MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Vancouver Preview: RDR vs Allen | UFC 323 Announced | Weidman vs Silva 3 | Frankie Edgar x BKFC

Episode Date: October 17, 2025

Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell are with you on a Friday to give you a dose of Morning Kombat before the weekend! First up the guys preview the UFC Vancouver main event between Reinier de Ridder and Brendan Allen. Then it's on to the rest of the card including a co-main event bout between Kevin Holland and Mike Malott. Also, Chito Vera is back for the first time since August of 2024, facing Aiemann Zahabi. UFC 323 was announced and the guys go through the matchups, and Anderson Silva vs. Chris Weidman III was announced as well. There's that and so much more to discuss to get you right for the weekend. Happy Friday, Donks!See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Revely, Revely. Look at us now, tip to tip. Oh, Jesus. Oh, ha. Shout for more in combat. Do you want a margarita? Yes!

Oh, my God. It's us doing what we love. It's time to bang. Oh, yeah, let's go. It's Friday. You're unemployed and your favorite show is back on October 17th of the 25s. This is Morning Combat. It's UFC Vancouver weekend.

Let's get ready. My name is Brian Campbell, live and direct from the Hartford, Connecticut suburbs. and next to me, of course, is the reason you tuned in, Washington, D.C.'s finest, a native of India. Yeah, that's a true fact. Hey, it's Luke Thomas, Luke F. Thomas, to be accurate, government accurate. L.T., how are you, A, and B, it's fall, there's pumpkin coffee, there's MMA this weekend. You fired up. You ready? I got to tell you, we're at the stage of morning e-bike rides with the Tookster to school.

little nippy little chile out there I had to wear gloves for the first time today I was like yo it's cold but you say little nippy you don't just mean the moms in the dairy section at the grocery store right no I do not mean what's your face in Kingpin turning

around with the bud lights from the freezer you know what I'm saying yeah I remember that one too yes yes no it's a little more than that but yeah no I mean you know listen I was having a conversation with Long Island Luke my sleep meds are not working they work but they don't work ideally so I'm waking up at weird times that's kind of missing with my schedule a little bit but I'm not complaining

honestly God I feel fine I really do I'm good to go and to that point this little Canadian card's pretty good it's pretty good so I'm pretty excited for that I thought it was going to lose a lot of heart when Fluffy Hernandez pulled out and that's still not ideal but it looks like this is a strong fight night card I'm ready to go I am fired up thank you for joining us please you can like this show on YouTube you can subscribe shout out to everybody watching on the Draft Kings Network

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at morning combat dot shop and yeah you better believe the October exclusives are hot they're itching to get off the shelf and get on your so why don't you get super washed dads while you can? Or maybe even the Frankenlunk and donkula Halloween collaboration, average Joe art inspired and executed, of course. Get the sign poster, mix and match your colors.

Check out our evergreen items. Head on over to morningcombat.com. And this episode of Morning Kombat presented to you by Draft Kings. Draft Kings, the crown is yours. Yes, all right. and we have a third member of our team, of course, a producer, director, Bong enthusiast. Son of an Aussie, yes, Ozzy down under.

How about that bag, right? Six, seven, all right. Here we go. Hey, Luke Noshita of the main card. What's up, boys? Got a new prop quiz dropping after this. LT on the episode, taking on Danny Segura, super competitive episode comes down to the last question.

Let me just explain, B.C., I cannot do this show any longer. It doesn't make any sense. I don't know the answers. Yeah, what are you talking about? I basically, you did well. You did well. No, I did quite poorly.

More to the point. Wow, spoiler alert, folks. Well, no, no, no. You should still watch because I'll put it this way. The way the winner wins is actually very fun. So I'll put it that way. But BC, literally, I think there were maybe three questions during the course of that where I didn't even know two of the people were UFC fighters.

And in one of the cases, it was like I had to name, two of O'Day Osborne's fights. I can't do that. I don't know the answers to these things. I don't know how you feel about this. I just want to say BC, the category was training with Osborne. And we looked at it and half the stuff.

Yes, it was. Yes, it was. This is why the, listen, prop quiz is a great show. But I, podcast brain for me, BC has ruined me. It's ruined me. Because everyone's going to feel it differently.

But after, because I did, you know, I did like the, my own show before I even did, a MK, where I'm only focusing on main and co-main fights so often that everything else just becomes background noise. And a big part of that background noise is now like central to doing well on prop quiz. And I can't. I can't. I'm with you on that. I'm not a deep, deep, deep undercard guy, or at least previously I will be now in the Paramount UFC era. But that is Long Island Luke specialty. And there's a lot of Stephanie Egger. It seems or Eggers or I see a lot of those names repeating on there where I'm like, damn.

But hey, Abron is amazing at this. I hope I don't have to defend. How about this? Long Island, Luke, correct me if I'm wrong. The winner ends up getting second most points total. Correct. Correct. So they didn't beat Abron, but a noteworthy performance just the same.

Well, whoever wins, it's a big win for Columbia, I'm sure. L.T. versus Annie. Indeed. Goerha. Thank you very much. Hello to Long Island, Luke, and his main card minute as well. LT, I'll be also Saturday night, tomorrow night, in Brooklyn, on the call for Danny Garcia. Oh, that's tomorrow night.

Very well, yes. Yes, thank you very much. You can check that out on the Millions.com pay-per-view stream. It'll be myself. This is Barclay Center? It is Barclay Center. The final fight of Danny Swift Garcia's career. He'll be in the main event.

He's the promoter. Me, Chris Algeri, Teofimo Lopez, Andre Beardo. and Akin Ray is of Akin Barak fame are going to be on the call. So check that out if you're into it. There should be some good fun on that card. How much is, are they charging? I believe it's $39.99.

You know, I wish the show luck. I'll put it that way. I've had good memories at Barclay Center, you know? Very good memory. With the exception of Jermaine Durandmi versus Holly Holm, which was not a great memory. That was a bad memory. We try to shove that memory back where it belongs in the bin.

Yeah, there you go. All right. So that's about all, unless, Luke, you have any updates of e-biking fame? No, the thing is, I've got kids parties like I do every weekend I have to go to. But BC, D.C. is going to have, as many places will, this big-ass protest. And I'm just wondering how much is going to fuck up my ability to get my kids at parties on time. Is this a no-kings protest or is this more like Jan 6 related? You know what?

It's always a toss-up when the Donald is here. So I don't know. We're going to see how that goes. But I think the city is going to be a fucking nightmare. So we'll see how it goes. All right. It tends to be. But don't worry.

I still come in and clean that shit up. Yeah. They're still waiting for you to return to the local Starbucks where you can regale them with your, Hey, everybody. You have your bad airplice. All right. All right. Anything else we have to plug?

Nah. No, let's do it. All right. Let's hit the show. Let's hit it with topic. Number one. Hey, it's UFC Fight Night Vancouver time this Saturday. And even though Anthony Fluffy Hernandez was forced to pull out with an undisclosed injury,

I want to say maybe robbing Reneer de Ritter of what this fight is supposed to be an audition for a middleweight championship shot. But RDR still in contention here despite Nasserdeen Imov's impressive victory over Kyo Bahalio. And of course, RDR will welcome the replacement of Brendan Allen. This is the fifth fight, I believe, in the UFC in less than 11 months. for RDR, and it could be his final one before potentially earning that shot. We're going to see who's going to get the first shot at new middleweight champion Hamzaa Chimayev. Now, odds makers have RDR as a clear favorite in this five-round main event.

Luke, why is the Dutch Knight expected to win? And what does Brendan Allen offer that could potentially force the upset here as he's almost being overlooked in this matchup because of the late change? Now, very quickly, Long Island, Luke, what are our Draft King's odds as it stands right now? Because I know the line has been moving. It's minus 198 RDR plus 164, Brendan Allen. Okay, so, you know, not a huge, huge favorite for RDRBC, but let's say a relatively clear one. I think the answers are pretty obvious.

However, I'm going to give them. However, I will say this. This fight would be fun. This fight will be fun. And I think at least early Brendan Allen is. going to be very competitive. Also, Brendan Allen has some pretty unique experience that I think we should talk about. But BC, to answer the question, RDR is on a hot streak. He's not the only fighter on this card who's competing for the fourth time this year, but he is the only one

in the main event that is doing it this way. And of course, as you indicated, he was expected to fight Anthony Hernandez. He fell out. And so as a consequence, he's taking on opponent on late minute notice. So you have a guy on a hot streak who has three wins so far this year, and he's taking on someone else who's filling in on short notice and that person filling on on short notice has at times kind of faded down the stretch. B.C., a guy who's actually pretty well-rounded, particularly in the grappling department, but has this seeming inability to maintain the attack during the course of the bout. They're these very big swings and momentum with him. That's part of it. I think that's basically the answer. But B.C., what it really comes down to is you would imagine

Brendan Allen's going to want to probably keep this. I suspect it's going to want to get on top on the ground. You might say he's going to want to keep it on the feet. But I don't know about that, right? I think that part's a little bit harder to say. A guy like Brendan Allen likes to come forward. RDR has those intercepting knees. He's ranger.

I do think he's going to be slower of the two. And I do think he might get hit with some big bombs. In fact, you see if you go to Brendan Allen's fight, for example, against Paul Craig. Paul Craig got drilled in the second round, kind of just trying to lean away from a big overhand right. And I think that might get him into trouble. Nevertheless, if RDR has proven anything, it's durability, he'll clinch up, he will pull guard.

And on the ground, Brendan Allen actually does have pretty good ground to pound from guard. But the only real guard players he's ever went against were, again, Paul Craig. And, you know, you could say you mauve off a little bit, I suppose, but not really. RDR is like the most unique threat, I think, between standing and guard playing together

as like a sort of combined threat. And to me, that's just a lot of ways in which this fight could get away from Brendan Allen, where he's got a particular set of strengths, but these noteworthy weaknesses, you would think RDR has a very acute ability to take advantage of it, whether it's on the feet or the ground.

And again, the fact that he has good durability, it is five rounds, coming on on short notice. There's just a lot of reasons to think that this is, probably BCR's fight to lose. Yeah, no, no doubt about it. And I'm interested to see the demeanor here of Brendan Allen. You mentioned in the past maybe getting tired or, I mean, I don't want to throw him into, you know, first team all dunk mode or say he's mistake prone or anything of that. But, you know, it feels like there were times that Brendan Allen could break through or should break through and has it, particularly the tail end of that seven fight win streak, which was very strong, included five submission wins.

and, of course, took him into that big rematch against Anthony Fluffy Hernandez where he didn't overly impress, right? Had back-to-back decision losses, both to Fluffy and Nasor Dene Mavov to sort of slow his momentum, but to give him credit he did bounce back this summer to get a fight of the night victory over Marvin Vittori. But it's almost as if Brendan Allen,

despite the odds being close, as we mentioned, is being looked at as a second rate afterthought. This was supposed to be Fluffy. Oh, but Fluffy beat Allen. This is a replacement. maybe it takes down a peg the meaning of this fight or how big the opportunity is for RDR. I wonder, though, a little bit similar to something we're going to talk about next week in the build to UFC 321 and the spot that Cyril Gahn sits in entering a fight against Tom

Aspernel where we're just like, oh yeah, automatically, right? Tom's going to go in there and do what the other guys have done to him. I wonder if this brings the opportunity for Brendan Allen to overachieve, to not have that same level of pressure he had when he was riding a seven-fight win streak and to be a little bit under the radar and a little bit dangerous because look, here's the weird part

for as red hot as RDR is and how much he has escalated his reputation. Remember, comes to the UFC kind of out of nowhere from one championship breaking the contractor, however it happened, where we're like, okay, let's see what this guy in his mid-30s can do. Doesn't look like a killer against GM3,

but then gets on that quick run you know, Kevin Holland, Bo Nickel, and suddenly we're going split decision win over Robert Whitaker. We're rightfully, we're all talking, yeah, this guy's on the verge of legitimate title contention. But when you really match him up, skill for skill, I kind of believe that this is a sneakier, closer fight than at least the general reaction is to when they found out

that Allen is popping in as the replacement. It kind of feels like this is a huge opportunity for Brendan Allen to upset the apple cart with almost no pressure here and slide in and do something big for his career. He comes in as the ninth ranked middleweight. Of course, you got RDR number four and could be looking at a title shot with a big performance. So Luke Thomas, how big does that performance

if it goes RDR's way? And I know we're going to break down this fight even more and get into it, but straight up here, how much does the swapping out from Fluffy to Brendan Allen affect how dominant or how spectacular do you think RDR would need to be to one up what master deem imov already did i don't think it has to be too much um imov did not perform poorly but it was not overwhelming and i don't know that given the way in which he's situated not so much in the division but i think in the ufc's mind based on what we can tell about them

and again we're making some inferences we're not mind readers um it would seem to me that even as you indicated with the loss of fluffy hernandez you sub in brendon allen does he still have the same opportunity to advance. And I would submit to you that he probably does, unless he goes in there and really gets like eeks out, if it's similar to the Whitaker fight, which I just cannot imagine that it would be, but if it's similar to the Whitaker fight where it's like it's really kind of fight that kind of, you know, slows down as it goes longer. It, it's, you know, there's a split decision potentially, let's say, something like that. You know, now we're dealing with something very different. Now we're like, well, who's really got a mandate? Maybe the guy.

