeling of getting hit with a ton of orders all at once when you're buried in orders and emails from stressed customers.

I'm telling you right now, you're going to wish you had ShipStation. That's right. ShipStation turns holiday ship storms into smooth sailing so you can keep your customers happy and still find time to enjoy some eggnog. And look, the holidays can get stressful, but they're not supposed to be. So how about you use ShipStation to help you relieve that stress? Luke, I like to avoid extra holiday stress by getting on top of the shipping processes I need for my relatives before the season gets too crazy. I don't do that naturally, but I got a wife who's on top of things. But now I also have ShipStation.

And Luke, I don't have to feel overwhelmed anymore. I can feel reassured that whether I'm talking about customers getting their orders in time for morningcombat.store or my parents getting their Christmas gifts from me, I'm not going to wait to the last minute like I normally do and then enter into that deep, dark winter depression. It's certainly way better than using the default shipping option for online stores. I know that.

Those always take up time to deal with unnecessary hassles. With ShipStation, you are able to manage every order from one single dashboard, automate routine shipping tasks, print shipping labels, that's big, and easily compare rates and delivery times to optimize every single shipment. You know, Luke, it's funny you say that because with enterprise solutions that make warehouse optimization easy, ShipStation scales when you do. So there are no limitations on your growth opportunities. ShipStation has a free trial and a quick setup. If you've been on the fence about trying it, no better time than right now. Yeah, Luke. Hold on a second.

I got a visitor here, Zoe the cat. And Luke, you know, one of the best parts of ShipStation is that it works with all your favorite places to sell online, including Amazon, Etsy, eBay, Shopify, and so much more. Luke, you know this cat will kill me if I hold her stomach any longer, Luke. Yo, that cat is about to just shred your face like goddamn Master Shredder up in this. One of the best parts, of course, as you mentioned, it works with all those places. No one wants to think too hard during the holidays luckily ship station is a no-brainer you save money time stress and everything else during the holiday rush and

when you sign up using our promo code bc you get two months to to try it for free yeah so why don't you mk viewer during this holiday season which can get crazy why don't you, MK viewer, during this holiday season, which can get crazy, why don't you give yourself the gift of stress-free holiday shipping? Use our promo code MORNINGCOMBAT today at ShipStation.com to sign up for your free 60-day trial. You can tell us at the end of the line, is it the best 60 days of your life? I got a feeling it will be. All right, ShipStation.com, promo code MORNINGCOMBAT. Now, BC, we have a top

five rundown let's very quickly though before we get to everything that happened on the weekend let's talk about some news that broke after friday show of course it couldn't break during or before it had to break afterwards but here we are on monday reacting to it so we all knew the story about james kraus that new jersey had had their gaming commission had essentially told all the betters in the state to ignore or not put bets or accept any bets where Krause was a fighter coach corner you name it and then this was big Ontario the entire province in Canada about 15 million people I believe told the same thing to its betters there no accepting or betting on any UFC bets altogether. And then on Friday, this is the new news,

the Alberta Gaming Liquor and Cannabis Government Agency basically did the exact same thing. I looked up the population in BC, and it was about 5 million. So you have about 20 million Canadians who can't bet. You might be asking, how many Canadians are there? I believe Canada is about 33-35 million people. So the vast majority of Canada is not allowed now to place bets on UFC action. On top of that, and this is the big part, BC, the UFC

has basically said now, pending an investigation, in other words, they could reverse this in the future, we'll have to see, but as it stands right now, if you're at all training and involved with James Krause, yeah, you can't be fighting here. They're not going to allow it. Here, of course, is the quote.

I'll pitch it to you after this, BC. Quote from UFC, from Hunter Campbell, their chief business officer. UFC has since advised Krause and the respective managers working with impacted fighters, those working with him at glory mma and fitness that effective immediately fighters who choose to continue to be coached by kraus or who continue to train in his gym will not be permitted to participate in ufc events pending the outcome of the aforementioned government investigations further ufc has released derrick minner from the organization bc your reaction look we said this had the potential to be very big to get very messy for those involved and given said this had the potential to be very big, to get very messy for those involved. And given that this is the first really major scandalous moment of any kind after this level of all-in embracing of betting from the UFC, from the networks, from everybody,

whoever was going to go down first was going to get the Pete Rose, Joe Jackson treatment. They were going to get scapegoated. They were potentially going to get taught a lesson. Look, it seems very much we are on that way. Men are getting cut, Joe Jackson treatment. They were going to get scapegoated. They were potentially going to get, you know, taught a lesson. Look, it seems very much we are on that way. Men are getting cut, as you mentioned. Krause basically in a position right now pending, you know, we obviously want to give him the chance through this investigation, whatever, you know, plays out afterwards to have his say and give his side of the story.

But where we are right now in the investigation, they're basically removing him from the sport. That's the direction this appears to be headed. And that is super serious. I mean, you want to talk about immediate fallout. Where does Brandon Moreno, the inner interim flyweight champion go from here after recently joining camps there,

you know, you're asking a lot of people to restart their lives and careers, and you're going to see a few of them ending it here because of how serious this is. I mean, this feels just like the beginning. I haven't heard from Jay Paquette at all to see if Nova Scotia or, or Mount Unike in particular is going to adopt those same sanctionings.

But look, this is just the beginning. You have that feeling, New Jersey making a bold move in the States. And once look, you have, you cannot say it enough. UFC,

ESPN, Disney draft. I mean, everybody that that's associated remotely with this are just going to push them, whoever is involved, away and be as PNG to them as possible. If Krause doesn't have a good excuse here, and at this point where we're at, I fear for him and his future.

He's going to go down hard from this, Luke. And you can say justifiably, I guess, but UFC putting in those sanctions to not allow fighters and their team members to bet was a smart move and i think now we're we're sweeping out the mess that that has come from after that but uh is there any you know port in the storm here for kraus and company luke or anyone involved in this it seems like they're going down hard well we have to see we don't know what the investigations are going to yield in other words uh again let me just imagine a scenario,

because do BC and I know what James Krause did or did not do? We do not know. We don't have any information, privileged or otherwise, about what the government has found or hasn't found. But in theory, let's imagine that he was involved in fight fixing, again, as a theoretical idea. Yeah, I mean, you're talking about banishment from the sport for life, and everyone associated with him will go down with it. On the other hand, if he was just using privileged information to bet,

he could also be excommunicated, but that remains a little bit less clear. That's a bad thing. It's a real bad thing with regulators, but that's not nearly as bad as the potential other alternative. And by the way, if he didn't even do that, then this is all just sort of a temporary bump in the road and he'll be back to normal. I don't think we're going to get back to normal with him, but that could be that.

Two of the things that you should consider, by the way, dead wronging myself, Canada, not 33 or 35 million, 38 million. And still, we're still talking about 20 million Canadians, though, who can't bet on UFC. So still, over half of all Canadians cannot bet on UFC action. Do you think 90% of Canadians live within 60 miles of the U.S. border, Luke? Probably, right?

Something like, yeah. There's not many who live remotely in British Columbia or something like that. Yeah, or none of us. None of us. Yeah, the name says it all. There ain't none out there, Luke. But there's two points.

We'll quickly see what we want to consider and we'll get to the weekend's action. Two points to consider. Number one, right, here's kind of the weekend's action two points to consider number one right here's kind of the issue it relates back to these injury reports now we talked about for example when t.j dillashaw fought a ufc 280 he and his team were very very very good about at least about concealing it not that wasn't a good thing for other reasons but at least as it related to betting nothing was abnormal there at all and so you you can imagine scenarios where it's no big

deal fighters routinely come and injured and then disguise it for medical staff. But to the extent that anyone else who is not in control of this process gets information, the UFC doesn't, doesn't like, for example, in the NFL, all of the people who work like the trainers and all of the staff and everyone else on these teams, they're all employees. They can be very tightly controlled. There's a lot of just sort of ancillary outside, I should say auxiliary players here that the UFC cannot control, and that creates some problems long-term. I don't really know how they're going to fix it.

And then, of course, the other issue is just with considering the injury and anyone else in close succession getting information and it also affecting betting lines. How does the UFC fix this problem? We articulated something like that on Friday. Dude, it's not easy. This is a very difficult problem, I think, for UFC to solve. I'm sure they're working very hard with the regulators

to make sure this goes away. It's a bit of a black eye for them. But nevertheless, just the way in which the sport is constructed based off this independent contractor model, it makes control that they need throughout the process that other sports leagues enjoy by virtue of employee versus independent contractor scenarios. The UFC doesn't enjoy that.

And so how do you control that top-down process without it? I don't know. I guess we're going to have to see what they do. Here's how you control it, Luke. You control it with fear, meaning you nailed it. If Krause is involved in actual fight fixing, like, it's over for him. But I think even if it's just privilege information

or maybe being a little bit too i don't know like he's been very open about it i know the interview clips that make the rounds when he when he was on ariel's show was it 2019 i think was the most recent time when he talked at length you know it was a couple years ago but it's still relevant and close enough where he's mentioning you know i make far more money betting on ufc than i do coaching or than i did fighting he also said he trained under a long-time successful mma gambler who's been banned by all the casinos because of the success he has like all these things i think are going to come back to haunt james where even if it's short of fight fixing i still feel like he's going

to take the hit aggressively to the fullest extent of the law so that it sets a precedence because you just made a great point. Well, you know, they're not employees, they're contracts. So how can you have it both ways for UFC? I think they're going to instill the fear through the sanctions and punishments that get handed out for those involved. And by the way, Minner just got canned. So I think that has to tell you that there's something wrong here, because if there was a justifiable upfront explanation for the way that fight went down you know I don't know if he's getting let go and dropped from the company and dropped from the rankings this is seems pretty damning you have to come down extra hard on whoever's remotely involved so that it's a message

sent to fighters managers agents coaches whoever auxiliary that are involved in the periphery of this sport who have access to this knowledge that if you publicly are showing that you're using that to great success betting, including the levels of a discord and being very outspoken like Kraus was and having a podcast about betting and all that, they're going to want to cut those relationships and get you out of that right now. Because that, you know know here's the thing i i don't know at the end of the day in this situation if there was true impropriety i don't actually know but it would behoove the ufc to make sure that it never happens again by acting like there was with whatever information they have and building a wall

right now right right in front of them and saying you even are rumored to be caught up in this moving forward you're going to have issues i think that's the best way to do it without you know this whole debate of employee versus contractor and i may sound very pro company here but look they have to be as as as aggressive as possible because as you so you know rightfully indicated on friday show when we were sort of talking about you know this is financially bad for the ufc but at the end of the day if there is you know concern impropriety that's going to be the biggest hit that they can take they need to stomp stomp that out so look seriously anyone involved i'm telling you right now they're going down hard luke they're going down hard, Luke. They're going down hard.

My only response to the Minner news, people are like, oh, there must be something. Not necessarily. I think you kind of indicated it with the way you explained it there, BC. Let me just echo that. Like, them cutting Derek Minner, to me, does not, I mean, of course, it could mean that they've already found something and then they got rid of him for it. But that, of course, is on the table.

But to me, even if they haven't found anything, just the fact that already this has caused this net effect he's he's damaged goods to them they were just like no no like you're first of all we're just going to take out we're going to cut out any part of this equation that is even remotely involved at all whether he's innocent or not you're already under suspicion that suspicion will never really truly fully go away goodbye right goodbye so he could be totally innocent here i want to i want to point that out but it doesn't really matter because once there there is the appearance of impropriety it's very very hard to undo that

and by the way we'll have to see if other promotions even want to sign him going forward that's the other problem too like james kraus is in a hard way derrick minner's in a hard way by even at a bare minimum at a bare, the mere appearance of impropriety. So right. And look again, if Krause fixed the fight, dude, he'll get what's coming to him. But even if he technically didn't do anything wrong, he's in a potential position to have to get an entirely new career when

his entire life, it seems, was building up to being where he is now. Talented ex-fighter, successful coach, has a presence, you know, podcasting wise in the sport and all that. I mean, that's tough. But, Luke, what is UFC's history when things don't really, you know, they got the fuck rid of Paul Daly, even if that was justified or not, right? They've dropped journalists left and right whenever there were situations. You know, I mean, looking even at Helwani in 199 and how that played out,

they don't mess around and keep people close that they got suspicions about so um either way luke they're gonna have to make a big statement how they how they adjudicate this is that would that be the right word because i did feel a little classy saying that adjudicate yeah but i don't know what like being shitty to the media has to do with that i'm saying the ufc in history uh just shuts people just shuts people down fighters who they thought were tied up in something you're gone miguel you know miguel they don't want i mean again everyone thinks this is about financial transactions and it is that's obviously a big part of it but the real story here is that regulators in canada are saying they can't trust whether ufc fights aren't fixed that's what they're basically saying they don't

know if the product is legitimate, and therefore they're banning certain folks, obviously 20 million Canadians, basically, from taking bets on this. So that's the issue. Yeah, but it's probably like, it's probably, who are we banning, really? Like, Braun Stetter and a couple of retired hockey players, Luke?

