MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELLUFC 241 Full Breakdown | Stipe Miocic, Nate Diaz, Cormier, Romero-Costa | MORNING KOMBAT | Ep. 7
Today's episode of Morning Kombat with Luke Thomas and Brian Campbell includes a full breakdown of UFC 241, Stipe Miocic, Nate Diaz, Cormier, Romero-Costa, and more.
MORNING KOMBAT WITH LUKE THOMAS AND BRIAN CAMPBELL, Showtime's first live digital series, spotlights the weekend’s biggest news from the world of combat sports. MORNING KOMBAT airs live every Monday at 12 PM ET / 9 AM PT.
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Oh, Revelle Dowks. It is Monday, August nineteenth, twenty nineteen, and it is time for Morning Combat. My name is Luke Thomas. I'm the host of this program, joined by my co host you know him from CBS Sports as well as gas stations around the Northeast, the one and only Brian Campbell. How was your weekend? Brian?
Fired up? Fired up? Welll caffeinated at MK Ultra back in your life, Ready to brainwash the combat minds off before.
We even get to the first top or tru or falls. UFC two forty one best show of the year.
No, but it had the kind of magic if you know what I'm talking about in the year that was very similar to the last few bouts on International Fight Week and the last two specifically in Atlanta. And if you want to go back to twenty seventeen, the last time I think we felt that was in New York for two seventeen. Those sort of cards I can pick out of the group that say there's something special.
I agree with that. I also think someone made a point to me out, you know, as the run of the mill. UFC Carnal had great. No, but the UFC pay per views have with two forty nine one standing, They've delivered a lot this year. The main event delivered a lot. Now we're gonna get to that manage the study.
Trending theme there is is people going for it, people not being afraid to lose in an effort to win. Kind of a novel concept sometimes of combat sports.
We'll circle back to that main event in just a second. Let's start where the show starts, though, and that's with Nathan Diaz had the top the top one and two trending videos on YouTube. Yesterday there were two point one million searches for UFC two forty one eight. Not an astronomical but a very healthy number. For sure. It looked like he had the biggest pop in the room. So now the question is, after defeating Anthony Pettis via unanimous decision Brian Campbell, is he as big of a star as ron de Rousey when she was a UFC fighter not talking about the current state of things, or Conan McGregor at his peak. Let me go first, if I may. The answer is no, he is not that big at least I don't think there's enough evidence to congrect.
The answer is until he's headlining a pay per view as the aside, you're never gonna know that.
We won't know the answer, but here's what we can conclude. I think, at a bare minimum, he's probably as big of a headliner as John Jones. Now that too is also unproven. To the point you just raised, John has a body of work as a headlinery or various other places on the card where he clearly contributed to the pay per view sales. We can kind of figure out exactly what he brings to the table. Some of that is still very much unknown about Nate Dz. But you know as well as I do. Getting a New York Times feature, I compared the UFC two thirty nine embedded videos in terms of the traffic they did with the UFC two forty one UFC two forty one. At first they were neck and neck with a million, and then two thirty nine petered out down the stretch just million, million.
Five million, Like Daniel Kelly basically of interest.
The whole point is there was sustaining interest around him. Then he goes out there and has a huge pop with the crowd. I think absolutely delivered in terms of three years off like that was a great performance, not a perfect one by any stretch, then gets on there, sets up his next one against the other guy in the UFC who's also coming off of Big Buzz. He just played everything super well. He had the whole blunt CBD thing at the workhouse.
It was not the most gangster moment and in a positive way in UFC history. That was the coolest thing since the just bleed guy and the guy over his left shoulder who had the joint that people never really really It.
Was so smart and so subversive, yet so clever and actually actually within the rules to an extent. Anyway, I guess my point being is you're right, no doubt about a Brian Campbell until we put him on that thing, until he gets the fight poster that he wants. Apparently he's the only guy calling Dan and why complained about the fight poster will never actually truly know. But here's what I am saying. All the available evidence indicates he is, if at the very very top of the food chain just one click down, he is cooking with.
Guyas short of pay per view sales, because it's unproven just from buzz, just from people knowing him, needing to see him, and sort of unconditionally supporting him. He's in Rousey mcgregretariat right now, which is insane to think about because he's coming off of a three year break. That's the insanity of it, and that's why there's so many interesting points of what happens Saturday night. This is arguably the best submission win of his career, even bigger than submitting Connor McGregor in twenty sixteen.
I know what you're gonna say, This fight went to the cards, right.
I'm talking about afterwards at the Dais, at the press conference when Dana White sort of sits there and go reluctantly goes yep, he moves the needle, And that moment was so poignant to me.
Because here's the deal.
In the history of fighters becoming monster stars, even Connor McGregor's rise, there's always going to be a chicken in the egg debate if you're the company, the organization when you sit down at the contract table. Similar to the I know you don't watch wrestling wrestling in nineteen, the hul Cogan Vince McMahon match build Who created who? Right, it's the same thing for it's the same thing if Connor McGregor's going to sit down and negotiate with Dana. Dana can go, did you help the UFC get to this level when you were there or did we help you get to this la level? Who created who? The reason why this Nate Dia is the situation is so different, and why you saw a face from Dana at that press conference that was a face he doesn't normally give, a reluctant sort of tap out face, is because Nate Diaz did this, not with the UFC's help.
He took three.
Years off at the peak of his marketing prime, at the peak of his I.
Just became a pay per view star.
I set records back to back with Connor as the arguably the biggest B side ever yep. And he walked away on his own terms. And it's not like he's out there doing interviews every other week. I know he's got his hand in the game with the CBD market and with the whole weed culture territory, and I know you see him from time to time here and there, but he's as off the radar while not fighting purposely as almost anybody else. And yet he made himself the biggest star and arguably the biggest part of the year for UFC.
It's insane.
That's the only way you're gonna make Dana White tap because under any circumstance, a success as a fighter is to a certain degree because of the unit that the UFC has built in the structure that if you're popular and you get in our vehicle, we will drive you to the top. I know Nate became a name because of being a UFC fighter, and I know he maybe became a household name because he beat Connor once, but he became a sort of like apocryphal legend, like a myth this weekend because of what he did standing true to his own beliefs. And I know that's been a topic that maybe got beaten down a little too much during fight week. You know, he never sold out. He's so true. But that's why he gets that love. That's why when Jorge Mosratl had that five second moment and everything that went around that we were like, this guy might be the next big star. Because in the fight sports, in the promotion game, there's so much fake that you use in effort to bring people in. There's so much pro wrestling that you use that when you get something that's real, that's true, currency that Nate has and that Nate stands on and that he employs.
You cannot get away from it.
It's so authentic, it's so real, and you cling for that, just like regular fans want fights to actually be fights between tw people that hate each other. And the reality is it's a business. Sometimes it's a sport. He is something that cuts right through the bullshit, and he's like, I am the realist m effort. I'm basically that crazy dude who lives below you in your apartment building. Only I get to do this on pay per view for a living. And the fact that Dan White finally bought in was the biggest victory at two forty one, way bigger than anything Stepe did in.
The Cage, which, by the way, Dana White after he said that, they brought that up to Nate Diaz, who spoke later in the postwar press conference, and he was like, that's a mistake to say out loud that I'm good for business. You know, he's going to use that against them. However that may be in the next iteration, which we'll talk about in just a second, But one more note should be made here that something California market is sort of a weird market for MMA in the one hand. On the one hand, it's a hotbed. They recruit tons of talent from there. There's tons of gyms there. You could put on and see tons of shows there, some of the smaller regional ones, but it's a little bit hard to sell out because they're so spoiled. They set a record for MMA shows in California with the Gate and again I'm sure that Stepe and DC played their role in that to an extent Romero and Costa, but the anchor of that, quite clearly from all the visible information that we could glean, was Nate Diaz was the one who led that charge. He helped the UFC set a record and one of the hardest places to set up record. Again, just another log on the fire that he is built.
