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us now, tip to tip! This

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is our life, this is our passion! That's

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the spirit we bring to this show! I'm

1:17

Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This

1:19

is Morning Combat. Oh

1:22

yeah, you stay here. That sounded

1:24

a lot, right? Yeah! The

1:26

show that used to be the best

1:29

damn thing that ever happened to you

1:31

is back. Promises made and promises kept.

1:33

Hey, Luke Thomas, let's make Morning Combat

1:35

great again. We're back Monday, February 12,

1:37

2024. Hey guys, it's Fight Week, UFC

1:41

298, Anaheim, California,

1:44

and an absolute banging

1:47

of a pay-per-view main card that we're about

1:49

to serve up. LT, your boy, B.C. Brian

1:51

Campbell right here, and Luke Thomas, while it's

1:54

been a long time since you and I

1:56

have rock and rolled in these parts

1:58

to come back together. And

2:00

to get people hopefully anywhere

2:03

close as to fire it up as

2:05

you are right now for Volk versus

2:07

Toporia I'm here. Let me

2:09

be your gateway drug. Let me let's bang.

2:11

Let's bang to II let's bang Chewie Let's

2:13

bang everyone in between. Yeah, man Hello,

2:16

everyone. Nice to see you all out there

2:19

again. I hope everything's going well

2:21

So yes, we are here to talk about UFC

2:23

298 because BC here is the great part about

2:25

298 Even if the rest

2:27

of the card were a apex

2:29

style card We would be groaning about that

2:31

But what you could at least say is

2:33

hey that main event this top shelf

2:35

is for it's just a plus First

2:38

class the whole nine yards, but the good

2:40

news is that's actually not the overall case

2:42

Yes, that main event is in fact very

2:44

very good. BC. This main

2:46

card is Absolutely.

2:49

Excellent top to bottom The

2:52

preliminary card has a couple of bright spots on

2:54

it, but it's not that great This

2:56

main card to me top to bottom. I

2:59

love it So many good fights so

3:01

many great storylines a lot to look

3:03

forward to for Saturday's pay-per-view. Absolutely Absolutely

3:10

About it I'm here to tell you that

3:12

Mikey Bormau CBS Sports is on the ones

3:14

and twos on this program and you can

3:16

go To morning combat dot store. Yes, even

3:18

during our hiatus right now to check out

3:20

our latest merch I believe there's a deal

3:22

on hats tell RJ Dunkel

3:24

gangbang that Your boy BC

3:26

sent you so damn fired up for this

3:28

card and look I don't want to tell

3:31

celebrities how to live their lives

3:33

I mean we are you know less than 12 hours removed

3:35

from a Gotta be honest here a

3:37

freaking badass Super Bowl that went into

3:40

overtime that had maybe the best halftime

3:42

show that I've ever seen Luke, uh,

3:45

yeah, I said these things out loud So

3:47

I don't want to tell Tom Brady Charles Barkley

3:49

and Travis Scott how to live their life But

3:52

I think they picked the wrong Zufo event going to

3:54

power slap the other night They should be

3:56

an Anaheim this Saturday for 298 because

3:59

damn the torpedo Damn the 300 main

4:01

event 298 has got

4:03

it going on. You know 299 is a

4:05

great card 300 We don't have any updates

4:07

about it that that There

4:10

was no there was no Super Bowl commercial announcing any

4:12

kind of Hail Mary So I guess the Hail Mary

4:14

thing has passed but again the 298 main

4:16

card man It's just full of excellency whether

4:19

or not Charles Barkley is being paid to

4:21

attend people slapping in front of them who

4:23

probably Need that for gas money to get

4:25

home that night, you know, I'm just saying

4:27

I'm just saying There yeah, did you not

4:29

were you not entertained by Usher? I

4:32

mean the guy who I would say you're okay I

4:34

mean you didn't just say you were entertained by Usher

4:36

What you said was it's the best one you've maybe

4:38

ever seen and I'm like, dude We live in a

4:40

world where we saw Shakira and JLo up

4:42

there Like do you have the temerity to really argue

4:44

that I do better than that. I

4:46

have the temerity. I've got visuals

4:49

of temerity, I'll tell you that much Oh

4:54

It was one of those situations where I

4:56

actually missed the first half of the game I walked in back

4:59

into the house. My wife and kids are watching like hey halftime

5:01

show and you know They're really into it because that's their thing

5:04

I'm not I'm not an usher guy or at least I didn't think

5:06

I was dude that was like Elvis

5:08

Michael Jackson level command and then you

5:10

can you take into account the Stamina

5:13

necessary to deliver that performance and then getting

5:15

all handsy with Alicia Keys as if there's

5:18

something going on there I mean

5:20

this was start to finish a Superstar

5:23

effort. So I remember the Shakira

5:25

thing. I remember you loving it a lot of people

5:27

loving it It wasn't necessarily my cup of tea. I

5:29

don't usually pop for these halftime shows. I feel like

5:31

they're a mess There's a lot of people jumping in

5:33

and out for whatever reason Luke the other

5:35

night last night it worked and Usher

5:38

in my mind just went from that guy that I

5:40

think I know to like oh man

5:42

You know, maybe I should be modeling my what my

5:44

life after this guy look I mean that was that

5:46

was like Jordan holding the hand up against the jazz

5:48

in game six and 98. I mean that was Right,

5:51

or am I I guess I'm making this up.

5:53

Apparently I'm making myself. All right I mean, I

5:55

just don't understand how like Prince can perform a

5:57

halftime special and you think ushers is better Prince.

6:01

Like how is that possible? I don't I don't

6:03

I thought it was good. I thought it

6:06

was good. I I liked it. I definitely

6:08

absolutely liked it. I thought he put on

6:10

a good show. I have

6:12

nothing critical really to say

6:14

about it but I just you know in the

6:16

pantheon of all-time great Super Bowl halftime performances. Jesus

6:20

this wouldn't be top five maybe not even top ten.

6:22

I mean what are we talking about? Did you not

6:24

notice the effort that man gave? But all right enough

6:26

of that. All right hold on the last thing on

6:28

the game itself. Okay the ending

6:31

it got better at the end. I mean there's

6:34

no denying that but dude for three quarters that

6:36

game sucked the horn. That game was awful

6:38

for the first three quarters. I

6:41

watched the second half in OT with my

6:43

son had a great father-son bonding moment and

6:46

I was entertained but that's neither here nor

6:48

there. I don't even want to say the

6:50

first two quarters horrendous

6:52

football like not good at all. So just

6:55

that's it. There you go. There it is

6:57

whoomp there it is but we're here for

6:59

298 so let's get into it Anaheim California

7:01

as I mentioned this Saturday and

7:04

boy we're talking about royalty in this main

7:06

event. We're talking about the greatest featherweight champion

7:08

in the history of the sport Alexander Volkonovski

7:10

literally a living legend right now but

7:14

entering here's what makes this matchup and

7:16

this card great. He's entering arguably the

7:18

toughest fight of his entire reign and

7:20

he could not be entering with more

7:22

questions fresh off the head kick knockout

7:24

loss on short notice against Volkonovski. I'm

7:26

sorry against the number one pound

7:28

for pound Mahachev in their last fight for the lightweight

7:31

title and obviously it makes

7:33

things different when Toporia is riding

7:35

such an incredible hot streak that Luke

7:38

you have been teasing for months

7:40

now that when people said hey

7:42

gun to your head I know we're four months

7:44

out from 298 like who's going to

7:47

win this who's going to be the next champion the

7:49

fact that you've got that level of belief in

7:51

Toporia gets me even extra excited because nobody

7:53

believed in Volkonovski more on this ride on

7:55

this journey to where we are than you

7:58

yet here he is at age 35

8:01

and the vaunted Luke Thomas

8:03

supported in patriarchs death

8:05

stat that nobody beyond

8:07

Tyrone Woodley after 35 in men's

8:10

MMA, welterweight or below can win

8:13

a title match. Boy, is

8:15

he going to put that to the

8:17

test here against the toughest matchup available.

8:20

When I asked you outright from a

8:22

macro view, what gives you that confidence

8:24

to tease that this might be Toporiya's

8:27

moment? What do you tell me about

8:29

his rise and his journey up to this point? Well,

8:31

like everything else, it's context dependent, right?

8:33

So let's back up a step. If

8:36

these two guys, Alexander Volkonovski and Ilya

8:38

Toporiya, have they been scheduled to fight,

8:40

let's say even just a year ago,

8:42

right? Would I have been

8:44

as eager or even outright picked to for

8:46

you to beat Volkonovski? Probably not.

8:49

No, I think it actually required the

8:51

right amount of time, the right context

8:53

for things to build to this point.

8:55

I want to be very, very clear

8:57

about this. When we're talking about Alexander

8:59

Volkonovski, we're talking about one

9:02

of the best fighters to ever do it. I

9:04

don't know where all of his, will

9:06

he be on MMA's Mount Rushmore? Will folks consider

9:08

him BC tomorrow, one of your metaphors at the

9:10

head table of the all time greats? His career

9:12

is not done, but I think even with what

9:14

he's achieved now, it would be hard for me

9:16

to see that he wouldn't be considered an all

9:18

time great. However, he is an all time

9:20

great at 35. And I don't bring that up just to

9:23

be like, oh, it's the stat again. But I am saying

9:25

just to remark, he is at an

9:28

age where we know he is almost certainly

9:30

out of his athletic prime, right?

9:32

The prime is usually 31, 32, 33. You're

9:35

now 35 years of age. You are outside of that.

9:37

And of course, he's going to build that up

9:39

with tactical awareness and strategic prowess. And he's got tons

9:41

of experience and that's all going to help him as

9:43

well. But he's also coming off of

9:45

a head kit KO loss granted up a weight class

9:47

under less than ideal circumstances. And more

9:49

to the point you're asking about Taporia, what have I seen?

9:52

You could tell that Taporia from

9:55

his early UFC days was very,

9:57

very skilled, but what you

9:59

had a harder time. I'm noticing was

10:01

at first, what was he built for greatness?

10:04

But his improvement BC has been rapid, right?

10:06

This is a guy that primarily was a

10:08

grappler kind of first. He got his Jiu

10:11

Jitsu Black Belt, I think, a few years

10:13

ago and began to build out

10:15

the rest of his game kind of around that

10:17

the fact that we barely even associate that with

10:19

him now, I think kind of tells

10:21

you about the development of his game he has

10:24

been, he, by the way, even, even then when

10:26

he would begin to strike, it was a little

10:28

more of that sort of bladed karate style and

10:30

now he's much more of just a boxer. He

10:32

has found his own identity and through that, what

10:35

I have noticed is foundationally, he has

10:37

many of the skills you need. He

10:39

is a very good athlete overall. He

10:41

now has five round experience. But

10:44

the big issue for me BC

10:46

is what does the youth confer

10:48

besides speed, besides, you know, a

10:50

belief in his own sense of

10:52

things as it relates to, you know, confidence,

10:54

he's never lost, all that stuff. That's all

10:56

great. But the thing that really

10:59

I come back to here is I believe

11:01

that over time, Volkonovski could

11:03

hurt someone like Tiforia,

11:06

but I think Tiforia needs

11:08

hardly any opportunity at all,

11:10

barely, and he can absolutely

11:12

wallop Volkonovski. He hits harder.

11:14

His ground in town is

11:16

absolutely savage. His hand

11:18

speed is ridiculous, right? He can do

11:20

so many things with physical intent in

11:22

a way where it's a bit more

11:24

of a slow bleed process with Volkonovski.

11:26

So what does that mean, BC? In

11:28

the end, when you combine the age

11:30

of Volkonovski and the miles and what

11:33

that does to his game with

11:35

the conditions he came to us in off that

11:37

head kick KO, granted, I'm not saying he's going

11:39

to be like, oh, completely wounded from it, but

11:41

I don't think we can discount it either. And

11:43

then you add in the development of

11:46

Tiforia's game with the final note being

11:48

what the margin of error that Volkonovski

11:50

has in absorbing an errant shot and

11:52

being able to survive it, I think

11:55

is much more narrow

11:57

than a lot of folks might realize. Look,

12:00

this is the ultimate UFC pay-per-view

12:02

main event because it's a virtual

12:04

pick-up betting wise. And you know, when you can

12:06

get something that's, you know, minus 100 one way

12:08

plus 200 the other way

12:10

you feel like a Super Bowl. This as we

12:13

look at FanDuel's odds at the moment, minus

12:15

120 Volkanovski, your favorite,

12:17

but Toporia minus 104 right

12:20

there with them. So it's a virtual pick-up

12:22

and it makes a lot of sense when

12:24

you consider the 27-year-old Toporia 14-0,

12:27

6-0 in the UFC, 4

12:29

by stoppage, and you look at the

12:31

path of destruction. I mean, he folded

12:33

Jai Herbert in half. He nearly forced

12:35

Bryce Mitchell to openly, I mean, not

12:37

nearly, he did. He forced Bryce Mitchell

12:39

to openly consider retirement due to the

12:41

severity of the beating. And

12:43

then like you mentioned, he proves that he's got

12:45

the five-round championship stamina against an old warhorse like

12:48

Josh Emmett, who nobody can go in there confident

12:50

against. I mean, look what he just did against

12:52

Bryce Mitchell on short notice. So

12:54

he earned it. He's here. He's now the

12:57

odds show you how great this fight is.