You know? Probably a couple of retired hockey players, for sure. All right, with that out of the way, let's get to our top five here. Speaking of the weekend's action, we start, as we customarily do with the UFC they returned with a big crowd in Orlando Florida in your main event Steven Wonderboy Thompson had a little trouble early definitely got his shit rocked early however persevered over time he stops Kevin Holland or I should I say there was a weird issue with Mergliata but that didn't affect it the fight

continues however between the fourth and fifth rounds, the corner of Kevin Holland basically stopping the fight there because he appeared to have a broken right hand. BC, the question is this. Did this fight prove that Wonderboy Thompson is still a viable top welterweight contender? In the right matchup, yes. And I think that has to be said because first and foremost, what he did a couple months shy of 40,

the effort, the energy he put out, the speed and reaction time he still had and his willingness to exchange in a fight of the year contender, to be fair. Although I think the final two rounds of this fight weren't anywhere comparative to how good the first two rounds were. Yeah, in the right match matchup so i think this is a weird crossroad spot for thompson meaning one of the angles we played up heading into it during friday's show was you know wonder boy still

believes he's in the title picture and that he can put wins together and get there but luke i really want to counter that i think he should change his model completely and you can argue he already has in the post fight who was he talking about potentially fighting Conor McGregor? I mean, he was making sort of smart proclamations out there to the UFC and sort of, you know, nice guy hidden terms, which is this. If you put me against Bilal Muhammad or Gilbert, like you did my last two fights, you know, I could lose a clean decision and kind of get handled by that. So in that regard, Luke, I really don't think he's still in the overall title picture or could change his recent rate of success.

But his willingness to fight such an action-friendly fight, and look, he's always such an affable, lovable guy and all that. I think he showed you that if he's truly in that late-Twilight, fun-fight-other- other legends portion of his career, he can make a lot of money in the short term if he's willing to kind of adopt some of this Michael Chandler style. Now, he's not as reckless as Michael Chandler, but if you put him in matchups where guys are not going to take it to the ground, which this one quickly became that, especially after Holland basically walked away after taking Thompson down that first time, and they laughed about it, that Thompson still has a lot left.

He has more left than you and I thought coming into this fight, I believe. And it's impressive, and it's fun, and there is no shortage in the greater BMF landscape of fun fights across multiple divisions for him. But I do not believe, even with the resurgent feeling of this performance, that he's still in the overall title picture do you think that's fairly I think it's pretty fair I mean you mentioned that Holland got up off of him when he eventually sort of like fell on top of him and this kind of weird scramble he didn't do it just once he did it twice two times he ended up on top

just by virtue of tripping and falling or whatever could have had the or the moment they're on top and both times neglected to use it like we talk about I mean Michael Bisping has gotten a bit of controversy because he was decrying the fight IQ of Kevin Holland it's not to say that Kevin Holland doesn't have good fight IQ when he wants to employ it but you can't say he was employing it here he had his opponent who probably is not much of a threat off of his back and Holland just let him up two different times when his opponent is much better than him, or at least certainly very capable on the feet relative to him than on the ground. So there are legitimate issues there.

But I agree with you. I think he's still very fast. He's still very capable in the right matchup. Sure, he can beat good guys. Some folks are talking about maybe a fight, again, with Jorge Masvidal, although if you watch the first one, Wonderboy wins that one pretty cleanly it wasn't very competitive however who's to say about a second one we could see but I don't get the sense because it wasn't really tested here and we already kind of have the answer when he's fighting the Bilal

Mohammeds or if he fought a Hamza Chamayev or somebody else who can really take it to the ground or Gilbert Burns or whatever there's I just don't see any way he's going to beat those guys but are there other guys he could beat of course last thing I'm going to say BC is however there's one more thing we should keep in mind I'm not trying to diminish the win it was a great win fans loved it Wonderboy looked great but it was number six versus unranked right so Wonderboy got a win technically speaking over a guy we like but came into this fight unranked but let's be fair under Thompsonompson seemed to be ranked too high coming in holland seemed to be kind of getting jobbed by not being ranked at all i'll get to holland in a second but what two point quick points i want to make off of what you said

is to be fair that masvidal loss uh against thompson which was completely one-sided was was the fight that led jorge to the wilderness if I'm not mistaken here, that was sort of like the boiling over frustration point of like, what am I doing? And in that fight, you know, he was following Wonderboy around and getting caught in traps. In reaction, in relation to a potential rematch between the two, I feel like Wonderboy was going out of his way to show everybody with the way that he fought, which was perfectly helped by some things that Holland didn't do, as an advertisement that he's willing to be that fun name action fighter if you give him the chance to do that. And if you give him the type of matchmaking that a guy in his spot, former

title challenger, very well respected, but yet still has a lot left in the tank can produce. So I think the idea of him and Masvidal a second time, I don't even think about the first fight in that regard I think it'll be what it will be which is Thompson trying to make a fun fight on the feet but Luke you brought up Bisping's harsh comments regarding Kevin Holland and I think the reason why this ended up playing out the way it did was basically exactly what Michael Bisping was saying Luke and I felt it watching it live what the heck's Kevin Holland doing and this is the same night where I had legitimate concerns about the matchmaking decisions and the timing for Tai Tuivasa, which I'm sure we'll get into. But for Kevin Holland, it's not the matchmaking opportunities.

It's the style he employed. I get wanting to play up and be that guy and make an action fight and being like, hey, we're in this. We're having fun. We're talking to each other. We respect each other. Let's go after it. But there became a point where Holland was consistently

on the losing end of these exchanges. I know that's hard for a guy to take when it's Holland who has big power and there were times early where he was hurting Wonderboy and you wondered if he was on his way to a knockout. But in rounds three and four, it started to become clear that he was just getting beaten down and taking way too much punishment and constantly absorbing the type of punishment that

usually gets guys finished yet. Wasn't trying to adapt his game plan or style. I'm not saying it's easy in a firefight to do that. He had an injured hand. There's a lot going on there, but for him to never shoot. And what do we say? Come in.

And I said for Kevin Holland, if you get caught in the Wonderboy traps, he still may have enough left in the tank to outpoint you if you let him on those terms. You know, I don't know if this was Kevin Holland's plan. I don't know if he had a plan. I don't know if he just got in there and just fell in love with the fun direction that this was going and figured, look, late, I'm going to beat him with my power. But he woefully miscalculated a few different things.

For him not being willing to take the fight to the ground where there seemed to be an avenue where he could gain some control or gain some time off after taking huge shots or what have you, considering other fighters had done the exact same thing to him, Derek Brunson, Vittori, and sort of controlled him and exposed him. Chamaev in the last fight, I think that's a big fail on which direction right now Kevin Holland is actually going. And when you add in his retirement talk and his sort of unhappiness, even before the fight happened with the potential rewards he was

going to get by fighting Hamza on short notice, I think Kevin Holland's going to have to take a long look in the mirror at what am I fighting for? What direction am I really going? And I'm not saying like you can't be a Tui Vassa or a Derek Lewis and be open and say, nah, bro, I'm here for the money. I don't care about all your spoils and fame and royalty. But you need to be the biggest advocate of your own career at the end of the day. And I think too many guys are just like, F it, man. I'm the old, I'm the new cowboy and the UFC will take care of me.

And even if they do quote unquote, take care of you by certain favorable matchups or by extra money here and there is that the best use of your career to to maximize it what you're looking for if Kevin Holland is just here to have a good time then party on dude but if he's not Luke he's not maximizing the the skill set in the hard work that he's put in to get to this point I think you got to ask and of course we don't know the answer to what I'm about to ask but it is worth asking like why would Holland fight that way I mean our own our own uh producer uh on the chat here is reminding us of course we said this on Friday but you know Kevin Holland's not just a black belt he's a Travis Luter black belt like like dude Luter doesn't hand those out

man like that that's hard to earn and he's got it and he didn't use it at all so like the question you have to ask yourself is why does Kevin Holland fight this way? And you could say, well, he just wants to have fun and blah, blah, blah, blah, but it's like, dude, you've got to remember something, man. You do this for a career, and you do it long enough. Now, maybe he won't do it long enough, but if you do, it's going to change you. It's going to change the way your 40s and your 60s look if you even make it that long.

You're taking brain damage. You're taking orthopedic kind of damage. It's going to have a long-term effect. If you want to make the most of this, you got to fight in a way that maximizes the opportunity, not necessarily every single time of every single moment, but in general and letting up an opponent who has a noted weakness on the ground twice doesn't speak to that. So does Kevin Holland, and I don't know the answer to this. I'm not suggesting I do, but it is worth asking, why does Kevin Holland fight this way? Part of it could be that he just doesn't believe he actually can be a champion,

so why bother putting yourself through the rigors of getting to that place on that path, which is much more difficult and arduous and requires more out of you, versus training very hard and fighting very hard. I mean, there can be no question about his heart. By the way, his chin is just absurd, right? You can say that. And he's got some pop.

He hurt Wonderboy. But it looks to me like there's some internal questions that are happening about how much he actually likes this, in what ways he actually likes this. Like, I don't like training this way. I don't like fighting this way. I only like this way. And that's fine.

But the rewards for fighting this way, if you do want to fight that way they are much narrower they are much slimmer they are much harder to come by the rewards beyond that are the very significant lasting ones you're making a choice to fight this way your record's going to speak to it and in the end your body and your pocketbook are going to speak to it as well it's an interesting trade-off i don't know i don't know if it makes a lot of sense no i mean it's hard because we want these type of fights we want that fight was so much fun i saw a lot of people tweeting you know fight of the year contender this feels old school this is wild it shouldn't have been that good in many ways and it's like i hate coming down on kevin holland for wanting to be that guy but sometimes you become that guy

when you have figured out you can't be anyone but that guy. I'm not sure Kevin Holland has taken that full swing. And Luke, mindset is important. We found out sort of after the fact, now looking back, that Stephen Thompson had something to prove in this fight. And he proved it. I don't know what Kevin Holland's true mindset was. He was talking more about, if I win this fight and Hamzat still gets a middleweight title fight, I'm quitting. You know, it seemed like he was in the wrong type of mindset and sort of acted out on that in maybe the least opportune way.

But, you know, Luke, he's the one in there who was landing big shots and maybe he felt he was one away from doing that to Thompson. But, man, there came a point in that fight where it looked like he was drifting, and he was drifting quickly. And, you know, that's when I need you to bounce back and be smart and safe and take a look at the situation, you know, figure out the score in your head and try to figure out what you need to do to win. And I don't think anybody would have been mad at him if that led to a succession of takedowns and some ground and pound. But you live and you learn, Luke. He's in a precarious spot now with two consecutive defeats.

Still a fun name. Still a great reputation. But he's going to have to earn his way back into these type of matchups now. Yeah, no doubt about it. And again, it's just a weird thing. It's like you can say, oh, I want to fight Wonderboy on the feet. And again, he rocked him in the first, although he was just, I mean, it was amazing, dude. Holland's game plan was just to march into to wonder boy

eat shots and hope he could deliver some back and then the first round he could but this is the other part too it's like i'm not going to go for the takedown okay fair enough but you ended up on top twice twice and we know he's got heavy punches i would imagine he's got some pretty good ground around and he didn't even use it i get it's one thing to say i'm not even gonna hunt the takedown but if it's fucking it just it just literally falls underneath you jesus and you just let him up twice like you're that's a weird weird choice for a more premium kind of fighter to make and i think it speaks to something internally about his commitment to this and everything else i don't know that for a fact but it certainly raises my mind about it i have to say uh all right bc uh we talked about the mich Bisping thing, so let's go to point number two.

Now, I realize that RDA was in the co-main event. We'll circle back to that in a minute. I want to talk about the fights that we mostly focused on on Friday, the ones that we really cared about. Okay, so I was wrong about the first fight, although you did see Holland rock him a little bit. There was a little something to what I had said. one way wrong way way way wrong Tai Tuivasa gets absolutely bulldozed by Sergei Pavlovich wasn't even close for two seconds although it did get a little hairy in certain spots BC here is the question did Tuivasa come back early, or is Sergei Pavlovich terribly underrated? To be fair, both. But I do think it's still a little bit more of the former,

meaning I question Tui Vassa's judgment. I mean, this wasn't exactly Michael Bisping on medical suspension with the state of New York after losing his middleweight title to GSP and getting beaten up and submitted, put to sleep, you know, then fighting Kelvin Gastelum in China and like a week and a half notice just for a payday. And he went in there, he tried, he got knocked the hell out, but it wasn't that far from that Luke. And you know, that may have been the result no matter what, because he fought a fighter who we weren't quite sure. but then when

you package this performance with all the other performances yes sergey pavlovich is coming the hell on he's big he's strong his intentions are mean and his execution and willingness to go in the pocket and do that damn i mean look he didn't really land that many punches and did you see tuyvas's face afterwards it was carnage so there is an element there that no matter what that could have been the result but dude this is not tied to ivasa putting his career in terms of decision making first in terms of long term and he's talking about he just wanted to get this fight done and grab the payday and go enjoy the holidays with his son and buy a six-year-old son gifts. And, you know, I'm all for that, by the way.