from France, we should just probably give it to, right? Something along those lines. But I just feel like with the kind of like, dude, you can build momentum. It's hard to build momentum in certain ways, BC. However, if you can do it, you can do it fast. You know what I mean? Like it's very difficult to get that thing going. But for the ones who do it, you can see in a calendar year,

you can put together essentially a title shot campaign from beginning to end, almost. And that's what you have in RDR. And so I just feel like that hot streak is powering him where if he gets a clear decision finish, certainly a stoppage victory, I would imagine he's going to be the guy to get it. And by the way, not for nothing. Again, I don't know how this is good. There's a lot of questions about how Paramounts, you know, turning pay-per-views into PLEs is going to change the calculus of, you know, what kind of cards we get and who's on them, blah, blah, blah, but assuming it's like how it's been, the fact that RDR speaks English,

also it's not like the most important thing. But again, all these other factors, plus if he gets the stoppage plus he's a native English speaker yeah I would imagine that they're going to give favoritism to that guy yeah touching on what I sort of said earlier is it fair when we're talking about RDR is he as good as the the four and oh run he's on in the last 11 months since coming to the UFC which I mentioned remember the mere sharp fight he did not look like a killer he didn't move his head he was getting lit up but I mean is it the momentum that has him his at this dangerous at this moment or is he just category for category

a better fighter than Brendan Allen on paper as we enter this? Oh. Because I don't think we fully know who Derritter is right now in this mix, right? Because some of it has been like not luck. I'm not saying it's luck,

but some of it has been awkwardness, momentum. Like he's just kind of been in the right place, the right time. And you look, you don't beat Robert Whitaker unless you're legit. That's, that's for real. But I just kind of wonder if we're overlooking Alan too much. Am I crazy?

I think I agree, but maybe in a backwards way. I feel like at 35, we actually know a fair amount about Derritter. It's Brendan Allen at 29 that I have a little more curiosity about. And, you know, listen, he's on a one-fight win streak. He lost to Emovov and he lost two. Who else did he lose to? Fluffy. Fluffy, yes.

You know, those are two of the top guys in the division. Here's another top guy in this division. to the odds maker's point to things we've been saying, I do think this is probably already ours fight to lose. However, the curiosity factor here is on the Allen side because he's still, I mean, I think he's in the full weight of his athletic prime, but I think he's still putting pieces of his game together. And this is really a pivotal stage where if he's going to make big leaps forward

and really synthesize all the parts of his game into a coordinated, steady attack, I think he can do a lot, B.C. Like, if you just look at parts of his game individually when he's on, it looks sharp. The body lock takedowns look sharp. The ground and pound looks sharp. The guard passing, the back taking, the submissions from the back. On occasion, he can get hit, you know, being a little too aggressive standing, but he can deal it out as well. There's a lot to like about his game, but he hasn't been able to really put it all together against a super high quality opponent.

You kind of have a guy like that in RDR who is a little lanky, a little unusual, has strengths and dimensions of the game. game like the guard that are not necessarily in modern MMA the most important, but certainly if there's anything you can say about RDR's, he's a creative winner, and he kind of finds ways to do it. And that kind of spirit of, you know, hunting attacks like that seems to have been up to date, but one of Brendan Allen's problems, but can he turn a corner BC? This would be, this is, let's say it out loud. If he beats RDR, this is by far his best win on his career. and he's got some good names on there, but this would be the best one. Yeah, no question about that.

In the end of that win streak, that seven-fight win streak I mentioned, split decision went over Chris Curtis, submission wins over Paul Craig, Bruno Silva, Andre Mnese, so he's beaten some legit guys along the way. But this would be huge. But the question of whether RDR actually is everything he's looked like at least of late is an interesting one, and it's one that Brendan Allen has been thinking about too, so much so and going public with those thoughts. And we're going to have to bring in our friends at Cuervo here for a little bit of shots fire.

Of course, shots fired brought to you by Cuervo. Now is a good time to enjoy the tequila that invented tequila. Here's Brendan Allen at Media Day, not so impressed overall with everything that the Dutch Knight has to offer. I mean, it doesn't impress me. Like, maybe I'm hard to impress, but there's not. one fight or one moment where you're like oh man like this guy is like crazy or he's something special like when we fight it's everything's going to happen on my timeline not in your timeline so when i want to go to the ground they're going to go to the ground because you know he's probably

going to shoot in the first it could be the first 10 seconds it could be in the first minute but before two and a half minutes of the first round he's going to shoot i promise you he's going to shoot to answer your question yes i definitely think everyone's building this hype and this false sense of he's something that he isn't he isn't this guy he's not that guy like he's he hasn't had a guy put it on him for real like and him have to take it and withstand it he's just not that guy he's not that guy he's not built like me like he's not built he's not built we're not the same look he's not that guy he's not that guy you're not that guy pal um think he might be i think he might be but certainly

Brendan Allen has engaged in trash talk that I think at times has blown up in his face. This could be another example of that. I just feel like, again, this looks to me like RDR's fight to lose, but a truly for the career of Brendan Allen, a historic opportunity. Yes, very true. And if you want a little bit more Cuervo in your life, get ready. Next week, UFC 321 fight week. Wednesday, October 22nd, 11 a.m. Eastern live from the Metal Arc Studios in New York.

it is UFC 321 pre-game preview morning combat brought to you by Cuervo BCLT the ice man Chuck Mindenhall and hopefully hopefully some more of that devil's reserve long island Luke do we have that do we have that tell me we do that's a Korean sensor question I don't know we have to ask North Korean sensors if they procured more all right thank you very much staying with RDR here is he on wait he is a big dude He is a big middleweight who's fought at light heavyweight and heavyweight under the one championship flag. I believe, do we have footage here of him standing on a scale days out from the fight here?

What are we looking at? Yeah, kilos, 100 kilos. And he's like, I'm on weight. And it's like, this was a couple of days ago or maybe three days ago at this point. He's like, I'm on weight. And I'm like, 220 pounds, give or take, right? That's sort of where he's at for 185. And by the way, understand, bro.

this is the fourth time he's cut weight this year. He has fought at light heavy weight. He's actually fought higher than light heavy weight when he was fighting Anatoli Malikin and won. This is the fourth time he's cutting weight and he's cutting weight from 220. Yeah, that's a lot on a person's body at age 35, something to keep in mind.

I mean, like we said, if he wins this, that would be 5 and 0 to start his UFC career all within 11 months. That's insane. It's not only insane. to turn your, you know, to make a name for yourself, turn your reputation around. It's insane on your body to go through that. So we'll see, as we have Long Island Luke, watching the scales closely there in Vancouver.

It's what happens. I believe Shaq Majori, Vancouver native resident, excuse me, is also covering it this week for CBS Sports, Luke. So you'll be getting text often, often. I blocked his number. We're good. Good stuff right there. Speaking of RDR and his exit from One Championship, which allowed this, he had a few things to say about Chhatri's promotion there during fight week here.

Let's listen. You know, you're not the image yourself, and yet you seem to have a lot left in the take. I mean, what do you kind of contribute your success at this point of the game to? One championship saved me by not giving me fights. Thank you, one championship. So look, is he saying they kept him young and sprawling? by holding him out by essentially freezing him for so long it kept his body fresh which but honestly if you think about there's something to be said for that if he had been really worn

down from like one campaign would he have had the energy and even the momentum or the like just even the mental space to be like okay let's make a huge push with ufc right now probably not right so you know i'm not saying it's good he was iced by one or whatever you want to say that they did i guess what i would say is this is what it means to take something that didn't go well and then kind of remix it into a positive, especially if you can get a win on Saturday with it and get a title shot. And back to what Brendan Allen said about him not being that guy, I mean, if you watch the tape, you can see the holes or the awkwardness or the unusual nature of what RDR does. But it's the fact that he uses that awkwardness to his favor.

He's like a pitcher who throws, you know, off speed junk, but then can come back with the fastball. fills in holes by being awkwardly aggressive. He's just something weird about. I mean, Robert Whitaker had a lot of trouble dealing with that weirdness right there. So it's a, it's just a funky different rhythm to his game. I think he makes the most of not being known as a striker by being an awkwardly dangerous striker at times with the knees, with the, see, he'll mix in some lead elbows. I mean, when you look back at that Mershart fight, how do you come to terms with why he was so

like off that night i don't know it was a sloppy mess was it was he did he's you know he's had some issues even in that fight with whittaker where there's times you're like dude he's about to get bombed on crossing his feet up and turning you know what i mean off balance like can you know the best punchers the best strikers you've ever seen they're really well balanced they can move around and they don't have to they're still in a position to defend and throw right they keep their legs under them. RDR is not that guy. You know what I mean?

You're not that guy, pal. But his footwork is like, it's not the best part of his game. It's not the thing that he excels at. What he excels at is he's got some good striking to be clear. And again, we saw with those intercepting knees that's a not just bone nickel. By the way, those affected Robert Whitaker too. Like they are universally good.

And he's got some long range shots as well. But, but BC to a risk-taking. kind of puncher that Brendan Allen is, that is a potential vulnerability to take seriously, you know? No doubt about that. So RDR, of course, known for that incredible submission game, the Jiu-Jitsu and all that. Yet Brendan Allen does have 14 wins by submission of the 25 in his pro career. Luke, how do we see the wrestling, anti-wrestling, the grappling?

How does that match up? Will we see a lot of this fight contested on the ground how do you sort of see these two skill sets i just i would be very surprised if it didn't end up there at some point in part because brendan allen has strengths there rdr has strengths there you would imagine okay that might cancel it out and it could let's be clear about that it absolutely could however brendan allen to me i think one of the things that's kind of tripped him up a little bit is he doesn't necessarily always have the discipline to fight on the terms that are most advantageous for him he sometimes just kind of resorts to what feels, I think, more natural to him.

And that's understandable. That is a choice that a lot of even very good fighters make. And to be clear, he is one. But I think to really excel, sometimes you have to have a very disciplined approach to your attack. And BC, the fact he's also coming in on late notice, to what extent might he just, you know, sprint at the beginning of the fight? Because that's all that he has. He has two, two and a half rounds in him. And then after that, the whole thing falls apart.

So like that to me just kind of facilitates him wanting to take the fight to the ground, maybe to prove a point because I do think that stuff kind of matters to him. Again, he does have good ground and pound and he's got good submissions. He might think he can wear him out from there and maintain whatever energy he has. So, you know, if the fight ends up being fully on the feet, that would not be some kind of shock. I think it'd be more a shock, though, if they never went to the ground. I think that some inevitability to me is that it will lead there. Yeah, I feel like that is an accurate statement.