Can I double down on sort of the ridiculous bisness. He did this not only out of the public eye, like I mentioned, but with UFC and Dana White talking bad about him basically at every turn, he became like and it's crazy because.
He's sold that actually works to his benefit. In the end, it worked to his benefit. He twists it. He he is the guy. What is his brand? The UFC's law and order. He's the rebel, so anytime that they double down on that, he just ends up looking better.
In the egning is a three year break changed the narrative of him against the machine because it's people like me every time I'm in front of a microphone going UFC, when are you gonna realize your next big pay per view star is that guy who's high sitting on the couch and stocked in right now, Like, when are you gonna wake up and realize that it's crazy? As we cling to the anti hero counterculture thing that he gives us as a message, it's.
Not that he's the first to do that.
You can argue maybe like Tank Aabott was the first guy to bring that in, even Connor McGregor to a degree. Luke on his initial rise had sort of that trash talking not necessarily middle finger, but you get what I'm saying. Pops a whole bit of an edge and swag that's non conformed. For his sake to millions of dollars, he went through of commercial, he went the root of company man. He went down that lane into a degree he lost that real edge for the fans. But that doesn't matter. When you go down the company lane and you have that edge to you, he becomes so polarizing that the numbers just dropped from the sky on you pay per view.
Numbers go through the roof.
And even Nate stuck true to what he did, which is insane. And that's why he never needed to compromise who he was to get to this point.
And you're right, he needed the three years.
He needed Dana White to be that evil boss at the end going nope, sorry, you're not that guy.
Here's the ultimate proof of the CBD thing. Him smoking is one again. The value in smoking that is that it's technically legal, right, but there's a certain counterculture imagery to it, so it actually cuts both ways. But rather than a fighter being a company guy and following the UFC's lead even with the CBD thing, not so much this one, but with the after UFC two o five when he was smoking it and it costs his uproar. Well, now the UFC is in the CBD business, he leads his own path and then drags the UFC with him.
It's how about his his sense of mind to puff puff, give you he's share with the fans. I mean, look, life is demanding Luke without understanding. But this weekend Dana White saw the sign. I mean it opened up his eyes.
You know, yeah, well you are awful. Very quickly Diaz versus masvidoal he calls it out. They showed. Everyone was like Data said afterwards, he was like, I didn't know he e were gonna do that, Dana. They had two cameras ready on Masvidal's face the second he said it. Trust me, you knew. But okay, if you want to tell the media that, that's fine. But any event, he calls out Masvidal, Dude, this is the biggest no brainer. I'm not saying there aren't other good fights you could make at this point. There's a lot of good DS fights you can make. It's the same thing with Connor or Justin Gaichee. Name a Justin Gaigchee fight that would suck that you could think of. At the top of that division. There's basically nobody.
Him against the doctor basically yeah, okay.
Yeah, that'd any other fighter. It comes out being just fine. So the point being is this, Okay, give me some of the suggestions. I'm willing to hear them. But Brian Campbell Diaz wants it, Masvidal wants it. You know, the public wants it. A White himself even saying he wants it. Are they gonna fuck it up? Though?
Wow?
Hold on, you can pick. Are they gonna f that up and make it a three rounder by putting it underneath a title fight? When that fight?
You know, Brian Campbell, good headline A show injected right right?
Rub that a little bit.
It sounds so good to be true because everybody wants it. It's so perfect that ultimately you may not get it.
I don't want to be a harbinger of doom here. I don't want to be a negative Nancy here.
Look at these two second those guys. But here's the deal.
We're gonna find out whether all that stuff I just said about Natiz and finally getting ahead of Dana on getting one on him is actually true. The proof will be in the putt in, as Floyd would say, in terms of what's next for Natiez, is Dana White and company going to treat him like a legitimate brand that he is. Dana showed you verbally with facially that he was there. But it's gonna matter if they're willing to put Nate in a pay per view main event that does not have a forced interim title or any situation like that, if they're willing to say that. What Nate said, which is brilliant, he said, I've got this title, now I want to defend it. He's talking about smart you know, the same thing we kind of said on Connor's rise when it didn't even matter what division he was in. There's almost this Connor pay per view championship. Nate sort of has the derivative of this. Remember, Eddy al Verus is trying to put over the most violent man championship that he that he fought against Gae Chee. You kind of have that with Nate right now. And it's just the idea of celebrity fights.
What fights can you make that feel elite?
Elite celebrity fights.
If he can get that, if he gets Jorge Mazmital next after calling it into existence, it will show you that they're ready to take advantage of what he has left. Because honestly, between you and me here and everybody else watching, to try to predict Nate di Has' mind and what might be next for him would be feudal.
You don't have to predict He outright said I would like to fight when when I say next, I mean bigger picture.
I mean I'd love to say. Okay, he's thirty four, he's back. He just proved in the cage that he's still elite. Let's fight four to five more times over the next three years. He may fight once more and walk away for good and get pissed off. It's something you never know at this point, right all.
Right, Well, one person who's not going anywhere anytime soon it looks like we'll see, is Steve bay Meachich. He reclaims his UFC heavyweight titled Feeding Daniel Cormier by TKO in the fourth round. The question for you, Brian Campbell is because we had a bit of a debate here, so I'll let you go first on this one. Does this win unequivocally, don't hash around? Does this win unequivocally make Stepe the greatest heavyweight in the UFC of all time.
I opened my podcast on CBS Sports, The State of Combat, on Saturday night after the card with asking that same question, and I made the same I don't want to say reluctant answer, but default answer that data did during the press conference when they asked him the same question.
He goes, yeah, I guess it does. In my initial kneejerk reaction is okay, what else does.
Steep they have to do to prove to us? He just went back in there a guy against the guy who's at the upper room of the greatest fighters ever and knocked him out to regain his title.
The more I look it over and do the math, I'm not really sure.
I'm certainly sure it's not unequivocally and overall, I can't tell if this bias that I sort of have against Steepe that a lot of fans do, to be honest, is subconsciously because there's that sort of boring side to him. There's that blue collar, workingman like sign. We've seen him climb the ladder, we've seen him lose and bounce back before becoming champion, and there's maybe that lack of overall sexiness or is the proof when you lay it down, why is his resume right now any better than dan Ric Cormier who knocked him out faster last year? And to be really honest, and I know this kind of pushed your button when I brought in up blast.
Point is why is insane.
No, it's not.
Why is Would you like me to tell you why this is?
I want to bring this question up. Why when you compare Randy Gator's resume and what he accomplished to Steepey's. Right now, why is Steepe so much bigger in terms of when you're trying to figure out who's the greatest heavy Because I know, look, there's a difference between a pound for pound on their greatest night, which was the argument for Kine I was trying to make Cain didn't have the longevity to be in the real conversation right of who's the most decorated and the best champion history. Why Randy Coutour with three title reigns just as many title defenses as Steepe overall, and sort of a ability to reinvent himself constantly and fought through three different heavyweight eras, why is he so separated from Who.
Are the two fighters Couture defended his title against? Because it's only two Pedro Hiszzo, that's one, Gonzaga and Gonzaga, those are the only two. He beat Pedro Hiszzo twice, the UFC thirty one, UFC thirty four, and then Gabriel Gonzaga after he beat Tim Sylvia. Those are legitimate and the first of all the UFC thirty one fight, which went the distance, truly one of the great heavyweight fights of all time. Even to this day, it's still pretty good. And remember they thought that his Zo was going to be the big guy. They gave him. I think it was a seven to five contract, which was unheard of him rematch the whole thing, and then Coator goes in there and beats him twice. It's a big deal. He's one of the greats, don't misunderstand me. But after beating Kevin Randaman, he bounced, he went to rings. He lost the guillotine choke to Valentine Overreim during that time and he went down though no none in the UFC, but then comes back beats his O twice and then loses to Josh Barnett and we know the whole story.
Lost the vacant so the best one.
