MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - UFC Vegas 114 Results: Kevin Vallejos Smokes Emmett | El Chino's Future at Featherweight

Episode Date: March 16, 2026

LT and The Iceman take you through the impressive win by Kevin Vallejos at UFC Vegas and more on a Monday edition of Morning Kombat.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Look at this now. Chuck, Chuck, if there's what, 11 a. I'm back. Oh, there is. You fit in seamlessly in this weird MK environment.

Do you want a barrio? Your box gets set and go on. Chuck, if there's one thing I've learned doing this show, it's that I have an incredibly stupid face. I really. I was just thinking I need to start using some face cream or something, you know? It's like, it's just the worst face on earth. It really is. Hi, everybody. Welcome on this 16th day of March, 26 for another episode of Morning Combat. I am merely one half of your hosting duo. My name is Luke Thomas,

of course. I join you from the capital of Estabas and Nidos right here in Washington, D.C., with my continuously Connecticut brethren, in this case, it's the Iceman himself, Chuck Mindenhall. Hi, Chuck. How are you, bud? I'm well, man. You know, this Monday thing is working, isn't it? I feel like now, what is this? Yes. It's settled in now. It's going on. It's going great. Yeah, man. That means we're probably going to get fired today. I know. I shouldn't have said it. I should never take anything for granted, you know. Did you watch any of that World Baseball Classic last night? Were you over the weekend at all? No, did you?

I tried. So I watched the Dominican Republic USA game last night up until they subbed out the starter for the Dominican Republic. I guess around like 8 or 9 p.m. something like that. And then I went to bed. It was 2.1. I'm like, oh, I'm going to wake up. It's going to be like 8.5 one way or the other. Nope, 2.1. So I saw all, I guess I saw all the parts that mattered in the end, you know, who's to say? Dude, I got to tell you, I'm not even a big baseball guy. And I'll move on here just a second. It's a fun-ass tournament.

You haven't watched it all? I have not watched it all. But, I mean, there's a lot going on. You know, it's like at all times around here. So just to get to the fights is, it's hard enough for me, Lou. Yeah, fair enough. But I have seen a lot of people tweeting about it. I mean, it seems like it's being fairly viewed.

So that's like, dude, I've said this before. If you've gone to a baseball game recently, they've changed a bunch of rules. So now there's like a pitch clock. but it's more than that. There's a bunch of clocks now. And it sped the game up quite a bit, which I actually, again, I'm not a baseball purist, but to me it made it a lot better.

And then this tournament's just full of fun-ass and, you know, spirit. It's been kind of fun to watch. Yeah, that's cool. We're not going to talk about that today. We are going to talk about a UFC fight night, Emmett versus Vajajos, which, of course, was on Saturday. A lot of different elements there.

Plus, we're going to rank today what we think are the five, like, hottest best divisions in the UFC currently. We're going to do like a top five divisional power ranking. And then there's a bunch of items related to the UFC White House event. We're going to cover those as well. Thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate it. Thumbs up if you haven't already.

You can hit subscribe. You can follow us on the socials, which you can see there at the bottom of your screen. Let's remind everyone as well. You can reach the show at any point, MorningCombat at gmail.com. We'll use that for fan subs as well as dead wrongs. And I believe we're doing fan subs today. And remember, there's a contest around this. We'll talk about that more in just a second as well, morningcombat.

Shop. If you want to get some of the merch, these are the items, I should say, that are available this month. They are only available until the end of the month, March 31st at 1159 p.m. This is the Trasher or Bashar design, the Delta 8 design, and one of my personal favorites, the McDonald's Wi-Fi design as well. You can get all of those at morningcombat.combat. Before we start today's program, let's bring in the third member of the panel, the professional girlfriend ignore

himself. It is the one and only Long Island Luke. How are you doing there, sir? I'm doing good. I did a damn good job of that this weekend. You know, UFC Vegas 114. It delivered. It had some fun fights. We'll talk about this at a minute, but it was actually a pretty fun show if I do say so myself. Also,

Gaff was MIA for the first few prelims because he was working. He had to work. And Jed joined me for a few fights. So we had Jed on Main Card, man. And it was a good time, man. I enjoyed it. Jets like the bullpen for you guys. It's just whenever you need him. He's warming up.

And then I did submission radio with Jed again yesterday. He's literally on every show ever. Shout out, he's a lot of time on his hands. Yeah, but he's no Mariano Rivera. I mean, he's just, he's just a dog. You know what I mean? All right.

I think that's about, oh, real quick, top of the story that, or top of the news, I should say, they came out this morning. Top rank has a new deal with DeZone. They've reached an eight to 10 broadcast events per year, according to some of the reporting that comes out, Keith Idy of the ring.

The agreement, comes after the long-time partnership, of course, you know, between top rank and ESPN split in 2025. The interesting reporting here, Chuck, is that each event is expected to carry a license fee between $1 million and $1.25 million. And, you know, to be on DeZone is, it's weird, right, Chuck? I don't know if you have a big take on this, but like one to $1.25 million, this is an important part of the boxing ecosystem that will get preserved through this deal, but it is definitely not the premier end. Like, obviously, anyone who with a brain can look at this and be like, the economics simply mean you cannot afford people of extraordinary talent.

Up-in-comers, you know, aging vets, you know, getting them at that really important, let's develop them kind of place in the professional fighter's career, but not much more than that. Also, not for nothing. Like, you know, dude, Desone, I don't, I don't understand what, like, do you watch zone, Chuck? Like, here's my point. I mean, only on when it's an event, you know, like occasionally.

I do have a subscription. You tune in for the defense, but that's it. Yeah, I mean, I guess for like the big pay-per-views where they're, still charging. I mean, they would be kind of important there. But it's like, dude, like, to me, DeZone is kind of where boxing fans go, but it's not where casual fans are. And I don't know what the long-term viability of that is. Yeah. 1.25 million, like across 10, right? Like across 10 events. That's what? Only 5 million off of Connor Ben's one quite 10. That's pretty low number, man. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

You can see, well, you know, there's only one Connor Benchuk. I mean, true. You know, what can you say about that? Anyway, something to pay attention to, listen, it's better that they have a deal than not, right? It's better that they're active than not. But I don't know, man, that's not one of those like, wow, this is going to change the game or, you know, they're back. You know, it's not that. I don't know.

Bob Aram's a young guy in this game. Give him some time. Right. Figure it out, man. He's just getting started, just getting warmed up at age 93. Yeah. All right. Here we go.

let's kick things off in all seriousness with some MMA. So let's start with the only place to go on this one. In the main event of the UFC fight night over the weekend, the Argentine, Kevin Vajos, he didn't just win Chuck. He did so in the first round against a durable and proven Josh Emmett. And let's just be honest, he absolutely steamrolled him. This wasn't close for a second. At just 24 years of age against the 41-year-old Emmett, certainly, what does a performance like this for Vajos mean for his future. Like I guess I'm kind of asking, based on one watching this Chuck, just how good is this kid? You know, man, like, do you pay attention? Like, sometimes we get a guy who comes up and it's like the escalation of circumstances you pay attention to, right?

Like he fought Giga Chagadzei and I thought that that was a big step up. It would tell you something about Kevin where he's at. He was able to get through that one with flying colors that puts him in his first main event. And even though it's the apex, it was still a weekend where there wasn't a lot going on. You know, people are going to tune into MMA. He's now the centerpiece of the weekend. And to go in there and what was the final strikes? It was like 42 to two. Just the clean. I'll pull it up. Yeah, it was something like that. It was like, but just to go in there with that kind of poise, that kind of precision. I don't want to say that Josh Emmett was served up on a platter in this type of situation, but that's what it seemed like. A 41 year old guy who believes in his

own punching power who's only been knocked out once, I think, by Jeremy Stevens many years ago. I think it was the perfect opponent for a showcase for a guy of 24 years old who believes in his own power and his own speed because Emmett basically accommodated a kid who wanted to show off his hands and boy, did he ever do that, man. That was like you just mentioned. It was, that's what it felt like me. It was like a showcase. He went in there and he handled himself so perfectly that it started.

It was like a star making performance for me. man Josh Emmett I mean the stat line is brutal uh he was knocked down twice he landed three significant strikes three total strikes he was over one on takedowns meanwhile Kevin Vijayhos scoring 36 significant strikes so as I mentioned two knockdowns he defended the takedown completely landed a total of 43 strikes not counting the sort of more significant ones based on distance and he even did it headhunting dude this was I mean I I know that the odds ahead of time, they definitely had a wide fight. And I think we all, like, none of us thought like Josh was going to win. But I didn't, like, you know how sometimes fights start and you can see that like everything that one guy is doing is being immediately countered? Like, not only is the guy able to do it, but they were anticipating that he would and then could pull the trigger on the response like it was muscle memory. That was happening to Emmett right away. And I was like, oh, this is.

Yeah. this is this is not how long this one's going to go but it ain't going the distance well they said you know coming in uh you know Kevin in his camp were basically like we knew what this old dog was going to do we'd seen what he was going to do and that's exactly what they were prepared for it 24 years old man though that's that's that's the thing like a guy who's in his first main event like that sometimes you may know exactly what's coming at you but it's just a little bit it's more difficult to you know find your timing or to like uh you know to get into a rhythm he didn't it felt like there was nothing Josh Schmidt was going to do that he didn't anticipate. You're right. I felt like in the first exchange, you're like, oh, boy, this may not get out of the first round. And, dude, no matter what, like Josh Emmett, I know he's, what is it, like five out of six that he's lost now. And I know he's on the skid now, 41 years old.

But still, he has that punching power, man. And I think that that's kind of like this great equalizer. I didn't sense that Kevin really, when they got in the pocket, there was a couple of times where, you know, he bit down on the mouthpiece at the same time. and he was able to land the big shot, though, that first knockdown that you're mentioning. And, dude, that's, that kind of poise when you see a guy like that. I just remember when, like, you know, Connor McGregor fought Marcus Brimidge, and you'd see that slow motion sequence where his eyes never, they don't blink.

He sees the punch go by him and he just counters. I mean, it was like that. It was kind of like one of those, those prowess moments where you see how good of a boxer he really is, and his precision, is striking and everything else. His power he's carrying. That's a hell of a combination, man. this kid's going to be a hard out for a long time. Yeah, I mean, the thing is interesting to me is I, I, we will get to the Josh Emmett side

of the equation in here in just a moment because clearly that plays a role in how that fight looked and the shortness with which the fight took place. On the other hand, I also don't want to make crazy comparisons, Chuck, but I do think if you're watching somebody who can do what Vajajos can do at 24 years of age, particularly at a point in the game where guys are being able to, you know, more so than normal, being able to hang on a little bit longer. Athletes in general are just getting older. Professional athletes are just getting older.

This is true, not merely an MMA, but across the board. And so when someone is 24 years old, right, they're not even close to their physical prime yet. I mean, they certainly have a lot of recovery ability and good athleticism, but they're not under prime. And he's able to make reads immediately to patiently execute without any difficulty whatsoever to put the right kind of shots together to do what I think is one of the most important. skills in modern MMA, like the difference in striking and what you can do, if you can slip punches and counter effectively or not, if you're just a block and then go guy versus a slip and counter guy, the difference in what you can do is dramatic in terms of how it affects outcomes. He's already doing all of that. I don't want to make a comparison, Chuck, to Ilya

don't want to make a comparison to a Connor McGregor, but I will say this about Kevin McJohs. I will say that Ilya that did come into my mind a little bit. Yeah, because he just kind of has a similar kind of plotting boxing mannerism, right? I don't want to say, oh, he's the next pound for pound guy in the sport. But what I do want to say is, I think if he ended up there, you'd be not surprised in the least, right? If a guy like this at 24 can keep it up, and I think that's the key, can he keep it up? But if he can, he's so far along and has such good foundational ability, honestly,

anyone putting a ceiling on his limits right now, you're probably going to be wrong. Like, just, this is a special kid. Yeah, man. And we were talking about a couple weeks ago, the kind of old war horse is putting their foot down when these young guys come for their mantle, right? Like they say, we're not going to let you go right through us. We'd seen a lot of examples of the veteran presence,

you know, kind of ruining the trajectory of these young guys they're trying to get over. That was never going to be the case here. So I'm only pointing, that out because there is something about it. I know that you could, you could look at Josh Hemp and be like he's, you know, he's a diminished fighter. He's not the same guy.

But there's still something about that when you're fighting a guy who's, you know, he's pride. He thinks he still has it. He still wants to go in there and do something. And you're able to, you know, basically come out of Kevin Vioch like come out in mint condition. Like he's even telling his mom, look, no marks on my face, you know. That's just, I mean, that's pretty incredible.

And we've seen a lot of these veteran guys put up way hard, you know, put up a front against these younger guys and a couple of the younger ones are getting through and I think that that's where it gets exciting right. Did you see him kind of dancing when he was told he won the bonus? When you get that kind of enthusiasm with these kids, man, it's fun, man.

We have video of that. Let's see it. Yeah. I love it. Fun-ass kid. Definitely on that one. Now, he was discussing where he goes next from here. Let's see what he thinks is an appropriate next step.

