MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL - Yes, Alexander Gustafsson Should Retire | Morning Kombat Extra Credit Ep. 26

Episode Date: July 26, 2022

Luke Thomas is back with Episode 26 of Morning Kombat Extra Credit to break down his five favorite fights from the weekend. Luke breaks down his favorite fights from UFC London and Bellator 283. Morning Kombat’ is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Castbox, Google Podcasts, Bullhorn and wherever else you listen to podcasts.    For more Combat Sports coverage subscribe here: youtube.com/MorningKombat   Follow our hosts on Twitter: @BCampbellCBS, @lthomasnews, @MorningKombat    For Morning Kombat gear visit:morning kombat.store   Follow our hosts on Instagram: @BrianCampbell, @lukethomasnews, @MorningKombat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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So stop sitting on your next trip and start saving on one. Don't miss out. Your chance to save in points ends February 23rd. Book at AirCanada.com. Conditions apply. This is where we get to the stuff that we normally don't have time for on regular MK. I am one half of your morning combat host. My name is Luke Thomas. I appreciate you tuning in. Thumbs up on the video if you're watching. Hit subscribe if you're watching on YouTube. And if you're listening on your favorite podcast platform, please give that a nice review wherever that may be. Alright, on today's program, we know how this goes. About 30 minutes or less is how we make this work. We're going to look at my five sort of most interesting fights for me from the weekend. We're gonna do it from three different events I'll have a couple of honorable mentions at the end. So the three events would be UFC London, of course, which took place Saturday

We'll talk about Bellator 283 a little bit which was on Friday night and then we'll talk about one Championship or one 159. There's one bout from there we'll talk about on there. Now, here is a list of bouts that we're going to get to. You can see here on the screen. It'll be Alexander Gustafson versus Nikita Krylov, which of course was from UFC London. Molly McCann versus Hannah Goldie, also from UFC London. And then Paul Craig versus Vulcan Uzdemir, finally from UFC London. I'm sure I'm going to mispronounce his name, but this is the way they say it on the broadcast.

Reneer DeRitter taking on Vitaly Bigdash at 1-159. And then Roman Feraldo versus Luis Iniguez at Bellator 283. A couple of honorable mentions that we'll talk about at the end as well. Okay, very, very quickly. Let's get things going. No time like the present. We start with Alexander Gustafson taking on Nikita Krylov. Daniel Cormier, who was a previous foe of Gustafson, said this.

I think most people probably would agree. I certainly agree with Daniel Cormier when he said this, that it's time for Gustafson to retire. He loses. The official time of this was early. It was, let's see, he lost at 107 of round number one. This was pretty quick. What did you see in this fight? A few different things. What ended up happening was Krylov would throw a right body kick, which then Gustafson with his

left would overhook catch. But then he kind of got stuck there. So the first time he actually gets clipped, it's with a right hand. So he grabs it with his left hand, Gustafson does. But then he gets, I mean, just imagine, right? If my left hand is overhooking here, I have nothing to protect my face on this side. So he gets hit with a right hand. And then what you notice what he did was they eventually disengage. Krylov kind of fades back to his right. Gustafson gives chase and then walks into an overhand right and gets dropped. Man, Krylov was

all over him from the word go. So he lands that right from the caught kick. He fades back, pulls Gustafson into a trap, lands the overhand, drops him, tries to rough him up against the fence. I give Gustafson a little bit of credit, certainly, for fighting through that. He eventually gets to his feet. He kind of controls the clinch a little bit, creates separation, but he could never really kind of get right. He was still a little bit wobbly at that time. By the way, he's eaten huge knees in the clinch during this moment as well. Krylov was landing offense in basically every scenario and in virtually every exchange. Some of it harder than others. And by the way, Gustafsson landing a right hook of his own in some of those exchanges,

which would pop Krylov's head back, but to not much avail. So how did the final finishing off sequence happen? That same body kick Gustafsson catches with the same left arm, but he got hit there last time so he doesn't want to do that. So what does he do? He takes his other hand and frames across to the far side shoulder. But the problem there is my left hand, if I'm Gustafsson, is occupied with the kick. My right hand is occupied with the far side shoulder. Okay, I've eliminated threats on that right side, but now Krylov has a

free left hand. So Krylov just sneaks it in the middle and cracks him underneath. He falls, and then he finishes him off with a series of punches from there. It was a nice job from Krylov to just relentless attack. Relentless attack at different ranges. Relentless attack constantly through the course of the bout. I mean, I don't know if he had some kind of idea that Gustafson would fold early and this was the right approach. But either way, it was the perfect approach for this kind of scenario. Listen, these conversations are difficult about a fighter like Gustafson. And I feel incredibly frustrated for him because obviously he did not want to accomplish, excuse me, he did not accomplish what he wanted to in his career.