Sorry, dude, that doesn't hold up to Stevepey's resume, and it doesn't. And I'll be like, look, I was a guy, I'm a big Look I don't want to be, but I just get gravitated a certain way. I'm a big DC fan, I really am. I'm not much of a steep A fan. Steepe, shut my mouth. I'm eating humble pie. Hold on, let me get back to Steepe point being is if you want to say he was losing three rounds and came back and that should count against him. Okay, if you want to say, you got knocked out and you only beat the guy who knocked you out, so it's a wash, I can even buy that. What I cannot accept is that two wins over his oh and one over Gonzaga is equivalent to the title run that Steve has been on. Dude, beating Daniel Cormier even from the jaws of defeat is unbry aggressive when you look when you say that about Randy, he didn' get stripped of a title.
He did have the Barnett, which goes down as a loss even though Barnett was on steroids. It should have been a no contest, which means he should have kept that title and stayed defending it. So the idea of tit for tat on title defense is, Look, Randy was a legend, reinvented himself many times. Like I said, went through separate different eras. I just don't think it's that much of a gap between him and Steepe in this argument. And if we put Randy aside for a second, because I know a lot of people are gonna hit up those YouTube comments and Randy, he'll be all over me. Here's the deal, though, the guy from why is DC's resume at heavyweight because of just this one loss of the guy you just beat now suddenly automatically down.
And on top of that, why are we evening to crown a guy?
I don't think Steve a has He's done more than everyone else because this has been a division laid with parody. But I don't think he, or really anyone has had that run where it's a slam dunk.
I think we're willing to put DC there.
Last time because he'd only lost to John Jones, the greatest fighter A.
I'm willing to go with the second half of that, which is we had the same debate of for featherweight, is it Aldo, is it Max is a Connor Who's the greatest featherweight of all time? My hunch is Aldo, but Max is still out there competing. It's really hard to know. We're gonna have to see. Plus he beat Aldo twice. Gotta goda YadA, I get all that, and again he beat DC at forty, but he beat DC at forty when he was the champion. The only knock on steep A beyond I think coming back late was then when he beat let's see ver Doom, when he beat Arlovski, when he excuse me, not Alawski was his title fight. So when he beat Verdoom, Overeim and who's the other one, I'm not Francis.
You gonna go past over room without muching that he tapped at two three. There's a movement out there. Only point the movement was.
He fought a lot of guys France is notwithstanding who's just a little bit long in the tooth in terms of their age. So you have to count that as part of the overall body of work. So I'm willing to say I think there might be a third fight between Cormier and step A, which that would be much more settling. It is a fine debate. I just want to point out beating Daniel Cormier by stoppage, being the first person to do that, to do that at heavyweight, that is a that is a towering achievement in the heavyweight division. So the question then becomes, Brian Campbell, are they going to do stepe A versus John Jones or a third fight with Steve A and DC? Here is my thought. Does Daniel retire? We'll talk about him in a second. I don't. I'm fine with the Jones versus Steve A fight. I didn't come out of that fight thinking it'd be all that competitive. Now John's last two fights have not been bad, but not like the kind of Maraud and crusader he had been before. But did you leave that fight afterwards thinking wow, Steve Bay versus Jones, not saying they couldn't do it, not saying they wouldn't do it, that saying they wouldn't even make a ton of money. But did you come out of there thinking, ooh, that one is what I have to see. I didn't come out of their fight.
It depends I didn't come out of the thinking that. Because of recent comments made by John Jones that look, I never really want to go to heavyweight, which is false. It's been documented for years. He's sort of teasing that it was inevitable. I took that how willing on social Medy was constantly looking to take jabs at DC, including after the fight when he suddenly proclaims on Twitter that Stepe is the greatest heavyweight of all time. End of story. I think that's all more of marketing and public negotiation moves. I think Jones is and has been always willing to go to heavyweight if the money's there. Not the pay per view made a vent, money that he's lived off of for years, but the Connor McGregor, Floyd Mayweather, many pakiout money, the guaranteed twenty five million to fight no matter what.
That type of like legitimate.
If I'm gonna take this chance, you're going to treat me like that true star money. If that's there, I don't see why he wouldn't fight Steepe. And again, I'm on the side of the train that says or the side of the line that says, John Jones beats every single heavyweight in the end, I think is that talented? I think is speed will translate so well. But I think we're going a little bit too quickly out of the DC Steepe argument because the thing where it gets that but this is all related. The thing that fuels my opinions on this. Ultimately, besides this thing that's in my eye, this piece of dust. This uh, we're live here, folks, all right? Possibly maybe possibly all right?
Is the DC thing.
No, step A didn't beat DC in the rematch. DC lost the rematch. Oh you are hot, and I know that there's an look. I I make that same argument in the Anderson silver Chris Widman. Uh you know series too, that that ultimately Anderson Silva cost himself the first fight and then freak injury in the second. I never got the picture that Chris Webben was better. Another topic for another day. I think the fact that steep A did everything right in this. He even stood on his laurels Nate Diaz like and sat out a whole year to get the fight that he wanted. Then he came in there and weathered the storm in an absolute war. Round two one of the greatest rounds in UFC title history that they'll put in the vault one day. But Daniel Cormie was Daniel Cormie after the fight, which means really honest in his shortcomings, he abandoned the strategy in round one in which he dominated that fight. So in my heart of hearts when I'm fueling the debate of who's better all time and in the whole debate of what fight should be next? In all this stuff, Daniel Cormier was actually the better fighter on Saturday Night. He got a little love was though. He got a little and he've been at this in his interviews afterwards. He got a little bit too high and mighty from the idea of I knocked this guy out the first time. I'm taking his shots and walking through them now, so why shouldn't I stop, even though obviously his corner's telling him take the fight to the ground. And anybody at home watching round one, when he dominated Steepe and really left him in a confused role, you're like, why would you not go back to your strength?
They're in wrestling, okay, so that's fine.
But even outside of the wrestling point, Luke, he had no respect for Stepe. He was just walking in hands down. So he deserves to lose that fight. But I don't think Stepe is a better fighter than DC. And maybe that feels the argument that the.
Better fighter doesn't always win, and you know that very very well. That's true in boxing. I think it's less true in boxing but it can happen sometimes, especially true an mma with there's the wide variants in how a fight could match two fighters can match up based on variables. Here's the point. I'm not gonna sit here and tell you that Cormier fought a good fight or even up to his best ability. No, far from it, dude. I know that my radio show is behind a paywall, and I know that as a consequence that limits some of its exposure. But on Friday's show, and you can look this up on the archives, and went out of my way to say, did anybody else watch UFC two hundred when Anderson Silva went to the liver of Daniel Cormier and it hurt him bad? There was a clear and unequivocal weakness show there. Not everyone's susceptible deliver shots, but some more than others, a Seronia Brown kind of a situation. Cormier appeared to be one of those kinds. I've never seen someone really get folded like that off of a I'm sure a hard pushkick, but not the kind that would normally draw that break.
You did shell me. Anderson extended his toes and curve them in, and that was a big part of adding.
I'm sure it also showed a weakness of the body. And then when you saw stevee go over and over and over, I'm not telling you this is some kind of Einstein Stephen Hawking adjustment. I am telling you after getting battered for three rounds to have the presence of mind to then go and do that, it was stick to it. Yes, championship level adjustment. It is absolutely a championship level adjustment. So when you say step A didn't beat him, Cormier lost, No, steep A beat him because Cormier, yes, opened the tiny window. But if Steep the door, well, hold on, if Steepe doesn't go to the body, he loses that fight. That was the only reason he went there, is because he had the presence of mind to do that sort of thing. So your point was, Cormier was the better fighter that night, even fighting a dumb ass strategy. He was the better fighter that night. He would have won but for Stepe taking that fight from him. You cannot take that away.
From Oh look at I'm not trying to, but we're trying to basically compare two shiny apples and try to say which one is better looking than the other.
And I think there are things that separate this.
