MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - What Was the Point of Moicano vs. Duncan? | Wilder-Chisora Results | UFC 327 Lookahead

Episode Date: April 6, 2026

Luke Thomas and Chuck Mindenhall are in the house on a Morning Kombat Monday, recapping the biggest news from the weekend in combat sports. First up, the guys break down the main event from UFC Vegas ...between Renato Moicano and Chris Duncan. The fellas also discuss the other notable results on the card including: Alice Pereira's vicious knee KO against Hailey Cowan, Ethyn Ewing easily handling Rafael Estevam and Tommy McMillen's stoppage win over Manolo Zecchini. Plus, what was up with that sloppy brawl between Deontay Wilder and Derek Chisora? LT, The Iceman and the entire MK crew have you covered on a Monday.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript
Discussion (0)
Starting point is 00:00:00 This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. Revely, look at this now. Oh, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, come back. Oh, there is. You fit in seamlessly in this weird MK environment. Do you want to Margarita?
Starting point is 00:00:27 Yeah. We're going to do it to me, two, three, two, this is a section. On your marks get set and go on. Hey, it's Monday. It's 11.10 a.m. on the 6th of April, 2026. You ain't got no job. You ain't got shit to do. Welcome to morning combat, everyone. I appreciate you being here very, very much. I am merely one half of your hosting duo.
Starting point is 00:00:54 My name is Luke Thomas. I join you from the capital of Estabas Minniz right here in Washington. He's joined by my Connecticut brethren with the menagerie of hats. Yes. The ice man himself, Chuck Mendenhall. Hi, Chuck. How are you? I'm fine, professor. I was impressed seeing you lecturing the class the other day at the University of Maryland. How was that? Well, I got to tell you, the online right on Twitter, they loved it. All this. Yeah, I saw that, man. They were very happy about it. I sometimes clear, like, the schedule for a minute when I see you post something like this,
Starting point is 00:01:25 because I can just sit for half an hour and read all the comments and have a good time with that. I got called a lot of slurs. That's the common thing I got called. I called a lot of slurs. But it was great, actually. I got invited last week to go to the University of Maryland and gave a lecture there. And it's kind of funny because the whole thing is behind a paywall. it's on my substack. And so most people who are commenting
Starting point is 00:01:45 have not seen it. But it's really about combat sports more generally. And it's also at the end, I actually give a bunch of counter examples for in the interest of like intellectual nuance. You know what I mean? But the low IQ dipsets who come after me don't really do. How's the class receive you?
Starting point is 00:02:02 You like doing that sort of thing? They asked an hour and a half worth of questions. I think it went well. Wow, that's cool, man. You know, it was fun to see. It was fun to see. Thanks, man. How was your weekend? The fights were pretty good. I mean, for what they were, for what they were, they were all right. Yeah, man, it was okay, you know, it was okay. It was okay, like, had the fights going on.
Starting point is 00:02:18 My daughter goes to Yukon, so, you know, Yukon making it, you know, the championship game. She's used to it, though, man. I mean, like, the whole time in school so far, the men and women have both been, like, you know, the tops in the nation. Killing it, yeah. Yeah, so it's like, they're kind of an institution over there. I don't even think she noticed that they're in the finals. How far is your place from Yukon? I'm about an hour and 20 minutes from stores.
Starting point is 00:02:44 No, not bad. Yeah. Yeah, it's pretty easy to get back. How often do you get to see your kid? She was back this weekend because we had the Easter holiday. But I would say she comes home by once a month, you know, something like that. Yeah. Yeah, it's not bad.
Starting point is 00:02:57 Yeah. Let's talk to the third member of our broadcast team here who doesn't have any kids, but he's got a bong that he holds very dearly to his heart. It's Long Island. Luke. What's up, Player? How you doing? What's up, man?
Starting point is 00:03:10 I had a good time watching UFC Vegas 150. It was all right. It was all right. Arguably, best fight of the night was the curtain jerker, the Kai Kamaka Dakota Hope fight. That fight was a lot of fun. I don't know how many people watched it. I think it's a little long, but it certainly was good. Yes, it was good. Dude, they gave fight of the night to Tommy McMillan and
Starting point is 00:03:26 Zikini. That was a barn burner, but I don't know if that's fight in a night. That was a weird. I mean, you know, what are they about it later, but that was like, I don't, I don't hate that fight exactly, but like, it just seemed like there were better calls to to make in terms of giving out awards. I don't know. We'll talk about it.
Starting point is 00:03:41 Poor Trayshon Gore, man. Jesus, he's got his pockets off again. I know. We'll talk about that too. We got a lot to get to. We're going to talk about UFC fight night, Moycano versus Duncan. We're going to look ahead to this weekend's UFC 327.
Starting point is 00:03:54 We're also going to talk about that Deonté Wilder, Derek Chisorre fight, which was kind of what you thought it was going to be, to be honest with you. It happened. It certainly happened. Thumbs up if you're watching here on YouTube. You can, of course, follow and subscribe. and there's MK and LT and C.M., Chuck Mendenhall,
Starting point is 00:04:13 all over the socials. You can follow us there. You can reach the show Morning Combat at gmail.com. You can send fan subs, dead wrongs, and just, you know, reach out to the show for whatever you might need. And then, of course, we got to sell some merch. We got the April exclusives here for your perusal.
Starting point is 00:04:30 They are only available until April 30th at 11.59 p.m. Eastern Standard Time or wild supplies last. Last is spelled wrong on this graphic here. On the left you have MK Root Beer and then you have Dawkin and then we've got the MK TV logo plus the Lubbock about it about it poster and of course if you send the best meme
Starting point is 00:04:54 for fan subs this week or I should say this month you'll get a signed poster gratis all right very very good Supplies was misspelled on there too we need to double check these graphics What happened? Supplies was misspelled on there too We're going to have to double check these graphics I mean yeah. Well, I'll come back on the screen here.
Starting point is 00:05:13 I've got to ask one more question. People are hitting me up in my personal live chat with a very good question and a very fair one. And I don't have an answer for it. Maybe you do. What are we thinking about getting Chuck some MK merch here? Not like for him to wear, although he can do that too, but like Chuck branded stuff. We can do this whenever.
Starting point is 00:05:31 Average Joe has ideas out the A. He hits me up all the time. Let's do this. Let's do that. I'm sure we could work something out with Chuck for sure. Iceman. I look forward to that. Hell yeah. Iceman in the hat. I mean, I mean, you could combine a bunch of different things going on. Chuck, are you interested in having some Chuck branded merch? Hell yeah. Like I said, I have a jacket that I wore it. Remember on the first day I was in here that somebody put my name on it. Like you guys don't even have that. So since I have that, like I haven't really pressed the issue. But people have asked me over the last, you know, month or two when I'm going to get some merch. So it's about time, right? Yeah, I agree. It is about time. We'll make that happen here pretty soon.
Starting point is 00:06:10 Not for this month, obviously, but perhaps for the next one. All right. With that in mind, let's get to the show. We have a lot to talk about here today. All right. So listen, I'll say this about the fight night. How high the stakes were, not necessarily all that high. You know, were the big names on this card?
Starting point is 00:06:27 No, they definitely weren't. A lot of it was just overflow. But there were a lot of squash matches on this one, and there were a lot of finishes, and that tends to be better than a lot of stuff in M.M. The card was actually pretty fun, I think, in general. Chuck, let's start with that main event. So I'm not really sure what to say about this.
Starting point is 00:06:45 Anato Mouicano proved to basically be levels above Chris Duncan, scoring a second round submission finish after battering him, basically on the feet, dropping him in retrospect, and especially in light of Mokano's post-fight comments, let me ask this question to you. Why did they make this fight, Chuck? That is a great question. And I think it was something that you're, you know, you kind of wrestle with as you're going into it. But my best, and you tell me if you thought this, this was Duncan's first ever main event.
Starting point is 00:07:17 And I think that they were looking at it like you have a guy in Moikano who still has some juice to his name, 36 years old. You put him in the main event to get the other guy over. And I know it's not pro wrestling, but we've seen this in the past where they give a guy that they see maybe as an up-and-comer who maybe represents a market that they're, you know, they're more interested in speaking to. And you have Duncan. Unfortunately, he was not up for this challenge, ultimately. And Moikano, which we've seen a million times in the last, you know, six months or so, was one of these guys who was like, not on my watch, you know?
Starting point is 00:07:54 And so it ends up being one of those things. And with Moyconn, especially you mentioned like his post fight, it ends up being a very strange event in that what, like, where does this put anything, right? like you have Duncan now who takes the loss after winning a bunch straight. And now you have Moikano back in the picture. And I think that the UFC was kind of like giving him the kick on the ice flow. They were trying to like say like, okay, now it's these other guys' time. So what it achieved?
Starting point is 00:08:19 I don't know. And so that's, I mean, it's one of those weird situations. But I think it was to get Duncan over. I don't know what else it could have been. You know what I mean? Like I was just watching this. And I don't know how you felt, but, you know, Grabaka Hitman Kaposa on Twitter, he was like, it felt like a
Starting point is 00:08:37 formality to me. And I agree. I agree. Like I, Long Island, what were the odds ahead of this one? They had Duncan as a slight favorite. Yeah, so they were actually getting way closer as fight time came up. Like, you know, all week, Moikano was like plus 160, Duncan like minus 195. But then right before the fight, Moikano was down to like plus 110 and Duncan was like minus 130. So they got relatively close towards the end of it.
Starting point is 00:09:02 Yeah, I got to be honest. I mean, I'm normally the guy who when I get a pick wrong, more recently, it's been because I thought the old guy was too washed. And then it turned out they weren't quite as washed as we thought. And but in this case, I, okay, all right, Moikano has, here's the reality about Moikano, Chuck. Let me know if you agree or not. Okay. Wicano has flirted with fighting some of the top guys, both at featherweight and at lightweight and against the very, very best he has shown to be lacking.
Starting point is 00:09:34 but he's highly skilled and if you're not one of those top guys he's he's he's gonna bust you up like he's got he's very well-rounded highly experienced he's just a shade under the very very best but that's still that's still pretty damn good right yeah man i mean to me like you know i think that this all starts if you'll bear with me say like you remember like horay mosvital 2019 he wins all these fights he almost comes like a cold figure There was a moment when I felt like Moikana was having that sort of resurgence.
Starting point is 00:10:09 And it ends up being that he gets this very short notice, title fight against Mahachev. Obviously, he does not win that fight. There's no shame in it, right? You jump into a situation, you lose that fight. Okay. But it was really the Benil Daryush follow-up that I think that if there was some misconception or if there was some perception that he was slipping, it was probably in that fight because if you recall, it wasn't the greatest fight for him.
Starting point is 00:10:33 And I think, you know, he got taken down like five times in that fight. There was a lot of control time for Derr U. She was able to just kind of control the fight and win it. And I think that that kind of then looks like maybe Moikano in his rebound from the Machov is slipping. Like he had his big moment. Now his moment is past similar. And it was really playing out like Mosvidal, who after he had that big year and he wins the BMF, he knocks out Ascran.