For the record, Brendan Allen has gone to the five-round distance three times on the regional level before UFC, and he lost two of those, both by decision, one to Fluffy Hernandez in their first meeting, and one to Eric Anders. And in the UFC, he's gone five rounds just once, but it was a 2024 split decision win over Chris Curtis in their rematch. Now, RDR's history, just two defeats, both by stoppage, but they did come against heavyweight crusher. Anatoly Malikin, multi-divisional champion there. And on the flip side, Brendan Allen has been stopped three times. Two by strikes in the UFC to Chris Curtis and Sean Strickland,

one by submission on the regional level to Trevin Giles. So we'll see how that plays into here as we close in on pick time here. Long Island, Luke, where are you leaning from a betting strategy on how you're going to handicap this? It is hard to take full confidence in Brendan Allen doing something in a key. spot we haven't seen before but you are getting plus money on them yeah i stayed away from most money lines on this card i'm not going to lie i have the over one and a half in a parlay i do think it goes a little long i don't know if it goes all five rounds but i think it goes at least three uh my prediction would be like r d are late or r d r by decision yeah that sounds right to me l t i got to write

r d r d r here i can see the the picture here for brend allen to surprise some people i i love rdr the way back to one. But I don't even think he's necessarily as good as his hot streak as much as I want to see him get that shot at the title. But I think when it comes down to it, those knees wearing down his opponent, I could see a fourth round submission win here for RDR. I can really see it. I'm locked in on that. He, to me, is more proven against elite competition. Hello, he's riding a win over fucking Robert Whitaker heading into this fight. Like, you know, he's just proven more at a at a higher level. And again, Brendan Allen has flashes where he looks real good, but it's kind of like the Marab rule. I'm not picking against Marab until I see somebody beat

him, you know, like until then, I'm just, he's like the default guy. And I'm not saying that RDR has that kind of a hold on the division, but what I'm saying is given the matchup, you know, I'll believe Alan can beat him when I see it. You know, I think he can and I'm not wouldn't, I'm not saying it's impossible, but that's not my pick. My pick is RDR. I think he gets it done, probably via stoppage, probably late, but either way, I suspect his hand will be raise. Will he get the nod against Shemayev? That is the question. But Chimayev isn't talking so much about making that first title defense lately, whether it's going to be against Imov, whether it's going to be against RDR if he wins on Saturday. He's talking still about wanting to go up to 205 and take

on Alex Pereira. We've got sound from Brendan Allen reacting to that. What do you think of Hamzok calling out Alex Pereira and wanting to move up to 205 before he even has a title defense? I think that's kind of like the story of Chamaio, right? Like, he just talks a lot. He gets a lot of eyes. Like, not, it's not to the degree, but it's like Connor talking, talking, talking just to stay relative. Obviously, like, Chamaio's not that bad, right?

He doesn't say that much stuff and that much reckless stuff. But, yeah, I don't know. I think he's got a lot of work to do in our division first. And it's not like he's a huge 85er that's cutting a lot like Alex was to get to 85 to where it's like, all right, I became a champion. I defended once. Like, let's just go up or whatever. So, yeah, it's weird, but I think he, I don't think that's in his future right now.

You know, Luke, I would have to agree with Brendan Allen there on the last point from the standpoint of, uh, Chimaev has not defended the title yet. Pereira's got to recover from the broken foot. There's already talk about him and John Jones at the White House. As much as Chimaya versus Pereira at 205, would, just be a monstrosity of a fight and would get us it would get us itch i would get us itch it would get remember when i had that right remember that i had that rash right there in florida that time at that jake paul fight remember that thing that was climbing up he was trying to oh right i don't i guess i don't

remember this you had a rash of the jake paul fight yeah remember at during the uh donkey menary the one where shab showed up to in miami logan paul versus floyd vaguely vaguely all right all right you could you should go back and watch our greatest hits right there i don't even know how we got into this conversation. I would love me, some Chimaya versus Pereira. I agree it's not going to happen. But whether or not RDR can get the nod,

we have a final piece of sound from Derritter of whether he's confident that a win will get him there. Hobbs out Chamaiov today, he called out Alex Pereer. Did you see this? He said, I want to go up to light heavyweight. What do you make of this when there's clearly such big fights happening right now and he hasn't even defended the spell yet?

Oh, well, to be honest, first thing I fought was as well, this is bullshit, but it is a cool matchup, huh? It is a cool match. To see Hamzat see if he can get him down and stay safe. But I don't see it happening, but yeah, I get it. I get it. You always want to pursue the next big thing, but everyone's chasing someone else's dream, right?

And you need the other person to help you get there. Yeah, exactly. But you're hoping he sticks at 185. Like, it doesn't really seem like UFC is maybe going to seriously consider this. Ferrer wants to go to Heavyweight, apparently. So everybody's moving up. No, I don't know. I don't think that's going to happen.

I imagine if I do well this weekend, I'm able to put Brendan away. I'll be fighting for the belt early 2026. That's interesting because Imov at home in Paris did make a strong statement. No finish against Boholio, but it was a strong-ass statement. And he's on, I would say, a better win streak of quality of names than the one that RDR is on. But then again, RDR is doing things that the company loves. fights on short notice quick turnarounds take whoever's next in line so it's going to be interesting book it's going to be interesting this is what i mean this this can all be put to bed if r d r goes in there

and smashes him or conversely conversely if brendan allen goes in there and smashes him you get some pretty you know important clarity at that point but i just feel like the ufc is kind of like okay reneer this is finish the job you know what i mean and he has to do it but it's that's the way everything feels indeed right there all right let's hit into topic number two which is the rest of the ufc vancouver card and of this breakdown of the ufc vanccc is brought to you by total wireless the official wireless provider of ufc get unlimited data that won't slow you down there's nothing slowing down kevin holland from his goal of being the next cowboy saroni and fighting almost as many times as rdr has of late

he'll be in the coleman event against mike malott you're current odds in this matchup, Kevin Holland minus 110, Mike Molot minus 110, a virtual pickum at welterweight. Luke, we know the story. If Kevin Holland is dialed in, if his backs against the wall, he fights one way. If they call him to fight somebody at 185 on two weeks notice, he seems to fight another way. Is there any chance he loses this matchup if he comes in with the former mentality that maybe it's time to book some wins and make some noise in this division.

He really shouldn't lose this fight. He really shouldn't lose this fight. If you look at the fights that Neil Magny, excuse me what am I saying, Neil Magny, if you look at the fights that Kevin Holland has lost BC, he made an interesting point with Mike Bond this week talking about them. But, you know, for example,

before the last one, the two before that were Renier de Ritter 85, Roman DeLeeds A, 85. He lost MVP, 85. Jack Dela Medalena, 85. He lost her Wonderboy, but now we're back in 2022. And then Hamzot, which, you know, okay, is Hamzot, who's now the middleweight champion. The vast majority of those guys are middleweight. Now, the last one of those is D-Rod, B.C., which kind of interesting is Kevin Holland told Mike Bonn, he has two regrets over the losses that he has.

One was to Daniel Rodriguez, and I think the other one was to Derek Brunson. And he was, again, by the way, Marvin Vittori, Derek Brunson. These are all 85ers. at 70. He's kind of a different fighter, but the last one, of course, was at 70, and he still lost it anyway. So you feel like Mike Molot might be able to get it done. But the thing about what Kevin Holland is, I do think on some level he does try to compete to win. It goes out the window in certain contexts, but against the Mike Milots of the world, I tend to think you'll get a little bit more of it. He punches hard. He typically has good punch resistance. He's lengthy, highly experienced,

dual threat, he can sub, and he can strike it out. Malat is kind of game, but as you saw against Neil Magni, can fall apart. For a guy like Holland who's experienced against upper, like the next weight class guys and is durable and is a dual threat, he really shouldn't lose this one. This would be the kind of, this might be the worst loss of his, or not I won't say MMA, but this would easily be the worst loss of his UFC career, B, C, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I'm trying to look at, yes, Tiago Santos, Brendan Allen, Derek Brunson, Marvin Vittori, Hamzaa Chimae, Wonderboy, all the names I mentioned, and then DROD. Is this better or worse than DROD? I mean, your mileage may vary, but I would think it's actually a little bit worse. So, dude, this is, you know, I'm now talking in circles, so I'll stop. But this is a fight that Kevin Holland really cannot afford to lose. Yeah, crazy that Kevin Holland has 14 career losses, but he is willing to take chances and roll the dice right there.

in the 33-year-old Malap, the Pride of Canada, of course, five and one in the UFC. You did mention the disastrous TKL lost to Neil Magni. He has bounced back sense with two fairly quality wins. He's game, he's big, he's strong, all of that. This would be a huge opportunity for him on Canadian soil to beat a guy that, like you mentioned, a lot of us think is outright better than him, even though the odds are a virtual pick-um. I wonder how much that has to do with that D-Rod loss, but to be fair, D. Rod's back was against the wall late in the 30s.

People were counting him out. And he came back with a very focused performance. But here is Mike Malat talking about preparing for Kevin Holland, which also means preparing for the distraction of his trash talking, right. I haven't seen him this week yet. The last guy, I thought Charles Radke talked a lot of trash beforehand, but not so much when we got in there. I don't know if he's really been, if my pun's been talking any trash so far.

I assume when we're in there, I assume when we're in there, he'll be talking a lot of trash and kind of we prepared for that with my training partners just talking trash all the training camp when we're drilling, when we're sparring, having my mental coach cage side yelling at me during sparring and fight simulations and stuff. So I feel, you know, very well prepared and comfortable to deal with that. You mentioned prepping for Kevin Holland's talk with your training partners. Did any of them get you to crack? The times that got me to crack were when other.

people didn't know that we were doing that and they started laughing like what the hell are you doing like why are you calling him that and like they're like oh no we're just we're doing this for my opponent's going to talk trash and they're like oh yeah definitely good call he's definitely going to do that so those are the times that it was funny but otherwise no like just staying focused right look i guess you got to prepare for everything i mean before a big road trip you often get copious amounts of diarrhea during that week before just to prepare you for what it's going to be like on the on the train and playing yeah you know listen if there's anything the new work pen station has taught me is go before you get there you know what i'm saying or while you're on the way on the train three

times with blood wow how how much are we going to expose of luke right here uh long island look i'm curious from the betting side here i think this is holland's fight to lose i'm not a huge believer in mike milot the odds makers aren't sure are you sure when you make the bets on the main card minute this week no i think you guys got to give mike milada a little bit little more credit. I mean, the only loss he's had is Neil Magny in the U.S. Like, that's not a bad loss. I don't know. Kevin Holland's traded. That was a pretty bad loss. Kevin Holland's so wishy-washy. Also, there's an argument to make that, depending on how Mike Malat's career goes after this fight, there's an argument to be made that the D-Rodd loss is worse than losing to

Mike Malat. You know, Mike Malat could go on to have a great career. Yes, that one is at least possible to consider, yes. I will say, but back up a step. Mike Malott's loss to Neil Magny was very bad that was a very bad loss sure but he also was like a minus 500 favorite going into he had a lot of hype behind him going into that maybe he just didn't live up to the expectations i don't know i'm not in on mike milan i'm just feel like you guys need to give him a little more credit here it is a pick him for that reason i got my uh micha lot i got kevin holland at plus 105 like two days ago and i was feeling way better him as the dog i wouldn't really fuck with him at minus money here but uh you know i'm riding with him either way i think kevin holland could get it done so

So he's got enough weapons. Let's go. I mean, Mike Ball had a lot of momentum from three straight finishes in the UFC before that Neil Magni fight. But to be fair, they were against Mickey Gall and two guys without a Wikipedia page. So that was a wake-up call. But since then, decision went over Trevin Giles, knockout of Charles Radke. We're going to find out heads up here what this man has. Luke, you just tend to pick against Canadians. That's just what it is, you know?

I do. I'm just throwing something out there. It tells me when St. Pierre fought, I was not picking. fair point all right we'll see what you're going to say about jasmine jazz de vizzi as soon but uh fun matchup i would guess here but uh would look to close can milad handle holland's ground game uh not if he's tired yeah it's not good enough to like where his like instinct and overall level of ability to stay safe underneath will preserve him but if he does it early and it's limited and he's in control of it because he's setting the terms.