But, dude, you can't live for today all the time. I get that that's his default style. That's what makes him fun. That's what makes him dangerous. That's why we love him. What did he really even have to gain here? I mean that. He was ranked one spot higher than, you know, if he wins this fight, he's probably in the same spot more or less than he was coming off the loss

to gone, which was, he shouldn't have been in that fight. He found his way in. It was exciting as hell. He showed that he's got this ridiculous superpower that now we must protect. If we are to a Vasa's management, if we are even the UFC and its matchmakers,

because when I made that comment about, Hey, if John Jones can't come back against Ngannou for the title or Stipe, why not make a heavyweight debut against Tui Vassa? For him to even be in that conversation, for me to say that and actually be like, that might be a smart idea, shows you that for as long as this lasts, meaning it's hard to keep this type of lifestyle in and out of the cage and stay relevant against ranked fighters. But as long as he can lean on this superpower, he could make some very fun fights and make some memorable long-term moments. And most importantly for him and his six-year-old son, make a shit ton of money in doing it. This felt like so high risk for little reward.

And I know it was, let me get this last fight in so then I can go take a long time off and rest. But I don't begrudge anybody, Luke, who has a chance at a bag and they go after it. I also don't begrudge anybody who's just like, this is how I operate. But how you operate may have just set you back for a while because it was another somewhat, I don't want to say unnecessary, but it was another short-term huge damage. And, you know, maybe protecting that brand a little more coming off of that performance against Gon could have made fighting guys in the top 10 to try to improve your ranking no longer your game plan. Which means from here on out, it could have been, what other heavyweight can I go in there and make war with in a main event? Or could I become a sleepy title contender just by being relevant

and having given guys really hard fights and packaging wins here and there? This felt like bad calculus in terms of what could potentially happen. And it just so happens that it was worst case scenario. So I get to do the, I told you so. But I don't want to, Luke, because Tui Vassa, with all that drinking out of spit shoes aside, showed me something against Cyril Ghosn that like, damn, man, he shouldn't have been in that fight. That shouldn't have happened differently and say, nah, him against Pavlovich, that doesn't really make a lot of sense, right? Let's just wait him, let him cool off,

take a couple months off, and then we'll do something. Well, you can still do that, but now he just got sent to hell again. So, all right, what do I know? If you watch the replays, especially there was a couple of big flurries that hurt Tuivasa. On the second of them, you can watch it in slow motion. They show the replay, and what you see is that you see Tuivasa kind of second of them. You can watch it in slow motion. They show the replay. And what you see is that you see Tuivasa

kind of cock back with his right hand. And as soon as he does that, before he can even come forward, you see Pavlovich go right down the middle with a shot on that same side. He went with his own left as Tuivasa was coming with the right. Why do I bring this up?

Because he had game planned for him and they knew he was going to swing wide, put a linear shot down the middle. You can block anything that comes up on top of it. In other words, Pavlovich had game planned for Tui Vasa. I didn't see any evidence that Tui Vasa game planned for Pavlovich. Not very much anyway. Not in any kind of serious way that got going.

And I realize that once he got hit with a big shot, for a lot of fighters, that's out the window. But Pavlovich had a plan and he executed it and it worked you got to give him credit for it even if you want to say and I do by the way I echo everything you're saying about Tui Vassa but let's focus on Pavlovich as well in this conversation BC because it's a guy who I've just I've been saying I can't quite tell how good he is because you know he beat Derek Lewis before this but Derek Lewis we don't know where he's at in his career and the other wins have been nice Maurice Green and and Shamil Abdur-Rakimov.

But those guys aren't the level that these guys were talking about here. But there's a piece of this equation that's missing. And I also talk about the fact that he made his debut against Overeem. And he got bludgeoned, which he did. I re-watched that fight to see what's up. He was 26 when he fought Overeem. It was his UFC debut. He lost three years.

He fought Maurice Green in, I think, think October of 2019 he didn't fight again until this year he missed all that time he was supposed to fight Cyril Ghosn in August of 2020 that fight fell apart he was supposed to fight Tom Aspinall in September of 2021 that fight fell apart he was supposed to fight Tanner Bosser in January excuse me in of 2021, and that fight fell apart. He lost 27, 28, 29 in terms of his years on his birth certificate to be competing in the octagon. In that time, however, he clearly, clearly got better. For 30 years old, you're wet behind the ears and young at heavyweight, and to me, dude, his hand speed, his boxing, his combinations, they are a problem. I still have some questions over the long term about how he looks because we just don't know. We haven't

seen him taken into deep waters with really any of these guys. He beat Abdurakhimov in round one, Derek Lewis round one, Tui Vassa round one, Maurice Green round one, Marcelo Golm round one. We don't know what he looks like in round three, four, and five if he were to fight a gun or somebody else, BC. But I'm here to say, is Sergei Pavlovich very, very, very good? And do we now have enough evidence to conclude that? Yes, we do. We very much have enough evidence to conclude that. We finally have a much clearer sense of how good he is.

And he's six foot three, and he has jacked his shit. And we didn't even mention the two-year gap that he had leading into this calendar year that you mentioned. It looked like that's not easy to do. It's not easy to do and pick up right where you left off and, you know, extend to your fifth straight first round finish. You remember Habib after the RDA fight, taking off two years and coming back like he missed nothing and Dom Cruz.

And, you know, maybe even O'Malley after that USADA suspension, but it's not often that someone can just pick up. So he used that time to get better. The fact that we don't have the tape in the UFC on him even getting out of the first round makes him very interesting moving forward to watch for the matchmakers to know what they have here. They don't really know. Nobody really knows. There's a bit of a Shane Carwin element to him in terms of that regard, but did go the five rounds before the UFC that one time in a championship fight. So who knows, Luke? But you could not ask for a better calendar year.

Three finishes all by first-round finish. And they were, I mean, three wins, and they were all destructive. Seriously. I mean, he's battering. He's battering people. Maybe the Derek Lewis one didn't give the closure and finality we wanted. Yeah, this one did. Did you see that cut dude that's gonna be a scar that shit was deep yeah he got messed up real good in this one and by the way he got the performance bonus as well

his first one I believe in the UFC I think that's right or certainly one of the first of the first in some time anyway yeah he had claimed afterwards that they they screwed him out of it last fight against Derek Lewis Luke yeah. Yeah. Well, that's because it had the weird stoppage, but this one was totally legit. I mean, no issues whatsoever. So congrats to Sergey Pavlovich. He has really rebounded quite well since over and put him, put his lights out. Now BC, I'm going to go to a different fight here on this card rather than the co-main

event. Cause I just find this one to be way more interesting. And I know you agree. How about old Roman to Deleuze wow what a performance by him he shined in stopping Jack Hermanson locks up a calf slicer uses that essentially to anchor himself into position from the back and then use that for ground and pound by the way I told you I just recently watched the full seminar that he had done Jack Hermanson on ground to pound he got a taste of his own medicine here so BC I had just recently watched the full seminar that he had done, Jack Hermanson, on ground to pound him. He got a taste of his own medicine here. So, BC, I'll just ask you. He hit him with a pendulum sweep. He turned him over, had the calf slicer from the back.

Then he finishes him off. How good is Roman Deleuze? Yeah, really fucking good. So, you know, he's going to have his own mini segment within Have You Seen This Shit? So, hashtag holy fucking hammer to this dude, Luke. But, look, it's funny. Pavlovich took those two years off and then comes back in 22 with three straight first round finishes.

The same thing without that big gap for Deleuze where this calendar year, Luke, 3-0. This one was a second round finish. But when you consider the caliber opponent in Jack Hermanson and the method that he used to do it, these three finishes this calendar year, Kyle Dawkins, Phil Hawes, and now Jack Hermanson, dude, they've been fucking brutal. And I put the F word on that for a reason, Luke. He is coming out there with authority to show people

that when we're making these talks about this bin behind me, Luke, of these hammers that we pull out from that side of the world, that you better put respect on his name. And Luke, you know, I may come to him as a fan through different venues than you do, right? Particularly through Instagram. But I'll say this, Luke, we're not talking about Mr. Valismas here. We're talking about Roman Deleuze. For this division, he has used this calendar year to announce himself. not that we'd ever heard of him before but something serious has changed in terms of his commitment his execution and the nastiness luke have you ever even seen that at a fight this level the calf slicer take his back in

ground and pound him like he was freaking brock lesnar in the mirror rematch i mean this is some brutal shit dude i've seen obviously a lot of calf slices from the back it's typically how they're done but uh never in the way that he did it where he was able to kind of scoot out the back and then roll his opponent onto their stomach and then go like that I had someone tell me in the comments that like oh I've seen I saw that in an amateur fight well yeah you see all kinds of crazy shit at the amateur or low-level pros that means nothing you got to do it to a guy who's top 10 in the fucking world in her mansion's real good is how you do it yeah her mansion's really good this was like with ease so to that point yeah you can see the picture here that is unusual and as a point i would like i'd like to make i had

someone ask me the other day like you know when are are the Dagestani style going to get figured out? And of course, you could find some version of some skill set that will have an answer for it. But that's not really the answer. The long term answer is that basically people are going to copy whatever works in MMA. They're going to copy some of those setups. They're going to copy the training. They're going to copy what they can. And the better fighters are going to make good use of it, it gets democratized. When Anderson Silva hit that front kick to the face on Vitor Belfort, yes, you had seen front kick KOs in other combat-related sports or whatever, but in the UFC, that was fairly uncommon. Since then, it's been democratized. He basically gifted it to everyone. Now, calf slicers are hard to hit, but I guarantee you someone else is going to hit this in at least the next couple of years or something like it very quickly because he shows you the possibility of what can happen once you get in that position you're basically stuck that there's really no good answer from there which is why you didn't see him struggle there's no real way to turn out from it that I'm aware of anyway certainly and so it was a phenomenal win and by the way BC you mentioned the good year he's had

we just talked about Sergei Pavlovich having a good year here's the 2022 for Roman Delidze he beat Kyle Dawkus in round one with from knees in the clinch. Of course, the punches afterwards. He punched out Phil Hawes' lights in round one, and he beat Jack Hermanson inside. This is round two, of course, but he got the sweep, and then he got on top in that round. Remarkable, remarkable quarter turn.

You know, I went fight by fight on that about a minute ago, but I like that you did it the second time so that i can say this the nastiness of the three wins is different dude i went back and watched those two after after that fight ended i was like wait he he effed up somebody else this year no it turns out doc is and haas and dude he effed them up in those fights like that was like street fight endings in terms of the brutality right so i'd like to know luke because he had a win in june of 2021 but then he was off a full year before the doc is fight so he beat loriano steropoli by decision and he had lost to trevin giles before that uh he was three and one of the

u.s in the ufc entering this calendar year but he had taken that full year off i'd like to interview him i wonder what has changed in that luke i mean, maybe, you know, maybe Cheyenne Vlismas has changed that year. Maybe that's the secret Luke. I don't know. But, um, did you also hear John Anik say he was the scariest guy they've ever had in fighter interviews and, and, and made it made him feel the most intimidated. You probably didn't hear that. Cause you like to watch with the volume down, but like I do fighter interviews as do you a lot on the boxing side. I think're very valuable there are times when people come in there with a with a feeling and a mood where you're just like oh shit i'd like to have seen that interview luke that that almost makes roman delizze seem even scarier that he was like intensifying the shit out of ja and making him feel something you know yeah no doubt about

it and this is a again it just seems to me like before he was kind of i don't know if rationing his offense is quite the right word because i don't think it was a a cardio again, it just seems to me like before he was kind of, I don't know if rationing his offense is quite the right word because I don't think it was a cardio issue, but he just didn't seem to have enough offensive will previously. And now he does, and guys cannot stand up to it. And not just on the feet, but on the ground as well. He's got his weaknesses, to be clear, but now his strengths have been majorly

amplified so we'll see where he ends up in the rankings bc question back to you who else on this card stood out to you and why yeah some of these names are going to prop up more on have you seen the ship based on their finishes but this whole card had a combined feel of like aging fighter redemption meaning it doesn't have to be somebody who's past their prime, but when you take victories by Angela Hill, Quay Guida, Michael Johnson, Eric Anders,

and, and the, the, the attitude, the method that they showed, how, how gutsy, how gritty they executed their game plan and were able to kind of turn back

the clock in terms of the control they had. I was impressed across the board on these performances. I mean, Phil Rowe was getting the shit kicked out of him by Nico Price and rallied for that stiff knockout. Look, there's a few, I may even mention Matthias Nicolaou, who extended that long win streak in what he announced after was the final fight of his deal. So we'll see if he gets re-signed and how much that knockout in second round over Matt Schnell launches him into a deeper level of contention here. I don't know who to pick who I'm most impressed with. Did one stand out to you above the rest? Because we can talk about each one of those if you want.