Starting point is 00:10:58 He loses, I think it was four straight to kind of close out his UFC career. I thought maybe Moycano was on that. that slide. And if there was some discrepancy, like in terms of the line itself, I feel like it's because there might have been a Vegas perception that way, you know, that maybe he was slipping. But dude, we've talked about it on this show quite a bit. These guys who, they're veterans and they've been in a lot of fights, I think this is Moikana's 20th fight, there's something about them that they just revert, they revert back to their like who they are, they're poise, they go back to what they're doing and then they'll show up
Starting point is 00:11:32 and put on an asswhip against one of these guys that the UFC's trying to get over and that's what happened here. So I feel like I don't know who you, who did you end up picking in this fight? Did you, we didn't make a, we didn't make a pick on Friday's MK to be clear, but I was kind of, I mean, if you listened to the tenor of the show, I was surprised that Duncan was
Starting point is 00:11:48 a favorite. I thought this was going to be a tough fight for him. It's like whatever Duncan's good at, Moikano's just better, you know? Right. And I again, this is, I guess I'm admitting that I was probably part of this perception, because I think, you know, when we're when we're talking about it, I was like, I'm going to go with Duncan, you know? And I mean, but why would you do that? Because when you see it, you're right. He was just kind of outclassed. And maybe like a little bit holstered like he was maybe feeling out process was going on a little too long, even though I know they were teammates at America Top Team. It just seemed like he wasn't throwing maybe to kind of like, you know, conserve energy if he thought the fight was going to run deep into the championship rounds in his first five round. I don't know what it was. But it just didn't seem like he had anything. from Waycano in this fight.
Starting point is 00:12:32 No, he didn't. I mean, that was right. Because like, for example, I noticed, like, you, you, I think you hit the nail on the head just a moment ago where like the feeling process, the feeling out process took too long. He couldn't get his leg kicks going because Moikano was checking him. And then Moikano is blasting him with the jab.
Starting point is 00:12:48 Dude, how many times are we going to see that if you can have a good, either leg kicking defense or your own leg kicking, right? So both defense and offense. And then a good jab and good footwork, obviously, to marry it. Like obviously you have to have offense that comes behind that. But that by itself, to get the process started, you're going to beat 80% of UFC fighters doing that. And you can always see it when the other guy doesn't have the answer for that, right? You can see it immediately. Like you're just like, okay, the response to this is not very good. And so why wouldn't,
Starting point is 00:13:22 you know, Moikano, who's establishing that range, why wouldn't he just continue it until, you know, as long as the fight lasts? We saw it even in the, you know, the, you know, the, you know, the, I know we're going to talk about Ethan Ewing, but like his use of the jab was setting up so much stuff, right? And like the other, when you see the other guy just not have a response, it becomes a one-sided fight. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:13:43 It's once you can set the terms, then it opens up all the other things that they want to do. And what kind of was able to do that pretty goddamn effectively. And then on the ground, he's obviously got really good jiu-jitsu. Yeah. You mentioned the loss to Daryush. This is the other part about it.
Starting point is 00:13:59 like Daryush has been flatlined a bunch because he fights, you know, somewhat recklessly. But folks forget, like, before he got into MMA, he, like, there was something called Daryush garden jiu-jitsu. He was a high level. Yeah. Competitor there, like losing to Daryuch, even at this stage is not, to me, it's not disqualifying of quality. It's, you know, if you can beat him, it's actually a sign of quality, but just because you lost to him doesn't mean you're bad. You know what I mean? Yeah. These old dogs, man. I mean, these guys who are like, and we've, we've had this, discussion quite a bit. I feel like we're having the, you know, you think about like
Starting point is 00:14:33 you know, Porriy versus Santanyi, which was one of those fights. You're like, here comes the dude who's supposed to destroy him. Can't get it done. You know, Paddy Pimbleau and Gaichi was sort of like that in the sense like Gauchy's the old guy but not on his watch. It's not going to happen. And of course, Daryush and Gamrot, like
Starting point is 00:14:49 there was some of it, there's been a you know, recent history where the guys who are supposed to be overtaken by these younger guys coming up, the wrongs, and they just refused to cede their position. It's a very interesting thing, especially in lightweight where I felt like for years, the younger guys who came up and they, you know, you could see that they were going to be something in the division. They ended up, you know, toppling those guys and they ended up on top.
Starting point is 00:15:13 That has not been the case. There's been a lot more resistance these days with the veterans. 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. 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. Let's take a look at some of this stuff from what could be next. So Moikano talked about the lightweight division on his post-fight show. Let's hear this. Is there an easy fight that you see right here in the top ten or somebody's head that you'd like to take off? Dan Huka fucking easy money. Pugnery fucking easy money.
Starting point is 00:15:52 Benoit son, Danny, fucking easy money. I don't I don't anything against. Morris Roof, you know, because back in a day I thought that that I could beat this motherfucker. But now, after what he did against fucking physique, you saw that? These guys are the real deal. I don't want anything with Morrisu Rufi. Mateus Garno, he trains at my gym, but right now I'm fighting everybody from the jeans. So maybe Mattos is going to, no, I'm joking. Don't be worried, Matthews.
Starting point is 00:16:20 I'm just joking. I'm not coming for you. He's funny. He's got a certain kind of a piece. now what he has talked about a Brian Ortega rematch I was there at that event where he lost to Brian Ortega I remember this because Brian Ortega was brought back to the back where we were after that fight and he could barely fucking walk and the reason I bring that up Chuck yeah Moikano basically beat his ass I know or two rounds and some change and then
Starting point is 00:16:51 a takedown right Ortego had like you know one of his many Hail Marys that fucking worked and he won in the end I got to take it. tell you, I kind of like that fight. I don't know where you're at. I don't hate it. Well, I mean, and you also have the intrigue of fighting at lightweight, like, you know, just Ortega making the, you know, committed move to lightweight. That would be interesting. We've been
Starting point is 00:17:09 waiting on that. But dude, UFC 214, the one that you just mentioned, they stood in front of each other. It was a little surprising. And, you know, the way they were standing in front of each other, especially from the Ortega standpoint, and he was, you know, they were both landing. But as the fight was going on through the first round, and
Starting point is 00:17:25 especially through the second round, Boycano was just piecing him up. It was his fight. And into the third round, it really just came down to him taking, you know, making a mistake essentially and taking the fight to the canvas, putting his neck out there and Ortega grabs it. And boom, that was it. And it was so sudden that you can qualify it as like,
Starting point is 00:17:42 just a dumb mistake, got caught type thing. And though when you get a situation like that, where you have basically a Hail Mary, it makes for a perfect rematch down the line. Because what was that, like 10, 11 years ago? Or something like that, seven years ago. It was a long time ago. I will tell you that was...
Starting point is 00:17:58 USC 214, right? Yeah, that was a while ago. So that was... Sorry, that was in July of 2017, so nine years coming up. Okay. So, I mean, you know, and they did, they've done similar things with, you know, Porre and Charles. You know, guys like that where they've had them, where they, guys have faced a Max Holloway, where they faced each other years before and they could do it again.
Starting point is 00:18:19 I mean, this is, when you don't have a good spot for either guy, but they're both still kind of top 10-ish, I think that that's a good idea. He has made some comments, Moikano, about this card, the UFC Vegas 115 card. I want to play them and then let's react to them. Today, this Apex card was fucking shit. I'm not, I don't know I don't listen to that. But you have a Moikano as a main event in fucking Apex. You kidding me, you know?
Starting point is 00:18:47 And who is fucking Chris Duncan, brother? That fight doesn't add to my career, doesn't add to my YouTube, you know? So I think it should be like a fight that I can promote like Ortega, like Paddy Pimblech, like Dan Hooker, maybe Benoit Sandini, maybe somebody, you know, somebody that the fans know, that's what I'm saying. You know, there is a lot of guys that are very good, but nobody knows them.
Starting point is 00:19:12 And everybody can win and everybody can lose. It's not about winning and losing. It's about it to get the most hype people talking about you because this is the business. it's a wise man Chuck I got to say he understands the game on a fundamental level
Starting point is 00:19:29 that just a lot of other guys don't I feel like 100% dude I mean how many people have said stuff just like this right who's don't who's Chris Duncan like what is this card what are they say this is how we kicked off
Starting point is 00:19:41 this whole discussion he's not wrong he knows he knows the how it looks and he certainly knows that it's sort of a crab wise movement for him he gets through it but what does it mean for him he's not wrong
Starting point is 00:19:53 man and I kind of appreciate that his candid approach for for stuff like that especially like he's like you know what man I don't even if you guys can't match me with a good fight what's the point of even doing this you know like I'll just retire from the sport I mean you're at a certain age I'm sure he's made a certain amount of money
Starting point is 00:20:09 I don't know how rich he is but he says he's making a good money on his YouTube I'm like if you've got that kind of perspective and you're looking at the game from a little bit of elevation you get Hanata Oikano you know especially found God too. You know, like in a big,
Starting point is 00:20:23 in a big way, you know? I don't know if you notice that in the, you know, Jesus effing Christ. I don't even want to say. I'm not even religious and I don't want to say that. I know. That is that's one thing that you're like, you hear it and like, oh, God, especially like on a live mic.
Starting point is 00:20:36 He was like, Jesus effing Christ, mother effers. And I was like, we need a t-shirt, you know. That is a certain, that is a certain kind of religious observance. But in all seriousness, I mean, let me ask this, though, like, in defense of UFC a little bit. what are they supposed to do?
Starting point is 00:20:52 Because I certainly agree with Moikano that like you've got a guy who, by the way, can speak multiple languages, he's certainly got a huge personality even in English. He's got his own ability to promote. He knows how to promote. You know, the fan base is pretty excited about Moikano in general, right? To your point, though, the losses didn't help. But I still think that there's, you know, some gold left in there. And I understand his point.
Starting point is 00:21:16 On the other hand, if you're the UFC, you're probably also saying, well, look, we got to keep trying to see if we can find new guys to push at 155. And they keep not winning. That's a different problem. But like, okay, was Moikano versus Duncan a fight that had to get made? No. But do you recognize the need for the UFC to keep trying to find somebody they can push up the ranks who's the next generation of lightweights?
Starting point is 00:21:42 Yeah. And I just, unfortunately, it's backfiring for them. I mean, and it's not like, you know, we watch this. There's an admiration for, you know, you get. You watch guys at a certain age, late 30s. And, you know, they put on that kind of performance. And I can appreciate it because we, I think it's literally, every since we've been talking about the 35-year-old threshold for these guys
Starting point is 00:22:04 and the steep decline that happens, these guys over 35 just keep winning. There's something really cool about it. It backfires when you're trying to get a guy across from the UFC. And I mean, that, I believe what was going on in this case because it doesn't, like, Chris Duncan, it's almost like then what does that mean for him? He added some decent wins. He beat Terrence McKinney, right, in his last one.
Starting point is 00:22:25 He had some decent wins. But where does it go? Like all of a sudden, you're just kind of like back into the woodwork for a guy like that. So it's just a backfire. I feel like in the UFC in the old days or like certainly when they weren't run as many events,
Starting point is 00:22:40 their calculated risks would pay off a lot more. And I mean, these are like, I don't know if this hurts the UFC at all because you still have one. You're still going to be able to make a fight, but they're not usually in the business of like, okay, let's make an equivalent sort of twilight fight for these guys. They generally want to get the younger dudes who they think need a push over in these spots. I just feel like whatever the necessity of this bout, which is very questionable, but maybe there's
Starting point is 00:23:09 an argument for it. The next bout for Moikano, whether it's Ortega or somebody else, should be somebody that, you know, Make a pairing that the fan base can get excited about. Excuse me. Make a pairing that the fighters themselves get excited about and want to promote and can promote. And it's like worth promoting. But to his point, like, what was the point of even promoting a Chris Duncan fight? I'm going to win easily.
Starting point is 00:23:33 And then what? Like, no one really cares or remember. Yeah. I mean, he was able to do that. That's what's great about it. You remember like, so when the UFC kind of inherited Mark Hunt's, you know, contract and he was fighting. And it was always kind of like this. what was it like a dreadful thing for the UFC?
Starting point is 00:23:49 Oh, we got Mark Hunt coming up. Because it was almost like he was going to complain. He was going to bring up some red flags. He was going to be kind of anti-UFC during a UFC event. And it was almost, it got strange. Like you could see the UFC was like reluctant to even put him in spots. You wonder, and I have no idea anymore, man, because so many people from week to week, people just say crazy shit. But when he's saying things like, you know, this event sucked.