He'll be okay. Holland has a way of getting those chokes in. You know what I'm saying? Got a great dars, has arm bars. He's, he's Travis Luter black belt that they don't hand those out. No, no, Travis Luter, former UFC title challenger. Very good black belt, by the way. People got a clown on the whole situation because of Goldie's, you know,

calling him the Michael Jordan of grappling, which, you know, he's not. But he's very, very good. He was a very, very good grappler. And he had it fucked up his weight cut when he fought. Dude, that was the thing about, you know, that, seriously, in Anderson Silva, there were so many times I'm like, oh, well, you know, okay, Travis Luter's not better than him, but he's got way better ground game. He's going to fuck him up. And then he takes him down and you're like, oh, well, here we go. He's going to, he's going to crush him. And then he just collapses because he had such a horrible weight cut that he couldn't do it. And I'm like, oh, you know, I just, there was so many, like, Anderson Silva to me was like, you know, you knew he was good when he came over from Pride, but I didn't think he would go on to do it. what he did because there were so many times like, oh, he's going to get tripped up by this guy. Nope. Just kind of kept doing it. I mean, technically

is he, is Luter not a title challenger because he blew weight for that fight? I guess that's technically correct, but, you know, he was in a, he was, you know, he was scheduled for a title fight. Yeah, shout out to him and Talas latest for being Silva victims during that stretch there.

Let's go down the line here to the Bannonweight Division. Marlon Cheeto Vera, loser of three of his last four. Obviously, against a very elite competition. But he's sat out a while to refresh a 14-month layoff. He will snap entering Saturday's matchup against a surging Iman Zahabi,

the Canadian, the Ariel Hawani impersonator. When we look at the odds for this Vera plus 114, your slight underdog against Zahabi minus 135. Speaking of that burnout, Cheeto went through. It wasn't just with this. Although I'm going to guess maybe it was that too, right? Shout out to that guy. Here's Cheeto Vera talking about what he went through to refresh to get back to this point.

I mean, it's got to be something definitely at a skill and mental level, right? If you're failing short, something is wrong, right? And, you know, it's so easy to just point fingers. I could blame my coaches, my friends, my family. as my family, I can blame anything, right? But then I go and just, sometimes just take a seat and have an honest conversation with yourself because we know inside what's going on.

We know exactly, we know everything that happened is just matter of who we want to talk or not out loud about it. And I really feel that was just burned out. Luke, interesting. Cheeto Vera just 32, yet with three losses in his last we're talking about what does he have left here yet he's fighting a 37 year old in Zahabi who's riding a six-fight win streak and we're figuring out what do you actually have on the Cheeto Vera side how much do you think he has left and does that include getting back to the

elite level well as you mentioned 32 Zahabi 37 it's kind of funny you kind of sort of see Zahabi as the newer fresher face which on some level he is because he has not been this high in the rankings previously he's kind of slowly earned it with this like whatever i think he's on like a six-fight win streak something like that um to put himself in his place the answer to that is only whether or not chito has meaningfully worked on his skills that's it he had some to begin with he's got pretty good moitai you know he obviously is durable as shit right i mean he's got one of the best chins at 35 i've ever seen and he can do something with that but that's got a limit and he found that limit the wrestling wasn't there and fights like you know corey sandhagen for example

he got thumped a little bit with punching power by devison figurado which was kind of surprising and i mean you can you know diagnose the stuff that went wrong against shone o'malley he was just kind of running into stuff the issues are skills it's skills that's skill development and that's the most important thing and i think he's certainly come a long way from even the guy who we saw at the beginning of his ufc run he has really you know matured significantly but BC, you're asking, you know, can he go even further after a little bit of time off? The answer is only if he worked on his skills. This division is too tough.

There are so many talented guys. It's not easy for anybody. Well, Marab makes it look kind of easy, but it's not. And, you know, I mean, I feel like a broken record on the show. Guys are like, what's the right weight class? Did the time off help? I don't know. Did they fix their skills?

Because if they didn't do that, that's the most important one. And Cheeto dropped decisions over his last four fights to Corey Sanhagan, Sean O'Malley, and the rematch for the championship, and Devesant Figueredo. And I did see Cheeto this week talking a lot about he feels he fought very stupidly against O'Malley in the rematch. And wasn't listening to his coaching staff, was fighting an emotional style, just trying to get O'Malley. So we've seen that trap before. Cheeto, a very violent striker, but it's going to be about putting together the complete game. And you mentioned Marab, the champion of this division.

How about Cheetah Vera being inspired by Marab's recent run? And that has got him back up off the couch, back in the gym and back where he is right now. Let's listen to Marlon. Last time you also fought Maraub de Belchville, he wasn't even the champion yet. Now he's like almost cleared out the division on the verge of the most title defenses we've ever seen. What have you just made of his run as champion? And it seems like, you know, he's going through all these guys. He's going to need fresh people to fight at some point.

he's good man he he is really good and he fights at a pace that he made you doubt yourself like he have showed that you know not the most skillful striker not the most clean grappling because he's not tapping everyone out like other people like them back in the day but he just put it together and doesn't matter how it looks when he gets it done so it's amazing what he's doing and you know that's a that's one of the persons that have like almost in a way motivate me to go you know what let's get let's get my shit together let me figure it out how to win this fight because I can get there again and it would be good to have a fight like that one day because he's just a challenge that brings up to the table it's like he's like

the guy I'm fighting he's coming off a good streak he motivates me to like okay let's let's prove who's better. And that gets me out of the bed every morning. All right. Look at this. I like that. Maraub being an inspiration to everyone. Luke, let's talk about Amin Zahabi. Maybe it's a little bit deceiving to see that age of 37. He didn't really get going into his career at full speed until recently. Of course, he's the younger brother of Farras Zahabi, the famous coach. So you know he grew up at the highest levels of MMA, watching GSP do his thing. Coming off a victory over the legend Jose Aldo. How good is Amin Zahabi in your eyes?

I mean, that win is pretty controversial. I don't recall that being the cleanest win I've ever seen. However, the fact that he was even competitive in it was also kind of surprising. That was his featherweight debut, which is also worth noting. I mean, listen, the record that he has is interesting, right? So he had two losses back to back to Hikardo Homo and Vince Morales. This was in 2017 and 2019. So he didn't fight at all in 2018.

He fought once in 2019, he lost. Not at all in 2020. He fought once in 2021, he won. Once in 2022, he won against fighters with, by the way, no Wikipedia entries. Then he fought Aori, I can't pronounce his name. It's the Chinese dog. Aori, Chi Lin, Kili, I'm going to try to tell you say it. That's in 2023.

He fought one time. Then he fought two times in 2024. And that's where he really around. at the corner. He beats Pedro Munoz and Javed Basharat. Those are both pretty quality wins. And then he has the Josialdo one up a weight class, which was totally surprising, albeit

somewhat controversial. So he is certainly surging, and I do think B.C., he's one of these guys. He didn't fight a bunch, as you clearly can hear. Took a bunch of time off. It was kind of always in the gym, always in the gym, always in the gym. I don't really know if his upside is good enough to beat Chito

even with all the questions that are surrounding him. What I can say is BC, while there is some weight class movement as part of what he's been doing a little bit more recently, even of course the Rodriguez fight he had was at 140, what I will say is I do think this is a guy who has worked on his skills. This is a guy who is not going to be so much when I'm fighting and who I'm fighting and in what weight class, rather when I'm ready, when I have something to do, when I feel like I want to test myself based on what I've been working on. And that makes him dangerous. That makes him probably unassuming to a degree. I don't, again, I think if it comes down to a battle of heart, he can't beat Cheeto. If it comes

down to a battle of chin, he can't beat Cheeto. And I think if it comes down to a battle of striking, he shouldn't. But BC, this is a dude, as you indicated, you know, surprisingly he's 37, but has just kind of steadily swung the axe in such a way where if Cheats, Chito really didn't get better after taking time off from the burnout. I think he could play spoiler here. I do believe that. Or maybe Cheeto comes back with a Jorge Mazvedal like resurgence, Luke, a violent resurgence.

Long Island, look, by the way, is it's the guy's name who I cannot pronounce is, and I'm going to probably botch it here, but get a little bit closer. Orichie Lang, or Richie Lang, something like that. That sounds right. Chezon. Yeah, there you go. Macy Chiasin? Is that what it is?

There it is. Cheeto Vera comes in as the number seventh ranked Bannamweight in the UFC. Number nine is Amin Zahavi, who believes this win could catapult him. And to be fair, we beat Cheeto Vera. That's seven straight wins. That's a top 10 victory. We're talking title contention here. Let's hear from Zahabi about this.

Yeah, I think Peter Rion deserves it. I think he proved himself to have the match. And I think he was talking about. Something interesting that happened in his, the first fight, Marab, he couldn't throw right hands. And then he said, I look at the stats, I barely used my right hand. So maybe his hand was broken going into the fight or he had some kind of injury in there. So I wouldn't, if I was Marab's team, I wouldn't expect the fight to go the same way he went the first time around. And I think he's got a good chance to, you know, to put on a great fight against Marab.

Marab is definitely a puzzle. He's hard to beat, you know, but you see that he does get stunned and he does get hurt. So there's always a possibility. And I absolutely love Marab's humility when he beat Corey Sanagan. He was in the octagon and he was talking. And, you know, they're giving him compliments. And he said, you know what? I can lose at any moment.

It can happen to me. I can get hit and go down. And I'm proud that the bantamweight division has a champion like that that shows the humility. He reminds me of George St. Pierre in that sense. So, you know, much respect to both guys. And I'm excited to come up there and face them. Marab keeps clearing the guys ahead of me.

There might be a route for me for a title fight beating Marlon Vera in 2026. Who knows? I will say Marab has cleaned out this division so aggressively. He's going to face Peoria on for his fourth title defense this calendar year on December 6th. We all know next week's Umar Namaga Medov, Mario Batista fight probably produces the next title challenger after that. But if Sahab wins this, he will potentially be given Marab's activity level, not that far away from an opportunity considering this division has been cleaned out.

The problem is Luke, I don't believe in his skill set at this level. His demeanor, his potential chin, the dog in him. I don't know. I'm not saying he's been getting by with smoking mirrors. I'm just saying I have yet,

including the Jose Aldo fight, to see a performance where I'm like, okay, let's see how far he can take this. Is this the fight that he convinces us? Yeah, I have the same feeling, essentially. that what's missing is what's available in front of us, namely, you know, a win over a quality guy who fought for a UFC title without ambiguity or asterisks.

I think that's kind of what we're up against, right? That's the situation. And again, I feel like it's Cheeto that I can't over, I don't want to overlook here. I think that, as we indicated, Zahavi could play spoiler, but this would be, Jose Aldo is the bigger name, BC.

I mean, having Jose Aldo on your record, is so big. But in terms of a win we can count on as a meaningful indicator, this might be a better one. Excuse me. God bless you, Luke. Zhabi. A minus 135 favorite is Zahabi, but I think he's going to get stopped.

I do. Okay, you heard it right here. Tell your friends. Come back to this tape. By the way, Elliot Tuporia, who apparently does like press conferences in Spain once a month. I don't quite understand what's happening there. Oh, he holds his own.

on press conferences all this. It's quite remarkable. He said a bunch of stuff, but this is the one I thought was kind of mentioning BC. See what you think about this. This is Toporia talking quote. I've already told Marab that he needs to change weight classes because he's 100% has a chance to win a second belt. He might say, okay, well, which weight class? As for a fight with Volcanovsky, I have no doubts on what happens in that fight. I know that it ends with Marab winning. He wants Marab to move up to 45 and fight Volcanovsky and I got to tell you I wasn't high on that fight too long ago but it's increasingly becoming interesting to me all right I believe uh we we I saw those comments uh transcribed from one she loves the gloves over there in Georgia so yes same same same same press event where

tipporia congratulates himself a period shout out to duty on that yeah I believe tipporia is now a sponsor for a big bank there uh we have heard morab in the past say he doesn't want to move up but he's got to get through umar a second time You heard it. You heard it right here. He's got to get through Umar a second time before we even have this conversation. So that's the, that's the facts right there. Uh, we'll find out about this matchup for Zahabi.

I'm fired up about this next fight, Luke. Why am I the only one that cares a lot about Manon Faro coming off? The title lost there to Valentina Shevchenko, looking to stay relevant at the top end of this division, welcoming and absolutely streaking Jasmine Jazz DeVisio. and as we look at the odds right now, the French product, Faro, minus 230, your favorite, to the plus 190, Jazz DeVisius. But this is the best form we've seen from Jasmine up to this point.