12:59

But look, I got to say this one

13:01

thing, you know, something about DDP that snuck

13:03

up on a Drake's Dupucy, now your middleweight

13:06

champion was like Toporia, but maybe a little

13:08

bit more drastic was his improvement over a

13:10

short time span in the UFC. But

13:13

one thing I think we talk about now in

13:15

hindsight with DDP is man, look at the

13:18

star power, the understanding, it's not just

13:20

the confidence, right? It's the ability to

13:23

be so comfortable under the lights. It's

13:25

the ability to execute in situations

13:28

maybe that you haven't quite earned through

13:30

experience yet. You got to say the

13:32

same thing about Toporia, watching him on the Countdown

13:34

show, seeing the way he handles himself, his personal

13:36

life, as you've mentioned many times, he's an outright

13:39

stud and star in Spain and

13:41

has the support of the famous

13:43

footballers. And it is an, you

13:45

know, a legitimate celebrity there, dude,

13:47

he carries himself like that. And sometimes

13:49

that doesn't matter, but sometimes it

13:51

does. He expects to go in

13:54

there and knock out Volkonowski and has said it

13:56

that much. You're right. He's

13:58

absolutely a legitimate threat. So you

14:00

love the idea of him getting the chance against

14:02

one of the greatest all-time and the greatest in

14:05

this division's history To truly

14:07

prove himself on that elite level while

14:09

the great one himself Volkanovskiy Has

14:12

to try to do something that Valentina Shevchenko just

14:14

did losing your title Although in this case

14:17

Volkanovskiy didn't lose his featherweight title, but he lost

14:19

now twice on the title level at lightweight But

14:22

then coming right back at the same

14:24

age as Shevchenko did and even though

14:26

she only got a draw against Alexa Grasso in

14:28

the rematch At UFC Noce we saw

14:30

how that that 10-8 round which shouldn't have been

14:33

would have given her the win So

14:35

the real question here even bigger

14:37

in my eyes then is it's a glorious time?

14:39

Is he ready for this is

14:41

what can Volkanovskiy do to go

14:44

back to the drawing board to the division in

14:46

which he's Undefeated to the division in which he's

14:48

beaten legend after legend and

14:51

can he with a full camp? Figure

14:54

out again how to be Alexander the Great

14:56

at age 35 Luke you

14:58

brought to prominence an interview that was done in

15:01

the oceanic region by the the Upstart

15:05

site she loves the gloves in which she

15:07

talked to Eugene Bairman who's what I guess

15:09

we could say the co-coach Co-head

15:11

coach of Alexander Volkanovskiy about

15:13

that short notice decision to

15:16

take on Maha Chek which

15:18

look you've been very outspoken this entire way

15:20

and saying that was a bad look I have to

15:22

say I'm surprised to see a couple things one Volkanovskiy

15:26

so willingly now saying look I

15:28

was drinking three to four nights a week when they

15:30

called me for that fight and It

15:32

just was a challenge and I took it but

15:34

that Bairman was strongly against that So

15:36

look we get a lot of MK viewers going

15:38

hey guys you guys are always praised in

15:40

CKB in Eugene and rightfully so But

15:43

Volk does have a separate coach as

15:45

well and in Joe What's

15:48

guys name Luke Joe? I was Joe Lopez Joe

15:51

Lopez. Excuse me What

15:53

do you specifically make of

15:55

coach Eugene being so against

15:58

it in this now ill-fated decision? decision

16:00

of Volkanovskiy. I

16:03

mean, he could end up paying for that. Getting head kicked

16:05

by the best fighter in the world isn't a great situation

16:07

for anyone. But if anyone

16:09

can do the Shevchenko and come back regardless

16:12

of age and regardless of situation, it's

16:14

Volk. But what do you make of

16:16

his own team in essence being like, man, that's a bridge

16:18

too far. Worked for Nganu, didn't work for Volkanovskiy.

16:21

Listen, you're going to find short notice

16:23

guys who are competing under less than

16:25

ideal circumstances do amazing things. You're going

16:27

to see it. It

16:29

has happened in the sport before and it

16:32

will happen in the sport again. But the math

16:34

is simply not on your side. But you

16:36

see, it's one thing to come back even for

16:39

less than ideal circumstances on short notice.

16:41

But let's actually tally up everything that

16:44

Volkanovskiy did. So

16:46

short notice, and by the way, very short notice,

16:48

less than two weeks, like 11 or 12 days.

16:51

Insane short notice. Up

16:53

a weight class. Then

16:57

he does it against an all

16:59

time pound for pound guy. He

17:01

wasn't fighting just any other fighter.

17:04

He was fighting the guy that was either right below

17:06

him or right above him, depending on your rankings, in

17:09

the pound for pound slot. The

17:11

guy, basically, he could fight other than himself

17:14

if he had a clone in the entire

17:16

sport. That's who he was going up against while

17:18

drinking and not being in the gym at

17:21

all. By the way, at a

17:23

pretty advanced age, all were things relatively ... And a

17:26

newborn. And a newborn, everything else. What a newborn

17:28

does to your personal life, right? Oh

17:30

my God, dude. What I would do,

17:33

would be less is like the apple of

17:35

my eye. I love her more than I've maybe ever

17:37

loved anything in this world. But I didn't sleep for

17:39

a fucking year when she was born, dude. It was

17:41

horrible. It was horrible. So you can just imagine what

17:43

that might do to you. So BC, really think about

17:45

... He took

17:47

on not training, drinking,

17:50

which is fine. I'm

17:52

not opposed to the drinking for say. I'm

17:54

just simply saying this is not the

17:56

readiness that you need for a top pound

17:59

for pound guy. And you

18:01

might be asking why he took it Eugene bareman was

18:03

pretty clear in that interview That listen the

18:05

UFC came to him and he doubled down on he

18:07

said Substantially, then he if you were actually

18:09

read the text he goes no, no Substantially

18:11

better contract and better money So he went for

18:14

the guaranteed cash with a higher amount of cash

18:16

in order to get this would be see the

18:18

last thing I would say about this of course

18:20

is you know What do I make of it

18:22

Eugene bareman's a smart guy his counsel to not

18:24

take the fight was probably the right way to

18:26

do it But it's an instant hindsight

18:28

now The other thing that sort of

18:31

stands out here is can you imagine a world BC

18:33

whether you have no Oya in a way or

18:35

bud Crawford number one whoever Where

18:37

they would take a fight on short notice and another far

18:39

apart in wait, but let's say they're really close Taking

18:42

a fight one of the guys takes a

18:44

fight on short notice against the other guy

18:46

to get a much better contract It's unfathomable.

18:49

It's unfathomable that a pound-for-pound great in

18:51

boxing would take a short notice fight

18:53

on that short notice Against another

18:55

pound-for-pound guy up a weight class having not

18:58

trained and been drinking all this time It

19:00

is you would they would never be in

19:02

that position to begin with they would

19:04

have already had a big contract by that point It's

19:07

impossible So I understand

19:09

some of the pressures that Volkonovski felt

19:11

the good news here BC is for

19:14

as ill-advised As that

19:16

decision was and I think I stand by everything I

19:18

said that was a bad decision competitively

19:21

anyway None

19:24

of those factors appear to be in play for

19:26

Ilya to pour you if to pour you

19:28

is going to beat Volk He's gonna get

19:31

Volk healthy off a full camp Having

19:33

really retooled everything and by the way, we didn't

19:35

bring up Volkonovski's arm surgery that also had him

19:38

out, right? I mean all these the oh He

19:41

said afterwards it was almost like because he didn't

19:43

have a fight schedule. Yeah getting pressed. There was

19:45

a cabin fever thing I'm feeling that this winter.

19:47

I don't have a trip scheduled somebody put me

19:49

out of this I know that but but you

19:51

get my point it isn't it? Why are they

19:54

people always making to be like oh guys take

19:56

fights on short notice guys? He was fighting another

19:58

pound-for-pound great you can You

20:01

cannot handicap yourself that

20:03

way and expect to beat somebody that

20:05

good. BC True or False? It's

20:08

true, but isn't it crazy in

20:10

the UFC's pay structure that somebody

20:12

that we're already identifying as a

20:14

living legend and all-time great was

20:17

willing to sacrifice his first defeat

20:19

or not his first defeat, I'm sorry, it was his

20:21

second straight, but a big defeat and a big spot potentially

20:24

for a retirement, potentially for that new restructured

20:27

contract that ultimately would give him what he

20:29

deserves. It's a wild indictment on where we

20:31

are in the pay structure of 2024, but

20:33

it's the reality. So

20:36

I was actually watching the Countdown show, they

20:38

showed the post locker room footage. I'm not

20:40

sure if this had been previously released, but

20:43

immediately after that fight, you can see Volkonovskii

20:45

head in his hands, just

20:47

lamenting the fact that he was drinking four

20:49

nights a week and it was out

20:51

of character and he still accepted the fight. To see Coach

20:53

Craig Jones next to him, who is one

20:55

of the funniest people on the planet

20:57

in this MMA space be so down

20:59

trodden with him, it shows you what

21:01

the champion went through in

21:04

that moment. But here we are,

21:06

full camp, he seems to be

21:08

back mentally and physically, he's saying the right things.

21:11

Here we are, he's got arguably the toughest matchup in front

21:13

of him. So let's talk about the vaunted 35 and

21:16

over or under stat, however you want to look at

21:19

it that Luke, you said, look, it's the men's MMA

21:21

game, not the women's, so we're not going to keep Rocky

21:23

Penning in or maybe- Well, I've got an update on that. In

21:26

this discussion, well, I wanted to read you a DM I

21:28

got from a fan who thinks you need to amend the

21:30

stat in general. First tell me what you're talking about here.

21:33

Well if you go back in, okay, so there are

21:35

three known cases between 125 and 170 where someone

21:39

over the age of 35 has won. But

21:42

let me tell you what those three cases

21:45

are. It is Tyronn Woodley versus Darren Till,

21:47

it is Tyronn Woodley versus- Hauled

21:49

it, just for the record on the MMA team. Hauled

21:52

it, yes. I finished my stuff. Fair

21:54

enough. Woodley versus Demi and Maya

21:56

And then it's Amanda Nunez taking on

21:59

Irenae Aldana. Britain is all

22:01

up to say when Woodley

22:03

Spot. Till Till

22:05

was obviously blow the age of thirty

22:07

Five Orange or he was thirty at

22:10

that point where he was pretty young.

22:12

But in the other two cases, both

22:14

Maya and L. Donna the opponent was

22:16

also over the age of thirty five.

22:19

So leads me to say there has

22:21

been one fucking time. Between. The

22:23

men's and women's game Or someone who

22:25

is thirty five, it over beat someone

22:28

less than that. During. The You

22:30

Fc Title fight. It's happened. positively. One.

22:32

Time. My. Should happen for hims

22:34

janko sheeting get the nod and what you're referencing.

22:37

I did get a D M from fan far

22:39

bod. Not. To far in which

22:41

he laid out that same thing. So look what?

22:43

what? What this fan? Far. Bod was

22:45

trying to ask the you just articulate it. Was.

22:48

We are going to take away then. That.

22:50

That that the bought the Woodley second when with

22:52

as they were both thirty five and over now

22:55

we're taking away that women's fight so men that

22:57

just goes to show you how. Housing.

22:59

Or nor ludicrous. What? Do you

23:01

think the Vulcan Ascii commercial that was just

23:03

put out which is hilarious by the way

23:05

of him playing in Old Man and trying

23:07

to you know really have fun with the

23:09

idea that is over the hill that has

23:11

to be fueled by your sad. Has to be.

23:14

Ah, I have some reason to believe

23:16

that it played a role you but I'll say

23:18

this I thought both have been listen. I

23:21

thought book took that the whole thing in stride. To

23:23

be perfectly honest with you, I saw the commercial was.

23:26

A at that's where the best someone said

23:28

B C the that reminded him of old

23:30

school sports center commercials for the of Pm.

23:32

Determine that true I thought that was

23:34

one hundred percent agree cause exactly what it

23:37

was. But as will remind folks. versus.

23:40

Tendency Right where when mass gets

23:42

a little bit scary, we start

23:44

to ascribe Superstition to it. We

23:48

don't. There is no curse That's that

23:50

like the no one has ever since

23:52

it's set is a curse. We just

23:54

said guys. If. you get

23:56

this old and you fight

23:58

competition this good for this

24:00

kind of a prize, it's

24:03

an uphill climb. That's all we're saying,

24:05

it's a fucking uphill climb. Many have

24:07

tried, when the other opponent is less than

24:09

35, one guy

24:11

in one instance has succeeded. Now, the

24:13

common response I get when I bring

24:16

that up is, hey, well

24:18

if anyone can do it, it's Alexander Volkonovski.

24:20

Fair enough. Fair enough. We're talking about a

24:22

guy who was one of the most technical fighters I've

24:24

ever seen. One of the

24:26

most strategic, thoughtful, technical fighters, that irrespective

24:28

of weight class, the game has ever

24:31

been privileged to see. That is 100%

24:33

true. But

24:35

it is also true that the math is

24:37

not, we didn't

24:40

put a potion together to get

24:42

it going. You know, there was no

24:44

unsprinkled magic, cursed dust on top of

24:46

it. It's just observed

24:49

reality. It just tells you nothing

24:51

is ironclad. But if you

24:53

are over the age of 35, and you

24:55

are trying to defend a UFC title, and

24:57

by the way, PopKlizzBC, how old is Ilya

24:59

Toporia? Twenty-seven. Twenty-seven

25:02

years of age, a 27-year-old

25:04

undefeated hammer, it

25:06

is going to be an uphill climb. And I

25:08

think that is a very, very, very fair way

25:11

to put it. And if you've

25:13

been following the show long enough, it has

25:15

to be, even with all those great stats

25:17

and trends mentioned, it has to be shocking

25:19

that you would pick against, potentially pick against

25:21

Volkanovski. But the thing about

25:23

Toporia is that he does echo a lot of the

25:26

things that you love about life. Luke, he

25:28

was born to a country that he doesn't

25:30

claim, Germany, which, you know, knowing

25:32

you as my Indian co-host, I can understand that.

