0:00

Robert Half research indicates 9 out

0:02

of 10 hiring managers are having

0:04

difficulty hiring. If you have

0:06

open roles, chances are you're feeling this too.

0:09

That's why you need Robert Half. Our

0:11

specialized recruiting professionals engage with

0:13

our proprietary AI to connect

0:15

businesses of all sizes with

0:17

highly skilled talent in finance

0:20

and accounting, technology, marketing and

0:22

creative, legal, and administrative and

0:24

customer support. At Robert

0:26

Half, we know talent. Visit

0:28

roberthalf.com today. Paramount

0:58

Plus Reveley,

1:06

Reveley, dogs. Look at

1:08

us now. Tip to tip. This

1:10

is our life. This is our passion. That's

1:12

the spirit we bring to this show.

1:15

I'm Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. This

1:17

is Morning Combat. Oh

1:19

yeah. Get yourself fired the heck

1:21

up. UFC 299 this Saturday. Miami.

1:24

And this is Morning Combat

1:29

back from the dead, ready to

1:31

invade your face hole in

1:33

the most consensual and gross way possible. I'm

1:35

Brian Campbell. That's Luke Thomas next to me.

1:37

The one, two punch that

1:39

has raised many awards. Luke, is that

1:42

a Sean Price

1:44

t-shirt? Bootcamp's

1:47

best. There it is. There

1:49

it is. Brownsville, Brooklyn. Looks

1:51

good on that washed middle aged guy who's getting

1:53

unwashed at a rapid rate right here. Hey, Mikey,

1:56

more mile of CBS sports on the ones and

1:58

twos. We told you we'd be back, more

2:01

to come on our future and it's going to

2:03

bang hard to eat. But there's so much to

2:05

talk about, about two nine nine. Here's the first

2:07

question to kick us off, Luke. Is

2:10

this a better card than UFC 300? I

2:12

got to get an answer from you. It's

2:15

not a better card. I don't think overall

2:17

BC here's here's my view on this. It's

2:20

not a better card top

2:22

to bottom, although it's close. Number

2:25

one, it's close. It's very close. But

2:27

I think the real kind of difference

2:29

here for me is that 300 has

2:32

an inordinate amount of expectations. Nobody

2:35

has any expectations for two 99

2:37

other than it's a

2:39

big market now didn't used to be, but it is

2:41

a big market now in Miami and

2:43

it's a pay-per-view for the UFC. So

2:45

there'll be some expectations as

2:48

to what the fans view as a reasonable

2:50

effort by the UFC to put together a pay-per-view,

2:52

but relative to what they expect for 300, that's

2:55

actually pretty low. So

2:57

to me, two 99, if see, this makes

2:59

sense, BC 300, there's so much

3:01

scrutiny about making sure every slot is

3:03

maximized in the way that that particular

3:05

slot should be from the main event

3:08

on down. Two 99

3:10

feels like just a big party. It

3:12

doesn't feel like there's these grand expectations

3:15

about it, but because it is so

3:17

good and it is so stacked, people

3:19

have, I think very charitable correctly, but

3:21

charitable view of it in some ways

3:23

that's a little unfair to 300. Well,

3:26

either way, whichever way you lean, two

3:29

99 is deep. That's

3:31

the calling card. Fantastic. It's a

3:33

star power of the law. BC, let me

3:35

ask, but we always get killed for being

3:37

sometimes unnecessarily negative to the UFC. Forget

3:40

about is it better than 300 or is it not? For

3:42

me, ready? See what you,

3:44

give me your grade, here's mine. It's

3:46

an A plus. This is an A plus.

3:49

I'm not saying that there couldn't be other A plus

3:51

that you'd like more for me as a card. This

3:53

is an A plus card. Very

3:55

much worth your money all the way through. You're

3:58

damned right. We got that. We've got

4:00

big time star power in the return of

4:02

the sugar show and the bantamweight champion shaun

4:05

o'mally in a bitter rematch We've got maybe

4:07

the last ride of dustin pourier. We've got

4:09

the first Octagon visit for

4:12

michael vennon page and there's

4:14

some sleeper fights that are gonna absolutely

4:16

kill the night. We know it Yeah,

4:18

i'm talking about things like gilbert burns

4:20

versus jack della mattelena, but luke that

4:22

come for the marquee in these parts

4:25

And I think they picked a perfect main

4:27

event not just perfect for miami Not just

4:29

perfect when you look at who are really

4:31

the stars right now that demand our attention

4:33

across this promotion And who

4:35

is the right dance partner that is going

4:38

to jack it up? Obviously Cheeto

4:40

vera versus shaun o'mally part two

4:42

this time though for the bantamweight

4:44

title is worth the price of

4:46

admission Heck, I thought it could have even been

4:49

the ufc 300 main event because

4:51

of the personalities the styles in play

4:54

And the history so first

4:56

question to kick off to you about this main event

4:59

Is cheeto vera here because he earned

5:01

it or is he here because he's the

5:03

only man? To defeat the

5:05

champion of the sports deepest division Um,

5:10

it's a little hard to make the

5:12

argument outright that cheeto vera is the

5:14

most deserving of this It's the matchmaker

5:17

model that the ufc uses. It's not

5:19

a tournament And so We

5:22

all know the the score it doesn't necessarily

5:24

mean that everyone who gets a title shot was the

5:26

most deserving of it It's hard to argue in in

5:28

2023 about a year ago march of 2023 Cheeto

5:33

vera lost handily to corry santagan.

5:36

So does that really make him

5:38

the rightful guy? Probably not it does not

5:40

Um, but listen, this is not the only

5:43

consideration It's perhaps the most important one But

5:45

it's not the only consideration when any

5:47

matchmaker decides to put a fight together One

5:50

thing bc that I believe has been lacking

5:53

in shono mally's expected

5:55

star turn Has

5:57

been to what extent did he have a rival?

6:00

And Jan was something of a rival sort of

6:02

it was a grudge match kind of it

6:04

was a controversial result But that was part

6:06

of a bigger Jan period of decline so

6:08

they didn't really stick You

6:11

know and he obviously beat Ajimain

6:13

Sterling fairly straightforwardly There

6:15

was nothing to really build off of there for any

6:17

kind of second fight But this is one that they

6:20

could actually go back to there was some controversy about

6:22

that first fight I think some of

6:24

the storylines that were very present during

6:26

that first fight are no longer present

6:30

So this is to me the UFC actually

6:32

not going to the best available contender,

6:34

but one that still poses interesting questions

6:37

Makes it you think that there is a

6:39

competitive fight on our hands potentially anyway, and

6:42

if the UFC is banking

6:45

on a potential For

6:47

future for Shono mally as a continued

6:50

presence in the championship role These

6:53

kinds of fights are gonna get him there

6:55

a little bit quicker Perhaps than some of

6:57

the other ones that he could be that

6:59

he could face So it's a

7:01

mixed calculation, but it's not one where it's like

7:04

utterly bereft of Value in

7:06

terms of its competitive grounds. There are still some

7:08

there's still some value there Three

7:10

and a half years since they've met the

7:12

first time it was back in August of

7:14

2020 and as we move ahead

7:16

on the calendar Of course a lot has

7:19

changed particularly in the career of O'Malley who

7:21

was able to rebound from that loss and

7:23

go on this Incredible streak in which he

7:25

upset peyotr yon by split decision. Maybe I'm

7:27

not sure exactly where the odds were in

7:29

that one but it was a Coming

7:31

of age victory in many ways and then he

7:33

goes in there and does exactly what he says

7:35

and knocks out Aljamaine sterling so when you look

7:37

at the odds at the moment from fan

7:40

duel for this main event Plus

7:42

210 Marlon Cheeto Vera your

7:44

underdog minus 280 Sean O'Malley So

7:47

Luke when we go back to 2020 and

7:49

the first meeting the only loss of Sean

7:52

O'Malley's career We know how often publicly whether

7:54

it was just to motivate himself or part

7:56

of his marketing for t-shirts or what have

7:58

you? He says the law The loss never

8:00

happened. It doesn't really count. Chido got

8:03

lucky and he wins that fight nine

8:05

out of 10 times. Luke,

8:08

I doubt you're going to fully agree

8:10

with that, but are there enough

8:12

elements of truth to

8:15

that statement that you almost throw out

8:17

the first fight and the results of

8:19

it entering the second one outside of

8:21

the obvious marketing poll and the fact that this is

8:23

a rematch of his only loss? What

8:25

can we actually gain from that first fight is

8:27

my real question. I

8:30

think that the general contours of what

8:32

this fight might look like will

8:35

match some of the general contours of that

8:37

one. The thing that I

8:40

do believe there's a little bit of merit to actually

8:43

a fair degree of merit to what Sean is saying.

8:45

Not you know, does he win nine times out of

8:47

10 BC? I don't know about that. I mean, that's

8:49

to me a little speculative. I guess we'll see. We'll

8:51

see how we can get better information on Saturday. But

8:53

I guess here's my point. Let's see, what was one

8:56

of the biggest storylines coming out

8:58

of that fight? Wasn't just from that fight. It was

9:00

actually some other ones, but it was magnified

9:03

by this fight. It was that Sean O'Malley

9:06

was brittle. It was that

9:08

Sean O'Malley did not have any durability. He

9:10

gets injured. It's easier to hurt him physically to

9:12

the body. He simply won't last.

9:14

That was a big part of the storyline

9:16

of that fight. That is in deep contrast

9:19

to Cheeto, who is arguably the

9:21

best chin and the most durable

9:24

dude in the entire UFC pound

9:26

for pound. There's

9:28

a massive contrast. But dude, that story,

9:30

if that was around the

9:33

terry on wear or the sukum top

9:35

fight for Sean O'Malley, that storyline just

9:37

isn't present anymore. It's just not there.

9:39

You just don't hear people after what... You

9:42

can say maybe Sean O'Malley did

9:44

or didn't beat Jan. But either way, that

9:47

ghost is no longer following

9:49

him to this point. And actually, since that fight,

9:52

I think it'd be a tough argument to

9:54

make that actually it is Cheeto Vera who

9:56

has improved the most. It is pretty clearly

9:59

Sean O'Malley who has improved the most. So

10:02

does he beat him nine times out of ten?

10:04

I don't know. But is he

10:06

right to look at, hey a

10:08

lot of what people were saying about what I

10:11

was up against there just hasn't really borne out

10:13

at all since the since that time. Yeah, yeah

10:15

actually he does. I think I think he does

10:17

have a right to feel a little bit that

10:19

way. Yeah and he's really

10:21

really put his entire career together. I mean

10:23

you mentioned maybe there is that

10:25

rivalry that he's always lacked. I would say

10:27

that's beyond his traditional former rivals

10:30

which are Usada and Monogamy Luke.