And also I'm not convinced that DC wasn't rocked at some point early in second round, which completely mentally kind of put him in survival mode the rest of the way.
He certainly wasn't listening to his.
Corner, but he did sort of say that was more pride afterwards. And then did you hear some of the comments between rounds? You know, my winning, what's going on?
It's sure to make of those.
It was hard, though, So what I'm saying is that happens in fights. That's part of it. So that could have been a big part of this equation why he didn't finish the fight as strong as he started it. Again, not taking anything away from Stepe, but I do think there is a separation between the true greatest of all time when we're trying to argue this out and it's like, what else does Stepe have to do? I don't know if he's really that guy though.
It's like, do I think at Cormier is a better fighter? Still? I do, but he wasn't better that night, and that's all that matters in the end. Now, the next question is about Daniel Cormier, he loses his heavyweight title, and he's forty years old. And there wasn't necessarily a declaration before this fight that it was going to be his last, but he did say it could have been. Now he has lost his title. Brian Campbell, what happens next.
To he is going to, Yeah, I'm gonna MP right in and I'm gonna walk it right over. He's gonna fight again. And here's the reason why he's still amazingly good pump for pound elite top three or four five at forty, which is insane to think about. But he's been able to get smarter as he's gotten older and all of that, and at heavyweight he's even better than he is a light heavyweight. But here's the real reason why. It's not just because he's a competitor. It's because when you get to this age and you're weighing out the price, and that's what he's doing.
The risks.
He's saying, I got to talk with my family and my team. I got a lot of TV effort jobs out there. I'm getting paid very well by TV. I don't really have to do this anymore. When there's something left to fight for and you're a true competitor, and you're not a businessman. And DC, although he's been smart over the last year and finally getting a taste of this elite money four million to save the card last fall, he's not a businessman. He's more of a true competitor. He can with either the third Stepe fight or the third Jones fight, in my mind, somewhat dramatically increase his all time great standing. And when you have that opportunity and you're still good enough to perform, DC. I know he's taking damage and all that, but we don't see him get stopped regularly, and he's certainly not a four year old fighter that we're going head trauma. Should he just count his losses and go away? No, Even Dania White's like, look, he's still really damn good. If he beats Meochich in the third fight. I mean, he's your slam dunk heavyweight goat. And if he beats John Jones in a third fight, he redeems all the losses, all the times of coming up to second place, and I think really has that chance to argue that he's the best fighter we've ever seen, regardless of weight class. When you have those two opportunities right in front of you. Yes, he's gonna take six to nine months off. You might even announce a soft retirement first. But he's coming back, and he's coming back into either of those two fights. And if I was advising him and I cared about his health and I cared about all this, I think I might still say him to go after it because he's that type of competitor, and I think he can win both. Maybe not Jones at two of five. I think heavyweight against Jones would be interesting.
All right, So here's what I would say. I think you're probably right. I think he does come back when I don't know where. I don't know, but you're right. He is a born competitor in every way. Anybody who's ever talked to Daniel Pormier got a sense of things. This is a guy where a competition, Like with the Diaz brothers, Diaz goes on the analyst desk and they asked him how was the experience being back, and he was like, when I was in there, I hated it. I was like, why do I do this? It was when the job was over he felt a sense of accomplishment and relief, and that's what he was looking for not just a relief, but a job well done. Cormier is the exact opposite. Man. I remember one time seeing it with Kyle Dick, one of the best wrestlers in collegiate history of Kyle Dick, Kyle Diake only wrestler to ever win a NCAA title in a different weight class every year, right, pretty impressive. I remember when he wrestled David Taylor for his national championship of his senior year and the lights came on over the mat and he went from having a sour face to smiling. When the lights come on for some people, Brian Campbell, they will, and when the lights come on for others, that is when they are the happiest, when they're at their best, when they know what they are made to do. Daniel Cormier, I mean, just like you and I right now is exactly goddamn right. When those cameras role, it's time to go. But the point being is, he told Damon Martin of MMA fighting before, he did not want to go out on his back. He has a chance where look, it may come to the to the point in his career where you actually have to go out on your back. But that's not today. That's not today. He actually had a chance to make sure that the fairy tail ending of his career is something that is legitimately possible. So you combine the fact that he is this is something that drives him, You combine to your point, something to fight for, and you combine that this is not the way he wants to go out. I know he's had two stoppage losses in the last two years, so since twenty seventeen, by the way, both in that same building, which is just wild. So don't fucking fight Steepe in the Honda Center, okay, but anywhere else. Look, time is ticking. I don't think he can wait that long. I think he has to kind of get back out there. I don't think in twenty nineteen, probably in first or second quarter twenty twenty. But they're gonna do it. I think the Jones fights. Let them. Last thing Jones fight to me is off the table. Getting the steep a one because you can end your career without having to worry about the John Jones chapters. They just are what they are. But you can end with a redemptive note, you can end with a legacy note, and you can end with the belt back in your hands. If you're Daniel Cormier, how do you turn that down real quickly?
If you think it's BS my take that you know, step Alas didn't win that fight yet DC lost, But I get it.
It's a it's a it's a I'm going out on a legend. I'm standing there and I believe in it.
But as DC's watching video over the next three four months of that fight, he's gonna be thinking the same thing. He's gonna be thinking, I gave that up, and that's going to be extra fuel. And number two, we've just talked about John Jones kind of at every turn taking shots at DC. Right yeap, wouldn't the most John Jones thing to do right now would be to go to heavyweight and take the belt that potentially that DC just lost in a fight that DC and me probably feel like he should have won, and go out there and become that two division tampent and then take all of the DS.
It's gonna be. This is gonna be a great test to see whether Miocic is consistent or a hypocrite with the nature of the third potential fight with Cormier, because he was like I deserve it. I was the longest reigning champion. It's got nothing to do with the fact that you know, they had six months to prepare for that fight. He got beaten around. There was no real case for a rematch. There's not much of a case of a rematch with Cormier other then it's a thing you want to do for a nice person. It would be it would be kind of interesting for a trilogy fight, but usually you want trilogy fights and rematches spaced out evenly, with like a lot of time in between, so that the third or the second one would be different than the previous one, which you're not going to get here. There's actually not that great of a case now, I guess you could say, again, we like Cormier. He was winning early. There are some reasons to think a third one might be different.
But wouldn't that be a John Jones thing to do, to be like, to take a smoke from him.
I don't think I don't think so. I don't think so. I don't think he's that machiavellian. I don't I think he is. Do you think so? Yeah, a little bit? Yeah, I think he's happy to keep seeing what's happening at at light heavyweight or if he went to heavyweight maybe to fight someone else first real.
Quick on the way out as well.
Yeah, can you celebrate at least the balls on these two guys on DC and Steep a bread strategy or not. The action that we saw it was a war of attritionites.
You'll seen heavy whatever.
We haven't seen historically in the UFC great heavyweight title bots is this, I don't want to and every conversation with this, that's the greatest we've ever seen. I mean this is this will go down pretty high up.
Look to your to your point. When Kator came back and beat Sylvia, there was something thrilling about it, but it was mostly because he had Sylvia's back for five rounds. It wasn't really because the action of the initial punch that knocked Sylvia down was all that interesting. This was back and forth and do both of their faces the.
Chins they showed was is i'b scene?
And also for step A Miochich, like a lot of guys get KO, they don't. They don't even if they're not physically affected, they're mentally a little bit unsure of themselves. Not Stepe, he just marched on in there, and.
I thought that seven punch finished pretty pretty violent, pretty brutal.
And also I thought he was gonna stick behind the jab, you know, like maintain some distance. Na, he kind of got in there and just traded with him.
So he kind of Homer Simpson than that, he kind of just.
I'm not much of a Myochiic fan, Like I think I respect him, but it's not like I don't gravitate to his fights. But even I can go after Saturday and be like, you know what, I was wrong, You have a hard time.
I'm not saying a hard time.
I'm saying that as a joke, but I'm saying he showed tremendous resolved, he showed a tremendous result and Cormier loss.