25:35

He also fell in love with Spain as

25:37

you did that time you went to Madrid

25:40

and became a super fan of that football club.

25:43

So, you know, maybe I understand it, Luke. He

25:45

seems to like Latin women too, based on

25:47

the Countdown show. So maybe this is like

25:50

if Luke Thomas... I

25:52

understand this man very much. Let me just tell you that.

25:54

Yeah, that's what I'm saying. Maybe that's it. Alright, let's jump

25:56

right here. And by the way, the guy who... watched

26:00

the Emmet fight the guy who was

26:02

there in attendance the famous football you

26:04

mentioned is Sergio Ramos, Sergio Ramos, who

26:07

played for Real Madrid and his for

26:09

a time I believe was captain of the Spanish

26:11

national team so we have

26:14

many things in common that we like yes

26:16

that's true. Is Real Madrid in Serie A?

26:19

No Serie A would be Italy,

26:21

so the Spanish is La Liga.

26:24

Okay so not as racist as Serie

26:26

A. Very very racist actually. La Liga

26:29

has had a real bad year

26:33

of racism actually. Let's talk about six

26:35

fights for Toporia

26:39

in the UFC up to this point but

26:41

as I identified they've been amazing. Has

26:44

he fought anything or seen anything that

26:47

could prepare him for Volkonovski? No

26:49

nothing nothing there's this common argument that we

26:51

get all the time and it's a good

26:53

one for the most part. People

26:56

overstate it but it's a good one which

26:58

is hey what has

27:00

Toporia done against someone of a

27:02

high caliber that would even approximate

27:05

what Volkonovski has done right

27:08

if you just look at the guys Volkonovski has beaten beaten

27:10

Max three times and the last of which was very

27:13

authoritative just running the table on Yaya Rodriguez running the

27:15

table on Brian Ortega well I mean he you know

27:17

I was back and forth for a little bit but

27:20

you get the idea in the end he gave him

27:22

a real beating Korean zombie was just completely out of

27:24

his depth I mean it was a whole thing no

27:27

he hasn't done anything like that I mean obviously

27:29

that win over Josh Emmett is really really good

27:31

maybe you could put that on par with some

27:33

of the other good

27:36

but smaller wins that Volkonovski has in his

27:38

title reign but certainly the point stands that

27:40

the level of accomplishment that Volkonovski has reached

27:42

Toporia simply has not just matter-of-factly not at

27:45

all and I really believe if you look

27:47

at the guys do this is more towards

27:49

what you're asking if you look at the

27:51

guys that Toporia has fought to what extent

27:54

are some of them you know

27:56

other games reminiscent of a guy

27:58

like Volkonovski known Not really not many

28:01

of them, but my individual pieces maybe here or

28:03

there but not really Volkonovski is one of one

28:05

He's his own guy and there really is no

28:07

getting around that not just because he is has

28:09

a unique sort of frame and a unique Kind

28:11

of game, but he makes adjustments between rounds BC,

28:14

right? This is a guy who can show you

28:16

one thing and then show you another and then

28:18

show you another and it just gets worse For

28:20

you over time. So in that sense,

28:22

no, I don't think he's seen anything quite like

28:24

it If you're

28:27

going to pick to Poria BC, let's just be honest

28:29

about it and I will I Expect

28:31

him for maybe potentially long stretches of

28:33

the fight to either not be doing

28:35

great or be behind the eight ball

28:37

or You know not really

28:40

getting his game going and I will also

28:42

tell you that if you're picking

28:44

to for you You're partly doing it on

28:46

a projected idea of what he could be.

28:48

You know, it's interesting BC We have

28:50

talked many times about what it means to be 35 years

28:52

old But you'll recall

28:55

many times on this show. We have also

28:57

talked about what it means to

28:59

be 27 We talked about with Marvin Vittorio.

29:01

I know he had a bit of a relapse recently But

29:03

when he turned 27, we saw how much

29:05

better he was actually getting we had talked about that

29:07

specifically here We have another case of a

29:09

guy like 27 Let me just say it very clearly if you're

29:12

27 years old and you're as good as illegal to poor he

29:14

is You're gonna see a different

29:16

guy every time he gets out there the

29:18

level of Improvement that someone can show with

29:20

that amount of a foundational base those kinds

29:22

of athletic gifts and his work You

29:25

know, he appears to be you know hard worker in the

29:27

gym when you put that together You're gonna get a different

29:29

guy every time what I really come back to is I

29:32

Don't I just don't think Volkonovski

29:36

is going to be able for 25

29:38

minutes to keep to poria from landing

29:40

something that he can

29:43

Every time recover from I don't

29:45

believe that I believe eventually he's going to connect and

29:48

it's gonna be too much Well,

29:50

I have to say the only time I was in the

29:52

arena for a toporia fight was the Ryan Hall

29:54

finish which came on the undercard of Poirier

29:57

McGregor 3 back in 2021 and the thing I'd

30:00

take from watching in the first press

30:02

row so closely was dude the patience

30:04

that he showed as Ryan Hall was

30:06

exhibiting in some ways a negative style

30:08

pulling guard trying to do anything to

30:10

lure him into a trap. You

30:13

could see a little frustration, but it

30:15

never affected his poise, his pace, his

30:17

plan of attack. And when it came

30:19

time to finally break through and finish,

30:22

he knocked him out cold. So just

30:24

absolutely nasty. But look, if we say

30:26

the obvious when somebody has so

30:29

much experience on this level, and that's Volkonovski, he's

30:31

13 and 0 in the

30:33

UFC in the featherweight division, unbeaten overall throughout

30:35

his career at 145. We

30:38

have to do the flip side though, even

30:40

though Volkonovski has beaten a bevy of all

30:42

time greats from Aldo to Holloway three times

30:45

to whomever. I mean, when he fought Yair,

30:47

as you mentioned, no one was more dangerous

30:49

at that moment or Tega nearly submitted him.

30:51

God, he's been through the wars. He

30:54

actually fought anybody with the same dynamic

30:57

combination of not just explosiveness,

31:00

but technique, game

31:02

plan, savvy backbone

31:05

that we are

31:07

assuming Toporia will be able to have. Because

31:09

as you mentioned, you're going to have to

31:11

use the eye test a bit and assume

31:13

can Toporia level up on the five round

31:15

championship title level against a guy this great.

31:18

Has Volk fought somebody this specifically dangerous in

31:20

your eyes? This

31:23

one actually, I think favors Volk again a little bit

31:25

too. There

31:28

are big differences, but I do think it's

31:30

fair to say that the Chad Mendes fight

31:32

is pretty close. It

31:34

is relevantly close. How about that? It

31:37

is relevant enough that we should take

31:39

something from that. He's

31:42

got a different body type, but a bit of a bot

31:44

heavy guy. I got to interrupt

31:46

you. That's an aftermarket version who we retired in that fight,

31:48

correct? Yes. Remember,

31:50

Mendes also dropped Volk in that fight with a

31:52

hard punch. The

31:55

kind of guy who could sit you down with a

31:57

punch, who is boxing heavy, who's a little the

32:00

front foot, who's forward pressure. By

32:02

the way, what's the takedown defensive rate of a

32:05

guy like Ilya Toporia? It's 92%. So,

32:07

you know, a guy who's got, I wouldn't call

32:09

him a wrestler per se, but he's got very

32:11

good defensive wrestling skills. And Toporia is more than

32:13

that, because as you've seen, he can pass guard,

32:15

he's got tremendous ground to pound, he can do

32:17

everything he needs to in the ground in that

32:19

way. But there is some similarity

32:22

there. However, folks might say, okay, yes, Volk

32:24

got dropped, but he rallied and finished off

32:26

Mendez. Number one, that's true. Dude,

32:28

the Volk who got dropped against Mendez from

32:30

a technical standpoint, I think the current Volk is

32:32

much, much better, right? I mean, that's, those are

32:34

not the same guys. So I do think that,

32:36

I mean, listen, dude, Volk has

32:38

gone up against, in as much as he

32:41

could have during his era, different

32:43

body types, different games, different specialties.

32:45

He had a kicking tornado guy

32:47

in Yair. He had a guy

32:49

who was kind of limited in

32:51

the boxing stand up, but, you

32:54

know, just lights out danger with

32:56

the submission attempts and Brian Ortega,

32:58

he had to fight Max fucking

33:00

three times to get past that

33:02

dude. 15, went

33:05

15 fucking rounds with

33:07

Max Holloway. Like, just compute that. He got dropped

33:09

twice in the rematch. He got dropped twice in

33:11

the rematch. And had to, yeah, to your point,

33:13

had to rally in the rematch basically in order

33:16

to win. Like, dude, he has seen

33:18

it all. He has seen it all. That's

33:20

not the point. The point is not, has he seen

33:22

some, like some kind of danger that is

33:25

relevantly close to Ilya Tapooria? Yes, of

33:27

course he has. The question

33:29

is the state he is

33:31

in today, not unprepared, but

33:33

weathered, older, down a tick.

33:36

Is that still going to be enough

33:38

against someone who is at the very,

33:40

dude, Tapooria is not even at the

33:42

peak of his powers yet, but he

33:45

is gaining momentum very, very quickly. Will

33:47

that be enough? That is the central question. Oh

33:50

yeah, it's your boy BC, and I know you have

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36:26

off topic but I thought of it in the moment I'm

36:28

of course wearing the average Joe Art

36:31

crossover Arnold Allen, Pacer's gym, Father We

36:33

love steroids t-shirt that I was blessed

36:35

to have Male me

36:37

by AAA Arnold Allen himself I

36:40

want to say, average Joe Art obviously did a crossover

36:42

with us He's working for a lot of people He's

36:44

now doing the work with Kelvin Gastelum One of my

36:46

favorite fighters ever And I really love the look What

36:49

do I have to do to get Brian Ortega and

36:52

average Joe Art Romero together to make magic? You know

36:54

what I mean? The thing

36:56

that you've been wanting to do for

36:58

many years BC and that's blow Brian

37:00

Ortega Ok, that's it It's neither here

37:02

nor there on the CBS show please

37:04

Ok, I don't believe in that stuff

37:06

at all Wow, alright enough

37:08

off topic here Look,

37:11

I just don't think though he has fought somebody exactly

37:13

like Toporia Which is why along with the age which

37:15

maybe makes the match up a little bit closer on

37:17

paper It's why we are at the spot not really

37:19

knowing Alright, Toporia can handle himself on the ground very

37:21

well You mentioned the

37:23

takedown defense first of all But

37:26

his ground and pound, his patience, he can submit you too Volk

37:29

leveled up with the wrestling in the first Maha Chap fight

37:33

How do you see the grappling playing a role

37:35

in this fight? That's

37:38

a big question That's a great question, that's

37:40

a huge one I have really gone back

37:42

and forth on this So if your

37:44

team Volk, how do you want to play

37:46

that? Right, because he has tremendous

37:49

takedown defense as well Obviously his numbers

37:51

are 70% but he is battle tested

37:53

in a way that I think Toporia

37:56

is not as battle tested as Volk

37:59

and Nofsky But you know, he does have very

38:01

very good take on defense too So do you

38:03

want to initiate it if you do what are you

38:05

worried about necessarily from if you do actually get him

38:07

down? Are you worried about his guard?

38:09

I don't think to poor his guard is

38:12

what you would really have to worry about in the way you

38:14

would have to worry about It with Ortega like his guard, but

38:16

I don't think As well

38:18

that to poor he's gonna play a game from guard He

38:20

would probably try to wrestle up or get up or reverse

38:22

or go to the back And

38:24

then you are playing with a little bit of

38:26

fire there Like in other words, I'm

38:29

not saying it's easy to ground and pound

38:31

Ortega but I am saying is or

38:33

take is going to be willing to play from

38:35

guard in a way that would make ground and

38:37

pound a Wider available option

38:39

than to poor he is going to play

38:41

if you're gonna hold to poor you down,

38:43

dude You got to hold him down You're

38:46

gonna have to use your hands and your your

38:48

your hips and your legs to do everything to tie

38:50

this guy down You're really not going to get substantial

38:52

ground and pound from that So like I don't understand

38:55

how it might play a role and if you're to

38:57

poor ya Yes, if the goes

38:59

to the ground and you get taken down. I think he'll

39:01

be able to wrestle his way up The

39:03

other thing that's kind of interesting is does he want

39:06

to take down does he want to go for it against the

39:08

guy? Does he want to do it and then work his way

39:10

to the back? Right with just locked

39:12

hands and then begin to use that as a

39:14

way to manipulate his weight and Potentially sink a

39:16

hook and then do kind of like a slow

39:18

Habib thing. Does he want to do that, too?

39:20

I don't know. I would tell you

39:22

that I do believe that the wrestling will play

39:24

some kind of role But both

39:27

guys I would imagine probably feel like

39:29

their best chance of winning while

39:31

Volkonovskiy might want to mix in takedown

39:33

attempts He's probably gonna want to

39:35

play the distance game here a little bit, right?