10:32

But he's you know overcome both

10:34

of those battles. So when we

10:36

talk about O'Malley and his evolution,

10:38

like I said watch the Yawn fight, watch the Sterling

10:40

fights, you can see what happened. Cheetah

10:42

was five wins two losses

10:44

since their first meeting. He

10:47

lost the clean decision to Jose Aldo. He

10:49

lost a split decision which seemed to be

10:51

much wider when you watched it live to

10:53

Corey Sanhagen. That's not a decision. That was

10:55

that was that was insanity. He got he

10:57

got wiped out in that fight. I mean

10:59

he did. No question. What would you

11:01

say he has done now at age 31 in

11:03

the three and a half years? Has he

11:05

gotten better? Has he evolved? We've seen highlight

11:08

real knockouts of Dominic Cruz and Frankie Edgar

11:10

for example along the way. Yes

11:12

there's no doubt in my mind. So

11:14

so so just because Sean O'Malley has

11:16

made more progress in no way means

11:19

that Cheetah has made none. Cheetah has

11:21

made progress too. He absolutely has

11:23

gotten better. First of all I think he's a devastating

11:25

leg kicker. I think he's a dev you know a

11:27

very good body attacker. But really what's

11:29

the Cheetah Vera magic? It's that he is

11:31

insanely durable. He has a rock chin and

11:34

he can turn it on in the fourth and fifth

11:36

rounds and if you're not prepared for

11:38

the deep waters against the guy who's hard to

11:41

hurt and surges late dude good luck to

11:43

you. You're gonna fucking need it. That's

11:45

really what Cheetah Vera excels at. It doesn't

11:47

mean he's necessarily the best Bantamweight as I

11:49

mentioned just a year ago we saw Corey

11:51

Sanhagen more or less using wrestling and control

11:54

ground-and-pound run the table on him. So I

11:57

Don't know if that's an avenue available to Sean O'Malley

11:59

but we have seen. The It doesn't mean that

12:01

he does the best bantamweight, but it

12:03

might mean stylistically. the he's got a

12:05

lot of potential problems that he poses

12:07

to shown or Malik. We don't know

12:09

that exactly what to see, but it

12:11

does seem that like it's It's worth

12:13

considering. it's worth taking seriously so I

12:15

think he's sharpened up his more. He's

12:17

found a good system for him that

12:19

works as as a five round fight

12:21

with works much better for his style

12:23

than three rounds and his defense overall

12:25

have gotten better. He's become more judicious

12:27

and thoughtful about shot selection and as

12:29

I mentioned before, Already has the decline

12:31

of durability. You just can't You can't buy

12:33

it, you can't work on it, you can't

12:35

find it. It either have it or you

12:37

don't and he's got it in spades. To

12:40

me is going to be really interesting Test

12:42

of despite goes past the third round. what's

12:44

it all gonna look like I'm telling ya

12:46

know Tito there's gonna be there Will so

12:48

normally be there. We shall see. At.

12:50

See if that that brittle reputation from the first

12:52

bike and hold up. Obviously it was an injury

12:54

that. I guess open the

12:56

door for defeat from alley but when

12:59

you do look back and watch him

13:01

and we seen that injury before right

13:03

in it happened in the fight because

13:05

of the fight chino jump since opposition

13:07

raining ground ground and pound clean. I

13:10

get what or malley say and but I also watched

13:12

Chino go in there and do what he does. When

13:14

he gets you hurt, he gets you out of their.

13:16

that's the truth in this situation. So look as we

13:19

look at this fight. Consider.

13:22

When it outside. Of a

13:24

knockout outside of. Of hurting

13:26

and dropping or malley multiple times is

13:28

t those skilled enough over twenty five

13:30

minutes to do this the other way

13:32

the hard way. I

13:38

don't think a decision is likely for hims.

13:40

So. You're gonna have to win three of

13:42

five rounds is basically what that means, right?

13:44

A give you gotta go decision. You have

13:47

to win three of them to have them.

13:49

I could see a window to three at

13:51

seems possible, but that seems like a lot.

13:54

Especially if. You. know

13:56

he's down the first two right away

13:58

you gonna win last three that's

14:02

tough. I actually feel like his best way to

14:04

win would be to stop O'Malley with a surge

14:06

that he just couldn't endure late. That would

14:09

then seems to me the best because like again the San

14:12

Hagan route of wrestling, we're talking about Cheeto

14:14

what he could do but I just mean I don't

14:16

think that like he's gonna out I mean do I

14:18

think that Sean O'Malley has the best takedown defense in

14:20

the division? No but it's pretty good. Algermane

14:22

Sterling has some trouble with it it's actually pretty

14:24

good and I don't know that Cheeto's got better

14:26

offensive takedowns over the consistent amount of 25 minutes

14:29

that he's gonna need. So it's really gonna be

14:31

about just can he weather. Again,

14:34

could go a number of different ways but a probable scenario

14:36

the one that I think seems to be the likeliest

14:38

is that he has to surge late

14:40

and what that looks like trying to

14:42

walk Sean O'Malley down. Can you get

14:44

enough sustained offense there? It's a bit

14:46

of a narrow window right? It's like

14:48

can Cheeto be that quarterback to like

14:50

really thread that needle? You

14:52

know he can do it but the odds

14:54

are not great but possible. That's kind of

14:56

the scenario I'm looking at. I wonder if

14:58

he benefits and I'm talking about Cheeto Vera

15:00

from a from the

15:03

the tension between them. Now I wouldn't

15:05

call the build up to this point

15:07

we're recording this on Wednesday of Fight

15:09

Week. I wouldn't call it overwhelming or

15:11

you know drawing people by the numbers

15:13

in just because of the the ill

15:15

repair between them. Obviously the storyline sells

15:17

itself. O'Malley's Star Power sells

15:19

itself. Cheeto is a fan favorite

15:21

in the violence category without question

15:24

but do you think we'll see

15:26

as Fight Week progresses that

15:28

bad blood play out? I'm wondering if that fuels

15:30

Cheeto. I wonder if he could benefit from that

15:33

is really what I'm saying here. Hmm.

15:40

They're both too... I

15:42

doubt it. It just doesn't seem

15:44

neither guy seems to be especially impressed

15:46

with the other guy. You know

15:49

rather than like enraged by them or triggered

15:51

by them they both seem to be kind

15:53

of recognizing it's good business

15:55

opportunity but otherwise bored by the other guy.

15:57

So I Don't know.

16:00

I don't exactly think that's gonna do and I

16:02

really believe that like to the extent there's any

16:04

intimidation or any kind of. Withering.

16:07

It happens because of what happens in the octagon itself,

16:09

rather than any kind of other factor. But you know

16:11

us or how? I don't have the best I for

16:13

the com thing either. I. Am

16:15

feeling a bit of the Oh Malley star turn

16:17

and I don't know if you're feeling it to

16:20

look, I'm feeling it because my dad, who probably

16:22

has never heard of Brock Lesnar and still thinks.

16:24

The. U F C as a bare knuckle no

16:27

rule sport I the only fighter he knows

16:29

the shot on Ballyhoo he calls shame that

16:31

Irish kids who looks like know reading of

16:33

the Jimi Hendrix experience and that's the reference

16:35

I constantly get for my dad. He is

16:37

is that Shane the Irish kid rest are

16:39

fighting again. On have you felt

16:41

like since becoming champion that we have

16:43

seen the star turn up to the

16:45

level that we expected of? Oh Malik.

16:48

No no it offered we have right so I

16:50

can me just give these are very different scenarios

16:52

A B C or know you love all of

16:54

my tweets about earlier to Pour Un Spain I

16:57

know that the I haven't seen any of them

16:59

live I see other phone rang are see his

17:01

twitter feed Most of this week's I've been ignoring

17:03

you to be ah so this cruises crazier. You

17:05

know my my fascination with Real Madrid, Spain or

17:08

Ryan's as though like a doctor answer that but

17:10

I get you out but I guess or guest

17:12

hosts a busy at least who's who supports on

17:14

the make you saw a trick is in South

17:16

Africa to an extent as. Well where they get,

17:19

these guys go to their home nations and are

17:21

like rabidly embrace in a way that's like kind

17:23

of shocking. you know, So

17:25

what that means for the popular over here? It's kind

17:27

of hard to tell at both of those cases, but.

17:30

It. Just felt like something was different for

17:32

them after those moments. I.

17:35

Don't know if we've seen shown to the. I mean

17:37

here's the thing, right. I mean, this is the kind

17:39

of issue he isn't navigating seems to be done with,

17:41

agree, busy and I am innocent. All seriousness. On.

17:43

The one hand has he stood out by

17:46

like the the colorful hair and like the

17:48

tattoos on his face and he's got this

17:50

crazy neon look at all times and he

17:52

does a low anybody else and it looks

17:55

very different and some people like it's under

17:57

way that. Some. people think he's trying too

17:59

hard what But it definitely stands him apart

18:02

The thing about Dricus and the thing about Ilya

18:04

Toporia It's that when they went home it seemed

18:07

like the mainstream was like all too ready

18:09

to embrace them I feel like

18:11

Sean O'Malley has kind of set aside a

18:13

path for himself. That's very unique

18:16

and and Very much

18:18

apart from the mainstream, but I

18:20

feel like that's also Creating

18:22

some distance between them right like it's making

18:24

a little bit harder for the sporting public

18:27

to come back around to a guy Yeah,

18:29

who just looks utterly different from what any kind of

18:32

sporting hero that they've ever been accustomed to Would

18:34

you would you agree with that or am I off? Yeah?