He wanted to be the champion. He gave Jon Jones in that first bout that they had everything he could handle. He gave Daniel Cormier pretty much the same thing. One of the two toughest bouts those guys ever had and came up wanting. And then he has wins over Glover. He has wins over Jan. And those two guys ended up becoming champions. Honestly, if you take Gustafson's time in the sport and you just fast forward it a few more years where he doesn't run into those buzz saws and of course Anthony Johnson had something to say about that too but if you just kind of don't if he didn't start when he started and he started a little bit later he probably would be champion honestly he he probably would be but the reality is it didn't happen for him and I I get the sense that he doesn't want to end in this way. He doesn't want to end looking enfeebled. He doesn't want to end having not given himself something to be proud of in that last stretch. And I don't know if he thinks the title is even possible anymore. I don't know what he thinks, obviously. of them is they don't really throw back. That's not so much what he was doing,

but another one is they just lose their capacity to absorb damage, and I do think you're seeing that. Listen, I'm not saying Krylov is some kind of soft hitter. I don't in any way think that's the reality, but those punches, I think Gustafson, it's pretty fair to say, at least it seems that way, he would have been able to take them previously before the career wound to this point that he's at now. Coming off of a two-year layoff, I appreciate that he tried, to be honest with you. The Verdum thing seemed kind of doomed from the get-go, and it didn't go very well. This went even worse for the most part. This was bad. And so when you've arrived at the position where you can't take damage anymore like you used to,

a lot of times in MMA what we say is, okay, well what else could he accomplish? And we applaud him getting back out there. Certainly I appreciate the effort that he is putting in there. But it's not in his interest to praise his effort anymore. There becomes a point where the damage has accumulated enough where it is affecting their health. And if you are at the stage where the chin is where his chin is,

then I think the humane and moral and appropriate thing to do is, yes, if you want to praise what he is trying, I give him all the credit in the world for really kind of trying to muscle his way back out there. But the truth is it's bad for him now. It's very, very bad for him now. His health is already perilous if you're at this stage. Asking him to continue at this point is simply, in my judgment, unethical.

I really don't think it's the right call for him or his family or his future. He has a long life after this. What will be the quality of life that he has if he keeps going, right? Even if you wanted to say he could get more wins, which is probably true, he could probably get some more wins somewhere along the line. How much would he have to sacrifice in training in terms of his overall long-term health? How doable is it? How financially rewarding is it? All of these things bring into question that in the totality of the picture, it doesn't really make sense. And I know the standard argument, oh, no one can tell anyone else when they should retire. That's true. We cannot. We cannot make those decisions for him. Only he can make those decisions or potentially athletic

commissions or whatever. But while there are certain cases that are a little bit borderline about whether someone should continue, this one to me does not appear borderline. This one appears to me very, very clear that whatever he used to be, which is to me a top-tier elite 205-pounder, those days have since passed. And I think the appropriate decision in terms of what is achievable, what is financially rewarding, what about quality of life long term. When you factor all these things together, I think it's probably time he moved on to something else. Easy for me to say.