39:37

Is it leg kicking circling making a guy like

39:39

to poor ya turn to follow him? That's gonna

39:41

make it very difficult If you go back and

39:43

listen to the Emmet fight You can hear Emmet's

39:45

corner say make him turn when you go to

39:47

your right because he has to reset all the

39:49

time I suspect you're gonna see a lot of

39:51

that from Volkonovskiy. I just

39:54

don't believe the wrestling will be absent BC

39:57

But unless someone gets really hurt, I

39:59

don't see it as the most relevant thing. I think most

40:01

guys are going to want to mostly use their hands

40:05

or. Yeah, we do have to remember, I'm not

40:07

sure how many out there know this that Volkanovski

40:09

did once play rugby professionally at 215 pounds.

40:12

Coach Craig Jones did call him

40:15

on the countdown show pound for pound,

40:17

the strongest grappler he's ever messed around

40:19

with saying, yeah, he's either weight, we're

40:21

all bigger than him, but he gives

40:23

us rounds, he makes us work. So

40:26

that is interesting. Luke, I'm

40:28

just feeling like it's

40:30

not just if anybody can do it, Volkan. I

40:32

mean, that's true. But I

40:35

feel like there is the extra motivation to do

40:37

the almost forgot. Like there really is. He knows he

40:39

screwed up or maybe in the long run, it's not

40:41

a screw up. I want to be honest about it.

40:43

Maybe that was worth the money. Maybe that was worth

40:45

in that moment for him to take that head kick

40:47

to get that out of the system. You just never

40:49

know long term as much as that feels like, how

40:51

could you say that about a 35 year old manager

40:53

just got head kicked by the best player in the

40:55

world. I just think he can do

40:57

it, Luke. Toporia is dangerous as

41:00

shit. But I have to say how many

41:02

times have we seen Volk bend,

41:04

but not break, find himself in

41:07

very extremely disadvantageous positions

41:10

and swim in the deep end live,

41:13

embracing the suck. I mean, I mean,

41:15

look, you said I wanted to do

41:17

unspeakable things, Dokomoto and Ortega, the two

41:19

O's. And I don't show this whole

41:21

face to anybody. But he said, OK,

41:24

but wait, what was my transition there about?

41:26

I don't even remember the setup. Anyway, I

41:29

think Volk can do this. Look, I'm going to go on the record

41:31

right now. I'm going to take the

41:33

old guy to buck the trend just like I was

41:35

the only one picking Woodley to finish till on the

41:37

MMAB. And I stand by that just

41:40

like I was the only one who said Francis

41:42

will wrestle against. I don't think

41:44

I picked Darren Till. I'm pretty sure that's not true.

41:46

OK, but you didn't come out and say

41:48

absolutely. He's a fraud and he's going to get finished. OK, that's more.

41:50

Yeah, you're right. I doubt that's true. That

41:52

definitely didn't say that. That's true. That's true. I'm going

41:54

to tell you, Volk's going to pull this off over

41:56

five rounds and it won't be easy. I'm going to

41:59

get knocked down. There's going to be moments

42:01

where Topori is going to show us his magic.

42:03

I'm going to go with the old guy. Do

42:06

you think UFC though wants this

42:08

potential breakout star in a

42:10

new fresh, vibrant, passionate market like

42:13

Spain? Are they cheering for Ilya?

42:16

Do they want the guy who's close to 40 or do

42:18

they want the guy who's close to 30? Oh, stop 35,

42:20

Luke. It's the new like 25

42:22

in the world. You know what I'm saying though. I mean,

42:24

people are like, what does the UFC want? Well, they win

42:27

no matter what, right? They win no matter

42:29

what. Having a guy like

42:31

Volkbeat Topori and what this might do

42:33

for his legend and his place in

42:35

the oceanic MMA world and economy cannot

42:37

be understated. It could be very, very

42:39

big and important. But

42:42

if I'm the UFC, again, I don't really know what

42:44

they want, but my guess would be it's like, well,

42:46

we got a guy who can unlock a part of

42:48

Europe. We've really not been able to unlock. He

42:51

could be a big, big star for us there as well as

42:53

here. He's not even close to 30 years of age. Just

42:56

where do you think the priority would be? I suspect it's

42:59

with him. But the question is if he's ready for all of that,

43:01

we don't know. One thing you didn't bring up, and I know we

43:03

got to move along, but I want to bring up is BC. You

43:06

know, do Topori has been

43:08

talking greasy. I mean,

43:10

my man's been talking. I'm a

43:12

45 year old dad. Can you translate? Okay.

43:15

Let me make sure I don't lose the, the,

43:18

hello. The thing is,

43:20

I've lost the autofocus.

43:22

There we go. I mean, I have

43:24

teenage sons. I'm trying to pick up on the young

43:26

speak a little bit here. We're not cool. But

43:29

it just, I just mean the following. You

43:31

have seen this, right? For example, he was

43:33

like, yeah, when I beat Volk, I'm not going

43:35

to give Max Holloway or Brian Ortega or any

43:38

of these guys a title five. I'm just going

43:40

to go right to Conor McGregor. That's not so

43:42

much greasy, but it's like, it's a

43:44

bold thing to say. How

43:46

about changing already? Like weeks

43:48

ago, changing his Instagram profile

43:50

to say UFC champion, and

43:52

then him posing with the

43:54

belt as his Instagram profile

43:58

photo. It's a level. like,

44:01

dismissiveness about

44:03

one of the best fighters we've met. I

44:05

mean, here's what I would say. It's like, dude, I, you

44:08

know, I like his chances, but even I

44:10

don't think that's a good idea, even I

44:12

am like, bro, tone it

44:14

down a little. So one

44:16

thing I want to point out here, that's worth thinking

44:18

about is, dude, if you have gone out there and

44:20

you have changed your Instagram profile and you

44:23

have said, Volkanovski, you're going to like thrash

44:25

him everywhere and that your contemporaries

44:27

don't even deserve a title shot. And the only thing

44:29

that's next for you is Conor McGregor. And

44:31

then you lose. And they don't

44:33

say you lose badly. Like let's say you

44:35

get stopped, right? Something like that. Like it's

44:38

a fucking Miyagi versus, you know, Daniel son

44:40

teachers moment here where Miyagi let's know what

44:42

time it is. People are like,

44:44

Oh, he'd be embarrassed. That's the least of

44:46

my concerns for him in a situation like

44:49

that. What I'd be more curious about

44:51

is, dude, you have told yourself that you are

44:53

somebody that when the time comes to show it,

44:56

you were not that guy. What does

44:58

that do to you? What does that do to your psyche?

45:00

If you have lied to yourself about who

45:02

you are and then reality

45:05

comes thunderously crashing down on

45:07

you. I

45:09

wonder, I wonder what that means. The

45:12

O'Malley lost to Cheeto almost being a little bit

45:14

of the same thing, but I think O'Malley was

45:16

able to lean on the injury side of the

45:18

excuse and you know, certainly they've got the rematch

45:21

coming up and he gets to prove that you

45:23

make an interesting point that wasn't a title fight.

45:26

That wasn't a title fight. This is a title

45:28

fight. He's so all in

45:30

right now and everything you're saying that

45:32

yes, a loss could be destructively humbling,

45:35

but I do want to ask you one thing on the thing you

45:37

tease there about what he's been boasting. Let's be

45:39

really honest here. Let's say he knocked

45:41

out Volkonovski in the first two rounds, didn't

45:44

get her and did it in such

45:46

destructive fashion that every single person watching

45:48

around the globe is like a star

45:50

was just born. He just be, he just knocked

45:52

out one of the best to ever do it.

45:54

And let's say he grabs that microphone

45:56

in Anaheim and says, Conor McGregor, get

45:58

your shit together. I'll see you in

46:00

the main event, April 13th at UFC 300. Would

46:07

the UFC pull that? I mean, obviously you

46:09

have to be a non-title fight. Conor's not

46:11

making 145 any side of this

46:13

side of Roadhouse anywhere, Luke. He

46:16

was taking all of Pacer's meds before that

46:18

fight, before that movie, by the way. Would

46:21

anyone do a non-title catchweight fight to say,

46:24

oh, you just knocked out Volkanovsky will become

46:26

the biggest thing that ever happened. Here's injured

46:28

old ass Conor. No, they're not doing it.

46:30

Right? They're not. I'll

46:32

say this. If he knocks out Volkanovsky and

46:34

then goes out there and calls for Conor and they're not going

46:37

to do it, but to your point, if they made it, let's

46:39

say he stopped Conor. Do you understand how

46:41

big of a star Toporia would be? Do

46:43

you understand that? And a guy who could do

46:45

media in Latin America as well, right? I mean,

46:47

not just in Europe, but in Latin America. I

46:49

mean, the guy in Europe as well, because he

46:51

speaks Georgian too. Like

46:53

he is, he could be poised for big things,

46:56

but let's slow down. He's got

46:58

his hands full on Saturday. Let's see what happens with

47:00

that first. Love

47:02

it. Love it. Can't wait.

47:04

Cannot fricking wait for this fight, but it doesn't stop there.

47:06

This is an absolute, I've been telling anybody that will listen

47:09

because people think I hate Luke. People

47:11

think I hate like the UFC. I hate Dana. They

47:13

think they think I hate like, you know,

47:15

skinhead fighter. Like they think a lot of weird things. I

47:18

freaking love this pay-per-view main card.

47:20

Let's get into the co-main event.

47:22

Robert Whittaker, Paulo Costa, middleweight. They

47:25

both could use a big win. They're really trying

47:27

to put just an up and

47:29

down line. Really, you got to be honest, since

47:32

the loss to Adesanya, it's been wild. Didn't

47:34

get the Chamaia fight like we wanted to

47:36

see where he was at. He's been in

47:39

and out of fight announcements, injuries, setbacks. Yes,

47:41

he beat Rockhold in an absolutely wild ass

47:43

fight. But Robert

47:45

Whittaker's got a lot more questions to

47:47

answer about the one-sided demolition loss to

47:50

Drake's Duplisi, which I think for the

47:52

first time made us go, oh wait,

47:55

this living legend Robert Whittaker might not end up

47:57

with a second run with this belt. This might

47:59

be... the best of what we've

48:01

seen from him so far. How do

48:03

you look at those competing narratives and

48:05

try to handicap what to expect in

48:07

Saturday's co-main? Man, these two

48:09

are so strange. Well,

48:12

in different ways. I mean, Paulo Costa

48:14

is strange because he's a strange guy,

48:18

but Whitaker is strange because we're so

48:20

surprised at how he arrived at this

48:22

position. And we just, I

48:24

never, not that I'm upset about the fight, I think

48:26

the fight is great, but I never saw him getting

48:30

defeated by DDP. And so to me,

48:32

man, if I could be honest with you, I think both

48:34

of these guys have a lot to prove. Let's start with

48:37

Paulo Costa here for just a second, the eraser, right?

48:39

I mean, his competition schedule has not

48:42

gone well. He didn't fight at all

48:44

in 2023. His last fight was the fight

48:46

in August of 2022 against Luke Rockhold. This

48:49

will be the first one since

48:51

he had reasonably scheduled fights against

48:53

Alaskarov and Chemaev and nothing happened. And

48:56

then before that he fought once in 2021. Yeah. And then once in

48:58

2022, so he had 20, sorry, in

49:02

2020 in 2020, he lost to Izzy. He

49:05

comes back in 2021. He loses to Marvin Vittori.

49:07

He comes back in 2022 and has a terrible

49:09

fight against Luke Rockhold. You're like, where is he?