18:37

No, I think you're right I think it's also sometimes

18:39

the product of where we are in media at the

18:42

moment meaning when we look at how it used To

18:44

be done how a star went from breakout

18:46

performance to man the UFC or any other

18:48

promoter is pushing them and look at their

18:50

everywhere It tends to be through

18:52

the idea of like media chores press conferences

18:55

the ESPN car washes. Oh, they got a

18:57

commercial deal Okay, like they're being pushed in

18:59

front of you I think the difference today

19:01

especially with a guy like Oh O'Malley

19:03

excuse me who seems to be ahead of the curve

19:05

on the idea of having your own YouTube channel basically

19:08

just selling your brand constantly is

19:12

That's a model where they're going after certain groups

19:14

and it might not be the groups that we

19:16

as 45 year old wash dads as we Always

19:18

say about O'Malley like O'Malley's pretty cool loop, but

19:21

there's a lot of that that's lost maybe an

19:23

age trend Transition or sure I mean we're two

19:25

fucking idiots in their 40s. You know I mean

19:27

that Should be very clear

19:29

to everyone for upfront But between his

19:32

connection to live streaming video games And then

19:34

the idea of again him having his own

19:36

channel and people can come right to him

19:38

to get their you know They're their dose

19:41

of him I wonder if he's

19:43

not just because it's a different model going directly

19:45

to these different age groups or cat or so

19:47

yeah Yeah, but hold on hold on let's talk

19:49

about this for just a second like okay fair

19:52

enough. I mean let's be clear He is

19:54

popular right we're not saying he's not popular

19:56

But your question was is it where we

19:58

thought it would be and I think the answer is not No, it's

20:00

not there yet. But by the way, if he keeps

20:02

winning, it's almost it almost certainly will be, you know

20:04

I want to say that very clearly and to he

20:06

is popular he has as you mentioned his own YouTube

20:09

Thing and he's got his own like digital army

20:11

and and presence and he's in control of his

20:13

own message for sure There's a lot he's doing,

20:15

right But like, you

20:18

know There was a video of Dreykis and he was out in front

20:20

of this gigantic Rugby stadium and the

20:22

stadium was apparently an electric forum and dude to

20:24

purim it with the fucking prime minister of Spain

20:27

Yeah, I mean like that's what I'm sorry.

20:29

He was on we don't do that I'm

20:31

gonna show in Spain, but what I'm saying

20:33

is have you seen O'Malley on I don't

20:36

know Rogan is more popular. But

20:38

in terms of like that middle America thing

20:40

Have you seen him on Jimmy Fallon? Have

20:42

you seen him on those? That's what I'm

20:44

talking about Like that connection is missing. I

20:46

also don't see though to be fair. We talked about a lot the

20:48

UFC Doing that

20:50

model anymore put you know making sure that they're

20:53

behind it and making sure he's getting on these

20:55

shows Sometimes it's more of like if they had

20:57

a guy popular enough They would if they had

20:59

a guy popular enough they would push it It's

21:02

interesting to think about on the changing scheme of

21:04

things But definitely he's lived up to expectations in

21:06

his biggest fights and that would that's what it

21:08

was always gonna be about So as we now

21:11

turn the direction toward this rematch the main event

21:13

Saturday night Do you feel

21:15

like you have a firm grasp of exactly who

21:17

O'Malley is as a fighter and I asked

21:19

that only because Close win

21:21

over pay order young like split decision

21:23

against a former champion, but he's

21:25

been able to sort of ride his a game He

21:27

goes in there forces aljo into a mistake

21:30

to aggressive squaring up coming at him gets

21:32

him the hell out of there But

21:34

there has always been soft comparisons to Conor McGregor

21:36

in that sense when McGregor kept winning as all

21:38

the haters kept moving The goalposts and saying okay.

21:41

Well now if we get a wrestler on a

21:43

full camp We'll see what he looks like against

21:45

there Do you feel like you know exactly who

21:47

O'Malley is and that he really can go out

21:49

there and be any style in this great deep

21:51

division? I think at age 29. He's

21:54

really settling into his offensive system There

21:56

are some comparisons to Conor McGregor in

21:59

the sense that he's

22:01

a guy who manages distance really

22:03

well, fantastic timing, can find

22:05

the half beats in between any kind

22:08

of connection. You

22:10

saw that against Algermane Sterling, accurate,

22:12

good power. The kind of guy who

22:14

can use movement and angles to create

22:17

traps, guys walk into them and then he drills

22:19

them. He's really, really, really quite good at that.

22:21

As I mentioned, his takedown defense, it's not impenetrable,

22:23

but it's very good. His scrambling is good. He's

22:26

not trying to beat you with his jujitsu, but

22:28

he's trying to make your jujitsu very nullified

22:30

and he can do it in a full array of

22:32

ways, like he can play the game as far as

22:34

he needs to. I

22:37

think that what sets him apart, what does

22:39

he do that's really great? It's aforementioned. It's

22:42

the distance management, it's the timing, it's the

22:44

power, it's the accuracy. If you

22:46

can really refine those skills and put it

22:48

together in a coherent striking system, which I

22:50

believe that he has, he's a phenomenal fainter

22:52

by the way, he sells it very well,

22:56

hard for anyone to deal with. When he's fighting

22:58

on his terms, he's tough to beat. He's

23:00

tough to beat. You got to take him out of

23:02

that. He has to be tired or he has to

23:04

be wrestling for really long stretches or something like that.

23:07

He has to be injured or something. Once he's out of that system,

23:09

it's a different ball game. In

23:12

that one, he is excellent. He's very

23:14

good. He is. It does

23:16

seem to have the game necessary to beat

23:18

these super elite well-rounded guys because you can

23:20

hold that distance control because he can prevent

23:22

the takedown and because he does have that

23:24

delivery system to hit guys with strikes they

23:27

don't see coming. That's

23:29

why this fight's so great because as you

23:31

laid out earlier, Chito's got a chin and

23:33

a half. What if he

23:35

is still there in the championship rounds? What

23:38

if he's not falling for the feints? What

23:40

if he's taking O'Malley's best shots and still

23:42

coming? I hope, Luke, that

23:44

we find out those answers in the cage on

23:46

Saturday night, meaning that this one does go into

23:49

rounds four or five. It is an action fight

23:51

and we have to see O'Malley dig

23:53

deep into that bag of tricks in ways that

23:55

he hasn't had to up to this point. If

23:57

he is going to be the guy that he's

23:59

looking to be... then he not only has to

24:01

redeem this loss to Cheeto, but we think of

24:04

that often as, okay, go in there and knock

24:06

him out, redeem it that way. I want to

24:08

see him redeem it in the way that you

24:10

pass all the tests because in a weird way

24:12

Cheeto's here, yes, more because of their history than

24:14

his spot in the rankings, but he

24:17

might be that perfect kryptonite opponent of

24:19

durability and utter violence that he can test

24:21

Sean O'Malley in ways that no one else

24:24

in this division potentially can. Maybe,

24:26

maybe. Styles make fights, dude. I

24:28

mean, again, Cheeto Vera is not the

24:30

most qualified candidate for this moment right

24:33

now. He's not.

24:35

But, but the way in which he matches up with

24:37

Sean, at least we think, could

24:39

create for some very interesting answers to

24:42

questions that we have. We'll see. All

24:44

right. If you're Marab Davales Vili and

24:47

you just fought and you just scored

24:49

the biggest win over your career in your career

24:51

in Henry Sahudo, and it has been announced or

24:53

at least rumored that Marab's going to show up

24:55

and weigh in on just a few weeks notice

24:57

here as the backup for this

24:59

title fight. But he knows he's in the on-deck

25:01

position to fight next. Luke,

25:04

what are the odds here? I'm not talking about the

25:06

betting odds. We already laid that out. I'm talking about

25:09

in the mind of Luke Thomas, how

25:11

much of a striker's chance or what

25:13

have you that Cheeto Vera is going

25:15

to end the sugar show and welcome

25:18

Marab for the first title

25:20

defense? Like if you're Marab, what

25:22

are you thinking right now? Luke, what is Luke Thomas thinking?

25:25

Can Cheeto Vera do the impossible here a

25:27

second time? I don't mean impossible, but the

25:29

unlikely, I guess. Oh yeah. I want

25:31

to say that this is not impossible. What Francis is trying,

25:33

like, oh, I'm going to knock out Anthony Joshua in the

25:36

first three rounds. That that's also

25:38

not impossible, but pretty goddamn close. You

25:40

know, this is not that this is

25:42

improbable, difficult, but doable.

25:44

It's doable for Cheeto. I just don't think

25:46

it's likely. I think it's likely that Sean

25:48

O'Malley is going to get his hand raised.

25:50

I wonder if we might have some drama

25:53

to the extent that it goes long, but

25:55

let's pause it another scenario. We're all talking

25:57

about Sean's, you know, imperfections or where he's

25:59

fallen. But imagine he like shines here

26:01

and he puts Cheeto away, you know,

26:03

which would be like historic in its own, right?

26:07

That would be incredible, right? I mean he hasn't

26:09

had the kind of performance like the the Algium

26:11

one was great But I'll domain was not popular

26:13

as a attraction among the fan base And so

26:15

I think that kind of limited what the value

26:17

of that was Cheeto was not necessarily a huge

26:19

star either But to be able to like put

26:21

a guy away like Cheeto would be would be

26:24

remarkable For him and 29 years

26:26

of age he should be at the peak of his

26:28

powers are pretty close to it, right? So there's a

26:30

lot that's on the line for him there, but I

26:32

do think of all the likelihoods Him

26:35

getting his hand raised probably be a decision

26:37

not stoppage is the like least Yeah,

26:39

I like O'Malley here in this main event, but

26:41

you got to see it happen You got to

26:43

see him go through this test get to the

26:45

end of that video game and defeat that boss

26:47

And that boss is a badass from Ecuador Luke

26:49

and he is coming on great main event for

26:51

Saturday Can't wait, but Luke would you say

26:54

the main event is the fight you are most focused

26:56

on heading into this card? Or is it something

26:58

else? Again

27:01

fights pretty good I mean people aren't even talking about the

27:03

fact this is not my answer But people aren't even talking

27:05

about the fact that Curtis blades is fighting Jeltsin Almeida on

27:07

the black Relims of like

27:10

just shocking the depth of this card But dude

27:12

the future of Dustin Poirier and what it means

27:14

for a guy outside of the top 10 and

27:16

when was Saint Denis To be

27:18

fighting him is a big big

27:20

deal that one you've got a I mean,

27:23

that's a 27

27:25

verse the one is any is 27 Something like

27:27

that 26 versus 35. It's just a 28 fight 28 28 year old

27:33

Vamos Anthony Luke who has not seen

27:35

defeat in five fights Senses

27:38

UFC debut in 2021 when he lost

27:40

a decision in Abu Dhabi to Eliza

27:44

Zaleski dos Santos, but I think that was up a

27:46

weight class. You didn't nail that that

27:48

was that was a welterweight bout in Zaleski was

27:50

deducted one point in round three due to a

27:52

groin strike The result was

27:54

contested by Saint Denis says Wikipedia

27:57

like since then Luke five straight

27:59

wins five straight

28:01

stoppages. He submitted

28:03

Ismail Bonfim when he had

28:05

hype. He knocked out Tiago

28:07

Moises in Matt Pravola in

28:09

consecutive fights. He's so

28:12

coming on, if you will, right now.