We could. I don't need to go through the whole bit about them. I thought Michael Johnson, it was nice to see him get back. Well, he had previously won, but you know. Well, dude, what was Jocasey doing, doing man you thought you had the fight in the bag like michael johnson fought his ass off and i loved to see it and it was resurgent and it bought him kind of a chance at a new life but jacasey was looking good in that first round and then he stopped i don't know i don't have a good answer for you to answer the question you sorry the answer the question you did ask previously like who really stood out to me the one who opened the show and i again i'm not

sure i pronounced her last name it's what eggy or what eggy i don't know where if there's accents on the name or not but yasmin what eggy looked tremendous and the best part about it was she's still putting her game together she's still in development she gets dropped early by her opponent nunez but rallied and then closed the show on her showing not only does she have ability but grit and determination and ability to persevere through difficulty when the when the moment arises or calls for it anyway yeah we're gonna solid win by her we're gonna see that shit shortly but this card had bangers and it had the crowd it was good to see obviously everyone's saying the same thing because it's true it's good to see these really

good fight night cards get out of the apex and get somewhere. But, Luke, say what you will about the clientele in the state of Florida, which includes some of my family members, Luke, although you may actually be right in the end, is that those crowds come out. They're hungry. They're aggressive, right? Jacksonville was the case in the past, and right here, Orlando. They seem to meet the energy that a lot of these fighters had.

There were a lot of, like, statement performances. I mean mean like we said you know michael johnson not done hey good win for clay guida retiring scott holtzman but dude we were saying a lot of great things rightfully so about emily decody and in her potential here at women's straw weight and dude angela hill came in and shut her down man i mean that was i was very surprised i mean i'm not surprised that hill won i think that fight was close enough that it was going to go either way i think the odds spoke to that pre-fight but just how clinical she looked and like clearly like she you know what was funny sometimes fighters are far apart in talent and then sometimes they're like somewhat apart in talent but then that talent difference however marginal may be is amplified by seniority in the game and like really talent and then sometimes they're like somewhat apart in talent but then that talent difference

however marginal may be is amplified by seniority in the game and like really understanding what works for you and what works in the moment she just looked like she knew the octagon better and she knew how to fight up to her strengths better and Ducati just didn't have an answer for it and great great win by Angela Hill who by the way her record is very deceiving BC she sits today I think her record is 15 and 12 man that doesn't really tell you the story at all it sounds like oh she's almost a 500 fighter nah fam she's a lot better than that yeah so is Michael Johnson coming in with a 22 and 18 in that fight and getting the win it's that same feeling but but dude that was such a step up performance from. And if we're really being honest, this is what she does.

It's like every time we think she's on the verge of entering a long losing streak, she'll come back and beat somebody who you didn't think she would and do it like this in a controlling, professional, aggressive fashion. I mean, I was blown away by that. It was a great performance. I could talk about a lot. I mean, Eric Harris was punching holes through Kyle Dawkus. Luke, I didn't expect that. that nope didn't expect that either Kyle Dawkus we talked about

Taito Iwasa coming back too soon Kyle Dawkus might have come back too soon as well you know obviously you know Eric hits really hard so that counts but um I don't know man I didn't I didn't like how some of these guys they feel like they're Wolverine, and I get it, right? I understand how they might believe that, but you've got to listen to what, like, not just the doctors, but what the old heads in the gym are saying. It's like, dude, take your time coming back from an injury like that. And I still have a high belief or a high opinion of him and a belief that he can do well, Kyle Dawkus,

but it is a bit of a reset moment for him, for sure. Do you think, to close on your boy, did he get, like, was it easier to achieve achieve puntang while a linebacker on a national championship alabama team or as a respected ufc fighter gotta be on alabama national hundred percent just you know southern bells luke i mean you know i don't want to glorify that lifestyle but it must have been it must have been something special and and by the way shout out to to our guy, Phil McKagan, friend of the show, former college football star at Maine. Deion Sanders is your new coach of the Colorado Buffaloes, Luke.

So interesting things going on in Boulder. You don't care about this at all? What is Phil coaching now? Phil is the associate head coach, but Deion's coming in. Deion might bring in his own people, right? I don't know the situation of that, but I was excited for... You know what? You're right. I should check in with Phil and get those details,

because I was excited for him. I was like, Deion's coming. This is great, Luke. Yeah, unless it means Deion's bringing someone in to replace him, in which case, not for great. Dude, coaching is brutal, man. It's not like Philil's not good he's great but well maybe dion knows what's up and it's the dion and phil show moving forward all right prime time and show time yeah all right let's talk about number four on the rundown here bc

at one on prime video five i mean folks there are not there's a handful of, well, more than a handful, but there's the list of people that I tell to pay attention to outside of the UFC. It's relatively small, relatively speaking, right? And even inside the UFC, the list is small, like who you should actually pay attention to. But the point I'm trying to make is, if there is, if someone were to ask me like, hey, who's someone really interesting you should pay attention to outside the UFC? The answer is going to be Anatoly Malikin Anatoly Malikin fucking demolished uh Rainier Derrida I mean he absolutely Derrida was never in this fight now understand something Derrida is a two-way world champion or at least was at middleweight and light heavyweight he still is at middleweight light heavyweight was a step up for him and Malikin BC as you well know is the interim heavyweight. He still is at middleweight. Light heavyweight was a step up for him.

And Malik in BC, as you well know, is the interim heavyweight champion. They're trying to figure out what's going to happen with Arjun Buller. But he went down a weight class essentially to fight DeRitter at light heavyweight and crushed him. Let's ask this question. How good is Anatoly Malik?

Terrifyingly good. So, like, I think we have to be careful at, like, the clowning reaction we have when a fighter in a big spot gets sent to hell. You know, we're almost like, yeah, there you go. Way to dare to be great. You know, that's what happens. So I don't want to do that because Rene Derrida, you know, when he comes on our show and is like, you know'll beat adesanya and poet on the same night i'm

going to win titles in three divisions i love when people talk like that and are also unbeaten and a two-division champion and have this track record so i got i want to sit here and say i got so much respect for rdr to go up basically due to the rehydration rules basically move up to heavyweight because they came in what in the low 220s so rules, basically move up to heavyweight because they came in, what, in the low 220s? So he's basically moving up to a third division, although this was technically a light heavyweight fight, and facing the unbeaten current interim heavyweight champion who was trying to make his big name and big moment.

It just so happened that that was a leap, not only too far, but way too far because of how scary freaking good this guy is. Luke, I heard the result before I watched the fight. So what I figured was RDR did RDR things until he walked into a bomb and that was it. Then I watched that fight and it was systematic demolition, not just with the body shots, the stiff jabs and those hard right hands that every time they landed,

you're like, oh, shit. The Dutch knight is, you know, you can't take more than those. And his face was getting bright red, as you can see in the pictures. But even separate from that, he stuffed every single takedown. So coming in, Luke, I talked to RDR at length. I'm like, you know, what's going to happen? Are you waiting for that opponent that can stuff your takedowns consistently and make this a a striking match and he he almost like laughed at me like oh yeah you know nobody's gonna do that dude malikin came out and did that dominantly

just straight up shut the front door on him and was like you're gonna fight for your life out here on this porch only that's his playground in the striking game dude it was systematic demolition almost as like striking and blowing you away as like you know rousey home or pacquiao de la jolla where you're just like oh my god this is this is one-sided as shit that's exactly what it was this guy's already got the interim heavyweight title now he's the light heavyweight champion he's undefeated he's in his prime from Russia. And if you saw, we'll see him and have you seen this shit. But if you saw like his post-fight interview, he's just like, I'm the best.

I have the best wife. I have the best kid. I have the best boss. Look at me now. That's through translation. And I'm adding the Borat thing there to make it funny. But it's almost like he's just like, I'm a fucking badass. What you going to do about it? Yeah. What is Arjun Bhull you're gonna do about it yeah what is arjun bueller gonna do about it what is anybody gonna

do about it i came in here hyping rdr because his accomplishments were very impressive and by the way they still are but dude he ran into a guy who's coming the fuck on right now so you know me a year ago i was just like dude i don't have time for one you know what i mean maybe like i was last year when i bid in on pfl and was like oh man this cage is pretty fucking smart dude one's really good right now the matchups people the hammers people going for it the constant aggressive matchmaking of champion against champion this was so compelling to watch and as for as long as it landed it lasted and now i can't wait to see where both guys go because luke this is as devastating a loss as rdr can

face and i know he's already the champion of middleweight and i know he you know he can go into the grappling divisions like he's as good as it gets on the ground but dude he got sent to hell and it wasn't a it wasn't a fluke it wasn't luck you know i give rdr so much credit for take standing out on this standing out in the rain and saying bring it oh holy oh it got fucking brought luke is this a career altering defeat uh based on how freaking brutal and one-sided that it was that's my question to you i i definitely feel like dude like to your point you you really if you guys are amazon prime members out there if you can find a copy of the fight however you can strongly encourage you to watch it doesn't last very long less than a round so you're not asking

for a ton of time to sit down and take a look at this i'm not i'm not doing a bit here derrida looks like he's trying to take down a brick wall like it never it never gets close and he'd make several attempts especially early from trips from the clinch like they're it was it looked it looked like honestly like tuki trying to take me down dude like it was it was like yeah but he's six four dude rdr six foot four and huge and he got just decimated, man. So I wanted to tell you about this comparison. See what you think of it, BC, because I haven't fully fleshed it out, but it's just something that occurred to me when I watched him punch. Now, in terms of personality,

Malikin is the opposite of a name I'm about to say. Malikin, to your point, you've got to watch the post-fight interview. The guy's like pretty happy-go-lucky. He's jovial. He's intense, super intense. Don't get me wrong. But he's kind of happy. He's bubbly. He's full of life,. Don't get me wrong. But he's kind of happy. He's bubbly.

He's full of life, right? And I mean that in a very positive way. Obviously, he's a terrifying force of nature in the cage. But in terms of how he punches and some of the mechanical advantages he retains, he reminds me of Fedor. He reminds me of a smaller heavyweight who has heavyweight strength, but like light heavyweight or even middleweight speed yeah and he uses both of them he's got a wrestling background so he could shut

everything down he's strong as a fucking ox but his hand speed is terrifying and his punching power is all heavyweight and he can reach long distances with it he can cover ground super easily like dude he has put everyone's like oh he fought a guy who's not the right weight class go look at the heavyweights he did that too they fall the exact same way his power definitely carries at heavyweight does that comparison mechanically as he functions resonate with you at all yeah it does and it's an interesting one but he was that freaking scary and it's like you know the easy reaction here is to go okay you know i'm i'm like where bc was you know f this extra organization it's not as good as this or that i don't care i don't want to see it you could make that mistake but if you go back and watch all these rdr fights in

multiple weight classes leading in dude as soon as he gets his hands on you, you not only are taken down, he's already in like move two and a half of setting you up for the submission and the finish. I mean, Luke, there is something about RDR that just next level that jumps through the screen. And this dude, Malikin, didn't win this fight because, again, of one lucky punch or because of size, even though he was the bigger man coming down. He won this fight because he seems to be special and dominant. So, Luke, I don't know if I'm just hooked on a feeling here,

but one is checking some boxes in for me right now. It almost feels equivalent, not because of the side of the world they're on, but like when I got back into wrestling a couple years ago, pro wrestling, I know you don't care about this or want to hear this, and you know there's WWE and there's strong stuff going on in the indies but i'm like you know wwe is the best but the flavor man it's not always just for me and then i tried out new japan pro wrestling and i'm like oh that's different it's grittier it's you know the matchmaking booking thought process is just different the right now luke there's something

about what one is offering that it wouldn't work if you didn't have elite fighters. And it seems like they do. It wouldn't work if you didn't have awesome fights. And boy, do they. But their storytelling through the matchmaking tends to be more compelling on average than some of their competitors of late. Now, maybe that's the gimmick of putting champion against champion so often which Chachere and company seem to they're willing to over abuse that formula. But like

you exit some of these fights going, oh shit maybe it's just you're new to some of the I'm new to some of these athletes, but I'm like, man, I gotta follow them now down this road. I gotta see storyline wise what's coming up next with the booking. And you know they're hot right now. Now, at the same time, there's a quote floating around where Chachere's like we are bigger than UFC there's no question in terms

of viewership or engagement that around the world we're the better organization no but I'm really happy with this one product so far so it's you can be both things at once right look it's fine yeah I mean he's just I don't know why like you would say something like who who's the intended audience for some bullshit like that you know what i mean i don't even know maybe and probably investors probably investors right probably investors i'm not sure i think it's bashir ahmad or maybe it's matthew i'm not sure who no sorry not bashir ahmad um i'm not sure i think it's it could be bashir ahmad it could be matthew i'm not sure. I think it's, it could be Bashir Ahmad, it could be Matt Hume. I'm not sure who the official matchmaker is at this point for one, but whoever it is, they're doing a good job. Like they're doing a good job. Like of all the things you can say about one, fine, say them. But on that issue of like finding and selecting good talent and the right permutations, they're good at it. They're real good at it. So that's why you get fights like this,

and this was a bit of a blowout, but what a revelation Malikin turns out to be. Now, BC also on this card. Well, hold on. Just real quick aside, what role does Rich Franklin, let's shout out Ace, who we enjoyed having on our show, is he involved in some of this long-term matchmaking

and how they're trying to set people up? I'm not sure. I know he has a few administrative roles that are pretty important. I don't know what, long-term matchmaking and how they're trying to set people up? I'm not sure. I know he has a few administrative roles that are pretty important. I don't know what role he plays in matchmaking. We should get him back on the show and then ask. Yeah, I'm into that. For sure.