Does she have the skill set to compete on even terms here with Faro? I don't think so. Maybe the buck stops here, BC. Faroe's got real tough takedown defense. she's physically you know quite strong for this division the fight with Shevchenko was boring

but if you recall it it started off very poorly for her but it ended up being somewhat close sure I just don't know who's got the physical tools necessary to beat someone like that except for Shevchenko jazz de Vistius is probably

a little bit more risk-taking which can confer some benefits. Certain ways she might be a little bit looser, a little bit faster, but Faro's ability to control distance. Faroe is, you know, she doesn't have a very exciting game, but she controls the terms of the exchanges,

and that is such a dominant factor in who ultimately wins. If she can put on a jab, she can put on a sidekick, you know, she's physically strong. She has, she's hard to take down. She's hard to get a body lock on. She's hard to do anything to, really.

Even Shevchenko had to kind of be real. I mean, again, it started off great but at the end had to kind of be a real piecemeal about the offense i just feel like you know it's a three-round fight so that changes the stakes and and the way in which they fight to a degree bc but i'd be surprised if jazz de vicissus gets her hand race here but long on look what are the odds on this fight uh bc just named him it was what minus two 30 furo plus 190 jasmine yeah that sounds about right dude i'm in agreeance with you i love jasmine I love what she's done, how she's turned her game around pretty quickly, 36 years old, by the way, but she is operating at the peak of her powers after a couple early defeats on the rise-up, decision losses to Tracy Cortez to Natalia Silva.

She's on a five-fight win streak, three of those by submission, and they're not against non-Wikipedia entries. It's Catua, it's Fatima Clime, Ariane de Silva, Buono Silva, and then a submission went over Jessica Andrage. But Faroe is on a different level. That takedown defense, the ability to control the terms of the fight with the striking. I think her striking Farrow, I'm talking about, is aggressively ahead of what Jasmine can bring. I like the physicality that Jasmine brings to this division. I like the confidence in her ground game. But I feel like Farrow is not done competing at the title level for as disastrous of the start of that Shevchenko fight went.

And I think Farrow is going to come back and prove exactly who she is here. great opportunity for jasmine on home soil but dude furrow is really good and it took the blanchefield fight for me to fully see that yes yes um she is better than i thought too i just feel like um you know listen for rose got some limits to her game we saw some of those in the last fight she got her face i think she got her nose broken in that fight too yeah you know she took some real lumps in that contest, but she's got a real, surprisingly boring, but stubborn physical game. And it takes someone who can match the physical tools and has a good enough skill set to get around that. And I feel like Jazz DeVisius gets maybe kind of close on both regards,

but when I can tell, not enough in either case. I guess we could be wrong. Let's see tomorrow. All right, friend of the program, Matt Fervola, is back to kick off the six-fight main. card, despite the fact that he's been off for 13 months following two brutal CO defeats. Luke, Matt Favola, we're trying to figure out what he has left here at age 35. He'll be taking on Kyle Nelson, and he will be a slight favorite here. It's a virtual pick-um for Vola minus 115, according to Draft Kings, minus 105 for Nelson. How much does Matt Favola have left, or can you not even answer that question and just say

he's either going to knock the guy out or get knocked out because that is the story of his career. Yeah, I mean, dude, like you took the words right out of my mouth. Just listen to the record. He gets caoed viciously as you. I'm glad he took about a year off, BC. That's a good thing that he did. Obviously, that was at Cardin. I think France, he gets

knead in the face by Frizyam, he loses. Benoit Saint-Denie gets head kicked, and that was also in 2023. So he fought two times in 2023, but just once in 2024. Before that, he beat Drew Dober, B.C. In one round. He beat Atman Isaytar in one round.

He beat Gennario Valdez in one round. He lost to Terrence McKinney in seven seconds. I mean, he just goes on and on. He went the distance with Armand Sarukin, a UFC 257 in 2021. But, you know, Sarukin was just kind of a very much only, still is, but like at the time, really only Russell heavy, you know, positional control kind of guy. But to anybody who opens up with him, B.C., you see what it is. It's just, it's just he closes the fist and it's Armageddon.

And, you know, sometimes it's a little friendly fire. Like, he can't quite, you know, control it. So, you know, Kyle Nelson has surprised me, B.C. He lost to Steve Garcia, who's actually pretty good. You know, but he has surprised me a little bit. I think this might be a tough fight for, you may have said the odds. I may have missed them. Yeah, it's a virtual pick-um.

Frivolta, it's slight, slight favorite. Yeah, I mean, this is a tough one because I feel like Frivala is more of a physical hammer. but, you know, he's on a rough stretch. Kyle Nelson has surprised me in the past with, like, his precision striking it in certain ways. This is a tough fight. It's a tough fight. Yeah, we thought we would see for Vrola back at MSG.

He's back earlier. Quickly, Long Island, Luke, you tend to bet on anyone who's Australian or Long Islander. This man actually lives in your damn town. Are you going for him here? I will throw a bet on him. I haven't yet. I'm going to throw him in a parlay, but I'm officially taking fight does not go the distance. Like you guys said, I think he either does.

the knocking out or gets knocked out. So I'm just rooting for violence here. Hopefully Matt takes it home. Yeah, and put some respect on Steve Garcia's name or not. Either way, he's going to be in a main event coming up at the at the warehouse against Onama, Luke, what are we doing here, right? What are we doing? That's a main event, bro.

Yeah, it is. That's a main event. Yeah, it is. Luke, I got to say, top to bottom, this card is good, man. What else do you have your eyes on for this fight night card in? Here, let me pull my notes up. There we are. Okay.

I mean, after that, it kind of falls off. a little bit. We've been over some of the bigger ones. Fun fight is definitely going to be Bruno Silva versus Hung Song Park. You know, Hong Song Park had a bit of a tough loss in his last fight, but it was under, you know, unenviable circumstances. I think this will give you a better assessment of where he and his opponent are at in the flyweight division. So I like that. There's some interest around Danny Barlow and Jordan Santos as well. Also, history teacher Cody Gibson back against a gentleman I referenced earlier a or again I'm sorry I'm sure I'm saying it wrong but a or chiling or Richie long oh richie long yeah is in this contest as well

drew dober back in addition to all of this on the early prelim card against Kyle prepleck who I guess Dober should win that one um but you know some listen like I said it's fun little gems up and down this card as my nose begins to now leak oh long out look you were talking me before the show while i need to focus aggressively on this guy who's in the second fight of the night ozumot bekoev at middleweight were you not i was just saying that like that fight alone second fight of the night beckoev belgari would easily be like co-main event on an apex card like this beckoev guy got a lot of hype around him two first round knockouts i believe he's an a t-train guy belgari is poeton sparring partner obviously trains with them and to share i think

this is going to be an all-action fight beckoev is a pretty decent favorite so he probably gets it done either way like they're burying this fight this is a great card i'm hyped for good stuff right there uh luke took luke thomas to close out on that uh on that toporia conversation in georgian when he was the sponsor of the bank he did say in that that if islam defeats he said if islam loses to delamadalina islam's going to go back to uh riding his camels or mules or whatever the hell he said but he said if islam wins the welterweight championship that he's ready to go up to 170 and fight him at the white house lawn to become the first three division champion i mean i don't know what to say to that

right like on the one hand that would be kind of insane and so i would want to see it i think on the other hand it's like bro you don't have any title defenses in this division what the fuck are we doing? Who's going to get the first shot at the three division championship? Is it Poetan or Topteria? I feel like I'm back on prop quiz and I have no idea what the answer is. Who are the only two people to defeat Russian Red Rocket Rod? Oh, sorry, it was four of them. By the way, she got cut. She got cut. Yeah, she did. Yeah, she did. Well, I'm sure you'll still be on her Instagram looking at her incredibly disturbing videos. 100% well.

Yes, I don't know. I probably would say, honestly, I might say Poetan. I mean, he's riding some momentum and, you know, I don't, I don't know if he's going to get the Jones fight. I don't know if he'll win it, but, you know, he's, he's flirting with it up there, B.C. And they don't have shit for Aspinall to fight. So, yeah, I mean, maybe so. All righty.

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Staying with the UFC here, let's go to topic number three. UFC 323, December 6 in Las Vegas, the final pay-per-view of the ESPN era for UFC has some announcements here. importantly, the main event, Marab de Valishvili, will attempt to set the record for title defenses within a calendar year. Tito Ortiz had four title defenses within a 12-month period, but this will be the first time in one calendar year when he welcomes Peotor Yan for a rematch December 6th. Just how big of an achievement, Luke, do you think this would be for Marab, who is a minus 310 betting favorite, according to Draft Kings, to the plus 250 yon in the second place? I think this would be BC to me, and there's some debate about this, at worst, if he wins this, it's the third best year any MMA fighter has had. Listen to what I'm saying. At worst, at worst, it's the third best. I think you could make an argument for number two. I don't know if I could make it number one, especially if he goes to a decision. And BC, of course, you might be asking, as the audience might be, what would be the other two years? He's not being John Jones in 2011, right?

See, here's the thing, to your point. John Jones not only won every fight in 2011. He defended the title twice. So he beat the number one contender, then beat the champion, and then defended it twice, and all four he won via stoppage. He stopped all of them. And in fact, if you think about it, the last one of those, which was the Yolumachita one, he just dropped him iconically on his face.

Like, dude, that is a year that will not be easily repeated, and even by the likes of Marab Doa. And he beat the bags off of Shogun for the title. And by the way, on five. weeks i mean the the the the bader fight that he got it on was in february and then it was in march when he fought shogun because rashad couldn't take it and so he just i mean annihil you remember bader i think was unbeaten he was a massive prospect that too yes and also this is my favorite things like oh when john beat shogun he was washed he was champion and 29 years old please shut the fuck up

and had just knocked out machita so come on just please stop talking forever um what i would what i would say though is bc you then you look at shogun's 2005 and the reason why that's a little bit different is he's got what the hiramitsu kind of horrify which i think doesn't count i mean it counts but it's not like super amazing however he had five total wins that year and then he had two on the same night with overeem and hikardo irona of course he had previously beaten little nog and then he had also previously beaten rampage and he had stopped rampage via soccer kicks he stopped erona via hammer fist and then he knocked out over him and he did those last two in the same fucking night.

Like that is, you know, that's a tough thing to beat. So I don't know if Marab is going to beat that. What I can say is BC, if he finishes Yon, it's absolutely in conversation with that. So that's the first thing that he's talking about. Certainly he'd win Fighter of the Year, BC. He might already have it locked up. Now, if he loses, that would make it a little bit harder to give it to him,

but certainly he's at this point locked it up, and that would solidify it. If he's not already, BC, if he's not already, let's assume for the sake of argument that it's still a little wishy-washy about who is the greatest bantlingut of all time. The argument officially ends at UFC 323 if Morado gets his hand raised. You cannot even make an argument for Cruz anymore at that point. It would not exist. The quality of opposition, the length of that run. And again, if he gets a stoppage on top of it, it's over.

It's over. And that's the guy. So BC, just like consider for a second, like what he is doing here with. this win. You're talking about him being a pretty big favorite in the odds, and I understand that he's already beaten this guy. There's some dispute about, you know, how injured each of them were. But the stakes of this one are actually huge because he's right at this precipice of a number of important MMA, not official awards, but the kinds of things that we remember and count. And this one win kind of pushes him over the edge on a bunch of different fronts. It's a huge.

huge fight for the legacy of Marab de Walsh movie. Very much so. Can we include the 2016 from Amanda Nunes in this conversation where she won a decision over Valentina Shvchenko, submitted Misha Tate to win the championship, and knocked out a returning Ronda Rousey? I mean, that's a pretty great year. But dude, if you beat Umar,

stop O'Malley, you decision Corey, but you nearly stopped him. And let's just say, you stop Yon? Dude, I mean, you know, you're talking, let's see. uh you uh yon former champion omali former champion cori obviously title contender umar title contender i mean dude you know you're dealing with some fucking hammers at 135 and he's treating them like you know they're coming up from the contender series it's insane that is true i'd also like to offer poitons 2004 with three knockout title defenses in 175 days saving multiple cards while injured

Yes, yes. And other people don't give him the love. In fact, people voted for Jorge Mosbidol for a fighter of the year in 2019. But never forget what Israel Adasania did that year, beating Anderson Silva, beating Kelvin Gastilum in an absolute war, and then knocking out Robert Whitaker to win the middleweight championship. Okay, never forget that, please, all right? A very good year. Indeed.