I understand that. Very, very difficult to accept these kinds of things, which is why I think he's holding on as long as he did. But the game is not fair. It doesn't always reward. I saw someone tweeting me being like, well, the best guy always wins. Okay, for the most part, that's what we hope is true, but it's not really true. And also, the era in which you compete will dictate what kind of rewards you achieve and what kind of heights are available to you. He competed in an era where the two guys in front

of him, and Anthony Johnson was obviously a win over him as well, but wasn't necessarily a limiting factor in terms of potentially getting a title in that way. But the greatest to ever do it maybe in all of MMA was in his weight class, and then the second best in that weight class maybe ever was right behind him in terms of Jon Johnson right in front of Gustafson. So this was a very, very difficult era for him to be competing in. I take no pleasure in saying this, but it really, it does seem to be, it does seem to be time. Also on this card, a women's flyweight contest, Molly McCann defeating Hannah Goldie. This contest ended at 352 of the first round. Molly McCann, I think, joins only Ricardo Ramos as the only person to have, I think, back-to-back wins set up, at least from a spinning back elbow.

This was actually a pretty good job from Molly McCann. She used a lot of level changes and a little bit of delayed timing, where she would go low to the body over the top, then wait for the hook, get out of the way of it, and then throw the hook herself over the top. That was pretty nice from Hannah Goldie. Excuse me, from Molly McCann as well. Goldie nearly got a takedown one time where she was able to from Hannah Goldie. Excuse me, from Molly McCann as well. Goldie nearly got a takedown one time where she was able to clinch and then spin McCann, but McCann kind of

fell into the fence. So the fence saved her there a little bit. But if you're Hannah Goldie, once you rotate off the fence, that's the time to secure it. Obviously, it didn't work, so she tried to keep rotating, but then the fence ended up doing McCann a little bit of favors. McCann landed a nice right after a single leg pickup from Goldie, so we go back to the Gustafson fight. Gustafson catches the kick. It's a little bit different. In this case, Goldie reached for a leg, but ended up in the same spot. Once you get that spot, it's incumbent, and this goes back to the Gustafson fight as well, you got to off-balance him immediately, right? Because part of the reason why the shots in the Krylov fight landed

as hard as they did is because he has weight under him. He could drive off one leg and power through. That's not perfect, but it's enough. But if you're getting run backwards, you're getting pulled, or you're getting turned with that single leg and they're having to balance off of it, yes, a punch will land, but it won't necessarily be that hard. You can't just stand there. You got to move with it. She didn't. She gets hit with a nice shot. So that was pretty good. In fact, Goldie got dropped, it seemed like, by that same kind of punch. So the best part about it though is, what really to me was kind of interesting, is how McCann set up the spinning back elbow. There was a, I think she landed a punch and it may or may not have landed, but the real key was she pushed Goldie back into the fence.

So Goldie gets pushed into the fence, and she gets pushed. I mean, if I pushed you with one hand, it potentially would just drive that shoulder back or that hip back or make you drive that foot back. But if I do two to catch your bounce, especially if it's along the fence line, she actually ends up going square.

And then McCann just steps across and then fires the elbow, and that was all she wrote. And she gets hit with that, and there's a couple more punches afterwards. It was a nice job from Molly McCann. That's a really nice job. I know a lot of people are like, oh, well, you know, is she beating top contenders? No, not necessarily. That's not the stage of the career that she's in. But if you're fighting someone this overmatched, again, I go back to it.

What are you supposed to do? You're supposed to dispatch with them. That's what she did. She dispatched with them. It was a couple of right hands. Maybe I think Goldie landed along the way. One of the things that still has to be about Goldie, it's the same kind of problem that Sean Shirk had a little bit.

Although Shirk was a little bit more nimble with it, if memory serves. Goldie is obviously well-muscled and very strong. She does obviously have some ability. I just noticed that there was a little bit of stiffness in the upper body I don't know if it's directly related to the musculature that's something for someone who knows the body mechanics and how all that works a little bit better than me but just whatever the reason may be

there was a little bit more of natural fluidity of movement from McCann Goldie you know just she's strong as an ox. And I think there are ways to maximize that body type in MMA, which is a little bit more wrestling and clinch-centric that she wasn't able to bring to bear here. But also just the stiffness. It wasn't that her hand speed was slow,

but people don't realize that when the jab goes, the rear shoulder moves back, the front shoulder moves forward, and the hips obviously turn as well. It just feels like there is, she's obviously in great shape, she's obviously quite strong, she's obviously quite physical, but there's just a little bit of rotational stiffness that I think impacts some of her ability to get the fluidity of movement that she needs both offensively and defensively.