Starting point is 00:24:15 this APEC show sucks and don't tell Dan away. You always wonder like, what does the UFC think of that at this point? When you have the fighters themselves criticizing the product and basically saying like, this was a shit product tonight, you know? Like, I think that affects like, like
Starting point is 00:24:30 the UFC was bearing on him where they look at him and they say like, you know what, man, no favors from us then, Moikano. Does it matter? I don't know because remember, Hunt had, wasn't Hunt in the middle of a lawsuit? he was under contract.
Starting point is 00:24:48 Made it very weird, right? Yes, it made it super weird. Because I remember I went to a media day one time, and you'd put a microphone in Hunt's face, and he'd be like, yo, fuck these dogs. That's why I'm suing them. I know, these cheating fucks. And I'd be like, God damn.
Starting point is 00:25:01 Which at the time, nobody was doing that. Nobody was just outwardly criticizing the O.C. Or saying things like that. So that's why it made it so strange. But the lawsuit, I think, also made them careful to not do anything that would be used by him as ammunition for the case. Anyway, Moikano's not in that place, but
Starting point is 00:25:19 we'll talk about this with Trejean Gore. Yeah. Any kind of thing that you do where you're calling out the promotion, not so many much for negligence, although in this case, that's what it is, but anything that just, you know, other than praise or other than neutrality, doesn't tend to be looked upon favorably,
Starting point is 00:25:37 but, you know, Sean Strickland does that too, and they still gave him a Hamzot title shot. Now, I think it's because of necessity, because they really want to make big fights, and they kind of had their hand forced. But the point I guess I would make is it's not necessarily always disqualifying for upper end fighters, something like that. Yeah, yeah, I think that's true. Especially Strickland, who is just so polarizing, right?
Starting point is 00:25:59 Like, he gets a ton of clicks. I mean, if it matters in that sense of the UFC, like he certainly translates that way. Let's go to topic number two. Let's discuss the rest of that card, of which, as we indicated, there was, if you were looking for some fun action, not necessarily the most high-level action in certain cases, but definitely some, you know finishes up and down let's go to the co-mate event which did not have a finish chuck in fact we were just talking about this problem of the old keeping the young at bay vienna janji rube gets a unanimous decision win over tabitha ritchie kind of you know putting up some defense early and then the fight basically the longer it went with some exception but basically the longer it went
Starting point is 00:26:37 the more it became janja roba's fight who just had more skills 37 years old chuck right for janji roba just 31 for tabitha ritchie so my question is okay so she's 31, but does a loss like this tell you that title aspirations are maybe out of reach at this point? Because she is still 31. And like you mentioned, John Drobis 37, I mean, to put a put something together where like suddenly you've got it figured out a little more and you're, you're bringing it. It could still happen. But I, she beat Hebas. Was that who she beat, uh, Ritchie the last one? It was very impressive. And I thought like if she was, yeah, that's the one. So she, I was like, if she can build on that, obviously Jean D'Oba just had a title.
Starting point is 00:27:15 Yeah. And I mean, so you're like, if she can parlay that in a big victory, this is why I kind of had this one circled because if Ritchie goes in there and be Jean Drobbe, who just had a tight of fight, you knew this would be a moment for her. But to get beat the way she did, too, where it just didn't seem like she would, like you mentioned, as the fight went on, it was just very clear that she wasn't going to be able to do anything. It kind of lost its, you know, it lost its drama in way through the first round in my mind. So I don't see the scenario like where she's going to. leap back up there. But equally, what do you do with Jean-Doroba? Jean-Doroba who just had the, like she's kind of saying, I would love this rematch with McKinsey Dern, but you know that that was one of those. I remember people writing that that might be the worst title fight that had ever been put together.
Starting point is 00:28:01 And so you just know that like the UFC's not chomping at the bit to put her right back in there either, right? No. No way. I mean, Tatiana Suarez has a fight coming up soon. They probably would give her a title shot. If she loses that, you could do Janjarova. versus Suarez or so i'm not to your point so i don't know because tabitha was sitting at seven gingeroba was sitting at three again we'll see how this updates that would have been okay now you've
Starting point is 00:28:25 got ritchie in the top three great now we're cooking with gas why yeah we got a fresh contender and now you don't have that so it's just a real it's a challenge for ufc to get some of these younger people across the finish line and some of these vouts i don't envy the the difficulty of the task i don't know what to say long island you love yukyayev he certainly beats the the balls off of Brentson, Hebero, but like, tonight was, or that last, whatever day this was, Saturday was not a good night for guys who I hold in high regard. I mean, Becklev gets finished. Yakiyaev, yeah, he got the win in the first round we all expected, but like, he didn't look good in the process. I, I didn't think he looked bad. He definitely is not risk-averse. I can say that.
Starting point is 00:29:05 He's not risk-a-verse. But Heibero was just making a bunch of bad decisions on the ground. I was like, dude, what the fuck is this? Not a great fight. All right. Let's talk about it. And there it is. finishes him from the back. Yeah. You know, and you'll notice, Chuck, it is still useful. So, for example, look at Yakyaev's right knee, right? Uh-huh. Even if you don't have the hook, even if you just have a bent leg on the other side of the hip,
Starting point is 00:29:30 it's still quite valuable. It can, you know, again, it's not going to stop someone who's super squirmie, but you just don't want to let certain levels of your defense get compromised. Hebero was up against the fence and had no idea how to use the fence to keep that second hook to control the hips from happening. In fact, he would just give it up multiple times. And I was just like, oh, my fucking God. Why is this on the UFC card?
Starting point is 00:29:54 This is what you're talking about. Exactly. This is what we're talking about earlier, some of the earlier cards where we're like, dude, the MMA you're watching sometimes, especially like you said on these overflow events where you're just kind of like they just have to put the car together. You're going to get some of these fights, man.
Starting point is 00:30:08 Yeah. Now, that being said, let's talk about the fight that I thought was the most fun on this entire freaking card. to me, the MVP of this car. Dude, how about Ethan Ewing? What a revelation this guy has turned out to be. He stops Raphael Estevom at 144 of the third round, who, by the way, had, Chuck, we didn't talk about this.
Starting point is 00:30:33 Yeah. He had missed, he has missed weight in three of his four UFC fights. That's all I knew about him, really. Yeah, right. The last one was a flyweight fight. he came in at 1.30 for that against Felipe Bunes. They make him go to Bansomite for this. And he's still fucking missed weight.
Starting point is 00:30:51 He still missed weight. How is that possible? Doesn't matter. Ethan Ewing handled him. Dude. Ethan Ewing, I'm sure you've seen the video from his last UFC fight where he beat Malcolm Wellmaker.
Starting point is 00:31:03 And then he goes back to the job site where he's wearing a hard hat. He's doing some kind of thing. Like Monday after, right? Or something. Yeah. Dude, this fucking guy, Ethan Ewing, I want to say something about him. He's not just blue. collar tough as nails lunch pale guy although he clearly is that dude this guy is technical and slick
Starting point is 00:31:21 slick he stuffed every take down his hips were ready to drop in the down blocking right super ready to go but more than that setting it up off the jab watch how he sets up his angles before throws and then change his angles after he's done he lit this guy on fire with basics and then opened up on him, battering him, battering him on the way to stopping him. And I want to say one more time, Estevan might be a weight bully, but he was undefeated coming to 14 and 0. Chuck, what can you say about Ethan Ewing? A complete epiphany, like a revelation, right? And I think that because everybody discovered him in that wellmaker fight, especially
Starting point is 00:32:03 Madison Square Garden and not big of a spot, huge underdog goes in there, does work. And you're almost like, you're almost, you almost want to say like in the, in the, one maker's sense of maybe he wasn't prepared for this guy. He took it lightly, whatever it is. So this fight to me was like, okay, this will tell us something, right? And especially when you get Esteban, who, who basically, he misses weight. He's coming up a weight, but he misses weight. And these advantages usually play the guy who misses weight, right?
Starting point is 00:32:30 Like, it's just, that's kind of been the history of it. But to watch him, and like to your point, him setting things up with his jab and just being very fluid, like him being kind of lowered down to the point where his jab is like coming up. Like his left hand jab is coming up. Um, just so it's, it's all performing the same function, which is basically putting the fight on his terms. And once that happens, he lights him up. Like his, his boxing is beautiful. He uses the, it was a left hand that really hurt, uh, hurt the dude in the like the second rally. It was the left hand. And he was, that's his, you know, his jab. So I mean, watching what he's doing, like you said, sprawling and just not, you know,
Starting point is 00:33:08 keeping the fight where he wants it. It has been a true revelation. And what would you, is there an equivalent to something like there's a guy showed up on the scene? The closest to him, and not like that it's perfect, but do you remember when Josh Crispy was fighting at UFC 125 and Dustin Porriere?
Starting point is 00:33:22 And everybody was talking about Josh Crispy, right? They're like, this is the prospect. And what we did was discovered Dustin Porrier that night. You know, it's almost like that. Like,
Starting point is 00:33:31 you get this situation with one, and now you have this guy. He looks like he could be on his way to like big, big things in the sport. if not maybe becoming like this different kind of star, you know, just emerging out of nowhere and all of a sudden he's beaten all these dudes and taking the rows and saying he wants all of those undefeated fighters. I thought he handled, he was, he handled himself more brilliantly than anybody over the weekend. Like I thought his, his performance was more eye-opening than anybody else. There's no question. You know, he lost his first two UFC fights.
Starting point is 00:34:00 If you look at the guys who he lost to, one of them was on a PFL Challenger's card and won, but like, lost on the ultimate fighter. and then another one is still kind of like, you know, winning and losing on the regional scene. Like Ewing is clearly better than both of them now. And sometimes you'll see this, Chuck. You'll see guys who, I know, who's to say how far he will go. I don't know. But I think a lot of people are kind of couching what he's doing as like he's exceeding expectations, which he is. He's got a blue collar background, which he does.
Starting point is 00:34:29 And I don't want to take this away from him because those are also a big part of his story and what also makes him great. But I just want to be clear, like he lost those two fights early. clearly he has made an effort at technical development and the amount that you see and the understanding that he has and to your point he was battering him at range then they would clinch he was battering him at the clinch he would try Estevan would try to get the takedown nothing doing he just abused this guy took him a little while because he was methodical with it and I thought you know I was watching this chuck and I was thinking to myself okay he's got this guy kind of where he wants him at this point he should get a finish here and then he heard him in the
Starting point is 00:35:07 second and he didn't get it. And I was like, all right, does he really have the instinct for it? And then he comes out in the third and just fucking annihilates him. And I was like, yeah, he's got that shit too. There was a little bit of a Volcanovsky moment too where he comes in. He does like a leg kick. And while you can see while the guy's kind of dropping and respondent, boom, comes up hat, high hat, bam, hits him with the left hand. That kind of like where it's slowing down in front of you, you know, and you can see a guy who's basically piecing him up in that sense where he just every little advantage you give him he takes, boom, he hits you with it.
Starting point is 00:35:39 That always tells you something, man. When you see a guy who has that kind of striking I don't know, what would you call it? Just his, like his sense, like his sense of like where are the opening. It's natural for him. Yeah, he makes it natural. And then you put, and I know that they were making a little bit of this on the podcast that he had,
Starting point is 00:35:55 I think he'd wrestled a year collegiately, but he was a high school wrestler. But it's really just him using that part of it to keep the fight where he wants it. right? Because instinctually just dropping down, like all in one motion, he's sprawling while while the level changes and stuff. It's just, it's hard to get those two things. Until you see him a couple more times, obviously, like right now, you're, you're high on him, but like because
Starting point is 00:36:19 nobody has revealed any of the, you know, nobody's put him into weird situations where you're like, okay, that's his weakness. But when you see like guys' instincts that sharp is what I'm saying, like a guy who's just really instinctive and everything he's doing, every movement matters to next thing he's doing, that will stand out. And so, like, you were just talking about the fight, the other fight that we were, it was like very sloppy. Then you, but you see something like this and it redeems the whole thing because you're like, okay, this is a guy who gets it on every level.