Who will give you that most bloody war? Is there a name that interests you the most? Evidently any of those four names are good. Obviously, Volk being the champion. I think a fight against Jaiyir or Brian will be great, and I think those will be good fights again. And everybody knows about the history of John's server, but I'll tell you why, and it'll be a great fight, but I'll tell you what.

I think that I root for a guy, I want him really to actually get the title. so I can have a rematch against them for that belt. And that's what I would like. But of course, we're here to fight, and if the UFC field, we're going to be crossing paths sooner or later. But if the UFC wants us to face before, that would be great. But I think that, also, I wouldn't say a name because I really want to improve.

I want to get better. There are things I want to work in camp. And little by little, I think I can give more than I even give tonight. And I think I have much more to give, and I want to make sure that I'm prepared for that. So I'll take on any challenge that's given me. Now, Chuck, if you look at the current position, this is not the updated rankings. They'll update at some point today or tomorrow.

Currently, Kevin is sitting at 14. Josh was sitting at 11. So let's presume that they switch places and you get Kevin at 11. 10 is Brian Ortega. Yair is all the way up at 4. That seems like a bit of a long shot. And Jayon Silva is sitting at 6. I got to tell you, that Ortega matchup looks, that looks like a pretty good matchup to me.

What do you think? No, I'm down with it, especially if they're trying to cut. if you look at that trajectory from Giga, right, go through Giga, you fight Josh Hammett, who's maybe slip it down. Ortega now represents a slightly more vital, still in his, not in his prime, probably, but like a vital fighter, like,

who is top 10, legit. I think that that would be an appropriate, you know, matchup for him. What is he saying here? Ortega is moving up to 155, so maybe that wouldn't work. But, I mean, yeah, if Ortega, if Ortega is around, that's not a bad fight.

I will say that the, the Gian Silva, rematch. I was talking to Kevin DeVieuette before this fight, and I think he really saw that loss as kind of the moment for him where he became the fighter he is now. Some guys learn a lot from a loss, or they take it into a play. GSP, for instance, comes to mind. Like, they take a loss and then that becomes part of their, that builds their

greatness, their character, their mindset, everything that goes into it, makes them fix holes in their game. I think he really looked at it. Like, it was a necessary thing. So, To see him get that one back, I'd be okay, too. I know that that's kind of a leap up in the rankings, but dude, what a fun fight that would be to see that rematch. I'm always amazed that, like, if you look around, there's actually like MMA legends that lost either,

not merely some of their first few fights, but sometimes their very first fight. Yeah. Like Chris Cyborg, I think lost her very first pro. Yeah, you know what I mean? And I think, I think Josealdo lost it before you even had seven or eight fights. So, you know, in these early Nasscent stages, and then all it ends up doing is,

is just completely powering their next level development, you know. It doesn't, it doesn't serve as like, oh, well, remember when that happened, that was an important reminder of the limitations. It actually ends up being a catalyst for those limitations to completely evaporate, you know, to just completely go away. It feels like Kevin's got that going for it. Do 24 to be moving like this, disciplined, efficient, accurate, good takedown defense. I mean, there's not much to dislike here.

No, man, there's a lot. You were mentioning this. I remember talking to Luke Rockhold. I think he had a... Remember he went on that crazy run where he won a bunch of fights, won titles. He had lost a fight. I forget the kid's name.

I did a piece on this where you found the guy who beat him. You know, you wanted to relive the night that he lost because at the time, you're like, who was this guy that beat Rockhold back in the day? It was like in Vail, Colorado or something weird like that. But I remember talking the Rockhold about it. And same thing. Just kind of like...

Tony Rubel, Rubel. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. At the melee on the mountain. Yes, that's exactly right. I just remember that Luke talked about the same thing we're talking about where sometimes that loss is what you need more than anything. Because in a situation where with Kevin, he gets through this, John Dolby,

maybe he's not in this position, man. Maybe he takes a harder lesson that really crumbles him. I think he really thought that it fit where his mindset, it was like 21 or 22, whenever that happened and packed into this. So that's just a little bit of backstory to pay attention to. The guy's really level-headed, man. For a 24-year-old kid, you see some guys who are like 28 and they look like loose cannons out there,

they just don't have that kind of discipline. But this guy does, man. I'm Luke Wilson. Join me each week for Film Never Lies. Since retiring from the NFL, I've had a lot of my mind. And now I've got my own show. If you're tired of lazy takes, if you want honest conversations, join us each week.

Film Never Lies available on all TSN platforms in the IHeartRadio app. So let's talk then about the other side of the equation, Josh Emmett. And I did see that there were some folks who kind of suggested, you know, maybe he should retire. Yeah. Chuck, he's 41. As you mentioned, I think he's lost five of six. He does have one win. Well, not that recently, but, you know, not I guess not too far away.

But still, it's been a lot of L's back to back here in general. What do you think should be next? I wouldn't mind seeing him walk away. I know it's so tough, dude. like this is a guy who was on that hot streak not that long ago and you know was flirting with you know maybe getting becoming a champion in the division like it was at least being talked about a lot and you end up on a skid like this I think in his perspective he'd love to go out on top um but that's such a tough draw because when the UFC is booking you against kevin veillejo you're like you know that

you know that they're kind of putting you on that ice flow they're saying like all right josh this is probably it for you, man. But I wouldn't mind see him go like he hasn't been knocked out. I think this is only the second time, right? Like he got knocked out by Jeremy Stevens a few, like maybe I don't know, maybe it was like eight years ago now. It was a long time ago, but he's been a

sturdy, like sometimes guys get very chinny. It didn't seem like that. He got dropped. He tried to recover, but you could see that he was clearly affected. How many times though do you want to go through this down the stretch? And I don't know. When a guy gets into his 40s and they're on that kind of skid, I'm always like,

you'd rather see them kind of get out of it at that point. He had a great run after that Jeremy. Remember that Jeremy Stevens loss was so bad. Yeah. I think it broke the roof of his mouth if memory serves. Yeah, something like that. It was a very memorable. It was a very memorable fight.

That's why it was like it's easy to remember it, you know. And he went on a huge run after that. He beat Michael Johnson, Merset, Bechtich, when that was a big win. Shane Burgos, Dan Ege, and then Calvin Cater. He was on a hell of a run. But since then, it has been basically all. all problems. He loses to the Ayr. He got submitted. He got the shit beating out of him by

Ilya. He'd rebounds against Bryce and that was in 2023. But then Lorone Murphy, Yusufzalaw, now Kevin Vajajos. I mean, I'll say this. That's a tough. Yeah, I know. First of all, he's not fighting scrubs. I mean, he's fighting tough-ass guys. But the thing for me that I look at here, Chuck, is, listen, throughout the course of someone's career, they can have high, great wins and in the middle of their prime, sometimes have a terrible stoppage loss. But as a general rule, if someone has been like a pretty good fighter, even like a really good fighter,

what happens first is they just start to lose a lot. And then what happens after that is they start to lose badly. Like they get hurt in fights. Right. And that to me is the warning sign. And I think that's exactly what you got in this particular fight. You know, he got submitted in that one, but it was only a minute and 38 and, you know, it wasn't a beating.

So what can you really say? Lerone, not a heavy puncher. He went the distance. Again, you know, what are you? And again, you lose to Ilya. You were there, you know, try to give it back to him as best you could, but you survived. But dude, when you're getting put out inside of, what was? It was three minutes and three, three seconds.

When you're getting put out inside of four minutes. And outclass that badly, you know. Yeah. Like that is a flashing red light. Yeah. It's tough, man. Like we become almost like these vicarious kind of cornermen when you watch, because you cover the sport. I cover the sport.

You watch these guys from the beginning to the end. And there's just a point when you, you're just like, man, I just don't want to see that guy take beatings. man. I mean, he's given the sport a lot. Like, he kept that division. He stood in against the best. He was a vital part of that division for so long. I don't know what would be left, honestly, for a guy like that, other than to try

to get that fight to go out on top, where you just kind of retire, like, after a victory, but how often do we even get that, you know? And the UFC is just not interested in giving guys winnable fights when they get to this point of their career. They want to get a young guy over, right? Like, they want to give it Kevin Vioch. They're not going to feed Josh Schmidt.

He's not that kind of legacy. that they're going to give him some guy that he should beat, right? I don't think. I mean, that would be surprising me. So I just, I would rather see the guy go out. And, you know, he kind of preserves in my mind. He's one of those guys I'll always think back and, you know, remember his punching power and him standing in and beating like Calvin K, that fight,

like those types of fights, man, you know, I'll always be remembering those about his career. Also, he arguably has the best knockout in UFC history, arguably. Yeah. Like he's on that list. That Bryce Mitchell knockout was. That is true, man. I mean, especially that everybody wanted to see,

Bryce Mitchell get. I mean, that one really stood out. You're right, man. So I just hope that he's able to make, it's just tough, and we'll move on after this. It's just tough because you sort of get it when a guy,

um, doesn't retire, but they're kind of close to a title. And they're waiting to, you know, like a Michael, great example, like a Michael Bisping,

waiting for UFC 199 opportunity. You know, he obviously gets it last minute. makes the best of it and then scores a couple of title defenses. Right. On the back of paper viewpoints. And you're like, okay, all right. I sort of get this.

This is, this is to me, you know, he, with that eye injury, Bispin probably should have been retired a long time before that. But you sort of get it. But like, we're not, we're not in that territory with Josh. And I feel bad because that's where all the real money is. And so, like, I'm not, I don't know what kind of what he was getting paid, Chuck, but I'm guessing it certainly wasn't close to that. No.

And so now it's like the time is kind of coming to. a close and that the window for that is closing as well. It's a tough situation, but. Yeah. What can you do? It's a tough fucking business that you just get it. It's not. And it's,

it's tough too because Michael Bisping was whether you thought he deserved, you know, the situation he ended up and he made the most of it. But he was also a guy that we paid attention to. And it's just kind of star in this sport, mostly a hated guy. But it's not like, it's not like Josh having a lot of these guys these days.

They just don't have the same star power to be put in that position anyway. Yeah. All right. Let's go to topic number two. Let's talk the rest of that UFC fight night, Emmett versus Vajjo's main card. We got to go right to the co-main event. This was a fight that we had spot lit ahead of time. I mean, it was the co-main event role.

But we had talked about it on Friday's MK, Chuck, namely Gillian Robertson. We had said she's on a hell of a win streak. She has, I think now the most wins in, is this right, Long Island, the most wins in UFC women's history? No, she has the most, she's tied for the most finishes in women's history. and she has the most submissions of any women. Got it. Okay. Sorry, I knew I was fucking that up somehow. She's the Charlie Oliver of the division. Yeah. She's out there doing it. She gets it done against Amanda Lamos.

Now, here's the thing, though. She got pushed. In my judgment, clearly lost the first round, but definitely rallied in the second and certainly put it on her in the third. So it was a commendable performance. So the question is this. Do you think now she has done the requisite work to get a title shot? I mean, she can make this claim.

1.15. I'm sorry. I don't have it in front of me, but like she, where was she ranked? Like, this is always like this leap. I can tell you. Like, or she was going in. I'm not sure where she ends up, but in terms of the UFC's official rankings. Going in, she was eighth.

Eighth. Okay. So it's a leaprock then, but if you look at just like you're mentioning her streak and every time she fights, I'm always, it's almost like she's one of those, um, those fighters that you pay attention to only when she surfaces up on a card and you're like, oh shit, she's really good, you know. It was kind of like that this time, too. she kind of snuck up and puts on a very good performance. What was it, like, nine minutes of control time. And I know that, like, sometimes control time can be deceiving. But she made the most of those.

That's hard to do against Amanda Lemos, right? Like, that's a veteran who's very, very strong and, like, those scrambles and everything. And to end up in those kind of dominant positions, dude, at some point, you're like, you can appreciate the veteran war, like, where she goes in there and she's just prepared for everything. And she's, you know, it's like that lunch pail thing, right? She's going to show up. she's going to do what it takes to win.

And like Long Island was saying, like, she's got finishing ability. I wouldn't be opposed to it. I wouldn't be opposed to if they wanted to give her a title shot. I mean, if you're looking at the rankings, as we indicated, she's sitting currently at eighth. Her opponent was sitting at five. So let's say she's going to be in the top five after that. That put her right around the same space roughly as Lupi Godinez,

Janjian, Janjee, Rob, but Tatiana Suarez. And then Jean Wiley is, I guess, the number one contender because she's not the champion, McKenzie Dern is. To me, I would still need to see at least one, more. I don't mean to do I don't yeah when you mention those names I mean like I'm like okay yes you're right you're right I mean I think to that point you raise she's beating the other names right she's beaten not just the rank and file but now she's beaten kind of the rank and file of the like the back half of the top 10 and now is like the real part of the

roster that we have to kind of see if not completely clear at least some evidence that she can win inside of it but it's in a hell of a performance by her 30 years of age Like I said, dude, I thought that first round, you know, it was not looking too great for her. And then for her to come out and win the second and the third in the way that she did. The stats part is interesting to me, Chuck, because she got three of seven takedowns. So she's only 42% from it. But this is the part that I think, Long on Luke, you basically don't think she should get a title shot from this, right? No, because I feel like way Lee is clearly.

Everyone wants to see the wayley fight. And then there's other fights that are booked in that top 10. You got Tatiana's taken on loopy Godinez like next month. And you got Verna Janderoba taken on Baby Shark like next month. So both of those, whoever has a great performance out of that, it would arguably leapfrog her. And again, Waley's waiting in the wing. So I think she definitely needs one more.