28:14

I don't know what this what this tells you,

28:16

but I watched the full 45-minute UFC Countdown show

28:19

for this. They showed pictures

28:21

of Dustin Poirier. They mentioned him, but

28:24

they did the deep dive family camera

28:26

time, get wife and kid, go to

28:28

the shooting range. True story, Benoit

28:30

carrying in his baby to the shooting

28:32

range. They followed him like he is

28:34

the next potential big thing in this

28:37

star-studded lightweight division and obviously a guy

28:39

that they can continue to make inroads

28:41

building through Europe and coming out of

28:43

France. The only thing is, Lukey's fighting

28:45

like an American hero and

28:48

Dustin Poirier, one of the all-time

28:50

greatest fighters and seriously, one of

28:52

the all-time greatest UFC fighters to

28:55

never win an undisputed championship. Yet,

28:58

I don't know if the quote came directly from Poirier,

29:00

but I feel like this

29:02

week we're talking about is this the end

29:04

of the road for Poirier? Almost more

29:07

in some ways than BSD

29:09

is even being pushed as next. UFC

29:11

pushed him a lot like I said on Countdown,

29:13

but that's the central tension of the

29:15

matchup. Which one is more true in

29:17

your eyes? The idea that BSD is

29:19

this irresistible force who has

29:21

arrived on the scene and like Toporia

29:24

is ready for instant stardom or

29:26

is it more likely and more

29:28

about the storyline that this great

29:30

action warrior in Poirier is going

29:32

back to the front lines once

29:34

again against the next big thing

29:37

in line and this could be

29:39

the end. I mean, Luke, I don't know how you're

29:41

going to answer that, but which side of that coin

29:43

is more pressing in your eyes entering this one? If

29:46

you want to win your fantasy football league,

29:48

it starts right now. The off season is

29:50

the best time to get ahead of the

29:53

competition. We'll help you win your league on

29:55

the Fantasy Football Today podcast, part of CBS

29:57

Sports Podcast Network. Fantasy Football Today has three...

30:00

episodes every week following the latest

30:02

moves, giving you early rankings, early

30:04

sweepers, breakouts and busts. So if

30:06

you're a dedicated fantasy football manager,

30:08

check out the most dedicated podcast,

30:11

Fantasy Football Today. Download

30:13

and follow on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and

30:15

anywhere podcasts are found. I

31:04

mean it's the same coin, right? One's

31:07

one side, one's the other. Like I

31:10

see them as equally relevant. I mean, again,

31:12

if you didn't even know anything about Dustin's

31:14

career, you didn't know anything about Benoit

31:17

St. Denis career. And then

31:19

I just sort of read to you the basic facts.

31:21

It's a 28 versus a 35 year old, a 35

31:23

year old, by the way, it's at sea level, but

31:25

the 35 year old is coming off of a head

31:28

kick loss back in July, you

31:30

know, and all these other sort of factors that

31:32

you could throw in there. You would, you would

31:34

not like his chances. You'd be like, I

31:37

don't know how I feel about this. I mean, 28 years old, that's

31:39

when you're beginning to enter the peak of your powers. You

31:42

know, the first two wins he had in the

31:45

UFC, I did not find super impressive because there

31:47

was a lot of just ferocity that he has.

31:50

And again, I was skeptical on him pretty early.

31:52

I've come around a lot more, I should say,

31:54

of late because he still

31:57

has an incredible fire in his belly.

32:00

really beginning to put a thoughtful game

32:02

together and man that is just an

32:04

absolutely potent combo that just cannot be

32:06

overlooked so to me this is one

32:08

that can mean there's actually several fights

32:10

on the card like this BC but

32:12

this one really defines generational struggle at

32:14

lightweight we all thought it was gonna

32:16

be the guys like Armand Suryukin and

32:18

it still might be it still might

32:20

be but you know the we thought

32:23

all the different Georgian guys who were coming through

32:25

in the gamrots and those guys are knocking on

32:27

the door but here comes out of France Benoit

32:29

Saint Denis roaring through the division

32:31

getting someone in the top five when he's outside of

32:33

the top ten everyone kind of being okay with it

32:36

you know and for Dustin I feel like there's a

32:38

little bit of echoes of Volkanovski where

32:41

he got the head kick KO and came back that

32:43

was much quicker and again this is the championship level

32:45

he was up away class I mean there's a lot

32:47

of dissimilarities but I just there's there shades of that

32:49

that I kind of feel like about this and also

32:51

BC this is a game we play on MK and

32:53

I think it's a very valuable exercise what

32:56

is the promotion trying to tell

32:58

us by booking a fight like this

33:01

right what are they telling us about who they

33:03

think is coming who they think is going who

33:05

they want to prop up who they might be done with

33:08

what are they saying there again you

33:10

don't want to read too much into

33:12

it but BC this roaring Frenchman who

33:15

is action fighter to the nth degree

33:18

against the 35 year old coming

33:20

off the head kick KO they're

33:22

kind of telling you what they think yeah

33:24

and also porridge lost two of last

33:26

three by stoppage obviously that other lost

33:28

two then champion Charles Olivera he

33:31

only fought once a year each of the last

33:33

two years he's 35 let's

33:35

be honest here I'm not asking for your

33:37

prediction on this fight but if I told

33:39

you I could see the future and porridge

33:42

gets finished inside of two rounds which would

33:44

obviously catapult BSD you

33:46

would probably assume that you would advise him to walk

33:48

away at that point right I would

33:50

yes I mean I think this is the guy who

33:52

better than most has been good with his money he

33:55

has again say it one more time you've

33:58

never heard of someone give you a other

34:00

than Colby Covington. You've

34:02

never heard someone say a bad

34:04

word about the guy. You've never

34:06

seen him get in trouble. Nothing.

34:08

His foundation is, what we can

34:10

tell, thriving. I don't

34:13

know him as a person but I feel like

34:15

he's got other streams of income that he's worked

34:17

on, the hot sauce and everything else. There's a

34:19

lot going right for his career. Also we should

34:21

say something BC. An

34:23

interim champ, finished Eddie Alvarez, finished

34:25

Michael Chandler, finished Justin Gaethje and

34:28

then defeated and finished,

34:30

two times he beat him,

34:32

finished Conor McGregor. Guys, that's

34:35

as good as a career is ever going

34:37

to get without holding an undisputed UFC weight

34:39

class title. That's as pots as good as

34:42

you're ever going to get. So

34:44

he's done a lot BC

34:46

but we're talking about a guy who was in those

34:48

kinds of fights and now he's taking on

34:51

someone who is 28, still very much

34:53

unknown to a big portion of the American fan base. Yeah,

34:56

it's not looking great is what I would say.

34:58

It's not looking great. Yeah, I mean he's up

35:01

there with Dan Henderson and that and that ongoing

35:04

bridesmaid list of the best UFC fighters to

35:06

never win the full championship. Obviously you'd throw

35:08

Fedor in there for talking non UFC and

35:10

beyond but I still

35:13

think he's the first bad Hall of Famer for

35:15

everything he's accomplished and what he represents and how

35:17

he carries himself. I was starting

35:19

to talk myself into the idea that he

35:21

was getting old a couple fights ago but

35:24

then I caught him out and had a

35:26

Chandler fight and that Chandler fight which was

35:28

absolute chaotic theater Luke, he comes

35:31

out of there the last man standing

35:33

looking like a million bucks fighting through

35:35

hell once again and pulling off a

35:37

gnarly win and then he

35:39

gets early head kicked in a BMF rematch. So

35:41

it's like what do you do here? Who is

35:43

he? Where is he at? When you're at that

35:45

age sometimes it can be hit or miss at

35:47

the highest level and on this fight I do

35:49

consider the highest level because BSD is

35:52

looking to be of that ilk. So

35:54

Luke for Benoit Saint Denis to become

35:56

of that ilk for him to literally

35:58

catapult himself in to the top 10

36:00

of this division start knocking on the title door.

36:03

Does his game have to raise it to

36:05

another level in this matchup or

36:08

do you think what he's shown in this five

36:10

fight win streak is potential

36:12

to be a handful for aging for here?

36:16

Should be. Yeah, I mean, again,

36:19

the times that I had a little bit of skepticism is

36:21

he was still really raw, you know, and again,

36:24

he has just in I mean, I've said this before,

36:26

just pay attention when he scrambles like in the Fravola fight,

36:28

you can go back and watch it for as long

36:30

as it was. Pay attention to

36:32

his scrambling. I mean, the instant he gets

36:34

an underhook, he's moving. I don't know how

36:36

to explain this to folks, but there's a

36:38

lot of people that are just not like

36:40

that at all who don't have this kind

36:43

of absolute fearlessness

36:45

to, you know, every one of

36:47

these positions as a conflict. He

36:49

has unrelenting commitment to fighting

36:52

through these conflicts, piece by piece by

36:54

piece and like with no hesitation. Whatsoever

36:57

I mean, that can wear on a guy that is it

36:59

tells you a lot about his fighting spirit. I mean, there's

37:01

so much to it, but he was kind of raw for

37:03

my taste. I didn't really love how

37:05

defensively irresponsible at times he could be.