Starting point is 00:36:48 Yeah, they've got something with this kid. And I really, really hope he gets a chance to do some more things. Now, he, Chuck, spoke at the post-fight press conference and he wants all the fucking smoke. That's got to be extra special for you, taking those owes away. Yeah. You know, like I said, I invite everybody. So, yes, please give me those guys.
Starting point is 00:37:06 Give me those guys that, you know, people are going to say that Ethan has no shot in the dark. Ethan has no chance. He's going to get ragdoll. He's going to get out-restled. Ethan's got no take-down defense. What now, you know? Give me those undefeated guys. Give me Malcolm Wellmaker at MSG on 48 hours notice.
Starting point is 00:37:22 Give me 14-0 undefeated, Rafael Estevam. And I love it. There's no escape from this. I'm now in the UFC. I'm now in the largest division, the biggest division, the one with the most notoriety. I have done all the other stuff I've picked here and there, done this or that,
Starting point is 00:37:38 taking certain fights. Now I'm here to fight the top of the top. I believe I'm the best 135er there is. And so there's not a single name that I would shy away from. Love it, baby. Gotta love that shit. 28 years old.
Starting point is 00:37:52 By the way, what's quickly without looking? What's his nickname? I don't remember. What is it? The Professor Fineser. Is that right? I don't even think I got a new. Professor Fenezzar.
Starting point is 00:38:03 Which, by the way, sounds a little bit like a guy who commits sex crimes, but is, no. Oh, yeah. Oh, man. I actually really like the nickname. I like this guy a lot. I like his attitude. You would you like his ability? Is it like a natural escalation, right?
Starting point is 00:38:22 Like, you don't want to throw him into the wolves. But like, if you could match him up with somebody just to get a better idea, right? Like, just where he's at? Who would you put him against? Anybody's come to mind? I don't. Bantamweight is so deep, I'd have to think, I can't give you an answer on the fly. I'd have to sit there and look at the roster.
Starting point is 00:38:38 Yeah. But honestly, somebody who, because I know that they informally have like, oh, who's not, they loosely understand who's like 16 to 20, 20, 25, 25. Somewhere I would say in that 16 to 25 range. Yeah, I agree. Somebody there. It'd be fun, though. I mean, people would be paying attention to this kid.
Starting point is 00:38:53 He keeps putting on performances like that. I got you just, to me, the star of the show. For sure. Yeah. No question about it. All right. I don't know what to say about Donk, Donk, but, you know, he's here.
Starting point is 00:39:05 Tommy McMillan. He beats Manolo Zakini at 3.57 of round one. Chuck, I don't know what you want to say. You know, he seems to think he's going to be fighting for a UFC title next year. I don't. You can mark me down as no. That's a big no for me. But he's aggressive.
Starting point is 00:39:24 And I mean, here's the thing. It's like, dude, if you just watch Tommy McMillan and then you see like the UFC gives him a bonus, Long Island, did they give Ethan a bonus? no who was it it was McMillan and they gave a Costa oh yeah yeah Alessandro Costa yeah okay which is fine I mean I don't mind that necessarily and I know if you get a finish you automatically get a bonus now right so
Starting point is 00:39:48 yeah there's something to be said for that but it's like dude Ethan is the guy like technical hard-nosed in your face that's the kind of guy you want to rally around don't Donc Cren here Chuck he's fun for as long as it's going to last but I don't think his style is built to go very far. Maybe that's why Ethan stood out so much is because he was kind of sandwich between like two Dunkdunk-Donkerson fights.
Starting point is 00:40:09 But like this particular one, man, and you know what's crazy is like Tim Welch is basically, you get a, you get a guy who wants to fight a certain way. Like you remember Leonard Garcia would always just throw the game plan out, you know, and just start going in there and slugging. And I mean, we've seen versions of this kind of guy. They don't, they have mixed success. He's going to lose
Starting point is 00:40:27 fights the same way because it's roulette, right? Let's chin check roulette. He got, you know, he took some punches here but Tim Welch's like screaming like chaos. I think that this is kind of what they want. Like some guys I think this is what they do well. They just go out there and they say let's have a brawl and hopefully we get some bonus money and all that stuff. That's what it struck me because I just don't know what's in it otherwise when you fight that way
Starting point is 00:40:51 because it could have easily been him who ended up getting knocked out on this fight. You know, listen to this delusion. He thinks he's going to be in the top 15 within three fights. Watch this. Okay. 100%. I want to fight three more times. year you know and if the money's right you know I'll call out somebody in top
Starting point is 00:41:06 15 after a third fight you know I think that's a I think that's a good goal for me to do I think I get in there three more times than I look for somebody in the top 15 and I go get my name in the top 15 100% but I know I have a you know a lot more to offer than a lot of these dudes I see guys in the top 15 that don't have as biggest fallings as me they don't know how to engage with the fans you know it's like they don't even know what to do when they end did they don't know how to do their job properly and you know I think this is what I was born to do. This is genuinely fun for me. I love everything about it. Yeah, I'm here to go straight
Starting point is 00:41:40 to the top. I will become the 145 pound champion of the world. And I know people are going to, you know, say stuff about that. But, you know, people have been saying stuff about me my whole life. I don't care. I'm going to keep winning, keep cash my checks and keep living the dream, baby. So let's go. Yeah. What's his tattoo? Like, you can tell a lot from a guy's tattoos. What do you, what do you make from his tattoos there? So, I mean, it's an interesting question, right? Like, if you do we have a picture of it yeah leave it there so if you actually look at for example if you look at the right side of his chest he he spent some money on that yeah like that's what you have to understand people like have these they say things about tattoos like oh it's bad or it's good
Starting point is 00:42:23 and it doesn't really mean much like bad in what way good in what way in this particular case he got someone who knew what they were doing and the problem is whether you like the artistic composition and the choice to have like, you know, the weird scarface imagery with like, you know, well, I'm not sure what the words are that he says over his right shoulder. Yeah. Whether or not like that, that is a artistically interesting thing to do. But it's not a poorly done tattoo. I wasn't able to make out who the person is on the one side.
Starting point is 00:42:58 It was Al Pacino. Oh, is it Al Pacino? But, okay, so it says something or die. I know on the other side. So I mean, you know. It's just that stays on you the whole time. Yeah, this, I see stuff like this. I'm like, this is why I want to get like most of my tattoos removed because I also have bad tattoos.
Starting point is 00:43:14 Not as big or as bad as that per se, but, you know, you don't have to take that less is more. I'm at the stage of my life. I'm being serious. I'm at the stage of my life where like I'm only going to get a tattoo if it is, if someone looks at it and sees it more as body art than anything else. That makes sense. Okay. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:43:34 No barbed wire, no Chinese characters. Yeah, no tramp stamps, no, none of that shit. I'm not sure what to say about Jose Delano beating, or Jose Delano beating Robert Ruchala. I have no real claim to it. Thomas Peterson gets a winner for Guillermo Pat. He takes his, oh, the one that's more interesting to me, Chuck, Alessandro Costa, defeating Stuart Nicol with that vicious left hand to the liver,
Starting point is 00:44:02 right underneath his cross. sent him packing gets a bonus for it seems well deserved yeah man and you know can you remember a fight card where there was this many body shots that kind of ended fights because you know ewing's youings youings was a you know a body shot there was there was another one in there too i think there were like three of them that uh ended with body shots that's that's kind of unique in itself if you follow the game long enough you know that that's always kind of like a good liver shot or something like that um is very much appreciated but when you get like three of them it's it's you know it's just unusual you don't see that that happen darius flowers beats lando vanada vanada had not been on for
Starting point is 00:44:40 two years so he got slammed off an attempted guillotine choke in the first round and then you could see him visibly wince chuck yeah but he made it back out he made it through the round he lost the round but he made it through the round he comes back out in the second round and he's moving but you can see there's something wrong with his like right rib maybe it's back it's not as hard to say exactly what it is and then he gets tripped here just sort of ordinary tripped and you can see on the bottom. As soon as he lands, he like screams and pain. He, he kind of covers up after that. I like Lando a lot. I've had a lot of good interactions with him over the years. I don't know what to say. Darius Lowers, by the way, looked really good in this fight. To be very clear, I don't know.
Starting point is 00:45:20 He did, man. And you know, Lando's been at it a long time. And when you're on a prelim overflow card at the apex and you lose, I don't know. I mean, it's just, it's always tough because you're like, you're a veteran and you're like, why are you doing it after a while? So he's only 34. Is he really? I would have sworn he was. I know. Because he's been at it for a long time, man.
Starting point is 00:45:43 I mean, even before like obviously the Ferguson fight way back in the day went South Dakota, wherever they met up, you know, his name had been around because he had trained with, you know, so and so and so on. So like you could hear his name for quite a while. So it just feels like he's been in the game forever. I'm not sure what to say. It was a nice win by flowers. I feel bad for Vanada, who again, I've,
Starting point is 00:46:03 I've interacted with a lot and had a lot of nice things to say about him and enjoyed his company. Tough day at the office. Dude, what do you say about Alice or Harvey Perman. I'm not sure I pronounce her first name properly, but Pereira, just 20 years old Chuck, sending Haley Cowen to the land of wind and fucking ghosts. What an unbelievable shot. And again, it was like one of those situations where, you know, Cowan is on top for the, you know, for that whole was it the second round like it was the second round she's on it's basically
Starting point is 00:46:36 one way traffic in that round the minute they get up they have a quick exchange and then it's just the spring loaded knee boom and then it's over i mean again in the in the Alexa grass so since it was so unexpected and so sudden that that stays with you it's like wow man like that just came out of nowhere so that that felt like a big one pay attention you're going to see a lot more of these and i feel like you are seeing more of these step through knees not just from the clinch. And the reason why is like pay attention to MMA how many people enter range crouching and looking down. It happens all the time. They lower their level and then they look down as they throw or even if they don't look down, they'll just still lower their level as a
Starting point is 00:47:18 consequence. And for someone who can time it right, you can do you can set these guys on fire. And that's exactly what you got there. A phenomenal freaking win. And again, let's say this about the women's side of the game, Chuck. Now, granted, there was some other fight on this car. the Barbosa got a fight. We won't get into it. You know, it was whatever. No big deal. But at least in the last two weeks,
Starting point is 00:47:38 we've had some women, and then the co-main event was whatever. But this one, two weeks in a row, we've had some real nice step-up performances and delivering on the women's side of the end. A little bit of like a renaissance, right? Because I feel like not that, you know,
Starting point is 00:47:51 I mean, the chorus has always been pretty strong like the women's MMA, the over, you know, because it just feels like they're not going to do that. But to your point, man, I mean, like you had the grass, so one of the knockouts of the year, or submissions in there,
Starting point is 00:48:02 however you want to look at that. Last week, you had a case of O'Neill who showed up and did that. Before then was Chanel Dyer and the London card, remember that? And then you had a be a mosquito the week before that. Like, you have a fresh crop of, like, head hunting women out there right now who are taking advantage of the situation.
Starting point is 00:48:22 I would say that in each one of those cases, they kind of stole the show in their own way, right? Like we've seen some very good finishes over the last few weeks. No, no question about it. And then to wrap up on this card, just the last part of it. Trayshon Gore defeating Azamat Bekoiv, Bekoev. This was Long Island Luke's guy. He was real high on Bekoiv.