It's a nice win for Molly McCann, it really is. Which takes us now to Paul Craig versus Vulcan Uzdemir, which by the way went to a decision and the judges had it 30-27 across the board for Vulcan Uzdemir. Paul Craig did the Paul Craig thing, right? He did his best with this, where he was trying to get overhooks and pull guard and trying to get butterfly guard and then sweep underneath and move to leg entanglements and ankle entanglements to get anything. And for the most part, for the most part, Uzdemir did what he was supposed to do.

He didn't get into too much trouble on the ground. He broke contact when he needed to. He didn't put his hands on the mat when he was in guard. He kind of kept him in the center. He didn't get too big and wide with his movements for ground and pound. You guys noticed that, right? Because if you take a big wide swing, they can usually shoot the legs in between if they have a very nimble guard. So Uzdemir, I thought for the most part, did what he had to do.

He gets the win. He did look a little sluggish to me in the second round. But in the end, won the second round and then won the third round. Craig just didn't have enough answers. I will tell you what's kind of interesting. I didn't really notice it in this way before, but I kind of noticed it this time. Paul Craig looked to me like he was trying to do the Charles Oliveira thing, but didn't quite have all of the Charles Oliveira pieces to get it done.

In other words, there are times where Oliveira will obviously pull guard sometimes or just flop to his back or whatever if he needs to to invite that kind of game. And sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. He can move to the back from there. That's another part. Like Paul Craig just kind of stays with guard rather than like fully trying to attack the back in all kinds of ways that Oliveira does. Also, Oliveira uses more wrestling and then back exposure in ways that Paul Craig doesn't. So this is what I mean. That's like a little bit of the Charles Oliveira thing.

But I mean it more in this way, where, okay, it doesn't go well for you from guard. Referee creates separation, stands everybody up. And then if you're Paul Craig, you're supposed to go forward. And what would Charles Oliveira do? He would probably march the person down. He might clinch with them a little bit.

He's obviously got phenomenal boxing. But Charles, like if you go back to, for example, the Justin Gaethje fight, he puts a pace on you. Right? He puts a pace on you. And there were times when Gus, excuse me, when Uzdemir was tired where I thought, man, if Craig just really kind of stepped on the gas here, really stuck behind the jab and, you know, obviously asking someone to do the Charles Oliveira thing is not so easy. I'm not saying that because he can't do it, this is all the end of the world. It's a very, very big ask to be, oh, maybe the best lightweight on earth in terms of that style. Obviously, this is a light heavyweight contest.

But I do sort of wonder, like, what makes Charles Oliveira's game work? It works for very particular reasons. And in part, it's because he can flop to his back when it's necessary he can pull guard when necessary he can work that guard game when necessary but when that doesn't work right he's back up to pushing a pace driving forward clinching sticking behind the jab exchanging on the feet right and then double le-changing. There's just a little bit more of what is necessary to complement a very effective guard game in the totality of modern MMA.

I think that's sort of what occurred to me. It's like there were times, for example, Craig would get up and then somewhat force the action on the feet, but it was never sustained enough in this bout in that way to make that all work for him in the end. He didn't get any of the rounds on any of the judges' scorecards. So there was pieces of, you can kind of see why the Charles Oliveira game works. Charles Oliveira probably has a better guard, although for light heavyweight, Paul Craig's guard is more than good enough, obviously. But it's all those other pieces.

It's a little bit of extra wrestling. It's that back exposure. It's the back taking. It's the clinching. It's the jab. It's the forward pressure. It's the pace. All of that works together so that when the other people wants to retreat to the ground or he can find an opportunity to leverage it, this is what I mean.

It's just attacking in all scenarios. My favorite kinds of fighters in general, not always, but in general are the ones that attack in all scenarios, right? They've got an offensive, legitimate attack, truly, no matter where the fight goes. If they're pressing up against the fence, if they're getting pressed up against the fence, if they're on top, if they're on their back, if they're on someone else's back, if they're at kickboxing range, if they're at boxing range, and Oliveira gets hit, his game is not perfect either. But it is fair to say, having a good guard and leveraging it in unusual ways can be quite beneficial.