He didn't win there, However, I didn't have.
Money on DC.
I'm not in DC's corner.
I'm just telling you what I saw, all right.
So here's the fight that's getting lost in everything, which was the feature fire of the car, not the man, not the co mane. But oh my god, what a middleweight fight between Joel Romero and Paulo Costa. I did the Java Boys podcast with Brendan schab and he was like, yeah, I'm kind of I don't know how I feel about it. I'm like, Brendan, have you had too much coffee? Are you a little high? Bud? This one has action written all over. Jimmy Smith, the former UFC and Bilsmore commentator Serius XM host, he had tweeted, Romero versus Costa is going to be as close as we ever get to watching two comic book characters battle it out in real time.
It's like opening a cereal box looking for that prize and you find sex at the bottom.
It's just ridiculous.
First of all, I absolutely loved, loved, loved this fight. I thought it was so interesting for so many reasons, Brian. One was Romero showing actually technical growth. He's usually a bit of a two way fighter, but one at a time, block block, block, block, block, Perry slip Perry, slip, block, and then explode. And you did see some of that. But he's actually like slipping and throwing, which he ordinarily doesn't do. We know he's the king of the third rounders, but not typically through volume. He actually had the better cardio than Paulo Costa and the third their chins on these two, just on one of the great fights really in middleweight history for a non title affair, for a three rounder. So now the question is that Paulo Costa wins by the way very quickly, I'd just scored it. I want to fish my point, though, well.
There's another I didn't take the trade through hot takee city on the way.
Then hold that thought. Hold that thought. But in any event, Costa gets his hand raised, let's say, right, so now he's going to get the winner of Whittaker versus Adasignya. I would love to know your thoughts on the fight, and also is there one direction you're leaning more towards in terms of who you'd like to see Costa fight, because I gotta tell you, the big takeaway from this one was even if you think Romero won and by the way, he'll be back, because he looked phenomenal hitting championship weight by the way, one four point seventy five, good for him. Costa, I think silence not all the doubts about him, but a metric ton of them. He looked good and way better late than a lot of folks thought.
It was so much to love about this fight in this situation and I sort of mentioned that off the top about why this card was so good Natiez in Pettis Fault really hard, but specifically the main event and specifically this middleway card, you had people fighting for their lives, fighting for it all, willing to risk it all to win it. And I know that sounds stupid. This is the fight game, but you know what it's like, Lukely. I know it happens more in boxing the MA, but sometimes there's a safety point. Sometimes you get to a certain point where you're more defending what you've accomplished rather than going for it. Both of these guys were going for it.
And whether or not you scored.
It for Paulo Costa in the end, it doesn't really matter because it wasn't a robbery. I could see why people preferred Costa because he landed the more damage overall. So if that's more of your trend on how you score fight, that's fine.
That's how you should score it.
I do I don't know about that fight rules.
That is exactly how you should score fight.
But ultimately he answered every question we could have had stamina, chin balls, I mean, everything across the abs. We already knew that I mean, if you were a fan of just Chisel, male bodies and who you are, this was gonna be This was going to be a super Bowl for that. But from the idea of finding out how good he can be, and on top of that, Romero.
At forty two gave you a plus plus performance.
You're trying to ask me in theory here, what fight do I really want to see the most? Costa against Whitaker, Costa against ad Asnia, none of the abolve. I want Romero against a Asignia, And that just speaks to how great this division is at the top. How both of these were elevated from this fight. I'm not really sure I've ever seen you all Romero lose. The first Whittaker fight was the closest in terms of his UFC run, But all three of those fights against the elites, he was right there. And I think he fought better in this fight in terms of strategy, and you sort of nailed off the top. Then even the two Whittaker fights, I thought he won the second one, But even in those two you could say, Okay, Romero takes rounds off at times, he does this, he does that.
He didn't do anything but go out there and give you a great performance.
There's an argument that even with the losses that he's had Whittaker this one and I'm forgetting some other ones that he might have had, you can make a case he's the best middleweight in the world. You can actually do that. Now he won't have the belts to justify it. He won't have just a clean green lighting on the side of the Wikipedia page. It'll be some pink in there, but that isn't necessarily a fair reflection of his ability. In fact, I think coming out of this, if he wants to go to two oh five, he can, but making the weight that he did now, maybe when he travels too far like Perth, Australia, he can't make the weight. But if they can find a way to get him in a space where he can reliably make that weight, dude A forty two, he's as viable a contender at middleweight as he's ever been. He should absolutely be the guy that they fly in whenever cost of fights. The winner of whittakern Outosignia to be the guy on standby. I don't think anyone in the world would be opposed to that. If he ends up getting that slot, through some kind of injury or change.
So you wouldn't say it's time for Romero to transition into being more of an older select the final, let's match him up with other big names and any division do'll just make fun for him.
This is again he's got some fatal flaws too. But to go out and look, the beauty of that fight was. I think both guys at the piece of themselves there a little bit which is not great. But Costa twenty five can afford to do that, and I guess the ageless wonder in Romero, I suppose he can do it as well. My other point is, did you come out of that fight thinking, oh, you know, I don't know what's next for him at middleweight? You're like, dude, he can beat on the right night, Joel Romero can beat anybody at middleweight. It just wasn't necessarily.
The reason why I asked that question about the celebrity fighter thing is because he's forty two and in theory, has a short window left. Who knows, he could be one of these Randy Cator freaks who keeps going. But the point is I don't want to see him be forced to have to go back to the middle of the top ten and win a couple to get back in line. I almost want him to just sort of like stay in that bullpen for an availability or.
Fight another legend.
I mean, I wouldn't necessarily love him and Anderson Silva, but those type of fights. Would you like him to go up and tested that two a five against a big name, even against a wideman type of guy.
I guess I want the best matchups for him and the most competitive ones, because I don't think that the transition to I'm doing something other than making a clear path to the title is something he needs to do yet. So there's like there's different stages to the career. One is I'm all in direct path through the through the thicket to the title. One is I don't care at all, and there's a lot of shades in between. He can still be pretty close to that I'm doing nothing else, but that now they answer the original question, Costa, who should you fight? Well, I mean we have to see who wins. I think which one I'm more interested in just the Ata Soignya one because they're still like one of the interesting parts about Romero that people are not going to appreciate is his ability to withstand the punishment of Costa in this one. I don't know if Whittaker can. I don't know if Adasignya can, and the bad beef between Adasigna. So he's got this. He's the much more clever striker at range. But then you have this beast of a sort of boxer. He also has a bit of a kickboxer too, but more of a boxer in Costa. To me, that's a much more interesting fight than Robert Whittaker, who's like, all shucks. It doesn't work quite as well for me, But in either case, you're gonna get a pretty great fight. Here's the point. Do I think Joel Romero can beat all three on the right night? You bet your ass one hundred percent.
And I'm not sure though, even though Paula Costa just made giant steps. I mean, that was a strong everything you'd want out of performance. Do you still do you kind of echo me? I still feel like I need to see from a technical standpoint, can he outpoint those two guys are right?
He just uses a lot of route force, and that's typically been enough. The question is going to be what happens when it's not enough? Because Romero to an extent obliged that. So what happens when he gets someone who doesn't oblige it? Does he have a second or third gear to get to I don't know, But does he have a chin? Yes? Whatever the u Sawa issues work, did you notice any drop off in his physique? I noticed no change whatsoever. Firepower was still not as much there, but still there. Late he's got a chin himself, like there was a lot to like for that performance. So still but by the way, at twenty five, still has time to get better or twenty eight whatever he is.
I know you don't go on social media once and certainly not to peep things, but do you see John Jones constantly talking about Atosania and saying I'll fight him in Africa, I'll fight him here, I'll.
Fight them there. I catch things here there.
I don't need anything to do with that. That's that just seems to ruin things. I want John to move up, not a sign you to prove himself a midweight win the title first?
Why are we doing this?