Starting point is 00:48:45 But I got to say, he was given Gore problems. There's no question that he wasn't. Gore, we even said, five and four heading into this. We weren't even sure why he was on the UFC. What did he say afterwards, Long Island? He has quit weed and that has been the savior for his focus. Is that right? Yeah, I don't think we believe.
Starting point is 00:49:01 it, but you know, that's what you're saying. No. Long Island's dismissing any theory that your life could be improved without marijuana. No, but I was, I was high on Beckleave and not only that, even on my watch a lot. I'm like, guys, don't bet on Trayshon Gore. Please do not spend your money on that. You know, I looked like the idiot. So shout out to Trishon.
Starting point is 00:49:19 The second round, Trayshangor looked like it was just this close to being finished. Wasn't I mean, like it looked like it was out of it. And you're like, oh, this is playing out pretty much how it's supposed to. And then by the end of the round, he's on top. and, you know, like he's making wear it. It's just, what a, what a strange fight. And it kind of out of nowhere that Gore got that win. No question about it.
Starting point is 00:49:37 And then, of course, Kaikamaka III, getting a split decision over Dakota Hope and a good fight, fun fight to open the card. Let's remind everyone, our friends at Draft Kings, boys and girls, tonight is the national championship. That's right, Yukon taking on Michigan. The draft king's sportsbook, the number one sportsbook for live betting is built for March. The tournament is unexpected. Rewards are guaranteed.
Starting point is 00:50:00 Draft King's Sportsbook is delivering the most generous rewards in the market. With Draft Kings, the number one sports book for live betting. You're not betting what might happen. Excuse me, might happen. I apologize. You're betting what's happening. New to Draft Kings, bet just $5 and get $200 in bonus bets instantly. As we indicated tonight, of course, is the men's basketball championship.
Starting point is 00:50:22 Yukon taking on Michigan. Michigan is the favorite, but hey, who knows? This is all the joy of sports. So here's what you're going to do, folks. Download the Draft King Sportsbook app now and use the code Combat. That's Combat with a K to turn five bucks into 200 in bonus bets instantly. In partnership with Draft Kings, the crown is yours. Gambling problem.
Starting point is 00:50:44 Call 1-800 gambler or 1-800 My Reset. New York, call 8778-8-Hope-N-Y or text-Hope-N-Y. Connecticut call 888-789-77-7-77 or visit ccpG.org. On behalf of Boot Hill Casino in Kansas Wager Tax, pass through may apply in Illinois. 21 plus in most states, void in Ontario, restrictions apply. Bonus bets expire seven days after issuance for additional terms and
Starting point is 00:51:07 responsible gaming resources. See sportsbook.draftkings.com slash promos, limited time offer. Okay. Topic number three, Chuck, it was reported by some media even before Saturday's event, but then the broadcast, the UFC broadcast basically confirmed, unfortunately, unfortunately, that this was supposed to be
Starting point is 00:51:27 this Saturday's Josh Van versus. is Tetsuro Tira-Koh-Main. Of course, that was going to be the co-main for the Uri-Prohachka, Carlos Olberg main event at UFC 327. It has moved due to injury. So the good news is the fight is still together, but rather than being the co-main event for 327, now it's going to be the co-main event for UFC 328. That, of course, is going to be Hamzat Chimayev versus Sean Strickland headlining. So now you can see, here's what the main card on your screen right here for UFC 328. Let me briefly read it out for the audio listeners. You got, as I mentioned, Shemaiah Strickland in the main.
Starting point is 00:52:04 Now you have Van versus Tyra in the Comain. Then you have Volkov versus Cortez Ocosta, Sean Brady versus Joaquin Buckley, and then King Green taking on Jeremy Stevens. This, of course, will be at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, where dreams go to die, if certainly any place can be said for that. Now, Chuck, the question is this? Is this a bigger upgrade for you? UFC 328 or a bigger downgrade for UFC 327.
Starting point is 00:52:32 I mean, understand we know we're getting an upgrade in the one case and then a downgrade. I know which one is a bigger delta for that existing car. Yeah. I'm going to say the 327 taking that hit is the bigger impact here. Oh, I disagree, but go ahead. Do you? Okay. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:52:47 I just, I feel like, well, I mean, I'm anxious to hear what you have to say about it. But, you know, the Oldberg-Praschka one is it's a fine fight, but obviously it's a vacant, Like, you know, it's a situation where it's, it's a little weird. It's not like some people were pining to see this one for a title. So it already had, I felt like the reason that this was a decent card was the bang for your book of the two-headed monster there with the two belts. I just feel like if you look down that card, there's some okay fights. I'm not saying they're bad, but it's compromised. Now it's not nearly as, I don't know, it's not nearly as sexy as it looked before.
Starting point is 00:53:26 I mean, like some of these fights are fun. Like obviously, Domin Reyes, but he's coming off of that a loss after he'd been resurrected. That could have been, it's, it's probably going to deliver, but I don't know what it means for the division. You know, and the, you got Hokka, you got the heavy weights.
Starting point is 00:53:42 I just think that the card looks pretty ordinary to me, to be honest, but what do you think? I want to hear your, why do you think that 138 or 23, whatever we have? 3.20, yeah. They're just basically moving a one numbered card back, basically. Yeah, yeah. So put up that 328 card if you can.
Starting point is 00:53:59 So here is the new 328 card right here. I got to say, adding the, I mean, if you had the other ones, like, for example, Volkov Cortizocosta is important for heavyweight, how much it excites you as a separate question, but it's important to me, Brady Buckley is a phenomenal fight. I really, really like that one. Green versus Stevens, I don't really quite get other than I know it's going to be fun and it's just two old dogs killing each other. So people will love that.
Starting point is 00:54:25 But to me, adding this on top of that Chimae of Strickland fight is just a huge boost in quality and really makes that event, excuse me, a must see. Now, I recognize, as I indicated, losing Van versus Tyra from 227 fucking hurts. It absolutely hurts. But I've been kind of high on Azamat Mirzikonov. Yeah. Holocaust to being in the co-main event, I don't really know. Blades versus Hokit to me is actually a very interesting fight.
Starting point is 00:54:52 I hope it seems to be, you know, not the most interesting personality per se, but he's good. He's good. You have to respect how good he is. He's good. And Blades, I think, is, you know, perennially quite good. So it's a huge test. Reyes versus Walker. I mean, that's just got Donk, Dawkinson, Rickerson, Rickerson written all over it. And then Swanson versus Landwehr is going to be madness. The point I'd like to make is, I think 327 has more top to bottom quality, whereas 328 was to me a little top heavy. and then depleted quality throughout. Adding this new co-mate event to me, I make it one of the best. I mean, I think it does a huge boost to the fortune.
Starting point is 00:55:32 You're right. When you push it, when you showed up the whole card, it looks very good, doesn't it? Like that 328, I guess the thing that in today's, you know, Paramount Plus era, it doesn't matter too much outside of the live gate because honestly, you're going to watch 327. You're not paying the extra money for,
Starting point is 00:55:52 either event like it kind of changes from the way it used to be but you're right man like looking at the 328 is like that's that's about a stack that might be the more stacked card right like i would say that that's probably the most stacked card we've had of the year to this point i thought 327 was going to be that personally when the when the what you call when the tyra and van fight had if it had stayed on 327 because that 327 prelimb card like very quickly oh that's radkey versus Brato, which is not, I mean, it's whatever. Gaslin versus Lucille is fun. Markell Madero is taking on Chris Padilla, whatever. I don't care about that. Tatiana Suarez versus Lupita Godinez. Lubby Godinez, that's a big one. Gamrod Riebovich. That's a huge one. Yeah. Holland Brown. That's fun. Pitbull.
Starting point is 00:56:39 And then we saw the rest of the mincourt. I mean, you put Josh Van and Tussar retire on that. A good ass card, you know? Or funny. Pico and Pitbull like buried down that far on the prelims. It's pretty crazy. Is it? Like these are, these are good. Bellator like legends, you know. They're just buried on the prelims there. Hey, PFL legends too. Don't forget it. Even though Pico never fought for. No, he did fight for PFL once, I think. Long Island, is it a bigger loss for 227 or a bigger gain for 328?
Starting point is 00:57:08 I think it's a bigger gain for 328. I'm going to 328. And I'm personally like that main event, I know everyone's hyped about it. I think it's going to be one-sided traffic. So I wasn't that excited for it. You had this Tyro. You think Strickland makes it look easy? Yeah.
Starting point is 00:57:22 exactly you add van tyra to the comane it gets like oh shit that card's a lot of fun and like you guys were saying like i think if you look at 327 you look at these five fights that doesn't look that great but i think start to finish including all the prelims that's that's the deepest card of the year by yeah the prelimbs are are very good there uh long island long island long island come back here for just a second let me pick your brain why do you think strickland Hamzad is one-sided? Because I just think Hamzad is way too dominole.
Starting point is 00:57:56 You don't buy that Strickland has any Okay, when you say one-sided, do you mean DDP one-sided or maybe something? I mean, maybe, I hope it's not like the DDP fight because that wasn't very exciting for everyone, but it could certainly end up like that. It could be a first round sub. Who knows?
Starting point is 00:58:13 But either way, I'm not going to put a bet in on Sean Strickland, put it that way. Yeah, yeah, fair enough. is shemma' am i've entered that space where like if anybody can just compete with him right now like you're like that becomes the drama like oh he gave him a fight you know do you remember when gs p was just beating guys but he was kind of dominating though you know dan hardy cost check all those types of guys and i think it was carlos con it caught him with a head kick in montreal and you're like oh my god this is like we don't get to see this very often where like the tables are turning and he had to
Starting point is 00:58:43 kind of restabilize in the fight take it back over it was like is that good how it's going to be for shemaiah for a while like just anybody who can do anything against him like will strike us so the way i the way i see it is i think that there are real lapses in his ability over the long haul you know what i mean like as a fight because he fights with such rage that i don't think that that is a well-managed style four and five rounds and i think that that could eventually cost him but my basic view is that unless he moves up in wait he shouldn't lose for the foreseeable future you know what I mean yeah it's tough to see
Starting point is 00:59:19 anybody in the car 5 some of these bigger guys of 205 that's a little bit of a different question that's true but that's true but at 85 unless he fucks up you know he shouldn't lose yeah he's a beast it's good to have a guy like that again man because it's been a little while they've had a guy that just as perceived as that dominant
Starting point is 00:59:37 right and plays the role you know he gives the look he gets out like tries to look evil and he doesn't mind it. You know what I mean? So he wants to be the rule. Like, let him do it. Let's go to topic number four here if we can. We didn't really touch on it on Friday's show much because I just, well, we touched on him on Deontay talking about, about his jazz, which was not the greatest, you know.
Starting point is 01:00:01 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. 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. Oh, yeah. I love how every time we go to something gross, we just play Brian Campbell audio. All right, but topic number four, Deontay Wilder had a, what do you want to call it,
Starting point is 01:00:29 a sloppy-ass brawl with Derek Chizora. Both fighters touch the canvas. I believe Chizora down twice, Deontay down once. But Deontay Wilder gets the decision nod in the end. And there was some bad refereeing in this, Chuck. There was a new craziness. Watch Chisora fall through the ropes as we watch this. Just watch the shit.
Starting point is 01:00:50 First of all, Deontay looks like he's on stilts here. I don't know what this is. Here goes Chazora. Just taking it. That's me getting into the back of an Uber after seven cocktails. You know what I'm going to? Here's the question. Oh, my Lord.