Paul Craig has done that to, for the most part, pretty decent effect, this bout notwithstanding. But when that fails, the other pieces of the game have to be there to get the win because overly relying on the guard as good as, I mean, dude, is anyone going to say Paul Craig doesn't have a good guard? He's got a phenomenal guard, a phenomenal guard. And he's got other good parts of his game too. But relying on the guard in that way without those complementary pieces and the pace that accompanies them, it's going to be difficult to beat some of the better guys. Uzdemir was tired in the second and third rounds. I do wonder if some of those other pieces weren't in place. Again, easy for me to say, but if those other pieces weren't in place, how much more doable a win was. It's funny,

the scores were 30-27, and I think that those were the right scores, but I do wonder how winnable this fight was if some of the other portions of the game that bring everything together in the way that Charles Oliveira brings them together, how much better that would have done him. I don't mean to say, again, oh, you have to go beat Charles Oliveira. I just mean to say we talk about what makes Charles Oliveira good. He recognized that just a good guard, as good as that can be, as valuable as that can be, you got to have a lot of other pieces to really beat elite guys consistently. And I think that

you can see some of that difference. This was like a little bit of Charles Oliveira light to me, right? That's sort of what I come down to on this one. All right, so let's talk about this very, very quickly. How about this dude out of 159? So he's their existing, I believe he's the double champ. He's their middleweight and their light heavyweight champ. Now, this bout took place at 205, but that's their middleweight contest, right? Because of their weight issues, they moved everyone up a weight class, right? So it was 205, but what they call middleweight. Reneer de Ritter is how they say it. If I'm saying it wrong, Dutch people, please don't kill me. I don't in any way know how to properly pronounce Dutch names, so I'm doing my best. He took on Vitaly Bigdash at 1-159. This was the main event. Dude, this guy is phenomenal.

Vitaly Bigdash, by the way, the fight ended at, let's see, 3-29 of round number one. It was a five-round contest. Big Dash looked like he had a decent guillotine attempted there. Pretty tight for a while, but it looks like he was trying to muscle it a little bit too much. So there was one final push. He went on it, and you see Derrida's face turn purple, but then he kind of relented on it because I think that was a maximum squeeze. It didn't result in the tap, and he was like,

well, I'm kind of going to release it a little bit, and then Derrida was hand fighting. He pops his head out, and then he goes to guard from there, or he was on top from there. Now, the way the fight actually ended up ending was pretty interesting. Derrida was on top in half guard, right, not long after the failed guillotine. He attempts a Kimura and I think he baited the back take because he actually opened up spots, like I'm going to sort of show underneath his arm, underneath the side of his arm, just like this that I'm showing on camera. If you're listening on podcast, just imagine your arm is sort of chicken winged and you're out to the side. It's all the space underneath. He actually kind of opened that, and you see Big Dash almost sit up through it.

At that point, whether he baited it or not, Derrida then attempts to take the back. That fails because Big Dash is scrambling through. So then he tries on the arm that he had the Kimura on to flip over around and then get an armbar on it. That fails as well. And then what ends up happening is, not long after it, they kind of go to a, essentially, Derrida is working from his back and locks up an inverted triangle. So he's almost like, he's basically almost like perpendicular-ish to Big Dash in

that way to close the show. And the reason why you like the inverted triangle, the reason why I like the inverted triangle so much, is one, it's just a clever setup from that scenario. And by the way, watch how his hand fighting goes from the wrist to the back of the arm on Big Dash to pull him into it. But the better point is, if you go and look at the way in which Big Dash finally got caught,

he's turning this way, which brought the hamstrings and the calf on both sides of the carotid arteries to close it. So rather than it, what's a typical triangle? It's going to be the arm across like this, and then the other person's kind of hamstrings on the other side. This was hamstrings and calf like directly on it. And the reason why I like that one is, I mean, you sort of think about it naturally. Rather than the calf being on the back of the neck and forcing it down, you're using your hamstrings and your calf on either side of the throat to close. You just have a much more muscular compression. Your hamstrings, if you're in good