37:08

And he's really cleaned that up. That's not to

37:10

say there's not any concerns, but it's not what

37:12

it was a few years ago. It's much, much

37:14

better. And so what I would

37:17

say to this point, BC is what does he

37:19

need to defeat Poirier? He needs to put

37:21

heat on him. He needs to absolutely melt

37:23

him and make him wither. Poirier is going

37:25

to be inherently, I think, a little

37:27

bit defensive, but the reality

37:29

is he's got big power. He is

37:32

a veteran. He is skillful. I think

37:34

in many scenarios, BSD is

37:36

probably going to have to one really just

37:38

absolutely. I think standing

37:40

at range for too long with Poirier is probably a

37:42

mistake. So to me, I think you're going to see

37:45

a lot of takedown attempts, but not just that we're

37:47

like the takedown has fought off, but then you're, you're

37:49

pounding on the guy when he's in turtle and you

37:51

have a tight waist, that kind of a thing. These like

37:53

transition positions where he's leaning into the ground upon, I think

37:55

there's going to be over. I think he's going to have

37:57

to use a lot of those kinds of positions. to

38:00

really get ahead and mix it up and I think BC the other

38:02

part too is that fire in his

38:04

belly it's not just useful because you

38:06

know he can power himself for

38:09

as long as the fight goes I

38:11

think he might need some resiliency, Poirier might hurt him

38:13

right I mean it seems pretty reasonable to Poirier might

38:15

be able to find his chin a

38:17

time or two and he's going to have to find a way to

38:19

rally through that so to me this is a real generational

38:22

battle it's the kind of thing where one

38:24

guy has more overwhelming fire power than another

38:26

guy but the other one could sharp shoot

38:28

his way right through and

38:30

make things difficult for him so

38:33

it's it's about finding that

38:35

but to me I think it's

38:38

going to be a lot of wrestling transition positions ground

38:40

a pound ground a pound against the wall such as

38:42

you can call it that that kind of a thing

38:44

yeah let's look at the odds here from FanDuel minus 215

38:47

Saint Denis the favorite plus 164 Poirier

38:50

seems reasonable I

38:52

do like the younger rising fighter in this matchup

38:54

I didn't want that to be the case but

38:56

when you watch the tape Luke you start

38:58

to look at where they are this does

39:01

set the stage for one of my favorite

39:03

tropes in MMA which is the aging hero

39:05

so to put a you know turn back

39:07

time one more time and remind us who

39:09

he is I'm cheering for Poirier in that

39:11

regard but you do eventually need to see

39:13

the handoff and we've seen it in the

39:15

featherweight division we might see the beginning of

39:17

it here in the lightweight division my final

39:19

question on this unless you want to regale

39:21

the crowd with a pick here Luke is

39:23

yeah I pick in Saint Denis okay

39:26

when deep when Dustin Poirier came out and did

39:28

the whole hey guys just so you know like

39:30

this fight isn't signed and it brought up this

39:32

another big debate and you know is that the

39:34

USC's practice blah blah blah he

39:37

found a bag in that scenario right like he

39:39

leveraged his position to get what he deserves this

39:42

is true right where that's where in hindsight we're

39:44

gonna say that yeah I mean he doesn't deserve

39:46

to be doing charity for any promoter at this

39:48

point right I think we're past that so if

39:50

they don't he'd in

39:53

a way against their own dirtiness did it make

39:55

me I think he I think he forced their

39:57

hand more than holding him hostage I think he

39:59

forced them to act in a way that

40:01

he preferred. Yeah. Now, if

40:03

you ended up finding out that it

40:06

was Hasbula that purchased Bloody Elbow and

40:08

then fired everybody and took down all

40:10

the controversial, true stories that they've

40:12

written on there, would you be, would you

40:14

laugh a hardy one? Luke? That

40:17

would be kind of funny if Hasbula was

40:19

like the mastermind behind the most dastardly plot

40:21

in MMA media history. Yeah, maybe. There you

40:24

go. There you go. Hey, great card. We

40:26

got to roll on here, Luke. This welterweight

40:28

till is what I

40:30

love about UFC matchmaking, right? Kevin

40:33

Holland against the Bellator debuting Michael

40:36

Venen page, ex-Bellator, obviously, welterweight

40:38

title contender. Thought he got robbed

40:40

against Logan Storley. Could have been an interim champion,

40:42

but at age 36, he's making the leap. I

40:45

caught up with him. Check that interview out if

40:47

you haven't. youtube.com since morning slash morning combat. Great

40:49

chat. Look, we have that room service diaries with

40:51

him in London. That was so,

40:53

so nice to see him get this

40:56

type of closeup. Now I love the

40:58

pre-fight videos on Countdown or embedded to

41:00

see MVP giddy. You know,

41:02

he's talking about how professional the UFC

41:04

machine is and how he

41:06

knew this moment was going to be here eventually for him

41:09

in his career. Do you find it interesting

41:11

at all that they didn't, on

41:13

the, on embedded, they didn't mention the

41:15

word Bellator once, nor show a picture

41:17

or piece of video from his time

41:20

there. There was a lot of regional

41:22

stuff. There was, this man came from

41:24

another organization that almost feels like an unnecessary

41:26

jab, like they won the war. Bellator is barely like

41:28

hanging on through PFL. Now, like, what are we doing

41:31

here? Look, there's no

41:33

juice to that fucking brand. I mean, how

41:35

many times do I need to say it?

41:38

Their brand is dead. That brand is super

41:40

cold. Can't they just say former Bellator

41:42

star? I mean, I agree. I agree that

41:44

at this point it seems unnecessarily, you know,

41:46

uh, uh, stomping

41:49

on their grave at this point

41:51

because it would help people to see some of his

41:53

cool, I mean, the dude. BC

41:55

like seriously about this, when he

41:57

shattered the forehead of the, of

41:59

cyborg, sand, The Evangelista Cyborg Santos.

42:02

Dude, I was like legit worried that guy was gonna

42:04

fucking die. Or something, you know, I

42:06

don't know. Like that, and I'm not proud that that

42:08

guy suffered that kind of trauma. I'm just saying, if

42:11

you're looking for highlights, that's up

42:13

there. I mean, that shit went mega viral. It's

42:15

like the Ed Mann Rickles fight. Look, he told

42:17

me, MVP, in my interview that that's the

42:19

ultimate highlight of what he does great. He

42:22

was basically Anderson Silva against Fort Scriffen in that fight.

42:24

He was just moonwalking in. So I'm just saying, like,

42:26

it would have been nice to have that, but honestly,

42:28

are they gonna, are they gonna, he's 36, dude. They're

42:31

not building him. I mean, his time here is

42:33

limited. I don't think they care all that much in that sense

42:35

either. I understand that. Well,

42:37

Kevin Holland's the perfect foe in the same

42:39

way. Cowboy Cerrone was the perfect foe for

42:42

Eddie Alvarez's debut. Was it Dan

42:44

Hooker who was Chandler's debut in

42:46

the UFC? It's sort of like those tough

42:48

outs guys that are on the verge of

42:50

contention. Kevin Holland is in that space, certainly

42:53

in his reinvention at welterweight. He's looking at

42:55

the odds right here. Minus

42:57

138 Kevin Holland, a small favorite. Plus

43:00

108 Michael Vettempage. I gotta

43:02

bring to light this bet I've made here, Luke,

43:04

with CBS Sports senior editor Brandon Wise, friend of

43:06

the program. What do you

43:09

think about this bet? You ready for this, Luke? Straight

43:12

up. Okay. I'm picking MVP to win.

43:14

He's picking Holland. Loser has

43:17

to buy a Kevin Oley, keviniole.com t-shirt

43:19

or hat and make it their social

43:21

media avatar and make it their picture

43:24

on Slack for a month. That's a

43:26

decent bet, right? That

43:28

seems like a highly consequential bet. I

43:30

mean, there's a lot of skin on

43:32

that. Yeah, a lot of skin on

43:34

that one, Luke. Luke's skin.

43:36

That's an interesting bet. I

43:40

don't quite get it,

43:42

but yeah, fuck all that. I wouldn't

43:44

do that. That's a dude. That's action I

43:46

would stay away from. I think you might have to get your- You're

43:48

nerdy. I think you might need to get your credit card ready. You're

43:51

nerdy. No, no Rampage jokes. R.I.P.,

43:54

please. Luke, not

43:57

Rampage Rumble. Dude, I can't even figure out my

43:59

old tire joke. all over again. Luke, I

44:03

know a lot of people have apprehension here, not just

44:05

in the stigma of a Bellator fighter coming over and

44:07

doing it. We've seen guys do great. We've also seen

44:09

Will Brooks unfortunately have a tough time. But

44:12

there are a lot of people who say,

44:14

man, Holland's the wrong style, wrong guy, wrong

44:16

time for someone with a flashy game that's

44:18

looking to finally come on the brightest stage

44:21

and prove themselves. I think

44:23

that'll raise MVP to another level here. What

44:25

are your expectations within that? How people look

44:27

at MVP and say, Hey, man, you can

44:30

do that spinny shit against Cyborg Santos, but

44:32

like this is Kevin Holland. This is the

44:34

real deal. Holyfield. What are your

44:36

expectations in whether he can raise his game here

44:38

in this debut? So

44:41

here's the thing about Kevin Holland, right?

44:43

He's real talented, like he's real skillful,

44:45

and he's gotten better about like using

44:47

it in the thoughtful way over time.

44:51

But dude, he'll still fight down to his opponent. Do

44:53

you remember he likes to high five people and shit

44:55

and like, you know, just kind

44:57

of tries weird shit. He shouldn't be trying

44:59

when he's like shoulder rolling and moving

45:02

out of the way. He does a podcast during the

45:04

fights basically, Luke. Yeah, yeah, yeah. He gets real chatty

45:06

with everybody. And so it's like,

45:09

I think if Kevin Holland had

45:11

a Benoit St. Denis attitude, I

45:14

wouldn't have really any hesitation picking him, you know,

45:17

but because he could fight fucking

45:20

weird, I actually,

45:22

I actually feel like MVP has

45:24

got a real shot here, to be honest with

45:26

you. MVP, remember, he didn't look great against, well,

45:28

he looked great early against Mike Perry, but then

45:31

got out dog late. He's 36. That's not great.

45:34

But you know, in his comeback fight against

45:36

Gucci Yamauchi, he like shattered his fucking kneecap,

45:38

like the most gnarly shit I've

45:41

ever seen with not counting him shattering

45:43

the skull of Cyborg Santos. So like, that was a real

45:45

nice win, which they should have shown that one. That was

45:47

the one they should have like gotten off the couch for.

45:49

But I'm just pointing out,

45:52

I don't think MVP

45:54

has the overall

45:57

skill set that Kevin Holland does, particularly in the

45:59

submission department. Like you shouldn't lose out of

46:01

the fact that he actually, I mean, remember he submitted

46:03

Michael Kieso not, not too long ago, but

46:05

yeah, fight down to competition

46:08

and that makes it to me a 50, 50

46:10

proposition. Really. I think that's why the odds

46:12

are where they are because I fully agree

46:14

with the way you laid that out, even

46:16

though Kevin Holland's record can be up and

46:18

down and in particular, Luke, he is four

46:20

and three since moving back to welterweight full

46:22

time and we praise him for the reinvention

46:25

there, but he's also taken fights last minute

46:27

that maybe he should have those three losses

46:29

to buy finished. They were consecutively one to

46:31

comes at Chamai even that last minute moment

46:33

at two 79 and of course the Steven

46:35

Thompson, when he was unable to come out

46:37

of the corner after four rounds also

46:39

is coming fresh off a close loss

46:41

by split decision to Jack Dell and

46:43

Madelena, who's also on his on this

46:45

card. He does play down to level

46:48

of competition. He does play into parts

46:50

of the fights that he shouldn't in

46:52

terms of bait. I wonder if MVP

46:54

can bait him into a flashy

46:56

contest of, of staring each

46:59

other down fainting, trying to throw shots

47:02

and you know, you don't want to be

47:04

in that contest with MVP because that's where he lives. So

47:06

to neutralize that, do you

47:08

see Kevin Holland exclusively shooting and looking to

47:11

wrestle because I can see him hanging too

47:13

long in the pocket, Luke. And that's when

47:15

you're going to open up the room for

47:17

MVP to do Michael Venen page stuff. Dude,

47:20

there's no doubt in my mind. He's going to, he's going to

47:22

slug it out with him, you know, this

47:25

is our focusing on the brutal slayings

47:27

of four college kids. A

47:29

new paramount plus original docu series. This

47:31

is the start of something major

47:33

follows online detectives as they unravel

47:36

the mystery of the infamous Idaho

47:38

college murders. There's plenty

47:40

of places to hide a weapon and

47:42

turned it into a social media phenomenon.