I like Ace. I like Ulrich Franklin. All right, Roberto Soldich, who folks like, well, who's that? Well, he was a two-way world champion in KSW who knocked out Drikus Duplicy. Drikus Duplicy is undefeated in UFC. He's about to fight Darren Till. Yeah,

Roberto Soldich is very, very good. Had the worst fucking debut ever. Kicked in the balls. There was no real fight. He had stopped. BC, this hasn't happened to my knowledge on a major platform since Alessio Sacara, which I watched this live. I remember this very, very vividly.

Alessio Sacara made his UFC debut against a guy by the name of Ron Faircloth. Ron Faircloth kicked him in the balls so fucking hard, they had to get the puke bucket out for him, and he was dry heaving in the middle of the octagon. A horrific one debut, was it not? That's Kish versus Herrig levels of gross, Luke. Yeah, but no, luckily this didn't have that gross element,

but I got to ask you, I got to spin it back at you no this is a horrific uh uh debut but i've texted you when i was watching this you know on delay and and going man chatri on the broadcast just seemed to make it feel like this is the biggest mma free agent signing globally so i expected that with some promoter you know promoter speak in general but i did text you and say, okay, like how good is this guy? Luke, how good is this Robocop guy with pit bull and the, and the flag of Croatia on his shorts? Because he looks like a badass. I don't know much about him. Looks I'm a filthy. He's very good. He's very, very, very good. Two of his losses.

One was to drink his duplicy, which he avenged and then knocked him out. And if you watch the second fight it's not especially i mean it's not it's not like a blowout but it wasn't it wasn't like super close um soldiers was much better and then his other loss was a split decision against you know we're talking like relevant relevant portions of his career but it was to yaroslav amasov right oh well it's a way champion right exactly dude we're talking about a guy like tested yeah battle exactly and he was though he was a two-way world champion in ksw like when he signed everyone thought he was going to go to ufc it was like a foregone conclusion and then he went to one big signing by them big signing all right all right on the call too do you think he tore it

up in the philippines afterwards or is this joke just abusive and not necessary it's a little bit abusive and not necessary there were some other wins by the way at the cup the subsequent card i think it was one 164 because they always do two cards back to back brandon vera retired i don't know if anyone saw that yeah i called it i believe we're going to talk about him and later in the show i've been okay okay very good all right uh then let's go to the last of it bc a A bit of a boxing roundup. Let's start with Fury, even though that fight was stupid. So Tyson Fury, of course, beats the fucking bags off of Derek Chisora. Stops him in the 10th round. Felt like he could have stopped him at any point he really wanted to.

It was one-sided bullshittery. BC, before we get to Chocolatito, what do you have to say about Tyson Fury? I mean, what a waste of that many people in the stadium. And that was weird, by the way. Something we didn't talk about was that they did it at the outdoor Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in like 30-degree winter weather, which again was just freaking weird. Luke, this had—I was getting nervous a little bit because it looked like he was going to knock Jussara out early, and it already looked like, why are we doing this?

Like, what the hell is going on we already talked about it ad nauseum like what are we doing here right and and then Chisora just kind of lingers and then his face was getting to a level that I don't know if you remember Luke when Vitaly Klitschko defended this heavyweight championship against Shannon Briggs and it became insanely one-sided but yet Briggs like refused to go away and took I, really an abominable beating that left him in the hospital. And just unnecessary, meaning the fight was so one-sided, he wasn't going to rally to victory. It would have been one of those fights where it would have been smart for somebody to jump in and round eight and be like, okay, we know where this is going. This almost was one of those, so I'm glad that it didn't but it's like given how friendly they were

that played against this fight even ever being booked and then it played against you know it's like I'm not in I'm not here to show you on have you seen the shit these two hugging in the locker room afterwards and sharing burgers I didn't put it in the mix because just given the landscape I thought it was an unnecessary risk I thought it was a waste of time. Would I have been this angry if he just picked a different faded aging opponent and not one who he beat twice already in one side of fashion? I mean, maybe I'm again, I'm not, I want fighters to fight more often than not for our entertainment purposes. I think this once or twice a year, modern thing is not good unless it's, you know, if you're going to do it for health reasons and, and that's the business plan you're on. Okay. But this was like a worst case scenario because it felt like it was presented

as a big thing and it wasn't. And the only thing that could have happened was negative and bad. And at the very least, it was good to hear Fury for the most part be like, yeah, let's fight Usyk. Let's do this next. So that's the fight we want and need. But in Usyk's face afterwards, he was like, you know, Usyk, if we can't figure this fight out, I'll be happy to fight Joe Joyce right here too. Now, I'd also love that fight. But how many more times are we going to risk the four-belt unification? So let's get this undisputed thing done because it makes heroes.

It makes legends. We'll find out who is the heavyweight of this era. Let's find it out because Tyson Fury deserves to be in that conversation. But like a typical Tyson Fury night at the office, there were a lot of weird elements to this fight that, can we just forget it and move on, Luke? I mean, what did we learn? We learned that he dodged another bullet.

Yeah, dude, basically everyone waited 45 minutes of a fight no one cared about to just see the face-off between him and Usyk. And by the way, Fury did say something after the fight that I thought was kind of interesting. He was like, listen, how many times have you seen Anthony Joshua show up to one of these things to get in my face he's like you've never seen him he's like I'll give credit to Usyk Usyk showed up to be right in my face to make this fight happen both uh promoters saying at this point they expect a deal to be done in a matter

of weeks so I will say I'm feeling a little bit more optimistic about that fight being made than I had been previously because he's such a wild card what about the fury reveal luke that he needs elbow surgery and he has to get his wrist fixed and he still thinks he'll be fine for march or april but yeah that's possible okay that's that's not that's i mean obviously depends on the injury and his recovery and how well he does it but that's that's not crazy that's that's potentially a little a little aggressive but okay in that regard. But it felt like a waste of time. And Chisora took a sloppy beating. I mean, it's like, did Fury look good?

Yeah, in pockets, he looked really good. So it's like, I'm not fearful that Fury has fallen off. Although, Luke, his love handles were comically pronounced. You got to be honest, right? I don't think you're ready for that jelly. I mean, them shits were jangling. Even DC was like, dude, not taking the shirt off again publicly were jangling like even dc was like dude not taking the shirt off again publicly you know what i mean like it was like at that level luke

it was like extra ass cheeks trying to come out you know let he who was without sin cast the first stone i mean he would have pathetic pieces of shit but my man's love handles when he puts a shirt on like you like it's a coffee table you could rest things on it yeah uh with that said yeah he did look good and like i've no look he's gonna be the favorite against usic he should be let's make that fight for history but it's like i almost was like man all those people came out there and stood in the cold i mean at least they got a uh a barn burner in that dubois fight which we'll see and have you seen this shit but yeah that was a great fight that was a great fight the best thing we could say is that nothing bad

happened you know nothing too bad happened so let's survive in advance all right let's talk about the fight that was most interesting this will wrap up our top five of the weekend so here another prediction i totally bombed on although although this one was really weird bc well tell me why it was weird i want to hear it luke tell me okay so let me just say what happened juan francisco estrada defeats chocolatito uh via majority decision. I believe it was 114-114 on one of the judges' scorecards, and then two of them were 115-113. Now, here is why it was weird.

Because through six, maybe seven rounds, depending on how you scored it, Chocolatito looked like shit. He looked like shit. I couldn't believe that. It wasn't... Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. I will grant you. I will grant you. I will grant you.

Estrada looked way better than I thought he was going to. Better than I said it was even possible. So I'll take that L there. But BC, I'm not wrong about this. That was a different fight. And that was a different fighter from the seventh round on. Chocolatito from the seventh round on. Yeah.

Got in his face. His feet were moving. His combinations were flowing. And then the fight turned into what I thought it was going to be. It just took him seven rounds to get there. What the fuck happened? A couple things here. So it turned out I was right.

Punch Drunk Pete was in my DMs right before the fight started. Like, which way do I bet this? And I'm like, dude, this line doesn't make any sense. Like, we're asking a lot of Chocolatito, nearly two years removed from a performance that was already, like, turned back the clock. And even though he's looked good in between them, you know, I felt like Estrada was a live dog.

In fact, I picked Estrada to ultimately win by decision by outworking him. That's what happened. But how we got to the outworking, and to your point, is where the fight was lost for Chocolatito. So let's be fair and honest here. It's not that he sucked early. I think his mindset and game plan was too course corrective to the scores

and the rematch, meaning Chocolatito got the best of Estrada in their 2021 rematch on the punch numbers, and also visually most of us were like, yeah, great fight, but that's a Chocolatito win. I think Roman Gonzalez here, Chocolatito, overcompensated for that and thought look, I'm going to come out in this trilogy and leave No Doubt and make it a war, but there's a couple

problems with this. He took nearly two full rounds off. Now look, that's not like rare. They talked about it on the broadcast, but like they didn't mention Floyd Mayweather, who, like, notoriously did that. But Floyd was a different concept and game plan, where sometimes he needed two, three, even four

full rounds, like against Zab Judah, to figure out the speed, the angles, and all that. But once he did, he left himself enough room to put that shit on lockdown and win the fight. Chuck Luchito didn't have that same luxury. You were just in two close fights against Estrada a decade apart. But that second

one, you may have won, even though you won on the punch stats, like, you see what the judges are looking at here. I don't have, I don't like, I'm not against him saying, I'm going to go in there, look to push the action and knock him out. If that was the game plan saying, let's take the judges out of it, dude, he's an old gunslinger, do whatever the hell he wants. He's one of the

heroes of my boxing fandom lifetime. I fucking love Chuck Latito. But he miscalculated here. If your game plan is to come out and get the knockout, why give away the first two rounds to read him when inevitably what this rivalry has showed us is that even if you're going for the knockout, it's probably going to go the distance. You are two all-time greats here. Probably going to go the distance, right? So you give away the two rounds, and then from rounds two to six,

Chuck Letito was uncharacteristically headhunting. And I thought, you know, Sergio Mora said it best, where he's pushing his punches. Not a lot of zip on them. He was just basically putting pressure out there to try to get inside and try to make a fight. It was never reckless or necessarily irresponsible because he's a complete fighter, you know,

but it did welcome the potential for more damage. And it's like, he just punted away with that style, those rounds by trying too hard to make it a fight without doing what he normally does better than, you know, better than as good as anybody in this era, which is start off boxing, but build off his boxing and work through combinations

to just paint this masterpiece of effective power punching. That didn't kick in until he started coming on in round seven and eight. So Luke, I look back as just a real big. you shitting on this fight afterwards be like yeah not not not as good as one and two i disagree with that i think it's better than one to be fair it was a damn good fight even in chocolate tito trying to be too much of a headhunter there were pockets in rounds three and four that were as good as any

pockets in this series. This is a very good action fight. This was not the triple G Canelo three that people were trying to compare it to. But Estrada was the younger, fresher guy coming in, even if he didn't look great in his last home down performance. And Luke, he stayed to the game plan, did Estrada, El Gallo. He put the pressure on. And for Chuck Letito, it was like really good but too good

too late. What are you doing dude? You're a legend you're not supposed to fall for that. What are you doing? Right? Yeah. I hope they can hear. Is Luke heard right now folks? Yeah. yeah i hope they can hear can they is luke heard right now folks uh yeah take it with the question all right well luke's asking me if you didn't hear it uh whether i believe there should be a four fight fourth fight so at the moment here estrada is up two

fights two to one in this series but the asterisk, of course, is that second fight, the rematch. Most of us thought Chocolatito won. I still think it's in play if they both want it. Now, Chocolatito basically, we'll hear him and have you seen this shit, but his idea of whether that shit happened is more to do with, you know, is there enough money to make it worth it for me to do it again? You could argue that Chocolatito still won this rivalry from what our eyes saw, but Estrada is able to say hey I'm two to one here you know it's got that Marquez Pacquiao element to it and into

it to a degree but I think first for Estrada since he's still closer to his prime um you know look I'd still love a third fight between Estrada and Sirisaketsu Orungvasai just like I'd like Chocolatito on a third fight against him if If they want to do something else first, that's fine. But I'm not against the fourth fight. I think the series would still call for it. I don't think there'd be commercial viewer fatigue necessarily. Like this is never going to be a huge fight commercially, but the hardcores know what they're getting here. And I think unlike the Vasquez Marquez great rivalry that aired all on Showtime there,

that fourth fight was like unnecessary. One guy was way hurt than the other, had the eye issue, and they were both past it and really didn't have anywhere else to go. So they went back into each other. This time around, Luke, I think there'd be more significance on a fourth fight. It wouldn't be Pacquiao-Marquez four, but they would have a chance to look at each other and say, we're both Hall of Famers here. We're, you know, we were both pound for pound greats, you know, Chocolatino number one,

pound for pound at one point, but Estrada has been around it. We are going to be defined and remembered long-term because of this rivalry. Since there's not full closure and there still is some uncertainty, let's do our best to make this rivalry the best of this era. And you could say, well, what is this era? Is Pacquiao Marquez in this era? It depends where you sort of put it there.