shape, should be very strong, very strong pulling motion. So what ends up happening is you actually bring that, rather than the calf to the back of the neck, everything kind of switches around, and now the hamstrings are on one side and the calf is on the other. That's a hell of a squeeze. Dude, Big Dash didn't last much longer from there at all. He went out, I think, maybe five seconds or less later. Phenomenal win from this guy who's undefeated. He's their double champ. Rene DeRitter, again, if I'm saying that wrong, please don't kill me. Rene DeRitter, this guy is an absolute beast. Folks are asking, is he ready for the big shows, the UFCs and something like that? Yes, more than ready, more than ready. I don't know what weight class he would want to go to. I'm guessing 205 would be the best one for him or the American 205. So

light heavyweight, not the one middleweight, which is 205, but you get the idea. Great, great, great guard game from this guy. And again, attacking all the time. Attacking from unorthodox positions. Learning how to wrestle, so to speak, and be limber and effective with movement with his legs, right? A lot of big guys, they have good ground games on top. They can pass. They can do head and arm triangles. They can do Kimuras. Here's a guy who can do it off of his back from his legs, Paul Craig-esque, but this is a more target of opportunity

rather than sort of pulling someone into it in that way. Phenomenal job. Phenomenal job by this guy. He is must watch. If you are not watching one championship and you're not watching Rene DeRitter, again, I'm sure I'm saying that like in the most awful way imaginable, but if you're not watching Rainier de Ritter, again, I'm sure I'm saying that in the most awful way imaginable,

but if you're not watching him, you're missing out on one of the very best prospects. Obviously, he's a double champ, but I mean when I say prospect is against the very best, what I'm assuming will be the very best light heavyweights in the world. You're doing yourself a disservice.

This guy is a beast, a total beast. And for our fifth and final fight here on extra credit, introducing the new McSpicy from McDonald's. It looks like a regular chicken sandwich, but it's actually a spicy chicken sandwich. McSpicy. Consider yourself warned. Limited time only at participating McDonald's in Canada.

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one or two steps back for young fighters out there paying attention I see a lot of people even at the UFC level they'll put their hands in front of their face to block which which is fine depending on the right circumstance. I mean, there's all different ways to defend. This is, for the most part, a perfectly appropriate one in the right cases. And he only shuffles a few steps back, or very little, like just a small amount of distance. So he doesn't have to constantly fight his way in the inside by taking these little giant leaps backwards, right? Just a little bit there, and then he's right back on you. Very, very, very smart the way he does that. Very, very technical. By the way, the guy's 8-0, totally undefeated. This is a welterweight, about a 170, but the way he set it up was so nice. He pulls guys into traps all the time. The left hand was landing

constantly, but this is how he closed the show. He's in Orthodox and he's circling a little bit to his left, right? Or Iniguez, his opponent, is circling to his right. What he does is he goes, even from an Orthodox stance, he goes right cross, or I should say right straight in this, right cross in this way, right? So he goes with the right, then he switches stances, so he takes a big step out, and then that lines up the left. Now, why does that work? Well, let's think about this. If I'm this way and I'm circling to my left, it might mean I'm lining up the left hand,

but it's not going to quite work because you're going to be able to move just a little bit out of the way of it even if I land something. But if I can land a lead right hand with that outside stance change, now I have lead outside foot position. You got to pay attention to what happens with Iniguez when he gets hit with the right hand. Partly it's just a way for Geraldo to cheat the distance and then get that step in there that he needs. That's partly it. The other part is Iniguez is moving a little bit, not like constant, like Jack Hermanson lateral movement, but a fair amount of lateral movement. And so what it does is when he takes that, when he throws the right hand and then takes

that step, Iniguez gets pushed slightly backward, but not a huge amount, just a little bit, just a little bit. But the point being there is one, for Aldo's cheating the distance, two, with that switch step, he's taking the outside lead foot position. And more to the point, it stops that movement from Iniguez. So now he goes just a little bit back, which lines up the left hand perfectly, right? It's lead right, switch step. He has gone, he has been frozen in space. And so now the left comes right down the pike. Dude, it is, that dude is a beast of a striker. Very, very, very, very good by Roman Feraldo. Love watching this guy compete.

If you're not paying attention to him, he's a born highlight reel. Phenomenal striker. Sets traps all the different ways he can do them. And this one was clever. Orthodox, lead right, switch stance, left hand, freezes him in space before he can land the left, helps him cheat the distance, help him, and by the way, obviously what also lines up the left is taking that outside foot position, that alley step that they talk about, right? Takes that outside foot position, lines up the left hand perfectly.