They're gonna he's he's waiting for Adasignia to to be old enough, where the move to two of five is kind of forced upon him, and then they want to see what happens there, but that that could be years away at this point, so it's not really there at the moment. Okay, So outside of the Romeros and the Costas and the diaz Is and in your mind, I guess the Cormier is because you don't want to give it to Steepe outside of those top performers. Who are some other top performers at UFC two forty one. Now, there's a lot of different ways you can go with this one, Brian, I'll go first. Corey Sanhagen, Yes, boy, he looked very very good on the premium card beating half El Sun. So why is that important? Because he had come off the lineker Win and the Linaker fight. You know, it will test your ability to take a shot, So he answered that. I also try to tell people this in MMA. If you see a guy who's got like five first round KOs and about to make their UFC debut, the one thing I always tell people is, you know almost nothing about this person. You know they hit hard and probably not much else. Now there their tender profile. You used to be on the fields. Tender was after me. My era was like match and stuff like that, but I never got some of the tender. I've actually never seen tender in any event. The point being is you don't know a lot about that person, and as you get through MMA, they're gonna audit every single piece of you. Now, I don't think Corey Sandhagan has been fully audited yet, but that was a big one. A Sunsou is clever. He had changed teams to like rejuvenate what he was doing. He's beaten the best of the best in that division. Truly. For Sanagan to go in there and basically no sell him was remarkable. And the other thing about Sanagen that folks need to recognize is it's not just that he's good in some kind of general sense. A lot of modern fighters who aren't specialists anymore, they try to add so many tools to their game that they're kind of just mediocre at all of them. He's not. He's actually very good at not only jiu jitsu or wrestling or striking or stand switching, but at blending them all so effortlessly. So I don't know how far he goes, but hello, ladies and gentlemen, that's your new bands on week content.
You can make some kind of hips to argument that was the strongest performance on the card in terms of like making a leap forward and making a certain announcement. And what I love most about him is all that stuff he does, all the movement, all the hurky jerky. It's so strategized and it's so totally disarms the opponent because it's so offensive. It's constantly in your face. There's a constant threat. Almost to the point in that third round, I'm like, is he setting himself up to maybe get caught with something here? But it's sort of how he operates. That's where he's most dangerous, the most comfortable. He certainly made the announcement I'm ready for the elite, I'm ready for the title level. A little bit crowded though in this division it's loaded. And not only is it loaded, there's been an addition of some celebrity names. I mean, you saw Ryah Faber sitting next to Captain Cringes down there a ringside you know you got?
Is that, by the way, is that gimmick? The work I'm making The fact, if you're an MMA media member and you have given any oxygen to that, you're a terrible person. I want you to know that if you've given if you've retweeted anything about the inter gender champion, you're a sad.
It makes Solby Covington look like the most PC crossover.
Stop giving it. And that's the last thing I gonna say that Stop giving it oxygen. Okay, go ahead.
I didn't even know you're talking to innergender. I'm talking about his captain, Cringe pro fig.
It's all the worse.
We have.
Edgar dropping into this division.
We've got Favor, We've got sort of names, Dominic Cruz coming back. You've got sort of names that could be thrown into B side situations that I wonder how many wins away is san Jagan actually from a title shot. If the division was a little bit thinner, you'd be like, that's the type of win where you get catapulted. A Sunsow had only lost to the elite, he was still kind of a destroyer in this division despite his age.
Where do you think he actually fits in line?
And is he the type of perfect guy that the UFC would sort of leapfrog in an effort to rinse out what's left of names like Favor.
I don't know. We're gonna to see where things where they put him, it's gonna be the matchmaking is going to be interesting. Do they give him a legend to boost him? Do they give him an Edgar for example, or are they going to try and find a way to give Edgar a title shot? Are they going to do a bantam way fight between Edgar and Faber? Because I know they fought at one forty five last time. Like, there's a lot of weird. The question is like, what does the UFC have planned for him? And that's hard to know. The other strong performer, I would say Sadeik Yusaf from Washington, DC. H dude, I called one of his amateur fights years ago, and I remember like he blew through this guy like like a tornado through Kansas. It was just a wrecking.
You didn't ask me who I thought I'd the best reform.
I was assuming you were gonna say anyway, Sadee Usaf also a strong performer.
What else Derek Brunson man, I mean, he came out there in a fight that we all assumed he was gonna lose. He wanted to find out how good Ian heness was. Heine said all the right things coming in and what did Derek Brunson. Do he did a performance that's so opposite of Derek Brunson. Do you remember the Whitaker fight. Remember he showed up with that jar. Basically that was like, this is the amount of energy and balls that I have ready for this fight, and he poured it over Witaker's head at the start of that. It was just like an absolute warr and he ended up getting stopped. And it's just sort of like, bro take a step back his full evolution. And I know you heard Dominic Cruz talking about him finally getting a full time coach at the age of thirty four, like finally sort of trying to figure this sport out. I like cal call, I like how poised it was. I like how strategic it was. He basically just wore heinish out. He did everything but enter the cage with a shaved head. I mean, he's kind of got that ring going up there and you might want to fix that. Outside of that, that was a spectacular performance. Is spectacular from the standpoint of just doing the right things over and over again.
And also Heinisch came out of there like a bat out of hell. He kicked him in the head and everything, and he gained his composure and then once he took away what heinis was trying to do, Heinisch never had it really another year except he was moving forward and he was trying to be in his face. But he didn't have really an attack that he could go to. So just a great veteran.
Jrunson would have taken that bait. He would goten kicked in the head.
You've been like a absolutely right and veteran.
It was a veteran Movies. It's a smarter Derek Brunson, and I think he's always been physically pretty capable. This was a nice adjustment by him. All right, we're gonna go the questions. Yes in the back. I believe that's right time now for I think we call on it DMS with Donks. Look at this? How great is that?
Look at that?
I love that the dms from the Donks. Have you seen Laura Sanko's She doesn't show it to me.
What are you talking?
Oh? She puts them on Twitter? Oh no, no, oh bro, it's it's it's it's it's bad. It's the the I wouldn't even call it sexual harassment. That seems like a dignifying thing that it is you should check that out.
I hope that.
I hope I don't have to keep going all.
Right, in an event, we have taken your questions and we shall go to them. First. Let's pull this up. This is from Riggins thirty two, John Riggins a great player for the Washington Redskins.
Great drink or two?
Do you think DC having so many connections and friends in the media, commentators, et cetera led to almost all the predictions being for him, and Stevepe's aversion to putting himself out there led to people underestimating his chances.
People love underestimating Steve. You gotta understand that.
Well he doesn't. He's not a very effective lobbyist on his behalf. Seems like everyone loves and what was rooting for DC, but Steepe was weirdly written off for such an accomplished and dangerous have you.
We feel like you should handle this because you kind of nailed this on your spin off show Java for Jerks there with the with Job, where you basically said DC's the best politician for himself.
And yeah, well also, okay, so here's what I would say, generally, if you have some if you have two fighters, one is very media friendly, and one is not unless say they're relatively commensurate and ability. Yeah, there's going to be a bias there. The media is absolutely going to do that, and it's one of the problems with having You know, if you can hear Dominic Cruz, I don't blame him. He's his friend out there fighting. When Stepe is knuckling him to the canvas, you hear him say, oh no, you know, because that's what he's a human being, like, he's reacting to somebody he cares about getting hurt, and so you're going to get these kinds of reactions. So I would say generally it's true. The only problem with it in the d C and Stepe cases they fought before and DC smoked them, and that I mean that I think was a big, big contact and was a champion and I never lost to that weight class. So is it possible that that's the thing that happens in other cases, No doubt about it. In this one little.
Bit, I think what was overlooked by the media coming in was how much success Steepe actually had in the first round of their first fight, and it was so like, oh, DC knocked him out, We're gonna go that way. I mean DC was actually the only one ahead of the fight. He was saying, no, this fight could go the distance. I'm thinner for a reason in this fight. You know, we could we could see where this is happening.