But, you know, I think it's worth it on history alone. And yeah, we've had a couple, I mean, I was fine with the scores here. I just think this was a re, because look, I don't think Chocolatito looked old, which some people were thinking in the beginning when he started off very slow.

I just think it was like Lomachenko against Teofimo. You just flipped that switch too late. Like Hopkins against Jermaine Taylor in the first fight. You just flipped that switch too late. His corner was imploring him to step on the gas. I do think he looked old. You know, not the end of the fight. He looked great.

When they were imploring him. His corner was furious looked old. You know, not the end of the fight. He looked great, but his corner was furious with him. Let me ask you this, though. That was, I believe, after three or four, and his trainer is Randy Caballero's father and a respected name, but they were imploring him to stop fighting like an asshole. They were imploring him to box

and build off the jab and then work to the combinations rather than just come forward like punch, punch, man. I mean, so I don't think it was so much like they were trying to wake him up to get out of like, stop being old. I think it was, dude, what kind of game plan is this? We didn't practice this. You know what I mean?

You're too good for this. You know what I mean? He was. I think if he was as washed as Triple G was in the Canelo fight, then there'd be no reason but to go for broke and just try to be the puncher. I still think he could have outboxed him and won go for broke and just try to be the puncher. I still think he could have outboxed him and won this fight. He just showed us that two years ago.

Tougher hell to climb at this age, but I think it was possible. All right, fair enough. That is our top five here today. Appreciate everyone who has been tuning in thus far. I got to remind everyone, BC, UFC Orlando was this past weekend, and this card had hashtag hammer of the month potential all over it. BC, what do you think?

I think it did. I mean, holy hammer, Erin Blanchfield was the first recipient last week of Moneyline's hammer of the month. She's going to accept that physical hammer trophy and has, you know, really fulfilled the purpose of this sort of exercise, which is who has been under the radar,

but is starting to get above it with, with a big time performance UFC Orlando from, I mean, up and down the board, Eric Anders, your boy to, uh, Phil row.

I mean, every, I mean, you could, the people are fighting each other for this nomination. And I mean, do you have a name, Luke,

that you're looking at? Cause there was a lot to love up and down. Well, let me remind everyone, of course, money lion, the only app money app, excuse me, you're ever going to need there was a lot to love up and down. Well, let me remind everyone, of course, Money Lion, the only app, money app, excuse me, you're ever going to need. They have been helping us with this.

They're a show sponsor here. And we have, of course, what everyone knows now to be the Money Lion Hammer of the Month. Could be a boxer or an MMA fighter. That's not necessarily getting the recognition they deserve, BC. Each Monday, we plan to highlight, of course, the nominees on the show and pick a winner at the end of every month to reward this epic hammer Trophy, which, of course, we gave, or we're going to give anyway, to Erin Blanchfield. She's the first official winner. And when you guys are

watching fights over the weekend, let us know which fighters you think deserve this sweet award. Just hop into your go-to social platform and tell us who you think should be nominated. You can tag at MoneyLion on Twitter or at MoneyLionInc on Instagram, and then use the hashtag Hammer of the Month for more information. MoneyLion.com or at MoneyLion Inc. on Instagram, and then use the hashtag Hammer of the Month for more information. MoneyLion.com slash Morning Combat BC. I'm going to go with who I said from UFC Orlando who started the whole card, Yasmin Huaregui. I think that she, yeah, dude, I think, you know, it'd be one thing if she went in there and just battered the other person.

She didn't have, like when you think about Hammer of the Month, we think about complete domination. And there's some other people you could pick for that. I welcome it. But I think her upside is super legitimate, we think about complete domination and there's some other people you could pick for that. I welcome it, but I think her upside is super legitimate. I think her upside is huge. And I like that. She tasted a little bit of adversity because you're gone on the octagon.

If you're always just dealing, that doesn't really tell you the full story about someone. The full story is how they deal with adversity. She did. I was super impressed. That's a great vote. And we're going to see a video of her shortly but i gotta stay with roman delizze now that i look at it luke and i and the reason

why you could say lbc that was the main card um hey ufc what are we doing here a seven fight main card that begins at 10 p.m eastern on a card that's on the east coast like is this is this payback for something i said i mean what are we doing here this was basically the undercard because of that but no roman delizia we talked about him you'll see him shortly it's hard for him to get that name off of my mind but if you guys saw something different if you're loving some of these comeback knockouts that we saw uh please i mean who look i didn't want to forget one other name uh i think we're gonna talk about him soon but francis marshall dropped a bomb on rojo you see that yeah yeah he certainly did he's 23 years old that kid 23 yeah holy hammer pilgrim so again moneylion.com slash morning combat moneylion.com slash morning combat uh for your nominees we'll award one at

the end of the month all right bc it is time now for the donks to ask us questions it's time for dms from the diggity donks as you guys know we put up a post on instagram you fill it up with questions also on twitter this time i saw and then folks uh the producers pull questions all right from at cease 2394 bc is it now the time to unify the bmf and nmf nmf belts so that's stephen Stephen Thompson, the nicest MF-er. I'm so sick of this stupid bit. Will this belt have a presence? Will the UFC allow, if they make the rematch,

Masvidal-Thompson, will the UFC allow him to walk with it? And will they even allow it to be mentioned on the air as like at stake or are we done with that, Luke? Tell me the truth. I don't care about these belts. I really don't. I just don't give a shit. They're trying.

People are trying to keep the ghost of these things alive. Yeah. I'm like, I'm like Kylo Ren. Let the past die. You're like the, the MK curse doesn't fucking exist. Yeah,

it doesn't. Who was right about that? All right. From at V Sanchez, underscore 88 BC. Do you see this interesting question? Do you see any parallels between Kevin Holland and Kevin Lee? They both seem like they have all the potential in the world,

but lack a coherent game plan. Yeah, I mean, if you're going to, you know, I don't see Kevin. They are both named Kevin. I don't see their specific... Well, they are close enough in the same division, more or less, although one came down and one came up. But, you know, maybe more just from the standpoint of yet-to-be-fully-realized potential, right?

But, like, also, if anyone's going to try to make that comparison, I would counter back and say, well, you know, Kevin Lee did get into an interim championship fight. So he never fully accomplished his potential and us calling him future champion Kevin Lee. But I'm not sure Kevin Holland has achieved that much yet. Close, but not that much yet. I think we all look at Kevin Holland as somebody who could be a title contender if he puts everything together. But I think Kevin Lee gave us more reasons to believe that if we're comparing him head to head.

So I don't make a, I don't just go, no, they're both named Kevin and they're UFC fighters. So this is the same. I don't think they're quite the same, right? Because Kevin Lee was a guy and it still is a guy. We'll see how things go. He's training with Phil DeRue. So he's trying to get his body right for this next stage of his career, although what the fuck's happening with Eagle FC, I don't know.

But he was a guy who had stated very lofty ambitions and then either didn't have the ability or made critical errors through the course of a fight. Kevin Holland seems like a guy who's just like happy-go-lucky, just kind of fucking about a little bit. That's not the same thing. You know, you've never heard Kevin Holland be like, I'm the best fucking guy in this weight class,

and I'm going to prove it to you, and then just kind of messed up along the way. That's not really how he fights. So I get the question, but I don't think it's quite right. All right. From at Cole underscore Brown, 858 BC. Thoughts on Brandon Vera retiring from MMA and his overall career. You know, he was on that second car that you mentioned,

not the Amazon car, but I think the debut on the FanDuel TV for one. And it seems like he's been around forever forever but he's still kind of always been that dude in a way fun loving and but intense when he needs to be and i was really touched by the the sort of uh promo he cut into the camera walking back to the locker room after what was his final fight over the weekend and just being like this is what i love to do and i got to do this like it's almost like a guy who just seems so grateful exiting the sport what I love to do. And I got to do this. Like, it's almost like a guy who just seems so grateful exiting the sport, what he loved to do. He probably fought longer than he ever thought he would than we ever thought he would and fought at a high level and was one champion.

But just the joy he showed in, in basically it looked like a man who finished what he set out to do. He finished the course and and and he was better off for doing you know walking in walking it the way he did and the decisions he made and and it's like we we don't see people exit happy enough in the sport for obvious reasons right but it seemed like a guy who who i was touched by his sort of in the moment encapsulation of what this represented to him and and and accomplishing his own dreams and all that and you know for a guy that never got over the hump at the highest level but was in some memorable fights and fought the very best luke um i always had a lot of respect for him and and you know really added to his tattoo game as the career went on in the twilight surely surely he did uh

i'd say a couple things about him i he initially started his career out of camp springs camp springs maryland and i got to see uh his camp a little bit for Tim Sylvia although it was after the Tim Sylvia fight where things kind of fell apart for him but prior to that like when he beat Fabiano Scherner Fabiano Scherner is like a respected coach now who's cornered numerous UFC fighters I remember very vividly when Brandon Vera knocked him out and then said I'm going to be the first two-weight world champion in the UFC he got laughed at and of course it didn't really work but then he beat Justin Eilers, Suario Silva and then he beat Frank he beat the shit out of Frank Muir he was 7-0 at that point I was like holy smokes this guy's going places and then it all

kind of fell apart and well he got robbed against Randy you know that right you know yeah yeah but then he fought John Jones and then John fucked him up and then John ended up being the light heavyweight guy that we had thought Brandon Vera might be uh because he was doing the heavyweight and light heavyweight thing at the time anyway um but he was uh he was one of the hottest commodities in the sport for a long time he put Filipino he wasn't he wasn't like training out of the Philippines but to an extent he put a focus I should say on the Philippines and Filipino MMA. He was able to have, I think, a couple of fights there. Several fights, actually.

In fact, through one. And another thing I would say, BC, is while things didn't quite pan out in the way that he had said after the Fabiano Scherner win, he actually got a little extra life in his career by virtue of his relationship with one championship. He didn't fight a ton for them. He fought once in 2014, 2015 not at all 2017 once in 2018 once in 2019 once in 2021 and then 2022 bc he was like gary russell jr of one in that way he was champion right right right but this is the point he became a champion there he got paid well there they got to fight in the philippines there where his family is from like he got a second life in his career that I don't think a lot of people saw coming after

he just got bodied by Ben Rothwell back in 2013. So good for him. He actually ended up having a pretty good career even after stumbling a little bit. Yeah. And I wonder if some of that happiness that showed was, you know, some, I mean, look, when people seem to leave the UFC late in their career, but still have a name and something left, they have the potential to make more money if they make the right choices,

just because of where we're at in fighter pay in the UFC today. You know, so when guys like Corey Anderson say those statements, you get it. I wonder if he went to one and, and really fought out his career on, on much different financial terms that he was used to. And maybe that allowed him to set up his future

in ways that guys exiting this sport don't always get to. So, I mean, everyone that's gone to one seems to say that the money made it worth it, but it's good to see, Luke, okay? We just have to drag these guys out of these cages, you know? Yeah, usually you do. I think he called it a day and I think um right on time right on time three losses in a row he's old I think he's 40 something now how

old is Brandon 45 I believe 45 Jesus I mean that is old that is old so yeah it's a good time to get out but he ended up having some pretty remarkable achievements as well okay from at dustin strong just a few vowels removed if peter yan goes to one how big of a fight would him versus rod tang be be big and bc how would it play out on a striking only match rod tang beats his ass what kind of a question is that yeah i mean you'd have to do a hybrid like the dj one but i mean how big would it be commercial i think it'd be like for the hardcores we'd love it right but i don't know if it's huge i don't know how big it would be in i don't think it'd be or whatever big i don't think it would be big in the u.s commercially i think it would be an interesting attraction but um yeah i mean just the the sex tease of it luke yeah hell yeah let's do this thing let's find out let's not debate it let's find out luke yeah uh i would love it and then last but not least from at mt booble what was your movie of the year bc sure

as fuck wasn't black adam which is a dumpster fire you know i didn't we don't we don't tend to see these ahead of time so i didn't i didn't prepare for this but um i mean it surely wasn't uh thor love and thunder although i enjoyed it and uh i really liked wakanda forever i don't know that's not figuring into like end of year best film debates though right like people think i'm already overrating it just because i really enjoyed the experience of watching it in the theater in 3d with my kids and being like oh shit this is really good um what is what are like the favorites at the moment for best don't know i've seen a lot of movies this year but i don't know if they were 2022 movies because i think yeah top gun maverick

would be a 2022 movie yeah but that can't win that can't even be nominated for best picture it was like a hell of a ride but what's your favorite not what is likely to win the all right all right well then of the movies i've seen in the theater this calendar year i'd have to go with wakanda forever luke i would probably go with everything everywhere all at once have you seen that i did not uh you would like that you would like that that's a really well done original take um it's a bit of a well definitely a sci-fi movie in a way but uh that was good um trying to think what else i saw this year that's oh prey that wasn't a great movie that was okay but it was good i liked it it was good yeah i'd probably go with everything everywhere all at once i think

that'd be my top choice um when i see that i'll get back to you luke with a review okay i mean but you see bullshit movies let's just be honest like if it's not if it's not in English I mean literally you wouldn't even watch a British movie with British accents it has to be American so everyone's speaking that Americanese my kids and I were in the theater and we saw the the trailer for Creed 3 and dude like Creed 2 was not good and one wow you know it was it was decent one was good one was good it was good dude three looks freaking amazing and i got both kids in fully in on seeing that in imax when it comes out and got my wife involved which is really hard to do because of the violence and the boxing that's promised in this

but she must just love michael b jordan that much but um so now my kids like well dad we should probably watch the first two creeds with you and all the rockies and i'm like you're damn right we are so this is going to be a you know uh you know a dad opportunity here luke that's going to be incredible just going to be so good you know that's a very this is a seminal dad moment for you right here yeah it is i mean but do you think i mean they're 14 do you think they can get through the slow pace of because i want to start in rocky one right but is the is the real power move to start with rocky three because three and four is such action fast moving exciting amazing bangers 14 year old kid yeah and then look at one and two as prequels almost yeah agreed yes

all right you know this has been on my mind for a while but i got a lot of shit on my mind luke and luckily we have a segment each week where i can share that shit with you um i scoured the globe for the uh good and bad the ugly the highs and lows the in-betweens from combat sports and beyond this is combat heavy though this week because there's a lot going on um here's the shit that's needing to be seen have you actually seen it it's my feces you should introduce this segment every time that way oh that's my shit that's my shit have you had these the blue diamond i know we're like not supposed to show for these the salt and vinegar almonds no are they uh laced with thc luke i wish i wish they're delicious all right hey let's go with UFC Fight Night in Orlando.