47:44

Where does a roommate that huge. I want

47:46

the current from you. Hashtag

47:48

cyber sleuths. The Idaho murders

47:50

now streaming exclusively on paramount

47:52

plus. I'm Mark Chapman.

47:55

Welcome to the planet Premier

47:57

league podcast. As

48:00

Fabregas, Native and newer, I myself talk all

48:02

things Premier League. As a player, you don't have

48:04

time to talk. No. You don't have time to

48:06

make a plan. You just need to deal with

48:09

wave after wave after wave. You watch Coach Carter

48:11

and he said, Oh, after the game's just about

48:13

doing this to your team mate. And I remember

48:15

looking around halfway through the film and half the

48:17

squaders are asleep. Planet

48:19

Premier League. Listen, wherever you get

48:22

your pumpkins. Hip

48:24

Hop takes the sand in the new documentary as we

48:26

speak rap music on trial. Now streaming

48:28

exclusively on Paramount Plus. Rap lyrics are playing

48:31

an increasingly prominent role in criminal cases.

48:33

Every song, every lyric, every video that you've

48:36

ever been involved with, they're going to use

48:38

against you. Follow Rap Artist, Kemba, as he

48:40

explores the weaponization of rap lyrics in

48:42

the criminal justice system. This artistic expression,

48:44

this confession. I'm ready. Go to tape.

48:46

Watch the eye-opening new documentary as we speak

48:48

rap music on trial. Exclusively on Paramount

48:50

Plus. Head to paramountplus.com to try it

48:52

free. Terms apply. I mean, I'm not saying

48:54

there will be no defense, but I'm saying I just

48:58

don't find it likely he's going

49:00

to shoot. You might say he should and

49:03

that he might do well if he did. I'm

49:06

just not taking that bet. I'm not taking the bet

49:08

or you know, he might shoot or something. Like if

49:10

you're actually taking a prop bet or something like that.

49:12

But like is he really going to put to what

49:14

you're asking, which is sustained wrestling offense.

49:16

Like really, this is how I'm going to fight this

49:18

fight. No, I just don't believe that. I don't believe

49:20

he's going to do that. But remember, he can

49:22

he can punch. He's got good power. You

49:25

know, he's got he's durable as shit. Like, you

49:27

know, he is tough. He's a real tough dude.

49:29

He's got dude Kevin. I'm gonna say it again.

49:31

Kevin Holland is a skillful fighter. You

49:34

just don't know what kind of mental

49:36

approach or strategic approach. He's going to take fight

49:38

to fight. So it makes him

49:40

fun, but it makes him a wild card. Absolute

49:43

wild card and in a lot of ways. That's

49:45

that's what MVP is a wild card. He's won

49:47

a lot more than he's lost right, but he

49:49

can be wild card to love this matchup. Love

49:52

this for MVP's debut. Let's see

49:54

if he's here for a short good time.

49:56

Chandler esque. It's not going to be long at 36,

49:59

but he has not. looked like he's slowing down

50:01

up to this point. We stay in the welterweight

50:03

division and this low key might be the best

50:05

fight in the card. Seriously, this is gonna be

50:07

an absolute war because Gilbert Burns especially

50:09

in the second half of his career when he's

50:12

lingering in his 30s, but he's not falling

50:14

off. I know he had that tough loss,

50:16

Subalala Muhammad, which he hoped was gonna lift

50:18

him back into the title picture. He took

50:20

it on short notice, he was injured. We

50:22

remember that situation, but dude,

50:24

Gilbert constantly has ways of reminding

50:26

you how violent and viable he

50:28

still is at all times. Jack

50:30

Dela Matalena, fresh off the split

50:32

decision win over Kevin Holland is

50:35

in his sights. The 27 year old

50:37

Aussie, 16 and two overall has not

50:39

lost in six UFC fights after winning

50:42

on the Dana White Contender Series. Luke,

50:44

this matchup is so good from the

50:46

standpoint of who's coming or going. Is

50:48

Jack on the level to make that

50:51

leap into title contention? Does Gilbert still

50:53

have it in the tank? I think

50:55

any way you look at it, we

50:58

are going to see action here. You

51:00

talk to Gilbert Burns, what can you

51:02

glean from that separate from

51:04

an incredible story about Toporia knocking out

51:06

sparring partners at Sanford? I mean, just

51:08

incredible. Yeah, yeah, so that aside,

51:11

I mean, dude, you know this as well as I do,

51:13

BC. We've interviewed Gilbert a couple of times in person. This

51:16

almost obviously via Zoom my last time talking to

51:18

him. But one thing

51:20

I always walk away from, and I know you feel the

51:22

same because we've actually talked about this previously, dude, Gilbert is

51:24

a smart guy. You know,

51:26

and what I mean by that is

51:28

he tries to really think through what

51:30

problems he's up against in a very,

51:32

again, thoughtful way and

51:35

tries to get really good information

51:37

before he makes it, sticks to

51:39

it, holds to it. And

51:41

more often than not, he has a good idea

51:43

or a good plan. He's always prepared. You never

51:46

see him, you know, all with

51:48

Gilbert didn't train properly. Or again, like Dustin

51:50

Poirier, Gilbert was getting into trouble out of

51:52

camp. It's just not even a

51:54

relevant consideration with him. And so the

51:56

issues for me, again, dude, ready for this one BC?

51:58

Jackie LaMendelina, 27. Gilbert Burns 37 a

52:01

10-year gap Because

52:05

35 year old Pourier who's fighting a killer and has

52:07

been through wars we're like Well, I don't know if

52:09

this could be the end dude Gilbert

52:12

Burns has been through a million wars Luke and

52:14

he still looks the part I Would

52:17

say though that I don't think Gilbert has been

52:19

through the wars like Pourier has like, you

52:21

know I does Gilbert have a five round equivalent

52:23

to the hooker fight. I don't think that he

52:26

does not a five rounder I mean he went

52:28

through hell might have eaten chamayev No

52:30

one talks about that. No one yeah exactly Exactly,

52:32

then have been a five round fight. If I've been a

52:34

five round fight That would be really close if not worse,

52:37

but it was only three was only three So it's definitely

52:39

doesn't fill so for

52:41

me BC like first of all just that gap I mean, but here's

52:43

the thing and it kind of gets back to what I'm saying Gilbert

52:45

Burns had a some kind of a torn either,

52:47

you know, meniscus or not missus I'm sorry, I'm

52:49

torn labrum or something like that in his shoulder

52:51

and rather than get surgery He did stem cell

52:53

therapy which put him out for a while But

52:55

he was able to not avoid being going under

52:58

the knife and dude, here's the

53:00

thing about Gilbert too I asked him he

53:02

has measurables like vo2 max and everything like

53:04

what constitutes physical fitness He can look at

53:06

it mathematically on a chart because he can

53:08

measure the kinds of physical effects that tell

53:10

you where you're at And so he knows

53:12

if I'm hitting these marks in camp that

53:14

are being you know measured Then I know

53:16

where I'm at like he always comes in

53:18

prepared. None of that really to me. I

53:21

think Gilbert will be healthy I think he'll be ready to

53:23

go. He's obviously got a ton of experience. He can wrestle

53:25

well I mean, there's a lot you have to

53:27

like about his game, but the reality is at 37 BC He

53:30

probably is not the same athlete that he once was

53:32

and Jack de la Vettelena is only at this part

53:35

of his athletic Development and technical development

53:37

as well. He's gonna be getting we always say

53:39

it 27 You see these

53:41

guys when they're 27 and they're better every single

53:43

time. He'll get to 40 at 27 when his

53:45

last fight. So to

53:47

me BC it's going which we talked about it

53:49

with with Benoit Saint-Denis and Dustin

53:52

Poirier this generational moment. Here's

53:54

another one at welterweight where

53:56

I do believe you see we're not a title

53:58

fight But I do believe that Gilbert has really

54:00

defied the odds of age to

54:02

a pretty significant extent. But

54:05

I wonder for at the end of that road

54:07

a little bit here, where again, what is the

54:09

UFC suggesting by booking a fight like this? Yes,

54:11

they want to see exactly what they've got with

54:13

De La Madeleina and Gilbert Burns will tell you

54:15

that. But I think that they also probably believe

54:17

he's got a big bright future and they want

54:19

to set them up for that. We shall see.

54:22

FanDuel has Jack De La Madeleina

54:24

minus 174, one

54:26

plus 136 for Gilbert Burns.

54:29

Again, I think there's a fool's gold element if

54:31

you want to focus only on Gilbert's age and

54:33

the fact that he's fresh off that loss to

54:35

Bilal that were extenuating circumstances, as you mentioned. So

54:38

let's on the flip side, Luke, and find out where we're at

54:40

with Jack De La Madeleina. I mentioned the

54:42

shriek, 6-0 in the UFC. But

54:45

coming off of two split decisions, one

54:47

against Kevin Holland, one in, what

54:49

was that? Like a last minute situation, Luke,

54:52

when he took on Vasil Hafez, before

54:55

that he had four straight finishes in

54:57

his first four UFC fights. Has

55:01

he lived fully up to the expectations

55:03

of where we put him after some

55:05

of those early finishes, where we said,

55:07

watch out for him, circle him. I

55:09

know maybe we're talking more about Bo

55:11

Nickel, about this prospect, about Chamayev, this

55:13

guy. Where does Jack De La Madeleina

55:15

fit in on your radar in terms of when people

55:17

are coming on? Is he coming to hell on right

55:19

now or do you need to be more? He

55:22

has not beaten anybody like Gilbert

55:24

Burns. So winning a bout

55:26

like this, even for Gilbert at 37, and

55:29

I agree with you, that's a young-ish 37, such

55:31

as you can be. I

55:33

do think it would be a major, major proving

55:36

moment because we just haven't seen him beat someone

55:38

of this quality and of this caliber. But

55:40

I mean, I think a couple of extenuating circumstances. Number

55:42

one, the Basil Hafez fight, that dude is a tank.