49:12

And he won the fight against Luke Rockhold. But Luke Rockhold

49:14

looked like a very aging

49:16

version of himself, BC. He did not look

49:18

like the guy who won the strike force

49:20

or UFC middleweight title, not by a long

49:22

shot. And Costa couldn't finish him

49:25

off. And here we have him against Whitaker. And it's

49:27

like, is he progressing

49:29

with the development of his game in

49:31

the way that you would hope, especially

49:33

following the loss to Izzy? I

49:35

would say that the evidence shows us that maybe

49:38

it's somewhat inconclusive, but there's still some room to

49:40

show and this could be a great

49:43

opportunity. But to this point, has he really rounded

49:45

a corner since then? I've not seen that. Now

49:47

you go in there, you beat Robert Whitaker when

49:49

you do it with some tactical poise, we can

49:51

revisit this conversation. But up to this point, since

49:53

the fight against Izzy, I don't know,

49:55

man, it's just been not that great. On

50:00

a little bit on the rock cold fight only to

50:02

say that Luke Rockhold showed showed

50:04

it like an unnatural level of resistance

50:07

And spite and that's why that fight

50:10

was so weird I don't know if I

50:12

look at that as a huge negative for Costa like I

50:14

would have loved for him to have finished an

50:16

Old guy in that spot who you're fighting because

50:18

he's a former champion and a big name and

50:20

giving you a chance to bounce back But those

50:22

circumstances were kind of weird. I will agree with

50:24

everything before that what I saw from Costa and

50:26

the fights From the oddest on

50:28

your fight through that rock hold was just a guy. That's not

50:31

Not like in charge of a game plan or technique. He's

50:33

just gone out there to fight. Yeah, does

50:35

that rest noodle? Yes, I mean

50:38

here's the kind of interesting part about it like

50:40

Whitaker We know like before he fought Rickus remember

50:42

he fought Marvin Vittori and looked very good

50:44

doing it for the most part Right, so

50:46

you you thought going into that Rickus fight

50:48

like okay? You know

50:51

He's gonna do something here and he got beat, but this

50:53

is what I go back to now Rickus and and Costa

50:57

have very different games, and we should say

50:59

that but if there is one thing that

51:01

unites them Is that there is a little

51:03

bit of physical? Recklessness with

51:05

them would you not agree with that

51:08

BC these are two guys that are

51:10

physically powerful in Very dangerous

51:12

ways and that might leave certain openings

51:14

at times that a guy like Whitaker

51:16

could 1 billion percent take advantage of

51:19

But it carries some additional risk I

51:22

would say though that having seen DDP now

51:24

fight his way to the championship He

51:27

has shown more technical know-how

51:29

more strategic resolve than

51:31

what I get from Costa, which is a little bit

51:33

more I'm a good athlete. I punch hard Let's

51:36

just see where this goes. You know you just

51:38

kind of the same thing so I feel like

51:40

I feel like You

51:42

do get an interesting test of Whitaker

51:44

coming off of a knockout loss to

51:47

a very physical guy here He's got

51:49

another physical guy But you dial down

51:51

some of the strategy that he normally

51:53

would have to encounter it relative to

51:55

DDP It seems very

51:57

winnable for Robert Whitaker dot dot dot

52:00

unless he's fallen off a cliff and I don't think he has he's just

52:02

33 years old I I think

52:04

he's poised for a rebound here but he's got to

52:07

play it smart. I think

52:09

he had to have underestimated DDP I mean I

52:11

was out there telling people there's literally not a

52:13

path to victory there's literally not a chance because

52:15

I just didn't think that DDP was as good

52:18

as he showed in that fight and he

52:20

turned me into a believer the the odds

52:22

makers though FanDuel in Las Vegas giving Whitaker

52:24

the respect at minus 220 as

52:26

the favorite plus 168 for Costa

52:29

I really felt in that specific loss of a

52:31

Tory that we saw a Costa like you said

52:33

it's just like I'm gonna just

52:35

shoot my athleticism at you I'm not

52:37

really gonna move my head in return I'm not really

52:39

gonna you know I mean it's just it's just a

52:42

guy who's winging it with the secrets used and I

52:44

mean I'm sure I mean like you know if you

52:46

could live in one fighters DMS for

52:48

a day Luke would Costa be in the

52:50

top three I think you'd have to be right oh

52:52

yeah so let's think about that top three what's

52:54

your okay let's do the Mount Rushmore of whose

52:56

DMS you want to have for a day. Brian

52:58

Ortega I mean don't don't Brian Ortega thank

53:01

you yeah Brian Ortega of our era

53:03

okay fair enough Ortega Costa would be

53:06

another one probably

53:08

Connor are you probably I mean Connor's a

53:10

rich and celebrity you have to respect the

53:12

brand right you've got to put him in

53:14

there you have to yeah he's probably got all

53:17

kinds of people hitting him up and then maybe your

53:19

last one would be that's

53:21

a good one that's a tough one it could

53:23

be Elia after Saturday because he's got he's got

53:25

you know he's got that toughness you know what

53:28

I mean yeah it could be him I mean

53:30

you know you get the idea yeah I respect

53:32

it I mean too bad Roman de Liget bit

53:34

the bullet last week or two weeks ago whatever

53:36

that was you know yeah that sucks yeah

53:38

you know he's probably got good deal you know it's

53:41

like how far do I want to get into this

53:43

joke for me I could do a whole podcast on

53:45

it but I don't think that's what people want okay

53:47

really be honest with you all

53:49

right so is there

53:51

something you need to see from Whitaker to show

53:54

you he's back I mean if anything may

53:57

I mean I teased off the top that maybe

53:59

the DDP lost was the first time we're like, Oh,

54:01

like maybe age is caught up with him.

54:03

But I think he overlooked him. And I

54:05

do think the size difference ultimately

54:07

was a factor. It wasn't not like

54:09

Whitaker looked like a small middleweight in

54:11

that place. Yeah. It's going to

54:14

be a factor here as well. This is what

54:16

I mean. Like there is a similarity. He's got

54:18

two physical bruising hulks that he

54:20

has to get through. And that's not going to be easy,

54:22

but you know, the thing is this, it's like. This

54:25

is, this is the reality of polo costa, polo

54:27

costa, right? So strikes landed per minute, 6.5. I

54:30

mean, that's not only high, you know, he hits

54:32

hard. So that's a lot to deal with, but

54:34

here's the downside for him. Strikes of

54:36

sword per minute, 6.38. I

54:40

mean, people steal on this dude a lot.

54:42

They can, he is hittable. He is,

54:44

he is very, very hittable. And you

54:46

would imagine a sniper and a

54:48

guy with great timing and he's still, again, he's

54:51

not physically past it. I don't think that

54:54

should be winnable for him. So

54:57

big questions in, and

54:59

by the way, it's not like if costa loses to

55:02

Whitaker, you're like, Oh, he's trash. But I would say a

55:04

couple of things. If he loses in, it's a clean one.

55:06

You're like, well, okay, so this guy's not going to be

55:08

elite, right? And then we can just sort of declare that.

55:11

And then on the other side, if he knocks, if he

55:13

gets knocked out himself, it's like, you really don't even know.

55:17

You know, if he gets finished off, like what

55:19

would that mean for him at all? Like

55:21

I think there's potentially major stock damage that

55:24

he could suffer. Um, an

55:26

interesting moment. And by the way, if Whitaker wins, it's not like

55:29

you're like, Oh, well, now he's ready for the championship again. But

55:31

I do think it'd be rejuvenating for him in a

55:33

really important way. Indeed. I'm looking forward

55:36

to see if he can do, I think his left hook's

55:38

going to be a big weapon against costa. There'll be a

55:40

lot of boxing, a lot of hit and not get hit

55:42

in and out. It's going to be a matador game. Yeah.

55:45

It's just really up to can costa make it a

55:47

wild enough fight that he

55:50

can take Robert off of his game plan, make

55:52

him react a little bit and try to slip

55:54

something big in there or, uh, you know, we'll

55:56

see, we'll see. Costa, you still got to give

55:58

him a benefit of the doubt. Maybe

56:01

because he gave us one of the greatest gifts of all

56:03

time Luke and that was that first round against Vitor Belfort

56:06

He can't I mean not be tour against

56:08

a yo-el Romero. He can go in there

56:10

and absolutely cause Freaking havoc especially if you're

56:12

willing to exchange and trade with him. It'll

56:14

be interesting to see if you can get

56:16

Whitaker off script I don't think he will

56:18

let's go to the next one. No one's

56:20

talking about this or rescheduling Jeff Neal at

56:22

welterweight against Ian

56:24

Machado Gary who had been

56:27

through the ringer just a few

56:29

months ago in terms of public reputation with the

56:32

He's filming sparring sessions at gyms. He's

56:34

visiting that he shouldn't everyone's calling him

56:36

a cook Colby and Shawn Strickland

56:38

once I was talking about his wife it got

56:40

weird it got ugly, but now

56:42

he's back Luke. He still is Potentially

56:45

one of the guys who has next in this

56:47

entire sport. Is that an incorrect statement to make

56:50

at this point? Um

56:56

Yeah, maybe maybe we can't say it's

56:58

not But I think I need

57:00

to see a little bit more before I declare that it

57:03

is to me. He's kind of teetering here on Not

57:07

even teetering we just don't

57:09

have quite enough information so his best win to

57:11

date would be the one against Neil Magni, but

57:14

As good as that was I that's

57:17

not enough to tell me like what the high water

57:19

mark of what he can achieve Is and

57:22

more to the point that's not that's not good enough

57:24

to tell me how he will do against some of

57:26

the better guys In this division now Jeff

57:28

Neal is very different from Neil Magni in a lot of

57:30

respects So it's a very tough challenge. I

57:32

actually like this fight a lot for both guys You

57:34

would imagine BC a guy like Jeff Neal is gonna want

57:37

to use his hands to get in close and he's got

57:39

dynamite power And then the guy like

57:41

Ian Gary seems to be a little bit more wants to

57:43

play the distance game when you saw that against Neil Magni

57:45

as well I think you're probably going to get a lot

57:47

of that The thing is kind of interesting

57:50

for me is like for all of the turmoil that

57:52

Gary had to go through most of it juvenile

57:55

and Prurient nonsense,

57:57

but nevertheless there was a lot of

57:59

it I actually feel

58:01

like this is only

58:03

going to boost his profile over time and I know

58:05

that some of that boosting is going to come at

58:07

the expense of, you know, he's going to be made

58:10

fun of along the way but I actually think in

58:12

the end it's going to serve his box office interest,

58:14

it's going to serve his visibility interest and I'll also

58:16

say if he goes in there and has a dominant

58:18

win over Jeff Neal, a good competitor, you

58:21

know, this will, I think it would really set

58:23

him up for potentially, to answer

58:26

some of these bigger questions that you're asking but

58:28

we should also say that if he goes in

58:30

there and like gets viciously KO'd, you

58:32

know, the onslaught that he got once before, I don't think it's

58:35

going to be quite as bad as that but it's going to

58:37

be pretty bad. He's going to get, he's going to get, it

58:40

could do serious damage to his reputation so this is,

58:42

this is one of those fights that's really interesting to

58:44

me. It's really going to be a very tactical battle

58:47

and I think that a guy

58:49

like Ian Gary has a lot of opportunity

58:51

to stick it to people should he decide

58:53

to do that with a win but

58:56

not so easy to get. A tough competitor he's got here in

58:58

Jeff Neal. I don't know if he'll get there Ian Gary but

59:00

I'll tell you what, I do seem to

59:02

be impressed even with like he brings too

59:04

much attention on himself and now he's, you

59:06

know, a product of means. He's

59:08

overexposed, yeah. He's overexposed, yes. He's

59:11

jumping into the deep end of this generation,

59:13

cameras following you all the time on purpose,

59:16

documenting your life, being a character. I felt

59:18

he's been too much of a

59:20

purposeful McGregor clone to try to show like

59:22

I'm the next big Irish thing coming but

59:24

I also think he does seem to have

59:27

that unnatural ability to

59:29

block out all that. Like he welcomes all

59:31

that noise but then he seems to have

59:33

the ability at least up to this point to block that

59:35

out and still bring out the best in him. I

59:38

could see a scenario in which he gets like a head kick

59:40

stoppage or something crazy here because he

59:42

does seem to have those abilities but

59:44

if you do make a mistake or eff around

59:46

with a guy like Jeff Neal, like Jeff Neal

59:48

is coming off a loss but I do think

59:51

in this portion of his career he's largely reborn

59:53

and in that loss are you giving him credit

59:55

for making Shavkat work more than anyone else

59:57

has? Yeah, he tuned Shavkat.

59:59

up at times he was blasting him

1:00:02

as he got into range and Shavkot only got

1:00:04

that at the last kind of minute you

1:00:07

know with this like sort of weird choke to the side

1:00:09

of him with their back along the fence it was very

1:00:11

very unusual like not a lot of guys are even going

1:00:13

to know how to do that much

1:00:16

less finish it yeah dude he performed

1:00:18

ably and again dude Shavkot you're asking

1:00:20

about a guy who's got like star

1:00:22

potential and championship potential I mean it's

1:00:24

written all over Shavkot Rachmanov. Ian

1:00:26

Gary to me looks like I see a

1:00:28

flickering of some of those lights but I

1:00:31

haven't seen enough of a performance beyond

1:00:33

what we saw against Magni which I think was I'm not

1:00:35

going to say easy that's not the right thing we see

1:00:37

but I think a

1:00:40

guy like Magni doesn't sorry a guy like Gary

1:00:42

doesn't like to mix it up in the way

1:00:44

that Taporia does within that mid range that boxing

1:00:46

range he really doesn't like to play there at

1:00:48

all he likes to use his length which is

1:00:50

smart and we've talked about

1:00:52

this before fighting

1:00:54

Magni fit naturally into that

1:00:56

skill set right it made

1:00:58

it very very easy to do relatively speaking

1:01:00

because Magni just kind of stood in the

1:01:03

same place the whole time to be kicked

1:01:05

I don't know if Jeff Neal's going to do that

1:01:07

and Jeff Neal's return fire and you would agree with

1:01:09

this right Jeff Neal's ability to return

1:01:12

fire is very different than

1:01:14

what Magni has to offer different different

1:01:16

threat all together the odds I think

1:01:18

are fair in this case Fandula having

1:01:21

minus 245 for Gary Jeff Neal plus

1:01:23

186 but a lot of

1:01:25

live dog potential right there I mean you

1:01:27

would as much as it would be

1:01:29

a shock and an upset if Jeff Neal wins this by

1:01:31

knockout you're not going to sit here and say you're surprised

1:01:34

Sunday morning right you know like you know

1:01:36

it's in play and

1:01:39

by the way again he trains with Saif Saoud out

1:01:41

of uh out of uh four to seven a he

1:01:43

got great a great coach a great team

1:01:45

um powerful athlete

1:01:47

I think that Gary probably Gary the

1:01:50

thing that saves Gary a lot is

1:01:53

I don't know exactly what physical tools he has yet BC

1:01:55

I mean I've seen some of them obviously but I don't

1:01:57

think we've gotten the full array of it and so that's

1:01:59

what I work with where some of the questions come from.

1:02:02

And so if you can do this, if

1:02:04

you can diffuse a guy like Jeff Neal and

1:02:06

really work around that power and then land on

1:02:08

him, not just like touch him and go, but

1:02:10

land on him, I think that would say

1:02:12

a lot. But let's see what Gary gives us before we

1:02:15

sort of make some of these declarations. I

1:02:17

was thinking quickly, maybe when average Joe Art works

1:02:19

with Brian Ortega, they can

1:02:21

do like a ladies man type skit vibe.