But at the same time, I'm excited for her to get a title shot eventually, you know. I think the other issue, Chuck, for me is that, you know, this fight was in the apex. And I'm not saying no one should get a title shot after fighting in the apex. but I am saying I don't think that's the best case scenario. You know what I mean? Like that should be in front of a crowd. It should be a star making like kind of moment

that you get a like you earn something to get a title shot. I realize it's you know an imperfect science. I get it. But you know what I mean? Like yeah. And if they're putting you on one, like it just always feels like these are the secondary cards. Regardless of how it looks on fighting it,

it always just feels like, okay, these are the ones we just got to fill our contractual obligations. We've got to put together a card. We'll do it the met. And when you're on one of those cards, you're basically, you know, it almost goes so far under the radar, you get no promotion. There are a lot of people, if you would ask them, what is the co-main event of this week?

They would probably know the Kevin fight, right? They would know that Emmett's fighting, but I'm not sure they would even know that this was the co-main event. So they're not putting you in a position to shine in that type of situation. Also, I really don't want to hate on Jillian Robertson because I actually do like her story. I really like her game. And I got to say the grit she showed here to make sure that she got the victory at a pretty critical moment in her career, highly commendable stuff. And Dean Thomas has done, I think has been her coach for some time.

I have great respect for Dean as a coach. And I think he's obviously done a tremendous job in his role. I will say this. And I'm not trying to hate. I'm just trying to look at it realistically. Number one, if you look at these striking totals, Amanda Lamos, 42 significant strikes. She had more.

Julian Robertson 12. I know. 12. It's crazy. Okay. There are so, I realize Chuck that in the modern game, ground and pound is harder because people are much harder to hold down rather than people who are willing to accept I'm in this position. I'll just fight from here. There's just not as much of Charles

Oliver will do that, you know, but in general, it's pretty hard to get to hold someone down and ground and pound them. It takes a special kind of skills and just not a lot of people have that. At the same time, people got to do better. They got to do better with the ground and pound. Like if you're going to be a top control person, your ground and pound needs to be like, if not the best part of your game, the second best. And I noticed a lot of people are focusing on their striking and then their top control and then the ground of pound seems like an afterthought and I think they're getting it mixed up. That's number one. Number two, let me know what you think about this. I thought that this kind of showcased maybe some of the athletic limits of Robertson. She got the job done because she had more heart

and I think in the end more skill. But Lemosch was making it real difficult for her on the physical side of things. Do you share that perspective? No, and I definitely saw that, especially in the first round. And there was a couple times in the second round, too. But that was part of what I think in the end stood out about just kind of withstanding that. That's the, that's that kind of veteran savvy. And honestly, that inner strength, I don't know what else you'd call it like that extra gear that she's able to find to not succumbed. Because there was a couple of times where it looked like she was going to end up in a very bad position and she didn't. And she

ended up, you know, kind of the second round, especially, I thought it might not go her way, but in the end, she won the round, you know, and I was like, this is what you got to do, right? I agree with you, man. Like, you mentioned just the ground and pound. You see it like in a situation, I know we're going to talk about her, but mosquito, the be a mosquito earlier. I know that that's a whole different, like, type of level of fighting of what's going on with that fight, but that kind of ground and pound, you're like, it's been so long since you've seen

just hammer fist landing that cleanly that you're like, whoa, I kind of forgot this was in people's arsenal. You're right. It gets nullified a great deal of time. days. Before we move on, I just want to make sure we give her some air time. Here's Jillian making the case for her getting the title shot. We want that title shot. That's where I belong next. That's my next spot. And just to make sure I called for my shot. Yes, like you said, five wins in a row here. Are you confident that the next fight that you have will be for the title?

I think it's the only thing that makes sense. Five wins in a row, most submissions, most finishes. I think that I deserve that spot. The only thing that would really solidify me anymore is that belt. I like her focus. I don't know if she's going to get the title shot. I don't think she's very far from it. I will say that. And a nice win.

Let me ask you something, though, about that division in general. Like, is it strange to talk about straw weight like this and not have somebody making X-rated comments? Yes. Okay. And I'm hearing him in my head. He's in my head right now. I can hear him, you know. It is nice to have analysis about this division without worrying about my co-host fondling themselves.

Yes. Very quickly, let's bring in Long Island, Luke. Long Island, Luke, the Delgado. and Feeley fight. You believe this to be a robbery. Tell me why. I thought touchy Feely won the fight. Here's the judge's scorecard. So they all had it one one. You recognize it was close, yes? Yeah, yeah, of course. But I like, when they were reading, it was a split decision. I was like, oh, shit, is Feeley about to get robbed here? And then Delgado wins. And I'm like, oh, shit. And again, I'm intoxicated by the time this fight is going on. So, you know, take it with a grain of salt. People might be like, Luke Delgado clearly won that fight. But I felt like it was one, one going into the third. Don't really remember what happened in the third. But you could see Chris Lee. I mean, he's my side there, dude. We both had it. Now, I think it was

a robbery. I don't know. You guys feel the same? Chuck, I thought it was a nice fight. I could see a case for Delgado. I don't think that's crazy. I thought, I mean, in real time, if you're like, it was close. That's the whole point. So robbery is hard to apply that term when it was a close fight in the end. But I

did think Feeley won. Like, if you said, who won the fight? I would have been like, I think Feeley got it. You know, the third round being the just edging through him. Like, I thought he got that done. The craziest part about this, is Andre Feeley continues his streak of winning every other fight. It's now like, there's a no, there's a no contest in there, but there's something like 20 straight fights alternating wins and losses. So he was due a loss here. So to that end, Chuck,

I was one time talking about the, I was talking to one of the stats guys at Fight Metric. I was having lunch with them because they're they're based in people who was this. They're based in DC. Who was it? Uh, it was, I don't want to say. But, you know, it was one, it was one of Romney's employees. Okay, okay. I got you. Uh, and he was telling me, This was a while ago. I don't think this is quite as true anymore, but he was saying, like, the vast majority of people who fight in the UFC never even get a three-fight win streak. Wow. So the previous point about Julian Robertson having the most finishes and the most subs and a five-fight win streak.

Andre Feely's been here forever, and we both know him to be a very good fighter, but it's one up, one down, it's just shredding water. He's been there, like 26 UFC fights, man. And also, like, you know, he's crazy. And going back, like, what, a dozen years. it's kind of nuts that he's been able to I don't want to say treadwater because he's definitely had some really big moments too but you know it was it's

I like these veterans like you could see that his part of his game plan was like you know what we're going to do we're going to do the old DC and like some of these other guys we're going to get a take down at the end of each round and just kind of like try to steal the right like whether it's closer enough maybe this just puts the exclamation but did you notice that like 15

10 seconds he was going for those takedowns every time I'm like that's such a veteran thing I haven't seen that in a long time. That's an old school move. I don't know how yours one is anymore, but it's an old school one. I got to say, pretty impressive, although he did get rocked and there were some issues, but Marwan Marwan Rahiki breaking the jaw of Harry Hardwick in the second round. Look at this right hook. Blow. I mean, I don't know if that's exactly the one that did it, but there was a bunch that he landed, Chuck. To that point, listen, Rahiki got rocked. He definitely even acknowledged, you know, the fights kind of all, but he said in the post-fight interview, he was like,

you know, I'm kind of out there fighting me, and I think he was kind of alluding to the fact that he got touched up a little bit. But I got to say, for a kid with less than 10 fights, not that, not that. Riki, Rihiki. I love that nickname, too. Dude, it was that type of fight is so ridiculously fun because sometimes you get, and I mean, maybe this plays into, because I did see you tweeting out like, hey, this card was really good. This might be the best card so far of 2026. It certainly fights like this that adds the dimension. You could look at it and almost be like, I mean, it was, there was some clean boxing in there too, but there's obviously guys who don't have like a big sense of defense or self-preservation through parts of that fight, you know. But dude, like I do remember there was a fight.

I think it was Martin Kampman against Paul Daly back in the day where they kind of did this kind of fight. They went in there and they just, you know, both chins were open for business and it was like, let's just go to it. And I don't, I think that, I think that Kampman lost that fight. But anyway, it reminded me a little. a little bit of that. It's just these clean shots and then there's these barrages that are happening. And then it starts to become the story of like how in the hell is Harry, like how is he not down? Like how is he still in this fight? And then all of a sudden it looks like he's about to go down and he returns fire a couple of times in lands one. And it's just, that's always so astonishing

me when you get a guy who's that tough taking those kinds of shots. And obviously like he's got his jaw busted midway through the whatever it was. Oh, so Long Island said, Kampman did lose that fight. Do you remember that one, Luke? I just remember that it had like, everybody connected on everything they were throwing. That's what it seemed like. I haven't seen it. I mean, I know it off memory, but it's been so long. There's a lot of fights like it. But it's just, there's certain ones that stay in your memory

where they're just kind of standing at range and just bam, bam, bam, bam, just like wailing. Fun stuff. I mean, and just the toughness, you know, on display and, you know, to see that kind of fight. It was fun. Also, for Harry Hardwick, I feel a little bit because he was kind of getting meaned a little bit for like one of his warmups, which I think is unfair. Not from this fight, but from a previous fight. I think he came at Long Island

Luke. Didn't he come out of Cage Warriors? Is that? Yeah. Former featherweight champion out of Cage Warriors. So here's the thing, right? Like, if you come from Cage Warriors, I think in general, that's a pretty high mark of excellence on the regional scene. But it also creates some expectation. Like, I have noticed that the guys who come from Cage Warriors who don't do so well in UFC, like, man, it destroys their stock in certain ways. Whereas if you come from other shows and you don't do well. I mean, yeah, it doesn't necessarily help your stock, but it doesn't have this like stain on you. People from Cage Warriors who graduate to UFC, they are expected to perform. Yeah. Tells you a lot about the state of that, the good state of that organization.

What did you think, man? I mean, it wasn't reckless, right? It was high level striking. I thought, like it seemed to me like they were, they were, you know, it was, it was being held at a fairly high level. I didn't feel like they're going in there recklessly, but they both had a game plan and they were like it just kind of meshed that they were going to have that kind of fight i just don't i think these guys especially in the case of rihiki they just don't take defense very seriously right you know what i mean like ilia it ilia got hit with one elbow against charles and it was a big one right right right like the early exchange and then after that he didn't land shit on him how old is i mean maybe it maybe like a leg kick but like not upstairs it's like yeah it's like i don't

i think that there is i get it right Because MMA is an offense-first sport. That is what it is. That's exactly what it is. But people misunderstand that in my judgment. They think that that is a license to basically not put a ton of emphasis on defense. And it turns out that the balance is not 70, 30, 80, 20. It's more like 60-40 or even 55-45 in favor of offense.

And a lot of younger fighters to me get that proportion wrong. And this is, to me, an example of that. Yeah. I just saw a long on the post. 23 years old. I mean, sometimes, like, I mean, he stayed like stayed long and just that sniper's. It was fun to watch. I don't think that he can go, you know, when you're 23 years old and you're kind of just getting started and it's working for you on hole. It's fun while that goes on, but obviously, like, that is, I don't think that's a sustainable way to go about it. You know, he's going to definitely have to play a little more defense because he could have gotten clipped and he did a couple of times, but like he could have gotten hurt on some of those exchanges that was sort of unnecessary.

you know if there was a reckless element to it it was probably that you know because he did come in there the times where he had him on the fence and he's just kind of wailing him now i know that you have the advantage but if you look like if he turns if you know off that fence and he did like uh harry did like and landed a shot or two i mean we've seen tables turn just like that because you get too you get too comfortable in that exchange right and he certainly has that pay attention ilia will take angles off of pressure on the fence which will give people escape in certain cases, but it also keeps him much, much safer. We have a photo of Hardwick, or a statement, I should say, after he got his jaw broken.

My jaw is obviously fucked, but that's all right. I like soup. I like smoothies. I like milkshakes and I like energy drinks. So all of those things I can still have. Life's good. You know, it's kind of funny, Chuck. I was thinking about for today's show.

First of all, I mean, the guy's got a great attitude. Yes, he does. I think he's got some abilities. It's just been a bit of a rough start to his UFC. endeavors but what's kind of funny to me about this is to an american ear okay i realize that no one cares i'm just saying as an american when an american hears a british name like harry hardwick you automatically assume they're like an accountant i mean that is that's like that's like hearing what's what's this fighter's name ebenezer scrooge like you just

harry hardwick yeah you know you know what i mean like it's like he would be right like if as an american will you hear the name Harry Hardwick? You're like, oh, he rides a penny farthing to work. Like those bicycles with a big ass wheel. His father was a Cooper. Yeah. It's just certain names sound very British to us. That sounds like, like, you know.

That is true, man. I don't know. I don't know how else to say it. Dude, I will say, what a great attitude, because getting your jaw shattered is not an easy thing, you know, to come back from. And it's always going to be there. Like, you know, to re, you know, to refracture your jaw and stuff like that, the odds are high.