Dude, that is a guy you want to be paying attention to. Roman Feraldo out a Bellator 283. All right, last but not least, honorable mention. Very quickly, Muhammad Mokhaev taking on Charles Johnson. Mokhaev got the job done. He landed five of ten takedowns in just the third round and only one significant strike. For as good as the guy looked in his previous bout, which was his UFC debut, and he got the job done here, it still is a showcase in how much further he has to go, where there just wasn't a whole lot of ground and pound in this contest.

Frankly, either way, I believe I have the numbers here. I want to pull them up very quickly. Yeah, so here's the significant strikes that Mokai have landed. Six in round one, five in round two, one in round three. Now, his opponent didn't do much better. Charles Johnson, one significant strike in round one, five in round two, one in round three. Now, his opponent didn't do much better. Charles Johnson, one significant strike in round one, five in round two, six in round three. So they kind of switched. But Mokaev, four of 11 takedowns in round one, three of five takedowns in round two,

five of 10 takedowns in round three. The takedowns and the control basically saved him here. He accumulated in round one over four minutes of control time, three and a half minutes in round two, and nearly four minutes again in round three. That was the sort of story there, but it also kind of shows there's a little bit more development, particularly in the striking and then the blending of it all, to really bring him along. It's a good win. It's a solid win, but people have been talking about like, oh, how fast is he going to go

up the ranks? Again, everybody, slow the roll. He obviously is quite talented, but let's take our time with guys, even when they show a lot of promise, because at this stage, there's a lot of different pieces of their game that look good, but then they need to be more fully developed, more fully tested to really get a sense of exactly how far along they are. And then last but not least, I'm sure I'm going to mispronounce one of these names, but back to Bellator 283, Akhmed Megamedov taking on Kevin Boom, I think I say it, Boom?

It's B-O-E-H-M, I'm not sure how you pronounce it. Small story here, this guy has a lot of submissions on his record, particularly by Rear Naked Choke. He's defending a takedown, like a single leg attempt from Kevin, I'll say, and gets perpendicular on him, and then from that, locks up a rear naked choke grip on the throat, and is able then, through a rolling process, basically from like, he ends up being in like side turtle, Kevin Bome is. He's in side turtle, Ahmed Meghamedov stuffing the takedown still gets the take still gets the arm in across the throat traps the far leg rolls through similar-ish similar-ish to what Patty did with Jordan Leavitt and then got the rear naked choke dude it was nasty

nasty nasty stuff that dude looked like he was in great shape you can tell he has all do all these guys like waiting to find the back and then they get the back, and then they're hand fighting for rear naked choke entries. Dude, it's hard to do that, especially if they have two hands free. We talk about this all the time. We go back to the Kevin Lee and Al Iaquinta fight on Fox. I think it was the second of their two fights. I think that's right. Kevin Lee was able to capture the back for long stretches of time,

but Al Iaquinta had both hands, and he has good submission defense from the back. Kevin couldn't really make it work. And so it's good to have the control, but it's hard to get the submission once you're there. You're starting to see a lot of people in MMA set up entries both to the back and the choke from what I would call unconventional positions that enable them to more fully secure the choke in ways that the old school style of Jiu Jitsu which is pass, take the back, put the hooks in, body triangle and then fight

for it. That's a hard way of doing things. That's very labor intensive. This is much better. Failed on a takedown, failed on a series of struggling single leg attempts, gets cross side with him, locks up the choke, sinks the near side hook in on the arm, rolls him through and then finishes him off.

I like that kind of stuff a little bit better. Inventive, clever, slick, fast, surprising. If it's surprising you as a viewer, I would imagine it's surprising the opponent as well. So those are the ones that I liked. What were the ones that you liked from the weekend? Please let me know. Leave a comment below. I appreciate you guys watching. My name is Luke Thomas. I am one half of the Morning Combat Duo, and that's it for me today. So I will be back with you next week to talk about UFC 277's

leftovers and such, all that good stuff. Until then, thumbs up on the video, hit subscribe. Enjoy the fights.