1:02:23

Remember that great segment on SNL with Tim

1:02:26

Meadows? Remember they made a movie about it?

1:02:28

Maybe like Ortega can be the- One

1:02:31

of the most slept on dudes from 90s SNL, true

1:02:33

or false? It was,

1:02:35

he hung on too long to be fair

1:02:37

with the show, but he was one of

1:02:40

those glue guys, one of those absolute glue

1:02:42

guys who could raise his game to another

1:02:44

level by playing a bit part in an

1:02:46

important scene with some killers of multi-generations in

1:02:49

SNL lore. I do have that

1:02:51

massive book, you know, that oral history that James

1:02:53

Miller wrote, the same guy who wrote- These guys

1:02:55

have all the fun, something like that? Yeah, I

1:02:57

read the ESPN one and it was incredible. I've

1:02:59

been chipping away at the SNL one over time

1:03:01

and it's also absolutely incredible if

1:03:03

you're an old school fan of that. Look,

1:03:05

this next card is the fourth card on the

1:03:08

mitt fight on the main card in the

1:03:10

sports deepest and best division. And I'm

1:03:12

here to tell you, this is not only the second best fight

1:03:14

on this card overall. I

1:03:16

love this fight so much, Henry Stojudo

1:03:18

versus Marab de Valis Wheely, that

1:03:21

even without a title, if

1:03:23

they had to do a, hey guys, we can't

1:03:25

figure out UFC 300, so we're just gonna

1:03:27

take this fight off of Saturday and make it

1:03:29

just like a de facto co-main for 300 or

1:03:31

main event. I'd even sign up for it.

1:03:33

Luke, tell me why I shouldn't sit here

1:03:35

and tell you that Suhudo Marab is

1:03:38

insanely awesome of a fight, which

1:03:40

is going to produce likely the

1:03:42

next title challenger. And if Suhudo

1:03:44

at this age can come off

1:03:46

of that close loss to the

1:03:48

champion and beat a guy who

1:03:50

looks like future champion in waiting,

1:03:53

we're gonna have a lot to talk about.

1:03:55

We already do about Suhudo switching coaches, which

1:03:57

we'll get to in a second, but are

1:03:59

you... Anywhere near as fired up as I am

1:04:01

because I need this fight. I want this fight Give

1:04:04

me this fight right here. Look right frickin

1:04:06

here. Okay, right here. That's why I want

1:04:09

this fight This fight bags this this fight

1:04:11

bags. This is an amazing fight and listen

1:04:15

Don't take our word for it You

1:04:17

had I don't know if it was this week or the last

1:04:19

to BC I think it was maybe two weeks ago something like

1:04:21

that Where so hudo

1:04:23

himself? Said hey

1:04:26

if I lose to marab, I don't

1:04:28

know if continuing in the fight game is worth

1:04:30

it anymore He's 37 years of age right

1:04:32

now 37 think about that Henry so those 37 years of

1:04:34

age He's 37

1:04:37

years of age if he loses very Controversially

1:04:40

to or very closely at a bare minimum to Algemann

1:04:42

Sterling, but he can get back with a winner of

1:04:44

a marab Hey, he's cooking with gas. He probably gets

1:04:46

the next title shot. I guess we'll see I don't

1:04:48

know but it's not all the realm of possibility at

1:04:51

all But if you lose

1:04:53

by Henry's own admission That

1:04:55

could be the end. So this is

1:04:57

high stakes no matter what this could be

1:05:00

again could be a Retirement

1:05:02

fight for a guy who was an

1:05:04

Olympic champion and in the two-weight world champion in

1:05:06

the UFC That's big by itself, but

1:05:08

more to the point we see about the matchup

1:05:10

individually It's just a phenomenal one

1:05:12

marab Duwalish wheelie has what we have considered

1:05:14

on this show To be

1:05:17

one of the very best motors in combat

1:05:19

sports. We've really ever seen a guy who

1:05:21

has No limit. He's

1:05:24

a no limit soldier masterpiece style in

1:05:26

terms of the fact that he has

1:05:28

to never ever Ration

1:05:30

offense he never has to worry about whether the gas

1:05:32

is gonna be there in the fifth round for him

1:05:35

to make a push It's always going to be there

1:05:37

and it's always gonna be there at a level that

1:05:39

will shock you He's going

1:05:41

up against a guy who is a little bit longer in the truth

1:05:43

at age 37 But is

1:05:45

something of a technical Marvel himself in Henry so

1:05:47

hudo a guy who's got lights out wrestling who

1:05:50

in my view BC has the best inside trip

1:05:52

in all of MMA and that's they uses it

1:05:54

use it on Demetrius Johnson He used it on

1:05:56

a lot of different folks. He is very very

1:05:58

gifted with it who He was a phenomenal

1:06:01

striker when he's, you know, I

1:06:03

think playing at his best, so to speak.

1:06:30

We'll talk about it all and be there

1:06:32

with you at least three times a week

1:06:34

as March Madness approaches It's the eye on

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college basketball podcast to find us search for

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I own college basketball in your podcast

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Our children Ruth Wilson and Daryl McCormick

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star in the new Showtime original series

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inspired by true events the woman in

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the wall They're trying to bury this

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all of us the whole world looks at

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some people but others just disappeared Girls were

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locked up and children were stolen and you're

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trying to tell me no one knew anything

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about it This

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woman in the wall now streaming on Paramount

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Plus only with the Paramount Plus with some

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time plan The

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enemy is at our gates The

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fight for humanity I look

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at your faces I do not see

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defeat And

1:07:27

I do not see surrender is far

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from over you will not make that

1:07:31

stand alone Halo

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new season now streaming exclusively on

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Paramount Plus And

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has you know, just a wealth of combat

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sports and of course MMA experience as well

1:07:48

He to me is the technician here. Whereas

1:07:51

Marab I do think is getting technically better

1:07:53

and that is Also

1:07:55

part of the story and

1:07:58

by the way BC three round fight Let's

1:08:00

keep that in mind. It's a three-round fight which

1:08:02

could change the equation here a little bit, right?

1:08:04

But you know Marab is going to

1:08:07

put on a title wave of offense

1:08:09

on this guy And so the question

1:08:11

you have to ask yourself is does

1:08:14

Henry Sahutto have enough technical knowledge

1:08:16

and the ability to match some

1:08:18

of that physical intensity to Overpower

1:08:21

what will be a much more physical

1:08:23

effort in terms of volume and everything

1:08:25

else from a guy like

1:08:27

Marab It is a fascinating question with

1:08:29

high stakes involved winner probably gets a

1:08:32

title shot loser in the case of

1:08:34

Sahutto if it's him might retire from

1:08:36

the sport big big

1:08:38

big fight. I don't

1:08:41

think people respect Henry Sahutto

1:08:43

enough and it's not a new thought We've always

1:08:45

said that look some of the the

1:08:47

way that he's embraced embraced the cringe character

1:08:49

the triple-c that whole line of humor And

1:08:51

he was more aggressive years ago online with

1:08:54

this, you know I felt like it did

1:08:56

water down his accomplishments in what people really

1:08:58

thought of him But let me just remind you

1:09:00

of one thing. I know he just is coming off a loss He

1:09:03

took a three-year retirement Came

1:09:05

back with no warm-up fight took

1:09:08

on a puffer pound ranked Algemain Sterling

1:09:10

who was the champion in the sports

1:09:12

historically deep bantamweight division at the moment

1:09:15

and Even though he

1:09:17

rightfully we lost he did show you

1:09:19

that Short of a

1:09:21

late start and some ring rust which did seem

1:09:23

to show up in the first couple rounds He

1:09:26

was in that fight. It was it was almost head-to-head,

1:09:28

you know head-to-head down the stretch It

1:09:31

really shows you that had he not taking

1:09:33

off so much time or had he

1:09:35

been able to put back-to-back training camps together

1:09:37

Which is why I do hold a lot

1:09:39

of optimism that even at 37 even against

1:09:42

Marab who like I said if anybody in

1:09:44

this Sports screams future champion more

1:09:46

than Marab. It's like get in line right

1:09:48

behind him like he's right there I think

1:09:51

so who don't actually could do this and I think

1:09:53

he deserves more respect and I necessarily Think

1:09:56

people are saying because what he did

1:09:58

against Aljo on on such a break

1:10:01

against such a dynamic fighter and was able

1:10:03

to rally in that fight and raise his

1:10:05

game and, you know, be respectable in

1:10:07

a, in a split decision loss,

1:10:09

be very respectable. There

1:10:12

is that technical advantage like you're talking about,

1:10:15

but Luke Marab in that endless

1:10:17

motor inevitably takes down

1:10:19

and wears down. Ultimately,

1:10:22

everybody will. So who

1:10:24

does gold medal winning wrestling defense

1:10:26

and grappling ability. Be

1:10:29

enough to make this a standup play because if

1:10:31

this is a standup fight for 15 minutes, even

1:10:34

37. So who does got skills?

1:10:36

You've got to give them the credit for the, the,

1:10:39

the beautiful mind he has become the

1:10:41

IQ that has allowed him to be

1:10:43

great. And while he hasn't maximized the

1:10:46

second half of his career through some

1:10:48

strategic time off, he's right

1:10:50

back in the mix. Can he avoid being on

1:10:52

his back against Marab? This is a yes or

1:10:54

no question. Yes. Yes,

1:10:57

he can. Yes. Marab is a

1:10:59

little bit like Yoel Romero. What

1:11:02

I mean by that is Yoel had, uh, I don't

1:11:04

know if his numbers were the same, but the

1:11:06

point would be this, Yoel had the ability

1:11:09

to like deliver you to the mat, but he did

1:11:11

not have great mat control. He came from freestyle wrestling

1:11:13

where it's not the same as the folk style, where

1:11:15

you actually get much better of the

1:11:17

mat control. You would never see him like collect risks

1:11:19

and then go for ground and pound. He would be

1:11:21

just kind of wilding on the floor. He never really

1:11:23

had the same control. Marab's a bit

1:11:26

like that. Now, Marab has many more takedowns and

1:11:28

much more offense, but he's not like a ground

1:11:30

guy in that particular way. However,

1:11:32

BC, I've got to read you these stats. I

1:11:34

mean, it's just the most shocking shit on earth.

1:11:37

Now this won't be shocking. Henry Suhudo's takedown

1:11:40

defense, 83%. Very good.

1:11:42

Obviously people can get him down, but he's

1:11:44

hard to hold down. Right? We, we know

1:11:46

that. Um, take down accuracy is not

1:11:48

high, but he's good for about two, uh, per 15 minutes.

1:11:50

So you can, you know, you might get two takedowns per

1:11:52

15 minutes. This is going to be a 15 minute fight.

1:11:55

How about old Marab? How about

1:11:57

Marab? Marab's take down defense. Not

1:11:59

quite. is good but still pretty good 78% but again

1:12:01

who holds him down for long periods of time not

1:12:03

I mean you know not not many people takedowns

1:12:07

per 15 minutes BC per

1:12:09

15 minutes 6.55 I don't

1:12:13

think I've ever seen one that high that's

1:12:15

absurd that's absurd that's more

1:12:18

than two around more

1:12:20

than two around that's insane

1:12:22

that's insane that he can do this kind

1:12:24

of thing and he can do it by

1:12:26

the way from minute one to minute 15

1:12:28

to minute 25 to me what's gonna be

1:12:30

interesting on this one BC is I could

1:12:32

imagine a world because but by the way

1:12:34

Joe's a Joe there although was able to

1:12:36

stop most of the takedowns if

1:12:39

not nearly all of them from Rob but he couldn't

1:12:41

get Marab off of him and he ultimately succumbed in

1:12:43

the end or granted that was elevation that's a little

1:12:45

bit different but you get the idea but

1:12:47

the point I wanted to make here was BC what

1:12:50

if Suhudo comes out and has a strong

1:12:52

round one stuff to take downs down blocks

1:12:54

circles hits him with some big shots you

1:12:56

know like okay you're down one Marab Marab

1:12:59

is not a great finisher right

1:13:02

that there is one knock on him he's

1:13:04

not that great at putting guys away I mean

1:13:06

how's he has some finishes on his record but

1:13:09

he doesn't have lights out jiu-jitsu he doesn't have one

1:13:11

punch knockout power it's really not what he does he

1:13:13

puts a ball he reigns on you that's

1:13:15

what he does if he loses the

1:13:18

first that second round battle is

1:13:20

going to be the most crucial

1:13:22

test of the entire fight

1:13:24

itself now if Marab's outs will lead obviously

1:13:26

you can't you know just let it go

1:13:28

but to me it gets much more interesting

1:13:31

if he's down around you've got two left

1:13:33

and you have to reign on this guy

1:13:36

wow that's good dude you were so right

1:13:38

this is the second best fight on this

1:13:40

card by a million miles this one is

1:13:42

so interesting let's talk about the

1:13:44

odds quickly fan dual having minus 196 Marab

1:13:47

Dvoz wheelie as your favorite plus 152 for the

1:13:49

37 year

1:13:51

old about right who know but if you watch

1:13:53

the UFC countdown show ahead of this card a

1:13:57

awkward reality TV type setup

1:13:59

moment where Henry Sujuto sat down

1:14:01

the captain, a friend of this program, Eric Alberosin,

1:14:03

somebody who has been in

1:14:06

his corner since the Olympics,

1:14:08

who has essentially been his mascot.

1:14:11

But look, let's put some respect on the

1:14:13

captain's name. You know, he's there

1:14:15

with the Pitbull brothers in Brazil constantly.