I was talking to Ben Folks about this recently. Like, you know, a jaw injury like that, very tough because it's going to be there with you, your whole fighting career now. Dude, I got, I got injured one time in something called MCT, Marine Combat Training. And I twisted my ankle. I didn't break my jaw. But what ends up happening is if you get injured during that training cycle, they pull you out of the cycle you're in and they put you in this platoon, which they so delicately called. the other broke dicks. I remember they're like, yeah, you're going to go to the platoon with the other broke

dicks. And I'm like, man, I'm like, okay. And it was guys who just had a series of different injuries, whatever those might be. I had, there was literally the guy in the bunk next to me, this is a true story, had one testicle wrapped around the other and was awaiting surgery. It was the most insane shit I've ever seen. Anyway, there was a guy down the squad bay who had a broken jaw. I remember one time asking him, like, what do you do for food? And he's like, I drink milkshakes. And I was like, And I was like, I was like, how is it? And I remember he looked at me, he goes, it fucking sucks.

You know? I knew a dude who had a broken jaw. That's so funny the way you're doing it. He used to ground up Taco Bell Beam. This was he used to kid, we were kids, you know, but he ground up Taco Bell Bean burritos and drank it through a straw. And I was like, that's the most disgusting thing. At the time, I could imagine.

Was your friend Brian Campbell? Who was this? He was very much like a Brian Campbell. That's so great. All right. quickly on the rest of this main card, if we can. How did you score the Charles Johnson-Bruno Silva fight? I thought Charles won it in the end.

Well, how about you? Because that was, it seemed like, to kick up some chatter on Twitter a little bit. Let's bring in Long Island here. Long Island, I think the right scorecard is 2928 energy. I know one of them was 3027, which I do think is a little generous, but I did not see 2928 for Silva. Are you in agreement? I'm in agreeance. Yeah, I thought that should have been unanimous 29, 28 for Johnson.

And he said so at the post-fight presser. He's like, I don't know why the fuck that was a split decision. And he looked just as shock too when they read the sport. Yeah. I tell you what about Charles Johnson, Chuck? He's a talented fighter. You know, that division is tough. I think it took him a little while to fully mature his skill set. But on the, listen, do I think that he's the best guy in that division? I don't know that I can say that. But what I can say is on his best day, on his very best day. I think he can beat just about anybody in that division. You know what I mean? He's shown that a little bit, right?

I mean, obviously he's catching Joshua Van as a very young guy coming up. We saw that. You know, it's like that's a, to have that on your resume, knowing how good van is and striking everything. I mean, that's a big thing. And also Cavanaugh, right? Like he beat Cavanao. So we know that he can.

Viciously coyote him. Yeah. So we know he's got, these are dudes ranked high above him and obviously one's the champion. But like they're way up in the, so that just proves your point. I did feel like they were mentioning this on the telecast that he seemed to be off to a slow start. Did he seem that way to you?

Like it looked like he was a little holstered. He wasn't. I did think that by the end of the third, he was flowing much better. I do think that was true. Yeah. So I mean, maybe that like there are certain enigmas in this game. And I'm never sure why, you know, what happens with them. But it did seem like he was a little bit.

They kept saying gun shy, but it did seem like he was hesitant, right? In the first round, he could have maybe made that a little bit easier. fight if he got flown earlier. And then last but not least, Iwan Kutelaba gets a guillotine, a mounted guillotine over UMRC. I'm not sure what to say about it. Um, or C tries to get up off a takedown, gives up his neck and then gets rolled into him out and then he immediately taps.

I mean, as soon as that squeezed, he was tapping, that's some serious strength coming out there. But, I know, I mean, you got the guy who's the ultimate spas cranking on your neck. It probably hurt like shit, you know. Yeah. All right. We'll talk about the prelim card here in just a minute. But first, let's talk about our friends at Drafking's sportsbook.

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We'll talk about that in just a second. But let's get to this one. Mik Tebeck Oralby basically smothered and controlled Chris Curtis en route to a decision win, and Curtis later complained that Oralby, quote, didn't want to fight him. do we have the graphic of that statement here let's put up on the screen can you read it to a long island because i can't see shit yeah give me one second for it to pop up on my monitor okay he says well that was a fun as a wet fart in church sorry guys physical therapy went well my knee held up i had a

great camp no excuses just a shit night and a shit fight man had really good grip strength and it's incredibly hard to fight a man that has no intention of being in a fight got some thinking to do and some stuff to figure out but i walked out with no physical damage at all just my pride really hurt thanks for the love and support we shall see where we go from here hashtag not dead yet what do you think chuck i mean i understand curtis's frustration i really do curtis to me is one of the more talented fighters whose record does not reflect it at the same time or by one he won he won he fucking won you know well it's like the max thing with um olivera right the other side of it's like well you know max has to be if he wants a more exciting fight he's

to force it to be in a place where he can make an exciting fight, right? 19 takedowns. Is that the record, right? Like, is that what was this a record? I mean, that's like a- From my cat, I'm starting to interrupt here very quickly. Mick Tebek Orleby just shattered the UFC Walterweight record for most takedowns in a fight with 19, which is third-upon-landed in a UFC fight behind Habib and Marab at 20.

And I was at that Habib fight, the one that they're talking about there. Like, and it's, there is a certain, like, wash-wrench repeat, like, it's just going to keep happening. but dude if you're having that success winning a fight and dominate and staying out of trouble I don't know why you would switch it obviously like we know that oral by can finish guys he just did it with Hermanson right like it's just it's not like um you don't think that he has that in his repertoire so it's like I think he was I don't really think he was coasting do you

I feel like he was trying to get something done but obviously like it wasn't happening so he's going to continue to do what he's doing he's dominating the fight I didn't really have a big problem with it I think The reality is also, it's the same thing. You kind of, you hinted it at a moment ago, which is it's kind of like, wherever Olivera was good enough to get the take down and then to get to the back or whatever, but then couldn't finish because the defensive skills were too good there. This isn't quite like that,

but at the same point, you could see that Oral By, clearly had the edge, but not enough to really muscle Curtis around. Curtis has enough defense to kind of keep himself kind of safe-ish and in fights for the most part. Sure. But, you know, I mean, Oral By is fucking tough, bro. He's, you know, the reality is, man, like, it's so funny. Like, in, in pure collegiate wrestling, when they reset the position, what they call referees position, that's where one guy gets one hand and one hand and both knees down.

And the other guy has to come and wrap in a hip and then an elbow, right? And then when they do that, they whistle. And then if the guy can get to the top, he'll get a point on the escape or the person on top can get riding time. But you're noticed in that particular moment, wrestling, forbids you from locking your hands, right? You're not allowed to have locked hands at that moment. And the reason why is because if someone can get locked hands like that and just maintain that position, it's super fucking difficult to get it off.

Yeah. Like it just is, and in MMA, it's like tough shit. You know what I mean? Tough shit. They're just going to get locked hands behind you. I really think, you know, we're talking about like areas of need in the game. Guys working on grip fighting or breaking grips or breaking, breaking, breaking The next team that figures out a good system for breaking locked hands from behind someone is going to have a fucking champion.

I'm convinced of it. I mean, and I mean, I know we were talking a little bit. Like, there is a truth to like, you know, Curtis is one of those guys is like loses poorly. Like he's always got something to say. But I think it was the Brendan Allen fight when they did that rematch. He was taken down a bunch of times in that fight too. I mean, dude, it's got to at some point you got to be like, you know who you're going against. you know what you got to work on man you know what you know what you're up against it's just he wasn't

able to do it you know i mean in that case it's one of those situations like what did you expect man what did you think was going to have yeah and i like curtis a lot and um in the other part too it's kind of frustrating for him and i do feel back for him on this i don't necessarily feel like he's got a case for arguing here i really don't yeah however in previous fights where he's done like really good body work and the judges this didn't you know that's that's the problem chuck it's like he's had fights where he's like dug to the body and then then the judges didn't count it because, you know, the people just had poker faces about what they were eating.

Right. And then he loses a fight. And then these come around. He's also losing. I think it's kind of all getting lost in the wash here. So he's a really talented guy. It's just oral by's a fucking maniac. What do you want?

Like obviously the dude with the name and from the part of the world he is. He looks like he's chiseled out of like a, you know, a mountain or something like. But what do you think his upside is, man? Like, is he going to be able to do something in this division? I feel like he's actually better than, I realized, you know, as I've watched him go on here. I think he's going to have to have another gear to be championship level, but I,

I would be surprised if he's not in number one contender fights. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He's only 28. Isn't that nuts? Like looking at him, I'd be like, no, he's got to be at least.

I know, looking at him, I'm like, dude, how are you medically eligible? You're 50, you know? One of those guys. All right. This one, you know, let's bring it Long Island. Luke for this one. Vitor Petrino, did we call it on Friday? Friday's MK where we were like, it's not like we think he's that good. Sure enough, he gets

fucking dropped in this fight. However, he does get the win. He did beat up your favorite fighter, Aspland. What do you think? What do you think, Long Island? I'm my favorite. I hated this fight so much and I know I'm in the minority here. I know people think this was a fun fight and it was. But dude, that second round, there's like two minutes where it's literally Petrino just running around the outside of the cage and Aspland gasped in the middle and it's just like, what are we, this is heavyweight slop. Also, I had fight just not go the distance, so I was extra pissed off when this fucking went 15 minutes. But

you're excited during that first round. Dude, the fight was fun. I'm just being a hater. I know I know. But Asplom was in really good spirits from the hospital. We got to check out this video. All right. Well, that is clearly not the decision we want. I ain't going to lie, bro. I thought I was going to get the nod.

I mean, obviously my face looks like a mess. But fuck, I dropped that bastard what I thought was two times. I got up from a fucking takedown and couldn't sub me. Hey, man, I told you, motherfucker, you're going to have to kill me. And concrete's still pushing. So I'll see whoever's next in a couple months. Hey, Dana, I hope you like that shit, man.

Holler at your boy, man. A little fact you just try to be something. Thank you guys all so much for the love and support. Bees a lot. On to the next one, baby. Man, that's a... It's an unranked heavyweight. How hot is heavyweight right now?

Am I right? He just zooms out. Chuck, I mean, you got to like, as I said it before, again, you weren't here for Friday show, but I was like, you know what, you got to like the guy's story, but if you've got guys who made it to the UFC because part of the reason why they're there is they lost a bunch of weight. Yeah. There's a question about like.

I still feel like Quentin Jackson would call him titties, though. I mean, like, those are some flopping around in there. You know, people don't know. I thought I was getting the flat chilling noise on that one. No, but I mean, I mean, I appreciate it too. I do appreciate it, but I don't know. Like you'd like a guy like that to sometimes get like a big reward. If he got that first round, this would have been,

they would have been like a big thing for him. But dude, it was a bad look as that fight went on. It turned into the typical heavyweight thing that we talk about. And I'm like, I just don't need to see that. You know, you know what the ideal role is for someone like that? Is not that you expect them to be the world's best by any stretch of imagination. you know, their limits are their limits. Yeah.

But I like it when they've got, you know, like an ace up their sleeve or, you know, whatever. Like, for example, like in cases where the ultimate example, I mean, this is an exaggerated version, but this is the ultimate example is Butterbean. Like, Butterbean was not good. However, however, if you were also not good, he was going to send your shit into the shadow realm

because he had nuclear fucking power. You know what I mean? Yeah. So, like, you didn't expect Butterbean to be a world champion ever. But if someone had the audacity to put a fucking bum in front of him, he would fucking light him on fire. You know, there was a love to value to what he could do. I loved watching him back in the day, dude.

It was always like that. It was like, you know, some no-name guy and then boom. It was like the closest thing to a pro wrestling, but like a legit fight, like, where they were in a box area. It was fun. What it rain. So I'm just saying, like, if Aspland had like vicious K.O. power and just, we all kind of expected, like, he'll win, he'll lose, it's whatever.

but occasionally he's going to fucking he's going to, quite literally he's going to punch above his weight because of what he got some stuff. Then that would be kind of cool. But if you're just kind of good and you've got a great story, that's fine. There's nothing wrong with that

but it doesn't make heavyweight better. It's kind of issue. I'm Luke Wilson. Join me each week for Film Never Lies. Since retiring from the NFL, I've had a lot of my mind and now got my own show. So if you're tired of lazy takes, if you want honest conversations, join us each week.

Film Never Lies. on all TSN platforms in the iHeartRadio app. Uh-oh, we got breaking news. Good. Andreas Hale, I got to give Jed a shout out. He just texted me this. Andreas Hale just tweeted, breaking news.

Nate Diaz to return to the May for the first time in nearly four years against Mike Perry on the most valuable promotions, MMA event on May 16th, headline by Rhonda Rousey. I wanted to put this in the chat, man, because I saw something about this going on. take that lower third off here for just a second if you can long round let's react to this here in real time chuck you heard what he had to say you go first well i mean i think that there's okay so there's several there's several things in play here and this seems a little bit like a gamesmanship from mbp we had again because we were talking about who's the best opponent for connor mcgrger conn mcgrger well there's one fight out there that's kind of makes the most sense for him if the ufc's going to put together you know the fight that makes the most sense was probably natea's right um we weren't sure exactly how

that would go. And here we go with MVP kind of getting a third, I guess, part of this Hydra that they've got going on with three big events for one card. Getting Nate Diaz feels to me a little bit of that same gamesmanship that they've

been doing. And it's kind of, I kind of dig the idea of Mike Perry too, because here's a guy who's kind of resurrected his career with the bare knuckle thing and like he's put together some pretty good business decisions given who he is, ending up on this car too. I don't hate it.