We were talking about that ball kick in 1FC, Luke, or whatever they call it. How about Natan Levy getting ball kicked by old Gennaro Valdez? Dude, yikes. Took one for the home team right here, Luke. Right in the old stick kick. Can we get that live? What do we got? Here we go.

Well, we didn't get it. This whole highlight doesn't have the old stick kick. Can we get that live? What do we got? Here we go. Well, we didn't get it. This whole highlight doesn't have the actual ball kick? Nope, doesn't have a single bit. We're off to an auspicious beginning. We're off to a banging start. All right, a guy kicked a dick. There you go. Luke, let's go to Featherweight Francis Marshall,

who did have hashtag holy hammer potential. Here's what he did to Marcelo Rojo. Yeah, catches him on the clinch break. Good lord. And the celebration's fantastic, dude. He's acting like he just walked up for the price is right. This is great, right? I love joy.

Joy, Luke. Argentina hasn't taken a beating like that since they lost to Saudi Arabia in the World Cup. Yeah. You know, joy, unspeakable joy, Luke. That's all we're really chasing in life, right? Yep. There it is. Okay.

Nice wholesome moment here at the weigh-in as Scott Hot Sauce Holtzman, who would lose to Clay Guida and retire by putting his gloves in the cage. You see he brought his son up, Luke, for the weigh-in. I mean, I didn't get to have a hashtag girl moment like you and Kobe, but I am a dad of two boys, Luke. This was awesome. Yeah, it's pretty great. That's pretty great for both kid and dad.

It's a great moment right there. That's going to live with them forever. That's a bring your kid to work, like, slam dunk moment there. So, Luke, when I was at ESPN and I was hosting the Making the Rounds digital show, I used to bring my kids in when they were, like, six and seven, and they met, like, Bud Crawford, Abner Morris, took pictures with them, LaBamba Rodriguez. Dude, that was great.

They don't remember or care a damn about that. That's the joy of being a dad. You can share your life with them, and then they think your life is stupid. Yeah, that's pretty much it. All right, let's go to Clay Guida, Luke. Scott Holtzman retired, but maybe this was part of it. Slam, Dutta, let the boys be boys. Yeah, right?

Dude, old Guida has just been sitting dudes on their rear end for 15 years, man. Yeah, he wants to fight until he's like 50 or something. This is crazy, but let's go to Brian Barbarino, Luke. He somewhat predictably got sent to hell by the legend himself, RDA.

But what were your thoughts on the pre-fight dance? There's a Colombian flag in the background. Okay. Well, what about those moves for a pretty fly for a white guy or no? That's the move I make after I walk out of the Molka commode after shattering it. Dude, you did unspeakable damage to that piece of porcelain. Wow. All right.

Let's not speak about it. Luke, RDA submitted Barbarina in dominant fashion and dude, he was fired the hell up afterwards. Again, unspeakable joy. Let's watch it. A lot of man love going on. I was fired up for him. Can we go full screen on this?

Is this show still on? Dude, what kind of... Hey, look, real question here. What kind of statement do you think RDA made for himself here? Like, he was really happy about this fight. Yeah, I'm not sure exactly what the... I mean, obviously he's happy because he won, but there anything else i'll just say this he was in control the whole time you know like he didn't ever take a whole lot i mean any damage hardly at all in this fight and was the better guy throughout the entire thing i think he just felt good about how clean the

victory was uh he called out conor mcgregor as well afterwards and basically made a speech that he's earned the right to get a fight like this and you know fills in the gap of having this fight had fallen apart at ufc 196 do you think wonder boys call out of connor or rdas is more realistic for what the ufc might do already is yeah for sure rda okay interesting interesting uh luke unfortunately darren the damage elkins had his uh he took an L and his life expectancy dropped to 42, but he did provide another moment here. Your thoughts?

I mean, what else is this guy going to do? You know, like you look like this, you're built for this and not much else. I mean, I get, I mean, look, his heart, like, you know, the doctor was like, can you, do you want to fight? He's like, yeah, I want to fucking fight. I mean, like, this is what he does luke that's who he is man and you know not the best

fighter on the world but uh good lord his his spirit is alive and well he dropped the decision of jonathan pierce but like in the closing moments it looked like he was kind of closing in on like a home run punch that might that may do something crazy dramatic which he's known for obviously but it's never easy watching this guy take a take a beating on the way to the dramatic moments though that's his lot but that's hard but luke rip to a fight we got robbed of it would have been a gift uh they met in the crowd for this photo op but amanda he boss versus tracy cortez um it was the gift that never gave Luke, unfortunately. Your thoughts.

Do we find out what the medical issue was with Cortez? I don't believe that it's public, but she pulled out for something and we don't know. So he boss and her though, we're not unhappy at each other. Hopefully we'll see that down the road. I don't know. I got to see that tattoo on Cortez's left arm. It's a little,

it's her late brother. He's where, or actually, let me not say that. It's a late relative. I'm not sure the exact, but isn't it like a tribute to like, and it's like somebody's wearing a UFC shirt, and I think it's her brother. I don't know.

Okay. So you cannot Mr. He-Boss that, Luke. You can't. All right, but I won't. All right. Speaking of gifts, Luke, did you see the gift Wonderboy gave this fan? It's either the gift of a hat or it's hepatitis,

but either way, everyone looked happy about it, Luke. He just signed it with the sweat and blood from his brow. That's gross. Will we ever do that at an MK live show? Where people's like, I just want, if you could just rub this against your bags guys

that would mean the world to me and you're like well you guys t-bag this with your nut oil all right uh luke we mentioned the holy effing hammer potential of one roman delizze uh here's just a quick shot of that calf slicer into the ground and pound yeah i mean that's just brutal i mean this guy is just a scary mother effort look at him that is that is just next level brutality i'm not even going to talk about his tats because i don't want him to think that i'm misinterpreting my you know my yeah it's probably good to stay on his good side there bc maybe we shouldn't talk about anybody he's close with we should just watch him and enjoy okay exactly that's a good idea. Keep it professional.

A lot of pro wrestling fans questioning whether that finish looked like he was on his way to becoming the first MMA fighter to successfully pull off John Cena's STF. Luke, your thoughts? Dude, I just don't know how Groman can watch this. I really don't. I have lost the

taste for it after being so in it for so long and you know now i'm like on the outside like in is an inevitable position for me but yeah right now i can't fight you on that because i'm sort of like damn did i really just give like five straight years of my life with that level of intensity what did i get from that luke i had a few experiences but was that time redeemed imagine all the books you could have read yeah imagine that uh your hammer of the week in terms of a nominee was yasmin horigay right 23 years old luke improved the 10 and 0 or what eggy i don't know hard to get uh we may have to be talking about her at 115 so

this is the clip of her getting legitimately rocked by estella nunes. But is it pronounced Nunes? She came to fight. I give her a lot of credit. I believe it. I think she's Brazilian, so I think it is Nunes. Well, then you talked about Yasmin rallying. Here's the next clip. Once she opened up an opportunity to land bombs,

she did that, Luke, and this fight was over. I know some people thought the stoppage was a little bit early, and maybe it was. I'm not suggesting as much, but she was in control, and it was going badly for her opponent. Yeah, thank you. All right, Luke, let's keep this going. Big win for her.

Let's go to Fury Chisora, three from London. Tyson Fury dropped some throwback Diddy bars. I wanted to get your reaction to this. Yo, check. The sun don't shine forever. But as long as it does, it might as well shine together. Business before pleasure.

Who you know do it better. Well, it's better than him swinging Sweet Caroline than people tagging me in it on instagram i got a lot of people like play this for luke on tomorrow's show i was like you know what the funny part is about sweet caroline i actually don't think anyone really likes it i just think everyone does it like as like a ritual you know because i don't think it's possible to listen to and be like wow this is a great song but i think it's like well every like you know because we're all monkeys.

Everyone's like, well, they're all else doing it, so I'll do it too. You know, I had that same equation to look at when it came to fraternities, Luke, but still was strong enough to stand on my own. You know what I mean? You went to community college for two years and you failed out. You don't know anything about college. I don't know if it was fail out. You know nothing about college.

I was on academic suspension at the time, but I don't know if it was fail out okay uh real recognized real in london when gordon ramsey from kitchen nightmare showed up to this nightmare of a fight your thoughts i wish you would have told him the truth like he was about like a chef who fucked up the you know the sous vide fucking chicken or whatever burn the menu yeah let's just yeah that's uh that would have been nice uh shitty takedown defense from derrick chisora among other follies on this night he did show a ton of heart but this couldn't have felt good once once fury went for the uh double leg yeah there we go okay that's it i mean that's you and me after a gummy full or a tummy full of-8s just trying to walk down the stairs.

Yeah, I mean, he could have run the pipe a little though, Luke, right? No, that's just, okay. We mentioned that there was a weird Fury-Usyk face-off. I'm not going to play the audio, but it was Tyson yelling gibberish insults, but look at the intensity on Usyk. Luke, this was kind of clownish, but did it get you fired up at all for the fight? A little. Yeah, a little. It did. I'm not going to sit here and say it didn't. Yeah, look at this crazy man. A little bit. Dude, Fury was weird on the mic though, right? It was kind of just like loud and obnoxious. Rather than like he's normally, he's clever.

Like his shtick against Deontay Wilder was always pretty clever. This just feels like recycled fury like, oh you're a loser, you're, you know alright. You're a boom. Yeah. Okay. I wanted to show you a second stare down from boxing over the weekend.

Artur Betterbeave went to promote his January 28th title defense against Anthony Yard of his three light heavyweight titles. Dude, look at that. He's not messing around, dude. The fucking hammer. 100% finishing rate in boxing among champions. The only one.

Yo, even on that pull away, he still kept that same energy, Luke. Post pull out, you know? Not you and me. No, that's true. Yeah, you gotta give him credit for that. On the undercard of the Tyson Fury bout, Daniel Dubois came in as a big favorite

against Kevin Lorena. Dude, round one, he took an overhand left, got knocked down. He would go down two more times due to still being wobbled from this punch, and also I think he turned his ankle. This looked like he was headed to a disastrous performance, but then Kevin Lorena stopped throwing punches,

and then he kind of stopped trying, and in round three, all Dubois found his way back, but this was a weird fight. It was exciting as hell, but it was weird. Hard to say if it's anything that could follow him in the future, but when he started dealing, it was over. So here's what's weird. That ref allowed Dubois all day in round one through three knockdowns,

which I think for WBA rule, and this was for a WBA secondary title, I think under the WBA, it's got to be a three knockdown rule. So he survived those three knockdowns and was given all life to do it. Dude, this is a quick stoppage, and it came after the bell in round three, so the referee would have been justified in letting it go for multiple reasons. So, I mean, I'm not

going to say that he wasn't hurt by this uppercut, but that was a quick stoppage. It was quick, but in the end, I still think the right guy won. I'll put it that way. All right. Let's go to the MMA regional scene for the spinny shit of the week. Damn.