1:14:17

He's a world-class trainer. That was

1:14:19

awkward as shit to see Henry sit him down.

1:14:21

It didn't feel like this was the first time

1:14:24

they had this conversation. They looked like they had

1:14:26

it for cameras. And just say, Captain, man, you

1:14:28

know, I know you support me, but I got to go

1:14:30

in a different direction. I got to get a new team.

1:14:33

Captain had that sort of like golf

1:14:35

moment, but it looked

1:14:37

like he was trying to be a friend and not get upset.

1:14:39

And then Henry was like, see, that's why you're the greatest

1:14:41

coach. You just embarrassed the F

1:14:44

out of a man who has been, you know,

1:14:47

part of the fabric of your story. I'm not

1:14:49

saying that fighters can't change trainers. Like it

1:14:51

happens in key moments all the time. And

1:14:53

look at how much growth sometimes they can

1:14:55

get out of it. Who's

1:14:57

going to be the new trainer and Luke, why do

1:14:59

you do this on camera? What the hell is going

1:15:02

on here, Suhudo? That was cringe. I

1:15:04

mean, to the point, it's like, I

1:15:06

don't have any comment on whether Eric

1:15:08

Alberosine should have been fired. I don't

1:15:10

know. I honestly don't know. I leave

1:15:13

that decision, we all do, to

1:15:15

Henry. It's none of our business. It's his camp.

1:15:18

It's his money. It's his

1:15:20

relationship. It's his to manage the way he

1:15:22

sees fit in terms of promoting his best

1:15:24

long-term professional interests. I

1:15:28

don't understand why he did that. I don't

1:15:30

quite get that. It's like, okay, so there's

1:15:32

two possible interpretations, right? So

1:15:34

one is that he did it on camera because he's just

1:15:36

kind of a clueless donk, which would not be a great

1:15:39

interpretation, but it would make sense. The

1:15:41

other one is he knew it's probably not

1:15:43

the best to do in terms of like

1:15:45

maximizing professionalism, but he wanted it for

1:15:47

the clicks. And it's like, that's

1:15:51

also not great where you're transactionalizing

1:15:53

the relationship you have with a

1:15:55

long-standing like friend and like professional

1:15:58

colleague. I mean, BC I'll be

1:16:00

clear you know when I'm ready to dump you I

1:16:02

am also going to do it on camera but you

1:16:04

know I'm gonna do it with a little bit more

1:16:06

tact and I'll bring a cake to the party. I

1:16:08

found this one like baffling I found it very and

1:16:16

I asked the people being like no no no you could

1:16:18

see afterwards he was like you're one of the greatest coaches

1:16:21

I'm like guys if you care

1:16:23

about someone and you have to have a

1:16:25

tough conversation with them it's it's not our

1:16:27

business it's like I don't I don't to

1:16:29

the point where I don't even want to

1:16:31

see it yeah straight and

1:16:33

by the way I think he followed me up

1:16:35

until recently and then I tweeted very lightly like

1:16:38

question mark could have been done behind closed

1:16:40

doors and I think you don't follow me for it so there you go.

1:16:42

Oh look you can't you know you can't

1:16:45

live your life trying to befriend fighters

1:16:47

unless you plan on doing a completely

1:16:49

critique free coverage style which by the

1:16:51

way would get you front

1:16:53

row credentials at a UFC fight and possibly

1:16:56

an on-air job with power slap so if

1:16:58

you had played your cards better your career

1:17:00

could be in a different spot but I

1:17:02

wouldn't stress that do you know which coach

1:17:05

or team Suuto is plugging in? I don't

1:17:08

I actually I reached out to

1:17:10

Eric via WhatsApp I haven't

1:17:12

heard back yet so let's see what happens I don't

1:17:14

know I hope he sends you back the

1:17:17

drunken video where he's wearing those skull glasses like he

1:17:19

sent us during what was it

1:17:21

was Logan Paul versus Floyd in Miami yeah at

1:17:23

the Hard Rock Cafe or Hard Rock Cafe. We

1:17:25

both saw him on the floor of the stadium

1:17:27

but then we had to go to the upper

1:17:29

deck to get ready to film our thing and

1:17:32

he sent us the drunkest love messages of

1:17:34

all time and you know I still feel

1:17:36

it right here pitter-patter in the heart that

1:17:38

man gets us Luke okay? I

1:17:41

think he's a great guy again Henry might be

1:17:43

right to let him go I don't know if I don't

1:17:45

know what is going on where he feels like that might

1:17:47

be the right call only Henry knows the answer to that

1:17:50

I'm just like dude like you don't have to

1:17:52

do that either performatively or otherwise for any of

1:17:55

us like we're cool on that you know no

1:17:57

thanks. I can't wait to see if

1:17:59

Suuto can pull this off and if he doesn't,

1:18:01

if Marab gets the win under any means

1:18:03

necessary, fit him, fit him for

1:18:05

the winner of Cheeto versus O'Malley, Luke, it's

1:18:08

time. Fit him. Fit his

1:18:10

belt for the size, for the title, right?

1:18:12

I mean, it's just, it's time. Let's

1:18:14

close out the main card. It's time right now. Middle

1:18:17

weights, Anthony Hernandez kicking it off

1:18:19

against Roman Kopilov. Luke, it feels

1:18:21

like a step down. Tell me why it

1:18:23

isn't. Candidly, I love this fight. Now

1:18:26

this was supposed to be Anthony Hernandez, I believe

1:18:28

versus Ikram El-Eskarov and then he fell out and

1:18:30

so they got Kopilov coming in on short notice.

1:18:33

So maybe that part's not so great. I don't know

1:18:35

his readiness at this point. But if

1:18:38

you're talking about two guys who are

1:18:40

the more exciting prospects slash contenders at

1:18:43

185, it's these two guys for sure.

1:18:45

I mean, Anthony Hernandez, guys,

1:18:47

he's got wins over Vieira,

1:18:50

Hadolfo Vieira. He's got wins over Marc Andre

1:18:53

Berio who just fought recently. He's got a

1:18:55

win over Edmund Shabazzian. He's got four wins

1:18:57

in a row, by the way. He's got

1:19:00

a tremendous arm triangle. How about this BC?

1:19:02

We were talking about takedowns per 15 minutes.

1:19:05

How about a guy? I just said Marabh had

1:19:07

an insane number. How about Anthony Hernandez? 6.79,

1:19:13

more than two around and he's

1:19:15

a middleweight. He has a

1:19:17

phenomenal gas tank himself. By the way, he's got

1:19:20

a positive striking differential, 4.33 to 3.36. If

1:19:24

you're looking at that for Anthony Hernandez, I don't think

1:19:26

he's the striker that KapiLav is by a million miles.

1:19:29

But he's got a lot going for him in

1:19:31

the right direction. KapiLav is interesting because he has

1:19:33

quietly come out of nowhere. I mean,

1:19:36

his first fight, I think, in the UFC against

1:19:38

Daraev, or the first fight I remember from him,

1:19:41

was not an impressive showcase. But since then,

1:19:43

he beat your guy, Dick Rico. And

1:19:47

then he has a win over Punahayle Soriano and

1:19:49

then Haberro and then Frimmed in his last two

1:19:51

contests. And he has absolutely blown

1:19:53

the doors off these guys. Violent, violent

1:19:56

striker. Hands and feet

1:19:58

quickly. Good combinations. can work

1:20:00

at range, no hesitation throwing, push forward,

1:20:02

all kinds of stuff. His numbers don't

1:20:04

look as impressive statistically, 4.72 strikes the

1:20:06

landed per

1:20:09

minute to 4.11, although he does have a

1:20:11

positive differential. And to that point, BC,

1:20:13

0.47 takedowns for 15 minutes. He's

1:20:16

not going to go for the takedown, but you might be

1:20:18

asking, well, what's his takedown defensive rate? How about 92%? Very,

1:20:21

very good up to this point. So to

1:20:23

me, BC, this is not quite the same

1:20:25

as Suhudo versus Marabh, where the way we

1:20:27

had set it up. But it's got some

1:20:29

of the same features where you've got a,

1:20:31

there is, this is a little bit more

1:20:33

striker grappler, although Hernandez can strike. But

1:20:35

Hernandez has got this guy who's going to be

1:20:38

putting all of this sort of multi-phasic offense

1:20:40

together, right? Trying to dump it on a

1:20:43

guy like Kapi Law, force him to wrestle.

1:20:45

I would just say this, I'd

1:20:47

be very surprised if Hernandez tries to strike

1:20:49

with Kapi Law for long time, long periods,

1:20:51

unless he's forced to. And if he's forced

1:20:53

to, it's a different ballgame. But on the

1:20:55

other hand, if Hernandez is able to get

1:20:57

the takedown, dude, Fluffy Hernandez is one of

1:20:59

these guys who has come out of nowhere,

1:21:02

an exciting, exciting fighter at 185

1:21:04

pounds. Love it. He's

1:21:06

a favorite, Fluffy Hernandez, minus 205 on FanDuel,

1:21:08

plus 158 the other way to Kapi

1:21:11

Law, who is on that streak, as

1:21:13

you mentioned. That's your kickoff banger to

1:21:16

open the pay-per-view card. But Luke, the

1:21:18

preliminary feature about on ESPN and ESPN

1:21:20

Plus has an interesting storyline

1:21:22

at women's strawweight, the 115, that

1:21:25

Mackenzie Duren on short notice will

1:21:27

come in and take Amanda Lemosch

1:21:29

looking for yet again, a redemptive

1:21:32

win to put the, you

1:21:34

know, long standing title hopes on track.

1:21:36

Last time out for Mackenzie Duren, it

1:21:39

was absolutely disastrous against Jessica Andraj.

1:21:42

And Andraj, who had coming

1:21:44

off of multiple losses, stoppage finish

1:21:46

losses. And here we saw

1:21:48

Andraj hammer away with shots. Duren

1:21:50

eventually fold and gets stopped in the second

1:21:53

round. That fight was notable because

1:21:55

Jason Perillo, after Ruka closed, was not in

1:21:57

her corner. Who was, was Antony

1:22:00

Otracoli who now in this past

1:22:02

week the two of them have shared

1:22:04

an Instagram post portraying that they

1:22:06

are in a relationship with each

1:22:08

other which had been the whisper

1:22:10

around that fight against Andraj. So

1:22:13

new coach, I'm sure her dad Megatron is still

1:22:15

in the corner as well, but look

1:22:17

it's the same narrative. Can she get

1:22:19

it together? Taking a short

1:22:21

notice to try to get the dangerous fighter

1:22:23

gives her the opportunity to quickly change that

1:22:26

narrative. But is there enough time

1:22:28

with a new team, a new coach and a

1:22:30

new situation here for Dern

1:22:32

to ever get right? That's the

1:22:34

age old timeless MMA question. Is

1:22:36

it ever going to happen or

1:22:38

not? Does she have nine lives

1:22:40

before eventually getting a title shot?

1:22:43

Will it happen here Saturday night? Yes or no, Luke?

1:22:47

I don't know, man. Yeah, right.

1:22:50

Dern has looked in

1:22:52

that last fight against Andraj. She looked terrible.

1:22:56

You know, and I tried not to use words like that

1:22:58

when I talk about professional fighters. You know, I really try.

1:23:00

I'm sure they don't feel this way, but just

1:23:03

peel back the curtain for just a minute. BC,

1:23:05

we do try to not be insulting to fighters

1:23:07

if we can at all help it. Now, sometimes we get

1:23:09

that wrong and sometimes we do, but I

1:23:11

tried not to do it. And even now I'm not doing it

1:23:13

maliciously. BC, I'm not doing it. I'm going to stick it to Mackenzie

1:23:16

Dern and blah, blah. That's not what I'm trying to do here,

1:23:18

but I'm just trying to make an honest evaluator. I

1:23:21

had made a video BC. This

1:23:24

was some time ago, if I'm

1:23:26

looking at her run, Mackenzie Dern, I

1:23:28

think this was, I'm not trying to see when this

1:23:30

was, I forget which fight it was, where

1:23:33

she had like this really terrible ground and pound because

1:23:35

she was balancing off of her head to keep

1:23:38

a high hip position so that

1:23:40

she could go for like an arm bar or something, which never really

1:23:42

came. And so she had this

1:23:44

really sort of very, very, very limited ground and

1:23:46

pound versus kind of really driving someone and pinning

1:23:48

them to the floor and then beating

1:23:50

them up more dog a study style, which is a much

1:23:52

better style of ground and pound and like how it needed

1:23:54

to change. And there was some, she looked good against Angela

1:23:57

Hill. I thought for the most part, but then really

1:23:59

bad, really. really bad. She's regressed in

1:24:01

many, many ways. I think changing coaches and

1:24:03

changing teams, again, there can be a

1:24:05

way to do it and a way not to do it. I'm

1:24:07

beginning to question about whether or not she's done it the right

1:24:09

way. I just have not seen basic

1:24:11

development. How have you been

1:24:13

in the UFC this long and your double

1:24:15

is still, you're bending over at the waist

1:24:17

like this with terrible posture. You're not

1:24:19

going to run. I mean, there's certain ways to get away

1:24:22

with that, but even though she doesn't really necessarily do all

1:24:24

that well, her striking,

1:24:26

like where's the jab? She does take a punch

1:24:28

well. I think that has saved her and Amanda,

1:24:30

does it a big right hand? Yeah.