Both these guys are like Jake Paul decided like they both stood in there with him right. So I guess it shouldn't be a big surprise but in terms of putting together a fight that people are going to pay attention to and I think Nate still got that juice a little bit like I like it. I think it's good man. I mean let's think about this. You've got

Francis on the card, Nate Diaz on the card and now you've got Rhonda and Gina in the main event. You know, tickets are notoriously difficult to sell I think in Southern California but that might do the job, right like i think they're gonna sell out with that at least they get pretty fucking close this um oh go ahead i'm sorry i'll jump in when you're done no no go ahead jump in okay i was gonna say that does this also like you see this right and um Nate Diaz was a guy who kind of in the francis and gun was like you know i want some more freedom here he is on this card

uh mike perry has been able to do multiple things with his contract right like he's got the same freedom he's on this card you have ronda rouse who showed up in a pro wrestling thing what was it uh AEW or whatever that other is like she shows up on that because she's on this car, but she's got the ultimate freedom to do this. You know what I mean? And of course, Francis and Gano kind of come in here talking about freedom. It feels like when you're, when you think about UFC's strangleholder monopoly, none of this could happen, you know?

Like these guys just can't moonlight and bounce around into different things other than REF or something like that, but they can't do these high profile gigs. It kind of glares at me in this weird way. This card is being constructed in such a way that really does turn a spotlight on that sort of thing. I actually think it's pretty smart business to turn the event into a referendum on UFC's practices. I actually think that that's, I think there's a limit to what that can get you, but there's actually a fair amount of usable material. And there is dissatisfaction. We've talked about it.

One of the reels that we posted on Instagram kind of blew up around this topic. And so that kind of tells you that there is this organic interest in it. And Rousey is right to kind of hype on it. And the promoters are right to kind of deal with it. I can tell you this. I mean, I know that UFC was talking to Nate. So I don't know why Nate ultimately is choosing this path because you got to wonder, like at age, what is he, 41, 42, Nate?

He's like 41, I believe. So one thing I think fans should think about is if he said, again, I don't know why he said no to them here. Maybe they wanted some kind of a deal. Maybe they were going to pay him enough, but they wanted him for like five fights just to lock them up. and he didn't want to do that. So I can't say that they lowballed him.

Because I don't know. Right. What I can say is I know he was talking to them. I know for a fact, he was talking to them. And I know that he likes the UFC too. I know he likes those guys, but he ended up signing with MVP anyway. My hunch, Chuck, my hunch. That is Nate, by UFC's choice, that's him closing the door on ever returning.

I think that my understanding is they did not like it when he fought Jake Paul lost and if there was a chance to come back, this was the window. However, what I will say is, one, as you indicated, dude, Mike Perry has so outrageously overachieved by leaving UFC, it's crazy. Just on the BKFC level, not including the payday he got fighting Jake Paul or the payday he's going to get here. And God only knows what could happen. I suspect Nate will win, but, you know, we'll fucking see, right? You know, um, So you just got to give Mike Perry a ton of fucking credit to do what he's done. Yeah, there's the graphic.

Incredible. It's a little surreal to see that guy. Yeah, and that wild. Yeah. I'm also going to say this, too, like, I bet, I bet if Nate, I bet he's getting fucking paid for this. Oh, man. I think so, too.

I don't know what it is. I'm not sure what I would estimate it at, but around. Yeah, it goes down the, two to five million somewhere in there. got to be right it's got to and this is like again we were talking about like MVP UFC like kind of being the bandities or like you know that press conference that they held last week I think it was was more about the UFC right like it's more centered on totally problems with the US and it was about MVP and it just if there's going to be a if this is their first offering right like they're bringing it in there like and you've got the UFC's white house card that has been I don't want to say universally pan but I feel like most people are fairly disenchanted with what the offering is in the end. It just, it's such a, it's just such a moment in the sport. I mean, like this, what do you think about that?

Like, does that add, I guess, when you're mentioning the tickets being sold? But does it add more to like, what's going to be the viewership numbers that night? And does that really press? Like, seriously, like, with a White House card or something like that. Like, is it going to be hard for even the White House card to beat these numbers? I mean, I feel like.

Well, listen. So, I think it's. It's going to be very hard for the White House to keep these numbers. I guess we'll see in the end. But, you know, I think Jake Paul has a lot of stupid opinions. And in general, seems to be a pretty contemptible person. But I will say he's obviously very gifted promoting. He's very, very good at it.

I will also say, though, Chuck, this is a new level of promotion he's trying to get to. Where, like, for example, if Jake is trying to promote Amanda Serrano, he's like laser focused in general on her or something like that. Or if he's on the card, obviously he's, I'll give him his credit. He's a very gifted self-promoter, right? He's very, very good at that. And I will acknowledge that up front. But now he's kind of got to take a little bit of a side step and promote a bunch of

MMA assets who have their own history. And I mean, I'm not saying that Jake introduced Amanda Serrano to the world. That's not fair. But she leveled up under their relationship. Whereas Ronda already reached huge heights. Gina already was a big star. And then, you know, I mean, her Hollywood thing fell apart. but you know she was a big kind of attraction and francis is the little fucking heavyweight champion now you got Nate d as a former opponent like there's a lot of assets to kind of balance and to like get this thing out there to me this is going to be a real big test of exactly what MVP can do but i want to make one more point if i may chuck and then we'll move on namely this to me has a little bit of the spirit of what you saw from shows back in the day like affliction where hello Donald trump attended because he was not pro ufc at the time which is a final little detail everyone for

gets. But what I wanted to say was, you know, we all, do you remember the first Affliction show? I got panned on bloodyelbo.com because I was like, all right, in the middle of the show, we're going to have fucking Medi-Deft play songs. I was like, I was there. I was like, get Dave Mustaine off my fucking screen, please. I'm here to see fights.

And I got panned at the time, but of course, it ended up just bankrupting them. That's the point I wanted to make. It's like, dude, you knew affliction. Could they make big shows? the last one got canceled, but could they do it? Yes. They could make big shows and they could do great numbers. Right. In general. But you knew they had no money. You knew they couldn't go anywhere. Netflix is printing money. I know. You know?

Yes. And I mean, it's a good comparison actually because if you want to say that MVP, like the promotion itself is born out of some kind of spite of like what the UFC is don't or like that there's just a spirit of that. That was the same thing with affliction. Going back to those days, it was like, the Randy Couture line. They got banned from the UFC and they're like, hey, we're making like nine figures of revenue. Let's put on our own shows. But obviously it wasn't sustainable. They're there are cards.

They were paying out. We were talking about at the top of the show like the disown, like one to one. One to one point two five million, you know, like you hear that number. They were they were paying like $3.5 million or something along those lines for these shows that were ridiculously produced. And it just was not sustainable. You're right. there's a similar vibe in terms of like pushing all in against maybe the UFC's events. But the big difference there is they're not trying to build the league like affliction.

They're not trying to build like a roster and like mix and match. They're going to put together singular one-off shows that will just try to topple any numbers the UFC can do. I mean, honestly, we've never seen anybody kind of take this kind of approach where you're just trying to beat them in the biggest way, which would be in a viewership way, like for a singular event. So that's a whole different level, man. I think Nate also, I think Nate also,

and you know, we shall see this is highly speculative. But, you know, as we've kind of talked about, you know, John Jones signed an eight fight deal in January of 2023.

And then March of 2026 comes around and he's on the outs. Like, you know, you have to think about what your freedom will mean long term, rather than like what your security means long term. term. Clearly, Nate is banking on the hope, I'm going to guess, that Connor gets free and they can do

the trilogy under Netflix. And they can make boo-coo dollars doing it that way. And honestly, it's a gamble, right? It may not work. But it's a pretty good bet to take. And then the way of thinking that the John Jones would end up on the White House card, right? Like, in the same way that you're kind of taken for granted a little bit, like, I've got to do that. I was thinking that McGregor was going to fight Diaz in this trilogy because it made a lot of sense. Now you're right back to like, what are they doing with Connor McGregor? It's just interesting, man. I don't know what the UFC's move is going to be on this.

They're going to, I mean, I don't know either. I keep thinking, oh, well, they'll definitely be forced to pay more now and then that never happens, you know, I guess we'll see. All right. Let's quickly go through some of the back end of this preliminary card with the time we have remaining very quickly. Dude, to me, one of the standout performers on the entire card, B. Miskita, I know she was a big favorite to weigh.

and she made short work of Monsei Rendon. But, dude, she is turning into a force at Bantamway. Is she not? She is, man. I know it's only our second UFC fight, but the thing that struck me, and you could say that Rendon, how we said that was... You could just say Rendon. Rendon.

Okay, but I like the role of the art, but like she was outmatched, right? Like, she... Because what basically got her into trouble, she got dropped with her right hand. And I think that that's one of those things that you're almost like, whoa, okay, wait a second. I don't see this coming. So I'm not sure whether to give Mesquita, like all the credit on this or some of it's just that like she was fighting somebody who just had no, no chance. The great thing was that Rendon was supposed to be like jujitsu player too.

So I think there might have been a little bit of like, let's show what we can do, but that never showed up. I think you've got a real pleasure. She's a 34 years old Mesquita and has a great team in Florida. I just, I would be surprised if she doesn't make a very quick push. and just end up in like a, you know, in a big fight coming up next probably. And then maybe kind of rocket ship to, I mean, she's got that kind of chops, right? Like what did you think of her stand up, I guess, going into this? There wasn't much, but the fact that she dropped her opponent.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, as opposed to like, I'm just going to jab and then kind of like slowly double my way. No, she's like. Yeah, like McKenzie was doing in her early days. Yeah. Like, no, she's like physically putting it on her. And again, you know, what does it mean to be Rendon at this point?

I guess we'll see. but do you want to see this kind of a thing out of a jihitsu athlete? Like absolutely you want to see that. Etrusosa, who Danny had told us about ahead of time, had a win a nice win over Luan Lacerda. He gets the dub. Eric Anders, Chuck, your boy, beats Brad Tavares. And he got hurt in that fight, but he kind of rallied and he gets the job done.

He retired afterwards. And our friend, Sean Sheehan from Ireland, goes, Eric Anders has retired looking forward to his next one. Any reaction to that fight? no i mean and that was kind of like the you know that was kind of his career down the stretch you know good to go out and in a way yeah man that's what and we were talking about this with josh mdly sometimes you got to if that's really it and it should be like good for him man that's what you want to do uh manuel soza i'm sure i'm saying i can't pronounce his name right dog has a vicious fucking

k-o boy that was over balaji oki this was ridiculous and you can see okey was doing pretty well in this fight until the third round and then basically soza just i mean tagged him. That was incredible. It reminded me of like, because he came out guns blazing in that third round. You're like, Jesus, man, after kind of getting worked a little bit in that second round, and to get that knock, I was like,

do you remember Ben Rothwell back at UFC 160? He's fighting Brandon, Brandon Vera. He's fighting Brandon Vera. And he came out in the third, I think it was this fight. He came out in the third round, like it was the first round. Like, all of a sudden, he was just, just moving forward. And I was like, where did this, especially for heavy, like that big

guy like that, it reminded me. of that a little bit. It was like, where does this guy? Where does this extra gear come from? That was, that was pretty impressive. It also like, by the way, I think Rothwell pop for like a PED after that. Maybe that explains it, but yeah. I do like Big Ben, but like to the point was, Oki was kind of dictating the, not the terms as much, but the pace.

Yeah. And then when Soza just up the pace, fucking forget it. It was a different one. Shouts to the American, he's 10 in one now, Elijah Smith. He gets a rear Nicichichoke in the second round over Sue Yong Yu. That's a nice victory. And then I'm trying to see if there's anything else here. you can he beat anybody like say again if he can beat you can he beat anybody dad jose thank you long island thank you i was like i was like what the fuck are you saying oh you don'ts are on the card so it's like all right let's move on if we can here to topic number four let's do some rankings if we can so here

here's how this is going to go all right there was someone brought this up to me and they're like how good is flyweight now isn't featherweight the hottest division i was thinking to myself you know what let's kind of have like a state of the state sort of situation how how good are these divisions. Let's, let's power rank them. So Chuck, I'll let you go first. Give me your top five power rankings for UFC division. Which are the five strongest than why? I think that one 30. Okay, so top five. I go 135 at the top. Okay. I can see it all here. I just think that dude, when you've got like that that top 10, you can kind of mix and match all these guys. And I think you would be, you would have a hard time coming up with the who's going to

win in a lot of this because there's so much parity at the top of that division. but then you've got a couple of very young guns like Peyton Talbot and Raul Rosas and guys like that in the 11 to 15 range. That's where you want to be, right? Like, it's to have guys coming up, like the replenishing, replenishing the ranks at the back, just very stacked right now. I think I went with, what, I have, Welterweight second here. I have welterweight second.