Starting point is 01:01:08 Here's the question. Again, you could see these two were, you know, getting after it i anthony joshua was sitting ringside and was having the time of his life chuck you could see him standing up and cheering for the action like he was fucking loving it i don't know where anthony joshua is in his career anymore he obviously got the winner for jake paul and that was fun for a little while did wilders win was it good enough for you to believe in the idea of him fighting anthony joshua this year man you know
Starting point is 01:01:43 he just Joshua just beat Jake Paul and I mean so like anything seems possible in terms of like just making you know let's do a big fight where I can make money and I get to go against the guy
Starting point is 01:01:54 who's a little long and two because how old is wild there's 40 or 40 41 or something like that oh double check up there in age man and I'm like you know and it showed in this fight but you know the livelihood he did have his moment he still showed some heart you know the right hand is still like
Starting point is 01:02:10 this concussive thing you've got to be aware of. I mean, like, if I, I wouldn't be, I wouldn't be shocked if they did it. And I would, I would, I would watch it. You know what I mean? It's like, it's one of those things. Like, these types of fights like that just happened with Shazora, they're still kind of fun, you know? Like, I know people are really bad. What did you think of it? Like, is it tolerable for something? Like, when you're watching this type of fight, like, could you get behind it? It was it fun for you? No. No. But I don't, I don't think that matters. I think that, I mean, at some point, this won't be true, right, at some point.
Starting point is 01:02:51 But there is too much of a, you know, until, like, fights will get made for a couple of reasons in the fight game. Boxing, too. Boxing is, in fact, very much like this, which is where it's like, hey, whether this fight is past its due date is irrelevant. Can you still make money from it? And if you can, then that tends to be enough of a reason to do it. So I think, you know, Wilder versus Joshua in the UK, or I should say Joshua versus Wilder in the UK, would do big business. Like just flat out it would do big business. So like that's one reason why they might do it.
Starting point is 01:03:29 The other one is, do you really want to go to a place? I think the fans might say, I can't speak for them, but I feel like there might be this kind of sense of, you know, we don't want this to like, we would rather this fight happen in a. deteriorated sloppy condition, then not get it at all. Like, oh, what could have been? You know, like if the UFC came out today, I mean, maybe this is too much. But like, you know, a couple of years ago, if they had said, hey, we found a way to make Habib versus Tony, would people still be interested? I, you know, yeah, probably, right?
Starting point is 01:04:05 Again, now it really wouldn't work. But like, you know, four years ago, maybe it could have worked. Even though, even though by then it would have been past its Dubai date. I just feel like there are two. many forces that could put these two together to think that it's a bad fight to make just because Wilder is mega fucking washed, you know? Yeah. Does it, the optics in this particular one, the referee letting the fight, you know, like it just basically like losing control of things, right? Like that's what it seems. Does that like, I mean, that to me is what makes it just,
Starting point is 01:04:39 if there's some kind of circus environment and all our feel to it, it's like it's because of stuff like that. Like you've got a you've got a corner man running into the ring. What the fuck was going on there? I mean, stuff like that is just so bizarre. Talking about what you're talking about helping Chisora up? Yeah, to Zora, yeah, in that moment. I mean, stuff like that, I'm like, I feel like that doesn't help when you got a referee who basically is not up for the task. I don't know what to say about that. I certainly think that, you know, how you pick the staffing talent does match. It's actually, you know what to your point? It's actually a good point. Like, if you're going to do these like sloppy ass like, holy fuck. you know, what are we doing here kind of fights. Having judges and in particular a referee
Starting point is 01:05:19 that can kind of keep things on track is actually pretty critical to the perception of the fight. And this one, there were some definite refereeing issues the whole way through. But it didn't matter in the end. I think the right guy kind of won. I just feel like Long Island,
Starting point is 01:05:36 do you have a great appetite for great appetite's a strong word? Would you be okay with a Wilder and Joshua fight? yeah i'm a i'm a self-admitted boxing casual so i'm only gonna really watch the bigger names anyway so sure yeah i don't i'd rather see that than wilder versus yeah who the fuck is tyson fury fighting like this weekend on netflix like i still don't know murdazale excuse me exactly you said merzacanov and i would have said the same fucking name the guy fighting on three 28 or 327 whatever like i i have no idea who that is i got to be honest so like i'm not getting up for that one but uh yeah so would it be
Starting point is 01:06:11 more intriguing to see Inganu versus Wilder at this point. Yeah. Yes. Honestly, yeah. Yeah, I agree with that. Yeah. Also, people hate this idea and I get it.
Starting point is 01:06:24 I understand why. I don't think it's a bad argument against it. But like, how can you watch the success of one's four ounce moitai series and think that like them to slugging it out in MMA gloves wouldn't be fucking fun.
Starting point is 01:06:41 Like even if you had amended rules, like put it in a boxing ring and then just have a minute. Like, oh, it wouldn't count on their records or we wouldn't know what it would mean. It would be fucking awesome. Like, what do you? Yeah, that would be. The other thing is Francis, I don't think would, I don't really think would, I don't really think would wrestle, you know. So it's kind of like, that's always the question, right? Is it going to go for a takedown?
Starting point is 01:07:04 I think that he would accommodate Wilder in a fight and they would probably meet. I'm sure there would be some kicking and some other use of him. MMA, but that's why it's intriguing. If it was, you know, when James Tony fought Couture back in the day, you knew exactly what Couture had to do to beat him, which is exactly how it went down. I just think Inganu would prefer to stand
Starting point is 01:07:23 and trade anyway. I'm just saying you could amend the rules. Just make it a special rule about, you know? People like, oh, I wouldn't watch that. Yes, the fuck you would. Yes, you would. All right. Oh, by the way, there was a crowd fight at this event. Long Island hit me to this one.
Starting point is 01:07:39 She gets wild here in a second. Wilder. Here are the donks. Are you sure this is Wilder? Oh, here we go. This was posted trending with Wilder. There's a bunch of people involved. Let's see.
Starting point is 01:07:52 Oh, he jumps. Here we go. Oh, yeah, dude, you know. Let me, listen, if this isn't happening at your fight that you're going to, you're at the wrong event. Oh, I know this one. A security guard. Someone tries to swing on him. Watch this.
Starting point is 01:08:05 Get over there. Get over there. Bob. Hold that. Like coming in from the like, like, the top here. No, my man is, like, my man is just swinging through that like it with a machete through brush.
Starting point is 01:08:17 Watch him. He's about, he's about the, he's about the, oh, dude, how many bodies is my man in the blue collecting? Oh my God. There's a, it's always one of the first, like, the first guys to be swinging has his pants like falling down, you know, past his ass cheeks there. It seems like every time I'm watching these streets fight,
Starting point is 01:08:35 there's one of those guys. Well, you know, you're not watching. It's not the world's brightest and best. I mean, it's not a minza. convention. You know what I mean? All right. By the way, by the way, I want to remind everyone, from final face off, excuse me, actually, let me restart that. From face off to final decision, fight night delivers the adrenaline and Cuervo, the energy to match it. Whether you are hosting your crew at home or catching the action at a bar, Cuervo brings the good vibes that turn every round into a celebration. From margaritas to Palomas, every main event simply tastes better
Starting point is 01:09:10 with the world's most iconic tequila. So, we have it here. No matter who walks out with the belt, with Cuervo, here we go, one more time, with Cuervo in hand, you're already celebrating like an undisputed champion for every round, keep it fun,
Starting point is 01:09:27 keep it Cuervo. And as a reminder, April 8th, which of course is just going to be in two days, Chuck. Yeah, happy. In two days, we're going to be back in New York City for our UFC 327 pre-game preview. really looking forward to getting everyone ready for that big card and big thanks to our friends at Cuervo for making it possible.
Starting point is 01:09:47 I'm going to leave that right here. So that naturally, Chuck, excuse me, takes us into topic number five, which is we're going to have a full preview on that pregame preview on Wednesday. But let's sort of look ahead just a little bit, kind of with the appetite if we can. Outside of the main event, give me one fight on that UFC 327 card that really intrigues.
Starting point is 01:10:10 you and tell me why. Here, by the way, very quickly, here is a look at the 328 main card one more time. And I'm going to read it out. Prohachka versus Allberg, Mursa Kana versus Costa, Blades versus Hokit, Reyes versus Walker, and then Swanson versus Landward. That's just your main card. I'll open it up to the whole card. What you have your eye on? I mean, the Mersakana fight, like you'd mention this. I think that, you know, just given how good he's been and with Costa moving up to light heavyweight, that's intriguing. I like fights like that where there's been a like there's a partition right like costa he's been around
Starting point is 01:10:43 the same guys at middleweight for a long time and now that partition comes down and it's uh you're like is this a you know is this a revival for him of sorts if he goes up there is it a better wait for him i i like that it's a very tough matchup but it should be a fun one um that one's good i love the gamron fight man like being buried down on the prelims against uh riebovich is that how he pronounces i never know how he pronounces his name yeah it's rubovics i'm not sure really it's but he was i i i'll know i
Starting point is 01:11:09 I mean, he'll always have a special place for me, man, after being at the sphere and he put on that ridiculous fight of the year that was just so back and forth. And, like, I saw his, like, you know, just so much heart, like so much heart. And like a guy like Gamrod, to me, that seems like a very combustible situation. And Gamrod, I still, I don't know how you feel about him, but I still feel like I've got a little bit of a, like he hasn't realized his potential and he still has a chance, you know, to make some, some noise in that division. So those are those a couple good. I mean, honestly, man, like that's, it's, I was looking at this card. Cub Swanson, the last ever WEC guy, like is making the walk, I think, for the last time. I know he wants to go out, like, just having, I talked to him, uh, just recently.
Starting point is 01:11:52 I know that this one means a lot to him. So I expect him to put on a good fight. And what did he say, Chuck? What did he say? I mean, he, I think that the, he's doing this because he's the last of a generation from the WEC. And that is kind of a big deal. You know, we covered the, the WC.
Starting point is 01:12:05 and you think of all the names that came and went. And all the guys he stood in against, he has lost plenty of times in the UFC. He's won plenty. I think he's lost 10 times, but he's still there. It's like, there's something to be said about,
Starting point is 01:12:15 like, the perseverance of a guy like that to whatever he is, 42 years old to be making the walk. But he was, I think that he's, if you've talked to Cub in recent years, he's grown more sentimentally, sees it from a big picture a lot.
Starting point is 01:12:28 And I think that he's, he sees it kind of from him, you know, from himself from like 500 feet, you know, like he's like, he's watching a, himself and I think that that's kind of his perspective.
Starting point is 01:12:37 But I think he also wants to go out with a bang. So, you know, I think he's in a good space and he's opened up his own gym. And he's got a lot going for him. And you know what I mean? It's just, it's a cool story that he's the last guy standing. I've always liked Cubs. Yeah. He's always been a hard worker, talented, family guy.
Starting point is 01:12:56 You know what I mean? He's very difficult to dislike Cubs Watson. It's 15 and 10 in the USC. But it's like, it's one of those things I just saw Luke post that up. But it really doesn't matter, right? He's like one of those guys. It's like he's, I think he always carried a chip on shoulder because when he came over from the WEC, if you remember, everybody talked about Uriah Faber. They talked about Dominic Cruz, Jose Aldo.
Starting point is 01:13:15 They talked about those guys, Donaldi. He never felt like he got the love, you know, but, you know, he has a fight in the UFC Hall of Fame with who a choice. Like he's like, he's done. He's had a crazy career when you think about fighting 25 times the UFC and still fight. So guys like that, you got to kind of, you know, tip the cap to in the end. Also, I don't really hear a lot of fighters. disrespect Cubs Swanson. No what I mean? Like a lot of guys, even
Starting point is 01:13:39 privately behind the scenes, I don't really ever hear that. That is a great point. Yeah, who's he ever had bad blood with? If anything is DOSC. I think he's had opponents who have talked fresh now and again, but like, people respect his technical ability. They respect what he's done in the game. You know, obviously he has the bad loss to Joseo Aldo and WEC,
Starting point is 01:13:55 but that was like Josiah Aldo being shot out of a fucking cannon, you know, like, what are you going to do? I like, I like, I like Hub a lot. And by the way, question, how many guys who fought in WEC are still on the UFC current roster. This is it.