1:24:32

And Amanda, lay most remember,

1:24:36

she got head and arm triangles standing. Now

1:24:38

granted, Jessica Andraj is a powerhouse. So that

1:24:40

kind of explains it, but still, you know,

1:24:42

she's submission vulnerable where against anybody, if she

1:24:45

gets into the floor, you like Dern's chances,

1:24:48

all things being what they are. But BC, I mean,

1:24:50

tell me I'm wrong. Tell me you saw something in

1:24:53

the Andraj fight that didn't make alarm

1:24:55

bells go off that didn't tell you that

1:24:57

she was heading in the wrong

1:24:59

direction. It was bad for me, her

1:25:02

chances of putting the train back on the

1:25:04

tracks, this whole stretch. And it's not out

1:25:07

of any weird Instagram love that you might ascribe

1:25:09

for me and a joking bullshit. It's

1:25:11

just that there were there are some

1:25:13

intangibles in there that she is overwhelming

1:25:15

or not overwhelming, but she's plus at in the chins,

1:25:17

one of them. But you know,

1:25:19

anytime she puts together a good stretch of

1:25:21

striking, you either have to question the opponent

1:25:23

she's fighting in terms of not getting too

1:25:25

overboard and excitement, or you have to

1:25:28

keep in the reality that her performance is

1:25:30

Wayne at times from fight to fight. How

1:25:32

about this, Luke should be fighting a 36 year

1:25:34

old, Amanda Lemos, who's still tough out

1:25:37

very dangerous. But her last

1:25:39

three wins, meaning Mackenzie Dern, while

1:25:41

on paper, they look great when you beat Angela

1:25:44

Hill, Marina Rodriguez by stoppage

1:25:46

and Michelle Watterson, all three of those

1:25:48

fighters were 35 or older at the

1:25:50

point of Dern fighting them as well.

1:25:52

So you can see the

1:25:54

sort of level of competition and the

1:25:57

time she faces them that yes, there

1:25:59

are certain matches. There were she can

1:26:01

just almost like Paula coast on a different

1:26:03

way. can rely on the. The. Size,

1:26:05

the power, the chin, the explosiveness.

1:26:07

Some of these other things, but

1:26:09

all the stuff you've been picking

1:26:11

apart meticulously Technique? Why's that? If

1:26:13

it doesn't get switched or changed

1:26:15

or improved upon, wolf ultimately be

1:26:17

her on doing. We've. Literally saw

1:26:20

that happened he gets on drugs and then you

1:26:22

add in the change of direction with the corner

1:26:24

in the leadership behind your i me I'll give

1:26:26

you know gives your call your second chance. You're

1:26:28

on the second fight as as head trainer but

1:26:30

it just seems like. You. Know what

1:26:32

with everything that she's vocalize ahead of her

1:26:34

last two fights about the difficulties of a

1:26:36

divorce and custody battle, in the everything negative

1:26:38

that goes on with that. We.

1:26:40

Thought that that may be revived or two

1:26:42

fights ago, but. When. She stepped in

1:26:45

their gets a tougher match of the lack

1:26:47

of head movement everything just went against or

1:26:49

I'm now at the point where at work.

1:26:51

if she can't be my next Adrian Brodie

1:26:53

Reserve shooter or any other fighter you insert

1:26:55

where I've just always gonna believe they've got

1:26:57

one more big one or an ability to

1:26:59

start another win streak. I no longer

1:27:01

believe it will have seen enough to know I've

1:27:03

seen too much. I don't. First section: get a

1:27:05

w here in turn it around. But.

1:27:07

The implosion factor. Which.

1:27:09

Maybe was held together in the

1:27:11

past. By. The fact that she has

1:27:14

a good she knew in you don't find

1:27:16

just Call and Rogers often in the Women's

1:27:18

Joy Division. People with one punch power that

1:27:20

can change the course of the fights. What?

1:27:22

It really only took a small handful of

1:27:24

over hands from a drive to look like

1:27:26

the nose was on its way to be

1:27:28

broken and that she could be stopped at

1:27:31

any point and that was only round to

1:27:33

by the way. So the more sophisticated the

1:27:35

striker the worse of an issue she's going

1:27:37

to have. especially if she can't take you

1:27:39

down. And. And try to dominate

1:27:41

physically on top so. It's

1:27:43

what she's She's entering reality show tv

1:27:45

levels. I said that about certain fighters

1:27:48

careers like aired Pico or like tail Fema

1:27:50

Lopez boxing right now. You just don't know

1:27:52

what you're going to get man. But the but the journey.

1:27:54

In the ride is still entertaining for that

1:27:56

idea of seeing. Can they finally put it

1:27:58

together? Then there's this is a

1:28:01

course of do this a big paper view three T

1:28:03

v it more or less on E S P N

1:28:05

and the feature about. Ah, It

1:28:07

it's it's been our never before. but

1:28:09

is it really now or never know.

1:28:12

Is this an hour? Never fight. Well.

1:28:14

I mean, she's thirty three, thirty one. So if

1:28:16

we should be thirty one soon. or measures of

1:28:18

your home or figures, you were thirty and ten

1:28:20

months, so she's not. It's like. His.

1:28:24

Time Off Know in the sense that

1:28:26

she's still in her physical prime or

1:28:28

should be in and be the overall

1:28:30

in her career prime. But what I'm

1:28:32

saying is. Ordinary.

1:28:36

If this is how you're looking in your prime.

1:28:40

Yeah. You're not going to be champion. right? Him

1:28:42

again less reserve the right to say hey,

1:28:45

let's see what happens next and you know

1:28:47

she gets a turn around. All things great

1:28:49

great but up to this point have I

1:28:51

seen some in the top Michigan be champion?

1:28:54

No. No. I've not announcing that. The.

1:28:56

Most minus one fifty, your

1:28:59

fan duel betting favorite plus

1:29:01

one eighteen, the slight dog

1:29:04

is dern, I look quickly

1:29:06

of Marcos Rosarito. De. Lima.

1:29:08

Gonna take one half of the tour of

1:29:10

Topher against Justin? I'm not. I don't think

1:29:12

you're into that Israeli. Else on this tree limb

1:29:15

or. Early prelim that you do think the

1:29:17

fans should should wake up for or scheduled

1:29:19

our take notice. The. Or renew

1:29:21

your nakamura ticking on. Carlos Vela. Close

1:29:25

vera on of Ecuador but that's not

1:29:27

the guy wants you to pay. Turns

1:29:29

into it's ringing. The Camorra Nakamura is

1:29:31

awesome seated with us of the most

1:29:34

interesting for the bottom how old is

1:29:36

he? Nakamura is currently does Twenty eight

1:29:38

years old. Nakamura was in under twenty

1:29:40

three, freestyle World champion and rustling. This

1:29:43

is a guy or a rubber Yeah, see how?

1:29:45

The Japanese good A wrestling. The Japanese are very

1:29:47

good a wrestling and he was very very good.

1:29:50

Up to a point he tried to make the

1:29:52

Olympics and the Twenty Twenty cycle. He failed to

1:29:54

qualify for the team and then just automatically turn

1:29:56

his attention to Emma. May or may be maybe

1:29:58

he made the team. He didn't advance. But

1:30:00

it was a twenty twenty Olympic.cycle that he

1:30:02

awfully decided that he wasn't going to pursue

1:30:04

it any further. The point I'm trying to

1:30:07

make your is he had achievement at the

1:30:09

junior level, on the cadet level, which sort

1:30:11

of like the collegiate level where he had

1:30:13

done really, really really well. So

1:30:16

he is somebody who has a force a

1:30:18

good athlete, undefeated background of freestyle wrestling converted

1:30:20

early enough to really be something special to

1:30:22

this point B C he is currently sitting

1:30:25

out I think our eight and oh, heading

1:30:27

into this. Carlos verified and I think I've

1:30:29

met. I've met this dude. I think Carlos.

1:30:32

Ah, When I went to Goad

1:30:34

interview Corey same Hagan. From. K at

1:30:36

the A. Fifty Fifty. Ah he was.

1:30:39

They're very very nice guy. very nice guy

1:30:41

but he is up against it with a

1:30:43

dynamite athlete in a top prospect. Do not

1:30:45

sudden Japan started. Turn out. Turn. Out

1:30:47

some guys worth pay attention to. It's been awhile

1:30:50

but I'm glad to see it. Let's go more

1:30:52

than I am. Always glad to see that for

1:30:54

sure I look. I also want to keep note

1:30:56

of the or in jerker of the evening at

1:30:59

Women Sly way when thirty five year old Andrea

1:31:01

Kgb leave what's your three fight losing skid on

1:31:03

the line, I'll get. Some. Random average to

1:31:05

bounce back in a nice way. From

1:31:07

that was more or less one sided

1:31:10

last Jasmine just a vicious which came

1:31:12

back a month later in July. And

1:31:14

tickets you priscilla catch whereas that's. Three

1:31:16

wins in her. Last four fights

1:31:18

I should. One. Twenty

1:31:20

Five Be prepared to fear fear the

1:31:23

maverick any time soon earned. or what.

1:31:26

Ah, I mean for here's the thing. she just

1:31:28

twenty six years old I felix that. We.

1:31:31

Put certainly I was among them. Put

1:31:33

too many expectations on her given her

1:31:35

relative youth. So. I'd like

1:31:37

to see how this one goes. This is a

1:31:39

winnable one but it's also like I out of

1:31:42

his of the odds on this one bc for

1:31:44

more and I'm african not tell you right now

1:31:46

it's oddly plus one five to is your underdog

1:31:48

Maverick Minus one ninety six. Yes,

1:31:50

You're trying to get the or autofocus to look here so

1:31:52

I apologize is my area. it's

1:31:58

still lose all your enemy like this is

1:32:00

now I think Maverick should probably win, but

1:32:02

it's hardly a slam dunk, right? So Yeah,

1:32:05

there's just a very managed expectations. I think in

1:32:07

either direction at this point As

1:32:10

we record this loop to kick off the week of 296. Do

1:32:12

you expect any? Excuse

1:32:16

me Anaheim, California this Saturday do you

1:32:18

expect any fight week fireworks? We've had

1:32:20

a particularly robust

1:32:22

amount of that lately with Shawn Strickland

1:32:24

Colby Covington and a lot of the

1:32:27

Extra chaos that has formed podcast discussions

1:32:29

with the powers that be on this

1:32:31

card. Do you see anything coming up

1:32:33

this week? I think it's

1:32:35

all I think all eyes are gonna be on Henry

1:32:37

and Marab because they have done the most amount of

1:32:39

talking and big promotion Costa maybe

1:32:42

a little bit but Whitaker doesn't play that game

1:32:44

Ian Gary's obviously gonna be somebody you're gonna pay attention

1:32:46

to but it's not Like Jeff Neil is like a

1:32:48

big-time trash talker So I don't think

1:32:50

that's gonna play a role and then I do I do think that

1:32:52

you're gonna see Ilya just say a Dismissive

1:32:56

shit about Volkanovski, but what and you know

1:32:58

either he's gonna look amazing or he's gonna

1:33:01

look really effing bad But

1:33:03

this is the bed he has made BC. No one made

1:33:05

him do it. So here we go. It's gonna

1:33:07

be a big one There we go. Cannot

1:33:09

wait Saturday night Anaheim, California I

1:33:12

want you to enjoy yourself some elite mixed

1:33:14

martial arts fighting. Thank you very much. Hey

1:33:16

guys, this has been morning combat We do

1:33:18

do things still during this transitional period. That's

1:33:20

LT. This is BC Now when you say

1:33:23

we do things during this transitional period do

1:33:25

you mean other than crying in the shower?

1:33:29

Or or What or

1:33:31

toward dashing? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

1:33:33

no No,

1:33:35

no, yeah, we do other things as well though. I

1:33:38

hope to see you guys soon Luke

1:33:40

anything else you want to sell it tell the fine.

1:33:42

Hey, we're just checking in. Thanks to you guys for

1:33:44

being patient We love you all we had a good

1:33:46

time here today. Well, you know, we'll stop back with

1:33:48

some more content I'm sure soon enough and

1:33:51

Thank you. Thank you. Thanks to everyone who has said

1:33:53

kind words. Thank you to everyone who has been patient

1:33:55

Thank you to everyone who was watching here. We really

1:33:58

appreciate and love you guys. We don't take you for granted.

1:34:00

We miss you too. We're excited to get

1:34:03

back going again. Until then, just want

1:34:06

to say thanks and we love you. Look final

1:34:08

question. My wife has said if I don't grow

1:34:10

this beard back, she will disown me. It's her

1:34:12

preference, but look, I'm my own man. Is

1:34:15

this a bad look going clean shaven at

1:34:17

45? I actually don't

1:34:19

like your beard very much. That's a very rare thing for

1:34:21

me to say. I think you look better this way. Oh

1:34:24

really? See, I feel very pale

1:34:26

like this. I'm sorry, do you

1:34:28

think growing a beard makes you look not pale? That's

1:34:31

terrible news for you. At

1:34:33

least it trips me there. All right, thank you

1:34:36

folks. We outta here though. That's it.

1:34:38

That's all we got for you. $2.98. Enjoy it.

1:34:40

Thank you. New

1:34:42

CBS Monday. Federal agents. Here's when

1:34:44

we can see them. NCIS Hawaii

1:34:46

is back. New

1:34:51

criminal, Sikach. Armed robbery, aggravated assault,

1:34:53

murder. And new investigations, to be

1:34:55

solved. These guys were good, but

1:34:57

even masterfully the same.

1:34:59

The Nestle Lachey and C3 LL Cool J.

1:35:01

While I'm in Ireland, you got it. I'll

1:35:05

get to it. A new NCIS Who own Monday,

1:35:07

10-9-30 on CBS and C-1.