Again, I just think that you can mix and match a lot of those guys within the top 10, man. And it's just, there's just so many really, really good fight. You have guys like Carlos Prachis and Mike Morales who can't even, you know, get into the title shot because it's, it's so good right now. And I think that that speaks for itself. You got guys like D-Rodd and Medic,

who's coming up, Medich, how does you pronounce his name? Medich or Medich? Medich. He's even in like the, what, like, number 12. So, I mean, guys like that, when they can't even get in the top 10, it tells you it's pretty stacked. I got featherweight next. Kind of self-explanatory because you have Volcanosc, but you also have Mosar and Lorone Murphy

who are fighting for that number. one. Neither one of the guys lost in a long time. Dude, you go down the ranks there. And they've made some good fights, but like John Silva, all these guys, Emmett was in there for a minute. He's probably on his way out. But when you got Kevin Viejo at 14, I don't know where he ends up, but coming into this fight, that again tells you that it's a pretty stacked, a pretty stacked division. So I got that one next. I just think that 170 is a little more stacked than that. I got lightweight next, you know, with Ilya at the top and all the way down through that one. that's a very good. And then I've got 125. I had a hard time. And I know we'll get to yours too.

Like the flyweight one, I was a little bit like, I could have put this up higher, especially with the emergence of like, you know, the reintroduction, I guess, of Hora Gucci and sort of the Japanese guys, uh, tower. And like, you've got these dudes there who are, um, they're, they're spicing things up. You still got Pantoja out there who was your champion. You got Joshua Van, the shung gun. I feel like they, that, that, that division is probably as talented as it's been, maybe ever, um, um, because you have many, many names. up there rather than just the top three or four. So you could probably move that one up or down,

but I have that number five right now. So actually, ours are not far apart, but they're a little bit different. So let's look at mine. So for mine, bansomweight number one, exactly the same as yours. I just feel like you've got the greatest living bansom weight in Marab, who's done the most in that division,

still in there. You've got Umar there. You got Piotr, who had maybe the best overall UFC performance last year in that winning, and then just on down the list. and Sanhagen and Mill Mali. And I mean, like, I've got the, I've got the rankings here. Let me just, just, just as a brief refresher,

then you got Songa Dong, Amon Zahabi, Figuero, Valdi, Batista, Martinez, and Marlon Vera, like, dude, and I'm not even talking about the guys on the back end of the top 15. There's a lot of skill in that one. For me, 145 is next, man. I think 45 is incredible. Look at the rankings here very quickly. You know, as I, as you indicated,

I, you know, to me, Kevin's going to move into that top 10 position. you got Steve Garcia who's you know certainly put together a good win streak Arnold Allen Yusuf Zalaulah J.on Silva Algeman Sterling Rodriguez Lorone Murphy Lopez Evelove and then Volk. Dude that's a fucking no man. That's a battering ram of a division. I mean you could have put that one number one to be honest in my book. Who did I have is number three? Welterweight. So this one or yeah, this one we kind of move different places. The reason I put Walter Waite three is because A, Islam is in that division and I think any match up with him is just got huge significance by virtue just because the fact that it's

And then to your point, you know, JDM has got this fight coming against Carlos Prachis, who's still trying to break through and Ian Gary's on the way. I mean, I know he's been off for a while, but in theory, Shafcott's still there. We got Buckley and Brady coming up. Kumar is still hanging around. There's some big names. There's some big fights. There's some

fun-ass fights. And then there's some fights of huge consequence. You've got to love 170. And then this is the part where we, you know, we both had flyweight and lightweight on the back end, right? We slightly alter the position. The reason why I'm putting lightweight last is, you know, you've got Armin and you've got Ilya up there. And those

two, I mean, literally to me, within a division, like guys who are naturally within a division, Armin versus Ilya is arguably the best fight you can make an amendment. I mean, I know you can just bump Ilya up to 170 and have him fight there, but he's not naturally a 70 or right. But absent that fight, I think if you look at 155, it's a little bit in Hubbers, right? So look at the the back half. Patty Pimble, Dan Hooker, Mateus Gammarot, Hoofee's coming up, but that's interesting, and Fiziv is certainly a guy to take seriously, but he's kind of run into problems. And on the front half, it's been Washington, Nemax Holloway, Charles-Liver Armin, so you can engage you. Like, it's a really, really good division. However, it's got a little bit old,

and the back half to me is not that great. Whereas at flyweight, you got Josh Van, who will see how long that goes. Pantoja, one of the best flywights of all time. Cop is on there. Three is Tyra, then Royval, then Horoguchi. Lonnie Kavanaugh just did a hell of a job. Brendan Moreno is sitting at 9. Perez at 10. And then you got Asu Almavio sitting at 7. You could play with those two,

depending on how you want. But I do think that flyweight and then lightweight are on the back half. But I'm curious now to see Long Island. Long Island, where do we share and where do we differ? I mean, we differ everywhere, guys. Clearly the hottest division right now is heavyweight. The number one contender is taken on a champion from a different division who's trying to become the first ever three weight class champion.

I mean, is that not the most exciting storyline in the whole sport right now? If the UFC was just these divisions, I'd never watch fights. Then you got number two taken on number four. Divisions moving right along here, Volkov Cortez-A-Costa. Number 14 ranked Walter Walker's on a four-fight finish streak. We're not even taking that into account. And we just mentioned the Petrino Asplen fight. Those are two unranked guys, bangers all day.

Next up, women's Bannamweight. Two of the most accomplished women live at the top of the division. Kayla and Amanda, you got three former champions in the top 15. That doesn't even include Amanda because she's not ranked right now. So make it for two of those former champions are ranked number one and number two right now. So the top half of that division is elite. Also, you got Norman Dumont taking on Jocelyn Edwards. You got Eileen Perez twerking her way to the top of the division.

You got Jacqueline Cavalcanti getting her shot against Ketland Vieira. I don't even know if you guys know these names. They are all no fighters. But women's band and weight hot right now. Next up light heavyweight. You got four former champions that make up the top seven. Former champ going against the clear number one contender for the vacant belt. now best fight you can make you also got r d r and robert whittaker both moving up to light heavy

weight those are both fun all action guys bro how are we still on the third one wrap this up you got johnny walker you got gus gov you got dom reyes they're all fun okay next up middleweight champ taking on a former champ for a fight the fans really wanted hamzot and shon strickland two other former champs also rounding out that top five in ddp and izzie you also got like the fluffies the robocops the bruno faheta that's a fun ass division and then you know we can't bc's not here someone had to represent women's straw weight. Also, I thought we were doing the hottest division. So naturally here we go.

But no, sorry, sorry. Quite literally the hottest division right now. Number two is taken on number six. Number three is taken on number seven. Clearly, waley, Dern should be next. You have young up-and-comers like Fatima Klein, not as young, but still young people like Gillian Robertson. I mean, that division is fun.

Obviously, guys, I was just trolling here. But hopefully I argued. I was going to say, where's Adam weight and women's feather weight? I mean, like, you're covering the gamut here. The other way, it would have been good, Chuck. I looked at that list and I was like, I'll just watch soccer. Heavy weight. Yeah.

I'll just watch the world baseball classic. I'm good. Yeah. All right. Let's do this. Before we get, before we go, I get to topic number five, let's remind everyone. Our big, big thanks to our friends at Cuervo. As a reminder, we're going to be back in studio for the pregame preview.

It'll be me and Chuck. We're still working on the third item there. And of course, when we are in studio, we only drink the finest. Jose Cuervo. We are big fans. They take good care of us. And guys, from face off to final decision, Fight Night delivers the adrenaline and Cuervo, the energy to match it. Whether you're hosting your crew at home or catching the action at a bar,

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By the way, great card, UFC 327. We're going to be back in studio for the pregame preview for that. Me, Chuck, we'll see who else is there. And we'll be enjoying some Cuervo responsibly, always responsibly, in studio there. That should be a great time. Big thanks to our friends at Cuervo. All right, Chuck, let's talk about topic number five, if we can. Let's do a bit of a UFC White House check-in.

There's a few different items floating around relative to this. I kind of want to see what you had to say. So Joe Rogan on a recent episode of his podcast that it was a weird time for the event to take place because the U.S. is at war. Let's play his comments, and then I want you to react. Are you excited for the White House card? That looks really good.

It sounds crazy. I know it's going to be very high security and high stress and weird to have a fight at the White House in the middle of a fucking war. I would hope the war will be sorted out by June, but quite honestly, I'm not confident that that's going to be the case.

Yeah. Yeah. So that would be weird. Yeah. Having this very high profile event where everybody's in one place at one time right there. So you're not excited to be there. Well, that seems like, yeah. Seems like you're asking for.

Holy shit. I haven't thought of that at all. How could you not think of that? Because I'm not going to be there. You're the one I was to think of it. I was just like, this is a great lineup. I look forward to the fights. Yeah.

I was hoping for the White House card Dana would do something and pull John Jones out of the back. I was hoping that was well. I don't know why that didn't happen. I mean, there's John's version. There's the UFC's version. I don't know what was the stumbling block there. Pereira versus John Jones would be the fight. The title doesn't mean anything.

You could do the BMF heavyweight version. I like how Joe's like, yeah, I don't know what the stumbling block was there. We do. Your bosses are cheap. That's the, I mean, again, I'm, you know, I'm not, I've been great sympathy for Jones. But okay, Chuck, are you worried about the timing of this? And the, we have to ask it now, because it's political, the geopolitical effect on all of this. I mean, sure.

Like, I don't know. are you planning on because you're it's your backyard are you planning on going to this thing or are you no no i'm not because i mean we had talks and i'm like well i don't know what the situation to be if they'll have a media like how that's will work but you know if you have any you know um if you're gonna if you end up going or if i if i'm going to end up going there's going to be a concern to this it seems like a logistical nightmare for security first of all 85000 people and tell me where that's being held do you you the ellipse the ellipse okay and that's just a big park type thing yes so essentially the way it works is there's the national mall and then a

segment off of the national mall uh is called the ellipse and then on the other side of the ellips is the beginning of the south lawn okay all right 16th street would be inter 600 pennsylvania avenue would be essentially intersecting this way white house sits in the middle it's kind of on this space before you get to the mall it's it's you know it's it's only separated i think by constitution but it's right over that side 85 000 people and then another 5 000 where the the the the the dignitaries or whatever, you know, are just going to be gathered at a certain time, a certain time, very televised. And you know what I mean?

That's some red flags, man. I mean, and I say something to you about this? It's a DC guy. Because TKO has been like, oh, there's going to be no charts of the public. We're going to be absorbing all the costs. I call bullshit on that. I call bullshit on that. So because it's going to be at the White House and then it'll be at the ellipse,

and I'm sure there will be spillover into the National Mall, the park police will get involved. It's a special kind of police that is involved in, like, federal property. They work inside of D.C., but it's federal property, right? That's where they kind of have jurisdiction beyond that, but that's really what they focus on, right? It's federal property. So they're going to be there. But dude, to secure that area, you're going to have to get the local police department involved. There's simply no way to do it. And it's going to have to be an enormous fucking amount because of all the security concerns that are there. You mean to tell me,

and this happened, dude, this happens all the fucking time where the federal government will have events that require the local police department to do what they do. And then the federal government doesn't pay back the city of DC for the use of their police force, which means we as taxpayers have to pay it. Now, D.C. runs a balanced budget, so fuck your life. We don't need your help in that sense. But I just want to point out, am I really to believe that the UFC is going to be paying the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington, D.C., all the overtime pay and all the extra pay

that goes into securing all of that? That is part of their $60 million. No, the fuck it is not. they are going to saddle taxpayers with that. I absolutely do not believe they are covering that. They might cover the cost of what it is with the park police. They are not going to cover MPD. No fucking way.

And that's going to fall on Jumokes like me. I just want to point that out. I think it's fucking weird. But the whole, it's beginning to dawn on people how fucking weird this is. Like a year ago, or not a year ago, like last summer, sorry, last summer.

When the president announced it, we were all like, okay well that's weird but you know it'll be a big grandeur kind of spectacle and i still think some of that is obviously still in play but dude like this is a highly polarizing political figure it's a political figure if you wasn't polarizing they're doing it on his mother fucking birthday which is just the height of bizarre and now he's plunged like a fucking reckless shit for brains idiot that he is he has plunged this country into a war that he cannot unilaterally disengage from and now we are here and it can potentially could only get worse to say nothing

of all the other what do you want to say chuck simmering political conflicts it's a fucking weird event and on top of it chuck i got to tell you i don't think there's going to be 85 000 people there am i wrong for saying that like i think there'll be a lot of people there i think there will be tens of thousands there please don't misunderstand me but 90 000 to watch that card. Just on a screen, right? Just on a fucking screen, because what the people don't realize is, the South one is quite large. If there's

no obstructions from the ellipse or from Constitution, you can see it. You can see the White House. But there's a pretty big green space there. That's going to be blocked. You're just looking at a fucking in Washington, D.C. summer mosquito laden heat.

What? You know? The 80th birthday thing was just coincidence. I mean, the U.S. usually does these events on Sundays, I believe, right? So that's, yeah. No, but I mean, like, it is, it is. Dude, all of the people who are, all the people who are going to be there, it's like, here's my view. If you want regular good reactions to fights, you have to have fight fans there. You know what I mean? And maybe they woo and maybe I don't like that, but the reality is, I'm going to pick fight fans

in an audience 10 times out of 10 versus the Georgetown class of people who are going to be there. Like it's just, you know, the whole thing is fucking weird. The whole thing is very weird. And we're used to, and I don't want to like, obviously like the political associations to it because it's, it just, it is, if we saw Katov, you know, at an event in Russia and you're like, oh my God, you know, you know, what's going on or, you know, these sports washing things that go on with Saudi Arabia, like to do it on America's soil. It's just, it's like that by itself. if you just take that as very like, it's so different and so other than anything that's happened with us.