Starting point is 01:14:12 This is the last one? He's the last one. That's why that's what I'm trying to say. Like he's the very last man standing. He was the last one. From all WEC. Like because Porriy is gone and, you know, Cruz is gone.
Starting point is 01:14:24 The guys who were, yeah, the guys who were hanging around, they've all retired recently. So he's literally the last guy standing. Unbelievable. I love that fight. I'm going to say this one on the main card.
Starting point is 01:14:35 This Curtis Blades Josh Hokit fight to me is very, very intriguing. I'm looking at some of these odds, Long Island. Do we have the odds from Draft Kings? From what I'm seeing, Blades is only a slight favorite. Is that right? Yeah, I have it up right here. Give me one second. Lucas Blades and Josh Hookett.
Starting point is 01:14:54 Yeah, minus 130 Blades plus 110, Hokeet. Look at that, Chuck. Hokit is unranked. Yeah. He's not even ranked. And Blades is what? Top five? I think sitting at five currently in the space.
Starting point is 01:15:08 Like, and I, this is the thing about this matter of like, UFC is, UFC is running a risk here. So one of the risks that they're running, and I fully grant this, one of the risks that they're running is they're like, okay, we're going to push Hokit to the front. And we think he's ready.
Starting point is 01:15:22 And then he gets pushed to the front. And then all of a sudden, you run into a buzzsaw and Curtis Blades. You're like, oh, right, why were you giving an unranked guy, one of the very best guys in the world? Of course he gets smoked, right? That's one of the risks.
Starting point is 01:15:35 you're running at which point you would look at it after the fact and you would say that fight should not have been made however the bet that they appear to be making is that that won't happen now blades may win um but what they're thinking is at hoekid this could be a big breakout opportunity for him 28 years of age and again i'm not necessarily the biggest fan of his like stick or whatever but like dude you just watch the tape on him he's kind of fast he's you know he obviously he's a heavy heavyweight build but he's kind of fast he certainly has a great wrestling background you know, he gets after it in contest. Clearly the guys they were giving him at the unranked level were just way beneath him.
Starting point is 01:16:11 This is a huge test for Hokit. And if he wins this, Chuck, you're right in the thick of the division after that. I mean, we're talking about like shuttering the heavyweight division because there's just nothing happening. This is the when you have when it has to like, this is the double down, right? Like you've got to get new guys in there and you got to kind of move the old guard back. And that's what this fight is trying to do. I feel like the, you completely understand the man. matchmaking in this situation.
Starting point is 01:16:35 And 28 years old, you mentioned that as a relative baby in the heavyweight division. You don't see too many guys, man, who are, you know, less than 30 years old who are competing it. It's just, it's had the, it's had tremendous trouble, you know, finding young talent over the years. And, you know, in general, we've been talking about how many times the old keep pushing back the young as a more broad phenomenon. Curtis is not old by any stretch. dude, 35 at heavyweight is not old.
Starting point is 01:17:04 You know what I mean? Like, yeah, he's hardly ancient. But he's definitely the establishment figure, right? He's definitely the guy that's been here a while. And I have high respect for Curtis's ability. I think, you know, if we were going to, we were joking before, like Curtis got bitter at me on Instagram for saying that, you know, headway should be abolished. But like, I'm not talking about Curtis.
Starting point is 01:17:20 Curtis is real fucking good. So if Hocan can beat Kurt, that's the other part here here. Like people are like, oh, you know, Curtis has lost a lot of fights at heavyweight. Okay. He lost two to Enganoo. you know, he did lose to Derek Lewis. He's had some losses that definitely stand out in your mind. But I'm sorry, you beat him.
Starting point is 01:17:39 That's a man of quality. Like, that's a quality ass win, especially when you're unfucking ranked to be able to do something like that. So, you see. He likes Hokit. They like him. I said USC likes Hokit. I think that they're behind him.
Starting point is 01:17:53 Yeah, they like the weirdos. But he can fight. So we'll see how that goes. All right. That is it for our top five here today on this Monday. And yes, so now we go from where we talk to each other to where we now talk to you. It's time for DMs from dogs.
Starting point is 01:18:13 I'd be whispering in my wife's ear like that. All right. From question number one. From Brian Coolbeins, worst name ever, but he's probably a good guy. All right. From Will Moikano receive any backlash, you think, from the UFC regarding his comments
Starting point is 01:18:29 about the low quality of the recent apex? You kind of asked this one earlier. True, yeah. I don't think you will. I don't think so either. You mentioned Sean Strickland, you know, and when we were talking about it. And I feel like there's other examples, too.
Starting point is 01:18:44 I'm just kind of, they're slipping my mind right now. But, like, I don't really think the UFC worries about it anymore. There would have been in time where, like, you know, Dana paid attention to just about everything, any slight. And, you know, if you got on the wrong side of them, it was, you know, it was bad news. But I just don't, I don't think they, care. I don't think he really cares about that stuff anymore.
Starting point is 01:19:06 I think that they care, but that they, like, they're going to do what at the end of the day is best for them. And if doing what's best for them is putting Moikano in a fight against somebody he can promote, they'll just do that. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, oh, it's good for us when Moikano was in this role, then we'll just do that. And I tend to think that he might get a little bit of that in the end, in part because he was also kind of like, I don't think he was joking, but he kind of treated it halfway like, was joking. Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, punishing, I don't see it that way. I guess I mean, they asked Dan about the AI and he's like, just shut up and watch the fucking fight. Shut the fuck up and watch the fight. Wow. That is a, yeah, long, I just pointed out
Starting point is 01:19:48 that Gaichi was, you know, was on about the fighter pay, you know, for the to kick off the Paramount era and he's still got the Ilya fight. So, you know, I mean, I do feel like there's a lot more people have so many more opportunities now to air their grievances against the UFC, even at UFC press conferences, we see it a lot more than we used to. Yeah, there still can be backlash for sure, but it's just harder to pinpoint in certain cases. All right.
Starting point is 01:20:11 From Train, How You Fight 979, why is boxing's heavyweight slop, Wilder Cheez-Zora, still mildly entertaining, yet the heavyweight action we see in MMA is currently unbearable? Because the slop that you see in the stand-up affair in boxing is, it's still a little rock'em-sockham. And it feels like the boredom we get in the heavyweight MMA side of things, Chuck, is when a fight slows down. No?
Starting point is 01:20:38 Oh, my God. 100%. We were talking about Toy Vosso, like, who is, he has the ability as the moment to put, who is he fighting. I forget now. But he had, he should have put the fight away. The very end, all he has to do is deliver one blow, but he could not must. Talasin Tashira. Nelson to Chera.
Starting point is 01:20:57 All he had to do is muster the strength to deliver one blow, and he could not do that in the last, like, 15 seconds. that tells you how bad some of the heavyweight fights die if they make it to that length you know make it to the end of the third round certainly if it went into a fifth round or something like that I can't even imagine what that'd be like yeah no question about it
Starting point is 01:21:16 all right next does alessandro costa have a Diego Lopez starter haircut do we have a picture for this yeah do we have it so let's see here do we have one I don't have a picture per se I have that fucking photo
Starting point is 01:21:33 Go back to the other one. Let me see. Let's see. I don't, I don't recall it being. Let's see here. No, starter cut. No. See, here's the deal. Diego Lopez doesn't have one haircut. He's got four. Right. So true. He's got four haircuts at one time. This is more like one and a half. You've got to do a lot. You know who's the you know who is the originator of that kind of thing? Vitor Belford during the TRT era. Oh, that's right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He'd have like a ponytail and a mullet and a mullet and a Mohawk and a fade you know the whole shit going on it
Starting point is 01:22:07 I mean I've never seen something one of the whole thing yeah yeah so no not quite there yet all right next from flannels and jits have you seen the smashing machine what are your thoughts what do you think Chuck so I have to admit I still have not watched it have you watched it
Starting point is 01:22:23 I've seen the original though I saw the original are we talking about the original or are we talking about the movie I think they mean the movie then I'll step up here guys I saw it and I'm not the biggest movie guy I tricked my girlfriend into watching it. She said, let's watch a movie. I said, oh, this looks good. Smashing machine.
Starting point is 01:22:38 Oh, let's see what this is about, you know, knowing damn well it was about. And I gotta say, wasn't a great movie. It was kind of like, as a U.S. Didn't you get nominated for a bunch of awards? If it did, I don't know why.
Starting point is 01:22:50 Like, as a UFC fan, I was into it. You know, like Bass Routin's in it. Ryan Bader's in it. You're like, oh, sure, okay. But like, you know, I don't think she enjoyed it too much. And I don't blame her. It wasn't that great.
Starting point is 01:23:01 I just. I heard that the, I mean, here's the thing like that documentary when it came out chuck was so raw and people hadn't even seen shit like this before you know i don't know how you can do a movie about a documentary from a bygone era yeah that would i don't know i don't know and it's and especially like there are storylines within mma that would have been you know so much better suited for like an examination like for a film. But to kind of rehash the docket,
Starting point is 01:23:33 that's why I didn't see it. I'm like, I've seen the original documentary and I, you know, I've talked to, you know, Kerr in the past. Like, you've done all the stuff. To see the Rock's kind of art house representation of it, I just didn't have a big appetite. But I know some people were very excited about it. And in fact,
Starting point is 01:23:49 on a flight, my wife and my son were sitting over on the other aisle and they were watching that movie while I was like, I'm going to watch the Lway documentary on Netflix, you know? I didn't even watch it. And they said it wasn't very good. They were kind of the same way that Long Island was.
Starting point is 01:24:05 I just don't have like, do you? I just, I don't really have it in me to sit through it. I don't want to, can I be honest with you? I don't want to watch MMA movies. I don't, in general. Yeah. Certainly Warrior is better than Warrior. Yeah, virtually.
Starting point is 01:24:23 I'm not sure. Long Island is Warrior the best MMA movie? Am I missing something? I mean, I said earlier, I'm not a movie. I've never seen it. But I'm with you, Luke. Really? Yeah, I don't really love.
Starting point is 01:24:32 You'd like that. You'd like it. I've watched like Rocky, the first like three Rockies. But other than that, I feel like I haven't watched like any combat sports. Did you, did either of you guys watch Kingdom the, uh, the, the, like, MMA. TV show, no. That was good. I know it was well received.
Starting point is 01:24:47 It was, I thought to me a bunch, but that's worth it. That's a very good show. But that's probably the best representation because, you know, they're talking about a gym and coaching and like the person. it's a it's a little more you know they can stretch it out it's not confined to 90 minutes of you know whatever they're trying to do i don't have a big appetite for the mama movies look this up you can get it on fandango you can also get it i think on paramount plus now there's a movie called i think it's correct me if i'm wrong but i think it's called the cut yeah i don't know what happened to
Starting point is 01:25:18 orlando bloom's career because 20 years ago he was doing lord of the ring shit and now he's doing nubber ass movies. So this movie is literally just some like, you know, I think it was I watched like the first half. He was like a retired fighter or like, you know, mostly retired. And a unscrupulous promoter needs a last minute replacement
Starting point is 01:25:38 and he's got to cut a bunch of weight. It's about him cutting fucking weight. Wow. Like he has to cut like, I don't know, like 25 pounds or some of the. And they treat it like this big ass drama. And I'm like, and I'm like, you made a movie out of this fucking number, this fucking number cutting
Starting point is 01:25:53 weight. That's bizarre. You know what, man? Like we're talking about this. You know who Theo Rossi is? Sons of Anarchy? He played juice. So he was a big M.MA guy. And I used to see him at like events and the Meta Morris event and a couple of other like he was just he likes combat sports, but he was a big Arturo Gotti band. He wanted to play him. And at one point like we were having talks about trying to do like a screenplay of that and he was going to play him like. And I, that was probably the one time only because I was thinking of it from the other side of it. We were like, how would you put this together, you know, Arturo Gaudi. That would have been actually kind of cool.