Yeah, as good as it gets right there. Let's continue down. Alexandria Pantosia, the flyweight champion. We'll have a very tough and interesting title defense on this same UFC 323 card in the coal main event against 24-year-old Josh Van, fresh off in absolute war with Brandon Royval to catapult himself to the top of this division. Is this Pantosia's toughest fight in years, Luke, as he enters from Draft Kings as a minus 245 favorite? This is to me maybe the most interesting fight on the card, if I can be honest with you.

Because I feel like Josh Van is green, but, you know, it was kind of what Amin Zahavi was talking about, B.C., which is if the champion stays busy and you can get a couple of wins under your belt, you can get more. And then obviously, Josh Van, this is going to be his fourth fight this year, too, by the way. So you've got Marab four fights and Josh Van, this will be his fourth fight. You can build momentum sometimes pretty quickly. It's hard for a lot of these guys to get out of like first gear, but sometimes they can make a push. And this is one of those guys. I feel like, dude, Van has, we've said it a million times and it's never come true.

Oh, Pantoja has been in all these wars. You know, now is going to be the time where the bill comes due. And then it just really never comes due. You would imagine at some point it will. Van has a ton of volume that he throws. He's highly accurate. But at the same time, BC, and he can scramble his ass off too. But he throws a lot of volume and he doesn't have a ton of pop on it.

That could slow him down as well as, you know, however good. good. He is on the ground. He's not better than Pantoja. I can just tell you that matter of factly. He's not. So, you know, there's a lot of reasons to be like the guy's green. He's been kind of rushed up here. It's a relatively weak division. But at the same time, he's got hands. He's got combos. He's got volume. He's got moxie. He's got momentum. And the champion, while extremely decorated, looking for his fifth title defense, has been through the ringer. At some point, that will come to a close. Whether or not it's going to be a UFC through 23, I guess we'll have to see. Yeah, we will. This card, dude, is that Dana said that he wanted to load up this card and make it magic. Let's look at the complete fight card graphic here. You've got Jan Blockovich against Gustav and what could be a war. Luke, I absolutely love this next fight.

38-year-old Henry Sohudo, despite a three-fight losing streak against elite competition, says it will be the final fight of his career when he welcomes 27-year-old prospect. And maybe the future of this division, if you can put it all together, Peyton Talbot. You've also got Brandon Moreno there against Tatsura Taira. Who's that last fight there, Luke? Faris Ziam and Nazim Satakal. Oh, Ziam is the guy that killed Favola. Okay, okay. Luke Thomas, let's stay with Suhudo here. I love that he's willing to do this. I love these type of crossroads fights. I think Suhudo does not have enough left to beat the elites, and we found that out. We saw the limitations there. But this is kind of an interesting matchup that matter.

in a weird way, right? How so? It'll really put... Oh, yes, yes. I mean, well, yeah, yeah, I guess it does. I mean, it's hard to know exactly what they're going to do with Talbot. I think they're still trying to figure out what they have, but it looks to me like BC, and this is just my opinion,

you may agree or disagree. It looks to me like they're cashing Henry out. They know Henry's got this fight left and maybe that's it. And if you can get a win, you know, maybe he'll try and, you know, horn in a title shot or you know who knows he'll try to make one last final push but if he loses for sure i think he's done and they're trying to see all right is talbot who who did not look good obviously well he looked good in his last one against filippe uh lima but then the fight prior to that against how many barcelos he looked terrible with the wrestling so the question is like how much has

he really improved a young guy he should be able to improve pretty substantially dude the guy talbot had a big New York Times profile feature on him. He casts a net into a different part of sports or cultural fandom that most fighters can't touch. And so I think the UFC might be trying to see if they've got something with it, but they want to know if he's got the goods. This kind of tells us, you know, it gets us pretty far to giving us a good answer to that. This is the, this is, yeah, this is great. It's great on every level.

It would allow Suhudo to go out with a big win over, you know, in a fight that kind of matters to figure out the future of this. division. And there are a lot of people I've seen that are straight up picking Henry Sehudo with that wrestling against Talbot. So we'll have to see that. I love the banger potential, of course, there with Moreno and Tatsuu, Taira as well. Luke, we've got some sound here of Marab Davalishvili's coach responding to what Peyodor Jan said that he was injured the first time they fought and that we'll see a much different rematch here in the 323 main event. What is your response to Jan believing that this thing's going to go differently and

him sort of saying that health was the reason why he lost that first fight against morab whatever makes you sleep better at night i'm good with that whatever guys whatever they have to say that gets them through the night to feel better about a loss maybe it was i'm sure he was injured we were injured too literally morab's hand could not be fit into a glove it was the size of a baseball was that they completely broken in two different places he had surgery directly after he never heard a peep about it. We never spoke about it until this came out until Yon decided to say that he's 50%. Well, guess what? We only had one hand, too. So I don't think, you know, and now you're giving motivation to a guy that, okay, he was hurt, and that's great. I respect Yon and his team,

and I think he's a great fighter. And I just said, I enjoy watching him. I'm a fan of his fights. But do I think it's going to go any different? Absolutely not. Do I think that, that Mara comes out with the title, yes. And I think that it might be a, you know, a much more emphatic wind, much more dominant wind, because now you have an even more motivated brab. But again, whatever anybody wants to say, man, that's up to them. And whatever, you know, I'm not a big fan of, oh, I was hurt before this fight or everybody's hurt. Don't take the fight. Don't take the fight. If you're going to lose and you're going to cry about it or you're going to come out and say eventually,

well, this is why. It might be. It really might have been why. But that's not you, man. You chose to do that. So whatever makes people feel like they sleep better, whatever it is, all good. I think that's a fair statement there from John Wood. That's on submission radio.

Shout out to Dennis Scrotikov over there. Yeah. Touch my scrotum off. Yeah, thank you very much there. Luke, do you think it'll be a better fight than the first one and more competitive? although what he's saying about Marab's hand being a balloon and broken, dude, Marab just doesn't care about illnesses or injuries in a Poetan-like way. Yeah, yeah, I do think at least early it'll be better.

Yeah, I mean, I believe that Jan probably was not in a great health. I think he learned from that fight. I think that he'll have a better strategy and it will do some good for him. But my rule is, hey, he already beat him. And B, to your point, Marab was also probably super fucked up. And even more to the point, I'm not picking against Marab until I literally see someone take the belt from him. And then we can discuss what his real limits are.

But until then, they don't exist. And for a fight that, you know, Marab has already won, there are some complications that can happen. You can get a little overconfident. But I just, dude, Marab is streaking for a reason. He looks better every time. And BC, here's something that's also possible. Yon might look better for a round, even two,

and then still get finished around three or four. like that's possible as well so you know i look forward to seeing it and the last thing i'll say on this i do think it's good for guys who want to be weight class legends you need to see some of the better contemporaries a couple of times you know st pierre had to fight uh chel sonnan twice uh george st pierre had to fight uh chel sonn twice didn't you what i'm saying anderson sylva had to fight sonn twice excuse me sanpier had to fight koshch a couple times there was more rematches than that during the course of their tenures. For example, DJ had to fight John Dotson a couple of times.

The guys who can really do something else and make some noise in your division, really good champs are going to see them a couple of times. And in fights you don't necessarily want or prefer or, you know, you have a different idea about what they should be doing. It's actually a big part of their legendary run if they can get the win. And this would be a huge, as we've discussed, a massive fight in terms of the reward that is waiting for Marab with a win. Yeah, I think Piotrion had a groin injury or something that slowed him down.

So we'll see in the rematch. By the way, I did chat with one, Umar Narrague Metoff yesterday, who returns next week at 3.21. Check out that interview on the BCX. I believe later today, lots of talk about what he could potentially do in a rematch with Marab if he gets by Mario Batista. So Bannway at the top end, heating up in a big way. And to close, not everybody's buying the Joshua Van Hipe here. One of those people are Pantosia. Here's him with the Overdog Spot.

Everybody think Joshua Vannes is a fucking God and can destroy everyone. Okay, bring him in. So have you been watching a little bit on Joshua Van? I watched Joshua Van very before, you know. In that moment, I think, okay, I don't need to take too much attention in this guy right now because he's like a top 15, something like that. He beat Royval with a very nice fight, you know. And that's so good because I have 15 minutes to watch that fight.

I feel Raifal make a lot of mistakes and Josh Van take advantage about that, you know. Josh Van deserved a fight for the belt, completely fired. He has so much good skills to take down defense. He has a very good boxing movement, you know. I like this style. I like to put myself in this position, you know. LT, this 323 card also includes Marvin Vittori versus Bruno Faheda, Macy Barber versus Corrine A. Silva.

I like that fight. Terrence McKinney versus Chris Duncan. This card is very good. How about that 322 card at MSG, by the way? That thing is loaded from top to bottom. So a good close to the UFC's run with ESPN, maybe outside of some of those fight night snoozers. And we expect a huge launch to the Paramount era,

probably with Soporia in the first fight in January. So in the first main event in January on the PLE side. So we'll see where that goes right there. Let's go over to topic number four. This was big news on Wednesday. The California State Athletic Commission unanimously recommending the passage of the Muhammad Ali American Boxing Revival Act to a very controversial response, mostly because there were zero professional boxers present on this sort of Zoom conference call.

But there was a lot of MMA fighters, alumni, representatives, big John McCarthy. You also had Nick Khan representing. Zufa boxing. Luke, what was the purpose in your eyes of this recommendation from Andy Foster and the California State Athletic Commission? And if anything, what did this hearing disclose or prove since this needs to be put before Congress to fully get approved? Yeah, I saw people reporting strangely that like this had some kind of binding power. It does not. It is merely the six commissioners of the California State Athletic Commission essentially recommending or you know, giving, saying what they think is important here.

Like, we recommend this piece of legislation as good for, you know, the industry. You can read their own statements about it. What's the purpose of this? So the purpose of this event was to manufacture consent. It was a state commission, one of the most important ones, certainly by volume California deals with, historically speaking anyway, the most amount of like boxing and MMA events happen typically in California versus any other state. I mean, that's changed to a degree during the pandemic, but that has historically been true.

So it's one of the most important, if not the most important commissions in the United States, essentially lending the credibility that that body has as an entity to recommend a piece of legislation on behalf of this, you know, sort of monopolistic behemoth in TKO. And you're asking like, well, why would why would they want to? to do that. Well, you can, we can read their statements if, you know, if that feels enlightening to any of you out there, but it's really not very complicated in my judgment. It is quite obviously, this piece of legislation, I mean, nobody would look around at the state of boxing we see. You would say it's in great shape. But, you know, and then the, the proponents of the

American Boxing Revival Act, this is this Ali Act amendment essentially. What they would argue is, you know, hey, look, we're putting in, you know, minimums on round pay and other forms of medical coverage but it's like you don't need the all the act changes to do that you can just pass laws or the commission by itself could take that up so it's really got nothing to do with that more it's so that you know why would the commission support legislation that provides a carve out to the existing regulations that were put in place to protect boxers um and the answer is well you again you can read what they write i'm going to give you what my opinion is which is that i think that they are reading the tea leaves and they're looking at the way things are going and

they're making a bet and the bet is tko is going to get their way one way or the other and they already control uh mma they have a significant stake in control in wwe boxing is there for the taking and again of course this legislation is designed to aid their boxing promotion they're making a bet that they're going to win and if you think about it logically bc i don't know what the number of boxing events annually of how it's changed or not but certainly we have some evidence from topology that MMA events are in steady decline. In a world where, especially in the United States, in a world where that is happening and there's concentration around one dominant brand that doesn't just have a monopoly in one sport, but that conceivably has

a monopoly in two, or certainly a dominant brand in one and a monopoly in another, and then obviously has potentially free reign with this legislation being passed, they're making a bet that if they get sideways with them in a world where the amount of events are already contracting, that they won't be able to get those events in their state, which could deprive it of important revenue. The way that these commissions work is some of it is just funded by the taxpayers, but a big component of it is they tax events that come to the state for licensing fees and you name it.

And that's a way in which they collect revenue. It used to be at a WorldBC where like there were so many different promoters between MMA and boxing, even within MMA itself. If they've UFC didn't go, Strike Force would, you know what I mean? And they would have shows on CBS, but that doesn't exist anymore. Everything is much more concentrated. If you get sideways with that promoter, I think that they're thinking we would be, this would be ruinous for us.