Even though they've rolled out, you know, Trump and kid rocking these guys with big entrances at the events, this is just another level of combining these elements. So just taking that by itself is very strange. But man, I sometimes I wonder,

and I mean, I'm only, I can only assume that the UFC has to really be concerned with the security issue here, right? Like, because to me, that's like you're you got like everybody in one place at one time i just that's a little scary to me

you know like to do this i don't know um maybe i'm just paranoid but like sometimes dana white will tempt fate in ways that i feel like is a little bit like his it goes into his gambling libido or something where he's like uh he says shit about back in the day when it was like we're not boxing you know we never we've never had a death in the ufc and he would say this and i'd always be like man that feels like kind of counterintuitive just clearly that's the case but at the same time you don't want to tempt fate right like and i sometimes feel like he does stuff like that and because he doesn't have that filter i don't know but this type of thing i don't know what measures they're taken man but 85 000 people and then another what 5,000 people on the west lawn yeah and i just don't know how to call bullshit on that number two i think it's gonna be close of the three or less no i'm with you on that i i can't imagine though basically how that's going to look. I just, I can't, even though they've given you like the diagram or the whatever they're looking at, but there is a lot weird about it. When they start building it, when they start building it, I'm going to take a bike ride down there and start taking pictures of it so people

can see, just to get a sense of what it's going to be. But this is my point. Put up the graphic from Dana about the 85,000 tickets. If we have it here, so he goes, the way that the White House is laid out, you've got the White House, then you've got the South Lawn, and then there's this road. Yes, he's correct. And then there's the ellipse in the parking. That's right there. He's correct. We're going to be ticketing 85,000 people in the ellipse, and the tickets are free, and we'll be announcing how to give those away, blah, blah, blah. There's going to be all kinds of activations in the ellipse. It will be a very unique, cool experience for five fans. This is my point about like, oh, we're absorbing all the cost. How are you going to secure that at a time of

war, given all of this? And you're paying for all of the park police, and you're paying for all of the MPD to be there? No, the fuck you're not. Dude, that's just not. I guarantee you. They are not paying for that. I absolutely fucking guarantee that. That's a huge fucking cost. Yeah. Yeah, man. Anyway, all right. Bobby Covington says, Chuck, that he felt snubbed.

I want you to react to his comments. All right. I said, I'd fight anybody on God's Green Earth on the White House card just to get that opportunity to fight in front of my, you know, my hero, Donald Trump, you know, and all the great politicians that I'm friends with up in D.C. They're upsetting their hardcore fan base. Whatever. We're just going to throw shit at the wall and we're going to tell everybody it's flame and yon.

It's completely the opposite of what they promised the fans. They said, hey, we're going to give you guys the biggest and best event that you UFC's ever had, we're going to put six or seven title fights on this card. Where's the six or seven title fights? Then they just have me sitting around for the last 14 months doing nothing. They haven't offered me one fucking fight. Like, they're supposed to be offering me three fights a year by contractual law. You know, I'm not trying to get into a suing match or a pissing match, but it's just, it's just not fair to me. They're treating me like an employee right now, because I tried to go wrestle and do a judithu match against arm, and they said, no, they're

treating me unfairly, and I'm just, I'm sick of it, man. They've done me dirty my whole career, been treated like shit. And I've tried to play the company role, but, you know, I'm just over it, man. You get the idea that your reaction to him not being on the White House? I mean, dude, I was, I was one of those guys who talked to him. And he talks about in 2018 when he came in and he was wearing the MAGA hat and at Times Square. Like, I was one of the guys who was like, yeah, I had to meet up with him and do this

interview with him. And he's, he's absolutely right. It's such a, it's almost comedic that he's not on this card. Right. Like, it's like, the one guy that this scene. Taylor made for is not being on this card. It's just it's too rich for me to even consider. I do feel for him on some level though because it's like this is his whole schick, right? His whole gimmick and you can see how already is by being left off this card and now it's like it's turned into something. This is the ultimate company man. He always points this out and you can see how bitter this is sitting with him. I will say that you can never take Colby like right at like face value with everything he's saying because you find out that's true like there's There's a different truth to this a lot of times. But the Bo Nickel thing, like if you listen to Bo Nickel,

he could have been on the card, right? He just didn't want to fight Bo Nickel. I just don't know where the truth lies on that either. But it is like it is kind of like high comedy that the one card Taylor made for Colby Covington he doesn't end up on, right? His hero. He doesn't get a fight in front of his hero. Here's the thing.

I don't think he deserves any special treatment, even though he's been, you know, meat riding Trump in the most hilarious of ways. But I will say him versus Bo Nickel to me is a more interesting. fight than what they did. Sure. Right? Yes. In his defense, like, I don't know why it fell apart. They've got conflicting versions, but sorry, that actually would have been more interesting

to me. Well, it's another one of those fights we expected. I think it's another one of the, it felt like every single fight that was announced with some kind of consolation off of what the original idea was supposed to be. That's the UFC's model. I know. Yeah, man. Yeah, I know.

UFC White House, consolation prize. All right. Last but not least on this, and then we'll move to other parts of the show. So this is a story that flew under the radar. I caught this in the Washington Post last night. I'm not going to put the whole thing up, but I'll read my tweet here. The head of D.C.'s Athletic Commission views the UFC White House event as unsanctioned and says the results shouldn't go on a fighter's record.

He's also worried about the precedent it sets for other promoters who want to use federal parcels of land and D.C. to skirt regulation. Let me just read the very last quote. This is from the guy who runs it. Quote, we don't know anything. Every promoter in the District of Columbia should be and is held to the same. standard, whether you're putting on a small wrestling show or a major event. I'm concerned about the precedent.

What happens when someone puts on a boxing match in Malcolm X. Park? They don't need to get us involved. So here's the deal for folks who don't realize that the White House itself is a federal piece of land. The ellipse is a federal piece of land. And the national mall itself is a federal piece of land. And so what the UFC is saying is, and not without good reason, actually. What they're saying is, okay, but the district of Columbia is the

city itself, which is a separate territory than the federally designated parts like the Capitol Building, the Supreme Court, or the things we've just mentioned. Those are federal parcels of land. So what jurisdiction does the D.C. Commission have? But here's one thing that the D.C. Commission, Chuck, I think, makes a very reasonable point. If you look at that part of the city that is designated as federal territory, it looks like it's carved off, right? Because it is. It was essentially kind of made into D.C. but there are clear large swaths that are just federal property. However, in D.C. proper, people think that there's like, oh, there's the federal side and then there's the D.C. side. No. It is sprinkled everywhere throughout the city. Literally, sometimes tiny, tiny little parcels of land, not even a 16th of an acre.

That's federal property, but all the streets around it and all the homes around it and then the parks around it and the schools around it will these are all DC, right, parts of it. In other words, they intermingle in countless differing ways. So what DC is saying is if the UFC is allowed to put on this without any kind of sanctioning from us, what is to stop a promoter from going to any park that is technically federal property in the middle of a DC neighborhood and just saying, you fuckers don't have jurisdiction, we're going to just do what we want? I don't know what the right answer is, but I don't think that's an unfair question.

That is a wild. You sent me this last night or this morning and it's like it's a lot to contemplate. I mean, obviously like you being there, you kind of understand this a little better. Let me ask you this, man. Like when the UFC has gone to DC or at least the bill, when they bill it that they're going to Washington, D.C. for their cards. Where do these events take place usually? They took place at the then Verizon Center or the Capital One Arena or occasionally they've done

fight nights on the campus of George Mason in Virginia, which would involve the Virginia commission at that point. Okay. So I was just wondering, like, who, like, is this the same commission that oversaw like the, you know, the, you know what I mean? Like the, the event. Yes. So when, for example, the last one here was when Overeem fought Rosenstruck. Remember we split his lip. The D.C. commission had oversight. In fact, they brought the DC commission to talk to the media that week about the whole event. And so we met all those guys. Okay. I mean, it sounds like, and I saw you point this out that the bigger concern is that, right? Like at the ladder that you get these gorilla or these rogue. outfits that want to do that um i mean this is the type of thing like when we're talking about loopholeism or like or stuff like that from the old days this is kind of what it reminds me of when the wild west days when the uc was trying to establish itself in other places right right i mean what's to stop and forget even dc what's if if if the argument is that federally they don't need a regulatory body which again no one thinks that the ufc can't self-regulate

to a reasonable degree right that's not really the argument the argument is not about you UFC. The argument is if the UFC is allowed to do this, what is there to stop any promoter to go to federal property anywhere? Forget this area like, I don't know, fucking in front of the Mount Rushmore or some shit. Yeah. And then put up a tent and be like, you can't do nothing to us. I, so it's a little, it's not a bad question, you know. It's funny that there's just so much to this. There's so much to this one event, man. If you, I thought about that too, but the reality is this. If you wander outside the known boundaries of combat sports it gets infinitely weirder right away you know what i mean the crowd's going to be weird the security is going to be weird the card's going to be weird

the politics of it are going to be weird because they're veering off of what we know works right so every time you do that you're just introducing wait what the fuck is happening you know what i mean on all these levels oh june's going to be wild june's going to be fucking wild all right but that that's our that's our top five topics let's not get get Now, excuse me, to where you guys get to ask us questions, it's time for DMs from dogs. That's me breathing in my wife's ear, okay? I want you to know. That's where we got that sound from.

All right, question number one, let's do it. It gets me every time. From Train How You Fight 979, Vajahos, fourth fight in a 12-month span. Do you think it's better to have a more frequent fights and less training camps for these younger fighters, Chuck? I feel like you get a lot of these guys when they're starting out. they kind of have this accelerated schedule. Like we see this quite often, right? It's just can you navigate it?

Can you get out of it like as well as he did? I would be a little surprised if they if he pops up again very quickly. Would you? I mean, just given that, did occur to me when he was having this fight. I was like, you know, he's been, if you look at his timeline, I mean, it's pretty condensed. I think you make the right call here, which is

if you're early enough in your career, I think you can do it. And maybe if it's even good for you, I think is you start to get a little closer to your prime or the top of that division, it makes more sense to slow that down just a little bit, you know, two to three at most. Given that he's the guys he's beat, though, the last couple of fights, I mean, these are dudes who've been up in the rankings for a while. So, but I would, I would slow my role, man. You got, you got to a little bit here. Yeah. All right. Question number two. From a little wild photography, why do people stick with the narrative that only numbered events in huge

arenas are what make for good fights when this nothing apex card. had five or six fights on it better than literally any last weekend. Yeah, that's, I mean, every now and again, you get one like this. On paper going into this, did you look at this? Like you pay attention to these guys in a fight style way, you know, like, did you like look at it and say, hey man, this has got like four or five bangers on it? I mean, I think the audience can decide that, but I felt like on Long Island, I felt like on Friday's MK, we were sufficiently respectful of the possibilities here, were we?

I feel like you, especially, Luke, were actually, like pretty, higher than I was on this card. You were like, this is a pretty good apex. Now, in fairness, I think the favorites went 13 and one, Chuck. So, you know, it was a lot of feasting, but to the point of it did deliver. Well, sometimes, I mean, we've been kind of going on about this that like, you know, Bellator used to put on these squash matches early on and you'd just see guys getting hauled off and stretchers.

And that was kind of like, well, this is fun because guys are in there every now and again, especially when you've seen almost like acts of nullification in these prelims, you know, like just constant you need a card like this. And I think that's one of the reasons it looks so good. You just had a lot of finishes, a lot of good fights, a lot of action, you know? Yeah, I mean, listen, the reality is there's MMA quality everywhere. But it's also true that the higher quality stuff in terms of rankings or matchups or names tends to just be a lot better over the course of time. Yeah.

So, you know, you have to kind of figure out what your lane is and what you want to contribute or in terms of your time to watch the sport. So it's not like anything is disqualifying by itself. It's just that there, over the course of time, you begin to realize that there is a lot more useful things to watch on the number cards in general. Now, I will say, though, that the more that they seem to water down the product and the more that the divisions decline, the less true that tends to become. But I still do believe in that, you know. Yeah. All right. Next.

From Holmes by Garrett. If Strickland were to beat Chimaev, Chuck, would it be a bigger upset than when Strickland beat Izzy? Ooh, good question. Great question. I think it would be, man. What do you think? I think it would be because I just want to say odds-wise, it would, it was a bigger upset when he beat Izzy. He was like plus 700.

I remember that. But see, we're living in a world where he beat Izzy, and so that's now baked into how we see him. Sure. But going into that fight, man, I gave him no chance. I don't know how you remember. I gave him no chance. Even Strickland himself on Fightwick, remember he was like, uh, probably going to get beat up in this one. You know what I mean?