Starting point is 01:26:27 But now I think he's kind of aged maybe out of that a little bit. This was years ago now. And we never, you know, never went too far with it. But that's kind of an interesting thing. That's the type of film. Maybe I'd be more interested in as a guy like that. Yeah, that would be, dude, Arturo. I mean, yeah.
Starting point is 01:26:41 Yes, that has a ton. I actually do like boxing movies. I mean, not all of them, obviously. But I don't know what the difference is. Like, we're talking about like why heavyweight MMA slop is not as fun as heavyweight boxing slop. I feel like boxing cinema is better than MMA cinema. Now,
Starting point is 01:26:59 granted, it's got a huge head start on it. So there's that too. But I don't know. Like, there's something about boxing cinema that, to me, works a little bit better. I'm not sure what the answer to that is. Yeah, I don't know exactly why. I guess you're right. When your original point, though, about they still are trying to play Rockham's Sockham, especially at the heavy,
Starting point is 01:27:14 you know, the heavy weights, that's their, that's the one thing they can still do is throw the bombs, right? Yeah, throw big bombs. Yeah. I think we have one more here from M.T. Bumble can only keep one. Luke without facial hair. Oh, fuck that. Or Chuck with no hat or sober Long Island
Starting point is 01:27:31 Luke. He might kill himself if we do that. I don't know. Chuck, I think you got to take the hat off for the rest of us here. That's the one I'm choosing there. You just refuted. No sobriety. Yeah, no. I don't think. It would be very strange
Starting point is 01:27:47 to see you without a beard, though. I got to say. Yeah, it would not. It's not flattering. There's a there's a funny video. I mean, I still got laid before I had a beer, but it doesn't be so good. But for now, you just want to try it with a partner, you know?
Starting point is 01:28:02 Yeah. There's a video. There's probably, you probably have, the viewers who are watching or the audio listeners who are listening, I've probably seen it. And there's more than one of these.
Starting point is 01:28:14 But I, like maybe like a week ago, my wife sent me a reel on, on IG. And in the reel, it was dad. and some of them were doing like a big reveal like they would cover their face and then they would show but they were showing their kids uh they were like walking in the room after they had shaved their beards yeah and basically it was it was a it was a like a collection of the kids responses and in virtually every single case all the kids cry all the kids cry they're like they don't identity marker yeah they hide from their dad they cry they point like he's a stranger like what'd you do with my dad your daughter was probably do that she'd probably like what the hell is this dude it was straight up traumatizing to these
Starting point is 01:28:57 kids so i don't want to traumatize myself or the audience chuck the hat's got to go play all right no more hats that'd be all right be the new stick yeah with that in mind let's do what we love to do now here's how this works we're going to give you can reach the show you can see it here morning combat at gmail com that's the place you're going to send your fan subs best one all month wins a signed poster let's do it it's time for fan submissions. You've got mail. Viewer. All right.
Starting point is 01:29:30 First up, we have from Saul, one video, one photo. The Bashar-style teas have arrived. They looked so nice. Had to buy it twice. Where are we on this one, Long Island? You look so happy. Oh, my God. I'm so excited.
Starting point is 01:29:52 Thank you. She loves it. Oh, beauty. Oh, these poor girlfriends whose boyfriends make them do MK shit. So excited. It's fucking hilarious. That's Mrs. Saul. That's his wife.
Starting point is 01:30:08 I love it, man. Oh, you're right. He did get married. It's a good-looking shirt. It's a great-looking shirt, which, of course, was available, and the rest of the new ones are available at morningcombat. Dot shop. Her fucking reaction, smiling through her teeth.
Starting point is 01:30:22 It's fucking great, bitch, yes. Awesome. All right. Let's go to Jesse, who has a meme, doesn't disappoint when the gang gets together to break down fights. The Combat Squad, pregame preview, the coming of UFC 326. Join me tomorrow on the main card minute for a full card watchalong. Who's the person on the right? I'm trying to figure that out as well.
Starting point is 01:30:47 Is it Jed maybe? Yeah, Jedd really should have ironed the shirt. Oh, right, right, right, right. And if they don't do that. Is that you? Yeah, Detroit. I was wearing a Detroit. Yeah, yeah.
Starting point is 01:30:58 That's funny. And then, oh my God, these two guys came to bang, which was a literal thing. I heard a King of the Cage commentator say one time. They literally said, Chuck, these two guys were slugging it out and they go, these two guys came here to bang. And I'm like, I don't think they did. I don't think they did. That's a good AI graphic, though. I look more handsome there than I do in real life.
Starting point is 01:31:20 So thank you for that. From Spence, we've got a meme here. one time I was with a lady and I couldn't climax so I spat on her back and said I finished. Okay, Chuck, all right. Yeah. Chuck, leave this up. Let me explain this. So when we do the show with you, the show is interesting and we talk about smart things.
Starting point is 01:31:41 When Oscars here, we talk about our balls and anuses, okay? We were talking about the Deontay Wilder video where he's like in, in putrid detail discussing his, his ejaculatory habits. And then during the course of that, Oscar admitted he had done this, which was what the caption says. And so this meme is like the same look that Pierce Morgan was giving Deontay,
Starting point is 01:32:09 just now giving it to Oscar. All right. This is okay. Oh my God. I got to say I like this meme. This is a good meme. I'm going to have to look up. I didn't watch that.
Starting point is 01:32:17 I didn't see this episode. So I feel like I got to give Oscar some. Friday's episodes with Oscar are very different than Monday episodes. Let me just put it that way. All right. We have a meme here from run dim cheeks. Let's see. Joseph A. Pink.
Starting point is 01:32:32 Sorry, but we only have a ladies room. Do you get this one, Chuck? Oh, I do not. Okay. All right. Long Island, we got to bring Chuck up to speed on M.K. Lour on some of this. So this is two things at once.
Starting point is 01:32:49 One, this is a play on the Christy Noam husband. revelation. Did you follow this? Yes. Yeah. Where her husband turns out perhaps, again, according to some reports, does some cross-dressing, and this is my head photoshopped onto that photo that came out of him.
Starting point is 01:33:07 Okay. But the second joke here is there was one time, Chuck, that I had to take the dump of my life. You ever been out in public and you have what I call a shit attack where it just all of a sudden you have to go? I was walking around. You can look this up. I was on 19th and am in northwest in dc and right there was a joseph a bank and i had to take the absolute shit of my
Starting point is 01:33:29 you could take this off the screen i had to take the absolute shit of my life and i go into the joseph bank and i was like i'll said i'll spend money here please let me go to the bathroom and there was no one to use except the employee bathroom right and it was a triple flusher bro it took forever you had to clean that out uh can you do me a favor since you always use a relevant photo and MMA for your live chat that week. Can you use this as your photo for your live chat this week? No, I cannot. I don't wear Christine Noem's husband's clothes. You know, you guys have brought up the bank thing, but like you, we've, I've heard this mentioned before. So thank you for clearing this up because every time it's ever been mentioned,
Starting point is 01:34:08 I'm like, I don't know about that's an insider joke. I don't know what's going on here. So now when it's like, you know, the joke of taking a big dump is just going to Joseph A bank. All right. All right. Let's see. What else we got here? We got one from Christian. We got some memes here from Christian. Monopoly. LT, whenever someone asks why UFC product is declining. Well, it's highly explanatory. All right, what do we got next?
Starting point is 01:34:30 Wait, what's the book again? The Age of Extraction. Or incitification either one of those. All right, trade offer. UFC, TKO, receive record profits year after year with no competition, favorable legislation you receive. Shut the fuck up and watch the fights. Fair enough.
Starting point is 01:34:49 LIL's excitement level. UFC numbered event. Apex Fight Nights. Contender series gets the, gets the big one, Road to UFC, hang out with the girlfriend. This one's good.
Starting point is 01:35:03 This one's good. Root to UFC. You, Chuck, you've seen those where Vince McMahon is like doing like, how to cut your head off thing. Yes. Yeah. Yeah.
Starting point is 01:35:11 Dude, if this guy's like, yeah, I wouldn't go to Netflix. Motherfucker, you would watch a rooster fight in the alley. Okay. Luke, you have a YouTube channel. You get it. There's a difference between. I'll stay home and stream that and I'll make the trek to go to that event.
Starting point is 01:35:25 I'd much prefer to stay home and stream nine times out of ten. I think you'd agree. In general, I would agree for sure. All right. And then we got one more, I think, from him. No, that was it. We had three. That was it.
Starting point is 01:35:37 It says three of them. Did we see three? Yeah, we have Monopoly. We had the trade offer and we had this. Oh, that's right. Yes, I'm sorry. You're right. So right.
Starting point is 01:35:44 Very good. Well done. Well done. Well done. Send those memes. Send them morning combat at gmail. Start putting Chuck in some of these. Yeah, baby.
Starting point is 01:35:54 Yeah. Let's, I want to be on the merch. I want to have some merch and then I want to be on these. So let's let's get this done. Let's do it. And I got to start talking about balls. I guess I live up to Oscars. If you don't come on here and talk about your ails, what are you going?
Starting point is 01:36:06 Dicks. Dicks everywhere. Dicks. Yes. All right. So let's remind everyone. We are on social everywhere. M.K. is there.
Starting point is 01:36:14 Chuck is there. I'm there. And of course, you should like and subscribe this video. Send it to a friend who doesn't necessarily watch MK. They probably won't start, but just send it to him anyway. Morningcombat at gmail.com, as we indicated, for all the memes to reach the show. And then don't forget, morningcombat. Dot shop, morningcombat.
Starting point is 01:36:31 Dot shop. These are the limited edition for just this month, the root beer design on the left, the donkin in the middle, and then MKTV with the bouted, boutet, Lubbocka poster, which is available just this month until the 30th. I think it's right. Yeah. Chuck, what's the coverage plan for? for the week, sir.
Starting point is 01:36:52 I believe today I have that Cub Swanson piece that's running. It's just kind of him being the last WEC guy talking to him about his Odyssey. And I will definitely have like a roundtable coming out later in the week, kind of asking the burning questions about it with Pizzie Carroll. No crack this week on Friday. I'm going to lay off the crack. And I will have a call on. This weekend, I'll be doing the crack.
Starting point is 01:37:12 Yeah. A lot of crack. Yes. So that's about it. I think on after the event, I know this probably goes head to head with you. but we also do a, you know, like a post show after the pay-per-view. So I'm actually off this week. Oh, you are.
Starting point is 01:37:26 Okay. Well, then my daughter's got spring break. So we're taking. Oh, there you go. That sounds much more fun. But I will be doing that too, probably with Pizza Carol. Yeah, no worse. So go watch Chuck.
Starting point is 01:37:35 It would be great. Long Island, what do you got going on for the week, sir? Let them know. I mean, pay-per-view week, you already know. Bet break down tomorrow, prop quiz, Friday. Full card watch along Saturday. And it's actually a good card. So make sure you tune in.
Starting point is 01:37:47 Main card minute. Appreciate you. And one last reminder. One last reminder on Wednesday. Our friends at Cuervo taking good care of us. They're going to take good care of you. We will see you all Wednesday in studio for our pregame preview brought to you by, we don't want to cover the label here.
Starting point is 01:38:04 Brought to you by our friends at Cuervo. So big thanks to them. Big thanks to all of you for watching. We really appreciate it. We'll see you in studio on Wednesday for Long Island Luke, for the Iceman himself, Chuck Mendenhall. I'm Luke Thomas. We'll see you all on Wednesday, as I indicated.
Starting point is 01:38:18 And until then, May all of your gains be loyal. This is an I-Heart podcast, guaranteed human.

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.