This would be ruinous for the industry and the state. And this would be ruinous for our potential careers in the regulatory world thereafter. So they're making a bet that if they go along with it, that they'll preserve their interests long term. I don't know that for a fact. That's simply my opinion. But I don't know how else you can reconcile what their job. versus how they're behaving here and then come to any other conclusion, then they're folding.

So maybe you have a different view, but that's mine. No, I mean, that's the way I see it. It feels sort of inevitable. Are there potential setbacks here for the average boxer in comparison to the way the Aliak stands now? Yeah, we've documented those, you know, ad nauseum here. But it also on the flip side is hard to defend where the sports at now with the abuses of the sanctioning body.

It's interesting right here And it's definitely a controversial topic overall Which is why you've seen an aggressive response From Oscar De La Jolla on Clapback Thursday this week A humorous one It was so weird though right Because I mean this is the funny part Like to your point BC

There was one amateur boxer who called There were no pro boxers who called Yeah that's a bad look to not have that No pro boxer Yeah and like dude like it was like De La Jolla Like instead of making clapback Thursday You could have just called you know I'm with you on that

So there were a lot of people for it on the call from Forrest Griffin to John McCarthy to a few others. One of those, of course, was Nick Con. Nick Con issued a statement through TKO afterwards. He's obviously the president of WWE and will be in charge of ZUFA boxing along with Dana White. He says on behalf of Zufo, we want to thank California Athletic Commission for the thoughtful consideration of all voices being presented in today's hearing and for the unanimous six nothing vote support for the new act.

This bill does not eliminate or change any of the existing provisions of the original Ali Act, what we are proposing is an alternative system in which fighters will have more choices and opportunities, better pay, greater health, and safety protections, and more events in which to compete. Also, as the commission is fully aware, the Ali Act is supported by Lonnie Ali, the wife of the greatest Muhammad Ali. We know Lonnie personally and can share with you what she said to us is, quote, this is a great opportunity for boxers, and this is what Muhammad would have wanted. Now, Luke, this is similar to what Dana White told me when I interviewed him on CBS SportsHQ when the announcement happened of Zupa boxing coming to Paramount CBS,

of course, my parent company. And I get it. They're not necessarily changing it. They're creating a new system and you can ultimately pick to go the Zufa route where there seems to be a UFC level of monopolistic control, but also some plus is built in or you can stay in the traditional one. We'll see, I guess, how long that traditional structure lasts because I think we feel inevitably that Zufo Boxing and Turkey Alashik will combine down the road.

So these are potential major changes that could limit certain fighters, I guess, leverage and earning potential, but can certainly increase the earning potential for fighters in the beginning. So you can understand the pushback. Here's a list of those that were on the call that spoke at this event. Nick Con, Big John McCarthy, Chris Lieben, representing as a current official, an ex-UFC fighter there were doctors professors but a UFC doctor a couple boxing promoters Corey Rapaz there and Tom Lothler all the way through podcasters members of the MMAFA and a lot

of current and former UFC fighters but Luke although Matt Brown a former UFC fighter was very vocal against it and made a lot of noise and essentially straight up accusing them of uh of sort of trying to fool the boxers, you had a lot of MMA fighters on there or MMA centric people who were in support of it, which is kind of surprising. And I think that's where the controversy out of this came from. The idea of why are you having MMA fighters on there and not active boxers who this will affect?

I don't know. I can't speak for the boxers. I don't really know. I just, I mean, I kind of said this earlier. Like, with the, this is what I was, this is all I was point to earlier. You see, like, on the, I mean, okay, so like, look, look who the opposition was. It's largely without exclusively the mMA folks who have been engaged in like ali act extension efforts and or lawsuit efforts right like they're kind of that's what who's there where is the coordinated inside of boxing resistance it doesn't exist it doesn't exist and for that reason they're going to get run over you know m m ms ms uh folks

they can make a difference i suppose they can you know they can try and slow things down but Dude, boxing, the boxing is just, they're not putting up any five. They're just, this is, you know, we've got to say something about this. Like, the culture of boxing, hold on a second. Let me, let me like organize my thoughts here for a second. The culture of boxing, B.C., how many years went by as a boxing fan and observer? And you can speak to this much better than I can, but everybody has felt it. Everybody's felt it.

Where year after year, you were just like, you know, all the fights that I want to get made, don't get made. And there's exceptions to that. There's good years, that bad years. But there's been so many years where, like, things didn't happen. But the funny thing was, B.C., during that time, boxing, at least visibly, still look to be the same to us that it, maybe not always did, but still looked pretty similar. But what it ended up doing, B.C. was setting in motion a culture of rot. And it's set in motion a culture of passivity. And now that they need to marshal forces to protect their interests, there's nothing to do it with.

Like, it's been, it's been completely hollowed out. And the boxers seem unaware, the promoters would rather make clapback videos than, you know, do anything about it. I just feel like boxing, you know, whether you think the TKO sponsor legislation is the appropriate remedy or not, the reality is this sport has fallen into extraordinary disrepair. And what's so funny to me, BC, is you know, you kind of see it year over year, as I mentioned, but not really, but then it's nothing at all and then all at once. And here we are at the all at once moment. Yep. I mean, it is hard to, it's hard to defend. I mean, do I love this for the fighters? Do I think this is the right new model to go? Personally, not necessarily. But they are, at least in theory, given the fighters, the choice of staying with the old model or going with the new, but the old model also sucks. The old model was absolutely dominated by corruption of the sanctioning bodies. How do you? Why is it that some promoters have their fighters always ranked in one sanctioning body but aren't ranked at all in another? Like we can see through the ridiculousness and the corruption that has segregated the sport.

If this at least succeeds in bringing it together, I guess it's a plus, but on the flip side of this argument of whether this was a setup or bring on people that already support it to support it, if boxing's not going to, it's the same argument we have against the MMA fighters. if they're not going to stand up and organize and fight for better pay or treatment and also the boxers aren't going to do the same, then what are we going to do here? You're going to get what you're going to get. That's what it is right there is. All right. We close with topic number five. Another sort of controversial development.

You remember former UFC champion Frankie Edgar was expected to return on the October 4th BKFC big time event in Newark, New Jersey, which of course was main evented by Mike Perry versus Jeremy Stevens. Frankie Edgar was scheduled to be in the co-main event against Jimmy Rivera. Did we all want Frankie Edgar to come back? Not necessarily, of course, right? Or maybe almost unanimously no because of the amount of TKO stoppage defeats to the tail end of his great UFC career. But he was signed on to this fight in August. And according to Frankie Edgar, he went through a litany of tests with nine different doctors testing every single part of his brain, heart, everything,

and passed with flying colors. So why was it that in October, right before the event at the last minute, Frankie Edgar was pulled from the card. And he would go on to explain on his podcast that it were some shenanigans around that. He was told that he's pulled from the card because a doctor that represents the BKFC

that did not look at him ruled that he was too old and had too many losses, even though they knew this information in August when they signed him. And it's really speculating. it's it's it's brute speculation that there's two potential i guess conspiracy theories here one that this event did not sold sell to the level that they thought so bkfc chose to cut it's uh you know cut frankie eager loose and not have to pay him the full amount to save money or more nefariously that they potentially led him on all along to use his name to sell tickets

knowing they would pull the fast one here edgar ultimately accusing david feldman of bk of c of having his reps tell Frankie Edgar that Feldman was flying to Manchester for an event for a week and he would have no phone on him so you couldn't contact him. This is suddenly heating up in a big way. So Luke Thomas, what really happened here? Because I think all the available scenarios are pretty bad for BKFC unless you're going to believe that they listen to people like us saying we don't want to see Frankie fight again for his own well-being. and maybe they decided, hey, let's not take a chance,

but why would they do it just a week out before the event when they knew about this for four or five months? They knew exactly who he was. I mean, I can't say without access to more conclusive information what exactly happened. We don't have discovery over emails or texts or anything like that. What I will say is kind of interesting. I know we have a Frankie Edgar graphic,

if we can put that up on the screen here. quote, I passed every single one of my medicals. I did a whole shit ton of medicals. I thought BKFC had something. I was like, wow, this is pretty entertaining. They got something. But not if they treat fighters like this. Because I'll tell you what, fighters out there, beware.

How often do you ever hear fighters talk like this about a promotion, any promotion that's major? I mean, it's not unheard of, but it's not an everyday thing. But more to the point, you know, Frankie Edgar was never really embroiled in any kind of controversy like this. at any point in his MMA career ever, ever. Not with UFC, not, you know, obviously that he finished his career with UFC, but you just never heard of something like this.

He's been a professional in every way. So for him to say this, again, everyone's going to be allowed to make their own conclusions, highly unusual for him to say it. Highly, highly unusual for him to say it. More to the point, you know, listen, we have said nice things about BKFC based on some of the market reception with that big show they had in philly right bc that had eddie alvarez on the card i think

was eddie was it eddie and mike parry it might have been yep or maybe it was eddie and jeremy stevens you know it was eddie and jeremy stevens yes good call there long island um you know that was that looked like a pretty big success and they had other shows that have looked like pretty big successes And we've said, you know, they're providing a real alternative to MMA. It's MMA adjacent. It's got some elements of it. It's called boxing, but it's really, you know, it's more related to the MMA world than it is to the boxing world. And still, it's a meaningful alternative.

But, you know, there's just been a number of incidents where, obviously, they had a guy die, essentially from injuries related to a show that they had hosted. You know, they have this incident. They had hired a guy who was like an insane race. and posted all kinds of, like, you know, like, I mean, not, not, not like, you know, oh, he said off-color jokes, like, was like members of, you know, or I think affiliated anyway with some racist organizations. In any event, you know, this is the kind of part of the fight game where it just feels

like you have to be extra careful because it's dealing with the kind of athlete at a stage of the career where they can in certain ways be more vulnerable. and you know again i don't know if they were cutting corners trying to put them on a thing to sell tickets and then pull them off because they didn't want to pay them and it didn't you know yield bigger numbers i don't know if that's what they did but if frankie edgar is offering caution fighters out there would be unwise to not heat it you're just dealing with dude it's so weird to me why does any this is true for any promoter why does anyone trust any combat sports promoter.

Like, I'm not saying you have to, in every case, always distrust them. But what is it about what they do and what is it about this industry that makes anybody think they can default a certain level of trust to them? You cannot. You cannot. This is not how this business works. This is not polite society. These are people that, you know, I'm not saying that anybody broke any laws.

I don't know that they did. But these are not people, again, I'm speaking industry-wide here. that are entitled to a degree of trust because they've acted in high trust ways. You have to have your head on a swivel in this industry. And when things like this begin to add up, it's important to take inventory. Well, Frankie on his champ and the Tramp podcast sort of felt like he was forced to open up about it. A couple of interesting things he said. One, that he actually had no interest in fighting again, that they kind of called him and pushed him

and then essentially gave him an offer of a fight purse that he couldn't refer. fuse. And then two, despite him going to great lengths to clear himself medically, he claims that his medicals were never sent by the promotion to the New Jersey State Athletic Commission. And that he's been doing. And he's been doing his medicals through New Jersey, his entire MMA fighting career. So that's interesting. And the fact that a doctor who didn't even look at him would just suddenly say, you know what, it's too dangerous for this guy to fight after they've sold a certain amount of tickets. That's where it looks pretty sketchy, ultimately. We do have a response here from Dave Feldman who caught up with MMA fighting's, what's the guy's name?

Damon Martin. Damon Martin, excuse me. Let's listen to. Do you plan on trying to bring Frankie in, or are we just going to move on? I don't, honestly, I don't know if he even wants to fight with us again. I think he's a little upset with us, as maybe he should be. But at the end of the day, we were looking out for his best interest. He is getting, you know, a very, very respectable check. So I don't think he's mad at us for that i think he's mad at us because we took away an opportunity from him again sometimes you have to save fighters from themselves and i'm not saying that we saved frankie from himself but i'm saying for that night our medical team wasn't prepared for that and and that's why will we revisit it we'll certainly talk to him if he's interested we will definitely

dive deep and if we can make it happen we will and you said like he's still getting a paycheck out of this like he's still got money out of this yeah no definitely listen i he promoted it he went to every parents I asked him to go to. He did any interview I asked him to go to. He did a watch party at his dad's bar, uncle's bar or something like that. He really went above and beyond to try to help us. So, of course, he had to get taken care of. A lot of talk right now and a lot of things flying around about CTE right now and actually coming after commissions and coming after promoters for it, that definitely had something to do with our decision. That certainly had something to do with our decision. And when we do anything, we're going to weigh risk and reward. What's

the risk what's the reward and the reward on this one we didn't think outweighed the risk so that's why we that's why we did that i don't how did you not know that before brother i mean that's the thing that's sketchy about this i mean so frankie would say on his podcast that they paid him a smaller amount but a a firm amount now to just like thank him for promoting it but he he straight up said they probably paid me that much so i wouldn't sue them yeah he literally said it yeah and he says he's not as long as they pay him. And I mean, MMA Joey had like a 40 minute video about this and accusing the MMA media of covering up, accusing Ariel of covering it up.