Yes. So, I mean, like, you got to remember that that was kind of the setup of that fight. And the way it played out was very fascinating. Even the crowd kind of turning on Izzy, which was bizarre. Anyway, besides all that, I still think this one, I don't know if Izzy had, Izzy had like a special thing going on like that it factor. And there was, there was, he was clear, like he was seen as superior fight. This is one of those situations, though, where it's a style thing that you're like,

I don't know if he has the style to be Shima, but I don't know how many guys do. And imagining a world where, he's able to beat him somehow is harder for me you know what i mean like this is very difficult for me to see how strickland gets it done i would just say um i think that the izzie upset would be bigger because it was so surprising but to me this would actually be something more of an interesting win you know yeah yeah because chimaev is he has some really known weaknesses but jesus his strengths are just overwhelming you know yeah all right let's see next from John Winkle, Fred.

Looking to UFC London, that is this weekend, the card is pretty weak compared to the apex card this past weekend. Will the UFC lose interest with European MMA market if they keep bringing average cards while charging high ticket prices? What do you think, Chuck? So the UFC lose interest? I'm almost more worried that the audiences that they're catering to would lose interest at some point, you know,

as long as the market can bear. As long as I see complaints every time they go to London or English, in about the ticket costs, but I, I had they've been selling out though, right? Or they've been, they've still been well attended. It's not like, uh, I don't feel like they've had that problem yet where there's 5,000 open seats. Um, so I don't know. I mean, and they only really go there. It's fairly infrequent, like once a year type thing. So I don't think they'll lose interest. As long as the market will bear what they're doing, I feel like they'll always hit the spots where they can make money. Yeah. I mean, do you have seen Mexico card, for example, didn't sell out. However,

That's a big arena and they lost their main event. You know, there's a few factors there to maybe be like, well, you know, we'll see. Yeah. I mean, it's not a trend. It's literally a one-off, right? It's hard to know. I do think that there is a long-term cost to extracting from their audience this way. But I do think it's also going to take a really long time before there is any kind of noticeable pushback.

And so what I mean by extraction is like it's a very clear way to understand it. If you go to a UFC event, they're not all equivalent of course. Some are better and bigger than others. But in general, if you're in the UK and you paid $50 for your nosebleeds and now you're paying $500, it's more or less the same kind of product, but now you're being charged 10 times the amount. That is a clear example of value extraction, right? They're just trying to pull more money out, but what is essentially the same kind of offering.

That is a very real thing that breathes long-term resentment, but it takes a while for that to really become a thing that you notice in future purchasing decisions. Right. They will, especially to the point you raised, when they're only coming there a couple times a year at most. Yeah. You know, it makes it much harder to engage in a boycott. They'll simply tolerate the value extraction, you know. You know, man, it's, it's almost just epidemic with sports in general right now. Like, if you are going to go to baseball game even, like the tickets are exorbitant right now. It's just like it's very expensive to do anything live entertainment. Like if you look at the, my buddy was trying to get Metallica tickets at the sphere. I mean, it's just. astronomical like what they're charging for these these tickets i remember and even like the uh tank davis uh lamont roach fight that i went to bc actually hooked up uh some tickets like just some comp tickets and i but they had the face value on there were nice seats they were probably 25 rows up um into the first section there and they were the face value on those was 787 dollars each so like two tickets you know that's 1500 bucks and i was like man this is just crazy like who is the 10 of those

if you look around you're like all these people are paying that kind of of money it's it's a it's a confusing thing right now with ticket prices yeah in fairness to ufc they are hardly alone now locally the gnats are very they can be quite cheap to go see but dude if you want to go see the capitals oh my god yeah i know i know it's dude you can't and i've looked so many fucking times you if you want anything other than the bleeders to go see the Washington Capitals play, it's 250 a person. And that doesn't include any concessions or just

to get in the fucking door. It's 250 a person. It's crazy dude. For a regular season fucking games versus the St. Louis Blues. I got to pay 250 for this. And Tewkstra's not even paying attention halfway through, you know? All right. Well, I think you'll be

comp on you, man. You know? Yeah. Well, dude, a buddy of mine used to be a scout and he did. He gave me his seats when he wasn't using them. And they were bleaters, but they were three, you know? Yeah, you always take three. And now, like, what are you going to do? All right.

Okay, Jimmy Reed, red. Hypothetically, which best fighter ever for a night do you want fighting for your life? For example, Volk versus Max 3, Connor versus Eddie, Gachy versus Tony. Bro, I'm going to say Fador versus Nogara.

The beating he put on Nogara at that time was hard to process. That is so fucking good. Wait, so what is the premise of this question? Do you want to pick a fight or is it? Yeah. So like imagine a guy who like was imagine like their best night. Remember Connor like he was just dialed in against Eddie Alvarez at UFC 205. Cody Garbrand.

That's what I was going to say. Yeah. Cody lost a couple rounds on that fight. People forget that. One of the scores was like 48, 47. But I know what you mean. It's like embo- that's that kind of thing. The way I remember it was like 50 to 45. Isn't that weird like your memory? I haven't watched it in a long time. But it was such a bewitchery, right? Like he was in there. Maybe maybe the Anderson Silva versus Forrest Griffin or something. Oh shit. What a great call. Yeah, that Matrix where he just looks like a fucking ninja You know what I mean? That's still hard to believe that happened in a main event

Forrest running out of there. What a weird And folks also forget this. That was UFC 101. So UFC 100 was a huge show. Kenny Florian fought BJ Penn for the lightweight title. I think on either Maine or comand. I forget where it was for that card. And then Silva goes up to 205 because he was bored of beating the fuck out of everybody. And then laid it on for us Griffin.

and you're like, dude, holy shit. After two really, really mediocre. It was like Patrick Cote and Talaselaitis. Remember he was getting... Or maybe Demi and Meyer or something. Yeah, somewhere around there. You might be ready. Yeah, the Maya one was after.

It was U.S. It was. Okay. So, like, all of his own division fights at that time were, like, really bad. To the point where Dana White was ready to cut him after the Maya fight, like... But then he had that one in between. It's like this, they remind you who this dude is. All right. That is it for our DMs from donks.

As always, you put up a post on IG. on every Sunday and then the producers pick your favorite or their favorite questions I should say and then then we go from there all right with that out of the way it's time for some fan subs let's do it you've got mail viewers now before we go any further long island tell the folks what we're doing with fan subs this month so we're rewarding the best meme of the month with an autographed mk poster you have up until Sunday March 29th because I think Monday's the 30th if I'm not mistaken looking at a calendar quick yeah so you have up till Sunday March 29th to submit them we'll show all of them we'll recap some of the ones we've already

shown on that March 30th episode and then Luke you'll decide in real time which one one which one was your favorite so we got a new batch today all right from john mclean he sent in two items i guess the first one's a video larger goals and you don't worry about anything else that day except what you need to do that day and each day you provide that level of consistency. Fuck, Jake. I'm feeling these margaritas, Brian Campbell. That's what Mike Bond does.

Yo, fuck Mike Bond. You can get back to Mike Bonner. I don't you know the name of where we're at, stupid? You know, I am nothing, if not full of contradictions, Chuck. That's what I've noticed. What was the old quote? Do I contradict myself? Fine.

I contain multitudes. I contradict myself. Oh, yes. I am many. I contain multitudes. Yeah, yeah. That, by the way, that Vegas thing was awesome. I still remember that day very fondly.

This is the meme description here is the real main event at the White House. Luke Thomas versus the New York City subway. Both challengers filled with feces and anger. Pretty good. Yeah. I agree with that. You do realize that word feces quite a bit, so that's good. You keep that one rolling.

This is a huge part of my life. Yeah. All right. This is from Izzy who sent a meme. Are you wearing Nike? Yeah, they got me and Maduro next to each other. They got me and Maduro next to each other. I'm wearing it now.

I like this thing. I bought this thing in Philly one time because I visited this is a couple years ago and I was so cold and I was like, oh, my God. And there's, I don't know what the, what's the main street in Philadelphia called? There's Broad Street, broad? Broad Street, yeah.

And I guess there was like a shopping mall or something there. And I was like, I went and just got it because I was fucking shivering. And so it was like, oh, it's comfortable. I like it. And it's been cold of shit out here. All right. Let's go to the third one from Rundum cheeks. He says, greetings, gents, since I already won a poster in the past, please don't

put me in the contest. But he's like, I don't know, he's like, fuck your posters. But. But more room on my walls. Yeah, exactly. I thought of this since Luke loves to talk about back exposure, enjoy and oh, God, and have a wonderful day. I prefer an ex, I prefer the expert on back exposure. It's, it's, uh, Patty. I said the expert on back exposure and it's Charles. And then it's Angela White. And I say, perfection. Chuck, do you know who Angela White is? I do not. Let's hear this. You fucking liar.

Now I know who she is. She is an adult entertainer. Let's just put it that way. Like nothing no shade on her is not even close to my like, you know, people think I'm like, like that's my go to. It's really not. That's going up because she's everywhere. All right.

Thanks for clearing that up, Luke. We've really wondering what your breath is. It's like, guys, when I'm alone, All right. It's not my go-to. Yeah, that's not the way I go. That is a misrepresentation. All right.

Number four, from Dave. Spotted some sketchy MK merch in a cheap store during my holiday in Torre Molinos, Malagas, Spain. Isn't this M.K. Is it Michael Coors? Michael Coors? Oh, it is. Oh, it just says MK? And he went to like some like consignment shop or whatever?

Not bad, not bad. All right. this is from Jonas. Here's Luke and BC. I like how BC is not on the show anymore and we're still just clowning the fuck out of them. Here's Luke and BC dreaming about the White House fight card. Here's mine.

Toporius Arjukian, Tuporius Arugian, Pereira Francis, Jan O'Malley, Gary Morales, Nunes Raousie, and then Camaro, George St. Pierre. Here's BC smiling like a fucking idiot. Tracy Cortez versus Chacey Lane. North Tower versus South Tower. Oh my God. Luke Thomas versus K.

lady chee-wee-wees versus moaning donkey Reggie Jackson versus Puss and Boots and then less naggin versus more gagging oh my god dude did you say Long Island did you send this to Brian that is a good one I didn't I'll send it to him now that is fucking they added flavor right there they added flavors that he's got a donut on his bedside table two and you don't like like oh baby also I got the water

in front of my clock He's got the water behind it. They should have made that. They should have made his clock time 9-11 and your sports. Oh my God. Yeah. That, yes. Yeah.

Dude, look at me. I can barely, I can barely sleep. Look at the stupid look on his face. Hey, I got that one right. All right. Is there any more?

I think that's it. Right. Yeah. That was great. That last one, that last one was a winner for me. I mean, we'll see the other ones.

That was pretty fucking good. Chuck. Yes, I'm guessing you're not going to London, but I'm guessing you're going to have coverage this week. We'll have coverage. Actually, I will not be on the crack this Friday. But I've got a piece on Castillo Van Steenis coming out.

And I'm probably going to have a column based on the Nate Diaz development here coming out in the next day. Oh, right. Yeah. Dude, I'll say this. That Madrid card for PFL this weekend? Yeah. I mean, you can say whatever you want about the card, but like that might be a rocking atmosphere in there. It sounds like it, man.

And I mean, it's kind of cool too because, again, this is something. something where the UFC has a big spanned. They're not put, you know, they haven't been able to do a show. And it's like a little bit of a sub tweet, right, to have like if I go over there. And you got like Vancenas who, um, I think was born there, right? Like born in Spain. I think he rep. For sure.

There's no rep Spain, but he now lives in the Leningy trains. But I think he's so affiliated. It's like a homecoming after his big upset, uh, victory. So that should be a fun environment, man. Uh, and then Long Island, what you got going on? Uh, I'll have bet breakdowns and stuff all week. I got new prop quiz. It's the championship.

$100 on the line. Jedmishu taken on Mike Bonn and Totsaw. Wow. Our hot sauce sponsor. So that'll be fun. That'll be Friday. And then I'm doing, you know, full card watch. Oh, it's also my birthday Friday.

Shout out. Hey. How old are you going to be? 34. Wow. Yes. This old piece of shit. Going from my Patrick Ewing year to my Charles Oakley year.

But anyways, fucking Saturday. 1 p.m. start time. Prelims because it's the London cards. Oh, right. Right. That's the only change. up other than that status quo for me.

All right. We'll have more. You're going to do your thing? I might. If I don't do, here's the issue, right? Like,

there are only certain kinds of cards where it really, for me, matters to go live. Yeah. And I have noticed that like, I can go live for some of these,

like, fight nights, but they don't generate that much traffic relative to just waiting and then doing one that's after. But that's not the case for like a numbered event,

a numbered event. numbered event, there's typically enough people online where it actually makes more sense to go live. So we'll see. I'll have some kind of coverage one way or the other for it for it for sure. And then, of course, on Friday's MK, we'll preview all of this and we'll have everyone ready. And of course, you can follow us and subscribe to all of our social channels here. You can see on the screen. Remember, morningcombat at gmail.com. Fan subs, dead wrong.

We've got the whole contest going. And then, of course, the merch, morning combat. Dot shop for all the different designs there. We've told you about a million times. You can go see them here. We're going to run through them one more time. You get the idea. They're all great.

I love them very much. Okay? I think that's it. I think we're out of here. So for Chuck Mindenhall, for Long Island Luke, I'm L.T. himself. Thank you all so much for watching. We'll see you on Friday.

And until next time, may all of your gains be loyal. This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human.