And then, of course I.
Think the steep A was winning the fight early in the first round. Narrative of the first fight is very overstated.
I wouldn't say winning. I was saying landing bombs. I'm saying having big success. I'm saying giving DC something to.
Think about a little bit, a little bit. It's overstated.
I was sitting six feet away. I was stating it just fine.
Yeah, I've watched it like fifty times. It's over It's not that I'm not telling you what you're saying is false, but it's it's overstated. It's overstated. All right, this comes to us from this is pot you or po two. Uh, Bro'm asking the patris O'Neal bit of Tolu. How smart is Nate Diaz to book the Pettus fight on his own, then Sequential start setting up a fight with mass buttal I'm gonna grade this grammar, boy, I don't think I'm not We saw this Nate when he originally called out McGregor, but with the UFC forced to acknowledge his power, he hit it as a better chance of getting what he's looking for. I think Nate will be reinvigorated with an added feeling of control with his career versus waiting for the UFC to call and offer fights he doesn't want. What do you think.
He's still not the matchmaker in the end, right, So it's going to come down to how much Dana White's willing to play ball. But he's certainly getting ahead of the game and being his own advocate in between booking the Petties fight, which this is what you just said, and starting and creating his own narrative now after this win, it's pretty damn smart. This is how you do it. If UFC's willing to play ball with you, this is how.
You do it. This is boxing. This is what an a side in boxing does. Yes, they might get pressured into mandatory defenses, or there could be enough market pressure to say we want to see X versus Y, But a lot of times, Brian, it's a false A side looks around and says, all right, who is coming up? That I could get a good fight with that would sell, That'll boost my resume. I got a good chance of beating a little bit safe of a choice. But when I can still get the public to buy this is? This is boxing a side one on one right?
Much? Is? You know? I don't know the rest?
Hey by the rights? Right?
All right, let's move to Let's move to Jamal underscore martin two thousand and four. I wonder what happened in two thousand and four that he made his name that.
They've been born. You never know here.
I mean, he's fifteen, he's got a beard.
I don't have access to his head shots.
I'm looking at it, Cain Luke. Now DC are witnessing the fall of Aka's golden era of fighters champions. And how does this factor in for Habib as the last big AKA name due to fight in under a month. I hadn't thought much about this. That is interesting, though, because you're right for a time and you had Luke as the champ rock hold. Of course you had sort of going back and forth been velask as I suppose in DC, and then you had this one. I would say this, Look, every camp is going to have a rise and fall, and how many champs they have or if they have any champs at all for one camp and son of a big one by the way, for one camp to have a lightweight champ, two different heavyweight champs, and a middleweight champ, as well as the sort of sundry other good fighters. And by the way, they had you know, Thompson is a strike force champ, and everything else that tells you that they can do that in a replicable kind of way. They can recreate this now how soon, how often? How easily? You know, there's gonna be difficulty there. But to me it's like, could there be a dip coming in their overall sort of stock. Yes, but this is a blue chip stock because they have shown and abilities to do this across weight classes. And by the way, folks will say, well, Habib's not from Sacramento, right, You know this? You think Nick Saban only recruits from Tuscaloosa. You think he only goes around to like BfV Alabama. No, he's looking around. Who are the best players in California? His quarterback is Hawaiian. Who are the best players in Florida? Who are the best players wherever? Who are the best players I can get? Of course is a preference with the ones in Alabama as a means of a as a constable of being a state school. But you get the idea. Part of being a big, big, successful athletic program is recruitment, and they did exactly all of that. So we'll see dip in the stock. Yes, still blue chip.
By the way, shout out to Kane Unfortunately the loss of his mom. I don't know if you saw that Instagram post is not very touching. And Kane, by the way, saying multiple times lately in the media that like, this pro wrestling thing is not ending. He's already scheduled for a few more shows for Triple A when they come to the States coming up. Do you think he ever fights for the UFC heavyweight title again. I know he's still under contract with UFC. I know he's really enjoying this pro wrestling thing. I know the market for pro wrestling. I know you don't really want to talk about it, but it's blowing up right now. Aw's coming ww He's got a lot.
Of territories now. Soccer born every minute because I don't know, it's.
It's crazy that Kane lost to in Ghanu. Because let's say Kane had out wrestled in Ghana. We said this last week. Kane Steepe is the fight to sort of define this era in some ways, so it's it's interesting that Kine's now on the outside looking in when.
Also we didn't mention it. Not related to this question, but Max Holloway's incredible post posts about Daniel Cormier whatgnant message that was. If you've not seen it, please go to Max Holloway's Instagram page and have a and have a gander it. Yeah, please don't please don't dm Laura Senko things you'd like to do to her hashtagno because you're weird. All right? This comes to us from Abu Sasha looking ahead? But why is no one talking about how bad the UFC two forty two card is. I think the card we just saw is way better as UFC testing what Habib can carry off.
I'll take this because UFC doesn't fill out foreign cards. Tell me the last foreign card, especially pay per views that they've loaded up. I mean, we're seeing a fight card in China this weekend that has a title fight on top and the bottom two two weekends, two weekends.
We I think it's first.
Okay and has like the bottom. The rest of the card is the bottom.
You know those first.
Two fights that they had on Face Spoke back in the day, that's the rest of the card.
It's actually it's it's regional m m A with a UFC headlining exactly.
So that's what they do on their national cards. And when you have one fight that people are going to pay for, it's a very boxing move, right to give you one big fight at the top. It almost doesn't matter after that good thing.
We have to watch all the prelims and report on them for our job. That's fun. Uh Okay, if you and Brian Campbell were on death row, what would be your last meal? Wow?
I like the way this guy thinks.
Right, this is from a zal Daco. What'll be about last meal? Jesus, that's not a hard question, Luke. What what's your favorite meal? You wouldn't go back to your favorite I don't know if I have a favorite meal. Do we trust the prison to cook it? Or can I order?
Like, Oh no, they'll go They'll get you whatever you want for so I can like uber eating, can do whatever you can. You can fly in a family member to cook it. You can go all out here.
Gosh, you go first while I have pondo.
Oh the traditional Thanksgiving meal. I mean, come on, if you're going to die and you have one.
Meal, Thanksgiving me is the most overrated. And that's the one you're first of all. Wait, here's here's how I know what what your mouth is a suer.
First of all, Thanksgiving is an American holiday. I know you grew up in cutter, but Thanksgiving meal is the most crazy.
Are you let me guess you think that cranberry jelly is good.
Oh, it's fantastic, But that you got to understand that's that's that's that's toddler.
This is your problem.
That's one part of a meal that has like fifty elements.
Okay, And when you add in turkey is the most Canadians.
When you added meat pie, and that the.
Turkey is the most overrated bird.
The turkey is the actually and I guarantee you like it dry shift of all. I don't even really like turkey that much. I put it on my plate.
Meat pie is the real center of a true Thanksgiving dinner.
But when you add you take.
The can of like the cranberry, you just chuck it on there like a savage, don't.
You it's an It's an It's like saying, how could you like it's an accessory to the garbage kid. It's like, how could you watch you fc that face? The paste face? The paint song is so bad? How could you watch you? Exactly that cranberry takes up that much in my plate. But my whole point is Thanksgiving is the best halloway you want to It's best holiday because you're not worrying about gifts. Everybody comes home for it. It's a homecoming, so you can go out to your bar and have your you know, Thanksgiving eve, super.
I don't want to see whatever.
And it's the three f's bro okay, football, food and family.
That's all you need in life, all right.
And if you don't play a backyard football game at your thing, and if you don't go to your high school's you know, morning Thanksgiving game, then you didn't grow.
Up the right way. I guess I didn't grow up the right way then, be cause I don't want see anybody from high school first of all. Second of all, who are you in high school?
Why are you so avoiding of going back to the past, Like who hurt you?