But I don't know. It does seem sketchy. I think the biggest point I took from M.A. Joey's video was say what the issue was. Say what the medical issue was, right? Wouldn't that have given them an alibi in this regard? But yet... How can there be a medical issue if New Jersey cleared him?

I understand that the BKFC doctor could still intervene. That's the series of them. But it's like, how do you sign a guy for a fight and make him kind of a centerpiece of the card, or at least a big part of it anyway, who's got this history and you've not done any medical examination about his situation first? It's just, I mean, even if there isn't a nefarious explanation, right? even if it is, oh, they didn't rug pull him. The best explanation after that is you're just horribly incompetent. Yeah.

You know what I mean? At the same time, we didn't want to see him get knocked up by Jimmy Rivera. Yeah, but the other part is also going to look guys like that. You know what I mean? It's just the whole thing is just, I'll be nice, unfortunate. Yeah, there we go. Let's put that, let's put that to bed. All right.

Can we move on here? Yes. Those are our five topics for this Friday. We now. offer you as always the opportunity to reach out and touch our show through the portal of morning combat at gmail dot com our email address tell mikey that you said hi by showing him nothing but you're i mean sorry anything but your private parts thank you uh this is to fuel of course our friday fan segments dead wrong and fan subs we begin by putting ourselves on trial

on budsman style you thought we said something wrong you brought a receipt we'll tell you at the end of the day whether we was actually dead wrong all righty let's see who takes more else today this one's from nick he says during the october 10th episode around the 10 minute mark my fears were confirmed that bc has taken a shovel to the head and suffered severe brain damage when he said charles olivera was caoed for the first time in his career against ilia toporia Charles was caoed by Cub Swanson by Antiqued by both Paul Felder and Donald Soroni

Luke please save a syringe for BC when you visit his house to euthanize his pets What are we doing here? Okay, I gotta say that's a little aggressive But I saw that cat today, it's on my mind So I was, okay, I was dead wrong on that I was dead I was dead I was thinking Isn't it the first time he's been put out completely cold With a single punch? Isn't that what it is?

It is, but I guess I was thinking of Max getting stopped for the first time in the fight before against Toporia and I confused it in my you know challenged brain there's a fear around this household these days loop that my short term memory is like scarily gone you know what I mean my memory recall except for things that I learned my sophomore year in college has all but dissolved yes I always tell my family I'm like don't worry in five years I'll be able to tell you it all back like I've got one of those memories that it needs years to you know then it just sticks and then I can I can I can recall conversations from 20 years ago, you know what I mean?

Or maybe it's CTE, look, who knows, right? Yeah. Who knows? By the way, Long Island Luke would let us know that everyone has made weight for UFC Vancouver except for Bruno Silva who has yet to take the scale. And of course, the main inventors both came in at 186 pounds RDR and Brendan Allen. Number two, dead wrong from Leo. And of course, I'll take the L in that first one here.

For Friday's dead wrongs, let's look back to Monday's show when B.C. stated quote Hollow Holloway has won four of his last five the only loss being the Toporia knockout the only time he was ever stopped god I'm getting hammered here that's yeah I guess you're damn right I meant stop by strikes I did I really meant that but you're right I didn't I didn't clarify that so Holloway was also stopped in 2012 by Dustin Porrier in the first fight via arm bar maybe less hot dogs and more reading or even trying out a few movies with subtitles. Much love Leo. Wow. I do

like movies with subtitles. I am that guy. I got to take two back-to-back L's there, but I did mean the correct info on the second one. Whatever. Here's Devin, the third one here. Greetings from Canada boys. I'm sending in a quick dead wrong for Luke from Monday. One hour and 18 minutes, Luke and BC

are talking about Boots Ennis. Luke says, quote, we are now 35 years into his career and talks about his best wins. Maybe this was just an exaggeration but didn't seem like no one or didn't seem like one we can't be 35 years into a career because he's only 28 if it was an exaggeration for effect forgive me have a good one boys i did hear that i'll take that l but i i meant he's got 35 he's 35 and oh so yeah yeah thank you

so those are your ls for the week we take them our final segment is your opportunity to send in pictures and videos of you on vacation with saul's wife this one's called fan submissions mail viewers speaking of the great saul a from louisville kentucky he says the wife and i took our yearly vacation this year she chose aruba the weather was great got to feed a flamingo but monday morning at eleven my wife said we're on vacation get off your phone i said damn right i'm on vacation i do what i want y'all know what i was watching poolside we both got ripped off free alcohol and spent the first night hugging toilets, great times, all the while wearing the best merch in the game.

LIL, please keep these pictures rolling. LT, I follow Saulul on Instagram. He essentially live streamed his entire vacation, and he was wearing MK clothing the whole time, and he's not wrong. They were asleep with their face on the toilet after that first night of drinking. It was wild.

I, first of all, I'm happy that they had a great time, but I don't, I would not want to put that kind of information out into the world, no? Hey, Saul lives under his own set of rules, all right? You know, you got to respect that. He's like, lady, I'd do what I want on vacation, all right? I'm surprised you're not out there vacationing with them banging his girl. That is the thing that I know.

First of all, that's way too far. That is way too far, right? I would never go on vacation with them, but the offer, though, is very polite. You know what I mean? What's that movie with, uh, Demi Moore Indecent proposal Indecent proposal

That's the one That was a big movie When we were kids That was very big That question was being asked By a lot of couples around that time Would you take money Was that Robert Redford

Who offered the money? I think that's right I think it was Robert Redford And Demi Moore right Who offered Woody Harrelson's character Like a large sum of money To sleep with his wife Yeah to bang his chick

Yeah Very very indecent there But seriously shout out to Saul And everyone over there in Louisville Big fans, thank you for wearing our merch and loving our show. Let's go over to Alan. He says, I was wondering if Luke would ever interview the insane clown posse. I feel like they would bond over a lot, and it would be a great conversation.

Keep don't think don't know anything. Can I name, yes, I think I can name them. I don't know which one is which, but I think they're violent Jay and Shaggy too dope. that right wow i i think that's correct i do i think that's correct i'm not sure uh you know what's kind of funny is obviously their music is you know magnets how do they work that's not really for me but um i've heard i've i've i've this isn't it's not kind of weird but okay no the people i i follow on instagram certain rappers who have performed there like for example um r a the rugged man for example i do like r a he raves about the juggaloes he raves about the gathering of the juggaloes he

loves them so you know what i don't you know they're kind of an easy thing to to mock but if r a likes them i'll i'll holster my insults you know what i'm saying wow wow i'm not a big fan of i mean i would try some fago for sure right would you would you on a quervo episode pour beautifully tasting quervo tequila inside the chaser of Fago red soda ICP style I sure

bring some I don't know if we can get some in New York but I'll be looking to do that next Wednesday for sure our next fan submission comes from Jonas he says New have you seen the shit intro with Luke screaming bitches like an OG Unk, unc, sorry

bitches I don't quite get the I don't I'm a bit I don't I'm I don't quite get the I look like I am a lumberjack

hitting a vape next to the Twin Towers Could you play that one more time Imagine if this one And now we throw two This week's Have you seen this shit? Bitches

Woo It's the me Boom Boom I don't do it next to the Twin Towers, B.C., but I might wake and bake a little bit like that. You know what I'm saying? Long Island, Luke, would it be disrespectful for that to be our new H-Y-S-T-S intro?

It wouldn't be disrespectful. It would be disrespectful to the original guy who made that intro, because that intro is classic. I just got to say. But Jonas, credit to you, that was fucking hilarious. All right, all right. I mean, we're honoring the victims, of course. Are we? our final one comes from john who has no comment let's see

yes yes that is true i have uh i have poet on my own liver through the days by the way i haven't had a hot dog in at least like four years and that's the longest stretch no you haven't had any any sausage of any kind well are you all talking about food or what i'm saying okay well that's another guy are you are you haven't had like uh like gumbo or no i i have had sausage uh but i haven't had an actual hot dog since my diagnosis okay all right all right yeah that's right on and i don't know about the pasty part but that's right on yeah yeah brother you are i mean of all the things you've ever been wrong on that might be the worst look i know there's people out there that agree with me

I know there is. I know it. We got one final video from him. Had the shit of a lifetime and I was like, oh, my fucking God, where am I going to go? 19th and M, there's like, it's just businesses there. There's no like, like, you're fucked, right? So I just saw Joseph A. Bank and I was like, yo, I'm looking for a tuxedo. Right?

I got to give him some excuse. And like, but first, I need to go to your bathroom and they're like, oh, you have to use the employee one in the bathroom. A triple flusher. You're fine. It's like You can just leave your key card at the front desk Yes, yes Wow, wow, there it is

Those are your fan submissions of the week Morningcombat at gmail.com to reach out to the show Thank you to all who still support this show Six plus years into it By buying our merch, by telling your friend By tuning in and liking and subscribing to what we do It is much appreciated. Speaking of that, those are our social handles

shout out to everybody on the draft kings network even shout out to you audio only fools we see you as well but please like and subscribe spread the word follow our extended universe here of youtube channels and substacks l t will will the people be hearing from you this week on your channel i don't know if i'm doing a live watch along on saturday probably not but i'm definitely going to have coverage on sunday all right would now will that be you know in place of spending time with your family um i don't know how you do both so but i'll give him my saturday as best i as best i can all right because the saturday after that one is ufc 321 and i am going to tell my family to hit the fucking road

yeah that's long island luke's style tell the tell the lady you're on your own you know what you thought we were going to have a normal human relationship and interaction hit the bricks she's on vacation this weekend so for once i actually yeah the the the foot of not from me now I do have the full card fully ready to go. So, you know, I'll be there Saturday, 4 p.m. Eastern. Also, L.T. versus Danny Segura coming up in a half hour. Let's go. Quite the performance, yes.

Let's go. Let's see who's going to end up playing me for the championship. That's what I want to know right there. I'll say this, B.C., here's my hint. Brush up on your Spanish. You know what I'm saying? Oh, my God. Stop that. Also, folks, this episode of Morning Combat was brought to you by Draft Kings.

Draft Kings, the Crown is yours. And one final reminder on our merch. While it's still available, your October exclusives, head on over to morningcombat. Dot shop. Get your autographed Frank and Luke and doncula poster. Also, you can get our special October-only exclusive t-shirts to mix and match your colors. You can be a superwash dad just like us. We have evergreen items.

All of the proceeds go directly to BCLT and Long Island, Luke. Thank you for your patronage and your support. Thank you for Average Joe Ard for his many designs. as well. Thank you for being yourself, okay? We appreciate you all so much. Enjoy the fights this weekend. Vancouver and also you boxing fans, check me out.

Saturday night, 6 p.m. Eastern. The pay-per-view airs live on Millions.co. It is farewell time. Danny Swift Garcia versus Danny Gonzalez, the final walk for maybe the future Hall of Fame or the two division champion, DSG, inside the Barclays Center and Book of New York. and Chris Al Jerry on the call.

We're going to get some burdo. We're going to get some Teo. We're going to get some ox sprinkled in as well. So check it out. LT, anything to tell the fine people on the way out. Thank you all so much for watching. We really appreciate you. And as far as MK's concerned, we'll be back on Monday.

We will. We'll be back remotely on Monday. And we'll be back next Wednesday. UFC 321 pregame preview. That's the Abu Dhabi card. Chuck Mindenhall will join us brought to you by Cuervo. do not miss it for l iL and l t this is b sizzle take care of yourselves today folks okay put your mental health first we can get through anything together let's go have a great weekend we

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