55:44

He was wrestling him the entire time. That

55:46

was a last minute opponent switch who went with a

55:48

completely different style and he still won, number one. I'm

55:51

gonna point that out. And that

55:53

was like gut check shit. And he took over a

55:55

little bit late in that one too. So that

55:57

to me was actually kind of an impressive performance. Although.

56:00

a tough one and one where he had to struggle at

56:02

times. In the case of Kevin Holland,

56:04

that was a little bit more of a duel,

56:06

you know, and he had some disadvantages physically in

56:08

terms of range that he had to overcome. I

56:10

also thought he won that one outright, although I

56:12

do recognize that it was close. But

56:14

like, I get that he's facing

56:17

adversity and you're seeing him struggle with some

56:19

of that adversity at times, but the lesson

56:21

I'm taking from this is every time he

56:23

overcomes it, every time he finds a way,

56:25

every time he gets through it, and again,

56:27

at 27 years age, this is when

56:29

he's really going to begin to ramp

56:31

shit up. Also the other part of his game that

56:33

I've noticed is the defensive responsibility has gotten better. People

56:36

point to his combinations, which are good and

56:38

his accuracy, which is good. And

56:40

that all is very flashy and it builds highlights.

56:43

But this kind of newer style against Holland that

56:45

you saw that kept him, I think,

56:48

safer than he ordinarily had been previously

56:51

is not to be discarded. It's going to be

56:53

very valuable against Gilbert Burns. So listen, I said

56:55

it one more time. Has he beaten anyone like

56:57

Burns before? No, no, this would be his best

56:59

win by a mile, but there's

57:02

a lot. There's wind at his back, man. Big

57:04

time. Do you see the same action

57:06

potential that I see in this one? Oh,

57:08

yeah. Oh, yeah. I don't think it's going to

57:10

be like the Hamzot fight, which was a balls out kind of a fair, but

57:14

Burns, I just don't think, and I think he

57:16

knows he can't afford win or

57:18

lose. You know, his stock didn't drop much

57:20

at all from the Hamzot fight, but what he can't do

57:23

is have another, I mean, that performance against below, yes, he

57:25

was injured, of course. But if

57:27

you have some other kind of lackluster fight, whether

57:29

it's due to injury or anything else, whether that's

57:31

fair or it's not, you're 37, you had

57:33

another fight back to back where you didn't look great

57:36

after a long layoff, he just can't afford that. He

57:38

cannot afford that. And so as a result, I think

57:40

that they're going to mix it up heavily. At first,

57:42

I don't know, but certainly the longer

57:44

it goes, you're going to see them open up. I

57:47

wonder, though, from a strategic standpoint, because we

57:49

did identify the smarts on Gilbert Burns that

57:51

sometimes can be not stated enough

57:53

because we talk a lot about his action,

57:56

willingness and his well-rounded game. But look,

57:58

January of 23, which is Not

58:00

long ago, he went in there against Neil

58:02

Magny and put on a grappling showcase to

58:04

remind us that if he wants to lean

58:06

in those areas, he can absolutely dominate, took

58:09

Magny down, just controlled him, submitted him. Is

58:11

there an opening there against Jack Dale in Metalina

58:14

to use that veteran skill set the same way?

58:16

Glover to Shara was able to extend his career

58:18

by leaning on the fundamental. Yes.

58:20

There's no doubt in my mind. That's what he's going to be

58:22

trying. Again, I think Gilbert's going to be better on his feet

58:24

than you might imagine, but that's just

58:26

seems unlikely. If the fight is fully

58:28

contested on the feet, like that's the

58:30

best chance for Gilbert. I

58:33

don't think so. Mixing it up at times potentially,

58:35

right? Could land some good shots, of course, but

58:37

just over the course of 15 minutes, I just

58:39

don't find that likely. Whatever, what

58:41

I do find potentially likely, however, is

58:43

that if he can establish a takedown

58:46

threat and really

58:48

make Jack Dale in a

58:50

work, he's going to have a, I

58:53

mean, just a massively better shot. I think that, you

58:55

know, the fights like Ramazan Amiv, I'm not putting him

58:58

on the level of Gilbert Burns, but that was one

59:00

of the earlier tests about his takedown defense and how

59:02

much it got better. I think it's probably going to

59:04

be very, very good. He's apparently working with Craig Jones

59:06

for this camp. I watched Greg

59:09

Jones, a wall takedown defensive tutorial.

59:11

It's very, very good, very thorough. So,

59:14

you know, Gilbert's going to have his work cut out

59:16

for him too, make no mistake about it. But like,

59:18

to the extent that that, I mean, that that's the

59:20

central battle. That's not the only battle, but so

59:22

many things are downstream from that battle that

59:24

that's going to be the one to pay

59:26

attention to. Dude, I love

59:28

Mr. Bob Dabellina, Malvelina here, Luke,

59:31

great fighter, but if one of the-

59:33

I think it's Blackbettie Bambalone. Yeah,

59:35

yeah. The, by, by the band Ram Jam, by

59:38

the way. Oh, Luke, if you can, if you

59:40

can lean on one veteran on this card, I'm

59:42

going to lean on Gilbert to pull the upset

59:44

here. Of all these match ups where it's close,

59:46

it's well-matched. I like Gilbert's chances in this one.

59:48

We're going to see if he can turn it

59:50

back, man. That's a big fight. Big match up.

59:52

Yes. Uh, to open this

59:54

card, nobody's talking about this

59:56

one. Former champion Peyote or Jan, at

59:58

Bantamweight. Yedong the riser

1:00:01

one of mr. Faber's kids who's just

1:00:03

about all grown up but for the

1:00:05

31 year old peyote or yon Luke

1:00:08

I mean each brother he's fighting still

1:00:10

super elite competition, but the former champ

1:00:12

has lost three Excuse

1:00:14

me four of his last

1:00:17

five including three straight But

1:00:20

in that five fight stretch where he's lost four

1:00:22

times There was the DQ lost

1:00:24

to aljo the split decision loss in

1:00:26

the rematch the split decision loss to

1:00:28

O'Malley and Then a more

1:00:31

wide unanimous decision loss to

1:00:33

marab Luke at 31. Where is

1:00:36

peyote or yon right now? What is his

1:00:38

status is does he still have it? Is

1:00:40

this the product of fighting the best in

1:00:42

the sports best of division? And

1:00:46

getting a little bit unlucky. So let's go through

1:00:48

it. He in 2021

1:00:50

he fights algebra and sterling and a

1:00:52

fight that he is winning in my judgment I don't

1:00:55

think there's really much question about that in round four.

1:00:57

He needs him in the head very very

1:01:00

stupidly and then loses the bout via Disqualification

1:01:04

right From

1:01:07

the illegal knee so that was about

1:01:09

that he was winning but he made a stupid mistake

1:01:11

and he lost it He has a

1:01:13

fight against Corey, San Hagen and that later that year.

1:01:15

He wins it He wins it outright too Then

1:01:18

he goes back to the sterling fight now sterling

1:01:20

really raised his game in that one and I

1:01:22

thought yon lost that one Farron

1:01:24

square it was close at times But

1:01:27

fair enough he got beat there and there's nothing you

1:01:29

can really say much about that the O'Malley fight I

1:01:31

thought he won and I think a lot of online

1:01:33

observers thought he won. It's close. I'm not saying it's

1:01:35

a robbery It's a close fight, but I thought he

1:01:37

won it I thought he wanted two rounds to three

1:01:40

and then marab is simply overwhelming So

1:01:42

like I give sterling credit for raising his

1:01:44

game in the rematch at fair and square

1:01:46

marab He's just there's just too

1:01:48

much he can do he's gonna be a really tough

1:01:50

fight for anybody But the other fights

1:01:52

I don't really read too much into and then he

1:01:54

had the Corey, San Hagen win Put

1:01:57

in between there. So I mean I respect

1:01:59

what Sean O'Malley did in the Yawn

1:02:01

fight. He showed up in ways I didn't think he

1:02:03

would, but I don't think he

1:02:05

won that fight. I think Yawn won that fight. So to me, I

1:02:07

gotta tell you, what psychologically

1:02:09

it could mean to have that many L's

1:02:11

on his record, it may impact his performance.

1:02:13

And maybe he is burned out. Like there

1:02:15

could be several factors related

1:02:17

to the actual losing that transpired

1:02:20

that could affect his performance on

1:02:22

Saturday. But I don't see him as

1:02:24

like on some massive slip. I don't see him as some

1:02:26

guy who like you can look at his game and it's

1:02:28

like massively deteriorated. It didn't

1:02:30

look great against Marab, but that's

1:02:33

Marab and that's the last fight, but it's hard to

1:02:35

look good against him when Marab is just sort of

1:02:37

moving downhill on you. In other words, BC, I, you

1:02:41

know, to me, I still favor, I don't know what

1:02:43

the odds are, but I favor him to beat Songye

1:02:45

Dong. And I think Songye Dong has not beaten a

1:02:47

guy like this. This is the best shot for

1:02:49

Songye Dong to get him on this losing

1:02:51

streak. Like this is coming off that Ricky

1:02:54

Simone win. So I like the matchmaking.

1:02:56

This was supposed to be a main event previously for

1:02:58

the fight nights they had, right? But

1:03:00

everyone being like, Oh, Jan, three, five losing

1:03:02

streak hasn't looked great forever. I'm like, yeah,

1:03:05

that's not quite accurate. He actually has

1:03:08

looked good fairly recently. He fought

1:03:10

all killers in that five fight stretch. I mean, all

1:03:12

killers, you know what I mean? And when you look

1:03:14

at the odds, man, it's a virtual pick of minus

1:03:16

120. Jan is you're barely an

1:03:18

underdog or I'm sorry, that makes

1:03:20

him the favorite. Excuse me. And then you have Songye

1:03:22

Dong minus 106 as

1:03:24

the slight underdog. So a virtual pick on

1:03:27

your dog is now 26 years

1:03:29

old. To your point, does he have a

1:03:31

win on this level? Well, yes and no. He

1:03:33

does have a 2020 win over Marlon Vera.