No? It's not about hurting it. I wouldn't mind seeing my friends from high school, but like I grew up in a in like in and then grow up and I went to high school the last two years the school graduate from I grew up. I'll even say it, Marriott High School in Maryat of Georgia. It was How do you explain this? Imagine a bunch of people from a zero place who think that that zero place is special, but they don't know it because they're zero's. It's like that, Like there's people who call themselves like I'm from Old Marietta. You read at a fifth grade level? Why is that a thing? Who cares? These are people who look here. Have you ever fried a turkey? No, I have not a turkey, and you're sitting here talking about Thanksgiving. If you've never had fried turkey, you don't know shit about turkey. There's one way to eat turkey, fry it, or chuck it into garbage. I can't tell you how many homes I've been to. I'm gonna go to so and So's Thanksgiving dinner and the cook this bird. To the point, why would you eat this food?
Because if you're going to talk about Thanksgiving dinner and lead with turkey, then you don't have good things.
Giving the centerpiece of the meal.
It's a ceremonial centerpiece, like Santa Claus is the ceremonial centerpiece. For people that don't celebrate the Christian side of Christmas, then that's what it is.
But the real thing is the fixtions. Bro.
You put them together, they missed together. It becomes one big we're gonna do.
We need to find a way to get together for Thanksgiving. I'm gonna show you how it's actually done.
Can you show me how they do it in the Middle East? I would love to eat it from.
The Middle East. D bag. My dad's American. My brother and my sister open and own a rector strunt.
They can cook, all right, Invite me, Invite me down.
Thanks, Josh. You know we don't eat fucking turkey.
Back You got backyard football, yardbirds that you're sitting there eating. You got touch football in the backyards in those parts.
You and I can my family the haters on football play one on one.
That's great, all right, but we can toss it, you know what I'm saying.
We can. Then drinks.
Did you play high school football? Or did you at least live?
I played for a year, but in the Deep South. I don't care about that kind of stuff. It's just you know again, I'm from Old Marietta. Please stay in Old Marietta while I go on and do things with my life. All right, odds and ends. Give me something that happened from over the weekend that a lot of folks did not see.
That kind of matter, Well, it was last week and Twitter blew up on at least on the boxing side, did you happen to see Luke Anthony Joshua gave a string of interviews on British TV, including sort of in a sit down on Sky Sports where he told the untold truth of what happened and has lost Dandy Lewis Junior. And in these interviews he gave it to a couple different outlets. It was the first time he really sat down at length and sort of debunked the myths about did he come into that fighting, cuss and all that stuff. I respect him from the.
Stand point that he's coming clean.
He's he's willing to sit down and address point by point what happened in these but I think he gave too much.
There's some of these statements that are really itching at me.
Him basically saying Ruiz got lucky with one punch from the gods, dude, lucky punch, you got dropped four times.
So all that sportsman's stuff was out the window.
I only responded to the booing in round two. I didn't realize there was a fight in the crowd, and I was thinking about the pressure on me from while they're getting a big knock out the week before in the first round, So I came out thinking I had to fight. Like, no, dude, here's what you do in this spot. You come out, you take your l you put over Ruiz to try to sell this rematch, and you don't tell people this stuff from inside your heart. You go back to the gym and every single day you grind and come back. The excuses that were seemingly coming out of his mouth, I would have beaten Ruiz nine out of ten times. This is just the one time.
Well, yeah, dude, the one time happened.
So I don't want to hear aj that like this was Ruiz's super Bowl and I wasn't that fired up to face him, and I was just fine coming into the ring. You look shell shocked. You look like you had deer in the headlights. Look, there's a reason why after that fight your dad was attacking Eddie Hearn. Something happened in the build of the camp that wasn't right. It spilled over into fight night and you lost. But take the elbro, take the damn el. Go back in that gym, put on the Jurassic back. Come back ready to knock this fool out. But don't be blaming a lucky punch from the gods. All right, Like you know, we're kind of teetering here, you get a second loss here, this is big.
Let's go back and work on this. No more excuses.
I'll go two things. One, you were right. I was wrong. I had thought there'd be no way on Earth the UFC would ever give Jermaine Drandamy another title shot, even with narrow options.
See where else what you're gonna stand on? Who else is gonna get it? They just cut camps and gone.
I understand. It wasn't that I thought that, like, well, you have tons of great options. I just thought it was so nuclear that they just wouldn't even say yes. But you're right, UFC two forty five. I don't if it's gonna headline, but certainly that's going to be on the card.
What city is that in?
I don't even know. Jermaine Randemy is going to take on a man in this for a second time, which is really interesting because Jamaine rander Mey can beat her. I don't know that she will, but she certainly has the possibility. So it's a decent fight.
If she can make that up fight that could get very interest.
She could avoid the ground on the feet, I mean a no, nos was very wary for the first time. Yet second one. How about this in Risin? Uh so the guy you followed Gebacca Hitman on Twitter Caposa.
Yes, okay, I think I did I know who you're speaking of.
He brought this up to me because I didn't realize this. Apparently Riisin's answer to the Diaz Bros. Are two guys I think it's called the Asakoro brothers who are like street fighters turned MMA fighters. Well one of them flatlined belatreamwaight and rising bantamweight champion killed Jijora Gucci. Look at this, well he went to work on him. Look at I mean, like there's no quarter here. He's given pow.
Most destructive risen Win. Since Floyd knocked out that twenty year old kickboxer.
Bro this is attention, I said, kaw, well, wish he got a death this sue. Wow, look at this nice shot from him. In any event, dude, that was the guy everyone was like, he beats Darien Caldwell. Oh he's the man. He's better than Sahudo blah blah, and he might be like he could just be a fluke lost things happened, who knows how well he trained blah blah blah. We'll see. But apparently the Asakura brothers again I'm new to them, I admit apparently they're not to be trifled with, and that there was nothing about that loss that looked all that fluky to me. Now we'll see what happens. I guess he wants an immediate rematch, but he doesn't even remember losing in the fight. So a bit of a stock hit less so for Belator, because I don't think a lot of folks are gonna know this. We're bringing it up.
But interesting none the list and that writes to this, I don't even know if that just.
In any event, hell of an interesting development. So there we are. Okay, So here's the truth about this. I'm gonna say that on the air because I don't know what the truth is. I might have Jerry duty on Monday next Monday, No, I'm serious. I only will know on Friday. I don't know if we're.
Walking told them straight up your communist.
You know what. That doesn't work as well as he used to. I've tried that before. But so we're gonna see. If I have Jerry duty, we're off next week. If not, we'll be back. So I guess we'll find out.
I'll just in front of this camera by myself and just just spit hot hot takes. Yeah, I know, but nineties karaoke, whatever you want.
It's a it's a two man show. Your social media channels or.
What at b Campbell's CBS on Twitter at Brian C. Campbell trying to kick start that Instagram thing there, so follow me, you know, for the Last of the Picks all that stuff.
If you want Brian Campbell, you can get that on Instagram. I'm at Luke Thomas News on Instagram and then just L Thomas News on Take What L Yes, Take the L. Yes, let's just be the name of the podcast. Take the L all right, We appreciate you guys tuning in. I hope you enjoyed two forty one as much as we did. See what happens about next week? As always, like the video, subscribe and hey share it around. Folks have asked, by the way, when's the show going to be a podcast? It already is. You can go and get it on all your various platforms.
Some folks have also asked, is that Daniel Cormier or John Jones or a more phation of both.
Back then, it's actually like, I think it's almost like a Rashad Evans if you actually really look at it kind of closely.
You look at that one, it kind of looks like DC's beard.
Did they tell John Jones? I'm like, I don't buy that.
No, I mean, that's got to be Dravante above And a lot of people wondering, who are these people behind us?
Dravante with crabs or something?
Is this dude over here behind you? Is that Deontay Wilder? Is that I can't figure it out?
Water Noon j Smith bare knuckle boxer Can Shamer. All right, we got to go out of here. Appreciate you guys watching until next time. All of your gains be lord.