Dude, you know someone's about to take just an unbelievable L when it comes from the regional scene. And somebody's doing like the, you know, yeah. I mean, what is that? He did the testifying and church bit where his hands go up wow look at that i feel like we've played this video before maybe this just happens a lot in the regionals but hey let's go to phoenix estrada chocolatito uh trays twa i mean could these motherfuckers be shorter? So, Luke, these were guys that were on the undercard,

but look at the height difference between 6'7 promoter Eddie Hearns. Are they boxers or horse jockeys? Exactly. I mean, look, this whole card was a showcase of the lower weight divisions for the most part, but, I mean, this is like Muggsy Bogues and Manu Bowlby and teammates, right? What are we doing here? I mean, it's nice of the Lollipop guild to send two of their members so luke as much as the size difference is the you know a costing part of

this photo what's this trend for the double-breasted suit i see ariel bringing it out i gotta put this under bow ties as being like this is a trend i'm just not gonna follow it's lame as shit and get away with it if you're thin enough um but yeah nobody wants to be a fat guy in a double-breasted suit. That's a good point. Or if you have moobs, avoid it. But Eddie Hearn has normally got the waistcoat, that vest on the inside. That's his go-to. I would say he's fairly hip.

This looks lame as shit. Yo, Ariel, stop doing that shit. Right? You've mentioned his name like 10 times today. How many? No, the other times were you know like attribution this is this is more like a call out like get your shit together okay uh let's go over to uh just a little tease here of how perfect estrada and chuck latito were luke did you echo me that was a pretty damn good action fight or or were you not entertained? Yeah, once it got going, yes.

Alright. Man, you were salty about this card coming in and out. I mean, this is, you know, an arguably racist hand chop away from being the Risen incident all over again, you know what I mean? Listen, you gotta love old Roman Gonzalez there with Cristo Te Amo written on his trunk.

That's right. What is that direct translation so the people know, Luke? Christ, I love you. Exactly. I love that man, Chocolatier. He is a gentleman. I give him a lot of credit. I mean, he's just, he's my hero.

Didn't have a hero performance. Here's his question from Chris Mannix after the fight of whether he wants a fourth. Would you like to do a fourth fight with juan francisco estrada well as long as they pay well of course you're damn right luke chocolate tito knows what's up yeah you fuckers pay me we can do whatever you want yeah i'll fight him i'll fight him for the rest of my career just keep keep uh yeah there we go uh icon fc6 from kissimmee florida made a lot of headlines this weekend uh this is jorge masvidal's brand and here was the weigh-in that's a very florida weigh-in it's like russian mma weight type way i was gonna say dude what's

the difference between florida uh mma and MMA and Russian MMA other than the languages being spoke? And the answer is COVID. No, I'm teasing. Yeah, that outlaw spirit abides in there. So Jorge had to come out and give a cut a promo about, you know, you're not going to make the money. Get paid. I want you to get paid. Well, Joe, the party Penafil Pen Penafiel, am I pronouncing that right?

He came out there and got a victory. And look, he caught a promo that was so, you got to hear this. I live, eat, and die Florida. Viva Ecuador. Viva todos mis Latinos. All my white people in the house too let's fucking go america baby luke if they can change we can change right yeah that's this shout out to my wife to my home he just left out all the the Asians and all the black people.

Just, you know, Latinos and whites. That's his wheelhouse. That's Joe the Party, Luke. He was repping Florida hard right there. Yeah, I see that. Let's go to one on Amazon 5 from the Philippines. Luke, the Cade Ruotolo show broke out in his lightweight grappling title defense. Here is some clowning that he put on

Matthias Gabriel Mateus yeah I mean it's all the same so he goes for reverse De La Riva and he's just I mean what's that hand behind your back stuff is that like Roy Jones trying yeah because the idea is once he goes up for reverse De La Riva he needs to peel it with his hands he doesn't

really do it and then just kind of just stands there and lets him have it. He's basically letting him have the entry to a guard is what's happening here. Well, Luke, you know, I couldn't give a shit about these grappling matches, but this highlight of him rolling into a wild heel hook attempt kind of won me over. Can we watch this? Oh, yeah, dude. He's just out here.

These Ruotolo brothers are different, man. Are they like and one? Are they the and one of grappling? Yeah, but imagine they like and one are they the and one of uh yeah but imagine if like the guys got off the and one court and then won like an NBA championship by sweeping the competition like Ray for Austin Ray for Austin won a championship as a starting point guard right right

didn't he or no he was on the heat right I don't I don't remember I don't skip to my Lou yeah all right well uh also Cade opened the fight with this move I look I don't like this shit at all Lou. Yeah. All right. Well, also, Cade opened the fight with this move. Look, I don't like this shit at all, but this is exciting. Watch this. Yeah, this is a brilliant takedown.

Oh, good Lord, dude. That's like Big Boss Man or some shit right there. He reaches for the takedown on the inside with his hand palmed down to get the pull. And if you notice, he brings him closer to him with the pull and it causes Mateus Gabriel to upright his posture. He pulls him closer and then does the body lock entry.

That is nice. That dude is skilled. More pictures from one over the weekend. Here's Vitaly Milikin. He's your new light heavyweight champion he's already the interim heavyweight champion and there is the punch heard around the world there were a lot of punches to set that up but dude that cross that right cross is just

from hell oh man his hand speed and power and just his god his savagery is... Here's the reverse angle. Oh, God. One social team hooking us up with the reverse angle of it as well. It's just as brutal on this side, Luke. Yeah, poor DeRidder got backed up. Oh, good Lord. I mean, that probably was a shitty flight home to the Netherlands. Damn, and I'm a big DeRidder fan, too. I mean, he's still the champ, you know, at middleweight,

and he's got to answer for this, but that was tough to watch, dude. Yeah, it was one-way traffic, bro. There wasn't anything good about it for him. And here was this absolute hammer, Malikin, celebrating with the boss, Shatri Sidyongtong. He ran right out of the cage after winning, and they made sweet love together. This was very, you know, is this encouraging, Luke?

This is wholesome. They went tip-to-tip, BC. It was very, you know, is this encouraging, Luke? This is wholesome. They went tip to tip, BC. It was a wonderful moment of intimacy. And there's his wife and his family was all over. I mean, it was a big moment, dude. So I was happy for him. Let's hear some audio here. So do you know UFC alum Jared the Monkey God, Luke?

Yes. Yeah. He won the championship here and made a big call out. Let's look at what happened over the weekend. The reign begins for Jared Brooks! I mean, I would love to fight Demetrius Johnson. That's like a dream come true for me. So, Demetrius, I have the utmost respect for you.

You're the best ever. I would love to share the circle with you. Luke, does that move you at all? Jared Brooks, new one champion, calling out the mouse himself, Demetrius Johnson. If the weight makes sense for him, yeah, sure. Okay, okay. Some guy named Superlek also did this really cool Matrix move that, you know, I'd be crazy if I didn't have it for a show.

Both of these guys failed to make weight, so the tournament had no winner. That's just some... BC, have you ever seen The Raid? No, no. Oh, my God, dude. Is Keanu in that one, too? No, no, no, no, dude. John, this is going to be a hot take if people are going to hate this.

Yeah. And I love John Wick movies. I love John Wick movies. John Wick, especially the first one, is really good. But after that, let me just tell you, the John Wick movies are a pimple on the ass of the raid. The raid and the raid 2 are far better. Who made the raid?

Kurosawa, Luke? Who made the Raid? Kurosawa, Luke? Who made the damn Raid? No, no, no. The Raid was made, like, recently. It's not old at all. But you gotta see it. It's fucking incredible. Maybe I'll do it for MK Homework, just to please you.

So that's Superlek. And then we had Rougroug, Umar Kane. No pictures from his decision win, but here was his walkout. Are you entertained or intimidated here? A little both. Yeah, Umar Kane. No pictures from his decision win, but here was his walkout. Are you entertained or intimidated here? A little both. Yeah, a little both. I mean, that guy is a large human. You were probably sexually aroused, I'm guessing. I don't think that's necessary to make accusations like that,

but he is a large and entertaining fighter to watch, so shout out to Rougroug. Your best fight of the week, though, didn't come from the one cage. It came from this Planet Fitness. Look, I thought this was a no-judgment zone. Uh-oh, someone ring the lunk alarm. Two southpaws, huh?

Oh, here comes the hammer. No, we're switching stances. Oh, yeah, that's old school. Neither of them looks like they work out, by the way. Some people are still lifting. They're like, yeah, this happens all the time. Isn't this an event? I mean, no cell phones either?

Yeah, but like, oh, shit, he got hit with a big one. Yo, the fat guy with the red on is your king. Yo, fat gym fights with guys in red shirts rule. Yeah. Yo, I don't think this guy's going to stay down, though. Look at this. Oh, what's up now? Oh, shit.

Yo, I told you to re-rack those weights. Yeah. Oh, shit. You put the dumbbell back with the 40 goes on the 40, asshole. Yo, I'm going to make you eat this plum. You know what I mean? By the way, both wearing the worst shoes you can wear to work out. I just want to point that out.

Yo, one guy lost a shoe. This is a good workout, actually, right? This is more than they've done lifting weights. I can tell you that. Look at these fucking losers. I mean, at least we didn't get ass-cracking balls or anything. Let me just explain something to you. If you are fighting in a gym like this, there's no way you're winning at life.

I just want to point that out. This is like international signal for I'm a fucking loser who lives in a gym. Oh, you don't know. He could have insulted his mom or something. You don't know. I mean, look, maybe the guy in the red sheet. If you fight, and let me say it one more time. Look at the fat guy in the back. If you fight in a gym

like this, there's no chance you're winning at life. Zero percent. Wow. God, good lord. If we can find out these gentlemen, I'd love to get them on the show if we can get their information and find out if this was, you know. I have to believe this was over a woman, Luke. Alright, BC, I gotta get downtown, so we gotta move this along. Luke, I could do this all day you know. I have to believe this was over a woman, Luke.

All right, BC, I got to get downtown, so we got to move this along. Luke, I could do this all day, okay? I can't. I literally cannot. All right, we only have two left. Do you want to hear the most annoying sound in the world? um like the umar kane video are you aroused by that look you know i don't know if this is racist for you to put this in here so i don't think you just karate chop the air again come on there's just nothing racist involved look it was a uh very loud sound that's that's that's the way you lick your teeth when you're at cumberland farms by the way that very loud sound that's that's the way you lick your teeth when you're at cumberland farms by the way that's not fair that's not fair at all uh luke

finally let's all get high on a new kind of ice with the snowman bong okay before you even ask me what i do this you know what the answer is motherfucker and it's an unequivocal yes you could just leave me in the snow to die after this it's okay yes yes i mean i i always wonder how people can live in alaska luke you know by the way you know antoine you're six foot eight antoine he's doing a seasonal job in colorado working on the ski lifts luke's but he's you know and and but he he still he won't show up to that job sober one day. Not one day. Probably not, but

you know, if he showed you this on his property in Alaska, would you consider moving there? To Alaska? No, I'd just rather move off Earth before I move to Alaska. I mean, there's no point in, like, well, why would you live in Alaska unless you had to? Freedom.

Freedom from what? I'm gonna guess the law or a woman that, you know, an abusive woman. I don't know, Luke. Freedom from a jury summons? Yeah, I'm good. Thanks. I mean, I bet you, yeah, yeah. There we go. Luke, I hope we survived

the bullet of another Have You Seen This Shit, but there's my shit for the week. Not a great batch. Not a great batch, if I can be honest with you. That's a solid C. C plus, maybe. You know, it looked good on paper. You don't have enough people falling off skateboards or shit like that.

Yeah, I went heavy on the weekend. It was a big weekend for highlights and moments and stuff. I'm trying to keep the fan educated of what's going on around the world. Cloud OKC. All right. BC, that is it for us right now. I want to remind folks,

Showtime.com, get a 30-day free trial. If you like it, you can keep it. If not, you're free to bounce. That's one thing you can do. Second of all, what I would say is if you want to reach the show, morningcombat at gmail.com. That's going to be the email

for Wednesday's fan subs and Friday's Dead Wrong. Of course, as well, we have the store, morningcombat.store, for all of the good deals. BC, any final thoughts before I get out of here? I've got to go to the Gervonta Davis presser. Yeah, have fun there.

That should be awesome, previewing the January 7th Showtime pay-per-view bout against Hector Luis Garcia. There's all of our socials below. My final thoughts are, thank you for watching this episode and not everybody has to be as cool as Jay Paquette and make us medal signs, but watch our pregame

preview. By the way, Jay Paquette makes a cameo on the intro to our pregame preview with Chuck Mendenhall previewing UFC 2, whatever it is. That thing is up and live. You're going to enjoy it a lot. I'm getting accused of wiggling my toes, Luke, in those hot dog socks in like an OnlyFans style way, and I don't even know what that means.

So, no. Did I misinterpret somebody's advances again? You can end it there. No, Tommy, we're not that close as friends. All right. On that note, let's get out of here. Thanks to everyone who watched. Don't forget, we have the UFC 282

pregame preview with Chuck Mendenhall and terrible pronunciations of fighters names from other countries, but it's good analysis just the same. So for Malka Showtime, Brian Campbell and the whole crew, I'm Luke Thomas. Thanks for watching MK. See you next time. May all your gains be loyal.