1:03:36

That was, I would say disputed at

1:03:38

the time and a close three round fight. But then

1:03:40

he goes and he loses to Kyler Phillips the next

1:03:42

time. But since then he's four

1:03:44

and one over, sorry, five and one overall

1:03:47

since that Kyler Phillips lost. The only loss

1:03:49

was the stoppage to Corey Sannegan knocks out

1:03:51

Ricky Simone scores a five round decision over

1:03:53

Chris Gutierrez. He had finished Marlon Marais during

1:03:56

that stretch finished Julio Arce. I mean, look,

1:03:58

he's coming on to a. certain degree,

1:04:00

but it is perfect matchmaking

1:04:02

in the who's coming or going

1:04:04

crossroads element. No different than Poirier,

1:04:06

BSD, Gilbert Burns, JDM. This

1:04:09

is to find out if the aging

1:04:11

veteran still has it or if the

1:04:13

kid is ready, man. Fireworks. I

1:04:15

do, though, to echo what you said, will this

1:04:17

make a more desperate yawn giving the losing skid?

1:04:19

Where he feels in this 15-minute window, he's got

1:04:22

to come in there and prove a lot. I

1:04:24

wonder how that impacts the fight. I

1:04:26

think the thing I'd be looking for is somewhat related

1:04:28

to that, but a little bit different. Sometimes Yann is

1:04:30

a bit of a slow starter, three-round contest. You're not

1:04:32

going to have too much leeway to play with that.

1:04:35

I think that has cost him at times

1:04:37

in certain ways, but

1:04:40

it's also kind of essential to him downloading and whatnot.

1:04:42

I think it'll be fine if in the end he

1:04:44

is still who I think he is. He takes some

1:04:47

time to download. And then I

1:04:49

just see him having way more weapons than Songyidong. Songyidong

1:04:51

has certainly gotten better, but still is to me a

1:04:53

little bit desperate with his offense. Yann

1:04:56

has more of it, has more ways to weave it in,

1:04:59

certainly much more battle-tested as well.

1:05:04

But I'd be curious to see how he plays

1:05:06

this game. Has he worked on

1:05:08

getting a quicker start? Has he worked on different

1:05:10

ways that have kind of messed him up a

1:05:12

little bit in previous encounters? Has

1:05:14

he worked on some of those things? That to me is going

1:05:16

to be kind of important here to be a little

1:05:19

bit less error-prone and a little bit less

1:05:21

lackadaisical in terms of his urgency to fight.

1:05:24

Those are the things I'm looking for. A

1:05:26

little quickly on this undercard, and it's

1:05:28

very well-matched. This whole card is so

1:05:30

well-matched. The preliminary feature about that we

1:05:32

mentioned off the top at heavyweight that

1:05:35

could and likely will produce the next

1:05:37

interim heavyweight title challenger is Curtis Blades

1:05:39

against Jelton Almeida. Right now Fandul has

1:05:41

them both at minus 113, so

1:05:44

a pick-um there at heavyweight. What

1:05:46

should we watch for in this matchup? Take

1:05:48

down. Take down our bust for Jelton Almeida.

1:05:50

Can he get it? Can he hold it?

1:05:53

What can he do with it? Remember the ground and

1:05:55

pound if he ends up underneath. Remember

1:05:57

that Curtis Blades shattered the face.

1:06:00

of Alistair over him with those elbows. He

1:06:02

would be devastating on top. I mean, again,

1:06:05

situation where Jelton Almeida has a real

1:06:08

big advantage in one key part of the

1:06:10

game, and there's no denying he's got it.

1:06:13

But he's got a disadvantage in basically

1:06:15

every other one. Curtis Blades should

1:06:18

win this, but he's got

1:06:20

to be on point. He's made errors, costly

1:06:22

ones at times against difficult opponents. I want

1:06:24

to see him on his P's and Q's

1:06:27

in this one. Pick'em

1:06:29

Fight. Can't wait to see it. Would love both of

1:06:31

those guys against Aspinall in a full fight. We

1:06:34

may end up going down that road and finding it out because, you

1:06:36

know, if we still do John and Stipe, I mean, what are we

1:06:38

doing here? Quickly on the name

1:06:40

change you shot out at me before

1:06:42

the show started, Caitlin Chukagian, the blonde

1:06:44

fighter, Luke, 35-year-old veteran at 125, changing

1:06:47

her surname to Sermonera,

1:06:50

her married name. And she'll bring that

1:06:52

married name into an interesting matchup with

1:06:54

25-year-old Macy Barber, who's somehow still

1:06:57

that young, Luke, but she has won

1:06:59

five in a row since that two-fight

1:07:01

losing streak to Roxanne Matafuri by big

1:07:03

upset. And then, of course, the decision

1:07:05

loss to Alexa Grasso before Grasso was

1:07:08

able to change, you know, end up going on her

1:07:10

run to the title here. She's been

1:07:12

some decent names, Luke, and she's coming off a

1:07:14

stoppage of Amanda Heebass. Is it

1:07:16

time for Macy Barber if she gets past

1:07:19

the formerly known Chukagian on Saturday?

1:07:22

Chukagian, tough fighter, super

1:07:24

experienced, manages range and

1:07:27

distance very well. But as

1:07:29

you mentioned, those five wins in

1:07:31

a row for Macy

1:07:33

Barber. And by the way, 35 versus

1:07:35

25 in the age, another

1:07:38

10-year gap. You have 37-27 with Gilbert

1:07:40

and JDM. So another

1:07:42

interesting, we said it before, a lot

1:07:44

of like who's coming, who's going, who's

1:07:46

old, who's young, clashes generationally. This is

1:07:48

another one. I do feel like though

1:07:50

Macy Barber was a, she had, it

1:07:53

was big and loud about who she was going to be

1:07:55

very early, hit a couple roadblocks, had a bit of a

1:07:57

slowish start from that. But in the last couple of five.

1:08:00

against Andrea Lee and then Amanda Heebas. I thought she... and I

1:08:02

know the one against Lee was a bit of a split

1:08:04

decision, but I still think she's really

1:08:07

got to begin to turn it on.

1:08:09

She looked good against Heebas. Tough, durable.

1:08:12

This is a great opportunity for her because Chukagian

1:08:14

knows how to win rounds. She

1:08:16

knows how to disengage and make everyone

1:08:18

fight on her terms, right?

1:08:20

Which changes the whole ball game. For me, Barbara,

1:08:23

can she get away from that and

1:08:25

find a way to get the fight on her terms? We

1:08:27

shall see. I like

1:08:29

this lightweight tilt. Mateus Gamrott will

1:08:31

be a four-to-one betting favorite against

1:08:33

39-year-old Jaffaele Dosanjos, the aging veteran

1:08:35

who has lost two of three,

1:08:37

but is always game. I'm going

1:08:39

to be watching that closely. Luke,

1:08:41

are you dialed into the early

1:08:43

prelims when we get heavyweight Robellis

1:08:45

Despagnier, who's going to make his

1:08:47

debut here against Josh Parisian? This

1:08:49

is a 35-year-old, six-foot-seven Cuban known

1:08:51

as the bad boy who is

1:08:53

a freak athlete with a freak

1:08:56

reach. I believe this is a

1:08:58

UFC record reach. Tell me if I'm

1:09:00

wrong. This side of the longest reach in

1:09:02

UFC history. Yes. Longer than seven foot semi-shelf.

1:09:04

87 inches here for the

1:09:07

six foot seven frame. Josh Parisian

1:09:09

seems about right for that lamb

1:09:11

that they're going to bring to the slaughter

1:09:14

to find out if this guy is the next

1:09:16

Henan Ferreira, Luke. Maybe he is. Maybe he

1:09:18

isn't, but it is something to watch here

1:09:20

on this early prelim. I mean, Robellis

1:09:24

is super untested. I mean, could not be

1:09:26

less tested in MMA. I mean, obviously he

1:09:28

was very accomplished in Taekwondo, but

1:09:31

like in MMA, my man is like

1:09:33

outrageously untested. So like either he's going

1:09:35

to win spectacularly or BC if there's

1:09:37

any question about his game and

1:09:39

he loses to Parisian, which by the way, I

1:09:41

don't think it's, I mean, I don't really know.

1:09:44

I don't really know. I don't, we don't know

1:09:46

shit about this dude's MMA game, but like if

1:09:48

it ends up being like woefully inadequate, we can't

1:09:50

be surprised. You just can't. Minus 340. This Banya

1:09:52

is the favorite, but that's an interesting betting fight.

1:09:54

Should he walk in there and have a

1:09:56

lot of issues? We're going to find out a couple other matchups.

1:09:58

I just want to mention. Michelle

1:10:01

Pareda against Mihal Ali

1:10:03

Shakeshik is going to be all action.

1:10:05

Iwan Kutalaba is back against Felipe, Linda

1:10:07

Light Heavyweight, a few other okay

1:10:09

ones there to turn out, Luke the Curtain. You

1:10:12

buried the lead. The Pedro Munoz 135 fight

1:10:14

over Kyler Phillips. Kyler Phillips has impressed me.

1:10:17

He doesn't have a big name yet,

1:10:19

but he has of

1:10:21

recently looked much better than I

1:10:23

ever thought he would. That's a

1:10:25

quietly important fight for the Bantamweight

1:10:27

division. Yeah, he's fresh off

1:10:29

that decision. Went over Hyony Barcelas. He has

1:10:31

a win over Songyidong as we mentioned earlier.

1:10:34

Craig Card on Saturday, man. Can't

1:10:36

wait. Luke, will we have an MK post product

1:10:38

on Saturday? We certainly will. The

1:10:40

UFC 299 post fight show right here,

1:10:43

youtube.com/morning combat. Keep it locked. B.I.T. Chios.

1:10:46

That's Luke Thomas. I'm Brian Campbell. Mikey Moore, Miles, CBS

1:10:48

on the ones and twos. Thank you for watching. Luke,

1:10:53

people are debating whether us

1:10:55

taking some time off was worth it. It

1:10:57

wasn't worth it. It was necessary. And we're

1:10:59

about to bang all of our listeners. Yeah, I

1:11:02

mean, it could be the case, BC,

1:11:04

that we didn't really have a choice and we kind

1:11:06

of had to. Well, that's a little strong too. We

1:11:08

were fighting to save the show, Luke. Okay. Yeah,

1:11:11

I don't think folks really understand like some of the things

1:11:13

we made. We didn't have great choices, but either way, either

1:11:15

way, news headed your way soon.

1:11:17

Stay tuned. Tooie, bang.

1:11:20

That's the story. Thank you for watching.

1:11:22

We are out of here. New

1:11:27

CBS Monday. NCIS and NCIS Hawaii returned with all new cases. So we'll tap

1:11:29

to the chest, one to the head. You have the professionals. All new

1:11:32

criminals. Finally, not only did they get here. Welcome to

1:11:34

paradise. And all new crimes to be solved. If you're watching,

1:11:36

these have been arrested. What are the charges? Just one. Murder.

1:11:39

New NCIS and NCIS Hawaii.